[Hello, Sid.]

Thump! Thump!

Just reading the first sentence felt like his chest would burst.

Sid carefully flipped over the letter paper, making sure not to crumple it.

“……If I get one more of these, I’ll die of heart disease.”

He chuckled at how pathetic he was and continued reading the letter.

[First, forgive my arrogance for not revealing my identity while knowing yours. I just couldn’t muster the courage.]

……That’s understandable, then.

Sid added a side note as he read the next paragraph.

[The moment I first saw you, my feelings for you became certain. And as days went by, they only grew stronger to the point where even I can’t control them anymore.]

“……!”

Sid’s hands became damp with sweat.

Fearing his sweat might stain the letter paper, Sid hurriedly pulled out a handkerchief to wipe off the sweat.

[I want to convey my feelings to you. I know it’s against school rules, but I’ll be waiting for you tomorrow at 10 o’clock behind the dormitory fork by the lakeside.]

“……!”

[Tomorrow night, I’ll be waiting eagerly for you alone under the moonlight.]

It was a beautiful final sentence that was hard to ignore.

Sid timidly expressed his aching heart by tightly gripping the blanket before lying down on the bed.

He read and reread the letter, thought and thought again, and was finally able to fall asleep at 4 AM.

Chirp chirp chirp.

“Sid, did you study late last night? You look haggard.”

“……!”

His roommate’s words, which he would have normally just listened to and moved on, struck him like a dagger today.

“Is it that bad?”

“Huh? No, it’s not that bad. Oh, I have some cosmetics my sister gave me saying she had extras. Want to try them?”

“……No. It’s fine.”

Sid looked longingly at the cosmetic container in his roommate’s hand before turning away.

[This is the timeline separator]

Finally, evening came.

Sid kept fidgeting with the collar of his wrinkle-free clothes, feeling unnecessarily dissatisfied with its shape.

“Sid, are you going somewhere?”

“……I feel like I need to study more, so I’m going to the study room. I got permission from the dorm supervisor.”

Sid answered, avoiding his roommate’s gaze, feeling guilty for no reason.

“Ha…… Well, okay? Then I’ll go to bed first because I’m sleepy.”

“Okay.”

Sid closed the door and started walking faster than usual.

To get to the lake, he had to walk through the forest behind the dormitory fork for more than ten minutes.

There were various stories about the lake hidden in the dense forest. Most were nonsensical ghost stories about seeing a young female ghost by the lakeside.

Sid navigated through the forest relying only on moonlight, but he wasn’t scared at all.

Rather, he worried if she might be waiting for him first, or if he might get lost while walking through the forest.

As he walked thinking about her, the beautiful lake gradually came into view.

Even the cute moon, like the round handwriting in the letter, was shining its light on him from afar.

Everything would be perfect if only she arrived now.

Looking at his watch, there were still 20 minutes left until the appointment.

Sid carefully surveyed his surroundings.

Although he planned to reject her confession, he wanted to give her at least a flower rather than just causing her sadness.

Ah, there were quite a few flowers blooming a little distance away.

Sid picked only the prettiest shaped flowers among them and returned to the lakeside holding them in his hand.

Thwack!

Suddenly, something struck Sid from the empty air.

“Ugh……”

Sid’s body collapsed helplessly without exerting any strength.

‘She shouldn’t come here……’

Sid slowly closed his eyes, looking at the fragile flower with fallen petals in his hand.

[This is the timeline separator]

“Phew…… I thought you wouldn’t come.”

The owner of the voice coldly looked down at Sid, who had collapsed on the ground, while holding a blue flower.

“Hello Sid. I’ve been waiting eagerly for you alone under the moonlight.”

It was none other than Nigel Ars who looked down at Sid with a smirk.

Nigel took out a bottle containing a red liquid from her pocket and put it in Sid’s mouth.

It was nothing grand, just a sleeping pill.

“Allen’s contribution was significant.”

All of this was thanks to Allen’s spending habit of buying everything he liked.

There was nothing Allen didn’t have in his hands after making the highest sales since the opening of the magic item shop.

From letter paper where the ink disappears without a trace after a day of writing, to sleeping pills that keep you asleep for exactly two hours no matter what happens when drunk.

And the key to this plan, the invisibility magic item.

The long cylindrical invisibility magic item had lamps of different colors on the front and back.

The body exposed to the green lamp in front became transparent. Conversely, the body exposed to the red lamp on the back returned to its original state.

The shopkeeper, who looked like a scammer to anyone, said that this light would last for a maximum of half a day.

He answered with an uncertain, anxious face that it would last for half a day at most, so it’s probably half of that or a quarter of that.

Anyway, the crime of wagging one’s tongue carelessly had to be duly punished. Nigel clenched her fist.

The revenge under the moonlight was just beginning.

[This is the timeline separator]

Nigel looked down at Sid, whose entire face had become a mess of ridiculous scribbles, and smiled with satisfaction.

When she was excited about the thought of beating Sid up, it was one thing, but now she felt reluctant to hit someone sleeping soundly, unaware of anything, as if she was wrong to follow the original Nigel.

