The strength of the Gate of Mainis—symbol of the Academy and one of the Vespia Kingdom’s prides—was, as expected, no ordinary thing.
When I climbed out of the cockpit of the half-wrecked golem, it seemed I had slammed into the school gate and been bounced back inside by the recoil.
The fancy flower beds and paved road had been shattered, but that hardly mattered, so I ignored them and looked toward the gate.
“As I thought, it was still too much….”
I had run the repaired golem at full speed and rammed it into the gate, but it seemed all I had managed was a small scratch on one of the gate’s pillars.
As befitting the strongest barrier on the continent, the barrier itself hadn’t suffered the slightest blemish.
‘So the rumors were true after all.’
I had obtained plenty of data on things like the usefulness of caterpillar treads, speed, and the control system, but it still meant I was lacking.
The road to reaching the romance of bipedal locomotion was still long.
“Still, the shock-absorption device worked quite well, so that’s enough!”
For some reason my vision was red, my head was spinning, and my legs and arms were numb, but that didn’t matter.
If the cockpit could withstand an impact of that level, then its current durability was sufficient.
More than anything, it meant there was room for improvement—a wall to overcome.
There was no reason not to be happy about that, so I stared at the gate and shouted.
“Someday, I’ll just have to make a golem that can smash that thing down with ease!”
“Seize that madman at once!!”
Knights appeared from every direction and began rushing at me.
By the time I wondered what was going on, they had already grabbed hold of me.
“We’ve got him! We caught him! The golem is staying still! It doesn’t have any ability to automatically protect its master!”
“Drag him away! Hurry!”
The knights, wearing extremely grave expressions, began busily dragging me off.
On the way, I saw a woman with a cane approach the golem, but my body was forcibly turned around right then, so I couldn’t see any more.
****
A few minutes passed after something like a burlap sack was thrown over my head.
After enough time had gone by for me to wonder if they had mistaken me for some kind of foal that calmed down when its vision was blocked, the sack was roughly pulled off, and I saw all sorts of people looking down at me.
‘Where is this now?’
It was a strange room paved with blue stone.
The air felt slightly clearer, and the place had a curious atmosphere, so I looked around.
The place where I was standing was the lowest point in the room, and the people seated at tables arranged in a circle around me were looking down.
It was just like the courtroom a certain lightning-scarred wizard boy had been dragged into.
The chair at the highest point was empty.
“In the hundreds of years of history of the Vespia Royal Academy, there has never been a single case like this!!”
A brown-haired woman seated directly in front of me was furious.
She was tall, and though her clothes covered her, the faint outline of muscle showed through, making her seem like a warrior type.
Beside her were a woman with pale purple hair who looked like a witch no matter how you saw her, and a pink-haired woman wearing glasses.
There was a bald person, a man with a truly magnificent beard, and….
‘…They all look rather old.’
My vision was still red and my head was still spinning, but I somehow organized my thoughts.
This was the Academy.
Today was the entrance ceremony.
There was no way parents would be here, so these people were probably Academy professors.
Then the empty seats were likely because people who absolutely needed to be present at the entrance ceremony—such as the headmaster—were attending that event.
I could roughly understand the situation.
Then I lowered my gaze.
‘But what kind of stone is this?’
The air had changed the moment I entered this place, so it seemed to be a rather special material.
Should I tear a little off and examine it?
“Is that bastard seriously trying to break the floor?!”
“T-That’s expensive bluestone, stop him!”
I was about to lower my head to analyze whether it might be useful for a golem, but the professors and knights hurriedly straightened my body.
I had been thinking of using it for the half-wrecked golem. What a shame.
As I clicked my tongue without meaning to, the professors seemed relieved; some caught their breath, while others gave dry coughs. Soon, they glared at me again.
Then the brown-haired woman glared at me and spoke once more.
“So, I will ask. You. State your name.”
“I am Aizen.”
At my answer, the woman examined a register for a moment and tilted her head.
Then, as if she had found my name, her eyes widened and she shouted.
“Aizen Arclight! You bastard! You didn’t answer with your family name right away because you were afraid word would reach your house, didn’t you?! Do you think you’re a child?!”
“…Ah.”
She had only asked for my name, so I had only answered with my name, but honestly, my sense of belonging to that family had become rather vague as well, so I seemed to have made a slight mistake.
Soon, the professor pressed a hand to her head as if dizzy, searched through the register again, and then spoke with a fierce look in her eyes.
“I see. Here it is. Mark Arclight. You’re his younger cousin, and… though your family has no title, it has risen in rank this time. …No wonder. Your family didn’t even properly report that you would be enrolling. Did you know that?”
“Was that something that had to be reported?”
Not understanding what she meant, I asked back.
