Dragoon

    The young elf girl Millia’s long, green hair swayed as she walked. As she looked at the sky out the window, she could feel a warm sunlight, and the wind she received from that open window also carried with it a sense of kindness. Her third year had ended, and as the new freshmen came in, Millia felt she had somewhat moved up in the world.“I’m not sure if it was long or short. More importantly, this result sheet is a surprise.”

As Millia walked down the school building corridor, she took a sidelong glance at the bulletin board before stopping to think.

The third year final comprehensive evaluation posted up listed the names of the top ten students. And surprisingly enough, Rudel was first, with Luecke and Eunius coming after him. The comprehensive evaluation was something decided from academics, practicals and evaluations in challenges. While Eunius was devastatingly bad at academics, the fact he was there was largely due to his top marks on practicals and challenges.

And Luecke’s academics were perfect, but his grades in practicals were only a little better than average. Still amazing, while they were each first in their respective fields, it was because of Rudel that they were forced into second and third as a whole.

His sword skills fell short of Eunius. His academics and magic fell short of Luecke. But Rudel’s comprehensive evaluation was ranked first. You could say he had few weak points. His course was a rare one among upperclassmen, whose grades usually inclined towards civil or military matters.

Izumi and Millia’s names weren’t on it, but their grades weren’t bad by any means. Millia encouraged herself as she took her eyes off the posted sheet and continued down the corridor.

(When I first met him, I thought he was just a stupid noble son… is he seriously aiming to become a dragoon? With those grades, his future’s practically assured.)

Their first meeting was the worst. It all started when she mocked Rudel for reading a picture book, so there was no helping it. .And because of that, even now she couldn’t shorten the distance to him.

Looking outside from the open window, she spotted students of her year calling out to the students. The one greeting those inexperienced freshmen were Aleist and his friends.

“How about it? I’ll show you around the school, so do you want to get some tea along the way?”

“Just a little tea, alright?”

… He was hitting on them. Aleist, who was treated as a monster when he first enrolled was now hiding in Rudel’s shadow. But from their usual conduct and speck, all four of them were treated as problem children. For Aleist, he had become much easier to talk to than he was at first, so he had her pity.

“A dragon idiot, a magic idiot, and a sword idiot… then what does that make Aleist? Rather, no one here reads the mood, and no one ever tried to. To achieve top grades despite all that…”

Giving a grumble, Millia started back down the corridor as she remembered all that had unfolded. At first, she had thought the enrollment of the Three Lords’ eldest sons would be a pain. But now, there were plenty of laughs to be had when their stories were brought up, and Aleist was occasionally treated as something of a mascot character.

Luecke had destroyed the facilities in his magical practicals, and Eunius went too far in his sword duels. Aleist was occasionally lacking in common sense Or so his actions seemed to say. But!

“Rudel’s the biggest problem child after all.”

Participating in a magic experiment, he helped out in destroying the facility, in his duel with Eunius, he wrecked the arena, and his problematic behavior showed an even greater lack of common sense than Aleist. On top of that, his grades were great, and he was serious in class, so the professors found it difficult to caution him. His lack of any ill will only made it needlessly worse.

“Guess there’s a paper-thin difference between genius and something…”

◇

Aleist was keeping his friend’s pickups company. Honestly, he enjoyed playing around with his friend more than actually hitting on girls, and he wasn’t that proactive in it. As Aleist turned his eyes to the school building, the elf girl Millia was walking down the corridor. Her green hair swaying, her walking figure was somewhat beautiful.

As he grew enraptured, his friend who failed in his pickup sent over a berating voice.

“What’s this, Aleist? You got a thing for Millia?”

“I-I don’t! She was just walking down the corridor, so I…”

While Aleist denied it, from the start, he held a favorable impression of Millia as a capture target character. But that was a one-sided affection through a game, and a setting simply imposed on a character called Millia. Lately, with what happened with Rudel, he had learned to suppress his logic to take certain actions because it was a game.

