I Became the Savior of the Academy’s Villains

"When, when did Your Highness get here...?"

"From the very beginning."

As she answered lightly, Isella—whose real name was Lysel Pandriga—also appeared behind her. The elders of the faculty grew even more tense at the entrance of Lysel, who was responsible for "Moonlight" in the royal family's secret weapon 'Night'.

"That was so startling. Us old folks could die if we get surprised like that..."

While the faculty elders gave awkward reactions, the vice headmaster Ethylene, who had the quickest judgment, responded first to Brid's words.

"By the way, Princess, what do you mean by a recommendation...?"

"You know how it's a problem because three S-Class students suddenly went on leave? We need to promote at least one or two from A-Class to S-Class, but if we just promote anyone, the other factions will raise objections."

Currently, the Hernan Empire has three factions.

One is the noble imperial family, the proud lineage of Hernan.
Another is the Kimberly Ducal Faction, formed around the most respected mage, magpigor Kimberly.
The last one is the Partigell Ducal Faction, responsible for the economy of the Hernan Empire.

These three factions maintain a stance of rivals and collaborators, checking each other while helping at times. However, in matters of pride, where there is no real loss, none would likely back down easily.

"That's right. It's something we've been struggling over as well."

"I have someone in mind I'd like to recommend."

"Hoo... Princess, it was difficult enough to bring you here under someone else's identity, and now you want to ask for something more?"

"Oh my, what a disappointing thing to say between us. You're only sitting in that seat thanks to me."

"Y-Your Highness!"

Brid Hernan chuckled quietly at the flustered vice headmaster Ethylene, then handed them a photo. The three elder faculty members looked at the photo and wore conflicted expressions.

"This is..."

"This person will do just fine."

"They certainly are an excellent candidate... but they're also at the center of this recent incident, and there's a high chance the Kimberly Faction will object."

The children of the Kimberly Dukedom were already upperclassmen, but among the vassal noble houses under them, there were several with children entering this year. If they overlooked them to send Luca up to S-Class, it was certain to cause complaints. Brid Hernan squinted her eyes and smiled at Ethylene, who spoke cautiously.

"No, what I mean is that if you choose this person, there won't be any objections at all."

"... Ah."

In other words, she was saying she'd prevent any trouble from arising. One could ask what kind of power a mere first-year academy student could possibly have, but knowing who stood behind her, Ethylene could only sigh instead. Yet still, he seemed skeptical as he spoke again.

"Your Highness, forgive my impertinence, but why go so far as to take such a risk to promote the Traverse family's second son to S-Class? Even if you become close to him, the Traverse family supports the Second Prince."

"If it's impertinent, perhaps you shouldn't say it?"

"...."

Ethylene fell silent, and Brid Hernan gave a little laugh as she stood up. She picked up the photo she had left on the table, tucked it back into her pocket, and turned to leave.

"I like his face."

"... Excuse me?"

"Well, I'll leave it to you, then~."

With that breezy answer, Brid Hernan left the room, Lysel Pandriga following at her side. The elder teachers were left with bitter looks on their faces.

Moving away from the senior teachers, Lysel spoke cautiously.

"Your Highness. Roben..."

"Lysel."

"... I apologize. Is it really alright to ask that person for help in this matter?"

Brid stopped Lysel from saying someone's name. After apologizing, Lysel scanned the area and referred to the person obliquely. Brid stifled laughter.

"Of course. The Duke of Kimberly wouldn't bother with something so trifling. The only ones making a fuss are the people who want to pick up the scraps under him."

For someone who wasn't even his child, or someone with no reputation within the faction, the Duke of Kimberly wouldn't step forward. At most, complaints might come from barons or viscounts. Stopping them wouldn't take much effort.

"And besides, they're all idiots who couldn't get into S-Class by their own merit. Even the Kimberly Faction will just let it go."

"But isn't the same true for him?"

"Lysel, you dueled him with swords and still don't realize it? I hate to admit it, but the fact that he didn't get into S-Class was due to Hernan Academy's error."

Lysel fell silent, unable to deny Brid's words. Yet her voice soon turned grumbly again.

