Tif, who had been relatively calm, now looked a bit like a pouting child in Teanya’s eyes.
This was an expression that only appeared long ago, whenever she talked about her older brother.
In truth, for children, the more they got angry over something, the more it proved how much they cared about it.
Clearly, Tif belonged to that category.
“What’s wrong?” Teanya nudged her with an elbow. “Are you still mad at your brother? It’s been so many years.”
This time, Tif noticeably turned and shot Teanya a glare.
It was half anger and half resentment.
“It’s quite nice, isn’t it? Now you can see your brother every day.”
“If you don’t shut up, I’m staying far away from you tomorrow,” Tif finally snapped, unable to hold back any longer.
“Don’t be like that! I was just joking.”
Teanya knew that Tif was genuinely a little upset.
Down below, the questioning continued, and Lyr was gradually beginning to settle into the atmosphere.
That was until a specific question was raised, causing Tif’s expression to shift and turn grave.
“Excuse me, are you the eldest son of House Geno?”
A girl had asked the question.
“Yes, that’s me.” When Lyr’s gaze landed on her, he had a faint sense of recognition. “Have we met before?”
“Most likely.” The girl bowed slightly, lifting the sides of her skirt in a ladylike curtsy. “I am honored that you remember me.”
Lyr finally remembered where he had seen her.
This was the Noble Lady who had gotten into a conflict with Yilu the other day.
Now that she had changed her clothes, he had almost failed to recognize her.
As if confirming something, whispers began to break out in the classroom.
“Rumor has it that when you were a child, you gained the recognition of House Geno’s Thunder Fairy in the Sword and received its blessing.”
Lyr narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing the smiling girl once more. A trace of wariness flickered in his heart.
Not many people actually knew about this matter.
The connection between the Geno Clan and the Thunder Fairy, as well as what the so-called blessing entailed, had always been a secret.
To hear it coming from the mouth of someone from another family felt strange, after all.
“It seems your family pays quite a bit of attention to House Geno.”
“It’s alright, I suppose,” the girl continued. “I also heard that you returned from the Frontier this time to rest. Before that, you supposedly settled a Calamity Level threat all by yourself.”
“Calamity Level?”
The discussions below grew louder. The looks on many faces shifted from disbelief to shock.
A Calamity Level threat usually required an entire army to suppress. The idea that Lyr had handled one alone was hard for many to swallow.
‘There was such a thing?’
Beyond her surprise, Tif was even more caught off guard.
Lyr had never mentioned anything related to that to her.
“Yes.” Lyr’s expression turned serious.
The fact that his affairs at the Frontier were so easily investigated was enough to prove that the family behind this Noble Lady was not simple.
Lyr felt it wasn’t that they were deliberately spying on him specifically, but rather that they were capable of knowing everything that happened within the Frontier’s military.
Yilu, who had remained silent in her seat, suddenly sat bolt upright, her eyes wide as she looked at Lyr.
She still found it difficult to connect a Calamity Level event with that previous frivolous guy.
However, a bucket of cold water was quickly splashed over her.
The girl curled her lips into a cold smile. Her words were directed at Lyr, but her gaze and mockery were aimed at Yilu. “You really are amazing. You’re nothing like a certain person’s brother. Not only could he not solve the problem, but his whereabouts were unknown in the end, and he even drew rumors of Treason.”
Hearing this, Yilu’s body visibly trembled. Her hands instinctively clenched into fists as she struggled to endure.
Outside the door, Luoduan heard everything clearly, though she did not step forward to intervene.
Luoduan had heard a little about Yilu’s brother as well.
Part of the information she had received from her father was that the group accompanying Yilu’s brother at the time had encountered a legendary witch.
The strange thing was that, except for Yilu’s brother, everyone else had died on the spot. Furthermore, one of the bodies had been pierced by Yilu’s brother’s sword—it was that very sword that had killed the man.
This had led to rumors spreading, and the ambiguous charge of Treason was placed upon the man who had vanished: Yilu’s brother.
The Shiya family and the girl’s family already had some friction. Luoduan maintained an attitude of non-interference, not wanting to get overly involved.
As for Yilu, Luoduan could only shake her head helplessly.
The girl was a problematic individual herself, and not exactly a peaceful one.
“I don’t know specifically what you are talking about, but these matters aren’t for you to know,” Lyr’s tone became stern. “I don’t particularly like being pried into like this.”
There was one more thing: even if he didn’t know the full story, he didn’t like being used as a weapon like this.
Lyr just didn’t say it out loud.
He had only recently returned and didn’t know what was happening within the Kingdom, but he didn’t feel superior from such a deliberate comparison. On the contrary, the intentional belittling of someone else disgusted him.
“Is that so?”
Lyr’s attitude didn’t frighten her; instead, she found it interesting.
“I didn’t recognize you when I met you before, but now that I know who you are, I have a question I’m curious about.”
“Go ahead,” Lyr said, looking at her sideways.
For some reason, while the girl’s tone was gentle, it gave him a very unfriendly feeling.
The girl placed a finger to her lips and looked upward, putting on a calculated expression of thought. Then, she looked at Lyr with a smile. “I’d just like to ask, has House Geno arranged a marriage for you yet?”
Thinking it would be another strange or difficult question, Lyr had been bracing himself, but hearing this made him freeze. “Huh?”
Lyr had prepared himself for all sorts of possibilities in his mind, but he never expected the girl to come from this angle.
“That…”
Before his brain could fully process the shift, Lyr finally felt it—two gazes directed at him were particularly sharp.
Following the sensation, he noticed that in the back, Tif was staring at him with a stiff expression. Not far in front of him, Yilu was looking at him with a cold, piercing glare.
“Is it you…” Lyr was about to blurt out.
Yilu, sensing it first, immediately turned her head back around.
Compared to Tif’s resentment and anger, Yilu was venting her frustration from the girl’s words onto him.
Having been caught in an unwanted comparison, she directed her fury toward the person she was being compared to.
“Alright, do not ask questions you shouldn’t be asking.”
Seeing that the scene had reached a stalemate, Luoduan finally stepped in to interrupt.
This was why she hadn’t left immediately. These students would always find some way to make things difficult for a new Teacher; it wasn’t as if there was no precedent for this.