I’m a Second Male Lead in a Romance Fantasy, but I Don’t Like the Female Lead

Understanding Marriage was a more complex class than I thought. First, when registering for the course, men and women need to form pairs in advance. This is because the two who register together become partners and attend the class together throughout the semester.

The content of the class is also like that. The main content is for two people to pair up and practice activities that a married couple would typically do.

So what does the instructor do? Nothing. They just announce the day’s practice content and supervise the students. Occasionally, if there are pairs who fight, they might help them reconcile.

No matter how you look at it, it’s not a class but a couples therapy. Is it really okay for something like this to exist at the Imperial Academy?

“Why does a class like this even exist?”
“Because there are quite a few relationships like ours in the world.”
“What kind of relationship?”
“Relationships where engagements are formed based solely on family connections, without any feelings.”
“Hmm… that’s not me, though?”

This body might have been like that when it got engaged, but I’m not. I genuinely want to get along well with Hestia. For one thing, I like her appearance, and if we’re going to get married anyway, it’s better for both of us to be happy.

“I know that my family doesn’t have much to offer yours.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I see you know how to give lip service too. Not that it’s needed.”

But Hestia was cold. She seems to have taken my words to mean that our Sirius ducal family doesn’t have much to gain from hers. Completely walled off. Her feelings toward me seem more deeply entangled than I thought.

“It seems the country didn’t look favorably upon noble men and women getting married without feelings and then each taking up with others.”

Is this like a national “please get along” initiative carried out through the Academy?

“The class has a good reputation among those who’ve taken it. I thought it might be just what we need right now.”
“Do you really want to take this class together?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I think my explanation was sufficient.”
“No, that’s why this class is necessary for us. It’s not why you want to take it.”

I can’t understand Hestia’s behavior. Isn’t it suspicious that someone who was refusing to take a class together suddenly does a 180-degree turn and makes such a proposal?

“Do you dislike it? If so, let’s forget about this conversation…”
“No, I absolutely don’t dislike it. It’s just sudden. Are you sure this class will be alright?”
“It seems you’re still reluctant.”
“No, that’s not it. Alright, let’s go with this class. Keep your schedule clear.”

Why would I dislike or be reluctant? To be honest, I welcome it with open arms. I brought it up because I wanted to get closer to her, and she suggests a class like this. It feels like catching a big fish with casually thrown bait. Nevertheless, I can’t help but feel uneasy.

I understand the purpose of the class: to make noble couples in unfriendly engagement relationships get along through marriage practice. However, Hestia doesn’t seem to want to get along with me that much. She’s been snippy since the beginning.

Even as she agrees to take the class, her strangely unsatisfied expression doesn’t ease. What’s she planning?

“Do you have anything else to say?”

Feeling my gaze, Hestia asked curtly.

I shook my head lightly. Let’s end this topic. Anyway, it doesn’t seem like it’ll be anything bad for me.

Plus, like my other worries, it’s not a problem I can solve by thinking about it now. Hestia doesn’t seem likely to give me any more hints either.

I roughly folded up my thoughts and stuffed them into the drawer of concerns. Let’s move on to another topic. There’s hardly a better means of getting closer than conversation.

“No. Let’s stop with the heavy talk and move on to something else. What have you been up to lately?”
“I don’t have any particularly interesting stories. Sorry for being a boring person. What about you?”
“Hmm… do you really want to hear about me practicing swordsmanship alone and taking lessons from tutors? If so, I’m willing to tell you.”

It wouldn’t even take 5 seconds to explain what I usually do. This can’t be a conversation topic.

“Hah… no, maybe my story is more interesting after all.”
“Don’t call yourself a boring person from now on. Truly boring people would be hurt hearing that.”
“I didn’t think you were someone who could joke.”

Hestia snickered as if in disbelief.

“You’ll hear it often from now on.”

I want to see that haughty face lit up with a bright smile.

“…”
“…”

Silence fell again. But it’s different from the awkward silence earlier. It’s a natural silence, catching breath between conversations. Compared to the beginning, the atmosphere feels much more relaxed.

“Ah, have you heard about His Highness, Crown Prince Wilhelm Leonhardt?”

