After wrapping up the Hidden Event, I got some sleep at the lodgings I had booked.
When I stepped outside the next day, Ria's secretary and two merchants carrying bags were standing in the street.
Ria's event had ended yesterday, and I could not think of any reason for them to seek me out, so I was about to ignore them and walk past when the secretary greeted me politely.
"Good morning, Lord Van Astraea. You may not remember me, but I am Selena, the personal secretary of Acting Company Head Ria Heilin of the Cosmo Trading Company."
"I do remember you, but....... What is this about?"
"When you visited our company yesterday, the Acting Company Head was so busy that she fears she may not have treated you with the courtesy you deserved. She sent these gifts by way of apology."
Selena snapped her fingers, and the two merchants opened their bags.
"We have modestly prepared some of our best-selling clothes suited to you, along with accessories, tableware, and premium tea leaves from the Ramel Region in the east."
She called it modest, but the bags had been packed without a single gap, as though someone had played Tetris with the contents.
By now, they must have been short on time, with so much to do: ferreting out the traitor within the company, deducing the target of the attack, and repairing the company building as quickly as possible. The fact that she had still gone to the trouble of arranging all this made me deeply suspicious.
Still, if it was meant as an apology, I was not going to refuse.
Yesterday, too, she had insisted on giving me something after I said I did not want it. Was the Ria I met yesterday actually a stand-in rather than the Ria I knew?
"What is the real reason for these gifts?"
"As I mentioned, they are an expression of the Acting Company Head's apologies......."
"No, I want the truth, not a contrived excuse. Surely she did not keep even her personal secretary in the dark about her true intentions?"
Selena hesitated for a moment, then bowed her head politely and answered.
"I apologize for speaking so indirectly. The Acting Company Head wishes to maintain an amicable relationship with you."
Of the Empire's Five Great Trading Companies, every one except the Cosmo Trading Company had one of the Four Great Powers backing it.
That was why, no matter how quickly the Cosmo Trading Company grew, its influence was soon wrested away, and it was routinely edged out of state-run projects.
Things only grew worse midway through the game, until the cornered Company Head finally clutched at the rotten lifeline offered by a villain and became an antagonist who obstructed the player.
I had thought the Cosmo Trading Company would not grow desperate until later, but apparently it had already begun to sense the danger and was making overtures to anyone it could.
Seen in that light, she really was the Ria I knew from the game.
Since she intended to use me, I decided to accept the gifts without feeling burdened by them.
The gifts were loaded into the carriage that would take me back. Before I left, Selena bowed deeply and offered a polite farewell.
"We sincerely hope you will continue to favor the Cosmo Trading Company with your patronage. We plan to establish a branch at Iris Academy in one month. Should you visit us, we will do our utmost to serve you."
"I look forward to it."
Until now, possessing a scoundrel had seemed like nothing but a penalty. Yet because he was a direct descendant of a prestigious house, I could forge connections like this.
For the first time since arriving in this world, I felt glad that I had possessed this guy.
***
A full week had passed since I possessed Van Astraea, and the day of the entrance ceremony had finally arrived.
Only six days had passed since the Entrance Examination results were announced, yet all manner of administrative procedures had already been completed. It was exactly what I would expect from the finest academy in the Empire.
Just as it had been in the game, the entrance ceremony was held in the central plaza at the very heart of Iris Academy.
The circular plaza, built around an elegant fountain, was enormous.
And with the main building—the symbol of Iris Academy—visible beyond it, the plaza was the perfect venue for the entrance ceremony.
Facing the temporary stage erected in front of the fountain, the first-years stood in the center, with the second- and third-years to the left and right, respectively. Parents and distinguished guests sat around the perimeter.
Once the preparations were complete, the ceremony began, and the people gathered in the central plaza followed the master of ceremonies' instructions.
"The 121st Iris Academy Entrance Ceremony will commence shortly......."
