There’s the rule that all students had to treat each other equally, and the authority, power and status one had outside was meaningless in Temple.
“Tha, that’s…… Yo, your Grace…?”
“Come on, you should talk to me comfortably. It’s the rule here to treat everyone equally.”
However, this rule was rather tricky to implement for lower ranking people..
Could you just talk comfortably to a Prince just because he asked you to?
In the past when we went to Temple, you sure were talking casually to me, haha. You were telling me to do so after all, hahaha. Do I look so easy to you?
They were afraid to someday hold this kind of conversation.
Of course, Bertus wasn’t that kind of character, but rather, it was just the lower class getting intimidated by his presence.
After that, the student council president informed us about the general rules and told us to refer to the manual if we had further questions.
It was mostly about the curfew, meal time, items that could and could not be brought in and when to wake up. Just some little things. We were warned not to wander around after lights out. Of course, it was possible to go out if necessary, but we were told to prepare for a scolding by the superintendent if they found out.
‘Since the superintendents have a lifetime contract with Temple, if you don’t have enough power to influence even the Temple staff, you’d better wake up on time.’
They even gave us that kind of dreadful warning.
Temple was fully prepared to even counter act their teachers being weighed down by their students’ authority and couldn’t do their jobs as teachers properly.
In the lobby on the left, the students that met each other for the first time today got together and talked with each other. I sat slightly further away and overheard what they were talking about.
Bertus was a hidden villain to begin with. At the start, guys with a hot temper were the ones who started arguing with Class B. Bertus originally appeared as a good guy in Class A. He was amiable, didn’t discriminate against others and was kind to everyone in Class B.
He even hid the fact that he was a prince. He hid his identity and just enrolled into Temple’s Royal Class as an outstanding student. He later revealed his true identity and character to the main character! That was how I set it up.
But now, because of Charlotte’s admittance his identity was already known. In other words, the development I had previously planned out disappeared like smoke.
Even so, it wouldn’t change the bigger framework of this academy setting. Going to classes, studying and training. Although the development would be different, the structure would be the same.
“Take it easy, take it easy. If you don’t, I might be the one who gets a warning, you know? Aren’t you worried about that?”
“Ah, Uh, uhm… Yes, I am….”
Bertus was telling the students who had a hard time dealing with him to treat him comfortably, while teasing them slightly, just like I set him up to be.
Class A, which consisted of 11 people, did not use different dormitories for men and women. Temple focused more on dividing the inferior and superior students than on dividing male and female ones.
Right now, the person asking the Prince about various things was number 9 Erich de Lafaeri, the son of Count Lafaeri. I couldn’t remember if he had talent in divine power, swordsmanship or something else, but it must be a talent suited for a Paladin.
As an aspiring paladin, I set him up to be a shallow guy. Strong against the weak and weak against the strong. Typical.
He was the one who despised Class B the most. He was also the prince’s lackey.
Ah.
I feel like someone spoiled me here, because I already knew these developments in advance. That feeling of knowing someone’s inner thought was both a good one and a bitter one.
“Have you ever been to Lafaerie? Oh, of course, you haven’t been there before….”
“Ah, Lafaerie, it’s the great territory in the Northwest. I’ve never been to it before, but I know it produces good grapes. I can’t drink yet, but I know because the Emperor likes to drink wine from Lafaerie.”
“O, oooh! You know!”
Erich was almost moved to tears just because the prince knew about his territory.
Although I didn’t find that matter all that moving, Bertus’ ability to commit anything he saw to memory and to recall any of these things at will sure was amazing.
Bertus smiled innocently.
“As a matter of fact, I had a few sips without the Emperor’s knowledge.”
“Ah, re, really?”
“It had a good feeling to. I’m sorry I can’t remember too clearly.”
“No, no! No! Tha, thank you! B, by the way, you did it wi, without… You did it without the Emperor knowing…?”
“I’m not that much different from you, you know? I also do things I want to do secretly behind my parents’ back. Then if I get caught I get scolded.”
What a ghoulish bastard.
It was so absurd watching Bertus make his first slave in real time right in front of me. After talking for a long while, Bertus got up and approached someone. They came down to the lobby, wiping down their hair with a towel as if they just came out of the shower.
“Hello?”
“..…Huh. You got business with me?”
“Don’t you want to get to know your classmates a bit more? I’m Bertus. Nice to meet you. I saw you earlier, you were rank 2, right?”
“…Yeah.”
“I just wanted to introduce myself formally.”
A girl with black hair and eyes. Even though this was the first time I saw her, I knew exactly who she was.
“Ellen.”
The girl tried to walk past Bertus as soon as she said that.
“Huh? That’s it?”
“…….”
