I Bought the Villains With Money - Chapter 80

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 80.
After Julia’s bombing incident—the mastermind was never proven to be her, but I’m certain of it—Karman began taking care of Casion.
Of course, that was relative to how things had been before.
The support Karman gave Casion paled next to the meticulous attention Julia lavished on Dayson and Yumire.
Yet Karman took tea with Casion periodically and had the guardians’ quarters moved to better accommodations.
Even that much significantly improved how Casion was perceived within the Royal Palace.
And there was one decisive shift: Julia, watching Karman’s mood, became visibly kinder to both Casion and me.
Behind closed doors she was probably sharpening knives, but at least on the surface she’d softened—which meant I didn’t have to bristle every time we crossed paths.
On top of that, Karman, who had left the appointment of Imperial Studies professors to Julia, sent her a list of his own recommendations.
The hiring was Julia’s prerogative. But Karman’s attitude had grown subtly colder, and she couldn’t ignore a king’s recommendations.
In the end, the Imperial Studies faculty was split half-and-half: Julia’s people and Karman’s picks.
Rumdracks fumed that it was a pathetically meager outcome for risking his life. But I thought it was no small victory that we hadn’t come away badly wounded.
‘It became the catalyst for Irenber to unite. And it let me make demands of His Majesty without flinching.’
I asked Karman to permit placing Irenber people in Casion’s palace.
Regardless, since Casion lived because of me, Karman accepted my request.
And we’ve been studying Imperial Studies for the past month.
“I’m going to kill him. That bastard! Diana, let’s poison him. Slip something in his food where no one’s the wiser.”
Exactly one month after Dayson and I began studying Imperial Studies together, Casion’s fury—usually the most restrained among my villains—erupted.
“They’re all utterly incompetent!”
Casion stomped his feet, unable to contain his boiling rage.
“They deserve to be smeared with honey and thrown into an ant colony!”
I’d forgotten it for a while, having heard nothing of the sort. But Casion really does have a gift for colorful cursing.
“Those bastards aren’t worth saving from five thousand wasps.”
His insults seemed to escalate with each one.
The people Casion was cursing were the Imperial Studies professors—specifically, the ones I suspected were Julia’s appointees.
“If Your Highness decides to act, I’ll help.”
Smearing someone in honey and throwing them into an ant colony is difficult, but releasing five thousand wasps is manageable.
‘Though not in winter.’
I found myself seriously considering where one would even catch five thousand wasps.
Because my own fury had reached a boiling point too.
The professors’ misconduct had crossed every line.
Still, I couldn’t thrash about like a fish out of water, so I restrained myself. But trying to suppress my anger only made my heart race and my face burn. So I ordered hot tea.
Ordinarily, anger calls for cold water, but right now composing my mind took priority. So I chose a blend meant to calm body and spirit.
I drank my tea with elegant poise and set the cup down. Casion looked at me as though he couldn’t fathom my existence.
“How can my score be lower than Dayson’s? I know the standard of his assignments!”
“The grading criteria are not just the professors, Your Highness.”
“Diana, it’s biased marking.”
Casion waved a sheet of paper about frantically. Our Imperial Studies grades from the past month.
My marks and Casion’s were abysmal. The professors Julia had planted gave us grades that were almost all failing.
‘Dayson and Yumire’s scores are probably near perfect.’
Karman’s appointees had graded fairly. In their subjects, my scores and Casion’s were higher. But they hadn’t been harsh with Dayson and Yumire either.
Why pick a fight with a prince? It was perfectly sensible.
‘Thank the gods. If Julia’s people alone had filled the Imperial Studies faculty, it would have been a nightmare.’
I stared at the unsatisfactory grade sheet and shook my head.
“Compose yourself, Your Highness.”
“How am I supposed to compose myself? This isn’t something you just let go.”
Casion was deeply wounded in his pride. Likely the memory of those days playing the fool in front of Dayson made the anger burn hotter.
‘Now he’ll be treated like a fool whether he plays the part or not.’
Still, the grades were already issued and we had no authority to contest, so venting accomplishes nothing.
“I endured them not telling us lecture times until late.”
We weren’t just penalized in grades. Casion began listing the small harassments we’d suffered at Dayson’s hands.
“I let it slide when they didn’t tell me the classroom changed. I got Penalty Points for that, but I figured it was my own fault for not checking ahead. I didn’t want to make a fuss and create trouble for Liam!”
Casion pounded his chest as if he might burst from frustration.
‘Good heavens, he’s going to collapse at this rate.’
I made a mental note to order something from Lebert—a medicine to calm someone down when their anger spikes suddenly.
“Them stealing my assignments? I know about it, but I can just turn in new ones, so I let that go too.”
“There was no evidence, Your Highness. If Dayson denies it, that’s that. If we ask Liam whether he heard anything, we have no response. And anyway, we haven’t just been taking it passively, have we?”
