Character Page

Prologue

Prologue

“LET me inform you of your place as a commoner in the Academy.”

Sophia Victorino smiled coldly down at me as the members of her entourage pinned me down.

She was a perfect beauty, the sort that turned heads, with glossy hair the color of milky tea and turquoise eyes. Sophia was the rival of the main character of the otome game Love & Magic Academy, commonly called Love Academy. She was what people called the villainess.

“Sophia, what are you doing?” came a voice.

“P-Prince Eric, why are you here?” she asked.

Sweeping into the scene was a gorgeous blond-haired young man. He was First Prince Eric Stallion of the Kingdom of Ronaudia, one of the love interests of Love Academy, and Sophia’s fiancé.

When Eric saves me from Sophia and her lackey’s bullying, that quickly draws Eric and me closer while distancing them from each other. As a result, she then comes to hate me and believes it is all my fault, making this an important scene for determining her fate as the villainess.

But that past never happened to me.

“Oh, Sophia, you are seriously so cute and hardworking. I love you.”

“Milia, what is this about all of a sudden?”

The two of us girls were in the cafeteria at the Academy during lunch break. I threw my arms around Sophia, and she smiled bashfully.

I was reincarnated into the world of Love Academy as its protagonist, Milia Rondo, and Sophia was my best friend in this game world turned real.

When I got reincarnated here, I had lost my memories of my previous life. But I loved Love Academy and didn’t want to ruin its world, so I tried to act as Milia did in the game. However, in the process of playing that role, I didn’t realize I was treating the people of this world like they were just game characters.

That said, it was a real world. Everyone had emotions and was living their lives like normal people. When I realized that, I decided to live not as Milia in the game, but as myself. I decided to pay attention to what everyone was feeling and thinking, and then engage with them accordingly. Thanks to that, Sophia became my friend, and I’m getting along well with the other students, too.

And as much as I hate to admit it, it was all thanks to Arius.

“Don’t convince yourself you know what sort of people they are. If you don’t think about why someone might do something, you’ll never be able to understand them.”

With ice-blue eyes that could look straight through you and a confident smile on his lips, Arius had opened my perspective on the world. He was the son of the kingdom’s chief minister and one of Love Academy’s love interests, the bookish type with glasses. Or should have been. The Arius of this world was totally different from the Arius in the game.

He was reincarnated just like me. Arius had a know-it-all attitude and could do literally anything. It’s seriously annoying. He helped me when Sophia’s entourage surrounded me and even protected us when we were attacked during class in the dungeon.

Right now, Arius was eating his lunch at a table a short distance away from Sophia and me. Most of the students around him, particularly the girls, had their attention on him since there was a rumor that he’d done a lot during the attack in the dungeon. Arius was the kind of person to forge his own path, though, so he didn’t seem to care about what was going on around him at all. That was really like him.

He finished eating, then came over to us and said, “You two really do seem like good friends, but anyway, I’m heading out.”

“Wait, Arius, are you planning to skip class again?” I asked.

He was adventuring while attending classes at the Academy. His life centered more around dungeons than school, and he went straight there once lessons were over, but apparently that wasn’t enough. Lately, he’d been skipping school too.

I didn’t even get to see him all that much. Arius and I weren’t in the same class, so I only saw him during lunch or when our lessons combined. Now that he’s been going to the dungeons, I’ve seen him even less.

Not that I’m, like, sad or anything that I can’t see him.

“You’re so free, Arius,” commented Sophia with a gentle smile. “You have enough strength to live without being bound by anyone. I need to learn from you and work more on myself.”

“I just do what I want, Sophia. I’m nothing special,” he replied.

“Hee hee. We’ll say that’s the case.”

Just like the game, Sophia was engaged to Prince Eric in this world, but she and Arius were really, really close. Seriously, I’m almost jealous—I mean, no, what am I even thinking?!

Arius and I are just friends. And he said he’s not interested in romance at all anyway, right? Besides, I think it’s a good thing my best friend, Sophia, is close to my friend, Arius. Just…

I can’t help wondering what her feelings are for him…

Chapter 1: A Changing World

Chapter 1: A Changing World

THE monster that spawned on the fifth floor of the extreme-difficulty dungeon, the Citadel of Ancient Gods, was a Knight of Annihilation. It was a centaur over fifteen feet tall wearing silvery white armor, and—despite not having wings—it ran through the air, hurling giant spears cloaked in massive amounts of mana.

It made the Red Dragon King, the final boss of the hard-difficulty Dragon’s Palace dungeon, look like a piece of cake in comparison, but still…

“Like that’s going to work!”

I dodged the giant spear and slammed both my swords into the Knight of Annihilation, making it disappear in a puff of light, leaving behind nothing more than a magic crystal.

But the battle had only just begun.

The space, massive and without walls, was filled with Knights of Annihilation—more than a thousand of them. There was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. The fight continued until you defeated all the monsters. It was an extreme-difficulty dungeon, after all.

Suddenly, all the Knights threw their spears at me. They all came at me, rotating rapidly like drills. I used Short Teleport to avoid the concentrated spear fire, then cast a rapid series of Short Teleports, taking out Knights as I passed them.

Fighting solo, I was constantly attacked from all directions. I had several layers of Impenetrable Defense cast, and whenever one went down, I put another one up. I was keeping an eye on the locations and movements of all my opponents using Scan, while continuously looking for the optimal action with my enhanced mental speed.

If they managed to pin me down, hit me all at once, and break through my Impenetrable Defense, they’d take all my HP out in an instant. A momentary lapse in concentration would lead directly to my death. These battles where my life hung in the balance, that were so difficult they shaved seconds of my life, man, they’re so fun!

My thoughts were sped up so much that it felt like I might burn out my brain, but it made me feel alive. Through these constant near-death fights, I could feel myself growing stronger in that very moment.

I know I’m a battle-crazed maniac, but there’s a calm, logical me watching that maniac me. He thinks, no matter how strong you get, it’s all over if you die. He’s got his eyes set on that line where things go too far, and he won’t make a mistake when it’s time to retreat.

I learned how to live as a combat lover when I met my teachers, Grey and Selena. But even if I hadn’t met them, I think I’d have ended up like this anyway.

I already died once in my previous life. This life, where I reincarnated as Arius, is kind of just a bonus. Obviously, I don’t plan on going out easily, but I don’t see the problem with dying if it happens while you’re doing what you want to do. I’m not afraid of dying, and maybe that’s why I’m perfectly fine doing things other people think are crazy.

By moving from one edge of the massive space of the extreme-difficulty dungeon to the other using Short Teleport, I was able to scatter the herd of Knights. I used the Knight that was in front of me as a shield from the others and took them out one by one. The battle went as planned, and I managed to cut their numbers down to a hundred.

However, losing focus now could snatch victory from me. I continued fighting without losing concentration until I took down the final Knight of Annihilation.

But that wasn’t the end.

I was the only one left in the vast space when a pillar of light descended from the ceiling. Appearing within it was a massive centaur over eighty feet tall in gold armor.

This was the level boss of the fifth floor, the Valiant General of Annihilation.

The name was a bit cheesy, its HP pool was appropriately massive for its huge body, and it boasted abnormally high defense. A direct hit from this guy would shatter my multiple layers of Impenetrable Defense and take out half my HP in one go.

“Haaaaa!” the General roared as it rushed me.

It was faster and nimbler than you’d expect of something that big. The monster’s massive spear punched through the air right toward me.

I dodged using as little motion as possible, then focused my mana into my two swords, and they elongated into blades of light.

I accelerated, instantly achieving speeds faster than the speed of sound, and slashed through the General’s torso as I passed. Even with that, I only scratched its HP. I was seriously lacking firepower when fighting solo.

Enraged, the General spun toward me and unleashed a lightning breath attack. I dodged the tumultuous stream of electric-discharge-causing light with a Short Teleport and slammed my swords into the General’s head. That also only got rid of a tiny fraction of HP.

Luckily, there was only one of them.

I still had plenty of MP. No matter how sturdy it was, how much HP it had, I could whittle it down if I kept on hitting. There was plenty of space in here to dodge attacks, so I wasn’t going to get hit.

I fought for thirty whole minutes before taking down the Valiant General of Annihilation. Its huge form disappeared in a flash of light, leaving behind a massive magic crystal.

A glowing magic circle appeared where the General had fallen. It was the teleport pad leading to the sixth floor, but I ignored it and headed toward another teleport point.

In extreme-difficulty dungeons, the teleport circle leading to the next floor didn’t appear until you eliminated all the enemies on the floor. Still, the one leading to the previous floor was always there. That meant that even in these hellish, extreme-difficulty dungeons, there was always an escape route available.

The second I stepped foot on that teleport circle, I cast Short Teleport before it could activate and jumped several yards forward.

Looks like it worked.

From the distance of that vast space that was the fifth floor, the more than a thousand Knights of Annihilation I just eliminated came rushing toward me.

I was able to force the monsters to respawn by tricking the teleport circle. It was inefficient to go back every time to the previous floor and kill all those monsters before coming back, after all. I’d made that trick up with my tutors, Grey and Selena.

The difficulty of the monsters in an extreme-difficulty dungeon jumped up with each floor, so I was repeating each floor until I could get a perfect win—where I killed them all without taking a single hit—before taking on the next floor.

“Let’s fight better this time,” I announced as I plunged into the fray with the herd of Knights of Annihilation.

Stats

Arius Gilberto (Age 15)

Level: 2055

HP: 21478

MP: 32825

STR: 8266

DEF: 8263

INT: 9294

RES: 8757

DEX: 8264

AGI: 8265

***

MEANWHILE, in the Ishtobal Kingdom in the central eastern region of the continent…

“Hero Abel, I would ask you not to take any rash actions.”

In a meeting room in the royal palace, Crown Prince Abel Lionhart reclined in an armchair as opulent as a throne in front of a gathering of leaders from allied countries. He was a princely looking young man with gentle waves of green hair and emerald eyes.

He gave a sneering smile and said, “Who in the world do you think you’re speaking to? Do you think I don’t know what all of you are really after? Just keep your mouths shut and do as I say.”

He was disrespectful toward them, as if he were some sort of emperor. The leaders were frustrated, and their guards couldn’t conceal their animosity. Even so, they went along with what he said so they could use him, the hero.

“Abel Lionhart, I bestow upon thee the power of the hero.”

That remark had come along with his awakening as the hero three months ago. The voice, claiming to be God, suddenly reverberated in his mind when he received heroic strength.

It was the first birth of a hero seen in 300 years. The Church spread news of the event throughout the world in the blink of an eye, claiming it to be a proclamation from God. At the same time, the revival of a demon king had been announced by Guardial, a demon country.

Half of the world was demon territory, land controlled by monster-like people. Humans and demons viewed each other as enemies and had fought for a long time. That fighting was paused 300 years ago by the hero who defeated the demon king.

After the demon king’s death, the demons remained in their territory. Humans and demons have clashed on and off since then, but it certainly never developed into an all-out species-against-species war.

But a new hero had been born, and the demon king had been revived, meaning the two peoples were looking to reignite the fight.

“Defeat the demon king and save the world? Rich, hearing that, seeing as I have zero intention of doing so,” scoffed Abel after the leaders of his allies had left, having no regard for who overheard.

“Now, my hero, perhaps it would be best not to speak like that. You never know who is listening,” said a woman, speaking soothingly with an accent. She was one of the five people standing beside him, with white hair and gold eyes. Her facial features were rather cute, like a small animal, and she wasn’t even five feet tall.

She was Alisa Kusunoki, the second-in-command of the hero’s party, and the chief of staff for Ishtobal’s military.

“The demon king has the power to destroy all of humanity, and the hero will defeat them,” she continued. “You need a cause to encourage people to act. Even if it’s not quite true, it will be true once you win.”

When Abel awakened as the hero, several countries announced they would join the war to defeat the demon king. The thing was, they didn’t honestly think of the demon king as a serious threat. Their real goal was all the valuable resources lying in wait inside demon territory.

Three hundred years ago, the hero defeated the demon king, but only just—both had died from the fight, essentially taking each other out. The Heroes Alliance, which had taken part in the battle, also suffered severe losses and was easily expelled from the demons’ territory.

When the soldiers of the Alliance returned to their homelands, they brought faerie silver and natural magic crystals with them, both valuable resources. While these were valuable to humans, the demons didn’t have much interest in them. These valuable resources were just lying around in demon territory.

Having learned of these resources, several people plotted to break into demon territory under the guise of eliminating the “enemies of humanity.” However, the demons foiled each of these attempts.

To these people, the birth of a new hero was the perfect opportunity to reclaim the valuable resources taken by the demons.

“My hero, you already intend to defeat the demon king, do you not?” Alisa asked. “If so, you should use these allied countries to your benefit. The hero’s battle against the demon king 300 years ago was a difficult one. You should use what tools you have available.”

“I know,” responded Abel, “but I have no intention of dancing for money-grubbing fools. My aim is to demonstrate my heroic strength by defeating the demon king so I may rule the entire world.”

Abel didn’t intend to use his power to save the world or even to make money. He was going to use it for his own ambition: world domination.

The vast font of mana rushing through his body… He had become drunk on his own omnipotence since awakening as the hero. Abel had clearly grown arrogant, but he wasn’t aware of that.

Inwardly, Alisa smiled coldly as she soothingly said, “In order to accomplish your goals as well, you must first defeat the demon king. I will handle all negotiations. You needn’t bother yourself with it.”

“Well, if you’re offering, then I’ll allow you to take care of it. We still have time before our allies are ready to attack. How long do they intend to make me wait?”

“It can’t be helped, my hero. It takes time and money to move soldiers. Shall we also gather more forces while we have the time? The hero’s power is incredible, but it is a double-edged sword after all. We should increase our forces, and they can be your tools in battle.”

Alisa had already reached out to the people she had influence over, though she intended them to be her tools, not Abel’s.

“You may be right, Alisa. If we’re going to increase our forces, we should select only the strongest, those worthy of fighting with me, the hero.”

Alisa worried about what sudden turn this was going to take.

“There are only ten SSS-rank adventurers in the world,” Abel continued. “Don’t you think they would be appropriate followers for me?”

Abel stated it as if it were the obvious solution, and Alisa felt exasperated. SSS-rank adventurers were at the peak of the adventuring world and existed outside any national bounds. They had earned all the money and fame they could want, so they had no reason to want to do what the hero said.

“Perhaps you are not aware, as you are not an adventurer yourself, my hero. But SSS-rank adventurers are a group of eccentric individuals. You can never know what they’re thinking. They do only what they want and will only get in the way. I suggest you give up on that route,” she offered, coming up with a random excuse.

“My hero, if you want SSS-rank adventurers, I’ll bring them to you!” claimed one of the other members of the hero’s party who had been silent up until then. He had vibrant turquoise hair, eyes the color of blood, and wore a gaudy gold, full plate armor. He was Chris Brad and had a wicked grin.

“Alisa says it would be best not to, but you say you’ll bring me SSS-rank adventurers,” Abel mused.

“I can do this, my hero, but I have one condition. Can you agree that I can bring them dead or alive?”

Abel looked astonished by this offer. It defeated the point.

“There’s an SSS-rank adventurer I can’t stand,” explained Chris. “I plan to bring him here, by force if I need to, and there’s a chance I could kill him by accident if he resists. But if that happens, it’s proof I’m stronger than an SSS-rank adventurer, and you want only the strongest by your side. Seems fine to me.”

“I see… Very well. I’ll let you handle the SSS-rank adventurers.”

Abel didn’t have high hopes for Chris, but this could at least amuse him while he boredly waited for his allies. He had grown so arrogant that he didn’t care much about gathering forces anyway.

Alisa watched the two of them with a cold smile.

***

AS a reward for handling the cleaners who attacked us in the dungeon, my father, Darius, agreed to let me take time off from classes as long as I earned enough credits to graduate. Since trying to take on an extreme-difficulty dungeon on my own, the biggest thing holding me back was a lack of time. Now, I was taking off either Monday or Friday and spending my three-day weekend in the dungeon. During the four weekdays, I also only went to class in the morning, ate lunch in the cafeteria, and then went straight to the dungeon.

The Academy’s classes emphasized grades. If your grades were good enough, you got the credit. That meant I’d have no trouble graduating even if I barely attended class. I couldn’t really say I was attending class if I skipped any more than this, though, so I did have to rein myself in a bit.

Now that I had the time, I started focusing way too much on the dungeon. I used Teleport to go right back to my dorm room so no one would know if I wasn’t back by curfew. Even on weekdays, I was in the dungeon until nearly midnight.

When my father gave his permission, it was in exchange for my making the occasional public appearance. The only days I left the dungeon early were when I had a social gathering to go to.

One morning, I finished my daily training routine, then went to Prince Eric’s salon an hour before classes started. He and I had an agreement to share information once a week.

Just as I was about to go into the room, another student came out. He had short, bright-colored hair and was probably just under six feet tall. His tie was red, meaning he was a third-year student.

The students wore different colored ties for the boys or ribbons for the girls, based on their year. First years wore blue, second years wore yellow, and third years wore red.

The third year glared at me as he passed by. I knew who he was. We’d never spoken directly to each other, though, so I ignored him and knocked on the door.

“Arius, you’re here,” greeted Eric with his usual refreshing smile. His two maids were clearing away the teacups from Eric’s last guest.

There was Bela with indigo hair, and Isha with flaxen hair. They came off as two perfectly competent women, but they were in fact more than just maids. They were also secretly his guards.

“What were you talking to Keith Jordan about?” I asked Eric.

He was the eldest son of Duke Jordan, one of the Three Great Dukes of Ronaudia.

“There’s the Combat Tournament in two weeks,” Eric answered. “Keith won the tournament last year, and I asked him to participate again this year.”

Every year in June, the Academy holds a combat tournament for students in all three years. Students with the highest grades in the sword and magic classes were selected from each year and made to battle it out. The conditions were like real combat—all skills and spells were on the table.

In the game Love Academy, the love interests performed well in the tournament despite being only first years because they were all high-specced. It was an event that brought them closer to the heroine, Milia.

But while all three years of students technically participated, most third-year noble students were becoming busy with their family’s duties, meaning most didn’t take part in the tournament even if they were selected. This was particularly true for those who’d performed well as second years. No one would be impressed if they won, and everyone would think less of them if they lost. There was no benefit to taking part. That’s why most participants were first and second years. Even in the game, Keith didn’t participate in this tournament.

“Eric, is getting Keith to participate in the tournament another one of your schemes to put pressure on Duke Jordan?” I asked.

“I wouldn’t really call it a scheme. It’s simply a tactic to create an environment that encourages the duke to make a move.”

The current Duke of Jordan, Duke Victor Jordan, was the head of the anti-royalist faction of nobles. He was the real man behind the curtain of the attack during the dungeon class.

But there was no proof, meaning he couldn’t be arrested. We knew from the nobles who had been taken in after that event that he had provided funding, though he had hidden that fact by doing it indirectly. There was a lot of other circumstantial evidence, but nothing damning.

They couldn’t arrest a high-ranking noble, one of the Three Great Dukes of Ronaudia, without clear evidence. If we could manage to arrest him on something else, however, the Royal Intelligence Ministry could get him to confess since they had experts in mind-control spells.

It was legal in Ronaudia to use mind-control spells on criminals, and the information they provided was usable as evidence.

Eric had gotten permission from his father, King Albert, to put the people from the Intelligence Ministry to good use in trying various plans to push Duke Jordan to commit a crime.

“This year is my only opportunity to fight Keith,” Eric continued. “I told him I wanted to test myself against a stronger opponent, and so I’d appreciate it if he participated. He happily agreed. Arius, I intend to crush Keith in the tournament.”

As far as I could tell from Keith’s expression earlier, he was in no way happy about agreeing.

Keith had been the champion of last year’s tournament, and his grades were at the top of his class. However, Duke Jordan and King Albert were cousins. In Ronaudia, royals and their children who took on a noble title lost their place in line for the throne.

With strong royal blood and plenty of talent, Keith was the star of hope for the anti-royalists, but his reputation would be in the gutter if he were disgraced in the tournament by losing to a first-year student. Nobles valued reputation, meaning Keith’s loss would have a not insignificant impact on Duke Jordan’s ability to unify the faction. If he attempted to take revenge, it could also serve as a good excuse to arrest him.

“I understand what you’re after, Eric, but do you really have to go to all that trouble? It was Duke Jordan himself behind the attack during dungeon practice, not Keith.”

Honestly, it didn’t sit right with me hurting Keith just to shake up his father.

“Keith’s not coming out unharmed if I take down Duke Jordan anyway,” Eric replied. “And I don’t feel Keith is a person worthy of protection. I’m the one defeating Keith. It’s not something you need to worry about.”

It seemed Eric knew something about Keith. I already figured this was something Eric was going to handle on his own, though, since he had said he was going to crush Keith.

Eric had a reputation as being on the brain side of things rather than the brawn, and I’d never fought Eric myself, but I did know how strong he was because of my Evaluate skill.

“I imagine you can beat Keith,” I said. “Actually, no. I imagine you already know for certain you will beat him, which is why you’re fighting him in the first place.”

Eric was always well prepared. For the attack during dungeon practice, he already had people from the Intelligence Ministry lying in wait. The cleaners would’ve been wiped out even if I hadn’t done anything. Eric said the reason he had me take care of it was so he could keep the Ministry’s involvement a secret, but I think he just wanted to gauge how strong I was.

“Of course I’ll win,” he replied simply. “And it’s not just Keith I’ll defeat. I’ll also take down Duke Jordan. Myself. I have no intention of relying on you this time. If I can’t handle this much, I can’t possibly expect to stand side by side with you.”

His smile wasn’t his usual refreshing one, but something with more power. This was Eric when he showed his true self.

“Oh,” he continued, “and I’m sorry, but I had my people look into you. I believe I now know how strong you actually are.”

Eric probably knew I was Arius, the SSS-rank adventurer.

“I believe you’re going to grow even stronger. What’s more, you understand the value of information. Your strength hasn’t swollen your head either. Your father, Chief Minister Darius, has a reputation for being a warrior of information, but I think you may be even more talented than he is. Because of that, the world will not let you be. I have a suspicion you’ll get dragged into all sorts of things.”

This conversation had gone seriously off the rails. Who cared about the world? If this were anyone but Eric, I’d be starting to question what the hell they were talking about.

“You overestimate me, Eric. I don’t think of anything but getting stronger,” I said.

“That’s not true. I know you seek strength, but you also know how and when to apply that strength. You fight for others’ benefit. You’re more than just strength.” He looked straight into my eyes. “I haven’t given up on having you as my chief minister when I’m king of Ronaudia. Even if you won’t take the position, I want our relationship to be one of equals. Before I can make that happen, however, I need to prove myself. I don’t mind if you think of this issue with Duke Jordan as a test of my strength.”

I didn’t care what others thought about me, but it did honestly make me happy to have Eric acknowledge me like that.

“I understand, Eric,” I responded. “I’ll leave everything to do with Duke Jordan to you. But there’s still the question of what it means to be equal. I don’t think strength is everything, and if my getting involved results in less damage, then use me as you see fit.”

Eric and I were different types. Maybe it would be good to fight as he did.

“Thank you, Arius. If it comes to that, I’ll rely on you.”

There was a chance we were having this conversation so Eric could get me ready to do something. He was a strong person, and that, along with many other things, was why I kind of liked him.

I decided to let Eric handle Duke Jordan. There was another problem to deal with after all.

“On a different topic,” I began, “have you learned anything new about the hero or demon king?”

About three months ago, a hero awakened for the first time in 300 years, and a demon king was revived.

Outside of the Kingdom of Ronaudia, which was the setting for Love Academy, this world was an RPG world. That’s why it wasn’t weird for there to be heroes and demon kings. And I was certain they existed; I’d confirmed the information.

“It seems the countries that are members of the Hero’s Alliance have begun to move in earnest,” acknowledged Eric. “But it may take some time before they actually make an attack on demon territory.”

Ronaudia and the Great Granbride Empire had taken a wait-and-see attitude toward the hero and demon king since they knew the real reason the Hero’s Alliance wanted to attack the monster territory.

“I’d thought Ronaudia might want to join the war since the country still has ill will toward the demons after the Crisis of Ronaudia, but waiting to see what happens is the right decision,” I noted.

Eighteen years ago, demons led hordes of tens of thousands of monsters in an attack on Ronaudia. My father, Darius, pulled the kingdom’s military together when it was on the brink of collapse and repelled the invading demons, but many Ronaudians were lost.

“Because this revived demon king had nothing to do with the Crisis,” stated Eric. “And we’re not fools enough to assume they’re automatically our enemy just because they’re a demon king.”

The various countries in the Hero’s Alliance claimed they were going to “defeat the demon king who is attempting to wipe out humanity.” But the demon king hadn’t done anything yet. The Alliance was just going to make an unprovoked attack on demon territory.

“If you learn anything about this, Arius, tell me, won’t you? There’s a good chance the kingdom will end up dragged into the conflict.”

“I will. Not that I think I’ll get any information before you do.”

In addition to the Royal Intelligence Ministry, Eric used his own people to source information. There weren’t many who could rival him in his ability to gather intel.

“I think you might. There are some pieces of information only you can get,” he said with a powerful grin. I had a pretty good idea what Eric was expecting of me. If necessary, I’d do it, even if he didn’t ask me to.

***

ERIC and I left the salon and headed to the classroom before lessons started.

“Good morning, Your Highness (and Master Arius)!” came a chorus of voices when we entered the classroom as our classmates came over to us. The ones greeting me mainly were girls. Many of the boys clearly kept their distance from me. Ragnus, the son of Duke Crawford, was a member of the faction supporting Eric and kept a sharp eye on me. He didn’t like that I talked so casually to Eric. I guess the other nobles didn’t like it either, but who cares what other people think?

“You always look so confident, Arius,” whispered one boy as I took my seat.

“Yeah, I could never be like you,” remarked another.

They were Ash and Rhein. They were some of the few commoners in the Academy, who made up only twenty percent of the student body. I started talking to them just ’cause they sat near me in class.

I guess the noble students basically ignored them since they were commoners. They were surprised when I first started talking to them. Eric interacted with all students without discrimination, and the nobles fell in line with that, but only when he was around.

“You two shouldn’t worry about the idiots who think they’re high and mighty just because of their status,” I explained. “You can just tell them you’re fed up with their crap.”

“No way, I don’t have the courage to start a fight with the nobles,” replied Ash.

“Yeah, who knows what’ll happen if we do that…” muttered Rhein.

“Rank doesn’t matter here in the Academy. If anyone gives you a hard time, I’ll deal with them,” I said.

Ragnus came over to us, glaring at me. Maybe he didn’t like what we were talking about. “Hey, Arius, don’t get full of yourself just because you helped out during the attack in the dungeon! It’s our duty as nobles to protect Prince Eric. You didn’t do anything special!”

Rumors that I defeated the cleaners had spread far. Because Eric had spread them.

“I haven’t gotten full of myself. I’m the same as always,” I countered.

“Which is because you always have a bad attitude! Arius, you need to stop this nonsense and learn your place!”

I was used to Ragnus complaining about me. It was a pain to deal with him every single time.

“Ragnus, could you leave things there?” said Eric, cutting into the conversation with his usual refreshing smile. “You immediately lose your cool when it comes to Arius, but hearing you speak ill of him also makes me unhappy.”

“Y-Your Highness, I didn’t mean to…”

Ragnus shuts up when Eric tells him to. I appreciated that it ended an annoying problem, but…

“Hey, does this mean…?” whispered a girl.

“No way, are Prince Eric and Master Arius…?” whispered another.

Hey. I can hear everything you’re saying.

Some of the girls were blushing and staring at Eric and me with intense curiosity. I was sure they were imagining some inappropriate things.

“Everyone, class is about to begin. Perhaps we should wrap this conversation up here?” Eric announced to everyone, including the whispering girls. Ragnus’s shoulders slumped, and he returned to his desk just as the bell marking the start of class chimed and the teacher came in.

***

THE Academy had four hours of classes in the morning and two in the afternoon, and school was held five days a week, from Monday to Friday. I attended at least four days a week, but only in the morning. Well, I mean, I attended class. I didn’t say I did anything more.

“It is estimated that the Holy Kingdom of Brisdan has provided more than 20,000 troops as a member of the Hero’s Alliance.”

“The forces provided by the Francesca Empire will be led by Second Imperial Prince Luke Fuentes.”

During class, I was reading a book I’d borrowed from the library while sorting through the information I received from my informants around the world as they sent me Messages. Information gathering was a fundamental skill for adventurers, after all.

I was paying these people a decent sum of money, so their information was reliable. Still, I always got information from at least two sources to back up what I was told.

Just like Eric had said, things were starting to move with the Hero’s Alliance. I was positive they were going to begin their attack on demon territory in the near future.

“Arius Gilberto, what are your thoughts on this?” came a voice.

I was in my third-period class when the teacher called on me, his tone cold. He was a thin, balding man in his forties named Joseph Franklin. He was considered an authority on history in the Academy.

The classroom fell silent as students all turned to look at me, tension in the air.

I’d been reading a book hidden behind my textbook, but it seemed Joseph had noticed. Well, I was clearly the one breaking the rules by working on my own things in class, so I wasn’t about to argue with him.

“The answer is clear if you consider it from a historical perspective,” I articulated. “Ever since the Crisis of Ronaudia eighteen years ago, there has been an increase in the number of people who view the demons as our enemy, seeing as Ronaudia had taken a neutral stance toward the demons ever since the kingdom’s founding.”

I answered the question without a problem. The topic of today’s class was the hero’s fight against the demon king 300 years ago. The question Joseph asked me was why Ronaudia hadn’t joined the war effort. I could take on more than a thousand monsters at once in an extreme-difficulty dungeon. My mental processing was honed and used to multitasking, allowing me to still listen in class while doing other things.

“Even after that,” I continued, “there is evidence that Ronaudia has retained its neutral position toward demons. Despite the fact that we border demon territory, we hadn’t had a single conflict with them until the Crisis of Ronaudia. This is in contrast with all other countries bordering the demon country, which have seen intermittent conflicts with them. After the Crisis, the king decided it was caused by a single faction of demons working alone and that the kingdom would not retaliate. All of this shows that Ronaudia has a neutral relationship with the demons. Or rather, we’ve maintained a friendly relationship.”

My classmates were astounded. Not a single one of them thought I’d be able to answer since I wasn’t paying attention. Only Eric seemed to think this was to be expected.

I’d learned about the history of this world. You can’t see things for what they are now if you don’t understand the historical background.

“…Good,” said Franklin. “Your interpretation is not wrong, Arius Gilberto. However, I’m sure you’re aware that how you apply yourself in class is less than admirable.” He was maintaining his cool, but his shoulders shook as he glared at me.

“I understand what you’re trying to say, Mr. Franklin, but I don’t see the problem if I was able to answer the question.”

I wasn’t trying to pick a fight, but I also didn’t intend to back down. Honestly, fully engaging with the classes here in the Academy was a waste of my time.

“If that’s how you want things, Arius, then fine, but remember what you just said!” he snapped like he was trying to have the last word.

It looked like he was going to be calling on me a lot more in his class, but all I had to do was answer the question.

Eric seemed to be chuckling to himself because of Franklin’s attitude. About half of the female students were looking at me in admiration, while the other half, along with Ash and Rhein, were looking at me with concern. Most of the boys looked fed up with me or annoyed. But whatever, they’re allowed to think however they want.

However, I might thank the people who cared enough to be worried about me later.

***

ONCE fourth period finished, it was time for lunch. That was also the end of my classes for the day. In the afternoon, I’d be diving back into the Citadel of Ancient Gods.

“Arius, I’ve invited everyone to my salon for lunch. Would you like to come as well?” asked Eric, but Ragnus and the others would be there. Eric needed to support Ragnus since he was part of his faction.

“Sorry, Eric. I’m eating in the cafeteria,” I said, and went to leave the classroom just as the door slammed open with a dramatic bang! An attractive, untamed-looking student with burning red hair and tan skin came in.

“Ah, my best friend! Let’s go have lunch!” he greeted.

This overbearing guy who calls me his best friend was Vern Lenning, the Third Imperial Prince of the Great Granbride Empire. As a prince, he also had his own salon and had been eating lunch there until recently, when he started coming with me to the cafeteria if he had time.

“Do you always have to be so loud, Vern?” I asked.

“Don’t be so nitpicky, Arius. I’m starving. Let’s get to the cafeteria!” he cheered as he tried to put an arm around my shoulder. I stepped out of the way like this was standard.

“Vern, stop that. You’re going overboard.”

“What? Don’t be so cold, Arius!”

Not getting the hint, he tried to put his arm around my shoulder again. I ignored him and walked out of the classroom and down the hall.

“How cruel! Wait for me, Arius!”

***

“LOOK, it’s Master Arius!”

“And he’s with Prince Vern!”

We drew attention from the students nearby when we got to the cafeteria, eliciting squeals from the girls. Part of this was because of the rumors Eric spread about me handling things during the dungeon practical, but the other part was because, like me, Vern was a hot love interest from Love Academy and a prince of the Granbride Empire. The two of us were always going to stand out.

“Ah, we met at the party the other day, didn’t we?” Vern asked a girl who called out to him. “I’ve got a prior arrangement today, but why don’t we grab something to eat together sometime?”

He was used to dealing with girls and responded to them as if it were nothing.

“Master Arius, are you going to lunch?” a girl questioned me.

“Master Arius, would you like to sit with me while you eat?” came another.

Ever since I started making high society appearances, I kept bumping into more people in the Academy I had met. Eighty percent of the students were nobles, meaning there were many opportunities to see each other in the social sphere. The older girls, particularly, didn’t hesitate to approach me. It was a pain responding to each and every one, but I couldn’t just ignore someone I had gotten acquainted with.

“Sorry, there’s something I need to talk to Vern about. Next time, maybe,” I offered, turning down invitations as I picked up a tray and joined the line for food.

“Seems you’re starting to get used to this sort of thing,” noticed Vern with a grin.

“Of course I am. Looks like it was the right decision to learn from you when it comes to dealing with girls.”

Vern and I each picked up enough food to feed five people and went to an open table. Both of us could eat a lot, and the food quickly started to disappear. That was probably another reason we stood out. Not that I cared that people were looking.

“Hey, you planning on entering the Combat Tournament?” Vern asked.

“Yeah. I did get selected.”

For some reason, I’d been selected for the tournament even though I’d been skipping classes a lot lately. I decided I’d forfeit if I ended up fighting against Keith, though, since I wanted to let Eric handle him. Besides, it felt somehow against the rules for an SSS-rank adventurer to take part.

“What’s this, friend? You don’t seem that enthused, but I’m certain you could be champion.”

A reaction rippled through the other students nearby when they heard Vern say that. Some of the older students shot me blatant dirty looks. Not a surprising response.

There were rumors about me, but it wasn’t like the other students had actually seen me fight. The dungeon practical class was separated by years anyway, so people figured I was just good for a first year.

“I don’t plan on taking it seriously,” I answered. “Don’t expect much from me.”

As we were chatting, Sophia and Milia approached our table.

“Prince Vern, Arius, do you mind if we join you?” asked Sophia.

“No, but should you be leaving those girls to come here?” I questioned back. The two of them had been chatting with some other girls while they ate. When we started at the Academy, Sophia had been surrounded by the noble girls, and the faction was all she thought about. When those girls bullied Milia, Sophia stepped in, which led to Milia and Sophia becoming friends. From then on, Sophia took the initiative to engage with other students regardless of status or faction.

Even the table her entourage had claimed as their own had started to be used by other students as Sophia invited them to join.

“It’s fine. We eat with them all the time,” she deflected.

“You might be concerned, but they’re actually all jealous of us,” spoke Milia.

She was right. It wasn’t just the girls at the table the two of them had been eating at either. The girls who had invited Vern and me were also shooting them envious looks. The reason they didn’t come over to try and join in was probably because they were hesitant to interfere with Sophia, the daughter of Duke Victorino and Eric’s fiancée.

“You two have been eating together a lot in the cafeteria lately,” commented Milia. She was the heroine of Love Academy and was reincarnated into this world like me.

When she started at the Academy, she had been acting like Milia from the game because this was the world depicted in it. Now, Milia was being honest with her emotions and letting that guide her actions.

“It’s ’cause Arius doesn’t go to class. Lunch is the only time I get to see him,” complained Vern, which made Milia give me an exasperated look.

“You feel the same way about that?” She challenged me, “You seriously skip class so much and basically don’t go to afternoon classes, do you?”

Part of it was because afternoon classes were combined with the other groups and focused on practical skills, meaning I couldn’t read during them. If I skipped my afternoon classes, I could focus on the dungeon for half a day.

“I know you’re busy with adventuring, but not everyone gets the chance to come to the Academy. You should attend lessons more,” she chided.

I hadn’t told her or the others that I was Arius the SSS-rank adventurer, but I hadn’t hidden from them the fact that I was still adventuring. There were your normal dungeons in Ronaudia after all, and it wasn’t all that hard for students to also be adventurers while attending the Academy.

“I can get my credit from passing the exams even if I don’t go to class,” I said. “If you’re worried about my grades on the tests, well, you don’t need to.”

The grade levels at which the Academy classes were taught meant they were pretty pointless to me. There was no way I was going to do poorly on the tests and fail. But that didn’t seem good enough for Milia.

“That’s not the issue, Arius,” Sophia insisted. “Milia misses you because she doesn’t get to see you in class.”

“S-Sophia! What are you even saying? You’re the one who was complaining about him skipping class,” countered Milia.

“W-Well, yes, but…I may complain, but I don’t miss him like you do.”

The two of them were such good friends. It honestly felt nice to be told by my friends that they missed me, but they were exaggerating. We saw each other at lunch.

“I already knew Arius was like this…” muttered Milia.

“I agree, Milia,” said Sophia.

The two of them were staring at me like they knew what I was thinking. But what was the problem?

Milia sighed. “Arius, you’re taking part in the tournament, right? You’re not going to skip that, are you?”

This topic again? The tournament was a popular event in Love Academy too. Maybe that was why Milia cared about it.

“I’ll show up at least,” I answered.

“Show up at least? I feel like that has some hidden meaning there.”

“Arius isn’t very enthusiastic about the tournament,” Vern explained.

“Hmph. I guess the tournament is pretty pointless for someone like Arius,” Milia nodded between mouthfuls.

I couldn’t very well tell them about the situation between Eric and Keith, and it was true that I felt the tournament was pointless, so I didn’t disagree with her.

“That’s enough about me,” I interrupted. “What about you, Milia? Are you taking part?”

“Yep. Sophia, too. I got selected, so I’m going to give it my all.”

Being the protagonist of Love Academy meant Milia was also stat-heavy. Other than Eric, she was the highest level out of all the characters.

“I’m not sure if I should. I have to be careful about my reputation being Prince Eric’s fiancée,” worried Sophia. Doing well in the tournament wasn’t very “ladylike,” so a lot of the girls refused to take part.

“I don’t think Prince Eric cares about that sort of thing,” stated Vern.

“I don’t think so either,” said Sophia, “but it’s not only about me. I need to think about what others think.”

Sophia seemed worried about affecting Eric’s reputation and wanted to be helpful to him.

“Well, it’s your choice in the end,” I said. “No matter what you choose, I’ll support you.” I wasn’t going to disagree with a decision she made after she’d taken a good look at the situation.

“I’ll support you too,” concurred Milia.

“I feel a little odd hearing that from my opponents. But thank you, Arius, Milia,” said Sophia with a happy smile.

“By the way, I have a favor to ask you,” Milia began, looking at me. “I know you’re busy with adventuring work, but I was wondering if you might help us train a bit these two weeks before the tournament. It’ll be a good opportunity to see how far your strength can take you, and I want to be as strong as you. Obviously, when you have time.”

It honestly seemed like she wanted to get stronger.

“Sure. I can probably manage an hour in the morning,” I replied.

“Wait…really? Are you sure?” she blurted. Maybe she hadn’t expected me to agree.

“I’ve got a little spare time in the mornings. I can’t do it every day, but probably three days a week.”

“Thank you, Arius!”

She looked happy. Milia was a good person. The least I could do was help with training a bit.

“Milia, do you mind if I join this training, too?” Vern asked, breaking his silence.

“P-Prince Vern! Why are you asking me and not Arius?” she stammered.

“Uh, just…because.” He acted like it was no big deal, but I got the impression he was under some misconception.

