As they strode towards the stadium after they’d eaten their lunch, Blythe’s eyebrows shot up.

  They clearly weren’t the only ones with this idea, because a large portion of the stands were already occupied by other girls. Some of them were cheering on the boys who were in the middle of drawing their bows at the targets set up at the other end of the stadium. Many were quietly watching with their friends, occasionally giggling among themselves. Yet others were focusing on a book or textbook in their hands, evidently having been dragged here by their friends who were more enthralled by the boys than they were.

  Blythe and her friends sat a little ways away from the mass of girls filling up an entire section of the stands. It allowed them to still hear what many of the other girls were saying but also afford them some breathing space. The other girls were mostly shouting out the names of the boys who were on the field and showering them with praises. It was a shame the guys were too far away for Blythe to check their status windows.

  The sun was gentle this afternoon, dispensing its warmth like a soft blanket over the open area. Blythe deeply inhaled the fresh air, basking in the breeze weaving through the air. She loved this.

  Fishing out her small bag of handmade cookies from her school bag, Blythe began munching while checking out the field. There were all kinds of different targets that were set up, including ones that were shaped like prey animals for the participants to practice on. Most of them had spaced out from each other to do their own thing, but a few of the guys were standing more closely with each other to chat while shooting their arrows at their respective targets.

  All the contestants were wearing some type of vest over their PE uniform.

  A couple of staff members sat on their respective benches at opposing ends of the field, keeping an eye on things.

  “Oh, are those the cookies you and Jess made in the student kitchen?”

  Blythe nodded and held it out to Sophie. “Want some?”

  “I’ll try one,” Sophie said, carefully picking it out so as not to touch the surrounding cookies.

  “There he is,” Jessica said excitedly, leaning into Blythe’s space while she continued looking out at the field. “He’s standing next to Philip.”

  “Clyde?” Blythe craned her neck to search for her friend’s crush.

  Jessica made an affirmative noise, sounding thoroughly distracted.

  At the light nudge in her arm, Blythe turned her head.

  “Over there,” Sophie whispered, pointing at the field with her free hand. She’d only taken a very dainty nibble out of her checkerboard cookie so far. “Philip is the one with the neon orange hair on the left. He’s the only one that looks like he has a flame for a head.”

  That last remark drew a huff of laughter from Blythe’s lips. She covered her mouth and looked in the direction that Sophie was pointing at. Sure enough, there was a guy with a mop of hair that was so obnoxiously orange it all but glowed under the rays of sunlight talking to a guy with short brown hair. Some squinting was enough for Blythe to confirm that the brown-haired boy was indeed Clyde.

  “Thanks,” she whispered to Sophie.

  Her friend responded with a winning smile and took another tiny bite of the cookie.

  Green light.

  Blythe had to admit, it was kind of cool seeing them carry bows and quivers full of arrows around. Most of the guys seemed to have great aim—their arrows always landed on their target. Not that Blythe knew anything about archery.

  Her mood dropped a little when she noticed Magnus’ golden-blond hair, bright and attention-catching, under the sunlight. A few feet away from him, another boy of a similar height and identical hair color was aiming at the targets as well.

  “Ooh, both the second prince and the crown prince are here,” Sophie whispered. “His Highness Prince Marcel really is handsome.”

  Blythe’s eyebrows drew together. “Can you even see his face from here?”

  From where they were sitting, the guys looked tiny. Although she could still make out who they were, there was no way she could see the features of their face clearly enough to admire them in terms of aesthetics.

  “I remember what he looks like,” Sophie said. “That’s the important part, really.”

  Jessica laughed. “You’re so right.”

  Shaking her head, Blythe had another cookie.

  “Are the stands usually this full?” she asked. “Like, during these last few days before the Hunting Race.”

  Both her friends nodded.

  “There’ll be even more people after school,” Sophie said. “That’s when everyone’s free after all. Some of the boys will likely be here too.”

  “Especially the ones whose applications got rejected,” Jessica added. “They want to scope out the competition for next year.”

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  “Did I … Did I use to come here too after school? In the previous years?”

  Mercifully, the pity that surfaced on their faces were quickly displaced by encouraging smiles. “You did. His Highness would give you a ride back home with his carriage afterwards.”

  “But now you’re staying in school, so it’s more convenient. Will you come with us to watch them practice after school later?”

  “So that you two can watch cute boys?”

  Although her friends giggled, Jessica’s face in particular turned pink.

  “Well, yes. Even though Jess is only here for Clyde.”

  “I mean, wouldn’t you be watching His Highness as well?” Jessica asked. “He’ll be happy to see you supporting him. This is a win-win situation!”

  Oh, right. Her friends didn’t know she’d suggested to Magnus that they break off their engagement. They were still under the impression she wanted to be a good fiancée to him despite having lost her feelings for him.

  For now, Magnus didn’t appear inclined to fulfill her request. Until she got confirmation that their engagement really was going to be canceled, Blythe wanted to keep her desire to end it under wraps. While Sophie and Jessica were loyal to her, she didn’t know exactly how relevant her status as both the daughter of a duke and the fiancée of the crown prince was to keeping them that way.

  There was also an issue of it getting spread around campus if they decided to turn on her. People would definitely think she was crazy for wanting to break it off with him. She didn’t need anyone bothering her with questions or harassing her for daring to suggest it. She also didn’t want to irk Magnus more than necessary if he thought she was trying to make a statement or use external forces to pressure him into it.

  Based on what Sophie had said about the amount of obligatory chocolates Magnus was bound to receive next year now that the ban had been lifted, Blythe had a feeling there would be a lot of girls rushing in to pounce on their chance to become a marriage candidate if he became single.

