The Advisor and His Assigned Student (1)
"So, Chairman. You're telling me to take the Hero's lover on as my student...?"
"Hnnngh...! Pah! Hup...! No! You've misunderstood me, Professor Neferna."
Sweat beaded on his skin and vanished as steam. I was seated a fair distance from the desk, and still I could almost believe the man was running a steam engine.
The feral fellow endlessly working muscles fit to burst, with dumbbells heavy enough to rival a few dozen pounds of meat, was none other than this school's Chairman. My superior, in other words.
He was well into old age, and yet his chocolate-brown skin hadn't taken on a single wrinkle, as if someone had signed it with the words Health! And vigor! The reason he had summoned me to the Chairman's office on this peaceful afternoon was simple. He wanted me to take on a new student.
"Hnnngh! The ones transferring into this school... pah! Three of them in all. ... Hup! Whoo! The Hero of the Sixth Holy Sword, the young lady of House Clorand who is his lover, and..."
I cut him off at the word Hero.
"The master of the Sixth Holy Sword. You mean the boy the papers won't stop mentioning. The one who joined the Great Expedition."
"That's right. A fresh-faced young man who crossed over from another world. Success at a young age, honor guaranteed... and a romance with a noble young lady besides. Splendid. Just like the protagonist of some story. I'm jealous, I tell you—jealous! Uwahaha!"
Sweat gathered in beads on his gleaming bald head and dripped free. Light glanced off it, and today he sparkled more than ever. How could a human head shine like that? Smooth as polished stone, glittering and bare. Magnificent, I thought.
The moment the thought crossed my mind, the Chairman abruptly turned toward the woman beside me and began showing off his muscles. She recoiled in open disgust and shook her head for dear life.
"Hah! It's coming...! It's coming! The pump is coming! Uwooooh! What do you think, Professor Freyja? These biceps of mine, swollen fit to burst!"
"No, Chairman. That's unpleasant. Please don't come any closer."
"Oh dear. That won't do, that won't do. I nearly committed a discourtesy before a lady. My apologies."
"...A l-lady?"
Freyja, who had been backing away, furrowed her lovely brow as far as it would go.
Platinum-blonde hair, dazzling and yet demure. Skin like sculpted porcelain, a finely raised nose, lips drawn in a gentle curve. If there were an encyclopedia of beautiful women, she would have adorned the first page. A slight scowl only deepened the allure; most people ended up staring at her with slack, helpless expressions.
That same Freyja squeaked and raised her voice as if in protest.
"Agh! How many times do I have to say it? I'm not a woman! A man! A man!"
"Yes, yes. No matter that Professor Freyja inhabits a woman's body in this life, one can hardly ignore the fifteen years she lived as a man before reincarnating into this world. A gender-swapped reincarnation—the gods really are too much, aren't they? Haha. Don't you agree, Professor Neferna?"
"Please don't look to me for agreement, Chairman. That would run afoul of the newly revised Otherworlder Anti-Discrimination Act."
The Chairman laughed heartily and turned his fire on me. Sorry for the teary-eyed Freyja, I awkwardly changed the subject.
"...And I will never, under any circumstances, take a member of a Hero's party as my student."
"Come to think of it, the misunderstanding still hasn't cleared. What I'm asking of you isn't the Hero's lover."
"Pardon? Then..."
"I'm well aware that Professor Neferna is not particularly well disposed toward Heroes. As Chairman, Headmaster, and your one and only closest friend! There's no way I would make such an unreasonable request. Uwahahaha! What I want to ask about is the other student who travels with her."
"......Whatever it is, I won't be taking on a student this way."
"You won't regret it, of course, my old friend."
The Chairman wiped his sweat with a towel and went on.
"I hear you still haven't recruited a single student. And that one of your classes... is in danger, or so I'm told."
".........!"
"Faculty evaluations at our school are exceedingly strict, so even full professors often burst out in complaint. Especially for an adjunct lecturer like yourself... if the evaluation is poor, you are in no position to ignore the penalties. In more ways than one."
