A steak, grilled so perfectly that I could see the juices running from it, was gradually growing cold.
For a moment, only my stomach growled its screams in place of my voice.
"The fact that you want a definite promise......"
Wegner asked without concealing his considerable displeasure.
"Does that mean you have no intention of giving up your scholarship status with the other patronage associations or repaying the loan you received from the Imperial Bank?"
Of course, I had no intention of giving up my status as a scholarship recipient with the other patronage associations, nor did I intend to repay the loan.
At the Imperial Patronage Association, I had stressed that I was a scholarship recipient of other patronage associations. Conversely, at the other patronage associations, I had stressed that I was a scholarship recipient of the Imperial Patronage Association.
It had been a bluff at the time, but now it was an unmistakable fact.
Therefore, there was no reason for me to give up even one of my scholarship statuses.
More importantly, money that had already entered my pocket was no longer someone else's money. It was my money.
'And once I become Chancellor, my money becomes state money, and state money becomes my money, right?'
The Imperial Patronage Association and the Imperial Bank were both public institutions funded by taxes.
And the Chancellor was the head of the executive branch, acting on the Emperor's behalf.
Therefore, once I became Chancellor, I would have no need to repay either the scholarships or the loan.
That did not mean I should say it so directly. That would be amateurish.
Here, I had to be elegant above all else.
But the best course was to make my refusal clear.
"The steak is beautiful."
Chapter 01 - Damn, Possessors Need Money
An unfamiliar ceiling......
No, the ceiling of my bedroom came into view.
It was also a space that still felt a little awkward to call 'my home.'
I had never even registered an apartment in my own name back in reality, yet my new parents had suddenly left this house to me as an inheritance.
I decided that I would repay their kindness by clearing <Jjam Academy> and preventing this world's bad endings.
If you want to argue about how that counts as filial piety, then please resurrect yourselves and tell me.
"Ugh......"
Even though I had gone out and lined my stomach with delicious food, I felt completely drained.
From Wegner inviting me in front of the Imperial Bank to making it through an interrogation disguised as dinner.
It seemed I had been rather tense without realizing it.
"I really have gone soft. Is it because I actually died?"
Compared with a state audit or a hearing, tonight's dinner had been a stage too childish even to call child's play.
But supporting Representative Han Gyeong-su and playing as the one on the field myself felt entirely different.
In the end, I had cleanly succeeded in turning an unexpected crisis into an opportunity.
I had used Wegner's rash interrogation as material to forge his implicit consent to my octopus-style scholarships and collateralized loan.
'It felt like, "Correct answer, Member of Parliament!"'
Of course, he had not become chairman of the Imperial Patronage Association for nothing.
- You will become a civil servant after graduating from the academy, yes?
- I will. Absolutely.
Even in an unfavorable situation, he had prevented an Imperial Patronage Association scholarship recipient from slipping out of the capital.
Of course, it was only a verbal promise.
According to the Yeouido principle of science that words are lighter than air, the matter with the Imperial Patronage Association had practically vanished.
'The other patronage associations will not be able to say anything to me, either.'
They would not be able to do anything to me right now.
There were several patronage associations whose goal was to secure talent, while the talent in question—me—was only one person.
Just as I had said to Wegner, 'Want to get a taste of life outside the civil service?' I could tell them, 'Keep pressuring me and I will become a civil servant, all right?'
- Ahem. In that case......
- Yes?
- You will not be leaving the capital very often from now on, then.
- No one knows what the future holds, do they?
- Do not talk like an old man.
- Yep.
- And this is absolutely not because I am curious, but do you have a fiancée or a lover?
- ......Pardon?
Of course, Wegner had asked a somewhat suspicious question near the end.
When he heard my answer, his eyes gleamed with an odd light. Then, unable to endure the emotional fluctuations of male menopause, he abruptly issued an order to clear out, practically driving me away.
Judging from the flow of our conversation, perhaps he was thinking of taking me in as a son-in-law.
Those who held power always wanted to hold a little more of it.
