On the Way to the Academy (2)
"Nnngh... Where... am I?"
A bleak room, dark and furred with mold. Why was I in a place like this? What had I even been doing?
Right. I had been traveling by carriage. Business had come up in the capital, and I was on my way home for the first time in ages when we were attacked. Slave hunters—the ones said to be running rampant lately. It had to have been them.
"Um, are you all right?"
I had hired escorts, of course, but they had come fully prepared, and the numbers were hopelessly against us.
"Hello?"
They had dragged me off just like that, and some man had been waiting where they took me. From the talk of brainwashing me, of turning me into a slave, that man was probably—
"Hello!"
"Hyah?!"
That startled me! Who was this girl?
"Are you all right? You're not hurt anywhere, are you?"
"Ah, ah... I'm fine."
What? I was certain that mage had kidnapped me. The moment it occurred to me that she might be one of them, wariness surged up through me.
"Wh-who are you?"
At that, the girl hesitated for a moment, then answered with care.
"Um... I'm looking for the way to Nertia Academy."
"What?"
What was she talking about, out of nowhere? Why would that come up here? I had just been kidnapped.
"Oh, right. The bandit who was here—I took care of him."
"You what?!"
And what was that supposed to mean? If I had it right, that man was a mage of the underworld with a bounty on his head. Estimated rank, C+. C+ in name alone—he was believed to possess skill that had all but reached B−. In league with the slave hunters, he brainwashed the people they kidnapped and sold them off at market. One of the worst headaches among the criminals plaguing the area of late. His identity was unknown, and of the investigators sent to track him, anyone of merely middling skill had been cut down.
And this girl was saying she had killed him?
"He's lying over there."
I looked in the direction she pointed, and I could not help but be stunned. The man who had slung me over his shoulder and carried me here was truly dead, a great hole torn through his throat.
"But how..."
"I snuck up and killed him."
Snuck up? What was she saying? He was no untrained nobody. A wanted man of that caliber would never allow an ambush. Raise your senses even a little, and noticing an approaching presence was easy. A mage, above all, could use Mana Detection to sense every presence in the space around him. Ambushes and assassinations were the sort of thing that only worked on ordinary people who didn't know how to fight.
"What on earth do you mean by that?"
"I stabbed him with a dagger, and he died?"
"Pardon?"
Something about this conversation refused to line up. It felt as if we weren't getting through to each other at all.
"Um... everyone's equal before a spea—"
"That is not what I asked!"
"Eep—!"
The girl froze solid, as if she had been struck. Oh dear. I had frightened her by raising my voice. I still had no idea how any of this had come about, but this girl had saved me. Between having just been kidnapped and all the things that refused to make sense, I had been so flustered that my voice had climbed. To commit such rudeness toward the person who saved my life...
With the thought that I had made a mistake, guilt welled up in me.
"I-I'm sorry."
"Ah... it's all right."
Her face said it was anything but all right. What was I to do? I needed to apologize properly, and repay her for saving me.
Now that I thought of it, hadn't she said she was looking for the way to Nertia Academy?
"By any chance, are you heading to Nertia Academy?"
"Ah! Yes!"
"Oh, how fortunate! I happen to have business in that direction myself. I'd like to repay you for saving me—would it be all right if I guided you there?"
"Wow, really? Thank you so much!"
Color had returned to the girl's face at last. This seemed to be the right choice. What a relief. I had been afraid I would finish having offered nothing but rudeness, and no thanks at all.
I would have to take care in how I treated her while I guided her from here. She was my savior, after all.
Gah. That startled me.
The guide had suddenly gotten angry. Had I said something wrong? Why on earth was she mad?
It was the first conversation I'd had with a woman since coming to this world. I'd saved her from a bandit, too, so I'd even been hoping she might turn out to be a heroine. The result was a guide who looked thoroughly furious. Things had worked out in the end, but I had come dangerously close to ruining everything.
