WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Dark Fantasy Doctor Was Mistaken for a Saint ◈
Chapter 95: Mistaken for a Suspicious Professor (2)
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* * *
Eschenwald Academy, the Garden of Stars.
Founded centuries ago by an emperor in his own name, this garden of learning had held a portion of countless heroes’ youth.
Great thinkers, commanders of the successive Imperial Household Knight Orders, Magic Tower masters, even Cardinals.
Children with the talents of countless stars had passed through this academy.
And here, they had kindled their own starlight.
Of course, not everyone possessed the talent of a star, nor did everyone come here with such noble aspirations.
Many who could not become stars themselves still fought desperately to get through these gates, hoping to form connections with those stars.
“Eschenwald Academy graduate.”
There was even a joke that if you could fill the first line of your epitaph with those words, the rest of the praise would write itself.
Eschenwald Academy was a holy land of learning, but also a place one had to pass through to rise in the world.
Spring had arrived in that garden.
Sunlight, somewhat murky for spring due to smog rivaling that of the capital, shone upon the lion statue in the square.
Countless carriages and students crossed the roads running along either side of it.
“Good morning, Young Master Fornea.”
“Your name was... Right! You’re Senior Lesia, aren’t you?”
“That uniform suits you, Randy.”
A student greeted the son of their family’s vassal.
Another recalled the name of an upperclassman they had met at the opening ceremony.
Another exchanged a gesture with their fiancé.
Perhaps because the new term had only just begun, the students were actively socializing even during the early morning commute.
“You don’t need to speak so formally to me, my lady!”
“How could I not, Kal? You placed third among this year’s entrants.”
It was not hard to spot noble young ladies acting warmly toward commoners.
At this Garden of Stars, students admitted to the Hero Studies Department or Healing Studies Department were all but guaranteed success unless they had a serious disqualification.
Even commoners had a high chance of receiving noble titles.
As a result, grades here were practically the same as status.
“Kal, would you like to have lunch together today?”
“I... I already have plans with my childhood friend...”
Thanks to that, it was not particularly strange for nobles to approach Kal, a swordsman from a common background.
However.
Even in a place like this, there were people no one wanted to approach despite their high birth and excellent grades.
“That blonde girl...”
“Is that Lady Hausen?”
“The famous one...”
Charlotte Eschenwald.
Her public identity was Charlotte Hausen.
As she walked down the corridor, students subtly moved away from her.
The rank of marquis was the highest title a noble could realistically attain.
Charlotte’s grades were also good enough for her to walk through the academy with her head held high.
Yet even though a week had passed since the entrance ceremony, not one student had approached her.
There was one reason.
“Did she really have to humiliate Young Master Russell that badly on the first day...?”
On the first day of admission, Charlotte had thoroughly embarrassed a young master from a count’s family.
“Lady Hausen. I am from Count Russell’s family...”
“It is admirable that you are trying to get closer to me, but if you mean to escape the hardship of being an illegitimate child through me, I am afraid there is nothing I can do for you. My house is a marquis house of inspectors, so we must always remain politically neutral.”
“...What?”
“Someone tied your necktie for you. The knot is terribly done. Your uniform bears pressure marks, and your shoes are scuffed. That suggests your maid is quite unskilled. For a young master of a count’s family to enter the academy with such a maid means your standing within your family is precarious. Even if you suddenly act friendly toward me under those circumstances, I cannot change your situation.”
It had been her first greeting during orientation, the day after the entrance ceremony.
Young Master Russell had flushed crimson with shame and withdrawn.
After that incident, no student spoke to her.
It was only natural.
No matter how much power or ability someone had, people would not gather around them if they had no personal appeal.
And since Charlotte herself had no desire to become close to anyone, people had all the more reason to stay away from her.
“She was already famous in high society, though for different reasons...”
“I heard getting engaged had improved her social skills.”
“Hasn’t she gotten even worse?”
Words traveled farther than feet.
Charlotte had unintentionally become famous.
Mostly in a bad way.
‘I can hear every word.’
Still, she did not particularly care.
Her treatment at the Imperial Palace had not been much different.
Who would want to be close to someone who could see even the disgraceful past they wanted to hide?
She had only come to the academy to attend one person’s lectures.
That was why she did not care what became of this portion of her youth.
‘My next lecture is...’
As she walked the corridor alone and considered her next class, someone suddenly tapped Charlotte on the shoulder.
“Charlotte. Have you had lunch?”
“I have, Jenny.”
Charlotte turned to see a black-haired girl looking at her.
Her curly hair ended just above her shoulders, and a faint weariness showed in her purple eyes.
Her name was Jenny Lailic.
Charlotte’s roommate and a student in the Healing Studies Department.
“What did you eat?”
“Cheese and crackers.”