Looking at them now, the game’s characters seemed to be more charming than they ever had been in-game. The existence of Millia who he had only ever seen as one of a harem, looking at her like this, he couldn’t see her as someone buried within some harem.

Her lovely green hair, her white skin, and her cute face… her slender build, and while she looked delicate, she was an elf warrior capable of battle. Aleist had been enraptured a number of times by the iradescent wings of elven magic she produced in battle. And he thought her cold impression, and her strong will were just part of her charm.

“She’s strong-willed, prim and proper, but as I recall, Millia likes Rudel, doesn’t she?”

And just like that, his friend stabbed him with an unrelenting truth. Turning to him, Aleist cried out.

“No way!”

“No, it’s true, I tell you. So if you don’t act soon, you might be too late! Is all I wanted to say, but… are you listening, Aleist?”

“For real… but the Three Lords have good grades and good faces, but I don’t think my face loses out… no, I practically lose in all other fields, so that doesn’t really mean…”

“Ah, he’s at it again.”

“Yep.”

As those friends consoled a depressed Aleist, from that day forth, they chose to cooperate with Aleist’s love.

◇

The fact the new students were entering the dorm meant the graduates had already left. A change had to come about the Fifth years who had served as the dorm’s prefects… and there was a feud on who would take on the task.

“I don’t want to, you hear! Of all times, why do I have to be a prefect when we have four super problem children on our hands!?”

“Isn’t your house in the Arses faction? You be prefect.”

“No, not happening. Stopping Rudel is impossible for me!”

“If only Vargas was held back a year! Then we wouldn’t have anything to worry about…”

Opinions flew about the meeting room of the dorm, as students zealously tried to pass the role onto one another. Normally, a young noble would take the leadership role, and commoners would serve under them to carry out odd jobs. But the year before was a special one where everyone was a commoner student who had earned knight qualifications.

It was Rudel’s fault. The kickstart for that unprecedented correspondence lay in Rudel’s repeated problematic behavior. The pickup incident, his duel requests, and his infiltration into the girls’ dorm…

“That guy gets a free pass to the girls’ dorm you know!? Before jealous, I have to respect him!”

“In the past, sneaking into the girls’ dorm was an inevitable even, but now that all the high knights are there, there aren’t any idiots who would try to sneak in… right?”

“Of course it’s impossible! There are even rumors of him with the second princess! I’d be lucky if I just got kicked out of my house for that one.”

“Those high knights, you know. If it’s to protect the princess’ chastity, I heard they can even cut boys down in their wake.”

“Like hell they could cut down one of the three lords.”

“This is just an if. But if some idiot besides Rudel tries to enter the girls’ dorm while I’m prefect…”

The conference room grew quiet. This was another reason they couldn’t decide. Fina’s existence put a heavy responsibility on the boys’ dorm prefects. The cut down part was likely an empty threat, but more than that, there was no guarantee there wouldn’t be any idiots among the freshmen.

“I definitely don’t want to!”

“A-are there any problem children among the new students?”

“There are some every year, but this year, we’re getting some from a marquis house…”

“Lets pray there aren’t any big-shot rookies on Rudel’s level.”

Normally, overlooking the high-ranking nobles who snuck into the girls’ dorm was part of a prefect’s job. If that was used as a reason to harm the school’s relations, it was a cheap buy. But if anyone tried something like that now, it was much too dangerous.

As that was going on, one boy remembered the existence of Izumi. The sole existence who could stop Rudel with words, and even the other two of the Three Lords listened to her. Her miraculous existence was just as famous as Rudel.

“No, wait a second, isn’t there that foreigner called Izumi among the fourth years? How about we make her our prefect?”

“That’s an exceedingly wonderful idea, but not happening.”

“I know, right.”

The fifth years didn’t even know why they were going through such trouble. Eventually the time came, and the day ended without any prefects decided.