I must have messed up. Even back in my old world I'd barely ever held a conversation with a woman, and I had no idea how I was supposed to talk to one. I'd assumed everything would just fall into place the moment I arrived in another world. Apparently not.
My confidence is shot.
The protagonists in novels always seemed to chat so easily with their heroines. Why was it this hard for me? Would I even be able to manage from here on?
"By any chance, are you an incoming student at the Academy?"
"Ah—ah! Yes. I'm on my way to register right now."
"I knew it! Congratulations! It's quite a rare opportunity!"
"Ah... thank you."
"Oh, that's right. We haven't even told each other our names. I'm Amelia Paulson. And you?"
"...I'm Cecina."
With my confidence already in pieces, an awkwardness seeped into the answer. Was I going to be all right on the way to the Academy? We weren't about to spend the whole trip in a vow of silence, were we?
Contrary to my worries, the conversation carried on far longer than I'd expected. For the most part the guide would toss out a topic, and I would answer.
Even as we left the room, she said the other kidnappers might return at any moment, and we cleared out of the building in a hurry. The man who had been minding the counter had vanished somewhere as well—fled, most likely, or hidden. When she asked whether anyone besides her had been taken, I told her she was the only one kidnapped from that place.
A little later, saying she had an errand to run, she went off somewhere and came back with a carriage and a great pile of money. From what I heard, the man I'd killed had been a wanted criminal. She herself was the young lady of a noble house, and Nertia Academy stood in the capital, a long way from here. For a moment I wondered whether I ought to start minding my etiquette, but she said there was no need. I was her savior.
The road to the capital took a full day, and whenever the talk seemed about to die, she offered a fresh subject and drew it along. She was putting real effort into speaking with me.
Was this what a social butterfly looked like? Somehow keeping a conversation alive even with a shut-in nobody like me. So when a true extrovert really got going, even this was possible...
Thanks to her, I managed to ask a few of the things I'd been curious about.
First, the city I'd been in was called Hallis. Not a particularly large city in this country, but one where many travelers bound for the capital stopped to stay. And then Nertia Academy—the finest educational institution in the imperial capital, Nern, and a place that raised all manner of talent. One entered according to ability and gift, regardless of status, and the moment you set foot there, you became someone the state considered important.
I asked about plenty of other things too, but I couldn't ask everything. There was always the risk of being mistaken for someone strange.
At any rate, we arrived in the capital still deep in conversation, and by then it was late evening.
"Um... you really don't have to..."
"Nonsense! You're my savior. This is the least I can do. Come now, don't refuse!"
"Even so, a lodging this luxurious seems far too expensive..."
"I truly mean it. I still feel awful about having been rude to you at first. Please, I'd be so glad if you would accept!"
And so Miss Amelia booked what looked like an incredibly grand lodging, just for me.
"Still, something like this is a bit..."
"I'm doing it because I want to! Don't give it another thought!"
Miss Amelia paid in a storm of coin, thanked me once more, and vanished.
I've never been anywhere like this.
It looked insanely expensive. This was fine, right?
Eh, whatever. I'd already accepted it. Might as well enjoy it to the fullest.
The room the attendant led me to was every bit as lavish as I'd expected. The bed was draped in silk of blue and gold, and beyond the window the city's nightscape lay open, bright and clear. In the bathroom sat a white bathtub plated here and there with gold, and magical tools that looked expensive even at a glance lined the room.
"Whoa..."
I was speechless. And no wonder—I had never set foot in a place this fine in my life.
Yeah. Transmigrating had been the right call. This was what a possession isekai was supposed to be! You help someone in trouble, and you get to enjoy the reward!
The thanks seemed so much more extravagant than I'd imagined that I felt a little guilty—but looking at this scene, that feeling vanished without a trace. How to put it. The sense that my life in another world had officially begun? Like I'd just tasted the appetizer to the happy life waiting ahead of me.
Was it really all right for my luck to be this good? What a start. Keep going at this pace, and there was no way I wouldn't succeed, right?
"Oh my, Cecina, won't you try a scone I made?"
"Hehehe... thank you."
