First Impression (1)
The person descended from the sky.
Their body moved with such effortless grace that it was as if they had been born knowing how to fly.
Even to me, who had met only the Count of Craipod, the count’s daughter, Melitt, and the marquis and his retinue whom I had just killed with my own hands, it was immediately obvious.
This was a high-ranking mage.
Contrary to her appearance.
A small face almost completely hidden beneath a pointed, wide-brimmed wizard’s hat. Slender limbs. Silver hair, gold eyes. A girl who looked as though she had been fashioned from two precious metals.
At a glance, she looked about ten years old—four or five years younger than I was now. In my old world, she would have just reached the age where she’d be one of the older girls in elementary school.
But her real age was probably far greater than that.
And my guess was right.
“Ho.”
That short exclamation carried a depth of experience utterly impossible for a girl her apparent age.
“So this is the child, then. The one Melitt said she was protecting.”
“H-headmaster….”
Melitt blinked rapidly, looking flustered.
“Yes, that’s right. Admissions officer Melitt Sinceregreen would like to recommend this child, Elia, as a student of the Academy.”
“Hmm.”
The girl called Headmaster leaned on her staff as though it were a cane and stared at me intently.
“Child. Your name?”
“…Elia.”
“Elia. No surname. No clan or tribal name either?”
“Yes. I’m an orphan.”
“An orphan, is it? Your appearance makes that rather easy to believe.”
The headmaster’s gaze drifted over the corpses, whose color was already cooling into death.
“That one is the current Marquis Repeat, is he not?”
Melitt answered, “Yes.”
“And who killed him?”
“That….”
For a moment, Melitt glanced at me.
When I gave a small nod—
“Elia did. The one I would like to recommend.”
“You say this girl did it. That’s a difficult claim to believe.”
And yet—
“She’d have to be capable of that much, at least, if she wants to be a student of the Academy.”
The corners of the headmaster’s lips curved upward.
I could only interpret that expression as amusement.
“Then, since it’s a little awkward to keep talking here….”
The headmaster lifted her staff.
“Don’t resist. Especially you.”
She gave me one glance, then struck the ground with the staff.
The next instant, the space around us had changed completely.
Deep-colored carpeting. A mahogany bookshelf and a guest tea table. Walls packed with books. Bright sunlight pouring through tall glass windows.
“Welcome to the Academy headmaster’s office.”
The headmaster took off her wizard’s hat and hung it on a dedicated stand. Silver hair spilled down like silk threads.
“Tea will be served, so make yourselves comfortable.”
When I sat on the sofa she indicated, an afternoon tea set appeared out of empty air.
Melitt sat beside me, then lifted her hips as if to move away, only to settle back down again.
She had sat next to me reflexively, but then seemed to remember she was on the educational side of things, and only realized too late that moving now would be awkward, so she lowered herself back down.
She’s absolutely transparent.
Of course, the headmaster saw right through her too. A smile had already appeared in those gold eyes, the kind that said, Ah, honestly, as she shook her head.
“Then, though it’s late, let me give my name.”
The girl placed a hand over her rather flat chest.
“Scaha Merlinia. Founder of the Academy, and its headmaster.”
Merlinia.
It was clearly the name of a noble house—an old and highly formal one at that.
The fact that she hadn’t bothered to mention it meant that, to her, whatever family she belonged to was far too insignificant to be worth naming compared to the title of Academy headmaster.
“Now, about your admission… Ah, eat first, please. You used so much mana, surely you’re hungry?”
There was a trap in those words.
If I said I really was hungry here, it would amount to admitting I had used an enormous amount of mana.
Still, this didn’t feel like an outright malicious attempt to trap me so much as a light test to see whether I would notice the trap at all.
She probably already knew exactly how much mana I had spent.
“Yes, a little.”
I picked up a fork.
On the thin metal surface, the headmaster’s smile briefly reflected, teeth and all, before it vanished beneath the whipped cream.
Whipped cream.
I couldn’t remember the last time I had eaten any since my reincarnation.
I wasn’t especially nostalgic for it. I’d never really been one for sweets—
“—!!”
Inside my mouth.
Happiness.
Exploded.
One bite. Then another. I devoured it in a hurry. Rich, sweet cream. Soft sponge. Candied fruit tucked between the layers. Everything—
“…Ah.”
By the time I came to my senses, I had already sent two slices of cake down my throat.
Even if I had been guzzling it by the glass, I probably couldn’t have eaten that fast.
Only then did embarrassment come crashing in.
“Mm. Mm-hmm….”
“No need to be shy. Watching you eat so well was rather delightful.”
Well, thank you very much.
When I set the fork down, the headmaster poured tea for me with her own hands.
“Then it seems I’ve at least appeased your modest hunger… As for Elia’s admission, I should be able to sort it out within the week.”
