For Your Failed Unrequited Love

Actually, Renee was not the only one looking at Felix with regret. The girls standing with Renee also admire Felix. 

Felix, who left his seat to escape the troublesome girls, simply drifted away like the wind.

It was fortunate that he didn’t even look at Renee. But looking at the crowd of girls looking sadly at his back, Lucy realized one thing she had forgotten.

It was that, just like Adrian, the female students were also interested in Felix.

He is handsome, excellent in swordsmanship, simple and honest and he seems to have a good relationship with his friends due to his easy-going personality. Besides, he is the heir to the Duke of Berg.

There can be no girl who is not interested in him.

……she forgot for a while because she only saw her sunbae’s inexplicable and weird sides for the past few days.

The Xenomium Academy is a paradise for girls who were after Felix.

It was not a time to be relieved just because he asked her to wait.

Lucy stood up from the bench while looking at the girls looking at Felix’s disappearance with wary eyes.

She tried to compose herself, but her face as she left the seat was somehow filled with nervousness.

* * *

By November, the cold air, which naturally made the people adjust their clothing, filled the campus. Students with early colds were heard coughing everywhere.

It was cold, but the trees with red leaves were spectacular to see.

Thanks to this, during noon, when the warm sunlight shines, there is a crowd of students who want to walk around the beautiful campus. 

Among them, there were several people who did not appear to be enrolled in the Academy.

They were the young ladies and lords of a noble family, and they were all walking along the campus with their servants.

They were all young students who wanted to enter the Xenomium Academy next year. The academy opened the campus for the aristocratic children who wanted to enter the school.

They looked around the academy buildings and gardens with their faces full of excitement and admiration to the students walking around in school uniforms.

“Oh! So cute!”

Jemima, who was looking out the window in the classroom, said with a happy smile.

She stood in front of the magnificent and beautiful academy building, looking down at a girl.

“We were so young two years ago.”

“What are you talking about, Jemima? We’re still young.”

But even in Lucy’s eyes, the girl, who would be only two years younger than them, looked so young that she felt strange.

“In a few months, it will be crowded with new students again.”

“Hmn, we’ll be in the graduating class then. Alas, I never thought about what I would do after graduation!”

Suddenly, Jemima tore her hair out and made a painful sound.

“I don’t have an estate to inherit like my brother!”

Lucy tried her best to stop Jemima from pulling her hair.

“My father already told me to get married as soon as I graduate.”

Lucy and Jemima stopped moving at the same time as Rita muttered. The two looked at Rita with astonishment.

“What? Rita, I thought you’d stay in the capital and get a job!”

“Yes, you wanted to work as a bureaucrat in the palace.”

“That’s true, but…….”

Rita blurted out the end of her words. Lucy, who was about to say something more, shut up when she saw her bitter expression.

Lucy already knew that marriage was a means to the aristocracy.

Most of the aristocratic students at the academy marry a suitable partner after graduation. In the first place, there were many cases where they already have a fiancé even before they entered the academy. 

For them, marriage was not just love, but an alliance between families.

Therefore, it would be difficult for Rita, the daughter of a Northern noble family, to refuse the marriage that was decided against her will.

“Well, marriage is supposed to be done with the people chosen by your family.”

Rita replied with a womanly tone as if nothing had happened. But the next moment, she looked at Lucy’s face and hesitated to speak.

“But…… Felix-sunbae is rumored to be like that, too.”

“Felix-sunbae?”

At Rita’s significant words, Lucy asked back with her eyes wide open.

“Recently, there is a rumor that he is engaged to a princess from a certain kingdom in the Western Continent….”

Rita stopped abruptly when she saw Lucy’s face.

“It’s all right. Tell me about the rumor, Rita.”

“……There was a rumor saying that he went to the west coast this time to advance his marriage with the princess. But I’m not sure!”

Looking at Lucy’s face getting darker, Rita hurriedly added. But Jemima, who was listening to Rita next to her, snorted loudly.

“What? I don’t believe it! It’s all just a rumor!”

She even patted Lucy on the back and laughed.