“I don’t mind if you come along,” I told him. “What about you, Sophia? Even if you decide not to participate in the tournament, training won’t be a waste. Do you want to join?”

“Well, if you’d like me to, then don’t mind if I do. Sorry, Milia.”

“Why? Besides, you look happy that Arius invited you!”

“Well, of course I’m happy. My friend invited me to something. Obviously, that would make me happy.”

“And I’m happy that we get to train together!”

They really were such good friends.

“Do you mind if we invite Prince Zeke and Sasha as well? I don’t know if Sasha would actually train, though,” Milia directed at me. She was friends with both of them. Sasha wasn’t the type to enter the tournament, but she might want to come along to training if Zeke participated.

“I don’t mind if they come. It’s just a gathering of friends. No one’s going to be super picky about who comes.”

Sophia and Vern nodded.

“Thanks, Arius. I appreciate it,” she said.

“There’s actually one other person I’d like to invite. Do you mind?” I asked.

“Of course not. It doesn’t sound like you mean Prince Eric, though,” she said.

Eric was busy with Duke Jordan. Besides, he wasn’t the kind of person to practice where others could see.

“It’s not anyone you know, I don’t think. We met before I became friends with any of you.”

“Huh, a friend that you met before us? It’s obviously not weird at all that you have friends outside of us,” Milia said stiffly. Maybe she figured I had no other friends since I skipped class and then went straight to the dungeon after school. However, if we’re talking about Academy friends, we’ve pretty much covered them all already.

“Arius, is this friend of yours a boy?” Sophia asked.

“No, a girl.”

Sophia’s mouth was smiling, but her eyes weren’t for some reason.

“R-Right… Well, if she’s your friend, then I’d like her to be my friend too,” Milia stated, but something was also off about her.

Chapter 2: The Attacker

Chapter 2: The Attacker

DUKE Jordan’s territory was on the western side of the kingdom, where the lord would reside in his castle. However, he was often in the capital for his duties and therefore also had a mansion there.

“Damn that bastard Eric for not taking me seriously!” shouted Keith as he slammed his fist into the mansion wall in rage. “They say this year’s first-year class has a lot of capable fighters, but how dare he imply I wouldn’t participate in the tournament because I’m afraid I’ll lose to one of them?! I will make him suffer at the tournament and show him the difference in strength between us!”

Duke Jordan’s expression was sour as he listened to his son. “You’re aware there’s no benefit to you participating in the tournament this year, since you were last year’s champion, aren’t you? You have a bad habit of immediately letting your emotions get the best of you. Perhaps you should consider working on that.”

Keith had a reputation for being excellent in both academics and combat, making him the star of hope the anti-royalists wished upon, but his personality was a problem. Keith was usually surrounded by nobles from Duke Jordan’s faction. They were mild and meek people meant to improve Keith’s reputation, leading the other students to think of him as a proper young nobleman—all the same, he was a ball of elitist arrogance. He had a short temper that made him draw his sword on anyone and everyone at the slightest provocation.

“Well, there’s no point discussing what’s already been done,” the duke said. “Keith, now that you will be entering the tournament, you must beat that boy Eric. Our dignity will be at stake if he jerks us around any longer.”

“What do you mean, Father?”

Duke Jordan was irritated by the lack of comprehension written on Keith’s face. “Do you have any idea how many nobles have left our faction these past two weeks? Twelve. Eric bribed them all!”

Losing nobles from your faction meant the loss of your political influence, for both the royals and the Three Great Dukes. It was no small matter.

It wasn’t unheard of for nobles to switch factions, but nobles who did were treated as backstabbers by their previous faction, and their new faction rarely trusted them readily. Doing so was a risk to their position. That meant nobles didn’t switch factions without special circumstances, such as receiving something in return that surpassed the risk they were taking, or if it meant avoiding an even greater risk. For example, if they were given a large enough sum of money that they didn’t mind being called traitors, or if someone had found their weakness and threatened them with it, then many nobles would choose to leave their faction. Eric had used all methods to make this happen.

I should be on high alert when it comes to that boy, the duke thought. However, he is still just a welp with little experience who knows nothing of fear. Everything will be perfectly fine if Keith can make him suffer and destroy his reputation in the tournament. And if he can’t, well, there are other options.

Duke Jordan didn’t have particularly high expectations for Keith. His son was short-tempered and lacked prudence, making him difficult for the duke to control. He had no qualms tossing Keith aside if he became a hindrance.

“Damn that bastard Eric for pulling something like this behind my back! Father, leave him to me. I swear I will crush him!” Keith claimed. “That reminds me. Father, as I was leaving Eric’s room, I saw Arius, the son of Chief Minister Darius. He’s also going to be participating in the tournament. Should I crush him as well?”

Keith had heard the rumors about Arius taking part in the defense against the attack during the dungeon diving class, but he still thought of him as nothing more than a first-year, so he didn’t think much of him.

“Ah,” the duke pondered. “Darius Gilberto was an SS-rank adventurer, but still only an adventurer. I’m aware of what the man who conned the king into giving him the position of chief minister is capable of. There’s no need to be wary of his son, but you may as well destroy him if you have the opportunity.”

Duke Jordan’s land was on the western side of the kingdom, far from demon territory, and he hadn’t gone to the front lines during the Crisis of Ronaudia eighteen years ago. He hadn’t seen Darius, considered a hero and savior of the kingdom, fight alongside his companions. His territory was also peaceful with relatively few monsters, which meant he’d never interacted with high-level adventurers. He had a very low opinion of their strength.

“Additionally, Keith,” he began, “if you find yourself up against Zeke or any others involved with the royal family, destroy them all.”

The duke then left the hall and went to his study. This was where he did his paperwork, and servants weren’t allowed to enter without permission.

But when he opened the door to his study, he found a woman wearing a silvery-white mask sitting on his sofa. The mask covered the top half of her face, her hair was pure white, and her robes were jet-black. She was clearly a suspicious-looking person, but Duke Jordan entered the room and closed the door as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

“Altana,” he greeted. “I’m sorry to keep you waiting.”

“I’m a busy person and I’d rather not be kept waiting, but you’re one of my best clients, so I’ll let it slide this time,” she replied with an accent.

The woman’s name was Altana—she also went by the name Merchant of Death. Depending on how much money you could offer, she could provide you with anything from magic items for assassination or mental manipulation to poisons and drugs. She was also a broker of the underworld, sourcing criminal “cleaners.”

“What did you call me out here for today?” she asked.

“I need First Prince Eric of Ronaudia eliminated, and it must be guaranteed to succeed.”

“I can’t guarantee any such thing, but I can provide firepower that can eliminate almost anyone. The cost will rise proportionally, however,” she answered, providing her fee.

“It’ll take that much? No, it’s a small price to pay if this is what it takes to eliminate that boy.”

“It is. I only named a fair rate, after all,” was her response, but Altana considered him a fool and was robbing him blind. “We have a deal then. I’m sure you’re aware, Your Grace, that we take half up front in this field of business.”

The price she’d set not only covered the cost of hiring cleaners but also provided her with plenty of profit.

***

IN the mornings, I did resistance training by applying weight to my body using mana. My training became a daily routine—I hadn’t missed a single day since I was a kid.

Next were sword drills while in mock battles. Before starting that, I cast Perception Block and Invisibility since it’d be annoying if someone saw me moving faster than the speed of sound.

I was imagining myself fighting the monsters in the Citadel of Ancient Gods, surrounded by them in all directions, like they were really there. Speeding up my mental processing speed to match their movements, my attack and dodge moves could be measured to within one-hundredth of a second. Obviously, I also never backed off on my mana manipulation.

After training for an hour, I took a hot shower and went to the cafeteria for breakfast. I still had more than an hour until class started, so I went to my room and changed into my uniform before heading out.

Today, we started training for the tournament, just as I promised Milia and the others. The training sessions would run right up to the day of the tournament.

“Good morning, Arius,” Milia waved to me. “You came, just like you promised.”

“And five minutes early. You’re very punctual,” added Sophia.

The two of them were waiting outside the Academy buildings along with Vern, Zeke, Sasha, and one other.

“U-Um, A-Arius…” stammered a girl with glasses and braids as she arrived just barely on time.

“Noelle, you made it,” I greeted. “Let me introduce you to everyone. Everyone, this is my friend, Noelle Balt.”

“I-It’s a pleasure to, to meet you all. M-My name is Noelle,” she mumbled, nervous and looking down at the ground as she introduced herself. We just happened to meet because we both went to the library a lot. She was my first friend at the Academy.

“Noelle’s a bit shy,” I explained to the others. “Go easy on her.”

After everyone introduced themselves to Noelle, we went to one of the Academy training rooms, where we practiced using magic. The floor of the training room was divided into four squares, each with a magic circle drawn inside. Those magic circles created a Special Barrier that nullified damage and turned it into numbers.

Our hands-on, combined-class magic practices brought together all the students of the same year. The students were then divided into five groups based on ability, from A to E, resulting in five rooms at the Academy like this. It was easy enough to get permission to use the room; it seemed no one else used it outside of class.

“Right, I want to start today by getting an idea of how strong you all are,” I explained. “Get your gear on, and then you’ll take turns fighting me. There are four Special Barriers, so go ahead and practice when you’re not busy. I’ll make the Special Barriers more powerful than they are in class, so feel free to go all-out.”

I’d instructed everyone to come prepared with their combat equipment, like they did for the dungeon practical, since the tournament had the same requirements. I already knew everyone’s level, stats, spells, and skills thanks to Evaluate, but sparring with them helped me fully measure their ability.

“I can go all-out, right, Arius?” Vern tested, standing in front of me. He’d quickly changed into his equipment: a black metallic plate armor, a shield with the crest of the Granbride Empire, and a broadsword. Granbride was an austere and powerful country, which meant every piece of Vern’s equipment was magical but not overly flashy.

I was still in my glasses and school uniform. My weapon was a longsword I bought at the market.

“Yeah. Use whatever magic and skills you want,” I said.

“All right, then, I won’t hold back. Shattering Blade!”

Mana coated Vern’s sword when he activated the skill. Shattering Blade was a mid-level one-handed sword skill and the most powerful of the skills Vern could use. He swung at me again and again, and I dodged using minimal movements. Slowing myself down, I attacked with my sword, and Vern blocked it with his shield.

As I began steadily increasing my speed, Vern started taking damage, visible as numbers in the air within the Special Barrier. Vern was surprisingly good at magic, but it didn’t look like he planned to use it in our match.

“I think I got a feel for how strong you are now,” I stated.

Above Vern’s head, it showed he’d taken more than 500 points of damage. I, of course, had zero.

“I knew I was nowhere near your level, but I’m pretty strong, wouldn’t you say?” he said with confidence. He was among the highest levels of everyone, after all, and he had high base stats as one of Love Academy’s love interests.

“Hey, Vern, do you really want to get stronger?” I asked.

“What kind of question is that, my good friend? Of course I do!”

“Then I’ll be frank. You never try to dodge attacks; you only block them. That fighting style can’t even win against people of similar strength to you.”

Vern was probably confident in his own strength, thinking that the bit of damage he took from blocking was worth not dodging my attacks entirely. Obviously, you should decide between each tactic when needed, but this style of never dodging would only work on people weaker than you.

“Also,” I continued, “you rely too much on your sword. Using only sword attacks gets monotonous, making it easy for your opponent to read your next move. You could bash with your shield or even kick. And you’re good at magic; you should use that too. There’s no point clinging to some nice and fair fighting style if it makes you lose.”

“I suppose…you might be right,” he admitted, sounding less spirited. He seemed like he understood what I was getting at.

The rest of the group had finished changing and were back, their attention focused on Vern and me.

“Let me say something to all of you first,” I directed at them. “It’s about what strength is. Victory or defeat is determined by everything combined: your ability, skills, fighting style, and strategy. And me, I think the person who wins in the end is the strong one. If you want to be strong in that way, then I’ll be honest with you—I won’t hold back. But I also don’t plan on pushing my way of thinking onto you, so if you don’t want me to say anything, I won’t.”

In my mind, I’m not thinking I want to beat any specific person, but the strength I’m after is the strength that can win. There’s no point in strength that can’t win.

“If you really want to get stronger, Vern, then the first thing you need to do is get rid of any obsessions about how you should fight. As you train, think for yourself how you go about winning.”

“All right, Arius. I’ll have a serious think about it.”

“I want to get stronger, too, so don’t hold back on your critique,” piped up Milia.

Guess she was next.

Her equipment was chainmail reinforced with a breast plate, gauntlets, and greaves, along with a slender sword and a buckler fixed to her left arm. She probably used that sort of shield instead of one she had to hold in order to leave her left hand open to use as she wanted.

“I had this thought when I saw you in the dungeon practical, but your armor seems geared toward real-life combat,” I commented. “Did you use to adventure before coming to the Academy?”

“I am registered as an adventurer. I used to take on the dungeon near my hometown to get stronger and save money for when I went to the Academy.”

I was pretty sure Milia in Love Academy hadn’t been an adventurer. Though I guess it wasn’t impossible since she started with a pretty high level in the game too.

“Strengthen! Haste!” Milia cried before she cast Shining Arrow, a tier-two Light spell and the element she was most skilled with.

I dodged the six arrows that appeared, then Milia was coming right at me as if she’d anticipated my movements.

“Flashing Blade!”

Her sword glowed as she activated the mid-level one-handed sword skill that sped up your sword in a flurry of blows. Milia was a balanced-type fighter who could use both sword and sorcery. Since she was good at Light magic, she could even cast healing spells.

I dodged her attacks and stepped back out of her range. She followed, casting Shining Arrow again as she did. I dodged that too, but she followed the spell immediately with another series of blows, surprising everyone.

“I knew I wouldn’t be able to hit you,” she huffed.

“Your movements are fast and precise, and you’re reading my moves. You’re used to fighting. Have you still been adventuring since you entered the Academy?” I asked.

“You see all, don’t you? Yeah, I’m in a party with some upperclassmen, and we go into the Academy’s dungeon after class and on days off.”

Any student could go into the dungeon so long as they had the Academy’s permission. There were some noble students who went dungeon diving, but more than half of the students who did grind in the dungeon were commoners, despite making up only twenty percent of the student body. This was because students could get magic crystals by defeating monsters in the dungeon. Dungeon diving was basically a part-time job for them.

Even so, it was rare for a first-year commoner student to go into the dungeon like Milia. They hadn’t been trained by their family’s tutors or knights before coming to the Academy, like the noble students had, and were usually low-level.

“All right, time for me to attack,” I announced. I closed in on her and struck. By that point, I was moving fifty percent faster than when I’d fought Vern.

“That’s too fast, Arius!” she cried, but she still reacted fast enough to dodge. “Holy Spear!”

She cast the tier-three Light spell from close range, unleashing a spear of white light. Had she chosen to focus on might since I was coming at her? I slashed the white spear aside with my mana-coated sword, making it disappear.

“No way! How could you cut a spell with your sword?” she demanded.

“There are plenty of adventurers who can do that,” I told her.

Milia continued to attack me with both sword and magic while dodging my attacks as I increased speed. The attacks she couldn’t dodge, she reliably blocked with her sword and buckler.

But, since she’d flown into the fight at full force, she was running out of MP and stamina, and the damage points above her head started jumping up.

“I think we can stop there,” I said. “Good job, Milia.”

“I knew I couldn’t win against you, so I’m satisfied just giving it my all. What do I need to work on?”

“If I had to say, it’d be power and defense. You’ve got a good balance of abilities and a strong foundation. If you keep on training, you’ll improve across the board while gaining experience. As you get more experience, your movements will get more efficient, which will use less stamina and let you use your spells more effectively. The other thing is mana manipulation, but it looks like you’re taking that training seriously. It powers up both your spells and skills while using your mana more efficiently.”

When Milia and I came out to each other as reincarnated, she told me she also wanted to become stronger, so I taught her how to practice mana manipulation. She had a good feel for that sort of thing and was already aware of and consciously controlling the flow of mana before I came into the picture. Her spells were more powerful than others, but she needed an even finer control of her mana if she was aiming higher.

“I’ve been practicing until I run out of MP every day, just like you told me to,” she replied. “Thanks to that, I feel like my understanding of how to use mana efficiently has gotten a bit better.”

“Being able to manipulate mana exactly how you want to reduces MP waste and increases your spell’s power. If you keep up training like you are now, you’ll get even stronger.”

You had to hone your ability to sense mana and have a clear and detailed image in your head of its flow up to the point you activated your spell to align with what you wanted to do—the more precise your manipulation, the more accurate your sense for it. There was no upper limit to how much better you could get with mana manipulation.

“Thanks, Arius. I’m glad to hear that. It’s because of you I’ve gotten this far,” Milia said with a smile. She was happy she could feel herself getting stronger.

“Milia, you’re incredible!” Vern proclaimed, laying on the praise. One of the many good things about Vern was that he acknowledged the strength of his opponent.

“Thank you, Your Highness. But I still want to get even stronger!”

“Me too. I’m not going to let you outdo me!”

After that, I took turns sparring with the rest of the group.

Sophia was equipped with a type of cloth armor that had higher defense than regular clothing and also buffed mana. Her weapon was a compact, small sword, which was even more slender than the sword Milia used. She also had a main-gauche, a dagger with a guard used for parrying.

Sophia’s sword skills were at a practical level for a girl, but her primary method of attack was her magic. She used Dark element spells, which excelled more at inflicting effects rather than offensive power. To be totally honest, she wasn’t suited for a tournament like this, where the fights were one-on-one.

“I know what you’re going to say, Arius,” she began. “I was selected for the Combat Tournament because I have good grades, but I’m not strong enough to do well.”

“I’m not going to make any snide comments, and if you’ve decided you want to do this, then I support you. The tournament’s just a school event anyway, and it could be a good experience fighting in a situation where you’re at a disadvantage. I think gaining perspectives in different situations could help you do the things you want to do.”

“You’re right. I’ll give it some thought.”

Sophia gave everything she did her all, and that wasn’t to restore her family, House Victorino, to glory. It was to support Eric, her fiancé.

Zeke was equipped with half plate armor with the crest of the royal family and a longsword. Appearance-wise, it was similar to my adventuring friend Jessica’s style, but she used a bastard sword, which could be used one- or two-handed. The problem was that it wasn’t like Zeke chose a longsword so he could keep one hand free to increase what he could do, like Milia did—he hadn’t put much thought into what he’d chosen.

His fighting style was along those lines too. As a love interest, his base specs were high, of course, and his level and stats weren’t bad at all. It felt like it was all sort of half-assed.

“Hey, Arius… No, never mind,” he said.

It seemed like there was something on his mind, and I wasn’t going to critique him if that was the case. Getting stronger wasn’t an end-all be-all for everyone.

Like Milia had said about Sasha, she came to the practices because Zeke did, but she didn’t seem interested in participating.

After we finished our sparring matches, I told the others they could practice in the other Special Barriers when they weren’t busy. Milia was out because she’d used up her stamina and MP. The only people who did anything were Vern and Zeke, who sparred a bit.

“Noelle, I just remembered, I think I’ve seen you before,” Milia said casually. “You were studying in the library with Arius, right?”

“Uh, yeah… W-We were…”

“Noelle, I need to apologize to you,” Sophia began. “Not long after we entered the Academy, some noble students dirtied your clothes in the cafeteria, but I didn’t stop them. I am very sorry for that.” She lowered her head in apology.

“I-It’s all right, my lady… I-It’s all in the past…”

“You forgive her? Thank you! And, you don’t have to be so formal. We’re both first-year students,” added Milia.

“B-But, I’m a commoner…”

“That doesn’t matter, right, Sophia? I’m a commoner too, but Sophia’s my best friend.”

“That’s right,” Sophia agreed. “And we’re friends now as well, Noelle, starting today.”

“Me? Y-Your friend?”

Noelle wasn’t the type to volunteer for the Combat Tournament, and she probably wasn’t interested in getting stronger. I invited her because she was a good person, and I figured she’d get along with the others. Milia had this ability to get people to let their guards down immediately, and Sophia was so kind; both characteristics were helpful in this sort of thing.

“Noelle, do you want to try sparring with me?” I asked.

“Uh, yeah…sure. You did invite me, I guess I should try.”

Even Noelle was getting out there to try. That was probably thanks to Milia and Sophia.

“Th-Thank you for your help, Arius!” she said. She was a magic attacker. She had on a robe somewhat thicker than normal and was holding an oak staff.

“Come on, Noelle, don’t get nervous with me too,” I lightly joked.

“B-But everyone’s watching…”

Well, Noelle was shy. Guess you couldn’t expect her not to be nervous.

“First, try and relax, then use the spell you’re best at.”

“A-All right. Here I go, Stone Shot!”

Noelle was best with Earth magic and was in group B for the magic practical class. She wasn’t as good as the rest of us in the group, but she did have a knack for magic.

The stone clump she launched at me flew with force, and I shifted slightly to the side to dodge it.

“That’s it, Noelle,” I encouraged. “Keep going like that, don’t stop casting.”

“A-All right. I got it.”

She kept firing, and I kept dodging. Noelle didn’t have any weapons, which meant the moment I attacked, the fight was over, but it wouldn’t really be a match if I never attacked.

“Noelle, it’s my turn to attack. You try to counter.”

“A-All right!”

I approached her, dodging her spells as I did. Once I made it up to her, she didn’t raise her staff or make a move to dodge. She just squeezed her eyes shut in fear of the attack that was about to come.

“Oh, Noelle…” I sighed as I jabbed her lightly in the forehead with my finger.

“Ow! Wh-What are you doing?”

“That can’t have hurt. We’re in a Special Barrier.” It didn’t even display damage numbers over her head because I touched her so lightly.

The first thing Noelle would need to learn is how to fight, but she wasn’t particularly interested in getting stronger. I’d have to think about her role in a fight if she were going to keep coming to these practices.

“I kind of feel like Arius is treating Noelle differently from the rest of us,” Milia observed.

“I agree. He’s gentler with her,” concurred Sophia.

They were both staring at us.

“Th-That’s not true!” Noelle yelled, jumping to deny the claim.

“I’m sorry, Noelle! I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable,” Milia said.

“I’m sorry as well. Would you like to join us over here for some tea?” Sophia asked as she poured black tea into several cups while Milia passed out sandwiches to everyone, which they brought as pick-me-ups.

“You probably ate breakfast before coming, but do you still want one, Arius?” Milia offered.

“Yeah, I’d like one. Thanks,” I said, then took a bite. “Mm, it’s good.”

“If you like them, I’m glad I made them. I made loads thinking people could have them for lunch too if there were leftovers, so feel free to eat as much as you like.” She started eating her own sandwich then, as if remembering something, asked, “Hey, Arius. Now that I think about it, you need a magic crystal to cast Special Barrier, don’t you?”

There were magic circles drawn on the floor of the practice room, making the floor itself a magic item. It activated Special Barriers by burning mana from magic crystals.

“Since magic crystals are consumable items, I imagine the Academy didn’t lend them to you,” Sophia thought out loud. “Activating a high-powered Special Barrier like you did today would require a significant amount of mana. It would be expensive to prepare the magic crystals we’d need for that. Arius, please be honest. How much did you spend?”

Sophia might have been the daughter of Duke Victorino, one of the Three Great Dukes, but House Victorino wasn’t exactly rolling in cash, meaning her idea of what was expensive wasn’t that far off from the rest of us.

“I’m an adventurer,” I explained. “I got the crystals in dungeons, so I didn’t spend anything. Besides, you and Milia made food for us. You don’t have to worry about the crystals.”

“That’s nice of you to say that, but still…” murmured Milia.

“Thank you, Arius, though I have a feeling you’re evading the issue,” relented Sophia.

At least the two of them seemed to accept it for now.

“If that’s the case, I’ll pay you some for the magic crystals,” Vern offered.

“And I haven’t done anything to help, even though I’m here participating in practice. I’ll pay too,” Zeke seconded.

“Uh…w-well, I’ll pay too!” chirped Noelle. She probably felt like she had no choice but to say that, considering the way things were going.

“Guys, it’s not like I’m short on money,” I argued. “What I want more than money is for you to try hard. I believe you all can accomplish a lot.”

“Well then, my good friend, leave it to me!” Vern cheered happily.

“If that’s what you want…all right, Arius,” Zeke muttered.

“S-Sure, Arius. I-I’ll do my best…”

While we chatted, it was getting closer to the time for class to start.

“All right, so same time tomorrow,” I announced, wrapping practice up so everyone could change. “We can probably meet here in the training room. I have it booked from six o’clock, so you can start practice early if you get here before me. I’ll give the magic crystal to Milia.” I took the crystal out of the fixture and handed it to her.

“Hey, wait, Arius! This magic crystal is huge!” she exclaimed.

The crystal was a drop from the Ancient Dragon, which spawned on the final floor of the Dragon’s Palace, a hard-difficulty dungeon. It was as big as a grown man’s fist.

“There’s nothing wrong with erring on the side of bigger,” I countered. “This one crystal can supply the mana for the whole training room.”

“That’s not the issue…”

I knew what she was trying to say, but pretended I didn’t. I hadn’t gone to any dungeons lately other than the Citadel of Ancient Gods. Using a crystal from an extreme-difficulty dungeon would probably cause an uproar, so I was using ones I had in storage. It was also the smallest one I had.

***

“JESSICA, you’ve been really cranky lately. Is it because you haven’t seen Arius in a while?” wondered Marcia, who was sitting next to me with a grin.

“M-Marcia! I am not— No! Just no.”

I was eating dinner with my S-rank adventuring party, the Silver Wing, in the Adventurers Guild of Carnell.

Not too long ago, we had been having dinner with Arius every evening in the Guild, but he suddenly stopped coming to Carnell without even saying anything. I’d Messaged him, and he replied that he was busy right now. I already knew he was a busy person, but now he wasn’t coming here at all. What was that about?

“He’s got a lot going on, doesn’t he? He’d been coming to Carnell for, what, a month or two? I’m sad we haven’t seen him because it means he’s not paying for my food. But, if he’s busy, guess there’s nothing I can do about it,” Marcia sighed with a teasing grin. She’d picked up on my feelings for Arius and still gave me looks like that. It was really annoying.

And it’s not like I didn’t get it. Arius was an SSS-rank adventurer. He didn’t really have any reason to come to Carnell. It was only near a hard-difficulty dungeon: Guney’s Great Labyrinth. It made sense then that he’d stop coming if something else came up.

“Marcia, stop teasing Jessica. Besides, Arius isn’t that cruel. He’ll show up eventually,” chided Gale, coming to my rescue. He and Arius were good friends. Arius would probably come back to Carnell at some point to have drinks with him.

“Gale’s right. Once Arius is done with whatever’s making him busy, he’ll be back. He cares about people,” chipped in Allen. Allen had become a total Arius fanboy ever since he realized just how much stronger Arius was when he went with us into Guney’s Great Labyrinth.

Even though Allen used to talk badly about Arius all the time, Arius had reached out a helping hand to him when he was at rock bottom. It was thanks to Arius that Allen was able to become a serious adventurer again, like he used to be a long time ago.

So, yeah. Arius wasn’t going to just up and disappear without saying anything. I didn’t like that I didn’t get to see him, but I just had to get through this.

“Looks like Jessica’s feeling a bit better,” noted Mike, our offensive magic user.

“Yeah. That smile suits her better, too,” chuckled Sarah, the healer.

They were both important members of the Silver Wing and had been in the party since I first met Arius, though they must still feel he was a bit out of reach because they always sounded formal when talking to him.

“Thanks, you two,” I said. “I need to work harder so I can become strong like Arius.”

’Cause Arius was still working hard. I knew I could never catch up to him, but I would get stronger and get just a little closer to him.

“Jessica, I am glad to see you in a better mood, but could you keep it under control?” growled Jake, our tank, with a scowl before downing the rest of the ale in his tankard.

Jake and Allen had both talked badly about Arius a while ago. While Arius managed to turn Allen into a serious adventurer, Jake was the same as always. Not only did he have a bad attitude, but he was full of himself. He thought he was strong and was satisfied with where he was at. Not only that, but he was my biggest headache when it came to the Silver Wing.

“Jake, I’m not going to force you to do anything, but have you thought about working hard to get stronger?” I retorted.

“Really, Jessica? The second you’re in a better mood, you decide to start lecturing me? You’re welcome to keep aiming for higher, but I’m already an S-rank adventurer. I’m pretty sure I’ve already put in plenty of effort.”

“Lay off it, Jake. Jessica’s just concerned for you,” said Allen.

“Yeah, and you— You know what, never mind. My ale’s not tasting too good anymore. I think I’ll head back to the inn,” grumbled Jake in annoyance before leaving the Guild.

“That guy’s worthless,” Allen muttered. “Next time, I’ll beat that stubbornness out of him.”

“Go easy on him, please. He’s not a bad guy at heart,” I said.

If he were, I wouldn’t have invited him to join the party in the first place. Jake didn’t have his sights set as high as we did at the moment, but there was nothing we could do about it if he didn’t want to aim higher.

“I know. It’s not like I dislike the guy anyway.”

“But it is a pretty big problem that we have different goals,” Marcia said with a grin. She might look like she was joking around, but she was always thinking things through logically, and she didn’t bother beating around the bush.

“I know what you’re trying to say, Marcia, but I’m going to get him to try a bit harder. If it’s still a problem, then we’ll all have to sit down for a chat.”

Adventuring wasn’t some game. You couldn’t keep someone in your party forever just because you were friends. In the past, I’d tossed out party members who didn’t see things the same way as me, so the Silver Wing had had some lineup changes before getting to this point. If I needed to make a decision now, I wouldn’t hesitate—I was aiming higher as an adventurer.

“Well, regardless of what happens, I’m on your side, Jessica,” Marcia grinned, her eyes kind.

“I know. Thanks, Marcia.”

She might tease me and say things she shouldn’t when it came to Arius, but she considered me a valuable companion and friend.

Just then, I heard a loud commotion outside.

The Adventurers Guild of Carnell was in the middle of the city and faced a plaza. When I looked out the windows, I saw the plaza crowded with people despite it being ten o’clock at night. They were looking up into the sky at a big metal ship lit with magic lights. It was clearly coming down to land in the plaza.

That thing’s an airship.

“Someone’s flying in here on an airship at this time of night? I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Marcia muttered as she picked up her equipment.

Airships weren’t all that uncommon a sight, but there were no regularly scheduled flights to Carnell. It was definitely weird to see one suddenly flying in.

“Allen, Mike, Sarah…” I cautioned.

“We know, Jessica. Everybody, be on your guard!” barked Allen.

We quickly geared up so we could handle whatever was coming. We didn’t have our tank, Jake, but we couldn’t do anything about that now.

Gale and his party also started equipping with practiced ease. The rest of the adventurers were drunk, considering what time it was. There were probably only about ten people we could expect to fight.

The airship touched down, and out came about twenty armored soldiers. A man in gaudy, gold full plate armor with vivid blue hair and eyes the color of blood strolled out last, a huge sword slung over his back. The group of soldiers made their way toward the Guild.

“We’d better be careful of that flashy gold plate guy,” cautioned Marcia as she watched the man approach through the window. “My Evaluate isn’t even good enough to read his level, and the mana I’m feeling with Scan is insane.”

Marcia was our scout, and her Evaluate and Scan were better than anyone else’s in the party. She couldn’t tell his level, and he had so much mana it felt unusual to her… Who the heck was this guy?

“We’d better cast support spells in advance, just in case,” warned Mike, our offensive magic user. He and Sarah, our healer, cast spells like Strengthen, Haste, Magic Guard, and Barrier on each member of the party.

“If you’re not interested in fighting, go hide downstairs in the training room. It’s probably too late to escape out the back,” Gale told the adventurers who didn’t look like they’d be useful in a fight.

The incoming men surrounded the Guild. Just as Mike and Sarah were finishing casting, the gold-plated man kicked down the door and came in, grinning like a feral beast.

“Arius, the SSS-rank adventurer, are you in here?” he shouted. “Show yourself. If you don’t…I’ll just have to mess this place up!”

This guy was definitely bad news.

“Sorry to tell you, but Arius hasn’t been in Carnell for a while,” Allen said. “What do you want with him? Depending on your answer, we might not be able to show you mercy!” He moved to stand in the gold-plated man’s way.

“What the hell? Hmph. You’re just a pathetic little S-rank adventurer. I’ve got no business with small fry like you. If Arius isn’t here, then tell me where he is. If you don’t want to die, you shouldn’t get in the way of me, the great Chris Brad!” he yelled, pulling the gold sword from his back, showing off a unique dragon carved onto the hilt.

“Are you insane, drawing your sword in an Adventurers Guild without reason?” Allen demanded.

Shedding blood in an Adventurers Guild was a great way to make yourself a criminal. Besides, there were so many witnesses that it wasn’t like he could talk his way out of it.

“So what? I’m special. Killing you doesn’t matter,” he brushed off as a wave of hostility rolled off him.

Looked like he was serious.

“I don’t know what’s so special about you, but there’s no way I’m telling some dangerous guy like you where Arius is!” I shot back. Not that I actually knew where Arius was, but I didn’t think he’d believe me if I told him that.

I drew my trusty bastard sword and moved to stand next to Allen to glare directly at Chris. Allen nodded and drew his great sword. We knew our enemy was in a different league, meaning we were going to take this seriously from the start.

The others leapt into action. Marcia cast Invisibility and Silence, then circled to Chris’s back. Mike and Sarah ran through the incantations of their spells, then held them, ready to cast at any moment. Gale’s party spread to flank Chris, putting themselves where they could go straight for him.

And yet, despite being surrounded, Chris just sneered at us.

“Huh, the small fries think they’re something now. Fine. I’ll kill all of you!”

He rushed at us, his golden blade slashing out with a horizontal strike. Allen stepped forward and tried to block the attack with his mana-filled sword, but instead got blasted backward and slammed against the wall.

Thanks to Allen’s attempt to block, I was able to dodge the attack, but it still hit two members of Gale’s party. They didn’t take severe damage, but Allen’s great sword broke in half. The slash had cut his abdomen, smashing straight through his armor.

This guy was seriously powerful!

“Allen!” Sarah cried, reacting immediately to cast Full Heal.

“We’re over here too!” shouted Gale as he threw a knife at Chris, creating an opening in Chris’s guard that let me slip through.

Getting up close and personal was a standard tactic for someone using a large sword since they couldn’t handle small, quick attacks.

I gripped my bastard sword with two hands and swung with all my body weight and mana poured into it. Marcia attacked at the same time from behind, using her short sword to target the gaps in his plate armor. At the same time, Mike cast the tier-eight spell Forked Lightning.

“I said, you’re all small fry!” roared Chris.

He handled the attacks with ease. Chris canceled the multiple branches of Mike’s lightning spell with one flash of his golden great sword, then kicked up to hit me from below while also slamming Marcia with the back of his gauntleted fist. With his suddenly faster movements, he flung me and Marcia away before we could land a hit.

Chris’s kick shattered my breast plate, taking my HP down to less than half in an instant. Marcia looked like she managed to take her hit better, but she was still knocked back, and there was no way she had taken no damage.

What the heck was with this guy’s power? He had both strength and speed, and even a group of S-rank adventurers rushing at him was getting nowhere.

“Jessica, Marcia, I’m sorry to make you wait so long,” said Allen, now fully healed. He drew his backup great sword and stood blocking Chris’s path again.

“You’re weak, but you don’t seem to learn. Next time, I’ll split you in two!” shouted Chris, but Allen clenched his jaw and refused to let Chris egg him on. One bad move against an enemy like Chris, who was so overwhelmingly more powerful, could actually end up with Allen being split in two.

Mike was now ready to cast his next spell and was waiting for the right moment. After Chris so easily canceled out his last spell, it was going to be hard for him to find the right timing.

“Please stop, sir!” interrupted a soldier who came rushing into the Guild. “Killing people in an Adventurers Guild won’t end well. Your only goal is to bring back Arius, the SSS-rank adventurer, isn’t it?”

“Shut up! That just means I can kill them all after I make them tell me where he is!”

“Please, be rational! There’s a crowd outside as well. You’re not intending to kill all these witnesses, are you?”

“Silencing onlookers is your job! But if you can’t handle it, then I’ll just have to kill them all!”

It was no good. This Chris guy was absolutely off his rocker.

“Jessica, heal while you have the chance,” whispered Gale. His party was regrouping, putting some distance between themselves and Chris and taking defensive stances. It was the logical choice, seeing as it was reckless to make a poorly planned attack, but still…things were only going to go downhill from here.

If I, Marcia, and Allen attacked at the same time while Mike and Sarah attacked with spells, then just maybe…

“Don’t lose your cool, Jessica,” Gale cautioned. “We’ll attack with you, but an adventurer’s first priority is making it out alive.”

“He’s right,” Marcia said. “It’d be stupid to let someone like him kill us.”

I nodded, listening to them while Sarah cast a recovery spell on me. It seemed I had started to lose my cool, and I hadn’t even noticed. These were exactly the kind of situations where you needed to remain calm.

Chris was saying he’d kill everyone, but no one was dead yet. Considering how much stronger he was, you would’ve expected a death long before this point.

He was just enjoying messing with us. Chris wasn’t going to immediately start killing people just to get us to tell him where Arius was.

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll tell you where Arius is. Will you lay off us then?”

“Wait, Jessica! What are you saying?” cried Allen, but Marcia silenced him with a knowing look.

“So, the small fry got scared and finally feels like talking, huh?” said Chris with a sneer, but I wasn’t about to let a pathetic taunt like that get to me.

“We’re surrendering because we know we can’t beat you, but I don’t actually know where Arius is right now. If you promise me we’ll all walk out of here alive, I’ll send him a Message and get him to come here.”

The soldiers wanted Chris to stop too, so they were definitely going to be on board with this plan.

“Are you saying you’re willing to sell him out to save yourselves?” Chris asked.

“Say whatever you want, just promise me we’ll all live!”

Chris agreed, and so I sent Arius a Message. But it was a lie when I said I’d get him to come here. What I did instead was tell him Chris came to Carnell looking for him, but that we’re all right, so he should stay away for a while.

That meant Arius wouldn’t come to Carnell and accidentally bump into Chris. Even if Chris found out I lied, he was after Arius. He couldn’t exactly kill us, seeing as he thought we knew where he was.

And based on what the soldier was saying, Chris couldn’t actually get away with as much as he seemed to think he could. He couldn’t occupy the Guild and keep us locked up in here forever. That’s why I was thinking I could buy us time and—

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Jessica.”

It hadn’t even been five minutes, and Arius had already arrived at the Guild.

***

THE second I got Jessica’s Message, I used Teleport to go to Carnell. Jessica wouldn’t tell me not to come to Carnell if things were fine, which told me things were a mess there. Though I didn’t have an exact idea of what was happening from her Message alone.

The first thing I saw was the crowd surrounding the Guild. There were armored soldiers around the building, and the door had been broken down. Inside the Guild, near the entrance, was a man in tacky gold plate armor standing in opposition to Jessica and her party. That must be the Chris guy she mentioned.

Jessica’s blue breastplate was half-shattered, and Allen’s full plate was rent deeply in the abdomen. Marcia and members of Gale’s party also looked like they were in rough shape, but their injuries seemed to have been healed. At least no one’d been killed.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Jessica,” I said.

“Arius? Why…?” She looked at me like she wanted to cry.

“I know what you were trying to do, but it sounds like this guy’s got business with me. If that’s the case, then I’ll handle him. It’s my fault you had to deal with this mess.”

This Chris had vivid blue hair and deep red eyes. He sneered at me once we locked eyes. “Arius, I haven’t forgotten what you did to me, but I’m not who I was back then. Let me show you what it’s like going against someone in a totally different league!”

Had I met him before? I honestly didn’t remember at all.

I’d been in a party with Grey and Selena ever since I was a kid, and a lot of people said I was full of myself. There were a lot of other adventurers who started stuff with me, so maybe Chris was one of the guys I’d beat up after they tried to attack me?

But I wasn’t going to forget Chris meeting him now. I knew from Evaluate that his level was high and his stats were abnormally large. On top of that, he had a skill I didn’t recognize. That skill…

“You’ve really messed things up here, haven’t you, Chris?” I replied, my eyes fixed on him as I moved in front of Jessica. I was legitimately angry at this guy for tormenting her and the others.

“It’s their fault,” Chris scoffed. “They wouldn’t tell me where you were. But that girl eventually sold you out to save herself. How’s it feel to be betrayed by your friends?”

