Extra 1. Swanhaden
Shuraina placed one leg over her other leg and shook it. She looked quite nervous as she gnashed her teeth as well.
She had been like this after doing well on her knight exam and had returned home. It wasn't that she had made a mistake during the test, either. She had shown the highest level of talent amongst the participants, showing her use of both magic and swordsmanship. There had been a crisis, though. Hylli was part of the test administers, so she had almost burst out laughing during the exam. Both of them had tried as hard as they could to not laugh at each other. She had almost gotten disqualified, but other than that, she had done an excellent job on the exam.
The reason why Shuraina was feeling anxious was for a completely different reason.
She thought back to a conversation she had overheard other female examinees as they changed their clothes.
'Wooow. So you guys are engaged now? Oh my god, how scandalous! That's incredible. Honestly, I thought it was touch and go when you confessed to him, but wow, engagement.'
'Haha. Alex is just so handsome, I needed to snatch him up before someone else did. Everyone goes on the prowl as soon as they graduate from the academy, and I couldn't let anyone else take him from me while I waited, you know?'
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As soon as she overheard this conversation, Shuraina thought of one person. Swanhaden Blanche.
Then, she quietly muttered the name to herself.
"Swanhaden Blanche…."
Generally, most people began to look for their future partners as soon as they graduated from the academy and married as soon as they could. Shuraina didn't care too much about dating or marriage, so she thought this was completely irrelevelant to herself.
But, Swanhaden Blanche.
She could count how many times she had seen him after graduation. She had been busy after graduation, and she didn't have many reasons to see him, anyway. She thought about going out of her way to see him because she missed him, but she felt strangely embarrassed about the whole ordeal and couldn't muster up the courage. So she kept pushing back the date to meet him to her future self.
'He's so handsome, I needed to snatch him up before someone else did.'
That conversation lingered in her mind.
Shuraina didn't think of marriage or dating, but she didn't know about Swanhaden. Swanhaden was next in like for the dukedom, so he could possibly seek out a wife. Swanhaden had a pretty bad personality, but he was quite handsome, good looking, rich, talented, was officially a model student, and was kind of cute. He had a lot of good points, so there must be quite a lot of competition.
Moreover, he'd become noticeably nice and kinder, so more people must be aiming for him. She was half sure.
"What is this..."
Shuraina listed down Swanhaden's positive points and almost bit her tongue. Even when she thought about it, Swanhaden was just too good. Her judgment of him was so different from everyone else's that she wondered if she was staring through rose-tinted glasses. It felt like this was worse than the time with Eric. But she had the excuse of being his girlfriend at the time with Eric. Swanhaden didn't have that.
'No. Even if I think about it objectively, it's all true.'
Shuraina shook her head and then slapped her face with a loud smack.
She remembered what had happened during the senior party a while back. She thought she had felt something similar back then, too.
Wait. Hold on. It sounded like she almost had a crush on Swanhaden.
Shuraina shook her head twice and slapped her face again.
'No way, what do I mean, crush? What kind of dangerous…. Let's not be too hasty.'
To be honest, when Shuraina began to like someone, she began to like them completely unless they were absolute scum. She knew it as well. That was why Shuraina tried time and again until now not to have any kind of crush. When she felt like she was going to have a crush on someone, she imagined them with nose hairs sticking out of their nostrils and imagined them pooping to kill her budding emotions. Then, after she was sure it wasn't unrequited, did she open her heart for them.
Wait, but is this even a crush?
They even kissed! But thinking back, she was the one that initiated it.
They kissed twice! Thinking back, Swanhaden did it first, but it was more of a murder attempt than anything romantic. Moreover, that wasn't even the correct Swanhaden.
No. Thinking back, Swanhaden always acted different in front of her. His face got red that one time too.
She dimly remembered Hylli and Hestia's excuse about that. They said something about how that was his default expression when he was angry. That definitely wasn't it! Swanhaden could feel embarrassed, too.
Meanwhile, something sad came into mind–Swanhaden never tried to meet my eyes. I was always doing the staring. Maybe the reason why he was so nice to me was because I had helped him that one time. That was probably the reason why he wanted to be my partner and gave me that ring, right?
A few months had passed since our graduation and not seeing Swanhaden. Shuraina frowned at the nervousness that seeped into her system.
