Chapter 3: Colored Ribbons

The academy had a longstanding tradition of older students guiding their underclassmen.

Although the teachers were all capable mages—signifying their noble birth—most of them chose not to inherit their family titles. As a result, a decent number of students looked down on their instructors. This was especially true of the first-years, who had only ever interacted with their family and hired help.

As a result, they were often taught alongside third-year students. Sometimes, the upperclassmen would be given the reins altogether and lead many classes from spring to summer.

Now, halfway through June, we were participating in a courtyard exercise where students of similar magical inclinations formed small groups and shared knowledge with one another. Or at least, that had been the plan.

“I can’t help but sense quite the stir,” Lieselotte said.

We were in the same group, but she glared beyond our unit as she spoke. Just as she’d said, a certain crowd of students had been rather distracting for a while now. They didn’t number that many, but I could see a handful of students snickering as they exchanged hushed gossip.

Our group had still been in the middle of discussion, but others had already begun practical demonstrations led by the older students. Even without the watchful eyes of our teachers, this was not a situation where one could play around.

I frowned. I was both a third-year and royalty, giving me the most authority of everyone present. Accordingly, the teachers had entrusted me with the responsibility of leading today’s activity. Finding the cause of this disturbance and putting it to rest was part of my duty.

“It looks like the commotion is centered over there. Shall we go take a look?”

As the most reputed first-year student, Lieselotte had been similarly tasked by the teachers to act as my aide. When I suggested that we examine the situation, she promptly pulled out her wand and nodded.

“Hold on, I don’t think there’s any need for violence,” I said immediately.

“Preparation and spirit are key. Let us be off.”

Lieselotte’s delivery was as straight as her back. She quickly marched forward and I scrambled after her.

I wanted to remind her that our goal was resolving the issue amicably. However, the stares we received on our way there gave me a bad feeling, and the threatening glare Lieselotte sent back toward them terrified me. I ended up keeping my mouth shut.

The healing magic group that Art and Fiene were in was the center of all the commotion.

“What’s going on?” I asked Art.

“Sieg, not you!” he replied, turning to me angrily. “Anyone but you! Couldn’t you at least leave your fiancée behind?!”

Art’s curious shouting stopped me in my tracks for a moment. Lieselotte took the opportunity to step forward and made her way straight to Fiene.

“That wand,” Lieselotte spat in a low voice.

I looked to see the wand that she’d given Fiene just a few days ago. A golden ribbon had been tied to the handle.

“Yes, this is the wand that you gave me, Lady Lieselotte!”

Fiene cheerfully twirled it around. Yet for whatever reason, Lieselotte’s expression had morphed into a hideous scowl and Art let out a massive sigh beside me. As I stood in confusion, the Voices of the Gods graced my ears.

“It’s not the wand, but the ribbon on its grip, Fiene!”

“Of all the colors she could have possibly chosen, she went with a splendid gold. Had she used a softer shade or gone with a deep blue, no one would have said a word... Anyone could have predicted the murmuring rumors of the crowd and Liese-tan’s unchecked fury.”

Lord Endoh and Lady Kobayashee’s statements puzzled me.

“Is there something wrong with that ribbon?” I whispered to Art.

“Right now, the girls have a fad of tying a ribbon on their wand’s handle,” he said in a similarly hushed voice. “The color is supposed to match the hair or eyes of either your lover or someone you look up to. So now, the guys that know are going around sending girls ribbons that match their own colors. But, well, you know, I’m pretty sure Fiene doesn’t have any female friends. I’m sure she was thinking something like, ‘Look, this makes the wand easier to grip!’ and innocently copied someone without properly understanding what—”

“Miss Fiene, are you aware of what the color of your ribbon symbolizes?” Lieselotte asked. She wore a graceful smile, but her voice was clearly steeped in rage.

“The...color?” Fiene cocked her head. She didn’t understand at all.

