Manami Okuda paces along the marbled, flawless tiles of the palace in haste. Her assistant, Kotaro Takebayashi, follows not far behind. They're both carrying thick stacks of paper that reach their chins as they run along the corridors to find their newly facilitated research office.

"Isn't it astonishing what helping just the prince with a cough can result in?"

"Manami, I'd be wary of calling him 'just' the prince. That's His Majesty's beloved seventh prince. But yes, I can't believe they've already granted us the privilege of a research office." Kotaro replies somewhat snarkily, finding the royal family's affinity for having so many children absurd. Considering his own history with women, one might call it envy of the 'royal right' to be fruitful in kin, but really it's not that Kotaro has issues with finding a potential partner.

"I thought this would take at least a few years to set one up in the common public, let alone the royal palace. This is the power of science my dear friend, for it was the chemical composition of fate that led us to this point!"

"That jargon could've been simplified."

"You can say that about a lot of jargon, besides fate is so abstract how could it not be scientific? How much further is th-"

As Manami is faced away to face her friend, she collides with a solid and cold surface appearing around the corner. The collision of their frames has her, being weaker and somewhat flimsier compared to that of the average person, drop to her knees and a good half of her papers fly out of her grasp. She apologises instantly, albeit stuttering. The need to compensate for her absentmindedness and lack of spatial awareness fills her, and a burning sense of shame and embarrassment flares across her face. She fumbles to order all of her papers back into her stack, Kotaro helping her in the process as well.

Looking up to apologise once more to the figure towering above her, a familiar shade of red instantly captures all of her attention. A polite smile adorns his face and his golden yellow eyes, squinted in the smiling act, enrapture her. Something warm makes its way up from the pit of her stomach to her dry throat as a tingle in her ear she felt compelled to scratch. An uncomfortable lack of oxygen in her chest. A searing heat across her cheeks, or the need to swallow to lubricate her barren state. Completely struck and left to sizzle in the heat of their encounter.

Blinking away, twisting her neck from him with force, she blushes at how long she dared to stare. Another apology reflexively comes from her, despite the fact that he had already left.

"W-Was that K-Karma Akabane?" she stammers. Bones still acting like jelly, Manami pushes herself off the ground and heaves the papers back into her arms.

"Oh? You know of him, I would've thought with your sheltered upbringing you knew nothing of the outside world." Kotaro walks ahead this time.

"Well, I-he's…uhm… H-His hair is distinct, isn't it?"

"Hah? That's definitely not the only distinct thing about him."

He looks back at her in response to her lack of response and her head motions in a curve forwards, ushering him to continue.

"...So you really don't know? He's a famous knight who's recently been appointed a Lord, well Baron specifically, because of his military success. There's even been rumours that he'll be engaged to the third princess."

Her eyes widen a little and her shoulders droop.

"O-Oh, is that so…"

"Well, the only reason the rumours are going around so feverishly is because in conjunction with the rumoured engagement, there is apparently the rumoured rejection from him as well."

"W-What?!"

"It's just a rumour. Who in their right mind rejects the princess' proposal after all?" Kotaro kicks open the door of the research office, "The third princess is especially hard to reject. Beautiful, a great magician and something of a vice commander to Lord Karma's order of knights."

Manami huffs and slams her wad of papers onto the wooden table in the centre of the room, sneering at the delusion of the perfect third princess in her mind. Quickly trying to override her flushed cheeks and pounding heart, she starts arranging the papers and mumbles to herself dejected.

"What? Did you fall for him already? You haven't stuttered this much since we first met!"

Papers slide onto the floor out of her hands at the question.

"...That's a yes isn't it."

A long, drawn out exhale grumbles out of her,

"I-It's not as shallow as you think! I…I knew him when he was younger."

"I don't understand the inclination of love towards real people, feel no need to explain it to me." Kotaro jeers, bemused by her panicked state.

"He's so tall…approximately 30 centimetres taller than me? He must be over 180 centimetres tall now, that's amazing… "

"How in the hell could you tell that? With your bottom on the floor, starstruck by his mere courteous gesture." Kotaro mocks, clasping his hands together and tucking them in towards his chin, pretending to be lovesick.

"W-well his head was around the 9th bricklayer of the wall, which are all roughly 20 centimetres. And I know he was just being polite when he smiled…"

Kotaro looks upon her dejected and pathetic state, moping about with her chin jutting out at a person she barely knows. He crosses his arms and smiles at the sight. Racking his brain to help his friend's love life, a thought pops into his mind.

"Wait, aren't you the daughter of a Marquess? Despite your floundering appearance."

"What about it? Do I really seem that graceless?" she says, pouting a little. She wishes Karma will forget their sudden reunion, which makes her wonder whether he remembered her. Is it really a reunion if she was the only one who recognised the other?

"Well, why not send him a marriage proposal? Every lady is bound to try to snap him up now that he has a proper title, not to mention his face. Your social standing could maybe make this impossible love of yours possible."

"N-no one said it was love, first of all. And, my father technically a-already sent him a proposal when we were much younger."

"Hah?"

Hi there! There's a bit of a disconnect with the Japanese names and the European fantasy setting that I hope you'll excuse haha. I contemplated changing their names but I prefer to stick to the familiar ones!

This story idea has been living in my mind rent free for far too long, so I'm gonna finally put it out there for someone to read! I'll try to update soon! Thanks for reading :D