CHAPTER 3: Royal Academy (Part 2)

Sure enough, mine and Celia's predictions as to how the class would react were not wrong.

"Well, it seems he has the right level of respect, at least."

"Yeah, he can speak as adequately as a servant, at least."

"So orphans can talk like that..."

At the very least, my speech hadn't brought about any dissatisfaction. That being said, no one applauded me, either — they spoke as though they were observing a rare animal, clearly looking down on me.

Though I might be a student of the Royal Academy from today onwards, I still had been an orphan until recently, and my existence is far beneath them for now, but I can't help but feel happy to think about what will be their expressions in the future when they will come to know about my true identity as a ****, but it has to wait. First I have to meet my grandparents and restore the image of my parents in the eyes of the citizens of that kingdom.

...Hm? Just as I was looking around the class I spotted a familiar face among the students staring at me.

Seated next to a window at the back of the classroom was someone with long, lavender hair that was tied back with a barrette. Beside her sat a cute girl with blonde ringlets. The lavender-haired girl — Christina Beltrum — glared at me before turning her nose away with a huff.

The thought had passed through the mind of the previous host of this body in the audience hall too: from the outside, she seemed to hate, but that's not true, her character is that of a young girl who behaves indifferent towards everything on the outside, but from the inside, she is different from other she wants to talk to me and thank me for saving her sister and apologize for her previous behavior, but can't do due to as her status as the princess doesn't allow it.

The same is true with her sister, Flora, who wants to thank me for saving her life, but can't due to most of the time being followed by her guards and other kids. And right now I can see the concern in both of their eyes, must be because of my new eyes, and it is only due to them that I am able to capture all these small details otherwise I wouldn't have been able to register, even a quarter of what I am registering right now.

Well, it's probably best not to get involved for now...

"Alright. From today onwards, Rio is one of our classmates. He may be unfamiliar with many things, so please help him out when he needs it. I hope you all get along well," Celia said in a bright voice, breaking the heavy atmosphere in the room, but there was no response from the students. Celia gave a small sigh.

"...Okay Rio, why don't you sit in one of the empty seats? That'll be your assigned seat from now on. I would recommend the one at the very front." It would be easier for Celia to keep an eye on me there.

"Understood." I moved to the open deck at the front of the classroom and lowered myself into the seat.

"That's all the announcements for today, so let's dive straight into the lesson."

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At the Royal Academy of Beltrum, the teachers changed with every subject, and the homeroom teacher wasn't necessarily the teacher for all of the subjects. Fortunately, my first lesson at the Royal Academy was an arithmetic class taught by Celia.

Just like what happened in the novel, when the class started Celia announced that today she will be giving us some questions on four basic operations and then some more advanced problems.

While all of the kids were doing that, one of the kids noticed me, just sitting there doing nothing. So, being the prick he is, he complained to Celia about it, only to get the reply that due to me being the orphan I don't know how to write. Knowing this except for Flora, Christina, and Roanna as they have seen my appearance as an orphan in the slums while the latter two with Celia were looking for the former, except them every student looked at me like I killed their puppy, and internally I was thinking, man I know I am handsome but I am only interested in girls, for which I earned a sweet giggle from Tifa.

After Celia calmed down the class, everyone returned to their work, and I started training my Occlumency skills.

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After the first class was over, it was break time. Celia left the classroom to head to her next class, leaving the students behind.

A strange atmosphere then descended upon the classroom, and countless gazes fell upon the empty space that surrounded me, who sat by himself at the front of the room.

...Whisper whisper whisper…

"Seems like he can't do arithmetic. He was just listening to it the whole time."

"Ah, it must be because he didn't take the entrance examination to get in."

"He's an orphan after all. An orphan. There's no way he's had a proper education... I bet he can't even read the characters."

"Wow, why did they let someone like that into the school?"

Some of them were intrigued — or amused — by the sight of an orphan they normally wouldn't come into contact with, as the students were speaking quietly to each other as they stared at me from afar.

I could hear them giggling to themselves. Well... they'll get bored eventually. While they were doing this I was collecting information about them from the communication and whispers between them, while also talking with Tifa in my mind from time to time.

Just as I was minding my own business, I heard a girl's voice addressing me and as I turned towards the direction where the voice came from, I saw Roanna standing there. Then I remember this event, and just as I thought, after a reply, Roanna said the same lines as in the novel about how I am not worthy of being in this school, which is basically true as I don't even know how to read and write right now.

Then just as Roanna was going to continue, the second-generation young master, who is not even valued by his own father, called Alphonse came and spouted words that I muted as they were filled with a strong sense of prejudice.

And unlike the novel, I don't even try to say anything and let him keep spouting. After some time, even Roanna, a nobility like him, was disgusted and ordered him to leave, and thankfully he did just that, otherwise my ears were going to rote from hearing his nonsense.

After Alphonse leave, Roanna continued our previous talk and after indirectly saying that she came here on the behalf of Princess Christina, she indirectly suggested to me that if I want to live a quiet life in this Academy then I need to show some effort, and leave behind good results in the examinations at the end of every school semester. Saying this she left.

After all this time passed by, I continued training my Occlumency skills, while keeping an eye on what was going around me, and just like that the first day of the school ended just like that, and students packed their things and left.

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