Chapter 29
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 29
Schuls Schmidt.
Silver-gray hair. Deep blue eyes.
He was the epitome of a cold, intellectual gentleman. From his neat, sharp attire to the monocle tucked into his breast pocket, everything about him screamed precision.
“I’ll get straight to the point, Lady Tulia,” Schuls Schmidt said.
“I would like to make a deal.”
“Sure, sure. Let’s do it.”
“……You’re agreeing without even hearing what it is?”
“A true teacher wouldn’t ask their student for a strange deal. You are a Pneuma, a true scholar, after all.”
“You certainly have a way with words. It seems the rumors about you being holed up in the library weren’t false.”
“Of course. You saw my exam results, didn’t you?”
Schuls Schmidt let out a short, dry laugh.
Exactly.
This was why I knew Schuls Schmidt would come looking for me.
Even when playing as Corico in The Milk Bread, Schuls Schmidt’s help was essential to meeting the Crown Prince.
Of course, the content and progression are a bit different from the game.
In the game, Corico first enters the Grand Duchy at seventeen.
Under the pretext of being a ‘prospective daughter-in-law.’
By then, Schuls Schmidt has already left the Grand Duchy.
However, if Corico manages to impress the Grand Duke—meaning, if she raises his favorability high enough—a surprising option to take the Direct Lineage Examination appears.
If she gets the top score on that exam, Schuls Schmidt, his interest piqued, travels to the Grand Duchy to see her.
At that point in the game, Schuls Schmidt is already…
The Crown Prince’s tutor.
He wasn’t the Crown Prince’s tutor yet, but he would be eventually.
However, I couldn’t just wait until then, especially since Tulia was the twins’ biological sister.
The twins were Tulia’s older brothers.
And they were also Corico’s male leads.
They’re coming for the Grand Duke’s birthday banquet very soon.
If the Crown Prince route didn’t activate because I met the twins first, my quest would end in failure.
Which means I’d die…
That was why I aimed for a perfect score to win Schuls Schmidt’s favor and secured the Glory.
So far, everything seemed to be going smoothly according to my predictions, just like in the game…
But as they say, there’s always a variable.
I really didn’t expect Schuls Schmidt to pull a piece of paper from his coat.
The fact that this was an event I had never seen in The Milk Bread flustered me even more.
“It looks incredibly old…”
“Yes. But it’s fine because it has preservation magic cast on it.”
“Preservation magic.”
That’s an incredibly expensive spell.
A Pneuma was, essentially, the equivalent of a professor at a prestigious modern university.
But preservation magic was so expensive that even a salary like his shouldn’t have been able to cover it.
I wondered why his clothes looked a bit modest despite being neat; he must have pooled all his earnings just to buy that preservation magic.
All to keep this single piece of paper forever.
I took the paper from him.
“It’s in the Ancient Language?”
“Yes. Can you read it?”
Hiss.
Aside from the Ancient Language words I’d become familiar with while solving problems in The Milk Bread, I didn't know it perfectly.
After staring intensely at the paper, I opened my mouth.
“I can’t read it perfectly. No, I think I can only stumble through the first line.”
“Even that is enough!”
Schuls Schmidt pleaded with an urgency that was unlike him. He seemed desperate.
…So this is what it feels like to have a cold beauty beg you?
It didn’t feel… half bad?
Fortunately, the first line was a sentence whose meaning I could grasp fully from start to finish, so I read it aloud.
“To a part of me… that has fallen away… from my body.”
“……Pardon?”
“That’s what the first line says.”
“……That’s impossible. Did you… mistranslate it?”
I blinked a few times. Then, I stared at the paper again as if I were going to burn a hole through it.
“To a part of me that has fallen away from my body.”
“……”
“I’m right, though?”
“……”
“Schuls Pneuma? Teacher?”
“That… makes no sense… There’s no way it’s written like that…”
What’s with him? Why is he acting like this?
Schuls Schmidt was a character known for being exceptionally cold, even in The Milk Bread.
While Corico was the Girl of Light who could even melt the heart of the ‘Ice Duke,’ Asis Frezier, Schuls Schmidt was the only one who never had a smiling illustration in any route.
Maybe a slight smirk at most?
That meant he was a man of very few emotions.
In a way, he was even more emotionless than Grand Duke Asis Frezier, who at least had an ending where he was happy to gain a ‘new granddaughter.’
That was Schuls Schmidt.
So why was he so shaken right now?
I had reached a point where I couldn't stand not knowing things. Especially since I had a cheat key.
I immediately opened Schuls Schmidt’s profile.
[System: Profile]
Schuls Schmidt (26 years old)
- The youngest Pneuma in history.
I skimmed through the middle of the profile since I already knew most of it, and as usual, I looked down at the part I was most curious about.
