Chapter 54. My Ear Itches
Once the Academy fully entered the exam period, it got quite busy.
"Library Building A is full?"
"Yeah. I was in line from 7 a.m., but they cut it off right in front of me."
To a student asking as they headed for the library, someone returning answered with an expression like they'd been chewing shit.
"Ah, then there won't be seats anywhere else either, right?"
"Yeah, you can assume there aren't."
A library that was usually so spacious—why did it get this crowded only during exam periods?
It must be because even those Martial Division bastards—who lived with books like they were sworn enemies—came swarming in.
And why was their stamina so pointlessly good?
Even if you went out at 5 a.m. and lined up, Martial Division students had already taken the spots ahead of you.
Some even brought field sleeping bags and camped out in front of the library!
At that point, it didn't look like studying was the goal—it looked like claiming a library seat was.
It felt like the main thing and the side thing had been completely reversed.
At this reality, an unknown Academy student let out a heavy sigh.
"Then I guess we end up going to the cafeteria again."
"Don't. Just go to the classroom. They say the cafeteria's already out of seats too."
"Ah... I don't like the classroom because the assistant professors are there."
The unknown Academy student sighed deeply and trudged toward the classroom.
Like this, while every student devoted themselves to academics—
Demian wasn't much different.
The first-year student dining hall cafeteria.
Somehow managing to find a seat, the trio—Demian, Chenbi, and Purion—claimed a table and were in the middle of studying.
Scratch, scratch.
A pen scraped across paper.
Rustle.
Paper brushed against paper, making noise.
A scene where you couldn't tell if this was a cafeteria or a library.
It was a landscape you could call unfamiliar, and the most unfamiliar thing in it was Demian.
"...."
Demian, eyes wide, examined a mock exam sheet.
His mouth was tightly shut, and his eyes carefully scanned the letters on the page.
If not for his eyes moving, he looked like he might be frozen in that posture.
How much time passed like that?
"I finished them all!"
As if he'd been holding his breath for a long time and finally vomited it out, Demian's mouth snapped wide open in an instant.
In that moment, the cafeteria students' gazes gathered in one place, but since this wasn't the library, no one could really say anything.
"Let me see. Chenbi, you grade this section."
"Yeah, got it."
Purion and Chenbi, familiar with the routine, split the two-page test between them and started grading.
And when the grading came to an end—
"...."
"...."
Chenbi lifted his head and looked at Purion.
Purion looked back at Chenbi, the same.
A strangely sorrowful gaze crossed between them, while only Demian remained innocent.
The first to speak was Chenbi.
"Purion, how's the section you graded? The part I did... I got them all right."
"The part I did is...."
Chenbi swallowed.
When Purion's mouth finally moved, Chenbi clenched both fists tightly.
"...Same."
"Mm!"
A vague sound—neither fully let out nor fully swallowed.
Then he laced his fingers together, squeezed hard, and muttered to himself, over and over.
"I got them all right? I got them all right?"
"Yeah. You got them all right."
Even as he answered reflexively, that voice was full of emotion.
"...."
At that, Purion slowly looked up toward the sky.
Even so, they were basic problems.
'They weren't anything especially hard.'
The Academy exam problems would be far more difficult.
But there was a reason Chenbi was so happy he couldn't even properly shout.
And it wasn't just Chenbi. If it weren't for the faint scraps of pride he had left, Purion too wanted to shout in celebration, but he was suppressing it with extreme effort.
'Truly... it was a hellish week.'
A week had passed so fast you wouldn't find it strange even if you said "hell" quickly.
And what humiliations and hardships had filled that time?
Each day, each moment—it was like a period spent contemplating what "endurance" really was.
"Why?" "How come it's like that?" "But think about it. If you do it like this..."
Whywhywhywhywhywhywhy!
That damn "why"!
And "how come"—how come what, exactly.
If you just accept it and solve the problems, will something go wrong? Questions latched onto questions, and they spilled out without end.
Truly...
'Time you can't get through without blood, sweat, and tears.'
How many tightropes he had to walk between testing his endurance limit and the desire to just make things easy.
To others, it was merely "basic," but to him and Chenbi, it was an "extreme" time.
"...."
"...."
Nod.
Purion, meeting Chenbi's eyes, gave him a nod.
A sense of kinship that had sprouted before they knew it.
It was growth forged by grinding down the souls of Purion and Chenbi.
But.
This pride was short-lived.
'That....'
Purion bared his teeth, thinking of someone.
And who was that someone?
The main culprit who had thrown him into this pit of evil: Aster.
'I'm fulfilling my duty like this… so where the hell are you, and what are you doing?'
Over the last week, Aster had guided Dahlia fairly diligently.
During the time after classes ended, he'd carved out spare moments to look over Dahlia's magic.
Neither Dahlia nor Aster said exactly how the lessons went, but at least you could say he'd done the bare minimum of his duty.
It was weekdays, after all.
Even that had seemed enough.
But according to what Dahlia said yesterday...
"Tomorrow I have to do it alone."
He had something to do and had to leave the Academy for a bit.
This was unacceptable.
Purion had gotten up early like this, personally claimed a cafeteria seat, and prepared to pour his weekend entirely into Demian.
