Suspicious Boy

After the commotion at the academy gates, Rudel got out of the carriage and carried his belongings into the boys’ dormitory he would be using. He had never brought much with him to begin with, so it only took a few trips, and the servant left almost immediately after a brief farewell.

“This is quite a nice room… Though for a student dormitory, a private room this large seems a little excessive.”

Rudel removed his heavy, ornate noble clothing, changed into something easier to move in, and looked over the academy schedule. After tomorrow’s entrance ceremony, there would be an orientation and a welcome reception. Students here chose two-year, three-year, or five-year programs beginning at the age of fifteen… There would surely be plenty of people more talented than him, and he would compete alongside them as they all aimed to become knights.

Thinking about that, Rudel began exercising in his now-tidy room. Between his nerves and anxiety, he simply could not settle down unless he was moving… That was how he felt.

Yet even after doing that, he still could not calm himself. Ever since arriving at the academy, Rudel had been experiencing anxiety and tension unlike anything he had ever felt before. He began to feel something almost like an obsession telling him that he “had to leave the room.”

“What is this? I’ve never felt anything like this before…”

Even as he said that, he changed into clothes respectable enough to wear outside and left the room. As he walked through the academy grounds—or rather, the area just outside the boys’ dormitory—a feeling of “not here” kept echoing in his head… Finally deciding, To hell with it! Rudel simply started walking wherever his instincts led him.

And where his feet carried him was… the girls’ dormitory.

“Am I really that pent up? No, there’s no way… But I am a man, and I suppose I’m interested…”

Rudel was deeply shaken by the realization that he had unconsciously walked all the way there. Several female soldiers approached him warily.

“What are you doing here? This is the girls’ dormitory, and male students are forbidden from entering.”

The explanation was polite, but students of noble birth also lived in the girls’ dormitory. If anything happened, those female soldiers would be the first ones punished, so male students were nothing but a source of trouble to them.

Because of that, although they spoke politely, their hands tightened around the hilts of the swords at their waists.

“S-Sorry. I got lost… Could you tell me which way the boys’ dormitory is?”

“…We’ll escort you. That excuse won’t work a second time.”

The exasperated soldiers assigned one of their number to escort Rudel back to the boys’ dormitory.

“Really, you nobles need to get yourselves together a little more! Listen, if something goes wrong, it can become a serious problem and even cause a dispute between noble houses…”

The female soldier walking ahead of him lectured him with a weary tone. Incidents of this sort were often quietly covered up within the academy, so they were a constant source of trouble for people in her position.

Rudel merely thought that her job sounded difficult. He had never had any indecent intentions to begin with, and it was not a place he imagined he would ever approach again. He walked back toward the boys’ dormitory while occasionally apologizing in response to the soldier’s scolding.

“Ah! Could I see your student identification? It’s required by the rules, so I have to confirm your identity…”

At an academy attended by everyone from nobles to ordinary students, carrying one’s student identification was mandatory. It had originally been intended to prevent suspicious outsiders from sneaking in, but now it was mainly used to keep track of students. A student’s identification recorded things such as the number of suspensions they had received and the problems they had caused.

“Here.”

Rudel, who aimed to live according to the rules, had been carrying his student identification exactly as the academy regulations instructed. When he handed it over…

“…Rudel Arses? The House of Grand Duke Arses!!! I-I sincerely apologize!!! I overstepped my bounds! You must have had some business at the girls’ dormitory, right? We can turn back immediately and…”

“N-No, I really was just lost!”

“Y-Yes! I-If necessary, I can summon ‘someone who arranges that sort of woman.’ …So, if at all possible, please, um… refrain from approaching the female students… I-I’m sorry, was that disrespectful?”

Rudel thought the panicking female soldier looked terribly pitiful. At the same time, he understood exactly what she thought of him. …Did he really look that desperate for women? The thought left him deeply depressed.

After somehow clearing up the misunderstanding, Rudel returned to his room and relaxed. Perhaps exhausted from interacting with so many people in ways he never had before, he fell asleep unusually early.

