Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Who Are You Really?

"Ughhh."

Seria let out a small groan.

The source of her worries was her wallet, which was gradually running dry.

Thanks(?) to the store having been closed for a while, she'd practically been forced to fast so often that her body had adapted to surviving on one meal every two days.

That had allowed her to save some money...

But in the end, she'd spent even that.

She had somehow scraped by until now, but as the semester progressed, more and more things became necessary, and her expenses kept growing.

'I can't ask my family to send me more money either...'

As their only daughter, she knew her parents' financial situation better than anyone.

She knew exactly how hard they must have worked just to earn the allowance they already sent her.

Commoners in this era didn't truly earn money in the first place. They merely earned enough to survive.

That was why they were called common folk.

"What do I do..."

With no good solution coming to mind, she could only grow increasingly frustrated.

'I want to go to the store with Yekaterina one more time...'

What upset her even more was being unable to repay the friend who had helped her.

In fact, ever since she began speaking with Yekaterina, the bullying from the noble girls had vanished as though it had never happened.

Honestly, they weren't close enough to truly call each other friends, yet merely having exchanged words with the daughter of the Grand Duke of the North had produced that result.

Seria once again realized just how powerful connections could be.

Then again, at an Academy where bloodline, innate talent, and one's parents' status and wealth meant everything, personal connections could only have absolute value.

Of course, she wasn't trying to bolster her own prestige by repaying Yekaterina with material things.

Raised by parents who taught her to live honestly even when poor, Seria despised people like that.

She simply felt sorry toward Yekaterina.

-How were the dumplings?

-They weren't bad.

Having naturally learned how to hide her emotions, Seria didn't find it difficult to understand the true meaning behind Yekaterina's words.

If Yekaterina, who normally spoke little and rarely expressed herself, went so far as to comment on a food's taste, it showed just how much she'd liked it.

There was certainly a difference between Seria, who had learned to suppress her desires while growing up poor, and Yekaterina, whose environment and position had made silence second nature, but the result was ultimately similar.

Then an idea flashed through her mind.

'All right. I'll try pleading with the Academy.'

At an Academy steeped in elitism, there were no rewards without tangible results.

But if she lowered her head and begged, perhaps they might make an exception?

Her parents' efforts aside, without the money the Academy provided every month, she would've been forced to drop out long ago.

So perhaps they would help her this time too.

Seria decided to place her hopes on that possibility.

* * *

Delilah turned the empty hangover-cure bottle this way and that.

The label only displayed a logo and a phrase claiming it was good for hangovers.

Normally, the ingredients would also have been listed, but she had no way of knowing they'd been removed during the process of crossing dimensions.

Besides, this was a world without established food-safety laws, so it hardly mattered.

"Hmm..."

She hated admitting it, but just as Dante had said, the hangover cure was similar to the potion she'd made.

She could distinctly taste extracts of various medicinal ingredients said to be good for the liver, including oriental raisin tree fruit, turmeric, and thistle.

But the concentration was extremely high.

If her own potion were sugar water, this could practically be called pure honey.

The difference in concentration was that dramatic.

'What kind of process did this go through?'

The blending and concentration of ingredients were measures of an alchemist's skill.

Yet the hangover cure before her far exceeded the quality of most potions.

Even her own.

Of course, she'd made hers in a hurry, and if she worked seriously she could easily make something better, but even taking that into account, this was absolutely not something she could dismiss.

'He said some of the products sold in the store were things he'd made himself.'

Delilah narrowed her eyes.

In other words, Dante might be capable of producing a potion this highly concentrated himself.

Perhaps he was hiding something she didn't know about.

'Hmm.'

Delilah let out a strange hum and put the hangover cure down.

Then she stared intently at Dante's face and raised one corner of her mouth.

"Mr. Dante, who exactly are you?"

Apparently flustered by the sudden question, Dante hesitated before answering.

"I'm merely a humble shopkeeper."

"Liar."

She immediately rejected that.

"I knew there was no way they'd choose an ordinary person. Mr. Dante, you're actually hiding some enormous secret, aren't you?"

"...What?"

"For example, maybe you have a past you can't casually reveal to others..."

Delilah rested her index finger against her chin and tilted her head.

"Or maybe the Imperial Family sent you here to monitor the Academy?"

At that point, Dante finally burst out laughing.

"I thought you were just curious, but apparently you have quite the imagination too. I swear to heaven, absolutely not."

"Yes, yes. I'm sure."

Delilah had no intention of simply believing him.

The flustered expression he'd shown when she'd asked who he really was clearly meant there was something.

