Watching Professor Peter laugh heartily made me not want to drop the class after all. Instead, it was a lecture that drew out admiration. Looking around, I noticed that even several students who had been indifferent with thoughts of dropping the class straightened their postures and began listening attentively to Professor Peter’s lecture.
“The economics class will be conducted lecture-style, but I’ll soon introduce a major project that will determine your pass or fail. There, you’ll compete to test whether you have 70% of the value needed to make a living in the Empire.”
‘Amazing.’
If you could call what just happened sales, it was an extremely refined, elegant, and even innovative method.
While he had changed the tag, by elegantly changing the packaging he made students voluntarily participate in his notoriously infamous lecture, and despite presenting the radical reward of a 70% pass, he stimulated consumer desire with a confident, high-quality lecture without diminishing his brand value at all.
I smiled while tickling Mitche’s cheek with a quill pen as he sat on top of the inkwell.
‘Mitche. Could I become a merchant guild master like that? A merchant guild master even better than Professor Peter, and better than our Grandpa.’
It was the future I had dreamed of before becoming afflicted with Addiction. A future where I’d hire the Astol private army as merchant guild escorts and have Cesare step forward to help whenever I needed backing.
‘Will I exist in those guys’ futures…?’
In any case, seized by passion for the first time in a while, I found myself listening to the rest of the lecture as if entranced.
* * *
“So I didn’t drop the class. I’m going to take Professor Peter’s class! I want to become a charismatic merchant guild master like that! There’s bound to be a lot to learn!”
The three of us—Cesare, me, and Cain—shared our impressions of the first week of classes at our secret spot in the forest out back where we often gathered. Though when we gather, Cesare usually just plays the role of listener while Cain and I excitedly chatter away.
“Rye, are you an M? Taking that professor’s class?”
M? Suddenly medium size? Well, it’s not large size, so.
“Yeah! I’m an M. Don’t I look like an M to anyone? Everyone knows. It’s totally obvious I’m an M when I’m next to you guys.”
Those bastards are taller than me and bigger too. But what does class have to do with size?
But for some reason, Cesare, who had been reading a grimoire, suddenly coughed violently, and Cain smacked my back hard while shouting loudly.
“I knew it! I could tell from when you were smiling and serving Cesare! Damn it! Then why have I been treating you well? I should’ve worked you hard!”
What’s he talking about? As he gets older, his head seems to be hardening into muscle, making it harder and harder to understand what he says.
“Work me what. Are you looking down on me because I’m M-size and shorter than you guys!”
When I snapped back fiercely, Cain blinked, then immediately burst into laughter, laughing so hard he could barely breathe.
“Hahaha! He doesn’t even know what he’s saying! Should I just gobble up this cute bastard! Bwahaha!”
Aha. I think I know why that bastard is laughing like he’s lost his mind. He ate nothing but eggs and chicken breast, so he finally caught bird flu that supposedly only infects bird-brains. Poor thing. He should have eaten in moderation.
“Forget it. Bird-brain, if I keep talking to you I feel like I’ll get dumber too.”
I organized the textbooks spread out on the picnic mat while quickly glancing toward my target. On the mat floor, Cain’s and my belongings were scattered messily, but what I was looking for was Cain’s assignment portfolio.
‘I’m sure all of last semester’s assignments are still in there.’
Sure enough, I could see his portfolio with papers with pitifully worn corners all threaded together on string. Since moving up to the upper division he hadn’t organized it at all—it was such a mess I didn’t even want to touch it.
I slipped it behind a textbook and stuffed it into my crossbody bag. Since there aren’t many assignments at the beginning of the semester anyway, he won’t even notice if this goes missing now.
My target was his geography assignment. He surely submitted an assignment last semester and got it back, so it would have a complete map of Astol drawn on it.
‘If Cain is gathering troops with funding from Cesare, they’re definitely preparing within Astol territory.’
First, I needed to find out where Cesare and Cain were gathering troops.
‘In the original work, when the rebellion happened, the Astol army came in by sea route and immediately surrounded the capital. That means they built barracks near the coast.’
In the original, Cesare had a small number of troops, so he made plans that it would be better to capture the capital directly rather than advance by land. Cedric also struggled a bit because of this surprise attack.
Anyway, after narrowing down a few key coastal locations, then contacting mines I personally know based on the information Professor Peter let slip, I should be able to roughly figure out which direction in the territory the supplies of iron ore and copper are going.
