The day of the entrance ceremony.
I couldn't bring myself to call the weather good. It had not rained, but the cloudy sky looked as though ink had been diluted across it.
Still, for those of us who had to attend the event outside, it was better than being scorched by blazing sunlight.
Students gathered on the needlessly enormous athletic field, as befitted Beaumont Academy.
The newly admitted students stood in the center, while current students lined up as though surrounding them.
As was always the case with events like this, almost as many parents had gathered as students.
Some must have considered meeting other parents more important than their own children, as they busily rushed here and there without giving the students so much as a glance.
Was Repizen among them too?
I didn't know where that man was or what he was doing.
“Haaah.”
Standing with a slouch, I stifled a yawn.
Waiting for the event to begin was nothing but boring.
Why drag things out like this when the ceremony itself wasn't such a grand affair?
If that was the plan, they could have told us to gather later.
“Lawrence. Have you been well?”
As I stood there blankly, my sucker....... Radeos casually approached me.
They had assigned places by year, but it seemed the esteemed prince didn't care about such things.
“I have been well thanks to you, Senior.”
I quickly put on a salesman's smile as I welcomed Radeos.
“I am counting on you again today.”
He handed me a heavy money pouch, much like last time.
It seemed he had quite enjoyed the training against monsters.
“Of course, of course. I will have it prepared.”
Because I had summoned monsters without a supervisor during the first training session, the faculty had come running over to scold us.
After that, Radeos brought along a faculty member and turned it into something like regular training.
This was the power of a prince.
I should be careful not to fall out of favor with him in the future.
Radeos winked at me as though asking for my continued support, then immediately left.
“If he becomes king, this country will be ruined.”
It wasn't my place to say so when I was the one taking advantage of him, but he was exactly the kind of person who would get scammed wherever he went.
The thought of someone like that becoming the head of a country was horrifying.
He was the seventh prince, so Radeos would not become king unless his older brothers caused truly serious trouble.
“Was that not Prince Radeos just now?”
“When did that reincarnator bastard get acquainted with him.......?”
Quite a few of the new students from high-ranking noble families seemed to recognize Radeos.
“Heh heh.”
I gave my peers who were glaring at me a fresh smile, but the reaction was poor.
What were they going to do just by looking at me like that?
“Toot-toot—.”
A trumpet sounded in the distance. It was the signal that the entrance ceremony would now begin in earnest, and that the long wait was over.
“Greetings, everyone. I am Gerbilius Rodentia, headmaster of Beaumont Academy and known to the public by the undeserved title of the Yellow Archmage.”
The headmaster on the podium launched into an introduction not a single word different from the one he had given at the entrance examination.
It seemed that line was the very best he had refined over decades.
I had a feeling that while I remained attached to the Academy, I'd hear the exact same introduction dozens of times.
“Seeing your faces filled with hope, there is something I would like to tell you. Long ago, the scholar considered the greatest in our kingdom's history.......”
Once again, the headmaster poured out a long stream of nonsense.
I had thought the same thing even while living on Earth: did headmasters really put any sincerity into their speeches?
If they truly wanted to teach something, should they not at least look at the audience's reaction?
If they saw most of the students dozing off and still thought their words were getting through, they were clearly not in their right minds.
Unless making people suffer had been their goal from the start.
“Therefore, the fact that we could meet here must surely have a clear meaning as well. Cherish your beginnings and prepare for the future.......”
Today, the speech was even longer than it had been at the entrance examination.
The new students occasionally swayed. Not only the students, but their parents too struggled desperately against the drowsiness that came over them.
The only people maintaining relatively proper postures were the older students, but they too did not seem to be listening to the headmaster. It looked as though they had mastered the art of sleeping while standing.
“......That concludes what I wish to convey to you. I hope you all do your utmost to live up to the name of Beaumont Academy.”
By the time my sense of time began to grow strange, the headmaster's speech ended.
Sighs of relief escaped from everywhere.
Judging by the headmaster's personality, this bullshit would likely be repeated at every event.
At this rate, it would not be strange if one student eventually lost their mind and tried to kill the headmaster.
“We will now have the reading of the entrance oath.”
The headmaster stepped down from the podium, and a middle-aged teacher who then stepped up spoke with a soulless expression.
“Representative of the new students, step forward.”
At the words representative of the new students, I looked ahead.
They would not entrust such a special role to just anyone.
It would usually be given to reincarnators with overwhelming talent.
There were three reincarnators among this year's new students, but one had been humiliated from the very day of the entrance examination, and another was someone the headmaster clearly did not favor. That left only one person who could be made the representative of the new students.
As expected, Lucia headed onto the podium.
“Oh.”
I quickly searched for Kyle among the new students.
Lucia would obviously do well whether she was the representative of the new students or anything else.
