“Rosie-sensei, do you have a moment?”
“Yeees!”
“It seems the headmaster is calling for you. Could you head over?”
“The headmaster? Understood.”
School was set to start the day after tomorrow, and I was currently up to my ears in preparations for the new term.
As the instructor in charge of Light and Water attributes, I had a mountain of tasks as a fresh novice teacher—preparing lesson plans, checking the practical training grounds, and so much more.
I had met the headmaster numerous times, but I couldn’t fathom why he would specifically summon me.
What could it be at a time like this? I wondered as I knocked on the door to the headmaster’s office, prompting a reply from within.
“Ah, Rosie-kun, is that you? Come on in~”
His relaxed voice almost made all my tension melt away.
Though he was His Highness the Royal Uncle, the headmaster was the one high-ranking noble I didn’t feel uncomfortable around.
He was laid-back and explicitly made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with royal politics. Supposedly, he had been that way ever since his days as a prince; his only passion was researching magic.
Although single, he had reportedly taken a solemn vow at the temple stating he had no intention of marrying.
His Majesty the King, perhaps fearing the headache of potential succession disputes if the Royal Uncle married and had children, had willingly approved the vow.
Upon stepping into the headmaster’s office, I noticed a man clad in a hooded robe sitting inside. Who could that be?
I was invited to take a seat, so I sat on the sofa opposite them.
“Headmaster, I heard you called for me?”
“Ah, yes. Please, sit~. Rosie-kun, there’s something I’d like to ask of you. I want you to personally take a student here under your wing, one-on-one.”
“One-on-one?”
When I looked at the seated man, he pulled back his hood.
I felt like praising myself for not letting out a scream right then and there.
“L-Lord Julius?!”
“You know who I am? Ah, please drop the ‘Lord.’ I have been disowned. Here, I am merely a student. ‘Julius’ is fine.”
“Ehh?! Headmaster, what is the meaning of this??”
“Well, you know about the broken engagement scandal, right, Rosie-kun? You were present as a graduating student, after all. Because of that, Julius resigned as an aide, but it didn’t stop there—he quit being a knight altogether. As you know, the Earl of Handwill’s house acknowledges nothing other than knighthood. Naturally, he was disowned and ended up here. Apparently, he wants to become a mage.”
“…Huh? But didn’t he take magic classes at the academy? Surely one doesn’t need to enroll here just to become a mage.”
At the academy, one could learn everything from basic to advanced magic, which was precisely how I qualified to become an instructor here.
Once you graduate, the coursework required to become a mage is complete, so everything beyond that depends on talent. I couldn’t see the point of Lord Julius who had attended the exact same academy coming all the way to the mage school.
“The truth is, the Handwill earldom refuses magic aptitude testing. That’s why he didn’t take magic classes at the academy and had them swapped for swordsmanship courses instead.”
“You can just opt out of magic classes like that?”
“Only the Handwill family. Fools obsessed with swordsmanship, the lot of them.”
Ah, he just called a family of knights swordsmanship fools. Anyone other than the headmaster would be in hot water for saying something like that.
“However, Julius actually wanted to become a mage deep down. As you can see, he possesses the Light attribute. It would be a terrible waste, wouldn’t it? That’s why I stepped in as his guardian and had him enrolled in the mage school—as a form of compensation for the trouble my nephew caused him.”
Ah, that makes sense. It doubles as an apology from the royal family, then.
That broken engagement farce was far too cruel, no matter how you looked at it—stealing the fiancée of a subject who had served as a loyal aide for years.
Unfavorable rumors had surely spread to other nations as well. Supposedly, this was their way of doing everything possible to prevent further conflict.
“I understand why Lord Julius enrolled here. But what do you mean by having me look after him one-on-one?”
“Well, half of the curriculum during the first two years at this school consists of general education, right? But Julius has no need for general education. He’s already acquired far higher cultivation.”
“That’s true. Taking those classes would be a waste of time for him.”
“That’s why I’m enrolling him directly as a specialized student. Could you attach him to your research lab, Rosie-kun? All the other instructors already have students attached to their labs, and since you share the Light attribute, it should be easy for you to teach him, right?”
“Ah, I see. So that’s what this is about.”
I was the only instructor hired this year.
Since the other teachers had been working here for several years, they already had plenty of pupils.
After graduation, students who wished to pursue further research could be hired as lab assistants. I had heard that almost every instructor employed a few.
“If you don’t have a single assistant attached to your lab, preparing for lectures will be tough, and you won’t even have a partner to demonstrate spells with. It’s perfect, isn’t it? Having a man’s help around to carry things will be quite convenient. Besides… technically speaking, you’re a viscount’s daughter, Rosie-kun, right? I thought it might be better to have Julius around to serve as your guard as well.”
“A guard…? There’s really no need to treat me like a proper young lady, though. Well, I do understand that having an assistant would be immensely helpful. I was actually struggling with preparations just now, so I’d be grateful for the extra hand.”
“So it’s settled, then? Assigning him to your lab means he’ll receive a stipend and a place to stay. I was willing to take care of everything myself, but Julius here was too modest for that~. I’ll handle the paperwork on my end, so you can take him with you now. I’m counting on you~.”
“Understood. …Well then, Lord Julius, shall we head to the research lab?”
“Yes.”