Chapter 10: School

 

 

 

Chapter 10: School

 

IN the Kingdom of Luducia, there was the Royal Academy.

The majority of the students were children of aristocrats who had completed an elementary education. Commoners weren’t barred from attending, but because of the school’s steep tuition and rules regarding commuting, the reality was that commoners had to be either decently wealthy or have good enough grades to receive scholarships to attend.

Enrollment began at age fourteen. There was no set number of years a student had to attend, nor was there a set curriculum. Under the Royal Academy’s system, a student would leave once they had acquired the skill or degree necessary for their course of study and the faculty approved their graduation.

As a result, the timing of enrollment and graduation depended on each student.

Enrollment was only required of the eldest son of aristocratic families. But there was much more they could get out of school besides the chance to pursue knowledge. As the next generation, it was vital for them to learn how to socialize and gain new acquaintances at the school, where aristocratic children from all over the world attended as full-time students or through study abroad trips.

Even if the aristocrats lived far away from the royal capital, many of them had second homes there, so it was possible for them to commute. However, the sons of the royal family and high-ranking nobles were sent to live in the dormitories to “expand their horizons through communal living.” As a result of wanting to follow this practice, it became customary for all the boys to live in the dormitories.

But there were no girls’ dormitories, so female students had to either commute from their homes in the royal capital (if they had any) or temporarily move in with a relative who lived closer to the school.

It was only relatively recently that girls started attending the school at all.

During Amy’s parents’ generation, aristocratic ladies were given an education only through private governesses, and then they would marry. Any outside education was limited to private etiquette classes.

In recent years, Luducia’s conflicts with neighboring kingdoms had subsided, tensions in the kingdom had calmed, and the populations’ eyes finally turned toward education, with new attitudes towards girls’ enrollment in schools.

But things were not completely egalitarian. Compared with the male students, who on average would attend school for three years or more, female students would attend school for far less time, with many only attending for one or two years. There were also many engaged female students who simply went to school until the preparations for their weddings were finished.

With all the memories she had of her previous life, Amy was very uncomfortable that there wasn’t any compulsory education in Luducia, and that (in the same social class, at least) men and women were so unequal. But when she thought back to what she could remember of her past life, Japan’s well-regulated educational system had only been around for a few decades.

From what her father had told her when she was a high school student, women in Japan hadn’t been granted suffrage until after the Second World War, and until about thirty years before, the percentage of men and women who continued on to university was at most 30 percent of the population—although there was likely some variation between urban and rural areas.

Amy remembered learning a Japanese nursery rhyme about a girl who got married at fifteen. It was written not even one hundred years before the Heisei era, the time in which Amy lived in her past life.

If she counted using the traditional Japanese age system, which considered the day of birth as one year old, the fifteen-year-old from the nursery rhyme would actually be fourteen… The same age I am now, Amy realized.

But she still thought it was an early age for marriage, regardless.

What she remembered as “common sense from her previous life” was actually limited to a very small period of time in modern Japan, dwarfed by the long history of the whole wide world. She had only truly realized that since being reincarnated into a different life.

Now that there was no way to check her vague recollections of the history and politics she had learned in her classes, it was very dangerous to judge her current life based on “facts” that could more appropriately be called “memories.”

It was natural to compare her two lives, but there wasn’t any need to assign superiority. Both this world and the last had their own histories and methods. If Amy were to tackle those issues, she needed to be adequately prepared and armed with knowledge, because change would only be possible with a solid foundation.

This world was riddled with sexism and human rights issues that experts in her previous life would have written award-winning editorials about. If this were a novel, it might have been conventional for her to passionately strive for reforms, but right now, fourteen-year-old Amy just accepted it as part of her new everyday life.

Her attitude as a former run-of-the-mill high school girl bled through, and she just thought politics were tiresome.

🐾🐱🐾

THE afternoon sunlight filtering through the trees from the clear sky above cast beautiful shadows across the cloister floors circling the courtyard. Amy had finished her foreign language class and was enjoying tea with her friend on the lounge terrace that overlooked the courtyard.

They were surrounded by other ladies around the same age. Apart from the classes, the other school facilities were co-ed. The boys, however, were rarely brave enough to venture here, as it was always full of girls, so it had, for all intents and purposes, become a relaxing, comfortable, girls-only room.

The room looked magical, with the ladies in their neat, school-appropriate dresses holding teacups in one hand and whispering and giggling behind the other.

The tables were covered with firm tablecloths, and employees were stationed next to them specifically for serving the ladies. The room was designed with calming colors that had a certain lightness to them, and on display were always tastefully arranged flowers that had been grown on the school grounds.

There was a piano at the end of the room, and a girl who knew how to play often performed songs there after being begged by her friends. The tune drifted over the spacious terrace and into the courtyard… Each time she came here, Amy thought it felt more like a fancy banquet hall than a school lounge.

Amy’s friend giggled.

“Your mind is somewhere else today! Worrying about Tigger again?”

“You look like you’d rather be home with Portia, too, Rosalind.”

“How could you tell?”

“Because I feel the same way!”

