Ch.3Dubious First Meeting – 3

“I can do it, I can do it, I can do it, I can do it, I can do it…”

Even in that brief moment while waiting for her turn, Priscilla was trembling violently like an aspen tree. If anyone else saw her, they would wonder what was wrong with her.

I squeezed her hand reassuringly.

“It’s going to be fine, Priscilla. Look, you’re already moving as you want to. So calm down. Don’t tremble.”

“…Okay.”

Though it was just a few words of comfort, Priscilla regained her composure as soon as she heard me, as if by magic. With a radiant smile, her fingers interlocked with mine, firmly gripping the back of my hand.

The Crown Prince, who had been watching us, narrowed his eyes.

“Are you two truly meeting for the first time today? To my eyes, it hardly seems so. If you have been dishonest with me, you should prepare yourselves accordingly.”

“I will explain later, Your Highness. Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“Very well. I’ll let it slide this time.”

The Crown Prince surprisingly stopped his questioning without much resistance. I wondered if this too was part of some other scheme, like before. It was impossible to know for now.

I was planning to explain everything later anyway. With him being so direct, trying to brush it off would lead to an unmanageable aftermath. For both me and the Crate family.

However, I needed to have a conversation with Priscilla first.

After all, there was no need to proactively reveal that we were both possessors, or that before meeting me, Priscilla had been trapped in this world, endlessly repeating time.

“Now, Crown Prince Laura Ercarenchia Crescenne von Yuperantis Bellium will deliver the welcoming address. Everyone, please rise.”

While we were talking, the previous segment must have ended as the Crown Prince’s name was called. As I had felt when first trying to memorize it, it was an absurdly long name.

“I’ll go ahead. I will collect payment separately for playing along with your little game, so add it to your list.”

“I understand Your Highness has taken interest in this proposal. If you hadn’t, you wouldn’t have gone along with us. So please reconsider.”

“Haha! You noticed? I won’t deny it. This is the first time I’ve attempted to end a welcoming speech like this. I’m looking forward to it in my own way. Don’t worry about what I just said—I was merely jesting.”

With a light smile, the Crown Prince strode confidently toward the podium. Thunderous applause erupted immediately. Priscilla and I also clapped our hands.

Setting aside how my skin crawled at receiving a smile from a man, no matter how androgynous he looked—not clapping here would be blasphemy.

“…Really, really… things are changing.”

Priscilla clapped harder than anyone else, her eyes glistening with tears. Judging by her expression, she was half worried, half elated—perhaps even more elated than worried.

Her feelings must be complicated. The fact that hundreds of repetitions were ending so simply, and that for the first time in hundreds of years, events she didn’t know about were unfolding. Perhaps it hadn’t fully sunk in yet.

That’s okay. She would feel it with her entire being soon enough.

“Ah, yes. I can be heard clearly.”

The standing ovation continued for nearly five minutes. After receiving the fervent cheers of thousands, the Crown Prince spoke lightly into the microphone once the noise subsided. That too was a magical device.

“First, I would like to sincerely welcome you all to Bellium Academy. The fact that you stand here, at this moment, in this place, is nothing short of a symbol that you have proven yourselves to be talents unrivaled anywhere in the Empire.”

At these words, the students’ expressions changed to ones of tremendous emotion.

When else would they receive praise directly from the Crown Prince? It was a rare experience most would never have twice in their lifetime.

“So hone those talents diligently. That is all.”

But despite the wave of emotion that had swept over them, the Crown Prince exited without hesitation after those words.

The welcoming speech, far from lasting minutes, ended in barely thirty seconds, causing murmurs to spread throughout the auditorium. The teachers seated across from us also wore puzzled expressions.

Given who had just performed this unexpected action, no one dared to speak up.

“…”

Only one person, the chairman who was said to have shared Bellium Academy’s history, was looking at us with very interested eyes.

Particularly, his gaze intensified when directed at me, suggesting he had roughly figured out the cause of this situation.

“Hic… sob… no… this… in the original… this never… happened…”

Priscilla buried her face against my back, covering her mouth tightly lest anyone hear her, and silently wept. I held her hand and let her cry freely.

There was nothing more I could do for her.

“Now it’s your turn.”

I nodded and gently pulled Priscilla’s hand.

“Come on, you need to stop crying. It’s time to go, Priscilla. Not just to watch, but to twist the plot with your own hands. This is what you’ve been waiting for, isn’t it?”

“Y-yes… *sniff*, *sob*. That’s right… yes, with my own hands… I, I will directly…”

Priscilla hurriedly wiped her tears, applied a light illusion magic to hide her reddened eyes, and stepped forward, trading places with the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince likewise took my place beside me.

