Chapter 59
Rainer kept sneaking glances in our direction, but the moment his eyes met mine—
“Eek!”
He let out a scream and abruptly slammed his head down.
His face had gone deathly pale, and sweat was visibly running down his back.
‘What’s wrong with him? Is he sick?’
* * *
Rainer, the eldest son of the Roider marquis family, was confused.
Under normal circumstances, he should have been carrying out his plan by now.
He had intended to swagger up to that arrogant young master of Northgard, get under his skin, and humiliate him.
If not, he had planned to pick a fight with that illegitimate princess and show off the dignity of the Slokina royal family.
It was the perfect opportunity to seize the initiative from the very entrance ceremony and make a name for himself.
But then.
‘What... on earth is that?’
Behind the young master...
A bear was sitting there.
His thighs looked thicker than Rainer’s waist, and his forearms were as large as Rainer’s head.
But more than anything, it was that gaze.
It seemed indifferent, yet that very indifference made it feel like the gaze of a wild beast. Every time it swept over him, his heart felt as though it stopped.
‘I’m supposed to pick a fight with someone like that?’
It was insane.
That thing wasn’t human.
The fear washed over him that if he said even one wrong word, his spine would be folded in half on the spot and his teeth would come tumbling out like dried corn.
His primal survival instinct crushed Rainer’s arrogance.
Family, honor, and everything else could wait. First, he had to survive.
‘Don’t make eye contact... Don’t make eye contact....’
He repeated the mantra silently.
* * *
‘...What’s wrong with him? Is he sick?’
I tilted my head.
The way he flinched and hid the moment he saw me made him look like a puppy that needed to poop.
Was I really that frightening?
I had dressed as neatly as possible today.
I had combed my hair back, tied my necktie, and thought I was keeping my expression gentle.
But I was unaware of several things.
The natural intimidation produced by my bulk.
The mana waves radiating from the Behemoth hide.
And the fact that the killing intent of ‘Touch my family and I’ll kill you’ was leaking out subconsciously, weighing heavily on the air around me.
I had merely been keeping a serious watch on my surroundings, but to everyone else, I looked like a wild beast preparing to begin its hunt at any moment.
In the end.
The original story’s entrance-ceremony confrontation event died out naturally beneath the pressure of my physique.
No one even came near the northern section of our area.
It even seemed as though every single ant passing by went out of its way to avoid us.
“......Peaceful.”
When I muttered this, Kairen shrugged and replied.
“It’s thanks to you. With you behind me, Varg, it feels like a fortress has appeared at my back.”
“That’s a compliment, right?”
“Of course.”
At that moment, the lights on the podium came on.
The murmuring died down.
The white-haired old gentleman, Archimedes, the academy’s president, stepped onto the podium.
He surveyed the audience with a stern gaze, then looked toward us and made a disgruntled face.
Apparently, he was still sulking over the dormitory matter.
“Welcome, new students, to the Imperial Academy Aeterna.”
His booming voice echoed through the auditorium.
It was finally beginning.
Our academy life began in a way far quieter and more overwhelming than I had expected.
And I was about to face the greatest crisis of my life.
* * *
“......”
The air in the classroom was so heavy it had become sticky.
Languid afternoon sunlight poured in through the windows, while pale clouds of chalk dust drifted through the air.
At the lectern, a monotonous, hoarse voice rang out alongside the sharp tapping of chalk against the blackboard.
“Therefore, the graph of tax revenue fluctuations according to the harvest yields of tenant farmers in a territory forms a quadratic curve, which has a profound effect on the financial soundness of the lord....”
The subject was 「Advanced Arithmetic and Estate Tax Calculations」.
I stared blankly at the blackboard.
White numbers densely covered the black surface.
The numbers crawled across the board like a swarm of ants, then began twisting together and dancing before my eyes.
‘Now I understand why the original story edited all the classroom scenes out....’
I clicked my tongue inwardly.
In an ordinary academy story, the first class would involve a sparring match to showcase something unexpected.
Or they would capture a monster and bring it in for practical training, demonstrating the danger of the monsters they would soon face.
At the very least, they would study magic theory or place their hands on a crystal ball to measure their mana potential....
But this was an era of peace.
And at Aeterna Academy, whose primary purpose was teaching nobles how to manage their territories—their duty as aristocrats—such things could not be expected.
Creeeak-.
When I shifted slightly, the chair beneath me cried out.
The chair, made of wood and metal, trembled pitifully beneath my weight.
Several students sitting in front flinched and shuddered at the sound.
‘This is driving me crazy.’
I tried to adjust my posture with an embarrassed expression, but the more I moved, the more tightly the desk squeezed my thighs.
My knees were wedged tightly against the drawer of the desk in front of me, and whenever I put my arms on the desk, I inevitably invaded the space of the person beside me.
To make matters worse, I was sitting in the very back.
Professor Mess had atrocious handwriting and a hoarse voice that testified to his years of experience, and I could barely follow the class from there.
'This blessed body of mine....'
Before class began.
The moment I opened the classroom door and entered, Professor Mess recoiled in alarm as he pushed up his glasses.
Then, for the perfectly rational yet tragic reason that my bulk completely blocked the view of the students behind me, he exiled me to the corner of the back row.
As a result, the writing on the blackboard looked the size of beans, and the professor’s voice drifted faintly into the distance as white noise.
Sitting quietly in a barbarian’s body and listening to advanced mathematics required more patience than spending the night hidden in the snow while hunting.
But even this place of exile had its advantages.
“...Varg.”