Amy’s companion, laughing and raising her cup to her lips, was Rosalind, the daughter of the Earl of Knowles. Like Amy, she was fourteen. With brown hair, brown eyes, and features that were plain and rather indistinct, Rosalind wasn’t a knock-out beauty, but she wasn’t hideous either. Her height and figure were both very perfectly average. With no standout features to speak of, she was the personification of a wallflower.

Talking to her, however, revealed that she was a levelheaded, caring girl. Rosalind was the oldest daughter in her family with several younger siblings, but she got along surprisingly well with Amy, who was the youngest child herself.

Rosalind’s eyes squinted into perfect lines when she laughed, which was a very familiar sight to Amy. Rosalind had been one of the first people Amy had been able to open up to without any reservation and become friends with.

It had been about a month since she started going to school, and in general, things had been going well.

The reason the two girls got to know each other was, naturally, because of cats. Everyone else at school knew the two girls were close friends, but they hadn’t actually met at school. They first met at the duchess’s Cat Club.

Rosalind had started going to school almost six months before Amy, and she had been staying at the house of a family friend close by the Royal Academy. When Rosalind had gone out with the lady of the house on one of her days off, they stumbled across an injured cat.

The territory of the Earl of Knowles was an area lush with nature, and its local specialty was beef and dairy products. Rosalind was raised in that environment with a love for animals, so abandoning the small, ill-fated creature wasn’t even an option in her mind. After all, cats could always be useful for catching mice that holed up in the feed shed.

A veterinarian rushed in to help the cat, and at his side was Amy, who was at the time training in healing magic and working as an assistant through the Cat Club. The injured cat was treated with Amy’s magic and, after several days of observation at the veterinarian’s office, was taken to the Duchess of Coverdale’s estate.

The cat ended up there because, although she had been a little wary of people at first, she got used to them very quickly and showed no discomfort at being indoors, so they suspected she had been a domesticated house cat.

It was already common practice in the royal capital for owners looking for a lost cat to visit the duchess. So Rosalind entrusted the cat to her, hoping it could be reunited with its former owner.

But Rosalind’s hopes were dashed. A month went by and no one had come looking for the cat, nor had anyone heard of someone looking for a missing cat. In the end, Rosalind, who had come back to visit her many times and had developed quite a bond with her, decided to adopt the cat herself.

The cat had bright orange fur and hazel eyes. She had a tabby patterning on her fur, but the stripes were more subtle. She had white patches at the base of her neck, at the ends of her legs, and on her belly. Like Rosalind, the cat wasn’t showstopping, but she had an adorable face.

The cat was named Portia, and after she had made a full recovery, she started showing more of her mischievous side, which often grieved the lady of the house.

But eventually Portia, who did what she pleased and could whip out heartbreaking puppy-dog eyes at the drop of a hat, had everyone in the house wrapped around her paw. Portia was now considered an important member of the family.

“Oh, that’s right, Amy! That prototype toy with feathers you gave me the other day was a big hit with Portia!”

“I’m so glad! I thought she would like it because Tigger’s crazy about it. Does she have a preference for the color of the feathers?”

“No, not really. But if I could choose, I’d definitely make it the same shade of orange as Portia!”

“Then I’ll have to make mine black!”

“So it matches Tigger’s stripes!”

The two girls giggled and chattered on. They almost always talked about their cats. The topics that swirled around the other tables—gossip, trends in the royal capital, and prospects for their future husbands—were never brought up with these two.

A high-pitched voice suddenly interrupted their discussion of cats.

“Do you see that?! Eating sweets like a glutton…”

“Someone who can’t even control themselves around food isn’t fit to stand by Prince Edward’s side, if you ask me!”

“Really! Has she ever seen what she looks like in a mirror?!”

Amy stealthily glanced at the table next to theirs and saw three ladies wearing extravagant dresses. She had felt stares coming from them the entire time she had been sitting there. She didn’t recognize their faces, so she figured they must have just recently enrolled. There weren’t many girls at the Royal Academy, so Amy had quickly learned the names of the few dozen female students who attended.

Rosalind had been impressed by how quickly Amy had memorized their names, but this was nothing compared with the all-girls’ high school from her previous life, where her first-year class alone had around 150 students. Here the girls even had a wide variety of hair and eye colors.

Their scornful gazes were also thrown at the tea set that had been placed on Amy and Rosalind’s table.

The lounge doubled as a tearoom, so they could also get snacks like cakes or fruit on the side. Rosalind only had tea, but Amy had one of the caramelized nut-filled tarts in front of her. The tart had a plain appearance but had deceptively high calories, cocooned in a rich dough made from browned butter and jam-packed with caramel and nuts.

Four years had passed since that initial tea party, and Amy was still considered a fiancée candidate. In fact, she was the only fiancée candidate left. She knew there were aristocratic families and noble ladies who had reservations toward her for that reason alone. More than anything else, their attitude stemmed from the big difference in social status between the royal family and her father’s rank—that of an earl.

“Can she even dance with such a heavy body?”

“What if she steps on her partner’s feet?”

“She’d break his foot!”

Although Amy’s rotund, almost sumo-esque figure of childhood was no more, she was still chubby and had round and pinchable cheeks. She understood the temptation these girls felt to say something mean about her, a chubby girl enjoying delicious food, especially when they were putting their hearts and souls into their strict diets.

