Huana de Rosalika Valentía.
The girl with the deeply furrowed brow was a princess of the Kingdom of Hispanya.
Her red hair gleamed like fire when the light caught it, and the blue eyes peering through those locks were strikingly vivid.
Perhaps it was her cat-like features, but even standing still, there was a sharpness to her — as though she were perpetually on guard.
…She was also his fiancée.
Click, click, click!
Brisk, impatient footsteps drew closer. Huana walked right up to him and stopped.
A face full of barely contained fury was thrust inches from his own. Matyos instinctively leaned back.
A brief silence — nothing but the sound of breathing between them.
"You're so annoying."
Huana said it low and flat.
"To think someone like you is my fiancé. If you can't even measure up as a man, the least you could do is try to impress me."
She launched into her tirade without warning. Remarkably, this was simply how she always was.
Her words were sharp, but her gaze lingered for a moment somewhere around Matyos's shoulder. She turned her head away with a huff.
Her eyes, at least, were still aware of him.
"…Yeah, sure."
Matyos scratched the back of his head.
Huana and Matyos were bound by an arranged engagement — a relationship decided by their elders, and naturally, neither of them had any feelings for the other.
'This wasn't in the original story.'
In the source material, Huana had been engaged to a different ducal house.
But her fiancé had made a pact with a demon, the engagement had fallen apart, and she'd gradually grown close to the protagonist — that was the heroine's arc.
For Matyos, who wanted nothing to do with the plot, she was a complication he didn't need.
She didn't seem particularly interested in him either. Hardly surprising, given it was an arranged engagement.
"Honestly… I have no idea why Father chose someone like you to be my fiancé."
Huana shook her head, muttering as if to herself.
"You should consider yourself lucky, you know."
She said it with her chin lifted, but her voice came out just a beat too fast.
"It's only because it's me that I'd accept someone like you as a fiancé. You're short, you're weak. What exactly do you have over me?"
She preened with all the self-satisfaction she'd apparently been cultivating since childhood.
"Fair enough."
Unlike her, Huana had a proper bloodline.
Trace it back far enough and you'd find no shortage of imperial emperors. A lineage that rivaled the imperial family itself.
He, on the other hand, was a cadet branch that had split off from the main family some five hundred years ago.
Being adopted into Moretti didn't change whose blood ran in his veins.
"Hmph. At least you admit it readily. We were never in the same league to begin with."
"Yep."
"Anyway, why did I ever end up engaged to someone like you. There are so many better men out there."
"Huana."
"What."
"If you want, I'll break off the engagement."
"…What?"
Huana, who had been holding her nose in the air with perfect composure, startled so hard she stumbled over her words.
"W-wait a moment."
The arrogance drained from her face, replaced by something that looked very much like panic. She hadn't expected the words 'break off the engagement' to come out of Matyos's mouth.
Her rosy lips opened and closed soundlessly before she threw both hands up and shrieked.
"W-when did I ever say I wanted to break off the engagement?! Well?!"
Huana's face had gone the color of a ripe tomato.
"What I mean is — so, ah, that's right! You should be grateful to me!"
"Thank you, Huana."
At the sound of her name, her shoulders went almost imperceptibly rigid.
"Ugh… why are you even over here?"
"Wanted to look around the car."
"Then what's that for?"
She tilted her head, pointing at the bulge in Matyos's thick jacket pocket. The grip of a pistol was sticking out.
"Self-defense."
"But you have mag— oh."
Huana seemed to realize something and let out a snickering laugh.
"Right, I suppose your magic is pretty pathetic. Fine, I get it~"
Snap — she flicked her fingers, and a hot flame bloomed to life, the same color as her hair.
Matyos looked at the fire dancing on her fingertip.
The reason firearms were considered obsolete in this era was simple.
Magic existed.
Guns were powerful, but they could never overpower magic.
Even a mage of the 3rd Circle could unleash firepower on par with a cannon.
A pistol, by contrast, could barely manage three shots per minute. To mages, it was a laughable kind of strength.
"If you're done, I'm going."
"Huh? Already…?"
"Anything else you wanted to say?"
"No… not really…."
Huana looked away and let the flame die out.
Matyos turned his back and walked away.
A few steps down the aisle, Huana spoke — quietly enough that Matyos couldn't possibly hear.
"…Stay safe out there."
* * *
Car No. 6 was bustling.
Students from every corner of the world were packed in together.
Unlike the noble-exclusive cars at the front, there were no partitioned rooms, no lavish furnishings.
The seats were separated by only the minimum of space, and passengers of entirely different origins were thrown together without ceremony.
Seated side by side at a window were a pair of siblings.
They looked as though they'd come straight from the countryside — their clothes and expressions equally unaffected.
"Wow… Taibeon. Look over there. It's the Alps. Isn't it beautiful?"
"No way…! How can a mountain be big enough to touch the sky?"
Her younger brother answered not with words but by pressing himself closer to the window. He nearly plastered his face against the glass as he spoke.
The sweeping panorama of the Almans Mountain Range — famed for its grandeur — filled his green eyes.
"I think I understand now… why people say it holds up the sky."
His older sister Tiana's green eyes shone as she nodded along.
She clasped the cross hanging at her neck tightly in both hands. Everything felt like the grace of God.
