Hundreds of years ago, there was an evil god who invaded the continent.
Said to have come from the “Abyss,” the evil god built a Path connecting his world to this one and wreaked atrocities of destruction upon this world.
The beings of the Abyss, creations of the evil god who had received a share of the authority and power he sent through that Path.
Scattering every impure thing that existed in this world—destruction, chaos, despair, pain, corruption—the beings of the Abyss drove this world to the brink of ruin, and they were overwhelmingly powerful.
On top of that, among the humans who craved power, some became enchanted by the abyssal power the evil god scattered and even betrayed mankind.
It was truly an age worthy of being called an age of chaos.
At this rate, it was all but certain that the continent of Shangri-La would become a hell that existed in the mortal world.
But hope exists always, everywhere.
A hero appeared to save this world, and companions who supported the hero joined him.
They overcame all manner of hardships and adversity, exterminated the beings of the Abyss, and in the end even reached the evil god, driving him to the very edge of the Abyss.
The final battle.
After a desperate struggle, the hero and his companions finally succeeded in driving the evil god out of the continent of Shangri-La.
In the final moment, the hero threw away his own life as though it were nothing, and the last blow he delivered reached the evil god. And at the same time—
Peace returned to the continent once more.
It would have been truly nice if everything had ended with that.
But the abyssal passage the evil god had built upon this land still existed at the center of the continent, and as long as it existed, the hero’s surviving companions instinctively knew that this peace would never last forever.
Though the evil god had been driven away, beings of the Abyss still emerged through the passage, as did the traitors of mankind who were enchanted by that power.
The hero’s companions—the ancestors of the royal families and prestigious houses that exist on the continent of Shangri-La today—sought to preserve this peace for as long as possible.
They built a cover and barrier surrounding the abyssal passage that had appeared at the center of the continent,
and stationed countless sentinels there, establishing a fortress to hold back the beings of the Abyss that would occasionally rise.
A fortress built and established by Sigrian the First Emperor, the hero’s companion, the greatest archmage in history, and the founding emperor of the Empire.
That is the origin of today’s Sigrian Academy.
‘…Or so it often appeared in the original, and I heard it even after reincarnating. And now I’m hearing it here too.’
Mel thought this as he watched the middle-aged man in front of him deliver that long story like a speech.
In truth, to Mel, a reincarnator, this story was no different from someone else’s business.
After all, this world was the story of a romance fantasy novel.
A somewhat clichéd story in which the protagonist, the hidden descendant of the hero, would defeat the beings of the Abyss that appeared from time to time, form a harem with all kinds of beautiful girls at the academy along the way, and in the end protect this world once again.
It had already been well over ten years since he reincarnated, so his memories had faded somewhat,
but Mel was at least certain that he was not the protagonist of that story, nor even a major character, but a nameless extra. So that story had nothing to do with him.
‘The overpowered protagonist will take care of everything anyway, so all I need to do is survive reasonably well somewhere near that overpowered protagonist.’
Thinking that, Mel let the words of the man before him—
a man named Huiton—go in one ear and out the other.
He wanted to retort by asking what that tedious history lesson had to do with the work he would be doing, but for now he had to hold back.
“Even if you failed to gain admission to the academy, starting work here is, in its own way, still for the sake of the academy, so keep that in mind.”
…That man named Huiton seemed to have looked at Mel’s age, seeing as he had come looking for work, and assumed he had failed to enter the academy.
The maximum age at which one could enter Sigrian Academy was twenty-three.
If one did not pass the entrance exam by the age of twenty-three, one could never be admitted afterward.
“Still, you thought well. Failing the entrance exam doesn’t mean your life is over, and you need to make a living by doing some other work.”
“Ah, yes, that’s true. Well…”
If one only listened to Huiton’s words, it sounded like comfort, but judging from his expression and eyes, he looked as though he were pitying someone who had fallen behind.
He already seemed to have judged Mel as a failure in life.
“There is quite a lot of work at Sigrian Academy. Since an entire vast territory is one academy, we are always short on people to manage it.”
The grand territory of Dean Yurtos Sigrian, elder brother of the Emperor of the Sigrian Empire, Grand Duke of the Empire, the greatest archmage on the current continent, and dean of Sigrian Academy.
Because an entire territory was also an academy in itself, Sigrian Academy was so vast that it was called an academic city, or commonly the Academy Territory.
The residents living there managed the academy, to the point that a kind of economic system had been established around it.
“As you saw on your way in, this place can introduce you to all sorts of work. Usually, the academy side requests manpower dispatch from us.”