Amy also agreed with them that everyone in the Luducian royal family should look beautiful. Edward was beautiful, so he should choose someone who looked equally so beside him if that’s what his heart desired. Amy was in total agreement there.

She had almost gotten used to hearing the malicious gossip. It was a daily occurrence at this point, so it was almost no different from the chirping of the birds every morning.

“Well, they’re not wrong,” Amy muttered quietly, gazing in the distance and not looking hurt at all.

“Amy!” Rosalind chided, looking outraged on her behalf.

Amy thought the girls were probably annoyed they weren’t getting the reaction from her they were hoping for, because they continued bad-mouthing her loudly.

Amy had predicted that she would get rude remarks from the moment she decided to start gaining weight, but she had still been shocked the first time she heard it. She had frozen in place. The words had dripped with malice, and although the girls had been complaining about her position as the prince’s fiancée candidate—a position she never wanted in the first place—confused and resentful tears had sprung to her eyes.

After a while, however, she had come to realize that just because the girls couldn’t stomach “Amy, the prince’s fiancée candidate,” that didn’t necessarily mean they despised or resented Amy herself. She came to this conclusion because girls only said those things the first time they saw her, when they didn’t know enough about her nature to genuinely hate her.

What usually happened after that was that each time they would meet, they would dislike Amy less and less. Many times, they even started to become friends with her. In fact, none of the people who had been mean to her when she first started going to school were still gossiping about her today.

Because of these experiences, she decided it was most efficient to just let the mean words go in one ear and out the other, instead of getting upset every single time… But that didn’t mean it completely stopped hurting.

Besides, even if she had the perfect personality and perfect looks, it would be impossible for everyone in the world to like her. The naturally shy Amy much preferred having a small group of people she could confide in—like her family, Rosalind, and Tigger—over having a bunch of people just pretending to fawn over her. She didn’t have a case of sour grapes.

But she did feel sorry for Rosalind getting caught in the middle. She had to hear this silly gossiping just because she was having tea with Amy.

“I’m really sorry about this, Rosalind,” Amy whispered, leaning in close to her.

“You have nothing to apologize for! I mean, I don’t enjoy hearing my friend being spoken so rudely of, but as long as you don’t care, I won’t pay it any mind either.”

A voice suddenly rang out above their heads.

“Fancy seeing you two in a place like this…”

A beautiful lady had appeared behind Amy’s and Rosalind’s seats on the terrace. She was slightly out of breath, but she spoke with enough haughtiness that the dignity in her voice made it nearly unnoticeable.

The three girls who had just made the stinging remarks yelped as excited chatter broke out throughout the lounge.

“Wait, why is she here?!” one of the girls cried.

“No way! The daughter of Marquess Elphinstone!”

Before Amy had even turned around, Rosalind greeted her by name.

“Good afternoon, Letizia.”

“I was just walking in the courtyard when I happened to see you two. How can you call yourself ladies and sit so close to the edge?! I wouldn’t be able to look at you if you let your skin get sunburned!”

What a model of beautiful femininity! Amy thought, unable to keep her thoughts from spiraling with excitement. Hiding her mouth with her lace fan, and that teasing look in her eye…! She’s so stunning!

Letizia, the daughter of Marquess Elphinstone, looked as though she had walked out of a classical portrait. She had a lovely face, with blue eyes like sapphires and shiny blonde natural ringlets. Her accessories were modest, but her oblong-silhouette-style dress was obviously expensive, and her heels were of the latest fashion.

Her long, slender figure towering above them was dignified and beautiful. She bore an eerie resemblance to a lead actor from an all-female musical theater group from Amy’s previous life in Japan…

Elegance oozed from every pore, down to her fingertips, which she used to fold her fan up with a snap. Amy could almost imagine roses blossoming behind her, and she wasn’t sure the sparkles she saw around Letizia were entirely due to the sun filtering onto the terrace through the trees.

---

---

Sighs of admiration rose from the surrounding tables at the appearance of someone so beautiful.

Even the three girls at the table next to them were staring at Letizia with flushed cheeks and adoration in their eyes—the exact opposite of how they had just treated Amy.

“A teatime for two, is it? I’m glad you seem to be enjoying yourselves,” said Letizia coolly, looking down at Amy, Rosalind, and the plate of sweets.

The three girls from before laughed, thinking they were joining in some sort of mockery, but then—

“See, Amy! I was right thinking you girls would come here!” Letizia said jovially.

“You were! Rosalind said you would be able to find us.”

They were all so excited, they stood faster than the waiter could make it to them. Rosalind pulled out a chair for Letizia, and Amy gestured her hand to it, smiling.

I’m sure she’s out of breath because she rushed over, thinking we were talking about that thing again… Not that she would admit it!

Perhaps Amy’s thoughts were plain on her face, because Letizia stood for a moment, eyes darting between the thin-armed white chair and their faces as she fidgeted with her fan.

“Wh-What is it?!”

“Because you weren’t in class this morning, we peeked into Madam Tory’s class, too, didn’t we, Amy?”

“We did. But you weren’t there either. Then we figured you’d go to Sir Dion’s magic practicum for sure. So Rosalind said you’d probably be able to see us afterward if we sat here.”

