“A private bedroom.”
—Basically, freshmen get twin rooms, but in some cases, private rooms are assigned—those can be considered to be highly proficient exam entrants among the class. If you want to befriend other friends, you can apply again next time rooms are assigned.
As Parisha had just explained, it seemed Raymond was precisely one of those ‘highly proficient’ students.
“Well, I expected it, but…”
Raymond spread out lazily onto the prepared soft bed. Nicole left the room, saying she’d go move the luggage.
Once he was alone, Raymond took out the ragged diary from his bag beside him. I brought it here because it felt iffy to leave it behind in the mansion.
‘The System’s reward.’
The actual content of the System’s diary wasn’t anything special, but it was highly suspicious in multiple aspects. All the legible dates were of days that hadn’t arrived yet.
What was most peculiar. The fact that fragmented writings about the previous Raymond, who was deemed to absolutely be unable to enroll at Foreston, and his life after entering Foreston could be found. He didn’t seem to have any friends though.
Thinking there might have been parts he missed, Raymond reread the diary from the first page. Due to too many crumpled pages, there still wasn’t a high volume he could read.
All it contained was basically complaints about professors, boasting regarding his studious younger brother, and whining about how although he understood the subject matter taught at Foreston, he found it hard due to lacking mana.
‘What use does this have as a reward? How am I supposed to gain any intel from this?’
Raymond restrained himself from throwing the diary away.
No, to be precise, he couldn’t hold back and immediately threw it away. Bouncing off the wall, the diary fell to the floor with a thud. There was hardly any helpful content among what little readable parts existed. The whining of a growing boy couldn’t greatly help Raymond, who had to create a king. He probably wouldn’t need to look for this diary ever again.
Raymond crossed his arms and closed his eyes. Let’s think.
What the System gave as a reward was fragments of a diary written by the previous Raymond. What could be gained from this. At most, he could grasp the intermittent emotions that Raymond at that time period felt, along with major events and prominent figures related to him.
Raymond asked empty air.
“System. Was this really written by Raymond? If he wrote it despite not having a magic circle, how the hell did he enter Foreston? Or… did you write this and throw it to me?”
[ …… ]
“….Yeah, didn’t expect a reply.”
He spat out some choice curses. Cursing was all he could do.
“—Tsk.”
After spitting out vulgar words for a while, three creases dug into Raymond’s brow. Flicking his tongue briefly once more, he got up from the bed.
‘I thought there would at least be hints related to the royalty though.’
Before long, an enormously loud voice echoed throughout the dorm.
“Ah, announcement for freshmen. Please gather in the Central Hall on the first floor of the main building right now. Once gathered by Class in the Central Hall, both the entrance and enrollment ceremonies will begin in the auditorium. Once again, announcement for-“
As she struggled with the luggage, Nicole looked up at the ceiling.
“Young Master! It seems the entrance ceremony is starting. I wonder from where this sound is coming?”
“Dunno.”
It’s probably magic. Replying lightly as he hopped off the bed, Raymond had to repress the frolicking heart of this 16-year-old body. Maybe because it belonged to a teenager, it often became excited on its own. Nothing is welcome anyway. As I begrudgingly opened the room door, the door to the room beside also opened.
“Ah.”
“What.”
“An unlucky commoner, huh?”
“You’re the unlucky noble.”
“My name’s Raymond. Stupid.”
“What, stupid?”
“It’s better than melon head.”
“What the hell’s a melon head?”
“It means baldy like Professor Eiton.”
Professor Eiton was quite the celebrity at Foreston. If one prepared for the entrance exam, you would see his picture at least once. The instant the professor’s name was mentioned, Onyx agreed that ‘Stupid’ was better than ‘Melon Head’.
After exchanging short greetings, the two boys feigned ignorance and turned their heads away disdainfully. Watching the two boys, Nicole giggled to herself.
This time, Nicole stretched out his hand first, pointing to the end of the hallway.
“Shall we go to the Hall first?”
“Yeah.”
***
The corridor to the Central Hall was noisy from the freshmen’s curiosity and anticipation. Raymond wanted to scream at the top of his baby-feeding lungs for them to quiet down. However, simply being shoved here and there had already sufficiently exhausted him. Moreover, feeling excited for an entrance ceremony was natural for teenagers, so he had to endure this much as an adult.
‘Tiring.’
In the end, the exhausted Raymond didn’t talk to Onyx anymore either, and the two arrived at the Hall in a strange, mutual silence. Standing on the makeshift podium inside the Hall were students wearing class president badges, including Parisha, who had guided them earlier.
The seniors standing on what looked like makeshift box podiums of buckwheat stomped in unison.
Thud!
At that sound, the students’ attention focused on them in surprise.
“Nice to meet you all.”
A slightly taller student than Parisha with a crew cut placed both hands on her waist and spoke up.
“I’m in charge of this year’s freshmen education. My name’s Amel Toutor.”
‘Toutor…’
The Toutor family was quite the illustrious family. In terms of peerage it was Viscount, the second highest rank among nobles. Of course, lower than the top rank of Duke that ducal families held.
However, the Toutor family was more renowned for its knights rather than magic, so its prestige wasn’t that high at the magic-oriented Foreston. That didn’t mean anyone could casually treat them though. But even that position was somewhat neutralized to a degree since this was Foreston.
Amel had a slender build, with trained muscles visible beneath her uniform. Wearing pants instead of a uniform skirt, she stood confidently on the podium with the poise unique to knight families, stretching her arm to point at the space ahead of her.
“Phidas Class students come stand in front of me. Audit, over there. Gift…”
“This way.”
Parisha waved his hand with a smile. Gentle Parisha. This side does seem more suitable for me.
