A few days passed after the ball, and I could hardly believe how fast the time passed. Count Raid was arrested for his crimes, and he was awaiting trial. His motive for his violent and reckless act was to reclaim the director’s seat. I was at first curious why Count Raid felt compelled to go that far, but I almost sighed with exasperation when his reasoning felt so juvenile and silly. The count had assumed that Grand Duke Lindenburg secured the seat of director, in no small part due to his son, Vil, who was so excellent in his studies that he was chosen as a prefect during his first year at school.
If Vil was dead, Count Raid thought that Grand Duke Lindenburg would have no other reason to remain in his chair. The count’s reasoning was almost laughably simple, and because he aimed for Vil’s life on several occasions over a prolonged period, his actions were calculated and cunning. Prince Rena claimed that this was a very heavy crime, and the count likely couldn’t avoid the death penalty.
Since that incident, Vil had taken a leave of absence from school, and I hadn’t met with him once. Thanks to my meeting with Noah, I now knew Vil’s identity and learned that he was a student, not a private instructor. He was the grand duke’s eldest son, the future lord of House Lindenburg, and the head prefect, to boot. Yet, when I mistook him for a private instructor, for some inexplicable reason, he went along with it and taught me. I’ll probably have to ask him about that next time, I thought.
After this whirlwind of an incident, my worries continued to pile up, but school kept going, not once stopping for me to take a breather. I headed to class with Prince Rena, which had now become a daily routine, and gave my morning greeting to Alice and Ehr. Though the official ceremony of the crown prince was widely publicized, it wasn’t particularly news for the students—after all, the prince couldn’t hide her regal air—and it didn’t become much of a fuss. Still, quite a few students visited our classroom to catch a glimpse of the royal, and Prince Rena didn’t seem to mind. She was used to the attention.
“I didn’t think that the crown prince would be in our class…” Ehr sighed.
“It’s shocking, isn’t it?” I replied.
As we chatted away, the homeroom bell rang, and Professor Whipp arrived in the classroom as usual.
“Today, I’d like to introduce a new transfer student,” she said.
It’s been more than a month since the school year began. Who enrolls so late in the year? As I was lost in my thoughts, the classroom door opened with a loud clatter, and a stunning beauty with golden locks and emerald eyes entered the room.
“Pleased to meet you,” he said with a smile. “I’m Noah von Lindenburg.”
His dazzling smile captivated both the boys and girls in class, and I almost screamed with astonishment. And it seemed I couldn’t hide; Noah noticed my presence and mouthed, “Found ya!”
Why is he a student here?! Why am I in this situation?! It seemed the peaceful school life I yearned for was long in the past. I had a funny feeling that as the school year went on, I’d get dragged into more troublesome incidents, and I vehemently prayed to a deity—any deity, really—that my hunch was wrong.