Of course, Neris was also looking at the silver-haired boy. Neris muttered briefly, so that only Diane could hear.

“That’s right. It’s the young marquis.”

The one who made Neris hate the name ‘Nel’.

The man who killed her mother to draw in the owner of the purple eyes.

The person who used Neris for a lifetime and then cruelly discarded her when she was no longer useful.

‘Why did you have to go that far?’

Neris wanted to rush over and ask him that right away. She wanted to show him her resentful heart. She wanted to make sure that he, who would now be sixteen years old, would never again feel that cruel satisfaction.

She wanted to run over right now, snatch the dagger at his waist, and stab that neck.

Even if it meant Neris would die too, it didn’t matter. She was already a body that had died once before.

But would that be enough punishment?

‘Right, I need to endure for now.’

Neris whispered to herself. Was it by chance that Nelrysion and Neris’s eyes met?

The current Nelrysion had met Neris before. It was just a few months ago by current standards.

In response to her mother’s request to borrow money for Neris’s academy entrance, the Elandria ducal family had invited the mother and daughter to their estate for dinner once. The atmosphere at that time was quite good.

At that time, Neris had simply thought something like ‘Since our relative elders are treating us to dinner, I must become an excellent adult to repay them’.

‘They must have been curious if it was true that a child with purple eyes had been born.’

They confirmed it and lent the money. They likely made plans to thoroughly use the mother and daughter from that point on.

Probably this Nelrysion would remember the innocent Neris from her childhood, who hadn’t yet known any darkness.

‘You’re the one who ruined that, Nelrysion.’

So when the time came, Neris intended to shatter that smiling face of Nelrysion’s to pieces.

Nelrysion, who had volunteered to run an errand to the female freshmen’s classroom, felt satisfied with his own clever choice.

Nelrysion Elandria lacked for nothing. He was born as the eldest son of the most prestigious family in the Empire of Vista, except for one imperial family and one grand ducal family, and he had gained the trust of Crown Prince Abelus.

In the politics department, he had been promoted multiple times to study with older students, and all the students liked the handsome and fair him.

Kind and fair.

A smile appeared on his face as he recalled the two words. Nelrysion was receiving such evaluations.

However, he had no intention of using these outstanding talents to become an excellent duke and assist the emperor. Someone as intelligent as him should have greater ambitions.

And something that would help realize those ambitions was right here in this freshman classroom.

The overwhelmed and curious faces of the freshmen were something he had been seeing for several years now. Nelrysion pretended to be indifferent as he surveyed this year’s freshmen just before reaching the center of the auditorium.

It wasn’t difficult to find her since it was a face he already knew. The sharp purple eyes and mysterious platinum blonde hair caught his eye as if he were being drawn in.

Neris Trude.

It had been of no interest to Nelrysion’s family what kind of daughter was born to a declined collateral relative who married a low-ranking knight.

However, surprisingly, that relative’s daughter possessed the precious purple eyes, and as soon as the duke confirmed this fact, he decided to invest. After all, a young lady with purple eyes would be good business capital in noble society.

Nelrysion knew that it had been over a hundred years since purple eyes were born in the family. This situation for the Elandria family was something to be concerned about.

After all, one of the reasons the Elandria family was respected was that they were descendants of the three legendary heroes, just like the imperial family.

Young Valentine had thrown a tantrum, but Nelrysion thought his parents’ decision was excellent. After all, noble society, which values dignity, attaches great importance to symbols.

So he gave kind encouragement to the mother and daughter who were thanking them for lending the tuition money, and left a good impression.

‘Hmm?’

But was that child like this?

The Neris that Nelrysion remembered was an innocent and gentle child, but the one whose eyes met his now was not like that at all. Even he couldn’t help but be surprised by eyes that were sharp like a seasoned politician’s, seeming to see right through him.

Fortunately, Neris smiled a moment later. It was a pretty and soft smile. He soothed his surprised self and stood in the center of the auditorium.

It must have been a misunderstanding. A person couldn’t change like that in just a few months. Especially a twelve-year-old child.

But his smile was already awkwardly distorted somewhere with confusion. Realizing this fact, Nelrysion quickly put on his usual kind face.

It would be good if that child turned out to be smarter than expected. Even so, she was just a young child who would soon fall for his persuasion. After all, there was too much difference in what a low-ranking knight’s daughter and a duke’s relative could enjoy.

“Everyone, in a moment, Mrs. Alix will be coming to supervise an exam to gauge your math skills. I am Nelrysion Elandria, assigned the role of explaining the exam before that.”

Even some of the children who didn’t know Nelrysion’s name gasped. He looked around at all the children once.

He had already memorized the names and faces of all the children he needed to pay attention to, but outwardly he had to appear fair to everyone. It was unknown which of them might prove useful.

“Just as the Kartak Institute to which I belong has the Swordsmanship Department, Magic Department, Politics Department, and Theology Department, the Aine Institute to which you belong has the General Department and Theology Department. You are here now because you are students belonging to the General Department.”

Each class could be taken regardless of gender, but traditionally most men chose one of swordsmanship, magic, or politics at the Kartak Institute, while most women focused on learning social skills and culture in the General Department of the Aine Institute.

