Prologue: Now That I've Graduated from the Academy...
The graduation ceremony for the National Academy's seventeenth class.
The grand hall of the Magic Department.
For the first time in the five years since I had fallen into this romance-fantasy world, I was truly, genuinely moved.
...So today is finally the day.
Graduation day from the Academy.
How long had I waited for this moment?
Only today would I at last escape this godforsaken place. Only today would I become a free man in the truest sense of the word.
"……."
I took one last look around the Academy grounds, committing every corner to memory.
The dormitory where I had lived for five years. The dining hall where I had taken every meal. The lecture halls and library where I had studied myself half to death. All those familiar buildings and their lavish facilities.
Judging by appearances alone, this place really did look like paradise.
And why wouldn't it?
Extraordinary welfare provisions for the students. The finest knowledge money could not buy, available nowhere else. A faculty of the absolute highest caliber in the world. Festivals and cheerful events stacked on top of it all.
The conditions were so good that every citizen of the Empire prayed to be admitted. It was all too easy to imagine the Academy as a happy little heaven.
Having lived it myself, I knew better.
This place was a living hell.
And there was exactly one reason I thought so.
...Why in the world do they have to fight over the succession here?
Anyone in the Empire could enroll at the Academy—commoners, nobles, even the imperial family itself.
That was precisely where the trouble began.
Every single member of the imperial bloodline currently locked in the succession struggle—from the First Prince all the way down to the Third Princess—had enrolled. Academy students were the Empire's finest talents, so of course the royals wanted to recruit them early.
To pull people onto their side. To keep them from falling into enemy hands.
They resorted to every vicious, dirty trick imaginable, and the Academy had long since degenerated into a cutthroat political arena.
If I had known who the next emperor would be, this place might have been a golden opportunity. Unfortunately, I knew nothing about that particular plot point.
Ah... I really should have finished the book.
I had only skimmed the early chapters of this romance fantasy. All I remembered was that a neglected heroine from a minor house happened to meet the imperial heirs at the Academy and ended up entangled in various romantic subplots. That was the full extent of my knowledge.
So for five long years of Academy life, I had worked tirelessly to stay out of every faction. Pick the wrong side and you could end up dead in a ditch. I managed my image so carefully that no one could find a single handle on me.
Of course people still tried to recruit me now and then... but I managed to fend them all off and make it this far.
Really, truly... it was a hell of a fight.
Anyway, that desperate battle for survival was finally over. As of today, I was leaving this place behind.
I was savoring the swell of emotion when someone called my name from behind.
"...Kyle!"
I turned and found familiar faces smiling at me.
"Congratulations on graduating! Kyle!!"
"D-did you, uh, stay well...?"
"Hey, I told you to keep in touch!"
My three closest friends from the past five years. During the graduation exams they had all looked like zombies, but today every one of them wore a radiant grin. Mine was probably the same. Glad to see them, I returned the greeting.
"It's been a while, everyone. Three months, right?"
We hadn't seen each other since the final exams. After the hellos, we launched into conversation at full volume. It was our last day of school; there was so much left to say.
"Back then, Kyle was..."
"Th-that was, um, actually your—"
"...No it wasn't!"
Unforgettable moments from school life. The idiotic memories we had shared. Funny stories from each of our lives. There really was no end to the talking.
We chattered on, completely losing track of time.
Then, out of nowhere, one of them tossed a new question my way.
"...So, Kyle. What are you going to do now? Have you decided on a career path?"
Anna, with her short white hair, fixed me with a curious look.
Career path, huh...
With graduation here, everyone was wrestling with the same question. I nodded and opened my mouth to answer.
"Me? I'm—"
But before I could finish, an utterly bizarre claim came from the side.
"K-Kyle's probably going to the Magic Tower with Professor Bento. R-rebuilding the lost ancient dimensional magic is, um, his d-dream, after all."
Etia's stammered words nearly made me choke.
What? What on earth was she talking about?
Rebuilding lost ancient magic? I had zero interest in any of that!
And since when was I joining the Magic Tower? How could she say something so outrageous with a straight face?
Yes, I had spoken privately with the professor, and yes, he had suggested I join the Tower—but this was a complete misunderstanding. No one in their right mind would willingly walk into slavery.
I was about to clear things up at once when another friend cut me off first.
"Ah! I remember now! No, Kyle said last time he wanted to become the Imperial Minister of Magical Justice, right? He was super interested in how to become a government official. Knowing Kyle, he'd aim for the absolute top..."
No...
Absolutely not.
Besides, I was a commoner. Climbing that high was obviously impossible. How had these misunderstandings piled up like this? And why were the others nodding along?
I was still trying to figure out where to begin my explanation when red-haired Elin offered her own theory. I listened with the last scrap of hope I had left—only to find she was just as wrong.
"Didn't you say you were joining some duke's house? Settling down in one place until retirement..."
I denied it in a hollow voice.
"No... You're all wrong."
Just what kind of picture of me had they painted in their heads? We had gone through five years of shared misery, and they still didn't know me at all?
A little hurt, I suddenly realized something.
Ah. Come to think of it, I had never once told them about my dream. Hmm... yeah, no wonder they had no idea.
The moment the thought struck me, they all turned to look at me and asked in unison,
"Then what are you going to do?"
Three pairs of eyes fixed on me. Finally, they were asking me directly.
Looking into those curious gazes, I briefly revisited the dream I had carried for so long.
The wish I had formed the instant I opened my eyes in this romance fantasy. Or perhaps it was a lingering regret from my previous life.
From the day I realized my new existence was that of a nameless extra in a romance novel, right up to this very moment, I had lived every single day for this one dream alone.
A dream I desperately wanted to achieve. A dream that meant everything to me.
For the first time, I spoke it carefully, almost gingerly.
"Economic freedom."
"......What?"
I had studied harder than anyone. Every preparation I needed was already finished.
So now—
"I'm going into business and making a killing. Then I'm retiring before I get old and living off the rest of my life in pure leisure."
Young & Rich.
FIRE Tribe.
At last, it was time to chase that dream.