Chapter 48

“I am quite sure that I asked you to send me a letter.”

We were in a private room in a luxurious restaurant with stone walls.

The person who was currently sitting in front of me with an intimidating smile, was Linda Lucena. A first-year from the Royal Academy.

She was my childhood friend. I thought that I knew her.

But the way she was smiling now. I had never seen her like this before.

We had reunited by accident on the roof terrace during the opening ceremony.

That was when Linda had asked me to send her a letter.

It had completely escaped my mind.

I was supposed to send a letter to the Royal Academy.

If it went through the school, Linda would be able to reply to me. That was their system.

And the school would ensure that her reply was delivered to me.

If you didn’t follow this process, your letter would be ignored. Linda had gone out of her way to tell me all of this.

Once she had lost patience, Linda had ordered some flowers and had them sent to me. As flowers did not require a reply, they were allowed to send them.

“Hah… You should have seen my face when they arrived.”

Of course, it was Siluru who delivered them.

And when she handed them over, she whispered to me, ‘She was very upset. What did you do?’

The message card only had her name on it. Such were the rules.

I’m quite sure that I turned completely pale when I saw Linda’s name on the card.

Linda was prickly and angry for a while, but then she seemed to realize that she wasn’t getting anywhere, and so she finally broached the subject.

“About the gathering next month…I, I won’t be able to attend.”

“Gathering?”

What was that?

“You don’t know?”

“I’m quite busy…”

“You’re exhausting. Well, perhaps that’s a good thing for me.”

According to Linda, the students of the Royal Academy and the Dragon Academy had gatherings where they met five times a year.

Five times seemed excessive to me.

Not only that, but only the First-Years of the Dragon Academy would attend. So that was 27 people.

The Second-Years were too busy with their training. They definitely couldn’t attend such an event five times a year.

“Why can’t you attend?”

“Because out of all the students in the school that want to attend, only 300 are selected. You do realize there are about 1,500 of us? And a lot of people want to go. And I didn’t win the lottery.”

She said ‘only 300,’ but that was more than ten times as many people as us First-Years.

Was this going to be something similar to that tea party? I would hate that.

Perhaps this appeared on my face, because Linda smiled with satisfaction and moved closer to me.

“So, I won’t be able to…attend the gathering. But I want you to leave as soon as you finish the initial greeting.”

If you wanted to choose a Patron, these tea parties and gatherings were important in getting your name out there. And so many people preferred to attend.

However, as Linda would not be able to get in, she did not want me to get close to any of the other students.

Had she always been this way? I don’t remember… Oh, now she was glaring at me.

I didn’t want to be hunted down either.

However, Linda was being a lot bolder than the last time I met her.

“You seem puzzled.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Oh, well. I didn’t really mean to put myself out as a Patron candidate anyway.”

Indeed. She had said so during the meeting on the terrace.

And so she had not been downstairs with the others.

“But, you know how daddy can be. He’s very enthusiastic about it.”

I didn’t need to ask.

All of the names and birthplaces of the First-Years had already spread throughout the city.

It didn’t matter if you didn’t want it to spread, it just did.

And of course, it was unlikely that Linda’s father had forgotten me.

I was quite sure that he did remember.

If he recognized the name and birthplace, he would have investigated the matter immediately.

He might even have sent someone to my parents’ house.

Regardless, he would be sure of it by now.

“Of course, I wouldn’t mind being a Patron if it was you. But really, his eyes are completely wild when he asks me about you. How close did I get… He’s so stupid.”

She looked away and began muttering to herself.

“He even increased my allowance all of a sudden. ‘Go and eat something delicious. Find out what he likes. Send gifts…’ As if I could even do that.”

Linda’s voice was full of resentment as she continued to complain.

But it was true. That kind of excessive wooing was forbidden.

“So, that’s why you don’t want me to participate in the gathering?”

“No, that’s my personal decision. Well, I think information from the first gathering will spread everywhere from the participants. They’ll talk about which people seemed to get close, for instance.”

“Really?”

“After all, you students rarely leave the academy. People are really interested.”

“I see.”

When I first entered, I was told that I could go out during lunch. And the First-Years that were naive enough to believe it, went out in their uniforms. I could only imagine what feelings they harbored upon their return.

Some of them came back looking very disheveled, and most never left the gates again.

But it was because of those sacrifices that the other students learned to wear their own clothes when leaving.

We were all very thankful for their sacrifice.

After all, they would have eventually started going to the center of the Royal Capital.

It was a good thing they learned early. However, some lost all interest in the outside world before that.

“Alright then. I never wanted to attend those kinds of events anyway.”

“I see. That’s good. Now, order whatever you like. It’s on me.”

“Ah, I’ve had plenty already.”

Linda was suddenly in a very good mood. I couldn’t help but chuckle.

Five gatherings… The fact that this was part of our curriculum showed how serious Ryukoku was.

They did not want us to drift off to the other countries.

“But, five times….”

I just wanted to live quietly… It made me want to cry.