After the intense conclusion of the entrance ceremony, the students followed the guidance of the faculty and returned to their respective classroom buildings.
It seemed the sorting process had already been completed, as the students were assigned to classes according to their chosen primary field.
The class I had been placed in was [Support – Class B], a group for students who had selected the Support field as their main focus.
“Nice to meet you all. I’ll be your homeroom professor this year—. My name is Hallen Einers. Feel free to call me Professor Hallen.”
She was a middle-aged woman who carried an air of experience to her.
Einers… Wasn’t that a baron family?
It wasn’t a particularly high-ranking noble house.
However, both in the game and in this world, Hallen herself was quite famous.
Most of the inexpensive yet practical magic tools currently being distributed among commoners were her creations.
Because of that, her popularity among the common people was through the roof.
Sure enough, most of the students around me with their eyes gleaming with admiration were commoners.
Still… there are really a lot of people here.
By rough estimate, about fifty students had been assigned to this class.
But thanks to the sheer size of the classroom, it didn’t feel cramped in the slightest.
The desks were spaced apart every two seats. They reminded me of the seating arrangements from my elementary, middle, and high school days.
Since the seating was assigned completely at random, I ended up at the very back, near the window.
Right beside me sat an unknown girl.
…Or rather, a girl who didn’t know me.
I had a feeling when I was placed in Class B, but to think I’d end up sitting right next to her…
I cast a sideways glance at the girl sitting beside me.
A girl with impressive red hair tied into half twin-tails. Despite the fact that it was a difficult hairstyle to pull off, she looked good in her own way.
Kiana Edenweiss.
The daughter of the Edenweiss Count family, renowned for their achievements in alchemy.
She wasn’t a playable character, but among the many key figures intertwined with them, she was someone who could be considered a protagonist in her own right.
And naturally, in this game, any character of such importance was, just like the playable ones, always teetering on the edge of death.
Among them, Kiana Edenweiss was categorized as a character who was destined to die, no matter what.
She was the first student I had planned to approach after entering the academy.
Unlike the other playable characters, I was meeting her for the very first time today.
…Alright, but how should I start a convers—
“Hey, bastard.”
“…Huh? Me?”
Out of nowhere, she spoke to me first.
Her voice was quiet, just loud enough for me to hear.
“Yeah, you. Why the hell do you keep sneaking glances at me? It’s pissing me off.”
“…Ah.”
She shot me a sharp glare.
Only then did I realize that, in the midst of my thoughts, I had been blatantly staring at her.
Judging by the way she cursed in a manner unfitting for a noble, she seemed genuinely annoyed.
“What, no response? You mute or something?”
I quickly ran through my options, searching for the best way to handle this.
I remembered the countless times I had seen her character in the game and came up with the perfect answer.
“…Sorry. I just thought your hairstyle was interesting. It actually looks pretty good on you.”
“Hmm? That so?”
The slight upward twitch of her lips told me I had chosen the right response.
“Heh bastard, guess you’ve got an eye for things. Even my father says it looks good on me~”
“…I see.”
Though, I had a feeling she’d look just as good with her hair down.
She suddenly became quite talkative, as if she took pride in her hair.
“By the way, what’s your name? I’m Kiana Edenweiss. You can just call me Kiana.”
“Ain.”
“Ain? Are you a commoner?”
“Mhmm, I am. …Is that a problem?”
“Hmm? Not at all. There are tons of nobles who are worse than commoners, so there’s no reason to look down on you.”
Nobles who looked down on commoners.
No one openly admitted it, but young nobles, in particular, tended to abuse their privileges and treat commoners poorly.
Because of that, incidents between nobles and commoners were said to be quite frequent at other academies.
In that sense, Kiana Edenweiss had a rather decent personality.
Even just looking at her father, it was clear. Her family had a good reputation, even among adventurers.
She was the sociable type, the kind of person often called an extrovert, treating commoners without hesitation and getting along with people easily.
…If only she didn’t have such a foul mouth, she’d be perfect.
“Hearing that from the daughter of a count is truly an honor.”
“Ah, shit! That’s gross; don’t bring up my family. Just talk to me normally.”
“If that is my lady’s command, then I shall obey~”
“…Fu*k, you’re mocking me, aren’t you?”
“You caught me.”
Smack!
…Shit, that hurt like hell.
Why is someone who learns alchemy so strong?
“You two over there? I appreciate that you’re getting along on the first day, but could you focus now?”
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
“…Apologies.”
With the professor’s scolding, our conversation came to an end.
