episode_0045

The sensation was something fresh that Celdiane Elkonja had never felt before in her life.

The boy in front of me was clearly just an ordinary person with nothing special about him.

Because he didn’t have a brooch on his school uniform jacket’s chest, which symbolized his noble status.

No, I could tell just by looking at it before.

Because he had been interacting with nobles for a long time, he had become accustomed to their dignity and atmosphere.

I could instinctively tell that the black-haired boy was an inferior being.

Judging from the fact that he didn’t seem to have any particular memory of the Academy rankings, he was definitely a mediocre person with no magical abilities whatsoever.

however,

That boy was now acting incomprehensibly.

Even though she, the eldest daughter of the noble Elkonja family, is being investigated for something right in front of her, she shows no sign of flinching at all.

“I don’t think there’s a rule that only nobles can enter the garden?”

He was standing face to face with her, his yellow eyes filled with questions.

His gaze and my gaze are in perfect alignment.

‘Ugh.’

That fact alone caused an unknown curiosity to rise in Celdianne’s heart.

When the students attending this academy came face to face with her, most of them would lower their gaze and pay respect to the noble.

If there are some exceptions, they are either children of noble families of similar rank to oneself or a very small number of commoners who have a higher level of strength than oneself.

However, the boy in front of her was looking straight into her eyes and expressing his doubts, even though he did not belong to any of those areas.

Could it be that he is ignorant of the ways of the world and has no sense of humor, so he doesn’t know what kind of family he comes from?

To confirm her first suspicion, Celdianne deliberately revealed his family name and took a quick look at him.

“Of course, there is no such rule! However, the meal time in the garden consisting of only nobles is also related to the dignity of this Elkonja! Lowly commoners should not interfere and spoil the mood!”

“Hmm… ”

The boy, who had been tilting his head with his arms crossed, asked her back with pure doubt in his yellow eyes.

“Isn’t it okay to be in a corner that can’t be seen?”

“Huh… ?”

At that reaction, Celdianne covered her mouth with her fan and looked slightly surprised.

Even after hearing Elkonja’s name, the boy’s expression did not change at all.

But even stranger than that was his attitude.

I thought he was trying to rebel against me with his sibijo, but upon closer inspection, I realized that wasn’t the case.

He was just expressing doubts, not convinced by what he had said.

There is no sense of hostility in the eyes looking at his own face.

That’s just an equal student and classmate at the academy.

Furthermore, it was an ordinary look as if looking at a friend.

The curiosity that arose in Celdiane’s mind like a ripple began to spread more widely.

“Of course! Even if you don’t stand out, just knowing about your presence is enough to make me feel uncomfortable! Go back to the dining hall or the stage!”

“Hmm… That’s difficult, but can you turn a blind eye to it? Seldianne.”

“Negotiating with you now… … Huh?”

Seldianne’s eyes lit up as she spoke sharply, her chin raised diagonally.

Her crimson eyes slowly turned to the boy’s face again, and she frowned as she asked.

“Now… What is your name?”

“Huh? What, what’s the problem?”

“The lady only revealed her family name… How do you know her name?”

In response to the question that showed his wariness, the boy shrugged his shoulders and answered as if to ask what that meant.

“No, how can you not know the name of a friend whose theory lecture overlaps three times?”

“There are… three theory lectures… ?”

The boy opened his mouth wide in surprise as he looked at the dumbfounded Seldianne.

“You don’t know who I am…?”

At his disappointing gaze, Celdiane flared up and pointed her fan at his face.

“This, this Elkonja, does he really need to remember the names of all the commoners?! If you’re so talented, then let me tell you your name!”

“I’m not saying you’re good… but since I see your face so often in the classroom, I hope you remember me now.”

The boy, who was snickering, scratched the back of his head and told her his name.

“Erto, my name is Erto. Celdianne.”

Erto.

Those three words sank deep into Celdianne’s heart.

At the same time, a slight feeling of shame lingered in her mind.

He had been refuting me without any hesitation, knowing from the beginning who I was.

As if nothing happened.

Not caring about the gap between you and him.

At that fact, Seldianne realized that for some reason she was feeling excited and thrilled.

“So, can I come in here?”

After the announcement, he showed his intention to enter the garden again, but Seldianne shook her head, suppressing her boiling curiosity towards him.

“I won’t allow it! More importantly, don’t call the lady by her name! Don’t you know that when calling an unfamiliar noble, you should use her family name?! You’re like a rude commoner!”

“Do you really have to do that? Wouldn’t it be better for you to be called by your first name rather than your family name? You’ll know exactly who you are.”

“It’s shameful for a noble to be called by my name by a commoner I don’t even know!”

Celdianne deliberately raised her voice to make it even more angry, but the boy ignored her harsh words with an indifferent expression.

“Then, please get to know me better from now on. Our classes overlap a lot, so let’s be friends.”

