Chapter 29: 4

Volume 2 Chapter 4: Two Thumbs Up for Luciana’s First Day of School

The morning began with Luciana at the dormitory building entrance, sharply dressed and ready to depart.

She wore a silver-embroidered and deep-green blazer with a pleated knee-length skirt. Black tights covered her legs, and a bright red ribbon, indicating her status as a first-year-student, sat atop her chest.

This style of uniform was… rather stereotypical; it may look out-of-place, but there was no doubting its presence in what was originally a two-dimensional world.

Indeed, despite the setting taking inspiration from the European Middle Ages, Royal Academy students wore blazers, an article of clothing that came about much later, in the nineteenth century. The world of an otome game sure is convenient, and hurray for aesthetic value!

“This doesn’t look weird on me… does it, Melody?”

“Not at all, my lady. In fact, you look absolutely wonderful. Did you make sure to have everything you need?”

“Yep, I checked it over and made doubly sure I had everything I needed.”

Luciana confidently patted her bag, a happy expression on her face, but Melody remained unconvinced.

“My lady, did you… check the contents by taking everything out?”

The blunder at the Entrance Ceremony was still fresh on Melody’s mind, and it would be a true struggle for Luciana to regain her maid’s trust after such a mistake.

“Th-then I’ll just check it again, one more time, just to be sure!”

Luciana quickly gave in under the mounting pressure, and she opened her bag to verify its contents when…

“Ack! Where did my pencil case go?!”

And so Luciana found herself in a panic on that first morning.

“Ugh… I was almost late to class on the very first day…”

Despite immediately returning to her room, it had still taken time for Luciana to find her pencil case, which had become stuck between her desk and the wall; it seemed as though the world itself was somehow conspiring against her.

Fortunately, Luciana had fully prepared for class much earlier in the morning, so there had been enough time for her not to arrive late to class.

To put it into perspective, the dormitories were situated at the southeast end of the Academy, and it would take ten minutes of walking to go from there to the main school building where classes were held.

The structure itself appeared nothing like a Japanse schoolhouse; rather, it showed off western-style influence with its classical brick-and-mortar construction and strategic decorations of greenery.

Everything together gave the building a solemn atmosphere, like that of certain storied and prestigious educational institutes in England.

“Wow… It’s so big…”

Well, none of that had anything to do with Luciana anyway.

And as she followed the path stretching from the dormitory to the school building, Luciana spotted many other students, upperclassmen included.

Because on-campus boarding was now mandatory, it should come as no surprise that all students, regardless of class year, would go to class at the same time. And it was literally all students; not a single servant was in sight, attending to a noble or otherwise.

There was a simple reason for this: only students, faculty, and other authorized personnel had permission to enter the school building, while servants of every kind were completely barred from entering unless absolutely necessary. The school officials prided themselves over this rule; “The commonfolk and nobility alike should be independent while on Academy grounds,” they often said, and it was a tradition that the school had followed since long before the new dormitories had come.

To be fair, the students of noble houses really would just pawn off troublesome tasks, like carrying their own belongings, to their servants. If the Academy allowed such indiscretion, it would soon open the door to allowing those students to do far worse, and thus they simply banned servants from the very beginning.

Seeing her many potential classmates walking the same path, Luciana soon calmed from her initial nervousness, and she boldly strode forth toward the school building.

Inside was an even larger crowd gathering in front of a sort of bulletin board for announcements; it was here that the students could find their assigned classrooms, and these students of various years each had their own feelings on the matter.

“Let’s see, the first-years should be…”

“Luciana!”

“Miss Luciana!”

Familiar voices called out to Luciana, and an expression of joy came over her as she turned and found their owners.

“Beatrice, and Miliaria too! Good morning!”

“Good morning, Luciana.”

The lively and cheerful girl with chestnut-colored hair styled in a single braid was the daughter of a viscount, Beatrice Lilyrutocrus.

“Good morning to you, too, Miss Luciana.”

And the girl with a graceful smile and purple-blue hair was the daughter of a baron, Miliaria Farancult

The two girls came from rising noble houses that had bought territory from House Luthorburg two generations ago, and they were Luciana’s closest friends from childhood; they had last seen each other at the Spring Ball, over two months ago now.

