Chapter 105 Connections

105 Connections

The symptoms of the disease itself weren't all that obvious, but it was still enough for us to tell that a good amount of the commoners had already been infected not too long ago. It seemed that they were going to kick up somewhat.

Nathan narrowed his eyes.

"It shouldn't be the largest issue since you can provide a large amount of food, right?"

I scratched the side of my head.

"Well, I'm not sure if I can feed every single person in the kingdom. That would probably be too much."

Nathan clicked his tongue.

"Maybe we can get more people in on this."

I turned to him as a thought formed in my mind.

"What if you added an additional condition to purchase that pale meat you have? Like, forcing them to donate a bit of food to people or something."

Nathan immediately shook his head upon hearing my suggestion.

"To be honest, there is already quite a bit of tension between the royalty and me. If I make any more demands, I'm pretty sure that might strain it too much for some people."

I pursed my lips together and sighed.

"Well, whatever. It can't possibly be that bad. At most, some people will die. This was bound to happen anyway."

Nathan calmed down a bit and nodded.

"Yeah, I guess so."

Once we made it to class, everyone seemed a bit stressed. With the condition that some of the commoners were in, they looked like this was their last day on the earth.

But that was more just because of the disease.

Speaking of, we had a test not too long ago and today was when the results were being announced. If I'm being honest, I didn't do all that well since there were questions I felt a bit iffy on.

That's kinda to be expected since I had not even studied for a breath. nove-lB.1n

Regardless, Harold was starting to list off the rankings out loud.

"In first place... there are three people tied. Natan, Raisa, and Cheryl."

Raisa seemed quite excited, while Nathan didn't seem to care even slightly. As for Cheryl... well, who cares about her.

I raised an eyebrow. It looked like there were quite a few top scorers.

"In fourth place is Ela."

She ended up biting the bottom of her lip. Though her score wasn't bad, it seemed she made a small mistake that brought her down from first to fourth.

"In fifth place is Arianne."

Arianne put one hand on her chest and let out a sigh of relief.

"In sixth place is Charlotte."

She had her lips pursed, but that was because she was trying to hide her happiness more than anything else.

"In seventh place is Bryson."

I raised an eyebrow. In all honesty, I did better than I thought I would. It seems I got a bit lucky with the answers.

"In eighteenth place is Sam."

Sam himself clenched his fist tightly, grimacing as though in a lot of pain. The results clearly upset him, however, he no longer made a scene. Once bitten twice shy, I guess. Speaking of results, I'm pretty sure it was only a few more days before the results of the class promotion were announced.

It happens once every month, and with my results so far there was basically no chance that I would get promoted.

In the original story, I think it was just some random people that promoted from Class D and Class C to higher levels, but other than that there wasn't anybody able to make that step.

The classes went by pretty quickly. As for lunchtime, we had the usual group all sitting together. It did not take long for everyone to finish their food. Although it wasn't very noticeable, my appetite had also increased by a bit.

It was very noticeable that both Nathan and Arianne were rather desperate to eat more.

After Arianne had finished her own meal, she began fidgeting around awkwardly. I stared at her for a while and spoke up.

"If you're still hungry, just get some more food."

Arianne jumped up in shock, as though not expecting anybody to notice her strange actions.

"Wh-What? Um... I already finished eating. It would be improper to get any more."

I then looked her in the eyes.

"If you feel hungry, then just get more to eat. An attitude like that is going to get you killed in one of the stupidest ways possible."

Arianne blushed and looked away.

"But... we are only permitted to have one of the free meals. Afterward, we would have to buy them."

Raisa tilted her head to the side.

"Then I can just buy one for you. It's not a very big deal to me."

Charlotte gave another nod.

"Of course! I can too. If you are poor, then you just have to rely on someone who has the funds to support you."

She then proceeded to peek at Nathan from the corner of her eye, seemingly trying to imply that he should rely on her. Though it was only stealthy in the eyes of a child, as it was quite conspicuous to everyone else at the table.

