Promotion Plan

Since it was now determined that we basically had access to a special type of meat that was supposedly valuable, we needed a little bit of publicity. The target of this kind of meat obviously wasn't going to be commoners, as it was considered a luxury.

As such, it was going to be exclusive to nobles. If it was just the protagonist on his own, then he was probably going to have difficulty promoting it and also not getting killed for the secrets.

However, since I could be used as a proxy, then both of those problems would be mitigated greatly. If it really was a big thing as the chef had put it, that would probably put quite a bit of pressure on me, as other nobles would try to steal it or wrestle it out of me.

But it wasn't like I could just coast along safely anyway.

Not in this shitty dating game.

I leaned back in my chair in thought. The first step was to get the nobles to notice it.

"Well, there's that ball that's happening tomorrow. What if I promoted it there?"

The butler looked a little excited but calmed down after I said that.

"But how would you promote it at the ball?"

I shrugged my shoulders.

"There's going to be food there right, what if I also bring some of this meat there and give it out to people?"

The butler's expression twitched.

"Um, I'm not sure if that would be appropriate. You are not the one hosting the ball."

I let out a sigh and held out my hands on either side.

"Then I'll just bring enough for maybe twenty people. That way, it will just be a small thing. It'll be fine then, right?"

The butler seemed rather unsure.

"...I-I'm still not so sure."

I simply shrugged my shoulders.

"If they really don't like it, then I guess I'll just get kicked out."

The butler seemed to be sweating somewhat.

"Y-You are taking this a little too lightly! The ball is hosted by an archduke!"

I paused. Honestly, the words archduke didn't really mean all that much to me. Of course, I knew that they were basically the big shots of big shots around here and were both feared and respected in the game.

But it was still kinda hard for me to feel that strong of a fear of them. It didn't really help that Raisa was essentially bumbling about and was also part of an archduke family as well.

I tilted my head to the side.

"What's the worst that could happen if I offend an archduke?"

The butler stammered.

"Um... I'm not too sure, nobody has dared do it before, but if he shuns you, then most other nobles will as well! Not to mention, you will be forced to apologize, and as a noble apologies are considered humiliation!"

A small and somewhat mischievous smile began forming on my face.

"So you're basically saying there's no punishment?"

The butler appeared rather baffled by my statement, stunned to speechlessness. I proceeded to clap my hands together.

"Alright then, it's settled. I'll use the meat from this pig to show off to some nobles and publicize Edward's ability."

The butler looked rather exasperated but was too sheepish to speak up any further.

I spoke of more monotonous details with Nathan, and eventually, we sorted most of it out. From there, we dispersed, all going off to our own places. As always, I meditated on the carriage.

The ride passed by in a flash, with my butler telling me we had arrived rather quickly.

Without much thought, I walked back into the manor, thinking if Jess was going to force me to 'open up' to her again. That would definitely be rather exhausting.

While I was thinking and walking down the halls, a voice suddenly called out to me.

"Hey, hey!"

I looked around, but there was nobody near, confusing me. But then the voice called out again.

"Down here! Look!"

I looked down, and sure enough, I saw a familiar book. It was the book that hounded me before. Turns out it had the ability to move around on its own.

A tiny hazy purple figure formed on top of the book itself. It was the same guy I saw in my dream, just smaller.

I raised an eyebrow.

"What are you doing here?"

The purple figure waved his hand dismissively, not caring to answer my question.

"Never mind that. More importantly, I have the answer to your question!"

He had a rather excited expression on his face. Though, I honestly didn't know what he was talking about.

"My question?"

The purple figure seemed a little surprised that I forgot. However, he quickly shook it off as he confidently lifted up his finger with a bright smile on his face.

"What you said about not wanting to learn dark arts from me! I know the answer!"

He put on a confident and smug expression before crossing his arms together. After clearing his throat, he spoke.

"You didn't take my offer because you wanted your strength to only be your own! More than power, it's about pride! Hahaha, I already feel my progression on the path of enlightenment!"

I blinked a few times before pointing at him like he was a bug.

"Not even close."

The figure froze in place with its confident expression. It suddenly warped to look at me with exasperation.

"What? Impossible! You must be lying to me!"

A bitter smile formed on my face.

