Royal Academy
Satou here. Sometimes you see fantasy novels, manga, and so on do spin-offs or side stories in a school setting. Some people might hate it, but personally, I’m pretty fond of the way it often leads to heartwarming scenes you wouldn’t see in the main story.
“We’re heeere?”
“Sir!”
After we saw off Zena and the others, we went to the royal academy.
I had to go to the day’s kingdom meeting again, but I came along as their guardian, since there was still some time before it started. We left Hikaru behind, as she wasn’t a morning person.
“It’s as big as a college campus.”
Arisa looked around the expansive grounds from the imposing gate.
“That’s because there are several different schools on the grounds.”
The royal academy was an educational institution consisting of six main school buildings: the senior high school, the nobles’ school, the magic school, the knights’ school, the ladies’ school, and the preschool.
There were other buildings on campus, too, like the massive library that boasted an impressive collection and lecture halls of all shapes and sizes.
Off campus, there were even more school buildings and training grounds.
“Huh, the magic school and knights’ school are pretty self-explanatory, but what about the others? Is the ladies’ school like an all-girls’ finishing school?”
“Yes, that’s right. As for the rest…”
I nodded and relayed to Arisa what knowledge I’d collected.
The senior high school was a place for higher education like a university in Japan, where anyone with outstanding grades could enroll regardless of social status.
The nobles’ school, of course, was for children of noble families. The preschool for young children was attended mostly by children of honorary nobles and wealthier commoners, not permanent nobles’ kids, who usually hired in-home private tutors instead.
“Master, information located, I report.”
“New nobles’ class? Is this the one we need?”
Nana was pointing at a signboard standing at the side of the road.
“This arrow says, Special Lectures, Reception.”
“Master, this one says, Special Classes, Reception.”
“General Lek-chuuurs…?”
“I found Preeeschool Classed Room, sir!”
The girls ran around pointing out more signs.
“Just a moment, please. I believe the information we need is in the guide Lady Karina gave us.”
Lulu pulled out the papers from her Fairy Pack.
The “special lectures” were for advanced studies of specific topics like the delay-rune lecture Princess Sistina had mentioned, while the “new nobles’ class” and the others belonged to the special classes Karina mentioned.
First and foremost, we followed the arrows to the reception area for the new nobles’ class, which my group needed most urgently and lasted only a few days. As we walked along the path, we found a crowd forming up ahead.
It was a throng of middle-school-aged boys and girls.
“It’s a duel, sir!”
“Probably a sparring match, right? They’re using wooden swords.”
Pochi hopped up and down at the sight of the match taking place up ahead.
Since we could barely see over the crowd of students, Tama and Pochi sat on Liza’s and Nana’s shoulders to watch.
Mia and Arisa wanted to see, too, so I hefted them both up.
“They’re baaad…?”
“Clumsy.”
“They’re probably both beginners.”
Liza chided Tama and Mia.
“That’s true, but the skinny one can barely even stand under the weight of the weapon and armor. It’d be better if they built up some stamina before trying any matches, or somebody might get hurt.”
Before Arisa even finished her constructive criticism, the match was already over.
“That was a clean victory, Barry.”
“It’s nothing to be proud of with an opponent like that.”
“Like a girl could ever beat the son of the Zorgon family.”
The victorious boy’s hangers-on gathered around to butter him up.
“You’re not cut out for this, you know. Why don’t you give up on trying to be a knight and do something for girls, like embroidery or dancing?”
The boy jeered some sexist remarks at the opponent he’d defeated.
“Great, another nasty little jerk. Why are all the young nobles in this kingdom so weird?”
“Mm, dullard.”
“That’s not necessarily true. Most of them are perfectly normal. It’s just that the weird ones stick out in your mind more.”
I lowered Arisa and Mia to the ground as I explained cognitive bias to them.
“Barry’s right. You’d be better off at the ladies’ school.”
“N-no, I’m going to become a knight.”
The girl picked herself up off the ground, still breathing hard.
“Not gonna happen, girlie. You’ve got no natural talent or instincts for this stuff. Hard to believe you’re the daughter of a former Shiga Eight member.”
A former Shiga Eight member’s daughter…?
I hadn’t noticed because she was wearing a helmet, but it was none other than Mr. Gouen’s daughter Sherin.
“W-well, I’m still going to train at the knights’ school and become a Holy Knight.”
“And what, restore your family’s honor? In your dreams.”
The nasty boy kept insulting Sherin.
I could see her desperately chewing her lip as he mocked her goals.
Yeah, I can’t just look the other way on this.
