Chapter 144
【 Preparation for the Competition Match 】
Jason said he would personally handle all investigations himself, so he told me to focus on the competition match.
And honestly, that was the efficient route.
Just as he said, information gathering was best left to a professional information gatherer.
‘If it’s Jason, he’ll collect much higher-quality information than I ever could.’
So, as Jason said, it might have been better for me to focus solely on the competition match.
But I had no intention of doing that.
The truth was, uncovering my family’s secrets held a higher priority than the competition match.
‘I should try investigating in my own way, too.’
Of course, I couldn’t personally conduct professional information gathering the way Jason did.
I simply didn’t have the skills or the time.
Last semester maybe, but this semester I had to participate as the overall representative for the competition.
These days I was even getting private lessons from Luke, so I probably wouldn’t have any spare time until the match ended.
So instead of investigating myself, I planned to ask someone else.
Someone who was an expert in the underworld.
“Serma. Did you enjoy your vacation?”
“Why did you come find me again?”
The short-haired commoner girl gave me a hollow laugh as she saw me greeting her cheerfully.
I grinned shamelessly at her reaction.
“Can’t I visit just to see a friend’s face after a while?”
“…I have so many objections but first, since when were we friends? And Gideon-nim isn’t someone who comes to me just to look at my face.”
“You know me very well.”
“We’ve met more than once or twice.”
Serma gave a small smirk as she looked at me.
Despite her words, she didn’t seem to dislike me all that much.
“So, why did you come to see me today? What are you asking of me this time?”
“I came because I want to contact your father, Clergy.”
“…Gideon-nim. I’m not a messenger pigeon for sending letters.”
“But what can I do?”
I kept my shameless smile as I spoke.
“It was Serma’s father, Mr. Clergy, who said, ‘If you need to contact me, do it through Serma.’”
“I know that. It’s just… you’re using me like it’s nothing…….”
“Oh, were you perhaps short on money?”
I pulled out a gold coin from my pocket and handed it to Serma.
And just like that, as if she had never grumbled, her face brightened instantly.
But after receiving the gold coin, she hesitated slightly, giving me a curious look.
“…I’ve felt this for a while, but Gideon-nim seems to have more money than I expected?”
“Well, it’s not a small amount… but why ask all of a sudden?”
“I’m just curious how a fallen noble—specifically a fallen baron—managed to accumulate so much wealth.”
“That’s… it’s simply because my family saved up money over a long time, and hardly spent any of it.”
This too was something I had confirmed from the other races during last vacation.
For ages, the other races produced various specialties and offered them to my ancestor’s family.
My ancestor sold those specialties and amassed considerable wealth, and he also spent much of it for the sake of the other races.
‘But after a certain incident, the family collapsed… and the family name changed to Kyrgram.’
From what I heard, the Kyrgram Family inherited that enormous wealth, but they probably couldn’t use it.
The reason was unknown, since the other races couldn’t speak, but judging by the situation, after the family name changed to Kyrgram—
Problems arose, making it impossible for the family to access that fortune.
So the wealth simply remained deposited in the Imperial Bank for a very long time.
‘Well, thanks to that leftover wealth, I’ve been able to act comfortably.’
In fact, several things up to now had only been possible thanks to the power of money.
Like today, for example.
“Anyway, since you got the money, please contact Mr. Clergy.”
“All right. If I got paid, I should work accordingly. That’s what a merchant does.”
“Hm, come to think of it, a gold coin is a bit pricey for just sending a message. Next time I’ll bring silver coins.”
“…Tch.”
Serma openly made a disappointed face but didn’t add any unnecessary remarks.
“Well, fine. A gold coin is a bit much for just a message. But what business do you have with my father?”
“Please deliver this box.”
I handed Serma the wooden box I brought.
After carefully checking the contents, she looked a bit surprised.
“Elixir, ten bottles?”
“Tell him it’s an advance payment. And please tell him to be sure to read the letter inside the box.”
“What are you planning to ask of my father that you prepared ten bottles?”
To her question, I gave a small smile.
“It’s just a simple information-gathering request.”
“Can you tell me what information you’re looking for? I’m a bit curious.”
“It’s nothing big.”
I smirked lightly, pretending it wasn’t important.
“Just whether a group that worships a certain old god still remains in the Empire—or on the continent. I’m asking for an investigation on that.”
“Hm, that’s simpler than I expected? But if you’re sending ten bottles of Elixir for such a simple request… I guess it’s simple but not easy?”
“Right. I think it’ll require significant effort. Like you said, I’m not giving ten bottles as an advance for no reason.”
Well, from my perspective, asking Tazera to investigate that evil god and evil dragon was practically free.
After all, thanks to the bug, I could make potions cheaply and easily.
Ten bottles of Elixir meant nothing to me.
“Anyway, please deliver it well. And this time, I’d like it a bit faster. If possible, I want Mr. Clergy’s reply before the Academy Competition Match.”
“Understood. But… speaking of the competition, I heard you became the overall representative this time.”
“There were no other applicants.”
“Still, the overall representative is still the overall representative. How does it feel to represent all of Lysquare Academy?”
“It’s burdensome. Burdensome and… honestly, annoying in various ways.”
Yeah, there were surprisingly many tasks, so it was more annoying than I expected.
“I have to memorize all of this?”
“Yeah. Since you’re the overall representative, you have to recite the student oath of our Academy.”