Well, in a sense, it was a sharp guess.

Though it was rather far from the truth that Dante had reincarnated from twenty-first-century Earth and possessed a special otherworld perk.

'He's an interesting man.'

Delilah felt a peculiar interest in him, but decided not to trouble him any further.

She already had a history of embarrassing herself in front of him, so there was no need to damage her image even more.

"Well, whatever. Everyone has at least one secret they can't tell other people, right? Don't worry. I'm not the kind of woman who pries into every little thing."

Then she smiled and asked,

"We're still friends, right?"

*

When Delilah suddenly asked who I really was, my blood ran cold.

'Even though she's completely barking up the wrong tree.'

She seemed to have some grand misunderstanding, and no matter how much I denied it, she had no intention of believing me.

Still, the matter ended vaguely enough, so I could relax for now.

Besides, she'd naturally realize with time that I was nobody special, so there was no need to rush.

'This place really is huge.'

I was currently taking a walk around the Academy grounds.

I couldn't stay cooped up in either the store or my room all day. Naturally, I needed a change of scenery.

'Otherwise I'll go insane.'

I'd briefly looked around on the first day, but there were still far more places I didn't know, so I was gradually expanding the map in my head.

That was how enormous the Academy grounds were.

Even Korea's universities, or prestigious universities abroad, couldn't compare.

The main building stood at the top of a slope on a coastal cliff at the very edge of the continent, while dormitories, research buildings, and various other facilities lay below it.

Heading inland brought you to a vast forest, and even the nearest city was several days away by carriage.

In short, although it was an educational institution, it could just as easily be called a fortress.

In fact, despite being called an Academy, outside the main grounds were villages and farmland where externally hired civilians like me lived, allowing the place to be completely self-sufficient.

It lacked only walls to rival an ordinary territory.

'Well, I suppose that's what you'd expect from the continent's finest educational institution.'

Meanwhile, I was crossing a grassy field used as both a training ground and recreation area after passing an artificial lake I couldn't even guess how they'd built.

That should give you a rough idea of how enormous the Academy was.

Eventually, my feet carried me toward the edge of the forest.

The area was maintained well enough for outdoor classes to be held there regularly, making it safe enough even for an ordinary person like me to use as a walking trail.

And there, I encountered someone unexpected.

"Oh? Principal?"

Her silver-thread hair looked so out of place among the forest scenery that she stood out even from a distance.

"Hello, Mr. Dante."

After returning her greeting, I asked,

"What are you doing here?"

"Taking a walk, just like you."

For someone merely taking a walk, she'd been standing in one spot for quite a while as though she'd been waiting for me.

Out of habit, I scanned her appearance.

A thin pair of glasses serving as a beauty-sealing device.

An old-fashioned black robe that concealed her figure.

But the pointed hat, the symbol of a mage, was being held in her hand instead of sitting where it belonged on her head.

"How's business?"

She asked with a gentle smile on her pretty face, one that made her thoughts difficult to read.

"Well, so-so."

I almost jokingly asked whether she'd issued some kind of ban on the store, but stopped myself.

"Nothing unusual has happened, has it?"

Unusual, huh.

I'd encountered troublesome customers two days in a row, but did I really need to mention that?

Perhaps it had already shown on my face, because the principal tilted her head.

Before reincarnating, I'd been trained to conceal my emotions, but while adapting to this world I'd gradually discarded those old habits, and my feelings had begun showing naturally on my face.

"Is something troubling you?"

"I do have one problem. Business is terrible."

What I'd gained instead was the ability to shamelessly make up excuses.

"Ah."

The principal nodded, then spoke softly as though she understood.

"That's unavoidable given the nature of the Academy. The dining hall alone serves every imaginable delicacy students could ask for."

That was probably true.

Satisfying the palates of noble children had to be damn difficult.

'Still, once they taste the intense flavors of ready-made modern products, they'll change their minds.'

Everyone who'd visited so far had proven that themselves.

Though the last man who ate Buldak experienced 'intense flavor' in a somewhat different sense.

Then a question suddenly occurred to me.

"If you know that, why does the Academy allow a store here at all?"

Now that I thought about it, wasn't that strange?

No matter how much land the Academy had to spare, there was no reason to maintain a store that couldn't even do business.

"Surely you haven't forgotten? That's why I gave you one month to prove yourself."

"Wasn't that condition meant to see whether I was suitable to be the shopkeeper?"

"Hmm."

The principal wore that same inscrutable smile before asking,

"Would you like to take a short walk with me?"

In that situation, refusing wasn't exactly an option.