“Jessica isn’t like that. She sent me a Message telling me you were looking for me and that I shouldn’t come to Carnell. I decided to come here anyway.”

“What? You little—! You lied to me!”

Jessica was unfazed by Chris’s glare.

“Tsk, whatever. It’s all the same in the end. You’re the one I have business with, Arius. If you’re a good boy and come with me, I’ll let the rest of these small fries off the hook.”

“Why would I need to listen to you?” I countered.

“I had a feeling you’d say that, so I’ll just have to force you to do what I say!”

He rushed me, swinging his sword at my head. I moved ever so slightly to dodge, then moved in closer and punched him before he could react. He quickly leapt backward to avoid taking damage, but there was a fist-shaped indent in the stomach of his armor.

“Arius, you bastard, don’t be cocky!” he shouted with unveiled rage. The blade of his great sword glowed an even shinier gold as he coated it with mana.

I realized that the sword was the Mystical Sword Ouroboros. That said, the whole “Mystical Sword” thing made it sound fancier than it was. It was just a magic item that dropped in the hard-difficulty dungeon, the Dragon’s Palace.

Jessica looked concerned. I met her eyes and nodded to reassure her that I was fine.

“You seem pretty confident, Arius. You better not underestimate me!” Chris shouted as he came at me. Ouroboros roared as it smashed through the air.

I pulled two swords out of my Inventory. Our swords clashed, mana against mana, causing energy to explode out. If we fought here, everyone was going to end up as collateral.

“Chris, let’s move this somewhere else,” I said, then cast Short Teleport to move the two of us to the sky above the Adventurers Guild. Even suddenly finding himself in midair, Chris was able to manage by casting Fly on himself.

The soldiers and the onlookers noticed us. Not that it mattered, so long as they weren’t interfering with our fight.

“Damn you, treating me like you’re better than me!” Chris shouted as he attacked with his sword that surged with golden mana.

I blocked with my right sword, then attacked with my left, and leapt backward to evade. Not only did he have high stats, but he didn’t move too badly either.

“Catastrophe Slash!”

Activating his skill, Chris’s mana erupted from his sword. Catastrophe Slash was one of the highest-level skills for great swords that massively increased destructive power by creating a torrent of mana.

Chris came straight for me and swung down. When I blocked the strike with my swords, Chris tried to push harder to overpower me, but we were in midair.

I let him push as I landed a side kick to his completely unprotected stomach, crunching a chunk out of the flank of his golden plate armor and blasting him sideways.

“You bastard! I swear I will kill you!” he roared, glaring at me as he pressed a hand over his bleeding side. “Don’t think this is enough to let you win. I’m about to show you which of us is really stronger!”

Suddenly, a massive amount of mana erupted from every part of him. The torrent of mana gushing from his sword grew even more powerful, doubling in length, and the wound on his side stopped bleeding.

Using Evaluate, I saw his stats had jumped even higher. I didn’t quite understand the mechanism behind how this worked, but I guess he was getting serious.

Having shifted into high gear, Chris unleashed a flurry of blows that I continued to dodge. His power and speed had significantly increased, and that was definitely not normal.

“Die, die, die! Die already, Arius!”

Veins popped out across his body, and his skin turned red, heating up so much that steam came off him. His eyes were bloodshot, and he grinned madly.

“So, Chris, is that your Heart of the Hero skill?” I asked. It was the skill I didn’t recognize when I used Evaluate earlier, and it didn’t seem very hero-esque to me either.

“How the hell—? Eh, it doesn’t matter if you know about that, because you’re going to die here! Gahahaha!” He let out a raucous laugh. “With this power, I couldn’t possibly lose to you!”

His speed and power were off the charts. With mana exploding from his sword, he struck violently at me over and over.

I dodged his attacks and countered, but the cut I opened on his skin immediately closed. Was that another effect of Heart of the Hero?

I continued to avoid his attacks and sometimes landed a counterstrike. We kept at that for more than twenty minutes until I finally received the answer I’d been waiting for.

“I see. That’s the sort of skill this Heart of the Hero is,” I said out loud.

It wasn’t like I’d been doing nothing but dodging his attacks. I’d been using Analyze to learn more about this skill of his.

The tier-ten spell Analyze could give you a detailed breakdown of the effects and structure of spells or skills. Its only flaws were that it could only analyze skills or spells that were currently active, and that took time. That’s why I had to keep Chris using his Heart of the Hero.

If Heart of the Hero were nothing more than a skill I just hadn’t heard of before, I wouldn’t have bothered to go to these lengths, but this seemed like a pretty nasty skill, no matter how you looked at it. Analyze told me it was definitely nasty.

“All right, Chris, I don’t need to spend any more of my time on you,” I said, then increased my speed so much that Chris couldn’t react as I slammed my two swords into him.

“Gah!”

My left sword shattered his while my right pierced his golden plate armor, opening a massive hole in his chest. He instantly died, and his mana dissipated as he plummeted to the ground.

I rushed down and caught him, took a black collar out of my Inventory and put it around his neck, then cast Full Heal. He started breathing again, so, guess that went well.

The collar was a magic item from an extreme-difficulty dungeon that sealed someone’s mana, rendering Chris skill-less.

I knew from Analyze that Heart of the Hero had an automatic healing effect and gave resistance to status effects. Once activated, it couldn’t be deactivated until either he killed everyone he considered an enemy or he was killed. I couldn’t keep him dead or let him continue to be a threat; I still had questions to ask. Even though I wasn’t certain if it would work, I was okay with him dying if it didn’t. He’d tormented Jessica and the others and was trying to kill me.

Now I just needed to clean up. I cast the tier-one spell Magic Missile, forming twenty bullets of mana. I unleashed them into the area, and each one struck a different bird down, familiars sent by someone. While I’d been fighting Chris, they’d kept a set distance from us, unnatural behavior coupled with the fact that they had too much mana for normal birds. It wasn’t likely that Chris was using familiars while we were fighting, so someone was watching him.

I touched down on the ground, carrying Chris, who was still unconscious. The armored soldiers were still surrounding the Guild.

“S-Sir…”

There was a massive hole in Chris’s plate armor, stained with the blood that had spilled out. The soldiers who had been watching the fight from the ground probably didn’t know exactly what had happened, but seeing him in that state likely told them the situation.

A few terrified soldiers attempted to run, but I put up an Impenetrable Defense barrier around them and the Guild.

“Wh-What the hell is with this wall of light?!” one shouted.

They started making a lot of noise, but there was no way they were going to break my Impenetrable Defense and escape. It could be used for this sort of thing too.

“You lot showed up here with Chris, meaning you’re accomplices in his crimes,” I announced. “I’m going to need you to tell me everything you know.”

I tied up the soldiers, then went back inside the Guild.

“Arius, you’re all right!” Jessica rushed over to me with tears in her eyes. “I figured you’d probably be able to handle things, but are you… You’re not even injured…”

“I’m fine, Jessica. Sorry for making you worry.”

Gale, Allen, and the others also gathered around me.

“It seemed a tough fight for you, Arius, but I’m glad you managed,” Gale said.

“There’s a reason for that. I’ll tell you all about it later. Hey, Master, I’m going to borrow a room to interrogate these guys.”

Still carrying Chris, I led the soldiers into the training room in the Guild’s basement, where a group of adventurers was hiding. I had a feeling of why they were there, but they didn’t need to hide anymore, so I kicked them out.

Once I was sure all the soldiers were in the training room, I cast Impenetrable Defense around the room. Now, I could let down the Impenetrable Defense around the Guild and let the other adventurers out.

I then sent a Message to Jessica saying, “It’s pretty late, and I bet you’re tired from dealing with Chris. You can go back to the inn. I’ll tell you everything tomorrow.”

She immediately replied. “No way! I’m waiting for you!”

Considering her personality, I thought she might say that. Guess I just needed to finish this up fast then.

I put the still unconscious Chris in a corner and cast Incapacitate on him. It’d be a pain if he woke up when I didn’t need him yet.

Next, I cast Sound Isolation around me and the soldiers.

“I cast a spell that makes it so Chris can’t hear anything we say. He won’t know anything you tell me, so talk,” I informed them.

I didn’t think the soldiers and Chris were in perfect solidarity. If I talked to them separately before they could get their story straight, then I’d know if they were lying.

“First, let’s make sure we all understand what the situation is,” I said. “You’re all guilty of violence at an Adventurers Guild. It’s actually pretty odd that no one died, and there are plenty of witnesses. That means, I won’t be guilty of anything if I kill you.”

The soldiers gulped. Adventurers Guilds were essentially autonomous from any government. Common sense would tell them what I just said was true.

“But that’s not all of it,” I continued. “You’re soldiers from the Ishtobal Kingdom, right? If a country were involved in this, then this is more than just a violent crime incident; it’s an international incident between Ishtobal and the Duchy of Crista, since Carnell is in Crista. On top of that, you came flying in here on an airship. Did you receive Crista’s permission for that? An armed military regiment invaded another country on an airship. That’s not just a violation of airspace; that’s a full-on act of war.”

The soldiers looked taken aback. They must not have expected an adventurer like me to start talking about international conflicts and politics.

“What do you mean? We have no connection to Ishtobal,” said a bearded soldier who looked like he might be the commanding officer. But it was bold of him to claim that.

“I’m the one who should be asking that. What do you mean? That is Chris Brad of the hero’s party, and the newly awakened hero is Prince Abel, the crown prince of Ishtobal. You were with Chris, so there’s no way you can claim you have no connection to Ishtobal.”

I’d been investigating the movements of the hero and demon king, so I, of course, knew about the hero’s party. Besides, Chris had a skill called “Heart of the Hero.” I was pretty sure he’d out himself if I put some pressure on him.

The soldiers went silent. Perhaps they hadn’t thought I’d know that much, and they didn’t want to say the wrong thing.

“If you want to play innocent, then go right ahead, but the people back in Ishtobal probably already know you screwed up. My fight with Chris was being watched by someone’s familiars. You have any idea who would’ve sent those?”

Evaluate had told me it wasn’t the soldiers who’d used the familiars, but the latter part of what I said was just to put on pressure. Still, their reactions told me they did have an idea about who sent them.

“You’re probably thinking that if you remain loyal to Ishtobal, they’ll pull some strings and save you, but really think about it: You guys screwed up. Do you honestly think you’re that valuable to them? It would be easier for Ishtobal to put all the blame on you and cut their losses.”

“We were just following orders to accompany Chris! We had no idea he was going to commit violence!”

“Yeah! We tried to stop him, but he just went off on a rampage… You fought him. You should know there was no way we could’ve stopped him.”

The soldiers started talking, trying to save themselves. The thing was, they’d had the Guild surrounded. In the end, they stood by and did nothing while Chris attacked people. Claiming they had nothing to do with it was just a little too convenient for them to be true.

“Hey, everyone,” voiced the commander I’d been talking to. He shot the rest of the soldiers a look, but they had no reason to follow his orders at this point, considering they didn’t even know how loyal he was going to stay to Ishtobal.

“I don’t have a grudge against any of you guys,” I said. “If you cooperate, I don’t mind having a chat with the other adventurers about letting you off easy. Everyone at the Guild here knows me.”

I wasn’t going to promise to let the soldiers off the hook. Letting them go probably wouldn’t have a large impact on anything, but it wasn’t my decision to make on my own.

“What I want to know is how involved Ishtobal and Prince Abel were with this incident. Did Chris attack the Guild on the prince’s orders or orders from some higher up in the kingdom? Or was he rampaging out of control like you said? If you know anything, then tell me.”

The soldiers all looked at the commander. I’d figured it would go that way.

After a moment, he relented. “All I know is that we received orders from up high that we were to accompany Chris. Chris said he’d received orders from Prince Abel, but I don’t know the exact nature of those orders.”

Maybe he’d given in, because now he was talking.

“You’re saying Prince Abel gave orders directly to Chris?” I asked.

“That’s what Chris said. I’m sure there were orders of some sort, because we received our orders to accompany him from the General Staff Office.” The commander grimaced when he mentioned the Staff Office.

“Does the person who sent those familiars work at the Staff Office?”

He scowled, realizing he’d said too much, then angrily spat, “The current First Chief of the General Staff office is Alisa Kusunoki. She’s also the second-in-command of the hero’s party. Ever since she cozied up to Prince Abel and effectively took control of the military, there has been a never-ending stream of people who have been…purged. It was most likely her who was watching us.”

I’d investigated Alisa as well. She was one of the most powerful SS-rank adventurers. The moment Abel’s hero powers awakened, she was currying favor with him, making her essentially the second-in-command of the kingdom of Ishtobal.

Around the time Abel got his hero powers, his father, the king of Ishtobal, suddenly fell ill and now made almost no appearances in public. Abel was acting as his representative. It all smelled fishy.

“If it was Alisa who sent the familiars, what’s the probability she did it on Prince Abel’s orders?” I asked.

“I honestly can’t say for sure. The prince has been different since receiving his hero powers. I don’t know what he’s thinking these days.”

Based on what the commander was saying, there was a chance Alisa could be the one pulling all the strings from the shadows. I had far too little information to determine exactly what was going on yet.

“Is there anything else you can tell me about the hero and his party?”

The commander nodded and told me each of the party members’ names, characteristics, and their rank within the kingdom. The information was pretty detailed, which meant this commander was high-ranked himself.

“How much do you know about Prince Abel’s abilities?”

“I don’t know anything.”

The commander didn’t seem to have any negative feelings toward the prince, so he’d probably hide that information even if he did know it.

“All right, so, does Chris’s Heart of the Hero skill have something to do with the hero’s power?”

The commander looked shocked. “How do you know that? Did Chris talk?”

“That I can’t say, but that does mean you lied when you said you didn’t know anything about the hero’s power.”

I didn’t want to reveal my hand or skills just yet, and it was probably the right move to sow suspicion between them.

The commander’s expression turned sour as he talked. “I don’t know the details, but I heard Heart of the Hero is something Prince Abel bestowed on Chris.”

Bestowed? Not taught?

Skills in this world weren’t things you randomly learned when you gained a level. It was sort of something you developed as you repeatedly did the task, building the mana circuitry needed to activate the skill, so to speak. For example, you could learn a sword skill by swinging a sword over and over. So then, how did Chris learn this Heart of the Hero skill? I just had more questions.

Even if Chris had learned some berserker skill by continuously fighting like a madman, the fact that this Heart of the Hero made his stats jump up made the skill way too good. Even if I accepted the possibility that he learned Heart of the Hero through continued training, I would have expected him to have learned derivative skills as well. Still, he had nothing similar to Heart of the Hero.

And its name, Heart of the Hero, had made me consider the possibility Abel had given Chris the skill, but if that were possible, it’d totally rewrite what we knew about how skills worked. I wasn’t certain either way, though, so I wasn’t going to deny it was possible.

“Has Prince Abel given Heart of the Hero to anyone else? If you know anything else about the hero’s abilities, then tell me,” I demanded.

“All I know is that the prince received immense power when he awakened as the hero. I only heard about Heart of the Hero from Chris. Alisa has been hiding all information about the hero’s abilities. That’s why I imagine that even in Ishtobal, there are only a few people who know.”

This Alisa did sound like she was the cautious type, and she was probably making the right choice to hide the effects of Heart of the Hero.

“All right, well, that’s basically what I wanted to ask you. Next, I need to talk to Chris. You lot sit tight there,” I told them as I adjusted the size of Impenetrable Defense so it enclosed only the soldiers. I then went over to Chris, who was still in the corner. The soldiers wouldn’t be able to hear us talk thanks to Sound Isolation.

Even after Dispelling my Incapacitate spell, Chris didn’t wake up, so I smacked him on the cheek—and I didn’t hold back.

“Agh! Y-You bastard! What are you— What the hell? What have you done to me?!”

Chris started complaining when he noticed the black collar on him, but there was something clearly weird about him, in a different way from before. Even before he’d activated Heart of the Hero, he’d been violent, but now he was looking at me with fear.

“What do you mean? All I did was seal your mana,” I answered.

If your mana was sealed, you couldn’t activate skills. As I imagined, Chris’s violent personality was an effect of Heart of the Hero. Activating it had turned him into a berserker, but what he had activated just then was the active skill, the second stage of Heart of the Hero.

The first stage heightened the user’s bloodlust and significantly boosted their stats. Chris had had the first stage activated from the very beginning, while the second stage boosted his stats even more. In exchange for that, automatic healing, and resistance to status effects, it took over your mind and turned you into a complete berserker.

“Hey, Chris, is Heart of the Hero a skill Prince Abel gave you when his hero powers awakened?” I asked.

“H-How the hell do you know that? Did they… They talked! Useless idiots!”

He seemed angry, but who cared?

“Chris, I’m asking you a question. You know what’ll happen if you don’t hurry up and answer, yeah?” I threw a punch, which skimmed his cheek and slammed into the wall.

“Ack! A-All right, I get it. Stop!” he cried pitifully. “I-I don’t know the details, but all Abel did was touch me, and then I was able to use Heart of the Hero.”

“You don’t know the details? I find that hard to believe. Tell me the truth, Chris.” I punched the wall again.

“I-I’m not lying. I honestly don’t know. Please believe me!”

Lying now would only be for the benefit of Abel and Ishtobal, and I didn’t think Chris was particularly loyal.

“Chris, you went on a rampage in an Adventurers Guild and tried to kill me. Those Ishtobal soldiers told me you were acting without orders. Is that true?”

“They’re trying to sell me out! Th-That’s not true. You’ve got to listen to me! I was following Abel’s orders!”

Seeing this pathetic Chris suddenly made me remember. There was this one S-rank adventurer when I was a kid that, despite being all full of himself, started begging for his life the second I beat him up a bit. That was Chris.

“So, you’re saying Abel ordered you to hurt those adventurers, my friends?”

“Th-That…that was because they wouldn’t tell me where you were…”

Meaning Chris has just gone on a rampage.

“Did Abel really order you to kill me?”

“Y-Yeah. He told me to kill you!”

“Then let me ask, what was he trying to achieve by killing me? You’re a member of the hero’s party. If Abel gave you an order, I’d imagine he’d at least tell you what you’re trying to do.”

“L-Like I have any clue…”

That implied Chris was also trying to kill me because he went out of control? But he came to Carnell under Abel’s orders, meaning there was some goal. And whoever was watching him with the familiars didn’t try to stop him. They approved of his rampage.

“Chris, tell me the truth. What exactly did Abel tell you to do?”

Finally realizing he couldn’t evade the question anymore, he bitterly said, “H-He wanted me to bring him SSS-rank adventurers to make the party more powerful.”

“If that’s the case, why’d you try to kill me?”

“I-I never did like you. If I killed you, an SSS-rank adventurer, it’d mean I was stronger than you. Abel told me it was fine if I brought you back dead.”

That’s why he was trying to kill me? Heart of the Hero might have turned him more violent, but he was scum to begin with. He was trying to kill me simply for his own satisfaction. And despite doing all this for a reason as stupid as that, he was still trying to blame it all on others.

Considering his personality, I had a feeling he’d try to retaliate against me if I took off the mana-sealing collar. What would be best for Jessica and the others would be for me to kill Chris here. I pulled my two swords from my Inventory.

“H-Hey, Arius, wh-what are you going to do?” he stammered.

It didn’t matter that he was a member of the hero’s party. I didn’t think what I was doing was wrong, and I didn’t care that I’d be making an enemy of the hero.

“Arius, wait!” The door to the training room opened, and Jessica came in shouting. “If you’re doing that for yourself, then that’s fine, but I don’t want you to do that if it’s meant to be for us!”

I’d known she’d been outside listening.

“I agree with Jessica,” added Allen, his expression serious. “Don’t make more enemies for yourself for our sake!”

“Arius, we’re going to need him to take responsibility,” said Gale. “We’re not the ones who will put him on trial; that’ll be the lord of Carnell. Being an adventurer means running into dangerous people every day. We’ll manage better next time.”

I knew he was saying that for my sake.

“You should trust us more, Arius. We might have fumbled this fight, but we won’t let him mess with us next time,” Marcia stated with confidence.

“All right. I’ll give you Chris and the soldiers,” I gave in, then turned back to Chris. “If you see Abel, tell him: I have no intentions of joining the hero’s party, and I don’t care who you are, I do not show mercy to my enemies. I’ll let you go this time because everyone is telling me to, but the next time I see you, I will treat you as my enemy.”

After that, the Carnell guards finally arrived. By the time we handed over Chris and the Ishtobal soldiers to them, it was past one in the morning.

“I’m sorry I got everyone involved in that mess,” I said. “And I’m sorry to the master and Guild employees for making them work so late.”

When I’d let down the Impenetrable Defense around the Guild, the rest of the adventurers had returned to their lodgings. Jessica’s and Gale’s parties stayed in the Guild, along with the master and some of the Guild employees.

Everyone told me it wasn’t my fault; they were grateful that I rushed in to help.

“And I appreciate you all trying to cover for me, but next time someone comes here and wants me for something, let me know right away. If it’s my problem, I’ll handle it myself,” I told them.

Chris came to Carnell looking for me. It was just a fact that I got everyone else involved. I didn’t want them to be dragged into things because of me.

“I know you’re strong, Arius…but you can’t take on everything alone!” Jessica exclaimed. She suddenly rushed toward me and threw her arms around me, burying her face in my chest. “Why did you even come? I mean, I appreciate you coming to save us, but…Chris is a member of the hero’s party. Even you can’t handle making an enemy of the hero…”

“Hey, Jessica, I’m not so full of myself that I think I can handle everything on my own. But I want to protect all of you, the same way you tried to protect me.”

Because Jessica, Gale, and their parties were all good people.

“Arius…it’s unfair of you to say it like that…”

“Is it? I thought it was normal to want to protect good people.”

I was aware I was evading the point. There was a difference between not dragging people into things and saving them when they were in trouble. But I didn’t want to pull them into things, and I did want to save them.

“You’re not fooling me, Arius, and I’ll get you to acknowledge how strong I am,” Marcia taunted with a grin. She was being a little frustrating, but it sounded like she was trying to say it wasn’t a problem if they did get dragged into things.

“Anyway, it’s late,” I said. “I should be heading out. Let me know right away if Chris or the hero’s party does anything, all right?”

I thanked the master and the Guild employees, then left the Guild of Carnell.

Chapter 3: The Invitation

Chapter 3: The Invitation

THE next day, I woke up at the same time as always, even though I’d missed out on a bit of sleep. I could fight perfectly normally after three days of no sleep, so this was not a problem.

I finished my daily training, took a shower, then had breakfast before leaving my room more than an hour before my first class was meant to start. I had promised everyone we’d train that morning.

Eric needed to know about last night with Chris, but I couldn’t break the promise I made with the others. I had already sent him an overview via Message, and we agreed to skip our first class to talk. He didn’t seem to mind not going to class at all, probably because he regularly took time off from school to handle his royal duties anyway.

“Morning, Arius!” Vern called out.

“Right on time as always,” Milia greeted.

By the time I arrived in the training room, they were already there. Even Noelle was there, even though she hadn’t said she’d come today.

They’d already activated the Special Barrier and broken off into sparring pairs to practice, Milia versus Sophia and Vern versus Zeke.

“Good luck, Your Highness!” Sasha shouted in support of Zeke from the sidelines. Vern had higher-level stats, but Zeke was also strong as a love interest from Love Academy, which meant he put up a good fight.

“Ah, my good friend, I’ve improved significantly from yesterday,” Vern bragged. He’d abandoned his weird obsessions with “proper” fighting and reevaluated his style, even using magic in his fight against Zeke.

“Arius, was there anything you noticed about the way I fight?” asked Zeke. Maybe he didn’t like that he’d lost. Yesterday, he hadn’t asked me any questions after our sparring match, so this was a good sign.

“You fight with a single longsword. Is there a reason you don’t use a shield?” I asked.

“Uh…”

“I’m not saying you should use a shield, just that if you’re not using your left hand because you’re just messing around, you’ll be at a disadvantage. Milia has her shield fixed to her arm so she can attack with her open hand. Sophia has a dagger with a guard in her left hand, not for attack, but in place of a shield, because she doesn’t have the strength for one. If you want to get stronger too, you need to think about how you can win and adjust things, including your fighting style.”

“Huh. I see what you mean. Guess I might try a few things out.”

Zeke often acted like a bad boy because he was always being compared to his twin brother, Eric, who excelled at everything. However, he was a nice and open person.

“Milia, I’m going all in from the start!” shouted Vern.

“And I don’t intend to lose, Your Highness!”

Now Vern and Milia were starting a match.

There was something I’d noticed during our sparring match the day before. Milia was always high-specced because she was the protagonist of Love Academy. She could use a good balance of spells and sword skills, and even heal, making her a good all-rounder. Milia was diligent about her mana manipulation training, and she even went into the Academy’s dungeon when she had time. That meant, out of everyone, Milia had improved the most since starting school.

“Ah, I’m really understanding what Arius meant now,” Vern huffed after the match.

Milia had won by a landslide. She’d started by casting Strengthen and Haste, and she could freely use both sword and sorcery, meaning she overpowered him throughout the entire match. Even when Vern managed to activate a skill, he hit nothing but air as she dodged out of the way.

“Vern, you’ve got power and defense. You need to think about how you can make the best use of that. But you won’t win if you rely on your stats alone, even if you fight with force,” I told him. It was easy to just give him an answer, but in the end, he needed to use his own head to figure it out, or he wouldn’t be able to internalize it.

“If I’m fighting Milia, then maybe I need to focus on counterattacks. And it’d be a good idea for me to learn how to use support spells,” he pondered.

Maybe it was because he had high stats that he’d never learned support spells, but there wasn’t even that big a difference between them in terms of power and defense once Milia cast Strengthen. With her mana manipulation at the level it was, there was no way Vern could win against her in his current state.

“Hey, Arius, you don’t use sword skills in our sparring matches. That’s because you don’t need them against opponents like us, right?” asked Milia, sounding curious.

“To be honest, that is part of it, but I pretty much don’t use fighting skills at all. Skills have all sorts of limits. When you increase the precision of your mana manipulation, you don’t really see a need for skills.”

Fighting skills increased your offensive power using mana, but some skills had an elemental affinity. A Light-based skill would be good against undead monsters, but weak against angel monsters. They always had their pros and cons. But if you improved your mana manipulation, you could use that on its own to supplement your power and speed. So basically, if you went hard in on mana manipulation, you could be more certain you’d inflict damage using an attack of pure mana.

“Does that mean…you don’t think fighting skills are necessary?” Milia mused. “You really are in a whole different league from us.”

Everyone else looked surprised too, but from my perspective, yeah, it simply made sense not to rely on fighting skills.

“That’s just how far you can take mana manipulation,” I replied. “It has no limits.”

Even with the same amount of mana, a difference in the precision of someone’s mana manipulation could have a significant impact on power. And the same could be said about spells. When it came to the most intense offensive spells, if you took mana manipulation to the extreme, you were attacking with pure mana. My mana manipulation was nowhere near that level, though.

“My turn next, if you don’t mind, Prince Vern,” said Sophia. It looked like Vern was taking on a lot of matches to hammer out the details of his new fighting style.

“Shadow Thorns!” cried Sophia as she used the tier-two Dark spell to bind Vern. “Dark Missile! Darkness Spear!”

She fired off a series of Dark offensive spells. Dark spells weren’t the greatest in terms of damage, but they debuffed the target by reducing their stats or applying status effects like paralyze.

“Not bad, Sophia, but not enough. Fireball!”

Vern countered with the tier-three Fire spell. In terms of sheer power, Vern’s spell was stronger, and he had the higher level and stats, but the debuffs of the Dark spells were steadily slowing his movements. The Special Barrier didn’t protect against those additional effects.

In the end, Vern won the match. Considering the difference in their level and stats, Vern really had to pull off an overwhelming victory.

“Getting hit with Dark spells isn’t great. I need to dodge better…” he breathed. Looked like he was catching on. He should be fine because he was now thinking it through.

“Sophia, seems to me like you’ve decided you are going to enter the tournament,” I commented. “It kind of feels like you’re thinking of examining your own skills and spells or testing yourself to see how far you can get.”

“Milia says this all the time, but you never seem to miss anything. You’re right. I’ve decided to do what I can and give it a go because it’s a good opportunity to gain experience.”

“You’re always so diligent. You’re right, it’s not about winning or losing, it’s about thinking about what you can do when you’re faced with obstacles. Dark spells aren’t suited to one-on-one matches, but they’re effective for making a strategy. Fights would be a lot easier with you around.”

For some reason, Sophia turned red at that and looked away. “This is just all I can do right now with the power I have. You really don’t overlook anything, do you?”

Next was Noelle, whom Milia asked to spar with. But to be entirely honest, Noelle was no match for anyone in the group right now.

Milia didn’t use support spells and instead used her shield to block Noelle’s attacks, but there was nothing Noelle could do once the fight had turned to close combat. It was over in an instant.

“How was your match with Milia?” I asked her.

“A-Arius! W-Well…there’s just no way I can win.”

Noelle did have that oak staff of hers, but she must have been afraid of close combat because when it came to it, she just froze and squeezed her eyes shut.

“I’m sorry I pushed you to spar with me,” Milia insisted, looking apologetic.

“Oh, n-no, it’s all right. I’m sorry I didn’t make a very good sparring partner…”

Milia was making an effort to talk to Noelle and befriend her, and I got the feeling Noelle knew that as well.

“Hey, if you want to, you could try teaming up with someone and using your magic to support them,” I suggested. “It would help the others because then they could feel like they’re fighting someone stronger than them in the tournament.”

“Uh, I guess, I don’t really mind…”

She didn’t seem to really understand what I meant. Maybe it’d be best to have her try it out.

“Would you like to team up with me first?” Sophia chimed in. It seemed she understood what I was trying to do. High-level opponents could use combined elemental spells, so this combo was possible.

“This sounds interesting. All right, I’ll be your opponent,” volunteered Vern, and that was the start of a match with Vern fighting against Sophia and Noelle.

“Shadow Thorns!” Sophia attacked first, restraining Vern. “Dark Missile! Darkness Spear!”

“Stone Shot! Stone Shot!”

Sophia and Noelle focused fire on Vern. Each shot didn’t do that much damage, but it was steadily adding up as Vern wasn’t able to dodge them all. He couldn’t even close in on the duo because of the hail of bullets.

“Hey, hold on! Don’t think I’ll let things end like this! Fireball!” Vern countered.

“Stone Wall!”

But the Stone Wall Noelle created blocked most of the Fireball, meaning the two girls took nearly no damage.

“Thank you, Noelle! I’ll keep attacking,” Sophia shouted.

“Tsk, looks like I have no choice but to power through and get close. Shattering Blade!” Vern activated his skill and approached with every intention of taking some hits in the process, but the two girls fired more attacks than he could handle. He was at their mercy and, in the end, it was their win.

“I-I can’t believe it. We won…” Noelle gasped.

“And it’s thanks to you. I wasn’t able to win against Prince Vern on my own,” cheered Sophia.

“N-No, Lady Sophia, that’s not true. I-I just cast a few spells…”

“Let’s just say we won together. And no need for the ‘Lady.’ I’d like you to talk to me normally. We’re friends, after all.”

“Uh…all right…Sophia.”

“That’s better. Let’s fight together again sometime,” Sophia said with a soft smile.

“Hey, you don’t get to hog her. Oh, and Noelle, you don’t need to be formal with me either,” Milia jumped in.

“A-All right…Milia.”

“Yep, that’s good. You and I should team up next.”

“I guess I’d be your opponent then,” I started. “I bet you didn’t ask Noelle to team up in the first place out of consideration for everyone else.”

Right now, Milia was the strongest in the group. If she teamed up with Noelle, they’d wipe the floor with their opponent.

“You’re always like that, Arius. It’s seriously unfair,” Milia pouted, her face red.

Did I say something I shouldn’t have?

“Hey, Vern, don’t let this loss get you down,” I offered. “You brought everything you had, but there wasn’t much you could’ve done to avoid that loss.”

“I know, friend, but I’m going to have to handle that number of attacks if I’m fighting someone more powerful. I need to improve my abilities.”

It looked like he wasn’t dwelling but looking to the future instead.

“We only have two weeks until the tournament. It’d be hard for you to learn a new spell or skill, but what you can do now is hone the skills you do have.”

“You’re right. I’ll take what I can do right now and fight with everything I have in the tournament.”

After I sparred against Noelle and Milia, Noelle paired up with the others for more matches. She seemed happy to have found a role for herself and was opening up a lot to Sophia and Milia. I was really glad I’d decided to invite her.

Once we’d basically finished up the matches, we ate the snacks that Sophia and Milia prepared again today.

“I’ll prepare the food for next practice,” Sasha told them. “I feel bad having you two do it every time.”

“Thanks, Sasha, if you don’t mind,” replied Sophia.

“U-Um, I c-could too…but I’m not a very good cook…” Noelle joined in.

“Could you handle the drinks then?” Sophia suggested.

“Y-Yeah, I could manage that!”

And so, with Sophia’s help, it was all arranged. I did think it was wrong for us to rely on only the girls to make the food, but it also wasn’t my place to barge in.

“Sasha, do you want to practice with us next time?” asked Milia. “It’s fun practicing with everyone.”

“No, thank you. I came to watch Prince Zeke practice. But I suppose it does look somewhat fun.”

“It is. Right, next time, you’re joining in!”

Sasha wasn’t going to be taking part in the tournament and so probably hadn’t planned to join us, but seeing Noelle take part might have made her want to as well. She still spoke formally to all of us, but she’d told us that was just easier for her.

***

HAVING finished our morning practice, everyone got changed and headed toward their classrooms. I split from the group and went not to the classroom but to Eric’s salon.

Eric’s maid and guard, Isha, prepared a cup of tea for me. Isha was on the tall side for a woman at around five and a half feet, had a slender build, and flaxen hair. She was a beautiful woman with a serious demeanor. She’d probably look good in a suit.

“I read your Message,” Eric said once I settled in my seat. “You were attacked by a member of the hero’s party? I knew the world wouldn’t leave you alone.”

His smile wasn’t his usual refreshing one; it was fierce. Apparently, he was going into serious mode starting today.

“You’re exaggerating the situation. I never saw the hero himself, only a man named Chris. He’s a member of the hero’s party. I sealed his mana and handed him over to the town guards, so he’s in prison now.”

Eric was aware I was the SSS-rank adventurer Arius, so I didn’t hide anything from him about what had happened in Carnell.

“You said you used a magic item for that. I presume that since it’s one you used, it won’t be that easy to remove,” Eric ventured.

“No, it won’t. But that doesn’t mean it can’t ever be removed.”

Since it was a magic item from an extreme-difficulty dungeon, it would be difficult for anyone but the person who activated it to remove it. There were probably some people equal in power to an SSS-rank adventurer who could get it off, however.

“You also mentioned someone was watching your fight, yes? I would expect some movement from that person if they were aware you defeated Chris.”

“Me too. After the situation had settled, I asked my information broker to look into any movement in the Ishtobal court.”

I used my connections to tap an information broker in Ishtobal, which cost a decent chunk of money. My source was a pro and only connected with other pros, so I got the impression this broker in Ishtobal was pretty good.

I’d also considered doing something myself, but I didn’t know exactly what the hero was after. It was too risky to show up at my potential enemy’s home base suddenly.

“You move quickly,” Eric observed. “But you should be careful. I’ve bribed people in Ishtobal and embedded spies several times, and they all disappeared before they could give me any information.”

Which meant Ishtobal’s defenses were so tight they caused even Eric trouble.

“It’s likely the person surveilling me was Alisa Kusunoki, second-in-command of the hero’s party and First Chief of the General Staff Office of Ishtobal’s military. The commanding officer of the Ishtobal soldiers who had been with Chris told me about her.”

“It does seem that Alisa Kusunoki is the real authority in the military. It’s been more difficult to gather information ever since she became the first chief. All I know about Alisa herself is that she’s an SS-rank adventurer and that most of the hero’s party were previously in a party with Alisa.”

I had looked into Alisa as an adventurer as well. Before joining the hero’s party, Alisa’s party was a normal SS-rank adventuring party. There wasn’t anything about them that stood out.

“I guess we just have to wait for a report—” Just then, I received a Message from my information broker, whom I’d asked to look into Ishtobal’s movements. “Eric, my information broker in Ishtobal’s been arrested.”

Did that mean they anticipated what I’d do?

“Is this Alisa Kusunoki’s doing as well?” Eric asked. “As expected, I suppose. She’s not easy to handle. This is getting interesting. Let me see what I can do.”

Eric had always liked his schemes, and now he was taking on the challenge.

“Sorry to bother you with this when you’re already busy with Duke Jordan.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I need to show my skills so you and I can have an equal relationship. Besides, I’d like to know what the hero is up to, for Ronaudia’s sake.”

I appreciated him saying that, but what had happened wouldn’t be all that big a deal if it hadn’t involved me.

“Thanks, Eric. I’m relying on you.”

“And I’m glad you have high expectations, but now you’re putting pressure on me.”

Despite saying that, he flashed a dauntless grin.

***

I went to class starting with the second hour, then to the library during the lunch break. It was Wednesday, and I’d promised to meet Noelle that day.

Once there, I pulled the food I’d bought in advance from my Inventory and put it next to the milk and bread Noelle had purchased from the Academy’s student shop. There were no rules against eating in the library.

“A-Arius, um…thank you for inviting me to morning training. It’s thanks to you that I’ve made some new friends.”

“Sophia and Milia? Yeah, they’re good people.”

“They’re really nice.” Noelle sounded happy.

“Do you normally eat in the cafeteria, Noelle? I haven’t seen you there lately.”

“I always just end up eating alone if I eat in the cafeteria, so lately I’ve been buying food from the Academy shop and eating here.”

Noelle didn’t have many friends because she was shy, not that I had any right to comment on the number of a person’s friends.

“Why don’t you sit with Sophia and Milia in the cafeteria? They do sit with other girls, though. Would it be too hard on you being with people you don’t know?”

“Yeah…I get nervous around people I don’t know.”

“Then you could sit with me and Vern… Actually, I know Vern doesn’t care, but you probably wouldn’t like everyone staring at us.”

Vern and I drew loads of attention in the cafeteria.

“Yeah. I appreciate the invitation, but I’ve seen you and Prince Vern in the cafeteria. I don’t know if I could eat with everyone staring like that…”

“I guess we’ll only be able to have lunch together in the library… Wait a second. Why don’t we invite everyone to have lunch with us? We can’t have a big group in the library, but we could eat in the courtyard,” I suggested.

None of the Academy’s students were in the habit of eating lunch in the courtyard, so we wouldn’t have to worry about prying eyes.

“Arius, I’m glad that you’re thinking about me, but it’s not right to make others come spend time with me.”

“Well, it can be nice to eat outside every once in a while. I’ll see if Milia and Sophia are interested. I’m certain Vern would come.”

Sophia had to spend time with the noble girls in her family’s faction, but it shouldn’t be a big deal for her to slip away now and then.

“Thank you, Arius. It could be nice to have lunch with everyone. But, if possible, I’d like to still have lunch in the library on Wednesdays…just…j-just the t-two of us…”

She turned bright red. As shy as she was, maybe it was difficult for her to handle having lunch with everyone.

***

THE jail in Carnell was famous for being secure because there were a lot of high-level adventurers in town since it was near the hard-difficulty dungeon, Guney’s Great Labyrinth.

Inside the last cells of that jail, under intense surveillance, sitting against the wall with knees hugged against his chest, was Chris Brad, a member of the hero’s party. A black magic collar was around his neck to seal off his Heart of the Hero skill, which massively boosted his abilities and turned him into a berserker. He seemed like a completely different person from the man who had run rampant in the Adventurers Guild.

“You’re like a feral dog whose fangs have been pulled. Chris, you’re a moron, you know that, right? But I didn’t think you were this idiotic.”

A voice spoke to him, and he raised his head. A woman stood in front of his cell, sneering at him. She had white hair, golden eyes, and cute facial features. This was the second-in-command of the hero’s party and First Chief of the General Staff Office of Ishtobal’s military: Alisa Kusunoki.

Is he docile because of that collar? she wondered. It completely sealed his mana, and he can’t activate Heart of the Hero. Arius has done something interesting, hasn’t he?

“Alisa! Hey, get me out of here!” Chris barked.

“I obviously can’t be doing that. Committing violence in an Adventurers Guild is a serious offense. Although it is slightly better that no one died. You’re not getting out of that cell any time soon.”

