Ellen didn’t tell me to keep her identity secret. It seemed she thought that it wouldn’t matter anymore now that she told me. Maybe she also thought I wouldn’t tell anyone else.
Of course, if Ellen’s identity were to be revealed there would be a huge commotion in Temple. I wouldn’t want that to happen, so I didn’t intend on spreading this info around. Still, Ellen did seem to feel a little better in the end.
Did she feel comforted knowing that she had someone who understood her feelings?
The next day.
-Aah, hello, dear citizens of the Imperial Capital.
-I’m here to introduce to you a fantastical item while you are all busy returning home.
-Please have a look at this. We carved this wood and inserted a metal core. Yes, in technical terms, this would be called a spinning top.
-But it isn’t just any ordinary spinning top. It’s a magic spinning top.
-I shall show you all a wonderful magic trick now.
I was on my way to the Al Ligar district taking the mana train. I saw some vendors from the Rotary Gang appearing on every train. The gang members seemed to safely evolve into vandors, showing great skills in marketing their products and saying a lot without much substance.
Parents who came to look holding their children’s hands reluctantly bought them toys.
They did say their income was pretty good. However, this business wouldn’t last long. The mana train was a public facility, but they couldn’t just do as they pleased in here. There were quite a few passengers who seemed rather annoyed by all this even though they didn’t dare to speak up yet.
This business’ purpose was to create a different profit structure to resolve the gang’s dependency on the Thieves’ Guild. However, Bertus suggested that it would be better for us to just absorb the Thieves’ Guild. That plan was on hold for now though.
“Heey.”
“Ah…. Yes?”
“Who gave you permission to do business here?”
One of the passengers finally started complaining, perhaps finally having reached the limit of his patience.
It was a rather tense situation. I strongly advised Loyar to tell the vendors to avoid getting into fights in these types of situations. Fights should never ever break out.
The man approaching the vendor looked rather disgusting.
“Didn’t I tell you that if I see you on this line again, I’d whoop your ass?”
However, as I listened closer, the context of the situation seemed to be a little different from what I thought.
“Tha, that…. But we were here first….”
“Ah, when would that have been? We said we’d do this place. Huh?”
What kind of situation was this?
“Ye, yes. I’ll get off at the next station….”
“Don’t show your ugly mug in front of me again. Ya hear?”
I roughly grasped the situation.
The flies started swarming after smelling some honey.
“So there were bastards with no sense of morality like this, huh? No matter how illegitimate this business is, you just go ahead and steal someone else’s way to make a living?”
“……Wha, what?”
Even though I wasn’t one of the vendors, I stood up and confronted him.
“You, what? Who are you? What do you want, little brat….”
I approached that disgusting looking man. The passengers were staring blankly at this bizarre situation that seemed to be about to get out of hand.
There actually was a passenger who clashed with this gangster without any hesitation.
“Hey, jerk. If you enter a business late, shouldn’t you do it quietly in your own little corner? Huh? If you enter such a business, d’ya think you can just take your seniors’ know-how and then piss all over their livelihood? You wanna fucking die?”
“Y,y,you…. You punk, wha, what’s wrong with you…. Who the hell are you?”
“What do you mean? I’m a student of Temple’s Royal Class who happened to be an ally of justice.”
While attending school a student of Temple’s Royal Class is treated as someone with a special identity, no matter if they were a commoner or not. If you were to touch one of them carelessly, there would be no end to the trouble you would find yourself in.
The vendor, one of the gang members, flinched after realizing my identity.
He didn’t know me personally, but he seemed to have remembered that one of the gang members went to Temple.
“Sure, you’re from Temple. I don’t give a fuck, you shitty brat.”
He didn’t believe me when I told him I was a Temple student.Thinking I was bluffing, that bastard immediately decided to give me some true education.
He raised his right hand up high and swung it towards my head.
-Woosh!
I avoided the punch by slightly tilting my head.
