Her insides were plunged into ice water. She’d kept her head movements towards the doors to a minimum, but clearly it wasn’t enough to escape Jessica’s notice.

  She turned her head back to Jessica, forcing a relaxed smile onto her face.

  “Am I not allowed to look around as I like?”

  That had Jessica in a fluster, rapidly waving her hands in front of her. “No, of course you are! I didn’t mean that at all.”

  Mira knew there wasn’t any malice in Jessica’s words. She’d sounded like she was just making an observation, so Mira had given her a light response.

  “I know,” she said easily, trying to show there were no hard feelings.

  Jessica’s reaction made her question how hard Blythe was on her friends when they were all off-screen.

  Tucking her lilac hair behind her ear, even though there wasn’t a strand out of place, Jessica said nervously, “You feel a little … different today.”

  Her entire body tensed again.

  “It must be your imagination,” she said mercilessly, gaslighting Jessica to the best of her ability. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  Her friend didn’t say anything else until they arrived at their next classroom.

  Classroom 313 was larger than the previous two classrooms. Mira noticed Magnus right away—he stood out in the room even among other blond-haired guys that were here. There was just some kind of princely aura around him that made him instantly conspicuous. She winced, hoping he wouldn’t notice her presence. The last thing she needed was another drop in favorability with him for no good reason.

  He was talking to a couple of other guys with his back to her. Mira quietly walked with Jessica to choose some unoccupied seats.

  As they sat down at desks that were next to each other in the middle of the classroom, Jessica seemed to stare curiously at Mira. Mira studiously avoided eye contact with her, unsure of what it was now that had drawn her attention.

  “Did something—”

  The professor’s abrupt entrance cut off whatever Jessica was about to ask. Mira used her newfound checking ability on him instead of taking out her class schedule.

  “Good morning, class! It’s good to see you all so lively.”

  Professor Eagle was an older gentleman in his forties. Despite the strands of white hair beginning to make their appearance in his dark hair, and the slight wrinkles in his face, he stood tall and carried himself well. Mira could see a lot of girls in her class crushing on him back home.

  At the thought of home, she clenched her hands into fists. She hadn’t even had the chance to slow down and think about any of this yet.

  He began the lesson by directing them to open their textbooks, going through the grammar lesson for today.

  Initially, Mira was anxious that she would be lost since she hadn’t studied Beucian herself—Daisy’s learning of Gyueric in the game was limited to brief one-liners where the narrator told the player she practiced using the language. However, as Beucian words appeared on the classroom board, she realized she could understand the meaning of those words.

  She diligently took down notes, noting that her hand easily penned down the foreign words that were very different from the words in her other notebooks and textbooks, even though they used the same alphabet.

  It hit her that the textbooks were using the Beryllian language, not English, but she’d been understanding it and using it perfectly fine ever since she’d woken up as Blythe. Mira stared down at her notebook filled with Beucian writing.

  Magnus was the crown prince of Beryllia, and this was the kingdom of Beryllia.

  It was also hinted in the game that everyone was speaking Beryllian.

  Overwhelmed by everything, she sat in a daze for a moment, watching Professor Eagle pace back and forth in front of the classroom board, gesturing as he spoke to the class about how this grammar point worked.

  Then abruptly it was over, and he was telling everyone to pair up and practice speaking with each other.

  “Talk about your day, or anything that comes to your mind. As always, do make an effort to use longer sentences, everyone.”

  Many students got to their feet, shuffling around in the classroom. Some of them swapped desks with each other, and others dragged their chairs closer to their neighbor's desk for better proximity.

  Mira turned to Jessica only to find her looking at someone else, her cheeks tinged pink. Her gaze was directed at the boy sitting right in front of her own desk, who was turning around to smile at her.

  She pulled up his information window.

  Sophie's earlier words—"He will be so happy when you give him your handkerchief!"—popped up in her mind, followed by the memory of Jessica blushing and shushing her.

  As Mira gaped at the realization of what that meant, Jessica turned and smiled at her.

  "See you after class," she whispered, waving at Mira. "Enjoy your time with His Highness!"

  With a smooth grace that suggested this was a common occurrence in language class, Jessica vacated her desk to move next to the one next to Clyde. Apparently, Blythe was expected to partner up with Magnus. Of course, the original Blythe would have loved this arrangement given how infatuated she was with Magnus.

  As it was, Mira desperately wanted to not be stuck with him. Considering what had happened this morning, it could only result in a greater drop in favorability for her. Whirling to her left, she scoped out her neighbor.

  "Hi, Elizabeth," she said with a smile, trying to keep her voice from treading into shrill territory. "Do you have a speaking partner yet? If not, I'd love to pair up with you."

  Elizabeth's bright blue eyes grew wide as she froze in the middle of getting up from her chair, with her head turned towards Mira. While holding the smile, Mira felt her eyebrow twitch.

  She looked as if Blythe had never spoken to her in her life before.

  Mira paused, the reflexive irritation fleeing from her mind. It was possible Blythe really hadn't deigned to talk with her in the past.

