Book 2: Chapter 54: The Restless Dining Hall

Due to the fact that the Olsyvia Academy was divided into 5 different branch academies, there was quite the number of buildings within the academy grounds. Without assistance from upperclassmen, it was rather easy for new students to get lost in their first few days.

From a bird’s eye perspective, the Olsyvia Academy was built in the shape of a cross, with one branch academy at each of the four sides and one in the center. At the main entrance of the academy, there was a transportation magic formation, which new students would be able to use after they’ve completed the entry process. Of course, the magic formation required payment of 1 silver coin each time from each person that used it, and there weren’t any group discounts here. If one simply didn’t want to spend the fee, they could enter academy through the main gates into the academy’s eastern branch, the Olsyvia Genius’ Academy and travel to their own branch by foot from there. That was the second option.

Bella and the others chose the third option, which was to ride in the academy’s own horse-drawn carriages. To use the carriages once would only cost 20 copper coins, being 1/5th of the price of taking the transportation magic formation. The system was somewhat similar to the taxis of Earth. The only thing that Bella found lacking was that all of these carriages were of the same standard, having two horses and a maximum capacity of four people. There was also a speed limit in place on school grounds, to reduce the chance of accidents happening.

Apart from the open campus of the central area’s commoner branch, the Francis Academy, the other four branches had a comparatively isolated campus with their own style of buildings. The buildings in the eastern Olsyvia Genius’ Academy were distinctly similar to the baroque style buildings of middle age Europe, Bella didn’t know whether or not the one behind the design of these buildings was another transmigrator. The buildings within the southern side’s St. Louis Academy were basically only various churches and convents.

The northern branch, the Filomina Academy, had its buildings luxuriously designed and mainly composed of many villas, making the branch look more like a community of rich people than a place of learning. As for the royalty’s western branch, the Euphemia Academy, the buildings were even more extravagant than those of the Filomina Academy. The buildings there were designed with each of the five empire’s royal palaces in mind, drawing elements from each.

___

Bella and the three princesses finally arrived at the Filomina Academy’s new student sign-in location. There wasn’t much of a line and it didn’t take long for Bella to reach the front, coincidentally, the girl who attended to Bella was one of the two student council representatives who had picked her up at the front gates.

“Duchess Bellina, you… you could just send one of your servants to complete the process. Our branch rules allow members from families of nobles holding the peerage of Marquis and above to have a servant complete work such as this.”

“Er, my servants… It’s nothing really, I can fill this out myself.”

Bella received the school entry form in her hand and looked over it, it didn’t seem to have much difference from the ones from Earth’s universities. Apart from her major and dormitory, the rest of the paperwork had already been filled out, perhaps it was one of the perks of having a high peerage.

“Duchess Bellina, how are your relations with those princesses that came with you?”

“Not bad, I guess, we’re a little stronger than acquaintances.”

“Alright, but I suggest you not to get too close to them.”

“Why? Does the academy restrict contact between the nobles and royalty?”

“Not at all, but it’s just that Princess Ariel is rumoured to be terribly hideous, princess Noreya hadn’t shown her face ever since she had been disfigured, and princess Elaine is supposedly the reincarnation of a cursed witch that is surrounded by malicious beings that even the current pope couldn’t exorcise. The political futures of these three princesses aren’t very bright, there wouldn’t be any political gain for you to make friends with them, your friendship might even affect you negatively!”

Only after the kind reminder whispered to her by the student council representative did Bella know that friendships between nobles and royalty had so much extra stuff behind it, why was there so much stuff to do something as simple as making friends here! Anyways, these three princesses sure were good at hiding themselves. Even if one were to ignore their abilities and just look at their outstanding beauty, they definitely didn’t seem like the kind of princesses without a political future.

“Thanks for your reminder, I want to apply for the knights branch{1}, it’s fine if I leave the dormitory selection for later right?”

After finishing up with Bella’s paperwork, the four girls left in their carriage to grab some lunch. Not long after they left, a loli with golden twintails appeared beside the girl from the student council who had been aiding Bella with her paperwork, who quickly rose from her seat and greeted the loli.

“Has Duchess Bellina’s paperwork been completed?”

“President-sama, Duchess Bellina’s paperwork is done, but… there’s something… about the way that she chooses her friends that I think president-sama should know! The friends that she had made so far were all those less welcomed princesses, do we…”

“Let her do what she wants, I guess that we overestimated her before, thinking that she had something that could make her stand out. But now, it seems that she’s just another one of those shortsighted new money nobles. It doesn’t seem like we’re going to get any more new students, go help prepare with the opening ceremony!”

“Understood, president-sama!”

___

The Olsyvia Academy’s central region, within a private room on the second floor of the Francis Academy’s dining hall, Bella and the three princesses sat around a table. The three princesses had shed their thick disguises in the privacy of the room. The private room was split into two smaller rooms, with Bella’s ‘servants’ Noesha, Mia, Angel, and Betia eating in the outside room, meaning that Bella and the princesses who were in the inner room would be notified if anyone were to enter.

