Inside the classroom, chattering students had gathered just before class. The classrooms at Kaiserion Academy were generously spacious compared to the number of students. But this wasn’t solely due to extravagant construction costs.
First, Kaiserion only accepted a small number of new students each year. And the freshmen moved according to their individual class schedules. So in reality, it was rare for a single classroom to be completely full.
The second reason was practical. In the continent’s highest-level classes that the academy boasted of, students didn’t simply sit still and pass time with a few sheets of parchment and books.
The desks and chairs arranged in tiers around the instructor’s platform at the center were enchanted with magic so they could move at any time.
By lowering the first few tiers and filling the space below the platform with water, they could observe aquatic plants or animals, or they could flatten all the tiers entirely to create a spacious gymnasium where students could practice postures from swordsmanship manuals.
That wasn’t all. Everything in the classroom was determined by the professor in charge for that period. In some classes, the moment you opened the classroom door, a tropical rainforest spread before you.
<Constellation Navigation Techniques from the Haelian Dynasty Era>, which turned the entire classroom ceiling and walls into a pitch-black night sky and conducted lessons as if flying through the heavens, was famous as a course students wanted to take every year.
In any case, today a desert had been spread out inside the classroom.
Hot sunlight and fine-grained sand.
“……”
Can’t they give us some warning before class about this kind of thing? Nigel wrinkled his brow ever so slightly, feeling the crunching texture of the sand.
Of course, since it was sand created by magic, it would all disappear as soon as they left the classroom after class ended, but it didn’t feel pleasant.
So this is what a desert feels like.
As he walked carefully to prevent sand from getting inside his sturdy leather shoes, he saw a desert lizard sliding away across the hot sand—swoosh—escaping to the far side.
The massive cactus colony visible beyond his field of vision was probably just a magical effect meant to disrupt the students’ vision.
“The Crown Prince will need to learn how to walk in the desert.”
Someone spoke to Nigel in a sneering tone. When he gave a sidelong glance at the familiar voice, Veil Khalid’s bright red hair filled his vision.
He was the prince who had constantly picked fights with Nigel ever since enrolling at the academy. His bright red hair looked just like that blazing fake sun in the desert.
Nigel deliberately composed his expression. Seeing how eager he was to get under his skin made him feel competitive and even less inclined to show any expression.
People like Veil Khalid were the type of human Nigel hated most. The sight of him wearing his shoes haphazardly crushed, his uniform necktie loosened and draped over his shoulders almost like a necklace.
Flaming red hair and amber eyes half-closed in boredom.
‘A lawless bastard who breaks every rule there is.’
The bastard was a classmate who had enrolled at Kaiserion Academy the same year as Nigel, and he was the prince of Brion, a long-standing allied nation of the empire.
Soon enough, Veil Khalid became famous throughout the school, though in the complete opposite sense from Nigel. In contrast to the Crown Prince who was a perfect principled perfectionist, he didn’t hide his free-spirited nature of breaking rules and causing trouble at will.
For some reason, people always swarmed around him.
The vast wealth of his homeland Brion and its monopoly on rare magical resources buried in the desert became a perfect shield that made all his transgressions at the academy seem like mere trivial pranks of a young prince.
Even the professors couldn’t rashly criticize him in the face of his outstanding magical skills and background. In any case, Khalid was a lawless person in a completely different sense from Nigel.
When Nigel pretended not to hear him, Veil Khalid stepped closer.
“Hm? Nigel. The real desert is way more killer than this. How about stopping by Brion sometime? I’ll treat you grandly, befitting the Khalid name.”
As expected, he was annoying.
Veil Khalid’s academy life seemed to revolve around a single goal: ‘Beating Nigel Kaiserion.’
Magic practicals, written exams, even eating speed. The bastard constantly picked fights with the Crown Prince over every little thing, creating competitive situations.
Each time, Nigel responded with no response. He knew that the other wanted some kind of reaction, which was why he kept picking fights. There was also no need to prove his abilities to the bastard.
