Three gold coins (4)
“You seem to be using a classic and obvious tactic, unlike you. Are you planning on buying up all the school supplies?”
“Yes, well. People who are quick to notice would have smelled everything.”
The location is the professor building at midnight.
It is a place where classes are mainly held in broad daylight and research activities are in full swing in the late evening, but in the middle of the night, there is only silence.
The height of the buildings is also significantly higher than that of the living quarters.
If the living building exudes a more lively atmosphere as its name suggests, the teaching building feels quite organized.
Roads paved with bricks, neatly raised buildings with flower beds, and even street trees that seem to welcome students.
We have become accustomed to it because we see it every day, but in fact, educational facilities of this scale are rare in the world.
Lortel led me to the professor building in the middle of the night, saying we should go for a night walk.
It feels like I’ve gone a bit far for a night walk, but I guess that’s because I have a lot to say.
“But I never thought that Senior Ed would be curious about the internal affairs of the Chamber of Commerce. Are you even worried about me?”
“Well, that’s it. I was a little worried about you.”
“At times like that, I was worried about you, even if it was just empty words–”
Lortel, who was ahead, stopped talking and glanced back. I guess my answer was different from what I expected.
He glanced at my expression, avoided eye contact, and spoke as if I was embarrassed.
“Did I hear wrong?”
“No matter how deep your thoughts are, it doesn’t mean you never make a mistake.”
“In the first place, all choices involve risk. I was momentarily taken aback because I didn’t expect you to tell me so bluntly that you were worried.”
Lortel looked away with an embarrassed expression on his face and made a fuss. He fanned his face for no reason and then walked ahead again.
“They say attack skills and defense skills are completely separate, so I think I need to train more on this side…”
I walked down the street in the middle of the night for a while muttering those words.
“Exchanging weaknesses.”
In the end, our destination was a wooden bench in the center of the student square.
I’ve never sat on this central bench right next to the fountain because it’s always full of people during the day. Because it is always full of people.
However, when you come here late at night, the atmosphere is so quiet that it feels like a market place in broad daylight.
The darkness that has descended on the academy makes the many tall buildings eerie.
Nail tube, Glokt tube, Obel tube, Delen tube. From these luxurious buildings right next to Student Square to facilities like the Student Library and Trix Hall on the hill in the distance, there are buildings that Ministry of Magic students rarely visit, such as the Pesen Hall, where Alchemy Department classes are mainly held, and the Marel Hall, where the Combat Department trains. until.
The sight of everyone silent in the darkness of the night creates a strange sense of discomfort even though it is a scene we see every day.
Even during my school days, I once went to school in the middle of the night.
Even everyday scenes can feel like you are in another world when you change the time zone to night.
“It is said that when children of noble families get married, there is a ritual of exchanging each other’s weaknesses. Since they are well aware of each other’s weaknesses, their relationship becomes closer…. It may seem plausible and romantic at first glance, but if you think about it carefully, “It’s an insidious practice.”
“There is such a custom…?”
“It’s said that a lot of them have disappeared these days, but I heard that there are some left in old or long-standing families. Surprisingly, it seems like there was nothing like that in the Rosstaylor family?”
“Well, I’m not old enough to get married yet.”
“Yeah, but… Anyway.”
Lortel sat down on the bench and pulled down Jerove’s hat. As always, the bluish rose-shaped hairpin glows softly in the moonlight.
“Would you like to trade our weaknesses?”
“…suddenly?”
“If I’m going to explain my situation regarding this incident, I have no choice but to show my deep disgust.”
Of course Lortel’s insides are deep and black, but I never thought about digging them out.
“There’s nothing I can’t show you, but it still feels like a loss.”
“….”
“You know. I can’t live without losing money.”
Lortel smiled and waited for my answer.
In fact, even if it were a weakness exchange, it would be a bit difficult. There are many cases where the weaknesses of children of noble families are so shady or dirty that they are so fatal that they are difficult to tell to others… but as for me, there is no such thing as a fatal weakness.
I showed a flaw that was nothing, but wouldn’t it be unprofitable for Lortel to show a deep and dark weakness? It doesn’t concern me, but it could be a huge disservice to Lortel.
So I fell into deep trouble.
“Well, you don’t have to think too deeply about it. Actually, I’ve heard that too, so that’s why you do such strange things.”
“…What is your intention?”
“I also have ears. They are just a little wider and can hear further than ordinary people’s ears.” To say that
they are ‘a little wider’ is because they hear all the sounds of the entire living area.
