Chapter 1

She got engaged to the person she had loved in secret for five years.

You’d think that would be something worth celebrating, wouldn’t you?

Well…

When Tislin heard the news of her engagement from her parents, she burst into tears.

“I think you’re the strange one.”

Sierra Fontaine declared it matter-of-factly.

Curled up on a sofa in one corner of the dormitory lounge, Tislin sat blankly staring into space with a large mug clasped in both hands. Sierra looked at her as if she were watching someone who had lost her mind.

Tislin barely seemed to hear her.

“How can they decide something this important without even asking me? They could’ve asked me just once!”

“I get why you’d be upset, but is it really something to cry over? Most engagements are like this.”

That was true enough.

To begin with, how often were children actually asked for their opinions when it came to engagements? Usually, the adults weighed every advantage and disadvantage before making the decision for them.

And considering that this carefully chosen fiancé was someone like him, Tislin ought to be kneeling in gratitude to her parents instead of crying her eyes out.

“Objectively speaking, there’s nothing lacking about him, is there? It’s not like you’re in love with someone else.”

“…Actually, there is.”

“Did you confess and get rejected?”

Sierra had only meant it as a joke.

But…

Tislin didn’t answer.

Sierra’s eyes lit up.

By then, the day’s final class had apparently ended, and students began drifting into the lounge one after another. Grabbing Tislin by the arm, Sierra pulled her to her feet.

“We can’t talk here. Let’s go to your room.”

With vacant eyes, Tislin let herself be dragged away like a sheet of paper fluttering in the wind.

“Tislin, are you sick?”

A classmate entering the lounge spotted her and asked.

“You look terrible. Your eyes are all swollen.”

“She ate a midnight snack last night.”

Sierra answered without missing a beat and tugged Tislin along.

The classmate tilted their head at the sight of Tislin being dragged away so obediently, but when their friends called out to them, they quickly ran over.

By the time every sofa in the lounge had filled with students chatting idly, the sharp sound of military boots echoed through the room.

It was an unusually heavy set of footsteps—one rarely heard in the Administrative Studies Department lounge.

Startled by the unfamiliar sound, students who had been absorbed in chess games, newspapers, and thick books gradually looked up.

“Huh? Senior Ksanov?”

“Do I know you?”

The tall young man tilted his head.

The student who had spoken instinctively gasped the moment their eyes met his brilliant blue ones.

Of course, they only knew him.

The young man, dressed impeccably in the Knight Department’s uniform without a single crease out of place, was one of the most famous people in the entire academy.

The upperclassmen whispered his name to the wide-eyed freshmen, who immediately gasped as well.

“Is that really Lord Ksanov? Seriously?”

“It is. He looks exactly like he does in the newspapers.”

Damian Ksanov.

A disciple of the Grand Duke of Luxen, he was someone who wouldn’t have remained at the academy at all if it weren’t by royal command.

At sixteen, he had fought in the Great Parfanan War, earned distinction during the pacification of southern Parfanan, and received the kingdom’s highest-class medal directly from the king.

In fact, students from departments other than the Knight Department saw him in newspapers far more often than they ever saw him on campus.

“I’m looking for Tislin Ermiz.”

Receiving no answer from the student he’d questioned, Damian casually waved the letter held between his index and middle fingers.

He swept his gaze across the lounge.

The person he was looking for was nowhere to be found.

“U-Um… Tislin already went back to her room.”

“…Already?”

It was only four in the afternoon.

Dinner wasn’t even close.

She’d already gone back to the dormitory?

As everyone’s curious eyes turned toward them, the classmate fidgeted nervously.

“I-I think she wasn’t feeling very well. Her eyes were all swollen.”

Right… Sierra had said it was because of a midnight snack.

The excuse came back to them far too late.

Damian Ksanov’s expression stiffened ever so slightly before he gave a small nod.

“If she’s not here, then that’s fine.”

With that, he turned on his heel and walked away.

As the sound of his boots faded into the distance, the students who had silently watched the entire exchange instantly erupted into chatter.

“Wow, that was really Damian Ksanov.”

“I’ve been at this academy for three years, and that’s the first time I’ve actually seen him. So he really does come to school.”

“Is he really that rare?”

“My younger brother’s in the Knight Department. Apparently he hardly ever shows up because he’s busy with the Royal Guard.”

“But why was Lord Ksanov looking for Tislin? It’s not like she’d have anything to do with the Knight Department.”

The conversation instantly shifted to the obvious question.

“Did anyone hear anything?”

“No idea. She went upstairs with Sierra earlier. She looked kind of dazed, and her eyes were swollen.”

