How to Become the Dominant Party (7)
“Not only do you dare lay a hand on the eldest daughter of the great House Arln—!”
Watching Luka press his forehead into the dirt and beg for mercy left my head a tangled mess.
The Luka I knew was not the kind of character who did this.
He was one of the precious few mastermind-type characters in Soul Academy, a man who never once showed an undignified face except in the final confrontation. That perpetual air of composed superiority was precisely why this guy remained popular despite being a total troll.
Which meant this was a variable. A variable that didn't exist in the game. And if I had to judge whether it was good or bad... good? Was it good?
Probably on the good side. I had no idea what Luka was thinking, but at the very least it didn't look like I needed to worry about dying.
“Please! Please, I beg you, spare my life!”
But seriously, why is he acting like this? I don't get it.
Benedick isn't that threatening... is he.
The influence of the people close to me really is that big... huh.
If I went missing, there's a high chance Luka would be implicated... isn't there?
What the hell? Why did he even kidnap me? No matter how I look at it, this seems like nothing but a recipe for disaster.
No. Wait. This is the guy whose endless trolling in Soul Academy made players weep and wail. If he brought me here, it means he moved with some kind of plan already laid out. Given Luka's personality, he'd have anticipated even a situation like this before coming.
As I wrestled with the impenetrable depths of Luka's motives, a single hypothesis suddenly popped into my head.
...Don't tell me this idiot got provoked by the Mesugaki Skill? He lost his reason and just barreled ahead with something reckless?!
The moment I framed it that way, the current situation made perfect sense. If he'd acted without any thought for the consequences, then even Luka would have painted himself into a corner.
Because the forces lurking behind me were considerable.
Just House Arln and House Patran joining hands would be threat enough for Luka. No matter how wide his connections stretched, Luka himself was nothing more than a commoner-born professor.
And if that hypothesis was correct, then didn't that make me the ultimate of ultimates right now — someone capable of blowing up Luka's entire life with a single word?
My heart leapt for a moment, but instead of opening my mouth I summoned Grandpa. To verify whether my theory was right.
“Seems yer guess be right, lass.”
‘Right?!’
Even as I cheered at confirming I had become a perfect dominant party, Luka kept spewing his groveling words.
“I shall do anything at all!”
Anything at all, he says. Isn't this basically the level of begging someone to please abuse their power over you?
Luka! You were actually a pervert overflowing with the desire to be ordered around by a little girl all along!
Honestly. I guess when even the Chief God is a pervert, it stands to reason this world would be crawling with them.
As I was smirking down at a slave overflowing with useful applications, Grandpa let out an awkward chuckle.
“I know not what ye plan to do, but return to the Academy first, call yer guards, and then proceed. That'll be the safe way of it.”
‘Yes sir! Understood!’
He had a point. If I lording it over here made Luka snap and flip out, his life might be over — but so would mine.
‘Luka. For now...’
“Pedo Professor. Is it right to leave someone who's apologizing kneeling in the middle of the street? Pfft. Even a kid like me knows that. Certified adult failure~”
“...Quite right! Let us return to the Academy at once!”
What Luka used was a scroll containing teleportation magic. It whisked us away to his faculty office in an instant, but as always it came with brutal motion sickness.
“Um, Lady Arln? Bringing in... another person.”
When I said I was bringing in Karl, Luka showed a troubled expression.
‘You don't like it? Then...’
“You don't? Then I'll just go tell my dumb Papa everything. About how a pervert professor tried to hypnotize me and do weird things to me.”
“Wh-what?! No, that's—”
‘Why? It's not wrong, is it?’
“I only talked about the things you did. What, does it sting? I bet you were having some weird thoughts, weren't you? Puhahaha. You're a hopeless perverted pedo, aren't you?”
“...No. It's nothing at all.”
But Luka, standing in the position of the subordinate, was powerless before the tyranny of the dominant. Watching the guy who always pretended to be so composed in the game visibly tremble brought a smile to my face all on its own.
Ha. To think I could only achieve the dream I never managed back when I played the game — after transmigrating into this body.
I could feel my faith swelling.
At first I dared hurl blasphemy at the Chief God who'd handed me this quest, but not anymore. Surely the Chief God, unlike His foolish Apostle who can't see past her own nose, foresaw a future exactly like this.
Luka. You don't know it, but I harbor a very, very deep grudge against you.
Do you have any idea how many characters I had to raise from scratch because you kept making those dogshit quests?
Of course you don't.
Don't worry. I don't know the exact number either. Counting them one by one was impossible — there were too many attempts.
But I remember exactly how many characters I deleted and remade while making my very first top-score character.
159.
The number written at the very end of my Excel spreadsheet, the one I kept organized for my speedrun guides.
I repeated that process dozens of times, so the characters of mine that died because of you must number in the thousands.
Understand, Luka? The grudge you carry isn't mine alone.
It's the grudge of the thousands of characters that had to vanish because of you!
Brace yourself! I intend to abuse my power over you thoroughly!
Karl came out to the entrance despite being summoned at dawn, declaring that if the young lady calls, then naturally one must move! I didn't give him a detailed explanation of what Luka had done.
