She came to an abrupt halt, whirling around with her heart thumping in her chest. Both Jessica and Sophie were about two feet behind her, standing still in front of the classroom door with the plaque 409 stuck to it. Their concerned gazes made heat erupt in Mira’s neck and cheeks.

  She trudged back towards them with the fakest smile on her face.

  “Pardon me. I was lost in a daydream.”

  That was how fancy aristocrats in this game spoke, right? She never paid much attention to their speech patterns beyond what information they wanted to convey to Daisy. She wanted to melt into the ground and wake up in her own bed already.

  Their wide eyes informed her that there was something noteworthy about what she’d just said, but, for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out what it was.

  Sophie recovered first and returned her smile.

  “It’s rare for you to daydream. Did something good happen this morning?”

  “Every morning that His Highness sends her to school is a good day,” Jessica admonished Sophie in a teasing tone.

  Mira just wanted to curl up in the fetal position on the floor.

  Instead, she braced herself mentally and leaned in as if she was about to confide a secret to them. For her own safety, she needed to distance herself as much as she could from Magnus.

  “Keep this between the three of us, but I was thinking about lunch,” she whispered conspiratorially, making up something that’d take their minds off Magnus.

  Thanks to the game, she knew that the royal academy provided a luxurious spread for the students at mealtimes. Daisy got to try veal for the first time here. It wouldn’t be ludicrous for a student to look forward to lunch after a long day of lessons.

  Their reactions subverted her expectations.

  Sophie gaped at her for a couple of seconds. Even Jessica brought her hand to her mouth as though Mira had just revealed a scandalous secret, blinking a few times in rapid succession.

  Bemused, Mira smoothed out her own expression before the tiniest of frowns could surface.

  “I had no idea,” Sophie said, smiling shyly. “You always seemed so … above it.”

  “A … Above food?” The words left her mouth before she could notice, and Mira’s eyebrows twitched. She really needed to keep a lid on her inner thoughts.

  “Thank you for telling us,” Jessica said seriously. “We know how careful you are about your image.”

  Mira’s entire body turned to stone, keeping her faint smile frozen in place. Was Blythe one of those people who was constantly watching her weight or what she ate? The game was centered around Daisy, so it never really went into details about the side characters.

  “I never thought you could struggle with something like that. Truth be told, I’m slightly hungry as well.”

  Guys, it’s not that deep. It’s just lunch.

  She’d thought they’d just laugh it off as her being silly or quirky or whatever, but they were acting as though she’d truly shared a deep, dark secret with them.

  Her friends regained their composure before entering the classroom together.

  It was already filled with students, alive with the buzz of everyone’s voices as they chatted among themselves. It took one glance around for Mira to realize every single person here was a girl.

  Daisy didn’t have Embroidery II as a class—she remembered that at least. Mira honestly hadn’t paid that much attention to the school curriculum since the focus of the game was to get the guy she wanted. Distracted by one of the girls in one corner of the classroom opening the window to send out her VocAvis into the blue skies, Mira only snapped out of her fascination when Sophie’s concerned face blocked her vision.

  “Blythe?”

  Mira shook her head, trying to clear her mind. Jessica stood nearly four feet away, looking over her shoulder at them with some bewilderment.

  “I was thinking about something,” she said, breaking into a stride to catch up to Jessica.

  Sophie easily kept up with her.

  “I suppose you had to be careful while eating breakfast with His Highness this morning,” she said sympathetically. “It’s important to keep your ladylike demeanor.”

  Mira wanted to huff out a wry laugh. She thought Mira was still daydreaming about food. While it was true she’d had to be cautious around Magnus earlier, it wasn’t because of food. Mira paused mid-step when she realized she’d just eaten whatever she liked in front of him. If the original Blythe thought that a lady should only eat like a bird, did Magnus find her suspicious for eating an abnormally large amount?

  Cold dread trickled down her spine at the idea that her eating habits might have contributed to his decision to breathe down her neck.

  Her hand was at her side, so she discreetly pinched her thigh while walking.

  Nope, the pain was as real as ever.

  Was she seriously stuck here?

  “It is,” she replied in as a solemn a tone as she could muster to keep in character.

  She didn’t really know how Blythe behaved around friends outside of the few interactions they had when they were all bullying Daisy together. The general impression she had of Blythe was that she was self-important and thought of herself as better than Daisy—and maybe everyone else with the exception of Magnus.

  Mira wished she’d paid more attention to Blythe’s interactions with their friends instead of mashing the ‘continue’ button whenever they took up screen time.

  She sat down at the long workbench between her two friends, noting the various embroidery tools and equipment on every bench top in the classroom. Sophie and Jessica both pulled out a medium-sized silk drawstring bag from their school bags and set it on the counter. Casting her gaze around, Mira realized that nearly everyone in the classroom had something similar sitting on their worktop. Befuddled, she searched through her own bag for hers. She couldn’t find anything like that.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Color drained from her face as she thought of the work-in-progress embroidery still on Blythe's glass low table.

  Was she supposed to have brought that with her? Would the original Blythe have forgotten an assignment like that?

  "Is everything alright?" Sophie asked cautiously, peering at her face. "You seem rather worried."

  Before Mira could try to come up with an excuse, the door opened and in strode a tall teacher who looked to be in her mid-fifties. Her wavy gray hair framed her sharp, elegant face and reached down to her shoulders. She looked like the stereotypical older noblewoman in video games set in medieval times, carrying a matronly vibe.

  Mira surreptitiously glanced down at the class schedule in her bag, noting that the professor for this class was Cara Easley.

  Hey, that’s the professor Jessica said was going to give her extra embroidery lessons!

  Professor Easley spoke in a soft but firm tone, greeting the class with a quick ‘good morning’. Everyone chorused it back to her.

