Chapter 116

Drawn as if by a spell to the familiar blue window, my gaze drifted up toward the protagonist’s head.

And then, right on cue, a notification window blocked my view!

This was the second time I had seen this window since possessing this body.

‘Are you kidding me. It’s not Mo Je-won?’

It seemed the controller of the protagonist changed with each loop!

‘And who on earth is the Exiled Scholar?’

After a long while, the broadcasting screen, which completely filled my field of vision from left to right and top to bottom, lit up.

A red circular button blinked on and off, followed by the booming voice of a middle-aged man.

The voice was so utterly unfamiliar that I was left completely dumbfounded.

“Ahem! How impertinent! How can one differentiate and choose between their father and mother? Determining a comparative advantage is surely an act of unfilial piety in itself!”

-Lol

-Making a scholar from a Confucian society pick between them here

-Still, you must choose, Your Honor

“And why is the father still alive? Shouldn’t he have been dead long ago by rights?”

-Why is he alive lol

-Instantly committing extreme unfilialness

-Now I know why he got exiled

“Is this a new route? That is fascinating indeed!”

-The room next door has a murderer for a heroine though

-The game really is wildly diverse, lol

-Aren’t these Double Busters guys way too underrated

-Lolllll Scholar-nim, it seems the developers worked really hard

In the camera view in the bottom-left corner showing the streamer, there was a middle-aged man in his mid-forties wearing a modified traditional Korean hanbok!

‘Did he dress like that to match the scholar persona?’

Whatever the case, this was troublesome.

If it were Mo Je-won, we could communicate directly, so I could have steered the situation however I wanted.

However, this Exiled Scholar person was a total stranger. Predicting behavioral patterns was out of the question.

‘Still, since I can use donations to induce actions at decisive moments, is this better than having nothing…?’

Even so, donating didn’t mean they’d always move according to my wishes, and I didn’t have any money right now anyway.

Should I just accept the money the Duchess gave me?

Or should I swallow my pride and demand my life’s worth from Robert again?

‘…Let’s stay calm for a moment.’

Almost losing my sense of shame the moment things got desperate.

The current story had changed drastically in tune with the variable of Robert’s survival.
Right now was the time to observe the situation…

“To think I must answer such a childish question! Ugh, tsk, I haven’t received a question like this since elementary school—no, since my days at the village schoolhouse!”

-Elementary school? Lol

-His true self was about to leak out

Ding!

“I just picked whatever seemed appropriate depending on the situation! That’s why it changed every time.”

-Usually how it goes lol

-Well then, shall we see how the wind blows this time too?

“Shall we?”

The scholar brightened up, placing a chin in hand and making a show of deep, serious thought.

“Hmm. Even if she is his mother, she disparages her son’s respectable career and puts on a show of protecting him like a chick under her wing, but in reality, she’s just ignoring him, yes! I cannot side with a mother like that!”

-Well said, sir

-Exactly!

When the scholar selected the choice, time started flowing again, and the protagonist opened his mouth with a resolute expression.

“Please compose yourself, Mother. Father is right. I’m not just a child anymore.”

Affection notifications popped up and vanished in succession on the screen.

“This expedition is heavily symbolic since His Majesty the Emperor is personally overseeing it. And besides, magic beasts are a problem we must constantly deal with within the duchy anyway. You can just think of it as learning beforehand, prior to becoming the duke.”

“B-but still…”

“That’s right, Rachel. Raising a child like a flower in a greenhouse doesn’t solve everything. Hereis is the successor who must take responsibility for this Lemir State from now on.”

“…”

The hem of the skirt gripped in Duchess Rachel’s hand trembled violently.

Robert narrowed his brow at the Duchess’s reaction, but chose not to show it outwardly.

He quickly wiped away his displeased look and proudly patted his son’s back.

“You’ve come all this way after a long time, why don’t you at least stay for a meal?”

“No. I just dropped by briefly to show my face. I have other business to attend to, so I must be going.”

