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Chapter Text

The news of the next visit from the Royal family to the Francois house was quite sudden and unexpected for the little girl that was the heiress of the noble house.

Her father seemed to have the situation under control. The king and queen came to offer their condolences for the recent death of the wife of the noble, Melia Francois, and to discuss the topic of if the man was in the condition to continue with his responsibilities as a noble or if he needed some time to mourn over his wife's death and to recover from his injuries from the incident, which obviously wasn't the case.

“Melia would hate me if I stopped chasing my objectives just for her.”

He was a Francois after all.

And Claire… she was one too, but she couldn't help to feel broken after her mother's passing.

She felt horrible for what she said that same day, before she saw her for the last time.

She hadn't even got the chance to properly say goodbye to her.

Claire just wanted to see her once again.. even if that meant that she would have to die to get that chance.

Just a day ago, Lene had already pulled her off a window where she was sitting after telling her what she thought.

‘If I die… would I be able to be by my mother's side again?’

Looking back, the noble child knew Lene had done the right thing that afternoon.

She couldn't believe she had actually considered that as a real option.

But even now, after ruling out that option, she felt depressed, only partially alive.

It was out of character for her to be so tired… She was commonly known for being a prideful, energetic, selfish … but a polite child in the end.

But right now, she couldn't even keep a straight face in front of the three royal siblings, who came there with their parents to lighten up the mood around Claire (though the blonde girl thought that it probably was Rod’s idea only, and dragged the other two boys with him).

The just mentioned royal child, was making his presence as big as he could, trying to sound fun, loud and careless as he tended to do the few times they've met each other.

He's a child after all, he knows no better than that.

Yu Bauer, the youngest child, was too busy trying to stop Rod from causing too much chaos around the manor with his exaggerated gestures.

Thane Bauer was… 

“Sigh…” 

Normally, Claire would probably try to talk to the handsome silver haired prince, but currently she doesn't have the energy to do it… or to do anything in that matter.

Prince Thane was just being as ominous as ever, looking at his brothers playing from the opposite side of the room, his stern look never faltering.

And…

…?

Claire blinked once… twice.

And two crimson eyes returned the sight…

They've all been in the guest room for around an hour at this point, and she hadn't noticed the little boy that was just standing besides Thane.

The silver haired prince didn't seem to mind the child's presence, taking a look at him every once in a while.

The kid was a little shorter than the princes, his chestnut colored hair was longer than the other boys, well kept and tied into a short ponytail that poked out of the back of his head.

He stood in a gentle manner, with his arms hanging in front of him and his hands clasped together.

He looked polite enough (even if his posture was a bit curved forwards).

Outside from the small exchange of glances he had with the girl, the red-eyed child seemed to be distracted, or just not interested in what was happening in the room right now.

if it weren't from the small movements he did as he breathed, you could easily confuse him with a  life-sized doll or a mannequin.

…Who's that person? Thought the blonde girl.

The noble's curiosity seemed to drag her away from the dark thoughts she was having just moments ago.

He seemed to be wearing similar clothes to the three princes, although they seemed a bit big for the smaller boy.

But yet, Claire had no idea what the identity of the tiny boy was…

The little girl turned her attention towards her maid, who was looking a bit concerned at the slightly hyperactive dark haired prince, thinking about a way to stop him from making too much chaos without being disrespectful. 

“Lene?” 

The maid jumped a little because of the sudden mention of her name, but quickly recovered her composure.

“Yes, Lady Claire?” she said, with her characteristic caring voice.

“Do you know…”  the tiny noble pointed at the other side of the room, directing her attention at the little guy standing besides Thane. “...who is that boy?”

The question seemed to catch Lene out of guard, since she also seemingly hadn't noticed the presence of the little boy until now.

“I…Uh…” the maid was equally as confused as Claire herself.

Rod, noticing the shared confusion between the girls, stopped playing with Yu for a second and quickly walked towards Thane and the chestnut-color haired child.

They exchanged a couple of words, and Rod took the other kid’s hand and walked towards the noble child and her maid, basically dragging him there.

The dark haired child was basically bouncing with excitement while they walked towards the girls, then he tried to present him to them. "This is Ra-”

But his words were quickly cut off by the other kid’s “My name is Rae… Bauer -”  he seemed to have a bit of difficulty saying his last name.  “-the fourth child of his Majesty, L'Ausseil Bauer… it is a pleasure to finally meet you, lady Claire.” 

After finishing his sentence, the kid bowed his head.

Claire's back immediately straightened when she heard those words.

She looked back at Rod, almost asking him with her eyes if this was true, and he just stood there, lightly patting Rae's head, genuinely treating him like family.

This kid was a royal too.

The blonde girl, now having the chance to look at him closely, noticed his more soft and delicate appearance, closer to Yu’s rather than his other two brothers…

His face seemed almost expressionless, and his voice was quiet and monotone, but he seemed fine and polite besides that…. too polite even, taking into account that he was currently talking to someone who was a lower rank than him.

…But then a question suddenly appeared in Claire's head.

Fourth child? When did that happen???

The child named Rae, who seemed to acknowledge the confusion in the noble's face, reached into her pocket to grab her wand.

‘Trust me, lady Claire, you don't want to know the full story, it's complicated.’  a sentence that was said by no one in the room.

Claire was clearly taken aback by the sudden voice in her head, something which Rod noticed pretty quickly.

“Oh, sorry Claire, Rae didn't mean to startle you.” Said the taller brother pointing at the smaller one's hand that seemed to be holding inside his pocket.

Through the cloth, Claire could see residues of wind magic running around Rae's hand.

“Sometimes it is easier to communicate like this.” Rae said, deadpan.

“They let you carry a wand?” Claire said, shocked that a kid at that age would be carrying a wand around, and even more by the fact that he was able to use an advanced wind spell such as telepathy.

“It is my duty to be the first line of defense for my brothers, and to communicate with any close authorities, in case anything happens to them.”  The child said 

Claire's face twisted in a mixture of fear and a bit of disgust.

Did the royal family put such responsibility into the hands of a child ?

“Like… a body guard?” she said, with a slight trembling voice.

“It is similar to what you describe, but I wouldn't put it like that.”  Rae said, like if it was the most common thing in the world to have children with literal weapons going around defending people.

That is supposed to be a guard's work, not a child's! Thought the girl

“No need to worry, Claire. Our little Rae is extremely talented, and a dual caster at that!!!” Rod added.

Claire ignored the comment, looking down at the floor to hide her anger

And the situation got even worse when she remembered that this child was also royalty.

Claire lost a bit of respect for the king and queen at that moment, putting a child in the first front of battle was something that not even them should have the right to do, no matter their social rank.

The noble girl took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.

“if you excuse me… I'm going to take a breather.” she said, standing up and heading to the door, looking back only once. “Lene… could you stay here ? Please offer the princes some tea or something to eat.”  she said, trying to maintain her composure, but her emotions betrayed her and showed themselves through her eyes.

The maid looked at her mistress slightly worried, but nodded in agreement.

And then… she was gone.

Rae stared at the door for a couple of seconds, not saying anything, and then returned to Thane's side.

An hour and a half had gone in an instant, and the little girl had yet to come back to the manor.

Her personal maid, Lene, started to look for her in any room, her fear growing stronger with every empty one.

Just yesterday she had heard one of the scariest sentences someone could say coming from her mistress’s mouth, and she knew those thoughts wouldn't fade from Claire's mind so easily.

Her concern was justified.

Her pace started to be faster as she grew desperate.

And just as she was going to reach the next room in the manor, from around the corner a figure came.

And lene crashed into it.

As she stood up and went to apologize, she immediately realized who she was in front of her.

“I-i'm so sorry, master Rae, I didn't know you were-” the maid rushed to apologize to the royal child.

Rae took a second to answer, slightly tilting his head to the side at the mention of the word ‘master’.

“There's no need to apologize, Lene.”  The kid said, bowing lightly at the maid's direction. “I know you're looking for Lady Claire.”

The sudden formality and respect directed towards her and the fact that he knew her name startled the small maid a bit, but she tried to remain composed.

“Yes, I am looking for her. Have you seen her anywhere?” she asked.

“I haven't actually seen her-” Rae said, while lifting up her wand. “-but I can hear her… she's safe, but she's currently crying.”

For a second, Lene was paralyzed, not sure if she wanted to know the full capability of this kid's magic proficiency.

Even if she assumed that Claire hadn't gone away from the limits of the Francois territory, it was still a huge area to cover with the magic of just one person.

