Volume 1 Chapter 8 School Faction Riot Part One 5

This school teaches three courses.

First, was the class taught for the nobility centered on governing studies. This of course includes the knowledge necessary for socialisation, such as courtesy, dance and the general arts.

Next, was the class dedicated to the commoners. This one was centered around economics, where the minimum amount of etiquette required for dealing with aristocrats was taught as well.

Finally was the class for those that attended to the nobility. Since the skills needed for them would change depending on who they would end up serving, they were taught a wide range of skills.

As a side note, the country’s literacy rate and general level of education were by no means high. The commoners who attended capital city’s academy were the elites among their social class.

Each of the three courses listed above were then classified further according to their grades. Lady Sophia was in the A-class of the nobility class of course, and I was put into the A-class of the servant course.

Therefore, there weren’t many opportunities for my lady and I to come into contact even while we were in the same school.

I attended to her during the pick-up and drop-off entering and leaving school, as well as during lunch breaks, but she was left in the care of a maid during the breaks and classes.

However, since it wasn’t like I was connected at her hips at all times, the time that I spent serving her wasn’t really reduced that much at all. So things didn’t actually feel that different.

In anycase, it was more important to avert my lady’s execution end and make sure she finds happiness. With that in mind, there were some immediate points that needed to be taken care of.

First, my lady needed to avoid getting involved with the elitists. It would be impossible for her to be framed for a sin she wasn’t guilty of if she wasn’t associated with them.

Next, she needed to foster a good relationship with the second prince. My lady was executed in the game because she turned a royal into her enemy. Keeping the prince’s favour will be key to avoiding the execution.

After that it was important that she didn’t turn the commoners hostile. This was related to the first reason, but if they became her adversaries, then the elitists might use that fact for their schemes.

However, if she got along with them too much, the elitists might turn into her enemies regardless. Therefore, there was a necessity to keep a balance with both sides in this situation.

Lastly, I needed to make sure that my lady doesn’t fall into darkness. Even if Alicia wasn’t here, that didn’t necessarily mean that there wasn’t anyone here she could get jealous of. So it was necessary to watch over my actions and make sure nothing occurs that would cause her grief.

Fortunately, Lady Sophia and the second prince are both in the A-class. With how clearly the prince favours her, it shouldn’t be hard for a friendship to form between them.

Unfortunately, there were even more things I had to do while addressing these issues.

In the first place, my lady and I were executed in the game because we were betrayed by those we considered comrades while we were in the process of committing an act of evil. We would never do anything of the sort now, but it was important to find a reliable ally.

For those goals, it was necessary to establish a position within my class. If I ended up isolated, I might inadvertently create unneeded enemies.

With those thoughts in mind, the first day of my school life began.

I dropped my lady off at her class before visiting the servant A-class. Many students had already gathered there and separated into groups.

As I looked around to find a conversation I could join, I met gazes with one of my classmates.

He seemed like a simple brown-haired boy, but I felt something insidious behind his blue eyes. In the game, there shouldn’t have been any important people from the servant course– but then the boy’s expression suddenly broke down.

Before I could even understand what had happened, he was already in tears and he held the back of his head.

“That hurts! Chloe, what the hell are you doing?!”

“Its because you were being stupid, Luke. Why are you glaring at someone in envy on your first meeting? Sorry about that. Uhh… Cyril, right? This guy here was jealous of your grades.”

It was a brown haired girl who said that.

–in short, the boy named Luke was glaring at me because he was envious of my results, and noticing that, the girl named Chloe hit the back of his head to scold him.

A strange explanation for sure, but it was somewhat interesting… let’s hear them out for the time being.

“You two seem to get along really well, were you acquainted before you came here?”

“Unfortunately, I’m this stupid Luke’s childhood friend.”

“I see, so you have an inseparable relationship, is it?”

At the very least, Chloe didn’t seem to be hostile.

