Chapter 21
Chapter 21
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 21
Chapter Title: Irksome Side Effects
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After the magic duel, quite a few side effects cropped up. Truly annoying ones.
“Hello, Young Master Ludwig. You know me, right? We’re in the same class...”
“I’m in the dorm room right next to yours...”
“I met you in my dreams...”
It was the same old commute to school, and he’d just walked into the classroom like always, but these girls were clinging to him, chattering away annoyingly. Especially the female students.
“Hold on, no need to tell me your name.”
If you were expecting some sweet line like, “I already know all your names...”, then you didn’t know Rain at all.
“No intention of memorizing them or getting chummy. Besides, I’m terrible with names.”
The students froze with shocked looks on their faces, but then, as nobles from great houses, they giggled, saying he was playing high-class pranks.
“No, I’m not joking.”
“Oh my, Young Master, you’re too much.”
“I said I’m not joking.”
Even after he said that, they burst into laughter. Rain’s expression hardened as he stared at them. Have these idiots all gone mad...?
“Look at that, the Jerk Heir’s being a jerk first thing in the morning...”
“Deceiving us right from the start—talk about some next-level jerkitude...”
The guys started whispering like that and slapped him with another weird nickname. He didn’t care much what others thought of him.
“Hey, make way.”
At that moment, a voice rang out in the classroom like a frigid sandstorm. The thorns mixed into its clear tone prickled everyone’s backs.
Christa Warden.
Boys and girls alike immediately stepped aside or scurried back to their seats.
“Hmph.”
Christa snorted audibly as she brushed past Rain. Gertrude Fenton, following behind her, leaned in with a playful smile and whispered to him.
“Maybe your real nickname’s Skirt-Chaser Heir?”
Skirt-Chaser Heir... Where the hell did that come from? Somehow, he had even more nicknames than Lin.
He took his seat, but Christa, already in the adjacent one, pointedly turned toward the window and ignored him completely.
She sat so still, she might as well have been a statue.
“Why do you seem pissed?”
“......”
“Hey.”
“......”
“I asked why you’re pissed.”
After he kept poking at her like a beehive, Christa crossed her legs and haughtily lifted her chin.
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t talk to me. I told you back then, didn’t I? I don’t know trash like you.”
“Oh, sorry. Won’t act like I know you from now on.”
“And I’m not pissed, okay? If anything, I’m thrilled.”
Christa suddenly crossed her arms in an arrogant noble pose. The expression on her face was haughty.
“I was sick of watching you pretend to be weak when you’re actually crazy strong. You beat me, Christa Warden. So strut around with some pride.”
This girl was saying something similar to Aunt Elin. Do nobles have to be strong no matter what?
“But now, crushing you properly has some real value, I guess? Before, beating you would’ve just gotten me mocked as the girl who beat a dropout heir. But now that you’ve taken down Chaihak, the whole landscape’s changed.”
“?”
“Look forward to it, Rain Ludwig. The day Christa Warden flattens you like clay. So until then, don’t lose to anyone. If you do, I won’t let it slide.”
Christa slammed her desk and stood, glaring down at Rain provocatively. When he didn’t look away, a sharp silence formed.
‘The dropout heir from Ribarden vs. the top enrollee...’
‘What an epic matchup...’
Then Rain glanced at Christa’s desk and raised an eyebrow.
“First period’s Owen. You gonna take out your textbook or what? You’ll get points docked.”
“Oh right, yeah. Nearly had a disaster there.”
But that silence ended absurdly as Christa sat back down and rummaged for her textbook.
Gertrude Fenton in the front row sighed and pinched her brow.
‘You’re gonna do it, do it right to the end...’
She’d spent all last night practicing just that declaration speech.
* * *
Between classes at school and rune research after, the weekend rolled around before he knew it.
“We have a problem.”
He’d arranged to meet Karen, the lowly librarian, at the library that weekend. She glanced around cautiously before speaking softly.
Here’s what happened.
He’d inquired at all five publishing houses in the Empire, but most books on Tureina were temporarily out of print.
“Why are they out of print?”
“I don’t know the details. Apparently, the Light Dragon Church’s heresy inquisitors, the ‘Golden Children’, suddenly added all Tureina-related books to their censorship list this year.”
“That’s weird. Did Tureina’s books get branded as heresy?”
It was baffling. Unless Tureina herself had committed heresy, why...?
And if they were inquisiting heresy, why not do it while she was alive? Why suddenly after she’s dead?
“Have you read the book?”
“Of course. The central librarians consider it required reading. She was the disciple of Grand Mage Lin and Fire Dragon’s Shrine Maiden Fride, and left achievements just as great as theirs.”
That girl?
He nearly burst out laughing.
“Anything particularly weird in it? Like explaining the upsides of black magic.”
“Weird parts? From what I saw, no. And it’s a biography, so they’d have scrubbed anything suspicious anyway.”
