Volume 3 Chapter 1 Fun Elementary School
It was spring.
The entrance ceremony for elementary school was simpler than I thought it would be.
I heard that there would be aristocratic children from all over the Empire attending.
With that in mind, I thought it’d be a huge ceremony in a building built to hold tens of thousands of people, but in reality they divided us into ranks and held the ceremonies separately.
—So in conclusion, it was really plain.
The first school building I was sent to was one built specifically for the most prestigious of children that gathered here.
Only if you were able to pay a huge amount of donations would you be able to get such treatment.
“This universe revolves around money.”
The person who reacted to my muttering was another man that probably made a large donation as well.
It was Kurt, the heir to the Baron Exner house.
“Liam, they’ll get angry at you if you’re not quiet.”
“You need to relax a little.”
Kurt, who trained together with me at the Viscount Razel house, was my cla.s.smate because we were the same age.
This person was seriously aiming to become an evil lord, constantly thinking about new ways to squeeze out everything he could from his people.
He was also a license holder for the major swordsmanship style of the Arend school.
His face was nice, and he was tall.
In the years that I haven’t seen him, he seems to have matured a bit.
On the outside he looks like a good and serious youth, but on the inside he’s an aspiring villain– he’s a funny person.
I looked around at the surroundings,
“Even so, the people around here sure look self-important.”
Just by looking around, you’d be able to tell that they were all rich.
Kurt said it was only natural,
“Anyone who’s enrolled into the first school building has to be that way. This is a place that only a select few will ever be allowed to enter.”
Well, I was a villain who forced my way here with the power of money though.
What, you’ve got a problem with that? That’s just how it is.
As long as you have money in this universe, you can handle most things.
Looking around, there was one girl in particular that caught my eye.
“Woah, it’s an actual blonde ringlet.”
There was a girl who had her long blonde hair curled into ringlets.
Her back was straight, and she really gave off the impression of a refined n.o.ble girl.
She had blue, almond-shaped eyes.
Her face was small, her lips were fresh and vibrant, and her expression really portrayed how strong of a spirit she had.
Her chest was big for her age, leaving much expectations for how she’d mature in the future.
Her waist was tight, and her skin looked nice.
She was plump in all the right places.
“That’s a Duke’s daughter.”
“A Duke’s?”
“She’s a celebrity, you didn’t know? Rosetta Cerei Claudia, she’s a famous female aristocrat, but I don’t know much more than that.”
There were many n.o.bles in this universe.
In the case of the Empire, Duke houses were branches of the royal family, but even then there was an exorbitant amount of them.
It was impossible for me to remember all of them– I could only name a few.
“Claudia… I know that name.”
“She comes from a matriarchal house, and apparently she’s their only daughter.”
“Their only daughter?”
It’s dangerous to only have one child in this universe.
Why?
Because if that child dies, then that’s the end of your bloodline.
Of course, the parents only need to make another child in that case, but even then, it’s still dangerous to only have one successor.
“Then, what about that person over there? He looks more prideful than anyone here.”
I shifted my gaze over to a man that had long straight blue hair.
He was a man who looked like the very definition of what a n.o.bleman should look like.
Apparently, his name was Wallace- the Empire’s one hundred and twentieth prince.
–Contrary to Rosetta’s case, his family had too many children instead.
What the h.e.l.l is the one hundred and twentieth?
The duke only had one daughter while the prince was one out of over a hundred.
Both seemed like trouble.
Well it didn’t really matter to me, so I wasn’t going to say anything to them.
Though, there sure were a lot of people with nice faces here.I could already see the effects of the large amount of donations I sent.
My only gripe is that we weren’t allowed to bring any servants from our homes.
I was missing Amagi and was starting to feel homesick.
◇ ◇ ◇
The second building of the elementary school.
This was the so-called building where the students that received ‘preferential treatment’ were sent.
It was a place isolated from the other school buildings.
A welcome party for the new students was held at the dormitory near the building.
However–
“There, dance more!”
“Alcohol, bring out more alcohol!”
“Gyahahaha!”
