I Became the Academy’s Weakest Strategist

The small hole by the window.
A pleasant light breeze came in as if passing through, mixed with the chirping of sparrows on this bright spring day.
The sunlight seemed to knock on the windowsill, and outside Gothic-style buildings lined up prominently.
In this fairytale-like city, I was welcoming a pleasant morning.
Although old compared to my original room, this room had become quite comfortable for me to live in.

“Ah, class today.”
Come to think of it, today’s class was with Professor Anderze, the knight-turned-teacher notorious for being ill-mannered.
With no talent for physical combat or magic, I had been abandoned by my family early on and was treated as a failure student at the academy.
The treatment of the failing class was quite serious.

Since no professors wanted to teach us, temporary mercenary-style instructors would come from outside, or sometimes teaching assistants would substitute for actual classes.
The honor students received high-quality lessons, while the failing class got lessons that were neither good in quality nor quantity.
One would think parents would complain about this, but they had already signed a contract-like document upon entering Montegro Academy, so they couldn’t protest.
No matter how wealthy or influential, families had no sway within Montegro Academy.

“I’ll just skip it.”
It would only bring me ridicule to show up, so it’s better for both sides if I don’t go.
Having been a loner from birth, I could somehow get by with people’s indifference.
Though treated as a discarded child, I still regularly received an allowance for being a noble.

Someone once said humans are social animals, but that’s wrong – humans are territorial animals.
Everyone needs their own space, a place to rest without anyone’s interference.
To recover from tiredness and hardship by resting in the sanctuary of one’s mind.
Isn’t that the wisdom of living?

Yes, it may not be a bad choice to live quietly and meet my end like this.
After all, once I graduate from the academy, I’ll get a decent job somewhere, and as a nobleman, I won’t starve to death.
Compared to the harsh modern society, this is heaven itself.
Apart from the scarcity of pepper and salt, food is plentiful, the class system is not as strict as medieval Europe, and one can even marry freely.
Although political marriages were common, the beauty standards of this other world were so high that to me, everyone was a beautiful man or woman.

“Come to think of it, there were also elves.”
Montegro Academy, a place where anyone with talent could freely seek knowledge, regardless of race or status.
Founded by the first emperor according to legends, Montegro Academy gave everyone an equal opportunity to learn, attracting thousands of talented individuals every year.
Of those thousands, only a few dozen could work for the empire, while the rest went into public institutions or joined the popular guilds.

Since Montegro Academy was so renowned within the empire, graduates could find good treatment anywhere they were employed.
The only issue was the relative sense of deprivation.
Among the thousands of blossoming talents each year, I was practically a commoner and had long abandoned any ambitions of success.

In this crazy world where fireballs flew around, healing was done through holy powers, and monsters could wipe out platoons with a single sword – a world where demon tribes once soared the skies and forest spirits dwelled until just a thousand years ago – even at the talent-filled Montegro Academy, this world was too harsh for an ordinary citizen like me.

Moreover…
“Fucking professor.”
Before reincarnating to this world, I was a graduate student.
I had to search endlessly for papers to graduate, following my professor on excavations around the world.
Yeah, I was the professor’s dogsbody.

Having suffered so much as a grad student, I needed a resting place – which this other world provided.
I suppose I developed some compensatory desire, but I thought this was a reasonable return.
Just think about being cooped up in a lab all day, writing papers among the dust, while the professor kept making me revise to work me harder.
After doing that for years under a professor, anyone would go insane.
In that sense, my current life is…
“Heheh, the sweet life.”

Pure bliss.
After classes end, I rush straight back to the dorm and lie in bed, sleeping the whole day.
Anyone seeing me would label me a shut-in, but so what?
Unless you’ve been a grad student, cramped in a lab all day being tortured by a professor, you can’t throw stones at me.

While everything in this other world was blissful, there was one downside that bothered me.
The people in power in the empire were inept at strategy and tactics.
Perhaps too intoxicated by the might of knights and mages, or an overreliance on a single field.
I initially found it strange, but as I learned more about the empire, it became understandable.

Strategy? Tactics? To them, raising strong knights and mages was more profitable.
No matter how well strategies and tactics were devised, they thought a grand mage’s “Meteor!” would wipe out entire platoons.
So the higher-ups kept producing knights and mages while the empire stagnated.

Another issue was that the empire’s national power had declined, failing to produce grand mages for hundreds of years.
Still intoxicated by the might of mages and knights who had built the empire over centuries, the empire seemed to think it could keep prospering despite forgetting history.

“Shit, those who forget history have no future, they say.”
Yet somehow it felt like they could keep living well even if they forgot.
Realizing that the expertise I had pounded into my head was useless in this other world left me feeling a bit empty inside.

Well, whatever.
At least I didn’t reincarnate as a farmer’s son in some remote area.
I’d probably be guzzling down the rice wine brought by village ladies, shouting “Time for a snack!”
If I were born to a wealthy farmer, I would have rented out land to tenants long ago.
Unfortunately, as someone who took the graduate student route, farming was uncharted territory.
The extent of my experience was planting a cherry tomato with a seedling shovel as a child – and even that died soon after.

“I’m sorry…Elizabeth.”
After apologizing to the surely long-departed Elizabeth the tomato, I shut my eyes tightly.
If I had become a wealthy farmer, the tenants might have started a peasant rebellion.
Incapable of farming, physical labor, or magic, and without holy powers either –
“Sorry, I’m an atheist.”

In my previous life, I didn’t believe in any gods.
This world clearly had gods existing, and voicing such thoughts could get me labeled a heretic and burned at the stake.
Having been negatively predisposed against deities from the start, I couldn’t bring myself to truly believe in this world’s gods either.
Did they really qualify as gods? Of course, I never voiced such thoughts aloud.
I didn’t want to be crucified, so I was always careful with my words.

All I had left were my status as a history buff and a nobleman.
I had become a complete outcast loser!
Truly impressive!

Knock knock.
“..Goddammit.”
Someone started knocking on my door this early morning, disrupting my pleasant start to the day.
Whoever was disturbing my peace, did they want me to meet the same fate as Descartes, who died of pneumonia after being forced to wake up early?
Attempted murder of a nobleman! This is a serious crime! A serious crime!
Want to get a taste of the coordinate plane?

“Rommel, could you open the door for a bit? It’ll just be a moment, so please open this door.”
“…Shit.”
Ah, it’s her.
Thorrai, who has been visiting me every morning for the past few days.

“Griff Rommel, I know you’re in there. I asked the dorm supervisor, so don’t pretend you’re not here.”
“…”
“I’m going to break down the door and come in!”
Indeed! You are the wicked Queen Christina who killed the poor, pitiful mathematician Descartes.
Bring salt!

“Haa…contact Professor Anderze…”
“I’m opening it now.”
Creeak.
As I opened the old, weathered wooden dorm door, a woman of modest height gazed at me intently.
Bright golden hair reaching down to her waist and emerald eyes reminiscent of jade.
An accentuated bosom and smooth, slender legs.
And the academy uniform emphasizing her curvaceous figure.

“Long time no see, Rommel.”
“Haha…long time indeed, Princess Erje.”
The great imperial bloodline and third in line to the throne.
The current student council president who tops every class with perfect scores.
Boasting outstanding skills in swordsmanship and magic, the future and brilliant flower of the empire.
Bizant von Erje.

That princess has started to become obsessed with me.