Chap 14-Catching an Easy Target

 

Schperen’s first day passed without incident.

Moreover, with the holiday included, I had some leeway to investigate Edenberun through the Thieves’ Guild.

Since that day, the Edenberun Marquis Family had been in an uproar.

The reason, of course, was that they had used their family’s secret technique, the [Illusionary Spear Sword Technique], against me at Schperen.

Adding insult to injury, he had disgraced the family.

And to top it off, he had disgraced his master, Ailia.

At this point, Edenberun should be harassing me or protesting to the Bathory Family, but there was no sign of that, perhaps because my master was taking care of it behind the scenes.

-Don’t cause too much trouble.

Instead, I received a complaint from my teacher through a messenger hawk.

Aside from that, my condition was good.

I never knew how good it would feel to stretch out and sleep.

Above all, the facilities were excellent.

The dormitory cafeteria was the same.

The large dining hall on the first floor was equipped with all sorts of sanitary facilities that even the poor could only dream of.

Even the kingdom didn’t have anything like this.

“By the way, this dormitory cafeteria has excellent facilities. I bet they use expensive ingredients, too?”

“Don’t people usually compliment the food?”

“Ah, that’s the same thing. The ingredients come before the food, and the facilities are important for hygiene, so isn’t that the main issue?”

There was no other reason.

I was just wondering how much all of this would cost.

Of course, the food ingredients would be difficult to take out due to freshness issues, but I could probably swipe some of the magic tools in those facilities.

For now, I stood in line to receive breakfast.

“Forget it, let’s just eat breakfast.”

“By the way, that Ellie woman isn’t around.”

“Why are you suddenly asking about her?”

“Can’t you tell from the atmosphere in the dormitory?”

Those countless gazes.

However, if you were to ask if those gazes held even a little goodwill, the answer would be no.

After what happened, they were at least wary or looked at us with annoyance. In any case, they were all various kinds of negative gazes.

Well, Arietta hadn’t even left the room under the pretext of safety.

“Yes, I know that we’re completely isolated.”

“Originally, my plan was for that Ellie bitch to come with her followers in the morning and start a fight, then we’d beat them up and take control of the dormitory atmosphere.”

First impressions are important.

Originally, I thought that the princess who went to the academy should have at least one or two friends and use that as a basis to create a faction, or at least some meat shields, but she was too busy saying that the outside of the imperial palace was dangerous. If we wanted to increase our standing now, we had to attract some attention.

There were quite a few people looking at me.

We needed to make an example of one person to show that messing with us would be a disaster.

If that was the case, we might have to consider just framing someone as being part of another imperial family faction.

“Are you okay with this?”

“You’ve already abandoned the honor of the imperial family, haven’t you? If so, then you should solidify your position in the academy right now.”

Look at the princess’s current state.

Honestly, regardless of what she thinks, Arietta as seen by the students at Schperen is a frightened rabbit.

At least in the eyes of others, she needs to appear not as a frightened rabbit, but as a hedgehog that can strike back at any time.

We need to show that you shouldn’t mess with a crazy bitch, so that other imperial family factions won’t dare to touch us.

The recent incident with the Edenberun heir has probably already spread widely among the imperial families, so they probably won’t touch us easily.

“That’s a problem for later.”

“Right now, you need at least a friend who will shed a tear when you die. Today, go to a group of commoners and say, ‘Hey, want to hang out with me?’ or something like that.”

Commoners probably don’t belong to any factions, so we might be able to keep them by our side somehow.

It’s kind of like making friends.

“It’s not like I’m dealing with a child.”

“I’m saying we should raise some meat shields.”

Anyway, I’m confident that I wouldn’t shed a tear even if someone died near me, but Arietta was initially designated as the test subject for my meticulous assassination plan on the first day I met her.

If it weren’t for me, she would have probably slowly died alone from mana dehydration or runaway mana by now.

We need to secure a few lives to use for the princess’s sake.

“Do you have any conscience?”

“Is conscience something you eat?”

“Never mind, let’s eat breakfast first.”

Soon, it was our turn.

A unique nutritionist came forward and prepared the food with practiced gestures.

“Enjoy your meal.”

A red-haired elf with perked ears placed cream stew and various dishes before us.

A variety of meat and vegetable dishes that I didn’t recognize.

There was a tag on her chest that said “Nutritionist.”

An elf as a nutritionist is unusual.

Is this Schperen so extravagant that it hires elves even as nutritionists?

Elves aren’t usually a race that’s so hungry for money that they’d be hired with money.

Hmm.

Could this nutritionist elf be hired by another competing imperial family member?

But I don’t sense any poison in the food.

Well, if she’s an elf, she’d try to take the lead herself, not belong to someone or kill someone on request.

I was too sensitive.

At least the cafeteria seems to be normal.

But why is there so much meat?

“I haven’t seen this nutritionist before?”

“Nutritionists work on a rotating schedule. I work three days a week.”

“There’s a lot of meat, though?”

“You have to eat well to match your large chest.”

It felt like a prank, but she was saying it so seriously that I couldn’t really object.

As a former man, I didn’t know how to react to such a statement.

With complex emotions, I took the food and found a seat with the princess.

“Cream stew is a light breakfast, after all.”

Whether it’s cream stew or whatever, one thing is certain:

It’s on a different level than when I was living as a thief.

