“Mmm……”
When I opened my eyes, the first thing I felt was air so refreshing it was almost absurd.
The unpleasant metallic rasp that had always seemed to scrape at my lungs, and the pain that had made every joint creak as if sand were lodged inside them, had vanished as though they had never existed.
I carefully pushed myself up from the bed. My body felt as light as a feather.
[Status Window]
[Vitality: 65%]
[Trait “Mana Receptor (EX)” has perfectly digested the extreme yin and extreme yang energies within the body.]
[Hidden toxins have been completely expelled, and the jade body has regained stability.]
‘Sixty-five percent! A whole sixty-five percent!’
I clenched both fists and shouted inwardly in delight.
Last night, when I drank that disgusting garbage-flavored mixture of elixirs and vomited up a whole basin of blood, I really thought I was crossing the River Jordan then and there,
but it had all been a “healing crisis” caused by the debuff toxins accumulated in my body being flushed out.
“Haa…… I’m alive. I really survived.”
Drunk on the joy of survival, I turned my head—only to suck in a breath at the tragic sight around my bed.
Sylvia and Ellara had collapsed asleep on the carpet beside the bed, still kneeling as they tightly held my hands.
And even Princess Aurelia was dozing off with her back against my headboard, arms crossed, her head bobbing.
All three of them had pale faces beaded with cold sweat, and their breathing was faint from mana exhaustion.
When I coughed up blood and collapsed last night, this trio of insane obsessives had poured mana into my body as if they were ready to shave away their own lives.
Thanks to that, my “Mana Receptor” had been able to digest the elixirs at 200% efficiency,
but in exchange, these three strongest beings in the world had pulled an all-nighter and gotten knocked out cold.
I looked back and forth at their sleeping faces, then quietly pressed a hand to my forehead.
‘……I’m grateful, but at this rate, you lot are going to die of overwork first.’
While I was acting like a man on borrowed time, their misunderstanding had already evolved beyond “pure affection” into the realm of “religious fanaticism toward a martyr.”
If I so much as coughed, they looked ready to sob, thinking I had swallowed poison to prevent the end of the world. If I stayed with them, I felt like I would suffocate and die of stress first.
‘This won’t do. Today, I need to get away for a bit and have some time to myself.’
I carefully pulled my hands free from Sylvia and Ellara’s grip, wiped the cold sweat from Aurelia’s forehead with a towel, and slipped out of the dorm room without anyone noticing.
Northwest of the academy, the sealed-off old school building.
The place that had been designated as the official headquarters of the Student Supervisory Committee, my legal money-laundering channel and paper company.
Leaning on my cane, I walked at a leisurely pace down the old corridor of the building.
And the moment I opened the door to the chairman’s office—the former illegal warehouse—I couldn’t help but smile in satisfaction.
“Ooh, Young Master…… no, Chairman! You’ve arrived!”
Broker Jackson, who had perfectly switched classes into secretary mode,
and Professor Bain, who had volunteered to become my loyal hound out of fear of disciplinary action, greeted me by bending at the waist in a ninety-degree bow.
The scenery inside the room was completely different from yesterday’s musty warehouse.
A thick crimson carpet, said to have been woven by the finest artisans in the southern empire, had been laid across the floor,
and in the center stood a mammoth-leather sofa equipped with magical heating and cooling functions that would perfectly embrace my body.
In the fireplace, premium charcoal burned to maintain a pleasant temperature,
and on the desk, even the most expensive espresso magic extractor on the continent was operating.
“What do you think, Chairman! Out of the 800,000 gold in slush funds,
we executed part of the budget allocated for your ‘dignity maintenance expenses’ and completed the setup in a single night!”
Jackson proudly cried, his nostrils flaring.
I threw myself into the mammoth-leather sofa and sank deep into it.
As the mana-powered massage function gently kneaded my back and waist, an old-man-like groan of “Kraaah……” escaped me without my realizing it.
‘This is it. This is the taste of money, the taste of power!’
The sweetness of capitalism, wrung out by risking my life while pretending to be a mastermind, wrapped around my entire body.
I took a sip of the bitter espresso Jackson had brewed and looked out the window.
