by Funa
Her new possessions were too numerous to carry in one load, so after several trips to the supply room, Adele changed into her uniform. She had been given one that was slightly too large, in anticipation of a growth spurt, but this gave off a very “average” sort of feeling, which she relished. Her single item of personal clothing had grown somewhat tattered from being worn for so many days running, and to keep it safe, Adele decided to store it inside a loot box.
Facing the mirror, she took in her appearance.
I hope I make a hundred friends! Adele, who had yet to make friends in this life or her last one, beamed with hope.
***
That afternoon, she went down to the announcement board to find that the class rosters had been posted.
Later that afternoon, they would be lining up according to these rosters to practice for the entrance ceremony. Tomorrow would be the entrance ceremony itself, followed by self-introductions. Classes would begin the following week, after the rest day.
As she expected, Adele had been placed into Class A.
In truth, this was not actually the “A” from the alphabet of Misato’s world—but as it was typically the first character taught in that country’s writing system, “A” made a good substitute.
The entrance ceremony practice, and the actual ceremony the following day, went off without a hitch. Some of the children’s families were in attendance, but in many cases, their homes were too far for them to make the journey. In addition, although there were more than a few lower-class noble families who lived in the vicinity, Eckland’s entrance ceremony took place at the same time as Ardleigh’s. If parents had children at both academies, they invariably attended the festivities at the higher-ranking of the two schools.
Those children from poor families and those who had been sent to Eckland to get them out of their parents’ way were also alone, and as one might expect, Adele was amongst them.
***
Following the ceremony, teachers showed the students to their classrooms.
After having little time to converse with one another, it was finally time for the children to get to know their classmates. Adele’s heart was roiling with anticipation and anxiety. Would she be able to make friends easily? Or would she be no good at it, ending up as lonely as she’d been in her past life?
The homeroom teacher for Class A was a man of solid build, around thirty years old.
“I am Abe von Burgess, the homeroom teacher for Class A. I will be responsible for each one of you this year. In fact, I plan to be the second-year Class A teacher also, so I will likely be seeing some of you next year, as well. That being said, at the end of the term, the class sorting may change depending on your grades, so I will be saying farewell to anyone who fails to keep up their performance.”
Mr. Burgess sounded less like a teacher and more like a slightly-aged ruffian, the sort who would be a mid-rank hunter in the local guild. Yet the “von” in his name indicated that he was an aristocrat, and it was clear that he meant to warn any particularly thick-skulled noble children that their status would be no substitute for hard work.
“Now then, let’s start with introductions. Why don’t we go down the line, beginning with you?”
“Y-yessir!” The boy at the front of the far left row began his introductions, as directed. “I’m Marcus, the third son of the Buick family. I’m from the capital. My strengths are…”
The class was made up of twelve boys and eighteen girls—thirty students, all told—and each gave their names, hometowns, strengths, interests, hopes for the future, and the like: a fairly standard introduction.
It was only natural that the girls outnumbered the boys in this class. To start, there was a higher proportion of girls at the academy in total, as the sons of lower class nobles and merchant families were more likely to attend the superior school, while any girls not likely to make an advantageous marriage were sent to the lesser school. Beyond this, many boys put their effort into athletics rather than their studies, meaning that their grades weren’t as sharp as the girls’ were.
Adele had always struggled to remember faces, but as she was determined to make friends, doing so would be an absolute necessity. As each student gave their introduction, she stared intently, memorizing their features. Those who noticed this strange behavior began to grow flustered, their cheeks burning red, yet Adele hadn’t the slightest notion she was doing anything wrong.
“I am Kelvin von Bellium, aspiring knight. My specialty is swordplay. It is also my hobby. My goal while at Eckland is to become as strong as I can!”
Kelvin’s declaration, so different from the rote introductions that had come before, couldn’t help but pique Adele’s interest. Of course, it scarcely occurred to her that this was the same boy who she’d shadowed so closely during the physical assessment earlier that week… Nor did she notice the glare that Kelvin flashed her way as she looked toward him.
The introductions continued down the line, until finally it was Adele’s turn.
“I am Adele. I have no special abilities. No matter how you look at it, I am a completely normal, average girl.”
Everyone in the classroom, other than Adele, all had the same thought at once.
She’s lying.
They were in total agreement. This girl, who could casually cast combat spells at the same level as those incanted by those of the greatest magical ability, who precisely matched the physical achievements of a noble son in peak form, when she clearly could have gone farther—she had to be lying. Perhaps she had meant to help the boy save face, but in truth, she had done him a disservice—though she didn’t seem to realize that that was the case.
Was that her true nature? Or some kind of act? Since the moment the placement exams had ended, whispers such as these had been circulating amongst the noble children in the common areas and the dining hall.
“This is my first time in the capital,” Adele went on. “My interests are reading and eating delicious things. I haven’t had many friends before now, so I hope to get along well with all of you.” She smiled.
