The class called Eugray

 
 
 ☆
 
 
 “Fuaaaah”
 
 The next morning.
 
 As I left the girls’ dorm and headed to the school building, I let out a big yawn.
 
 “Letty, did you sleep well enough?”
 
 When Anna asked this worriedly, I groaned as I walked, unsure of what to say.
 
 “Surely you didn’t stay up all night again…”
 
 “Hey, I did try to sleep, you know? There’s also a set time for lights out, and if I turned on a light, it’d be a nuisance to my roommates.”
 
 My sister gave me a deadpanned look, to which I gave my excuse in a hurry.
 
 “But, look. It’d be bad if I couldn’t ever use sorcery, so I thought about whether I couldn’t maybe make a magic tool to break this deadlock, and then I couldn’t sleep…”
 
 I think I eventually fell asleep around 1 AM.^[1]
 
 Thanks to that I came up with an idea, but in exchange, I was now feeling quite sleepy.
 
 “Sigh… Letty, I think 『being independent』 also includes taking care of your health, you know?”
 
 “Ugh…”
 
 That hurts to hear.
 
 “——— but, well, you have just changed environments, and I do understand how you feel, so I’ll overlook it just for today. So instead, be sure to tell me if you’re feeling unwell, ok?”
 
 “Ok.”
 
 As I plodded along while being scolded by Anna, I then spoke to Renee beside me.
 
 “Did you sleep well, Renee?”
 
 “Uhm, yes. I slept quite well. Kind of shameless of me…”
 
 『Ehehe』, Renee laughed to herself.
 
 “That’s a good thing. Sleep is important for humans, after all.”
 
 When I said that with bleary eyes, Anna promptly said,
 “Letty, please follow in Renee’s example, ok?”
 
 “Ok…”
 
 As I nodded off, I vowed to myself to go to bed early tonight.
 
 
 ☆
 
 
 Eugray’s first-year classrooms were located at the back of the classroom building.
 
 When we entered the classroom, the seats were already half filled.
 
 “Looking at it like this, there really are lots of different people.”
 
 We sat in a three-seater at the back.
 I couldn’t help but mutter this as I looked at the students in front of me.
 
 “That’s true. There are some who, like Letia-san and Anna, who’ve come from other countries.——— And that person there is an elf.”
 
 When I looked towards where Renee was looking, I saw a female student who certainly had the characteristic pointy ears.
 
 “We barely see any races other than humans on the Northern Continent, so this is rather fresh.”
 
 On the Northern Continent where our country is, there was an era between 500 and 300 years ago when fierce wars kept occurring between fellow human countries.
 
 『The Age of War』
 That is what the history books called it.
 
 Many countries suddenly rose and fell in their attempt to dominate the continent.
 
 And in the midst of this war, races such as elves and dwarves which lived in relatively small communities were driven from the lands in which they lived and relied on intermediaries to migrate to other countries.
 
 In reality, I’ve only seen elves a handful of times.
 
 Hearing what I said, Renee gave some explanation.
 
 “People of other races live normally in this country. The blacksmith who I’ve always been indebted to is a dwarf, and I had friends from Grasleia^[2] who were as well. You can even see many elves in town. ——— However, even in the Western Empire which is also part of the Frozen Continent, the persecution of other races is severe, and so recently many have been fleeing towards Nordland.”
 
 “Oh, I see.”
 
 I was intrigued to hear a topic I hadn’t heard brought up before.
 
 The state of countries on other continents had never become a topic of conversation when we were in Heielland, to say nothing of our relations with other races.
 
 ——— what kind of people are they?
 
 My curiosity was brimming.
 
 
 ☆
 
 
 “First of all, congratulations on your enrollment. I’m Arrold Variendar, the one in charge of this class.”
 
 Shortly after the bell rang to signal the start of classes, a familiar middle-aged man entered the classroom.
 
 If I’m not mistaken, he was the examiner for magic control during the entrance exams, who called out to me and said 『I look forward to seeing you in class』.
 
 This male teacher looked around the room with a grin, then said,
 “You can call me Teacher Al or 『Val-yan^[3]』, whichever you like. In turn, I’ll call you guys whatever I like.”
 
 ““Huuuuuuh””
 
 Booing immediately erupted from the students.
 
 … what do you mean, 『Val-yan』?
 
 However, Teacher Variendar just lightly waved off their booing and continued speaking.
 
 “Now then. Let’s get right into the self-introductions. Starting from that end, each of you will in turn state your origin and name, as well as your strong and weak points. By the way, my strong point is 『Sorcery Combat』 and my weak point is 『classroom lectures』. So it’s hopeless coming to me with questions about your studies. Go and ask the professors in charge of each subject.”
 
 Everyone burst out laughing, with the boys saying things like “It’s hopeless!” and “How can you become a teacher when you’re bad at studies?”.
 
 Teacher Val laughed with the students and said “Yeah, I think so too” before continuing to speak.
 
 
 
 “I think everyone knows this, but Runefelt was originally founded as a school to train sorcerers to participate in dungeon raids. After that, they started doing things like research into magic power and development of new sorcery, but the fact that the school remains centered on dungeon raids hasn’t changed in the 500 years since it opened. To put it bluntly, the most important thing is to be able to 『fight as a party』, and anything else is just a bonus. That’s why even an idiot like me can become a professor. Whether or not you can graduate will also be determined based on this, so remember it.”
 
 He then paused to look around at everyone.
 
 “『Eugray』 is sometimes mocked as a place where idiots and dropouts gather, but that’s incorrect. ——— Let me tell you all the story of one of your seniors. There was once a guy in this class who barely had any magic power and couldn’t figure out how to invoke sorcery.In the end, that student wasn’t able to cast any sorcery even once during their time at this school, yet they still graduated as the top student. Why do you think that is?”
 
 The classroom was silent.
 Everyone was drawn into the story.
 
 After a long pause, the teacher gave the answer.
 
 “The party they were in for the graduation exam conquered the test dungeon with overwhelming speed. As the leader, he focused on strategy planning and command, only giving out orders to the other members. As a result, even though the party had one less participant in battle, they beat the previous record by a large margin and conquered the dungeon. And that record still stands.”
 
 
 
 Having said that, Teacher Val pointed his finger upwards and drew a small circle.
 
 In an instant, a dazzling fireball appeared at his fingertip.
 
 Woah…
 
 The students became noisy.
 
 “No way. Chantless, on top of not using a wand…”
 
 One of the boys who had poked fun at him earlier muttered this.
 
 The teacher twirled his finger again to make the fire disappear, and then spoke to us.
 
 “In short, as long as you can contribute to conquering the dungeon as a member of your party, anything goes. In my case, that was combat magic, but it could be this (pointing to his head) or even spirit magic.”
 
 After saying that, he looked at the elven girl, then looked at the boy in traditional garb, Sharieq.
 
 “And of course, if you’re good with magic———”
 
 Finally, he looked at me.
 
 “——— then even self-made magic tools are ok.”
 
 Saying this, Teacher Val grinned.
 
 Geez!
 That was definitely on purpose, right?!
 
 I hid my face in my hands and turned away.