It was the perfect completion of a solitary old man’s…… no, a convalescent life, with none of the heroines’ suffocating obsession and none of Lumen’s murderous glares.
“Excellent, Jackson. Professor Bain, you worked hard as well, managing the workers through the night.”
“You honor me too much! This was the work of adorning the sanctuary of a great sovereign—how could I possibly feel tired, even if my bones were to shatter!”
Professor Bain, overcome with emotion, struck his head against the floor.
‘No, we just decorated a clubroom. What sanctuary……?’
Just as I clicked my tongue and was about to drink my coffee,
a noisy shout came from outside the old school building’s window, from the direction of the first-year training ground.
“You lowborn commoner bastard! How dare you block the path of the heir to a count’s house?!”
When I looked down out the window, some extra noble brat in a gaudy cloak was beating a plainly dressed male student with his magic staff.
The male student being beaten was bleeding, yet he glared at the noble with venom in his eyes.
I narrowed my eyes.
‘That guy…… Isn’t that Arthur, the commoner genius who, in the original work, becomes Lumen’s reliable ally and the academy’s greatest alchemist?’
In the early part of the original story, Arthur had been unable to endure the nobles’ bullying and tried to drop out of the academy,
but when Lumen saved him, he joined the side of light and became an important figure.
“Bain.”
“Yes, Chairman!”
“Who is that noble brat?”
“Ah, he is the second son of the Laurent count family. His magical ability is dreadful, but thanks to his family’s donations, he struts around the academy like the piece of trash he is.”
I downed the rest of my espresso in one gulp and slowly rose from the sofa.
As I picked up my cane, a mischievous mastermind’s smile spread across my face before I knew it.
‘Before Lumen picks him up, I’ll have to squeeze that useful alchemist dry first.’
“Jackson, bring the ledger. As a student supervisor…… I should set the academy’s ‘discipline’ straight.”
“Khk……!”
Arthur, a first-year in the Faculty of Alchemy, spat out blood-tinged saliva while lying sprawled on the ground.
Before his eyes stood Gian, the second son of the Laurent count family, swinging his staff with a vile grin.
“A mere commoner dares to claim my experimental materials first? No matter how much a bastard like you digs into alchemy,
once you graduate, you’re destined to be rolled into our family’s factories as a slave!”
Just as Gian raised his boot to stomp on Arthur’s hand—
“That’s far enough.”
A cold, languid voice echoed across the training ground.
Gian turned his head with an irritated expression, but his face soon turned deathly pale.
A silver-haired young man was walking over elegantly, leaning on a cane, with a black coat draped over his shoulders.
The living legend before whom every professor in the academy groveled, and whom even the imperial shadow service was said to fear.
It was Cailan von Cliff.
“Y-Young Master Cailan……!”
Gian hurriedly lowered his staff and bowed.
But I ignored him as if he were an insect and approached Arthur, who had collapsed on the ground.
With the tip of my cane, I nudged up Arthur’s bloodied chin.
“Those are talented eyes. Do you feel wronged, commoner?”
“……I do.”
Arthur gritted his teeth and glared at me. A fighting spirit that did not bend even before the grand duke family’s scapegrace. As expected of an important supporter from the original work.
I gave a faint laugh and turned my head to look at Gian.
“You said you were the second son of the Laurent count family. Private use of force within the academy should be a violation of school regulations.”
Gian stammered, cold sweat pouring down his face.
“Y-Young Master! That lowly commoner offended me first! I merely administered rightful punishment in defense of a noble’s honor!”
“A noble’s honor, is it.”
I snapped my fingers toward Jackson, who stood behind me. Jackson immediately opened a thick ledger.
“Gian von Laurent. Over the past three months, the amount you embezzled from the Faculty of Alchemy’s practical materials budget and squandered on entertainment expenses is 1,200 gold.
On top of that, during the first-year midterm examination, you are suspected of bribing a teaching assistant and leaking the exam papers.”
I stepped closer to Gian’s face and whispered coldly.
“Was that pathetic honor of yours worth a mere 1,200 gold?”
“H-Hiiik……! H-How did you……!”
Gian’s legs gave out, and he collapsed on the spot. To me, who had absorbed the information network of the back-alley broker alliance,
the corruption of a mere count family’s second son was nothing more than dust I could wipe away in a single day.
