In the end, Shanapell sponsored me just like the Merchant Guild had, and they said that they would give me an appropriate amount after an internal meeting.
That would mean that the one trillion won, the money used to make Olivia Lanze pledge to join them, was an amount that had been agreed on prior.
In that case, since that was the amount of money they wanted to use to catch Olivia, I certainly wouldnât receive that much.
Olivia also expressed her gratitude because she was very much moved by Shanapellâs decision to sponsor me.
Saviolin Turner already seemed quite satisfied with Oliviaâs attitude.
It seemed to her that sponsoring me to influence Olivia was the right decision.
I secured sponsorships from two of the major organizations.
âThe Merchant Guild and Shanapell.
That alone made the atmosphere around us a little strange.
âEhem. Ehem, you said your name is Reinhardt?â
âAh, yes.â
âIâd like to talk a bit more about the sponsorship you just mentionedâŠâ
.
.
âMr. Reinhardt, may I speak to you for a moment?â
.
.
âI didnât hear what you said earlier because I was in a hurryâŠâ
.
.
The atmosphere seriously turned strange all of a sudden.
There was only one reason for thatâŠ
The Merchant Guildâs master, Owen de Getmora, who was still sitting in one corner of the hall, was smiling at me.
Everyone thought that my plans were absurd, and even those who were strangers to magic could understand that fact.
However, what mattered were the results.
The âfactâ that the Merchant Guild and Shanapell promised to support me spread through the banquet hall like wildfire without my knowledge.
There was no way that the Merchant Guild would support something without reason, and there was also no way that the Knight Division, Shanapell, would uselessly support some magic research.
For those reasons, those people couldnât help but mistakenly believe that there was something to my projects.
The Merchant Guildâs sponsorship was for the sake of getting closer to the Imperial Family, and Shanapellâs sponsorship was to look good before Olivia Lanze.
However, the other sponsorship meeting attendees didnât know the details of my circumstances.
What was important was that those two major organizations that had absolutely nothing to do with magic decided to sponsor seemingly impossible magic research.
I literally turned from being seen as âa strange guy who talked nonsenseâ to âan extraordinary young manâ in that hall.
âŠJust because I received two sponsorships for completely different reasons.
So those who ignored me before, believing that I just sprouted nonsense, suddenly changed their attitude, promising to sponsor me.
Sponsorships werenât investments, so even if they sponsored me, they werenât guaranteed to receive anything in return. However, they believed in the discerning eyes of the Merchant Guild and Shanapell, an organization affiliated with the Imperial Family.
If the crazy things I was talking about were actually made, they wouldnât hold any stakes in them, but there was a certain advantage to just being remembered as the ones who had sponsored us.
And there was the phenomenon that people flocked to those that others flocked to.
So I was suddenly promised sponsorship by nearly 30% of the people attending the meeting.
That was probably Owen de Getmoraâs doing.
He created an environment in which he couldnât help but witness not only their interest in the amount the Merchant Guild promised to sponsor but also what they needed from me.
ââŠWhatâs with this?â
âIâm a little surprised as well.â
âI guess this is a good thing, right?â
âI guess so?â
Unfortunately, while I had a whole sponsorship list remaining before me, I wouldnât be able to remember all the names of those who promised to sponsor me.
Eventually, both my and Oliviaâs predictions turned out to be wrong, as I was able to secure a huge amount of sponsorships.
It felt even more ridiculous because I didnât achieve that with my own abilities but through a misunderstanding.
* * *
Translator â KonnoAren
Proofreader â ilafy
* * *
By the time the sponsorship meeting was over, Saviolin Turner came to visit me once again.
That time, it didnât seem to be about the sponsorship but some personal business. She had something to say to me privately, so she kept me away from Olivia.
I wondered what business she had with me.
âI heard about the matter with the Orbis Class, Reinhardt.â
âAh, yesâŠâ
At Saviolin Turnerâs words, I looked towards Mr. Epinhauser standing further away. Heâd really told her everything about me.
Originally, the sponsorship meeting was an event for both students and personnel of the Royal Class and Orbis Class. However, none of the members of the Orbis Class attended the event.
âYou must know that you have made many enemies because of that, right?â
She lowered her voice to the point that no one else could hear her, talking to me as if to warn me.
âI know.â
The trigger for the Orbis Classâ closure due to internal problems was the duel between me and Oscar de Gardias.
