So, There's an Entrance Ceremony
March 1st. The long-awaited entrance ceremony had finally arrived.
The day the Empire's finest talents gathered in a single hall. For someone, a meaningful turning point in a life. For someone else, the day they set their ambitions ablaze and stepped at last into the future they had dreamed of.
And as for me...
"Haa..."
I had fallen into the greatest crisis of my life.
What sat before my eyes was an ordinary school uniform, delivered to my door that very morning. No—the prettiest uniform I had ever seen, if I was being honest. A white shirt. A blue jacket marking an incoming student. A blue necktie, and a pleated skirt striped in blue.
Yes. A skirt. The thing any girl would put on without a second thought. And because I, too, was a girl student, the uniform delivered to my room was a skirt.
So in the end, the day came. A reality I had simply been refusing to look at. A fate I had managed to ignore for a little while, drifting around in nothing but shorts and a scrap of cloth. Girl students wore skirts. That was the iron law of the academy.
Did I really have to put this on? Even so, it was far too embarrassing. Underwear I could let slide—there was hardly anyone who would see it—but this... It wasn't as if anyone else would spare a thought for how I looked. I was the one who couldn't bear it. I had been a man until not that long ago. How was I supposed to wear this?
Even so, I couldn't go hunting for a pair of pants. Anyone who stood out on their own was bound to be ostracized.
Hah... no choice, then. Ugh... This is mortifying...
Ever so carefully, I stepped into the skirt and drew it up to my waist, the fabric whispering against my legs. ...Wasn't this awfully bare? An awkward sensation of nothing at all underneath. One wrong move and my underwear would be on full display. This was fine, right? It had to be fine.
Treading as gingerly as a thief sneaking off with stolen goods—despite having done nothing wrong at all—I slipped out of the room.
Ugh. I can't stop noticing it. Was I supposed to wear clothes like this every single day from now on? I was doomed.
Whoa. That's a lot of people.
The grand auditorium, which I had found by following the guide pamphlet, was packed with a truly staggering crowd. Had I arrived a little late? Most of the students had already claimed their seats and settled in to rest, and empty chairs were few and far between.
If I had to sit somewhere, it would've been nice to land next to a pretty heroine. But nearly every seat was already filled. Fine. I'd just sit anywhere. It wasn't as if I was going to make friends here anyway.
I lowered myself into a chair, and even that simple motion made the skirt impossible to ignore. Was I ever going to get used to this?
Then the luminous magic lamps along the ceiling went dark, and light fell on the stage alone.
Nertia Academy. The signal that its glorious entrance ceremony had begun. And if this followed the iron laws of every ordinary academy story, then surely...
"Good day to you all."
A woman with long crimson hair stood before the podium, offering the incoming students a perfectly composed greeting.
"I am Meriana Adrion, headmistress of Nertia Academy."
Of course. Time for the headmistress to appear. Heh. This much was nothing special. I hadn't accomplished anything grand, and yet a small sense of achievement was just starting to go to my head when the ceremony's congratulatory address began in earnest.
And here, the iron laws of academy stories offered one more certainty.
"Your efforts and your achievements shall, in time, become a single blossom..."
Right.
"The days you devote yourselves to scholarship and the martial arts will carry you..."
Namely, a headmistress's speech as dull as a sleep spell.
Maybe I'd just rest my eyes for a bit. Whatever she was saying was bound to have no substance, and with the day's schedule ahead of me, a proper rest was the sensible choice. Besides, the academy was even kindly applying a special sleep-aid buff. I couldn't let an opportunity like that go to waste, could I?
And so, at some point, my eyes drifted slowly shut, and my consciousness slipped away into some far, far-off place.
......
My eyes snapped open. I blinked.
...Huh? Where did everyone go?
Yuria Paulson.
As the top-ranked freshman, she had just finished the student address—hers to give, immediately after the headmistress—and was coming down from the stage.
"Yuria!"
"Oh, Sister!"
"I saw your speech, Yuria. You didn't shake at all. You did wonderfully."
"I'm the top-ranked freshman. If I couldn't manage even this much, I wouldn't deserve the title, Sister."
"Being first is never an easy thing. It simply means our Yuria is remarkable."