“Ah, what a shame. Work hard, and never forget that the Rubel ducal household is always right behind you.”

The protagonist smiled lightly, looking relieved.

Duchess Rachel watched the warm, affectionate pair from a step behind, her shoulders slumped heavily.

Though it was reaping what she sowed, she somehow looked a bit pitiful.

Ding!

[ Mo Je-won: Hey hey, what are you doing? I’m bored. ]

It was just as I was about to send a message, so this worked out well.

I asked Mo Je-won about the Exiled Scholar.

[ Mo Je-won: The Exiled Scholar? He’s a pretty well-known gaming streamer, you know. ]
[ Me: You know him? ]
[ Mo Je-won: Of course. Figuring out competitors in the same industry is basic. He’s just what he looks like. A roleplayer who uses a scholar’s tone. ]
[ Mo Je-won: What? The scholar is controlling Hereis right now? Oh, man, that sounds fun. I gotta go watch too. ]

I had wanted to ask him to do some research on the Exiled Scholar, but Mo Je-won seemed more interested in elsewhere.

Well, I suppose I was curious myself about how I looked from the outside.

[ Mo Je-won: Hey, I’m watching right now and you’re in the illustrations too. ]
[ Mo Je-won: Seeing it like this makes it feel so unreal. That’s really you? Try shaking a carrot or something. Then I might actually believe it. ]
[ Me: (This message was automatically blinded as it contained inappropriate expressions.) ]
[ Mo Je-won: Hey, what did you just say? ]

I had simply tried to visualize a middle finger.

To think he’d talk leisurely and tell me to shake a carrot without realizing the gravity of the situation just because it was someone else’s problem—it pissed me off so much my hand slipped.

I never imagined there would be a blinding function, though.

“Belita? Where are you staring at like that?”

Ah, had I been focusing too much on the message window?

Noah puffed out his lower lip, saying he had called out to me several times.

For your reference, since Noah and Belita were the same age, we had decided to drop formal speech with each other.

“Sorry. What were we talking about?”

“It’s not like you need to apologize. Shift change time is here, anyway.”

That’s right. The protagonist had left, and Robert had finished his meal a while ago and gone back to work.

Since it was a time when attendants were rarely called, we were supposed to hand things over to the shift replacements for a bit and grab a late lunch ourselves.

“Lunch, do you want to eat together?”

It didn’t really seem like an invitation to lunch with an ordinary coworker.

Even though Noah tried to act nonchalant, his face was slightly flushed and he couldn’t quite meet my gaze properly.

I felt a bit sorry for ruining the mood, but I intended to skip lunch today and look into that periodic report Sera had mentioned earlier.

If what Sera said was true, it seemed connected to someone named Evan, so I needed to track that guy down too. Anyway, since I had things to do, I should give some polite excuse to turn him down.

“Oh? Evan!”

…??

Noah waved in recognition toward a boy with faded grass-colored hair.

Upon seeing Noah, the boy strode right over to us. Floating above his head was the name Evan.

‘Don’t tell me that’s the guy Sera was talking about?’

He might be a namesake, but he was worth approaching.
I immediately changed my plan, put on a bright voice, and nodded toward the person named Evan.

“A friend of yours?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah.”

“Are they joining us?”

“Uh… S-shall we all eat together?”

Though his voice lost a bit of pep as if feeling disappointed, Noah was nonetheless overjoyed that he hadn’t been rejected.

“You’re late for lunch too, huh? Were there a lot of deliveries?”

“Yeah, for some thanks-to-today, things got a bit backed up.”

“Thanks for the hard work. I actually wanted to ask a favor, too…”

“No way, you’re not asking me to score some of that trendy Palifa candy, are you? Ugh, the girls in the mansion are all going crazy over it, I’m sick to death of it.”

“Ah…”

“Ooh? Is it cream stew and roast chicken today! That looks good!”

Whether Noah was crestfallen or not, Evan had looked thoroughly excited from the moment we stood in line before getting our food, and as soon as he sat down, he shoved a cream-sauced, appetizing chicken leg into his mouth ravenously as if he had been starved.