“But I’m a member of the hero’s party. I’m allowed to do something like that!”

Alisa rolled her eyes in complete exasperation. “There is absolutely no hope for an idiot like you. What the world needs is the hero, not the members of the hero’s party. That means that if you don’t act properly, you’re going to get tossed aside in the blink of an eye. Though, in your case, it really should have been sooner.”

“You’ve got to be joking…”

Alisa looked at him with a cold gaze, and he seemed to get the hint.

“Well, even with that, you are an SS-rank adventurer. If Prince Abel decides he needs you, he’ll get you out of that cell in a jiffy. But I’m less interested in that and more interested in asking about the SSS-rank adventurer Arius. According to the soldiers who were with you, he killed you with one strike.”

“No, it’s not what it sounds like. It was a surprise attack.”

Alisa paid no mind to Chris’s excuses. She’d been sharing the sight of her bird familiars and had seen the fight from start to finish. Even so, she still wanted to hear Chris’s impression of the battle since he experienced it, but she knew his personality. He was always trying to make the situation into whatever was best for him, so she didn’t have high expectations.

“Chris. Your armor is quite beat up. Did Arius do that?” she asked.

Chris’s equipment was exactly as it had been when he’d been taken into custody at the Guild. Large sections were missing from the right flank, chest, and back.

“H-He’s… He’s a monster. I was so worked up while we were fighting that I didn’t notice, but I never actually landed a hit on him. And he’s merciless when killing. He looked completely unfazed when he ran me through…” Chris shuddered as he remembered how Arius had killed him.

All the pieces of Chris’s equipment were magic items from the hard-difficulty dungeon, the Dragon’s Palace. In any normal framework, you wouldn’t think those items could be broken so easily.

And even if he were fighting an SSS-rank adventurer, Alisa would have thought Chris could at least give his opponent a run for their money when he was boosted with Heart of the Hero. While at first glance it appeared as if the fight between Arius and Chris had been evenly matched, Alisa realized Arius was holding back. Arius only showed his true power for a brief moment at the end, where he killed Chris in literally an instant.

Arius’s movements were not normal, and by the time I even realized what was happening, Chris had already been run through. There is a limit to my vision when looking through familiars, which is why I came here, but his spirit is completely broken. I doubt I’m going to get any more information out of him.

Having finished her business, Alisa left Chris shaking in fear in his cell. Four people were waiting for her outside the jail.

“It’s somewhat frustrating to have to clean up after this moron, but I suppose it is part of the job. Let’s go, everyone,” she ordered them.

Next, they went to Carnell’s Adventurers Guild.

***

THE next day, I went to class after practicing with everyone early in the morning, but on Friday, I skipped class and went back to the Citadel of Ancient Gods. I was planning on spending the next three days and nights in the dungeon, focusing on delving even deeper.

That Friday night, I received a Message from Eric informing me that all the members of the hero’s party, except for Abel, had disappeared from the royal court in Ishtobal. Eric was one person you could expect to get information quickly.

I’d expected them to make some move now, but there was no guarantee it was me they were after. Even so, I sent a Message to Jessica and the others telling them about what was going on with the hero’s party.

Just past seven o’clock Saturday morning, I received another Message from Eric.

“I know where the hero’s party is going. It’s the jail in Carnell, but they’d already left Ishtobal when I got the info. You should hurry.”

I immediately put a pause on my dungeon dive and went to the Adventurers Guild in Carnell. Extreme-difficulty dungeons were meant to be run in a gauntlet, so there were no shortcuts back to the surface, which meant I had the annoying problem of fighting more than a thousand monsters that respawned on each floor as I went up, but I didn’t need to kill them all.

I sped up to my top speed and blasted my way through the hordes of enemies. I’d fought them countless times before, so their attacks didn’t do anything to me. After rushing to the top in one burst, I used Teleport to move straight to the Adventurers Guild.

Jessica sent me a Message while I was still working my way up, telling me the hero’s party had arrived in the Guild. When I got there, outside appearances didn’t imply anything abnormal was going on, but Scan pinged several targets with high mana. There was no doubt the hero’s party was inside. If they were going to use the same strong-arm tactics as Chris, I needed to neutralize them before people got hurt.

I prepared myself to act instantly if need be while using Scan to confirm the locations of the hero’s party, then opened the door to the Guild, but the atmosphere inside was not what I’d expected.

“We are so sorry for the trouble that jerk Chris caused. Everything’s on us today, so eat and drink as much as you like!”

The adventurers raised their glasses and tankards of alcohol and cheered while the Guild workers bustled about delivering food to tables. It definitely did not feel like a fight was about to break out, but Jessica, Gale, and their parties were remaining vigilant even if they were having a drink.

The person who’d been speaking was a young woman with white hair and gold eyes. She had a cute face, a charming smile, and was pretty petite at just under five feet, but her outfit stood out. It was interesting to hear her speak with a Kansai accent. She wore a robe made of vivid red snakeskin and a necklace with several large gemstones.

Considering the nature of her appearance, I decided this was probably the second-in-command of the party, Alisa Kusunoki.

“Arius…” Jessica noticed me right away, but didn’t move because she was wary of Alisa and the others. I slowly walked over to her, but Alisa got up from her seat and approached me.

“Aren’t you Arius, the youngest-ever SSS-rank adventurer? SSS-rank adventurers do seem to have a completely different air about them. My name is Alisa Kusunoki. I’m the assistant to Prince Abel, the hero. Although…I suppose I should really introduce myself as second-in-command of the hero’s party.”

Alisa gave me a friendly smile. The other four members of her party had been eyeing me cautiously since I set foot in the Guild.

“Arius, I apologize for the trouble that moron Chris caused you. That violent idiot is utterly worthless. Even we have a hard time dealing with him.”

Alisa snapped her fingers, and an opulent treasure chest appeared. It looked like she could use Inventory. She opened the chest to show it was crammed full of gold coins.

“As an apology, I would like you to have this 20,000 gold. Would this let us put this mess of Chris’s behind us? I’ll, of course, provide another sum to the Guild to cover repairs and distress caused.”

The adventurers nearby nearly drooled as they watched. One gold was roughly equivalent to 10,000 yen in my previous life, meaning this was around 200,000,000 yen.

“I don’t need money,” I answered. “If you’re giving gold away, give it to the people whom Chris hurt. Like Allen. If things had gone any worse, he could’ve died.”

“You’re thinking about me at a time like this?” Allen asked, looking moved nearly to tears. It was not the time for that, though.

“If that’s what you want, that’s what I’ll do. I am sorry for the trouble he caused you. You are so forgiving.”

She looked at me with appraising eyes. It was like she wanted to make it out like we’d come to an agreement and put this all behind us.

“Arius, I’m not going to accept any money either. Chris tried to kill you, and I’m not about to forgive him for that,” argued Allen. Jessica nodded in agreement. Gale and his party also didn’t seem interested in accepting money.

“It looks like no one needs your money. More importantly, why are you here?”

I doubted the hero’s party had come all this way just to apologize.

“Oh, Arius, don’t sound like that. I came to apologize as Chris’s superior for him going off and doing what he did. There is one other thing, but it’s just because we happen to be here already.”

In the end, she was trying to make this whole thing entirely Chris’s doing.

“I spoke to the soldiers who’d been with Chris, but I have no proof supporting their claims that he was acting on Abel’s orders. At this point, I have no intention of blaming you for what he did,” I informed her.

“Well, it’s very helpful that you’re so understanding.”

There, I got a glimpse of the cunning Alisa hid behind her friendly smile.

“How about,” she began slowly, “as a sign of our new friendship, we sit down together for a drink and have a nice long chat?”

I sat at a table with the members of the hero’s party. Alisa cast Sound Isolation so the people around us wouldn’t hear our conversation.

“Arius, let’s jump right in with a drink,” Alisa gleefully suggested as she poured a pink sparkling wine into my glass, then into hers. That was the most expensive alcohol in Carnell’s Guild. The rest of the party had drinks of their choice. “There. Here’s to meeting each other.”

I drank what she’d poured for me. Even if it were drugged or poisoned, it wouldn’t work on someone with my stats. She probably knew that.

“You can down a drink. I like a man who can hold his liquor. Let’s have some more!”

As suggested, I drank another. My high stats meant I didn’t get drunk. Alisa was also emptying glass after glass, but she probably didn’t get drunk either for the same reason.

“Arius. You know, I’ve just decided to call you Arius, but seeing as we’ve only just met, would it be better if I addressed you as Master Gilberto?” Alisa asked with a grin. That meant she knew I was Arius Gilberto, the son of the chief minister of Ronaudia. “Oh, that’s right, you prefer not to be called by your surname. I’m so forgetful these days. Please forgive me.”

She obviously said that on purpose to try to shake me.

“Call me whatever you want,” I replied. “You’re not going to get anywhere just by knowing who I am as a bargaining chip. I don’t care if you tell the people here.”

If people found out I was a noble, I’d have to greet the royals and nobles of every country I visited as an adventurer. I only hid my identity because getting pulled into the social sphere was annoying. Still, I never got involved with other countries—other than the occasional visit to Carnell because I was currently taking on its dungeons. If it became a hassle in the future, I could just relinquish my title and be done with it. Jessica, Gale, and the others would learn my identity, but I didn’t think our relationships were fragile enough to break from something like that.

“What a boring reaction. I’m simply curious about you; there was no ulterior motive to that.”

“I have no interest in beating around the bush. Get to the point.”

“Are you in that much of a hurry? Well, at least let me introduce the other members of the hero’s party to you.”

I’d obviously already investigated them. My Evaluate showed their levels, stats, spells, and skill make up already.

The black-haired man with a sharp gaze was Ryo Kisaragi. He was a physical attacker and the highest level in the party after Alisa. His name and appearance were Japanese in style, and he had not a European-style sword but a katana at his waist.

Fawn L’Estella had shoulder-length blonde hair and seemed to be a dual-purpose magic user, both offensive caster and healer. She had a unique set of spells at her disposal.

Buster Hound boasted red hair and a beard and looked like a lump of muscle. Based on his skills, I guessed he wasn’t a physical attacker but a tank.

A slim woman with orange hair in a ponytail seemed to be their scout, but Linda Roche’s skills leaned toward dealing damage more than anything else.

All five of them, including Alisa, were at a higher level than Chris and could use Heart of the Hero. Their stats were in line with their levels at the moment, so it seemed like the skill wasn’t activated. The first stage of Heart of the Hero was a passive skill that could be deactivated. Since even the first stage increased your aggression, it could become a hindrance. Only using it when you needed it was the right choice.

She may have introduced the party members to me, but all Alisa did was tell me their names and roles in the party. None of what she revealed was a lie, but she was watching to see my reaction while doing so.

“Arius, since you’re an SSS-rank adventurer, you could probably beat them even in a four-on-one fight, don’t you think?” she asked, which made the other four react.

“Alisa, what are you trying to say?” Ryo demanded.

“Don’t think I’ll forget you said that,” threatened Fawn.

“You implying we couldn’t beat him even if we fought together?” growled Buster.

“Well…maybe we should find out,” Linda pondered.

They all looked at me with hostility. None of them reached for their weapons, but they shifted so they could draw them in an instant.

Alisa smiled in amusement at their reactions.

“Do I really need to answer that question?” I asked. “I have no intention of letting you goad me into something, but if you really want to know, then the only way to find out is to fight. But I have no reason to fight you right now.”

Level was just a general indicator of strength. If it were a team against one, the group could defeat a higher-level opponent, depending on how well they worked together. I didn’t plan on losing against them, but I also wasn’t going to talk big.

“I see…” mulled Alisa. “When I heard you were the youngest SSS-rank adventurer in history, I assumed you’d be more arrogant, but you seem to be the real deal. I can’t determine your level, not even with Evaluate, yet you’re not full of yourself at all. I’m sorry for testing you. Will you forgive me?”

Her party members bristled in shock. Alisa’s level was significantly higher than theirs, so they hadn’t imagined that her Evaluate wouldn’t be able to tell her my level.

The Evaluate skill showed you the status information of someone who was at a lower level than you. With a bigger difference in level, you could also see their spells and skills. As you increased the level of the skill itself, it gained a buff, letting you use it on people who were a higher level than you. There was, of course, a limit to that.

Alisa was high enough level to match most SSS-rank adventurers, and her Evaluate skill was also on par—she should be able to see the level of most people.

Despite that, she still seemed confident. Was that because she had Heart of the Hero? I didn’t know how serious she was, but it seemed as if she was goading her companions into fighting me. Did she think they’d win with Heart of the Hero?

“All right, Arius,” she continued, “the other thing I’d like to take care of while I’m here was to invite you to join the hero’s party. Prince Abel very much wants to recruit you, seeing as you defeated Chris. Would you let what Chris did be water under the bridge and consider joining us? It’s not a bad deal for you. Once we defeat the demon king together and save the world, you’ll have all the fame, money, and women you could want.”

Alisa prattled on, but I already knew my answer.

“I’m not interested. Ask someone else,” I cut her off.

“I thought you might say that. SSS-rank adventurers aren’t exactly hard up for money, and you’re good-looking, so I imagine you’re massively popular with the ladies. It must be hard to imagine what it’d be like for you to become the savior of the world. I guess there’s no point in trying to get you to join us.”

The other four grimaced when Alisa gave up easily.

“Alisa, hold on…”

“You can’t decide that on your own.”

“It’s fine, just let me handle it. I won’t let anything bad happen. And you know what will happen if you snitch to Prince Abel about what we discussed here, right?”

She shut the four of them up with one look. They knew what the power dynamic was in the party.

“Arius, I’ve come to see you’re not made for working for someone as worthless as Abel.” She wasn’t even using a title for him now. “It might appear he wants to defeat the demon king, but he’s an idiot who thinks he can win even though he has no idea how strong his enemy is. The only people who believe something as boring as ‘the hero is going to save the world’ are the uneducated masses. My working with him is purely business.”

This sudden admission seemed to shake her four companions. They were hearing this for the first time.

“Should you really be telling me this?” I asked. “Even if you’ve silenced those four, they might still tell Abel.”

“I’m not worried about that. They’re well aware of who they should be the most scared of.” She gave a friendly smile, and the four of them turned pale and nodded. “So, Arius, why don’t we forget Abel, and you work directly with me instead? I promise there’s no risk to you in doing so.”

This came out of nowhere again. What was she thinking?

“Why would I need to work with you?” I asked.

“Because I’m confident I can be of use to you. You know how strong I am. We both used Evaluate on each other. I don’t mind if you Evaluate me, by the way.”

There were a lot of people who considered the use of Evaluate to be a show of aggression, since knowing your opponent’s strength was a cornerstone of fighting. Obviously, there were some countermeasures. Conceal Ability reduced the efficacy of Evaluate attempts on you, and Falsify Ability provided incorrect information to someone. Neither of them worked against someone who was significantly higher in level, but Falsify Ability was particularly useful—I always had it up.

Alisa seemed to have the same thought processes as I did. Was she aware that I already knew her real level and stats, as well as her concealed spells and skills?

“Getting back on topic, Abel is quite obsessed with you, Arius, so I doubt he’ll give up just because we tell him you’ve turned him down. Why don’t you meet him, just to see? It would be a good opportunity for you to learn about his plans. And if he says he’s coming to Carnell, we won’t be able to stop him. He might cause even more trouble than Chris.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“No, of course not. I’m just telling you the truth. I understand you’d be wary of going into the home base of your opponent, but that’s where I can help. I’ll tell you everything about the security in the royal castle of Ishtobal.”

She pulled several rolled-up pieces of paper from her Inventory and opened them so only I could see. Each one showed a floor plan of the various levels of the castle, noted with the locations of security magic items and traps, as well as the number of guards, their locations, and their patrol routes.

“You may be wondering why I have something like this, but it’s because it’s the First Chief of Ishtobal who gives orders for security, and that’s me.”

If this information was correct, she was leaking state secrets, but she didn’t seem to care at all. Based on the reactions of the others, this information was likely accurate. Even if it was, she could easily change the guards’ locations and patrols, or set up traps.

Or was she currently weighing me against Abel? No, I didn’t think I had that much value right now.

“I understand that you might think I have some trick in mind, but I’ll leave you to decide what you should do. I’ll tell Abel you’re rearranging your schedule to buy you some time, but Abel’s an impatient man. It’ll only get you a few days at most.”

She stood and took a step toward me. “Oh, and would you mind registering me in Message so we can contact each other in the future?”

I didn’t mind, so I agreed.

“I do think I could be useful to you for other things other than this Abel situation, and I’m planning on going all-out with the sales pitch from now on, so get ready for that.” She then leaned in so close to me that I could feel her breath on my face. “I am confident I can persuade you. After all, we are both…”

The last word she only mouthed, but I instantly knew what she meant.

Reincarnated.

I was certain.

“Hey, what are you doing to Arius?!

Jessica shoved her way between me and Alisa. Even if Jessica hadn’t been able to hear what we were saying because of Sound Isolation, it wasn’t a physical barrier, and she could still see us.

“Don’t get so worked up,” Alisa replied calmly. “I was just telling him a secret. Although it is true that I have my sights set on him.”

“Arius, is that true?” Jessica spun around to look at me.

“Alisa wants to team up with me. Don’t say things that could easily be misunderstood.”

“Exactly. I want to be your partner. Both publicly…and privately.”

At this point, Alisa was just messing around with Jessica.

“Alisa, cut it out,” I warned.

“I may have teased a little too much. Forgive me.” She stuck her tongue out and let down Sound Isolation. “I’ll be heading out then. You lot, we’re leaving.”

Having finished, Alisa paid their tab and then left with her companions in tow. She also paid for everyone there, as well as gave money to the Guild for repairs and as an apology. In all, she’d left quite a lot of cash.

“What is it they wanted anyway?” Jessica asked me after they left. I was sitting across from Jessica and Marcia, eating dinner.

“Same as Chris. They came to ask me to join the hero’s party. I said no, of course.”

“That wasn’t everything, was it? What did you talk to that woman about? I was watching from the corner of my eye, and you two seemed to be getting along pretty well,” Marcia prodded.

“And she did say she wants to be your partner both publicly and privately…” Jessica muttered, looking down with a pout.

“Huh, but the only partner for Arius is you, Jessica,” Marcia ribbed, her eyes fixed on me. “She might look like a cute little animal, but she has a black heart. You’d better be careful with her, Arius.”

“I’m aware of that much. And she might have said it weirdly, but she just wants to team up with me. I don’t know what’s going on in her head, and I have no intention of teaming up with someone like that.”

I felt I had a responsibility to explain the situation to everyone because of what happened with Chris, but the current conversation was missing the main point.

“By the way, you don’t come to the Guild here in Carnell these days unless it has something to do with the hero’s party. You must be busy,” Jessica commented.

“Yeah, I’m focusing on dungeons right now and haven’t had much time.”

“Dungeons? You’re solo right now, yeah? If you’re not coming here, that means you’re not taking on Guney’s Great Labyrinth. You’re going solo into an even more difficult dungeon?” asked Marcia. She definitely hadn’t assumed I was going into extreme-difficulty dungeons on my own.

“Yeah, basically.”

“I know you’re strong, but make sure you don’t take on more than you can handle,” warned Jessica with a concerned look. And I’d only just caused her to worry with the whole Chris incident.

“I know. I don’t plan to.”

“Well, that’s good. You just have a different perception of things from most people.” She looked upset.

“Hey, Arius, I’m not saying the incident is your fault, but Jessica did do a lot when it happened. You need to give a little something, don’t you think?”

“Marcia! What are you on about now?!”

“I was just thinking that once he’s done with his current dungeon dive, the two of you could go out somewhere.”

I don’t think going out somewhere with me is a very good reward for anything, but I guess I could go shopping with her and buy her a present.

“I don’t mind, if that’s what you want, Jessica,” I directed at her.

“What? Seriously? You’re okay with that?”

“Yeah. But I think it’ll still take a few weeks at least for me to finish off this dungeon. Do you mind waiting until then?”

“Not at all! Thank you, Arius!”

Jessica’s mood improved, and she looked really happy. Marcia grinned slyly, but all I was going to do was go shopping with Jessica.

***

I shared my intel on Alisa and the other members of the hero’s party with Eric via Message. Then, in the middle of the night, I went to the Ishtobal court.

It wasn’t that I trusted the information drawn on those floor plans that Alisa had given me. If the hero’s party was going to come at me again, I wanted to make a move first.

I cast Perception Block and Invisibility, then I Teleported to a place I’d been before, as close to Ishtobal as I could get, then used Fly the rest of the way. Once I was above the Ishtobal castle, I used Scan, which was effective up to about a three-mile radius around me. I was able to see everyone’s mana pings in the castle.

I’d memorized everything in those drawings of the castle. The soldiers’ numbers and locations roughly matched the intel. Still hidden, I cast Short Teleport to an empty area and slipped into the castle and rapidly accelerated inside.

The floor plans also showed the magic items used for security and traps. I confirmed their locations using Detect Magic for the magic ones and Detect Trap for the physical ones. And in the places I passed through, the magic items and traps were set up in the same locations as noted on the floor plans. If I had time, I would’ve checked the location of every trap and magic item, but I had other priorities right now—the person with the largest ping of mana in my Scan.

They were on the top floor of the castle behind a set of double doors guarded by two soldiers with spears. My Scan had told me there were other guards on standby in nearby rooms. After making sure no one had noticed me, I used Short Teleport to jump into the room.

In the center of the opulent bedroom was a canopied bed. In the bed sleeping was a green-haired man in his mid-twenties. Guess that was Abel Lionhart, the awakened hero.

He had no idea I was there. Detect Magic told me there were traps laid into the floor around the bed, just like the floor plan indicated. Not that it mattered; I’d cast Fly.

If I were an assassin, Abel would be dead. It was a bit of a letdown at how easy it was to infiltrate the castle, but then I noticed a barrier of mana around Abel. I didn’t know if it was a skill or a spell, but it looked like they weren’t that lax on security after all.

Well, it wasn’t like my goal was to take Abel out anyway, even if I had considered it as retaliation since Alisa and her group had used force, but all Abel had done so far was invite me to join the hero’s party.

I activated Evaluate, but wasn’t able to see Abel’s level. Was he at a higher level than me? His mana ping in Scan wasn’t really that strong, though. There was a possibility he was concealing his mana. I focused my attention on that.

The other possibility was that he had special skills like Heart of the Hero, but I had no way of finding that out since Evaluate wasn’t working.

“Hey, who’s there?” Abel sat up with a sudden shout. Was my Perception Block not effective against him?

I didn’t have time to find out. I instantly activated Short Teleport to escape from the castle, where I was able to cast Teleport back to the dorm in the Academy.

So, they found out I’d infiltrated the castle, but I’d cast Invisibility. Even if he could see through my invisibility, I doubted Abel realized who I was. I’d suspected there was a possibility Abel was a higher level than me, so I’d taken another precaution.

But the fact of the matter was that I couldn’t use Evaluate on Abel. I needed to come up with some countermeasures before I encountered him again.

Chapter 4: The Combat Tournament

Chapter 4: The Combat Tournament

I sent Alisa a Message telling her I’d go to Ishtobal Castle in a month, with the presumption being that I was going to decline Abel’s offer to join his party. I knew this was going to turn into a mess, and I needed time to prepare, so I was putting off meeting him for as long as possible.

“If you’re going to make him wait for a month, then I need to make him think you’re going to say yes,” she Messaged. “He’s going to be furious after being strung along and then rejected. Are you okay with that?”

I told her it was fine. Based on my information gathering on Abel, it was going to be hard to avoid making him my enemy, regardless of how I turned him down. I initially had no intention of getting involved with this hero and demon king business, but they were dragging me in, so I had to deal with it.

The following day was Monday, and the first thing I did in the morning was go to Eric’s salon to tell him what happened when I infiltrated Ishtobal Castle.

“I was already aware this was going to turn into a difficult situation. But it’s you, Arius, so I assume there’s a chance you could win.”

“You say that, but I wasn’t even able to tell Abel’s level. He also noticed I’d snuck in, meaning they’re going to be on high alert. I’d like to avoid walking right in the front door of my enemy if I can.”

As Alisa had said, if I didn’t go, there was a chance Abel would come after me. I did not want to get Jessica and the others dragged into this again. Since Alisa knew I was Arius Gilberto, there was a chance Abel would even come to Ronaudia.

“And you are dealing with Chris’s master. If you turn him down, there’s a high probability he’ll resort to violence,” pondered Eric.

“That’s not really a problem. I can do a lot in the way of preparations in a month.”

“All right… I think I understand the situation. I’ll do what I can as well to learn more about this power of the hero you mentioned. And I obviously plan to keep an eye on his next moves. If there’s anything else I can do, I’m happy to help.”

“Thank you, Eric. But you also have to deal with Duke Jordan. Gathering information for me should be plenty. You helped a lot when you found out what Alisa and her group were doing. And I’m sorry if Abel comes to Ronaudia and causes you trouble.”

“If he’s targeting Ronaudians, then it’s both our problem. Don’t worry about that.”

He might say that, but it was still my fault if people here got dragged into something.

“Besides, Arius, I did say I want to build an equal relationship with you.” He looked at me, his expression serious as if he’d guessed what I was thinking. “You said that if I needed to use you to limit damage with the Duke Jordan situation, then do so. Let me say the same. If anyone can make good use of me, it’s you.”

“Eric… All right. I’m counting on you then.”

He really was a good guy. If it came down to it and I needed to, then I would rely on him. But first, I needed to see what I could do myself.

***

THE next day, we had morning practice with everyone again. My plan was to go to class in the morning, then to the Citadel of Ancient Gods in the afternoon.

“My fighting style’s great now,” Vern bragged with his chest puffed up in pride after a match. His fighting style was completely different from before, when he made no attempts to dodge and didn’t use any spells, and that was good.

“It is starting to come together, but you’ve only been at it for a little over a week. It’s still a work in progress. Don’t let yourself get overconfident,” I warned him. He’d be fighting opponents stronger than him in the tournament.

“I know, friend, even I can see that. I’m not going to get strong in one day.”

It seemed Vern did understand. In the end, becoming stronger was all about what you were aiming for. If you were satisfied with your current strength, you wouldn’t get any stronger than that.

“Arius, do you mind sparring with me next?” Zeke asked, his eyes serious as they locked with mine. Losing to Vern seemed to have made him want to get stronger too. During practice, he’d been trying out a variety of different fighting styles for himself.

His original half plate armor with a longsword hadn’t changed, but he did try using his left hand for shields and all sorts of different weapons. If we were only considering the tournament, he really should hurry up and decide on something. But if he was thinking about what was beyond that, then it wasn’t a bad thing that he was experimenting.

After Zeke and I finished our match, Milia came over to us. “Arius, we’d like to go out with everyone to celebrate after the tournament. Sort of a thank you for helping us learn. What do you think?”

Sophia and Noelle were studying my reaction as well.

“You don’t need to thank me for being here for practice, but I’ll join you guys.”

Eating with everyone once in a while wasn’t a bad thing. It seemed like they wanted to do something to celebrate after working so hard.

“Arius always stays true to himself like that,” Sophia noted.

“It’s a promise, okay, Arius?” urged Milia.

“Don’t worry, Arius always keeps his promises,” said Noelle.

The three of them had become really close. I was glad I invited Noelle to practice.

***

THE next day, I finished my go at the Citadel of the Ancient Gods early. I’d promised to see my parents, Rhea and Darius.

I went to my family’s home, the Gilberto mansion. While I did say I’d finished up in the Citadel early, it was still past ten at night, so the twins, my brother Sirius and sister Alicia, were already asleep.

I ate the dinner Rhea cooked for me. The table was loaded with my favorite kinds of food, mostly meat dishes.

“It’s been so long since I had your cooking, Mom. It really is good,” I complimented.

“There’s more where that came from, so eat up,” she replied, looking happy. By this time of day, the few maids of the Gilberto household were already resting, so Rhea was taking care of me.

“Arius, are you always in dungeons until this late at night? I don’t mean to tell you what to do, but I’m not sure how I feel about that,” she said with a sigh.

Darius finished off the alcohol in his glass and added, “I heard about what’s going on with the hero’s party from Prince Eric. If you need any help, let us know.”

I knew that if I told Eric something, it would get passed to Darius. Eric was using the people from the Royal Intelligence Ministry with King Albert’s permission, and Darius was the chief minister.

“I’m sure you know, Arius, but the hero is a tricky opponent since they say he’s the one who will defeat the demon king, the enemy of all humanity. If you fight him, you’ll make enemies of a lot of people,” stressed Rhea.

Her only official title was wife of the chief minister, but she worked with the Intelligence Ministry. I was sure Darius had told her what was going on. I bet that was part of why they asked me to come home today.

“I’m sorry for making you two worry over this, but if they come at me, I figure I have no option but to fight the hero.”

I knew if it came down to that, it would cause trouble for my family, so I was planning to give up the Gilberto name.

“Arius, I’m fairly certain I know what you’re thinking,” Darius jumped in. “That’s exactly why I’m telling you to ask for our help. Like your mother says, the hero is a tricky opponent, but there are ways to fight him.”

“Your father’s right. We might have retired from adventuring, but that doesn’t mean we don’t still fight. You’re underestimating us,” said Rhea with a confident smile.

Darius and Rhea had been in a party with Grey and Selena, and the four of them had taken on the Citadel of the Ancient Gods before. They stopped adventuring when they married. Darius stopped so he could protect his home country of Ronaudia, while Rhea stopped so she could support him.

“I appreciate it. If it comes down to me fighting the hero, I’ll come talk to you first.”

“Not just us. You can get help from Grey and Selena too,” reminded Rhea. “I’m absolutely certain they’ll complain if you don’t let them help you.”

I hadn’t told Grey or Selena about the hero’s party, but they had their ways of getting information. The fact that they hadn’t even sent me a Message told me they trusted me to handle it.

“If things get really bad, then I will talk to Grey and Selena too,” I promised. “But right now, I want to handle things myself, as much as I can.”

I had been thinking about nothing but getting stronger while I kept going through fights in an extreme-difficulty dungeon that were right down to the wire. That’s why I hadn’t thought the hero or demon king had anything to do with me, but if they were going to come after me, then I wasn’t going to stay quiet. I was going to continue living in this world in my own way.

“I understand now what your thoughts are on the hero. Considering your personality, I won’t ask you not to do anything extreme, but please at least talk to us before doing something extreme,” Darius sighed.

“And I won’t be having any excuses that you didn’t think it was extreme. Use some common sense,” chastised Rhea.

You could expect my parents to understand it was pointless to try to stop me.

“I understand,” I replied. “I promise I’ll talk to you.

I was willing to make this promise when it came to Abel because it was possible it could cause others trouble. If you used common sense, you’d probably think going solo into an extreme-difficulty dungeon was insane. Nevertheless, I wasn’t going to try to insist to them that it just wasn’t extreme to me.

“Do you plan to get involved with Duke Jordan?” Darius asked. “Prince Eric has the upper hand now, but it’s hard to know what the duke will do if backed into a corner. He has connections abroad and in the criminal world, so he is not someone to take lightly.”

“I’m taking a support role for Eric in that. You should be careful too, Father.”

Eric was far better than the duke at gathering information and laying plans, and he seemed intent on defeating him himself. I would only help him if needed.

***

SATURDAY came around, and it was the day of the Combat Tournament.

I had skipped class on Friday to go into the Citadel of Ancient Gods, but right before the tournament started, I joined the others for practice.

The participants all had the best grades in the sword and magic practical courses. It was a huge event that included all three years of students in one tournament. This year, there were thirty first years and thirty second years, then four third-year students. Out of my group, the people participating were me, Eric, Vern, Zeke, Milia, and Sophia. I guess I should also mention Marth, the son of the cardinal, was also taking part.

The reason there were so few third years participating was that most noble students become busier in their last year taking on their family work. On top of that, third-year students who performed well had nothing to gain and everything to lose in terms of reputation, depending on whether they won or lost, seeing as everyone assumed they were going to win anyway. That’s why most third years didn’t bother participating even if they were selected.

The winner last year was Keith Jordan, and he probably hadn’t intended on participating, but Eric asked him to, and he couldn’t exactly refuse.

Eric wanted Keith to make an appearance as part of his plan to force Duke Jordan into a corner. If Keith lost to Eric, a first year, his reputation would plummet, which would have a significant impact on his father’s ability to draw others to him. And if the duke retaliated, it would be a good excuse to arrest him.

I decided to leave Eric to handle Keith, so I didn’t necessarily have to take part in the tournament, but there was a chance the duke would fall for Eric’s scheme and attempt something. Going to the tournament meant I could be closer to everyone, allowing me to react immediately if something did happen.

The Combat Tournament was held at the Academy’s stadium. It was a bit like a colosseum surrounded by spectator seats and had four rectangular fighting rings marked on the ground of the vast space in the center.

Matches were meant to mimic real fights, so participants used real weapons, skills, and spells. They were held inside Special Barriers, the same ones used in our magic practical class, to make sure no one got seriously injured.

Special Barrier nullified harm, visually representing the damage value inflicted as numbers displayed over your head. What was different from our classes was that the Special Barriers weren’t limited to 100 points. The match continued until one person surrendered or the Special Barrier broke from an overaccumulation of damage.

Most people surrendered before the Special Barrier broke, unless it was a very close match, because it was embarrassing to have points scored against you without you being able to do anything.

The seats were overflowing with student onlookers. In the separate VIP boxes were King Albert and nobles who had been invited. The Combat Tournament was the biggest event of the year at the Academy. King Albert, my father, and all of the Three Great Dukes, including Duke Jordan, were in attendance.

“Arius, will you watch my match today?” Eric asked with his usual energizing smile.

“You really did things your way, didn’t you?” I replied.

“I really have no idea what you’re talking about.”

He might play dumb, but his first opponent was Keith. The matches were determined by lottery. The first-year students were in a separate lottery that ensured they were paired against a second- or third-year student so that they didn’t advance to later rounds on luck alone. Even so, it was far too convenient for me to believe Eric just happened to be matched with Keith.

If the previous champion of the tournament were to lose against a first year right in the beginning, well, that was going to do the most damage to Keith’s reputation. If I were in Eric’s shoes, I’d have thought up the same plan.

“You students who have been selected for the Combat Tournament either carry the future of Ronaudia on your shoulders or represent your home country abroad. I ask you all to fight with honor and dignity,” King Albert finished his opening remarks, and we quickly dove into the first-round matches.

“Prince Eric!”

“Lord Keith!”

The students in the spectator seats suddenly burst into a ruckus at the upcoming showdown. Their first-round match was taking place first in the rectangle marked out right in front of the VIP boxes. In the first round, four duels were held at the same time, but the majority of people weren’t paying attention to the other matches.

“Keith, go easy on me, won’t you?” Eric called out. He was wearing half plate armor made of fairy silver and had a longsword. There was a magic crystal embedded in his left gauntlet. They were all magic items, but it was Eric’s standard equipment. The lack of gaudy ornamentation was yet another way in which Eric was the perfect prince.

“You’ve pulled something amusing, Your Highness,” Keith said as he fixed Eric with a glare. “But it seems you haven’t heard how they say schemers always drown in their schemes. It doesn’t matter who they are.”

Keith’s equipment was plate armor with a sword and shield for a standard fighting style. The armor was rather flashy with gold ornamentation, and one look told you it was an expensive magic item.

“I’ll have to ask you to say that again after I’ve won,” taunted Eric with an invigorating smile. He was just stirring Keith up at this point.

“Fine. It’s the duty of the greatest of the Three Great Duke houses, House Jordan, to show you reality!” Keith activated a skill the moment he heard the signal for the match to start. “Ice Sword Dance Flurry!”

Ice Sword Dance Flurry was an advanced one-handed sword technique that created ice swords to strike on their own and had the additional effect of slowing the target down with the chilling air.

Three ice swords flew through the air to attack Eric as Keith sped up, closing the distance between them. Four swords were attacking Eric simultaneously. That kind of attack would be hard to block for someone at the level of most Academy students. Apparently, this was the skill Keith had used to win last year.

“You show no mercy, Keith, using a powerful skill from the start,” Eric said.

Just before the three ice swords struck, a wall of flame surrounded Eric. He had silently cast the tier-four Fire spell, Wall of Fire, and melted them instantly.

“I knew about that skill, so it won’t work on me,” smiled Eric.

He was always well prepared; there was no way he hadn’t already investigated what skills and spells Keith could use. And if he’d investigated them, he’d obviously prepared countermeasures.

Keith quickly jumped backward to escape the sudden Wall of Fire he’d found himself in, but there were already damage points over his head. Eric scored first. Wall of Fire was a duration skill, meaning these flames weren’t going to disappear right away.

“Don’t think you’ve got me! Ice Tempest!”

Ice Tempest was a tier-four combined elemental spell. It was an area of attack spell, which could damage Eric despite him being inside the Wall of Fire. Or so Keith thought. The next moment, Keith was sent flying by an attack from behind. Eric had used Short Teleport and unleashed a series of blows.

Keith regained his stance a short distance from Eric and raised his sword. The damage points over Keith’s head had already passed 300.

“How’d you get out of the Wall of Fire? Did you use Invisibility? Stop your underhanded tactics!”

Short Teleport was a tier-five Space-element spell and challenging to learn, a possibility Keith hadn’t even considered. Eric’s victory was guaranteed the moment Keith underestimated him.

“It looks like you can’t keep up with my attacks at all, Keith.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about! Ice Tempest!”

Keith probably didn’t use Ice Sword Dance Flurry because he was wary of Wall of Fire. He also assumed he could handle Invisibility with an area attack.

But the moment Ice Tempest came for him, Eric used Short Teleport again to appear behind Keith, using the spell’s massive form to impair Keith’s field of view. Eric focused mana into his sword and attacked with a flurry of rapid, precise strikes. The damage piled up until the Special Barrier audibly shattered.

“And the winner is Prince Eric Stallion!”

The students in the spectator seats burst into a roar as they watched a first year utterly crush last year’s champion. In contrast, the nobles of the anti-royalist faction looked at Keith with cool disdain.

“Wh-What in the…? What happened?”

Keith cradled his head in his hands, utterly dumbfounded. He was head and shoulders above the other students in terms of power, and his Ice Sword Flurry had, in fact, dominated at last year’s tournament. He must have been having a hard time accepting his defeat. But that was just how much stronger Eric was.

“Maybe you’re the one who needs to open his eyes to reality, Keith. This is the difference in strength between us,” Eric replied with an uplifting smile, goading Keith.

“What did you say?” Keith glared aggressively at Eric. “You bastard, you cheated somehow! There’s no other way I could have lost to someone like you!”

Keith’s emotions got the better of him as he slung a series of insults and tried to grab Eric, a prince, but the teachers quickly surrounded and restrained him before he could.

“Keith, I’ll have to ask you to stop with such vulgar language. You need to accept this is all you amount to,” Eric denounced with a cool gaze.

“Damn you! Hey, let go of me, you moronic teachers! If you’d just check, you’d see Eric cheated, you’ll find something right away!”

Keith continued to spew insults until the teachers dragged him away.

In the VIP booths, Duke Jordan was frantically bowing his head to King Albert to apologize for his son’s unacceptable behavior. Insulting and accosting a prince could very well be considered a crime of defaming the dignity of a royal. There would be no talking his way out of that since he did it in front of the many spectators.

“That fight seemed like it wasn’t your usual style, Eric. I’m guessing that was all to get him riled up,” I suggested to Eric once he’d returned to our seats. Considering how strong Eric was, he should have been able to finish that fight much more quickly.

Eric grinned fiercely and whispered, “I know Keith’s personality, though I didn’t think it would go quite that well. It is rather easy to manipulate morons.”

It looked like King Albert had accepted Duke Jordan’s apology for the time being because the duke had returned to his seat in the VIP box, though I imagined he was itching to get away from that uncomfortable situation. He was glaring at Eric in fury. If he attempted to retaliate, everything would be going according to Eric’s plan.

***

KEITH was dealt with, but I remained on guard since Duke Jordan might try something. The Combat Tournament had only just started, after all.

My fight was decided to be in the second set of matches. I entered the third ring in my half plate armor and was using a longsword that I had been using for our morning practices, which I had bought in the market for the tournament. They said going in just your uniform was seen as belittling the tournament, and I didn’t want to deal with that mess. I was still wearing my glasses, though.

My opponent was a second-year student named Rod Scarlet. He was the son of Count Scarlet, who was an anti-royalist, and he was one of the participants whom people thought could take the championship.

