I Start with a Bad Hand!

Unlike his usual neatly maintained appearance, the Prince looked somewhat disheveled. His face was also oddly flushed.

He entered dramatically, paying no attention to the ducal house’s maid who had announced her arrival loudly, and walked straight to Roxanne. He carefully brushed her silver hair to clip the pin back, but suddenly, as if embarrassed, he quickly withdrew his hand.

“I was in a hurry… sorry. Your hair…”

He said, shaking his hands as if embarrassed.

“It seems the pin fell off earlier in the greenhouse while dancing. It had fallen beneath a blue flower, which made it take longer than expected to find…”

The Prince, uncharacteristically hesitant in his speech, seemed embarrassed as he confessed to Roxanne. Apparently, he had searched the entire greenhouse himself to find the pin, resembling a boy truly smitten with love.

At the Prince’s words, I suddenly remembered an upcoming event at the academy.

‘Ah, the spring ball is soon.’

The school was soon to host a spring ball to welcome the new season. Unlike the entrance ball mainly for freshmen, the academy’s spring ball was a grand event attended by most students.

Using the school greenhouse as their personal dance practice area, I thought to myself about the privileges of power, as I watched Roxanne and the Prince.

Roxanne, standing in the midst of the chaos I and Cedric had created, seemed unsure of what to do as she glanced at us, then turned her gaze back to the Prince, who was looking at her as if he was smitten. She hesitated for a moment before gently taking his hand in her delicate one.

“It’s not dirty.”

With those words, Roxanne moved the Prince’s hand toward her hair.

“Since Prince Elius found it… please put it back yourself.”

My pin. With those words, Roxanne handed the pin she received from the Prince back to his hand. I observed the scene unfold.

‘This is ridiculous…’ I thought, yet I couldn’t take my eyes off the intriguing scene.

However, as the actual victim who had been treated harshly by Cedric over this hairpin, my feelings were complicated. It seemed different this time, involuntarily caught up in their love story.

Being a side character in this story was usual for me, but my mood was oddly subdued. Even if I was always a supporting character, it felt stranger to be the corpse discovered by the protagonist early in a movie than just being one of the many extras, Extra 87, who just passes by in a crowd.

The Prince carefully pinned the hairpin into Roxanne’s silver hair, making sure not to snag it. The blue gem-studded pin matched Roxanne’s ocean-like eyes beautifully. They exchanged smiles, facing each other. Coming to his senses, Cedric hurried over to them. It seemed I was no longer of any concern to him.

Cedric approached Roxanne and, as he brushed back her hair, he remarked, “Be more careful in the future.” However, his stern expression seemed tinged with affection and concern.

It was strange. I had never sought Cedric’s attention, yet seeing Roxanne surrounded by people who looked at her with such love-filled eyes made me feel unexpectedly different from before.

But regardless of how I felt, the situation seemed to be resolving harmoniously.

‘Is this really the end?’

The resolution felt anticlimactically abrupt, leaving me the only one seemingly confused.

Cedric gestured for Yuri, who had been kneeling in a corner of the student council room, to stand up. Roxanne seemed about to say something to me but then followed the Prince out of the room, who was waiting for her outside.

It looked like Cedric would follow them soon, but unlike the others, he still had unfinished business with me. I quickly shot a look towards the Second Prince near the door.

‘Stop that bastard!’

Hoping my message was clear enough.

Fortunately, the Second Prince seemed sharp enough. Before Cedric could leave the student council room, the Second Prince closed the door with a thud. Surprised, Cedric stopped and turned to face the Second Prince.

“Lord Cedric, don’t you have something to say to me?” I asked.

Upon hearing my words, Cedric paused, his hand on the doorknob, and stood still for a moment before finally speaking.

“…I was mistaken.”

With those words, Cedric courteously bowed to the Second Prince and then followed the others from the Ducal House. This time, the Second Prince shrugged his shoulders and did not stop him.

As Cedric turned to close the door of the student council room, his face was noticeably flushed. It seemed he was aware of his disgrace. ‘I was mistaken, huh?’

‘What a joke.’

Despicable. I inwardly scoffed at Cedric’s folly, hoping to shake off the filthy mood it had left me in.

After the Ducal House people had left, the student council room was as silent as if a plague had passed through it. Chairs and tables were chaotically displaced by the commotion Cedric had caused. It was a complete mess.

With the atmosphere in the student council room seemingly beyond revival, even if I did five cartwheels, I told Irene in a tired voice that I would head back first. Irene, looking pale, nodded silently without a word. Given the disturbance, it seemed unlikely she would try to dissuade me if I decided to quit the student council first.

