"I am Sia, the fifth daughter of the King of Altoria. It is a pleasure to meet you."
At a cafe near the station, Princess Sia politely greeted Trine, who sat across from her.
"Ah, I, uh, am Trine, Prince Sirean's classmate in the same year of the knight department."
"My brother praised you a great deal in his letters."
"H-He did?"
"I was also deeply impressed by the video of your duel."
Trine smiled awkwardly and broke out in a cold sweat.
Something had gone wrong.
So seriously wrong that he did not even know where it had started.
He wanted to ask Prince Sirean about the situation, but Sirean had already run off on his own, saying he had something to do.
He had even thrown Trine a disgusting wink before leaving.
Trine wet his throat once with iced tea, then carefully opened his mouth.
"Um... well... haha. Why did Prince Sirean try to introduce me to you, Princess Sia?"
"You don't have to hide it. It is because of this, right?"
Princess Sia smiled and held out a small poster.
'Seeking one who can break Princess Sia's curse.'
'The one who breaks the curse will receive an enormous reward.'
'Those who fail will be put to death.'
Come to think of it, Trine had heard about it before.
Princess Sia was under a curse that would kill her when she turned fifteen.
About five years ago, the king had issued a royal decree to find someone who could break the curse.
However, it was said that no one capable of breaking that curse had appeared so far.
"The part about being put to death is only an empty threat. There were many swindlers with strange ulterior motives, after all."
Only then could Trine understand his current situation.
In other words, it was this.
Prince Sirean had mistaken the person Trine wanted to save for his own little sister.
It seemed he had interpreted Trine's mention of running away as "running away to avoid execution."
Trine steeled himself and said,
"To be honest, I think there has been some kind of misunderstanding."
Trine briefly explained the situation.
In truth, the person he wanted to save was someone else.
At that, Princess Sia covered her mouth with her hand and said,
"Oh my! That is a serious problem."
"I am sorry for disappointing you."
"What shall we do? It has already reached Father's ears, so it may be difficult to brush this off as a simple misunderstanding."
"Um... well..."
"If Father finds out, he may fly into a rage and truly have you executed."
Trine could not say anything and only opened and closed his mouth.
At that, Princess Sia took her hand away from her mouth and said with a playful smile,
"So let us make this a secret between the two of us."
"I-Is that all right?"
"To be honest, I thought it would turn out like this from the beginning. Brother Sirean is rather careless, after all."
Trine let out a deep breath in relief at having avoided execution.
Princess Sia paused for a moment, then said,
"In exchange, please grant me just one request."
"Yes! Anything."
"The sports festival begins at the Academy the day after tomorrow, correct?"
At the words "sports festival," Trine narrowed his eyes.
"Surely you are not planning to come watch?"
"Brother Sirean told me not to come. So I intend to sneak in and watch."
"Sneak in..."
"So please escort me, without telling my brother."
Trine sensed it instinctively.
This would definitely cause some kind of trouble later.
But if he refused, he would be executed, so he had no choice.
"...Understood."
"It is not exactly in exchange, but I prepared a small gift."
When Princess Sia held out a book to Trine, his eyes sparkled as he shouted,
"Could it be a grimoire?!"
"Hehe. Just as my brother said, it seems you really do love grimoires."
"Thank you!"
Trine tried to take the grimoire at once.
However, Princess Sia did not let go of the book and smiled brightly.
"For reference, if my brother finds out, our promise is null and void, all right?"
***
On Monday morning, Instructor Eloy shouted as soon as she entered the classroom.
"The sports festival starts tomorrow! Everyone, prepare thoroughly!"
The students stared intently at Eloy.
It was true that they were somewhat excited because it was the sports festival.
But why was that instructor so fired up too?
Instructor Eloy spoke to everyone with an extremely serious expression.
"Those who know, know this already, but every year, the knight department has suffered the disgrace of being called 'fake first place' at the sports festival."
At those words, several students made somewhat uncomfortable expressions.
They were certainly the best students according to their entrance exam scores in the form of mock duels.
However, the entrance exam graded swordsmanship, magic, and shooting as a whole, so they could not be said to be students especially outstanding in any single subject.
"The swordsmanship event has almost always been won by the swordsmanship department. It is the same for the other two departments."
