Chapter 15

Chapter : 15

“How could you put me on the spot like that back there?”

I closed my mouth in disbelief and tilted my head at Navier. She had been publicly haranguing Bishot far beyond what was reasonable, so I had only told her to stop. And now she was calling that putting her on the spot. It was ridiculous.

Navier lifted her eyes sharply and glared at me, but rather than anger, she seemed more sulky than anything else.

Lately, after seeing her so often, I had noticed one thing about Navier. There was never a day when her face was blank. She was always wearing some emotion on it.

What was she, bipolar?

When I stared at her expressionlessly, she smiled sweetly again as though nothing had happened.

“It seems Lord Raphael forgot his own station.”

According to her, because I had sided with Bishot in that moment, I had effectively declared in public that I was hostile to Navier.

Regardless of my true intentions, she said, that was how the other students would have seen it.

“So telling you to stop was putting you on the spot?”

Navier shook her head and cried, “Of course it was!”

“It was a situation where you had to choose one side or the other. You sided with Bishot, so of course the other students are going to assume you and I are not on good terms.”

That was why we were eating together in a restaurant on the school grounds.

Navier had stubbornly insisted that we had to put on a display of friendliness and show everyone that our relationship was perfectly fine.

After swallowing the food in her mouth, she said,

“You may not care what others think of you, Lord Raphael, but I am different. I have to manage even this sort of thing. Please be considerate.”

“Yes, and that is why I am eating with you.”

Even with the irritation in my voice, Navier only smiled brightly.

“Ha ha, and I am grateful for that. But this is another matter entirely. You are calmer about it than I expected. Bishot seemed terribly angry. Is that not a serious problem?”

“It is a serious problem.”

When I sighed, Navier lowered her eyes and said,

“I am sorry. It seems I made a mistake. I never meant to cause trouble for you.”

“It is fine.”

That was only half a lie.

I had decided to choose my course cleanly now. I was giving up on reconciling with Bishot.

It had been an impossible goal from the beginning.

Considering what Raphael had already done before I possessed him, reconciling with Bishot had always been a star hanging impossibly high in the sky.

I had kept that thorn-covered road among my options only because my life depended on it.

Now I was going to throw it away.

Instead, I would make absolutely certain to tear the male leads away from Bishot.

If I was going to remain Bishot’s mortal enemy, then for the sake of survival, I had to succeed in that much.

As for Jefrin and Ian, I had dealt with them to a certain extent.

That left two.

The Crown Prince and the Grand Duke of the North.

Of the two, the Crown Prince came first. The moment he saw Bishot, he would start entertaining improper thoughts.

Kartea Savi Iniespi.

Within the Academy, Kartea belonged to the only self-directed department. Even in an Academy that preached equality, some conveniences were still granted if one happened to be royalty.

Unless something unusual happened, he skipped class often enough that his first meeting with Bishot had been pushed back.

The two were supposed to meet at the ball event after the midterms.

That was where Kartea encountered Bishot and began trying to draw closer to her.

I was going to have to do something about that.

And at that very moment, Navier said something absurd.

“So perhaps you were not quite as fond of Bishot as I thought?”

I wondered whether I had misheard her and asked back,

“What?”

“I was worried you might become angry with me.”

“With you? Why?”

“Because I was the one who provided the occasion for Bishot to curse you so bitterly.”

“That cannot exactly be blamed on you.”

Navier giggled.

This time she was not smiling because she wanted to show me a pleasant face. She seemed genuinely amused.

“People do not always behave logically. In any case, thank you for saying that.”

“Ah. Right.”

Navier leaned forward slightly and lowered her voice by a tone.

“But you do not seem all that disappointed. Why is that? Did you not want things to go well with Bishot?”

“Me? Does it look that way?”

“Yes.”

I let out a long sigh. It was not that I had wanted to romance Bishot, but I had wanted to establish a positive relationship with her.

I had changed course because I had no choice, not because it was what I truly wanted.

“You saw it wrong. I am properly in despair right now.”

Navier narrowed her eyes and lifted the corners of her mouth.

She glanced around, then deliberately made her laugh louder.

It was as though she wanted to show everyone around us that she and I were getting along splendidly.

Ugh.

Just having her in front of me made me overly conscious of other people’s eyes too.

She was an uncomfortable character in every possible way. Not at all suited to be a meal companion.

I shoveled food into my mouth, determined to finish the meal as quickly as possible.

“Do you suppose Lady Bishot has some hidden fortune? Or perhaps her bloodline is secretly tied to the imperial house?”

I almost snorted at the random nonsense, but Navier continued.

“I can see what people want. Nothing grand, so do not take it strangely. In truth, everyone does that, do they not? We all notice, more or less, what someone wants. Whether they like something or dislike it. We all read those things, because people are social creatures.”

Navier tapped her own chest with her palm.

“It is only that, in that one respect, I have a little more confidence than others.”

“So? What does that have to do with Bishot being tied by blood to the imperial family?”

“I wondered whether that was why you were so obsessed with Bishot.”

No, this girl was not ordinary.

That particular setting about Raphael was not revealed until much later in my sister’s novel.

I hid my agitation and played dumb.