I reflexively tried to step away, remembering how he had smiled at me earlier, but quickly stopped myself. If I did that and he asked why I was trying to distance myself from him, I’d be done for.

“You seem to be in quite a good mood, Your Highness.”

Instead, I changed the subject.

“You observed correctly. It wasn’t a bad experience. Both ending the welcoming speech briefly and seeing everyone’s confused faces. Neither was a bad experience.”

“I’m glad you felt that way.”

“But there’s another reason I’m in such a good mood.”

“Pardon?”

“The main attraction remains, doesn’t it? Didn’t you just say, ‘It’s time to twist the plot with your own hands’?”

His blood-red eyes fixed on me. His face showed he was dying to know the true meaning behind those words.

It doesn’t matter. I had excuses prepared. Logically, would I have carelessly uttered such words with the Crown Prince right beside me? Of course I had considered the consequences before speaking.

“Second-year top student, Priscilla Agnes.”

A clear voice echoed throughout the auditorium. The blood-red eyes that had been staring at me turned toward the podium. For now, his curiosity about Priscilla’s welcoming speech seemed greater.

Holding the microphone with both hands, Priscilla bloomed into a radiant smile and began to speak.

“Congratulations on your admission. That is all.”

Having ended her welcoming speech in just nine syllables with an expression she had come up with herself, Priscilla walked away with unmatched confidence, leaving thousands of people frozen in silence without even a murmur.

“…I did it.”

And as soon as she reached my side, she staggered and leaned against me. Her legs seemed to have given out completely, unable to stand properly. I supported her and carefully helped her sit on the sofa.

Priscilla looked up at me and smiled with difficulty.

“I. Spoke.”

“I know. I saw everything. You did amazingly well.”

“Yes… *sob*… *sniff*… really… really… with my own hands…”

Her smile soon turned to tears. As if releasing all the emotions she had suppressed for hundreds of years in an instant, Priscilla quietly yet intensely poured out her sorrow.

I patted her back a few times and turned around. A piercing gaze mixed with puzzlement stabbed into my back.

“I’m very much looking forward to what you have to say, Mira Crate.”

The “what you have to say” mentioned there surely meant more than just my welcoming speech as the first-year top student.

“You may look forward to it, Your Highness.”

I have something prepared as well.

In two ways.

I walked slowly toward the podium. Perhaps because the previous speakers had delivered such tremendous shocks, the attention focused on me was no joke. Not a single person looked away or got distracted.

But I had no reason to feel pressured. I had come too far to feel pressured by something like this.

‘If I want to diverge as much as possible from the original…’

Yes, that would be best.

“It doesn’t seem to have been planned in advance, Butler.”

“Indeed. If it had been a planned welcoming speech, they shouldn’t have such expressions.”

“What could be happening?”

“Ho ho, how would an old man like me know about the internal affairs of the Academy? I’d like to hear the opinion of someone younger.”

“Well. As you said, how would a mere maid like me know about the Academy’s internal affairs?”

Though they both spoke that way, neither Beatrice nor the elderly butler with white hair and wrinkles were people who could be described as “mere” anything.

After all, parents who adored their youngest son would never send ordinary people as escorts.

That’s how they could tell. That confusion was spreading across the faces of the teachers seated above. That was why they had concluded this wasn’t planned in advance.

Amidst the commotion of thousands of people, the last person walked out. The butler reflexively raised his magical device.

“The young master is coming out.”

“…”

There was no response.

“Ah… young master… you shine brightly even in a place like this… truly, truly magnificent…”

Beatrice was already busy using her camera with an enraptured smile.

The butler chuckled and captured the image of the youngest master with his own camera. It wasn’t surprising anymore. How many times had he seen the head maid with such an expression?

Having been by his side since childhood, Beatrice’s loyalty had a slightly skewed aspect to it. It felt more like maternal love than loyalty.

Though she vehemently denied this fact.

Whatever it was, since they shared the same fond feelings for the youngest master, the two of them busily operated their magical devices—which would cost an amount that would make ordinary people’s hands tremble—to capture the image of the boy standing at the podium.

“Since the previous speakers were brief, I’ll be brief as well.”

Mira looked around at the students with a confident smile, then stopped his gaze at one particular spot. Naturally, the butler’s gaze followed.

In that spot sat a girl with radiant blonde hair and blue eyes, and opposite her, a girl with blue hair and golden eyes.

“Next year and the year after, I will be the one standing here.”

Mira’s lips curled up slightly as he looked at the blonde, blue-eyed girl.

“I’ll save the proper welcoming speech for then. That is all.”