Raw was definitely something else.

“You know where she is?” Lene said, slightly relieved that Claire was still around and safe, but the fear of her damaging herself still crawled up her back, and it was worse now that she knew she was crying alone.

“I don't, but I can track her with the sound of her sobs… come with me.” Rae said, looking at the maid with that blank stare he always had.

Both of them quietly walked down the halls and exited the Francois manor.

“I-is she close?” Lene said, stumbling over her words, her nervousness caused by Claire's situation and because of being helped like this by a member of the royal family.

“She is.” He said, not carrying an ounce of worry in his voice… or of any other emotion.

Despite his unreadable face and monotone voice, Lene thought that the kid was quite sweet actually, even to a commoner like her.

And then, the maid's curiosity won.

“Master Rae, could I ask you something?”

“Of course.” 

“Why are you so polite to me? you're a prince and I'm just… a commoner. It just seems odd that you treat me like an equal.”

“It is because… we are equals.” the prince said, leaving Lene confused… 

The royal kid was definitely hiding something behind those words.

“...what are you talking abo-”

“And I'm not a prince . In any case, I'm a princess.” Rae said boldly.

Lene stopped on her tracks, processing what he… no, she, had just said

Lene took a better look at Rae, noticing that, even though she was wearing the same clothes as his brothers, was quite smaller than them, and was overall on the more feminine side even while looking quite masculine.

“Oh… I apologize for the confusion, Miss Rae, hehe…”  Lene said nervously, scratching the back of her head in embarrassment.

“There's no need to feel embarrassed, Lene… if I'm being honest, I don't even know if my brothers know my real gender yet.”  The princess said, once again, completely deadpan. “We should keep walking, her voice is close.”

“Y-yeah…” Lene tried to ignore that comment about her gender… how would they not know that their own sister was a girl???

As they reached the deeper parts of the Manor's courtyard, the sound of Claire's crying suddenly became listenable to Lene too.

The princess and the maid haven't managed to see her yet, but her sobbing seemed to be hidden behind a set of trees just in front of them.

“MISS CL-”

“Lene.”  Rae said.

Even if her voice was still monotone, Lene managed to sense some strange kind of sharpness behind the mention of her name. The princess put her arm in front of the maid, stopping her before she could run towards Claire. 

“I'll take care of her, please inform master Dole that she's safe and in my company.”

“A-are you sure?” Lene said, her voice trembling.

“You've done enough… go rest now.”  The princess said, going back to her deadpan voice, but with sweet words.

“...okay, I'll inform master Dole of this…” the maid stated while walking away, just now noticing that she was sobbing “p-please take care of her.” she begged.

“I will. I promise.” 

The maid wiped her tears with a handkerchief looking back at the princess one last time, who was already walking in the direction of Claire's voice once again.

“Thank you.” she whispered.

Rae did not answer.

Claire was just sitting over a big rock she found in the deepest parts of the courtyard, sobbing not so quietly.

her “ seat ” was quite uncomfortable, but it was far better than getting her formal dress dirty.

Everything around her was quiet and unchanging.

Only the sound of the tree leaves being hit by the wind was the only thing that could be heard.

And even with that, everything was just so peaceful.

The noble’s mind started to slowly drift towards the thought of her mother once again.

If she had lived, maybe they would be playing hide and seek around this place.

But now, it didn't matter how many times she counted to ten.

there wouldn't be anyone to find.

Her thoughts deepened with every passing minute, once again considering the chance of being able to see her again.

It didn't matter, didn't it? She was just a child.

The child of a noble perhaps, but besides that… would anyone really miss her?

Her maids never come to like her because of her selfishness and awful behavior towards them.

She wasn't even sure if Lene liked her, or if she was just treating her like that because it was her job to do so.

Claire didn't have many friends, even the children who were just accompanying her in the guest’s room were just mere acquaintances.

The only person who would care about this is her father.

And just for a second, Claire considered that even him wouldn't be affected by it, considering how he took her mother's death.

…

This was wrong, it was all wrong.

And the young noble knew it.

Her dad was probably just putting on the facade of a noble with responsibilities to fulfill.

But she was sure he probably wouldn't be able to keep up with a second blow like this in such a short timespan.

And her mother… she would hate to see her actually considering this as an option.

She would have never wished such fate to her own daughter, even if it meant never seeing her again.

she had to live, but she just didn't know how.

As the sun began to set, Claire finally noticed for how long she had been out of the manor.

The view was beautiful…but she didn't have anyone to share it with-

“Lady Claire.” a voice said from behind her.

“EEK-”

The poor little noble had been scared so hard that she fell off the rock she was sitting in.

As she tried to get back on her feet, she finally saw who was the owner of that voice.

The fourth… ‘prince’.

“its just me, Lady Claire… there's no need to worry.” said the child while lending her a hand to help her get up.

The noble hesitated for a moment, wondering the reason why ‘he’ was there, but in the end she accepted the help and got back on her feet.

“Why are you crying?”

“You… Y-you should know t-that already...” She said through sobs, trying to keep the little composure she had left.

“I don't, I wasn't told the full story.”

“I…”

“You can talk to me if you need to.” Rae said, her voice completely deadpan.

But still holding her hand softly.

Claire seemed overpowered by the sudden show of kindness, and completely broke down in front of Rae.

The frustration, the self loathing, the loneliness, the sheer desire to see her mother once again and apologize for what she said to her.

She spat everything that her heart hid, until there were no more tears running down her cheeks.

At some point, they sat back on the rock, something which Claire hadn't noticed until she calmed down.

The noble's eyes were itchy, her nose was runny, her throat hurt…

And yet, Rae just sat there, besides her.

Holding her hand.

Once the noble had calmed down, she looked straight at the princess's face, who looked lost in her thoughts.

“...I can't say I can fully understand what you mean… but I can relate to it in some way.”  Rae said quietly.

As soon as the princess muttered those words, the noble child began to think… as far as she knew, no one had died in the close royal family in more than two decades…

Was she perhaps talking about the former queen Lulu?... She has been in a deplorable state since the birth of prince thane… but she didn't know she had already die-

“my mother was a commoner.”

Claire immediately froze after hearing those words… a member of the royal family born from a commoner? Was she perhaps just adopted? 

“...what?” 

“the king L'Ausseil… My father had an affair with an important member of the adventurers guild of Euclid… and after that, I was born.”

At this point, the little Claire was lost for words… or perhaps she had too many words to say, all at the same time, and none of them could come out of her mouth.

First, the royal family used a kid as a bodyguard, and now she was being told that the king had an affair with a commoner???

Rae took a glance at the noble girl's face, who right now seemed to go through a thousand thoughts at the same time, and then continued.

“dont think too much about it, Lady Claire. it seems that situations like these are more normal around nobles and royals than it is revealed to the public… hence why almost no one really knows I exist as a part of the royal family.”  Rae said, not showing any particular care for the story she was telling right now.

Claire was utterly disgusted by the thought of it. Were nobles and royals just going around, leaving commoner folk with children without any care for them?

“Father had not been aware of my existence until a couple months ago, just a week before he and Queen Riche decided to adopt me into the royal family, out of fear I would reveal the affair eventually…”  she took a deep breath before continuing  “...but before that, it was me, my mother and the people from the guild.”

“My mom had been permanently weakened after my birth… sort of similar to what happened to queen Lulu,  but nevertheless, she didn't give up on helping the guild as much as she could, even if it meant having to be just able to help the adventurers verbally, advising them before patrols or by teaching them the magic she could… She was a strong woman, even with all that had happened to her.”

Claire could only listen to the story quietly, she had been to Euclid multiple times for vacations at this point, but she never paid too much attention to the people that lived there, even less to the adventurers guild…

have they been that important all this time? She thought 

“My mom took care of me as much as she could, and the other people at the guild helped me with basic education and magic usage from the moment I had manifested any sign of talent… They were my… family.”  she said, now looking down at the grass, her expression unchanging, but seemingly reminiscing about the past.

Then, she continued.  “At some point, she had requested to be transferred to a base of the guild as the outskirts of town, so she could supervise patrols more closely, to be able to give more immediate and accurate advice to the adventurers on how to act in certain situations.”

Claire felt a glimpse of admiration for the woman… Even while bedridden, she stayed as strong as she could, helping others on the things she couldn't do herself anymore.

As the princess said, she did sound like a strong woman.

