Chapter 252
Chapter 252
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 252
>Chapter Title: How Should I Deal with Him?
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After my meeting with the principal senior concluded.
Given the belated start to the semester, I called Evelyn over right after the abbreviated opening ceremony wrapped up, and we took a seat together.
Our rendezvous point was a secluded bench in the second-year grounds.
……So, what do you think about getting help from the Third Princess?
The moment I finished speaking, Evelyn subtly furrowed her brow.
"Are you insane?"
A sharper reaction than I'd anticipated.
I cocked my head.
"Why?"
"Why? No, that tower or whatever…… You really think it makes sense to ask the Third Princess for help with getting permission on academy grounds?"
Doesn't it? What's the issue?
"I heard students normally help each other out."
"There's a degree to it……."
Evelyn trailed off, shot me a sidelong glare, and then—judging that reasoning wouldn't get through—pivoted directions before even laying out her argument.
"And didn't you want to avoid any imperial involvement?"
She seemed to be recalling how I'd fiercely opposed any ties to the imperial family among the options discussed for resolving the food shortage in the Second Black-White Slums.
"But the situation's a little different there. Let's think it through. What happens if imperial influence reaches the Second Black-White Slums? Obviously, corrupt officials will flood in and turn it into a money-laundering hub. Isn't that right?"
"Well……."
"The Black-White Slums have been a blind spot since way back. They just leave it alone because it's too tough to control. But what about the Second Black-White Slums now?"
For the imperial family, it must feel like staring at a buffet laid out just right.
"But the tower's different."
……"What's different about it?"
I thrust my chest out and declared.
"I've got me."
"……."
Evelyn's eyes went ice-cold.
It was the look of someone wondering what baseless confidence this was, but to me, that gaze was nothing short of laughable.
'My realm isn't anything ordinary…… but I can't exactly explain it.'
Smacking my lips in regret, Evelyn let out a deep sigh and shook her head—as if conceding that breaking my resolve was impossible.
"Fine. So, how exactly are you planning to approach the Third Princess?"
"Hm?"
"Let's say, as you put it, Aster, that we're targeting the Third Princess. But you're not seriously thinking it'll be as easy as 'Third Princess, I'm Aster. I want to be friends. Oh, and I have a favor to ask……' are you?"
"What do you take me for."
Of course not.
Would that even work?
Earlier, when I'd casually passed by the M2 class classroom where the Third Princess was, I'd sensed presences hovering nearby.
'I nearly missed them without having ascended.'
They were probably her escorts. If I approached like Evelyn suggested, I might find a dagger planted by my pillow that very night.
"Then spill it. If it sounds reasonable, I'll help out too."
But what was with this girl earlier.
"Why should I be the one spilling? You tell me."
"……?"
"Didn't I mention it? You're already the magic tower's strategist, funder, and slave……."
"Slave?"
"No, not a slave—a precious friend like cherry blossoms blooming at sunset."
I couldn't help but admire my own quick thinking, but Evelyn's eyes soured all the same.
"Sigh. Magic tower this, magic tower that…… Anyway, forget strategist, funder, all that nonsense. Just remember one thing."
"What?"
"We have no money."
"……Ah?"
"No steady income to speak of, and every bit we've got is already sunk into the Black-White Slums. You think we have cash lying around to buy land?"
"……."
She had a point, so I clamped my mouth shut.
'Right. We're broke.'
How had I overlooked that?
"First things first, scrape together money for the land…… Actually, no. If you've got land money, just buy the damn thing. We'll add it to the Second Black-White Slums."
My eyelids twitched at the unforeseen roadblock, but Evelyn just tossed one last line my way and took off.
"And why bother buying land at all? One word from you, Aster, and the dean would hand over a prime spot in the Second Black-White Slums."
There was a sad reason for that.
I didn't voice it.
Watching Evelyn depart, I called out to her pitifully.
"Uh…… If I get the land, you'll help out, right?"
"……."
Evelyn halted her steps and shot me a glare.
"Yeah? You'll help?"
At my repeated begging, she shook her head side to side before resuming her stride.
"First, try getting it."
Magic Tower Construction Project: Party member count, plus one.
Just one thing left now.
'Land.'
What? You need money to get land?
What a naive take.
I'd thought the same not long ago, but maybe my horizons had broadened.
Turns out, there are plenty of ways to snag land without shelling out a dime.
'Ah, who even buys land with money these days?'
The catch was the method itself……
It was right then, as I sank deep into contemplation.
"Friend, whatcha doing?"
"……?"
I jolted at the chilling presence and whipped around.
"……Damian?"
What the hell? When did he sneak up?
No matter how lost in thought I was, there's no way I'd miss a presence like that.
Unable to hide my shock, I stared at him, but Damian just opened his mouth with an innocent look on his face.
