There was a month of free time between the announcement of the successful applicants and the entrance ceremony.
During that time, Senior Lena and I kept ourselves fairly busy.
Buying textbooks and uniforms, handling paperwork, moving our belongings, and even training to improve each other’s skills.
Of all of it, the process of buying textbooks and uniforms tormented us the most.
“Ugh, why are the textbooks and uniforms so expensive?”
“I understand there’s no helping it since the places that sell them are limited, but this really is too much.”
A single set of clothes and a few books cost as much as a common household’s monthly living expenses.
If not for Ms. Eleonore’s help, we would have ended up drowning in debt.
“Still, they say that once we enter the Academy, we can earn money by taking outside commissions.”
“Let’s work hard, Ashen.”
Seeing Senior burning with the will to work, I burst into laughter.
At last, a month passed, and the day of the entrance ceremony arrived.
According to Academy rules, students had to live in the dormitories, so Senior Lena and I had to leave behind the lodgings we had grown attached to.
As we stepped out the door, Senior Lena came up to me and spun around as if dancing.
“How is it, Ashen? Does it suit me?”
Over the Academy uniform she wore according to regulations, the ornaments unique to the Kurdan tribe swayed like reeds on the prairie.
Such splendid decorations over a uniform with a neat design.
It should not have matched at all, and yet when Senior Lena wore it, it looked as though the clothes had been made that way from the start.
“You look pretty. It suits you well, Senior.”
When I gave her my impression in a voice mixed with admiration, Senior’s steps suddenly tangled.
Her head was lowered, so I could not see her expression, but I could see that her ears had turned bright red.
“R-right. Your big sister is kind of pretty, isn’t she?”
Seeing her reaction, I wanted to tease her a little more, but since we did not have much time before the entrance ceremony, I regretfully had no choice but to stop.
Senior Lena and I walked a little quickly so we would not be late.
The entrance ceremony was held in the grand auditorium.
Beneath chandeliers lit by magic, we sat in our seats and watched the ceremony proceed.
It began with the principal’s address.
The content was ordinary, but the magic used in it was not.
It was clear that he was using magic, and yet I could not sense the lingering trace of mana at all.
That was proof that he was perfectly controlling the mana flowing out from his entire body.
To an ordinary mage, it would be like an impossible acrobatic feat.
As I listened to his speech while marveling at that fact, before long it was time for the professors to introduce themselves.
Each time a professor was introduced, thunderous applause burst from the students who knew their reputations.
Among them, two people stood out.
“I am Eleonore. Though I am lacking, I will be in charge of interpersonal dueling this semester. I would be grateful if all of you approached your studies sincerely.”
As soon as Ms. Eleonore’s introduction ended, fiercer cheers and applause than ever before rang out.
“Professor Eleonore, please look this way!”
“I’ve admired you since I was little! Please give me your autograph later!”
The female students, in particular, cried out in delight. It seemed they admired her, a woman who held the title of the youngest paladin.
On the other hand, when Professor Victor appeared, no one clapped.
“Victor.”
An arrogant attitude that offered no explanation beyond his name, and even an appearance that made one think of a vagrant at first glance. He did not look like an Academy professor at all.
Most of the students seemed to have never heard his name and sent him looks of distrust.
But a few students were exceptions.
“Victor? Isn’t that the imperial family murderer?”
“I heard he suddenly disappeared, but he became an Academy professor?”
The imperial family murderer.
The moment that name was heard, silence spread among the students.
It was only natural, since the man who had been called the Empire’s greatest criminal for nearly twenty years was standing at the lectern.
However, his criminal history was not particularly important to me.
What mattered more was the heavy pressure I could feel from him.
What that meant was simple.
‘That man is stronger than any of the professors except the principal.’
Just as I was marveling at that, Professor Victor suddenly looked at me.
It was a brief moment, less than a second.
But his gaze clearly contained the emotion of interest.
‘Did he recognize the Red Blood?’
But how?
The moment I received his gaze, my heart pounded violently.
I was clearly suppressing the Red Blood completely. Then how on earth had he seen through my identity?
I looked at him with suspicion, but Victor said nothing and turned away, taking his seat.
After that, another professor began their introduction, but the excited atmosphere from before did not return.
At last, the professors’ self-introductions ended, and next came the student representative’s oath.
The one who stepped onto the platform was Theodora, who had boasted overwhelming results in the entrance examination.
Just like when she had met me before, she maintained an almost alienly perfect attitude as she recited the oath.
The gazes of the students watching her varied.
What more than half of them showed was admiration.
What the others showed was jealousy.
And what one person showed was… mockery?
I turned my gaze toward Ramsey, who was seated.
His expression was certainly the same as usual. But unlike usual, his behavior was strangely exaggerated.
Rather than clapping in congratulations, it was more like he was laughing while watching a clown.
‘Could Theodora be a puppet of the Order?’
It was a hypothesis that flashed through my mind in an instant, but I buried it in my heart.
I had circumstantial evidence, but no solid proof yet.
Even so, simply having that suspicion made a strange discomfort surge up whenever I saw Theodora’s behavior.
‘I need to be careful.’
There was no telling how many puppets of the Order might be hiding among them, including her and Ramsey.
It would be best to minimize my use of the Red Blood.
While I was thinking, Theodora’s oath ended, and the time for dormitory assignments arrived.
The dormitory assignments proceeded more simply than I expected.
Justitia, Veritas, Miseri, Humilitas.
Dormitories gathering together, respectively, the Knight Department, the Magic Department, the Clergy Department, and students who belonged to neither one thing nor the other.
Originally, Senior Lena and I should have been assigned to Justitia, but,
“You two are Humilitas.”