As chairman of the Imperial Patronage Association and a Court Count, he had more than enough to strut about the capital. Yet I could keenly feel Wegner's ambition, so great that he wanted to use even a political marriage to secure an achievement.
'It would not be such a bad proposal for me, either.'
It was not an exact match, but a simple comparison would make the Imperial Patronage Association something like Korea's Ministry of Education.
That made the chairman of the Imperial Patronage Association and a Court Count the equivalent of the Minister of Education.
Therefore, a connection to Wegner would surely help me in some way as I progressed through the academy seed.
On a grand scale, I could gauge the direction of Imperial education policy or identify which academy students came from high-profile families.
On a smaller scale, I might even be able to find out who sat on the examination committee for the academy placement test—the equivalent of the College Scholastic Ability Test—and approach them.
'The academy seed really comes in handy at times like this, huh?'
If I had drawn another job seed, becoming Wegner's son-in-law would not have held much value.
There would be little I could gain from a mage or a knight marrying the daughter of the Empire's Minister of Education, after all.
In any case.
Some of what happened had been trivial from one perspective and a major affair from another, but.
"Ah, I want a cola."
For the time being, I surrendered myself to the fatigue and desire for sleep washing over me like heavy waves.
***
"This is an opportunity."
"?"
"I sounded him out, and it seems he is not seeing anyone at the moment."
"??"
"He has the meticulousness to target the blind spots of laws and regulations, as well as the boldness not to be cowed even when facing me. Had he been born in the slums, he would have become an all-time great wanted criminal, but fortunately, he grew up without going astray."
"What on earth are you......?"
"Marta, I have finally found your marriage partner."
"PFFT!!"
A liquid blended from saliva and black tea in an appropriate ratio drew a smooth parabolic arc.
"No matter whom you marry, correct your table manners first."
While Marta could not erase her dumbfounded expression, her mother elegantly sipped her black tea as though she were used to it.
"Marriage first thing in the morning? No, who on earth are you talking about? Surely...... Lloyd Schultz?"
"The fact that you guessed at once whom I meant shows you are somewhat interested in him as well. No wonder you even asked your father to have him followed."
"That was obviously for work at the Imperial Patronage Association!"
"Oh, place your hand over your conscience and speak. You may have failed an interviewee, but since when have you investigated one so thoroughly?"
"You are always telling me not to breeze through interviews!"
"And thanks to that, you found a younger future life partner."
"There are different kinds of younger men!"
"My, Marta, do you have a younger boyfriend?"
"Oh, honestly, even you too, Mother!"
Lady Inglebert and the maids smiled with looks that were both proud and a little wicked.
"As you know, among the Court Counts of the capital, ours is the only household that has not married off its eldest child."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Should we not recover the wedding gifts we have paid out all this time?"
"You want me to get married over wedding gifts alone?"
"Alone? Aloooone? I have spoiled you far too much."
"Anyway! Younger men are not really my type."
Wegner pressed Marta with economic reasoning.
"If younger men are not your type, that means older men are, but it will be hard to find one at your age before long......"
Lady Inglebert smoothly bombarded her with facts.
"I wiiiill bite you aaall......"
Marta clenched her teeth as though she were about to chew through her fork.
Honestly, she did not particularly want to get married yet.
She had taken great pride in her ability to do her job, to the point of thoroughly concealing the surname 'Inglebert' until she was accepted into the Imperial Patronage Association.
In fact, before revealing her surname, she had received offers to change jobs from other patronage associations again and again.
With such ability and confidence to support her, she had become an interviewer at the Imperial Patronage Association at a relatively young age.
And she dreamed of succeeding her father as a Court Count and chairman of the Imperial Patronage Association, responsible for the Empire's education.
She did not want to give up the position and goal she had worked hard to achieve for a hasty marriage.
'......Surely Father has not been putting unspoken pressure on me?'
At the same time, Marta felt a little guilty toward Lloyd.
No matter how composed he had looked in the scholarship interview, Lloyd was still no more than a scholarship student who had not even entered the academy.
Because Marta had asked Wegner to investigate Lloyd, he had ended up being suddenly summoned by the chairman of the Imperial Patronage Association and a Court Count.
