The Gamble of the Century

Elliot paused for a moment after speaking. Aiden, sensing that Elliot was waiting for him to process the weight of it all, gave a small nod.

“The Capital already feels like it’s on the brink of war,” Elliot continued. “Naturally, the city’s nobility won’t be able to escape the storm. If it’s like that for us, I trust I don’t need to explain that it’s even worse for the Imperial Family at the center of the conflict. In the end, it doesn’t matter if Prince Erkel is capable or not—whether he is saintly or wicked, diligent or lazy. None of that is important. What matters is that he is a direct blood relative and high in the line of succession. To be blunt, the Prince’s life currently depends on luck.”

Elliot let out a short sigh.

No matter how he looked at it, this was a foolish choice. He was certain he would regret it. This wasn’t like cooperating with the Edwill family to support the Crown Prince. Picking the next Emperor and lining up behind them was a high-risk move with a high reward, but helping a powerless Prince offered nothing but risk. It wasn’t a business deal; it was charity. However…

“I have decided to help him. To keep him alive.”

“…….”

“I won’t say I haven’t considered the benefits. I need to justify it to myself somehow. But the biggest reason is exactly what you said: Prince Erkel is a good man. Let’s call it a lingering sentiment from our childhood. The Prince asked for my help, and I accepted.”

For someone talking about “sentiment,” his face was excessively cold and dry. Yet, Aiden could tell Elliot wasn’t lying. Louis, too, was looking at Aiden with a resolute expression. Aiden opened his mouth to speak but closed it again. He had so much to say, yet felt he could say nothing—because he realized that while Erkel had asked the other two for help, he had never breathed a word of it to him.

‘Because I acted so stupidly… because I’m a fool and a coward.’

His head drooped automatically. Erkel had helped and cheered him on every single time, yet Aiden had failed to even notice his struggles, let alone earn his trust. His nose tingled, and his vision blurred. He blinked rapidly, fighting back tears.

It was because he cried like this at the drop of a hat that he hadn’t been trusted. If he were in Erkel’s shoes, would he entrust anything to a coward like himself? He might look after someone like that out of pity, but nothing more.

“Well… I’m pretty much the same as Elliot,” Louis added. “I’m only telling you this now, but there have been several assassination attempts on the Prince. I’ve personally witnessed enough to count on both hands, so the actual number must be even higher. When I first found out, I was scared. Then I was confused—he could have fought back if he really wanted to. It was only after I grew up enough to understand the situation that I started to feel sorry for him. Before I knew it, I was teaching myself about poisons and antidotes.”

Aiden hadn’t known that either. He wiped his eyes harshly with his sleeve. Poison. Assassination. And I had no idea…

Elliot and Louis weren’t surprised by Aiden’s tears. Instead, they shifted the focus to things they had previously only guessed about each other’s secret support for Erkel.

“That paper that changes text when you tear it. You made that, didn’t you?” Elliot asked.

“Yeah.”

Elliot mused over whether Louis’s inventions could be mass-produced. “Your skills are impressive. At this rate, aren’t you a genius on par with that Cedric Klein I mentioned?”

“Don’t say such crazy things!”

Louis jumped as if stung, rubbing his arms to ward off the goosebumps.

“That guy is a complete freak! I’m disappointed in you, Elliot. How could you say that? I avoid any place where I even see a hint of purple hair. Cedric ‘Damn’ Klein doesn’t even see people as human. Everyone is just… a sub-human test subject to him. Do you know how creepy it is when he stares at you like he’s observing a specimen?”

When Louis reacted with genuine loathing to his casual remark, Elliot offered a dry apology.

“Uh… sorry.”

“Who cares if he’s skilled? He’s the reason I have a bad impression of all ‘geniuses’ now. I know prejudice is bad, but Elliot, if you spent a month with him, you’d understand.”

Elliot thought of the mages he knew. They ranged from those who could barely use magic to those with awe-inspiring skill. Louis definitely belonged to the latter.