Therefore, Kyle's face at not becoming the representative would be much more entertaining.
As expected, I found Kyle trembling as though in frustration.
What was the position of representative of the new students, anyway?
Someone who was old enough in mind should not be so immature.
“......!”
Perhaps sensing my gaze, Kyle looked back at me.
When I gave him a friendly wave, Kyle responded with the middle finger.
He was truly fierce.
He seemed to intend to offend me, but I only found it funny.
He was quite satisfying to tease. I should keep bothering him whenever I was bored.
“......On behalf of all the new students, I swear.”
While I enjoyed exchanges between reincarnators, the utterly useless oath came to an end.
After that, equally joyless and uninspiring proceedings continued: a welcoming address from the current-student representative, the singing of the school anthem, and so on.
Perhaps the only consolation was that it was better than the headmaster's speech.
“......This concludes the entrance ceremony.”
The entrance ceremony that had seemed as though it would never end finally came to a close.
At the entrance ceremonies I experienced in elementary, middle, and high school, the end of the ceremony was followed by everyone going to their classrooms and receiving additional guidance from their homeroom teacher. Here, they ended neatly after the ceremony alone.
It felt closer to a university entrance ceremony.
It also seemed like unspoken pressure that, having entered this Academy, I had to survive on my own.
In any case, that was the end of today's schedule.
Most of the older students dispersed as though they had no interest in the new students at all.
I had long heard rumors that Beaumont Academy's school culture was cold, but I hadn't expected this much.
Of course, there were exceptions.
“Good work.”
“You're officially our junior now.”
“Come visit my room later.”
Seniors who approached me with warm greetings.
They were the ones wearing clothes marked with Snakes, each of whom had received a gift from me.
“You're popular.”
Lucia, who had somehow come to stand beside me, said that.
“If you have money, winning someone's favor is simple. It isn't as though I've been idling around.”
I lowered my voice so the seniors wouldn't hear me.
“What are you going to do with winning their favor?”
“Sell it dearly.”
Buy cheap and sell dear. That was the foundation of business.
Here, a novice was someone who made the other party regret selling cheaply.
The truly first-rate person was someone who kept draining them for a long time without even letting them realize that they had lost out.
“I don't know what you're thinking.......”
Lucia let out a faint sigh.
“I don't know what you're thinking either.”
This was already the third time we had met face to face, yet I had barely heard Lucia speak about herself.
To me, Lucia was the only person at the Academy with whom I might be able to communicate, so I had been fairly honest in telling her things.
“What have you been doing?”
She had said just after the entrance examination that she had something to do.
While I had been doing business at the Academy, I was fairly curious what a normal, capable reincarnator like Lucia needed to do.
“It's a secret.”
Lucia avoided answering.
“You're going to be like that between us?”
“What are we? We are nothing to each other.”
That was true. We had only met a few times.
“Then let us be friends from now on.”
“Even if you say that all of a sudden.......”
“Would you like a gift?”
“Friends aren't bought with money!”
I kept prodding her side, but Lucia's reaction remained cold.
“I suppose it doesn't work like it does with children.”
The seniors had dropped their guard after only a few gifts.
Reincarnators were difficult.
“What on earth are you.......?”
Lucia gave me a rather fierce look.
It seemed she didn't like my attitude.
“Don't make that face. You're a reincarnator too.”
They only looked like children. The things inside were adults.
After all, were adult relationships not full of pretense and calculation, incapable of treating one another with pure hearts?
I hadn't expected us to be able to form a pure friendship in the first place.
“The same department, and the same reincarnators. Would it not be better for us both to get along?”
Whether comrades or friends, there was no doubt we were the people who could create the greatest synergy.
“You're the type I hate.”
“That stings a little.”
Anyone hearing that would think I had asked her to date me.
Ah, people did use the expression make friends, so it wasn't entirely wrong.
“But I won't hate you. If you need my help, ask me. If it's a fair matter, I won't refuse.”
Though she had been touched by the world to some degree, nobility remained in her.
People like that usually had difficult lives.
“Well, differences in values can't be helped.”
I decided to retreat for now.
Even if we had both reincarnated, our lives before had likely been different.
Even in the same country or the same neighborhood, there were plenty of people who could not understand one another. Expecting people from different worlds to see eye to eye was excessive greed.
“Tell me anytime you need my help. I'm ready to be your friend.”
Of course, I'd get more from her than I gave in return.
“That will never happen.”
Lucia spoke firmly and left.
“Her confidence is excessive.”
It seemed Lucia hadn't seen Kyle's eyes overturned by inferiority.
Look. He was glaring this way even now.
That bastard would clearly cause major trouble soon. I was prepared, but.......
Lucia, well.
She would learn once she experienced it.