Cesare sprawled out on the sofa with his arms crossed.
His arrogant yet restrained courtesy was always cool no matter when I saw it. That must be what charisma is.
Seeing that, I think I understand why he dreams of rebellion. He has a charm that seems like he’d be better at swaying others than Cedric.
“First of all, I hate dark-colored hair. I mean I hate dark brown or black. Since I have black hair, I like bright colors.”
“Mmm.”
“Right. Blonde would be just about right. But I hate hair that’s long and flowing. It would be annoying when dancing.”
“……”
“I like fair skin. But I also like the type that blushes easily.”
Cesare spoke unhesitatingly while looking at me. I was just listening to it gloomily and silently.
“I’d like a cute personality. Well, it’s not that I want a woman who’s only docile….”
“……”
“Is there a female student like that at our academy?”
Cesare asked as if mocking while looking at me. Knowing from the start that there weren’t many female students at the Imperial Academy yet making such picky demands, I wanted to summon Mini Cesare again and shake him vigorously.
“You’re being so detailed, don’t you have someone in mind?”
“No. I’ve never seen a female student like that.”
If you’ve never seen one, how am I supposed to find one?! In the end, I summoned Mini Cesare, grabbed him by the collar, and shook him up and down.
But outwardly, I answered with a grin.
“Mmm. I’ll search hard.”
“What if there isn’t one?”
“Uh, if there isn’t one?”
“Yeah. What are you going to do if there’s no partner who matches my ideal type?”
“Somehow… I’ll find one.”
As if my answer didn’t satisfy him, Cesare frowned.
“I asked what you’ll do if you somehow tried to find one but there isn’t one, Lionel.”
While breaking out in a cold sweat thinking about how to answer to satisfy him, suddenly the perfect answer came to mind.
“Your ideal type, is… that all…?”
“Yeah.”
“There is one!”
“Hm?”
“There’s a girl who’s the perfect ideal type!”
Suddenly his face crumbled in an instant. It seemed he’d given me a task he thought I’d absolutely never solve, so he felt shitty that I looked like I’d accomplish it.
But he’s the one who started it first.
‘Lucy Franceau!’
She would match Cesare’s ideal type perfectly.
From then on, Cesare had a strange expression the whole time, but I deliberately ignored his expression and diligently picked out clothes and jewelry for him.
* * *
I’d boasted confidently that I’d found Cesare’s perfect ideal type, but the unexpected difficulty was Lucy herself.
“Please, Lucy!”
“N-no…! I hate those kinds of balls so much!”
“You’re the only one! I’ll even get a dress tailored for you, okay?!”
“Cesare Yanox?! I-I don’t want to…. I’m scared….”
“Please, Lucy…. I don’t know any other girls besides you. Girls won’t even talk to me.”
It was true. Even in team projects during class, there were many times when girls wouldn’t talk to me, causing trouble.
But Lucy was subtly firm and immediately rejected my request. Even if I gave her a thousand torka, she said no meant no and immediately shut the door.
I’d confidently told Cesare I’d gotten someone right away, so feeling depressed about returning to square one, the classroom suddenly became noisily abuzz.
“Lionel, it’s Professor Peter’s class. Get up.”
“What? That professor is in charge of seniors!”
A senior rushed over and wrote on the blackboard in large letters <Due to Professor Ruben’s sick leave, all juniors taking the lord economics class move to Professor Peter’s classroom.> and left.
“Cesare, seriously, can’t we skip class today?”
“They say if you skip Professor Peter’s class and get caught, your assignments increase exponentially.”
Professor Peter was known as a talent who’d even been Minister of Finance before, stricter than Professor Mahoff, scarier, and famous for giving an enormous amount of assignments.
Originally he’d insisted he wouldn’t be an academy professor, but he was a professor who came in specifically while Crown Prince Cedric was enrolled, saying he’d only teach during that time.
He only took charge of Cedric’s grade level, so we’d let our guard down thinking he’d absolutely never teach us. Man, today’s luck is really shit.
Feeling like being dragged to a slaughterhouse, I entered Professor Peter’s classroom full of the smell of books together with Cain and Cesare.
“Still, it’s just one day of substitute teaching, would he give assignments? He’ll probably just let us audit casually and send us off.”
