Your Guise Is Slipping, Miss Pearl

Sabrina felt a shiver down her spine at the possibility of revenge. "I didn't think of that." She had been so focused on getting justice for Claude, forgetting that in doing so, she might have upset someone who was out to get him.

That person, aiming to set Claude up, would be ready for anything. And Sabrina, by standing up for him, might have put herself in danger too.

On top of that, she wasn't sure if the person who tried to trick Claude by throwing a note at him would just ignore her.

"I think you're brave." They were quietly talking to each other while the dean complained about how they had disrespected him by whispering. This made the dean really mad. He scolded them sharply in Ealdasy.

Sabrina felt really awkward and didn't know what to do.

Then, the chancellor showed up quickly. He looked at Claude and Sabrina, trying to figure out what was going on. "What happened?" "Hello, sir. I'm in the diplomacy class. Someone tried to make it look like Claude cheated during the test. I saw someone throw a note on his desk," Sabrina explained.

The dean didn't believe it. "Nonsense. Who would try to frhim?" Everyone knew Claude as the rich playboy at school. He was reckless even though his family had no power.

So, nobody wanted to stick their neck out for him, even if they saw he was innocent.

Unexpectedly, Sabrina didn't let that stop her. She was ready to challenge the powers that be.

"I saw what I saw. Can't we just check the class's security footage?" she suggested. All text © NôvelD(r)a'ma.Org.

The chancellor nodded thoughtfully. "She has a point. Let's see the footage." But the dean started to panic. "But, sir, the school's security cameras broke down yesterday." "So, there's no way to check?" Sabrina might have been young and inexperienced, but she sensed something fishy. She wasn't trying to stir things up, but the timing was too suspicious. "Why are you talking tolike that?" The dean, feeling insecure in front of the chancellor, scolded Sabrina to seem more in control.

He blamed her for meddling. If she hadn't, he could have just dealt with Claude quietly.

Claude usually took his punishment without a fuss. But not this time.

"Sir, I didn't cheat," Claude said coldly.

"We coyou in the act. Denying it won't "The dean was upset. He 't understand why Claude was standing up for himself now.

"What if we check the handwriting? If the note wasn't written by Claude, then he's innocent," Sabrina blurted out.

But the dean just laughed. "Young lady, you don't understand. Claude's family is poor. They can't afford the cost of such an expensive investigation fee." A poor family? Sabrina knew her family wasn't the wealthiest, but they lived comfortably. They even bought her a nice house.

And Claude was her neighbor. How could he be from a poor family?