“That’s quite enough, if you please.”
I jumped over the crowd and stepped in to protect Sherin from the rude boy and his friends.
“Y-you’re…!”
“Good to see you again, miss.”
I was impressed that she remembered me from our meeting a few days prior.
“Who’re you supposed to be?!” the rude boy demanded.
“No one worth mentioning, really.”
“What the hell?! You trying to be that cadet’s white knight or something?!”
The boy flew into a rage at my answer.
“That useless klutz is never gonna pass the entrance exam for the knights’ school!”
“We’re just being nice by putting her in her place!”
The boy’s friends all pelted insults as well.
Just as I was opening my mouth to tell them off, there was a bellow of rage from the other side of the crowd.
“You there! Who gave you permission to do this?!”
“Oh crap, it’s Hagemais.”
“Run for it! If he catches us, we’ll have to do penalty drills!”
“Tch, he showed up fast this year.”
The rude boy and his friends scattered as soon as they heard the teacher’s voice.
Apparently, they were enrolled students and had started this little match of their own accord.
“I-is it really so wrong not to have any natural talent…?”
Bitter tears filled Sherin’s eyes as she murmured her innermost feelings.
“Natural talent is only a nice bonus. If you just keep practicing the sword without giving up, someday you’ll become a knight your father can be proud of.”
I was worried this might seem like lip service, but I sincerely wanted to cheer her on.
“You really think so…?”
“As long as you keep steadfastly pursuing that dream, I promise it will come true.”
Especially in a world with a level system, where she could build up experience points to get stronger.
“Satou is right.”
A large hand came to rest on top of Sherin’s head.
“Sir Heim!”
“Sorry that took so long. I got the headmaster’s permission for you to take the course.”
Mr. Heim, a Shiga Eight member and friend of her father’s, appeared to be the one who had brought her to the royal academy.
“I owe ya, Satou. We’ve got plenty of guards, but I guess they can’t be bothered to stop a fight among kids.”
Checking my radar, I saw that there were indeed several guards in disguise.
I guess Sherin needs to be guarded when she goes out.
“Don’t tell me…”
“Yep, the folks who gave her permission are probably using her as bait to try to lure out the last of the anti-Vistall rebels.” Heim scowled. “Shameless bastards.”
He added, though, that it was Sherin who had asked to leave the villa.
“Misterrr?”
“It’s Mr. Heim, sir!”
Arisa brought over the rest of the group.
“Oh-ho, Tama and Pochi, eh? Always in high spirits, you two.”
Mr. Heim patted both their heads.
“By the by, Pochi…”
“Yes, sir?”
“Are you about ready to tell me who you were talking to during the red-rope incident?”
“P-Pochi wasn’t talking to anyone, sir!”
It didn’t help that she kept glancing over at me in her panic.
“Herself.”
“E-exactly, sir! I’m a pro at talking to myself, sir!”
Pochi latched on to Mia’s murmured suggestion.
“Ah, well, if you’re a pro, that’s another story.”
“Exactly, sir. It’s another story, sir.”
Mr. Heim barely bit back a grin as Pochi wiped the sweat from her brow with a visibly relieved expression.
I guess he just likes teasing her.
“Eeeeek… I say!”
“B-Barry!”
A boy went flying into the air along with a scream.
The latter sounded like Miss Karina.
“Karinaaa—?”
“Karina’s in trouble, sir!”
Tama and Pochi ran off.
“That was an incredible kick!”
“Is she here for the special class at the knights’ school?”
“Geez, we’ve got a strong crop this year.”
The boys in the crowd murmured among themselves.
“Sorry, it seems one of my friends has gotten herself into trouble. Please excuse me.”
With that, I left Mr. Heim behind and headed toward Karina.
“You pass with flying colors, young lady! Now, come with me! Registration for the knights’ school is right this way.”
“E-erm, pardon? Wait just a moment if you wouldn’t mind…”
Karina was shrinking away from a burly teacher.
“No need to be shy! You surely came for the special classes to join the knights’ school, correct? Well, you’ve no need to take any tests or lectures.”
“No grabbiiing…?”
“You mustn’t pick on Karina, sir!”
“Tama, Pochi… I’m ever so glad to see you.”
The animal-eared duo stepped in front of Karina to protect her from the teacher attempting to take her by the arm.
“Excuse me, are you a teacher from the knights’ school?”
“Indeed I am, young one.”
“My friend is the daughter of His Excellency Count Muno, here to take the new nobles’ class. Please refrain from forcing her into anything.”
I used my “Fabrication” skill to make up an excuse that she was here for another course, since this guy seemed like a pain to deal with.
