The Punishment

Sylvia's POV:

Rufus invited me to be his date to a ball? I thought I just had an auditory hallucination, so I didn't know what to say.

"Will you agree, Sylvia?"

As he spoke, Rufus' gaze were fixed on me, and only my reflection could be seen in his eyes.

We were very close to each other.

If I raised my head even slightly, I would already touch the tip of his nose.

The sweet scent of his body made me feel dizzy.

I just nodded my head instinctively.

"I'll come to pick you up on Friday then," he added.

His deep and magnetic voice made my brain freeze for a moment.

Damn! Could he stop showing off his charm? My nose started to itch again.

I was afraid that I would have an embarrassing nosebleed again like last time, so I quickly pushed him away and said, "Hey, I can hear you perfectly.No need to get this close to me."

I covered my nose and only dared to glance at him out of the corner of my eye.

Fortunately, Rufus didn't get angry after I pushed him away.

"All right, that's it."

He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked at me leisurely.

"What are you talking about?"

I rubbed my nose, and it was only then that I came back to my senses.I was so flustered that I wanted to go back on my words.

"What ball? I can't dance.Can I not go?"

"Are you going back on your words now?" Rufus asked, glaring at me coldly.

I nodded without hesitation.

"I will only embarrass you if I go.And my identity…"

But before I could finish my words, Rufus sneered.

His handsome face showed a trace of irrefutable aggressiveness.

"You can't possibly go back on your words."

I knew it! How could Rufus be so easy to persuade? I could only lower my head in frustration.

He rubbed my head with his warm palm.

"It's just an ordinary ball.If you don't know how to dance, I'll arrange someone to teach you.With me by your side, you have nothing to be afraid of.Besides…"

Rufus paused, reached out and raised my chin, and continued, "You will be attending similar parties frequently with me in the future. You'd better get used to it as soon as possible."

His words were domineering and likely to make others misunderstand.

He was so tempting that I could only give in and say, "I have to go back now.There is a time limit for us to stay outside. will be in trouble if I can't go back in time."

I helplessly shook off his hand, lowered my head, and pretended to be calm.

At this moment, a delicate envelope came into view.

I hesitated for a moment before I took it over "That's the invitation card to the ball.It's a special night, sé as long as you have that invitation card, you can freely leave and enter the academy without worrying about the curfew."

Rufus' voice sounded above my head.

I carefully removed the seal on the back of the envelope and took out the invitation card.It was exquisitely made, and the material had a high-grade wooden fragrance.

The content was very formal, and Rufus and I's names were next to each other at the end.

It looked more like a wedding invitation card than an elaborate ball invitation.

Looking at the invitation, I pressed my lips tightly. couldn't help but start to picture out some wedding scenes of Rufus and me in my mind.

Only if that day would ever come.

"Ballroom dancing is very simple, so you don't need to worry about it at all.I will arrange an instructor for you in the following evenings. You can follow Maya's arrangements by then," Rufus said again.

No matter what, he always arranged everything for me.I didn't have the heart to refuse again, so I agreed and took it as the last chance to be willful.

By the time Rufus and I finished talking, it was already very late.

Afterparting, I humped back to my dorm room and went to sleep.

Unfortunately, I had a nightmare in my dream, I was bleeding profusely out of my nose for some reason while Rufus and Alina laughed at me together.

It was horrible! It was such a humiliating dream that I forced myself to wake up from it.

The clock on my bedside table told me that it was three in the morning, Wiping the sweat on my forehead, I lay back down and tried to go back to sleep, Meanwhile, Flora was deep asleep, grinding her teeth.

Finally, after listening to the rhythmic pattern of Flora's teeth grinding, I was able to fall back asleep It must have taken a long time for me to fall asleep again, but I almost overslept, Flora technically had to drag me out of bed and into the morning exercise with dark circles around my eyes.

"Sylvia! How many times have you fallen from the horizontal bar today?"

Blair came over, wearing his uniform.

He scolded me, "Try again!"

Naturally, my body couldn't function well because I didn't get enough sleep.

My mind was out of sorts and my heart was palpitating, so I fell off of the horizontal bar again, "What happened to you?" Blair stood before me with a blank expression.

I lowered my head, not daring to give anything away with my reaction.

Obviously, I couldn't tell him the reason why I didn't get enough sleep— that it was because I met up with Prince Rufus late at night.

"For that, take twenty laps around the school.Only then can you have your breakfast."

Blair gave me a look of disappointment and left.

While I was carrying out my punishment, a group of onlookers watched.

They were all from another class and Cherry was one of them.

Whenever I would pass by Cherry, she would jeer at me.

"You deserve it, you lazy bitch!" Cherry yelled.

I rolled my eyes to the back of my head.

At this point, I was just tired of listening to her empty words.

"Go, Sylvia! You got this!"

I had no idea where Flora found a trumpet to cheer me up.I told her to leave, but she insisted to play music for me while I ran laps.

At this, I felt like crying but my body was too weak to produce both tears and sweat at the same time.

By the time I passed by Flora again, I found her setting up a stall to sell some dried rat jerky.

After finishing the twenty laps, I was so tired and out of breath that I couldn't even speak.

All of a sudden, I felt a gust of wind whizz past me.

It was Warren.

Why was he running laps too? Right now, however, I didn't really care that much.

Immediately, I hurried to the canteen.

I hoped there was still food left for me.

But when I arrived at the canteen, breakfast hour was already over and all the food was finished.

Not even an extra serving of soup could be found here.

Just when I thought I was going to suffer from hunger again, Flora called me over and waved happily.

"Sylvia, over here! I saved you some food."

The sigh of relief that left my chest was satisfying.

Flora was such a good friend.I quickly walked over to her, wolfing down the food as soon as I took a seat.

"Flora, you're a lifesaver.I was starving to death!"

"Aw, am I not the greatest friend you've ever had?"

Flora gave a smug smile.

She stabbed a meatball with her fork and stuffed her mouth with it.

At this time, Harry also came to our table.

Today, his hair was dyed a new color, a bright and fiery red.

"How do you even have time to dye your hair another color?" I looked at him in awe.

I must have been too sleepy to notice his hair earlier in the morning.

"Oh, I brought a hair stylist with me.If you want your hair done, you can call me up any time." Harry took a forkful of pasta into his mouth.

"By the way, where were you last night? You seem like you didn't sleep a wink." I coughed awkwardly, hoping not to seem guilty.

"I just went to bed early.But I ended up not being able to fall asleep well anyway.I was tossing and turning all night.You can even ask Flora."

Flora blinked, taking a bite of her sandwich.

After some hesitation, she said, "I guess so, but I was mostly in a daze.I even felt like you left for a while and came back." "Yeah, I had to go to the bathroom." I quickly found an excuse and thought of another topic to talk about.

"Anyway, why was Warren given punishment too?"