The Lord Is With You (2)

The Academy strives for equality. Regardless of status, those with ability were favored, while those without it could not escape failing.

No matter how high-ranking a noble was, they could not escape the standards imposed by the Academy. The number of high-ranking nobles expelled from the Academy since its founding proved as much.

At least several hundred had been expelled. Even the Empire’s five great noble families, who lorded it over everyone outside, became nothing more than ordinary students the moment they entered the Academy. In fact, the more prestigious the family, the more shameful it considered it when its child was expelled from the Academy, and the rarer it was for the family to exert pressure on the institution.

That was how much trust the Academy commanded as an educational institution. Everyone acknowledged the strictness of its evaluation standards—including the students currently enrolled.

However, if one asked whether the Academy was truly ‘equal,’ some students would tilt their heads in doubt. Even the Academy could not afford to ignore the powerful entirely.

Even setting aside the children of the Empire’s five great noble families, when royalty or the highest-ranking figures from other countries enrolled, the Academy had no choice but to grant them certain privileges. This was meant to provide an excuse in case anything happened to them.

This year’s example was the first-year princess in the Department of Magic. They said she was far down the line of succession to the imperial throne, but she was still a girl who carried the blood of dragons. The Academy had even been forced to give her a separate annex.

And then there was the other woman sitting across from me.

Warm sunlight reflected off her silver hair as it spilled down. Her clear, milky skin, delicate features, and pale-pink eyes stood out particularly strongly among them.

Though she was concealed by the priestly robes symbolizing the Department of Theology, they could not hide all the sensual curves of her body. Divinity and sin coexisted within her flesh...