“By the authority of the student supervisor, I hereby order.”
I tapped the golden badge on my chest and spoke clearly enough for my voice to ring throughout the training ground.
“Gian von Laurent. You will be immediately expelled from the academy,
and the 1,200 gold you embezzled will be charged to the Laurent count family at ten times the amount, 12,000 gold, as punitive damages.
The full amount collected will be transferred to the Student Supervisory Committee.”
“E-Expelled?! N-No!! My father will beat me to death! Young Master, please forgive me just this once……!!”
“Drag him away.”
At my short command, the rough-looking men Professor Bain had brought covered Gian’s mouth and dragged him off.
It was a thoroughly legal and perfectly cruel “execution on paper.”
Without spilling a single drop of blood, I had socially buried the child of a count family.
The students gathered in the training ground looked at me with eyes mixed with fear and awe, not even daring to breathe aloud.
I held out my hand toward Arthur, who was sitting there blankly.
“Get up, Arthur. I’ll prepare a place for you in the Student Supervisory Committee.
That outstanding talent of yours in alchemy…… From now on, you’ll have to let me exploit it without reserve.”
My words were, in every sense, a villainous declaration of exploitation.
“……!!”
But Arthur’s eyes filled with hot tears.
This overwhelming ruler had destroyed, in an instant, the irrational noble who had been trampling him underfoot, and had recognized the talent of a commoner like him.
Arthur seized my hand and prostrated himself on the ground, shouting in a voice trembling with emotion.
“I will devote my life to you, Chairman!! All of my knowledge and my very soul now belong to you!!”
[You have stolen the key supporter “Alchemist Arthur” from the “Side of Light”!]
[Cailan von Cliff’s private organization, the Student Supervisory Committee,
has begun to be revered among academy students as the “Shadow Council that enforces true justice”!]
“……No, it’s not that serious.”
I awkwardly scratched the back of my head. I had only picked up some cheap labor to make my elixirs,
yet before I knew it, I had become the savior of the oppressed commoners.
It was then.
“Cailan……!!”
Three shadows came racing from afar at a mad speed, simultaneously crashing into my back and both arms.
Ellara, Sylvia, and Aurelia, who should have been sprawled out in the dormitory, had somehow woken up and come looking for me.
“Haa, haa…… My lord! When I opened my eyes and you weren’t by my side, I thought my heart would stop!”
Ellara sobbed as she hugged my waist hard enough to crush it.
“Cailan, why are you wandering around alone when you’re not even fully well! What if you cough up blood again?!”
Sylvia grabbed my cheeks and fussed over me while checking my complexion.
Princess Aurelia, though panting for breath, stood beside me with her characteristic arrogant smile.
“So this is the place you fled to. But……”
Her red eyes turned toward Arthur and the students kneeling on the ground in worship of me, and then toward Jackson, who held the perfectly prepared “asset seizure documents.”
(Princess Aurelia’s automatic brain translation)
‘In the brief time I was asleep, he legally purged the useless noble trash of the academy,
and took the persecuted commoner genius under his command!
That man…… is not simply a tyrant who reigns through power.
He is a true “revolutionary,” an emperor who will take complete control of the law, the system, and even the hearts of the people, and rebuild this rotten empire from the ground up!!’
Aurelia’s entire body trembled with a shudder of excitement. As if she could not hold herself back, she strongly pulled my neck toward her and breathed hotly into my ear.
“That arrogant and perfect dictatorship of yours…… I, Aurelia, shall gladly join you in it. For the mother of the new nation you seek to create shall be none other than me.”
“……Huh?”
My brain came to a halt at the princess’s bombshell declaration.
Mother of the nation? Dictatorship? A new world?
I just…… wanted to sit on a soft sofa, drink coffee, and rest!
But my wronged sincerity was completely buried beneath the fervent cheers of the extras who looked upon me as the “great sovereign of the shadow empire,” and the suffocating barrage of affection from the heroines.
The clubroom I had created for my limited-life convalescence was, as of today, destined to be recorded in history as the sanctuary of the “Shadow Council” that would shake the continent.