Chapter 10: 10

– The Hooligan and Unfairly Admitted Student (4) –

Having learned swordsmanship under a harsh teacher and growing up rolling around with the soldiers in Viscount Kision’s barracks, Arthur was used to wounds. As he grasped his bleeding hand, Arthur thought…

‘The world shook.’

It was a hunch that bordered on certainty. This hallway, the setting sun, the carpet…they were different from the hallway and setting sun and carpet from just a moment before. It was the type of foresight that had caused the young Arthur to be treated unluckily as a child. No one else had understood that sense of foreignness where the future felt like the past. It caused him to be treated as a cursed child.

But this time, Arthur that he wasn’t the only person who observed this unusual change. Blood flowed freely from Kleio’s nose; the pupils of his fully dilated, green-brown eyes were fixed at an invisible point in the air. He had clearly experienced the same phenomenon as Arthur. No, rather, that abnormality seemed like it had arisen from Kleio Asel.

Creaaaak– Bam–!

Before Arthur could even ask him what had happened, the headmaster’s office doors opened forcefully. The doors slammed into the wall, and the noise filled the entire hallway.

“Arthur Riognan, Kleio Asel! You’re throwing around fists even after being called here?!”

A tall, old man with white eyebrows and a beard strode out. He had a robe wrapped around his long arms and legs.

“Tsk, when you were stealing alcohol, you were so in sync, but now that you’ve been called out, you’ve begun to blame each other?”

The old man cut in between the two. It seemed like he thought they had been physically fighting and would continue to do so. Arthur, who had recovered first, immediately put on his usual light attitude.

“Sir, don’t kids normally get closer by fighting?”

“Is that something a student like you should say? While bleeding? Did the two of you use weapons?”

“No! My hand got caught on the cuffs’ buttons.”

“Ah, Arthur, you’re always getting into trouble. There hasn’t been a single day I’ve slept well since you entered this school!”

“I didn’t know that you always kept me in your thoughts like that, but I am touched, sir.”

“You!”

Despite his smile, more blood was continuously seeping out of Arthur’s wound. He was pressing it down hard to stop the bleeding.

“What did you two do? Tsk, let’s hear it after handling this first.”

When the old man lightly stretched out his left hand, a circle of light spread out from him and wrapped around Kleio and Arthur. It was Kleio’s first time seeing another person’s circle, the field a mage cast.

“[End the leaking of life].”

When the headmaster incanted the mantra, the inside of the circle on the floor filled with complicated letters and designs, the completed design floated up to the air. It seeped into Kleio and Arthur, filling them with warm and soft energy. The blood that was flowing from them soon stopped and Zebedee closed the magic field.

“We didn’t fight. Right, Kleio?”

“Uh, yeah… Yes, that is correct.”

Kleio, who was still collapsed on the floor, could barely squeak out a reply. He had undergone too many disturbing and harrowing things in the past minute to remain calm. They were things that had exceeded the limits of his perception.

‘Is this… the thing called a magic formula?!’

All sorts of things had happened after coming here, but witnessing actual magic for the first time was surprising. Unlike him, however, Arthur had his normal reaction, as if he was used to magic.

“Sir, your healing magic is really stunning!”

Arthur waved his arms excitedly before pushing his hands into his pockets with an arrogant attitude. Zebedee clicked his tongue in response.

“Arthur, enough out of you. Kleio, are you alright? You’re not seriously hurt anywhere?”

“N…no, sir. I was just surprised…”

Professor Zebedee took out a handkerchief from his robe sleeve and handed it to Kleio. He watched Kleio’s weak attempts at wiping his face before helping him with his large, wrinkly hand.

“Eh, how did a wimp who gets surprised and collapses at something like this cause this incident?”

The boys, standing next to each other with their uniforms dirty with blood and dust, listened to a twenty-minute sermon. The headmaster spoke at the speed of a shooting machine gun. Sleeping outside without permission, skipping class, trespassing in the professors’ dorms, and even stealing school supplies. If you thought about it, they had committed a lot of crimes. In Kleio’s case, the headmaster added an offense of disrespect. Professor Zebedee reprimanded him about causing trouble just after his prior consultation has been postponed in consideration of his health.

“The two of you cannot skip class for even one day starting next week and until the vacation break. If you do, then you’ll have to stay in school during the break.”

“Sir, anything but that… Please take those words back, if only for my sake.”

