Blue Light and Alchemy
I decided to combine Blue Light with alchemy. If I were only thinking about supporting my allies, White Light wouldn't have been a bad choice. But when it came to making proper use of alchemy, Blue Light offered far better efficiency.
And alchemy is the field that lets me exploit my own traits to their fullest.
Alchemy was an incredibly versatile discipline. You could brew potions to heal your comrades or craft various consumable magic tools using magic stones. Yet despite that versatility, the number of alchemists who actually stepped onto the front lines could be counted on one hand. For one thing, most of them were closer to scholars and had little interest in combat. For another, there was the financial reality.
A well-made potion could replace a priest's healing magic. A scroll that produced fireballs could replace a mage's offensive spells. The difference was that magic users only consumed their own mana, which would recover over time. The tools an alchemist created, however, were gone the moment they were used. Unless you were trying to fill a gap where no magic users existed at all, focusing on consumables from the start was almost unheard of.
It was the equivalent of throwing money into the void.
But the Greedy Prodigal can pull it off.
The funds I'd saved while carrying out tasks for the family head over the past two years, along with the dividends Theo sent at regular intervals, were only a fraction of what I had access to. There would be plenty more opportunities to earn money in the future, and I intended to pour every bit of it into strengthening myself and my companions without hesitation.
I did consider having a blacksmith create various pieces of equipment, but there's a limit to how many you can use at once. Besides, with Ligret breaking weapons left and right as it is, if I started crafting them myself I might end up treating real weapons as disposable.
Ligret would spend her free time meticulously maintaining any weapon that fell into her hands, yet she showed almost no emotional attachment to those same carefully tended weapons. It was simply preparation to bring out their maximum performance. If it was necessary to win, she would consume them without a second thought. It was a relief that weapon consumption had decreased at all after I gave her the extremely durable Ancient Guardian's Greatsword and the Feldous's Summoning Gloves that could call forth throwing spears from the void.
Of course, she uses them so harshly that the money spent isn't exactly a waste. Even so, handing over something I made with my own hands feels a bit much.
Money might not matter, but time and effort were another story.
That Saturday evening, after all the supplementary classes had ended, I asked both Ligret and Fiore the same question.
"In actual combat Ligret will be using Red Light and Fiore White Light, but what are you two planning to take for supplementary classes?"
Ligret answered without hesitation, her words short and blunt.
"Hunting."
Fiore must have already made up her mind as well. She replied without any pause.
"I intend to study tactics, Brother."
I thought to myself, Ligret's choice doesn't need any input from me. Hunting techniques were useful to have, and knowledge about concealing your presence, approaching enemies, and the ecology of demonic beasts and monsters would prove very practical.
Fiore choosing tactics, however, was unexpected.
"I thought you'd pick healing."
"I considered it, but when I heard you were taking alchemy, I changed my mind."
"Why?"
I already understood what she meant, but I pretended not to and asked anyway. Fiore smiled brightly.
"It's more efficient to cover areas where there's no one to fill in rather than overlapping with someone who can provide support."
In other words, since I would be supplying recovery through potions anyway, there was no need for her to devote herself exclusively to that role. And the fact that she'd reached this conclusion just from hearing that I was taking alchemy meant she'd already seen through the general strategy I planned to use going forward.
I knew she was smart, but this might be beyond even what I expected.
At first I'd been planning to recommend that Fiore take medical courses, but I changed my mind. Just as she said, even if the efficiency of recovery magic dropped slightly, potions could cover the difference. Having a commander with outstanding tactical sense on our side would make a huge difference. Above all, the roles of healer—who needed to grasp the condition of all allies and provide support at the right place and time—and commander complemented each other perfectly.
After the discussion about classes ended, the conversation naturally shifted to daily life. Fiore spoke up.
"By the way, have both of you decided what you'll be doing on Sunday?"
Ligret shrugged.
"Asking this guy would be faster."
"Why?"
"Because I'll be sticking near him anyway."
"You don't need to guard me inside the academy. It's not like anyone would openly pull a blade on another student—"
"Even if they don't use blades, don't you think they'll try something if they get the chance?"
"......"
Ligret jerked her chin as if telling me to look around. A group of five students was passing by while whispering among themselves and glancing in our direction. I realized something.
This isn't the time to just focus on building up our strength.
The Midas family's reputation was bad. But to be precise, the ones who saw the Midas family as a thorn in their side were only students from the Spero Kingdom. Even among them, those from families close to the current royal house didn't exactly show goodwill, but they didn't treat us as enemies either. Students from other countries were even less concerned. No matter how viciously Bern Midas earned his money, his influence still hadn't extended beyond the Spero Kingdom, so naturally students from other nations had never suffered from it. On top of that, students from Spero Kingdom itself made up less than one-sixth of the total student body.
If you excluded the students aligned with the current royal family, the number of people who held a grudge against the Midas family was at most fewer than twenty. That's why I'd thought there wouldn't be any major problems if I focused on building strength while gradually increasing favor with students who didn't have a bad impression of us. But...
If they're already openly whispering like this in less than a week, it's only going to get worse from here.
The speed at which this was happening made it seem like someone was intentionally spreading our bad reputation. Still, going to the suspicious parties to confront them or actively stepping forward to defend ourselves felt wrong. The evil deeds the Midas family had committed were undeniable facts.
No matter how natural it was for merchants to crave money, the Midas style of exploiting weaknesses and squeezing out every possible advantage was the perfect target for comfortable condemnation and gossip. Honestly, among noble families that have been doing this for hundreds of years, there must be plenty worse than us, but the rule is that when I do it it's romance, and when others do it it's adultery.
So what should I do?
The answer was obvious.
Scrap the plan of carefully selecting only the most valuable targets and optimizing resource investment. First, I need to increase our overall size.
"Then let's all go shopping together on Sunday. I'll invite Loto and the ones who cooperated with us during the entrance exam. Ligret, Fiore—if either of you know anyone, invite them along too."
"Wow, that sounds fun! I'll bring a few kids from the temple."
"......What are you plotting this time?"
While Fiore clapped her hands in delight, Ligret narrowed her eyes at me. I grinned back at her.
"Shouldn't I build some friendships with the people I'll be working with from now on?"
And so the next day, the group that gathered at the shopping district consisted of the following people.
"Nice to meet you! Please take care of me!"
The boy from a rural village I'd met during the forest breakthrough exam—Loto.
"I came because you called, but what kind of gathering is this?"
"............"
The spirited green-haired girl I'd met during the three-color test, Pino, and the young man with gray curly hair who always carried books around, Rabaul.
"Hey, Ligret. I thought you called me here for that rematch we talked about. Shopping out of nowhere..."
The dual-wielding swordsman with a frivolous face who was growling with clear dissatisfaction—Crow Vein.
"Haha, I came because Fiore said it would be fun, and looking at the people gathered, it seems she was right."
The female paladin from the temple who carried a greatsword larger than her own body—Akasha.
Including myself, Ligret, and Fiore, there were eight students in total. I stepped forward into the center of the group.
"Some of you already know each other, some are meeting for the first time, but let's skip the stiff formalities for now."
I gestured toward the shopping district, whose buildings sparkled with fresh paint as if eagerly awaiting new customers now that the academy had opened, and continued.
"For now, let's just have fun. I'll pay for everything."
I quite liked being a vulgar nouveau riche. It meant I could spend money extravagantly without worrying about saving face—the kind of thing others couldn't do.