“One day, I went back to the commercial area of town with a couple members of the guild to carry provisions back to the base… and then one of the adventurers contacted us using telepathy, but all we heard were his last ragged breaths. He died shortly after that, and when we arrived back at the base-”  Rae took a deep breath once again, this time, seeming slightly pained.  “-almost everyone had died, and the ones who survived were heavily injured, most of them would have lost entire limbs if it wasn't because of my healing magic.”

Claire gulped, unconsciously knowing what came next in the princess's story.

“It seemed it was a pack of magical wolves led by a chimera… they stood no chance, and they knew it. Mom was found…”  she stopped for a second to rephrase what she had just said  “... I found her, crushed under the rubble that had conformed the guild's base in the past… she was surrounded by earth spikes, it was possible that she hadn't even died because of attack, or the building falling down, but by the sudden exhaustion of magic in her frail body.”

“I… I think I-”  Claire mumbled, not fully understanding why Rae had decided to tell her all this.

“ And I wasn't there to defend her … But I don't blame myself for it. I'm nothing more than a mere child, it's not my fault I wanted to do something different than staying with her all day… and it's not your fault you wanting her to be with you for your birthday.”

And then, she finally started to get it.

“...huh?”

Rae looked at her once again, now squeezing the noble girl’s hand a little tighter.

Even with that emotionless face and monotone voice, she was trying to comfort her.

“Lady Claire, wherever you're a commoner, noble, royal, or whatever… we are children , and it is natural children to be dumb sometimes, regardless of social rank, and I'm sure your mother understood that… you didn't mean what you said the last time you saw her, you just were mad at her because any child would like to spend their birthday with their parents, and you shouldn't blame yourself for it.”

Claire blinked, slowly processing what the princess just told her.

Rae was right, she was just a child, no matter if she was a noble, or how intelligent she was for her age.

she hadn't matured enough to stop doing the things any child would do.

“and from what you've told me, your mother was bright. And I'm sure she doesn't resent you”

And the realization made her feel a bit lighter.

The tears started to flow once again, but this time they weren't full of sorrow or rage.

She felt relieved.

“Y-you’re right… she would n-never resent me for something l-like this…”  Claire said in-between sobs.

“It's okay Lady Claire…” Rae said, pulling the noble child into a hug.

it wasn't warm, and it certainly wasnt't what she expected

“Let it all out.”

but it was enough for her.

Rae and Claire arrived at the manor just around the time the rest of the Bauer family was preparing to leave.

Their parents exchanged a couple of words, and off they were.

And Claire? She was practically beaming with happiness, way more calm than what she had been for the last few days.

Rae had seemingly done a great job.

Lene had asked her what had exactly happened during the time between when she left the princess to take care of her and the moment that they arrived at the manor once again.

Claire didn't do a great job at explaining it, but she now felt better, and that was all that mattered for the little maid.

“and then he calmly hugged me and comforted me until I calmed down!!! His hair was so soft, and  Lene, my heart was beating so fast… it feels like fate… my fated prince …”  The noble girl said in the most dreamy tone of voice possible 

…Maybe Princess Rae had overdone it.

“B-but miss Claire… Rae is actually a-…”  the maid said, trying to correct her mistress, and make her realize she had been talking to another girl all along.

just to get cut off. 

“Hm? What did you say, Lene?”  Said the enamored Claire. 

After seeing her mistress's sheer happiness…

“...Nothing, I'm just happy you're okay.”  Lene said with a sweet smile.

…She decided it would be best to let her be blissfully unaware for now, as long as she's happy with it.

That issue can be solved later, for now, it'll be okay.

Chapter Text

Despite her immense enthusiasm, Claire hadn't had an actual opportunity to connect with her prince after their first encounter.

From what little information she had managed to gather, she figured out that the royal family was quite secretive about their fourth child, possibly because it would be hard to explain why they had adopted a commoner child, and that the affair that brought him to life would put a bad image on the king L'Ausseil.

His brothers also refused to tell the noble anything about him. Not because they didn't want to, but because they just couldn't.

Even at events organized by nobles, or even the royal family themselves, Rae Bauer was nowhere to be seen, like he had never existed in the first place.

And today, on the birthday of his older brother Rod, he also refused to appear.

“B-but he is going to attend the academy, right???”  asked the blonde noblewoman (now being a ‘full grown 14 year old’, as she put it, swearing that she could keep the secret of her prince).

The one she was talking to was the younger of the four brothers, Yu Bauer, who had already been bombarded with questions like this since they were children.

“Claire, you know you won't get much from me… but, yeah, he is going to attend the academy, as any other member of the royal family would.”  he said, tilting his head to the side, clearly hiding something.

But Claire was too busy experiencing too many emotions at the same time because of the news to actually notice that ‘something’.

“REALLY?- Ahem , sorry for my sudden outburst… I'm just really excited for this, it's been such a long time since I've last saw-”

“Claire.”  a voice said from behind them. “You shouldn't put too many expectations on a person you barely know . Am I right, Yu?”

The girl turned towards the direction of the voice, she was a tall figure with short silver hair walking towards them.

“Long time no see, my favourite cousin in the world!!!”  the silver haired woman said, pulling 

The woman was Manaria Sousse, Princess of the Sousse kingdom, distant familiar of the heir of the Francois family and possibly the only woman in a suit in this whole place.

“Sister?! What are you doing here???” 

“I wanted to congratulate the birthday boy!!!... Who am I kidding ? I got forced to come here. What is that guy even doing anyways? I haven't seen him since uh…” she paused, scratching her head.  “...I actually haven't seen him anywhere, is he even here???”  

“Oh, if you actually want to congratulate him, which I doubt, you should probably pull him out of some random group of noblewomen, you'll probably find him there”  Yu said with a disapproving face, clearly disliking his brother's behavior

Of course, Rod was kind of a playboy, as always.

Manaria laughed, mumbling something along the lines of “ well, he can't be worse than me. ”, a thing which neither Yu or Claire caught on.

“But seriously. Claire, you should stop chasing your invisible… prince, before your expectations completely fall off when you finally see him again.”

“B-but…”  the noblewoman tried to form an argument as to why she felt like that, and well, she couldn't.

“No buts, I know he treated you well once, but the Rae I met was a completely different person from what you've described. I'm just worried about you, Claire, I would hate to see you heartbroken by someone like that .”  The princess said while patting Claire's back.

Claire only stayed there, looking at the floor with an unreadable expression.

“If I might add-”  Yu interjected, whispering to manaria so only she could listen.  “What Claire told you about my sister was clearly exaggerated beyond belief by how much she needed that comfort… Plus, I can't believe she still believes Rae was a boy.”

“Pfff, I also can't believe it, she has trouble identifying the gender of handsome women I suppose, the same thing happened to me when she first met me.”  Manaria whispered to Yu, and then laughed silently. “In her defense, I used to have the opposite issue, I thought you were a girl when we first met.”

After hearing that last comment, Yu could only laugh awkwardly to try and hide his… her discomfort.

Manaria raised an eyebrow, but dismissed Yu's strange reaction as him just being insecure about how he still lacks a bit of masculinity compared to his brothers.

And then, Claire looked up.

“ Sigh … alright alright, I'll give up on him…”

“Congratula-”  the princess tried to say.

“...Once I see him again, and ONLY if he disappoints me!!!”  said the noblewoman, beaming with energy once again.

Both the Blonde prince and foreign princess looked at each other, baffled by Claire's innocent and excited reaction.

“Why are we still covering Rae's gender anyways?”  Manaria whispered to Yu.

“I don't know, it was Rae's request to ‘keep Claire Francois happy’, I suppose”  he whispered back.

“She really does care for her… wait, does Rae like wom- ahem, Claire???”

“Im not even sure if that girl can like things.”

“...fair point, I've only seen her like twice and she quite literally acts like a ghost.”

“GHOSTS?!”  Claire wasn't exactly paying much attention to the whispering duo, but she immediately jumped when she heard that word.

“There are no ghosts here, Claire.” Manaria said, trying to calm her down. Being a bit grateful towards Claire's clear fear of ghosts for shocking her enough to snap the woman out of her ‘daydreaming about my accidental homosexual crush ’ state.

“Phew… what were you two talking about anyways?” Said the noble.

Manaria shrugged, knowing she obviously couldn't tell the truth about the conversation. “Not much, mostly complaining about how Rod might grow up to be a Casanova.  anyways…”  She elegantly offered her hand to Claire. “...Shall we dance?”

The noblewoman’s cheeks took a light pink tone, smiling at the offer.  “Of course, siste-” 

Both the Manaria and Claire suddenly felt a shiver down their spine, same as almost everyone currently attending the event.