As he understood the significance of Fiene’s actions, Art had been trying his best to wrap this up before Lieselotte and I could notice. He held his head in his hands. Although I had only learned of this trend moments ago, Lieselotte’s overwhelming pressure froze me in place too.

“Indeed,” my fiancée said. “The color is to signify the object of one’s affections. Pray tell, Miss Fiene. For you to choose gold—the color of His Highness’s eyes—is this a declaration of war?”

At those words, the color finally drained from Fiene’s face and she turned to stone.

“And further, this ribbon seems to be made of silk. I wonder, how in the world did you get your hands on something like this? Of course, you wouldn’t dare to say that you personally received it from His Highness, would you?”

I could feel the air around us freeze over as Lieselotte spoke. She was terrifying. Even Lord Endoh seemed panicked.

“Oh man, oh man, oh man! Lieselotte is pissed!”

“Sieg, don’t look. That is not the kind of face a lovestruck maiden is supposed to make!”

The goddess didn’t need to tell me that: I couldn’t look Lieselotte in the eye right now anyway. I knew for a fact that this outburst had been caused by her love for me. What was more, I’d never seen the ribbon in my life. Still, she was just too frightening.

“N-No, this is something that you gifted me, Lady Lieselotte! Er, I guess technically you didn’t really gift me it. This was just the ribbon that you had used to tie up all those notebooks you handed me. But still, this was something I received from you!”

Lieselotte stared at the piece of silk on the wand. As Fiene’s hysterical plea went on, my fiancée’s head slowly began to tilt.

“Oh. Now that you mention it...I suppose you’re right.” When Lieselotte finally accepted Fiene’s explanation, everyone in the area breathed a sigh of relief.

“Paper is still an expensive commodity in that world. Fiene had been collecting used paper, writing on the back of each sheet, and bundling them up into a makeshift booklet. When Liese-tan caught her, she sent Fiene a ton of fresh notebooks.”

“You two sure are close.”

I couldn’t help but comment on Lady Kobayashee’s analysis. In response, Lieselotte whirled around and began shouting, her face beet-red.

“Unthinkable! I wouldn’t go as far as to call it almsgiving, but this is simply my duty as a proper noble!”

Lieselotte’s frenzied attempt to convince me otherwise only confirmed that she doted on Fiene a great deal. In fact, Lieselotte naturally cared for those around her. Perhaps if I hadn’t involved myself, the two of them could have gotten along normally.

Suddenly, I noticed that the crowd was stirring in a different way from before.

“Oooh, I get it. They’re seeing this as yuri,” Lord Endoh said.

“Fiene wrapped her wand with Liese-tan’s hair color and received the ribbon from the person in question, after all. Still, the two girls can probably write this off as admiration or friendship.”

I wouldn’t say that I was jealous per se, but this was no laughing matter. The gods’ words put a scowl on my face.

“Basically, this golden color was the reason for all this confusion, right? I’m very sorry. I didn’t intend to stick my head in the lion’s mouth, so I’m going to stop using this ribbon. So please, Your Highness, Lady Lieselotte, don’t glare at me like that.”

Fiene bowed her head. Then, she untied the ribbon from her wand and slipped both back into her pocket like a sad puppy.

“Oh, um... I’m sorry as well,” I apologized, slightly embarrassed.

“To...” Lieselotte had been staring at the ground with a flushed face for some time, but finally exploded. “To begin with, you lack any sort of critical thought, Miss Fiene! How many times have I told you to pay more heed to those around you?! And how often have I said to come to me for advice before you do anything you don’t properly comprehend?!”

Lieselotte pointed her wand straight at Fiene as she tried to shout away her embarrassment. The way Fiene sulked with her head hung low made it clear how sorry she was.

“Now then, we’ve gotten past the danger, so the next thing to key in on is Liese-tan’s wand. Hurry, while she’s still focused on Fiene! Take a nice, looong look, Sieg.”

