《My Friend and I Reincarnated Into a Tragedy Dating Game》


 Chapter 1: Best Girl

    <h4>Chapter 1: Best Girl</h4>


    "Minami is clearly best girl! Just look at how cute she is!"


    "Cute? So what? Can''t you feel the mature vibes that Jess gives off? I can hardly stop myself from calling her mommy!"


    I was arguing with my friend, Nathan, over characters in a dating game we both yed. By the way, Minori is definitely superior in every way. She has short light brown hair and clear blue eyes. She may not be the tallest, but that just makes her better!


    Her youthful energy shines through the darkness, bringing light to all like a saint. No, she is a saint!


    As for Jess, she''s just ame woman that has overlyrge breasts.


    ¡­Huh? Are you confused over why I''m describing insignificant game characters instead of the two main characters of the story?


    Well, there''s no real point, the waifus are what people care about. ¡­But I guess I can give you a basic description. I''m a real tallnky guy with ck hair while Nathan was short and stubby with brown hair. If he knew I thought he was stubby, he would freak out, but that''s just the truth.


    But more important than his looks was his trash and shallow taste in women.


    "You only like her because Jess has big boobs!"


    Nathan red immediately after, pointing at me usingly with his face flushed red.


    "That''s not it at all! Besides liking someone for big boobs is hardly anythingpared to a pedo that likes little kids!"


    My eyelid twitched when I heard that. With a re, I put up my middle finger and leaned in right next to his face.


    "Her canon age is 20! It''s 20! That''s literally legal, it''s not even barely legal, but super legal!"


    Nathan crossed his arms, staring right back at me without even the slightest bit of fear.


    "Yeah, just like how all those lolis in anime are three thousand years old? She''s as tall as an elementary schooler!"


    My eyes narrowed.


    "How dare you height shame short people? Plus, aren''t you basically the same height as her anyway?!"


    Without shame, Nathan put a hand on his chest and proudly dered his stance.


    "I''m ugly anyway! Since when did height matter? Plus, 2D girls don''t judge based on looks, and 2D is just superior to 3D."


    I let out a snort and crossed my arms as well.


    "You may have made a good point, but Jess is still way too slutty!"


    Nathan just barely parted his lips, his voiceing out like a threatening hiss.


    "You dare?¡­"


    I could feel the walls around us disappear as the ground beneath turned into rocksced with magma. We were standing right next to the mouth of a volcano, right about to erupt. And then, right when all hell would break loose¡­


    "Keep it down! Stop shouting all the damn time!"


    The door to my room mmed open, and my Mom appeared, looking pissed off. Both me and Nathan froze and turned to her slowly, bowing down like disciplined soldiers. It was not our first time doing such a thing.


    "Sorry, Mom!"


    "My apologies, Madam!"


    My mother let out an exasperated sigh.


    "If you two really want to be like this then go out to the park and talk, alright?"


    The two of us hurriedly nodded.


    "Ok."


    "Yes ma''am."


    With that, the two of us hurriedly left the house with our tails tucked in between our legs. We stepped out onto the streets. There were a decent amount of people around, but that was a given considering that it was midday on a Sunday.


    The two of us stood there casually, with not a single hint of the previous fierce battle we had just had. Nathan smacked his lips while staring at the sky. He did it unconsciously, and I could tell that it was something he did when he was thirsty.


    "You want me to get us some drinks?"


    Nathan waved his hand dismissively before putting both hands in his pockets.


    "Nah, I still owe you for thest one. I should get it"


    I raised an eyebrow and turned to look at him strangely.


    "You do? Didn''t you buyst time?"


    Nathan shrugged his shoulders.


    "Well, what you bought was like, twenty cents more expensive than the one I did."


    I blinked several times, wondering why he was even keeping track of things like that. With a sigh, I rolled my eyes.


    "Whatever, are you really going to make a fuss about twenty cents?"


    Nathanughed and scratched the back of his head awkwardly.


    "Sorry, sorry. The usual please."


    With that, the two of us went over to a nearby vending machine. After fishing out a few coins, I casually slipped a few in with one hand and tapped the button to select a drink with the other.


    Two sodas fell down to the bottom. I grabbed them both and handed one to Nathan. He took it and thanked me before we both cracked it open and drank.


    As we walked on the streets silently for a few moments, Nathan suddenly spoke up.


    "Say, why do you think Bryson was such an asshole?"


    My eyelid twitched. Ah right, I forgot to mention that my own name was Brian, so I felt a little attacked even though I knew it wasn''t targeted at me.


    In response to his question, I shrugged my shoulders.


    "I dunno. It''s probably because he was the viin of the story, right?"


    Nathan rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.


    "Not like that. Bad people don''t just spring up out of nowhere... I think. There must''ve been something behind all of that."


    I let out a sigh.


    "You''re just overthinking it. He''s just a viin because the game needed a viin."


    Hm... now that I think about it, I forgot to exin the context again. We were talking about a game called "Downfall from Grace". I thought it was a kinda weird name, though Nathan liked it a lot. Speaking of Nathan, there was a distinct frown on his face.


    "Man, if Bryson really is just a viin for the sake of being one, then doesn''t that make the story so...me?"


    I couldn''t help but smile, because I knew he was going to say 2D, but quickly realized that the game was indeed 2D. Nheless, I had no idea why he was so caught up by the viin of the story.


    "Forget Bryson, nobody really cares about the viin in a video game. If anything, why is Natan so wishy-washy with everything he does? In the story, he hardly cares for any of the people in his harem! Instead, he''s so focused on saving the damn kingdom, that he lets them die because of it!"


    Nathan''s face twitched. He was also a little sensitive to how simr Natan''s name was to his but shook it off as fast as I did.


    "Heye on, you make it sound like it''s easy to save an entire damn kingdom! I guess Natan just isn''t that bright or something."


    He then promptly shook his head.


    "Ah, whatever. It''s just a game anyway. Thinking about it too much is probably stupid."


    I snickered.


    "Did you just age sixty years or something? Since when have you said anything like that?"


    Nathan clicked his tongue.


    "What are you talking about? I''ve always been a wise sage, so naturally, my maturity is far beyond my age."


    With a chuckle, I responded sarcastically.


    "Oook."


    Nathan opened his mouth to say something, but before that I reached out my arm, stopping him from going forward.


    "Look in front of you, dimwit. It''s a red light."


    Nathan''s eyes flew open as he stumbled backward a few steps. He was about to step into the middle of the street. Although he probably wouldn''t have been hit because there weren''t that many cars, and most people would''ve braked, there was always a chance that being careless could''ve ended with him dead.


    Nathan took in a deep breath.


    "Ah, shit. Thanks for keeping me in check."


    I shook my head.


    "I''m pretty sure that''s not what that means, but just be more careful next time."


    Nathan nodded.


    "Yeah."


    As we were talking, I couldn''t help but realize that there was a strange screeching sound in the distance. A few momentster, the light turned green. Nathan and I walked down the sidewalk and just behind us were a mother with her daughter.


    I then heard a screaming from the left, but it was a little hard to make out because it was from far away.


    "GET OUT OF THE WAY!"


    I turned to look and noticed that a truck was barreling down the street. There was a terribly anxious look on the driver''s face. His brakes seemed to be dysfunctional for whatever reason.


    I narrowed my eyes and hurried on.


    "There''s a trucking! Get out of the way!"


    Nathan hurriedly reacted, quickly getting off the road and onto the sidewalk like me. Nathan let out a sigh of relief, but before he said anything, his body froze up as he looked back. A grim expression was on his face.


    I matched his gaze and noticed what he was looking at.


    Both the mother and daughter froze up, just like a deer in the headlights. The truck driver panicked when he saw this, and in a fit of panic, he tried to steer to the side, attempting to avoid them. Unfortunately, it was far too heavy, making it do a weird drift.


    The end result was that the truck spun sideways, then began tipping over onto both the mother and daughter. It cast an ominous shadow along with a frightening creaking sound.


    Without a word, both Nathan and I flew forth before either of us even understood what we were doing.


    Nathan wrapped his arms around the mother''s waist and threw her away, while I picked up the girl, holding her up from underneath her shoulders, and chucked her aside.


    After doing that, both of us desperately scrambled away from the truck.


    ...But we were toote.


    With a terrifying crunch, I felt the bones in my legs shatter. My hip was also decimated, leaving only my top half unharmed. And it appeared to be the same for Nathan as well.


    I don''t really know why, but somehow both of us were facing upward.


    When I looked over, I felt slightly dizzy. I also noticed that his face was as pale as a sheet. With a small smile, he spoke to me.


    "It''s kinda weird... it doesn''t hurt."


    I gave the tiniest semnces of a nod and returned the smile.


    "Yeah... same here. But it does... feel cold."


    Nathan also gave the slightest nod back.


    "It does feel... cold."


    There were voices that seemed to being from the mother and daughter, but for some reason, I couldn''t really hear them. It seemed as though Nathan couldn''t either.


    For ourst moments, we just looked at each other, seeing only the two of us.


    I weaklyughed.


    "We''re really stupid, aren''t we?"


    Nathan couldn''t help butugh as well.


    "Yeah, but that''s what I like most about us."


    I saw his facial expression rx and I imagine mine did as well.


    Then, it was all ck.


    ...


    When I eventually came to, a blurry vision of what looked like an irresponsible brat appeared in front of me.


    He spoke just like how he looked.


    "Eh? It''s Bryson, the asshole for no reason."


    The guy was pointing at me with his jaw wide open. When I got a better look at him, I couldn''t help but feel my jaw drop and point back as well.


    "Natan? The ipetent airhead that glosses over the obvious?"


    It took me a second, but I realized that I reincarnated into the game world of "Downfall from Grace". And from the look of the bra- erm guy in front of me, it seemed like Nathan did too.

 Chapter 2: A Plan?

    <h4>Chapter 2: A n?</h4>


    I gradually made sense of my surroundings. There was lush grass all around us, filled with various flowers and weeds. It was nothing like what you would see in the city, making me realize that I was not near my home.


    Then I looked to my left, and an awfully familiar-looking school was there. No, it was not a school ''I'' have ever been to personally, but rather one I had seen in a game.


    But that was not enough to confirm the suspicion at the back of my head. Or rather, it was something else that confirmed it.


    Across from me was Natan, the protagonist of, "Downfall From Grace". Behind him were two girls, though one was standing a little far from him, showing that one of them was not too familiar with them. One of them was Minori, who was just behind Natan, and the other was some girl called . She had blond hair and blue eyes. Neither Nathan nor I cared about her, and while we wouldn''t say it to anybody else when it was just the two of us we called her basic.


    If that wasn''t enough, there were two people next to me. I forgot their names, but I would remember their ugly faces anywhere. They were the two people that followed behind Bryson all the time, acting like thugs. One of them looked rather strange with a mohawk and orange hair, while the other was bald and chubby, looking like a baby.


    ...I always called them Carrot Top and Baby Man.


    Though, not even those things were what convinced me the most, that I had reincarnated into this game.


    Rather, it was the look that the hero, Natan, was giving me. It was far too familiar. Despite being a different face, I could tell immediately that I was looking at Nathan. Simrly, he too seemed to realize something about me.


    While the both of us were processing our situation, Carrot Top angrily pointed a finger at Natan with an antagonizing frown.


    "Oy! How dare you talk to the almighty Bryson like that! Do you even know what he could do to a filthymoner like you?"


    Baby Man crossed his arms and quickly nodded to show his agreement with Carrot Top.


    "Yeah! For someone like you, your entire life could be easily ruined in just an instant! Do you really think just because you got admitted to the prestigious Golden Gold School your status is any different now?"


    narrowed her eyes. She took a step back, showing that she didn''t wish to be a part of this conflict. However, she still mumbled a few words that I was just barely able to hear.


    "He''s a son of a duke, in other words, a prince. You should avoid confrontation as much as possible."


    Minori nervously grabbed onto the side of Natan''s arm.


    "Natan, let''s just leave. We shouldn''t get into any fights."


    It was at this point that both Natan and I calmed ourselves down somewhat. My biggest urge was to just freak the absolute fuck out. I mean, one of those reasons was the whole reincarnation thing, but the other was because I could see Minori, but as a real person!


    My eyes unconsciously drifted toward her, which made her flinch in fear. She cowered behind Natan, which made my heart hurt terribly.


    I''m... not that ugly, right?


    Wait, no. I should be focused on what matters, which is making sense of things. It''s only then will Minori be saved from this shitty dating game. I cleared my throat and looked at Natan.


    "Hey, Na... uh, you. Come with me."


    Baby Man smirked as though he was the one with the power.


    "Haha, you''re in for it now!"


    Carrot Top struck an exaggerated pose that I can''t even bring myself to describe.


    "You should''ve just kept your mouth shut, peasant!"


    Minori''s grip on Natan''s sleeve tightened considerably. It would''ve messed up his clothes if it weren''t for the fact that he was basically wearing rags, with small holes all over. The corner of Natan''s mouth twitched when that happened.


    Although I saw it as something endearing, that didn''t seem to be the same for Natan. He let out an awkward cough.


    "Um, don''t worry about me."


    let out a soft sigh before walking away, disengaging from the situation. On the other hand, Minori shook her head. After a sudden burst of courage, she suddenly got in front of Natan and held her arms out.


    "D-Don''t hurt Natan!"


    It would''ve been a heroic disy if it wasn''t for the fact she had not only averted her gaze but also had her eyes tightly shut. To top it off, her entire body was trembling.


    Both me and Natan seemed to be quite surprised. That was because Minori hadn''t really done anything like this in the dating game before, except for a really specific route which also happened to be my favorite one.


    Both Baby Man and Carrot Top both got set off when she did something like that.


    "Eh? You think you''re better than Bryson?"


    "What''s a girl like you supposed to do, huh?"


    My eyelid twitched when I heard that. I also coughed awkwardly, wondering how I can stay somewhat in character while getting out of this strange situation.


    "...Stop with all this nonsense. I am meeting with him privately."


    Both Baby Man and Carrot Top got more confident and stepped up aggressively.


    "Yeah, missy! Get out of the way."


    "You won''t be so pretty after my fist hits your face a few times!"


    I felt like these two were getting the wrong idea, so I lowered my voice a few octaves.


    "Privately also means that you two won''t being along."


    Both Carrot Top and Baby Man suddenly froze up. They visibly looked confused, wondering if they had done anything wrong. However, they were quick to defuse as best they could.


    "Ahaha, yes, of course."


    "Naturally! That only makes sense."


    Even Minori looked a little stunned. She took a peek at Bryson but turned away quickly after. While they were confused, Natan casually walked on forth, pretending that he was just moving without purpose.


    From there, both Natan and I slowly slinked away, and by the time the other three realized, we were gone.


    There was a wide expanse of nature around the ce, so we decided to go to the back of the school to talk to have a chat, which felt secluded enough.


    Once the two of us got there, we just stared at each other for a second or two. I pointed a finger at him and spoke.


    "Nathan?"


    He responded in kind.


    "Brian?"


    The two of us broke out into smiles soon after. Nathan immediately let out a huge sigh, like he was letting go of everything he had been holding in.


    "Holy crap man, is this a dream or something? What the fuck is going on?"


    I shrugged my shoulders before crossing my arms.


    "To be honest, the first thing I thought of was that we might be in aa or something and this is all some sort of dream."


    A bitter smile formed on my face.


    "But... with the injuries we got from that truck, I''m pretty sure that''s impossible. But at the same time, transmigrating into another world also kinda feels impossible."


    Nathan scratched the back of his head.


    "What kind of luck is it to reincarnate into this shitty dating game of all things?"


    I clicked my tongue and raised a finger with a smirk.


    "Come on. Considering we both thought that nothing was going to be left for us after we died, this is pretty good. It''s a second chance in its own way."


    Nathan smiled lethargically.


    "Yeah, yeah, I know. But still, it feels kindame knowing that all of the routes end up with something really crappy happening. In almost all of them, the kingdom is basically destroyed. But more importantly, why do you get to be Jess''s younger brother?"


    My face twitched.


    "Hey, you''re talking a lot for someone that''s Minori''s childhood friend! Though... at the end of the day, we''re still in the same shitty dating game as them."


    Nathan let out a sigh and nodded.


    "Yeah, at least there''s that."


    We both referred to it as a shitty dating game, but we had also both yed every single route that it had to offer. It was a tragedy no matter what, so regardless of the ending we would reach, the only difference was whether it felt really terrible, or just terrible.


    I don''t recall either of us particrly liking tragedy in the first ce, but for some reason, we both liked the story a lot. It wasn''t because we were friends and one that didn''t like it forced themselves to.


    In fact, when we both excitedly tried out the game for the first time, we both talked about it lukewarmly to each other. But eventually, we found by some strange coincidence we both really liked it, though it seemed to be for different reasons. But mine is much better because Minori isn''t all slutty like Jess.


    As Nathan said, all routes in this game led to some sort of tragedy. Normally, everyone dying and the kingdom getting destroyed was considered a ''bad'' end which happens when you make a ring mistake in your route. However, that very ending is considered a true canonical ending in some of the routes for this game.


    Regardless of the route, there are always at least a few people that end up dead. The worst part was that it was usually the girl you were pursuing as well.


    The best ending is also the worst, where you barely save the kingdom ignoring the many tragedies along the way. Assuming you make the perfect choices in really obscure ces, all of the members of the main cast survive, but the rtionships between them all are distant.


    I took a deep breath and hardened my expression with all that information.


    "...All of the endings are normally bad, but it''s different this time."


    My eyes narrowed ever so slightly.


    "Now we don''t have to follow the game''s decisions. Instead, we can make our own."


    Nathan let out a soft sigh. He smiled bitterly and gave me a strange look.


    "Yes, but don''t you remember how willy-nilly this game is? Whether or not you decide to take a nap or look out the window is enough to get a whole damn group of people killed! Sure, we can go off script, but this shitty game is way too vtile."


    He was right. The game really was way too vtile with seemingly meaningless choices. There were times before when I wouldin about choices in games not mattering, but after experiencing this one I now pray that none of my choices matter and I just get to the good ending.


    I used to think it was stupid that those kinds of games would have a save menu with hundreds of different save slots too.


    But for this game, it just wasn''t enough.


    It definitely made me feel quite a bit of fear getting put into a world like this, but I shook those thoughts away.


    "This shitty game is way too unpredictable, but things are different now. Think about it, I''m now in control of the main viin. In other words, the biggest challenge is basically already dealt with."


    Hearing that, Nathan''s eyes lit up. He rubbed his chin with great interest.


    "...You''re right. Though, while you may have been the greatest challenge, there are still way too many to deal with."


    I chuckled confidently and raised an eyebrow.


    "But now the greatest challenge is your greatest ally!"


    Nathan blinked a few times, staring back at me nkly.


    "But wasn''t like, the biggest thing about the viin, his intelligence instead of his fighting capability?"


    I blinked a few times, not getting what he was saying. Nathan awkwardly cleared his throat and continued.


    "Um... you inherited the body of the guy, but did you inherit his intelligence?"


    My expression froze. Ah, right. Just because I took over the body of Bryson didn''t mean I suddenly gained his genius way of thinking.


    ...Wait a minute.


    "Do you have the memories of the body you took control of?"


    Nathan frowned before slowly shaking his head.


    "No... you?"


    I too slowly shook my head.


    "Fuck, how the hell are we supposed to get back home?"

 Chapter 3: Classes

    <h4>Chapter 3: sses</h4>


    The two of us stared at each other for a few moments, wondering how we were supposed to get back to our ces. After a few seconds of contemtion, I ended up shaking my head.


    "Whatever, that''s not too important right now. If our meeting takes too long, people will get suspicious and we''ll bete for school."


    Nathan clicked his tongue.


    "Still can''t escape school even after you die, huh?"


    I hardened my expression.


    "Focus!"


    Nathan sighed.


    "Ok, alright. So what I''m thinking is that we need a n. But obviously, our n is going to hinge on the basis of knowing what can happen in the future. The first meeting between the viin and protagonist is still early on in the prologue, so we just have to keep actions as true to the normal story for now."


    My eyes widened slightly as I nodded. I really liked that idea.


    "Yeah, we definitely can''t think of a n right away. We''ll use this time to think and meet up after school back at the same ce to discuss what we''ve thought of."


    The corner of my lip twitched.


    "But isn''t it like... kind of a problem considering we''ve already gone off script?"


    Nathan looked as nervous as I was.


    "There''s... There''s just no way a little meeting like this will change that much, right?"


    I frowned.


    "Don''t jinx it, man!"


    While I said that, he was probably more unsure than I was, saying it more just to reassure himself. Nathan thought for a moment before raising a finger.


    "Ah, we have to make me look beat up to make it believable!"


    I looked at him while appalled.


    "Huh? Isn''t that just tantly changing up the events?"


    Nathan pped his hands a few times.


    "Yeah, but this is the best way to change it the least possible. Plus, I''m supposed to get bulliedter in the day. Let''s just shift that time to now."


    I took a deep breath.


    "I guess that makes sense. We have to gamble in certain ces no matter what."


    Nathan nodded.


    "Alright, then hit me."


    I looked back without moving.


    "Huh?"


    Nathan''s eyelid twitched.


    "How am I supposed to look beat up if I''m not beat up in the first ce?"


    I pursed my lips together.


    "...Isn''t it going to hurt though?"


    Nathan rolled his eyes.


    "A lot of things are going to hurt. No matter how hard you hit me, it''s going to be pretty lukewarm inparison."


    He was right. After all, the hero really does go through some grueling stuff. With a sigh, I nodded.


    "Alright."


    Nathan stood up straight and closed his eyes. I took a deep breath and pulled back my fist. I put on the fiercest expression I could, trying to get the viin in me out on the surface. Then I reached out...


    Very slowly.


    When my fist weakly pressed against his face, I sighed.


    "I can''t do it."


    Nathan looked slightly disappointed but didn''t say anything. He scratched his hair.


    "Alright, but you gotta get used to it if we can''te up with a concrete n, or if the n is to stall. After all, the hero gets bullied a lot."


    I looked down at the floor before giving a nod.


    "I''ll find a way soon enough. Just... it''s a little too much for me to suddenly be the bully."


    From there, Nathan returned with a nod before getting up next to the school wall. He took a deep breath before mming his head into the wall, which made me jump up in fright.


    "What the hell are you doing?!"


    Nathan stumbled back and held onto his forehead with one head.


    "...If I want to make this realistic, then the injuries have to be bad enough so that they can''t make sense of them."


    After taking another deep breath he ran towards the wall,nding with a hard thud. I flinched when a small crack came from his body. I raised both my hands weakly like I was surrendering while my legs crouched down slightly.


    "Wait, wait, please stop, please."


    Nathan was breathing rather roughly.