“Have you gone deaf, you old bastard?”
I was strong.
Stronger than that slimy bastard.
“How dare you try to beat up a minor without any reason, huh?”
-Pang!
“Urk!”
I kicked him hard against his shin. I didn’t kick him so hard that his leg would break, but it certainly pointed in a weird direction.
“Motherfucker, you think, just because I’m a shrimp at Temple, I’d also be a shrimp here?”
Even if one were the lowest ranked athlete in the Olympics, one was still a top athlete, you bastard!
I was someone that sparred with the ace of the national team every day, you know!
While I didn’t have any skills, I won using brutal methods.
However, now I could beat someone coming at me with brutality using my skills.
These were the results of Ellen’s accelerated education.
The passengers were initially nervous when they saw a gangster arguing with a vandor.
And then suddenly, a young kid stood up against that gangster, which confused them, and when they actually saw that young lad beat that gangster up, they seemed to doubt their eyes.
My physical strength and reaction speed certainly had improved through the training I did so far. If I threw my supernatural ability into the mix, even clumsy movements would be effective in beating someone like that.
Since he let his guard down, it was quite possible for me to make him to land on his ass with just a single kick.
Since I didn’t want to do something as risky as brawling more with an adult, I threw him out at the next station.
“Ooh!!”
“I’ll let you off for now, consider yourself lucky. If you were unlucky, you might end up eating food through a straw, you get me?”
His eyes were as big as saucers as I threw him out. That situation just seemed ridiculous to him.
The passengers were staring at me as if I was a monster.
“Sigh.”
I didn’t mean to interfere.
However when I saw that guy trying to take away our business, I changed my mind.
I thought I’d only ever beat up some guys in Temple.
I was becoming more and more like some sort of bastard, now that I had the grounded confidence provided by my supernatural power. The gang member was puzzled seeing me here.
“Please, tell big sis that I’ll stop by later.”
“A,ah….Ye, yeah.”
Bring it on, you bastards.
Who were they to try and take away our livelihood?
My temper had been triggered, and I kept on growing more angry. People avoided me that day.
* * *
After getting off the train, I changed into clothes I had prepared beforehand and changed my appearance with Sarkegaar’s ring. It seemed that no one was tailing me, but I should be getting tailed a lot in the future, so I tried making this a habit. My identity as a demon was problematic, but my identity as a Rotary Gang member wasn’t without problems either.
That ruckus on the train just now was still acceptable. Those two who actually knew my affiliation with the Rotary gang were actually the most dangerous to me, as they would keep an eye on me.
Let’s just live like water. I was already famous for being a delinquent in Temple, that wouldn’t make me famous for that outside though, right?
After passing through various alleys and side streets, I headed to the Al Ligar Shopping District. That Cutthroat’s Paradise was still filled with the sound of breathtaking price negotiations.
The battle of nerves between those that didn’t want to be ripped off and those that wanted to rip them off went on like background music.
When I entered Eleris’ shop, I saw her sitting in the same position as when I first met her.
She still had no customers.
“Eleris.”
“Huh? How do you….”
Eleris was using a pseudonym in this shop, so she couldn’t help but panic when someone suddenly called her by her real name.
“It’s me.”
“Your Highness?”
She first wanted to question me, a stranger who knew her real name, but she soon realized who I was and jumped up from behind the counter. Then she came towards me, and locked the store behind me.
“Hey, it’s dangerous coming to see me.”
Eleris spoke reproachfully towards me while I stood there frozen for a bit.
“I was really careful, so it’s fine.”
I didn’t get off at this district’s station, disguised myself and came here using lots of detours. If someone found me even after all that, that person would have my praise.
Eleris told me that she still didn’t feel at ease and chanted something. Only after that she slowly nodded her head.
“Yeah, it should be fine.”
Then she smiled brightly, as if that put her heart at ease.
“It’s been a long time since I last saw you, Your Highness. How have you been?”
“Ah…. This and that happened.”
