26 – #026 Colosseum (3)
As an Asian, it was difficult for me to even go to a cafe, so the place of conversation naturally became a deserted alleyway.
If a stranger suddenly asked to go down an alleyway like this, you might feel resistance, but the unknown girl unexpectedly followed me.
In a place like this, it would take quite a while for the guards to arrive no matter what happens, but seeing as they followed meekly, it seems that they are gathered there.
“Sorry. It’s not a story that other people would like to hear.”
“Oh no…. But you said work, what exactly are you talking about?”
She had the courage to come this far, but she didn’t have the courage to commit a crime.
I liked that attitude, as if they were saying that they would not cross the last line even in a crowded situation.
A person with that kind of humanity seemed unlikely to take the money and run away even if he refused my offer.
“Don’t worry. I didn’t call you to become an accomplice. If you were going to do something like that in the first place, you wouldn’t have gathered people in such a crude way.”
“Yeah, that’s true, but I can’t really guess. And although I’m wearing an academy uniform, I’m not a noble, and I’m not a member of the academic department, so rough things like fights….”
The academy students are divided into two divisions. One is the combat division where the most students, including myself, belong.
On the contrary, the department that specializes in literature or management without taking any combat-related classes is called the academic department, and it was famous for having many geniuses as much as it specialized in learning.
‘I didn’t look like that when I saw her procrastinating….’
When we met at the Colosseum, it seemed that he was in a very concentrated state.
“Don’t worry about that part because it’s my responsibility. You just need to buy one ticket like you did today.”
“… That means manipulating it.”
Probably because it is also an academic department, she understood all of my thoughts without further explanation.
“It’s not manipulation. It’s just that the recruiters at the Colosseum misunderstood my skills. Isn’t this cute enough to be called a crime?”
“… That might be it. I’m not in a position to cover this and that….”
“Speaking of that, why are you in such a hurry? At least on the outside, he doesn’t seem like the type to be extravagant….”
“… ….”
From the first time I saw her, I was always curious about why a student at her academy was trying to make money in a place like this.
Usually, if you need money, you get a job, or if you are a combat club student, you go to a dungeon.
But why did she choose such a foolish method as she belongs to the academic department where only talented people gather?
“…… I recently got into debt.”
“Debt?”
The reason was that it was surprisingly common to find around, and since it was so common, it was easy to understand without even listening to the end.
“My father passed away not too long ago….”
My father, who always drinks and doesn’t come home often, died in a guesthouse not long ago.
Since he was unassuming and a father who punched his mother and younger siblings on fictitious days, he said he wasn’t particularly sad when he heard that he had died.
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Her mother shed tears, but it felt like the shackles she had been wearing all her life had fallen on her position, which had never received her father’s affection.
“But after he died, he found out later that he was in debt.”
“Yes, that’s right… The principal is not a big deal, but since it was borrowed from a vicious loan shark, the interest rate was ridiculous, so it was impossible to pay it back.”
Her inn run by her mother was robbed and put in her situation sitting on the street, she stepped into the Colosseum with the idea that she would rather give her last breath.
It may seem like a foolish act to her outsiders, but that was the only way left for her.
The day to repay the debt was right around the corner, and even if it was an ordinary bank, the other party was a private loan company, so there was no way to extend the deadline for repayment.
No matter how the deadline for repayment was extended, even the ever-increasing interest could not be repaid.
It’s different in the little things, but since she’s struggling with her insignificant father, like me, a strange feeling of intimacy began to sprout.
“So I gambled… You’ve had a hard time too.”
“I knew it was stupid, but this was the only answer…. So I took the remaining money and the money secured for the human rights of me and my family and went to the arena….”
“Now, wait a minute, what are you holding as collateral? Didn’t selling you as a prostitute mean selling you out because you didn’t have enough money to sell the inn?”
“They said they sold it too. But until then, my human rights are mine. If it’s going to be stolen anyway, I thought it would be better to gamble….”
If it is something that will be stolen anyway, it is a reasonable decision to sell it first, but if it is the human rights of herself and her family, the story is different.