She was also the first and only friend Charlotte had made in the week since enrolling.
Despite Charlotte’s rudeness on their first day in the dormitory, Jenny had not minded it.
“How did you know I was an apprentice healer on the battlefield? I used to go along sometimes because of my brother. But you were wrong about him being a drug addict and us not getting along. More accurately, that used to be true, but lately he has been going out more often and quit the drugs, so we get along well now.”
Perhaps it was because Charlotte’s deduction had been wrong.
That was how Jenny became Charlotte’s only friend.
“That won’t do. Meals are important, Charlotte.”
“Cheese and crackers provide enough calories for the day.”
“Do you seriously think you can win an argument about nutrition in front of someone from the Healing Studies Department?”
“...”
Charlotte pressed her lips together.
Were healers always this nagging?
Her fiancé was like this, and so was her roommate.
She could not understand why they always nagged her about food whenever they met.
“Come on. Let’s go to the cafeteria together.”
“...I really don’t want to. The food is terrible before you even consider its nutritional value.”
“Ha ha... That is true.”
Jenny’s smile stiffened slightly.
The academy cafeteria was infamous for its terrible food.
Eschenwald Academy did not employ ordinary cooks in its dining halls.
The people working in the kitchens were military cooks assigned from the army.
And what those cooks handled were military supplies issued in fixed quantities from the Imperial Army’s rear supply depots: dried, hardened bread, canned processed beans, salted pork, and vegetables fermented to be slightly sour for preservation.
Naturally, the food was terrible.
Once, a member of the Imperial Family had protested to the headmaster about it.
“These students are talented people who will contribute to humanity’s future. We are responsible not only for the Empire’s children, but those of other nations as well. It would not be an exaggeration to say the Empire’s prestige rests on how we treat them. The academy has ample funds, so why will you not change the cafeteria food?”
The headmaster had answered like this.
“Half the students in this garden will go to battle after graduation. Whether it is the Demon Realm or a labyrinth, no one will serve them truffles there. How will someone who cannot even eat a loaf of military ration bread return alive from such places?”
After that, no one could complain further about the academy cafeteria.
“I do not intend to go to the battlefield, so I see no need to train my palate for it. Cheese and crackers are enough.”
“You still need to get your nutrients. Your fiancé is a professor. He will worry about you.”
“...”
Charlotte flinched.
She reluctantly opened her mouth.
“Then how about we have lunch outside with our academy allowance?”
By “outside,” she did not mean beyond the academy.
This entire fortress was academy grounds to begin with. If they went outside, they would merely become a magical beast’s meal.
What Charlotte meant was outside the student district.
“The restaurants in the commercial district are worth eating at.”
The academy grounds were divided into numerous districts.
The student district, where the students lived.
The military district, which maintained the city’s security.
The industrial district, where goods were made.
And the commercial district, which existed for the convenience of the others.
The restaurants in the commercial district primarily served workers from districts other than the student district.
There was no academy rule forbidding students from using them.
“Jenny, you have enough allowance too, right?”
Instead, academy currency took hold of their ankles in place of school rules.
Academy currency.
Commonly called an allowance.
Since Eschenwald Academy was essentially a military academy, outside currency could not be brought in.
All transactions within its grounds used academy currency alone.
The funds, issued once each month as a combined allowance for living expenses and maintaining one’s status, were determined by grades.
This was also part of the training intended to help students adapt to the battlefield.
“You had high entrance grades, so your allowance cannot already be gone.”
Charlotte recalled her roommate’s grades and the amount of allowance she herself had received after enrolling.
Unless Jenny had done something foolish, there was no way it could have been spent already...
“...Uh... Well...”
“Jenny?”
“The thing is...”
Jenny slowly averted her eyes.
“I spent it all yesterday...”
“What did you spend it on?”
“I thought I could at least go all in with four of a kind... I didn’t expect a straight flush...”
“...”
Charlotte narrowed her eyes at Jenny.
“Can a priest do that?”
“Listen. There is a god of play as well. I was merely practicing a healthy faith.”
“I believe there is also a Mother Goddess of Moderation.”
“...”
Jenny pressed her lips shut.
“Did you spend all of your status-maintenance funds too?”
“...So I decided to start working at the infirmary tomorrow evening.”
“I see.”
Charlotte sighed.
Then she took a silver coin from her pocket and tossed it to Jenny.
“Gasp! This much?! Does the Hero Studies Department get a huge allowance?”
“That is part of it, but my living expenses are enough for me. This is what remains of my status-maintenance funds.”
“Isn’t Lady Charlotte from a marquis house? Maintaining your status must cost a fortune.”
“I do not need a carriage to go to class, and I did not bring a maid.”
In the first place, no maid had wanted to come along.
“You... are really a young lady from a marquis house, right?”
