Broken teacups and a refreshment tray were scattered on the floor, and a light green dress hem fluttered around the corner. Recognizing whose dress it was, the Count shouted loudly and ran.
“Bel, Bel…! Wait! It’s a misunderstanding! A misunderstanding! Stop right there!”
Crash, bang—sounds of violent struggling could be heard from the hallway, but Heiss just whistled and stood with his arms crossed.
“I’ll need to prepare a room at the shrine where Mellans can stay.”
* * *
A bright sunny morning. Since it was basic swordsmanship class time, most of the students and I were sitting in a row in the shade of the training ground wall.
Not even an advanced class, just basic swordsmanship. It was a class where you do basic forms twice and then get free sparring time, so only the guys who liked swords were excitedly sparring under the sun.
I was watching Cesare and Cain clash swords dazzlingly without much interest when Ban tapped my shoulder and carefully asked.
“Lionel. Did you happen to see the ‘Fiman Times’ today?”
The Fiman Times was a trashy newspaper that only put in provocative gossip, so at the elegant Imperial Academy, almost—no, absolutely—no one would subscribe to it.
“Huh? Ban, you read newspapers? The Fiman Times at that?”
“I’m not joking around. Didn’t Cesare say anything?”
Ban handed me a piece of the Fiman Times with a serious face.
<Imperial Academy Magic Instructor, Mahoff Judre. Arrested on Suspicion of Attempted Assassination of Crown Prince?>
As I read the title, my heart instantly sank.
“…Where did this come from?”
“I had servants secretly get it today to check yesterday’s horse racing results. I bet quite a bit of money. But there’s an article like this. Since Cesare is from the Yanox family, I thought he might know well. There was also testimony back then that the culprit resembled Cesare.”
“Are you crazy? Why would Professor Mahoff do such a thing! And watch your mouth! The Yanox Ducal family has nothing to do with that incident!”
I snatched the newspaper scrap away before the other guys could see.
“But the Academy’s magic classes have been completely suspended. Professor Mahoff hasn’t shown even a hair. This smells fishy.”
“That can’t be. He’s innocent.”
“I didn’t like how his eyes looked kind of sinister. Even if Cesare doesn’t know, mages are originally disloyal to the Empire and all that. Professor Mahoff must have been lying low at the Academy for years in preparation for this Homecoming. The world is scary, really.”
Ban seemed to already believe that Professor Mahoff was the real culprit. In fact, anyone who saw this article would think the same. The more provocative the article, the greater the media’s impact.
‘Especially the commoners and lower classes who read this a lot must already believe it as fact. It’s only a matter of time before rumors spread around the Academy too.’
Seeing the printed letters with Professor Mahoff’s name made my heart ache thinking about how difficult it must be for him being arrested unjustly.
‘I need to find the Dark Guild right away and uncover the truth. And for escort knights, there’s really… only those guys.’
I licked my lips while looking at Cesare and Cain swinging their swords.
* * *
Saturday.
After leisurely finishing lunch and returning, about a dozen male students including William and Thompson were gathered in the dormitory lounge. As soon as the guys saw me, they massaged my shoulders or stuck snack sticks in my mouth, excitedly flattering me.
“Lionel’s here!”
“Our savior! Waaaah!”
Cain, who had been returning from dinner with me, looked up with his head tilted in surprise.
“What’s with you guys. Why are you acting all friendly with Rye?”
“I called them for the project. Hmm, more came than I expected?”
Rumors seemed to have spread quietly that if they came here, I would help them pass Professor Peter’s class. Looking around, only Thompson and a couple of underclassmen had somewhat neat styles, and the rest were mostly ‘unmotivated’ students.
‘Obviously they’re guys who have to take economics class because of family pressure, but don’t want to study so they latched onto this.’
It was time to dispose of Cesare’s unsold defective inventory.
“Alright. Attention! Does anyone have good opinions or ideas about this project?”
The guys just looked at me awkwardly with guilty faces. Right. What else are you good at besides chatting in the back during lectures? Looking at these noble-born guys who were each 30% lacking, I raised a snack stick in my hand like a triumphant general and put one leg up on the refreshment table.
“Don’t worry. Despite that, you guys have exactly one advantage that will lead this project to success!”
“Waaaah! As expected of someone from the Mellans Merchant Guild!”
“I knew Lionel would have a good plan!”
My cute followers shot out cheers with sparkling eyes. As if responding to those eyes, I pointed at them with the snack.
“You have no reputation left to fall! That’s your advantage!”
As soon as I finished speaking, jeers poured out from the dissed male students.
“Says the guy who’s an Insse landlord!”
“Booo! Get down! Lionel! Spit out the snack I gave you!”
“Down with commoner Lionel! Booo!”
These bastards who have as much patience as a trace of Mitche’s saliva. How nice would it be if they resembled even half of Jayden’s polite and well-mannered group? Well. That’s why they were defective inventory. I quickly waved my hands to calm down the guys trying to pull me down.
“What I mean is, unlike Senior Cedric, no matter what you do, your honor won’t be damaged!”
“So how does that relate to this? Explain so we can understand. I don’t want to retake this crazy old man’s class next semester!”
