It was school time!

Hm? The Potions that I created were put into the shop, but since only a day passed, there were only a few people buying them. Also, yesterday, I was quite busy with studying History and Geography, so there was no interesting happening.

This morning, however, there was an interesting thing happening. I heard from Rita that a dying Adventurer was saved by the Orange Potion that he bought from the Adventure Guild. Because of that, the popularity of the potions increased a lot, and this morning, just before I went to the school, the potions were sold out already. I asked the receptionist for another batch of the same ingredients I asked the day before. Well, even though she was suspicious that what I requested were the ingredients for making the potion, it would be impossible for them to know the exact method of concocting that potion without asking me. I didn’t mind sharing with them though, as long as I got the royalty from sharing it.

Anyway, after dealing with this and that, I went to school. I was a little nervous as it would be the first time I would attend the school after a long time. Would I be bullied by other students? If that were to happen, my fragile heart would take a lot of damage…

In my previous school while I was still on Earth, even though I wasn’t bullied to the extent that they physically bullied me, it still broke my heart. Well, being ignored by the whole class was really painful after all. Also, they acted as if I wasn’t there at all. Of course, I was not a ghost that went to school, alright? The teacher was still interacting with me normally, so I was definitely not a ghost that couldn’t be seen by the students only.

Well, anyway, school bullying was real and although I was bullied by the silent treatment, it was enough to broke my fragile heart. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I was sent to this world, huh?

Alright, with complicated feelings, I went into the school ground. I still didn’t know which class I would be in, so I followed the crowds that had a similar uniform as mine. The new students had white robes as their uniforms, so naturally I followed the white robes students.

Speaking of which, the other students looked older than me. It seemed they entered this school when they were fifteen years old. I didn’t know whether there was an age restriction or not, but it seemed there weren’t any. As for the reason why the other only entered after they reached fifteen years old, it seemed it was because of the tradition of this world.

So, people younger than fifteen years old were considered as kids. They still received education from their family. That was why most children only went to school after they were fifteen years old or older because that meant they were prepared to receive education from outside of their family education.

For example, Rayleigh. Even though he received education from me, I was teaching him in his own house so their family could watch over me. If I taught him something against the principles of the family, then the family could correct him immediately. Well, in Rayleigh's case, however, I didn’t teach him anything bad, as I only taught him about Ancient Language and Runes for now.

So, being the youngest person in this batch of students (appearances-wise), I became the center of attention immediately. In their eyes, people younger than fifteen years old attending a school meant that he or she was an orphan that didn’t live in an orphanage. So, they looked at me with eyes of pity and admiration. Pity because they thought that I didn’t have parents, a true fact, and admiration for living by myself.

“Little girl, are you a new student too?” A gentle big sister greeted me with her gentle smile.

“Yes. Er, we are not going to the class?” I asked as I looked around. We were gathering in the field at the moment. Even I didn’t know where the classroom was.

“Don’t you know that we have to attend the opening ceremony? Oh, by the way, do you know about the first rank student in the exam? I heard they got perfect scores in both Practical Magic and Combat. I wonder how they look like? Maybe they are fierce and scary?” The gentle big sister wondered aloud. Sorry, but I didn’t think that I was fierce and scary.

“I heard that in this opening ceremony, that first rank student will give a speech in front of us.” She said again.

Hm? That first rank student… that meant, me, right? Giving speech? Why didn’t anyone tell me about it?

“Oh, by the way, my name is Alicia.” She extended her hand and introduced herself.

“…” I nodded and shook her hand but my mind was blank so I didn’t introduce myself. Giving a speech? I wished she was kidding, as I didn’t prepare anything.

“Miss Fey?” Ah, it was the voice that I knew. The cold voice was familiar even though I only talked to her twice.

As I turned around, I saw the teacher with a strict face, nicknamed, the Iron Lady. When she saw me, I could see that she was relieved, but when I saw her, I had a bad feeling about it.

“Miss Fey, please be prepared to give a speech.” She said.

“…wait a minute. No one told me that I will give a speech here. I didn’t prepare anything at all!” I protested.

The Iron Lady was surprised. “We have sent a letter about this to the place where you live, the Springland Inn. You didn’t receive it?”

A letter? Nope, I didn’t receive anything at all. I shook my head and she looked troubled.