People who had a chance of being a champion in the Combat Tournament were generally higher than level 50, the equivalent of a B-rank adventurer, so they were strong. Seeing Keith’s failure seemed to only make Rod more eager. Maybe he thought that if he performed well here, he could gain power within the anti-royalist faction.

“You’re Arius Gilberto, huh? You might stand out from the other first years, but I’ll show you that that’s all you are! Great Wheel!”

Rod wore full plate armor and used a halberd. He quickly activated an intermediate skill that rapidly spun a polearm around in a circle the moment the match started, and rushed at me.

“You think you can stop my attack with that pathetic sword?!”

Great Wheel wasn’t a bad skill. It combined both offense and defense into one, but I struck once right into the center of his rotating circle and sent him flying backward.

“M-My halberd…”

It shattered into tiny fragments, and the Special Barrier went down before it could even display the damage points. The only reason Rod was uninjured despite that was because I’d held back.

“Master Arius!” shrieked the students in the seats. Normally, it was only the girls who would’ve supported me while the boys looked on with jealousy, but there were also some male voices in there since I’d defeated one of the potential champions.

“A showy win in your first match, I see. That’s very like you,” teased Milia when I got back to the contestant seats.

“Prince Eric’s win was already perfect, but I’m not surprised to see you win. You’re so powerful your opponent couldn’t even get close to you,” said Sophia with a soft smile. She’d complimented Eric after he’d defeated Keith as well. Sophia appeared worried she was going to damage his reputation if she, his fiancée, performed poorly, but she seemed like she was going to do fine to me.

“I can’t allow myself to lose now. Next is my turn. I’ll be back soon, Arius,” vowed Vern as he stood and went down to the rings.

There were thirty-two matches total in the first round, comprising eight sets of matches held in each of the four rings. I still wanted to see Milia and Sophia’s matches, so I decided I might as well join them in watching Vern.

Vern’s opponent was a second year named Jeff Roswalt. He was the son of Baron Roswalt, a royalist. He looked small compared to Vern’s massive height, but he was only just under six feet tall. His combat style used plate armor and a great sword.

“Apologies, but I’m going to win this match,” Vern said, facing Jeff in the ring.

“Your Highness. I’m a second year. I will not be losing against a first year.”

Milia’s expression was serious as she fixed her eyes on the ring. “Hey, Arius. Do you think Prince Vern can win?”

“Probably. With how far Vern has come, Jeff isn’t an opponent Vern can’t beat.”

Vern had reevaluated his fighting style and gotten stronger these past two weeks. The contestants rushed forward the moment the match started for a head-on collision. At first, it looked like a match of might against might, but Vern’s new style wasn’t taking all the hits. He was dodging the ones he could, and his movements had become less wasteful thanks to sparring with others.

Jeff was good too, steadfast with cautious movements, but the Special Barrier showed he had more damage points—Vern was completely overpowering him.

“Great Furious Slash!”

Jeff activated an intermediate skill that used a rapid downward vertical slash of his great sword. It was fast and powerful, but moved in a straight line, meaning it wasn’t impossible to evade.

Vern remained unflappable as he analyzed Jeff’s moves and dodged. When Jeff lost his footing from the recoil of his skill, Vern activated his own, showering Jeff with attacks.

“Shattering Blade!”

Vern had come to understand how best to use his skills.

The damage points above Jeff rose rapidly, and the Special Barrier shattered with an audible crack.

“Arius, I won!” he yelled to me with an overbearing grin once he got back.

“I saw. It was a good match.” I wasn’t going to nitpick today; Vern worked hard.

“Next is me,” announced Milia. “I’ll be back soon.”

***

IT’S like I’m chasing after strength like Arius, but there was nothing I could do when those cleaners attacked us in the dungeon practical. I figure things like that are going to keep happening if I’m hanging out with nobles and royals, and I want to protect them when they’re in danger. That’s why I want to get stronger.

“Arius, do you think I can get stronger? People think girls are the ones who are supposed to be protected, but I don’t like that,” I’d mentioned casually to Arius when we went to that café and told each other we’d been reincarnated into this world.

“You’re serious about your studies, and you’re practicing on your own too. So, yeah, you can get stronger.” He sounded confident.

“How do you know I’m practicing on my own?”

“I can tell by how much you’re improving. In both our sword and magic classes, you’re the person who’s improved the most.”

So…he was paying attention to me? Not that that made me happy or anything.

“But if you’re aiming even higher, you need to make it so you can manipulate mana with precision. Mana manipulation is a foundational skill of combat,” he continued.

He then enthusiastically explained the general concept of mana manipulation and how to practice. He really did get obsessed when it came to talking about fighting.

Since he had bothered to explain it to me, I’d been diligently practicing mana manipulation every day, and he could tell that too. He always looked at you with this confident expression, like he knew everything. It’s really kind of annoying.

“Anyway, I’ll do my best,” I said before leaving for my match.

“I’m sure you can win,” Arius replied as he watched me head down to the ring.

My face felt hot. Even I could tell it was red. Arius believed in me, that I could win the match… It was his fault for saying something like that!

My first match was against a second-year student named Kamil Stefan. He was the second son of Viscount Stefan and, while he wasn’t as good-looking as a Love Academy love interest like Arius, people in school still said he was pretty cute.

“You’re Milia Rondo? Even my classmates talk about you. They say you’re talented with magic despite being a commoner. Please do try hard not to bore me,” he scoffed.

He was totally looking down on me and wasn’t even trying to hide his disparaging attitude toward commoners. Even if he were a bit cute, he didn’t even compare to Arius.

“Thank you, Master Stefan. I’ll do my best to live up to the rumors,” I replied coolly.

In the game, Milia had done well in the Combat Tournament. By “well,” I mean she gave her upperclassman opponent a run for his money but still lost in the end.

But I was more serious about my practice than Milia in the game had been. When I had time, I’d go into the Academy’s dungeon. I also learned about mana manipulation, so I had no intention of losing.

“Strengthen! Haste!”

I cast my support spells, then focused mana into my sword.

I remembered something Arius had said: “In order to manipulate mana well, you should keep practicing every day until you’re completely out of mana. But you can’t just blunder through it. You need to focus, feel the flow of mana throughout your body as you form a clear image in your mind of everything.”

Just like he’d instructed, I had practiced every day until I was spent. That’s why I could focus mana into my sword like it was no big deal.

“I don’t like junior classmen with an attitude,” Kamil said.

The moment the match started, he came straight at me. He wasn’t even using spells or skills. Kamil was fighting with this gaudy longsword made of gold and crusted with gemstones. His movements were flashy too. It was like he was dancing as he swung his sword at me, but because he was using such exaggerated motions, it wasn’t hard to dodge.

I approached him from his non-dominant hand and began my attack.

“Flashing Blade!”

An intermediate one-handed sword skill that sped up your blade for a series of attacks. I got him right in his completely undefended flank. My series of mana-infused sword attacks easily made him go into the three digits.

“Impossible! You got lucky!”

Kamil let his anger get the better of him as he rushed me to attack, but his movements got even more unrefined, making it only easier to dodge. I calmly evaluated his motions and hit him repeatedly until his Special Barrier broke with a snap.

“I lost…to a first year? A commoner? It’s not possible!” Even so, he didn’t accept his defeat and tried to attack me again, but one of the teachers stopped him.

“I won…”

Obviously, I had been aiming to win, but it was shockingly easy. It was kind of anticlimactic. I went back to the participant seats, where Arius welcomed me back.

“A perfect win, Milia. I expected that from you, but the other students seem surprised.”

With a look of triumph, Arius gestured for me to look around. I’d been so focused on my match that I hadn’t noticed, but the students in the spectator seats and participant seats were staring at me. Noelle and Sasha were standing among them, clapping for me, which made me feel a little awkward.

“You really are strong, Milia… That second year stood no chance against you,” awed Prince Vern, as happy as if it were his own victory.

“It’s thanks to Arius that I won. He taught me how to practice mana manipulation.”

“All I did was tell you how to do it. You got stronger because you were diligent about practicing.”

Of course, he would say something like that. Sure, it made me happy that he was acknowledging my hard work, but I’d really prefer it if he didn’t compliment me that much. He’s making me smile!

But I know that Arius thinks of me as just a friend.

“You were amazing, Milia. And good for you, getting a compliment from Arius.”

“Sophia! I-It’s not like getting a compliment from him makes me happy or anything.”

“No? You look happy to me,” she teased with a smile.

“My good friend, once the tournament is over, will you teach me about mana manipulation?” Prince Vern asked Arius as he tried to put an arm around his shoulders, but Arius avoided it, as expected.

“Stop being so clingy, Vern. I don’t mind teaching you, but you need to focus on your matches right now. You’ve come far enough that I don’t think you’ll lose easily,” Arius scolded.

“I plan to focus, of course. I’ll win until you and I are in a match against each other.”

He might act cold toward Prince Vern, but the two of them got on really well. It was a sort of guy friends thing, which honestly made me a bit jealous.

Arius had been talking a lot to Prince Zeke lately too. But Prince Zeke seemed to be a little standoffish still. He was sitting by himself watching the matches.

“Good luck, Prince Zeke. Sasha’s supporting you from the stands,” I told him.

“Yeah, I know. I can’t let her see me looking bad,” he said without joking. He seemed a little nervous.

“I think you’re supposed to make a joke saying, ‘Aren’t you supporting me too, Milia?’ Because you act all rough around the edges, but you’re really a good guy.”

“I’m not really…”

“Zeke, I’m supporting you,” Arius added.

“Arius…” Prince Zeke looked like he was taken off guard when Arius suddenly jumped into the conversation.

“I know for certain that you trying out various things is the right decision for getting stronger. I support you because you’re working hard. What’s more important than you being Eric’s brother is the fact that you are you, Zeke Stallion. Go out there and fight your way.”

“…You’re right. I’m not going to imitate my brother. I do what I can and give it everything I’ve got.” Zeke nodded, his expression determined. “And Milia, you better support me too.”

He strode off with dignity, his back straight as he went down to the arena.

***

“GOOD luck, Prince Zeke!” shouted Sasha from the spectator seats.

Zeke was fighting against a third year named Terios Flandel. He was the son of Viscount Flandel of the royalist faction. His equipment consisted of full plate armor, a tower shield, and a spear, and his skills were optimized for a tank.

The fact that he was taking part in the tournament despite being a third year was because he’d lost last year in the second round. Even so, he’d spent two years training in the Academy, meaning he was not an opponent Zeke could take lightly.

“Prince Zeke, I will not be pulling my punches,” Terios stated.

“I wouldn’t want you to. And I’ll be giving you my all too.”

Zeke was still wearing his half plate armor and using his longsword, but this time he had a mace in the other hand. He was trying out different things in his off hand, but it looked like he’d chosen the mace this time, a weapon that didn’t need much practice to be able to use, to increase his number of attacks.

“Bulwark of Steel!”

Terios activated an intermediate shield skill that blocked attacks coming from head-on, but allowed the user to still attack through it. It coated the shield in mana, creating a bulwark of light.

“Water Missile!”

Zeke cast a tier-one Water element spell. Three compacted bullets of water flew toward Terios, but they were blocked by the glowing wall, resulting in no damage.

But Zeke wasn’t thinking this spell would cause damage. As Terios was busy blocking the missiles, Zeke circled to the side not protected by the wall of light.

“Water Missile!”

Zeke cast the spell again. Terios turned to block them, but Zeke was clearly the faster of the two. Terios wasn’t able to block the third missile, and it struck him square in the back, making damage points appear over his head.

“Not a bad attack. Now it’s my turn,” he shouted. “Stone Spear!”

Stone Spear was a tier-two Earth spell. The ground beneath Zeke’s feet undulated, then extended into a sharp spear point.

Zeke leapt backward, but he couldn’t dodge entirely, so he took damage. He then closed the distance between him and Terios, then swept past his flank.

“Flowing Slash!”

Flowing slash was a beginner one-handed sword skill. Water-elemental mana grew from Zeke’s sword and cut deep into Terios’s side, followed by a series of attacks from Zeke using both his sword and mace. But Terios’s defense was high. The attacks were getting through, but only doing about 20 points of damage each. Terios, of course, countered Zeke’s attacks, dealing damage with both spear and magic.

They continued to exchange blows, the points adding up above their heads. Zeke was hitting more times, but doing less damage, so it was hard to tell who would win.

The audience watched with bated breath as the fight continued. After twenty minutes, it ended at long last when the Special Barrier cracked from the accumulated damage, resulting in Terios’s defeat.

“Well done, Your Highness,” Terios congratulated. “It was my loss. Good luck in your next match.”

“Thank you. It was a really close fight.”

Sasha stood from her seat and applauded. Zeke waved back as he returned to his seat. He looked tired, so he must have been close to running out of stamina as well, but he also looked happy.

“You did it!” Milia cried.

“I did. I somehow pulled off a win.”

“You did a good job all the way to the very end,” I complimented. “It looks like all that trial and error paid off.”

The thing that’d won the fight for Zeke was his high number of attacks. The damage that mace had done wasn’t something to sniff at.

“Yeah. All I’m doing is what I can with everything I have,” Zeke responded.

“You won too, Prince Zeke! Good luck in the second round!” praised Vern with a big thumbs-up and a grin that flashed his pearly whites. He was definitely a bit much.

Next was the last batch of first-round matches.

“Good luck, Sophia. I’m cheering for you,” Milia encouraged.

“Thank you. I’ll give it everything I have.”

Her expression was set with determination as she headed down to the arena.

“Should the fiancée of Prince Eric really be participating in the tournament? I don’t care who you are, I’m not going to hold back.”

Sophia’s opponent was a second year named Cecile Chromia. She was the daughter of Count Chromia, who remained neutral among the factions, and looked rather haughty. Cecile wore her hair in a ponytail, and her equipment was a set of scale mail and a saber.

I knew from Evaluate that her skills were set up to make her a dedicated physical damage dealer. All the spells she could use were support spells.

“I’ll do my best and use this opportunity to practice against a stronger opponent. Please do come at me with everything you have,” Sophia claimed.

She had on her cloth armor and was holding a small sword and a main-gauche. Since Sophia primarily fought using magic, the weapons were for defense.

“I like your attitude. All right, we’ll both give it our all!”

Cecile cast her support spells and then rushed toward Sophia. She kept herself low, ready to react if Sophia threw a spell at her. She seemed pretty used to combat.

“Shadow Thorns!”

Sophia’s tier-two Dark spell created shadows from the ground to grab Cecile, but she leapt to the side out of reach. Her reaction speed and physical abilities were not to be taken lightly.

“Dark Missile! Darkness Spear!”

Sophia let off a series of offensive spells. Cecile reacted, but couldn’t dodge completely, and some damage points appeared above her head. It wasn’t a lot, but the secondary effects of the Dark spells were slowing her down.

“Shadow Thorns!”

Sophia laid on more spells, and this time the shadows wrapped around Cecile.

“Tsk, Sever Magic!”

Sever Magic was an intermediate one-handed sword skill, cutting through magic and allowing Cecile to slash the Shadow Thorns binding her.

“Dark Missile! Dark Missile!”

Sophia followed with another series of attacks.

“Full Recover!”

But Cecile restored all her physical functions with a spell that canceled out debuffs, then dodged Sophia’s attacks. The ones she couldn’t dodge completely, she knocked down with her Sever Magic.

It was hard to slash those spells flying at her at high speed, but Cecile’s physical capabilities and keen senses made it possible. She’d already closed in on Sophia. It was evident that if this turned into a melee fight, Sophia was at a disadvantage.

“Barrier of Darkness!” Sophia cast a defensive spell, forming a cylindrical wall of darkness around her.

“There’s no point struggling!” Cecile shouted as she cut the Barrier of Darkness with her Sever Magic.

But there was a point in Sophia gaining those few moments that the defensive spell bought her.

“Dark Flame!”

The tier-three Dark spell was the one area of attack spell Sophia could use. There was no dodging a point-blank spell.

Black flames rushed toward Cecile, and the damage points above her head ticked up. The Dark-element spell’s additional effects also reduced Cecile’s stats.

But that was all it did.

“Moonlight Blade!”

As a physical attacker, Cecile’s abilities in close combat far exceeded Sophia’s, even with her stats reduced. The damage points above Sophia’s head rapidly increased, then the Special Barrier snapped with a ping.

“I’m sorry, Sophia,” Milia murmured when Sophia returned to her seat.

“I’m not unhappy with that result. I did my best. Now I know exactly how strong I am.” Sophia was smiling, but there was something different about it.

“Aren’t you the one who told me I didn’t have to force myself to smile?” I asked her. “If you’re frustrated, then say it.”

“Arius… Well, yes, I am frustrated!” she grumbled, gritting her teeth. “But this is just what I’m capable of. I need to accept I lost.”

“Yeah. I think you’re after a different kind of strength than what I’m looking for, but if you want to get stronger, I’ll help.”

“Thank you, Arius. I need to work harder.”

Giving her a hug and consoling her wasn’t my place, but I wanted to do what I could for her because she was trying so hard.

That finished off all the first-round matches of the tournament. Of the six of us first years who took part, five of us won.

Eric, Milia, and Vern then went on to win their second-round matches.

“I tried, but there was nothing I could do against a second-year opponent like that,” complained Marth, the son of the cardinal. He lost in his second match. It was true that his opponent had been a second year, but they weren’t one of the potential champions. Marth wasn’t going to get stronger because he was making excuses.

The next round included my and Zeke’s matches. The second round also had four duels going on at once.

My opponent was a second year named Lauger Laudness. He was the son of Baron Laudness, who was a royalist.

“I saw your match in the first round, Arius,” he shouted toward me. “That’s why I’m going to start with everything I have!”

He was muscular with neatly cut short hair and was wearing a breastplate, gauntlets, and greaves. He was known for being combative and using a fighting style of punches and kicks. I kind of liked him.

“I accept your challenge,” I yelled back, tossing my sword aside and raising my fists.

“Huh… You think you can win against me in a fist fight? Arius, I’m going to break your nose!”

He rushed at me, quickly closing the distance between us.

“Stone-Shattering Fist!”

Lauger’s gauntleted fist glowed with mana as he activated the intermediate unarmed skill. He put his entire weight behind the throw, but I dodged, countering with a fist to his gut at the same time.

“Ah!”

He flew backward through the air. The Special Barrier had shattered before it could even display points.

The students were in an uproar at the fact that I’d instantly defeated two second years in a row. I was more interested in Zeke’s match, though.

“…I lost,” Zeke scowled with frustration, grinding his teeth together. But there had been an obvious difference in strength.

“Your Highness, I do feel bad defeating my sister’s fiancé, but I am aiming to take the championship this year.”

That was the current Student President, Raymond Blancard. He was the eldest son of Marquess Blancard and older brother to Sasha, Zeke’s fiancée.

“Zeke, there was a clear difference in strength between you and your opponent this time. If you want to get stronger, then don’t forget this frustration,” I advised.

“I know, Arius. I know.”

There was still fighting spirit burning in Zeke’s eyes, so I knew he’d be all right.

“Raymond is just as strong as I thought,” Milia murmured. “He did win the championship in the game after all.”

She was right. Raymond had shown an overwhelming strength in the Combat Tournament in the game. Not even the love interests had been able to keep up with him.

“Arius, are those cleaners really going to attack like they did during the dungeon practical? Even though there’s extra security because the king’s here? If they do attack, they’ll need some serious firepower, won’t they?” asked Milia.

I’d told everyone that an attack was possible. They’d be slower to react if they didn’t know in advance. I wasn’t willing to risk that.

“It’s a possibility, not a certainty. There might not be anything, but it’s best to be on your guard,” I reasoned.

There was a rest break after the second-round matches finished. Eric and Zeke went to eat with the king and the lords who had been invited to the tournament. Vern, Milia, Sophia, and I invited Noelle and Sasha to join us in the cafeteria. Sasha normally ate with Zeke in his salon, but he wasn’t there, so we invited her too.

“It is too bad Prince Zeke lost, but everyone’s doing a great job,” grinned Sophia. She usually ate with the noble girls from her faction, but she was already sitting with us, so she decided to eat with us instead, making it the six of us around the table. She didn’t seem down about her loss anymore; she was just happy that the rest of us won.

The other students were looking at us a lot, probably because we were doing well in the tournament. The only one who seemed bothered by them was Noelle.

“I’m feeling mixed emotions, since the person who defeated Prince Zeke was my brother,” Sasha mused out loud. It seemed to bother her that it was Raymond that Zeke had lost to, and Zeke hadn’t even stood a chance. Though, considering how strong Zeke was currently, I figured he would’ve had a tough time winning against any of the other remaining second years.

“It’s just a match, Sasha. Prince Zeke doesn’t seem too upset by it. Besides, he’s a resilient person,” comforted Sophia.

“I know, but still…”

“You’re coming with him to our celebration later today, right?” Milia asked. “I’m sure going out with all of us will cheer him up.”

“Milia’s right. I’m sure he’ll enjoy himself, especially since he’ll be with you.”

The two girls were helping cheer Sasha up.

“I-I’m really looking forward to going out with everyone,” Noelle said. She seemed happy too. She’d always been on her own before, but she really warmed up to everyone. The four girls seemed like great friends now.

“Vern, you’ll be against Raymond for your third-round match,” I put in.

“I know. And seeing Prince Zeke’s match, I can tell Raymond is truly strong. I’m looking forward to fighting him.”

Vern was the kind of guy who immediately accepted how strong his opponent was. I knew he wanted to win, but he’d probably accept a loss if it were against someone powerful.

“Milia, you’re probably strong enough to give Raymond a good match,” Vern reckoned.

“What are you on about?! You definitely think too much of me,” Milia rejected immediately.

“I have to agree with Vern,” I voiced. “You’re putting in a lot of effort. Have some confidence in yourself.”

I did think Milia would have a hard time defeating Raymond, but if she really tried, she could at least give him a run for his money.

“If you think so, then I’ll give it my all, but…don’t get your hopes too high,” she muttered, her face turning red. Maybe she felt uncomfortable receiving compliments.

“Winning isn’t everything. Give the tournament everything you’ve got and enjoy yourself. I’ll be cheering for you.”

“And if Arius is cheering for you, that gives you a good incentive to try hard.”

“Sophia! Well, you’re going to be cheering for me too, right? I’m going to try hard because you all will be cheering for me.”

“Of course I will. I’ll be cheering for you, for all sorts of things,” Sophia teased with a smile.

“Come on, Sophia! And weren’t you just saying having Arius cheer for you made you happy?”

“I did. Of course, having my friend cheer for me would make me happy.”

“Oh my gosh, that’s unfair, Sophia!”

They were getting worked up in this conversation about me for some reason. The two of them really were good friends.

***

AFTER the lunch break, the third round of the Combat Tournament began.

They’d redrawn the lines in the arena to have one big ring. The fights happened one at a time, and the first match was Vern against Raymond.

“My good friend,” Vern said to me. “I plan to use up everything in me.”

Then he went down to the arena. I didn’t want to call it before they fought, but with where Vern was at, I thought it would be a serious struggle for him to win. I’d acknowledge Vern had gotten stronger, but Raymond was in a different league.

“Prince Vern, shall we get right to it?” Raymond began. “As the upperclassman here, I will allow you to make the first attack.”

Raymond wore a white surcoat so you couldn’t tell what sort of armor he had on underneath. It didn’t look like it was heavy armor, and his sword with a straight guard had a blade that was over three feet long.

“You seem confident. Well, if you’re offering. Fireball!” Vern immediately cast the most powerful spell he could use.

Raymond jumped to avoid the Fireball, then rushed diagonally down toward Vern to attack. He’d silently cast Fly and Haste.

Vern tried to circle around to the right to avoid the attack, but Raymond changed direction to follow him. Raymond struck out with a horizontal slash, which Vern just about managed to block with his shield, but Raymond’s attack was so powerful that it sent Vern flying backward. He tumbled across the ground as 100 damage points appeared above his head.

“I’d expect no less of someone expected to take the championship,” Vern spat. “But I’m not done yet. Shattering Blade!”

But as Vern activated his skill, Raymond avoided Vern’s blade and ruthlessly struck again. He hadn’t used any skills or offensive spells, but Vern’s Special Barrier was rapidly accumulating damage points.

Raymond wielded his longsword with ease and kept Vern from getting a moment to attack. Even when Vern jumped backward to try to put distance between them, Raymond was faster and wouldn’t let him get away.

However, Vern didn’t give up. He kept attacking, though he couldn’t land a hit. Eventually, the accumulation of damage made Vern’s Special Barrier shatter audibly.

“Arius, I’m not strong enough to stand a chance against him yet,” Vern fumed, frustrated when he returned to his seat. There had been an obvious difference in power between him and Raymond, but Vern wasn’t going to let that get him down.

“Vern, if you continue to take your training seriously, you will get stronger,” I confided. “Once the tournament is over, I’ll teach you about mana manipulation like I promised. But it’s not something you can easily improve at. Be ready.”

“I understand. I’ll do anything to get stronger.”

Later, Eric and I won our third-round matches, and it was time for Milia’s.

Milia was against Cecile Chromia, a saber user specializing in close combat who utilized the power of her tall form. She could also use Sever Magic, which meant she’d be a formidable opponent for Milia.

“It’s quite impressive for a commoner to make it this far,” she sneered. “But unfortunately, going against me means you’re going to lose.”

“I don’t intend to lose. I’m not exactly going to seek revenge for you taking out my friend, but I do have a lot of people cheering me on, and so I’m going to give this my all.”

The moment the match started, both Milia and Cecile cast Strengthen and Haste. Cecile, who specialized in close combat, immediately moved to close the distance between her and Milia.

“Shining Arrow!”

But Milia cast a tier-two Light spell, creating six arrows of light.

“Sever Magic!”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Cecile activated her magic-slashing skill and leapt to the side. She couldn’t handle slashing all six arrows at once, so she was probably aiming to only slash the ones she couldn’t dodge.

“What?!”

But she was shocked to find the arrows changed trajectory to match her movements. The six bolts of light arched through the air toward her. Her intuition and ability to read the battle allowed her to cut down two of the arrows with one strike, but the other four were a direct hit. More than 100 points of damage appeared over her head.

Milia could also use the tier-three Light spell Holy Spear, but she likely focused on using Shining Arrow because of how much more proficient she was with it.

Since a spell’s power could be totally different depending on the precision of the user’s mana manipulation, it didn’t always mean that a higher-tier spell was stronger. Milia’s mana manipulation was precise enough that she could control the movements of her Shining Arrows after she’d released them.

“I’ll apologize for underestimating you for being a first year, but now I’m getting serious!” Cecile cried as she sped up, rushing toward Milia.

“Shining Arrow!”

Milia met Cecile’s charge with another firing of her spell. Perhaps it was easier for Cecile to read the arrows’ trajectories when meeting them head-on because she was able to cut down three this time, but the other three hit their mark. The Special Barrier’s display of damage was ticking up, but Cecile didn’t seem to care. She cast Moonlight Blade, an intermediate one-handed sword skill that pumped up your damage, as she continued her charge. Cecile was athletic and had cast Haste, but so had Milia. Milia’s sword was quicker—and that wasn’t all.

“Flashing Blade!”

In comparison, Milia’s skill allowed her to increase the number of attacks.

“No way! I can’t lose in strength!”

Not only was Milia holding her ground in terms of strength, but she was also very clearly overpowering her. Her skill had grown even more powerful. Her mana manipulation influenced the skill’s power with no upper limit. She had the advantage in speed and strength, and her movements were precise. Cecile stood no chance.

The damage points above Cecile’s head grew to the point that her Special Barrier shattered.

Part of the reason the crowd was going so wild was that a commoner like Milia had won in the third round, but also because that meant three of the top eight competitors were first years.

After an hour and a half, all the third-round matches were wrapped up, and then we were on to the fourth round.

“Shocking Chain!”

I was fighting a magic-using second year named Curt Axel. The reason he’d made it to the top eight despite magic users being bad at close combat was because he could use Shocking Chain, a powerful tier-five offensive combined elemental spell that both bound and damaged its target. He was very good at using it.

I used Dispel to get rid of the Shocking Chain, then cast the tier-one combined-elemental spell Ice Bullet. A bullet of compacted ice the size of a pebble rotated like a drill as it punched through the sound barrier.

It struck Curt, and his Special Barrier broke before it could even display any damage.

“A-Arius’s Ice Bullet is really p-powerful,” stammered Marth, taken aback.

I was reminded of when I used Ice Bullet on him in our magic practice class. The Special Barrier in class hadn’t been able to handle it, so I Dispelled it right before it hit him so that he was only hit with the shockwave.

Eric also won his fourth-round match, of course.

Next, it was Milia versus Raymond.

“Milia, see how far your power can take you,” I whispered to her.

“Yeah. You better keep your eyes on me, cause I’m going to give it my all.”

Raymond Blancard, the president of the Student Council. He expertly wielded that longsword of his, leaving no openings. He’d won his first three matches without using a single skill or offensive spell. Raymond was the real deal when it came to strength.

“Milia Rondo. I’ve heard rumors about you. I applaud your ability to make it this far as a first-year student, and being from a non-noble background as well. As your upperclassman, I will give you the opportunity to strike first,” he said.

“Thank you, Raymond. I’ve heard a lot about you since I’m close with your sister. Thank you for letting me fight someone as strong as you. I intend to do my best.”

“You’re friends with Sasha? She does seem to be enjoying her time at the Academy. But it doesn’t matter who I’m against; I won’t be holding back.”

“I know. I’d prefer you to give me everything you have as well. Strengthen! Haste!” Milia cast a series of support spells. “Shining Arrow!”

She moved quickly while simultaneously casting. Raymond attempted to fly into the sky to evade the attack, but the arrows of light changed trajectory to follow him. Despite that, they disappeared the moment before hitting him. He’d silently cast Dispel.

Milia leapt into the air to follow him as well.

“Flashing Blade!”

She activated a skill and struck with a chain of blows. Raymond guarded against them all with his sword while countering faster than she was moving.

Milia quickly dodged and blocked the attacks with her shield. She wasn’t able to defend against them all, however, as one struck her shoulder.

She flew backward to put distance between them, but there were already more than 100 points displayed over her head.

“I’m amazed a first year can keep up with me like that,” remarked Raymond.

“Thank you. But you’re not actually trying yet, are you? Heal!”

When Milia cast the healing spell, the points displayed by the Special Barrier disappeared.

“I see. Since you’re skilled with Light spells, you’re also able to use healing spells. I suppose I won’t hold back then,” Raymond said.

This time, he was the one to close the distance between them. He was the faster of the two.

“Shining Arrow! Flashing Blade!”

She dealt with his advance, but he made the arrows of light disappear with a silent cast of Dispel, which left his attack one beat slower than it would have been.

Milia used her mana manipulation to increase the speed of her sword even more and struck at Raymond, but he blocked all her attacks.

She continued to make good use of both magic and skills. If she took damage, she healed it and continued fighting, but her MP was going to run out eventually with this continuous stream of spells and skills. Despite that, Raymond hadn’t taken damage even once.

“I heard there were a lot of strong first years this year, but, Milia, I can tell you’re familiar with combat, and your power is nothing to sniff at. That’s why I’ll go all-out now. Crossed Sword of the Stars!”

Raymond activated a skill, and speckles of light encased his sword. Moving even faster, he unleashed a horizontal slash, which flowed into a downward strike.

Milia couldn’t keep up with him now that he was moving even faster. Her Special Barrier shattered.

“That was incredible… Thank you, Raymond!” she proclaimed. Despite her utter defeat, she bowed to him before leaving the arena.

“Arius, I knew I’d lose, but still…” She hung her head, looking like she would cry.

“I know you did everything you could. Don’t forget how you feel and train even more. You’ll get stronger,” I said.

“Yeah. I’m going to work even harder.”

Sophia then cheered Milia up. Sophia had also learned something from this tournament, and I was going to continue supporting their growth.

Next were the semifinals.

Eric had a perfect win. I was matched against Raymond Blancard.

“Arius Gilberto. I’ve watched your matches. You’re far stronger than your normal first year,” Raymond started, looking straight into my eyes. “Normally, I’d think it was the duty of the upperclassman to allow the lowerclassman the first attack, but I don’t think I can allow that with you and still win. I’m taking this seriously from the start. Crossed Sword of the Stars!”

There was a buzz from the students since Raymond started immediately with a skill. Raymond wasn’t the kind of guy to underestimate my strength.

He quickly closed the distance between us and attacked with the same chain of horizontal then vertical slashes that he’d used to finish off Milia. I dodged his attack by a hair’s breadth.

He moved even closer and unleashed a series of attacks. I dodged them all by the same tiny margin.

“It seems my Crossed Sword of the Stars isn’t effective against you. You’re not even trying, are you?”

“If anyone could tell, it’d be you. It doesn’t mean I’m looking down on your strength or that I’m holding a grudge against you for defeating Zeke, Vern, and Milia. But I am thinking I should finish this match quickly. I assume you don’t mind.”

“No. I’d like to see a glimpse of your strength. Exploding Gale Strike!”

He cast a tier-six combined-elemental spell. It seemed even he couldn’t silent cast a tier-six spell. Exploding Gale Strike surrounded the target with fierce winds while subjecting them to explosions from all directions. It was definitely far more powerful than what you’d expect a student to be using.

Before he cast the spell, I dodged, then struck him faster than he could react. His Special Barrier broke before it could display damage.

The arena fell silent because Raymond, who had just shown them overwhelming power, had been defeated by me, a first-year student who hadn’t used any spells or skills.

“This…is an utter defeat on my part,” he relented. “You moved so fast I couldn’t even see you.”

Raymond held out his hand for a handshake, which I accepted, and the spectators burst into cheers as if they’d only just remembered. Even though Vern did handshakes the same way, Raymond’s didn’t feel as unpleasantly friendly.

I returned to my seat, and Milia and Sophia rushed over.

“I knew you’d win, Arius, but I can’t believe you completely overpowered Raymond…” Milia muttered.

“You’re on a completely different scale. Next will be the final between you and Prince Eric, but I’ll be cheering for you both,” said Sophia.

“I’m looking forward to it too. This is the first time I’ve ever fought Eric.”

Vern and Zeke came over as well.

“I expected no less of my best friend!” claimed Vern.

“You are seriously incredible, Arius,” stated Zeke.

Their reactions were different, but it seemed Zeke was also happy I’d won.

There was a short break before the final started, which I spent chatting with the others.

I noticed Eric hadn’t come back to the participant seats. He was wary of Duke Jordan trying something, so he was regularly checking in with the people from the Royal Intelligence Ministry.

***

“PRINCE Eric!”

“Master Arius!”

The crowd cheered as Eric and I stepped into the arena for the final match.

In the more than a hundred years since the Academy’s founding, they had never once had a championship match between two first years, so I understood why everyone was so worked up. Eric was popular with everyone, but the reason the crowd was cheering for us about equally was that I’d just crushed Raymond in a match.

“Since we have the opportunity, why don’t we show everyone a little more of your true strength? That way, no one will be able to complain,” Eric offered.

It was Eric’s fault that there were rumors about what I’d done in the dungeon practical. Before the tournament, everyone just thought I was good for a first year. There were a lot of people who doubted I was actually strong.

“I beat Raymond. That should be enough. And I don’t care about what others think anyway. Besides, won’t it damage your reputation to lose to me?”

“My main selling point isn’t my fighting skills. I doubt it’ll harm my image if I lose to you in the final. That’s why I’d like it if you didn’t hold back.”

I knew that Eric was concerned for me. He didn’t like it that people who didn’t know me very well said those baseless things about me.

“All right. I’ll try, a bit. You don’t mind if I get a little carried away and accidentally injure you, do you?”

“You wouldn’t be that clumsy. I trust you.”

“If you insist.”

The signal marking the start of the match rang out. I rushed toward Eric and struck with my sword coated in mana.

I was, of course, holding back a bit. No student in the Academy could dodge that attack, and it was powerful enough to instantly break the Special Barrier.

“I have to try and look good myself as well,” Eric called out as he dodged my attack and countered with a series of fast and precise thrusts of his blade.

I guarded with my sword and attacked with a slash faster than Eric could react, but he cast Short Teleport to avoid getting hit.

People like Keith and Raymond were head and shoulders above the rest of the students in terms of strength, but Eric was of a completely different level, literally, compared to them.

He already had high stats from the beginning, much higher than other people of the same level. But that wasn’t the kind of level I’m talking about. Eric had concealed his hand, defeating Keith easily with a fighting style that wasn’t even his usual one.

“That was close. If I’d cast that spell a little slower, I’d have lost.”

“Sure, Eric. In reality, you’re reading exactly what I’m going to do next.”

After defeating Keith, Eric had no reason to reveal his cards. Even now, fighting me, he wasn’t using his real fighting style.

And yet he was still plenty strong. He was doing a good job of watching my moves. He’d been able to dodge all my attacks so far because he was predicting what I’d do next.

If Eric were an adventurer, I’d probably want to start a party with him.

“Prince Eric! You’re amazing!”

“Master Arius! Good luck!”

The students in the spectator seats cheered loudly. It wasn’t just girls cheering for me either; I could hear some boys.

Did that mean others were acknowledging my strength? Kind of annoying that everything was going according to Eric’s plan, but I figured I’d just play along.

The mana focused on my sword glowed white, and I rushed rapidly toward Eric. He anticipated this and evaded with a Short Teleport. But the moment he teleported, I followed with my own Short Teleport and struck faster than he could react.

The Special Barrier shattered, and Eric was hit with overkill damage. He was unharmed, however. Before my attack landed, I’d cast Impenetrable Defense around him.

“The… The winner is Arius Gilberto!”

The announcement took a second because the teacher was dumbstruck after seeing our fight, which was in no way what you’d expect from students of the Academy. The next moment, the arena burst into a roar of cheers.

“Woooo! Master Arius!”

“Arius!”

“An expected result from you, Arius. I was utterly defeated. Actually, I didn’t make it much of a match for you at all,” Eric said.

“That’s not true. You might not be at a point where you can beat me, but you are honestly strong.” Even I thought I sounded like I was being sarcastic, but it was sincere.

“Thank you. It makes me happy to hear you say that. I know you mean what you say.” Eric smiled happily.

The Combat Tournament was buzzing after the high-level final match between two first years. It was a fight that would go down in history, talked about for ages. That’s the sort of ending it was.

If only that were where it had ended.

“Eric!” Just as I shouted, a mass of mana flew toward him at an incredible speed.

***

“FINALLY got the signal. Was about to think I came all this way for nothing,” muttered Zack Trigger when he received the Message. He was a cleaner who’d been dispatched from abroad.

Zack had infiltrated the capital of Ronaudia after casting Perception Block and Invisibility. Being as cautious as he was, he’d skillfully hidden his mana so that even if someone did detect him with Scan, they would think he was a normal person.

With Perception Block and Invisibility still active, Zack took a magic item shaped like a long, thin rod from his Inventory. It was close to seven feet long and made of a metal that gleamed darkly, called a magic gun that fired bullets of mana. It was thanks to this magic gun that Zack had been able to work as a top cleaner for many years. You could call it his partner in crime.

Zack cast Fly and rose into the air, where he looked through the scope on the magic gun to find his mark: First Prince of Ronaudia, Eric Stallion.

He was over a mile from the Academy’s arena where Eric was, but the magic gun’s bullets weren’t affected by the wind, so he was still within range. The further away from his target he was, the less power the shot had, but Zack had enough mana to kill an A-rank adventurer from this distance easily.

His opening was the moment the final match ended. If Eric lost, his Special Barrier would be down, and most people would be distracted immediately afterward. On top of that, Zack had received inexplicable information that Eric was sure to lose the match. Even if that information was incorrect, he could target Eric the moment he left the arena, where there was no Special Barrier.

From the moment Zack received the Message to when he lined up his shot was about two minutes. Moving quickly meant he could be certain to take out his mark. Zack was also well aware that it was essential to make his escape after his job was complete.

The information had been correct; Eric lost the match. Thinking how easy this job was, Zack pulled the trigger.

***

IT was faster than the speed of sound, discharging sparks into the air as it flew toward Eric. Like I’d let it hit him!

I moved as fast as I could, standing between him and the bullet, then used my sword to shatter the mass of mana.

There were very few people who reacted instantly to what was happening. Those people included Eric himself and the people from the Intelligence Ministry lying in wait.

