Lindbergh (7)
Lindbergh (7)
"Is it really all right to team up with students from other classes?"
"It'll be fine. That's exactly why they gathered all of us together in the first place. Besides, the only reason we stick together like this isn't because the instructors assigned our teams. We just naturally ended up with people we're comfortable with. Would anything terrible happen if we extended that to another class?"
Inside the academy, the Noble Class students rarely encountered anyone outside their own circle when meeting students from other classes. The very idea of approaching commoner-class students never crossed their minds.
The commoner-class students were no different. Unless someone was an oddball like Jake who deliberately sought out particular friends, commoner-class students never went out of their way to speak with Noble Class students.
And this year's Noble Class, especially Noble Class A, boasted a roster so formidable that it would have been unthinkable in an ordinary academy year.
So formidable that the student council couldn't touch them.
There were two people who might become the next emperor, one who was heir to a kingdom, and—putting the count's houses aside—a ducal house on top of that.
And since these individuals all went around together in one group, almost no one, commoner or noble, dared to speak to them first. Now that I thought about it, I had barely seen any other noble students approach me during the entire first semester.
"Hm? What's wrong?"
When I stared at her face, Claire tilted her head.
Just how much nerve did this girl have?
Even Leo, who had more or less adapted recently, had turned deathly pale every time he came near us at first.
The moment she decided I was her 'older sister,' she had walked right up, spoken to me, and made up her mind. Claire was definitely a daughter of House Grace, but her boldness was clearly not a normal size.
Then again, she had been the sort of character who casually used casual speech with Alice in the original story.
"...... It's nothing."
"Really?"
Claire tilted her head again but didn't press further.
"Anyway."
Claire resumed her conversation with Alice.
"The academy's motto is that everyone inside the academy is equally a student. I know it isn't followed well, but that's the stated principle. Just think about how I can talk to you informally like this."
"That's... true, I suppose."
"So that's the sort of reasoning behind why we were all gathered here. The official reason is that sending us here in four separate waves would be a huge loss in terms of cost and time, but I'd guess the academy is hoping its students will cooperate with each other."
"That's unusually deep thinking for y—ack!"
Leo made an unnecessary remark from the side and Claire grabbed him by the collar.
Claire looked our way as though this were an everyday occurrence and said,
"Anyway, I'm in favor. Adding one Lottie won't put us in danger, and above all, Jake vouches for her skill."
"Mm."
Alice turned her head toward Charlotte.
"I'm... also in favor. The beasts of the Southern Continent are famous for being ferocious. I've only ever seen them at the zoo, but wild specimens will have far worse temperaments, won't they? An extra pair of hands wouldn't go amiss, I think."
After hearing Charlotte's opinion, Alice shifted her gaze back to Lottie.
Lottie was like a doll.
No, not her looks. Her appearance was certainly doll-like, but that wasn't the main issue. She barely reacted to anything we said.
While we discussed whether or not to take her right in front of her, she simply waited with her eyes downcast, saying nothing.
"Will you be uncomfortable, Lottie?"
Alice wouldn't be asking that just because of status or background, either. One thing I had learned while living alongside her was that Alice was fairly perceptive.
Perceptive enough that she wouldn't just say yes simply because Jake said "let's bring her!"
"I will follow your wishes."
Lottie spoke in a calm, quiet voice.
"No, that's not what I wanted to hear...."
Though she probably didn't want to hear a refusal, either.
Alice just barely suppressed a groan, then seemed to make up her mind and asked directly.
"Don't you... have friends in your own class? People you go around with, or some kind of group like ours?"
If they suddenly took away a child with many friends, the friends she played with might feel upset.
But—
"......."
Lottie gave no particular answer.
The reaction seemed to tangle Alice's thoughts even further.
Because she had no way of judging whether Lottie disliked the situation but was being forced to follow us, or whether there simply wasn't anyone to begin with.
I knew.
Lottie had no friends.
The reason was that she was a colonial subject.
If Lottie had been an imperial citizen, Jake's servant but still an imperial citizen, there might not have been any real problem. That fact might even have made her popular with the other students.
But discrimination against colonials existed among imperial citizens, too.
In this world, which had no system of minimum wages or anything of the sort, laborers were worked to death. And the laborers dying out inside the empire were almost all white-skinned imperial citizens.
Normally, in a situation like that, you would expect a labor movement, just as had happened in Earth's history, but this world showed no signs of one. I didn't know the precise historical timing of communist revolutions, but things were unfolding a little differently in this world.
The emperor recommended that wherever rebellious laborers appeared, all the laborers be dismissed and replaced with colonials.
The colonials were not slaves.
But they were paid sums practically indistinguishable from slavery, and they couldn't say a word about it.
Within the metropole, colonials were an absolute minority, placed in an environment where it was all too easy to lynch them.
A handful of colonials alone could never shift the labor market. They were too few to band together and resist, and the authorities deliberately mixed people from hostile classes and different regions, stirring up emotional friction between them. People from completely separate nations or tribes had been forcibly gathered in one place, making unity even harder.
But to the imperial laborers, who had never been taught any of this separately, the colonials looked like nothing more than people who stole their jobs away for viciously low wages.
This setting didn't appear in the main story. It was material included in the Setting Guide, as answers to the questions of "why no nationwide independence movement arose in the colonies," and "why the laborers never united and attempted a revolution."
There were some holes if you tried to apply it to real history, but the game was a world created by those people in the first place, and since it actually functioned this way, there was no reason to argue further.
"Umm...."
As Lottie's mood grew even more subdued at the exchange, Alice's expression turned helpless.
Alice glanced at me. A look asking for rescue.
What had happened to calling me your older sister?
I felt a tiny urge to tease her about that, but the mood didn't quite suit that sort of teasing, so I held back.
"Can we trust Lottie's skills?"
I looked toward Jake and asked.
"Absolutely. Honestly, she might be more useful than I am."
At Jake's words, a strange sense of acceptance settled over the group.
Jake's appearance and somewhat flippant manner didn't make him particularly popular with the women in the group, but as for his actual ability, he had built up plenty of trust through handling several commissions together.
The only person who tilted her head was Sophia.
"Well, he did say she uses firearms."
Alice glanced toward Lena and me as she spoke.
"All right, then."
Alice nodded.
"You'll join us. Oh, and if there's a friend you'd like to bring, say so. It's fine to bring them along."
"......I understand."
But seeing Lottie like that...
Hmm, thinking back to the original story, there was someone. Since I hadn't interfered with the commoner class, there weren't many places where things would have changed.
If I followed my memories of the original, a girl would approach us not long after we started moving together with Lottie.
I could just bring her along.
As I was thinking that to myself, Alice looked at me with suspicion in her eyes.
...... What? Was she reading my thoughts now?
*
"Since Leo and Claire already went out on a commission today, let's spend the rest of the time relaxing."
Alice looked at Jake as she spoke.
"There's a lot to do here anyway, right?"
"Exactly."
Jake answered Alice's question flatly.
"This place is enormous, and there's hardly anyone around to... 'manage' it, apart from us. Did you say you went beast-hunting?"
After seeing Leo and Claire nod, Jake continued.
"There's plenty of other work besides that sort of thing. The trip is a week long, so let's take it easy. I guarantee you won't run out of work and fail to fill your quota."
Mm, was that so?
Would our diligent protagonists really be content to spend their time that leisurely?