Chapter 87

Leon could no longer contain himself.

The reason he couldn’t endure it was simply because it was unbearable.

“Give me back the medicine. You rotten dog, you bad person!”

He refrained from cursing further due to the gazes of people around him.

No matter how angry or unjust it felt to have his medicine taken, he knew cursing would only make things worse. After all, no one can face the world alone.

‘But I’m the victim here.’

Reflecting, he realized that even though he had surpassed the limits of the norm, the fact that he couldn’t freely take a mere medicine bottle was itself unreasonable. He heard that critically ill patients in military hospitals simply lay there and received morphine four times a day, for free.

Why can’t I?

He felt wronged, deeply and unfairly so.

Fueled by this indignation, Leon charged toward the thief holding the medicine bottle.

To be more precise, it was a thief-knight who only cared for the First Princess and had taunted Leon by shaking the medicine bottle in front of him while lamenting the absence of parents.

“Gimme that!”

“Leon Rothe Dale, st… keugh!”

Leon’s punch hit the man’s chest.

With a ‘pook’ sound, the thief-knight bent over, looking at Leon in disbelief with a distorted face.

Was this really a knight who supposedly had martial skills but could be defeated by a single punch? Leon had pegged him as inadequate from when he had stolen the medicine.

“Your Highness, please step back!”

In his hasty retreat, the thief-knight even undid the lock on his scabbard.

‘Is he really going to draw his sword? Despite my restraint?’

Does he really want to rot in the military prison?

It seemed the thief-knight underestimated him just because he was a student, but Leon was no ordinary student. The First Princess had promised him a title and various privileges. While Leon didn’t particularly care about such titles, he wouldn’t hesitate to use them if needed.

He could set an example if he chose to.

Still, Leon decided to give it one more try.

‘Letting him off might be to my advantage.’

By sparing the thief’s life, there might be more favorable negotiation terms in the future. After calculating this possibility, a smile appeared on Leon’s face.

Nevertheless, he felt it necessary to set a minimal example and promptly moved into action.

“Leon! Stop this immediately! That’s the personal knight of Her Highness the Princess!”

“Oy, stop that.”

“Someone, stop him! We’re going to die if this continues!”

Ignoring their cries, Leon leapt forward with great strength.

The thief-knight panicked and tried to draw his sword, but Leon wasn’t about to let that happen.

Pook, Kock! Just two punches.

One hit the jaw, the other the inner side of the knee. Unable to withstand the pain, the thief-knight’s posture crumbled. Leon grinned as he threw a few more punches.

Three, no four punches. Each one delivered with full force.

“Khuh…!”

The situation was over. Leon glared at the pitifully fallen thief-knight for a moment before shifting his gaze.

“Ah.”

His eyes fell on the medicine bottle rolling on the floor.

The precious bottle almost stolen by the despicable knight guarding the princess, but courageously recovered through resistance.

Leon bent down swiftly and picked up the bottle.

Though small, the vial likely contained about 20 ephedrine pills. Enough for five days… or four if he got a little excited.

Leon knew it wasn’t over just yet.

Even if the guy was a thief, wasn’t he still the First Princess’s personal knight? Fighting the princess’s knight wouldn’t go unnoticed, even if Leon had a good reason. The world wasn’t fair like that.

‘Maybe they’ll frame me.’

But Leon wasn’t afraid.

Because there were thousands of witnesses.

The numerous professors and students filling the second floor of the auditorium. They had all seen how Leon faced derision from the princess and even had his precious medicine stolen by her personal knight—his life’s worth. Even the royal family’s authority couldn’t silence thousands of witnesses.

‘With so many witnesses, they’ll all be on my side.’

If the First Princess tried to save face and refused to admit fault, it might get tricky. But Leon was willing to take that risk.

The medicine he now held, and the many more he intended to procure, were worth the danger. Just as he had tamed dozens or hundreds of demons for his Monglongyi, Leon was ready to confront the First Princess’s cronies for his Bulongyi.

‘I can do this.’

Leon clutched the medicine bottle tightly.

He shyly glanced around at his surroundings.

Even though it was legitimate self-defense, he felt a bit embarrassed having fought with one of the royal knights in front of thousands of people. He thought he heard a scream earlier, probably from a political science student or someone nearby.

However…

“Leon Rothe Dale! Kneel!”

The reactions of the crowd were different from what he expected.

The First Princess Victoria, eyes closed, stood with her hands behind her back.

Knights, with their swords drawn, surrounded Leon. Even professors from the Department of Swordsmanship and the Department of Magic had joined the blockade, treating Leon as if he were some royal assassin.

This was strange. All he had done was punish a knight, not the princess. No matter how much he disliked the knight, would he really punch the First Princess?

