A wealthy, prestigious family ruining itself at the gambling table was something you heard about often in the Empire.
House Pendragon, too, had nearly joined that adage.
Because the head of the house had bet half his fortune on his own son.
Looked at this way, he might seem like a doting father convinced his child was a genius, but surprisingly, Achilles really was a genius.
Like the fairy-tale hero born a mage into a family of swordsmen who goes on to succeed, his son was a darling of talent who'd beaten the heir apparent of a sword family with the spear.
Achilles's father thought.
Betting on a genius like this makes me just a doting father?
I'll show you who's right.
The calm before the storm.
To the brothers of the house who laughed at me, and to those who still laugh, I won't offer a single rebuttal.
The results will tell whether you're pathetic or we are.
The result: both were pathetic.
In the Recruitment Exam, which boasted the worst odds in history, Achilles passed.
It was thanks to escaping elimination by using an explosion Adam had made, right before he was crushed to death by Aicolman's trees.
His body pinned under a tree, Achilles thought.
I can't beat the Archmage anyway, so I'll steal the numbers of fallen applicants.
It might have been a little petty, but it was a truly extraordinary idea.
If only that scene hadn't been broadcast on the screen.
-Pfahahaha!
-Look at that. He came out as his house's representative and he's looting corpses!
-Could anything be more undignified? Head of House Pendragon, why don't you say something?
In the end, House Pendragon won the gamble, but having smeared the family's name, it could be said to have lost the match.
"Achilles, today's your first day at the Palace, isn't it?"
"......."
"I don't intend to reproach you. It must have been the result of your agonizing as a warrior too."
Achilles went out the door without a word.
"The moment you became an Imperial knight, no one can criticize you. You just have to raise your fallen honor again yourself."
The head of the house patted his son on the back and saw him off.
His son's back was hunched from dejection.
"......."
Achilles looked up at the sky with a blank face.
It was weather in contrast to the black sky he'd seen on the day of the exam.
He hired a carriage at the shared-carriage waiting room, passed through the capital's gate, and entered the city.
When Achilles gently closed his eyes, the man he'd met at the exam came to mind.
-What a waste. I used up mana for nothing.
-Ether, you're the type who worries more about mana than about someone about to be crushed to death in front of you.
That man, advancing as he burned down Aicolman's trees, had said this.
-Why aren't you running? Sick of living?
He couldn't see his face, but the spirit he felt from him was different.
Clunk!
"Whoops, there was a rock. Are you all right?"
He put his delusions away.
He put his hand on his chest.
Every time he remembered that moment, his chest felt like it ached.
"Ugh......."
"Um, sir."
"What is it?"
"Please don't make groaning noises back there. It's scary."
Achilles ignored the driver and closed his eyes again.
What is that man?
That courage, not backing down against an Archmage.
He didn't even know his face, but his actions were those of the hero he'd dreamed of since he was a child.
"You're not doing anything weird, are you?"
"Shut up already."
The nobles were all looking for him.
To find out what his magic was, to adopt him and monopolize the honor.
Every one of them harbored greedy desires.
"If I go to the Palace... I'll get to meet him, right?"
Full of anticipation, Achilles handed his pass to the guard and entered the Imperial Palace.
A guard waiting in front of the castle gate instructed him to fill out his personal information.
Name, house, skills. Residence.
The guard, scanning the completed personal information, frowned and handed the document back.
"This is your hometown. Write where you're living now!"
"Don't Imperial knights live here once they become knights?"
"Living space is only given to the head butler or those at the commander level. In case an assassin gets hired in disguise, everyone commutes by default, so go sign a lease on a house first."
Achilles was kicked out of the Imperial Palace.
His face flushed red with embarrassment.
As he stood there, pride wounded, the furious guard's voice came again from beside him.
"Idiot! What are you, a vagrant? Go sign a lease on a house first!"
"Getting worked up over nothing."
"What was that, punk?!"
A black-haired man with a sharp face was glaring at the guard.
He was a successful applicant in the exact same situation as himself.
Achilles's eyes flew open.
'It's him!'
He'd achieved the first meeting with Adam he'd been dreaming of.
