The Demon Prince goes to the Academy

In the original novel, Louis Ankton openly ignored Ludwig for his stupidity and he looked down on anyone who wasn’t smarter than him. Even in Class B, that got along well with each other, he was an outsider. He looked down on everyone in class as lowly humans with no influence, and lived intoxicated in his belief to be intellectually superior.

So, after receiving some true education a few times, he would later turn into someone open-minded who cared for his fellow classmates.

That was Louis Ankton, the annoying guy.

“W-Why are you in our dorm…?”

However, notoriety was also a type of fame, right?

Louis knew that I was quite crazy, so he just crawled before me.

I entered Class B’s dormitory with Louis Ankton, who just came back from his classes, with my arm forcibly placed around his shoulders.

That was actually my first time entering Class B’s dormitory. Of course, there were quite a few instances of me running into students from Class B during classes, but I never held much of a conversation with any of them.

Charlotte, Ludwig and Scarlett.

These were the only people I knew there.

When Reinhardt, the first year’s super villain, suddenly appeared here, people felt like they were about to get swept away as soon as they made eye contact with me. I was even dragging around Louis Ankton like a prisoner.

“Oh, Reinhardt? What’s the matter?”

Charlotte smiled when I ran into her in the hallway. It seemed like she didn’t find it strange for me to be here.

My heart tightened as she smiled at me. On one hand I felt guilty and on the other I felt quite happy as it seemed that we finally managed to get along. It was complicated.

“Oh, I’m going to study.”

“Aah…. With Ankton?”

“Yeah. I heard he’s smart. Right?”

So she thought I came with him. That was why she smiled.

“Yes. That’s right.”

Charlotte nodded her head and moved her gaze to Louis Ankton.

“Would you mind, if I joined you?”

I had to get some good grades in the coming exams, but so did Charlotte. When I said that I was going to study with that guy, she seemed to want to come along.

If this were the original, he would have said something rude like “Why should I help you with something like that?” and coolly passed by us.

However, these developments were quite different from the original.

Super Villain Reinhardt and the Princess were standing before Louis Ankton and asking him to study together.

“Huh, no. Not at all!”

I didn’t know what he was thinking on the inside, but that was the answer he gave us.

On top of that, something that I didn’t expect happened.

“Huh? Reinhardt? Why are you in our dorm?”

Ludwig, the empty head, appeared.

“Oh, Ludwig. We are going to study together. How about you come along?”

And then the cute, pretty, lovely and kind Princess’ proposal reached our ears.

“Sure!”

No!

That guy’s a black hole!

* * *

Ludwig was unable to study, that didn’t mean he didn’t, though. He studied hard because he was a very hardworking person. However, his grades were still disastrous.

My original plan was to get private tutoring from Louis Ankton. However, I was fine with having Charlotte around. She was smart.

“Uhmmm….”

“Urgh….”

“Aah….”

However, all my plans were thwarted by that destructive idiot, Ludwig.

We were now sitting around a table in Class B’s common reading room with textbooks piled up next to us.

“Ah…. That. Ludwig.”

“Oh, Charlotte. I’m listening.”

“So. Going by the context, you can see that the speaker is denying his or her own fault, right?”

While solving some literary problems, Ludwig asked if we could explain that part to him, saying that he didn’t understand it.

“That. I don’t know what you mean with denial. They said that they were wrong, right?”

“Right. That’s what they say, but they’re trying to change the subject, saying it was actually someone else’s fault, right?”

“Uhmm…. Is that so? Even though they said that they were wrong….”

“No, no. So you see….”

That void headed idiot was bad in all subjects, but he was worst in literature. He was unable to read between the lines and could follow context even less. He was a madman who just read a single line and only continued reading after he supposedly solved a problem. 

Charlotte was patiently trying to teach Ludwig little by little, while Louis just watched them mouth agape.

How could such an idiot even exist?

That was what his expression seemed to say.

“No, you gorilla. How can you pretend not to know that, huh? What do I even need to explain?! How the hell did you even learn how to write with that shit brain of yours?”

