Contract with an Outer Deity (2)
My father, Arnold von Rheinland, had two wives. The woman he truly loved and married, Reina, was his first wife and my mother. The woman he entered a contractual marriage with for the sake of the family’s future and glory, Lhein, was his second wife.
The girl standing before me was the child born from that second wife.
Seti von Adelbain Rheinland.
A girl born between the prestigious Adelbain family, which ruled the entire northern sector of the galaxy cluster, and the Rheinland family, the largest medical clan in the southern sector. As the offspring of two noble houses, she had been blessed with every conceivable talent and skill.
“Do you even have any concept of economics…?”
Seti entered the room, her silver hair rustling softly. The strands, glistening under the lights, were unmistakably natural. Hair like that was rare. And at a glance, it looked utterly refined. She really did carry the blood of the Adelbain family.
“Seti.”
“I told you not to say my name. It’s disgusting.”
And there it was—the signature unfriendliness of her maternal side. It seemed the people of the Adelbain family were just as foul-tempered in reality as they were in the novel. Of course, even taking that into account, my half-sister Seti was particularly on edge right now.
“What kind of way is that to speak to your older brother?”
“Older brother? What part of you is an older brother? You’re nothing but trash.”
Seti clicked her tongue, her eyes filled with contempt. I understood. The number of times Idel had hurled vicious insults at her wasn’t small.
— Spawn of a concubine.
— That mother of yours.
— No wonder your personality is this twisted, being born to a woman who couldn’t even earn her husband’s love.
Just from what was described in the novel, there was plenty of that. Ugh, I suddenly feel sorry. Even though I didn’t do it, it’s incredibly embarrassing.
Anyway, right now, Seti and I were on worse terms than complete strangers. Keeping that in mind, I lifted my head.
“I’m asking because I genuinely can’t believe it. Two quadrillion? For real? You blew that much money?”
“That’s what they say.”
“You shut up. I’m asking Sonia.”
At some point, Seti’s gaze had shifted to Sonia. It looked like she didn’t even want to exchange words with me. Fine. Apologizing right now would only be like rubbing salt in the wound. I’d apologize later when the mood was right. For now, I’d send her off politely and get back to studying.
— The God of Wisdom and Curiosity approves of your scholarly attitude.
— You have received 50 Fron in sponsorship!
What? It’s already coming in. How sudden.
While I was casually flipping through the status windows floating in the air, the conversation between Sonia and Seti came to an end. For some reason, Seti’s face was flushed red. She glared at me and spat out,
“You lunatic.”
“How is it that you and Father say the exact same thing?”
“I call a lunatic a lunatic. What else should I call you?”
Ha, damn it. So this is how exhausting it is to possess a good-for-nothing. I’d read plenty of novels about possessing villains while reading web novels, but I couldn’t understand how the protagonists in those stories brushed off such contempt and disregard so easily. Was everyone except me made of steel mentally?
— The God of Wisdom and Curiosity snorts.
Seti stood with her chin raised and arms crossed. She was looking down at me with an arrogant posture. Her golden eyes, sparkling like molten gold, were filled with venom.
“Not only did you lose money gambling, but you also spent a million credits on entrance exam workbooks?”
“Father said it was fine.”
Seti let out a hollow laugh. It was both a sneer and a burst of delight.
“They say if you don’t get into Stellarium, you’ll be kicked out of the family register, right?”
“Essentially, yes.”
There was also the option of repaying the two quadrillion or enlisting in the military to keep the Rheinland name, but I didn’t bother mentioning it. It was a path I had no intention of taking anyway.
“Hmph, nice. Get lost already.”
It seemed Seti had already concluded that I would fail. It didn’t matter. Now wasn’t the time to improve my relationship with my little sister. I resolved to let her words wash over me until she got tired and left the room.
That is, until Sonia suddenly interrupted.
“Lady Seti.”
“What is it?”
“Please look at this.”
“Huh? What is this?”
“It is the mathematics workbook that Young Master Idel solved just a moment ago.”
My expression hardened. You tin-can maid, why are you showing her that?
— My half-brother caused another incident.
That was the first thing Seti heard upon returning to the main line of the Rheinland family. Apparently Idel had lost a massive sum gambling. He’d been beaten half to death by their father for it. And as if that weren’t enough, he’d spent a million credits on Stellarium entrance exam workbooks.
It was absurd. Unforgivable.
Seti had a keen eye for business. Even at the young age of fifteen, she assisted her father’s enterprises and generated tens of millions in monthly net profit. She held a respectable share of the Rheinland family’s total assets.
While she worked hard to earn money, the one spending it was her incompetent half-sibling. Could she really call someone like that her brother? Probably not.
To Seti, Idel von Rheinland was nothing more than a worthless human being shackled to her by the chains of blood relation. Normally she wouldn’t even want to deal with him, but this time she couldn’t hold back.
“I’m going to kill him.”
