Chapter 31
Chapter 31
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 31
>Chapter Title: I Didn't Recognize a Noble Guest
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Dibei fell silent for a moment.
‘What the hell is this...'
Some bizarre way of settling accounts.
This was no different from the calculations of usurious lenders or bandit gangs that preyed on the common folk.
On the other hand, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of doubt.
'What the hell gives him such confidence?'
Beating Hickster, the second son of the Doranpega Family, at the entrance ceremony was an impressive feat, to be sure.
From what he'd looked into, the academy's measurement showed his power level hovering below the average for this year, but purely in terms of combat ability, it was solidly in the upper ranks...
Even so, that attitude?
It was as if he was confident he could take on all six of them at once.
'Is this lowly scum clueless about his own place?'
Dibei was dumbfounded, but he exercised a measure of patience.
"35 gold isn't enough? Fine. I'll make it 40 gold. That's the limit. The funds I was authorized are 40 gold per bracelet, that's it."
"Then that comes to a total of 240 gold."
"......"
Dibei clamped his mouth shut.
'Is he insane?'
240 gold wasn't pocket change for anyone.
Even for him, the scion of a fairly successful merchant house, 240 gold was no trifling sum.
For a filthy Black-White Slums urchin, it was an amount he'd never touch in his lifetime.
Yet here he was, demanding such a fortune without so much as batting an eye.
A thought suddenly crossed his mind.
This lowly bastard's trying to make a killing off this opportunity.
'Well, can't blame him for that.'
Dibei convinced himself.
That's how the lowly ones always were.
Starved, malnourished, uneducated—they lost all sense of their place and went wild with greed at the sight of even scraps of meat.
Just one more, a little bit more.
All to stuff their pathetic bellies.
'Never even considering that greed will slit their guts open. Not that savages like them could see that far ahead. Tsk, what a waste of time.'
He wanted to teach the fool his place, but that wasn't the priority right now.
'To carry out the young lady's orders, there's no better hunting dog than Aster...'
He fit every criterion perfectly.
A Black-White Slums urchin whose eyes would roll at the sight of money, yet strong enough in combat to take down Doranpega's Hickster despite his station.
But if that dog was rabid, he'd have to look for another option.
"Then the deal's off. Pretend you never heard it."
With that, Dibei turned to leave.
Or tried to.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"......?"
"The bracelets from those three, fine, since you're the ones appraising them. But you lot have to pay for yours before you go. 40 gold each makes 120 gold."
"Hoo..."
Dibei let out a deep sigh.
A hot, boiling breath rising from the depths of his gut.
"You lowly scum. Wearing the same clothes and staying in the same place doesn't change the position you were born into. Climb out of your place without knowing it, and..."
"So you're some great noble's son, then?"
"......"
The piercing words sealed Dibei's lips like a clamshell.
And well they might—Dibei wasn't a noble either.
No, from what his father had told him, there had been a time when they were nobles further up the family tree, but now they had fallen so far that even the titles were gone.
He usually prided himself on 'the noble blood still flowing in my veins,' but he wasn't idiot enough to make excuses in a situation like this.
That would be like spitting in the air while lying down.
But still.
"You think Dibei is the same as the likes of you, you lowly thing?! Even if it looks like this, Dibei's distant ancestors held a baron's title!"
"......Pacon."
"Don't stop me, Dibei! Today, I'm going to teach this punk a proper lesson..."
"Pacon!"
Dibei raised his voice, and Pacon shut his mouth tight.
A heavy silence descended.
Dibei ground his teeth.
'These damn...'
Temper-wise, he wanted to crush not just Aster but Pacon too.
But Pacon, for all his shortcomings, was still the heir to a decent merchant house.
Cutting ties over something this trivial would cost him too many future gains.
Moreover.
'This isn't the time to lose my temper. Fulfilling the young lady's orders comes first. If we can strike a deal with the Goldrin Merchant Group, our house could grow several times over.'
Evelyn, the Goldrin Merchant Group's golden child.
Even though they were the same age, Dibei bowed his head to the title before her name.
It bruised his pride, but the Goldrin Merchant Group was one of the top ten on the continent.
Swallowing his pride and playing the lackey was no loss if it got him connections.
And right now, he was under orders from Evelyn to procure bracelets.
'Bring back as many as possible,' she'd said.
She'd even provided the funds.
Maximum 40 gold per bracelet.
Honestly, he didn't get it. One bracelet to open a single door. Even reaching the final gate wouldn't require that many.
If it were just for her own scores, she never would have given such an order.
'It must be a test of sorts.'
How cheaply could he buy them, and how many.
Purchase price and quantity—evaluating his capabilities on those two metrics.
"120 gold, was it? I'll pay it."
Dibei said as much and began counting out the gold coins to hand over.
It wasn't from the funds Evelyn had given him.
Using her money for something like this would prove his incompetence.
But ignoring this mad dog and backing down felt like it would hinder fulfilling the orders.
So he yielded.
Stepping back for lowly scum didn't sit well, but he was a merchant. He could kneel to beggars if needed.
'Tsk, Father's money... Well, that's what it's for.'
