NOVEL WEB Chapter 181
Chapter: 181
Time spent in the mansion flew by much quicker than I expected, and naturally, I found myself back at the Academy.
Returning to the Academy after a long break, there was so much to reflect on and think through.
“Yawn….”
“Are you already sleeping on the first day?”
“I couldn’t sleep since I was playing with Rize until late last night.”
Well, it wasn’t anything special.
Ella, whom I met again after just over a month, still looked as cute as ever.
And the other friends were still pretty much my type of cute girls.
Nothing really had changed.
“So, it seems like you just spent the whole vacation at the mansion again?”
“Uh-huh…. I did spend a lot of time at the mansion. It didn’t feel like I was just playing around, though.”
With that response, Ella looked at me as if to say, “Stop talking nonsense.”
It seemed like she thought I had spent my vacation in the same way as before.
To be fair, it wasn’t entirely untrue.
However… I had spent my vacation with a lot of worries, different from just having fun.
In fact, even Ella, sitting right next to me, didn’t look the same as she used to.
“Hmm.”
“What’s wrong? Do you have something on your face?”
“I just noticed it had been a while since we last met. It feels like nothing has changed since before the vacation. I think I’ve grown a bit taller, but it seems like you haven’t at all.”
“What!?”
Ella’s reaction was still cute, of course.
But seeing her like this, I realized that my previous impression of her as just cute had changed to something else…
“Hehe….”
It definitely felt like I had changed in various ways during the vacation.
Before the vacation, I hadn’t really thought much about hanging out with my friends at the Academy.
It was just like lying next to Rize in bed and casually hugging her like a pillow.
Now, it was clearly perceived as something more than simple friendship.
“Did you have a good vacation…?”
“Oh, Lady Grace. It’s been such a long time. Have you been well?”
“Of course, I wouldn’t say otherwise!?”
It was great to see Grace coming to talk to me so early in the morning.
Ella seemed to feel like a long time had passed since we last saw each other, but Grace felt like she’d grown a bit too.
After all, being the older sister, Karen must have had quite an influence.
“What’s with that unsettling glare?”
“Hehehe…. Is it?”
“So… how was your vacation?”
“It was good. Personally, I wanted to visit Melnick and play with you and Karen, but I had so much fun spending time with my family after such a long time.”
That wasn’t a lie, was it?
I hadn’t seen William at all during the vacation, but I had spent a lot of time with Rosalyn.
It included drinking sessions with Rosalyn, but I had really spent quality time with her before and after that.
“Well, as long as that’s the case, I’m glad.”
“Hehe, by the way, did Karen attend her lessons well this time? She mentioned she was studying at the estate during the vacation. I thought you would know, Grace.”
“She did fine. After all, she’s not an idiot, and she’s much better at studying than I am.”
“That’s true.”
Karen was indeed quite smart.
Her quiet and introverted personality simply meant that she had less interaction with others since childhood.
Because of that, Grace had become the face of the Roseaki family, and Karen had taken a similar position as the potential next head.
Still, Karen had the chance to become head of the family in her own right, and she could certainly hold a position within the family.
In any case, we were chatting while waiting for the first class of the Academy to begin.
I would have to catch up with Ivana and Karen too, but both of them were usually sitting quietly in their own spots preparing for class in the morning.
I thought about what to say to Ivana, who was in the same class as me, but since she was busy preparing for class in front of me, I decided to leave her be.
“Hmmm….”
Well, it felt good to finally see my friends again after a long time.
After all, there were nothing but pretty and cute girls around me, so how could that not be good?
Even though they were all cute girls who weren’t even adults yet… that didn’t mean they weren’t attractive, right?
“Hehe….”
Honestly, I was shocked at how my way of thinking changed from before the vacation.
*
With the Academy semester starting again, not much had really changed.
The subjects being taught were still things I already knew, I slept during class, and hung out with friends in the club.
It was just the usual daily routine.
“Um, is that… Camelia?”
“Yes, sister. What is it?”
Today, I was comfortably lying on the bed in the club room with Karen.
There was really no need to sit up and read the book, and I was a bit bored.
So I just lay there reading a book beside Karen, who was lying next to me.
“No, it’s nothing….”
