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Without even knowing how much of an impact it would have on his future.
The thought made her heart ache.
'Is it really starting to follow the original story...?'
Felix had never shown her any romantic feelings before. That's why she was so relieved.
But the way he looked at her at the ball, the soft smile on his face.
Every careful touch.
She couldn't pretend not to notice anymore.
'And he actively protected me during the investigation too.'
Ayla, lying in bed and staring at the ceiling, slowly closed her eyes.
Thinking of him made her heart flutter and tickle again.
"You got this egg from the forest behind the academy?"
"Yes, that's right."
"But there shouldn't be any Monsters there that could lay an egg this big."
Felix wasn't intimidated by the gazes of the many professors looking down at them.
"It wasn't this big when I found it. It was only about this big then."
He gestured with one hand to show the size of the egg at the time, and Professor Stefan's eyes flashed with interest.
As an authority on Monsterology, he was very interested in the unexplored ecology of Monsters.
"And while Monster eggs are usually large and relatively dark in color, the egg at the time of discovery had a very radiant light."
"So it was different from a typical Monster egg?"
"Yes, so I didn't think it was a Monster egg. I'm a student in the Swordsmanship Department, so I've been studying Monsterology for a long time. It looked more like a Divine Beast egg than a Monster egg. That's why I gave it to Ayla."
Professor Stefan crossed his arms and fell into deep thought.
A growing Divine Beast egg was hard to believe.
But he couldn't dismiss Felix's words as lies.
Even if it was a Monster egg, it was rare for it to grow to this size.
"So, you're saying you thought the egg was a Divine Beast egg and gave it to a female student?"
"Yes, if I had known it was a Monster egg, I would never have given it to Ayla. No one wants to put someone they care about in danger."
With that, Felix turned his gaze to Ayla and stared at her.
Even at that moment, his eyes were full of affection for her.
Remembering that, Ayla felt her face flush again.
She fanned her cheeks and squeezed her eyes shut.
Her heart felt strangely fluttery and ticklish.
'What am I going to do, getting excited over a kid!'
She tried to calm herself down, but it wasn't easy.
In fact, she knew it herself.
She had always dismissed Felix as a child, but he wasn't just a child.
He always dealt with difficulties calmly, and he noticed when she was anxious and told her to share her concerns first.
That was not an attitude to be underestimated.
And in fact, she was able to respond more calmly during the interrogation because Felix was by her side.
'Because I was so worried about making a mistake.'
She was surrounded by many people and felt a strong sense of pressure.
"Ayla."
A low, calm voice called her name.
She turned to the side and saw Felix looking at her with reassuring eyes.
The moment their eyes met, she felt her tension melt away as if by magic.
Knowing that he was by her side made it feel easier to breathe.
Thanks to that, Ayla was able to answer the questions smoothly.
"Student Ayla. If you knew it wasn't a Monster egg, why did you raise it without saying anything? You should have known that you had to report it to the academy in advance to raise an animal."
"I didn't raise it secretly. I just kept it in my dorm room. I was going to report it to the academy when the egg hatched."
"Hmm."
"You can't report an animal that hasn't been born yet. And I didn't know what the egg was at the time."
Maybe it was because she was relaxed, but her answers came out more smoothly than she expected.
Professor Stefan stroked his chin at Ayla's answer.
"If you're so confident, why did you move the egg to the Greenhouse?"
"It got bigger than I thought, so it became difficult to keep it in my room. And the Greenhouse is a better environment for hatching the egg than my dorm room."
After that, Ayla continued to answer the questions without hesitation.
The professors, who had initially looked at her with suspicion, gradually seemed to agree with her.
They began to think that the ominous-looking egg might really be a Divine Beast's.
Ayla sighed softly as she recalled that time.
If Felix hadn't been by her side, would she have been able to answer so calmly?
Having someone who believed in her by her side was more reassuring than she thought.
'Being able to rely on someone without reservation is better than I thought.'
When she first left the Blanche Noble house, she felt completely alone.
But at least at that time, she had a strong feeling that she could do everything on her own.
But as time went by and she experienced various things, and as more and more precious people came into her life, her heart began to waver.
Even though she knew she shouldn't, she wanted to rely on her friends' kindness and settle down.
Suddenly, she remembered what Felix had whispered to her when they were dancing.
"I don't think of Ayla as just a business partner. I hope you'll rely on me if you're having a hard time. I'll help you as much as I can."
She couldn't express how much comfort those heavy words gave her.
And he had already proven those words with countless actions.
He rescued her from the warehouse with Peony, and when she was in danger of being dragged away by the soldiers, he didn't hesitate to stand in front of her.
'...It can't be easy to do that for a complete stranger.'
Whenever she thought of Felix, whenever she thought of the things he had done for her, she felt a tightness in her chest.
She fluttered her eyelashes and closed her eyes.
Knock knock.
Ayla was startled by the sudden knock and raised her head.
Soon, she heard the voice of the knight guarding her outside the door.
"Someone has come to visit. Come out."
Ayla tilted her head slightly.
'Peony visited yesterday...'
No one but Peony would come to see her, so it was strange.
Ayla hesitated for a moment before opening the door and going outside.
Ayla arrived at a small reception room prepared for visitors.
She saw an unexpected person waiting for her there.
As soon as she recognized the other person, Ayla stopped in her tracks with a start.
"Rosia?"
"Hello, Ayla?"
Rosia felt terrible as soon as she saw Ayla, who had come out for the visit.
'Why does she look so good?'
Rosia thought that Ayla would be crying and screaming in her cell by now.
If she knew the price of what she had done.
But Ayla looked like she was on vacation, not suffering at all.
She even looked healthier than before she went to the solitary cell.
She became uneasy at the bad omen.
'What is it? Is she so calm because she's confident that it's not a Monster egg?'
The egg she found in the Greenhouse clearly had an ominous appearance like a Monster egg.
But the fact that the results haven't been revealed yet, and that she keeps denying the confession, made her think that she might have been barking up the wrong tree.
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