Chapter 8: The School of the Doomed (3)

“By the Abyss!”

“Come on, Simon, don’t be like that,” Anna chided him while Tiella scratched her cheek in embarrassment. The three of them had gathered to decide their courses. “What’s done is done.”

“Antonine I could live with because I assumed she would keep to herself and her posse, but Thalas?” Simon grumbled. “What is he even doing here?! Can someone with a Class even attend this institution?”

“Well, I do,” Anna replied with a chuckle. “Maybe he wants to spend more time with his fiancée. So many things can happen in a school full of handsome men…”

Simon somehow doubted it. The Imperial Military Academy was something of an elite institution to train officers and leaders for Endymion’s army, so the curriculum only lasted a year, and the teachers assumed you had at least some experience… Yet Thalas was blatantly overqualified for the institution anyway. He had learned to wield a Class since he could walk and held the Berserker’s power. This place had nothing to teach him, so why attend it at all besides rubbing shoulders with noble bra–

Ah, I get it. He’s here to recruit. Simon cursed himself for not anticipating this. Euphemia anticipates a conflict with Louis very soon now that they know Father died, so she sent Thalas to find prospects within the imperial nobility.

Every House worth its salt sent a child to the Imperial Military Academy sooner or later for the networking opportunities alone. The graduates would form the empire’s ruling elite, and whoever kept them in their pocket could aspire to the throne even without the Overlord Class.

Why? Why did this have to happen to him? The prospect of spending the year having to share a space with that asshole had immediately shattered most of Simon’s enthusiasm for joining the academy. Simon told himself it was only a year and that he could make it bearable by minimizing the time he spent near Thalas.

He would thankfully be swamped with work anyway. Academy courses were highly modular, but they only had one free day per week and an exam at the end of each month, which would usually involve an exercise in the field or a mock battle, according to what Simon had heard. The mere list of potential subjects already gave him a headache.

“Swordsmanship,” Anna read aloud, “Equitation, Imperial History, Siegecraft, Noble Etiquette and Dancing, Melee and Unarmed Combat, Archery, Tactics & Strategy, Languages, Magical Theory, Divine Mysteries, Artillery, Shipbuilding, Monster Anatomy, Foreign Affairs, Tribal Studies, Arts and Literature…”

That was too many courses for a lifetime. Had the last Overlord designed the schedule assuming all students could redo the year or something?

Considering the risk of assassination, Simon was tempted to take courses that would give him direct practical experience… but Thalas’ presence and the fact that the likes of Leonard could quickly pick up on the fact he had a Class caused him to grow cautious. He decided to avoid Swordsmanship and Melee courses to focus on Tactics & Strategy, Magical Theory, Equitation, and Monster Anatomy. Anna also insisted that he study Divine Mysteries with her, and while he wasn’t particularly interested in the Church of the Light’s teachings, it should provide him with useful information on undead and demons.

“Tribal Studies is the study of non-human tribes like the elves, the beastmen, and the goblinoids, correct?” Simon asked Anna.

“Yes,” she confirmed. “Interested in our colonies’ culture?”

“Somewhat.” Simon mostly wanted to gather information on the kish capital his father had been interested in. “Come to think of it, I wonder if we have other tribe members besides humans among the students.”

“There’s always a handful of smart goblinoids, demons, or beastmen among the students, and I’ve heard we’ll receive our first scalefolk this year,” Anna replied. “I don’t think an elf has ever attended this place, however.”

That didn’t surprise Simon much. While the empire didn’t officially discriminate between the world’s Tribes, the truth was that humans represented the largest percentage of the empire’s free population, and the Church of the Light heavily discriminated against the pagan beliefs most Tribes clung to. Most beastmen, goblinoid, or scalefolk were slaves, and the elves of Illusea had been the empire’s greatest geopolitical rivals since Mardok’s time.

Then again, joining the army was one of the very few paths of advancement opened to non-human Tribes. The few who managed to either pay the academy’s tuition or received sponsorship from a general could eventually rise to the highest echelons, especially if they served under the War Party’s authority. The likes of Louis didn’t care where their troops came from so long as they showed strength and merit.

