Reincarnated Without a Cheat, I Adopted the Former Hero as My Mom

Uriel stared at the bank card.

The gold-foil Royal Bank insignia caught the dappled light filtering through the canopy. The card was pristine, without a single scratch. His brain was processing faster than it ever did during academy paperwork.

One hundred gold coins. That converted to ten thousand silver coins. His and Tian's daily expenses in the capital, including food, lodging, and miscellaneous material costs, maxed out at around eighty silver coins. One hundred gold coins were enough for him and his mother to coast through an entire quarter in this city with change to spare. It was an undeniable fortune.

His finger tapped lightly against his knee.

Wait. Hold on.

What if Seraphina was operating on the exact same wavelength?

Her entire speech, from "pandering to my weakness" to "the person beside you" and now this bank card, every step seemed carefully planned. She claimed she was hiding from her cousin. She claimed she was trying to block Tian. But what if these words were just probes?

Every angle she threw at him, weakness, relationships, money, was designed to test his reactions. If she was genuinely hunting for his soft spots, he was currently standing in the middle of a meticulously laid, multi-layered trap.

If she was running the same playbook? Then every question wasn't a question—it was a probe. A positioning move.

If I insist on breaking up, what does that signal? Insisting on a breakup means I don't need this money.

Not needing money implies a stable income.

Where does a perfectly average student get a stable income? Background? A backer? Or some deeply sketchy off-the-books connections?

This isn't pocket change. It's a stress test for my financial background. No matter how I spin it, accepting or rejecting it completely clashes with my carefully crafted average student persona. If I follow this logic down the rabbit hole, Tian's true identity, the existence of the Witch Brigade, and the actual truth behind the Headmaster incident would all turn into locked chests waiting to be cracked open.

It took every ounce of willpower he had accumulated over two lifetimes to swallow the instinctive scream of Please fund my existence, rich lady.

He couldn't break up. He had to accept.

But he couldn't accept immediately. He needed to play hard to get.

A broke, average student was a safe persona. But if a broke student suddenly encountered a massive windfall and instantly dropped to his knees to worship the payer, it would look way too practiced and deeply suspicious. He needed to look like someone struggling between pride and money.

Uriel felt this logic was absolutely flawless. He turned his face slightly away, glancing at Seraphina from the corner of his eye. He spoke, pitching his voice lower than usual to sound grounded and deeply contemplative.

"This isn't about the money."

Seraphina didn't retract her hand. Her posture remained completely frozen. She just watched him quietly and dropped a pre-calculated number.

"Two hundred."

"It isn't about the amount, either."

Uriel shot back instantly, his tone even more righteous than before. He leaned back against the bench, crossing his arms over his chest. His entire aura radiated the uncorruptible integrity of a man who could not be bought.

Seraphina closed her eyes. Her lips pressed into a thin line as she slowly exhaled. The sigh wasn't heavy, nor was it light. It was calibrated to the exact decibel required to convey the sentiment of "I am so tired of playing along with your act."

When she opened her eyes again, the vibe had completely shifted. The polite, gentle countess's daughter was gone. Her eyes had flattened into the ultimate, unamused deadpan stare. It was the stare of someone who had completely run out of patience.

Her tone remained perfectly polite. Her vocabulary was still courteous, and her phrasing was still proper. But paired with those utterly dead eyes, the overall effect was deeply unsettling.

"Five hundred gold coins."

Hearing that number, Uriel's physical body actually twitched. Something in his chest did a full 360 and nearly launched into orbit. He was just about to open his mouth to say something like I have my concerns or this requires careful consideration.

But Seraphina didn't even give him the window to speak. She just kept talking.

"That is my absolute bottom line. Even I'm starting to think this is a bad deal with someone who desperately wants it, yet insists on acting like it's a massive burden."

Uriel heard the underlying message loud and clear. This was the final ultimatum.

Every single word felt like ice water poured down the back of his neck. She had seen right through him. She saw through his little haggling performance. But that phrase, desperately wants it, still made his heart skip a beat. Was she talking about his desire for the money, or his desire for something else? No, stop overthinking. She was talking about the money. Her deadpan eyes were boring into him, and her expression clearly said: I've jacked up the price this high. If you keep acting, we're both going to cringe.

