Fifty Days (Revised)
I turned it over in my mind, slowly and carefully.
What, exactly, would I do with myself now that I had walked out of my family?
The money in my hands at the moment came to fifty gold coins. Half a year's tuition at the Academy was thirty gold, so this was by no means a small sum — if anything, it was an enormous amount of money.
That's what, five million won or so, in my old world's money..?
But nearly half of it would have to go toward living expenses, and buying a new house with what remained was pure fantasy. Which meant I had to come up with a plan — because if I set foot onto the streets as I was, it was obvious I would starve before long.
The answer, as it happened, was the Academy itself. Its dormitory system.
Dormitories at the Academy were divided by status. The ones commoners used were, quite literally, just ordinary family homes, while the dormitories reserved for nobles charged a far steeper fee — and in exchange offered services worth every coin. Unlimited refills at mealtime came standard, fine furniture greeted the residents, and every facility the Academy owned was free for them to use. They even assigned personal attendants, though it was safe to say almost no one actually put them to work. Every student living in those dorms already had servants of their own trailing at their heels.
If it were the old me, I'd have gone straight for the fancier place, no question..
But the me of right now was all but penniless — and I had no means of earning money at the moment, either.
Which left exactly one option: the dormitory the commoners used. The facilities were a little shabby, but it cost nothing. For the me of this moment, it was a perfect fit. Besides, the nobles' dormitory had always felt suffocatingly burdensome to me anyway.
That was the whole reason I had come to the Chairwoman's office — to tell her I intended to move dormitories.
There was, of course, a proper procedure for such things. But if I took that route, I would be waiting at least several more days. And that meant wasting more money. My funds were thin enough as it was; I had no desire to squander another coin. And really, what reason was there not to take a dormitory that offered room and board for free?
"Chairwoman, I would like to transfer to the general dormitory."
The poker face she had maintained from beginning to end was mercilessly shattered by that single sentence, and I felt a quiet flicker of triumph. Whatever else might be said of her, wiping that expression off her face was never an easy feat.
"..Forgive me. Honestly, I did not expect that in the least."
She smoothed her brow back into place, gently set down the teacup she had been sipping from only moments before, and regarded me through narrowly slitted eyes.
"You will need a proper reason. I cannot have you tormenting innocent commoner students."
The mana radiating from her began to weigh down the air around us of its own accord, and my body was pressed down along with it. Under pressure that had sharpened in an instant, I forced my mouth open. I had no intention of bringing harm to this Academy — quite the opposite; I wanted to coexist with it for a long, long time. Better to clear up the misunderstanding.
"You misunderstand, Chairwoman. I am not going there for the purpose of tormenting commoner students."
"And you expect me to simply believe that? The people you trampled while hiding behind your family's name would laugh in your face if they heard it."
I had nothing to say to that. Her words had struck the mark dead center. It was true that I had tormented a great many people, and true that each time I had flaunted my family's name and thrown my weight around while doing it..
What if I told her I had left the family..?
It would be fair to say that the only reason I had been able to run so wild at the Academy was my family, plain and simple. House Reinhardt was a name even the Academy found awkward to antagonize. I wasn't even the eldest son — hardly worth stirring up that hornet's nest over a mere second son. That was precisely why they had left me be all this time.
But.. what if that same me had walked out on the family?
The Academy would be free to discipline me without hesitation, and I could offer that as my condition and simply attend in peace. The condition being: the moment I caused trouble again, I would withdraw from the Academy at once.
"Chairwoman, are you aware? As of today, I have left my family."
"Pfft—"
Apparently that was astonishing enough, because the tea she had only just raised to her lips came spraying out forward. Yes — onto me, sitting directly in front of her.
"I-I beg your pardon, you simply startled me.."
I wiped the tea off roughly with my clothes and carried on.
"Left your family? What on earth is that supposed to mean..?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. I have left the family, which makes me nothing more than a commoner now. I trust you understand what that means, Chairwoman."
It was no bad deal for the Chairwoman, either. Whatever I did from now on, she had more than enough power to stop me — and the thought that she could now remove one of the Academy's chronic headaches, no longer restrained by my family's influence, would be ruling her mind already.
She deliberated slowly, as if weighing every word, then spoke again.
"..This is your last chance, Cadet Jenison. Should you cause trouble even once more.."
"..And if I do?"
"You will be expelled from the Academy, and should private retaliation be visited upon you afterward, the Academy will answer it with silence."
"Deal."
From where I stood, it was a genuinely fine offer. I had no intention of playing the delinquent any longer, after all.
