A Butterfly Through the Mist - Chapter 23

“Enough. This so-called coincidence you mentioned, I hope it doesn’t happen again.”

Even if it was a leisurely time, Tilia had no intention of bantering and joking around with him. She warned him firmly, her face resolute.

“I have absolutely no desire to get entangled with you any further. My goal is to graduate safely.”

At Tilia’s serious words, Ilex erased the faint smile from his face.

“Go ahead. Who’s stopping you from graduating?”

However, his characteristic relaxed attitude still radiated from his entire being.

“Tilia. As you said, I have no intention of holding you back either.”

His gaze swept over her face coldly again.

“So don’t read too much into it.”

“…Read too much into it?”

“Yes. I was just showing you basic manners.”

Ilex looked down briefly, as if wondering why he even had to explain such a thing, then raised his head again.

“After doing something, it’s basic manners to clean up afterward.”

“……”

“There are some people who don’t follow that, but I’m not that bad.”

With a bored expression, he explained in a low voice, “You got hurt. I went in too deep. I lost control that day, and there must have been marks left all over. Am I wrong?”

Despite his blunt words, Ilex’s indifferent eyes stared at Tilia, as if piercing through her.

Through his gaze, Tilia recalled the past.

The mirror she had looked into after barely washing herself with trembling legs, alone in the room.

In it, she saw herself covered in red marks and blue bruises.

Her body, marked with red handprints and bite marks, looked as if she had rolled down a rough hillside. When she turned slightly to look at her back, she saw it was covered with bite marks as well.

‘I thought that was just how it was after, but I guess not.’

No wonder. She had thought it was too much, and now she finally understood why.

While Tilia wore a discontented expression at the belated truth, Ilex added, “So I was going to bring a discreet physician, but you ran out, saying you had to take the exam before I even got the chance.”

He recounted the past with a casual indifference.

“It would have been weird to call a physician again after waiting for the exam to end, right? Like you said, we’re really nothing to each other.”

At his cynical response, Tilia looked up and stared straight at Ilex.

“So I just sent a box of medicine.”

Cold blue-gray eyes met suspicious green eyes.

“What I did was simply what had to be done. So don’t be scared and fluff up like a stray cat.”

Ilex Davenport had an expression that showed how dull he found the need to explain all of this.

Tilia stared quietly into his expressionless eyes, then slowly acknowledged it.

She was wrong.

Her suspicions that his eyes contained something—some emotion she couldn’t comprehend—were unfounded.

Those doll-like, beautiful blue-gray eyes contained nothing.

And his words were correct.

His assertion not to over-interpret and project onto him was also valid.

“Okay.”

Tilia looked at Ilex calmly and smiled at him for the first time that day.

“You’re right.”

Her smile wasn’t as lighthearted as the one Ilex had shown her earlier. But it was far more liberating.

What Tilia felt when she saw the cold gaze of the person she had shared a bed with was not contempt but relief.

With a now serene expression, Tilia corrected her earlier thoughts.

“I misunderstood. I’m sorry.”

It had been a mistake to vent her frustration at having chosen the wrong person.

In reality, no matter what anyone said, she had chosen the right trash.

“Thank you, Ilex Davenport.”

With a heart light as a feather, Tilia expressed her gratitude.

“Like you said, I hope that coincidence won’t happen again.”

She revealed her true feelings with a bright smile as she walked past him without hesitation.

Her long hair brushed against Ilex Davenport’s shoulder as she passed.

The sound of her light shoes quickly faded away, and the noise and dust from the large construction site filled the space where Tilia had been.

However, even long after she disappeared, Ilex Davenport couldn’t take his eyes off the spot where Tilia had stood.

***

‘It’s over!’

Closing the thick introductory book, Tilia stretched out.

After finishing her conversation with Ilex, she went straight to the library, borrowed the “Introduction to Ethical Theology” he had been reading, and returned to her dormitory, where she had just finished studying.

‘I’ve organized all the possible discussion topics, so I can take my time thinking about the answers during the break.’

The grade correction period for each subject was also coming to an end. Thinking of the final grade announcements posted this afternoon, Tilia smiled somewhat bitterly.

