Chapter 55: Vivienne and Nora
Entering the third week, several pairs in Classes 1 and 2 had managed to hatch their eggs. Kiran also succeeded during the morning class.
Kiran walked while clinging to Shani’s arm. Her steps were so light that she almost looked like she was about to fly.
"Now I, too, have a furry baby." She grinned foolishly.
Kiran had actually never seen Shani’s baby beast, but whenever she waited outside Shani’s room, she often heard it meowing whenever Shani was about to leave. She also wanted a clingy baby like that.
Shani only chuckled at Kiran’s excited expression.
They stepped out of the elevator on the fourth floor. At that moment, they crossed paths with a male student.
"Oh? Hatching that late makes you happy?" the male student remarked as he stepped into the elevator.
The smile on Kiran’s face instantly disappeared. She turned around and saw the satisfied, mocking expression on the boy’s face.
Kiran wanted to argue, but the elevator doors had already closed.
"What an annoying bastard! His egg only hatched yesterday. He’s just one day ahead of me, yet he’s already acting so arrogant!" Kiran cursed.
"Do you have a problem with him?" Shani asked, also staring sharply at the closed elevator.
"Remember when I told you there were three people who offered to become my partner? Gideon Finch was one of them. He is absurdly childish. After I rejected him, he got all sensitive about it and has always given me dirty looks in class."
"And now, just because Noella and Jeryon aren’t here, he actually dares to look down on me outside of class, too!" Kiran puffed out her cheeks as she complained.
"What a loser," Shani muttered.
Kiran nodded vigorously. "Exactly!"
Once they entered the cafeteria, Kiran was cheerful again after getting everything off her chest.
"Oh, right. You know there’s a classmate of mine with silver hair like yours, right? She’s Gideon’s partner," Kiran added.
Shani, of course, knew about that. In her previous life, Shani had once overheard Emilia and her beloved daughter, Vivienne, talking.
They had discussed how Gideon become Vivienne’s partner, largely because Gideon’s family was a nouveau riche willing to invest in their company.
Vivienne obviously hated the arrangement. She blamed Shani entirely for it. All because Shani was still alive and her inheritance remained out of their reach.
Fortunately, Vivienne was busy at the academy, so she did not come home often enough to harass Shani.
During every holiday, Shani locked her room from the inside so Vivienne could not bother her.
The same thing happened during that summer. For the first time, Vivienne brought Gideon to the mansion for resonance.
Shani could see their interaction through the attic window overlooking the side garden.
Vivienne looked arrogant, gazing at Gideon with her chin raised. Meanwhile, Gideon looked like an obedient dog.
Vivienne clearly did not want to entertain Gideon for long. She soon left, leaving Gideon and his baby beast with Nora.
When Gideon wanted to give his baby beast a snack, the little night panther suddenly jumped out of its cushion box and ran into the mansion.
Gideon looked extremely panicked, apparently afraid that something would happen to his baby beast and make Vivienne furious.
Shani could no longer see them because they had already run into the mansion after the baby beast.
Not long after, Shani heard meowing from outside her bedroom door. It was followed by the voice of an unfamiliar man whom she believed was Gideon.
Gideon sounded like he was coaxing, or rather forcing, his baby beast to eat the snack he had brought.
For a while, there was no sound. Shani thought they had gone downstairs. But then she heard Gideon’s panicked voice.
Shani looked through the small peephole in her door. The little baby beast was convulsing, foam coming from its mouth. Beside it, Gideon looked panicked, completely unsure of what to do.
Nora appeared from the staircase. She told Gideon to calm down.
Not long after, Vivienne’s furious voice echoed from the staircase. Vivienne came upstairs with several servants.
"Shani, you damn bitch! How dare you hurt my baby beast?!"
Vivienne charged at Shani’s bedroom door, which was still locked from the inside. She was even carrying an axe to destroy the wooden door.
Meanwhile, Nora spoke through tears that seemed to have appeared at some point without Shani noticing. "Ennie didn’t do anything. Why did you kick it and make it like this, Shani?"
"Is it because you don’t have a baby beast that you don’t have even the slightest bit of compassion?" Nora sobbed, looking genuinely hurt.
