Chapter 1 - Foreign princess in the academy dormitory

After my squad had cleaned up my room and the adjacent wing that was to be for my attendants, I gathered them and said, "we will be here for a while. Under no circumstances do I want you to provoke the nobles or attendants of this Kingdom. Of course, if they get in the way of my research, you need not show mercy. However, I have been told to gather evidence and prioritise capture over execution. I will entreat you to do the same."

""""Yes, Master!!""""

"Additionally, while we are here, it would not be wise to call me 'Master'. Even if we can wave it away by declaring that it is the custom of a different nation, it would be best to adhere to their noble mores as much as we can. You will have to address me as 'My Lady' or 'Princess'. It would be best for you all to standardise it as well."

Without a beat, though, they all replied:

""""As you wish, Princess!""""

I sighed and held my forehead. These children... although I guess it technically wasn't even a problem. After all, it was certainly true that even in terms of race, I was their princess.

"Karan, Cora, Marcta, Vier. I want the four of you to set up a means of earning money in the Academy city. If you wish, you may choose to do adventurer or mercenary work, but I leave it up to you. The rest of you will be my attendants and escorts. I have selected you based on the need for you to receive more experience operating with less direction. Karan and Cora lead you usually, and Vier and Marcta have had experience working for an extended period of time without direction from me or the leaders. The rest of you have not. I would like for all of you to utilise the skills you have learned from Vis and Sel, and work proactively as my attendants and escorts."

""""By your command, Princess!""""

"Excellent. The four of you, leave immediately. From the rest of you, I will select my day-to-day retinue. The other two will set up an information network while I attend classes and interact with nobility."

"Wist and Fil, you two will be in charge of the information network. Dresha and Bistry, you two will be my attendants. Nilor and Arctos, you will be my escorts. All of you, read through the handbook on Academy practices, norms, and expectations. I have already read it while you were cleaning up."

With that, our delegation was decided. The four were guided by Vord out of the dormitory, while Wist and Fil proceeded to make plans for carrying out their duties. Dresha and Bistry also left to purchase the necessary amenities for a room, such as sheets, clothes, tea, food.

The college dormitories were located in the Academy city. The city was laid out in rough concentric circles. In the middle of the city was the main building of the Academy. Attached to the sparkling ivory building were three research institutes. Beyond the gates of the Academy was a layer of buildings that served as dormitories and faculty and scholar living quarters. Past those gates sprawled the rest of the Academy city, with stores, restaurants, inns, and guilds.

I sat in the room with Nilor and Arctos standing guard, reading through the first-year materials. According to this manual, we would be sorted into classes randomly. Since the number of students were always low, as the number of nobles across the continent were not that many, there were also few classes. Usually, there would be 4-5 classes a year, with at most ten students in each class. With each student's entourage, there would be close to fifty people in each classroom.

Classes were familiar, though. We had a common curriculum in our first year, centred on economics, politics, history, and geography. Economics would cover trade routes, supply chains, and the kinds of goods and services traded within Avena and with neighbouring continents. Politics would cover the governance structure and methods of Avena, along with a history of political concessions, treaties, and deals made among nobles of the past, as well as relations with other nations and continents. History would cover the history of Avena, its founding, wars, unification, and legends. It also included a roster of the current heads of noble houses and the royal family. Geography would cover the physical landscape of Avena, its material resources, the [Dungeon] on the continent, and human demographics and the locations of villages, towns, cities, and fiefs.

I read through the study materials, easily memorising most of the information. By and large, it wasn't difficult information. The most difficult part was remembering the names and dates within both the politics and history courses. Furthermore, with a map to aid visualisation, the geography course material became very simple. I did not want to spend my time each day studying to keep up in class. I would much prefer to be looking through archives to find the [Time] runes so that I could construct a runic array to revive Rea. After all, that was the whole reason I had come here.

Written courses were not our only classes. We also had practical classes. We had three practical courses - Enchantment, Subjugation, and Tactics. Enchantment was a class that taught nobles to enchant protective items to secure their homes and fiefs. Subjugation was a class that taught nobles about various monsters and how to subjugate them. Tactics was more like a sports cum military strategy class. It was held as an inter-class activity, with variations of the game being played. Some were like capture-the-flag, retrieving a designated item and protecting it from the opponents, with the goal to acquire and retain both yours and your opponent's items for ten minutes. Others were played as a battle - with both teams facing off in formation and fighting to incapacitate each other.

I read through all the material that we were given for the theoretical portions of the class, understanding them quickly. It seemed that my comprehension and memorisation speed had really increased since I had come to this world. Was this a result of the [WIS] stat? Or was it due to my [Parallel Minds] skill? Whatever the case, while I certainly wasn't stupid back on Earth, I had gotten really smart in comparison now.

