While the whole fiasco went down in Kaze's classroom, something similar occurred where Lunaria was.
Since the thing about Kaze leaving was still on her mind, Lunaria didn't really have room to consider anything else for the rest of the day other than go along with the programme in place. When their teacher announced they would be doing a quick quiz to get to know one another's opinions through questions, Lunaria went along with it without much thought.
It wasn't until the end of class where the final question regarding her having a lover was asked that Lunaria was thrusted into an uncomfortable position. On one hand, she knew that admitting it was a cardinal sin in her relationship with Kaze, but on the other, she wanted so badly to admit to the world about Kaze. The level of stress she felt from Kaze's precarious position with Czech that could potentially end up ruining their love together had built itself upon the layer of foundation of guilt. Lunaria was the one who suggested what she knew was best for both nations and trust on the humans. If things went south, she could find no one to blame but herself.
"Lunaria-hime, do you have someone you are interested in or a secret lover?" The teacher asked the princess, immediately gaining Lunaria's attention.
"Whether or not the answer is yes or no, I don't think it is suitable for me to reveal that, would it?" Lunaria smiled politely. "If I admit it, then the reason it is kept secret in the first place is lost. If I say no, I worry that I'm giving people a false impression. As such, I shall choose to refrain from answering, thank you."
Unfortunately for her, the smooth cover-up that Lunaria had came up with didn't work as well as she wanted.
Just as she sat down, Lunaria noticed that everyone in class was looking at her with weird expressions. Some had smirks on their face, some looked bewildered, while the others merely smiled understandingly at her. Even the teacher had his hand on his hip with a sigh, stirring even more confusion within Lunaria. She could understand if her classmates wanted to tease her for her statement, but it didn't make sense if even the teacher joined in. This must prove that everyone, including Rena and Irene, who were both mixed in with the fray of smirks and grins, knew something that Lunaria wasn't aware about.
Her first reaction was to scan the area with her magic detection. It was something of a habit she gained from undergoing partial military training to raise her awareness against any form of surprise attacks. It gradually grew into a habit that Lunaria used constantly, an effective way to make use of her excellent magic sense, out of instinctive fear of getting ambushed. For example, her usage now was a way of justification she had developed to ensure that she was safe before going through the logical brain procession of information.
"Lunaria?" Rena, sitting next to the princess, lightly tapped Lunaria's hand when she didn't respond and stood there in silent. "Are you alright?"
"U-Uh, yeah," Lunaria nodded bluntly. "I should be the one asking why everyone is acting this way. Is something wrong?"
"Ahh… about that," Rena giggled, realizing what Lunaria was worried about. "I wonder if we should tell you now~"
"It's alright Rena, I will do it," the teacher stopped the elf with a wry smile. "Lunaria-hime, I think all of us here need to apologise, first and foremost, that we have been hiding things from you and one of your friends. We have all, all being the five classes that took in your friends, been under orders directly from the Emperor and Empress to secrecy about this until the final day. What we were ordered to do was to monitor you and that specific friend's status separately."
It didn't take a genius to figure out that they were talking about Kaze. Lunaria suppressed her rage before it leaked out as she knew she would be jumping to conclusions if she got angry at them for keeping something regarding Kaze a secret from her. As such, she took a deep breath and prepared herself for more bad news as her mindset was already assuming that Kaze screwed up or something.
"We know that you and Kaze are secretly dating, Lunaria-hime," the teacher continued, causing Lunaria to widen her eyes at the statement made. "Ah, please don't panic. The reason we were asked to monitor you and Kaze is to judge whether his Highness is prepared enough to make your engagement public. Now that the monitoring phase is over, we are supposed to let you know about this and decide whether us, the students in class and teachers supervising them, approve of the relationship. It's a roundabout and rather strange way of doing things, I admit, but it is what we have been asked to do."
Lunaria had never felt so betrayed yet so grateful with her parents at the same time. The amount of happiness she was feeling right now could not be qualified through expression alone, but it was immediately followed a huge pressure that seemed to suffocate her. She gasped softly from the stress of thinking of her lover getting judged over the past few days, a thought she found uncomfortable since people were essentially spying on them without her knowledge. It always was supposed to feel weird that you find out half your time spent living had been going along with people constantly looking out for your every behaviour and action, especially so when Lunaria was sensitive to these sorts of 'threats'.
"S-So, what was the result of it? Are we going to have a poll or voting process?" Lunaria tried to sound calm when she was in truth trembling. "D-Don't get me wrong, I haven't admitted that Kaze and I have anything in common when I am not certain that what you said is the truth, sensei."
"Of course you don't, the Emperor had told us beforehand that Lunaria-hime is slightly more cautious where Kaze would have easily believed us," the teacher sighed, as if already expecting this from Lunaria. "Well, it would only be right if we have a proper display of truth that this isn't some sort of conspiracy to take down the current Emperor or to expose an unsightly view of our nation's princess. Shall we?"
