I'm Innocent!
I'm being wronged here.
"Haha, to think the class assignment meeting would drag on for a whole week."
Theus Calendar, Year 1815, March 15th.
In the magic city of Lyceum, inside the faculty conference room of Aegis Academy.
Only the most renowned staff members or those holding key positions at the academy were permitted in this room, and for a full week it had been the stage for ferocious debate.
"Problem this way, problem that way. At this point it isn't even about finding the best option—it's just a meeting to dodge the worst ones."
The reason these famously knowledgeable people were wracking their brains so hard lay in the stacks of paper they had been handed.
The roster of new students whose admission to Aegis had been confirmed.
Right now they were locked in heated discussion over how to assign those freshmen to classes.
"Haha, isn't all of this simply because Aegis is too outstanding? Look on the bright side."
This year, beginning with the Imperial Princess herself, a whole wave of children who would one day decide the continent's future had enrolled.
From the academy's perspective it looked like pure good fortune, yet the faculty found little to celebrate.
At this rate, won't a war break out right here at Aegis?
The Empire's rapid rise had shattered the continental balance and left tensions simmering; now the scions of the Three Kingdoms' greatest houses were pouring into Aegis en masse.
It was not unheard of for major figures of the Three Kingdoms to attend the four-year Aegis Academy together, but this year the scale had gone far beyond anything reasonable.
The Empire's princess and young lady, the Kingdom's princess and a frontier marquis's official heir, even royalty from the Federation…
Agram Heistitch, a twenty-year veteran teacher, pressed his throbbing temples and absently fingered the letter of resignation tucked inside his coat.
He had always taken pride in his work as an educator, yet ever since seeing this year's roster he had started carrying that resignation letter with him.
This was nothing short of the "Little Three Kingdoms" assembling inside the narrow grounds of Aegis.
In one sense it was proof that Aegis had been recognized as the greatest academy on the continent—something to be proud of—yet the moment he remembered he would have to deal with these children himself, pride turned to pure misery.
Agram was hardly alone; every teacher shared the same dread, and they were now thrashing out how on earth to separate these absurdly high-born students.
Until now Aegis had assigned classes without regard to status or origin. But if the Imperial Princess and the Kingdom's Princess ended up in the same class… no one even wanted to imagine the fallout.
On the other hand, sorting them by nation would simply plant the seeds of factional strife.
What if classes divided by country started fighting one another?
And what if the classes in question contained a princess and a princess?
This is enough to drive a man insane.
It was no joke.
This was a spark that could genuinely lead to war.
The continent was a powder keg waiting for a single match. The precarious balance had already tipped toward the Empire; spears honed over centuries now pointed at one another's throats.
One tiny, trivial spark would be enough to blow the continent's peace sky-high.
And Aegis—where the children of all three nations were gathering—looked very much like the place that spark might be struck.
I think I'm losing my mind.
Mix them or sort them.
In the end the faculty chose to mix the children of the Three Kingdoms together.
Not randomly, however. They would assign each student a priority rank by national status, then group them according to those ranks.
If every nation ranked its own students and the classes received them in sequence, a rough balance could still be maintained.
The trouble was that ranking the incoming students of each nation proved fiendishly difficult.
Even looking only at the Empire, the princess and the young lady occupied first and second place without dispute—but from third place downward no one could agree on an order.
As for the Federation, which was not even a single nation but a collection of them, figuring out how to rank its swarm of royals was a nightmare.
Ranking great houses was a sensitive matter even for Aegis professors, and no matter how necessary it felt, the act of grading students by birth left a bitter taste in every mouth.
"Wow, every single student is a walking headache. What kind of circus is this academy putting on?"
Among the professors who had plenty to say but dared not open their mouths, a young man's voice cut through the room with refreshing bluntness.
Every teacher snapped their gaze toward the corner where he sat.
"Sorry. Meant to keep that thought inside."
"Ahaha…"
The gray-haired youth flipping carelessly through the student roster as if it were an annoyance.
Realizing all eyes were on him, he gave the professors a perfunctory bow and returned his attention to the list.
A few teachers bristled at the rudeness, yet no one could bring themselves to scold him.
His name was Willy R. Garcia.
One of only five Sages on the entire continent, and among Aegis's faculty the man of highest status and renown.
He had come to the academy by order of Magic Association Chairman (Tower Master) Kisei Senazon, and could even be said to speak for the Magic Tower itself. To the teachers he was every bit as uncomfortable a presence as the Imperial Princess.
No—perhaps even more so.
At least the princess would enter as a student, subordinate to her teachers. This man had arrived as a fellow instructor, their equal.
"Hm? Agram, is there something on my face?"
"Ahaha… nothing at all, Sage Garcia."
"Come on, we're fellow teachers at the academy. Don't call me Sage."
As if that's possible…!
Agram quietly closed his eyes and once more fingered the resignation letter in his coat.
If even a Sage like Willy was this hard to handle, how exhausting would every single day become once the princesses arrived?
Haah…
Please, at least spare me the class with a princess in it.
Agram's wish went unanswered.
A man whose luck usually crawled along the floor, he drew the short straw in the faculty lottery and was assigned as homeroom teacher of Eagle Class—the very class that would contain the Imperial Princess.
