After scrounging dinner off my sister, I returned to my room and collapsed straight into sleep.
The next day.
Having slept well over twelve hours, I stretched my limbs and greeted the morning.
*Crack.*
"Mmgh. Slept well."
Sleep really is the best medicine.
Every last trace of yesterday's exhaustion had vanished.
I made do with warm milk, sausages, and a fried egg for breakfast, checking my schedule as I ate.
"Introduction to Basic Mana and Foundations of Magical Theory…."
The real classes were beginning.
After a quick wash, I put on my uniform and draped the short red cape over my shoulders.
I stepped out of my room. As I crossed the dormitory hall, a familiar head of red hair was waiting for me by the entrance.
"Huana?"
"Hmph."
When I walked over, Huana pushed herself off the wall.
Her hair — the color of blazing sunlight — swayed lightly.
"What are you doing here?"
"We have the same classes, you know."
"So you waited for me?"
"I didn't *wait*. You're my fiancé, so I have no choice but to look after you."
"Isn't that the same as waiting?"
"Wh— what are you— anyway! Why didn't you wait for me last time?"
"Wait for what?"
"The entrance ceremony. The entrance ceremony! Your fiancée took the top spot, and you just up and left like that?"
"Ah… sorry."
"Was there something more urgent than me, or what?"
I had moved the moment the entrance ceremony ended, trying to get my hands on Rosuka's Epic as early as possible.
It was understandable that Huana would feel slighted.
"I'm sorry. Huana."
"Are you really sorry?"
"I really am."
"Really, truly?"
"Really, truly."
"Then grant me one favor."
She said it as if she'd been waiting for exactly this moment.
Damn. So that was the whole point.
"Anytime. You absolutely must grant me a favor when I ask."
"…."
"Are you going to promise or not?"
"I promise."
"Pinky."
Huana held out her little finger.
I smiled faintly, hooked my pinky around hers, and pressed my thumb down to seal it.
"Good. I'll forgive you with this."
Only then did Huana smile, satisfied.
* * *
Introduction to Basic Mana was a required course for all students.
Mana is the fundamental force underlying all life. Its importance could not be overstated no matter how many times you said it.
I pushed open the gold-trimmed door.
A vast lecture hall came into view. Large windows lined the walls, and the seats fanned out in a semicircle around the chalkboard.
A tiered lecture hall.
Many students had already claimed their seats.
The Pilrn siblings were seated somewhere in the middle. They waved at me.
*Yuri and Henri must be attending a different professor's section.*
The class Huana and I were in was Basic Mana 'A.'
Naturally, a course this popular had 'B' and 'C' sections taught by other professors.
"Oh, Your Highness! Good morning!"
On one side of the hall, a cluster of Hispanya-affiliated students waved at Huana.
"Go ahead and sit. I need to speak with some people from home. You mingle too."
Huana's position was that of a princess.
She hadn't come to the academy purely for academic reasons. Building connections with Hispanya's noble children was part of the agenda as well.
An unavoidable fate for anyone born into power.
Those in power can never be separated from politics. They had to maintain their networks until the day they died.
*I need to leave the family as soon as possible.*
Politics — nothing but a headache.
I had been adopted to lead the Moretti family.
But since my adoptive father had seen that I lacked the qualities he'd hoped for, he would abandon his plan to name me heir.
My title of Young Lord had already been stripped, after all.
"Hey, Maty."
Someone called to me from the side as I looked for a seat.
I glanced over. A group of imperial-affiliated noble children.
"Ohen."
"Long time no see, man~ How've you been?"
Ohen Dshpalt.
Heir to a marquis house with a fairly distinguished history. He and I had been acquainted for some time. A one-sided acquaintance, at that.
"Come sit with us. Plenty of room."
Ohen patted the seat beside him. His entourage was arranged around him.
"Almost a year, isn't it? Maty."
"Maty, I invited you to that thing and you never showed. I was a little hurt."
"We've got plans tonight — want to come along, Maty? There's an open spot."
They called out to me. Maty, Maty, Maty.
Anyone watching would think we were the closest of friends. We weren't.
Before I'd recovered my past-life memories, I had been timid and spineless.
So every time I attended noble social gatherings, I'd been browbeaten into cowering in a corner.
Ohen and his crowd had gotten along with that version of me.
…"gotten along" was too generous. "Taken advantage of" was more accurate.
I had trailed after them, bankrolling their every whim with money and connections.
Thinking about it now made my blood boil.
I ignored Ohen and climbed the stairs.
Ohen's face twisted with displeasure.
"What's this. Where are you going?"
"My friends called me over."
"What, those commoners over there?"
Ohen glanced back at the Pilrn siblings with a smirk.
"Wow, since when does a Moretti hang around with *that* lot? Stop messing around and sit here, you idiot."
"Idiot?"
I turned back, repeating his last word.
"Ohen."
"…What?"
Ohen flinched. His expression turned uncomfortable.
He must have expected me to let it slide like a pushover. I wasn't the same person I used to be.
"Ohen."
"…Yeah."
"Don't speak about my friends carelessly."
"…."
"And the Moretti name isn't cheap enough to be thrown around by the likes of you."
The look on Ohen's face was something to behold.
His jaw was twitching as he bit back whatever he wanted to say.
This was how it should be. The way things had been before was the aberration. A mere marquis's son cozying up to a ducal house — it had never made any sense.
