137. The Stormy Transfer Student (1)
137. The Stormy Transfer Student (1)
As a rule, when a new semester began, students naturally asked after one another and chatted about how they'd spent the break.
After summer vacation ended, the students returned to the academy with plenty of stories to share and filtered one by one into the lecture hall for History of the Continent, their first general-education course of the second semester.
"Whoa, isn't starting the first class with History of the Continent a bit much?"
"How do you even kick things off with that snoozefest?"
"Seriously. Ugh, I really don't want to be in class..."
Idle chatter drifted through every corner of the lecture hall. They hadn't seen each other for almost two months, so stories had piled up like mountains—no helping that. Students clustered in twos and threes, eagerly yammering about everything that had happened over summer vacation.
"So we went to the Parnia beaches, and..."
"I went with my father to the imperial capital to escape the heat..."
"All I did the whole break was train at the villa."
Just as the flood of summer stories was reaching a peak, a male student, wearing the look of someone who'd unearthed an enormous secret, let a new piece of information slip from his lips.
"I accidentally overheard some professors talking... and there are transfer students."
"What? Transfer students?"
"Yeah. I heard there are two of them?"
"Two? You sure you didn't mishear?"
A new topic, sparked from something one male student had happened to overhear. The rumor spread bit by bit from student to student.
Fresh faces appearing was bound to become the subject of gossip.
"No, but the transfer exam is insanely hard. I heard it's tougher than the entrance exam—"
"Guess they really worked at it."
"One I could believe, but two?"
"Did you hear what department they're in?"
"Are they guys or girls?"
The information that had begun with one male student spread through the room in an instant. By the time class was about to begin, it was almost all anyone was talking about. Every time the door opened, all the students turned to look at the newcomer before falling back into their chatter, repeating the cycle.
"If they still haven't shown up, maybe you really did mishear?"
"No, I swear I heard it."
"But shouldn't they be getting here any minute?"
Five minutes before class. Student opinion had settled on the conclusion that the male student who'd first mentioned the transfer students had simply "misheard." He wore a put-upon expression, but so far no evidence had appeared to back up his words.
Suddenly branded a liar, the male student stared at the door with desperate eyes.
'I definitely heard there were transfer students, so why weren't they here yet?'
Meanwhile, there were also those who paid no attention to the transfer-student talk. One such person was Martina, a first-year in the Magic Department and the first-year representative for that department. She looked toward the door with worried eyes and spoke.
"I don't see Elisa."
"Elisa? Who's that?"
"You're in the Magic Department with her and don't know? The girl with the purple hair?"
As if dumbfounded, Martina stared at the female student who had asked. The girl opened her mouth with an awkward look.
"Ah, the gloomy girl... right?"
"Haah... that's right."
The answer didn't sit well with her, but Martina swallowed her displeasure and nodded. Elisa's reputation was more or less the same everywhere—only the degree varied.
"Why isn't she coming..."
"Maybe she overslept?"
"Elisa has never been late before."
Gloomy and solitary though she was, Elisa had never been anything less than diligent. That was how Martina saw her, which was why her concern was genuine.
Three minutes until class started.
Time was starting to cut things close.
'If she was late on the very first day, the professor wouldn't like it...'
Just as open concern was showing on the young noblewoman's face, the door opened one minute before class. By this time most students were too absorbed in their own talk to bother looking, but a few still cast glances at the door carrying a faint glimmer of expectancy.
And those students were at last rewarded for their patience.
"P-pink hair?"
"That's the person I think it is, right?"
"The Saintess... is a transfer student?"
"What's that chair? It has wheels on it."
"No, more importantly, who's the guy pushing it...?"
The sudden flood of new talking points threw the students into confusion: the Saintess entering through the rear door in a moving chair, the hulking man in a knight's uniform pushing it, and the three female students clustered around him.
At that bizarre spectacle, the students buzzed.
"I thought there were two transfer students?"
"Look behind them. There are three more."
"What about that man?"
"He's in a knight's uniform. He must be a knight."
"So even the Saintess brings an Escort Knight to class..."
The students fired off guesses in a flurry, eager to satisfy their curiosity.
New faces—and the Saintess herself showing up!
It was enough to make even the least curious person erupt with interest. Amid that chaos, Martina gaped at the Saintess's party with an expression of shock.
