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Chapter 76: Lovesickness

“Hehe, hihihi.”

Seron giggled foolishly.

“Phew…”

Seron let out a deep sigh.

“Hmhm~”

Seron hummed a little tune.

How many times can someone’s emotions change in a single day?

Just watching her is exhausting for me.

But Seron showed no signs of tiring.

She seemed constantly happy amidst her whirlwind of emotions.

“Seron.”

“Phew…”

“Hey.”

“Hehehe.”

“Forehead.”

No matter how many times I called her, she wouldn’t respond.

“Seron, what’s wrong with her?”

Isabel asked, looking at Seron with a puzzled expression.

Even to her, Seron seemed far from normal.

“I don’t know. Ask her yourself.”

I didn’t want to ask anymore.

Noticing my reluctance, Isabel sat next to Seron.

“Seron.”

When Isabel tapped her on the shoulder and called her name, Seron finally snapped out of her daze a little.

“Did something happen? Why are you like this?”

Hearing Isabel’s question, Seron looked blank for a moment, then turned to gaze dreamily out the window.

“Sigh…”

And then, she sighed again.

“Belle, I’ve seen my prince.”

“…There isn’t anyone with royal status at Zerion Academy, though?”

“No, it’s not that. Phew, Belle, you just wouldn’t understand.”

Seron’s expression seemed to pity Isabel for not knowing love.

Isabel stared at Seron for a moment and then quietly stepped back.

“…You talk to her.”

“Just leave her be.”

They say there’s no cure for lovesickness.

All I can do is leave her alone until she forgets.

“You act like you know something about this.”

“Not at all.”

And I didn’t want to know, either.

Under Isabel’s suspicious gaze, time continued to pass.

Since entering this scenario, I’d gained a few new tasks to handle.

Task One: Regular visits to the girls' dormitory for Iris's peaceful sleep.

Her nightmares were a critical issue.

At least once a week, I had to sleep beside her.

Though Iris wanted me to come every day, that would be too exhausting for me.

Walking into the girls' dormitory each time made my skin crawl; the maids’ stares were terrifying.

Task Two: Shaking off Isabel.

She followed me everywhere, trying to take care of me.

I underestimated her persistence.

She was desperate to restore me to my former self.

So much so that people around us thought Isabel and I had reconciled.

Eventually, I started avoiding her altogether.

But the more I avoided her, the more stubborn Isabel became, relentlessly tailing me.

However, with my years of experience as an introvert, I managed to find places to hide where she couldn’t find me.

Extroverts don’t understand that introverts need their alone time.

Task Three: Seron.

Seron had promised not to show up at Boycott gatherings with me.

Because it was something the person she admired had asked of her.

Seron faithfully kept that promise.

But as time went on, Seron became noticeably gaunt.

The length of her sighing spells grew.

She was a walking display of what severe lovesickness looked like.

‘The Last Leaf.’

The thought came to me as I watched Seron’s melancholic gaze.

Her behavior became more reserved, her words fewer.

This couldn’t go on.

I had to do something.

“They don’t call it a sickness for nothing. It’s a disease of the heart, and it eats away at you.”

Card, a self-proclaimed expert on women, clicked his tongue as he looked at Seron.

“At this rate, she’ll collapse.”

And sure enough, not long after, Seron really did collapse.

It happened during a routine training exercise.

In a mock battle, participants were paired against opponents.

Seron, lost in thought, failed to avoid her opponent’s critical attack.

Crash!

Seron, who had been sent flying, rolled onto the ground.

“Huh? What?”

Her sparring partner stared in shock, glancing between their weapon and Seron.

Normally, Seron would have easily dodged such an attack.

They’d only aimed because they expected her to block it, but instead, she went down without resistance.

Seron lay there, unmoving.

Everyone turned their startled gazes toward her.

By the time I stood up without thinking, Professor Vega had already hurried to check on Seron.

But the professor’s worried expression quickly returned to calm.

“Hannon.”

Hearing my name, I rushed over.

“Yes, Professor.”

Without hesitation, she handed Seron over to me.

“Take this fool to the infirmary and ask for a nutrient drip.”

A nutrient drip.

Hearing that, I looked down at Seron in disbelief.

Her lovesickness had left her sleep-deprived and skipping meals, leading to malnutrition.

‘Is she really this much of an idiot?’

Following the professor’s orders, I reluctantly carried Seron on my back.

All eyes were on us as I left the training grounds with her.

Seron, semi-conscious, was mumbling incoherently.

I glanced at her and sighed.

All they did was exchange a few words.

How could that lead to something like this?

I just couldn’t understand it.

Carrying her, I headed toward the infirmary.

The sunlight streamed through the hallway windows.

“Seron.”

I called her name, though she was passed out.

“What’s so great about that guy?”

I knew it was about his looks.

But how could mere appearance cause this level of infatuation?

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“It’s just a face.”

I don’t know much about Seron.

But I do know one thing: she’s cursed with bad luck.

She was always unlucky.

Whenever something special happened, she would either get a stomachache or hurt herself somewhere.

If she prepared something diligently, it would somehow end up in vain, making all her efforts seem meaningless.