I left the fuming Ohen behind and took my seat beside my friends.
"Do you know him?"
Taibeon asked.
"A little."
"Maty has friends everywhere. I'm jealous…."
"You can make friends."
"I'd like to, but I'm not sure how."
Unlike nobles who had spent their lives building social networks, the Pilrn siblings had grown up herding sheep on the outskirts of civilization.
Their connections were not just small — they were practically nonexistent.
"What do you mean you don't know how?"
A bright voice rang out.
All three of us turned.
Taibeon's eyes went wide.
"Emily!"
A petite girl with brown hair and freckles placed her hand on Taibeon's shoulder.
I studied Emily.
Emily Sehon.
A girl from the same hometown as the protagonist Taibeon. His childhood friend, and the story's main heroine.
She had shown unwavering friendship and devotion, believing in Taibeon right up until his darkest moment.
She was one of my favorite characters alongside the Pilrn siblings.
I watched Emily bicker with Taibeon with a warm feeling in my chest.
"But… who is this?"
Had I been staring too long?
Emily looked me over with a suspicious eye.
Tiana patted my shoulder and introduced me.
"This is Matyos. We call him Maty for short."
"Matyos… oh, the one who was adopted into the Moretti family."
"That's right. Pleased to meet you, Emily."
"Sure. Any friend of Taibeon's is a friend of mine. Pleased to meet you."
While we exchanged brief greetings, Tiana pulled Emily into a hug.
"You've grown so much, Emily. You used to only come up to about here."
Tiana held her hand at chest height.
Emily, nestled in Tiana's embrace, glanced back and forth between her own chest and Tiana's, then spoke.
There was an overwhelming difference in scale.
"…You've grown quite a bit yourself, Tiana. I didn't think you could get any bigger."
"Hm? I don't think I've grown that much taller."
"No. You have."
"Hehe. Thank you."
Taibeon was scanning the lecture hall.
"What are you looking for?"
"Well, I was wondering if Joi is in a different professor's section."
"Probably, I'd think."
Emily cut into our conversation.
"Who's Joi?"
"Hm?"
"I said, who's Joi?"
"Th-that's…."
Emily's eyes had gone cold.
Taibeon shot me a desperate, pleading look, but I looked away.
Hang in there, Taibeon.
"Maty."
Huana returned to me after finishing her conversation with the nobles from her country.
"Who are these people?"
"My friends."
"Really?"
Huana swept her blue eyes over the group.
She lingered on Tiana for a moment, then sat down beside me.
Then she said, flatly:
"For the record, I will not permit you to keep a mistress."
In a society of political marriages where love was an afterthought, keeping a mistress was commonplace.
The Crown Prince engaged to my sister kept several, for that matter.
But why was she telling me this?
"Do I look like someone who'd keep a mistress?"
"They all do. My father, my brothers."
"I'm not like that. And besides — if I married you, no other woman would even register."
Setting aside my modern, monogamous sensibilities, Huana was beautiful.
The idea of straying when you had a woman like her — I couldn't even picture it. Could a man like that actually exist?
"H-hmph… smooth talker."
"I mean it."
*Creak.*
Just then.
A portly, middle-aged professor entered the lecture hall, leaning on a cane.
He had a warm, benevolent face.
His hair was neatly slicked back with pomade, and his clothes were impeccably pressed.
"Good day to you all. I am Harsen Karipie, and I will be teaching Introduction to Basic Mana."
I lowered the arm I'd been resting on.
I focused on the professor.
*Harsen Karipie.*
A noble born in Porca.
His family had accumulated goodwill over generations, and he was well-regarded by the citizenry.
But Harsen's true identity was that of a serial killer and human trafficker.
He abducted children and sold them to the Black Covenant.
In Chapter One of the story, after the Pilrn siblings catch wind of him, Harsen takes the entire first-year class hostage and attempts to summon a demon using magic.
*If he's stopped here, it ends cleanly. If not, the demon descends.*
Ordinary players killed Harsen to prevent the summoning, but veteran players deliberately let it happen.
*To obtain the Demonic Sword.*
At the cost of many students' lives.
Because it was a game.
Because they were just characters in a game.
*Not anymore.*
They were living people.
I couldn't let them die for the sake of some sword.
I didn't want to interfere with the story. But I couldn't stand by and watch innocent people get slaughtered.
I watched Harsen hold forth at the front of the room, perfectly at ease.
He would go on committing his murders, unchanged.
*He probably hasn't committed any crimes yet.*
Harsen had only begun killing after the Black Covenant approached him.
The best-case scenario would be catching him in the act of a crime, but…
"…And with that, I'll conclude the orientation. Since this is our first class, we won't be covering any material today."
"Yes!"
"Thank you, Professor!"
I'd been lost in thought, and the lecture was already over.
The students cheered.
Despite it being their first meeting, Harsen had won the class over with his polished speech and easy humor.
Disasters don't happen all at once.
There are always signs. Harsen had been steadily, quietly preparing for one.
I thought it through calmly.
What would be the cleanest way to deal with Harsen?
I couldn't bring down a man with Harsen's political ties to Porca's parliament on my own.
Someone I could trust completely.
Someone who simultaneously held enough power to overwhelm Harsen.
Who would that be?
*…Ah.*
There was someone.
Exactly one person.