Endure with Malice and Grit
A few days had passed since my first night with Marianne, and so much had changed.
“Brother? They say a new menu just came out at that restaurant you like! How about this weekend we…”
“Oh? Sounds good. Shall we go together after exams?”
“Master! I found a meadow where the most beautiful flowers have burst into bloom. How about a picnic to get some fresh air…!”
“Sorry. I’ll do everything after midterms!”
The first major change was that I had begun taking my studies seriously. I had no choice. After blowing three whole days on sex and soothing the Heavenly Demon, my carefully planned schedule was in tatters.
‘I’m switching to hardcore cramming mode. Even if I have to sleep less, I’ll grit my teeth and finish every goal I set for myself within the deadline.’
Anyone without a solid foundation would have already been doomed if they tried to cram like this, but thanks to the basics I had hammered into myself across countless regressions, the plan was actually feasible.
‘At this rate, I might even be able to crush Richard, the first-year imperial prince, in practicals and real combat…’
Anyone who had reached a certain level could objectively gauge their own condition. Even though I had only been training by re-adapting the techniques I learned in previous rounds, I could feel myself improving by the day. On the contrary, the more I trained, the more I keenly felt the shortcomings of my physical abilities. The contents were already overflowing, yet the vessel holding them was still pathetically small. The limitation on how much I could actually contain hit me like a brick.
‘Once midterms are over, I need to snatch up every event that can skyrocket my physical stats…’
Fortunately, opportunities were everywhere. Simply going to the southern church’s gods or the Dragon Lord and forming a contract would be more than enough of a stepping stone to reach the next stage after Awakening: the realm of Superhumans.
Thinking back to the body I had trained to break through the Demon King’s castle in the previous round, which had been at the very edge of Superhuman, my top priority had to be reaching that realm. It was essential preparation for any surprise attacks from the Demon King’s army or sudden appearances by villains.
…Of course, every time I postponed a promise, my lovers gave me heartbreakingly disappointed looks, but it couldn’t be helped. My intelligence took a noticeable nosedive whenever I let myself get distracted by women. If I didn’t get my head on straight now, this life was going to be completely ruined.
I let out a small sigh. Marianne, who was sitting across from me, looked at me with worried eyes.
“What’s with the sigh? Did something happen? Is someone bothering your studies or acting rude?”
“No, it’s nothing. I’m just a little tired…”
“You can’t be tired! Hm? Should I massage your shoulders? Or would a full massage be better? I also know some yoga that’s great for recovering stamina, you know?”
The second thing that had changed since that night was the attitude of both Marianne and Professor Senia. Just look at Marianne right now, smiling happily while watching me study accounting. The moment I let out a single sigh, she went into full protective mode trying to help me. And yoga, of all things? I couldn’t stop the sigh that escaped me at the blatant ulterior motive shining in her eyes.
‘This is all my fault for touching her, so I have zero excuses…!’
Ever since we became intimate, Marianne had started following me around like a little puppy, clearly seeing me as a man now. Unlike the Heavenly Demon, she didn’t follow me into class, but whenever I tried to study during free periods, she would appear like a ghost and begin taking care of me.
I didn’t exactly hate it, but the subtle sense of dissonance was unavoidable. And the bigger problem than that dissonance was that the other students were slowly starting to notice.
Since we were sitting together in a café studying and she was practically glued to my side, it was no wonder the sharp-eyed noble students were picking up on the atmosphere.
Thanks to that, on top of the attention I already received, the girls now looked at me like I was some rare product they had previously overlooked, while the boys looked at me like I was a guy who deserved to be torn apart. Having two of the academy’s greatest beauties showing interest in me meant becoming the enemy of every guy on campus was inevitable. I had already given up on that front.
The rumors were getting more and more ridiculous and exaggerated. And who the hell was Lady Arwen? What did they mean I had even touched the Heavenly Demon? At this rate, intelligence agents from the kingdom or empire might start tailing me.
The professors’ favor was already more attention than I needed.
“…Is that why you sighed? Because those idiots are being loud? Want me to drive them all out?”
“No, please don’t, Sister. I’m already being called the secret ruler of the academy these days.”
I hurriedly stopped Marianne, who had overheard the gossip and was about to unleash her fighting spirit on the boys. If she actually released her killing intent, every customer and employee in the café would probably faint on the spot.
‘This morning was already chaos because of Professor Senia during roll call. Let’s just get through today quietly…!’
This morning, Professor Senia, whom I hadn’t seen over the weekend, had greeted me with such warmth and affection the moment she saw me. In other words, she had hugged me passionately in front of all the students. It might have been the first time in my life I felt genuine panic instead of joy while being pressed against a bountiful chest.
‘Though getting hit with Olga’s pregnancy attack last time was definitely the most heart-stopping moment.’
Thanks to that, by the time morning classes ended, rumors were flying around the student body: the Artin Academy Shadow Ruler Theory, the Great Demon Contractor Theory, and even the theory that he was a lecher who had contracted with the Demon King to plunge the kingdom and empire into chaos.