In the end, the knight department took second place in each event.
Only by combining the results of all three events did they take first place overall.
That was why they had been disgraced as fake in the first place.
"So this year, let us become true first place, not fake first place! If you take first in every event, this instructor will treat you!"
At that, the students all cheered at once.
"In exchange, if you fail to take first in every event, homework will be doubled twice over for a month."
The cheers quickly turned into cries of protest.
Instructor Eloy grinned and said to Trine,
"Got it, class representative?"
The gazes of the other students all focused on Trine at once.
Feeling as though the atmosphere demanded that he say something, Trine rose from his seat.
Then he shouted energetically,
"I resign as class representative!"
Naturally, that got him nowhere.
***
"Let us go to the gymnasium and train together in preparation for the sports festival."
During lunch, Lizbette invited Trine and Jize.
Since there was no particular reason to refuse, the two quietly followed Lizbette.
While the three of them walked toward the gymnasium together, Lizbette handed something to Trine.
"It is a mana potion. Use it tomorrow if you need to."
Trine's mana and mana recovery speed were in a state far inferior to an ordinary person's.
Since he did not know the reason, he thought it was a mental issue.
In any case, because of that, if he summoned his magic sword once, he would be unable to use magic for several days.
That was why mana potions were practically essential for Trine.
Trine accepted the small glass bottle and said,
"Thanks. How much is it?"
"I will just give it to you."
"Isn't this fairly expensive?"
"They sell it at the Academy for one gold coin. Very cheap, is it not?"
"One gold coin?!"
Trine shouted without realizing it.
As a commoner, he had never even seen money worth more than a silver coin.
"No, you are just giving me this? Honestly, that feels a bit burdensome."
"If it bothers you that much, repay me later after you become a noble."
"I have no intention of becoming a noble at all... but if you put it that way, I will gratefully accept it."
At that, Jize grinned foolishly beside them and said,
"You two have had a weirdly nice atmosphere lately."
Trine ignored those words and quickened his pace, but...?
Suddenly, Jize let out a short scream and sank down while clutching his side.
Startled, Trine asked Jize,
"What? What's wrong?"
"N-Nothing..."
When Trine looked at Lizbette, she said with a calm face,
"Let us hurry. We are wasting time."
Just then, a male student suddenly blocked Trine's path.
"Oh~ If it isn't the knight department's class representative, who is doing so well these days."
Trine was already used to this sort of provocation.
Ever since the duel with the second-year senior, things had been like this constantly.
So, as usual, Trine decided to quietly avoid him.
"Sorry. I won't act up."
However, the male student followed him and said,
"Wait. You're entering the swordsmanship event, right? I'm in the swordsmanship event too."
"Oh, yeah? Impressive."
"I'm Ark from the first-year swordsmanship department. For reference, I'm a commoner too."
The male student held out his hand to Trine as if asking for a handshake.
Trine reluctantly took that hand.
At that, the other boy suddenly squeezed Trine's hand with all his might.
"Ugh!"
Trine cried out and hurriedly pulled his hand away.
"Haha! Looks like it was true that you're a cripple who can't even hold a sword because your hand is injured."
Lizbette stepped in front of Trine and said,
"What are you doing?"
"We only exchanged greetings as fellow commoners, so you noble lords should stay out of it."
"Trine is my friend."
Lizbette drew her greatsword.
"An insult against him will be considered an insult against me."
At that, the other boy snorted and drew the sword at his waist.
"Oh, how frightening. It must be nice being a duke. You can kill a commoner without being punished."
"I believe this is not a matter of status, but of your attitude."
"If you have a problem, come to me."
The mood felt as though they would clash at any moment.
That boy named Ark had clearly provoked her in order to test her skill in advance.
Under normal circumstances, Lizbette would have calmly backed down, but-
"I will beat that rotten mouth of yours into shape!"
...Why the hell were nobles so weak to provocation?
Lizbette charged at her opponent first.
Startled, Trine tried to step between them and stop them.
"Wait, both of you, calm down-"
Trine could not finish speaking.
The sword strikes of two people struck Trine at the same time from front and back.
***
On the morning of the sports festival.
Quite a few people were entering through the Academy's main gate.
Most of them were students' families or spectators.