“Um, professors, I think this is a misunderstanding. I wasn’t targeting the princess, it was the thief…”

“Don’t move! The Academy might be destroyed!”

Why are they reacting this way? What?

Leon began to notice something was off as he looked around at the students.

He was hoping to gain their support, even if the professors were against him, thinking fellow students would empathize.

Surely, that should have been the case…

But every student’s face was pale with fright.

Only then did Leon realize things were going wrong. Somehow, there was a miscommunication between them and him.

***

An auditorium in the Academy, filled with over three thousand people.

A cold silence permeated the hall. Around me, there were only sighs or quiet murmurs of conversation.

Everyone must be fed up with Leon’s antics.

Not everyone was shocked, though.

“When does he plan to stop?”

On the second floor, where the view of the stage was the clearest, Siena, who had been sitting beside me, tilted her head in puzzlement.

A quick glance confirmed her intrigued expression.

‘I figured she’d like it.’

A young master destined for a glorious life had thrown it all away by pummeling a knight before the First Princess, all for the sake of a medicine bottle. And he did it with a smile.

Siena wasn’t the only one watching closely.

Leon’s bizarre behavior today would be remembered for a long time. Though everyone is silent now, the noise will start soon.

“Surprisingly quiet.”

Up until now, the awkward standoff on the stage had continued.

Leon, fidgeting slightly as if trying to make excuses, while Victoria’s knights, intensely on guard, kept shouting for him to kneel.

Though Victoria should be the one taking charge, she had her head bowed in apparent disappointment at the Academy’s mess.

While I understand her feelings, someone needs to step in and settle the situation.

The obvious choice… is naturally me.

It seems I’m the only one who understands what’s going through Leon’s drug-addled mind right now, the only one who understands why he looks so aggrieved. And I’m the only one fearless enough to face this crazy master.

Without hesitation, I stood up.

“I’ll be right back. If you have any plans, Your Highness Siena.”

“No, I’m good for today.”

For today?

Curious, I turned around to find Siena pointing at a group of students sitting casually on one side of the lower hall. They looked particularly relaxed amidst the tense crowd, and one of them was even cracking jokes, clearly amused.

“Probably the dealers or the users.”

“Both. I’ll handle them soon.”

“…”

“I’ll have to think about it now. Alan, you go ahead. It might actually be to your advantage to deal with it personally.”

A drug addict chasing down another drug addict… It sounds absurd, but the truth is that police often aren’t the best at catching drug dealers; other drug dealers are. Siena, of course, is just doing it for fun rather than eliminating competition.

It’s reassuring to see her finding her own means of entertainment without relying on external providers.

I moved away from Siena.

“Heroin…!”

As I headed towards the stage, the students automatically moved aside. Thanks to that, I avoided the crowd and made it up to the stage.

“Hey? Mr. Pharmacist.”

Leon’s face brightened upon seeing me.

Thinking logically, there’s no real reason for him to be happy to see me, but I nodded nonetheless.

“Mr. Pharmacist, these people are oppressing me.”

“…Leon Rothe Dale. You must feel incredibly wronged now. It must be frustrating to watch someone take away your stuff in front of your eyes, and you probably bear some resentment toward Her Highness Victoria for ordering it. Your only treasures are not your titles or your estate, but the drugs, after all.”

“That’s right, it’s my stuff.”

Does he see me as an ally? Leon’s expression lit up.

But it was fleeting.

“Sorry, the medicine is not yours. It’s all mine.”

“Eh…?”

“Though you think Princess Victoria unjustly took away your rights, you had no rights to start with. The Monglongyi and Bulongyi you’ve been taking until now weren’t your rights either. I gave it to you out of pity, seeing how you spent your days clouded in opium fumes.”

“But, even so, I…”

“I don’t care if you’re a master or anything. …In fact, you’ve made things difficult for me with your antics just now. Assaulting a knight in front of Her Highness? That’s not the act of a sane person. It’s an attempted regicide.”

“Eh?”

Leon Rothe Dale’s eyes gradually lost their light.

I delivered the final blow.

“In the future, there won’t be any more medicine for you. I won’t sell it to you for money either. How can I commercialize ephedrine when you’ve made such a spectacle of yourself?”

At these words, Leon Rothe Dale, shocked, dropped the medicine bottle.

At the same time, the hesitant knights and professors finally rushed forward and overpowered him. They knocked him down with scabbards, forcing him to kneel, and pressed his head to the ground. The professors seemed more desperate than the knights.

However, Leon resisted not at all.

“Un… impossible.”

While saying this, he despairingly stretched out his hand towards the medicine bottle he had lost.

The instant of a genius’s downfall. Looking around, the students were watching with expressions that defied articulation.

---