Pressure Beneath?
The fuss my mother made was surprisingly easy to calm down.
It was almost to the point where I thought it should have been harder than this.
If not for the
It seems she has experienced something similar.
I probably would have cooled off a bit.
Mother regained her composure rather quickly and simply cleared her throat with a “Ahem, hm, my apologies,” before moving on.
With that, the schedule in this underground secret laboratory came to an end. All that remained was the usual daily routine.
A dreary, sagging routine of climbing from the bleak underground lab back up to the gloomy archducal chambers.
After the sun had set, I lay on the bed in my room, chewing over the sense of dissonance.
It began with checking the updates to the Status Window UI in every possible way, and from there my thoughts started to domino.
I needed to piece together what the corpse and that one remark had actually meant.
I already knew the clue behind the words “eight years later.” That was when the game originally began.
The game data that the human named Kyung-tae had played started assembling itself inside my head.
I understood what the election eight years from now signified, but I needed a more concrete answer—
Ah, forget it. I’ve already poured too many thoughts into the status window.
I miss my daughter. Tomorrow, Christina will be following me to the academy as well.
Only when my thoughts reached that point did my spinning mind finally settle.
Still, the fact that I chose her as my daughter carries that much weight.
I can’t sleep. Damn it.
I spoke a few words toward the status window. “Kyung-tae? You listening?”
No answer. Is he ignoring me, or has he already fallen asleep?
Shit, what am I even saying? Muttering to myself alone in the bedroom like this. Just go to sleep.
The morning sun rose. It was the morning when the carriage waited to take us to the train station on the first day of school.
I had to ignore the coachman’s astonished look that seemed to ask how we were heading to the station with such modest luggage and so few people.
Inside the express train that could reach the capital in just two hours, I was the most plainly dressed passenger.
Even a mere baron would bring at least three attendants, yet I had only one child with me.
The moment I entered the special carriage, the counts who stood up were dressed far more extravagantly.
“Ah—Your Highness the Archduke!”
“Stay comfortable. I need to pass through, so please make way.”
The excessive courtesy of the old men who sprang up from their seats only irritated me more.
In that brief moment, I could hear the sidelong glances and whispers analyzing me: ‘Only one servant? Is this a joke?’
Including the attending servants, I now had to gesture with my chin and hand for them to step aside.
The treatment Christina received from the nobles was exactly at that level.
The eight-year-old girl leaning against her luggage bag was treated like a transparent person inside the carriage.
Why don’t you just say it’s unpleasant outright? I’d at least give you points for honesty.
Christina still displayed a hostile relationship meter.
The way my daughter, barely holding up a bag as big as herself, glared at me strangely stabbed at my insides.
Combined with the heartburn from the old men’s excessive formality, it made me think strange thoughts.
Standing in front of the door at the end of the special carriage, I looked at Christina and jerked my chin toward the entrance.
“Let’s go in. You should sit down.”
“...Young master?”
I had bluntly declared that a lowly thing would enter the archduke-exclusive compartment.
The Kyung-tae Window sneered with
Do you know that a rich family's pet lives more comfortably than a beggar?
But so what?
It felt like that very status window’s sarcasm was being exchanged through the nobles’ gazes.
Even so, they stayed quiet. The servants inside this special carriage, however, were visibly seething.
Christina, unable to endure the pressure, eventually shook her head.
More pointless thoughts surged forward. I reached out first.
“I-I’m really fine—kya!”
I snatched the luggage bag myself, flung open the door to the archduke-exclusive compartment with my other hand,
then grabbed this tiny child’s arm and pulled her inside with me.
What are they going to do if the archduke takes his own daughter in?
“Stay comfortable until we arrive.”
I deliberately spoke loudly before closing the door, making a show of it.
If the archduke himself brings her in, what are you going to do—beat a commoner for daring to enter?
All Christina did in this awkward situation was maintain her rigid posture.
Once the door closed, golden wheat fields came into view beyond the window of the compartment reserved solely for me.
The waves of wheat grains waiting for harvest rippled at the speed of the rushing express train.
“Sit comfortably in that seat. It’s a seat you’re allowed to sit in.”
I deliberately chose the spot with the best view of the scenery outside and had her sit there.
It wouldn’t be bad for her to see such a beautiful landscape at least once, right? Without having to endure any glares.
Yes, it’s beautiful. Just look outside with those wide, wondering eyes. That’s enough.
About two hours later, the in-train announcement rang out that the train had arrived at the capital station.
Though it was called an academy, there was no magic in Alanber and no mage tower.
“Hurry up and run!”
“Where are your manners, smiling in front of your seniors!”
“Next, you old farts!”
The actual scene on the first day of school was this chaotic mess.
Seniors, brimming with energy, had stepped forward to discipline the lower years who had grown lax over the break.
All the faculty did was separate the lowly servants and staff to protect them.
After that, the brats clashed egos and hurled insults at one another.
Christina and I could stay back from that spectacle.
Only scholarship commoners and the sons of counts went around acting like that.
When one reached the level of a truly noble elector-archduke, judgment was applied differently.
A parasitic pretty boy of similar rank who had also stepped aside approached, saying, “It’s been a while, Gerhardt?”
It was a familiar name. I returned the greeting in kind. “It’s been a while, Moritz.”
He was one of the talented individuals who existed as a monarch at the founding of Alanber.
True to that, he approached me now with a formation of servants in tow.
