“This girl here—she’s your former fiancée, right? You better listen to what she has to say.”
How the hell did my master, a commoner, even know about my ex-fiancée? Before I could even get a word in, though, the master shoved me and Mira—no, Countess Faltan—into the workshop room of the atelier and stormed out.
After Mihail and First Prince Regulus left, we’d been avoiding each other’s gaze the whole time, both feeling awkward. Maybe the master sensed something too. An awkward silence hung in the air, but I pointed to the chair the master and that shameless writer always used. “Please sit.” I sat down in the seat opposite. “Why are you here, Countess Faltan?”
“Um...if it’s not too much trouble, could you just call me ‘Mira’ like before?”
“I’m a commoner now. But if that’s what you want, it’s easier for me too. So, why are you here, Mira?”
Mira sat down, looking relieved. But before I could finish speaking, she lowered her face again. She still seemed to lack confidence in herself.
“Actually...”
After a moment of silence, I asked why she’d been there. Her response left me utterly stunned.
After our engagement had been broken off, I hadn’t even contacted Mira for about three years. The thing was, after she took a leave of absence from school, my feelings had become completely consumed by Sienna. I’d even completely forgotten we’d ever been engaged. I’d never imagined Mira would conspire with the church and Duchess Robur to try to restore my status as a noble.
But why? Sure, our engagement had lasted a long time, and, facing her like this, I still felt affection for her...but she was the one who’d broken it off.
Though of course, back then I’d been a fool, completely swept up in my first love, Sienna.
My feelings for Mira hadn’t been love. But after so long together, there was affection—a sense of duty, like I had to protect her. I’d decided my priority wasn’t Sienna, but my fiancée, Mira.
When she told me she was breaking it off, I hadn’t been happy. I felt a sense of liberation, but also emptiness...
“Ah, um! I-I...” Even now, panicking, Mira couldn’t seem to speak properly.
My face relaxed with nostalgia. “Calm down and talk to me. I’ll listen.”
“Please marry me!”
“Huh?”
Huh? What? Marriage?! That completely out-of-the-blue request made my eyes go wide in shock.
“No, wait, um, no, it’s not that, I mean, it is, but...” Mira’s eyebrows knit together until they almost touched in the middle.
Ah, this was probably our long engagement fostering feelings that were spinning out of control, making her feel some weird sense of responsibility, right? Probably the same kind of feelings I’d had for her back then. It genuinely made me happy, pure and simple, knowing someone still genuinely cared about a guy like me. A smile spread across my face.
“Thanks, Mira. Hearing you say that makes me really happy. And of course, I wouldn’t mistake your feelings for love for me or anything.”
“Huh? M-Mistake?”
“Look, I believed that if anything happened to me, Shua—no, the second prince—would save me, as his subject. I believed he’d never abandon me or run to save himself, no matter what. That’s why I pledged my sword to him. The second prince was praised as a righteous crown prince, just like the late king back then. I believed he’d become a great king, following in the footsteps of that crown prince, overflowing with loyalty. I believed it completely. And then, my loyalty was spectacularly trampled on.”
“By the second prince? Then it really wasn’t Lady Robur’s fault after all...”
“Mira, you took a leave of absence from the Academy, and yet you noticed it. I didn’t even pick up on something so obvious. How embarrassing. Of course my becoming a commoner has nothing to do with the lady. Her bad reputation isn’t just about magic power or magic this and that... Well, actually, the whole ‘evil incarnate’ thing is a lie. It was the second prince’s faction, me included, who spread those rumors. The second prince took a leave of absence from the Academy under the pretext of recuperating his mind and body, and he’s been running from responsibility ever since. As a result, cleaning up after him has fallen entirely to us, the student council officers. Of course, most of us followed his example, abusing our positions and acting without restraint. Since most officers are high-ranking nobles, when student council members—symbols of discipline—act like that, the influence is huge. We, the ones who influenced others, and the students we influenced were at fault. I get it now that it’s only natural for us to be criticized, but still... I can’t stop feeling like the second prince betrayed us.”
“But...then why is Lady Robur with you now?”
“The lady showed me the path of an artist. If not for that... I’d probably have become nothing but a worthless piece of trash, thinking only of myself—clinging to your feelings just to get back into the nobility.” My thoughts drifted to the confinement training that had begun just before the second semester. Honestly, even now... Truly, in so many ways, I’d felt my life was in danger during the training. Days so packed I didn’t even have the luxury of being distracted by stray thoughts. My schedule was packed solid from here on out.
Thanks to that, even when the official disownment certificate had arrived from my former family, the ducal Asche family... Well, I really didn’t have the time to be depressed, even though I was just a commoner now. All that gloomy, resentful blame from others? It just didn’t matter anymore.