Chatper 18: Awards ceremony

We quickly cleaned up our designated area, and by the fifth bell, I was already standing in the middle of a large crowd, waiting for the royal family to arrive. The anticipation was killing me.

I did pass everything first, so the outcome should be a given… buuut… I couldn’t disregard the matter of status.

Because of that teeny tiny detail, I was still nervous about the results. Frankly, it was ridiculous. We had passed the classes in the first two weeks, and yet, here I was at the end of the winter, still unsure about my position.

Finally, the royals arrived.

OK, that’s what Anastasius looks like, good to know. He and his brother looked quite similar. Without seeing them together, I might have mistaken the two. Thankfully, we had never interacted.

I was really proud of myself that I had managed to avoid any entanglement with the royal family. When Primevere had asked me to raise a protest against Klassenberg, or when those Dunkelfelger knights had suddenly shown up at our training announcing their intention to help Estelle, I had felt boxed in as if all the pieces had begun falling into a predetermined path.

Even without Rozemyne, it had seemed like everything was heading towards a big mess. With the small difference that I didn’t have Rozemyne’s skill to just blunder into exceptional success.

But somehow, Klassenberg hadn’t taken offense to the letter, and I hadn’t even been punished for speaking with Lestilaut. Sure, I was frustrated about the commoner rumor destroying all my plans, but at least I had made it through the year, more or less, without stirring up anything that would have compelled Ehrenfest’s leadership to bar me from attending the next year.

I didn’t pay much attention to the handing out of the tournament awards since Ehrenfest wasn’t highly ranked in any of them. Though, the knights had managed to take the ninth place, which was kind of high compared to our current ranking. Judging by the stealthy grins, they were definitely pumped about that.

However, once the individual awards announcements began, I was all ears.

Cornelius, Hartmut, not surprising. Estelle, I guess not surprising either.

Estelle had good memory and more mana than anyone in our dormitory, and it seemed that her natural talent had been enough to bridge the gap in her experience. In a single year, she had gone from getting beaten by a bunch of disgruntled laynobles to rivaling the best archknights.

Leonore and Alexis, not surprising. Henrietta?

Sure, Henrietta had already earned the status of an honor student last year, but back then, she had to deal with only the general curriculum as a second-year. This winter, it was about the knight course proper, and that course relied heavily on fighting prowess, which in turn relied on mana.

Henrietta’s plan to stay in the background seemed incompatible with displaying enough strength during a fight to acquire high grades. And yet, there she was, standing among the honor students with a small, proud smile.

But the real surprise to the audience came with Ehrenfest’s second-years. Everyone but the laynobles managed to attain the status of an honor student.

I could hear the avalanche of whispers from all sides.

“Wait, even their second-years?” echoed from everywhere.

Some of the voices seemed quite panicked.

While our second-years hadn’t made as much of a splash as “passing all classes on the first day,” they had still worked hard to gain high grades, flying completely under the radar of those who had endlessly debated the unusual first-years’ performance.

Brunhilde walked onto the stage with a bright smile. Seeing her exceptionally pleased expression, I recalled her declaration from the start of the winter to not be outdone by younger students. She had pushed all the second-years to follow in our footsteps, so her victorious smile was definitely deserved.

I had come to the Academy completely prepared, taking care of our weaknesses years in advance during the playroom. She, on the other hand, had begun organizing her group only after we had departed for the Academy, without any prior warning.

One could maybe object that her year had four archnobles, and Matthias with Adeus had been honor students last year, but then again—one of the archnobles was Traugott. I was probably biased, but I considered that an achievement on its own.

This is perfect! I grinned, not caring at all whether someone glanced my way.

With everyone already talking about this unusual occurrence, it should soften the potential blow once the first-years would be called in.

“What did they do?”

“Did something change there?”

“I only heard about their temple.”

“I mean, I did see them in the library a lot.”

Remark after remark, and some hardly discreet whispers bounced all around. I was enjoying their confusion, smiling towards my brother at the stage.