After I was registered with Bathory, they told me to eat well, so the Thieves’ Guild members, who were presumed to be their servants, took good care of my diet.

I couldn’t help but compare it to my time in the hero party.

“You have a nostalgic look on your face sometimes.”

“Oh, I was just thinking about how I used to eat only oatmeal. If I was lucky, I’d get some pickled beans.”

I ate so much that I was sick of it.

Later, I ate it almost like I was just absorbing it to fill my hunger.

“The Bathory Baron Family isn’t that poor, though.”

“It was a kind of trial.”

Yes, it was definitely a trial.

How could someone like me have shared meals with those guys?

If those bitches had bought just a little less clothing, we could have had some oil in our mouths.

But they were so extravagant.

No, everything else is fine. I understand that even the elf is using the money of lowly humans, but even the saintess was like that, which was honestly shocking.

What was the goddess thinking when she gave the Holy Sword to such a guy and recognized such a bitch as a saintess? Tsk.

I need to stop thinking about it.

Academy life is heaven in comparison, so I can’t help but compare.

The princess, who was busy filling her stomach, looked at me with her eyes rolling.

“So, what should we do now?”

“You don’t want to do what I said earlier, is that it?”

“No, I’m not close-minded. I don’t care about status here. But even if I’m in a tough situation, that’s a bit much.”

I understand.

It’s definitely an action that’s easy to be ignored.

Even the commoners who would allow us to be friends would probably be like, “What the hell?”

“Then let’s take down one of them.”

“Ellie isn’t here, though?”

“There’s someone who’s easier to take down.”

There’s someone who we can definitely beat up more easily than Ellie or whatever.

The Edenberun Family, who recently couldn’t live up to their size and proved in front of the other factions that they were just water muscles.

An existence that we can beat up whenever we feel like it.

Yeah. Edenberun, the guy who was unnecessarily scared of me.

In the male-dominated empire, shouldn’t there be some fun in humiliating a stupid guy who lost to a woman?

We were now standing proudly in front of the classroom.

Not Class A, but Class B.

Yeah. This wasn’t the class that I or the princess were assigned to.

So why were we here?

“This is the class where that Edenberun guy is, right?”

“Yes. Class 1-B is his class.”

Then there’s no reason to hesitate.

I kicked open the door to the 1-B classroom and entered.

In an instant, countless gazes poured down on us. I ignored them and went inside to find Edenberun.

It wasn’t hard to find him.

Arnold, the heir to Edenberun, was sitting alone in a corner, frowning.

He must be getting ignored a lot because of his loss to me.

Should I drive the nail in?

“E. Den. Be. Run!”

I spread my arms wide and slowly approached Arnold.

Smiling brightly as if I had met a dear friend.

Looking at the now gaunt guy, it seems like he’s been through a lot with Ailia.

“W-What is it?”

What do you think? I’m here to diss you again.

He’s trying to act tough, but it’s meaningless.

Once you show weakness, you’re bound to be looked down on.

So, I need to take advantage of this opportunity.

I pulled out a chair in front of Arnold and sat astride it, mocking him.

“I don’t think I told you, but it seems like our Marquis Family heir lost his mind and cried to his father, ‘I was humiliated by the Baron Family’s daughter, waaaah!'”

“I never did that!”

Even if he didn’t cry, he probably whined.

More precisely, he probably said that it was all my fault because he didn’t want to be dismissed. He fought with chivalry, but I was the one who did wrong.

Seeing that he did this in just one day, he must have been quite desperate.

So, I’ll exaggerate it even more.

Either I’ll make fun of Ailia behind him,

Or I’ll mess with him even more to make him fall out of Ailia’s faction.

“Wow, he cried.”

“How far will Edenberun fall?”

Now, the students didn’t care which side was telling the truth.

From the countless gazes watching us, the other imperial family factions were busy dissing Edenberun, who was a definite power, rather than Bathory, who had no roots and might not be a competitor.

Besides, most of those who watched the battle now ignored the Edenberun heir.

If a big musclehead turned out to have a soft belly, it’s only natural to ignore him.

“I’ll tell you one thing. If you protest one more time, it means you could end up like the Franz Family.”

“What?”

“If you get summoned and go to the Marquis Family because of this, tell the Edenberun Marquis this. What was it? Oh, right. Flower shop. That’s all you need.”

“What are you talking about! Flower shop?”

The Edenberun Marquis had given drugs to the mine workers to increase their work efficiency.

That was all thanks to the Thieves’ Guild secretly bringing in philip herb, the raw material for the drug.

At the time, the Thieves’ Guild’s flower shop in Edenberun traded with the Marquis Family.

“The Edenberun Marquis will understand. And one more thing. Don’t act up in front of women anymore.”

“Damn it. It’s all because of you!”

He doesn’t understand.

A club is the best medicine for a mad dog.

I stared straight into his black eyes, which were glaring at me, and whispered.

“Shut up when I tell you to, you pig.”

Only then did Edenberun’s whiner shut his mouth.

This incident is not just about making fun of the Marquis Family, but also about touching Ailia.

Since they were the ones who touched us first, it’s only natural that we’re stepping up. But will that woman be scared and stay still?

Or will she lose control of her anger and lash out?

With this incident, Edenberun can’t act recklessly.

So, the question is how Ailia will react.

Her brothers are watching, so she’ll definitely try to crush us.