An Unintended Encounter
I got rejected by the protagonist of a romance fantasy novel. Well, technically it was Felice who confessed and got dumped. Of course it made sense that he’d get rejected, so I had no complaints. After all, how many people would accept a confession from someone they weren’t even close to, based purely on looks? It would be a different story if the confessor were the most handsome man alive, but that wasn’t the case.
While tidying my red hair, I let out a heavy sigh. The face staring back from the mirror was undeniably attractive. Red hair, black eyes, and skin so pale and flawless it was almost unnatural for a noble. The faint dark circles beneath my eyes even lent a touch of decadent charm.
Felice van Astria.
Second son of Count Astria. The Astria family was a storied swordsmanship lineage, prestigious enough that its founding head had once commanded the Imperial Third Knight Division. If the count learned his second son had done something this stupid, he would probably clutch the back of his neck in disbelief.
Still, I couldn’t put all the blame on Felice. The girl he’d confessed to—the protagonist of this romance fantasy novel—possessed beauty that defied description. Or rather, that was how the novel had portrayed her.
Silvia.
Dazzling golden hair like the imperial family’s, brilliant blue eyes, skin like white jade. A perfectly straight nose, large expressive eyes, a delicate face that awakened every protective instinct, and a figure that could only be described as dangerously voluptuous. She was the kind of beauty who could make boys her own age lose their minds and even cause older men to forget their dignity.
That said, Felice himself was quite handsome. The problem was that the men constantly orbiting Silvia were so absurdly good-looking that, next to them, he might as well have been invisible.
From the beginning, the main male leads are the third prince fighting for the imperial throne, the second son of a powerful ducal house, and the guy destined to become the next Hero. There was never any chance of standing out.
I didn’t particularly regret it. It was simply that…
Fuck. That means I have to look at their faces every single day from now on.
Just remembering the rejection made me want to kick my blankets in embarrassment, yet because we were in the same class I would have to see them every day. Why did I have to feel this secondhand shame over a confession I didn’t even make?
I dragged both hands down my face and muttered quietly.
“Should I drop out?”
Running away was starting to sound tempting.
Naturally, dropping out was impossible. A student ranked among the top ten in the swordsmanship department wouldn’t be allowed to suddenly withdraw, and I would need the count’s permission first. If the reason I gave was “I confessed to a girl I like and got rejected,” the only outcomes would be either losing my head to the count’s fury or losing it after the Astria family launched some clumsy revenge.
Of course, if it were just Silvia, the Astria family’s influence might have been enough to handle things… but what crime had she committed?
If being pretty was a sin, then you’d deserve the death penalty… That kind of nonsense.
Anyway, the body I’d transmigrated into was nothing more than an extra who didn’t even appear in the original novel. As long as nothing unusual happened, I could just live quietly. The main story would revolve around Silvia and the three male leads anyway.
“……So, what happened?”
As soon as I headed toward Class 1-A, I was grabbed by several male classmates and dragged into a secluded corner of the academy. At first I thought it was group bullying, but they simply wanted to hear about yesterday’s events. In other words, I was being forced to recount my own humiliating story with my own mouth first thing in the morning.
The green-haired boy—Vermen—who asked while staring at me received a casual reply as I scratched my head.
“I got rejected.”
“Ugh… As expected!”
“What’s with that relieved expression?”
Vermen let out a sigh of relief and clenched his fist. Wait, weren’t these guys supposed to be rooting for Felice? Looking around, about half the boys wore the same expression as Vermen. The other half looked strangely relieved as well.
“Well, since you got rejected, that means we still have a chance, right?”
Ah, so that was it. I found myself nodding before I could stop. So half of them were idiots who thought they now had an opening, while the other half were idiots relieved that Silvia was still single because I—like them—had been rejected.
What carefree bastards.
“Come on, even I got rejected. You guys really think she’d accept you?”
They were inferior to Felice in looks, ability, and family background. There was no way she would accept them just because they were in the same class or school. I shook my head, knowing it was almost harassment at this point to even have these expectations.
“But someone like me should be fine, right?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty decent myself…”
“Typical male delusion. Everyone thinks they’re attractive.”
My light but deadly remark made the boys’ faces twist unpleasantly for a moment, but I simply smiled calmly and turned away. There was no point explaining the details of Silvia’s feelings; they wouldn’t listen anyway. Leaving them with nothing but a “wake up from your dream,” I started back toward the classroom—only to stop at the sight of the man standing in front of me.
“……I see. It’s fortunate you understand your own place so well.”