Eric immediately cast Short Teleport, while the people from the Ministry cast several layers of defensive spells where he had been.

Darius was in the VIP booths, so I decided he could handle things here without me. I cast Perception Block and Invisibility, then rushed into the sky where the mana bullet had come from. It would have been faster to cast Short Teleport to get there, but that meant there was nothing to block another bullet’s path for the moment I was teleporting.

Right before the attack came at us, my Scan detected a powerful source of mana that appeared out of nowhere. We’d expected an attack, but not for it to come from over a mile away.

I arrived at the attacker’s location in a few seconds. I already knew from my Scan that the attacker was no longer there. If they’d escaped using Teleport, there was nothing I could do. And considering the mana had appeared suddenly in my Scan, it was highly likely the attacker was very skilled at concealing their mana. But I could see through the Perception Block of someone at a lower level than me, and I’d already seen their mana once using Scan, so I knew what color it was.

I use “color” as a metaphor. Each person’s mana was a little different. If you bumped your Scan up to the highest possible level, you could tell not just how powerful someone’s mana was, but also all the slight variations between different people’s mana.

The attacker had moved about a half a mile away from where they’d taken their shot. Attacking made your Perception Block and Invisibility drop, but they’d already recast it and were skillfully concealing their mana. They were planning their escape.

Even as I closed in, they didn’t notice me. Still hidden, I knocked them out cold.

“You seem to think you’ve done well, but I’m sorry to say you haven’t,” I told the unconscious man.

Even though he had tried to kill Eric, I needed him as evidence of the crime.

There was one other thing bothering me about the situation, but my first priority was taking care of this attempt. I returned to the Academy carrying the attacker.

Back in the arena, the teachers led the students inside to safety. King Albert and the nobles in the VIP booths remained there, surrounded by guards. They’d likely decided that was the safest move as the booths were protected with magic items that created barriers, and moving could expose them. The people still on the arena grounds were those from the Ministry and the people giving them orders, which were Darius and Eric. The two of them came running up to me when I returned with the attacker.

“Arius, is that the attacker?” Darius asked.

“Yeah. He concealed his mana and tried to run, but I managed to catch him. He wasn’t holding a weapon, so he probably stashed it in his Inventory.”

I looked at Duke Jordan, who was in the VIP booths. He didn’t really react, but he knew reacting would be the same as admitting he was the one behind this, and Duke Jordan wasn’t that big an idiot.

“I’ll let the Intelligence Ministry get information out of this guy,” I continued. “You can tell everyone it’s safe.”

Darius went to the VIP booths to update King Albert on the situation.

“I knew you’d take care of this,” Eric said. “The people from the Intelligence Ministry also detected the attacker’s mana in the air, but it immediately disappeared afterward, and they lost sight of him.”

So, Eric also knew what the attacker was doing. He probably had people from the Intelligence Ministry stationed around the city because he was on alert for an attack.

“That was very close. You saved my life, Arius. Thank you, I mean it.”

“You would have managed something. You evaded the shot with Short Teleport.”

“That was only me reacting to you shouting.”

“Sure, let’s say that’s the case. Anyway, I’m glad you’re safe.”

After Darius told King Albert the attacker had been apprehended, the teachers and students soon heard the news too, and the air of tension began to fade.

But I kept myself on high alert for now, just in case. The Intelligence Ministry and teachers were capable of guarding the Academy.

Chapter 5: The Celebration

Chapter 5: The Celebration

BECAUSE of the attack, the Combat Tournament was brought to a close without an award ceremony. It wasn’t like I cared about that anyway.

After the final round, they were also supposed to have a duel between Raymond and the guy Eric beat in the semifinals to determine third place, but that was postponed until the following day.

The students dispersed immediately after the tournament. Eric and the Intelligence Ministry went to extract information from the attacker, but that was outside my field of expertise.

The Ministry didn’t use torture. It brought out the full range of psychological manipulation spells like Enchant, Command, and Submission to procure a confession, so it was only a matter of time until the attacker broke. The problem was how much he actually knew.

“I’m glad you’re all right. I mean, I knew you’d be all right. You’re not hurt, are you?” Milia asked me.

After the other students had dispersed, she and Sophia ran over to me. So much had happened after the final match that I hadn’t talked to everyone yet.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry to make you worry,” I replied.

“You didn’t do anything wrong. In fact, you protected Prince Eric and even captured the attacker. I am so glad you’re not hurt,” said Sophia with an expression of relief. I’d made her worry too.

“Considering what’s happened, we need to cancel our after-tournament celebration. And I really wanted to do something to thank you for helping us practice…” admitted Milia, looking apologetic.

“I told you, you don’t have to thank me. Where were you planning on going for the celebration anyway?” I asked.

“We were going to go to the arcade, then get food afterward with everyone.”

The arcade had bowling, billiards, darts, and other sports and games, letting you have fun playing those things in their indoor courts. People might not feel like that fit the fantasy vibe of the world, but this was a game world with magic after all.

“There’re quite a few of us who took part in practice. Were you thinking of walking there?” I asked.

“I was planning for us to take carriages. I’d already booked them.”

“Well then, we should still go. The attacker is in custody. It’s probably actually safer right now because there’s so much security around.”

Whenever nobles like Sophia left their homes, they were accompanied by guards. Considering everything that was going on, I did feel a bit bad for their guards, but we’d be inside the arcade and restaurant, and inside carriages while traveling, which meant there wouldn’t be a significant burden on them.

“Are you sure it’s all right, Arius?” Milia wondered.

“If you’re that concerned, I don’t mind canceling, but you really wanted to do this. I’ll double-check with Eric if it’s okay.” I sent Eric a Message and he responded immediately that it was fine.

“Prince Eric sent me a Message too, asking me to enjoy the celebration in his place,” Sophia explained.

It was very like Eric to be that considerate. I sent Messages to everyone who took part in training practice, and they all said they’d come to the celebration. Which meant it was going forward as planned.

We agreed to meet at the Academy gates at four o’clock. I swung by my dorm room to change. I kept clothes in my Inventory, but it wasn’t like I could change outside. When I got back to the dorms, I found two small, silver-haired people outside my room.

“Alicia, Sirius, what are you doing here?” I asked.

“Welcome back, Master Arius! Heehee, we came to see you,” greeted Alicia.

“I’m sorry we came without telling you first, Master Arius, but Alicia really wanted to come see you,” reported Sirius.

My nine-year-old twin siblings. The reason they called me “Master Arius” was because they’d learned during their debut in high society that that was the proper way of addressing me. Some noble probably influenced them.

“Because he never comes home…” Alicia muttered. “And that’s unfair, blaming me. You said you wanted to see him too!”

“Uh-uh, I never said that…”

The last time I’d visited the Gilberto household, it was late, so the twins were asleep already. The time before that was…well. Yeah. I basically never went home.

“When did you two get here? And how?”

The Academy had tight security. People unaffiliated with the Academy couldn’t just walk in. And the grounds were huge; I hadn’t told the twins where my room was, so they shouldn’t have been able to find their way here.

“We got here an hour ago. A guard at the gate brought us here when we told them our name and said we wanted to see you,” answered Sirius.

“The guard said they owed Mother and Father. They brought us here and we were supposed to wait in the manager’s office, but we wanted to surprise you when you got back, so we decided to wait outside your room.”

If they got here about an hour ago, that meant they were at the gate before the attack, which would explain why the guard let them in. And the guard had meant for them to stay with the manager, but they never went to the manager, meaning no one knew they should be looking for the twins even after the attack.

“Alicia, Sirius, did you tell anyone you were going out?” I asked.

“…We left a note,” Alicia confessed.

Sirius went quiet.

Which meant they’d slipped out of the house without permission. When I was a kid, I’d leave the house to go monster hunting when Darius and Rhea were away, so I couldn’t exactly lecture the twins on that. Still.

“Everyone’s probably worried about you because you left without permission. For today, I’ll send Ms. Maia a message, but next time, make sure you let someone know you’re going out.”

Maia was the head housekeeper of the Gilberto household. She managed the home when Darius and Rhea were away. Being a former adventurer, she could use magic. I’d Messaged her plenty of times before when I needed something.

Darius and Rhea probably thought the twins had gone missing, so I sent Messages to all three telling them they were with me. Maia replied immediately, apologizing for being unable to stop the twins from sneaking out. It sounded like she’d heard about the attack. She wanted me to stay with them for now.

“Ms. Maia was very worried about you two,” I told the twins.

“I’m sorry…”

“Me too…”

“I don’t mind as long as you’ve learned from this. Just make sure to apologize to Ms. Maia later.”

I’d promised the others I’d go out to the celebration after this, but I couldn’t leave the twins on their own. In my previous life, before I reincarnated, I didn’t have any siblings. And once I was old enough, I was busy traveling the world as an adventurer. I really only saw the twins once a year on their birthday, so I didn’t know what it felt like to be a brother.

“I was planning on going out. Do you two want to come with me?” I offered.

If it were too inconvenient for everyone else, then I’d not join the celebration, but I might as well check first.

“Really?”

“Can we?”

The twins’ round eyes filled with excitement. Even if we didn’t go to the celebration, the three of us could get food somewhere or something.

“Yeah, really. I’m going to get changed. Wait here a sec.”

I entered my room, closed the door, and cast Instant Wardrobe Change. It was a Space-element spell that used your Inventory and took all the equipment, weapons, or armor on you and instantly swapped it out for things of the same type.

Selena taught me Instant Wardrobe Change, so it wasn’t in any magic books. Its uses were limited, so I hadn’t had much need to use it before now.

“Huh? You’re already changed?”

Alicia and Sirius were surprised when I quickly returned.

“Yeah. I hurried because I didn’t want to keep you two waiting,” I said, then picked them up in each arm.

“Whoa! Master Arius!” they both cried.

“Hold on tight.”

Still holding them, I set off at a run. Running while carrying two children was easy for someone with my stats.

“Look, it’s Master Arius!” a girl cried as I passed.

“Master Arius!” others shrieked when they turned to look.

“But…who are those children with him?”

“They look a bit like him…”

“You don’t know? That’s his little brother and sister, Master Sirius and Lady Alicia!”

There was even a girl going out of her way to give explanatory commentary, even though we’d be perfectly fine without it.

“M-Master Arius, this is embarrassing!” screamed Alicia.

“Y-Yeah, we’re not little kids anymore!” shouted Sirius.

They were turning bright red under all the attention from the people around us.

“Then I’ll run faster. It’ll be over sooner that way.”

“Wait, Master Arius!” they both cried.

I kicked it up a gear, and we arrived at the gathering point in only a minute. The twins, however, were pretty disturbed after that experience.

***

I ran up to the front gate of the Academy, where we’d agreed to meet, while still carrying the twins. Milia and Sophia had arrived before us.

“Arius, why are you running? And…who are those children?” Milia asked, looking flabbergasted, but Sophia recognized the twins. They made appearances at social events more than I did.

“This is my brother and sister, Sirius and Alicia. They snuck out of the house to see me, it seems. They were waiting for me outside my dorm room. Sorry for the last-minute request, but do you mind if they join us?”

The twins might have felt a bit out of place because they looked rather apologetic.

“That’s no biggie at all,” replied Milia. “Brother and sister? They do look like you.”

They had the same silver hair, ice-blue eyes, and similar facial features.

“Alicia, Sirius, you are more than welcome to join us,” Sophia said to them.

Milia and Sophia agreed to let them come as if it were the obvious choice. I thought they would say that. Their reactions put the twins at ease, but they were still a little nervous since Sohpia was the daughter of a duke.

“Lady Sophia, I am Sirius, the second son of Marquess Gilberto. We met last month at Duke Crawford’s banquet.”

“And I am Alicia, daughter of Marquess Gilberto. It’s a pleasure to see you again.”

Sophia smiled warmly at the two children, their backs straight as they gave their greetings. “We’re going out to spend time with friends. The two of you don’t have to worry about being so formal.” The smile of a perfect beauty had enchanted the twins.

“Very well, Lady Sophia.”

“If you’ll allow us, Lady Sophia.”

“Hm. Still a little stiff.” Now Milia joined in, crouching down so her face was level with the twins’. “Hi, you two. My name’s Milia. I’m a friend of your brother’s, and now you’re my friends too, so go ahead and relax.”

“We’re…friends?”

“Yeah. Because I’m friends with Arius. So, no feeling like you have to be super mindful of us. You too, Sirius!”

“Very well. I mean…okay?”

“There you go. All right, we’re going out to have some fun, so let loose!”

“Okay, Milia!” the two twins shouted together.

Milia really was good at getting others to open up. The twins instantly took a liking to her.

“Thank you, Sophia and Milia. I know I just brought them without asking first,” I said.

“You don’t have to thank us for that,” replied Sophia.

“It’s all because they’re good kids, so we want to be friends,” grinned Milia.

I was always thinking it, but these two really were good people.

About five minutes later, Vern and Noelle arrived.

“You’re all early. It’s not even four yet,” said Vern.

“I-I’m sorry. A-Am I late?” stammered Noelle.

It was still a few minutes before the time we agreed on, but they had the exact opposite reactions. Last to arrive were Zeke and Sasha, who were a couple of minutes late.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Zeke called to us.

“It’s my fault. I took too long getting changed,” apologized Sasha.

I explained to all the others that I’d brought Sirius and Alicia. They all welcomed the twins without complaint. The twins did know of Vern, Zeke, and Sasha, but they were nervous at the appearance of these big names.

“Sirius, Alicia, are there any foods you don’t like? We’re going to eat later, so let me know if there’s anything you can’t eat,” Milia said, trying to help unwind their nerves.

“I’m fine. There’s nothing I really don’t like,” answered Sirius.

“I…hate bell peppers. And Sirius hates carrots, actually,” confessed Alicia.

Sirius looked like he’d been caught red-handed when Alicia revealed the truth.

“Good for you being honest, Alicia! Sirius, were you going to force yourself to eat carrots?”

“Yeah… I’m sorry for lying,” he mumbled, apologetic.

Milia patted his head. “Well, if you were going to do your best to eat them, then it wasn’t really a lie. By the way, Prince Zeke really doesn’t like tomatoes. He always powers through eating them with this expression like he’s dealing with something really difficult.”

“Hey, Milia, why are you talking about me? I mean…it is true,” Zeke admitted.

Sirius and Alicia were surprised to hear Zeke acknowledge the fact without argument, since he was usually so rough around the edges. But knowing there were things he also hated eating might have made the twins feel like they had something in common. They weren’t so nervous anymore. That was very much like Milia.

We divided into three carriages and set off. I was with Sirius, Alicia, Sophia, and Milia. The two people in the driver’s seat were Sophia’s guards.

The second carriage had Zeke, Sasha, and two guards. The third carriage was Vern, Noelle, and Vern’s guards.

“Today, we’re planning on getting food after going to the arcade. Have you two ever been to the arcade?” Milia asked the twins. She and Sophia were chatting with the twins while we were in the carriage.

“No, it’s my first time. I’m really excited!” exclaimed Alicia.

“Me too! La— I mean, Sophia, thanks for letting us come,” said Sirius.

“Thank you for coming,” Sophia smiled gently.

“We’re all going as a group, so don’t wander off without us, you two,” I told them.

“I know.”

“Yeah, we’re not kids anymore.”

They might complain about it, but they were still only nine years old. I also wasn’t going to lose them since I could Scan for them.

“Huh, you’re being like a real big brother, Arius,” noted Milia.

“Yeah. It’s not a side of you I’ve seen before,” said Sophia, the two of them giving me teasing smiles.

I mean, I was technically the oldest sibling, but I didn’t think I did anything remotely like what you’d expect from an older brother. Today I was able to go out with the twins thanks to everyone else agreeing, so maybe I’d try out this brother thing a bit.

Fifteen minutes later, our carriages arrived at the arcade. Everyone exited the carriages in their casual clothing today rather than their uniforms. Sophia was wearing a simple white blouse with a floral-patterned skirt. Milia was in boyish clothes, an aqua-colored tunic, and trousers. Noelle had on a skirt paired with an earth-brown cardigan over a collarless shirt.

The only time I saw Sophia not in the Academy uniform was at high society events. When I went with Milia to that café one time, we were still in our uniforms, and I’d never been out with Noelle. This was my first time seeing them in their own clothes.

“I know I’m late saying this, but it’s nice seeing you in something different, Sophia. And you too, Milia and Noelle. You all look nice,” I praised.

I was told in my previous life that when you go out with girls, you have to compliment their clothes. It wasn’t like I was aiming to do something. I was just telling them what I thought.

“Arius… Thank you,” Sophia murmured.

“What the? What are you on about suddenly? But…I guess it’s not exactly unpleasant to have you compliment me,” said Milia.

“A-Arius, that’s unfair, I-I wasn’t expecting something like that…” stammered Noelle.

They all blushed, but I guess it was fine since none of them seemed upset.

“What, you’re not going to compliment Sasha?” Zeke commanded with annoyance.

“That’s your job, isn’t it?” I replied.

He probably didn’t compliment people much since he was always putting on a bad boy mask, but if you gave him a nudge, he would.

“R-Right,” he blushed. “Sasha… You look very pretty today.”

“P-Prince Zeke… Th-Thank you…”

The two of them turned bright red. They were the only ones living in the romantic world of Love Academy right now.

It wasn’t depicted in the game, but nobles and royals were always accompanied by guards when they went out. Today we had Vern, Zeke, Sophia, and Sasha, and they each had two guards with them. The guards kept a small distance from us in order not to interfere, but not so far away that they couldn’t react quickly if something happened.

Since we had Alicia and Sirius with us, we decided on bowling first because the kids could play that too. In this world, the bowling balls and pins were made of stone, and you tracked your score with a piece of paper, but otherwise it was the same as my previous life.

We decided to use two lanes right next to each other. First up was Milia and me. Since it was Alicia and Sirius’s first time bowling, we decided to go first.

“Arius, I know you know, but no using magic, okay?” Milia quipped.

“I know. I’ll be good. But putting mana into the ball would be good practice for mana manipulation. You wouldn’t mind the twins using Strengthen, would you?”

“Wait. They can already use magic? And they’re practicing mana manipulation?”

Milia wasn’t the only one surprised. The whole group was.

“Yeah. The family tutor is teaching them magic, and I taught them to practice mana manipulation when they were two or three. But I’m not sure how good they’re doing yet.”

I hadn’t gone bowling that much in my previous life, so I relied on my vague memories to throw the ball.

Obviously not with all my strength.

I added a spin to it, so it traveled down the left side of the lane before curving right before hitting the pins. It hit the front pin at an angle, taking down all ten. With my stats, this result was to be expected. And I was used to toning down my strength all the time.

“That’s Arius for you,” Milia sighed, “but I’m not going to be beat.”

Milia threw the ball with clean form. It was a perfect underthrow that went straight down the center of the lane, also knocking down all ten pins.

“How’s that?!” she cried.

“I figured you could do it,” I replied.

She looked happy, and we high-fived. Milia was the heroine of Love Academy, and she was diligent about her training—she knew how to use her body.

“So that’s how you do it, Alicia, Sirius,” I instructed the twins. “The trick is not to throw toohard. Also, we don’t mind if you cast Strengthen.”

“Okay, got it,” Alicia beamed.

“Yeah, I’ll give it a go too,” said Sirius.

Alicia went first. She cast Strengthen and fixed her eyes on the pins with a look of determination as she focused mana into the ball and threw. Her form was so good you wouldn’t have thought it was her first time. The ball progressed slowly down the lane and took down five pins.

“That’s amazing, Alicia, getting five pins on your first try! Most beginners have a hard time even hitting the pins.”

“Thank you, Milia. It’s because you and Master Arius showed us how first. I think I held back on my power a little too much, though.” With a serious expression, Alicia threw her second ball with a little more power this time, and she took down the remaining five pins. She’d done well on correcting.

The twins weren’t just normal children. They practiced with the family tutor every day, a former A-rank adventurer. They were only nine years old but already level 8.

“Good job, Alicia!” Milia held out her hand, and Alicia happily smacked it with hers.

“Thank you, Milia!”

Next was Sirius. He also cast Strengthen and focused mana into his ball before throwing, his expression intense as he looked ahead. The ball slanted right toward the front pin and took down all ten.

Looking happy, he came back, and Milia gave him a high five too. “You’re amazing too, Sirius! Is this really the first time you two have gone bowling?”

“That’s unfair. Sirius only did better because he got to see what I did wrong!” complained Alicia with annoyance.

“That doesn’t change the fact that I did better,” Sirius said smugly.

“Don’t fight you two,” I cautioned. “We came here to have fun.”

“We’re sorry!” the pair of them replied, the fight going out of them instantly.

I patted their heads. “Good. Have fun.”

“We will!” they said in unison.

“You really do seem like a good big brother,” smiled Sophia as she watched us.

It was her and Vern up next.

“Hm, so Alicia got a spare, and Sirius got a strike. But don’t think I’m going to let them beat me!” challenged Vern. He practically pummeled the pins into a strike.

Sophia threw the ball using a gentle form without much power behind it and got a strike as well. She and Milia happily high-fived when she got back to her seat.

“Everyone’s getting strikes like it’s nothing,” observed Zeke.

“I don’t think I can do as well as everyone else,” Sasha lamented.

They were up next. Zeke’s first throw took down eight pins, and he got the remaining two with his second for a spare. Sasha’s throw was very “girly,” and she ended up getting six pins.

“Too bad, Sasha,” Sophia consoled. She and Milia approached her when she came back to her seat.

“E-Everyone’s so good. It’s a lot of pressure on a beginner like me,” Noelle said.

She was last. Apparently, this was also her first time at the arcade. She awkwardly threw the ball, which slanted into the gutter. Noelle wasn’t the most athletic of people.

“Urgh… I knew it. I messed up,” she muttered.

“It’s all right, Noelle. It’s just a game. What’s important is having fun. Here. When you throw, keep your eyes on the pins, and extend your arm straight like this,” I explained as I went over and took her arm to show her the form for an underthrow.

“A-Arius… O-Okay. I’ll give it a go.”

Her face was bright red, and Milia and Sophia were staring at me, but all I was doing was showing her how to throw.

She slowly tossed the ball from below, which rolled weakly down the lane, just about managing to avoid the gutter and take out three pins.

“L-Look, Arius, I did it!”

“Good job.” When she came back, I held my hand up, and she bashfully tapped it with hers.

“Way to go, Noelle!” cheered Milia.

“Yeah. Getting three pins on your first try at bowling is plenty,” said Sophia.

The two of them and Sasha gathered around Noelle when she came back to her seat.

The game continued, and I made my tenth throw. My ball took the same trajectory as my first throw and took down all ten pins.

“A perfect game right off the bat… You really are ruthless, Arius,” Milia sighed again, looking exasperated.

“That’s very like him,” teased Sophia, smiling.

But it wasn’t like my target was moving as fast as monsters in an extreme-difficulty dungeon. They were sitting still, and all I was doing was repeating the same motions I’d done to get my first strike, which guaranteed me a strike each time.

Everyone else got good scores across the board as well. Milia got over 200 points, Vern and Sophia got about 180. Zeke, Alicia, and Sirius got around 150.

This was Alicia and Sirius’s first time bowling, but they trained every day, so they had strong fundamentals. The twins’ scores improved over time because they were good at observing and adapting. However, their mana manipulation wasn’t at the point where they could use it to adjust the trajectory of their balls. It was basically giving them a power boost. They also had high stats because they were Darius and Rhea’s children.

Sasha got about 80 points, and Noelle got 60, but that was fine since everyone seemed to be having fun.

Once we finished, we were about to move to another game when Sirius and Alicia approached the guards.

“Thank you for working so hard,” Sirius said.

“Would you like a drink?” Alicia asked.

The two had gone to the snack bar to buy drinks and were passing them out to the guards stationed around us. The guards seemed a little thrown off balance by the unexpected offer.

“Thank you, Alicia and Sirius,” Sophia told them before looking to her guards. “Please, you’re welcome to have a drink.”

“Of course,” added Vern. “And I’m sure Prince Zeke and Sasha don’t mind their guards having a drink either.”

With their encouragement, the guards thanked the twins and accepted the drinks.

“You two are such good kids, thinking about others,” gushed Milia. She’d been about to do the same, but picked up on their plans and let them take the lead instead.

“Oh… I was too slow…”

Then Noelle came over, looking upset with an armful of drinks. It seemed everyone was thinking the same thing.

“Perfect timing, Noelle. I was just thinking I was thirsty. Thanks,” I smiled.

“A-Arius… Y-You’re welcome…”

Next, we went to the indoor basketball court to play three-on-three basketball. I teamed with Milia and Alicia, and we were playing against Vern, Zeke, and Sirius.

Sophia, Noelle, and Sasha decided to watch us play because they were wearing skirts. Milia had on breeches, and Alicia wore gaucho pants, so they were okay.

Since Alicia and Sirius were playing, we all tried not to get too intense about the game, but they could keep up with an adult once they’d cast Strengthen anyway. We still went easy for them. Except Vern, when he was coming to steal the ball from me, he was serious. I dodged, of course, but he was way too overbearing.

After getting our bodies moving a bit, we went to the billiards tables. Noelle, Alicia, and Sirius had never played, so we gave them a simple explanation of the rules before starting. The twins took up the game quickly, getting good right off the bat. Noelle…well, she seemed to be having fun, so that was what mattered.

It was getting close to six o’clock, so it felt like a good time to go for dinner once we finished billiards.

I went to the bar and snack counter in the billiards room to get a drink. You could drink alcohol in this world even if you weren’t an adult, and that even applied to Alicia and Sirius. Considering the time, though, I wasn’t planning on having any. I ordered my drink and was about to head back to the others with it in hand.

“You… You’re Arius Gilberto, aren’t you?” a voice called out. It belonged to a strong-willed girl with a ponytail. It was the second year, Cecile Chromia, who had fought Sophia and Milia in the tournament. She was with two other girls, both of whom were second-year students at the Academy. I remember meeting them at high society parties. I also memorized the names and faces of all the students in the Academy.

“Did you come to celebrate after the tournament, Cecile?” I asked.

“Something like that. Hey, Arius. That final match of yours against Prince Eric was incredible.”

Most girls called me “Master Arius,” but I had told her not to bother with it when we’d met before. The two girls looked incredibly uncomfortable with it and were probably thinking about how her father, a baron, ranked lower than mine, a marquess.

“Since we happened to bump into each other, do you mind having a chat with me?” Cecile asked. I didn’t hate people as strong-willed as her, but that didn’t mean I cared to be pushed into anything.

“Sorry. I’m here with friends, and you are too,” I said.

“It’s just a little chat. It’s fine.” She turned to the other girls. “You don’t mind, right?”

Likely being considerate of Cecile, the two bowed and then walked away.

“All right. Let’s go sit at the bar and have a drink,” she said, trying to move the conversation along even if I didn’t want it to.

“Cecile, I think you should give it a rest. We have a previous arrangement,” came Milia, barging into the conversation.

Sophia joined her. “Arius would never make concessions, even to someone like you.”

“Milia. And Lady Sophia. Is it really all right for Prince Eric’s fiancée to be spending time with another man?” Cecile expressed, as if trying to get a rise from them.

Sophia responded with a smile. “It is. Arius is my friend, and Prince Eric gave me permission to come.”

Milia also didn’t look like she was going to budge an inch.

“Cecile, Sophia, and Milia are my very important friends. Don’t go implying something you’re making up,” I interrupted.

“Fine. My apologies, Lady Sophia. I also came with my friends, so, if you’ll excuse me,” Cecile huffed and walked off.

“Thanks, you two. I said no right away, but she’s pretty pushy. And it’s not like I wanted to get in a fight with a girl.” I looked at them. For some reason, they were blushing.

“We’re very important to you…? I mean, I knew you thought of us as friends…” trailed Milia.

“I know you don’t mean anything bad by it, but hearing you say it that way isn’t very good for my heart,” muttered Sophia.

I mean, it was true. They were important to me because they were my good friends.

“Anyway. Sirius, Alicia, you did a good job holding yourselves back,” I called to them. I’d noticed them nearby with expressions like they wanted to jump in themselves.

“Because Milia and Sophia said something for us instead,” shot back Alicia.

“Yeah. If they hadn’t, I definitely would’ve said something,” added Sirius.

They probably hadn’t liked someone getting in the way of our fun since we’d come all the way here together. But she’d only invited me to talk; she hadn’t done anything wrong. If the twins had said something, they could’ve ended up with a reputation as sassy brats, which could have hurt them socially. I wouldn’t mind something like that about me, but it was a hindrance for nobles.

“Hey, you two. You kept control of yourselves because you were thinking of House Gilberto, weren’t you? I might’ve still thought of you as kids, but you’re using your heads like mature adults, aren’t you?” I confided as I patted their heads. They turned bright red.

“Stop, you’re embarrassing us!”

“Yeah! We’re not kids anymore!”

The fact that they couldn’t just accept the compliment meant they were still kids.

***

WE all reboarded our carriages and set off for a high-end restaurant that nobles and royals might go to. It was a sort of open-air restaurant with tables lined up under the eaves of the building. Considering our guard detail, though, we’d reserved a room inside.

“I can only ever come to places like this when I’m spending time with all of you,” Sophia smiled, and Sasha nodded in agreement. She, Sasha, and Milia regularly went out together after class.

We ordered pasta, pizza, salad, and meat dishes. Everyone’s guards also sat down at nearby tables and ate. It was unnatural for them to be standing inside the restaurant after all, and everyone told them they were welcome to eat.

The food came on large dishes, which we divided amongst us and ate. Maybe it was more fun to share food with everyone rather than to have set courses for each person. Sophia was practically bouncing up and down, so perhaps it wasn’t common for her to eat like this.

“Arius, it’s indelicate to stare at a girl while she’s eating,” Milia remarked with a teasing smile. Sophia blushed, probably because Milia drew attention to it.

“The food here is great. I could eat this forever,” I said, and, trying to distract from Sophia’s discomfort, I ordered another four pizzas and enough pasta to feed four people.

“We can’t eat all that,” complained Zeke.

“I can easily eat all that. What I just ordered, I’ll be eating by myself.”

“Knowing Arius, he’ll have plenty more space after. I’ll order more too,” boasted Vern, and he and I went to work polishing off the vast quantities of pizza and pasta. Zeke and Sasha looked surprised, but the rest of the group knew we ate a lot.

Sirius and Alicia also seemed to be enjoying the pizza and pasta. Their manners were perfect, and they didn’t get any sauce around their mouths. Zeke had mentioned not liking tomatoes, but he was eating tomato sauce like it was nothing. That made Sirius and Alicia look at him with awe.

“You two look impressed, but he’s not forcing himself to eat it,” Milia confirmed. “It’s only raw tomatoes he doesn’t like. He’s fine with tomato sauce.”

“How do you even know that, Milia? I mean…it’s true,” said Zeke, blushing, but he could’ve just not commented on it.

“Arius, I should have said this sooner, but thank you so much for helping us train,” Milia emphasized yet again. “I was absolutely no match for Raymond, but I made it to round three, and that’s thanks to you.”

No, it was thanks to her own hard work. I didn’t do much at all.

“I wasn’t able to win, but I did learn a lot,” Sophia said, looking directly into my eyes. “So, I’d like to thank you as well. Thank you for inviting me to join the practice.”

She was exaggerating, too. All I did was make the opportunity. She’s the one who taught herself what she learned.

“I’m grateful as well,” piled on Vern. “Having you critique my fighting style made me change, and I’ve definitely gotten stronger because of it. And you better teach me about mana manipulation like you promised.”

Vern had let go of his strange hang-ups and reevaluated his style. He was probably the one who saw the most growth from the practice sessions.

“I’m still trying different things out, but I think I’m onto something,” Zeke also chimed in. “And that’s thanks to you.”

Zeke had stopped comparing himself to his twin brother so he could live in a way true to himself, and I wanted to support him in that.

“A-Arius, because you invited me to practice, I-I became friends with everyone,” piped up Noelle. “Th-That’s why I’m really, really grateful.”

Noelle was so nervous that her face was bright red. She’d worked so hard.

“It’s because you’re all my friends,” I tried insisting. “I told you: you don’t need to thank me. I just did what I wanted to. I’m actually grateful to all of you for today. I had a lot of fun, and I think Sirius and Alicia did too.”

“Yeah, it was really fun!”

“Thank you, everyone!”

Everyone smiled at them.

“I’m glad. It’s a good thing we invited them then,” said Sophia.

Since I had to take Alicia and Sirius home, I was planning on leaving soon.

“Arius, we’ll take them home,” Sophia offered as I was about to get up.

“Yeah, it’d be nice to chat a bit more with them,” concurred Milia.

“I want to talk more to them too,” Alicia pressed excitedly.

“Me too. Master Arius, can we?” asked Sirius.

The twins seemed to have become really close to the two girls. So, the five of us would be chatting as we traveled through the city at night? That was another nice thing about going out with everyone.

“Master Arius, can we come out with everyone again sometime?” Sirius asked when we were in the carriage, and he and Alicia stared expectantly at me.

“Sure, but next time, make sure you tell Ms. Maia you’re going out.”

They smiled and nodded. Sophia and Milia were looking on with smiles too.

“And could you stop calling me ‘Master’ Arius? Just ‘Arius’ is fine. Or even ‘big brother.’”

“Okay…Arius.”

“Could I…call you Ari?”

“Sure, I don’t mind. That reminds me, I have something to give to you two.” I took two short swords out of my Inventory. They were identical, simple swords with no hint of decoration on the hilt or cross guard. “It’s hard to use these short swords correctly. If you’re not careful when you put your mana into them, they stay just normal swords. But if you can manipulate your mana well…”

I passed my mana through the sword, and a blade of blue light appeared. You could freely adjust the length of the blade, so it was a convenient weapon to carry around.

“I don’t know if you two are going to become adventurers, but it’s still a good idea for you to get stronger so you can protect yourselves. Once you can make a light blade on this sword, it means you’ve sort of got a handle on mana manipulation.”

“Arius… Is it really okay for you to give us amazing swords like this?” Sirius asked. He seemed to know how much they’d cost. They were a drop from the Dragon’s Palace.

“After spending time with you today, I can tell you’ve been taking your training seriously. Keep at your mana manipulation practice until you can make the light blade.”

“Thank you, Ari! I’m going to work really hard so I can be as strong as you!” exclaimed Alicia.

Being called by that nickname did make me a tiny bit uncomfortable, and Milia was giving me a look like she was teasing me. But whatever. It was what it was.

“I can’t believe you two have been practicing mana manipulation since you were little, but I guess it’s actually not that surprising since you’re Arius’s little brother and sister. I can’t let you guys beat me,” Milia smirked, her eyes serious. I didn’t think she was feeling competitive against the twins, but she did really want to get stronger.

I brought the twins into the house, where we found the head housekeeper, Maia, waiting with our parents, Darius and Rhea. I had told them about today in a Message. Rhea started grinning when I told her we came with Milia and Sophia. I ended things quickly and told them I had to make sure the girls got home, immediately leaving the house.

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk to your parents longer?” Sophia asked.

“Yeah, weren’t you just saying you never go home? Maybe you should talk to them once in a while,” said Milia.

“Don’t worry about me. I know you have your guards, Sophia, but you girls shouldn’t be heading back on your own at this time of night.”

Sophia’s guards were women, so some idiot might underestimate them and try something.

“I guess… I feel bad about interrupting your family time, though. But…thank you,” Milia relented uncomfortably. However, Sophia looked happy for some reason.

“You don’t need to thank me for this. I’m actually grateful that you two tried to interact with the twins so much. They seemed happy.”

“And that’s definitely something you don’t need to thank us for. I’m happy we could become friends,” Sophia said.

“Arius, if you ever take them out somewhere again, would you invite me along?” Milia asked.

“Sure. I’m sure that’d make them happier too.”

The two girls were such kind, considerate people. I bet the twins would be happier having them along than just hanging out with me.

But just as I was thinking that, Milia said, “I appreciate you saying that, but I think you’re the person they want to see most.”

“They really admire you. You can tell just by watching you three together.”

It didn’t really click for me when they said they admired me. It wasn’t like I’d done anything particularly brother-like. That thought must have shown on my face, because Milia rolled her eyes. “You don’t even see it, do you? You can always see other people so well, but when it comes to yourself, you’re practically blind.”

“He is unaware of a lot of things, isn’t he?” Sophia said with a frown.

“A lot of things? Like what?” I asked, and the two girls turned red.

“See… That’s exactly what I mean,” Sophia uttered.

“Why don’t you try figuring it out yourself?!” cried Milia.

Well, it was my own problem. Guess I had to think it through and find the answer.

Chapter 6: All Their Emotions

Chapter 6: All Their Emotions

IN Duke Jordan’s mansion in the capital of Ronaudia, the duke was scowling at the white-haired visitor he’d hastily summoned.

“You’re telling me that cleaner was over level 500? He stood no chance against Arius Gilberto, a student. What was the point of my putting three thousand gold on him?!”

“I promise you, Zack Trigger is truly powerful. Six thousand gold is the appropriate price for him. I’m going to have to ask you to pay the remaining amount, and without complaints.”

Altana, the Merchant of Death, was the white-haired visitor cloaked in a black robe. She sneered beneath the silver mask that covered the top half of her face.

The three thousand gold Duke Jordan had already paid was only the down payment. Altana had asked for six thousand.

“If I’m correct,” Altana continued, “Arius Gilberto is the son of former SS-rank adventurers, Darius and Rhea. Is it perhaps not simply the case that they trained him until he was equivalent to an SS-rank adventurer?”

Altana did know that Arius was, in fact, an SSS-rank adventurer when she accepted Duke Jordan’s request. She wasn’t going to let that information slip, however.

“He’s only, what, fifteen, sixteen? There’s no way he’s that powerful!”

“Age has nothing to do with it. The youngest SSS-rank adventurer in history is also named Arius. He apparently reached SSS rank when he was only twelve.” Altana let Duke Jordan’s anger wash off her with a cold smile. “If Arius Gilberto were in fact the SSS-rank adventurer Arius, it would be rather foolish to make an enemy of him. I’ve heard the SSS-rank adventurer Arius is in the Duchy of Crista to the east for a dungeon there, though. I suppose it’s not possible he could be the same person as Arius Gilberto, who is attending classes in the Academy.”

Altana poured herself a glass of the expensive wine sitting on the duke’s desk without permission and drank it down.

“Obviously not,” retorted the duke. “There is no way Arius Gilberto is an SSS-rank adventurer. If he were, he would be used for the political ambitions of his father, that ingrate Darius, who started life as a low-ranking noble and has let his position as chief minister go to his head. I didn’t summon you here so I could listen to such nonsense!”

There was not a single mote of suspicion in the duke’s head that Arius Gilberto was an SSS-rank adventurer. His fate may have been different if there had been.

“I’m sure you’re right,” Altana crooned. “I, of course, am no match for the insight of Your Grace, one of the Three Great Dukes of Ronaudia.”

Altana’s mask made it so Duke Jordan didn’t realize her smile was actually a sneer.

“It’s a waste of time continuing such pointless conversations,” the duke angrily continued. “You are the Merchant of Death, are you not? Gather all your powerful cleaners. I will pay whatever is necessary. If a level 500 cleaner can’t kill Eric, then get someone more powerful!”

“You’ll pay whatever is necessary? It will take quite an immense sum to hire anyone more powerful than Zack. Also, the more powerful cleaners tend to have…personality issues. If they don’t receive an additional payment to make them follow orders, there will be no guarantee that they’ll act in good faith.”

“What? Just… How much are you saying we’ll need?”

“Well, for this many people at a high enough level, it’ll be…along these lines,” Altana thought out loud as she wrote down the levels, number of cleaners, and the cost.

“Are you screwing with me? Who has that kind of money?”

“You said you’d pay whatever is necessary. If you don’t have enough, I can’t get you cleaners at this high a level. I can let you choose based on your budget, but you’ll only get so much with that. Would you really be able to defeat Arius Gilberto?”

After a moment’s thought, Duke Jordan nodded, his expression sour. “Fine. I’ll get the money. But you’d better swear they’ll be strong enough to justify the cost, you hear me?”

“On my pride as a merchant, I swear. Considering the forces I’m about to pull in, I would normally ask for the full price up front, but you and I have worked together for so long that I’ll only ask for half up front as usual.”

