Chapter 110. My Name Is Aster
The coordination of the pact with Shine was done quite meticulously.
‘A pact like this… you need to be careful.’
Even if Shine’s wariness had weakened, contracts like these always needed an escape gap left in them.
- This contract is… yeah. Let’s say it can be annulled if both sides agree.
- Is there really any need for that?
- You never know what’ll happen with people.
Honestly, that was my bare minimum conscience.
The library I planned to build—meaning the tower—was something that even if I devoted my entire life to it… no, even if I regressed over and over again, I couldn’t judge whether it would succeed or fail.
After finishing a few adjustments like that, I reviewed the cards I’d obtained.
First…
‘I got No. 1 back.’
He came back upgraded.
Now I didn’t even need to feed him—he could find food on his own. And that wasn’t all. He’d gained a physical body, so someday he’d find the realm of transcendence again.
Of course, whether you could restore a human’s transcendence in a vampire body was uncertain, but compared to when he was a Death Knight, the possibility was close to infinite.
And then…
‘Heh heh.’
- Shine von Lehmann’s vampire clan will spare no support for building the library.
‘Help from the vampire clan….’
A whole pile of slaves.
Of course, a few clauses were attached to that.
Like holding veto power in matters that could threaten the clan’s survival, and guaranteeing minimum human rights… not sure “human” is the right word, but clauses guaranteeing rights, basically.
But still—what more could you ask for?
‘If it comes down to it, I can make them stack bricks.’
Or if not that, I could make them clean, or run errands, or all sorts of odd jobs.
Anyway, after the detailed clauses were coordinated like that, Shine looked at me and asked.
“Still, out of old caution, I’ll ask… the library you’re trying to build isn’t a library like ‘Lapiter,’ is it?”
“Lapiter? Of course not.”
“Hm… then fine.”
Is Lapiter something you can build just because you want to?
It seemed that was what Shine was worried about.
If I tried to build a library like Lapiter, Shine would be basically living as a slave until I died.
Of course…
‘The problem is, it’s bigger than that.’
I didn’t bother mentioning that far.
What Shine asked was specifically a “Lapiter-like library,” and the library I was going to build wasn’t even comparable to Lapiter.
“Could it be… the scale….”
“It’s not wide.”
Just tall.
“…Mm, this time too, you’re speaking truth. Then, does it have to be filled only with rare books?”
“Not necessarily.”
Filling it only with rare books wouldn’t be bad, but basically I planned to put in any books at all.
Anyway, Shine threw a few more questions, and each time I answered in a way that cleverly avoided lying.
Finally.
“…With this, the pact has been formed.”
Jing—
A pact magic circle shone with vivid light.
Then the magic circle split into two layers and seeped into me and Shine, sealing the pact.
“Is it done?”
“Yes, it is. But… you crafty bastard. At this point, shouldn’t you tell me?”
“…?”
Shine’s finger tapped my face.
He didn’t say it outright, but only then did I understand what he meant.
“You mean you’re curious who I am.”
“Yes. Well, it’s not like hearing it means I’d know, but we’re in the same boat—how long are you going to keep playing ghost?”
That was true too.
I didn’t need to reveal it to Oberon or Riheim senior, or to the mercenaries at the 4th Base Camp, but to Shine, it was different.
No—there was one more.
“Wait a moment.”
“…?”
“Raileigh.”
I released the sound-blocking spell I’d placed over the lodging and called Raileigh.
Raileigh had already been waiting at the door for quite a while, after sending all the totems back to the drinking table.
He could’ve gone back to the drinking table too, but he seemed very curious about Shine’s return and the story behind it.
Anyway.
“Yes, Mage-nim. You called?”
“Sit there.”
“Yes.”
Even while sitting down, Raileigh kept glancing at Shine, reading the room. Shine glared at Raileigh with eyes like axes.
When he was beating him, he’d been half unsure but still happily beating him—yet now that it seemed this really was “Death Knight-nim,” he looked scared of the aftershock.
But that was their problem, and what mattered right now wasn’t that.
“I’ll give you a chance.”
“A chance… you say?”
I nodded.
“You said you’d follow me.”
“I did… didn’t I?”
“From now on, I’m taking off my mask. I’ll tell you my name and the identity I’ve been hiding. So choose now.”
“Choose… what, exactly?”
With a tense look, Raileigh swallowed.
He asked what I meant, but he’d already guessed well enough.
“Once you know, you can’t take it back. If you know and then you try to turn back, even a little…”
“…If I do?”
Sseuseu—
Killing intent filled the entire room. As Raileigh’s face turned pale, I spoke with flashing eyes.
“You’ll pay the price.”
“……”
That price was only one thing.
“Still want to know?”
“……”
Raileigh pressed his lips shut.
Eyes trembling.
He’d realized this wasn’t the usual tree-burial talk or whatever he only ran his mouth about. Of course, even his usual tree-burial talk was half serious, but he’d sensed this was beyond that level.
“Give up now. Then I’ll at least put some money in your hand. If you learn my identity, you’ll have to live a life that’s a little… no, quite a lot different from what you imagined.”
Gulp.
The sound of Raileigh swallowing echoed fairly loudly.
But only for a moment.
“Is the promise… still valid?”