In short, I’ve heard rumors that I seem depressed or lacking a lot of energy these days.
I kept saying it was okay, but how Lortel would take it is another matter.
I closed my eyes gently.
It’s already a dark night, but when I close my eyes, there is complete darkness before my eyes.
What is faintly reflected in the darkness beyond the retina are the events of the past.
Joint combat practice, student council president election, freshman class assignment test, subjugation of Glast, subjugation of Glaskan, expulsion from Ofilis Building.
From there, go further into the past. I pass through the paths I took before settling down in the northern forest and gritting my teeth and living as Ed Rothtaylor.
Finally, he opened his mouth.
“A lot of people around me died.”
Lortel didn’t bother to ask in detail.
“The environment was like that. I spent a few years on a battlefield in a faraway, foreign country. Then, I got hurt a little. Thanks to that, I spent my last years a bit leisurely.”
“Wow, that’s surprising.”
“Whether you believe it or not, you are free.”
Lortel shook his head gently. It’s about believing.
You wouldn’t have heard anywhere that the eldest son of the Ross Taylor mansion had war experience.
“If you fight on the battlefield, people around you often die. At first, you suffer a lot emotionally. The more you bond with people and interact with them more, the more so.”
“That’s right. The closer the environment is to extremes, the more people stick together.”
“So, at first, I grit my teeth and try to save them. Running through the middle of the battlefield carrying a seriously wounded person, even though I knew they would collapse from exhaustion, hugging a dying comrade and watching him do the end while weeping in tears… In fact, it was the bottom. “It’s an experience that everyone who’s ever been in has had. It’s a kind of rite of passage.”
When I opened my eyes again, I saw my shoes.
As I bend down with my arms resting on my knees, I see a swarm of soldier ants passing through my shoes.
“And then there comes a moment when you realize that it’s all useless. It only hurts your own heart and people are hired anyway. Giving affection itself becomes an act that comes with great risk. That’s your favorite word. Risk management.”
“I don’t like it. Who would do something like that because they like it?”
“Well, anyway, the conclusion was intrinsically right. It was a conclusion drawn so long ago that I’ve forgotten about it these days.”
I quickly raised my head and saw the starry sky I always see. It felt strangely different from when I looked up through the trees in the forest.
“I tried to save you, so I’ll be heartbroken if you die.”
“….”
“If you don’t try to save her in the first place, there’s no need to be heartbroken.”
Lortel was silent.
“I had to think like that to keep my mind straight. At that time, I understood why all the commanders were cold-blooded. Even I, the lowest level person, understood, so everyone must have understood.”
When I close my eyes again, I remember the girl’s bleeding body leaning against the outer wall of the Glokt building.
There was only one person who was able to solve all the trials and challenges by moving around without blinking, but in the end, he could not be saved by even a single inch. Those similar memories had accumulated in the distant past to the point where it was tiresome.
With my back bent, I looked at my fists and clenched and unclenched them for no reason.
“I’m also very discouraged.”
I am heartbroken because I tried to save him in the first place.
It may be the fault of this romantic school that I forgot the conclusion that was inherent in me.
As you walk around the campus, your head becomes a field of flowers because of the rosy aura of students full of dreams and hopes.
However, for me, reality has always been an ordeal. Life was about ‘surviving’ rather than ‘living’.
Maintaining that sense of the edge and constantly doubting the world was the way I lived.
“This is my disgust.”
For now, I’ve come to a conclusion here.
If the justification is to exchange weaknesses, wouldn’t this be enough for negotiation?
It was something I had never revealed to anyone, so it was quite bold for me to throw it away.
Lortel said nothing for a while. He sat down on the bench and looked up at the night sky, and then he spoke slowly, stroking his red-brown hair.
“The meaning that a person attaches to death… may be different for each person. I will not rashly dispute your judgment.”
However, he looked at me and smiled, as if he had something left to add. It wasn’t the refreshing smile it always was and it looked oddly vague. It may be visible that way because of the dazzling moonlight.
“A lot of people around me died, too. Although I was the cause of most of them.”
Lortel leaned back on the hard backrest and looked at the top of the Obel Hall right in front of him. It was used as a student council building.
“My parents were incompetent. They lived on stale bread in a corner of the slums with the money they had been begging for all day. Still, I think they were good people. At least until they sold me to an orphanage at the instigation of the Elte Company.”
“…It’s hard to react.”
“Now, I don’t feel hurt. People who are pushed into a corner are easily corrupted by a few gold coins. They naively fell for the whispers of the Elte Company, not knowing that they would soon be killed because of their silence. Poor people.”
