Relic Academy's entrance ceremony.
Johan paid no attention to the magical lights hanging from the ceiling, the folding chairs that were far too comfortable for something as simple as an entrance ceremony, or his fellow freshmen busily sizing one another up. Instead, he recalled the history of the Empire that he had learned before.
The Emental Empire had begun several hundred years ago as a small nation founded by a single hero during an age of war.
He had turned the Empire into the most prosperous nation on the Arcana Continent.
Although it possessed enough national power to unite the entire continent, the hero had learned from the fragmentation and collapse of the ancient unified dynasty. Rather than expanding his territory, he made the surrounding kingdoms into vassal states or tributaries.
It was a policy that revealed the arrogance of someone convinced no other nation could ever destroy the Empire.
To reduce that possibility even slightly, one of the Empire's sages established an educational institution called the Academy.
The Academy accepted royalty, nobles, commoners, and foreigners alike. It cultivated the Empire's future talent while drawing capable people from other countries into the Empire.
In fact, many cadets who experienced the Empire's advanced civilization ended up immigrating there altogether.
Even those who returned to their homelands retained pride in having graduated from the Academy, which generally left them friendly toward the Empire.
Relic was the finest of the Empire's many academies, but it did not admit many students.
To begin with, only those with letters of recommendation were even given the chance to apply, and they still had to pass an exam difficult enough that even Johan had failed it in the previous run.
Because the requirements were so demanding, the freshmen varied widely in age.
Johan remembered that one of his classmates was thirty years old.
That man was sitting in the section where the knights were seated.
Recalling the scar-covered face, Johan decided to keep his distance from him in this life.
After all, Womanizer Johan had caused trouble with the childhood friend the mercenary had known for thirty years.
'And it wasn't just the mercenary. The second son of House Iroe, the third son of another house, and so on......'
They were the kind of lunatics who had barged into Johan's dormitory swinging swords.
The knights of the Arcana Continent armed themselves with their own airtight logic and routinely committed acts that shattered common sense.
To put it nicely, they were radical. To put it badly, they were insane, so getting close to them was......
"We will now introduce the professors."
The headmaster's tedious address finally ended, and it was time for the professors to be introduced.
Johan had assumed they would all be familiar faces, but then he spotted someone completely unexpected.
"This is Hans, our newly appointed professor of history. Professor Hans taught a prince in the Kingdom of Asep, and after coming to the Empire, he also taught an Imperial Prince."
"It is a pleasure to meet you all......"
Johan barely heard Hans's words. They were bound to be the usual platitudes anyway. What mattered was why the future Johan remembered had changed.
There was only one possible cause.
'Was overcoming Mana Rampage really that significant an event?'
That Achievement only gave a Mid-Low Correction.
Johan felt as though his eyes met Hans's. For some reason, Hans's eyes seemed to curve into a smile.
"Next, we will hear an address from the freshman representative of the Magic Department. Esmeralda, please come forward."
The professors stepped back, and the Empire's Third Imperial Princess, the freshman representative, walked onto the stage.
Looking at her, Johan recalled Womanizer Johan's memories.
Like most academies that appeared in entertainment back on Earth, Relic Academy publicly upheld equality.
Thanks to that, cadets could interact freely without worrying too much about social rank. It was made possible by the Empire's meritocratic system.
Unlike other nations, where someone born a commoner had little chance of rising above the nobility, it was common in the Empire for a commoner to become a noble's superior.
Anyone capable of entering Relic Academy was considered someone with the potential to rise to a high position in the Empire, so most cadets respected one another.
However, those with poor grades and unimpressive backgrounds received little respect.
That was probably one of the major reasons Womanizer Johan had died.
If he had been certain to reach a high-ranking post in the future, people would not have dared act against him so easily.
"On behalf of the freshmen, I......"
The princess stared straight at Johan while giving her speech.
It was only natural.
The princess was among the most exalted people in the Empire, so after graduation she would inevitably take on important duties.
Given her exceptional talent for magic, she would probably be assigned work related to magic, and mages needed connections with administrators.
Research funding did not grow out of the ground.
In that sense, Johan, who had entered the Administration Department with the second-highest score, would be a very tempting prospect.
'The princess has a strong appetite for talent too. In the Womanizer run, she gathered plenty of followers in just one year.'
Joining the princess's faction also aligned with Johan's own goals.
This Academy simply had too few serious incidents.
That was only natural. The surrounding lands had been designated as an "Academy Special Territory" specifically to protect the Academy, and they were tightly controlled.
Suspicious outsiders could not even set foot inside.
'And the magic protecting the Academy is incredible.'
A Magic Tower-class magic formation guarded it at all times, and there were Imperial security forces, the Academy's excellent professors, and more.
It was an environment where a major disaster was almost impossible.
'Of course, I still can't let my guard down too much.'
Johan continued thinking as he watched a commoner man walk onto the stage after the princess.
No great catastrophe had occurred, but whenever five people gathered, at least one piece of trash was bound to appear. There was no way an academy filled with far more than five people could be free of them.
The person Johan had to watch most carefully was Krog Leopold, the eldest son of House Leopold, who had been pushed into second place in the Knight Division by the man now standing on the stage.
He had followed an elite path within his family and enjoyed one success after another, only to turn bitter when a commoner showed him just how wide the gap in talent between them really was.
Whenever someone displeased him, he would challenge them to a "spar" that was really just an excuse for a beating.
He was insane enough to target not only knights and mages but even cadets training to become administrators.
