Suddenly seeing Landon in the classroom, Flora was quite panicked. She nearly dropped the things in her hands, her petite body wavered before maintaining balance. The usually confident expression on her face threatened to fall.
What? How could Landon be back at school? Didn't he still have half a month of vacation left?
If she had known that Landon would return to school so soon, she would never have accepted the part-time job as an astrology teacher at the Imperial Magic School.
Strangely enough, it seemed like Landon hadn't fully processed the situation yet, subconsciously saying, "How come you...", before abruptly stopping.
Perhaps he finally remembered the awkwardness of their current relationship – a mere evolution of childhood friends to debtor and creditor.
With just a thought of this, resentment filled Flora's heart. Ultimately, it was all Landon's fault! Landon, who didn't understand human nature, even allowed her to write an IOU!
Though the jewel box was still full, the jewelry that was once given to her was now considered a loan from Landon and she couldn't liquidate them. Not to mention, no seller would dare to buy them once discovered, lest they be laughed at by the aristocratic ladies.
With the temple's subsidy relatively scanty, and Landon unlikely to play the role of her wallet like before, her mother was also displeased with her previous actions and cut off her allowance. If Flora wanted to live comfortably again, she had to find other ways.
However, as the Saintess, it would severely diminish her prestige if she were to take on a labor job.
At this time, the astrology teacher from the Imperial Magic School had an accident and couldn't teach normally, prompting the school to look for a substitute — one that came with a subsidy.
The trajectories of stars represent fate, which has thousands of connections with gods, hence the temple also conducts extensive studies in astrology.
Moreover, Flora was one of the most outstanding students. Even though she was a few months younger than Landon, she was competent enough to teach Landon's peers. Therefore, she was asked to help.
Most importantly, the school was not short of funds, and there was a generous subsidy for substitute teachers, which was a very dignified way for the now financially straitened Flora to earn money.
Before accepting the offer, Flora timed it so that her temporary employment would end before Landon's vacation was over.
What if Landon found out later?
As long as she wasn't caught red-handed, it wouldn't be too embarrassing. Flora had no choice but to disregard this.
However, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry. On the first day of class, she ran into Landon.
Why would Landon, who wasn't exactly a studious person, return to school so enthusiastically?
Right, it must have been Helena who forced Landon to return!
Helena was really aiming at her, intending to humiliate her in front of Landon!
Despite the whirl of thoughts churning in her head, Flora remained composed, pretending not to see Landon and continued to walk into the classroom.
"Sacred Lady!" a student recognized Flora, sounding surprised, "Are you our new astrology teacher?"
Seeing the enthusiastic look on the student's face, Floras's vanity was tickled, improving her mood; she couldn't help but smile slightly: "Exactly, as I'm not very familiar with your skill levels, the first lesson will be an assessment... "
Before she finished speaking, Flora noticed from the corner of her eye that Landon seemed to have lost interest, making her mood sour again.
When Landon looked at her just now, she imagined he was ridiculing her and felt insulted. Now that he wasn't watching, she felt as though he was ignoring her, which was even worse.
Flora paused, placed the box she was holding on the podium, and started unwrapping while saying: "Here is an orb that captures the stars at a certain time point, and the test will be to predict the weather changes during that period based on the tracked stars... whoever scores highest will get a free divination from me!"
The students gasped in surprise.
What Flora was most famous for was her divination. However, revealing divine secrets should be kept at a minimum, and since the value of something lies in its rarity, the temple hoped she wouldn't misuse her ability outside, hence, she rarely divined for others and mainly served the temple or important figures.
For most of the students, it was nearly impossible to ask the saintess for divination. But taking the class not only included the benefit of having the saintess as a teacher but also the chance of getting a divination from her!They all got excited one by one, promising to strive hard, not one of them felt that the saintess was not qualified enough to be their teacher. Flora also smiled at them with self-satisfaction. Ever since Landon made such a scene, she has been feeling quite awkward around the young ladies. Seeing Landon suddenly just brought back those uncomfortable memories. And that's why she decided spur of the moment to use her slot for divination to make herself popular and offset the negative feelings. As expected, the decision won everyone's support, greatly satisfying Flora's vanity. Only Landon seemed unenthused. Flora noticed Landon's indifferent attitude and her lips pouted slightly. Humph, so high and mighty! I don't want to give this divining opportunity to you anyway! She angrily opened the box, holding out a sphere the size of a watermelon, adjusted the filter of the rooftoop to its darkest, then projected the starry images within the sphere. The celestial orbits moved slowly in the sky, and the glowing number "10" in the sphere indicated that the image was being played at ten times speed. The students immediately took out their papers and began to compute the divination under the dim light. Cain quickly helped Landon prepare paper and pen, while Landon himself stared at the sphere, deep in thought. "Why aren’t you writing, Mr. Stuart?", Flora purposefully called out on purpose, "Is it because you don't know how to?" Landon: "......" He was targeted. Landon was aware of this fact, feeling somewhat of a headache... It's such a hassle, why can't we just ignore each other? "Does the illustrious Duke Stewart plan on graduating directly in his second year and going home?" Having held a grudge against Landon for so long, Flora finally seized her chance for revenge and would, of course, not let him go so easily: "Or do you want me to give you private tutoring?" This was becoming more and more outrageous. Many people knew that Landon was close to Flora, and probably also misunderstood that he was pursuing Flora. They just didn't know that their relationship had changed. Hearing Flora say this, they might even mistakenly think he was finding an excuse to get closer to Flora. Did he have to suffer the humiliation of being a joke to Flora and her gaggle of young ladies once more? Landon did not wish to bear this injustice, and he started writing swiftly—he had to admit, the biggest improvement after the recovery of the memories from his previous life was his mathematical ability, fitting to the stereotype that foreigners often perceived his people as being good at maths, and it held up in this world too. Flora looked down to pick at his answers, but unfortunately she could not find any flaws after staring at them for a while, so she coldly huffed and stayed silent. Finally, everyone had finished their papers. Because there weren't many people, Flora was able to finish grading swiftly. Reluctantly, she found that the first place was Landon. But on second thought, Flora found the result not bad at all. She hadn't specified what to divinate, so why not diviniate something dreadful, to scare Landon! Perhaps if he wanted to know how to avoid danger, he would initiate goodwill with her! So, Flora looked towards Landon with a broad grin: "Come here, let me do some divination for you." Landon saw Flora's ill intention and wanted to refuse. But the other students started coaxing him to be a willing audience to the saintess' divination. Out of necessity, Landon ended up sitting across from Flora. Flora took out a crystal ball and asked Landon to infuse it with magic power. Then, with her eyes tightly closed, her delicate hands suspended in the air over the crystal ball, and she started murmuring incantations. After a while, Flora's delicate face suddenly showed a heavy expression, and then she abruptly opened her beautiful almond-shaped eyes and spoke to Landon in a tone more serious than ever. "Your... your life star is very dim, there is a man who will harm you, and he is very near you now, do you have any clue?" Meanwhile, in the Stuart Duke's residence, Helena was entertaining a guest. "Lilica, so you're back in the capital... you said in your letter that you brought someone back from a destroyed village? It doesn't sound like something you would do, where is he?"The person sitting opposite Helena responded slowly, "Uh... Already... Together, brought back to the imperial capital."
