Ch.227227 – Arcadia’s Suspicion

<227 – Arcadia’s Suspicion>

Arcadia couldn’t hide her dazed expression all morning.

Titosoga and her friends were worried about the young lady.

“Tito. Shouldn’t you go say something to her? I can’t stand seeing a former faction boss looking so miserable and being ridiculed.”

“The lady must be heartbroken. Let’s go give her a frilly headband as a gift.”

Canillian Truffle, daughter of a lord’s family, and Frille, a self-made success—both became friends with Titosoga through Arcadia’s introduction.

Titosoga nodded, secretly pleased by her friends’ unwavering attitude.

“Lady Arcadia. Let’s eat together, okay?”

“Hehe. Why not?”

To cheer her up after the outing, Titosoga even offered her strawberry milk that had been served as a special snack today.

“Lady Arcadia. Have this!”

“Thank you, Titosoga.”

Lady Arcadia always greeted everyone with a kind and polite smile.

Titosoga wanted to remove the worries from the face of this respectable person who had a different kind of coolness than Oknodie, but her efforts weren’t very effective.

“L-Lady…”

Even during lunch, she barely ate, just pretending to scoop soup from her empty tray—a sight that broke everyone’s hearts.

As Titosoga looked like she might cry, Frille clapped her hands loud enough for the lady to hear.

“Oh! We were thinking of holding a special tea party for you today, Lady Arcadia. How about joining us after lunch for some light refreshments and digestion?”

“Should I? I think this is my first time being invited by someone else. I hope I won’t be a burden…”

“A burden? It would be the greatest honor for me, Frille, if you would attend and grace us with your presence. Please enjoy the frilly-shaped latte art I’ve practiced so hard to make.”

At the tea party.

Sitting as a participant rather than a host, she calmly enjoyed the gathering.

She complimented Frille’s crooked frilly-shaped latte art, calling it cute, and when Titosoga’s hands trembled making the teacup rattle, she calmed her by suggesting she breathe steadily and support her arm with her other hand.

Arcadia was mature and caring.

Yet during the gaps between conversations, her gaze would drift vacantly to her teacup, the table pattern, or into nothingness.

As Frille and Titosoga began to feel gloomy too, Canillian Truffle, the most strong-willed of the trio, spoke directly.

“Lady Arcadia. You have something troubling you, don’t you?”

“I’m sorry. It looks bad, doesn’t it?”

“Not at all. You’re human too, so of course you have worries. I understand.”

“Thank you. I suppose it’s difficult to relax during these times, and I’ve spoiled your kind consideration.”

“Please don’t think we can’t understand your concerns. Titosoga and Frille may be clumsy, but they want to help. Me too.”

Perhaps this was the reward for standing by her side during difficult times and protecting her from ugly rumors. Arcadia’s heavy thoughts finally surfaced.

“Actually, I have concerns about Oknodie.”

“Oknodie? Gasp. Could it be…”

Titosoga’s face turned pale, as if she had some idea.

“Did something happen with you too, Titosoga?”

“If Oknodie is trying to persuade you to attend Professor Sadaco’s lectures together, please shake your teacup!”

“Pfft. What’s that? That never happened.”

“Hehe! That’s such an eye-catching signal, fitting for Titosoga who carries around a spotlight.”

“Frille’s dangling dress decorations are just as flashy!?”

While Titosoga and Frille’s cute bickering might suggest a trivial concern, Arcadia’s worry was not so light.

“Actually, during our last outing, I needed a large amount of points, so I received Oknodie’s help to complete a difficult task.”

“And?”

“After finishing, I happened to see Oknodie’s point balance, and I saw an enormous amount.”

Over two million points.

It was more than enough to pull someone out of a desperate situation.

“Perhaps you’re hoping Oknodie would use those points for you?”

Unlike the openly innocent Titosoga and the relatively gentle Frille, Canillian Truffle—though from a lord’s family—showed unparalleled sharpness with her direct question.

“Shamefully, I did feel such hesitation.”

With that many points, she wouldn’t have needed to go on the outing.

Why hadn’t Di used those points for her?

“It would be a lie to say I never had such immature, selfish thoughts.”

“You have other concerns about this.”

“The fact remains that Di risked his life to help me with a dangerous mission.”

In the end, Di had been a great help during the outing, allowing her to seize the slush fund acquired through her family’s unjust methods.

“If you don’t mind, could you tell me what happened?”

Arcadia hesitated.

Could she trust these children?

She had already experienced betrayal from many of her followers.

After a brief hesitation, she decided she wanted to trust these three who had stayed by her side until the end.

“…This is what happened.”

“That professor is terrible! 500,000 points—no ordinary student could ever pay that. The professor must hate you, Lady Arcadia!”