It hadn’t been intentional, but for a first meeting, things had gone surprisingly smoothly.
Engaging in meaningless banter like this after so long felt almost nostalgic….and, more than anything, it was fun.
“Alright, now we’ll take some time to organize your elective schedules. Please use the paper we’re handing out to create your timetable based on the subjects you’ve chosen~”
With those words, a sheet of paper and a pen were placed in front of me, just like in the previous classroom.
A timetable, huh…
“Ain, what classes are you taking?”
“Me? …Well, a bit of this and that?”
“Let me see.”
She leaned in, bringing her face close to the paper.
A fresh scent of shampoo tickled my nose.
“…Huh? Hey, are you out of your mind? Why are you taking so many classes?”
“Is it that much?”
“Most students only take about half of this, you know? You signed up for over ten courses!”
Just as she pointed out, I had crammed my schedule with the maximum number of subjects allowed at the academy.
I wasn’t exactly happy about it, but if I wanted to be involved in everything happening here, I had no other choice.
…Honestly, I wouldn’t mind dropping a few even now.
“I just have a lot of things I want to do.”
“…Ha, dumbass. Most people who sign up for random classes without thinking don’t even make it to graduation, you know?”
“Well, I won’t be one of them.”
“Bullshit.”
I chuckled as I watched Kiana shake her head and curse under her breath.
She might not show it, but she was probably saying this out of concern for me.
She’s always had a bit of a meddlesome streak.
“Hmm~? By the way, I didn’t know you were interested in alchemy.”
“Oh, I thought I’d give it a try.”
“Are you any good?”
“…Not particularly.”
Originally, I had signed up for this class just to get closer to her, but now that we were in the same class, it felt meaningless.
Should I drop this one at least?
The alchemy class didn’t seem to have any major incidents tied to it, so canceling it wouldn’t really matter.
While I was mulling over the decision, she suddenly spoke up in an excited voice.
“…Then do you want to match our class schedules? If you actually take all of these, you’ll tank your exam scores and won’t even be able to graduate. At the very least, you need to do well in alchemy, right?”
“Well… yeah, I guess.”
“Okay, then we’re syncing this one with mine.”
With that, she began moving her pen back and forth between her paper and mine.
I had no real reason to refuse, so I simply watched her work.
“…Done!”
“That’s a lot, though.”
“Since we’re already taking alchemy together, wouldn’t it be better to match our other overlapping subjects too?”
“Is that really necessary?”
“…You little shit. Are you ditching your friend already?”
“I was joking.”
It had only been thirty minutes since we met, yet she already seemed to consider me her first friend at the academy.
Having spent most of her life confined to her noble household, she was clearly starved for friendship, and making a friend seemed to mean a lot to her.
So we’re taking alchemy, magical engineering, and mana control together…?
Alchemy was fine, but the other two were a bit of a problem.
There were some unpleasant encounters waiting for me in those classes.
I was worried she might get caught up in something troublesome if we took them together, but at this point, I didn’t want to ruin her excitement by backing out.
I put that concern aside for now and focused on my paper.
In theology, there’s Seria… and Aria who’s a second-year should be there too.
Depending on the subject, classes were sometimes divided by grade level and held in separate spaces, but in most cases, students from different years would end up in the same room.
For magic class, there’s Ron… and for weapon class, there’s Ren…
I pulled from my memories of the game as I continued filling in my schedule.
Every subject was important in its own way, and just thinking about the events that would unfold in those classes made my head throb.
I stared blankly at my completed schedule for a moment before setting my pen down.
“Oh, looks like you’re done filling it out?”
“Yeah.”
“…Heh. Just thinking about taking all those classes is giving you a headache, isn’t it? Dumbass~”
“Yeah… I already regret this so much.”
I agreed with her, but my thoughts quickly drifted elsewhere.
With this schedule, I would get the chance to meet most of the key figures in every subject.
But there was one exception.
One person stood apart from the rest.
In fact, it was the first person I wanted to confirm the existence of after arriving at the academy.
Where the hell am I supposed to find this guy?
The Sage of the Stars.
That was what he was called in the game, though his real name was never mentioned.
He seemed to be a student, yet he was so elusive that even during classes, he was rarely ever seen.
In the game, he was a MacGuffin-like figure.
He appeared insignificant, but somehow, he was always present whenever a major character died.
More precisely, he was someone who always appeared already dead right before an important character was about to die.
As if foreshadowing their deaths in advance.
…If my theory is correct.
I absolutely had to find out who this guy was for the sake of what was to come.
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