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

I looked back at the direction, ”So... What’s happening now?”

The woman gave me a rather apologetic look, ”Miss Aster... I... I can see how you have attracted Goddess Isre’s attention now...”

I tilted my head at her, ”What do you mean?”

She chuckled, ”You must have trained really hard to have earned that level of proficiency in your skills and magic, right?”

I nodded slowly, ”I suppose I did?”

”Well... As you might know, the heads of departments usually do not take in their own students or apprentices but they would pick out exceptional students to teach every year. One of the events that they will go out to seek apprentices is this event.”

”Yeah... I kind of figured that when one of them said they wanted me... Unless they were trying to say it in a romantic or in the slavery sense.”

She smiled at me, ”I can assure you it is neither of the latter two.”

”Right... So... What happened just now then? Why did they all suddenly disappear?”

Cecilia sighed before waving the stack of papers in front of her, ”Do you know what this is, Miss Aster?”

I tilted my head at her, ”Should I?”

She shook her head, ”I suppose not. But this is basically the number of requests from the people involved that wish to meet you. Hence the meeting earlier.”

I understood that basically everyone who wanted to see me after the test had to submit that to Cecilia before they could appear in that void space or whatever it was just now.

She continued, ”Do you know what was the record number of requests for any one student before this, Miss Aster?”

I shook my head.

”Five, Miss Aster. Just five. Take a guess how many there are for you?” She asked, lifting up the small stack of papers.

”Err... I don’t know?”

”Twenty, Miss Aster.”

”Oh... Err... That’s a lot?”

”It certainly is, Miss Aster.”

”Right... That explains why those other students were staring at you... They weren’t looking at me or you, they were looking at the stack of papers...”

”That’s correct, Miss Aster. I fear that rumors about a new student breaking the record of requests would have spread throughout the entire school before the end of the day.”

Ah... Well... I guess that’s something to be expected... I’m not intending to lay low here anyway so I guess I don’t really care.

I mean... I was already planning on being at the top of my year to get myself an island so there’s definitely no way I can avoid standing out.

I shrugged, ”Nothing I can do about it... But... What happens to me now? Do I just... Not get an apprenticeship or something?”

Cecilia gave me a wry smile, ”Miss Aster, could I ask if there is a particular magic or skill that you only wish to concentrate on learning during your time here... Or do you wish to further advance all the skills that you have listed? Particularly the Magic and Martial skills?”

I nod, ”I do intend to improve all of them, yes... If I am able to, that is...”

”And do you have plans to learn new skills while you are here? Like taking up Cryomancy for example?”

”Well... If there’s a chance to do so, I wouldn’t say no.”

”Mmm... That’s the problem then... It would be easier if you had said you only wanted to improve only specific skills but... I now know that you are the kind of person who will want to hoard knowledge and skills if you have the chance to.”

I sucked in a breath, surprised that she actually saw right through me.

”You’re not the first student we have that thinks like that,” Cecilia explained with a chuckle. ”And since you’re a Meslatar, it makes sense as well.”

Ah... Right... There’s the thing about Meslatars having a kind of instinct to want to hoard stuff...

I can’t deny that this was part of the reason I guess... Though I would say that the thing I want to hoard more is actually my lovers instead of knowledge. But I guess it’s easier to just let her think that.

She nodded, ”Therein lies the problem, however... You are proficient in so many disciplines of magic and all of those professors are undoubtedly interested in you because of that. There are cases where a single student is apprenticed to multiple heads of departments, but that number has never gone past two or three at most. I believe now we’re facing an unprecedented situation where you have more than ten or fifteen professors who wish to claim you as an apprentice and that might cause some of them to fight each other to get the right to do so.”

I blinked at her, ”Is it really that serious?”

”It certainly is. When one of the Heads takes an apprentice, they will also be showcasing their own capabilities through the apprentice. The apprentice’s achievements would be seen as an extension of their own since they would be personally tutoring them. A failing apprentice would bring shame to them while an overperforming apprentice would be a point of pride for them.”

I frowned slightly, ”I have no wish to be used as a pawn in some kind of internal politics of the school.”

She waved her hand, ”Oh, no, no. It’s nothing like that. There’s no politics involved in this since there isn’t exactly any material benefit from this. It’s really just bragging rights for the Head in question and... I suppose this is not something that I should say but...”

She looked around as though to make sure we were really alone before she leaned forward to whisper, ”The Heads are quite proud of their own magic disciplines and want to show off that their own magic is superior to the others... So they would want to have the strongest student of the year be competent in their own magic discipline...”

Ah... so basically it’s like a bunch of geeks gathering together to try and argue which magic is the best magic and using their apprentice to show them off.

It’s good to hear that they don’t use the students as pawns to obtain benefits for themselves I guess.

I scratched my cheek, ”So... What should I do in this situation? I don’t suppose I could just accept all of the Heads as my teachers, can I?”

Cecilia hesitated, ”There’s... Technically no rule against it... But it certainly would be unprecedented since it has never happened before and I believe they are unsure of how to proceed with this particular case.”

I suddenly remembered something about it and decided to ask, ”Umm... Who was the last person to speak to us? The one who looked like they were bigger than everyone else?”

”Ah, that would be the Academy’s Grand Chancellor, the one who stands at the very top of the Academy, Miss Aster.”

”Oh. They actually bothered to come here to see this test?”

”They would usually make time for outstanding students, yes,” She answered, looking pointedly at me.

Oh, who? Me? Nah, can’t be. I’m just a normal student after all, don’t mind me...

Cecilia continued, ”Returning to the point... The Grand Chancellor would most likely be convening all the Heads to discuss on how they will decide on who to assign as your mentor.”

I tilted my head, ”Don’t I get a say in it?”

”You do. They will present themselves to you and you may choose who you wish to learn under. The last time that a student had the choice of having multiple mentors, the Heads would make a case to the student on why they should be apprenticed to them and then the student themselves will pick who they wish to learn under.”

”Oh, so it’s a case of the student choosing the teacher and not the teacher choosing the student?”

”That is correct. There is no point assigning the student to a teacher they have no wish to learn under, of course.”

I tapped my chin thoughtfully, ”What if I choose a mentor but then change my mind later? Could I change to another mentor who had wanted to make me their apprentice but I did not choose them at the start?”

”That will be mostly up to the Head to decide but most of the time, unless in extraordinary circumstances, the change would be allowed.”

”What kind of extraordinary circumstance?”

”Like one time a student got in trouble with their mentor because they tried to steal the mentor’s research which resulted in them losing the apprenticeship so the other mentors also withdrew their mentorship and no longer wished to make that student an apprentice.”

”I’m more surprised they weren’t expelled.”

”Oh, there’s nothing really wrong about trying to do what you can to improve, it’s the problem of them getting caught that made everyone withdraw it.”

I see... This place really is cut throat huh... Basically in the name of improving skills and magic, any and all methods are allowed short of murder...

Good to know.

Right then, a piece of paper flew under the gap of the door to float into Cecilia’s hands.

She took a moment to read it before nodding at me, ”It seems like it will take a while for them to reach a decision, Miss Aster. In the meantime, how about you head to your dorms to get settled in? School will officially only start a few days from now anyway.”

Right then. I should try and get a good room for myself~