Charlotte barely stopped herself from saying no.
Instead, she only replied, “Even at the academy, you are the first commoner I have met who speaks to a young lady from a marquis house so casually.”
“Whoops.”
Jenny shrugged.
She carefully tucked the silver coin Charlotte had given her into her pocket and brushed back her curly black hair.
“Come to think of it, you have a Black Magic Defense Techniques course among your required classes, right?”
“Yes. It is this afternoon, after lunch.”
It was her next class.
A lecture she could attend only a week after entering the academy.
“I heard it is a new course established by the military. How important must it be for them to make it mandatory? Usually only Magical Beast Studies or Demonkin Studies would be required.”
“I wonder.”
Military affairs lay outside Charlotte’s interests.
“Then let’s go together after lunch.”
“You are taking it too, Jenny?”
“Yes. It is not mandatory for healers, but it was quite competitive among Healing Studies students.”
“Are healers planning to fight black mages?”
“Not exactly. A few years ago, Director Schun used black magic to create something called a vaccine, right? And I heard two new vaccines are coming out this year. So more aspiring healers have become interested in black magic.”
“I see.”
Charlotte found herself feeling slightly displeased.
She was worried the lecture would become disorderly because there would be too many students.
“Come to think of it, other fiancés keep getting caught meeting their partners secretly in the dormitories because they want to see them. But your fiancé has not shown his face once in the whole week, Charlotte.”
“My fiancé is strict about rules in many ways.”
“Still, if he is a professor, there must be a way for him to come see you.”
“Perhaps he is more careful about his conduct precisely because he is a professor.”
Charlotte recalled the conversation she had shared with Julian before the entrance ceremony.
“I should tell you this in advance. Within the academy, I will treat you as a student before I treat you as my fiancée. Naturally, you will receive no special treatment in your grades either.”
“I know.”
It was very like Julian.
“Then let us hurry and eat. I do not think he would tolerate us being late just because he is my fiancé.”
“Your fiancé is stricter than I expected, Lady Charlotte.”
“Perhaps he is stricter because I am his fiancée.”
* * *
Two in the afternoon.
The classroom for the Black Magic Defense Techniques course was located at the far end of the main building’s east wing, nearly underground.
With a ceiling twice as high as an ordinary classroom, it was generally used for required courses.
However, this classroom differed from the others in one respect.
“They used obsidian as cushioning material. Eavesdropping will be almost impossible with this.”
Charlotte muttered as she looked at the black powder visible through a crack in the wall.
Obsidian.
It was a material with a powerful interference effect against scrying and eavesdropping magic.
Lead had similar properties.
But since they could not fill the entire wall with lead, they had used obsidian, which possessed similar symbolic resonance.
“You would only see something like this in a great mage’s workshop. The military must consider this course very important.”
“You have been to a great mage’s workshop, Charlotte?”
“A few times when I was young.”
Charlotte briefly thought of her guardian.
The one-eyed old man had occasionally brought her and her brother to his workshop to teach them certain spells.
He had found the siblings’ talents interesting.
Of course, he had never accepted them as disciples in the end.
Murmur, murmur.
As Charlotte and Jenny sat in the front row, students flooded in behind them.
“There are a lot of people.”
“I told you. It was competitive even in the Healing Studies Department. I heard many students were so disappointed that the academy increased the class size and accepted a second round of applications.”
Hearing that, Charlotte once again felt she had made the right decision in applying to the Hero Studies Department.
Students from other departments could apply for this lecture.
She had not needed to enter the Hero Studies Department just to take it.
Even so, she had chosen it because the course was required for Hero Studies students, allowing her to attend without competition.
“Still, isn’t the front row too intimidating?”
“...?”
Charlotte tilted her head.
If she was going to attend, would it not be better to sit in the front?
Realizing the meaning of Charlotte’s look, Jenny nodded.
“Oh, right. You would not find that professor intimidating.”
While the two chatted before the lecture began, the other students discussed similar subjects.
“Does anyone know about Professor Julian Nihirit?”
“I only know he is from a baron’s family.”
“How did he become a professor? Usually, Eschenwald Academy professors come from at least viscount families, do they not?”
The commoners’ conversations were generally like that.
Those who could not participate in high society knew little about the young master of House Nihirit.
On the other hand, students from noble families, or high-achieving students close to them, knew more.
“I saw it myself that time. They say he solved His Highness Edmund’s problem with producing an heir. Apparently, the prince has been highly protective of him ever since.”
“As expected. So it was not solved with medicine alone.”
“Maybe I should have studied healing more regularly too.”
“Forget it. They say even the Imperial healers could not solve it. Only Young Master Nihirit could have done it.”
Some students were puzzled by his record.
“But why a Black Magic Defense course? Is he skilled in black magic?”
