Chapter 183
Chapter 183
Morning inside a rattling carriage.
“Khoo…….”
Rapin was sleeping while leaning against my shoulder.
He had stayed in that position ever since we got onto the carriage.
Since he had slept on the train, he must have still been tired.
Rattle, rattle…… whinny!
Puh-eong—!
Before I knew it, the carriage came to a stop, and as magical power dispersed, the horses’ forms vanished just like that.
This place was the carriage storage facility located inside the academy.
“Rapin. Wake up. We’re here.”
“Mmngh…….”
Rapin rubbed his eyes and got down from the carriage.
He looked around with sleepy eyes, then slowly widened them.
“……I fell asleep, and when I woke up, we were back at the academy.”
“Yeah, we’re back.”
Rapin and I walked along the park path leading toward the stables.
Even while looking around, Rapin’s steps were light and lively.
“Looks like you’re happy to be back.”
“Yeah. The trip was fun, but I’m also happy because it’s been a while since I’ve been here.”
After all, Rapin liked the stables.
Thinking about meeting the animals again must have made his steps lighter.
As we were almost at our destination, someone’s voice reached us.
“……Hey, hey. Listen to me for a second.”
Near the renovated stables, Lupina was wearing work clothes, sniffling as she held a lamb in her arms.
“Honestly, I got scolded today. My senior asked why I keep clocking out right after finishing your work…… isn’t that too much? Isn’t it enough if I just finish my own tasks properly?”
Baa~.
“Right? You understand how I feel, don’t you? I didn’t do anything wrong, right?”
Baa~.
“Mm, mm. You really are the only one for me……. Waaah…….”
Our eyes met as Lupina gently rubbed her face against the lamb’s back.
“…….”
“…….”
Her face turned bright red in embarrassment. Lupina sprang up like a coiled spring and immediately bowed toward us.
“M, young master, Mr. Rapin! Welcome back!”
“I missed you, Sister Lupina.”
“It’s been a while.”
After greeting Lupina, I glanced between her and the lamb she was holding and asked,
“What were you doing?”
“Ah! Well, that is…… I suppose you could say I was venting a bit about life…….”
Baa~.
The lamb bleated as if agreeing with her.
“Well, anyway…… it looks like you took good care of the stables. I don’t even see a speck of dust inside the warehouse.”
I inspected the stables thoroughly. I placed my hand on the window frame, but not a trace of grime stuck to it. It was more than satisfactory.
I had shown up without notifying Lupina in advance. Even so, there wasn’t a single flaw to be found, as if to prove she hadn’t been negligent with her work.
“Of course, young master! I’m getting paid that much—how could I possibly do a sloppy job!”
“Right. That’s true too.”
I replied like that, then took out the money pouch I had received from Bedervel from my subspace.
“Anyway, thanks for all your hard work. Let’s settle the payment now.”
“……Yesss!”
At the word ‘settle,’ Lupina’s eyes began to sparkle like gold coins.
About a month and a week had passed since I had vacated the stables.
“I’ll include today as well. It’s 100 gold per day, so…….”
I took out a small pouch and put sixty gold coins into it.
“Here. Six thousand gold.”
Lupina let out a gasp of blissful shock. Even as she accepted the pouch I handed her, she blinked repeatedly.
“Y, y, young master? Isn’t the calculation…… very wrong?”
“It’s a bonus. If the lamb is sitting so calmly in your arms, it means you treated it well the whole time.”
“Young master……!”
Lupina looked like she was about to cry.
“I, Lupina, will bow to you, young master, so please accept it.”
“Stop it before I cancel the bonus, Lupina.”
And just like that, after finishing today’s work, Lupina took off her work clothes and changed back into her formal outfit.
“Lupina, nothing unusual happened while I was gone, right?”
“It’s been peaceful as always. You’d be hard-pressed to find a place this quiet anywhere else in the academy.”
After replying, Lupina seemed to recall something and spoke to me again.
“Oh, right. Young master. I picked up some documents from the administrative office in advance. They should be on the warehouse table.”
When I glanced over, there were indeed two document envelopes, just as she said.
“And…… um…… there’s one piece of bad news…….”