I swallowed, nerves getting the better of me. The fact that my course evaluations had hit rock bottom lately must have reached the Chairman as well. But that was because I got review-bombed! It wasn't my fault!
"Th-then...!"
"I hereby appoint you as that student's academic advisor. Whether or not one has an assigned student weighs heavily on the evaluation. Ordinarily this wouldn't be permitted for a lecturer, but I shall exercise my privileges as Chairman and Headmaster."
"Eugene Sir Neferna, at your service! In gratitude for the Chairman's ocean-deep grace, I shall transform any student whatsoever into the finest talent this school has ever seen!"
"Mm. That's Professor Neferna for you. You never betray my expectations! Hahahahaha!"
"Of course. When have I ever betrayed the Chairman's expectations? Hahahahaha!"
"I thought as much, which is why I called that student here. Miss Cecilia. You may come in now."
"Hahahaha... haha...... huh?"
What?
"Are you an idiot? You walked right into that."
Freyja scolded me on a faint sigh.
While I stammered, the door opened, and a woman appeared.
"She is of the Fox Tribe, and as you have already heard, she has real combat experience assisting the Hero as a member of the Sixth Holy Sword's party. Her spirit magic is already advanced, and she is a student without a single flaw worth picking at."
Hair tinged with a delicate pink, like carefully blended paint let loose in water. A tall beauty. That was my first impression, and not only because of the long legs stretching beneath the student uniform. The fox ears rising sharp above her head were so full and lush that they may have made her seem taller still.
"Miss Cecilia, this is Professor Eugene Sir Neferna, who will be your academic advisor from now on."
I turned my stiff, creaking body and looked at the student called Cecilia. If I panicked here, whatever dignity I had as an adult would collapse. Calm and bold, even at a sudden meeting—and at the same time, I had to project a professor's intellectual authority and lock in that first impression. I squared my shoulders and dropped my voice deep as a cave.
"Well met. I am Professor Eugene Sir Neferna. Let us get along from here on."
"Could you not? That forced, solemn voice, with the corner of your mouth twitching, is giving me the creeps."
Freyja looked at me as if I were hopeless. Cecilia didn't so much as glance my way. She merely inclined her head at an angle and offered a thin, slender greeting.
"............... It is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Cecilia."
"..............."
"..............."
A student of few words? She seemed shy....
"And the woman beside me... oh dear, my apologies. She isn't simply a woman, is she."
"........."
"Professor Freyja, who labors under the delusion that she is a man, is an otherworld reincarnator who retains the memories of another world. She currently teaches the otherworld studies general-education course at our school."
"Chairman, please stop saying unnecessary things. ... I'm sorry, Student Cecilia. It got a little noisy, didn't it? Nice to meet you. I'm Freyja, and I teach the required general-education course, Life in Another World with a Reincarnator ~ Let's Understand the Otherworld Together ~. I've never seen one of the Fox Tribe before, but your tail and ears are really pretty! We'll probably meet in class someday, so let's get along."
When Freyja smiled, gently, it felt as if the air around her melted. It was a look that could make even another woman's heart lurch, but it only caught Cecilia's arid gaze for a moment.
"............... Yes."
"Got a ring through your nose, huh."
"...... Say one more word and I'll put one through yours too."
"Tch. Touchy."
Having left the Chairman's office side by side with me, Freyja clicked her tongue and stopped.
"I have to go teach. What about you? Didn't you have a class around now?"
"... Wh-wh-what are you talking about? Did I have a class??"
"Ah. So it got canceled in the end. What a shame."
"I had four! Four people! If only four more had shown up, I could have held the class normally without a hitch! Kkh! And I even tried anonymous viral marketing on the bulletin board in front of the dorms!"
"Good grief. What are you doing on a board the kids use? Aren't you embarrassed? ... Five people isn't a number worth regretting anyway. Give it up."
