The Princess Sitting Next to Me is a Sweet Girlfriend Only in Front of Me
At Heim’s place, things went like that, but when it came to actually talking with Fia, she couldn’t hide her nervousness.
In front of the office where Fiorldia, her father and the king, was surely waiting, she took several deep breaths.
Of course, her father was kind, but only as a father.
As the ruler, Fia—Stellafia—had seen her strict father countless times.
She pressed her hand against her racing heart, trying to calm it.
But doing so only made her feel more flustered.
She glanced around to check if anyone was nearby.
Right now, she didn’t think she could enter the room just yet.
So, she tried to calm her mind by thinking about him.
Heim.
A rather rare student at the Magic Academy Palette—one without a surname.
This was proof that he was both a commoner and a scholarship student.
Although the academy technically accepted commoners, it was still difficult for them to afford tuition.
Simply put, maintaining the academy required an enormous amount of money.
The equipment needed to perform magic, the top-tier instructors to teach it, and many other expenses added up.
Her father, Fiorldia, had once said he wished he could offer the academy’s teachings freely to anyone.
It was into this academy that a scholarship student had entered.
Stellafia first learned of Heim’s existence when her father told her about him.
Scholarship students were honestly quite rare.
If one appeared every few years, that was already considered good.
And for him to become Stellafia’s classmate when she started attending the academy as Fia, it was only natural for him to be a topic of conversation.
That’s why she became interested in him and even asked her father to place them in the same class.
Such a request was probably a harmless whim for a princess.
Though she never imagined they’d end up sitting next to each other.
When she spoke with him, her impression was that he was someone deeply passionate about magic—a “magic bug,” so to speak.
Because he was a commoner, he stood out from the crowd.
The influence of Gourie Bafarsky, who disliked Heim, probably played a part…
But Heim didn’t seem to care and carried himself with confidence.
Though talking with him directly revealed some thoughts he kept hidden, he never let them show outwardly.
His magical abilities were solid, and his knowledge was unmatched among the students at the academy.
At least, Fia was certain she could never defeat him.
But precisely because of that, there were also good things about it.
The first time Fia felt affection toward him was when she asked him about something she didn’t understand regarding magic.
—Or so she thought.
“W-What am I even thinking about…?!”
She cried out in a voice too quiet to be heard, clutching her head and crouching down.
This wasn’t calming her nerves at all; if anything, it was making her even more anxious.
In fact, it made her realize something.
Right now, the reason she was so nervous—was it because she was afraid of seeing her father’s stern face, or was it because she was scared to talk to her father about Heim?
She herself couldn’t even tell which it was.
