Exceptional strength arises from a strong body.


    No maently working out.


    “Ricardo, what are you doing?”


    “Exercising.”


    Thedy, seeing me doing pull-ups hanging from the door frame, looked at me with a questioning expression.


    “Exercising…?”


    Having only exercised her jaw muscles all her life, thedy couldn’t understand why I was exercising.


    “Why?”


    “Just because.”“Hmm…”


    Thedy wasn’t familiar with exercise.


    If she got near the training grounds, she would distance herself, saying, “Ugh… the smell of sweat.” She wasn’t someone who wasfortable with sweat.


    I exhaled lightly and continued my pull-ups, while thedy, lying on the bed and yawning, spoke in a bored tone.


    “Ricardo, you look like a frog hanging from the ceiling.”


    “That’s a strange way to put it.”


    “But it’s true.”


    She wasn’t wrong.


    Because the mansioncked exercise equipment, my appearance hanging from the door frame doing pull-ups indeed looked pitiful.


    I resolved to make exercise equipment that thedy could use and focused on my workout.


    “321”


    “322”


    “423”


    “Ricardo, the numbers suddenly jumped.”


    “It’s just your imagination.”


    Thedy seemed more interested in my health than I thought.


    To spare thedy’s eyes, I stopped the pull-ups and switched to push-ups.


    Around the time the count exceeded 400.


    I noticed thedy wriggling in excitement at the corner of my eye.


    “Ugh…!”


    Thedy flopped on the bed, iling her arms and legs.


    I smiled slightly, watching her energetically mimic exercise, and said.


    “What are you doing?”


    “Exercising.”


    “That’s not exercise, it looks more like a fresh mackerel floundering.”


    “Ugh! Ugh!”


    “You really look like a mackerel.”


    Exhausted, thedy copsed onto the bed, gasping for breath.


    “Huff… Huff… I’m dying.”


    Clearly, thedy, who had severed ties with exercise, found the weight of gravity too much to bear.


    th, found it hard to endure. I tried not tough at her effort, but.


    “Pfft…!”


    I couldn’t hold it in.


    The sight of thedy floundering on the bed was too much.


    “Pfft…”


    “Don’tugh!”


    “Pfft…! How can I not, it’s funny.”


    “Ugh!”


    Thedy, puffing up her cheeks, kept trying to push up in defiance.


    “Ugh…!!! One more!”


    “Fail.”


    “Ugh…”


    Indeed, thedy wasn’t familiar with exercise.


    Afterughing for a while.


    I brought my hand to my shirt and started unbuttoning it. The fabric of the shirt wasn’t good at expelling sweat, and unbuttoning it when hot was a habit of mine.


    Momentarily forgetting thedy was beside me, I unconsciously unbuttoned my shirt.


    “Oh…”


    Seeing this, thedy’s eyes sparkled as she let out a breath.


    “Ricardo, your chest is huge!”


    “Gah! What kind of harassment is this?!”


    “Oh…”


    Startled by thedy’s lewdment, I wrapped my arms around my shirt and hunched my shoulders. Thedy’s eyes, shining brightly and staring intently at my body, looked quite lecherous.


    How should I pu red.


    Thedy stared at my hands gripping my shirt with sparkling eyes and, with a giggle, said.


    “Show me!”


    “Show you what?!”


    “Your body!”


    “No!”


    Can a nobledy act like this?


    Blushing at thedy’s cheeky request, I shook my head.


    “Wanting to see someone naked is very improper!”


    “Ugh! Show me!”


    Once the switch was flipped, thedy showed no sign of backing down. Puffing up her cheeks, she reached out to pull away my hands from my shirt, making me blush and flee.


    “Pervert!”


    “No, I’m not!”


    “Yes, you are! So lewd!”


    “Ugh! Then look at mine!”


    “What? Um… That’s…”


    Looking at thedy’s flustered face, I briefly considered it.


    Once at her face.


    Then at her wicked intent.


    For a moment, a lewd thought crossed my mind, thinking ‘It wouldn’t be so bad.’ But I barely managed to hold on to my sanity and took a deep breath to steady myself.


    “No!”


    “Why not! Show me!”


    “No! Go back!”


    Thedy, making a big circle with her hands, praised my majestic pectoral muscles. Her exaggerations aside, saying they looked like two huge boulders, I touched my forehead with my hand.


    “That’s so big!”


    “So what!”


    “It’s grand! Looks so strong, I want to touch it!”


    “Why the sudden interest when you never cared before!”


    “Just because.”


    Thedy gave a in answer with a tilt of her head, and I sighed, flicked her forehead, and ended themotion.


    “Ugh! Why did you hit me!”


    Holding her forehead and rolling on the bed, thedy cried out in frustration.