I rose from my seat and flashed her my brightest smile — and she evidently took it badly, because her expression curdled on the spot.
"..Then I shall consider the matter settled on those terms."
And with that, the negotiation was complete. Just before stepping out of the Chairwoman's office, I paused for a moment and, without turning around, tossed a question over my shoulder.
"Chairwoman. How many days of attendance does the Academy require..?"
"..?? Attend one hundred and forty days out of one hundred and ninety, and you may complete the term and graduate.."
"Thank you."
"..I will have the number of your new room sent to you directly."
And so, on my way back from that negotiation that wasn't quite a negotiation, I crossed paths with a woman.
Crimson eyes — the kind said to belong only to imperial blood. Red hair that shimmered dazzlingly, like a blazing flame come alive. Though she wore the same uniform as every other cadet, hers somehow looked different all the same, and the black earrings standing out against her pale skin caught my eye.
"You.."
A woman admired by all, exalted by everyone. The Empire's one and only Imperial Princess — Princess Kiana stood before me.
"It has been a while, Your Highness."
"I can't say I wanted to see your face, though."
Having delivered that curt reply, she glanced once at the door I had emerged from.
"Did you slip the Chairwoman a bribe to keep yourself from being expelled? How filthy. How utterly beneath contempt, you."
She had begun spiraling into some uncontrollable misunderstanding entirely on her own. I moved to correct it — then caught myself and wondered whether it was even worth the breath.
Girls like that never listen to a word anyone says anyway.. so, whatever.
My reputation at the Academy was already in ruins besides. There was no need to explain anything. I simply held my silence.
"..May I pass?"
"..Yes, do as you like. Though I can't imagine how much longer you'll be attending here."
With that, the Princess stepped slightly aside — and I looked at her, faintly taken aback, then averted my eyes once more. The stare she fixed on me was far too sharp. As if to say she wasn't yielding the way out of any kindness — she was simply stepping clear of something filthy before it could touch her.
It was nothing more than the usual contest of pride. A staring match over who would refuse to bend, even unto death.
..Well, I can be the one to bend. She's still just a kid, after all.
I deliberately ignored her gaze and walked past her — and at the same moment, for some reason, the Princess's stare seemed to sear hotter against my back. I shrugged all of it off, hurried out of the Academy, cleared every last thing out of my old dormitory, and set my feet straight toward the general dorm.
Because from now on, that was where I would live.
The general dormitory, which I had walked to with no small amount of anticipation, turned out — contrary to my expectations — to be run-down to a remarkable degree. Probably left to rot because so few people had passed through it for so long. And with no residents, no one would have bothered to clean.
It's spacious, I'll give it that.. but it's filthy, and the only furniture is a single bed?
The floor was wooden, the ceiling built of stone brick, and moss had wedged itself here and there between the stones.
Well, once it's cleaned up, it'll be livable enough..
Cleaning a space this size would be a chore — but by the same token, it meant plenty of room for the furniture I would be creating. For someone who had lived through the twenty-first century, whipping up convenient furniture was hardly any trouble at all.
Swish, swish—
Shall I start with the cleaning, then..?
The cleaning was done.
The room was pointlessly enormous and it was fucking exhausting, but I managed to see it through somehow. I hurried to wash off a body slathered in sweat and dust — and then I decided to make a few pieces of furniture. The room did feel a touch too bare, after all.
Creating things was simple. So long as I understood a thing's structure and principles, Creation Magic could produce it without fail, and my mana reserves were no small change either — nothing that would be sneered at anywhere. The furniture came together with ease.
So — what do I do with myself now?
Truthfully, I had never spoken of it aloud, but what I would do was already half-decided.
"Whatever you do with your life.. I hope you reach the very top.."
Reaching the summit. Succeeding so spectacularly that the whole world had to watch. For the me of this moment, with nothing to my name, it was a crushing goal — but I had roughly fifty days of breathing room, and fifty days was more than enough time to rebuild my body and my mind from the ground up.
Granted, with a body not yet fully grown, what I had managed before was impossible for now. Even so.. I could crush every last one of my peers without breaking a sweat.
..Might as well put this shitty talent to proper use, then.
Other paths aside, an alchemist was at least worth the attempt. In the old days, who could say — but these days, most of alchemy's knowledge sat printed in books for anyone to read, and with Creation Magic at my command, there was no ceiling on materials either. Looked at a certain way, it was the profession best suited to the me of right now.
Because the me of now was not the me of the past.
"The dream of every alchemist is.. the creation of the philosopher's stone, or the creation of intelligent life — and of those, above all, a human being."
And so I shut myself away inside that small room.
For the span of roughly fifty days.