When morning came, his usual habits woke him at dawn. He prepared the uniform he had forgotten to lay out the night before, and since he still had plenty of time, he went out into the courtyard of the boys’ dormitory.

But the scene there was anything but quiet. Burly male students were practicing swings and sparring, and the sounds of wooden swords and metal weapons striking one another echoed throughout the courtyard. Rudel was delighted by the sight.

(So everyone really is working hard. If I don’t do my best too, I’ll be left behind in no time.)

Rudel found an empty space in the courtyard and began practicing his swings as well. Several upperclassmen looked at him as though they wanted to say something, but in the end they left him alone and continued working up a sweat.

After a while, a bell rang six times… Hearing it, the students began cleaning up and then headed toward the dining hall. Rudel hesitated over whether he should follow them, until one of them spoke to him.

“You’re a new student, right? You don’t have to rush even if you’re going… It’s empty around this time anyway.”

“The notice said we should hurry because the dining hall gets crowded.”

Rudel remembered what had been written on one of the sheets containing academy precautions and rules. In response, the older student said,

“It starts getting crowded after the bell rings seven times. The only people awake right now are basically the ones you see here.”

Rudel followed the upperclassman into the student dining hall. Inside, male students were eating enormous piles of food stacked high on their plates… and Rudel’s stomach immediately growled in protest.

“See? Plenty of room. I’m Bargas, a third-year.”

“I’m Rudel. Rudel Arses.”

“A noble? I’m from the countryside, so I don’t know much about nobles… Well, nice to meet you.”

Bargas was an upperclassman with long red hair tied behind his head. His deeply tanned skin and sturdy build made him look intimidating, but once he started talking, he turned out to be a friendly young man.

“Likewise!”

For Rudel, it was the moment he made his first friend outside his family whom he could actually talk to.

After returning to his room from the student dining hall, Rudel changed into his uniform and followed the academy’s instructions to enter a large building. Rather than an auditorium, it looked almost like… yes, an arena. Since battles were actually held there as well, that impression was not entirely wrong…

“We are pleased to welcome so many young people again this year…”

After enduring the headmaster’s lengthy greeting, the students proceeded to their classrooms according to their class assignments. At the academy, where two years of basic education were mandatory, class assignments were fairly arbitrary, separating hostile noble families or grouping together students of lower social status… things of that nature.

However, Rudel was the legitimate heir of the Arses family, one of the Three Dukes. To avoid any disrespect, he was assigned to a class made up almost entirely of noble children. That year, the legitimate heirs of the other houses among the Three Dukes had enrolled as well, leaving the academy atmosphere unusually tense.

“I look forward to teaching you for the next two years.”

After a brief greeting from the homeroom teacher came the students’ self-introductions… It should have ended without incident.

But it did not. A strange sensation seized Rudel, as though something were about to happen—or rather, as though something was demanding that it happen! Troubled by this feeling, which he had never experienced before coming to the academy, Rudel had nevertheless finished his own introduction uneventfully.

And yet!

“My name is Izumi Shirasagi.”

The atmosphere in the classroom changed completely when one Eastern girl introduced herself. In Courtois, where black hair and black eyes were rare, her distinctly Eastern features made her an easy target for children. Jeers immediately flew through the room, followed by remarks intended to hurt her.

The class had been assembled primarily from nobles. Officially, the purpose of placing an Eastern girl in such a class was cultural exchange. In reality, it also gave the students someone else to focus on so that the nobles would be less likely to turn their hostility on one another.

Izumi had long black hair tied behind her head in a ponytail, smooth and straight unlike Lena’s. The boys sitting behind her mischievously tugged at it. …Seeing the girl clearly dislike it reminded Rudel of his younger sister Lena.

“Why don’t you stop? It’s disgraceful.”

The moment Rudel said that, the classroom fell silent. The homeroom teacher agreed with him and reprimanded the students responsible for the prank. Children raised in noble society were highly sensitive to hierarchy. In terms of family status, no one in the class could rival Rudel, whose house was one of the Three Dukes.

In the end, the homeroom teacher praised Rudel, and everyone around them joined in agreement. …To Rudel, the entire scene looked horribly distorted.