Things Have Gone Seriously Wrong...
I knew Camilla’s family ran a corporation and had built up serious wealth. But I never dreamed their company had connections to the Helian government—and not just any part of it, but the military.
The Helian military is notoriously closed off. Even within the government research labs that technically belong to the same administration, only the director and his secretary had any real ties to the top brass. Yet a mere corporation had a direct line to the military? And one thick enough to personally procure military supplies?
I was planning to deal with Camilla’s family next year or the year after… Looks like I’ll have to move my investigation up a bit.
The Escal Group, the corporation run by Camilla’s family, was colluding with demons. But in terms of importance? They weren’t that significant. Even if they provided support to the demons, their weight within the final boss’s faction wasn’t particularly large. They were basically just one of the money pipelines. Removing them wouldn’t cause any real problems for the demon side, but the moment they were gone, the demons who’d lost their meal ticket would swarm like rabid dogs. That was exactly what Camilla’s family was—a bomb waiting to go off.
But now I’d learned they weren’t just connected to the demons, but to the Helian military as well. This information hadn’t even appeared in the game, yet its importance was undoubtedly top-tier.
It lets me build the hypothesis that Camilla’s family is funneling military goods to the demon side.
If they really were passing military equipment to the demons, I might have to personally burn Camilla’s family to the ground… No, let’s stop the dark thoughts there. Based on the game’s information, the appropriate response for Camilla’s family was simply shrinking their corporate power.
“Alright, one hundred! One hundred—anyone want to go higher?”
Completely unaware of what I was thinking, Camilla stood on the platform calling out bids with perfect composure. Still, an improved mana activator for a hundred? At that price, it was definitely worth picking up a few. I couldn’t use it myself, but there wasn’t a better elixir to give to the others… Yeah, this much I could cover with my own money.
“Five hundred.”
I held up the bidding paddle Camilla had handed out earlier and called the number. Every eye in the room turned toward me.
“P-Plea? Five hundred is five hundred million… Are you really going to buy it?”
“Five hundred million for a decent elixir doesn’t seem that bad, does it?”
“It hasn’t even been properly tested yet… Though the stability is fine.”
“I know. I’ll bid five hundred.”
The rich upperclassmen around me probably didn’t know much about it, but I’d used this stuff in the game and even injected it into my own body. Five hundred million to get it in the early stages was actually a bargain.
Camilla stared at me with suspicious eyes, but apparently deciding that good was good, she banged the gavel and finalized my bid.
“Five hundred, sold! The item will be distributed individually after the auction ends.”
The auction continued after that, but I didn’t find anything else that caught my interest. Several more elixirs came up, but none performed as well as the improved mana activator I’d just bought, and they weren’t cheap either. After that last bid, my paddle never went up again.
“…No one wants to bid thirteen hundred or higher on the final item, the military mana cannon? Then this concludes the Kardi Academy auction. Thank you all!”
Applause rippled through the participants. Camilla smiled in satisfaction and drew the curtain over the display platform.
A short while later, after the other upperclassmen had collected their items and left, I headed to a corner of the storage room to pick up what I’d bid on.
“Ah, P… Plea, you bid on three doses of the improved mana activator, correct?”
“That’s right.”
“Please wait a moment.”
Camilla rummaged through some boxes in the storage room before handing me three palm-sized boxes labeled with caution stickers.
“Here you are.”
“I can check them, right?”
“O-Of course.”
In that case, I didn’t hesitate. I opened one of the boxes and found a capsule-type mana activator stored inside a metal case. The one I’d used before had been a gaseous form, so this was a liquid potion. Since it was the improved version, it was obviously a different form from the original I’d inhaled. It matched exactly what I’d seen in the game.
“Then… gulp!”
I closed my eyes tightly, placed just a single drop of the contents on my tongue, and swallowed.
“My tongue feels numb…”
It was like eating concentrated mala hotpot—the tingling sensation. Then came the chills, neuralgia, and a pain that felt like it was drilling into my brain.
“Ugh…”
A groan soaked in pain slipped out as the agony hit me all at once. Still, it wasn’t nearly as bad as the original before improvement, so I didn’t roll around on the floor screaming like an idiot. But to Camilla standing in front of me, my twisted expression must have looked shocking.
