With the start of the school term rapidly approaching, the number of students arriving at Hagun Academy steadily increased.

The campus was no longer as deserted as it had been a few days ago. Students could now be seen bustling about everywhere.

As lunchtime approached, the main cafeteria grew particularly crowded and noisy.

When Roy and Stella walked through the cafeteria doors together, nearly every eye in the room gravitated toward them.

“Wait, isn’t that the Crimson Princess who enrolled this year?”

“She’s so beautiful… and an A-Rank Mage Knight, too. She looks like someone straight out of a fairy tale.”

“I heard her mana capacity is thirty times the national average. That’s just terrifying.”

Stella’s appearance was undeniably top-tier. No matter where she went, she was bound to attract attention.

Add the prestigious title of Imperial Princess to her undeniable beauty, and she became the absolute focal point of any room.

Especially among a cafeteria full of adolescent students, her arrival instantly silenced nearby conversations.

But soon, the whispers shifted.

“Who is that guy walking with her?”

Naturally, anyone standing next to the radiant princess would also be thrust under the spotlight. In fact, at this moment, Roy was drawing even more intense scrutiny.

Curiousity, jealously, and puzzled gazes locked onto him.

“Hold on… isn’t he the Rank One freshman?” someone suddenly realized, revealing Roy’s identity.

“Huh? Are you kidding me? Wasn’t the Crimson Princess ranked first? I thought she broke the all-time enrollment record!”

Stella’s admission to Hagun Academy was massive news. Anyone who paid even the slightest attention to the academy’s affairs knew her stats.

“I’m not lying! The academy’s official website updated the freshman rankings this morning. This new guy, Roy, is ranked above her! If you don’t believe me, log on and check for yourself.”

A few busybodies immediately pulled out their student handbooks to verify the claim.

“No way… this is impossible! The Crimson Princess is already a monster. What kind of freak could possibly overwhelm her scores?”

“God knows. Look at his parameters. Except for his Luck stat, which is a C, he scored an A in the other five categories.”

“He actually has one more A-Rank evaluation than Stella!”

“Another A-Rank knight? He really is a monster. But I’ve never even heard of him before! A prodigy like this shouldn’t be completely unknown!”

A Rank knights were internationally renowned figures. Every nation treated them as national treasures.

For someone to achieve A-Rank status before even starting their first year of high school meant they were destined to become a world class titan.

Yet, no one had ever heard his name or alias.

“Who knows where he came from!”

“Wait, look at them. Based on the Chairwoman’s new policy, the top two students… they must be roommates! No wonder they’re walking in together.”

In a matter of seconds, the cafeteria gossip transformed into a heated discussion entirely centered on Roy and Stella.

However, for both of them, this level of attention was trivial. It couldn’t shake their composure in the slightest.

Ignoring the blatant staring and whispering, Roy and Stella walked casually toward the food counters.

As they navigated the cafeteria, Roy spotted two familiar figures sitting at a nearby table. One was Ikki, and the other was an unusually feminine! man.

“Ikki!” Roy called out.

Hearing his name, Ikki paused with his tray and turned around. “Roy.”

When his eyes shifted to the girl standing beside Roy, Ikki froze in sheer astonishment. “Don’t tell me… the Crimson Princess is your roommate?!”

Roy nodded with a smirk. “You know the Chairwoman’s new dormitory allocation policy. Stella and I were assigned to the same room. Luckily, we get along quite well.”

“Stella, this is my friend, Ikki Kurogane,” Roy introduced.

“Hello. Since you are Roy’s friend, please, just call me Stella,” she said with a polite, graceful smile.

“H-Hello! My name is Ikki Kurogane,” Ikki responded hastily, still processing the shock of the rank one and rank two monsters living in the same room.

“My, my, Ikki, aren’t you going to introduce me?”

The man standing next to Ikki suddenly spoke up, his voice dripping with coquettish charm as he lightly rested a hand on Ikki’s shoulder.

Feeling the arm drape over him, Ikki’s posture went rigid. His face froze for a split second before he forced a highly uncomfortable, strained smile. “Ah… right. This is my roommate, Nagi Arisuin.”

“That’s right,” Nagi smiled sweetly, fluttering his eyelashes. “But I am a maiden born in the wrong body, and I absolutely despise being called by my manly given name. So, please, call me Alice!”

As soon as those words fell, both Roy and Stella felt a simultaneous chill run down their spines.

Roy, in particular, was caught off guard.

Wait… isn’t Nagi/Alice Arisuin supposed to be the roommate of Ikki’s younger sister, Shizuku Kurogane?

His own enrollment had disrupted the total number of incoming freshmen, shifting the odd and even numbering for the dormitory assignments. As a result of the butterfly effect, Alice had been reassigned as Ikki’s roommate instead!

“A maiden… born in the wrong body?!” Stella’s voice pitched up slightly, looking at Alice with an incredibly weirded out expression.

“Exactly! A boy’s body, but a delicate maiden’s heart,” Alice replied with a perfectly gentlemanly yet undeniably feminine smile.

“Ikki… you’ve certainly got yourself quite the roommate,” Roy said, his lips twitching into a sarcastic grin.

“Ah… hahahahaha!” Ikki laughed dryly. No matter how they looked at it, it was a cry for help.

“I feel incredibly lucky to be sharing a room with Ikki!” Alice said, looking at the sweating swordsman with deeply affectionate eyes. “At first, I was supposed to share a dormitory with another girl. But, alas, she completely rejected the idea of rooming with me, so the administration forced me to swap into a room with Ikki instead.”

“I thought Ikki would be some stinky, brute of a man who would be terribly difficult to get along with,” Alice sighed dramatically. “But I didn’t expect this! After spending just a little time together, I realized Ikki is such a sweet, wonderful boy. Being transferred to his room was the best thing that could have happened!”

While Ikki looked like he was suffering internally, Alice’s casual explanation triggered something else entirely.

“Wait a minute…”

Hearing Alice’s words, Stella’s eyes suddenly lit up, completely shifting her focus.

“…You can request a room change?!”

—

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