'I should explain it to him later.'
That was why Marta decided that she would tell Lloyd.
Whatever her father had told him, his scholarship would not be cancelled just because he did not marry her, so he could refuse the offer.
'......But why do I have to start out by getting rejected?'
At once, a strange sense of grievance surged through her.
Marta was a confident career woman of the Imperial Capital and the only young lady of the Inglebert house, which lacked for nothing.
What could she possibly be lacking that she had to begin by getting rejected before she had even confessed?
And by a scholarship student who was only now preparing to enter the academy, at that.
"How many years has it been since you said you would handle it yourself?"
"I am still in my twenties, so I am fine."
"What more can I say when someone dangling from a cliff tells me she is fine?"
Of course, to Lady Inglebert, it was nothing more than the groundless confidence of a childish daughter.
"Lloyd is an Imperial Patronage Association scholarship recipient! He has not even entered the academy yet!"
"Is that not all the better? Your father happily followed me around when I was not merely young, but downright a child."
"......Hm. Did I?"
Of course, a minor problem arose when the Inglebert couple's back-and-forth briefly fell out of sync.
"Dear?"
"You are the best."
Thanks to the head of the household's survival instinct, domestic peace was preserved again today.
That gave Marta a moment to sort out her thoughts.
'Marriage to someone who has not even entered the academy yet, really......'
She would acknowledge what needed to be acknowledged.
Lloyd's looks were not bad, to the point that, upon their first meeting, she had described his confidence as handsome.
And his self-assured manner was also a point in his favor.
All the more so because that confidence was based not on background such as family or origins, but on his own ability.
Working as an interviewer for the Imperial Patronage Association, she occasionally encountered them.
Interviewees who openly boasted in the middle of scholarship interviews about what family they belonged to and who their fathers were.
'If they were so impressive, they would be receiving heir training in their territories.'
To Marta, who knew all too well what kind of people the 'scions of the powerful' sent off to the academy in the Imperial Capital were, they were simply laughable.
But Lloyd was different.
Though he was proud of his parents, who had worked their entire lives as Imperial civil servants, he did not put forward their achievements as though they were his own.
Instead, he had boldly declared his ambition to emulate his parents and devote himself to the Empire.
As a civil servant herself, Marta could not help finding that quite adorable.
'......Have I finally gone mad?'
She poured black tea into an empty cup as though it were liquor and shook her head vigorously.
Even if Lloyd's confidence was handsome, his bold confidence was adorable, and he had even captured the heart of her exceedingly exacting father over a single dinner.
That was as far as it went.
'Mm-hm, this is right. I am only being swept up by the atmosphere right now.'
Her parents, beside her, had merely cast an enchantment spell disguised as nagging, which was why her emotions had been shaken.
'A scholarship student is a scholarship student, and black tea is black tea......'
As Marta felt out the state of her own heart, she regained a measure of peace as calm as a lake.
But that peace.
"Jokes aside, you should give it some serious thought."
At a single remark from Wegner, who still had not abandoned his intent, it crumbled like a freshly baked biscuit.
"......Are you, as chairman of the Imperial Patronage Association, telling an Imperial Patronage Association interviewer to seriously set her sights on a scholarship student right now?"
"Thanks to that, I discovered promising talent before anyone else."
"I am going mad, seriously."
"I wondered why you kept turning down good matches, but Marta, you had a plan all along......"
"I do not know, I do not know. I am leaving for work first."
In the end, Marta was the first to push herself up from the breakfast table.
"Take along the materials he asked for while you are at it!"
Wegner's voice chased after her, joined by Lady Inglebert's smile as she watched the father and daughter with an inexplicably pleased expression.
It was another ordinary morning at the Inglebert estate.
***
The coffee's smooth body and sweet cream blended very evenly.
Even a gentle spring breeze, still holding a trace of chill, was blowing.
"Mm......"
It was a morning scene to which the word leisure could not have been better suited.
Remaining Time: 9 Years, 360 Days....
Final Objective: Prevent the End of the World
Final Reward: Life
That was, if not for the irritating status window that only I could see, like an alert announcing the liquidation of a crypto position.
