“There’s not much to tell. We knew each other as Top rank and second rank, and the confession was the first time we actually talked about anything personal.”

“So that means His Highness fell for you at first sight?”

Kyaaaa. Nothing stirred up a group of girls quite like news of someone else’s romance.

The commotion didn’t die down until well past dinnertime. Fell at first sight. That wasn’t it at all. He had done it to grant his younger sister’s wish.

Her own feelings leaned more toward using him than any genuine affection. It was a relationship where both sides were using each other, but looking like a fairy tale from the outside wasn’t so bad.

Of course, they would certainly break up before graduation. When that happened, people would talk, but she didn’t care.

When the noisy room finally went quiet, she stretched her arms wide. She checked the time and it was still only seven in the evening.

Eighth year started tomorrow, so it would be better to talk with Ruhir today.

Jeanne got up and changed into her going-out clothes. When she approached the men’s dormitory, the attendant looked at her with a puzzled expression.

“Could you call Ruhir de Winter for me? Please tell him Jeanne Nova is here.”

“Yes. Of course.”

She was looking out at the Academy garden, now fallen into darkness, when he came out not long after. She had only ever seen him in the Academy uniform, so seeing him in casual clothes felt new. His hair was slightly damp, as though he had not long finished washing up.

“Did you wait long?”

“No. I just got here.”

For a moment the two of them stood looking at each other in silence. But if they stayed like this, the male students would surely be watching. She could already feel the students passing through the entrance stealing glances at them. Ruhir noticed it too, and he spoke first.

“Let’s talk while we walk.”

“Sure.”

He smelled good. But neither of them quite knew how to start the conversation, and silence drifted between them for a moment. Of the two walking beneath the streetlamps, it was Ruhir who spoke first.

“My confession must have come out of nowhere, so thank you for accepting it.”

“…… It was no different from receiving a birthday gift from someone I liked.”

“…… A birthday gift?”

“Yes. Today is actually my birthday.”

The moment he heard that, Ruhir stopped walking and looked at Jeanne. She had never really gone around telling people her birthday. She figured it was better to spend the time studying and doing research than receiving birthday wishes.

And there was another reason she had said it. She wanted to stir up a sense of guilt in him. If she went straight for taking everything from him, he might feel resistance instead.

So if she let on that she had feelings for him, Ruhir would.

“I didn’t know Jeanne liked me too.”

He was holding a faint smile, but she could see his eyes waver. Of course. He had started dating her to bring down her grades, and now he was hearing that she had feelings for him.

Any ordinary person would surely feel a pang of conscience.

“You’re everyone’s first love, a prince at that. Anyone would have liked you at least once.”

She laughed with a faint flush on her cheeks, feigning embarrassment. She was used to putting on expressions. As she looked at him, a night breeze swept through and flowers scattered in the air. She brushed her windswept hair back, and she could see Ruhir’s expression shifting moment by moment.

He was trying not to show it, but she could tell he was feeling guilty.

The person he had started dating in order to bring down her grades, at his sister’s request, turned out to have feelings for him? If the situation were reversed, Jeanne would have felt the same way.

“It’s my first time in a relationship, so I was wondering if there’s anything you want to do. If there’s something you want, I’d like to do it for you.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Will you tell me anything I’m curious about?”

“…… Anything I’m able to tell you, yes.”

At that, Jeanne widened her eyes and reached out to take hold of his arm. She pulled him close to her, then asked softly near his ear.

“When you say you have no experience with romance, does that mean you haven’t had a physical relationship with anyone either?”

The moment she whispered that, Ruhir’s face flushed a deep red. His lips trembled slightly and moved without sound. Even without hearing his answer, it was plain to see he had no experience.

After asking, she stepped back, and he quickly scanned their surroundings. There was no way anyone could have heard a whisper like that.

“O, of, of course not. I’ve only been twenty for about two months, and you know the legal age for marriage in the Erdion Empire is twenty.”

“What about other things? Kissing too?”

“…… Yes.”

“That’s surprising. I’ve seen how popular Ruhir has been since we enrolled at the Academy.”

“So that means I’m Ruhir’s first?”

Jeanne took his hand, pulled him closer, and smiled. Now that it was certain he had no experience, she intended to claim every first for herself. She was his first partner, and since she was being used, she thought she might as well take everything properly in return.

