“Well.... Let’s see.”
After temporarily setting the Department of Magic students aside, I had a private meeting with Lucia.
I bought a pen and paper from the Shop.
“Let’s start by writing down the expenses. One One-Eyed Wolf Summoning Scroll. Thirty Wing Frog Summoning Scrolls. A ladder. A Paralysis Poison Needle. Sleep Powder. One bomb and two potions. One stimulant pill.”
As I wrote down the items one by one, Lucia’s face gradually went pale.
Anyone watching would think I was gouging her.
I had even excluded minor expenses like the Fireproof Cloak and wet towel, which I could use for a long time.
“Adding my labor costs and hazard pay.... I’m feeling generous, so I’ll only charge you fifty gold coins.”
It was an amount equal to several years’ salary for an ordinary commoner, but I was confident it was a rather conscientious price.
“The debt... was money?”
Lucia took the bill and stared at it blankly.
“What else did you think the debt was?”
“Like... helping you later....”
Lucia fidgeted with her hands as she mumbled.
“Hey, naive friend. Most kinds of help can be bought with money. If so, wouldn’t it be more reliable to take money instead?”
There might be times when I had to accept help because I had no money, but there were almost no times when I would need help if I did have money.
Common sense said that if someone with enough money asked for help, the answer would be to solve it with their own money.
“I don’t... have money....”
Lucia said it in a fading voice.
“You don’t have money, huh. That’s fine. You don’t have to pay me immediately. I won’t charge interest until you get it from your family.”
I was not in such urgent need of money that I could not afford to wait a while.
“That’s difficult, too....”
“You can pay in installments.”
She would be in the academy until graduation, so I did not have to worry about her defaulting on the debt.
“Wait, wait. Let’s move somewhere else.”
Lucia grabbed me and pulled me away.
It seemed she did not want the others to hear our conversation.
Only after we had gone far enough that the cheers sounded distant did Lucia finally speak.
“I’m adopted, so... it’s difficult for me to get money from my family. I have no personal assets at all.... It’s impossible for me to pay back that much money.”
Adopted. It was not someone else’s problem.
Judging by the atmosphere, I could guess that the parents who had adopted Lucia must have had some kind of purpose.
“That’s rough.”
The notion that an adopted child could be loved by their family was merely an ideal.
The chance that a family which had ‘bought’ a reincarnator for some other purpose would treat her like a real daughter approached zero.
It was obvious that academy life required money. Even if she asked her family, there was no way they would give her any.
“This is a problem.”
I had not expected this.
Had the other reincarnators, like me, also been born as beggars?
If there were such a law, the years I had spent living as a beggar might feel a little less unfair.
In any case, thinking that Lucia was in a similar situation made me feel a little closer to her.
“I’m really sorry. The money, after I graduate....”
“Who can wait until graduation? I’ll be dead before I collect it.”
Time was money, too.
There were still several years until graduation. Not repaying the debt for all that time was no different from causing losses for that entire period.
“There’s no other way....?”
“There’s no way?”
I looked straight into Lucia’s eyes.
“There... isn’t...?”
Lucia avoided my gaze as though she were afraid.
“Your thinking is all wrong. If you don’t have money, then work! Work! You’re not a child—how can you only think about living off allowance from your family?!”
“We are children....”
“Our mental ages are adults, aren’t they?!”
Lucia’s ridiculous counterargument made my voice grow louder.
“Before graduation, earn it yourself and pay it back. Got it?”
“How am I supposed to make money while attending the academy....”
Lucia spoke as though pleading with me.
“How much do you think I’ve earned since entering the academy? It’s easier to make money inside the academy than outside.”
There was nowhere in the world so full of suckers.
If I had my way, I would stay here and keep doing business forever.
“That’s because you have the Shop Privilege....”
“Ha....”
My head hurt because Lucia was missing the point again and spouting nonsense.
“Is doing business the only way to make money?”
“Other than doing business...?”
“Get hired by someone else and work. You can receive a monthly wage or daily pay for the work you do.”
It seemed the sun would set before Lucia found the answer herself, so I told her.
“That’s only possible if there’s someone who will hire me, isn’t it?”
“Right. You need an employer. Someone who makes enough money to employ a worker.”
Someone like me.
“Where could there possibly be an employer like that?”
Lucia turned her head and looked around with unfocused eyes.
“Where are you looking?”
I turned Lucia’s face, which was trying to avoid reality, back toward me.
“N-No....”
Lucia’s eyes brimmed with tears. Despite having been bullied for nearly a month, I had never seen her look this weak.
“Then is there anyone else who will hire you?”
Crying would not change reality.
“....”
“Let’s start by writing a simple contract. Don’t worry so much. The terms will not be terribly bad.”
I smiled and patted Lucia’s shoulder.
***
“Headmaster. May I come in?”
Johanna Libren, a teacher who taught the kingdom’s history at Beaumont Academy, knocked on the headmaster’s office door.
She was there to report on work she had been directly instructed to do by the headmaster.
“Ah, Teacher Johanna. Please, come in.”
The headmaster warmly greeted Johanna.
Gerbilius Rodentia.
One of the five Archmages in the kingdom.