Even if you know it is a reasonable decision in your head, it takes a lot of guts to borrow money with human rights as collateral, and even gamble with that money.
At first, she had the impression that she was weak because she was crying like a child.
“So how much more money do you have to pay off?”
“This is 4,526,500 Jenny…. I need you so much, are you really okay with me?”
I expected it to be a considerable amount, but it was shocking to hear the amount directly.
When she read that expression, she shrank like a guilty person, but this was just a surprise because I was a poor commoner.
“I can give you that much.”
“Yes?! Dae, how much money do you have for the military? .”
“10 Million.”
After hearing the amount of money beyond my imagination, this time she looks at me with a bewildered expression and a blank expression.
I understand that mind too. When she first brought up the idea of borrowing money from Vivian, she thought she would lend her 500,000 or 1 million Jenny at most.
However, what came out was a sum of 10 million, something ordinary people like us could only dream of.
When I came out with a large amount of money, thinking that I could barely save it if I had to work all my life and not spend money, I even had a shameful delusion that Vivian might have been in love with me.
“Why do you want to gamble when you have this much money… ?”
“This is not my money. I borrowed it just like you.”
It was borrowed without collateral and without interest, and even if I didn’t return the money, I didn’t think anything would be said, but anyway, what I borrowed was borrowed.
“Borrowing… You’re not saying you borrowed it from the bank, right? Is there anyone who lends me this much money?”
“You seem to suspect that the money was stolen, but it’s not like that. It’s an academic department, but since you’re an academy student, you know who Professor Vivian is, right?”
“Yes… Of course I know. How could I not know him.”
“I borrowed it from him.”
When she added that she was a prospective apprentice, she seemed more surprised that I was a student at the academy than the fact that Vivian had lent her money.
“Well, then… ! The maniac who was said to have knocked out hundreds of people in the combat department from day one is… !! Ah!!”
When she remembered that the madman was right in front of her eyes, she immediately apologized with her forehead on the ground, but she wasn’t too angry.
Rather, I liked the fact that they called me a lunatic, not a lunatic savage or a lunatic monkey.
“I won’t do anything if I don’t apologize. In the first place, those guys were beaten because they deserved to be beaten.”
While she was calming her down by saying that, she suddenly became curious about how rumors about her were circulating in her academy.
Well, even if you listen to her, you won’t be able to tell her true story, but I’m worried about her and ask her….
“That… It’s absolutely not what I said, so I don’t want you to misunderstand….”
“Tell me, it’s okay.”
“Wow, there is a story going around that some crazy savage suddenly went mad and assaulted the students. So there are rumors that noble people got hurt while trying to subdue even savages without hurt, saying that they were students….”
“… ….”
The flames of anger burned through my heart and rose to the top of my head, but strangely enough, my heart was surprisingly calm.
My father once said that when his anger reaches its peak, he becomes cold-hearted, and now I realize that it was true.
“Hey, there… Are you okay.”
“…… Are you okay. Because I knew they were like that.”
I just realized that they were people who talked about honor and justice on the outside, but behind the scenes, they trampled on and ridiculed those weaker than themselves.
What should I do this time when my probation ends?
Shall we trample it in front of all the students so that they can’t do such nonsense?
They’re a tribe that will run like wild boars if you provoke them a little, so I’m sure this time too….
“Are you really okay?! Lord, my fist is bleeding… !”
“Huh?”
When I heard that, I opened my hand, and I clenched my fist so hard that my fingernails tore the flesh and blood was streaming down my face.
“Ah… It looked ugly. I thought I wasn’t too excited because I was able to think more calmly than I thought. I guess it wasn’t.”
“It could be… I’m also a commoner, so I’m not all of them, but I think I know a little bit about that feeling. But that….”
“Huh? What’s the matter?”
“No, I haven’t heard the name yet….”
“Ah, that’s right.”
We even conspired to make money through match fixing, but unfortunately, we haven’t even made a statement yet.
“I am John Doe, a first-class student in the Combat Division Valor Class.”
“This is an animation of a second-class student in the wisdom class of the academic department. Please take good care of me.”