Once she began to fret, her mind just stayed down in the dumps. And while that happened, Shuraina began planning her confession. Her body and heart were playing separately. She remembered how her nickname, back in the day, had been 'soccer ball'. Wouldn't it be better to just get kicked after attempting a confession?
She thought that, then immediately became nervous.
What if she was just misunderstanding everything and Swanhaden didn't like her? She imagined how she would feel after she was dumped by him. She became scared–the damage would be pretty intensive. For some strange reason, Shuraina was careful when it came to Swanhaden.
'What if he says that he tried to be nice to me to look good in front of Hestia after I confess?'
She suddenly remembered how when they first saw each other at the academy, Swanhaden had smiled softly as he looked at Hestia. They didn't look friendly, but maybe that wasn't it? Maybe they were an enemies to lovers trope. Or maybe Swanhaden was just an insane tsundere.
'If only I could read Swanhaden's inner thoughts….'
Her mind began to buzz excitedly,
Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang!
When Shuraina woke up from her daze, she was in the midst of creating a device that would speak someone's inner thoughts out loud.
"You're nuts, Shuraina."
Shuraina laughed hollowly as she swung down a hammer and slammed it down onto an object. Her reflection on the metal surface looked hollow.
She brushed off the dust on the device with a brush and muttered to herself that she was out of her mind. Hahaha. Shuraina laughed soullessly.
People's thoughts were connected with their mind, so she needed to use black magic. Thoughts were on a thinner layer above memories, so it was easier to access. The magic circle, subsequently, was simple. She intertwined the black magic circle that would yank out the thoughts and normal magic that would change that into sound. Then, she placed the circles onto a physical item.
As soon as the circle was drawn on the device, the device began to work without a hitch. Shuraina's inner thoughts spouted out of the device immediately.
[Stop it! This is unseemly! This is immoral! You're only going to get hurt!]
"Shut up. It's too late now."
Shuraina frowned and added an additional spell to prevent her own thoughts from spilling out. She also laid out a few ground rules on the item. She connected the device to her inner thoughts and made it so that she could only hear the person she wanted to hear from.
"Complete."
Within a few days, Shuraina created a magical device that would help her read Swanhaden's heart. The device was shaped like a small rectangle. It had holes on one side to make it easier to hear. First, she hesitated making the thing because it felt like she was being unethical, but she had begun to have fun making the device and had soon completed it. Shuraina felt incredibly proud of her device as she wiped the sweat on her brow with her sleeve. She didn't even factor in Swanhaden in how proud she was.
Now that she had created the device, it was time to take it out to test it.
Shuraina walked around her home carrying the device. She spotted the old maid, Leda, making her neon-colored gloves and ran towards her to activate the device.
[Oh... My back aches...…]
Shuraina wore the neon hat, socks, coat, pants, and scarf that Leda had made her and stood in front of her.
[Young miss... Even if it's young miss, maybe neon was too much... I feel like I can hear my inner thoughts out loud, am I hearing things?]
....this was too much. She felt hurt as she clutched her heart and left. But to be honest, it didn't hurt that much.
A slightly sullen Shuraina looked left and right to see who she could test the device out on next. Then, she discovered Harun West as she wandered the halls.
Harun had become a lot more mature recently. His tone and words had become a lot more serious, and he had a similar adult vibe as Yves did recently. It seemed like his time with Yves had affected him quite a bit. It seemed like they still met up from time to time, too.
"Shushu. I heard that you finished taking the exam. Did you do well?"
Harun said, smiling softly as he brushed Shuraina's hair with gentle hands. She was still unused to his soft, calmer tone. When someone upbeat suddenly calmed down, they seemed depressed. Shuraina stared at him worriedly.
[It's Shushu! Shushu! Shushu! Our adorable Shushu! Sob, sob. Did she really do well? She looks down. What if….? My heart feels like it's tearing in half! Aaaaaaaagh, look at how she's staring at me! She's so cute! She's the best! The best!]
…..Seeing his inner thoughts were like Harun's usual self, she didn't need to worry that well. When Harun could hear his inner thoughts being spoken out loud all of a sudden, he looked taken aback before he looked at Shuraina. Shuraina briefly scratched her head with her hand and fled the scene.
Then, because it was vacation time, she grabbed her device and headed over to Karim, who was back during break.
[Nuna, I really missed you!]
