Chapter 38
『Translator: RainTL』
༺ Dupe Bug (1) ༻
Isabelle Kirmin, a 2nd year student of the Magic Department, had a very deep concern these days.
It had been about two months since the vampire awakening incident of her best friend, Marie. Despite all the chaos it created, it actually didn’t take that long for Marie to fuse back into her peer group.
“Marie. Are you having lunch?”
“Uuunn?”
During lunch time, Marie was sucking on a large pack of blood like it was juice.
“Is it another blood pack today?”
“Un.”
“Should I lend you my neck if you want some fresh blood?”
“Mhmm~. You’re too skinny Ruine, so no! I would prefer it if the person was a bit more buff!”
“Oh my, that’s so nice of you! Hohoho!”
Marie was now okay enough to joke around with her classmates about blood.
“M, Marie!”
“Nnn? Kane?”
Kane, a 2nd year student from the Knight Department, suddenly walked up to Marie and fidgeted his fingers. The innocent love of this boy with disheveled hair was so obvious and famous that everyone knew about it except for Marie.
“Umm… actually! I did a blood donation yesterday and took a pack of blood while I was at it!”
He resolutely tried to hand over his blood pack as if it was a love letter.
‘Ehew, that retard.’
Did he think it was a romantic gift or something?
“Umm…”
Even though she had become a vampire, Marie seemed to be finding it nonsensical to receive the blood of a peer, and shook her head with a troubled look on her face.
“I, it’s fine. I am receiving more than enough blood packs from Professor Josephine regularly.”
“R, really? Then should I give you my neck…!”
‘Th, that retard! Freaking blockhead!’
Kane had been reading a bunch of novels and books about vampires ever since Marie turned into one, and it seemed that a strange piece of knowledge had settled in his head. Did he think Marie would gladly accept it if he offered his neck?
“I’m alright!”
“Huh?”
“Sucking directly from a person is dangerous! And blood packs are enough to fill my stomach!”
Saying that, Marie left the classroom while Kane became the target of a bunch of criticism for creating an awkward atmosphere.
“Hah… you idiot.”
“Do you not think about how Marie would feel?”
“N, no. I…!”
“You need to be more thoughtful. Okay?”
Leaving behind the retarded Kane, Isabelle chased after Marie. As someone who had the experience of having her blood sucked out by Marie, Isabelle remembered how sad she was after sucking blood and the tears she shed.
She was chasing after her friend to give her words of consolation while hoping that she wasn’t feeling depressed but…
“Korin?”
“Senior Marie? Are you done with your lesson?”
“Nn.”
In the corridor of the same floor, Isabelle noticed Marie encountering someone.
‘That guy…!’
Korin Lork.
He was the freshman who had been roaming around Marie these days that required the most caution.
Training room was the place she first met Korin. By showing a reckless attempt at defeating an elemental body as a weak Grade 5 freshman, he gathered the eyes of a lot of people.
Ever since that, he started showing off his presence wherever he went and Isabelle noticed from the side that Marie had started being conscious of him.
The opponent was a Grade 5 random knight, but after the interim assessment where he came out even against Sword Master Lunia Arden, he became a hot topic among her peers.
He was currently believed to be Grade 1 at the very least, and there were rumors that the professors of the Knight Department were preparing another grading test for Korin, who had shown an unprecedented level of skill.
At this point, it was clear that he was a lot stronger than what others initially made him out to be, but there was something about Korin that Isabelle just didn’t like.
“Senior Marie. Would you like some blood?”
“U, umm…!”
Wow, so there’s another retard like Kane here! Did you think Marie would go ‘Of course!’ and bite your neck or something? Teenage boys are all idiots!
“O, okay…”
IT WORKED?!
The two of them headed to a remote classroom and locked the door.
…
THEY LOCKED THE DOOR?!
Isabelle hurriedly dashed to the door and brought her ear to the door as much as possible.
————
Hearing the sensual voice of her best friend and the gulps behind the door was… a nerve-wracking experience.
“Oh right. Senior. Did you think about the thing I talked about last time?”
“N, nnn?”
The somewhat dreamy voice of her best friend made it evident that she wasn’t in the right state of mind to make a rational judgment.
“You know the land we bought when we were registering the dojo last time? The dojo has collapsed anyway, so I was thinking about building an inn there.”
“An inn?”
“Yes. How about you invest a bit? It’s always better to have more money, you see.”
“Maybe…?”
“You should. I bet you the profit will be at least 3 times the investment. I am sure of it.”
That was obviously a scam! The profit being at least 3 times the investment? There was no way Marie would fall for such a ridiculous scam—-
“Okay… How much do you need?”
SHE FELL FOR IT?!
Stop Marie, stop! You are being scammed! You are like the typical image of a sugar mama who falls for a man and ruins the finances of the family!