“I know you.”
Bertus smiled bashfully and extended his hand to her.
“I heard about it. Don’t worry.”
The girl that introduced herself as Ellen looked at Bertus before she held his hand.
“I’m sorry. Of course, you were supposed to be number 1. I guess there were some people meddling. I really wanted to apologize to you for taking your place.”
Bertus spoke as if he knew something about Ellen.
“..…I don’t care.”
After Ellen said that she brushed away her hair and walked towards the restaurant.
“Hey, did you hear?… She was supposed to be number 1….”
“Yeah. Right.”
A girl who was supposed to be number 1 got pushed down to number 2 because of Bertus.
She introduced herself as just Ellen, but Bertus knew that the girl was hiding something.
Of course, I also knew as it was part of the main story.
What she hid was her real name. Her last name to be exact.
Ellen Artorius.
She was the sister of the Warrior Artorius.
* * *
Ellen Artorius.
If Bertus was the villain who had slightly better talents than the main character, then Ellen Artorius was a powerhouse that the main character couldn’t even dare look at.
As such, she was the main character’s real rival.
Although she fell to Class A’s second rank, she actually possessed such tremendous amounts of talent that just calling her first rank wasn’t enough.
She had a lot of talents I couldn’t clearly remember. Things like weapon mastery, magic domination, magic resistance, spiritual sensitivity, psychic resistance, fast-learning and many more.
She was a genius and good at everything.
She was the beneficiary of that set up.
That was why Ellen hid her vast amounts of talents from outsiders. It wasn’t an ordinary number of talents after all.
If I had infinite aptitudes, then Ellen was born with every type of combat talent there is, though it wasn’t infinite.
If Swordsmanship was a talent for just one type of weapon, then Weapon Mastery would be a type of comprehensive talent. It meant that one had a talent for all types of weapons. Even if she just had a talent for a single weapon and an additional one she would have been able to enter Royal Class, but counting Ellen’s talents was just a meaningless task.
She had so many talents that no one could match her in the class of warriors. In addition to her magic resistance she had one more resistance that no one except Ellen had. She had the talent to develop a resistance against supernatural powers.
To begin with, I made her as a character that felt like a mountain the main character could never over look, so of course she was a Munchkin. As was etiquette in these types of novels, the main character would eventually rise to a level comparable to Ellen Artorius.
Bertus was watching the leaving figure of that Ellen, who didn’t seem to care much about him. Erich watched her with an expression as if he wanted to say something like: “What? How dare you ignore His Grace?!”
I heard all their names during that self-introduction, however, even though I was the one who set up their names, honestly, I still couldn’t remember all of them.
What did that guy do again? What were his abilities?
There were so many characters and it wasn’t like this was the last novel I wrote about the Demon King’s death, so I couldn’t help but forget.
Bertus greeted each and every one of us in the lobby as if he was trying to get acquainted with us, I was no exception in this.
While Bertus was talking, I again tried to recall the faces and names of the remaining people.
“I think you were called Reinhardt. Right?”
“Ah. Yes.”
“Let’s do well together, my friend.”
It seemed like we already had too bad of a relationship though to become friends, but, well, that wasn’t a reason to act too unfriendly.
The one I had to be on guard the most about wasn’t Bertus after all. I had to be careful not to let Charlotte know who I was. Bertus didn’t know anyway.
I had some guesses about Charlotte entering the school, but I was actually pretty surprised that it actually happened.
I had to be careful not to stand out too much. Even though Charlotte didn’t know for certain that I was a demon, she did know that I was suspicious. That’s what I noticed before I fled without a word.
I was certainly uncomfortable with the idea of having to be in the same class as Bertus, but it was a lot more dangerous to be in Charlotte’s class. I was glad that I got into Class A.
It was that….
It was about time for that to happen.
“Hey, guys! Nice to meet you!”
A guy approached Class A’s lobby with a lively expression on his face.
“Let’s get along in the future!”
The one ranked last in Class B and the main character, Ludwig, was coming towards the lobby.
* * *
Technically, the A and B Class dormitories weren’t off limits to the other class.
It was more like an unwritten rule, so someone heading to the other class’s dormitory didn’t happen often. Even more so as the grades went up.
That was because Class A clearly perceived Class B as inferior and Class B was also uncomfortable with or rather they disliked Class A.
In fact, as one went up in grade, there wasn’t even a way for class members to go back and forth between the two. In some cases, Class B was able to overtake Class A by working hard, but that just added to the annoyance of Class A.
Of course, this was the first day everyone here joined the Royal Class, but those who have attended Temple since elementary school had heard about these facts.