    "I guess... this should be enough. You go on first to make it seem like you left me behind."


    I let out a sigh of relief because it really did seem like he wanted to keep going. And so, I left, making my way back to the entrance of the school. Carrot Top and Baby Man were both still there waiting, then saluted right when he got back.


    "Wee back, Bryson!"


    "Thank you for gracing us with your presence again!"


    As for Minori, she was shaking like a leaf. The moment I returned, her gaze snapped to me, but right after she looked around to see if Natan was around. Seeing that he hadn''t returned, she balled up her fists but was still too scared to look me in the eye.


    Instead, she remained rooted at the spot with her head looking down at the ground.


    I gave her a nce, trying not to look for too long. It seemed like she hated me now. I could feel my heart sink to my stomach. Honestly, it was a little hard to suppress the urge to clear up the misunderstanding right then and there.


    But I remembered how hard Nathan hit the wall just to make it convincing. If he was trying that hard, then I couldn''t just make light of his efforts.


    Then, I gave a casual wave to signal to the other two.


    "We''re going to ss."


    With that, I tried my best to keep my back straight and began walking inside. Carrot Top awkwardly called out as I went in.


    "Um, don''t we first have to check the ss board to see what sses we are assigned to?"


    I froze, trying my best to stop myself from blushing in embarrassment. It was then I realized that Nathan probably didn''t know either. I turned my head to the side, trying to project my voice, speaking at a volume just below a scream. At the same time, I red at Carrot Top from over my shoulder.


    "I know that we have to first check the ss board to see the ss we are assigned to! That''s why one of you should''ve checked and reported back to me. Was that really not obvious?"


    That... that must''ve covered it up well.


    Carrot Top let out a little squeal almost like he was a pig.


    "Y-Yes sir!"


    He then rushed off to wherever the ss board was. I then went back to casually walking forth, though I made sure to slow my pace so that Carrot Top could find me when he got back.


    Though, walking slowly ended up being involuntary as I continued forth. I was dazzled by how luxurious everything looked. The halls themselves were wide, allowing many to pass through. The walls themselves looked as though they were made out of pure gold, while the asional white pirs separated them.


    There were also various small pedestals with simrly golden decorations of various types of creatures, from what looked like a boar, to dragons.


    Baby Man crossed his arms and upturned his nose with pride.


    "Hmph, only natural for the most prestigious Golden Gold School!"


    I blinked a few times. The name of this ce really did sound quite terrible, but just the hallways suddenly made everything feel a bit fitting. Though it was somewhat described in the game, the actual halls themselves were never described all that much. As for the exterior of the school, it was pure ck.


    From what I could remember, it seemed some sort of ck ore was somehow responsible for guarding against magical attacks. The ssrooms too had ck walls to deal with possible magical idents.


    That left only the hallways to be where they showed off the golden nature of the ce. Gold still had magic-repellent properties, but they were rtively weak. Ironically enough, while this ce looked the mostvish, gold was still not nearly as expensive as the strange ck ore.


    Soon enough, Carrot Top hade back, panting hard.


    "I found out... Bryson sir is in the prestigious ss A!"


    Baby Man enthusiastically pped.


    "Amazing! I''m sure we aren''t so fit to be in ss A like Bryson, but we shall settle for ss B."


    After hearing that, Carrot Top awkwardly stammered.


    "U-Um..."


    Baby Man looked at him with a puzzled look.


    "Ah, is it that we are actually ss A? It appears the two of us aren''t that bad after all. Of course, Bryson is still above us."


    Carrot Top scratched the back of his head and said rather sheepishly.


    "We... are both in ss D."


    Baby Man''s face paled, bing whiter than a sheet.


    I already knew this much. As for why these arbitrary letters seemed to matter so much to them, there was a ranking system for sses depending on a person''s talent. In total, there were five different sses for each year. Depending on one''s test scores and magical aptitude, they would be ced higher.


    The lowest was ss D. Those that were ced in that ss were considered to be failures, because they didn''t pass the test and were only allowed in because their parents gave a hefty sum of money to the school.


    Then there was ss C. The nickname for this ce was themoner ss. The reason was that manymoner families save a decent sum of money and would try their luck to enter the ss. While many wouldn''t be able to get a good test score, their magical aptitude may have been just barely good enough to be epted, thusnding in ss C.


    As such, manymoners ended up being in that particr ss.


    Above even that was ss B. The basic requirement for this ss was if someone at least passed the test, and had decent aptitude. An overwhelming magic talent could make up for failing the test though. This was a high enough rank to be proud of oneself and to be considered a bigshot among nobles.


    Next was the ss I was in, ss A. Here, there were basically two conditions to get in. One would have to have an outstanding magical talent and get a decent amount of questions right. If I had to say, it should be about 70% of all the answers. The other option was if someone had gotten perfect on their test, not even a 99% would count, then had decent talent.


    Both Natan and Bryson were in ss A. Natan got in because of his overwhelming talent. As for me, I got in because I had a perfect score on the test.


    Just thinking about that made me feel a bit of despair since I hadn''t inherited all the knowledge to get perfect on said test. What was supposed to be my one strength... was non-existent.


    But let me finish my exnation before I wallow in despair. I said there were five sses, but only described four.


    Higher than A was ss S.


    The requirements were so stringent that there were certain years where nobody would end up in that ss, though generally speaking there were about five in each year. The person that was now my older sister (by one year), was actually in that ss. The first requirement was getting a perfect test score, then the second was an outstanding magical aptitude.


    Now that I think about it, Bryson was probably rather upset when he realized that he was in ss A, but not ss S because of his magical aptitude.


    Not that I really cared, because being in ss S would honestly probably make things harder for me considering I wasn''t actually smart. Both Carrot Top and Baby Man were still there, quite stunned at their own ce.


    I saw an opportunity to get these two mosquitos away from me and decided to take it.


    "Don''t talk to me unless you reach ss A."


    Without turning back, I began walking away, leaving the two rooted on the spot. Oh yeah, if someone did well enough in a ss, then they could be promoted to one ss above. After reaching a certain requirement and being at the top of their respective ss, then they would reach the next higher ss. The only exception was ss S, but there were rumors that there actually was something above ss S.


    Though, it seemed nobody had reached that height even for hundreds of years.


    The opportunity was given once per month, and on the flip side, a person could be demoted as well, usually when someone was promoted. But assuming that the worst person was still decent enough, they could stay in the ss despite someone else getting promoted.


    Bryson in the story was rather obsessed with getting to the top spot of ss A. As for me... I didn''t really want to. Not demoting was good enough for me, and would be a difficult task. But I should still act like I wanted the spot for the sake of the story.


    I scanned the hallways, ignoring all of the differentbels and trying to find the one that said ss A. After going through the whole first floor I didn''t find it. The only ss I did see were all the different ss Ds.


    I then went to the floor above, doing the same thing, but was only able to find ss Cs. As I was going up the stairs, I suddenly realized something.


    ...If ss D was on the first floor, and ss C was on the second floor, then ss A should be on the fourth. The corner of my lip twitched.


    Ah, crap. My stupidity is already making me fumble about.


    I went to the fourth floor, and sure enough, there was ss A there for the first years.


    And along with it, was Jess. She had her arms crossed and was ring at me.


    Did I... do something?

 Chapter 4: An Attempt to Blend In

    <h4>Chapter 4: An Attempt to Blend In</h4>


    I looked back at my older sister, wondering if I was supposed to be doing something. However, just as I was about to speak, she did first.


    "You should''ve gotten into ss S."


    Without another word, she walked away, going to the stairwell and going up another floor. I blinked a few times and looked at her departing figure.


    ...Why did she have that big of an attitude?


    Huh. If this also happened in the original story, maybe this was why Bryson was so obsessed with getting to ss S. Either he wanted to spite his sister, or he was a total siscon.


    As for which he was, I have no idea.


    With a bitter expression, I entered the ssroom. There were a couple of people already seated, but I didn''t pay too much attention to them. Our teacher was a middle-aged man on the older side with sses and brown hair. His name was Harold and was a pretty decent teacher. Nothing particrly stood out, but he did his job properly.


    Upon seeing me enter the room, he adjusted his sses and looked at me.


    "Ah, Lord Bryson? I heard of your test results. It''s a shame that you weren''t able to join ss S, but I will do my best to teach you to a simr standard."


    I blinked a few times. It was definitely not normal for me to receive respect from the teacher, so it weirded me out. Regardless, he was really nice, so I felt obligated to do so back.


    I gave a small bow.


    "Thank you, sir. I will perform to the best of my abilities."


    Harold simrly blinked a few times, seemingly confused by my response. However, he did not mention it. Only after the fact, did I realize why.


    Because I was Bryson right now. My character temte was an asshole prince.


    ...I was already screwing up. But it was toote to correct my actions now. At the very least my actions could be considered cordial or maybe a false pretense.


    Upon taking a random seat, I noticed that a girl up front was looking at me from over her shoulder. It was not in a flirty way, in fact, it was probably whatever the opposite of flirting was. She had long white hair and emerald eyes, it wasn''t a character I remembered.


    There was a frown on her face as she looked over. It wasn''t super deep or a hateful frown, but it was hard to think that she liked me in any way. My guess was that Bryson had somehow done something that implicated her, thus she had a bad impression of me now.


    ...This sucks! People hate me even though I didn''t actually do anything!


    Students filed into the room one after another. In particr, Natan attracted my attention. After all, he was my friend, and also had injuries on him. I almost instinctively called out to him, but his unfamiliar appearance was enough of a reminder that I shouldn''t.


    He shot me a nce for a split second but sat down at a random seat that was rtively far from mine. It made me a bit sad, but it was also understandable. Naturally, Natan attracted many gazes due to his injured state, but nobody asked any questions after noticing hismoner attire.


    Even the teacher only frowned, saying nothing else. It seemed everyone had an understanding that Natan was bullied, which was what we wanted.


    Moments after,  walked into the room. When she looked at Natan, she sighed and muttered.


    "I told you not to get involved with the prince."


    Natan closed his eyes and didn''t reply.  pouted but didn''t say anything more before sitting down as well.


    By now, it seemed that everyone had arrived. A total of 23 people in ss A. Considering some of the other sses reached the hundreds in number, it was a rtively small amount.


    Harold cleared his throat and tapped on the chalkboard with a wooden pointer.


    "Alright, now we shall start. Wee everyone to your first Magic ss of the Golden Gold School. I will be your teacher, Harold."


    From there, he gave a polite bow.


    "I understand that everyone is very likely anxious to learn magic, but curb your enthusiasm as for the first day you will not be learning such."


    I noticed there were clearly a few displeased frowns in the crowd. As for me... taking it slow was probably better, so I had noints.


    Harold continued, though it seemed that he noticed the dissent.


    "The reason is that I will first be teaching you about the philosophy a proper mage should have. As you know, magic is powerful. Naturally, that means it is dangerous and in the hands of someone foolish, many innocent people will die."


    Though it clearly seemed like he was slightly afraid of some students, he had a strict expression. This was something he refused to budge on.


    "The reason we human beings harness magic, whether defensive or offensive, is to protect. This entire kingdom was built up because of the heroes who used magic to save others."


    Harold briefly scanned the room. His gaze lingered a little longer on me, and once he was finished he sighed.


    Was he sighing because of me? But I didn''t do anything!


    Not knowing theints that I had in my mind, Harold continued.


    "You should know, the first King Leo trained his magic to be so strong for the sole reason of wanting to protect what mattered to him. That''s why magic is such a beautiful thing, as it gives us the power to preserve what is precious."


    He slowly shook his head.


    "There are many mages that forget this simple fact and begin using their magic for destruction. Foolishly, they charge on with reckless abandon and wreak havoc on the people around them. Until finally, they end up suffering the same fate they bestowed unto others."


    That made sense. I knew that waving around a knife was a bad idea, but magic doesn''t really feel the same as a knife. Chances are, I would''ve probably gotten carried away once I did learn it.


    It was a reminder, but still an important one.


    Harold raised a finger and looked at us solemnly.


    "The very first lesson I will ever teach you, is that you have to be patient. It will also be the most important lesson I teach you. If there is one thing you remember, I hope that it is this."


    Almost immediately, a boy with blue hair mmed his hand against the desk and stood up.


    "What the hell is this? I came to this school to learn, not to be lectured!"


    It was Sam. Being in A ss, he was considered a big shot, but was at the lower endpared to the others.


    That made me remember something. In the original game, Bryson also did the same thing as Harold was talking, but I kinda forgot because the actual speech Harold gave wasn''t in the game itself.


    I hesitated for a split second before mming my hand on the desk and standing up as well. Then, word for word, I repeated what Bryson had said.


    "This is preposterous. How am I supposed to advance if this is how you do things?"


    Harold looked at me calmly. I recalled what was supposed to happen. Harold would harden his expression and say, ''Preposterous? You can''t even wait a single day to learn magic? If you don''t work on your patience then you will never be a proper mage!''


    His expression hardened, making me brace myself.


    "Preposterous?... I believe that there is a misunderstanding here."


    I looked at him with confusion. Harold smiled bitterly.


    "Though I may have only met you, my impression is that you are a patient person. I just believe that our definitions of patience are perhaps different. I''m assuming you think that patience is the same asziness, working a modest amount. However, you can be patient and work hard at the same time."


    I noticed Natan looking at me as though saying, ''What the hell did you do?''. While I was still stunned, Harold continued.


    "In fact, most mages will work extremely hard and must be patient too. Results don''te after just one day. Sometimes it will take months, and in some cases, it will even be years. I believe that you will be one of those mages that reach those heights, and not because you are a noble."


    I blinked a few times. This was definitely off-script. I did the exact same thing as Bryson, but for some reason, I was praised instead?


    ...Crap. All these little choices. Now that I think about it, my tone and expression might''ve not been as fierce as Bryson''s was, thus giving the wrong impression. Shit! Even these tiny things matter?


    I wasn''t a damn theater kid! I don''t know how to act. Actually, I doubt even theater kids would be able to pull off a good enough act either! The game only showed sprites of the damn characters, so you just had to judge based on that.


    We definitely would not be able to imitate our respective characters properly, not to mention we already went off script the moment we pointed at each other upon first meeting.


    It was then I realized that everyone was looking at me, including Sam. It looked like he was desperately hoping that I would agree with him. But at this point...


    "I see."


    With that, I sat down, leaving only Sam standing up. Harold then turned to Sam.


    "The path of a mage is monotonous. Those that cannot understand that will never be able to reach the true heights one should be able to reach."


    Sam had a deep frown, clearly displeased. However, he let out a sigh before sitting down.


    "As you say."


    From there, Harold simply continued on naming various other philosophical topics. I paid attention to them but wasn''t really able to understand everything he said. To be honest, it was getting a little boring, so paying attention was also getting difficult.


    Though, before I knew it, the lesson was done. Harold gave a light bow.


    "Alright, that will be it for your first magic ss. Your math teacher will nowe in to rece me."

 Chapter 5: Cheating?

    <h4>Chapter 5: Cheating?</h4>


    Harold proceeded to leave the ssroom.


    From there, a woman came in, her defining feature being her ck hair. Upon reaching a podium she pped twice.


    "Hello, my name is Karin. I will be blunt. Some of you will be able to do this easily, while others will have great difficulty. This is simply the nature of how they decided to create the school."


    She mumbled aint under her breath. I was able to make out just enough to tell that she didn''t like the system. Karin proceeded on without waiting.


    "Don''t think that things will be easy just because this is your first ss. All of your desks have chalkboards and chalk, so we will be having a test to evaluate your level of skill in math."


    For reference, this school was basically considered a university or college because people had to be at least eighteen to participate. The reason being that was when one''s magical talent awakened. Before that age, all one could really do was study theory. It shouldn''t be too bad considering both me and Nathan were grade 12 students, but we still hadn''t learned the full curriculum and weren''t exactly... experts at school.


    But we did both get around a seventy, which I was honestly quite proud of.


    Yet, considering I was supposed to be a genius student, I couldn''t help but feel a little afraid. As a game, it obviously skipped over all the boring test stuff, so I wasn''t sure of the level here.


    Karin cleared her throat, not caring about any of my worries.


    "I will write several questions on the board,beled by the number and dot next to them. Don''t be a dumbass andbel your answers with the question number as well."


    With that, she began writing questions.


    The first one...


    29 + 47 = ?


    Huh?


    5 x 8 = ?


    Um...


    11 x 12 = ?


    I guess that one''s a little bit harder, but-


    15 + ? = 22


    There''s also... basic algebra I guess.


    What? Isn''t this way too easy? I guess maybe since this is only the starting test, she wanted to get a basic grasp of our abilities. All things considered, it would definitely get harder from here.


    If this was all it was, then getting full marks would be easy.


    I got my chalkboard and used the chalk in my hand to list off the answers. It took less than a minute for me to finish. I then double-checked my answers by going over them again. No mistakes.


    Afterward, I shot a nce at the teacher.


    She looked back, and before I could say anything she had spoken up.


    "If you have already finished, then just wait. There will be up to twenty minutes for this test, but if everyone puts their chalk down beforehand, then we will take it up earlier."


    A few people in the ss looked rather stressed from what I had seen. Though, Natan was obviously not one of them, considering he was actually Nathan. Even if we weren''t the best at math, this kind of stuff was still very easy for us.


    There were definitely a few other people that had simrpletion timespared to us, but it looked like us two were the fastest. To my surprise, a whole seventeen minutes had passed by before everyone had put down their chalk.


    Some people looked a bit anxious.


    Karin raised her eyebrow.


    "Alright then, I shall grade them."


    She walked up and picked up a chalkboard. A few secondster, she spoke.


    "One."


    The person in question froze up. I could faintly recall only because I had watched the prologue a few times that Natan was supposed to get a zero on this test. The teacher would walk up and say as such, thus giving him his score. In other words, that person had gotten one of the four questions correct.


    ...Must''ve been someone that had high magical talent or something.


    Karin continued to list off numbers, going one by one.


    "Three."


    "Four."


    "One."


    "Two."


    "One."


    As she continued to list off numbers, I was quite surprised at how poorly everyone scored. Most of the scores were at one, with the maximum being three. Nobody had gotten zero, while only one person so far had gotten a four.


    Once it finally reached Natan, I watched intently. Karin picked up the board and looked at it for a few seconds. Her brows furrowed rather intently.


    "Zero."


    For a split second, I thought that he just did that to stay consistent with the story. However, Natan''s eyes flew wide open in surprise, making mine do the same.


    Shit! Did this world go by a different type of math? Were we actually doing derivatives this whole time?


    It took Natan a second to realize what had happened and quickly called out.


    "My answers are incorrect?"


    Karin, who was about to leave, crossed her arms.


    "You haven''t shown any work in your answers. It''s obvious that you cheated."


    Natan furrowed his brows. We seemed to have the same question running through our minds.


    How the hell were we supposed to show our work? The only one I could kinda see was the algebra one, but that was only one line at most.


    "...I cheated?"


    Karin gave a quick nod.


    "Yes. Report to the office once the ss is over. We will be talking about it over your break."


    I cursed under my breath. It seemed that Nathan had realized going along with the flow of the story obviously wasn''t going to work at this point, thus probably wanted to make a good impression of his intelligence at this stage. However, it backfired.


    Should I help him?


    But I''m supposed to be his bully.


    No, I was not Bryson. I knew I could not pretend to be him anyway, so...


    "How do you know that he cheated?"


    I stood up from my seat in one swift motion and looked the teacher dead in the eye. Karin looked a little surprise, but replied without getting flustered.


    "I have personally seen his answers to the math questions. I already know that he is not capable of this."


    I raised an eyebrow.


    "In other words, you have no hard evidence that he has cheated? It is one thing to make a im, but to act upon it without sufficient evidence is simply tomfoolery."


    Everyone looked at me quietly. As for Karin, contrary to my expectations, she began to smile.


    "I see. You sure do not like cheaters, Bryson. Very well, if you can find evidence of him cheating then I will expel him from the school."


    My eyelid twitched.


    Huh? What the fuck? Wasn''t I defending Natan? How did it be me wanting to expel him?


    I reyed the events that happened in my mind a few times, trying to understand how this misunderstanding happened. I had to stand there for a few minutes to mull over it but finally realized how.


    I suppose Karin was confident that Natan was cheating despite not knowing how. With such a prestigious school, the rules were surely strict, so cheating probably meant expulsion. Her letting her meet up with him was probably actually because she wished to talk to him about it.


    Then me asking how he cheated apparently had the underlying meaning of, ''prove that he''s cheating so he can be expelled''.


    All things considered, me bullying him could be considered following the script. However, we were already so off-script at this point, I didn''t care anymore.


    "If he is not cheating, then he should be able to easily answer simr problems. That is good enough proof that it is his own ability."


    Karin looked rather confused, but after a few moments, she nodded.


    "Alright, that makes sense."


    She tapped her chin a few times.


    "Then why don''t you create the questions, Bryson? Marking them and determining whether or not he cheated is up to you."


    There was a strange smile on her face. What was she freaking out about?


    After a bit of hesitation, I nodded.


    "Alright then."


    From there, I thought of putting harder questions that I knew Nathan would be able to answer, but that might make it seem like I was bullying him further, so I put simr questions.


    54 + 37 = ?


    8 x 9 = ?


    13 x 12 = ?


    7 + ? = 18


    I then turned to look at Nathan and gave him a look that only we would understand. He chuckled after seeing that. He stared at his board for a few moments before sighing. Nathan had given up on trying to stick to the script.


    As for whether or not that was the right decision, I suppose we would find outter.


    He wrote all four answers quickly enough. He did take a few moments to mull over thirteen multiplied by twelve, but it was still easy enough.


    I walked over, took the chalkboard, and briefly scanned the answers. They were all correct, which was only natural.


    Karin also looked at the board and had her brows furrowed.


    "...Using thirteen is out of the range that one should be tested on, yet he got it correct?"


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "I guess he didn''t cheat then."


    Karin had a rather serious expression on her face. She then red at Natan.


    "How were you able to get the correct answers?"


    I tilted my head to the side.


    "Is it really so strange for him to get the right answers?"


    Karin gave a quick nod.


    "Of course, it does not make sense for someone to suddenly improve like that."


    Natan shrugged.


    "Maybe so."


    I crossed my arms.


    "Is it really so strange for someone to improve when the content is so simple?"


    Karin slowly turned to me, and from what I could tell she was ticked off. Though her expression made me nervous, I stood my ground. She frowned and crossed her arms as well.


    "Are you trying to say math is trivial? Just because you have practiced to a high level doesn''t mean you are allowed to undermine it."


    I sighed.


    "Some people learn faster than others."


    Karin frowned further. She was starting to scare me.


    "He has had eighteen years to learn this subject, yet could hardly answer a single question right. How am I supposed to believe he has gotten to this level in only a few days?"


