“What kind of crazy person would burn more than a hundred gold coins on a single duel proxy commission?!”
I understood Emily’s cry of despair.
It was enough money to open a shop in a decent-sized city. You could even hire an assassin with that much.
Which meant the goal was not to inflict physical harm on Emily, but to humiliate her in front of her classmates.
Could someone really earn this much resentment in only two years? Emily had somehow made it happen.
“You already know.”
There was no rule saying that the depth of one’s resentment had to match the harm one had received, but generally, the more severely someone had been mistreated, the deeper their grudge.
“Media, that bitch!! I will not let her get away with......!!”
Emily exploded in anger.
“If you forget our promise, I will have no choice but to offer a discount as well.”
Who did she think she was, trying to lay a hand on my precious customer?
“Ghh.......”
Emily bit her lip in frustration.
If anyone asked where they could find a merchant who threatened people by saying he would offer discounts, well, here I was.
“Senior Media is probably already at the open lot. Whether the two of you talk things out there or not is up to you.”
Did I really need to know what had happened between them?
Taking an unnecessary interest in customers was the quickest way to ruin a business.
Customers were customers. Unless it caused a problem with a transaction, there was no need to ask or listen.
“I already received the money. Let us finish the duel quickly first. Today’s grounds are, let me see.......”
All I had to do was carry out the commission.
“Forget it. Who cares about grounds? Something about a friend or whatever. I am tired of it now.”
Knowing that I would find grounds somehow anyway, Emily walked out weakly, like a cow being led to slaughter.
“Damn it, damn it.......”
During the time it took to walk to the open lot—short in one sense and long in another—curses poured endlessly from Emily’s mouth.
Unlike when we first met, Emily now gave off such a dark air that it unsettled me, and I kept a little distance from her as we walked.
“Heh.”
Media, who had been waiting at the open lot, smiled faintly when she saw Emily and me.
.......
Emily glared at Media.
Not long ago, Media would have shrunk back the moment she received a look like that from Emily. Now that the situation had changed so much, she was relaxed enough to wave at her.
“I heard that the price of a Duel Proxy Request Form had become 101 gold coins?”
“I wondered what was going on when you suddenly raised the price so much. You had someone to rely on.”
“Considering what Media suffered, what are a hundred gold coins?”
“Seeing her readily pay that much, House Jun must be incredibly wealthy.”
As always, the spectators who had gathered made remarks one after another.
Anyone could guess the client’s identity.
Media went beyond having no intention of hiding it; she almost seemed to want to boast that she was the client.
“Shall we begin?”
Media asked lightly.
Emily and I were the ones dueling, but there was no doubt that Media was the true protagonist today.
The course of the duel did not change much.
Having given up on victory, Emily struggled desperately to endure a little longer, but every card Emily possessed had long since been exposed to me.
Since I had received a large sum this time, I spent a little more money, in good conscience, and put on a flashy exchange.
BOOM!! KABOOM!!
I finished it with a massive explosion.
Even after combining the Blessing of Water with magic, Emily could not block it all and rolled across the ground.
“Amazing, Lawrence!”
“You put especially a lot of spirit into it today!”
“When you get serious, she is no match for you!”
Cheers and applause poured out.
The enthusiastic reaction let me experience, if only a little, how the gladiators of old must have felt.
The show was over.
The spectators happily returned to their daily lives, and the stage was left empty.
“Good work. I look forward to working with you again.”
Media smiled in satisfaction and grasped my hand.
“Again......?”
Emily, who had been rolling on the ground, staggered to her feet.
Perhaps it had not taken her long to recover because I had reduced the impact as much as possible at the end.
“You are planning to keep doing this?! How long, exactly?!”
Emily’s voice cracked.
Her attempt to end the situation of being hounded by duels had come to nothing.
In the end, all she had done was hand over a large sum of money to me.
“Who knows? I might stop when I no longer hate you.”
Media smiled sweetly.
I never thought someone so gloomy and timid could make an expression like that.
Had her true nature been suppressed while Emily bullied her all this time? Had she always been like this?
“It is a hundred gold coins every time!! A hundred gold coins!! You!! Do you have that much money?!”
“Yes.”
At Media’s casual answer, Emily was left speechless.
“I am the eldest daughter of House Jun. Do you think I would care about such a trifling sum?”
Such a trifling sum?
Do they know how difficult it is to gather a hundred gold coins by ordinary means?
Even Radeos Predeter, a prince in his own right, hesitated once amounts rose above ten gold coins.
Just how wealthy was House Jun?
“If it means making you suffer, I will pay any amount.”
Madness flickered in Media’s eyes.
“You have completely lost your mind......?”
“You drove me mad!”
As though they had made an appointment, the two rushed at each other.
This was getting interesting.
I did not know why two mages grabbed each other by the hair instead of using their staffs.
“Hmm....... If they were going to fight directly anyway, what was the point of the Duel Proxy Request Form?”
After paying a hundred gold coins, no less.
I began to have doubts about duel proxy commissions.
As I watched Emily and Media engage in an ugly, back-and-forth brawl, my thoughts grew complicated.
There was no question that receiving a hundred gold coins every time I regularly tormented Emily was highly profitable.
But in the long term, it was not such a good method.
For now, I still had grounds and could leave things cleanly, but if I continued holding duels, Emily would come to regard even me as an enemy.
If Emily harbored ill will after graduation, she would target me rather than Media, who had the powerful backing of House Jun.
A Reincarnator was still a Reincarnator, even if rotten. She was not a threat I could ignore.
