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The first thing I saw was an unfamiliar ceiling.

My vision was blurry, the somewhat blinding light coming from the open window did little to help that, and only the fact that beneath me felt like a cloud did I stop myself from setting into panic.

Slowly, head still a bit foggy, I sat up, ran a hand through my cobalt blue hair, blinked away the spots in my eyes, and yawned loudly.

Right. How could I forget?

Today was the beginning of the first semester of Golden Crown Academy’s forty-first class. I was part of it now too, and there was no going back. I had to, no need to, live with my choices and see it through to the end.

With that small declaration, I threw my blankets to one corner of the mattress, did a few static stretches, scratched my lower back, sniffed my armpits, and headed for the bathroom.

The shower water was a pleasant middle ground between cold and warm, just the way I liked it, and with it the last dregs of sleep were washed away.

It was only as I was halfway through brushing my teeth I realized one glaring issue. Now that I'm not living at home, I was without Citrus’ [Caffeinated Hugs], a huge problem that caused my entire mood to tank.

I cursed myself for not noticing beforehand. It seemed that a coffee machine was in order, but that could be sorted out after classes, no matter how much I was tempted to skip and go buy one now.

There would surely be one in the common room, or at least provided by the few shops littered about the campus grounds for the students' leisure and use.

Golden Crown Academy was really the best, a sentiment I carried as I put on black slacks, a white collared shirt, a white with a gold trimmed blazer, a black tie, a blue shield badge signifying a first year, and brown dressing shoes.

A full body mirror was on one side of the room, and I took but a moment to look into it, my dead eyes slightly showing more emotion than usual, and a small smile on my face. My visage brought together by the tiniest slouch of my shoulders.

Nice, I looked good, or good enough if you did not count how wild and free my hair was. Though I refused to do anything with it, the novelty of having blue hair still hasn't worn off yet despite a decade and a half passing already.

“Alright.” I put all of the provided school supplies into my bag, slung the leather strap over my shoulder, and pocketed my CrystalCell and golden dorm key. “Maximum effort.”

I looked forward to seeing the face Miss Violet would show me once we met again. The Gift I had proposed a jab at our first meeting. I had wanted to have seen her reaction, but she had not been at her office yesterday, so I had to leave it in her mail box. It was a little saddening, but I was sure to hear her thoughts eventually. 

There was also Leon's first encounter with the Headmaster, and I would have followed but only specified people were allowed anywhere near the top floor. I would just have to hope it went the same as canon.

I sighed, took a final glance around my room, and nodded.

The door shut behind me as I stepped out, and not a second after it did so, I heard an annoying noise similar to it to my right.

“Morning Cade!”

Damnit.

Leon trotted over, hand already patting my shoulder as he smiled, “Get some sleep? You seemed really out of it yesterday.”

I shrugged off his hand, turning and heading toward the spiral staircase, “Yeah, you?”

Leon hurried to walk by my side, light blue eyes still holding awe as he surveyed the common room and huge golden chandelier that hung from the ceiling.

“Yep. On another note, I am still taking it all in, to think I came from such a faraway place, but am still able to attend because of my Gift. I’m really lucky I guess.” He shrugged.

Lucky, wasn’t that your whole deal? Don’t act surprised…

I exhaled, knowing I needed to lighten up, protagonist or not, the reason for breaking six heroines' hearts or not, dense or not, and many….many other things, he was still a good guy.

And maybe, just maybe, he could be someone I would not mind making some memories with.

“Lucky huh?” I spoke softly, “I must have the opposite, never planned on attending here anyways.” 

“Really?” Leon asked as we both walked down the stairs, following a group of other boys heading toward the dorm’s exit.

“I would explain it, but it is honestly so absurd it's not worth talking about.” I laughed nervously, not wanting to retell the entire debacle.

Next, like most of my social interactions, silence took hold and it was decided we no longer wished to speak. I could notice Leon throwing a few side glances my way, but the majority of the time he would keep his focus on the extravagant hallways not losing out to a real home fit for royalty,

The idea was not far off, as Gifted were ‘Chosen by God’ after all, making us special whether we liked it or not. We could help humanity, or if enough of us banded together, destroy it. Kyriake had its one hundred year war already, and for once the world was united, so at the very least I did not need to worry about an uprising during my lifetime.

Hopefully.

If that’s a flag I might as well end my life now.

“You know where our classes are?” Leon finally broke the silence, his hands being stuffed in his pockets just like mine were.

“Classes are held at the north tower, the academy is just one big square of gold, not hard to figure it out.” I spoke, eyes roaming until I saw an open chamber room ahead that I knew well enough from the novel.

