First Class
I walked down the academy corridor toward the lecture hall for my first class.
It's convenient that we don't have to gather for morning assembly or announcements.
Mado Academy had adopted a university-style lecture system where students simply showed up for the classes they wanted to take. Once a lecture ended, you were free to leave on your own. There were no departments, no homeroom teachers.
That's how Alice was able to meet the other male leads in the original. If they'd been sorted by social rank, she never would have crossed paths with them.
But there were downsides, too. With no one looking out for you, you had to fend for yourself. Nobles had attendants and social networks that fed them gossip; commoners had neither.
"Is it this classroom?"
"No, I think it's this one!"
"We're going to be late!"
Students darted back and forth along the corridor. Anyone still lost on this sprawling campus was almost certainly a commoner.
Originally, Alice would have befriended these kids. I stole that chance from her.
She'd been sniffling again this morning, and I felt a twinge of guilt.
I should make her a friend.
"This way, young master."
Karen opened the door, and I stepped inside with an easy stride. I felt neither nervous nor afraid.
"Hah…! It's Goldrein!"
"I never thought we'd end up in the same class. This is a common course — there are plenty of other sections. Why ours?!"
The course was called Fundamentals of Magic Theory, a required common lecture. Whether you studied magic or magic engineering, you had to pass this class before moving on. No professor wanted students who lacked the basics sitting in their advanced courses.
Funding is allocated based on the students' ranks and grades, so they don't have much choice.
The subject drew so many students that it had been split into multiple sections. I'd landed in one of them.
"Goldrein."
"Your Highness. Good day."
"Indeed. I was a little disappointed you didn't acknowledge me yesterday."
"Your Highness has countless subjects who seek your attention. One missing face would hardly be noticed."
"The Emperor's duty is to care for every subject. Even one cannot be neglected."
And this was the section that held Maximus, the protagonist of Volume One. He greeted me and struck up a conversation as though we were already close.
"Good day."
"Hello."
"Hmm. Right."
But to the two of them he offered only the barest formal replies before looking away.
Alice doesn't register with him at all? I have no idea what's causing this.
A male lead showing zero interest in the heroine — a truly bizarre phenomenon. Since I couldn't pin down the cause, I set it aside for now. I had more important things to do.
"He's not coming this way, is he?"
"Please, please don't come over here."
The commoners were trembling, whispering among themselves. I couldn't catch every word, but they were clearly begging me to stay away.
Nothing terrifies commoners more than a violent noble.
This world's academy offered equality of education but not equality of status. Equality of education meant no discrimination in learning or examinations.
That much is fine. The next part is the problem — and it wouldn't change even if the academy itself did.
Because status discrimination still existed, nobles could easily oppress commoners, and traditional nobles could oppress newly risen ones. Even when bullying and harassment broke out, the academy did little to stop it. The class system was the empire's order, and an academy folded into that empire followed the same rules.
They prevent students from killing each other or inflicting serious wounds — but you don't need to go that far to make someone's life miserable.
By reputation alone, Yosef was a vicious villain who toyed with commoner girls and discarded them. Other nobles might sneer at commoners or ignore them; Yosef interfered directly. That made him all the more terrifying.
"Go in first."
"Yes!"
At last I found the seats I wanted and sent Alice in ahead of me.
"Hi."
"Ah— a-ah, h-hello…?"
In the seat right beside Alice sat a commoner girl. This was the student who, in the original story, had become Alice's first friend — Helena.
Helena was in a full-blown panic.
Why? Why me? I was being quiet!
The legendary womanizer Yosef had just sat down two seats over. Alice served as a buffer wall between them, but that did nothing to dull the terror.
"I'm Alice. Nice to meet you."
"I-I'm Helena…"
Helena answered in a voice that shook violently. Yosef terrified her, and Alice — though less so — was frightening in her own right.
"Your voice is trembling pretty badly. Is something wrong?"
You're asking that like you don't know?!
If Alice had approached her the way she did in the original story — in a plain academy uniform — Helena would have welcomed her gladly. The fabric had looked cheap enough that she would have assumed Alice was a fellow commoner and accepted her without a second thought.
She showed up in a maid uniform trailing after Yosef, and now she's asking why I'm scared? That's not weird at all?!
As things stood, anyone could see that Alice was Yosef's servant. That Yosef — the legendary lecher who didn't bother with brothels, who simply bought women off the street with money and took them home.
…Still, at least it doesn't look like he's after me. Small mercies?
