Orientation
Orientation
Becky led him to a large lecture hall.
A podium at the front, and a fan-shaped lecture hall spreading out to face it.
The layout itself was ordinary enough.
It was an impressively large space, but once it was packed full of students, it felt almost cramped.
Since I dislike having anyone on either side of me, I sat down with a wall on my left.
I didn't mind whoever sat on my right, but Becky trotted right over and took the seat.
I only noticed it now, but Becky wore her perfume rather heavily.
She spoke up.
"Phew~ Still, it's orientation today, so I can relax a little."
"Orientation?"
"Yeah. They just tell you what they'll be teaching, how the evaluations work, and then it's done. First days like this are the best."
Plenty of free time wasn't a bad thing.
I hadn't fully taken in the academy's situation yet, after all.
Becky stretched her arms out wide.
"Tomorrow they split us into classes by grade, so... I really need to rest up properly today."
"Split us into classes by grade?"
Those words grated on me slightly.
Not that I failed to understand the idea of grouping students of similar ability for instruction.
No, the problem was that this boy's assigned grade was F.
Given the choice, I'd rather spend my time with the top-ranked ones.
That was only natural.
To gauge the standard of any group, you examine its best.
What level had this academy's top talents reached? What did they pursue?
I was interested in such things, but I had no desire to spend time among the unmotivated.
"So they're dividing us based on the grades we were given?"
"No? We take a new test tomorrow."
If that's how it worked, fine. The corners of my mouth rose before I knew it.
Becky tilted her head quizzically.
"Bothersome for no reason, right?"
"What is."
"What you said. If they just divided us by our current grades, it'd be easy and fine. You're an A anyway."
"You're an A?"
"Barely scraped by, but I got an A. Wait, more than that — what's with that reaction? You're an A too."
Becky looked at me with a bewildered expression.
"I'm not."
I shook my head back and forth. I was an F, and I had no reason to lie.
Becky's eyes went wide and her lips quivered, but I ignored it.
I was far more interested in the chatter around us.
"What did you pass with?"
"Illusion."
"Illusion? Wow, something that difficult."
"Don't even. I was so nervous I thought I was going to die. Failed twice and barely pulled it off at the end..."
The lecture hall was lively. This noise, which I hadn't experienced in a long while, wasn't entirely unpleasant.
"So what're you gonna do after orientation?"
"Think for yourself."
"What are you gonna do after orientation?"
"......"
Talk like that was especially lively. It was the usual chatter of their age group, so it felt fresh.
"What grade did you get in with?"
"Me? Well... average. You?"
"I was pretty average too. Same as always. You?"
But the lively, spirited mood soon chilled.
Unsurprisingly, there were more students probing and posturing than actually enjoying a congenial atmosphere.
Couldn't call it a bad thing. That was the normal way of things, really.
Then suddenly, Becky poked me with her index finger.
And then she grinned brightly and tapped her own ear with her index finger. As if to say, listen to this.
Now that I thought about it, one particular conversation did ring out with unusual clarity.
"Oh, right. Speaking of which, did you see that?"
"What. Ah, I know what you're about to say."
"Yeah! The Agora Board!"
The Agora Board.
The spark someone had lit quickly became a wildfire and spread in an instant.
The whole lecture hall filled with talk of the Agora Board.
"Who in the world figured it out, and how?"
"I even heard talk that the professors are squaring off over it."
"Man, it's just discouraging."
"Everyone, please take your seats."
At that moment, a composed woman's voice pierced my ears.
A woman had appeared at the front of the lecture hall.
The fire that had seemed unquenchable died the instant she appeared.
It was literally sudden. She came into being in a single moment.
'Projection, is it.'
It looked like teleportation, but she hadn't actually come in person.
It seemed to be a method of casting her own image and projecting it before the lecture hall.
Meaning, that female professor's form was projected before all the new students inside every lecture hall.
I suppose a professor is a professor.
Sharp eyes shadowed by dark circles.
Long white hair, a pointed hat taller than her own head, and a loose, wide-sleeved robe besides.
Frankly, her first impression was closer to a witch than a professor.
She looked strict at a glance, too.
"I am Violet. I'll be conducting today's orientation."
There was a trace of annoyance in her manner of speaking as well.
Then, abruptly, she cocked her head to the side and pointed a finger in one direction.
"......You don't take off your hats?"
At that, the students wearing hats hurriedly snatched them off their heads.
"Wow, what a fossil..."
Becky murmured very quietly.
Letting out a long, heavy sigh, Violet continued with the orientation.
"We'll set aside tomorrow's evaluation for now, and today I'll just go over a few basics."
The earlier commotion had vanished without a trace.
The students all fixed on her words with bright eyes.
No, to be precise, it looked as though they'd be in serious trouble if they failed to pay attention.
Her clear, concise explanation continued.
"Thus, magic must be pursued with balanced dedication across many types to achieve great accomplishment. Though, how many branches does magic divide into... is that too basic? I won't bother explaining then, shall I."
The students nodded their heads in perfect unison, hanging on the professor's every word.
The professor quietly doing what was required of her.
That synchronized movement felt a little lively and a little unfamiliar.
"Just as reading must precede writing, so must understanding of the formula precede the use of magic..."