“I-I didn’t go through the courtyard because I wanted to see you girls… I… You even went to Madam Tory’s…to look for me…,” Letizia mumbled, trailing off. Smiling eyes turned to her from around the lounge, some girls even nodding along with her.

“Really? That’s sad, Rosalind… It seems we were the only ones who wanted to hang out,” Amy teased.

“Don’t be so dejected, Amy! Letizia will definitely have tea with us. We were just in the middle of talking about the Kingdom of Bakr, after all. Isn’t that right, Letizia?”

“I-I guess I have no choice, do I? I’m very busy right now, you know, but…fine. We members of the Elphinstone family are very generous, after all.”

Clearing her throat with a small cough, Letizia sat in the chair, head downturned. Between the curtain of blonde ringlets shielding her face, Amy could see her cheeks burning crimson and her mouth twisted in a small smile.

The three girls sitting beside them watched, stunned, while Letizia regained her composure and told the waiter her order.

“I’ll have the same tart as Amy.”

“We’ll have matching tarts?!” Amy asked, excited.

Rosalind chuckled.

“Well, you are good friends!”

“Th-That’s not it!” Letizia stammered. “Cott nut is just really good for replenishing magical powers, that’s all! But in any case, shouldn’t you be eating more, Amy?”

Amy blinked for a moment, startled, before smiling widely.

“You’re very kind, Letizia.”

Amy had experienced being on the verge of collapsing from overusing her magic before. Letizia was probably just worried for her and was trying to prevent something like that from happening again.

When Amy met Letizia’s eyes and smiled so sincerely, the corners of Letizia’s eyes turned slightly pink, and she gulped, as if clearing her throat.

“W-Well, everyone’s worried about you! I-It’d just be a huge pain if you fainted or something during the practicum!”

“You’re right. Thank you. I’ll make sure to eat a lot.”

Rosalind, who had been watching the exchange fondly, addressed Letizia as if she were her younger sister, despite Letizia being a year older.

“It’s okay, Letizia. Amy’s on her second helping.”

“Oh… Well, that’s fine, then. Anyway, I told you to stop calling me Letizia. Or have you already forgotten?”

Amy and Rosalind looked at each other and smiled.

“Okay, Letty,” they said in unison.

As soon as Letizia noticed herself smiling at this, she quickly composed her expression again. Over her shoulder, the three girls were staring, mouths agape.

Letizia Elphinstone was immensely popular with the other ladies. She was the prime example of a girl who had come around and started being friendly with Amy after a rough start, and now she was one of Amy’s dear friends at school.

At the same time Letizia had told them to call her Letty, she also told them they didn’t need to speak formally or humbly with her.

Letizia was both older and had a higher family status, but it would have been more disrespectful not to listen to her request. She was the sort of person who, once she declared something, would not concede the point in any way. Amy had already had some experience with this type of personality from Edward and Alexander. However, it was Rosalind’s nature to speak politely to everyone, so she didn’t change her manner of speaking very much.

“So, you wanted to hear about the Kingdom of Bakr?” asked Letizia with a cough. Amy nodded.

“A ton of people from foreign kingdoms come to my grandfather’s territory, but rarely any from Bakr.”

“I imagine that would be true for Wallum.”

Bakr, a friendly kingdom to the south, was landlocked, so they traded primarily over land routes. Therefore, they didn’t have much to do with the border province Wallum, the cornerstone of sea trade.

Amy had only just started learning about geography and Luducia’s neighboring kingdoms at school, so she didn’t have much knowledge other than what she learned from the books at her parents’ house. But there were two things about Bakr she was desperately interested in.

“Books are nothing compared with your stories, Letty. I mean, you’ve actually lived there!” Amy effused.

The Marquess of Elphinstone held a position that was like a mixture of a diplomat and a foreign minister from Amy’s previous life. The Kingdom of Bakr was a resource-rich country and a long-time, very important trading partner for Luducia. Furthermore, when the country welcomed the crown princess from Bakr, the marquess temporarily relocated to Bakr with his family to take on the burden of coordinating various aspects of the arrangement. When that obligation had finished, they returned to Luducia this past winter.

At the beginning of the year, Edward’s oldest brother, the crown prince, had married the princess. When the dust had settled, Letizia started attending school. She began around the same time Amy did.

“It’s hard to imagine from pictures alone a kingdom existing in the middle of a desert. Maybe it’s like our pasture at Knowles, but with sand instead of grass…,” Rosalind wondered aloud to herself.

Amy imagined that Bakr was a place similar to some of the countries in the Middle East in her previous life, but the only thing Rosalind could compare it to was the huge pasture on the Knowles territory. In this world, with its limited means of circulating images, it was quite difficult for the general population to comprehend the wider world around them.

“The Knowles pasture is quite big, but Bakr is much bigger,” said Letizia. “I was shocked at how large it was the first time I visited. Even the sunlight and the wind are stronger there.”

“Then I suppose their clothes would be different, too?”

“That’s right. I was completely veiled from head to toe.”

Amy and Rosalind tried to imagine Letizia wearing foreign clothing… She could probably wear anything and look stunning.

Amy was interested in the clothes worn in Bakr, but there was something else she really wanted Letizia to confirm for her first…

“Um…,” Amy started, leaning forward, “is it true that everyone in the kingdom likes cats?”