Eleris went up to me and pulled my hand, saying we should slowly talk over tea.
The vampire’s low body temperature felt reassuring somehow.
* * *
“Ah….”
After hearing all of my recounts, Eleris’ complexion, which was already quite pale, became even paler.
“Oh, should I say it’s like you were before…. No, you’re still doing better than back then, but….”
Even if I wasn’t as bad as the original owner of this body, It still seemed to be very shocking.
Well, of course it would be. I entered Temple with no backing whatsoever and ended up chasing around the other kids. Not only that, I even had a duel with my senior, which resulted in the other seniors taking note of me
Well. For the Prince of the Demon Realm to infiltrate the Royal Class and actually turn into a star in a matter of weeks, sure was a headache, huh?
“I’m not really into getting beat up without even putting up a fight, so I didn’t just pick fights for no reason.”
“Sigh…. Just what should we do about that temper of yours?”
Eleris sighed heavily as if all the world’s problems were riding on her shoulders.
“Still, I haven’t used this yet.”
I took out the relic Eleris gave me, the Flame of Tuesday.
“That’s a relief, but….”
I seriously wondered what would happen if I were to use this properly, but there had yet to be an emergency, so I couldn’t use it yet. Eleris rummaged through something and asked me if I was hungry before she took out some food.
“What? You have food here?”
“Yes, I stored up some frozen food, in case you might come by.”
Oh.
She was so nice.
Eleris heated the frozen pasta with her magic and presented it to me. It wasn’t that delicious, but she told me that she prepared it herself, so this was something that went beyond just taste.
Watching me slurp up the pasta, Eleris smiled faintly.
“By the way, I could have never imagined you getting a supernatural power.”
“That’s how it is. It’s like it was meant to be.”
Eleris seemed rather confused about the fact that I had awakened a supernatural ability, then I explained more about my ability. I had a lot to explain as it was a rather ambiguous ability.
““It…. Seems to be a very powerful ability…. Quite, uhm….”
“I know.”
The mechanism of my ability to actually end up winning if I just kept a winning mentality seemed rather strange to Eleris.
That wasn’t all.
I now had 2280 achievement points. I used up 20 achievement points during the duel to use the Revise Function. I got 600 points for winning the duel and after Ellen told me her secret I got 500 more points.
Therefore, I could get a new talent. I couldn’t have more than 1 supernatural power, so I was pondering about what talent to get next.
Although I was growing quite slowly, objectively speaking, what I did was quite nonsensical.
After entering the first year of Temple, I would be able to awaken two talents in less than a semester. People might feel suspicious of the existence of my infinite aptitudes, but it certainly wasn’t impossible.
At this point, it was rather hard for me to decide whether I should get a combat-related or a magic-related talent.
Talking about Temple like that made me seem like a son coming home from a boarding school and telling his mother about everything he experienced there. Actually, Eleris’ expression seemed rather similar to that of a mother’s. Especially her sighs when she heard about the fights I was in.
“That’s all I got to say for now. Is everything okay on your end?”
“Hmm…. There had been a few things going on.”
It seemed like something had happened while Eleris was guarding the store.
“First of all, coming here was very dangerous.”
“I know that.”
That was why I did such conspicuous movements by going around town in weird circles to shake off any possible tail I might have had.
“That’s not it.”
However, at my words, Eleris just shook her head.
“It has been determined that this was the last place Your Highness had been seen.”
“Huh…. Really?”
I didn’t know if it was Bertus or Charlotte, but my pursuers knew that I had come to this place. It was inevitable for me to come to this district to wander around here and sell my scrolls. A kid was wandering around here trying to sell scrolls, but most merchants just thought they were fakes. It certainly wasn’t a common occurrence, so there should have been some merchants who remembered that incident.
I originally planned to get some money and then go into hiding. Meeting Eleris was a pure coincidence after all.
“Did they come in here as well?”