The atmosphere was grand without being ostentatious and restrained in a way I found intriguing, but the ceremony was so boring that it overturned every favorable impression.
It began with a salute to the Imperial flag and continued through an endless succession of formalities, including speeches from the distinguished guests. We even had to sit through a lecture on the academy's history.
There was clearly a reason the game had forcibly skipped the entrance ceremony.
I had been rather excited when the cinematic highlighted the major characters who would appear later, but actually experiencing the ceremony was dreadful.
I could say with absolute certainty that this was the most boring entrance ceremony of my life.
It would have been nice to pass the long hours chatting with someone, but sadly, I could not stay with Reina. She was standing in the front row to deliver the speech as the top student of our year, which left me alone because I had no friends besides her.
But whenever I looked around and considered making a friend now, the nearby students flinched and averted their eyes.
My scoundrel title was certainly working hard.
At least I spotted Drener nearby, so I quietly moved beside him and struck up a conversation.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
"......."
"I know you can hear me."
"......As you can see, I am ignoring you, so I would appreciate it if you did not speak to me."
"Aren't you bored?"
"Not at all."
"Are you even human? How can this not bore you?"
Drener closed his eyes, let out a brief sigh, and asked irritably,
"......If you want something from me, get to the point."
"Not really. I'm just talking to you because I'm bored."
"Then that is unfortunate. There is nothing I can do about it, so you should stop disturbing me and go elsewhere."
Disturbing him.......
Come to think of it, during the entrance ceremony, Drener stoked the flames of his vengeance and vowed to kill the Emperor.
He had insisted that his revenge was just and righteous, yet at the same time, the scene showed him unable to conceal his blind rage. It had done a good job of portraying his immature state of mind.
But that had only seemed fine when he was a game character. Now that I knew a living person was thinking that way, it was a little cringeworthy.
Then my mischievous streak took over, and I pretended not to know as I asked him,
"Disturbing you? What did I interrupt?"
"That is......."
It was rather funny that he could not bring himself to tell me the truth.
He must have realized that the line was too embarrassing to say aloud.
When Drener trailed off without answering, I grinned and imitated his voice.
"I was enjoying my solitude......! It wasn't anything like that, was it?"
It was a pretty good impression. Maybe an eight out of ten?
Drener did not seem to like it, though, because he frowned.
"That was pretty close, wasn't it?"
"Absolutely not. It sounded nothing like me."
"Come on. The stronger the denial, the stronger the affirmation, right?"
"I believe I told you it sounded nothing like me."
"Ahem......."
When he put it that seriously, even I could not keep teasing him.
I fell silent and watched the entrance ceremony, only for the boredom to come flooding back.
"Are you seriously not bored?"
"As far as I know, entrance ceremonies are boring by nature. If something that is inherently boring is merely being boring, why should I feel restless over it?"
"You have a real talent for making things sound complicated."
"......The point is that I am not bored."
He might have been cold and rigid, but the fact that he still played along with the conversation showed that he really was a good guy at heart.
"Well, I'm bored out of my mind."
"Was there not someone you usually spent your time with? Go to her."
"Reina's busy right now, so I can't. You just happened to be standing in the perfect place to strike up a conversation."
"......I chose one bad spot and got bitten by a rabid dog."
"That's right. Once a dog bites, it doesn't let go. Sorry, but you'll have to keep me company for the rest of the ceremony."
Drener let out a short snort of laughter.
"You do not deny that you are a rabid dog."
"So what? It's better than being alone because you don't have any friends. And talking to me has made this a little more bearable for you too, hasn't it?"
"Not at all. I have no friends because I do not need any."
"......?"
What was that supposed to mean?
No character had ever asked him a question like this before, but if that was truly his attitude, was this not a setting inconsistency?
Building a foundation at Iris Academy included expanding his circle of friends.
There was a limit to what he could accomplish by fighting the Imperial Family alone.