"Why would I care about whether or not the power I have is mine? The fact is, I attend a magic school to get a teacher to teach me about it. You teaching me dark arts really isn't that different, is it? Besides, it's not like power isn't a desirable thing to me."

The figure looked at me with a stumped expression.

"E-Eh? Then why didn't you take my deal if all that is true? There literally isn't any reason not to!"

I put a finer on my chin and looked off to the side with an overly exaggerated pondering expression. I let out a soft sigh like I was contemplating over some truth of life.

"Why did I then? I wonder. It truly is a fascinating mystery."

The figure looked at me with a pissed-off expression.

"Damn it! Is the reason because you look down on me or something?"

I shook my head.

"I don't look down on you."

The figure relaxed somewhat.

"I see."

Right after, I shoved my pinky into my ear and began twisting it back and forth.

"I mean, I don't even look at you in the first place. There's no reason to."

The figure immediately blew up in anger, raising his fists and raining down all the curse words in his dictionary.

I simply continued walking on, ignoring it.

The figure tried to chase after me, but it turns out he could only very slowly drag himself across the floor even with his best efforts, so I lost him despite only casually walking forth.

In the end, I met up with Jess once more, who was standing in front of the bathroom once more.

She looked at me with a blank expression, and I looked back with a similar one.

"Will we have to do that thing again?"

Jess looked a little confused.

"What thing?"

I quickly shook my head.

"Uh, never mind. Forget I said anything."

To be honest, I really didn't want to go through what happened last time. If you don't remember, she hugged me and refused to let go until I relaxed. From what I recall, it took at least several hours for me to do so.

Looking back, Jess's patience was nearly unbelievable.

Still, from her reaction, it looked like she had either forgotten about it or didn't think too much of it. As such, I would just do the same, and pretend it didn't really matter.

Upon stepping into the bathroom, it was much easier to have my clothes taken off. I tried to undress myself, but Jess once again stopped me and did it for me once more. Later, we headed off to the bath and she once again started washing me off, without really being too... 'tactful' about it.

I didn't say anything though and just went with it.

At some point, Jess suddenly spoke up.

"I feel you've changed."

The corner of my lip twitched.

Ah, shit. Well of course I've changed, I'm not fucking Bryson!

"...Why do you say that?"

Jess began scrubbing my hair, humming to herself.

"I don't know. But I've noticed you've always been changing."

I blinked a few times, opting to remain silent lest I reveal anything about missing memories and similar things. Jess giggled and spoke softly to me.

"Sometimes it feels like yesterday when you were a kid, so energetic all the time. I remember you would follow me around all the time, and were scared of all the servants for so long."

She laughed gently.

"Little did you know, the servants were more scared of you!"

Jess fell silent after saying that, leaving only the sounds of scrubbing for a few minutes. She spoke up once more.

"But... I guess you couldn't be a child forever. You became brave enough to walk on your own, not needing me to guide you everywhere anymore. Your face hardly showed your expression, making it so difficult to read your emotions anymore."

A soft sigh came out from her, but it seemed a bit more happy than sad.

"Yet, I could still feel that childish part deep inside of you. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I felt deep in your heart, you truly cared about me, and even our parents that were almost never home."

...Well, Bryson becomes a villain in the story. The dating game had many different scenes where Jess needed to fight against Bryson.

If he really did have this part that cared about Jess, then why did he kill her?

I had my doubts but didn't voice them for many obvious reasons.

Jess rested her chin on my shoulder, and hugged me from behind, causing me to tense up like usual. Though, she didn't seem to be finished talking.

"This past month it seems like you've been working really hard on something you won't tell me. I have no idea what it is and why you won't tell me, but I think you're tiring yourself out a little too much."

She took a deep breath.

"You seem to be changing a lot under the stress. Some of the changes like agreeing to bathe with me I like, but still, you shouldn't push yourself too hard, ok?"

I suddenly felt a little odd.

Of course, these last few days I have been working rather hard. However, last month was obviously far longer than the time that I had been transmigrated.

...What was Bryson doing before this all happened?

Chances are, it was directly related to why he had become a villain in the first place. After seeing the book, I assumed that was the direct cause. However, it felt like the book's involvement with Bryson hadn't really started beforehand.

Maybe Bryson was a more complicated character than I gave him credit for.