“It has been too long.”

“These past two months have been so hectic that we didn’t have any time to meet up…”

“Of course, after what happened at the Spring Ball, it should have come as no surprise that we were all forbidden from going out.”

The aforementioned event, the “Spring Ball Raid”, affected not just this trio but every other noble as well, to the extent that many families had forbidden their children from leaving the house once the Academy had announced a temporary closure.

“Everything seemed to calm down after a month, but by then…”

“By then, I believe something else came up, and we still could not meet…”

At that time, the Academy had delivered various textbooks and instructional material to the students, directing them to prepare for when classes would resume a month later; in short, the would-be students suddenly found themselves having to cover two months’ worth of lessons, keeping many of them indoors despite the lightened restrictions on going out.

“Yeah, that’s right… There really… wasn’t any time to play…”

“Um… Luciana? What’s wrong?”

“You seem to have a strange look in your eyes…”

There was a thousand-yard-stare to Luciana’s glazed-over eyes… She inadvertently recalled the intense “education” a certain spartan maid had imposed on her out of tough love, or so she had claimed.

“Well, never mind that, Luciana. We should go and see our class assignments.”

“Huh? Wha-, oh, of course. There seems to be less people now, so it should be a little easier.”

The sound of Beatrice’s voice forcefully changing the subject brought Luciana back from the brink.

“Fufufu, I hope all three of us are in the same class.”

With hope in their hearts, Luciana and the other two approached the bulletin board, and their classes to be were…

“So I will be in Class C, Miss Beatrice will be in Class B, and Miss Luciana will be in Class A.”

“It seems we are once again split apart. I suppose we can’t always have what we want…”

“Grr, I can’t believe all three of us are in different classes!”

Their hopes deflated, the girls nevertheless continued down the hall to the first-year classrooms.

“Oh, it seems Class A is here.”

“It looks like Class B is just next door, while Class C is just a little further down. They weren’t as far apart as I thought, so maybe we can meet for lunch?”

Luciana relaxed after hearing Beatrice’s words; Luciana had no other acquaintances in the capital, so it came as a huge relief to her that she would have people to talk to, even if it’s only during lunch and breaks.

From there the trio parted ways. As Luciana entered her own classroom, conversations quickly died down as the students inside all turned to stare at the new entrant.

“Ngh!?”

Luciana was barely able to hold back a surprised scream, and she quickly checked the seating arrangements on the board before hastening over to her desk.

“That must be the Spring Ball’s Fairy Princess…”

“Isn’t she the Hero Princess now?”

“Calling someone like her, from House Luthorbroke, a fairy or a hero? What a joke!”

People had first taken to calling Luciana a Fairy Princess after her breath-taking beauty had stolen the show at the Spring Ball, but that had changed to Hero Princess after she courageously risked her life to protect Crown Prince Christopher from a mysterious assailant.

Having stayed out of the public eye since then, Luciana had now caught the eyes of her peers, and she quickly grew embarrassed as she caught bits of the whispered conversations going around.

Of course, not everything gossiped about was positive; there were many who still ridiculed her as the destitute daughter of House Luthorbroke… Luciana could only wonder about what may have happened if she had Melody’s Artificial Sensitive Skin spell.

She held back a sigh of exasperation as she arrived at her seat.

Her seat was in the middle rows; the window was at her direct left, a male student sat behind her, one female student was to her right, and another female student sat in front of her. Thankfully, none of them seemed to be talking about her circumstances, and Luciana was beginning to relax when the girl to her right suddenly closed her textbook and turned to Luciana.

“It is an honor to meet you. I hope we can get get along and get to know each other as the school year goes on. I am Luna Invi– Oh, Lady Luciana?”

“Lady Luna..?”

To Luciana’s surprise, the adjacent student was none other than Lady Luna of House Invidia, the very same Luna she met yesterday.

“Oh my, Lady Luciana, to think you would be my seat neighbor as well as my dorm neighbor. It brings me quite the peace-of-mind.”

“Indeed, my thoughts exactly, Lady Luna. I was quite nervous myself this morning, so it was a relief seeing you here.”

As she returned Luna’s beaming smile, Luciana could feel the awkward uneasiness from earlier melting away.

