Chapter 3: Alone at the Entrance.

By this point, Amelia had lived her entire life confined to her family’s provincial territory.
This was only her second—or perhaps third—visit to the royal capital.

Yet somehow, those girls already acted as though they knew exactly who she was.

(What could that possibly mean?)

Puzzled, she stared straight at them.
Perhaps noticing her gaze, the two upperclassmen looked faintly uncomfortable, then quickly hurried away.

Why would they know about her?

They had spoken Reese’s name, so perhaps they were acquaintances of his.
But if that were the case, their glances had hardly been warm or welcoming.

Reese did possess rather striking, well-proportioned features.
Maybe they harbored feelings for him.

Amelia found herself thinking of her fiancé, whom she had not seen in nearly a year.

Since arriving in the capital, she had not encountered Reese even once.
Still, she needed to ask him to serve as her escort for the new student welcoming party.

She submitted a formal request for a meeting through the dormitory administrator.

An escort was simply what a fiancé was expected to provide.
No matter how busy Reese claimed to be, she had believed he would never refuse such a basic duty.

Yet the reply that finally arrived—the day before the party—was brief and curt:
“I’m sorry, but I cannot find the time to meet.”
There was not a single mention of the welcoming party itself.

Even Amelia could no longer pretend everything was normal.

A fiancé who stubbornly refused to see her.
Upperclassmen who whispered and glanced her way whenever she passed.
There was undoubtedly some reason behind it all.

And no matter how busy he might be, he was still only a student.
It strained belief that he truly had no time whatsoever.

He was almost certainly rejecting the idea of meeting her on purpose.

The fact that he had not returned home last summer, the complete cessation of his letters—it had not been due to busyness.
He simply had not wanted to see her.

The realization hurt, but it was the only conclusion that made sense.

(But… why so suddenly?)

On the last day they had met, Reese had smiled at her the same way he always had.
He had promised to come back in the summer so they could go together to observe the crops’ growth.

Unable to fathom the reason for his abrupt change of heart, Amelia could only feel bewildered.

She was not so passionately in love with him that being avoided this blatantly would leave her aching to see him anyway.

(Still… his earth magic is indispensable to the Renia Earldom.)

Her father yearned desperately for earth magic to return to the Renia family line.
His fixation ran so deep that he would disregard even the wishes of his only daughter.

Indeed, expanding farmland was a core policy of His Present Majesty.
The Renia Earldom, blessed with vast territory if little else, was naturally expected to lead in that effort.

Compared to the past, the kingdom’s crop yields had declined sharply.
The nation now depended heavily on food imports from neighboring countries.

The cause lay in shifting climate patterns.

For several consecutive years, summers had remained unseasonably cool—persistent cold summers with temperatures that refused to rise.
Harvests shrank year after year, and even the volume importable from neighbors had begun to dwindle.

If this continued, a full-scale food crisis loomed.
Breeding programs were underway to develop crop varieties resistant to cold damage, yet they had not yet achieved widespread adoption within the kingdom.

Given these circumstances, His Majesty strongly promoted both farmland expansion and the cultivation of grains capable of thriving in cool summers.

In such a context, wielders of earth magic—who could actively accelerate crop growth—were extraordinarily precious assets.
Perhaps her father had once believed Reese’s match was so exceptionally advantageous that repaying the funds once advanced by the Marquis Therma house would be worthwhile.

(If that were truly the case, he would at least follow proper procedure to dissolve the engagement… So what exactly is the reason?)

Keeping the engagement to Amelia intact while secretly pursuing other prospects would be rude in the extreme, but the other party was a higher-ranking marquis family.
Even so, she could not imagine her father giving up so easily; he might attempt to sweeten the deal with even greater concessions.

Naturally, without the slightest regard for Amelia’s own opinion.

But all of this remained pure conjecture.
Nothing could be resolved without meeting Reese face-to-face.

The new student welcoming party was mandatory for every enrolled student.
Surely she would see him there.
Since custom dictated that fiancés escort their partners, she clung to the hope that—at the very least—he would come for her on that day.

Yet even when the day of the party arrived, no message came from Reese.

Amelia stood before the mirror in the dress she had altered herself.
Then she released a long, heavy sigh.

The green dress accented with gold accessories was, of course, coordinated in Reese’s colors as her fiancé.
The hem had grown a little short, the style somewhat outdated, but it had once been her single finest garment.

(This time… I suppose I have no choice but to wear this.)

The Renia Earldom was not so destitute that they could not afford dresses at all.
However, prices in the royal capital far exceeded those of the remote borderlands.
A gown by a fashionable designer could easily cost the equivalent of an entire year’s food budget back home.

And yet trends shifted so rapidly.

Once she became more accustomed to capital life, she planned to commission several timeless, elegant pieces that would remain appropriate regardless of fleeting fashions.

Amelia arrived alone at the entrance to the party venue.

Many students had already gathered.
Some reunited with their fiancés; others clustered happily with groups of friends, chatting and laughing.

Everyone wore dazzling, beautiful gowns.

Seeing them, then glancing down at her own dress—a style that had been in vogue several years earlier—drew yet another quiet sigh from her.

If only Reese had informed her about the party in advance, a new dress could have been arranged in time.
But she quickly corrected herself: she, too, bore responsibility. She had made few friends here and still did not fully understand how things worked at the academy.

It was nearly time for the new student welcoming party to begin.

Still, Reese did not appear.

They had made no prior arrangement.

Resigned to entering alone, Amelia steeled her resolve and stepped toward the entrance.

The grand hall within the academy was immense—spacious enough to hold the entire student body.

(As expected of the Royal Magic Academy.)

At the hall’s entrance stood numerous pairs of boys and girls, hand in hand as they entered together.
Those already inside greeted each new arrival with applause.
Though it took the form of a dance party, it was clearly intended as a social gathering for students to mingle.

The atmosphere was not one that welcomed solitary entrants.
Yet the longer she delayed, the more she would draw the eyes of everyone who had already gone inside.