There was an even louder signal buried in her words. She said this was her bottom line. If he kept faking it, the money would fly away, and it might even backfire horribly. He had originally planned to loudly condemn her offer, but she was just giving way too much. Even just one month of this would be enough for him and his mother to coast through an entire year in the capital.

The next second, the bank card was already in Uriel's hand.

Did Seraphina shove it into his palm? No. He had reached out and snatched it himself. It was a pure, subconscious reflex triggered by the ultimatum. The movement was fast, precise, and ruthless, completely outpacing the electrical signals his brain was trying to send.

It was so fast that a microscopic ripple of fluctuation flashed through Seraphina's deadpan eyes. She was probably re-evaluating the sheer thickness of this man's facial skin.

"I suppose there's no helping it."

His tone shifted with terrifying naturalness. His righteous expression seamlessly morphed into a helpless, resigned smile. One hand shoved the bank card deep into his pocket, while the other hand opened palm-up in a casual shrug.

"What can I say? The Goddess just made me a people pleaser. I simply can't say no to someone in need. I look forward to working with you from now on."

Seraphina's deadpan stare locked onto him for a full three seconds. Then she pulled her gaze back. The flat stare melted back into her usual gentle eyes, and she gave a microscopic nod. The nod was tiny, but the corners of her lips curved upward by an angle that was practically invisible unless you were staring right at her. It wasn't a smile. It was the look of someone who had finally solved an irritating problem.

Uriel leaned back against the bench. The bank card in his pocket pressed against his thigh. It felt a bit cold and slightly rigid, but that physical sensation grounded him in reality. A massive sum of money had just been secured.

He was temporarily confident that he had successfully cemented the persona of a purely greedy individual.

He was an average student who got completely blindsided by five hundred gold coins. He bit the hook of the money, and his brain was entirely occupied by the cash. This kind of persona was incredibly safe. It shouldn't trigger any suspicion on a deeper level.

He even found a safer angle: a cheap mercenary who'd play boyfriend for five hundred gold. Who would ever connect that guy to the mastermind behind the Headmaster's elimination?

However, the war wasn't won just yet.

To prevent an internal explosion, there was one thing he had to handle immediately.

He needed to have a word with his mother. She had to stop staring at Seraphina. If she didn't dial back that ultimate daughter-in-law audit mode, the greedy persona he had just painstakingly built would collapse from the inside out.

Back at the dorm, Uriel had a serious talk with Tian. He told her to stop staring at Seraphina, using the excuse that it was impolite, she would get noticed, and people would think she was a creep. Tian gave him a series of highly dismissive nods, casually promising that she would just sneak peeks from now on.

Watching Tian's completely unbothered attitude, Uriel sat on his bed and flipped a page in his book. She clearly hadn't taken the matter to heart at all.

He decided to use himself as leverage.

"Mom."

"Hmm?"

"That way you look at her," Uriel's expression turned dead serious. "If Seraphina finds it creepy, what if she just runs away the next time she sees you?"

Tian's hand stopped mid-page-turn.

Uriel immediately doubled down. "And since we share the same dorm, she might just decide to ignore me by association. Wouldn't that completely ruin all our previous efforts?"

Tian looked up, her brows knitting together slightly. She was clearly hit right in her weak spot. "...Would it really get that bad?"

"It's hard to say," Uriel sighed heavily, shaking his head with a look of profound worry. "Girls are incredibly sensitive. Once you leave a bad impression, it's nearly impossible to reverse it."

Tian closed the book and rested it on her lap. She stared at the cover for two seconds, then naturally tilted her head back to look at the ceiling, as if she was seriously weighing the catastrophic severity of the situation.

"That really won't do. We can't scare her off."

"So stop staring at her all the time. And definitely stop scoring her in your head while you stare. She can feel it."

"Mhm." Tian nodded, her attitude noticeably more serious now. "I'll be careful."

But she still couldn't help but double-check. "So... is it okay to just show normal concern?"

"No."

"Secret concern?"

"Also no."

"Fine." Tian picked up her book again, but her page-turning speed slowed down significantly. She was clearly still chewing on the problem. A moment later, she muttered another sentence. "But what if she really starts ignoring you..."

"Mom."

"Okay, okay, okay. I won't say it. I'll keep a low profile. I got it." Tian read the room perfectly, ending the topic with a compliant smile.

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