༺ Mentor Isaac (2) ༻
Grade S Mana.
Results of the Class Placement Evaluation, 1st place.
Guaranteed to be in Class A.
Those were the grades of Miya, the Priestess.
Grade D+ Mana.
Results of the Class Placement Evaluation, 1st place from the back.
Guaranteed to be in Class D.
Those were the grades of Princess Snow White.
“Merlin, life is such a futile thing…”
“I’ve already heard you say that six times, Your Highness.”
Snow White has heard the others claiming she was part of the Golden Generation. Not only were the Princess, Saintess, and Priestess all in the same grade, but the other freshmen were also much more talented than usual.
But even so, this… Aren’t they a bit too talented?
Snow White realized after coming here that she, who received an elite education from only the most distinguished of people due to her background as a princess, had merely been a big frog in a small pond.
She had mistaken herself to be truly talented after hearing countless compliments from a high-ranking wizard in an exalted magic tower such as ‘Well done.’ and ‘You’re brilliant.’ But reality was saddening.
Inside of an empty classroom within Orphin Hall, the building for the Department of Magic.
In front of the lectern, White was staring vacantly into space sitting in a chair prepared for her, and placed in front of her was another empty chair.
Aside from White and Merlin Astrea standing behind her, nobody else was inside of the classroom.
“Don’t you think I’m quite pathetic…? I’ve already declared to His Majesty the Emperor that I would do my best, but I’ve already started on the wrong foot with the Priestess, and am far behind in ability from both her and the Saintess… I haven’t even come across the Saintess, let alone had the chance to talk with her…”
“There’s no need to be discouraged. Your Highness has a kind heart. There will come a chance for Your Highness to acquaint them.”
A kind heart. Is that really her only redeeming quality?
With a soft sigh, White smiled ruefully. Merlin judged that now was the time to change the topic.
“By the way, the mentor should be coming any moment now.”
“Merlin, you said that the mentoring program didn’t exist when you were attending this academy, correct?”
“Yes. I heard that it is being implemented for the first time this year.”
The mentoring program.
It was a program that the Märchen Academy was newly implementing.
Freshmen who wished to participate were assigned a random senior student as a mentor. The chosen senior would provide them with help and advice regarding school activities.
Of course, the seniors also needed to sign up in advance to become a mentor.
Students who became mentors were given a scholarship benefit for part of their tuition fee and received an additional sum in proportion to how much the grades of their freshman mentees improved.
But because of the risks, such as how this was a newly implemented program or it was unclear how much the activities would affect one’s own school life, there were not many volunteers for the mentors.
“Do you think there will be someone fit for me…? Someone that has risen from the bottom to the top in a short period of time… That criterion. Thinking about it now, I think that may have been a bit too unreasonable of a request.”
“We will see soon. If it doesn’t seem to work out, then Your Highness can just withdraw from the mentoring program later. There’s no need to think too hard about it.”
Since a mentee needed a mentor fit for them, they were able to add desired criteria for their mentor.
White also submitted her wishes for who would be her ideal mentor.
It was ‘the person with the largest improvement in grades last year’.
White did not need a mentor who had been talented and strong from the start like Merlin.
A fitting mentor for her would be someone who had started with a low grade just like her, and then was able to earn higher grades over time.
Her current grades were incredibly low. So she had to bring up her grades as quickly as possible and display power that would be able to impress the Saintess and Priestess at least a little bit. After all, the first step to becoming acquainted with them was to be able to at least compete with them.
That would be her way to contribute to the future of her nation and the peace of the world.
“Your Highness, I believe they are here.”
“What? How do you know that?”
“I can hear their footsteps. Someone is coming this way.”
“But I cannot hear anything… Just how good is your hearing, Merlin?”
Finally.
With a creak, the door opened, and a boy stepped into the classroom.
“…”
Silence. Holding her breath, White peered intently at the senior student who entered her vision.
He was in a school uniform, a blue jeweled brooch signifying the second year hanging on his necktie.
His silver hair was just slightly wavy, and his eyes were a shade of murky crimson.
The large circular glasses he wore gave her the impression that he was a model student.
His expression made her believe he would have a gentle personality. Admittedly, her senior seemed decently good-looking.
“You are…?”
“It is my honor to meet Your Highness the Princess.”
Standing in front of White, the student placed his hand over his chest and politely bowed.
The two girls stared at him, White with a blank gaze, and Merlin with an inspective one.
“I am Isaac, your newly selected mentor. I hope that we will have a meaningful semester together.”
The student with silver hair, Isaac, greeted them with a bright smile that reminded one of a salesman.
They called it the capitalistic smile.
* * *
Everything went according to plan.
Snow White.
I just call her the lousy princess.
She takes a main role in the episode during Year 2 Semester 2, and it was practically a guaranteed bad ending if she died.
So it was necessary to build close relations with her in advance and lower her guard so that I could protect her.
I had three ideas for how I could become close to White, and I planned to use all three of those methods.
For starters,
‘The mentoring program.’
The mentoring program was a mandatory section of the ❰Magic Knight of Märchen❱ scenario storyline.
Normally, Ian Fairytale would have been the one chosen as Princess White’s mentor, since as the main character, he was the ‘student with the largest improvement in grades’.
Since White was a side character, not a heroine, she barely contributed anything to the story during Year 2 Semester 1.