“But I would hate to let go of a potential student with a kick like that…”
He must have thought Raka’s “Bestow Strength Enhancement” was Karina’s own skill.
“I beg you, at least take a trial visit to our course! The new nobles’ class is only three days long, as I recall! We would love to have you afterward!”
“What would you like to do, Lady Karina?”
The teacher was so enthusiastic that I figured I might as well ask Karina what she wanted.
“I’d be nervous to go alone, I must say.”
Lady Karina looked at me pleadingly.
Well, in that case…
“Sorry, Liza, but would you mind accompanying Lady Karina to audit a course?”
“Certainly not, master.”
I asked Liza because our eyes happened to meet.
I could’ve gone with her myself, but even though I was a vassal of her family, her being accompanied by an unmarried man might hurt Miss Karina’s marriage prospects.
“Master’s so dense when it comes to things like this.”
“Mm, agreed.”
As Miss Karina puffed up her cheeks, Arisa and Mia muttered something rather rude.
“Master, the new nobles’ class registration is in that building, I report.”
Nana and Lulu returned from the other side of the crowd.
It appeared they had gone all the way to an office to ask about it.
Once I got everyone registered and brought them to the site of the new nobles’ class, I began the lonely journey to the kingdom meeting all by myself.
“Master, I wish to study in the same classroom as Pochi and Tama, I report.”
When I returned from the kingdom meeting, Nana immediately met me at the door with a request.
Although I needed to take care of the huge number of letters that came to my office every day, it shouldn’t hurt to put that off for a bit, since most of them were invitations to tea parties and banquets or marriage proposals.
Occasionally, we got letters from people thanking my group for rescuing them at the end of the year, challenging Liza to a duel or sparring match, offering me jobs in their service, or trying to borrow money, but those were all pretty rare.
Most investments were discussed in person at the salon after the kingdom meeting or at balls and so on.
“Were they in a different classroom?”
“Preed school…?”
“That’s right, sir! There were lots and lots of other kids our age, sir!”
Maybe they were put in the preschool class?
“The lecturer lady said they needed to learn the basics in preschool first and shoved them into the preschool class for the spring semester.”
Ah. I supposed that made sense, since they both looked and acted like the children they were.
“My transfer request was denied, I complain.”
“Probably because you look like an adult, Nana.”
“Discrimination based on appearance is unfair, I protest.”
Nana evidently wanted to study in the classroom with the children.
“Lulu, Mia, and I all got passing marks in etiquette and fundamentals. They said we could go to other classes during our free time without any extra fees.”
Since the initial tuition was fairly high, they were allowed to take any other class within the program.
“Mia and I went to the special lecture at the magic school. And Lulu took one at the ladies’ school, right, Lulu?”
Lulu nodded. It was basically a finishing school, where upper-class young ladies studied academics and culture.
“Today we studied embroidery and tea-party etiquette.”
I was glad Lulu had enjoyed herself.
Fortunately, it seemed like no one had insulted or picked on her that day.
“Not to worry. I walked Lulu to the ladies’ school, and it was all girls from lesser noble families or moderately wealthy farmers and so on. It looks like most of the people who participate in the short-term special classes aren’t terribly rich.”
Arisa whispered in my ear.
As usual, she’d guessed exactly what I was worried about.
“Master, the etiquette class is difficult, I report.”
“Yes, I’m afraid I don’t entirely understand the behavior that is expected of nobles.”
It sounded like Nana and Liza had had a relatively hard time.
“Well, when in doubt, just do as master would do…or not. On second thought, he’s not exactly normal. Maybe if you try to imagine members of Count Muno’s family?”
Ouch, Arisa.
“Very well. I shall do my very best… I say?”
“I say, quite understood, I confirm.”
Liza and Nana tried imitating Karina’s manner of speech.
“No, you don’t have to copy the way they talk…”
Arisa giggled, prompting Tama and Pochi to start imitating Karina, too, until the conversation devolved into an impression contest.
“I feel like I’m back in my school days.”
The final day of the royal meeting ended before the afternoon, so I went to the royal academy to check on my kids.
While the delay-rune lecture I was looking forward to wasn’t until tomorrow, I had time to kill until the royal meeting wrap-up banquet that evening.
You could also say that I was taking refuge at the academy: The bigwigs would be continuing their tricky maneuvering and negotiating until evening, and I had no interest in sticking my nose in that.
I’d changed into a lighter outfit in the carriage on the way here, since my fancy upper-noble duds for the royal meeting would look very out of place when not in the royal castle.
