.｡.:✧ Chapter 16 ✧:.｡.

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“Ugh, I’m exhausted.”

My body felt stiff from sleeping in an uncomfortable position, sprawled over the desk. I didn’t even know when I had dozed off.

It seemed that this drowsiness after eating was getting worse by the day.

It did bother me a bit that Sylphia was watching over me with warm eyes, as if she completely understood, but I stretched my body as I returned to my room.

It was still early evening.

Since my mentor had told me I could go up, I had returned to my room, but I was still drowsy, the sleepiness lingering. Yet it was too early to go to bed.

My body was whispering to me to quickly dive into the plush bed and sleep for a full 12 hours.

Slap, slap.

I lightly slapped my cheeks to chase away the drowsiness, and the oncoming slumber dissipated along with the stinging sensation.

“If I sleep now, what will I do tomorrow?”

I shook my head from side to side.

Surely there was no one who knew my body better than I did. If I fell asleep here, I would wake up around dawn and spend the entire day tomorrow wide awake. It was better to endure a little longer and sleep later.

Yes, absolutely.

Just as I was about to sit on the chair to gather my thoughts…

“Ah!”

A realization suddenly struck me.

Wait a minute. If my mentor told me to go up, it meant that the research tasks for today were all completed. And there were only two people responsible for that: Sylphia and myself. But I had been sprawled over the desk, fast asleep, right after eating…

“…Could it be that Sylphia did everything alone?”

I didn’t need a mirror to know. My face must have turned ashen in an instant.

…How am I going to apologize for this?

To put it simply, I had dumped all my work onto Sylphia and slept through it. And Sylphia had silently done everything in my stead without waking me up.

Ugh.

My face contorted involuntarily.

I wondered if I would even be able to face her properly tomorrow out of sheer guilt…

What should I do? Should I go find her and apologize now? Or should I just apologize when I see her tomorrow? Going to her now might seem a bit excessive.

There was no other option but to bow my head in apology. At the very least, if you’re a decent person, you should have a conscience. Even when I was in the military, I never slacked off and pushed my duties onto my juniors.

After pacing restlessly around the room, unable to decide between the two choices, I finally came to a conclusion.

‘I’ll just apologize tomorrow.’

I would bow my head when I saw her tomorrow.

She must have been doing everything alone the whole day because of me. What if I disturbed her by going to her now and prevented her from getting proper rest?

It was a conclusion I had reached after a series of thoughts, but it left a bitter taste in my mouth.

There was a nagging feeling lingering in the back of my mind. Naturally, it led to unpleasant emotions, and the arrow of this displeasure was directed at the two individuals who had scammed me into this job.

“…These people, seriously.”

Elena Esgelant.

Lorenzo Tonali.

The two culprits who had gone out of their way to come to the remote Weiss County, where I was holed up, just to scam me into this job, as if there was anything to gain from it.

Of course, one of them was the empire’s Second Princess, and the other was my mentor and the Imperial Court Mage, so there was no way I, a mere son of a rural count, could do anything to them.

However, I wasn’t one to just sit back and take it, and moreover, I had someone who could give them a stern talking-to on my behalf.

“I didn’t want to use it so soon, but…”

Rummage, rummage.

I took out a piece of paper that looked like a blank business card, except for the gold-embossed border.

Surprisingly, this scrap of paper wasn’t an ordinary piece of paper, but a magical artifact. The proof was its excellent durability, not crumpling or getting wet even when folded.

Moreover, its true nature was an artifact that the esteemed Eileen Nord, the Northern Grand Duchess herself, had personally given to me.

“Surely it’s not defective, right?”

Although I had already confirmed its functionality, I infused mana into it with a doubtful heart, and the artifact greedily absorbed my mana. Once it had absorbed a satisfactory amount of mana, the artifact lit up and activated.

“Eileen Nord speaking.”

The husky and low voice of Grand Duchess Eileen, which I had heard before, emanated from beyond the paper.

“It’s connected.”

“Rudrick Weiss. What’s the matter? Don’t tell me Elena did something strange to you?”

“…Uh, no. It’s not particularly that.”

Phew.

I took a deep breath and organized my thoughts.

In a world without labor unions or labor laws, wasn’t it only right for workers to fight for their own rights? Connections, school ties, regional ties, and blood ties were just as prevalent in this world.

