Chapter 156. The Forces of Evil? I Didn’t Back Down
After arriving in Hazen.
The first thing I did after receiving the Thousand Origin Art thesis from Parun was to go meet Senior Teheman, the head librarian.
“It took you quite a while. Did things go well?”
“Yes, thanks to your concern.”
After apologizing for returning later than planned, I explained my upcoming trip to Brando and asked for his understanding.
Fortunately, Senior Teheman showed no particular displeasure and even cheered me on for my trip to Brando.
Of course, not for free.
“These are some materials I prepared just in case, and it looks like they’re finally going to be useful.”
“This is…”
A bundle of parchment almost the width of my hand.
When I asked blankly, Senior Teheman’s face bloomed with a satisfied smile.
“I can’t let you take out Lafiter’s books, so I picked out a few and summarized them. It won’t be as good as reading the originals, but it’s better than not reading them at all, isn’t it?”
What a terrifyingly thorough man.
“For the record, there’ll be a simple test when you return. So I’d like you to familiarize yourself with everything, without missing a single thing.”
“I could cry.”
“From joy?”
“…Yes.”
And just like that, I ended up saddled with vacation homework I’d never asked for.
After that, I used the communication crystal Demian had left me to contact the Brando family.
For some reason, though, the one who answered wasn’t Demian but Ransi, and her reply was that she would personally come to Hazen.
Then, for the next few days, I holed up in the dormitory, hiding from Shine’s eyes and devouring Senior Teheman’s “homework” while I waited.
“Nngh.”
To prepare for my meeting with Ransi, I sat in a quiet café in Hazen and stretched out my stiff body.
There was still a little time left before our meeting, so I opened Senior Teheman’s digest again, and my head throbbed as if it were about to split open.
‘I’m supposed to memorize all this?’
I’d scoffed at it because it was “just” a summary, and that had been a massive miscalculation.
Granted, its thickness was monstrous for something called a digest, but I still figured it had to be better than reading dozens of full volumes.
The white part was paper and the black part was my future. In other words, my prospects were pitch-black.
Each individual word was definitely familiar, but the way they were strung together was incomprehensible. It was to the point that I started doubting whether these were actually characters I knew.
“Phew.”
I took a sip of coffee and was about to force myself to focus on the digest again when a voice reached my ears.
“Aster-nim, have you been waiting long?”
“Ah, Ransi…”
I started to call her “Ransi” out of habit, then my tongue froze.
‘What did I used to call her?’
I couldn’t remember.
In my head I always went, Ransi this, Ransi that, but I definitely hadn’t spoken to her in casual speech.
But calling her “Miss Ransi,” or “Lady Ransi,” or something like “Young Lady Ransi” just felt awkward on my tongue.
“You can call me whatever is comfortable.”
“Ah… right.”
“Then, I’ll go order a drink.”
“Ah… sure.”
As polite speech popped out of my mouth on reflex, I thought to myself:
‘If it’s awkward to call her anything… maybe I should just not call her at all?’
Yeah, that way there’s nothing to feel awkward about.
By the time I’d wrapped up the whole title issue in my head, Ransi came back with her drink and sat down across the table from me.
“Have you been well…”
“Let me catch my breath first. I just came through the warp gate. I ask for your understanding.”
“Ah… yes.”
An awkward silence.
It didn’t last very long before Ransi opened her mouth.
“If you’re asking whether I’ve been well… yes, I’ve been well enough.”
“Ah… I see.”
“And have you been well, Aster-nim?”
“Yes.”
“That’s a relief. However, the reason I came today is that there’s something I must ask your understanding for, Aster-nim.”
“…?”
Ransi straightened her posture.
That made me tilt my head without meaning to, and it wasn’t long before she finally spoke.
“Regarding your admission to the Academy, one of the vassal houses has raised an issue.”
Now, of all times?
It had already been months since I entered the Academy.
And back then there hadn’t been any particular noise about it.
