TPCF 05

Chapter 5 

As Anita took a step back, something hard touched her back.

A wall?
She reached back with her arm to feel it out, but the sensation was strange. It was smooth—and warm.

“Edmund.”

“Ahhh!”

A whisper suddenly brushed against her ear. Startled to the point of almost fainting, Anita leapt up. The “wall” moved.

“Ow… Did you really have to step on my foot?”

“Who—who are you? I mean, if you were behind me, you should’ve said something!”

Trying to calm her wildly pounding heart, Anita turned around. And as soon as she realized the “wall” she had mistaken was actually a man’s chest—someone she’d never seen before—her face went pale.

“I saw a new student walking backward, so I was just watching to see how far you’d go. Guess I forgot I should’ve moved out of the way.”

“…What?”

“I just wanted to kindly let you know that the thing you were groping, thinking it was a wall, has a name—Edmund.”

He sighed dramatically and shook his head as if deeply pained. Finally, Anita shook off her confusion and came back to her senses.

The man was as tall as Rutger, so Anita had to crane her neck back to look up at him.

“Anyway, why’d you run all the way here? Skipped out on paying someone?”

It was too dark to make out the man’s facial features. All Anita could gather in the dim light was that he was about a head taller than her and seemed full of mischief, judging by the teasing tone in his voice.

Skip out on payment?

“No, nothing like that. Um, if it’s not too much trouble, could you tell me where the exit is?”

She had no intention of staying stuck here all day. Rutger had probably given up looking for her by now anyway.

“No idea.”

“Aren’t you a returning student?”

“What makes you think that?”

“Well… a freshman wouldn’t call another freshman a freshman. And your speech feels too natural.”

Edmund made a thoughtful humming sound before replying.

“Well, that’s true. I’m a third-year. But your second reason’s wrong. I speak casually because I’m a noble.”

“….”

“Don’t look at me like that. Nobles still exist, even these days. Just because there are more gentry and factories popping up doesn’t mean nobles disappear in a puff of smoke. Though yeah, we are kind of relics now.”

Anita simply nodded in silence. She had no idea how to respond. A brief pause followed, and she wondered if the man could even see her nodding in this darkness.

“I see.”

“But are you really not going to tell me why you were being chased? I’m the student council president, you know. Come on, spill. We shut down the suggestion box because students kept messing with it. This might be your last chance to speak up.”

“What?!”

Student council president? Anita rubbed her ears, wondering if she’d heard wrong. Meeting the student council president on campus wasn’t unheard of—what shocked her was something else.

The man giving that welcoming speech on the first day of school. Could it really be the same guy?

“You’re kidding.”

“Huh? Why would I lie?”

A scene replayed in her mind. It was a breezy afternoon on the day of the entrance ceremony. A blond man walked onto the red-carpeted stage. His wavy lemon-gold hair fluttered around his shoulders, and the silver-rimmed glasses perched on his nose sparkled in the sunlight. His crisp white suit and deep wine-colored pocket square made him look like a prince from some distant kingdom.

Anita remembered some of the girls standing next to her giggling and blushing.

“……”

And now she was face-to-face with that man.

Anita had grown up around Rutger, whose face she’d seen for half her life, so no other man really caught her eye. But even she had been impressed by that princely figure. And now that same man was standing here, talking nonsense. It was surreal.

“I kind of get how you feel. My grandfather always yells at me to keep my mouth shut.”

“Your speech that day was really impressive.”

Since this was their first meeting, Anita didn’t want to come across as rude, so she replied politely.

“I didn’t write it. The vice president, Riche, did. I just read it word-for-word. I was too lazy to memorize it, so I went up without preparation, and Riche had already pasted it all on the podium.”

‘She’s really efficient,’ he added cheerfully. And just like that, the image Anita had of the student council president shattered into a million pieces and scattered like dust.

“Here’s a tip: instead of obviously bowing your head, pretend you’re brushing your hair back and—wait, why were you being chased again?”

Still half-dazed, Anita had only been half-listening, and without realizing it, she answered.

“Oh, I wasn’t being chased… There’s just someone I wanted to avoid—huh?”

Before she even realized it, the conversation had come full circle. By the time Anita clamped her mouth shut like a clam, Edmund was already nodding knowingly.

“Got it. If that’s all, I can help. As long as it’s not about money. I’m totally broke right now.”

Ah, okay.

Anita felt her mind spinning from all the unnecessary information being thrown at her.

“Trust me.”

“Haha…”

With Anita’s hollow laughter echoing behind them, the two finally emerged from the dark building into the sunlight. As Anita winced and squinted against the sudden brightness, trying to adjust her eyes, Edmund whispered to her.

“Mind if I borrow your shoulder for a sec?”

“…Huh?”

At that moment, what she assumed to be Edmund’s arm draped over her shoulder.

“That him?”

Footsteps, heavy and deliberate, echoed behind them. Anita was still blinking her stinging eyes and couldn’t make out who was approaching.

Just as she finally managed to look up and focus, Edmund pulled her close—arm wrapped around her like a protective shield.

“Rutger….”