For other freshmen, it would have been startling, but for Neris, who had already experienced life and death, it was merely annoying. At least there was no killing intent felt.

She looked up at Cledwin with emotionless purple eyes. Interest soon appeared in Cledwin’s eyes.

“Purple eyes. Are you a bastard of the Elandria family?”

As the Grand Duke of Maindlant, he would know about the purple eyes of the Elandria family. Neris smiled coldly.

“Me, siblings with Nelrysion?”

“Are you going to claim otherwise?”

As with Ren before, she wanted to decline such misunderstandings.

She never wanted to be Nelrysion’s little sister again.

“Absolutely not.”

Even so, it seemed he didn’t know the news that a daughter from a collateral branch had given birth to a child with purple eyes. Well, even the Elandria family had only recently learned of her existence.

Suddenly, she felt that this argument was meaningless. Neris stared at Cledwin and spoke in a commanding tone.

“Put this away, Cledwin Maindlant.”

Originally, students were prohibited from attacking each other. Since students from hostile families could meet in the same class, many parents would insist on not sending their children to the academy without such a rule.

But to pull out a sword just to ask for a name? While Neris wasn’t surprised, it could have left emotional scars on other freshmen.

The next moment, the black blade returned to the scabbard at Cledwin’s waist. Neris slowly stood up.

Standing straight before the boy a few years older than her, Neris smoothed her skirt. Watching her deft hand movements, Cledwin smiled.

It was still that smile that barely lifted the corners of his mouth, as if mocking the viewer.

“So you did know who I am. Now tell me your name too. That would be fair.”

“No. I know your name because I’m clever, so you should figure out my name on your own.”

Cledwin’s eyes narrowed slightly at Neris’s provocative answer. He thought for a moment, then gestured to her.

“Go on.”

“Why, can’t you figure it out?”

“Next time we meet, I’ll call you by your name.”

His voice held both inexplicable confidence and certainty at the same time. Neris left without any haste.

It was an unnecessary provocation. She knew that too.

It wouldn’t be wise to get on the bad side of a person in power right now, but somehow, looking into his eyes stirred up childish emotions.

The cold face that had filled her vision under the bright blue summer sky lingered in Neris’s mind for a long time.

***

In one corner of the vast campus of Kartak Circle, near the stone wall separating Aine Circle and Kartak Circle, stood the ancient Caesar Building, hinting at the academy’s initial scale.

Built in the frugal style of Princess Catherine’s era, this building had undergone several renovations and expansions over the long years but still held high historical value.

Neris went up to the second floor, called C-level in academy terms, without even glancing at the artifacts, tapestries, or speeches left by graduates who had risen to high positions decorating the lobby.

The small and delicate Neris stood out among the tall male students filling the corridor.

“Are they holding first-year basic magic classes here? I haven’t heard about that.”

“Hey, little one, this is Kartak Circle. Want me to take you back if you’re lost?”

Confused voices of senior students poured out around her, but Neris ignored them.

“Which family is she from?”

The boys whispered to each other, trying to find out.

Even before their official debut in society, children from good families usually interacted from a young age. But none of those present had ever seen this blonde child before.

It was strange. Platinum blonde hair with rare purple eyes, an upright posture walking without a single finger out of place, and an intelligent gaze filled with pride.

Though her clothes were shabby, she was undoubtedly the offspring of a great noble family. If so, shouldn’t one of them be related to her?

“Oh.”

Just then, someone recognized her.

The surrounding boys flinched at his peculiar pink hair. Ren Feyel from the Theology Department was originally quite popular as the younger brother of the previous Pope, but now he was like a kite with a broken string.

Theology Department? Related to Ren? Quick calculations and guesses flashed through the senior students’ minds.

However, showing no concern for such movements, Ren approached Neris and spoke to her.

“You, why are you here?”

Neris turned around at the sound of Ren’s voice. Seeing her quietly sunken eyes, he raised an eyebrow.

“Lost again?”

Neris, who hadn’t expected to run into him again, made an annoyed face.

“I’ve never been lost.”

“You said you were lost before.”

“I didn’t say I was lost. I said I went in by chance.”

“That’s the same thing.”

“It’s completely different. If I were lost, I’d be wandering unable to reach my destination, but that was a shortcut to arrive at my destination.”

Ren made an exasperated expression.

“Is this a shortcut too?”

“I have class here. Berlene 3.”

“Already?”

Berlene was not a mandatory foreign language but an elective, so few students took advanced-level classes. That’s why students from various years and majors gathered to take it together.

Ren had lived in the Papal State as a child and interacted with ambassadors from various countries, so he was interested in relatively unusual languages. But it was surprising for a freshman to take such a class.

“What class are you here for, senior?”

“Berlene 3.”

Neris, who hadn’t expected to take the same course, raised an eyebrow, unsure if Ren was joking or telling the truth.

However, Ren who said this seemed somewhat pleased. If it were a joke, he would have just laughed it off, so it must be true.

No one had ever been happy to find out they were taking the same class as her before. Everyone else was too busy grumbling about their bad luck.

Neris felt somewhat strange and walked stiffly. Ren walked beside her casually and asked.

“Freshmen took the exam, right? How were your results?”

“I did as well as I could.”

“Seems you did quite well. I guess that’s why you’re taking an elective foreign language course.”

“Why are you taking Berlene, senior? It’s not a subject Theology students often choose.”