I still wasn’t sure about Luke but– when he directed his line of sight my way, he let out a surprisingly friendly greeting, going, “I’m Luke. Nice to meetcha.”

Having broken the ice, we started talking with each other.

They seem to have entered this school in service of a certain aristocratic daughter.

The details were skipped, but apparently she took them in despite their commoner backgrounds after they lost their parents. Roughly speaking, they were currently in the position I had planned for Roy and Emma in the future.

Well, once they finished telling me their story, all of Luke’s hostility I felt before was gone. There were still some parts I was concerned about, but they didn’t seem to be bad people.

“Anyways, we’ll be studying in the same class for the next year, so let’s get along.”

“Agreed! It’s very nice to meet you, Cyril!”

“Yes, its a pleasure to meet you two as well.”

I responded to their goodwill with a smile. I was worried something would happen after seeing the shadow of the elitist faction at the entrance ceremony, but my school life seems to be having quite the smooth start.

“Everyone, please take your seats.”

Such a voice suddenly resounded from the room’s entrance. When I turned my gaze that way, a middle-aged man who seemed to be a teacher was standing there.

I was slightly surprised to see a face that I knew, but decided to sit down first. I didn’t have a designated seat, so I just quickly chose one that was vacant.

My other classmates followed suit. Their agile movements being evidence that they truly belonged in the servant course’s A-class.

“Welcome to my class, everyone. To be here means that you are the top elites of this school. You are already splendid servants– not, did you really think that?”

The teacher’s attitude changed.

He didn’t introduce himself, but his name was Tristan. Incidentally, he was also my uncle.

Although he was brought up as a butler serving the Rosenberg house, during his time here in the school, the royal family took a liking to him and he ended up becoming the exclusive butler of the king’s brother.

He was a very talented person, but as you can see, he had a bit of a two-sided personality. He might look youthful, but he was actually in his late thirties.

Black eyes and brown hair. Standing on the pulpit, Tristan looked almost exactly the same as he did in the game. In Espressivo of Light and Darkness, he was one of Alicia’s potential capture targets.

By the way, my previous life’s sister was a fan of Tristan cosplay, so when I saw him standing there, I remembered her and felt a little nostalgic.

This is the first time I’ve ever seen him in person, but he had a really cool atmosphere around him. As expected of the character that had overwhelming popularity among older women.

Such a guy had suddenly bared his fangs against the freshman who didn’t know anything.

“You might have the top scores in the entrance examination, but that’s only for a junior high standard. If you think you’re something special with just this much, you’ll find yourself quickly dropping out.”

As a reincarnator, I knew that his words were true.

I was the runner-up in this year’s exams. In the servant course, I was undoubtedly the top scorer, but that was only because of my memories from my past life as a student.

If I grew complacent with how I was now, I would no longer be suitable to be my lady’s exclusive butler. It was necessary to improve myself even further from now on.

However, this acceptance was also because of my reincarnation. To the many others here who weren’t, his statement was definitely unacceptable. The room was suddenly filled with hostility against the teacher.

“Oh? You’re making a face that says you don’t agree with me. If you have something you want to tell me, then just do it already.”

“…no, I don’t intend to argue with the professor’s words.”

The nominated student answered so.

Not a complaint, it was a patient response that didn’t openly voice any protests– but still had its true intent clear to see.

“In that case, this is an order. If you have something you want to say, then say it.”

“That’s…”

“Hey, don’t you understand how rare this opportunity is? Or are you the kind of person who can’t speak for themselves?”

“…urgh. I’ll speak because you’re so insistent, but I’m already working in a mansion. I don’t think that the skills I’ve developed until now are only suitable for a junior highschool level.”

“Oh, I see. Then you’re nothing special after all, did you seriously not notice how much your environment tolerates you?”

He undermined and threw away the kid’s self confidence with that one sentence.

“What are you saying?”

