The day after the entrance examination.
I greeted a refreshing morning in the dormitory.
I hadn't formally enrolled yet, but from the moment I passed the entrance examination, I was entitled to every right of a Beaumont Academy student.
“This is amazing.”
As I enjoyed the morning sunlight and looked around the campus, admiration escaped me naturally.
As a place where the kingdom's finest talents lived, the Academy was run luxuriously.
Every student was given a private room, and they could freely use all manner of amenities.
There was an athletic field, a bathhouse, a riding ground, and even hunting grounds.
Uniforms existed, but students were free to dress as they pleased. They even received a small allowance for purchasing clothes.
Meals were likewise prepared with the finest ingredients without restraint, with dishes tailored to every student's tastes.
On top of that, more servants than enrolled students lived here to assist with every part of daily life, so even lesser nobles or people admitted on talent alone lived more lavishly than they had before.
So what did the students enjoying such an excellent environment look like.......?
“Those aren't expressions children should be making.”
The children, at most in their teens, shuffled along with faces that looked as though they might collapse at any moment. Not one was an exception. They were practically zombies.
Of course, they were not usually like this.
The reason everyone looked gloomy was the timing.
The enrollment of new students and the promotion of current students happened together.
The present time, ahead of the entrance ceremony, should have been the quietest period of the year, when the previous term's academic schedule had ended and there was nothing left to do.
For ordinary students, that was.
However, it was different for the few who could not leave the dormitory even during such a period.
“Who are you? I haven't seen you before.”
“A first-year? Is there a weirdo who moved into the dormitory before even enrolling?”
Several students noticed my gaze, then approached with sharp reactions.
“What are you looking at? Do you think we are a joke?”
“Are people who are about to be kicked out not even seniors? Huh?”
Snakes were drawn on the chests of the uniforms worn by the students approaching me.
Beaumont Academy's school culture was harsh.
Every semester, several students with the poorest grades were expelled. Even lower-ranking students who barely managed to be promoted received a mark.
The snake embroidered on those clothes was exactly that mark.
A snake that had failed to become a dragon.
It was a warning that though they had barely kept their places this time, they would be expelled next time.
And most couldn't change that fate.
“Do you think you will be any different?”
“Let us see how long you last.”
The students surrounding me were hurling harsh words, but they did not truly bear hostility toward me.
Like prisoners sentenced to death, they were merely trembling in fear.
They were weak children who chose to remain in the dormitory because they could not bring themselves to tell the families who believed in them that they might soon be expelled from the Academy.
They were merely taking out their frustration on a junior who knew nothing in order to turn their eyes from their unsettling reality.
Well, that was still bad enough.
I wasn't such a narrow-minded adult that I would immediately become angry at the whining of pathetic children.
In the first place, these were the customers I had been after, so I was glad to see them.
“Good morning, Seniors! Thank you for welcoming me!”
With a natural smile, I looked back at the seniors.
“Huh? Huh?”
“What is this all of a sudden.......?”
The group of students surrounding me stirred.
They clearly hadn't expected me to react this way.
“I am Lawrence Reed, a first-year student entering this year!”
Regardless, I raised my voice.
“Lawrence Reed.......”
“Could it be that.......?”
The seniors murmured among themselves.
Reincarnators were already objects of interest. I had even made a spectacular display at the entrance examination, so a single night was enough for my name to spread among the few seniors who remained at the Academy.
“......A reincarnator?”
One of the seniors asked as if to confirm it.
“Yes, that is right.”
When I smiled and affirmed it, the seniors' expressions stiffened.
Reincarnators were beings completely different from ordinary students.
They were far less likely to be expelled from the Academy.
The curse they had uttered—that I'd struggle just like them to avoid being kicked out—now seemed absurd.
“What is wrong?”
When I feigned ignorance and leaned toward them, the seniors stepped back.
Reincarnators were people one should avoid provoking whenever possible. It was common sense in this world.
But they had already provoked me. They had surrounded and threatened me. They could not take back what they had said.