“Profit… !”

Seldianne was speechless at his strange attitude of not giving up on her opinion, but not being hostile.

He was obviously weak and a commoner with no power in terms of background, but strangely enough, his will felt un-trampleable.

It felt like there was something solid inside his body.

Or, like grass, a tenacity that cannot be broken no matter how much you step on it.

An unknown aura filled his face.

“Anyway, if that doesn’t work out, I’ll go somewhere else. There’s someone waiting inside, so could you tell Seldianne to come out here?”

“And the lady’s name… ”

“If you blocked me from entering, you should clean up the mess. Like a noble.”

That made sense, so Celdiane nodded, clearing her throat.

“Ahem, I can’t help it! Who is waiting for you? Is it possible that another commoner is in the garden?”

“Tirisia Brewery.”

“Bru…?!”

Crimson eyes stared into the boy’s face, wide with astonishment.

Why would he, a commoner, have a connection with the only daughter of the Brewery family, which is on par with the Elkonza family?

Celdianne opened her mouth to confirm that what he said was true.

“You just said Brewery…? How could someone as lowly as you…!”

“Well, I don’t know how many times I’ve heard that at the Academy. I’m childhood friends with him. So we’re pretty close.”

“Childhood friend… ”

Celdianne absentmindedly repeated the words, then suddenly came to her senses and turned her back on him, covering her mouth with her fan.

“Huh, hmph! A human close to that woman, that’s unexpected! The unpleasant woman who defeated you in the entrance exam…! I don’t want to have anything to do with her, so I’ll refuse to send the message! You decide whether to go or not! ”

“Oh, thanks. Then I’ll go. When I see you in class later, I’ll pretend to know you.”

“Who would do something like that…!”

Knock!

Before Celdiane could say anything in response, the boy quickly ran away into the garden.

Celdianne, who was left standing at the entrance, swallowed a hollow laugh and stared in the direction where he had disappeared.

“Ha.”

It was truly absurd.

A boy who was both a commoner and a lowly magician pretended to be on the same level as me.

Even if he were to challenge her to a duel, she would be someone so insignificant to him that he could easily crush her like a passing ant.

No, it was obvious that all the nobles would persecute him the moment he was branded an insolent commoner who raised his head stiffly at Elkonja without even having to use force.

He and I were in a truly overwhelming A and B relationship.

Unless something is wrong with his head, he would definitely know that fact too.

But the boy put all those extraneous things aside and brought up the orthodoxy that the garden was for all students to use.

Of course, that was true. The Academy’s regulations did not allow for such discrimination.

But ideals and reality are different.

The name Elkonja held such great authority among the students that only a handful of people in the academy could stand up to her, even if she tried to force them to do something against the rules.

What the boy did was not something that could be done with ordinary courage.

Even nobles of a certain status bow their heads in submission before her.

That was the natural outcome and the life that Celdiane Elconza lived.

But suddenly, a boy I encountered at the academy broke that obvious rule.

He overturned her common sense and called her Celdian, not Elkonja, and treated her as an equal person.

An unknown sensation began to overflow into Celdianne’s chest.

“Huh… Huh… ?”

She laughed out loud, but couldn’t figure out why she was laughing.

I just kept laughing, as if someone was tickling my chest with a feather.

“Woohoohoo, woohoohoohoo!”

Excitement, thrill, and burning curiosity fill her heart.

Those fierce emotions were clearly boiling over in the empty space in my heart that had never been filled before.

perhaps,

She thought that perhaps the food she had been searching for had appeared before her eyes.

Not the Seldianne of the Elkonza family,

People who just recognize her as Seldianne.

It seemed impossible to find until now.

There was no way such a person could exist.

What kind of person in the world could completely ignore the name Elkonja?

But then that idiot actually appeared right before my eyes.

How can one not laugh at such delightful indiscretion?

“Oh-hohohoho!”

Celdianne let out a loud, high-pitched laugh, oblivious to the stares of the students passing by.

“Like, I like it!”

She became curious.

Just how far can the boy treat himself as a normal friend?

How much authority he exerts and how confident he can be when someone treats him poorly.

Is it not something you just pretend to be brave to look strong, but something you truly believe in?

I wanted to test what the boy’s limits were.

This was not the feeling of a child discovering an interesting toy.

It was a joy and delight, as if he had encountered the being that would quench the burning thirst he had longed for for a long time.

So, I wanted to push him even harder and more earnestly.

If the boy is indeed the being he was looking for, then he shouldn’t be broken.

Seldianne looked at the unusually bright sun through her fur fan and repeated the name the boy had told her.

“Erto… Erto… Erto.”

Her cherry lips parted in a deep, sincere smile.

“Let’s see if you’re the prince she’s been looking for… or just a funny clown!”

That’s how Celdiane Elconza began her first love during adolescence.