国产午夜亚洲精品AⅤ

Chapter 81

“I’m still not very good.”

“Well, you’re much better compared to before.”

The teaching assistant did not hold back on his praise, noting that I had clearly been working diligently, even when there were no formal classes.

On the other hand...

—Hmm. It seems you’re not quite there yet, Ellen.

—Yes, teacher.

—Let’s try a little more. That was slightly disappointing. You need to lower your center of gravity.

—Yes, teacher.

Ellen was not learning from a teaching assistant, but directly from the teacher, and to my surprise, she was being corrected quite a bit, without much praise. In fact, Ellen was the one who received the most criticism.

I supposed it was only natural. Since I was starting at zero, even a small amount of improvement would bring in compliments.

But Ellen had started from a hundred, and it would be meaningless to just keep saying that she was doing well all the time. In the end, this was not a competition, but education, and a teacher had to teach something, even to students who were seemingly perfect.

That was why Ellen was subject to an incredibly high standard—her skills were incomparable to those of her peers.

Someone who scored zero on all their exams will be recognized for scoring a ten in one exam, while someone who consistently scores ninety marks would be criticized for not improving when they scored another ninety.

This was the advantage of being a mangnani.

If I’d been reborn into the body of the swordsmanship prodigy Ellen...

—You’re still not there yet. Your ability to measure the distance with the sword is lacking.

The kid who was doing well was being harshly criticized for not being good enough.

“Wow, great job, Reinhart! Let’s try one more time! That’s impressive!”

What a relief that I’d ended up in the body of Baalier, who wasn’t good at anything.

But then...

“...”

“Reinhart? What’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing. For a moment there, I felt a sense of futility...”

A wave of self-disgust rolled over me as I noticed myself feeling relieved for being a loser.

***

As always, I had lunch with Ellen that day and finished the afternoon with horse riding class. Harriet had probably not talked to the duke yet, so I wondered what would happen to her.

In Riana’s case, I didn’t know what would happen even though Vertus had spoken to her about it. In any case, if Vertus’ sudden request stopped the students from taking a leave of absence, then that was ultimately a good thing.

With that thought, I returned to the dormitory, only to run into a completely unexpected person who was waiting for me.

“Ah, Reinhart.”

“... Charlotte?”

“Do you have a moment?”

Charlotte was the one waiting for me, and made a peculiar request out of the blue.

“Do you want to head outside?”

She wanted to know if I could accompany her outside the Temple.

“Yes. Would that be okay?”

‘Wasn’t it dangerous to go outside right now?’

“Yeah, I guess I can... but aren’t we still prohibited from leaving the campus?”

The investigation into the recent demon terrorist incident likely hadn’t been concluded yet. Therefore, the ban on Temple students leaving the premises was still in effect. Charlotte shrugged her shoulders in response.

“There are exceptions for some.”

There was no argument against her implication that people like the prince and princess received special treatment at the Temple.

“Okay, but you’re going out without even a security guard? Are you sure that’s safe?”

“It has to be.”

Charlotte seemed quite adamant about leaving the Temple with just me.

‘What’s up with her? Doesn’t she have any sense of danger at all?’

Seeing my bewildered expression, Charlotte covered her mouth and laughed.

“There are precisely three people in the empire who are safest right now.”

Charlotte pointed her finger in a specific direction. If I wasn’t mistaken, it was in the direction of the imperial palace.

“One person, you’re probably aware of.”

Then, she pointed towards the dormitory.

“There’s Vertus.”

And this time, she pointed to herself.

“And me.”

I wasn’t sure of her justification, but she sounded confident as if she was certain there was no danger aimed her way.

***

It seemed Charlotte felt no anxiety over only having me accompanying her.

Temple students were currently not allowed to go outside, but Charlotte managed to get not only herself but me out as well, simply by demanding it at the entrance to the Temple. They did not even inquire about the reason for our departure.

Since the classes had ended around three in the afternoon, there was still plenty of daylight left. Charlotte wrapped a robe about herself. She seemed to have prepared in advance.

She was a more publicly recognized figure than Vertus was, and it made sense for her to cover herself up.

Noticing me growing uneasy, Charlotte smiled faintly from within the folds of her robe.

“There’s no need to worry so much. I’ve already prepared several defensive measures if anything should actually happen.”

Charlotte walked on ahead, as though I was being silly for being so concerned.

“But where are we going?”

“To the Aligar district shopping area.”

I finally understood why she insisted on going out on a weekday.