"…We're really going to the Academy. It doesn't feel real."
"Same for me. Let's give it everything we've got."
"Of course."
Taibeon answered with a bright, resolute nod.
The older sister was Tiana Pilrn. The younger brother, Taibeon Pilrn.
The siblings, whose very names evoked green meadows, had spent their lives herding sheep on a hillside at the empire's edge.
One ordinary day, a rider on horseback had appeared and handed them their letters of admission.
Their loving parents had urged them to go out and experience the wider world, and so the siblings had set off on this long journey.
There was no way their hearts wouldn't be overflowing.
Taibeon's heart was racing as though he were already running.
Everything that lay ahead felt like pure, undiluted anticipation.
"Country bumpkins making a fuss."
A voice dripping with contempt shattered Taibeon's daydream.
"Pardon…?"
The barbed voice came from the seats directly in front of them.
"I said you're loud. Yap yap yap. Do you own this train? Shut your mouths."
Taibeon looked up to find a group of boys with sour expressions glaring at them, brows deeply furrowed.
Taibeon couldn't find a single word to say — his mouth just hung open uselessly. For a boy who'd spent his life in peaceful pastures talking to sheep, this kind of naked hostility was a violence he had never once encountered.
Apparently satisfied by the sight of Taibeon struck dumb, the boys smirked and reached out. They shoved him in the chest, once, twice.
Then their attention shifted to Tiana, seated by the window.
A gentle beauty that no plain clothing could conceal piqued their curiosity.
"Hey, what's your name?"
"…."
Tiana said nothing. But unlike Taibeon, she wasn't cowering.
She looked at them with an expression that was unmistakably angry.
"Hey, I asked your name. What, are you deaf, cow?"
"…Shouldn't you introduce yourselves first, before asking someone else's name?"
Tiana's bold reply made the boys burst out laughing — as though they'd been waiting for exactly that.
The best-dressed among them answered with supreme confidence.
"Felix Nobringen, firstborn son of the Nobringen family."
His entire manner of speaking announced: 'I am nobility.'
"And?"
Tiana replied slowly.
So what? What does that have to do with anything?
She didn't even know what Nobringen was.
"Nobringen. You don't know it? I'm a noble!"
"I'm Tiana Pilrn, and this is my brother Taibeon Pilrn. What do you want with us?"
Tiana answered in the most businesslike tone she could manage.
Her intention to have nothing more to do with them was perfectly clear — but Felix, if anything, looked more intrigued, and leaned in closer.
"Right, Tiana Pilrn. Looks like it's your first time in the city — aren't you curious? Come sit next to me. I'll tell you everything you need to know about the Academy."
"No, thank you."
"Just sit down, would you? Come on, don't be shy."
"I'm fine."
"God. You really don't take a hint."
Felix reached out a rough hand toward Tiana's hair.
Thwap.
Taibeon caught Felix's wrist.
Felix tried to pull free — and couldn't. The grip was surprisingly strong. Felix blinked, momentarily thrown.
Taibeon's voice came out low and steady.
"Don't touch my sister."
"Ha."
Felix wrenched his wrist free with a rough jerk.
He cracked his neck with a delinquent's ease and rose from his seat. He stepped out into the aisle and planted himself in front of Taibeon.
"This little — do you have any idea who I am?"
The boys who appeared to be his lackeys stood up as well, positioning themselves behind Felix in a show of menace.
The atmosphere turned threatening in an instant.
"A commoner. Who the hell do you think you are, putting your hands on me. Filthy."
"Excuse me."
A young voice came from behind them.
Someone had decided to get involved.
"Ugh, what now."
One of Felix's lackeys turned around.
It was a small, slight boy — with features so fine he could have been mistaken for a girl.
His hair and eyes were an unusual ashen grey.
"Can't you see we're busy? Get lost."
"Stop picking on them."
"Who are you to say that?"
Thud!
The larger student shoved the boy roughly.
"Oof!"
At that, the students who had been quietly watching all drew a sharp breath at once.
W-what?
The large boy was momentarily flustered, but he puffed himself up and raised his voice.
"Do you know how important Felix's family is? He's the son of a count, no less!"
The boy didn't react.
Instead, he furrowed one brow in distaste and brushed off his shoulder with a few sharp pats.
His entire bearing said: beneath me.
Only then did the large boy notice that the atmosphere in the car had shifted.
The air had been strangely, heavily subdued for a while now. Until just a moment ago, everyone had been watching this scene unfold.
As though they desperately wanted no part of it.
Looking more carefully, the boy's clothing was anything but ordinary. The fabric was clearly fine silk. Every button gleamed gold. The trim was embroidered with gold thread — expensive at a glance.
On his chest was the emblem of a grey rose.
A grey rose?
"…Huh?"
A cold trickle of sweat ran down his spine. His fingertips trembled.
Only a dumb, hollow sound escaped him.
It was only then that the large student grasped the situation — whatever it meant — on pure instinct. He was done for.
The frozen atmosphere told him as much.
His companion, sweating profusely, tapped Felix on the shoulder.
"H-hey, Felix."
"What the hell?"
Felix spun around at the call.
Unlike his dim-witted lackey, the moment Felix saw that face, he recognized it immediately.
"…Huh?"
And went just as pale.