She stumbled over her words, scrambling for some excuse to cover her slip-up.

  She was bound to make more mistakes in the future, particularly since she wasn’t all that familiar with Blythe’s habits and preferences.

  It wouldn’t make sense to turn around and agree that she actually hated the rain now, so she decided to invent another side to Blythe to explain it away.

  “When that happens, it’s upsetting,” she said. “But sometimes I like to look at the rain. It’s calming.”

  He looked at her closely, but there was no red notification light.

  “Me too,” he said, his gaze significantly warmer than earlier. “It’s also good for the crops.”

  The use of ‘crops’ threw her off for a second, but the surprise quickly wore off. After all, he was the crown prince of this kingdom. It was only natural for him to be concerned with the agricultural output for the people’s welfare.

  She nodded.

  “You’re different today.”

  Mira’s smile froze on her face. “I don’t think so?”

  Redirect! Redirect!

  “Wh-what did you do last night?”

  As if startled by her swerve into another topic, Magnus blinked a few times.

  “Well, I walked around in the palace garden. It was a nice and cool evening, perfect for a walk.”

  Professor Eagle hovered near them for a while, listening in on their exchange.

  “That sounds lovely. Did you see anything nice?”

  “I saw some of those pink flowers you like so much.”

  “That’s nice.”

  Their professor made no comment and moved on to the next pair of students.

  She noticed the strange look Magnus shot her, but she didn’t know what it meant. It wasn’t as though she’d made a particularly strange remark.

  “What did you do last night?” he returned her question.

  She hesitated. She had no idea what Blythe did last night. At least this wasn’t some interrogation, so he wouldn’t be seeking out an alibi for her testimony.

  “I did some embroidery.” She hazarded a guess based off the conversation she’d had with Jessica and Sophie earlier. “I spent all night working on it.”

  “Oh, was it your homework assignment?”

  Through their short exchange, Mira was beginning to connect the dots. Magnus was almost like an inadvertent sounding board for her ideas.

  “Um … no.”

  Sophie had all but said that Jessica would be giving her handkerchief to Clyde. Even earlier in the morning, they’d asked Mira about her embroidery, but there was no indication it was about homework. Jessica had blushed about it when they turned the question back on her, and she’d blushed again when she mentioned the extra embroidery lessons with Professor Easley, then she’d blushed again when she looked at Clyde. Furthermore, she’d shushed Sophie in the hallway as if it was some kind of secret.

  It stood to reason the embroidery they were asking Mira about was probably referring to something like the handkerchief Jessica was supposed to give to Clyde at some point.

  Mira had a feeling it was the handkerchief on the coffee table.

  A sense of unease scratched at the back of her brain, like there was something she was forgetting, but Mira just couldn’t figure out what it was.

  She shook the thoughts from her head to realize Magnus had been staring at her.

  “No?” he asked with a slight edge in his tone that suggested he was repeating the question.

  She stared for a second before their conversation came rushing back to her.

  What am I doing, spacing out in front of him like that?!

  “No, it wasn’t homework.”

  “Then what was it?”

  She pulled a wide grin to her face, hoping he wouldn’t see how fake it was. “It’s a secret.”

  She imagined Blythe would get playful with him like that, especially for a gift she was presumably making for him.

  His frown was one of contemplation rather than suspicion. She would consider that a win.

  Loud clapping from the front of the classroom drew their attention away from each other. Professor Eagle stood in front of his desk, picking up the textbook after everyone had quietened down.

  “Well done, everyone. It’s time to practice a scenario. Let’s turn to page fifteen.”

  It was a scenario about hosting a dinner for some very important guests to the household. Professor Eagle went through the short piece of dialogue example with the class before instructing them to act out that scenario in a conversation in groups of four.

  Before Mira could even blink, Jessica came up to her with Clyde in tow, offering to form a group with them. Of course, she and Magnus readily accepted.

  The conversation went about as well as it possibly could, with Mira fumbling for a word here and there—Blythe’s brain couldn’t come up with the Beucian equivalent for ‘silverware’ and ‘vase’—and Jessica forgetting a few more words than Mira did. Magnus and Clyde held their own very well, only occasionally stopping to rephrase their sentences.

