Chapter 14: Calling Attendance
“Good morning, Rachel, it’s morning!”
Leaf’s cheerful voice echoed in my sleepy ears. I sat up and looked around. This was my room in the school dormitory. After yesterday’s reunion with ‘him’, I seemed to have had a dream about my past, from before I was reincarnated until I came here.
“Good morning, Leaf.”
I got out of bed, went to the washroom, and washed my face. While I was at it, I filled a cup with water to water Leaf in the morning. Then, I watered Leaf’s seedling.
“Hmm, that’s enough, thank you~”
Leaf tells me when she’s had enough water, so it’s easy. I don’t have to worry about root rot from overwatering. Next time, I’d like to go to the alchemy lab and get some plant nutrients like phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium to give to Leaf and see how she reacts.
When I finished watering Leaf, there was a knock at the door. Leaf quickly hid in my hair at the sound. I was a little nervous at the knock, but this knock was Emma’s.
“It’s Emma!”
I could hear Emma’s cheerful voice.
“Come in.”
“Excuse me.”
Emma appeared at the door and bowed slightly in greeting.
“My uniform from yesterday got sweaty, so could you please get out a spare one and have the other one washed?”
“Understood. What about your meals?”
Emma immediately took a new uniform out of the closet and asked about meals.
“I’ll go to the dining hall for breakfast. We’ll talk about dinner when I get back.”
I replied that way while having Emma help me put on my uniform. Originally, I had the memories of Reiko, an ordinary person, so my clothes weren’t dresses or anything like that. I just wore a blouse, skirt, and a cape coat, so I could put it on myself. But if there was any problem with putting it on, it would be Emma’s responsibility, so I had her help me put it on and check it.
“When will you be back today?”
Emma asked while fastening the buttons of my uniform.
Because of what happened yesterday, Emma asks me about my return time. Yesterday, I had to wait until after school, but today, as far as I remember, there was only an event where I was supposed to be spoken to by one of the ‘Capture Targets’.
For certain reasons, I don’t want to get involved with the ‘Capture Targets’. So, I’m planning to brush them off, so I don’t think I’ll be that late.
“I don’t plan on being as late as yesterday.”
“Understood. Then, have a good day.”
“I’ll be going now. Please take care of the room.”
With my clothes changed, I take my bag containing the study materials I left in the classroom yesterday and leave the room to head to the dining hall. The dining hall in this dormitory doesn’t have fixed meal times due to the different class schedules of each individual and the whims of the noble students. Instead, you can eat whenever you like. I wonder if a dormitory isn’t a place to learn about communal living, but I guess this is a different world and a different culture. However, since I’m not used to this world and don’t have any acquaintances or friends, I end up eating alone.
After finishing breakfast, I head straight to the school building and towards the classroom where I have a lesson. Because of what happened yesterday, I proceed with a slightly tense mood, but since nothing in the classroom was destroyed due to that incident, and my textbooks were returned to my seat, there seems to be no particular problem.
If the school were to take care of Martina-jou, who is in a coma, and treat her importantly, the dormitory would have been notified, and there would have been rumors about it even inside the school building. The fact that there are none of these leads me to believe that they intend to handle her matter internally at the upper levels of the school.
I entered the classroom yesterday and sat down in my designated seat in the front row. Then, I confirmed that the textbook whose cover had been torn by Martina-jou yesterday was in the storage compartment under the desk, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
Honestly, I wanted to skip class today because of what happened yesterday, but I wanted to confirm the existence of the event and how the school was dealing with Martina-jou’s matter. I was worried that the morning knock was from someone at the school finding me, but I was relieved when it was Emma.
For now, I can’t see anything suspicious about the school’s situation, so I calmly looked around the classroom. Since I came a little early, there were only a few students seated, probably about a third of the total. Among the sparsely seated students, there was one prominent figure. In the central back row’s designated seat was the fiancée of ‘Prince Allen Kau Ashral’, one of the ‘capture targets’,and one of the ‘villainesses’ who is the protagonist’s rival character, Marchioness Koron Mir Mauricio. 1
As you’d expect from the fiancée of the main “conquest target”, she has blonde hair and blue eyes with a model-like figure, stunning vertical curls, a gorgeous crimson-based outfit, and a cape coat uniform, so she stands out even when she’s silent. With her gaze restlessly scanning the classroom, it would be strange not to notice her.
I watched her for a while, wondering what she was doing, but then I realized that I hadn’t seen Martina-jou, one of her usual entourage, and thought she might be looking for her.
As I watched her, our eyes met unexpectedly. When I gave her a nod, she returned it normally, then sighed and seemed to calm down a bit.
I turned to face forward and thought. If Marchioness Koron had ordered Martina-jou to do what she did yesterday, she wouldn’t have returned my nod with a nod. She would have probably glared at me. Also, if Martina-jou had recovered, she would be by her side, and if she knew she was in a coma, she wouldn’t be looking for her.
From what I can gather, Marchioness Koron is unrelated to yesterday’s incident, and she doesn’t know about Martina-jou’s coma either. That means no one has come to question her about Martina-jou’s situation. Well, it’s just my speculation…
If I want to know for sure, I should talk to Marchioness Koron or go to the chapel yesterday to investigate Martina-jou’s matter, but that would only make things worse. It would be better to just keep quiet and watch the situation.
As I was pondering, the seats were soon filled with students, and the bell rang to start the class. The students who had been noisy at the sound of the bell quieted down and waited patiently for the teacher to arrive.
The first class is holy magic. I waited, watching the door to see what kind of teacher would come. Then the door opened, and a tall male teacher in a white robe appeared.
He closed the door and turned to face the classroom, then his shoulders shook.
I wonder what’s wrong? The male teacher has a handsome face with silver hair and blue eyes, but he looks like he’s barely 30 years old. Considering that the school is at the university level, is he a young teacher, or is he surprised by the number of students?
The male teacher walks towards the podium step by step, as if he were tensing up a bit. He stands in front of the podium, takes a deep breath as if to calm himself, glances at me for a moment, and then looks around the classroom.
“I-I am Diva Cole Regrias, your instructor for holy magic.”
The male teacher’s clear voice echoed through the classroom.
“Now, as our first lesson, we will begin with an overview of holy magic. Everyone, please take out your textbooks.”
I follow the male teacher’s instructions and take out my textbook. When I look at the cover, I see the scratch I made yesterday. The male teacher glances at me again and happens to see the torn cover.
Oh no, I should have used a different textbook as a decoy yesterday. It’s a bit embarrassing to have him see a textbook like this in the first class.
“Now, please open to page 5.”
And so, the first class proceeded.
TN: Marchioness is an exemption to the (-sama, -san, -sensei) rule because it’s very long.