A false romance that would end the moment they graduated. But the second prince’s first experience was something money couldn’t buy.

She would have to give a gift to Princess Lilian for presenting her with this opportunity.

Top rank had always been something she maintained to make her mother proud. Her mother would be happy enough with everything she had kept up until now. Her mother loved her whether she was good at studying or not.

…… She had been a commoner, but her mother had worked hard to give Jeanne as many experiences as she could. They had always been together, and it had been happy, and it had been joyful. Being pointed at as a child without a father hadn’t bothered her.

If anything, the desire to wipe the smirks off their faces had set her academic drive ablaze. Wanting to be a daughter her mother could be proud of, she had never let herself slack in her studies with that thought in mind.

And so Jeanne Nova became the first commoner-born student, and even the first ever to achieve a perfect score, to enter the Academy at Top rank.

In the long history of the Academy, not a single perfect score had ever been recorded. The exam had been deliberately designed to prevent it, which made it all the more extraordinary.

Jeanne Nova. A commoner. And from a village so rural that most people had never even heard its name.

The Academy’s principal had come in person, and her mother had been overjoyed. She had declared it was surely because Jeanne had inherited her own mind, and pulled her into her arms and kissed her.

Jeanne had laughed inwardly at the villagers who had looked down on the two of them.

‘Jeanne. From now on, don’t worry about anything else. Just study.’

‘I’ll be on scholarship for eight years, so don’t worry about me. Use the money for whatever you want, Mom.’

She had said that because her mother had spent all those years doing nothing but hard and thankless work to raise her. But her mother had smiled brightly and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

‘Even if the Academy tuition is one less thing to worry about, you still need living expenses in the imperial capital.’

‘No. They take care of that for Top rank students as a matter of course.’

‘Even so. I want you to never feel like you’re lacking anything.’

She had never felt she was lacking in anything during the twelve years she had lived with her mother.

But before she could say a word to stop her, her mother had boarded a ship and gone to work in another empire. After that they exchanged letters often, and once every three months her mother came to see Jeanne.

Her mother cared less about her grades than about making sure her daughter was doing well. Whether anyone was giving her trouble. Whether she was eating properly.

In truth, Jeanne had wanted her mother to live nearby rather than go off to work. But she understood the love behind her mother’s decision, and she couldn’t bring herself to stop her.

And so they met every three months for four years, until one day her mother vanished.

She had occasionally gone out hunting as part of her work, and on that day, she was said to have encountered a monster. All that remained at the scene was a single piece of her mother’s clothing, stained with blood.

Even as she listened to the explanation from her mother’s colleague who had come to the Academy, her mind refused to work. Her mother? Dead? That couldn’t be.

Her heart wanted to go immediately to the place where her mother’s last traces remained. But she was told the area had been contaminated by monsters and was no longer somewhere an ordinary person could go.

She wouldn’t even be able to see the place where her mother had last been.

The Academy had sent word, so her aunt came as well and heard the explanation alongside her. Afterward, Jeanne stood there in a daze without a word, and her aunt pulled her into her arms. Her aunt was trembling too.

Jeanne believed that her mother had absolutely not died.

She was certain she was still alive. Someday she would appear before her, smiling, and pull her into a hug.

So when that day came, she wanted to show her how hard she had always worked.

“Actually, Mom would probably be happy just knowing I’m healthy, even if I stopped keeping Top rank.”

Back in her dormitory, Jeanne slumped over her desk and looked at a photograph of her mother and her younger self.

Four years since the accident. Against her wishes, she had heard nothing more about her mother.

So she had studied like someone possessed and built up her skills in magic. All so she could go there herself and search for her mother’s traces. For that, she needed to be strong enough to go alone. If she worked hard and still wasn’t capable, there was always the option of hiring a mercenary.

So she had taken on odd jobs here and there and saved up a fair amount of money. She had also put away most of her scholarship without spending it.

“Ah. Mom, I got a confession from the second prince. But don’t worry, neither of us is using the other sincerely, so I won’t get hurt.”

She always kept her mother’s advice in mind, so there was nothing to get hurt over. She placed the flowers she had received from Ruhir in a vase and looked at them for a moment, then decided to get ready for bed.