Surou Delche Bellcephora, the second prince of the Bellcephora kingdom spent his morning in the back of the Academy building where the Academy’s staff set up the equipment necessary for the proper magic examination.

He, of course, didn’t just watch them work, he stayed to observe every first-year student undertaking the examination.

Everyone was nervous – both the teachers and the students – magic examination should not happen so soon and definitely not all of a sudden. Usually, the preparations would last a week before everything was ready.

Nonetheless, for the second prince, it was the prime occasion to put his face out there.

After all, the queen mother would always put Horeo up front often straight up ignoring him, Surou, the child of the first queen born after she was sent away from the royal castle. There was never a chance for the younger boy to compete against his brother on equal footing.

That’s why he needed to be creative while not showing any weakness to other nobles – that one was a must. Being seen as a puppet was a one-way ticket to getting assassinated after the first attempt to think on his own.

The proper balance between appearing exploitable and appearing to have some brain on his own had to be kept at all times.

If he had the magic ability comparable to Horeo things could be different but now his best bet was doing the thing we were now…

Watching the magic examination and wearing a mask of confidence while getting desperate for recognition…

It was annoying, really. Given even less than half the opportunities his pride and arrogance-filled older brother was presented with he would have long secured himself the title of the crown prince.

…those kinds of spiteful thoughts were usually sitting in the back of Surou’s mind and poison his day – but surprisingly enough, on the day he was putting himself on a shameful display like some trained monster playing tricks at the village fair, his thoughts were somewhere else…

|Miss Helterose must hate me… did she notice my body’s reaction to the hug…? If I didn’t get away I would have lost any self-control…|

The second prince thought to himself getting embarrassed while recording the previous day’s events…

“…”

…and the memory of Kierul’s softness caused him to change the way he was sitting…

|I made the correct judgment but I should apologize to her anyway… I don’t want any bad blood between us, she is so prideful that I might have offended her… that would be so bad… she appears to be someone I could trust.., No, I need to focus. I already recognized that I have a crush on her, I can’t act like some dog in a rut now! I have to properly discern her worth as my ally without the bias of something as unstable and illogical as love!|

Surou reaffirmed himself and continued watching the examiners.

Shadows magicians were quite good – having to rely on copied spells made them quite creative some even showcased spells that were combinations of two separate spells – amongst them was a daughter of a family that did not support the first prince so Surou made sure to call out to her and praise her for the creativity.

The only two darkness magicians were cautious and hesitant which told the second prince that they both could use more than they showed but were too scared of hurting themselves in the process.

|…they can at least hide in their shadows…|

Surou squinted his eyes and thought after watching the darkness magicians one after the other cut the close-range target to ribbons with their darkness blades.

Unfortunately, both of them were from the lower noble families that openly boasted about their support for the first prince Horeo, so Surou only nodded them approvingly when their eyes accidentally met.

The earth magicians all showed a solid performance, no surprises there – but there were a few that approached the second prince after they were done and both sides had some short polite conversations. Overall not bad – the earth magicians were possibly the most underestimated ones considering how useful their magic was and Surou could easily connect with them.

Speaking of connections, it was the turn of wind magicians to display their abilities.

They were actually the group that Surou paid the most attention – the message spell was not to be underestimated and the second prince was not someone to overlook it.

But then… something happened.

It wasn’t that anything went wrong or the blue-haired prince made any mistakes, it’s just that.

Someone showed up.

Followed by her monstrously powerful black-haired martial artist of an attendant walked she – Kierul Berra Helterose.

She looked… different…

Surou felt as if he was hit over the head by a sledgehammer and the thoughts about interacting with wind magicians were crushed out of existence by the visage of the red-haired girl casually putting a strand of curled hair behind her ear in a natural gesture of devastating effect.

“…the descent of the goddess…”

Surou muttered not even realizing it himself and before he knew it he was already walking towards her as if drawn by some invisible force.

“Young lady Kierul…!”

