Chapter 27: This Entrance Exam is Safe! (5)
Chapter 27: This Entrance Exam is Safe! (5)
I gently took Carla’s trembling hand and gave her the softest smile I could muster.
“Let’s just do what you learned back then for exactly three months.”
I could guarantee that if she showed the same side of herself as when I first bought her, no one would doubt us.
Carla nodded, finally seeming to understand.
“If that’s the case, it will definitely go as you say, Master. Everyone will think you’re a really horrible master.”
“Right? Speaking of which, let’s buy some meal replacement pills on the way out.”
“…….”
Carla stared at me blankly, saying nothing.
However, seeing her moist eyes—as if she were about to burst into tears at any moment—her slightly parted lips, and her dejectedly slumped shoulders, I felt like I knew what she wanted to say.
I lifted the hand I was holding and lightly kissed her slender fingers.
“Huh? U-uh…?”
I chuckled at Carla’s flustered reaction.
“Carla. Are you a dummy?”
“N-no? Carla isn’t a dummy.”
“I think you are… Think about it. Why do you think I’m going through all this trouble?”
“…To avoid getting on Lady Glenziel’s bad side?”
“Wrong. Oh, and you can just call her Elisha when she’s not around. I’m doing it right now, aren’t I?”
Since she wasn’t here to hear it, there was no need to be that cautious.
“To be honest, the name Glenziel is a bit hard to pronounce. I’ll just have to be careful once we’re at the Academy.”
“Oh, yes… Then, if it’s not because of Elisha, is there some other reason?”
“Of course there is.”
I pointed at Carla, who was tilting her head with a dazed expression.
“I’m doing all this so I don’t have to actually bully you. Do you really think I’d feed you nothing but pills? It’s all a bluff. You said you don’t gain weight anyway thanks to your Mana Core, so let’s just eat secretly in the dormitory later.”
“……!”
Carla froze as if she had been struck by lightning. She was so shocked she could barely breathe.
I chuckled at the sight and took a sip of the water I had poured earlier.
Clack.
As I set the cup down on the table, Carla finally snapped out of her rigidity. The corners of her mouth twitched incessantly as she asked, “R-really? Is that really the reason?”
“Yeah. If anyone’s going to bully you, it’ll be me. I have no intention of doing it just because someone else told me to.”
Something that is entirely mine.
For a stranger like me, there was no sweeter sentiment than that.
On this point, I had no intention of compromising.
“Hehe, hihi. Hehe… Hehehehe….”
Carla laughed foolishly with a messy expression, seemingly delighted by my possessive words.
However, that joy was soon replaced by worry.
“Um… Master? I was really happy to hear that—so happy that I want to record it with a recording crystal and listen to it every night before I go to sleep, so happy that I want that crystal buried in my grave with me when I die—but….”
Wait, just how much did she like it?
While I made a mental note of Carla’s unexpectedly intense preferences, she continued in a worried tone.
“But won’t your reputation be at risk?”
“I suppose it will.”
Even Professor Makin, the examiner for the entrance exam, hadn’t seemed particularly well-disposed toward Carla.
There were likely still people among the upperclassmen or professors who had a connection to Carla and still cared for her.
Even putting that aside, treating Carla like a ‘slave’ in front of others could be seen as lacking class, or… how should I put it?
Right. It was closer to an act of revealing one’s own vulgarity.
Everyone masturbates, but if someone shouts, “I jerk off three times a day!” in public, they’re a lunatic.
Since I had bought Carla as a slave, everyone could guess how I used her, but me making it obvious was a completely different matter.
Naturally, my reputation was bound to suffer.
“But that’s all it is.”
Maybe it would be different on Earth, but in this world, slavery was legal. And slaves were treated as objects or livestock, not humans.
No matter how I treated Carla, no one could use it as an excuse to penalize me.
“Of course, people will frown and talk behind my back. Those who still like you might even ask me to go easy on you.”
However, no one would go as far as breaking school rules to force my hand just because they were annoyed.
In this world, the Academy’s status wasn’t something a mediocre noble could mess with.
Few people had the power to do so, and even those who did wouldn't risk it for something that didn't yield a profit.
If such a person existed, they would have tried to help Carla when she was enslaved for being the daughter of a cultist.
“Was there anyone like that?”
“…No. There wasn’t.”
Carla shook her head with a dejected look.
It was only natural. In this world, cultists were absolute evil, and the Academy was a place where one learned how to crush such cultists and monsters.
They might have felt pity, but no one would have actually tried to do anything for her.
“It’ll be the same this time. If they didn't step up then, why would they now? Elisha, who stepped forward just to make you miserable, is the outlier.”