With a snap of his finger, a scoreboard with two separate columns showed up in writing on the blackboard. One on side, it wrote 'agree', and the other had 'disagree', clearly referring to whether the students agreed to allow Lunaria to continue having a relationship with Kaze or disagree for whatever reason they had. Lunaria gulped upon seeing this, fearing that the results might be unfavourable given the circumstance.
"Here we go," Rena stepped next to Lunaria and covered her eyes with her hands. "You don't get to see until we have tallied our votes~"
"R-Rena?!" Lunaria tried to push her friend away to no avail. "L-Let me see!"
"Everyone, please place your votes," their teacher announced to the class. "To clarify that even if anyone disagrees, you won't suffer any punishment since this would be done in complete honesty. The Emperor guaranteed it."
With Rena holding Lunaria back from trying to get a peek, the students within the class began casting their votes. They didn't need to get up from their seats and write on the board, instead simply waving their finger and using magic to etch their mark for whether they agree or disagree. It was convenient and timesaving, allowing the voting to end in an instant.
Lunaria finally managed to get Rena to stop covering her eyes, only to find herself staring at a resounding vote of agreement tallied. This might not have been a surprise for the others, but it certainly was for Lunaria, who had been expecting the worst. It wasn't like she had no confidence in the citizens for their support of her dating someone of the opposite gender being a human, but it was more so that Lunaria had been traumatized enough that her thoughts became unintentionally negative. For her to suddenly not have faith in the support from her own kind but to trust in the humans was definitely ironic, especially when the results of the vote had no single disagreement listed at all.
Her shock was definitely justifiable on a social level. As jaded as the situation seemed that there was no major conflict with the nation's princess, someone whom almost everyone knew had suffered in the hands of the humans decades ago, to get away with such an overwhelming show of support was not easy. To say the least, it was through the support of her parents that this was mostly made possible.
From Ash's point of view, even after knowing that Kaze and Lunaria had a thing for each other from their few interactions alone, he still felt quite surprised when the official announcement was made by Reginsleif at the time.
- - - - - - - -
"We have been selected?" One of the students gasped aloud upon the announcement for classes to arrange for the five days of getting along with a few national guests.
"Yes, the message has been passed by the school under a direct order from the Emperor himself," their class teacher nodded. "We have also been instructed to secrecy regarding a secondary order: to monitor Lunaria-hime and another guest of ours, who will be in the class taught by Lune-sensei."
At this order, the class got quite the buzz. There were a few reasons for this reaction, one of which was due to the shock that the Emperor was asking normal citizens like them to monitor his daughter. It was unheard of that Lunaria-hime, the crown princess and someone well-known among the citizens for her dedication and contribution to the nation along with her sisters, to be placed under surveillance. For this to happen, there must be some underlying reason that might or might not be explained to them. All they could do was obey.
The second major reason was slightly more controversial, because it regarded Lunaria's past. Ever since the incident where humans were banished from entering or living in Aravel, it had been a known fact that the person who suffered the heaviest by the human-devil alliance was Lunaria. Dubbed '3 days of hell', referring to the time where Lunaria was held captive and had her spirit crushed, it was an event that served as a deadly reminder in every citizen's heart and memory of their darkest point in history.
The day where their nation, once a prosperous kingdom with the humans, was close to crumbling; the day where the Emperor, a legendary respected war hero leading the development of their nation, would look so desperate as tens of thousands of forces tore through the humans and devils in search for his daughter; the day where the once-fertile land between Czech and Aravel, now a barren wasteland of nothing but dirt and rocks, was a bloody battlefield scorched to the ground with the haunting imagery of dragonkin troops flying across the land with huge dragon shadows casting on the battlefield; the day where the extinction of the devil race seemed imminent… It was a time where lives were lost, bonds were broken, lies were revealed, balance had wavered. In the middle of all of it was Lunaria.
Each dragonkin here had well lived past the time when the downfall of their nation happened. Even if they were young, it was an event significant enough that they would remember it to this very day and let it be a historical story to remind and teach the future generation. It was a miracle that Lunaria was still standing strong today after details of what happened to her was explained to the public, albeit sparing the cruel details to save Lunaria's dignity. As such, the controversy around her was whether or not she was still capable to serve the nation after being broken once to the extent that she went through a lengthy period of depression.
Upon receiving the order to monitor the crown princess, such a flashback went through everyone's mind. It was by no means comfortable to imagine the thought that they would have to go along with the Emperor's words out of respect for the princess, but at the same time it was a dubious thought. What if the reason for this was to act as a test for Lunaria? Could it be that the Emperor has plans to pass on the throne to her?
"Sensei, is it possible for us to know the reason for it?" A female dragonkin raised her hand. "I think we deserve to determine for ourselves whether this risk is worth taking."
"Yes, we have been given the permission to disclose such details," their teacher agreed. "It would appear to be a simulation to test the waters between Lunaria-hime and Kaze's relationship. We have received confirmation that the two are… dating in secret."
"W-What?!"
"The Crown Princess has a lover?!!"
"Impossible!"