  “Sure.” She was slightly curious about how packed it would become in the evening anyway. “I might leave early to get some studying done, though.”

  “Yes!” Jessica clapped, the movement light to reduce noise.

  “Are you going to say hi to Clyde?” Sophie asked, turning to Jessica. “Look, some girls have already gone down to talk to a couple of the boys.”

  Blythe squinted. “Can you just go down and interrupt them like that? Aren’t they supposed to be practicing?“

  “It’s acceptable if it’s just for a short while.” Sophie put the last bit of her cookie into her mouth. “Cole’s admirers are quite restrained. Look, they’re taking turns to go up to him.”

  It was true; his fangirls trickled forth in twos or threes to approach him and exchange a few words. Then they’d return to the larger body that had congregated at the lower section of the stand. They would wait at least a couple of minutes before dispatching the next two or three girls who wanted to approach Cole next—a girl wearing a bright pink headband seemed to be directing the entire group. Blythe vaguely wondered if that was the fan club’s president.

  Every time Cole looked their way and waved, the fan club squealed loudly.

  “Should I go?” Jessica anxiously fiddled with the corner of her bag. “He looks busy. What if I’m bothering him?”

  “I’m sure he won’t mind,” Sophie said instantly. “He’s not even busy. Wait a minute … Leah’s on the field.”

  A gasp flew out of Jessica’s mouth as she whipped her head around. “How dare she—”

  “No, don’t worry,” Sophie said again. “She’s aiming for Frederick. She’s not even looking in Clyde’s direction.”

  This was Blythe’s opportunity to find out what Leah looked like. She peered as hard as she could for a girl who was walking to another guy. It wasn’t easy, because there were a few girls out there at the moment.

  She leaned in Sophie’s direction and mumbled, “Where’s Frederick again?”

  “He’s over there.” Sophie helpfully lifted a pointed finger. “The tall, purple-haired boy next to the shorter silver-haired boy. They’re shooting at the animal-shaped targets.”

  The unnatural ’natural’ hair colors that people in this world had was a surprisingly big help in identifying people from a crowd. All the boys were wearing the school PE uniform, so they could only be distinguished from each other by their height, form, gait, and hair color.

  Thanks to Sophie’s tip, Blythe spotted Frederick easily enough. His standing posture was confident in a self-assured but not cocky way. She could see why Leah would find him attractive. He was already talking to a girl, who seemed to waving goodbye to him as she turned around. She brushed past another girl making a beeline for him. Blythe assumed that was Leah.

  The top half of her dark shoulder-length hair was pulled into a hair tie and then braided. The most distinctive feature Blythe could see from here was the huge pair of glasses Leah was wearing. Frederick appeared to give Leah a huge smile before they greeted each other.

  Curious, Blythe glanced over to the other side of the field where Clyde was. The guy was staring in the direction of the happy pair. She couldn’t tell what he was feeling from here.

  “I should go down,” Jessica said, getting to her feet and placing her bag on her chair. “Look after my bag for me, Soph?”

  Sophie nodded. “At least Clyde won’t be alone down there with Leah rubbing Frederick in his face. She’s trying to make him jealous.”

  “Well, it’s not going to work because I’m going to be there. What about you, Blythe? Do you want to say hi to His Highness?”

  Shaking her head, Blythe smiled up at Jessica. “I’ll stay here. I’ve already seen him last period, and I’ll have another class with him later on.”

  “That’s true.” Jessica looked a little envious. “I don’t have as many classes together with Clyde.”

  “We’ll take care of your bag,” Blythe said.

  As she watched Jessica go down the steps, Blythe asked Sophie, “Why would Leah try to make Clyde jealous? Didn’t she already give her romantic chocolate to Frederick yesterday?”

  “She probably just likes the attention.” Sophie rolled her eyes at the field. “She’s always trying to make Clyde jealous even though she doesn’t like him.”

  Blythe gazed at Sophie’s disdainful profile.

  This was the first time she’d seen Sophie outright show so much scorn for anyone other than Daisy, even if it was behind Leah’s back. On one hand, it was kind of a relief to know that Daisy wasn’t the only one she felt this way about.

  Sophie always said the same thing about Daisy—that she was hard up for attention and things like that. But from what she knew about Daisy, that wasn’t true. Sophie and Jessica were just so biased against Daisy that they were convinced because she had the attention, she had to have wanted it.

  Maybe the same went for Leah. How much of it was based off their skewed perspective of things, and how much of it was a reflection of the truth?

  She returned her attention to the field. Frederick and Leah were still interacting with each other. Neither of them seemed to be glancing in Clyde’s direction. She was moving her gaze across the field towards Clyde when she realized Magnus was facing the stands instead of the targets.

  In fact, he seemed to be looking right at her. She wondered if it was her imagination, but then red light dashed through her vision.

  It definitely hadn’t been her imagination. How could she ask him what his problem was if these screen notifications was the only way she could know he had a problem? She was the only one in this world who could see these, right?

  From the moment she’d transmigrated as Blythe, she’d assumed that was the case due to the web novels and comics she’d read before, and so far she hadn’t seen any proof to the contrary. She hadn’t read anything in her history study guide about people being able to see screens popping up mid-air that was invisible to those around them. She also hadn’t seen anyone look up in the air like they were reading off at invisible screens. Not yet, at least.

  Sophie grabbed her arm. “Blythe, His Highness is looking at you!”

  Blythe somehow managed to muster a bland smile. “Yeah, that’s great.”

  To avoid confusing Sophie by seeming indifferent, Blythe waved at Magnus. He turned his back on her and pulled out another arrow from his quiver.

  Was there a way to ask people if they could see pink pop-up status windows or activate them on command without coming off as a lunatic?