5-2 Oscar
My earliest memory is of being led by the hand to an orphanage by my mother.
“Your real father is a nobleman. Live with pride in that fact,”
she said with a sad expression.
Looking back now, my mother probably had a child at a young age but couldn’t force marriage with the noble father. Yet it was difficult for a woman to live alone, so she left her child at an orphanage to marry another man.
In other words, my existence was a nuisance.
Well, that’s fine… No, it’s not fine, but I can understand. However, those parting words were unnecessary.
The young me took those words seriously.
I convinced myself that I was actually important, that my noble father would come for me someday.
“I’m different from you all. I’m actually a nobleman,”
I truly thought this way. Filled with a meaningless sense of superiority, I looked down on the other children.
If I had been incompetent, I would have just been an annoying kid. But the fact that I was blessed with some intelligence and strength, and could do most things well, wasn’t good either. I quickly became aware that I was good-looking from the attitudes of the girls and nuns around me. If I spoke to them kindly, most requests would be granted.
Getting carried away, I even thought, “Could I actually be the king’s secret child?”
I was an impudent brat. I barely listened to the other children, or even the orphanage director.
So, I was having a relatively good time at the orphanage. Until she came.
When I heard that a duke’s daughter was coming to look for attendants, I thought, “I’m going to be a nobleman in the future, so I don’t need to become something like that.” The director, knowing my delusional wishes, didn’t initially put me forward as a candidate for attendant. she probably thought she couldn’t introduce a troublesome child to the duke’s family.
So she selected the well-behaved children, but that wasn’t what she needed.
What she, Lady Selina, needed were people with truly outstanding qualities.
Isabel, Alice, Emma, Richard, and Louis, despite their issues, had excellent talents. That I was included among them is, in retrospect, an honor beyond my worth. In retrospect.
At the time, I didn’t think that way. After all, her words when choosing me were:
“Whether you’re the child of a noble or a commoner, I’ll make you realize that you’re equally worthless in my household.”
I had a bad feeling about this.
After all, she trampled on the sense of superiority I had been clinging to. And she was the daughter of a duke, no less.
And my premonition was right. What awaited us at the duke’s house were days of harsh training.
It was physically tough, but mentally it was even more severe.
“Oh my, and you thought you had noble blood? Perhaps you’ve mistaken pig’s blood for noble blood? Besides, if you truly had noble blood, your mother wouldn’t have abandoned you, would she?”
Lady Selina constantly berated and bullied us with such piercing words.
For about the first year, I hated Lady Selina.
“Why is she putting us through such terrible things? Is she so great just because she’s a noble? A person’s worth isn’t determined by their birth!”
I hated her enough that my values changed to this extent.
However, that was a mistake. Lady Selina’s goal was to break down our hearts and bodies completely, and then rebuild them from there. That’s why such harsh training – even now, remembering it makes me nauseous – was necessary. In fact, my belief that “nobles are great” had disappeared without me realizing it.
I came to understand. As Lady Selina had said, social status truly meant nothing.
And Lady Selina proved it.
Starting with defeating the Serpent, we fought in various places and gained fame. As if mocking the nobles who were only capable of sitting on expensive chairs, we demonstrated our power.
Now, there’s no one in this country who doesn’t know about us.
With these accomplishments, Lady Selina entered Rosewood Academy.
I know the purpose. It’s to gain control of the academy and ultimately seize real power in this country.
Lady Selina intends to unite the children of this country’s nobles gathered at the academy and create her own faction for the future.
If she can control the third-years in her first year, and the first-years in her third year, she can dominate a total of five grades including her own. This influence is significant.
Currently, she has become engaged to the crown prince, but it will be possible to make this country hers without relying on such a position.
Although she was observing the situation at first upon entering the academy, she finally gave us an order the other day.
“You may do as you please,” she said.
We all thought we were being tested.
It was a statement made with the belief that we could think and act on our own without specific instructions.
We were used to hearing such words during training.
We immediately began to act.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
Rosewood Academy is divided into general class, knight class, magic class, and priest class.
Although we are Lady Selina’s attendants, we were nominally enrolled in each class.
I and Isabel are in the general class with Lady Selina, Richard and Emma are in the knight class, Alice is in the magic class, and Louis is in the priest class.
The general class might sound like a place where ordinary students study, but in reality, it’s an upper-class course where children of nobles gather.
Isabel and I, based on information we had gathered in advance, strategically approached groups that were already forming.
It’s no different from what we did at the orphanage.
Understand what the other person wants, what they desire, what they want to hear, and slowly bring them under our influence.
Social status doesn’t matter. They’re all just humans. In fact, those who rely on their status, like I used to, have nothing else to cling to. If you make them realize that they have nothing but their status, it’s easy to take advantage of them. Really, nobles other than Lady Selina are all vulgar.
It didn’t take long for Isabel and me to create a huge faction with Lady Selina at the top.
What Richard and Emma did was even simpler. They demonstrated their power, that’s all.
Richard dominated the first-year knight class through mock battles and private duels within a week, then immediately challenged the upper-class knight students.
“I won’t say one-on-one. Come at me as many as you like, seniors!”
Provoked by Richard, the upper-class students weighed their pride and face, and shamefully decided to gang up on him.
But they chose the wrong opponent. Richard possesses monstrous strength. Moreover, despite his large build, he moves quickly.
The great sword Richard wields can neither be blocked nor deflected, crushing opponents along with their swords and shields.
The seniors should have abandoned their pride and face and ignored Richard.
The upper-class students were thoroughly trampled by Richard.
Emma was even worse. She boldly intruded on mock battles of other classes.
“Since there’s no one who can match me, could I fight with you? This school’s level is so low.”
By the way, in Emma’s case, she’s not taunting, she’s saying this sincerely.
Angered by this, a teacher started a survival match with all the students against Emma alone, but most students were defeated in seconds by Emma’s dual-wielding style, and in the end, even the teacher was defeated as well.
The skilled teachers of the knight class were all defeated before Emma, and bowed to her power.
Thus, the knight class of Rosewood Academy came under the influence of Richard and Emma.
The magic class and priest class are not places where status or power matter, but Alice and Louis maintained the top position from the time of enrollment. Since magic itself is a special skill, there is only one class, and by maintaining top grades there, they naturally became central figures in the class.
All that was left was to spread the word about how wonderful Lady Selina is.
Alice and Louis said at every opportunity:
“It’s thanks to Lady Selina that we, who were orphans, could gain this much power.”
“If you do as Lady Selina says, your magical power will increase.”
“If you believe in Lady Selina, any injury or illness can be healed.”
“As long as Lady Selina is here, you can be happy. You don’t need anything else.”
And so on. While there may be some exaggeration, there are no lies. Their words, backed by their excellent academic performance, rang true, and the number of Lady Selina’s devotees quickly increased.
In this way, Lady Selina’s influence gradually spread throughout the academy.
Once we had gathered a certain number of people, we lined up the students we had brought under our control behind the school gate.
Of course, this was to have them greet Lady Selina and simultaneously demonstrate who the true ruler of this academy is.
“Good morning, Lady Selina!”
Looking at the lined-up students, Lady Selina was speechless.
Surely she was disappointed that the number was less than she had imagined.
I apologize. We are Lady Selina’s chosen attendants. We must strive harder.
TLNOTE : While waiting, I implore you dear readers to read other masterpiece novels that also written by the same author :
- When the Monster Meat I Ate Led Me to the Throne
- Who killed the Hero?
- The Suspects of Necromancy
- The Exiled Merchant Saves the World with the Power of Gold (translated by my friend meerkat)
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