Recently, Chester’s gaze felt sharper than ever. If before he had treated Ruite like air that did not exist, lately it felt as though he had made up his mind to glare whenever he had the chance.
Does he hate me that much? But that was all. Just because they had become seatmates did not mean they spoke much, and during theory lectures, Chester treated him like air as usual. Once, when Ruite had fallen asleep on his desk and opened his eyes, he thought their gazes had met, but thinking about it now, it seemed like a coincidence.
In any case, his goal was only to avoid offending Chester as much as possible, adjust to him so things would not be too uncomfortable, and wait until the annulment came up, so there was no real problem.
“Ruite, has anything been difficult for you in academy life lately?”
At Harold’s question from across the consultation room, Ruite barely held back the words, “Chester keeps glaring at me.”
“Yes. Everything is fine except for the fact that the test period is slowly approaching.”
At that, Harold said the cruel words that students and tests were inseparable. With a bright smile, no less.
“Ruite, your practical grades are also in the upper ranks…… but I would like your theory grades to improve a little more.”
When Ruite said that was not something that happened just because he wanted it to, Harold lightly flicked him on the forehead, telling him not to gloss over it with such an easy excuse.
“If there’s something you don’t know in theory lectures, try asking your seatmate for help. You know a seatmate doesn’t simply mean someone who sits next to you, don’t you?”
Witmore Academy also placed importance on cooperation and friendships between classmates. Rather than having outstanding students continue to do well alone, it hoped for and guided them to cooperate with friends and grow together.
As Harold said, a seatmate did not simply mean the person whose seat was closest in the classroom. It also meant a relationship in which they helped each other when there were difficulties with classes or assignments.
But as long as his seatmate was Chester, it was difficult to readily answer Harold’s words.
“Ruite, you’re going to take the mage exam too, right?”
“Yes. Since I entered the Department of Magic, of course I should.”
All students who entered the Department of Magic dreamed of becoming mages, and to become a mage, one had to pass the official exam administered by the country.
“Then have you decided what you want to do after you pass the exam?”
“Ah…… I’m not sure. I don’t really know yet.”
In truth, thanks to the innate ability to use magic, he had been able to enter the famous Department of Magic, but if asked whether he truly wanted to become a mage in the first place, it was difficult to answer readily. Besides, a few days ago, his conversation with Chester had also made him recall the decisive motive for entering this academy.
Mages could engage in truly various lines of work, and most dreamed of joining the Tehira Empire’s magic knight order. Aside from that, one could enter a mercenary guild that hunted and eliminated monsters, or work as an instructor at an educational institution that trained mages. There was also the path of a researcher studying monsters or various magical phenomena.
But among those, he had never thought about what he himself actually wanted to do. Until now, he had prioritized annulling the engagement with Chester above all else, so he had had no room to think about anything else.
Even if, by acting as unobtrusively as possible in Chester’s eyes like now, he luckily avoided the ending where he was killed, it was the same. Considering the attitudes of both families’ parents, if he failed to annul the engagement and ended up marrying Chester, it was obvious he would not be able to freely decide his future career afterward.
Besides, the fact that the person he had transmigrated into was someone who would later become the villain of the original story had not changed. If a villain like that married the protagonist and continued their connection, even if he avoided the ending where he died, his future did not seem likely to be very good. So, even for the sake of his own future, annulling the engagement with Chester was essential.
“That’s right. There’s no need to rush. If anything ever comes up that you’re curious about, come consult me anytime.”
“Yes.”
The consultation went on longer than he had expected. Perhaps because Harold liked talking, regardless of whether it was with students or professors, he had not even noticed that lecture time was approaching.
As Ruite hurried down the hallway, he saw the back of the professor in charge of the next theory lecture far ahead. The thought that if he entered later than the professor, he might be marked late flashed through his mind.
Ruite squeezed his eyes shut and ran down the hallway. Just as he was about to run past the professor, the professor suddenly started running too.
“You, brat, if you enter later than me, consider yourself late.”
“What?! Ah, Professor……!”
He had completely forgotten that the next period was Professor Philip’s mathematics lecture, and that Philip loved joking around. When the professor, who was fairly old, moved his feet quickly, Ruite also began running for his life.
“Hah…… haah…….”
