The boy who had stepped forward, glasses glinting with a self-satisfied air, hadn't taken the lead out of bravery. No, he had taken it because he had nothing else.
He came from an ordinary family, with no noble bloodline, no powerful backers, no golden name attached to him. Intelligence alone, he knew, would never be enough in this academy.
To climb, to rise, to secure a future where he wouldn't be trampled beneath others boots, he needed connections. He needed to be seen.
And what better way to be noticed than to stand against Charlotte, the daughter of the Blade Maiden herself?
If he could position himself as a voice for the students, surely the noble heirs watching from the shadows would remember his name.
That was the logic that brought him here. That was the reasoning that pushed him forward.
But the moment Mika turned his head and locked eyes with him, all of that courage threatened to shatter. The boy's breath caught in his throat.