They could only hope that the reincarnator before them would magnanimously let it pass.
“Did I do something wrong?”
Unfortunately, I had no intention of doing that.
“Ah, no.”
“It's not that you did anything wrong.......”
Their pale, flustered appearances were amusing, but if I kept teasing them, we would surely become awkward with one another.
“That's a relief! I was worried that I had made my Seniors dislike me before even enrolling!”
I casually took the seniors' hands.
They might run away while the conversation went on. I needed to keep at least one or two of them here.
“Ah, ahaha. No way.”
“We wouldn't dislike a junior for no reason.”
The seniors laughed awkwardly.
They had been radiating a murderous atmosphere just moments ago, but they sure knew how to talk. What cute guys.
“That is a relief. I have only just enrolled, so I do not know much. I would be grateful if you Seniors could teach me various things.”
I slowly closed the distance with the seniors.
“Us?”
“You, no, um, you.......”
The seniors could not even decide how to address me properly.
If I had been an ordinary junior, speaking casually would have been enough, but the mind of a reincarnator was that of an adult. They seemed worried about accidentally provoking a quarrel by making a mistake.
“You may speak freely. You are my Seniors, after all.”
“R-really?”
The closer we became, the easier it would be to get all sorts of things from them. Hearing a few casual words wasn't enough to make me feel bad.
“Th-then?”
“Since you say so.......”
“We can call you Lawrence, right?”
The seniors spoke to me hesitantly.
“Please take care of me, Seniors!”
That lasted only a moment. As I kept calling them Seniors, their faces gradually relaxed.
After all, they were children.
They had only barely entered the Academy, yet the anxiety that they might be expelled must have been constantly tightening around their throats. They had likely been disregarded by the other students and the teachers as well.
They would not even have had the energy to care about the distinction between seniors and juniors.
The unfamiliar experience of being treated as seniors must have felt good.
Moreover, if that junior was a reincarnator they had always regarded as a being above the clouds, it might even have been deeply moving.
“Junior! Ask anything! We will tell you everything!”
“Have you eaten? Do you want to talk while we eat?”
“You know, there are a few people at this school you need to watch out for.”
It was only natural that they let their guards down after merely a few words.
Innocent. So innocent.
Even if they were expelled from the Academy like this, their families would not abandon them, nor would their outstanding talent disappear.
The disregard they faced from the people around them would only be temporary.
However, to these children, the Academy was everything.
The position of being the only junior who had shown them respect while they thirsted for recognition was special.
I could get all sorts of things from them now, but if I maintained our ties well, I could benefit for the rest of my life.
Everything was going according to plan.
“There are so many wonderful Seniors here! I feel truly reassured!”
Of course, I had no intention of building a network solely among the Academy's failures.
“Birds of a feather flock together.”
Someone suddenly poured cold water on the pleasant atmosphere.
When I turned, Kyle Sanders, my fellow new student and a reincarnator, was glaring at us with his displeasure plainly written across his face.
“You were in the dormitory too?”
More than being angry that he had interrupted my business, I was astonished by the very fact that Kyle had appeared before me.
Judging from the gauze attached all over him, he had not fully recovered, but if he could walk around alone, he must have escaped a critical condition.
It had only been yesterday that I thought I had completely done him in with full-body burns, toxic-gas poisoning, and asphyxiation.
If nothing else, I couldn't get used to this world's medical care.
As long as someone did not die, they could be restored in a day or two, which made the word magic entirely deserved.
“You're a new student too? Nice to meet you.”
Perhaps trying to turn the atmosphere around, one senior who had forgotten the taboo against reincarnators after spending a pleasant time with me warmly extended a hand to Kyle.
It wasn't a very good idea.
Smack.
As expected, Kyle rudely slapped the senior's hand away.
“Who the hell are you, pretending that we are friends?”
The moment everyone fell silent, only Kyle's sharp voice echoed.
“Ugh.......! You.......!”