What? He's going to blow off the weekend?
'What the hell could he possibly be busy with?!'
A vagrant from the Black and White Zone.
It wasn't a slur.
'After I talked back to Aster over that "Ilgyeokpilsal" thing and got the shit beaten out of me, my prejudice kind of broke.'
Ah. Status isn't important.
Status is an illusion, and fists are right in front of your eyes.
A widening of thought brought about by violence, you could say.
Anyway.
A Black and White Zone vagrant has no family.
From what he'd heard, the only connections he had were House Brando and the people he met at the Academy.
And even that was only Chenbi and Demian.
So what "business" could he have?
'He's definitely skipping out...!'
Grinding his teeth, Purion forced himself to swallow his resentment.
The memory of getting beaten down so thoroughly was so vivid that even now his body shuddered, but...
'Just you wait. You goddamn bastard!'
This was a legitimate deal.
Even though he'd been sold for two macarons, he was doing his duty—so how dare that bastard?!
Of course, he couldn't say it to Aster's face, but his frustration couldn't be helped.
"Hoo."
Purion steadied himself with a single sigh and looked at Demian.
"Then... let's try solving the next problems too."
Purion held out the problems he'd prepared.
"Yeah!"
Maybe he'd started to find studying fun.
Demian nodded with a bright face.
Once again, silence fell over the three.
Demian buried his nose in the problem sheet, and Purion and Chenbi once again organized the concepts they needed to explain to him.
Meanwhile, at that time—
On the rooftop of a certain building in downtown Hazen.
Tap.
A boy dressed in covert attire landed lightly.
'...What is it?'
My ear itches.
It itched enough that I could stop tracking for a moment, stand there, and dig at my ear.
'Someone talking shit about me?'
At this level, it wasn't casual.
No matter what, someone was cursing me with sincere, wholehearted hatred, carefully putting effort into it.
Who it was couldn't be more obvious.
Far away, the Academy's spire rose sharply into the sky.
'Purion, that bastard....'
It was definitely him.
I'd lived a life with far more shame than I could ever claim to have none of, but the only one who'd curse me like this was him.
No, to be exact, it wasn't certain.
I just wanted to hit him, and to do that I needed a decent reason.
Anyway.
"Hmm."
Aster turned his gaze away from the Academy and looked down at the road.
Hazen's citizens hurried along as always.
And among them, one young doll cutting through the flow.
Dibay.
Dibay walked while tightly hugging a thick document envelope to his chest, looking extremely anxious.
'Well, it makes sense he'd be anxious.'
Aster recalled what had happened earlier: Dibay's contact with the seller.
Dibay and the seller confirmed each other's faces.
The other party was an assistant from the Academy's Basic Track, and Dibay was able to receive the item he wanted from him.
And that item was...
The Academy exam papers.
So how could he not be tense?
From Dibay's point of view, it probably felt like he was carrying a bomb in his arms.
It looked so pitiful...
'Makes me want to beat him up.'
They say you hate a guy no matter what he does, and even while feeling sorry for him, I still wanted to smack him once—damn it.
But Aster pressed down the impulse.
'Not yet. Mm. Not yet.'
Over the last week.
I'd really thought about it a lot.
What to do with Dibay—no, beyond that, what to do with Ivelin.
Countless thoughts crossed my mind.
But no suitable method came to me.
'If it were up to me, I'd burn down a few Goldrin branches to the ground and turn 310 Gold into mince, but....'
What meaning would that have.
It wouldn't be fun—no, not fun. I wanted them to repent their wrongdoing.
Even if I used violence like that, they'd only feel wronged for being hit—they wouldn't repent.
'And more than anything....'
Tap.
As Dibay disappeared from view, Aster immediately sprang from his spot.
His body rose high, then landed softly.
Keeping Dibay in sight again, Aster continued his thought.
'There are definitely buyers.'
The exams are in less than a month.
And you're going to find buyers in that time? Not a chance.
If it were me, I'd have secured buyers in advance and then procured the goods.
In other words, those guys were targets whose roots needed to be pulled out too.
That was why I was doing this boring tailing.
Yawning lazily, Aster followed Dibay with his eyes.
'And while I'm at it....'
Aster quietly looked down at the crystal orb in his hand.
A fist-sized crystal orb that reflected sunlight.
'...I'll get some leverage too.'
It was an image-recording Artifact.
I could cause a scene anytime, but chances to grab leverage on the precious jewel of Goldrin weren't common.
I'd already recorded all of Dibay's meeting with the contact as well.
Anyway.
"...Hmm. Is it there?"
After Aster hopped over a few more buildings, Dibay stopped in front of one building.
In the very heart of downtown Hazen...
'A restaurant?'
A high-end restaurant that even most nobles couldn't afford to glance at.
And seeing the 'G' mark engraved next to the sign, it seemed to be owned by Goldrin.
As Aster grasped that much—
a middle-aged man came out of the restaurant and greeted Dibay.
After they exchanged some words, the middle-aged man guided Dibay inside.
'Good. Then shall we go?'
Ivelin de Planche—whose reputation as a model student was widespread for proper conduct, smooth relationships, and excellent academic performance.
It was time to face her true nature.