“500,000 points equals 5,000 gold coins… Even for me, who’s earned considerable money through Frille development and business, that’s a burdensome amount.”

Titosoga and Frille were either angry at the professor or shocked by the enormous sum.

Only Canillian, always maintaining her cool and composure, saw through to Arcadia’s true concerns.

“You’re suspicious of the professor and the academy, aren’t you?”

“Huh? Why would Lady Arcadia suspect the professor and the academy?”

“Tito. Eat a cookie and listen quietly.”

If that fool keeps asking questions whenever she’s curious, the conversation won’t progress.

Canillian put a cookie in Titosoga’s mouth and gave her two more when she looked dissatisfied.

When Frille pressed her lips together in protest, Canillian poured her a cup of cocoa with a delicious chocolate aroma.

“Will you still refuse?”

Frille primly accepted both the cocoa and cookie.

“Let me be clear. I never admitted to being a fool. I just couldn’t resist the fraudulently good combination of cocoa and cookies.”

Whatever.

Having silenced the two fools, Canillian delved into the lady’s concerns.

“I think your worries might be unnecessary. Professor Destroyer was actually quite considerate.”

“The professor…?”

“If the Ceviche ducal family was trying to conduct transactions using slush funds, would Professor Destroyer have agreed to the ledger transaction?”

“I suppose not.”

A ledger that couldn’t be traded even with money.

The professor had put a price of 500,000 points on it.

“500,000 points is expensive, but sometimes even allowing a transaction is itself a consideration. This ledger falls into that category.”

“Looking at it that way, the professor might have been considerate toward me.”

“The statement about accepting all illegal items in exchange for acknowledging the final 10,000 points might have seemed spiteful at the time, but as a third party, I see it differently.”

“For example?”

“If you, as a student, had tried to dispose of items that even the Thief Guild would hesitate to handle, you would certainly have gotten into big trouble. Many people who thought you inherited the Ceviche family’s wealth would have targeted you.”

It turned out that Professor Destroyer, who had seemed like complete garbage, was actually trying to be considerate by purchasing 1 million points worth of untradeable stolen goods for just 10,000 points.

Canillian Truffle’s hypothesis suggested that behind the professor’s cold and calculating behavior was a warm heart concerned for his student.

Though it might be a forced assumption, Arcadia felt her heart warming to this hypothesis.

‘She may be stiff, charmless, and haughty, but her consideration for others is just as kind as Titosoga’s or Frille’s.’

A natural smile appeared on Arcadia’s face as the tension eased.

“Thank you. There’s no guarantee that’s true, but now I can avoid completely hating the professor and the academy.”

“It’s nothing compared to how you’ve cared for us. We know how politically and diplomatically burdensome it is for you to stand against the empire’s great nobles.”

That’s only half the story.

Most students express gratitude for her efforts, but acting on behalf of everyone benefits her as well.

Political power is born from those who acknowledge one’s authority, so when everyone depends on her, she becomes the leader of the massive Arcadia faction.

She gains political power disproportionate to her status and can later use it to gain tangible and intangible benefits both inside and outside the academy.

…That was when the Ceviche ducal family was still strong in the Kingdom of Florence.

The daughter of the lord’s family doesn’t see the practical benefits that exist in politics.

‘Such practical benefits must exist for Gift Academy too, an educational institution suspiciously powerful.’

While Canillian’s hypothesis was touching, the likelihood of it being true was slim.

Just as Arcadia herself acted with ulterior motives even when acting with good intentions, the academy was likely looking beyond the surface as well.

‘My real concern is about Oknodie, not the professor.’

More precisely, it was about the two million points Oknodie possessed.

About the source of those points.

During the midterm exams, she realized how difficult it was to accumulate points.

How much brilliant talent one needed to demonstrate to earn them.

The labor of nearly hundreds of students in the Black Market for two months had only accumulated 600,000 points.

The 2 million points in Oknodie’s balance was three times that—comparable to the labor of all the lower classes excluding the advanced class.

Such points couldn’t be earned through ordinary labor.

Catching insects.

Collecting stones.

Enjoying new dishes.

Chattering happily at tea parties.

It was too enormous an amount for a cute, friendly, and spirited little lady.

‘It must be something special the academy is having Oknodie do, something she had to accept to receive such a large sum.’

And from what Arcadia had seen so far, there was only one person in this academy who would assign such suspicious missions to Oknodie.

Professor Destroyer.

Though Canillian spoke well of the professor, Arcadia couldn’t help but be suspicious.

Her worries deepened as she wondered how this professor was any different from the foundation that had exploited young Oknodie at will, if there was any difference beyond operating in the light versus the shadows.