Once the freshmen were neatly lined up in rows, Parisha said “Let’s get moving then” and quickened his steps. As they moved, Raymond kept an eye on how many Gift students there were and whether there were any annoying brats mixed in with his Class.
His greatest concern right now was the ‘Forsaken Prince’.
‘If the Forsaken Prince is in Phidas Class, should I approach him first and get closer? Although multiple candidates can register for King, I don’t know the exact number. If 3 is the limit, then it’s prudent to include the 1st, 3rd and 4th Princes. But what if there are 5 slots? Securing a spot early on would be beneficial. The more scenarios I consider in advance, the more my chances of dying decrease.’
Just then, a boy entered Raymond’s sight and he froze stock still.
‘…What the, that is?!’
The guy had a stockier build compared to those his age, and was over 10cm taller than average height while in contrast, his face looked young. His dignified air seemed to say he wasn’t a typical noble. And even though his hair wasn’t black but rather silver, from the outfit of the knight that followed behind, I could tell he was from the royal knights corps….
Goosebumps rose all over me. I couldn’t tear my eyes away as the guy slowly passed beside me.
‘It’s him.’
That guy was definitely the rumored prince.
How could people look at that and call him the Forsaken Prince or Hidden Child?
‘Was he cooped up in the castle until now, only revealing himself to the world recently? Does everyone really not know and are just feigning ignorance?’
I wanted to immediately grab anyone and yell “Hey! Tell me, does he seriously look like the Forsaken Prince?!” I clutched Onyx’s collar beside me and whispered. Probably finding that range extremely uncomfortable, Onyx’s face crumpled as he glanced at me.
“-What’re you doing?”
“Hey, you see that kid?”
“Uh, I see him. So let me go, will you?”
“You know about the rumor then?”
“Well, yeah. Ah, the Forsaken Prince? Of course I know about that. Anyone can tell with one look that that’s the guy.”
“Then why isn’t anyone talking to him? Rather than that—”
I almost blurted out ‘everyone is ignoring him’, but I tightly shut my lips, ending the conversation there. As if ripping open the window to a conversation I forcibly shut, Onyx shook his head.
“Why get friendly with him? Especially for our Gift Class, there aren’t even many aiming to be royal mages. Well, if he’d been in Phidas Class, the treatment may have differed.”
Tapping his temple, Onyx sneered as if Raymond’s actions were simply pathetic.
“Besides, there’s got to be a reason behind rumors. Smart Gift students will probably keep away, right? There’s no benefit for us, and no benefits we can gain from associating with him either, so there’s no need to recklessly take risks. And that’s the very ‘danger’ itself.”
“What about you then?”
“Me, well…”
“Aren’t you gonna try getting close?”
“…You avoid shit because it’s dirty, not because you’re scared of it right? Moreover, that guy’s golden shit. Everyone will probably run at him from afar, thinking it’s real gold, but…”
Onyx said.
“In reality, it’s just shit. It’s the worst hand after all. Well… who knows, maybe we’ll get closer if we spend time together. I even got close to a dumbass like you.”
“…Tch.”
“You gonna let me go now?”
Saying that, Onyx waved Raymond’s hand off and walked ahead first. Raymond secretly stole glances at the Forsaken Prince normally walking between Parisha and the other students.
Of course, Onyx had a point too.
However, the ‘worst hand’ was a target of avoidance to all while concurrently being the ‘object of curiosity’. Everyone was covertly sneaking peeks at that guy.
‘But why don’t I remember seeing that face? There was no one like that at the exam site either. Silver hair, red eyes…’
Suddenly, a certain figure that had flashed through Raymond’s mind appeared.
The guy that left the lecture hall right after Onyx, all bundled up tightly.
That’s right. Since I had seen most of the students at the exam site back in the Hall earlier.
‘It’ll be easier if he’s in Gift Class. Our lessons will mostly overlap and I can get closer more naturally. If that guy doesn’t have ambitions for the throne, I won’t need to squeeze him into the candidate pool. Even if the king candidates register automatically by the System… I’ll have to recalculate, but there’s no loss in getting close to this side first. The probability is faster and higher than meeting the 3rd and 4th Princes in Foreston.’
There was no time limit in creating a king.
In other words, only who ascends the next throne, and the one after that, is important.
If I graduate Foreston and become a royal mage by riding on the 5th Prince’s connections, opportunities to visit the 3rd Prince may also arise.
While Raymond was briefly lost in thought, Parisha and the other students stopped before an arched half-circular door. It wasn’t arched but literally the shape of a circle cut in half.
“Wow!”
“So freaking cool!”
The freshmen’s mouths dropped wide open at the magnificent sight unfolding before their eyes as soon as they entered.
“…Pfft.”
Of course, Raymond was no exception. He let out a short exclamation at the grandeur permeating the space.
Inside the enormous Hall resembling a square, professors who would teach the students stood in a line on the podium.
Most of the Archmages on the list of ‘100 Greatest Mages This Year’ were graduates of Foreston, and some of those remaining became professors at Foreston, teaching students who would carry on after them to become Archmages. Raymond cast the basic magic ‘Clairaudience’, which he could handle even with just 1 Circle, to listen in on any constructive dialogue exchanged by those on the podium out of curiosity.
“-What’s today’s lunch menu?”
“-It’s the worst. That weird meat soup is served again today. I was trying to cure my hangover, ugh-.”
“-What do you mean? Today’s menu was clearly corn stew?”
“-That’s what I’m saying! Uwuuu-.”
“-Why use electricity when you can just use magic? The overhead costs… Ah, my money.”
“-Get a grip! It’s the entrance ceremony!”
Well, I mean.
Even Archmages are only human.