    I almost forgot that I had even been transmigrated at this point. I ended up speaking without thinking.


    "Some people aren''t given the proper opportunity to learn. More often than not, it''s not that a person is stupid, but that they haven''t been given the chance to learn properly."


    Karin blinked a few times. Nathan was also sending me signals with his eyes, asking if what I was doing was really ok. Those signals instantly got rid of my hotheadedness as I realized where I was. I coughed awkwardly.


    "My point is that we shouldn''t assume someone has cheated simply because of their past performances."


    Karin took in a deep breath.


    "I see. Though I must say, my initial impression of you seems to be incorrect. Strangely enough, you don''t even resemble the rumors..."


    She quickly nced at Natan.


    "Never mind my earlier request. You may use your recreation time as you wish. Also, I will count your score as a four."


    Natan gave a quick nod.


    "Thank you."


    He shot me a bitter smile that was partly a, ''thank you'' and also a, ''you went too far''.


    Hm. I may have overreacted. Ah, whatever, it''s toote to worry about it now.

 Chapter 6: An Invitation

    <h4>Chapter 6: An Invitation</h4>


    I returned to my seat, and Karin went back to assessing everyone''s scores. Nobody had gotten a zero, but there were many ones. Naturally, I got a score of four since it was so easy.


    After reaching the end, she wrote some markings on the chalkboard to do some math herself. It took her a few minutes, after which she erased it all and turned back to the front.


    "Overall, the score was two and a half. Though it is still a score befitting of ss A, I hope by the end you can all easily receive scores of four on this test."


    In the back of my mind, I couldn''t help butin.


    ''So if we already easily do it all, then this ss is pointless?''


    I didn''t voice myints though, as it seemed that the standard of math in this world was quite low. Maybe even the highest level didn''t even reach derivatives yet. That would let both me and Nathan let out a sigh of relief at least.


    From there, Karin began teaching us the basics of addition and subtraction. Though she mentioned that we should already know this, I still couldn''t help but feel that I went back to elementary school.


    She described addition and subtraction by drawing squares on the board and eitherbining or taking them away.


    The ss felt like it droned on for a while, but eventually, Karin finally let us go.


    "ss is over now. Thank you all for listening. As promised, nobody will need to meet with me during your recreation period. Make sure you return to this ssroom within two hours."


    One after another, people stood up and left. I looked over at Nathan, who also looked back at me with a sigh. Knowing that we couldn''t talk about sensitive matters right here, I spoke as though I wasn''t too familiar with him.


    "It seems you are quite smart with your head. Why did you get bad scores on your exam?"


    Nathan rolled his eyes.


    "It''s because I improved over those few days. Turns out it''s not too hard when you have a good teacher."


    I gave a few nods.


    "I see, I see. Want to go get something with me?"


    Nathan smirked and stood up from his chair.


    "Sure. I may walk a little slow though, this guy messed me up outside the school before ss started."


    The corner of my lip twitched, but I ignored thatment. And like that, the two of us went out of the ssroom. I cleared my throat.


    "I''m pretty sure the cafeteria for this ss would be on this floor. We just have to find it."


    Just as I said that a voice came from behind me.


    "If you would like, I could lead you to the cafeteria."


    Looking behind me, I saw a girl with white hair and green eyes. From what I recall, she shot me a re at the start of ss. Now, she seemed to be approaching me for whatever reason.


    "Ah, I suppose that would be more convenient. Thank you."


    She did a curtsy, which felt a little strange to me, but this was the proper times for such.


    "My name is Raisa. It''s a pleasure to meet you, Bryson."


    I couldn''t help but stiffen up. How in the world was I supposed to return such a greeting when I didn''t have the faintest clue about noble etiquette?


    That was when a stroke of genius hit me...


    "Ah, hello Raisa. I don''t particrly care much for noble etiquette. Please talk to me normally as though I was just another person."


    Hah! It was genius! If I just said that, it would look like I''m purposely avoiding noble etiquette rather than being a failure at it!


    Raisa smiled rather brightly as she looked at me.


    "Haha, I thought you would say that."


    I also smiled, trying my best to avoid it from twitching. She must''ve already noticed that my actions weren''t very noble-like. Natan discreetly elbowed me to the side with a dirty smile, which made me blush.


    Shit! Not now, Nathan!


    I coughed and gestured with my hand.


    "Please lead the way."


    With that, Raisa took the lead, letting us follow behind her. I quickly realized that there wasn''t too much of a point in her guiding us, since all the other students were heading in the same general direction as well. It was more a formality than anything else.


    Regardless, we quickly made our way to said cafeteria. The area was rather spacious, with fifteen tables that could hold roughly ten people each. There was a generous amount of space between tables, more than enough for personal space. It would be hard to hear a conversation at another table while sitting at one.


    She guided us to sit at one of them, which made me a bit confused. After all, we hadn''t ordered yet. But as though to answer my confusion, a waiter approached the table with a gentle smile.


    "Hello, Lord Bryson and Lady Raisa. What would you all like to order?"


    He proceeded to set down two menus, cing them next to Raisa and me. My eyelid twitched. Was he just ignoring Natan?


    "Hey, we still have someone else at the table too."


    The waiter flinched.


    "Ah, yes. Of course."


    He then handed another menu to Natan, who smiled bitterly.


    "Thanks."


    I waved casually.


    "Don''t mention it."


    Honestly, it felt a little strange being considered a noble. Although there was definitely a bad reputation that came along with Bryson, there was also a lot of privilege it seemed. I grew up in a middle-ss household, and even then it was on the lower side.


    As such, I was the same as any other Tom, Dick, or Harry.


    Shaking those thoughts, I looked through the menu. There was a section of free things, probably a privilege of being ss A. However, there were also other things that were priced at various ranges. They werebeled by a number, but I had no idea how much those things were actually worth.


    Not wanting to identally spend an inordinate amount of money, I decided on getting something that was free.


    "Um... give me the Humble Pottage and Bread please."


    The waiter''s eyebrow twitched.


    "S-Sir, if you wish to have pottage with bread, then there are other options. There are even many types of meat that have specially designed exotic spic-"


    "I''ll just take the Humble Pottage and Bread."


    I cut him off with a wave, after which he nodded robotically.


    "Yes, sir."


    Raisa giggled and put both elbows on the table. She used one hand to hold her chin and spoke.


    "I will take the same as him."


    The waiter looked at him with surprise.


    "A-Are you sure, madam?"


    Raisa nodded.


    "Of course."


    Natan rubbed his chin andughed.


    "Well, if it''s such a popr item then I''ll get one of those too!"


    The waiter sighed.


    "Yes..."


    From there, he left to prepare. Raisa covered her mouth with her palm andughed. Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly as she looked at me.


    "You knew that he couldn''t afford any of the food for nobles, thus ordered one of the handouts."


    I smiled bitterly. That wasn''t actually the case at all. But I couldn''t really say that, could I?


    "...I suppose you could look at it that way."


    I could see Nathan smirking from the corner of my eye. He rubbed his chin and nodded a few times.


    "Ah, so long as you have the looks, getting girls goes on easy mode."


    I really wanted to punch him, but held myself back. Even if it wasn''t for the sake of maintaining an image, I also didn''t want to hurt him when he already injured himself. Plus, as the protagonist of the story, you don''t look ugly either!


    Raisa flicked her hair back and smiled mischievously.


    "Appearance can only take you so far, I''ll have you know."


    What? She heard that? Do all nobles have really good ears or something?


    Natan coughed awkwardly before scratching the back of his head.


    "Ah, yes, of course. I was just joking..."


    Raisa nodded before turning to me.


    "Naturally. And I do wish to take this time to say that I truly do respect you, Lord Bryson."


    I slowly nodded.


    "Er... thank you."


    Raisa tilted her head to the side.


    "Please don''t think I''m trying to be courteous to you. You discarded formalities earlier, no? I can''t imagine how magnanimous your character must be to let those rumors about you float around without taking action on any of them."


    I nearly spit out blood. Calling them rumors weren''t exactly correct because I''m pretty sure Bryson was that kind of asshole. The only reason they didn''t get to me was that they weren''t actually rumors about me.


    Natan nodded several times with his chin in his hand. There was a wide smirk on his face.


    "Yes, yes, he definitely is quite magnanimous, isn''t he?"


    ...What the hell happened to keeping on script, Nathan? Shut up!


    I waved dismissively.


    "Hahaha, there''s no need to mention all of that to me. After all, I would no longer be magnanimous if my pride were to swell."


    Nathan leaned back in his chair and began cackling.


    "Oh really? Well, I''m just so jealous of your magnanimity so I''ll just have to keepplimenting you until you aren''t any more!"


    My eyelid twitched.


    "You..."


    Raisa tilted her head to the side as she saw our interaction.


    "Perhaps it was Bryson that taught this little one how to solve mathematical equations?"


    Both me and Nathan looked back at her with a bit of confusion.


    ""Huh?""


    Raisa looked at them silently.


    "Um, it just seems that the two of you are quite close. It looks like you''ve known each other for a while."


    The both of us cringed internally. She continued onying out more facts.


    "Not to mention, Bryson stood up for the little one when he was used of cheating. I imagine you were confident because you had tutored him yourself. I just can''t help but wonder how long have the two of you known each other?"


    I looked at Nathan, and he looked at me. Wemunicated through our eyes before quicklying to a conclusion. Nathan cleared his throat and spoke.


    "We haven''t known each other for that long, but he did indeed tutor me. That''s why I was able to answer those questions easily."


    This reminded me of the time that I tried to tutor Nathan before. It was when we were still in middle school, and I honestly didn''t really know what I was doing. Regardless, I was able to teach him things surprisingly fast. He was able to pick up on things easily, but I guess that just made himzy in studying.


    I chuckled before pointing at him.


    "Believe it or not, Nath- um, Natan is quite intelligent. He picks things up rather quickly."


    Raisa gave a small nod.


    "Ah yes, the little one named Natan. I imagine yourcking grades will quickly reach new heights."


    Natan smirked.


    "Only because Bria... Bryson taught me."


    I simplyughed, trying to go along with it. Eventually, they brought along the food that we ordered, after which we started eating. I couldn''t help but notice that Raisa was looking at me for most of it, which wasn''t too strange considering that she was sitting across from me, but still.


    I thought it tasted not bad, kind of like the meals I had before. However, for some reason, it also felt nd at the same time. It looked as though this body was used to having the so-called exotic spices.


    As we finished eating, Raisa suddenly dropped a bomb.


    "When would you next be avable, Bryson? I would love to invite you over to my estate."


    Eh? I''m already getting invited to a girl''s house?

 Chapter 7: Double Isekai

    <h4>Chapter 7: Double Isekai</h4>


    After receiving Raisa''s invitation, I couldn''t help but be dumbfounded.


    What do visits between nobles even mean anyway?


    I thought about it, and couldn''t reallye up with an answer. The only thing I knew for sure, was that it could not be today. There were still way too many things for me to sort out before I could do something like that.


    I coughed a little hard.


    "I... apologize, but could you give me some time to see when I am free? I will tell you tomorrow."


    Raisa nodded.


    "Haha, naturally. It would be a little difficult for both of us if you had toe so soon... though I would still make ns if you wished for it."


    I nodded back awkwardly, but was still a bit confused by why it would be difficult if I came over soon. Thankfully, it seemed like my response was in line with things. Natan was practically elbowing me the entire time which was honestly pissing me off, but I just ignored it for now.


    We finished our meal rather quickly, then spent the rest of the break just talking with one another. Something I offhandedly noticed was that the rich-looking people tended to sit together, while the poorer ones were more isted.


    Raisa then led us back to ss, though it wasn''t necessary. The ss we had was an English ss, but it was even more boring than math because the teacher was going over the basics of reading and writing.


    Since this game was written in English, thenguage they used was also English so this ss was basically just going over what was second nature to both me and Nathan. Perhaps I was worried a little too much about how difficult this school was going to be.


    Though, I guess magic probably wouldn''t have the same simplicity. At the very least, I could put most of my energy into learning that instead of the other sses.


    As for thest ss, it was... self-defense, I think?


    This time, we were led to what looked kind of like arge gymnasium. From there, there were countless wooden weapons of many different kinds. However, for today we were just doing simple strength tests, seeing for how long we could run for the strength of our arms and other such things.


    I was a little concerned for Nathan as he had injured himself, but he seemed to be fine. I found myself outperforming Nathan for the tests, but if he wasn''t injured we probably would be very simr in strength.


    As for the other people, I found myself very close to the top. Still, a few people were ahead of me. One of them being Raisa. I wasn''t trying my hardest because it wasn''t like I had to run for my life or anything, but they all seemed to like this was a life and death matter.


    Once gym ss was over, school was also finally over.


    Now, I was supposed to have a meeting with Nathan, but I just realized I didn''t think of any solution for getting back home. I finally got to leave the school, and both Natan and Raisa were next to me.


    I was wondering how to find an excuse to get Raisa away so I could have a private meeting with Nathan, but that was when a voice called out.


    "Lord Bryson? The carriage is ready."


    A butler had walked up to me the moment that I had gotten there. It would be a little hard to meet up with anyone at this point...


    I cleared my throat and tried my best not to speak nervously.


    "Is it alright if a guestes back with me?"


    The butler looked back at me with confusion for a few moments. However, he then saw Raisa standing next to me and then put on an understanding expression.


    "Ah, so long as their caretakers allow it."


    Raisa looked a little excited. I then gave a nod and gestured toward Natan.


    "Then please send someone to check on this person''s mother. Also, please remember his location so that we can send him back."


    The butler flinched. He looked back with confusion. After a few moments, he coughed rather violently.


    "Um, where is his ce of residence?"


    I sweated a little. The reason I asked this was because I wanted the servants to find where Natan''s house was so that he wouldn''t have the trouble of getting backter. I flicked my hand as though I was offended.


    "Is it not obvious? Even if you don''t know where, one of you can find the ce. For now, I will have hime over, while someone asks. If there truly is a problem, then he will be sent back right away."


    The butler stared at me for a few more good seconds before giving a small bow.


    "...If that is what you wish."


    Raisa let out a displeased hum from behind me, but she seemed to be joking around.


    "Why didn''t you invite me? If someone ising over anyway..."


    I looked at her with a strange expression.


    "Didn''t you say that there would be problems if we met too soon?"


    Raisa shrugged her shoulders.


    "Well, it could still be arranged..."


    I gave her an awkward look before shaking my head.


    "Let me just... think of a n first, ok?"


    Raisa pouted.


    "Fine, fine."


    She then left on her own carriage, while I began walking towards the one that my butler was going to with Nathan. That was when someone called out from behind us.


    "Wait! What are you doing with Natan?"


    I instantly recognized the voice. Chances are, I probably wouldn''t be able to ever forget it. After Nathan and I turned around, we saw Minori.


    For reference, she was in ss B. Iined about it while ying the game, but all things considered, it probably would''ve made things more awkward if she was in ss A. There were tears in her eyes as she pointed at me usingly.


    "Stop! Haven''t you already done enough?"


    My expression distorted. As for what it became, I couldn''t tell you because there were too many emotions swirling in my head. As for Natan, he looked somewhat dumbfounded, at a loss as to what to do in this situation.


    I heard several people in the distance muttering among themselves. It appeared that a new rumor was going to start, but I honestly didn''t really care at this point.


    "I... am simply inviting Natan over."


    Minori balled her hands into fists and shook her head violently.


    "No! That''s not true! It can''t be!"


    I quickly realized anything that I would say probably wouldn''t convince her. I looked at Natan, and from his expression, I knew he was thinking really hard. His brain was probably working on overdrive to think of a solution.


    He then slowly walked a few steps up and gave a stiff smile.


    "Don''t worry about it, Minori. Just trust me on this ok?"


    Minori looked a little hopeless.


    "But... but..."


    Natan waved dismissively.


    "Bryson''s not that bad, alright? Don''t judge a book by its cover, you know?"


    Minori was rendered speechless by his words. While she was still in shock, we used the opportunity to get away and into the carriage. It was rather regal, with red cloth covering the seats.


    But... there was a small problem.


    "Jess?"


    Nathan couldn''t help himself from eximing like that. After all, out of all the characters in ''Downfall From Grace'' the one he focused all his attention on was her. Because she was sitting in one of the carriage seats.


    Jess raised an eyebrow when she saw Natan. She didn''t seem to be concerned over how he knew her name but instead turned to me with a slightly hostile expression.


    "Why is he here?"


    I cleared my throat in an attempt to hide my nervousness.


    "I simply hope for him toe over for a period of time."


    Jess stared me dead in the eye.


    "As I said. Why?"


    I felt my voice get stuck in my throat. After all, it''s not like I could just say I wanted him toe over so we could n our next actions for the sake of this shitty dating game so that everybody doesn''t end up dying.


    "It''s because..."


    Jess raised an eyebrow.


    "Because?..."


    Nathan cleared his throat.


    "I actually asked him to. And in part, it was because I wished to meet with you."


    Jess turned to Nathan and looked at him as though he was an animal.


    "Seriously?"


    Nathan hesitated for a split second but nodded intently. There was a big smile on his face, probably because he could talk with Jess.


    "Yeah!"


    Jess muttered something inaudible to herself before responding.


    "Alright then."


    From there, the carriage ride carried on awkwardly. Nathan opened his mouth a few times, clearly wanting to say something, but found himself unable to break the silence. He was shifting around his seat and even had a slight blush.


    At some point, Jess broke the silence.


    "So?"


    Nathan practically jumped in his seat.


    "Ah, yeah?"


    Jess let out a small sigh.


    "You said earlier you wished to meet with me. Is there business you have?"


    Nathan coughed awkwardly, trying his best not to break down, but failing miserably.


    "Ah, a meeting might''ve been too far, really I just wanted to bask in your afterglow... I mean, uh, be graced by your very pre-"


    He stopped talking, realizing that he was just digging himself a bigger hole the more he talked.


    "...Um, ignore all of that. I just wanted to see you."


    Jess stared nkly back at him. I was quite surprised that she was able to keep a straight face the whole time. After a few moments, she closed her eyes and gave a small nod.


    "Then you can get off of this carriage now. You havepleted your objective, no?"


    Nathan''s expression froze on his face. In fact, I could vaguely see that he had be an ice sculpture as the smile that the previous smile he had on his face had frozen. It might''ve just been my imagination, but I also heard a cold wind blowing by.


    "Ah..."


    He slowly turned to the carriage window and took a diver''s position. I realized that he had nned on directly yeeting himself out of the window because of emotional damage. In a panic, I grabbed him by the shoulder.


    In his current state, he would probably just crack his skull open upon exiting. Although we had already died once, I doubted our luck would be so good that we transmigrated again. Plus, I didn''t want to be left alone here, even if I could get Minori all to myself.


    "Hey, hey, since he''s already on the carriage he might as well stay for a little while."


    Jess red at me.


    "The reason he came was to see me. That has already finished, so keeping him here is simply a waste of time."


    I could feel Natan shiver. The interior of the carriage definitely wasn''t cold, but I still felt a strange chill. He began muttering to himself.


    "Waste... of time... waste..."


    The corner of my lip twitched.


    "I... I still wish to talk to him personally, so it''s not a waste of time at all."


    Jess clicked her tongue.


    "Oh really? If you have something to talk about, then do it now. Taking him all the way back to our manor just to have him leave a few momentster? That is simply unneeded squandering of precious time."


    Nathan shivered once more. I think his soul wasing out of his mouth.


    "Unneeded... Squandering..."


    Jess flicked her hair and put the final nail in the coffin.


    "Besides, it looks like he agrees with me. Just look at him."


    Nathan fell silent at this point, which gave me a bad feeling. I immediately wrapped both arms around his waist, while he suddenly lurched forth, mming against the door of the carriage.


    "JUST KILL ME! SOMEONE KILL ME! LIFE ISN''T WORTH LIVING ANYMORE! I WANT TO DIE! I WANT TO DIE!"


    I desperately held him back, with sweat pouring down from my forehead.


    "Shit! Calm down, Nathan! She... didn''t mean it! Just calm down for now!"


    Nathan, in fact, did not calm down. His continued ms against the door made it so that he broke open the carriage door. He iled both his arms and legs as tears spilled down from his face.


    "I''M A WASTE OF TIME. I''M USELESS, UNNEEDED. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"


    He seemed to want to transmigrate again. But I''m pretty sure that just doesn''t happen in isekais.

 Chapter 8: Exploring The Manor

    <h4>Chapter 8: Exploring The Manor</h4>


    Nathan continued to lurch forth, attempting to yeet off the carriage.


    With all of my strength, I held him back from throwing himself out of the carriage. Many people were looking and pointing at us. They were whispering with one another. Surely only good things about me, as I was preventing a suicide from happening.


    That makes me an upstanding citizen, no?


    It wasn''t as though the carriage was all that fast, but even tumbling out of a slow-moving vehicle would still cause pretty bad injuries if one was just throwing themselves at the floor. Especially so if it was done with the intention of dying too.


    A wild strength wasing out of Nathan which nearly sent me flying out of the carriage too. But thankfully, due to my stroke of genius, I hooked my foot underneath the seat, giving me just enough of a foothold to keep him afloat.


    As for the carriage drivers, they didn''t seem to care about the scene at all, just continuing to drive at the same speed. Eventually, Nathan eventually calmed down his tantrum and I was able to bring him back into the carriage and close the doors.


    While panting rather heavily, I set him down in the seat next to me. He sprawled out onto it like a dead fish. Although he no longer tried to kill himself, he didn''t seem to function like a proper human being either. His death was just a matter of time at this rate.


    ...There had to be a way to fix this, right?


    I noticed Jess was ring at me like she was going to kill me. As she opened her mouth, I cleared my throat as loud as I could, cutting her off.


    "As just a side question that doesn''t really matter, Jess, do you particrly dislike Natan for any reason?"


    I had a feeling that the situation might''ve been a misunderstanding, and even if it wasn''t I doubted that she hated Natan. Maybe she hated me, but she literally just met Nathan, so there was no way she actually hated him, right?


    ...Though I guess his recent disy would put some people off.


    Jess crossed her arms.


    "I guess there is no reason for me to particrly dislike him, but how is that relevant?"


    Nathan suddenly sat up straight and cleared his throat.


    "Ah, is that so?"


    Jess looked at him strangely.


    "...I would not lie about something so trivial."


    Nathan let out a strangeugh.


    "I see! I see!..."


    He seemed to be basking in a sense of relief. I pat his shoulder a few times.


    "There was that thing we wanted to talk about in private, right?"


    Nathan looked at me stupefied. I shot him a re, which made him flinch, causing him to finally remember.


    "Oh yeah! That thing, of course!"


    Jess looked at us strangely.


    "And what exactly is that?"