“W-where's all this cold c-coming from???”  said the shivering blonde woman, whose clothes were not prepared for such a low temperature.

Manaria immediately noticed that the cold was in no way natural, that someone was causing it intentionally with magic.

Only the personal guards of the Bauer family had been permitted to wield wands to the event, and none of them should have enough capacity to cover this entire place with their cold presence.

And then, she saw those dead red eyes, staring from afar.

“ May I ask what you are doing here?”  Manaria asked the princess, using telepathy.

“It's none of your business”  Rae told her, with that same monotone voice that Manaria had always found slightly annoying.

“Then why did you make such a scene after I asked Claire to dance?... Are you jealous perhaps?”  the silver haired woman snapped, trying to get something, anything, out of that woman's mouth that wasn't just some bland comments with that voice.

“...”

Manaria tried to force more words onto Rae, but she had already cut the magic link between them.

And from a distance, The foreign princess saw how those red eyes vanished into the crowd.

And the summer heat came back to the place almost immediately.

“Claire, are you okay?”  Manaria said to her, expecting her to have warmed up again already.

The noblewoman sighed, slowly recovering her body heat and turning towards Manaria. “Yeah… What was that though? There's no way such cold temperatures could just naturally appear like that in the middle of summer, right? At least not this spontaneously…” 

“that was neither spontaneous nor natural… What we just witnessed was a conscious action of your dear prince ”  manaria nearly snapped once again.

Why is she here? Did the king let her be here? Why is she carrying a wand? Why would she even do that??? 

Questions plagued the girl's mind, and none of them had real answers.

They've only seen each other a couple of times over the years, and they have even battled each other (with Manaria winning… some times).

and every time, manaria came to the same question…

Is that child even human?

Every interaction, every second in her presence, it all seemed to prove the contrary.

She did not express emotions on either her face, voice or body language.

She was almost like a walking corpse.

The closest thing to an actual reaction Manaria had managed to rip out of her was those times where they did those ‘ friendly’ duels.

Rae had never actually won against her, showing the clear advantage Manaria had for being a quad-caster…

but there were times where she didn't actually lose.

She didn't win, sure, but her ways of forcing ties were certainly… Eccentric, to say the least.

“I mean, who would try to cast an Absolute Zero at point blank??? Or to remove all the air from the battle arena for both contestants to suffocate???”

Having trained with magic and combat since she was a child, Rae's magic proficiency area of effect was massive, letting her use spells which Manaria could not analyze quickly enough for her to use Spell Breaker.

That girl wasn't just sheer talent, she had been trained to kill actual monsters by the adventurers guild in the past, and after that she learned to defend herself and others because of her personal tutors hired by the royal family.

She might be the quietest kid to ever exist, but in battle she was spontaneous, unpredictable, unreadable.

Manaria could never know if the girl's magic was focused on attacking her or on freezing everything in a mile radius.

Manaria still had her doubts, but at least she knew something.

That woman was empty, hollow, frozen to the core.

And she couldn't let Claire get close to he-

“PRINCE RAE IS HERE?! LETS LOOK FOR HIM!!!”  the noblewoman yelled, once again beaming with innocence after grabbing Manaria by her arm and basically dragging her towards the crowd.

“Rae, if you're hearing this, leave the building right now, Claire's looking for you. ” 

“understood.”

“And... at least tell her the truth when you two enter the academy, i dont want her to have a hopeless crush on you.”

“...okay.”

It was just a calm morning in the Bauer Palace, three weeks after the birthday of the eldest son of their family.

Between Rod's and Yu's chatting about the new year and their entrance to the academy just being around the corner, and the awkward sound of Thane just sipping on his tea every once in a while, no one had really noticed the brown haired princess…

“Uh… Rae? What are you doing?” 

…Munching on what seemed to be a wet piece of bread?

“What do you think I'm doing? I'm just having breakfast… oh you mean this?”  She said, pointing at her piece of bread  “Try dipping the bread in your tea for less than a second and then eat it quickly, it tastes pretty good as long as it doesn't immediately dissolve in the liquid.”

“...what?” 

The one asking these questions was Thane, clearly looking confused, with Yu and Rod not falling behind.

Those sentences could have easily had the amount of  words she would normally say in a day (if she was feeling talkative, that is), and she just… did that???

Her tone of voice was also slightly off, filled with a bit too much emotion for Rae's standards.

Even her expression looked a bit more relaxed, less stiff than the emotionless one she always had.

Rae noticed how her brothers were looking at her like if she were an exotic animal or something, and raised an eyebrow.

“...Why are you three looking at me like that? Do I have something on my face?”  she said, laughing a bit, and then going back to peacefully munching on her tea-flavored bread.

The face of the princes quickly changed from ones of confusion to straight up concern.

Rae just laughed.

The person who hadn't shown a single strong emotion from the second they've met just laughed .

“Rae, are you feeling alright?”  asked the blonde prince, trying to not sound concerned.

And failing at that.

The princess could only look back at Yu with an unreadable expression, but not quite like the one she used to always have.

“I'm doing fine, maybe a bit excited for this whole thing about finally enrolling in the academy… that's all.”

Even with his normal carefree attitude, Rod started to actually grow a bit concerned about his sister.  “You sure it's just excitement? You're acting quite…”  

“Weirdly, you wanted to say weirdly, right?”  Yu finished his sentence, knowing that his brother would probably try to not use that word on someone like Rae.

“Indeed, Rae, you've been acting quite strange since Rod's birthday… just after that incident at the dancing hall…”  added the silver haired prince.

Rod quickly interjected, asking if she had actually been there, but his other three siblings ignored him.

But they actually had some reasons to be worried about her.

Ever since Rod's birthday, she had been acting in weird ways.

She was told to go into the event while incognito, this being a request made directly by the king.

Don't speak to anyone, don't reveal your identity to anyone, protect the princes.

Not even her brothers knew she was in the building… well, at least until that thing happened.

The moment she saw Manaria and Claire about to dance together.

Her reaction and subsequent outburst was unjustifiable, inexplicable even for the princess herself, and even quite stupid now that she actually gave it some thought.

She didn't exactly know why she did it at the moment, but right now she could recognize that feeling with a familiarity that she herself had never felt.

It was jealousy .

But… she knew those feelings weren't hers.

She didn't, or even couldn't, feel emotions as strong as that, at least not until that second set of memories started to crawl its way into her mind.

At first it was just headaches with what seemed to be false knowledge.

Visions of a world that didn't seem to exist.

A world without magic.

And even with only fragments of “memories”, she knew what was happening.

She knew what a bus was, what a phone was, what a computer was, even if those things didn't actually exist in her world.

And after that, the larger, more important memories started to appear.

Her odd love square situation in middle school, trying to not seem weird in high school.

Misaki.

And everything after that moment went downhill.

College was normal enough, becoming an office slave absolutely sucked.

Those odd hookup nights in lesbian bars.

And then the woman discovered the game of “Revolution”, the game in which her world was based on, or vice versa.

That detail didn't really matter to Re… Rae , at the moment.

But one of the more important (and possibly frustrating) things she could remember was her deep knowledge of this game/world.

Somehow, Rae suddenly already knew what most history books on the royal library explained, which seemed to be a product of that woman's obsession.

And also, she seemed to know a bit too much about Claire Francois, her “wife”.

‘Did she really fall in love with a person that didn't even exist?’

But there was one thing she was sure of, or that at least she thought she was.

These weren't her feelings and memories, they were Rei Oohashi’s.

She wasn't jealous of Manaria for being so close to Claire, of course she wasn't…

And recently, her situation has become even more concerning.

At first, she could easily differentiate between her own set of memories and Rei’s, but the line between the two has been slowly blurring over the span of months, to the point where she had recently found herself reminiscing about a past she hasn't even lived.

And right now… well, she was acting rather strange.

She looked at her hand that held the half eaten piece of “tea flavored” bread, and she thought it was stupid.

Why did she even do this so naturally? Why did she explain her reasoning for doing it to her brothers like it was something she had always done?

Why did she feel jealous over Manaria?

Even the tone of voice she used sounded unnatural when coming from her vocal cords.

It wasn't her voice, even if it technically was.

She was starting to lose herself in the life of another person.

“Rae.”

‘...should I be concerned about this? I mean, yes, I definitely should. But there must be some sort of connection between me and her. Right? Maybe that woman's life was my past life, or something like that…’  she thought.

“Rae!”