“P-Plea?! I knew there were side effects…!”
“Mm… No, I’m fine… Just got a little dizzy for a second.”
I clicked my tongue, and the pain had already faded considerably. They must have improved it properly after taking my near-death shock last time seriously. The efficacy had decreased along with the pain, but even so, it was still a perfectly respectable elixir.
“The effect’s pretty good.”
“Y-You’re really okay, right?”
“I said I’m fine. By the way, this really is a mana activator procured from the military, huh?”
“O-Of course it is. I, Camilla, heir to the Escal Corporation, would never commit fraud with the quality of my goods.”
“Did you hear that, Director?”
I tapped the brooch pinned to my chest. With a crackling sound, someone’s voice came through.
Military goods leaking out… This is definitely a big problem. I’ll have to find out where exactly it’s coming from.
“Huh? What does that…”
Camilla let out a dazed voice, clearly failing to understand the situation. To put it simply…
“What else? It means I belong to the Helian government.”
You’ve just been caught red-handed for smuggling.
I left Camilla behind—begging and pleading with tears in her eyes, saying her father would kill her if he found out and to please let her off just this once—and practically ran out of the auction house.
“Plea? Why are you running like that?”
“Just had some business to take care of. I’m done with everything, so let’s meet up with Siwoo now.”
I joined up with Aria, who was standing at the entrance to the street stalls after apparently buying everything she wanted, and the three of us headed toward the private training ground where we’d gathered a few days ago.
“You’re finally here?”
“You got here early.”
When Aria and I entered the training ground, Siwoo, who had arrived first, waved at us.
“I got here a little while ago and was just warming up.”
“Hmm? How diligent.”
His body still had faint traces of moisture, as if he’d just washed, and a towel he’d apparently used to dry off lay nearby.
“The midterms—no, the event—starts in earnest tomorrow, so I figured I should practice as much as possible.”
Siwoo smiled brightly and patted the personal weapon hanging at his waist. As expected of the protagonist; he really was endlessly sincere. Seeing him do something so admirable, how could I just let it slide?
I opened the handbag I was carrying (enchanted with spatial expansion alchemy) and took out the two improved mana activators I’d bought earlier.
“What’s that?”
“An improved mana activator made by the Helian military.”
“What’s that?”
“…An elixir worth five hundred million each.”
The two of them had shown lukewarm reactions to the name “improved mana activator,” but the moment I said five hundred million per dose, they jumped up from their seats in shock.
“Five hundred million?! You really are a bourgeois…”
“It’s not quite like that…”
I did have a lot of money, but only a tiny fraction of it was actually accessible to me. Most of it was tied up in the national treasury, so spending a billion today had been quite the stretch. But Aria and Siwoo, unaware of that fact, simply stared at me—at the five-hundred-million-per-bottle elixir—with envious eyes.
“Don’t look at me like that. I’m not the one who’s going to drink it anyway.”
“You’re not drinking it? Then why did you…”
Siwoo’s words didn’t continue. The number of expensive elixirs I’d suddenly pulled out was exactly two. And the way I’d shown them off so deliberately. His brain couldn’t dismiss it as coincidence.
“Looks like you noticed. These are for you two.”
“Wait, Plea? We can’t just accept something this expensive! Besides, an elixir worth a billion should have an effect on you too…”
“Well… it would have some effect, I suppose.”
But how much effect could it really have? The improvement had reduced the stat gains, and even though I’d only taken a single drop earlier, I’d almost screamed from the pain. If I drank two whole bottles, the agony would be unbearable. Why would I put myself through that?
“You two drink them. I already took the original version before it was improved, so I don’t really need any more.”
“The original?”
“There’s something even more effective than this. Anyway, just drink it when I tell you to, okay?”
When my eyes started to narrow dangerously, Siwoo and the others seemed to realize I wasn’t going to back down. They quietly picked up the mana activators from inside the boxes.
“…Thank you.”
“Thank you, Plea. I’ll enjoy it.”
Siwoo bowed his head in gratitude while Aria gave a bright, eye-crinkling smile. I urged them to drink quickly in return for their thanks. Without hesitation, they downed the mana activators I’d given them.
And of course, the two of them proceeded to roll around on the floor right afterward.