    I coughed.


    "It''s private, you shouldn''t ask about something like that."


    Jess stared nkly.


    "I... see."


    Though she still seemed quite displeased, it looked like she wasn''t going to ask any more questions. Although an awkward silence lingered after, it did notst long as the carriage ride was finally over.


    Once I looked at the manor that I supposedly lived in, I couldn''t help but feel awed. It was... big. That''s the only real way I knew how to describe it. Honestly, aesthetically it wasn''t that goodpared to some of the stuff in the modern world, but at the very least the size made up for it.


    As I stood there, I quickly realized that while I made it home... I had no idea where the hell anything was. The redeeming feature of this ce, its size, was my downfall.


    I blinked a few times.


    "Anyways, uh sister... what are you going to do now?"


    Jess clicked her tongue.


    "I''m going to my room to study. Leave me alone."


    I blinked a few times.


    "...Say, do you think our rooms are far from each other, or close?"


    Jess looked at me strangely.


    "You were the one that asked for them to be separated further, no?"


    Nathan was making various facial expressions, but I ignored him for now. I cleared my throat.


    "Ah, so would you say they are far apart?"


    Jess frowned slightly before nodding.


    "Yes, I would say that."


    I smiled and waved casually.


    "I see, I see! Anyway, that''s all I wanted to talk about."


    From there, I dragged Nathan along, but at the same time, I kept looking at Jess from the corner of my eye. Nathan waved at Jess enthusiastically.


    "Bye!"


    I really wished he did not do that, but I knew his brain functioned at a lower level whenever something involved Jess. From there, I casually followed behind Jess at a distance where I could see her.


    She went through the pce and up the stairs. asionally, she would look over her shoulder, after which I would look to the side and begin whistling.


    Thankfully, it seemed like she didn''t catch on as she eventually made her way to her own room. After she entered it, I shook Nathan, who was still a little dumbstruck.


    "Alright, she said that my room was far away, so we just gotta search a little further away from here."


    Natan blinked a few times before shaking his head.


    "Oh, that''s why you did all that?"


    I ruffled his hair aggressively.


    "Get Jess out of your damn mind! If you really want to save her, then we have to be serious here! If we don''t get to my own room, then we won''t be able to talk about that stuff freely."


    He sobered up very quickly after I said that.


    "Alright, then let''s look."


    I rubbed my chin.


    "Since I wanted a room far away, that probably means it''s a little far from here. There''s no point in checking out the rooms next to them, so let''s look at the others."


    Nathan gave a thumbs up.


    "Let''s get to it!"


    From there, we began opening doors. The first one...


    "Ah! Lord Bryson?"


    I ended up opening the door to one of the maid''s rooms. She looked rather terrified. I coughed awkwardly.


    "Uh, sorry. My friend here just wanted to take a look behind this door."


    Nathan red at me, but I ignored him as I slowly closed the door.


    How did I mix up a servant''s quarters with my own room?


    ...Stop asking questions ok?


    We opened another door, and both of our noses wrinkled. It was the washroom. As if that wasn''t enough, there was currently a butler using it. He looked at us dumbfounded.


    "Lord Bryson? This is the servants''vatory..."


    I coughed.


    "My friend here wanted to use it. If you are still using it, then it can''t be helped."


    From there, I slowly closed the door while Nathan was ring at me once more.


    After opening another door, we were sted with some steam. I heard someone yell rather loudly.


    "Who DARES?"


    It was Jess. As Nathan processed the situation, he suddenly widened his eyes and tried to step into the bathroom. Going out of my way to save this idiot''s life, I got a chokehold on him and dragged him away, while he struggled against me intensely.


    Thankfully, we were able to get out of there before Jess realized who it was.


    Once we got out of there, Nathanined a lot but got over it quickly because he knew that Jess would probably kill him if he got caught peeking.


    We then opened another door. I had a pretty good feeling about this one.


    "Eh? Lord Bryson? It''s a little early for dinner, but we have finished cooking."


    It was the kitchen. Several chefs were in there working away. I was a bit disappointed that this still wasn''t my own room, but honestly, I was kind of curious about what kind of food there was. Thinking of Nathan, I asked them for something more.


    "Oh, is there enough for my friend here too?"


    The chefs looked at Nathan and couldn''t help but cringed slightly.


    "Sorry, give us a little bit more time to prepare for him."


    I was a little confused because I saw quite a bit of food ready, but decided to ignore it. Though I was unfamiliar with this ce, I was at least able to navigate to the dining room. It was ratherrge but felt very empty.


    It appeared that despite living in the same house, we ate our meals individually. Nathan sighed after taking a seat.


    "How have we not found your room by now? I feel like we''ve explored most of this ce... Will we just have to meet outside of the house?"


    I rolled my eyes.


    "...First off, I need to know where my room is, and second outside is probably even less secure for conversation."


    Nathan sighed.


    "Fair enough."


    Soon after, the chefs brought along various dishes back to the table. They put many different kinds around me, while Nathan only got a bowl of what looked like pottage. I blinked a few times.


    "Uh, why does he get that?"


    The chefs looked at each other as though confused as to why I would ask that question. One of them spoke up.


    "It... it is the food fitting of amoner."


    I blinked a few times and looked at Nathan. He had a bitter smile on his face, one that said he was fine with the situation. But at the same time, I feel like eating a noble''s meal would probably be something pretty cool to do.


    Maybe he could just have one try.


    "Hey, we should switch seats."


    Nathan looked a little surprised.


    "Are you sure?"


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "Well, you''re going to be getting used tomoner food, but wouldn''t you at least like to try this kind of stuff once? You won''t have to worry about me because I can just eat this kind of stuff whenever."


    Nathan nodded, going along with that logic.


    "Ah, alright."


    The servants around us began panicking.


    "L-Lord Bryson! That..."


    I waved my hand dismissively.


    "It''s fine, it''s fine. Just leave us be."


    From there, I picked up a spoon and began eating the pottage, while Nathan began trying out all of the foods ced before him. Natan gave a satisfied nod.


    "Mm... this is pretty good stuff. Even better at the stuff at home."


    I couldn''t help but notice that the servants had expressions of disdain. However, I knew what he meant by ''back home'' was when we were still on our own Earth. I didn''t clear up the misunderstanding for obvious reasons.


    I also gave a nod of my own.


    "Hm, this pottage tastes better than the one severed at the school. It''s not bad."


    Nathan looked over with curiosity.


    "Oh really? Can I have a try?"


    I nodded.


    "Sure."


    I handed the bowl over, which caused many of the servants to gasp.


    "L-Lord Bryson!"


    I waved my hand once more.


    "It''s fine, it''s fine."


    He ate a bit and nodded.


    "You''re right, it is a decent amount better. Oh, you should really try the shrimp though, they did a pretty good job with that."


    Nathan picked up one with his fork and then plopped it into my bowl. Once again, the servants gasped, and one of the maids put the back of her hand on her forehead and directly fainted.


    They all were watching me, which I found a little strange. I decided to just eat the shrimp, which caused many shocked gasps.


    ...Why were these guys being so dramatic?


    I just tuned them out and focused on the meal. At some point, Nathan leaned back in his chair and sighed.


    "Why would you would want to get a room further from your sister anyway?"


    The servants looked at Nathan confused. A butler spoke up.


    "Eh? What are you talking about?"


    I looked at them strangely.


    "Huh? Didn''t I move to a room further away?"


    The butler scratched the side of his head.


    "Well... when you were younger your older sister insisted that you shared rooms, thus that was how it was. However, a few years ago you insisted that you be given a separate room. As such, you were given the room next to her."


    I could feel a blood vessel in my brain expand several times over.


    ...What the fuck, Jess? How is the room right next to you far away?

 Chapter 9: But How?

    <h4>Chapter 9: But How?</h4>


    I was able to finally get to my room with Nathan. It was a fairly big room, and inside were various papers out on the desk that appeared to be rted to magic. There was also a wooden sword resting near the bedside, which seemed to indicate that I practiced the sword.


    I was a little confused why a mage had to learn swordsmanship, but I didn''t think about it too hard.


    I cleared my throat.


    "Alright, first things first, we need toe up with a n. In order to do so, we gotta first write down all the information we have."


    Following that thought, I grabbed the various papers as well as the ink pen and set them on the ground, spreading them out. Nathan held onto his chin and closed his eyes.


    "If we are writing this stuff down, I think we shouldn''t be that specific. That way, if it goes into the hands of the wrong person, it will just look like random scribblings. We already know the story well enough, so just some keywords should be enough to remember."


    I smirked and pointed at him.


    "Ha, thankfully you''re not an idiot when it matters."


    Nathan smiled strangely. He was a little angry.


    "You fuckin... let''s just focus..."


    We began writing out the plot of the story using a feather with ink. We started off with the prologue and slowly began branching out depending on the choices that we made. Unfortunately, a problem came up very quickly.


    Though we had remembered most of the game, there were simply way too many branching paths, and even if we did try and list it all out, chances are it wouldn''t be too helpful. At least it was a nice refresher if nothing else.


    I stopped writing and looked at Nathan, who looked back at me. After a few moments, I scratched the side of my head and sighed.


    "What if we try to do something else? Instead, we list out the people we are trying to save and list out the things to note and do to save them."


    Nathan nodded intently.


    "Alright, then for Jess we need to first take down that piece of shit magician academy, stop the god damn idiotic army and kill them all! Ah, but most importantly fuck up that Jeff guy!"


    I pinched the bridge of my nose with frustration.


    "Ok, ok, we can get to that, but out of all the girls, Jess is the one that needs our help the least. She has the highest survival rate anyway, fitting of the only starting ss S in the main cast."


    He crossed his arms.


    "We should still save her first!"


    I blinked a few times, staring at him nkly.


    "...Why the hell should we help the girl that hardly needs our damn help?! Minori dies in so many of the goddamn endings, she doesn''t even have a ten percent survival rate! We should be helping her!"


    Nathan crossed his arms and let out a snort.


    "If it''s so hard to save her, then doesn''t that mean we''re just going to fail? Wouldn''t it just be a waste of effort then?"


    I fell silent after hearing that. Ever so slowly, I breathed in.


    "...At the end of the day, I think it''s unrealistic that we can save everyone. Honestly, just saving the kingdom might be too much for us."


    My eyebrows furrowed further as I continued to narrow them.


    "I think... we have to choose which people we save."


    Nathan''s expression fell slightly as he became serious.


    "That makes us sound like evil people."


    I shook my head.


    "Just because we have knowledge of the future doesn''t make us some omnipotent god. At the end of the day, there are limits to what we can do. We can''t save everyone. Especially not if it''s this shitty dating game."


    Nathan raised a hand to his chin, looking down in thought.


    "No matter what, I want to save Jess."


    I nodded.


    "And I refuse to let Minori die."


    Nathan scratched the back of his head.


    "So now we decide which other people we will try to save..."


    From there, we looked down at the list of characters. They were all different targets you could go for in the dating game.


    Jess


    Minori


    Arianne


    Cheryl


    Charlotte


    Sophia


    Most of them were actually in ss A itself, though Sophia was a hidden target. Honestly, the two of us probably had more resentment than anything against her because of how difficult it was to just meet her, much less actually choose the proper options for her route.


    We were initially quite excited about her route as it was a ''secret'' but afterwards we kinda just felt disappointed, as she wasn''t exactly either of our styles.


    I guess all things considered, there was also Raisa, but I decided that I was just going to ignore her for the most part. If she had a good impression of me, then she probably wouldn''t get in the way.


    I sucked in a cold breath.


    "Anyway, we should list out the requirements for each person..."


    From there, the both of us began discussing various important things to do and adding essential parts underneath the respective girls'' names. We had to keep each other in check in terms of Jess and Minori because many of the things we wanted to do were get revenge on someone that had somehow slighted the respective girl. Now, while there were many people that were just kinda assholes, they weren''t trying to kill them by any means.


    As such, considering our main goal was saving people, we decided not to care about those things.


    For Jess, the main thing was doing something about the Magician Association. They were a collection of mages and naturally gained quite a high status because of it. Jess attempted to join said association, but just because the organization was big and powerful, didn''t mean that they were righteous.


    Jess was tricked into bing an experiment, which would then let these mages learn of a special weapon that would backfire spectacrly, one of the things that sent the kingdom into ruin.


    Honestly, if we nned on saving the kingdom, we had to prevent that anyway, so I wasn''t very against saving her.


    On the other hand, for Minori, if we wanted to save her, we would have to prevent the Peasant Rebellion. Essentially, at some point, a certain mentality would spread among all of those working on the farms. It was rted to a gradualck of food.


    They would all get afraid, paranoid, and eventually turn that fear into anger. Their main goal would be to attack the nobles and their properties, causing lots of damage. However, in the process of doing that they would actually end up harming many of their fellowmoners. In fact, because of their rashness, many more peasants would end up killedpared to nobles.


    Minori was one such unfortunate person that would end up getting killed by said peasants because of that rampage.


    Solving this would also help out the kingdom, but wasn''t too strictly important in the short term. After the rebellion, the king would lower taxes for all nobles forcefully which greatly calmed them down. Of course, the mary damage was huge, but the deaths were rtively low.


    I exined all of this to Nathan, but after I said that he added to my statement, without his bias of Jessing in.


    He mentioned that while not many people would die, the damages would be severe for the kingdom''s economy. It wasn''t just the noble''s property that got damaged, but farms and peasant houses too. We wouldn''t have to care much about it in the game, because it ended before those effects would matter. However, we were now living in this game.


    Down the line, something like that would surely cause a great amount of trouble and even be the source of the kingdom''s downfall not far in the future.


    My eyelid twitched as I realized that was definitely a good point. Unfortunately, this was no longer a game. It wasn''t as though we could just ignore the ramifications of our actions in the long term.


    I let out a sigh and looked up to the ceiling as though there was a sadistic god watching.


    "Since when did two idiots like us have to save the day?"


    Nathanughed.


    "Ever since we decided to transmigrate here I guess."


    I rubbed one of my eyes using my index finger before shaking my head.


    "I guess that also means we can''t use cheap solutions either, like locking up Minori somewhere while the Peasant Rebellion happens so that she doesn''t die because that doesn''t solve the root cause."


    Nathan nodded.


    "Honestly, that was the first thought for saving Jess, but even if I could get her to agree to hide away, if the mages keep looking for her then it doesn''t really matter."


    I massaged my temple.


    "...Let''s ignore the other girls for now. The Magician Association is far too big of a beast for us to deal with right now. But what we can do is get themoners on our side, and maybe we can somehow use them to influence the Magician Association while preventing the rebellion at the same time."


    Nathan narrowed his eyes slightly.


    "I mean... I don''t think they''ll be able to do anything to the Magician Association, especially considering they can all just be blown away."


    I smiled bitterly and tried to stick with my logic, even if I didn''t really believe in it.


    "They have to like... care a little bit, right?"


    Nathan clicked his tongue.


    "Well, I would prefer to help out Jess right away, but I guess this makes sense more or less. It''s not like we can just barge in there despite how much I want to."


    I raised my finger with a confident smile.


    "Thank god I''m a noble then, I should have the resources to like, help out, right?"


    Nathan looked at me like I''m stupid.


    "...But you''re just a Duke''s son, not even a duke. Sure you may be able to help some people, but the biggest problem is that there are far too manymoners."


    I rubbed my chin.


    "Er... so how hard should it be?"


    Nathan let out a sigh.


    "I searched this up before, nobles are about three percent of the poption, religious people are about seven percent."


    He looked me dead in the eye.


    "And at least ny percent of people aremoners. The game said that there are twenty thousand damn people in this kingdom."


    I frowned rather deeply at his statement


    "...In other words, we have to find a way to feed eighteen thousand people?"

 Chapter 10: Oop

    <h4>Chapter 10: Oop</h4>


    I looked at Nathan nkly, while he did the same back to me. The reality of the situation was sinking in. Somehow, with the power of two people, we were supposed to feed eighteen thousand people.


    The biggest problem with this was that in the game you actually had to make several encounters with people by chance. It was going to be hard to replicate that because the game didn''t specify exact dates and times as to where to go.


    While both of us memorized what we had to do, at the end of the day, games weren''t all that specific in their execution. It was a game after all, not a manual.


    I tapped my chin a few times.


    "...I guess you should try the game''s method if you can, but if it doesn''t work then it doesn''t work."


    Nathan nodded.


    "I''ll try, but it''s definitely not going to be easy. To be honest, I don''t have much faith, especially with the first encounter..."


    I narrowed my eyes rather intensely too. He had to first meet a man named Bernie. The thing was, he just so happened to be at the bar at a certain time. After that, he would appear again and he would have to meet him as he was leaving.


    Not to mention the timing, Nathan would have to act properly in both encounters.


    The only thing I could do was pray that he got lucky.


    I shook my head.


    "Alright... while you work on that, maybe I''ll do the same thing the church does, by handing out food and stuff like that."


    Nathan looked him straight in the face.


    "So how are you going to convince the chefs?"


    I paused.


    Hm. You know, I didn''t really think about that part. But I mean... surely it would work out somehow? How would I even know how much money I owned anyway?


    Man, actually doing things is confusing...


    Nathan waved his hand.


    "Anyway, I should probably go back now. I still have to deal with figuring out things at home on my own end. Thanks for helping me figure out where it was though."


    I gave him a thumbs up.


    "No problem. Just don''t fuck up too bad."


    Nathan clicked his tongue.


    "Fine, I''ll try my best not to."


    And so, I took Nathan out to the entrance of the manor, called a servant to prepare a carriage, and sent him back. Thankfully, they actually were able to find out where his home was by asking around, so it was all fine.


    From there, I went back to my own room and plopped down on my bed. Honestly, for a noble bed, it wasn''t as soft as I imagined, but it was still better than my bed on Earth. I began to wonder how the mother and child Nathan and I saved were doing.


    From the blurry memories I can recall, they seemed pretty distressed over our death, but hopefully, that wouldn''t traumatize them that bad. I then began to think of our other friends.


    While Nathan and I were best friends, it''s not like we didn''t have others. Were they grieving over our death? Hopefully not too much, especially considering that we did reincarnate, so there''s really nothing to feel sorry about.


    As that was going through my mind, I realized it was starting to gette. I always take a shower before going to bed, so I got up and resolved to do that. In the process of searching my room, I ended up finding the bathroom, so there were no worries there.


    Though, When I did end up getting to the bathroom, I saw Jess was there. She had her arms crossed and was ring at me.


    "Why did you eat lunch early?"


    I looked back at her dumbfounded. I mean, despite exploring the entire damn ce I didn''t see even our mother or our father, so it was pretty clear we didn''t eat together as a family.


    "Um, I just happened to be there with Natan, so we just ate."


    Jess clenched her fists rather tightly before scoffing.


    "Fine then."


    With that, she stormed off, leaving me standing there awkwardly. I blinked a few times and spoke to myself.


    "Is she a brocon or does she hate me? This is... confusing."


    I shook my head and went into the bath. It wasrger than I expected and I also fumbled around quite a bit, but I was able to get by. For a moment, I wondered how there was hot water, but remembered this was a ce of swords and magic.


    While simmering in the hot water, I contemted how luxurious my life had suddenly be. But really, I didn''t care all that much for that. Maybe it was because I grew up without a lot of money.


    Though, shouldn''t growing up in a poor household make you greedy?


    Eh, I''m not really a human psyche type of guy so I guess I wouldn''t know.


    They had soap by the way, though it was crude bar soap rather than things like shampoo and body wash. Regardless, it was good enough. I left the bath with a new change of clothes. They were already prepared and set aside when I got in.


    Upon returning to my room, I couldn''t help but think about those magical diagrams on my desk. As such, I decided to look at some of them.


    ...And didn''t understand anything about them.


    There were a series of lines connecting various things within spheres, which seemed to create a spell. As for why it was like that, I had no idea. I tried to cross-reference it with other diagrams, but it still didn''t make any sense at all.


    I couldn''t help but get a bad feeling for magic ss, but shoved it to the back of my mind.


    It took me a while to realize, but I marveled at the fact that it seemed Bryson had actually drawn these diagrams himself. The ink looked kinda fresh, meaning it was probably yesterday that he worked on all these. I guess that was to be expected of someone who worked hard to get a perfect test score.


    I stretched and let out a yawn before going to bed. While feeling myself fall asleep, I feel like I heard a click of some kind. But I was probably just overthinking things.


    ...


    The next day came, and I felt my neck felt really sore, while I was sweating in what felt like a fiery pit of a bed. I threw off the sheets immediately to cool down a bit and panicked somewhat.


    Did I get sick?


    I put a hand to my forehead, feeling the heat. But it wasn''t that bad.


    Damn, I swear I put my head in the proper position so that it doesn''t get sore. After cracking my neck with a frown I got up and made my way down. There was already food prepared in the dining room, and Jess was sitting down in one of the seats.


    Though it was a fairly big table, there was only a te prepared for the seat next to her.


    ...Did the servants arrange that, or was that her?


    I sat down, though the moment I did, she red at me. It made me a little scared.


    Is this how tsunderes work? For some reason, I don''t really feel the endearing part of it. Don''t they usually go like, you baka, or something?


    ...Maybe Jess isn''t a tsundere.


    I finished my meal. There was apparently still some time before school, so I just arbitrarily picked up the wooden sword that was in my room and tried swinging it around. My first impression was that my muscles were far stronger than what I had on Earth. Although I confirmed it at the gym, it for some reason felt different when I swung the sword.


    I tried a little more, but I really did not have the technique for it, thus making it feel sloppy.


    ...Man, how much did Bryson practice the sword? I should probably work on it as well so that my muscles don''t degrade.


    Before I could think of it more, it was time to go to school, thus I was called to the carriage and went to school. The ride there was, as expected, filled with awkward silence. Once I finally got there, I saw Nathan also walking up to the school, but he looked incredibly tired.


    I was a little concerned, so I stepped up towards him and raised a hand, though before I could say anything...


    "Get away from him, monster!"


    Minori suddenly jumped out, blocking my path toward him. She still looked afraid and had difficulty facing me directly, but she had far more resolve thanst time.


    She looked so cute, but...


    Monster?


    I''m... I''m not that ugly, right? Wait, I''m literally Bryson right now, not my normal self. I''m not ugly at all!


    But... monster?...


    T-That''s taking it too far! R-Right? I-I mean there are some nice monsters, I think. L-Like Casper!


    Wait, no he''s a ghost.


    "Hey!"


    I felt myself get shoved from the side, and in my stunned state I ended up falling onto the ground. Looking upwards, I saw that it was Jess that shoved me. She was ring at me.


    "Don''t stare at other women like that!"


    ...Ah, crap. Was I making a creepy face? No, no, no, Minori was right in front of me while that was happening! Fuck! Good call, Jess! I take back my bad opinion of you!