Hestia suddenly asked after briefly considering a topic. The Crown Prince? I knew nothing about this. Honestly speaking, I didn’t even know the royal family’s surname until I just heard it from her. This felt like something that would cause big trouble if I spoke about it carelessly, so I hadn’t asked anyone.

“His Highness the Crown Prince? No, I haven’t heard anything. As you know, I don’t have friends.”
“Of course. Friends are formed between equals.”

Hestia gave a serious answer to my sudden self-deprecating joke. This wasn’t the reaction I expected.

“So, did something happen to His Highness the Crown Prince?”
“I hear that His Highness suddenly announced the cancellation of his engagement.”
“Cancelled his engagement? Why?”
“It’s a topic of conversation precisely because no one knows the reason.”

She spoke with a hint of a pout.

Even a country youth would have a reason for breaking off an engagement, yet no one knows why the Crown Prince suddenly announced the cancellation of his engagement. Perhaps some political deals were heavily involved?

“There’s also a rumor that His Highness fell in love with another woman at first sight.”

Come on, that can’t be. How could someone as significant as the Crown Prince break off an engagement so thoughtlessly?

“Surely that can’t be true. A royal engagement isn’t a simple matter.”
“I think so too.”

Hestia said, bringing her teacup to her lips.

“But if it were true, wouldn’t it be quite romantic?”

She placed her teacup back on the table. Her face, asking if it wasn’t romantic, was girlish. It’s the expression of a girl admiring romance novels. Overwhelmed by her haughty impression, I had forgotten, but I now realize she’s still at an age where she can dream vividly.

“Our time is up. I should be going now. It was a more enjoyable time than I expected. I’ll see you at the Academy.”
“Yes, it was enjoyable today. See you at the Academy.”

Hestia stood up from her seat. As she bid farewell, she showed me a slight, very slight smile. Indeed, she’s prettier when she smiles.

After seeing Hestia off, I went up to my room. When I asked the maid earlier, she said there were no classes this afternoon. They had apparently cleared the entire schedule.

I lay down on the bed, feeling relaxed for the first time in a while. Today’s meeting was more fruitful than expected. I confirmed that my fiancée is a top-tier cool beauty in the province—no, in the Empire—and I think I’ve gotten off to a decent start. Of course, it seems like Mikhail had already completely shattered things, but that can’t be helped.

New concerns also arose, like why the tongue assistance didn’t activate for Hestia and her reasons for wanting to take the Understanding Marriage class together.

I have a rough guess as to why the tongue assistance didn’t activate. Probably, Hestia and I had barely conversed before. The relationship as fiancés appears very close, but we actually didn’t have any dialogue.

And this time, nothing happened. Rather than the nature of the relationship, what matters more is how close we actually are.

If this is true, I can establish a new hypothesis. Except for the first day, I’ve thought that memories emerged arbitrarily, preventing me from being suspected by others. But what if I’ve been thinking about it backward? What if memories don’t emerge to prevent suspicion, but rather they emerge because I would be suspected otherwise?

This resolves many questions. Why sword training didn’t stop at just recalling memories but also assisted with movements, why I automatically knew what attitude and tone to take with the Duke and Duchess while memories of them didn’t surface.

Memory recall isn’t the primary function. Avoiding suspicion is the primary function, and memory recall is merely a supplementary function.

That’s why during sword training, it didn’t just recall memories but assisted with movements. Even if I remembered how to do it, if my body couldn’t follow through, it would be suspicious.

Memories of the Duke and Duchess didn’t surface, but my tongue was corrected. Because I could avoid their suspicion without necessarily recalling memories.

Today’s meeting with Hestia was the same. Since I didn’t arouse any suspicion from her without the function’s help, there was no need to recall memories or correct my attitude and tone toward her.

There are still some holes in this hypothesis. On the first day, when I asked Selene various questions—behavior anyone would find suspicious—I didn’t receive any memories or corrections.

However, judging from what’s happened so far, it’s undoubtedly the most plausible hypothesis. This will probably become clearer as I observe more.