Aegis's first-year students were divided into twelve classes, each holding roughly ten to thirteen people.
It might seem too few students per class, but the original setting had deliberately kept numbers low so that the absurdly high-born children could be managed more easily.
After all, if a class that already contained a princess also had more than thirty students, its homeroom teacher would be ready to die.
It would be a miracle if stress-induced baldness didn't claim them.
Perhaps the tiny class sizes were the last line of defense for the teachers' hairlines.
Truly a pity.
"Looks like this is our class."
First-year Owl Class.
In the original story this was the class Noir and the protagonist attended—known among players as the "protagonist party" class.
Naturally every member was a playable character, and true to the "protagonist party" label their overall rarity was high.
Excluding the non-playable protagonist, three of the nine were 5-Stars and two more were 4-Stars.
If you counted the homeroom teacher as well, four out of ten were 5-Stars—an absurd concentration.
Owl Class's 5-Stars were as follows:
◈ [Wandering Meteor of the Night Sky] Willy R. Garcia
◈ [Noble Pure-White Lion] Noir von Leonhart
◈ [Nascent Starlight] Lia Marx
◈ And, much later, the Yeoro spy who would be released as a 5-Star: Nameless
When I played, Nameless had not yet been released, but I had used the other three.
Every one of them was strong.
Willy especially—Destiny's first limited character—had driven the "no-Willy" players into a special kind of rage.
On top of that his performance was human-rights tier.
I still remember the days I spent teasing the Willy-less every single day.
It was hilarious.
—Rattle.
While I was lost in nostalgia over the time I pulled three Willies in a ten-pull and spent the whole day scraping salt into the gallery's wounds, Young Miss threw the classroom door wide open and strode inside with perfect confidence.
Why does a Western-style school have sliding doors?
The classroom layout itself looked more Korean or Japanese than Western, too.
The fact that the entrance ceremony fell on the first Friday of April, and so many other little details… the setting was supposedly Western, yet Japan kept peeking through in the strangest places.
And the game had been made by Koreans. Truly ironic.
"Ah, Lady Noir! And Miss Blanc!"
A pink-haired girl greeted us the moment we stepped through the door.
She was tiny—barely over 150 centimeters—with an utterly adorable face.
"My, Pel. You're in the same class as us?"
"A pleasure to see you, Miss Pel."
Her name was Pel Lucoda.
The Lucoda Merchantry, her family's trading house, was the one the Leonhart ducal house preferred above all others, praised for being more honest and upright than any competitor.
That very integrity had kept them mid-sized even with the powerful backing of a regular client like the ducal house—yet the Lucoda family took pride in remaining mid-sized.
Naturally I also favored the Lucoda Merchantry, and Miss Pel and I had already been acquaintances for three years.
"Hehe, having two people I already know is such a relief."
Pel had been a member of Owl Class in the original as well; if I remembered correctly she was a 3-Star.
Her performance was average, but as a free starter character she had been widely used in the early days.
I had leaned on her quite a bit myself.
"Being in the same class as the two of you, I just know academy life is going to be wonderful."
"I feel exactly the same way, Pel."
In the original, Noir and Pel had barely known each other's faces—awkward acquaintances at best. Here they were close enough to call each other friends.
Proof that this world was already diverging from the source material.
Friends only get better the more of them you have, so I considered it a good change.
As for me… whether in my previous life or this one, the only person I could truly call a close friend was that one guy who once gave me a profound realization.
"Were the strawberries you bought last time delicious? I specially sorted them at Miss Blanc's request."
"They were wonderful. Thank you, Pel."
"Hey! You there—white hair!"
While Young Miss and Pel were exchanging greetings, a loud voice rang out from the doorway.
All three of us turned toward the sound. A red-haired girl stood there, pointing straight at us and shouting.
After the entrance ceremony—and after getting thoroughly scolded by the teacher in charge—I finally managed to reach my assigned classroom.
No matter how much I protested that I had been hit by a carriage, not a single person believed me.
It was so unfair.
—Rattle.
"Huh…?"
I forced down the gloomy feeling, opened the classroom door—and froze at the sight of a girl whose hair was as pure white as snow.
"Hey! You there—white hair!"
Silver hair and red eyes.
There was no way I could mistake a face that distinctive!
That was definitely the young lady I had tried to save earlier today!
"You know me, right?!"
I rushed over and thrust my face right up to hers.
Yes, it was her.
Even another girl could tell she was pretty, and that silver hair kept drawing the eye for some reason.
There couldn't be two people like that in all of Lyceum!
"Excuse me… who might you be?"
"Look closer! You've seen my face before!"
"Hold it. Whoever you are, step away from Blanc."
The black-haired young lady beside White Hair tried to shove me back, but this was one thing I could not back down from.
Only if White Hair remembered my face could I finally clear this unjust accusation.
"Mmm… ah! I remember now!"
"See?! You do know me!"
"Huh? Blanc, is she an acquaintance of yours?"
Yes! Now I can finally wash away the injustice!
Vice-Captain Atinus! I did it! I've cleared the false charge and I'm clean again!
"You're that late student, aren't you?"
"No I'm not!"
Well, I am, but—no!
Noooooooo!!!