Chapter 55. You've Already Become Good
A long corridor.
"Hoo..."
Dibay let out a long sigh as he moved his feet.
Click. Click.
As the manager's footsteps echoed through the space ahead of him, his mind was a mess.
'Is this right? It is, right? It has to be, right?'
He'd thought he'd already finished making up his mind long ago, but when it was actually here, it wasn't easy to stay composed.
He'd shown his face to an Academy assistant and held the exam papers in his arms.
Now it was a situation he couldn't wriggle out of, no matter what.
It felt like he'd crossed some irreversible line.
The document envelope in his arms—why was it so heavy?
His arms, clamped tight around it, were about to tremble.
But the thing that was truly heavy wasn't the weight of the envelope.
It was Dibay's heart.
"This is it. Then, I'll be leaving now."
The restaurant manager said that, gave a light bow, and stepped back.
Dibay gathered his scattered thoughts and stood before the door.
'Now, really....'
There was no going back.
The moment he opened this door and handed over the exam papers, he would become the main culprit behind this matter.
Maybe that hesitation made it hard to put strength into the hand resting on the doorknob.
So he was just tasting the cold feel of the metal when—
'Alright.'
Dibay finished making his decision.
'This is what I'd been thinking from the start, wasn't it? It's dangerous, but it can't be helped.'
This was Goldrin.
A great merchant group that ranked within the top three on the Eastern Continent.
One of the continent's true powers—someone who could grasp and shake one pillar of the entire merchant world, beyond what even a prestigious noble house could handle carelessly!
If he could ride on that, was this risk really a big deal?
Rather, compared to the risk he was taking on, the reward was enormous.
Just before he opened the door—
'Ah.'
Dibay realized his mistake and knocked to announce himself.
A voice came soon after.
"Come in."
Dibay opened the door and stepped inside.
A moment ago, the door had looked so heavy—how could it become so light just because he'd changed his mind?
Anyway, the space he entered like that.
Dibay silently looked ahead.
'....'
A girl sitting in the office.
Behind her stood a man wearing a robe pulled over himself, and Dibay glanced at the man once before turning his gaze away.
It was a mage employed by Goldrin—someone he'd seen once before.
Meanwhile, even though Dibay had entered, Ivelin kept processing the mountain of documents.
It was an amount that would make an ordinary person sick of it, but Dibay couldn't hide his envy.
'...As expected.'
It's a different level.
Having grown up in a merchant group, Dibay knew better than anyone what it meant for merchants to be entrusted with documents.
Regardless of age, it meant their values and standards of judgment had been acknowledged as a merchant.
Even in a mid-sized merchant group, it wasn't easy for someone that young to handle documents like that.
And this was Goldrin.
'They say even if you're the merchant lord's child... they don't lower the standard just because you're blood.'
That made it all the more impressive.
How much time passed like that?
Thump.
Ivelin, having just signed off on a document, lifted her head.
The moment Dibay met those deep-blue eyes, his shoulders tensed up without him even realizing.
Unlike at the Academy, her gaze was cold, as if it could pierce straight through a person.
Ivelin cut straight to the point.
"What happened with the item?"
"...It's here. I brought it."
Ivelin immediately sent a look to the mage at her side.
The mage stepped forward, took the document envelope from Dibay, and quickly skimmed its contents.
"Four Magic Division major subjects for Basic Track first-year, and two general education subjects. It also includes the practical exam categories and the evaluation method."
Dibay, tense for no reason, added the explanation.
Not long after, the mage nodded.
"It's certain. Not only the paper quality, but the official seal stamped on it. The magic-power pattern embedded within is definitely the Academy's as well."
"...."
At the mage's words, Dibay swallowed hard.
So they judged authenticity through the format, not the contents?
He hadn't even thought to check that far—who would've guessed there was a way to distinguish it like that?
"Hm. Looks like you received the item properly."
Ivelin nodded with a face that showed no particular feeling.
As if it were something obvious.
It was a dry reaction for how much Dibay had suffered inwardly, but Dibay didn't take it too seriously.
The hard part was coaxing the seller—who couldn't receive the item and pass it along?
It was something you could have even a street errand boy do.
What mattered was the risk he would shoulder by doing this.
Anyway.
"And you clearly learned the seller's face too, yes?"
"...Yes. I made it absolutely clear to him that I'm the sponsor who has supported him for the past year. At first he didn't believe it, but in the end, he seemed to accept it."