At once, this revelation caused quite the discrepancy among the students in class. It was definitely astonishing to learn that Lunaria had a person she could date, especially when countless other suitors had come and left over the decades. This information was the deciding factor on whether they would accept the task of monitoring Lunaria.
"So as you probably can guess now, the reason the Emperor has not announced this to the public yet is because there are some special circumstances regarding their relationship," the teacher continued speaking despite his students' worried exclamations. "The purpose of the simulation is to see whether it is suitable at this point of time to announce such a news, as well as to see how we would react to it."
The class fell silence after hearing so. It never once occurred that they would be used for such a purpose, which was definitely questionable in terms of having students to decide the fate of their Crown Princess. Now that it was clarified the male partner was a human, the pieces began to fell together where they could associate the reason behind the Emperor's order and why they weren't in the know of Lunaria's status.
"Is everyone in agreement with the request?" The teacher waited for a bit before asking the class once again. "The academy is aware that this is a rather bizarre situation that has been approved and passed by the nation's Council, but the school has the option to file a rejection without needing an explanation. The other classes have already agreed to go along with this, so… would everyone take part?"
- - - - - - -
"A-Ash, you knew?" Lunaria stared straight at him with tears leaking from the side of her eyes.
"Eh? Ah, yeah… orders from the Emperor," Ash shrugged guiltily. "Sorry, not even I was allowed to say a word. That would have defeated the purpose otherwise."
With a huge sigh, Lunaria collapsed into her seat, too overwhelmed by emotions to even stand straight. Burying her face into her hands, she bent downwards and tried to control her uneven breathing. The whole reveal came so unexpectedly, not even Lunaria was able to predict a test like such coming from the side of her parents. If she had been more careful the past few days than simply having her mind focused on the future where Kaze and her friends left Aravel, there could have been a chance where she could anticipate a test of sort.
"We still have to gather the responses from the other classes, but I can tell that we managed to get a good impression on Kaze over the past few days," the teacher continued speaking, feeling concerned for Lunaria's reaction. "Until then, I can say that the simulation is- Lunaria-hime?"
Before he could finish speaking, Lunaria forced herself to stand and stumbled out of the door in a clumsy run, narrowly avoiding clashing into the other students on her way out. Immediately fearing the worst, Rena and Irene ran after her, prompting the entire class to race along accordingly. Everyone wanted to see what Lunaria was going to do after running out, a reaction that was expected but surprising to see.
The only thing on Lunaria's mind right now was Kaze. Everything and anything about him instantly took Lunaria's attention away from her surroundings. Sound gradually faded from her ears, the only thing now audible for her was the shaky gasps she made as she sprinted and the thumping of her heart beneath her chest. Her vision grew shaky the faster she ran, allowing her to temporarily gain the distance advantage over those who were chasing behind her.
She followed where her instinct was leading her as she raced down the grounds of the academy. Running to the point she felt like spreading her wings just so she could soar through the halls faster, the entire scene felt dramatized to the point that it made her want to throw up.
The turning corner leading to Kaze's class came into her view. What brought her back to reality was the thunderous applauds that came from inside the class. That was when it finally hit Lunaria that she hadn't been dreaming. Even then, she maintained her stride as she made the final turn down the corner and burst into the room. What that came into view was the class filled with overjoyed students and her favourite teacher, all applauding at the man of the hour.
Lunaria's sudden intervention directed their attention over to her. When they realized who it was, their applauds came to a halt. No doubt anyone would freeze up as soon as the Crown Princess showed up unannounced in a rather ragged state, for she got over in a mad dash. In the first place, they didn't know how it was that her timing was perfect that she would appear as soon as the secret was revealed to Kaze.
"L-Lunaria?" Kaze stammered profusely, feeling the pressure adding on now that his lover had appeared since he just shouted out loud not long ago that he didn't have anyone he was interested in. "Uhhh..."
Fortunately for him, Lunaria hadn't heard his whole dramatic denial. What that she was focused on was more on what was going on in the room. It took her half a second to process that whatever she knew had also been exposed to Kaze, hence his weird reaction to her showing up.
As if accepting her fate, Lunaria made the last few steps up to Kaze and leapt forward into a tight hug around his body. Her sudden lunge caused Kaze to stumbled back from the shift in balance, him landing on his butt on the floor. As soon as he realized he was falling, he wrapped his left hand around Lunaria's body and right on her head to shield her from getting injured, an act out of care for his lover more so than a natural reaction.
Their actions did not go by unnoticed, for even the students from Lunaria's class that showed up after Lunaria was able to witness the whole thing. From Lunaria hugging Kaze tightly to him catching her in a protective manner, it simply oozed a form of young love that had blossomed from their complete trust and care for each other. It was also made clear now why Lunaria ran, for she wanted to make sure that her lover was okay after learning that he would be subjected to the same evaluation as she did.
"Oya, how bold," Lune-sensei snickered, creating a second uproar of the combination of students from both classes.
That day, news of the Crown Princess's love 'affair' with the human male of Czech spread throughout the academy grounds even faster than a virus travelled during an outbreak.