Kidnapping a noble lady under the pretense of an exam and dropping her somewhere she might die. Then, to cover that crime, attempting to tamper with her mind. Either one alone was a crime worthy of the name.
If Karl heard about this, he would undoubtedly draw his sword on the spot.
So this is how I introduced Luka to Karl.
‘Greet him. Karl...’
“Scrub. Say hi. This is your scrubby junior, the Perverted Scrub.”
“My... junior?”
When I explained that this was a guy who would roughly come to appreciate my greatness and swear to serve me, Karl made an odd face.
“It brings me joy to see more people come to know of your magnificence, my lady, but... a scrubby junior?”
In my opinion, that was unmistakably a look of jealousy and wariness. Karl took pride in being the one and only Scrub!
Where exactly did things go wrong? Back when we first met, he was a perfectly normal boy, inside and out.
“Um. L-Lady Arln? ‘Perverted Scrub?’ We haven't even discussed any such—”
“Oh my, you're just bursting with pride at being a pervert, aren't you♡ Fine, fine. I'm nice, so I'll change it for you. Let's see~ Pedo Pervert♡ Gross Lolicon♡ Maso Trash♡ Any of those catch your fancy?♡ If you demand it, I could even combine them all into one♡ Well? Am I not just the kindest person ever?♡”
“I shall go with Perverted Scrub.”
It's not like I could actually change his title just because I wanted to, but if he was fond of Perverted Scrub, there was no need to worry.
Back in Luka's office, my first order of business was forcing a Binding Vow upon him.
Because I was certain it would serve as the leash around Luka's neck.
A Geas means little to someone who's resolved to live in the shadows — such people don't care about disgrace. But Luka was different. For a man whose trade was sculpting talent, winning the trust of others was an absolutely essential asset.
But what if breaking the Geas left a visible mark on him?
He wouldn't just be expelled from the Academy — earning the contempt of every talented person there would make even striking up a conversation a burden.
And so Luka cannot break the Geas. To do so would be to deny everything his life was built upon.
With Grandpa's help, I set the conditions of the Geas painstakingly, ruthlessly strict. The full details ran quite long, but summarized, they read like this:
Article 1. Thou shalt not bring harm upon Lady Lucy Arln.
Article 2. Thou shalt obey whatsoever she commands.
Article 3. Thou shalt devote thy utmost to her protection.
Should any article be broken — ruin, exile, and the contempt of all shall follow.
Once I'd finished what was, honestly speaking, a contract that wouldn't have been out of place as an outright slave agreement, I issued Luka his first command.
Report to me every trial you are currently capable of throwing at me.
At that, Luka asked for time. He said he could talk right now if he must, but then things would be left out. Give him time to organize his documents, he said, and he would put his whole effort into preparing a thorough report.
“Would one week be acceptable?”
A proper dominant party would have roared, One week, my ass! Done in three days! — but I found myself unable to say it. I just couldn't.
Memories of suffering under past clients surfaced, and it became impossible. Is this what they call the mark of the subordinate carved into the soul? Because I lived my whole life as the one being squeezed, becoming a perfect dominant party is simply impossible!
In any case, until that report was made, I couldn't request anything specific. I wanted to look over the list and pick the most efficient options.
Nothing to do right now, then. Just as I rose from my seat to head back to the dormitory, Luka stopped me.
“In accordance with the contract, there are things I must report in advance. Might I have a little more of your time?”
‘What is it?’
“What is it.”
“There are two matters. The first is that your reputation among the Academy's commoner faction is rather poor, my lady.”
I knew what the commoner faction was.
A collective formed by commoners banding together to survive in an Academy stuffed to the brim with nobles.
Going by the description alone, it sounds like a fine organization, but the reality is anything but. It's essentially an army — a place where the upper years work the lower years like servants, all under the excuse that commoners have no choice if they want to survive.
It has its uses for Academy life, sure, but the overflowing rotten practices there are no joke; I couldn't say a single good word about it.
But what do you mean my reputation is bad there? Lucy's reputation was terrible to begin with?
As I tilted my head, Luka explained that it seemed they disliked the favoritism I received from Phoebe — and I found myself nodding along.
Hmm. So it's a kind of jealousy, then.
No real need to care. If they pick a fight, I'll just crush them.
“The other matter is that the Second Prince is desperate to draw you to his side by any means, my lady.”
That guy still hasn't given up?! I figured he'd given up since he stopped talking to me, but apparently not?! Ugh. Please, please just leave me alone, Second Prince.
I really do not want to find out what happens if he hears me calling him the Idiot Prince.
It was about five days after I bound Luka with the Geas that one of the two threats he'd described bared its teeth.
I'd assumed the Second Prince would come for me first, of the two bombs. That muscle-brained meathead never hesitates in action once he's decided on something.
But my prediction was wrong. Apparently the commoners' jealousy toward me ran deeper than I'd imagined.
“My lady? Have you by chance not yet submitted your course registration form? The professor says he cannot find your application, you see.”
It began with something utterly petty.