“Hikaru!”
I spotted Hikaru in the plaza in front of the school gates, looking up at a statue of its founder.
“Ah! Ichi… Satou.”
Her eyes sparkled for just a moment before she corrected herself a little sadly.
“Are you here for a lecture, too?”
“Uh-uh. Just a little stroll down memory lane, you might say.”
From her point of view, since she’d just woken up from a magical cryo-sleep of several hundred years, it was probably like she’d gone to sleep for a night and woken up to find almost everyone she knew was dead. I couldn’t blame her for feeling melancholic.
“Gotcha. Did you know the founder of the school, too?”
“Uh-huh. Melbon was born into a farming family. While we were traveling together, he learned all kinds of things from me and the rest of our friends and ended up getting really smart. He was a great assistant prime minister when I became king, and he was always saying that he wanted to start a school in the royal capital someday.”
“Looks like he made his dream come true, then.”
It was obvious from a glance at the students walking around excitedly: This was a good school.
“Uh-huh. I’m really proud of him.”
Hikaru kept gazing up at the statue.
I left without another word, not wanting to interrupt her reverie.
“Step right up for the free ‘Chant’ special class, a prerequisite for the magic school! The class is almost full.”
After walking for a while, I heard a girl in robes calling out to prospective students.
Now that was a class I should definitely check out.
“Excuse me, I’d like to attend the ‘Chant’ class…”
“Great! Right this way.”
Somehow, she reminded me of a waitress at a pub or family restaurant.
I must have gotten the last seat, because the girl guiding me—a student of the magic school—stopped what she was doing to lead me directly to the rooftop where the class was being held. I sat down in the farthest seat back, and the class began right away.
Oh?
In the very front seat was Mr. Gouen’s daughter Sherin, listening intently to the teacher’s explanation.
She must be taking the course because the Holy Knights, and therefore the Shiga Eight, required the ability to use Light Magic.
“ , this is the chant for the Everyday Magic spell Breeze. If you enunciate it more slowly, it’s a long chant that begins with ‘lyuu—lyu liaru—lonea…’ Now, this chant…”
I’d heard this explanation from Zena, Arisa, and others countless times, so I absentmindedly tuned it out.
I was hoping to learn some secret knack, but it was really just a long-winded speech from the magic schoolteacher along the lines of, If you keep on practicing, one day you’ll suddenly be able to do it like you’ve received a divine revelation.
I guess since most people’s “Chant” skills activated once they built up enough EXP, it probably did work like that, but still…
After the lecture ended, the student “Chant” practice began.
The practice session was led by the magic school students who’d been helping the teacher; after the groups were all set up, the teacher put them in charge and promptly left.
The “Chant” practice was focused on short, simple chants like the Everyday Magic spell Breeze and the Practical Magic spell Signal.
“ Breeze Soyokaze”
“ Signal Shingou”
“ Breeze Soyokaze”
The others were around the same level as I was.
I kept chanting in time with the short staff waved by the student teacher.
“ Breeze Soyokaze”
Oh, sounds like someone succeeded.
I turned around and saw a smirking boy in a robe, surrounded by hangers-on.
“Cut it out, Barry! Don’t get in the way!”
“Oh, come on. I’m just showing these newbs what a real ‘Chant’ sounds like.”
The female student who was instructing me scolded the boy.
“Yeah, exactly! Sir Zorgon’s chants are top of the class.”
“Quit it! You’re embarrassing me with all that praise.”
His hangers-on cranked up the boy’s smirk by another notch.
“Just ignore them, everyone. Keep on practicing!”
“ Breeze Soyokaze”
“ Signal Shingou”
“ Breeze Soyokaze”
At the student teacher’s prompting, we went back to practicing.
The smirking boy strolled around the practicing students like he was an instructor himself, providing unhelpful advice like, “You’re half a beat behind,” “you got the ‘Chant’ wrong,” and other comments that annoyed the lecture students and their instructor alike.
“Barry, stop distracting us!”
“I’m just giving instructions.”
“And it’s distracting!”
The same female student who’d protested the first time dressed him down again, but he completely blew her off.
“Honestly! First that fool Merkray finally left, and now you, Barry?!”
Realizing that she wasn’t getting anywhere, the girl ran off to get the teacher.
The “Merkray” she mentioned was probably the same noble family whose name had come up during the red-rope incident. Their son, who’d been attending the magic school, was evidently a problem child, too. From what I heard at the salon, the entire Merkray family was on house arrest at their mansion until the investigation was complete.
“Oh? Aren’t you that failure who kept getting beat in the knights’ school class?”
