"Nooooo!" Isabelle screamed and started hitting him.

Evan was stunned when this happened. "What are you doing, woman?!"

He obviously couldn't sit back and fight back, instantly turning the situation around.

"Young Master!" The maid tried to separate both of them, preventing the fight from continuing. If what Isabelle said was right, then the situation would become complicated when this matter reached the ears of the two family heads.

"Don't stop me. I will beat this unreasonable girl. How could she suddenly jump toward me and hit me?!" Evan tried to hit her, but she stopped both of her hands. Even when he managed to sneak around, Isabelle still tried to bite him.

"Even if I can't beat you with my magic, I will beat you with my body. I can still kick you, punch you, or even bite you. I know that I can't use my magic well because I don't have talent, but I don't want to give up… Don't make me give up." Isabelle still bit his arm, but tears started flowing out of her eyes, dripping on Evan's face.

He was on the bottom right now with his right arm got bitten by Isabelle, but when he saw her crying like this, something in his heart broke.

He always thought that it was better to enjoy something before doing your own job. The girl in front of him had no hope to gain her freedom, but she still tried and practiced to gain it even if it was useless… Even if she knew it was hopeless.

In fact, she was the first one to know it was futile to do this. She wanted to prove it was wrong, but somewhere in her heart told her to give up as well.

Evan looked at the girl and loosened his arm while looking away. "Alright, alright. I've got it, so release my arm, please?"

Isabelle hesitated for a few seconds before finally releasing his arm and standing back.

Evan also got up with the help of his maid and turned away to leave. Before leaving, he halted his footsteps and said, "I'm sorry."

Isabelle was astounded and stared at him with blank eyes until he left.

Not long after, his father found him messy, especially his clothes that were covered with dirt.

"Evan? What happened to you? Who beat you?" His father immediately squatted down and checked on him.

"I fell when I was playing with my friend."

"Ah, yes. I didn't believe you at first, but you look different." His father squinted his eyes, wondering if Evan told the truth or not.

Evan ignored him and turned to the middle-aged man behind his father. "Uhm… Uncle… Did… Did she always practice in the garden?"

Isabelle's father furrowed his eyebrows and realized he was talking about Isabelle. Since Evan mentioned her, he must be playing with her just now. Knowing how much burden Isabelle carried in her tiny shoulder, he was glad to see her having a friend (lie), so he answered. "Yes. She is a hardworking child."

"What… What do you think about her, Uncle?"

"I am proud of her, and that won't ever change." He put on his warmest smile, showing his genuine feeling.

"…" Evan looked down and asked, "Father… Can I go home?"

"This…" He looked at Isabelle's Father with a weird expression.

"He must be tired. The engagement talk is almost over anyway, so you don't need to mind about it."

"Alright then. You can go home first." He nodded and patted Evan's head.

Evan then returned to the mansion, and something inside him definitely changed that day.

He became hardworking and showed remarkable progress. His father learned that Evan was hiding his ability this whole time but didn't punish him since Evan had changed for the better.

Every week, Evan would take some time to visit the Fisher Family in pretense he was missing his sister. In fact, he just wanted to see Isabelle. And as he expected, she never stopped practicing even a single day.

Time passed by, and three years had passed.

Isabelle went to school without any change in her expression, hoping that the bully didn't worsen. But one day, she found her table, which was usually filled with drawings, was clean. She then found a memo with a quote written on it.

'Hard work pays off. There is always one person who believes in you, and it is yourself. If you can't believe in yourself, then don't try.'

The quote was weird, but it struck deep into her heart. Considering her harsh daily life, this quote was like a ray of hope coming from Heaven. Her heart filled with warmth.

After that, the bullies started disappearing one after another as her school day started returning to normal.

She was completely clueless as to what happened. Evan never appeared in her thoughts because the timing was too far.

The days continued, and before she knew it, three months had passed. And school became one of the happiest places she ever had.

It was at that time she met Evan again. He had changed drastically from the unmotivated man to a bully. Yeah, he was a bully. He was famous in the school as someone who took everything personally and beat other people up if they dared to decline him.

Due to his growth, he had the ability to do something like this… And this happened for three more years before a certain rumor started spreading.

Evan's growth slowed down to a turtle's pace to the point people said he didn't have any room to develop or the fact that he had exhausted all of his potentials.

Slowly but surely, Evan started getting bullied. And of course, to maintain the pride of his father, Evan didn't report this incident to him.

On the other hand, her school life was still normal. Evan's eyes slowly turned into that of a dead fish.

When she passed him again in the hallway, she looked at him, wanting to greet him, but couldn't find the courage because she was afraid that she would get bullied again.

When she was about to return to the classroom, she unintentionally eavesdropped on two people's conversations.

"Hey, you know what?!"

"What?"

"That Evan was protecting a girl this whole time, you know. What was her name again? Isabelle… Yeah, Isabelle."

"He fought all those people who bullied her and stopped that. Unfortunately, they started pranking her again. Though, the hatred is focused on him right now…"

When Isabelle heard that, she was dumbstruck.

'I have been pranked again this whole time?' She thought. 'But I haven't experienced that thing for a while…'

She fell into deep thought for a few minutes before realizing something. 'Don't tell me…'

That day, she didn't do anything and went back home like usual. However, the next day, she came to the school earlier than anyone else and hid near the entrance.

As she expected, Evan came to the school at 5 AM when no one else came to the school yet. The first thing he did was opening her locker. It was a surprise to see him having her locker key, but she realized that her father also had one. Evan must have got it from her father. Still, it wasn't important.

After opening her locker, there were many dripping juices and other things inside her locker, destroying all of her books. She always took a note on a different book, so she never noticed. But Evan replaced the dripping wet books with a new one as if it was the usual thing for her.

He then cleaned everything up, making it all the disasters from earlier never happened. It was still 5.30 AM, so Evan went to Isabelle's classroom.

It turned out he borrowed the janitor's master key for the classroom and went inside.

She followed him and witnessed him using a wet wipe to clean her table from all the disasters like earlier. Tears started flowing as she dropped to her knees.

The janitor also came and saw her. She looked at Evan and sighed.

"He has been doing it since the first time he entered the school. I have gotten used to seeing him doing this every single morning… There was a time when I volunteered to help him, but he refused, telling me he wanted to do it alone as if it was his responsibility.

"I heard many rumors about him around the school, but I didn't think he deserves something like this. After all, he told me that he would become a bully just to protect someone because if he was the strongest, no one dared to touch her…

"When I heard that, I wished I was a decade younger since I would really fall in love with him." The janitor let out a long sigh. "Seeing you like this, I assume you are the one he has been protecting and hasn't gotten a single clue this whole time… All I can say, cherish him, Miss, he is a man who deserves more."

Isabelle couldn't say anything. Her tears had been dripping this whole time. She just tried to hold her breath so as to not let out a single sound. The first time she saw him, she hated him because he wanted to make her give up.

But it turned that he had been protecting her even if he needed to sacrifice his body and all his time this whole time.

She regretted it. She wished to talk to him sooner because of the relationship between their families.

There was no need to say that the quote that had been cheering for her came from him. The guy that did everything after judging one's talent actually worked harder than anyone else. But the only thing she did was avoiding him because she was afraid of getting bullied.

Irresistible pain quenched her heart as she kept crying. Only tears could describe her feelings right now.