  Mira was just relieved there weren’t any more loss of favorability points.

  Eventually, Professor Eagle called for them to return to their original seats before he assigned them their homework. It was a worksheet he’d prepared for them to fill out. Mira tucked it away safely in a blue folder Blythe had in her bag, checking her class schedule while she was at it.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The next period was lunch.

  The blue bird in the cuckoo clock sang, and then everyone was dismissed.

  Mira stood beside Jessica. Her friend was packing her things back into her bag. As she waited, she lifted her head and looked around. Everyone else was already leaving, filing out of the room in smaller groups. Small talk about how famished they were and what they planned to eat filled the air.

  Professor Eagle remained at his desk, already pulling out a stack of papers from a drawer.

  Her eyes happened to land on a familiar figure leaning against the wall beside the glossy wooden door.

  As if he sensed her gaze, Magnus looked up. They locked eyes.

  There was something expectant about the way he looked at her, but Mira couldn’t tell what she was meant to do. So she turned back to Jessica, who was getting to her feet.

  “I wasn’t expecting you to wait for me,” Jessica said, her smile semi-flattered and semi-embarrassed.

  Mira’s lungs nearly escaped from her ribcage. It was all she could do not to wheeze out a weak ‘what do you mean’. Instead, her gaze darted back to Magnus. He was still there leaning against the wall.

  “Let’s go,” she choked out, not knowing how to respond to Jessica’s statement.

  They headed for the exit together. Of course, there were still a few stragglers taking their sweet time to swagger out of the classroom, so they weren’t the only students left here.

  Jessica smiled politely at Magnus, her expression a far cry from her sneer whenever she looked at Daisy. Mira followed her cue and smiled at him too.

  He was still eyeing Mira like she was some sort of strange undiscovered specimen.

  She squirmed.

  Once they got within arm’s reach, Magnus pulled away from the wall and walked behind Mira.

  Mira tried to calm down by telling herself that there had to be a logical reason behind this. Regardless of his feelings towards her, he was Blythe’s fiancé after all. They probably ate lunch together. Waiting for Fireflies certainly didn’t make that clear since the focus was on Daisy and her own lunch table.

  Wordlessly, he followed her and Jessica down the hallway.

  Jessica kept casting her anxious glances the entire time they were going down the stairs, but Mira didn’t know what she was doing—or not doing—to elicit the behavior.

  ???

  Jessica could not understand why Blythe’s conduct was so out of character today.

  Blythe’s unusually gentle attitude towards Jessica and Sophie aside, her behavior towards Prince Magnus was even more bizarre.

  Not only did she not seek Prince Magnus out at every possible opportunity, she even deliberately waited by Jessica’s side while he was right there. At the moment, the strangest part was that she was currently walking beside Jessica, allowing him to trail behind them as they went.

  When it was the three of them, Jessica always stepped back to follow the pair of them. Presently, Blythe did not give any indication she wanted to walk beside her betrothed, which was odd in and of itself.

  Prince Magnus’ gaze was also closely fixed on Blythe, which was something different as well. It was usually the other way around—Blythe would stick closely to him and frequently give him admiring smiles, while he focused on their destination and would only look at her when she directed a question at him.

  The uncharacteristic silence from Blythe as they made their way out of the classroom block made Jessica a little jumpy. She would normally be talking excitedly to Magnus about their classes and their plans for the weekend, as well as occasionally involving Jessica in their conversations.

  Could something have happened?

  Blythe’s reactions today weren’t quite as mercurial as they normally were, so Jessica doubted she was upset about something. If she was angry, everyone would know it.

  On their way down the hallway of the first floor along the long stretch of lockers, someone closed their locker door and turned around.

  Willoughby seemed mildly startled at their approaching presence, but she timidly bowed her head to Prince Magnus and greeted him.

  “Good day, Magnus,” she said, pausing in her task of stuffing her books into her bag.

  “Hi, Daisy,” Prince Magnus said with a charming smile that would have made Jessica swoon had she not already fallen for Clyde.

