Chapter 23

Released:

The day of the academy entrance ceremony finally arrived.

Since Estelle wasn’t here to use teleportation magic for us today, we left at dawn to avoid getting stuck in traffic.

I had thought about heading out the day before, but my parents insisted that I sleep at home and leave early in the morning instead.

“Dad, let me know if you’re tired, okay? I have a driver’s license.”

I hadn’t driven in this body before, but since I had a license in my previous life, I figured I could manage just fine.

“Tired? What’s there to be tired about? The car drives itself anyway.”

Well, he had a point.

I didn’t need to take over or worry about switching drivers in a world where the autonomous driving system worked perfectly.

From holographic smartphones to all sorts of advanced technology, this world was clearly a step ahead of Earth in many ways.

Still, it’s fascinating that Emperors and all that stuff still exist here.

Did they fail to get rid of the class system while science advanced? Or… maybe whoever created this game’s world didn’t think too hard about it.

They probably just thought it looked cool and went with it.

“It’s been such a long time since we’ve been to the city, hasn’t it, dear?”

Mom looked at Dad with an excited expression as she spoke.

“Right? I haven’t had a reason to visit the city either. Let’s drop Theo off and go on a date while we’re at it.”

“Oh my, that sounds lovely!”

Ah, I had completely forgotten that my parents were still a couple.

Meanwhile, here I was, in my prime, without so much as a moment to think about getting a girlfriend.

Honestly, they were being quite unfair, weren’t they?

Anyway, we arrived at the Academy about two hours before the entrance ceremony was scheduled to start.

“I guess we did leave a bit early. Well, in any case, you two should go ahead and enjoy your date.”

“Hehe, alright. I wish we could attend the ceremony to watch, but they don’t allow that. Will you be coming home during the holidays, Theo?”

“Uh, I’m not sure yet. I’ll have to see.”

If any events happened during that time, I might not be able to return, so I gave them a vague answer for now.

“Alright, we’ll miss you. Come back stronger.”

After saying my goodbyes to Dad, the two of them got back in the car and drove off to their next destination.

“Well, looks like I’m on my own now.”

Two hours before the entrance ceremony, it seemed there weren’t many students who had arrived yet.

I decided to go in and wait, so I approached the Academy gates and showed my acceptance letter to the knights standing guard. They scanned the QR code on the letter and confirmed my information.

“You’re all set. You may enter.”

“Welcome, Theo.”

“Thank you.”

After passing by the knights who greeted me with a welcome, I finally set foot on the Academy grounds.

The Academy campus, said to be about the size of a small town, looked like it might be a bit of trouble just to find the auditorium where the entrance ceremony would be held.

“Oh, I can register this here.”

Fortunately, as if to account for such concerns, I noticed a QR code prepared for registering the Academy’s internal map onto my smartphone. I quickly scanned it and saved the map to my phone.

When I launched the map, it displayed a wealth of information. The places I was allowed to go, the areas that were off-limits, my current location, and even popular routes frequently used by others.

“To get to the auditorium… Ah, there it is.”

After selecting the auditorium and starting navigation, a directional arrow appeared in front of me.

Back when I first found myself in this situation, I used to be utterly startled by these holographic displays, but now, perhaps because I’ve grown used to them, they didn’t feel all that surprising anymore.

Following the arrow, I was able to reach the auditorium without any trouble.

Hmm, though it took ten minutes to get from the front gate to the auditorium.

It seemed like moving between different locations would take some time as well, especially since classes were held in separate buildings. It felt like it might be a good idea to check travel times in advance for each one.

Although an approximate average travel time was provided, it seemed far more meaningful to gather data tailored to my own walking pace.

“Sir Theo!”

When I reached the auditorium and began looking for my seat, a familiar voice called out to me.

“Ah, Estelle!”

It was Estelle, whom I hadn’t seen in quite some time.

She looked a bit plumper than before and her face and hair were radiating a glossy, healthy glow.

“Looks like you’ve been eating well and taking good care of yourself?”

“No way, not at all! I spent every single day thinking about you, Sir Theo!”

“Sure, while glowing like that?”

As I bantered playfully with Estelle, I noticed the surrounding students sneaking glances at us.

Many of them had already been watching Estelle, but seeing her chatting so casually and calling “Sir” to someone they didn’t recognize must have piqued their curiosity even more.

“Oh, this is my personal maid, Bessie. She’ll be with me only until the entrance ceremony before returning to the Holy Empire.”

“Hello, I’m Bessie.”

Bessie, the girl who greeted me politely stood out with her neatly braided pigtails.