Only then did Mel sense that the real subject of work was finally coming up, and he straightened his posture.
To summarize Huiton’s explanation, it was very simple and clear.
‘So it’s basically day labor hired by the academy, isn’t it?’
That was right. In the end, it was day labor.
Day labor he had often done in his previous life when he was out of money and needed quick cash.
“Of course, I can’t say it will be plentiful, but you’ll at least be able to keep yourself fed. Though it’s not as if you can’t earn a large sum at all…”
“A large sum, you say?”
At the words “large sum,” Mel’s ears perked up.
“Forget it. That sort of thing is what students trying to earn extra credits do, or at least people who dropped out of the academy. It’s not something for a commoner like you, who has reached that age without building any kind of experience.”
“……”
Huiton thrust cold reality before Mel.
Mel was reminded that in this place, he was what people would call an idle youth.
More precisely, the young man of unknown background bearing the surname “Zerna,” the identity he had newly purchased, was like that.
He had gone through quite a lot of hardship over the thirteen years since reincarnating, but it was a little bitter that the result of all that hardship amounted to being an idle youth.
But what could he do?
If he rampaged about trying to break through that reality and, by some mistake, made his name known…
“So, will you start work?”
“Yes. Of course I should start. I don’t know what sort of work I’ll be doing from now on, but I’ll work hard.”
At Huiton’s question, Mel nodded and answered.
At Mel’s rather spirited answer, Huiton nodded in satisfaction and continued speaking.
“Good. As it happens, these next few days are also the admission season, so there is plenty of work. Though it may hurt your heart a little.”
“Hurt my heart?”
At Mel’s question, Huiton presented him with several paper documents.
“It’s the management of the entrance examination sites. Once examinees finish taking their exams, wouldn’t the test sites become messy? In examination halls centered around practical tests, like the swordsmanship or magic departments, there are test dummies that have served their purpose, so you clean those up and such.”
“Ah.”
Remembering how, in the original work, the protagonist had passed the entrance exam by using his techniques on a test dummy, Mel nodded.
“It would pain you to return to the commoners’ examination hall, so I’ll send you to the nobles’ examination hall—”
“No, please assign me to the commoners’ examination hall.”
Mel cut off Huiton’s words and strongly expressed his preference.
“It’s not as if the nobles’ examination hall is especially much more difficult. Rather, at a time like this, doing work related to the nobles lets you earn more money for the effort—”
“Please assign me to the commoners’ examination hall!”
“…Tsk, tsk.”
At Mel’s words, Huiton clicked his tongue for a moment.
He had liked the peculiar confidence contained in that young man Mel’s declaration that he would work hard, so he had arranged work that might be a little harder but would earn him more pay.
Moreover, since Mel must have failed the exam and come here, Huiton had even thought, in his own way, that sending him back to the commoners’ examination hall would be too harsh.
Yet he felt his favorable impression of this gray-haired young man, who seemed to seek only easy work, plummet back to the bottom.
‘With a mindset like that, no wonder he couldn’t pass even at his age.’
Huiton thought this while recalling the résumé he had received earlier, which had a work history section left completely blank except for the name Mel Zerna and some basic birth information.
The fact that he had the surname Zerna despite being a commoner meant he had likely been nobility until a few generations ago.
Fallen nobles were all too common in this world.
The more fallen a noble family was, the more they would dream of restoring their house, and one of the fastest and best means to do so was admission to Sigrian Academy.
If one earned good grades at the finest educational institution and graduated, one might be able to rise again as a noble…
In fact, among the people who came here looking for work, students of commoner status who possessed surnames were quite common.
There were many cases where a child of a fallen noble family challenged admission to the academy in order to restore their house to noble status,
only to fail after running into walls such as lack of talent or lack of effort, then seek work to earn living expenses while finding a place to stay in the Academy Territory and aiming for admission the following year.
That was why, at times like this, Huiton showed consideration in this way.
Moreover, that twenty-three-year-old young man named Mel had failed even this year, losing his final chance, so the despair he felt must be tremendous.
The commoners’ examination hall was the place where he had suffered the pain of that failure, so Huiton had shown him special consideration as a form of comfort.
But he rejected that consideration simply because he thought the other work would be easier?
Huiton could well imagine why the noble house bearing that young man’s surname, Zerna, had fallen and become no different from commoners.
How could one survive this harsh world with such a weak mindset?
“If you insist, then very well. Wait a little. Work will come in a few hours.”
And so, Huiton informed Mel in a slightly cold tone.