Cain sat down while stretching leisurely. Actually, I agreed with Cain’s words too. No matter how strict a professor is, he doesn’t have authority over other grade levels after all.
So… I was continuing to worry about how to persuade Lucy….
But….
“Mellans-kun. Does not answering even when your name is called mean you’re thinking intensely about the question I threw out?”
I had no idea why this disaster had occurred.
Above my notebook full of Lucy, Lucy, Lucy, a middle-aged man with a scary impression was standing right there glaring at me. To get through the moment, I quickly answered.
“Yes! That’s right! I was thinking hard!”
But was this the problem? As if divine punishment was descending on me for having gotten through academy life only by tricks until now, Professor Peter smiled wickedly and said to the students.
“Then share the byproduct of your thinking with your fellow students. Now, Mellans-kun. To the front.”
The words “I’m screwed” almost popped out. Actually, because of Cesare’s partner problem, I had no idea what question Professor Peter had asked.
I barely moved my trembling legs and walked staggeringly, following Professor Peter down to the podium.
‘There are even seniors here, why do I, a junior, have to give a presentation?! This is all because of Cesare!’
With irritation surging up, I turned around and glared at Cesare’s face. Cesare had an interested expression with a faint smile on his lips, and that also looked like a brain-crushing villain-like appearance, so my irritation melted away.
Right. Handsome Cesare is not guilty. I’m the sinner for thinking about other things!
Still, the silver lining in the misfortune was that Professor Peter reorganized the question once more as he went down to the podium.
“Now, to reorganize, your territories are dependent on imports and exports for everything, and due to the war situation in neighboring countries, all imports and exports have been cut off. Even if you try to quickly turn to domestic demand, resources and time are tight. The territory itself has enormous debt, and because it’s a wartime situation, the prices of foreign goods have risen a lot, so you can’t attract investment, and most trading companies have ended up on the streets. The point is, is there a breakthrough in this desperate situation.”
How would I know that! That’s something politicians or economic experts should figure out!
“If Mellans-kun’s answer is disappointing, I’ll turn this into your weekend assignment. A report of at least 30 pages. Not just seniors, but juniors attending my class today are included too.”
I felt the gazes of eyes looking at me with even more earnest pressure, along with shocked sighs around me.
‘E-even if you look at me like that, if I can’t do it, I can’t…!’
As I panicked and just rolled my eyes around, Cain was looking at me tearfully with an expression begging me. That was the same not just for the juniors here, but for the seniors too.
Just as my face had turned pale, suddenly something began to flash through my mind!
‘Wait. If it’s this…!’
I first grabbed the podium and didn’t say anything. Then Professor Peter started urging me to begin the presentation, so I deliberately threw out bait to him.
“I don’t know if I can take responsibility for my statement.”
“Oh. Why is that?”
“Because my breakthrough is focused not on the system but on the leader. I’m a commoner, but most of the students here are nobles who will actually rule territories.”
“Are you saying the lord should become a dictator?”
At Professor Peter’s words, I took a deep breath and opened my mouth while looking at the students.
“The breakthrough I thought of lies in the trust and ethics between the lord and the territory’s people.”
I heard the sound of students murmuring quietly. But I didn’t care. The die was cast anyway, and if I stopped the presentation here, I’d have to write a 30-page report for the weekend assignment. Since it had come to this, it was right to throw out something.
“As an individual who owns the Mellans Trading Company, I find this situation extremely regrettable. However, if such a territory-scale great depression comes, we would also enter fiscal austerity, withdraw investment funds, and try not to loosen the money in our pockets. Because personally, we don’t think the territory’s debt is our debt.”
“Ooh.”
“We are people who have paid taxes and lived legitimately, and we perceive the territory as something that should protect us, not as something we should protect. To put it bluntly, if this territory collapses, we’ll migrate to another territory or a new lord will come.”
“That’s right. But that won’t fundamentally solve the problem. Because the external situation is the same.”
“But we are fundamentally human, not creatures that move only according to profit.”
“What do you mean?”
“How much mercy the lord has shown our trading company so far and what kind of trust relationship has been built acts as a major factor in how our trading company will spend the money in our pockets.”
Seeing Professor Peter’s eyes light up, I was certain my answer wasn’t wrong and put more strength into my voice.
“Everything would be resolved if the lord had done well normally.”