When I turned at the languid, sweet voice beside me, Kara was staring intently at me with her chin propped on her hand.
“Are you bored?”
Kara whispered, shaping the words with her lips, and flashed me a grin.
While the other noble sons were competing for the front seats to get as close to the professor as possible, Kara had naturally taken the seat beside me.
“You mustn’t fall asleep....! You got scolded for dozing off earlier. The professor’s eyes are sharper than you’d think...!”
'What a thing to be proud of....'
Even Elysia had come to sit beside her.
Elysia was a princess, while Kara and I were visibly displaying the most basic form of power: physical force....
Thus, the classroom’s most powerful figures were all crammed into the farthest corner of the back row.
Feeling sorry, I answered Kara in a whisper.
“I’m sorry, Kara. You have to listen from the back because of me... You probably can’t see the blackboard well, either.”
Kara was an honor student.
Even in the original story, Kara had never lost the top spot in either theory or practical training, so I felt bad that her studies seemed to be suffering because of me, a burden.
But when Kara heard my apology, the corners of her lips curled up adorably.
“What are you talking about? I like it.”
“Huh?”
“This way, the professor won’t notice us.”
Swish.
Kara’s hand slipped beneath the desk.
Then she began gently, and quite boldly, stroking upward along the inside of my thick thigh.
“Ugh!”
I sucked in a breath and stiffened.
Her hand wandered softly over my firm muscles.
When Kara’s fingers lightly tapped the sensitive flesh on the inside of my thigh, a tingling shiver ran up my spine.
Cold sweat trickled down my back.
‘Th-this woman, seriously...!’
I stared at Kara in surprise.
But Kara calmly pretended to look at the blackboard while her finger traced circles on my thigh.
Professor Mess was too busy writing complicated formulas on the blackboard, and the students had their heads down as they took notes.
It was a secret moment belonging only to the two of us.
Kara’s eyes sparkled mischievously.
Perhaps it was the hormonal changes from her pregnancy....
Even after coming to the academy, Kara’s physical affection knew no regard for time or place.
“Kara... This is a classroom....”
“That’s what makes it more fun.”
Kara ran her tongue over her lips and whispered.
And just as her hand was about to delve a little deeper—
“......Excuse me.”
Elysia’s voice forced its way between us.
She narrowed her eyes and glared at us with an expression of disgust, as though she had witnessed something she never wanted to see.
“Please learn to consider the time and place... What are you doing in a sacred place of learning? Honestly... Showing off your affection... Tch....”
Elysia’s face had turned bright red.
I could feel the misery of a herbivore trapped between a pair of northern beasts.
But Kara paid her no mind and deliberately linked her arm through mine.
“Elysia, you’ll understand once you get married. You’ll learn what a wonderful cushion your husband’s thigh can be.”
“I don’t want to know...! And I haven’t even dated anyone, let alone gotten married....”
Elysia said tearfully.
I cleared my throat, gently removed Kara’s hand, and turned my gaze forward.
As I pretended to mind my own business, a familiar back in the exact center of the front row caught my eye.
It was Kairen’s black hair.
Kairen sat as rigidly as a plaster statue.
His posture was perfectly composed.
His black hair was neatly combed back.
His pen moved as he took notes, as though determined not to miss even a single joke the professor tossed out.
‘What a relentless guy....’
Even in the original story, Kairen had been the type to stake his life on studying.
The problem was that he had also been petty enough to sulk whenever Kara did even one subject better than him.
It was good to see how much Kairen had changed.
There was no sight more beneficial to me than watching someone completely absorbed in something.
But Kairen’s current desperation was not caused by academic enthusiasm alone.
I recalled the bombshell the president had dropped from the podium during the entrance ceremony.
'It’s not really a system suited to children, even in the original....'
It would be effective, though.
* * *
The president stepped onto the podium, brushed back his long white hair, and surveyed the audience.
He watched with interest as the students sat divided by region of origin and faction, even though no instructions had been given.
“Hoh... It seems you’ve already finished taking sides. Good. Very good.”
The president chuckled softly into the microphone.
“You are the leaders who will one day guide the Empire. What virtue does a leader need? Personal strength? Knowledge? No. Command and responsibility.”
'Looks like he’s going to say it.'
“Since things have already turned out this way, starting this semester, I shall introduce 「Faction-Based Competition Assessment」.”
The auditorium stirred.
The president continued without concern.
“The method is simple. The Capital, East, West, South, and North. I will evaluate each faction by combining its grades and conduct. Of course... this will not impose a penalty on every undergraduate.”
The president paused for a moment, then grinned.
“However... it will have a profound impact on the grades of each faction’s representative—in other words, the top entrants.”
“......!”
Kairen’s eyes wavered beneath the podium.
“When a vassal makes a mistake, the lord bears the responsibility. If a student from the same faction has poor classroom conduct, causes trouble, or fails a class... the representative will bear the blame. This will be done by deducting points from the representative’s score.”
'Honestly... It’s obvious who came up with this....'
If an innovative system had a nasty streak mixed in, Radiance was usually the obvious culprit.
Radiance was even sitting among the faculty with a satisfied expression.
'But Radiance is holding his lower back. He has been out and about quite a lot lately.'
In any case, each faction’s representative would begin with fifty points, and the faction with the lowest final score would receive a penalty.
It was a cruel game conducted under the pretext of evaluating not only academic achievement, but also how well a lord commanded and managed his vassals.
Thus, Kairen, who had enrolled three years early, was forced to shoulder a heavy burden at an age younger than the others.