    I got up and brushed my clothes off casually. From there, I cleared my throat and walked to ss all the while pretending nothing was wrong. Once I got there, I got a greeting.


    "Hey, Bryson!"


    Raisa waved to me with a bright smile. I waved back at her.


    "Ah, hey Raisa."


    She let out a giggle before sping her hands together.


    "So? Did you find a suitable time?"


    I looked at her confused.


    "Huh? What are you talking about?"


    Raisa blinked a few times. She still had a smile on her face as she tilted her head to the side.


    "Hahaha, you''re so funny, Bryson. You said you would check the next time you were avable toe to my estate!"


    ...Shit.


    I felt myself turn to stone and a crack split me in two.


    Now that I think about it, I did in fact tell her I was going to do that. Unfortunately, Ipletely forgot because of the n we were discussing before. So uh... what should I do?


    I coughed awkwardly.


    "Uh, so... it looks like tomorrow is probably fine, but don''t prepare too much because er, something coulde up and we may have to push it back by a little bit."


    Raisa continued to look at me with the same smile she had earlier.


    "...Eh, since when were you such a bad liar?"


    I felt my stone self crack once more.


    "Wh-What? Lying? O-Of course not!"


    Raisa smiled bitterly.


    "Hahaha, unless you''re faking it, you don''t seem very experienced at lying. You really don''t look like that type of person though."


    I scratched the back of my head, trying my best to ignore the heating from my cheeks.


    "Y-Yeah... sorry. I forgot."


    Raisa let out a small sigh.


    "I''ll forgive you, but you owe me, alright?"


    I narrowed my eyes slightly.


    "Fine, but nothing too overboard!"


    Raisa giggled.


    "Nice!"


    My eyelid twitched.


    "Wait... did I agree to that too easily?"


    Rais flicked her long white hair and looked away.


    "I don''t know, maybe?"

 Chapter 11: Bullshitting

    <h4>Chapter 11: Bullshitting</h4>


    I ruffled my hair and decided to just let it go. Although I now owed Raisa a favor, so long as I was shameless enough I could just decline whatever she asked for since I said nothing too overboard.


    I sat down in the same seat, waiting for people to file in. Surprisingly enough, despite being out at the entrance when I was, Nathan was actually thest person to enter the ssroom.


    And... he also looked even more exhausted than when Ist saw him.


    The moment he stepped into the ssroom, he weakly spoke.


    "3D women... are tiring..."


    Hm. It seems he considers game characters to be 3D now. Though, they kinda are 3D in our situation. Maybe we can call them 2.5D?


    ...Is that a thing?


    Anyway, Harold tapped onto the chalkboard and announced the start of ss.


    "I will be going over the basics of magical spells for those that do not know anything about them. However, if you believe you understand the basics of spells well enough, then you can raise your hand for a piece of paper that contains a spell and attempt to derive the steps to casting it. Please do not actually cast the spell for now."


    ...Hm. I didn''t really think about what I should be doing in this situation.


    I''m supposed to be ''smart'' which wasn''t a problem for the other sses, but this one was different. Should I just not take the paper and acknowledge myck of understanding?


    Or maybe... I should take the paper and then pretend I was trying to solve it while actually paying attention to the lesson!


    Wait, but then when I never end up solving the thing, it''s going to look really weird.


    People began raising their hands one after another. As a side note, , Raisa, and Sam all raised their hands. In the end, while hesitating I was unable toe to a decision and thus kept my hand down.


    Harold was about to stand up to hand out those spells, but instead, he looked at me with confusion.


    "Lord Bryson? I have seen how you solved those questions on the magical section of your test. You surely do not need to bore yourself with the basics once more."


    Shit. I take back all my goodwill towards this teacher. Did he really just have to call me out?


    In my panic, I randomly stood up. Everyone was looking at me before, but now I was drawing even more attention. All of them stared at me wondering what I was going to say, as it seemed like I was preparing a speech.


    ...Hm.


    Well, when all else fails, you gotta rely on a very special skill.


    Bullshitting!


    "The reason that I chose not to ignore the basics is because... I believe the foundation of one''s magical skills is most important. Sure, I may already understand the basics, but if I can even get a slightly better understanding, then it will surely increase my future prospects."


    I waved my hand to the side. As for the wordsing out of my mouth, I didn''t really understand half of them.


    "A building can only stand as high as the foundation allows. While it may seem essential to continue climbing upwards and upwards, you can never neglect the fundamentals. I n on bing a powerful mage, so I will not be skipping this lesson."


    I sat down with my eyes closed, not wanting to think about what I had done any longer. Harold didn''t seem too offended by what I said though.


    "Hahaha, such maturity at such a young age. I have great expectations for the heights that you will reach. If only I had the same kind of mentality when I was younger... then I wouldn''t have needed to be a teacher."


    I slowly opened my eyes and noticed that Raisa was smiling bitterly. She slowly lowered her hand.


    "Well, if you go and say all that... then I can''t really ignore it now, can I?"


    There were several other people that also lowered their hands, but some still kept them up. This included both Sam and .


    ...Were they able to see through my bullshitting?


    Harold took a deep breath and handed out the pieces of paper to the few that still had their hands up. After that, he went back to the front of the ss before drawing out a diagram made out of chalk. He pointed at it and began exining.


    "For starters, all spells have both cores and nodes. Nodes sprout out from cores and connect to other cores."


    He cleared his throat.


    "You will have to first recreate the cores using the mana in your body. Then, you will create the nodes to connect these cores. For now, we will start with the simplest spells that only have a single core, so you won''t have to learn connecting for now."


    Harold was about to erase what he had written on the board, but stopped himself.


    "Ah, I should probably give more details, as a future Paragon Mage is with us."


    ...Huh? What is that?


    Harold continued without exining that, which was what I preferred to know.


    "Cores dictate what elements are within the spell andpressing more mana in these cores will increase the power of the spell. On the other hand, nodes can be thought of as a technique. The more masterfully crafted nodes will allow you to perform very specific and intricate actions."


    I blinked a few times before realizing that was actually quite helpful. It was already confirmed that Bryson had bad magical affinity, thus I should probably focus on my skills with nodes.


    ...Though, I do recall in theter stages of the game when Bryson goes berserk, he has power on par with the already overpowered protagonist.


    I guess he found a way to ovee his bad magical affinity, so I shouldn''t just neglect the cores either, assuming I somehow find a way to replicate it.


    Harold continued to spend the rest of the ss exining techniques on how to manipte mana and tips on casting spells and such. Despite being in ss A, Harold never skipped over any important steps that allowed understanding it to be easy.


    I couldn''t help butpare him to our math teacher back on Earth and felt the difference was huge. After all, our teacher wouldn''t even finish the answers to his examples, so we couldn''t confirm if we did it correctly. Not to mention, he would skip so many damn steps!


    ...Ugh.


    By the end of ss, a few people had handed in their solved spell... puzzle thing?  was one of them, while Sam was not.


    Math ss came soon and left soon. It was the same thing as ever, boring basic math. The only reason I even paid attention to ss was that there was nothing else to do. Unfortunately, there were no phones to fiddle with as they weren''t invented yet.


    Lunch was nothing special either, consisting of me, Raisa, and Nathan sitting together and eating some food.


    English ss was... hm. What happened there again? Ah, whatever.


    Going through this routine made me feel like I was back on Earth again, going through the monotonous school life.


    ...What the fuck is this?!


    I thought this was going to be an exciting life! Isn''t that how an isekai works?


    Then gym ss came.


    Our teacher was a woman with bright red and short hair. She had a big smile on her face and was rather enthusiastic. It kinda rubbed off on me and made me feel not as bad. Her name was Rae.


    She pointed up into the air the moment we all funneled into the giant gymnasium.


    "Alright! Yesterday I measured your physical fitness. Now I want all of you to find a sparring partner to fight! Once you do, it will be standard sparring rules."


    Rae lifted up a finger.


    "First off, no magic! We aren''t testing your mage capabilities for now.


    Second, you are allowed to surrender at any time and the opposing party must stop their attack else they will be punished by me personally!


    Third, if you are standing off of the tform, or if I believe you should step out, you lost! No more fighting after!"


    I looked into the gym, and there were twelve different tforms across the floor. They were rtively small, but enough tofortably fight. At least, I think there''s enough space.


    Before I could get a closer look, Raisa appeared right in front of me, with her face just a little too close to mine.


    "Hey, let''s spar with each other! I''m not too confident in winning, but I would like the experience!"


    I couldn''t help but feel cold sweat form on my forehead. Unlike the real Bryson, I still hadn''t gotten any training inbat, so I would probably get my ass handed to me by Raisa.


    I raised my hands and shook my head.


    "Um, no, no. I would like to spar with um, Natan instead!"


    Nathan heard what I said and also rushed over.


    "Y-Yeah! We already agreed on this beforehand..."


    It looked like he had the same worries that I did. If we fought each other... it probably wouldn''t be too bad.


    Raisa pouted and looked at me as though I was bullying her.


    "Aw... well alright then."


    She left to find another partner, while Nathan and I went up to one of the tforms after grabbing a wooden weapon. As we were about to start, someone called out.


    "U-Um, I don''t have a partner."


    It was Arianne, one of the capture targets for this shitty dating game. We had twenty-three people in the ss, meaning that one person would be left out. Rae smiled and pointed to herself.


    "Hahaha, that just means you''ll have to fight me! Don''t worry, I won''t put too much power into my strikes."


    Arianne nodded, though she blushed. By the way, you had to be her partner if you wanted to go down her route.


    I looked at Nathan, and he looked at me. There were still traces of fatigue in his eyes, but his injuries had healed already.


    I wonder if I have the same kind of monstrous regeneration.


    A smile began forming on Nathan''s lips as I realized he was getting a little serious. Simrly, I began smiling as well. This kinda reminded the both of us of old times.


    Though we were best friends now, the start of our rtionship was... a little rocky. We would fight each other a lot, and definitely hurt each other pretty badly.


    We didn''t really do it anymore, mostly because we would get in trouble.


    But while we were both kinda weak and wimpy, fighting was still quite fun to us, though gaming obviously took priority over it.


    It was just a spar, but it was still a match of pride.

 Chapter 12: Spar

    <h4>Chapter 12: Spar</h4>


    I stared down at Nathan, while he looked back at me. The two of us didn''t move for quite a while. This was how it usually was when we fought. I held onto an ordinary wooden sword while he held onto a wooden spear.


    The sounds of wooden weapons shing with each other slowly picked up in volume, until they became quite loud. The sounds gradually melded into each other until they appeared to have their own rhythm.


    I slowly bent my knee, while Nathan raised his spear ever so slightly.


    In the end, I lost the battle of patience. Unable to hold myself back, I lunged forth, closing the distance as fast as I could. On the other hand, Nathan took a step forward, thrusting his spear forth.


    He did it rather clumsily, and while I wasn''t the best at dodging, I still was able to do it. With a grunt, I swung my sword horizontally, toward his shoulder. Nathan took a step back and leaned away, avoiding it.


    While he was somewhat unstable, I attempted to press my advantage by taking another step forward and giving an overhead swing. However, he was able to easily bring up his spear with both hands, letting the sword m against the handle.


    Both of our attacks definitely weren''t the best, but neither of us really cared. I felt taken back to the time when we still hated one another.


    Without waiting, I attempted to attack again, but he recovered faster than I did, thrusting the spear forwards while tilting his body back. I immediately recognized what he was doing.


    Nathan often liked to do this sort of move. Whenever I did an attack that would be rtively slow, he liked to do a swift attack of his own and use the recoil from it to dodge mine.


    Knowing this, I gave up on my attack and retreated, avoiding the crudely thrusted spear.


    Now it was Nathan''s turn to press the advantage. He took a step forward while pulling back the spear before thrusting it toward me once more. I leaned to the side and mmed my wooden sword against the side of the spear before pushing it away.


    Nathan was dumbstruck for half a second before lifting the spear up to get it out of the way. With that time, I tried to go for something cheeky.


    One of my hands let go of the handle, while the sword itself shot forwards like a rapier, towards Nathan''s fingers. Unfortunately, it looked like he saw thating. He shifted the grip on his spear greatly to avoid mine.


    Honestly, I kinda expected this because he knew I liked to go for the hands in a fight. My mentality is that if I disable their offensive power, then they can''t do anything. Unfortunately, that''s easier said than done.


    Regardless, my situation was still good because I would have time for another attack before he could lower his spear. Most people in Nathan''s position would back off, meaning I should take a step forward.


    But I knew the kind of person he was.


    I bent my knees, stabilizing my center of gravity. Nathan took a long step forth, his leg sweeping towards my ankle. At the same time, I swung my sword toward his waist.


    Two dull thumps resounded at once.


    I felt the kick hit my leg, which made it burn up in pain, while Nathan cringed after the wooden sword hit his waist. Despite being in pain, he retreated at the same time, while I stood my ground.


    The kick had almost pushed me off bnce, and I spent the time recovering from that.


    Overall, I took the upper hand in this engagement. The hit to his waist should be more damaging than the one to my leg. Though, I knew he wasn''t demoralized at all, nor did he feel he was at a disadvantage.


    He simply valued wounds to the leg more.


    It was at this point we both began to dumb down our thoughts. In the end, we both knew each other''s habits, thus to be more unpredictable both of our solutions were just to be empty-headed.


    Of course, actually thinking was probably a better solution, but frankly, neither of us had a brain able to process things fast enough for that.


    I pulled back my sword, ready for a swing, while he pulled back the spear. Both of us rushed forth to attack. I saw the point of his spearing for me and sidestepped, while he folded himself like a piece of paper to dodge my horizontal sh.


    While close like this, one of my hands let go of my sword to grasp the spear. As for Nathan, he pulled back his foot for a full-power kick. I decided to take this engagement head-on, swinging my sword down with full power toward his head.


    Two loud thumps rang out one after another.


    I felt a strong force m against my knee. As for my sword, Nathan had tilted his head to the side, letting it m into his shoulder.


    Due to the kick to my knee, I could feel it buckle, but I hurriedly let go of the spear and backed off before he could capitalize on it and make me fall to my knees. It had happened once before, and I paid dearly for it.


    I didn''t realize it at the time, but my eyes gradually began to widen, while my breathing became heavier. Apparently, the same thing happened to Nathan as well. The both of us considerably sped up our pace. Adrenaline fueled our actions, and let us ignore our pain.


    His spear shot towards me again and again, making me feel like I was actually in a bullet hell. In order to dodge his attacks, I had to keep going from the left and right, making me feel like I was doing some sort of dance. asionally, he would attack with his legs too whenever he saw a good opportunity. I was only able to avoid some of them.


    As for me, I attacked a bit slower, but made up for it by putting my full power behind each strike. Though I hit him less, each hit definitely hurt him by quite a bit. Since he was quite short and I was tall, it was hard for me to reach his legs, so I just focused on hitting his upper body whenever I could.


    Though my legs hurt from him generally attacking those more, it was still manageable. On the other hand, several parts of his arm and body were getting bruised. Ordinarily, it would interfere with his attacks with the spear, but he had too much adrenaline in his system to notice.


    I''m not really sure when, but at some point, I began hearing intense gales of wind from each of our strikes. Our thoughts gradually lessened, until the only thing in our minds was to either strike, dodge, defend, or reposition.


    As for our bodies, they began moving on instinct.


    My body was definitely overheating, as it felt like the worst part of summer right now. There was so much sweat covering our bodies, that when we moved droplets of it would get flung off.


    Gradually, the sounds of winding from our attacks became sharper. They started to sound like whistles and were rather harsh on the ears.


    My eyes were open to their limits and were tearing up because of the winds. Naturally, Nathan was the same.


    Inded a strong hit on his upper arm. At the same time, he got hit on my leg.


    The tip of his spear mmed into my stomach. My abs instinctively tensed up to lessen the damage. At the same time, I mmed the tip of my sword onto his hand, causing his fingers to spasm.


    I got lost in the fight, though I couldn''t help but notice that Nathan had some purple spots. They were bruises. In fact, even though I wasn''t particrly looking at myself, I also saw quite a few bruises as well.


    We continued trading blows. Our attacks slowly be more devious and underhanded.


    He would directly go for my balls, while I went for his eyes.


    So far, neither of us had been hit there, but I wasn''t sure for how long that wouldst.


    I noticed the muscles in my body were gradually locking up. My limbs felt like giant metal bars that I had to lift, but I did so nheless. Thankfully, it seemed like it was the same for Nathan, as he began to match my sluggish pace.


    The blows that we took increased greatly because dodging had be far more difficult. Honestly, the battle had dragged on for quite a long amount of time.


    It wasn''t as though we weren''t trying to abuse the rules, as we were also trying to shove each other off the stage, but the ces where we fought were quite ustrophobic. As such, we were very familiar with taking space. After all, failing to do so would basically lead to getting pinned on the wall and getting beat up.


    Fragments of old memories began surfacing one after another.


    "Shut the fuck up!"


    I remember saying those words a lot.


    "You''re a piece of shit!"


    And that was what he said to me a lot.


    The sounds of our wooden weapons cking against each other began melding together and started to sound like how our fists would sound as we hit one another.


    "You''re the fucking lucky one here!"


    "You think I wanted this life? If I could kill myself to give it to you I would!"


    We never held back when we fought. If it wasn''t for someone stopping us each time because we were yelling at the top of our lungs...


    There was a real chance both of us could''ve be either crippled or straight-up dead. Though there were no debilitating injuries from our fights, we both suffered permanent scars, a reminder of our past rtionship.


    I had a small scar across my stomach, while he had a small scar next to his right eye.


    Obviously, now that we transmigrated we didn''t take those scars with us. But those very same injuries appeared on both of us during the fight. While going for his eye, he tilted his head to the side, while my wooden sword scraped his face, leaving a faint red mark.


    As for him, he caught me off guard by sweeping with his spear. I felt a dull pain.


    Both of us immediately readied for another attack with full power. We both realized the other''s intention, but there was no time to defend ourselves unless we retracted our attack.


    And at this point, we had no ns of stopping.


    My wooden sword drew an arc toward his neck, while his spear shot toward my ribcage. Even in my adrenaline-filled state, I knew it was going to hurt, and thus braced myself, getting ready for the pain.


    "Stop!"


    But before either of our attacks connected, our wooden weapons froze in the air. The teacher, Rae, had grabbed onto both of them tightly.


    Both Nathan and I broke out of our stupor, but we felt a little displeased. I frowned slightly.


    "But we were almost done anyway."


    Nathan nodded in agreement.


    "Yeah, after just a little more the fight would''ve been over."


    Rae put on a strict expression and shook her head.


    "No. I judge both of you are unable to fight right now, so it''s a tie on both ends. Besides, the gym period is already over!"


    It was at this point Nathan and I looked around us. All the others in the ss were watching. In fact, there were some people that had their weapons raised but were frozen in ce, with their eyes on us.


    Well, this is a little awkward.

 Chapter 13: A Strange Book

    <h4>Chapter 13: A Strange Book</h4>


    I reflected on the fight as my adrenaline died down.


    ...Hm. Now that I think about it, as the fight progressed my mind was going on autopilot, and my muscle memory kicked in. I was performing various techniques that I didn''t understand, and it seemed Nathan was as well.


    I''m not sure how it was for him, but I definitely wouldn''t be able to recreate the moves I had just done onmand. However, I at least had a feel for them. It seemed like we would have to spar more often if we wanted to get a feel for how our bodies fought previously.


    After noticing we had calmed down, Rae slowly let go of our weapons and we slowly lowered them. Nathan shed me a smile that reflexively made me do the same.


    We put our wooden weapons away, which seemed to get the rest of the ss to realize that they could start moving as well. I couldn''t help but notice we had damaged the equipment quite a bit, but pretended to be oblivious. As Nathan and I continued walking, our posture gradually became rather awkward as the pain from our bruises caught up to us.


    I let out a soft sigh, though I still had a small smile on my face.


    "I know I said it before, but sorry for all that."


    Nathan nodded.


    "Yeah, I''m sorry too."


    We weren''t talking about the fight we just had, because if anything that was refreshing. But sparring like that inevitably brought up old memories, and they weren''t exactly good ones.


    Regardless, we had already sorted all of that out so we didn''t need to talk about it further.


    Hm? You want to know what the drama was about?


    ...It''s not important. Like, seriously. It''s not going to help you in any way by knowing.


    As Nathan and I made our way to the entrance, Raisa excitedly ran up to us.


    "I didn''t know you guys were so good at fighting! Though I had already said I would probably lose against you Bryson, it appears I definitely would have."


    I scratched the back of my head. Honestly, I didn''t expect it to get that heated, especially since we didn''t know how to use our weapons.


    "Haha, I think it was more so the enthusiasm that we had, which made it look more vicious than what it actually was."


    Nathan crossed his arms and nodded with his eyes closed.


    "Indeed! I''m actually not all that confident with my spear skills."


    Raisa tilted her head to the side and looked at Nathan, then at me. Her gaze was filled with confusion.


    "You two sound like warriors instead of mages. Why did the both of you work so hard on your body when you aspire to be a mage?"


    I blinked a few times, pondering over that question. Right, weren''t mages supposed to be like, super weak or something? Huh, but despite being a magic school, there''s still a physicalponent to it.


    I tapped my chin a few times as I thought about it.


    "Why does a magic school have a ss specifically for athletic ability?"


    Raisa let out a small smile.


    "Well, as a mage, you still have to be physically fit. Even in the best-case scenario on the battlefield, you will have to stand for at minimum several hours casting spells. In the worst case, you will be required to run away."


    She put a finger to her lips and tilted her head to the side.


    "But... learning how to fight will be extremely situational for a mage, no?"


    I was a little confused by her exnation, to be honest. The reason being, in the game there were many times when the main character had to fight with his spear and use magic at the same time.


    Thebat system wasn''t very fleshed out, as it was a dating game and all. But still, if you didn''tbine both aspects, you were basically severely handicapping yourself.


    Nathan spoke up with those exact thoughts.


    "Why would it be situational? It''s kinda hard to cast a spell if a guy is right up next to your face."


    Raisa smiled bitterly.


    "But that kind of situation would hardly ur! Mages are positioned far back on the battlefield, there would be no need for them to have a head-on confrontation. Even in the case of assassination, they will have guards. The only thing they would really need to do is run away."


    Ah, I see now.


    Raisa was talking aboutrge-scale fights, where one mage is just one of many. She was right in that sense. In fact, while the school did have a ss focused on one''s physical fitness, it was the lowest priority of all sses.


    To be promoted, one would have to have a rmendation from the Magic Teacher first and foremost, then either one from the English or Math Teacher. In other words, you didn''t have to impress the Gym Teacher at all.