The fact that each institute was divided like that, and especially that both institutes had a Theology Department, was a remnant of the old conservative tradition where students of different genders couldn’t even face each other.

Among male nobles, those who would become knights chose swordsmanship, those who would become magicians chose magic, and everyone else chose politics.

It was even simpler for women, as everyone who didn’t enter the Theology Department belonged to the General Department.

This was why the Politics Department of the Kartak Institute and the General Department of the Aine Institute were essentially similar.

“Within the General Department, there are Music, Language, and Literature majors. Since you are still first-years, you will all take basic subjects together. However, some of you may have already studied a few subjects in advance in your families. Wasting time listening to content you already know goes against our academy’s highest value of self-improvement. Therefore, depending on your test scores, some students will enter major classes with seniors from higher grades instead of with other freshmen.”

Megara Likeandros, who had already subtly become the center of the classroom, sparkled her eyes. Nelrysion understood her reaction, knowing that she had already shown talent in various fields from a young age.

Students who had been taught by famous teachers from a young age and those who could barely write would inevitably produce different results. Neris Trude probably hadn’t received a proper education either.

I hope she comes to me and tells me it’s difficult.

Then he could easily win her favor. Nelrysion found Neris strangely impressive and sought the reason in her usefulness.

Originally, he had just intended to take a look at her along with the other students in this classroom.

Since she was so pretty and seemed to have already made friends, it might be worth paying more attention to her.

***

The results of the math skills assessment test were posted near the entrance of the central auditorium before the first common social class for first-years began.

The students couldn’t close their mouths as they saw the results, which bluntly displayed names, families, and graded scores according to rank.

The eyes of the children who were checking their grades with expectation or fear widened. Short children quickly checked their own grades and then hopped up and down trying to peek at other children’s grades.

Although students from the Kartak Institute and Aine Institute took the test separately for administrative convenience, the content of the test was exactly the same. Therefore, the skills of all first-years, about thirty in total, were disclosed there.

The male students who visited the central auditorium located in the center of Aine Institute to hear the orientation for the common social class were chattering with hurt pride.

“Where is the Trude family from?”

“Neris Trude? I’ve never heard that name before.”

Neris’s name was written in the spot for the overall first place and only perfect score among first-years, regardless of gender.

Neris was standing at the back of the group of children with a bleak look in her eyes, not coming forward. Of course, among the boys with still chubby cheeks were some who had bullied her.

Some of them continued to enjoy humiliating Neris in front of the entire school as a fun game, even when the rest of the students had stepped back from overt bullying as they grew older.

The boys who particularly bullied Neris were usually one of two types. Either they wanted to bully someone because their grades weren’t good at Kartak Institute, or they thought being mean to others was a way to show off in front of girls they liked.

The names of the former were, not surprisingly, already written in the lower ranks.

Neris was the type to receive high scores without trying, so she had never been interested in others’ rankings before. Now she saw that some of the most annoying boys couldn’t even read properly at this point, as their grades were terrible.

It was fortunate that she wouldn’t need to see their faces in classes where advancement was possible.

“Did you know you’re first place? That’s amazing.”

A few quiet girls came up to Neris and spoke to her. Neris hesitated to answer.

When she was being severely ostracized, the children criticized her no matter what she said, so Neris still didn’t know how to respond to such comments.

“…I was lucky.”

“It seems like you studied really hard before coming here? By the way, where is the Trude family from? Is it the Trude family from Rochester?”

“Rochester is the Truss family. I’m Trude. My father isn’t a lord, so we’re not from anywhere in particular.”

The children nearby took a stance to better hear Neris’s voice, saying “Wow.” This was the first time such a thing had happened, so Neris was a bit flustered. Just then, the children gathered around suddenly parted.

The girls who had been talking to Neris quickly left their spots upon seeing Megara appear through the gap. Megara approached with graceful steps and said,

“You’re amazing. It seems you were educated by a good teacher.”

“Not particularly.”

The black-haired girl next to Megara made an upset expression. Neris was familiar with such expressions from that girl, Rhiannon Berta.

Rhiannon always made such expressions even if Neris just breathed.

As if to say, how dare you breathe the air in front of me with your status?

As if it didn’t suit her status for someone like her to impudently breathe well, to impudently receive good grades, to impudently raise her head and look at her.

Sure enough, Rhiannon immediately criticized Neris in a sharp voice.

“You’re really funny.”

“What’s funny?”

Neris asked, finding it amusing that even at this age, Rhiannon was already following Megara around.

This was easier to respond to than the girls from earlier whose desired answers were unclear. She knew the cause of the reaction the other person was showing.

There was only one reason why Rhiannon said bad things to Neris.

‘Because others agree when you say such things’.

When she was younger, she didn’t know that. So she tried hard to become a person who wasn’t ‘funny’.

But what was the point of trying to resolve the cause of being judged as having a strange personality, even if she granted all of others’ requests and always conversed with a smiling face? Neris’s efforts had been in vain.

But Rhiannon was still just a young child, and currently, only Megara would actively agree with her words.

Rhiannon, irritated by Neris’s calm question, retorted recklessly.

“You did well on the test, didn’t you? There’s no way you could do that without learning from a good teacher. Why are you lying? Are you trying to hide your teacher from others?”