Chapter 94
Chapter 94
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 94
Chapter Title: Gathering the Team
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As everyone had predicted, the next day Delaiten was in an uproar right from the morning school commute, turned completely upside down.
“Hey, did you hear? The young master from the Ludwig house is gonna smash Griffinballer!”
“What? Isn’t Griffinballer that nobles’ Royal Club?”
“I dunno! Anyway, they say he even quit the student council to do it?”
Unlike before, when it had only been a big deal among the first-years, even the skilled upperclassmen from second and third year were lighting up with interest.
“Man, that young master sure knows how to make school life fun.”
“At least we’ve got something to watch before the festival, right?”
“The match is in ten days?”
Those excited voices carried on the summer breeze, reaching vividly even to Elin Ludwig’s office.
“As pathetic as they are, they’ve got ears on both sides of their heads, so of course those idiots’ chatter reaches us.”
When Rain, standing across from her desk in the office, replied, “Yeah, I can hear it fine,” Elin’s fist came crashing down on his crown!
“What? ‘Yeah, I can hear it fine~’?! How much more of a beating do you want?! Are you insane? What kind of brainless idiot sets up a mess like this?!”
“Ow, owww!!! Sorry! Spare me!”
“This Griffinballer is a Royal Club with a thousand years of history! My dad, me, your mom and dad—they’re all alumni! My brother even teamed up with the chancellor to win the national tournament!”
And yet you’re gonna dismantle it?
Quitting the student council on top of that?
Only after delivering a full fifteen smacks did Elin finally sigh and slump back into her chair, pressing her forehead against a throbbing headache.
“Do you even realize what you’ve done?”
“Sorry, Aunt. But it was a personal matter I couldn’t back down from.”
“Fine, you pathetic fool. Get out. You’ve got no time to waste with basic training to finish in ten days.”
Her reaction left him with considerable doubt.
Why let it slide so easily?
Wouldn’t it be normal to pry into what that personal issue even was?
“You’re not mad? About me quitting the student council…….”
“You pathetic idiot, why would I be mad about that? My brother or I would’ve done the exact same thing in that spot.”
“Huh?”
Far from angry, she was even proud that he’d made the decision faster than anyone else among the six student council members.
Even among the outstanding second- and third-year executives.
The reason Elin was mad was that his solution was far too reckless.
“Maya’s unreasonable demand could’ve been shot down easily if you’d just told the faculty or the chancellor.”
“But…… I thought I needed to teach them a lesson before it was too late.”
“Teach who?”
“That your magic skills aren’t all that great.”
For a moment, Elin’s eyes wavered as her brother’s face overlapped with her nephew’s. Then a hollow laugh escaped her.
Yeah, that’s it.
Like father, like son.
You’ve got that fighting spirit born from a sense of justice, just like him. The same one that earned him everyone’s respect.
“Ninety out of a hundred.”
“Huh……?”
“A Ludwig heir needs that kind of boldness, obviously. Otherwise, the lowly likes of the Ten Great Houses would dare to climb over us later.”
Her nephew, who’d been bracing for more scolding and shrinking back, tilted his head in confusion. Elin flashed a sharp smile.
“But don’t think this genius professor Elin Ludwig will go easy on you just because you’re family?”
“……!”
“I’m gonna go all out to defend this club. Train till you’re half-dead and come back. Unless you wanna splash shit on the family name.”
He bowed his head and left the office, where Logan had been waiting outside, holding his breath. Logan made a huge fuss.
“Are you alright, young master? They didn’t chop off a limb or anything?”
“She just said to do my best.”
Logan and Nora exchanged glances, then tilted their heads almost in unison.
“Young master seems to get along great with all the scary professors somehow.”
“My aunt’s family, so that’s fine, but the professors?”
“Our senior apprentice! He’s super scary, but he only praises you!”
“That’s what’s scary? I thought he was fun.”
