What Do You Mean There Are Other Transmigrators In My Harem Fantasy?

He actually managed to do a pretty good job of covering up the hole he made if I were to be honest.

Sure, the road wasn’t perfectly even compared to before but at least our convoy could drive over it with just a few bumps so we were back on our way once again.

Everyone went back to their positions except…

I looked to the side, “Why are you here?”

“Hiieee! Please… Please just let me stay here for the rest of the trip…” The Aerialla graduate begged me pathetically. “Everyone there looked like they were going to beat me up so I had to run away to the back…”

Well… Our client just so happened to be the last wagon in the convoy so he was hoping to just hide here I guess.

And since I was the only one who actually reached out to him earlier, he most likely thought I would be less critical of him as compared to the other Mercenaries.

Hmm… I suppose I kind of pity him a little so I won’t make things too difficult for him.

“Fine. But I want to ask you some questions while you’re here then.”

“Please go ahead! I will answer anything to the best of my ability!”

“I’m currently headed to Aerialla Academy to enroll as well so I would like to know anything that might help me during my time there.”

He blinked at me for a few moments and I could see all that anxiety and fear melt away as he straightened himself.

“Ah! So you’re a prospective student! In that case, I am your senior so you should address me as–“

I turned to him with a clenched fist, “Address you as what? Trash? Idiot? The bastard who made us lose out on a potentially huge profit?”

He immediately shrank back again, “Ahh… Umm… My apologies… Please forget I said anything…”

I turned back to face the road, finding Millie peeking out from the back of the wagon and clearly eavesdropping on our conversation with great interest.

Beside her was her brother who was also trying to act like he was busy reading a book but he was clearly also listening in since he was holding that book upside down.

“So? What can you tell me about the Academy?”

“Umm… Well… First things first… Have you attended a branch school?”

I nodded, “Graduated as the valedictorian and a Special Class student.”

He relaxed a little, “Oh, in that case, you should have no problems enrolling in the Academy.”

“I already know that. What I want to know is what the Academy is like so I can prepare myself for it.”

He scratched his cheek, “Well… This is going to be difficult to explain I guess… You should not think of the Academy as just a school but as something like a city itself. Actually, it could be seen as an independent nation to a certain extent. They are self sufficient and also take part in diplomacy and have their own sort of military in a way. Plus, there are people who are permanent residents there who are basically citizens of the Academy as well and there’s also a governing body that oversees the Academy and all of its branches.”

“That certainly sounds complicated.”

“It is. Though I will admit that you would most likely not get involved in any of it anyway since you are just going there as a student. It would be a different matter if you are intending to work or live there.”

“So what should I know as a student?”

“Hmm… You graduated from the branch at Crown Capital City, right?”

I nodded.

He waved his hand in the air vaguely, “Well you should first know that the teaching style in the main Academy is different from the branch Academies. First, the Academy operates on a merit based system where the better performing students are basically at the top of the school and the worse performing students are at the bottom. It’s like a caste system in a sense.”

“What do you get for being at the top?”

“Better accommodations for one. Since you were a Special Class student already, you should be able to get a room to yourself. Otherwise, you might need to bunk with other people while studying there.”

“Eh? Is there no inns or something for people to stay?”

“There are, but they are basically on the outskirts of the Academy area so you would need to commute back and forth everyday which honestly isn’t really worth it if you ask me… But there are some people who do that of course. Children and people from rich merchant families or nobles who can’t bear the thought of sharing rooms with other students and the like…”

I frowned, “Does that mean that if I brought anyone along with me, they would have to stay apart from me?”

His gaze shifted to my party members and he understood that everyone else here must also be intending to attend the school with me.

He then leaned over to whisper conspiratorially, “Technically… There isn’t a rule against it. If you are given a room, you are free to do whatever you want within that room aside from destroying it of course.”

“And how big is the room?”

“Depends on your position in the school. If you are one of the very best students, you could even be given an entire floating island for you to stay on for the duration of your studies.”

I spun to him, “An entire island?”

He nodded, “You know the Academy is located on a group of floating islands right? The Academy city itself is located on the biggest one while various other facilities are built on the other smaller floating islands. Farms, observatories, laboratories and other facilities that might be too dangerous to be located within the Academy would be built on them. Then there are a number of smaller floating islands that are used by the school specifically for housing students, a few of which being private islands reserved for the very best students.”

“Why would they even give the students an entire island?”

“Well… You have to know that since the school focuses more on results… The expectations of the students are for them to excel… So the very best students are exempted from needing to attend classes but in return, they are expected to deliver at least some form of exceptional results at the end of every year.”

“So something like a Special Class student in the branch Academies?”

He nodded, “Something like that. And yes, other students can also challenge you to claim your position as well. Even more so, they could even steal all your work to claim as their own if they manage to steal your ideas and research so backstabbing is something that happens in the Academy. Don’t be surprised if the friends you make in the Academy are only close to you so that they can figure out your secrets and use them against you…”

Well, that just sounds like normal society anyway so it’s not that big of a revelation to me, especially since I am also acquainted with noble society too.

I gave him a pointed look, “So I assume that the Academy lets those ‘best students’ have an entire island to themselves so that they can do their own independent research without worrying about other students trying to steal it from them?”

“Haha, if it were only that easy. It is true that the school intends for those islands as a place that the students could focus on researching without worrying about outside influence and also to have space to do their experiments… But if another student challenges them and beats them, they could claim that island for themselves and steal whatever the previous student has researched on as well.”

“Wait… Wouldn’t that be counter productive? Why does the school even allow such a thing? If some student gets all their research stolen, then whatever they researched would be gone, wouldn’t it?”

“It is one of the possible outcomes, yes. But because even if that student takes over that island and that position, they would also be under the pressure of delivering results at the end of the year or their position will also be stripped. So what ends up happening is that they either continue the research of the previous student or use it to supplement their own and deliver even better results.”

I stared at him for a good few seconds, “That’s the Aerialla Academy? This sounds like a horrible place to study at.”

He shrugged, “You only need to worry about such things if you’re at the top though. If you’re just an average student, you can just get through your time there normally by attending classes and doing your own magic research. It’s only the top that need to worry about all these politics since that’s where the competition gets really harsh. There is a limit to the number of top positions, after all.”

Ugh… Not gonna lie… It certainly sounds stressful…

Seriously, who came up with a system like this? It feels more like a battle royale than a school…