How to Survive at the Academy chapter 136

3 gold coins (4)

“You used a classic and obvious method that wasn’t like you. Are you planning to sell out all the school supplies?”

“Yeah, what. People who want to be a little quicker will have smelled it.”

The place is a professor building at night.

It is a place where classes are held mainly in broad daylight and research activities are in full swing in the late evening.

The height of the buildings is also definitely higher than the living quarters.

If the living room has a more life-like smell as its name suggests, the professor building seems to be in good order.

Roads lined with bricks, flower beds, neatly raised buildings, and even tree-lined streets that seem to welcome students.

I got used to it because it is a landscape I see every day, but in fact, it is very rare to find an educational facility of this size in this world.

Lortel suggested that we go out for a night walk, and that’s how he led me to the night’s gallows.

It feels a bit far out for a walk at night, but I have a lot to say, so can I just think of it as something like that?

“But I never thought that Ed would be curious about the internal affairs of the company. Were you even worried about me?”

“Well, that’s what it is. You were a little worried.”

“At that time, even with empty words, I became worried about you—”

Lortel, who was going ahead, stopped talking and looked back. I guess my answer wasn’t what I expected.

He glanced at my expression and spoke as if he was bewildered while avoiding his gaze.

“My, did I hear it wrong?”

“No matter how deep you think, it doesn’t mean you don’t go in vain.”

“There are risks involved with every choice. I was just embarrassed for a moment because I didn’t know that you would be able to tell me that you were worried in such a straight-forward way.”

Lortel rolled her eyes with a bewildered face and trembled with fuss. I fanned my face for some reason, and then I stepped forward again.

“The attack and defense skills are completely separate, but I think this one needs to be trained a bit more… .”

From noblemtl.com

Mumbling like that, I walked the streets of the night for a long time.

“Weakness Exchange.”

In the end, our destination was a wooden bench in the center of the student square.

It’s always full of people in broad daylight, so I’ve never sat this central bench right next to the fountain. Because it is always full of people.

However, when they arrive at this late-night time, the atmosphere that was like the market in broad daylight is so quiet that it is overshadowed.

The darkness that has descended on the bachelor makes many tall buildings eerie.

Nail tube, Glock tube, Obel tube, Delen tube. From these lavish buildings right next to the Student Square, to facilities like the Student Library and Trix Hall on a hill in the distance, to the Peson Hall where classes for the Alchemy Department are held, and the Marel Hall where the combat teams are trained, students of the Ministry of Magic are seldom visited. buildings without them.

Each one of them is silent in the darkness of the night, creating a strange sense of incongruity despite the scenery we see every day.

When I was in high school, I used to go to school in the middle of the night.

Even in everyday scenery, if you change the time zone to night, you feel as if you are in another world.

“It is said that when the children of noble families hold a wedding, there is a ritual of exchanging weaknesses. They know each other well, so their relationship grows stronger… . It sounds plausible and romantic, but in fact, if you think about it, it’s an insidious custom.”

“There is such a custom… ?”

“It is said that a lot of things have been lost these days, but I have heard that there are some leftovers in old or long-established families. Surprisingly, there seems to be no such thing in the Roth Taylor family?”

“Well. I am not old enough to get married yet.”

“It is, but… anyway.”

Lortel sat down on the bench and put down Zerobe’s hat. As always, the bluish rose-shaped hairpins shimmer in the moonlight.

“Would you like to trade our weaknesses?”

“… suddenly?”

“If I’m trying to explain my circumstances in this case, I have no choice but to show my heartbreak.”

Of course, Lortel’s stomach is deep and black, but I never thought of digging it up.

“Well, there’s nothing I can’t show you, but I still feel like I’m losing.”

“… … .”

“You know. I can’t live without losing money.”

Lortel smiled and waited for my answer.

In fact, even exchanging weaknesses is a bit difficult. These are the weaknesses of the sons of noble families. They are very sultry or dirty, so there are many cases where it is fatal to the extent that it is difficult to tell others about it… As for me, there is no such thing as such a fatal weakness.

You showed a flaw that was nothing, but on the Lortel side, if you show a deep and dark weakness, it doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t matter to me, but it could be a big disrespect for Lortel.

So I fell into deep trouble.

“Well, you don’t have to think too deeply about it. In fact, I’ve heard of them doing strange things like this.”

“… What is your intention?”