Altana knew that Prince Eric’s plan had resulted in nobles leaving Duke Jordan’s faction in droves, as well as the fact that the disrespect his son, Keith Jordan, showed to the prince meant the duke had lost his standing and any future prospects. She was well aware that she was very unlikely to receive the second half of the payment.

That’s why she calculated, based on the duke’s total assets, how much the duke would be just about able to scrape together and doubled it.

“Fine,” the duke caved. “I’ll get the money within five days.”

“Thank you very much, Your Grace. We have a deal.”

Altana’s goal for acting as a go-between for Duke Jordan and Zack Trigger had not only been money. She had also wanted to see just how powerful Arius was, and in that, she succeeded. Arius had been very close to learning of her existence, but Altana was cautious and had avoided danger thanks to the several plans she’d put in place in advance.

This time, Altana was going to be working with truly powerful cleaners she’d known for a long time. If they lost, Altana would lose nearly all of her “merchandise.”

I have no choice if it means being able to measure how strong Arius is using someone else’s money. Besides, they’re all criminals, and I’m in the hero’s party now. It’s probably time to cut ties with this business.

Altana, the Merchant of Death, was in fact the second-in-command of the hero’s party and Chief of Staff of the Ishtobal military, Alisa Kusunoki.

While she did hide half of her face with a mask, you might assume her appearance and particular way of speaking would have easily told people who she was. Still, no one had made the connection between Altana, the Merchant of Death, and Alisa of the hero’s party because she used an illusion spell called Actor when meeting with clients. This tier-six Illusion spell made others view you as a random, different person by changing your appearance and voice. The person she spoke to would be under the illusion that they were talking to someone completely different from Alisa.

Alisa used Actor so each client saw a different person. That’s why Altana’s true identity was unknown.

If Arius was able to easily overpower the cleaners in the coming fight, then he truly was quite powerful. Alisa was seriously considering weighing him against the hero, Abel.

Abel doesn’t have what it takes to rule the world. I already know he can’t beat the demon king. It’s all just a matter of timing, now.

Alisa left Duke Jordan’s mansion, her cunning smile floating in the darkness.

***

I went to the Citadel of Ancient Gods on Sunday and skipped class on Monday so I’d have two days to explore.

I was in a vast space beneath a sky so blue you wouldn’t believe it was in a dungeon, the final floor of the Citadel.

The sky was blotted out by a flock of massive dragons with white, bird-like wings. These Heavenly Dragons had halos of light over their heads that seemed to insist these weren’t dragons, but servants of a god.

Heavenly Dragons fought with a breath attack of light that they unleashed at incredible speeds, and swords of light they gripped in their taloned hands. Both forms of attack were powerful enough to break through my Impenetrable Defense—if they hit.

I raced through this horde of more than a thousand Heavenly Dragons, slicing their giant bodies in two with the mana blade that grew from my sword. The ones I couldn’t reach with my sword, I slammed with a compressed tier-ten area of attack spell. Usually, an AoE spell would fail to take them out because their HP was too high, but that wasn’t a major problem if I compressed the spell.

The Heavenly Dragons couldn’t hit me now. I was too used to their attacks. The reason I kept trying to complete the Citadel of Ancient Gods solo was to get stronger by repeating battles that were so hard I couldn’t risk losing concentration for a second. If I constantly pushed myself, I could feel myself growing stronger. And if I were stronger, I would be faster and more capable of fighting for long periods.

Wiping out the Heavenly Dragons was, of course, not the end.

Light like a shooting star dropped from the blue sky and slammed into the ground with a roar, where an abnormal knight with six wings of light appeared. It had grotesque, black, full plate armor that made it look like the Knight of Death. This was the final boss of the Citadel of Ancient Gods, the Ultimate Knight.

“How many times must you defeat me before you are satisfied?” it commanded as it fixed me with a glare. The final bosses of extreme-difficulty dungeons were conscious. I don’t really know why, but they remembered being defeated.

The Ultimate Knight’s six wings of light extended like tentacles, shooting out to attack me. They moved irregularly, as if each one had its own mind. The Knight also attacked with the two flamberges it held.

Eight attacks at once have got to be breaking the rules somehow, right? Each attack was powerful enough to take out half my HP in one hit.

But there was only one Knight.

Its armor was tough, and the Heavenly Dragons had nothing on this thing’s HP. Going solo meant I didn’t have enough firepower, but that just meant I needed to get more.

I poured in extra mana, focused it more, then slammed my highly dense blade into the Knight’s arm, severing it.

“How strong do you intend to become?” it asked as it disappeared in a puff of light, leaving behind a massive magic crystal and a sword. I wasn’t massively impressed by this, seeing as the final bosses of extreme-difficulty dungeons always dropped an item.

It took me ten minutes to defeat the Ultimate Knight. Obviously, I took no damage in the process. The first time I beat the Knight on my own, it took me over an hour, which meant I’d gotten quite a bit stronger.

With that, I’d accomplished my current goal of a perfect solo run of an extreme-level dungeon, but I was nowhere near satisfied. After all, the Citadel of Ancient Gods was the easiest of the extreme-difficulty dungeons.

The second easiest was the Devil’s Prison. Monsters stronger than the Heavenly Dragons spawned on the first floor of that dungeon, and the level bosses were of a completely different league. That was just how extreme-difficulty dungeons were; even more powerful monsters were waiting there.

I wanted to fight stronger opponents; I wanted to get stronger so that I could fight even stronger opponents. That’s why I was going to continue my solo runs of extreme-difficulty dungeons and keep going as far as I could.

Stats

Arius Gilberto (Age 15)

Level: 2361

HP: 24678

MP: 37712

STR: 9498

DEF: 9495

INT: 10676

RES: 10062

DEX: 9497

AGI: 9498

***

“IN the end, we learned essentially nothing from the attacker,” Eric told me on Tuesday morning in his salon.

The Intelligence Ministry had made full use of their mind control spells, but all they learned was that the attacker was a cleaner by the name of Zack Trigger and that he was equivalent to an S-rank adventurer. Zack had been acting under orders from Altana, the Merchant of Death.

I had heard the rumors about the Merchant of Death. For the right price, they could supply anything from assassins to mind-control magic items or drugs. They were a broker for the black market who would contact these criminal cleaners, but no one knew who they were.

“The fact that we found no connections to Duke Jordan is likely less to do with the duke’s abilities and more to do with how competent this Merchant of Death is,” explained Eric. “The cleaner only received orders. He was given barely any information.”

Which meant Altana had complete control of all information. But would someone that calculating not think the attack might fail? Even if I wasn’t in the picture, Altana would’ve known Darius and the people from the Intelligence Ministry were at the arena.

Or perhaps their calculations included the fact that it was always going to fail. But if that was true, then why attack?

“I believe Altana didn’t care whether the attacker succeeded or not. They simply acted as a go-between for clients and cleaners. A failure doesn’t hurt them. In fact, a failure means Duke Jordan is now pushed into a corner where even more money can be extorted from him. That’s how these brokers in the dark operate,” continued Eric. He was the scheming type himself, so maybe he understood how the Merchant of Death thought. “Altana isn’t so stupid as to think Duke Jordan has a chance of winning, which means there’s only one reason for them to lend a hand to the duke: to bleed him dry of all his assets until the moment he falls. That’s why our enemies are the cleaners Altana sends, but not Altana themselves.”

“Are you saying Duke Jordan hasn’t given up yet, even though he’s losing allies by the minute ever since Keith was put in custody for insulting royalty?”

Keith had been in custody since the day of the Combat Tournament. Not only had King Albert not pardoned him, but he had publicly announced that Keith was being formally charged for his crime.

Obviously, Eric was behind this. It was a threat to show the anti-royalists what would happen to them if they didn’t leave Duke Jordan’s faction.

“I don’t intend to let Duke Jordan escape, and I won’t let him give up so easily,” responded Eric with a fierce smile. “Arius, this weekend I am planning a three-day vacation at my family’s manor in the countryside. As I am going to clear my head, I’ll only be taking a skeleton guard with me. Doesn’t it sound like the perfect opportunity for Duke Jordan to exact his revenge on me?”

We had no classes this coming Friday because it was a holiday. In short, Eric was inviting Duke Jordan to come at him. If the duke could kill all witnesses, there would be no evidence. But this was Eric we were talking about. Not only had he arranged things specifically so that the duke would attack, he’d also, of course, prepared countermeasures.

“I’ll leave my schedule open then,” I replied. “I know you’re planning to take down Duke Jordan yourself, but I’ll follow your orders if it’ll mean fewer casualties.”

“Thank you, Arius. I appreciate your help.”

Eric wanted to finish things himself if he could, but he wasn’t the kind of person to let his pride direct him into making the wrong decision.

“Are Zeke and Sophia going with you?” I asked.

Eric had at one point told Zeke he needed to fulfill his duty as a member of the royal family. Sophia would offer to go herself if Eric told her about this.

“I plan to let them decide. Considering Sophia’s personality, I’m not even sure I need to ask her.”

He knew Sophia well. Their engagement was political, but they respected each other.

“Eric, there’s something I want to tell you too. I’m not certain yet, but…” I went on to tell him what I’d noticed when I captured Zack Trigger.

“I see… The timing’s too convenient for me to think that’s a coincidence. I’ll investigate it a little as well.”

***

THAT week, I was in normal mode. In the mornings, I went to class, then I ate lunch in the cafeteria. In the afternoons, I went to the extreme-difficulty dungeon.

“Master Arius!!”

When Vern and I walked down the hall during lunch break, the girls shrieked when they saw me.

“Is that Arius, the champion of last week’s Combat Tournament?”

“Hey, you’re talking about the son of a marquess. The proper address is ‘Master Arius.’”

The tournament also made it so upperclassmen were paying attention to me, and the girls’ shrieks only drew more attention.

“You’re practically famous now,” Vern grinned. “Even the upperclassmen finally see how strong you are.”

“That doesn’t exactly make me happy.”

I knew it was my fault for going along with Eric’s plan, but I didn’t have the time to deal with people who were just curious about me.

After picking up enough food to feed five, I was about to sit at a random table when someone drew my attention.

“Arius, Prince Vern. There are some seats over here.”

It was Milia, and she was sitting next to Noelle. Noelle had been eating lunch alone until recently, but Milia had started asking her to join her. Milia had been sitting with Sophia and the noble girls of her faction, but she started using the open table next to her table so she could ask Noelle to join her.

“Do you need something?” I asked Milia.

“I wouldn’t say I need something. I was just talking to Noelle about our training, and we had a question we wanted to ask you and Prince Vern.”

We were still doing our morning practice sessions even though the tournament was over. Milia and Vern wanted to keep getting stronger, and Zeke was still in the process of trying different things out. It even looked like Sophia and Noelle had found some purpose in the training for themselves, and I wanted to help them all out.

“Oh, and Sasha said Raymond wanted to talk to you about something,” Milia remembered.

Sasha’s older brother, Raymond Blancard, had defeated Milia, Vern, and Zeke in the tournament.

“He wants to talk to me? I have no idea what he’d want to talk to me about.”

I’d beat him in the tournament, but I’d met him several times before then, ever since I’d started making appearances at high society events. I really doubted he wanted revenge for being defeated in the tournament. He wasn’t like Keith. He was a stand-up guy.

“I’ll ask Sasha for more details when I see her. I don’t think it was urgent.”

And that was the end of the talk about Raymond. Not that I really cared. Until class the next day.

“I’d like to speak to Arius Gilberto. Could you ask him to come see me?”

Raymond had come to my first hour classroom just as class was about to finish. He was a good-looking guy with rose gold hair and sea-blue eyes. He greeted Eric and Ragnus, then went out in the hall with me.

Even though Raymond was a second year, he showed respect to Eric, a royal, and Ragnus, the son of Duke Crawford. Status technically meant nothing in the Academy, but it showed Raymond was well-mannered in that regard.

“Arius, I apologize for calling you out during your break. I had assumed someone as strong as you would take the championship in the tournament, but that final match was of a completely different level.”

It seemed like Raymond didn’t mind at all that he’d lost to me and was happy to compliment me.

“What was it you needed me for?” I asked. I didn’t think he’d called me into the hall just to tell me that. Raymond smiled wryly when I ignored his compliment.

“I know this is out of the blue, but do you have any interest in the student council?”

That really was out of the blue.

“No, I’m not interested in that kind of thing at all. You should ask someone else.”

“Don’t say that. The council is short on members.”

“You’d be better off asking Eric or Zeke.”

“…I had heard rumors that you didn’t use titles with the princes. I do intend to ask them, of course.”

I did show myself in the social sphere, but not often. Even when I did, I didn’t stay very long, so maybe Raymond hadn’t ever seen me talking with Eric or Zeke.

“Anyway, could I ask you for some time to discuss it?” Raymond continued. “I know you spend time with my sister, Sasha. I’m sure she would think more of you if you did.”

“Raymond, I’m sorry, but I don’t like the way you’re asking. I’m going to have to say no.”

He wasn’t a bad guy, but he could be a bit pushy.

“I understand. I’ll back down, for today, but I’m not giving up.” With that, he left.

In the game Love Academy, Raymond had still been the president of the student council when Milia and the love interests were first years. He also appeared quite a few times in the Zeke route, and he won the tournament we had the other day. Despite his standing and accomplishments, he didn’t leave any impression whatsoever. He was your normal hard-working guy who was good-looking in a normal way. In a game, that meant he left no impression for better or worse.

***

“THE Duke Jordan issue I’ve been telling you about is approaching its final stages. This weekend, I will be going to my family’s manor to draw the duke out. What would you like to do, Sophia? I’ll respect whatever decision you make.”

We were in Prince Eric’s salon. He had his usual smile as he explained the situation to me.

“Prince Eric. As your fiancée, I wish to accompany you,” I answered.

I felt that I understood what he had in mind. Duke Jordan was the last major player in the anti-royalist faction of Ronaudia. With him eliminated, the faction would completely lose its power. This would make the royals’ position more stable, and Prince Eric would receive credit for his accomplishments, meaning he would be sure to become the next king.

As the first prince, there was already a high probability he’d become king even if he didn’t do anything, but he had his eyes set beyond that, and he was already arranging his pieces on the board. That was the sort of person he was. I was very aware of exactly how incredible he was. That’s why I needed to become someone suitable for him, someone he would accept.

“I thought you might say that,” he replied. “You try very hard to carry out your duties. And I mean this in a good way when I say you’ve changed since you started at the Academy. You’ve always been diligent and kind, but now you’re stronger than before.”

“Thank you, Your Highness.”

It made me happy to know he acknowledged what I’d become, although I knew I still wasn’t nearly strong enough.

“I think more highly of you than you think I do, Sophia. You’re talented and hard working.”

“I appreciate that, Your Highness, but I understand more than anyone how lacking I am in strength.”

“That’s another good thing about you, that you’re able to view yourself objectively.” He smiled the sort of charming smile that captured girls’ hearts. “If possible, I would like it if we could be a little more like friends when interacting with each other. But that’s difficult, isn’t it? You’re trying to fulfill your duty as the fiancée of the first prince of the kingdom. Oh, I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s the same for me.”

But I knew that charming smile was a mask. He’d always treated me the same way; it never changed.

Our relationship was nothing more than a political engagement. I knew he wasn’t a bad person, and I respected him, but there were no emotional ties between us. Because what he wanted most was to have no relationship with anyone.

I was five and in the palace when I first met him. Ever since then, for some reason, I understood that he didn’t want any emotional interaction with me. At first, I thought he wasn’t engaging with me because I wasn’t worthy of him, but I knew now that that’s simply the relationship he wanted with everyone.

“I understand, Your Highness.”

That’s why I didn’t ask him for an emotional connection. I would continue to work hard in order to fulfill my duties as his fiancée.

“It really helps that you’re so quick to understand. Thank you for your continued support. Although…” He still had that smile as he continued. “You don’t need to tie yourself to me in order to restore House Victorino to greatness. As I said earlier, I think more of you than you think I do.”

“What do you mean, Your Highness?”

“Don’t try to find any deep meaning in it. I simply mean that you don’t need to worry about me so much. You can do what you want. For example, if you wanted to be closer to Arius, I wouldn’t mind.”

“Your Highness…”

Arius’s name came out of nowhere, and I didn’t know how to react to what Prince Eric said.

“Sophia, I mean what I’m saying. Just as you understand me, I understand that you are trying to fulfill your role as my fiancée with sincerity. I will never doubt that part, no matter how close you become with Arius. I have no intentions of chaining every part of you, including your heart.”

I did understand what he was trying to say.

“I understand how generous you are being, Your Highness, but I am dedicating everything to my role. And he’s not interested.”

The reason I only said “he” was that I didn’t want to voice his name. I didn’t wish for Arius to get dragged into my issues. Besides, Arius only thought of me as a friend.

“Maybe not now,” Prince Eric said. “But no one knows the future.”

***

“HEY, Sophia…”

“What is it, Milia?”

“…Nothing. Never mind.”

Sophia was as beautiful and lovable as always today, but something was different. I knew what she was trying to hide from me, so I didn’t ask. It made me sad that she would keep things from me, but she was doing it for me. She was that sort of person.

She wasn’t the only one acting differently. When I saw Prince Zeke in the classroom, he looked like something was bothering him, like his mind was somewhere else. Prince Zeke was easy to read, unlike Sophia. When I thought about what Prince Zeke and Sophia had in common…the answer was obvious.

“Hey, Prince Zeke. Did Prince Eric say something to you?” I asked.

“He hasn’t said anything to me…”

“I’m worried about Sophia. Is she involved in what you’re worried about?”

“Well…”

He quickly explained when I pushed him with questions. I felt bad because it was like I was taking advantage of the fact that he was a good person.

That day at lunch, I saw Arius in the cafeteria.

“Arius, can we talk for a minute?”

We went out into the courtyard, where it was empty since students didn’t eat outside.

“Arius, are you going to the royal manor with Prince Eric to draw Duke Jordan out?”

“How do you know about that?” Arius asked. He didn’t sound upset, just surprised.

“Prince Zeke told me. But don’t blame him. I forced it out of him.”

“Right. I see.”

That seemed enough for him. Arius knew that Prince Zeke couldn’t lie to me when I pushed him.

“Arius, is Sophia going too? She’s not telling me about it because it’s dangerous, right? Because you’ll end up having to kill people. It’s that sort of thing, isn’t it?”

“You’re insightful, Milia. You’ve basically got it right.”

It would’ve been easy for him to lie, but he told me the truth.

“Arius, I know I’m being demanding by asking this, but will you take me too? Reincarnating in this world, meeting everyone… I want to be with all of you. I want to be there for everyone.”

“That’s the reason you want to be stronger. I understand how you feel, but, personally, I’d like to keep you away from all the killing.”

He would say that because he’s kind.

“It does make me happy that you’d worry about me, but I don’t want to be the only one who’s somewhere safe.”

I knew I was putting him in a difficult position by pushing for what I wanted, but it was the honest truth.

“All right, Milia. I’ll protect you. Come with us.”

“Wait. Really?”

Even though I was the one who’d asked for it, I was still taken aback.

“Yeah. And I swear I’ll protect Sophia too,” he said like it was nothing.

“A-Arius… Thank you…”

There was no way that having him say stuff like that wasn’t going to make me feel things. But I knew he just thought of me as a friend. I couldn’t tell him how I felt.

“When the fighting starts, don’t leave my side,” he told me.

“Okay. Thank you, Arius. I’m counting on you.”

All I could do right now was express my gratitude. I knew he was just trying to make me happy, but I knew he’d manage to make it work.

Arius… I’m sorry for thinking this. I promise I’ll get stronger, but for now, I’m relying on you.

Chapter 7: The Showdown

Chapter 7: The Showdown

AFTER talking to Milia, I better understood her feelings and how determined she was. On Friday, we all traveled with Eric to the royal manor out in the countryside.

“I arranged for a large carriage this time since we’ll be going outside the city. There’s also a wagon for our luggage, which you’re welcome to use,” Eric told us.

He had prepared a white carriage with gold decoration for us. The luggage wagon was the same design. Our carriage was a massive one, practically a mansion on wheels, with a kind of inset design that had a space inside where we sat, and a hall around it where the maids and guards were.

The inner room had a plush carpet across the entire floor as well as two leather sofas that could fit four people, each arranged around a table, along with four armchairs. It looked like a small hall where you sat while traveling. It wasn’t just the carriage that was flashy. Four white Nocorns, half monsters resulting from horses bred with Unicorns, were at the front, ready to begin transporting the group.

“Milia…”

“I’m sorry, Sophia. I know you kept it secret because you were worried about me, but I want to help all of you.”

“I’m sorry too,” I said. “I brought her along. But no matter what happens, I’ll protect her.”

“There’s nothing I can say then other than…thank you, Milia. I feel better having you here with us.”

“Sophia…”

They hugged each other, and that was the end of that conversation.

In addition to me, Eric, Zeke, Sophia, and Milia were two guards each for Zeke and Sophia, then seven guards for Eric. That seven consisted of Eric’s two maids, who doubled as guards, Bela and Isha; then Oscar, who had been our (pretend) lead teacher in the dungeon practical; and then the four guards who had teleported with us to the bottom floor during the attack in the dungeon, Turner, Ziehr, Jarred, and Guyer.

Outside, there were another ten knights on horses, then two more knights driving the carriage, making a total of twelve more guards.

They all wore silvery-white armor, and the mounted knights were riding Nocorns. While these twelve knights all wore the same armor, they used a mix of different weapons, and there was something very different about them compared to Oscar and the other guards.

All of them were former adventurers and mercenaries that Eric had scouted himself, each over level 200. Apparently, he hadn’t been able to sneak them in as pretend teachers, since they were all a little bit too unique.

“Master Arius, Prince Eric’s told us about how incredible you are, but you let us handle guard duties this time,” said Gregg, a bearded man in his forties, a cigarette between his lips. He was the captain of the twelve-knight squad. He came off as pretty laidback, but he didn’t let anything past him. All the other knights had one or two quirks as well.

And that wasn’t all Eric had pulled together. There were people from the Intelligence Ministry nearby, hidden with Perception Block and Invisibility. Two of them were section chiefs in the Ministry, so they should be able to handle even high-level cleaners who came at us. The Ministry people weren’t riding horses, but they could move faster on their own feet anyway, so that wasn’t a problem.

“Shall we set off then?” Eric addressed everyone.

Nocorns could easily travel at speeds faster than fifty miles an hour, so the carriage traveled as fast as a car down the city streets. You would have thought the vibrations would be horrible traveling this fast, but this was a world with magic items. The whole carriage was one large magic item that floated very slightly in the air, so there were no vibrations or jolting.

And we stood out like a sore thumb in our massive white and gold carriage surrounded by knights in heavy, silvery white armor.

“Eric. Do you think it’s unlikely we’ll be attacked before we get to the manor?” I asked.

If he had been trying to draw an attack while we were traveling, he would have chosen a slower method of transport.

“I don’t think it’s unlikely, just that if it occurs while we’re in the city, it’ll cause trouble for others. I would prefer the attackers to wait until we’re at the manor, but it’s their move. I may draw them out, but I don’t have complete control over them.”

Which meant I should remain on watch. Might as well get ready now. I pulled four swords and three bracelets from my Inventory. The swords were all different sizes: a longsword, a rapier, a small sword, and a main-gauche.

“Arius, what are those?” Milia asked.

“I’d like you, Sophia, and Zeke to use these, if you want. They’re magic items from a hard-difficulty dungeon, so I think they’ll be useful.”

They were simple but high-performance weapons, which allowed them to boost the user’s abilities. The drawback was that they were from a hard-difficulty dungeon, meaning they had their peculiarities. It wasn’t going to be easy for anyone to master them.

The reason I hadn’t gotten one for Eric was that he’d said he wanted to fight Duke Jordan himself. Lending him a magic item would interfere with that decision of his. I mean, not that Eric needed it in the first place.

“Thank you, Arius. I will gladly accept,” said Sophia.

“What are those bracelets?” Milia questioned again.

“They’re a magic item that amplifies your mana. And it recovers MP.”

These were also straightforward magic items. Milia, Sophia, and Zeke put on the bracelets and tried out the feel of their weapons.

“Whoa, why does it feel like this? I feel like mana is welling up from inside my body,” Milia marveled.

“And these swords are incredible. Even an amateur like me can tell,” gasped Sophia.

“This really is an amazing sword, Arius,” Zeke said.

It seemed they all liked them.

“Do you want to test how your swords cut and how strong your spells are?” I asked.

The three of them moved to an open area of the room, where I cast Impenetrable Defense around them, then brought a boulder out of my Inventory.

“You won’t damage the cutting edge of those swords even on a boulder like this. The Impenetrable Defense will make sure no damage gets out, so go ahead and use spells.”

“All right. I’ll try the sword out first.” Milia struck the boulder, and the blade passed through it almost like it was being sucked in, and the boulder split in two. “Whoa, no way. How sharp is this thing?”

Sophia and Zeke also hesitantly slashed at the boulder, and both were easily able to cut it.

“With this sword, I won’t even have trouble if I’m fighting someone in armor,” gushed Milia.

“Yeah. It makes me want to try out a skill,” Zeke expressed.

Then, the three took turns casting spells. Milia cast Shining Arrow, Sophia cast Dark Missile, and Zeke cast Water Missile, their best spells, and the effects were clearly greater than usual.

I had them practice with their swords and magic for a little while, and I went outside the Impenetrable Defense while leaving it up.

“Those are incredible magic items,” Eric commented. “Knowing you, you probably have a lot more. I’m tempted to negotiate a price to buy them from you in order to strengthen the Ronaudia military.”

“I wouldn’t mind. They’re just sitting in my Inventory. But maybe we should talk about that after everything’s finished with Duke Jordan.”

“You’re right. If I receive weapons from you right now, it will mean I relied on you.”

About an hour later, as the carriage advanced down the road surrounded by nothing, it suddenly came to a stop.

Eric’s maid-guards, Bela and Isha, rushed into our room, and one said, “Your Highness, a dragon is approaching!”

***

I went outside and saw a red dragon flying toward us from the front. My Scan was effective up to three miles away from me, but their being in the air meant I could see them from further than that.

I used Telescope and saw a massive figure in a bright-red full plate riding on the dragon’s back—and I already knew who this guy was.

He was Blast Garland, the Fallen Dragon Knight, a former S-rank adventurer turned cleaner. He lost his adventurer title after killing his entire party. Needless to say, a pretty violent guy.

“There’s a high-level cleaner riding the dragon. Eric, what do you want me to do?” I asked.

“Could you leave this one to me? Gregg, you and your squad intercept the dragon. Oscar, have your squad set up a defensive perimeter here.”

The knights leapt into action at Eric’s command.

Gregg and his squad cast Fly and flew toward the dragon. Oscar, Turner, Ziehr, Jarred, and Guyer made a circle around the carriage. Sophia and Zeke ordered each of their two guards to join them. Milia and Sophia stayed near me so I could protect them.

“Eric, I’ll protect everyone and the carriage,” I relayed.

“Thank you, Arius. Knowing you’re protecting them means I won’t have to worry.”

The dragon had continued to advance during this until it was within my Scan range.

“The dragon is about level 300. The guy on its back is over level 500. There’s a chance he could be even stronger if he’s hiding his mana,” I told everyone.

“You can detect his mana from this far? You really are incredible,” Eric remarked, then he sent the information to the knights via a Message along with orders.

Once Gregg’s squad was about a half a mile away from the carriage, they spread out in the air to intercept the enemy. Gregg readied a six-and-a-half-foot-long magic item with a dark metallic gleam. This was the magic gun used by Zack Trigger, the cleaner who attacked during the Combat Tournament. Eric had recovered it and put it to good use.

“Snuff it, you damn lizard!” Gregg shouted as he lined up the shot and pulled the trigger. It fired a mass of mana that discharged shocks into the air as it traveled faster than the speed of sound for a direct hit to the dragon’s head.

One hit wasn’t enough to take it out, but the dragon thrashed in pain, throwing Blast off its back.

“Hey, what’re ya doing all a sudden?! Natural dragons are expensive!” shouted Blast, who, in the next moment, was right in front of Gregg using Short Teleport.

The giant of a man, over six and a half feet tall in his bright-red plate armor, swung a massive battle-ax at Gregg, sending him plummeting toward the ground.

“Captain!”

Gregg’s squad countered with skills and spells. Blast was clearly a higher level than they were, but they were no newcomers to combat. They focused on defense as they went after him, with the rear knights casting defensive spells while the others hit Blast with skills and spells from front and back, top and bottom, left and right.

“Tsk! Y’all think you’re so smart?!”

Refusing to just take it, Blast used Short Teleport to put distance between them, where he then tried to meet back up with his dragon. But a mana bullet traveling faster than the speed of sound pierced the dragon, and its massive body fell to the ground.

“You’re the one who thought they were smart, taking us by surprise,” barked Gregg as he flew up, magic gun in hand.

The moment he’d taken the hit from Blast’s battle-ax, Gregg activated a skill that allowed him to guard against the attack. He’d still taken a decent amount of damage, but not so much that he couldn’t fight.

“Ya killed my dragon!”

Blast attacked Gregg, trying to smash his gigantic battle-ax into him again, but it was blocked by a defensive spell cast by one of the support members of the squad.

“Unfortunately, you’re fighting more than just me,” Gregg sneered, switching the gun for a sword to counterattack. The other knights joined in, focusing their fire on Blast.

Backed into a bad position by the knights, Blast cast Short Teleport to escape, but when he appeared in the new location, he suddenly froze perfectly still, like he’d been bound head to toe in chains.

“Since Short Teleport isn’t your forte, you really should pay more attention to your rear,” announced Eric. He was the one who’d stopped Blast with Chains of Binding, a tier-seven mind control-type spell that completely stopped the target from moving. It even stopped their mental activity. High-level targets or those with a high resistance to magic could resist the spell, but not even Blast at over level 500 could resist Eric’s point-blank Chains of Binding.

Immobilize the enemy and take them out in one hit. That was Eric’s true fighting style. If he’d used Chains of Binding in the Combat Tournament, he could have instantly defeated Keith.

“Your Highness, we can handle this enemy on our own, and the duke is after you,” said Gregg with annoyance.

“I wanted him taken alive so we can get information out of him. If I’d left it to you, you likely would have killed him, no?”

Eric ordered the knights to put manacles on Blast’s arms and legs, magic items that sealed mana in the same way as the black collar I’d used on Chris. They weren’t as powerful as the collar, but four should be able to hold the mana of someone like Blast.

The knights dragged him to the wagon and tossed him in a cell they’d placed in the bed, another magic item that couldn’t easily be destroyed. Two knights stayed in the wagon to keep an eye on him, but Blast wasn’t getting out with his mana sealed.

One of the support knights healed Gregg’s wounds with magic. They worked great together and functioned well as a squad.

“Good work, everyone. I’m glad there were no casualties,” Sophia said to Eric when he returned.

In the end, she and the others didn’t need to take part in the battle, though they probably learned something just by being there when a dragon attacked.

“Things went well this time, but there’s no guarantee they will next time. I don’t intend to lose to Duke Jordan, but I doubt we’ll escape with no casualties,” Eric replied.

“I understand, Your Highness.”

What Sophia needed most right now was more experience. Eric wasn’t asking her to be part of the fighting force. In order for her to be what he required her to be, she had to gain experience and grow as someone who carried the future of Ronaudia on her shoulders. Sophia knew this as well. Her thoughts informed her actions when it came to supporting Eric.

Zeke and his guards were currently watching the surroundings. He was also trying his hardest to do what he could.

Gregg and several of the knights gathered around the dragon’s corpse. When you defeated monsters in dungeons, they left behind nothing but magic crystals and occasionally loot, but natural monsters left bodies like any other natural creature. If left, it would rot and could lead to illness, so they needed to take what materials they needed from it and burn the rest.

Materials from dragons were used in powerful magic items and potions, meaning they threw away basically nothing. It was pretty damaged since it was shot while flying, then hit the ground, but dragons were sturdy, so there was still plenty that could be salvaged.

“Captain, are we really going to burn the whole thing?” one of the knights asked.

“We don’t have time to break it down. Come on, get moving,” ordered Gregg.

It took quite a long time to cut apart something as huge as a dragon to get what could be used.

“Why don’t you let me transport it?” I suggested. “You can break it down later.”

“Uh…how are you planning to carry it? We’d have to cut off its head and legs to get it in your Inventory, and that would take—”

Before Gregg could finish, I put the entire dragon in my Inventory. It was faster just to do it than to try to explain.

“H-Hey! What the?! It disappeared!”

“Are you saying you fit the entire thing in your Inventory?!”

Inventory was a tier-ten Space spell. Most adventurers of A rank and above could use the spell, but there was a limit to its capacity, about six square feet and up to about a ton in weight.

In order to fit an entire dragon into your Inventory, you’d need to understand the structure of the spell so you could expand its space. I was pretty sure there were some SS-rank adventurers who could do the same. However, maybe there weren’t that many who would bother going that far since it was just for storing objects.

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to demand a portion of it because I carried it for you.”

“Uh, no, I wasn’t worried about that. Prince Eric did tell us about you, but…what are you?”

Gregg and the knights were flabbergasted, but my friends had a completely different reaction.

“When you spend time with Arius, this kind of thing doesn’t surprise you at all,” said Sophia.

“Yeah. Because he’s the one doing it,” groaned Milia.

“Looks like you two understand him well,” Zeke observed.

***

AFTER recovering the dragon’s body, we set off again.

Since two of Gregg’s knights were in the wagon to keep an eye on Blast in his cell, Jarred and Guyer rode their now free Nocorns.

We didn’t encounter another attack, and we arrived at the manor before two in the afternoon. It would have taken normal horses a whole day to travel this distance. That was the difference between horses and Nocorns.

The royal manor was beside a lake and surrounded by forests. It also had a defensive wall around the perimeter, making it more of a small castle than a manor.

“Welcome, Your Highness.”

We were greeted by the head of the manor, Jeffrey Valentin, an aged knight. Jeffrey was what you might call a silver fox, with his neat gray hair and beard. He was joined by ten maids and servants.

They were, of course, not your normal maids and servants. All of them, including Jeffrey, also functioned as guards in the service of the royal family. They weren’t that high a level though since their main job wasn’t fighting.

We had a late lunch at the manor, then went for a walk around the grounds to scope the area out and see what was going on.

The only things in the vicinity of the manor were the lake and the forest; there were no other people. Both the land and the manor were owned directly by the royal family, meaning regular people couldn’t enter. But the surrounding environment practically screamed, “Attack me!” The forest was good cover, making it easy for people to sneak up close. One side of the manor faced onto a lake, reducing your options for retreat.

If I were going to attack, how would I do it? I ran through the possibilities in my head. Eric and the Intelligence Ministry had probably already thought about this. Still, it wasn’t like I’d done nothing in these eight years since becoming an adventurer other than going into dungeons.

I returned to the manor and explored the inside with Milia and Sophia for the same reason. It would be easier to deal with things if we’d actually seen the place. Zeke and Eric were holding a defensive planning meeting. Some Ministry agents who’d been hiding with Perception Block and Invisibility were also in that meeting.

The night watch was going to be covered by Eric’s knights and the Ministry agents in shifts. We were going to be at the manor for two nights with plans to leave around noon on the third day. We’d informed the academy of our plans, and Eric had casually talked about it to other students and teachers, meaning Duke Jordan would have gotten the information. That meant he was likely to attack sometime during those three days.

I could function fine without sleeping for three days, so I decided to stay awake the whole time. If Scan were up, the ping would definitely wake me if it picked up anything, but it had a shorter range when I was sleeping. I decided to pretend to sleep so everyone else wouldn’t be overly concerned for me.

Once we’d finished checking out the manor, Sophia and Milia had a meeting with Sophia’s two guards. Sophia wasn’t going to be part of the manor’s defenses, so they were going to get ready to move wherever they were needed to support. The guards would follow Sophia’s orders, and Milia would act as a healer and additional guard. I was already prepared, so I sat on the sofa in the living room watching the others while keeping an eye on the area with Scan.

Once the defensive meeting was over, Zeke came back with his two guards. He seemed tired, maybe from being on edge this whole time.

“Zeke, don’t let yourself get so stiff. The guy who stays calm when something goes down is the guy who wins.”

“Arius… You really are calm, aren’t you?”

“All you need to do is what you can do. We’ve got the guards and Ministry agents here too. Get some rest when you can.”

“I couldn’t… I mean, I guess you’re right. I think I’ll go lie down for a bit.”

One good thing about Zeke was how he was so open to listening to others. His guards lowered their heads to me as if saying thank you. At least Zeke would be all right for now.

“You’re always keeping an eye on everyone, Arius,” Milia called to me with a teasing smile.

“Focus on your meeting.”

“Would you join us? I’d like to ask your opinion,” invited Sophia.

She and Milia weren’t going to be out on the front lines, but they could support with magic, so they were deciding where they should go and what they should do to react. Since Milia was also a healer, Sophia and her guards were thinking about how they could support her if she needed to move closer to the front lines.

“You guys are prioritizing protecting yourselves, so I don’t see any issues. It could be a problem if you were in danger, since they’d need to shift forces over to protect you. There’s a chance you could actually end up holding others back.”

What mattered most was that we got through this with me able to protect everyone, but if possible, I’d also like to not get in Eric’s way.

“Thank you for being so frank. I see our role as nothing more than a support role from behind,” said Sophia.

“And if things really get dangerous, then we’ll get your help, but we’re not planning on needing it from the start,” countered Milia.

They understood and were trying to be helpful in any way they could.

***

AFTER we all had dinner together, Eric called me to his room.

“As I’d expected, Blast Garland received nothing more than orders from Altana the Merchant of Death. He hadn’t heard anything else,” he informed me.

“Was it Altana who told him to go off on his own? Even if he is a cleaner over level 500 with a dragon, sending him in alone was just a waste of a fighter. Altana should have known that.”

Zack Trigger, the cleaner who’d tried to kill Eric at the Combat Tournament, had been acting alone, but Zack had immediately fled after attacking. Acting alone was more convenient for him. This time was completely different.

“It appears Blast had made his own decisions in that regard. Altana may have let him do it in order to gauge our forces.”

If they could use Blast as cannon fodder, did that mean they had plenty more where that came from?

“And about what you told me earlier, unfortunately I couldn’t learn anything new. Perhaps our assumptions were wrong. Or perhaps someone is carefully hiding it so no one notices.”

We were trying to find out who Altana the Merchant of Death really was. There were loads of sightings of this person who dealt with anyone rich—nobles, royals, wealthy merchants—but descriptions of them were all over the place, ranging from a shriveled old man to a heavyset man to a plump woman. The only commonality was that they wore a mask covering half their face. Even their voices and accents were different each time.

Either they were using a spell or a magic item, or there was a chance that people who worked for Altana were the ones going to the meetings while using the name. There was no information leading us to Altana’s true identity.

But I actually thought we’d come close.

“Arius, in this attack, was she—”

“Yeah. Alisa was there. I’m sure of it.”

When I’d captured Zack Trigger at the tournament attack, I realized Alisa Kusunoki of the hero’s party was nearby. She’d been concealing her mana, so the ping in my Scan was the amount you’d expect from a normal person, but the qualities of mana varied slightly between people. I’d met Alisa before, so I knew it was her from her mana alone.

Then today, when Blast attacked, I detected her nearby again. We couldn’t completely rule it out as a coincidence, but the question we had was what was she after? If she was just observing or monitoring me, then that wasn’t any big deal. But if she was actually Altana, the Merchant of Death…

Eric and I suspected she was, but we had no proof. Even if we pushed her for answers, she’d just say she was monitoring me, and we’d get no further.

“Eric, if Alisa comes, I’ll deal with her.”

If Altana’s goal was just money, and they were just acting as a go-between for Duke Jordan and high-level cleaners, then Altana wasn’t our enemy.

But if Altana was really Alisa, and if her goal was me, then we didn’t know what she’d come at us with. When Blast attacked, Alisa would have been able to gauge all of Eric’s forces, even the hidden Ministry agents.

“I don’t mind leaving Alisa for you to handle, but I would like you to stop thinking the hero’s party issue is your problem alone. If Alisa attacks, she’ll have made an enemy of me, too,” Eric replied with a fierce smile.

***

I stood bathed in the morning sun, exercising my body as I applied a heavy load of mana to it. My morning training was a daily routine. I’d never missed a day since I was a child.

The first day had ended at the manor with no attack. As expected, really.

If they’d been planning to come at us suddenly, they wouldn’t have waited for nightfall and attacked while we were wandering the forest. The reason they didn’t do that was probably because they wanted to wear us down by keeping us on high alert longer.

