CH 99

Lars Rydholm was the firstborn son of a viscount family and lived a financially comfortable life since.

As long as one could enroll in the gold star faculty of “The King’s Sword,” they could earn three gold stars with money. However, the amount of money to do so was so large that not many people managed to earn three gold stars this way.

Lars was one of few people who could do so, being the eldest son of the Rydholm family. It had been decided that three gold stars would be bought for him once he studied at the academy for three years.

But Lars himself understood well that it would be with the power and money of his family, not his own.

The Rydholm family was a wealthy merchant with huge assets in the textile industry, all thanks to the current owner’s commercial talent. Lars’ father was one of the highest-ranking gold stars, a bearer of four gold stars.

It was easy for one to earn three gold stars without exerting any effort as long as they had money, but there were only a few people who managed to earn four gold stars. One needed business talent, senses to read the market, and luck to achieve that.

As his father had all that and earned the fourth star himself, the young Lars had always respected him.

But as Lars got older, it weighed more heavily on him.

It made Lars wonder if he really could succeed his father’s great name.

Lars was well aware that he was nothing but an ordinary person. He knew he had no business talent and the best he could do was to maintain what was already available.

Every time Lars earned a gold star, he became more afraid.

Once I earn three stars, I will have to stand in the same world as my father…

Lars earned his first gold star at thirteen and another one at fourteen. He was on track to earn his third by fifteen. Lars would have to graduate once he bore three gold stars. He was very scared at the thought.

As a son who had nothing except his status as the eldest son, he expected everyone would be disappointed in him. He was sure that everyone would laugh in secret at how mediocre he was when his father was so great in comparison. For Lars, a person with strong self-respect, it was the most humiliating thing.

As Lars endured the days where stress had continuously hurt his stomach, a turning point suddenly came to him.

The first prince had granted a woman, a daughter of the baron family at that, the purple star, and made “The King’s Sword” the base of operations for the sake of her accomplishing a certain task.

A tremor shook the academy. Every piece of the news was something that was unheard of in history.

Due to the first prince’s origin, many people opposed the idea of his succession to the throne.

He managed to establish his status due to his engagement with the daughter of a duke family, but he was still in an uncertain position where things could change if something went wrong. But despite that, the fact he did something like this that clearly seemed to be a dangerous bet was something that Lars was unable to understand.

But the thing that Lars was unable to understand the most was the fact that he was also called to greet the young lady when she arrived at “The King’s Sword” on her first day.

He was called without any explanation and told to wait in the room. The people gathered there were quite well-known, including the rare “Genius of the Generation”, the bearer of five silver stars, Lorenzo Forsell, and his right arm, the Deputy Director Nert Barth.

Yet, among those people, Lars was the only one who bore the gold star.

No matter how he thought about it, it was clear he was called here because of the influence of his father’s name.

At the same time, he came to learn that there were no expectations given to the students of the gold star whatsoever.

It’s not a big deal… After all, bearers of gold stars are all treated as upstarts even among the aristocratic society…

Be it bearers of black stars or even copper stars, they were people who earned their respective stars by their own strength. None of them were powerless people who bought the stars they bore like he was.

Lars felt ashamed and had a hard time standing there.

As Lars was filled with the ever-growing urge to run away, the young lady in question arrived.

The girl that appeared, Sophie Linier, was a beautiful young lady with beautiful black hair.

The girl’s father, Edgar Linier, was quite famous, but surprisingly, Lars hadn’t heard much about his daughter. It was to the point where her name was unheard of even among tea parties and rumors among aristocrats, so Lars thought the daughter would be a strict person like her father was, but that wasn’t the case.

She had a slender body and her white arms could be seen from her three-quarter sleeves. She wore a green dress just like the color of her eyes, but it wasn’t the exact same green, as it had different shades at the top and bottom, which were adorned with beautiful embroidery and luxurious frills. Beads were sewn as undertones so she didn’t appear too gorgeous, and they flickered into view every time her dress shook, shining brightly in the sun.

Although she looked gorgeous overall, she also appeared to be elegant and calm. It was clear that the dress didn’t overshadow1 the wearer, unlike a normal aristocratic young lady. The dignified girl had a presence comparable to the dress she wore.

Her facial expression looked stiff, perhaps due to nervousness, but Lars could see something else because he belonged to a family with a textile business. Girls who didn’t get overshadowed by a dress like that were few.

Aah, no good…

Lars felt he was definitely not supposed to be one of the people present in this place.

That was immediately apparent to him.