What we were given was an entirely different dormitory.
“You may have outstanding potential, but you have never separately learned chivalry. So you have been assigned there with the meaning that you should learn from the basics.”
In short, it meant they had put us there because we were commoners.
It was blatant discrimination, but to me, it was actually the optimal result.
I would not have to get involved with Theodora or Ramsey for the time being, and the possibility of running into a puppet of the Order was small.
Most of all, I felt relieved by the fact that I had been assigned to the same dormitory as Senior Lena.
‘With this, even if something happens, I can intervene.’
Senior Lena, who had reached the squire rank, would not be defeated easily, but preparation was still necessary.
‘I wonder what Senior Lena thinks about it.’
I hoped she had not been hurt by the discrimination.
When I turned my gaze toward her, I saw Senior smiling brightly with a satisfied expression.
“Since we’re in the same dormitory, we’ll be able to meet often, right? That’s good.”
“Yes, that’s a relief.”
I smiled at Senior’s reaction and waited for the dormitory assignments to end.
Of course, not every student was satisfied with the results.
“Why am I in Humilitas? My family is famous as a distinguished line of mages…!”
A female student wearing splendid accessories over her uniform shouted loudly.
“Student Cecilia. It is the rule. Any student who has not received formal education as a knight, mage, or cleric is assigned to Humilitas.”
“But I…!”
“If you raise any further objections, you may receive a disadvantage.”
At the staff member’s stern warning, the female student bit down on her lip.
Similar protests broke out a few more times, but nothing changed.
After returning her smile, I followed the dorm supervisor’s guidance toward the dormitory building.
The Humilitas dormitory, to put it kindly, was old; to put it unkindly, it looked like undead might come crawling out of the basement.
The students from noble or wealthy families who saw it voiced their complaints, but neither Senior Lena nor I felt particularly dissatisfied.
“It looks about ten times better than the unit, doesn’t it?”
“It does.”
Compared to the tents we had lived in with the unit, even an old building was no different from a luxurious mansion to us.
When we opened the door and went inside, the dorm supervisor divided the male and female students and led each group to their rooms.
“Male students are on the second floor, female students on the third.”
We went up together to the second floor, and at the stairs, Senior Lena and I stopped for a moment and looked at each other.
“See you tomorrow, Ashen.”
“See you tomorrow, Senior.”
Watching Senior’s back as she went up the stairs, a strange feeling flowed through me.
Was it because we had stayed together while traveling?
Being separated from Senior somehow felt unnatural.
Suppressing the useless thoughts rising in my mind, I moved my feet toward my room.
From tomorrow on, my life at the Academy would begin.
There would surely be many things to pay attention to, including Ramsey and Theodora.
Still, for today at least, I simply wanted to fall asleep in peace.
Lying down on the bed, I slowly closed my eyes.
**
The next morning.
When I opened my eyes in the dormitory bed, I finally felt that we had truly entered the Academy.
Dressed in our uniforms, Senior Lena and I finished a simple breakfast together and headed to the classroom together.
The first class was Mana Theory.
It was the most basic class, but at the same time, it was also the most important.
The Mana Theory classroom could be summarized in a word as a “small theater.”
At the very front of the classroom were the professor’s desk and the blackboard, and tiered seats surrounded them in a semicircle.
Senior Lena and I, having arrived a little earlier than the other students, sat in the very front row.
After that, the students slowly came in, and only when class time was right around the corner did all the students of the Humilitas dormitory take their seats.
And the moment class began.
Wooong—
A magic circle appeared at the professor’s desk.
“Everyone, take your seats.”
At the same time a voice came from within the magic circle, a middle-aged noblewoman appeared.
“Isn’t that teleportation magic?”
“Doesn’t that require several mages working together? She’s doing it that easily?”
Students who had used teleportation magic in the past exclaimed in admiration, but the noblewoman calmed the students with a composed expression.
“Now, everyone, quiet.”
The light of the magic circle faded, revealing the noblewoman’s full appearance.
Reddish-blonde hair tied back and a hooked nose.
If my memory was correct, her name was Louise Magus.
After appearing, she looked around the classroom and smiled when she saw that all the students were present.
“This year’s Humilitas students have a high attendance rate. Last year, the room was barely half full.”
Was it really that much of a mess?
Even in the game, Humilitas was treated as the worst dormitory, but I had not known it was to this extent.
While I was surprised, Professor Louise immediately began the class.
“In order to cover Mana Theory, there is something we must do first. What, exactly, is mana?”
As soon as the professor finished speaking, the first to raise her hand was a girl wearing splendid accessories like a noble.
“Yes, Student Cecilia. Go ahead.”
“Mana is the most fundamental power used to employ all supernatural abilities.”
“That is, at best, an answer worth fifty points. You have not understood the intent of the question.”
After harshly criticizing Cecilia’s answer, Professor Louise slowly swept her gaze over the students and continued speaking.
“I asked what mana is. But Student Cecilia’s answer was about how mana is used. Since it is not wrong, I gave you fifty points, but I doubt you can receive any more than that.”
At Professor Louise’s words, Cecilia wore an aggrieved expression, but as if unable to refute it, she quietly shut her mouth.
“Now, I will ask again. What is mana? Hmm, shall I choose someone to answer this time?”
When Professor Louise threw her wand into the air, the wand drew a circle, then stopped in front of Senior Lena.
“Very well, Student Lena. Why don’t you explain what mana is?”
At the fact that she had been singled out, Senior Lena looked flustered, but soon she rose from her seat with her usual confident expression.
‘How will Senior answer?’
As I watched her with a heart half filled with interest and half with worry, Senior’s lips slowly opened.