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

“Seriously, who came up with the idea of this teaching style?” I asked after hearing him explain about the academy.

He shrugged, “You’re asking the wrong person… I’m not someone who pays attention to history so I wouldn’t know… And it’s not like I was the top student of my year either…”

“Aren’t you a graduate?”

He grimaced, “Yes… But I’m your average graduate… And just saying, that’s already a pretty big feat considering the requirements needed to even graduate from there.”

I raised an eyebrow at him, “And what, pray tell, are the requirements needed to graduate?”

“So… I guess it’s a little complicated… First, there’s the compulsory minimum of three years of tuition you have to go through first… Within these three years you’re expected to just attend classes and your performance will be recorded down. Then after those three years, they will convert your performance into what we call Merit Credits and you have to accumulate a certain amount of Merit Credits at the end of your fourth year in order to graduate.”

“And what happens if you don’t accumulate enough Merit Credits?”

“Your Credits drop back down to what you ended your third year with and you have to start all over again.”

“And how many Merit Credits do you need to accumulate before you can graduate?”

He scratched his cheek, “It… Varies from year to year depending on how many students there are and the quality of students in a way…”

“Well… That doesn’t sound so bad? That means you can just keep trying, right?”

“You have to remember… Your school fees aren’t free…”

Ah.

So basically… How the school works is that you pay for four years of schooling but you aren’t even guaranteed to graduate… But you are free to keep on trying but the more tries you take, the more money you have to pay.

For some people, that amount of money they need to pay might just be too much for them to continue so they end up dropping out.

And even if you’re some noble or merchant with lots of money, if you don’t have the talent, you could just end up in a constant state of paying your school fees with no hope of graduating if you can’t get the Merit Credits to graduate.

I guess that’s why for someone to be an Aerialla Academy graduate is a big deal…

Speaking of which…

“How many graduates are there in a year on average?”

He shrugged, “I don’t know? I don’t think they have a specific quota to meet every year so I think there were even years that have seen graduates in the single digits?”

“Wait a minute… In that case, what incentives do the teachers there even have to help students graduate? For all we know, they might even be tasked to intentionally hold the students back from graduating to get as much money from them as possible?”

He shrugged, “I don’t know… I’m just a student… But for what it’s worth, the instructors I’ve been tutored under were all really serious about teaching students so maybe it’s a passion thing?”

Hmm… I don’t know about that…

Granted, he did mention that there were quite strict requirements to be a teacher at the Academy itself so I could see some of them actually doing this job out of their own genuine desire to do so. But I highly doubt that all of them would be motivated to do it if there wasn’t at least some incentive for them.

Hey, I’m going to be under the tutelage of the teachers there sooner or later so I at least want to know what I’m getting myself into, you know?

“So is there anything else that I should know about the school? Maybe… People that I should look out for or places of note?”

He hesitated and looked around before leaning over to whisper, “Ok… I’m going to admit something to you… I’m pretty much just the student that kept his head down and did what was expected to graduate… In fact, I just barely made the requirement to graduate. So I’m not the best person to ask this… If you want my opinion though… You’ll eventually find out who you should be taking note of when you’re there anyway since the people at the Academy pretty much change each year…”

Hmph… Seems like I overestimated this guy.

Right then, he suddenly frowned, “Wait… If you’re headed to Aerialla Academy… Why are you even here on the road to Asttol City? You do know that there are airships that you can take to the Academy, right?”

“I’m sight seeing,” I told him as a matter of factly.

He gave me a look that said he didn’t believe me but it’s not like I care if he believes it or not.

At that point, Millie seemed to have given up on trying to pretend that she was not listening in as she leaned out of the wagon with sparkles in her eyes.

“Uncle! Uncle! Are you a really strong mage?!”

The guy spun back to scowl at her, “Uncle?! At least call me big brother or something! I’m still young!!”

“So is uncle a really strong mage?!” Millie asked, completely ignoring his request.

“Hmph! Of course I am! Can’t you tell? I’m the best mage in this entire group!”

“Wowww! Even better than small sister there?”

Millie pointed at Katsuki who was still walking beside me.

He turned back to look at my Inugami maid and he frowned like he had only just noticed that she was even there.

“You… Are a mage?”

Katsuki completely ignored him and just continued walking like he wasn’t even there.

He turned to me and gave me a look as if to ask if he did something wrong but I could only assume that he wasn’t really well liked within my party as well because of what he did earlier with the monsters.

I know for a fact that Emilia was beyond pissed at him with how she was glaring at him earlier but she kept her thoughts to herself since I was talking to him. Otherwise… I’m pretty sure she would have strung him up and told him to empty his pockets as compensation.

Millie pouted at him, upset that he hadn’t answered her question yet, “Uncle, uncle! So are you stronger than small sister?”

“Eh? Ah… Umm… I think so?”

Katsuki seemed to take offence at that and gave him a side eye, “You would be dead before you even cast a single spell if you are fighting against me.”

Well… That’s because you would move faster than him and slit his throat, Katsuki… Not because you could cast your magic faster than him…

But of course I kept my mouth shut.

Anyway, I already know that this guy’s proficiency in Pyromancy is truly higher than Katsuki but it’s also a fact that for all that power, he wouldn’t be able to cast it against Katsuki if they were fighting in a duel before he’s dead. But if I were to say anything here, people would start asking questions and I’m not really in the mood for answering such things.

Instead, I tried to change the topic…

“Oh, what’s this? Is little Millie interested in magic?” I asked, giving her a smile.

She nodded her head excitedly, “Millie wants to be a mage! Magic!”

“In that case, you have to study hard to learn magic, ok?”

She threw her hands up in the air, “Yayyy! Millie study hard like big brother!”

Her mother quickly hugged her to pull her back, “What did I say about moving around while the wagon is moving, Millie? You might hurt yourself!”

“Uuu… Sorry mama…”

Mmhmm… She’s cute~

Oh wait, that reminds me… I had been so distracted by this guy that I completely forgot something else I should be doing right now.

I took out the egg from my Bangle of Folding and continued my usual supply of mana into the egg while we walked.

Obviously the Academy graduate noticed it immediately and while I was expecting him to be surprised, I was definitely not prepared for his reaction where his eyes widened to the size of saucers and tripped over himself to fall flat on the ground.

He had fallen down so hard that even I winced when I saw it and wondered if he broke his nose from the fall.

I was going to use a healing spell on him when he pushed himself back up on his feet and completely ignored the blood coming out of his nose to point at the egg in my hands.

“That… That… Is that what I think it is?!!”

I looked down at the egg before looking back to him, “If you don’t tell me what you think it is, how would I know?”

“That’s… That’s a dragon egg! A dragon egg!! How did you get your hands on one! How did you even get it without its–“

Katsuki immediately moved to chop him at the back of his neck, rendering him unconscious.

Thanks, Katsuki… Umm… Odeta, could you carry him for me? Thanks~