What Was My Name?
Fine.
I'll kill her.
Mariella stared at the empty seat and made up her mind.
"Haa..."
The sigh slipped out of her. She had said it last night before bed, just in case — she distinctly remembered saying it. Why was it that a bad feeling never once turned out to be wrong?
Partway through the entrance ceremony, a handful of the new students were meant to take the oath or offer a few words. Mariella was one of them. It wasn't simply that she came from a high noble house; she had also passed the entrance examination with the highest score in the year, so the role had been hers as a matter of course.
Which was why she had needed to rise several hours earlier than everyone else, well before the ceremony began, and get ready. She had trusted Emily and deliberately left her asleep...
"...If I'd known it would turn out like this, I should have just shaken her awake at dawn..."
Emily had shattered that trust with immaculate thoroughness. At first Mariella had assumed she simply couldn't spot her. Rolling her eyes around the hall while she read the oath, hunting for where Emily was sitting, would have looked strange, so she had settled for she's probably sitting somewhere sensible and hadn't gone out of her way to look.
But.
But...!
Why wasn't she even in their class? They were supposed to be in the same class.
Wondering whether Emily had been caught up in some incident, Mariella sent someone to ask — and, of all things, learned that she had walked out of the dormitory entrance only moments ago.
In other words, the cause was oversleeping.
"Haaa..."
"Why do you keep sighing and looking around?"
A voice came from beside her. Mariella turned her head, and a pair of pitch-black eyes glittered back at her.
Black hair. Black eyes.
The distinctive looks of the eastern people who lived in the Eastern Union, on the eastern edge of the continent.
"Looking for someone?"
"...No. It's nothing."
Mariella knew her. They had met several times over the course of their magical studies.
Bella Arkts. The Magic Tower Master's direct disciple.
An awkward person to deal with, in more ways than one. Whenever they crossed paths they bristled at each other — more precisely, Bella was the one unilaterally radiating her inferiority complex.
"Nothing, sure. Even I could hear your eyeballs spinning from up on the dais."
The words dragged, soft and somehow sleepy, and yet a keen edge hid between them.
"You were stealing glances at me again, weren't you?"
"Stealing glances? Why would I? Don't you think that's a little too much ego?"
"Tch."
Bella clicked her tongue lightly and turned her head away. Picking a fight, as expected. Mariella could guess the reason. She had been like this ever since the dais.
"Next time, I'll win."
"It was a fluke."
"True. It was only one question."
"If I just hadn't made that calculation error..."
Bella muttered it under her breath. Mariella was first in the year; Bella, second. A single question had decided it, which only made the loss sting more. Worse still, the oath that first and second were meant to give together had been taken over when the imperial princess inserted herself, so Bella, as runner-up, had been left with nothing to say at all.
"...So. Who are you looking for?"
The drawl came with a flick of Bella's finger. Its tip pointed at the vacant seat — the very one Mariella had been staring at until a moment ago.
"The owner of that seat?"
Mariella couldn't answer at once. She hesitated, then let out a long sigh and nodded. Seeing that, Bella said nothing more and turned her gaze forward again.
A brief, restless silence passed, and the door opened.
Tall. The class's supervising professor, by the look of him.
"Right. Pleasure to meet you all. First, congratulations on your admission—"
This girl still isn't here?
Mariella quietly ground her teeth.
Late...!
I'm late...!
I moved fast. My breath was already starting to catch.
Going to the auditorium first had been the mistake. I'd thought the entrance ceremony might still be underway, so I went there — only to find it already over, the place in the middle of being cleared. To make matters worse, the auditorium and the building where classes were held stood a fair distance apart, which was why I was running like this now.
I'm already late. If I get any later than this...
A chill crawled over me. Mariella had gone so far as to tell me yesterday not to be late...!
I should have gone straight to the building instead of the auditorium. Then I wouldn't be this late.
I have something to do, so I need to be up at six tomorrow. When I get up, I can wake you... Oh, you don't need me to? Then don't be late. Not that you would, but...
Mariella's voice rose in my memory.
Unfair!