I sighed and looked at the sky. It was really troubling, giving a speech, however, I didn’t mind it too much actually. I was just surprised since I never received any notification prior to this. In fact, I was actually a bit excited about it. I wished by doing this, I could get one or two friends, unlike in my previous school on Earth when I didn’t even get a single friend.

“So, what am I supposed to say?” I asked the Iron Lady.

“We hope that you will encourage others to aim for the top.” She said.

What a vague theme. Also, I didn’t have enough time to think about what I should say. I tried to remember about speeches that I attended when I was in school, but all I could remember was the fact that I was getting sleepy whenever the headmaster started speaking. Ugh, seriously, it was really bad.

As I was trying to remember what kind of speech I would give, it was finally time for the opening ceremony to start. Time always flew fast when you were in pinch. That was what I felt. There were a lot of trivial things in the opening ceremony, but before I knew it, it was time for me to give my speech.

Ah, seriously, what was I going to say!?

I walked to the stage with nothing in my mind. Yes, my mind was blank, as blank as the white paper.

“…” There was an awkward silence for a minute. I really didn’t know what to say. Then, I saw the Iron Lady’s face, urging me to start speaking, so I opened my mouth and started speaking.

“…I am weak.” I started with those words. “The System told me that I am weak. It told me that my status was below the average status of the other people, including you all. However, even though I am weak, I can still be the first in the last exam. Forgetting about the other subjects, I get perfect scores for both Practical Magic and Combat test. That doesn’t mean that I have become strong. I don’t have enough strength to beat the examiner in the combat test, and I don’t have enough power to destroy the targets in the Practical Magic test.”

I paused for a moment. “I know that I am weak, that is why I try my hardest to master all the weak Spells that I have. I know where my weakness is, and I think, learning more Spells could help me covering those weaknesses. No matter how strong you are, if you still have a weakness, it will be easy to defeat you. That is why this academy, that teaches us every Spells available, is the one that will help us grow stronger. I hope that I can be stronger by learning various Spells in this academy.”

I stopped and looked at the Iron Lady’s face again. She nodded in satisfaction. It seemed that she was satisfied with my speech, so I decided not to embarrass myself any further.

“Thank you.” I bowed and hurriedly retreated from the stage. Now that I could think, my speech was kind of awkward, wasn’t it?

Well, whatever, at least, I had done it even though it was bad. I returned to my seat and the big sister, Alicia, whispered to me.

“Are you sure you are that Fey?” She asked, seemingly not believing me at all.

“Mm. I am that Fey. Ah, for the combat scores, even I don’t know why I get perfect scores. I mean, I was defeated by the examiner after ten attacks or so.” I replied honestly.

“What? You can block ten attacks of that examiner, Master Shiro?” Alicia exclaimed in surprise. But, Master Shiro? I knew that he had white hair and he wore white clothes, but even his name was Shiro that meant white too?

“…oh, speaking of which, who is he?” I asked curiously. He was as good as Zero, or even better than him. If we seriously fought, I would only last for two or three attacks at most. He held back because it was an examination after all.

“He is one of the ten best Swordmaster in the Empire! Even though he held back when he tested us, the best record of a student can parry his attacks was only three attacks! And that student is considered as the sword prodigy at that time. Are you actually a sword prodigy too?” Alicia explained.

Sword prodigy? I shook my head. I was not a sword prodigy. In fact, after trying to learn of using a sword for years, the best I could do was parrying attacks. If it were the silly Goddess, she would be able to counterattack with every attack she parried. Even Zero could do that easily. So, I was not a sword prodigy.

“…I’m just good at defending.” I answered her. It was not a lie, as I trained my hardest so I wouldn’t die prematurely. Yes, I didn’t want to die because I couldn’t defend myself, so when I was still a Dungeon Master, I learned a lot of defending skills, including swordsmanship. That was why my defending skill was quite good. Especially when I had a lot of training partners at the level of Heroes and Champions.

“How about Magic? Is it true that you hit all the targets? And moreover, with various elements?” She asked again.

This time, I nodded. “Yes, that is not a lie. Well, I can’t destroy any of the targets though, so in my opinion, I shouldn’t get the perfect score for it.”

“No, I mean, you can use ten elements? Is that true?” She interrupted me.

Was it really amazing to be able to use ten elements? There were countless elements in this world, after all, so using ten elements shouldn’t be that amazing. So, I nodded, and again, Alicia was stunned before she shook my shoulders.

“Is it really true? Wow, Fey, don’t you know that the best Mage in this Empire can only use five elements? You are better than even the best Mage!”