Of course, even if there had been, I wouldn’t have had any way of knowing—but if there had been such backlash, Gamo Bianca wouldn’t have admitted me into the Academy in the first place.
‘No matter how promising a seedling I am, she wouldn’t go so far as to cause chaos just to back me.’
“The real reason I came to see you today, Aster-nim, is to inform you about this situation and, at the same time…”
While I was busy questioning this bizarre situation from all angles, Ransi’s voice rang in my ears.
“Would you consider postponing your visit to the main estate to another time?”
First, I sat still and calmly整理ed the situation.
It wasn’t so much shocking as it was completely absurd.
First question.
“Does it even make sense for a vassal house to raise an issue over an Academy matter?”
A vassal house was still just a vassal house.
They might have some degree of say in Brando, but questioning Lady Gamo’s decisions was something that simply did not happen.
Only then did Ransi begin to reveal the true circumstances behind it all.
In short, it was like this.
“You are currently registered, at least nominally, as a sponsored ward of Brando, Aster-nim.”
However, unlike a typical sponsored ward who becomes subordinate to the Brando family after graduating from the Academy, I didn’t bear any obligations at all.
In other words, it was a relationship formed purely out of goodwill.
“Did you know? Even at the Academy, you’re registered as a sponsored ward of Brando, Aster-nim. And as soon as the term ended, your report card was sent to the house.”
“And…?”
A vague sense of dread washed over me.
‘Report card? Right… those exist.’
I had completely forgotten.
But hold on. My grades weren’t bad enough to be a real problem… were they?
Ransi drove the nail into my unease right then.
“You didn’t show up for your close-quarters combat evaluation. And you had several days of absence as well.”
“…”
“And the report card sent to a sponsored ward’s patron includes detailed notes that are not shown to the student—things like attitude toward your studies. And on top of that…”
Gulp.
“The incident with the second son of House Dolanpe was recorded in detail. That weighed heavily.”
“So…”
“Yes. A few of the elders of the main family raised concerns about your attitude toward your studies, Aster-nim. In particular, about the trouble involving the second son of House Dolanpe.”
In other words, I’d handed them a pretext.
Ransi spoke up to that point, wet her lips with a sip of coffee, then calmly continued.
Unfortunately, the root of the problem didn’t end there.
“I didn’t tell you because I thought it might worry you, but there have actually been a few other comments about your conduct, Aster-nim.”
There’s more?
While I looked at her in disbelief, Ransi coolly laid out the big and small issues one by one.
“Young Master Demian started swearing after he came back to the main estate.”
“Come on, he’s old enough that it’s not like he can’t swear…”
“He can. But the important part is that he never used to. ‘Damn it,’ ‘bloody hell,’ ‘what the hell,’ and so on—he’s been using quite a colorful assortment as little interjections.”
Seeing that, the nanny who’d cared for Demian since he was little apparently fainted on the spot.
‘…What?’
He never did that at the Academy.
“Of course, I don’t think that part is necessarily your fault, Aster-nim. When kids the same age hang out together, they can pick up bad habits. It’s natural, in a way. However.”
…There’s more?
“Do you remember Blood, Sweat and Tears?”
“Blood… sweat… tears?”
“Would it help if I said the dragon statue? The one with thousands of scales, designed to even breathe fire from its mouth.”
“…Ah.”
As soon as she said dragon statue, the memory came back to me in an instant.
But wait.
“Was that No. 1? Or No. 2?”
“It was No. 2, but when the lake that was originally No. 1 got scrapped, the dragon statue became No. 1.”
That brat really moved up in the world—no, this wasn’t the time.
The number wasn’t the important part right now.
“But what about that…?”
“I wasn’t going to show you this part, but… please wait a moment.”
Ransi’s hand disappeared into her subspace pouch and soon popped back out holding a stack of documents.
She flipped to the back of the stack and handed it to me.
“This is…”
“The final budget for Blood, Sweat and Tears No. 1. It even has Lady Gamo’s approval on it.”