The freckles beneath her eyes added a charming touch. She looked like someone who must have a wonderfully radiant smile.

“Oh, hello. I’m Theo. I suppose you could call me Estelle’s Academy classmate and magic disciple.”

“Oh, disciple, my foot. I just taught you because we’re friends, that’s all.”

Before we became friends, it seemed Estelle had completely erased from her memory the time Duncan used to call her that.

“Anyway, Bessie’s such a good person; I really wanted to introduce her to you, Theo!”

As Estelle spoke, a scene from the game suddenly popped into my mind.

I was sure it happened during the Yuri Mode playthrough. Estelle introduced her personal maid to Lina von Maria, only for Iris to make a snide comment about it.

That incident caused the two to sour on each other and bicker constantly for a while, and if left unresolved, it even led to the Destruction Ending.

This wasn’t good. I had to stop it.

“Ah, so this is where you all were.”

Just as that thought hit me, I saw Iris slowly walking toward us.

“It’s been a while, Sir Theo. And I guess it’s been a while for you too, Estelle.”

Why on earth was her tone so different when speaking to me compared to Estelle?

“So, did you bring a maid with you?”

Ah, right! This was where it all started!

Iris would ask Estelle whether she had brought her maid along. That was the trigger.

“Yes, is there a problem with that?”

And then, because Estelle failed to properly explain that the maid was only staying until the entrance ceremony, Iris made some snarky remark like, “It seems you can’t do anything on your own,” which kicked off their argument.

” It seems you can’t do anyth—”

“Wow, but having a personal maid sounds amazing! So, Bessie, what exactly do you do for her?”

So this time, before the conversation could take a turn, I deliberately cut in and asked Bessie a question.

“Oh, I mostly assist with things like bathing. But the Saintess usually prefers to do things on her own, so there’s rarely any need for me to step in.”

Anything like “Can’t you do anything on your own?” would certainly lose its weight if something like that came out of Bessie’s mouth instead.

When I glanced over at Iris, it seemed she had no intention of continuing with that line of conversation. She just looked over at us without saying much.

“Still, it’s a shame. If Bessie could stay and live on campus, things would be so much more fun.”

“Right? I think I’d enjoy it too, especially if I could be with someone as kind as you, Sir Theo!”

“…Bessie, return to your seat.”

We’d been having such a pleasant conversation, but all of a sudden, Estelle’s expression hardened and she sent Bessie away.

What just happened? Did I mess something up again?

Should I try to cheer her up, or would it be better to just find my own seat and stay quiet? While I was deep in thought—

“Oh, Sir Theo! Your seat is over here! I noticed it earlier!”

Estelle who was back to her usual cheerful expression hesitated for a moment before grabbing my sleeve and leading me to the seat with my name on it.

“Were you looking for your seat? You should have told me. I’m the one who arranged all of the seating, you know.”

Iris looked slightly disappointed, but honestly, I had been so preoccupied with them that I had completely forgotten I was looking for my seat.

“Haha, sorry about that. I was so distracted that I forgot I was even supposed to be looking for my seat. Anyway, Estelle, thank you for finding it for me.”

“Well then, I suppose I should head to my own seat now.”

When I thanked Estelle, Iris who had been staring at me suddenly turned on her heel and plopped down in the seat right next to mine.

“Huh? Is this your seat, Iris?”

“Yes, it is.”

Usually, at least until the entrance ceremony, weren’t seats arranged separately for royals, nobles, and commoners…?

“Estelle, your seat is at the very front, over there at the end, just so you know.”

“Oh, so this is how you’re going to play it, huh?”

“What did I do?”

“……”

For some reason it felt like sparks were flying between the two of them again.

“Well, whatever. I don’t need to stoop to such petty tactics, because I’m already closer to Sir Theo anyway~”

What does being closer to me even matter?

You two are supposed to fall in love with each other, you know that, right?

“Petty tactics? All I did was mix up the seating arrangements to emphasize the academy’s commitment to equality, that’s all.”

It was true. Having separate seating for commoners, nobles, and royals during the academy’s entrance ceremony, despite its message of equality, did make things feel unnecessarily rigid.

Some people had criticized this in the past, but the voices weren’t loud enough to bring about any change, so the system remained the same until now.

This time, however, it seemed Iris had taken the opportunity to completely change it.

“Hmm, I have to admit, this is pretty impressive, Iris.”

“Right? Sir Theo, I worked hard on this!”

One response to “Chapter 23”

  1. RiamuP Avatar
    RiamuP

    Theo rizzing Stelle’s maid lmao~
    Shurabas are starting…!! Thanks for the chapter

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *