The second prince of the Bellcephora kingdom Surou Delche Bellcephora was sitting alone in an empty classroom scribbling something furiously on dozens of pages of parchment. He already wrote so much that the ink barely covered the bottom of the glass container that was still almost completely full after the first day of lectures. The sun was already setting and the orangish glow was filling the room but the blue-haired boy was too focused on his notes to be bothered with that.

“Oh, hey, he really is here without any guards or attendants.”

“The neglect is real. No matter the queen’s favoritism over her own kid, a second prince is still a member of the royal family.”

“…”

Surou’s concentration was no joke, Zoemi and Kierul entered the classroom and weren’t even keeping their voices down but he didn’t register them at all and simply continued writing.

The master-attendant pair looked at each other without a word and Kierul went towards the slouching second prince while Zoemi stayed by the door, blocking it from anyone else entering while also filling spreading the spiritual power to make it impossible for any form of magic communication to go through.

As the attendant was doing his part, the master stood in front of the second prince’s desk and leaned down to check what he was writing.

“Oh?”

She hummed with interest and leaned even lower to get a better view of the upside-down letters.

“He’s a writer? I hope he writes a romance.”

“He’s a strategist~”

Zoemi raised his brow and asked curiously to which Kierul smirked back at him over her shoulder before returning to the observation.

“I haven’t read a good romance novel in a while, I think I’m getting withdrawal symptoms…”

“Shush.”

Zoemi sighed in disappointment which earned him a shush from the discontent girl…

“Hmmm? Hmm! Oooh!”

After that, for a few minutes, it seemed that even Kierul forgot why she actually showed up there and only read what the second prince wrote while letting out more and more intrigued hums instead of picking a conversation.

The prince changed the parchment page to a fresh one and dipped the quill in the almost empty bottle writing away whatever plans and strategies he was making with reckless abandon.

*rustle*

“…?”

Despite the speed, his writing remained neat and clean. He was almost one-quarter of the page in when suddenly something broke his concentration and got his attention, causing his quill to stop in place.

Someone has placed their hand in the corner of his desk. Moreover, it didn’t even look like that someone has done it to interrupt him either. If that someone wanted attention they would slam their hand on the desk, cover his parchment, or maybe block the atrament bottle – if that someone was polite enough, that is.

“…”

Surou gulped down his saliva and bit his lips in an attempt to stay dignified before slowly raising his head to face that someone.

“…!”

What he faced took him by surprise. The red-haired girl with flaming eyes leaned over his desk to watch his notes while basking in the sunset dyeing her visage amber. Her small glossy lips were parted a little bit as she seemed to be taking great interest in what he, Surou, had been writing… and it appeared that she placed her hand on the desk by accident, too invested in the parchment covered in fresh ink to notice the blunder…

“~!”

…meanwhile, Zoemi who remained unnoticed perked up with interest and laser-focused on the scene playing out in front of his eager eyes…

The second prince was unable to take his eyes off the red-haired girl’s face as his head seemed to empty itself in a flash.

“…?”

The prolonged pause in writing ended up causing the girl to realize that something was wrong. Her eyelashes trembled as she furrowed her brows slightly before raising her head just a little bit to check on the second prince, and the two ended up looking at each other faces.

The fiery eyes of the fire magician caused the gentle eyes of the water magician to tremble…

“~!!!”

…while the attendant guarding the door – with a clear view of at least Surou’s face – put both hands to his face and bounced up all excited while keeping himself completely silent…

“…ah…”

Kieurl let out a soft gasp and backed off almost bashfully before straightening back for just a moment to prepare herself for the official greeting…

“Your Highness. My name is Kierul Berra Helterose. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

She decided not to address anything and curtsied gracefully instead. With that done she stood up straight and waited politely for the second prince’s response.

“I…!”

*WHAM*

Surou gasped and shoot right up to respond properly but because of his momentum, he almost knocked his desk over…

“AH…!”

*SLAM*

The blue-haired boy gasped in panic, going right back down to grab the papers that were about to fly off because of the impact – he managed to save them but also knocked over the chair he was previously sitting on, creating a racket…

“OH, NO…!”