Arianne only blushed harder with everyone's words while keeping her head down.

"But... I couldn't possibly ask of so much from you."

Raisa looked at her strangely.

"Did you forget that I'm the daughter of an archduke?"

A smile appeared on her face as she brought one hand closer to her chest.

"Something like this is nothing."

15:32

She proceeded to wave over a waiter and ordered some more for them. Nathan himself had actually already gotten some extra food using his own money. Arianne had a hard time looking at everyone else at the table, but a small smile had formed on her face.

"Th-Thank you."

Although it had only been three or so weeks, this was how the atmosphere with everyone had changed to become. It kinda looked like this was actually a group of friends that had known each other for a year or so.

After the waiter left, I spoke up to Raisa, thinking that she could help out in our predicament.

"Speaking of, daughter of an archduke."

Raisa turned flustered when I spoke to her that way, but tried to keep her composure.

"A-Ah, there's no need to refer to me in that way."

A small smile formed on my face.

"Fine, fine. Raisa, would you mind helping me with a little problem?"

Raisa looked at me curiously.

"Eh? What is the problem?"

I took in a deep breath.

"In summary, there's a disease spreading around very quickly that makes the body use more energy than it's supposed to. Other than making a person eat more, it's relatively harmless. However, if they don't end up eating enough, then they will starve to death. Most of the commoners probably aren't prepared for this, so I'm asking if you could help in providing food for them."

Raisa seemed to be in a bit of a trance but hurriedly nodded.

"Ah, of course! I can do that easily."

Arianne's eyes widened.

"What? Do I have that?"

Nathan let out a small sigh.

"Yeah, probably. I have it too, though it's progressed a little further than yours."

Charlotte practically jumped out of her seat upon hearing that.

"A-Ah? Will you be ok?"

Unlike a normal person that would want to get away from someone that was sick, she actually opted to get closer in concern. As for Nathan, he simply rolled his eyes.

"Did you not hear what he just said? It's harmless as long as I have enough to eat."

Charlotte still didn't stop panicking and fished out a few coins from her purse and handed it out to him awkwardly.

"W-Well, it can't be helped then! I'll give you a bit of money to buy food."

Nathan only stared back at her with a deadpan expression.

"I already have enough money. Didn't you see me paying for myself earlier? More importantly, you should be doing something to help other people that can't afford food. The sickness has practically already spread to every single person."

While they were still having their strange argument, I cleared my throat and spoke to Raisa.

"By the way, make sure that you try to get food from out of the kingdom, as buying the food from the farmers and giving it back to them doesn't really do much."

Raisa hurriedly nodded.

"Ah, ok!"

Hm. Well, it seems that the issue won't be such a big deal after all. Unlike the original story, we were able to use the power of money to forcibly solve the issue of the plague.

While I wasn't sure if what I had was enough, James said he would use the family funds, which were surely larger than my allowance. On top of that, Raisa and Charlotte were both going to pitch in as well.

I sent a smirk toward Nathan. After a little while, he sent me a bitter smile back.

It was too early to say, but a solution like this almost made it feel like we were cheating. Just using the connections with our friends. It looked like we were just overthinking and worrying for nothing.

Probably.

I don't think I jinxed it.

...

Later on, I figured out what James had done. He basically got a bunch of people to take carriages filled with food and handed it out to people, saying that it was in the name of the Arden family.

While I was sitting at the table in the slums, I saw one of those carriages pass by.

Despite people obviously being hungrier than before, nobody new ended up sitting with us. It was only the usual, Arianne, Gray, and a few of the servants.

Though, before I could sigh in disappointment and pack my things, a middle-aged man came up to the table. From his bloodshot eyes, it seemed like he was also infected by the disease and was hungrier than usual.

But instead of sitting down, he pointed at me.

"You... You were the one that made us like this!"

Huh? The fuck were they talking about now?

Maybe he wants to compliment you or something, you know?

Disgrace