Debt
Debt
He woke at dawn. As he did every morning, Ian finished his pre-dawn training.
"Hoo."
Lately, he'd been gradually increasing the intensity of his regimen.
The timing of the "Combat Training" event was drawing near. It was a major event that would dictate grades and scholarship standings. From a narrative standpoint, it served as the foundation for the scenarios yet to unfold.
'This is about when the villains start showing their faces.'
He had no intention of meddling in every single incident, of course. Right now, he was too busy just keeping his body—no, getting his body into shape.
His plan was to observe the story from a step removed.
He meant to maintain that degree of distance.
After all, Pongpongi was a presence that vanished from the story for a while after the suicide attempt incident anyway.
'It'd be trouble if the story branches went off course for nothing.'
He returned to his lodging, reaffirming his commitment to relentless training and growth.
"What's this?"
What welcomed Ian back was a bill.
Bills were plastered all over the door like barnacles.
It was cheap lodging near the academy to begin with.
Having demand notices stuck on top of that, it truly...
"Has a real 'my life's proper fucked' vibe."
A dry laugh slipped out.
A laugh born of sheer disbelief.
Just how much debt did you rack up to have these stuck on your door?
Care for a look?
"Oh."
After checking the bill's contents, he barely suppressed the torrent of curses that threatened to erupt first thing in the morning.
"Pongpongi, you crazy bastard..."
The amount of debt was anything but ordinary.
He'd had a vague idea it existed, and he'd resolved to check on it and prepare soon, but...
"200 gold...?"
Two hundred gold coins.
Converted to his old world's won, that was two hundred million.
Practically the maximum line of credit Pongpongi could take out under his status.
In cruder terms, he'd squeezed out every last drop.
"Please let this be land he bought in the capital area."
There was no way that Pongpongi bastard had done that.
Naturally, he'd dumped his entire fortune into the heroines.
His head spun.
If there was a silver lining, it was that the interest rate itself was substantially low.
Apparently, there were special tuition loans or living expense loans for Lichten Academy students.
In terms of his old world's South Korea, Lichten was the equivalent of a top medical school. In some ways, it was only natural.
"At this rate, it's bankruptcy."
The 100 silver coins Pongpongi had left behind were his entire net worth.
Just the interest due this month alone was 30 silver coins. Factoring in other upcoming living expenses, he figured he could last two months at most.
"...And tuition's coming up soon. I'll have to land a scholarship for that somehow."
A chill ran down his spine.
But he wasn't completely at a loss.
He'd already been thinking of any number of ways to earn money. He simply hadn't acted on them.
He'd judged it better to focus on growth where possible. Though now, the situation had changed.
"For starters, the most effective way to earn money..."
Stocks.
Huh? Stocks in a fantasy world?
That was the thought he'd had when he first encountered stock content in Fanta X Aca. But when you trade directly with pen and paper instead of through a phone, you naturally realize—ah, stock trading has existed for quite a long time, huh.
In any case, apart from the hassle of having to visit the stock trading guild in person to buy and sell each time, stocks were the most efficient means of making money.
He knew the incidents that would occur and the guilds whose roles would become crucial in those incidents.
Fortunately, this was still before the full-scale events had begun.
Ian pulled out a blank notebook.
[ Eco Mana ]
Roughly speaking, it was a new guild whose stock would start trading in about two weeks.
The Eco Mana Guild was a guild that would create a new type of mana to replace Fanta X Aca's most critical resource, "mana." Basically, in Fanta X Aca where magical engineering was extremely advanced, the value of the resource called mana was enormous.
The Eco Mana Guild's stock was initially treated as nothing more than a pathetic fraud...
But later, the guild master staged a performance running a mana train using "Eco Mana" and set a legendary stock price surge record on the Lichten securities market.
"Though it was a fraud."
Well.
Even fraud isn't a problem if you know it's coming.
It means you just eat and run.
Ian nodded with satisfaction.
The real issue was something else.
"Truth is, with stocks, seed money is what matters."
That was the problem.
Right now, he had no cash on hand.
"Should I take on some requests?"
If he registered at the request guild, he could receive a few commissions. But if he carelessly took on the wrong one, he could end up as prey for the non-virgin heroines. That deserved some caution.
He'd need to think this over a bit.
"Time's already gotten away from me."
Before he knew it, it was already time for class.
Not a single day passed that wasn't busy.
◆
"This afternoon, we will be forming combat training squads. As this is a joint class gathering one class each from the Magic, Priest, Reconnaissance, and Knight Departments, I advise everyone to start planning teams of no more than four members now."
After morning classes ended, Violet, the Mezai professor, detained the students for a moment, saying she had an announcement.
"In combat training, a number of personnel suffer major injuries every year. Please bear this in mind."
The classroom atmosphere heated up considerably.
From the name alone, it was "Combat Training."
It was training where you fought gigantic monsters as if in real combat. While they weren't real monsters but reproductions created through magical engineering, their strength and ferocity were faithfully reproduced, so the danger level was clearly on the high side.
"Then, this afternoon, everyone assemble at the Second Training Grounds."
So he had to form a team again.
With Ian's current reputation, he couldn't gather team members the normal way anyway.
'Gathering team members is a lost cause.'
What couldn't be done, couldn't be done.
He gave up quickly and walked outside.
Since afternoon class was outdoors, he figured he'd just eat his packed lunch outside.
He planned to use the spare time for a light run.
After eating and doing a lap around the training grounds, Ian stopped in front of a nearby magical engineering beverage vending machine.
He meant to grab a cold drink.
As a welfare benefit for academy students, one can per day was free.