The senior whose handshake had been rejected muttered resentfully.
“What? Did you just talk down to me?”
Those words only provoked Kyle further.
“Do you think I'm easy because I lost one spar?”
By this point, no matter how oblivious they were, they had no choice but to realize that something was wrong.
“A new student who had a spar.......”
“Probably yesterday, that.......”
After recognizing Kyle's identity, the seniors discreetly turned their eyes away.
A junior. Yet also a reincarnator.
The sort of being they had always known should not be provoked.
The seniors were slowly trying to disperse while watching Kyle's mood.
What would all the work I had done to soothe the seniors amount to if this kept up?
“You can show your Seniors at least a little respect, can't you?”
It couldn't be helped. This kind junior had no choice but to step up for the poor seniors.
“What?”
Kyle growled fiercely. I could feel the surrounding seniors swallow their breaths.
“You're a reincarnator, so you shouldn't bully kids. I don't even expect you to act like an adult, but if you've lived even a few years longer, you can at least act like an older brother.”
Regardless, to my eyes, he looked like a frightened puppy whining.
“Bastard, are you done talking.......?!”
Kyle's eyes turned red as he strode toward me.
“Oh dear? Are you going to hit me? You were beaten so pathetically in the spar, and now you are trying to throw punches?”
My taunt seemed to have worked quite well, because Kyle really swung his fist at me.
However, the attack of a patient recovering from his injuries was not as fast as it had been yesterday.
“That's dangerous, bastard.”
I easily dodged Kyle's fist.
“Dammit.......! Once I recover.......!”
“What are you going to do when you recover? You're weak.”
I had a one-hundred-percent win rate. I was a man who had never lost to Kyle even once.
Though we had only fought once.
“You're getting cocky after winning once.......!”
“So you finally admit that you lost. Good thinking. Continuing to deny it is only bad for your mental health.”
I praised Kyle for making a wise choice.
“Oh, and about the wager. The amount....... I'll leave it to your pride.”
Had the scroll I used in the spar cost ten silver coins? It was a fairly large amount, close to a commoner's monthly food expenses, but a great reincarnator's pride would not be worth only that much.
“Grrr.......!”
Kyle's face reddened and flushed. Veins also bulged in his forehead.
Even a ten-year-old could look like that.
Watching his expression, which looked as though he might collapse from high blood pressure at any moment, I almost felt sorry for him.
“......We'll see.”
Kyle, who had belatedly realized that he couldn't win either with words or by fighting, turned sharply around.
“What are we going to see? You haven't even gotten rid of your bluster after dying once.”
He was running away with his tail tucked, yet he still talked big.
“Now, the troublemaker is finally gone.”
After Kyle had moved a fair distance away, I turned to the seniors.
One or two had left, but quite a few seniors still remained.
“Hmm.”
However, the atmosphere didn't return.
The seniors only looked at me awkwardly, somehow keeping their distance.
Was chasing Kyle away not enough?
After meeting a nasty reincarnator, they seemed to find even me, another reincarnator, difficult to approach.
In that case, I'd have to turn the seniors' attention somewhere else.
It wasn't particularly difficult to draw children's interest.
It just cost money.
“Seniors, since we're fated to have met like this, I'll give you all gifts.”
I had already intended to spend a certain amount to win the seniors' favor, so there was nothing to regret.
Since the conversation had naturally progressed to the point where I could identify the seniors' preferences, I could say the benefits were far greater.
“Gifts?”
The seniors' ears perked up.
Unfortunately, it seemed people here were not taught that they should not follow a strange man just because he offered to buy them toys or food.
I deliberately purchased items from the Shop with exaggerated movements so the seniors could see clearly.
Swords, books, dolls, balls, clothes, every kind of food, and even alcohol for the upperclassmen.
The seniors could not take their eyes off the gifts I laid out.
“Please choose what you like.”
I looked at the seniors with a broad smile.
Take these gifts and become this mister's ‘friend’!
You reap what you sow.
Money will grow wherever money is planted.