In his youth, he had earned illustrious military achievements in the war against the empire.
It had been sixty years since he left the front lines and became a teacher at Beaumont Academy. He had been headmaster for twenty years already, or so they said.
Based on his career alone, he seemed like a great figure who possessed exceptional ability while also devoting himself to raising the next generation.
But....
Every teacher at Beaumont Academy knew that he was not actually such an ideal person.
“Did the new students’ Mock Battle conclude well? Were there any students who stood out?”
Gerbilius’s purpose in holding the position of headmaster at the academy was to grow his own faction.
He had only one criterion for judging students.
Whether they were useful or not.
To the headmaster, the entire series of educational courses at Beaumont Academy was no more than a process to sort out ‘valuable individuals.’
“It seemed that only the reincarnators caught the eye.”
Johanna handed the headmaster a handwritten report.
“That is only natural. No matter how outstanding ordinary students may be, their brilliance will fade beside reincarnators.”
The headmaster did not look disappointed in the slightest. If anything, he seemed pleased.
There were at most one or two students a year who met the headmaster’s standards.
Yet this year, there were three reincarnators. If he secured just that much, it would be a bountiful year.
“Hmm. Hm?”
The smile gradually vanished from the headmaster’s lips as he read the report with a satisfied expression.
“The Department of Magic won? That is an unexpected result.”
The Mock Battle was not actually an event intended to compare the skills of the Department of Martial Arts and the Department of Magic.
It was merely a means of stimulating the students’ competitive spirit and encouraging them to improve.
The students might believe that the points awarded for the Mock Battle determined their grades and could result in their expulsion from the academy, but....
Would it not be unfair for a ‘valuable individual’ to be expelled simply because they had been assigned unfortunate peers?
“This Mock Battle should have been arranged so that the Department of Martial Arts would win.”
That was why the winner and loser of the Mock Battle were decided from the very beginning.
Through delicate adjustments, the academy set things so that the departments’ cumulative Mock Battle win rates were close to fifty percent by the time the students graduated.
It was not as though no student could ever be expelled because of Mock Battle points, but any student expelled over such scores alone was not a ‘valuable individual’ to the headmaster. There was no problem with that.
“It seems the adjustment was incomplete. I will need to arrange things so that the Department of Martial Arts has a greater advantage in the next Mock Battle. And the individual scores....”
The headmaster’s gaze moved down the report before stopping.
“Five points for Kyle Sanders, ten points for Lucia Hayes.... And twenty points for Lawrence Reed?”
After confirming the Individual Bonus Points awarded, he could not hide his bewilderment.
Johanna was known for fair and accurate evaluations.
If Johanna had distributed the points this way, there had to be sufficient reason.
The headmaster silently waited for Johanna’s explanation.
“Kyle Sanders was the first to reach the Orc and performed well enough to lead the battle to the verge of victory. I was able to confirm swordsmanship so outstanding that it was difficult to believe he was a first-year student.”
Johanna explained the reasons for her evaluation in a calm, businesslike tone.
Kyle had proven his individual combat ability.
“Lucia Hayes led her peers and achieved the result of reaching the Orc. Her command ability in a real combat situation stood out. During the battle that followed, she also proved that her magical ability was far superior.”
Lucia had shown not only her ability as a mage, but also the leadership of a commander.
“Lawrence Reed prevented the Department of Martial Arts from defeating the Orc until the Department of Magic main force arrived. Alone, against the entire Department of Martial Arts, including Kyle Sanders.”
Some students had been pulled away to hinder the Department of Magic’s movement, and others had failed to reach the target, so it had not been all fifty students.
However, there had still been at least several dozen.
In that situation, Lawrence had perfectly achieved his objective.
“I have confirmed that the potential of Lawrence Reed’s Privilege is far greater than we thought. And Lawrence showed that he is skilled at using his Privilege.”
His presence was greater than the other two reincarnators combined.
This Mock Battle had ultimately become a stage for Lawrence.
“He was a student who perfectly fulfilled the purpose of the Mock Battle. If I had more authority, I would gladly have given him a higher score.”
The hidden purpose of the Mock Battle.
It was a process for finding students who shone more brightly in real combat, students whose abilities could not be fully understood through tests alone.
Unlike the department points, which lost their meaning when the win rates ultimately became equal, Bonus Points created a meaningful difference.
“For Teacher Johanna to speak so highly of him. This is a truly welcome miscalculation.”
The headmaster had not thought highly of Lawrence.
Among the reincarnators, he had considered Lawrence a dud.
Lawrence had defeated Kyle in the spar on the entrance exam day, but it had looked like a desperate victory achieved by pouring in every unsightly method available to him.
Furthermore, even after enrolling, Lawrence had seemed more interested in building connections with students from other years than in honing his skills.
The headmaster’s assessment had been that, given a little time, Lawrence might fall behind not only the other reincarnators but even ordinary students.
“I should overlook his interest in things outside his studies to some extent.”
It did not matter what Lawrence did, so long as he proved himself through results.
His potential had revealed itself.
“Lawrence Reed, Lawrence Reed. Let us see just how great a nugget of gold this boy will become.”
The headmaster stroked his beard and smiled greedily.