It was a circular room, one that was relatively empty except for a marble round slab where the school would put up things for the coming holidays. 

Holidays that I dreaded, as the novel made sure that each one had a romantic air around it. 

The day of the Fair Maiden, Valentines day, Day of Remembrance, Slumber Week, Halloween’s Dance, and Christmas.

Those would be hell, I just knew it, especially with hormones covering every inch of this school like a disease. I would need to skate around being a part of most of them if possible.

Focusing back on the previous, this room holds some significance for a few reasons. The first and most important was that there were only three entrances. One coming from the east where the boys dorms were, one from the west where the girls stayed, and the last heading to classes at the north tower.

All students needed to come through this room to go to their classes, and as if on cue, across the large chamber groups of female students began to appear.

They wore the  same white and gold trimmed blazer, a white collared undershirt, black tie, black skirts of varying lengths, and some of them even wore all men’s dreams on their legs.

Knee socks.

I opted not to look, mostly because I did not want to meet the eyes of anyone just in case of their Gift, and also I wanted to see something a little more important.

Leon, his light blue eyes were looking past me directly at the girls who entered, and I knew that look all too well. Miss Violet looked at me like that.

Interest.

I was  sure it was not love, because this dense protagonist did not have it in his vocabulary, but he should have met the first three heroines yesterday during the festival.

My thoughts were correct, but the way they were verified was a little annoying.

“Hey, do you know the purple haired girl, the one wearing gloves? I met her at the festival.” Leon whispered to me as he bobbed his head toward the group of girls now mixing with us boys as we headed toward the north tower.

I blinked a few times slowly, before shaking my head, “Why the hell would I know a random girl?”

Leon frowned, “You knew where classes were being held so… “

My left eye twitched, “I’m not some thousand year old wizard with all the answers, I just memorized the map they provided. Let me guess, you didn’t even notice, did you?”

Leon chuckled, “Nope.”

I exhaled and looked over to where Leon had gestured to look. There,  I saw the number one heroine and the one who was three votes off from winning the popularity poll that would have had her be Leon’s girlfriend and future wife.

Emily Arc.

Ropes of dark purple hair that stopped at the arch of her back, cold blue eyes that let not a single one of her emotions be discernible, black gloves going up her forearms, and a grace oozing off every action she made.

Although she kept to herself, and a seemingly invisible barrier of sorts kept all students a good four feet away from her at minimum, said barrier not fading in the slightest even as us boys mixed into the crowd.

She seemed so isolated, like a single solitary tree amongst a field of grass, a drop of oil in a cup of water, a dot of purple amongst a sheet of white.

Alone.

Lost.

Afraid.

I gritted my teeth, seeing as she was the one who may have had it the worst out of all the heroines, someone who had never been loved since young.

The adopted daughter of Miss Violet, and a cold person who refused to only speak when spoken too.

I thought of just letting canon do its thing, as I was sure she would eventually have her moments with Leon, fall in love, and be put on the back burner as more and more girls flocked to him like bears to honey.

However, to that, I say screw canon.

“Her name is Emily, Emily Arc.”

Leon’s eyes widened, “So you did now! Wow, I knew you were smart.”

I coughed to hide my curse, but I also was studying Leon’s face, and while doing so I saw that the inkling of an interest he had for her before grew a few more notches.

‘Yes, save her, she needs it more than anyone’ I said in my head, thankful my gamble had worked, or at least seemed like it on the surface.

If I did not interfere, Leon and Emily would be like a planet orbiting a sun. Growing closer, but never touching, then growing farther apart and getting colder, only to grow closer once again after some time passed.

No, that was not gonna happen, because I had to keep the wolves- the other heroines- away from the raw meat known as Leon Lionsgreat so he can focus on one girl. And, if there was truly one of them who would have the resolve to confess first, it would be Emily Arc.

Second was Rei Remedy, but she was too much of an oddball to try and predict.

“She is pretty.” Leon spoke, but he most likely wanted to say that in his head, seeing as his cheeks gained the faintest hint of red as he scrambled of words. “A pretty great future f-friend, right Cade?”

This guy was hopeless.

“Yeah, she seems really lonely, going through the motions, a little standoff-ish. Maybe if…” I let my words linger hoping it would activate his protagonist’s urge to befriend every single person that seemed like they needed it.

“She reminds me of you.” Leon said with no hesitation.

I frowned.

Oi, asshole, I’m not that much of an outcast. Focus on her, not me. 

