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Chapter 75: The Prince of Seron

I found myself face-to-face with the fool, Seron.

I reflected on how the situation had come to this point.

Lately, Seron had been spending a lot of time alone.

Naturally, much of that was my fault.

Unintentionally surrounded by other kids, I had left no room for Seron to approach.

What caught my attention was that Seron, persistently being pursued by Aerin, an initial member of the boycott group, was now getting involved.

The main reason Aerin targeted Seron was simple.

Seron was close to me, a member of the student council.

So, by bringing her into the boycott group, they might get some information from her.

It was a somewhat understandable motive.

The problem was that Aerin turned out to be more persistent than expected.

Seron, being as difficult as she is, could have refused outright.

But it seemed like Seron intended to use this opportunity to gather information about the boycott and relay it to me.

So, playing along, she followed Aerin to the meeting room.

If that was her plan, it was an admirable thought.

At least, until she ran into me in my disguise as Vikamon.

When Seron saw me standing in a corner, she kept glancing at me, stealing shy looks.

Each time our eyes met, her face flushed red, and she quickly lowered her head.

The way her toes fidgeted made her look like a girl smitten by love.

Let me reiterate: Vikamon is handsome.

So much so that I must emphasize it twice—he's truly good-looking.

It's no wonder he caused such a stir as a host in the entertainment world and even captivated the "Mad Mage" Vinesha.

He’s tall, strikingly handsome, and has an inexplicable melancholic gaze that mesmerizes people.

I can understand why Seron fell for him at first sight.

She had always said she liked tall, manly types.

Compared to the beautiful, effeminate Nia, Vikamon’s looks embodied masculine charm.

In short, he was exactly Seron’s type.

The problem was that Vikamon was me.

A headache swept over me for a moment.

‘That fool.’

I didn’t want Seron getting involved in the boycott.

The boycott group would eventually fail, and its members would be disciplined.

That was only natural since they were causing a disturbance in the academy.

I needed to get her out of there somehow.

But it wouldn’t be easy, considering she ignored even Rojamin, the leader of the boycott, and kept looking only at me.

"President!"

At that moment, a student burst into the room in the middle of Rojamin’s speech.

Seeing glowing orbs of light floating around them, I guessed they were a student from the Department of Special Spirits.

"The student council patrol is here! We need to leave immediately!"

The student council wasn’t clueless.

With the increasing number of boycott members, rumors had reached their ears.

The boycott group was essentially a group of delinquents dissatisfied with the academy.

It was the student council’s job to guide such groups back on track, so they immediately conducted patrols to address the issue.

"Those cunning student council members! Today’s meeting is over. Scatter!"

At Rojamin’s words, the students, who had been casually snacking on treats, began to scatter in a hurry.

I had already warned them beforehand about possible patrols, so everyone moved in an orderly manner.

I, too, was about to make my escape when I saw Seron standing there, looking flustered.

That blockhead.

It seemed she was so fixated on my face that she didn’t grasp the situation.

If left alone, she’d be caught by the patrolling student council members.

I couldn’t let her take the fall, so I quickly ran to her.

Clap!

I grabbed her wrist.

"Ah, uh…"

"Let’s go."

Pulling the startled Seron along, I hurried through the corridors of the abandoned building.

The hallways, now empty of boycott members, felt eerily quiet.

As I ran along a pre-planned escape route, I suddenly heard footsteps near the staircase.

Damn, they’re coming this way.

What bad luck.

I stopped in my tracks and looked around.

Spotting an empty classroom, I opened the door and ushered Seron inside.

A worn-out podium caught my eye.

I quickly crouched down behind it with Seron.

The podium wasn’t very big, so we ended up quite close together, but there was no time to worry about that.

I could feel Seron fidgeting, likely uncomfortable in the cramped space.

"Just hang in there a little longer."

When I whispered in her ear, Seron shivered and then went completely still.

Tap, tap, tap.

Footsteps echoed in the hallway.

"Ugh, working so late at night is such a pain."

"There’s a delinquent group, though. As the student council, we have to deal with it."

It was Midra Fenin, a first-year from the martial arts department, and another second-year student council member.

Judging from their tone, they were still in the rumor-checking phase and weren’t conducting a full search yet.

If they had been serious, they’d have used magic to seal off the building, and assistant professors or staff would have joined the patrol.

‘Is the president sparing me from patrol duty because of Nikita’s incident?’

President Sylvester hadn’t assigned me much student council work since the Nikita case.

Out of concern that I might be emotionally affected, he had been letting me rest.

‘He’s not a bad person, just… hopelessly incompetent.’

Unfortunately, that incompetence seemed to be his defining trait.

The footsteps of the student council members gradually faded away.

Realizing this, I let out a brief sigh of relief and turned to look at Seron.

Our eyes met.

Seron was staring up at me with a dazed, completely enraptured expression.