“This rascal… What’s so great about you that I should do something for your sake!? Huh?! Disciplinary action will last for two weeks. Starting from next Tuesday, you’ll start right away after finishing classes. If you’re lazy, I’ll count the days over from the start. Understand?”

“…I understand.”

“Well, if it is your orders, sir, then we should take classes and do the cleaning. What else can be done? I understand.”

Arthur, who had been cheekily aggravating the headmaster, ran away as fast as his legs could carry him as soon as he heard the contents of their disciplinary action. Kleio, whose mind and body had become frayed, couldn’t keep up with the swift boy’s long legs. When the boy with his shoulders drooping bowed his head in goodbye, Zebedee continued in a bit softer voice.

“Kleio Asel, you have one more thing to do.”

“Pardon? What is it?”

“Your father has arrived in the reception room. If you go through that left side hallway, you will find him waiting. Go on.”

“Why now of all times…”

“Hasn’t there been all sorts of things that happened recently?”

Kleio’s face crumpled.

‘Was the previous guest in the headmaster’s office Gideon Asel? Things keep happening one after the other. Seriously…’

.

.

.

Baronet Gideon Asel was a character that was never mentioned in the previous version of the manuscript. Kleio suspected him of being the anonymous donator who had given Arthur funds during the civil war. It was hard to assume any other information besides that.

‘Well, would a father kill his son?’

Kleio staggered through the hallway and opened the reception room door. And he came to regret that decision within approximately five seconds.

Slap–

He hadn’t the time to even exchange greetings at his first meeting with his’ father.’ As soon as he entered the reception room, he was promptly slapped and tumbled to the ground yet again. His body was so light that it couldn’t withstand an adult man’s strength, and he was knocked down.

‘I’ve never even been hit by my real father…’

Well, that was also because he had never seen his real father’s face before.

‘It’s like some morning TV drama.’

His eyes bulged out, but rather than being hurt, he found it funny. Kleio, who smirked without knowing it himself, brushed off his clothes and stood up. Though they were already wet with blood and dirt, so there was no use.

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“Have you been faring well, father?”

“Faring well? Is that something you think you have the right to ask?”

Gideon Asel, who he was finally meeting face to face, had quite a similar face to Kleio’s.

‘The way he treats this kid was so crude that I had wondered if Kleio was from an affair his wife had. However, that theory seemed to be off.’

Neatly combed-back brown hair, hazel eyes, slightly thin cheeks, and high cheekbones.

‘Genetically, we’re similar, but why does that fellow look like a movie star, and I seem malnourished?’

The fairly tall Baronet Asel had a terrifyingly cold expression. The dirty Kleio looked pitiful in comparison, but he didn’t even tell him to sit down.

“2000 dinars went into fitting that your uniform you messed up. Buttons with your initials engraved in them, linen, and wool for the fabric. Silk for the tie.”

Kleio examined the uniform he was wearing anew. Turning the buttons on his sleeves, the initials KA were engraved on them.

‘I was wondering how it fitted this thin wisp of a kid so well, but it was all custom-made?’

“780 thousand dinars for your entrance donation and I gave 20 thousand dinars for welfare. Fifty thousand dinars per term for tuition. I paid 200 thousand dinars for a total of 4 terms in advance. Every day you spend here is worth thousands of gold.”

It was a list of sums that made Kleio, who had been leaning on one leg, automatically straighten up. He felt like his Korean consciousness would jump out from inside to shake its finger at ‘Kleio.’

‘I mean, if this father’s punishment is done with just a slap on the cheek despite that, then he must be a more merciful father than he looks like. I misjudged him…’

“Kleio Asel. I’ll ask again. Faring well?”

“Um, it seems there were enough troubles.”

“Is it something to talk about as if it were someone else’s business? I heard you jumped into the river in the middle of the night?”

“…That was really an accident. The path was dark while I was taking a walk…”

Coming this far, he even felt awkward that he had slandered this man before, saying that the father hadn’t even glanced at his kid.

‘He put him in the school using all those resources. With that, how can I say I jumped into the river because my life is shit?’

“Admitting you into this school was your mother’s dream. What would Thelma, who had said she wasn’t afraid of losing her life from birthing you after a difficult labor, think if she had lived to see the current you?”

