The Entrance Ceremony (1)
As the entrance ceremony drew near, students other than the incoming first-years began to arrive one after another.
Of course, since they were all children of noble houses, when one student came, it was their family’s carriage in its entirety that rolled up; sometimes several carriages came together. One carried the student herself, while the others held servants and maids. If there was new furniture being brought in, that was yet another wagon of luggage.
When processions like that arrived by the handful even on the same day, the front of the dormitory building remained noisy and crowded without letup.
From her newly assigned room, Ellie looked down at the scene and said, “There sure are a lot of people here.”
“Most of them are just servants and family members finishing up the move,” Melitt replied.
Even after it had been decided that she would become a professor, she still couldn’t quite bring herself to avoid staying close to Ellie.
There were many reasons for that, but the biggest were these two: Ellie knew almost nothing about this world beyond the orphanage and needed someone to teach her common sense and the like, and, to be honest, Melitt herself simply enjoyed spending time like this. Those were the main ones.
“Dorm rooms don’t normally get changed, right?”
“Yeah.”
Unless some special problem came up, four years in one room was the norm.
Because of that, most students freely decorated their rooms or brought in furniture. The only limit was the size of their allowance.
But Ellie’s room, or rather the room she would be sharing with a roommate she had yet to even see, was bare.
As for the roommate’s side, that was understandable enough since she hadn’t moved in yet. But on Ellie’s side, there was only a simple bed, a desk, and a chair.
Even the number of items was small, and their quality was ordinary.
For instance, the chair wasn’t padded at all; it was just hard wood, with a cushion placed on top separately. The desk and bed were of similar quality.
Snowdrop Hall, Room 5 on the second floor.
Ellie mentally repeated the number of the room where she would spend the next four years.
The building had five floors. The bottom two were singles, and the remaining three were doubles.
Among them, the second floor—set apart from the main entrance, spared the winter drafts, and quieter because less noise reached it—was the most expensive, so it was where the children of the wealthiest families settled.
For reference, both Clea and Philia were on the first floor.
There was a knock, and Jaina came in.
“Lady Ellie, were you here? I brought some bread. Would you like some?”
“I’d like that. Thank you.”
From that day on, Jaina had truly become Ellie’s personal maid.
Officially she was still attached to the Academy, but Scathach had arranged things so that her usual duties were reduced to the bare minimum and she could take care of Ellie instead.
For reference, Dane had apologized to Jaina on the very day of his defeat. In fact, it was Jaina who had nearly fainted.
—L-Lady Ellie, i-if anything happens to me, y-you have to protect me, o-okay?
For a while after that, she had been so anxious that Ellie had to promise over and over that she would protect her, that she shouldn’t worry.
To a commoner, a ducal house was that terrifying an existence. Though in Jaina’s head, Ellie seemed to rank even higher than any ducal house.
“The entrance ceremony is the day after tomorrow now, right?”
Seeing that Ellie and Melitt weren’t talking at the moment, Jaina asked cautiously.
“Looks like it,” Ellie said.
And yet Ellie still addressed Jaina with the utmost politeness, every single time.
“Then, Lady Ellie, could you give me the clothes you’ll be wearing to the ceremony in advance? I’ll wash and press them for you.”
“Hmm…”
For the first time, Ellie looked faintly troubled.
“I was just going to wear this.”
“Pardon?”
Jaina blinked. What Ellie was wearing now was a modest linen tunic and blue trousers. Both were plain in material and completely unadorned.
They suited her well enough, but they looked less like the attire of an Academy student attending the entrance ceremony and more like a village girl who had come to watch.
“That’s…”
Jaina looked at Melitt. She didn’t know the details, but she did know that the Academy, represented by Melitt, was supporting Ellie’s living expenses.
“I tried to talk her out of it too, but she just says she wants to spend the money somewhere else,” Melitt said with a sigh. It was the sigh of someone who had already tried persuading her more than once.
“Don’t worry, Jaina,” Ellie said with a smile.
“What really matters isn’t what you wear, but how you stand.”
“Well, yes, but…”
Jaina was worried. Even if it wasn’t their fault, people were still the sort of creatures who became unable to walk around with their heads held high once something got on their clothes.
And even if Lady Ellie was different from ordinary people, didn’t that fact remain unchanged?
Jaina made up her mind. She would do her best over the time remaining before the entrance ceremony.
Ellie’s roommate arrived three days later.
“Were you cleaning for me? Good work.”
She had tied her leaf-green hair into a ponytail, and because it had been tied high, it swayed from side to side whenever she walked.
Her face was narrow and her body had the lean build of a tall, slender girl, and her waist was especially straight, giving her a blade-like impression. Her orange eyes, too, were remarkably direct, steady, and unshaken.