“….”
“Well, that’s how I became a stooge for Elte Company. I’m now the company’s assistant manager.”
Now I can’t even remember the face.
However, in Lortel’s heart, his biological parents from back in the day… seem to have remained good-hearted people.
Even if they say they are the ones who sold themselves and got rid of them, they are affirming their obscene corruption.
Lortel has also experienced being cornered, so he fully understands the psychology of such people.
“Do you know how much money my parents received for selling me? It was just three flan gold coins. Not thirty or three hundred, but just three.”
Three flan gold coins.
It’s never a small amount of money. If we take the consumption of the poor as a standard, it is enough money to live comfortably for a few months if you save well.
However, if you ask me if this is the amount worth selling my only blood relative for, I just shake my head.
“That’s when I realized. It’s not the eye-watering billions of money that can push a person who is in a corner into a deeper hole, but a few quick pennies.”
Lortel finished talking and took a moment to catch his breath.
In fact, we didn’t even talk long enough to catch our breath.
The tone was like a low whisper, and the atmosphere in the sleeping faculty building was also relaxed.
“What happened after that… “I lived without trusting anyone.”
In the years leading up to Lortel’s rise to prominence at Elte Chamber of Commerce,
she taught herself how to read ledgers, memorized daily currency exchange rates, responded to market changes, managed human resources, risk management, and business management. Up to… She has absorbed all the necessary abilities to lead a company.
It must have been an absorbing power that can only be described as amazing.
There are many fields such as combat, magic, alchemy, and academics, but in the end, her true value lies in gold coins. It comes from handling things. That’s why people call me the Golden Daughter with respect.
“After living like that for several years, there were many times when I didn’t see people as people and seemed like a mechanical device that reacted to proposals or negotiations. It’s a device designed to react that way when I say this…”
“…”
“Maybe it’s in line with the commander that senior Ed was talking about. If you trust others easily, you will be easily betrayed. So, since they don’t want to believe in the first place, in the end there is no one left around them that they can trust. In the end, the only person left in the world to trust is me… Look.”
Only then did Lortel raise his head and look at the bachelor of the night again.
I felt like I could finally see the outline of why Lortel had brought me to the faculty building in the middle of the night.
“The Bachelor at Night is this eerie and desolate, isn’t it? Since there is no one in this normally crowded place, it feels like you are alone in the world.”
“…That’s right.”
“I feel this way even during the day.”
Loneliness in the crowd.
It’s a disease that is slowly eating away at your spirit.
” Well, I have a companion now.”
One day, while climbing to a hill, I suddenly looked down at the cruel sight of the battlefield. As I was looking at that scene, the back of me seemed to flash before my eyes.
Perhaps the back of young Lortel, who was looking down at the commercial city of Oldeck, was also there. It wouldn’t have been much different.
“I told you.”
Lortel leaned his head on my shoulder… He quietly closed his eyes and took in the softly shining moonlight.
“We are of the same race.”
* * *
“There was a rat in the Chamber of Commerce. I received a report that Marie went into hiding. It’s the process of capturing that.”
Lortel buried his head on my shoulder and quietly told me his plan.
“A few days ago, I had a feeling that the number of items for sale in the warehouse was incorrect and that the ledger had been manipulated in an unnatural way, so I looked into it… and there was someone there. They were constantly stealing funds from our branch. As the scale grows little by little, cracks in the ledger are slowly appearing.”
“Isn’t that guy called Dune? They say that the distilled liquor was purchased with embezzled funds.”
“Dune’s distribution is not that large. In the line of small luxury, they always use the same methods to take care of their own personal interests. “I think there are people who are much more evil than Dune.”
Lortel was leaning his head on my shoulder, then suddenly changed his posture and clung closer to me. When
I glanced at him, he said, ‘You feel more stable than I thought…’ He looked around and pressed his upper body together.
“The fact that the signs are starting to show in the ledger means that the trick has slowly reached its limit. Sooner or later, he’ll make a big hit and try to run away.”
“Then the reason I hoarded all the books this time…”
“I threw a big hit at him. If the price of books goes up a little more… they will try to sell the items for sale first, collect cash, and then run away before our company sells the items. Now, if we actively interrogate the ‘individuals’ who go around buying books, we will be able to find out the identity of that rat.”
In the end, he was in a situation where he had to personally kill the head of the trading company employee who had been with him.
However, Lortel had no qualms. ” No.