    Regardless, the fights that we knew we would have to face were not the ones on the battlefield.


    Rather, it was with the people in the kingdom. Corruption had spread so far that the kingdom was set to copse itself. Many were not afraid of killing to get what they wanted, which caused quite a few conflicts.


    But thankfully, we still had about a month or so before any big actions happened.


    I let out a soft sigh and turned to Raisa.


    "The fights that we are concerned about... are the ones where you have to watch your back. There are no guards to protect you from those kinds of battles."


    Raisa''s expression fell. It seemed she realized what I was talking about, but didn''t like the implications of it. She waited a moment before speaking under her breath.


    "Is this... the quiet before the storm?"


    Nathan let out a long sigh.


    "Pretty much."


    The butler called for me, so I boarded the carriage along with Jess. As for Raisa, she still stood there, with her chin in her hand. Her eyes were zed over as she was obviously thinking rather hard.


    As for Nathan, he was basically limping back home on foot.


    I did feel a little bad, but I felt it was a bit too much if I called him over to give the guy a ride. The carriage ride home was silent as expected. The moment I got back, I asked one of the butlers.


    "By the way, when would be a suitable time for me to visit another noble''s manor?"


    The butler looked at me somewhat nervously.


    "Um, apologies. It would be better if you talked to the head butler. He is very aware of these things, sir."


    I blinked a few times.


    "Where can I find him?"


    The butler coughed a few times.


    "He should be in his personal study."


    I looked back at him for a little while. Though tempted to ask where this study was, it would probably be kinda weird if I asked that question, considering I lived here and all. With that in mind, I just aimlessly wandered the halls until I ended up finding a room that looked right.


    Upon opening it, I found that nobody was there. It looked like a study, so I figured it was the right ce.


    I thought maybe I could just wait around a little bit, but my eye caught onto the fact that there was a thinyer of dust over everything. Assuming the head butler was using the study semi-frequently, this shouldn''t be the case.


    This was probably the study of one of Bryson''s parents. I guess now they were considered my parents, but whatever.


    Out of curiosity, I walked in and began looking at the various things inside.


    The most prominent feature of this ce was the extremelyrge amount of books. The walls were basically just shelves that had books ced on them. Just looking at them made me lose interest, so after a few boring titles, I just stopped paying attention altogether.


    There was arge table in the middle, with several different drawers. I took a peek inside them all, but all they had was papers. Though I was curious, I didn''t want to waste too much time reading as I still wanted to talk with the head butler.


    There were other cabs that I walked over to check out. There were misceneous decorations ced on top of those like a small golden chalice, or a set of candles. Curious, I also opened up the cabs.


    One of them had a stock of ink, giving off a strong lead smell. One of the other drawers had sets of feathers.


    Going to another cab, I opened a drawer to find that it was filled with various trinkets that I didn''t understand. They seemed to be rted to magic, so I was a little afraid to touch them in case they backfired.


    Continuing through the different drawers, I found that they were mostly empty, save for a few things I didn''t know. But when I opened thest drawer, not expecting much, I saw a book that was open.


    From what I could see of the cover, it was pitch ck, while the pages were a pristine white, which was actually the first pure white paper I had seen in this world so far. I decided to read the page.


    ''Generally, those that have strong magical affinity will simrly give birth to children that also have such. The differences are generally trivial and major exceptions only arrive should one person have an astounding magical affinity, while the other has near none.''


    ''However, there are sometimes exceptions, where one heir may have a strangely lower magical affinity. This does not ur often, and when it does most families will be quite disappointed in their child. However, most of the time it is because conventional magic measuring systems are unable to see their full potential.''


    I can''t lie, reading those words made me a little excited. Did that mean I had some sort of special magic?


    ''The tools used by the kingdom purposefully do not ount for one''s affinity towards the Dark Arts. Dark Arts are not actually considered the same as magic, as the affinity for it is entirely unrted. However, the general concept of Dark Arts acts very simr to magic.''


    ...Dark Arts? That sounds cool! Maybe I won''t have to rely on magic at all.


    ''The nature of these arts is generally not epted within most ces, as they can very infrequently take a toll on one''s mental strength. But otherwise, it ispletely harmless and has a prowess far greater than the limitations of magic.''


    I found myself nodding as I read that, but at the end, I froze.


    For some reason, to me that sounded a lot like one of those scammy ads you see everywhere.


    Regardless, I continued reading.


    ''Despite not being epted, there are still ces that will take in people with those kinds of talents. They are inconspicuously marked by the symbol on the next page.''


    That page was on the right and had a picture of a simplistic sword in the ground that pierced through a book.


    ''To activate it, one can either visit one of these organizations and subtly mention your knowledge of Dark Arts to gain entrance. However, there is a more simple and easy way...''


    The words suddenly cut off from there. Curious, I reached over to turn the page.


    The moment my fingers touched the page, I could feel something resonating throughout my body. Out of nowhere, it felt like something heavy was on my back, while my hand began moving on its own, turning the page.


    Immediately, I realized something was wrong and resisted with all my strength, pressing hard with my thumb to put the page back. It was extremely difficult, especially because I was quite tired from the fight with Nathan earlier.


    Sweat began pouring from my forehead, while a frown formed on my face.


    I wasn''t sure what was happening, but it definitely wasn''t good. Though I was holding on for now, if this kept going on then I would eventually have to flip the page. After holding out for what felt like a minute, the pressure suddenly stopped, prompting me to gasp for air.


    Shit! Now that I think about it, Brysonter on in the story did use some really weird ass magic. It looks like this book was the reason why he suddenly just started screwing everything up...


    I closed the drawer, but for some reason, my mind kept going back to the book and what could''ve been on the next page.

 Chapter 14: Temporary Solution

    <h4>Chapter 14: Temporary Solution</h4>


    It took me a bit, but I found where the head butler''s study was. Upon knocking, the door opened, revealing a man with a ck suit on.


    I was already considered pretty tall, but he still had half a head over me. His hair was bright yellow and long for a male, contrasting with mine. His eyes appeared to be blue, but they were rather dull, making it easy to mistake them for gray instead.


    I opened my mouth, but before I could say anything, he simply sighed.


    "Lord Bryson, I''ve already told you that I cannot transfer you to ss S. Give up on that already. Perhaps if you were the direct son of the King, then something could be arranged, but the power as a Duke''s son is limited."


    I raised a finger, wanting to let him know that''s not what I was talking about, but he simply cut me off once more.


    "There is simply nothing you can do about being born with a weak magical affinity. Instead ofining, you need to work hard to show results despite that and get to ss S yourself."


    ...Can this guy just let me talk?


    My thoughts unconsciously wandered to the book, as it also talked about my weak affinity. I threw those thoughts out of my mind to focus on what really mattered, but at that time the head butler seemed to be giving up on me.


    He proceeded to sigh once more, ticking me off slightly.


    "If there is nothing else, then I will be taking my leave. I must attend to matters."


    I cleared my throat.


    "Can you just hear me out first, Head Butler?"


    He looked back at me strangely.


    "...Just call me James. You''re creeping me out."


    My eyelid twitched, but I nodded.


    "Then James, there were two things I came here for. First off, when would be an appropriate time for me to go to someone else''s manor?"


    James continued to look at me as though he was looking at some sort of freak.


    Was I really being all that weird?


    After a few moments of silence, he shook his head.


    "Well, in four days you will be attending a ball, so these next three days are free."


    I blinked a few times. After scratching the side of my head a little, I responded.


    "A ball?"


    James looked at me with a bit of exasperation.


    "I informed you several days ago, but it appears you were not listening. You cannot skip on this ball lest you offend the nobles that invited you."


    I narrowed my eyes slightly.


    "Ah, alright then. So tomorrow is fine?"


    James looked at me strangely.


    "Lord Bryson, I''m sure you already know already but you cannot go to another noble''s manor without an invitation."


    A smirk formed on my face. Jokes on you, I do have an invite!


    "They were the ones that invited me, asking me when I coulde."


    James continued to look at me for a few more moments.


    "Do not go to a lower noble house just to cause trouble."


    I felt a little peeved. What did he even mean by trouble?


    "I''m not causing trouble, I''m just going to visit..."


    James narrowed his eyes. From what I could tell, he definitely didn''t believe me.


    "Just know that I will be reporting the news to your father, so don''t step out of line."


    I raised both of my hands up like I was surrendering.


    "Alright. Can I talk about the next thing?"


    James took a deep breath. He seemed a little upset that I was still talking to him, which honestly made me feel a little weirded out. Weren''t butlers like, lower in statuspared to the people they served?


    I guess maybe it''s different for the head butler, or maybe it was just something about this family''s scenario.


    James raised an eyebrow as he spoke.


    "What is the next thing?"


    I wanted to do something about the Peasant Rebellion, but frankly, I wasn''t too sure of what to do. But still, I wanted to at least try something to maybe lessen its effects. However, it was a little hard for me to open up about my intentions.


    After all, I wasn''t just going to say that themoners were going to freak out down the line and I was nning on stopping that.


    After a moment of thought, I decided to ask indirectly.


    "How much money do I have?"


    James looked back at me with a re.


    "Magical Elixirs can only improve your strength by so much. They are inherently limited due to their nature."


    My eyebrow twitched, while my thoughts drifted to the book again.


    Crap, now''s not the time!


    I hurriedly cast those thoughts away before clearing my throat.


    "I''m not asking because I want to buy... Magical Elixirs."


    James sighed. He looked at me with tired eyes. It still looked like he did not believe a single thing that I was saying. Right when I thought that I was just going to be left with a staring contest, James stepped back and gestured toward me.


    "If you have so much to say, then let''s discuss it while sitting."


    He went to sit down in the study, next to a table. There were countless papers on top which looked a lot like taxes and other such things, but honestly, I wasn''t too sure. Another thing I noted was that this study was considerably smaller than the other one I was just in.


    There was a chair across from the table James, so I just sat in it.


    James tapped his finger against the table several times.


    "Remember that if you wish to use fundsrger than one thousand gold pieces in a week, then I must know exactly where it is going. So far, you''ve already used fifty-three, so you can only freely use a little over nine hundred without my supervision."


    He closed his eyes.


    "If you wish to use more, then I will purchase them on your behalf."


    I thought about it for a moment, with my head down and chin in my hands. However, any thought at this point was kinda useless because I still had no idea what the value of a gold piece was!


    ...Hopefully, he wouldn''t suspect me poking around.


    "How much would the average meal for a person cost?"


    James looked at me questioningly. He took a little while to respond, seemingly thinking about something.


    "It is a few gold pieces, is it not?"


    I pursed my lips in a bit of fear. The words Nathan had said before rang out in my ears. 18000 people. That was how manymoners there were. Surely not all of them would need help, so maybe if it wasn''t too expensive, then I could help those that needed it most.


    "...How much exactly would you say?"


    James continued to look at me like I was crazy.


    "Roughly ten gold pieces, if I had to put on a number."


    I felt a little demoralized. The prices on the menu in school were basically the same amount.


    Shit! If I only had ess to one thousand gold a week, that meant I could only prepare one hundred meals a week, which was only about fourteen meals per day.


    What the fuck was helping fourteen people going to do if there were eighteen thousand in total?


    Nothing! It''s like pouring a singr drip of water into a zing forest fire!


    Not to mention, even supposing I could end up feeding like, one thousand different people, I would also have to consider that there needed to be people to cook the food. They would probably need to be paid too.


    "...As a side note, how much are chefs paid?"


    James nkly spoke.


    "They are one hundred gold pieces for every month."


    ...Well, fuck.


    Iid back in my chair defeated. The energy was sapped out of me entirely. It looked like Nathan really was right that there was only so much that I could do...


    James furrowed his brows intensely as he stared at me.


    "Just so you understand, you can perhaps spend five hundred gold pieces on a meal, but any more than that will simply be a superfluous waste."


    Why did you have to bring that up? Why? It''s like beating a dead horse here!


    Wait.


    He said I can only use one thousand gold pieces without supervision, but if I could get him to agree it seemed like I could use more.


    I immediately got up in my chair and turned serious. From the look of things, I obviously couldn''t feed that many mouths forever, but what if I did it temporarily? Then that would buy us a lot of time to work on a real solution.


    It might only be keeping the problem at bay, but that time could be crucial!


    "How much money can I use while under your supervision?"


    James seemed to notice my change. Though somewhat reluctant, he answered my question.


    "A little over one hundred thousand gold pieces. Though you have received an allowance for quite a long time, you were not one to spend much of it. Remember, you must have my permission before you go and spend it on anything."


    I was stunned. One hundred thousand sounded like an absolute crap ton.


    ...Sorry Bryson, but I will be spending all your dosh! No hard feelings, right?


    But how long would itst me? Being generous, I just decided to ignore the costs of the chefs and focused on the ingredients.


    One hundred thousand would mean that I could do ten thousand different meals. That was still not enough for eachmoner for a single day, but surely not every single person needed the handout, right?


    Maybe only one thousand would need that many? But that would onlyst me ten days assuming I did it every day.


    No, the process to set everything up would definitely be quite hard if there were that many.


    What about... one hundred?


    That''s a decent amount, and should be enough tost one hundred days. If we really didn''t figure out anything by then, I guess we really aren''t suited to saving this kingdom.


    I clenched my fist and let out a long sigh.


    "I wish to use the money I have to purchase food. First-"


    I suddenly cut myself off. There was something I remembered randomly. In a business ss I took in high school, the teacher kept yapping about something called supply and demand.


    If there was a lot of something and little demand, then the price would go down. On the other hand, if the supply dwindled, the price would soar rapidly if the demand didn''t go down simrly.


    Food would always be in demand for obvious reasons. But what if I were to spend all my money on acquiring food from this city? Then that would just make the prices higher, and in the end, not much would be solved.


    I still remember that one history lesson when Germany was forced to print a crap ton of money. It very quickly became worthless, which screwed people over.


    Damn, thank you Ms. Palene and Mr. Giovanni! Though I hated school, it turns out your lessons actually did help me!


    Just maybe not in the way most would expect.


    "First... How much would it cost to buy food from ces outside of the kingdom? Are there merchants that have those products for sale?"

 Chapter 15: A Letter

    <h4>Chapter 15: A Letter</h4>


    When I asked for the cost of importing foods, James seemed to havee to some sort of understanding.


    Though I''m nearly one hundred percent sure that understanding was wrong.


    James shrugged his shoulders.


    "There are some expensive foods that can be imported, but know that they will probably not be worth it."


    I stared right at him, while he stared back at me. After a few moments of awkward silence, I decided to bring it up.


    "I feel like there is a misunderstanding between the two of us right now."


    James raised an eyebrow.


    "How so?"


    I massaged my temple with the tip of my finger.


    "I am not buying expensive food. What I''m looking for is arge quantity for the sake of themoners."


    We shared a moment of silence. James shook his head after a minute or so and coughed rather violently.


    "Sorry, I didn''t hear what you said earlier, could you repeat that?"


    My eyelid twitched. He definitely heard it the first time.


    "I''m not buying expensive food. I want a lot."


    James furrowed his brows.


    "Wait, so you''re saying you don''t wish to impress some noble family by preparing a meal for them."


    I pressed my lips together into a t line.


    "No, I don''t recall ever saying that. Please stoping to your own conclusions."


    James looked back at me as though I was a ghost.


    "Then what could you possibly want it for?"


    It was at this point that I had a little trouble speaking. I guess I was going to have to tell him anyway since I wasn''t allowed to move funds that were too much.


    "I want to purchase food from outside the city to provide a meal to themoners that want it."


    James exaggeratedly leaned in and ced a hand behind his ear, like making it more like an elephant''s ear was supposed to make it easier to hear.


    "Sorry, I didn''t hear that."


    I tilted my head to the side while an angry smile formed on my face.


    "James, I can tell that you heard it, you don''t have to act like this."


    James slowly sat back down in his seat and looked at me rather solemnly.


    "Why are you doing this? It is better to limit your interaction withmoners. While they may not have much power, if one were to attack you while unguarded, then you will die unfairly."


    I shook my head.


    "I''m doing this because I''m afraid of exactly that."


    It was at this point I just decided to randomlye up with a reason that didn''t sound too crazy to exin my actions.


    "From what I''ve observed, it feels as though themoners are getting uneasy. Perhaps a small spark will send them uprising into a rebellion."


    James immediately scoffed and uncontrobly beganughing at my idea.


    "That is ridiculous. Commoners have long already gotten used to their monotonous lifestyle. Besides, they''ve already got the capability to grow their own food. The taxes arepletely reasonable for the amount they grow as well."


    He shook his head.


    "And even if they rebel, they will simply end up throwing away their lives. The difference in power is far greater than what you could imagine."


    I bit the bottom of my lip.


    Yeah, I knew that.


    Unlike on Earth, the difference between nobles andmoners was far greater for the simple reason that all nobles had at least some capacity for magic power. This meant themoners, which almost all consisted of those with no magic power, would be demolished.


    Even the fewmoners that did know magic, weren''t as proficient in it because they had fewer resources to improve their capabilities. The difference in power between mages was exponential.


    But just because it made no sense to rebel, didn''t mean that they wouldn''t. After all, it literally happened in the game. The cost was thatmoners died, and property was destroyed.


    It was a lose-lose for both parties, but especially themoners.


    But the fact that it wouldn''t affect me directly wasn''t the point. At the end of the day, there needed to be people to farm, or else there was nowhere else to get food. Fewer people farming inevitably meant that the kingdom would have more strain on resources.


    And most importantly of them all, Minori casualty in all this.


    Though, I obviously wasn''t going to tell James that.


    With a small sigh, I shrugged my shoulders.


    "Even if it is pointless, I still wish to do it. I am unsure of the proper processes, but I still wish to import the food required to make as many meals as possible. Please purchase as much as you can for a reasonable price. I wish to arrange a ce within the kingdom near the slums where there is a lot of space."


    James clicked his tongue.


    "...I don''t know why you wish to do this, but fine."


    He closed his eyes and interlocked his fingers, setting them down on the table.


    "The amount of work you have just put on me is massive, I hope you know it."


    I slowly nodded.


    "I don''t know how to do any of that kind of work. I''m sorry about that."


    James looked back at me silently. After a few moments, he put his head down and set aside the papers scattered across his table. He took out a new paper and began jotting down various numbers and ns that immediately began to overwhelm me.


    I didn''t even know it was possible for someone to write faster than I could read, but that very reality was presented before me.


    Thankfully, James briefly spoke of all the things that he was writing about.


    "I will set up several deals across other kingdoms so that the asking price for food won''t be toorge, but it will take a little while for them toe in. Thankfully, we do have a decent supply of food right now, which should hold up for the most part until that supplyes in."


    He sighed.


    "I disagree with the idea of setting it up in the slums, but I suppose that simplifies certain things so I won''t disagree. But if you are setting it up in the slums, then we will need some guards."


    I narrowed my eyes slightly.


    "I ept there being guards for the people helping me out, but I don''t want any guards."


    James looked at me like I was stupid, and maybe he wasn''t wrong for having that impression.


    "The slums are a very dangerous ce. You should know that many people are willing to kill even if it is for part of a gold piece."


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "The guards around the others will be enough to scare them off."


    James looked at me with a bit of confusion.


    "...Can''t those guards protect you as well? It''s not as though they would really have to go out of their way."


    I waved my hand.


    "If I die because of my decision, then so be it."


    James hardened his expression.


    "You are taking life way too easily, Lord Bryson. Just because you are a Duke, does not mean you are invincible."


    I blinked a few times. Somewhat wondering why I was even making a decision like this.


    "I know. But if I die because of the trust I put in other people, then it is a death that I ept."


    James looked back at me for a long time. For the first time, I saw him smile, though it was definitely a bitter smile.


    "You do realize I can justmand the guards to protect you as well, and even if I do ry your orders to them they will probably try to do so anyway. After all, it wouldn''t look good for them if a prince died right in their faces."


    I let out a small chuckle.


    "Well, I don''t think that can be helped. But still, even if it is pointless, I would like you to arrange this."


    James let out a long sigh.


    "So be it then. I believe we can go ahead with that n today if you wish to. Just give me a little bit of time."


    I gave a small bow.


    "Alright, thanks."


    He then shooed me away.


    "Since there''s nothing else, you don''t have to be here. Attend to your own business."


    I felt like I was being kicked out, but decided not to question it too much.


    Though, unbeknownst to me, he wasn''t actually preparing for my request right away, but rather, writing a letter.


    ...


    Once James saw the door to his study close, he remained in his seat for a little while before letting out a sigh.


    "Has it really only been a few days? It feels as though I can''t even recognize him anymore."


    He tapped his chin a few times before taking a smaller piece of paper and began writing a message in fine print.


    ''Dear Leo,


    My apologies for contacting you over something that was not an emergency despite how busy you are. However, I felt as though this should be something you would want to know even with how chaotic things must be.


    Your son Lord Bryson has appeared to undergo some sort of enlightenment. Despite all of his physical features being the same, I can hardly even recognize him anymore. He no longer has the gaze that disdained the rest of the world and a self-destructing desire to be stronger.


    My first impression was that someone was pretending to be your son, but I quickly realized this was not the case as I have already memorized all the inconspicuous physical features. I then believed that there was a demon possessing him, but my soul eye could not find any trace of corruption. In fact, it almost seems too pure.


    As such, I came to the conclusion your son has changed, akin to a carp leaping through the Dragon Gates.


    I am unsure of what caused such a change, but I believe that it is a great one.


    Bear in mind, this was my judgment based on a rtively short encounter. It is entirely possible that I am greatly mistaken, seeing gold where there is only dust. You may be confused by this message considering I am usually very certain, and only mention things I am absolutely confident about.


    Yet, this is something I know I can''t be sure of. Strangely enough, I feel as though your son is somehow seeing further than me, already ahead of me on the path of enlightenment when he was previously far behind me. Unfortunately, I have no evidence, and this is only based on intuition.


    Currently, he wishes to take on what I am almost certain is a foolish endeavor, attempting to do charity work for themoners. While I believe it will simply be a waste of funds and time, I will still entertain him.


    Even if this ends up being a mistake, I believe this will be one he will learn and improve from, unlike the others he has made.


    I hope that youe back from your business alive and well. If nothing else, I believe you will be pleasantly surprised to see what your son has be now.


    Well wishes,


    Your Swordsman James''


    After writing that letter, James pointed a finger at the paper, causing a few small glyphs to appear. The wet ink dried immediately, after which he wrapped it up into a tiny slip.


    He went to the window, after which a bird immediately showed up. After inserting the paper next to the bird''s leg, he went back over to his own seat and let out a smallugh.


    While the bird flew away, he let out a sigh.


    "It looks like I have even more work to do now... you owe me for this Leo, you bastard."

