Chapter 68

Chapter 68. First Day of Class (1)

I could not bring up the stories of the First Prince and the Second Prince, whom I did not even know, and among the incidents connected to me, aside from the ducal house, there was only the Marquess of Hierro’s House, which had been shattered over the issue of illegitimate children.

Well, even if they concluded there was no connection, this was the kind of place where they would uncover the terror attack through interrogation or magic, so when the time came, I could simply say I had been mistaken.

“The matter involving the Marquess of Hierro’s House? Is it related to the Empire’s side?”

As expected, he knew about it. Well, there was no way they would ask me to help the princess without investigating my affairs.

Though it probably had nothing to do with that.

“It seemed dangerous for her to remain in the entrance ceremony hall where the princess was present. Did I do something wrong?”

I also tried to back away slightly, just in case.

“No, you did well. Wait here. I will confirm it myself.”

He immediately sent signals to the other knights and personally headed toward the infirmary.

Now, what would happen?

I did not sit down. Instead, I stood at the back and watched the entrance ceremony.

The ceremony proceeded, and the new-student pledge passed as well.

Piar also gave his pledge splendidly.

Time passed.

In the middle of it, a commotion arose on the infirmary side, and before the entrance ceremony had even ended, a message appeared before my eyes.

[The crisis situation has ended. A new ‘save point’ has been set.]

---

The female lecturer lying in the infirmary killed herself as soon as she woke up.

It happened at the exact moment when the message saying the crisis situation had ended appeared before my eyes.

I was glad that the repeated deaths had stopped, but the culprit’s suicide was extremely regrettable.

Based on my experience so far, endings with this kind of lingering regret often led to more crises of death afterward.

However, what came afterward could be dealt with afterward.

For now, it was time to be grateful that the pain of death had stopped.

The female lecturer’s suicide was buried far more quietly than expected.

The entrance ceremony ended normally, and it seemed the female lecturer was processed as having left early and then resigned.

In the end, most people did not even learn that such an incident had happened. Only the royal personnel and a few academy officials came to know the truth.

And even then, it was only the truth I had told them.

After the entrance ceremony ended and the aftermath was handled quickly, Katrine summoned me to her faculty office.

There, Katrine and the senior knight who had witnessed the female lecturer’s suicide were present.

Katrine’s faculty office was so neat that it felt almost barren.

A few swords hung on the wall, and there were only a desk and a few chairs.

At her gesture, I sat in the remaining chair and began speaking with Katrine and the senior knight.

Could I consider this Princess Aisha’s guard meeting or a countermeasure conference?

“We tried to question her as soon as she woke up, but she noticed and immediately bit down on poison.”

At the senior knight’s words, Katrine let out a sigh.

“Then you could not determine who instigated her?”

“I apologize.”

“It cannot be helped. Still, it is regrettable. It was a lead we found after so long.”

After expressing her regret, Katrine asked me this time.

“Were there any other suspicious people?”

At Katrine’s words, I sank into thought.

However, I did not change my initial decision.

“No. I only happened to remember that woman as well. Honestly, I was not even certain.”

I had immediately hidden the two students who had become bombs.

Of course, I did not have even the slightest intention of protecting the young children who were merely victims.

Nor was my intention particularly strong to leave them as bait and try to reconnect the severed lead.

The biggest reason I hid them was that I had no way to point to the two of them as culprits.

It would make no sense to say that I had seen the two of them in the marquess’s territory, and I had never seen the two students meet the female lecturer either, so there was no way to connect them.

In order to reveal that the two students were bombs, I would ultimately have to expose my ability, and I had not the slightest intention of doing that.

Based on my experience so far, once a crisis situation ended, it would not repeat under the same conditions.

At the very least, the two students would not explode and cause death to repeat ‘immediately,’ so I had plenty of time to investigate.

It was a somewhat dangerous thought, but protecting my secret was the most important thing.

Katrine, wearing an academy teacher’s uniform with her hair pinned up, looked mature and splendid, unlike when she had been a mercenary.

If this had been my previous life, I would certainly have asked for her phone number the moment I saw her.

And then I would have been rejected immediately.

However, perhaps because I was younger now, I did not feel anything like falling for her.

Had my tastes changed after being born again……?

In any case, Katrine and the senior knight looked regretful at my words.

“In that case, we will have to continue investigating the dead woman, but the rest of the investigation must end here. The academy side also seems to feel burdened by it.”

As Katrine said, it seemed the entrance ceremony incident would ultimately end this way.

If it had been the entrance ceremony terror attack I had seen before dying, not only the academy but the entire kingdom would have been turned upside down. But now, it was merely the suicide of one female lecturer.

And even that had been officially buried.

If only I could have returned further into the past, I might have been able to drag out the hidden people as well.

This time, it was an extremely regrettable ending. No, perhaps it had not ended yet.

“You worked hard. You are an incoming student yourself, yet you suffered because of official matters.”

At Katrine’s words, the senior knight nodded, and Katrine looked at me with an extremely proud expression.

No matter how I looked at it, that was the expression of someone who thought she had chosen the princess’s guard well.

It was troublesome that I had become entangled in something larger than expected, but in return, gaining Katrine and the senior knight’s trust was not a bad result.

