How to Acquire a Fallen Noble Lady (1)
"...Here you go."
It was during a break after the duel ended that Iris approached me and handed something over.
A money bag containing 500 million won and the Book of Mind.
She had only just woken up from being knocked out, apparently, because her cheeks were swollen and bruised a dark blue.
Did I hit her too hard?
Look, I'm all about beating people down regardless of gender, but smacking her in the face might have been a bit much.
Actually, no. This was the same brat who'd tried to kill me. Why would I need to cut her any slack?
I didn't owe her a single apology.
It's just...
Why did someone from Class A, of all people, pick a fight with an F-rank and tank her own reputation? That was what bugged me.
Had I lost, Iris's reputation would have drilled straight down into the Earth's core. And even though she'd won, what she got out of it was nothing but the dishonor of having bullied an F-rank into a death match.
If I had died, she'd have simply eaten the financial loss of 500 million won.
Seriously, why?
My brain, which had been running smoothly ever since my contract with Nyarlathotep, slammed into a wall. Not even a passing dog would fail to see how badly she'd gotten the short end of that deal — so why did she do it? I couldn't figure it out at all.
Speaking of dogs, now that I think about it, Nyarlathotep did say something about a fox cub getting too big for its britches...
Dunno. Don't care!
Honestly, was that my problem? What mattered was that 500 million won and the Book of Mind were now sitting in my hands.
Half a billion was more than enough to live luxuriously for a while, and the Book of Mind would become the ultimate training item for raising my SAN value efficiently.
Who knows — maybe I'd even reach the point where my mind stayed untainted even after transforming into my avatar.
Is it okay to get strong this fast?
The average level of a Class A first-year was, in terms of working heroes, about C-rank. And C-rank was considered a high bar even within the industry — hardly a low level by any measure. Yet I, an F-rank who wasn't even worth the top 100%, had reached it in a matter of days.
At this growth rate, A-rank within a month wasn't out of the question.
Maybe even S-rank...
Would S-rank be pushing it for one month?
Two months, then?
Either way, it was an absurd growth speed. Honestly, if I transformed into my avatar right now, I'd be at least A... okay, I've said too much. I'll stop there.
The long and short of it: I had gotten very, very strong.
"Why aren't you leaving?"
"...You. How could you..."
Iris muttered with eyes utterly drained of life.
Tap. Tap.
Then she shuffled away on the joints of a doll that had completely come apart.
Yeah, her mental state was probably shattered to bits. I won't hold the fact that the duel turned mutual carnage against her, since I ate my share too, but it must have been a genuine shock for her as well.
[Outer God Nyarlathotep thumps her chest repeatedly, as if suffocating with frustration.]
[The Mightiest Item, Cthugha, snorts derisively at her flat chest.]
At that moment, Nyarlathotep sent a signal that she was too frustrated to bear.
[Outer God Nyarlathotep manifests directly.]
What the—?
Ssshh!
The instant the message appeared, black light erupted before my eyes.
"This frustration is driving me mad."
The black light soon took the shape of a black-haired beauty.
Nyarlarthotep, who had appeared right in front of me, clutched her head in apparent irritation.
"What's got you so frustrated? Didn't we win?"
For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what she was angry about. We'd extorted an overwhelming reward and won the fight to boot. Wasn't that a job well done?
"Pure you are, pure beyond all reason... You must learn to live this world a little more wickedly, child."
She shook her head with an expression of deep pity.
What more ruthless move was even possible there? Should I have just burned her to death?
"There is no prey so easy to snare as a human whose mind has broken."
"Sorry, what?"
"I had hoped you would make that woman your slave... Perhaps your training has simply been lacking. You still have far to go."
"Um, excuse me?"
What was this woman talking about right now? Make Iris a slave?
"I, who have ruled countless humans through countless avatars, shall vouchsafe you this: the more slaves, the better. And slaves with ability — strong slaves — are the finest of all."
"So you're telling me to make Iris my slave?"
Honestly, after seeing so many of her unhinged episodes, I was starting to go numb to it all.
Making Iris my subordinate, like I did with Gu Haseong...
Come to think of it, that didn't sound bad at all.
The people around her were already circling like vultures, dying to devour her. The academy that had fully expected Iris to win, and even the family that had sponsored her equipment — her life was destined to be one long gauntlet of abuse and extortion.
Given that, making her my minion was infinitely better.
Iris would have it easier in her own way, and I'd gain one more usable subordinate. A win-win, plain and simple.
"The moment has slipped past us, so we shall bide our time for a few days."
Nyarlathotep narrowed her eyes in the direction Iris had vanished.
"If we do this, we do it properly — all the way down."
[Old Fox on the Back Mountain is disappointed in you.]
