Chapter 26
The Imperial Prince and the Imperial Princess both entered the Royal Class and joined the same grade. They announced that the princess was alive, but she never appeared in public.
But then she suddenly entered Temple.
Of course, Bertus was aware of her admission. He was also the main villain of the story. However, Bertus didn’t use his authority to join the Royal Class.
As he was a major character, I was, of course, able to give a brief outline of the character.
Number A-1.
Name: Bertus de Gardias.
Talent: Swordsmanship, Magic Sensitivity, Magic Control.
Characteristic : Narrow eyes. (T/N: Like those characters that never open their eyes of which a lot are kinda two faced)
Remarks : A Bastard.
In front of others, he acted kind and got along with everyone, however, he, in fact, was someone who did a lot of bad things when left alone. A bastard who was originally good, but explodes once he got angry. I didn’t even think that he even had naturally narrow eyes.
And those three simple talents.
Swordsmanship, Magic Sensitivity, Magic Control.
Those were talents Duke Salerian forced to bloom by spending a great deal of money on Bertus. Ever since he was young, he had to undergo countless surgeries in order to get these three talents. With money and power, talent could also be made to bloom by force. Although that was only possible if one were the Imperial Prince.
So what were these three talents?
After a long study conducted by the Empire on why someone wouldn’t be able to reach the master-class even though they trained hard for a long time, they came to the following conclusion.
A combat-related talent, magic sensitivity and magic control.
It was almost impossible to reach the Master-class if one had no aptitude for any of those three. There were some who had talents in combat related weapon skills, but it was very rare to have an aptitude for magic sensitivity and control at the same time. If having them as aptitudes was rare already, then, of course, it was even rarer to have both as talents.
However, Bertus had all three as talents, not as aptitudes. His talent was swordsmanship and magic sensitivity and control were essential requirements.
To become a master in swordsmanship, that is.
In other words, he would become a Swordmaster.
* * *
The Imperial Family was also getting educated at Temple. It was a kind of advertisement and proof of credibility. If one said Temple was the best educational facility in the world and then went and taught the Imperial Family separately, anyone would probably have doubts about the reliability of those words.
However, in the Empire, the Imperial Family was also educated here.
So it was no wonder that its reliability and safety skyrocketed. Of course, the Imperial Family could just get educated separately , but with them deciding to sned their children to receive their education at Temple, other people couldn’t help but place their trust in its security.
Were they also living in the dormitory?
Needless to say.
That was why so many sent their children to Temple with such confidence. Because they thought their children would be provided with the same level of education and safety as the Imperial Family.
Bertus had already known about that.
So he was expecting Charlotte to come to Temple to some extent.
It was rumored that he would come to this place, so I was a little hesitant to come directly to the Royal Class and not as just another regular student. There was a high chance that I’d be caught by that smart guy.
The reason why the Duke forced his talent to bloom was because no one of the Imperial Family ever belonged to the Royal Class. A place that one could only enter through talent and not through power. If the Prince entered the Royal Class and graduated with excellent grades, he’d be able to build enormous authority just by doing that.
Naturally.
Imperial Princess Charlotte de Gardias could use the same method. What was possible for the Prince wouldn’t be impossible for Charlotte, the Imperial Princess, either.
So there was a good chance for Charlotte to also possess a talent, enabling her to enter the Royal Class. However, even if she was first ranked, was her talent inferior as she was in Class B?
Or.
Did they intentionally separate these two? Both of them were in the position that corresponded to the leaders of Class A and B.
No one knew about their circumstances, but I did.
Bertus obviously had great talent, but it wasn’t the number one talent. Even though he was fit for Class A, he actually should have been in the third or fourth spot if they really only considered his talent.
His power intervened in this decision.
Strictly speaking, it was the judgment of the faculty that if the Prince were to enter the Royal Class and ended up in the third or fourth seat, they might end up going against Bertus for nothing.
It was difficult for power to influence this place, but there was no place that couldn’t be influenced by it somehow. There were people who knew how to bootlick no matter where one went. In the first place, it was just an implicit rule to line up according to one’s room number, not a written one. So Bertus didn’t really have the number one talent, but just the number one position.
So what was going on with Charlotte? I wasn’t sure if she became number one of Class B because of her talent or because some faculty member or even someone higher up. I had no idea if there were instructions behind this.