'This time, I'll put myself under the princess. Even Krog isn't crazy enough to touch someone with powerful backing. He's the classic type who bullies the weak and bows to the strong. Then I'll live as quietly and as long as possible. The longer I survive, the more information I can gather about the future.'
Johan was a regressor, but aside from glimpsing the distant future, he only knew about roughly one year ahead.
Except for his first death and the Womanizer run, he had died before even turning twenty.
'Hm?'
While Johan was making plans for his life, the person who had just finished giving the speech as the top freshman in the Administration Department sat beside him and spoke.
"Um...... hello?"
"Huh? Oh. Hi."
Johan returned the greeting and examined her.
She was a studious-looking girl with roughly trimmed long hair and horn-rimmed glasses.
Nicole.
She had also ranked first in the Administration Department in his previous life.
Womanizer Johan had made a move on her because he could see the potential for her to become beautiful with just a little grooming, but she had shut him down completely.
Because of that, he remembered her as someone who was not especially sociable.
"I heard you got a perfect score in history?"
"Probably?"
He had only checked his overall average, not his score in each individual subject, but it was highly likely.
He had entered the test with an Intelligence correction and prior knowledge of the questions. If he still failed to get full marks in a simple memorization subject, he would have to bury his face in a saucer from sheer embarrassment.
He could have aimed for perfect scores in the other subjects too, but he had intentionally answered a few questions incorrectly.
The Achievement for becoming the freshman representative of the Administration Department had been tempting, but the representative was bound to attract attention.
He had no idea how the Charm correction would affect the innocent female cadets around him.
Until Karane, whom he had already designated as his prospective bride for this life, arrived at the Academy, he intended to live as discreetly as possible.
'But how does Nicole know my score? Did the Charm correction make her interested in me?'
"How did you know my score?"
"I was curious, so I asked the professor. I knew Professor Hans when I was little."
That too was information he had never learned in his previous life.
They were fellow students of Hans in a sense, yet she had never told Womanizer Johan.
That alone showed how much she must have disliked him.
"What a coincidence. Hans taught me when I was young too."
"Actually, the professor talked about you a lot. He said you really loved history and genuinely enjoyed learning it."
"I did."
Auto-Progress from Johan's childhood really had studied hard.
When Johan nodded, Nicole stopped midway through her next sentence and fidgeted with her fingers.
A fresh-faced adolescent boy might have mistaken the situation and gesture for a confession, but Womanizer Johan's memories warned him that this was not a green light.
They also supplied the most appropriate answer.
"Let's get along from now on. I actually wanted a friend I could discuss history with too."
"Right! Let's be friends!"
He had secured a friend he could safely grow close to, precisely because she had been so resistant to him in his previous life.
'She reads a lot, so she's familiar with all kinds of theories too. She's probably the best friend I could ask for.'
After they exchanged a few more words, the entrance ceremony ended.
As Johan prepared to return to the dormitory, Nicole made a suggestion.
"Do you want to go to the library together? I thought I'd read ahead and prepare for class."
He already knew she was a bookworm, but going to the library on the very first day was impressive.
Johan wanted to rest in the dormitory, but he could not refuse his new friend's first request.
Auto-Progress was influenced by his previous habits.
Once his current activity time ran out, Auto-Progress would control Johan until his death.
He needed to build the habit of going to the library while he still could.
"I wanted to check out the library too, actually. I wonder what kind of books Relic Academy has. Maybe we can even find old texts that are hard to obtain outside."
"Ah! That sounds fun too! Let's hurry!"
Nicole, genuinely enthusiastic about the library, broke into a run.
Johan matched her pace, and because of that, several people who had intended to approach him missed their chance.
Among them were Esmeralda, the Third Imperial Princess, and Hans, the newly appointed professor.
"Ah......"
"Ah......?"
The two people, who had sighed in exactly the same way, noticed each other.
They were already acquainted, so Esmeralda approached Hans casually.
"Teacher. No, I suppose I should call you Professor now. Those two are Nicole and Cadet Johan, the first- and second-ranked students in the Administration Department, correct?"
"Do you wish to become close to them?"
"Of course. Among the people who may become my subjects in the future, they are exceptional talents who have already earned a seal of approval."
"Hmm......"
Hans let out a long groan.
"I support Your Highness, but I have no desire to force my students into anything."
"Do not worry. You said yourself that I was the most talented among the Imperial children."
"Others have said the same, not only me. And...... there are many ears here."
"Do not worry about that either. Everyone nearby is already one of mine."
"Impressive."
Hans was genuinely impressed.
The Third Imperial Princess was only nineteen, yet she had already surrounded herself with her own people.
There was a reason so many supported her besides Hans.
"What do you plan to do once you become close to those two?"
"If they become my people, I will use my connections to support them as much as possible. I am thinking at least ten years ahead. Since even you rate them so highly, surely they will eventually rise to positions where they can help me, correct?"
"Of course."
Hans answered without hesitation.
"Nicole is excellent as well, but Johan has talents that cannot be measured through grades alone. Broad knowledge unusual for someone from the countryside, a rich imagination, fresh ideas, and more."
"And he draws the eye too. You saw it as well, Professor. He carried himself with dignity even while simply sitting there. If I had not heard about him from you, I might have mistaken him for the son of some prestigious noble house."
"Hmm......"
Hans had to agree.
Johan was very different from the boy he remembered, who had been ordinary aside from his flashes of intelligence and the incident involving Mana Rampage.
If he had grown this much in the time they had not seen each other, Hans could only wonder how remarkable he would become in the future.