“Right! He said 70% would pass, but it was a scam!”
While stopping these dangerous elements who looked like they’d storm the professor’s office right now if not restrained, I handed out bank documents one by one.
“This is a Yut Bank document. Opening a joint vault…?”
“Why a joint vault?”
I smiled slyly while handing out quill pens one by one to the bewildered guys.
“We’ll combine all the profits in that vault and split them. If you want to join my project as a team, sign there. If you don’t want to, leave.”
“Wait, wait! You’re saying we can make enough money to put in a bank?”
“William. Can’t you see who’s in front of you right now? The grandson of the founder of the Mellans Merchant Guild who drove in iron bars with bare hands, pointed to gold veins, and became self-made. I don’t make small change.”
I answered confidently to William, who frowned as if he couldn’t believe it. Even so, no one readily stepped forward. As expected. I spoke to them quite seriously.
“I’m not saying I’ll let you make money for free. If you’re going to participate in my project, you’ll have to run around yourself and put in that much effort. To make money, you have to take risks.”
I pulled out a rolled-up scroll from my bosom and unfolded it.
<Academy Tour Package: Of Ladies, For Ladies, By Ladies.>
“This is the first key to this project. Who is the main target that opens their wallets?”
If the tea house that Cedric made in the original work was successful, the success factor would obviously be his amazing ‘that.’ Hehe.
“Academy tour? You’re saying we charge visitors to show them around the Academy? That’s pretty novel?”
“Something like that. But it’s not just a simple tour.”
When William reached out to the project scroll as if entranced, I put it back in my bosom and smiled innocently.
“Not yet. Once the people doing the project with me are confirmed, we’ll make the joint vault together and then reveal all the detailed plans. Hehe.”
“Damn it, Lionel! You cute and shrewd merchant!”
Impatient William was the fastest to sign the joint vault document and held it out. Taking it and looking around, I could see the tempted guys sneakily signing the documents.
In the midst of this, Thompson hesitantly raised his hand.
“Um, senior. Everything’s good but… I don’t really understand the meaning of the joint vault name….”
Where Thompson pointed, it said <Let’s Save My Kite Like Crazy, Joint Vault>. A guy with good eye for detail. To discover that. As expected, you’re the smartest among these guys, Thompson. Cute kid.
“Ah, I just didn’t have a proper name so I put in anything. It’s cute and fresh rather than stiff, right? We’re all people gathered to make kites anyway?”
Along with whispers of ‘childish,’ ‘did he sell his sense too?’ and ‘tacky because he’s a commoner,’ I felt sharp glares stabbing the back of my head, but I deliberately ignored them and collected the signed documents.
“Ahem, good. Once the vault is made, I’ll tell you what you need to prepare within this week. And obviously, you know this is absolutely top secret, right? Especially from Senior Cedric and Jayden’s group.”
“Of course! Aren’t we corpses without loyalty!”
= They don’t have bad intentions, but they’ll blab everything.
“You know I’m tight-lipped, right?”
= If he falls in water, only his mouth will float.
“Lionel, thank you so much for helping, I love you!”
= Once this project is over, he’ll ditch faster than anyone.
I could see the semi-transparent truth behind these sinister guys, but it didn’t matter at all. The project had taken all of that into account anyway.
* * *
“Young Master Mel~. I’ll pwotect you, so wet’s go togethew.”
“Ah, stop it!”
I pushed away Cain, who was sticking to my side making baby talk, while looking around the street. The place we were at now was the alley where the ‘Surf & Turf’ restaurant was located.
Was it because of the preconception about the Dark Guild? I had imagined a terribly shabby and dirty inn-like place, but what was there instead was surprisingly a high-end restaurant with good sunlight.
‘Well, they did say their targets were nobles, so it would be strange to go to a back alley wearing expensive clothes, right?’
Needing escorts, I told Cesare and Cain that my grandfather had given me information about the Dark Guild. And I lured them here by saying we should find clues about Sylvia and also clear Professor Mahoff’s innocence.
Cesare said it probably wasn’t the Dark Guild’s doing and wasn’t very pleased, but when I insisted strongly and said I’d go with just Cain if necessary, he came along.
Anyway, thinking our identities being exposed might interfere with gathering information, I was disguised as a noble from the frontier, while Cesare and Cain were disguised as my servants. When I told him to play my servant, Cain got excited and has been like this since earlier.
“If Young Master Mel gets a boo-boo, Kevin will be sad~.”
Seeing Cain with a greatsword as big as his body strapped to his back, wearing a robe, bringing his arms together like a girl and making a nasal voice, I felt dismayed thinking who would take this guy later. I just tightly fastened his robe.
“I don’t hit idiots.”
“Look at this. The servant who receives Young Master Mel’s favor is this Kevin, Sibelom!”
“It’s Sibelon, not Sibelom. Phew. Can’t even memorize one alias, how very inconspicuous.”
Cesare retorted in an extremely annoyed voice while strapping a sword to his waist. I bit down hard on my molars at the laughter trying to burst out. Those are names I came up with.
It’s not my fault. I gave several candidates like Shrek, Gerseki, Michelnome, etc., but Cesare personally chose Sibelon himself.
