“No, next week, he’s getting discharged. He had surgery because his arm broke when his dad beat him up.”

“Wow, sh*t, that’s terrifying. Thank god my dad’s not a military officer.”

They didn’t seem particularly interested in the actual match. While lazily hitting the ball back and forth, they just giggled about how badly Matteo got beaten and when he’d return to the academy.

“Even if he wasn’t a military officer, your dad would’ve done the same.”

“True, he laid hands on his fiancée’s face and that fiancée is a princess? In my family, I’d be buried alive.”

“It only ended quietly like this because it’s Regenstadt.”

Just hearing the name Regenstadt made her stomach churn with disgust. She was about to lose interest and continue on her way when—

Another name naturally rolled off the male students’ tongues. The name of Krauben’s princess, Adeline.

“So who will Princess Adeline choose next? After getting burned once, she won’t just consider family background. If she looks within the academy… Waldstein? Even if he’s from a small country, a prince is still a prince.”

They tossed words around like a ball.

“What about Külln? Külln’s easily comparable to Regenstadt. No, actually his reputation is way better. I’ve dealt with him a few times and he has no rough edges, the guy himself is upright—pretty decent.”

“Still, surely not Külln.”

The male student next to the most talkative curly-haired one shook his head.

“Come on, that family is so upright. I heard they still maintain family traditions from centuries ago—would they take on a tarnished princess? Even if the princess reaches out, they’d refuse.”

“Thinking about it that way, I feel a bit sorry for the princess. She’s pretty… why did she have to get involved with Regenstadt like that.”

The past incident had wrapped up well, but it hadn’t become completely forgotten. On the way back to the dormitory, more than a few female students had seen Adeline’s swollen cheek.

But Adeline hadn’t cared at all. It was the result of what she’d done anyway.

“Then why don’t you go comfort her?”

“Crazy bastard. No matter what, how could a mere second son of a count family covet a princess?”

“That’s because you don’t know. It’s a matter of amount—if you have enough money, nothing seems impossible. I heard this time, the princess’s home country Krauben also extracted a fortune from Regenstadt.”

“What?”

The male student who’d pushed up his slipping glasses spun his racket-holding arm in circles.

“I heard something from Eva—what that princess wears is really… They say even at the girls’ school she’s below average. Must be pretty impoverished.”

The gossip that had maintained a reasonable level until now started mixing with slander.

Adeline, who’d been secretly listening, unconsciously stepped back behind a linden tree blooming with pale yellow flowers.

“Hey, but what’s ‘average level’ mean? Everyone there is bourgeois kids anyway. It’s only because it’s within the academy that they treat them well and call them all ladies, but less than half have titles—they’re just full of vanity, gilding themselves.”

“Hey, you blockhead. Who doesn’t know that? So the point is, she’s a princess worse off than merchant family daughters. She’d be way better off if she were just a daughter from an ordinary noble family. Being an ambiguous royal branch makes it more tiresome.”

“No, listening to this is funny. You just told me to take it. And now you’re gleefully slandering? Were you actually telling me to take it and die?”

She should have listened to Mother’s words to just come back. Pointless regret washed over her.

As soon as the engagement with Regenstadt was broken, her mother Luise had ordered Adeline to return home. 

Saying there was no reason to stay at the girls’ school any longer, she could stay in the home country and find a new marriage match—she’d strongly urged her to return.

But Adeline hadn’t wanted to go back. Though she’d longed so much for her homeland Krauben while living in a foreign court, she’d grown quite fond of this free girls’ school life with Therese.

That said, she couldn’t just ignore Mother’s words. Graduation would be impossible, but she’d wanted to buy time by asking for about half a year.

But she hadn’t known such talk was circulating behind her back. The Regenstadt affair was something she’d brought on herself, but to think they were looking down on her for shabby appearance.

She didn’t want even Krauben to get a poor, money-hungry image because of her. Maybe it would be better to quit school like Mother said. It wasn’t too late yet, so maybe even now…

No.

Adeline shook her head and lifted her chin.

Right, why react to this now of all times?

People could always say anything behind your back.

Just because the location was campus and the others were peers, she was giving it unnecessary meaning. It wasn’t like this was her first time receiving this kind of mockery or ridicule.

Compared to the cruel gossip of court people and noblewomen, these school students’ mouths were quite gentle.

After calming herself this way, a chuckle escaped.

Those weighing her were also bound to their own families. They too were goods on the marriage market, graded just like Adeline. None of them could freely choose their marriage partners either.

Adeline resumed walking toward her original destination, the café.

Even if those still giggling while playing tennis discovered her, it didn’t matter anymore. She even felt like seeing their expressions of shock, like they’d seen a ghost, when they spotted her.

But that’s when it happened.

“But how much would it take? Do you happen to know how much Regenstadt got fleeced for…!”

A ball bouncing off someone’s racket flew in a straight line and slammed into the wire fence.

Thwack!

Clang—as the harsh sound reverberated, startled exclamations burst from the surroundings.

“Ah!”

The male student who’d been curious about the amount of compensation Regenstadt paid didn’t even properly see the object flying past his face.

Belatedly shocked by the heat lingering on his ear tip, he poured out curses.

“What the, f*ck. Ah… sh*t, my heart. Hey, you f*cking…!”

The sound of the ball suddenly slamming into the wire fence was so loud that even passing Adeline almost screamed and hurriedly covered her mouth.

“Hey! Which bastard! Which crazy bastard threw the ball like this, f*ck!”

All four male students playing tennis in pairs turned toward the adjacent court where the ball came from, collectively hurling curses—are you crazy, which crazy bastard, were you trying to kill someone?

“Crazy, I almost died!”

Adeline hunched her shoulders and slowly turned her stiff head.

Through the dense wire fence, far away, she could see a male student walking over while gulping water from a canteen.

Adeline’s eyes narrowed as she gauged who owned that tall height and broad shoulders that defied perspective.

Belliche…

As expected, her guess was correct.

When he poured the remaining water from his canteen over his head, droplets dripping down his sharp nose bridge and jaw thoroughly soaked his loosely unbuttoned shirt.

His skin revealed through the wetness gleamed particularly bright. Perhaps slightly tanned from summer, his complexion looked even better.

Literally, he overflowed with vitality. Without any adornment, eyes naturally went to him.

His lips parted slightly after he swept back his wet, disheveled hair.

“Ah, my bad.”

At the utterly indifferent voice echoing across the court, Adeline standing alongside the trees was dumbfounded. The cursing male students seemed the same, standing dazed for a moment before one of them threw his racket toward Belliche.

“What? My bad? My bad? Is he insane?”

Kailen casually kicked the racket that had rolled and stopped on the grass, his eyes lazily narrowing.

“I’m a bit clumsy at such high-class hobbies.”

The male students were incredulous at the insincere excuse from someone who showed exceptional talent in sports that were the exclusive domain of nobles and bourgeoisie and symbols of wealth—fencing, shooting, horseback riding, rowing, etc.

“I should’ve just focused on hitting the ball…”

“What?”

“But it was so funny I couldn’t concentrate.”

At the random statement, the male students gaped. They’d heard all extraordinary geniuses were twisted somewhere—was this bastard Belliche similar?

“The level of refined conversation from the distinguished gentlemen I could hear from the side was too absurd.”

“What is this crazy bastard saying!”

The male student who’d been wondering what more nonsense he’d spout suddenly yelled. After nearly smashing someone’s face and not offering a single apology, his anger finally exploded.