Lupina’s complexion darkened slightly. She looked oddly apologetic toward me.
“Well…… last time, I told you that a notice had gone up to hire a new stable manager, right?”
“You did.”
“At some point, the notice was taken down, so I thought a new manager had been hired. But when I asked around, it turns out the notice was canceled.”
“Then does that mean my stable duties are continuing?”
“……Yes, probably.”
Lupina kept glancing at me, gauging my reaction.
“I’m really sorry for being nosy……. I honestly thought your disciplinary period had already been officially concluded…….”
“Isn’t that good news for you? If I keep staying here, there’ll be plenty of chances for me to hire you.”
“Ah, ah, ah, no…….”
Lupina shook her head vigorously.
“Clerk Lupina, were we only ever this distant? Just a relationship based on money? You can be honest with me.”
“Ah, um, actually…….”
While glancing at me cautiously, Lupina answered,
“To be honest, I am glad…….”
……She was honest.
“Then that’s enough.”
I replied with a smile.
“I’m glad too.”
“What did you just say?”
“I said I’m glad too. That I get to keep working with the stables.”
“……Huh?”
Lupina looked completely confused.
That reaction was natural. Stable management was considered a disgrace for a noble, after all.
But I had grown fond of the stables to the point that I didn’t feel it was disgraceful at all.
“I’ve gotten attached to them. I don’t want to leave. I want to stay here until graduation.”
“Ah…….”
Lupina blinked, then nodded belatedly.
“So you don’t have to make that apologetic face.”
“Oh, was I making that kind of expression? Ahaha…….”
Lupina gave an awkward smile and scratched the back of her head.
“See you next time, young master!”
Before long, Lupina left the stables, and Rapin headed to the pond to see the sea otters.
I went inside the warehouse and checked the documents.
The first document was a contract certifying full operational authority over the stables and surrounding land until graduation.
The second document was a proposal to sell the island.
Reading through the proposal, it listed things like the year the island was first purchased and the management records.
The price proposed by the academy for the island was 50,000 gold—the same as when it had been purchased thirty years ago.
‘Selling an island with an area of 100 square kilometers for just 50,000 gold.’
That was an island larger than Ulleungdo.
If it were located close to the continent, it would have been so valuable that it couldn’t even be converted into gold.
But since it had no notable resources and was so far away that it took several days by ship to reach, it could be sold at the relatively low price of 50,000 gold.
Of course, whether it was far or near didn’t matter to me.
I looked at the drum barrel inside the warehouse.
Anyone else would think it was just an ordinary drum barrel……
‘But for me, just stepping into that drum barrel lets me arrive at the island immediately.’
An island isolated in the middle of the sea, yet one that only I could travel to and from as easily as flipping my palm.
I could think of countless ways to make use of this island.
I absolutely had to buy it.
Coincidentally, the money I received from Bedervel was exactly 50,000 gold. I just had to hand it over to the academy as is.
‘Now that it’s come up, should I go take a look for the first time in a while.’
Since I was only going there briefly, I threw myself straight into the drum without hesitation.
I opened my eyes and looked around.
I could feel the refreshing air of nature.
This place was a grassy thicket filled only with trees.
A thick layer of snow was piled up on the ground.
And there was something that stood out conspicuously atop the snowfield.
‘……Footprints?’
They weren’t from an animal.
Judging by the shape and size, they were unmistakably human footprints.
‘Did an academy administrator come by briefly to check things before selling the island?’
That had to be it. I decided not to worry too much about it.
First, I headed toward the treehouse I had built.
Quite a bit of snow had piled up on the roof, but it was still standing firmly in place.
‘This is still here too…….’
However, there was one thing that bothered me slightly.
Footprints were left here as well.
‘Just in case, should I take a look inside?’
I climbed the ladder and went into the treehouse.
As expected, there was no one inside.
I closed the treehouse door and climbed back down the ladder.
‘……Something feels off.’
It was just as I began to feel uneasy about that.
Purung~!
A faint beast’s cry reached my ears.
When I turned my gaze toward the sound, a familiar sight came into view.
It was the young deer I had seen during the comprehensive exam.
Its silvery fur was still gleaming with luster.
“Hey, deer. Long time no see.”