***
Following the guard's words, he left the Imperial Palace.
Until then, he didn't let on to Adam that he knew him.
He'd thought it would take at least three months to meet him privately like this, but to think he'd meet him in a place like this.
Achilles couldn't bring himself to approach him first, so he just watched him out of the corner of his eye and then tailed him.
'He has skill like that, and he doesn't even have a house.'
By Achilles's standards, he was an unusual case.
Mages were usually arrogant.
Plenty of people went from adventurers to warriors, but mage was a profession that required at least finishing school.
As a result, mages were nobles, so they were arrogant, and if they were treated like fools, they'd pick a fight with anyone.
But that man's expression didn't change at all, even at the guard's shouting.
'He really is on another level.'
Achilles kept tailing Adam.
He intended to rent a place close to him.
Passing an armor shop, he arrived in the middle of a crowded square.
It was the commercial district.
People from every nation and every walk of life flocked to the Empire's commercial district.
That was why you sometimes got tangled up in something annoying.
"Oho, hello there?"
"Who are you?"
"This humble monk is a mendicant training in the Thousand Buddha Sect. If it's not too much trouble, could you spare some rice?"
"Ah, so you're a beggar."
Adam handed him a single coin.
It was an amount that couldn't buy even a single grain of flour.
"Looking closely, you're quite a fine figure of a man, with good energy."
"I hear that a lot."
"You're a mage? No, an Arcanist."
"How'd you know right away? People usually just call me a mage."
Adam was purely impressed.
"It's easy once you devote yourself to the Thousand Buddha Sect."
"Oho, sounds nice."
Achilles, who'd been watching the scene, looked at the monk and his jaw dropped.
'The Thousand Buddha Sect is that cult from Hosho Kingdom!'
"Do you think the way of the Goddess Church is right? The Imperial knights cut down the powerless in the name of chivalry, and the mages carry out human experiments in the name of research, but we of the Thousand Buddha Sect raise our stage through pure training alone."
"Well. I'm not really interested in the first pla—"
Adam couldn't finish his sentence.
Because Achilles had swiftly snatched Adam's arm.
Whatever the case, nothing good came of an Imperial soldier getting tangled up with a foreign country's cult.
Achilles, having fled with Adam to a street out of the monk's sight, plopped down in an alley.
"What was that all of a sudden? And who are you?"
"Haah... haah. I passed the Palace exam, same as you."
"Is that a reason to kidnap me?"
"I helped you because a fellow recruit was having a serious conversation with a cultist in the street! You should be at least a little grateful!"
"I get that you mean no harm. But is a fake monk striking up a conversation a reason to grab me by the wrist and run?"
"I told you, he's a cultist!"
"Because I don't know what makes him a cultist."
"Honestly, this is driving me crazy......."
Steeped in bewilderment, Achilles couldn't go on.
He'd thought of him as a hero all week, and this was his attitude toward the person who'd helped him?
No, he didn't seem to even think he'd been helped.
He'd thought the man had a big heart, but was it that he'd fought the Archmage out of stupid bravery?
"Hey, you said you're a fellow recruit, right? Look over there for a sec."
Adam, poking only his head out, said.
"What is it?"
"That monk over there looks like he's in danger?"
Men dressed as adventurers and people in priestly robes had surrounded the monk.
"Thugs pretending to be self-proclaimed Inquisitors. It's common. Guys like that pick fights with foreign religious folk for no reason. It's best not to get involved with those types."
"He hasn't done anything wrong, though?"
"There's such a thing as the mood. There's the way the world flows, so how are you supposed to defend someone who goes against it? If someone from the Palace defends a cultist, it'll only make us look bad, you know?"
Adam looked down at Achilles without a word.
Achilles glared right back at him, not to be outdone.
Soon Adam withdrew his gaze and sighed.
"Thanks to you, I get why Aicolman raised the difficulty. The people who passed the Palace exam are all guys like you."
"Y-you, you! What did you say? What's that supposed to mean!"
"You need me to explain even that?"
Achilles shot to his feet and grabbed Adam by the collar.
Now, beyond disappointment, he even felt anger toward this man who was insulting him directly.
