I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 834 - Side Story 107: Familiar Yet Unfamiliar (1)

Rudsela was flustered.

Chancellor Elio's deep gaze, and the naturally occurring skinship.

All of it was enough to freeze her mind right now.

'What is this? Were we originally in a relationship?'

The skinship was so proactive that she couldn't help but think that way.

However, in Rudsela's memories, she had never dated anyone. Naturally, the Chancellor was no exception.

'Which means, he's doing this even though we're not dating? Isn't this workplace sexual harassment?'

Rudsela, or rather Rudger, couldn't help but think that way.

Since Rudger's sense of self was so strong, he felt a strong aversion to a man suddenly approaching and making proactive advances.

"I don't know what you're trying to do right now. If you've called for me, I'd appreciate it if you would briefly state only your business."

Rudsela spoke in a cold voice, grabbing Chancellor Elio's hand and removing it from her chin.

If the other person wasn't the Chancellor, she might have slapped his hand away.

Even though he should have been discouraged by the cold rejection, Chancellor Elio only smiled.

Rather, as if this behavior was tantrum-like, he seemed to find it so cute he didn't know what to do.

"Huhu. Even Miss Rudsela's anger is beautiful."

'No. Why is this guy really acting like this?'

Looking through Rudsela's memories, Chancellor Elio did often act like this.

Calling her out for no reason, playing silly pranks, summoning her unnecessarily and wasting her time.

It was behavior that could be considered workplace harassment, but Rudsela endured it.

In the first place, her situation was even worse than that. The moment her identity was discovered, she would be referred to the Empire's law.

Most importantly, she had hidden her identity as a member of the First Order and even taken a job under false pretenses.

Rather than deliberately, it was closer to being forced, but anyway.

In such a situation, there was no way she could refuse the words of her workplace superior, in fact the highest authority, the Chancellor.

But the reason Rudsela endured like this was because she knew that Elio's actions weren't done with malice.

'How should I put it? Like teasing a younger sister? Since he originally has a mischievous personality, it seems like he expresses it in this way.'

Rudsela thought Elio's behavior was due to this.

However, here the male ego, Rudger, offered a different opinion.

'......Isn't he doing it because he likes you?'

How should one describe what Elio was doing?

It resembled a man deliberately playing pranks and acting mischievously toward a woman he likes.

Rudger himself didn't engage in such behavior, but he had commonly seen such scenes.

Based on experience and knowledge, this was the correct answer.

Rudsela's ego immediately refuted that thought from Rudger.

'If he likes me, why would he play pranks and bother me?'

Naturally, Rudger and Rudsela faced each other in their mind.

Their memories had mixed, but their egos hadn't completely merged. Having lived as different genders, even with similar lives, there were differences in their ways of thinking.

'If you like someone, you should just say so honestly, right?'

Rudsela's question was direct. If he likes her, why would he play pranks and bother her? It was something that didn't make sense logically.

'Hmm. I don't know about that since I've never tried it.'

'You certainly look that way.'

It wasn't sarcasm.

If anything, it was closer to calmly acknowledging, since he looked like he had never confessed but only received confessions.

'But still, as the same male, there are facts I can know even without experiencing them. Usually acting mischievously toward someone you like is a kind of insurance, fearing direct rejection from confessing, subtly acting friendly while testing the other person's feelings......'

'That's too long, boring, and pedantic. Say it shortly.'

'......He's doing that because he's afraid of being rejected.'

'That's clear and good. But afraid of being rejected. Does that mean the Chancellor likes me?'

'At least from my perspective as a man, yes.'

'If he likes me, why is he playing pranks? He should just say he likes me.'

'......The conversation isn't ending.'

Even walking similar lives and footsteps, if genders differ, ways of thinking inevitably differ.

Whatever the case, since the situation had already occurred, Rudsela decided to focus on the matter at hand again.

"If you've called me as a joke, I'll be taking my leave now."

"Haha. How cold. Alright. I'll stop joking now. First, let's get to the main point. Recently, there's been a suspicious group secretly entering Theon."

Rudsela naturally tensed up. Considering the current time period, it was presumably when the Black Dawn Society would cause some incident in Theon.

'Wait. In cases like this, was my identity already discovered?'

Rudsela stared into Elio's eyes.

The golden light of the Eyes of Fascination rippled. In the past, it would have been hard to discern his emotions, but now it was different.

'He already knows.'

Knowing, yet deliberately pretending not to know, even informing her about the suspicious people.

She couldn't predict what he was scheming at all.

The conversation that followed was obvious. They exchanged formal questions and answers about being careful and responding well just in case.

"Hearing Miss Rudsela say that puts my mind at ease."

"You flatter me."

"That's the end of the discussion. You don't have a next class, right? Then would you like to have some tea here before you go?"

Rudsela declined Chancellor Elio's invitation.

"I need to review the students' assignments. I also need to organize materials for the next class content."

"You could have your teaching assistant do such things."

"I prefer to do my own work directly for peace of mind."

"Haha. Miss Rudsela really is different from others. You know that's why I like you, right?"

Elio said with a subtle eye smile.

Combined with his graceful beauty, it was flirting that would naturally make any woman's heart flutter if they heard it.

Even the male ego of Rudger couldn't help but think, 'This guy's pretty smooth, huh?'

But Rudsela was no pushover either.

"Yes. I also like the Chancellor who supports me in doing my work cleanly."