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(Ahh… her smile is so soothing, it’s healing me… I’m a little jealous of that wonderful smile…)

Though she was average in looks, Luna’s smile more than made up for it; there was a mysterious charm to it that seemed to draw in attention. Luciana believed she had mastered the techniques Melody drilled into her to present a perfect smile, but none of those lessons held a candle to Luna’s genuine expression. Luna’s smile was a truly kind one, full of natural gentleness.

And it was because of those qualities that Luciana slipped up.

“Once again, Lady Luciana, I will be looking forward to our days to come together.”

“Yeah, I’ll be looking forward to it too!”

Luciana energetically gave Luna a thumbs up, accidentally dropping her ‘Lady Luciana’ façade.

“…”

“…”

“Um… Lady Luciana? Just now, you…”

“Ah..! Pl-please excuse my rudeness, I addressed you far too casually, Lady Luna.”

As they stared at each other with quiet nervousness, Luciana could feel her cheeks warm with embarassment, and she quickly turned her head down. Though it had been an accident, exposing her true nature to someone she just met was much more embarassing than she expected. But as she wondered what to do, she heard muffled laughter coming from her neighbor.

“Hehe… Ah, please excuse me.”

Luna suddenly apologized with a blush as she struggled to stifle her giggling. Oh how cute it was… wait, no, do not get distracted!

“Ahh, no, um, I’m really sorry, err, I must apologize for my rudeness. I shall strive to be –“

“There is no need to apologize, Lady Luciana. In fact, I would like for you to be more casual with me.”

“– more careful in the future… huh?”

“I apologize for laughing just now, but I did not mean to mock you. I just thought you looked so adorable right then, Lady Luciana, and I could not hold back my laughter… For some reason, I thought being casual like so suited you much more.”

Luna turned her head down, as though also hiding her embarassment, but continued speaking.

“And if you would not mind… May I also… act more casual with you as well?”

“What do you mean, Lady Luna?”

“I was as polite as possible yesterday because it was our first meeting, but since we will be with each other every day from today on… if it is acceptable to you, Lady Luciana, may I address you more casually? Unless..?”

Luna stole a glance with upturned eyes, a crimson shade colored her cheeks as she gave Luciana a shy smile.

After hearing Luna’s honest confession, Luciana’s smile grew wider, the biggest of the day, and —

“Of course you can! And you can just call me Luciana! There’s no need for us to be so formal with each other!”

— gave another thumbs up!

“Thank you, Luciana. You can also just call me Luna as well.”

Luna shyly gave her own thumbs up in return… So adorable, so precious..!

And so, on her first day at the Academy, Luciana made a new friend.

But as they came to an accord, a commotion arose from the rest of the class.

“Oh my, Your Highness, you seem to be in a good mood this morning.”

“Good morning to you, Lady Annemarie.”

“Hey there, good morning everyone. Looks like we’ll be classmates from now on. Hope we get along.”

“Good morning, everyone. As much as I would like to enjoy chatting with everyone, it seems our teacher shall be arriving soon. Let us take our seats for now.”

By coincidence, Crown Prince Christopher Theolas and the marquis-ranked Annemarie of House Victirium were also in this class. Seeing the two most well-known students of their age group enter the room, the rest of the class became a storm of noise that quickly settled after skillful direction from the two.

“We also have them in our class, huh… I didn’t know.”

“Fufufu, I didn’t know either, but I suppose our hands were already full dealing with other matters.”

Luciana and Luna watched the entire spectacle from their seats; Luciana could empathize with the other students in wanting to greet Prince Christopher and Lady Annemarie as she had become acquainted with them during the Spring Ball, but she held herself back after seeing the rest of the class become excited at their entrance.

But as she thought so, Luciana suddenly met Annemarie’s gaze; her eyes twinkled as though to smile at Luciana, who found herself smiling back in greeting.

While it was rather unfortunate she could not share a class with her two closest friends, Luciana was still happy knowing she did share her class with Luna and Annemarie.

“Oh, that reminds me, aren’t you acquainted with Lady Annemarie?”

“Yep! Wait… How did you know?”

Luna had asked as they watched Annemarie walk to her seat in the back, and Luciana answered, though with another question in return.