And that very bastard was now leering at Christina.
The words “So you ended up doing as I recommended, Gert?” dripped with greasy familiarity.
While my mind dug through memories of what he had recommended, my arm had already wrapped around Christina.
“Ayy, why are you blocking her like that, Your Highness the Archduke?”
“What kind of good influence could that have on her?”
The twisted expression that came back said he was spouting all sorts of nonsense.
It was only natural, since he was the one who had suggested ‘Let’s toy with some commoners’ before the break.
But now I was irritated enough to act this way.
Read the room at least as well as your servants, Moritz.
We exchanged equally furrowed brows.
After staring at each other for a long while, Moritz suddenly burst out laughing.
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice your possessiveness? Why not just say it?”
What kind of misunderstanding had he arrived at as a conclusion?
Still, thanks to that misunderstanding, the sticky gaze he had fixed on Chris softened, so it was fine by me.
“But it’s not like she’ll wear out! Hey, you there!”
Cancel that. What the hell is this guy thinking?
There was no need to even open the status window; a look of pure contempt settled in my eyes toward him.
Even calling it ‘annoyed that someone else has a precious toy’ would be an extreme understatement.
If he asked a servant in that greasy tone, “What do you think of that girl?” it would have to be phrased completely differently in reality.
The servant was sweating buckets, thinking he was truly done for, and couldn’t utter a word.
A wise decision. At least wiser than your lord.
“Ayy, come on. Tell me she’s cute enough to take in as your daughter.”
Huh? Why is he acting like this?
It was strange for a noble to personally strike a commoner.
So instead, I grabbed Moritz by the collar and threw a punch.
Before the servants, who looked as if the world was splitting apart, could even widen their eyes, Moritz’s jaw spun.
“—What the hell is this for—”
My fist rose again but stopped just in time.
To still be grinning after taking a solid hit.
My head cooled in a different sense. Was he testing me?
“—So that’s all you’ve got. Servants, calm down!”
So he really was testing me. To speak like that while grinning after being punched.
Only then did my head finally calm down.
Moritz calmly said something like “Sorry about that, Gert,” yet the servants looked terrified.
“Never speak to Christina like that again.”
“Yeah, yeah, I got it.”
He had clearly been about to say ‘You gave that commoner a name?’ but stopped.
Only after I tightened my grip on his collar did he finally say he understood.
The servants’ faces had long since twisted as if the world had ended.
“These old farts!”
“Fine, let’s fight today! Everyone grab a club!”
Only after the brats who had been screaming in the distance finally started a brawl did the tension ease.
Only then did I release my hand and immediately take Christina’s.
We couldn’t get caught up in that ordinary fight now. We needed to get out of here quickly.
“It reminds me of when I was young.”
There was no magic in Alanber, but there were other races.
The orc old professor who served as the academy’s headmaster began speaking like that.
Scratching the end of his braided hair, his words sounded like an old man’s sermon.
“When I was young, brawls marked both the beginning and end of the first week. Back then, we were far more lenient about beatings than now.”
If I told him I had done it myself last year, the professor would probably be the one who got surprised.
Truly noble aristocrats received special treatment so they wouldn’t get caught up in such brawls.
Even this was an unsatisfactory reception for the delinquent nobles who had come to the academy in person.
Even though the emperor himself had introduced the academy, they simply didn’t want to mingle with commoners.
That was why every noble present here had their lips protruding in displeasure.
The very fact that they had been called to the headmaster’s office—the grand hall—meant they were under surveillance, especially the archducal and ducal guests.
Adding the presence of commoners on top of that made it strange not to feel stressed.
In truth, Moritz and I were probably the calmest ones here.
Leaving me aside, Moritz was stroking his chin while staring at the young lady from a ducal house seated over there.
That look in his eyes said he was thinking with something other than his head.
It was a gaze that made it easy to understand why Moritz was considered a delinquent noble, and it lingered for a long time.
Before the discomfort could spread through the hall, a knock sounded from the door attached to the rear entrance.
“I’ve arrived.”
It was Christina’s voice.
I had sent her to fetch the luggage, and she had returned incredibly fast.
“Perfect timing! I mean, classes are about to begin,” the headmaster’s words were rushed.
However, everyone except Moritz seemed to agree with the headmaster’s slip.
And I stood up from my seat to pay attention to the daughter I had sent.
The headmaster’s office was rather large, but there was no need to take many steps. The door opened right away.
In front of the door stood a tiny one-eyed girl wearing ill-fitting clothes, expressionless.
Compared to the servants standing behind her, she looked so small and frail that it was almost pitiful rather than cute.
As expected, I was the ‘modest’ archduke who had brought only this one child.
“Aigoo, well done, Christina!”
I stroked the head of Christina, who stood leaning against the dirty luggage bag.
“—Lord Gerhardt! There is no need for you to do that!”
All nearby relationship values have decreased.
The only one whose relationship value increased was Christina, yet even she had frozen stiff.
But what can you all do if I praise my own daughter a little?
I am that archduke, after all.
“There is… no need to praise…”
Christina’s squeezed-out reply scattered like the flutter of a mosquito’s wings.
Everyone froze as if broken, accompanied by pointless chatter.
It was a bit funny, but so what?
“Well, I should take care of even the smallest things. Shall we all begin our education?”
It was fortunate that the words came out so naturally without further decreasing the relationship values.