Academy’s New Guard is Unusual - Chapter 36

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 36
“Ah, the Class Application Forms are over there.”
Leon pointed to a thick stack of papers piled on the desk. The hefty pile of Class Application Forms suggested that Andy’s rumor campaign had worked quite effectively.
I examined the forms with satisfaction.
‘The Crown Prince, the Magic Tower Alliance heir Killian—’
The key players from the game were listed one after another. However, my gaze passed lightly over the major names.
Fortunately, I found the name I was looking for.
“What should I do, sir?”
Just then, Leon lowered his voice and asked.
His face was deadly serious. He seemed to think he’d been given some momentous task.
“First, get yourself registered as my teaching assistant.”
“……I’m sorry, did I mishear?”
Leon stiffened as if he’d heard something absurd. I explained kindly.
“Since I haven’t hired a teaching assistant, one will soon be assigned from the guard unit. Just nominate me.”
“M-me, nominate you as a teaching assistant, sir? How could I possibly dare—”
“Smoke Screen Tactic.”
“Smoke Screen……. I understand.”
Leon nodded, looking like he might be sick.
“And keep quiet. When I nod, you nod along. When I shake my head, you shake yours.”
“……Pardon?”
“Is there any part you don’t understand?”
“N-no, sir! I understand!”
Leon shouted in attention stance.
His face suggested he had plenty more to say, but he didn’t ask.
This is why soldiers are convenient. They just follow orders.
“The rest I’ll handle myself.”
“Yes, sir! Thank you!”
At those words, Leon’s face relaxed noticeably. The lecture had clearly been a burden.
“First, I’ll need to rewrite the Lecture Plan.”
“I’ll prepare it right away and submit it!”
Leon shouted in a soldierly, booming voice.
I checked Leon’s Lecture Plan on one corner of the desk. It was crude and strained.
It wasn’t that it particularly bothered me, but if I told Leon to redo it, it would obviously take forever.
Since today was the orientation ceremony, we needed to move as fast as possible.
“I’ll entrust the Lecture Plan to an expert.”
“An expert, sir?”
Leon tilted his head and asked.
“There is one. A very competent expert.”
The upper levels of the Main Building were difficult to access.
However, Raven was an assassin who would later become a king of death.
She would have found a way to follow regardless.
“Hey, Raven.”
Caw—
A crow’s cry came shortly after. True to her nature as a gloomy assassin, she continued to stalk me from behind, watching for opportunities.
I didn’t particularly mind.
A little tension was good for blood circulation.
Raven was an assassin of Manwol, and Manwol’s intelligence network was the finest on the Continent.
With the Continent’s attention focused on Elysium Academy, she would have gathered considerable information.
So—
“Write up the Lecture Plan for me.”
Caw?
“Right now.”
I tossed Leon’s Lecture Plan out the window.
A crow caught it in its beak outside and disappeared.
Caw……
The crow’s cry was weaker than before.
* * *
As the entrance ceremony ended and orientation week began, an odd tension hung over the academy.
This year’s faculty was particularly impressive. Expectations for the professors’ lectures were bound to be high.
But the professor drawing the most attention was neither the knight of radiance nor the twin witches.
“Will Your Highness also attend Professor Leon’s lecture?”
When the Crown Prince turned at the voice beside him, a man in resplendent dress stood there.
Killian, the only son of the Magic Tower Alliance leader.
A smile calculated to perfection, an expression that was always disagreeable to see.
“I will.”
“I’ve certainly heard much about him lately. Something called the Unofficial Imperial Five Swords—”
“There’s no such thing as unofficial.”
“Indeed. The Magic Tower Alliance doesn’t raise secret weapons either. Why would we waste resources on unprofitable ventures?”
“To dodge taxes?”
“Surely not.”
“I was joking.”
“Your humor is remarkable. You truly lack nothing.”
“That’s right.”
The Crown Prince nodded calmly, as if it were obvious. Killian’s eye twitched slightly.
The Crown Prince turned away without concern.
The lecture hall was packed with people. There were so many that there weren’t even enough seats.
Of course, there was a seat for the Crown Prince.
“H-here, please sit!!”
“Much obliged.”
The Crown Prince sat down with practiced ease. Killian sat beside him.
“I looked into it—he’s from the front lines. Quite a capable captain, apparently.”
“I see.”
The Crown Prince wasn’t particularly interested. He’d come to this lecture simply because of the attention it was drawing.
Shortly, familiar faces entered the lecture hall.
Taros, son of the lord of death, and even Carel, the sword made by the Holy Nation.
“All the promising candidates have gathered. Professor Leon will need to live up to his reputation.”
In truth, few would believe rumors entirely. Most likely came out of sheer curiosity rather than faith.
Then—
Bang! The front door of the lecture hall was roughly thrown open.
The front door of the lecture hall was implicitly reserved for professors. When it opened, everyone tensed and stared.
However, the figure in the doorway was not Leon. It was a pink-haired woman in round glasses who looked foolish.
“Evangeline! Who told you to open the front door and just walk in!”
“S-squeak!”
“Good grief! My apologies!”
A small boy hurried in and dragged Evangeline back out.