"Shushu nuna! What have you been doing recently? It's been so long!"
Karim's inner thoughts didn't differ from his words. Seeing Karim's innocent smile made her feel guilty. She slipped the device into her pocket. She smiled as she saw the cute sight of her younger brother grabbing her hands and jumping up and down in excitement.
Shuraina had been curious about how Karim and Viedielle had been doing recently, and Karim had been curious about how Shuraina had been, so the two of them took a seat and began to chat. The conversation seemed to naturally flow to the subject of Swanhaden as they talked.
"Nuna, you like Swanhaden hyung?!"
"No."
Shuraina reflexively denied it before frowning. She frowned for a bit longer before she hung her head low.
"...maybe."
"Ack, no way!"
She mumbled, ears red and voice crawling in. Karim rubbed his eyes at the sight in front of him and had to think long and hard if the person sitting in front of him was really his older sister.
Even if he wasn't a big supporter of the person in question, he couldn't help but find his sister adorable as she expressed her interest in someone and seemed so embarrassed by the whole ordeal. Karim watched as his older sister rolled herself up into a ball and hugged her again.
Shuraina stared at her toes before she began to tell Karim about her worries.
That she wanted to confess to Swanhaden but she didn't know if he liked her or not. And that she had created a device to be able to read Swanhaden's inner thoughts, but she felt guilty in an ethical sense and gave up using it. She relayed all of her worries.
Karim quietly, solemnly listened to her worries before smiling.
"You really don't have to worry about any of that when it comes to Swanhaden hyung."
"...?"
"But for you, nuna, to confess. Don't do that. That's a huge deal. That hyung might get so excited that he might destroy the planet….."
"He'd probably destroy the planet because he feels like it."
Karim found something strange about the conversation. He had no idea that his sister was so dense. When he broke down all of her statements, it sounded like she had no idea that Swanhaden liked her. Honestly, Shuraina had mentioned it earlier during the conversation, but Karim had thought that it was impossible for her not to know and had just ignored that particular part.
"Wait, wait. Are you telling me that you had no idea that Swanhaden hyung liked you all this time?"
"....?"
"But he was so obvious? He liked you so much that he looked desperate, even to me?"
"...?"
The Swanhaden that Shuraina saw and the one that Karim saw were two completely different people.
Swanhaden had a tendency to speak less when he was in front of Shuraina, which made him look stiff and bored. That was him making sure he didn't blurt out something stupid. Swanhaden treated Shuraina in extremes. He sometimes treated her so gently that it was confusing, and sometimes acted cold and uncaring. Shuraina had assumed that Swanhaden was one of those guys who knew how to play romantic and hard to get–a bad boy, so to say. So she had wanted to ignore her budding affection towards him and keep him as a friend.
"He can care for me, but for him to be desperate for me…. That's a bit."
"No! It's true! He likes you so much that it's almost a disease! No, it is a disease! It's late-term, so he can't even get treated for it!"
On the other hand, Karim saw Swanhaden as someone who became endlessly warm and heated towards Shuraina West. Even last time, he had prepared barrels of flowers to ask her to be his partner, just once. He had removed the thorns out of all the roses, one by one, in case she got hurt. Just seeing that was proof of how desperate he was when it came to her.
Not only that, but as soon as he saw Shuraina, he would cover his face with his hands to hide his expression. Moreover, whenever he got to chat with her, he was so upbeat and energetic that he would purposefully pick fights with others to calm himself down.
The Swanhaden that Karim and Shuraina saw were such polar opposites that they gave up on understanding each other.
But one thing was clear. That Shuraina was concerned because of Swanhaden. Karim thought about how Swanhaden was a Shuraina-exclusive idiot and reassured Shuraina.
"But you really haven't seen Swan hyung after graduation?"
"Mhm. There's nothing that we have in common."
She was suddenly reminded that the two of them would stop connecting if they didn't have anything in common. Shuraina frowned, feeling bitter as she said it out loud.
"If it's Swan hyung, he's probably desperate to create any kind of connection between you two. That's weird…. What if he's cleaning up his household and coming over with a ring as soon as he can?"
"What the hell do you mean?"
As soon as Karim finished his sentence, Emily the maid opened the door and came in and dropped a bombshell on us.
"Ah! Miss Shuraina, there you are! The Blanche dukedom just contacted us. They'll be visiting today."