“Amy…that’s really what you want to know about the Kingdom of Bakr?” Letizia sounded slightly exasperated. She may have muttered “Unbelievable…” under her breath, but she answered Amy’s question nevertheless. “Well, it’s true. Even the king likes them. There were cats all over the royal palace.”

“Really?!” Amy squealed. “What about you, Letty? Didn’t you have any cats there?”

She had read all about the cat lovers of Bakr in a book. They seemed to be partial to cats for a variety of reasons—partly because the kingdom’s founder cherished his cats, and partly because they were considered a sign of good luck in their religion.

Amy’s imagination went crazy, she was so excited that the hearsay had been true. What were their lives like? What types of cats lived in Bakr? What color fur did they have? What did their tails look like? What names did they have? What food did they eat? Cats were generally the same everywhere you went, but there was still so much Amy wanted to know.

“I did have a cat when I lived in Bakr…but I couldn’t take her back with me, so when I returned to Luducia, I left her behind,” Letizia said simply, bringing her teacup to her mouth. The other two were at a loss for words.

“Oh my word, Letty…”

“That’s so sad…”

Letizia noticed tears slowly welling up in Amy’s eyes, and the teacup in her hand began to tremble slightly. Letizia’s behavior and composure were always perfect, so this was unusual.

“W-Wait, why are you crying, Amy?!”

“B-Because…you h-had to…leave him…!”

If I had to live apart from Tigger…

Just imagining it gave her sharp chest pains. Amy clutched at her pendant necklace and really began to cry in earnest.

The tears streamed down Amy’s face and fell onto the tablecloth. Rosalind tried to stem the flow with a handkerchief.

Letizia hastily added an explanation.

“The climate is just completely different here! What would I do if I forced her to come with me and she got sick here or something?”

“I-I guess you’re right…but still…”

“And anyway, it’s not as though I left her with a total stranger. I still receive letters nearly every week telling me how she’s been doing!” Letizia said, shiftily looking away.

With Amy’s vision clouded by tears, it was Rosalind who noticed that the tips of Letizia’s ears, half-obscured by her shiny ringlets, were blushing scarlet.

“Letty, did you leave her with Prince Jahal, by any chance?”

“Th-That’s right. As you were well aware, I’m sure.”

“Ah—Letty’s princely fiancé!”

“He is not, Amy! He’s the only one going around saying we’re engaged!”

The Kingdom of Bakr was formed by the union of multiple smaller kingdoms, so there were several royal families. Prince Jahal was the Second Prince of one of these smaller kingdoms. He was also the cousin of Princess Sameen, the princess who had married the First Prince of Luducia.

If you tried to apply Luducia’s organization of nobility to Bakr, Princess Sameen’s family was like the main branch of the royal family, whereas Prince Jahal’s family was an offshoot, like a duke.

In Luducia, it wasn’t especially uncommon for a member of the royal family to marry someone from a foreign kingdom.

Although the current crown prince’s marriage was a political marriage, he had spoken with Princess Sameen since they were children, so it was also like a marriage between childhood friends. Their wedding had been a very quiet affair, with the jovial bard only singing songs of blessing.

By contrast, Prince Jahal had fallen head-over-heels in love with Letizia at first sight, courted her passionately and aggressively, and had half-forced the marquess to give Jahal his blessing to marry her.

Jahal urged Letizia to marry him right then and there, but her father reversed course and argued that, with Jahal being younger than her, they could still afford some time before the marriage, so he wanted to give Letizia a chance to experience school life in her home kingdom at least once.

Jahal’s father, the king, often visited Luducia and was famous for his incredible good looks. It was reported that Jahal took after his father, and Jahal’s older brother resembled their mother, who was also a renowned beauty.

For the people of Luducia, the engagement between the (presumably) handsome prince of Bakr to a Luducian lady proud of her country was a popular topic of conversation, even immortalized in a novel making the rounds in the castle town—The Pushy Prince and the Lovely Lady: A Love Story.

“After overcoming misunderstandings and wicked schemes plotted against them, two lovers declared their love for each other in the country of sand… Now they find themselves in kingdoms leagues apart, though united under the same sky. They awake from dreams of each other to pillows wet with tears… What will happen when they finally meet again? Find out in the next volume!”

That was how the book was described, at least, but it was purely fiction. From what Letizia had told them, her parents had given their blessing, but she hadn’t actually agreed to the engagement yet.

Not that it mattered much in the grand scheme of things—just as aristocratic ladies often had no say in their marriage partners, their parents’ decision was the only thing that mattered. That was why the engagement was already viewed as settled, with or without Letizia’s approval.

“Er…he’s not holding your cat hostage, is he?” Amy asked.

“No, not at all. I asked him to take care of her. He was the one who gave her to me in the first place.”

“Oh my!”

“In that case…”

“Wh-What?! I-I mean, he gave her to me totally out of the blue, even though I’d never had an animal before. It was really hard at first!”

Amy and Rosalind had assumed that Jahal’s affection had been unrequited, but when Letizia flushed as she spoke, it didn’t seem like it had been altogether unwelcome. Letizia, overwhelmed but trying her best to dote on the cat given to her by her fiancé… Just imagining it made for an adorable picture.

