Why Is Young Master Yune Here?
Why Is Young Master Yune Here?
Lunch had been way too heavy, and the spring sunshine was simply too warm. I ended up dozing off against the shoulder of the girl sitting next to me.
If I'd just walked out of the lecture hall afterward, she would've gotten quite a few dirty looks. The youngest son of the Grand Ducal House falling asleep on a baroness's daughter in class? Even I had to admit, that was a major incident.
I noticed she'd been put in an awkward spot, so I somehow managed to divert the other cadets' attention.
She'd been controlling her expression so well I almost missed it, but without anyone around to back me up, that old Ryu Si-u sense for trouble kicked in.
'If anyone gives you a hard time, come straight to me... Wow. Was I a total manly man just now?'
Quite proud of myself, I grinned, thoroughly satisfied.
Rescuing a girl in distress. Manly man. No, beyond a manly man—a hero.
My cape just happened to be red. A scene of me, the hero, rescuing a girl was already playing inside my head.
'I'm, like, a total hero...! When I become an archmage, I'm definitely doing this for real!'
"Pffhehe...."
I giggled to myself, lost in daydreams.
Chloe, walking next to me, glanced over at the sound.
"You seem to be in a good mood."
"Yeah. Hey, wasn't I super manly just now? Listen up, listen!"
I dragged Chloe off to the student council room to brag and chattered on and on. I even forgot about the nap I'd planned to take there. Just the two of us.
"So I put on this really cool expression and said, 'If anyone bothers you, tell me,' and made my exit. Ahh~ Isn't that exactly like a Held?"
"...? In many ways, I suppose so. Though I didn't expect you to call yourself a Held, young master."
"Hmph. If a man like me isn't the Held, then who is?"
"...Aheh. Yes. You are the very Held indeed, young master. The beloved Held prince."
"That's right— Ah, no! Not a Held—a Heldin! I misspoke!"
"But doesn't Held suit you better than Heldin, young master? Since you are a man."
"I said no!!"
Then I learned the hard way that in this world, Held—meaning hero—carries the same embarrassing connotations that "heroine" did back in Ryu Si-u's old world. Wearing myself out frantically explaining that was just a bonus.
'Every time I think I'm getting used to this world, it blindsides me again....'
* * * * * *
After chatting like that and snacking, it was time for the last lecture of the day.
A course on Fire Element Theory, taught by the professor who shared Miss Flare's name.
I'd left the Noble Hall and was heading toward the Magic Department building. Without my usual cloak, everyone's eyes zeroed in on me. Probably the red cape—only nobles at the Academy could wear one.
"Coming here from the nobles-only areas makes me feel like a spectacle. Are nobles really that fascinating?"
"Perhaps they're staring because you're cute, young master? A Held like you...."
"Ugh. Stop teasing me!"
All those sideways glances made it awkward. I was goofing around with Chloe as we approached the Magic Hall when—
"Young Master Yune. Good day to you."
A familiar voice came from behind.
"Oh? Nibuer?"
"Meeting you outside is... a little strange, isn't it?"
"Yeah. It's still a bit strange for me, too."
When I turned around, there was Nibuer in the plain Academy uniform.
The outfit actually suited her surprisingly well, so a compliment slipped right out.
"By the way, Nibuer. That uniform looks amazing on you. Is it because you're so slender?"
"Aheh. I appreciate the compliment. And you look extremely like a manly man yourself, Young Master Yune."
"...Right!? Hehe. See, Nibuer knows what's real."
True to her reputation as a compliment vending machine—returning every bit of praise twice over—Nibuer immediately handed me an embarrassingly flattering line.
She then fell into step naturally beside me. Chloe on my left, Nibuer on my right.
Walking with both of them like that only intensified the stares around us.
-Isn't that the Northern Grand Duchess's youngest son? The one who enrolled as a freshman this term?
-Lugging around an elf and a beastkin... They say nobles have weird hobbies, and apparently it's true.
-Elves really do have small chests.
-...Shut your mouth and don't act so uncultured. Still can't drop those adventurer habits?
People around us weren't even subtle about their whispering.
-Smirk.
-H-hik...!
-Hey, let's get out of here before we get marked.
But the moment Nibuer swept a smiling glance around, the murmuring died as if it had never been. A few of them paled and started inching backward.
...Ah. Now that I think about it, Nibuer's hearing is terrifyingly good, isn't it?
"What? What exactly did those people say to make them react like that? Did they insult you, Nibuer?"
"It's nothing, young master."
Nibuer had surely heard what they said, so I asked out of curiosity. But all I got was a smiling "nothing."
