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After returning to the dormitory, I woke up early the next day.

Considering that I had immediately fallen asleep after coming back the night before, it wasn’t really strange. The problem was the reason I had woken up.

Under normal circumstances, I would have happily thought that morning training time had been extended and gone outside, but now I had no such desire.

“Something… something feels off.”

There was a sense of strangeness that I hadn’t felt the day before.

It was a feeling that I couldn’t specifically pinpoint, which made it all the more unsettling. Even after sitting for several minutes, thinking to myself, I couldn’t find anything specific to latch onto, so I decided that I was just still getting used to this room.

“That can’t be it, though.”

The dormitory I unpacked in, Plox Pavilion, had luxurious facilities as it was carefully built by the imperial family. It was only natural, as any defects in the academy directly operated by the imperial family could affect its authority.

The dormitory itself had attendants present for constant management, and the basic furniture provided in the room along with the bedding was all top-notch items that could only be found in prestigious noble households. I wasn’t just admiring my bed for no reason last night.

The environment itself was pleasant.

Moreover, the assigned room had plenty of sunlight and an open view, so the scenery when I opened the window was quite nice and pleasing.

To add a slight exaggeration, I couldn’t feel much difference from the room I had in the lord’s castle. There were no significant issues with the room itself.

After all, I had confidence that I could sleep comfortably even on a straw mat laid out in a tent designed merely to block the wind, so there was no reason for me to feel this way just because my sleeping place had changed. However, I wasn’t about to go searching for the cause of this feeling.

There must have been another reason, but I preferred to avoid bouncing around trying to find the cause of this strange feeling from the morning. There was no need to exhaust myself with anything like training this early.

Even if there was still a bit of time before class, it was uncertain whether I would actually find the cause in that time. It would be more prudent to do something I could finish within the time rather than tackling something that I couldn’t complete.

The luggage sent to the dormitory was still packed in the bag.

Perhaps I should decorate the room in the remaining time…

Even if “decorating” just meant laying out the clothes and items I had brought, it would be good enough to pass the time. Since that strange feeling hadn’t worn off yet, it would be best to distract myself with this task.

[Ugh… Aaaah!! Wait… stay still!!]

[■■■■■-!!]

“What is that noise?”

As I began unpacking and trying to decorate the room, a loud commotion came from the room next door. The noise was too loud to be blamed on soundproofing issues, so I thought something might have happened, and I stepped out of the door.

When I opened the door, it turned out that no one was outside, so it seemed I was the only one who heard the noise.

The only room next to mine was the one at the end of the hallway, so perhaps that was why. Indeed, as I stepped into the hallway, the noise from next door had disappeared. I knocked on the door of the neighboring room, filled with some suspicion.

Knock knock—

[Yes!! Please wait a moment! I’ll be right out!!]

The voice I heard from beyond the door sounded somewhat familiar.

Sure enough, when the door opened, the figure I saw was someone I knew very well.

“Oh! Prince Damian?”

“Richard. I see you’re in the next room.”

The boy with hair like the sunset, in a disheveled state, looked up at me.

I couldn’t believe that Richard Ertuven was the owner of the room next to mine. It’s a coincidence, but what kind of coincidence is this? I hadn’t checked because I returned late the night before, but who would have thought there would be such encounters two days in a row? With similar occurrences happening consecutively, the sense of reality felt a little diminished.

Regardless, it was a relief that I felt less awkward speaking to someone I knew as the owner of the room.

Unlike when we met previously, he didn’t seem uncomfortable around me at all. Maybe he had completely shaken it off, or he was simply surprised to find out I was in the room next to his. I couldn’t read people’s hearts, but at that moment, I didn’t feel the same vibe from him as before.

“Um… well…”

As Richard met my eyes, he opened his mouth with a slightly trembling voice. This meant he was aware of why I had knocked on his door. He seemed to hesitate before answering, hinting at something he wanted to hide.

I used my perception to check the surroundings and then responded.