“They say the deciding factor was that he solved the kidnapping case at the academy’s High Division.”
“I know that. Everyone got replaced after that. But that is not what I mean. I am wondering how he came to know so much about black magic.”
“Well, they say House Nihirit is a magistrate family. Magistrates often become involved with black magic, right? Apparently, he became an expert in black magic while helping his father with his work.”
“Oh, I remember now. That magistrate who keeps solving unsolved cases? I had heard the surname somewhere. Why could I not remember?”
“Now that I think about it, there is someone in this classroom who is famous for unsolved cases too...”
And every so often, gazes gathered on the back of Charlotte’s head.
Even as she felt all of those looks, Charlotte did not spare them a glance.
She merely prepared in advance to write down every word before class began.
Jenny leaned close and whispered into Charlotte’s ear.
“Come to think of it, Charlotte.”
“Yes?”
“Between you and your fiancé, who has solved more cases?”
Charlotte put down her pen.
As though considering it, her gaze rested on a blank line in her notebook.
Then her pen began moving again.
“So far, I have 341 wins and 32 losses.”
“Your fiancé has 341?”
“No, I have 341.”
“Huh? Then should you not be the one teaching?”
Charlotte shook her head.
“I have the advantage because my fiancé is the one setting the problems. I have also learned a great deal from him. Besides...”
Charlotte looked toward the blackboard.
“He is far better at teaching than I am. Especially when it comes to black magic.”
Jenny was impressed.
Charlotte’s reputation among people their age was far from low.
She often appeared in newspapers after solving countless unsolved cases, regardless of whether they involved commoners or nobles.
In recognition of her accomplishments, she had already acquired the nickname “Armchair Phoenix.”
For her to acknowledge someone like that.
‘The world really is vast, and there are so many geniuses.’
Jenny had already grown curious about this person named Julian.
Still, there were always people who doubted unbelievable genius.
Quite a few students doubted Julian’s reputation.
“I learned this while interning at the Magic Tower of April last summer. They say Professor Nihirit published two papers in the Arcane Olympiad.”
“Two? Come on. That must be a rumor. How could someone his age publish two papers at once?”
“Right. I could not believe it either, so I looked for the papers. But no matter how hard I searched, there were no papers written under Professor Nihirit’s name.”
“Then did he become a professor through some improper means?”
“But the Great Sage is one of the senior spellcaster judges. Would he have allowed that?”
“Now that you mention it, that is true. Did he ghostwrite them, then?”
All kinds of speculation flew about.
Some believed the rumors had become greatly exaggerated.
Others suspected Prince Edmund had abused his power.
Every so often, someone joked that Julian might have published papers rated Danger Rank 1 or higher.
Naturally, no one seriously believed it.
They did not think the Imperial Family would allow someone who had written two Danger Rank 1 papers to walk freely through the streets.
Creak.
Then, at two-thirty, the door near the podium slowly opened.
The first to enter was a woman.
All the students turned their eyes toward her.
An elf woman with a slender figure that appeared to be at least 170 centimeters tall stepped slowly onto the podium in a black suit.
She stood where the professor should have been standing.
The students began murmuring again.
“Huh? Wasn’t the professor a man?”
“I heard he was a regular human.”
Amid the murmuring, the elf woman, Perisia, lightly snapped her fingers.
Swish.
Blackout curtains descended from both sides of the classroom.
Only after the room had grown slightly darker did the door behind the podium open once more.
A man stepped onto the podium to the sound of clicking shoes.
“Oh my.”
Jenny covered her mouth with her hand.
“Charlotte, I did not think you were the type, but you secretly care a lot about looks, huh?”
“...”
As if it was not worth responding to, Charlotte looked toward the professor standing at the podium.
The professor, Julian, surveyed the classroom.
His gaze rested briefly on Charlotte, but he gave no sign that he recognized her.
It meant he would treat her as a student, just as he had said beforehand.
“Good afternoon.”
Julian adjusted his collar once before speaking.
“Many of you are meeting me for the first time. I am Julian Nihirit, and I will be teaching Black Magic Defense Techniques this term.”
His low, composed voice echoed throughout the classroom with the aid of amplification magic.
“Before we begin the first session of this course, I would like to ask one thing of you.”
Swish.
A stack of papers flew into the air from the hand of the woman who had entered first.
One sheet landed in front of each student’s desk.
Julian addressed the students.
“Nothing heard in this classroom may be disclosed outside it. Any act of exploiting the material will be subject to aggravated punishment. Only students who agree should sign the paper. Those who do not agree should leave the classroom.”
For a brief moment, his gaze rested on Charlotte and Kal among the Hero Studies students.
“In addition, students from the Hero Studies Department must sign, as this is a required course.”
Surprisingly.
Not a single person left.
Footnotes:
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