Feeling increasingly exhausted, I limped towards the door. Thankfully, the pain in my ankle from the fall had subsided.

As I headed towards the door, feeling a slight sense of gratitude for the unexpected support from the Second Prince, I nodded at him as I passed by.

“Hold on. That leg. Looks like you might need treatment, doesn’t it?”

The Second Prince blocked my path somewhat like he had blocked Cedric earlier. It struck me anew how imposing he was up close.

I looked at Icarus with a puzzled expression. He had once mocked me for not being able to follow him in the dance at the ballroom because of my uncomfortable leg. ‘The lady of Elexion still can’t even dance the basic steps properly,’ he had jeered. Why was he acting concerned all of a sudden? With that thought, I responded,

“No, my leg wasn’t injured just now.”

So, a visit to the infirmary would be pointless. I bowed again to the Second Prince and slipped past him, now slightly cooled from the gratitude I had felt earlier.

The only sound in the quiet student council room was the dragging of my feet as I left.

Stepping outside, I looked up at the increasingly darkening sky filled with looming storm clouds. My mood seemed to sink further. About to head back to the dormitory, I suddenly stopped. I didn’t want to return to my room carrying this strange, unexplainable feeling. The dormitory was the only place in the vast academy where I felt a sense of security, and I didn’t want to taint that sanctuary with my discomfort.

I changed direction, needing something to momentarily forget this miserable mood.

***

The archery range was deserted as classes had ended, and the threat of rain under the heavy clouds seemed to keep everyone away. Even the normally bustling training ground was silent, except for the rustling of leaves stirred by the breeze. I was somewhat relieved by the solitude.

I slowly pulled back the bowstring. The arrow flew, unusually landing outside the target circle. I frowned and picked up another arrow.

‘Why is this happening?’

This level of poor shooting had only happened when I first started learning archery. Could it be the wind? With that thought, I drew the bowstring again. The arrow barely clung to the edge of the target this time. I picked up another arrow.

Aiming at the target, I reflected on the events that had just unfolded. The odd feeling I had experienced… was it a sense of defeat? Humiliation? No, it wasn’t a feeling that could be explained by such words. It was loneliness.

Yes, I realized I had been unwittingly harboring pride.

As I experienced Dietrich’s life firsthand, something I had only read about in books, I was filled with the presumption that I could navigate his adversities better than he had. In reality, I did manage quite well.

I moved forward, undisturbed by the insults and rejection surrounding Dietrich, focusing solely on what I needed to do. But this was my arrogance, dimly viewing everything as someone else’s problem because I had an exit to return to reality.

When I began to grasp what it truly meant for Dietrich to face this world alone, I finally started to understand a bit of the loneliness he must have felt, the loneliness that I had failed to fully comprehend.

The yearning for a bright, warm world filled with affection, and the heartsick longing for family and friends whom I might never see again before I die in this strange world.

I continued to pull the bowstring, sending arrow after arrow until I had no more left. Most of them landed outside the target’s outer ring, or not even hitting the target at all.

I slowly walked toward the target to retrieve my arrows. I hadn’t even reached halfway when cold droplets began tapping on my shoulder. Before I could return to the firing line, the rain intensified.

‘I’ll be soaked by the time I get back to the dormitory anyway.’

With that thought, I drew the bowstring again, hoping the rain would cool the heat around my eyes. The intensifying rain blurred my vision. Whoosh, the arrow flew past the target and disappeared into the distance. I wiped the droplets streaming down my face to clear my sight.

In this world where nothing seemed to go as I willed, even archery couldn’t defy my intentions.

I stood for a long time with the bowstring drawn, aiming. My arm started to ache, and my fingers began to tremble. During that moment, I revisited all those times in this slippery world, the gazes of those who had only watched me, and the feeling of walking through darkness without seeing even a step ahead.

Thud, the arrow missed the target again.

Feeling as if I were standing on the edge of a cliff, I picked up another arrow.

Again, again, and again.

I kept the bowstring drawn for a long time, aiming at the target. As I stood there, the cold dampness ran down my hand holding the bow. Eventually, I slowly lowered the bow, resigned. There I stood alone in the empty archery range, soaking under the cold rain, feeling a helplessness washing over me more intense than the rain itself.

Just then, someone cautiously grasped my trembling hand. From that hand, and from the cold, rain-soaked uniform clinging to my back, I felt a warm presence touch me.