Thanks to it, I hauled up my consciousness, which had been drifting lazily near the edge of unconsciousness.
With only a few days left before I entered the academy, I needed to set clear goals for the future if I wanted to roll the snowball of gains more easily.
'It was about time I got my thoughts in order.'
The greatest goal was, naturally, clearing <Jjam Academy>.
I would do it through politics rather than individual martial strength, and to do that, I had to become the Empire's Chancellor.
To become Chancellor, I had to roll the Job Quest snowball as much as possible at the academy, the Imperial civil servants' officer school.
'And to do that, I need political funds.'
Over the past four days since my possession.
Starting with the Imperial Patronage Association, I had dealings with a total of six patronage associations, along with a loan from the Imperial Bank.
Using my experience playing <Jjam Academy>, I had successfully filled my pockets quite nicely.
I had thus secured the element of 'wealth' among the three elements of power.
'Money is the best. Thrilling. Always new.'
A bulging wallet was something even the bitter cold of a jealous late-spring chill dared not invade.
But money was only a means, not an end.
'The final objective presented by the status window was also preventing the end of the world.'
Assuming that <Jjam Academy>'s bad endings were causes of the world's end.
There were roughly two bad endings that I, who had started in the Imperial Capital, needed to watch for and prevent first.
The nobles' war, and the holy war.
The former was a bad ending in which nobles whose relations had soured due to the Emperor's divide-and-rule tactics ultimately split the Empire north and south, then entered an endless civil war.
The latter was a bad ending in which the church, which had remained neutral and focused on relief efforts even during the nobles' war, suddenly began offering human sacrifices while proclaiming, 'God demands blood and flesh!'
'Both of them fucked me over like a dog.'
The seed I had played the most was Chancellor, followed by Cardinal.
And both were jobs directly exposed to the nobles' war and the holy war.
There had been more than a few moments when I wanted to bring down a Tempest Kick on my keyboard from the corner of Representative Han Gyeong-su's office.
In any case.
My current situation was quite different from a Chancellor seed or a Cardinal seed.
'Of all things, I had to draw something like an academy seed......'
With Chancellor or Cardinal seeds, I would naturally succeed in changing jobs if I pushed through the Job Quests for about one year of <Jjam Academy> time.
This damned academy seed, on the other hand, consumed four whole years just to graduate.
It was already bad enough that I needed to become Chancellor immediately and run the Empire as I pleased.
And remembering how even the veteran players in the Jjam Academy community said one year was too long and honed fast job-change builds by any means possible was already giving me a headache.
'That does not mean it is all bad.'
There were mages and knights, mostly chosen by players who liked hands-on control, or Chancellor and Cardinal, favored by players like me who preferred a strategic approach.
And even the academy seed, which everyone avoided.
<Jjam Academy> had a clear divide in the seeds players preferred, depending on their playstyle.
At the same time, no one had cleared it yet.
But the developer had personally made it clear that 'this game is not impossible to clear.'
So perhaps the academy seed, the least-selected of all <Jjam Academy>'s seeds.
Had a chance greater than zero of being the seed with the highest chance of being cleared.
'Or maybe not.'
No matter what seed I played, the more money I had, the better.
And since I had become acquainted with Wegner, chairman of the Imperial Patronage Association and a Court Count, in more ways than one.
From another perspective, I had rolled my snowball far faster than with any other seed.
And since the academy seed's Job Quest would be entering and graduating from the academy, I would be able to choose whatever job I wanted afterward.
"Therefore, the most important thing for me now is to gain admission to and graduate from the academy with excellent grades."
"Hm, I see."
As I set down my coffee cup, I asked the person in front of me.
"So that brings me to my question. What brings Interviewer Marta Inglebert here today?"
"Something related to our Imperial Patronage Association scholarship recipient's future grades, I would imagine."
Marta held out an envelope with an expression that was demure, yet unable to conceal her bewilderment.
"I heard you asked him to help you falsify your grades? D-Dad...... No. Chairman Wegner of the Imperial Patronage Association."
"Yes."
"Are you insane?"