Chapter 8. Laying the Foundation (4)

As the afternoon sun shone brightly overhead, with a beaming smile as warm as the sunlight, I approached my long-lost friend. “Jules! Sorry, I was lost in thought for a moment and didn’t even realize you were calling me!”

“Huh?” Jules muttered.

“It’s been a while, my friend! How have you been?” I threw my arm over Jules’s shoulder in a friendly manner, my tone lighthearted.

“Hey—”

“I hate to bring this up right after seeing you, but could you lend me, say… a million gold? Something urgent came up,” I said.

“What the hell are you doing?” Jules asked.

“I mean, your family’s rich, right? A million gold isn’t much for you, is it?”

Jules’s face twisted in fury, and without hesitation, he swung his fist at me. “You crazy bastard!”

“Whoa now!” I said.

Even without prior preparation, his punch naturally carried a trace of mana, proof that he was quite skilled. But still, he was nothing more than a brat.

I said with a sigh, “I just want to borrow some pocket change. No need to get so worked up.”

They said the wealthiest people were always the stingiest.

I effortlessly caught his fist mid-air and twisted his wrist. Jules let out a scream of pain. His bones didn’t snap, likely due to the mana reinforcing them, but the agony must have been unbearable.

“You. You bastard!” He gritted his teeth and reached for the rapier at his waist. The moment he unsheathed it, a brilliant light surged from his soul stigmata, coalescing at the tip of the blade, burning like a fierce flame. It was an even more intense glow than what I had seen when I fought Felix.

“Put that away, you brat.” I dodged the thrust by slightly twisting my body, then brought my hand down onto the flat of his blade. Next, I used Berald Combat Style: Blade Breaker on the blade. The impact, infused with mana, made my hand harder than steel.

With a sickening snap, the rapier shattered like a brittle twig.

Jules’s eyes went wide with disbelief. “What…”

Then, I kicked him hard between the legs. Jules let out a bloodcurdling scream, collapsing to the ground while clutching his precious family jewels.

The female cadets who had been watching from a distance shrieked in panic.

“Kyaaah!”

“What are you doing to Senior Jules?!”

“Senior Jules, are you okay?!”

I turned to them and smirked. “I need to have a little chat with my friend here. Would you all mind giving us some space?”

They replied, “W-who said you’re friends with our senior?!”

“Get away from him right now!”

“I’m going to call a professor!”

Annoyed at their antics, I let out a faint killing intent. “Do you not understand what I’m saying? I said, leave.”

The female cadets, who had been chattering just moments ago, froze like a deer caught in the headlights. Their faces turned deathly pale, and their legs trembled pitifully. One of them didn’t even realize that she had accidentally wet herself.

I hadn’t expected that. What the hell!Did she seriously just wet herself from that little bit of bloodlust? Isn’t that too much?

It made me question whether they were truly hero cadets. Then again, their reactions make sense.

Judging by their name tags, I could tell they were first-years, newbies who hadn’t even experienced proper training, let alone real combat. Of course, they had never encountered real killing intent before.

Moreover, my killing intent wasn’t just some amateur’s imitation. It was a real killing intent, one forged through thousands, if not tens of thousands, of life-or-death encounters.

Damn, dealing with kids is exhausting. I let out a wry chuckle and retracted my bloodlust. The next moment, the cadets burst into tears and ran away.

“Well, now that the distractions are gone…” I turned back to Jules, who was still groaning while clutching his wounded pride. With a grin, I continued, “Let’s finish our conversation, friend.”

***

“You. You want me to lend you money?” Jules said in a trembling voice, still reeling from the pain.

“Yup,” I replied.

“H-how much?” The once-arrogant cadet was now shrinking into himself, unable to meet my gaze.

“Hmm? Didn’t I already say?”

“You can’t be serious! You actually want me to lend you a million gold?” he asked.

“Well, yeah. Do you think I was joking?”

“That’s… That’s insane! How the hell am I supposed to lend you that much?!” His voice cracked in disbelief.

I smiled and slowly clenched my fist in front of him.

Jules flinched, and his face went pale. “I-I’m sorry! I was wrong! Please don’t hit me!”

I laughed and lowered my fist. “Aw, come on. Who said anything about hitting? We’re friends.”

Jules bit his lip, then muttered hesitantly, “I’m sorry! But even I don’t have that kind of money.”

“Hmm.”

Well, that was expected. Even a rich kid wouldn’t have a million gold just lying around. Nevertheless, I asked, “But your father is a different story, isn’t he?”

“Are you telling me… to ask my dad for money?” Jules looked at me as if I had gone insane. “Are you out of your mind?”

“I heard he dotes on you quite a bit.”