The smirking boy started harassing Sherin, who was in the group next to mine.
“Gave up on being a knight, then?”
“ Light Hakkou”
The boy scowled as Sherin ignored him and kept practicing.
“Hmph! Not like a girl who gave up on being a knight after three days is gonna do any better at being a mage.”
“Yeah, not gonna happen for a loser like you.”
“No one likes those herb-smelling magic-school girls anyway.”
“Your face isn’t too bad. Why don’t you go to the ladies’ school and try to land yourself a man with prospects instead?”
As the smirking boy piled on insults, his hangers-on joined in as well.
The student who was trying to instruct Sherin looked too frightened of the boy to do anything but flail nervously.
“Would you mind leaving her alone now?”
I couldn’t stand around on the sidelines any longer.
“You again?!”
“Again…?”
Then I remembered. It was the same rude boy who had been sparring with Sherin the day before.
“Yikes, aren’t you a little old to not know ‘Chant’?”
“Sir Barry, he must be some destitute noble or merchant. I bet he didn’t get a proper education.”
As the boy turned his smirk and insults on me, his hangers-on followed suit.
Since I’d changed into lighter clothes before coming to the academy, they seemed to have mistaken me for a lesser noble at best.
“I’m perfectly aware that I have no talent for ‘Chant.’”
Barry burst out laughing at that.
“But you know,” I went on, “I’m not sure I appreciate you little tykes making fun of me for it.”
Despite what it sounded like, I had been practicing “Chant” for almost a year.
“Excuse me?!”
Barry’s face twisted with rage. Maybe he wasn’t expecting me to stand up to him.
“You’re not allowed to call us ‘little tykes.’”
“Yeah, yeah! Sir Barry is the second son of Baron Zorgon, you know!”
His hangers-on appeared to be vassals or lesser nobles in his family’s service.
“That’s quite enough, Barry!”
The door to the roof burst open, and the female student returned.
But it wasn’t the teacher who appeared behind her. It was the pink-haired princess of Lumork Kingdom.
“Princess Menea! What are you doing here, Your Highness?!”
“I couldn’t find the teacher, so I brought Princess Menea instead!”
The female student shot Barry a triumphant look.
Princess Menea turned toward us.
“Y-Your Highness, I was just—”
“…Sir Satou!”
Ignoring Barry’s attempt at an excuse, Menea came running over and hugged me.
She was still as touchy-feely as ever.
“Princess Menea?!”
The students were all shocked at Menea’s unexpected behavior.
“H-how do you know this pathet…this guy?”
“Viscount Pendragon is my lov—”
“Viscount?!”
Barry and his friends drowned out the rest of Princess Menea’s sentence.
“This guy… I mean, this gentleman is a viscount?”
“Why, of course,” Menea replied coolly. Then she turned to me with a suggestive, “If you needed help with ‘Chant,’ I would be happy to give you private lessons…”
“Private lessons with the princess!”
Barry and several of the other instructing students all let out strangled cries; Princess Menea must be popular at the magic school.
“Uh-oh, this is bad news.”
“We laughed at the head of a viscount family…”
“W-we better apologize, Sir Barry.”
“…I don’t wanna.” Barry stubbornly refused his friends’ pleas. “A wimpy guy who probably can’t even hold a sword isn’t worthy of Princess Menea.”
He glared at me.
It looked more like he was jealous that the princess was clinging to me than that he actually hated me specifically…
Ah, to be young again.
“Oh? Why, Sir Satou is a candidate for the Shiga Eight.”
“The Shiga Eight?!”
Barry reared back in shock.
“He was invited to the Holy Knights’ barracks, I believe?”
“Yes, at the end of last year. But technically, since I officially declined, I’m no longer a candidate for the Eight Swordsmen of Shiga.”
“Oh dear, is that right? Did Liza decline her nomination, too, then?”
“She did.” I nodded at Princess Menea.
“Wait a minute, I’ve heard this viscount’s name!”
“Pendragon, like ‘the Untouchable’?!”
“W-w-we really messed up, Barry!”
Evidently, the hangers-on had heard my name before.
Barry’s face went pale, too.
“Lord Viscount, I apologize for my rudeness.”
“We are so sorry, Lord Viscount!”
Barry threw himself to his knees and bowed his head nearly to the floor, and the other boys followed suit.
Now, that was a speedy attitude adjustment. Noble kids in the royal capital learned the ways of the world from a very young age, it would seem.
“Sir Zorgon, you’ve forgotten to apologize to someone.”
“…Who, her?”
I gestured toward Sherin, who Barry genuinely seemed to have forgotten about.