Manas Elaine, the 6th princess of the Manasville Empire. According to the information that Ariel told Bella, she was supposedly a reincarnated witch that carried an intensely strong curse on her ever since she was born. The worst part about her curse was that it couldn’t be exorcised with light magic like most other curses, and the priest who had blessed her was killed on the spot by a mysterious power. After that unfortunate event, the emperor had thrown her into one of the empty and desolate residences within the royal palace without any maids or servants, leaving her to fend for herself.

The curse that Elaine had been born with was so strong that no one from the Church of Light even dared to bring her to the cross and burn her, and the templar knight with the cultivation of holy knight who had attempted to kill her as a child was crippled by the power of the curse. In the sixteen years after, Elaine somehow actually managed to survive and grow up, the emperor couldn’t say or do anything about such a strange occurrence. When Elaine mentioned that she wanted to leave, the emperor had quickly agreed and sent her out of the royal palace, throwing this tough problem to the Olsyvia Academy.

While on the topic of the curse that was supposedly placed over Elaine, Bella had just received an important notice from Angel and Mia about the orange haired beauty. Angel and Mia were able to detect countless unseeable spirits circling around Elaine, ones that Angel knew weren’t from this dimension because she had sensed something strange about them and had confirmed as her soul magic had no power over them whatsoever.

The three princesses were wearing the attire of their profession: Noreya was dressed as an assassin but had the weapons of an archer, Ariel wore the robes of a mage but wielded the staff of a summoner, and perhaps the strangest was Elaine, who was dressed as a witch but used the equipment of a puppet master. Looking around, the ‘newbie’ Bella saw that everyone here except her were dual-profession experts, Bella was even a little bit scared to talk.

“Uhm… you three don’t need to have such tense faces? We’re here to fill our stomachs, not to look for a fight.”

“You mistook someone else for me, and not just once, am I that forgettable to you!?”

“Of course not Ariel, you’re not forgettable at all! Can you please forgive me? Oh, weren’t you looking for me? I’ll pay my reparations for my mistakes after we attend to what you need me to do.”

“Hmph, I’ll let you off this time, if you mistake someone else for me again, I’ll… I won’t be so lenient! Have you chosen a dorm yet?”

“I haven’t chosen yet, why?”

“That’s great, Bella, let’s cohabit… no, I mean we’ll live together… live together in the same dorm!”

Hearing the suggestive words that were coming out of Ariel’s mouth, Bella’s brain froze a bit as it attempted to process the information. Students from different professions could live together? Bella hadn’t heard anything from the student council representatives about such ‘welfare’! But Bella wasn’t sure if Ariel was telling the truth or that she didn’t actually know the academy’s rules either.

“No, she’s already with me, you latecomer… It’s already been agreed that she and I will share a dorm.”

“What’s your relationship with her? You weren’t the one who was embraced by Bella earlier…”

“We’ve already had a date on the bridge of love, you can ask Bella if you don’t believe me. There were quite a few people that saw me and her go behind the trees…”

“Bella, this… she’s lying, right?!”

Bella turned all of her attention to the plate of food in front of her, deciding not to intervene between the argument between Ariel and Noreya as there wasn’t exactly much that she could do anyways. What Noreya was saying wasn’t completely false, with at least half of it being true… One thing that Bella was surprised about was Noreya suddenly starting to argue with Ariel, was her icy personality from earlier just an act!? If it was truly an act, then Noreya’s acting ability was definitely enough to receive an Oscar award…

Noreya’s original intent was to find a dorm partner that could lead the way for her, but she had been unable to do so, and she couldn’t bring herself to admit that she had a natural disability when it came to directions. In her time of need, she found the perfect candidate in Bella, and decided that she was the one. The previous owner of this Noreya’s had committed suicide at a young age due to her inability to deal with her disfigurement, and Noesha just happened to take over this body after she had transmigrated here. Similar to the situation with Kriss and Ariel, Noreya’s claiming of the body changed its previous look.

One of the things that Noreya was the most worried about was a habit that she had inherited from her previous few incarnations as top-tier assassins, that her true looks and identity were revealed. So it was of utmost importance to her to find a dorm mate who she could trust. The other two princesses, Elaine and Ariel, both had a similar history of hiding themselves away from the outside eye and it was very likely that they were both aiming to make Bella become their dorm mate as well, forcing Noreya to make the first move or she might miss out on the perfect girl to share a dorm with.

“You two can stop arguing already, there are different sizes of dorms… Two person dorm, three-person dorm, six person dorm, and even bigger ones too. We might as well just all live together, I already have the dorm request form with me and all that the three of you here need to do is sign it!”

They looked on as Elaine pulled out a dormitory request form for a 6-person dorm, the first slot already had Elaine’s name written in. What was even more excessive was that the names of Bella, Noreya, and Ariel had already been written down, just missing the final stroke in the last characters. Was this girl trying to force people into being her dorm mates?

“Hey Elaine, can we get a new form? This one’s already been used…”

“I only have this one, why, it’s not like I’ll be a liability to you guys, I can take care of all the cleaning in the dorm! I can also do some divination for you guys, free of charge, this offer is really a steal!”