Thus, Seron earned the nickname Unfortunate Girl.

Her sharp and eccentric personality was heavily influenced by her constant streak of bad luck.

Nothing ever went the way she wanted, so it was impossible for her personality not to become prickly.

Creak-

As the door opened, the familiar scent of antiseptic unique to the infirmary filled the air.

It seemed like the school nurse had stepped out for a moment.

“They’ll be back soon.”

I laid Seron down on the infirmary bed.

After roughly removing her shoes, I covered her with a blanket.

“Ugh… mmgh…”

Seron groaned faintly, still caught somewhere between sleep and wakefulness.

“Prince… Your Highness…”

Yes, your prince is here.

Seron’s complexion didn’t look good at all.

Watching her silently, I reached out and gently brushed her bangs aside.

“Tch.”

Clicking my tongue, I carefully closed the curtains around the bed.

Then, I pulled at the Veil Bandages.

Gradually, my height began to increase, and my hair transformed into a bright white.

From Hannon’s appearance, I reverted to Vikamon’s.

As Vikamon, I pulled up a chair and sat beside Seron.

Then, I gently stroked her forehead.

It was as smooth and well-maintained as ever.

Perhaps sensing the warmth, Seron’s expression relaxed slightly.

At the same time, her eyelids began to flutter open.

Seron blinked.

Then, as her eyes met mine, they widened slowly.

“P-Prince!?”

Seron jolted up with a startled shout.

She tried to sit up abruptly but groaned in pain, likely due to the earlier impact.

I watched her silently before leaning back against the chair.

“Seron Parmia.”

When I called her name, her shoulders flinched.

She opened her eyes wide as if wondering how I knew her name.

“I heard about you from an acquaintance. They said you’ve been looking frail and unwell lately.”

Seron’s shoulders trembled.

She fidgeted nervously, her lips parting slightly as if to speak.

“And they also mentioned that you seemed to be looking for me.”

She lowered her head abruptly.

Her ears turned bright red.

Watching her quietly, I asked,

“Why were you looking for me? I didn’t think we had much of a connection.”

At that moment, Seron flinched again.

She curled her hands and began to tremble faintly.

She raised her head with a trembling expression.

Her eyes quivered pitifully, and seeing that, I felt puzzled.

It was because her face seemed hurt by my words.

“…I didn’t think you’d remember,”

She said with a faintly bitter smile.

Her smile made my eyes widen slightly.

Up until now, I had assumed that her attitude was simply because she was infatuated with my appearance.

But that wasn’t the case.

‘…Was there some connection between Vikamon and Seron that I didn’t know about?’

A third-rate villain, Vikamon Niflheim.

The Unfortunate Girl, Seron Parmia.

Both were minor, extra characters in the Flame Butterfly arc.

Naturally, there wasn’t much information about either of them.

Like in any game, it’s impossible to provide detailed backstories for every minor character.

Both of them were merely fleeting presences in the story.

But now, beneath the surface of these minor characters, an unknown connection had come to light.

Until now, I had been living as Hannon.

Because of that, I hadn’t considered how Vikamon’s relationships might unfold.

And because I hadn’t thought about it, I had made an unforeseen mistake.

But.

Seron didn’t seem to know my name either.

So could it really be called a connection?

“…I’m sorry, I don’t have the best memory. Could you explain if something happened between us?”

At the very least, if neither of us even knew each other’s names, the relationship couldn’t have been very deep.

That meant there was still a way to navigate this situation.

When I asked Seron, she seemed to recall a past event and shyly lowered her head.

“It was the day of a party hosted by a noblewoman…”

Nobles often held parties for socializing.

Seron, at the time, was attending such a social gathering for the first time.

Her debut into high society.

For the occasion, Seron dressed up beautifully.

She also prepared a gift for the hostess and diligently studied proper party etiquette.

But Seron was the Unfortunate Girl.

On the day she arrived at the party, her carriage was delayed by a collision on the narrow bridge they had to cross.

She had no choice but to wait in the carriage for a long time until the accident was resolved.

Finally, when the accident was cleared and they crossed the bridge into the estate where the party was being held, it began to rain.

It poured down in torrents, turning the ground into mud.

Before long, the carriage’s wheels got stuck in a muddy, under-construction road, and it could no longer move.

In the end, Seron had to step out of the carriage and walk through the mud with the umbrella her maid held over her.

Despite the umbrella, the rain still seeped through.

Her carefully chosen shoes were ruined, caked in mud, and her dress was soaked and dirty.

She looked like anything but an invited noblewoman.

Holding back tears, Seron finally arrived at the party venue, but by then, the party was nearly over.

Though her maid tried to clean her dress and shoes, her appearance was still far too shabby to enter the party.

Instead, Seron sat on the terrace, holding her soaked gift box in her arms.

Ironically, the rain stopped as soon as she reached the venue.

Her luck was abysmal—so much so that it seemed like a cruel joke.

After all the effort she had put into her debut, nothing had gone right.

That was when it happened.

“Hello.”

Amidst the dispersing clouds, under the moonlight, white hair gleamed beautifully.

“The moonlight is lovely, isn’t it?”

And there, for the first time, she met her prince.

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