Prologue: School Entrance Ceremony -Grumblings of a Certain Teacher-

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Tensei Shoujo no Rirekisho was written by Karasawa Kazuki and this chapter was translated by yAmi on www.yamitranslations.com

Author notes: It is no longer a first-person perspective from the protagonist so please be careful. Even if you skim through this, I believe it would not be too much of a trouble. Speaking of which, it would be great if I could submit the first chapter for the volume. I will be in your care.

I have been a teacher at the Royal Castel School for 7 years now. Today is the Freshmen’s School Entrance Ceremony but this year again, there were very few mage freshmen.

Year by year, the number of mages have gradually thinned down. I wonder how many people are there who feel a sense of crisis because of this. If we let the situation be, this society which relies on magic would probably collapse.
Nevertheless, not only did the King not enact any special policy to prevent this collapse, even now, the King handles his governmental affairs in the same way.

It is not that the current King is incompetent. I suppose he is simply just afraid. That he would, with his very own hands, destroy the social order that kept its tranquility for over hundreds of years by the same system. Dreading the very thought of destroying the values that are still being taught today, the King is unable to deem it an option to destroy these values.

Now that I think of it, the previous King sense of crisis was greater than others. Still, he was an idiot. He thought that if the problem was that there were few mages, all he had to do was to have more children. He went ahead to keep many concubines, and without much thought, left many seeds behind.
Still, in the end, only 4 of them had the ability to become mages. Just for 4 mages, he had many children without an aptitude for magic and who were also part of royalty. Furthermore, the previous King who lacked forethought made most of his children marry into influential aristocrats.
Therefore, there were many aristocratic children now who were fellow cousins, nephews, niece, uncle and aunties to the King.

This generation’s children would likely dispute over their marriage relationships. Marriage between cousins is acceptable but marriage between kin with close blood relationships would basically be frowned upon silently.

“Freshman Representative, Katherina Gwynassus, step forward.”

The Principal who also holds the chairmanship, Baldinger, called out the name of the student representative to give a speech.
She shifted her focus onto the Principal and likewise, the Principal glued her hopeful eyes on Katherina.
Katherina Gwynassus.
The daughter of Gwynassus Earl? The Prince’s son was among the freshmen of this year and it would have been a sounder choice to have picked him as the representative to give the speech.

The Gwynassus domain was a neighbouring land separated (from this country) by mountains and demonic forests. It was an affluent land which had a port where trading can be safely conducted. Unlike the other territories which face difficulties due to the declining number of mages, the Gwynassus domain were able to decrease their reliance on magic while maintaining an abundance of resources so it was not a big blow to them. In recent times, their strength has grown significantly.

In this case, it would have been better to pick a royal mage from the family which has been conferred the title of Prince, but there was barely any aristocrat who dared resist the Gwynassus Earl.
Originally, comparing just their peerage ranks, the title of Prince was higher, but the Earl which controls territory was stronger in terms of power relations, not to mention that the Gwynassus Family were a special lot too.

Miss Katherina who was the centre of attention of the other aristocrats stepped up on the stage upon being called. She enrolled as a mage. From managing his territory peacefully to having a mage successor, it can be said that the Gwynassus Earl has nothing to fret about.

As the Freshman Representative, Miss Katherina started to recite from memory, about the joys and aspirations of being a freshman.
Silver hair in a vertical winding hairstyle. Golden eyes. Strong-willed eyes with large brows pointing upwards. (TN: check out the table of contents for a picture that contains her) During the speech, she widened her smile on her pretty face, while looking down at the other students with a trace of ridicule, though that may all just be my imagination.

A stereotypical example of a mage, no rather, the epitome of an aristocrat.
Looking down on people who cannot use magic, looking down on all things that are inferior to herself, that must have been how she had lived her life. This is a common thing for other aristocrats and mages. In her case, she is in fact stronger than these ‘others’ and since others are mostly beneath her, she became hard to deal with.

Looking at the Principal and Chairperson Baldinger who incidentally has graying hair, it was patently clear that he was disappointed.
Principal Baldinger is the third prince of the previous King. However, because he was not a mage, at age fifteen, his name was removed from the royal family register and he became known as Baldinger the Merchant Earl. He was tasked with managing the school but, since everything to do with education is under the jurisdiction of the King, he was simply a nominal supervisor.

Nevertheless, he was a man with a nimble head so somehow, he is in a quiet struggle to dispossess rights regarding management of the school from the King.
It seems that he wants to reform the structure of the school, which has mages at its centre and in doing so, spur society to change as well.
From the foolish-looking smile he makes every day, you will not be to tell that he is such an ambitious man.
At the very least, if the Principal was part of the talented mages that lived with the King or someone else with the same ability as the Principal was with the current King, perhaps this society could be preserved slightly longer.

I wonder if the Principal is expecting anything from Miss Katherina who is now presenting her speech. Without a doubt, he must have been scheming to obtain a young power with authority, so that he could make a personal request to the King and if luck is on his side, he might able to gain the full rights to manage the school.

However, seeing that it was evident that she had been already tainted by the colours of aristocracy, her shoulders drooped.
To the very end, the problematic Miss Katherina did not let go of her haughty smile as she ended her address. She went down the stage glamourously.

As Miss Katherina returned to her seat, the Principal also managed to recover herself to call out the name of the next student representative.
It was compulsory for mages to be enrolled so they did not do written tests but for the other students, they absolutely must pass their entrance examinations to enter the school. The entrance exam was an ordinary written exam on refinement and culture. The second student to be called was a non-mage student and was the top scorer in the entrance exams.

“Continuing, from the category of normal entrance examinations, Freshman Representative, Ryou Rubyfallen. Step forward.”