Since I already knew it, the female professor's words held little interest for me.
I wanted to entertain more high-dimensional thoughts.
Students wearing the same uniform, the sound of formulas being written on the blackboard, the students' uniform answers.
The noise of students taking notes, small exclamations of sudden realization, sighs and groans from those who didn't understand...
There were no rules at all, yet it felt as though a certain rule did exist.
Could I express such a thing through a formula? That might be rather interesting.
Attribute: Null.
Formula strokes equal to the number of people.
Would the type be something closer to Harmonization?
Then mix in a little of the Destruction type.
I lost myself in thought. Swam through an endless unfolding of imagination.
And at the end of it.
Snap.
Before I knew it, I snapped my fingers.
"......!"
In that instant, the professor's form before my eyes vanished, and every student jolted in alarm.
A mistake.
I'd gotten too absorbed. I had no intention of actually interfering, but I severed Violet's projection connection.
I drew a formula in my mind. Hastily restored the connection.
"What, where'd the professor go?"
"Ah, you startled me!"
"Is orientation over?"
Moments later, the professor's projected image reappeared.
With a slightly ambiguous expression, she swept her gaze across the students once.
Then, at some point.
"......"
Her gaze fixed squarely on me, and she stared intently.
Just as I felt awkward and was about to say something.
"...To continue the explanation."
She carried on with the orientation again.
◈
After orientation ended, the students drained out of the lecture hall like the ebb tide.
Wasn't today the first day after the new student welcoming party?
Even so, they clustered together in small groups to chatter, or headed outside the lecture hall.
In any case, they enjoyed themselves well enough.
Even dropped into a different world, Plan remained utterly without social affinity.
Of course, he had no intention of cultivating it either.
Still seated where he was, he thought back over what had just happened.
"Hmm."
So, he'd accidentally severed the professor's Projection magic — he'd have to be more careful from now on.
This wasn't Plan's private space. It was a space where countless mages lived together.
At any rate, what should he do now?
Just as he was thinking he ought to wander the academy and do a bit of sightseeing.
"You're not leaving the lecture hall?"
Becky's voice abruptly came from beside him, which struck him as odd.
If anything, Plan wanted to be the one asking.
"Why haven't you left?"
"Um... well, there's something left I wanted to ask."
Plan quietly looked at her. It was a look that said, go on.
"Was everything all right at home?"
"All right?"
"Yeah. I was wondering if you got in a lot of trouble. That thing, you know, your family seemed to have a bit of a misunderstanding."
"Nothing happened."
"Ah, really?"
Since he said it was fine, Becky found herself with nothing left to say and felt awkward.
It had looked like an incredibly strict household — how could nothing have happened?
Silence hung between them for a moment. This time, Plan was the one who broke it.
"Aren't you going to head out?"
"Ah, I should. I'm going to get lunch."
"Eating alone?"
"Well, of course by myself. Who else would I eat with? You enjoy your meal too. See you around."
Becky hurriedly said her goodbyes and slipped out of the lecture hall.
Perhaps because her movements were a bit noisy,
a few girls who had been chatting in a group turned and stared blankly at Plan.
Plan didn't bother to avoid their stares.
A silent staring contest went on for a while, until one of them at last walked over toward Plan.
"Hey, what's the deal between you and her?"
"No deal at all. Why?"
Instead of answering, the girl exchanged glances with her group. Then soon she let out a scoffing laugh.
"She's a commoner, you know."
"A commoner?"
"You didn't know? She's flat-out dirt poor."
I don't particularly care.
But perhaps Plan's indifferent face only made her more frustrated, because she dropped right down into the seat beside him and kept talking.
"At the new student party too, she came drenched in perfume. Trying to hide how broke she is."
"And she only ever talks to the boys. Her intentions are way too obvious."
"Everyone hates her. She doesn't know her place."
"Hmm."
Apparently, class hierarchy was firmly entrenched in this world too.
If anything, that made him all the more interested. Plan himself had been born of humble origins and proved his worth.
"Doesn't seem like much of a problem to me. From the sound of it, she got in with a good grade."
"Bet the boys did it for her again. She's one of those. A queen bee or whatever."
It didn't seem like that kind of character to me.
With dead serious faces, the girls continued to badmouth Becky.
"Don't bother hanging around commoners. Whenever something goes wrong and you look into it later, it's always a commoner."
"Right, your family wouldn't be too happy about it either."
Listening to such talk, Plan suddenly recalled a promise with Scarlett.
"...I'm not a noble either, though."
Plan said it with a faint smile.
At that, the girls' expressions hardened in an instant.
"Ugh, seriously..."
A look as if they'd seen something filthy. A face that said they'd wasted their time.
Around then, one girl whispered to another.
"Hey, now that I look at him, that's him, isn't it... the one who confessed to Hailey and got turned down..."
"What? Oh~ this is that guy? No wonder."
"Let's just go."
Watching the girls quickly put distance between them, Plan simply shrugged his shoulders.
He wasn't the type to pay much mind to rumors in the first place.
After all the girls had left and he was alone in the lecture hall.
"Shall I take a look around."
He too dusted himself off and stood.
No, he dusted himself off and was just passing through the lecture hall's rear door when.
"Student."
Someone in the hallway stopped him.
Violet. The female professor from before.