“What kind of nonsense is that? She is beautiful, that is all. Of course that is why.”

At my words, Navier smiled again.

It was the sort of smile an adult might wear while indulging a child.

“Yes, Bishot’s beauty is so overwhelming that even calling it the kind that topples kingdoms would not quite do it justice. But you are indifferent to that.”

What exactly gave her the right to state someone else’s feelings so firmly? The sheer absurdity of it made me let out a hollow laugh.

“How would you know that?”

“Because when you looked at her, there was not the slightest trace of possessiveness in your eyes.”

We had more or less finished the food on our plates.

Dabbing at the corner of her mouth with a handkerchief, Navier rose from her seat.

“Thank you for eating with me. I shall ask for your company again next time. Rest well.”

---

It went without saying, but a person needed money to live, and that remained true even inside the Academy.

Food and lodging could be covered somehow by the money paid upon admission, but everything else—

Textbooks and the various materials needed for lessons.

Because the Academy was also a social arena for nobles, money was spent whenever one joined gatherings of any kind. The amount varied greatly from student to student, of course, but there was no such thing as getting by without spending a single coin.

“Is she at least eating properly?”

When I casually looked into the restaurant where Bishot had worked in the original, some completely unfamiliar undergraduate had taken her place.

She probably was not working there because she had discovered Earthroot Fleabane early. That seemed likely enough, and it naturally gave rise to a question.

What was she living on?

I already knew that Bishot received no support whatsoever from the Puremoon family.

Was that all right?

Was she not going to starve?

When I looked into what she was using to get by, it turned out she was working in her own way.

Unlike in the original, where she had been dragged into all sorts of incidents, this time she had devoted herself solely to alchemy, and as a result, her skill in it had surpassed even where it should have been by this point.

She processed or altered catalysts and materials used in alchemy and sold them.

Well, if she was not starving, then that was enough.

Why did she need to live richly just because she had been born a noble?

Even so, I did feel somewhat guilty inside.

Everything had turned out like this because of me. If possible, I wanted to compensate her somehow, but there were too many things standing in the way. My life was on the line here. If I moved carelessly and made matters worse, I could entangle everything. I wanted no part of that.

Besides, Bishot wanted nothing from me.

She regarded every point of contact with me, every encounter, as an unpleasant experience, and she was bound to view anything I did with distaste. In every way, it was difficult for me to step forward.

So instead, I met with Gilbert and distorted the situation in a way that favored me.

“You know Bishot, do you not?”

“Of course I do. She loves alchemy. She is good at it too. She is the one who always sits in the front during class.”

“She had actually found a clue while researching potion side effects, but I beat her to it. I feel sorry about that, so could you help her a little?”

“Hm? How?”

Even if it was not as expensive as the Magic Department, the Alchemy Department still cost a great deal to keep up with.

The materials for alchemy alone were more than the current Bishot could easily cover. The Academy provided some support, of course, but for someone throwing herself into alchemy as thoroughly as Bishot, it was no more than a drop in the bucket.

“I would like you to cover only her books and her material costs for alchemy.”

I told him I would bear the cost myself. It was not even that much money, and it was not as though I could ask Gilbert to pay for it out of his own pocket.

At that, Gilbert smiled slyly and said,

“Ah, I see. You like her, do you not?”

“Ah, yes. Let us call it that.”

At my answer, Gilbert chuckled and nodded.

“All right. I understand. I will do it.”

I gave Gilbert my personal account information, and a few days passed.

A considerable sum of money came into the account.

No, calling it considerable did not do it justice. It was an enormous amount. Enough to rival the taxes collected from the territory I owned.

“Wow, this much? I could live off this forever without working.”

In the original too, I had known Earthroot Fleabane would be worth a good deal of money. It had completely freed Bishot from her financial troubles and become the very force that let her pour herself into alchemy.

What I meant was that I had never imagined it would be this much.

In Bishot’s case, she had handled everything herself, whereas I had entrusted it to Gilbert, an expert. That probably made a difference as well.

If the information about the Hair-Loss Remedy I had shared with Gilbert spread too, it looked as though it might even surpass the income from my territory.

I was rich.

And on top of that, this was almost like bonus money I could use however I pleased, which made it even more valuable than the territory’s income. I went back to Gilbert and discussed something with him.

“Is there anything that can temporarily or permanently increase mana with money?”

“Well, of course there is. The Magic Towers buy up most of it, so almost nothing ever appears on the market. Temporary ones are rather cheap, permanent ones are absurdly expensive. Why?”

“I would like to use it myself.”

“For alchemical ingredients?”

“No. On my body.”

Seeing Gilbert’s eyes turn with confusion, I realized I had misspoken.

For someone in the Swordsmanship Department and the like, buying mana with money was something alien.

It was terribly inefficient, for one thing, and geniuses had no need of it in the first place.

“Could you help me?”

Gilbert’s eyebrows twitched.

“If it is a favor from you, of course I will do it. I will look into it first and contact you. Just wait a few days.”

Gilbert did not ask why I needed such a thing.

Looking at him, I almost laughed. He seemed like the sort to assume that whatever I did, I must have my reasons.