Raiden Mei was a second-year student at Senba Academy. A year ago, when she had just enrolled, she was immediately embraced by her classmates. Having grown up under a strict aristocratic upbringing as a "young lady," Mei had never had many friends and was overjoyed. She didn't overthink it and simply enjoyed the company of those who approached her. While she didn't revel in the feeling of being the center of attention, she was genuinely happy to have so many good friends.
That's what she believed, at least, before her father, Raiden Ryoma, was implicated in a financial scandal and thrown in jail.
But within a few short months, after her father was imprisoned, ME Corp's reputation plummeted, and a new president took over, the intelligent Raiden Mei quickly noticed the changes around her.
Almost overnight, the people she thought were her friends stopped finding excuses to study or eat with her. The classmates who once flocked to her side after class to chat about girly topics now kept their distance.
It turned out that the identity Mei thought she had hidden so well was exposed the moment she enrolled. Even though she had deliberately tried to downplay her elegant and refined aristocratic aura, her surname was enough for her classmates to recognize the young lady of ME Corp.
It wasn't, as Mei had believed, that she had won everyone's friendship with her polite demeanor and considerate personality. Her classmates' motives had been clear from the start: to build a friendly relationship with the daughter of ME Corp for their own benefit. When Mei lost her status as a "young lady," they naturally had no intention of wasting any more effort. To avoid any potential trouble from the still-powerful ME Corp, they deliberately isolated her.
On that day, Raiden Mei discovered that the world wasn't as beautiful as she had imagined. Her father had always been busy with work, and she, who had lacked a father's love, thought she had finally found friendship. In the end, she discovered that not only was the friendship fake, but the little paternal love she had was now completely gone with her father's imprisonment.
However, this didn't cause a drastic change in Mei's personality. Aside from becoming more sensitive to her surroundings and the hearts of others, she actually grew stronger. The gentleness and tolerance she continued to show even after such a dramatic upheaval made her classmates feel too guilty to go too far. Aside from avoiding interaction with her, there were no incidents of school bullying.
Raiden Mei was just a little lonely.
On this particular day, as usual, she didn't return to her dorm immediately when night fell and the bright moon hung high in the sky. The dorm room was empty, and the enclosed space would only amplify her loneliness. But sitting on a bench in a quiet corner of the school, watching the moon gently cast its light on everything without prejudice and listening to the chirping of unknown insects, Mei could feel a sliver of comfort.
"Who's there?"
Mei, who had been sitting alone, suddenly turned her head towards a large tree near the school's perimeter wall.
There was no response, but Mei simply stared, her expression not one of vigilance or severity, but just a little serious. In fact, she was a little hopeful, hoping that it was one of her former friends watching her, hoping that among all the classmates who had approached her for her status, there was at least one or two who were sincere.
Her seriousness and hope quickly turned to surprise, because the person who appeared was a boy her age whom she didn't recognize.
"I thought I was well hidden."
A male hiding in a secluded place to spy on a female was undoubtedly a malicious act, even in an era where men were rare. However, Mei simply sized him up for a moment before smiling.
"I studied swordsmanship for quite some time when I was younger, so my senses are a bit sharper than the average person's," she said. "Besides, I sit here alone every night. This time, there was someone else. I could sense the anomaly."
With her long, straight black hair and deep, dark eyes, she possessed a mature beauty that belied her age as a high school student. Standing before Evan was a girl like a flower on a high peak, her smile carrying a faint sense of distance.
"My name is Evan. I'm a student at Tachikawa Academy."
"Tachikawa Academy isn't too far from Senba," Mei noted. "But, you probably wouldn't have snuck into our all-girls school without a reason, would you?"
Mei continued the conversation calmly, with no intention of calling security to have Evan arrested. It wasn't because she was confident in her ability to defend herself with her swordsmanship; she wasn't carrying her wooden sword, and in a fistfight, a girl is usually weaker than a boy. Her composure stemmed from the fact that she didn't sense any malice from him. Having experienced her family's downfall, Mei had become very sensitive to the emotions of others.
Of course, it also helped that Evan was quite handsome and didn't give off a bad first impression.
From the moment Mei discovered him, Evan had been racking his brain for a valid explanation for sneaking into an all-girls school. "For world peace" didn't seem very convincing.
Unable to come up with a perfect excuse, Evan looked into Mei's beautiful eyes and offered a half-truth.
"I received an internship at ME Corp from my school. I worked there for a bit today and saw a file that said 'Raiden Mei, daughter of the former ME Corp president, currently studying at Senba Academy.' I got curious, so I used my decent physical abilities to sneak in. To be honest—I was also curious about an all-girls school like Senba. In a boy's eyes, an all-girls school is a sacred place."
Without a doubt, the first half of his sentence was true, while the second half was a complete lie. His curiosity about all-girls schools had absolutely nothing to do with this operation.
"A sacred place? Tachikawa Academy isn't an all-girls school, but I've heard they haven't had many male students either. It should be pretty similar," Mei countered with a smile, before her expression shifted and her eyes dimmed.
"It's true that I am the daughter of the former ME Corp president, Raiden Ryoma," she said. "But if you're hoping to gain something from me, I'm afraid I have to apologize. Perhaps ME Corp deliberately hid some facts from an intern like you. My father was imprisoned for financial crimes. He no longer has any lingering influence within the company.