However, the result was presented in front of us.
The semester that was about to start would be far from the pleasant school life I had planned.
“Welcome to Temple’s Royal Class!”
–Clap, clap, clap, clap.
All the plans I made for the future had collapsed and the fight between Charlotte de Gardias and Bertus de Gardias was about inevitable.
And here I was in Class A.
I was on Bertus de Gardias’ side.
“Did you say your name was Reinhardt? Let’s do our best together!”
The guy standing next to me spoke to me. Even if I didn’t look at him, I knew exactly who he was. Since we all introduced ourselves already. However, even if he didn’t introduce himself I would have known.
B-11, the one that was originally supposed to be number 10.
This was the historic moment of the last ranked of Class A and B meeting.
“……Okay.”
You would do just fine on your own, the problem is me, you shitty main character.
* * *
Two people were added that originally weren’t supposed to be here. One was me and the other was Charlotte.
The story had already gone awry right at the start. It was like there were actually two writers to this story, the other making every change I made fit the narrative.
That was probably how I even ended up having to fight the one I risked my life for at the side of the one who tried to kill me.
Except for that short exchange I had, we didn’t have to do something as troublesome as talking with these 100 plus students. The reception ended after everyone introduced themselves and everyone applauded.
The student council president then announced the rules of the Royal Class to us.
“Those friends who have already received elementary and secondary education at Temple would know these things, but there are some among you who have just transferred here to the higher education division, so I shall explain.”
“First of all, all students of Temple are equals, the Royal Class isn’t an exception. All your classmates are to be treated the same. There are no ranks in Temple, except the relationship between upperclassmen and lowerclassmen. Wherever you came from, whether you’re a noble, part of a royal family or even the Imperial Family. If we start looking at lineage like that, Temple wouldn’t be able to operate like that, right?”
It wasn’t a policy that came into existence because every student no matter where they came from had the right to a fair education and as such should be treated equally or something.
It was made because Temple’s system would become ridiculously complicated if they had to look into every student’s lineage. There were kids coming from all over the continent after all.
It would be possible to educate commoners, nobles, royalty and the Imperial Family separately, but things wouldn’t end there. The nobles would say things like: “I’m a duke so how could I be placed in the same class as the mere son of a baron?” and the royal families would go on to say: “How could I be placed in the same class as the prince of such a lowly kingdom?”.
There would be no end, if it were decided to separate the students based on lineage. There were just too many people coming here for that. Status brought identity with it, so even among the students of similar status, there would be tens of hundreds of class divisions, to the point students wouldn’t even be able to study properly, grouped together based on their lineages and said things like: “You and I cannot eat together, your presence alone is insulting.”, to each other.
So Temple had this rule of students to not reveal their status in school, not because they cared that much about the students’ rights and interests or tried to prohibit discrimination. If people starting arguing about lineage, Temple wouldn’t even be able to exist in the first place.
Of course, this might be a bit difficult for people of very high status.
So those guys might not even come here.
Or they joined because of the connections, knowledge and recognition they would gain by graduating from Temple.
There were still people who would reveal their status at Temple and tried to take advantage of others even after being warned a few times, eventually they would get expelled. Members of the Imperial Family weren’t an exception. It might be a bit shameful for the people of the Imperial Family, who were far up in terms of lineage, to have their children expelled after creating such a mess, but the Empire rather welcomed that. It served as another example of the fairness and greatness of Temple to every single person of the continent.
As I mentioned before, Temple was a place that brought in a lot of money, and sometimes money is everything in the world.
The student council president, Ceres van Owen, who was in front of me was also the rightful heiress to a Royal Family of a Principality located in the southern part of the Empire, although I couldn’t even remember what the name of her country was anymore. Judging by her name, I thought it must have been called something like Owenia. Now that she was about to graduate from the Royal Class, she was sure to be greatly welcomed back when she returned home.
Still, Imperial Family members of the Empire came to Temple, what was more these two were potential candidates to become the next emperor, and she just casually told them not to reveal their true identities and to get along with everyone.
That’s the Gardias Temple for you.
It wasn’t like there were any cases where someone retaliated later on for what happened at Temple, but these guys would get heavily criticized. Well, put simply, all personal resentments created in Temple should be buried in Temple. That was this school’s rule.
