The continent’s history textbooks devoted approximately ten pages describing the circumstances when she realized the ‘reason of the world’. I didn’t know how much of a ‘reason’ it was that she was named a ‘great emperor’ because the contents were only revealed to the heads of countries and kept strictly confidential (When I was in the 4th grade, there was an incident where Professor Baldwin, who was in charge of the history of the continent subject, suggested that it was a play to strengthen her position. He was suspended due to strong protests from Illestia students. I didn’t bother talking about it, but in fact, my thoughts were close to that.)

Anyway, Kaitlyn the Great was a great person. She was also a very busy person. That means, even if it’s for her son, she wasn’t the type to come to Fitzsimmons for career counseling. Kaitlyn the Great had never visited Fitzsimmons during the parent’s visit week.

“Kaitlyn the Great is here.”

I said. My voice sounded like I was possessed by something, even to myself.

“Emperor of Illestia?”

Kyle frowned. Brennan fell dazed while playing with Lilu’s nose. The valiant Lilu, who never misses her chance, pounced on her prey, who showed an opening.

“Heuk! And they are coming here.”

The signboard, on which Brennan’s artistic sense was fully demonstrated, was enough to attract the attention of passersby. When Kaitlyn the Great’s shining golden eyes turned this way, I came down from the chest and respectfully knelt without anyone telling me. So did Brennan, who held his fingers marked with Lilu’s teeth marks, and Kyle. 

Faced with her in reality, she had the dignity that a foreign nobility would have. I had seen Philip VIII of Milua and the four-year-old Crown Prince at my Debutante Ball, and I honestly wasn’t very nervous then. It could be because His Majesty’s hair was too thin, and the Crown Prince was sucking his thumb.

“You must be Ariel. Even the Marquis  seems to be impressed by your talent.” 

She spoke the common language with a distinctive accent. Her voice was not low, and her tone was plain, but I felt a greater sense of intimidation. My heart almost jumped out of my mouth when she pronounced my name ‘Ariel’.

“A-Ariel Dalton of Milua meets the sun of Illestia.”

“So you know me. Did Keran tell you about me?”

It was impossible not to know who Kaitlyn the Great was, even if I had failed the Continental History class. Also, no parent could go around with this many people following them, not to mention being led by Walsh and his father. 

Kaitlyn the Great herself knew it well enough. The deliberate question was to emphasize that the reason she came to me was related to Keran.

Instead of answering, I bowed my head deeper. There’s no way she came all the way here just because she was curious about the friendship of her fifth-grader son with me, so the less I speak, the better.

“You’re smart too.”

There was a satisfied smile at the end of her words. It seems that my decision was not wrong.

“Stand up and look at me.”

It was a natural command. Kaitlyn the Great threw a fishing line, and I immediately stood up as if my chin had been caught by it. Then she looked into my eyes. It took such a long time that it felt rude.

“You are not the main character.”

Suddenly, she whispered so quietly that only I could hear. Before long, a booming voice continued as if declaring war on everyone.

“Please continue being a good friend to Keran.”

Asking me to be a good “friend” was a warning to never be “more than friend.”

Ariel Dalton, not Rosemary Blossom, was barely friends with Keran Illestia through various coincidences. It seemed unlikely that we would ever become more than friends, but Kaitlyn the Great’s graceful threat made me daunted.

I almost lay down on the floor until the silver-embroidered hem of her robe was completely out of sight. My back was damp with sweat.

***

The magic lock seemed to have thickened his wallet, so Brennan offered to treat me and Kyle at the snack bar. But since it was almost time for dinner, I bumped into Elizabeth McCarthy while sending Lilu back to my room.

Idiots with no loyalty or empathy would not understand (sadly, most boys fell under this category), that it was a rule among girls to notify the girlfriends whenever they went out to eat or go out with someone’s boyfriend.

The best thing was for the three of them to hang out together, then get permission in advance. If those conditions couldn’t be met, it was right to make a report afterwards accompanied by an understandable explanation. It wasn’t very strictly applied in the presence of a third party like Kyle, who was a mutual acquaintance, but I was pretty good at following this rule.

Brianna caught up with me on my way to the cafeteria with Liz. She resented me with a voice the size of an ant.

“You can’t just leave behind that ferocious ball of fur!”

Bree seemed not proud about the fact that she had a fear of a creature that objectively wasn’t too threatening. 

‘A ferocious ball of fur?’ I said it in a huff, but since Lilu was fierce and it was true that she was a ball of fur, I didn’t say more.

It was quite unusual to see the students who swarm on the bulletin board near the cafeteria to keep looking at me. Sensing in their lukewarm gazes the same unsettling energy I had felt when I appeared alongside Ramos in the Fitzsimmons Times, I walked arm in arm with the two most reliable people to see what they’re looking at.

As I approached, the whispering crowd instantly fell silent. That certainly wasn’t a positive sign.

“What the hell is this?”

Liz murmured as she saw what was hanging on the bulletin board. Bree put her hand over her mouth, thinking that I would be offended if she reacted too surprised.

I went blank. Anais O’Brien, the undisputed candidate for the Queen of the Love Month Banquet; Rosemary Blossom, the topical specially admitted student; and Ariel Dalton were listed as candidates!

Next to each candidate’s portrait were comments left by anonymous students who recommended the candidate. Compared to the rhetoric of Anais O’Brien and Rosemary Blossom, mine was overly insincere. Some exaggerated comments about my normal hair and eye color almost sounded like mockery.

“Which bastard did this?”

Elizabeth gnashed her teeth. Brianna pretended to look the other way. It was clear that she had the same doubts as me.

To become a candidate for the queen of the banquet nomination, more than 20 nominations were needed. Adam Walsh, who has great backing as the son of Kaitlyn the Great’s paramour, has many friends despite his outrageous personality.

Of course, the friends of a trash are usually garbage too. Also, they were so passionate about screwing someone up for free that I could bet all I had that this disaster wouldn’t have happened if one needed to pay one gold coin to nominate.

Whatever the case, I ended up on stage with O’Brien and Blossom as candidates for queen of the banquet. Everyone would see me gloomily standing between two people who were pretty and famous. This was a catastrophe I have never imagined, even when Kyle and I chatted about the most horrific things someone could ever go through at the academy. It would be far more humiliating than having the seams on my dress ripped.

Brennan bought a slime pudding for me, Kyle, Liz, and, reluctantly, for Brianna. Bree gave me her share of slime pudding as she glanced at me sideways, who was trying to bury my head in a soup dish.

I made it clear that it would never be her fault, as I had done with Ramos, and robbed Kyle of his pudding. It was because he seemed to be enjoying the misfortune of his childhood best friend.

***

I don’t know who the hell she took after, but Lilu was a troublemaker. This aggressive cat was best at seducing people with her cuteness and then suddenly become ferocious.

This time, it was Professor Humphreys who fell victim under Lilu’s savage cotton punch. She couldn’t hide her secret affection for the cute creature, so she put away her usual polite air and tried to hold Lilu (Professor Monaghan, who was passing by too, did not even look at Lilu. His heart seemed to only respond to monsters.).

Lilu hit Professor Humphreys on the nose and ran away. She managed to do it without her claws, perhaps knowing this person was in charge of her master’s graduation-retention decision.

I admired Lilu’s intelligence and pressed the corners of my mouth which was rising slowly. Then, after mumbling a few words of apology to Professor Humphreys and Monaghan, I slipped out of the hallway.

Lilu didn’t have a magic tool for tracking its location, which hurt my pride as a Miluanian. So I cast two simple spells to find Lilu.

“Lilu!”

“‘Lilu?”

Surprisingly, Lilu was not alone.