‘Now that I think about it, she always used the name “Rae” as the main character’s name, that main character being me (that sounds a bit self centered now that I think about it)... Does that mean that these are memories of my past life? I can't really seem to remember anything past her September of 2018, which probably means that was around her date of death, since the last thing I can remember is being in front of a screen in the middle of the night… Why do I feel like I'm being shaken-’

“EARTH TO RAE BAUER?!!”  Said Yu while holding her by the shoulders, trying to snap her out of her thoughts.

“Y-YEAH IM HERE, STOP SHAKING ME-” said the poor princess, trying to push her brother away.

“Thank god, you zoned out for more than a minute…” said the silver haired prince from behind Yu, wiping sweat from his head.

“You sure you're okay Rae? You seem kinda out of it lately” Asked the remaining prince.

‘God, even Rod is concerned, that almost seems impossible. I need to play this off somehow…’

Rae giggled nervously “Yeah yeah, I'm alright, I swear. As I said, I'm just kinda excited about finally entering the academy…” she said while lifting her hands, like she had been caught in a crime.

The three princes raised an eyebrow, proving that her act was not working at all.

‘Okay, plan B.’

“And… I guess I'm kinda happy I'll get to see Miss Claire once again… hehe.”  She said while scratching the back of her neck, feeling slightly flustered all of the sudden.

‘Wait, Miss Claire? Why her? Why am I blushing???’

Yu could only stare at her with a confused (and slightly disapproving) face. “Claire Francois…? You know she still thinks you're a man, right? She'll burn you to the ground on sight.”  

“Hey, don't look at me like that, I'm quite confident in my fire resistant skills!!! Plus, it's not like I'm the only one happy to meet a girl I haven't seen in years…” she said teasingly. “...a little birdie told me that a woman named Misha Jur managed to enroll into the academy via the commoner's scholarship system… aren't ya’ excited?” 

Rae tried to cover her wide smirk by sipping on her already cold cup of tea while Yu could only look at her in disbelief, with a light pink blush on his face.

“What exactly are you suggesting?” He said, trying to keep the little composure he had left.

Rae shrugged. “I'm not suggesting anything, I don't know what you're talking about… heh .” 

She was clearly lying.

The other two princes tried to ask something, but seeing the strange tension between Yu and Rae, decided to add more fuel to the fire.

“... who are you ?”  Asked the blonde prince, already frustrated by his sister's sudden “personality change”.

And Rae felt like she didn't know how to answer what question.

“To think a commoner would even DARE to have her desk placed next to mine, know your place!!!” a voice said with a sadistic tone.

The woman who spoke those words was the one and only Claire Francois, accompanied by her childhood friends (or lackeys, as commoner students called them) Pepi Barlier and Loretta Kugret, both members of lower, yet known noble houses.

The girl next to them seemed to not pay much attention to them, only quietly looking through the pages of the novel she was currently reading.

After seeing her lack of reaction, her temper began to get the better of her.

And she grabbed the girl by the collar of her uniform and pulled on it, forcing her to look towards the group of the three noblewomen.

“Are you deaf or just too afraid of us to move?” Claire said with a smirk on her face and a harsher voice, not doing a very good job at hiding her slowly crumbling composure.

The girl stood up to face the Blonde noblewoman, not doing the effort to make her let go of her collar.  

Now that she was almost at eye level with her (with the girl being slightly taller than her), Claire noticed she was rather plain looking in her eyes, but she didn't exactly look bad. She had chestnut brown hair that reached just above her shoulders with bangs that looked slightly longer than what they should be.

She wore a pair of narrow and rectangular glasses with a very thin chain that connected both ends of its template tips. (probably so they wouldn't fall off and break), which gave a hint that she might be a member of the higher classes of common folk, since it's not an item that was normally carried by the average commoner.

Her hazy eyes were crimson red, and she overall looked slightly tired, even with a woman of a higher class currently threatening her.

Her calm and composed behavior was eerly… familiar .

Loretta took a step forward, not long enough to go past Claire. “What? Aren't you gonna say anything?!” she said towards the girl after noticing her clear lack of reaction, with Pepi adding a little “ yeah!” From behind her.

And yet, the girl was not frightened in the slightest.

“Loretta, Pepi, calm down for a second.” She said while letting go of the girl's collar.

The feeling of familiarity wouldn't leave her mind in peace, she was sure she knew this woman, but she couldn't remember where she knew her from.

After being freed from the noble's grip, she sighed and chuckled quietly. “...you really don't recognize me? That's quite mean from your behalf, Lady Claire.” she said with a teasing but not threatening tone, slowly running her fingers through Claire's hair.

All three of the noble girls had been paralyzed by the sudden and almost affective gesture, with Claire's face now resembling a tomato and both of her lackeys with their mouths agape.

Rae moved her head to the side, noticing a blonde figure with a confused face leaning on the door frame of the entrance to the classroom, and walked past Claire and her friends.

The noblewoman snapped out of her confusion and turned around quickly. “W-what? Who even are you?!” She exclaimed, demanding an explanation.

As the girl walked away, she too noticed the man standing in the doorway.

Yu Bauer, one of the four princes, his gaze shifting between the unknown girl who was walking towards him and Claire.

“Yu, what are you doing here???” she said, with a confidence that not even Claire herself had around members of the royal family. ”Came to finally speak with your dear sister after ignoring her for a week?” 

“if anything, that's your fault for being a such a weirdo lately.” The prince answered teasingly.

“I don't know what your concept of weirdo is, I'd say I'm pretty normal~” said the woman.

“Yeah sure…” Yu said seriously, then chuckled.

And then both of them just… starter laughing.

‘Wait… sister???’

“Master Yu, did you say… s-sister?” Claire said quietly, trying to think of a logical answer to what was happening in front of her.

“...you haven't explained it to her yet, have you?” he said to the girl she just called sister

And she just shrugged.

‘does the royal family have a fifth child? Does Yu call this girl “sister* out of affection? Are they good friends? Is she her partn-...’

And then, the girl turned around to face Claire once again.

And she finally recognized those eyes that now reflected her.

“...Rae?”  The eyes of her prince…?

After hearing her own name coming out of Claire's mouth, Rae smiled at her for the first time. And while walking out of the classroom with her brother, she winked at her.

And then, she was gone.

…

And came back seconds later, just to yell something.

“I'll explain it later!” she said.

And now she really is gone.

“Lady Claire… A-are you okay?”  Pepi said, concerned.

“Did you know that person?” Loretta added.

Claire gulped, feeling as if her skin burned.

She thought about the implications of… this.

The fact that she has been in love with a woman this whole time, that basically everyone who knew Rae lied to her…

And that, even now-

“I…I think I'm gonna puke.”

-she still found her quite charming.

The walk towards their dorm was slow, almost sluggish.

Rae hadn't said a word since they had gotten out of the classroom, something that was a bit concerning to Yu, at least now that she had become a person who didn't even shut up while eating.

It was almost as if the girl he had known for all these years came back… almost .

Her face didn't look quite as emotionless as she had been in the past, right now she just looked lost in thought, confused even.

“May I ask what that whole thing was?” Yu asked, trying as hard as he could to not look concerned.

“...”  she didn't even look at him, not because she ignored his words, but because they probably didn't even reach her.

“...Rae?” 

“...”

Once they finally reached their dorm room, Yu sat down in his bed, confused by Rae's behavior.

And she just stood there, in front of the closed door, lost in thought.

until her legs finally gave out, making her lean into one of the walls while slowly slipping into the floor.

“Rae?!” Her brother exclaimed in horror, shooting up from his bed to check on her.

But once he got close enough, he heard a little giggle from her, one that turned into an innocent laugh pretty quickly.

“Yu-” she tried to say, catching her breath in-between her laughter. “-why did I do that!?” 

The prince only sighed, and fell victim to his sister's contagious laughter.

“Well, I guess I do like her.”

Chapter Text

Creak… Thud.

Claire's precious second day of school had finally finished, she was finally back at her dorm room and all her responsibilities had been lifted from her shoulders.

Only her responsibilities, not her worries. In fact, those had only gotten worse since… that.

After her first encounter with her prin… Rae, she had tried as hard as she could to maintain her composure around the closest people around her, those being Pepi, Loretta and her maid Lene.

And she absolutely failed at it.

She couldn't maintain her mind focused on class, and neither in her casual conversations with other students, or even her friends.

“Lady Claire, who was that person?”

“Are you sure it's okay to let her go away like this?”

“How did she even dare to do such a gesture to a noble?!”

