Chapter 44: Escaping Loneliness

Music room. Science room. Art room.
We see these room names while checking our path. The names seem ordinary but since magic is involved in the lessons it is actually not as ordinary as it sounds.

About halfway through our exploration, I checked the time and it seems we still have some time left to spare before school is over……at that moment I suddenly remembered why I was planning to meet up with Keito.

「Speaking of which, how was your cla.s.s?」

「……Isn"t the question rather late?」

「I didn"t hear anything about it though」

I was thinking of asking him as soon as we met in the dining hall, but I ended up completely forgetting about it after the appearance of the new character Sashia and the surprise from Greas-sensei.

After our entrance, I was worried about Keito who enrolled at the last minute and how he was adjusting……espicially since Keito"s grade also had many unsettling elements to it. Ah, but mostly all because of a certain person. Because he and the prince are childhood friends I don"t want to become too involved with them.

Well the reason is also because I am taking precautions against his overly attaching "love" but at the same time I just don"t want to actively a.s.sociate with him either.

「Nothing……nothing in particular happened. I introduced myself normally, answered some questions and that was all」

「Did you make any friends?」

「I cannot make any right away on the first day with my personality」

Please don"t say that yourself……was what I wanted to say, but if I handled this poorly it would just come back to bite me.

「How about talking with the person sitting next to you?」

As expected, in this sort of situation the person sitting next to him would be the one most likely to become his friend.
Though in my case I couldn"t bring myself to do so since I was sitting next to Sashia. Sashia himself would probably try to befriend me but I would like to refrain. Because I am afraid of accidentally raising a flag after all.

「Oh, the person sitting next to me is the prince actually so I can"t really speak to him all causally」

「Wh-……!!」

A bomb was just tossed forth without any hesitation. Because I wasn"t prepared for it I ended up stumbling a bit.
Keito-san, did you just say the prince?
Eh, he probably meant prince as in an incredibly handsome ikeman who was worthy of being called that right? He couldn"t possibly mean a real-life prince like the one where it could written down as an occupation right? I"m begging you please don"t make me face such a reality!
But it seems my wish wasn"t conveyed telepathically over to Keito.

「I think it was Prince Runa? He"s quite amazing and really gives off the impression of a prince」

「……Yes, I know that」

I met him, I talked to him, I was even selected as his fiancee candidate. I believed I was smoothly removed from the fiancee candidate selection because I hadn"t been contacted since then.

Rather, Keito even you too?
Not only me but even my childhood friend is involved with this next door neighbor capture target-san.
I even got him involved during the time with Niel……no, even during the time with Greas-sensei. Keito also knows about Tuvalu but that"s only because I complained about him to Keito.
Hm? Isn"t he rather involved then? Though it"s mainly all due to me.

「Rather than me what about Maria?」

「Eh?」

「You also need to make some friends」

This guy is really direct isn"t he? If he wasn"t my childhood friend I would"ve made him suffer a great pain by dealing a clean hit right to him.
But because I"ve known him for a long time, I understand that he is just genuinely worried about me.

「I am a male and I am fine with it since that"s just how I am, but Maria cannot do that」

「I’m really glad that you actually understand me……」

Both Keito and I aren"t frantic about making friends because of our personalities.
Close and deep is our ideal, we are satisfied with having just a few close friends. Even during the time with Niel, I had helped him since I was asked but we also became friends because we liked each other. Otherwise I wouldn"t have continued holding tea parties even after his reclusive state had improved. He"s a capture target after all, it would"ve been a ha.s.sle.
But unlike Keito I cannot just stay alone all by myself just because something is troublesome.

The difference between Keito and I…..put briefly is our social status.
Unlike Keito who is a commoner, a n.o.ble like myself is required to have the ability to communicate. Especially since I"m a female along with being a n.o.ble"s daughter, the process of socializing is also an important element.

Thus being all alone by myself in middle school…..is a bit of a problem.

「Before worrying about others worry about yourself first」

「Yes……」

『I"ll listen if you have anything you want to talk about』he could"ve been trying to comfort me……but in the meantime we finished our exploration and headed back to the dormitories side by side.