In the end, when I actually said something, Ludwig just shook his head and laughed.

“Sorry, seems like I can’t study that well….”

“Reinhardt! Don’t be too harsh.”

Charlotte looked at me with her brows slightly furrowed, asking me why I was talking so harshly to him. I didn’t want to go against Charlotte, so I tried to calm my anger and just remained quiet.

Wow.

So that was what my main character was like.

This was all my fault, everything.

Anyway, with the appearance of that black hole called Ludwig, we were not just studying, we were working on a miraculous salvation project out of nowhere.

“Now, what is the name of the largest and first vassal state in the southern part of the Empire?”

Ludwig’s expression seriously hardened at Charlotte’s cheerfully conveyed question. 

“Ke…. Ke something. Kern? Kernheight?”

“Kernstadt! It’s Kernstadt, you idiot! How can you get the same question wrong 10 times in a row?! Huh? Even 10-year-olds know this! It’s so easy that it probably won’t even appear in a test! You can’t even memorize that?!”

It wasn’t me this time, but Louis Ankton who jumped up with zeal. Louis, who had begun to go beyond simple astonishment to straight up disgust, jumped up in fury, however when he saw Charlotte and me looking at him he paled and slowly sat back down.

He did mock some kids, but he wasn’t someone that was easily angered, however he got so angry at that moment that he completely forgot us two and jumped up.

Charlotte didn’t say anything to Louis, seeming to understand what he was feeling at the moment.

However, Charlotte only looked a little sad and carefully placed her hand on Ludwig’s shoulder.

“Ludwig…. When I was young, I had a very serious head injury. Has anything like that ever happened to you?”

She seemed to think that Ludwig was that way because of some type of injury or disease. 

Wow, the nicest person in this room actually said the worst thing.

“Huh? Nothing like that ever happened to me, though…?”

“Huh…. Huh?”

Nothing like that ever happened to him, so why is he like that?

Charlotte had her mouth slightly open. It seemed like she sincerely wanted to ask that question.

“As I thought, the Empire should really start implementing a public education system….”

Charlotte, who expressed similar sentiments before, seemed to seriously contemplate the implementation of public education while staring blankly.

Temple wasn’t part of a public education system, but an elite system. And Ludwig somehow got into the high school department of Temple the same way I did.

He did say that he never received proper education before.

Neither of us were supposed to have any chance to get an education, and yet there were two dramatically different cases sitting at the same table, Ludwig and Reinhardt.

It was no wonder that I got some strange looks.

Charlotte began to talk to the innocent looking Ludwig with firm eyes.

“Ludwig. It’s not your fault. It’s the Empire’s fault for not providing free basic education to its people. Yeah, you’re not the problem.”

Charlotte, did she actually hate Ludwig?

Her choice of words was the worst at the moment.

“R-Really? That’s a relief then!”

“Yes! In the future, the average intellectual level of the common people must absolutely increase. There should never again be a case as sad as this!”

“Thank you, Charlotte!”

As such chaos unfolded, in which Charlotte was shooting out one venomous remark after the other without actually realizing it, Ludwig actually thanked her for that. That moment was enough to showcase Ludwig’s level of intelligence.

I shouldn’t get distracted by this.

“Hey, what do you think would be good to study for this exam?”

“Huh…. Huh?”

“Quickly, tell me.”

In that chaos, I somehow had to fulfill my original goal.

* * *

It was impossible to study quietly as I wanted because of that void headed idiot, Ludwig, but I at least succeeded in getting some exam question predictions from Louis Ankton.

Evening.

I casually ate in Class B’s dining room.

“Y-You…. Aren’t you supposed to eat with Class A?”

Louis Ankton asked me, while his eyes were questioning why I would even eat here.

“There isn’t any rule stating that, though?”

“Oh….”

It wasn’t like we weren’t allowed to go in and out of each other’s dorm, we just didn’t. Everyone else was staring at me with strange expressions on their faces as I entered Class B’s dining room and casually ate there.