Whether her friends married for love or politics, Amy at least hoped they could approve of the man and marry him with genuine smiles on their faces. Amy had been raised as a noblewoman in this world, too, but she still wished for that above all else.

“It’s a love united by cats, isn’t it?” said Rosalind.

“That’s so wonderful, Rosalind!” Amy gushed. “And—oh my goodness—Letty would be a white cat and the prince would be a black cat!”

Amy thought of everyone in terms of what they would look like as cats. It was typical of her to forget about humans entirely when cats were involved.

“Wait a minute, you two!” Letizia protested, her face bright red. More and more of the ladies in the lounge were listening in with gentle smiles on their faces. The three girls next to their table were spellbound, hands pressed together at their chests.

Letizia, the dignified lady who had served as a model for a popular novel, typically only acted this flustered in private, in front of her friends… It was an incredibly rare yet adorable sight for the rest of the students present.

Some also felt a certain sense of jealousy toward Amy and Rosalind, who were able to draw out these feelings from Letizia, but they were just passing pangs.

“W-Well, anyway…we shouldn’t be talking about that stuff here.”

“Oh! Well, then why don’t you come over to my house during the next school vacation? Tigger’s a little shy of new people, but he’s a really good kitty.”

“Portia, too! She’s a little naughty, but she’s really friendly and cute!”

“Well, my Mimi’s fur is so luxurious and elegant!”

Letizia, wanting to brag about her own cat, accidentally got dragged back into the conversation. Amy’s eyes lit up at the cat’s name.

“Your cat’s name is Mimi? That’s so cute! Who gave her that name?”

“Erm… Um, well…”

“That would be me,” came a voice suddenly from behind them.

Amy and Rosalind jumped, scrambled for each other’s hands, and turned around.

A young man stood behind them, his entire body shrouded in exotic white clothing. He wore a headscarf made from the same fabric, which was fastened in place with a black ring.

For a brief moment, Amy was reminded of the clothing people would wear in some Middle Eastern countries.

He had slightly tanned skin and sharp black eyes that sparkled with powerful determination. Amy could tell he was younger than them from his height and facial features, but there wasn’t a trace of childish weakness or immaturity in his dignified attitude.

Amy’s memory of the opening image from that past-life otome game would never fade, and there was no doubt in her mind that this boy was one of the characters in it—

“Prince Jahal! What are you doing here?!”

It’s really him?! But…it can’t be!

Amy sat in silence, stewing in her confusion. Jahal turned to the similarly flustered Letizia and grinned. Then, in a smooth, fluid movement, Jahal took her hand and pressed it to his lips. The girls in the lounge, unable to contain themselves, cheered and shouted with joy.

“Mimi is receiving the best care at my home. You can come see her whenever you’d like, Letty. Like right now, for instance.”

“Wh-What!?”

Letizia’s blush had crept down to her neck, and she had started trembling. To drive the point home, Jahal leaned in, bringing his face very close to hers.

“If I knew you missed her so much, I would have brought her along. But…I am a little jealous.”

Letizia opened her mouth, but no sounds came out.

Although he was supposed to be whispering sweetly into her ear, Amy and Rosalind could hear it clearly from the other side of the table.

Does the Bakr royal family have especially sonorous vocal cords or something? Amy wondered. But…that reminds me…the characters in that game had voices, too…

Maybe I should have played more of the audio back then…, Amy thought, trying to escape from the romantic scene in front of her.

There had been one other thing Amy wanted to learn about the Kingdom of Bakr other than their feelings on cats—and that was whether a prince from Bakr was one of the romanceable characters from her otome game.

She’d thought the character was likely someone from Bakr based on the clothing she could remember him wearing in the illustration and on the close trade relationship between Bakr and Luducia. From their ages, she had guessed the romanceable character would be either Prince Jahal or his older brother. It had been said they looked quite different physically, so Amy figured she’d probably be able to tell if she got the chance to see one of them.

Pictures were not yet widespread, and portraits were not always credible depictions of the subject. Amy had been hoping to hear from Letizia about Prince Jahal’s specific features—she had no idea he would show up completely out of the blue.

Seeing was believing. Prince Jahal was almost certainly the character from her otome game.

But oddly enough, the love interest standing in front of her did not want the heroine—he wanted Letizia. Even Amy, who was aware that she didn’t know much about love, was able to confidently draw that conclusion from such an overt display of affection.

This finally breaks the pattern of the “game,” doesn’t it? But…

As Amy’s mind returned to reality, her eyes met Letizia’s. Letizia was staring at her, begging for a way out.

Amy couldn’t help feeling sympathetic for Letizia, who had tears in her eyes from receiving such an embarrassing surprise in front of so many people. But Amy didn’t have the faintest idea what she could do to help her out.

On that afternoon, the terrace looked the same as it had every other afternoon, but the reality of the matter was totally different. Amy and Rosalind still had not moved an inch from where they had frozen, clutching each other’s hands.

“And are you two Letty’s friends?” Prince Jahal asked, turning toward them and smiling.

“Y-Yes, that’s right!” they said rather awkwardly before being properly introduced by Letizia.