The Orbis Class incident itself was already an inflection point of history, so I would have turned all of the students getting expelled and all of the teachers getting fired because of that incident into my enemies.
Of course, it would be useless to point their hatred towards me, but there would be many seeking to exact their revenge on me.
I knew that much. However, Saviolin Turner shook her head.
âDonât think that the Orbis Class will be your only enemies.â
ââŠâ
âHow many people present in this hall do you think weâre sponsoring the Orbis Class? No, how many people do you think refused to attend this meeting after hearing that the Orbis Class would be absent from this event?â
My whole body seemed to freeze up after hearing that.
âIf the Orbis Class students, who were sponsored by them, were to be tried, sentenced to jail, or expelled, you would also incur the wrath of their sponsors.â
The students whoâd promised to join them or were being scouted by them and received a lot from them might get expelled.
All of the investments they had made in anticipation of their future would end up being in vain. Of course, they wouldnât lose their abilities, but there was a vast difference between an Orbis Class graduate and an expelled student.
If they even ended up having to serve prison time, they might end up being unable to accept them into their organization.
I not only turned the Orbis Class into my enemy but their sponsors as well. While not all of them would hate me, each and every one of them were decently powerful big shots.
If just one of them tried to drag me down, it would be fatal.
Saviolin Turner wanted to let me know about that fact before I went back to make me aware of those things that went on in the back that I had no idea about.
The fact was that I was in a much more dangerous position than Iâd initially thought. I sighed when faced with her cold expression.
âThe price I have to pay for just one single fight is much too high.â
âThereâs a reason why people say not to use oneâs fists recklessly, after all.â
I couldnât help feeling shocked because I never thought I would get that kind of advice from the strongest person on the continent.
âBut it sure is strangeâŠâ
Saviolin looked at me.
âA guy like you strangely hasnât suffered from an early death.â
She walked out of the banquet hall, a slight smile tugging on her lips.
Saviolin Turner, the worldâs strongestâŠ
Anyway, maybe it was because she seemed similar to Ellen, but I felt like she was a good person.
To concludeâŠ
I achieved my goal of securing sponsorships.
I also found out that it wouldnât be strange if I ended up dead at any given moment.
***
Olivia and I went back to the dorms after the sponsorship meeting that ended late at night. I didnât tell her that I was basically surrounded by enemies.
Knowing her personality, she would go on a rampage, saying that she would protect me even at night by standing next to my bed.
That would be even scarier.
âBut Iâm glad it still turned out pretty well.â
âThatâs right. All thanks to you.â
Olivia had suggested going to the sponsorship meeting, and sheâd created that connection with Saviolin Turner.
So it was all thanks to her that I was able to safely secure the budget for the Magic Research Society. Olivia smiled at me.
âIf youâre gratefulâŠâ
Ah, she was going to ask for that again. She would ask me to kiss her again or such nonsense.
âDo you reallyâŠâ
âH-huh?â
âShould we really do it?â
What was that all about?
It was night, so no one was around to watch us, so was that it?
Did she really want to kiss?
Olivia stuttered, her face so red that I could see it even in the darkness of the night, as she puckered her lips.
âTsk, youâre a scaredy-cat, so youâre nothing but talk.â
âWhat?! Scaredy-cat? Did you just call me scaredy-cat? I can do it! Can you, though?â
âWhat are you implying, girl?!â
While there werenât any people around to see it happen, there might still have been some who could hear us!
âYou. Do you know that youâre the only one in Temple, no, the whole continent, that ignored me like this?â
When I thought of it, that mightâve been true.
Wherever she went, she was praised as a saint, and everyone at the sponsorship meeting coveted her, but it seemed like I was the only one who treated her somewhat badly.
Olivia seemed mad, probably fed up with my attitude.
-Kiss!
â!â
Then she suddenly kissed me on the cheek.
No. ThatâŠ
That girlâŠ
All of a sudden?
She did stuff like that out of the blue sometimes, but that time it was so random that I couldnât help but be surprised.
So did she just act like she was a scaredy-cat then?
âYou donât idolize me, you donât worship me, you donât force me or want me to act a certain way. You just take me for who I am.â
Olivia spoke as she looked at me while I was still trying to return to my senses.
âThatâs why I like you.â
She smiled brilliantly at me.
Olivia thought that I might freak out when I came to my senses, so she quickly ran out of my sight in an instant.
I couldnât believe that she was able to run so fast in a dress and those shoes.