Highly skilled mages always seemed to have terrible personalities. Llewellyn’s third brother was a prime example. By that standard, Louis was actually “on the decent side” for a mage of his caliber. Whether you had to be a jerk to be good at magic, or the grueling process of becoming good made you a jerk, the causality was unclear.

He couldn’t help but feel skeptical of Louis’s complaints. From what he’d heard, Louis’s own reputation at the Academy was… well, he wasn’t exactly known for being submissive either.

Perhaps the rumor that mages have bad personalities didn’t start from outsiders, but from mages themselves, calling each other jerks because they couldn’t understand one another.

It was a plausible theory, but Elliot didn’t voice it. He didn’t want to provoke his agitated friend, so he changed the subject.

“The Prince doesn’t have many mages around him, so I figured out pretty quickly that you were with him.”

Fortunately, Louis stopped grinding his teeth over Cedric Klein and looked proud. “It took me a while. I knew there was a recurring guest at the Runcandel Inn, and eventually, I realized it was you.”

“So what?” Elliot shrugged, not bothering to deny it.

“Even with the train, that’s impressive. Didn’t you come almost every month?”

“I had no choice. There’s a high probability that a letter would be intercepted.”

“True… the candidates for intercepting mail are quite extraordinary. Even then, something made by an undergrad will be caught eventually. It would be nice if there were a tool to send voices or short messages instantly.”

“That’s coming out soon.”

At Elliot’s nonchalant voice, Louis leaned in with excitement.

“When? Where? Who’s making it? Did it come out in the Capital? Something like that was developed while I was away?”

Pushing away the barrage of questions, Elliot thought of the investment Llewellyn had boasted about.

He’d thought so then, but if they timed it right, the train investment would be nothing compared to this. Just a rough mental calculation made the corners of his mouth twitch upward. Elliot felt a sudden surge of tolerance and magnanimity.

If he could, he’d kiss Llewellyn on the cheek—no, that was too much. Regardless, he intended to reward him handsomely for the tip. On top of that, a small bonus was that he had a hunch who the anonymous developer was. If Louis was talking like this, it meant plenty of people had the idea, but lacked the ability to execute it. It was obvious who would be the one to present the finished product.

“So you guys… are helping… already helping Prince Erkel?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t worry too much. Erasing memories doesn’t hurt. It only takes a second,” Louis said.

Aiden shook his head at Louis’s words.

“I-I’ll…”

His voice still trembled, but Aiden’s eyes were straight as he looked at his friends. They were eyes filled with a fierce, resolute will. Elliot and Louis exchanged a glance at his transformed expression. If he was this serious…

“I’ll join too. Give me the contract.”

As strength poured into the hand that had grown calloused from years of gripping a sword, the sight was quite intimidating.

He looks like he could crush a bookshelf with his bare hands. Louis clicked his tongue as he watched the pen trembling piteously in Aiden’s grip. Despite his spirited declaration to sign, Aiden had no knack for hiding his nerves.

Unaware of Louis’s thoughts, Aiden repeatedly tried to steady his heart and catch his breath.

He had thought he’d changed since coming to the Academy. Fortunately, his passion and talent for the sword hadn’t failed him, and his growing physique had given him confidence. But at this moment, everything he had built up vanished. Aiden felt like he had traveled back in time to when he was a scrawny, pathetic ten-year-old.

Unfortunately, the other two in the room were far too impatient to wait for their friend’s trip down memory lane. One in particular. The interval at which Elliot tapped the table was becoming increasingly rapid. The sound of his fingers hitting the solid wood grew sharp, making Louis feel rushed as well.

At first, Elliot had acted uncharacteristically gentle, playing it cool by saying it was important to understand the weight of one’s signature. But his patience was reaching its limit. If left any longer, he looked ready to start huffing with indignation.

Finally, after Louis had circled around and prodded him for the fourth time with a “Aiden, you don’t have to do it if it’s too hard, really,” Aiden finished his signature and set the pen down. The handwriting was so poor it was hard to tell if he had written ‘Aiden Rooster’ or ‘Errible Ruinter.’