"Sister, honestly, you're embarrassing me... My score only came out well thanks to the Stat Track. Oh, but that aside—nothing happened on your way here, did it?"
A reunion with her older sister, Amelia Paulson. Yuria was glad. She had been able to show the sister she had always admired a side of herself she could be proud of.
"Ah... a-ah, yes! Nothing at all. And you—have you been well?"
"...?"
Huh?
Why was she reacting like that? Yuria knew her sister well, and in that answer she caught a faint note of awkwardness.
This is the face she makes when she wants to hide something from me.
Had something happened?
"Ah, right—you're off to have your stat grade measured now, aren't you? I've been holding you up for nothing."
"..."
"I'll be staying in the capital for a while, so if you want to see me on the weekend, come find me anytime, Yuria."
"Yes. I will."
With a thoroughly flustered feeling showing straight through her, her sister turned and left.
This was definitely...
Something happened. I'm sure of it.
Her sister had never been skilled at hiding her feelings, and that much hadn't changed—yet a worry still bloomed in one corner of Yuria's heart. She would have to set a servant to looking into it. She hoped it was nothing. But if it was serious, she had a right to know. And if it truly had been nothing, her sister would have had no reason to hide it.
I don't like this.
Even now, hating to be a cause for worry, she tried to lock anything unpleasant away where no one could find it. Did she still see Yuria as a child? Yuria had worked so hard for her sister's recognition.
She had to know. She would find out, no matter what, and she would be the one to resolve it. She would show her sister that she was not a child forever.
Burning with resolve, she set off for the next destination.
No, this was too much, wasn't it? How could they all just abandon me and leave? The auditorium had been packed. Among all those people, not a single one had woken me.
This is the hospitality of the Empire's greatest academy? Was everyone here just a rival? Handle your own business yourself? Nursing a sulk toward classmates I hadn't even properly seen, I got up and moved on.
I roughly know where they went, at least. Today's schedule and each of the locations had been written in the guide pamphlet.
"Surely I'm not late..."
This next item was probably the stat measurement. If my name had been called and I never appeared... the thought alone was horrifying. Shoving the dread to the back of my mind, I took off down the path at a sprint, footsteps pattering hard against the stone.
"Hah... hah..."
Why was it so far? The place was pointlessly enormous. Couldn't they have put the buildings a little closer together?
"Just a second. Just a second, then I'll go."
I had braced my hands on my knees and was catching my breath when—
...Huh?
What was that? Off at the edge of my vision, some boy was running. From the uniform, he was definitely an incoming student. Strangely, though, he wasn't heading for the stat measurement room at all. He was sprinting in a completely different direction.
Don't tell me. Was he directionally challenged?
Hmm... If I helped him, I'd be even later, wouldn't I? Right. There was no need to help. I had already learned the academy's law of every man for himself. He wasn't even a girl. I had no reason whatsoever to help a boy. If anything, wasn't this one fewer competitor?
Farewell, friend. You're going to get marked by everyone from day one. You can sit and watch while I enjoy my time with the heroines.
I offered the lost boy a brief moment of condolence, then took off running again—and before long, I reached the stat measurement room.
This the place?
The door slid open.
"Yes, Student Bain. Your average stat grade is E−. Please return to your seat."
The moment I stepped inside, the measurements were already well underway. This was bad. What if my name had already been called? My heart dropped like a stone, and it refused to settle. My mouth went bone-dry. A cold sweat prickled down my spine. Trembling, I quietly took an empty seat in the very back row.
Please. Let them not have called me yet.
Fortunately, my name still hadn't come up. The order of measurement followed the admissions tracks, and the Special Trait Track, I gathered, went last of all.
The academy had four admissions tracks: the Stat Track, the Proficiency Track, the Academic Track, and the Special Trait Track. The Stat Track was the one applied to by people whose average grade sat in the E-Grade range, and even among them it measured and evaluated things like talent and knowledge. The Proficiency Track and the Academic Track selected students by assessing mastery of combat techniques or magic, and academic knowledge, respectively.
And last, the Special Trait Track—the one with the fewest students of all. Every human being possessed a shape to their soul, and among those shapes, the ones that were especially peculiar were what people commonly called Traits. They took all sorts of forms: a unique ability, an outstanding talent in some particular field, and so on. Depending on the kind, a Trait could even decide whether a nation survived or fell. For that reason, the moment someone was confirmed to hold a Trait, admission to the academy was decided on the spot, and they then went through the process of discovering exactly what their Trait was.
