Chapter 67
After summer vacation ended.
The day the academy reopened drew near.
Morgan woke up.
The ceiling was familiar yet strange. It was inside the royal dormitory’s magic research room. After being away for barely a month, it felt a little unfamiliar.
‘Still, it’s nice to be back somewhere quiet. Saintroix and the Western Caravan were too noisy.’
“….”
Classes started again today.
The lessons were so easy and boring that even a kid could solve them. She wasn’t particularly worried about exams or homework, either. She was bound to be top of the class in the second semester even with her eyes closed.
But.
Having to see those Republic riffraff from the Department of Magic again…
She didn’t like it.
It made her feel itchy, as if they were always whispering behind her back.
“….”
Hmph.
She covered her mouth with a hand and yawned widely. Since she’d been too lazy to wash up before bed, her red hair was tangled in every direction.
“Ugh, haaam….”
She stretched.
After returning to the academy, she’d slept soundly for the first time in a while. Until yesterday, she’d been getting up early to follow Lydia’s dawn training, and apparently her stamina had hit its limit quickly.
In the end, she skipped today’s training.
‘I don’t know how those idiots still have so much energy right after a long journey.’
Morgan rolled up her pajama sleeves, preparing to wash up. The scars crisscrossing her wrists stood out all the more. She’d once carved them into herself like a parrot plucking its own feathers.
“!”
She froze as she looked at her wrists.
As if carved like the rings of a tree,
the closely packed scars had stopped at some point.
“….”
Come to think of it….
It had been quite a while since she’d stopped doing ‘this,’ too.
When had it been?
The Republic
being born a commoner
being poor
being ostracized
Those ‘miserable things’ had disappeared completely from her mind. Now she was living focused solely on ‘useful things’ like pursuing knowledge and working with others.
“….”
‘During the first semester, it was that Hero riffraff incident, and during break, we were chasing the Triangle of Desire, so I had to rack my brains every day…. I got up at dawn, and once I got back to my room, I fell asleep immediately.’
Until just after she enrolled,
she thought she’d done it a few times.
As for when she definitely stopped…
“…Hmph, who cares.”
Whoosh!
Morgan covered her wrist with her sleeve, hurriedly cutting off that train of thought. Then she smoothed down her badly tangled hair.
“….”
Again.
If she let herself think about it again,
she would remember who it was because of.
She already knew perfectly well.
“….”
I know.
I know.
I know it all too well.
I’m going to stop thinking about it now.
“….”
‘Do I really think I’m going to spend all day fretting and say, ‘Your Highness, thank you for saving me!’ and make someone get all emotional? Hmph. Don’t flatter yourself. We’re nothing but friends who use each other, and that’s all. And when it comes to fighting devil worshipers, all I need is my brain….’
Mutter, mutter.
Though she made excuses to herself,
paradoxically, Morgan kept reminding herself that she owed her current circumstances to someone, and felt grateful. A little embarrassed by herself, she hurried off to wash up.
Scrubbing her red hair vigorously,
Morgan remembered the changes to her classes starting in the second semester.
‘Anyway, we’ll be taking classes together from the second semester….’
Lydia returned shortly after finishing her training. She saw Morgan primly nibbling on bread. A faint smell of sweat clung to Lydia’s golden hair.
Lydia smiled.
“Did you sleep well? Classes start today.”
“….”
Morgan looked away.
“…Hmph.”
*
After breakfast.
Lydia and the others finished getting ready in their respective dorms, then met up again. Normally, they would have split off for their respective departments, but because of the changes to the class schedule in the second semester, they would be going together.
So Aria and Morgan were coming along too.
Morgan was silent. As always, she walked quietly beside Lydia.
“….”
Unlike her,
Aria was all smiles.
“Arti! Priest Adrian became acting dean of the Department of Theology, so I thought we’d have to split up again. I never expected we’d be taking classes together again in the second semester.”
“Yes, I’m very happy too.”
“Well, I still have to take separate classes in prayer-text interpretation and religious studies…. But I’m glad I can spend time with all of you again.”
Mave replied with a grin.
“The academy classes are nothing special anyway. I’m glad we can stick with people we’re close to.”
“Isn’t it less that the academy’s standards are low and more that you’re just ridiculously strong? You overcome almost everything with your natural strength.”
Despite Arti’s rebuttal,
Mave answered with a confident expression.
“Country bumpkin, say that after you’ve won at least half of our ten matches.”
“Ghk…! Damn it. I can’t argue with that.”
“I don’t mind a man who admits defeat quickly.”
“But I still want to argue….”
“Pathetic, country bumpkin.”
Arti sighed.
“Phew….”
His win rate in dawn training was 25%.
The win-loss ratio between the two, which had been close to even, had returned to what it was before. It seemed that while Mave had a solid foundation, Arti relied more on the practical experience he’d picked up quickly.
“….”
He recalled the sparring matches since they’d returned to the academy.
-Ha! Your back’s wide open, country bumpkin!
-Gah?!
-Now the side! Your leg!
-Ugh?!
He’d been toyed with by a pure swordswoman.
Mave had grown stronger through countless battles, too. If anything, by focusing purely on the sword, she’d become even sharper and stronger in sparring.