So Tureina hadn’t messed with black magic?
That was a relief, but...
If not, then why?
No point racking his brains here—it wouldn’t yield answers—but the situation had definitely gotten complicated.
“Guess we’ll have to hit the black market then.”
“The black market?”
“Everything turns up there. From heresy-banned books to abyss-corroded magic tools. We’ll find Tureina’s books easy.”
“But the problem is that Tureina’s books are under heresy review.”
Exactly. No need to explain how sky-high the prices would be, and crucially, he couldn’t borrow clan funds for it.
If the clan bought it and got caught by the ‘Golden Children’, things would get messy.
The Ludwig house wouldn’t end up burned at the stake for heresy, of course... but it’d just cause needless hassle for his parents.
‘Buying it personally changes everything.’
If issues arose in the process, he could claim, “I just wanted to read it out of respect for Tureina.” Worst case, it’d end as his personal problem.
“This is getting way too big... I’m so sorry, Young Master. I’ll chip in as much as I can.”
“How much do you make a month?”
“Thirty Hyunmu silver coins.”
A day laborer earned one silver a day, so it wasn’t bad. But for the black market, it was laughably short.
“No clue on current prices, but we’d need at least three gold to be safe.”
“Three gold coins?”
Karen’s eyes trembled.
It took a hundred Hyunmu silvers to exchange for one Hwangryong gold. She coughed like she’d choked just thinking about it.
“This is bad. You said you can’t use clan funds, Young Master... And my salary’s nowhere near enough.”
Yeah, time to think here. He’d figured he’d never worry about money after reincarnating into this body...
How to make some cash?
Cast spells on the street and sell to people who need them?
Rejected. Illegal without a mage license (issued automatically upon ranking exam).
‘Magic tutor...?’
Rejected.
He was known as the dropout heir. Who’d hire him? And even if they did, who’d take lessons?
Plus, those were usually year-long contracts. He needed quick cash.
‘Something that takes time but pays big?’
Life’s ultimate truth: high risk, high return. Risk is the stake... His biggest stake was his life.
Risk his life for money?
Wait, no need to overthink. Rain nodded in satisfaction, having reached the answer.
“Don’t worry. I had something I wanted to do anyway, so I’ll handle it on the side.”
“Something you wanted to do?”
“I was planning to do some magic experiments anyway, so I figured I’d register as an adventurer. Make some money while I’m at it.”
Not out of the goodness of his heart.
He was going to adventure anyway, and the pay from that had no real use otherwise. Just killing two birds with one stone.
“Adventurer? A great house heir doing such lowly work...? No, Young Master. This could get me disciplined, and the central library—”
He brushed off Karen’s worries with a wave and quickly finished what he had to say.
“—Should take about two to three weeks to earn the cash and snag the book from the black market. Way faster, right?”
“......!”
“Let’s meet back here then.”
With that settled, time to head downtown and register as an adventurer quick. Weekends were the only days off-campus trips were allowed.
It seemed trivial, but the problem that would later blow up huge hit the next day, when both were absent.
The head librarian, reviewing the week’s loan ledger with the staff, raised an eyebrow.
“What’s this? Tureina’s biography checked out by... Rain Ludwig?”
Everyone knew the boy making waves at school lately. But the head’s reason for mentioning it was graver.
“What the hell? How’d this get loaned? First-years can’t borrow in their first semester. Who approved this?”
A wrinkled first-class librarian scanned the ledger and let out a short groan.
“Time stamp says Karen. The girl who’s been here about four months.”
“Where is she now?”
“It’s her day off...”
“Didn’t she get the memo on first-years not borrowing in semester one?”
“Maybe, but... looks like Rain pushed hard. She’s not the type to mess up like this.”
Most librarians knew how sharp Karen was. So a second-class one piped up thoughtfully.
“Ah, Professor Elin’s been coming a lot. Maybe she wrote the name wrong?”
“Karen’s handwriting is messy, so it could pass for Elin at a glance. She wrote Ra like El.”
“And with all the Rain this, Rain that lately, she might’ve just scribbled Rain absentmindedly.”
Partially true. Karen had been that flustered.
Not because of Rain, but her assigned book vanishing like a lie, then out of print due to the ‘Golden Children’ when reordering.
And then the absurd chain: the great house heir saying he’d buy it personally while adventuring.
The second-class laughed.
“Plus, Karen’s been sneaking off for secret meetings with Rain lately. Girls make mistakes like that when they fall in love.”
Absurd logic, but the female librarians nodded like they got it. The men tilted their heads.
But it was the most reasonable explanation. Karen wouldn’t screw up like this, and Professor Elin had been visiting often.
That solved everything neatly. And unlike other first-years, Rain was clan blood—any issues would resolve easily.
“Alright, if that’s it, no problem. After the meeting, fix the borrower name properly. Professor Elin Ludwig.”