"If they were badmouthing me, I can handle—"
"More to the point, young master. You're attending the Fire Element lecture as well, yes?"
I wanted to press further, curious about what had been said, but Nibuer abruptly changed the topic, and I couldn't dig deeper.
"Yeah. How do you know that? I only signed up yesterday."
"I have my methods."
"Huh... Nibuer, you're really something."
"Thank you. At any rate, I had pre-registered for this course as well. Imagine my surprise when I heard you'd signed up for it."
"I was shocked too when I heard you'd registered. By the way, why'd you pick this course? Didn't you say you weren't great with spirits, Nibuer?"
"It's not for self-improvement. Just filling credits."
"Ooh... a theory course just to fill credits. Just what I'd expect from Nibuer."
The conversation drifted naturally to the lecture we'd be taking together: Fire Element Theory.
I went on and on passionately about my dreams of fire magic. Nibuer listened, peppering her attention with the usual compliments. Chloe watched me, all excited, with an indulgent smile.
The three of us walked into the Magic Hall building like that.
...Completely unaware that I was about to run into a very, very dearly missed face.
* * * * * *
"Haa...."
Professor Flare, newly appointed to the Academy to escape appraisal work, let out a heavy sigh—yet another one. Lately, there'd been a lot of them.
'I'm a professor, but I'm a parachute hire, so everyone looks down on me. And I couldn't recruit a single graduate student.'
The reason for her sighs was precisely that: despite the term starting, she hadn't managed to secure a single master's-level assistant.
Flare had been dispatched as a visiting professor thanks to Nibuer pulling strings backed by the power of the Northern Grand Duchess, Erengard.
But from the graduate students' perspective, joining her lab offered no visible merit, since she lacked any substantial research achievements. Even worse, after the incident with Yune's Solar Fire Carp Inner Core, the academic magic community had been avoiding the Fire Magic Tower. Its reputation had yet to recover from the blow it took then. Flare herself was a former high-ranking member of the tower—and considering the Magic Tower was a primary employer for magic-track Academy students, getting on the good side of someone in her position shouldn't have been a bad move...
But since no graduate student hoped to join the Fire Magic Tower anyway, it was meaningless.
And so Flare, despite being assigned a lab, had essentially gotten a raw deal from the world and failed to recruit a single assistant.
'I'm confident I'd teach them well. My skills are solid, too. I even wondered if my horns were scaring them off, so I hid them with Polymorph Magic. So why won't anyone come...?'
Facing the prospect of juggling both professorial duties and personal research alone, Flare finally resolved to resort to a forbidden method.
'...If grad students won't come to me, I have no choice but to grow my own. I'll bait a few sharp-looking kids into becoming undergraduate researchers.'
...That method: seducing naive Academy freshmen and training them into lab assistants. So inhumane that even by her own dragonkin standards, some incompetent pseudo-demonfolk somewhere would marvel, "Is she more of a Demon King than I am...?"
Of course, freshmen were unlikely to catch the eye of a mage as skilled as her—but that was how desperate she was. She'd take a cat's paw if one was offered.
'I'll teach them well! I'll only ask them to do really basic experiments at first. It might be tough for a while, but once they finish through grad school, they'll thank me...!'
With this so-called "raise academy kids and put them to work as grad students" plan in mind, she began diligently prepping for the upcoming lecture. Usually the first lecture was just a light explanation of the course and then dismissal, but she figured that wouldn't be enough to captivate freshmen. She prepared very, very thoroughly.
* * * * * *
Once her meticulous prep was complete and the time arrived, Flare strode confidently to the lecture hall where she would teach.
The moment she entered, the classroom—which had been oddly noisy—fell completely silent. Only the sound of someone inhaling sharply could be heard.
To maintain her act as a capable new professor, Flare didn't even glance toward the students.
Only after dumping her prepared materials onto the podium did she sweep her eyes—overflowing with charisma—over the class.
...Or rather, that was the intent. But her plan fell apart the moment the lesson began.
" ...!!?"
Right in the very front row: a noble boy draped in a red cape. Too familiar to her—the subject of the final commission she'd taken eight years ago as an adventurer and mercenary.
Yune, who she had never once forgotten, was staring up at her with wide, uncomprehending eyes.
She couldn't believe what she was seeing and leaned forward, stretching toward him. Wondering if her eyes were playing tricks.
-Thump.
'...What!? Why is Young Master Yune at the Academy—no, wait, is he already that age? But why, of all things, a Fire Element Magic lecture?! And more importantly, he looks like he hasn't grown an inch since he was eight!?'
Her aghast stare at the student held not a trace of the "charismatic, highly skilled new professor" she'd meant to portray.
'Why is Young Master Yune here!?'