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Experiencing school life for the second time through reincarnation.

Even though it was my second school life, the atmosphere and what I learned differed significantly from my previous academic years due to the different world I lived in. However, just returning as a student was enough to evoke nostalgia.

Time flows quickly in school, just like before. It feels like just yesterday we held the entrance ceremony, yet nearly a month has already passed. Perhaps it’s because I’ve made friends. The pace of time here is indeed different from the days spent in my family.

Although this past month passed without any major incidents, one could hardly call it ordinary.

Originally, the first week after entering school is meant for acclimatization, allowing students to ease into the school environment with a more relaxed curriculum. It should have been the period where we could enjoy the most leisurely time in school life. Unfortunately, the Department of Knights was not as lenient as other departments.

Except for classes related to theory of knighthood, all subjects involved sparring and practical training.

Perhaps they wanted to demonstrate that what is needed for adaptation is not just time, but human will. The first week for the new students in the Department of Knights was replaced with endless sparring sessions rather than leisurely orientation.

Noel, Reinhardt, and I, along with the other kids who performed well in the first class, earned the right to train independently in subsequent classes, but the number of us was rather limited. The majority of students continued to engage in sparring and training under the supervision of instructors.

Looking back, I can say that this week was perhaps the most physically demanding time in my school life.

Watching classmates groan in pain from a distance sent chills down my spine. When our eyes occasionally met, it felt like I could hear silent screams saying, “I’m suffering here, but why are you guys not?!”

Perhaps, in the Department of Knights, adaptation meant not school, but real combat.

Having gained the freedom of autonomous training, we had relatively more relaxed schedules compared to others.

Once we finished our set training, we were free to enjoy our time. Indeed, those classmates being forced to repeat training and sparring due to the professors’ disciplinarian methods likely didn’t find us enjoyable to watch.

The week-long endless sparring served as both an assessment and training by the professors, so those who had been exempted from training, like the so-called self-study group, had completed their evaluations. Hence, they could enjoy their freedom without further evaluation.

Meritocracy.

Because merit determined superiority, social status held no weight here. If Noel or I showed any sign of lagging behind, the professors would unceremoniously throw us into the relentless training wheel that seemed never-ending.

As a result, the ratio of students transitioning to self-study was predominantly from commoner backgrounds. They were motivated by the knowledge that professors did not discriminate based on status. Naturally, as more commoner students moved to the self-study group, aristocratic students were also influenced.

While in the self-study group, I took turns sparring with the kids there, which surprised everyone. Especially Reinhardt reacted the most, as if he assumed I would always spar with him while I was in the self-study group.

“Reinhardt has been sparring a lot with Damian! Now it’s my turn!!”

“No, Noel, you too.”

“Eh?!”

Of course, sparring with Noel and Reinhardt brought many benefits, but it wasn’t that sparring with other kids was of no value. It was just a difference in quality and quantity.

Needless to say, when it comes to sparring, the one winning is me. No matter how arrogant it sounds, this is the truth.

It holds true even against Reinhardt and Noel.

Both of them are closing the gap quickly, but I still hold the upper hand. With two geniuses racing ahead, just how much wider is the gap between the other kids and me? Everyone knew I would win even without sparring.

Standing in a position of victory, it may sound odd for me to say this, but winning and losing in sparring isn’t that significant. Unless for motivation, the primary purpose of sparring is the experience gained during the process, not the outcome, except in life-and-death scenarios.

More experience. More diverse opponents.

What I wanted now was the process and the experiences.

Both of them are geniuses, showing growth beyond their previous selves with each spar, but their movements were still within my expectations. There was perhaps too much data stacked on them… what I needed was a new opponent that I had never faced before.

From a high vantage point, everything might seem uniform, but upon closer inspection, you can see the distinct traits each possesses. That’s why I sought to spar with the other kids.

The more experiences, the better. Though the two seemed to regret not being able to spar with me for a while, this was necessary training for me to avoid falling behind.

There was a wall between me and the children, and this wall wasn’t erected by my desire, but rather by how they perceived me differently from themselves, so I had to approach them first.

The reactions varied, but no one outright rejected my sparring requests.

As I mentioned earlier, sparring offers benefits for both sides regardless of who wins. Sparring with someone who proves their skills, like me, surely provides more gain than sparring with other kids, so even those noble children with strong pride accepted my challenges.

The results went as I wanted.

The dozens of students gathered here each had their methods, and I was able to experience every single one without omission. Although there were considerable differences in skill levels, viewing it from another perspective revealed what I needed to learn.

As a week passed, not only did my skills grow, but the breadth of my relationships expanded beyond what it had been before.

While not as close as Noel and Reinhardt, the looks of hesitation I once received decreased significantly. With barriers breaking down and conversations beginning to flow between us, they seemed to realize that I, Damian, wasn’t quite the person they had imagined.

