The hallways of Mayorka feel eternal when the sun is nipping at your heels.
I ran. Not caring who saw me. Countesses, gardeners, an etiquette teacher who dropped his teacup when I blew past him. No one runs in Mayorka. It was a common saying. Running is for servants and messengers.
But I had until sunset to find a girl who probably hadn't even set foot in the vastness of Mayorka an hour ago.
The heroine. Layda.
In the web novel, she, as the protagonist of the story, appeared in the first few chapters. She arrived late to her first class, carrying a tower of books that hid her face, tripped on the stairs in the south wing, and the prince caught her in mid-air.
He looked at her. She blushed.
And just like that, the destiny of this web novel was sealed.
It was the kind of moment where you, as a reader, say 'no doubt, these two will end up together'.
An extremely cliché scene.
I had to get there first. Steal the scene and break that cliché.
Why? The truth is, it's because the Harem System is forcing me to flirt with Layda before sunset.
All to avoid the consequences of failing.
My boots rounded corners, slipping against the polished marble floor. They passed under stone arches.
The south wing was at the opposite end of Mayorka. I had been running for five minutes. Maybe six.
I reviewed what I knew about Layda, without stopping.
Commoner. Scholarship student. Light brown hair, big eyes, honey-sweet voice. In the web novel, she was sweet, clumsy, sincere. The kind of protagonist who trips over her own shadow and laughs at herself without a care in the world.
The kind of girl who made the arrogant prince feel something 'genuine' for the first time.
To put it simply: she was the weapon that would destroy Lianza.
I reached the south wing out of breath. The stairs were wide, with wrought iron railings adorned with precious gems. They were exactly the ones the novel described.
I leaned on my knees, panting. Sweat ran down the back of my neck.
I looked out the window. The sun was brushing the rooftops. Half an hour. Maybe less.
Then I saw her.
Layda was coming up the stairs with that pile of books covering half her face. Only her big brown eyes were visible, blinking over the top cover. Her steps were short, unsure. Her uniform skirt dragged a little. She wore her hair up in a messy braid that was coming undone on one side.
It was exactly the same scene from the book.
I took a deep breath. I smoothed my uniform.
I just had to bump into her. Pick up her books. Drop a fl... flirtatious line. And thus complete the mission.
I took a step forward. Then another. I calculated the trajectory. Layda was climbing the sixth step. I would come down from the tenth. Our paths would cross on the eighth. Perfect.
I lunged.
And then the air moved.
Something golden crossed my field of vision at a speed my eyes could barely register. A flash. A brush of white fabric.
The smell of expensive soap, well-pressed clothes. But what defined it most was the scent of lavender with citrus notes.
Ardwyn appeared on the eighth step. Exactly where I was going to be. His arms caught Layda before her knees hit the step.
The books scattered down the stairs in a cascade of pages.
She blinked, confused, looking up from beneath the prince's chest. He held her by the shoulders.
"Careful," he told her. "The stairs of Mayorka can be treacherous for those who don't know them."
Layda opened her mouth. Closed it. Her cheeks turned red.
"T-thank you, Your Highness," she stammered, her eyes shining at the figure of the prince. "I don't know what happened, I think I misstepped and..."
"Don't worry. I'm the one who should apologize for not arriving sooner."
I was three steps above, with my hand extended in the air, where no one needed it.
Yeah, I don't need anyone to tell me how embarrassing I was right now.
The prince looked up. He found me. His smile widened by half a centimeter.
"Ah, Elcronne," he said. "Guarding the stairs? What dedication."
I lowered my hand. I had to bite my tongue.
[Time remaining: 23 minutes. Need a tissue, Romeo? 😢]
I didn't reply to the System. I couldn't. Ardwyn was helping Layda to her feet with a kindness that churned my stomach.
Every second that passed was, in effect, one less second I had at my disposal.
The books. The books were on the floor.
I knelt down. I started picking them up. One, two, three. One with a strangely hard cover, another with old pages here, and a botany book there, there was also an etiquette manual.
I stacked them in my arms without any order.
Ardwyn looked down at me with that expression of a predator evaluating his territory from earlier.
"It's not necessary, Elcronne. I'll handle it."
"I insist, Your Highness," I said through gritted teeth.
Layda crouched down too, rushing to grab a specific book. Our fingers brushed, since I had picked it up first, but I yielded it to her; after all, it belonged to her.
However, I noticed out of the corner of my eye what the cover of the book said.
'Personal Diary'.
She looked up.
Her brown eyes met mine. Big. Innocent.
Or so they pretended.
And panic emptied my head.
Twenty-three minutes. Twenty-three minutes and Lianza would lose her face.
I had to flirt. Now. With the prince watching and the heroine kneeling in front of me.
With no preparation, script, or a single decent idea in my head.
I opened my mouth.
And what came out was the worst thing I've ever said in my life. Yes, the line about Alexia's eyes being the light that illuminates the entire academy included.
"Falling from the sky must be a tremendous impact."
Silence.
Ground, swallow me up.
Ardwyn stopped smiling.
Layda blinked.
"Excuse me?" she said.
"Because..." I swallowed hard, holding back tears of shame. The only thing keeping me standing was what I felt for Lianza... "because angels shouldn't trip on stairs."
I said it. I can't erase it. I can't take it back either. It stayed there, floating in the air of the south wing stairs, so absurd and pathetic that I also had to hold back a laugh behind my lips.
Barely.
Layda stared at me. Her lips parted. She seemed to dissociate for a few seconds, clearly bewildered by the scene she had just witnessed. Until...
Until she blushed.
"Me? An a-angel?" she repeated in a high-pitched little tone.
[MISSION FAILED!]
[...]
[...]
[Nah, just kidding. 😂]
[Here's your reward...]
[What? Did you think I forgot? I'm keeping track of everything, Dariel. Every 'mistake' is still part of the game.]
[Mission completed. +10 Experience Points → Persuasion.]
[System Note: "Angels shouldn't trip on stairs". Pff. Pure art. I'm going to frame it. 🖼️]
Ardwyn was looking at me. His golden Empero emanating.
Although, this time the aggressiveness wasn't felt, but rather a gentle and considerate brush.
Maybe it was because he was less than a meter away from Layda?
It was most likely. After all, the larger the Empero, the harder it is to control, which makes it seep through any state of mind that causes turbulence.
I stood up. I handed the books to Layda. I kept my gaze firm.
"With your permission," I said.
And I left.
I had witnessed love at first sight. How the vastest Empero in this world became as friendly as a mother's touch. And what was more important: I had completed the mission.
I had nothing else to do here anymore.
My Lianza was waiting for me.