A low, cold voice rang out. When I lifted my gaze to the speaker, I couldn’t help letting out a small, involuntary sigh.
Black hair and red eyes. Even from a man’s perspective, the guy was unnaturally, icily handsome. He stared at me with freezing eyes.
Cain von Jairus, second son of the Jairus Ducal family.
One of the novel’s main male leads was standing right in front of me.
“Yeah, I know it very well.”
No matter how much I struggled, I could never overcome the difference in status. If the story followed the original plot, Silvia would end up entangled with the three main male leads, and I would remain nothing more than an extra. I just needed to live my own life, and Silvia would live hers as the protagonist.
In this romance fantasy world, Silvia was literally the protagonist. She was so beloved by the world itself that it seemed to revolve around her. And every male lead around her possessed something overwhelmingly superior—power, talent, even the goddess’s favor.
That was why I answered Cain calmly and tried to walk past him toward the classroom, but he remained rooted in place as if he still had more to say.
“If you truly understood your place from the beginning, you wouldn’t have confessed to Silvia in the first place… right?”
Only then did I realize. Cain’s words were directed at me and all the boys behind me, telling them to know their limits. And I wasn’t the only one who understood the blatant intent behind them.
“What… what did you say?!”
Students at the academy were supposed to be equal regardless of status. At least, that was what the school rules claimed. Of course, that didn’t mean a commoner or low-ranking noble could actually challenge a high-ranking one. One of the boys reflexively flared up at Cain’s words, but the moment their eyes met, he lowered his head.
After all, Cain was the second son of a ducal house. You’d need at least a marquis’s son to speak with him on equal footing.
This is getting annoying.
News about Silvia spread faster than anything else in the academy, even though we had only recently enrolled. Naturally, the rumor that Felice had confessed to her yesterday would have already reached the three main male leads, including Cain. The problem was that I hadn’t expected him to hear it this quickly—or to come find me in person.
“……So? What exactly do you want to say?”
I stepped sideways to block his view of the hesitant boys behind me. Cain had been glaring coldly at them, but when I obstructed his sight he frowned. In the original story, Cain was an extremely rational person. He became slightly more emotional when Silvia was involved, but he was still different from these brain-frozen idiots.
“I’m telling you not to hurt Silvia any further.”
Watching him grit his teeth, I nodded. In the original novel, the intelligent and rational Cain was someone Silvia relied on heavily. It seemed he and Silvia had already talked about my confession yesterday. The novel had mentioned that while Cain was smart and logical, he wasn’t very good at speaking gently. Maybe it came from being the second son of a ducal family.
If he continued like this, he would only earn the other students’ resentment. So I spoke first.
“You’re right. If someone I wasn’t even close to suddenly confessed, I’d probably reject them too.”
“……”
Up until now, Cain had issued similar warnings to other male students many times. But he had never met anyone who accepted his opinion as readily as I just had. Of course, I didn’t actually like Silvia, and being older than these kids let me think a little more maturely.
Perhaps because of that, Cain’s eyes widened in clear surprise as he stared at me.
“Silvia isn’t the type to care about looks or family background anyway. Isn’t that right?”
“……You’re correct.”
At the same time, he seemed to realize I was helping him and quietly agreed. Cain was saying this because he didn’t want Silvia to suffer any more from such incidents, but his approach would clearly only cause negative effects. The boys would start hating him, ignore his warnings, confess anyway, get rejected, and then resent Silvia.
“I regret it too. I should have gotten closer to her first and fallen for her inner self before confessing.”
“Then why did you confess?”
“Hmm……”
What should I say? After thinking for a brief moment, I gave an awkward smile. I needed to show that I no longer harbored any feelings for Silvia. It was true that the confession had happened, but it was also true that the current me felt nothing for her. Since I couldn’t tell the truth, I had to choose my words carefully.
“Well, the important thing is that I’ve completely let go of any lingering feelings for Silvia, isn’t it? From now on, I want to focus solely on my own growth.”
“……”
“Anyway, please tell her I’m sorry and that she doesn’t need to worry about it.”
I gently patted Cain’s shoulder and walked past him. All I wanted was to hurry back to class. I had no desire to get entangled with the protagonists any further. As I had said, this was a world where I could live peacefully as long as I didn’t get involved with the protagonist Silvia.
But as I took a few steps, I found myself smiling awkwardly again.
“Uh…… hello…?”
Behind Cain stood Silvia.
“Ah…… hello……”
She was looking at me with her large, beautiful blue eyes wide with surprise.