A warrior?
The thought flashed through Ellie’s mind, before she reminded herself that in this world, mages were the most dangerous combatants of all—living weapons. Was she perhaps someone from a family with a particularly strict lineage?
“Nope?” Ellie said.
“Nope?”
“My name’s Ellie. I’m your roommate, and we’ll be sharing this room for the next four years.”
Ellie closed the textbook she had been reading before the school term began and walked over to her new roommate.
“I’m in your care from now on.”
“...What kind of joke is this? I’ll let this slide, so get back to what you were doing—”
"Flame."
A small tongue of fire bloomed from the tip of Ellie’s finger, no larger than a candle flame.
The girl’s eyes flew wide, and because of that, the little light was reflected in her irises so clearly Ellie could see it as if it were in a mirror.
After cutting the mana off and extinguishing the flame, Ellie held out her hand.
“Looking forward to getting along?”
“...Y-Yes. I’m looking forward to it.”
The girl still seemed dazed, but she took Ellie’s hand and shook it.
“What’s your name?”
“I’m Stella. My full name is Blaze. You can just call me Stella.”
Full name?
Ellie recalled something from a thick, difficult book she had once read at the orphanage. A king’s house was sometimes called a jeon, and in those cases the royal family’s name could be referred to as a jeonmyeong. However, it was an old-fashioned expression not used much these days.
“Then, Princess Stella?”
Stella’s eyes went wide again. Ellie snorted softly.
“You used an old-fashioned royal expression for yourself and you’re surprised when someone figures it out, Princess?”
“N-No, that’s... I apologize.”
“Thank you, Princess.”
“T-That one too, please stop. I apologized, did I not?”
Stella’s cheeks were truly red with embarrassment.
Ellie got the feeling. Her normal way of speaking must have been the formal one, and here at the Academy she was trying to be casual, speaking in a lighter register.
So she really is from a distinguished old house.
She didn’t seem to mean any harm, so Ellie decided to let it go at that.
“Aha, sorry, Stella?”
“M-My…”
It seemed she had become a little too casual all at once, but before Stella could properly get flustered, Ellie stepped in and closed the distance between them.
“But are you here alone, Stella?”
“Y-You’re close! And yes, I am alone. I have hardly any luggage, as well.”
“Is that so? Sorry.”
The daughter of a royal house had come not just to the second floor, but to a double room on the fifth floor. Ellie decided not to ask anything else.
“So this is your first time at the Academy too?”
“You could say that.”
“Oh, then should I show you around the grounds? I can introduce you to my friends too.”
“If you would do that, I’d be grateful.”
“Then let’s go! We can stop by the dining hall on the way and grab some bread.”
“Grab what from the dining hall?”
Stella looked startled. Had she perhaps been saddled with the wrong roommate after all?
But once again, before Stella could get properly flustered, Ellie took her hand and gave it a tug.
“Oh, come on, stop dawdling and hurry up!”
“!?”
Stella felt her face grow hot. What was this girl? Were commoners all like this? That couldn’t be right.
And yet... her hand was soft. In contrast to Stella’s own, callused in several places, it felt especially soft.
“W-Wait, Ellie, you don’t need to pull so hard.”
“Come on, let’s go! The bread’s going to get cold!”
“Was that what mattered!? ”
Feeling oddly disappointed, Stella followed Ellie down the stairs.
Once she was keeping up well, Ellie let go of her hand. Stella was even more disappointed. She still didn’t know why.
Ellie, who had been hurrying more than walking toward the dining hall near the dormitory, suddenly waved.
“Ah, Philia!”
In the Academy’s broad lawn, a red-haired girl who stood out starkly among all that green flinched at the call and trembled.
Again? That black demon of disturbed peace.
“Stella, that’s my friend. I’ll go introduce you.”
“U-Um.”
Philia Cryford shivered at the familiar beginning of another one-sided campaign of friendship.
But what was that? She was going to introduce someone?
Should I run?
For the first time in her life, Philia seriously considered fleeing.
But even if she didn’t like it, if she ran now she would be running not just from Ellie, but from someone Ellie had dragged over as well.
That wouldn’t do. Philia didn’t feel the need to make friends, but she certainly didn’t want to make enemies.
At last, reluctantly beginning to rise, Philia froze stiff.
“You, ar—”
“You are—”
And Stella, who had been dragged over by Ellie, froze as well. She had heard Philia was at the Academy, but she hadn’t expected to meet her this quickly. And in this way, no less.
“All right, this is— wait. Why do you both look like that?”
Having asked the question, Ellie narrowed her eyes and immediately hit the mark.
“I see. You’ve got a grudge between your families, don’t you?”