Two weeks passed, and it was finally the day of the party at the academy.
Gramps and I were attending as Amy’s guardians from the Otori family. We thought about letting Amur tag along as her bodyguard—it was pointed out that it would be odd for a viscount’s daughter to guard a commoner, though, so we gave up on that idea. Amur was disappointed, but the queen was the one who shot down the idea, so she had no other choice but to relent.
As for Leni, she had left for the SAR a few days after the commotion. She’d said she would make it back just before winter came. It had already started snowing lightly in the capital, but she’d said the weather would clear up as she traveled south.
“All right, let’s go, Uncle Mark.”
“Leave it to me.”
Today, we were using Thunderbolt and the carriage to go to the academy. I had been planning on driving myself, but Aina had said it would be strange for me to do so since I was attending as the head of the Otori house and not as an adventurer. I’d asked Uncle Mark to do it for me despite the short notice.
Amur had volunteered first, though, and there had even been talk of sending someone from the king’s guard to do it. That still had us running into the same issue as before—it wouldn’t look right. Having a member of the king’s guard drive a commoner’s carriage would definitely prompt criticism from other nobles.
Since Uncle Mark was affiliated with my family, no one could complain about it. However, his inn had been busy lately thanks to an influx of guests for this party descending on the capital, so he was going to stick Thunderbolt and the carriage into my dimension bag after dropping us off and head straight back.
The closer we got to the party, the worse the traffic got. It was bumper-to-bumper carriages wherever you looked. Luckily for us, the other horses kept getting spooked by Thunderbolt and gave us the right of way, so we ended up getting there earlier than I’d expected.
They checked our invitation at the gate. We were supposed to be directed to the stables, but since I’d stowed the carriage and Thunderbolt away in my bag, they took us straight to the lobby instead. We bid farewell to Uncle Mark, and a staff member gave us a quick rundown of the rules on the way over.
The rooms were sorted by class ranking. Since Amy was at the top of her class, her room was the closest to the main hall. That space was reserved for the top ten students and their families, but we were the only ones here so far. Tida was ranked second in the class, but as you’d expect, they’d prepared a special room for him since he was royalty. Since Luna was also attending this year, it was unlikely he’d come to this room at all.
Amy showed up soon after we arrived. The staff member said she was the first commoner to ever take the top spot, and she’d apparently taken a lot of flak leading up to the party. But thanks to Tida and her other friends, she hadn’t been directly harmed. She was well-liked by teachers because she was humble, and the influence of the three noble idiots had ended up helping her in a strange way.
As we chatted about life in the dorms and how things were going at school, other students and their families began to trickle in. Just like I thought, there weren’t any other commoners here. Amy was wearing her uniform, but everyone else was dressed to the nines. Technically, students were supposed to be wearing their uniforms, but no one was paying attention to that rule.
To make matters worse, a few of them were smirking at Amy because of her outfit. I guess they thought that if they couldn’t beat her academically, they’d flex their wallets instead. Eight students had arrived so far, and three girls were behaving like that. Another girl came in with a guy and seemed totally relaxed. The two of them were chatting like they were on a date or something. I figured she probably wasn’t interested in starting anything with Amy.
I leaned over and asked Amy about the three girls I’d noticed, and she confirmed my hunch. They all had crushes on Tida and were in constant competition with Amy for him. As for the other girl here, she was engaged to the guy she’d arrived with.
“Oh, shoot! I forgot I brought a present for you, Amy!” I said loudly so everyone could hear. Sure enough, everyone looked my way.
Normally, bringing gifts to an event like this wasn’t allowed, but I’d asked permission ahead of time.
“This is for you. I think it should fit, but try it on just in case,” I said.
It was a black cloak with a hood and a button clasp at the front.