Richard Cronel.
He was a man with an even more overwhelming presence than the rumors suggested.
Dressed in a jet-black formal uniform tailored for the banquet, he radiated an intense pressure. At well over 190 centimeters tall, his broad, solid build only heightened it.
On top of that, he was handsome enough to be called peerless without exaggeration.
Beneath neatly swept-back platinum-blond hair, his blue eyes evoked the summer sea, while his deep-set eyes, sharp nose, and clean, sculpted jawline brought out his masculine beauty to the fullest.
Looking like a god of war from myth, incomparable to any newspaper illustration, he left everyone staring at him in a daze.
Even Mona, who had little interest in either her own appearance or anyone else’s, was privately surprised by the perfect symmetry and balance of his face.
“He’s so handsome…….”
Olivia’s entranced murmur came from beside her.
After the man’s entrance, the banquet hall, which had fallen silent as the grave, soon grew even noisier.
“He really is incredibly handsome!”
“To think such a splendid man is also a war hero…… The Empire’s future is bright indeed.”
“Bloodline, achievements, looks—there is not a single flaw to be found.”
Even amid the openly admiring gazes and praise pouring in from every direction, the man’s expression remained dry.
He looked indifferent, or perhaps simply annoyed by everything.
“How should I put it? He is so perfect that he hardly seems human. Haha.”
Mona privately agreed with someone’s comment from behind her.
Yes. There was something strangely inhuman about that man named Richard.
‘Maybe that is what draws people’s eyes even more…….’
After finishing her brief appraisal, Mona lightly bit the inside of her lip and reminded herself why she had come to this banquet.
This was not the time to be gawking at someone’s beauty.
Whether or not the war hero seemed human was far less important to her right now than finding Professor Thomas.
‘Damn professor. Where the hell is he……?’
Professor Thomas was nowhere among the people currently in her field of view.
Instead, far off toward the terrace, Mona spotted a man who might know where Professor Thomas was.
It was Professor Jerome of the Magical Formula Department, who had once urged Mona to join his department.
‘Before a familiar face disappears, I should probably move…….’
The problem was banquet etiquette: unmarried young ladies were supposed to be escorted by family or a partner, so she could not simply wander around as she pleased.
‘Of course, someone as inconspicuous as me could probably roam all over the place without anyone caring.’
But there was no way her father, who had brought her here as a shield for rejecting Olivia’s marriage proposals, would willingly let her go.
Then Mona’s eyes gleamed as she watched the flow of people.
The chief chamberlain, who had been standing near the Imperial Family, briefly stepped back and then emerged carrying a Military Merit Medal.
“Mona, where are you going?”
Count Bellose, quick to notice Mona trying to slip away, blocked her path.
“It is against Imperial etiquette for an unmarried young lady to wander around alone without an escort—Ghk!”
Just then, as Richard moved toward the center of the banquet hall to receive the Military Merit Medal, the nobles surged toward the middle all at once.
“Damn it!”
While Count Bellose floundered after being swept up in the crowd, Mona took advantage of the commotion and quickly moved away from her family.
Then, like a salmon swimming upstream, she pushed against the crowd and made her way toward the secluded terrace where the Magical Formula Department professor had been standing moments earlier.
Just as Mona had expected, the professor, who was not exactly known for moving quickly, was still standing on the terrace chatting quietly with an acquaintance.
“Grand Duke Cronel truly has an extraordinary son.”
“To become a Dragon Slayer at only twenty-four years old. Is something like that even possible, Professor?”
“More astonishing than that is the high survival rate of his knight order. That proves he is more than merely powerful in combat—he is also an exceptional commander…… Hm?”
While Mona hovered nearby, wondering when to speak, Professor Jerome unexpectedly noticed her first.
“Is that not Miss Mona Bellose? Good to see you.”
Mona wrung what little social grace she had from herself like water from a dry rag and began,
“It is an honor to meet you at an occasion like this, Professor.”
“Haha. Everyone else is in a frenzy trying to get a look at the war hero. What are you doing all the way over here?”
“I saw you here, Professor Jerome.”
She had only stated a fact, yet the formula professor suddenly looked moved.
“You came to see me instead of the war hero. Haha! You are as scholarly as ever.”
Mona broke into a cold sweat at the professor getting emotional all on his own, and then he spoke with a wistful look in his eyes.
“Miss Mona, have you still not considered taking a double major?”
“……Pardon?”
“You are far too talented to remain only in that obscure, barely noticeable Monster Studies Department.”
One major already felt like it was tearing her in half, and now he wanted her to take two?
Was he trying to ruin her future?
Just as Mona opened her mouth to reply, the professor’s acquaintance cut in.
“Oh, this is the first time I have seen you praise a researcher so highly, Professor Jerome.”
“She is also the first student I have ever seen lose the top entrance rank because of an etiquette elective that any fool could ace, even though she got a perfect score on my formula exam.”
