The Academy's First Misunderstanding
It was often said that spring, when the cold winter passed and life began to bloom, was bright and warm. Bullshit. Winter had only just left—how could it possibly be warm? It was still cold. Unless this place sat further north than Colwen.
“So this is the Academy.”
The central hub of Endless Fantasia. The place where you learned skills through classes and quests and advanced the story’s episodes through interaction.
“Instead of repeating the same line at the gate, why don’t you just go inside already?” It was a school.
“Why on earth was I… excited about going to school of all places…?”
“You’ve never even been before, so why are you acting so uncharacteristically afraid? What do you think is waiting inside?”
“What do you mean, what? Studying, obviously.”
Wow. Studying. Those high-school days of leaving the house at seven in the morning and crawling back at eleven at night!
From what I remembered, Academy classes followed a university-style schedule. Still, I didn’t want to study.
“If your problem is that you’re bad at studying, it’s already too late, so just give up. That’s the price for never opening a book as a child and only ever fighting.”
“Didn’t I at least handle the lord’s duties?”
“You handled them so sloppily that we nearly all went down together, so you clung to Count Lin’s skirts, didn’t you? After that you basically became her mercenary.”
“Shut up.”
“As you command.”
Melina gave a bitter smile, lifted the hem of her skirt, and struck the classic maid pose. In just three years she had become the real thing. At first the mere thought of the original Melina had nearly made me vomit. But leaving her alone would have been special treatment. I fell for that line and worked her as hard as possible for three years. Now, at least outwardly, she was an exemplary maid. It was a good outcome. With everything she had learned, she would have no trouble earning a living even if she went back.
“Stop staring at me with that unpleasant look and go inside. Or are you planning to wait here until my sister arrives?”
“No. That won’t be necessary.”
Yes. The reason I had come to the Academy was solely to raise Eres. I had been too busy with the Count’s duties to look after her personally, but I had provided steady support. She must have become quite strong by now.
But I would not meet Eres today. On the first day of school she got into a fight with a bully noble and arrived late. The game’s tutorial had senior Gabea personally show the tardy Eres around the Academy since she had missed the new-student orientation.
In other words, for the sake of everything that would follow, today’s me should avoid meeting Eres.
“I can’t be late on the first day. First impressions matter.”
“Being late is something you must never do. And your impression is already the worst possible, so there’s no need to worry about it.”
“Why? These days the Lin bastards should have stopped spreading their fabrications.”
Since Nine’s Piece was currently in a cooperative relationship with me, spreading bad rumors would only harm them as well, so they must have held back. Probably.
“……”
Melina gestured for me to lower my head. What was it? Something that couldn’t be said aloud?
“What?”
“It’s not reaching. Lower your head more.”
“Isn’t this enough?”
“Bring your ear closer.”
“If I’ve bent this far, you can just come closer. What is it?”
Even though I told her to come closer, Melina’s mouth was already pressed so tightly to my ear that it felt like it was inside. Maybe my hair made breathing through her nose uncomfortable; she exhaled and inhaled only through her mouth, so her breathing sounded crystal clear. Damn, it tickled.
“……Kidnapper.”
“After all that suspense, that’s what you wanted to say?”
What she finally spat out after a long pause was simply a replay of what I had done to her six years ago. I never should have asked.
“In the end it’s just your own prejudice. The rest of the world doesn’t know about that.”
“You were pretending to be a good person, so it pissed me off. Trash like you.”
“Enough. Get off. I don’t like ASMR.”
“What is that?”
What was it again? After ten years in a world without earphones, I could barely remember.
“Hm?”
For some reason the surroundings had grown quiet. The voices of passersby had dwindled and their footsteps had stopped. For some reason I felt unpleasant gazes that seemed to be fixed on me—
It must be my imagination.
They were looking at me. Thoughts like that were usually delusions. Overthinking. Paying attention to such things was bad for mental health. Just ignore it and keep walking.
“Is that the Luke Colwen….”
“The one who ignored the prince who offered to help him live cleanly and jumped straight onto the battlefield?”
“I heard he enjoys eating human corpses and drinking their blood….”
“Yeah, they say he’s the one and only devil in the world. Why is someone like that at the Academy?”
“They say he tried to manage his territory himself without any education and failed spectacularly, so he came here to study.”
All of it was delusion. Auditory and visual hallucination. Every last bit.
“Are you listening, Master? Your rumors have spread far and wide.”
“Everyone is keeping quiet. What are you talking about? If your ears are bad, I’ll grant you sick leave—go to the hospital.”
“That’s a fine suggestion. I’ll make the reservation under your name.”
This was definitely a hallucination. The proof was all the absurd fabrications mixed in. Why would I eat human corpses? Clearly I was hearing things, and although the degree differed, Melina was hearing things too. The people behind us stealing glances were hallucinations. The fact that no one sat within eight seats of me or in the four rows ahead was also a hallucination. Once I came to my senses the place would be packed.
