The gold-encrusted carriage with the crest of the Victureo family entered duke Espine's estate and stopped before the stairs to the castle.
The coachman jumped down from his seat and opened the door for the passenger and a tense-looking red-haired youth wearing an elegant white uniform with black lining stepped out.
On his chest right above his heart shone a silver badge in the shape of a closed flower bud - a mark of a first-year student of the Aspakeony Academy.
The fifteen-years-old Grazio Mera Victureo.
"...keep it together..."
The boy muttered under his breath, straightening his back and clenching his fist in anticipation of what was about to come.
The coachman had already rushed to inform the people in the mansion about the young lord's arrival so waiting patiently was the only thing that the boy could do...
Still, one minute passed, then two... five... and then ten...
Fifteen minutes later, the door to the castle finally opened and a sad girl with long almost completely black hair with a green luster came out.
"..."
Grazio flinched at the sight. He knew her since childhood but in recent months Miriette Lisea Espine changed to a ridiculous degree.
Before she was proud, beautiful, and confident but in recent months she seemed to get inflicted with incurable insomnia and let herself go because of devastating exhaustion.
She stopped caring about fancy hairstyles and just let her long hair cover most of her face – which actually wasn't such a bad thing because of how sickly pale her complexion was and how dark the circles under her eyes were.
Miriette appeared to be keeping a prideful pose but her head was always lowered – not because she was afraid or bashful but rather because she was in mourning.
She might have been wearing the same uniform as Grazio, but because of her unique trait, the abundance of hair that moved according to her emotions, it was well obstructed to the point of looking like casual clothes.
"...lady Espine... did... did you forget the badge...?"
Grazio took a deep breath and called out to the girl who seemed both miserable and threatening at the same time, tapping the silver badge on his own chest.
"..."
"!!!"
Miriette glared at the red-haired boy without a word causing him to shudder and back off instinctively...
"Hmph..."
But the worst-case scenario that Grazio envisioned didn't happen and the dark-haired girl merely shoved her hand under the curtain of her disheveled hair and excavated the mark of the first-year student from underneath it.
"Pest, don't underestimate me."
Miriette scoffed, and out of pure spite ended up putting the silver badge up to her forehead like a hairpin that kept her hair from getting into her left eye.
"...My lady, that's not exactly according to the dress code... if you would just accept an attendant to assist you every day..."
"Shut up, Pest. Why are you even here? I was under the impression that Ehmi will be the one to pick me up."
The red-haired boy cleared out his throat and attempted to insert a subject that his parents instructed him to mention, but got immediately shot down by a disgusted Miriette.
The dark-haired girl was so mad that it wouldn't be odd if she spat to the side.
"Big... big sister wanted to! But the first prince showed up at our mansion while she was preparing and used the authority as her fiance to make her go with him!"
"..."
The red-haired boy almost bit his tongue trying to explain his sibling's behavior – thankfully Mireitte seemed to understand the circumstances because she didn't interrupt him this time.
"She really didn't want to because of the prior commitment with you but you know how his highness is!"
Believing that the atmosphere was getting better made Grazio's tone change to a more familiar one as Miriette was approaching him.
"And, my lady, I am not speaking out ill will nor do I lack trust in your ability to take care of yourself – but my mother personally selected the best of the best of attendant candidates and..."
Striking the iron while it was hot was one of the maxims of the Victureo household and Grazio went straight back to the attendant talk while Miriette was standing still in front of the carriage's closed door.
"...all of those girls have spotless backgrounds and perfect references and...!"
"Pest. You can't even open the door for me, it seems that you are not just a pest but trash instead. Should I adjust the favorable nickname I call you, my childhood friend, with?"
"!!!"
The dark-haired girl sighed and asked turning her head just enough for Grazio to experience the weight of her contemptuous glare.
"N-no, but...! But isn't that a servant's job...? O-our families agreed to our engagement and..."
Grazio became flustered and blushed, shaking his head and waving his hands in a futile attempt to hide his embarrassment – or maybe it was a way for him to show off the golden ring with a large ruby on the ring finger of his right hand.
"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..."
In response, Miriette's head hung down even lower than usual, and she let out a ridiculously exaggerated sigh so that even the densest of the dense idiots would catch on how upset she was.
"Mi... umm... My lady...?
Grazio gulped down his saliva and chickened out before actually calling out the girl's name while she reached out towards the still-closed door of the carriage.
Grazio didn't get the hint because he was too busy looking at Mireitte's left hand she was grabbing onto the carriage's door with...
"Hold on! My lady, why aren't you wearing your engagement ring?!"
The red-haired boy called out urgently, first pointing at the girl's ring finger where she put a crude heavy-looking bolt-like signet made out of a cloudy-white crystal... instead of the matching golden ring with a ruby to compliment her fiance...
"Oh, I will tell you that after we arrive at the Aspakeony Academy, Trashy-pest."
Miriette shrugged her shoulders, opened the door herself, and jumped inside gracefully helping herself with the levitation spell.
"M-my lady! Why did you open the door yourself? It's the duty of the... urgh...! Where is that damn coachman anyway?!"
Grazio gasped in shock before stepping getting on a carriage's step, about to follow Miriette inside.
"...huh...?"
But the next moment his face was mushed into the back of the dark-haired girl's hand she reached out to stop his entrance.
This chapter is updat𝙚d by f(r)eewebn(o)vel.com