“... lady Claire, did something happen today? You look… uh….”

Claire never actually told them to stop bringing up the topic, but they stopped out of fear after they noticed that the temperature around the gazebo was rising with every mention of it.

And oh boy, sitting next to her in class was uncomfortable.

Her every move, every brush of their arms, every breath, Claire had become overly aware of Rae’s every action and she hated it.

The princess wasn't exactly the most talkative person, but it didn't seem like she paid too much attention to class either… Most of the time she just sat there, looking at the noblewoman from the corner of the eye.

She tried as hard as she could to ignore it, but she could just feel her stare being drilled into the side of her face, and every time Claire turned around to confront her about ir… She was only met by a warm smile from the person she once thought was her “fated prince”. 

The princess had yet to explain this whole misunderstanding (or rather, this whole pile of lies) to her, but she hadn't said a word about the topic, or just a word at all since their first meeting. That and the fact that she felt like she couldn't even demand answers because of their clear gap in social status  just made Claire dig herself into a deeper hole of frustration with every second of her presence.

But, at least for now, she was free of Raes’s presence and could just lay down to res-

“yawnnn… Oh, Claire, you're back~” said a lazy voice, coming from the lump of blankets placed on the upper section of the bunk bed

…Right, the noble had a roommate. And a very sleepy one at that.

The girl in question was Catherine, the younger daughter of the Noble house Achard, and Claire’s best friend.
And perhaps, the person who could advise her on how to go through this situation.

In contrast to her lazy and playful demeanour, the girl was quite the wise person for someone her age, with a voice that seemed rather soothing and comforting for a troubled person like Claire, and that was just what she needed right now:

“Catherine…? Are you awake?” She said, trying to confirm if her roommate was really conscious or had just greeted her while half asleep

The lump of blankets shifted slowly until a head covered on wavy blonde (and slightly messy) hair poked out of it. “I'm awake~” she said calmly, slowly opening her eyes.

Claire couldn't stop herself from smiling a bit, seeing a dear friend who hadn't been constantly worried about her for the last 7 hours was something quite refreshing.

As Catherine slowly pulled herself upwards trying to maintain herself awake, she noticed her friend’s happy, yet tired look on her face. She knew Claire had been going through some personal issues lately, even if she hadn't witnessed them herself. 

Claire's emotions always showed on her face, after knowing her for around ten years already, she was almost an open book for her.

Without putting much effort into her movement, she slowly pulled herself into the edge of the bed, with her only leg hanging down towards the bottom bunk.  “So… what's that thing you need to talk about?~”

Claire’s face quickly shifted from calm to one of a rather unpleasant surprise, sighing and sitting down on her own bed, taking off the blouse of her uniform.

“You… you remember when I used to talk so much about the person I…?”  the last word of the sentence dies on her throat.

“Rae? Yeah, I remember him… have you two met already? Is he handsome?~” Catherine said lazily, not having enough energy to actually put on a serious tone.

Claire paused for a second, feeling as if the thing she was about to talk about was something forbidden, as if she had committed a crime (even if she hadn't even been aware of it in the first place, and then continued. “Yeah, I've met… her. That's the issue here.”

Catherine didn't answer immediately, instead she pulled her leg up into her bed again, and changed her position to be able to pull her head under the edge of the top bunk, just to stare at Claire. “Then… is she pretty?~” she said in a slightly teasing voice, making her roommate blush immediately.

Claire, after noticing how hot her face was becoming, tried to cover her blushing cheeks with one of her now trembling hands. “That is NOT what I came to talk about!!!” She exclaimed nervously.

In fact, she hadn't actually thought much about what she actually wanted to talk about, she just wanted someone who could listen to her rant about a stupid princess and her sudden… thing.

‘Why did she hide it? Why did everyone else hide it from me? Why did they lie to me???’

‘Was it just to protect me? To protect her? From what???’

‘I just want her to say something to me, to give me a reason why I shouldn't burn her to ashes on sight, to explain to me why this entire thing happened, why I feel like such a mess right now…’

‘...to explain to me why i still feel like i lo-’

Claire snapped back to her senses after feeling a warm caress on her back, noticing that at some point Catherine had gotten out of her bed just to be at her side, still in her sleepwear.

And noticing that now she had become a sobbing mess.

Not because she felt heartbroken, no… she just finally realized that what Manaria said was right.

“You shouldn't put too many expectations on a person you barely know…” 

She was right, Claire thought she was just exaggerating but she was right

.

Why did she put so much thought into a person she had only seen once in her life?

At what point did she start feeling like she was in love with Rae? Was it because she helped her to go mourn through her mothers death in a healthier way? Was she even attracted to Rae?...

‘I mean… she is quite pretty though…’  she thought for just a fraction of a second, just to immediately try to brush the idea under the rugs of her mind. 

Her sobbing was slowly becoming quieter, finally reaching something that almost resembled a conclusion to her feelings.

She hadn't fallen in love with a person, but with the concept of one.

Over the years, she had made up a character in her mind and she had become a bit too obsessed with it.

She had not only gotten Rae’s gender wrong, but she had almost turned into a completely different person since the first time they saw each other. Her bland demeanour and cold expression had turned into a softer and slightly more filled with everything a human expression should have, she was now capable of expressing emotions, even if her eyes still gave this unreadable and mysterious vibe to Claire, but it was at least something.

Her gaze wasn't empty anymore, it was full of something that Claire couldn't even begin to describe, something that almost seemed to be purposely hidden from her in plain sight.

‘...why am I even thinking about this now?’

Once Claire’s sobbing started to subside completely, Catherine took a deep breath, about to say something that she might regret asking.

“So…” She paused for a second, considering if it was a good move to actually say the sentence stuck on her throat.

Claire looked at her friend with irritated eyes, waiting for her to continue with whatever she was about to say. At this point she thought that there wasn't much that could make the difference in a situation like hers.

She couldn't bring herself to hate the princess, even if she wanted to. She was the person that helped her all those years ago, the person who let her cry on her shoulder without a second thought.

Even if she wasn't a man, if her personality had changed a lot since the last time they saw each other, or if she wasn't even close to what Claire had imagined her.

In the end, she still was-

“...Do you still like her?”

Her first love.

“...sometimes your face speaks more than your words, hehe~”

And oh dear, she hated that.

A woman with long and fluffy light-brown hair walked down the corridors of the academy, wearing a rather peculiar conjunct of clothing, a maid’s outfit.

Lene Aurousseau, the trustable servant of Claire Francois, and one of her closest friends, found herself walking towards the kitchen area of the building to refill the teapot in her hands, as a petition of her mistress

She and her two friends were currently waiting in a gazebo close to the building, with Pepi and Loretta complaining every once in a while about the behavior of a commoner whose name Claire refused to pronounce, for some strange reason.

Lene had almost immediately noticed something was wrong after reuniting with her after her classes.

She wasn't exactly annoyed at first, but it was quite obvious that any and all mention of the commoner seemed to get on her nerves, to the point where her tea started to boil for a couple of seconds inside of her small cup once, thing that scared her friends enough for them to stop pressing into that topic any longer.

The strange emotions didn't seem to trouble her studies, of course she wouldn't be affected in that way by the presence of a single person, and by a commoner nonetheless

But outside of class, she seemed rather… quiet, pensive even.

Had that person left such a big impression on the noble?

And just the night before today, she had found her tucked in bed earlier than expected, having undone her hair drills herself (even if a bit roughly so), just staring at the planks of the top bunk, with eyes that  almost seemed lightly reddish.

Her made up excuse of it just being caused by allergies was rather… Well, it was obviously a lie, but she decided to not push further.

It seemed like she had already been through enough for the day.

‘Could this somehow be related to-?’

As Lene entered the kitchen of the academy, she heard the sound of a small and short fire, seeing the sudden light source appear and disappear almost immediately from the corner of the room.

She quietly peeked into the kitchen, seeing a girl with short-ish hair with a bottle of alcohol and a burnt match in her hands, admiring multiple small glass jars that seemed to contain some sort of yellow-ish substance, covered in a layer of caramel.

The student took a spoon and cracked the now solid orange layer, revealing the dessert underneath and took a bite of it, letting out a satisfied sigh just after.

The maid had never seen any desserts like that, but it seemed rather tasty.

“Excuse me…” she said quietly, making sure the girl didn't get startled-

“WH- HUH?!” The girl almost jumped from surprise, then immediately turned around with her hands up in the air, like she had been caught red-handed.