On top of that, with things like this, it seemed I could ask for a small price as well.

“There is something I would like to request.”

---

The day after the entrance ceremony ended, I entered the academy dormitory.

The other students had entered the dormitory on the day of the entrance ceremony, but because I had been called here and there over the aftermath of the female lecturer’s suicide, I had no choice but to enter the dormitory late.

Because people gathered at the Royal Academy from all across the country, it had dormitories capable of accommodating all students.

There were students who had homes in the capital and commuted to school, but since there was no means of transportation as fast as the traffic systems of my previous life, most students lived in the dormitories.

Long rows of three-story buildings. The dormitory buildings, separated by gender, were far larger and more antique than the university dormitories I had seen in my previous life.

Since I had also missed the orientation held the next day because of the aftermath, I entered the dormitory building after dinner.

I passed a vine-covered wall that carried a sense of long history, went through an antique door, and climbed a staircase that had been repaired more cleanly than I had expected.

“Building 1, third floor, second room from the end.”

Perhaps because it was an awkward hour, there were almost no students passing by.

Since we were not yet familiar with one another’s faces, the passing students merely exchanged brief eye greetings.

In a few days, even that would probably change into gazes steeped in all sorts of prejudice.

I climbed to the third floor, walked down the long corridor, and stood before the room I had been told about.

My luggage had been sent in advance, so I knocked on the door empty-handed and entered the room.

Two people to one room.

The student who had entered first yesterday widened his eyes when he saw me.

“Gresia?”

“Hello, Piar.”

The new student blinking at me was the commoner representative who had taken the new-student pledge at the entrance ceremony, and also the suicide-bombing terrorist who had caused my death several times.

“What brings you here?”

“What else? My bag is over there. I have been assigned to this room too.”

“That cannot be……. I am a commoner, and…….”

While speaking, Piar’s expression became ambiguous.

Had my status been exposed in just two days after all? Well, even before I died, the noble new-student representative sitting beside me had figured it out immediately, so it was natural that people would find out quickly this time too.

It seemed the rumors had not failed to spread. People simply had not recognized my face. I would start seeing eyes full of prejudice even sooner now.

“I am a noble, but I am an illegitimate son. In the territory, they still treated me decently, but it seems that is impossible in the capital.”

“Uh……. Is that so……?”

Piar could not even answer properly and only hesitated.

As if that were true.

I was a child of the ducal house. No matter how illegitimate I was, there was no way they would give me the same room as a commoner. On top of that, I had even entered Princess Aisha’s line.

Naturally, there was no reason for me to share this room with him. The reason I ended up sharing a room with Piar was because I had requested it from Katrine.

Well, it was thanks to the fact that I worked hard to persuade Katrine by lying about being an illegitimate son and wanting to experience various things.

Just because the detonation switch was gone did not mean I could leave the bombs alone.

The female lecturer was dead, but Piar and his cousin were problems that absolutely had to be resolved.

An ambiguous conclusion would ultimately bring about another death.

Whether I found the cause or, failing that, eliminated the bombs, I had to deal with it before the next death came.

Leaving the startled Piar behind, I organized the luggage placed on the bed.

There was quite a lot of luggage, but fortunately, the room was fairly large.

It was not a bunk bed either. There was a window in the middle, two beds along the walls on either side, and two desks.

There were separate wardrobes as well, and although there was only one washroom and one bathroom, it did not seem inconvenient to live here.

Well, it was not like the hotel suite where the princess was staying now, with several rooms, a living room, and even a drawing room attached, but this was still better than a small studio apartment.

Naturally, Piar, who was a commoner, did not seem likely to feel uncomfortable here.

After roughly organizing my luggage and washing up, I sat on the edge of the bed.

Until then, Piar had been sitting in his chair with a tense expression.

His face was pale, and he looked as though he deeply resented whoever had assigned the rooms.

Thanks to that, Katrine seemed as though she would live a very long life.

In any case, thanks to that, it seemed like an ideal situation for conversation.

Now, should I slowly start talking to him?

“Regular classes start tomorrow, right?”

“Ah, you did not come to orientation today…… did you?”

“I had something to do.”

“Uh……. I see…… sir.”

He clearly looked unsure whether to speak casually or politely.

He looked pitiful, but I simply left him be. It was not as though he had killed me intentionally, but when I thought of all the suffering I had gone through, I had no desire at all to get along with him nicely.

Mm, come to think of it, there was another reason I wanted to share a room with him.

I shrugged and continued speaking.

“You are in the Administration Department, right?”

“Are you…… in the Inherited Ability Department, Young Master……?”

“No, the Knight Department.”

“The Knight Department?”

Piar’s eyes widened. He must have been truly surprised, because he could not even add polite speech.

The academy was broadly divided into three departments.

The Knight Department I had just mentioned, the Administration Department that taught administration, and the Inherited Ability Department that trained inherited abilities.

Of course, most students at the Royal Academy had awakened inherited abilities, but not all inherited abilities were useful.

There were inherited abilities suited to administration, such as the perfect memory ability that a former royal administrator was said to have possessed, and abilities suited to becoming a knight, like my ability.

Of course, as Piar’s surprise showed, most nobles, especially great nobles, attended the Inherited Ability Department.