Therefore, it wasn’t that unreasonable for the people in Class A’s lobby to look at Ludwig, who came to Temple for the first time today and proudly introduced himself as Class B’s number 11, with an expression seeming to ask ‘What’s with that bastard?’.
That was the event that took place right after the self-introduction after entering the dormitories.
Ludwig just stopped by Class A to say hello, but was met with rather bitter reactions.
There were five people in the lobby right now.
I, Bertus, No. 9 Erich, No. 10 Cayer Vioden, No. 4 Harriet de Saint-Owan.
Except for me and Bertus, everyone was frowning at him. Ludwig then readily reached out his hand to Bertus.
“It’s an honor, Prince! Let’s do our best together!”
“Okay, Ludwig. Don’t call me Prince. That’s against the rules.”
“Yes! Bertus!”
Bertus smiled kindly and took his hand. Everyone looked at that scene with even more astonishment. It’s like witnessing a friendship that only had a 1% chance of happening, happening right in front of their eyes.
The prince had a good personality as well.
I felt like I could hear voices saying that from everywhere. After shaking hands with Bertus, Ludwig greeted the other children as well.
“Oh, we meet again, Reinhardt”
“Indeed.”
“Let’s do our best!”
“Oh, you too.”
Let’s not stand out. Let’s just show a neutral reaction.
Erich shook hands with Ludwig, even though he was quite speechless. No. 10 Cayer just sighed in astonishment and took his hand.
“…Hey, get out of here.”
“Huh?”
“Get out of here. This is the Class A dormitory.”
However, No. 4 Harriet de Saint-Owan was blunt with Ludwig.
“Ah, so…. I, I can’t come here?”
Ludwig seemed embarrassed as he said that. Harriet sighed.
“I don’t know about you not being allowed here.”
Harriet sighed again and pointed at the hallway Ludwig entered through.
“But it feels bad. Some B Class person just wandering in and out of the A Class housing.”
“……Ah, ah….”
“If you understand, just go away already.”
“Ah… Ri, right. I’m sorry….”
Ludwig turned back with a puzzled expression.
“Come now. Aren’t we all the same friends here?”
Bertus appeared to rescue Ludwig from trouble. Harriet’s face turned beet-red as she hadn’t expected Bertus would step up.
“Ah, tha…. That’s…. Ah….”
Her bewilderment, fumbling for words, was a stark contrast to her previous venomous look she sent out before. I guess she never thought the prince would cover for that guy.
Harriet de Saint-Owan.
Princess of the Duchy Saint-Owan. As the princess of one of the Empire’s duchies she had to make a good impression on the Prince.
That guy was a commoner without a surname and he boldly dared to come here as a B Class student, so she got annoyed and lost her temper, however when Bertus stepped in she got very quiet.
Bertus, of course, didn’t reveal that he was a prince in the original, but he overwhelmed her with his atmosphere.
It was amazing how the initial development was the same, even though some things changed.
“Ludwig, we have some sensitive friends here, so let’s be more careful in the future. If you have something to say to us, you can use the pager and if you don’t know how to use it, I’ll show you.”
“O, oh. Ehm…. Thank you.”
Bertus walked out of the lobby with a grinning, but slightly dazed Ludwig. Harriet’s face was still red and she couldn’t bring out a single word.
She usually lived with her nose in the air, so she completely forgot that there was a Prince next to her. She only pretended to be calm, after all she only heard of Temple and this was her first day here.
By the way, was it so scary to suddenly see someone from Class B here? Well, anyway even though she was kind of a jerk, she was still ranked fourth.
Her main talent was ‘Magic’.
If Weapon Mastery was a comprehensive talent, then ‘Magic’ was of the same type.
There was a person in Class B who had the two magical talents ‘Alchemy’ and ‘Enchantment’. In comparison, that girl’s comprehensive talent, Magic, was a huge upgrade to the talent the person from Class B had.
In any case, she was gifted with the ability to be able to master all types of magic, regardless of school or field. She wasn’t 4th ranked for nothing. Of course, knowing that there were still 3 more people above her was amazing in itself.
“The Prince has a very good personality….”
Erich was admiring him, calling Bertus Prince again without realizing.
“Don’t you think?”
Erich looked at me as if he was asking me to agree. Originally, he was supposed to ask someone else, wasn’t he?
“..…Yeah.”
Looking at it like that, no matter how rotten he was on the inside, he did seem to have a good personality on the outside. Even I who knew his true colors couldn’t believe it.
He was so good at pretending that he could even deceive me, the creator.
Only
That was quite the thing.
[You have accomplished the achievement ‘First day at Temple’.]
[You have earned 100 achievement points.]
I didn’t know if it was because I saw the event with Ludwig or if this was a reward for safely passing the day, but I received some achievement points.