Of course, that also included romantic relationships. It wasn’t uncommon for a noble or someone of a royal family to fall in love with someone and then pretended not to know them or straight up ran away from their lover after graduating.
“The rank you have outside of Temple is completely useless in here. You can act like a military god outside of Temple as much as you want, but if I ever see any of you do this on campus, I will have to give you a warning using the authority given to me as the student council president. If you have accumulated warnings beyond a certain amount, a faculty meeting will be held, where the disciplinary action taken against you will be decided upon. Don’t even think for a second that everything will end in expulsion. In some cases it might lead to diplomatic problems or jail time. If that is the case, keep in mind that you are to be punished by the special law that Temple students are subjected to, and not according to your original status. Of course, you might have been granted immunity as each country has different laws, but you should keep in mind this won’t apply in these situations. If you force your classmates to call you in a specific way or tell them that just looking in your eyes is seen as an insult would hardly make you seem like the one in the right here.”
The president and vice-president had the authority to interfere with the students.
If it was inside Temple, even if they were the heir to the throne, if they did something against the rules, they would be scolded by the president.
Of course, they could get revenge against them because they felt offended, however, if the Imperial Family started interfering with the affairs of students at Temple, it would not only be childish, but it would also seriously tarnish Temple’s honor, which was the Empire’s source of enormous income and a landmark.
Therefore, these two would faithfully follow Temple’s rules. If they were to brandish their authority and power here, ignoring all the rules, it would just be like spitting in their own faces.
Temple was the Empire’s face along with the Imperial Family after all. Throwing insults into one’s own face was pretty inefficient.
“Another important thing. Do not intentionally drag what happened outside of Temple inside of it.”
“For example, using the various privileges that Temple students receive to commit crimes outside and then escape to Temple.”
“We don’t know and don’t care if any of you were enemies outside of Temple or if there’s some feud going on between your families. Temple is an educational institution, not a political arena. Competitiveness in good faith is permitted, but if you use unfair or unreasonable means or if external powers or forces intervene in these matters, the student concerned will be expelled and will be subject to numerous responsibilities.”
In other words, don’t drag outside powers into Temple. In the end, all these things she was telling us were more or less directed at Charlotte and Bertus.
Everyone was secretly guessing that this would definitely play a part in the struggle for imperial power.
“Also, there is a message from the Imperial Family Gardias. Originally, this wasn’t allowed, but this situation is somewhat special in many ways, so I will read it out to you.”
Yet another thing that hadn’t existed before sprung into existence.
The student council president opened a letter and read it out to us.
“From the moment this letter is read out, if any problems arise with either Charlotte de Gardias or Bertus de Gardias, both inside and outside of Temple, even if it is just a simple accident, the other party’s rights to the throne will be permanently deprived. Emperor Neliod de Gardias, Grand Admiral.”
The student council president turned the letter over and showed us that the seal of the Imperial Family properly stamped on it.
The Emperor blocked any future attempts for them to assassinate each other.
There was a reason why the two of them were pushed into the same place in Temple just when the conflict over the succession to the throne was expected to intensify.
Now that the Emperor’s power seemed to pierce through the sky due to the victory in the Demon World War, his words held more authority than ever. In fact, the Emperor was the most powerful one since the founding of the Empire. That was the price he received in exchange for the hostages’ lives.
Now the Emperor could even appoint a completely weak member of the Imperial Family who had no real authority or base as the successor.
That’s why he was telling the two most influential successors to not think about hurting each other, but rather protect each other no matter what.
They should win the Imperial Power through fair competition.
Nelliod de Gardias, the current Emperor, was an unprecedentedly powerful Emperor who could make such ridiculous demands.
It was as if he was telling them: “Don’t even think about trying to commit the perfect crime, because even if your opponent dies because of an accident, your right of succession would be void.”. Only this Emperor, who had the most power in the history of mankind due to his victory in the Demon World War, was able to place such an absurd condition.
The letter wasn’t only addressed towards Bertus and Charlotte.
It was to all the students, faculty and the followers of Charlotte and Bertus who might be among them.
From the Emperor’s words, both Bertus and Charlotte should have realized that they should value the life of their opponent as much as their own.
I couldn’t see what kind of facial expression those two were wearing.
Anyway, I was really grateful.
I wasn’t sure about Charlotte, but that Bertus guy would definitely cause bloodshed, in the near future at least.
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