She’d done it, she thought. A perfect introduction by a perfectly normal girl. This was the beginning of her new, “average” life at Eckland Academy.
Adele, however, had no idea that the other children had seen so easily through her act during the physical assessment, nor did she realize that she’d had the bad luck to copy only the children at the top of each field. There was more: despite claiming that she was a commoner, she had taken the assessment along with the children of nobles. Furthermore, she’d made the outlandish statement that her interests were “reading and eating delicious things,” despite the unlikelihood of a commoner having access to expensive books or tasty morsels. Stranger still was her declaration that she’d reached the age of ten friendless.
Yet Adele truly believed that she would fit in as a completely average student. She had no idea what her classmates truly thought.
***
After the introductions came orientation. Mr. Burgess explained the layout of the school, its routines and regulations, and the lessons that would begin at the start of the next week. Then, the students were dismissed. It was only a half-day, and he instructed them to use the afternoon and the following rest day to take care of any necessary shopping to prepare for the week to come.
Adele’s situation was different. The next day, the baker would be expecting her, and besides, she still didn’t have any money with which to shop. Purchasing her absolute necessities, such as soap, notebooks, and ink, would easily use up the coins she had made on her first day in the bakery. As those were all considered luxury goods, they were expensive. Her existing funds would barely be enough.
It would be best, Adele determined, to set aside tomorrow’s pay for something equally important. She would’ve liked to purchase two more changes of undergarments at the very least, but that would have to wait for another occasion.
As she stood pondering her dilemma, Adele found herself surrounded by
a knot of boys.
“Adele, would you like to go shopping with me?”
“No, come with me! I grew up in the capital, so I know all the best shops!”
“No, I do!”
Adele withdrew reflexively. And yet…
Although the boys had surprised her, they didn’t seem to have bad intentions. Did this mean she was…popular?
Adele stood for a moment, perplexed. As Misato, she’d been gorgeous. Despite being born to parents who were utterly plain in appearance, Misato was a classic beauty, with sharp features, the kind one might expect to be pursued by talent scouts and modeling agencies. Still, she had never been the slightest bit popular in school. Because everyone assumed she was out of their league, no one had ever dared to ask her to spend time with them.
While Adele had a nice, symmetrical face, her appearance was otherwise unremarkable. She was not glamorous or striking; rather, she had the sort of pleasant appearance that tended to put people at—
Wait.
In that moment, Adele remembered a TV program she’d seen many years before. The presenter had explained that, if one could average the features of hundreds of human faces, the result would be “universal beauty”—not standout looks, but a pleasant appearance, one that made people feel at ease.
If one could average the features. If one could average…
No. When she’d said she wanted an “average” appearance, she had meant average as in normal, generic—just another face in the crowd. Not average as in universally beautiful!
“I-I’m sorry.” Adele stuttered. “I’ve already finished my shopping!”
Seeing Adele flustered and blushing, the boys only pressed harder, the competition turning fierce.
“Boys! Settle down!” A girl with the air of a council chairman scattered them with a roar. Adele offered her thanks and fled the room, her mind swirling.
Until now, whether in her life as Adele or Misato, the boys in her class had never said a word to her beyond “Lemme see your homework!”
Upon returning to the dormitory, she slipped into the washroom and examined herself in the mirror, which was little more than a polished piece of metal.
She was slightly shorter than the norm. She had odd, silver hair, inherited from her mother. She didn’t exude beauty in the way that Misato had, but her face was well-arranged, and it did, she suppose, give off a sense of equilibrium.
Am I attractive?
A bubble of laughter rose in her chest.
Walking by the washroom door, the other girls averted their eyes at the sight of Adele’s strange expression.
It was all wrong, anyway. She wasn’t supposed to be attractive. She was an average girl, and she certainly didn’t need a pack of suitors—especially not before she was grown up.
Yet as Adele shook her head at herself in the mirror, another thought occurred to her.
It was strange, wasn’t it, that at age ten, she had barely begun to develop? In this world, the more precocious girls began to hit puberty around seven or eight years of age. Misato herself had started to develop as an eight-year-old, and by the time she hit eighteen, her bust size had been slightly above average. Adele, on the other hand, showed no signs of any kind of development. There were already plenty of girls in her class with noticeable breasts, but this was one area in which Adele was nowhere near “average.”
Why was that?
It was true that she hadn’t eaten much in the two years after the death of her mother and grandfather. Perhaps that had stunted her growth?
Adele sighed. She looked like an elf, or a dwarf…
Oh my god. Adele was aghast as a horrible thought occurred to her.
Together, humans, elves, and dwarves made up the class called “humanoids.” However, if God considered them all to be a single race…
She should have been an average height, but in fact, she was shorter. Her chest was almost entirely flat.
No no no no no no no!