“S-sorry, miss. I shouldn’t have laughed at your lack of talent.”
You call that an apology?
I cleared my throat, and the boy corrected himself, realizing that wasn’t a real apology.
“No, really, I’m sorry. I take back my insults and apologize. I was wrong.”
“I… I…!”
Sherin hesitated for a moment, then spoke up.
“I might not have the same natural talent as my father. But…!”
Her voice bubbled up like magma that had been building under the surface of the earth.
“But I still won’t give up on being a knight! I’m taking this class because a Holy Knight needs to be able to do magic, too!”
“O-oh, okay…”
Barry seemed taken aback by Sherin’s fierce determination.
Afterward, Sherin and I agreed to accept their apologies, and Barry and his friends scurried away from the roof with their tails between their legs.
“I’m telling the teachers on them later, I promise!”
The female student assured us that teachers from both schools would thoroughly chew them out, since Barry was a student of both the knights’ school and magic school.
“Now, let’s get back to practicing ‘Chant’…”
Before I could finish my sentence, a bell rang out, indicating the end of the class.
It seemed we were out of time.
“Big Sister Karina! Over here, darling!”
Clinging to my arm with one hand, Princess Menea waved gleefully with the other.
Sherin was with us, too.
“I say, Satou, whyever are you with Menea?”
“We ran into each other in a ‘Chant’ class,” I responded.
“Eek!”
A tiny cry drew my attention behind me, where Nana had lifted Sherin out of her seat into a tight hug.
“Master, who is this larva? I inquire.”
“That’s Sir Gouen’s daughter.”
After answering her question, I ordered Nana to put Sherin down.
“How was the class?”
“The class was quite boring, I respond.”
“For a swordsmanship class, there was far more emphasis on etiquette than battle.”
Nana and Liza, who’d accompanied Miss Karina to the knights’ school, seemed unimpressed.
“So to mithril adventurers, even the formal swordsmanship style of Shiga Kingdom must seem like mere theatrics, eh?” Princess Menea chuckled.
“…You all have so much talent.”
Sherin looked at everyone with hopeless eyes.
“I do not wish my hard work to be reduced to the word talent, I protest.”
“Agreed. Until master educated me, I was no more than your average spear user.”
While I agreed with Nana, I did feel like Liza always had a knack for the spear—her level had just been low at first.
“Is that true?”
“Oh, yes. My father told me I wasn’t suited to be a warrior,” Liza reminisced.
“S-so did mine!” Sherin cried. “U-um…do you think that I can get strong like you, too?”
“Of course. As long as you always hold tight to your desire to become stronger, then you surely will.”
Sherin nodded, looking to me with blazing eyes.
Ah, I guess Liza did say, “Until master educated me”…
“Please make me your apprentice!”
Um, hang on, I don’t know about that…
“Just a moment! Don’t be rash, young lady!”
A voice called out from afar. It was Arisa, approaching with the younger kids and Lulu in tow.
“E-erm, and you are?”
“Master’s super staff leader, honorary knight Arisa Tachibana!”
Arisa had waffled up to the very last moment over whether to take the last name Watari, like her sister, Lulu, or Tachibana, her surname in her previous life, but in the end, she chose the latter.
“Asking to become master’s apprentice out of the blue is like a newborn lizard trying to challenge a full-grown dragon! You should study under someone closer to your own size for now.”
Arisa tugged Lulu’s arm.
“Which is why the best candidate for your first teacher is none other than my big sister, Lulu, who can even send demons flying!”
“A-Arisa? What are you talking about?”
Ignoring Lulu’s confusion, Arisa pressed her toward Sherin.
“I mean, she seems like a sheltered young lady. If we let master or Miss Liza teach her and they go overboard, she could really get hurt.”
“Th-that’s not…”
Lulu started to object, then trailed off.
Liza hadn’t trained that many people, but since she was used to working with the likes of Pochi and Tama, she tended to be extremely rigorous.
“Hmm…”
Although I didn’t see any reason why it had to be a member of our group who trained Sherin, maybe this was a fateful opportunity.
It wouldn’t be so bad to offer a little ray of hope to a girl whose future was likely to be full of hardships because of the situation with her father.
“…Yes, Lulu might be a perfect fit. Would you mind, Lulu?”
“I-if I can be of use, I’ll do my best…”
I confirmed with Lulu before I proceeded.
“Sherin, once Lulu teaches you how to build up stamina, you can learn the basics at the knights’ school.”
It was probably best for her to learn the standard sword style if she wanted to be a knight.