The professor, who had seemed about to say something, narrowed her eyes and asked,
“You bastard, do you take the Academy lightly?! This place is a training ground for the kingdom’s future talents, those who are just coming of age! It is not a place where unidentified individuals can simply enter!”
She immediately pointed at me and shouted.
Then, as if her head was spinning, the woman pressed a hand to her forehead, and the pale purple-haired witch beside her seemed to say something to comfort her.
For a while, the woman calmed her breathing and took deep breaths, and only after she had finally settled down did she open her mouth again.
“…Whew. Fine. It’s true that I’ve only been shouting at you. But that’s how it is. You were certainly in the register, but your family did not report the fact that you would be enrolling. That means it’s the same as having no one to vouch for your identity. Do you understand?”
The woman glared at me again as she spoke.
“To be blunt, is there anyone who can prove that you are Aizen Arclight? Given the current situation, it would be more convincing to believe that someone impersonating him tried to force their way in. I’d appreciate your understanding.”
Just as I thought that, from the way she was speaking somewhat admonishingly, she might actually be a good-natured person, she sighed again and said,
“For now, I understand that it is effectively as if you have no guarantor for your identity. Then I ask you: why did you try to destroy the school gate? If you answer poorly, you may be suspected as a spy from another nation and sent to prison under the laws of the Vespia Kingdom, so answer carefully.”
At the woman’s words, I nodded.
I had to answer carefully.
“I heard it was the strongest protective barrier on the continent, so I rammed into it as an impact-resistance test to see what level my golem was at.”
“I told you to answer carefully, you lunatic!”
She exploded.
The pale purple-haired witch quickly opened her mouth.
“Professor Reina, please calm down. H-His head is bleeding, and his eyes are shaking badly, so it’s probably from the impact earlier….”
“I rammed it in with that much force and still survived! If I reinforce the design just a little more, I think I can prevent injuries to people as much as possible!”
“I understand that you’ve hurt your head badly, Aizen. Please, stay quiet.”
The pale purple-haired witch sighed as she spoke.
The professor called Reina had her head bowed deeply, her back rising and falling.
Then an elderly professor quietly said,
“Er, no matter how I look at it, he seems to simply be a madman.”
“Professor Conder is right. In this situation, shouldn’t we refuse that fellow’s admission?”
“He has no guarantor for his identity either… and they say his family didn’t report his enrollment….”
I didn’t really understand, but the professors began talking among themselves.
In the meantime, Professor Reina, who seemed to have calmed down, opened her mouth again.
“Hoo, fine. But in the current situation, we cannot trust you. Be aware that depending on the circumstances, we may have no choice but to detain you and hand your identity over to the royal knights.”
“Why is that?”
“You… never mind. I don’t have the energy to explain, so I pray you aren’t asking sincerely.”
She seemed exhausted now.
While the witch beside her patted her again, Professor Reina straightened herself.
“…At this point, I feel like even if you said you came here just because you wanted to ram into the gate, I would have to believe you, but I will ask. You bastard, why did you come to the Academy? Who sent you?”
My head was spinning, but I could understand.
The person who told me to come here….
“An elderly gentleman I met at the royal palace told me to go, so I came.”
He was someone I had met after being seized by customs officers and knights and taken to the royal palace, if I remembered correctly.
And then I realized that the surroundings had suddenly gone quiet.
As my dizzy head gradually began to settle, Professor Reina quietly asked,
“Don’t joke with me.”
“It’s true.”
“If you came from the royal palace, why was there no notice?”
“…Ah. I was told to deliver a letter.”
Remembering belatedly, I searched inside my clothes, but as expected, it wasn’t there.
After thinking for a moment, I soon came to a conclusion.
“I think I dropped it in the golem while doing the collision test earlier.”
“What kind of—!”
Professor Reina was about to get angry at once.
-“Excuse me for a moment.”
Suddenly, a voice rang out through the entire room.
While Professor Reina frowned, I saw the elderly professor stand in surprise.
“This voice is….”
-“Noel Nexia of the Duchy of Nexia. I have an urgent request for the professors of the Academy. May I enter for a moment?”
I didn’t know where the voice was coming from, but my eyes widened involuntarily.
I immediately examined my surroundings to find the source of the voice and discovered something like a magic stone embedded in the ceiling.
“…IfthatcantransmitvoicesoverlongdistancesIcoulduseitasasubstituteforwirelesscommunicationbetweenunits.”
“I permit entry. And you, please shut your mouth.”
Professor Reina covered her face with one hand as she spoke, and soon the sound of a door opening came from afar.
For a long while, the sound of something metallic striking the ground could be heard.
Soon, a familiar woman came into view.
“Ah.”
It was the woman with the cane who had approached the golem earlier.