Jahal pulled out one of the vacant chairs for himself and sat down right beside his fiancée. By the time beverages had been brought over to him, the room finally became quiet again.

From what Amy could remember of the otome game, there were five main romanceable characters. The slightly gloomy “prince” character was Edward, and the seemingly proud “noble” character was Alexander. Amy hadn’t found contenders for the “magician” or “knight” characters yet, but the “prince from a foreign kingdom” character was almost certainly Prince Jahal.

Even as the tips of Letizia’s ears turned red under Jahal’s scorching gaze, she managed to recover her senses and turned to him.

“What brings you to Luducia so suddenly, Prince Jahal?”

“I was thinking of participating in this year’s athletic tournament and study abroad while I’m here.”

Luducia’s athletic tournament was held once every three years, and the matches were graced with the presence of His Majesty the King. It was a massive event in Luducia, during which knights and magicians from far and wide would participate in contests of skill and valor.

Participation was not limited by age or rank, and contest winners were given money or promotional advancements in the Order of Knights or the Order of Magicians. With these prizes, skilled fighters of all social ranks took part in the tournament—nobleman and commoner alike.

Amy’s older brother Harold had participated in the previous athletic tournament and had finished with decently good results. Choosing the path of an adventurer with such good results was very out of the ordinary, but her brother was never one to follow the crowd.

“Wha— I didn’t hear about that!” Letizia exclaimed. “Also, you have to be fourteen to start going to school here!”

“I’ll be fourteen on my next birthday.”

“Isn’t that next year…?” Letizia asked, putting a hand to her forehead.

Special circumstances were often made for members of royalty from foreign kingdoms who wanted to study abroad in Luducia, as the situation was affected by international politics. Jahal flashed her a smile and said his application to become an auditing student had been accepted.

“The way you described this school in your letters sounded so fun, I just couldn’t help myself.”

“You what…?” Letizia asked weakly.

“Amy and Rosalind…,” said Jahal, finally turning his attention to the other two girls at the table. “I’ve seen those names written in letters so many times this past month, it feels as if I’ve met you already. Don’t feel like you have to humble yourself to me,” he added.

Amy and Rosalind sat there stunned, mouths hanging open. They thought they had become friends with Letizia, but they had no idea she liked them enough to mention them in her letters!

“Letty…mentioned us? That makes me so happy!” Amy cried.

“Only once in a while! There wasn’t much else to write about, you know!”

“Really? But in every letter, you’d talk about them so—”

“Jahal!” she yelped, putting her hand over his mouth.

Letizia blushed such a deep red that Amy almost expected steam to start coming out of her ears. Even behind Letizia’s hand, Jahal was clearly smiling from ear to ear. To a casual observer, they would look like a normal couple joking around with each other.

Even Amy’s and Rosalind’s eyes softened at the sight, and although it was rather rude, being in the presence of a prince, they busied themselves with drinking from their teacups… With all this sweetness around them, they were rather glad they hadn’t added any sugar to their tea.

When Letizia’s blush abated, Rosalind cautiously began to speak.

“Your Highness…pardon me for speaking out of place, but did you come here on your own?”

Royalty was always accompanied by guards, even within the Royal Academy. The guards were very considerate toward the other students and the teachers’ classes—royalty was protected so unobtrusively that the guards were almost undetectable. This was common knowledge, so everyone knew Rosalind wasn’t talking about Prince Jahal’s guards.

“Yes. Edward and Alexander were supposed to show me around the school, but then I saw Letizia and came here.”

“Jahal!” Letizia said. “Does that mean they’re looking for you right now?”

“That’s not a problem. My guard will get in touch with them.”

He was probably right about that, but saying so showed a lack of concern—or perhaps lack of fear—typical of a royal. The royal Amy was closest to, Edward, never acted that way… She became keenly aware that, despite being in similar positions in life, the two were actually quite different.

Letizia pressed down on her temples, her headache seemingly unrelenting. Looking at her, Amy quietly hoped she could have a quiet, relaxing night after this.

“A-All right, then…,” said Letizia. “Moving around will only lead to more searching, so why don’t you just stay here until they find you?”

“That was my plan! Now, open up, Letty.” Jahal promptly took a piece of tart with his fork and brought it to Letizia’s mouth.

Letizia became even more flustered.

“I-I can feed myself!”

The prince looked like he was having the time of his life, but Letizia looked like she would drown in an ocean of sugar if he showed her any more affection. This time when Letizia appealed to Amy with tearful eyes, Amy thought for a bit before picking up a fork herself.

“All right, Rosalind! Open wide!”

Rosalind snorted quietly. “Only from you, Amy. All right, then.”

Rosalind opened her mouth, and Amy quickly slipped the tart inside.

Hands pressed against her cheeks, Rosalind closed her naturally narrow eyes even more as she grinned and ate. Then, Rosalind took a piece of tart with her own fork and held it out to Amy. Amy opened her mouth wide and ate it as if it were the most normal, unromantic thing in the world.

The cott nuts covered in sweet caramel had a nice chewiness to them. Amy would’ve still liked them even if they didn’t replenish magical power. The dough on the outside was also light and crumbly with a nice buttery flavor. She couldn’t find a single fault with the aroma or the texture. The pastry chef at the Royal Academy was very talented.