–prost.i.tutes were called over to put on dance shows, and the people there were being taken care of by the servants brought from their home territories.
Luxurious dishes and alcohol was lined up on a large table.
The students that were already enrolled there were eating and drinking with the new arrivals while making a ton of noise.
At the center of it all was a third year student– [Derrick Sera Berkley].
He had brown hair and his skin had an unhealthy tone to it.
His body was on the skinny side.
Only his stomach bulged out unnaturally.
He was currently drowning himself in alcohol,
“Hey first years! If you follow me, I’ll make sure that things are always this great for you!”
Derrick was the same as Liam. He had already succeeded as the head of his house as well.
He was the baron of a frontier territory.
However, he was born into a place that didn’t have any problems financially at all.
As to why, it’s because he was part of the Berkley house.
He was a student that held the same position as Liam, but contrary to him, who was called ‘The Pirate Hunter’, he had the opposing moniker of ‘The Pirate n.o.ble.’
“Derrick, you’re the best!”
“I’ll follow you for life!”
“Cheers for Derrick!”
When the first year students answered him with cheers, Derrick went and drank as well,
“Nevertheless, the poor people sure are pathetic. They aren’t allowed to come to the second building and are forced to seriously study here.”
Only idiots actually studied at school.
In the second school building, students like Derrick, who received preferential treatment from their large donations were pushed there.
They were nuisances that brought trouble and disrupted the education of other students.
This was one of the problems the Empire had yet to solve.
One of Derrick’s underlings brought a report on the freshmen.
“Derrick, it looks like Liam is entering the school this year.”
“Oh… who?”
“It’s Liam, don’t you know?”
Derrick, who was irritated by the words of his underling, grabbed a bottle of liquor and swung down on the boy’s head.
The bottle shattered, sending alcohol and blood flying everywhere.
“The h.e.l.l, who do you think you’re taking that tone with?! Hey, beat this guy down. He’s the target of the next game.”
The bullying was referred to as a game.
The targeted student clung to Derrick’s leg while crying.
“I’m sorry! Please forgive me Derrick! It was an accident!”
“Shut up!”
After kicking the student, Derrick took a deep breath and sat down on a sofa.
The students had frozen, and surroundings had immediately went silent.
Derrick was frustrated as the servants began to clean up the broken bottle.
“The mood was ruined. Hey, somebody tell me about this Liam person.”
“O-of course!”
With the music still going on in the background, only the students who were giving the explanation were speaking.
“Liam of the Banfield Count house. He’s the man who slaughtered Goaz and multiple other famous pirates, gaining enough fame and infamy to earn the moniker of, ‘The Pirate Hunter.’”
Derrick raised an eyebrow at this.
“‘The Pirate Hunter’? Is that so? So he’s my enemy then?”
For Derrick, who was called ‘The Pirate n.o.ble’, Liam, who built his fame on pirate hunting could only be considered his enemy.
The other students tried to uplift Derrick’s mood.
“N-no way! There’s no way he could ever stand a chance against you, Derrick.”
Derrick heard this comment and laughed,
“That’s right! No n.o.ble from the sticks could ever defeat me.”
Derrick remembered something at that moment,
“Oh yeah… apparently ‘his highness’ is enrolling this year.”
“Yes! His Highness Wallace entered!”
Derrick grinned.
(It’d be amusing to have that man kneel before me.)
Derrick, who had a disrespectful view of the royal family, thought that the freshmen this year would be a lot of fun to mess with.
◇ ◇ ◇
A cla.s.sroom in the first school building.
The entrance ceremony was over and now we were attending homeroom.
“I’m John, and I’ll be you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds’ teacher from today onwards! Call me Professor John!”
Rather than being called ‘Professor John’, it’d be more fitting to call the man standing on the platform a ‘Demon Instructor’.
Wasn’t this teacher clearly unsuitable for those given preferential treatment?
That’s what I was thinking when–
“Hey, you over there!”
“Are you referring to me?”
The blue haired prince, Wallace stood up.
Looking at him closely, I could see that was actually wearing earrings.
“What’s with those accessories you have on your ears?”
“Oh, these? I bought them in the bity before the entrance ceremony.”
