Chapter 50
Chapter 50
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: The Alchemy Order and First Mission (1)
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Chloe was dressed more simply than she had been at the previous banquet.
That said, it was only simple compared to a party dress. She wore a high-end noble lady's dress in shades of green that still looked plenty luxurious.
She bowed deeply toward me with utmost courtesy. Having thoroughly crushed her spirit once during the preliminary squad muster, it was a perfect ninety-degree bow.
"The biting winds of the North Country..."
"Enough. No need for grand greetings in a classroom full of people."
I cut her off so swiftly that it must have embarrassed her. I thought I heard a little "Eek," but I ignored it.
She raised her head again. She hid her bare face behind a fan.
'Hmph...'
The incident at the mansion last time had been a total defeat for Chloe. And that day, she'd been especially desperate, coming on to me aggressively.
She'd even weaponized her virginity to seduce me as a woman. But in the end, she'd been the one eagerly taking it and moaning like a bitch in heat.
'That's why she can't keep her expression neutral.'
She was probably struggling to maintain her composure and feign nonchalance in front of me now. I knew what was going on inside her head, but I had no reason to spare her feelings. Not before the paired mission began.
I planned to keep the upper hand until then.
"Rude. I appreciated the courteous greeting. But I can't overlook the impudence of hiding your face from me."
A brief silence. Chloe reluctantly folded her fan. A bright smile bloomed on her face, but her eyes remained cold.
"My apologies for the offense. I just worried that seeing my ugly face might displease Count Julian. That's why I covered it for a moment."
"You're not that ugly, so no need for self-deprecation. Your face is quite decent."
Her composure cracked at my words. Her eyes wavered for a moment.
Her usual slightly pale, snow-white skin. Beneath her white-pearl silver hair tied up like at the last banquet, her smooth nape was exposed.
She tried to hold a poker face, but I could see her nape flushing faintly. Surprisingly, Chloe seemed weak to compliments on her looks.
"I... I see. Of course, compared to Her Highness Lillia, your fiancée, my face is no better than an ugly hag's. You're too kind."
"Good that you know. Her Highness Lillia is exceptional. You're not even worth comparing. It would be rude to her."
Chloe's expression twisted again before she barely regained her poker face.
"In any case, it's an honor for me, as the student representative, that you've joined our Alchemy Order's lecture. Alchemy is the exclusive domain of us noble houses. A brilliant choice befitting the heir of the Border Count."
Chloe must have heard that I could attend lectures from all six orders. As she said, the Alchemy Order had a stronger aristocratic flavor than the others.
Alchemy involved injecting mana into real materials to induce new changes. Thus, the quality of those changes depended on the original materials.
In other words, properly learning alchemy required a lot of money. A alchemist's skill was proportional to how many high-end materials they'd handled.
That's why the cadets studying alchemy were usually nobles without sword talent, or scions from wealthy merchant families.
In contrast, the Magic Order prioritized innate magical aptitude over money, unlike the Alchemy Order. That's why Pantheon’s Magic Order had many commoner mages like Rosetta.
"The Magic Order's classes are a step below ours, aren't they? Mingling with lowly commoners isn't befitting for the children of high nobles. Of course, our alchemy would be far more useful in battle as warriors or knights too. As expected of Count Julian's discerning eye..."
"You're mistaken. I plan to attend the Magic Order lectures as well. I'm just stopping by the Alchemy Order first because it's a prerequisite subject. Don't jump to conclusions."
As I cut her off again, Chloe's red pupils shook. I was the Demon King's son. My talent for magic would undoubtedly be high too.
So there was no reason for me not to attend the Magic Order lectures.
"I... I see. My apologies."
Chloe apologized to me. Then she glanced around my seat with a meaningful look.
"By the way, Count Julian. Do you know what that seat you're sitting in signifies...?"
"Of course I do."
Chloe quickly hid her face behind her fan again. My repeated interruptions must have made expression control difficult.
As Chloe said, my seat was the top row in the tiered classroom. Right in the center.
In theory lectures, this was the designated seat for each order's student representative. Professors asked the most questions there, and other cadets could easily hear the answers.
It was a tradition for the theory-heavy Magic and Alchemy Orders.
'Those two orders are fiercely competitive. That was part of the lore too.'
This should have been Chloe's seat originally. Of course, I'd chosen it deliberately. To emphasize the clear hierarchy between Chloe and me.
Chloe replied.
"Oh? I see. Well, for an outstanding holy priest like you, Count, sitting there is only natural. I hope you enjoy the lecture. I'll take my leave then."
Chloe clasped her hands and bowed ninety degrees, just like her initial greeting.
Right after, she sent all the cadets in my row down to the seats below. Then she sat right next to me.
'Hoo.'
Even the cadets who usually sat in the same row as Chloe had gone down. In other words, she intended to treat me as higher than any second-year Alchemy Order cadet.
Yet she herself stayed and took the seat beside me.
'She's going to observe for now. Her way of testing me.'
As expected of the daughter of the Atern Merchant House. She probably wanted to evaluate me herself to make up for her past humiliation.
I was fully prepared, so I had no worries.
I leisurely savored the luxurious perfume wafting from Chloe beside me.
A moment later, a gray-haired middle-aged professor entered the classroom.
Chloe mulled over the past events.
The banquet had been her complete defeat. Count Julian had escaped the trap she'd set entirely.
'I never imagined erectile dysfunction drugs wouldn't work at all. Tch.'
Far from failing to get hard, the count's member had swollen to a size beyond her imagination.
