The master-attendant pair went to the classroom as usual, when they entered, Zoemi automatically looked at the heroine's desk to check if she was present and he held his breath when he noticed the empty seat.

Honestly, he really wanted to run back to the dormitory to check up on her – and have the important talk but...

"...

"

Zoemi furrowed his brows – actually, there were no buts.

"My lady – I forgot about something important – I will try to get back as soon as possible but I most likely won't make it for the first lecture.

"

The black-haired boy walked stopped the dark-haired girl and bowed his head apologetically.

"Eh...? Oh, no, it's alright. It must be something important, so go.

"

Miriette raised her brows but then smiled and waved her hand benevolently.

The attendant bowed his head even deeper and left the classroom without further ado while the dark-haired noble lady took her usual places and prepared for the lesson.

"Zoemi just left but you seem to be in a better mood than ever... what happened...?

"

Even before saying hello to the first prince Miriette was smirking smugly and looking down on her fiance as he asked her, squinting his eyes in suspicion.

"No, seriously. Did something happen or are you just that elated to see me...?

"

Horeo added seeing Miriette's smug smile only growing bigger and bigger into a beaming grin of superiority – the dark-haired girl looked as if she was about to burst into a peal of triumphant laughter right in the first prince's face.

"Oh, you poor soul, you're going to go bald from jealousy when you hear this!

"

Miriette was indeed ecstatic and she didn't hesitate even a bit before spilling out everything to her greatest love rival.

-------

"You little...! And Zoemi agreed...!?

"

Horeo had problems with keeping his mouth closed, the news he just received from his fiance was too shocking even for him.

"He did! You can ask him yourself if you don't believe me! At first, he seemed rather worried, but then I reassured him that everything will be alright and he happily consented!:

Miriette was reporting with a flushed face, she even kept fanning her face with a sheet of paper...

...although she was doing that mostly so that Horeo couldn't take a good look at her face...

Why?

Because the dark-haired girl conveniently forgot to mention that Zoemi agreed on the shopping trip only because she promised to invite the first prince too!

But as the saying goes – everything's allowed in love and war – and Miriette wasn't going to pull any punches when it came to psychological warfare against the one person she couldn't allow herself to lose to.

"No... I don't believe you. There's no chance that he would just agree like that, not if you blatantly called it a date in his face, his work ethics are too strong! You're lying!

"

Horeo shook his head managing to correctly see through the girl's lies but...

"Ohohohoho!

"

Miriette laughed proudly while putting her hand to her mouth, doubling down instead of folding

"So you say, but that only means that Zoemi finally realized that he loves me so much he doesn't care for such trivial thing!

"

She declared without batting an eye though the was starting to get cold feet – actually, she was very grateful for the black-haired boy suddenly leaving before the lecture started – if he was there, Horeo could easily learn the truth within seconds...

"There's no way...!

"

Horeo put his fist up to his mouth and bit his finger.

Usually, he could tell when Miriette was messing with him or trying to fool him, but now...

With Zoemi out of the picture, her shamelessness and overconfidence reared their heads without any breaks.

"And here I thought that I still had time!

"

The first prince said more to himself than to his fiance, then he took a deep breath and glared at Miriette.

"You know what this means, right? Kiddy-gloves are off! I'm not giving him to you!

"

"Ohoho~!

"

Others would have backed off after seeing the first prince's grim expression but Miriette reveled in it. What could be better than seeing the desperation of her love-rival?

"You can try, but the war is already over and the winner is clear!

"

She declared, reveling on the inside after seeing the actual panic in Horeo's eyes.

"Don't get cocky with me, you cunning fox!

"

The blond boy flinched and straightened his back before raising his hand and pointing his index finger at the dark-haired girl's face.

"Student Espine, student Bellcephora - everyone knows that you are engaged but the classroom during the lecture isn't the right time to flirt.

"

As the argument was getting heated – but that was when the blue-haired teacher Rokiana Grea Perserios raised her voice and called out to the future royal couple, reminding them about time and place.

"We are sorry, teacher.

"

"We will be quiet now.

"

Both the first prince and the noble lady owed their heads apologetically and apologized at the same time.

Rokiana nodded at them and returned the subject of the lesson without addressing the case again, trusting in the honor students.

"Hmhmm~!

"

"...

"

Miriette smirked and glanced triumphantly at the disgruntled Horeo, causing the gold-haired boy to grit his teeth.

|Wha should I do now? If only I was a girl I could tempt Zoemi with my body...! Argh! What am I supposed to do!? I knew that she had an advantage over me and that this will be how our rivalry will end – but...! Damn it! I don't want to loos! Zoemi is mine too!|

Horeo couldn't focus on the lecture at all – in the end, the conversation with Miriette shook him to the core and he kept on nervously tapping his foot.

|I should ask him to restart the training sessions... yeah... that would be good... Having him in the state of the mana depletion would definitely lower the difficulty bar... No. That's a terrible idea - he would hate me if I used that against him the second time...|

The gold-haired prince partially discarded the idea - the training sessions would be good after all, Zoemi would probably agree too...

...although recently he certainly couldn't complain about the number of people that wanted to train with him...

"...

"

The rather annoying thought entered Horeo's mind, making him scowl.

|And all of that happens when I won't be even able to be here... so annoying...|

He scoffed to himself watching the empty seat where the black-haired attendant would be sitting if he didn't leave the classroom in a hurry earlier....