“Do you happen to have a cat or something?”

“Huh?”

“I heard a commotion earlier, as if something was arguing in your room. The only voice other than yours didn’t seem human, so if you brought a pet, you’d better keep the door locked.”

As I tried to change the topic, Richard immediately complied and continued speaking.

From my perception, there was no other human presence apart from Richard in the room. There was a peculiar trace, but it didn’t seem like it was anything that required another person’s involvement, so I decided not to dig into Richard’s personal affairs further and let it go.

Honestly, even if Richard was raising a chimera in there, it wasn’t something I needed to comment on.

“Ah… well, that makes sense. Thank you for the advice. By the way, I never would have thought that Prince Damian would be in the room next to mine.”

“We came in late last night, so we didn’t cross paths. Please take care of me going forward.”

As I extended my hand, Richard took a moment to catch his breath, then smiled with a more relaxed expression and shook my hand.

“Yeah. Looking forward to it.”

*

Richard and I simply chatted for a bit, agreed to drop the formalities, and then parted ways. It was now truly time for class to start.

After finishing my preparations and stepping outside the building, I noticed the various markings on the arms of the students who were following behind me.

Seeing this reminded me of another reason why I was surprised to see Richard.

The markings on their arms indicated the departments the students belonged to, meaning that cadets from both the Department of Knights and the Department of Magic were mixed together. For some reason, I had assumed that the owner of the room next to mine was from the Department of Knights.

If the owner next door had been Reinhardt, I probably would have reacted just as surprised.

“Damian.”

Speaking of the devil, Reinhardt appeared right in front of me, timing perfectly to catch my attention.

He still had some moisture left in his hair, suggesting that he had been training since morning. He looked at me with a hint of disappointment in his gaze, as if he was let down that I hadn’t shown up at the training room.

“Skipping morning training is not good. No matter how far ahead you are, if you let your guard down, you’ll fall behind.”

“It’s amazing how you never stray from expectations… Anyway, I ran into someone I know this morning. Reinhardt, which floor is your dorm on?”

“Room 306.”

“I’m in room 509. It turns out my neighbor is an acquaintance of mine. I didn’t know because I came in late the night before, but I met him this morning. You should swing by and introduce yourself later. I think he could use a friend.”

“….Sure.”

Reinhardt quickly relaxed and nodded.

I wasn’t really sure if Richard lacked friends, but it wouldn’t be a bad thing if everyone made friends like this. Even if it was true in nature, it was different now that I had a common denominator—me. Considering what’s to come, it wouldn’t hurt for everyone to get along.

Of course, whether the two of them become friends depended on Reinhardt and Richard, but I felt it wouldn’t be a bad match.

“That guy is from the Department of Magic, so you’ll probably only meet him after all his classes are done. You might have heard his name, Richard Ertuven…”

“Damian.”

Just as the conversation seemed to have shifted back to what happened this morning, Reinhardt suddenly called my name and placed his hand on the sword given to him as an academy student.

He wasn’t trying to draw it; he just rested his hand on the hilt. However, the expression on his face suggested he had made up his mind about something.

A tingling sensation pricked my skin similar to what I felt during the entrance ceremony. The atmosphere shifted as Reinhardt slowly opened his mouth again.

“Do you know what classes we have today?”

“Are you talking about the schedule? The first class is Knight Theory, and the next is Swordsmanship…”

As I looked at him with a ‘no way?’ expression, he nodded.

“That’s right. I heard that the classes in the Department of Knights make cadets fight each other starting from the first day. That’s only natural. There’s no need for words to grasp each other’s skills. Proving oneself is enough with a sword.”

Reinhardt finished speaking and then quietly looked at me without saying anything more.

He hadn’t said anything further, but I felt as if I somehow understood what Reinhardt was trying to convey.

I replied to his suggestion.

“Got it. I’ll prove it to you.”

I was curious about just how much of a gap in our levels there actually was.

 

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