And how did I know any of this? Because the students sitting in front of me were chattering away about it, having a grand old time among themselves. How were they already friends? The term hadn't even properly started. Did that make any sense? Those extroverts. Way to make a loner feel left out.
Oh, and from what else I overheard, there were eight stats in all: Attack, Defense, Stamina, Agility, Intellect, Mana, Sense, and Luck. Each one was divided into grades on a fixed scale, from S+ down to F−. Depending on the nature of a person's mana, some areas stood out and others fell short.
Just as curiosity stirred—wouldn't it be better to measure the detailed stats rather than an average?—I caught the answer. Measuring detailed stats required technology on the level of a national treasure, so it wasn't used in a place like this. To begin with, cases where the gap between one's stats was enormous were rare. And the grades measured here were used in certain lectures to divide the class.
An ordinary entrant's stats, I heard, mostly fell in the F-Grade or E-Grade range. And apparently, while I was gone, the top-ranked and the second-ranked—measured first of all—had come out in the D-Grade range.
Up to here, it was a scene you could find in any ordinary academy story. And right here was a way to catch the heroines' attention.
"Next, Student Cecina."
My turn at last. All right, my stats. I hadn't seen them yet, but they knew what they had to do, didn't they? Praying they would read the room and come through for me, I stepped up onto the stage.
"Cecina. Present."
Ding. Ding. Ding.
The other party recognizes you.
Ugh, noisy. I was standing right in front of a measurement device with everyone openly watching. Of course they recognized me. They didn't need to tell me that. Thinking I'd very much like to switch this worthless ability off, I set my hand against the device.
Please. Come out! Stats that'll grab the heroines' attention!
I didn't care whether they were absurdly high or absurdly low. If I could just brand the fact of my existence into their heads, then whatever I did from here on would catch their eyes. The psychological distance would close bit by bit. And in the end, the doors of their hearts would open!
I swallowed.
After a brief silence, the device finished its reading. A short beep.
"Yes, Student Cecina. Your average stat grade is E+. Please return to your seat."
"Ooh..."
"Oooh..."
A few students let out quiet murmurs of admiration.
"..."
...Huh? That was it?
"Student Cecina? Please return to your seat."
"A-ah... yes!"
I trudged back down.
What? That was really the end? This was the first impression I was supposed to burn into the heroines, and a short murmur of admiration was all the gallery managed before its interest snapped clean off.
Wasn't this usually not how it went? Come on. You know the ones.
"That kid already has stats like that, at her age?"
"Who in the world is she..."
"Ugh... I can't stand it! I'll surpass her somehow, I swear!"
Or else—
"Pfft—hahaha! That idiot got into the academy with stats like those?"
"Hmm... how did she even pass? She might be hiding something."
"To stand there so confidently with stats like that... now I'm interested."
That sort of thing!
But what was this? At this rate I was just passing Background Extra #16! These socially oblivious stats. Give me a scene worthy of a transmigrator!
"Next, Student Kain."
Grumbling where no one could hear, I was halfway back to my seat when—
"Student Kain...?"
A stir ran through the room.
"What? Don't tell me he's absent."
"Heh heh heh. What an interesting fellow."
"Slacking off at our proud academy... I'll be watching to see what sort of person he is."
!!!!
What kind of development was this? All at once, every student's attention had locked onto a single person.
Don't tell me. The cliché where you draw glares at the start by looking unreliable, then win the heroines' hearts by resolving incident after incident around the academy? Among transmigrators, the route that could mass-produce tsundere heroines.
Why hadn't I thought of that? A delinquent doing a good deed always looked cooler. From the moment I didn't know where my stats would land, I should have kept this in mind. I'd been so worried about getting marked by the teachers that I'd failed to secure the part that actually mattered.
You idiot! How could you make a mistake like this!
And judging by the reaction, there was only one absence. Which meant—
That boy from earlier?
The boy I had pitied was, without a doubt, the protagonist currently monopolizing every student's attention.
Ah.
The pitiful one had been me.
I should have skipped with him.