“Rita! If you had seen sunbae’s face on Knight’s Night, you would never believe a rumor like that! He is so into Lucy! I saw it!”

Because Jemima’s voice was so high, Lucy had to hurry up and cover her mouth.

“Well, I was surprised to hear that, too. Who knew he’d climb up the wall to the third floor?”

While Jemima and Rita were increasingly eager to talk about what happened that night, Lucy fell into a deep thought alone.

Felix is the heir to the Duke of Berg, and it was natural for his family to choose his fiancé.

So, it was not strange at all if the other person was a princess of any kingdom.

Of course, as Jemima said, it could have been a false rumor. Felix has always been at the center of attention, and rumors always follow him.

For a moment, Lucy’s mind gradually began to calm down.

It’s just a rumor. Felix-sunbae didn’t say anything about that at all.

She decided to trust Felix over rumors.

Lucy had already been misled several times by other people’s rants. Now she didn’t want to make the same mistake again.

Contrary to her firmness, however, the engagement rumor, which she believed was just one of the numerous rumors surrounding Felix, began to spread far in the students’ tongues.

In addition, as rumors spread more and more, they even turned into concrete facts.

When Rita told her about it, his fiancé, who was just a princess of the Western Continent, was transformed into a specific figure, the eldest daughter of the Kingdom of Bertha.

The Kingdom of Bertha was a country famous for its art and studies, and was also a place where trade was actively conducted with the Beros Empire. A princess of such a country was certainly a perfect match for the Duke of Berg.

She tried to ignore it, but as she listened to the words inevitably, a beautiful woman was being portrayed in Lucy’s head.

She knew how useless and self-destructive it was, but her mind didn’t work out as she originally thought. Lucy had to struggle not to listen to her surroundings and to stop imagining things happening in her head.

However, something happened that immediately destroyed those efforts.

The rumored ‘Princess Berta’ suddenly appeared at the Xenomium Academy.

* * *

Princess Clothill of the Bertha Kingdom was walking slowly along the campus with her servants behind her. While enjoying the colorful campus scenery, she led her maids around the building.

The 16-year-old said she had been staying in Bethel, the capital, for months, with the aim of entering the Xenomium Academy.

“Wow…! The princess really came to the academy?”

Jemima, who was walking along the road on the campus, muttered loudly without realizing it and hurriedly turned to Lucy as she remembered she was next to her. 

“Well, I guess she really wanted to come to our academy!”

Lucy just looked at Princess Clothill without a reply.

The princess was a girl with rich brown hair. A 16-year-old young lady with sparkling eyes full of curiosity that looked very cute.

The princess didn’t seem to match Felix at all. Lucy found her too young.

She doesn’t look at all old enough to be engaged. Did she really come to the empire because of his engagement with Felix-sunbae?

Thinking about this and that, Lucy was in agony.

“Lucy……, Lucy!”

Lucy came to her senses at the sound of Jemima shaking her shoulders.

“Let’s go in now.”

Lucy took her eyes off Princess Clothill and followed Jemima and Rita to the library.

Lucy knew well that drowning herself in thoughts would only increase her delusions. However, Princess Clothill’s face, which was shining brightly and kept glittering in front of her eyes.

To shake that face off, Lucy had to devote herself more to organizing the book.

Overshadowing the effort, a group of people appeared in the library after a while. It was Princess Clothill and her servants.

Lucy’s gaze, which was sitting on the return table, automatically turned to her. The princess seemed to have come to see the library after going around the campus.

She ordered the servants standing behind her to go away and brought only one servant into the library. It seemed to be to avoid disturbing students studying in the library.

“The library is very big.”

She could hear Princess Clothill speaking in an awkward imperial accent.

The princess and servant had a few more words. Soon the servant strode toward the return table.

“Excuse me, is this floor off limits?” asked the servant on behalf of the princess.

“It’s a place where old books are kept, so only students can enter.”

Rita, who was next to Lucy, replied.

“I see.”

The servant told the princess what she had heard. The princess nodded regretfully.

Just as they were about to turn around.

“Wait a minute.”

Lucy unwittingly rose from her seat and called the princess.

“I’ll… I’ll show you around.”