- Hidden Secrets: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………(See More)
Without hesitation, I mentally clicked ‘See More.’ I was dying to know what that letter was and why he was so disturbed.
But then.
(! Warning: 200 Coins are required.)
(! Warning: You do not have enough Coins to activate ‘See More.’)
Wait, what?!
I almost screamed out loud.
My eyes grew as wide as chestnuts, but the text floating before me didn't disappear.
Hey! You’ve been giving me the ‘See More’ content for free until now, and suddenly you want Coins?!
Was that all just a free trial or something?
Unbelievable. I was truly appalled. I tapped ‘See More’ several times, but the result was the same.
(! Warning: 200 Coins are required.)
(! Warning: You do not have enough Coins to activate ‘See More.’)
(! Warning: 200 Coins are required.)
(! Warning: You do not have enough Coins to activate ‘See More.’)
(! Warning: 200 Coins are required.)
(! Warning: You do not have enough Coins to activate ‘See More.’)
You… you stingy bastard…
If I could, I would have grabbed that message and the status window and snapped them in half.
Since I couldn't exactly grind my teeth in front of Schuls Schmidt, I had to swallow my rage…
“My apologies, Lady Tulia. I got lost in my own thoughts for a moment while standing right in front of you.”
“No, it’s fine…”
“……You may leave now.”
“……”
I must have actually ground my teeth in real life without realizing it.
“Sigh.”
A sigh escaped me at the same time.
“So, what is this?”
I asked, hoping to resolve the mystery in front of me first.
“I would like you to keep this a secret.”
An entirely unexpected answer came back.
I blinked and replied.
“My only friend is Adel, though.”
“By Miss Adel, you mean…?”
“My head maid. You saw her earlier.”
Schuls Schmidt chuckled.
“Yes. She seemed strong and gentle.”
“Right? She’s one of my greatest strokes of luck.”
“But from what I see, My Lady… once you debut in the Imperial Capital’s social circle, I believe the position of the circle’s ‘Crystal’ will belong to you.”
I guess he doesn't know yet that Tulia is the notorious brat of the Frezier Duchy.
I just smiled for now. I also knew very well that the position always belonged to Corico.
“That letter was left by my father just before he passed away.”
“Ah… wait, what?”
I had been acting solemn, but I couldn't help but ask back with a rising tone.
Schuls Schmidt’s father?
As one could guess from his neat etiquette and cold demeanor, Schuls Schmidt came from a noble family.
And I saw this while playing the game.
Schuls Schmidt had a terrible relationship with his father.
I remembered a scene where he told Corico, with his signature cold face, that he didn't even attend the funeral.
The setting was that Schuls Schmidt’s father, Lord Schmidt, was one of the greatest geniuses of his time.
He was a bit of a cheat character—a knight who had achieved many feats while also being proficient in the Ancient Language. Of course, he was also a member of the White Ivory Tower and had been granted the title of ‘Pneuma.’
But strangely, Lord Schmidt raised all his children to be nothing but knights.
The only child who rebelled against that was Schuls Schmidt.
It was said that he had a huge fight with his father, entered the White Ivory Tower, and proudly claimed the title of the youngest Pneuma.
But because his father was such an outstanding genius, it was said that Schuls Schmidt fell short when it came to the Ancient Language.
In the end, after they cut ties, Schuls Schmidt lived without a family.
Only Corico, whom he met later, became his true disciple and part of his family…
That was roughly the plot of The Milk Bread.
“The phrase ‘To a part of me that has fallen away from my body’ is a quote used in ancient times for one’s most cherished child.”
There was a faint trace of bitterness in Schuls Schmidt’s voice.
“There is no way my father thought of me that way, so he must have written a quote from a very difficult piece of ancient literature just to test me.”
Is that so?
It wasn't a matter I could give a definitive ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to.
As I wore a strange expression, Schuls Schmidt spoke again.
“Lady Tulia.”
“Yes.”
“My deal is simple. Since it is clear you have a talent for the Ancient Language, please decipher that letter for me.”
“Um… Teacher? That might take some time…”
“……By ‘take some time,’ you mean…”
“I mean I can do it. But it will literally take a bit of time…”
I had my tear-soaked Skill Stat.
And to reach A-Rank in the future, I had to raise all my stats to the maximum anyway.
The setting in The Milk Bread was that once the Skill Stat reached its peak, you could master any language just by looking at a book once and speak it as fluently as a native.
Of course, that applied to the Ancient Language as well.
The deep confusion and agitation slowly vanished from Schuls Schmidt’s face.
“As long as you can do it, that is enough.”
“I’ll do my best, Teacher. But you know.”
After asking for a copy of the Ancient Language paper, I spoke with a perfectly harmless smile.
“Since you were the one who called this a deal first, it’s time for you to hear my conditions, right?”