“But Artin, are you really going to just let those baseless rumors slide?”
“I don’t have much choice. Anyone can see that my relationships with you and Agnes aren’t exactly normal, right? It’s not like I can go around telling people I got close to everyone so fast because I have memories from my past lives.”
“No, that’s true, but the part about you having twenty or thirty women! That’s genuinely malicious! Don’t you think?”
“…”
“That Artin who used to be such a pure-hearted romantic, going around sleeping with every woman he sees. That’s definitely a vicious rumor spread by people who don’t know you at all, right?”
“R-right! It has to be a malicious rumor! They’re all just jealous because I’m so amazing!”
The most fucked-up part was that I still hadn’t told the two of them about my full harem. I had gotten permission from the harem members, but I couldn’t quite muster the courage to say to Professor Senia and Marianne, “By the way, I actually have more than five other women besides you.”
‘Professor Senia seems like she would understand if I explained it well and reasoned with her, but Marianne…’
How would she react? The Marianne I remembered from before was a cool, wonderful person, but the moment we started dating she began following me around with such obsession. It made me a little nervous.
Of course, Marianne herself couldn’t proudly declare our relationship since she had seduced me even while knowing I was engaged to Agnes… but human emotions weren’t always logical.
“You had training with the old hag today, right? Tell me when you’re done! I can help you plenty with subjects like Kingdom History! Oh, right, I already asked the kingdom to send some good elixirs, so if you ever feel weak or tired, make sure to tell me immediately, okay?”
“…”
When I only looked at her as the head of the group, I hadn’t noticed, but now that she was acting as a woman rather than a queen, she seemed to be the type who devoted herself completely to her man.
‘Olga has been sending letters lately too, asking if there’s anything hard on me and saying she’ll come anytime if my body feels weak…’
Both Olga and Marianne seemed to have a strange tendency to turn men into spoiled children. If those two ever met, they would probably ruin a man beyond repair. I firmly resolved to never let them meet and spent the time until I had to go see the Heavenly Demon accepting all of Marianne’s not-so-subtle displays of affection.
Recently, the academy was buzzing with talk of a certain man named Artin Ludwig. The upperclassmen were no exception.
In a third-year classroom, five female students sat together, exchanging the latest rumors about Artin and chattering away as they tried to sort out which were true and which were false.
All eyes turned to the braided-haired girl named Muris. She flinched, her expression turning nervous as she began reading the room.
Unless people of the same social class gathered, even within the same group a hierarchy naturally formed. In that sense, Muris, the second daughter of a pathetic barony, was at the very bottom of the pecking order among the daughters of counts and the eldest daughter of an imperial knight commander. Normally she would have been nothing more than unnoticed background decoration, but…
“W-well… He has been incredibly close to those two since we were young…”
“Hahaha, surely not. Artin Ludwig grew up receiving endless love and attention from the family, you know? The discord with Young Master Lexton is just a small quarrel that got blown out of proportion.”
“Is that so…? It sounds more trivial than the rumors suggested… But since you’re his older sister, your words must be more accurate than the gossip, right?”
At the knight commander’s daughter’s words, Muris Ludwig, the second daughter of the Ludwig family, broke out in a cold sweat and nodded repeatedly.
‘Damn it, damn it, damn it! What am I supposed to say when you ask me that?! I can’t exactly tell them that Lexton turned the kid into a cripple…! As expected of the daughter of a brainless knight, she can’t even think of something that simple!’
Fearing that any slip of her tongue might damage the reputation of her lord’s Wise family or her own Ludwig family, Muris ground her teeth internally while maintaining a gentle, slightly foolish smile on the outside, giving only the most minimal answers possible.
“T-that’s not true. There’s no way someone as lacking as my brother could satisfy His Imperial Majesty or His Royal Majesty. I think this is just a fling that will end in a few months…”
The malice hidden beneath those words, the clear warning of don’t you dare think someone like you is on our level, made Muris pretend not to notice as she forced out an amiable laugh.
‘…This stupid Artin bastard. He only ever caused problems when he was at the family estate, and now he’s causing even more trouble out here? Why couldn’t he just stay locked in his room like the trash he is…!’
Muris had spent the past two years working desperately to be useful to her family and to secure a good marriage with a prestigious noble house for her own advancement. She had acted like the perfect, kind-hearted girl in front of highborn ladies, willingly taking on all the dirty work just to earn a spot in their gatherings.
Now all that remained was to secure a good man, but the atmosphere around her had taken a strange turn.
“Ahaha, I’ll mention it to him… but he’s quite shy. I’ll try my best.”
Whether it was the girls or even the boys, lately everyone who approached Muris only wanted to talk about her brother Artin, never about her. Muris hated it. It felt like her entire life, spent working hard to follow her father’s orders to catch a good man, was being invalidated by that single useless brother.
‘This won’t do. I need to go warn him myself…! That worthless, good-for-nothing brother…!’
She drank her black tea to calm her boiling insides and quietly stacked her malice toward Artin higher and higher.