Puruung~!
The deer ran toward me as if it was happy to see me.
I stroked its head.
“Well, nothing bad happened, right?”
Purung, pururung-!
“I see. Looks like you’ve been doing well. Let’s see each other more often from now on.”
Purung~?
Did the deer understand what I said? At the idea that we might see each other often, it tilted its head in curiosity while wagging its tail happily.
“I decided to buy this island. I’ll be coming to manage it almost every day soon.”
Purung-!
As if deeply moved, the deer rushed at me while letting out an even louder cry.
“Hey, is it really that good?”
When I roughly patted its head, its tail spun like a helicopter blade, looking as if it might take off.
But then—
The deer suddenly perked up its ears and ran off somewhere.
“Hey, deer. Where are you going?”
Well, whatever. A deer probably had deer things to do.
I decided to look around the place a bit more on my own.
Still, as I continued walking around, something kept bothering me.
Everywhere I went, there were human footprints.
‘Judging by how many there are, doesn’t it seem like whoever it was came here not long ago?’
This island was so far from the mainland that it took several days by ship to reach it.
Practically speaking, the only way to move quickly was the Grand Galpal, but the kind of people who could use that luxurious airship were limited.
Either those with more money than they could count, or nobles from high-ranking families connected to the Empire.
Even among nobles, there wouldn’t be some eccentric who would deliberately come all the way out here to enjoy a vacation.
‘Yeah. There are so many good resorts—who would come here?’
……That perfectly reasonable assumption didn’t take long to be completely shattered.
“……Ti! ……Lotti~! Where did you hide!”
I heard a human voice.
At the same time, without thinking, I hid myself in a nearby bush.
‘……What? There was someone here?’
They were probably the owner of those ‘footprints’.
And on top of that, the voice was getting closer.
“Lotti, Lotti, Lotti, Lotti~!”
Peeking through the bushes, I was finally able to see the owner of the voice.
Short white hair that sparkled in the sunlight.
Judging by the academy uniform she was wearing, she was clearly an academy cadet.
A natural smile spread across her face.
It was a pure smile, free of any pretense or slyness.
Only after staring at it for a while did I realize who she was.
‘……No way, Shia?’
The comprehensive exam incident.
She was the very person who had injected Kunking and sent him into a rampage.
Because of that bright smile, I hadn’t recognized her right away.
She looked completely opposite to the image I had of her always appearing gloomy.
It was a smile of hers I had never even seen in the game.
‘……Shia could smile like that?’
At this point in time, she should have been undergoing ‘experiments’ and turning into a terrifyingly powerful individual.
‘……Then why is she here?’
Bandages were wrapped around her neck and wrists.
Maybe the ‘experiment’ had already ended.
‘More importantly, wouldn’t I be screwed if she found out I’m here?’
No. To begin with, why was I even hiding?
Wasn’t she the one trespassing illegally?
This was my island.
It felt unfair for some reason, but Shia seemed completely unaware of that fact. Her gaze turned toward the bush where I was hiding.
“Hehehe…….”
She made a mischievous expression that didn’t suit her at all and took one step at a time toward me.
“Lotti! Were you hiding there? You’ve got some nerve~ Thinking you could play hide-and-seek with your big sister? Since you’re so cheeky, should I turn you into deer meat?”
‘Damn it, I can’t even run away…….’
It was a deadlock with no options left.
If I moved even a little, there’d be a sound or the bushes would shake, revealing my presence.
All I could do was sit still and pray that she wouldn’t come this way.
……But unfortunately, Shia ended up right in front of me.
And in the end……
“Got you, deer meat! Don’t move!”
Shia threw her arms around me in a tight hug.
“Lotti…… huh, huh?”
Her hands paused for a moment, then she felt me over carefully as if identifying me.
“……Huh?”
Realizing that I wasn’t Lotti or whatever that was, Shia quietly pulled her hands away.
The smile that had spread across her face gradually cooled, returning to her usual cold expression. Shia didn’t say a single word anymore.
I slowly stood up and faced her.
“…….”
“…….”
A flustered Shia, and me wearing an awkward expression.
The two of us couldn’t continue the conversation for quite some time.