Everyone in the banquet hall turned towards the entrance where the loud noise came from. There stood one female student and one male student.

They were none other than Nigel, whom Allen had been desperately searching for, and… Noah Beselion.

“Ah, we have latecomers as usual today. Don’t worry and come in quickly, Sienna always stands by the side of latecomers as well.”

The atmosphere lightened with Widrun’s joke.

Meanwhile, Allen’s eyes narrowed.

Although it was considered a foregone conclusion that Noah Beselion, the biggest catch in high society, was engaged to the eldest daughter of Duke Dien, he had no official fiancée until the age of 17.

Allen had heard rumors that he recently gave up on joining the Imperial Knights, but thought rumors were just rumors. It was surprising to see him at Sienna when he didn’t even show his face in social circles.

Seeing his real appearance that had been shrouded in mystery, Allen realized that the unanimous praise for his outstanding looks was not an exaggeration at all.

‘Oh… Beselion doesn’t lose out even next to Nigel. But why… are they together?’

Well, he could guess the reason.

Allen gave a light chuckle seeing Nigel’s free-spirited hair.

At that moment, whether she heard his voice or just had good intuition, Nigel’s gaze fixed on Allen’s direction. And she stared intently at Allen’s face.

Nigel immediately approached with confident steps like a foal who had found its mother.

Regardless of who was watching, Nigel walked straight ahead and found Allen’s face.

Nigel, whom he was seeing after a week, was dressed as a perfect lady, almost unbelievable to be the same person he first met with messy hair and a dress faded by the passage of time.

Except for the flushed face and slightly disheveled hair, probably from running.

“Sorry I’m late for our appointment.”

“No, it’s all my fault for not explaining properly.”

Nigel’s face was flushed as if she had come in a hurry, and looking closely at her hair, there were a few leaves stuck to it.

By this point, Allen’s desire to whine melted away completely.

“Um… the way you styled your hair suits you well.”

Nigel awkwardly started the conversation.

“Right? Sebastian had a hard time with my tangled hair. You look pretty today too! I almost didn’t recognize you at first.”

“…So what were you doing?”

“Nigel, I think I can guess what happened to you without you telling me.”

Allen chuckled and tidied up Nigel’s hair.

“Ah, thanks.”

Allen removed the leaves and placed them on Nigel’s palm.

“Um… more importantly, what’s your relationship with the guy standing behind you?”

Allen pointed to the boy standing like a shadow behind Nigel, Noah Beselion.

“Well…”

The one who would become a hero of the Arenium Empire in the future and the male protagonist in the original story… but not really.

Someone she met at the lakeside while getting lost looking for the golden dragon… but not that either.

“…It’s nothing. Just… met him on the way here.”

Noah’s face, who had been standing silently at Nigel’s words, visibly darkened. Like a large dog betrayed by a trusted owner.

‘Oh…? This is interesting.’

The appearance of the two who seemed to be hiding something, and Noah who was subtly more attentive to Nigel.

This couldn’t be anything but interesting.

Allen’s face lit up brightly, thinking he had made a good friend.

“Hey, Allen. So what was that person saying?”

“Ah, the Dean? He’s calling for the perfect scorer on the entrance exam… in other words, the top student.”

“What do you get for being the top student?”

“Um… as far as I know, probably a teleportation stone that can be used within the academy for one semester and a private dorm room as special privileges?”

“Then I should go right away.”

“Right. I wonder what happened to the top stud… Nigel…?”

Nigel left Allen standing there with a dumbfounded expression and moved her feet, taking large strides to quickly stand in front of Widrun.

“They say the protagonist comes out late, and it seems that saying fits perfectly today, doesn’t it?”

Widrun smiled kindly as he looked at Nigel.

“Everyone, please welcome with applause. The first perfect scorer in 10 years, Nigel Ars from the Magic Department!”

Clap, clap, clap…

Ambiguous applause echoed through the hall. Everyone was clapping enthusiastically, but for some reason it sounded dispiriting to the listener.

The occasional whistles and cheers couldn’t cover up the listless sound of applause.

Some openly expressed their dissatisfaction, glaring sharply at Nigel.

Nigel returned to Allen holding the teleportation stone packaged in an elegant velvet box.

Allen’s lips twitched involuntarily at the sight of her tightly gripping the box with a strangely satisfied look.

“Ahem… This is a product you really need… Congratulations on your perfect score on the entrance exam, Nigel.”