 Chapter 16: Resounding Failure

    <h4>Chapter 16: Resounding Failure</h4>


    As James had said, he was able to prepare everything needed on the same day. Honestly, it kinda felt like he was a little too efficient. There was one point that he wanted to tell me, apparently something about the costs, but he just stopped himself.


    It was kinda weird.


    But I no longer thought about it.


    Right now, I was in the middle of the slums, in a fairlyrge area with not much going on around. I couldn''t help but notice almost every single person in the area was looking at me kinda strangely.


    In fact, it happened the moment I stepped off the carriage.


    ...For some reason it looked like they were afraid of me.


    I mean, I''m not that ugly, right?


    One of the chefs that were brought over hesitated for a few moments, but came over and lightly tapped me on the shoulder. His voice was just barely above a whisper.


    "Lord Bryson, why did you ask for us toe out all this way to cook for them? If you wanted to do a charitable act, you could simply hand out some of the grains to themoners."


    I shook my head.


    "No."


    The chef looked rather baffled by my statement, probably because I didn''t exin myself.


    Oh, and I don''t n to either.


    By my suggestion, we were able to get a few tables spread out in the empty area. They were all connected together into one long line and would be able to seat fifty people. My ideal was one hundred, but considering that we still had to get some more food delivered, I decided to start rtively small.


    From there, all of the chefs began preparing the food. There were people quite far away from me whispering to each other. Though I could hear the murmurs, they were too far away for me to actually catch on to what they were saying.


    I was wondering how to gather people, but they seemed to do that all on their own.


    After clearing my throat, I called out to them.


    "Hello, everyone. I havee here to provide those that want it with meals. I only have a limited amount of food, so I''m sorry if I am unable to provide for everyone that wishes for it."


    I then raised a finger.


    "There are only two rules that I have in ce if you wish to eat some.


    First off, you are not allowed to cause trouble at the table, or else you will be kicked out immediately.


    Second, if you wish for food, you must eat it at the table."


    One of the butlers pulled out a sign from a carriage with the same words I had said and put it down into the ground for everyone to see.


    The reason for the first rule was rather obvious, but the second was one I thought of when I imagined the greedy nature ofmoners. After all, I knew that mentality very well living on the lower end of the middle ss.


    It would be a blessing if we were able to have a little extra meat at the table, and I found myself trying to hold on tightly to every single cent that I had. It wasn''t as though I was starving, I was still eating well. However, I would''ve preferred to have a little more at times and that wasn''t always possible.


    I''ve grown out of that mentality nowadays, but it was definitely something that was going to overtake the minds of those unsure if they had food or not in the future.


    I couldn''t just expect all of themoners to grow out of that mentality, as such if I simply gave it out then they would probably try to get extra whenever possible. They would probably try to get as many bowls as possible and keep them at their home.


    However, if they were only allowed to eat it at the table, it would be very hard for them to do something like that.


    Sure, they could stuff themselves until they were on the verge of bursting, but it was still a very real limitation.


    This was one of the problems of simply just handing out food. That the cunning and greedy would end up getting more. Not only that, but it wouldn''t be umon for some to attack one another to get their share that was handed out.


    But if it was already in one''s stomach, then there wasn''t much to do about that.


    With all that said, that wasn''t the main reason. But it''s not really important.


    By the way, the chefs were working on making some pottage. I was kinda hoping to see other foods, but apparently, this was the easiest thing to make arge quantity of when there were ingredients from all over the ce.


    Soon enough, many servings were ready.


    They had cooked about enough for twenty people to eat before waiting around. Unfortunately, while there were a lot of people watching, none of them walked up. There was a kid that tried to walk forward, but was hurriedly pulled back by their parent.


    Regardless, I didn''t let this faze me and took a bowl myself before sitting down.


    The chefs were rather surprised and let out their worries, that it wasn''t food fit for someone like me but I simply ignored it. I sat at the table alone and began to eat. It was a rather wide table, making the fact that I was eating alone very apparent.


    Yet, at the same time, countless people were looking at me.


    This was rather nostalgic, though not in a very happy way. Because at school back on Earth this very same thing would happen for quite a while. Naturally, it didn''t happen in myter years because there was Nathan to sit with all the time.


    But still, it was something that happened.


    Nheless, I continued eating without a care in the world. Even when I was near halfway done with my meal, not a single person stepped within a one-hundred-meter radius of me.


    I''ve already changed bodies, so it can''t be because I''m ugly... right?


    Though it was expected that things basically always start small, I still thought at least a few people would sit down to eat. It was at this point that I epted that none of themoners were willing to sit down.


    With a sigh, I turned to the servants and guards.


    "Hey, have you guys eaten yet?"


    They looked at each other before slowly shaking their heads. One of the butlers stepped forward with a bow.


    "We will eat our meals when we get back. It ismon etiquette to eat only after the master has eaten."


    I raised an eyebrow.


    "Well, why don''t you all get some and eat as well?"


    The butler''s face twitched when he heard that.


    "Lord Bryson, that wouldn''t be very appropriate. The etiquette I just mentioned-"


    "I''ve already eaten, no?"


    I cut him off, not letting him say any more. With a shrug, I continued.


    "Besides, I hope you know that I n to finish all the food that was cooked if nobody else is eating it."


    The butler looked rather stunned as he looked at me.


    "E-Eh? But why?"


    I blinked a few times before responding.


    "I was the one that told you to cook this stuff, so naturally I will be the one to finish it should there be any left over."


    The butler frowned slightly before bringing up his concerns.


    "Lord Bryson, the food will be spoiled before you can finish it all."


    It was at this point I smirked and waved at him.


    "Then wouldn''t it be easier for me if all of you took some and ate it?"


    Altogether, there were ten other people with me. Considering there was enough for twenty different people already cooked, that meant there was going to be extra even after.


    The butler was the first to hesitantly take a bowl, but he sat rather far from me. This seemed to start a chain reaction as all the others did the same. The guards were the most reluctant, but I was able to convince them with a few words.


    Though the first day was a resounding failure, I didn''t get hung up on it. Instead, I just enjoyed the food in front of me with the others. Just, none of them sat next to me. In fact, there were two seats from my left and right that were both empty.


    Everyone else at the table was quite nervous, but as they got into eating they began eating quite quickly. It appeared that they actually were pretty hungry.


    Some time passed.


    Then out of nowhere, I heard a familiar voice called out.


    "Eh? What is going on here?"


    Nathan pushed through the crowd to see what everyone was staring at. After he had called out like that, many of themoners backed off, not wanting to be seen as rted to him.


    With a smirk, I gave Nathan a wave.


    "Hey, my n was a resounding failure. Want to take part in the fruits of defeat?"


    Heughed beforeing over.


    "I''d be d to!"


    Nathan unabashedly took a bowl of pottage for himself before sitting right next to me.


    "Hey, if you think about it, now it isn''t aplete failure because there''s onemoner willing to sit next to you!"


    I let out a long sigh while rolling my eyes.


    "Yeah, I suppose I will take it."


    We then proceeded to chat about useless things. Nathan finished the bowl rather quickly. He even went for seconds, which I simrly did.


    The spar we had at school was quite tiring after all.


    Though, I noticed that he was eating a rather unnatural amount. Nathan wasn''t doing that intentionally, but rather without really noticing it. From the looks of things, he actually wasn''t eating that well.


    I guess if nothing else, then at least I was able to help out Nathan a little.


    There was one point during the meal when Nathan began speaking to me in a barely audible whisper.


    "I saw Edward."


    He still had a smile on his face and wasn''t looking at me. To onlookers, it appeared as though he was just enjoying the food. I felt a bit of dread wash over me but stuffed a carrot into my mouth as though everything was ok.


    I simrly whispered just so that he could barely hear it.


    "What did you do about it?"


    Nathan responded after a few moments, in no rush.


    "Tailed him and found his house, nothing other than that."


    Edward was one of the viins in the story. Although he definitely wasn''t the biggest one, he still caused many people to die. As of now, he was just amoner, not the viin that he was in the story, but it would not take long for him to be that.


    He created many problems, and some of them would end up indirectly killing characters if proper measures weren''t handled. That was because he would end up bing a blood mage.


    Apparently, he just so happened to have some sort of strange bloodline that allowed him to use blood to cast spells. However, it didn''t have to be his own blood. To fuel his powers, Edward did an inordinate amount of killing and would then use those powers to kill more people.


    Though this game was a tragedy, it was worse for Edward. No matter what route you took, he would die. Either the hero would kill him off early, or the hero would kill him with the help of the magician association, or the magician association would kill him themselves.


    Still, it was a deserved ending.


    If we could directly cut him off early... that would save us a lot of trouble.


    Sure there was the moral dilemma that he hadn''t done anything yet so he didn''t really deserve to die, but neither Nathan nor I cared about that. I mumbled under my breath to Nathan.


    "Do you need any help killing him?"

 Chapter 17: Confidence

    <h4>Chapter 17: Confidence</h4>


    After asking if he needed help in killing Edward, Nathan was unfazed.


    "I have a n that should probably take care of him. I''ll tell you how it ends up in a few days and if I need your help."


    With that, I asked no more about that. After eating my second serving of pottage, I felt quite full, but there was still stuff I wanted to talk about so I got another even though it would probably give me a stomach ache.


    "I think I found out why Bryson turned evil. There was this book that tried to take control of me in the mansion. It seems to have cast some sort of spell on me that makes me think about it."


    Nathan frowned slightly but passed it off as though there was a bad vor in the pottage.


    "Isn''t that bad?"


    Was it bad? I don''t know.


    "This may be part of the spell, but I''m not really worried about it for some reason."


    Nathan responded quickly.


    "Then I''ll p you back into shape if you end up going awry for any reason."


    Right after that, he let out a loud sigh.


    "Man, that was tasty! Thanks for the food!"


    I waved my hand dismissively.


    "No problems. I''ll try to be here often, but I won''t be able to make it tomorrow."


    Nathan gave me a thumbs-up.


    "Got it, I''ll see youter."


    Surprisingly, we did end up finishing what we cooked as several of the servants went for seconds after seeing me and Nathan take three whole bowls.


    From there, we packed everything up. As they were getting things back in the carriage, the butler bowed toward me with a bitter smile.


    "It appears your n didn''t work but don''t worry! I''m sure the next thing you try will work out!"


    I smirked while giving him a casual wave.


    "What do you mean? It worked fine."


    The butler blinked a few times, looking at me strangely.


    "Eh? But... nobody came."


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "Hey, you guys came to sit. And that included the one guy too."


    The butler tilted his head to the side.


    "But is that not your friend?"


    Iughed as I stepped into the carriage.


    "A sess is a sess no matter how pathetic it looks. We will be doing the same thing many more times from now on."


    The butler was rendered speechless.


    Not waiting anymore, I just stepped into the carriage and let it take us back home. Feeling the pain from eating too much, I took a bath and went to sleep a little early. Upon waking up, I didn''t eat all that much for breakfast, though Jess was ring at me the whole time.


    In fact, even on the carriage ride to school, the very same thing happened.


    It made me feel quite ufortable, but I just ignored it the best I could.


    During magic ss, the teacher further borated on how to use mana to manipte spells and showed the specific step-by-step process of how to summon a ball of water.


    There was a drawing on the board as he exined it all.


    In the back of my mind, I couldn''t help but feel nervous that I was going to fail. After all, I was seen as someone that was incredibly smart, and if I failed miserably on the basic spell then it would look rather strange.


    Regardless, I decided to try anyway.


    Following how Harold exined everything, I tried to manipte the mana in my body, but had difficulty doing so. How exactly did this whole thing work?


    I peeked at Nathan, and from the frown on his face, it looked as though he had a simr problem as me. However, there were several people that were not having trouble with it, which was almost half of the ss.


    Raisa had already begun forming the spell, and so was . In fact, even Sam was working on it, though he looked like he was having difficulties in properly forming the mana. Harold noticed that most people had not yet tried to cast the spell, and he didn''t look surprised.


    I guess it was normal for people to be unable to do it at first.


    However, when Harold saw I hadn''t tried casting yet, he looked at me with curiosity.


    "Why haven''t you begun casting yet? I imagine you''ve already figured out how to manipte mana?"


    This fucking... why did you have to call me out specifically? Just let me go unnoticed, you insensible teacher!


    I blinked a few times while my mind scrambled for some answer.


    "I just... wanted to see the proper method of doing it."


    Harold simply smiled and nodded.


    "Haha, I see, I see. Then I suppose I should demonstrate just that."


    He cleared his throat before sitting cross-legged on top of his desk. He did so without any reservation, despite how crude it looked. From there, Harold put his hands onto his knees and began speaking in a rather calm voice.


    "Mana is ever present in our bodies. It is normal to find it difficult to catch, as the mana in your body is essentially fused with you, making it hard to distinguish. It is known that blood is able to store mana the most easily, but you should be able to draw mana from every part of your body assuming you have given it time to soak mana in."


    He then took a deep breath before closing his eyes. The surface of his body suddenly began glowing slightly, until a very thinyer of blue mana covered him. It almost made him look like he was some sort of iridescentmp.


    "To get a proper feel for the mana of your body, the mostmon way is meditating. By trying to empty your head of thoughts and ignoring all other sensations, you draw on the incredibly subtle presence of mana. As you get more used to it, then you will no longer need to meditate."


    From there, many other students began meditating, sitting on top of their desks. I noted that the nobles seemed to hesitate for a bit longer, but did it anyway. Naturally, as I had no idea how to sense mana, I did the same.


    On paper, it didn''t sound too hard. Meditating was something I had done before, but honestly, I was wondering if somehow our Earth brains would make it harder or impossible for us to sense mana.


    Yet, the moment I closed my eyes and calmed my mind, I found that worry was unfounded. Though it wasn''t strong, I could feel the mana in my body. It was rather elusive. As Harold said, mana seemed to meld with one''s body, easily making it incredibly difficult to notice normally.


    It took a couple of tries, but I was able to ''tug'' the mana out of my body. Immediately I could recognize that the mana had been depleted from that part of my body, and coalesced into my hand.


    I opened my eyes to see Nathan also with a ball of mana.


    ...But it was maybe ten times the size of mine.


    Nathan was also looking at the ball of mana in surprise. This was the clearest result of a difference in magical affinity. The reason why having a higher magical affinity was so valued was because that was what determined your mana capacity, ease of manipting mana, and also what spells you were even able to cast in the first ce.


    After shaking my head I began to follow Harold''s steps in casting the water ball. They were rtively easy, thus despite being my first time manipting mana, I was able to do it on my first try. There were a few hups along the way, but a small ball of water appeared above my hand.


    Out of curiosity, I brought it close to the ck walls of the ssroom and the water dispersed like it never existed after getting closer than ten centimeters.


    It seemed that this stuff was really effective.


    Nathan had a frown on his face, a bit discouraged to cast the water spell with that much mana, but tried anyway.


    The end result was a rather massive ball of water formed above him. He looked up in surprise.


    "What the, wait, isn''t this going to fall on me? I gotta move it!"


    Harold seemed to sweat a little.


    "No, no, all you have to do is cancel the spell or bring it close to the wa-"


    Nathan was listening, but also panicking a little too much.


    "What? Wait, fuck, fuck, fuck!"


    He lost control of the ball of water, causing it to ssh down on him, covering him in water as though he had just gotten out of a pool. He still had one finger raised in the air, while his lips were pressed into a t line.


    He blinked a few times, having epted his fate.


    I couldn''t help butugh out loud, after which Nathan pointed at me with anger.


    "Shut up! It''s not fair, you''re right next to the wall so you can make the spell go away easily!"


    With a smirk spread out across my face, I shrugged.


    "Huh? I didn''t say anything. What are you talking about?"


    Nathan''s eyelid twitched.


    "...Oh yeah?"


    He proceeded to get out of his seat, walk to me and il his sleeves, showing me with droplets of water.


    "Take this!"


    I blocked with both hands, closing my eyes whileughing.


    "Ok, ok fine! I''m sorry."


    Nathan crossed his arms with a scoff in an overly pretentious way.


    "It''s good you understand."


    From there, he got back into his own seat without a word. The whole ss seemed to be staring at us once more.


    Oh, right. This wasn''t Earth, so goofing off like this was kinda weird between a noble and amoner. Eh, whatever. We gave up on that pretense earlier anyway.


    Nathan looked at the teacher and pointed at himself.


    "Do you have some sort of drying spell? This is kinda inconvenient."


    Harold smiled bitterly.


    "Apologies, but I am unable to cast that sort of spell."


    Nathan''s eyes widened.


    "Eh? Is the drying spell super advanced or something?"


    Harold let out a helpless sigh. He slowly shook his head, before sping his hands together. His eyes were looking up and to the left, seemingly thinking about how to say his next words.


    "It is not that drying itself is all that extraordinary, but because of the nature of how that spell works, it is incredibly difficult to learn, and means one has ess to far more powerful spells as well."


    Nathan looked down at himself before looking up once more.


    "So am I just supposed to go around like this?"


    Harold coughed awkwardly.


    "Perhaps... you have a change of clothes?"


    Nathan blinked a few times.


    "I guess this will just be my life now."


    Magic ss ended a littleter, and Nathan was still quite wet. Even after math ss, he had only dried off a little bit. However, he still proudly went off to the cafeteria while casting droplets of water everywhere he walked.


    Other than staying a little further away from him, Raisa and I followed.


    When we got back to ss, our English teacher was already there. He was a middle-aged man with brown hair and a beard. Dennis was his name. There was a natural frown on his face, and it only deepened further when he saw the wet mess that Nathan currently was in.


    "This is the problem withmoners! They simply bring filth into what is normally a pristine school. If it weren''t for this school being so lenient to give you pieces of trash a chance, then our reputation would''ve soared far higher!"


    I opened my mouth to defend him, but Nathan put a hand on my arm.


    It was probably intended to be on my shoulder, but... he was too short to reach itfortably.


    I closed my mouth right after as I remembered. Nathan didn''t need anyone to defend him. The only reason that thing happened with Karin was that he had a weakness for older women for some reason. In fact, her lecturing might''ve even been endearing to him.


    Wait... that was probably the main reason he got a perfect score in the first ce.


    But the smile across his face now was confident, and a little domineering.

 Chapter 18: Show Off

    <h4>Chapter 18: Show Off</h4>


    Though it wasn''t something that Nathan really showed, he was a person with a lot of pride. In a certain sense, I guess you could call that narcissism, but it wasn''t like he just took out mirrors to look at himself or anything.


    He looked at Dennis, the English teacher, and narrowed his eyes ever so slightly.


    "You think that this school would be better off withoutmoners, no?"


    Dennis scoffed and flicked his sleeve.


    "That much is obvious. Simply because they have a little bit of magical talent, we have to raise clueless little babies that just end up tarnishing the reputation! They do no good!"


    Nathan casually raised a finger into the air.


    "The first Legendary Mage that came from this school was Erin, well-known for being amoner. And to this day, there are very few that have even gotten close to her prowess."


    Dennis'' face twitched.


    "That is just some random exception! It does not change my point whatsoever!"


    Nathan shrugged his shoulders.


    "The whole reason that Erin graduated from that school in the first ce was that it was one that allowedmoners to enroll. It wasn''t as though there weren''t other schools, but naturally, they were restrictive."


    He let out a sigh, as though he was talking to a child.


    "Unlike all the other mages that left their school without turning back, Erin had helped support it to return its generosity. Those other magic schools tried to suck every single gold coin they could from those that attended, leaving only a mild distaste for the ce."


    His expression hardened to be simr to stone.


    "But despiteing upon arge sum of money, the school''s nature did not change. Commoners were still epted, and the principles were always adhered to. That''s how they continually got support from those that graduated, allowing them to grow evenrger andrger until Golden Gold School had be the undisputed top magic school."


    Dennis opened his mouth to say something but found himself choking on his words. Nathan used that time to hammer the point home.


    "The fact you so willingly want to go against what made this school sorge in the first ce shows how foolish and immature you are. It would be better if this school got rid of you."


    Dennis looked rather livid.


    "How dare you speak to a teacher like that? Do you really think that you could learn how to read and write without someone teaching you?"


    Nathan scoffed with a smile on his face. He took several steps forth.


    "Maybe not, but I sure as hell don''t need someone like you to teach me. I''ve already learned all I need to know about reading and writing."


    This time, Dennis smiled confidently.


    "Oh, so high and mighty now are you? Then who exactly would be willing to teach those things to amoner like you?"


    For a split second, Nathan seemed rather stumped. After all, he couldn''t just mention where he actually got his reading and writing skills from. But he didn''t crumble apart. Instead, he pointed a thumb towards me.


    "He did. And I''m sure he''s a better teacher than anything you could be."


    My eyelid twitched. I didn''t mind being dragged into this, but I felt a little awkward because I hadn''t actually done anything.


    Dennis shifted his gaze to me, after which there was a confused expression on his face. It seemed like he didn''t know if he should be angry or not. But he promptly ignored me, before focusing his anger on Nathan.


    He grabbed Nathan''s shirt, lifting him up by the cor.


    "Little runt! Do you think I''m just an English teacher? I could kill you as easily as squishing an ant!"


    Nathan only leaned forward. His face lost all expression and his eyes appeared to be dead.


    "Do it then. Let me see how pathetic you are, an old man that can''t win a logical battle and can only rely on his fists."


    He was being dead serious. Rather, he really did not care if the English teacher ended up killing him right then and there, simply because that would prove his point.


    That was the kind of person he was.


    But again, it was something that he rarely showed.


    In the end, the English teacher lost heart. Despite his ability to do so, he wasn''t going to ruin his future by killing a kid for the sake of pride. In the end, he set him down, but there was a nasty frown on his face.


    It was pretty clear that he was going to hold a very big grudge for the rest of his life from this.


    Raisa whispered to me after all of that went down.


    "You even taught him how to read and write? You must be an amazing teacher!"


    I waved my hand dismissively.


    "He was the one that picked it up so quickly."


    From there, I shot a nce at Nathan and rolled my eyes, telling him that he went too far. However, Nathan simply smiled in response. There were just certain people that he really didn''t like, so I knew his actions couldn''t really be helped.


    Though, it would turn out the conflict wasn''t done just yet.


    After writing a phrase on the board, Dennis tapped the board and called out to Nathan.


    "Since you are so proficient in reading and writing, then why don''t you repeat this?"


    Nathan looked back at the teacher as though he was stupid. As people that spoke English as their firstnguage, the difficulty of reading a sentence was beyond trivial. In fact, it wouldn''t be hard to believe first graders could do such a thing.


    He sighed.


    "The mage on top of the mountain casts a magical spell."


    Dennis raised an eyebrow. While not impressed, he at least acknowledged Nathan had some ability. He cleared his throat before writing something else.


    "Then what about this?"


    Nathan rolled his eyes before repeating the words on the board once more.


