Chapter 1.2

Agnes looked around his room.

Not only were all his belongings arranged neatly, even the folds of the curtains were perfectly straight.

It was the complete opposite of Agnes’s own room, which was messy with research equipment.

A book on his desk caught her eye.

‘Wow, Kallion. So you don’t just train, you read books, too.’

She wondered what kind of book it was.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t see the title.

Even with three times the magnification of other telescopes, it still wasn’t visible.

Agnes, burning with even more research ambition, thought she should improve the device so she could see even the smallest book titles.

‘Huh, huh?’

Kallion reached for his pants.

Click, she thought she could hear the sound of a buckle being undone, even though it couldn’t possibly reach her ears.

Startled, Agnes quickly lowered the telescope.

“No, this is not okay.”

She hurriedly stretched out her hand and carefully pulled the curtains in her room shut so that she could no longer see Kallion’s room.

This was a promise Agnes had made to herself.

If Kallion was about to take off his pants, her morning routine ended there.

Agnes knew there were boundaries she had to keep.

She would only watch up to his bare upper body.

Since he often trained shirtless, this much was more or less public, but she never watched him change his pants.

It wouldn’t be polite to someone she liked.

Just being able to greet his blessed face and body every morning was more than enough to make her happy.

‘Thanks to Kallion, I feel enlightened every morning.’

Putting the Magical Telescope back in its place, Agnes suddenly felt a little embarrassed about herself and cleared her throat.

‘I-I’m just being a fan, that’s all.’

Her conscience pricked her just a little, but Agnes rationalized her behavior.

Being a fan.

It was a neologism referring to the pure act of liking an actor from a particular troupe or a knight from the order.

She vaguely recalled it was derived from some word, but couldn’t remember exactly.

Recently, various cultures had begun to appear within the empire, and it was no longer embarrassing to openly like a particular person or idol.

It was the same at Rondale Academy.

Having someone like Kallion, who attracted everyone’s attention, had become a natural phenomenon.

‘Yes, I just like Kallion in a pure way!’

Agnes reaffirmed her actions to herself while washing her face.

Kallion was the top student in the Swordsmanship Department. As an outstanding swordsman, he was sure to become a great knight soon.

There were even female students who followed around apprentice actors who hadn’t debuted yet, so why couldn’t she follow a soon-to-be knight?

Of course, of course. That’s right.

The world’s most beautiful flower, self-justification, bloomed brightly in Agnes’s heart as she finished getting ready and headed to class.

Tap-tap, tap-tap—

Her steps toward the building with the classroom felt lighter than usual.

Anyone who knew the reason would agree it was understandable.

The reason was simple.

She would soon finish developing a new observation magical device.

‘Hehe, once it’s done next week, I’ll be able to observe Kallion even closer.’

Recently, Agnes had become bold—she wanted to watch Kallion from even closer.

The telescope left something to be desired.

Most of all, she regretted not being able to watch him from every angle.

Every part of Kallion was as if crafted by the gods, so perfect!

So Agnes came up with the idea of connecting the telescope to a flying object she could control herself.

And after about a month of development, it was almost complete.

Her dark circles lately were also because she had been working late into the night.

Of course, no matter what time she went to bed, Agnes always woke up at 6:50.

Watching Kallion was more important than sleep.

Anyway, she had already named the new magical device.

‘Hmm, for the name… Right. Let’s call it Dralon.’

It did look a bit like an insect flying around, but……

‘I don’t like bugs.’

It felt awkward to name her invention after an insect, so Agnes dared to borrow the name of a dragon.

She did tweak the last syllable, just to be a little more honest.

So the completed name was Dralon.

Hehehe.

Once Dralon was finished, I’d be able to see Kallion’s wonderful appearance from even closer!

And if she submitted it for the next practical evaluation, she wouldn’t have to worry about her grades, either.

If someone ever caught her, she could always say she was just testing her invention for the practical evaluation.

Being a Kallion fan saves the world!

And saves her grades, too!

Agnes’s steps toward the classroom felt like she was floating.

Lately, all her happiness came from Kallion.

At that moment.

Bzzz—

‘Oh? This signal…’

Agnes quickly glanced around at the vibration from her pocket.

If the magical device in her pocket was vibrating, it meant Kallion was within a 30-meter radius.