“I have ears too~ I can only hear a little wider and farther than ordinary people’s ears~”

To say that it is ‘slightly’ wider, the ear hears all the sounds of the living quarters.

In short, these days, I have heard rumors that I look depressed or that I seem to have lost a lot of energy.

I went around saying it was okay, but how Lortel would have taken it is another matter.

I shut my eyes softly.

It’s still a dark night, but when I close my eyes, there is only darkness in front of me in earnest.

What is subtly reflected in the darkness beyond the retina is the past.

Joint combat practice, student council president election, freshman class placement test, Glast subjugation, Glaskan subjugation, and expulsion from the Ophelis Hall.

From there, go straight ahead and into the past. Nestled in the northern forest, I walk straight through the paths I have traveled before I was living with my teeth, and before I was Ed Roth Taylor.

Then he opened his mouth.

“A lot of people around me died.”

Lortel didn’t bother to inquire in detail.

“It was the environment. I’ve been rolling for years on the battlefield in a distant foreign country. Then I got hurt a little. Thanks to that, I spent my last years leisurely.”

“Oh my, that’s surprising.”

“Believe it or not, it’s up to you.”

Lortel shook her head softly. It’s about believing.

The news that the eldest son of the Roth Taylor mansion had war experience, he would have never heard of anywhere else.

“Just rolling around on the battlefield often kills people around you. At first, I struggled a lot emotionally. The more people you attach affection to and the more you interact with them, the better.”

“It would be. The closer the environment is to the extreme, the more people come together.”

“So, at first, I try to clench my teeth and try to save them. Running through the middle of the battlefield with a serious wounded lifted up even though you know you will fall from exhaustion along the way, hugging a colleague who is losing your breath, and watching the end while squeezing tears… . In fact, it is an experience that anyone who has been on the floor has done. It’s kind of a rite of passage.”

When I opened my eyes again, I saw my shoes.

With his arms on his knees and his back hunched over, he sees a swarm of soldier ants passing through his shoes.

“Then there comes a moment when you realize that it’s all useless. Your heart hurts, and people are filled anyway. Giving affection itself is an act that carries a great risk. it’s your favorite word Risk Management.”

“I don’t like it. Who would like to do that?”

“Well, in any case, internally, the conclusion was just right. It was such a long time ago that I forgot about it.”

I looked up and saw the starry sky I always see. I had a strangely different feeling from when I looked up through the trees in the forest.

“I tried to save you, so if you die, you will be heartbroken.”

“… … .”

“If you don’t try to save it in the first place, you won’t be heartbroken.”

Lortel was silent.

“It was only by thinking that way that I was able to keep my mind straight. By then I understood why the commanders were all so cold-blooded. Even the last one understood it, so everyone must have understood.”

When I close my eyes again, I remember the corpse of a girl leaning against the outer wall of the Glockt tube and bleeding.

There was only one person who moved in a hurry and solved all the trials and challenges, but was not saved by a single difference in the end. Those similar memories were piled up to the point of disgustingly from the distant past.

I looked at my fist with my back hunched over, and tried to clench and open it.

“I’ve also lost my senses a lot.”

It’s heartbreaking because I tried to save it in the first place.

It may be because of this romantic school that I forgot the conclusion I made implicitly.

As you walk around the campus, your hair turns into a flower garden because of the rosy aura of the students who are full of dreams and hopes.

However, for me, reality has always been an ordeal. Life was more about ‘surviving’ than ‘living’.

It was the way I lived that day, to constantly doubt the world while keeping the sense of the day.

“This is my rebellion.”

Once here I have come to a conclusion.

If the exchange of weaknesses was the justification, wouldn’t this be enough as a negotiating point?

It was a part that I had never revealed to anyone, so I threw it out quite boldly.

Lortel didn’t say anything for a while. Sitting on the bench, looking up at only the night sky, he slowly brushed his reddish brown hair and talked slowly.

“What meaning a person attaches to death… It’s going to be different for each person. I will not recklessly argue with your judgment.”

However, looking at me to see if there was anything left to add, he smiled. It wasn’t a cool smile as always, and it looked strangely vague. Maybe it’s because of the dazzling moonlight.

“A lot of people around me died. Most of the time, I was the cause.”

Lortel reclined on the hard backrest and looked at the top of the Obel tube in front of him. It was used as a student council building.