Due to the strong curse placed over her as soon as she had transmigrated to this world, normal people didn’t dare to approach her and couldn’t stand being around her. Back at the flower bed, for example, there were a few other people in the vicinity that had been chased away by the power of Elaine’s curse. Only Bella, Ariel, and Noreya seemed able to stand around her and remain completely unaffected, what are they if not Elaine’s destined dorm mates?

If she didn’t take the chance she had now, Elaine knew that it was very likely for her to have to live by herself for the rest of her school life. She had been accompanied by those malicious spirits that had transmigrated with her throughout several incarnations, Elaine was scared that she might end up getting some sort of psychological disorder if she had to endure it by herself for any longer.

In the end, all three princesses agreed to this compromise, while Bella turned her thoughts towards how to buy out the dormitory beside them as well so that Noesha and the other loli ‘maidservants’ would have a place to stay. The rules of the Olsyvia Academy allowed royalty and nobility to live together in ‘special’ dormitories under certain conditions.

These special dormitories were secretly referred to as ‘lover dormitories’ by the academy’ students, as they had originally been two-person dorms specifically designed for couples. As time went on, however, due to the rarity of royalty and nobility only having a single wife, these dorms were expanded to accommodate up to six people to satisfy the demands of those with status.

If one wished to live in such a dormitory, nobles would first have to possess the peerage of Marquis and above, or at least be the direct successor to a Marquis. As for the initial requirements for royalty, they must be a member of the emperor’s immediate family and of the legitimate birth. After they met the requirements they would have to send a request to the student councils of their respective academies, and finally, they would have to pay the rent of 1 gold coin every single day.

In this world, 1 gold coin was equivalent to 100 silver coins or 10,000 copper coins, with 1 copper coin costing approximately 1 yuan in Chinese currency. Meaning that it would take 10,000 yuan (1,464 USD) to live in one of these dormitories each day, and to live in them for an entire semester would cost 12,000,000 yuan (1,756,954 USD). That price tag was only for the dorm alone and didn’t include any of the other expenses that would be incurred.

Even though Bella felt a little sorry for her wallet, but she didn’t express any opposition to the suggestion, she was the most luxuriously dressed here and it would almost definitely end with her paying for the dorm. The other three had already completed their entry processes at the Euphemia Academy(Royalty), and all that they and Bella had to do now was to convey their request to their respective student council presidents.

Right as Bella and the others were about to ask for the bill and leave, a loud commotion suddenly erupted outside, with both male and female voices partaking in what seemed to be a heated argument that seemed on the verge of escalating. Based on some incomplete data, in this world restaurants and similar businesses were the third most dangerous places within any large city, with the main hall of the mercenary guilds and auction houses ranking above. As all three locations would have fights break out at random every day.

What really drew Bella’s attention was that she could hear the voices of Lisha and Irene partaking in the argument, these two were the sisters of Bella’s substitute, Felia. What kind of person just ignores their family when they fall into trouble! Bella and the three princesses who had once again donned their disguises exited the inner room. Noesha and the other three lolis had finished eating as well and looked to Bella for her to make a decision.

Bella wasn’t in a rush to go out with guns… magic blazing, she slowly opened the door just enough so that she could put her face up to it and see the situation outside. She was able to see Irene, Lisha, and Lisha’s assassin attendant Lola standing in the hall not far from them, with three men blocking their way. The three males were rather familiar to Bella and she was able to recognize that they were the three legendary heroes who had previously accompanied Lisha but had abandoned her during her time of need!

After the relationship between Lisha and Bella was repaired, she had disbanded the Anti-Demon Knight corp. So theoretically speaking, Lisha should no longer have any ties to the three of them, so why were they doing this to her? Were they trying to steal Bella’s own little sister from her? If they were, they would definitely be in for a beating!

“Nee-san, there’s a male among the bystanders that has an unlikeable scent, he’s very likely to be one of those new Saviours that Vianne mentioned! Those guys arguing with Lisha-nee were eating at the same table as him earlier.”

Bella was about to go and teach those guys a lesson but through Angel’s whispered reminder, she discovered a rather strange and special youth watching not far from Lisha and the others. Bella couldn’t exactly place a finger on the reason why the youth seemed strange to her, he wasn’t one that could be considered handsome, but Bella noted that his smile was rather provocative and made people feel like punching his face in.

“Bella, if I remember correctly, he should be one of the useless young masters from one of the Octavian Empire’s four great families, I think it was the Brad family? Anyways, he was originally just a beginner knight{2}, but after some accident, while horseback riding last month, his power and abilities suddenly skyrocketed. In the Brad family’s recent internal competition he managed to defeat the eldest son who had the cultivation of holy knight and won the right to attend the Filomina Academy.”

After hearing Ariel’s intel, an unnatural look crept onto her face, why was this script so familiar? Not only her, Ariel, Elaine, and Noreya all had similar expressions on their faces, seemingly having some feeling of familiarity to the events that had happened to this young noble.

—TL NOTES—

{1} Similar to one’s major in university, Bella has chosen her ‘career path’ to be that of a knight

{2} The tiers for knights so far: Beginner Knight -> Knight -> Medium Knight -> High Knight -> Holy Knight-> Dragon Knight

—END—

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