Chapter 141
Chapter 141
Rustle. Soft rustle.
As soon as I came to my senses and opened my eyes, a loud crumbling sound rang out over the bedsheets.
I propped myself up, clutching my foggy head.
"……Huh?"
Something like the shed skin of cicadas lay scattered all around me, as if my body had molted.
No, calling it a husk seemed off—it was more like fragments of hard, thin porcelain.
'Fuck, this isn't grime…… so what is it?'
Had I gone to sleep without showering yesterday?
'No. I showered before bed.'
Frowning, I tried to sweep up and throw away the unidentified scraps scattered across the blanket.
But the moment my fingertips touched those husk fragments.
Fsssh─.
They turned into fine, transparent smoke as if by magic and scattered into the air, then vanished without a trace into the morning sunlight.
Clean bedsheets, without even a speck of dust left behind.
"What…… It's probably fine, right?"
It wasn't a bad thing, anyway. It meant less cleaning to do.
I glanced out the window.
Dawn had already passed, and the fresh light of morning was brightly illuminating the room.
My body felt impossibly refreshed and light as a feather, despite having been run ragged all day yesterday.
Yet one fact lurked in my mind, weighing down that freshness.
'Time to go to the Academy again.'
Fuck.
I wanted to sleep in for once, but I had Pink Pup to look after and a Master to deal with.
"Come to think of it, what am I going to do about Iris noona's tutoring today?"
After the mess I made yesterday, things were going to be insanely awkward today.
Out of habit, I waved my hand through the air and summoned the Fixer status window.
[Ability Activated: Fixer]
[Remaining Uses Today: 0/3]
"……?"
I doubted my eyes.
Since I had borrowed one of tomorrow's uses yesterday and brought the count down to -1, shouldn't the remaining uses have become 2 once midnight passed and three uses recharged?
But why did it say 0?
'It never said anything about this.'
Could that administrator bastard have said to "refrain from overusing it for the time being" yesterday, then forcibly suspended the cooldown altogether?
Okay, got it.
So the conclusion was that I couldn't use even a single click today.
I was fucked. Haa.
"How am I supposed to explain this to Master?"
If I said, "I can't use magic today," she would obviously start an academic investigation by poking and prodding every inch of my body again.
"I'll have to go to the Academy anyway, so I'll think about it while making breakfast."
I got out of bed and stretched, lengthening my whole body.
Then, just as I rose and lightly stepped forward to prepare Lily's breakfast.
Boing!
"……!"
My body floated strangely into the air?
I had merely put force into my feet to stand up normally from the bed, but my leg muscles reacted explosively, sending me shooting almost to the ceiling as if I had jumped.
Tap.
I landed lightly on the floor and opened my eyes wide.
'What the hell?'
My body felt extremely, abnormally light.
Not merely light—in fact, exaggerating only a little, I could feel the flow of each particle of the air I inhaled against the tip of my nose.
I could vividly sense the mana hole in the center of my chest and the mana circuits throughout my body spinning tautly at an insane speed.
Rather than blood flowing through me, pure energy was racing through my veins.
'……Oh.'
Looks like I just got an excuse to give Iris noona.
* * *
Tap, tap.
The tip of a fountain pen lightly tapped against the documents.
The meeting room of a prominent trading company in the capital.
Viscountess Müller smiled confidently at the key executives seated around the broad table.
"Then let's organize the priorities for what we'll purchase on the southern trade route as follows."
At Viscountess Müller's decision, the trading company's executives gathered in the meeting room all bowed their heads in unison.
"Understood, Guildmaster."
"Yes. We'll make the preparations without a hitch."
After hearing the executives' respectful replies, Viscountess Müller rose from her seat.
"Yes. That concludes the meeting. Good work, everyone."
Having said that, Müller left the meeting room first.
Creak, click.
The moment she stepped into the hallway, a lively atmosphere swept over her.
A trading company's day began faster than that of any noble in the capital.
By the time Müller was about to board her carriage for classes at the Academy, the trading company was already at the height of its bustle.
That was because the night shift, which had come in at two in the morning to load and unload goods for shipment and compare incoming orders from every region against the warehouse inventory, was nearing the end of its shift.
Clatter!
"Handle that carefully! Those are the finest herbs from the south!"
"Fill this carriage first!"
"Heave! Ho!"
The rough voices of the laborers and the sound of wagon wheels rolling in from beyond the window.
Viscountess Müller enjoyed this noisy atmosphere.
