Zenith leaned back to his bed while staring at the ceiling. His gaze bounced around his new 'home'. He was in the dorms of the royal academy, and to be more specific, in the room next to Avian's.
"I didn't expect to see him here."
White, beautiful long hair, rosy eyes with extremely pale skin. It was accompanied with those beautiful plump pinkish lips, making Zenith's heart skip a beat.
'So beautiful to be a man,' he mourned Avian's gender for a few minutes.
Meeting Avian here was neither something he planned nor a thing he had expected; nonetheless, it was pleasant. His curiosity was yet to be quenched, which made sense given it was their first time going out.
Their first meeting was Zenith being a brick, and he admitted it to himself later. Perhaps it was due to how he envied the person who lived his life till that point, but then he realized that this life was not all fun and games.
Once he was assigned to those private tutors who had drilled all kinds of information and knowledge into his head, Zenith realized that the luxury Avian enjoyed was only on the surface level.
From the small matters to the major important things, Zenith was unable to process them with the same confidence he had after realizing that every action of his would result in some irreversible consequences.
How was he supposed to dismiss a case while he did not know whether it was going to be dealt with properly by someone else or not? And similarly, how was he going to deal with those cases properly by himself?
His envy had shifted into respect, and then to pity. Avian had suffered a lot; that was the conclusion he came with.
Thus, his interest only grew more toward her, with some additional guilt.
It all happened in two days, but for him, it felt like eternity had passed.
'I'm still guilty for how I treated her that day.'
The memories kept replaying in his head from the very moment their eyes met. That beautiful thing was surrounded by two ugly ducklings who were sticking to him so intimately; it disgusted Zenith at the first sight.
Using all his willpower to not shove the two women away, Zenith found his way toward Avian. The closer he got, the more mesmerized he was. In the end, he could not stop himself from doing his usual thing whenever he caught a beautiful person–
And flirted with him.
Avian's response was not what he usually dealt with, and as confused and conflicted he was, he ended up degrading her greatly.
Especially since Zenith did not know that Avian was a woman, so he thought he had hurt her 'manly pride.'
In reality, Avian could not care less about that. The only thing that bothered her was how Zenith treated her as an easy prey. She was a treasure, not a piece of junk thrown in the street.
So while Zenith was guilty and trying to fix his mistake, Avian wanted to ensure his suffering by making him fall for her and hanging him on a thread, tugging on his heartstrings until he fully submitted to her.
The two were of different hearts, but their silent agreement was to meet up more in the future for their different goals.
On the other hand, in the Imperial palace, the Crown Prince was sitting in front of his desk and dealing with some paperwork. The pile did not seem to decrease no matter how much he had been working on those.
"I wonder if Avian settled well," he sighed to himself as his brain wandered around.
Although he only wanted to escape the insane pressure of his duties, Carlos was genuinely concerned about Avian as well. The young woman had gone through many changes in a very short amount of time; she needed all the support she would get.
Just then, a card caught the attention of the Crown Prince, prompting him to heave a heavy sigh.
It was a short note with Maximilian's family crest on it.
『The deal is on.』
When the Crown Prince showed the records to Avian, he hid this simple note. Carlos made a gamble and was successful in it; although the Maximilian family was involved, Avian was clearly oblivious to it.
Which had assured him greatly.
At the same time, however, he could not help his worries.
"Would we end up against each other, Avian?"
The only wish Carlos had at that time was for the answer to that question to be negative.