Just looking at that fear, I could understand why Saviolin Turner coveted her talent so much.
-Slip!
-Arg!
Then one of her shoesâ heels broke and she fell.
-Pre-pre-pretend you didnât see that!
Even without directly seeing it, I could guess what kind of expression Olivia currently wearing.
***
Ellen sat quietly on a sofa in the lobby at the entrance to the dorm.
She didnât know why she decided to sit there and not in her room. It was just that she felt like she couldnât bear it otherwise.
After seeing Olivia Lanze in a dress holding his hand and getting dragged somewhere outside of the training roomâs window view, she couldnât hold onto her training sword.
She heard that they were going to a sponsorship meeting or something.
âThat was why she was wearing a dress. She knew that.
However, she still felt upset.
She couldnât do anything, so she just sat there.
That senior who was very close to ReinhardtâŠ
That senior, after putting on a dress and even applying makeup, looked blindingly beautiful.
Sheâd heard that he was going there because of the Magic Research Society.
They wouldnât do anything. It was just a public event, she knew that.
However, Ellen was still anxious as she sat in the lobby.
She didnât even know why she was sitting there.
She didnât know what she was waiting for. She just couldnât bear not doing anything.
How many more hours would she sit there idly?
By the time the sun set and the night grew deeper, there were a few students who came and went through the lobby until she was the only one left sitting in that huge hall.
-Uurg, so embarrassing⊠that was so disgracefulâŠ
Soon, an unfamiliar yet familiar voice sounded from the entrance.
While she was still a beauty one couldnât take their eyes off of in her off-shoulder dress, she was trudging into the dormitory with broken high heels in her hand.
Reinhardt wasnât with her.
When Olivia entered, she made eye contact with Ellen, who was still sitting on that sofa in the lobby.
Olivia smiled as if she knew everything. Ellen didnât know why she entered holding broken heels.
She also didnât know why she didnât return with Reinhardt.
She didnât know what she was doing there either.
She didnât know a lot.
However, she had a slightly strange feeling.
âOur Reinhardtâs friendâŠâ
That expressionâŠ
It felt oddly unpleasant.
âOur Reinhardtâs friend. â
It actually sounded more like she was saying âmyâ than âourâ.
No, she was just overthinking.
However, the other party looked at Ellen intently while wearing a strange, knowing smile.
ââŠAre you waiting for Reinhardt?â
ââŠYes.â
Unable to deny it, Ellen nodded her head.
âWhy are you waiting for him?â
ââŠ?â
Why?
Ellen hadnât thought about that. She was waiting for Reinhardt, that was true, but she didnât know why she was waiting for him. Olivia silently looked at Ellen, who was unable to find an answer to her question.
âYou know what?â
ââŠWhat?â
âYouâre kind of annoying, you know?â
ââŠWhat?â
Ellen couldnât help but be shocked by her straightforward words.
They didnât really have many points of contact, she was just someone Ellen encountered from time to time, someone who was saved by Reinhardt, someone who helped him out with various things.
âA precious person of someone precious to her.
Then she had to be precious to her as well, right?
Ellen wasnât as good as that girl. Olivia just stared at her after calling her annoying.
âYou really donât know?â
âI donât know what you mean.â
In response to the other partyâs prickly attitude, Ellen responded to her, equally prickly.
Ellen, who usually always kept her composure was surprised that she acted like that.
âIf you really donât know, continue living like that. Please continue to act all vaguely like you always do. Iâm fine with that,â Olivia whispered as she passed Ellen.
âPlease take good care of our Reinhardt in the future as well.â
ââŠâ
She hadnât been mistaken.
The other girl was deliberately trying to piss her off. Ellen looked at Olivia Lanzeâs back as she walked away on her bare feet.
AlsoâŠ
No matter if she was Reinhardtâs benefactor or notâŠ
She didnât like her.
Soon after, Reinhardt returned.
âWhatâs wrong with your face? Did something happen?â
ââŠNo.â
âAre you mad?â
âNo. Iâm not mad.â
âErm⊠Did I⊠do something wrong?â
âNo, you didnât do anything wrong.â
Reinhardt hadnât done anything wrong.
HoweverâŠ
Somehow, something akin to sadness that she shouldnât have felt wiggled inside her heart.
Ellen hated herself for that.
Reinhardt kept sticking next to her, asking if she was okay, why she was doing that, and if it was because of something he did.
Ellen didnât know why, but that made her feel better in the end.
____
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