Rather than accumulating fatigue, it made her feel more settled in both body and mind.
While everyone else in the world was enjoying a leisurely hour beneath warm blankets, she and her trading company had been awake and moving more fiercely than anyone.
It seemed to tell her that she would once again reign today as the greatest force in the imperial capital, wielding her formidable capital.
"Phew."
She was just about to set off for the Academy, wearing a satisfied smile, when she heard—
Pit-a-pat.
"Guildmaster!"
The trading company's chief secretary hurriedly approached, crossing the hallway.
"A visitor has arrived."
"A visitor?"
Viscountess Müller turned her head, pausing as she was about to put on her black cowboy hat.
How many people in the capital were diligent enough to come directly to the trading company's headquarters at this hour?
"Who is it?"
"Professor Wilhelm of the Academy's Department of Tactical Studies."
At that name, Müller's eyes narrowed slightly.
'……That man?'
The inflexible old veteran of the Academy.
Under normal circumstances, he was a completely different sort of person, someone with whom it was difficult even to exchange formal pleasantries.
If a man like that had gone out of his way to come directly to the family's trading-company headquarters at this hour, rather than to the Academy faculty office or his laboratory.
'It must mean he has a reason weighty enough to warrant it.'
Why, though?
Could it be related to Cassian, the promising investment she had been making lately?
Müller pulled down the wide-brimmed hat and raised the corners of her lips.
"Show him into the parlor."
* * *
Clink.
The parlor of the trading company's headquarters.
A short while later, Müller personally served Wilhelm, who sat upright on the sofa, some warm black tea.
"I'll enjoy it."
Wilhelm offered his brief thanks in a weighty voice, then lifted the teacup and took a sip.
Then he immediately set the teacup down and looked straight at her.
"I won't waste time with small talk about how good the tea tastes."
"Oh my."
Müller narrowed her eyes into crescents beneath the hat.
"May I state my request right away?"
"Of course. I detest wasting time as well."
She asked, flicking her chin toward the clock.
"But before that, why did you come all the way to our trading-company headquarters instead of the Academy? Seeing you at school would have been sufficient."
At Müller's sharp question, Wilhelm heavily stroked his beard.
"I have come to ask a favor."
"A favor? A professor of tactical studies at the Academy, asking a merchant like me?"
She tilted her head slightly as though intrigued.
"Perhaps……"
Wilhelm's gaze sank more solemnly than ever.
"What are your thoughts on House Rohanna, Viscountess?"
"Hmm. Rohanna……"
At the unexpected three syllables, thousands of information networks in Viscountess Müller's mind began spinning furiously.
Count Rohanna.
A family that led a rising trading company in the south and was highly accomplished in alchemy.
That was about the extent of its public reputation.
But to Müller's eyes, which saw through even the Empire's underground economy, Rohanna was not a house limited to that.
A covert organization that funded the imperial family and silently controlled military supplies and logistics at the front.
And.
'A few days ago, our student Cassian enjoyed a cozy blind date with the sickly young lady of that house.'
It had long since reached her ears that the rumor had spread throughout the Academy.
"Rohanna is a perfectly respectable place to have as a trading partner."
Müller answered leisurely, her red lips curving smoothly.
"Not only because they distribute excellent alchemical reagents, but also because they have a good nose for money. Still, Professor Wilhelm, you surely didn't come here at this hour just to hear my commercial assessment of another household."
Professor Wilhelm cleared his throat once, then continued in his heavy voice.
"I am not asking for a commercial assessment, but about their standing in high society."
"Their standing?"
"Yes. In your view, what position would Rohanna's daughter currently face when she entered the capital's social circles?"
Interest flashed in Müller's eyes.
'This old man is worried about another family's young lady making her debut in high society?'
There was no need to question it. One hundred percent.
It was a move connected to Cassian.
She took off her hat and lightly placed it on the table.
"Objectively speaking, it's the worst."
"……The worst."
"Rohanna's eldest has carved out a respectable position in the Alchemy Department, but the second daughter, Lady Sophia, hasn't. She was so frail that she never even had a debutante ball, and as a result, she has no presence in high society, where she's only occasionally mentioned as 'that sickly young lady.'"
Müller shrugged.
"On top of that, because the previous head of the family passed away early, rumors are widespread that control of the house will pass to her uncle. In such circumstances, receiving high society's favor as a proper noble young lady would honestly be close to a miracle, no matter that she is of Rohanna blood."
Deep furrows appeared between Wilhelm's brows.
"……I see. Indeed."