I'm Trapped Inside a Prince as the Most Powerful Entity-Chapter 171: Princess’s Fury

The professor began his lecture. He started with the basic fundamental theories of magic. Eric listened with rapt attention.

His mind absorbed the information like a dry sponge soaking up water.

He tried to make up for the class he had missed the day before. He was completely engrossed in the lecture. His focus was singular. He was a good student when he applied himself.

Beside him however Princess Monica was not having such an easy time. Her attention which was usually laser-focused during her studies was completely scattered. She found herself unable to concentrate on the professor’s words.

Why am I having so much difficulty concentrating today? she thought. A profound sense of frustration welled up within her. I have never been so easily distracted before in my life. What is happening to me?

Again and again against her will her gaze would drift over to Eric. She would try to focus on the professor. But her eyes would move on their own to look at the boy sitting a few seats away.

And each time she looked at him the scene from the cafeteria the previous day would play out in her mind.

She saw Eric standing alone fearlessly declaring war on the entire Red Team. She saw him do it without a single thought for the consequences.

Outwardly Monica maintained her usual cool composed demeanor. She projected an air of indifference.

She tried to look as if the boy sitting near her and the chaotic events he had instigated were of no concern to her at all.

But inwardly she was in turmoil. She was profoundly deeply shaken by what she had witnessed. How could a single person a first-year student no less so brazenly challenge an entire group? How could he challenge a powerful faction that had been in existence for over a hundred years? It was illogical. It was insane.

It was something that in all her years of structured disciplined training she had never even conceived of as a possibility.

The sheer unadulterated audacity of it all... it was something her well-ordered mind could not comprehend.

It did not fit into her worldview.

And it was this incomprehension this fundamental challenge to her understanding of how the world worked that was so thoroughly distracting her from her studies.

This boy Eric was a puzzle. And she could not solve him.

Again and again against her will Monica’s attention kept drifting back to the boy sitting a few seats away from her. It was a fact known to very few but Monica had not slept at all the previous night.

She had spent the entire night replaying the scene from the cafeteria in her mind. The image of "Eric" standing alone defiant against the entire Red Team was seared into her memory.

On the surface Monica’s rational well-trained mind had dismissed his actions as pure foolishness. It was a reckless suicidal gesture that defied all logic and strategic sense.

But deep down in a place she rarely acknowledged she knew that such an act such utter disregard for personal safety and established authority was not just foolishness.

It was the kind of bravery that only a true fearless warrior could possess. It was the kind of courage she herself wished she had.

She looked at Eric again. She saw his calm focused expression as he listened to the professor’s lecture.

He was completely oblivious to her inner turmoil.

He is everything I want to be, she thought a sudden startling realization that was both infuriating and deeply profoundly unsettling. And for that I hate him.

But even as she formed the thought as she tried to convince herself of her own hatred her actions her constantly drifting gaze told a very different story.

It was not hatred she felt. It was a complex confusing mixture of fascination a grudging respect and a profound almost envious curiosity.

Her distraction did not go unnoticed by the professor at the front of the room.

"Monica," the professor’s voice suddenly cut through the quiet of the classroom. It was sharp and admonishing. "Where is your attention? Are you with us?"

Startled Monica who had once again been staring at Eric snapped her head towards the front of the room. A hot embarrassed flush crept up her neck and onto her cheeks.

She was the best student in the class. She had never been called out like this before.

"I... I apologize Teacher," she stammered her usual cool composure completely shattered.

Eric who had been completely engrossed in the lecture was also startled by the professor’s sudden outburst. He turned his head and saw Monica’s flustered embarrassed expression.

Monica however couldn’t bring herself to look at him.

She stared straight ahead her cheeks still burning with shame.

This is all your fault Eric, she thought a fresh wave of irrational anger directed at the boy who had done nothing but sit quietly beside her. If you weren’t here I would be able to focus.

After what felt like an eternity to Monica the class finally ended. It was now lunchtime.

The moment the professor exited the classroom Monica shot to her feet.

She spun around and with a furious accusatory glare she shouted at Eric.

Her voice was sharp and ringing in the now-bustling classroom as students started to gather their things. "What is your problem?!"

Eric was completely taken aback by her sudden aggressive outburst. He looked around confused at the other students who were now staring at them.

Then he looked back at the fuming princess. Is she... is she talking to me? he wondered a sense of bewildered panic beginning to rise. He had no idea what he could have possibly done to make her so angry.

Monica seeing his confusion only became more enraged. "Yes I’m talking to you!" she snapped her voice rising even further making more students turn to look.

Eric completely at a loss pointed a hesitant finger at his own chest.

"But... but what did I do?" he asked his voice a mixture of genuine confusion and a dawning weary sense of dread. He was already tired of all the drama.

"You were distracting me!" Monica shouted her voice now attracting the attention of everyone in the classroom. "The entire class! I couldn’t concentrate on the lecture because of you! I was completely distracted!"

Eric was utterly completely flabbergasted. He stared at her his mind a complete blank. But... but I didn’t do anything at all! he thought a sense of profound almost comical injustice washing over him.

He had been a model student for the entire class. He had been quiet attentive and completely focused on the professor’s lecture. He hadn’t moved. He hadn’t made a sound. He had done nothing wrong.

And yet somehow he was still the cause of all this trouble.

The United Academy he was beginning to realize was a place where logic and fairness seemed to have very little meaning.

It was a place where he was blamed for things he didn’t even do. This was going to be a very long four years.

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