In his dream, Byleon was back in his academy days.
It was the final semester before graduation. Fortunately, it wasn't a dream about taking an exam. Of course, even if he had dreamt of a surprise math test, he would have easily scored a perfect mark.
Byleon strolled leisurely across the campus. He overheard the conversation of some female students walking a few paces ahead of him.
"Are you going to make the first move, or are you going to wait for someone to ask you?"
"I'm going to wait."
The student who was asked replied, a bit coyly.
"I won't pick until I have three candidates."
"Honestly, that ridiculous pride of yours."
"What? So you're going to ask someone?"
"What's wrong with that?"
The student who had spoken first shrugged.
"Better to make the first move than to lose him to someone else while you're just watching. I read in a column yesterday that popular guys often end up with the girl who has the guts to ask first."
The other student, who had initially been dumbfounded by such a strange notion, soon became interested in the content of the column her friend had read.
Byleon gave a faint smile. From his classmates' conversation, he could immediately tell what time of year it was.
It was the season of subtle mind games among students regarding the selection of partners for the graduation ball.
While some couples had confirmed their mutual feelings early on, most of the graduating class was so preoccupied with choosing a partner that they often passed notes even during class.
As an aside, Byleon was accustomed to a life of being called out to places like the swings under the library tree, only to receive confessions. It was something he had experienced often since entering the Imperial Academy.
However, even for Byleon, who was entirely used to receiving confessions and politely turning them down, this was the period when he truly faced difficulties.
He was the gentle and handsome student council president. This was their first and last chance to dance with him! If they missed this opportunity, the next place they might reunite with him would be at a formal ball held in the Imperial Palace years later.
That was a strict setting, filled with high-ranking nobles and important figures of high society. No matter how brilliant a peer from the Imperial Academy might be, it would be difficult for them to casually approach Byleon without drawing the eyes of others.
It had been several weeks since the rumor spread that the young master of the Viers family would begin his career at the Imperial Palace immediately upon graduation.
Therefore, a sense of desperate impatience permeated the female student body: *this was their final chance to summon the courage!*
At the time, Byleon had already chosen his younger sister, Chloe, who attended a nearby girls' school, as his partner.
When he gently said he already had someone to accompany him, everyone would look discouraged, saying, "Ah, as expected..." But once they found out that the partner was his young biological sister, they would all suddenly start to sparkle and attempt to ask him out again, as if they had made a pact.
It was no easy task to gently let people down day after day.
And yet, of all the many days he spent at the academy, why was he dreaming of this particular time?
Since it was a dream, why not try something he never did while in school? For instance, skipping class to read a book on the roof.
If he did that, he wouldn't run into anyone, and at least he wouldn't receive any more troublesome partner requests.
While planning this in his head, Byleon’s feet were faithfully heading toward his classroom.
‘Hmm?’
There was someone in the hallway. The girl, who was much shorter than Byleon, was standing on her tiptoes, seemingly curious about the inside of the classroom.
Byleon recognized that she was a first-year student by the ribbon color of the school badge on her jacket.
The girl, whose brown hair curled at the ends like a cinnamon roll, was covering her face with a thick notebook. Above the thick notebook, she wore horn-rimmed glasses as thick as the notebook itself.
Perhaps she was looking for a senior in her club or an older sibling. Byleon kindly spoke to the first-year student.
"Who are you looking for? Should I call them out for you?"
The girl, who had only been peeking with her eyes just above the notebook, turned to look at Byleon.
"Ah, I am... *gasp*...!"
As soon as the girl made eye contact with Byleon, she lifted the notebook all the way up to her forehead. Now, he couldn't see her face at all, only her brown hair with its beautifully curled ends.
"Eep! Ah, aaaaah! No. No! I'm sorry!"
"Did I startle you? I'm sorry..."
"No! No! Uwaaaaaah! I'm fine!"
Before he could say anything more, the girl bolted away. Byleon slowly withdrew the hand he had reached out into the air. She was a student who was incredibly fast on her feet for her small stature.
‘But those glasses don't have a prescription...’
Even though the lenses were that thick, the fact that there was no facial distortion at all meant the glasses had no prescription.
They suited her well, but why was she wearing glasses without a prescription? Was it a new trend among the underclassmen these days?
‘She has such pretty eyes; it's a waste to hide them.’
The moment he made eye contact with the girl was fleeting. The reason it remained in his memory despite being so brief was because of her mysteriously colored eyes.
Eyes like clear glass marbles. Darker than water-blue and lighter than a bright autumn sky. It was as if three drops of white paint had been added to a pale, dawning sky.
Suddenly, an inexplicable longing surged within him.
Why was he feeling such deep emotions toward a girl he was seeing for the very first time in today's dream? Feeling as if he were missing someone he hadn't been able to reach for a long, long time, Byleon pressed a hand over his left chest.
‘I should have at least asked for her name...’
