Dormitory Chaos (1)
It was well past nightfall, the sky fully dark, by the time the carriage carrying the three of us finally arrived at the Isle of Knowledge.
The line of noble carriages streaming in for academy enrollment stretched all the way into the island's interior—just as it had on the day of the entrance exams—so Ethan and I once again found ourselves facing a long, slow crawl of carriages ahead of us.
In the end, it wasn't until nearly eleven o'clock at night that we at last managed to set foot inside the academy.
"You'll want to take a room at the inn nearby and head back to Blackwood tomorrow. Long drive—my thanks for the trouble."
"Of course, my lord. I wish you a safe and uneventful life at the academy."
"Thank you for your hard work."
"Good night, mister coachman!"
After seeing off the coachman and the carriage that had ferried the young lord of the house and his two maids all the way to the academy, we too dragged our travel-weary bodies into the academy dormitory—all three of us burdened with armfuls of luggage packed for the four months ahead.
A brief explanation before we go any further: the dormitories of Luminor Academy were divided into four buildings, from Hall One through Hall Four.
Each department admitted roughly fifty students per year, and with four years of study in total, that meant around two hundred students were enrolled per department. There was simply no way to house and manage fifteen to sixteen hundred students—across all eight departments—in a single building.
So the operating system of Luminor Academy was to split the departments two to a hall.
Hall One housed the Swordsmanship and Spearmanship Departments; Hall Two, Archery and Hand-to-Hand Combat; Hall Three, Engineering and Pharmacology.
And Hall Four was the dormitory for the Magic Department and the Department of Theology—meaning Ethan and I, enrolled separately into Swordsmanship and Magic, were headed to Hall One and Hall Four respectively...
Hold on, wait a second.
Come to think of it, I was Ethan's exclusive maid. Shouldn't I be living in the Swordsmanship Department's dormitory along with him?
It wasn't unheard of for a student to simultaneously work as an exclusive maid or butler while enrolled at the academy. Among servants, of course, there were always those blessed with exceptional talent or physical ability.
Princess Seraphin herself, for one, had enrolled Luke into the Engineering Department and then simply deployed her as a personal knight guard.
Unless you were royalty like Seraphin, granted a special dormitory of your own, the standard rule was that a servant-student whose master belonged to a different department had to remain in the servant's waiting room attached to their master's dormitory suite.
Which meant that I, as Ethan's exclusive maid, should naturally be assigned to Hall One, the Swordsmanship dormitory...
...But then, what about Isabel?
Think about it—Isabel had come along to the academy this time specifically to fill the position of my exclusive maid.
So if I, Isabel's actual employer, was to move into the Swordsmanship dormitory, would Isabel be left behind like a duckling separated from its flock in the Magic Department suite?
Even if that were somehow arranged, the academy would hardly approve it—and more importantly, the moment it happened, there would have been no point in bringing Isabel all this way in the first place.
Her whole reason for following me and Ethan to the academy was to assist me in attending to him. If our assigned buildings were split apart, then attending to Ethan would inevitably become an ordeal.
But if I stayed in the Magic Department instead, then there'd be no one left to attend to Ethan at all. So in a situation like this, what on earth were we supposed to—
"Lilith?"
"...Yes, Master Ethan."
"What's the matter all of a sudden? You walked into the dormitory building and immediately put on that grim expression."
"...To be honest, I was pondering a problem that arises from the dormitory assignment for Isabel and myself."
"A problem?"
"A-a problem...?"
Ethan tilted his head at me with interest at the mention of a possible problem, while Isabel fixed me with an anxious, worried stare.
To the two of them, I laid out the issue that had just surfaced in my head.
Having heard my explanation, Ethan smiled once, then answered in a tone that suggested he found it hilarious I'd even worried about something so trivial.
"Ah—now that you mention it, I never explained things to you, did I."
"Pardon?"
"You don't need to worry about me and Lilith being separated, or Lilith and Isabel being separated. I already have a plan in mind."
"...Is that so?"
"Mm. ...Although, before we enter the dormitory, there's one document Lilith needs to fill out. We'll have to stop by the administration building first."
"Understood, Master Ethan."
...Well, now that I thought about it, ever since this guy started getting any ideas in his head at all, he'd actually been pretty decent at scheming his way through things.
Trusting that if it was Ethan, he'd have come up with a solution on his own, I followed him without a second thought into the administration office.
And the moment I looked over the document he handed me there, I couldn't help but feel a twinge of awkwardness.
— Betrothed Parties —
(Male) Ethan Richard Blackwood
(Female)
The dormitory application Ethan passed to me was what the players of Luminor Academy called, in so many words, the couples' dorm application.
He'd already filled his own name into one of the boxes and was handing it over to me—and for some reason, his intent in doing so felt more than a little strange.
"......."
What on earth was this supposed to mean?
Half convinced I'd misread it, I closed my eyes and opened them again—yet the phrase marital/betrothed parties at the very top of the form hadn't changed in the slightest.
And the name Ethan Richard Blackwood, written in the box for the male betrothed, remained stubbornly, unfalteringly in place.
