105. No Way, Getting More Here
New semester, new term — only a little time remained until it began.
In the meantime, I, along with everyone around me, had been incredibly busy with our own affairs.
“Karl. Just in case, if I say I want to burn my graduate school application, can you stop me?”
With the formal start of graduate school approaching, Selena seemed visibly nervous, as anyone could see. It was as if she was already stressed before even beginning.
She had just come back from hearing the schedule from her advisor professor yesterday, and even just listening to it made her react like that. She was trying to laugh it off, saying it was a joke, but it seemed like a really tough schedule.
Logically, I knew that was ridiculous, but as her boyfriend, I answered.
“If you really want to, don’t do it, Selena. I’ll take care of it.”
“W-what? Don’t say that seriously! I was just joking!”
“I was joking too. Is there really a professor who’d deliberately make Selena suffer?”
Selena was the daughter of the Marquis of Naplio. At the same time, she was Karl Adelheit’s crazy woman.
We hadn’t officially married or even gotten engaged yet, but most of the academy already treated it as a given. They knew that if you messed with her, you might face the wrath of a Medal of Honor recipient.
Anyway, because of all that, there was no way anyone would bother or make her suffer more than necessary.
Professors sometimes had crazy people, but they also knew how power flowed.
Would they dare to speak against two noble families? It was surprising that such a person became a professor, and the academy would probably drop the hammer on them.
“Still, if there really is one, tell me if you see it. Selena.”
I didn’t know much else, but I knew how to shut someone up. Not that I was boasting.
It was right to protect the honor of a Medal of Honor recipient, but a man who just watched his woman suffer didn’t deserve that medal. Did she understand?
Really, if there was a twisted professor, I’d personally step in and knock them out. As for the aftermath, the crown prince I’d helped before would handle it. Clearing the debt with my brother-in-law’s money.
Selena, and Lavrenti, who had just entered this year, seemed pretty busy too.
At first, she received guidance from Selena, but now she was getting guidance from others as well. If Selena was suffering because of the grad school workload, Lavrenti’s situation was different.
“Master. I truly admire you, Master.”
“Suddenly?”
“How did you manage to… return to a place where you have to study like this? It’s amazing. I could never do that.”
She was a noble too. Thanks to remembering her past life, she had academic omnipotence or something like that. So studying hard at the academy wasn’t that difficult.
The problem was reaching the level the professors wanted in one go. My head felt a bit stiff from two lives of military service — past and present. That was the only difficulty.
But Lavrenti said even sitting still and looking at books was hard.
At least, waiting patiently as a sharp shooter was doable, but memorizing and solving the densely packed letters in books was a real ordeal, she said.
“Lavrenti who was willing to wait for hours just to shoot one arrow. You can do it.”
“That’s true, but that was for achieving the immediate goal. A continuous period of hardship like this… I guess the academy is even harder than the battlefield.”
If you say that, the guy who gritted his teeth and returned to the academy after retiring from the army would seem like a fool...
I just didn’t want to stay in the army anymore. I wanted to go back to that peaceful place, the one where I made a huge mistake in my life, and undo it.
That was roughly why I returned, but to Lavrenti, it felt like I had jumped into a new battlefield.
When I told Selena this fact, she said, “Really? That makes sense. Lavrenti is still a bit lacking academically.” But her voice was somewhat stiff.
I thought the two of them were getting along well, but maybe it was just an illusion. Were they still watching each other and restraining each other?
“Actually, the one who’s being restrained the most isn’t Selena or Lavrenti. It’s Eloise, I thought.”
Still, Selena, who was concerned about social eyes and pressure, and Lavrenti, who had different status from the start and was in a master-disciple relationship (this is entirely from Lavrenti’s perspective), was keeping distance, unlike Eloise.
Eloise’s style from the start was to charge in. After all, hadn’t she confessed to me, “I only know how to charge in, you know.”!
So I thought so, but Selena and Lavrenti didn’t seem to be restraining Eloise much.
