Hallway Conversation

When the bell rang, I was a little bit disappointed as Alice and I were getting along well, but I reluctantly stood up to go to my last class as the arrows reappeared.

"It was good talking to you. I hope we can become friends, Maruma." Alice said and gave me another handshake.

"I think we already are." I said with a smile and returned her handshake.

This caused her to smile as well, and we made our way to the next class. However, just a few minutes later it became awkward.

"We have the same next class don't we?" I asked Alice.

"Hehe. Seems like it." She giggled.

After we tried to part ways, we realized we were going in the same direction so it became awkward.

After a few turns down various hallways, I also saw my siblings going in the same direction.

"Seban! Penny!" I yelled and waved towards them.

They looked back after hearing my shout and stopped walking to let Alice and I catch up.

"Alice, this is Penny and this is Seban." I said.

"Penny and Seban, this is Alice."

"Hello." Seban said.

"It's nice to meet you, Alice." Penny said.

"It's nice to meet you two as well." Alice said with a smile.

"How was your Gen Ed class, bro?" Penny then asked me.

However, Alice had started talking at the same time, "Wait, are you two-!", she said.

Her eyes were already wide as she came to the realization of who the twins were, but after hearing Penny call me bro she became confused for a second. It didn't take her long to figure out who I was as well because of her earlier comment about how my hair looked like my dads, and Penny calling me "bro".

She stopped in her tracks and bowed so low her face almost touched the floor.

"Forgive me princess and princes. I was ignorant of who you were and treated you disrespectfully." She said in a respectful tone of voice.

"Rise." I commanded her with a little bit of anger in my voice.

Luckily, there weren't any other people in the hallway we were currently traveling down.

Seban and Penny seemed even more upset than I did at her revelation.

"Sigh."

"Sigh."

They let out a simultaneous sigh of defeat and rolled their eyes.

"Drop the formalities. None of us care for it." I told Alice as she rose from her bow.

"My apologies." She said.

"I'm serious.

Drop it.

You were treating us well before, if we had a problem with it we would have said something regardless of the rules, so please stop." I said with a more gentle tone.

"Okay, sorry." She said, and this time it sounded genuine.

"I'm assuming the whole school knows about you two by now." I asked the twins as we continued walking.

"Yup."

"They sure do."

"Tough." I responded.

"Why don't you three want people knowing who you are?" Alice asked.

She still seemed a bit nervous, but had stopped being formal.

"It's a lose-lose situation either way, but this way is slightly more annoying.

When people know who we are they put unnecessary distance between us, just like you were about to do. This makes it harder to make friends, but also makes people think we are arrogant and rude when we are not." Penny answered for the group.

"Why is it lose-lose?" Alice asked.

"Because when people know who at least one of us is, but doesn't know who the other is, it makes them jealous to see us hanging out." I answered.

"For example, people in the lunchroom knew who Penny and Seban were, but didn't know who I was, so they were giving me dirty looks for talking to them because they thought I was a low ranking noble."

"Ohhhhh. That makes sense, because most people do not know that your father's appearance in VR isn't the same in the real world." Alice said.

We nodded our heads, confirming her thoughts.

"Well, sorry again. I just didn't want to get in trouble for disrespecting you three."

"All good." Seban said.

"But, wait. Aren't you two twelve?" Alice asked.

I was slightly surprised that she was the only one to point that out, but it seemed that even though the other nobles seemed to know about us, they didn't know much about us.

It was especially odd that so many of them didn't know who I was at first glance even with the appearance issues between my father's VR and real appearance. I mean, these people had seen me multiple times at balls and galas growing up, but seemed to still not know who I was based on appearance.

Now that I think about it, we were never really introduced as princes and princesses at the noble gatherings, so people must have just assumed we were random noble children. There was also the fact that my parents didn't really show their face outside of VR often, except for their two days off which were usually spent in our home. Most of the gatherings we went to were led by my older brother Markan, and we were watched by our butlers and maids.

"Yes, we are.

Please don't tell anyone.

We won't get into trouble or anything, but it might cause conflict with people thinking our father is playing favorites." Seban said with a stern look on his face.

"I won't, but isn't it kind of true that he's playing favorites?"

It was more of a statement than a question, but I answered either way.

"In a way yes, but if you knew the full situation I promise you wouldn't be saying that, and would probably even be upset that my father sent them in so early." I said.

The twins got a sad look on their faces as they remembered the responsibilities that were on their shoulders.

"What's the full situation then?"

"We can't tell you that."

"Hmmm. Okay, I understand. I was just being nosy anyway.

I promise I won't tell anyone, so you three don't have to worry."

"Thanks, Alice." I said.

After that, we finally reached the hallway that our classroom door was located on, and met up with the other students who we assumed were in our class as well.

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