"Still, Your Highness, why go so far for a brute like him?"

"I told you. I like his face."

"Huh, you mean, his face?"

Chuckling at Lysel's flustered expression, Brid replied,

"I'm joking. Not that I don't like his looks, but he's useful—in politics and for enjoying academy life."

"I... see..."

Lysel still didn't understand, but seemed to accept it since Brid said so.

"Well, since I went this far for him—"

Brid flashed a bright smile.

"He'd better make my life interesting."

There is no such thing as favor without compensation.

* * *

"Huh? Wait, how did you...?"

A week had passed since the entrance ceremony ended. Freshman orientation and dorm assignments were done, course registration was finished, and suddenly Luca appeared in the S-Class. Seeing him, Ottbo's eyes went wide. Not wanting to bother with a lengthy explanation, Luca spoke quickly.

"Three S-Class students went on leave all of a sudden, so they had to promote someone from A-Class. I was picked."

"R—really? Wait, of course! It would have been stranger if you weren't in S-Class!"

Seeing Ottbo go from startled to excited shouting, Luca couldn't help but let out a small laugh.

"Well, you're in magic and I'm in swordsmanship, so we probably won't share many classes."

"What does that matter? We'll still have the common subjects together."

Ottbo grinned from ear to ear. Looking around, Luca asked,

"Don't you have a group?"

"Huh? Uh... no."

"?"

Ottbo replied awkwardly. Luca paused for a moment, then raised an eyebrow.

"Are you being ostracized or something?"

"Wh-what? Of course not! I just don't have anyone I'm close with."

"Why not?"

Staring at him, Ottbo averted his gaze, offering no words. But Luca soon realized why.

"It's because of the entrance ceremony, isn't it."

"..."

No one wanted to be friends with a guy who'd gotten knocked down so pathetically in front of everyone.

'Even if this kid hadn't stepped up, those three idiots would have gotten what they deserved... but it still bothers me to see someone get hurt on my account.'

Even without Ottbo's intervention, things would have worked out fine. Still, Luca couldn't bring himself to leave this pitiful boy in such an undignified state. This wasn't how the character was in the original work, but for some reason, he found himself growing attached.

'... And he seems kind of similar to me.'

Memories of his own school days surfaced. Plus, with the commotion over changing classes, Luca was alone as well. It wasn't a bad thing to have a companion.

'And as for her...'

With that, Luca cleared his throat and looked away, tossing out a remark.

"Well, I guess I'm in no position to talk."

Ottbo stared blankly for a moment before his eyes widened with surprise.

"You're on your own too?"

"After switching classes, I've been busy with a lot of stuff. Didn't have time to get to know the A-Class students. Not that I intended to anyway."

Ottbo, watching Luca's indifferent attitude, replied with growing excitement.

"How about your dorm?"

"I got the same room the others were using."

"Wow! I'll come visit!"

"Tsk, shouldn't have told you."

"Haha!"

Ottbo looked genuinely delighted, and even Luca wore a faint, rounded smile.

"How'd you manage your classes?"

"Nothing special. I took nearly all the common subjects, and picked just the required courses for my major."

The academy's curriculum was a bit like university.
First-years had to take basic core classes and usually selected mandatory courses for their major.

"Do you have your schedule?"

"Tsk."

"Um... Wow! All our common classes are the same!"

Ottbo didn't realize it, but Luca, through Bella, had seen Ottbo's schedule and matched his classes on purpose. From the start, Luca had intended to stick with him.

"Such a persistent connection."

"It turned out great! Academy life's going to be a lot more fun now!"

Luca just pouted his lips at Ottbo's happiness. Then Ottbo, after a moment of contentment, suddenly recalled something.

"Hey, Luca, I guess fate really does exist!"

"What weird thing are you babbling about now?"

"No, wa— Ahem! I mean, Milia!"

At the mention of Milia, Luca's eyebrow twitched.

"Don't tell me, all her common classes are the same as ours?"

"Yeah! Isn't this destiny?"

"... Hmm. Is that so."