“If you can’t hide it properly, you might as well laugh openly.”

“Is that okay? Pfft, Ahahaha! Hahaha! Nigel, you won’t have to worry about getting lost in Sienna! Hahaha!”

As if waiting for those words, Allen threw his head back and laughed heartily.

Tsk, Nigel silently turned her head away.

Where she turned her gaze, she found disapproving glares directed at her. No, there were too many to ignore.

“Allen, Allen. Stop laughing. Why are they looking at me like that?”

“Ahem… They’re probably students from the Politics Department.”

Allen answered while wiping away tears.

“So what? What does that have to do with anything?”

“The Politics Department has a lot of good students, so they’ve rarely missed out on the top spot in the year. Especially for top entrance… No, wait. Since you broke it, the Politics Department hadn’t missed the top entrance spot for 9 years.”

“Ah. They’re a bit old-fashioned, aren’t they?”

“Well… You could say that.”

Allen laughed awkwardly, receiving sharp glares along with Nigel.

“By the way, Nigel, how did you end up coming with Lord Beselion?”

Allen said, looking at Noah who kept glancing at Nigel even while surrounded by people.

It seemed like something interesting had happened between them.

“What do you mean ‘Lord’? He hasn’t even joined the Knights yet.”

Nigel grabbed the fruit ade offered by the waiter and drank it straight down.

There’s definitely something between those two!

Allen’s mind started throwing a party on its own.

One glass straight wasn’t enough for Nigel, so she emptied another.

“Nigel, drink slowly. You’ll upset your stomach.”

“Are you talking about drinking ade as if it’s alcohol?”

“I’m just worried. My stomach hurt after drinking three or four glasses of ade on an empty stomach while waiting for you.”

“…”

Nigel’s hand holding the empty glass shook for a moment. At that moment, a skilled waiter quickly approached and safely collected Nigel’s glass before it could fall.

“…Sorry.”

“Hey, these things can happen between friends. Why so glum? Don’t be like that, let’s have fun together. I have so much to tell you!”

“…Okay.”

Nigel’s shoulders flinched at the words “so much.” Allen, smiling, pretended not to notice as a friend should.

“Ugh…”

Nigel woke up with a groan.

Her head was throbbing as if it would split, even though she hadn’t drunk any alcohol. This was her own fault for underestimating Allen’s “so much.”

She rarely dreamed, but Allen had chased her even in her dreams and talked to her.

Nigel managed to dress properly, even tying her school necktie, and grasped the teleportation stone.

“Teleport, dining hall.”

In the blink of an eye, she moved from her private dorm room to the entrance of the dining hall. Students in blue uniforms turned wide-eyed at Nigel’s sudden appearance.

On the other hand, students in red and green uniforms yawned and entered the dining hall nonchalantly.

At first, it was as amazing as it was for the blue-uniformed freshmen, but now Nigel felt no excitement, just like the second and third-year students.

Thanks to someone’s pestering yesterday, she had teleported at least thirty more times.

“Good morning, Nigel!”

Nigel spilled drops of soup from her spoon onto the table, startled by what sounded like Allen’s real voice.

“Did you get in alright yesterday? Thanks to you, the party was so fun! Especially the teleporting!”

It wasn’t an auditory hallucination.

Allen, looking even neater in his properly worn uniform, sat across from Nigel.

Clank.

Allen set down his plate.

Unlike Nigel’s plate, generously filled with bread, soup, and crisply grilled sausages, Allen’s breakfast plate had only a few pieces of fruit.

Clank.

A plate with just a salad dressed only with olive oil and chicken breast was placed next to Allen.

“Good morning.”

At the voice that shouldn’t have been heard, this time Nigel’s sausage plunged into her soup bowl.

“Noah, come on over.”

Allen greeted Noah warmly.

‘…Yesterday you called him Lord Beselion, Young Lord Beselion, but when did you become so close?’

Seeing Nigel’s disapproving look, Allen spoke up.

“Ah, I didn’t tell you. Noah and I are roommates.”

Allen put his arm around Noah’s shoulder in a friendly manner.

“By the way, you went out saying you’d train in the morning, but you came back really quickly?”

“Yes, I didn’t want to overdo it from the first day.”

Nigel nodded at the somewhat welcome news. After all, the fate of the empire rested on those delicate hands now picking up salad with a fork.

“Right, train hard.”

“…Yes.”

At Nigel’s words, Noah clenched his fist tightly under the table.