Book 1 Chapter 22
Episode 21
After the Great Magic War, quite a few side effects emerged. They were truly troublesome side effects.
“Hello, Young Master Ludwig. You know me, right? We’re in the same class…”
“I’m in the room right next to yours in the dormitory…”
“I met you in a dream…”
It was the usual walk to school, and I had simply entered the classroom as usual, but these people annoyingly clung to me, chattering away. Especially the female students.
“Wait, you don’t need to tell me your names.”
If they had expected a sweet line like, 'Because I already know all of your names…' then they knew nothing about Rain.
“I have no intention of memorizing them, nor do I intend to get close to you. Most importantly, I’m bad at remembering names.”
The students seemed to freeze with shocked expressions, then chuckled, saying that as a noble of a great family, he even played pranks in a sophisticated manner.
“No, it’s not a prank?”
“Oh, Young Master, you’re something else.”
“I’m telling you, it’s not a prank?”
Rain's expression hardened as he looked at those who giggled despite his words. Have these guys gone crazy en masse…?
“Look at that, the 'Terrible Personality Young Master' is being terrible from the morning…”
“Deceiving us first thing in the morning, what a truly awful personality…”
And the boys whispered among themselves and then gave him another strange nickname. It didn't matter, as he didn't care much about what others thought of him.
“You there, could you move out of the way?”
At that moment, a voice echoed through the classroom like a cold sandstorm. Thorns mixed with the clear timbre roughly brushed against everyone’s backs.
Christa Warden.
Immediately, female and male students alike moved aside or scurried back to their seats as if fleeing.
“Hmph.”
Christa snorted audibly as she passed Rain. Gertrude Fenton, who was accompanying her, smiled playfully and leaned her head towards Rain, whispering.
“Perhaps your Young Master's nickname was actually the 'Lady Killer Young Master'?”
Lady Killer Young Master… where and why did that nickname come from? It seems he has more nicknames than Lynn.
And as he sat down, Christa, who was already in the seat next to him, ostentatiously turned her head towards the window, pretending not to know him.
She was completely motionless, almost like a statue.
“Why do you seem angry?”
“……”
“Hey.”
“……”
“I asked why you’re angry.”
After poking the hornet's nest for a while, Christa crossed her legs and arrogantly lifted her chin.
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t talk to me. I told you then, didn't I? I don’t know someone like you.”
“Ah, sorry. I won’t pretend to know you anymore.”
“And I’m not angry, okay? If anything, I’d say I feel triumphant.”
Suddenly, Christa crossed her arms, revealing the posture of an arrogant noble. Her expression was haughty.
“Honestly, I was getting sick of watching you pretend to be weak when you’re actually incredibly strong. You defeated *this* Christa Warden, didn’t you? So walk with your shoulders back and your head held high.”
This one is saying something similar to Aunt Ellyn. Do nobles absolutely have to be strong?
“But now, I suppose, there's value in properly crushing you? Before, even if I defeated you, all I would hear were taunts about beating a good-for-nothing young master. But now that you’ve caught Chaikhakh, the playing field has completely changed.”
“?”
“I’m looking forward to it, Rain Ludwig. To the day *this* Christa Warden flattens you like modeling clay. So don’t lose to anyone until then. If you do, I won’t let it go.”
Christa slammed her hand on the desk and stood up, looking down at Rain provocatively. As Rain didn't avert his gaze, a sharp silence formed.
‘The 'Terrible Personality Young Master' from <Libarden> versus the top student…’
‘What a formidable matchup…’
Then Rain glanced at Christa’s desk and raised an eyebrow.
“First period is Owen’s class. Aren’t you going to take out your textbook? You’ll get a demerit.”
“Oh, right, that’s true. I almost messed up.”
But that silence ended in a truly absurd way, with the sound of Christa sitting down and fumbling to take out her textbook.
From the front seat, Gertrude Fenton sighed and covered her forehead.
‘If you’re going to do it, you should do it properly to the end…’
She spent all of yesterday evening practicing only that declaration.
***
Attending classes at school and then researching runes after school, before he knew it, the weekend had arrived.
“A problem has arisen.”
And on the weekend, he was supposed to meet Karen, the junior librarian, at the library. Karen looked around furtively before speaking cautiously.
The story she told was this:
She had inquired with all five publishing houses in the Empire, but most of the books about Tureina had been temporarily out of print.
“Why are they out of print?”
“I don’t know the details. The heresy interrogation institution, ‘Children of Gold,’ belonging to the Orthodox Church of the Light Dragon, suddenly placed all books related to Tureina on a censorship list this year.”
“That… wait? Does that mean Tureina’s books have been deemed heretical?”
It was perplexing. Why would such a measure be taken unless Tureina was engaging in heretical acts…?
And if they were going to conduct a heresy interrogation, they should have done it when she was alive. Why suddenly after her death?
“Have you read that book?”
“Of course. For a central library librarian, it’s a must-read. She was a disciple of the Great Mage Lynn and Priestess Friede of the Fire Dragon, and she left behind achievements as great as theirs.”
That person?
He almost burst out laughing.
“Were there any particularly strange parts? Like explaining the advantages of black magic?”
“Strange parts, you ask? From what I saw, there weren’t any. Besides, it’s ostensibly a biography of a great person, so any odd parts would have been censored.”
So Tureina, that person, didn’t cause trouble by dabbling in black magic?
That’s a relief, but…
If not that, then why?
Turning his thoughts over here wouldn't provide an answer, but the situation had certainly become quite complicated.
“Then I’ll have to go to the black market.”
“The black market?”
“Because everything appears in the black market. From books deemed heretical to magic tools corrupted by the Abyss (深淵). Tureina’s books should be easy enough to find.”