Her soft-looking blonde hair and gentle green eyes were quite striking.
Professor Reina quickly bowed her head.
“My apologies, my lady.”
“Please raise your head. Though I am of royal blood, I am the daughter of a ducal house, and here I am merely a student, Professor.”
The two seemed to know each other.
Then the woman looked at me, smiled, and said,
“However, the reason I interrupted the hearing is that I found what appears to be the item this gentleman should have brought with him, and so I came to deliver it personally. I ask for your understanding.”
With that, the woman took a letter from her breast.
It was an item I recognized.
“Ah, that’s it. It seems I dropped it in the golem.”
“So that was the golem everyone has been talking about. Looking inside it was quite fascinating.”
The woman who had introduced herself earlier as Noel Nexia said with a smile.
Then, perhaps through the application of magic, the letter floated by itself and went to Professor Reina. As Professor Reina looked at the letter, her eyes trembled.
“…Impossible.”
“Professor?”
“…Lady Noel—no. Noel. Do you know the meaning of this letter?”
“I am not foolish enough to open a letter bearing the royal family’s seal without permission.”
At her courteous reply, Professor Reina nodded.
Then she let out a deep sigh and sank into thought.
After her shoulders trembled for a long while, she gathered the professors with the letter, and the sound of something being opened could be heard.
A short while later, while the professors all looked extremely bewildered, Professor Reina looked at me and said,
“…Since the royal palace, of all places, has proven your identity, I will acknowledge for now that you are not a spy sent by the Argent Empire.”
“The Argent Empire?”
“You don’t even know… No, never mind. I’ll explain in detail later. Go. You will be briefed on the dormitory afterward.”
Now that I thought about it, the reason they had been so sharp with me seemed to be because they were wary of foreign nations.
Soon the knights released me, and I briefly lost my balance, nearly falling over.
Then, as I put a hand on the floor and stood up, the woman who had introduced herself as Noel had already approached me, leaning on her cane.
“What a relief. You’ve cleared the suspicion that the Empire sent you to carry out terrorism against the Academy. Things have already been getting worse by the day with the Argent Empire, after all. The Academy is extraterritorial, but that does not mean it is lenient toward external enemies.”
So that was why they’d been so on edge.
It seemed they had mistaken my simple collision test for an attack by the Empire.
“I’ve never even been to the Empire.”
“I see. In any case, you’re quite an interesting person.”
After confirming that the knights had been blinded, I looked down at my hand.
And just as I was about to quickly turn away, Noel’s voice reached me.
“Actually, rumors about you have already been spreading far and wide, Lord Aizen. If it’s all right with you, later, could you and I have a brief conversa—”
“I’ll come find you later.”
I really was sorry to say it, but I needed to get out of here quickly right now.
Leaving Noel, who looked slightly dazed, behind me, I looked down at my hand.
I had slipped away a fragment of bluestone I’d stealthily picked up when I braced myself on the floor, so I needed to hurry off and—
“Wait! Why is there a crack in the floor?! Don’t tell me!”
“That crazy bastard! He pretended to lose his balance and went for the floor!!”
The moment I heard someone leap into the air, I ran like mad.
****
After quickly receiving directions to the dormitory from the admissions office, I promptly stood before the door.
I hadn’t even been able to attend the entrance ceremony, and since newly admitted students were free for the day, all of them had gone out, leaving the surroundings extremely quiet.
Judging from the chatter of the people who seemed to be cleaning the campus, most of the students had probably gone to the taverns.
They called it an academy, but considering the age of the people who came here, it felt closer to a university.
“I should be fine now that I’ve come this far.”
Seeing as the admissions office had assigned me a dorm room without really holding me up, I figured they must have concluded that anyone who made it this far was probably not a problem.
‘First, should I check what this new material is? No, I should improve Anya Golem’s design. Or if not that—’
Happily entertaining the wild thoughts popping up one after another in my head, I stepped inside.
And soon, I realized there was an intruder inside.
“You’ve finally arrived.”
The first thing I saw was a woman with black hair that fell to her shoulders and red eyes.
“I dislike lengthy conversations. Time is gold, after all.”
The woman, who had been sitting calmly on the bed, stood up.
“I’ll ask just to confirm. The golem that tried to break down the school gate—it was yours, was it not?”
“Yes.”
Not knowing who she was, I answered while keeping my guard up.
And as if the conversation were over, she immediately held out a paper to me.
When I looked at the paper she had offered, written there was—
“Saintess, Mina Christa.”
Before I could even properly read the paper, I heard the name.
When I lifted my head and looked ahead, the woman was smiling.
“That is my name.”
After adding that it was indeed her name,
“I’ve come to make a deal.”
she approached me with an unreadable smile.