I returned to my room to wash off the sweat. Seeing as magic items were everywhere in this world, things like baths and showers were commonplace. I could clean myself with the Cleanse spell, but showers felt nicer.

I got dressed and then went to have breakfast.

“Good morning, Arius,” greeted Sophia.

“Want to eat with us?” asked Milia.

I sat across the table from them, and one of the manor maids poured me a cup of coffee and brought a plate with breakfast on it.

“I knocked on your door, but you didn’t answer. Were you sleeping?” Milia queried.

“No, I was outside training. My morning training is part of my daily schedule.”

“You never miss a day’s training? That sounds very like you,” Milia teased, smiling.

“Did you sleep well?” asked Sophia.

“Yeah. Being an adventurer means I can get a good night’s rest anywhere,” I answered, but Sophia frowned.

“You’re surprisingly bad at lying. You were awake the whole time so you could protect us, weren’t you?”

“Wait, Arius, you didn’t sleep at all?!” cried Milia.

Was I really that easy to read? No, Milia hadn’t realized it was a lie. Maybe Sophia was just particularly sharp.

“I’ve trained for this. I’m fine without one night’s sleep. I’ve gone a whole week with practically no sleep when I’ve been in dungeons.”

“Still… Well, I suppose if anyone can handle it, it’s you. Just don’t push yourself too much,” Sophia sighed.

“Yeah. We’ve got Prince Eric and the guards too. Let us know if there’s anything we can do,” grumbled Milia. They both looked concerned.

“All right. I won’t push myself.”

Managing your physical condition was another basic of adventuring. I didn’t have any intention of overexerting myself too much, but we didn’t know what our enemy’s forces were like—I had to assume the worst.

The knights and the Ministry agents were rotating lookout shifts, but we should be fine if we were prepared. Zeke was also on the watch along with his guards, and he seemed to have gotten a little more used to the situation. He didn’t seem as tense as yesterday, and his complexion was looking better.

Before we knew it, night fell on the second day without an attack. We ate dinner together, then went to our separate rooms.

Just as the second day was nearing its end around midnight, my Scan got a ping.

“Eric, they’re attacking,” I wrote in a Message. I quickly sent Messages to Milia and Sophia, then used Short Teleport to jump about a mile toward the direction of the ping in case it was only a distraction.

My Scan only allowed me to see within a three-mile radius; if I strayed too far from the manor, I wouldn’t be able to keep an eye on the manor for attackers as quickly if it were the case.

There were about ten big pings of mana in my Scan, all over level 500. They weren’t flying, just moving slowly through the forest. It would be some time until they attacked the manor.

I returned with a Short Teleport and headed to Eric’s room. He was already in his equipment; Bela and Isha were beside him awaiting orders. I reported the findings from my Scan’s pings.

“There’s a decent number of them, but the number isn’t the problem. I can’t tell all the details from just their mana, and there’re at least ten people as strong or stronger than Blast,” I explained.

“It seems the duke has thrown a decent force at us. Begin preparations for battle immediately.” Eric remained calm even after learning how powerful the enemy was, then he sent orders to the Ministry agents and knights via Message.

When we came out of his room, Sophia and Milia were waiting in the hallway with Sophia’s guards.

“The attackers are here?” asked Milia. She was in the equipment she’d used for the Combat Tournament, and Sophia had changed into her cloth armor as well.

“They’re still a ways away. It’ll take time for them to get here. We’re going to have a strategy meeting in the main hall. Will you two come too?”

Already gathered in the hall were the two squad captains of Eric’s guards, Oscar and Gregg, and Jeffrey. Zeke was also there with his guards.

There was one more person, a man in his late twenties with gray hair, wearing all black. That was Leon Graham, Section Chief of Section Three of the Royal Intelligence Ministry. He was a trusted subordinate of Darius and leader of the Ministry agents who had joined for the mission. The other Ministry section chief was already with his section outside on watch for anything unexpected.

I relayed to everyone what I discovered outside.

“I was surprised yesterday by that. Can you really detect mana from that far away, Master Arius?” asked Gregg, despite the cigarette between his lips and his nonchalant demeanor. He, Oscar, and Leon had remained calm even after hearing about the enemy’s forces.

“There’s a chance some people were hiding their mana, so assume what I told you is the minimum number of enemies,” I explained. “I’ve got my eyes on their movements at all times, so I’ll let you know right away if I get any new information. All of you focus on fighting.”

After that, Eric gave everyone their orders. Oscar, Gregg, Jeffrey, and Leon went to their respective posts. Zeke was going to be defending the manor along with his guards.

“Eric, I’m going out for recon. If I learn anything more, I’ll let you know,” I told him.

“Thank you, Arius. Under these circumstances, I’m not in a position to ask you to let me handle everything.”

Sophia and Milia looked concerned.

“I know you’ll be all right, Arius, but don’t do anything extreme,” Sophia said.

“Yeah! You’d better not!” warned Milia.

“I know. This is Eric’s fight. I’m not going to be going off on my own.”

I cast Perception Block and Invisibility, then Short Teleport, so I was in the air above the attackers as they came closer. They were about two miles from the manor, heading our way.

Still hidden, I flew around Evaluating the attackers whenever I encountered one. Since I was used to battles in extreme-difficulty dungeons and instantaneous reactions, it didn’t take me that long to Evaluate all of them. Now I knew all their levels and stats, as well as the skills and spells they could use.

I then moved a little way off and dropped Perception Block and Invisibility.

“Hey, Alisa, stop hiding. Come out. I know you’re there,” I told the empty space.

I’d known Alisa was there the moment I detected the attackers. Her mana was already hidden, and she tried to bluff her way out by not responding, so I cast Dispel at her location.

There she was, the small-framed woman with white hair and gold eyes wearing a robe of bright red lizard skin. It was Alisa Kusunoki, second-in-command of the hero’s party, with her endearing smile.

“Oh, you found me. Should have known you’d be able to,” she responded. Her eyes weren’t smiling though. She probably didn’t understand how I’d noticed her. “I didn’t mean anything bad by being here. I just got word you’d be fighting Duke Jordan, and I wanted to see you in action. Sorry for peeking. Forgive me.”

I expected she’d try to talk her way out of it.

“You were at the Combat Tournament and nearby when Blast attacked too. Almost like you knew exactly what the cleaners hired by Duke Jordan through Altana the Merchant of Death were doing. Tell me, are you the Merchant of Death?”

She looked shocked very briefly, but quickly hid it.

“You knew from the beginning I was watching you? You’re a tricky one too, aren’t you? But you misunderstand. I was just watching you to see how strong you are, so I happened to be at the attacks. It was easy to find this big force that Duke Jordan is leading. I figured if I kept my eye on him, I wouldn’t miss seeing you fight, so I came along.”

I only noticed her at the Combat Tournament because I was looking for Zack Trigger. There was a chance she just happened to be there, but the Blast attack was different. She showed up right before he launched his attack. I didn’t detect her until that moment, which meant that she wasn’t constantly watching me.

It couldn’t be mere coincidence that she appeared during these attacks, but that alone didn’t prove she was Altana.

“Alisa, right now, I don’t actually care if you’re the Merchant of Death. I want to ask your opinion on something. Altana got the duke this enormous fighting force. Do you think they’d do that just for money?”

I’d learned from Evaluate that there were more attackers concealing their mana, as expected. They weren’t just over level 500; they were high enough level to rival the members of the hero’s party.

Alisa smiled slyly. “Well, my opinion, as an outside party, would be that this sort of force can’t be brought together with money alone. The Merchant of Death is interested in you and wanted to see how strong you are.”

Right. That made this a pain in the rear.

“All right. So, you want to see me fight. Then I’ll let you see me fight.”

I cast Impenetrable Defense and Teleport Jam around us, making it so Alisa couldn’t get away.

“What are you doing, Arius? You’re not planning to fight me, are you?” She focused her mana regardless, ready for an attack.

“No. I’m not planning on fighting you right now.” I let myself out of the Impenetrable Defense. “Alisa, I’ll prepare you a special seat, so make sure you get a good look at me fighting.”

I moved the Impenetrable Defense, along with Alisa, back to the manor.

***

ONCE back, I found Eric, Sophia, and Milia waiting in the main hall with Bela and Isha and Sophia’s guards. The rest had gone off to their posts.

“We don’t get visited by someone like this often,” greeted Eric.

I’d told him in advance via Message about Alisa, but Milia and Sophia looked concerned. I hadn’t told them anything about the hero’s party.

“Arius, who is that…?” began Milia.

“I’ll explain once the fight’s over. She can’t do anything, so she won’t be a problem,” I answered. I cast Sound Isolation around Alisa and then told them everything I’d learned about the attackers using Evaluate.

Eric remained unruffled, but everyone else looked shaken, even Bela and Isha.

“Eric, I know this is your fight, but the reason Altana sent such a huge force was to learn more about me. Alisa is after me.”

“I know what you’re getting at. This is also your fight,” he smiled fiercely. “So let me ask for your help. Will you fight with me? I’m not such a fool that I’d sacrifice more people just for my pride.”

“I know. Show me how well you can put me to use.”

Eric sent the attackers’ information via Message to the two squad captains and the Ministry agents.

I had real-time information on the enemy’s location using Scan. They were about a half a mile away from the manor—the battle was about to begin.

“Arius…” Sophia softly said. She and Milia were putting on brave faces, but they couldn’t completely conceal their unease.

“It’s all right,” I told them. “We’re going to win, I promise. I’m not going to let any of you die.”

Sophia looked straight into my eyes. “Then I believe you. You don’t lie. But you’re planning to put yourself in danger to protect everyone.”

“I know you said you’d protect me and Sophia no matter what, but if doing that puts you in danger…” started Milia. She looked like she was about to cry. She probably thought it was her fault I was doing something extreme.

“Sophia, Milia. I told you. I’ll be fine. A fight like this isn’t that extreme to me,” I replied, taking my glasses off and giving them a confidence-filled smile to reassure them. Now I was in serious mode.

“Arius, your glasses…” Sophia gasped as she and Milia stared at me, their faces turning red for some reason.

“They’re not prescription. It’s fine. I’ll explain later why I wear them, but for now, you don’t have to worry. Focus on what you’re doing.”

Could they tell how much I meant it? They looked at me and nodded. There was heat in their gaze. That was probably because of how seriously they were taking this.

***

IN the dark swath of forest near the manor was a force of over 500 people, a mixed group of criminal cleaners and mercenary dropouts. Eight cleaners stood out among all of them, each of whom boasted as much power as an SS-rank adventurer.

“The Merchant of Death has lost their marbles, getting together all these people for one job. It’s obviously overkill,” grunted Garow Stingray, the King of Crush. He was bald with muscles like a suit of armor. He was so insanely strong that he could tear metal armor apart with his bare hands.

“That just means our enemy is that strong. They did easily defeat Blast Garland the Fallen Dragon Knight,” offered Laguna Burst, the Crimson Blade. He looked like nothing more than a long-haired gentleman, but it was said there was nothing his crimson blade, burning with flames, couldn’t cut.

“Laguna, don’t make it sound like we’re anything like Blast. He was a fool, and the only thing strong about him was his pride,” Hysteria Blue, the Sadist Queen, chided. She was the kind of beauty who stood out from a crowd with curly blonde hair and a set of black leather bondage armor with a daringly exposing neckline, which drew the eye, but she was a top-class assassin.

“Just shut up and do your job. You’re getting paid, aren’t you? You’re all nothing more than my opening act anyway,” spat Hanoin Sahas, King of the Underworld. He was an old man with white hair and a beard, wearing a gray robe. He was said to be the most powerful magic user in the criminal underworld, and his kills counted well into the five digits.

“Shut up, you senile old man. If you don’t…my cute beasties are going to eat you,” Rost Clause, the Fresh Blood Monster Tamer, sneered. He was a little boy with an innocent face, but he controlled violent monsters fed with blood.

Hans Isen, the Devil Worshipper with bloodshot eyes, impatiently said, “Nobody cares about all that. When can we start killing people?” It was said he became one with a devil using forbidden magics.

“Hans, you are seriously broken. Have you considered just dying?” suggested Rosen String, the Massacre Doll. Despite her adorable girlish features, she’d merged herself with a golem, giving her inhuman physical capabilities.

A refined, good-looking man with a neatly trimmed beard tried to bring order. “Stop fighting. God treats us all equally,” intoned Robert Austin, Priest to the Cruel God. He was a priest in a cult that sacrificed babies, and it was this evil god of his that granted him powers.

These eight people led a group of more than twenty high-level cleaners. With the levels they were at, they could destroy small countries if they wanted to.

“You worthless lot! Are you so bored you’ve got time to chat? I’m paying you lots of money. Can you really take out that brat Eric and his friends?” shouted Duke Jordan, coming up with his squad of twenty knights.

Having been pushed to the edge by Eric, those twenty knights were all the duke had left. He’d borrowed money from shady money lenders just to scrape together enough mercenary rejects to increase his numbers. He had no future, and he couldn’t hide his irritation.

The eight high-level cleaners all shot the duke a hostile glare.

“H-Hey, wh-what are you looking at me for?” he demanded.

“I won’t just kill them, I’ll crush their bodies to dust until nothing remains, so stop your complaining and shut it,” the King of Crush retorted.

“The contract I agreed to was to kill all the enemies, not protect you. If I get a little crazy, I might accidentally kill you, too,” said the King of the Underworld.

“If you’re a good boy, I might show you a nice time later, so shut that mouth and smelly breath of yours,” shot the Sadist Queen.

Feeling pressured by the intensity of the high-level cleaners, Duke Jordan gulped and said, “F-Fine, just, you remember that!”

They continued advancing for some time and reached the edge of the forest, providing a better field of view. About three hundred feet ahead of them was the wall surrounding the royal manor, which was more of a sturdily built castle.

Leading his knights, Duke Jordan moved to the front of the army.

“Eric,” he shouted. “You think you’ve got me cornered, but you failed to finish me off. You cannot possibly fight off a force this size. Kill every last person in that manor!”

“No need to tell me. My magic won’t even leave ashes behind,” the King of the Underworld gleefully jeered as he raised his dragon-bone staff high.

A cluster of white compressed mana meteors appeared over the manor. That was the tier-ten, area of attack combined-elemental spell Meteor Shower. A Meteor Shower cast by the King of the Underworld was equivalent in power to a weapons system. It was powerful enough to blow away the entire manor, leaving nothing behind.

The white meteors plummeted toward the manor and exploded in a burst of light. After the light faded and the blast of air calmed, left in its wake…was the unscathed manor surrounded by a wall of light.

“A-Absurd… That’s impossible! How can it be undamaged after taking a hit from my Meteor Shower?!” the King of the Underworld howled.

“Well, you’re annoying. All I did was block it with an Impenetrable Defense.”

He looked toward the sudden voice to see a young man with silver hair and ice-blue eyes holding two swords.

“You’re—” His severed head hit the ground before he could finish.

***

ONCE I was sure my Impenetrable Defense had completely blocked the Meteor Shower, I used Short Teleport to move behind the man in the gray robe. I knew where all the high-level cleaners were thanks to Scan and Evaluate, so I wanted to draw the attackers’ attention right before killing the man in the gray robe.

“He killed the King of the Underworld in one hit…”

“But…how…?”

But it looked like they hadn’t even seen what I’d done. Some of them were shaken by the man’s instant death, but the higher-leveled ones reacted immediately.

“Don’t you underestimate us!” shouted the bald man with muscles like a set of heavy armor as he twirled his massive spear, practically the size of a pillar.

“You’re Arius Gilberto, aren’t you? You’ll make a good opponent!” cried the long-haired man before he poured mana into his sword, which burst into raging flames.

“You think you can take all of us by your lonesome?” said the woman in scanty leather armor before she melted into the darkness. The next moment, she was coming from behind with a reaper’s scythe.

The boy-faced monster tamer released two Cerberuses. “You are dumb. You came all this way just to be my cute beasties’ snack?” Wreathed in black flames, they were each over level 600.

“Hahaha! Finally! I can kill someone!” the man with bloodshot eyes shouted before he transformed into an abnormal shape, his nails lengthening to claws. He wasn’t a normal human, was he?

The girl-golem fusion rushed at me with incredible speed. “He’s mine. You’re all in my way, so you can just die.”

“Don’t fight. We must torture everyone to death equally,” said the good-looking, bearded man in black religious garb. He cast a summoning spell, and massive black tentacles sprouted from the ground.

The seven cleaners acted at once to my presence. It wasn’t a bad reaction, all in all, but they were way too slow compared to the monsters in an extreme-difficulty dungeon.

I instantly accelerated faster than the speed of sound and rushed through them, each falling one by one. It took me less than a minute to finish them off, along with the two Cerberuses and the giant tentacles.

“Y-You… Arius Gilberto… Wh-What did you just do?” Duke Jordan asked, his voice trembling. To anyone who couldn’t see me moving, it looked like the cleaners had just suddenly split into two.

Seeing as the most powerful people had suddenly been wiped out, the rest of the forces were hesitant to act.

“I don’t need to bother explaining it to you. And besides, your opponent is Eric. I’m just adjusting the forces so he can have his fight. I don’t plan on killing you.”

Eric had told me I could do what I thought was necessary to reduce casualties as much as possible, but I didn’t want to interfere with his plans. I intended to examine the state of combat and only take out the enemies Eric couldn’t handle.

I left the battlefield and joined Alisa in the sky, trapped in the Impenetrable Defense, where I was sure she’d have a good view over the entire battlefield.

“Arius… Your speed just now… You annihilated those high-level cleaners, and they couldn’t do anything…” She was dumbstruck.

“Taking them out was easy. I’m not sure you can say I’ve annihilated them all, though, because there’re still more than ten of them over level 500.”

“Arius… No. Never mind.”

The battle had already begun. Ministry Agents hidden by Perception Block and Invisibility now cast offensive magic spells in unison, blowing away the attacking forces. I’d expected the gray-robed man to cast Meteor Shower on the manor, so I told them to put distance between them and the base.

With the agents revealed, the attackers swarmed them. The enemy overwhelmed our numbers, but it was their side that kept falling; each of the agents was over level 200.

“Are these agents from the Royal Intelligence Ministry? Not too bad,” observed a man in a top hat with a mustache like catfish whiskers.

“I suppose we have no choice but to take them out first,” said a woman in what looked like a white Noh mask.

The two of them turned toward the Ministry agents. They were both cleaners with levels higher than 500.

“If this is all they have, we should be able to handle it ourselves. Douglas, you and your squad support elsewhere,” barked Leon, the gray-haired Section Three Chief in all black. He was talking to Douglas Freed, a plain-looking man with black hair and the other section chief.

“Understood. Section Four, shift to Point F.”

Douglas’s squad disappeared after casting Perception Block and Invisibility, leaving Leon and his team behind to deal with the two high-level cleaners.

“Are we being underestimated? Do they really think they can take us with this few people?” queried the Noh mask woman as she readied a crude sword as tall as she was before rushing toward the agents and punching through their formation. She tried to lay them low with a sweeping blow, but steel-like strings had been put up at some point and stopped her from moving.

“You’re the one underestimating us. Weapons ready! We’re taking these two out,” ordered Leon.

“Like I’ll let you!”

This time, the man in the top hat attacked. He fired mana bullets from two pistol-sized magic guns at close range toward Leon. However, Leon dodged at the last moment using Short Teleport, and the Ministry agents all focused their spells on the top hat man. He obviously hadn’t expected to find himself under fire and took the hits head-on.

“You bastards… Are you insane? One wrong move, and you would’ve hit your ally…” he gasped.

“No, that wouldn’t happen. My agents are excellent,” Leon smirked. At over level 500, he was powerful himself, but he was even better at directing his agents.

From above, I saw that Douglas and his squad had also begun a fight against other high-level cleaners. It seemed like I could leave the attackers on the outside to the Ministry agents. Six cleaners above level 500 were heading toward the manor and Eric. Among them were some cleaners levelling in the 200s and even more that were over 100.

Maybe I should reduce their numbers a bit.

I cast Short Teleport and took out a woman who looked exactly like a witch with a pointed hat, as well as an abnormally thin man. Two cleaners over level 500 down.

“You can take out a cleaner who’s over level 500 like it’s nothing… Well, I’m just not even surprised anymore,” sighed Alisa.

The high wall around the manor blocked the advancing invaders, but those who could fly were already moving in to attack. Suddenly, a bullet of mana traveling faster than the speed of sound blew away the leading attacker.

“I’d lose all my reputation if I let Master Arius and the Ministry agents do all the work. Come on, you bastards, it’s time for us to show you what we can do,” bellowed Gregg, leading his knights up into the air to intercept the attackers.

On top of the walls was a formidable force. Oscar, Turner, Zeihl, Jarred, and Guyer at its center were joined by Zeke and his guards, Bela and Isha, and Milia and Sophia, all fighting back the attackers. The wave of cleaners was putting up a challenging assault, and Bela, Isha, and Milia were doing their best to treat the wounded.

“Dark Flame!”

From the rear, Sophia was acting as support by casting her tier-three Dark-element AoE spell. It didn’t do much damage, but it did reduce the stats of its targets, which slowed down the enemy. That’s when the knights and guards finished the enemies off. Sophia had really come to understand the function of her spells.

Once the remaining level 500, 200, and 100 cleaners were wiped out, all that was left were the stragglers. They might have had numbers on their side, but they were no match for Eric.

When their impending loss became obvious, some of the attackers began to flee, but the Ministry Agents and Gregg’s squad weren’t so soft that they were going to let anyone escape. The deserters still found themselves wiped out with AoE spells and magic gunfire.

All Duke Jordan had left around him was a handful of knights. More than half of them were down, and the Ministry agents surrounded them.

“How…? How did this happen?” the duke shuddered.

“If you ask me, it’s because your execution was poor,” declared Eric, his voice ringing out across the battlefield. He was on the wall of the manor using Amplify Voice. “If you’re going to take someone on, you must enact a perfect plan that your opponent will never see coming. If you can’t do that, you should crush them with force from the onset.”

“Eric, you bastard…” The duke ground his teeth in frustration, but the only reason he was still alive was because Eric ordered it.

Standing on the wall, Eric appeared to be out in the open with no defenses to goad the duke. Obviously, if the duke tried something, everything would have gone exactly as Eric had planned without him having to take a single injury.

“I… I haven’t lost yet… Eric, I swear…”

The duke drew his sword and rushed toward the manor, but of course the Ministry agents weren’t going to let him. His head, along with all those of his knights, were removed from their bodies.

“I commend you for at least continuing to resist until the very end. Farewell, Duke Jordan,” said Eric.

It was a disappointing end to Duke Jordan, the head of Ronaudia’s Three Great Dukes.

“Your Highness, it’s done. We’ll finish cleaning up here,” Leon reported as his and Douglas’s squad began clearing out the remaining enemies. Not a single enemy would escape.

“This is what a real battle is like…” moaned Zeke, sinking to the ground after the tension of combat left him. He looked at the corpses of the attackers around him. He’d learned a lot in this battle.

“Well done, Prince Eric,” Sophia offered with a smile, unwavering. She was trembling slightly, and I could tell the smile was forced, but that was just how determined she was as Eric’s fiancée.

“Sophia…” began Milia. She’d also been prepared for this to happen, but it was still a shock seeing so many dead. Still, Milia took Sophia’s hand in order to support her.

“I’m sorry to make all of you stick this out until the end,” Eric said with his usual smile. “But I do understand that this is all my doing. You can fear me or despise me—that’s fine. I intend to shoulder the burden of what I’ve done as I carry on in life.”

And so, the anti-royalist faction of Ronaudia had been wiped out. With Duke Jordan eliminated, Eric had achieved essentially all his goals. To him, this was nothing more than a stepping stone paving the way toward the future as king of Ronaudia.

***

“ALISA, I don’t have any proof you’re Altana, the Merchant of Death. And in the end, our side didn’t have any casualties, so I’ll let you go this time,” I told her, dropping Impenetrable Defense and Teleport Jam.

“I appreciate that. You’re soft, letting me go even though you suspect I’m Altana.”

“Say what you want, but I show my enemies no mercy.” I looked her straight in the eye. “I’m going to see Abel in two weeks. Take whatever shots you want at me then. Right now, you aren’t my foes, but I don’t mind making the hero one if it comes to that.”

I knew that things would get annoying if the hero were my opponent, but if he was going to keep dragging me into situations, then it was the same end result either way.

“All I wanted was to see you fight. I didn’t want to make an enemy of you. I told you: I want to work with you. And now that I’ve seen just how strong you are, it’s my turn to show you how useful I can be.”

She then leaned in and whispered information into my ear about the hero. Whether it was true or not didn’t matter; I’d already taken measures against him.

“Well then, Arius. I look forward to seeing you in the Ishtobal Castle.”

And with that, she left.

***

ALL the loose ends had been tied up just as day was breaking. Not that it took that long when you were using magic.

Having finished their work, the Ministry agents and knights were taking shifts, catching a quick snooze. Sophia was still acting unruffled, smiling as she chatted with Milia, but I knew the smile was forced. Milia also had put on a brave face.

“Hey, you two, do you have a second?” I asked, standing in front of them. “When I was a kid, Sophia, you told me I didn’t need to force myself to smile.”

I was five, and it was my first time making an appearance in high society. It was just after I’d fought a group of bandits and killed people for the first time. It took some time, but I eventually came to terms with what I’d done. However, I faked being fine and smiled to not worry those around me. So, when I was at the party and met Sophia, she told me I didn’t have to force myself to smile.

“I know you’re determined to fulfill your duty as Eric’s fiancée, but this is the sort of thing you’ve got to work through slowly, work it out inside yourself. So, don’t force yourself to smile.”

“Arius… Thank you…” She smiled, a genuine one.

“And Milia, I understand how you feel, wanting to support your friend. But you don’t need to force yourself to smile either. Sophia will still be receptive to your feelings if you’re open with her.”

“He’s right, Milia. I’m sorry I made you push yourself so hard too.”

“Oh, no, Sophia. Just…you don’t have to push yourself so much either.” Milia trembled as tears started to run down her cheeks, and tears began cascading from Sophia’s eyes as well.

The two hugged each other and, with my job done, I left. I was just their friend. It wasn’t my place to hold and comfort them.

***

TWO weeks later, I went to the royal castle of Ishtobal.

In a hall with a high ceiling, a red carpet led to a throne at the far end, flanked by rows of armed soldiers menacingly lining each side. Around the throne were Alisa and the other members of the hero’s party.

I walked slowly down the red carpet toward Abel. He had wavy green hair and emerald-green eyes and sat with his legs crossed, leaning against one arm. It was an incredibly arrogant way of sitting.

“Thank you for inviting me today, Your Highness,” I greeted as I bowed to him. I hated formalities, but it wasn’t like I didn’t know proper etiquette.

“So, you’re Arius, the youngest SSS-rank adventurer in history. I am the hero, Abel Lionhart. Welcome to the hero’s party. And don’t call me ‘Your Highness.’ It’s ‘my hero.’”

I’d put off meeting Abel for a month. Alisa had convinced Abel to wait by making it seem like I was planning to join the party.

Still, this guy is actually calling himself the hero, too?

“I understand, my hero. However, you seem to be mistaken. I’m not here to join.”

“What?” He looked blatantly annoyed. There was a stir among the guards as they stared at me in judgment, like they couldn’t believe what I was saying.

“I don’t like jokes, Arius. The demons are humanity’s greatest enemy, and the demon king will destroy the world. What possible reason could you have to not join me, the hero, in defeating the demon king and saving the world? And yet, you’re refusing?”

“If you’ll beg my pardon, my hero, the demon king has done nothing since they were revived four months ago. Could you please provide what proof you have that they are going to destroy the world?”

Abel grinned. “I see. That’s how it is. You’re an adventurer. You don’t want fame. You want money. Your plan is to refuse initially, then up the stakes. Fine. Tell me, how much do you want?”

What the heck was he talking about? He wasn’t even listening to what I was saying.

“I don’t want money. I’m saying—”

“You can drop the pretenses. No one really believes we’re going to save the world by defeating the demon king. The reason the alliance wants to fight them is so they can get their hands on the valuable resources lying unused in demon territory. So, what is it you want?”

So, he just went right out and admitted the truth. There were only his subordinates here anyway, and maybe he figured it would be easy to keep them quiet. Maybe I should dig further then.

“What is your real goal in defeating the demon king?” I questioned.

“I’m not like the lowly scum that just want money. By defeating the demon king, I will demonstrate the power of the hero and gain control of the world. It should be easy to dominate the world with the hero’s power. Arius, if you join me, I will give you whatever your heart desires.”

World domination? That’s what Abel was after? No matter how you looked at it, it didn’t seem very realistic. This guy was seriously full of himself.

“If that’s the case, I have even less reason to join the hero’s party,” I refused. “I think we’re done here. If you’ll excuse me, my hero.” I bowed and turned away from him.

“Wait. I can’t let you leave.”

At Abel’s words, all the soldiers drew their swords, and the hero’s party went into fighting stances. I’d tried to finish this peacefully, but I guess that wasn’t an option.

“Arius. Either you join me, or you die. You choose which,” Abel challenged, full of confidence. He really seemed to believe he could do whatever he wanted.

“My choice is obvious. Seeing as I don’t show my enemies any mercy,” I maintained, then I cast Impenetrable Defense around me and the hero’s party. At the same time, I cast smaller Impenetrable Defenses around each of the hero’s party, leaving Abel open. This way, Alisa and the others would have an excuse for why they didn’t do anything.

“Protect Prince Abel!” shouted a soldier. They attacked the Impenetrable Defense, but there was no way people like them would be able to break down my barrier.

“Damn you, Arius. Do you really think you can win against me, the hero, even if it’s only one against one? Don’t be so full of yourself!”

Abel stood from the throne and drew his sword. The fact that it was glowing with a blinding light probably meant it was a holy sword. He activated Heart of the Hero, and his stats jumped up. The mass of mana pouring from his body was visible to the naked eye, like flames bursting from him.

Alisa’s information was correct: Abel didn’t go berserk when he activated Heart of the Hero.

“Abel, you can try saying that again once I’ve beaten you,” I said, drawing my two swords from my Inventory while also casting Instant Wardrobe Change for armor. I had one blue sword and one black, and my armor looked like a mash-up of random pieces stuck on over my clothing, but they were all drop items from the last boss of the fifth extreme-difficulty dungeon, which I’d completed with Grey and Selena. There was no cohesion, but this was me in serious mode.

“Don’t be absurd. I’ll show you what the hero’s power looks like!”

Abel rushed me and struck first, his weapon coated in visible mana. I dodged, and his holy sword left a crater-sized hole in the floor. Being the hero, he was leagues above Chris, a regular member of the hero’s party.

Abel continued his attacks. I kept dodging, and we left a trail of destruction throughout the throne room. It was already destroyed beyond recognition. Like I cared.

“Arius, it seems you’re at least good at dodging, but how about this?!”

He raised his sword and collected a massive amount of mana into an orb. There wasn’t enough space within the Impenetrable Barrier to dodge that.

“Die, Arius!”

He launched the orb of mana at me, and I cut it with a mana-infused blade. The two halves split off around me and struck the inner side of the Impenetrable Defense, engulfing the area in explosions.

If I hadn’t had Impenetrable Defense up, that would have hit the soldiers. Luckily for them, Alisa and the other members of the hero’s party were safe in their own individual barriers.

“No way… You’re just a level 1,200 adventurer. How could you defend against my mana?”

That “1,200” was what I’d set my level as using Falsify Ability. Anyone below the level you set wouldn’t get any information, and the higher you increased the level, the bigger the boost it got, just like Conceal Ability. It could work even against people at a higher level than you. There was a limit to that, obviously. It didn’t work on people who were vastly higher than you, but I knew it’d work on Abel.

Compared to the other members of the hero’s party, Abel was in fact significantly more powerful in both level and stats. And that was it.

I rushed toward Abel and struck him with both my swords faster than he could react. He flew backward and crashed into the Impenetrable Defense.

“What is this? How can you move so fast even I, the hero, can’t react…?”

He was still able to get back to his feet, partly due to the recovery aspect of Heart of the Hero. The other part was because I’d held back so I wouldn’t kill him.

“You don’t know the answer to that, and you still think you can beat me?” I replied.

He relied too much on Evaluate. I used it all the time, but that wasn’t the only thing I used to gauge my opponent’s strength.

A month ago, when I’d snuck into the Ishtobal Palace, I hadn’t been able to see Abel’s level with Evaluate. Since I didn’t detect an overwhelming amount of mana from him, I suspected he might’ve been using a skill.

Today, I got the answer to that riddle. I was now able to see not only his level, but also his stats, skills, and spells, because I was very clearly a much higher level. A month ago, his level was still below mine, but I hadn’t been able to see that because of his skill, Protection of the Hero.

I had considered the possibility that his level was higher than mine, so I didn’t go to class for the past two weeks after getting back from the royal manor. I spent that whole time taking on the second extreme-difficulty dungeon, the Devil’s Prison, and raised my level.

It looked like I hadn’t needed to do that, but I was able to complete the Devil’s Prison solo, so that was good.

“Arius, I will not let you get away with underestimating me!”

His eyes filled with hatred, Abel swung at me again, his sword wreathed in massive amounts of visible mana.

But that didn’t matter if he couldn’t hit me.

I dodged Abel’s holy sword and hit him with my own mana-coated sword. This sent him flying, and I chased after him and struck again before he could stand. He couldn’t react at all, and his armor broke into pieces.

“Y-You broke orichalcum armor…”

Abel might have been a high level, but his mana manipulation was sloppy. He wasn’t as fast as his stats, and his movements were simple. Awakening as the hero might have raised his level, but he wasn’t fully utilizing his abilities. I’m not trying to sound full of myself, but I could have easily defeated Abel a month ago.

“Abel, will you let me leave now peacefully?”

“A-Arius, don’t be stupid… I’m going to kill you here!”

If he wouldn’t give up, then I’d have to treat him like Chris. I was perfectly happy killing him seeing as he was trying to kill me, but if I wanted to avoid that, I still had one resolution that just barely qualified as peaceful.

“This is very interesting to watch.”

Suddenly, a woman in all black appeared within my Impenetrable Defense. She had glossy black hair and jet-black eyes, and her smooth, pale skin was clad in a black velvet dress.

Objectively speaking, she was beautiful enough to appear as a rival to the heroine of Love Academy. She was so beautiful that she might actually just swallow the heroine up whole. But what drew my attention more was her overwhelmingly powerful presence.

I was now on full alert. My Scan was still up, but I hadn’t detected her at all until the moment she appeared. My Evaluate couldn’t tell her level, and the mana my Scan was picking up was leagues above the final bosses in any of the extreme-difficulty dungeons I’d been in.

“Who the hell are you? Where’d you come from?” shouted Abel. He must not have realized how powerful she was because he went to grab her, but his arm evaporated before he could touch her. “M-My arm… I’ll kill you…” He then tried to swing his holy sword.

“You’re rather annoying,” she said with a cold glare. That was enough to freeze Abel in his tracks. “The hero this time has no manners, trying to attack a lady, and I only came to say hello. Not that you’re worth my time.”

As if responding to her words, ten fully armed demons floated down and placed themselves with their backs to my Impenetrable Defense. I had noticed them appear near the ceiling with my Scan at the same time the woman had appeared.

“I am Alanis Justia, queen of the demon country of Guardial. I’m the one you call the demon king. I assume you won’t mind if I kill this rude hero? Oh, that was just a little joke. So long as he doesn’t raise another hand against me.”

The soldiers were unable to do anything with Abel now a hostage. Rightly so, since each of the ten demons were well over level 1,000.

Demon King Alanis ignored the soldiers and looked at me with intense curiosity.

“Don’t be so on edge, Arius. You really are an interesting one. This level at your age… Apologies for the vague wording, but it would be rude to reveal your secrets to others without your permission, wouldn’t it? I can’t even imagine what you had to do in order to get to this stage at only fifteen.”

I didn’t know why the demon king knew about me, but right now wasn’t the time to be thinking about that. I had my two swords ready so I could move at any moment.

“What are you after?” I asked.

“I just said. I simply came to say hello to the fool of a hero who’s trying to put me down.”

I didn’t know how much of that was the truth, but if Alanis wanted to, she could kill every single person here. Not that I planned to go down easily.

“D-Damn you… If you’re the demon king, I’ll kill you…” Abel growled, his voice sounding like he had to fight some invisible force to get it out.

“Oh my, still a hero even if you are a rotten one? Unfortunately, I don’t plan on spending any more time with you, you boorish oaf.”

Alanis shot him another cold glance, and he looked away toward me. “Arius, you led her in here, didn’t you?! You’ve betrayed all of humanity!”

He was one hundred percent wrong, but it was terrible timing that she appeared. Nothing I could say would change anything.

“Hero, you seem to be mistaken,” Alanis corrected. “I could kill you at any moment without resorting to such petty tricks.”

She unleashed her mana, which poured out in a thick, raging torrent that engulfed everything around us. She’d still been concealing her mana?

“Wh-What in the… Th-This mana…” Abel cowered in fear, despite Heart of the Hero being activated. Even he wasn’t so dense that he wouldn’t notice her mana.

“I’ll let today slide as I only came to say hello, but the next time we meet, hero, I will kill you.”

The next moment, the world around me changed.

***

I was in a building that was literally on a different scale from Ishtobal Castle. Massive pillars supported a ceiling more than a hundred and fifty feet above my head. It was almost as big as the space inside an extreme-difficulty dungeon.

Greeting the return of Demon King Alanis and her ten demons were more than a thousand more demons, each of them emitting incredible amounts of mana.

“If I’d left you there, things would have gotten troublesome for you, wouldn’t they? So, I brought you with me. Or was that a bit meddlesome of me?” she said with a teasing smile. “Arius Gilberto, welcome to the demon country of Guardial.”

Stats

Arius Gilberto (Age 15)

Level: 2798

HP: 29242

MP: 44698

STR: 11255

DEF: 11253

INT: 12659

RES: 11927

DEX: 11254

AGI: 11255

Afterword

Afterword

THANK you, all of you who have picked up the second volume of Love & Magic Academy. This is the author, Toyozo Okamura. To those of you who bought volume one, hi, it’s been a while! I was finally able to put the second volume out ten months after the first one, and it was thanks to the support of all of you.

In this second volume, we have Arius continuing student life in the Academy while going into hard mode in his adventuring. I rewrote about eighty percent of the web version for the second volume, and it feels basically like a completely different book because even events unfold differently. I put absolutely everything I have as an author into writing this one!

While the title is Love & Magic Academy, Arius remains uninterested in love in the second volume, but he is deepening relationships with the people around him, so I think he is growing as a person.

Will Arius grow to become interested in romance? I’m the author and even I don’t know! (Lol)

I am truly grateful to everyone involved with publishing the second volume of Love & Magic Academy. Thank you to my editor for being there to answer all sorts of questions during the creation phase and for never complaining, even when I called you late at night drunk. Thank you so much for always caring enough to deal with everything.

Thank you very much to the illustrator Parum for taking my pathetic ideas and turning them into amazingly cool designs! Like, how cool Arius looks in his new outfit. And I was totally knocked out by how adorable Alisa’s design was… I think the people who read the web version picture her as all wicked and scheming, so I feel like people will say a design like that is practically like being conned! (Lol)

Next, we’ll have volume three, which will have things like Arius getting involved with the demons and the overwhelmingly powerful Demon King Alanis, who appeared at the end of this volume. We’ll have the hero, who Arius defeated easily, and the hero’s party at the center of the story, but then we might have appearances from the other SSS-rank adventurers who have been quiet up until now. I plan to have volume three be even more full-on battle mode than volume two was.

On the other hand, in Academy life, we’ll have the appearance of a new heroine who was in full-on romance mode in the web version! Despite joining the story later, in the web version, she quickly established herself as the closest thing to the story’s heroine. She’s kind of a big sister type that has Milia and Sophia in mind as she gives them a nudge forward. I really hope you all like her!

In his past life, Arius was twenty-five and absorbed in his research, then he came to this world and spent the first nearly sixteen years of his life absorbed in fighting. He doesn’t have any romantic intuition. Can an interest in romance awaken in someone like him? And if so, who would he pick? I think it’s more likely he’ll ignore romance just like the subtitle and keep forging onwards! (Lol)

Well, see you in the next volume!