First Day of Class (1)
First Day of Class (1)
I couldn't bring up stories about the First or Second Prince, whom I didn't even know. As for incidents connected to me, apart from the Duke's house, there was only the Hierro Marquisate—the one that had been wrecked over the illegitimate-child issue.
Well, even if they decided it had nothing to do with this, they could still use interrogation or magic here to uncover the terrorist plot, so I could simply say I was mistaken when the time came.
"The Hierro Marquisate incident? Is it related to the Empire?"
As expected, he knew about it. After all, there was no way he wouldn't look into my background while asking me to help the Princess.
Though it probably had nothing to do with this.
"I just thought it looked dangerous for her to be in the same entrance ceremony hall as the Princess. Did I do something wrong?"
I subtly backpedaled, just in case.
"No, you did well. Wait here. I'll check it out myself."
He immediately signaled the other knights and headed straight for the infirmary.
Now then, how would this play out?
Without taking a seat, I stood at the back and watched the entrance ceremony.
The ceremony proceeded, and the Freshman Oath came and went.
Piar performed his oath admirably as well.
Time passed.
Midway through, a commotion broke out near the infirmary, and before the entrance ceremony had even ended, a message appeared before my eyes.
[The crisis situation has ended. A new 'Save Point' has been established.]
The female instructor lying in the infirmary committed suicide as soon as she woke up.
It was at that exact moment that the message declaring the end of the crisis situation appeared before my eyes.
I was glad the repeated deaths had stopped, but the culprit's suicide was deeply disappointing.
From my experience so far, unsatisfactory conclusions like this often meant that more fatal crises would follow.
Still, what happened later was a problem for later.
Right now, I could be grateful that the agony of death had stopped.
The female instructor's suicide was hushed up far more quietly than I expected.
The entrance ceremony ended normally, and it seemed the female instructor was treated as having resigned after leaving early.
In the end, most people didn't even realize an incident like that had occurred. Only the royal officials and a few academy personnel learned the truth.
And even then, they learned only the truth I'd shared with them.
So, after the entrance ceremony ended and the quick cleanup was complete, Katrin summoned me to her office.
Katrin and the chief knight who had witnessed the female instructor's suicide were waiting there.
Katrin's office wasn't merely tidy; it was almost barren.
A few swords hung on the wall, and the only furnishings were a desk and a couple of chairs.
At her gesture, I sat in an empty chair and spoke with Katrin and the chief knight.
I suppose I could think of this as an escort-strategy meeting or a debriefing about Princess Aisha.
"I intended to interrogate her as soon as she woke up, but she caught on and immediately bit down on poison."
At the chief knight's words, Katrin sighed.
"So we couldn't figure out who instigated it?"
"My apologies."
"It can't be helped. Still, it's a shame. It was a lead we'd found after so long."
Expressing her regret, Katrin turned to me.
"Was there anyone else suspicious, by any chance?"
I sank into deep thought at Katrin's question.
But I stuck with my initial decision.
"No. Even that woman was someone I'd only happened to remember by chance. Honestly, I wasn't even sure."
That was how I concealed the two students who had turned into bombs.
I had not the slightest desire to protect children who were merely victims.
Nor was I particularly keen on leaving behind bait that might reconnect the severed lead.
The biggest reason I hid them was that I had no plausible way to identify those two as culprits.
Claiming I'd seen the two in the Marquis domain would make no sense, and I'd never seen them meet the female instructor, so there was no way to connect them.
Revealing that those two students were bombs would ultimately mean exposing my abilities, and I had no intention of doing that.
Based on my experience so far, the crisis-situation-resolved message wouldn't appear again under identical conditions.
At least for now, the two students wouldn't explode and cause repeated deaths, so I had plenty of time to figure something out.
It was a somewhat dangerous line of thinking, but keeping my secret mattered above all.
With her hair pinned up and dressed in her academy instructor uniform, Katrin had the mature, sleek look of an attractive woman, utterly unlike her mercenary days.
In my past life, I definitely would have asked for her phone number the moment I saw her.
And she would have rejected me instantly.
But perhaps because my current body was younger, I felt no romantic spark or infatuation toward her at all.
Had my tastes changed after being reborn...?
Either way, both Katrin and the chief knight looked disappointed by my answer.
"In that case, while we must investigate the deceased woman further, we'll have to wrap up the rest of the investigation as it stands. The academy seems to be feeling pressured as well."
Just as Katrin said, it seemed the entrance ceremony incident would end here.
Had this been the entrance ceremony terrorist attack I witnessed before dying, not just the academy but the entire kingdom would have been turned upside down. But now, it was merely a single female instructor's suicide.
And an incident officially swept under the rug, at that.
If only I could go further back into the past, I could have dragged more of those hidden bastards into the open.
This time, the conclusion was thoroughly unsatisfying. No—perhaps it wasn't truly over yet.
"Thank you for your hard work. You're a new student yourself, yet you've had to deal with a lot of official business."
At Katrin's words, the chief knight nodded, while Katrin gave me an extraordinarily proud look.
No matter how I looked at it, she seemed to think she'd chosen the right escort for the Princess.
Getting caught up in a bigger mess than I'd expected was troublesome, but earning Katrin's and the chief knight's trust in return wasn't a bad outcome.
Besides, with things turning out this way, it seemed like a good time to ask for a small favor in return.