“I appreciate the invitation, but I’ll decline.”
“Ah.”
Veil Khalid nodded his head a few times with his characteristic cheap expression, then continued.
“Our empire’s little prince has never been outside the empire, has he? I momentarily forgot that.”
“You’re free to say whatever you want, but use the proper form of address. Veil Khalid.”
Saying this, Nigel brushed past Khalid. He knew full well that calling him, the Crown Prince, something as lowly as ‘prince’ was meant to provoke him.
Nigel could bet one of his own estates that Khalid had absolutely no genuine intention of inviting him to Brion.
“So you don’t even need to exchange words with me?”
At those words, Nigel whipped his head around. Flinch—he saw Veil Khalid stop in his tracks as he’d been following. Nigel answered while maintaining an expressionless face.
“Hm? Did you say something to me, Veil Khalid?”
Nigel had the freedom and power to do what he wanted to do when he wanted to do it, and not say things he didn’t want to say.
Especially since Kaiserion Academy fell under the imperial family’s jurisdiction. No matter that Veil Khalid was a prince of another kingdom, there was an insurmountable wall erected between him and Nigel.
“……”
Ha, Veil Khalid’s bright yellow amber eyes contorted. With the intelligence the bastard possessed, he should at least understand that he’d just been insulted.
The students who sensed the cold tension between the two kept their mouths firmly shut and glanced at each other nervously.
It was when the atmosphere among the uniformed students had quietly sunk under the hot sun.
“Oh my. You’ve all been waiting quietly.”
Professor Jorge, the very person who had created this desert, appeared, cutting through the sandstorm.
“Good, this is a very commendable attitude. Students. Because…”
He spread out the robes characteristic of mages that he was wearing with a whoosh. Right on cue, a sandstorm arose with a whooosh.
“Today’s topic is practical training in <Ecological Investigation of Desert Magical Beasts>.”
In an instant, a high sand dune formed with a krrrrumble. Professor Jorge, standing atop the massive sand hill created in place of the platform, looked down at us.
“What you need to do from now on is simple. There are Dust Slimes beneath this sandy desert. The student who finds one the fastest will receive final exam points. By the way, it’s not just slimes down there. I’ve also released predators that hunt them, so be careful. If you get careless and get bitten, it’ll hurt quite a bit for a while.”
Just that kind of class? Searching for living creatures was simple. Nigel and the other students immediately began to manipulate their mana to cast detection magic. It was the moment they concentrated mana at their fingertips and were about to draw the magic circle for detection magic.
“Ah, I should add one more thing.”
Jorge added in a cheerful voice as if it were nothing.
“Dust Slimes normally just look like clumps of sandy dust, but they have the characteristic of scattering and running away instantly when they detect mana nearby.”
“……”
Right, there’s no way he’d attach points to such an easy task.
All the students lowered their hands with bug-bitten expressions. Nigel didn’t show it either, but he was feeling annoyed. So they’re supposed to find them barehanded? Nigel privately grimaced. Dust Slimes. Just hearing the name made him want to wash his hands.
After confirming for a moment that the students had given up and were just staring at him, Professor Jorge shrugged and said.
“What are you doing? You’ve all studied so hard that you don’t need final exam points anymore? Too difficult? Alright then, I’ll give points to the second person to catch one too.”
If he was giving points to the second person to capture one as well, then it was a bit more worth trying. At the professor’s words, the students who had lost motivation for just a brief moment began to move in their own ways.
Especially Veil Khalid, who had been beside Nigel, lay down on his stomach on the hot sandy floor without hesitation.
Nigel felt slightly dizzy. For a person who was a prince of a nation to lie down on his stomach. And on bare ground at that! It was something Nigel had never even imagined.
Did he want final exam points that badly? Sensing the gaze watching him, Veil Khalid’s eyes sharply turned toward Nigel.
“…What are you staring at?”
“I didn’t know you were someone who cared so much about grades.”