    “Because you were wrong.”


    “That’s unfair!”


    “It can’t be helped.”


    “Idiot!”


    My face felt hot.


    Really.


    *


    That evening, after a heatedmotion.


    In the darkness of the room, I was panting heavily.


    “1001”


    “1002”


    Sweaing from my swollen arm muscles looked fierce.


    Doing push-ups while in a handstand seemed to be an effective workout.


    [Limit Break is testing the limits of ‘Strength’.]


    “Hoo…”


    I pondered.


    What I needed to do to get stronger.


    ht answer.


    I had to consider the story.


    And ains.


    The opportunities avable to me were those from heretics and side stories.


    In reality, what I could do now was consistent training. It was the most reliable method, a royal road that didn’t rely on luck.


    But still.


    It felt like there should be a faster way to reach my goal. Like there was a shortcut if I used a trick.


    A way to use what I had to increase my strength rapidly.


    “Huff… 2301”


    I believed there had to be one.


    And I found the method not far from me.


    [Limit Break]


    This was the best trick I knew.


    As the hot sweat soaked the floor.


    “How long are you going to leave me like this?”


    An all-too-familiar male voice came from the crystal ball on the bed.


    His voice, bound by chains and unable to move, sighed deeply and spoke to me.


    I stood up lightly and replied to him.


    “Until your answer pleases me?”


    “…”


    “Have you thought about my proposal?”


    “…”


    “I hope you answer soon.”


    The person trapped in the crystal ball was Hans.


    Hans, trapped in the ‘Jewel of Sealing’ among the heretic opportunities, hung his head.


    His head hung low with shame, and because of the proposal I made, he kept his head down.


    Iughed as I looked at Hans.


    “Hurry up and decide.”


    Hans wasn’t a bad guy.


    Of course, he was a bad guy who killed people to get stronger, but he killed people who deserved it.


    Hans’s boundary of ‘good’ began to crumble after he killed the Lord of the Magic Tower with his own hands.


    I knew a scene from the story where Hans chose to sacrifice himself to protect Yuria and the protagonist’s group, appearing briefly in a shback.


    -But I’m still a bad guy.


    The people Hans killed to awaken ck magic were viins.


    Those who killed others in dungeons for money. Soldiers who covered up crimes for bribes.


    Of course, the fact that he tried to kill me wasn’t forgivable, but he still had some sense of principle.


    I extended my hand to Hans.


    Not to ask him to be a heretic spy, but for something more burdensome.


    The request I made to him was simpler yet significant.


    To protect thedy.


    To get stronger, I had to defeat stronger opponents, but there was always the risk of injury.


    While Hans’s skills might not be of much help to me, he wasn’t weak. I thought he could be a useful card as ast resort.


    Hans, still hanging his head, asked in a solemn voice.


    “What benefit do I get?”


    “Survival.”


    “…That’s an offer I can’t refuse.”


    “Right?”


    Hans, with a resigned smile, nodded and began chanting spells toe out of the sealing crystal.


    “What are you doing?”


    “A mage’s contract.”


    “You’re doing that?”


    “If I’m going to do it, I might as well do it right.”


    A mage’s contract.


    A spell considered taboo among mages.


    It was a life-binding contract, with death as the penalty for breaking it. It was a lifelong contract made when swearing loyalty to a master or serving a lord.


    By doing this, Hans was putting an unbreakable shackle around his neck.


    The walls began to be filled with spells containing the contract’s details. As I looked at the walls filled with red letters, I murmured quietly.


    “Do I have to clean this?”


    “I’ll do it.”


    “Then it’s fine.”


    The terms of the deal were simpler than expected.


    “I, Hans, dere a mage’s contract with the contractor Ricardo.”


    The contract’s terms were loyalty to ‘Ricardo’ and ‘Olivia.’


    No harm can be done and even mentioning it was forbidden. The penalty for breaking the contract was:


    “Upon breaching the contract, the contractor Hans will die from a heart explosion.”


    I added one use.


    “Let’s make it the head instead of the heart.”


    “…”


    “We have to be thorough.”


    The deal was sealed.


    Hans, with a resigned expression, sat on the bed and spoke to me.


    “So, what do I do now? Just protect Olivia?”


    “No. Do that when I ask you to. For now, let’s start with this.”


    I took out a grimoire, which was supposed to go to the heretics, from my pocket and handed it to Hans.


    “Let’s bnce things out first.”


    And Hans became.


    “Brother.”


    A faithful watchdog.


    ***


    In a distant future,


    Hans wiped his sweat while looking at the grand statue of Ricardo.


    “That makes 1,301. Glory to him…”


    Ricardo looked at Hans and said.


    “Stop your nonsense.”


    End of Chapter