‘To the right. In that case…’

Agnes turned and headed left.

There were still 30 minutes before class started, so even if she took a detour, she would never be late.

Tap-tap—

Agnes’s legs moved quickly.

After walking quite a bit to the left, the vibration in her pocket finally faded away.

“Haa.”

Only then did Agnes let out a sigh of relief.

But she still couldn’t relax completely. She kept walking briskly ahead.

Glancing back—

As expected, Kallion was no longer in sight.

“Phew, thank goodness.”

Now she could relax.

But.

Anyone seeing Agnes’s actions so far would wonder—

Why did Agnes, who liked Kallion, go out of her way to avoid him?

With everything she’d done so far, it wouldn’t be enough even if she followed him around all day—so why?

Agnes was extremely careful to avoid running into Kallion.

The reason was obvious when one thought about it.

If they ever met and her stalking was discovered, it would be a disaster.

‘If he found out, he’d hate me.’

Agnes never even dared to hope that Kallion would know she existed.

After all, there was no way she could get close to Kallion, the Academy’s most popular guy and everyone’s idol.

Just watching from afar was enough to make her happy.

Being able to greet every morning joyfully because of Kallion was all she needed.

Besides, Kallion was the heir to an Earldom, a Young Earl.

She was nothing more than a commoner.

Even though, by imperial special law, everyone was equal within the Academy, once they went out into society, the class system would prevail.

She didn’t want to get close and then suffer loss because of it later.

‘I like things just the way they are now.’

But Agnes had no idea.  

No, she couldn’t even imagine.  

That, in just a few days, she would become closely entangled with Kallion.

***

“What? I’m in the Swordsmanship Department?”

Agnes heard something that struck her like a bolt from the blue.

She had been enjoying her classes all morning, and had only followed the professor’s request for a meeting for a moment…

She had thought it would be just another trivial business proposal about her recently developed magical device, or perhaps some feedback, but Agnes’s face was full of bewilderment.

No, maybe I had just misheard? Perhaps the professor had made a mistake……

“Yes, you heard correctly, Miss Agnes.”

But the answer she received was nothing short of confirmation.

“No, no, why would I…….”

Agnes could hardly string together a sentence, unable to believe this reality.

But the professor paid no mind and continued straight to the point.

“It’s only for one month, so don’t worry too much. The Swordsmanship Department especially requested you, Agnes, and it was hard to refuse.”

The duration wasn’t the issue.

Why did it have to be the Swordsmanship Department, of all places?

“W-Why me?”

“Remember what you developed last time? The magical device for sparring.”

Of course she remembered.

She had developed it so it could serve as a sparring partner for knights.

She had devoted herself day and night, wishing only to help Kallion’s training, and sent it to the Swordsmanship Department through the professor……

“It received an excellent response.”

“Ah, that’s great news.”

Agnes replied dryly, shrugging her shoulders, trying to appear as uninterested as possible.

‘No. If I go to the Swordsmanship Department, it’ll be a disaster.’

Inside, she desperately hoped this situation would never come to pass.

“But Professor, I still don’t understand. Just because it was well received, why do I have to go to the Swordsmanship Department?”

So Agnes asked, sounding indifferent.

From what the professor had said so far, it was impossible to understand the full context.

“They want you to stay for a month and develop additional features.”

Flinch. A slight crack appeared in Agnes’s mask.

“……Additional features?”

Unlike earlier, Agnes’s voice, as she repeated the words, was tinged with curiosity.

As a magical engineer, she couldn’t help but ask.

‘C-curious.’

What kind of improvement were they asking for?

Agnes was always full of curiosity about everything. She had a lot of interest in things.

Perhaps her very nature as a researcher was why she ended up observing Kallion so closely.

The professor answered calmly, as if he’d expected this reaction from Agnes.

“They requested a feature that learns and responds to the opponent’s attack patterns. Isn’t that something you could easily do, Agnes?”

“Learning attack patterns?”

Agnes’s eyes sparkled.

Wasn’t this an incredibly fascinating topic!

It was already pleasing enough that her invention had been so well received, but a request for improvements made Agnes even happier.

Moreover, they wanted her to apply a feature that learned and responded to attack patterns.

It was a concept Agnes had never considered before. Suddenly, her passion for research flared up.