Well, if you asked if I was simply complaining, I couldn’t really argue against that.

Anyway, I didn’t fully understand everything, but I had to say what needed to be said, even if it was out of spite for being scammed into this job. If I had known it would be like this, I would have continued self-studying or gone to the Magic Tower instead.

“It’s not that the princess did anything strange to me… No, wait, job scamming does count as something strange.”

“……”

Silence lingered from beyond the artifact for a long while instead of a response.

If I abruptly told Grand Duchess Eileen that I had been scammed into a job, what kind of expression would she make? I didn’t know for sure, but I wondered if her usually impassive face would show a hint of bewilderment.

Just before I could get lost in pointless musings, Grand Duchess Eileen’s voice brought my wandering attention back.

“You said you were scammed into a job… Could you explain what you mean by that?”

“Well, they clearly told me it would be better than going to the Magic Tower, you know? But they only give me sandwiches, not even dumplings, and make me research all day. Today wasn’t as tough because someone else helped me, but still.”

“…That’s usually how it is for a mage’s disciple. However, if they didn’t give you a detailed heads-up beforehand and lured you in only to subject you to unreasonable treatment, then there’s cause for concern.”

“At first, they only told me to come to the capital. So I came, and now they’re telling me to cut back on sleep and focus on research! This is a bit… Ah, anyway, don’t you think…?”

In a moment of anger, my voice rose, but I quickly realized I was in the middle of communicating with Grand Duchess Eileen and lowered my voice again.

“Sigh……”

A deep sigh was heard from beyond the artifact. I could tell instantly. It was a sigh of anger, or in cruder terms, a sigh of being pissed off.

I wasn’t sure if she was angry at me for complaining about such things after she had gone through the trouble of giving me the artifact, or if she was angry at the princess.

As I rolled my eyes, trying to gauge Grand Duchess Eileen’s mood through the artifact, even though I couldn’t see her face, her husky voice, seemingly having regained composure, was heard once more.

“You should know this as well.”

“…Pardon?”

“It’s not a common occurrence for me to give an artifact that directly connects to me to someone else. But you were somewhat of an exception.”

“……”

“How absurd.”

“Pardon?”

I reflexively furrowed my brow and asked in response to the voice I heard, but it was only for a moment.

“You don’t seem to understand well, but having the authority to have a private audience with the Nord Grand Duchess whenever you wish is no different from having constant access to me. As for what that means… Well, let’s not dwell on boring matters.”

“…Oh, I understand. That’s why I was able to speak to you like this and ask you to do something about it.”

“Hehe……”

A soft chuckle was heard from beyond the artifact.

“I never expected to receive a request from you, let alone a request to scold Elena.”

“……”

“I’ll personally visit the palace tomorrow. You don’t need to worry. Is that all you wanted to ask?”

“Well, yes. Everything else is fine.”

“If that concludes your business, then I’ll take my leave.”

As expected of the Northern Grand Duchess.

The connection was cut off as soon as the matter at hand was resolved.

However…

“Still as unpredictable as ever.”

Perhaps due to a slightly poor connection established through mana, those words came through. And with those words, the connection was completely severed.

I stared blankly at the artifact for a moment before carefully placing it in a drawer, treating it with utmost care to avoid any damage. It was an artifact that connected directly to the esteemed Eileen Nord, the Northern Grand Duchess. Losing it would be a huge problem.

“If she comes tomorrow and says something, maybe things will improve a bit…?”

I murmured to myself, tilting my head.

Even if the other party was the empire’s Second Princess and the Imperial Court Mage, the card I had played was not to be underestimated either. I had managed to recruit the esteemed Northern Grand Duchess as an ally.

Fight fire with fire, poison with poison.

If the other party’s status was high, I could bring someone of equally high status to resolve the issue.

Still, I was grateful that she readily agreed. I had been prepared to be scolded and told if I was joking.

Continuing this endless graduate student life was far worse than being scolded once in a while… I realized that I despised being a graduate student more than I had thought.

After living a life of leisure as an unemployed person for twenty years, suddenly becoming a graduate student overnight?

Absolutely not.

Yes, yes.

While nodding my head and trying to rationalize it, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

What if my desperate plea to Grand Duchess Eileen had inadvertently opened Pandora’s box?

‘Surely nothing serious will happen.’

I quickly dismissed the thought.

But I couldn’t shake off the ominous feeling.

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