If the first-year tiger professor was Owen, the second-year tiger was Elin, and third-year was head professor Marhena.
For Rain, who had all three on his side, it was a hard topic to understand.
Anyway, with the biggest hurdle(?)—his talk with Elin—cleared, it was time for the main event.
“Alright, let’s go recruit some teammates!”
“Let’s do it!”
“Yay★”
They split up one by one to bring back teammates. To drag in close junior students, the targets were as follows.
“Then I’ll go get Lilian.”
“I’ll get Kaden. He listens to most of what I say♣”
“Cool, I’ll take Weiber. We’re in the same class, so we’re pretty tight.”
“Huh?”
“Hmm★?”
“Why?”
Weiber’s sharp personality meant that, excluding Kaden, he had hardly any close friends among the Eight Great Academies’ juniors.
Kaden actually got along with everyone regardless of personality, so he was friendly with all……
Either way, that’s why Logan was now fidgeting nervously in front of the [Soyang] class, clutching his chest!
“Um, Lilian……?”
“Hm?”
“Um, Logan’s asking for you…….”
Lilian, preparing for first period, raised one eyebrow and looked at Logan.
Not just Lilian—the other cadets were lighting up with interest too, wondering if some fight had broken out between juniors.
When Lilian stood face-to-face with Logan, the tense silence amplified to its peak.
“What?”
He broke into a dumb smile, fumbling his words annoyingly long before finally squeezing out a voice.
A high-pitched, cracking one.
Logan was nervous.
He might have muscles every guy admired, but the law that turned men into romantics in front of a girl they liked applied to Logan too.
“If it’s not urgent, I’d like to go back in.”
If it were before, she’d have ignored him and gone in (she wouldn’t have even come out), but for some reason, her attitude seemed a bit kinder now. Logan steeled himself.
“W-well, um, you know…… about Young Master Rain doing magic volleyball?”
“More or less.”
“His t-team’s short on members, so, uh, I was wondering if you could, y’know, help out, haha…….”
He’d gotten the main point out.
Now, how to convince her.
Lilian hated wasting time and avoided mingling with others to an extreme.
So he figured she’d reject right away and racked his brain on persuasion.
“Magic volleyball teammate?”
Curiously, Lilian stroked her chin, looking lost in thought. Then she gave a baffling reply.
“No reason I couldn’t.”
“W-what?”
“I’m not in any club yet. And I’ve got time.”
What was going on?
Did Lilian like him after all?
Had all the cold shoulders been from shyness?
‘Then we gotta start thinking about how many kids first, right?!’
Three daughters would be nice……
He pondered how to convince both chancellors and their parents, how to spend old age, what kind of grandfather to be for the grandkids.
As Logan scowled deep in thought, Lilian, mistaking it for suspicion, cleared her throat and shook her head once.
“No need to doubt my intentions. I just owe Rain Ludwig a debt.”
Logan, already simulating wedding talk in his head, didn’t hear her.
Meanwhile, outside the classroom in the courtyard, Weiber slung his leather bag sloppily over his shoulder, stretching with annoyance.
“School life’s a real joke. Some of us are busting our asses just to graduate somehow.”
Kaden, walking beside him, scribbled on his notebook with his fountain pen. Lifelong mute, he couldn’t speak.
[Can’t say I don’t get it. Third-years threw down the gauntlet to the student council, so it’s hard to call it a joke.]
“That guy treats everything like a joke! He gets off watching guys like us grovel! He got into uni easy, that’s why he talks big!”
Kaden tilted his head slightly. Weiber shook his head with a sigh.
“Finals were a bummer too. If he wasn’t some noble brat, you’d have won.”
Kaden tilted his head slightly again. His emotional gestures were always this subtle.
[I lost ‘cause my magic wasn’t enough;; Even if the judges were all academy affiliates, same result?]
“No, why do you keep taking that guy’s side?”
[Not taking sides, it’s facts.]