“I- I know students shouldn't be playing with materials that could c-cause fires, but i swear i had a good reason for using-” the girl stammered nervously, putting her body just in front of the desserts she had apparently made herself, but then she paused for a second, finally taking a closer look at the maid.

“...Lene Aurousseau.” that wasn't a question, but more of a statement, her nervousness instantly falling off from her face. 

The maid had also taken a second to look at her carefully. That hair, those red eyes… it all seemed oddly familiar for some reason, and she had said her full name without stuttering, even though this was apparently the first time they've seen each other.

“Wait a second…” she thought “short brown hair, tired red eyes, those glasses… Isn't this the person Miss Pepi and Miss Loretta mentioned?”

“Are you the person who has been annoying to miss Claire as of lately?” said the maid, with her normally sweet tone slowly devolving into a darker one.

‘She made Claire cry.’ she thought.

“I… Wait a second, I don't even talk to her at all!” the girl exclaimed, finally lowering her hands and leaving the alcohol bottle on the counter. “I didn't know she found my presence annoying, I do apologize for that… Also, you shouldn't be talking like that to someone you haven't met in a long time, miss Lene…”

“Have we met before?”

“Ah, right. Miss Claire didn't recognize me either at first” 

The girl pulled out a small hair tie and started to put her hair together into a tiny ponytail that awkwardly poked out of the back of her head.

And then, the expression on the girl’s face completely vanished, leaving just a husk of the teasing smirk she just had.

Her crimson eyes didn't express any emotion in particular, but her gaze felt like a knife at her throat.

Even her presence seemed to change for a bit, feeling like a completely different person, like if Lene was standing in front of someone of great authority, of power, of respect…

Under the sudden pressure she felt over her, she managed to choke out a name…

“...Princess Rae?” 

…And that name was correct.

The person in front of her was her mistress’ first love, Rae Bauer in the flesh.

Once the princess’ name was acknowledged by the maid, she snapped out of her strange state of coldness and started… Laughing.

And for quite a bit.

“Ahhh… yeah, that's me.” she said, catching her breath. “I’m sorry I scared you so much with that, it's just a tiny ‘party trick’ i learned over the years i guess.”

Lene could only stare at her while she gasped for air… was this really her? That emotionless princess she met all these years ago?

Her current behavior seemed to prove the opposite, but just a moment ago she acted like how she was back then… but in a way more menacing way, somehow.

‘Well, I guess I can't blame someone for changing so much after 10 years…’

“You were going to make tea for Miss Claire and her two lacke-… friends, right? That works perfectly for me!!!” the princess beamed, while holding one of the small desserts and a spoon in front of her. “Try this!”

The maid hesitated for a second, not really knowing if she should trust something edible made by the hands of someone of higher class (with this doubt being caused by her own experiences with her mistress’ “amazing” cooking skills, and her being used as a guinea pig for tasting tests), but managed to bring a spoonful of the dessert into her mouth.

“Hm…?

And then she took another bite.

Then another.

“Hmmm… Hmmm!!!”  every gram of preoccupation fell from her face as the sweet taste of the mysterious pudding-like substance.

“It tastes good, doesn't it? I named it ‘creme brulee’. And  it's for Claire and her… friends.” Rae said, with a smile that seemed a bit… forced?

The maid stopped eating for a second, and turned towards the princess. “...for Miss Claire?”

“Let’s just say…” she slowly turned away from lene’s gaze, looking rather embarrassed… Why? “...it's an apology gift, for being such a… disappointment.”

Lene’s confusion only grew by the second, had Rae actually done anything bad to her “A disappointment?” 

“For well, you know, not being…” she trailed off, trying to look for the correct words to describe her current situation “...you know, not a prince.”

“Oh.”

‘...Ohhh, yeah. That explains why Miss Claire doesn't want to talk about it.’  Lene thought. 

“And you being here right now is a perfect excuse for me to not be burned to ashes on sight! I've even prepared Miss Claire's favorite tea beforehand!”

“...how do you kno-”

“DETAILS details, that does NOT matter right now!” Rae nervously choked out, forcing another spoonful of creme brulee into Lene’s mouth.

Once again, Lene’s thoughts were washed away by the sweet flavor of the dessert, and she just nodded to the princess' idea, and proceeded to take the already made tea that she had made, which smelled exactly how Claire liked it.

It was suspicious, and the maid knew it, but she couldn't seem to notice any bad intentions behind Rae’s eyes, even if she couldn't exactly tell what she was thinking by looking at her.

Even with her unexpected change in personality, she still seemed as unreadable as ever, but if Lene had to use her only past experience with Rae as reference… She didn't seem like a bad person at all.

And so, the now calm maid and nervous princess went to enjoy a little tea party.

“Why is she taking so long???” said… one of Claire’s friends, but she wasn't paying enough attention to tell which one of the two was, her mind being in another place entirely.

Her left leg once again had started jumping up and down on its own from nervousness.

Nervousness for what? Claire didn't know it either.

Lately, she felt like her mood has been going on a very poorly planned tour around the country since her last conversation with Catherine.

“...sometimes your face speaks more than your words…”

She couldn't even tell what expression she was making at the time, but it seemed to thoroughly amuse her sleepy roommate.

And she hated that.

She told her to have a heart to heart talk with Rae, to try to understand what she had tried to do all these years by just hiding herself in the shadows of royalty.

And hiding from her.

Hiding the truth.

But how could she? It's not like she could just demand answers like that, not to a member of royalty, and Rae herself hadn't made much effort to speak with Claire either, only going as far as to greet her at the start of class, a moment in which Claire just… ignored her, almost pushing her away.

That might be the reason why she doesn't want to talk to her, she has always been like this after all.

“Ugh…”

And now even the smallest change in her routine made her nervous, just like this one.

“Miss Claire, are you-” Loretta tried to say, before Pepi covered her mouth with both hands, already knowing that the blonde noble was not in the mood for being asked that again.

And While the blonde into the emptiness of her cup, she heard a pair of steps slowly closing the distance towards the group

“Finally!!!” she spat accidentally, forgetting to keep her emotions in check for a second, and then turned around to finally face her maid. “Seriously, what took you so lo- WAIT, WHY ARE YOU HERE!?”

Claire suddenly stood up from her seat and fiercely stared at the girl that was currently trying to hide behind Lene’s fluffy hair.

If a strong enough gaze could kill a person, the poor Rae would have died a thousand times by this point. But since you can't just murder someone by looking at them, Claire opted for the second best option.

4 spheres of light began taking form over her head, and- 

“Miss Claire!!!~” said the princess, hastily jumping in front of the noble and wrapping her arms around her waist to pull her into a soft hug…

“............eh?” The wild Claire Francois is paralyzed. She can't move!!!

Pepi, Loretta and Lene could only stare at the sudden show of affection, all three of them being in a mixture of bewilderment and anger (mostly anger in the two nobles case), 

‘She feels so soft, I wanna cuddle her more… her hair feels so nice, like strands of pure gold and she smells amaz- wait, HUH!?’

Claire and Rae had stayed in that same position for around 10 seconds, with the noble being unable to bring herself to pull her away, until the princess finally came to her senses and noticed what she was currently doing and nervously pulled herself away from Claire's proximity, umping a few meters back and almost knocking down the poor maid in the process.

Claire’s mind had not even begun to process what just happened, being only able to stare at the now beet-red face of the girl who had made such a bold and intimate move just seconds ago… “Why is she the one that looks flustered?”

“Ahem.” Rae coughed harshly, trying to regain the composure she hasn't had since she entered the academy, trying to force her throat into making a more formal tone of voice. “Miss Claire, would you mind if I accompanied you and your two friends to this little tea party?”

“Why would I-”

“I brought desserts~”  the princess purred, pointing at the tray with 4 small glass containers filled with a yellowish pudding covered in caramel that she had apparently been holding the whole time in the air with help of her wind magic.

Claire certainly was tempted by the offer, she couldn't exactly recognise the dessert, but it seemed tasty at first sight (and even Lene seemed to have approved it, this being obvious because of the yellow dots on Lene’s maid uniform… the taste must have been good enough to distract her from the stains.), but there's no way she would be charmed by just sweets!!!...

…

Catherine told her to talk to Rae… ‘Damn it.’

The noblewoman sighed, and then also tried to force her own formal voice to come out of the depths of the conglomeration of insults she wanted to say out loud.

“Id be grateful if you accompanied us today.” she said calmly, trying to dissimulate her twitching eyelid.