“Oh my goodness, it’s so sweet and yummy!”

“Isn’t it?”

Amy, still smiling from the divine taste of the tart, inadvertently met the gazes of the three girls beside them, who had still been sneaking glances over to their table.

For a moment, the three girls started in surprise and blushed. Then, for some reason, they hastily put down their cups and fans and started feeding each other, too. One by one, the other female students in the lounge followed suit.

It was the kind of strange situation in which, when enough people do something, it becomes strange not to do that thing.

Letting out a laugh, Jahal once again offered the tart to Letizia.

“Here—you too, Letty.”

“…Just one bite, okay?”

Letizia put the tart into her mouth in one graceful movement, yet with dazzling speed. After she bent her head slightly to swallow it, she picked up her tea as if nothing had happened.

“What about me?” asked Jahal.

“There’s nothing for you!”

“All right, then. Time for another bite, Letty!”

“Amy, help me out!” Letizia pleaded.

“…What are you doing?” came another voice, crashing into the table and scattering the romantic atmosphere.

“Oh—Alec!” said Amy.

Alec came up to the terrace from the courtyard and sighed. Amy shrugged and smiled appreciatively. After knowing him for four years, Amy knew very well that when all was said and done, he was a very caring person.

Alexander, now eighteen, was rapidly beginning to look like the perfect aristocrat. His stark blond hair was so dazzling, it was almost painful to see, and there was slightly more color to his blue-gray eyes. He had grown into a conventional beauty, one that reminded Amy of the princes from the picture books she used to read in her previous life.

Behind Alexander with his furrowed brows, Amy saw Edward, smiling and looking a little embarrassed.

“We’ve been looking for you, Jahal.”

“Ed. Alec. I’ll apologize for all the trouble it took to find me. But you can’t really blame me—my priority here is Letty, after all.”

“I thought you’d say that,” sighed Edward. Then he smiled and added, “Hello, Amy.”

Amy almost choked on her tea at his dazzling smile, but somehow she managed to swallow it and return a nod of greeting.

Ed had always been tall for his age, but he had grown even taller, and now there was a considerable difference in height between them. But Edward had never shirked his sword training, so he wasn’t lanky or weak. He still gave off a calm, quiet energy, but at some point, a fire had been lit behind his silvery-gray eyes.

His aura of nobility was still alive and well, and he and Alexander, who made polar opposite impressions—one dynamic motion and the other serene stillness—were two of the most popular people at school.

According to Amy’s father, the director of technology at the Institute of Magic, Edward was quite talented. He had continued attending Joshua’s lectures on magical tools, which had evolved into joint research sessions. Edward participated in the development and improvement of magical tools, and although Joshua had still not given his blessing for a betrothal to his daughter, he seemed to highly value Edward’s abilities and accomplishments.

Edward’s schedule was jam-packed with his official engagements and his studies, so Amy usually still communicated with him through letters sent by owl post. She frequently visited the riding grounds, which she had been given free access to, but she rarely spent time with Edward there, typically only seeing him in person once or twice a month.

She had assumed that when he entered school, his social circle would grow, and he would meet other ladies. Then, he’d be able to find an appropriate fiancée. But to this day, there had been no indication of that happening.

Amy and Edward had exchanged letters almost daily, and they had continued that practice even now. And when they happened to see each other in school or found themselves in a class together, Edward would always come talk to her.

But Amy was still in the ambiguous position of fiancée candidate, having been neither decided on nor rejected and removed from the running. She felt like they needed to sit down and have a proper conversation about the subject, but she was afraid to ask… On that day on the riding grounds, he had told her, “I want to be friends.” She had repeated those words over and over again and carried them engraved in her heart.

More chairs were brought over for the new arrivals, and the all-star lineup of royalty and aristocracy made the terrace look almost like a stage.

It was rare for public figures to gather like this, and they realized uncontrollable cheers and stares were directed at them from all over.

The attention was coming not only from the ladies in the lounge but also from the male students at the end of the courtyard. Amy wished she had been sitting with the spectators, instead… She only prayed she would look hazy beside the glare of the dazzling auras of those around her.

“Jahal, couldn’t you at least go the first day without making a commotion?”

“I’m just sitting here quietly having some tea, Alec!”

“Um… Do you want something to eat, Alec?” asked Amy, holding out a piece of tart, thinking that he looked tired.

“Not now, Amy,” he said.

“In that case…”

Thin, hard, long fingers wound around her soft wrist and redirected the fork.

Amy made a noise of surprise as Edward ate the tart off the tip of her utensil. The cheers around them grew distinctly louder, and even the waiter who came to serve them staggered a bit.

“E-Ed!”

“Hm?” he asked, chewing and looking pleased with himself. At that moment, her heart started banging against the walls of her chest.

“L-Letty! You were right—this is really embarrassing!”

“It’s a bit late for that now, Amy!”

Although several royals and high-ranking aristocrats were seated at the table, there was an amicable feeling to the group. Edward and Alec had never been so plainly presented with such a relaxed, friendly environment at school. But this had all changed one month ago, with the enrollment of one female student.

The three girls sitting beside them did not start showering compliments on Amy’s appearance, but, not thirty minutes later, they were starting to change their initial impressions of her.