He was trying to comfort him somehow…… As Weiber swallowed his irritation with a breath,
“Kaden, found you★”
At that chilling voice, Weiber tensed and shrank back, while Kaden casually turned around.
“The genius (disaster) young master needs magic volleyball teammates—let’s help♣”
Without waiting for agreement, Nora grabbed Kaden’s collar and dragged him. But Kaden’s notebook reply was even more ridiculous.
[Yeah sure gg]
Weiber blinked blankly, then blocked Nora’s path the next instant. Nora grinned and tilted her head.
“What, Weiber wanna join too?”
“Don’t make me laugh. You nuts? Nora, you’re always like that, but Kaden, why help that jerk?”
[He asked so I help ㅇㅇ;;;]
Oh yeah, Kaden was that type too. The classic nice guy who gets backstabbed for saying yes to everyone……
As he sighed, the voice Weiber hated most rang out.
“Oh, found you.”
The genius young master who’d entered with that infamous title, now undisputed No.1 among Delaiten’s first-years.
Rain Ludwig.
Not just family prestige—even his looks were peerless. He approached waving cheerfully, as if they’d always been buddies.
“Weiber~ Let’s do magic volleyball together.”
Weiber’s eyes narrowed. Was this provocation? If not, why ask so casually?
“I refuse.”
“Why?”
“Why…… You really don’t know?”
Rain tilted his head at the question, his eyes sparkling with pure innocence.
What a joke.
Better nail this down now to avoid future hassle.
“I hate you. And it’s not just you. I’m sick of and disgusted by nobles as a whole.”
So get lost.
Even with his spikiest, most aggressive tone, Rain calmly tilted his head the other way.
“Why?”
Watching that made irritation—no, rage—boil up.
“Do you know how I made it this far in Rohwinen Academy?”
“?”
“To even get in, my dad did 108 bows for a year! A full year, till his knees were raw!”
Recalling his father’s ordeal, his voice rose unbidden.
First-years chatting amiably on their way into the Yongmyeon Hall started glancing over with surprised faces, one by one.
Weiber ignored them, glaring sharply at Rain.
“And even after getting in, I had to bust my ass like crazy not to get kicked out. That’s how I climbed here.”
“Oh.”
“But you nobles? You just lap up everything I barely achieved because you were born lucky! How unfair is that? That’s why I hate you, that’s why!”
It was pure rage.
The root of the malice toward nobles buried deep in Weiber’s heart……
And nobles’ reactions to such outbursts were always the same.
Screaming rudeness, or smirking ‘Then be born a noble’……
No logic in their responses.
‘So used to it I’m not surprised anymore. Don’t even expect better.’
To noble creatures, commoners were like beasts—beneath notice.
No need to respond.
Who consoles a stray dog mid-bark, asking why bark so hard?
‘Right now we wear the same uniform as cadets, but they think it’s just for show—our roots are different.’
So Weiber, who’d risen purely on effort, was always a thorn in their side, an outrageous existence.
“Shouting like that, you must’ve really worked hard.”
But something was off.
This noble in front of him…… lacked something. The innate noble superiority that dismissed commoner effort from the start.
“Too sad★”
[ㅠ....]
Unlike those two bastards snickering beside him, watching the scene.
“I get why you hate nobles.”
Rain nodded as if finally understanding, then said something incomprehensible.
“But for that reason, no need to hate me, right?”
“?”
“Weiber, how many hours a day did you study?”
“Twelve was baseline.”
Rain smirked at the defiant answer.
“Eighteen.”
“?”
“Average eighteen hours. Every day since I was nine, invested in magic study. Six more than you?”
His eyes and voice, purely reminiscing, held no shadow of deceit.
Because it was true.
As Lin before his journey, as Rain before enrollment, the boy had always devoted that time solely to magic.
“You hate me thinking I got here without effort?”
“……!”
“But turns out I worked harder? So no reason to hate me.”