There were far fewer dwarves and elves than humans. Including them in a calculation of the average should scarcely have had any effect…under any normal circumstances.
But in a special circumstance…it would have been a bother to calculate an average based on the entirety of the world’s population, so what if one were to simply look at an “average human,” an “average dwarf,” and an “average elf,” for ease of comparison?
And what if a certain idiot assumed that these three individuals could make for an accurate average?
Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait!
Adele looked around her room frantically. It shouldn’t be. It couldn’t be.
At least orcs and goblins weren’t considered humanoids….
Bang bang bang bang bang!
A few minutes later, Adele’s classmates found her smacking her head against the wall of the dorm hallway.
***
Lying on her bed later that afternoon, Adele attempted to console herself.
And at least dwarf girls are pretty cute…
In fact, female dwarfs weren’t all the different from their human counterparts. They were a bit shorter and somewhat rounded in appearance, but they weren’t stocky like the males, and of course, they didn’t grow beards. They weren’t much different, Adele thought, than a petite adolescent girl. That was something.
Besides, if Adele did have dwarf characteristics, then the equivalent aspects of an elf’s physique would cancel them out. Both male and female elves were tall and slender, so that rather than having a huge influence on Adele’s figure, her dwarflike qualities would be mostly negligible. Or so it would seem.
Yet Adele’s height, combined with the matter of her chest…
She shook her head. This was all just speculation.
If she were to ask the nanomachines, then the truth would…
I can’t ask them about that! What happens if it all turns out to be true?! It’s all too awful.
YOU RANG?
“I DID NOT!!” Adele screamed at the top of her lungs, then looked to her left and right in a panic. Thankfully, it seemed that the occupants of the neighboring rooms were out, so she received no complaints about the disturbance.
Chapter 3:
Friends
A
dele began the school week in high spirits. On the rest day, she had received another two silver pieces from her job at the bakery, and on top of that, she was allowed to take leftover bread with her, which she could store in the loot box without having it go stale.
The moment she stepped into the classroom, she was bombarded with questions.
“Morning, Adele!”
“What’d you do on your day off?”
“Let’s eat lunch together today!”
Attack of the boys!
Adele was a bit of a hot commodity.
She had the smarts to make it into Class A, the physical prowess of a lady knight, impressive magical talent—plus, a personality so demure as to try concealing all of this.
Furthermore, though she was passing herself off as a commoner, she had entered the academy without taking the entrance exam, and it appeared that her family themselves had paid the full tuition. Most importantly, she was beautiful, too.
Though they were only ten years old, in three years Eckland’s students would make their first steps into society, and two years after that, they would be considered adults. It was not strange that, in the midst of this gifted class, many were already trying to forge connections for the sake of their futures—romantic or otherwise.
“Do you all never learn?! Look, you’re smothering her!”
Once again, the girl with the chairman-like air—perhaps it was easier just to call her the chairwoman?—intervened on Adele’s behalf.
“Th-thank you. I’m not really good at talking to boys, so…”
As she spoke, Adele could sense the boys considering her carefully. Half, it seemed, might give her space, not wanting to intimidate such a retiring beauty. But the other half looked ready to
press harder in order to take advantage of her inexperience, to test her reaction.
The other girl smiled, and all at once, Adele realized something. What the girl had done—that was something a friend would have done. The girl might be…a friend! And if she were, she would be the first friend Adele had ever made—her previous life included.
***
The first week of instruction took place in the classroom.
As one might expect, the students didn’t launch directly into physical or magical exercises. Instead, they began with general education, as well as safety practices, and the theory behind their martial and magical training. They wouldn’t begin practical studies until the following week.
For Adele, these classroom activities were a breeze. With the memories of an eighteen-year-old from a civilization that was centuries ahead of this one, there was no way she could possibly fall behind her classmates.
Besides, Misato’s powers of reasoning remained a part of her. Did God assume that she needed intelligence in order to absorb Misato’s consciousness? Or had the intellects of humans in this world continued to advance, even though their civilization had failed to do so?
Even when there were errors in the magical theory that their teacher was presenting, Adele didn’t point them out, and the week proceeded without incident.
Then came the day preceding the next rest day.
“Miss Adele, we would like to speak to you about something later.” It was Marcela, the third daughter of a baron, flanked by two of her friends. At her words, Adele’s heart leapt.
“O-of course!” Adele stuttered. “But where…? Oh! My room should be big enough, shouldn’t it?!”
“Uh… sure, that’s fine…” Marcela replied, bewildered by Adele’s eagerness.
A friend! And an invitation! This was the moment she’d been waiting for.
***
Viewed from afar, the three girls—Marcela, a baron’s third daughter; Monika, the second daughter of a middle-class merchant; and Aureana, a commoner who was attending the academy on scholarship—look like nothing so much as a noblewoman and her attendants.