“If you don’t understand, then I’ll tell you. It’s because you’re still a child that your surroundings are still being sweet to you. With your current line of thinking, you’ll be cruelly hurt by reality one day.”

“O-on what basis are you saying such things?! You don’t know anything about me!”

Was his pride hurt? His face was twitching.

“I don’t know much, but I do know that you scored an eighty-three in etiquette and a seventy-six in the dance exams. That alone is enough.”

“What about it? My scores should be among higher scores in the class.”

“That’s exactly what’s wrong. It’s a big deal because it’s only a high mark for a junior high examination. It’s only natural for a professional servant to get a perfect score with something of this level.”

“…if you’re saying that, then what score did you get during our age, professor?”

“Oh, me? I passed with perfect scores in all subjects.”

All the students except for me gasped.

There’s only one person who passed all the exams with perfect scores in this school, becoming something of a legend. All servants knew of the legendary butler– Tristan, who was personally scouted by the royal family.

My classmates now knew the true identity of the person standing in front of them.

“N-no way, I didn’t know you were the great Lord Tristan, please forgive me for my rude remarks!”

The boy who was acting so impudent until now suddenly turned pale and bowed. There wasn’t anyone who didn’t know of professor Tristan’s excellence. To criticize the butler who personally serves the royal family, it was only natural to panic.

However, the man himself was making an amazed face.

“Hey, what’s with the ‘Lord’? I’m just a butler– no, I’m a teacher right now. At that time, I might’ve received the top score in all subjects, but I was no different from how you are right now.”

“What do you… mean by that?”

“At that time, I was nothing but a kid that had grown full of himself thinking he was something special. Even though I passed the exams with perfect scores, there was nothing but an endless series of struggles and failures waiting for me later on in life.”

He spoke to us with a condescending attitude to build up hostility, only to reveal his true identity and show us our place.

On top of that, he admitted that he made the same mistakes as us in his youth. With professor Tristan’s cunning manipulation of the situation, the students were now overflowing with admiration for him despite the hostility they were directing his way just a few moments ago.

It was a great way to seize the hearts of the people.

The story he then proceeded to tell of himself was when he was still only twelve, and how much of a tough time he had because he was chosen as the prince’s exclusive butler. I don’t think any of us were likely to be put in the same situations that he was in, but only a truly boorish person would voice that opinion now.

“That’s why you’ll undoubtedly make many mistakes in the future, but don’t worry. At the very least, if you fail during school, I’ll be there to follow up on you. So challenge your limits with confidence!”

“T-thank you so much! Please take care of us from now on!”

“Good answer. I was a little tough on you all earlier, but you truly are excellent. Make sure to show off the difference between yourselves and the others.”

He then proceeded to write on the blackboard, ‘New Student Welcome Party Set-up’ in beautiful letters.

“The welcome party for the new admissions will be held one month from now. All the new students will get to enjoy it except for you of the A-class servant course. You’ll be given the honour of setting it up and running it.”

So that’s it, they’ll leave the preparations to welcome party to us to ease us into the course. It’s a good introduction method for the servant class.

“You’ll have full control over it. Remember, your results will not only be seen by the other servant classes, but also by all the nobles and commoners of the same grade.”

The sound of people audibly swallowing their saliva reverberated around the class. It’s quite demonic of them to put this much pressure on us right after telling us that we’re failures that still have much to learn.

“–by the way, which one of you is Cyril?”

I raised my hand when my name was called. He might be my uncle, but this is the first time we’ve actually met, so it seems he didn’t know my face.

“Oh? So you’re Cyril, huh? I heard you stood out quite a bit during the exams.”

“…I don’t remember doing anything special.”

“Well, let’s just leave it at that. Anyways, for the time being you’ll be the class representative. Bring your classmates together and show us your skills with the new student welcome party.”

“–understood.”

“Wait a second here! Why’s he the class representative?!”

At the same moment that I responded, a voice of objection resounded out.

