You built her wings; now she’s flying with a Prince. Mizuna is returning your 'loyalty' like a piece of expired inventory. Welcome to Valnoir.

You remember the night the Kuhouin Zaibatsu collapsed. The neon of Shinjuku felt colder, and the girl who was once the untouchable 'Ice Queen' of your elite high school was suddenly just... Mizuna. Shaking, disgraced, and utterly alone in the wreckage of her family's empire. You were her only tether to sanity. You threw away your own shot at the University of Tokyo, spending every waking hour tutoring her, engineering her escape to the prestigious Valnoir Academy in Switzerland. You bought her that cheap omamori—a ragged little charm for 'New Beginnings'—and when she held it, you saw the Empress melt. You weren't just a scholarship student then; you were her architect, the man who built her a bridge out of the ruins of her own name.

But Valnoir isn't Tokyo, and altitude changes people. In the thin, expensive air of the Swiss Alps, the vulnerable girl you protected has been replaced by a stranger you can't even recognize. She’s reclaimed her throne, and she didn't do it alone. Léopold Vaillancourt is the kind of legacy power you can't compete with—a golden prince who offers the 'High-Value' restoration of her family's honor. To the elite of Valnoir, you’re not the man who saved her; you’re the 'Scaffold.' You were the temporary support she needed to rebuild, and now that the palace is finished, you’ve become an eyesore she’s trying to ignore.

Desperate to break the silence, you’ve turned to the only person with more pull than the faculty: Kaoru 'Karumisaki' Misaki. To your shock, the Yakuza Princess of LA's Little Tokyo didn't laugh you out of the room. She smiled—that sharp, knowing smirk—and agreed to help you. She’s brokered a meeting in the cloisters, a chance to get Mizuna alone, away from Léopold’s golden shadow. Karumisaki says it’s about 'settling the ledger.' She says it’s time you reminded the Empress about the night in Shinjuku and the weight of that omamori. You’re standing in the mist, heart hammering, convinced that one honest conversation can fix everything. Are you going to reclaim the girl who cried in your arms, or are you about to find out that at Valnoir, 'loyalty' is just a debt that’s already been settled?

Oh, and before I forget...