Vain - Chapter 64 Interconnected

The first person that caught Kira’s eyes when she entered the library was the elegant and calm girl that she had once seen a month ago. She had remembered her so vividly since there was something to her that was so unique and even without knowing her or her name. She really admired the girl, but the girl was only someone that she could idolize. She wanted to have such a commanding aura, even if it was just to keep people away from her. But her aura as it was now was nonexistent, even if she had a temper, it wouldn’t be able to imitate anyone, no matter how hard she wished it to.

There was a part of her that wanted to go over and interact with her, but when she shifted her eyes slightly. Kira could see the person that sat next to the girl. It was the Crown Prince of Kinlar, Lucian. It was the prince that had annulled her engagement. Was the person that he annulled their engagement over the girl? It had to be, they seemed so close. She hadn’t been privy to much gossip over the past two weeks.

One, her president role and responsibility didn’t allow her to have any free time. Two, even if she had free time she wouldn’t seek out gossip or stalking others. And so this was the first time that she had seen the prince so close with a girl. He wasn’t even close to her and she was his fiancee. But comparing the girl and herself, she could see why. The girl that she had met was really a top-quality woman. If she had been born a man, she would stop at no end to pursue her. There was no way that her antisocial self could compare to her. But she was really a little disappointed. She wanted to somehow get close to that girl.

Normally she wouldn’t want to make friends and she would only interact with people when necessary, but she would make an acceptation for the girl. Now she wasn’t sure if she could since she was being guarded so closely by the prince. Though with her role as president maybe…there was a way she could.

❅

Aileene felt that it was fine for her to show off a bit since she had so much knowledge. Why couldn’t she use it? Before she was restricted by the system to not create an anomaly, but she was with Lucian and she was safe. It was fine for her to be relaxed. So she didn’t take much time to complete her work at all, she breezed through all of it to the irritation of Lucian. He had started off thinking that he could act cool and help her with anything that she was confused on. But in the end, he was beaten by her and started to question his own intelligence.

Aileene could only smile comfortingly and pat the Lucian who had his head down and was contemplating ending the study session early. He was merely contemplating it though, it would be insane for him to give up any chance to hand around Aileene longer. His damage pride couldn’t be restored though and he meekly listened to her the rest of the while as they were going through all their assignments.

“Um, excused me?”

Lucian raised his head first, he really wanted to glare that the person that had dared interfere with his precious study session. But when he saw who it was his expression froze.

“Kira?”

“Yes, hello Prince Lucian and Lady Aileene.”  Kira nodded to the prince in greeting and the atmosphere turned awkward. She didn’t intend it to be so, but she avoided keeping eye contact with Lucian for too long and instead turned to the girl. Who she found out from Seti, was named Aileene.

“May I collect your opinions about a certain matter? It’s for the student council and won’t take up much of your time.” Kira strode onwards, she was already here. So she would just continue with her original purpose no matter how difficult it was. And she had shaken Seti off too, so it wasn’t like he was monitoring her anymore. She just wanted to build up a tiny connection to Aileene. And that could only be done with small steps.

“Oh? What could it be? We’d be happy to help.” Aileene agreed to her quickly, even though she was a bit concern in the beginning. When she had heard Kira come over, she was surprised. So many things have changed already and she didn’t know what Kira’s reaction would be to her being so close to Lucian. Though she had never acted like a rival for him in the first place, maybe she would now? Aileene could no longer be sure about anything. Nothing was completely in her control anymore.

But it wasn’t any of the pessimistic things that she had imagined, Kira just wanted to do a survey, so had came over to them. Plus, her reaction to her was neutral and possibly positive. She even greeted Lucian normally, there was no tension in her tone or her action. And Aileene was glad, Kira wasn’t a bad person. On the contrary, she was really intelligent albeit a little closed off. She had some hopes of them being friends too. Since everything had changed so much, she saw no harm in befriending people that she wanted to.

Aileene also wanted a chance to talk to Xi and Cielo, but she could never find a good moment too. Maybe this was a good chance for her to start off with Kira and then add the other two into their group. Then when Ruby came along, she would add her in too.

“There’s going to be an assembly in the near future for all the new students of the academy. So the student council wanted to pick out some representative from the student body to get an idea of the general interest and themes that students like, along with their opinions on the academy thus far.” Kira smiled and begin explaining everything that she needed. She hoped that Aileene would take her up on the offer and join the team to be a holding member for the assembly. It would benefit from someone so tasteful and distinguished.

Aileene saw Kira’s expectant look and held a thoughtful expression herself. She wasn’t as busy as she used to be, now that she wasn’t so bogged up with contributing to her goals. (She had thought to set aside some of the incoming letters from Dmitri and look at them at a later time.) This was something that she had time to do and she could get closer to Kira as well. It was a win-win situation!

“I’ll be happy to help! But—Lucian, what do you think?” Aileene accepted, but a second after she had done so she remembered that Lucian was beside her. Her smile froze and a sheepish expression came over her face. She had been too busy deciding that she was lost in thought, completely forgetting to acknowledged him as well. She felt a bit embarrassed and looked to him, as if to await his verdict.

Chapter end