“Is there anything you don’t know?”

Ren blinked his round eyes. Neris didn’t answer.

As they approached Room 4 on C-level where the class would be held, Ren grumbled when Neris didn’t respond.

“My uncle is in Berlene. So I originally knew a bit, now I want to learn properly. It’d be good to speak well if I visit occasionally.”

The uncle of the previous Pope and Ren’s brother was the person who, in Neris’s previous life, had been holding hands with Pope Omnitus III and took the fall for everything when the Pope’s corruption was revealed, dying as a scapegoat.

But there wasn’t much to feel sorry for. He deserved to die anyway. As it was an incident Neris herself had tripped up on when drawing the Elandria family to Pope Omnitus III’s side, she remembered well what kind of personality Ren’s uncle had.

In any sense, that man was unlikely to help Ren. It would be fortunate if he didn’t immediately kill the last survivor of the Feyel family, seeing it as an opportunity to dispose of him. Yet he was thinking of relying on him.

Neris inwardly sighed. Although it wasn’t her business what happened to Ren, she didn’t want to do Pope Omnitus III any favors.

“Are you close with your uncle?”

“Not really.”

“I thought so.”

“Are you picking a fight?”

Ren’s pretty face turned vicious.

Neris looked at his face with sharp eyes. He, who was about to get angry as per his temperament, unknowingly closed his mouth and then flinched at his own action. He felt ashamed that he had been shaken by just a child’s gaze.

“If your uncle cared, you wouldn’t be in this situation. I don’t know much about the circumstances when your brother, Takitus VI, returned to God’s embrace, but I know there must have been considerable confusion. If he was close to me, he would have sent me somewhere safe long ago.”

Ren’s face, which had been preparing to snap back not to meddle until halfway through, turned pale.

Neris’s point was correct. If there was even a little concern for his nephew, or even out of common sense to be mindful of public criticism, the uncle should have clearly protected Ren more than now.

The reason for leaving his nephew alone like this now was probably to curry favor with Omnitus III.

Ren never thought he would be welcomed by his uncle just because he was going to Berlene. He was just young and struggling, and wanted to believe there was somewhere he could finally lean on.

Ren fell silent, lost in thought, while Neris nonchalantly entered the classroom.

Inside the classroom were about seven or eight students, all of whom seemed to be upperclassmen at first glance, but there was one person who was Neris’s age.

Megara was chatting amicably with several upperclassmen. She was as natural as the youngest daughter among family members who adored her.

With her easy aegyo and unguarded smile, and the fact that she was already taking classes with upperclassmen at such a young age, she had already left a good impression on her fellow students. She turned to look at Neris, who had just entered, and smiled like an angel.

“Neris, you’re taking this class too? I didn’t know.”

As if you didn’t. Neris knew that Megara didn’t yet have the skills to take this class.

In the first place, other freshmen were supposed to be in mandatory foreign language classes now. Either the common Rund language or Diamish, whichever they chose among the two most widely used languages on the continent aside from the Imperial language.

When Neris took the mandatory foreign language test, she not only got perfect scores in both subjects, but also wrote a letter in Berlene at the end of the test paper saying “I want to take advanced classes and will take additional tests if necessary,” which is why she was able to enter the advanced class despite being a freshman.

And in this academic ability measurement evaluation, Neris was the only person who got perfect scores in both mandatory foreign language tests.

It was obvious. She must have used the power of the Likeandros viscounty to forcibly get assigned to the advanced class. To prove that she was no less capable than Neris.

“Maggie, is she your friend?”

One upperclassman, sensing the stiff atmosphere between the two children, asked Megara.

Neris recognized him as a member of the Ennim family, distant relatives of the Likeandros family. At the same time, she knew he was one of Megara’s lifelong admirers in her previous life.

“She’s a freshman like me. Everyone remembers Neris’s name because she’s smart.”

From the expression Megara showed when saying ‘smart’, everyone in the classroom understood what she meant to say.

It meant that Neris was very boastful and stepped forward a lot.

Ren raised one eyebrow at the already somewhat disgruntled gazes in the classroom, but there was no change in Neris’s expression. She spoke softly to Megara.

“Thank you for saying that, Megara. I was worried about being the only freshman in the class, but I feel reassured now that you’re here. But isn’t it time for mandatory foreign language classes now?”

Megara’s expression became slightly haughty.

“Madam Hoffman said I don’t need to take it.”

It was as if she was adding ‘unlike you’.

There was no point in provoking. Neris showed a genuinely happy smile.

You can insist on entering a class above your level. But the classes at Noble Academy were not that easy.

Just as there was a system not to teach content the student already knows, there was also a system to send students who couldn’t keep up with the class down to a lower level.

“Is that so? I’m looking forward to it. Please take care of me, Megara. Um, I’d like to sit together, but…”

“I already promised to sit with Mahradi.”

Judging from Mahradi Ennim’s expression, that statement seemed to be a lie, but Neris smiled.

Megara herself might think she answered calmly, but there was clearly a defensive expression on her face that caused discomfort, cutting off Neris’s words before they were finished.

Neris spoke rather generously. She had no intention of sitting together anyway.

“I see, if you already promised, it can’t be helped.”

Language classes usually have students sit in pairs. Megara, who thought Neris would sit alone, frowned imperceptibly when Ren Feyel naturally sat next to Neris.

Hmph, the outcasts are getting along well.