16 Years Old – J of Hearts Note: Please don’t read it in the little pop-up for the reader. For some reason it doesn’t reflect my later edits (which I often make a lot of after publishing), so please click ‘view original’.
I wonder if Camille is alright… Even though I was taking the exam, I couldn’t help but be anxious about whether Camille could solve the problems. Once it comes to exercises, even without magic tattoos, she’s likely to automatically short-circuit. She did study that much though, so I’d like her to be rewarded for it.
As for me, I had room to relax, so I ended up finishing all the questions before the exam even ended. I have nothing to do. I spotted Mei Zakro in the same examination room. Raiger Transbaal is taking the exam for this school, so she’s applied as well, I guess. Last year, they also became formally engaged. Raiger’s father, the Royal Prince, seemed to be dissatisfied, but I heard that Raiger pressed past it. Perhaps because he’s. .h.i.t the rebellious age, but Raiger’s become a lot less obedient to the Royal Prince than in the past. To us, that’s something to be thankful for. Kai Zakro has disappeared, but there are rumours of him returning to his family’s barony, or of him studying abroad.
“With this, the exam is over.”
In sync with the exam supervisor’s voice, the exam papers disappeared from our desks. Together with the noise of chatter, the examinees rose from their chairs. I left my seat at the same time too. Guess I’ll go pick up His Highness and Camille. For now, I sent a magic message that read “I’m coming to meet you”.
“Your Highness!”
“Ahh, Achille.”
Having received my message, His Highness appeared at the spot I specified. However, he was already surrounded by a number of women. As usual, what incredible popularity. Right now, there’s no Camille to restrain them.
“Are you going to meet up with Camille?”
“Yes.”
“She was in a place a little bit away, wasn’t she? Let’s go.”
His Highness and I were headed to the building Camille was in, but because of the female students in the way, we aren’t making much progress. It goes without saying that the usual n.o.ble daughters are here, but right now there are n.o.ble daughters from other countries and the daughters of wealthy families, and to top it off, there are even commoner girls surrounding us, watching from a distance. I knew that it would end up like this, but Camille actually plays a great role, huh. When she’s around, His Highness and I don’t get followed about by women.
“Your Highness, can we break through?”
“Mn, no worries.”
We brought out small quills, and used the magic Camille taught us to enlargen them. With this magic, as long as it resembles the form of a broom, anything will do, but lately it’s often been the portable quill pens. His Highness and I turned the quill pens sideways and mounted them, and then floated into the sky. As expected, the women didn’t go as far as chasing us up here. The women were noisily squealing something or other, but I ignored them and we headed towards Camille. A little earlier, I sent a communication spell to Camille that specified where we would meet.
Close to where Camille took her exam were a lot of applicants crowded about. The designated meet-up point in particular was congested.
“I wonder if it was a miss, choosing this place… I didn’t think it’d be this crowded.”
“That’s quite rare for you, huh, Achille.”
Within a terribly large crowd, I suddenly caught eye of Camille. Her pink coloured hair is rare, so it stands out. Camille who was standing in the crowd was… or I should say, it feels like with Camille as the centre, a crowd formed. Camille was standing dead centre of the crowd, with a lost expression. A number of men were calling out to her… Which reminds me, she isn’t wearing her magic tattoos today!
She said a number of times that it was “so that I don’t get falsely accused of cheating”, and appeared at the exam with all of her magic tattoos erased. No matter how you look at it, right now she’s just a normal bishoujo. This is bad.
I impatiently tried to get to her side, broom and all, but before I did, the crowd parted.
“I wonder what’s going on.”
His Highness who was next to me, looked on quite curiously.
“That’s…”
“Your Highness, do you know that man?”
“Mmn, it’s the second prince of the neighbouring country.”
“…! Topageria’s?”
The second prince of Topageria pa.s.sed through the crowd where they parted, and stood by Camille. They seem to be speaking friendlily. I felt anxiety at the scene before me. Camille might not know, but father once said “A suggestion for Camille-sama’s hand in marriage came from the neighbouring country.”. That was one of the reasons that father and I rushed the engagement. The person who sent it was…
“Ah! Royce-sama~ Achille~”
It seems that Camille has noticed us. She’s waving.
“Byee then, Tria-sama. It’d be great if we both pa.s.sed, huh!”
Camille took out a quill just like ours, and mounted it with familiar movements. She’s flying towards us.
“So you two flew here.”
“Yeah… The women were chasing us quite terribly, so we escaped and came here.”
“Everyone sure is energetic, huh~ Even though it’s right after an exam… by the way, Camille, you were speaking to the second prince of the neighbouring nation just now, right? Do you know him?”
Your Highness, nice question.
“Rather than ‘know him’, we just got to know each other today. We were in the same room.”
“Have you gotten friendly?”
“Yes, it seems that he has an interest in magic.”
Hmm~? Friendly…
Up until now, I’ve been relieved somewhere in my heart because there weren’t any men interested in Camille. And just how was that? The moment she takes off her tattoos, men come swarming… Even though you lot haven’t taken any notice of her up until now.
And the prince of Topageria. Even though an engagement between him and Camille shouldn’t be up for discussion anymore…
Because they discussed engagements with other n.o.ble daughters as well, I underestimated his interest in Camille.
This is bad. Being royalty should be foul play…