Naturally, my gaze drifted to the person who had handed me the document in the first place.
"Master Ethan...?"
"...Don't worry, I'm not handing it over with any strange intent."
"You seem well aware that it could be interpreted strangely."
"As sorry as I am about this, Lilith, there was no other way for male and female students to share a dormitory suite. Or, to be precise—no other way for the three of us, Isabel included, to use a single suite together."
"I'm sorry?"
"Each master is only allowed to bring one exclusive maid into the dormitory suite. If we wanted Isabel in the suite as well, you and I would have to use separate rooms—and then it would become a chore for both of you to attend to me, wouldn't it?"
"That's... a fair point, but..."
Even so, I hadn't anticipated us using a marital/betrothed dormitory suite.
Marital or betrothed suite or not, that was just what it was called—in the original game, it existed purely as a device for unlocking cohabitation CGs with the heroines.
And those special event CGs naturally included lewd ones as well.
Not that I had any intention of recreating scenes like that with Ethan, of course.
Objectively speaking, though, there was nothing particularly problematic about it.
A noble was a noble, even if I was only a baronet's daughter by courtesy; whether I got engaged to Ethan or married him outright, nothing about it would violate imperial law.
And of all the ways for me, Ethan, and Isabel to share a single dormitory, this was without question the cleanest, most effective solution.
But still—sharing a couples' dorm with Ethan, of all people? Something about it felt a little... prickly.
Then again, it wasn't as though Ethan were likely to pull anything untoward, so I probably didn't need to agonize over it too deeply...?
Besides, I had no intention of marrying any man in the first place, so whether rumors spread that Ethan and I were engaged or had broken it off, it made no difference to me either way.
If anything, gossip would be far more of a nuisance to him than to me—and this was his proposal in the first place.
There was no need to twist it into something deeper than it was.
And there was certainly no reason to take the hard road out of stubbornness when the easy one lay right there in front of us.
"You're truly not handing me this with any strange intent, are you?"
"...Mm. N-no strange intent whatsoever, so rest assured."
"Very well. If Master Ethan says so, I can hardly think of a reason to refuse."
"...Right. That so?"
"Yes. As Master Ethan said, if Isabel is to join us in the dormitory, this is the most efficient arrangement."
"Thank you for understanding, maid."
Having reached my own conclusion, I filled in my name in the appropriate field of the marital/betrothed dormitory suite application I'd taken from Ethan.
After all, I had no desire to wander the academy grounds at this late hour, barred from my own dormitory indefinitely.
— Betrothed Parties —
(Male) Ethan Richard Blackwood
(Female) Lilith Blackwood Rosewood
...Having his name and mine lined up side by side under the heading of betrothed parties stirred something odd and complicated in my chest—but it wasn't as though we were actually engaged or anything.
It was just a simple piece of paperwork so we could share a dormitory. Beyond that, I felt absolutely nothing.
Really. Absolutely nothing.
After completing and submitting the couples' dorm application—er, the marital/betrothed dormitory suite application—with Ethan.
It took roughly half an hour to finish processing the paperwork, and only then were we finally assigned a two-person room in Hall One.
True to its designation as a marital/betrothed suite, it was a spacious room furnished with a single wide double bed.
One door led to a private bath and washroom, another to the attached servant's waiting room—a fairly simple arrangement overall.
Presumably because these suites were frequently used by nobility, the facilities themselves were far more serviceable than the inn we'd stayed at on the island's outskirts.
...I had confirmed beyond all doubt this time that there was no separate changing room, so I'd be sure not to make any strange blunders like last time.
"You're all worn out from the long journey, so tonight we'll just change into something comfortable and turn in."
"Yes, my lord~!"
"Understood, Master Ethan."
Just as Ethan said, the long carriage ride from morning until night had left a fair amount of fatigue pooled in my body—getting to bed early and preparing for tomorrow did seem the wiser course.
Luminor Academy's entrance ceremony was only three days away, after all, and there was plenty to be done: conditioning myself, readying my uniform, and so on.
With that in mind, Isabel and I gathered our luggage and started to move to the servant's waiting room next door—only for Ethan to materialize out of nowhere and plant himself squarely in our path, blocking us from entering the suite.
When Isabel and I, utterly baffled, turned our eyes on him, Ethan declared something thoroughly bizarre with the shameless confidence of a man announcing a bold new policy.
"I'll be taking this room. The two of you can use the spacious one out front instead."
"...I'm sorry? Wh-what are you saying?"
"Master Ethan?"
"The suite out front is a two-person room, and the servant's waiting room sleeps one. Surely it's far more comfortable for you both if the man of the group takes the single room alone?"
"Y-you WHAT?!"
"......."
Arms full of his own luggage, Ethan was now attempting to march into the servant's waiting room, brandishing a logic that defied all reason.
In place of Isabel, who was left flailing in helpless panic beside me at this bombshell declaration, I hastily seized the arm of the man trying to claim the single room for himself.
I could not possibly let his remark slide—and before I knew it, my mouth was firing the blunt truth straight at him.
"Are you in your right mind right now, Master Ethan?"