You Have Won the Lunaria Blessing Lottery
You have won the Lunaria Blessing Lottery. (9)
I slipped quietly out of the lecture hall. Everyone was so absorbed in the battle footage of Galph and the imperial knights that I had no trouble leaving unnoticed. The only one who seemed to realize I was going was probably Elaine. I had felt her gaze on me ever since Instructor Hilde approached. I gave her a small nod to signal that there was nothing to worry about. She responded with a slight tilt of her head, showing she understood.
While I made my way out, Instructor Hilde remained inside to supervise the other students. Unlike the darkened lecture hall where the footage played, the corridor outside was flooded with daylight. Professor Kahilo stood in the small garden at the center of the training grounds, waiting for me as he gazed at the flowers.
When I approached, he spoke without taking his eyes off the blooms. "Leon, do you happen to know the icebloom flower?"
Why was this man calling a student out of class just to talk about flowers? I answered honestly, since neither my past self nor Leon knew much about them. "I don't know much about flowers."
"Hmm… Then allow me to tell you about the icebloom. This flower is hardy enough to endure the brutal northern winters. Its bright yellow petals stand out even in the mist-shrouded winter forests. When I first discovered one pushing through the snow in the woods as a child, I was so fascinated that I looked it up in books. Whether I was hunting monsters in the north or wading through blood-soaked battlefields, iceblooms were always there. It was as if they bloomed by feeding on the blood of men and monsters alike."
After rambling about the flower to his own satisfaction, Professor Kahilo turned to face me directly. The scar across his face—the one he had earned fighting a manastone bear—twitched. "When I look at students like you, I can't help but think of iceblooms. The same goes for the others still watching the footage of the champion monster and the knights of old. That recording is a precious legacy bought with their blood. Yet all they do is cheer while watching it. If they are growing by feeding on the blood their ancestors spilled, shouldn't they show a little more respect?"
…Was this guy also blessed with the Righteousness Trait like me? What a textbook case of old-man lecturing. Those knights hadn't fought and died so we could watch recordings of them. They had simply done their duty as knights and fallen in the line of service. Assigning meaning to their deaths was his choice, but forcing that meaning onto us third parties was irritating.
"So, is that flower an icebloom?" I asked, pointing at the yellow blooms in the garden behind him—the ones he had been staring at moments ago.
"No. I don't know what that one is either."
What kind of answer was that? Ridiculous.
"That aside, the reason I called you out here is to hear your reply to the offer I made last time. I believe I've given you ample time to consider. So, can you give me an answer today?"
Before leaving the lecture hall, I had already recalled the offer Kahilo had made to Leon. In short, it was a demand for an oath of loyalty to the Second Prince. If Leon swore to serve the Second Prince, Duke Uragon would grant him full support and a knighthood. The professor must have been quite taken with Leon's talent as the second-ranked student in the Swordsmanship Department. Even with a year left until graduation, he was already trying to recruit him.
From the perspective of the old Leon, before my possession, it hadn't been a bad offer. No matter how hard Leon tried, the succession line of House Magnus would never change. As long as his elder brother lived, becoming the head of the family was nearly impossible. It would have been wiser to secure his own future rather than chase an uncertain position. Duke Uragon had approached Leon through Professor Kahilo precisely because he understood that.
But the Leon I now possessed was different. The old Leon, constrained by the Righteousness Trait, could never have imagined it, but having played King's Crown for so long, I knew there were countless ways to become the head of the family. The most common negative Trait in the game's world—kinslayer—would solve everything. If the first in line died, the position would naturally pass to me, the second. Of course, the Righteousness Trait would cause immense stress, but wasn't that simply how the world worked? If one wanted to become the head of the family, one had to be prepared to do anything. Therefore, Duke Uragon's proposal held little appeal for me now.
Instead, there was plenty of room to use him in other ways. What would happen if I told Duke Uragon that Crown Prince Alex was infertile? The man who was fighting for the throne would surely tear into the crown prince like a rabid dog. Elaine's marriage was still about a year away. If I couldn't break off her engagement to the crown prince within that time, I planned to use Duke Uragon as a last resort. Of course, the fanatics who worshipped the Demon King were backing the crown prince from behind the scenes, so even Duke Uragon might not be able to topple him in one blow. But at the very least, I believed he could prevent Elaine from marrying the crown prince. From the duke's standpoint, he wouldn't want House Hexley to join the crown prince's faction through marriage.
In truth, the engagement between the crown prince and Elaine had largely been Duke Uragon's fault. Everyone knew he intended to use the Second Prince to seize real power in the Lu Empire. It was the same pattern seen in the Joseon dynasty—when the king's maternal relatives grew too powerful, the throne weakened and the realm fell into chaos. King Taejong had slaughtered his own in-laws to such an extent that he earned the nickname "Killbangwon." The current emperor of the Lu Empire was well aware of this danger. Fearing the growth of Duke Uragon's influence, he had supported the crown prince, whose maternal family was weak, as a countermeasure.
Then, when the daughter of House Hexley displayed extraordinary talent and became known as the "Flower of the Empire," Duke Uragon naturally took an interest in Elaine as well. Marrying her to the Second Prince would allow the houses of Uragon and Hexley to combine their strength. The emperor, who had been bolstering the crown prince against the Second Prince, felt the same way. This sparked a tug-of-war over Elaine between the emperor and the duke. Caught between two colossal powers, Duke Hexley had agonized for a long time. In the end, he chose to prove his loyalty to the imperial family. Thus, Elaine became engaged to the crown prince and turned into a complete enemy of Duke Uragon's faction.
The same applied to Professor Kahilo standing before me. Especially since he was the type to draw a clear line between allies and enemies, this tendency was even stronger in him. In practical terms, it meant he had been petty enough to never once give Elaine an A+ grade. The Swordsmanship Department was a place where strength was everything. Among all the professors, Kahilo was the only one who had never awarded an A+ to the student who had ranked first for three consecutive years. And now, this rigid, bulldozer-like professor was pressuring me to join Duke Uragon's faction. No—it was no different from a threat.
"Think carefully, Leon. If you swear loyalty to His Highness the Second Prince in advance, I will lend you my full support so you can earn high marks over the remaining year."
He thought he could tempt me with something so trivial? He should bring out a better card. I stared at Kahilo with that meaning in my eyes, and his eyebrows twitched slightly, as if to say, "Oh? Look at this."
"I know you want to surpass Elaine. That's why you decided to go on the pilgrimage to the holy land this summer, isn't it? I'll help you. I'll make sure you reach the holy land safer and faster than anyone else."
Oh. That one actually made my heart race a little. So Professor Kahilo had noticed that the old Leon had been jealous of Elaine's talent? He had sharper eyes than I expected. But what did it matter? For the current me, any desire to compete with her had become completely meaningless. What I truly wanted was to live a long and happy life with Elaine, not fight her.
"Professor Kahilo, I don't want any of that. Elaine is my friend, not my enemy. If you have nothing more to say, I'll return to the lecture hall. I'm curious about the battle between Galph and the knights too."
After answering with a faint smile, I turned to head back. Professor Kahilo's expression hardened as he spoke.
"How disappointing. I thought you were a warrior. No matter how difficult or impossible it seemed, I admired your tenacity in never giving up on trying to defeat Elaine. That's why I recommended you so strongly to the duke… Don't tell me you've given up now?"
"That's not it. As I said, Elaine simply isn't an enemy I need to defeat. There are far more enemies I want to crush than her now."
With that, I turned my back on Professor Kahilo and walked toward the lecture hall.