A young man with forest green hair and dark brown eyes walked forward as the crowds parted to make way for him. His face was tinged red as he nervously felt all eyes had fallen on him.
Ezekiel raised his eyebrows because he recognised who was speaking. This young man was his junior in his swordsmanship class and had a rather small presence due to his shy, wallflower nature. During newbie introduction, he stammered as he presented himself as a son from the Marquis Albertine house who had joined the academy to become a knight in training. Wasn't his name ... Kit Albertine?
'Why would he be speaking out now?' Ezekiel wondered.
"I- I believe the young lady must be mistaken. T- there's no proof that Lady Charlotte had bullied her and to accuse her without evidence is ... is just wrong!" Kit's voice shook as he screamed out passionately. He was rather tense from everyone's attention so he could not help but feel a like his nerves were a wreck.
Why was Kit defending Charlotte now even though they've never interacted before? Charlotte certainly would not know someone from the marquis household who had a lower standing than her duke status. And as for Kit, he had only heard about her reputation before this and chose to avoid her because he was frightened of her thus, he had never seen her being bullied directly in front of him.
However unknown to her and Ezekiel, he just so happens to be passing through as he stumbled upon the scene in the courtyard. Due to the fact he was much taller than the average male population, he could also see everything clearly despite being placed far back in the crowds. Thus, with his own eyes he could see Charlotte in a predicament... as well as the text bubble that had mysteriously appeared next to her.
He didn't know what the text bubble was but he felt like it might have been some higher power that was showing the actual truth for his eyes. As he was training to become a knight of justice, he could not simply stand by if someone was truly being falsely accused. So despite his social anxiety, he braved himself to speak on her behalf.
It was also rather innocent of him to believe the text bubble without even confirming whether it was actually speaking the truth. He just trusted it and its words as it is, similar to how he trusted the rumours about Charlotte before.
The cotton candy haired lady had stopped crying at this point, her mouth resembling a fish out of water as she opened and closed her mouth. This was unprecedented! No one had ever defended Charlotte Bellarose before ... so why was this handsome stranger defending her now?
"B- but there's no proof she didn't bully me either!" the girl argued. It was a weak counter argument. She was starting to panic because she had no idea that things would transpire this way. Usually others would bully Charlotte but no one would step in - the student population either consisted of the bullies or the bystanders who were unwilling to put their hands into the messy pot.
Ezekiel looked from Kit to Charlotte back and forth, his eyes showing a hint of confusion at what was going on. Before he had time to process everything, another text bubble had appeared.
『 Oh my! A handsome knight in shining armour had appeared to rescue me! Sir, I don't know your name, but you have instantly gained +30 favourability rating from me. Ahhh... so much more reliable than my useless fiancé 』
Charlotte had not known that her thoughts were leaking out as she could not see the text bubble either hence, she did notice how those words caused Ezekiel's face to twitch in anger and Kit's face to blush as red as a tomato.
"Ahem... Actually, I just remembered that Lady Charlotte had spent her entire night and day studying in her room, so there's no way she had the time to bully anyone"
Ezekiel did not know why but he felt incredibly unpleasant when his fiancee was comparing him to another man.
'Hah! How's that?' Ezekiel's made a smug expression as he turned to look at Charlotte. For a prince, he was quite childish. However, despite his confidence that he did something right, his face immediately fell at looking at the following text bubble.
『 Uwaaa... How the heck does he know what I was doing last night? Is he a stalker? How gross! -20 favourability rating! Why am I getting married to a stalker? 』
Even Charlotte couldn't keep her usual expressionless face as her hand covered her mouth to hide her horror.
"I- I- I was going to send you some study books to help you since your exam is coming up soon but your roommate said you were busy all night" Ezekiel quickly lied.
What was happening? Why did she praise Kit for defending her but admonish him for attempting the same thing? And what the heck was this favourability rating she keeps mentioning? How many points did he have now that's fallen?!
Luckily for him, instead of questioning Ezekiel to check the truth about his statement, Charlotte's attention turned back to the young girl whose face was puffed up in anger at the fact she now had lost the prince's defense. Other onlookers were already whispering around her at how she failed to provide solid evidence and yet dared to make an accusation towards Charlotte, someone who had a higher standing than her.
"Young miss, I do not even know your name so I certainly would not do something so abhorrent to you" Charlotte tone unintentionally came out icy. She was losing her precious study time the longer she was stuck in this situation so she wanted to wrap it up quickly.
Charlotte also failed to realise that what she had said was very insulting - that the young girl in front of her was not even worthy for her to even remember her name or notice her presence.
Her harsh words had triggered a few spectators to snigger causing the girl to turn red and leave in a huff of embarrassment. At least she knew how to back down from a losing battle. Needless to say for the first time ever, Charlotte had won this round. Ah but it wasn't entirely her, she also had to thank her defenders.
Charlotte turned to Kit first and gave him an dazzling smile. This caused several onlookers to murmur in a daze as they had their eyes blinded from her gorgeous face. Not just the males, but the females also had to close their eyes from the shining light in front of them. They've never seen Charlotte smiled before so this was basically a once in a million lifetime opportunity!
"Thank you very much for defending me, Sir ... " she trailed off waiting for the dazed forest haired young man to reply.
"K- K- K- Kit! Kit Albertine, m- m- my lady!" Kit was too dazzled by Charlotte's smile to focus on his words.
"Sir Albertine, you have my grateful thanks. Please do not hesitate to ask me for help anytime in the future" she bowed gracefully. Charlotte Bellarose was not one to forget the good deeds of those who had helped her.
"N- n- no! It was m- my pleasure to defend such a beautiful lady... " he trailed off, looking down on the ground as he bashfully replied.
『 Ah! Not only is his face my type but his bashfulness is adorable. I want to keep him as a puppy! 』
Kit's eyes widened as he looked at the text bubble. He was going to hit his limit soon if she kept praising him this way so he bowed down and ran away quickly while clutching his hot cheeks.
Charlotte then turned to her fiancé, Ezekiel, who was holding a proud expression that seemed to scream: 'Praise me! Thank me too!'
"Ah... Thanks" she nodded curtly then left the courtyard right away.
Ezekiel's face drew a blank expression at her lack of response. Everyone was starting to leave one after another as the commotion had already settled down. There was nothing else to see. Being the only one left, Ezekiel looked up at the blue sky then murmured to himself.
"... 'Ah thanks' that's what she said right? I didn't mishear did I? She didn't even seem sincere... "
It appears as if Ezekiel could not accept reality of being less worthy of a thank you than a stranger in his fiancee's eyes.
----
Unknown to Ezekiel, Kit and Charlotte, there were two other spectators who was watching from the walkways above facing down towards the courtyard.
"Oho? What an interesting flower I have stumbled upon"
A man with half tied up strawberry-blonde hair smirked to himself. His Cheshire cat smile led to some female students passing by him to swoon and became weak in their knees. Walking away, he placed his hands in his pockets and hummed a little song to himself.
"Looks like I'll be making a new friend very soon" he chuckled.
On the opposite side of the walkway, another man had his mouth opened for the entire duration of the commotion below. His lilac hair was similar to Charlotte's own however, unlike her loose straight hair, his was tied into a neat ponytail. His face was almost a carbon copy of Charlotte which might have led to others mistaking them for twins if not for the fact that he was taller, wore glasses and was biologically a male."Cha- Charlotte?" he trembled. His ocean blue eyes was unable to comprehend the situation that had unfolded.