“My parents were incompetent. With the money I had been begging for all day, I lived on rotten bread in the corner of the slum. Still, I think people are good. At least until I get an order from Elte and sell me to an orphanage.”

“… It’s hard to respond.”

“Now that I’m here, I’m not offended. People who are naturally cornered are easily corrupted by a few gold coins. Without knowing that he would be killed soon because of his silence, he naively fell for the whispers of the Elte Chamber. poor people.”

“… … .”

“Well, that’s how I became the pawn of the Elte Company. I am now the deputy director of the company.”

Now I can’t even remember my face.

However, on the other side of Lortel’s heart, those old biological parents… It seems that he remains a good person as far as heart is concerned.

Even if they were those who sold themselves away, they affirmed the filthy corruption.

Lortel has also experienced being in a corner, so she must fully understand the psychology of such people.

“Do you know how much money my parents got from selling me? There were only three plan gold coins. Not thirty, not three hundred, just three.”

Three plan gold coins.

Little money is never If we take the consumption of the poor as a standard, it is enough money to live comfortably for a few months if we save it well.

However, Hansako shakes her head when she asks if it is enough to sell her one and only flesh.

“It was then that I realized. It is not the billions of dollars piled up to the point of dazzling the eyes, but a few urgent pennies that push the cornered people further down the abyss.”

Lortel talked up to that point, and then took a breather.

In fact, I didn’t even talk long enough to catch my breath.

It was a whisper-like tone, and the atmosphere in the sleeping faculty building was just relaxed.

“After that… I didn’t trust anyone.”

Years before Lortel’s prominence in Elte.

During those years, she taught herself how to read books, memorized daily exchange rates, responded to market changes, HR management, crisis management, business management… It absorbed all the necessary abilities to lead a single company.

It must have been a power of absorption that could only be said to be wonderful.

There are many fields such as combat, magic, alchemy, and science, but in the end, her true worth comes from working with gold coins. That’s why people call her the golden daughter with reverence.

“After living like that, there are many times when people don’t look like people, they seem like a mechanism that responds to offers or negotiations. When I say this, it’s designed to react that way… Such a device.”

“… … .”

“Maybe, it may have something to do with the commander Ed was talking about. If you trust others easily, you are easily betrayed. That’s why you don’t want to believe it in the first place, so in the end there are no people you can trust around you. In the end, the only person left in the world to trust is me… Look.”

Only then did Lortel raise her head and look at the Bachelor of the Night again.

Why Lortel had brought me to the gallows in the middle of the night, now I can see the outlines.

“The Bachelor of the Night is so eerie and quiet, isn’t it? Normally, there is no one like this in such a crowded place, so it feels like I am left alone in the world.”

“… That’s right.”

“It feels like this even during the day to me.”

solitude in the crowd.

It is a disease that slowly corrodes the mind.

“Well, I have a friend now.”

One day, while climbing the hill, I suddenly looked down at the brutal battlefield. The back view of me looking at the scene seems to flash in front of my eyes.

Perhaps the back view of young Lortel looking down on the commercial city of Oldek was not that different from him.

“You said it.”

Lortel leaned her head on my shoulder… I closed my eyes quietly and received the soft moonlight.

“We are kin.”

* * *

“I got a report that a rat had been hiding in the store. It’s a process of catching it.”

Lortel rested her head on my shoulder and quietly shared her plans.

“A few days ago, the number of items for sale in the warehouse did not match, and I felt like the books were manipulated unnaturally, so I checked it out… Someone was constantly stealing funds from our branch. As the scale grows little by little, cracks in the ledger are slowly appearing.”

“Isn’t that Dune? He said that the spirits were also bought with embezzled funds.”

“The distribution of Dune is not that great. In the line of small luxury, they always take care of their own interests in the same way. I think there are humans who are far worse than Dune.”

Lortel leaned her head on my shoulder, then suddenly changed her posture and stuck to me more.

I glanced at him and said, ‘I feel more secure than I thought… .’ He wrapped his upper body tightly around it.

“The fact that hints of it are starting to appear in the ledger means that the limits of the quality of its work have gradually reached its limits. Sooner or later, they will have a big drink and try to run away.”

“Then, this time, the bookstore was sold out… .”

“He gave me a big treat. If the price of books goes up a bit… Before our company releases the property, it will first release the property, pull the cash, and then try to run away. Now, by asking ‘individuals’ who are actively buying books, you will be able to uncover the identity of that bastard.”

