76. The Despot Club (2)
After the vice principal left the atelier, art class began.
Students started working on their original paintings, and Katya walked around the atelier, pretending to evaluate the children’s painting progress while busily scribbling something on paper.
“Teacher, I have a question.”
When a student asked like this,
“Ah, about that? How about trying this?”
Katya naturally shared various painting techniques she had read about in art books.
Though she had no idea how to demonstrate them, she could easily pretend to be an expert verbally.
Originally, giving advice from the sidelines was always easiest in chess too.
The students became completely captivated by their new art teacher’s eloquence.
The previous art teacher had been poor at teaching and, being another nepotist, had almost no art knowledge herself.
‘How could someone hired as a teacher at the country’s premier women’s education institution know less about their subject than me?’
Katya frowned in disbelief as she guessed the previous teacher’s ability from the children’s stories.
Though Molnitsky Girls’ Academy had belatedly added art practice to their curriculum, benchmarking the Conservatoire Art School of neighboring Arsetia that nurtured female artistic talent, it was essentially just for show.
Art world figures, including Baron Lantskoĭ, were extremely skeptical about nurturing female painters.
They believed that both academics and arts were work only men could do.
The faculty at Molnitsky Girls’ Academy, and even the parents, all thought the same.
Molnitsky Girls’ Academy, which outwardly claimed to be established for women’s education, had ultimately degraded into a bride training institution creating cultured housewives for each family.
While classes like flower arranging and embroidery had the best expert instructors, the art teacher actually knew less than Katya who had only read books.
Compared to the teacher who only held self-study time day and night to hide her terrible skills, Katya who continued class while kindly answering all questions sparked the students’ intellectual curiosity.
“Teacher, could you perhaps demonstrate what technique this is?”
One student asked out of pure curiosity.
But Katya, master of improvisation, didn’t panic.
“What should I do? I’m in this state.”
She said, showing her bandaged right hand.
Actually, it wasn’t really improvisation since she had prepared it from the start.
“Unfortunately not today, but I’ll show you when I get the bandage off soon.”
“I’m so excited, Teacher!”
“You’ll definitely show us?”
Sorry children, but ‘soon’ will never come.
By then, Katya will have already achieved her goal for coming here and disappeared from the school.
That’s why she could freely write such checks that will surely bounce.
“Of course. I’ll show you everything. That’s why I’m here, isn’t it?”
Sorry, kids. It’s because I’m a lying Grand Duchess.
But she resolved to have Nikolai send them a proper art teacher when they returned to the capital.
Given her disposition and way with words, Katya thought she seemed suited to be a snake oil salesman, but thankfully she had good parents who taught her morality and ethics well.
Otherwise, she might have become a notorious con artist by now.
Just then, one of the noble young ladies raised her hand high.
“Teacher, I have another question.”
“What is it?”
Katya turned around with a gentle smile on her lips.
“Tell us about your first love!”
At those words, the curious girls began pouncing like predators toward their prey with sparkling eyes.
“Yes! Teacher, are you dating? Do you have someone you like?”
“Of course you must! What kind of person are they? Your lover must be really handsome!”
“Right! Since you said you returned this year after attending the Arsetia Conservatoire, are you in a long-distance relationship? I heard Arsetian men are so passionate and handsome!”
“No way. Teacher, you must be engaged?”
“Someone like you must have received so many courtships during the social season! How many marriage proposals did you get?”
“Girls, calm down and ask one question at a time.”
Katya said with a troubled face.
Wait. Come to think of it, this could be an opportunity to get closer to the students.
Among men, there’s no topic that brings intimacy more easily than talking about women, and among women, talking about men.
Katya decided to make good use of this opportunity.
“Hmm…… First, regarding proposals, I wasn’t very popular.”
“What? That can’t be!”
“Right. When you’re this beautiful and the epitome of elegance!”
“If you weren’t popular, those men must have been blind!”
“Exactly. Unless they gave up preemptively thinking they couldn’t dare approach a heavenly goddess like you, it makes no sense!”
The children protested saying she was lying.
They would probably faint if they knew Katya had been stumbling while walking until this morning because of the high heels she wasn’t used to wearing.
Of course, the ‘Alyona Lantskoĭ’ they were seeing now was far from Katya’s true self.