For an instant, Chloe recalled every vein bulging on it. Her secret place twitched again.
'The erectile drugs were useless on the count. But the aphrodisiac worked too well, on the contrary.'
For some reason, that day she'd been different from her usual self. Normally, even if she took the aphrodisiac herself, it only raised her body temperature and breathing slightly.
She'd use that to feign seductive glances and a husky voice as needed, and that was it.
But that night, in the back garden, Chloe—drenched in aphrodisiac—had been like a bitch in heat. Even she was embarrassed recalling how utterly lost she'd been in the pleasure of sex.
And Chloe had been a total virgin who knew nothing of sex before then. The shame was even greater.
To top it off, she'd ended up getting pounded in a humiliating position by the count.
'Humiliating. I got reversed by the count.'
Everything had gone opposite to her original plan.
With the erectile trap failed, her desperate backup: woman on top. She'd planned to ride him thoroughly from above, make him cum quick, and mock him as a premature rabbit.
Her place was an unused virgin one, so she was confident.
'Originally, I was going to mount the count and dominate him completely.'
But the count hadn't moved a muscle. He'd looked up at her with arrogant eyes, as if saying a girl like her shaking her hips would never conquer him.
And it had been true. Despite her enduring the pain of deflowering and shaking desperately, the count showed no signs of climaxing from her woman-on-top.
Thinking back even now made her head throb with the humiliation of that unexpected defeat.
But what truly tormented Chloe was something else.
'Why... even after getting toyed with like that by the count, did it feel so good?'
As a merchant, accurately grasping people's tastes and pleasure factors was crucial.
Especially in the capital, where noble and elite debauchery culture was trending. That's why she'd made the aphrodisiac herself and tested it on her body.
'Having a precise eye for trendy pastimes and pleasures makes earning money easy.'
The aphrodisiac she'd personally concocted was a bestseller at the Atern Merchant House now. It heated her body too.
Truth was, Chloe had little sexual desire.
She merely distributed the masturbation toys secretly popular among Pantheon's noble ladies without using them herself.
Much less lying under some inferior man or getting pounded from behind, moaning like a bitch—that thought alone disgusted her.
'But with Count Julian... that night's flirtation was different.'
She'd been utterly belittled by him. Yet each time he demeaned her, her pleasure doubled.
The pain of deflowering, the agony of taking his massive cock into her virgin place—it all turned to ecstasy.
Her usual self would have felt murderous the moment he entered her from behind. No, even just his belittling words would have made her never forgive him...
So when she met the count today, she'd first hidden her face with the fan.
If she couldn't maintain her usual poker face, she couldn't predict what expression she'd make against him.
Thus, she couldn't rationally explain that night's self. Much less the pleasure she'd felt—she still didn't know why. As a merchant, she had to figure it out.
But Chloe knew her own nature well.
Finding an item's potential faster than anyone and properly assessing its value. That instinct might have unconsciously flagged the count as noteworthy.
'In that case, I'll evaluate him properly this class.'
Perfect timing—he'd walked into her home ground himself. And to the throne-like top-center seat for students.
Professor Elmeier, who taught this lecture, loved questioning students. She could use that to assess the count.
Of course, if he flubbed an answer and got humiliated, that would avenge her past too. She could yield the seat a hundred times over.
As expected, the alchemy lecture wasn't difficult. The framework was unfamiliar, as befitting this world's alchemy.
But I had the Ordinary Alchemist trait prepared in advance. And beyond that, my university major lectures helped quite a bit here.
'I was an engineering student, after all.'
Even related somewhat to alchemy: new materials engineering.
I'd already majored in general chemistry and materials science knowledge. Combined with the trait, the lecture content wasn't hard.
I hadn't gone to grad school, but I'd completed my undergrad properly.
The Alchemy Order's second-year theory was actually easier than a modern engineering undergrad's second-year curriculum. Mana circuits even overlapped with electrical circuit theory.
So I wasn't flustered when the gray-haired middle-aged professor, Elmeier, pointed at me.
"Ahem? Why's a male cadet in that seat? Isn't the Alchemy Order's second-year rep the Lady of Atern Marquis?"
Professor Elmeier pushed up his nose-down glasses.
"Wait. That face looks familiar. Could it be Count Julian?"
I answered the professor.
"Yes, Professor. Julian von Reinhardt."
"Well, this is something. I recall you didn't take Alchemy Order lectures in your first year. No matter. Come to think of it, there was mention of you at the order assembly."
The classroom buzzed at the professor's words. Mostly nobles, they recognized me and were gauging the situation.
'Must've been weird seeing the notorious Julian here.'
And with Chloe, who ruled this place, meekly bowing to me, it was natural for the clueless cadets to be puzzled.
"Then, a question on the current lecture topic... Well, regardless of seat, the rep should handle it. Miss Chloe, stand for a moment?"
But Chloe contradicted the professor.
"Oh? Professor Elmeier, Count Julian chose that seat himself. And he knows full well what it means. It wouldn't be polite for me to steal his chance to answer, would it?"
As expected. That explained why she'd yielded the seat so readily. But I'd anticipated it too. Professor Elmeier looked troubled briefly before asking my intent.
"Count Julian, I've never heard you called an alchemist. No need to force it."
"No, Professor. Any question is fine."
"Really? Second-year theory isn't easy... Well, a prestigious house like the Border Count family might've had private tutoring."
The professor tapped his glasses, then spoke.
"In that case, first, a simple question on your alchemy knowledge."
Of course. That was exactly what I'd hoped for.