But after becoming close with Ian, she provided a chance for him to shine in the second semester.
However, in this world, there wasn’t even the slightest possibility of Ian being able to protect White.
Not to mention…
‘In this world, I had the biggest improvement.’
This world had me.
If someone asked among my peers who had the most drastic of improvements in their year, they would all definitely say ‘Isaac’.
Which was why I had been certain that I would become White’s mentor if I volunteered for the mentoring program.
Behind White, who had fair skin and pure white hair, was Merlin Astrea with her light green hair tied back into a ponytail. Her eyes inspected me with a gaze similar to that of a hawk.
But there was no such thing as a crack in my smile. My specialty was in the acting field; being able to cry on cue was easy for me.
Maintaining my natural smile, I waited for White and Merlin to lower their guard.
Just for reference, Merlin was Kaya Astrea’s sister and a likable side character. She was also the side character I wanted to form the deepest connection with after White.
That was because of the Obsidian Blade, the legendary rock element weapon.
The stance was important when using the Obsidian Blade’s skills. Merlin, a genius swordsman, would definitely be a good teacher for me. If I become close with White, I will likely be able to ask some favors to Merlin as well. That was part of my plan.
“S-senior Isaac! This is the academy, and you’re my senior…! There’s no need to upkeep such formalities!”
White leaped from her seat after receiving my salutations, waving her hands frantically in a panic.
She acted and spoke just as one would expect from a girl who was staying far away from the power struggle for the crown.
“W-well, nice to meet you! I’m sure you already know, but my name is Snow White Von Kairos Elfieto. You can call me White for short.”
“As you wish, Princess White.”
“By the way Senior Isaac, would it be rude for me to ask about your grades last year…?”
White asked me carefully, bringing up both of her hands around her mouth.
As expected, that was her first question.
“I started as the lowest-placed student in Class D, and am currently the highest-ranking student of Class B.”
“Perfect!!”
White, the current bottom-ranked student in Class D for the first year’s, cheered joyfully.
It was as if she had just found a ray of light inside of the pit of despair she had fallen into.
***
White, Merlin, and I crossed the campus.
White was a princess of the Zelver Empire.
Not only that but after dumping her food tray onto the Priestess as written in the original scenario, she attracted far too much attention from the other students.
Attention from others was a disturbance to training. So I planned to train her somewhere away from others.
Why train her at all?
There were many reasons.
As her mentor, I held responsibility for White’s growth, and White had to become stronger anyway to prevent the bad ending.
And it was beneficial for me to be exposed to the mana that White was going to use.
“From last place in Class D to first in Class B…! How is that possible?!”
White had seemed excited this entire time. It looked like she was deeply invested in my story as the current bottom-ranked student in Class D.
For reference, the classes were chosen by taking both the maximum mana and the score for the class placement evaluation into consideration. There was an absolute benchmark chart.
There was not much of a difference in skill between me and Keridna Whiteclark, who was fifth place in Class A.
But because she had a slightly higher maximum mana than me, I arrived at my final rank as top of Class B.
In reality, ‘Isaac is at a similar skill level as the Class A students’ was the majority’s opinion. That was basically my current position.
Anyhow, I smiled awkwardly, pretending to be embarrassed.
“It’s just a result of hard work. I’m sure that Princess White will do much better than a commoner such as myself.”
“Ah, humility! Yes, this is the sort of person that I wanted!”
It seemed like White was burning with enthusiasm right now. I had to say, it was cute to see her fist balled up determinedly telling me that she wanted to receive my coaching as soon as possible.
Though it was called the mentoring program, our relationship was likely going to become similar to a teacher and student. White was, after all, not in a state where just any ol’ advice would be enough.
Like a personal trainer, I would need to teach her proper methods of training.
But that didn’t mean that I was going to pour all of my time into White. I planned to adjust the schedule so that it would not interfere with my own training, and there were other things I would be able to gain from her.
It was a give-and-take.
“By the way, Senior, you don’t need to use honorifics. This is the academy. I’ll only feel uncomfortable if you continue to talk to me so formally…”
“Ah, well then… Alright.”
I was waiting for her to tell me that. I quickly dropped the formalities before things became awkward.
White was continuing to grin ear to ear, seeming to be in a good mood. I must have seemed like some rope that could pull her up to a higher level.
Well, that was true. Though I was going to make her work that much harder for it.
We ventured deep into the hydrangea gardens and made a turn into a secluded path, then finally arrived at the corner of the hydrangea gardens. There was a small lake nearby.
Though this place was smaller than the corner of the butterfly gardens that I often used, this should still be wide enough.
“This is?”
“A corner of the hydrangea gardens. There are probably not many people who know this place aside from myself. We’ll be able to train at peace here.”
“Merlin, have you ever come here before?”
“No, there wasn’t really a reason for me to come to a place like this.”
That was likely. The Märchen Academy’s campus was as large as it was secretive.
Not only that, but the island itself was huge as well, so it was likely that the majority of students would have seen less of the island than what they had seen before graduating.
“White.”
“Yes, Senior Isaac.”
“You’ll be training only for about two hours a day from now on. This is all for your improvement. You can endure that much, right?”
“Heh, 2 hours? That’s a piece of cake!”
White responded eagerly, her face full of confidence.
Then, 20 minutes later.
“Gaghhh…!”
“Your Highness!”
White collapsed on the ground from exhaustion.