  Jessica shot the ash-blonde eyesore a poisonous look as they walked past, waiting for Blythe to make a biting remark about her audacity to call him by name.

  Of course, they in Novalbus Royal Academy were all encouraged to address each other by name, omitting titles, for the reason of establishing equal footing among the students in a place where their ranking was measured only by their actual ability and competence.

  Although Prince Magnus wanted to set a good example for the rest of the academy by insisting that they all call him by his first name while within the school walls, it didn’t mean that any daughter of a poor baron like Willoughby could actually take him up on that offer. Only a few sons of influential dukes and earls actually called him by name. Most of the student body were still more comfortable addressing him as ‘Your Highness’.

  Jessica would never dream of simply calling him ‘Magnus’.

  To her shock, Blythe didn’t react at all. Wearing a slightly absent-minded expression, she continued walking along as if nothing had happened.

  Earlier that morning, Blythe had asked them to leave Willoughby alone.

  Leaving her alone when she wasn’t doing anything was one thing—but had Blythe really meant to say that she wanted to leave Willoughby alone regardless of how she was interacting with Blythe’s fiancé? Willoughby had been a thorn in their side since their first year at Novalbus, so why had Blythe suddenly changed her mind about her?

  Jessica couldn’t understand what was going on.

  ???

  They left the blue building and crossed the courtyard to head into the purple one.

  Mira remembered that the cafeteria was referred to as the ‘dining hall’ in the game, so she repeated that in her head a few times to make sure she wouldn’t slip up. The dining hall was easily accessible on the first floor, found right after walking straight down the large entrance hall that doors opened into. A gold plaque with the words ‘Dining Hall’ inscribed on it was affixed to the white wall next to a pair of glass double doors with a black aluminum frame.

  On the wall, beside the doors, was a small black door access control system. Mira walked right up to it with her companions and blinked at it.

  Well, that much was obvious. She didn’t need an information window to tell her that.

  There were no buttons or slots on it. Before she could further consider what she was supposed to do with it, Magnus stepped up and placed his hand over the whole thing.

  It glowed a faint blue, then the doors opened inward.

  The ceiling of the dining hall was tall, adding to the already enormous feel of the room. Students milled about in it, either in line for food or carrying a tray of food. Rows of long rectangular white tabletops set on modern black table legs that tapered upwards filled the center of the dining hall. Many of the tables were already occupied. Food options lined the sides of the hall, giving Mira the impression there were endless choices.

  The delicious aroma in the air greeted her nose.

  Thanks to the game, she already knew that the dining hall was large and luxurious, providing Daisy with so many more options than she had back home. Seeing it with her own eyes for the first time was another thing, however.

  Mira pressed her lips together, trying not to gape as she looked around at all the sumptuously decorated hall, beautiful portraits and landscape paintings hanging on the walls between the open French windows and the modern, sleek style of the food stalls.

  “There she is,” Jessica said, and Mira followed her gaze.

  Sophie was waving at them from one of the tables, already seated with a tray of food.

  Jessica and Magnus didn’t move, as if waiting to see what Mira would do next. Although she was beginning to grow accustomed to the people around her waiting for her to make the first move, it really wasn’t ideal for her hopes of following their lead to avoid being conspicuous.

  Mira headed straight for the first line she saw.

  Dismay latched onto her when Magnus joined her.

  It worsened as Jessica announced that she would see them at the table and left for the other side of the dining hall.

  “I thought you didn’t like fish,” he said from behind her in the line, his eyes sweeping over her face.

  She finally looked up at the stall she was in line for. It offered various types of seasonal fish that could be prepared in multiple ways—steamed, roasted, grilled or in a seafood stew—as well as a choice of three sides.

  Mira fought down the urge to whirl around and yell at Magnus to get off her back.

  It wasn’t her fault he was acting like an NPC who stood around waiting for her to act. Irritating NPCs really were so much more tolerable when she was separated from them by a screen.

  [During Beucian language class] Magnus: Wait, why isn't she hounding me to gift her with those pink flowers? She just said 'that's nice' and moved on??