"Hm, I see...."
Leaning back in her chair, Ivelin lightly wiggled her foot.
Feeling a burning thirst, Dibay waited for her to open her mouth.
How long did he wait?
Ivelin finally spoke around the time Dibay swallowed his dry saliva.
"You did well. This time, there were no issues."
"...Ah."
Those words—you did well.
Dibay's lips trembled.
"I-I, th-then...."
"Yes. As promised, we'll continue to give you opportunities, Dibay. And support will go to the Pingroove Merchant Group as well. Of course, we'll make it clear that it was Dibay's accomplishment."
"Ah!"
Pingroove was Dibay's family's merchant group.
And Goldrin's support would go to them—under his name, no less!
'It worked! It worked!'
Dibay cheered silently.
He couldn't express his joy fully in front of Ivelin, but his fists were clearly trembling.
'Now Pingroove is completely mine. Mine!'
As the eldest son, he'd assumed he would naturally inherit the merchant group.
But because of that damned younger brother, he still hadn't earned his father's trust.
Unlike himself, who'd been born with magical talent, his younger brother had been born with a merchant's talent.
But if Goldrin's sponsorship became his achievement...
'I don't need anything else. I can kick that bastard out, too!'
Who in the family could possibly reject him?
All that remained was becoming the master of Pingroove—standing tall on the continent after graduating from the Academy!
But.
Unlike Dibay, drunk on swelling dreams, Ivelin's eyes were only cold.
Eyes that thoroughly appraised him as a product.
She spoke once Dibay had calmed down somewhat.
"Then come again at this time tomorrow."
"Tomorrow, you mean...."
"After we examine it closely on our side, we'll give it back to you. We have to distribute the exam papers to customers, don't we? And going forward, Dibay, you'll be the one handling that as well."
"...Ah!"
Dibay let out an exclamation, then shifted his gaze as he looked at Ivelin.
"Th-then, perhaps...."
"We'll prepare a copy for you as well, Dibay. And, we don't recommend aiming for a perfect score. You'll have plenty of chances to raise your grades anyway."
"Ah, thank you! Thank you!"
Dibay bowed again and again.
Even without her saying it, he had no intention of doing something as stupid as aiming for a perfect score.
'Literally—there are plenty of chances to raise grades.'
Little by little, steadily.
Improving grades gradually would avoid suspicion and also look better.
She must have already made sure the customers understood that kind of thing as well.
"Ah, then I'll be going now...."
Noticing Ivelin staring straight at him, Dibay opened the door and stepped outside.
Creeeak.
Thump.
The moment Dibay stepped out.
"...So stupid."
A quiet line leaked out.
Her blank expression from earlier vanished somewhere, and irritation now lay on her languid face.
A side different from how she looked at the Academy, and different again from what she'd shown Dibay.
The emotion in her eyes was unmistakable contempt, and after a moment, Ivelin opened her mouth.
"Everything's proceeding smoothly, right?"
"Yes. In a few days, the name 'Dibay' and the merchant group 'Pingroove' will be inserted in place of everything Miss has been involved in."
"Proceed without mistakes. The only reason we're using that idiot is that one thing."
"I will keep it in mind."
At the crisp reply, Ivelin nodded.
That's right.
Without even realizing it, Dibay had sunk not only himself but also his family into the mud.
From the start, it wasn't a matter that could be shouldered by Dibay's name alone.
The money that went into the black market, and the money sprinkled over Academy assistants across a whole year.
If it all came from a single undergraduate student named Dibay, who would believe it?
Dragging in the Pingroove Merchant Group was only natural.
'It's something you'd understand if you thought even a little, but his brain just doesn't turn at all.'
Ivelin shook her head slightly.
That aside—
"Oh, right. Didn't the black-market broker say he had something to pass along?"
When Ivelin asked the mage as if she'd remembered something she'd forgotten, he spoke.
"Ah, yes. It's nothing major. The broker says he's withdrawing after this job. But the guild said they'll send someone, so there shouldn't be any problems."
"And the seller said he's leaving the Academy too?"
"Anyway, there are many assistants we sponsor. The problem is how to make them into sellers, and that..."
"That's the broker's job. We pay money, and they sell their know-how. It's not something we need to worry about."
The number of assistants Ivelin was sponsoring through the black market was fairly large.
Unlike assistant professors, assistants were always suffering from lack of funds.
But corrupting them was a separate matter entirely—and that was the broker's role.
