The Crown Prince In Hiding

"When did you get back?"

"Five o'clock..."

Her eyes drifted down to what the princess was holding.

Rafinya found herself face to face with a star-gazing manual.

"What are you doing with that?"

"I just finished a stargazing session."

"...Stargazing?"

"So I can help him."

Nora spoke with quiet conviction, her sharp eyes unblinking.

"Where did Mr. Fury take you in Tampa?"

After hearing the question, ruby-colored eyes lowered.

Once Nora had listened to the full account, the Princess of Snowhaven was no less stunned by the story of the body in the wall.

But Nora's reaction wasn't quite the same as Rafinya's. Nora had expected that something like this could happen... unlike the other girl.

Silence settled over the space for a long moment.

"I'm going to withdraw from the scholarship program."

"Why withdraw?"

"They were right... everything that happens inside here is just a simulation."

Coming from someone like Rafinya, who wore her school uniform pinned with a scholarship badge she had always worn with pride, those words left Princess Nora genuinely stunned.

It made clear that Rafinya had lost all faith in the Artheris institution's system after facing the real world.

I've realized it now.

The system we grew up in... it was all a lie.

"Won't your family have something to say about this?"

Nora asked.

Withdrawing from the scholarship program would certainly come with a penalty fee, and a noble household like Rafinya's had more than enough to cover it.

But what would follow from this decision was that Rafinya would need a convincing enough reason to quit. Without one, it could damage a wider web of relationships and stir resentment among the faculty.

"What reason are you going to give them?"

"I haven't figured that out yet..."

Rafinya lifted both hands and buried her face in them, her voice heavy with strain.

"But my heart just isn't there anymore."

Someone like Rafinya had been raised on military discipline.

So her thinking ran in straight lines: when she no longer wanted something, she left.

But Nora, as a member of the royal family, saw things from a different angle that Rafinya might not have considered.

"Your position in the system has built you a network you can actually use... are you sure you want to throw that away?"

"What do you mean..."

"I had the chance to spend time with Mr. Everton during the Kingdom Council. It made me realize that none of the elite adults think in just one dimension."

Princess Nora continued,

"I agree that the system doesn't teach what Mr. Fury teaches us. And Mr. Everton taught me that if you build alliances with the right people, it gets you to your goals much faster."

What Nora had in mind as she said this was President Fofana Steelers of Mathema.

Nora had learned and immediately recognized that the nation one step ahead of Snowhaven was Mathema, because Mathema had befriended Diablo before Snowhaven even had the chance.

President Fofana was willing to take bolder risks than Empress Ophilis, and because of that daring, Mathema had reaped a tremendous reward.

"You want me to... use the professors as a stepping stone?"

"I was born a princess, so I've never needed to depend on anyone. But for you, yes. You need to make use of the professors."

Nora said,

"Because no matter what, if someone is going to write a letter of introduction presenting you to the Pope, it's going to come from those professors, isn't it?"

Or was Luminus not structured that way?

"Well, not exactly..."

"Fighting skill alone will only take you halfway, unless you were born exceptional like Ms. Casca, and no one can ever be like her."

"So in your view, what do I need to do?"

"You have something Ms. Casca didn't have back then."

Connections. And rank.

Casca was the daughter of an ordinary enlisted soldier.

But Rafinya was the daughter of a great noble lord who governed northern Luminus.

Hearing that, Rafinya seemed displeased.

"Are you telling me to flatter people?"

"I see it more as a tool that gives you an edge over everyone else."

If you just bring your ego down a little and put what you have to good use.

"Because for me, flattery is just another strategy... as long as you don't make it too obvious."

Because the people being flattered aren't fools.

They can tell.

Especially coming from Nora, who had herself been on the receiving end of enough flattery to know it well.

But still.

"I couldn't do that."

Because it wasn't in Rafinya's nature. Not even slightly.

"...But using the professors as a stepping stone, that's worth thinking about."

She stood up.

"Help me with something."

"With what?"

The scene cut away, to Rafinya's dormitory room.

A wardrobe slid open. The point of view was from inside the wardrobe, looking out at two girls peering in.

Alongside the training clothes and school uniforms, what filled the space were Rafinya's various medals and awards, piled together in a careless, undignified heap.

"Why is it all such a mess."

"I'm not storing them. I'm about to throw them out."

"Throw them out?"

Nora's eyes moved across the pile.

"All of these?"

"They don't mean anything to me anymore."

Rafinya's eyes had once seen this as a collection of her achievements.

Now they were nothing more than ordinary scraps of metal.

"The gold ones I've already set aside for the servants to have melted down. What's left here is scrap iron. I'm going to have it smelted in the foundry."

"The foundry? In the engineering building?"

"If you slip in without anyone noticing, no one will know."

Iron foundry. Engineering building.

The furnace blazed, filling the air with the smell of burning and waves of scorching heat. But the one standing there watching each honorary trophy melt away piece by piece was Rafinya.

She felt no attachment to any of it. The thick red molten iron poured out from the furnace and turned to ruin, leaving nothing behind.

And even her sword hilt.

The rose-patterned hilt that Fury had destroyed down to its remains, Rafinya tossed that into the furnace too.

"You're sure about this?"

Rafinya nodded.

"Yes... this is right."

The scene shifted to the side of Prince Fury and Casca.

After the two of them had gone on their date at the public tower, they were now downstairs gnawing on roasted corn from the night market, close to the Artheris Colosseum.

"Don't do anything stupid like biting so hard the cob snaps. Human teeth don't grow back like yours."

"Yes, Mother."

"Oh my~"

"Just teasing, Aunt."

"What was that, old man?"

"After this, you're heading back to Luminus, aren't you."

"That's right. I'm going to lobby an old friend at the church."

"Good luck."

"Thanks."

crunch

"What about you? When are you going to Mathema?"

"Tomorrow."

"That soon?"

crunch

"What is there to wait for? You know I'm impatient."

"Going alone?"

"Not anymore. I have Thomasin."

"Just Thomasin?"

"I invited Nora too, if she still remembers."

"Just three then?"

Dan nodded.

"I've told Freya to stay home and clean the house."

"(Yes!)"

"You really don't like her much, do you."

"Have a safe trip~"

"Hmph."

Dan rolled his eyes skyward.

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