If Chancellor Elio was the type to subtly reveal emotions and flirt.

Rudsela was the type to acknowledge the other person's competence from a business perspective.

Rather, coming out so calmly like this, Chancellor Elio seemed a bit deflated.

Perhaps inside he was lamenting at a tree that wouldn't fall even after being struck ten times.

"Then, I'll be going now. May you have a good day today as well."

-Clunk.

The Chancellor's office door closed.

* * *

'This is tiring in many ways.'

Rudsela, who had returned to the faculty office, plopped down in her seat.

Being a different gender was quite interesting indeed. But since the reactions around her differed accordingly, it was strangely hard to adapt.

'Especially what should I call it, the gazes and reactions of women in the previous world, and men in this place now. It feels strangely more proactive and clingy.'

Selina, who had been innocent, was strangely seductive here, and in Sedina's case, who had been reticent, she could even feel a subtle obsession.

Was it just them?

'Come to think of it, the gaze Flora sent during class was also quite heated.'

This could be known because she had experiences and memories as a man.

At least the males she had encountered liked Rudsela.

'Objectively, Rudsela is a beauty, so it's not strange that she's popular with men. Well, she herself pursues rationality to an unusual degree, so it seems she doesn't know why.'

This couldn't be helped.

Currently, Rudger had gone through the Holy War and finished all matters, literally in a state of having found peace.

As a result, the ruthlessness and sense of purpose from before had diminished.

On the other hand, Rudsela right now was in the midst of moving forward toward her goals.

How could the goodwill of others and such things catch her eye?

'Being a third party while experiencing events in first person, there's a subtlety that's hard to express in words. Especially being flirted with by a man feels somehow eerie.'

Had her head been this complicated recently?

Even when facing and fighting spirits in Hyperborea, it wasn't this bad.

'I need something to ventilate with, to cool my head.'

She thought about accelerating her magic research, but there was nothing she could do immediately.

While contemplating for a moment, she saw a crow outside the window staring this way.

"Ah."

Rudsela made a sound.

A letter was tied to the crow's ankle.

'Right. They were here too.'

She had completely forgotten due to the suddenly changed environment and matters in Theon.

Rudsela opened the window and extended her hand to the crow.

The crow tilted its head, then climbed onto her palm.

Crows are intelligent and smart birds. When Rudsela gave it feed, it eagerly accepted and ate it as if waiting.

Meanwhile, Rudsela, who had untied and checked the letter, put the crow on the windowsill and grabbed her coat.

"Thanks for coming."

-Caw.

As if understanding the thanks, the crow answered and flew away.

Rudsela, wearing her coat, left the faculty office.

Her destination was Leathervelk.

* * *

Arriving at Leathervelk, Rudsela stood in front of a familiar street tavern.

There was a closed sign, but she didn't mind and opened the door to enter.

"Ah. Sister, you're here?"

What greeted Rudsela was a woman with triple whites in her eyes and short hair.

Her bangs were swept to the side and fixed with a pin, revealing her forehead in a style.

"......Yeah. Jane."

Hans. No, in this world her name was Joanna.

This was also a fairly common name if it could be called common.

"Is something wrong, sister? You're suddenly staring at me intently."

"......No. It's nothing."

Rudsela shook her head. That title of "sister" from Joanna was unusually hard to get used to.

Most surprisingly, Hans in this world wasn't old-looking at all.

She looked exactly her age and seemed like a young lady accustomed to city life.

Even now, the way she was organizing documents in real-time and acquiring information was exactly like that.

Her speech wasn't even rough. She spoke so normally that it made one doubt if this was really Hans.

"Where are the others?"

"Of course they're all gathered."

As soon as those words ended, someone opened the door and entered the tavern.

"Wow. It's been a while. You've been so busy with teaching life and such that you couldn't show your face, what's the occasion?"

Waist-length flowing blonde hair and healthy-looking tanned skin. The smoky makeup on her face and accessories on her body added to the glamour.

"Alexandra."

This was Alex in this world.

She approached Rudsela and naturally patted her back.

"Ahaha. What, suddenly calling my name. Did you forget because it's been so long since we met? Totally funny!"

If Alex as a man had a Casanova-like atmosphere, Alexandra as a woman had a strong feeling of being a playful young lady who liked to have fun.

She was also tall with a good figure and knew how to adorn her own beauty.

Especially her advantage would be that she was skilled at seducing men.

The various fancy perfumes and luxury goods she possessed now were things gifted by men she'd seduced.

"Oh! What! Isn't it ma'am!"

The door to the inner part of the shop opened, and a mischievous-looking dwarf boy entered.

Senet Ironfeet.

As if proving he was a troublemaker, with a band-aid on his cheek, the smile showing his white teeth was quite impressive.

"Hey! Joanna! Look at this! It's a rat tooth I picked up this time!"

"Ugh! Senet! I told you not to shove that at me! I really hate that!"

"Ehehehe."

Their relationship seemed to be the same here too. Rather, Senet's pranks seemed to have become a bit more aggressive now that he was male.

"Hmm. You've come."

From beyond the door Senet had opened, a small-statured girl entered.

......Rudsela stared blankly at the girl.

Surprisingly small and petite, she had ears on top of her head as if proving she was a beastkin, and possessed long white hair that reached her waist.

At a glance, she seemed even smaller than her master Grandel.

"......Pantalena."

In this world, Pantos had apparently changed not just gender but even size completely.