Gideon, standing beside her, did not say a word. He only held tightly onto the heal pod that a servant had brought, which now contained Ennie, Vivienne and Gideon’s baby beast.
Shani tried to defend herself, but Vivienne had already passed her verdict. Her defense was useless.
That incident resulted in Shani being denied food for an entire week. It seemed like House Ashbourne was using this punishment as a legitimate excuse to kill her.
Unfortunately for them, Shani managed to survive the week by eating Ennie’s beast feed.
Yes, before Ennie was injured, the innocent baby beast would often climb up to the attic and bring Shani some of its dry snacks.
For some reason, Ennie liked staying close to Shani. Perhaps that was also why it had gone up to the attic when it refused to accept the beast feed from Gideon.
The saying that animals and children can tell who is good and who is evil certainly held true here.
After a week passed, Shani received the news that Ennie had died. Vivienne neither knew nor cared about the details. Gideon had been the one taking care of Ennie throughout that week.
Because of that, Vivienne did not even know that the cause of Ennie’s death was the snack Gideon had given it.
Although Vivienne did not care about Ennie, she cared very much about harassing Shani. Her behavior became increasingly cruel. Cutting Shani’s hair until it was barely recognizable, slapping, kicking, and beating her became part of Shani’s daily life.
Meanwhile, Nora no longer bothered maintaining her innocent image in front of Shani. After Vivienne was done, Nora would appear to make things even worse.
Sometimes she brought salt and poured it over Shani’s wounded body. Sometimes she added sand to Shani’s food. Other times, she would put a poisonous snake in Shani’s room and lock her inside from the outside.
In that house, surviving until her energy pool exploded at the age of twenty was practically a miracle.
...
Shani lowered her head and stared at her food, though in truth, she simply did not want her friends to see the hatred in her eyes after the sudden memories surfaced.
’Ennie hatched yesterday. Will Ennie die the same way in this life?’ The hatred in Shani’s eyes turned sorrowful.
She desperately wanted to do something for that innocent baby beast, but Ennie was mentally connected to its parents. There was no way to sever that connection.
In the end, Shani could only let out a disappointed sigh and continue eating.
By the time Shani and her friends finished eating, the cafeteria was already empty. There were no other students besides them.
They had deliberately come to the cafeteria later than usual. After all, today was a full day of Resonance classes, and all of them had already hatched their eggs.
"I’ll go to the seventh floor to feed my bloodworms first. I’ll join you at the library later," Shani said to Kiran, Jeryon, and Noella.
Shani headed to the seventh floor alone. She expected the classroom to be as quiet as the cafeteria.
But unexpectedly, the classroom was packed. Well, not truly packed, there were only about ten people, but that was every single student in the Feed Cultivation class.
In the middle of the group stood Instructor Slater and Nora, who was sobbing.
Despite the tears streaming down her face, Nora’s appearance was neither messy nor unpleasant. She could also speak clearly, despite maintaining a controlled, melodramatic tone.
’So she’s actually an expert at crying. Even I, who don’t know what’s going on, almost want to take her side. No wonder she managed to fool everyone with those tears in my previous life.’
Shani thought like a commentator observing the scene.
She approached her desk, trying her best not to attract the group’s attention. But Shani’s desk was directly in front of Nora’s, where everyone was gathered, so her presence was inevitably noticed.
"She did it!" Nora suddenly pointed at Shani.
Everyone’s eyes immediately turned toward her.
Shani pointed at herself. "What did I do?" she asked with an innocent expression.
"Are you blaming your friend for your own carelessness now?" Instructor Slater turned toward Nora, his eyes half-lidded, heavy, and completely unbothered. Yet his words landed like a slap in the face.
"Quit the drama. You automatically get an F. You don’t need to come to the next class." Instructor Slater turned away with an irritated click of his tongue. "You’re just wasting my reading time."
Everyone was stunned by Instructor Slater’s blatant response. Nora’s tears stopped immediately from sheer shock.
But Slater had only taken two steps when Nora regained her composure and continued her drama.
"I’m not blaming an innocent person. Yesterday, when I was leaving the classroom, I passed her as she was entering. It was already very late. She was the last person to enter the classroom."
...