Rae sat in front of Claire, next to the other two noble girls, who took Claire's example and tried to drill the side of her face by staring (which only made the princess slightly uncomfortable).

Lene slowly served the tea to the three nobles and the princess, and then gave each one their portion of the mysterious dessert.

The first one to taste it was Pepi, cracking the thin caramel layer and taking a generous spoonful of it… and she was also the first to finish it.

“Commoner, might I ask what the name of these desserts is, and the name of the chef that made them?” Asked the pink haired girl while elegantly cleaning her mouth with a handkerchief (behavior that contrasted her almost desperate way of eating the dessert), sounding a bit more happy than what she would normally when talking to common folk, probably because of the effects of the sweetness of whatever she just ate.

“What you're eating… or what you just devoured-” she said, only mumbling that second part. “-its name is Creme brulee… and the chef that made it is right in front of you!”

Loretta and Claire stopped mid bite, looking at Rae as she had grown a third eye.

“Hey, commoners can also have talents you know?” said the princess with a smug face, which seemed to convince Pepi at least…

‘...commoner?’

Claire gulped, and opened her mouth for a fraction of a second, attempting to ask why a princess like her would call herself commoner.

But a loud voice resounded inside her head, immediately interrupting her.

“DONT ASK ABOUT IT!!!. I'll explain it to you later, I swear.”

Claire closed her mouth and just groaned silently, adding another thing to her personal “things Rae should explain to me” list.

“Miss Claire-” Pepi began speaking “-I’ll be bold here. Why is this commoner currently sharing tea with us?”
“Yeah, and why her?” Loretta added, with a hint of hate in her voice.

Claire nervously scratched the back of her neck, she couldn't give them an exact answer since, well, it seemed that Rae's identity as a part of the royal family was still a secret to the public… and even if that weren't the case, she couldn't exactly tell them that this is the person she has been crushing on for years.

‘Think Claire, think!!!’

“Rae is an old… friend I met back on a vacation to Euclid.-” she lied. “-but it shook me a bit how much h-she had changed over the years, that's why I didn't recognize her at first…”

Okay at least the second part wasn't a lie, and yet she felt guilty about not telling their friend the truth.

A truth that even herself rejected, at least partially.

Lene had decided to stay silent through this exchange, understanding that basically no student in this school knew about Rae’s true identity, apart from the princes, her mistress and herself.

“You’re friends with a commoner?” Loretta said. “That's…” but decided to keep the second part of the sentence to herself, not wanting to offend Claire (and saving that same comment just in case she ever found herself alone with the supposed commoner.)

And when Pepi saw Loretta's hesitation, she decided to also refrain from making any comments too.

Conversations came and went, with Pepi and Loretta slowly managing to lower their guards around Claire’s mysterious friend
As the sun began to set, the group prepared to leave the gazebo and head towards their dorm rooms.

Lene was already gone by that time, busy with carrying the cutlery and dishes back to the academy’s kitchen.

And as they began to walk away, the air grew cold for a moment.

“Claire.” the princess said plainly, now ignoring any formalities or titles. “can I talk to you for a moment?”

Both figuratively and literally.

The three nobles turned around, looking at the now stoic looking girl.

Pepi and Loretta looked bewildered by the disrespectful way of referring to their friend, not even Lene called her by only her name.

But Claire paid no mind to that… she could only look at Rae's face.
That face.

It was almost as if all emotion had been taken from her face in an instant, leaving the Rae that Claire had met so many years ago.

“O-okay.” She managed to choke out, completely failing to hide her shock.

The princess turned to the other two nobles. “Alone.”

The duo tried to talk back, but their intentions completely disappeared once Claire turned around to face them.

She looked frail. 

“Girls… I’ll be right behind you, just go rest” she managed to say in a calm tone.

“...”

“...”

They both simply nodded, and walked away.

And when Claire faced the princess once again.

“...huh?”

“I'm sorry.” She was already bowing deeply. “I know I shouldn't have told my brothers to tell you i was a guy, but like, they told me you were somehow happy when thinking about me and i didnt want to ruin that illusion for you because i thought it would drag you back into depression-”

“Rae.”

“and I didn't even know for how long I had to keep the lie going for you to act happily without my very indirect help so i guess i never told them to tell you the truth i guess??? And then manara got involved too and she started teasing the hell out of me because of it and, AND-”

“Rae!”

“AND T-then s-she started telling me i was just a rock in your shoes!!! That I should stay away from you if I could, she even suggested I should go to study in the Sousse k-kingdom just to not bother you!! And then we almost met back at Rod’s b-Birthday and- WHWHAT”

“RAE!” Claire shouted while violently shaking the princess by the shoulders.

“W-WHAT’S WRO- CLAIRE!?!?” Rae said in between sobs, only now noticing she had actually started to cry.

“STOP, just…” Claire stopped shaking her, not releasing the princess’s shoulders from her grip, and took a deep breath, now actually considering whether burning her to the ground was the correct option. “...just stop, okay? I get it.” she said, frustrated by the truth.

She really had been protecting her all this time, even if her ways of doing it were completely stupid… 

but back then, Rae was just a child, and she was just trying to help her.

And it is natural for children to be dumb sometimes.

That was something that the princess herself had taught her at the time to help her relieve her guilt for not giving her mother a proper last goodbye.

It was so long ago that she hadn't even remembered it until now, and the idea of what “her prince” was supposed to be had distorted her perception of the real Rae so much that she forgot that… she was like her, she was just a child.

“Rae…” she sighed. “...you don't need to apologize for trying to help me, if anything, i should apologize for making up a fake you inside of my mind…”

“No.” intercepted the princess. “That was my fault too, telling my brothers and Manaria to act like if i were a boy was entirely on me-”

“NO!” the noblewoman yelled. “IT IS MY FAULT FOR FALLING FOR SOMEONE I BARELY KNOW!!!”

“...”

“...wait, i didn't-”

“Could you two stop competing to see which one of you is more miserable?” said the now present Lene, who had been standing there for around three minutes already

“...for how much time have you been standing there?” Claire asked, bewildered.

"For long enough to see you two yell at each other ” she said, with a tiny, very tiny smirk on her face. “Im just glad she didn't disintegrate you, princess Rae… at least not yet.”

The noble and princess looked at each other for a second, Rae gulped and Claire's face filled with guilt for something she hadn't even done.

“Well!” Lene said, then clapped her hands once. “Have you two already made up?” 

“...i guess we-” Rae tried to say.

“NO, we haven't!!!" Claire interjected, putting a hand over the girl’s mouth. “I might forgive you, but we're NOT done with this… I need revenge.”

A devilish smile grew on Claire's face as she pushed Rae to the ground.

“W-wait, Claire, please just- GUH-” 

And Claire had stepped over her belly button, applying a “gentle” pressure, just enough for it to be painful.

“Almost no one in this school knows you're part of royalty, you're not even a noble!!!” she said sadistically, her smirk just growing ever wider. “which means I'll get the pleasure to do whatever I want with you just like this without any consequence! I can vent all these years of frustration you caused me!!! Ohohohohoh!!!~~~~”

“I… I  guess I deserve it, hehe…” Rae said nervously, trying to look away from Claire’s heel stabbing her stomach.

And Claire? She was too distracted with her villainesque monologue to notice that the princess’ face had gone beet-red, for a reason that not even her had figured out yet.

Flip…

Flip…

Flip…

…sigh

Yu had finally put down the boring novel he picked up from the library on his way to his dorm room, and sat up from his desk, finally managing to gather enough energy to go and look for his sister.

Apparently, she had finally gone to tell Claire about the situation with her fake gender and whatever else she had been hiding over the years.
At this point, Yu wouldn't be surprised to find a pile of ashes where Rae had once stood-

Creak…

“Oh, finally.” he said, immediately losing all energy and sitting down in his chair again “I was about to go look for you, or for what was left of y-... What happened to you?” He said, pointing at his sisters’ clothes…

The print of a heel was perfectly marked in the middle of her blouse.

“:..”

“Rae?”

The princess could only walk towards the bunk bed, and then lower herself to floor level… just to hide under it.

“Yuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!” she cried falsely from under the bed “Why is Miss Claire so evil!!!”

“Maybe because you've been lying to her for the past-”

“AND WHY DID I ENJOYYYYY THAAATTT??!??!?!”

“...that’s…”

“IT'S SO WEIRD!!!! WHYYYY, WHYYYYY!?”

Yu only stared at the flapping arm poking out from the bottom of the bed, and asked himself the same question that has been plaguing his mind these last few weeks…

‘Who is this person?’