Looking my way while muttering, a red-haired boy was the one who yelled out. It was the same person who challenged me at the testing venue, Raymond. It looks like he was put into the A-class as well.

“Why is Cyril the representative? Its because he received the best results within the class, he’s the runner-up for the top score.”

“That can’t be true! He just barely passed the dance examination with a fifty-one!”

The class broke out into a commotion at that statement. Needless to say, it was weird to hear that the person with the second highest score only received a fifty-one for an exam.

Results for the practical exams were only revealed to their respective groups. Most of them wouldn’t know what I scored in the other tests.

Some people made meaningful smiles at me, so it seems like the ones that stayed quiet were those that knew about my situation. I wonder if I’m not going to be sending salt to my rivals here.*

“Hmm… that is the truth, isn’t it? Cyril, I’m actually curious about this as well. Why did you score fifty-one points on the hundred-point exam?”

My score was halved because I abandoned the exam half-way. He seemed to be asking despite knowing that I somehow surpassed a perfect score, but those who didn’t know the situation wouldn’t understand that.

The surrounding people would be thinking that even the teacher was suspicious of me.

It’d be easy to bring this situation to a close.

I just needed to explain the circumstances behind my score of fifty-one.

But that was true for professor Tristan as well. He could easily settle this if he just revealed the truth about my grades.

Nevertheless, he said what he did in a way that could be misunderstood as him suspecting me of fraud.

The reason for this was a no-brainer. Just a little while ago, he had provoked the students without giving his name and invited them to fail to encourage reflection against inadvertent actions based off of lack of information.

And yet again, he was goading them on without revealing why I only scored fifty-one points on my exam.

If the first case was the practice question, then this case was the applied question.

Learn through our mistakes. He said he would follow up on us if we ever failed while in school. This was just how he taught.

I didn’t have to become his accomplice, but if I told everyone that I had actually surpassed a perfect grade, I’d be belittling my lady’s accomplishment.

Therefore, I decided to go along with his expectations.

“Well, Cyril? Why do you think that is?”

“Who knows… I’m not an examiner, so I don’t know how they graded us.”

“Huh. I see… okay then, lets have you prove your ability with this party’s setup.”

When I received that order, I lowered my head.

But some of the students– including Raymond, didn’t seem satisfied with that. They appealed to professor Tristan to rethink this.

“Okay, I understand. In that case, raise your hand if you can’t accept this.”

About two-thirds of the students complied to his announcement.

Honestly, it was actually less than I expected.

I didn’t think there were that many people who actually knew that I was the runner up, so… did they just believe in professor Tristan’s judgement, or have they already learned from their earlier mistakes?

As expected of the A-class. There are quite a few excellent students here.

“Hmm… well, that’s just about the right number of people. Those who raised their hands will be in charge of the courtyard venue, while those who didn’t will set up the main venue under Cyril.”

“Understood.”

To prove who was the superior in ability, the two groups would compete against each other. However, Raymond started snapping at why the larger group didn’t get the main area.

“Right now the class leader is Cyril, that’s why. Not to mention… if the side-courtyard venue somehow outclasses the main venue itself, wouldn’t that be exciting?”

The main venue would cater to the aristocrats while the courtyard venue was more for the commoners.

It would be a problem if the side area received more praise. At that time, the fact that our two groups were competing would’ve already spread, so my reputation would plummet.

Professor Tristan dangled that bait in front of Raymond–

“Understood. I’ll definitely tear off that perfect mask he always has on.”

–and he brilliantly took it.

He goaded on the class conflict to encourage the student’s growth. As expected of the popular character that was directly scouted by the royal family for his skills.

Not bad.

I was just thinking that I needed a way to prove my abilities in accordance to my lady’s wishes.

The teacher will take care of the clean-up afterwards, so there’s no way I can miss this opportunity. After demonstrating my skills as my lady’s exclusive butler, I will consolidate the class as one.