The place where Baalier was last seen... Charlotte intended to go there herself to see it firsthand.

***

We boarded the magical train, Charlotte with her robe on, while I was dressed in ordinary clothes.

“Couldn’t we have just used the warp gate?”

It was rare for people to use the warp gate to travel between districts—after all, it wasn’t a free service. Still, someone like the princess would be able to use it for free.

Charlotte shrugged. “Since the terrorist incident, the management procedures for the warp gates have been tightened. I’d rather not leave a usage record.”

“Ah.”

The demon prisoners had escaped using a warp gate. While that wasn’t publicly known, it seemed that the incident had triggered a significant tightening around the security of the warp gates, which included keeping a record of its users.

And I, for my part, was technically supposed to be unaware of the reasons behind the heightened security around the warp gates.

“What does that incident have to do with the warp gate?”

“Umm... I’ll tell you after we get off,” Charlotte replied with a gesture for me to be patient. Clearly, it wasn’t a conversation to have in a place crowded with people.

On second thought, even though I was here at her invitation, wasn’t there a chance that Vertus or someone else might be tailing us? Was she so sure that no one was following us, or did she think it didn’t matter if they were?

‘You might be one of the three safest individuals in the empire, but I certainly am not one of them. What am I going to do if Vertus finds out that I’m flitting back and forth between his side and yours?’

Anyway...

Here I was, unexpectedly riding the magical train with the princess, engaged in a forbidden adventure.

I had to admit that it was certainly a unique experience that not just anyone could have.

***

After getting off at the Aligar district station, we headed towards the shopping area.

“The suspects who caused that incident escaped through a warp gate. That’s why,” Charlotte said, without going into detail about the trading of the demon prisoners.

“Couldn’t they chase them through the gate?”

“They planned it all out,” Charlotte said, calmly filling me in on the parts she could talk about. “They forcibly activated a previously closed gate and escaped through it, then destroyed the warp gate at their destination.”

Pretending to be clueless about an incident I was fully informed about was quite distressing.

“Anyway, I don’t understand why we’re going to the Aligar shopping district. I really feel like I’m walking on a tightrope.”

I was involved with both Vertus and Charlotte and did not want to find myself trapped in a sticky situation. Having my real identity exposed was not even the issue now. I was afraid of ending up in the absurd situation of having to run away because both sides saw me as a traitor.

Vertus probably already suspected that there was some connection between Charlotte and I, and just hadn’t said anything to me about it yet. The same probably went for Charlotte.

Despite this, I felt slightly more inclined towards Charlotte out of a sense of guilt, and that made it possible for me to speak to her more candidly than I would with Vertus.

“I know what you’re worried about,” Charlotte said. “I need you for my own reasons, and while I don’t know Vertus’s intentions well, it seems like he looks favorably on you for his own reasons too. Right?”

Charlotte had likely seen or overheard my exchanges with Vertus.

“I don’t know exactly what Vertus thinks about me, but I’d say we’re not on bad terms,” I replied.

“As long as you’re in the Temple’s Royal Class, you can rest assured that Vertus will not harm you. You can relax. Strictly speaking, you should be more wary of me, but as you know, I need you too.”

Charlotte was more direct when she spoke to me, and her tone carried a different weight compared to Vertus’s.

“I’m safe as long as I’m in the Royal Class? Why?”

‘Just because we’re classmates?’

“As you know, the Temple assesses students through exams and grades them, right?”

“... Right.”

“It’s not just individual exams; there are group exams too, and there are subjects or activities that require teamwork. Are you aware that these are also part of the evaluation?”

“Of course.”

This was all too familiar to me.

Class A and Class B faced off in class competitions, and the outcomes were indeed reflected in the grades. Naturally, there needed to be some kind of competition between the classes, since that was where the satisfaction came from—when the protagonist’s class, the underdogs, triumphed over the elite class.

It might not be that rational that group activities would have a bearing on individual grades, but I had intentionally included this in the setting of my novel to foster competition between the classes.

“So, if you harm or worsen relations with someone in your class—or, to speak more bluntly, get rid of them—wouldn’t that put you at a disadvantage during group activities?”

“Yes... that would.”

In many cases, simply having fewer members inherently put the group at a disadvantage. I’d invented many bizarre group activities for the sake of fostering the spirit of competition between classes A and B.

In short, tampering with your own team could hurt your grade.

“So, Vertus won’t touch me because if he does something to me, it might hurt his grades?”