I really wanted to say something like “What do you want?!”, but I just decided to eat quietly, because I was afraid that I’d hear something unpleasant from Charlotte.

Charlotte was my suppressor.

“Phew. Thank you, everyone. This made me realize just how bad my brain actually was.”

Ludwig smiled as he said so, while Louis and Charlotte’s expressions became a sight to behold.

“The fact that you realized how stupid you are is actually quite something already.”

“Really?”

Ludwig only laughed after hearing my words, as if I praised him. The guy wouldn’t get angry no matter what one said to him, after all. Was it because he was dumb that he didn’t understand when someone was criticizing him?

Still, I’m pretty sure he was just a good-natured guy. There was this awkward atmosphere floating in the room because of my presence. As soon as I started to talk casually with Ludwig, everyone started to eat and talk loudly.

Obviously, Class B had a completely different atmosphere than Class A. Everyone seemed to be friendly. Someone even suddenly began to play an instrument.

It seemed to be an instrument similar to an ukulele.

As if it was a common thing, everyone was just listening to the exciting and fast melody getting played while they were eating.

“The performance is good, right?”

Ludwig asked as if asking for my approval.

“Yeah, it’s good.”

Although, it made the dormitory suddenly seem like a medieval tavern.

The one playing the ukulele or something similar was B-10 Lanion Sessor.

His talent was music. He along with Delphine Izadra was one of Ludwig’s best friends. The guy was the mood maker of Class B. He was someone who’d play some kind of instrument at any time while he was at the dormitory, and if someone requested a song from him, he’d practice it and tried his best to make his listeners happy.

He seemed oddly useless, but without him, everyone in Class B would quickly get bored. So, that guy held a surprisingly important role.

“How is it?”

Charlotte asked me again.

“It’s good.”

I felt like I should hold a beer in my hand instead of this fork, faced with such an exciting performance.

It was definitely much more exciting than Class A’s dinners, where one could only hear the sounds of cutlery clinking on plates. Charlotte was still smiling at me.

Putting everything aside, Charlotte apparently seemed to like the kids from Class B quite a bit.

 I felt like it was pretty good here as well.

While listening to that rhythmical performance going dongdididang dongdududangdang…

I honestly…

Craved for a drink.

Class B was seen as the inferior class, but everyone was having fun in there. It hit very differently seeing that with my own eyes.

It wasn’t like I didn’t like my life in Class A, but everyone was just focusing on improving themselves and training over and over. To be honest, Ellen did nothing but train, ignoring all the fun things this world had to offer.

“One more time!”

Lanion Sessor, drunk on his own performance, shouted for an encore himself.

Watching that scene, I realized that I had long forgotten the concept of enjoying life.

It was a night that made me want to go to sleep with no worries and no thoughts.

* * *

Even after dinner, I continued to study in Class B’s reading room. Ludwig excused himself and went off to do strength training. It seemed like he felt really sorry about that. It really wasn’t something he had to feel sorry about though. No, really.

There were only three people left in the reading room: Me, Charlotte and Louis.

Louis Ankton checked over the list of expected exam questions, and memorized them. To be honest, I didn’t really need any help from these brainy people except for memorization.

“Reinhardt. Just asking, but since when were you the type to care about grades?”

I was kind of caught off guard by Charlotte’s question.

“…There’s no reason not to, right?”

Of course, I didn’t want to care about them, but I had to do this for achievement points. Charlotte seemed to think that it was very unexpected for me to even study for exams.

“Hmm…. I thought you’d have more of a “Why should I care?” attitude about it.”

Charlotte smiled to herself.

She was correct.

She knew me so well!

Charlotte was smart, and my brain wasn’t that bad either, so, unlike when Ludwig was still around, we managed to get a lot of work done. I managed to answer almost all the problems I practiced.

At this level, literature and mathematics weren’t that difficult, and as my job required me to memorize a lot of things that that action almost became an occupational disease, I had no problem in that department either. 

I couldn’t write while checking the story settings every few seconds after all, so I had to memorize huge chunks of the story. 

So, memorization was actually my forte. 