He smiled inwardly.

'Just as I thought.'

Of course, it was no coincidence. She must have anticipated Luca would arrange his schedule with Ottbo and planned accordingly.

She had already done the same for the protagonist in the original story.

'She's really drawing a lot of attention, but that's fine. I'm interested in her myself.'

If you want to catch a tiger, you have to enter the tiger's den. Since things had gotten this tangled, he wasn't planning to run.

"Class is about to start, isn't it? What do you have next?"

"Swordsmanship major class."

"Ah, right. I have magic major, too."

With Ottbo's regretful expression, Luca smirked, turned, and said,

"Come to the second student cafeteria at lunchtime."

"Oh, okay!"

Ottbo looked thrilled to finally have someone to eat with.

* * *

The SA-Class first-year swordsmanship major class was held at Swordsmanship Faculty's 3rd Basic Sword Training Hall. Arriving a bit early and taking his seat, Luca fell into thought as a man entered the podium.

— Black hair, rare on the continent, and slit-eyes that made his pupils hard to see.
— Resembling an "East Asian" on Earth, but in this world, clearly called a minority ethnicity.
— Despite a somewhat sly air, his tall, heavily trained body showed he had survived the real battlefield.

'That's Kryphi Mosto.'

Kryphi Mosto, the swordsman known as the nightmare of the battlefield.
A two-time consecutive champion in the Hernan Empire Swordsmanship Tournament—a master among masters.

Yet in the original story, he tormented the protagonist relentlessly and left the academy after being half-jokingly, half-seriously beaten by him in a duel around second year; he never appeared again.

'When the protagonist was a first-year, Kryphi Mosto was already a swordsmanship instructor for E-Class. So why did the original SA-Class swordsmanship instructor get suddenly demoted like that?'

Luca wondered if there was a hidden secret behind it all.

'Even the protagonist's teacher acknowledged his skill. He'll provide some help in my quest to surpass Wylde Traverse, Luca Traverse' dream.'

On top of that, if he could form a connection, he might be able to extract some clues, so investing a semester of classes with him was worthwhile.

As Luca pondered these thoughts, the man on the podium began the class.

"This is our first class since orientation. We have a few less people, but at least we have even pairs now."

On the podium, Kryphi Mosto looked gentle but had a sharp, agile face, and his rigorously trained body showed he truly had skills.

"As I mentioned in orientation, my classes are all taught in pairs. I value cooperation, so from practical evaluations to tests, everything is done in pairs."

"Hm."

He was already aware of this—it was part of the original story. Thanks to this class, the protagonist grew closer to 'her'.
The real question was who would be Luca's partner.

At that moment, Kryphi approached Luca and spoke apologetically.

"I'm sorry about this, Traverse. There's only one person you could be paired with."

"That's alright. I don't mind."

"Haaa... I truly didn't want someone of your standing to be partnered with one of such low birth, but rules are rules."

With that, Kryphi shot a look of disgust behind Luca.
The moment Luca followed his gaze and saw who it was, he realized instantly why Kryphi had been demoted to E-Class.

"Tsk."

Hair gleaming silver like moonlight, more warrior than woman, strong and sharp as a master-forged blade... beautiful.

The woman wore a scowl as if something greatly displeased her. Seeing this, Kryphi grew more agitated.

"Oho! How dare you click your tongue at the precious young master of the Traverse family, who is responsible for the defense of the Hernan Empire!"

"It's alright, sir Mosto."

"But..."

Kryphi's sly, malicious glare matched his depiction in the original work.

'No wonder the protagonist couldn't hold back and broke his head open several times. This man is something else.'

If Luca himself had been born a commoner, he likely couldn't have endured it either. But right now, Kryphi wasn't the important one.

"We know each other."

"Excuse me?"

Kryphi looked surprised at the words 'we know each other'.

Ignoring him, Luca reached out his hand to her.

"A persistent bond, Isella."

"... Don't speak to me so familiarly, you brute."

"Ik! How dare a commoner address a count's child so informally!"

There stood Isella—real name Lysel Pandriga—the sword guarding the princess.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】