Villainess and the Stalker - Chapter 2 - A Youth of A Certain Country

Chapter 2 : A Youth of A Certain Country

―― In the beginning.

Yes, “In the beginning”, I wasn’t too eager to attend the academy.

Why in the world did I need to go to that place to begin with?

My feeling was completely natural. I mean, I was suddenly told I had to go to a place called Royal Sorcery Academy that was located in a small countryside kingdom called Helios kingdom.

The reason for that? I was told that it’s because Helios Kingdom was a long standing kingdom with long history which still kept many of its traditions and traditional buildings. That I could learn a lot from the past and all that. But, honestly speaking, it was nothing but an ancient kingdom with ancient laws that couldn’t face the reality that they’ve long since lost their power and authority over in the present. Yet, this Kingdom still dare to look down on others. What a ridiculous place.

Was there even anything for me to learn in that kind of kingdom?

I couldn’t help but questioned that decision over and over again in my head.

Why in the world did I need to go there anyway? If it’s just to learn magic, I just need to go to the kingdom with the most advanced sorcery research, the Empire of Sorcery, Loughan Prena. If I need to learn science, attending Science City Lentia, a freedom city in Ranza union would be enough.

So, just why, above all the other choices, made me had to go to Helios Kingdom?

It’s the truth that it was a prosperous Kingdom, but that was in the past!

It was the place where many myths sprung forth, and the source of numerous ancient civilization that couldn’t be analyzed even now.

Truthfully speaking, it wasn’t a bad environment for someone who was interested in the ancient civilization study and myths. Rather, it was the perfect environment for those who like those stuffs.

But, I, whose interests lay elsewhere, had to attend the Royal Sorcery Academy as its students.

In short, there was almost nothing for me to learn nor did I want to see those precious ancient ruins in that place. After all, I was not a scholar nor interested in researching those fields even if I happened to be a scholar.

To conclude, if I went there, I would waste my extremely precious time stuck in an environment in which I have to learn an extremely low-levelled lesson that I did not want.

There’s no way I would accept something like that.

That’s why, as soon as I was informed of this decision, I came to visit my grandfather to talk to him directly.

「Honored grandfather! What in the world is this about? Please tell me, why do I…have to go to such a rural place?」

At that time, I honestly was a conceited guy, too conceited in many ways in fact.

I used to think that I had the talents and abilities to meet the expectations of those around me. I thought that I could achieve my goals easily, and I had never once doubted that fact.

So, when I was suddenly ordered to attend the academy of some rural place, I was not reconciled, and anxious. At that time, I thought that I was going to be abandoned by my grandfather, thus I became anxious. It was only natural considering the way I thought and my personality at that time. For this reason, I went and talk directly to him.

However, my grandfather only said some words to the anxious me.

「…. Ryuu. You shouldn’t say that to a country with long standing history you know. Moreover, it’s been decided. Please just follow this order and enjoy your quiet academy life.」

Those words were what my grandfather told me.

While I now understood what my grandfather tried to tell me, at that time I didn’t understand at all. To my past self’s mind, those words had a different meaning.

At that time, I thought it meant differently. That I was told that grandfather had discarded me who couldn’t even keep international relationship smooth, and would only sour it by my manner of speech, that I was to do as I please as a student so I wouldn’t harm anyone,

I truly thought that at that time, but now that I had reconsidered those words carefully, I realized that was not the case at all. There’s no way my grandfather would do that to me, I believed. It was just, I was way too reliant on my grandfather at that time.

Thus, with the way the situation was, it wasn’t strange for me to feel like I was abandoned by my grandfather. Back then, I could only leave my grandfather’s office like someone who had lost his soul. This state continued until the day of my departure.

Frankly speaking, if I had even a little bit more guts to talk back to my grandfather, the present might be completely different. I might be able to come to a slightly better place than this was more suitable for my interest if I used a bit of my wits.