“By the way, this book is pretty interesting. They say it’s a popular book recently. It really should become a bestseller.”
“Seems like it….”
While discussing the book, I took a sneak peek at Karen lying next to me.
She still had her long hair, but she certainly was beautiful.
Even though she was three years older than me, her figure was just stunning.
“Hmmm….”
“What’s wrong…?”
“Sister, I think you’ve grown taller during the vacation.”
“Really…? I don’t think I’ve grown taller….”
“No, you’ve definitely grown a bit taller.”
That was the feeling I had.
It wasn’t a huge change, but for sure, she seemed a bit taller than before the vacation.
“I also grew a little during the vacation, but I don’t think there’s much of a difference from before.”
From my perspective, I had been getting taller since the start of the first semester, so it didn’t seem like I had changed that much.
Of course, Karen must have grown taller too.
In fact, Karen was already taller than the other girls.
Unlike Grace, Ella, and me, Karen was about 170 cm, above the average height for girls.
Of course, she might be similar to Rize in height, but she didn’t give off the same vibe at all.
“Hmmm….”
“Why…?”
“Hmm….”
Yep, there was definitely a difference between Karen and Rize.
Just lying on the bed together, I couldn’t help but notice that they were completely different.
Rize’s body gave off an impression of being long and slender overall.
In fact, her body balance felt like that of a gymnast, which was what came to mind.
But unlike Rize, Karen had a body that was just… voluptuous in every way.
She had a chest that was quite ample, and it suited the expression “violently attractive.”
“Do you think Grace will grow up like you someday?”
“I don’t really know about that.”
“Hehe, that’s true. I think Grace will probably be shorter than you when she becomes an adult.”
Karen had always had such a great figure from a young age.
No matter how much Grace grows, she probably won’t reach Karen’s level.
“But Camelia…? It seems like you became friends with Grace before the vacation…”
“Yes?”
“I’m not trying to say anything bad…! I was just curious how you guys became friends.”
“Ah.”
It was true that I had become much closer to Grace since just before the vacation… around the final exam period.
Honestly, there wasn’t much reason for it; it just sort of happened.
We just ended up bonding over something trivial during that time.
“We just spent a lot of time together in the same club and classroom. It just happened, I guess?”
“Ah….”
“After all, I’m your sister. It’s not necessary to not get along. In fact, if we were uncomfortable around each other, that would just be odd, wouldn’t it?”
“That’s true….”
At first, Grace had been a bit hesitant around me, but it was no longer an issue.
From Grace’s perspective, there wasn’t any need to have a bad relationship with someone who got along well with her sister.
I, too, had never thought badly of Grace from the start.
I just saw her as a cute little sister who liked her older sister but wasn’t obedient.
She might have seemed a bit more hostile than Ella when I first met her, but now it was simply amusing.
“…That’s right.”
“But wouldn’t you say that I’m closer to Karen than I am to Grace?”
“Is that so…? ”
“Of course. I’ve known your sister longer, and I haven’t really traveled with Grace at all, have I?”
“Ah….”
In fact, I had never even shared a bed with Grace to read a book like this.
In many ways, I was still less close to her than Karen.
To put it that way, we were probably about as close as Ivana and I.
“Now that I think about it, it’s Karen’s last year at the Academy this year, right?”
“That’s right?”
“It would be nice for everyone to go somewhere together during this winter vacation. Once she graduates, we probably won’t see each other much until we graduate ourselves.”
In any case, as we spent more time together, I found talking to Karen more enjoyable than lying there with Rize like a pillow.
Even though we drifted away from the book we were reading halfway through.
“Then, you’ll probably talk to Ivana a lot this semester….”
“Well, I think so, right? It’s better to start early rather than wait to start a project later.”
“It can’t be helped…. Also, since the head of the family… Camelia is really something in that regard. It’ll definitely help….”
“Hehe, that’s right? After all, Ivana asked me for help with something. It would be best for me to assist her properly this semester.”
“…Yes.”
While we were chatting, I could see moments when Karen didn’t look particularly happy.
Though I didn’t say anything to her… just the look on her face told me why Karen felt that way at times.
Whenever she brought up others, that was when I could tell she seemed a bit down…