Chapter 87: Meaning of Princess.

“‘The Princess,’ huh? What about her?”

Rosette Megan is the ideal princess.
That image has gradually been exaggerated until she has become literally synonymous with the word “princess.”
Most students at the academy look upon her with envy.

Quite a difference from how they treat Gear, another foreign student.
In the end, people are simply prisoners of first impressions based on appearance.

A princess with skin, hair, and national character similar to their own is accepted;
someone with different looks and values is rejected.
Obvious and stupid; but precisely because it’s obvious, they’re easy to manipulate.

Even the golden eyes that were once the most despised in this country;
the moment Yulan grew up and learned to smile beautifully, everyone fell for it completely.
Those who justified his existence by claiming “it’s what’s inside that counts” would never dream
that the “inside” they had discovered in Yulan was nothing more than an empty husk devoid of any emotion.

“Ah, so you do know her.”

“I know the name, at least. She’s famous.”

“Well, even I know her, so…”

“She’s the same rank as you, isn’t she?”

“My country’s a special case.”

“I know.”

The place Gear was born and the environment he grew up in are so irregular from an outsider’s perspective that other countries are often baffled.
To him it’s everyday life, but “normal” differs from person to person.
Gear himself only realized how strange his own common sense looked from the outside after coming here to study, so “common sense” is only that strong to begin with.

“…So what about Princess Rosette?”

Gear bit back the laugh that almost escaped at the glare that said, If this is something trivial I’ll beat you to a pulp.
If he laughed here, Yulan’s mood wouldn’t just plummet; it would crash and burn spectacularly.
Whether it was sleep deprivation or something else making him irritable, Yulan was presently about fifty percent shorter-tempered than usual.
Gear didn’t think Yulan would actually explode no matter how badly he was handled, but he had a feeling Yulan would retaliate by precisely targeting the things Gear hated most.

Honestly, handing this information to someone in that state was a little worrying…
But this guy would find out eventually even if Gear stayed silent.

“I saw her with someone earlier.”

“…Details.”

“I didn’t talk to them, so I don’t know more than that… but the two of them were ridiculously conspicuous.”

“Of course they were.”

With those looks, even one of them stood out; together the effect was obvious.
Two people who usually occupied opposite poles suddenly standing side-by-side; the result was easy to imagine.
All the gazes that normally split in two directions would concentrate on a single point.

That wasn’t what Yulan was pondering.

(Why were the two of them together…?)

As far as Yulan knew, they had no connection.
He was aware their classes were next to each other, but with only three classes per year that wasn’t particularly special.
In all the social circles he had observed, there was no overlap.
Both attracted countless eyes, so even Yulan couldn’t track everything perfectly, but they were fundamentally different types.
The kinds of people drawn to each of them differed in every way.

They were classmates, so any number of reasons for being together were possible.
Maybe Gear had simply witnessed a brief greeting.

But there was no proof to conclude that.

Without proof, it was neither true nor false.

“Do you know where they went?”

“Ah, that direction? Probably somewhere in the courtyard.”

“I see.”

“You going?”

“You told me knowing full well I would.”

“Just be back before class~”

By the time Gear finished his send-off, Yulan’s back was already disappearing through the classroom door.

With even that much information, Yulan would easily find them.
He had the network for it, and two girls that conspicuous were surprisingly easy to locate.

And once he arrived, he would simply watch… watch Violet.

Gear murmured to himself as he gazed at the empty doorway.

“…I wonder how the other princess will play her hand.”

The princess that appeared in Gear’s mind was laughing with a force that bore no resemblance to the ideal image.

“If you underestimate her just because she’s ‘only a princess’…
the one who’ll have their legs swept out from under them is you, Yulan.”