There was a week’s worth of spare time between the kidnapping incident and the Academy’s entrance ceremony. During that time I was reluctantly busy being dragged around by Michelle and Letina, who I’d just met. Since I’d visited Raum in my previous life, I had some basic geographical knowledge, but taking in the scenery from a child’s perspective was refreshing. As I was dragged around Raum all week, of course, I’d get acquainted with more people.

“Morning Nicole! Chasing after Yowi’s hellion again today are we?” “Good Morning, Mr. Wesson.”

I stopped to return the baker’s greeting. He knows I’m freeloading at Cortina’s and Finia often helps him out. Being rude to him would bring many inconveniences down the line later on.

This is why I made sure to politely deal with all the residents I come across. It seems to have caused me to get a strange reputation though.

I have a reputation for being Lyell and Maria’s polite and courteous child who just started living with Cortina. It seems my unusual heterochromia, along with my prim and proper appearance, had something to do with it too. And meanwhile, I’m always wearing shorts and running all across town so I seem to be pretty active and catch other people’s attention.

“Hold up, Wesson! What are you trying to say, calling me a hellion!” “Huh? Y’mean you hadn’t noticed?” “Guh…!”

Letina came from a Marquess household and despite her noble lineage, she’s pretty frank. She’s not originally from the royal capital but held provincial lands, so when she came to the city she got lost in the back alleys and got abducted. In the past few days, we’ve gone around the city under the pretense of getting used to it while trying all the local specialties. Thanks to that city residents quickly got to know her and her mother, Eliza, was comfortable letting her play outside on her own now. The safest surveillance device is the eyes of the locals after all.

That trust may also be related to her having friends like me and Michelle who are the same age. …My body is still weak as hell though.

“I’ll have a donut please, mister!” “Michelle’s appetite is as healthy as ever…”

The baker who wrapped up a donut for Michelle looked at her with a stunned expression as she wolfed it down on the spot right after paying for it with her allowance. Perhaps her good growth comes from her hearty appetite, I can’t do it.

“Michelle, if you don’t hurry the reception will start without us!” “Ah, Right… Gulp.” “Come on, hurry!”

Michelle got dragged off while holding the donut in her mouth. I gave Wesson a quick bow before hurrying after them. It’s no surprise that Letina was even more hyper than normal, today the school is holding an open house. Especially now that it was right before the entrance ceremony, new freshmen were going in droves to get familiar with the school.

Since it’s so early there aren’t a whole lot of other visitors yet. You can also see the regular students heading into school though. Because Michelle’s enrolling in an adventurer’s school, she has little to do here. But since it’s nearby, we’ll be sharing both the playground and magic training area, so it looks like we’ll have plenty of chances to meet up.

The greatest draw of this school is the large library it contains, which is said to be the world’s largest. Add on to that was the fact that Maxwell, the greatest mage in the world, was the director here, of course, many students would gather at this academy.

But I didn’t come so much to study new magic as to work on my already existing magic. On my own, it’ll take several years to reach Polymorph, the highest tier of magic in the system of Interference Magic. But if I ask Maxwell and Cortina, who are great teachers, for help, then I should be able to drastically reduce the time it takes. It should prove to be a good shortcut to reach my end goal of ‘returning to my original body’.

Today Cortina was already at work preparing for class while Finia was so busy cleaning and doing laundry she couldn’t step out of the house, so only us kids came to the school. Luckily, since the school’s so close to the house, permission was easily given.

“Woooow…” “What a large tower.”

They raised incredulous voices as they looked up at the spire which had grown even more in the seventeen years since I last visited, already exceeding the castle tower of the Royal Castle.

“It’s even known as Raum’s Second Royal Castle.” “Nicole really knows her stuff huh.” “Eh? Ah, yeah, maybe I heard it from Lord Maxwell?”

I’ve been visiting Maxwell’s house to take magic lessons, so they should buy that excuse, maybe.

In order to get a full view of the enormous spire, I took a few steps back, until I felt myself bump into someone. I bounced forward, rolling on the ground before quickly getting back up. You could say it was an automatic reflex ingrained in me. As I was rolling, I looked back and saw a tall kid standing by himself.

As I watched, the kid got a sour look on his face and made a gesture as if he was brushing off his chest.

“What’s with you punks. What business do commoners have at this Magic Academy?” “Um… Sorry?”

I decided to apologize for the moment, I’d rather not get involved with a noble as it would become a bother for Cortina as well. I got up and gave a bow, and immediately made to leave. However, it seemed the other guy wasn’t willing to leave it at that.

“Hold it, commoner. You think you can bump into me and I’ll let you leave with a single word? Sorry doesn’t cut it.” “Wha?” “You’ve got to show a proper apologetic attitude, don’t you? Papa always makes the citizenry prostrate themselves before him.” “Wait up….”

The, heck. Making citizens fall prostrate? Does such a noble actually exist? That Maxwell, he’s being too naive monitoring these guys.