"If saying yes, yes to everything in the name of Heaven's will is the truth, then how are you any different from air?"
"......."
Achilles's mouth clamped shut at Adam's question, but he didn't want to lose like this.
"By your logic, that cultist monk is right?"
Adam put his hand in his pocket.
A blue light glinted from his pocket.
Gripping that sphere, Adam spoke calmly.
"Between a fake monk recruiting for his religion and thugs picking fights with civilians, if I have to pick, obviously the latter are in the wrong."
"No, well. That's......."
"And a great man once said it's fine to steal a thief's things. Meaning if we beat the thieves, it's to our benefit."
"What kind of lunatic says something like that?"
It was the teaching of the Archmage.
"I've got no intention of arguing, so go on ahead. But from now on, don't act like you know me."
"W-wait a minute!"
Adam ignored Achilles and headed toward where the monk was.
***
Adam approached the thugs and made a request.
That instead of intellectuals fighting in the alley, they talk in an alley without people.
When he said that, the thugs grinned and went along with Adam's request.
The thug who'd introduced himself as a self-proclaimed Inquisitor thought.
The monk and this guy were both scoundrels trying to oppose the Goddess Church.
This was a chance to show the Empire's authority by punishing cult believers.
"Let's talk here."
He pushed the group into a dark gap.
Then he took a faintly glowing sphere out of his pocket and threw it.
With a white flash, a huge explosion went off, and at the same time, everyone was slammed into the wall.
The heat and noise were enough to melt the wall.
The self-proclaimed Inquisitors couldn't even scream.
It was a bomb that left only a shockwave, with no flames, so they all just fainted without serious injury.
The monk bowed his head and expressed his thanks.
"Monk, what are you doing?"
And then rummaged through the unconscious thugs' wallets.
"One who does good should receive a reward, and one who does evil should be punished. But if my benefactor rummaged through their wallets, it would crack my benefactor's soul, so this humble monk will rummage through the wallets instead."
"I'm in awe of the monk's wisdom."
The monk smiled a kindly smile, saying that with this, Adam's soul remained unsullied and they had been punished, so the proper order of Heaven had been made.
"By any chance, if you know the area well, is there an inn you could recommend?"
"Behind the Adventurers' Guild, there's a place where the security is bad, but the rent and prices are cheap. The owner is an acquaintance of mine, so I'll contact him right away."
Adam headed for the house behind the Adventurers' Guild that the monk had recommended.
***
The inn behind the Adventurers' Guild.
Adam went into the inn the monk had recommended and looked for the owner.
When he promptly shoved the Imperial guarantee under the man's nose, the contract was made easily.
But even after checking the guarantor, the lodging fee was handled separately.
"One month paid up front, 80,000 gold."
"No, how are prices 2 times what they are in the country? Can't you give me a discount if I make it 5 months?"
"Then 390,000 gold."
"Sorry. Come to think of it, I don't have even one month's advance."
"Are you messing with me right now?"
The owner's face instantly turned fierce.
"Isn't that Imperial seal forged too? Open it up and show me. No, forget it. Just get lost. I only met you because you're an acquaintance of the Thousand Buddha Sect monk, but you're just a beggar bastard."
"Couldn't you say that a little more nicely?"
Adam rummaged through his pocket.
Naturally, only dust came out.
He'd gone broke buying mana stones.
Mana stones, expensive to begin with, combined in harmony with the capital's prices to lighten Adam's wallet.
Just as he was about to really become homeless.
"I'll pay the lodging fee."
A young, green-haired noble put a money pouch on the table.
"Forgive the late introduction. I am Achilles Pendragon."
A name that sounded like it would come with sore heels, Adam thought.
"From now on, I want to live here too."
Achilles took one more money pouch out of his coat.
This was the wealth of a family of swordsmen.
"I just wanted to watch you up close and learn from you."
"Usually perverts say they just wanted to watch the girl they like up close, too."
"I don't care what you think."
"No, the victim cares?"
"I'll pay all the living expenses."
"......."
"I've come to want to know more about you."
The owner took the money, grinning from ear to ear, and left.
Adam recalled a family medicine lecture he'd watched in his past life.
The topic was AIDS.