“Hehe, hehehe.”
Seron is laughing like a fool.
“Hooow.”
Seron lets out a sigh.
“Huh-huh.”
Seron hums a tuneful song.
I wonder how many times a day her emotions change. I just get exhausted watching her.
But Seron never seems to get tired. She looks blissfully happy amidst her rampaging emotions.
“Seron.”
“Hoo.”
“Hey.”
“Hehehe.”
“You dodo.”
She doesn’t even reply, no matter how much I call her.
“Seron, what’s wrong with her?”
Isabel looks at Seron with a puzzled face. Even she can tell Seron is not right.
“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask her?”
I don’t want to ask anymore.
Isabel, sensing my reluctance, sits next to Seron.
“Seron.”
When Isabel taps Seron’s shoulder and calls her name, Seron snaps back to reality a little.
“What’s wrong? Why are you like this?”
Seron, after hearing Isabel’s question, has a dazed expression, then suddenly stares blankly out the window.
“Haa.”
And she lets out another sigh.
“Bel, I saw the prince.”
“…But there’s no prince at Jerion Academy, right?”
“No, that’s not it. Hoo, you wouldn’t understand, Bel.”
Seron reacts as if feeling sorry for me not knowing love.
Isabel glances at Seron for a moment before quietly stepping back.
“…You talk.”
“Just leave me be.”
They say there’s no cure for a lovesick heart.
I can only let Seron be until she forgets me.
“That attitude, you must know something, right?”
“Not at all.”
I don’t want to know either.
In this way, time passed under Isabel’s suspicious gaze.
Since entering this scenario, several new challenges arose for me.
The first was visiting the female dormitory regularly for Iris’s peaceful sleep. Iris’s nightmares are crucial.
I had to share a bed with her at least once a week without fail.
Iris wished for me to come every day, but I just didn’t have the energy for that.
Every time I entered the female dormitory, I felt the terrifying eyes of the maids watching me.
The second was to shake off Isabel.
Isabel was almost shadowing me, trying to take care of me in various ways.
I had underestimated her determination a bit.
She was desperate to return me to my original self.
At times, others even assumed Isabel and I had reconciled.
Eventually, I began to evade Isabel.
The more I did, the more stubborn Isabel became in following me around, but as a seasoned social outcast, I skillfully hid in places she couldn’t find.
Popular people just can’t seem to understand that we introverts need our own time.
The third was Seron.
Seron promised not to come near me in our boycott.
As it was a word from the one she had fallen for, Seron faithfully adhered to it.
But as time went on, Seron noticeably grew thinner.
The duration of Seron’s sighs kept increasing.
It clearly showed how serious her lovesickness had become.
‘The Last Leaf.’
Seron had a wistful look that reminded me of the story.
Her behavior turned more reserved, and she spoke less.
This seems like it’s getting really serious.
“Lovesickness is called an illness for a reason. It’s a heart condition that rots the soul.”
Card clucked his tongue, well versed in matters of women, while looking at Seron.
“She’s going to collapse at this rate.”
And before long, Seron indeed collapsed.
The incident happened during the regular training session.
Mock battles where opponents were assigned and fought.
There, Seron, lost in her thoughts, failed to evade a deadly attack from her mock battle opponent.
Crash!
Seron, who had been flying through the air, rolled on the ground.
“Uh, uh?”
The mock battle opponent looked confused, alternating between his sword and Seron.
With such an attack, Seron would surely have dodged normally.
Knowing this, he had attacked, but Seron didn’t even brace herself and just lay there like a rag doll.
Seron lay there, not knowing how to get back up.
Everyone stared, astonished, at the collapsed Seron.
While I thoughtlessly stood up, Professor Veganon hurriedly checked on Seron.
However, her worried expression quickly reverted to normal.
“Hanon.”
At the professor’s call, I quickly approached her.
“Yes, Professor.”
She promptly shoved Seron towards me.
“Take this idiot to the infirmary. Ask them to give her some nutrients.”
Nutrients.
At the mention of that word, I turned around to look at Seron with a dumbfounded expression.
The lovesick Seron became malnourished from not sleeping properly or eating.
‘Is she really this dim-witted?’
Reluctantly following Professor Veganon’s orders, I hefted Seron up.
And then, with the children’s gazes on us, I left the training grounds.
Seron was half-conscious, her eyes glazed over.
I sighed as I glanced at her.
We’d barely had a short conversation, and yet why was she in such a state?
I found it hard to comprehend.
I took Seron with me, heading straight for the infirmary.
The sunlight streamed into the corridor towards the infirmary through the windows.
“Seron.”
I called out her name while she was unconscious.
“What’s so great about that guy?”
I knew her type was good-looking.
But was that enough to cause her to suffer like this? It puzzled me.
“What’s the big deal about looks?”
I didn’t know much about Seron.
All I knew was that she was destined for misfortune.
She was always unfortunate.
Whenever something special happened, she’d get a stomachache or hurt herself, and if she prepared for something earnestly, it always ended up falling apart.
Because of that, she earned the nickname “Unlucky One.”
The misfortunes greatly influenced her sharp and eccentric personality.
