Under the Heiress' Facade

Hera was about to say no, but then she changed her mind.

Keeping her identity a secret wasn't a long-term solution.

Ever since she and Bernard had coupled up, they had spent so much time together that she hardly had any personal space.

Previously, even though they lived together, they each had their own room. Once the door was closed, no one knew what the other was doing.

Now, they shared the same room. So, she had to be on guard to keep her messages from him constantly. That was why she thought that instead of struggling to keep the secret, it might be better to use this opportunity to pretend she had just started learning to hack.

After all, S was punishing her and preventing her from using her account, so she might as well practice by using another account.

With this in mind, Hera responded, "Yes."

"Then, you need to learn programming first. You can start with Python, which is a good programming language for beginners," Bernard said.

Hera looked at him in surprise.

"You know about this?"

Bernard paused, realizing that he had spoken too smoothly.

"I had thought about learning it before and researched more about it."

"Oh? Did you end up learning it?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I was afraid of going bald."

Hera glanced at his thick, short hair.

Bernard already felt quite guilty about not being honest with Hera about his identity last night. Now, he felt even worse for lying again.

He thought he might use the opportunity to pretend to learn the hacking skill with Hera to make up for his guilt since she wanted to learn it. He could pretend to become an expert accidentally and then help her out.

With that in mind, he said, "If you want to learn, I can learn it with you."

Hera wanted to say, "Thanks, but no thanks." She simply wanted to pretend!

So, she said, "Aren't you afraid of going bald? I'm all about looks, you know. I don't like bald guys."

Bernard was rendered speechless.

He thought she was not being smart at that moment. After all, going bald was simply an excuse.

"Of course not. As long as you're with me."

Hera couldn't say anything.

Since her boyfriend wanted to learn, work hard, and progress with her, she figured she should just go along with it.

The worst she had to endure was relearning the basics. After that, she could pretend to be a genius who learned quickly and helped her boyfriend avoid pitfalls.

So, the two expert hackers, each thinking of accompanying the other, happily decided to study the trade together.

"I want to learn too!"

Gino raised his hand.

He thought hacking was cool, so he wanted to learn, too. Once he mastered it, he wanted to surpass his siblings and become a new legend for the Everetts in Norburgh. So, the three of them immediately went to the bookstore to buy three books.

In the afternoon, with the spring sunlight shining through the window, each of them studied in the west wing with a laptop and programming book.

Gino thought that there would be a teacher who could teach them.

So, after a while, he couldn't help but ask, "Are we self-studying?"

"Why not?" Bernard replied to him.

"Shouldn't we hire a hacker to teach us?"

He knew every work in the book, but together, they made no sense to him. So, he thought they should have someone to guide them.

"You can stop if you can't keep up," Bernard teased.

They were only at the basics, which were too easy for him, so he didn't think it was necessary to have a teacher.

Gino became quiet.

Then, he turned to Hera, thinking that although his sister was a genius, this particular field was different. He thought that she perhaps needed a teacher, too.

But then he saw Hera seriously inputting code into the computer per the book's instructions.

This made him question if he was the one with problems.