“I can’t wait to show you the bathhouse,” Anna said. “We have a sauna, including a mixed gender one. Perfect to find yourself a wife.”

While Tiella blushed at the suggestion, Simon simply teased her. “The courses haven’t even begun, and you’re already thinking about relaxing?”

“These are my golden years, and I mean to have fun,” Anna replied without any shame whatsoever. “That reminds me, the Dueling Club meets each week on our free day’s morning. Be ready to rise with the sun, or I’ll have to drag you out.”

“You won’t, the rooms’ doors are magically sealed so only students and their designated staff can enter them,” Simon countered. One of the first things he had done today was to check that out to waylay any potential assassins. “Besides, I didn’t sign up for any clubs.”

“Come on, what are the alternatives, the theater troupe?” Anna rolled her eyes. “The gardening club?”

“Private lessons with my men-at-arms.” Anna gave Simon ‘the look,’ much to his dismay. “Fine, fine, I’ll see what I can do.”

“Don’t be late.”

And so began his first day at the Imperial Military Academy.

Dassein was supposed to give a speech to new students, but since he was apparently too busy with the hunt for Laurent Linconnu to do so, the duty fell on the headmaster, Tolstoff Naberius. That man proved as boorish as he was old—partly because he spent half of it thanking the imperial family for their patronage and sucking up to Thalas’ for his ‘august presence this year’—so listening to it all proved a struggle.

All this flattering had the welcome side-effect of causing a large chunk of the students to flock to Thalas’ side to suck-up to him, which ensured that he spent more time paying attention to his sycophants than his half-sibling. A few boys also introduced themselves to Anna and Tiella the moment the headmaster finished his speech, with the former doing most of the talking. Tiella struck Simon as the shy wallflower kind so far, who only spoke when spoken to.

Simon actually liked it this way. He never understood Anna’s urge to talk for the sake of it.

Whatever the case, nobody walked up to Simon for now, but he knew that would change once people realized he and Anna spent time together. At this point, the flatterers and the ambitious would realize that becoming his friend meant gaining access to the Overlord’s niece, and that was an opportunity worth tolerating a bastard for.

For now, he would enjoy these precious first days of relative anonymity.

His first course of the morning was Tribal Studies, which took place in a backroom away from the main atriums. Simon wondered why until he realized only four students had shown up for it, himself included—Anna and Tiella preferred to attend the more popular Swordsmanship course. Two of them looked like bored noble dilettantes expecting an easy course for easy grades, though the third had already opened their notebook before the teacher even arrived in anticipation. It had to be the one person on the campus interested in non-human culture.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Oh my, we have one more student this year,” the teacher said with a deadpan tone upon entering the room. A gaunt man with pale skin and black hair, he reminded Simon of the corpses crawling inside Duchar’s den. “Oh well, this will be more interactive. My name is Adrien Adrissant, and I shall be your Tribal Studies teacher this year. I also teach Foreign Affairs, so you may see me again if you follow both courses. ”

Simon shrugged and sat at a free desk as the man began a lecture on the history of the world. He actually liked the lack of people present since it would allow some back and forth. There was nothing more boring than someone speaking to a hundred people bored out of their skulls.

He sensed movement to his right and looked up to see a student approaching him. It was a handsome man of Simon’s age with short blonde hair and lilac eyes. While he bore the standard academy uniform, he showed no brooch or sigil that would associate him with a noble family.

“Can I sit here?” he asked, pointing at the desk next to Simon’s.

“Sure,” Simon replied, immediately on edge. Was this the first opportunist knocking on his door? Whatever the case, the stranger sat and began to listen to the lecture.

“All natural life in this world derives from the mana trees and their dryads, themselves seedlings of Illusea’s Worldtree,” Mr. Adrissant explained. “The very first Tribe, and the one almost all others descend from, is the elven one. Elves were one of the first forms of sentient life to appear on this world.”

“Alongside dragons,” the blonde student said.

“Alongside dragons, of course.” The teacher smiled thinly. He clearly disliked being interrupted. “I’ll go over it later, but this is a fascinating case of what we call convergent evolution where distant species independently evolve similar traits.”