This country has something called an academy.
In my original world, going to school was the norm, but in this world, it's actually the opposite — most people don't go to school at all.
The ones who can attend are the privileged class, like nobles, a handful of wealthy commoners, or people who are exceptionally talented.
In my case, being royalty, enrolling in the academy isn't a problem.
The same goes for
The three of us had already decided to enroll together.
At the academy, they teach general academics, much like schools in my original world.
At the same time, we'd also be taking classes focused on fighting.
In fact, that's more of the main focus here.
Even though the Daztorudia Continent is under human control, on other continents, battles with the Demon race and Monsters are still raging.
The Daztorudia Continent has Monsters too, and you can never have enough people who can fight.
So the academy places a heavy emphasis on combat studies.
The three of us — me, Sue, and Kathia — were in the venue where the enrollment ceremony was being held.
Looking around, this year's incoming students were seated and waiting for the ceremony to begin.
This academy was the largest in the surrounding area, so a large number of children came from other countries to enroll.
Among them, you could spot demi-humans here and there.
When I looked over the students, some quickly averted their gazes, while others stared right back at me.
Every so often I'd catch furtive glances, and I could hear whispered conversations.
"I heard that's the prince of this country over there."
"They say he's a genius, but he doesn't look all that strong at first glance."
"Maybe I could find a way to get close to him?"
I heard all kinds of things, but thanks to Hearing Enhancement, every last word reached me crystal clear.
It was incredibly uncomfortable.
"Good mooorning~!"
A laid-back voice broke through that atmosphere and reached my ears.
When I turned around, standing there was, as expected, Oka-chan — the elf Philimes.
"Good morning. It feels kind of weird having a teacher be a fellow student."
"I'm excited to experience youth all over again~!"
She plopped down right next to me without hesitation.
Sue, who was sitting on my other side, shot a glare at the teacher.
Well, calling it a glare — she was flat-out glaring.
Come to think of it, this was the first time Sue and the teacher had met.
The next instant, a chill ran down my spine.
"Little sis. If you direct killing intent at the teacher again~... I'll have to kill you, okay~?"
She said it with a smile.
Her tone was the same carefree drawl as always.
But her eyes weren't smiling in the slightest.
Even Sue was overwhelmed by that pressure.
Both Kathia and I were stunned by this side of the teacher.
She was the kind of person you'd call Oka-chan — warm, endearing, approachable.
There was no way someone like her would ever get seriously angry, or show this kind of bone-chilling killing intent.
"Surprised you~? But in this world, you won't survive unless you're willing to go this far. Elves grow slower than the Human race, so we're small and often looked down upon, but if you're going to pick a fight with the teacher, you'd better be prepared to die first, okay~?"
The way she casually dropped "prepared to die" suggested the teacher had been through experiences we couldn't even imagine.
I quietly activated Appraisal on the teacher.
『Appraisal was blocked.』
"Shun, peeking at a lady's profile without permission is not very gentlemanly~"
The Appraisal failure result and the something-whacking-me-on-the-head came at almost exactly the same time.
"I never trained a student to be a peeping tom~"
I don't know what principle was at work, but the teacher had apparently blocked my Appraisal, detected it, and launched a counterattack.
And she did it in a way I couldn't react to at all.
From that exchange alone, I understood that I couldn't beat the teacher.
"Sorry. I was just curious."
"Mm. When you do something wrong, apologizing is always the best approach~. But next time you try something like Appraisal without permission, I'll have to make things a bit more painful for you, okay~?"
"Yes. I'll keep that in mind."
Seriously.
It seemed like a very bad idea to mess around with this person.
"But teacher, if you have that much ability, wouldn't there be no need for you to attend the academy?"
That question suddenly occurred to me.
In truth, me, Sue, and Kathia had all been training, but none of us had experienced real combat.
That was precisely why we had the goal of building a solid foundation at this academy.
But from the way the teacher talked and her obvious strength, she clearly already had real combat experience.
Was there really anything left for her to learn here?
"Oh, there is~. There's plenty to learn at this academy~. But half of that is just an excuse, really — I want to use this country as my base of operations for a while, you see~"
"If that's the case, then wouldn't it make even less sense to—"
"What I mean by 'operations' isn't searching for the missing students~"
"Huh, then what is it?"
"That's still a secret, but I'm leaving the rest of the search to the other elves~"
The teacher's shocking statement left me frozen.
The last time we met, she'd said there were still six students unaccounted for.
And she was going to abandon that? What exactly was she planning to do?
"You might think I'm heartless, but the search has pretty much reached its limit~. The only places left to check are Demon race territory and unexplored lands, and honestly, I don't think they're still alive~"
"Wh—!?"
"Teacher, are you serious?"
"As serious as serious can be~. In disaster rescue, the initial response is everything. I've done everything I could since being reborn. But finding even half of them would have been considered a good outcome, you know~? And the actual results far exceeded that, so I'd call it a major success~"
"But—"
"Then will you go search for the remaining six? How? On your own two feet? Do you think you'll find them?"
The teacher suddenly started speaking in a completely normal tone, and the momentum behind my feelings was crushed as if someone had seized them in a fist.
Seeing that, the teacher let out a heavy sigh.
"Like I said before, I've done everything I could~. From here on, I believe the best thing to do is make sure the students who've been found can live well in this world. That's why I want to learn all sorts of things at this academy, and at the same time, pursue various activities~"
"I... understand."
I wasn't fully convinced deep down, but the teacher had genuinely done everything in her power.
Besides, I had no right to criticize from the sidelines when I'd contributed absolutely nothing to those efforts.
If anyone was hurting the most, it was probably the teacher herself.
"Sorry. I spoke out of turn."
"You weren't wrong, Shun~. But even when you're not wrong, that doesn't always mean you're right. The world is full of things like that~"
After that, the enrollment ceremony was held.
Honestly, the content didn't register with me at all.
That's why I completely missed the expressions on Sue's face next to me, and Kathia's beyond her.