Rowen finally understood why Tehern pressed her so thoroughly for the exact time and location of her class.

Should she have lied to him? But lying would have earned her a brutal punishment that night, once he found out. In the worst case, he might have exposed her identity entirely and sent her to the execution block.

Ah, she should never have mentioned her class in front of him at all……

Rowen’s mind was in turmoil. With a man she feared sitting right beside her, there was no way she could focus on the lecture.

Just then, the classroom door opened. She glanced over, expecting the professor, but it was not him. A brown-haired prince walked in.

He entered and took a seat without the slightest hesitation, even though the class had unexpectedly gained one more person. Even though that person was Tehern Freya Hydra.

“……”

Tehern looked at him with a meaningful expression, like he had run into a familiar face, then lost interest and looked away. Rowen wondered what that was about, but the professor arrived shortly after, and she stopped paying attention to him.

The brown-haired prince who entered earlier showed no surprise at the sight of Tehern, but the professor was visibly flustered. Yet it was the prince’s calm reaction that was unusual, not the professor’s.

Who was Tehern, after all? A man famous for possessing monstrous strength.

His sheer strength alone earned him a place among the three leading candidates for the throne. Which meant he might one day become emperor.

Into a class that normally saw only two ordinary princes, a major figure suddenly walked in. The professor, normally skilled at teaching, stumbled awkwardly through the lecture, uncharacteristically off his game.

Tehern sat through the class with his arms crossed and his posture slouched to one side. He even crossed his legs arrogantly partway through.

Rowen tried to ignore the unenthusiastic student sitting beside her. She felt no trace of eagerness for the lecture coming from him at all. Honestly, she could not understand why he even bothered coming here.

She sighed inwardly at the delinquent beside her and focused on the class. Whenever something important came up, she carefully wrote it down in her notebook.

“……”

Tehern sat with his arms crossed, watching Rowen. Her round head moved busily between the blackboard and her book. Rowen gripped her pen with a small hand and pressed each letter carefully onto the page.

So it was true that even a blockhead could write, after all. He peeked at what she was writing. He could have looked openly, but for some reason his pride would not allow it.

The handwriting of the men Tehern had seen so far generally fell into two categories. First, those trained meticulously since childhood, whose handwriting was so elegant it was almost unsettling. Second, those who trained just as hard yet had no talent for it at all, whose handwriting was an absolute mess.

Tehern himself had no particular talent for penmanship, but thanks to his mother’s fierce insistence on education, he barely managed to fall into the first category.

Rowen’s handwriting, on the other hand, fit neither category. Her letters were round and soft, much like her. Not elegant, closer to plain, yet not unattractive either.

Tehern stared blankly at her book. Every page was filled edge to edge with round, careful handwriting.

Culture and History of Atleta. A subject that seemed to have little practical use in life. No wonder only two students bothered showing up.

A girl with a round head, filling her book with round handwriting. Strangely, he felt the urge to snatch the book right out of her hands and take it back to his room. She would panic and not know what to do with herself.

Ah, this was kind of funny. The thought made him let out an involuntary laugh, and he covered his mouth to hide it.

* * *

“How, how was the class?”

After class ended, Rowen hesitantly asked Tehern.

Tehern looked down at her and stretched his stiff neck roughly. Every time his neck bent to one side, it let out a harsh crack.

“Boring as hell.”

It was not actually that boring, but Tehern lied. How could he possibly admit the sight of her round head bobbing up and down kept him from being bored?

After asking how the class was, Rowen said nothing further. She just stood there, watching his face carefully. Judging by her uncomfortable expression, she looked ready to bolt back to her room at any moment.

But people, by nature, tend to feel less inclined to give someone exactly what they want the moment that desire becomes obvious. Perhaps that only applied to people with as poor a character as Tehern’s. Regardless, he had no intention of letting the girl watching him so nervously go just yet.

“Come with me.”

“What? Where?”

“I sat through your class with you, so you’ll come with me now.”

Had Rowen ever forced Tehern to attend her class? He barged in uninvited and ruined the mood of the entire lecture, and yet he had the audacity to say something like this.

But whether Rowen wanted to or not, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her along somewhere. Rowen limped weakly through the crowded corridor as he dragged her. Tehern’s stride, matching his height, moved quickly, and keeping up on her injured leg was a struggle.

People passing through the hallway all turned to look at least once, seeing Tehern Freya Hydra dragging along a small, unremarkable prince. Feeling the weight of so many eyes on her, Rowen felt cold sweat trickle down her back.

Her only goal was to survive quietly, unnoticed. How on earth did things end up like this? All of it was because of those bastards Jun and Kyle. They should have lost more than their heads. They deserved to have their limbs cut off too. Rowen could not help but feel that regret.

And yet, despite two princes being beheaded inside the Crystal Palace by Tehern for no clear reason, the palace remained utterly quiet about it. Realizing this, she grew even more afraid of the Hydra imperial family, and of Tehern himself.

“Get in.”

Just then, they apparently arrived at their destination, and Tehern gave her shoulder a light tap.

Lost in thought, Rowen lifted her head and looked around. The moment she recognized where she was, her face drained of all color.

“……”

Was this not the classroom for imperial statecraft? Standing at the door, Rowen could see through the doorway a room packed with princes of considerable standing.

“B-Brother. Just, just a moment.”

Calling him that made the corner of his mouth twist downward.

But she had no intention of correcting herself. There were too many people around to hear, and her mind was too scattered with panic to think it through. Cold sweat began trickling down her back and cheeks.

Surely he did not intend to drag her inside? To make her sit beside Tehern and attend class in a room full of the empire’s most prominent princes?

Even if that was not his intention, she would draw everyone’s attention regardless. Rowen would rather lose consciousness right here than face that.

She grabbed the wall, trying to resist being pulled inside. Naturally, Tehern overpowered her with ease. He seized both her wrists and barked a fierce order.

“If you don’t want to cause a scene, shut up and get in there.”

“……”

The outcome was obvious. Rowen was dragged into the classroom and seated beside Tehern.

This was not an exaggeration. Rowen genuinely wanted to cry. Eyes bore into her from every direction throughout the entire lecture. Tehern, of all people, had some unremarkable, nameless prince tucked beside him, and people clearly could not resist glancing over.

It was strange. How did things come to this? Her only goal was to remain unnoticed until she left the Crystal Palace for good.

By now, even her palms were damp with sweat. The professor lecturing at the front spoke on and on, but none of it registered in her mind at all. She had no interest in imperial statecraft to begin with.

Tehern’s strange behavior did not end there. He dragged her all the way to the training grounds next. Rowen was beginning to think biting her tongue and fainting, just to get sent to see a doctor, might genuinely be the better option at this point.