Melitt raised a hand.
“I do have a question regarding that.”
“Ask.”
“In the case of the Academy, does admission through an admissions officer require any other procedures?”
“Hmm, yes. It’s the first time in the Academy’s history, after all. But there’s no need to worry. I’ll handle every last one of those procedures myself.”
Melitt lowered her head.
“Thank you very much.”
The headmaster waved a hand dismissively.
“That’s what a headmaster exists for. Now then, Elia—there are surely many questions you’d like to ask, but is there anything you want to know right now?”
I asked back, “Why do you ask?”
“If you don’t have any immediate questions, I was going to show you to the room you’ll be using temporarily. You must be tired, both physically and mentally—quite natural, for someone who’s used magic for the first time. No need to hide it.”
“…Honestly? Yes. A little.”
“Then save your other questions for later.”
The headmaster swept a hand through the air, and a bell rang on its own.
“Y-yes!”
And then a maid in black-and-white livery came running.
“Jaina, this girl is a prospective student at the Academy. Please take her to one of the vacant dormitory rooms.”
“A-any room?”
“Any room. As long as it’s empty, any will do. And if she requests anything you can obtain, please do so. If money is needed, put it on my name.”
“Y-yes, understood! This way, please!”
“Melitt. You stay behind for a moment.”
“Yes.”
I stood and bowed my head.
“Thank you for your care. Then I’ll be taking my leave for now.”
“Rest well.”
And then I followed the maid out.
The headmaster kept waving until the door closed.
**
Once Ellie’s footsteps had fully faded away, Academy Headmaster Scaha brought the hand she had been waving so long before her own eyes.
It was trembling faintly.
She had kept waving it all this time because she didn’t want to show that, but had she really managed to hide it from that genius girl?
Either way, that didn’t matter.
What mattered was not this.
“…Melitt.”
Scaha’s voice rose higher and higher.
The excitement she had been suppressing all this time finally surged up and burst free.
“You did splendidly! Truly, wonderfully well!!”
“Eek, h-headmaster!?”
“Hahaha! You lovely thing, where in the world did you go and find such an absurd genius?! Ahahaha!!!”
Melitt felt as though she were watching the sun rise in the west.
What in the world? Was this really our headmaster?
In the five years she had been a student, and the two more since becoming a faculty member, she had never once seen the headmaster like this.
“Hahaha! Goodness, what an outrageous rough gem I’ve found! Hah hah!! Absolutely marvelous! So, so marvelous!!”
Scaha ruffled Melitt’s hair wildly and smacked her on the back. If she got any more excited, she might have started kissing her on the cheek.
“In the seventy years I’ve spent teaching people, I’ve seen countless mages, but I’ve never seen talent like that before…! Once she’s guided properly, just how far will she go? I’m so excited I doubt I’ll sleep tonight!”
“Th-that’s a relief….”
“Melitt.”
Scaha suddenly became serious.
Melitt, whose expression had just been slack with confusion, now had the brief, agonizing feeling that she had become the only fool in the room.
But only for a moment.
That was because what Scaha said next was so shocking it hit Melitt’s head harder than a fist.
“Become a professor.”
“Pardon…?”
She understood a beat later.
“Pardon!?”
Meanwhile, the maid Jaina, who had been entrusted with escorting Ellie to her room, kept sneaking glances at the new student with a mixture of caution and curiosity.
Is she really a student?
After all, a mage wouldn’t normally have such plain black hair.
But if the headmaster herself said she was a student, then a student she must be.
And if she was a student, then if she felt like it, she could kill someone like Jaina on the spot. With magic, or with power.
So, in the end, a careful Jaina was the one who spoke first.
“Miss Jaina.”
“Y-yes…?”
Miss?
She was just a lowly maid, a mere drudge at the Academy—not the personal maid of some student’s vassal. And this girl was calling her miss?
“I-I’m honored…!”
“Huh?”
“Th-that is. I mean… just call me Jaina, please. It’s more comfortable for me that way too….”
“Hmm… I guess I can’t help it. Then, Jaina, there was something I wanted to ask.”
“Y-yes.”
“Could you possibly bring me something to eat? I’m starving….”
And Ellie stuck out her tongue slightly, as if to hide her embarrassment.
“O-of course. Once I show you to your room, I’ll ask the dining hall to make something for you. Is there a particular menu you’d like?”
“Huh? No, no. I don’t want to go making the cooks work too hard. Just something simple, like leftover bread with jam or butter, would be fine.”
“Of course… But are you sure that would be enough?”
“Ah. Or were you hoping to eat too, Jaina?”
“W-what!? I would never dare!”
“So that was a forbidden phrase too….”
Ellie scratched her cheek as though faced with some terribly difficult problem.
Jaina looked at her and thought, daringly, that it would be wonderful if she could keep serving this person from now on.