In the end, you will be in a situation where you have to hit the head of an employee you’ve been working with.

However, Lortel has no qualms.

“Like I said, my rebellion is… that no one believes Even to the extent that loneliness eats away at me, I don’t trust people recklessly. No matter how good the packaging is, the reason is obvious in the end.”

“… … .”

“Because I’m afraid of being betrayed.”

In the end, it is fear that underlies Lortel’s underlying psychology.

As usual, like most people… The same goes for Lortel.

“Still, I think I’m happy now. It feels like yesterday when I was sold for three gold coins, but now I am a person who can call out three gold coins at a first rate to scout someone I like.”

“… Even so, aren’t the three of us going too far for a first-rate job?”

“I have a feeling that I hit it hard. I thought I was going to decline anyway. Well, what if you get rejected? When I get rejected, I only lose one person.”

Rubbing her face on her shoulder, Lortel smiled bewitchingly.

“It doesn’t matter though. One less person of mine.”

I don’t really need to explain why. They just wrap their arms around and look at me with mischievous eyes.

“The reason, you know better, right?”

No matter what you answer, it will be a sensible answer.

I just let Lortel stand still for a while, clinging to my arm.

* * *

“I’m sorry, Miss Lortel. Thanks for the suggestion… .”

The next morning, the maid, Bell Maia, came to visit Lortel from the Ophelis Hall.

“I am worried about Miss Lortel, who was always served by the maids, leaving the Ophelis, but it seems like a bold choice for me to leave the Ophelis.”

“… … .”

“There are some things that are a bit burdensome with three gold coins as a first-class rate… Actually, if the amount is large, it would be good for me, but… I am proud to work at the Ophelis Hall. ”

Bell Maia bowed her head.

Lortel had just gotten up and had come out after simply dressing up.

Now Lortel knows.

In this world, there are people who cannot be bought with money.

The first person that comes to mind is a blonde boy who was sharpening arrows alone in a camp in the forest.

“Of course, it’s not always just fair treatment. There are times when I am dissatisfied, and there are times when I am tired and exhausted… Nevertheless, I want to continue taking responsibility for this Ophelis Hall.”

“Oh… .”

Lortel looked at Bell Maia, who had her head down, with a sad expression on her face.

“The first three are really bold proposals from my point of view… It really hurts me to be rejected like this… .”

“… .”

“Of course, the noble belief that Mr. Bell has in his work cannot be quantified in money… Still, can you reconsider? I don’t want to miss a maid who is as confident and capable as Mr. Bell… .”

Unlike Lortel’s faint eyes, Bell felt like her heart was pounding.

However, Bell shook his head and bowed his head again.

“sorry.”

“Yes. If it’s Mr. Bell, it’s inevitable. then… What is the form of double work?”

“yes? It’s a combined form… ?”

Lortel held Bell Maia’s hands and spoke in a voice full of moisture.

“I will reduce the amount I pay by a third, and instead come to manage my villa or nearby camp whenever you have free time. Bell is also very interested in practical work.”

“yes… to… ?”

“I heard that you are going to take care of Yenika sunbaenim these days. Just like you do, you only visit once on a regular basis and take care of it. All you have to do is come and do your work whenever you have time. Only the specified number of times per week… in a way that… Even like this… it can not… ?”

Bell was bewildered by the unexpected offer.

However, it’s not as bad a suggestion as you might think. Bell, who is diligent by nature, manages his time so delicately that he goes to take care of Yenika in his spare time while digesting the busy schedule of the maid.

In addition, the desire to do some practical work has piled up, the work schedule is autonomous, and above all, a girl holding her hands and talking with her eyes full of moisture is right in front of her.

The girl who called even three gold coins. That’s how special I think about it.

That strange fan consciousness takes place in Belle’s mind.

“that… That much… If condition… .”

“Wow… ! Thank you! Bell!”

Lortel smiled broadly and clapped.

“then… I’ll send the contract in Mr. Bell’s name!”

Streamlined work processing. Even the contract was prepared in the first place.

Watching Lortel go back to her room with a smile… Bell then realized.

It was the bait from the very first proposal.

It was a shackle to fill Bell with a debt of ‘rejection’ and then to accept the contract.

What… He was that kind of person in the first place.

I didn’t know.

It’s just absurd to know that it happened.

Seeing Lortel returning to the room smiling like a fox, Bell let out a smirk as if frustrated.