  Before she could panic more and look around for her next potential conversation partner, Elizabeth smoothed out her expression and grinned back at her.

  "Sure. That would be nice."

  The horrible swooping sensation in her gut vanished instantly.

  "Great!"

  As Mira pulled her chair closer to Elizabeth, she was startled by the heaviness of it.

  Like everything in the school, everything was made from high quality materials—including the classroom chairs made out of black solid wood. Mira was more taken aback by the strain that simple action had on her arms. She moved things around sometimes, especially when her parents needed help with bringing in the groceries or in the kitchen. This was the first time moving something like a chair had felt taxing to her.

  All around them, people were still settling into their own pairs.

  Elizabeth opened her mouth, but before any words could come out, her expression turned nervous as her gaze darted around in the classroom.

  "Blythe," came Magnus's voice from the side.

  He stood in front of Elizabeth's desk, staring down at Mira questioningly. She hadn't seen him approaching. As her heart dropped, she waited for the red light that would notify her of deducted favorability points.

  His eyes flicked to Elizabeth. "Oh, did you find a new conversation partner?"

  She was on the verge of saying yes when her new partner shot up to her feet and backed away, rapidly waving her hands at Magnus in a 'no' motion.

  "Um, please excuse me," Elizabeth blurted out, casting glances between Mira and Magnus. "I'm sure my friend is available to partner with me. I-I would never dream of getting between you two!"

  Then she was gone, practically flying to the other side of the classroom. She was approached by another female classmate who seemed concerned for her. They talked for a bit, and Mira wrenched her gaze away from them.

  She had more important things to worry about now, like Magnus sitting down on the chair Elizabeth had just vacated.

  “I didn’t realize you wanted to practice with someone else,” he remarked in a nonchalant tone. “I hadn’t meant to scare off your friend.”

  “No, it’s alright,” she said, already resigned to her fate and wanting to get it over with. “I didn’t want to bother you. You seemed to be getting along with our other classmates.”

  Magnus’ piercing blue eyes narrowed, and his nostrils flared slightly.

  “If this is passive-aggression,” he said, tilting his head slightly, “because you’re jealous I’m talking to our other classmates—”

  “No!” The annoyance slid off his face at her vehemence, and he stared back at her in confusion. She amended, “No, I’m not jealous. I genuinely mean it. We don’t have to be attached at the hip simply because we’re engaged. I thought you might appreciate having someone different to practice with.”

  For a few seconds, he said nothing.

  Mira began fidgeting under his gaze when he finally said, “I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions. I do appreciate that.”

  There was a green light, and his relationship stat screen popped up again.

  With a smile, he shifted in his chair so that his body was angled more towards her with an open posture.

  Tentatively, she returned his smile.

  A good excuse popped into her head, so she used it. “I think everyone has a different conversation style, so mixing it up and mingling with others would be a great way to practice the language.”

  Another flash of green light.

  Magnus nodded. A lock of his blond hair fell into his eyes. When he wasn’t busy looking disgusted at her, Mira could really appreciate his character design as the poster boy.

  “You’re right. I would like to try switching up conversation partners every once in a while. Perhaps we could do that for the next Beucian III lesson.” He glanced at the back of the classroom. “It seems that I’ve inadvertently chased your friend away.”

  The tight knot in her gut loosened. The fewer interactions she had with this guy, the better it was for her. He seemed to have it out for her, and she didn’t want to have to watch every word that came out of her mouth.

  “We’ll try it for our next lesson,” she agreed, pulling her language textbook into her lap. “For now, we’re supposed to talk about anything we want, right?”

  All the other classmates were already seated, beginning to converse in their pairs for this practice session.

  “Yes,” Magnus said.

  It sounded strange to Mira’s ears, so she peered at him uncertainly until she realized he’d said it in Beucian. Blythe’s brain clearly understood it, but it didn’t flow quite as smoothly as her native language Beryllian did.

  He raised his eyebrows. “How was your day?”

  Harrowing.

  She opened her mouth, terrified that he would perceive she was a fraud for not being able to produce any of the words she was supposed to know—and then the words came out.

  “It was good. The weather is nice today.”

  Similar to the embroidering she’d done in the previous class, her words just came out in Beucian without conscious effort on her part. Blythe had done her homework.

  “I think so too. The sun is so warm.”

  She hadn’t actually paid much attention to the weather while she was outside owing to being seated right across from him, but it was always a safe topic.

  “Do you like warm weather better? Or do you prefer the rain?”

  “I like it better when it’s dry. There are usually more outdoor activities we can enjoy. What about you?”

  “I prefer the rain.”

  Mira would lie down on her bed while separated from the torrential downpour by the glass of her room window, reading isekai web novels on her phone. On other occasions, she would be gaming on her laptop at her desk, either blazing her way through a love interest’s route or grinding levels in a JRPG.

  She was pulled out of her reverie by Magnus’ nonplussed voice.

  “I thought you didn’t like when it rained. You said it ruins your garden tea parties.”

  Heart in her mouth, she stared back at him. She’d been so careless in her answers that she’d almost forgotten she was Blythe right now.