“Yes. So he’ll leave you alone, unless it’s something truly significant.”

‘Vertus might be smart, but he doesn’t seem like the type to obsess over grades.’

“That seems a bit far-fetched... Are grades that important?”

“They might not have been before, but now they’re quite important,” Charlotte said, looking at me intently.

At the moment, grades at the Temple were very important to both Charlotte and Vertus. That was why Vertus wouldn’t try to get rid of me carelessly.

“I don’t have to explain, right? If something happens to either of us, that would mean that the imperial authority of the other party will be revoked.”

“Yeah, I do know that...”

On the first day of admission to the Temple, the emperor had sent a decree to the Royal Class. It was addressed both to Charlotte and Vertus, and at the same time, it was also a warning to their followers within the Royal Class not to engage in any foolish acts.

Indeed, until the imperial succession was firmly established, neither of them could afford to harm the other.

The emperor surely had to know about Vertus’s prior attempt to kill Charlotte. While not knowing the details of it, it seemed the emperor had chosen not to take issue with Vertus’s actions.

However, he wanted to prevent any future situation in which one member of the family would spill the other’s blood.

Vertus and Charlotte, in fact, had to be hoping fervently for each other’s safety. If something were to happen to either of them, the authority that the emperor held was so strong right now that a completely unrelated third party could end up being appointed emperor.

That was the current situation.

“If you consider all that, do you think that the grades we achieve at the Temple would influence one’s ability to succeed the throne, or not?” Charlotte asked.

It was nonsensical to think that the one who graduated from the Temple with better grades would become the emperor or empress, even taking into consideration that the Temple was the continent’s most elite educational institution. For such a decision, that criteria alone would not be sufficient.

Even if it didn’t exert absolute influence on the decision, though, it would certainly have a significant impact.

Vertus and Charlotte were both in the same academic year.

Therefore, their grades were an indicator of which of them was more competent.

Moreover, their achievements at the Temple were not going to be determined solely by their own individual efforts. A great deal of it was also determined by group activities and assignments.

Grades at the Temple would inevitably have an effect on the imperial succession. They would have a meaningful impact, even if they weren’t the absolute determining factor.

“So, if one person is missing from their class, it’s a significant loss.”

“I see...”

Having one less person around for a group activity would be a significant loss. Therefore, Vertus would not directly harm anyone in his class unless it was truly necessary, as that could impact his performance and standing at the Temple. That was Charlotte’s point.

Only then did I realize why Vertus was persuading those who wanted to take a leave of absence to stay. If two students were to drop out, the class size would shrink to nine. That would be two less than Class B. Arguments against unfair group evaluations would be futile, and Vertus would somehow still have to achieve better results than Class B.

Before this, the importance of grades at the Temple may not have been so important to Vertus, but they had now become very significant.

That meant that they were of great importance to Charlotte as well.

“Wait. So does that mean that the two of you were intentionally separated into Class A and Class B?”

“Hmm... we can’t dismiss that possibility.”

I still didn’t know what Charlotte’s supernatural power was, but the implications of the fact that they were both Number 1, but of different classes, was clear. They were both leaders of their respective class. After all, the ability to lead classmates was an important skill too.

In the end, there was some truth to Charlotte’s reassurances that there was no need to fear Vertus too much.

And I could understand what Charlotte meant when she said she needed me, so there was no need for me to be afraid of her either.

This, however, led to another question.

“Not to be rude or anything, but if you’re in Class B... isn’t that a bit of a disadvantage?”

The classes were differentiated by talent, and Class B was considered less talented. Was Charlotte okay with that arrangement?

Charlotte shrugged. “I actually think that this is much better for me.”

“Ah... I see what you mean.”

The dilemma of a top student applied here as well.

It was expected that Class A would outperform Class B.

However, if Class B managed to surpass Class A even once, it would be seen as a miracle. That was likely why Charlotte considered it advantageous to be in Class B. In the original story—although it might not go that way moving forward—there was a point where Class B did surpass Class A.

“Whatever the case, you seem to be giving me, someone from class A, quite a lot of information.”

Charlotte smirked as if revealing this information to me wasn’t particularly problematic.

“Is that so? Vertus already knows all this anyway. But let’s leave the small talk for now.”

We had unknowingly entered the Aligar shopping district, the place where numerous adventurers were being swindled, even that very day.

“The child I’m looking for—this shopping district is the last place that child was seen.”

“Oh... is that so?”

Charlotte came here in search of traces of Baalier.

With Baalier right beside her.