  “I am pleased to see everyone already has their assignment out,” she said, sweeping her glance across the classroom.

  People started to pull open their drawstring bags, taking out a piece of fabric from them.

  Mira’s heart pounded so hard she could feel it in her ribcage. Was she going to call her out for not bringing her assignment? How did the professors punish the students in school? Did they publicly admonish them? Daisy was a model student who never ran into any trouble with the teachers, so she had no clue what the repercussions were.

  Jessica looked over in concern. “Blythe, where’s yours?”

  Both Sophie and Jessica had taken out identical linen blouses with embroidery hoops attached to them. Everyone in class seemed to be using the same thing. For a moment, relief flooded Mira because it meant the silk handkerchief in her bedroom wasn’t for this class.

  Then dread pooled in her stomach again because she didn’t know where hers was.

  “I … forgot where I left it.” The lie tasted like ash in her mouth.

  Both of her friends frowned.

  “I seem to recall you leaving it in your locker yesterday,” Sophie said gingerly with an equally concerned gaze. “Did you move it after that?”

  Her heart thumped even faster, but this time it was out of nervousness. If it really was in her locker, maybe the professor would let her go and grab it.

  It was bad enough when she would draw attention from the teacher at school for forgetting her homework—receiving attention as a high-profile side character in this game made her want to dig a hole in the courtyard garden and bury herself there.

  “I should go and check,” she said, closing her bag up.

  “That’s a great idea.” Jessica’s words were warm, but her eyes were following Mira’s face like an eagle.

  Professor Easley was striding down the aisle between the two columns of workbenches, commenting on the students’ progress as she passed by them. She came to a stop at the workbench occupied by Mira and the other two, her eyebrows raising slightly at the empty space before Mira.

  “Is there a problem, Miss Ridge?”

  “I may have forgotten my assignment in my locker, Professor Easley,” she said, fighting her instinct to look down at her lap and meeting her professor’s eyes instead. “I apologize, but may I go to retrieve it?”

  Sophie blinked rapidly at her. She must have said something unexpected, but Mira wasn’t sure what it was.

  Professor Easley was also staring down at her with a slightly startled expression.

  “Of course,” she said, regaining her composure and giving Mira a tiny smile. “I’ll prepare the hall pass for you now.”

  Mira stood up and followed the professor to the staff desk, where the latter opened a drawer and took out a small circular slab reminiscent of a restaurant pager, except that it was pure white all over. Once Professor Easley slapped her hand over it, it lit up with a glow of pink light all over.

  She gave it to Mira.

  The hall pass felt like any other restaurant pager, smooth and cool to the touch.

  “I trust you won’t make any detours and will return once you have it,” Professor Easley said, looking at her expectantly.

  “Yes, of course, Professor Easley,” Mira said, trying to fight down the panic creeping its way up her lungs. Her knees nearly buckled under the weight of her classmates’ stares. “I’ll be right back.”

  She stepped back out into the empty hallway, and the door closed behind her.

  Finally alone again, Mira allowed herself a couple of deep breaths before walking down the hallway toward the stairs she’d taken here. She should have tried exploring the lockers earlier. How could she have known that she’d need something in it? Besides, with Magnus breathing down her neck, she wouldn’t have been able to get to her locker without making him even more suspicious than he already was.

  As she walked, she glanced down at the slab.

  It probably wouldn’t work, but there was no harm in trying.

  What is this?

  Instantly, a small screen popped up over the hall pass.

  Huh. Cool.

  The semi-fantasy setting of this world still threw her off every time she discovered something new.

  Mira made it down two flights before realizing something crucial—she didn’t know where Blythe’s locker was, and her hall pass had a time limit of fifteen minutes. In silent exasperation, she threw her head back with gritted teeth as she went down the winding stairs.

  How am I supposed to find my locker like this?

  She didn’t have the slightest clue where to start the search. Even if Blythe had it written down in a notebook somewhere, her bag was still back in the classroom. She couldn’t go back for it without raising suspicion. This was impossible.

  Unless …

  An idea came to her mind.

  She stared back down at the pink hall pass in her hand.

  Hopefully, it worked on lockers as well as it did on unassuming hall passes.

  She arrived at the first floor to see a few other students going about their own business, but not everyone was carrying a hall pass. Those who weren’t carrying one walked with brisk strides as if they had somewhere to be. There were other professors walking about as well, but a quick glance down at the hall pass in her hand made them instantly lose interest in her.

  Mira frowned. That little cuckoo clock was in both classrooms. It seemed as though they were there because there wasn’t an academy-wide bell that rang at standardized times.

  She made a beeline for the first locker of the long row of lockers along the wall. It was time to get to work.

  So focused she was on her target, Mira only noticed someone crossing into her path after she’d crashed into him.

  As they collided into each other and fell to the floor, she yelped in surprise and pain.

  “Don’t you know how to watch where you’re going?!” a cold, deep voice snapped.

  It was so familiar to her ears that Mira raised her head at once. An infuriated Noel Thoreau sat sprawled on the ground, a bunch of books strewn all over the floor around him.

  It was him.

  Mira would recognize his voice anywhere; she’d saved points throughout the game where his romance scenes started, allowing her to replay his voice lines over and over until she’d fall asleep at her laptop.

  The moment he lifted his irritable glare to her face, however, a cold mask slipped over his expression. If she hadn’t been here to see the change, it would’ve been impossible to know he’d been annoyed a second ago.

  She knew who he was, but she pulled up his information window anyway.

  He was the kuudere prodigy archetype, full of academic smarts but lacking in people skills.

  "Blythe," he said instead, giving her a cold nod as he pulled himself to a crouching position.

  Mira's eyes nearly popped out. He only ever behaved snippily with Daisy, never acknowledging her by name until she became his friend.