"There is something I would like to request."
The day after the entrance ceremony, I moved into the academy dormitory.
The other students had moved into the dormitory on the day of the entrance ceremony, but I'd been called here and there to deal with the aftermath of the female instructor's suicide, so moving in late had been inevitable.
Because students came to the Royal Academy from all over the country, dormitories capable of housing them all were provided.
Although some students had houses in the capital and commuted, there were no fast modes of transport like the transit systems of my past life, so the vast majority of students lived in the dormitories.
The dormitories were long, continuous three-story buildings. Separated by gender, they were far larger and more old-fashioned than the university dorms I'd seen in my past life.
Having missed orientation the next day because I was dealing with the aftermath, I headed into the dormitory building after dinner.
I passed ivy-covered walls steeped in history and stepped through an antique door, then climbed stairs that had been renovated and were cleaner than I'd expected.
"Building 1, 3rd floor, second room from the end, huh."
Perhaps because it was an unusual hour, hardly any students passed by.
Since everyone was still unfamiliar with one another's faces, passing students merely exchanged brief nods of greeting.
That, too, would turn into looks full of all kinds of prejudice after just a few days.
I went up to the third floor, walked down the long hallway, and stopped in front of my assigned room.
Since my luggage had been sent ahead, I knocked on the door empty-handed and walked inside.
A double room.
The student who had checked in first the day before widened his eyes at the sight of me.
"Gracia?"
"Hello, Piar."
The freshman blinking at me was the commoner representative who had taken the Freshman Oath at the entrance ceremony—and the suicidal terrorist bomber who had gotten me killed multiple times.
"What brings you here?"
"What do you mean, 'what brings me here'? My bags are over there. I was assigned to this room too."
"That can't be... I'm a commoner, and..."
Mid-sentence, Piar's expression shifted awkwardly.
So my identity had been exposed within just two days after all. Well, even before I died, the noble freshman representative sitting next to me had figured it out right away, so it made sense that it would be discovered quickly this time too.
It wasn't that rumors hadn't spread; people simply hadn't recognized my face. It looked like I'd be seeing those prejudice-filled stares sooner than expected.
"Even though I'm a noble, I'm an illegitimate child. They treated me decently back in the domain, but it seems that doesn't fly in the capital."
"Uh... Is that so...?"
Piar stammered, unable to form a proper response.
Doesn't fly, my ass.
I was an offspring of the Duke's house. No matter how much of an illegitimate child I was, there was no way they'd pair me with a commoner in the same room. On top of that, I'd even joined Princess Aisha's faction.
Naturally, there was no reason for me to share a room with him, but I ended up sharing this one with Piar because I'd asked Katrin for it.
That was thanks to all my hard work persuading Katrin, with lies about being an illegitimate child who wanted to experience various things and whatnot.
Just because the detonation switch was gone didn't mean I could leave the bomb alone.
The female instructor was dead, but Piar and his female cousin were definitely problems that had to be resolved.
Half-baked conclusions were bound to bring another death in the end.
Either I had to find the cause or, failing that, get rid of the bomb so the next death wouldn't come for me.
Leaving the stunned Piar behind, I unpacked my belongings, which had been laid out on the bed.
There was quite a lot of luggage, but fortunately, the room was fairly spacious.
There weren't any bunk beds, either. A window stood in the middle, with two beds and two desks set against opposite walls.
Each of us had a separate closet, and although there was only one washroom and toilet, living here didn't seem inconvenient at all.
Well, it wasn't like the hotel suite where the Princess was staying right now, with multiple rooms, a living room, and a parlor, but this was more than enough for a small studio apartment.
Naturally, a commoner like Piar wouldn't find it uncomfortable either.
After roughly organizing my luggage and washing up, I sat on the edge of my bed.
Until then, Piar had remained seated in his chair, looking tense.
His face was so pale that he looked as though he deeply resented whoever had made the room assignments.
Thanks to that, Katrin was probably going to live a very long life.
Regardless, this seemed like an ideal opportunity to strike up a conversation.
Now then, shall I start chatting with him?
"Regular classes start tomorrow, right?"
"Ah, you didn't show up to orientation today... did you?"
"I had some business."
"Uh... I see... then."
He clearly looked torn over whether to speak casually or formally.
He looked pitiful, but I left him to it. Even though he hadn't killed me on purpose, when I thought of all the suffering I'd gone through, I had no desire whatsoever to be overly nice to him.
Hm, come to think of it, there was another reason I wanted to share a room with him.
Shrugging my shoulders, I continued.
"You're in the Administration Faculty, right?"
"Are you... Young Lord... in the Inherited Ability Faculty...?"
"No, the Knight Faculty."
"The Knight Faculty?"
Piar's eyes widened. He must have been truly startled; he couldn't even manage to speak formally.
The academy was broadly divided into three faculties.
The Knight Faculty I'd just mentioned, the Administration Faculty that taught governance, and the Inherited Ability Faculty that trained hereditary powers.
Most students at the Royal Academy had awakened inherited abilities, but that didn't mean all inherited abilities were useful.
There were inherited abilities suited to governance—like the absolute recall ability said to be possessed by the former royal domain administrator—and abilities suited to knighthood, like mine.
As Piar's surprise suggested, most nobles—especially high nobles—attended the Inherited Ability Faculty.