'Wh-why is Elisa with them? A-and that man is...'
Martina thought back to a few months earlier.
Elisa standing blankly before the dungeon, and the knight who had helped her. Martina had never imagined she would meet them again like this.
"One's Viola? She's not a transfer student."
"So there are three transfer students?"
"Elisa isn't a transfer student."
"Then the red-headed one is..."
Under the students' curious stares, Saintess Karina took a seat in the very back row and let the countless gazes wash over her.
Having spent her whole life under countless gazes, Karina treated this much attention as nothing. She naturally turned to the person beside her and addressed Yohan.
"The students might be startled, so please try not to look too scary."
"I'm not used to being stared at."
The man answered with a displeased look, folding his arms and leaning against the classroom wall. As an Escort Knight, he wasn't permitted to sit, so the posture was only natural.
"You stand out wherever you go, Yohan."
"I do stand out, in a lot of ways."
"B-but I th-think it's not, not a bad thing..."
Tuning out his companions, the massive Escort Knight slowly swept his gaze around the room. Curious and awestruck stares met him. Suppressing a sigh at the attention he'd have to endure until everyone grew tired of it, he watched Karina take out her textbook.
'To think I'd actually gotten to enter the academy like this. It felt strange.'
Because of his ambiguous position as an Escort Knight, he'd assumed he would never set foot in a lecture hall, yet now that he had, he even felt moved. After all, he was now seeing with his own eyes a scene he'd only ever witnessed countless times in the game. Yohan pressed that sentiment deep inside his heart and scanned the room.
Curious gazes remained fixed on Karina. A few students showed interest in him as well, but they were a tiny minority. No matter how imposing he was, he was nothing compared to the Saintess.
'There were quite a few familiar faces.'
From the couple Martina and Lewis, whom he'd met last time, to Bretton, who'd been staring from a corner in shock and now awkwardly averted his eyes once their gazes met—faces he'd seen a few times caught his eye.
Including them, a lot of students looked like they had plenty to say, but unfortunately the History of the Continent professor, Professor Galleon, was already standing at the podium.
"Ahem, we'll begin class now!"
Leaving a wake of sighs tinged with regret, the elderly professor hid his own curious gaze and began his lecture.
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The lecture I attended for the first time in over a decade completely shattered my expectations for classes in a fantasy world.
"Emperor Helios, in Imperial Year 731..."
The professor droned on in a voice capable of putting anyone to sleep, not much different from the lecturers I had suffered through back in Korea. I rolled my neck to stay awake and glanced around. Elite or not, even these students struggled with a lecture this dull; roughly a third were already asleep.
Surprisingly, Millia wasn't among that third.
I'd figured Millia would be the first to crash.
Millia could not stand boredom, so seeing her watch the board without complaint was genuinely surprising. She was even taking diligent notes and seemed to be following the lecture properly. Perhaps because of that, Elisa and Karina beside her appeared to concentrate a little better as well.
Well, honors students sat together, so maybe it was only natural.
I was so sleepy I could die.
Why did every history teacher have a voice designed to induce sleep?
Couldn't they make this a little more fun?
...I knew classes weren't meant to be fun, but I wished he would at least make the lecture engaging enough to keep me awake.
The lecture gradually coasted toward its end. The evidence was the students slowly coming back to life, one after another.
Which meant I, too, was soon to be freed from this tedious lecture.
And I wouldn't have to keep standing until my legs ached.
That was when I was idly watching the students sneaking glances at the clock.
"Heh heh, today we have the Saintess gracing my lecture with her presence. Along with a new student."
Perhaps deciding it would be a shame not to mention the new transfer students, the professor abruptly brought up Millia and Karina. Now all the attention was on them. That could not be helped.
"Your name was Millia Quartz, I believe. Millia."
"Yes!"
"Could you perhaps tell me what event occurred in Imperial Year 536?"
That had not been covered in the lecture. Judging by the students' expressions, it seemed to be common knowledge.
Millia sprang vigorously to her feet at the professor's question and shouted without a moment's hesitation.
"In Imperial Year 536, the Rebellion of Count Telomere took place!"
That was... right?
She had answered so confidently that it had to be right... right? Slightly uneasy, I turned toward the smiling professor.
Looked like it was the right answ—
"Incorrect, Millia."