“Yes. They didn’t seem suspicious of me, but they do keep an eye on this place as this is the only place where they were able to find some clues.”
The only place I was spotted at was the Al Ligar District’s shopping street. That was the reason why the one’s searching for me kept an eye on this place.
It wasn’t someone tailing me who was the problem, but the fact that the Al Ligar shopping street itself was already under surveillance, so that was why Eleris told me that it was dangerous coming to visit her.
“And then I heard about it.”
“About what?”
“I heard that you stole a fireball scroll from a store…. I heard it was from Mr. Borton’s scroll store. I believe they got specific clues from there. Was it perhaps that scroll Your Highness was going to sell me?”
Ah. I thought I knew what she was talking about.
“I didn’t steal it, he gave it to me.”
“What? Mr. Borton was so furious, saying it was you who stole the fireball scroll.”
“That bastard is really a gangster among gangsters.”
Eleris didn’t seem to know what I was talking about.
“No, see, I was trying to sell Demon Scrolls, right? So everyone I was trying to sell it to thought they were pretty realistic fakes. That’s what a normal person would think, right?”
“Yes.”
“All the others just told me to shut up and get lost, but do you want to know what that guy told me?”
“What did he say?”
Eleris tilted her head.
“He told me to copy real scrolls and that he’ll pay me a lot of money. There would be no one as bad as that guy. I felt like I was stuck in a weird dream. so I asked him to give me a sample. That was that fireball scroll.”
Eleris frowned a little after listening to my explanation.
“………I never really thought of him like that, but he certainly seemes like a bad person. He even lied about that scroll being stolen….”
As if genuinely disappointed in him, Eleris shook her head. No, I didn’t think there were any decent people doing business in this shopping street, though? What was there to be disappointed about?
“People who buy these fake scrolls thinking they would save their lives might actually die. Just how did he think of that…?“
Magic Scrolls were expensive. I still didn’t know how much adventurers earned, but an Adventurer Party, which didn’t have a wizard among them, bought scrolls like these in case of an emergency. So what if that scroll simply didn’t work if such a crisis occured? They’d die 9 out of 10 times.
So that Borton guy was actually like an MVP among all the evil bastards of this shopping street. Eleris looked at me and smiled.
“Well done, Your Highness. Someone like that should be subject to a bit of suffering.”
“Needless to say, he just got overly excited and gave me that thing on his own.”
Blinded by greed, he couldn’t see the forest for all the trees and gave me a fireball scroll. It was a real shame that his greed and intelligence weren’t quite proportional. He was a scammer, stupid and would never amount to anything big.
Anyway, since this was the last place I was seen in, I could understand Eleris’ concerns.
“Tch, I was planning on staying here while the school was closed.”
“Isn’t Temple much more comfortable?”
Eleris didn’t seem to understand why I wanted to come to a place like this. I had this ring so I didn’t have to worry about getting caught.
“It’s because you are here.”
“Ah…. I, is that so? Thank you, Your Highness:”
Eleris smiled and nodded her head.
“I confirmed that there were no people watching this place at the moment. So I think it would be fine for you to spend some days here, if you want.”
I didn’t absolutely need to become a swordmaster or have supernatural abilities, or something.
After all, the most convenient thing in this world was magic. I was trying to work out a plan before on how to convince Eleris to let me stay here for a bit, and I didn’t want to just play around while Temple was closed.
“By the way, about the Rotary Gang. Looking at that situation earlier, it seemed like there’s a similar organization making their rounds. Do you know about this?”
“Is that so? Loyar doesn’t really tell us about the gang’s internal affairs, unless it’s very serious.”
It wasn’t an organization they planned on creating anyway. It was just created naturally as they lived their lives on the street, so, although Loyar was in charge of this group’s finances, she didn’t seem to discuss the operation of the organization with the others.
“It seemed like it’s time for us to gather again.”
We didn’t hold something like regular meetings, but as I had similar thoughts I nodded my head.