"No! I can't do that! Giving it everything until the very end is my motto."
I thumped my chest hard, turned to Cecilia, who had been following behind, and declared:
"Therefore, Student Cecilia, now my assigned student. There is a place you must go with me."
"... Wait! You're going to show her that on her first day?"
"Heh...! Today is the last day of the add-drop period. There is no better day for moving students' hearts."
"Haa... Student Cecilia. If you don't want to, you can say so. Just let whatever that jerk says go in one ear and out the other. You don't have class today, right? You could sit in on mine instead."
Stealing my student right in front of me, are you, Freyja.
"......... I'm fine."
But Cecilia only answered without expression, as if she still had no interest at all. Her tone was so plain it carried a loneliness.
A lecturer is no different from a producer offering education as a service. Treating students as the consumers of my lectures, then, could hardly be called a mistaken approach. Lectures that go unchosen are culled. That is the way of nature. And a culled lecturer has no future. So when an unpopular lecturer like me takes to the street to drum up business, and when one subscribes to the view that this, too, is a means of survival—is that not the true current the age itself has ordained?
At least, that is what I believe.
Thump, thump!
I struck the drum hard, and the students turned their eyes on me.
Thump! Thump!
A drumbeat that shook the heart. Mm. Buying it on impulse the other day really had been the right call.
"Hear ye! This is not an opportunity that comes every day! Who am I, you ask? Some thirty years ago, the Second Holy Sword who conquered the eastern Snowfield—the Hero Neferna...! His one and only remaining son! That is what they call me, Eugene Sir Neferna. Haha, the Hero's son—ahem... I'm almost embarrassed to say it with my own mouth! But it is still too early to be amazed. Heir to the blood of so proud a Hero, Professor Eugene Sir Neferna presents Fundamentals of Magic Circle Structure! Take this one course alooone, and?! Good heavens! How astonishing! Structural studies is a free pass all the way through the 4th Class qualification exam!"
"Hey, is that for real? The Hero of the Second Holy Sword is the Duke of Silence, the one who wiped out the monsters of the eastern Snowfield twenty years ago. You're saying that's the son of that legendary Hero?"
"Professor Neferna. Neferna... right. That Hero's surname was Neferna too. A professor wouldn't lie, so is he really the Hero's son?"
Sure enough, students were already taking an interest. I forced down the twitch at the corner of my mouth and pressed on with the pitch.
"And that's not all~ Register for the course right now, and? Tales of my proud father's days in active service as a Hero, free of charge! The finest lecture in the Empire, the kind that makes the girl next door, her big sister, her little sister, and her big brother all cheer! Register now, and as a special bonus..."
"... Oh, right. Didn't you say you'd taken Professor Neferna's lecture? How was it?"
"Don't even start. Last semester I failed to wheedle my way into Professor Alexander's class, so I had no choice but to take it, you know? He does seem to teach something, but it's pretty shaky. More than anything, his lecturing is garbage. I couldn't tell what he was saying. He doesn't hand out grades easily either, so he isn't popular. Maybe if you're some empty-headed kid who signs up the second you see a decent face."
Students who overheard that conversation began leaving in disgust. Damn it. It's over. I'll sit this wave out for a turn.
"Whew. Cecilia. Hot, isn't it? Want a drink?"
"...... I'm fine. Please don't concern yourself with me."
Cecilia still turned her head away, coldly. She seemed to have no interest whatsoever in anything happening around her, myself included. I'd heard individualism was in fashion among Hero parties these days. She seemed to be of that sort.
Of course, as her academic advisor, I was prepared to understand everything about her.
Mm. As her academic advisor.
It was my own thought, but wasn't it a little cool...?
"Oh my~ Teacher. So. You. Were. Here. I looked everywhere."
A familiar voice. Her face drew itself in my mind of its own accord. I answered offhandedly, without even turning around.
"Student recruitment is over."
Crack.
The sound of something twisting drove itself straight into my spine.