However, as this opportunity was too precious to do nothing, as a temporary measure, she scribbled all over Sid’s face.

On Sid’s fair forehead, which had turned reddish-purple from the fall earlier, she drew wrinkles like earthworms, and on his eyelids with long eyelashes, she drew new eyes.

She extended the width of his straight, well-formed nose by drawing lines, and finished it off by drawing a mustache that reached down to his chin.

Sid’s face, which was quite tolerable except for the arrogance plastered all over it, was now covered with clumsy scribbles.

However, the deep regret in her mind wouldn’t easily fade away.

“……Maybe I should have pretended to be a ghost and scared him instead.”

Even if she regretted it now, the sleeping pill was already flowing down his esophagus.

“But I can’t just leave him alone here……”

Though not as thin as Allen, if she had to compare Sid to either Allen or Noah, he was closer to Allen.

“Well, whatever. Everyone needs some rest time occasionally.”

Nigel Ars gave up and slumped against a tree next to Sid.

“Sigh…… I don’t know what I’m doing.”

When alone, her thoughts always led to one conclusion. Noah, the protagonist of this world and the key to her survival.

Although she had gotten much closer to Noah, his actions were still more like consideration rather than trust. The more she tried to get close, the more he seemed to shy away.

Today was the same. At lunchtime, when she gave small chocolates to Allen and Noah as a token of friendship, he just stared at the chocolate without even saying thank you.

A few days ago, she asked Allen how to quickly become friends with someone you don’t know. Allen told her two methods.

First, have a secret between just the two of you, no matter how trivial.

It was certainly a credible idea. People who gossip tend to become close rapidly.

But it was unimaginable for the overly kind Noah Beselion to engage in gossip about someone.

And a secret…… huh.

‘If I suddenly say I know a secret that only a select few know, that would surely build trust.’

Noah’s secret in the original story was his mana deficiency.

Mana wasn’t just necessary for mages. Everyone in this world was born with mana.

Mages had more mana than their vessel could hold, which manifested, and if mana wasn’t used and accumulated, it led to mana addiction like Nigel Ars.

Conversely, if the amount of mana remained less than one’s vessel could hold, it was called mana deficiency. People with mana deficiency couldn’t function properly and were always lethargic.

The reason Noah, the sole heir to the duke’s family, didn’t appear in social circles was because he often fell ill due to mana deficiency.

The reason Noah’s illness remained unresolved for so long was because of his constitution that couldn’t absorb mana from the air like ordinary people.

Therefore, mana potions were Noah’s only source of mana replenishment, but mana potions were expensive and rare due to their intricate production process.

The character who should appear here is the female protagonist, Meriel, Noah’s childhood friend and a mage.

Meriel could share her vast mana with Noah just by touching his body.

But it seems the saint Nigel Ars, child of the goddess, was an exception.

When she touched Noah’s hand by this lakeside before, Nigel Ars felt her mana flowing out.

Using this, she could solve Noah’s mana deficiency even faster than in the original story, which wasn’t resolved until after the engagement ceremony early next year.

But for her, who at best was just an academy friend, to suddenly say she knows about his mana deficiency and offer to solve it by holding hands?

“……Even if Duke Beselion accused me of being a spy and cut me with a sword, I’d have nothing to say.”

That’s why Noah’s trust was absolutely necessary. A deep trust that would make him believe she had no ulterior motives.

Of course, the second method Allen suggested would solve things easily. That is…… dating.

Obviously, that wouldn’t work. It wasn’t even worth considering.

Nigel Ars had been hiding her identity, refusing to bow to the original story and her fate. But now, to volunteer for the role of an obstacle in their love story as in the original? It made no sense.

No, the premise was wrong from the start. This method wasn’t possible in the first place.

“Because the other party is the overly kind Noah Beselion.”

Noah was kind. Kind enough to use honorifics with her, a commoner.

Noah’s usual sense of morality was even more evident in his views on relationships.

Even in the original story, although he liked Meriel, he was such a prude that he never made unnecessary physical contact before their engagement.

If only Noah Beselion had been frivolous and promiscuous, the problem would have been easily solved.

“……Stop overthinking and let’s quickly treat Cromwell and go back.”

Nigel Ars took off the ring on her little finger. As she focused her senses on her fingertips, a dazzling golden light cleanly erased Sid Cromwell’s bruises.

Rustle.

At that moment, she heard movement nearby.

But it was fine. She was invisible right now…

“……?”

Under her hands, which should have been invisible, a black shadow was clearly visible.

Ah.

So that’s why he trembled so much when he said half a day, not an hour? That damn quack.

Nigel Ars carefully approached where the sound came from. Right there, behind that tree.

She had to silence him somehow, no matter what it took.

Nigel Ars quickly reached behind the tree.

“……?!”

As her hand touched the body of the unknown person, mana flowed out of Nigel Ars’s body.

And slowly, a shadow fell across Nigel Ars’s face.

The owner of the shadow was none other than Noah Beselion.