"Hey! I made a cake too, you know? Eat this one first!"
"Now, now, don't fight. I'll eat every last one of them."
A stale old happiness circuit whirred to life in my head, and I sank into a delusion of living in warm, cozy bliss among the heroines. Grandchildren... I probably wouldn't be seeing those. But still.
"Ehehe... ehe..."
Ah. I drooled.
Honestly. Daydreaming something this tired and cliché—I must have been in a ridiculously good mood.
Enough fantasizing. Time to lay out an actual plan.
According to what Miss Emilia had told me, if I went to the Academy tomorrow and submitted my admission certificate, my enrollment would be finalized on the spot. From then on I'd be assigned a dormitory and could live there. The term itself didn't begin until the day after tomorrow. Barely two days left before I would meet my classmates.
"For tomorrow, maybe I'll just look around the school."
There wasn't really time to do much of anything else before then, and I didn't even know what I was capable of doing. Getting stronger or forging bonds only worked if you actually understood this world. Dropped into a place I knew nothing about, the best I could manage was wandering around in hopes that some event might turn up. And I wanted to sightsee, besides.
Honestly, it was an academy in another world. I hadn't even gone traveling yet. I would get to see, with my own eyes, the magnificent scenery this world had to boast. How was I supposed to resist that?
Oh—and an idea had come to me about winning over the heroines, too. Going through the whole Miss Emilia incident had inspired it.
Academy stories. What came to mind? Attacks! Yes—attacks!
If I gallantly saved a heroine in the middle of some life-or-death crisis? Even I, proud owner of a catastrophically hopeless way with words, would see my affection points shoot straight up, and she would try to get close to me one way or another.
Right. Getting friendly through conversation was a lost cause. Step on a landmine doing that, and it would be a disaster. There were a few other methods, sure, but the surest one was this.
But did I have the strength to handle an attack, you ask? That part went without saying.
Where was it I was going? The Academy. And the Academy was precisely the place that trained people for combat. Right there, they would teach me how to grow stronger. Then my outs— my brain, together with all my years of novel-reading experience, would make me strong somehow!
A perfect plan.
The plan was set, then. Time to enjoy today's reward.
Splash!
The moment I confirmed the gold-plated tub was full of water, I leapt in with all my might.
"Yeah! This is it!"
I'd been told the soundproofing was excellent, so I could yell without a shred of restraint.
"Ahh, this is bliss. I can't wait to get to the Academy."
Words I never would have let out of my mouth in my old world, not even if someone threatened me—and saying them, I savored one perfect moment of happiness.
The bridge leading into the heart of the great capital, Nern. I stood quietly before that magnificent span, waiting in line to enter the Central District.
"Wow... it's beautiful..."
The river of Nern, I had learned, flowed in from the east, split into two branches, and joined together again in the west. Outside the river lay the outer districts; inside it, the Central District—the region where nobles, royalty, and the state's most important figures lived. It was a setting I felt I had seen often enough somewhere that understanding it on the spot was no trouble at all.
And the Academy stood in that Central District as well. I was only looking across from this side, and already the grand imperial palace in the distance and the beautiful buildings seized my gaze. It truly breathed the air of a place where the nation's highest class resided.
So I'm actually going in there.
I was staring blankly at the view, heart pounding, when my turn came before I knew it. A checkpoint, meant to inspect everyone entering the Central District. Show them my Academy admission certificate, and I would pass through without a hitch.
"Excuse me, I brought my admission certificate."
I called toward the square window of the checkpoint to let them know I'd arrived, but there was no answer.
....
What? They'd been there a moment ago.
Unable to hold the curiosity back, I stuck my head in through the window—and found two guards in the middle of a chat.
"No way. He actually said that?"
"Yeah. I'm telling you, it's true."
Come on... slacking off? This was the checkpoint into the most central district of the Empire?
"So that bastard Hex got his ass handed to him, I hear."
"Really, there's no end to the things that happen. Poor guy."
Huh?
Hex?
Why was that name coming up here?