“Maybe they know each other?”

“Wouldn’t it make more sense if he was delivering a message from a professor?”

“What professor would send Damian Ksanov on an errand instead of any other student?”

“How should I know? Maybe one of the Knight Department professors…”

Speculation spread in every direction.

But since there wasn’t much else to do during their break besides the usual chess matches and predictable debates, the students happily passed the time chewing over the newest piece of gossip.

* * *

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

Leaning against the headboard of her bed, Tislin muttered quietly.

The dormitory room she had lived in for three years was spacious and well furnished, befitting accommodations for noble sons and daughters.

Yet today, it felt unusually empty and bleak.

A chill crept over her, as though a cold wind had passed straight through her body.

“Hasn’t the bad thing already happened?”

Sierra, sprawled across the sofa like laundry hung out to dry, grinned as she gestured toward Count Ermiz’s letter lying open on Tislin’s desk.

She had a point.

Could anything more ominous happen than this?

“I really never wanted something like this.”

“What? Did Lord Ksanov say he’d rather die than marry you?”

“If only it were something that simple…”

If that were really the case, at least everything would be clear.

Besides, Damian Ksanov wasn’t the type to say something so cruel.

The truth was a little more complicated.

As Tislin hesitated, Sierra asked the most fundamental question.

“By the way, your family doesn’t even live anywhere near the Grand Duchy of Luxen. So how do you two know each other?”

“Well…”

After Tislin spent several moments fumbling for an answer, Sierra cut her off firmly.

“Either tell me or don’t. Decide now. If you’re not going to say anything, I’ll just comfort you a little and head to bed.”

Tislin let out a long sigh.

“So… Damian and I…”

She hesitated again.

“It’s not like we’re… anything special.”

Finding the right words wasn’t easy.

Sierra clicked her tongue.

‘Damian.’

That wasn’t how people addressed someone they barely knew.

The Royal Siedel Academy, sponsored by the Cassidy-Manorca royal family, was one of the largest academies on the continent.

But despite its size, the student body—made up mostly of noble teenagers and young adults—was surprisingly close-knit.

Rumors spread fast.

If there had been a female student close enough to casually call Damian Ksanov by his first name, everyone would have known already.

Yet even Sierra—Tislin’s closest friend—had no idea the two knew each other.

The reason was simple.

No one had ever seen them together.

They didn’t even exchange greetings in classes shared between the Administrative Studies and Knight Departments.

Of course, the semester had only started two weeks ago, and Lord Ksanov was always surrounded by crowds of people…

Still…

They had never once acted as if they knew each other.

And yet they were apparently close enough to call each other by name?

This wasn’t an ordinary story.

“It’s hard to explain in just a sentence… Should I tell you everything? Want to hear it?”

“Wait. Let me go get some popcorn.”

Tislin couldn’t help laughing.

Sierra actually went to the dormitory kitchen, returned with a huge bowl of popcorn, and settled onto the sofa across from the bed.

Then, as if it were an afterthought, she casually mentioned something unexpected.

“Tis. Looks like Lord Ksanov came looking for you earlier. I stopped by the lounge to share some popcorn with Kisha and Irina, but everyone was talking about you and Lord Ksanov. I had to sneak away before anyone dragged me into the conversation.”

So that was the source of her bad feeling.

She had almost run into him.

He was about to bring up our engagement in front of all my classmates and juniors!

Tislin buried her face between her knees and screamed silently.

Just imagining it made her dizzy.

“But if Lord Ksanov came all the way here looking for you, your relationship can’t be that bad, can it?”

Cradling the bowl of popcorn, Sierra looked at her expectantly.

Come on, tell me what happened.

Tislin thought for a moment about where to begin.

In the end, she decided to start at the very beginning.

Their first meeting.

“I was eight years old. Damian was ten.”

“Whoa, you’re starting from there? Are we even going to finish this story today?”

“Um… I could give you the short version.”

“If you can.”

Then she’d have to skip all the details and tell only the most recent events.

After all, those events were the real reason she had cried when she heard about the engagement.

“About a month ago… I kind of confessed to him on impulse.”

“And?”

“He rejected me because if we broke off our relationship, Adele wouldn’t be able to see me anymore.”

“I was so shocked and embarrassed that I told him I’d never see him again… then I ran away.”

“And after that… this letter arrived.”

“…Hey.”

Sierra stared at her.

“Start from the beginning.”

“Who on earth is Adele?”

And so, the conversation returned to the very first meeting.

Back when Tislin was eight years old…

And Damian was ten.

This is how it all began.