[Old Fox on the Back Mountain warns that there will be no further support, and departs.]
...
A hopeless situation. Her Constellation had lost faith in her and, for all intents and purposes, declared her abandoned.
Rrriing, rrriing.
Then her phone rang. But when Iris saw the name on the screen, she flinched hard.
She hesitated for a long moment, but eventually answered.
"...Hello."
"I-Iris. Wh-what is this spending record? 500 million? And the Book of Mind on top of it?"
The Gostrick family was already circling the drain. For an ordinary household, 500 million would have been merely a hefty expense — but for Gostrick, it was enough money to knock the whole family off its feet. Add to that the Book of Mind, worth roughly 400 million more.
A combined loss of 900 million. It was the kind of spending that would have justified the family collapsing on the spot.
"I-I'm sorry, Father..."
"Y-you insane girl!!"
She had been trying to decide what to say when the surging guilt choked her up, and the answer came out trembling. What came back was the first cursing she'd ever heard from her furious father.
"I saw talent in you and scraped together what was left of this dying family just to send you to the academy — and you produce spending like this without a thought?! Tell me! Did you gamble it away?"
"I... I took a duel at the Constellation's command, with the reward as the stake, and I... I lost it..."
"What? You lost? To whom, from where? Speak..."
"Th-that's, um..."
Hak, hak. The guilt wringing her throat shut, sin dancing along the marrow of her bones, tears welling up on their own, heat rising until her head spun in circles.
"C-Cadet Kim Hyunseong of... of Class F..."
Zzzip. Haah, haah, krrrk.
She gulped down ragged breaths, ground her teeth, and wept.
"I was... defeated... by Cadet Kim Hyunseong of Class F."
Was this what it felt like to face a death you couldn't escape? Trembling all over, she shrank from a future she could already see.
"...Class F?"
She flinched.
"Ugh... aaah..."
Iris Gostrick wanted to say something — anything — but her throat, brimming with sobs, refused to cooperate.
They say that when a person grows truly furious, they actually become calm. From her father's end of the line, a cold, measured anger was rising.
"I never even hoped for the restoration of the family."
A voice colder than anything she had ever heard from him.
"All I wanted was for you to become a fine shaman and show the world that Gostrick still drew breath. That alone would have been enough."
"You had the finest talent of any shaman I have ever seen, and the ambition to match it. That was why."
The finest talent?
That was over now. With her Constellation having turned her back, how could she ever become the finest?
But before her enraged father, she couldn't manage a single word.
"So I placed great expectations upon you... and it seems that, in the end, they only crushed you."
"The finest talent? I should have raised you plainly, like anyone else."
A tone now so level it was impossible to tell fury from indifference.
"As of this moment, you are no longer Gostrick."
The words that spilled from that voice were nothing short of devastating.
"It appears I overestimated you. Not even the finest of shamans — you've driven the family to the very brink of ruin."
No, no, that's not it. I never meant for this to happen. I swear I didn't.
"If only you had grown up ordinarily... then you might have lived happily."
Don't be disappointed in me. I worked harder for this family than anyone. Please don't throw me away this easily.
"Out of regard for the years we've shared, I won't demand you repay the money. Then... farewell."
Click.
...
Iris Gostr... no, Iris — sat blank-faced, staring into nothing for a solid five minutes.
Tik, tik, tik.
Then, with mechanical fingers, she dialed a number and placed a call somewhere.
It was her father's number — the same one she'd just hung up from.
But before the ringtone could even sound, a mechanical voice answered. Her calls had been blocked.
"Aah, aaah..."
Kek, kek, kek, kek.
She wanted to cry out loud, but an even greater despair had sealed her throat, and all that escaped were the feeble sounds of choked coughing.
...
A few days passed.
Visibly haggard, Iris trudged across the academy grounds.
After that day's duel, a noticeable drop in her combat metrics had gotten Iris demoted to Class B. Kim Hyunseong, meanwhile, had shot straight up to Class B on the back of what he'd shown in the duel and his explosive rise in raw ability.
A class change mid-semester was an extremely rare occurrence. Ordinarily, standings were tallied at the end of the term and adjusted all at once. A mid-semester demotion or promotion meant you'd grown dramatically stronger — or collapsed dramatically weaker.
...
It was lunchtime at the academy. Normally, she would have gone off to eat with her Class A friends, but...
The day she lost to Kim Hyunseong, every last one of them had walked away from her. So there she was, sitting off on her own nearby, unwrapping a lunchbox by herself. Just shoveling food into her mouth without really tasting it, living out another day in which she could think of nothing at all.
"May I sit here?"
"...?"
A courteous voice cut through the haze.
"Of course."
It was Kim Hyunseong.