Lady Kobayashee’s merry tune pulled my attention to Lieselotte’s wand, which was still being used to admonish Fiene. The base of it was gold. An amethyst adorned the handle, and a ribbon was tied around it: a white ribbon embroidered with a delicate touch of gold.

“Are these...my colors?” I asked suddenly.

Lieselotte’s movements stopped in an instant.

Huh? What was that? That’s so cute!

“They really are,” I said. “What beautiful embroidery. I might place an order with the same craftsman for a gold ribbon with purple embellishment.”

I let my bliss take hold and ran my mouth. Lieselotte went red once more and stared at her feet, trembling.

“Please, Lieselotte. Won’t you tell me which artisan stitched your ribbon? Don’t you think it would be nice for us to match?”

Considering that she had something so finely crafted, there was surely no point in sending Lieselotte a ribbon of my own. This suggestion was my solution to that. Yet for whatever reason, Lieselotte glared at me with teary eyes.

“...Me.” Lieselotte squeezed out a single word as she continued to quake.

I had no idea what she meant.

Seeing me tilt my head, she shouted out in despair. “It was me! I embroidered this ribbon myself! Fine! Very well! A gold and purple ribbon of the same design, was it? I humbly thank you for your patronage—your order will be delivered as soon as it is completed! Thank you in advance for your patience!”

Lieselotte went off like a merchant and then turned heel to sprint back the way we had come. A brief moment of silence followed.

“Hey, isn’t she too cute?”

Awestruck by my fiancée’s fearsome cuteness, I couldn’t help but comment. Art shrugged with a sarcastic grin, but Fiene nodded enthusiastically.

“She really is. Lady Lieselotte is super cute, and she’s a super nice person too.”

I was slightly surprised that Fiene agreed so readily. Not too long ago, she had seemed to be positively terrified of Lieselotte. Perhaps catching onto my curious stare, Fiene smiled wearily and explained.

“Um, you see, I thought about it, and Lady Lieselotte gives me a lot of stuff, so I figured that maybe she is a good person. Plus, I’m grateful that she lectures me out of the kindness of her heart. All in all, I realized recently that she’s been helping me a ton. The horrible mood from earlier is completely gone, see?”

Fiene glanced around and I followed her eyes. She was right; all the gossipers that had been making fun of her were now silent. In fact, some were even looking on at Fiene with sympathy.

“You know, people like her who act thorny and...tsun? But who actually are sweet at heart are apparently known as tsun de rais.”

“Oh, I think I get it. So she’s called a ‘tsun de rais’... That’s cute!”

I shared my god-given knowledge with Fiene, who immediately got the gist.

“I’m glad to see you understand. You two truly are close, aren’t you?” When Lieselotte isn’t flustered with me around, that is. Naturally, I swallowed that last part; I was not so vain as to say that aloud. Still, it was a matter of fact that Fiene and Lieselotte got along so long as I wasn’t present.

“And we have Sieg to thank for that! His masterful handling of Liese-tan’s emotions has made her adorability clear—even to everyone else! All this color commentary was so worth it!”

Ah, I see, I thought in response to Lady Kobayashee’s analysis. While I was listening to the goddess, Fiene had grown a tad pale. She spoke up with hesitation.

“But, um, like I said earlier, I don’t have any interest in sticking my head in the lion’s mouth. So, uh, I guess I’m trying to say that I’m rooting for you two!”

Whoops, it looks like she thought I was saying that sarcastically.

“No, no, I truly do think that it’s wonderful for the two of you to deepen your friendship,” I said.

Fiene breathed a sigh of relief.

“Still,” I continued, “just bear in mind that Lieselotte is my fiancée. Are we clear?”

The words of warning that slipped out of my mouth surprised even myself. Fiene began nodding so fervently that I worried she might hurt her neck, and I was left feeling puzzled at the foreign emotion that had taken hold of my heart.