“Mel. This condition seems serious.”
“You finally admit it.”
“Yeah. With hallucinations and delusions this bad, I wouldn’t be able to accept even if someone asked to be friends.”
“You’re joking, right?”
“I’m serious. I’ve never had a friend my own age.”
I never had any to begin with. But after coming here I never even had the chance to meet peers. When I was young I only trained to become stronger. Later I was confined by Lin, and after that I became Count and only associated with adults.
“Still, shouldn’t you have at least a few people around you?”
“How many? Sounds difficult.”
“Even one is fine. Going to school alone feels miserable.”
“……Aha. So that’s what you meant…?”
Living alone, attending lectures alone, eating alone during university. I had studied hard, but my network had been critically lacking. It would be no different here. No matter how outstanding your ability, once you fell out of the network you suffered disadvantages somewhere.
“Then how about this?”
Melina clapped her hands, smiling for the first time in a long while. Had she come up with something good?
“Rejected.”
But I couldn’t stand the sight of Melina smiling. Especially not when she smiled at me.
“……”
“I’ll listen.”
Though her face smiled, the ominous feeling that something was about to burst from inside made me change my words. Yeah, that much was enough.
What Melina took out was a notebook and writing tools.
“We’ll have people who want to be friends with Master write their names here.”
“If you want to be friends, come write it yourself. It sounds too arrogant; it’s unpleasant.”
“That depends on how you phrase it. For example, ‘Looking for people to talk with after the orientation.’”
“Hm… Not bad. Give it here.”
“Master’s handwriting is terrible, so I’ll write it.”
Was my handwriting bad? I had thought I wrote well until now. On the contrary, everyone else wrote in messy cursive, so I assumed they all wrote terribly. But I was the strange one?
Could it be that in this world messy handwriting is more highly regarded…?
If that was true, I had been doing something utterly pointless. And why had no one told me? Bastards.
“Ugh… Why does someone like that have to be in the same year as me….”
“I saw earlier. In the middle of the street with his maid…”
“Shh! He’s looking at us…”
The hallucinations and auditory hallucinations still had not ended. Strangely. There was no way that was reality. What had I done? I had tested my strength against villains, been captured by Lin and forced to work, then succeeded my father to become Count. I was a kind of war hero who had distinguished himself in several battles. There was no reason for anyone except Eres’s siblings or the Colwen people to dislike me. None.
Are there no named characters? They must be in other classes.
Should I consider this fortunate? There were no named characters from Endless Fantasia present. It would be best for them to become close to Eres first. Especially the helpers.
Well, that Eres was probably being held up right now by that ill-tempered bald noble bastard. The current Eres was likely stronger than him, but the situation remained the same. In the original work it wasn’t strength but the gap between noble and commoner that had stopped him.
Tarle Maerland. The typical bully who picks a fight with the protagonist in these genres. However, this game was a depressing dark fantasy. The protagonist didn’t smash the bully to deliver a refreshing cider; instead he was hindered at every turn and forced to eat sweet potatoes. The scene of Tarle’s downfall never appeared. As the game entered its latter half he simply vanished at some point, mentioned only as dead alongside a suicide note written in blood. I never imagined they would keep feeding him sweet potatoes until he died.
“Look at that. Even Tarle Maerland is here…”
“Luke and Tarle? Is this year truly cursed?”
“Tarle is walking toward Luke Colwen…”
“Is he going to fight?”
“Tsk, are those bully bastards going to fight for hierarchy? The Academy has become their playground…”
“Mel, do you see that bald guy over there?”
“I see him very clearly. My god, how can his hair at that age—”
“Stop.”
Melina obediently closed her mouth and fitted the notebook onto the bookrest she had taken from her bag. And the problem in question, Tarle—
“What do you want?”
Good. Concept maintenance successful. Tarle glanced at the notebook Melina had set out and flinched. Was he surprised to learn I desired peace and socializing? Please don’t write your name.
“I-I…”
“What? If you have something to say, say it loud—”
Thud!
Tarle, who had been squeezing out a crawling voice, suddenly dropped to his knees.
“I pay my respects! Count Luke!”
“……………Mel.”
“What is it? Count Luke, who shares a sworn-sibling bond with Count Emesh who treats violent organizations as his own limbs.”
Hey, wait a second.
“That crazy Tarle just knelt immediately!”
“The hierarchy was already decided… As expected, the difference in station is overwhelming…!”
“Scary… Dad! I want to go home!”
“I have admired Count Luke since childhood! The legend who conquered the entire country with a single fist—a dimension apart from trash like me! If you need anything, please use me whenever you wish!”
This was… all…
“I also have friends and subordinates in other classes! I will introduce them all before the day is over…”
It had to be a hallucination….