Anyway.
"You've finally taken a step."
"It's only one step. You know, don't you? How far it has to spread."
"Yes, I know. For now it's limited to Basic Track first-year, but in the future you'll have to expand the scope to the entire Basic Track. And beyond that, to the Intermediate Track and the Advanced Track as well."
Ivelin nodded.
Only Basic Track first-year?
Ridiculous.
Would she have undertaken something as dangerous as building a grade-buying black market in the Academy just to limit it to a single year in the Basic Track?
For the numbers to make sense, she had to expand the black market to the entire Academy.
She would push the middling ones onto Dibay and personally manage only the important ones.
If that accumulated...
'Goldrin can grow wings.'
As the tyranny of noble houses grew worse by the day,
these connections would later become a great help in keeping the noble houses in check.
It's nature's rule that even jackals, if they gather in a pack, can cut off a lion's breath.
Just as she was thinking that—
Knock, knock.
With the knock came a voice.
"Miss, the meal is prepared. What would you like to do?"
"...Let's go down."
Ivelin rose from her seat and moved.
"Come. We'll eat together today."
"Thank you."
The mage followed behind her.
And then—
Creeeeak, thump!
When a cold silence settled over the office—
"...."
A man revealed himself from within the darkness.
"...Good grief."
Aster's mouth twisted up on one side as if he couldn't believe it, and his feelings matched the look.
'I knew she had bad signs from the start.'
But it wasn't just "bad"—
it was really bad.
They say you can tell a promising tree from its first shoots—well, Ivelin's shoots were so yellow they were practically swollen and inflamed!
"Hmhm, what do I do with this."
From the way she spoke, it didn't look like she'd stop even if someone wore Deculan's robe and burned down a few branches.
Rather, she might even ask Deculan to fund her and look the other way.
'That won't do.'
They say the bear does the work and the man takes the money.
Even if I want to be a bear that tears people apart, I don't want to be the bear doing tricks.
No matter how I handle this, she'll definitely proceed even more secretly...
'Isn't there a good method?'
Aster flopped down into Ivelin's seat and sank into thought.
And he looked so comfortable that he didn't even seem like an intruder—more like someone sitting on his own sofa at home.
'A method, a method....'
I need to ruin this job too, and guide Ivelin so she can't ever try the same thing again.
But I just can't think of one.
All I ever did was smash things and cause scenes.
Of course, I could blackmail her with the recorded footage device I just filmed, but...
'It's too much of a waste to use that now.'
As he continued thinking—
"...Ah!"
Snap!
Aster straightened up, flicking his finger.
A good idea came to him.
A way to guide Ivelin—who was trying to cheat—and keep her from ever attempting the same thing again, while also...
'...leading her onto the right path.'
Aster immediately pulled out parchment from the office desk, spread it open, and picked up a pen.
An action so natural it was absurd.
And as he glanced at the documents beside it, something astonishing happened.
Scratch, scritch... scratch.
Aster was definitely the one writing—
but the handwriting was exactly identical to Ivelin's!
When he'd filled about half the parchment, Aster set down the pen and stared at it quietly.
"Mm, my skill hasn't rusted yet."
Imitating handwriting was an advanced skill—one only a few among Troubleshooters could manage.
He hadn't done it much since a certain point, but thankfully, the skill hadn't rusted.
It was at a level no one could recognize unless it was the person themselves.
'Now the remaining half is....'
Aster focused on the empty space on the parchment.
What needed to go there was the customer list—the list of those who'd agreed to buy exam papers from Ivelin.
But right now, he didn't have that list, so he left it blank for the moment...
'That's something I'll find out tomorrow anyway.'
He just had to follow Dibay.
Aster stamped Ivelin's seal onto the lower part of the letter with a solid thump, then took the parchment and tucked it into his chest.
How should he put it.
'This feels satisfying.'
He hadn't guided Ivelin yet, but his own good heart felt so satisfying.
'You've already become good.'
He might even cry at realizing his own goodness without meaning to!
Nodding in satisfaction, Aster cleaned up the traces he'd left behind.
Did it even take time for two breaths?
The scene became exactly the same as it had been when Ivelin left.
'Good. Then let's go.'
Cradling the letter carefully against his chest, Aster quietly slipped out of the office.
And time passed like that...
Before long, the Academy's midterm evaluation drew near.
Along with an event Ivelin wouldn't be able to laugh about.