Helena fretted endlessly, but when Yosef didn't speak a single word to her, she managed to settle a little. On top of that, she had grown up as a commoner with no thought of cosmetics or dressing up. Her finances were roughly on par with Alice's, so she never considered herself pretty. That alone convinced her Yosef wouldn't touch her.
They say he only goes by looks, so I'm safe. Yeah. That's right!
Helena decided to be as optimistic as possible. Anything less and despair would swallow her whole. She had clawed her way into the academy; she had to work hard and rise in the world. Only then could she escape her current circumstances and live well.
"Where are you from, Helena?"
"Sentinel. What about you, Alice?"
"Oh — I'm from the Honlight family."
"…Huh? Then you're Lord Goldrein's… servant?"
"That's right. How did you know?"
"Well… you're wearing a maid uniform."
"Ahaha, so I am! This outfit is so comfortable I completely forgot what I had on. Hehe."
"Ahaha…"
Helena was stunned. He had taken a perfectly respectable noble young lady — not even a commoner — and made her his personal maid. Even Maximus wouldn't have pulled something like that so casually.
"And you don't have to speak so formally."
"Wh-what?"
"Let's be friends!"
"U-uhh… okay…"
Helena kept a careful watch on Yosef's every reaction.
Is this Alice acting on her own? If it is, I'll get scolded right along with her. Even so — a maid making friends with a commoner and hanging around with her? Wouldn't that make her master furious?
A servant was the hands and feet of a noble. They acted in their master's place, and any misstep reflected back on the master himself. So when Alice set about making a commoner friend right beside him, Helena dreaded how Yosef would respond.
"Hmm…"
H-he looked this way!
"Ah, young master. This is my friend Helena!"
"I see."
Yosef heard Alice out, then turned his head forward again as though he had no interest whatsoever.
Thank goodness. I'm alive. I survived.
Helena sagged with relief. Yosef had neither commented on nor interfered with Alice and Helena becoming friends.
"Hello, everyone. I'm Assistant Professor Marienne, and I'll be teaching Fundamentals of Magic Theory this term."
A woman with beige hair and amber eyes that glowed like polished gemstones entered the room. Her calm voice and gently downturned gaze made her soft nature plain at a glance. She was the complete opposite of the pink, glittering Alice sitting nearby.
She'll become one of Alice's companions, too.
Marienne didn't give a family name — a clear sign she was commoner-born.
"A commoner assistant professor? Is that going to be all right? Shouldn't we switch classes?"
"Goldrein's here too. We need to transfer, and fast."
"Last I checked, every section of Fundamentals of Magic Theory was full. I don't think there's room for us anywhere else…"
"We might have to pay someone to switch. There has to be a commoner we can persuade to give up their seat."
The moment she said her name, the room erupted into chaos.
Now this is a proper novel academy.
On modern Earth, no university would tolerate this. Once you registered for a class, you sat down and took it. Here, students were weighing options and making a racket about it.
"E-everyone…?"
Marienne tried to quiet the students so she could begin, but her voice was swallowed almost at once. Even as an assistant professor, speaking too firmly to noble-born students could cost her any hope of promotion — not to full professor, not even to associate.
"…What do we do?"
"It's so loud she can't even start the lecture."
The noise rivaled the conversation between Helena and Alice beside me; class was impossible.
It wasn't this chaotic in the original. This must be the ripple effect of me being here.
Originally, Marienne's background alone had been the issue, and it had been brushed aside. With me added to the mix, the severity had spiked. In the original, a righteous Alice would have stepped in to fix it — but as far as I remembered, nothing like this had ever happened on the first day of class.
And if the lecture drags on like this, I won't be able to leave early. Looks like I'll have to handle it myself.
"Haa…"
"Young master?!"
Deciding this was my problem to solve, I rose from my seat.
— Thud. Thud.
With every step I took down the stairs, the voices in that row of seats dwindled. The commoners had already gone silent. The nobles were the problem — and even the noble heirs knew my reputation well enough that they shut their mouths and watched me carefully as I passed.
"I'm telling you, find a way somehow!"
"But, young master…"
"Damn it, sharing a class with that Goldrein bastard is the worst!"
Sitting in the front row was Vistar — the villain Alice would clash with in their first year, and the same one who had picked a fight with me at the banquet. The noble heirs beside him went deathly pale.
So I decided to answer their expectations.
Gaia's Armor was an earth-attribute gemstone, specialized for metal magic.
"What? Why'd it get so qui—"
Vistar, noticing the sudden silence, looked around — and locked eyes with me.
"W-wait—!"
"No."
I sealed Vistar's head inside a metal helmet, plunging him into pitch-black darkness.