I admired how a piece of that size cleanly vanished in a single bite, but then I felt someone’s gaze on me.

When I glanced over, I made direct eye contact with a deflated Noah.

Perhaps flustered at being caught staring, Noah blurted out whatever came to mind.

“Ah! I-is it that Belita prefers someone who eats a hearty meal?”

…Noah had utility value. I should maintain an appropriate distance while getting close to him.

“It’s nice to see someone eat well. I don’t have much of an appetite.”

“Is that so?”

“I guess you don’t eat much either?”

“N-no, I eat well too!”

Noah scooped up some cream stew and stuffed a large spoonful into his mouth. Though it seemed the food was so hot it burned the roof of his mouth, leaving him clutching his lips and hissing.

Evan, who was dipping a well-baked baguette deep into the stew, was operating on a completely different level from Noah.

I felt a bit sorry for Noah, so I changed my words slightly.

“Well, come to think of it, I guess I prefer someone whose eating speed matches mine.”

……!!!

“Pfft—cough, cough, hack!”

“Ah! Evan, are you okay?”

Suddenly choking on something, Evan burst into a coughing fit.

Fortunately, because he quickly turned his head down toward the floor, it didn’t spray onto me sitting right across from him.

Thank goodness. It would have been extremely unpleasant otherwise.

“Y-yeah, I’m, I’m fine.”

Evan’s terrified eyes turned toward me. It might just have been my imagination, but it felt like a strange sense of dread had been deeply planted in him.

“Gah, you spilled it all! Wait here a second. I’ll go grab some tissues!”

Pulling his legs out from under the wooden bench, Noah scurried off toward the serving area.

A strange tension hung over the dining table, now left with just the two of us.

To be registered in the affection panel in such a short time, without having even held a proper conversation and without showing any sign of liking me.

‘We definitely know each other.’

Evan was without a doubt the guy Sera had mentioned.

It was the perfect situation since we were left alone. A great chance to probe him.

“Sorry.”

“Huh?”

“For forgetting the periodic report. My apologies.”

“Ah, that! Ahahaha, no, no. I-it’s fine.”

Was that really something that could just be “fine”? He seemed like a pretty lax spy. The affection level of Evan that I managed to sneak a peek at was 3.

…Wait a minute. Single digits?

‘What is this ambiguous number?’

It was a relief it wasn’t negative, but being registered on the affection panel was already at a surprising level.

“A-ahem, I almost forgot… Belita, t-this.”

Glancing around to see if Noah was coming back, Evan passed something to me under the wooden table.

‘A note?’

Judging by how stealthily it was passed, it must not be opened here. I carefully tucked it away in my pocket.

“Don’t forget the next periodic report, please don’t.”

That was the problem. How on earth was one supposed to do that periodic report anyway?

“Here, I’m back!”

“Thanks, Noah.”

I had tried to probe him somehow, but unfortunately, my conversation with Evan ended right there.

That was because after Noah returned, Evan claimed he was busy, hurriedly finished his meal, and fled.

It seemed Evan had only approached me for the sole purpose of delivering the note anyway.

Looking at the empty seat left behind by Evan, Noah gave an awkward smile.

“Haha, I guess the person you eat with really needs to have a matching eating pace. I could never eat with Evan.”

Having finished the rest of our meals at a leisurely pace, we stepped out into the small courtyard next to the public dining hall to take a short walk before heading back.

As we walked, enjoying the crisp breeze and the fresh scent of grass, Noah spoke up.

“Have you ever tried Palifa candy?”

“No, not yet. I hear it’s hard to get these days.”

My roommates had made such a fuss about needing to buy it that I’d heard of it, but I’d never actually tasted it.

Brightening up, Noah rummaged through his pocket and handed over a round lollipop wrapped in luxurious pink packaging.

“I had some left over. You can have this.”

…It had that unmistakably lovely princess-like vibe all over it, definitely not the kind of dessert a guy would buy.