A few days after meeting Serma.
I let out a sigh as I held the student oath paper Luke gave me.
“This… has more content than I expected.”
“You still have to memorize it. What can you do? All academies do this.”
“…There’s no way I can avoid it, right?”
“You’re practically the face of our Academy. Even if you hate it, you have to do it.”
“…I’ll have to memorize it when I get the time.”
I gave a hollow laugh and skimmed through the oath once more.
It was the oath recited by the overall representatives of each academy during the opening ceremony.
Formally, each academy’s representative was to read their prepared oath one by one and make their pledge.
“By the way, Gideon. Aren’t you going to be in the water all day today?”
“I think this way works best for me.”
In the forest near the Academy.
Within that forest lay a lake.
The same lake where I took lessons from Kara.
Right now, I stood in that lake with only my upper body slightly above the surface.
“To defeat Eisen-nim, I need to handle the Rune of Water more skillfully. For that… I first have to become closer to water.”
“I understand that, but… it’s Saturday today. Don’t you think it’s good to rest a bit on the weekend?”
“It’s fine, Instructor. This much is no problem.”
Saying so, I handed the oath paper I had just received from Luke back to him.
“Could you leave this under that tree? I’ll check it later.”
“Sure. Anyway, don’t overdo it. And don’t stay in the water too long either. You’ll catch a cold.”
“Understood. But I probably won’t catch a cold. When I’m in the water… my body actually becomes healthier.”
The power contained within my Rune—Blessing of Water.
When water touched a wound, it granted the ability to heal.
In the game, I had thought that was all it did—but it wasn’t.
Even when I stayed in the water without a single wound, my body somehow felt a little stronger, healthier.
‘If my memory is right, users of the Rune of Water can increase their affinity with water this way. Then, they said you could even become stronger when fighting in water rather than on land.’
And if my affinity with water rose, I would be able to handle the power engraved in my body’s Rune more freely.
Just like now.
“Huuuuu.”
I slowly closed my eyes and focused.
To be exact, I concentrated on the Rune of Water within my body.
Then, the stream of water that had been flowing above my head grew a little stronger.
“I can see the amount of water you can control has increased. But at this level……”
“It’s not enough to face Eisen-nim.”
“There’s still plenty of time left, so take it slow. And don’t focus only on Eisen. You’ll be facing representatives from other academies too—each with different styles.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
As Luke said, there were many students I’d have to face in the Academy Competition Match.
Thinking about preparing for all of them made it feel troublesome in many ways.
“Woof woof! Woof woof woof!”
“You’re always so full of energy, aren’t you?”
After spending the entire day submerged in the lake—
By the time I came out, it was already late evening.
The moon had risen, and one by one, the stars began to appear.
I sat down beneath a tree and took a short rest.
While resting, I let Siri out from my shadow for a while……
“Woof woof!”
“Ugh! Hey, stop licking my hair! It’s still wet! If you’re thirsty, go drink from the lake!”
“Woof!”
“Ugh?! Hey! I told you to be careful when you breathe fire! If you rush at me like before, I’ll get burned this time.”
At some point, Siri had grown larger than a big dog—about the size of a small wolf.
Apparently, she hadn’t just grown in size. She could now breathe fire from her mouth.
“Woof woof! Woof!”
“Anyway, I really need to do something about you next vacation. I can’t keep you in the shadow all the time. You must feel so frustrated, right?”
“Woof?”
“There’s this thing called the Monster Registration System. If I can just prove that you’re properly contracted with me… after that, you won’t have to hide in my shadow anymore. You can live freely.”
Originally, I had planned to do that several years later.
That’s because the registration process was complicated, expensive, time-consuming, and required quite a few connections.
So I intended to handle it only after I had established myself properly in this world…
‘But if I borrow Lisa’s help, I might be able to finish it within the winter vacation.’
The Monster Registration System was managed by an institution under House Balmuth.
If I asked Lisa—or rather, if I asked Kafka, the current Head of House Balmuth and my future mother-in-law (?), it might actually be processed surprisingly quickly.
“Woof!”
“Stay still, will you? Phew, it’s a shame I can’t take your energy into the competition. You’d be really useful against Eisen.”
“Woof?”
“No, never mind. Don’t worry about it.”
After patting Siri’s head and playing with her for a bit, I drew Mistcatcher from my shadow.
“Hmm, it does seem like my overall stats have gone up.”
The white aura surrounding my body.
The white mist forming around me.
The stream of water coating Mistcatcher’s blade.
The faint wind that began to blow near me.
And then……
Whoosh―
After canceling the power of the Rune of Water, I invoked Fire Magic and summoned flames onto the blade.
I inspected the burning sword and nodded.
“Now I can handle all of them somehow.”
Aura, Mistcatcher’s weapon skill, the Rune of Water, the Power of Peregrie, and even Fire Magic.
Once again, I realized how much strength I had gained since coming to this world.
‘Still, there’s a lot I lack. Especially handling wind. For that… I should ask Jason for some advice. He definitely understands the wind better than I do.’
I began planning the things I would do tomorrow in my mind.
I would meet Jason… spend some time with Lisa, whom I hadn’t been able to see much lately, and maybe have a spar with Sara as well.
‘First, I should meet Jason.’
Not only to ask about handling wind—
It had been quite some time, and Jason might have already discovered something about that Evil God.