My Enchantment class could be completed easily with the use of my [Runic Manipulation]. After all, I had [Equipment Reinforcement], which utilised the principles of [Enchantment], and I had already acquired the related runes. Instead of directly using [Equipment Reinforcement] or [Enchantment] as a skill, I could directly apply [Runic Manipulation] to enchant items with custom enchantments. It seemed that this was the only class in which runes were even used at all. No matter whether the students had the [Enchantment] skill or not, we were expected to learn the runes to enchant the items. However, it was clearly a very limited set of runes, constructing a very simple and limited runic array. We were to carve or write the runes on the items, supplying mana to keep them activated and recharging them whenever they ran out.

In terms of subjugation, I already had experience fighting all kinds of monsters. However, it was interesting to see the kinds of demonised plants and beasts that I had not seen before. Their characteristics were listed, and it was also described how to subjugate them safely. I almost laughed at the last part. Safe subjugation was not a real thing. It was merely a means of increasing the odds of success for the faint-of-heart. Against a monster of equal or higher rank, it was never safe.

The most annoying class would probably be Tactics. The thought of having to cooperate with a bunch of nobles... didn't sound fun. I wondered if they would be arrogant and condescending, or spiteful and malicious. The first would be annoying and I wouldn't be able to work properly with them, but the second was both better and worse. It was worse in that I would have to watch my back at all times, but better in that if it ever got to a point where I had to retaliate, I knew that I could retaliate freely. After all, I had manoeuvred the Archdean into putting me under heavy and constant scrutiny.

In the meantime, Bistry and Dresha had returned. They began making a pot of tea and served it to me.

Sipping my tea, I instructed Bistry and Dresha to read the information booklet on the Academy. Once they had finished, I spoke to all four of them.

"Classes will begin in three days. Until then, I want you all to work with Fil and Wist to find out which students will be here this year and their related noble houses. I also want you to remember that you are all kin to the First Princess of the Empire of Daceli. This means that while you do not have land, all of you are considered royal relatives. Ensure that it shows in your expressions, actions, and words. The last thing I want is for some upstart to consider all of you simply lowly attendants and escorts and treat you as such, thinking that you all are easy targets. I cannot guarantee that this Academy will remain standing if someone attempts to hurt any one of you."

"I also want all of you to study the materials for my first year courses. All of you will accompany me to classes and I want you all to be prepared so you do not become distracted during the class. Only attendants can sit in on written courses while escorts will be in an adjacent room, and only escorts can participate in practical classes while attendants will be in a separate room. During this time, I want you all to gather as much information as possible from the other escorts and attendants. The information may ultimately prove useless, but I wish to be kept updated. I do not want to be blindsided by any nonsense that someone might be planning. Certainly, if they're planning something their escorts and attendants will not reveal it in front of you, but there are ways to recognise who is hiding something. These are skills that you must polish."

"Finally, you should by now understand what is expected of escorts and attendants. I trust all of you have studied well under Vis and Sel? In both private and public, I will need you to perform those duties to the best of your abilities. I will act the part of a princess used to receiving this kind of protection and attention. Revealing your strength has no real consequences other than others being aware that I have a strong retinue, which is expected of a royal guard. However, we should attempt to conceal as much of my combat abilities for as long as possible. I have revealed my strength to the Archdean, who will now put me under heavy surveillance, which is desirable. However, I would prefer to remain hidden to potential malicious actors, who will be more cautious and indirect if they know exactly how strong I am. Having them be careless and condescending will make it much easier for us to counter their plots. Are we all understood?"

"""""Yes, Princess!""""

Over the next two days, my entourage brought me information on the students attending the Academy that year. There were 35 first-years, 28 second-years, and 37 third-years. I also connected their names to their family names and determined which nobles and royals would be present here. In these two days, more and more people began filling into the dormitories. Although it was called a dormitory, it was more like a mansion with various large rooms, almost like an upscaled sorority house. Each room had an attached bathroom, and there was a large landing area at the bottom of the stairs. The dormitory staff lived on the first floor, and the students lived on the second floor along with their attendants. The first floor also had a reading room, a small library, and a kitchen.

This dormitory was made to house only female nobles and their entourage, a custom of the Kingdom. Unmarried noble men and women were to be housed separately at the Academy, and marriage was an extremely important part of the rituals and customs of the Kingdom. Nobles could only marry nobles, which would create connections between noble houses. As such things could affect the entire political network of the Kingdom, it was taken extremely seriously. Therefore, relationships between unmarried male and female nobles were kept to the most superficial level, and of course, they could not live together.

I spent my time mostly in the library, looking to see if I could find any leads on [Time] runes, but it was mostly filled with study material of all years, as well as novels and biographies. Boring. However, it would probably be a good idea to read up early on second and third year material, although now was not the time.

Finally, at the end of the third day, the dormitory head called all the students togethe