He barely managed to enter the classroom one step ahead of the professor. Ruite breathed hard and collapsed into his seat. Sweat had formed on his forehead from the unexpected sprint.
As he swept up his hair and wiped his sweat with his sleeve, he felt a sharp gaze from beside him. When he turned his head, Chester was glaring at him again.
“Why don’t you be punctual for lecture?”
“I wanted to be punctual too.”
If only he had not had to listen to Professor Harold’s recent worries about gaining weight, he would not have had to get into a pointless race with Professor Philip.
Ruite pushed his hair messily back and caught his breath. Just as Chester’s gaze touched his exposed, smooth forehead, Professor Philip also entered the classroom.
As soon as he stood at the teacher’s desk, he began telling the story of his race with Ruite. Thanks to that, the classroom quickly became a sea of laughter. Magnus even pointed his finger and laughed openly.
Fine, laugh. As long as I avoid being unfairly marked late.
“Rui, you’re sweating a lot.”
Colin turned around with a gentle face.
“I guess Professor Philip doesn’t age. I nearly died sprinting at full speed.”
Colin brought over a tissue from somewhere and handed it to Ruite.
“If you’d prepared for lecture with time to spare in the first place, wouldn’t that not have happened?”
Chester, who had glanced at Ruite receiving the tissue from Colin, opened his mouth.
“How was I supposed to know the consultation would run long? Anyway, I won the race, so isn’t that enough?”
When Ruite smiled proudly, Chester shook his head with an incredulous expression.
The cheerful atmosphere soon settled, and the boring lecture began. Theory classes in the Department of Magic were broadly divided into two types. Subjects dealing with specialized topics related to magic or mages, and general subjects such as mathematics, literature, philosophy, political diplomacy, and so on.
Subjects corresponding to the latter usually went very deep in the General Studies Department, but in the Department of Magic and Department of Swordsmanship, they did not teach them in quite that much depth. After all, the two departments were literally specialized in nature.
However, as befitted a prestigious academy, its goal was to teach and graduate students with a certain level of basic knowledge as well, so they had to take subjects on general knowledge too.
Because of that, at Witmore Academy, the Department of Swordsmanship and the Department of Magic belonged to the side with a slightly higher graduation difficulty.
In the end, it meant that to graduate, he had to endure this boring mathematics class too.
“Try solving the two problems at the bottom of page thirty-six. I’ll have you come out and solve them, so keep that in mind.”
At Philip’s words, boos poured out from here and there. Even the classmates who had been dozing opened their eyes wide and adjusted their grip on their pens. Ruite also looked at the problems with an indifferent face, then suddenly felt the top of his head sting.
When he subtly lifted his head, he saw Professor Philip grinning at him. He had a feeling. The one going out to solve the problem is going to be me.
He quickly skimmed over the problem, but of all things, it was an advanced problem again. Ruite naturally tried to send an SOS to Colin, then paused. It was because last time, another professor had scolded him for talking. Besides, if he called Colin in front of him and got caught by the professor, his head already hurt thinking about what kind of mischievous thing he would do.
If there’s something you don’t know in theory lectures, try asking your seatmate for help.
Suddenly, his head turned. It was because he remembered the content of his consultation with Professor Harold earlier. Chester seemed to have finished solving the problems long ago and was flipping through the later pages of the textbook. Come to think of it, Magnus had said so too. Chester taught even problems or assignments his seatmate did not know well.
Watching Philip’s reaction, Ruite leaned to the side. At the closer distance, Chester instinctively frowned.
“What?”
“I don’t know this. Can you teach me?”
“What?”
Ruite pointed at the problem and sent Chester a pleading look. He felt a little sorry asking this of someone who hated him, but for survival, there was nothing he could do.
“You can’t even solve that one properly? If you apply the formula we learned last period, it solves easily. Did you even listen to the lecture properly?”
“I probably listened properly.”
“You sometimes sleep sprawled out during lecture, so what do you mean, you listened properly?”
Ruite pulled his textbook back with a dissatisfied face. It seemed he had chosen the wrong place to ask for help. Chester had already seemed to dislike him even more lately, judging by the way he kept glaring, so Ruite should not have spoken to him.
“Fine. If you don’t want to teach me, you can just say you don’t want to.”
Ruite watched Philip’s reaction again and reached forward. He was planning to quietly ask Colin for help, but suddenly, Chester snatched his textbook away.