Kingston Academy

FORTY-NINE

Niven woke up with a fever.

For a second, the boy didn't know where he was until he saw a blurred image of a small penguin waddling over to him as fast as the animal could run.

Niven rose a brow, still confused as to what was happening and groaned when he tried to get up.

"Young master, please lay back down. You're running an extremely high fever." The boy looked up to his side, finally noticing Gabriel there with him. His butler placed another sheet of blanket on top of him. "It's a good thing Agustine managed to get you back to the dorm just in time."

"What-" Niven stopped when he felt his throat burning with pain. He looked back at Gabriel, wanting to know what happened until a wave of weariness hit the male. Soon enough, he passed out again.

The reason was simple. Niven had relapsed. His illness had grown worse. Because of the amount of exhaustion and stress which had been piling up, and with the shocking news of his brothers' secret being found out, Niven just couldn't handle it anymore and had lost consciousness as soon as Agustine brought the boy back inside.

But when Niven awoke again, he found someone else other than Gabriel who was tending to him.

"Vasili... what are you doing-"

"I meant to give this to you on our date last night," Vasili interrupted as he placed down a paper crane. "Though it seems like I forgot. I'm sorry for that."

Origami. His professor's favorite hobby.

Niven quietly watched with blurry eyes as he witnessed the paper crane move by itself, flapping its thin wings before managing to fly in the air and eventually settling itself down on the bed.

The man sighed, "You loved making those with me everyday. I finally perfected it for you... I hope you like it, dearest."

"Why are you here?" Niven slurred. "Y-You can't be here..."

"Gabriel informed me about you getting sick," the man replied as he placed a cool towel on the boy's head. He giggled, "Did you perhaps eat a little too much last night and get a tummy ache?"

Without any warning, Niven teared up, scaring the man. The boy reached up to take the towel off despite his extremely sore muscles and dizzy state.

"Why w-would you do this?" Niven croaked and struggled to grasp the man's collar. "No one else but you knew. That day when you whispered in my ear... w-when I took Grim away from my brothers, you knew that secret about my family. W-Why would you do something like-" Niven ended up in a coughing fit, having to release the man.

Vasili quickly placed a hand against the boy's chest, pushing him down on the bed.

With a sigh, Vasili shrugged his shoulders and responded, "My, oh my! It seems like the vice-principal didn't tell you! That wasn't me, dearest."

"W-What?"

Vasili leaned in close to Niven, appearing to tell him a small secret. "You see, doll, I found out about the rumors not too long ago myself. At first, I thought you were the one who decided to spill the beans. Imagine my surprise when I found out it was your dearly beloved Mr. Westworth, who didn't even blink an eye at Levi and Simeon getting hounded by the rest of the students! Hehe... makes me truly wonder what on earth that man is up to."

Niven had to take a moment to process his professor's words, not understanding why Remiah Westworth would do something like that.

He... destroyed everything Levi and Simeon worked for. Everything they've done in this academy and have gained, it's been wiped away with that single rumor. Their reputations will never be recovered since it'll be deemed true, and the other schools will flock to Kingston to try and beat the twins for their own gains.