When nothing ever goes her way, it’s no wonder she ends up cranky.
As I opened the door, the distinctive smell of disinfectant from the infirmary hit me.
The school nurse seemed to be momentarily absent.
‘She’ll be back soon.’
I laid Seron down on the infirmary bed.
I hastily removed her shoes and tucked her in with a blanket.
“Ugh, ugh.”
Seron moaned softly.
She was still hazy and barely aware.
“Prince.”
Right, your prince is here.
Seron’s complexion was markedly poor.
As I stared at her, I gently swept back her bangs.
“Tch.”
I clicked my tongue and quickly shut the curtains.
Then I tightened the bandage on the drapery.
As I did so, my height gradually increased, and my hair started turning silvery white.
Transforming back from Hanon to Bickamon.
Now, as Bickamon, I pulled up a chair and sat beside Seron.
Then, I gently stroked her forehead.
It was still smooth and well-maintained.
Perhaps she sensed the warm touch, as her expression relaxed a little.
At the same moment, her eyes slowly opened wider.
Seron blinked, and when our eyes met, hers widened in surprise.
“Wow, Prince!?”
Seron gasped, startled, and attempted to jump up, but due to the earlier impact, she curled up with a pained noise.
I just stared at her as I leaned back in my chair.
“Seron Parmia.”
Upon calling her name, Seron’s shoulders twitched.
She looked as if she was questioning how I knew her name.
“I heard about you from an acquaintance. They said you’ve been looking worse and losing weight lately.”
Seron’s shoulders twitched again.
She hesitated, biting her lip.
“And they mentioned you’re looking for me.”
She hung her head low.
Seron’s ears turned bright red.
While I stared at her, I couldn’t help but ask.
“Why were you looking for me? I thought we had no connection.”
In that moment, Seron’s body twitched once again.
She clasped her hands, trembling slightly.
Seron lifted her head with a quivering face.
Her eyes were sorrowfully trembling.
Seeing this, I was puzzled.
Because she looked hurt by my words.
“…I thought you wouldn’t remember me.”
Seron smiled a little sadly.
As I saw that smile, my eyes slowly opened in realization.
I had naively thought her attitude was simply a reflection of my face.
But that wasn’t the case at all.
‘…Is there a connection between Bickamon and Seron that I don’t know about?’
Third-rate villain, Bickamon Niflheim.
Unlucky One, Seron Parmia.
Both are minor characters in the “Butterfly of Fire” tale.
There isn’t much information about either of them, but as in any game, it’s impossible to flesh out the background of every minor character completely.
So they each just appear as passersby.
But now, an unknown connection between these extras was surfacing.
Until this moment, I had lived as Hanon.
Thus, I hadn’t considered how Bickamon’s relationships fit into the picture.
And it was precisely in this oversight that an unexpected blunder occurred.
‘But.’
It seemed Seron didn’t even know my name.
Could we truly say there’s a connection?
“…I’m sorry. I’m not good with faces. Could you tell me what happened?”
If we didn’t even know each other’s names, it implied our relationship wasn’t deep.
So I thought there had to be some way out.
When I questioned Seron, she seemed to recall an old memory, shyly lowering her head.
“It was on the day a noble lady held a party.”
Nobility often hosts parties for socializing.
At that time, it was Seron’s first experience attending a social party.
Her debut in the social scene.
She made sure to dress beautifully for the occasion and even prepared a gift for the lady hosting the party, studying the party etiquette diligently.
But Seron was an Unlucky One.
On the very day she arrived at the party, her carriage got into an accident on the bridge it needed to cross, causing a long delay.
The bridge was a one-lane road, so she had to wait in the carriage for a long time.
Finally, just as the collision was resolved and she was about to enter the territory where the party was held, it started pouring rain.
The downpour showed no signs of stopping, and the ground turned to mud.
Before long, her carriage wheels got stuck in the muddy ground where construction was ongoing, preventing her from moving forward.
Eventually, Seron had to get out of the carriage and traverse the muddy path with the umbrella the maids had given her.
No matter how hard she tried to keep the umbrella open, the rain poured in.
Her once beautiful shoes were ruined in the mud, and the hem of her dress was stained with dirt and rainwater.
She looked nothing like a noble lady invited to a party.
With that disheveled appearance, Seron stifled her tears as she finally reached the party venue.
However, the party was nearly over.
The maids made an effort to clean off Seron’s dress and shoes, but there was no way she could enter the party looking like that.
In the end, Seron sat on the terrace of the party venue, holding her wet gift box.
As soon as she arrived, the rain miraculously stopped.
What bad luck.
She could never catch a break.
It was meant to be her first debut in the social scene, pressing her father for a new dress, applying makeup, and choosing a gift herself, yet nothing went right.
These things kept happening to her.
It was a peculiar streak of misfortune that she’d rather openly be unlucky about than suffer through these ambiguous disasters.
Just when Seron sat there feeling utterly dejected, someone said.
“Hello.”
Between the clouds clearing and the moonlight shining through, there was a figure.
Her white hair shimmered beautifully in the moonlight.
“Isn’t the moonlight beautiful?”
That was when Seron first met her prince.