Isabelle couldn’t help but be astonished by the innocence of her friend. However, after sensing that the two of them were about to leave the classroom, she quickly dashed off to the end of the corridor and hid herself behind a wall.
“Haa…”
The two people soon left the class in a disordered state. Marie’s cheeks were conspicuously flushed and she had trouble collecting her breath.
“You can write… as much as you need on the check and withdraw it…”
“Very good. Huhaha.”
My friend! She’s being deceived!
A freshman in his 1st year was playing around with Marie!
However, that wasn’t the end of the astonishing events.
It was right when Isabelle left the training rooms after practicing magic.
“Mr. Korin!”
“I’m telling you you can drop the formalities.”
“Ah, umm, it’s a bit… embarrassing.”
“Seriously.”
“Are you here to practice again?”
“Yep. Just some basic stamina.”
“That’s very diligent of you.”
“Whatever it is, the basics are the most important.”
“Shall we do it together?”
What, what? Who is it this time?
Isabelle realized who that girl was immediately after seeing her face.
Alicia Arden - she was the famous granddaughter of Garrand Arden the Sword Emperor. She was the younger sister of Sword Master Lunia Arden, who had recently come as an invited instructor for the interim exam! And plus, there was news that she had recently killed the infamous criminal John Doe.
“Why would such a bigshot…”
Isabelle was just like other people in that she didn’t know about the presence of Korin Lork and the other party members during the John Doe incident.
“Huh, Isabelle? Are you here for practice?”
That was when a peer from the Knight Department called her while leaving the training room. She was sweating a bunch and it seemed that she was out for a quick rest.
“Yeri. Do you know that freshman over there?”
“Freshman? Oh, you mean the lady from Arden?”
“No. I mean the guy.”
“Korin Lork? Of course I do.”
“You do?”
Was he very famous? Well, it wasn’t strange because he did quite well against Sword Master Lunia but…
“He’s famous for being crazy. There’s a rumor that he uses 16 hours out of 24 hours everyday on training.”
“T, that much?”
“It’ll be hard to find anyone that doesn’t know about Korin Lork in the Knight Department. You know Old Man Haman, right? He gives him meal tickets on a regular basis.”
“That stubborn old man?”
Any student of the Academy knew about the infamous obstinacy of Old Man Haman. He was very strict when it came to rewards and punishment - he gave out rewards to diligent students and punishment to the lazy ones.
Meal ticket was the best form of goodwill that he showed to his students, and there were only two students among the 2nd year students who received one from him.
“You know what? He even received a ticket for Holy Panda last time!”
Was she talking about that place where fries were sold for a silver coin and a half?
Wasn’t that like that best dating place that every couple in the Academy dreamed of? Wait… wait!
『Isabelle! Do you think this is better or this? It’s the dress I ordered during the winter banquet, but I think it’s a bit small now. I feel stuffy around my chest, but isn’t it still very pretty?』
『Didn’t you say you were going to give that to your sister? Why are you taking that out all of a sudden?』
『Mhmm…! Actually, I have to go to a slightly formal restaurant!』
『Wow~. Is it something related to your family?』
『I, I guess? In a way?』
『What restaurant is it? It depends on the restaurant if it’s fine-dining, right?』
『Do you know Holy Panda?』
Isabelle couldn’t contain her hands from trembling.
There’s no way… seriously?
In shock, Isabelle was thinking back on Marie’s weekend date which she glossed over by saying it was related to her household, but that was when an unignorable voice reached her ears.
“Oh right. Alicia. Do you have time this weekend?”
“Time?”
“Yeah. I got a meal ticket from Old Man Haman. It’s for a place called Tangerine Steak House or something.”
“Wow…! D, do you mean that legendary high-class steak franchise store?”
“What do you mean legendary? It’s just a franchise, isn’t it?”
“T, there weren’t any branches in my hometown so I’ve never been there before.”
“Yeah. Well, you need more meat. Knights like us need meat to fight.”
“I agree 100%!”
“I’ll give you the tickets so go eat with your friend.”
If their conversation stopped there, Isabelle would have considered it a pure goodwill.
“Will that… be okay? What about you, Mr. Korin?”
“I’ve been there a lot so I’m okay.”
“W, would you like to go together?!”
Whatt?
Isabelle immediately turned her head towards Alicia and focused her eyes on her. Evident from how she was fidgeting her fingers in embarrassment after saying that, it seemed that she was aware that she had proposed a date of some sort.
Damn it! Korin Lork! How could he deceive two girls in just 2 months!?!
“That’s okay too.”
“Really?”
He had Marie so what was he doing?!
“Oh yeah. How much money do you have?”
“Money? Umm… not much.”