“There are students who can get a perfect score on your exam……?”
“Yes. Miss Mona was the only one who properly answered the question about a low-mana sustained defensive formula using triple mana circulation.”
“What!? Even I, an active mage, would struggle to solve a problem that difficult within the time limit. Why would you put something like that on an Academy entrance exam……?”
“I did it for fun! For fun! How else would I find an interesting student like this? Hahaha!”
As Mona hesitated, unable to find an opening to join their conversation, the professor’s acquaintance addressed her.
“Miss Mona, was it? Research into multi-mana circulation has been attracting even more attention lately. If you are interested, come to the Magic Tower. I can arrange an internship for you.”
First a double major, and now they were trying to drag her into the infamous Magic Tower as an intern.
Were these people demons?
“It is not too late even now, Miss Mona.”
Mona broke into a cold sweat as the man even handed her a business card stamped with the Magic Tower’s seal.
“……I think it is very much too late.”
“Haha! See? This is why Miss Mona is so entertaining!”
“…….”
“When I told you three years ago to join the Formula Department as a researcher, you answered, ‘I do not think it would be interesting.’ You remember that, do you not, Miss Mona?”
“Yes…….”
“I was rather bold at your age too. This brings back memories.”
Whatever he found so amusing, the formula professor laughed heartily and launched into one story after another about “back in my day.”
He told tales ranging from how he had attempted formulas everyone else considered impossible just for fun, to the time he rejected an unfair proposal from the Academy dean.
Only after listening through the old professor’s long reminiscence did Mona finally manage to ask about Professor Thomas.
“……Hmm. You say you are looking for Professor Thomas because he has not been coming to the laboratory lately?”
“Yes.”
“You are even worried about the well-being of your supervising professor! How admirable. The fellows under me count the days until I get sick and cancel a class. Haha!”
“……Professor. If the professor Miss Mona is looking for is Thomas Levett, I believe I saw him over there, near the corner of the balcony.”
Unexpectedly, the useful lead came from the mage who had offered her the internship.
Just as he said, the moment Mona turned her head toward the outer balcony, a familiar mustache passed through her field of view.
“He was gathered with some of the most notorious fools in the Magic Tower. Tsk. The victory celebration is clearly just an excuse. They will undoubtedly slip away to some social club afterward.”
“Thank you!”
Growing impatient, Mona bowed quickly and hurried away.
“Haha. Such passion for scholarship.”
Professor Jerome laughed approvingly as he watched Mona disappear into the distance.
“Indeed. To seek out a department professor with such a glamorous war hero right in front of her—her passion is hardly ordinary.”
The Magic Tower mage smiled and nodded in agreement.
“She has more than enough ability for a double major. The more I see, the more I want her in my department.”
“Judging by the way she pursues scholarship regardless of time or place, I believe she would also make an excellent Magic Tower intern.”
“Now, now. I called dibs first.”
Even after Mona disappeared, the two continued calmly exchanging remarks that would have made her recoil in horror.
***
“Mona! Where did that girl suddenly disappear to!?”
Amid the bustling crowd, Count Bellose looked around anxiously.
Meanwhile, Olivia urged her twin brother Liam on, trying to get a better look at Richard receiving his decoration.
“Liam! Clear a path. I can’t see Lord Richard’s face properly.”
At Olivia’s command, Liam stood on tiptoe and searched for a gap to squeeze through, then let his shoulders slump.
“Olivia, the front is already packed with people. It’s hard to move any farther.”
“Olivia, don’t be impatient. Wait until the victory ceremony ends and the after-party begins. I’m sure you’ll get a chance to dance with Lord Richard.”
At her mother’s advice, Olivia worried at her lips.
Most of the young ladies around her were burning with the same determination to make eye contact with Lord Richard at least once.
This was no time to take things easy.
“……All right, Mother. But if I want him to notice me, I need to stay as close to the center of the banquet hall as possible.”
Watching his wife and Olivia stubbornly hold their ground near the center, the count spoke with visible impatience.
“My dear, Mona is missing. I think we should look for her…….”
“Do you really think that matters right now?”
“Father, we already rejected Marquis Roussel’s marriage proposal, the one tied to the family business.”
“Th-that’s true…….”
Faced with the two women’s forceful insistence, the count meekly accepted defeat and fell silent.
“It’s taking quite a while.”
“It really is.”
The Bellose family struggled to hold their place near the center of the hall until the victory ceremony ended.
But once the ceremony concluded, disappointed sighs sounded here and there.
“Haa…….”
“What is wrong?”
“Lord Richard apparently won’t be attending the after-party. He says he wishes to place greater meaning on mourning the fallen than celebrating the joy of victory…….”
“Oh my……. Even the war hero’s character is noble.”
Making all their waiting meaningless, Richard Cronel disappeared without so much as attending the after-party, let alone dancing.