They Hated Me in My First Life, But Now I Have the Love System-Chapter 468: Why Did He Help Me?

His face was pale with humiliation.

It wasn’t just him who looked stunned.

A thick, uneasy silence settled over the lecture hall. One by one, heads dropped and gazes shifted awkwardly to the floor or to their desks. A few students were still scrolling, their mouths slightly open in disbelief.

Some looked mortified. Others embarrassed. And some just confused, like their entire understanding of what had happened had been ripped out from under them.

Emily folded her arms and raised her brows, clearly satisfied.

Nnenna, meanwhile, stared at the glowing screen on her own phone, her expression distant. She hadn’t known this either.

So Carl must have kept digging after the academy stopped their investigation.

Her fingers curled lightly around her skirt.

But why... Why would Jana go so far?

It was just too extreme. Too hateful.

A tiny shiver crawled down her spine as she realized how close she had come to real harm, while she had been telling herself Jana only had words and petty tricks.

Nnenna sat in the back of the lecture hall, the voices around her fading into a dull hum. She carefully typed out a short message to Carl, her thumbs hovering over the screen as she considered her words.

[Thank you... I just saw everything on the school website. I didn’t know you kept investigating.]

Before she could tap send, her phone buzzed with a new message. She glanced down, expecting Carl’s name. But it wasn’t him.

Ava: [Arthur was so furious when he thought someone tried to harm you that he kept digging until he uncovered it was Jana. I’m so glad he got her expelled and charged. It’s finally over. He’s so nice to you!]

Nnenna’s heart stilled for a moment.

Nice to me??

Arthur?

The realization settled into her like a stone dropped into still water. Not Carl. Arthur.

She read the message again, her pulse picking up.

Furious? Over me?

Her brows furrowed. Shouldn’t he have been that angry if someone tried to hurt Ava, his sister? Why would he spend so much effort and resources to help her, when he barely even acted like he liked her at all?

Maybe... maybe Carl asked him to do it.

Yes, that must be it.

Trying to convince herself, she deleted the unsent message to Carl and rewrote it to Arthur instead.

[Thank you for helping me. I didn’t know you were the one who found out the truth.]

She hesitated for a breath, her chest tight with the weirdness of the situation. Then she pressed send before she could overthink it.

Barely two seconds later, her screen lit up again.

Arthur: [You are welcome.]

So short. So perfectly cold.

Nnenna kept staring at the three words on her screen.

You are welcome.

With a full stop.

So precise and clipped, so Arthur.

But that only made her more confused. Why had he helped her? Was he just trying to protect his private student?

But I wasn’t even his private student then...

And the timing, he must have started investigating long before she had acknowledged him as her Sensei. That didn’t add up.

Her thumb hovered over the keyboard again. She told herself to drop it, to stop thinking about it. But before she could fully reason with herself, she had already typed out the question.

[Why did he help me?]

She winced the instant she sent it. Oh no.

Sure enough, Ava’s reply came almost instantly.

Ava: [I’m not sure. You’ll have to ask him.]

Nnenna frowned down at her phone. That’s not helpful at all.

There was no way she was going to ask Arthur. Especially not after the way he had looked at her this morning, so strict and controlled, like she was some distraction he resented. Not with all those rules he had practically carved in stone.

No, she decided firmly, sliding her phone into her pocket. Better to leave it alone.

She drew in a slow breath, pushing all thoughts of Arthur away as she planned her next activity. Carl had said he would be teaching her the first part of her main course theory today. At least that would be simpler, calmer.

She prepared to walk through the quiet grounds to Carl’s office, determined to bury her curiosity deep enough that it wouldn’t bother her again.

She bid Emily goodbye and turned to Ava.

"I’m not going home with you today," she said softly. "Don’t wait for me."

Ava looked like she wanted to ask why but only nodded.

Nnenna stepped out of the lecture hall, her shoes echoing down the corridor. She was still trying to calm the whirlpool of thoughts in her mind, Arthur’s unreadable message, Ava’s weird words and unhelpful reply, the rumors, but she barely got a few steps before a familiar voice called out to her.

"Hi! I finally saw you again. Nnenna, right?"

She looked up, startled.

It was George.

He stood there alone this time, no crowd of curious onlookers around him. His warm, easy smile hadn’t changed at all since that day in the gardens when he had first introduced himself.

And that was when it hit her, she had completely forgotten to text him after getting her new phone. She had messaged everyone else from Lionara, but somehow George had slipped her mind.

Heat rushed to her cheeks, and she offered a small, embarrassed smile before he could say anything else.

"I—I’m so sorry," she blurted out quickly, dipping her head in apology. "I haven’t texted you yet. I didn’t do it on purpose, Senior George."

"I got a new phone number a few months ago," she explained, her voice small. "But I...I completely forgot."

George had planned to tease her about it a little, maybe act offended just to see her flustered. But when he saw the honest apology in her eyes and the faint pink on her cheeks, he changed his mind.

She didn’t look like a manipulator.

She didn’t look like a girl who was playing hard to get.

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