◇ ◆ ◇
"Byleon."
A clear voice reached him from the other side of his consciousness. The moment he heard it, he knew exactly who the owner of the voice was.
"Byleon, can you hear my voice?"
When they were alone, Marien called him by his name instead of Sir Biers. At this realization, Byleon's heart fluttered.
"I have one piece of good news and one piece of bad news. Which one would you like to hear first?"
Marien didn't seem to realize that her lover had regained consciousness yet. Perhaps it was because he still had his eyes closed.
Byleon tried to open his eyes and look at Marien. However, for some reason, his eyes wouldn't open properly, as if heavy weights were attached to his eyelids.
It was fortunate that his consciousness seemed to be growing clearer. Byleon listened to Marien's words with his eyes shut.
"Since it's better to get the bad news over with, shall I start with that?"
Marien whispered for him to brace himself. It was similar to what Odette had said on the day of the ball. The story Odette had laid out afterward was truly heartbreaking. Given his previous experience, Byleon naturally tensed up.
"My goodness, you just moved, didn't you? I felt you tighten your grip on my hand."
Excitement permeated Marien's voice.
"They say that if a person gets too angry, their blood pressure rises and they collapse. But looking at you now, I think the opposite is possible, too. They wake up out of sheer outrage. Byleon, if you hear what I have to say, you might be able to jump right out of bed."
The longer her preamble went on, the more tense Byleon became.
‘Marien, just tell me quickly. My mind has already returned, and if I wait any longer, I feel like I'll collapse again before I can even jump up.’
Marien sighed before speaking. It was certainly bad news.
"That bastard Cain. He told Her Highness the Fourth Princess openly that he would take me. He asked if she would allow him to move my residence to the Ducal Castle once their alliance ends."
Suddenly, the day Marien had collapsed while searching the pond for her locket necklace came to mind.
At that time, Marien hadn't been in her right mind due to a high fever. Her sentences were disjointed, and her pronunciation wasn't clear. But Byleon remembered every single word she had said while crying.
Cain Blackwood had said he would make her a maid at the Ducal Castle.
The moment he heard that, something snapped inside Byleon. He was the bastard who had choked Marien from their very first meeting. After putting Marien in danger time and time again, he now dared to say he would make her his maid.
It seemed Byleon had realized it himself back then. The fact that Cain was coveting Marien.
It would be a lie to say his heart hadn't sunk, even though he knew how much Marien hated Cain. He was intensely anxious that the bastard might use force to take Marien away.
‘He didn't stop provoking me even after Marien became my lover. It's fine if he doesn't care about me. He's always been that kind of bastard.’
However, demanding Marien from his fiancée, Odette, was an entirely different matter.
"I told you he was a madman, didn't I? The bastard who deserves to have his manhood chopped off and deep-fried."
Marien spewed bitter curses in her fairy-like voice. Hearing the curses falling from her lips one after another, he felt the fire in his heart subside, if only a little.
"Ruler of the North, my foot. If I were a Northerner, I would have moved out of his territory as soon as I started walking. A bastard who must have dropped his brain on the street. The absolute shame of the North."
*That's right. Exactly. That's the very thing I wanted to say.* Byleon responded fervently in his mind.
"I bet even the Emperor cares more about what others think than that bastard does! Even the deposed, reckless Crown Prince would be more sensible than that human being. No, how can he blurt out in front of his fiancée that he will make her subordinate his mistress? It seems he threw the word 'respect' away on the battlefield. Ha, he didn't even offer the position of Duchess. It was strangely calculating in the midst of his insane rambling, which made it even more infuriating, you know?"
Marien was getting even angrier at her own words. Finally, unable to contain her rage, she struck the bed with her fist.
"He wants to have me, but he thinks I'm not Duchess material, right? You arrogant bastard. Fine, I will become a Duke, not a Duchess. I will become a Grand Duke and rise above your head! I'm truly so furious..."
Marien was suddenly startled, as if she had shocked herself.
"I—I must be crazy. Hitting the bed where a patient is lying. Are you okay? What do I do... What if your stitches burst?"
Pain was not a problem for Byleon. The sutured area had been throbbing intensely even before Marien struck the bed anyway.
Even with painkillers, the throbbing would persist until the wound reasonably healed. He cared far more about hearing the rest of Marien’s story than about the pain.
But Marien was too busy worrying about the patient.
He was curious about how Odette had reacted after Cain caused that commotion, what conclusion had been reached that allowed Marien to return home safely, and what the good news was.
Above all, Byleon wanted to know exactly how much time had passed since he lost consciousness.
A day? Two days? Surely more than ten days hadn't passed, and Cain hadn't been up to more of his tricks in the meantime, had he?
Strength surged through Byleon's entire body. His eyes, which wouldn't open no matter how hard he tried, slowly fluttered open.
“Sir Biers, are you awake?”
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