She planned to put an end to this once and for all. Grinding her teeth, Seti headed down a corridor she usually avoided. Following the narrow path led to a room that reeked of filth and decadence. It was Idel’s room.
Seti flung the door open and stormed inside.
“You gambling addict bastard!”
She started strong. Idel was thick-skinned enough that anything less wouldn’t faze him. To deal with a scumbag, she sometimes had to act like one herself.
But after all that buildup, what she received in return wasn’t curses or fists.
“Please look through it from beginning to end.”
“……”
It was a workbook handed to her by Sonia, the maid android their father had assigned to monitor Idel.
“It’s from the White Blossom series?”
Blossom was a prestigious publisher in the education sector. This was their highest-difficulty practical workbook. It’s pretty tough, Seti thought, nodding slightly.
“Yes. This is what the young master was solving until just a moment ago.”
Seti burst out laughing. “Sonia, I thought you were still as stiff as ever, but I guess not. Did you learn how to joke in the meantime?”
“It is not a joke, my lady. Please examine the contents of the book.”
Sonia’s attitude toward Seti was unusually serious. It almost seemed as if she were defending Idel. Seti found that strange. No matter how loyal a personal maid she was, this was Sonia—the android who had always disciplined Idel with Muay Thai whenever he acted out.
‘…She’s defending Idel?’
Seti rolled her eyes and glanced at Idel. He was dragging both hands down his face.
“My lady, is it not fascinating?”
“What is?”
“The young master was studying. It has been eight years and three months.”
“Sonia, please.”
Idel let out a sigh. He looked utterly embarrassed. The usual arrogant demeanor was nowhere to be found.
“I’ll be right back from the bathroom.”
Sighing, Idel grabbed a Korean mock exam booklet and left the room.
“Hey, where are you going!”
Seti tried to stop him, but he fled far too quickly.
“……”
She had come prepared to end things once and for all, armed with every curse word imaginable, yet her opponent had fled the arena.
“What’s wrong with that guy…?”
Idel wasn’t the type to run away from her. He was the kind who would keep spitting venom until she cried.
‘Has he really gone insane…?’
No matter how much she thought about it, no answer came. She simply assumed that since he was about to be expelled from the family, he had finally lost his mind. Seti brushed it off and flipped through the workbook Sonia had given her.
“……!”
She couldn’t help but be shocked.
First, the handwriting was unusually neat. There was a saying that handwriting reflected the heart. Sloppy writing often indicated an impatient personality. By that standard, Idel had possessed the worst handwriting imaginable. Yet now it was calm and composed. There was even a sense of bold elegance to it.
Of course, that was only the surface. The solutions rejected any unnecessary complexity. They were concise, yet each one pierced straight to the core and arrived at the correct answer. Far from the half-hearted scribbles she had expected, every single problem had been solved cleanly.
Seti, who had been called a prodigy since childhood and had solved countless workbooks like this, noticed it immediately.
“These aren’t the solutions from the answer key.”
Nor were they solutions Idel could have come up with. Idel had been the kind of idiot who needed to relearn how to find a common denominator for fractions. The idea that “studying” and “Idel” could coexist was a widely known fact across the entire galaxy cluster.
“I graded them myself. There were no incorrect answers.”
“Hmph.”
Though she feigned composure on the outside, Seti was quite shaken inside. There was no reason for the android Sonia to lie to her.
“He must have bought someone else’s solved copy and copied it.”
“It was brand new.”
“Then how many days did it take him?”
Even Seti had needed a full month to complete this workbook. Solving five problems a day had been her limit. That was how insanely difficult it was.
“Three hours.”
Idel had solved it in three hours.
“…Huh?”
She must have misheard. Not three days, but…
“Th-three hours?”
It was a timeframe she had never even considered. It wasn’t unheard of for geniuses to finish this kind of workbook in a week, but clearing it in three hours was impossible. At least, not unless one had contracted with a constellation specialized in calculation or been reincarnated as von Neumann.
That was why Seti, whose heart had been stirred, quickly regained her composure.
“Sonia, even lies should be believable.”
“It is not a lie.”
No matter how desperately a mere robot denied it, it was pointless. The fact that Sonia was defending Idel meant she must have been caught with some weakness. Even an android could make mistakes if it possessed emotions. She decided to let it slide generously.
However—
“If you’re ever having a hard time, tell me anytime.”
Seti patted Sonia’s shoulder gently and softened her voice.
“……?”
Sonia looked confused, but soon nodded as if she understood.
“Anyway, I have to go to the academy, so I can’t stay long. Sonia, keep a close eye on that guy. Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely do not let him spend any more money. Got it?”
“Understood.”
Even after that, Seti repeated the same warning several times before leaving.
“Haa…”
‘Something about this smells fishy.’
Seti grabbed her academy bag and boarded the hovercraft.
— The God of Wisdom and Curiosity feels a strange sense of kinship with your academic zeal in turning the bathroom into a study room.
“…Has she left?”
Idel returned to the room about an hour later. In his hand was a fully completed Korean language mock exam.