Emilia ended up meeting the 'husband' her father had arranged for her much sooner than she expected, because the boy in question jumped in front of her right as she was leaving the class.
If not for Dixie pushing him away in time, he would have directly crashed into Emilia. Of course, her knight's push wasn't particularly gentle, and the boy collapsed on the ground with a painful groan.
He didn't seem to mind it, though, and dusted himself off as he got up, looking quite shocked at having 'bumped' into them. "A-Ah, you're Emilia White, right?"
Emilia almost rolled her eyes, but managed to keep her smile as she nodded. "That's right. And you are?"
According to Sam, since Mr. White had made it clear that their 'relationship' would be remaining a secret for a long time, Randy should certainly not make his moves too obvious. But if the boy thought he was being subtle, he was very wrong.
In fact, Randy couldn't be blamed too much, because his intention behind approaching Emilia really was to simply befriend her and leave a good impression for now.
He didn't want her to see him as just a forced marriage partner, after all. He was well aware of the saying 'happy wife, happy life', and for Emilia to not start hating him immediately after being introduced by her father, she had to at least remember him from before, right?
It would be best if they could be close friends already before she knew of his 'true identity'.
But unfortunately, as a nerd and shut-in, his social skills needed a lot of polish before they could be of any use.
The boy stretched out his hand with a wide grin. "I'm Randy Bourne, from Class A."
Naturally, how could Dixie allow this unfamiliar boy to touch her princess? She carelessly slapped his extended hand away, leaving behind a bright red mark on the boy's hand.
The impression he was leaving on Emilia's knight was going from bad to worse, and Emilia almost felt a little sorry for the poor soul. After all, Dixie had inherited her grandfather's absurdly strong physique, and could easily break regular people's bones without effort.
Randy felt a little embarrassed as he realized that perhaps he had been too forward to end up triggering Emilia's friend like that. "S-Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude."
Emilia waved him away. "It's alright. Did you have anything you need from me?"
The boy was still clutching his palm in pain, wondering why it hurt so much. "Uh, no?"
Emilia nodded with a smile. Of course, she had to maintain the image she had tried so hard to establish. "Mhm, alright then, we'll be leaving then. Feel free to come to the disciplinary committee's office if you ever need anything."
Randy couldn't help but watch the beautiful girl leave in a trance. He still couldn't believe she was going to be his wife. 'Even though I was so awkward and ended up triggering her friend, she's still so kind!'
Unfortunately, even this short interaction did not fly under a certain knight order's radar, and Randy found himself facing a very short blonde girl that very same day. Along with a small division of twenty 'knights'.
"Who do you think you are, to dare approach the princess like that?!"
Randy of course recognized Penny as the cute little girl who had invaded their class A on the first week of school in an attempt to convince everyone to join 'Princess Emilia's Royal Knights' club.
Like most others in his class, he thought that she was a cute, harmless little girl. Of course, none of them had bothered to interact with her except for Crystal, simply because they considered her a waste of time.
But although he didn't take the little girl seriously, the boy still felt a little scared while being glared at by over twenty people. "Uh, Penny, I think you might be misunderstanding something?"
The blonde sneered. Did he think her knights were incompetent in their espionage? Well, it's true that they weren't particularly capable yet, but still, they shouldn't be reporting false news to her. "Hoh? Did you not approach her?"
The boy scratched the back of his head with some embarrassment, cringing when he felt the sting from his still hurting palm. 'Why the hell does it still hurt?'
Randy shook his head to ignore it for now. 'How am I gonna deal with all her fangirls and fanboys once they know of my identity as her future husband? Thankfully, at least most of them are girls, so jealousy shouldn't be too much of an issue, but I heard that fans can be quite unreasonable, right?'
He cleared his throat, intent on passing off their meeting as an accident, while making his 'harmless' intention clear. "Ahem, I did, but it's not like I harassed her, okay? I just—"
Randy didn't even get to the part where he was going to pass it off as an accident before Penny interrupted him with a snort. "Insolent! Is the princess someone you can just go and talk to? Have you seen any other boy approach her so far?"
The boy couldn't help but be startled. 'Come to think of it, Emilia really doesn't seem to have any contact with boys, right? Could it be this little pipsqueak's doing? Are her fans already so extreme?!'
Penny flicked her ponytail arrogantly, uncaring of the boy's thoughts. "Hmph. Listen, I don't care if you're from class A. You're not allowed to talk to the princess unless she approaches you first. That's an ironclad rule our knight order is working hard to enforce!"
Randy could only helplessly raise his hands in surrender. He just wanted to repay Mr. White's gratitude by making his future wife happy. Although he can't deny that he was happy, too. 'But it looks like this is going to be a lot more difficult than I thought.'
Penny didn't look like she was here to discuss anything with him, after all, so there was no point trying to make an argument. It was more like she wanted to issue him a 'warning'.
Anyway, it was better to back off for now and try again later. He didn't think that she would remain so obstinate forever, after all. This was probably just a fangirl's overreaction from witnessing her idol having the possibility of getting a lover.
After they allowed Randy to leave, some of the 'knights' couldn't help but express dissatisfaction with his attitude.
"We shouldn't have let him off like that."
"Commander is still too soft."
"Yeah, he looks completely unrepentant!"
Penny shook her head in silence. She knew that many doubted her 'leadership' and only accepted her as the 'commander' because she was Emilia's 'first fan' and had a lot of 'exclusive access' to their princess.
But she could only prove her 'capability' with time.
She glared in the direction that the boy had left. Compared to those who were loyal and devoted to the princess, like her knights, she was more worried about those bastards who refused to show their devotion but still intended to take advantage.. "Let's just wait and see for now. But if he dares to harass the princess again…"