Arti looked close to tears.
“How could this be….”
In short, it was the fate of a jack-of-all-trades build.
It also made a big difference that he hadn’t used the new powers he’d awakened, like the Holy Sword’s manifestation or holy incantations, during their sparring. Thanks to that, it had become a chance to reassess his level as a swordsman.
“I can’t believe all these different experiences threw me off so much that my swordsmanship itself has become a mess again….”
“….”
Lydia, who’d heard him from beside them, quietly understood.
‘He has versatile abilities thanks to powers he normally wouldn’t have been able to use. But perhaps that’s slowed his overall growth in each individual stat….’
To put it in game terms,
he’d awakened all sorts of skills quickly, but the number of skill points required had increased accordingly. Since he had a classic late-bloomer growth curve, he needed focused attention again.
‘Still, it’s a good thing he awakened all sorts of new abilities during the Hero’s exam event. I can raise him into an even more versatile talent than before.’
As Lydia adjusted his training plan in her head, countless cadets from Gallia greeted her on the way to the swordsmanship department’s training grounds.
“Good morning, Lydia!”
“Hello, Lady Lydia.”
“Lady Lydia, have you been well?”
“You’re beautiful as always.”
“It’s an honor to see you again, Lady Lydia.”
From nobles to commoners,
all of them wore expressions noticeably friendlier than last semester. Most of all, most called her ‘Lydia’ rather than ‘Your Highness.’
“Lydia!”
“Lady Lydia!”
“….”
‘Before the break, even when I told them to just call me by my name, they seemed so awkward about it. Why did they suddenly become so friendly?’
Lydia guessed at the cause of this subtle change.
‘Did they go home during break and brag about it?’
-I take classes with royalty.
-Really? I’m so jealous…. What kind of person are they?
-Well, she was unusual. She told me to call her by her name.
-Isn’t that a really rare opportunity? Where else could you get close to royalty and call them by their first name?
-Huh? Is that so?
Something like that.
People sometimes become more aware of their situation only after explaining it to a third party. As if to support this guess, the cadets were noticeably warm toward her.
“Lady Lydia! Is it true you went to Saintroix during summer break? How refined…!”
“If I hadn’t gone home, I’d have wanted to go with you.”
“Lydia really is royalty. Even her vacations are extravagant.”
“I was sad I couldn’t see you during summer break, Lady Lydia.”
As if it were a special privilege granted to them.
“….”
‘Even if I try to stay out of sight, rejecting them now would only make me stand out more. I should respond naturally, just enough.’
Lydia replied to them.
“Good morning. I’m glad to see you all again, too. I’m even happier to spend autumn looking at one another’s smiles than to be beneath the sweltering summer sun.”
“!”
The cadets were delighted even by that simple response. They exchanged glances, signaling, ‘Did you see that?’ The atmosphere was like an idol fan meeting.
-Lady Lydia really is so kind…!
-I’ve known that since last semester.
-Are all members of Gallian royalty that warm and kind?
-It must be an essential quality for royalty, right?
-No. Lady Lydia’s meaning is…
Lydia gave a wry smile.
“….”
Good grief.
They were overdoing it.
‘She’s just a useless princess who happens to be beautiful and royalty. They’re analyzing and praising every little thing she does….’
Pretty,
with a nice figure,
and a little kind,
was that all it took to get surrounded by people?
Perhaps because they were still young,
they all still had some innocence left in them.
Before long, cadets of both sexes, their faces slightly flushed, were murmuring around them. They chatted excitedly about the coming classes and academy life.
-It’s so nice to be with royalty.
-I’m jealous of the Hero’s party….
-To be able to stay by someone like her….
“….”
“….”
“….”
Arti’s group, who were practically Lydia’s direct subordinates(?), exchanged awkward smiles. Even so, the cadets around them kept chattering.
-Come to think of it, Lady Lydia is also in this student council president election….
-I wonder if she’ll recruit attendants to help with the campaign?
-If you’re from the Kingdom of Gallia, you have to vote for Lady Lydia.
“?”
Lydia tilted her head.
‘Election? What are they talking about?’
There had certainly been an event in the original story, but she had no intention of running. Yet people around her were talking as if it were already a done deal.
Arti stepped forward a little and asked,
“Lydia, were you aiming to become student council president?”
“…No.”
“Then why are those people…?”
“….”
*
The ‘Driagh’ family was a powerful noble family and a family of parliamentarians in the Republic.
Carla, the heir to that family, was a second-year student in the Department of Magic.
She planned to run for student council president and increase her influence. Even if the position held no real power, it was valuable as a chance to stand before the promising talents of the future.
‘But I never thought things would suddenly turn out like this.’
Carla looked at a piece of paper in her dormitory. It was a crude newspaper compiling an unofficial survey of candidates for the next student council president.
But its contents were extraordinary.
A member of Gallian royalty.
The kingdom’s abandoned golden child had suddenly come into the spotlight.
“….”
Beside it was another piece of paper: a letter left in front of Carla’s dormitory. The handwriting had been scrawled as messily as possible so the sender couldn’t be identified.
-Don’t stand out, Republic puppet. If you dare to make a move, you’ll be punished.
“….”
What on earth was this…?
What was going on?