‘Well, it’s a bit disappointing not to be first again this time…’

She shrugged lightly, recalling her name, which was always in second place.

‘Still, being second is something.’

As she belatedly realized the comfort in the phrase “as always,” Tilia began tidying up her desk.

Tilia’s attitude had changed from the past, as she had almost faced a situation where graduation was impossible.

She was grateful just for the fact that she could graduate safely. Even the position of second, which she had always felt was lacking, now felt precious.

‘Yes, being second is still good. Especially considering I managed to maintain that position even after going through all that.’

Well done, Tilia Ambrose.

As Tilia rarely praised herself, her face quickly turned mischievous again.

‘Ilex Davenport… What on earth did he do?’

The name that had been above hers at the top of the list came to mind.

In an instant, the gratitude in her heart turned to suspicion.

‘To be first even after taking a make-up exam.’

Tsk. Tilia’s eyes narrowed with irritation.

Apparently, Ilex, who she thought hadn’t taken the exam at all, had somehow managed to take a make-up test after being excused for medical reasons. He had scored full marks in the additional exam, which only counted for 80%, securing the top spot once again.

He also reportedly created an overwhelming gap in other subjects. It wasn’t just rhetoric where he got a perfect score.

‘He really is a monster.’

Tilia shuddered as if she had seen a ghost.

Such a brilliant mind, sitting on the shoulders of someone who found exams bothersome enough to skip them—it almost felt like a waste.

Still, she wasn’t as frustrated as before, to the point of crying over it.

‘After all, it was because of Ilex that I resolved my issue.’

Recalling the conversation she had earlier in the construction site with her first intimate partner, Tilia tapped her fingernails on the desk.

‘The bare minimum of manners, huh…’

He had claimed that he wasn’t the worst type of person, merely doing what he needed to do, and that she shouldn’t over-interpret it.

The indifference in his eyes, which had made her sigh with relief, came back to mind.

As she remembered those eyes, Tilia’s gaze naturally dropped.

She could see a box deep under her desk, out of reach of her feet. The medicine box was still left untouched, just as it was initially.

Well, then. Tilia glanced over her shoulder to check on her roommate. Judy, as usual, was in such a deep sleep that she wouldn’t know if someone carried her away.

‘Alright. Let’s take a look.’

Feeling half at ease, half curious, Tilia took out the box she had carelessly tossed aside.

Srrk. The luxurious wrapping opened smoothly, just like the first time.

As she opened the lid, a faint medicinal scent wafted out.

The box contained medicine for deep wounds, bruises, and even headaches and pain. It was like a small pharmacy in a box.

Hmm.

Tilia took each item out for the first time, looking at them one by one, a curious expression on her face.

‘Is this really what basic manners are?’

Do they normally include all this?

Though it felt a little odd, she comforted herself by thinking it was just the desperate act of a young master who wanted to clean up well.

‘Well, I guess I can think of it as some kind of enrollment gift kit.’

Come to think of it, he had also given her a contraceptive as soon as she woke up. As he said, perhaps he wasn’t the worst kind of person.

If he truly were the worst, he wouldn’t have cared whether she got pregnant or not.

‘Although, it could also be the survival strategy of someone with a lot to lose.’

Thinking indifferently, Tilia continued taking out the endless medicines in the box until she found something unexpected that made her frown.

‘…Bandages?’

A roll of white bandages, coated with adhesive at the end to allow for self-application, was in the box.

Why include this? It wasn’t like she came back bleeding profusely.

Confused, Tilia shrugged lightly.

Perhaps the attendant responsible for packing the medicines had just thrown in anything.

Tilia continued her task of pulling out the seemingly endless supply of medicine with a nonchalant attitude.

At this rate, she thought she could survive even in the middle of a war.

Just as she was about to get tired of the endless procession of medicines, the box finally began to show its bottom.

Thinking she was finally done, Tilia glanced inside the box.

But there was still one more thing inside, something that would change her expression.

What’s this?

As she removed the pile of medicines, she noticed something else sitting there—a foreign object, left alone amidst the emptiness. Her eyebrows rose as she stared at it.