“But when I compared the gains to the risk.......”
I might win Media’s favor right away, but the real problem would come when the flames of her hatred for Emily finally died out.
When emotions cooled, reason was bound to return.
There was no guarantee that the money she spent without hesitation now would not seem wasteful later.
A hundred gold coins for every duel. No matter how one looked at it, I was overcharging her.
“In the end, I would make enemies of both of them.”
This was a poisoned chalice. I could not keep accepting it.
“......It was about time to bow out.”
I had made enough profit.
As the saying went, chasing small gains only to lose something greater, it was right to end things here.
The problem was how.
I had already tried raising the price of the commissions, but it had failed.
The conflict between Emily and Media, which had been triggered by my involvement, was far too deep and twisted.
Now that the fire had been lit, things would only grow worse with time.
At this rate, it would not be surprising if someone got stabbed in the Academy....... Ah, there were knife fights in the Department of Martial Arts every day anyway.
Right. It would not be surprising if there was a murder.
Whether Media, after putting in this much effort, vanished as a murderer or as a victim, it would be a painful loss for me.
“How could I get the two of them to work through their feelings......? How....... Hmm.”
Messy fights born of long-standing feelings were not my specialty.
“I have hated you since we enrolled! You think being a high noble with talent for magic is all it takes?!”
“Do you think I liked it?! Do you know how difficult it was for me to be in the same year as a Reincarnator......!”
“You greedy bitch!”
“You cannot even act your age!”
This would not be easy. Not easy at all.
“If you will excuse me, I will be going now.”
Leaving behind Emily and Media, who paid no attention to me as they hurled vicious curses at each other, I quietly walked away.
Even if I worried over it alone, I would not find a clear answer.
When it came to women’s problems, it was best to ask a woman.
***
“You’re back? You damned bastard of a boss?”
Lucia looked at me with dead-fish eyes.
“Your mouth has gotten quite rough in a short time.”
She had not been like this originally.
What had happened to the well-behaved young lady I knew?
“Anyone becomes like this when they work day and night. But I do not expect the boss who shoved every task onto me and went off to pick fights to know that.”
Lucia snapped at me and held out a stack of product order forms.
The order forms were growing thicker every day.
That meant more customers, and it also meant that purchasing goods from me had become a natural thing within the Academy.
“Ahem. I had been working hard as well.”
Until just a few days ago, each duel had caused a small deficit. But after receiving a hundred gold coins each from Emily and Media in a single day, I had earned more than I did by working hard to sell goods.
Judging only by profit, it almost looked as though I had worked harder.
“Sure, sure. Keep doing things this way. One day, I will take all the money and goods you entrusted to me and run away.”
Lucia shook her head as though she were sick of it.
“If you were the kind of person who would do that, I would not have entrusted them to you in the first place. You are the only person I trust in this Academy.”
I could not imagine Lucia breaking our contract and running away.
“Here. I will reward you according to how much extra work you have done, so stop being angry.”
I flicked a gold coin to Lucia.
“If you think I am going to be won over by a few coins.......”
Lucia reflexively caught the gold coin. After confirming that it really was gold, she fell silent for a moment.
My contract with Lucia was to pay her five gold coins each month.
It was a contract that allowed her to pay off her debt of fifty gold coins through ten months of labor. The more bonuses I gave her, the sooner the contract would end.
Still, being stingy when additional compensation was clearly warranted would be foolish and would only earn Lucia’s resentment.
“I will let it go this time, but do not work me too hard from now on. Hire more employees or something.”
She seemed to be trying to hide how easily she had been won over by money, but Lucia’s voice had become noticeably gentler.
After watching Emily and Media treat a hundred gold coins as nothing, seeing Lucia soften over a single gold coin warmed my heart.
Yes, this was the normal reaction.
“The moment I find someone as reliable as you, I will hire them.”
Of course, there would probably not be anyone else in this Academy who needed money badly enough to be hired for a pittance like Lucia.
“By the way, Lucia.”
“Why? Are you going to make me do something again?”
The moment I called her name, wariness appeared on Lucia’s face.
Anyone watching would think she had encountered a robber.
“No. I just want to ask for one piece of advice.”
“Advice? You? From me?”
“Why? Is there some reason I should not take your advice?”
I had only broached the subject, yet her horrified reaction irritated me. Had I ever done anything that terrible?
“That is not it, but you have a quick mind, whether it is for good or bad. I do not think I can give you an answer to something you do not know.”
“It is about girls.”
It was about Emily and Media.
Lucia was the only woman around whom I could speak openly.
“......There is no girl in this Academy who would like someone like you. I do not know who it is, but give up.”
Lucia said it while avoiding my gaze.
That was harsh.
Everyone had different preferences. To conclude that there could not possibly be anyone who liked someone was an incredibly arrogant and mistaken way of thinking.
And more importantly.......
“Do I look like the kind of man who would lust after children? That is not what I am talking about.”
I was a Reincarnator. I was not enough of a fool to view girls far younger than me as romantic prospects.
.......
“A silent affirmation. I understand very well what you think of me. That is enough, so listen to my explanation.”
I stopped Lucia and told her everything I knew about what Emily and Media had done to each other.
What had begun as one-sided bullying had turned into mutual bullying because I took on duel proxy commissions.
I also told her how hard they worked to make each other suffer and what frightening people they had become.
“......So I am looking for a way to settle this situation.”
Lucia had lived as a woman for more than thirty years. Perhaps she could see through women’s psychology and offer a solution.
“......It sounds like you are doomed.”
Hey. What am I supposed to do if even you say that?