“I was also at the Spring Ball that day. Everyone who was there knows you were the star of the event, and they all saw how close you were to His Highness and his companions after what happened later on.”

“E-everyone..?”

Luciana wanted to knock herself out of embarassment; she had no idea her actions at the Spring Ball had attracted that much attention, and she had neither the relationships nor the social experience to weather that storm of attention.

“Ahh, that’s so embarassing… How am I supposed to attend class like this…”

“Fufufu, you must be exaggerating. Well, since His Highness and Lady Annemarie are also in this class, the others will probably pay more attention to them than you, so I don’t think you need to worry too much.”

“Oh that’s true. Phew, what a re–.. Wha?!”

“Luciana? What’s wrong?”

Just as Luciana began to relax once again, a sudden chill crept up her back; she could feel a powerful gaze coming at her, and when she slowly turned to look for its origin, there she saw…

“Oh, I forgot to mention, but she’s also in our class.”

“Y-yeah, I only just noticed…”

— a certain daughter of a duke, Lady Olivia of House Rankdol, seated at the other end of the row.

Her luscious blonde locks were tied in a bun, giving her a more mature look and accentuating the seductive appeal of her bare nape. Sharp, golden eyes complemented the softer angles of her face; many would call her the top beauty among the year… if not for the presence of Annemarie.

Despite hailing from a higher-ranked family, Olivia Rankdol fell short of Annemarie Victirium as an individual, coming in behind the marquis’s daughter in terms of looks, intelligence, and ability. To make matters worse, Annemarie was already Crown Prince Christopher’s most popular candidate, leading people to believe it was simply a matter of time before the engagement was finalized.

That same Lady Olivia of House Rankdol was sitting across the hall from Luciana, wearing a seemingly warm smile on her face, but…

(…Her eyes aren’t smiling at all!)

Luciana had not expected another reunion like this, and she took special care to not make eye contact with Olivia.

After all, she still remembered how Melody’s spell had reacted to Olivia; during the Spring Ball, the spell had very clearly indicated the duke’s daughter was looking upon her with hostility.

Unbeknownst to Luciana, Olivia had believed she would be the second most popular dance partner at the Spring Ball (behind Annemarie, of course), so she had not expected an upstart like Luciana to have usurped that ranking.

“Are you sure you’re all right, Luciana?”

“Um, well, nothing seems to be going on right now, so there should be nothing to worry about, I think?”

Luciana sighed inwardly as she answered Luna. In the first place, it was impossible to get along with everybody she would meet, so the best Luciana could do was being careful not to upset more people than necessary.

(But still, why would the daughter of a duke pay so much attention to me…)

As Luciana wondered to herself, the classroom’s door opened once again, and in stepped a thirty-something-year-old man. His short grey hair was styled in a fauxhawk, and his strict expression indicated he would brook no nonsense. He wore a simple robe, but the extent of his trained body was obvious underneath the clothing. Such a man strode calmly, confidently to the front of the class to address the seated students.

“I will be taking charge of this class and you lot from today onward. I am to be your instructor, Regis Bowenbert. His Majesty the King graciously conferred upon me the humble rank of viscount, but… that means little to those of you from families of higher rank. No matter. So long as you attend this Academy, you are students before you are nobles. I will give no special treatment, and I expect no complaints on this matter.”

The intimidating aura that hung about him seemed to wrap around the students, leaving them too stunned to respond.

“And your response?”

” ” “Y-yes sir!” ” “

(Oh no, this teacher seems to be really strict… How will I get through this class…)

“Very good. Then, as for the remaining class time, there will be no lessons today. Instead, you can take this time to introduce yourselves to one another, get to know each other, but before you get started on that…”

Regis dropped a tall stack of papers atop the table he stood beside.

“Today marks the start of the summer season. Academy midterms are usually given at the end of the spring season… but as you all know, there were some outstanding circumstances that interrupted that. So instead…”

Each student watched his every action with bated breath, silently hoping their new teacher would surely subvert their expectations…

…except many suddenly remembered that the Academy had delivered textbooks just last month along with certain instructions.

As though to break the pregnant pause, Regis’s mouth stretched out in a wide grin.

“…I trust you all to have faithfully followed the instructions you received last month, so we will be having our midterm exams now.”

Thus began their new life at the Royal Academy.

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