“B-but Master, you’re a commoner. Won’t there be people who look down on you and pick fights?”
“Probably. The Academy is a place where people live, after all. But think about it, Carla. To everyone else, it’ll look like I’m bullying you because of Elisha’s orders.”
“That’s true. Even if they don’t realize it at first, everyone will eventually figure out who you’re doing it for.”
“Do you think kids who are sensitive enough to rank to pick on me for my status would ignore Elisha’s influence?”
“Ah.”
“Most importantly… by the time I graduate from the Academy, my reputation won’t matter at all.”
Reputation is only important when considering life after graduation… but by then, the world would be standing at a crossroads of whether it would be destroyed or not.
Even Academy graduates would be dying off because they couldn't handle the situation, so how much help could mere students be?
The only thing I needed to care about wasn't the reputation among the masses, but the few potential recruits who would stay with me until the end.
And every single one of them had a tragic story.
In the game, these were called individual stories—sub-quests that had to be resolved to build affinity.
Even Elisha had a story where her Magic Tower was dismantled, causing her to fall from grace in an instant, and the player had to help her rise again.
Anyway, because of that, it didn't matter much if my reputation was bad. At most, my ears might itch a bit from the gossip.
Well, I couldn't tell her all that, but….
“Anyway, you get the gist now, right?”
“Yes. Since you’ll be a great mage that no one would dare look down on by the time you graduate, it’ll be fine! As expected of Master! You had it all figured out!”
Carla, who viewed me as a magical genius like her ancestor, understood in her own way.
As I was gently stroking Carla’s cheek with the back of my hand while she smiled brightly in anticipation, a question suddenly occurred to me.
“Carla. By the way, there’s one thing I’m curious about.”
“Yes, Master. What is it?”
“Why exactly does Elisha hate you so much? Did you beat her up when you were kids or something?”
In H&A, while Elisha’s personality and values were established, her past hadn't been revealed.
Could it be…?
Carla shook her head vigorously at my reasonable suspicion, her platinum blonde hair fluttering wildly.
“What?! No! Not at all! I never did that! We used to be close! …Until one day, Elisha started avoiding me.”
The story Carla told was quite typical.
As the lady of a famous magic family and the successor of a Magic Tower, Carla and Elisha had many opportunities to meet.
When they were young, they were close, like sisters, but as they grew older, they drifted apart.
The cause was their backgrounds.
The Lindelheit family was a famous magic family that no one could match in elemental magic, while the Sylvan Magic Tower was an elven tower that was criticized for not yet surpassing the spirit arts of the past.
The Sylvan Magic Tower held a one-sided inferiority complex toward the Lindelheit family, and this was passed directly down to Elisha.
“It’s not like the Sylvan Magic Tower pressured Elisha or anything. It’s just that, in her position, she couldn't help but be conscious of me.”
“That’s common enough.”
“Right. From what I saw, Elisha seemed to be born with a level of talent similar to mine… but being at a similar level wasn't enough to surpass me.”
Carla’s claim that their talents were similar probably wasn't a lie.
In fact, an Elisha raised until the late game would show the incredible feat of reaching the rank of Archmage in her mid-twenties.
She wouldn't be inferior to Carla, who had been called a future Archmage.
“However, there’s the age gap. If Elisha and I both have similar talent and put in a similar amount of effort, isn't it only natural that I, born four years earlier, would be more skilled?”
It was just as Carla said. However, Elisha couldn't accept it as natural.
An inferiority complex that grew day by day, a rival who fell before they could truly settle who was superior, and emotions that had nowhere to go.
“Of course, I never asked her directly, so this is all just my speculation… but I think that’s why she became so twisted.”
Carla spoke in a slightly somber voice.
Come to think of it, the Elisha I saw in the individual stories was incredibly obsessed with being the best.
Not just in magic, but in equipment, furniture, food, connections—everything.
She wanted the best in every aspect, and that was why she fell into deep despair when her reality crumbled.
Well, later on, she lets go of that obsession by realizing that if she becomes the greatest mage in history, everything she wears and uses will naturally become the best, which leads to her awakening a new trait.
While I was organizing my memories of the game, there was a knock.
Knock, knock, knock.
The food we ordered had arrived.
“Good timing. Let’s stop thinking about the rest and just eat for now.”
“Yes! I can really order more, right, Master?”
“Yeah. You need to eat a lot to endure the night. It’s been a while, so I don’t plan on stopping after just one round.”
“…Ah.”
Perhaps it was because I had been unintentionally celibate for the past few days while focusing on magic during the carriage ride.
I had quite a bit built up.