"Evelyn said you're off doing something dumb again. Told me to drag you off and feed you."
"……Ah, yeah. Sure."
Had this guy grown in more ways than just height?
* * *
After finishing my meal with Damian, I headed to my newly assigned dorm room and flopped onto the bed.
Even then, my mind kept churning over how to secure the land.
In other words: how to get land without paying a penny.
There were several methods.
'First up.'
The most straightforward: get granted a fiefdom.
But that lacked any real feasibility.
The empire's fiefs were already saturated, and short of becoming a war hero, getting one granted was out of the question.
Tsk. Reheim senior was one thing, but why'd Myseln senior turn down a fief……
'Second.'
Borrow a plot from a feudal noble.
Sure, most nobles rent land out for cash, but that's up to the landowner's whim.
Meaning free leases were possible too.
The problem……
'In the future I glimpsed in Baharmut, it looked like I got land from the Blandoga Family this way.'
No way I had money back then.
But something about it felt off.
The only place I could've borrowed from was Blandoga, and if that were the case, I wouldn't be agonizing like this to begin with.
Either way, those first two options were unappealing—feasibility aside—because rights came bundled with responsibilities.
'Truth is, the third one's the simplest by far.'
So, what was the third?
Occupy and use land beyond the gaze of the imperial family or any noble house.
Only issue: other problems cropped up.
'The tower would end up a target for extermination.'
Squatting on imperial land could get branded as treason, while taking a lord's land meant inevitable armed clashes.
It wasn't the same as the Black-White Slums.
'The Slums were a former administrative zone that naturally slipped control once it slummed up.'
Strictly speaking, the owner had let go first—not that the cartel seized and drove them out.
"Hmm, what to do, what to do……."
I shot up from the bed and paced the room.
In the process, my eyes landed on the empty bed opposite mine.
Even with dorm assignments fully settled, the spot across from me sat vacant—courtesy of the principal senior's scheming.
—I prepared your room as a single.
—……Why?
—Student consideration.
Not consideration for me, but for whatever student was slated to be my roommate.
Oh, and for the record, my first-year roommate Pola had coincidentally ended up as Chenbi's roommate.
'Take care, Pola.'
With that thought crossing my mind, I mentally bid farewell to my former roommate and sank back into rumination.
Truth be told, one method had popped up already.
What was it?
"……Grand Duchess Lamburk."
You know, that one.
The girl from the Great Forest.
The principal senior's cheeky disciple—the lunatic who'd declared at our first meeting she was going to ruin some famed magic house.
Earlier, the principal senior had left me with that razor-sharp warning: 'Don't even breathe in the same space as the Third Princess.' Then he'd relayed word from the Grand Duchess of Lamburk……
—My disciple says the offer still stands.
—…….
—I know his aims, so I'd rather not pass it on, but he begged so earnestly that I'm just relaying the message. Personally, though, I'd say brush it off.
Still, wiping out a famed magic house was no small feat.
'If she helps, something's bound to come my way, right?'
Land or whatever. Land. Land.
And there was something I hadn't realized back when I'd gotten her proposal: there was only one magic house she'd view as a thorn in her side.
'The one based in the duchy…… Forgot the family name.'
It wasn't even all that prominent among the great houses.
They'd lost their grimoire centuries back and had barely clung to their status with the secret arts they'd developed since.
But the problem was……
"I don't like it."
She didn't strike me as ordinarily crazy. Tangling with her spelled trouble.
Which left Lortel……
'Pass on that too.'
Even as my closest ally, it felt too exposing for the magic tower's dirty secrets.
"Tsk. Back to square one?"
The conditions for the tower's site weren't all that demanding.
1. No nearby residences. (In case war breaks out with the Decullan Family down the line.)
2. A prime spot backed by mountains and fronted by a river. (Purely my preference.)
Yet finding land that fit—even securing land at all—felt impossibly distant…… Tsk.
"For now, I'll mull this over later."
Whether sweet-talking the Third Princess or whatever, priority one was getting the land.
The second-year first semester was plenty long anyway.
And it wasn't something I could snap my fingers and fix.
So, what mattered right now?
"……."
I dragged out the one topic I'd been suppressing with distractions.
At the opening ceremony, Professor Jeira—who, unchanged from my first year, was in charge of M3 Class—had made an announcement to the students.
—One student couldn't make it today due to circumstances.
Not an uncommon occurrence.
Even with the academy pushing opening a week late, empty seats dotted classrooms everywhere.
So why bother announcing it?
It was because of the identity of the student transferring into our class tomorrow.
—A transfer from another academy, now joining Jenion Academy. You've probably heard the name before.
……Sallier von Decullan.
The mastermind who'd killed my comrades with forbidden magic in my past life……
'Decullan's Young Patriarch.'
He's coming to the academy tomorrow.
So, how exactly should I deal with him?
……A profound dilemma.