“But the problem is that Tureina’s books are currently undergoing heresy examination.”
That was true. There was no need to explain that the price would have skyrocketed, and crucially, he wouldn't be able to borrow money from the family to use.
If he tried to buy the book with family funds and got caught by the heresy interrogation institution, ‘Children of Gold,’ the problem would become complicated.
Of course, the Ludwig family wouldn't be burned at the stake for heresy… but it would unnecessarily cause trouble for his parents.
‘But if I buy it personally, the story changes.’
If a problem arises during the purchase, he can simply claim, ‘I really wanted to read that book out of respect for Tureina.’ At worst, it would end as a personal matter.
“It feels like things are getting excessively complicated… I’m truly sorry, Young Master. I will contribute as much as I can.”
“How much do you receive a month?”
“Thirty Black Tortoise silver coins.”
Generally, a laborer's daily wage is one silver coin, so it could be said to be a decent amount. But it was far from enough to go to the black market.
“I don’t know what the current market price is, but you’d probably need to bring at least three gold coins to be safe.”
“Three gold coins?”
Karen’s eyes trembled.
One hundred Black Tortoise silver coins had to be collected to exchange for one Golden Dragon gold coin. Perhaps she was doing the math, as Karen choked and coughed.
“This is a big problem. You said you couldn’t use family money either, Young Master… and my monthly salary is woefully insufficient.”
Right, he needed to think for a moment here. He had thought he would never have to worry about money again after being reincarnated in this body, yet…
How could he earn money?
Should he use magic on the streets and sell it to people who need it?
That's dismissed. He doesn't have a mage license (it's automatically issued after taking the rank examination), so it's illegal.
‘Become a magic instructor…?’
That's also dismissed.
He was called a good-for-nothing young master by society. Who would hire such a person, and even if he were hired, who would want to learn from him?
Besides, such positions usually involve yearly contracts, which won't work. He needs quick cash.
‘Is there anywhere I can earn a lot of money, even if it takes a little time?’
The supreme truth of life: high risk, high return. Risk is the stake… and the biggest stake I can bet is my life.
Bet my life to earn money?
Wait, he didn't even need to think that deeply. Rain finally reached the answer and nodded in satisfaction.
“Don’t worry. I had something else I wanted to do anyway, so I’ll just pick it up while I’m at it.”
“Something else you wanted to do?”
“Actually, I was already thinking of doing some adventurer work because I have some magic experiments to conduct. I'll earn some money while I'm at it.”
He wasn't doing this out of goodwill.
He was going to be an adventurer anyway, and the money he earned from it didn’t really have any specific use, did it? It was just a matter of killing two birds with one stone, so to speak.
“An adventurer, Young Master of a great family, how can you do such a lowly job… No, Young Master. I’ll be disciplined for this, and the Central Library will have to─”
He roughly waved away Karen's worries and quickly finished his own statement.
“─I think it would take about two to three weeks to earn the money and buy the book from the black market. Wouldn’t that be much faster?”
“……!”
“Let’s meet here again then.”
With the discussion concluded, he needed to quickly head into town to register as an adventurer. He was only allowed out on weekends, after all.
What seemed like a minor issue at the time hatched into a major problem the next day, in the absence of both individuals.
The head librarian, gathered the librarians and was checking the list of this week's loans, when his eyebrows shot up.
“What is this? The person who borrowed Tureina’s biography… is Young Master Rain Ludwig?”
As it was a name that had been stirring up the school recently, everyone knew who the boy was. However, the head librarian mentioned it for a more serious reason.
“What is this? How was it borrowed? First-year students aren’t allowed to borrow books in their first semester. Who approved this loan?”
Then a wrinkled, first-class librarian scanned the loan record and let out a short 'hmm' sound.
“Checking the time, it appears to be Karen. She’s only been working for about four months.”
“Where is she now?”
“Today is her day off…”
“Did she not receive the information that first-year students cannot borrow books in their first semester?”
“That’s possible, but… it seems more likely that Young Master Rain insisted on it. She’s not the type of child to make such a mistake.”
Most librarians knew how clever Karen was. Therefore, a second-class librarian, who found this problem puzzling, suddenly brightened, saying, “Ah!”
“Professor Ellyn often visited; perhaps it was her who borrowed it, and the name was simply written incorrectly?”
“Karen’s handwriting is a bit messy, so at a glance, 'Ra' does look like 'El'. She wrote ‘Ra’ like ‘El’.”
“Furthermore, with everyone constantly saying ‘Rain, Rain’ these days, she might have been distracted and written ‘Rain’.”
It was partially true. Karen had indeed been distracted enough to make a mistake.
Not because of Rain, but because a book she was responsible for had vanished as if by magic, and when she tried to reorder it, she found it had been censored by the ‘Children of Gold.’
And her mind was indeed in a whirl due to a ridiculous string of coincidences, such as the Young Master of a great family offering to buy it with his own money while working as an adventurer.
The second-class librarian chuckled further.
“Besides, lately, that Karen girl seems to be enjoying secret meetings with Young Master Rain. When a woman falls in love, she often makes such mistakes, you know.”
It was truly absurd logic, yet most of the female librarians nodded as if understanding. The male librarians, however, shook their heads skeptically.
Nevertheless, thinking that way was the most rational. Not only was it unlikely for Karen to make such a mistake, but it was also true that Professor Ellyn had been frequenting the library lately.
If one thought that way, everything fell simply into place. And Rain, unlike other first-year students, was a descendant of a great family, so if a problem arose, resolving it would also be quite simple.
“Is that so? Then there’s no problem. After the meeting, make sure to properly mark the borrower’s name. As Professor Ellyn Ludwig.”