Kleio, who could usually speak his way around most situations, was speechless. The ‘mother,’ whom nobody around him had mentioned, and ‘Kleio,’ who couldn’t quit school even though it was a deathly struggle for him. It had been that kind of circumstances. It was a painful situation, but the decision was quick.

‘The late Lady Thelma Asel, your son has definitely been admitted into this school. Please be at ease with this.’

When Kleio looked at him in a somewhat politer way, Gideon sat down and waved his hand for his son to sit as well. It seemed like complicated emotions were teeming inside the man who looked to be in his early fifties. It seemed he struggled with a mixture of emotions like love and affection as well as hate and anger.

“It seems you still do not understand, so make sure to keep this in mind: Being born into the world doesn’t make all humans human. To be treated as a ‘human,’ you must have at least one of the three factors of status, wealth, or talent.”

‘Um… yes. What you said is correct, father, but it is a brutal fact.’

“Born in the slums of the Orience district, I didn’t have anything. I earned my position and wealth with just my own strength, and I have provided that to you, my son. So that you would not have to undergo the pain and persecution that I had.”

There was no hint of that background at all from Gideon’s way of speaking, attire, or attitude.

“Not to mention, you also have talent. Ether sensitivity that you can only be born with. Even if it is a weak talent, I know that it can result in large accomplishments depending on how it is developed. I filled your bank account well enough so that you could find and use magic stones or magic tools, but it seems you have no interest in improving your capability.”

‘I mean, are you using the fact that I didn’t spend the money to criticize me?’

It was so dumbfounding a bitter smile came up unconsciously.

“And so, I’ve halted withdrawal from your account. After final exams are over, I will judge whether or not to allow you to withdraw from it when I see the results.”

“…Isn’t that too sudden?”

Kleio felt like he had lost everything. Compared to leaving the real world, not being able to use the 400 thousand dinars in his bank account on this world was somehow more shocking to him.

‘What’s with giving it and then taking it away! What are the finance laws here? Is it possible for a parent to do something like that because I’m a minor? I should’ve thought of taking it all out ahead of time…’

“Too sudden? I think I’ve given you more than enough time.”

“For studies, just having the will doesn’t mean that certain things will happen.”

“That’s right. You are correct. If you truly cannot show success in your studies–.”

Kleio, who had been engrossed in considering how he could release the halt on his withdrawals, couldn’t properly hear Gideon’s words.

“Could you tell me that again?”

“Hah, I said if you absolutely cannot attend this school, then I will enlist you in the ranks. You are seventeen years old; that is old enough for military service.”

‘Are you crazy?’

He almost yelled but reflexively clamped down on his mouth and held back. The sharp pain brought him back to his senses. Kleio had formed the expulsion plan so he could avoid obligatory military service. Making him choose between the army five years later or the army tomorrow was too cruel, and in a country that would definitely go into war in several years, no less!

After graduation, he would be commissioned as an officer for obligatory military service at least, but being a private at seventeen years of age with this limp body was something that could never happen. He wondered if he would fail the physical examination because his body condition was bad, but that father didn’t seem to be someone who would say something impossible to carry out.

‘He would probably shove me in there no matter what. I have to avoid that.’

Kleio straightened up with a sincere attitude that wasn’t there a moment before as his voice lowered on its own.

“What level of rankings do you wish for?”

“You are speaking as if you can make it happen if you wanted to. It seems the Tempus River’s water was miraculous. My second son is responding while looking at someone in the eye for the first time in seventeen years.”

The man’s voice was a tenor that was nice to listen to, but it also had an endlessly cold tone.

“Can I trust that you will behave differently from before?”

“I am not sure – I am not much different from before. I don’t know what you have seen in me, father.”

A glint came into Gideon’s eyes as he stared at Kleio. But Kleio, who was hiding his frustration as he thought hard, didn’t notice it.

“Try to get the thirtieth place at the very least. Make it so that I’ll no longer be disappointed in you.”

“So you are saying that you will lift the freeze on my account if I reach the thirtieth place or higher. Then, what will you do for me if I enter twentieth or higher?”

Hearing his second son’s reply, the stiffness in Gideon’s face loosened for the first time, and he had a bit more of a human expression.

“I’ll view your effort as praiseworthy and put in double the amount when I lift the freeze. If you can do it.”

He probably would be able to do it. Kleio had overflowing ether sensitivity and an invincible cheat key, 「Memory」.

“I will not disappoint you, father.”

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