VI

Despite it being almost autumn, it was an exceptionally hot night, and Augustin couldn’t fall asleep by any means. He tried all positions, from sideways to lying on his back and then his stomach and nothing worked for him.

He looked up at the bunk and listened to Vincent’s breathing a little bit.

“It’s rhythmic and relaxed…so he managed to fall asleep.”

He got up and sat uptight on his bed, back straight as an arrow.

“It would’ve been nice to take up Ms. Waldstone on that offer for tea,” he smiled to himself. He got up and pulled out his chair from his desk by the window, gazing at the starry sky and leaned on the table.

It had been days since the library affair, the calligraphy test results and the lack of conflict between them.

Augustin excused himself, saying that “it wouldn’t be fair to rub it in knowing she probably spent more time on another strange project of hers in one of the empty classrooms rather than studying.” Cynthia also approached him a day or two later, asking him if he told her anything as she had been so engrossed into a new invention that she hadn’t studied at all.

“Nanami Underland, huh…what a strange name.”

In the half a year he had spent at the school, he never had the chance to ask - just what’s her name. He met many people throughout his life from various generations, religions and races, but never heard of any similar name.

The closest he might’ve gotten was when an Ebtian merchant - a mysterious and dangerous land known for its natural treasures and bounties such as pelts and ivory that are very widely traded - was visiting them at their residence in Hearthbury quite a few years back. He brought his adopted daughter named Nana and had a sort of a similar appearance and structure to Nanami, but also spotted a pair of goat-like horns and had a larger frame. They played together at the family park, but didn’t understand each other and in the end, she became a part of a large assortment of memories he would eventually forget before meeting Nanami.

“In the end, she didn’t study at all for calligraphy. She just disappeared to that unused classroom like she always does and began working on whatever she does there…she didn’t take it seriously at all, did she…”

Augustin didn’t know what to say after he won. He was swarmed by classmates wishing him congratulations and onlookers hoping to catch another chapter of their rivalry, but somehow…it didn’t come out.

“What is this?! Why can’t I say anything to her? It just doesn’t seem…reasonable,” was his thought process at the spur of the moment. She looked at him crankily like she wanted him to be over with it as soon as he could, but he only averted his gaze. “Idiot! Provoke her! Rub it in!” his consciousness yelled, but he didn’t act on it.

“What’s the point of it, though…If she doesn’t take it seriously, why even have a rivalry in the first place?”

To Augustin, the idea that both of them were giving it their all, trying their best and triumphing when one did better to be the pinnacle of their interpersonal relation. Even if thinking about her brought negative emotions, the idea of her competing seemingly didn’t. The approval of his classmates felt meaningless and often without emotion, made only as a way to curry favour.

“Those inventions of hers…I don’t have any idea where she gets the ideas for them from. Every other day that she introduces one to Cynthia and I hear it over, it’s one bizarre thing after another. Where does she see practical use for half of those things, even?”

Augustin had once taken the liberty of sneaking into her usual classroom that she used for building and planning her weird ideas. He knew she kept all of her ideas bound in a series of notebooks she’d keep in her room, but the products themselves were in that classroom. Often, they’d be rough around the edges, featuring unrealistic and unreasonable promises…but that was the extent of issues.

But that was the extent of problems he saw. The projects themselves - although unreasonable - had immense potential despite their simplicity. It made his heart ache. Whilst all he did was study and get high scores, she was already doing things that clearly made her happy and contributed to society.

As the Duke of Luminium’s firstborn son, it was his right…or rather, duty, to inherit the title and protect both the people of his domain and Alvaria as a whole. He had unending faith that that was the greatest contribution he could do to society as long as he existed.

“But then she blew into the scene with ideas that could fundamentally change the way people live for the better. It’s…it’s…unspeakable! A Duke’s son in a worse position than a foreign commoner!”

He then leaned forward on his table, hoping to catch some fresh air. Getting heated up wasn’t going to help him fall asleep at all. Nevertheless, no matter how much he gazed into the dark night sky, he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about her.