And since this reaction could not possibly be a continuity error.......
"You actually want friends, but you don't know how to make them, do you?"
"......If you wish to die, keep running your mouth."
The fact that his expression was even fiercer than when I had imitated him made it obvious that I had hit the nail on the head.
"Can't you kill my boredom instead of me?"
"If you die, you will no longer feel bored."
"That's one brutal way of looking at it."
As I killed time talking with Drener, the part I had been waiting for finally arrived.
"Next will be the freshmen's oath and the declaration of admission. Cadet Reina Serenia, the top-ranked first-year, please step forward."
Reina left the front row and climbed onto the stage. She stood at the lectern before the headmaster and read from the paper placed upon it.
"I-I swear! I, Reina Serenia, as the representative of the 210 freshmen admitted in the 121st class......."
Although it was an ordinary speech and not one Reina had prepared herself, the person giving it was anything but ordinary, so I was not bored.
Besides, Reina was nervous! You don't get to see that every day!
Her voice trembled, and her eyes remained fixed on the paper rather than the headmaster. Yet her nerves also made her voice ring out loudly.
I found myself smiling at the unfiltered display of the hapless side she occasionally showed when Drener suddenly clicked his tongue.
"So that Serenia was the top student."
"Got a problem with that?"
When I glared at Drener, he looked slightly startled, then cleared his throat before answering.
"If you ask whether I have a problem with it, I suppose I do. She took first place from me by the narrowest of margins."
"Don't make me laugh. Our Reina cut the Test Stone in two, you know?"
"That is precisely why I said it. I cracked the Test Stone."
I gave Drener a look that told him not to lie. As if reading my expression, he replied as though he could not be bothered to argue.
"Whether you believe me or not does not change what happened."
What? Was he serious?
If he were bluffing, he would have stubbornly insisted it was true, but the way he simply let it go made it seem all the more real.
"Furthermore, what concern is the truth of my statement to you? You were not the top student in the first place. Reina Serenia was. Therefore, she is the only person entitled to dispute my results."
"In summary?"
"......I am asking why you are challenging me over my results when you are not Reina Serenia, the top student."
"Because I'm Reina's friend."
"Has that been agreed upon with Reina herself?"
"We haven't...... actually discussed it, but I'm sure she'd say yes."
Drener smirked.
"So you simply decided on your own that you were friends? I see now. You went on about whether I had friends because you have none yourself."
"Uh, well....... You were still hung up on what I said earlier, weren't you? Sorry."
Drener remained silent for a while.
"......Never speak to me again."
Then he immediately moved away.
Had I teased him too much? I would have to be nicer to him the next time we met.
Meanwhile, Reina finished her oath.
"......Representative of the freshmen, Reina Serenia."
The young headmaster standing before her replied with a languid expression.
"I hereby grant all of you admission to Iris Academy."
After a round of applause, it was time for the headmaster's address.
The surrounding students murmured among themselves, heaping praise upon him.
He was one of Trial's three members, the heroes who had made the greatest contributions to the East-West War twenty years ago, and a genius mage who had mastered almost every form of magic still in existence.
He possessed such tremendous zeal for education that he had withdrawn early from the contests to become either the Magic Tower Master or the head of the Ducal House of Astraea and thrown himself into the competition for the position of academy headmaster instead.
The Black Comet, Castro Astraea.
But everyone would have been disappointed if they knew what he was really like.
He had even been dragged to this entrance ceremony against his will.
However, because his features were intimidating by nature, no one could tell that he was sleepy.
"Do not cause needless trouble. Apply yourselves. That is all."
Most of the first-years stared blankly as Castro concluded his address in a flash and immediately stepped down from the stage.
Then the priestess standing in front of the stage caught him and gave him an earful, prompting him to sigh and return to the lectern.
"And as for the first-years—"
What followed was the depressing warning that classes would begin on the first day without an orientation, so we had better not miss them.