Greg, too, found himself briefly at an impasse. His mind raced as he tried to find an opening in her impenetrably flawless appearance-anything he could even remotely call a flaw.
But after looking her over several times, he still found nothing.
And so, beside the Academy's main road, at this bustling intersection, a rather bizarre scene unfolded:
Lilith, the Kahn Kingdom's second princess and a magical prodigy, stood face-to-face with Greg, the former duke's son, only a few steps apart.
One was inwardly agonizing over whether to say hello, trying to keep her expression composed while her eyes wandered.
The other was inwardly scheming about how to pick a fight, wearing an apparently calm expression that concealed his calculations.
They simply stared at each other, neither speaking first nor moving a step, like two statues suddenly struck by a paralysis spell, frozen in a silence that grew increasingly awkward.
Naturally, this unusual standoff did not escape the surrounding students' notice.
The crowd, which had thinned slightly after the earlier magical accident, immediately had its attention drawn back by this even juicier spectacle.
Whispers surged once more like a rising tide:
"Hey, hey, look over there! Princess Lilith and... Greg Sass?"
"What are those two... doing standing there? Why aren't they saying anything?"
"Something feels a little strange... Is something about to happen?"
"I bet it has something to do with Greg Sass's old engagement to Princess Vivian!"
"Oh! I get it! Is he blocking Princess Lilith's way to make a statement? Or is he trying to send the royal family a message through her? Something like... 'Fortunes change, so don't look down on a young man just because he's poor'? Is he planning to prove to the entire royal family that he's no longer the useless nobody he used to