"Might as well go with something carbonated."
As he was drinking a can he'd gotten, a rather familiar face walking from afar entered his view.
'...Sylvia Laurent?'
Sylvia Laurent. 4.5-Star.
Though her potential was too low to be ranked among Fanta X Aca's official heroines, she was a character popular for her unique charm.
Her notable traits were belonging to the academy's top class "Aether," and being the deputy head of the "Laurent" trading company.
Laurent was a trading company in competitive rivalry with the heroine Emilia's Raymond Company. Though calling it "competitive rivalry" was being generous—there was a bit of a gap.
Anyway.
It meant she was rich.
It meant there was nothing wrong with getting friendly.
Besides, he knew Sylvia's tastes well enough.
Ian quietly watched the blonde passing in front of him. Then he cautiously spoke up.
"Hey there..."
"Hmph."
Sylvia glanced this way briefly, then immediately turned her head away with a prim air.
A slightly furrowed brow, a lightly bitten lip.
A face that anyone could see showed she wasn't pleased with him.
But he had no leeway to call her out on anything.
— Slip!
"Kyaaak!"
Sylvia stepped right on a drink cap someone had discarded.
She tried to regain her balance in a fluster.
— Slosh.
Her planted foot slipped in the mud as well, and she fell spectacularly.
Sylvia, her designer clothes and bag thoroughly soaked in muddy water.
Ian, who had been off to one side, muttered.
"...I was trying to say you should be careful."
Sylvia got up and stomped over, angry.
"You. You should be careful with that mouth of yours."
An air of displeasure was palpable.
But she didn't curse or threaten beyond that.
Sylvia was, at the end of the day, a haughty young lady.
Ian nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders.
"Hah."
The moment Sylvia let out a sigh and was about to pass by.
Ian murmured in a low voice.
"If you want, I can help. Those clothes."
"...Help? You?"
"Yeah."
"How? Are you going to do my laundry for me or something?"
Sylvia raised the corner of her mouth in a scoffing manner.
Her white face was smeared with mud in places.
Ian nodded.
"I can at least purify you."
"...Purify?"
"Yeah."
"Do you have any idea how difficult that is...!"
"Never mind, just give me your hand."
"So that was your ulterior motive after all..."
She looked interested for a second, then immediately frowned.
A face that said she'd seen every kind of pervert now.
It didn't faze Ian.
It was a look he'd grown accustomed to while playing Fanta X Aca.
"So, are you going to go all the way to the dorm and back? Right now?"
"That's not it, but..."
"Aren't you the deputy head of Laurent? You should be able to calculate the risk and return."
"......"
After a moment's hesitation, Sylvia took his hand.
He knew she would.
Designer clothes. Designer bag.
She was a figure who worked hard to keep her image truly refined and high-class.
To the point of intensely disliking even "commoner goods."
A concept like a haughty second-generation chaebol young lady, you could say?
On top of that, her calculation skills were excellent, so he'd been certain she would take his hand.
'Anyway, this dishwashing trick is surprisingly useful.'
Ian lightly activated his Authority.
Sylvia's soiled clothes and body became spotless in an instant.
"...What is this. How on earth did you...?"
Into the bag of the marveling Sylvia, Ian slipped the bandage he'd taken from his pocket.
"All good? I'm off. Good luck."
With this, he'd scored enough points with this girl.
◆
She was already angry, seeing the Raymond Company so brazenly, yet stealthily, trying to extend its influence even into the academy...
'Ah. Seriously, why is my luck this bad today.'
In an alleyway between some academy buildings.
Sylvia frowned when she saw Ian standing in front of the vending machine.
A tough day, and now she had to tangle with Ian on top of it.
The reason she knew Ian was solely because his rumors were the worst within the academy.
'...I'll be late if I go around.'
After a brief moment of thought, she decided to just pass through, and promptly slipped into the unexpected mud puddle.
Her clothes and bag were ruined, and her dignity along with them. Plus the shame of having shown that to Ian, the academy's officially worst student.
The moment her insides were boiling over.
"All good? Then I'm off."
He really did purify her clothes and body just like that, and Ian left without another word.
"...Huh?"
Her bewilderment lasted only a moment.
Sylvia checked her bag and was shocked.
Even the inside of the bag was impeccably clean.
'The muddy water must have definitely gotten inside the bag.'
A student from a regular faculty class, not even the top class Aether, could handle purification magic this perfectly?
"...Was it a coincidence?"
There was no way.
Had he used some kind of trick?
Sylvia, who had been examining her bag in confusion, stopped in her tracks.
"This is...?"
A small bandage caught her eye.
Come to think of it, there was a small wound on her hand.
But there was no way she could put such a shoddy item on a scion of the Laurent trading company.
It was clear Ian had tossed it inside her bag earlier.
"Hoo."
Sylvia picked up the bandage with her fingertips along with a sigh.
An infinitely low-grade bandage.
It had some childish dog picture drawn on it like a kid's toy.
Her eyebrows trembled faintly.
"Did he think I would use such a commoner's item?"
That soliloquy was brief.
Sylvia looked around her surroundings.
She suddenly swallowed dryly.
Then she looked at the dog picture on the bandage again.
"Hehng..."
A silly sound escaped her lips.
She carefully peeled the bandage and stuck it on her wound.
"So cute... hehe."
A grin. Sylvia lifted the corner of her mouth.
It was a somewhat stupid smile.
Beaming like that was brief.
"Lady Sylvia! You must hurry!"
In an instant, Sylvia's expression turned dead serious.
It didn't take long for her to revert to her original face.
"Yes. Let's go."
In that spot stood a haughty woman once more.