Even if Cesare returned from the principality and somewhat abandoned thoughts of rebellion, since Cain had already gathered troops, I couldn’t just sit by and watch this.
‘Cedric’s side can’t be the first to notice that troops are stationed there.’
But Cain suddenly grabbed my hand that was clutching my bag tightly.
“Hmm. I smell something suspicious. The smell of hiding something.”
“Wh-what do you mean hiding, what are you talking about.”
Did he catch me? My heart jumped, but when I nonchalantly turned my head away, Cain grinned.
“Why are you holding your bag so preciously?”
Damn. Did he see me steal the portfolio? This guy may be a simple muscle monster, but his intuition is level 100—maybe I was too hasty.
Suddenly Cain forcefully tried to snatch and open my bag.
“What are you doing! Give me back my bag, dude!”
When I was startled and grabbed his wrist to stop him, Cain smiled even more sinisterly while violently snatching at the bag.
“Euhehe! This hyung knows everything! What you’re hiding! Show me!”
“Give it back, dude!”
I absolutely couldn’t let him discover the portfolio. I grabbed Cain’s lower back and stubbornly held on, and Cain seemed a bit more surprised at the rougher resistance than expected. In the meantime, I quickly snatched back the bag and glared at Cain while panting.
Even if he can’t give up the rebellion, he shouldn’t be a hindrance!
“Why are you touching other people’s things!”
When I burst out angrily, Cain turned to Cesare with an exaggerated expression as if shocked that I got mad.
“Cesare, my Rye… I think he’s got someone he likes.”
“Yeah. It seemed that way.”
What is this about now? I couldn’t quite follow their conversation. Still, worried I’d be caught with the portfolio, I quickly gathered my things and stood up.
“I don’t have time for this. I’m leaving first. I have another orientation this afternoon!”
* * *
When Lionel ran toward the Academy without looking back, Cain sat down on the picnic mat grumbling.
“Cesare, what he was hiding in that bag is definitely a Rose Day present, right? Rye’s never been like that before, but today he was suspiciously avoiding my eyes.”
“Even if that’s true, it’s none of your business.”
Cesare closed his grimoire with a thud and lifted his head arrogantly. The corners of his mouth were slightly raised.
“Why is it none of my business? That present is mine, right? He prepared it to give to me, right?”
“Rose Day is a day for lovers to exchange presents. Why would you be included?”
“Hey! Aren’t you angry? Rye’s going to leave us alone and date someone?”
“Why should I be angry? Dating or not is his freedom.”
Cesare sat up with something like a victor’s smile.
“No. I can’t accept it! No matter how I look at it, there’s no one in our Academy who suits Rye! He shouldn’t date!”
Cain shook his head as if frustrated, throwing a fit. He seemed terribly displeased that Lionel had someone to give a Rose Day present to besides him.
“If Lionel loves someone, what are you going to do if you can’t accept it? It’s not like he’s pathetically dating a man like you. Don’t butt in if you’re not the person involved.”
“Says you! You’re not the person involved either!”
“Am I really not?”
A small laugh escaped at the desire to say, I’m that person involved. Was being loved by someone such a pleasant feeling?
“I’ve already marked Rye!”
“Oh, I’ve marked him too. What a coincidence.”
“When? What month, what day, what hour, what minute, what second?”
It was a bird-brain face just like Lionel said. Why Cain was so obsessed with Lionel was anyone’s guess. It bothered him, so he tried to create distance with Brainwashing Magic, but perhaps due to lack of persuasiveness, it failed at the suggestion stage every time.
‘The brainwashing to gather troops in exchange for chasing away Sylvia worked well, yet what a mess.’
Even so, the one Lionel loves is himself. And that present Lionel supposedly hid is obviously his too, so fighting with Cain would only lower his dignity as a noble.
“Well, Rose Day presents aren’t just exchanged between men and women. They also exchange gifts out of friendship, so there’s no guarantee that’s not my present either!”
Cesare looked pitifully at Cain, who was still excited with expectations of receiving a present from Lionel. But he wasn’t upright enough to criticize Cain as pathetic without qualification.
Because even if he received such a present from Lionel, all the sincerity hidden within it was fake. Because even if you build a castle with sand, it’s not a real castle.
What fool would place expectations on such a sand castle that disappears without a trace when swept away by waves?
“……”
Suddenly realizing he was a fool no different from Cain, a voice from the abyss flowed into Cesare’s heart.
Lionel has never truly loved you. He’s only doing this because of Addiction.