Like I said, my problem is… I don’t trust anyone. Even if that loneliness eats away at me, I don’t trust people carelessly. No matter how you make it seem, the reason is obvious in the end.”
“….”
“Because I’m scared of being betrayed.”
In the end, it is fear that underlies Lortel’s psychology.
Like most people… Lortel The same goes for:
“Still, I feel fortunate now. It seems like just yesterday that I was sold for three gold coins, but now I have become a person who can even pay three gold coins for a first class price to scout out someone I like.” ”
…No matter what, I think three coins for a first class price is a bit too much. ”
“First of all, I felt like I was screaming hard. I thought they would probably reject it anyway. What if you get rejected? Being rejected only means one less person for me.”
Lortel smiled coquettishly, rubbing his face on her shoulder.
“But it doesn’t matter. At least one of my people will be reduced.”
He doesn’t explain the reason. He just wraps his arms around me and looks at me with mischievous eyes.
“You know the reason better, right?”
No matter what you say, it will be a meaningless answer. .
I just left Lortel snuggling and clinging to my arm for a while.
* * *
“I’m sorry, Miss Lortel. “Thank you for the offer, but…”
The next morning, the head maid, Belle Maia, visited Lortel after she came out of her room in the Ofilis Building.
“I am worried that Lady Lortel, who was always attended by the maids, is leaving the Ofilis Building. That being said, I think it would be too bold of a decision for me to leave the Ofilis Hall as well.”
“….”
“Three gold coins per day is a bit burdensome… In fact, it would be nice for me if the amount was larger… . I am proud of working at Ofilis Hall. ”
Bell Maia bowed her head.
Lortel had just gotten up, dressed briefly, and then came out.
Lortel also knows this now.
There are people in this world who cannot be bought with money.
The first person that comes to mind is the forest. This is a blond-haired boy who was sharpening arrows alone in a camp.
“Of course, we are not always treated fairly. There are times when I am dissatisfied, and there are times when it is difficult and tiring… But even so, I want to continue to take responsibility for this Ophilis building.”
“Oh my…”
Lortel looked wistfully at Belmaia, who lowered her head with as much of a tearful expression as possible. “Three coins for daily
wages was a bold offer on my part… It really hurts my heart to be rejected like this…”
“Tsk…”
“Of course Mr. Bell has no interest in work. You may not be able to convert your noble beliefs into money, but… can you still think again? I don’t want to lose a maid who is as confident and capable as Ms. Bell…”
Belle felt like her heart was pounding at the dim eyes that were uncharacteristic of Lortel.
But she shook her head and bowed again. I bowed.
“I’m sorry.”
“I see. If that’s the case for Mr. Bell, there’s nothing we can do about it. Then… how about a concurrent job?”
“Yes? A form of dual employment…?”
Lortel held both of Belmaia’s hands together and spoke in a voice full of moisture.
“I will reduce the amount paid to about one-third and instead manage my villa and surrounding camps whenever I have time. Please come and do it. Mr. Bell is also very interested in practical work.”
“Yes… eh…?”
“I heard that you are taking the time to take care of senior Yenika these days. Just like that, they only stop by once periodically to take care of it. All you have to do is come whenever you have time, take care of the work, and then leave. “Can’t we just… do this… a specified number of times a week… like this…?”
Bell was taken aback by the unexpected suggestion.
But it wasn’t as bad a suggestion as he thought. Belle, who is naturally industrious, was busy. He manages his time so delicately that he goes to take care of Yenika from time to time while keeping up with the maid’s schedule.
In addition, he has a built-up desire to do some practical work, his work schedule is autonomous, and above all, he is busy with both his hands with eyes full of moisture. The girl he is holding and talking to is right in front of him.
This is the girl who even gave him three gold coins. He thinks so much of it.
That strange feeling of debt is taking over Belle’s heart.
“That… that much… . If it’s a condition….”
“Wow…! thank you! Mr. Bell!”
Lortel smiled broadly and clapped his hands.
“Then… I’ll send the contract in Mr. Bell’s name!”
Things were handled smoothly. Even the contract was prepared in the first place.
He smiled and went back to his room. Watching Lortel enter… Belle realized only then.
The first offer was a bait in the first place.
It was a shackle to fill Belle with the debt of ‘rejection’ and make her accept the next contract.
Well… that’s who he was in the first place. That’s it.
I didn’t know.
It’s just absurd that I was harmed even though I knew.
Seeing Lortel returning to the room, smiling like a fox, Belle let out a helpless laugh.
