CH 112

“I’m quite certain this is the correct amount. You can also find out where and how much was spent on ingredients, labor, equipment, consumables, etc. if necessary.”

“Eh… you can investigate such a thing?”

“The King’s Sword” was an academy built by the nation. Originally, it would be hard for an individual to investigate such a thing. 

“Since the Rydholm family gave a considerable donation in addition to the price for buying gold stars, we are allowed to see such a thing.”

Well, it’s more about my house’s power than mine though… continued Lars as he laughed powerlessly, but they weren’t a family with a bearer of four gold stars for nothing. As Sophie thought it would be better to use everything she could, she nodded strongly.

“In that case, can I ask Lars to do it?”

“Of course!”

“I’m quite curious as a gold star bearer about the fact where this amount of money went…”

Seeing Sophie staring with empty eyes at the soup she scooped up, Lars couldn’t retort with “Sophie-sama, you are the bearer of the purple star, aren’t you?”

As they finished their meal, when Lars looked sideways, he saw Luca, Sophie’s escort, was staring elsewhere.

Luca was a deviant boy who joined the copper star faculty despite the fact he was a member of a marquis family and the younger brother of that Lorenzo Forsell.

Lars never had any contact with Luca before, but personally, Lars found Luca, who was the same age as Lars, to be easier to talk with compared to that handsome, well-built, calm and collected Gerald Forsius.

They exchanged light introductions, but Luca’s initial impression of Lars was not a good one because Lars had insulted the bearer of the purple star for being flat chested. Although Sophie had forgiven Lars for that, Lars knew he wouldn’t forgive that insult easily if he were the one tasked to escort Sophie instead.

Let’s do it properly, just as Lars wanted to apologize once again to show his sincerity, Luca’s eyes changed from his earlier soft atmosphere into a sharpened one.

As Luca exuded enough pressure to open a path with a single sword, Lars couldn’t help but slump back to his chair.

“L-Luca-dono…?”

“Luca, just ignore it.”

Sophie gently stopped Luca while drinking the tea she brought.

“But…”

Luca spoke to Sophie with an unconvinced expression, but Sophie just smiled.

As Lars couldn’t understand the meaning of the exchange, he followed the direction Luca was looking at, and he saw the instructor of the silver stars was staring at Sophie.

“Why is Instructor Vincent of the silver stars staring at us so much?”

“He belongs to the silver star after all, so perhaps he found something interesting and is observing it at the moment. I would like to introduce him to the ghost of the library.”

As Sophie said that bluntly, she drank a mouthful of tea with an elegant gesture that was unexpected from a fourteen-year-old girl.

“Is that the case…?”

As a gold star student, Lars had almost no interaction with the other stars, but the personalities of silver star bearers especially didn’t fit well with gold star bearers.

Silver stars sought to unravel the truth, while gold stars strove for profit.

The silver stars saw the gold stars as a group of fools who could only speak the language of money, while the gold stars saw the silver stars as a group of parasites who sucked up all of the gold stars’ donation money without producing any decent results.

He’s staring hard at her, but does Sophie-sama really not mind it at all…?

Although Vincent was no match for the rare genius of the generation, he was still a pretty capable person among the silver stars. In addition, he looked quite handsome.

Now that I think about it, Sophie-sama also had this attitude when Keith-dono was present.

Lars initially thought Sophie was a girl whose heart raced just by hearing about the black star, but Sophie didn’t even seem to put Keith Dudley, the bearer of one black star, in her field of view.

“Rather than that, Luca, I want to visit the copper star’s class tomorrow, but who should I inform for that?”

Lars personally felt curious now that he noticed Vincent’s gaze, but since Sophie said to ignore it, he thought it would be better for him to also pretend not to notice it.

Although Luca still didn’t look convinced, he politely answered Sophie’s question with “I’ll let them know later.”

Copper star…

The copper star was equivalent to the territory of the commoners.

For Lars, who was born and raised in a viscount family, it was an uncharted area.

It was a territory he didn’t need to know since he was an aristocrat. Such was how he kept ignoring them until now.

The daughter of a baron family who bears the purple star, which made her the spokesperson of the royal family, and the son of a marquis family, even if the person in question was the son of a concubine, chose to go there without hesitation.

Lars felt like he was left all alone for some reason.

“U-uhm…”

Although Lars had a different origin, sex, and color of star than the other two, he belonged to the same age group as them.

What he needed at the moment might be the courage to see a new world.

“Would you do me a favor…?”

Lars slowly opened his mouth.