Only then did the prince realize—
It wasn’t that others were strange.
He was the one who had been different all along.
Slowly, he began to let go of his expectations of others.
“…I lost.”
That was three years ago—
The finals of the Heros Knight Competition.
It was the first time Crown Prince Leon had ever tasted defeat.
His opponent: Ike, the disgraced son of the Duke of Axus.
Someone Leon hadn’t even considered worth noticing before the match.
He first met Ike at a high-society debut event.
Ike, overwhelmed and confused by the unfamiliar attention, merely observed everything in silence. But when his childhood friend, Reina, was in danger, he sprang into action, executing a breathtakingly fast stab to rescue her.
Leon had been impressed by that move.
He had approached Ike afterward, inviting him to join his faction—Only to be flatly rejected.
Later, Leon heard that Ike would be competing in the Hero’s Knight Competition.
Eager to challenge him, Leon entered the competition as well. He even hid his identity to avoid attracting unwanted attention.
During the qualifiers, Ike’s performance was disappointing.
Leon couldn’t see even a trace of the brilliance he had witnessed at the debut event.
In the Round of 16 and the quarterfinals, Ike improved slightly, but it was hardly enough.
By the semifinals, during his match with Helen, Leon felt even more let down.
Though Helen was competent, her weaknesses were obvious.
Leon couldn’t understand why Ike had gone to such lengths to exploit them.
The finals began.
As expected, Leon dominated Ike from the start.
Though Ike had prepared a number of strategies, to Leon they seemed no more than a child’s game.
Disappointment and frustration built up inside Leon.
He decided to end the match quickly—
And to do so, he chose to use the stab he had once admired.
But in that very moment—Leon was defeated.
Ike had refused to give up.
He attacked relentlessly until the end—And in doing so, he won.
Leon was stunned.
The outcome was so absurd, he couldn’t even process it.
Not until he saw that scene—
“I won, Reina.”
Ike raised his thumb in triumph, not toward the fallen Leon,
But toward someone else entirely.
Standing there in tears was Reina Rogelia—Leon’s fiancée, and Ike’s childhood friend.
An emotion too complex to name swept through Leon’s chest.
He couldn’t put it into words.
He could only reflect on it deeply.
“…Yes. Because of you, I saw something truly beautiful that day.”
If not for that moment, Leon might have forgotten what truly mattered—Things that couldn’t be gained by skill alone.
“That’s why… I don’t want you two to lose what’s most precious.”
He couldn’t do much. But his words were honest.
Just like Ike had smiled at Reina after winning the contest, Leon now smiled at her.
Whenever he mentioned that moment, Reina always smiled brightly.
“I hope the two of you can smile like that again.”
Leon smiled gently as he said it.
***
“What happened to Anna?”
It was clear that Anna had something to do with Reina’s drastic change.
“Could it be because of a request I made back then…?”
Anna wasn’t a character from the original story.
But Reina hadn’t always been like this—
If anything had changed, it was likely due to that one final request.
How could something so small have led to such a massive change?
“All I asked was, ‘No matter what happens, stay by Reina’s side and protect her.’”
“It sounds like you’re asking me to take care of your daughter.”
“Well… she is an old friend.”
That was the only conversation I had with Anna when I left Heros three years ago.
Could that simple exchange really have twisted things so much?
No matter how I thought about it, even the most far-fetched scenarios didn’t make sense.
“…Should I ask her directly?”
But how?
A conversation like this couldn’t happen with others around.
We’d have to be alone.
But Reina had already drawn a clear line between us.
If we couldn’t even be alone together, then what was the point of wondering whether we could talk?
“My thoughts are all over the place…”
No answers came.
Even the knowledge I retained from the original story offered no silver bullet for this situation.
“Are you worried about something?”
“Huh?”
A hand settled on my shoulder.
I turned around—
And there stood the one person I had completely forgotten until now.
Ender Arcana, dean of Arcana Academy.
***
[Reina’s POV]
For some reason, I had been summoned to the counseling room early in the morning.
It was only 7 a.m.—classes at Arcana didn’t start until 9.
I had no idea why I’d been called.
At best, I figured it might be about yesterday—
Maybe a reprimand for the incident with the special student.
Still, the fault had clearly been on the other side.
Even if I’d overreacted, there was little that could be said against me.
When a commoner disrespects a noble, the response is left entirely to the noble in question.
Even so, being summoned this early just for that felt… off.
“I’ll be entering now.”
No response came after I knocked.
“…I’m coming in.”
“Come in.”
Perhaps the dean hadn’t heard me the first time.
His voice sounded subdued, likely due to the early hour.
“Yes.”
The door creaked open.
Smile.
Just like always.
Put on that soft, practiced smile.
With that resolve, I stepped into the counseling room.
“Welcome, Reina.”
And there he was—
The last person I ever wanted to see again—sitting before me.