The blue-haired boy wasn’t completely out of it, he had some remains of reasoning hanging out by a thread, so he managed to greet the red-haired girl in a remarkably normal although too loud way.

“Greetings, prince Surou.”

Kierul responded without acting even a little bit surprised – at least on the outside – she curtsied splendidly and granted the second prince the privilege of seeing her soft smile.

|…huh… I wonder if my plan is even necessary at this point…?|

Zoemi wondered while putting his right hand to his heart and bowing his head a full inch and a half toward the blue-haired boy while carefully observing his expression.

“My lady, your highness, the examination continues.”

“…!”

“Ah…! You’re correct… thank you, Zoemi.”

The black-haired boy pointed out in a calm voice – his master flinched and looked the other way while the second prince gulped down his saliva and nodded.

“My lady, if you allow…”

…and then Surou did something unexpected – he offered his arm to Kierul…

Just like that.

There weren’t a lot of students gathered there as most would just show up for their own examination and at most come to watch their close friends, but there were still enough of them there to start a rumor.

“…”

Kierul seemed to freeze up for a moment with her eyes glued to Surou’s arm.

But in her case that wasn’t caused by being love-struck, instead, it was something more akin to anger.

~What the ** is this idiot doing in public?!~

Kierul turned to her attendant and mouthed in while her eyes were burning with fury.

To that, Zoemi could only shrug his shoulders and shake his head with a troubled expression.

“Thank you, your highness, but don’t worry about me. I came here to spectate on my own so the two of us should do just that. Separately.”

“!!!”

The red-haired girl spoke so coldly as if she was an ice magician using a spell and walked past the stunned blue-haired prince.

“…what is that guy thinking…?! He is smarter than that…!”

When Zoemi caught up with Kierul he heard her mumbling furiously under her breath, greatly upset.

“Well, for once I believe that we can throw the theory about him not liking you -like that- in the trash.”

The scarred attendant leaned in and whispered, tilting his head from side to side with a cheeky smile.

“What?!”

“…what…?”

Kierul didn’t just flinch – she basically jumped up in shock and gasped causing Zoemi to back off and asked back in confusion.

“What are you talking about? He is just trying to make others recognize him – basically, all wind magicians from our year come from families supporting his brother and don’t pay attention to him so he wants to use the shock factor to get into their heads!”

Kierul declared giving a rather good and well-thought argument that fit logically into the situation…

“Yeah, no – I’ve seen this guy, his acting is nowhere near that level.”

The scarred attendant waved his hand decisively while refuting the conclusion that his master came to.

“No. He definitely is doing what I just said! Otherwise, it would mean that…”

Kierul shook her head refusing to consider Zoemi’s words but then her eyes met the longing look that Surou was giving her from his spot and her confidence wavered.

“N-no…! We barely met! Think about it logically! Besides, I am going to stick to the plan!”

The red-haired girl became flustered and turned away decisively almost stomping her foot.

The for putting her words into action was perfect too – a green-haired boy had his mana reservoir measured and was walking towards the first practice target where he would unleash his magic.

He looked serious and focused and was from the family that supported the first prince Horeo the most among the lower nobles.

“Good luck!” “G-good l-lu… eh…?”

Kierul pulled herself together and called out benevolently – accidentally shouting over a blushing pale-gold-haired girl who gathered her courage and tried o cheer on the green-haired boy in a weak voice.

“Eh? E-eeehhh…?”

The pale-gold-haired girl gasped and looked at the indifferent Kierul with the eyes of a timid housewife seeing her husband’s secret lover who also was leagues prettier than her.𝒪𝗏𝒍𝒩𝐞xt.𝓬𝑜𝓶

“Hmmm?”

The red-haired girl noticed the whimper and turned toward the trembling pale-gold-haired girl, raising her brow in confusion…

“Ah…! I…! No, but he is m-mi…!”

The timid light magician tried to speak up but could not even dream of meeting the intense gaze of Kierul’s fiery eyes so she ended up turning around and fleeing with her head down and her tail between her legs.