Her face was as red as a beet, and her lips were slightly parted.

Looking at her in silence, I finally spoke.

"Uh…"

"Ack!"

Thud!

Startled back to her senses, Seron tried to stand but bumped her head against the podium.

"Ughhh!"

Clutching her head in pain, Seron let out a muffled groan.

But it seemed she was more embarrassed by her clumsy behavior in front of me than hurt.

"Are you okay?"

I almost called her a fool but managed to hold back.

Instead, I inspected her forehead to make sure it wasn’t injured.

"Y-yes, I’m fine!"

Seron, who rarely used formal speech, suddenly started speaking stiffly.

Well, with her thick skull, it was unlikely she’d gotten hurt.

"That’s a relief."

Suppressing my inner thoughts, I stepped out from behind the podium.

Then, I held out a hand to Seron, who was still crouched inside.

Flinching at my every move, Seron grabbed my hand and stepped out.

She adjusted her skirt slightly, looking every bit like a delicate, timid girl.

Moonlight streamed in through the window.

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Tonight, the sky was clear, and the moon was shining brightly.

Seron, who had followed me, stared at me as if spellbound.

Then she suddenly snapped out of it.

"Um, um, what's your name?"

Seron, with a shy expression, asked for my name.

It seemed that Seron didn’t recognize the face of Vikamon, her senior by one grade.

‘Still, I think she would’ve at least heard of the name.’

Given her personality, she probably wasn’t interested enough to bother looking it up.

But I am Vikamon.

What would Vikamon have said in this situation?

If she didn’t know my name, there was no reason for me to bother telling her.

I had already decided to keep Seron from coming here after today.

“It’s a name not worth knowing.”

“Oh.”

Seron sighed.

She seemed to interpret my reluctance as me having some complicated reason.

“More importantly, don’t come here from now on.”

“What? W-why?”

“There’s nothing good about you being here.”

Seron hesitated.

“But, but still...”

She glanced at my face, as if she had so much she wanted to say.

She doesn’t listen, does she?

It’s making me itch to flick her forehead.

“Then… where can I see you again?”

After much deliberation, she finally spoke.

She bit her lip in embarrassment, as if ashamed of what she had said.

Where to see me again?

She’ll see me tomorrow morning at school.

I stopped myself from giving Seron a pitiful look and opened the window.

“It’s better if we don’t see each other again. For both our sakes.”

If she finds out later that I’m Hannon, it’ll ruin her.

Though teasing her about it would be amusing, I didn’t want things to become awkward between us.

For better or worse, Seron was my friend.

I wanted to maintain a good relationship with her in the future.

So today, I decided to let things slide for Seron’s sake.

That's what friends are for.

Your first love? It's like I wasn't even there.

* * *

The next day, I went to school as usual.

No, not quite as usual.

To be precise, things were a bit different.

After returning to the dorm last night, I went straight to the girls’ dormitory.

Then, disguised as Hania, I went to Iris’s room.

Iris was sitting slumped in her chair, playing the sound of Argol that I had mentioned.

When she met my gaze, she gave a faint smile.

It was the same smile she had in the Demon Dungeon—one worn down to its limit by exhaustion.

I carefully carried Iris to her bed and laid her down.

Then I stayed by her side, holding her gently.

We exchanged a few words before she fell asleep.

Nothing special, just idle chatter.

But it was just the right kind of conversation to lull her to sleep.

Soon, Iris was breathing evenly in slumber.

Lucas used to put her to sleep with a lap pillow.

I don’t know how I ended up in this situation.

Still, it was fortunate that Iris could sleep.

After fulfilling my role as her stuffed animal, I barely managed to separate from Iris in the morning and switch back to Hannon.

Thanks to that, Iris was vibrant today.

Walking confidently without a trace of fatigue, she exuded the dignity of a princess.

“I want to sleep with Hannon every night.”

“Lady Iris, please don’t say things like that in front of others.”

Iris casually made a shocking statement.

If the third princess faction heard this, they’d be utterly horrified.

And I’d likely be executed for the crime of touching the princess.

“Next time, too, I’m counting on you.”

But Iris showed no intention of letting me go.

It seemed she planned to use me again if she couldn’t sleep.

Until Iris was freed from her nightmares, I had no choice but to endure.

Once she was free, these incidents would end too.

Worrying more and more, I headed to school.

There, I saw Seron’s figure early in the morning.

Judging by her reaction, she didn’t even notice I was there.

Thinking about yesterday, I decided to play a little prank on her and quietly approached from behind.

“Sigh.”

Before I could do anything, Seron let out a long sigh, unaware of my presence.

She stared out the window with teary eyes.

“My prince...”

And then muttered to herself.

I quietly stared at the back of her head.

I knew exactly who she was thinking about.

She used to say I was like a burnt sweet potato.

This girl, honestly.

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