She was perfectly imitating Bianca’s posture, gestures, voice, and even her gentle way of speaking.
She had dyed her strawberry blonde hair platinum blonde to hide it for that reason too.
This hair color, slightly golden like butter mixed with honey, enhanced Bianca’s traditional Hersen beauty.
In the three countries that shared the same religion—the Grand Duchy of Hersen, Charmente Empire, and Kingdom of Arsetia—platinum blonde symbolized the beautiful god and goddess.
Since it was only seen in temple murals, people throughout the Western Continent and even in Arsetia, regardless of age or gender, would be entranced with admiration upon seeing a platinum blonde woman.
Whether man or woman, platinum blonde hair automatically earned goodwill.
Moreover, Katya was originally beautiful enough to charm anyone when she just kept her rough mouth shut.
With her gestures mimicking Bianca, she would likely appear to the children as a goddess who could have dominated Arsetia’s social circles.
The Villainess of the South is now a world rank 0 goddess here?
‘Ah, this isn’t some book title. Being called a goddess keeps cracking my conscience.’
Though Katya felt embarrassed to the point her neck flushed, she immediately hid her burning face behind a smiling mask.
“Hmm, really? I’m not sure……”
“Oh my! Everyone’s only looking at you, but you’re the only one not noticing your popularity. Like in a novel!”
“Right. Teacher is totally the female protagonist type.”
“Ha, well said! The tragic opera’s pitiful female lead who dies first over the male lead!”
“Girls, you’re making your teacher embarrassed! And why kill me off in a tragic opera?”
The girls clapped and laughed brightly at Katya’s words.
“And I don’t have a lover.”
Instead, I have a terrifyingly handsome husband.
You don’t know how terrifying his personality is too.
Katya deliberately swallowed the words.
A smile crept onto her lips as she thought of Nikolai.
He was an obsessive man who seriously considered blinding other men’s eyes because he was jealous of them looking at her.
Though he was a tyrant everyone feared, he also had quirky sides like prostrating himself before a subject asking for his daughter, and doing his best to be loved by his father-in-law.
He cherished Katya’s family more than anyone else as his own, even doting on and taking good care of her dog Laika.
Where else in the world could you find such a man?
“You must have someone you like? You’re thinking about them right now, aren’t you?”
“Hmm…… Well, I’m not sure if I like him……”
Katya muttered, tilting her head.
The girls, at an age of peak interest and meddling in friends’ and acquaintances’ love lives, all burst into excitement.
Suddenly the art class turned into Katya’s love counseling session.
“Isn’t the fact that you’re pondering it proof that you have feelings?”
“Right. What do you think about when you recall him?”
“I’m not sure. He’s like a friend. The closest and dearest friend in the world.”
“That’s how you become lovers and family when you let your guard down.”
Dear friends, that man is already my husband.
Katya cried out inwardly.
It really was a confusing relationship. Nikolai loved her, and though it was contractual, they did end up married.
Looking at it that way it was a love marriage, but the two had never dated.
‘But we’ve had a lot of skinship.’
We really did everything except kiss.
Holding hands, hugging, even sleeping with my head on his lap.
‘We even bathed together.’
What an unheard of, irregular, novel progression.
“What kind of person is he? I’m really so curious!”
“Someone who thinks the world is ending if I get even slightly hurt or sick?”
“Kyaaah– Just hearing about it is so sweet, Teacher!”
The girls went wild slapping each other’s arms and shoulders.
Lost in thought, Katya continued voicing her thoughts.
“He can’t stand seeing even a small scratch on my body but says it’s fine if he gets hurt instead since he already has many scars. He wants to soothe my wounds but hides his own.”
Nikolai had always shown her only smiling or playful faces.
Had he been trying to show only his good side?
When she first saw him suffering from nightmares, Katya–
“Ah.”
She realized.
‘I wanted to embrace you.’
Seeing him writhing in loneliness and despair, she wished his pain would come to her instead.
If that wasn’t possible, she wanted to at least share half the burden.
In that moment, something welled up in her chest.
“Teacher……”
A tear rolled down Katya’s cheek.
‘What should I do, Grand Duke?’
I really tried to hold back…… but now it’s all messed up.
Katya finally became aware of her own feelings.
She had to admit it now.
‘I think I’ve come to like you.’