*CLANK*

Continuing to panic, Surou called out, turning around and knocking the inkbottle off the desk, causing the thick glass to rumble across the classroom and hit the opposite wall with a clear sound.𝒩𝗈𝗏𝑙xt.𝓒𝑶𝔪

“W-WAIT, THIS IS NOT…! GAH…!?”

*WHOOOSH* *THUMP*

Startled by the chaos he created, the second prince gasped in an attmept to explain himself to the silent red-haired girl, only to step on his own foot and trip himself over, falling down to the floor while throwing all the papers he was holding on to into the air…

“Pffft…!”

“I…! Well… um… I… I…”

In the end, the second prince Surou Delche Bellcephora, with his face crimson red from extreme embarrassment, down on the floor amongst dozens of pages of handwritten notes, mumbled on the verge of tears in response to Kierul’s snort.

He seemed so ashamed and defeated that he didn’t even try to respond to the official greeting and merely began to slowly gather the scrambled notes with his head down while biting his lips and doing his best not to cry.

“…”

Kierul didn’t say anything and she also didn’t start laughing.

Instead, she approached the huge mess of the second prince and crouched in front of him.

She took out a handkerchief before reaching out to his face and…

“Prince Surou…”

“…?!”

Called out softly, causing the second prince to jolt up and slowly look up at her.

“Please, allow me~”

“…!”

Then Kierul spoke softly, stunning Surou by gently touching his chin and lifting his face a bit more, and putting the soft fabric to the corner of his eye, drying out the gathered tears.

In the gentle silence, she repeated the action before taking back her hands and nodding with a soft smile.

“My prince, you see… Anyone makes mistakes, even the people who think they are not allowed to.”

The red-haired girl started speaking while also beginning to pick up the notes from the floor around the blue-haired boy.

“But as long as it isn’t something that kills you instantly, you should never let those mistakes stop you from growing or defining who you are.”

She spoke quietly, but her voice still ring loudly in the classroom while she gathered more and more pages.

“Instead of focusing on the mistake itself and your feelings at that exact moment or even thinking up some excuses and explanations, it is far better to create a strategy that would either make up for the mistake or erase it completely from others’ memory~”

Kierul gathered all the loose pages and pulled them up, using the whole stack to cover her playful smile that crept its way on her face the moment she saw Surou’s expression.

“Don’t you think so too~?”

She added, reaching out her hands, and offering the notes back to the speechless boy.

“Y-yes…”

Surou gulped down his saliva and nodded shyly while reaching out his hands and taking the notes from the red-haired girl and hugging and crumpling them absentmindedly, too focused on her face to notice it.

“Hmm~”

“!!!”

Hierul looked back at him and tilted her head with the same playful smile, which seemed to work as a wake-up punch to the stunned boy.

Immediately the blue-haired prince jumped up to his feet and bowed down as politely as he could.

“P-pardon my clum… clumsiness… I-it is a pleasure to meet you, young lady Helterose! My… my name is Surou Delche Bellcephora. The second prince of the kingdom of Bellcephora.”

“Hmm~”

He stuttered a bit but managed to pull the proper introduction which made Kierul smile even more.

“My prince, if you don’t mind, I did come here today to voice a few concerns and wondered whether you would be kind enough to help me out.”

The red-haired girl stood up and asked, immediately making eye contact the moment that the second prince straightened his back.

“I don’t… I mean… I can’t promise anything, but the least that I can do is to hear you out, my lady.”

Surou took a deep breath and responded in an apologetic tone.

“That is all that I ask for, my prince. Let’s sit down and ask, shall we?”

“Yes, of course…!”

Kierul nodded and pointed towards Surou’s desk and the second prince agreed hurriedly.

He put down his notes and was about to sit down as Kierul took a chair from the desk in front…

“My prince, scoot over a bit~”

Instead of placing the chair and facing the blue-haired boy, Kierul took the chair and placed it right next to him before asking while pushing their chairs together…

“Wh-wh…?! Huh…?!”

The fading blush returned will full force to the second prince’s face as Kierul’s words settled in his brain and were processed.