The hefty sum his father had reluctantly given him upon entering Jenion Academy. Celebration money, you could call it. It pained him to hand it to an urchin, but no helping it.
But.
"I didn't recognize a noble guest like you."
Dibei's hand paused mid-count.
"Then the price has to go up a bit."
"......"
Snap.
Something snapped in Dibei's mind.
The thread of reason holding his merchant rationality together.
"Fine, then... how much do you think it should go up to?"
"Since you're such nobility, double sounds right. That makes 160 gold total."
"Right, 160 gold."
Dibei nodded slowly at those words.
"From this moment on, I'll show you just how miserable your life can get for 160 gold. Even your precious young master won't be able to save you."
With that, Dibei turned away.
'Look forward to it. I'll make sure you leave the academy on your own two feet.'
No matter how great the Blandoga name, the young patriarch was a naive young master clueless about the world.
He wasn't Blandoga itself, and dealing with one urchin stuck to his side was child's play.
* * *
"Just to repeat: if the bracelet's function stops, you're eliminated. The bracelet's barrier activates on direct physical hits from magic or mana-infused attacks."
The teaching assistant reminded the students of the bracelet's functions once more.
The activation condition was simple.
If a magic or mana-infused attack looked about to strike the body, the barrier deployed.
Damage to the barrier didn't dissipate; it accumulated, and once it exceeded the limit, the bracelet broke. That's when it lost its light.
There was a safety measure too.
Emergency teleport.
"If the barrier breaks, the bracelet stays put, and the wearer is forcibly teleported outside the exam grounds. So no worries about getting injured if it shatters."
It was intricate magic.
But with so many restrictions, it wasn't practical for real combat.
It had been developed for exams at educational institutions like this, after all.
In any case, the teaching assistants reiterated the rules to the students and stepped back.
From starting point 1 to 11.
The students stood on the circular magic circles, awaiting transport.
"Begin."
At Professor Parun's command, the teaching assistants activated the teleport circles.
Fsssh—
Light poured from the eleven magic circles, and teleportation began shortly after.
Flash!
The students vanished in an instant.
"I'll bring up the internal footage now."
Professor Parun nodded as he sat in the chair a teaching assistant had brought.
A massive screen soon appeared before him.
Divided into dozens of panels.
As the two teaching assistants and about ten assistants stared at the screens, busily preparing to score, Professor Parun leisurely took in the views.
The teleported students soon appeared on the screens beyond.
'Dalia and Damian at the same starting point.'
He checked the movements of a few other standout students as well.
To a normal person, the screens would whirl by too fast to follow even one properly, but Professor Parun absorbed it all effortlessly.
But then.
Flick...!
One screen showing a starting point flicked and cut to black.
"Wha-what?"
The teaching assistant and assistants blurted out in confusion.
"Wh-what's going on?"
"Hey! Didn't you check the Magic Eye properly?!"
"No, I... We definitely checked it. No issues, but why is this happening? I swear we checked it all night yesterday."
One assistant paled and replied to the teaching assistant's angry voice.
'Oh no... We checked everything.'
The Magic Eye served to score students' performances, but safety was a key reason too.
They had basic safeguards with the bracelets, but they couldn't just leave the students unsupervised.
While scoring via Magic Eye, the assistants and teaching staff had a duty to respond immediately to any emergencies.
And now one Magic Eye had gone dead.
'Ha.'
This was a write-up offense.
His evaluation was already shaky enough without a disciplinary report.
His head spun amid the teaching assistant's harsh reprimands ringing in his ears.
Professor Parun spoke up.
"Enough. I checked the Magic Eye myself too. No problems. Focus on grasping the situation rather than assigning blame."
"......Y-yes, Professor."
The teaching assistant, who had been raging like an angry ogre, instantly calmed.
The assistant let out a relieved breath.
"So, which starting point?"
At Professor Parun's question, the teaching assistant glared at the assistant.
The assistant stammered in response to the look.
"Uh... Number 3."
"Number 3."
No particularly memorable student came to mind.
Well, there was one.
'Aster, was it?'
The new student who'd clashed with the Doranpega second son in the great hall on the first day of the entrance ceremony.
Even for Professor Parun, who cared little for most things, it was memorable.
No other student caused a scene on entrance ceremony day.
"No problem, I'm sure."
"R-right? There's a Magic Eye right at the entrance to starting point 3 anyway."
Professor Parun nodded calmly at the assistant's words.
"Yes, it had better be. You won't have to write that report if nothing happens."
"......"
The assistant clamped his mouth at the pointed remark.
Probably nothing would happen.
Statistically speaking.
The Trial Gate ran maybe three or four times a year. It had gone on for nearly ten years.
Not a single accident in all that time.
"Keep trying to restore it just in case. If it's a magical circuit issue, we can fix it from here."
"Y-yes!"
The assistant hurried to the control panel in the corner.
'No accidents... Please, no accidents.'
Even as he moved, he glanced at the Magic Eye feed for starting point 3.
He prayed the students there would exit the starting point quickly.
Meanwhile, at starting point 3, cut off from the outside.
"Insolence tax, 320 gold. From now on, it's 1 silver per hit."
Aster's voice echoed through the area.