"Ah, sorry about that. I'm just going to go pick some flowers real quick."
Primula rose from her seat the moment she finished greeting Yuri and introducing herself.
"Oh, I think I'll go too."
"Oh, then let me come along as well! I read in a book that girls always go to the restroom together!"
Viola and Yuri followed after her.
Rest checked his watch — there were still about ten minutes until the post-enrollment guidance session began.
"You three, make sure you're not late. I'll save our seats."
"Got it. Well then, we'll be off."
The three of them left the classroom. Rest was left behind alone.
"............"
With nothing better to do, he looked around the classroom and saw that roughly half of Class A's seats were already occupied.
Some sat waiting for time to pass, while others chatted casually with acquaintances.
(The ratio of nobles to commoners must be about nine to one...)
More than half the students in Class A hailed from noble families.
He had a rough idea of the commoner students in the Magic Department, since they had all taken the same entrance exam together — especially those who looked like top performers.
(As expected, nobles who've been educated in magic since childhood have the advantage. On the flip side, the commoners who made it through must have put in a tremendous amount of effort.)
Every commoner freshman in this classroom had achieved respectable results in the "target shooting" portion of the entrance exam.
What suddenly struck him as odd was that the boy who had ranked right behind Rest and Yuri with excellent results was nowhere to be seen.
(Parsley Boy... no wait, Celery Boy isn't here either. Maybe he ended up in a lower class?)
His practical exam score among the commoner slots ranked third after Rest and Yuri, but the Celery Boy wasn't in Class A.
Had his written exam scores been poor enough to land him in a lower class?
(Well, if we'd been in the same class, we might have ended up clashing, so maybe it's for the best. Yeah.)
As he idly mused on such things, the classroom door burst open with a violent crash.
He turned to see who had flung it open with such recklessness—and there stood a trio of male students.
"That's...!"
"Huh!?"
"Whoa..."
The moment the trio stepped in, a murmur rippled through the classroom.
It wasn't a particularly positive reaction. If anything, it was the kind of response you'd expect when troublemakers showed up.
"Why is he here...?"
"He's in a different class, isn't he? I heard he was in Class D..."
"Wait, Class D? Wasn't he supposed to be some kind of magic genius?"
"I heard he left his written exam almost entirely blank... saying something like 'A king needs only strength. If knowledge is required, one need only ask his retainers.'"
His classmates began whispering among themselves.
It seemed the boy who had entered was something of a celebrity.
There were bits and pieces in their chatter that didn't sit easy, and the atmosphere in the room grew oddly tense.
"...?"
Rest looked on with a bemused expression as he quietly observed the trio that had appeared.
The one striding at the front was a male student with golden hair spiked back.
His features were reasonably well-shaped, but his eyes held an unpleasant sharpness, and he wore his blazer with all the buttons undone in a deliberately slovenly manner.
Trailing behind him were a tall, broad-shouldered guy with a buzz cut and a small, nervous-looking man with glasses.
(What a needlessly arrogant bunch... In my past life, these were exactly the type I'd go out of my way to avoid crossing paths with...)
Rest quietly averted his gaze.
He'd already judged that in this life as well, it would be best not to get involved with this type of person.
"............"
However, the boy at the front of the trio swept the entire classroom with a glare-like gaze, then came thundering straight toward Rest, who was sitting in the front row.
"Hey, you there."
"............"
"I'm talking to you! Hurry up and look over here!"
"............You've got to be kidding me."
He'd been trying to stay out of it, but the boy was unmistakably directing his words at Rest.
With no choice, he turned around, only to find the golden-haired youth planting both hands on the desk and looming over him with an intimidating scowl.
"That gaunt face of yours tells me you're a commoner, right?"
"............That's right, but what about it?"
"Good... You're going to be reassigned to Class D from now on."
"............Excuse me?"
"I'll be entering Class A, so you'll take my place in Class D. Class A is too heavy a burden for a lowly commoner, so I'm doing you a favor."
"............"
The man's brazen, self-entitled words left Rest utterly dumbfounded.
Why on earth did he have to be subjected to this kind of demand from a man he'd never even met before?
As Rest sat there dumbfounded, unable to utter a word, the large buzzcut guy beside him irritably slammed his fist down on the desk.
"This gentleman right here... is His Highness the Third Prince, Lord Rodele Aiwood, and he's ordering you to make the switch! You filthy little commoner, scram already!"
*(Rodele Aiwood... could it be...)* No way... could this blond male student actually be the infamous idiot prince of rumor?
Rest's face contorted as he stared up at the trio from his seat, still frozen in place.