“Tsk, there are certainly many lacking in proper manners.”
Killian openly clicked his tongue at the sight.
The Crown Prince made a silent resolve.
‘Next time, I should enter through the front door.’
Then the front door opened again.
“Not again—!”
The students erupting in frustration fell silent.
A cold-faced blonde man had entered.
The legendary Professor Leon.
His military bearing was so sharp that the students went quiet instantly.
‘Interesting.’
The Crown Prince’s eyes gleamed as he watched Leon.
With students filling the lecture hall—some even standing because there weren’t enough chairs—
Leon didn’t so much as glance at them. As if they had nothing to do with him—
Yes, a professor should be like that.
It was admirable self-assurance.
Then Leon spoke in a flat, toneless voice.
“I intend to conduct the class with only selected students.”
His voice was so bland it sounded like he was reading from a script.
‘Selected students, he says.’
The Crown Prince’s lips curved upward with satisfaction.
The Elysium Academy charter stated that all humans are equal before education, but the Crown Prince thought differently.
In this world, there are those chosen. To ignore such an obvious truth was merely hypocrisy.
Education should be granted to the chosen first.
‘I’m not sure about his skill, but his values align with mine.’
The Crown Prince eagerly awaited being called. He never doubted he would be chosen.
However, the first name that left Leon’s mouth was not the Crown Prince’s.
“Vivienne.”
……Vivienne?
At that familiar name, the Crown Prince’s eyes hardened.
The Crown Prince rarely remembers others’ names. He sees little need to.
There was only one reason he remembered Vivienne.
‘The disgrace of the royal house.’
Vivienne was a princess born in the same year as the Crown Prince. Aside from sharing a birth year, the two were opposites in every way.
Vivienne was timid, talentless, stupid, lazy, and fat. The very epitome of royal disgrace.
Vivienne had been called? Before him?
‘No, the protagonist is usually called last.’
He tried to brush it off, but his mood was genuinely dampened. The mere fact of being grouped with Vivienne was distasteful.
The Crown Prince resolved that even if Leon called him, he would refuse. He had no intention whatsoever of being lumped with Vivienne.
“Rosa.”
At Leon’s next call, a female student stood up, her attire highly suspect.
The bottom button of her uniform was fastened at the top, leaving her belly exposed with a bizarre tattoo on it. Her ears were lined with gaudy earrings, and she had a long stick in her mouth.
The real problem was the cloth around her neck.
Pure white with gold trim embroidered over it—it was a Cape, proof of sainthood candidacy.
“Ah, Rosa, the Holy Nation’s troublemaker. I hear she’s one of the sainthood candidates who runs away whenever she gets the chance.”
Killian glanced at Rosa and clicked his tongue as he spoke.
The Crown Prince paid no attention to Killian’s words. He was simply preoccupied with wondering when—if—he’d be called, and how he’d refuse.
“And Luna.”
“Kekeke, so you recognized my true worth.”
At the next call, a small girl stood up with a sinister laugh.
Dark Mages were known to stick together in the academy, as they were ostracized elsewhere. Yet there wasn’t a single Dark Mage around this girl.
That alone spoke volumes about how she was treated among her peers.
“And Andy and Evangeline. That’s all.”
The moment Evangeline’s name was called, the Crown Prince understood.
Not just him—everyone in the lecture hall realized it.
“It was a Rejected Tier class.”
And not just any Rejected Tier—a carefully curated, meticulously selected one.
Students hurried out of the lecture hall as if afraid someone might grab them.
The Crown Prince walked out through the front door with poise.
* * *
“Crown Prince, Killian, and others like them were there—why did you select them?”
Leon asked in an bewildered voice.
I reviewed the faces remaining in the lecture hall.
A woman dressed with more exposed than covered, wearing a Cape at her neck as proof of sainthood candidacy.
A gloomy girl rejected even by Dark Mages, a princess called the disgrace of the royal house, and just… Evangeline.
Outright Rejected Tier.
Their entrance exam scores were literally the lowest of the low.
Among the students who’d entered the lecture hall were key players like the Crown Prince, Killian, and Carel. If I’d wanted, I could have convinced them to attend my class too.
But I had no such intention.
‘What if Evangeline and one of them happened to make eye contact?’
Those men are Male Lead Candidates. If I left Evangeline with them, disaster was guaranteed.
That’s why I selected only female students for this class. That way, I could prevent the misfortune of Evangeline falling into romance.
And Elysium Academy’s grading system is Relative Evaluation. If Evangeline got tangled up with those big names, she’d struggle to get good grades.
To prevent Evangeline from being expelled, I needed to compose the class with students on a similar level.
In other words, Rejected Tier students were necessary.
That said, these students weren’t just plain rejects.
These were rejects who’d stood out in the game without any support, and who could still be salvaged.
I’d carefully selected them after considering every variable—elite, high-quality, organic, recycled Rejected Tier students, if you will.
“What’s with this pig? You stink. Get out.”
“I-I apologize.”
“Kekeke, don’t be so harsh. You’ll look weak.”
“What’s with you, then? Get out too.”
Watching the Rejected Tier students bicker as if they recognized each other, I nodded with satisfaction.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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