The prince responded as if he were looking down on the professor.
The head maid told me to be wary of him– apparently he was a problem child.
“Wallace, you’re a student, and this is a place where you’re supposed to learn the basics of being an aristocrat. Did you seriously think we’d allow such accessories?”
“Huh?”
His highness started looking around– no one was wearing anything even remotely resembling piercings, though there were people that were dressed quite weirdly.
There were even people like Tom, a male student that had a tornado hairstyle that made you question his sanity.
I felt irritated just looking at him.
However, Professor John didn’t even acknowledge it.
—is this the power of money at work?
The head maid told me that because the prince was the one hundred and twentieth child, he didn’t actually have much value.
Honestly, why were there so many princes and princesses?
There was just too many of them to actually care for them all.
“Wallace, give me one hundred push-ups.”
“W-wait! It’s just an accessory! And I’m–”
“I know. You’re an imperial prince, but you should understand that there’s a certain behaviour expected of the royal family.”
Army-style education?
Well, I wasn’t going to say anything about it.
He didn’t even say anything after seeing Tom’s hairstyle.
—Afterall, money talks.
“This is so wrong!”
Professor John was cold to Wallace, who complained while doing push-ups.
“You’re the one in the wrong. What the h.e.l.l did you think elementary school was? Now then, let’s continue homeroom. Let me say this first, this isn’t your home. You’ll be living in the shared dormitories, and you’ll have to take care of yourselves.”
Even though the surroundings didn’t seem to happy about this, this was a universe with fully automatic washing machines.
They performed on levels incomparable to my previous life. You just had to put your laundry in, then after washing them, it’d dry and iron them too.
After you put them in, you were done.
In such a situation, even if they told us that we had to do everything ourselves, it wasn’t really that tough at all.
“You’re not here to be spoiled. You’re here to become n.o.bles worthy of carrying the next generation of the Empire.”
There was no reason to become respectable n.o.bles at this time.
Was elementary school really supposed to be something like this?
“Here in homeroom, we’ll teach you basic life skills. The pampered life habits you’ve grown so far won’t be tolerated. Be prepared.”
Let’s have a great… elementary school life?
It might be a bit difficult for the people here.
“First of all–”
However, I was surprised after hearing Professor John’s lecture.
It was completely different from the elementary school life I thought I was going to have.
◇ ◇ ◇
Wallace Noah Albalate was an imperial prince.
The thing is, he was only one of hundreds of princes.
Wallace, who had returned to the dormitory, felt his entire body ache in pain as he fell into his bed.
“All of them, always treating me like a fool.”
Unlike other princes who received many benefits and preferential treatment, there was no such backing for Wallace.
It’d be possible if his mother was a high-n.o.ble, or if his right to inherit the throne was in the single-digits.
Up to the thirty-seventh in line, it’d still be possible to have backing.
However, the hundreds who came after that were treated as nothing but extras.
Wallace himself didn’t really see himself as much of a prince.
After all, he had only met his father, the Emperor, only a few times.
He had spent his life growing up in the inner palace, treated as just another one out of hundreds.
“Nevertheless, elementary school seems to be a harsher place than I expected.”
Wallace was well educated, but the elementary school was stricter than what he was used to.
It’s been a few days since the entrance ceremony.
Professor John seemed to have his eye on Wallace, and seemed to get angry with almost anything he did.
“It’s hard having to wake up at five everyday.”
And they had to get up and prepare themselves for morning training by seven.
Their schedules were packed from morning to night, so he always came back as a mess.
Above all else, martial arts training in particular was brutal.
He had studied the basics of imperial martial arts, but the contents of the lessons were tough for Wallace, a person who had studied the Arend swordstyle.
“…can I really achieve my goals in such an environment?”
Wallace had a dream.
In that dream he was independent and free.
For that purpose–
“If I don’t succeed here, it’ll never happen. I’m already here, so I’ll make sure to excel!”
—he was going to pick-up girls.
It wasn’t a joke, Wallace seriously wanted to pick-up girls.
That’s because doing so would no doubt bring him closer to his dream.