For example, just for example, I could give a passionate talk about a place and told him that I wanted to study in that place. Surely grandfather would allow that. But, at that time, I just said that I didn’t want to go to a rural area like this kingdom.

When I thought back to how I was at that time, I couldn’t help but be amazed at how selfish I was. I was practically a brat. A truly selfish one at that.

I could be called a silk pants. A good-for-nothing. [ED: Why is this MC so annoying?!]

That’s why I needed to start over from the beginning. And the first step was by separating from grandfather. I couldn’t always rely on him whenever I was stumped on something.

I had to be able to think for myself. I need to be able to think of what I would need to do in a land where I was alone with no trusted assistance or support.

But, back then I didn’t understand that. No, I didn’t. So, on the day of my departure, after loading my luggage, I entered the coach that was prepared for me with a ghastly pale face.

I was shocked. However, when I recalled the memories of that time, I couldn’t help but feel dumb. I mean, the scale of my send off was too grandiose. That fact should already clued me in that I was not discarded or abandoned, after all I only left my nest for the sake of self-learning.

◇◆◇◆◇

「…. Ryuu-sama. I can already see the academy.」

The person who informed me was the man who took care of me since I was but a child, Clade. Well, despite me saying that, truthfully we only met when I was five years old. Furthermore, he became playmates and childhood friends.

Though in society’s eyes our standing with each other was that of master and servant, he was in fact my friend.

The reason he came along was because my grandfather ordered him to send me until we reached the academy. And he wouldn’t accompany me there to take care of me. After all, my grandfather ordered him to return after he finished sending me to the academy.

Really, I should’ve thought about the reason why my grandfather specially chose Clade to accompany me at that time.

I meant, Clade practically had no time to spare. Despite my claim, his main duty was to help my grandfather out. And now that I was not being a over-entitled brat, I realized that the reason why my grandfather assigned someone as busy as him to accompany me was because he was worried about my safety and could only place it in the hands of our trusted subordinates.

I really had to say that I was really blind at that time. I completely neglect that fact. To be more precise, I didn’t even consider anything from a different point of view. I was just an empty husk, a fool who was jolted in the coach.

「I……. Don’t want to go to Royal Sorcery Academy of Helios……..」

Clade laughed when I said those words with a ghastly pale face.

「Come on, don’t say that. This is a confidential matter so don’t tell anyone about this, it’s true that Helios is a rural place, but the Royal Sorcery Academy itself is a prestigious school.」

「…. Prestigious? How many people do you think the people who have the title of Heavenly Color Sorcerer level claimed that they were Helios’s alumnus? And say nothing about the level of the teachers in this academy…. I, I…… I am at lost.」

「Ryuu-sama, you’re definitely beyond the expectation of this academy… And it’s not like the holder of Heavenly Color Sorcerer title will teach in another country either. But, you should be aware about how many archmage out there. And the place they graduated from.」

「Arch-….-Mage…」

Well, if they’ve teacher of that level who could create archmages….

Seeing that I was beginning to recover a little bit from my state, Clade continued on.

「Moreover, look there. Don’t you see how graceful the noble ladies are behaving? As expected of the noble of traditional country who were the purveyor of this academy, their noble girls are really first-class. I hear that you’re going to meet a lot of beautiful noble girls in that academy. See, those kinds of girls become rarer and rarer in recent years due to the rapid advancements in various countries…. I won’t say that advancement is a bad thing, but don’t you yearn for a REAL PRINCESS? 」

「That’s not for you to worry about.」

Clade was smiling wryly to my instant declaration.

「You really are never interested in this kind of things ever since a long time ago huh…. Oh well, it’s okay. Oh, we’ve arrived.」

The coach stopped at once, closely followed by the sound of the opening gate.

I guess we were about to enter the academy site.

While I didn’t really care about those noble girls or how graceful they were, I felt slightly better when I knew that it was going to be Archmages who was going to lecture me. It interested me thus, I was no longer behaving like a soulless husk inside the coach that was advancing along the road in the academy site.