“You know the bounty we got? I’m telling you because we’re friends… Remember the investment I talked about last time—-”
My gosh. Isabelle realized that this must be how it felt to have her heart stop for a moment.
That freaking scammer was reaching out his fiendish arms at the second daughter of the Arden family even though he already had Marie!
Although Korin had given the offer because he was worried about his peer who was leading a poor life, there was no way that Isabelle would be aware of Alicia’s impoverished life and the lack of support funds due to her family being in the top 10 percentile of the country.
That wasn’t the end of Isabelle’s astonishment. She was heading to the academy cafeteria for a meal and that was when she found Korin Lork chatting with another girl.
“Meal.”
“...Do I owe you money or something?”
It was a freshman girl wearing nun clothes with chains. She was Hua Ran, who was also famous among the senior students because of her outfit.
Isabelle also remembered her well for being the freshman who injured Marie during the prac lesson at the hunting grounds.
“...Sushi.”
“The one we had last weekend was good, right?”
- Nod nod.
How fearsome, Korin Lork! How many innocent ladies did he lure out with food!?
There were talks about how food was the number one thing that lowered people’s vigilance the most - was he intentionally using that as bait to slowly approach them?
“If you’re okay with fried ones, then you can come with me to the restaurant I’m going to in the central streets.”
“Okay.”
He nonchalantly carried on with Hua Ran as if he was used to taking her around.
Doesn’t he have Marie?
Doesn’t he have Alicia?
At this point, it was more frightening than anything. Korin Lork! How many girls did he catch with those fiendish arms of his?
“Oh yeah. Do you have some cash?”
“??”
“I know this amazing thing to invest in.”
“...Do whatever you want.”
How fearrrsommee! Korin Loorrrrkkk!!
After that, when Korin Lork was studying with a druid girl at the library, and also when he was furtively suggesting his peers and the boy that used to be famous as a mercenary for an investment…
Due to a strange set of coincidences, Isabelle was near them during every one of those moments and became certain.
Korin Lork must be planning out a massively enormous scam!
****
Two weeks went by after Alicia and Lunia’s incident.
Early May - a refreshing spring breeze was gently blowing across while I was out of the Academy and was at the outskirts of the city.
I was in the abandoned dojo which I bought after borrowing money from Marie to create a justification for issuing a challenge against Lunia and the Five Swords.
5 gold coins went into business registration. Adding that to the money that went into reconstructing the original gym into a dojo, hiring a mercenary to be a one-day instructor and taxes, we used up a total of 97 gold coins.
It was close to 100,000 US dollars, and all of this had come from Marie’s pocket. I was still grateful for what she did.
But seriously, I wasn’t expecting her to take out 100 gold coins in one go… It was to the point that I wondered, ‘Was it that easy for mages to earn money?’
Anyway, due to the duel between Alicia and Lunia, the building was pretty much broken down so now, I was planning on using the 50 gold coins Lunia gave me for the reconstruction to invest in this plot of land.
First off, the gold coins that were given to me and Alicia as compensation for defeating John Doe, the Murderer of the City of Fog, was 110 gold coins in total.
I changed the money I owed Marie straight into investment and also gained some cash from my peers.
What surprised me was that Hua Ran and Yuel had more cash than I expected. Hua Ran had a fairly large amount of property that was being managed by the New Faith, and as for Yuel, there were a lot of things she brought from the forest and thus had a lot of assets under her name.
Both Lark and Jaeger trusted my words and invested a large sum for a student, but the biggest shock was obviously Dorron. To think he was that loaded…
In total, I gained 550 gold coins and bought this entire piece of land.
This land had originally been bought by a construction company to build houses and became useless once the company went bankrupt in the middle of the construction.
It was in a slightly questionable location on top of that and was thus abandoned with no visitors, but I was planning on building something to use as an inn on this piece of land that I bought.
The reason I was doing this was simple. It was obviously because I knew stuff from the future.
There would soon be a friendly exchange festival with the Purple Hawk Academy of the eastern continent in the 2nd semester. A bunch of tourists will gather from the entire continent to watch that massive event.
Because of all the demand, even the normal houses would open up their empty rooms to accept guests - it was the peak season of the accommodation industry!
The accommodation fees were obviously going to skyrocket as well.
Hundreds of gold coins? They would be gathered back in less than 2 weeks. Easy! That wasn’t the end - if we placed several stalls in the nearby streets, we would be sweeping in bucket loads of money.
Just buy a bunch of cheap beef and pork to make as skewers and that would lead to a fortune!
Investment fees? The festival will pay it back for me!
Demand? The festival will also take care of that.
This is broken!
Long live the festival!
“Huhahahaha…! Now this is a money dupe bug!!”
In just a few days, it was time to harvest the mandrakes as well.
Everything was going according to plan.