I Won't Go Back To My Family Who Abandon Me novel Chapter 43

˜That's why you were so anxious.'

Leticia grasped Irene's test paper tightly.

There was no mistake, the test and the cheat sheet had the same answers. Even the handwriting matched and could not be denied.

˜Why...'

She had been admitted to the Academy of Magic based on her own merit, and had achieved excellent results.

She couldn't understand why she suddenly started acting in such a spineless manner.

Leticia jumped up and walked out of the staff room. She wanted to talk to Irene face to face right away.

Fortunately, she was able to find Irene loitering near the corridor. Leticia sighed to herself as Irene looked around with a nervous expression on her face.

As she slowly approached, Irene was startled by someone approaching and turned away as if to flee.

Before she could escape, Leticia caught Irene.

"Irene, look at me."

Irene's eyes shook violently even though they'd only just begun to talk.

"I have nothing to say."

"Really?"

Irene turned her head away as if she didn't want to look at her, and Leticia let go of her wrist.

There was no way she was going to back down from this.

"You'll regret this."

At that, Irene turned around to look at her. As soon as their eyes met, Leticia showed Irene the cheat sheet and test paper, as if she'd been waiting for that moment.

Irene's face began to turn blue after she saw the two papers together.

She immediately tried to snatch the papers away from Leticia, but she lightly dodged her hand and laughed.

"I would love for you and I to have a nice chat in a quiet place. Shall we?"

Irene swallowed the lump in her throat at the hard look on her gentle sister's face.

What happened yesterday came to her mind while she was weakly following Leticia, who never looked back.

***

"Ronan Hillary got a perfect score on his magic history test."

"Didn't he do poorly on the last test?"

"That's a little weird."

"That's unexpected. I thought the other kid had a perfect score."

"Who?"

When they asked as if they really didn't know, the student glanced at Irene. Only then did they know who they were talking about, then they nodded with a short sigh.

The conversation was too close to ignore, but Irene looked at her reference book as if she hadn't noticed.

Turning the pages helped to give her strength.

˜It's okay, I'll do better on this test.'

The exams are not over yet.

As soon as the test began, Irene had an unexpected setback.

˜I don't remember a thing.'

It was clearly written in the reference book, but strangely, she couldn't remember anything because her mind went blank. On the contrary, the more she looked at the test paper, the more she couldn't concentrate.

˜What do I do?'

Half of the time had already passed. Even if she tried to calm herself down, the anxiety had already eroded her confidence.

Then something crossed her mind.

˜Just this once...'

Wouldn't it be okay if it was only once?

She didn't bring it with the intention of using it, but she still needed it right now.

Irene peeked at the note she had written, and filled in the answers.

As soon as the test was over, Irene looked around. She wondered if someone had seen her. Fortunately, no one seemed to have noticed her strange behaviour.

Shortly afterwards, the professor entered the classroom and told everyone there was going to be an inspection. They needed to take out their belongings and make sure to empty their desks.

Irene felt as if her head had gone blank again.

Then a way out came to mind.

[Ronan Hillary got a perfect score on the magic history test.]

[Didn't he do poorly on the last test?]

[That's a little weird.]

˜There's no problem if he gets caught.'

Irene put the note in Ronan's desk drawer during the confusion over the unexpected inspection.

When the professor began searching through everyone's belongings, the note was found in Ronan's drawer.

˜No one will suspect her.'

That's why she put it in there.

***

In an empty lounge.

Leticia sat opposite Irene and waited to hear her explanation, but Irene just looked at Leticia in silence.

No matter how long Leticia waited, Irene couldn't seem to speak. So Leticia started first.

"I'll give you an opportunity."

"Opportunity...?"

Her nervous face began to relax, little by little at the word ˜opportunity'. Her eyes started to twinkle in expectation.

Irene's face quickly hardened though at Leticia's subsequent remark.

"Tell the professor you cheated."

"What...?"

Irene asked back with a look of disbelief, as if she thought she heard wrong.

Leticia repeated herself sternly, as if to reaffirm.

"You have to own up to your mistakes and take responsibility for your actions."

"Responsibility? ...? What do you mean...?"

Irene stuttered as if she wanted to pretend not to know even though she'd heard it properly.

Leticia felt her heart grow cold.

"You've cheated, so you must be given a zero."

"Wait, Sister!"

"Also apologize to Ronan, because that's who you've damaged the most."

Ronan had been falsely accused for something he didn't even do. So it was natural for Irene to apologize to him and score a zero on the test.

Irene stayed silent.

"...."

"...."

Leticia waited quietly for Irene, already expecting no immediate answer.

Irene soon made up her mind and let out a long breath before speaking.

"Sister."

Her clenched fists rested on the table while she bit her trembling lip.

Somehow Leticia had a hunch that something bad was about to come out of Irene's mouth.

"I can't do that. I don't even have my qualifications for the Imperial Wizard exam..."

Even as she shrank back, the words that came out were a stubborn refusal.

In the end, Irene chose not to correct her mistakes but to cowardly avoid and run away from her problems.

Leticia sighed and rubbed her hand down her face.

˜I thought there would be no more to be disappointed about.'

She didn't even know what to say, because even this time together felt empty and meaningless.

Leticia turned her head away. Irene, who noticed this as a bad sign, urgently said.

"My last test paper suddenly disappeared, so I have to do really well this time!"

It was a risky performance, that's why she was acting more distressed, desperate and reckless.

However, Leticia could see her impure intention.

"I know."

Leticia paused for a moment and looked at Irene with cool eyes. Irene could feel the energy of rebuke that filled those blue eyes, even though it was just eye contact.

"Why didn't you do something that you wouldn't be ashamed of?"

"But, sister..."

Irene thought Leticia would listen to her after this. Her sweet older sister had never refused her request.