Chapter 43

“Fania, the guard is calling for you! They say you have visitors.”

It was right when the class had just ended. I was thinking of going home and was about to lift my body off the chair when someone suddenly called for me.

“Eh?” I glanced at my classmate who relayed the message and I could see a guard was looking at me from outside the class.

He must’ve waited for me until the end of class.

“Owh, if it’s the school guard coming for you, it means you got visitors from outside.”

“Which could be… a girl?”

“Hoho, we really can’t overlook Fania.”

A group of three who were sitting a small distance away from me were saying things as they pleased. They were the ones who made fun of me by saying I could never be a vile noble son the other day.

A red-haired Jil, tall but skinny Trois and a buff Arlo.

I sent them a cold gaze and stood up.

“Uwaa, Fania just stared at me passionately.”

“You idiot, that’s his eye contact to me. It means he wants to go home together with me once he settles the matter with the guard.”

“You two are spouting nonsense. He was focusing his gaze on me, okay.”

…Just what are these people saying? Let’s just ignore these three stooges.

I went out of the classroom.

“There’s a guy asking for a male student at the guard house, but there was no one who matches his descriptions. He said ‘a male student with a small body’. When we asked the students in this class, they said it might be you. Sorry, but can you come to the guard house?”

They must have been searching the requested person all over. The guard looked a bit exhausted.

“I got it.”

For today, the only thing left to do was go home. I nimbly followed the guard.

“Mn?”

Behind me, the stooges were following in my wake. Why?

“Well, you see, Fania’s girlfriend, isn’t that worth checking out? Right?”

“Yeah, yeah, we ought to take a gander at that fabled face of hers.”

“That punk. To think he’s gone and left us behind like this.”

“Y-o-u p-e-o-p-le, you’re too loud. And didn’t the guard say that the visitor is male?”

“EHHH!” They exclaimed in unison.

“Don’t sigh like it’s so unfortunate. You don’t have to follow me. Go back! Go back!” I swished my hand to chase away the three stooges.

“We already came this far, so we better go see it to the end, right?” “Right~” “Right~” The three of them nodded to each other.

No one even asked them to come along in the first place. I decided to just ignore these three stooges.

I followed after the guard.

“The visitor said that his little brother enrolled in this academy this year, but we couldn’t find the one he described. He said they were commoners, so most probably he’s in Class 3.” From the guard’s explanation, I was thinking maybe the one he was searching was Louie.

The MC Louie was a commoner for sure. For unknown reasons, the classes for Louie and I—a commoner and someone from a ducal house—got switched.

When the guard heard that the student was a commoner, he probably didn’t check at other classes than Class 3. Once we reached the guard house, and the person waiting there said that his brother’s name was Louie, I would just dash to Class 1 then.

In front of the guard house, I could see a man standing in wait. He had quite a tough-looking body. He was wearing a flamboyant red clothing, and the vibe he gave out was nothing similar to Louie.

He might not be Louie’s brother.

“The commoner male student that you said, the one with a small body, is this the one?” The guard pointed a finger at me, and asked the man in red.

Eh, was I considered as a commoner? My classmates had always assumed that I was from lower nobility by the way.

Actually I’m a son of a Duke, right? I almost forgot now.

The men in red glanced in my direction, and he snorted.

“——Yeah, this kid.”

“Eh?”

I was never acquainted with this man. This was my first time seeing him. Moreover, I was the eldest son, I didn’t have any older brother.

The guard house I was at was located at the front gate of the academy. During the day, the gate was open; but there were always two guards in their positions in front of the guard house to keep watch for any suspicious from entering the academy ground.

On top of that, in case the situation cannot be contained by the guards there, inside the guard house there were at least three other knights in charge of security on standby; so no matter what happened, it was supposed to be enough to deal with any situation.

However…

“Oiiii, everyone, come out!” The man in red shouted.

From beyond the open gate, taking the man in red’s voice as a cue, and a large number of men appeared. It should be around twenty of them. From the looks and the air around these people, you could only think that they were thugs.

They raised their hands up with weapons of all sorts. Altogether, they came towards here to enter the academy.

“What’s this? This is an emergency! This is an emergen- UGHK!” A guard rushed to close the gate, but the man in red punched the guard down.

“What’s wrong?!” From their post inside the guard house, the knights who noticed the guard’s yelps quickly jumped out, but those thugs continuously poured into the academy ground from the open gate.

Three knights versus so many thugs. They were outnumbered. No matter how well-trained the knights were, they were powerless against a large group. In no time, the knights were all defeated.

“Fania!” Suddenly Jil grabbed my arm and ran towards the academic building.

The man in red chased after me.

“Escape quickly!” “Jil, we’re counting on you!” Trois and Arlo came out to block the man in red from our escape route.

Their hands were brandishing swords that I didn’t even know where they had kept all along.

“Don’t block the way!”

“So noisy! We’ll be your opponents here. It’s your honour!” “Yes, that’s right, both of us will deal with you, be happy with that!”

The man in red, Trois and Arlo started to exchange fierce blows.

“Eh, what, what’s happening here?”

“Don’t mind them, just run! It’s alright! We’ll definitely protect you.” Jil pulled me and ran.

I couldn’t even turn my head as I continued to run.

The luxuriousness of this academy made it harder for us; it was far until the academic building. There was still quite a distance. Perhaps the knights on patrol noticed the commotion, so they quickly rushed towards the guard house, but just a few of them couldn’t possibly cope with the thugs.

My feet nearly tripped as Jil was pulling me ahead, but I tried to bear with it. I was gasping for air. It was difficult to breath.

“Fania! Run!” My arm that was in Jil’s grasp was tugged forcefully. The centrifugal force caused me to be pushed forward.

When I turned my head to look behind me, the man in red had come very close to us. Behind him, a lot of thugs were rushing towards here. In the corner of my eyes, I saw Trois and Arlo lying on the ground.

“Heh, I won’t let you take another step from here!” Jil who had let go of my arm went towards the man in red.

What to do? I don’t even know what’s happening here.

I was powerless, I could not save Jil nor could I fight against the thugs. Even then, I knew better than to go to where Jil was. I fully understood that Jil, Trois and Arlo were desperately trying to protect me. I could not ever stumble their legs.

I dashed towards the academics building. Without turning my head back, I continued to run. My eyes brimmed with tears but I had no time to wipe them off.

I just ran.

The students in this academy were mostly composed of members of the royalty and nobility. Students that came from afar stayed in the hostel, and commuting students used horse carriages that belonged to their respective families. There was no one who commuted by foot.

Students who returned to their hostel wouldn’t use the road towards the main gate. Students who used horse carriages would head to the carriage boarding zone.

Around now, the carriage boarding zone must be crowded with students. Therefore, there was no one on this road from the main gate to the buildings. Not a single one.

There was no one walking to the main gate, supposedly.

However, at the other end of where Fania was running to, there was a student.

“…Eh, Louie?”

Louie was walking towards Fania’s direction.

The commoner Louie might be among those very few, or possibly the only one student in this academy who had a house in the royal capital and commuted by foot. He seemed to be on his way home to the main gate, but now he was coming here.

“No! Don’t come over here! Don’t!!!”

The same time Fania screamed, his arm was grabbed by the man in red.

Fania fell unconscious.