For instance, in situations where I don’t know someone, but they know me. In such cases, memories of them would likely surface. So far, due to limited social interactions, such situations haven’t occurred, but they won’t continue forever.

I made notes of my thoughts in Korean. No one will be able to decipher what it means. If anyone asks what it is, I plan to say it’s just doodles.

–

Mikhail von Sirius is an exceptional man. As much as I hate to admit it, it’s true.

Because of this, our relationship has always been one-sided, with me clinging to him. Literally clinging.

Except for the day we first met, Mikhail has never once smiled at me until now. He doesn’t initiate conversations either.

If I somehow start a conversation, he throws minimal responses with an insincere attitude.

When the conversation breaks, Mikhail always tightly closes his mouth and stares at me emotionlessly with his handsome face. As if asking what more I want, as if wondering why I haven’t left yet.

His gaze, his attitude, devoid of any emotion, has begun to eat away at my heart.

At first, I thought it was because I was lacking, that I wasn’t good enough in Mikhail’s eyes. I cultivated my appearance and accumulated knowledge.

But no matter how much I tried, I wasn’t in Mikhail’s eyes. I know it’s a luxury to expect his affection in a political marriage. I gave up on marrying a man I love a long time ago.

But isn’t this too much? No matter how hard I struggle, Mikhail shows no emotion toward me. If only he hated me, if only he disliked me.

But the way Mikhail looks at me is not the way one looks at a person. It’s an emotionless gaze, as if looking at a stone on the road.

I could marry a man who hates me. I could endure it for the sake of my family.

But I began to think I couldn’t marry a man who doesn’t even see me as human. How many days could I stay sane after marrying him and facing that emotionless gaze?

A year? A month? Maybe even shorter.

I told my father. That I wanted to break off the engagement. That I just couldn’t do it. I begged earnestly, saying I wouldn’t complain no matter who else I was sold to, please.

“……Meet him one more time before deciding.”

My father finally took a step back at his daughter’s first obstinacy, after obeying his words all her life. To meet him one more time. Saying a sudden cancellation of the engagement would be troublesome.

It might be the last day I meet Mikhail. No, it will be the last day. With that thought, I headed to the ducal family’s mansion.

But why,

“I’m not good with words. I’m sorry if that’s how you felt.”

When he never smiled at me,

“Are you preparing well for the Academy?”

When he never spoke to me,

“If it sounds good, I thought we could take it together.”

I had steeled myself, so why is he suddenly like this now?

Mikhail apologizes to me, smiles, gets flustered. Actions that are natural for a person, but so unfamiliar. As if he’s a different person.

“Do you know about a class called ‘Understanding Marriage’?”

In the end, what came out of my mouth was completely different from what I had intended to say. If Mikhail has truly changed, if he has begun to feel emotions towards me.

Maybe I could give him one more chance. Maybe we could rebuild through this ridiculous class called Understanding Marriage.

And the ensuing conversation with Mikhail was more enjoyable than I expected. He participated in the conversation, even making jokes. Considering how he usually treated me, it’s surprising.

I can feel emotions from him. It feels like I’m conversing with the human Mikhail.

So, thinking that if Mikhail has a conscience, he might feel a pang of guilt hearing this, I brought up the story of the broken engagement. Just because he’s different for a day doesn’t mean his previous treatment of me is erased.

The story of His Highness the Crown Prince’s broken engagement. The historic broken engagement that made the entire country buzz, claiming he had found true love.

The previous Mikhail wouldn’t have brought up such a topic. He probably wouldn’t have thought there was anything to feel guilty about.

Suddenly, I remember the day I first saw him. When I was very young, I attended a party holding my father’s hand. I don’t remember what kind of party it was.

But the Mikhail I met there, with his still young face, smiled brightly like a fool. I remember smiling back because he looked so happy.

When I faced Mikhail again for the engagement, he acted like a doll whose emotions had been castrated.

But now, the Mikhail facing me again is clearly a different person from the one I first saw, but somehow reminds me of that day’s Mikhail, so,

“Our time is up. I should be going now. It was a more enjoyable time than I expected. I’ll see you at the Academy.”

Before I knew it, I found myself smiling slightly. I never thought there would come a day when I would smile at him again.