“Thank you. I look forward to working with you, ma’am.”
“R-right! I’ll do my best!”
Sherin bowed her head, and Lulu frantically bobbed her head several times in return.
She’s adorable when she’s nervous.
“You can’t even tell who’s supposed to be the teacher.”
Arisa sighed, and I bopped her on the head before we worked out the details.
In the process, I learned that Sherin was allowed to go only to the royal academy and straight back to the villa, which didn’t leave much time for training after class.
“Then I’ll teach you some stretches and stamina-building exercises you can do at home.”
“Y-yes, Miss Lulu!”
Looking embarrassed at being called “Miss Lulu,” Lulu began explaining some simple stretches.
Sherin had even less stamina than I thought: By the time she’d finished a round of stretches under Lulu’s instruction, she was already panting on her hands and knees with exhaustion.
“Wh-why am I so weak…?”
“Don’t worry. Arisa and I used to get out of breath very quickly when we first started, too.”
Lulu gently reassured the teary-eyed Sherin.
“Master, you’re not going to power level that girl?”
“No, she wants to become a knight—a Holy Knight, in fact.”
Power leveling, a method of leveling up a lower-level person by having a much stronger person fight alongside them, was certainly a fast way to improve someone’s stats and help them acquire skills. But from what I’d observed in my party’s growth, the stat increase was based on their current numbers.
If I power leveled Sherin, it was possible that only her level would go up while her physical stats wouldn’t get high enough to become a knight.
“Master, I wish to participate in training the larva as well, I request.”
“Want to help Lulu, then?”
“Yes, master!”
I assigned Nana to be Lulu’s aide so that she could fend off any jerks who might try to harass the pair.
“Shiga Kingdom wasn’t built in a day! Come on—let’s keep trying.”
“Yes, ma’am! I’ll give it my all!”
It looked like Lulu was able to successfully cheer Sherin up.
“I made a new bestie, sir!”
“Tama toooo?”
Before dinner, Tama and Pochi told us about their exploits at the preschool.
“Why, isn’t that marvelous! What sort of person? Do tell!”
Miss Karina had come back from the royal academy with them.
“Her name is Cyna!”
“She’s like a pretty princeeess?”
“Her dad is Mr. Marky Tenten, sir!”
Arisa asked more questions about the girl, and Pochi and Tama were happy to elaborate.
Maybe “Marky” was supposed to be “Marquis”?
Searching my map for a “Cyna” from a marquis family, I got a hit: Cyna Kelten.
According to the noble notes in my Storage, she was the granddaughter of Marquis Kelten, a military minister.
“Her pink frills are too cool for schooool?”
“She saved us from some mean bullies, sir.”
“Oui oui, she’s very niiice…”
“I’m going to show her my novels soon, sir!”
“And my art, toooo—?”
It was clear from their excitement that they were getting along well with Miss Cyna.
Since Arisa looked curious, I told her the results of my search.
“That’s great. If they’ve got a marquis’s granddaughter in their court, the other students won’t be stupid enough to pick on them.” Arisa paused. “Although I’m a little concerned about her being from a military minister’s family…”
Well, as long as it meant the girls wouldn’t be bullied, that was fine by me.
“Listen.”
Mia plunked herself into my lap.
I guess she wants to talk about her day at the academy, too.
“You went to the magic school with Arisa, right?”
“Mm, teacher.”
Mia looked smug.
“You met a good teacher?”
I tried to guess what Mia’s short statement meant, but she shook her head.
“Teacher.” She puffed up her chest again.
At a loss, I turned to Arisa for help.
“She became a teacher.”
“…What?”
Didn’t she go there for lessons?
“The teacher in charge of our class was the headmaster. Turns out he’s a big elf worshipper, and he begged Mia to give a lesson.”
“Mm. Intense.”
Mia nodded, looking a bit put off.
Sounded like the headmaster was a pretty unusual person.
“So Mia tried teaching, but since she explained in her usual way, no one could keep up.”
“Mrrr. Slow.”
I was sure she either explained in one-word sentences or went off on one of her rare lengthy rants.
“And so it fell on your beloved Arisa’s shoulders…”
Arisa slipped the strap of her dress to one side and started to strike a weird pose, so I smacked her lightly on the head to get her to keep talking.
“…to be Mia’s interpreter, of course.”
“Skillful.”
Mia nodded approval.
“And I guess people liked the class, because the headmaster asked Mia and me to be teachers, at least for the course of the special classes.”
“Naturally.”
Arisa scratched the back of her head in a show of sheepishness, saying things like, “Oh dear,” and, “I’m so talented, it’s almost scary!” She was joking around, but I had to agree.