“That doesn’t mean I can just ask him for one million gold!” Jules shook his head furiously.

I watched him for a moment before a particular memory resurfaced. Jules’s name had come to me so easily not just because he used to pick on me. Plenty of other cadets had also bullied me back then because I was an orphan and the last-placed hero cadet.

In fact, he wasn’t even the worst of them.

Jules would harass me only in front of younger female cadets, probably to show off his strength. The real reason his name stuck with me was simple. It was because at one point, his name had shaken the entire academy. He had a unique hobby.

I knew exactly what that hobby was. In this life, it wouldn’t be exposed for another six months, but Jules was definitely still indulging in it now.

“Jules. Hand over your Hero Watch,” I said.

“What?” Jules’s face turned even paler than before.

The Hero Watch was a cutting-edge artifact co-developed by the Republic’s engineering, the Empire’s magic alchemy, and the Holy Empire’s mana stone purification techniques. Its original name was Multi-Functional Composite Watch, but since only those with mana could use it, people started calling it the Hero Watch.

Jules clutched the watch strapped to his wrist, his wary eyes locked onto me. “W-why are you suddenly asking for my Hero Watch?”

His reaction was so honest, almost naive, that I couldn’t help but let out a laugh. “What’s wrong? Do you have something in there you don’t want anyone else to see?”

“T-there’s no way I would have something like that!”

“Oh? Then you wouldn’t mind showing it to me, right?”

“Ugh!” Jules took an uneasy step back, clearly flustered. He hesitated for a moment before turning around, trying to make a run for it.

“Where do you think you’re going in such a hurry?” I kicked him square in the shin. As he stumbled forward, I quickly unfastened the Hero Watch from his wrist.

“G-give it back!” he shouted.

“Hold on, man.” I attempted to activate the watch by channeling mana into it, but a padlock-shaped symbol appeared instead.

As expected, he put a security lock on it, I thought. It was probably set so that only Jules’s mana could unlock it. Well, something like this is easy enough to bypass.

Among the many things I had learned from Senior Sophia, one was a technique that allowed me to temporarily alter the nature of my magic. As soon as I mimicked Jules’s mana signature, the Hero Watch unlocked, displaying a holographic screen.

Beep!

I navigated through the files inside, and there it was: a collection of photos of Jules dressed in women’s clothing, striking coquettish poses. “Ugh, fuck! My eyes.”

Jules was fairly good-looking, so his cross-dressing wasn’t a complete disaster. But still, the sight of a muscular guy, hairy legs and all, prancing around in frilly skirts was way more than I wanted to see.

“Y-y-you… H-how did you…” he asked.

“Let’s see here. First, I’ll transfer all these photos to my Hero Watch… Done.” After copying the last picture, I turned to Jules, whose face was now drained of all color. He was trembling like a leaf in the wind as I handed the Hero Watch back to him.

“Get me one million gold. You can do that, right?” I said.

“W-what are you planning to do with those photos?”

“Just answer the question.”

“Ah! Ugh!” Tears welled up in Jules’s eyes. He sniffled as he strapped the watch back onto his wrist, his shoulders shaking. “I-I can’t… get it right away.”

“I’ll give you a week. Bring it by then. Oh, come on, man. Why are you crying? I’m not even taking the money from you. I’m just borrowing it. You’ll get every last gold back. What? Don’t you trust your friend?” I said.

Jules burst into loud, miserable sobs. I clicked my tongue as I looked down at him. Well, that takes care of my funding problem.

I had never expected to secure the research fund this easily, but well, sometimes things just work out. I raised my arms and let out a long, satisfied stretch, enjoying the warm afternoon sunlight. With my money situation sorted, I suddenly felt much lighter. I had been running around all morning, and at some point, lunchtime had come and gone. I was feeling slightly hungry.

Hmm, the cafeteria is probably closed by now. I turned to Jules, who was still sniffling on the ground, and gave him a nudge with my foot. “Hey.”

“Y-yeah?”

“I’ll give you five hundred shillings. Go to the store and get me two pieces of bread and a large carton of milk.”

“Five hundred shillings isn’t enough to buy all that,” he replied.

Even though the academy store had relatively cheap prices, five hundred shillings wouldn’t cut it. Depending on the bread, it would probably cost at least three gold and five hundred shillings.

“So?” I said. Is he seriously asking me for more money right now?

“N-never mind! I-I’ll go get it right away! Just wait a bit!”

“Ah, hold on.” I grabbed him by the shoulder just as he was about to bolt.

“Ugh! W-what? Do you want me to get something else?”

“Nah, just one more thing.” I patted his shoulder with a smile. “Make sure you bring back five gold in change.”

Looks like there is no need to worry about money for a while.

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