We thoroughly crushed Dayson and Yumire in front of the professors. Whenever the professors hesitated on a question, we’d pounce swiftly and answer first.
We didn’t forget to subtly demean them either.
“You don’t know this? It’s the most basic of basics…. Would you like me to teach you?”
Hiding contempt beneath kindness was easy enough. Dayson and Yumire’s faces crumpled more than once.
“What gives you the right to keep dismissing me like this?”
Once, Yumire snapped and grabbed my hair.
And what did I do? I pretended to be experimenting and set her hair on fire.
I put it out quickly, of course.
In any case, over the past month we waged a covert war no less intense than the intrigues of court.
“Adults getting involved in children’s squabbles—that’s rather unsporting, isn’t it?”
Calling us children wasn’t quite accurate, but on the surface we were children. To anyone watching, we looked like brats quarreling over who was superior.
“We can’t just let this grade report pass as is.”
Casion’s hand trembled as he held the report.
“Your pride isn’t the real problem here, Casion. What we should worry about is His Majesty’s reaction.”
How would Karman react when he saw our grades?
“It’ll be reported to His Majesty, won’t it?”
Casion crumpled the grade report and hurled it across the room. His brow furrowed as deeply as the creases in the paper.
“Of course.”
“I’ll report the record book as well.”
“Naturally. Whether he reads it all is another matter.”
Perhaps if he saw the record book, he’d understand that we hadn’t received a fair evaluation. I clung to this threadbare hope.
“The grades are already out and can’t be changed. Stop fuming and come help with the assignments.”
Casion looked at the mountain of assignments stacked before me and tore at his hair.
“Arrrghhhh!”
His frustration only deepened.
The assignments were punishment for the Penalty Points we’d received. Which meant this too was Julia’s faction’s doing—another way to make our lives miserable.
“I’m filing a formal complaint.”
Casion declared he wouldn’t do the assignments and turned to leave.
I picked up my pen instead. I wasn’t about to waste energy on something futile.
Imperial Studies professors weren’t dismissed unless they committed serious misconduct. Their authority over curriculum design, grading standards, and disciplinary measures was theirs alone to wield.
If that authority wasn’t guaranteed, who would dare teach royalty?
So there was no point sitting here fuming about it.
Better to crush their harassment through sheer perseverance instead.
I threw myself into the work with fierce determination. The assignments weren’t finished until dawn broke.
“We’ll need to do something about the Penalty Points system,” I murmured to myself.
I draped a blanket over Casion’s shoulders as he dozed off while working beside me.
I’d thought copying already-known material would be easy, but it turned out harder and more exhausting than expected.
Worst of all, it felt like a terrible waste of time.
If the Imperial Studies classes were going to be like this, it would’ve been better not to attend at all.
‘Is there a way?’
A legitimate right to skip classes.
As I slipped out of the Royal Palace in the fading starlight, I sank deeper into thoughts unbecoming a proper student.
***
Professor Umbreller of the Food and Agriculture Department in the Petrola Kingdom was striking for his aquiline nose.
He came from deep mountain country and had seized his professorship through skill alone—a rare success story in this age, a dragon born from a well.
Umbreller dedicated himself to research in developing products using native Petrola plants. Several merchant houses grew wealthy from products developed through his research.
After that, many organizations showed interest in his work.
Among them was Broom Academy. Broom Academy offered him a professorship.
Umbreller continued his research as a professor, and inevitably his work yielded tremendous commercial success.
He rose brilliantly, one success after another.
But the highest position available to him was professor—precisely there and no further.
Department chair, academy rector—such things were dreams a man like Umbreller, with no family backing and rural roots, could never pursue.
By any measure of research achievement, Umbreller should have become department chair.
Yet this year, the position went to the professor next door—a man whose credentials and path to professorship were utterly mysterious.
Umbreller experienced disillusionment for the first time in his life.
As he was contemplating whether to resign and move to a merchant house offering substantial wealth, he received a letter.
[Dear Professor Umbreller,
Your research has been of tremendous benefit to the Petrola Kingdom. It is an honor that a talent like you resides within our realm. ……If such an exemplary scholar as yourself were to oversee the royal princes and princesses, it would surely be a great blessing to Petrola. ……We would spare no support in enabling your research to continue within the palace.
Julia Wilson, on behalf of the Petrola Kingdom]
I Bought the Villains with Money (Serialized)
Author │ Yi In-hye
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyung
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd. – Tiramisu
Marketing │ Jae-hyeok Han
Address │ 1101, Ace Techno Tower 8th, 11th Floor, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ http://blog.naver.com/jayplemedia1
© In-hye Lee 2021
※ This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder,
and its contents may not be used in any form or by any means without the permission of the company and the author.
Violation of this prohibition may result in criminal and civil legal liability.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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