Among the freshmen, a commotion ensued.
Ryou Rubyfallen became rather famous prior to the school entrance ceremony.
She was from the cursed, magic forsaken land of Ruby Fallen, which for some reason or another did not produce any mages. There was a rumour spreading that there was this mysterious girl who appeared from nowhere and had an unknown background, yet she was adopted.
Sometimes, a non-aristocratic parent might give birth to a mage and in that scenario, it is common for the territorial lord to adopt that mage but for a non-mage to have be specially adopted, and to add on, to have her take the school examinations too. All these were anomalies.

The school entrance written examinations were generally difficult for someone who has not been learning properly from young and so, even for this year, there were probably many aristocratic children who failed even though they had started their education from young.

The school is managed with the funds from the national budget, hence, the tuition fees and examinations fees were all free but there were expenses to be spent and effort put in in the journey to reach the capital and living in the capital before the announcement of the results. Add in the possibility of failing and you have the considerations one should make before taking the examination. It was normal for children who show no promise to not take the examinations at all.

And yet, a horse bone of a child came from nowhere to challenge the examinations; furthermore, she became the top scorer. (TN: Japanese idiom to describe a person with doubtful origin in a derogatory manner)
From the start, the land of Ruby Fallen was subject to numerous controversies but I hear that the surrounding aristocrats have become quite sensitive to the puzzling actions that have taken place this time.

Paying no heed to the din the students were making, she went up on stage after her name, Ryou Rubyfallen was called.

She greeted everyone with simplicity and smiled with an odd sense of composure one would not expect from a ten-year-old child. Like Miss Katherina, she started talking about the hopes and delights of entering school.

Her strong yellowish blonde hair went all the way down to her chest area and the tips of her hair curled around. She had a small nose, thin lips and strong eyes with hazel coloured pupils.
I could see that she has the characteristics of an usui-face but all I could focus on was her erect back and the way her chin draws back in perfect balance to the raised corners of her mouth, completed with her every movement in refinement. Breathtaking. (TN: usui means thin; usui-face is used to refer to a person with facial features lacking in definition. Meanings of usui-face can vary depending on the person. It could be having a small nose, single eyelid or having white skin, etc)

Despite being the mysterious freshman and the buzz-topic for everyone, that aura of hers was……

Most students entering through normal entrance examinations have little self-esteem. That can be understood from how they grew up being compared to mages by their family and relatives.
In general, the normal students hold some psychological entanglements with regards to mages, and most would be bound by this entanglement becoming submissive to mages. Also, there are students who isolate themselves in their own shells.
However, the non-mage girl who was standing on stage now emitted no such self-deprecation or any sort of gloomy emotion.

Ryou Rubyfallen finished her speech and descended from the stage. When she was going up on stage, the students were still talking among themselves but now, it became still as death.
The students could sense it too. That she was releasing a strange aura.
And then, I started to weigh my thoughts about her, on whether I should welcome her or be vigilant against her.

“Opening speech by our present student’s representative. Third year student, Henry Castor Gasfomtal. Step forward.”
After the Principal called out his name, the auditorium started a bigger ruckus than earlier.

White skin, light blonde hair and pale purple eyes. His straight hair went down all the way under his chest, typical of a mage. A young nobleman who has inherited the good looks and features of the royalty.
He was studying in this school and is the most famous student. Also, he was the son of the previous king, in other words, little brother from another mother, and was a stellar mage.
The current King has unfortunately been unable to have a child with the capabilities to be a mage. For that reason, it is said that Henry would be the King in the next term. His superb ability to handle magic was rarely seen in the present age.
In addition, he has no flaws and his conduct could not be criticised whatsoever.
He does not hold any contempt for people who cannot use magic and has a gentle nature, thus, he was the student that Principal Boruginia had the greatest expectations for. That was why the fourth and fifth year students were ignored in the selection for a representative to do this address.

Principal Boruginia was pinning his hopes in the possibility that he holds doubt about the current magic supremacy ideology in governance, and might be able to rouse the King to bring change. He has that kind of influencing power. Furthermore, if he were unable to persuade the King, he was a man that was a candidate for the King in the next term too. No points loss for winning him over.

Yet, as of present, it has not been going as smoothly as the Principal had calculated and to this day, not only has he not gained his approval, he has not been able to actively engage in intricate discussions with him, it seems.
I suppose the reason for this is that there were many people who wish to become closer to him to use him. He was being vigilant.

Moreover, if he appealed to him directly, there was a chance that Prince Henry might be opposed to his ideas and he could be dismissed from the role of Principal because of that.
Besides, to keep a close watch on the happenings at school, the King has placed a mage, who is under his close influence, as the Vice-Principal.
It was not that the King has any suspicion on the Principal. It was purely just that the current King, or more like, the Kings up to now fundamentally do not trust anyone except for mages. Even if it was a brother from a different mother, as long as they were not mages, they found no worth in putting any faith in them.

Anyways, from the very start, Principal Boruginia did not consider forcibly convincing Prince Henry.
He thinks from the point of view of an educator, therefore, he prefers that Prince Henry realise for himself through his time at school. And he placed his hopes that the capable Prince would be able to gain this insight himself.

And for me, I am a teacher who can only cling on to that very same hope.
That is because I am the only man in this society from now on who harbours such fears.

Taking no notice of both the Principal and my expecting gaze, the Prince who was adept at magic, finished his speech, and stepped down from the stage with an unperturbed expression.
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2 comments

  1. This setting of kingdom reminds me of [Gomen ne, Onii-sama], Damn that novel hurts my heart!

    ReplyDelete

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