And in reality, Eloise was busy moving around doing other things elsewhere.
“...The project to make friends with students from the Heigens side?”
“Yes! That’s right! How is it, Karl?! It sounds so exciting and amazing!”
“...Is that necessary?”
“Of course! Think about us elves! We have nothing better than the Empire, yet we have such high pride! And our tempers are fierce! Those guys are now desperate to befriend Empire friends! This is really, really amazing!”
“...”
There were many things I wanted to say. First, was she really desperate to make friends, or was she just rolling around because she didn’t want to see her own ears pickled in salt?
- Eloise Lohengrin forms a new current among the elf students -
I had heard something like this before. It wasn’t told to me, but when I was trying to wrangle the foreign minister who wanted to give me another Order of Merit, I heard it at the foreign ministry.
The even more absurd part was the “new current” part. It wasn’t a new current, but the result of violence and blackmail using fists and knives.
“If you don’t listen, they cut off your ears and pickle them in salt.”
From what I knew, almost all the elves who came to the academy for exchange studies were from noble families.
So, in the Empire’s terms, they were nobles with solid backing. Eloise had not only blackmailed these distinguished people but also wielded violence.
When I first heard that, I was shocked. What kind of crazy elf was this?
I wondered what would happen if the Heigens homeland raised an issue, but the foreign ministry said the Heigens side was already noisy, so there was no time to worry.
“Wait and see. Soon, there won’t be any elves walking with their heads held high. And none of them will be able to say anything about Karl.”
“...Which one is the reason for that mischief — the former or the latter? Be clear, Eloise.”
“Which one would be better? The former? Or the latter.”
“Of course, neither would be good.”
I said it sincerely, but Eloise laughed heartily, saying she was good at joking too.
She also said that she would take charge of the elf education from now on, so don’t worry.
To be honest, I wasn’t that unhappy. Rather, it was quite good. As Eloise said, the stiff, unassimilated, still closed-minded elf students were disrupting the lecture atmosphere.
Still, I couldn’t just deal with them as I pleased. They were allied students, so if trouble arose, it would cause problems for the Empire side.
Of course, it was the Heigens. They were comrades who fought with us against the Luzens, so they were being lenient. If they were Gganf, they would have skinned their heads and hung them on trees like those kids did.
“More than that...”
The Empire had quickly regained peace. Even though a year ago, there was still war raging in the south. As expected, thanks to the name “Empire,” they had calmed the chaos and taken another step forward.
The lack of chaos and the small number were the biggest reasons. Thanks to that, the material and human resources, as well as public perception, were handled without much issue.
However, outside the Empire was different. With Luzens collapsed, a wind of rapid change was blowing in Heigens.
On the opposite side, Lasker was in extreme turmoil over the new crown prince succession issue. Abillesti was relatively quiet, but... I can't say the same for this side.
Having suffered on the battlefield, I thought the only thing left was enjoyable academy life. And indeed, there were characters around me that seemed like they could appear in a romance novel.
But the political situation didn’t feel calm and comic. Something felt like it was about to happen.
“It’s ominous.”
Yeah. It was ominous. Not some crisis of the Empire or anything, but here, an anxiety that another medal might be attached to my chest was rising.
I was quietly living as a returning student, cuddling with Selena, and even playing with the four of us despite being mischievous. What about Eloise and Lavrenti... I don’t know what to do with those women.
Anyway, I wanted to live like a returning student. I had done a lot of activities. If I did more, the high-ups might think, “Ah, it’s a pity to have such talent at the academy,” and force me to graduate.
But there was no way that would happen, right? I thought so too, but thinking about the medal I received, even if that happened, it would be understandable.
“Just telling me to talk to Lasker friends...”
...No. Don’t think that. Negate it. And regardless of other places, Lasker has no connection or intersection with me at all.
Honestly, my abilities are limited to the Gganf front. I couldn’t use them elsewhere, even if I wanted to. Especially the knights of Lasker... I don’t know how to deal with them.