I looked at the old man standing proudly on the platform, wrapped in resplendent medals.
Jugin Laden.
This man, like Headmaster Den Brown, was a self-made man.
A legendary figure who had entered the military—an elite group that had played a leading role in founding the Empire and remained unchanged to this day—as a newly commissioned officer with neither backing nor connections, and had eventually risen to the rank of general.
His life was not as famous nationwide as Headmaster Den Brown’s, but anyone who served in the military or had family connected to it knew his name.
Of course, I too had heard the name Jugin Laden quite often in newspapers published in the capital.
Professor Jugin stroked his white beard once with his right hand and opened his mouth.
“I am the professor in charge of the first years of the Faculty of Combat, and also the person you will be seeing until you are sick of me.”
As he introduced himself, Headmaster Den Brown, who stood beside him, added an explanation.
“Professor Jugin is indeed the professor in charge of the Faculty of Combat, but he is also in charge of physical training, a class that all first years must take.”
“Mm. The students of Academia are important talents who will shoulder the future of this country. Can such talents be allowed to have weak bodies? From now on, I will be the one squeezing sweat and tears out of you at least once a week, so let us all get along.”
“For reference, physical training is the only class every student is required to take. So those who get on Professor Jugin’s bad side will find their future lives becoming much more vigorous.”
“If you get on my bad side, you’ll be jumping for joy. Involuntarily, that is.”
Professor Jugin returned to his seat with a murderous threat that if any student kept talking, he would let them feel with their own bodies just how soft the Empire’s soil was.
Was his threat effective? The auditorium, which had been noisy until he appeared, fell as silent as a grave.
As if pleased by that quiet atmosphere, Headmaster Den Brown nodded once and continued.
“There are other professors in Academia besides these five, but due to time constraints—and because they rank lower in importance—we shall have them each give their greetings another time.”
“...Is it normally all right to say something like that so calmly?”
“I heard the rumors, but he truly is someone who acts exactly as he pleases. Of course, as one of the Alchemy Saint’s disciples, he could commit most acts of rudeness and everyone would simply let it pass. Still, his words and conduct really are vulgar.”
When I let out a small, incredulous laugh at his words and muttered, Rin Edinburgh, sitting beside me, answered with a sneer.
And a short while later, Headmaster Den Brown gestured and called over the five students who had been standing in a neat line on the platform.
“Now then, I shall call the first-year representatives of each faculty. Everyone, please come forward.”
At Den Brown’s gesture, the five students stepped forward, each with different expressions and movements.
The blond-haired female student on the far left made it clear to anyone watching, with her confident smile and graceful movements, that she was the child of a high-ranking noble.
The large male student standing beside her kept turning his head left and right as if gauging the reactions around him, nonverbally revealing his timid personality.
And beside that hulking male student, Hwalyeong and Isil walked side by side in harmony, taking their places calmly without any expression, while the last slender male student beside them walked slowly with his head deeply lowered.
“How can two out of the five faculty representatives not even be human...?”
“What on earth are the standards for choosing faculty representatives? Do they just pick unusual students?”
“Look over there. That big guy—he’s a colonial. How did someone like that get into Academia?”
“Hmph. A beastman with no ability, only a filthy amount of pride, got in too. Getting involved with beastmen is such a hassle.”
Murmur, murmur.
As soon as the five faculty representatives took their places on the platform, the students around them began making noise all at once.
Some sighed at the sight of them, some looked surprised, and some looked at them with contempt, but most were casting them rather unfriendly gazes.
The same was true of Rin Edinburgh, sitting beside me.
“...That red-haired beastman and that silver-haired girl. They are surely the students who appeared with you, Sir Jin, correct?”
“That is right.”
“In the case of the red-haired beastman, judging by her steps and comportment, she certainly seems to have received a fair amount of education. Though in the end, she is still an uncivilized beastman. But the silver-haired girl beside that beastman... she’s a commoner, isn’t she?”
Do you know what the greatest difference between nobles and commoners is?
The clothes they wear? Maybe in a rural territory with a medieval feel like the Prah Territory where I was born, but in a developed place like the capital, you can no longer distinguish nobles and commoners by outward appearance.
Not all nobles own territories and live wealthy lives, and not all commoners lack the money to buy fine clothes.
Especially since this place, unlike the medieval-land that was the Prah Territory, was a developed area with factories and workers.
So we had reached a point where monetary wealth alone could no longer tell them apart.
Then how did nobles distinguish their own kind in such places?
“Her stride is inconsistent, and her arms are hanging limply. To stand so listlessly in a place where everyone is watching—what sort of breed she is is obvious. How vulgar.”
The greatest difference separating the two classes, which now scarcely differed in outward appearance.
It was education.
Especially not practical vocational education that let one put food on the table, but etiquette education that could not earn a living and took a long time to learn.
Just as the ghost Jude had recognized me as a noble at a glance, nobles could immediately tell whether someone was of their kind by observing that person’s behavior and bearing.
“No matter how much Academia says there is no distinction between nobles and commoners, they should still pay at least a little attention when selecting representative students.”
Because etiquette was what best revealed a person’s verbal and nonverbal traits when dealing with others.
Simply being considerate of others and speaking prettily was not included in the etiquette education of nobles.
How one should walk.
At what moment one should speak before addressing someone.
How one should raise one’s head and move one’s arms in front of others.
Those who could easily perform such manners—manners one could neither know nor imitate without learning them from an etiquette instructor since childhood—were nobles.
This difference was a trait unique to nobles, something commoners could not catch up to no matter how much money they earned.
“How did you come to appear together with people like that, Sir Jin? No matter how I look at them, they are not individuals suited to your dignity.”
Rin Edinburgh, chattering beside me right now, was not particularly more ill-natured than others.
All the nobles I had met possessed the same contempt for commoners that she did.
Uneducated people. Things without even the bare minimum of manners as human beings. Are those things truly the same humans as me? The habit of looking down on those who could not enter the same set of rules they lived by as inferiors was something every noble possessed.
Even my father, who regarded it as his duty to take good care of his people.
...This is getting a little irritating.
“Lady Rin.”
“Yes, Sir Jin.”
“Would you shut up for a bit?”
“...Pardon?”
That was why I had left my family.
It was true that they were good family members who treated me kindly, but they were nobles too.
“You have been chattering away so well for a while now, but you and I, as students of Academia, are no longer nobles. So how long do you intend to keep acting as if you are one?”
“Wh-what did you just... say...”
“The people standing on that platform are students of Academia, just like us. They are not beings inferior to you. So how long do you plan to look down on other students with that damn insolent way of speaking?”
Toward Rin Edinburgh, who stared at my tone with a dumbfounded expression, I threw the sincerity I had been hiding until now, along with an irritated gaze.
“The status of noble that you hold is not something you received because you are so great. It is merely something you obtained because you were born a noble. Do you know how ridiculous it looks when you wield it as if it were your rightful privilege?”
“You!”
“This is why nobles are a problem. They teach their children etiquette, but not character. That’s why children are already rotten from the start. What does it matter if their status is noble? Their parents’ character is rotten.”
Buh, buh, buh.
Looking at Rin Edinburgh, who was at a loss for words, I smiled in relief and thought to myself.
Whew... that felt good. As expected, Koreans get sick from pent-up anger if they hold it in, don’t they?
Just as I was humbly watching her lips, trembling with rage, slowly open—
Flash!
Kwarurung!!!
“Kyaah!”
As thunder suddenly crashed along with a burst of light, she screamed reflexively and toppled forward while still seated in her chair.