I wanted to cry, but thankfully I was not in the same class as this metal head, or God help me I would stuff his drinks full of Viagra and hope he would maybe notice a girl that could be more than a friend for once.

Actually, the idea was not too bad, so I noted it down in my head as Plan V just in case.

With thought of how I could enact such a plan, we made it to the north tower, staircases of wood going up and down. Hallways veering off, some classrooms held in gardens sectioned off with glass walls, and a few even in open areas in the middle of expansive rooms.

So much variety, but not many of them were for the first years, and instead a normal esc high school area was ours; of course it also had the medieval look, since we were in a castle.

Four doors spaced fifty feet apart in one hallway that had marble floors and golden doors(of course), with ‘Class A’ through ‘Class D’ shown in the same way the number above the dorms were; letters made of exotic blue fire and not emitting any heat. 

“Ah, thanks for leading the way Cade, see ya after class.” Leon gave me a wide smile before going off to Class C while I went to Class B’s door that was already open.

Droves of students poured in, and as I stepped in I took a moment to center my mind. 

This would be my second go at high school. I prayed it was nowhere as drastically depressing as the first, and maybe the fact I had already made some type of relationship with Leon, gave me the barest hint of hope.

I would not sit in the back corner of the classroom, head down, shifty eyes, permanent glare, and an aura that let no one approach me. 

No, I would aim to sit in the middle, next to the window because the view of the huge tundra forest was utterly breathtaking, and I do my best to not be cynical or negative about everything.

Maybe even make some friends, or people I could say hi to when I walked in or have small conversations with.

“Alright. I whispered as I headed toward the desk I had in mind, but as I went about navigating toward it I noticed that a strip of paper was on each of the desks, names printed on them. I had forgotten about this small detail, so I had to scrap my earlier idea, walking down the aisles until I found my designated desk.

As if to mock me, it was one away from the desk I had wanted first, but I could still look over and see plenty of the environment. A relatively small loss in the grand scheme of things.

I hung my bag on the hook on one of the desk legs, pulled the wooden seat out, and finally sat down. I rested my elbows on the desk’s nice smooth surface, looking forward to see the teacher’s podium, a long desk in a corner also for the teacher, and a chalkboard that had runes etched on its surface.

I sometimes forget this world was vastly different from Earth in most areas, and that magic was technically real, or runemaking more so.

Electricity did not exist since mana did, carriages were used instead of vehicles because public transport was a heavily supported and advanced part of society, and the internet of this world was just a huge mana web connecting devices that were made of diamonds like the CrystalCell.

I looked forward to learning about them a little more, but honestly it was mostly due to the novelty of it. I was doubting recently how much I actually wanted to major in it, ‘because magic’ was not something that could so easily just define my future course in life.

Was it what I truly wanted?

A troubling thought, but one I had three years to figure out, I had plenty of time.

My rambling mind was pulled back by the sound of the chair to the seat I wanted near the window squeaking on the tile, myself turning in curiosity to see who had gotten lucky enough to snag it from me.

Then I saw it, long purple hair, lifeless blue eyes, a grace unlike any other, and long black gloved fingers that brought out a writing utensil from a leather bag and a note taking journal.

Emily Arc.

I knew she was in this class, along with Melody Kane, but who would have thought she would be sitting right next to me.

I didn't, I suspected we would be close, but this… 

Surprise radiated through my entire body, which was soon accompanied by goosebumps as Emily turned. We met eyes, and for a moment she held it without fault, but a second later she quickly looked elsewhere and then proceeded to scoot her desk further away until it touched the edge of the window’s lip.

In another timeline, one without my meta knowledge, perhaps I would have felt offended or hurt that she had moved away from me.

However, I understood why she did it, the real purpose.

Her Curse, a true curse this time, and the reason for all her suffering.

[Amnesia’s Touch], a Gift that with prolonged skin contact with anyone makes them forget about her existence.

Permanently.

However, there was a caveat, one single way to surpass such a curse.

Love. 

Emily had loved Leon, so they were able to touch one another without worry, but in the end, she was left hanging.

Tossed to the side like trash, and one of the few things that were coaxing me to want to punch the idiot for his choice, but I could never do it realistically.

Love was a complex road with no end in sight. Every turn in the path was unpredictable, no matter what map you held, and that was what made it so great.

One way or another however, I would help her, and let her find true love where it was recuperated.

She would get her happily ever after, no matter what I had to do, and God so help me if I failed.

The bell rang, signifying the real start of my second chance at high school and bringing my attention to the front. Even then, as I tried to focus, my hands were clenched into fists with determination.