Among them, a girl in a modest dress, a wide-brimmed hat, and sunglasses was waiting for someone.
She spotted Trine looking around near the main gate and approached him.
"Hello."
"...Who are you?"
At that, the girl glanced around for a moment, then spoke in a small voice.
"It is me, Sia, Prince Sirean's sister."
At that, Trine was startled and stepped back.
"What?! No, I am sorry I did not recognize you!"
"It is all right. I am under recognition-obscuring magic, so it is only natural that you would not recognize me."
"Ah..."
"But is that arm all right?"
Princess Sia stared intently at Trine's left arm, which was in a cast.
Trine let out a short sigh and answered,
"It is only a two-week injury, so please do not worry about it."
"Does that not mean you cannot participate in the sports festival?"
"I have to compete for now because they need the numbers."
"Surely you did not fake an injury on purpose because you dislike me, did you?"
"That is absolutely not the case."
Trine avoided her gaze.
To be honest, he had considered doing that at one point, so he felt a little guilty.
At that, Princess Sia laughed as if she had heard an amusing joke and said,
"It seems I will be the one escorting you instead, Trine."
Trine brought Princess Sia and entered through the main gate.
For a while, Trine could not bring himself to say anything to Princess Sia.
It was not that he found her uncomfortable.
Princess Sia's final year was this year.
When they first met, he had been too distracted to notice, but Princess Sia was fourteen, one year younger than Trine and Prince Sirean.
And the curse afflicting her was one that would kill her when she turned fifteen.
It was pitiful, but there was nothing Trine could do for her right now.
That was why he walked while saying as little as possible, only to run into the one person he absolutely should not meet right now.
"Hm? Who is that?"
Prince Sirean stared intently at his own little sister standing beside Trine.
It seemed he could not recognize her because of that recognition-obscuring magic or whatever it was.
Trine stammered slightly as he replied,
"Ah, uh, well, my younger cousin."
"Really? Have fun."
Then, as he casually passed by Trine's side,
He murmured quietly into Trine's ear,
"If you make my sister cry, you die."
Cold sweat began flowing down Trine's back.
Princess Sia asked beside him,
"What did my brother say?"
"Ah, uh, he said to do our best in the sports festival later."
"You know the promise becomes null and void if he finds out, correct?"
"Of course! Hahaha..."
Trine smiled awkwardly and entered the gymnasium where the sports festival would be held.
The spectator seats were divided into a commoner section and a noble section.
Trine hesitated for a moment.
But he still could not bring a princess to the commoner seats.
So he tried to quietly bring Princess Sia to the noble section, but...
Several nearby noble male students picked a fight with him.
"Hey! If you're a commoner, you should go watch from the commoner seats. Why are you loitering around the noble seats?"
"You think being a top student means you can be treated like a noble or something?"
Trine replied, somewhat flustered.
"Ah, I am sorry! My younger cousin just wanted to look around for a moment."
At that, the students surrounded Princess Sia and said,
"Little girl, do you want to be executed?"
"You're pretty cute, aren't you? If you want, I can use you as a maid in my house."
Those idiots...
Trine stepped forward to separate the male students from her.
But before he could, Princess Sia spoke first.
"Did none of you know? Trine was granted the rank of baron this morning."
At that, the nobles grew somewhat flustered and stepped back.
"Oh, really? If that was the case, you should have said so from the beginning."
"Tch. Is that some class representative privilege or something? Must be nice."
When the students unexpectedly backed down without protest, Trine let out a sigh of relief.
But soon, he spoke to Princess Sia with a troubled expression.
"If you tell that kind of lie, I am the only one who will be in big trouble later."
"It is not a lie."
"...What?"
Princess Sia somewhat playfully tapped Trine's shoulders and forehead with her hand and said,
"I hereby appoint you as a baron of the Altoria Kingdom~ There, all done, right?"
At that, Trine hurriedly stepped back and shouted,
"No, all of a sudden?! Are you allowed to just decide something like that so easily?"
"I do have the authority, for one."
"Even so, it is too sudden!"
"I received Father's permission in advance too, so it is fine."
When Trine made a somewhat blank expression,
Princess Sia smiled brightly, took Trine's hand, and said,
"Then, Baron Trine, shall we go inside?"