Chapter 5:
That Score Can’t Be Right!
EMMA AND I left the school and I wandered around town with no particular destination in mind.
“I was thinking, couldn’t we just buy materials?” Emma mused.
“Sounds good to me.”
After all, it was the main strategy of monied nobles. It reminded me of just how much of an advantage the rich had in this test. I mean, the president never said anything about defeating monsters for their resources—we just had to harvest raw materials.
“The aristocracy really has a leg up in this thing, huh?”
“Well, what do you expect?” Emma asked. “There are too many qualified applicants.”
There was a stereotype that the nobility were incompetent morons who were only important by virtue of their lineage, but generally, we were more accomplished than you’d think. Kids born into noble families had so much time and money spent on them that it was pretty uncommon to end up totally useless. The real upper-crust families took steps to help their kids before they were even born. They used magic items to make sure their children came into the world with special skills. But superior ability didn’t always go hand-in-hand with a good personality, as illustrated by that Lenore girl with her intense superiority complex.
“We’ll take all your goblin hands and as many kobold ears and tails as you have!” Emma said to the merchant.
I was impressed, watching Emma buy up as many raw materials as she could.
“You sure are buying a lot, milady,” said the merchant.
“Heh, well, what else is a girl to do when her father lends her his wallet? Though it does look like things are starting to sell out.”
“Seems like a good sales day.”
“You don’t seem very concerned, Noir. If you’re going hunting, I’ll go with you.”
“Nah, I’m going on my own. You just wait in town. You probably won’t need to buy anything else either.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? How are you going to pull that off?”
“Now that’s my little secret. Catch ya later.”
I bought a bag on my way out and headed to the dungeon.