“And the first-year who placed first in class…” Even my buttcheeks clenched as I heard those words. “Mila, a mednoble from Ehrenfest.”

Muhahaha… YES!!! Suckers! I danced inside my head.

They actually followed through, with no last-minute “status adjustments.” I was barely holding it together, and it was kind of hard to even breathe properly. But I couldn’t screw this up. This was my opportunity to make an impression on everyone, something that would put to rest all those circulating rumors.

I strengthened my noble facade, even pushing some mana to enhance the muscles in my jaw to stop it from shaking. At this moment, I wanted to look perfect. Only then did I begin to slowly walk towards the stage.

Naturally, I wasn’t going alone. Name after name, they continued announcing honor students. The other duchies were definitely present, although with fewer mednobles, even from Drewanchel. So mednobles like Tarenese, Shickehr or Nianne still garnered some attention.

However, when it came to Ehrenfest, the stir definitely got louder with each passing name.

And when even our laynobles were called in, I could hear a loud, distinctive voice exclaiming his surprise. The tone of the voice was akin to someone shouting, “Come on!”

“Weird, I thought Lord Ignaz was supposed to be first in class,” some girl, most likely an archnoble, remarked as I walked past her.

“I don’t get it,” another girl added.

“All their mednobles managed to pass their classes on their first day as well,” some other conversation continued on my left.

“All of them?”

Yes, all of them. Your information gathering sucks. Half of the mednobles in our year were present at the schtappe fundamentals exam, I replied teasingly in my head.

“They must have cheated!” Another debate was raging on my right.

I was enjoying their outrage, though my neutral smile didn’t acknowledge anything.

“I don’t get it. If they all passed at the same time, how did that mednoble girl become first in class? Why not their archnobles?” a female voice took my attention.

“Professor Renatus said that she had gained the highest score in the etiquette class,” another girl explained.

“Ah, that makes sense. Lower-status nobles have it so much easier in that class. We had to practice for a tea party with royalty.” The first girl sighed.

“Yeah, it doesn’t seem fair. Mednobles should be scored lower in that class,” the second girl grumbled.

That class definitely wasn’t easy! If you ever get a prince undercover as a fellow archnoble in your class, then we can talk.

Though, I couldn’t reply to anyone. All I could do was to keep my noble facade and move ahead.

I walked by the older honor students, who were already standing in their positions, and glanced behind me.

The nearest Ehrenfest student was Ignaz. Hearing that one remark about him, I could understand Marianne’s previous annoyance at her own skills. If her classmates had thought that Ignaz would have been the first, it had no doubt clashed with her efforts to excel among the honor students.

Though, at the moment, her noble facade looked flawless, showing no displeasure.

The same couldn’t be said about a girl with purple hair who stood nearby. She wasn’t doing a good job with her presence, staring with wide eyes at our laynobles. Her cape was dark green, which made me recall that Immerdink’s archduke candidate had been called as well.

Eh, I guess Ferdinand was right when he pointed out this kind of thing. At least, our rank was lower, so our students—whether archnobles or laynobles—had come behind her. The damage wasn’t too bad… if one didn’t focus on me.

I promptly turned back towards the royal family and continued on my path. Approaching them made me a bit nervous. My body wanted to be more deferential on reflex, so I was trying to recall all the silly interactions between Anastasius and Rozemyne to reassure myself and push through the aura of reverence.

Still, it was hard to do that with the Zent, as I knew nothing personal about him.

I did write in my notes that the king might be shady, though… He couldn’t be too bad a person if he hadn’t sabotaged my first-in-class award.

The Zent didn’t even acknowledge my short name, which was another plus. He merely praised me for my hard work without any subtle jabs or threats. Well, he seemed a bit tired anyway.

Yep, this is the best first impression I’ve made. I widened my smile ever so slightly.

I hadn’t picked a fight with any royal; they hadn’t had to deal with any interduchy incidents caused by me; and my first meeting with the Zent was him praising me for my efforts.

I descended from the stage with the same victorious smile as Brunhilde’s.