I'd just been unlucky!!
It was a fifty-percent chance!!!
Still, it was fine. I was almost there.
Now I only had to open this door...!
The door rattled open. I stepped straight inside and immediately locked eyes with a man standing right in front of me.
"...Eh?"
"......"
He was tall. That was the first thought that struck me. Being looked down on from nearly twice my height was not especially pleasant.
"..."
The man gazed down at me without a word.
Scary. Not because of the height, or the rough impression — more like something rising in me on a purely physiological level...
"...I thought a seat seemed to be empty."
"Yes...?"
"Perfect timing. We were just about to do self-introductions."
Self-introductions? What, exactly, was perfect about this?
My frozen mind lurched back into motion. Putting the situation together... wait. No.
"I'll start by introducing you. Come up here."
"Hic."
When I came back to myself, I was already standing at the very front of the classroom. So many eyes. The moment I realized every one of them was fixed on me, my body started to shake on its own.
"Let's keep it easy. Just your name is fine."
The man who had put me there opened his mouth as if nothing unusual were happening.
I drew a slow breath.
Don't get nervous. Say the name quickly and sit back down.
"M-my, my name is, E—"
In that instant, my mind snapped clear.
Was I insane? I'd come in hiding who I was, and now I was about to blurt my real name?
Thank goodness. At least I'd realized before—
......
...Huh.
"Uh, um... that is..."
The stares burned. I felt as if the pressure might crush me flat. Somehow I wrestled my trembling breath back under control and opened my mouth.
"What... was my name, again...?"
Grit.
I could have sworn I heard someone grinding their teeth.
Fortunately, the self-introduction ended without disaster. The man, unable to keep watching me tremble, sent me back to my seat.
Everyone introduced themselves, but none of it reached my ears. No — it would be more accurate to say I couldn't listen.
The gaze I felt from behind made it impossible to concentrate...
Once these introductions are over, isn't Mariella going to kill me?
"That concludes the introductions."
Clap, clap.
Applause. It was the man standing at the front.
Two short claps pulled every eye to him. He made a small gesture, as if clearing his throat, and spoke.
"Last of all, I should introduce myself. My name is Henry Ashront. Please feel free to call me TA Henry."
"...A TA?"
Someone murmured it. Hearing that, Henry answered with a wry smile.
"Yes. A teaching assistant. Regrettably, your supervising professor is... rather busy."
The murmuring swelled.
"I understand why that might make you uneasy, but there's no need to worry too much. I'll only be handling roll call and the other odd jobs. The classes Professor Edward is in charge of will proceed as normal."
The murmuring didn't stop, but it was quieter than before.
"...Edward?"
I'd heard that name somewhere. Almost remembered, almost not — like a tickle in the corner of my mind.
Ah. That idiot.
The weirdo who kept nitpicking my thesis. Leaps in the calculations were too severe, he said; it was impossible in reality — he seized on nothing but the strange parts and spouted nonsense, so I decided to ignore him, only for him to grow even more triumphant and give me a headache. I'd thought he'd gone quiet lately. So he'd been at the academy.
A sigh escaped me. I'd already found one of the clichés.
An incompetent professor... I wished it would end there, but it probably wouldn't. An incompetent man occupying a post as important as an academy professorship meant there was some circumstance behind it.
Whatever that circumstance was... I would have to look into it. Of course, it might be nothing at all. He might simply be better at politics than at research.
But I'd come here to work, either way. I couldn't do the job sloppily just because it was a nuisance.
...Well. I could put a little personal feeling into the work, couldn't I? A TA stuck doing the chores a professor had dumped on him — that didn't feel like someone else's problem.
First, look into the relationships around him. For that, I'd have Nero or Kuro—
Tap, tap.
"...?"
Something had been tapping my shoulder for a while. I'd ignored it, thinking it was only a draft, but I couldn't ignore it anymore.
I turned my head.
"...I think you and I have rather a lot to talk about."
"......Ah."
Mariella was looking at me. Smiling brightly.
An exceedingly gentle face.
"...Hic."
It was terrifying.