“…”
Ones, tens, hundreds…
I started counting the digits in the budget line, then stopped and shook my head slightly.
“This can’t be…”
“You think it’s unreasonable. I’m relieved. But according to Young Master Demian, you were the one who drafted the proposal for Blood, Sweat and Tears No. 1, Aster-nim.”
Excuse me? Me?
“I heard you wrote up the project plan for him.”
“…”
Now that she mentioned it, I did remember.
I’d stuffed in every wild idea I could think of, half-convinced there was no way it would all get approved.
Wait, hold on.
“But that was…”
“You didn’t think it would get approved?”
“…Yes.”
“Aster-nim, Young Master Demian is the young lord of Brando.”
With that one sentence, I could accept the whole situation.
I might have submitted it as a joke, but the servants who actually had to carry it out… and everyone else… ended up shedding real blood, sweat, and tears.
“And Lady Gamo really just signed off on it?”
“Yes. She gave her word.”
“No matter what promise she made, how is that remotely reasonable…”
“This is Brando.”
The common sense of a great house was a very different creature from my own.
“And it wasn’t completely unchecked. The lake project got scrapped because of the budget. Originally, they’d planned to scrap the statue, but you were the one who chose to keep the dragon statue, weren’t you, Aster-nim?”
“…”
“I was honestly astonished. The statue cost more than building the lake.”
At this point, I was at a loss for words.
All I could do was hang my head, unable to even spit out a simple “I’m sorry.”
“Well, to be honest, that part is fine. To put it plainly, projections show that if we put the statue up in Brando’s main square, it’ll draw in tourists. In the long term, the budget can be recouped. However…”
However?
“The initial shock was too great. The administrators panicked and even submitted a petition to the elders. The elders, in turn, passed that petition on to Lady Gamo.”
“What…?”
“Would you like to hear what it said?”
At that question, I quietly shook my head.
“No.”
“A wise choice.”
To the administrators, Blood, Sweat and Tears No. 1 had to have been a waking nightmare. They only managed to squeeze some meaning out of it with a very generous interpretation.
But wait.
Even so, it still didn’t make sense for “a vassal house” to be raising issues over my admission to the Academy.
“Then why is it the vassal house…?”
At my question, Ransi briefly closed her eyes.
“It’s not a typical vassal house.”
“Then…?”
I probed gently, and she shook her head ever so slightly.
“It’s not my place to say anything more than that.”
What? A vassal house is a vassal house. What does she mean, it’s not a typical one?
That was about as far as I got.
Then Ransi opened her eyes again and spoke in an even tone.
“In any case, the vassal house is using all of that as a pretext to raise an issue with you, Aster-nim. However, all of this will be sorted out in due time.”
“How…”
I closed my mouth again.
Even I realized that was a stupid question.
Aside from the Head of House, Lady Gamo’s authority was absolute. She could squash a commotion like this with brute force if she wanted to.
No matter how “unusual” this particular vassal house was, that fact wouldn’t change.
It would just take a little time to iron things out smoothly.
In any case.
“If you were to come to Brando now, the vassal house’s people would nitpick you for one reason or another. Of course, they wouldn’t dare openly humiliate Young Master Demian’s guest, but…”
“You’ve got to give it to those noble bastards—they’re sneaky as hell.”
“…?”
Ah. Slip of the tongue.
“Ahem. I mean, there are plenty of petty ways to put someone down.”
“Yes. Which is why I recommend you postpone your visit at least until the vassal house’s people withdraw. Or until the situation is resolved.”
“So that would be…”
“At minimum, until after the vacation.”
Hearing that, a line from Demian’s sayings suddenly popped into my head.
“Bullshit.”
“…Excuse me?”
“Demian calls a situation like this ‘bullshit.’”
“What is that supposed to…”
Watching Ransi look uncharacteristically flustered, I spoke proudly.
“I’ll go. To Brando.”
Justice is forged in the fires of oppression.
“The forces of evil?”
I didn’t back down.
No chance in hell.