Louis Ankton was staring at me strangely.

“……What? You got a problem?”

“Huh? Ah. No….”

“What are you so surprised about?”

“No, well…. You actually were smart….”

He must have thought that I was an idiot comparable to Ludwig due to my role as a bully, but as he continued to watch me, he seemed to realize that I was able to quickly memorize things and replicate them without hardly making any mistakes. That seemed to surprise him.

“Just what the hell did you think of me before?”

When I asked him that with a dangerous glint in my eyes, he audibly flinched.

“Hah, no! That’s not wh-what I meant….”

“I knew you were smart, but I also didn’t know that you were good at studying as well.”

Charlotte seemed to smile because she didn’t expect me to do so well either. Both Ellen and Charlotte seemed to think that I was smart.

Yes, of course, I had to be. That was only natural. If I was dumber than you guys, that would be rather shameful.

However, actually, compared to these four people, Charlotte, Bertus, Louis, and Ellen, I really had a much worse brain.

How shameful….

Ellen in particular. I’d lose against her in both studies and a fight.

I was getting so tremendously overwhelmed in every aspect by a single high schooler.

“Oh well. Let’s just quickly move on. The exams are just around the corner.”

Let’s just study.

Following that, after all our classes were over, I would study with Louis Ankton and Charlotte in the Class B dorms. I was a little worried what Bertus would say if he found out that I was studying in Class B, but I realized that I didn’t have to be that careful because of what Charlotte told me before.

By the way, although both of these two were smart, they had different approaches on how to study.

Charlotte usually took notes on the things she had already grasped and memorized them. 

Louis Ankton’s approach was slightly different.

“This is going to be a problem.”

“What?”

“This is the only question I could ask about this.”

This guy studied while thinking about how he’d pose the questions if he were to make the exam. Of course, he memorized the whole thing, and studied by checking the parts that were likely to be asked.

He was even preparing for the midterm evaluations of the professor’s individual subjects, seeing as he was already quite confident in his preparations for the common classes. He was studying magic formulas. Something I wasn’t really familiar with.

Since my goal was to only get high marks in the common subjects, I wasn’t really that well prepared for the professor’s individual evaluations. Almost all the exams were written, so the only subjects that actually had practical exams were alchemy and divine studies.

Anyway, Louis Ankton was trying to figure out what problems he might create for this subject, which was the most necessary for him. 

“Phew…. They should really hurry up and lift that ban on leaving.”

Charlotte muttered in a daze, completely spacing out.

“Yeah.”

I was the only one who knew what she meant by saying that.

Charlotte had to be more careful from now on, so she wouldn’t be able to directly go to Eleris’ shop.

Only when the ban had been lifted would I be able to go outside and quickly run to Eleris’ store.

That seemed to be the only thing that occupied her mind at the moment.

* * *

All weekend, except for my morning training, I didn’t do any physical work out, and only studied. Even though I was pretty sure I memorized everything, I felt exhausted in a different sense than before because I studied so hard.

So, in the end, I stopped working on the common subjects and studied for the professor’s individual subjects. I felt like I was going to go crazy if I continued to stare at the same thing over and over.

It was pretty much certain that I would do pretty well, but considering the outcome, I thought it would be okay to get a single question wrong. However, If there were more than 100 people who got a perfect score in all the subjects, one might not even reach the top 100 if one got even a single question wrong.

Anyway.

I really got only one question wrong on the midterm exam.

Therefore, my ranking for the integrated midterm exam was 784th place.

I only got a single one wrong, and that was what happened.

Everything went to crap.

However, there was something even more troublesome.

“This is the overall ranking after combining the grades of the professors’ individual midterm evaluations and the integrated exam.”

“…….”

Mr. Epinhauser compiled the results of the professors’ midterm evaluation and posted the overall ranking of the Royal Class’ first years.

Everyone was shocked to see the results.

[1st Place – Reinhardt]

[2nd Place – Ellen]

[3rd Place – Bertus de Gardias]

[4th Place – Louis Ankton]

I got 1st place on the wrong ranking.