“That’s all right, isn’t it? It won’t affect my advising at the Echigoya Company or helping Miss Nina.”
“Yeah, of course. Just remember not to teach them anything dangerous.”
I didn’t want us to get in trouble for leaking secret information we’d learned in the elf village.
“Obviously! Even I know that much.”
“Common spells only.”
Arisa and Mia nodded. I guess I didn’t need to warn them.
“All we said in class was the kind of thing you’d find in Jibby’s dictionary.”
The example Arisa referred to was Professor Jibcloud’s dictionary of magic terms, a textbook we found in the royal academy library. It was a great book with even more details than the notes of Trazayuya the elf sage that I carried in Storage.
“Teaching was certainly fun, but I enjoyed the magic power measurements and magic shooting-range test before that, too.”
“Mm. New record.”
“Wow, that’s amazing.”
I was afraid to ask what kind of record they’d set.
“We accidentally broke the measuring device they use for new students by overloading it. They had to get an original magic-power-measuring device made by the ancestral king from the royal castle to test us.”
Magic-power-measurement devices gauged a user’s magic power by lighting up star crystals on the device. The number of them determined the user’s rank: Newbies were usually one or two stars, even teachers were three stars, and only the headmaster and some senior staff of the magic school had four stars.
“Five stars.”
“I got four stars, which I’m guessing is for having more than 500 MP? Mia has about fifty percent more MP than I do, so five stars must be more than 1,000 MP.”
Mia puffed up her chest proudly as Arisa explained the details.
“And then, and then!”
They dominated at the magic shooting range, too, Arisa said; she boggled the professor’s mind by shooting all ten targets in one go with the Fire Magic spell Multiple Fire Dance, while Mia shot the teacher’s Earth Magic–made iron golem full of holes using her Water Magic spell Splash Needle.
“Yep, we really got our fill of all the magic-school-setting goodness…”
“Mm, satisfied.”
Arisa and Mia looked thoroughly pleased.
I was glad they were enjoying their school life, as long as they weren’t going too crazy overboard.
“And Karinaaa—?”
“I wanna hear about the night-night acky-demmy, sir!”
Tama and Pochi turned the spotlight on Karina, who’d been listening to everyone else’s tales of glory.
Pochi was probably trying to say knights’ academy. If I remembered right, that was where Karina went along with Liza and Nana.
“I-I’m afraid it didn’t quite suit me, if you must know.”
Karina looked away in a huff.
Since she didn’t seem to want to talk about it, I beckoned to Liza and quietly asked her what had happened.
“The swords…”
That was all I needed to hear.
Just like at the explorers’ academy in Labyrinth City, her Raka-assisted superhuman strength had snapped multiple swords.
The rest of the group looked at Karina affectionately.
“I—I only broke three, I say! The rest of them just got chipped or bent a little!”
It sounded like she’d ruined a lot more than three swords, then.
“Karina, have some sweets, sir.”
Pochi patted Karina on the shoulder.
“When something bad happens, you just gotta eat lots of yummy food, sir.”
“Have some jerky, toooo?”
“Pochi… Tama… Thank you both ever so much!”
Miss Karina hugged them tightly and stuffed her cheeks with cookies and jerky.
As I watched the three friends snacking away, I had them all tell me more about the academy. Hikaru came back in the middle of all this and joined in on the fun chatter, too. The stories kept coming all the way until dinnertime.
As for the delay-runes lecture I attended with Princess Sistina the next day, all the content after the basic explanation was so advanced that many students dropped out partway through. I came thoroughly prepared, however, and managed to learn most of the necessary information. I planned to try incorporating it into a spell of some kind soon.
Arisa and Mia wanted to attend, too, but the lecture hall was full beyond standing room to the point of overflowing out of the classroom. I stopped Princess Sistina from invoking her royal privileges to get them in, since there were more than a few people who seemed to have lined up overnight to view the lecture.
I parted ways with the princess at the school and went to the parents’ day at Tama and Pochi’s class, watched Lulu helping young noblewomen in a cooking class at the ladies’ school, and so on.
When I got back, I heard from Arisa that during a joint magic demonstration with the Shiga Thirty-Three Staves, the Sakura Protector Athena challenged Mia to a showdown, only to lose so badly that she ended up in tears.
“I think you went a little overboard there.”
“Mm. Regret.”
Arisa was cackling, while Mia nodded gravely.
There wasn’t much she could do, since their levels were so different. Hopefully, Athena would keep trying to catch up without letting that discourage her.
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