Since I took the first step, even after a week passed, some friends approached me first.

Thus, this month of school life was the epitome of the ideal school experience. Flowing smoothly without major incidents, every day was special. During this time, I experienced my new school life with far more joy than before.

I wished this would continue for a year or even until graduation.

Then Orcus called for me.

*

I had anticipated that Orcus would summon me.

I remembered how he had once hesitated to bring it up. Since he hadn’t mentioned it in the month that followed, I had begun to think he’d forgotten, but seeing what he handed to me today made me understand why he had kept quiet for a month.

What Orcus showed me was some sort of document.

The thin, coated paper might look ordinary at first glance, but upon closer inspection, one could sense a peculiar energy emanating from it. The divine essence contained within felt reminiscent of a letter sent by Orcus, suggesting he had somehow unraveled the original magic sealed within.

I suspected it might have included some sort of magical barrier that would prevent outsiders from recognizing its contents.

The text inscribed on it largely concerned biological experiments, detailing the matter of humans that should not be interfered with even in this world where chimeras exist. As it was a log documenting experimental results rather than a simple hypothesis, it would have been unthinkable to show this to anyone else by accident.

He explained everything to me—from how he came by this document to what had happened to its original owner.

“So what do you think? Is it a trap?”

I couldn’t respond hastily to Orcus’ question.

Perhaps it was because acquiring the document seemed too easy.

Orcus thought this document could potentially frame Professor Heniwei. Indeed, the acquisition process was quite irregular. Even if he had broken through a barrier to enter the research lab, it hardly made sense that the key to the drawer containing the document would be conveniently left out in plain sight on the desk.

If it had been hidden away in a place where no one could see or held by the owner, it might have felt less suspicious, but laying it out so openly left no room for doubt.

Honestly, if I were in Orcus’ position, I might’ve thought it was a trap as well. However, the problem was that I knew what kind of person George Heniwei was.

‘Is it really this careless?’

The fact that I, who am not in the Department of Magic, know the name of a professor in the Department of Magic can only be attributed to two possibilities: either I’m an ally or an enemy. George Heniwei surely falls into the latter category. He is the villain who appears just at the right time when Elena becomes a sophomore, trying to escape from Damian and enjoy her school years.

He didn’t just suddenly turn corrupt in his second year; he had been a spy planted among the heretics for quite a while, so there’s no need to worry about any developments that would reveal him as a good person.

The sequence of events occurring in the original work isn’t something to be overly concerned about. There had already been a precedent in the south.

George Heniwei is currently suspended and has gone missing.

If he indeed submitted the leave of absence form on the day of the entrance ceremony, and since no confirmation of his identity has been made up till now, it creates an air of suspicion around this scenario. The reason it took Orcus a month to bring up this topic was that it required sufficient time to trace the erratic movements of Heniwei.

In any case, the scenario Orcus envisioned involved this Professor Heniwei going into hiding to avoid being falsely accused. Currently, he’s being hunted down, and it seems the culprit is within this academy…I couldn’t really refute that.

Yet, it would be unfounded for me to simply declare that this guy is the culprit without any evidence to back it up.

I pondered for a moment before saying to Orcus, “Let’s just issue a warrant and capture him.”

“Huh?”

“If he’s innocent, we can release him after apprehending him. The current situation is suspicious, but it seems better to go with the standard protocol. We’re not going to execute him on the spot, are we?”

“Wouldn’t issuing a warrant just make Professor Heniwei hide more?”

“Then should we just sit idle? According to your speculation, Professor Heniwei is already a fugitive. So it’d be easier for us to capture him first by issuing a warrant.”

Orcus seemed somewhat convinced by my remark. I don’t expect him to easily surrender upon a warrant being issued, but a display of this kind is needed under the circumstances.

‘Is he dead?’

I didn’t say it out loud, but honestly, I suspected that George Heniwei might be dead. Calling it a scapegoat would be too obvious, and I believed someone who knew his secrets must have stirred up trouble; however, I couldn’t think of anyone specific.

Of course, I knew because I had read the original story, so normally nobody should have known anything until something happened.

Naturally, what I read was a novel, so the information given to me as a reader was extremely limited, and I could only wonder if there was someone who knew about George Heniwei’s secrets. Or perhaps there could be someone who, like me, is aware of events yet to happen.

However, it is hard to understand why someone who wouldn’t act in the original work suddenly moves at this point in time.

“Well, good things lead to good outcomes.”

Regardless, it was true that one of the original villains had arrived. Since it means my tasks have decreased, it’s a good situation for me.

However, I didn’t feel completely happy about it. This incident felt like a precursor signaling that my school life ahead wouldn’t go smoothly. A sudden chill swept over me as I had a hunch that something would happen soon.

“Eh, surely not…”

I desperately shook my head, but that ominous feeling didn’t fade away.

 

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