“A promise?”
“The highest position you can give me… I mean, the promise that you’ll take me as your right-hand man.”
“Of course.”
Maybe because the answer came out too easily, Raileigh’s eyes wavered once, wide.
He turned his brain over hard, thinking. Then he opened his mouth.
“Then… can you promise this too?”
“Say it.”
“If… if your subordinates try to harm me, please protect me.”
This bastard…
So that’s what he was thinking about.
Blinded by wealth and glory, luxury and pleasure.
What he was worrying about right now was nothing but his own safety—whether others would snatch away the position he’d barely obtained out of jealousy and envy, or whether he’d just die.
But even that wasn’t hard.
‘…I don’t have subordinates.’
So there was no one to be jealous.
“…Fine.”
“Really?”
“Damn it.”
“…I’ll believe you.”
With the same easy answer, Raileigh nodded again and again.
Then Raileigh was more or less settled, and all that was left was taking off the mask…
“You seriously won’t regret it?”
“Isn’t life high risk, high return?”
“…Yeah.”
Eyes full of certainty.
This guy… doesn’t look like the type who’ll ever end up “big,” no matter what he does.
Even when you open a road for him and tell him to avoid danger, he stubbornly sticks his head into the shit pit. Looks like he’s destined to keep rolling around until he dies.
Anyway, that’s enough consideration.
“Hoo.”
All through the Hamelin Great Forest, I placed a hand on the Insignia of Sakwol—something I had never taken off even once in front of others.
Raileigh’s voice came right then.
“W-w-wait…!”
“…?”
“Could you tell me your name first? Somehow, um… I thought it might be fun to guess….”
He’d been tense a second ago, and now he was grinning.
Normally I would’ve smacked him once, but right now I didn’t even feel like it.
People say you grant a dead man’s wish—so why not grant the wish of someone who’ll want to die soon.
“My name is Aster. I don’t have a family name. And my affiliation is… Jenion Academy.”
“Hoooh! Jenion Academy! P-prof—professor? Are you a professor?”
“Mm, if you’re a professor at Jenion Academy, I can understand why you hid your face. Without the Imperial Family’s permission, it’s awkward to move around carelessly, after all.”
A flush of excitement crossed the face of one human and one vampire.
Probably for similar reasons—Raileigh looked shocked by the prestige of “Jenion Academy,” and Shine looked like his eyes were shining at the various benefits a professor would have.
But.
Expectations exist to be smashed.
“No.”
“…?”
“…?”
As I took off my mask, I drove in the nail.
“I’m a student.”
Did the Grand Duchess use magic? A cold wind swept into the room in an instant. Of course, it wasn’t the Grand Duchess’s magic.
It was just that Shine and Raileigh were that shocked.
“W-what, what…?”
“What…!”
Shine and Raileigh. The two of them were simply that stunned.
With a calm gaze, I watched the two of them gaping at my face, and I spoke my introduction again.
“My name is Aster. I’m a student in Jenion Academy’s Basic Magic Department, Class M3—and if we’re talking origins, I’m a vagrant from the 7th Black and White Zone.”
There was no reply.
“Y-you, crazy….”
“Is this… a d-dream?”
Only broken fragments of words flew around.
Looking at the two of them trembling, I smiled in satisfaction.
“F-family. You said you’d spare no effort from the family, right?”
“That was when there was a family.”
“A-ahh…!”
Shine grabbed the back of his neck.
“And… uh… the highest position? The highest position? The highest position?”
Raileigh broke.
Of course, not my problem.
‘Then, it looks like things are more or less organized….’
There was no longer any reason to stay in the Hamelin Great Forest.
If possible, I wanted to wait until my body fully recovered, but the Grand Duchess felt strangely unsettling.
‘Now I really… have to go back.’
The gains at the end were good.
I’d obtained No. 1—temporarily a Master Knight and a vampire lord—and I’d also gotten a worker whose sense wasn’t bad, though I didn’t know where I’d use him yet.
And that wasn’t all.
- Thank you. This… use it somewhere useful.
Riheim senior had gone into rest.
When I arrived at the 4th Base Camp, he handed me a book about the earlier “external core” magic circle.
Research hadn’t advanced to the point of improving it into an artifact yet, but just having it placed in the library would be valuable enough.
‘…I could sit on a pile of money even if I just sold it like this.’
Only one thing bothered me: the Fire Seal (火印).
All I’d gained was the keyword overturning heaven (逆天).
‘That’s something I’ll only know once I get into Lapiter.’
Anyway, with everything wrapped up like that—
“Then tomorrow, let’s depart right away.”
“Depart… where?”
“Where… do you mean?”
Two questions with different endings.
To the two of them asking something so obvious, I kindly recited the obvious answer.
“Where else?”
Is there any other place a student goes?
“We have to go to school.”
Ah, by the way, it wasn’t a lie when I said I’d give Raileigh the highest position I could give him.
If I asked Headmaster senior, he could probably arrange something like an academy guard position, at least.
…And then, the next day.
At the hour when all the mercenaries of the 4th Base Camp had passed out asleep, we left the camp with the faintly rising sun at our backs.
Unlike when we came, our steps were heavy.
Because we’d gained a lot.