    "The criminal was put under the guillotine and put to death."


    Dennis was rather surprised. Honestly, I even kinda forgot how to pronounce guillotine because it wasn''t intuitive. He seemed to be stumped for a few moments, before a smile formed on his face.


    It looked like he hade up with something.


    "Well then, how about this? I will say a sentence, and you will then write that sentence on the board."


    Nathan blinked a few times.


    "Alright then."


    Dennis cleared his throat before speaking.


    "The spices that the nobles had purchased contained jpenos."


    Without breaking a sweat, Nathan wrote the entire sentence down without pausing. Thankfully, his hands dried enough so that he could hold onto the chalk easily. I guess what Dennis was going for was the silent j in jpenos, but I''m not even sure if Nathan noticed it.


    Dennis seemed rather befuddled after that had happened.


    It was at this point that Nathan smirked before speaking up.


    "You teach this stuff right? So that must mean you will also be able to read out what I write."


    Dennis raised his eyebrow before scoffing.


    "That is only natural, it''s not as though you would know a word that I do not."


    From there, Nathan proceeded to write like a kid trying to show off the big words that he knew. Though, I guess transferred into this world, it would be something considered impressive.


    ''The epidermis covers the phnges to create fingers.''


    Dennis was initially very confident.


    "The e..."


    His expression fell as he saw the next words. After a few moments, he clicked his tongue and pointed at Nathan mockingly.


    "Those aren''t real words!"


    I blinked a few times before speaking up.


    "Epidermis is the word for the outer skin, and phnges refer to the bones of the fingers and I guess toes too."


    Dennis'' head snapped to me. He had an expression of disbelief. After a few moments, he hurriedly took out a small ck book he had on him and began flipping through the page. Though there was no title on it, I could imagine that it was a dictionary.


    His expression only worsened as he paused on a page, before hurriedly checking another one.


    "...They are real words."


    I felt a tiny bit of relief. In all honesty, I wasn''t sure if those were considered real words in this ce, but it looks like it was fine.


    Dennis put a hand on his head and looked quite defeated. He then turned to me, after which he asked with borderline desperation.


    "How... did you teach him so much in such a small frame of time."


    I blinked a few times. It would probably not be a good thing to point out he had basically spent eighteen years learning the Englishnguage, so I simply shrugged my shoulders.


    "He can pick up on things incredibly quickly. It was not hard to teach someone like that."


    Raisa turned to look behind her and called out to me with a smile.


    "Could you teach me too?"


    I felt a headacheing on as I hurriedly waved my hands.


    "No more lessons, I would rather do other things. Besides, you wanted me toe over or something, I''ll only agree if there''s no teaching. Oh yeah, I''ll be able toe over today and the next two days."


    Raisa smiled brightly before pping.


    "Ah, then today it is!"


    My eyelid twitched.


    She didn''t have to do any preparation of any sort? Well, I guess I''ll just base it on her judgment.


    Wait... why did I even have to go to her ce anyway?


    Ah, fuck. My teenage hormone-filled brain is making me do stupid things...


    The corner of Dennis'' lip twitched rather violently while all that was happening. He looked quite demoralized and went back to the front of the desk with a sigh.


    "...It appears I''ve been mistaken. Though I find it hard to believe, your mastery appears to have exceeded mine. Lord Bryson and Natan will no longer need to attend normal sses and will face no punishments for skipping. However, you will still be required to show up during the major tests."


    I raised an eyebrow.


    Skipping ss?...


    Under normal circumstances, one would be punished heavily should they not show up, or even if they werete. This was in part because they wanted the students to do well, thus improving their reputation.


    The punishments consisted of things like a demotion, reduction in grades, and if one was in the D ss, they could very easily be kicked out. If we were given a free pass to skip, that would save us a lot of time, especially considering English sses were essentially useless to us.


    However, Raisa furrowed her brows and pointed something out.


    "...Dennis, are you giving permission with the intention of getting them to skip sses so you can demote them?"


    Dennis looked back at her cluelessly, and I waved nonchntly.


    "Don''t worry about that kind of stuff Raisa."


    Raisa looked back at me with curiosity.


    "Eh? You can put your trust in that guy so easily?"


    I shook my head.


    "Not so much that guy, but rather the person that watches everything that happens in the school. They basically know everything that happens here, so we won''t have to worry about any fraud."


    Raisa blinked a few times, staring at me as if I was a ghost. A small smile formed on her face.


    "Haha, I never knew your informationwork was so... exceptional."


    Uh, yeah. Definitely my informationwork. I noticed a nce from Nathan. He had his eyebrow raised as though trying to say, ''look at that, I''ve done something pretty good, no?''


    ...Get off your damn high horse, Nathan. You didn''t even intend on doing all this, you just wanted to show off.

 Chapter 19: Nothing Special

    <h4>Chapter 19: Nothing Special</h4>


    After all that, English ss went on rather uneventfully. The only thing different from normal was that Dennis was even more unenthusiastic than before. In gym ss, Rae began teaching us the basics of most of the wooden weapons, then got us to train by using them.


    From there, she would walk around and correct anyone''s posture that was incorrect. Rae was giving us advice and pressing certain parts of our body to force the muscle into the correct position.


    It turns out she was surprisingly knowledgeable about this kind of stuff.


    And in a sh, ss was finished. As I was walking out of the gym, Raisa appeared next to me.


    "Hey! Now you''ll be visiting my manor, right?"


    I gave a casual nod.


    "I guess so. I''ll just inform my butler."


    Nathan shed me a smirk, while he was holding his chin with a hand in the position of a finger gun. I bet he thought he looked so slick.


    Upon reaching the entrance of the school, I did exactly what I had said, informing the butler that I would be going to Raisa''s manor. With that, I walked over to her carriage. Yet, before I could make it all the way there, someone grabbed onto my arm.


    "What are you doing? The carriage is over here."


    I looked over my shoulder to see Jess. She was gripping my arm rather tightly, cutting off the blood flow. It honestly made me a little bit nervous.


    "I was invited to someone else''s manor, so I epted their invitation."


    Jess tilted her head to the side and red at me. I distinctly felt chills down my spine. Damn, did she think I was going to cause trouble just like James?


    I mean, that''s not the most far-fetched thought considering Bryson was kind of an asshole, but still, it kinda hurts to be judged like that!


    Though, right as I was searching for a way out of this scenario, Jess gradually let go of my arm. Even her expression returned to her neutral frown.


    "Be home by night."


    I scratched the side of my head and nodded.


    "Alright."


    From there, Raisa grabbed onto my arm and dragged me along.


    "Come on! Let''s go already!"


    She brought me into her own carriage, which was actually a bitrger than ours. Though, considering that it was only me and her sitting down right now, it seemed she normally used it by herself.


    That meant it was normally just way too spacious, but I didn''t harp on that fact.


    Raisa smiled at me and pped a few times.


    "I''m quite excited! In truth, I believed that you were nning on declining my invitation altogether, but I''m pleasantly surprised that was not the case."


    I couldn''t help but feel the immediate contrast between the atmosphere while in my own carriage and the one here. Raisa tilted her head to the side and shyly looked at me.


    "Do you mind if I sit next to you?"


    I blinked a few times. We were currently sitting on opposite ends, but it still wasn''t that far away because while the room inside the carriage was big, it was still only a room inside a carriage. The request was kinda weird, but I decided not to reject it.


    "...If you really want to, but not too close."


    With that, Raisa excitedly got off and sat next to me. Thankfully, she did respect my personal space and didn''t get too close. From there, she still had her smile but began whispering to me.


    "I wanted to talk more about what you had said earlier."


    I raised an eyebrow and turned to her, feeling the sudden change of tone in her voice.


    "What exactly are you talking about?"


    She took a deep breath with one hand on her heart. It looked like it took a lot of courage for her to say her next words.


    "That we can''t trust those in our own kingdom."


    I leaned back in my seat, contemting it for a few moments. That was something I implied I guess, but I feel like it''s taking it too far to jump to conclusions like that.


    Or is that just something that nobles do?


    I closed my eyes and tried to recall the name Raisa from the game. Having yed all the routes multiple times, I was able to recall lists of names one after another, slowly filtering through them. However, nothing came up.


    I guess she wasn''t all that important of a character to the story.


    Now the question was, should I even tell her in the first ce? If she gets unnecessarily involved in the story, it could screw our predictions even further than they''ve already been messed up.


    While I was pondering over it, Raisa tilted her head to the side with a small pout. She seemed to be a little upset.


    "Is it something you can''t tell me?"


    I tapped my chin a few times before turning to her.


    "It''s nothing like that. I''m more so wondering whether or not it is even worth it to tell you in the first ce."


    Raisa blinked several times, recoiling back slightly. She took a few minutes to process what I was saying before letting out a chuckle.


    "You were rather blunt about that."


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "I see no reason to lie about it."


    Raisa clicked her tongue and crossed her arms.


    "At least you could sugarcoat it."


    I scratched the side of my head before supporting my head with my fist. She watched me curiously, as though my actions were somehow worth looking at. I then responded tly.


    "I guess I could''ve. But I don''t really like it when people sugarcoat things."


    Raisa continued to look at me, all the while hardly blinking. On top of that, her body was hardly moving. Honestly, it was kinda creeping me out a little, making me think that maybe she suddenly turned into a doll. If it wasn''t for the fact I could just barely make out the fact that she was breathing, I would''ve pushed her away.


    Eventually, she muttered in a sad voice.


    "But that''s what nobles do best..."


    It appeared that Raisa was recalling some memories that made her sad. I wouldn''t know what those were, but I''m sure she needed a bit of time to shake it off. It took her a minute or so, but she was able to break out of her stupor.


    She looked at me like I was an enigma when I was really just a person being blunt.


    "How... can you be like this?"


    My eyelid twitched. I had a feeling I understood what she was talking about, but still couldn''t be sure.


    "You really need to be more specific if you are asking questions."


    Instead of responding, she gingerly picked up my arm by the wrist, bringing my hand closer to her face. She flipped it to look at my open palm and ever so gently pushed away my fingers with her other hand.


    She mumbled under her breath, probably not wanting me to hear.


    "You aren''t an alien..."


    Raisa then spoke to me gently but did it all the while staring at my hand.


    "How are you able to act like that? When nobles are all expected to be so formal and rigid. Are you not afraid of looking barbaric or unrefined?"


    I felt cold sweat on my back.


    The reason why I wasn''t acting like a noble wasn''t that I wasn''t afraid of those things, but rather because I literally had no idea how to! But... I can''t say that!


    While my mind was in chaos, Raisa continued.


    "There are so many rumors about you, that they''ve reached everyone''s ears already. All of them are so wrong, but you don''t even try to dispel them. Before anyone has even seen you, they look at you as though you are a piece of trash even though you haven''t done anything."


    The corner of my lip twitched.


    A piece of trash? My reputation is that bad?


    ...Gah. This girl looks like she''s going through puberty or something, but to enter the school in the first ce you have to be eighteen. Isn''t she a little too old for this?


    Ah, whatever.


    I tapped on her shoulder, prompting her to look up at me. While looking directly into her eyes, I decided to give her words of encouragement.


    "The reason I can act like this despite the way that people look at me and all of the rumors is simply that I don''t care about how other people view me."


    Raisa looked confused. I cleared my throat and raised a finger, trying not to lose her.


    "I don''t view my own character by what others think of me. After all, at the end of the day, you will be the one that understands yourself the best. That doesn''t mean you understand yourself perfectly or anything, and others can sometimes see things about yourself that you don''t."


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "But at the end of the day, the best person to make that kind of judgment is you."


    Raisa smiled bitterly and looked back down at my palm. Her grip tightened ever so slightly, but it was more so her tensing her muscles rather than holding on to me tighter.


    "You make it sound so easy. I''ve heard to just ignore it, but it still hurts, you know?"


    I chuckled and tapped my forehead.


    "Yeah, it isn''t all that easy to ignore. But that''s where you have to learn to be proud of yourself."


    Raisa frowned like she was disgusted.


    "I don''t like nobles that are too proud of themselves."


    I waved my hand dismissively.


    "This is different. Just because you are proud of yourself doesn''t mean you have to unt it. Your pride isn''t for others to see, but for you."


    Then, I put a fist over my heart.


    "I know what I''ve been through. I know what I''ve ovee. And I am proud of that. No matter what happens, nothing will change what happened and I am here right now with my head up. Perhaps in the future, my memories of it will disappear, or I will no longer be able to hold my head up high, but I know that it is true now."


    Raisa furrowed her brows.


    "But... I don''t have any big achievements."


    I raised an eyebrow.


    "That''s because you are defining achievements by what other people see them as. Maybe at the time, I thought what I''d been through was special, or somehow worse than others. But I understand that there are many others that have been through the same things that I have, or even worse."


    My face gradually rxed as I talked. Though I couldn''t see my eyes, I could tell they were beginning to dull.


    "For others, it might''ve been incredibly easy. They may not think that it''s anything big. Even if they were to fully understand, there are some that may wonder what the difficult part even was."


    The corner of my lip turned up slightly.


    "But it was hard for me. And at the end of the day, I know that. Sure, I may have not gone about it in the most beautiful way, but what I do know is that I''m still here, breathing and awake."


    Raisa shivered when she looked at me. My expression must''ve been a little scary.


    "...I-It seems like you truly went through something terrifying."


    I shook my head.


    "No, it''s nothing special."

 Chapter 20: Puppy Love

    <h4>Chapter 20: Puppy Love</h4>


    Raisa seemed to calm down somewhat by the end of the carriage ride, though it still seemed she was somewhat insecure about how people looked at her. Regardless, that was to be expected.


    It wasn''t like some pep talk was just going to suddenly make her change.


    Upon stepping off the carriage though, I stopped thinking about those things and marveled at the ce disyed in front of me.


    It was... unnecessarily huge.


    I knew that in reality, things like castles and noble manors weren''t actually that huge during medieval times on Earth. Of course, it wasn''t like they were small, but people usually thought they were bigger than they actually were.


    My manor seemed to affirm this, as it was essentially the size of a few normal houses put together.


    On the other hand, the one in front of me seemed to be the product of the modern person''s imagination.


    ...Shit, was Raisa actually a big shot?


    I weakly lifted a finger and pointed at the ce.


    "Isn''t that, like, a little big?"


    Raisa tilted her head to the side with a somewhat curious expression.


    "I suppose, but it''s not even asrge as the other archduke''s manors."


    My eyebrow twitched when I heard that.


    "...Wait, you''re saying your family has the title of archduke?"


    Raisa gave a small nod.


    "Yes, one of the three archdukes in this kingdom. Isn''t thatmon knowledge among nobles?"


    Fuck. And here I thought I was the big shot. Why the hell was I acting all high and mighty before? This... is just a tad bit awkward.


    "...Am I supposed to call you some title, like Royal Highness or something?"


    Raisa hurriedly waved her hands.


    "No, no! Of course not! Nobody does!"


    "Your Royal Highness, are we to take proper preparations?"


    A maid hade up and said those words. I looked at her, while she looked back at me, trying her best to prevent her face from twitching, while failing miserably.


    While blushing rather intensely, she iled her arms at the maid aggressively.


    "Yes, do it! But read the mood next time!"


    The maid seemed startled, but not in a way that showed she was scared of Raisa.


    "E-Eh? Your Royal Highness, did you not tell me to ask you this every time you came off the carriage?"


    Raisa forcefully pushed her away.


    "Shut up! Shut up! Just go away!"


    The maid stumbled away but still gave one concerned look over her shoulder as she hurried off.


    She looked back at me, still flustered, and had no idea what to say.


    I raised a finger.


    "Um, it sounds like I''m supposed to call you Royal Highness."


    Raisa held her head down in anguish before grabbing onto my hand and pulling me closer. There was a rather forced smile on her face.


    "Just call me Raisa, ok? Please."


    I blinked a few times, wondering why that was such a big deal to her. Shouldn''t she be used to it by now if all the servants always called her that?


    Well, it''s none of my business. Not that I cared enough to find out in the first ce.


    "Alright, Raisa..."


    She calmed down somewhat, but still looked a little jittery. Raisa grabbed onto my hand and then pulled me along.


    "Come on!"


    I stumbled after her, but just a few moments after bringing me closer, she suddenly froze up.


    "Um, er... wouldn''t you like to admire the garden first?"


    I looked at her for a few moments. Didn''t she call me bad at lying before? What was this disy? You couldn''t be more suspicious...


    Regardless, I decided to entertain her.


    "Sure."


    We walked around the manor, making our way over to a garden. I must say it wasn''t like the ones I was used to because despite it only being a garden there were high walls around it and even guards by the entrance to it.


    Upon entering, I was greeted by the sight of rows and rows of flowers, orderly ced around the ce. It did look quite pretty, though it also felt just a little too robotic, like being as efficient as possible.


    While dragging me along, she began exining all of the different flowers in the garden, with their names and what they represented. Apparently, they were supposed to be used as gifts to other nobles and the type of flower would also hold some sort of message.


    It sounded kindaplicated, begging the question of why you couldn''t just say the words instead of needing a particr flower tomunicate.


    After introducing all the flowers, Raisa just stood there awkwardly, asionally looking at me before fumbling about.


    "Um... so... um, we can also..."


    I cleared my throat and waved my hand in front of her face a few times.


    "Um... are you ok?"


    Raisa jumped before letting out augh and scratching the back of her head.


    "Ah! Yeah, sorry. I-I swear I''m usually not like this! Sorry for not having more flowers to show you!"


    ...That was a weird thing to apologize for.


    I raised my hand to stop her.


    "Um, I think you''re overreacting a little bit. You need to stall for time for whatever you''re doing, right?"


    Raisa flinched.


    "E-Eh? Well... m-maybe."


    I leaned against a nearby wall and gestured for her toe over.


    "Then we can just talk."


    Though surprised, Raisa went over and simrly leaned on the wall.


    "A-Ah, what am I supposed to talk about?"


    I tapped my chin a few times.


    "Well, you said earlier that you wouldn''t normally be like this. What do you think is making you like this?"


    Raisa''s eyes widened slightly. She then stopped and began thinking to herself.


    "I may be feeling under the weather. My body is not acting like it is normally. F-For some reason my heart is beating so quickly."


    ...Ah, shit. It appears the so-called puppy love hase over Raisa, and the target of it is me. Unless I''m just being unimaginably cocky and misunderstanding the situation, of course.


    If only it was Minori... I mean uh, never mind.


    Seeing as she understands absolutely nothing about what she''s going through shows that it''s probably her first love.


    That was kinda surprising to me considering her age. Regardless, when it came to first loves, it was usually more random than anything else. There was very often no rhyme or reason, so I wasn''t going to get all full of myself and think she liked me because I was amazing or something like that.


    Generally speaking, puppy love was more annoyingpared to anything else. And that was for both parties. One side would get dragged into the antics of the one in puppy love, while the person themselves would waste all their time on pointless things, before realizing they never actually liked the person that much.


    How could I stop this?


    I tapped my chin a few times.


    "I suppose maybe your state now is because you are under the weather. Oh, by the way, I heard of something that a person called the ''mere exposure effect''. Apparently, just spending time around someone else can make you feel romantic feelings for them, but they aren''t actually because you love the person."


    Raisa nodded a few times.


    "Ah, I see."


    Then, she took a step ever so slightly closer to me. She also leaned a little forward, trying to get into my field of vision.


    This...


    I didn''t tell you this so that you could try to seduce me! I said it to help you realize your own damn love is fake!


    I felt a headacheing on.


    With my fist next to my mouth, I coughed rather violently in an attempt to get her attention.


    "I think that is a rather annoying effect, after all, it makes you fall in love with people that you don''t actually care about."


    Raisa nodded once more.


    "A-Ah."


    She then hurriedly ducked back, getting out of my field of vision before stepping away. But after a few moments, she ended up taking a step closer anyway.


    I...


    It seems I have underestimated how much puppy love clouds one''s judgment. Now that I think about it, trying to snip puppy love in the bud probably wasn''t going to work considering how intense it is.


    Ah, well. It will wear off in time. At the very least I get to have a girl''s affection for a bit.


    It was probably a bad thing her first experience with love was thiste in life, but I suppose betterte than never. Once she gets over it, she''ll probably be mature enough to handle real things.


    I scratched the side of my head before sighing.


    "Well anyway, how is school? You get everything in those lessons?"


    I couldn''t help but feel like an incredibly disconnected parent desperately trying to rte to their child. Thankfully, Raisa didn''t seem to notice how cringe my words were.


    "O-Oh, it''s not too bad so far. I''ve been studying so much for the entrance exams that this feels much slower than before. Thankfully I got a perfect score."


    Her eyes suddenly lit up. She interlocked her fingers and held her hands up in front of her.


    "Ah, does that mean you''re willing to teach me the things I don''t know?"


    A tired feeling assaulted my mind when she said that. I could tell Raisa was definitely just going to pretend to not understand everything and make me go through it with her.


    "No teaching! I already told you that!"


    Raisa let out a sheepish giggle before backing off.


    "Ah, yeah, right! Sorry, I forgot!"


    I tilted my head to the side before asking another question.


    "Why did you want to get a perfect score for the entrance exam?"


    Raisa was originally smiling, but it gradually rxed to a neutral expression after my question. It took her a few seconds to gather her words. She ended up sighing before her exnation.


    "It''s because the magic talent of our family has been deteriorating for quite some time. I heard many years ago that we had the strongest magic power of the nobles, and wanting to keep it that way, many rtionships were contained within the family."


    Damn. She really just spoke of incest so lightly. Though, I guess incest isn''t too big of a deal during these times. Still, I couldn''t help but internally recoil from disgust.


    Raisa grabbed onto her arm and looked down at the ground.


    "But despite all of that, for some reason, the magic talent of our family has deteriorated greatly. As time passed, it has been getting harder for us to bear children."


    My eyelid twitched. Wasn''t that one of the consequences of incest? Should I tell her?


    ...I''ll just hold off. Telling her with her puppy love state might make her get the wrong idea.


    Raisa slowly shook her head.


    "My magic talent has been the lowest yet, so I couldn''t make it to ss S. But I still wanted to prove myself and be a strong mage. Making it to ss A at least was a bare requirement for that."


    I gave a small nod.


    "I see."


    Raisa turned to me with curiosity.


    "Ah, now that I think about it you must be in a simr position. You must also want to be a powerful mage, so you studied really hard!"


    She had a smile on her face, seemingly pleased with the conclusion she came to. As for me, I felt a little lost. She had indeed hit the nail on the head, the only problem was that the person she was referring to was actually gone and reced with me instead.


    In the end, I only remained there in silence.


    Raisa hopped over to my front and raised a hand high in the air.


    "Hey, hey, let''s do a high five in hopes that we both be powerful mages!"


    A bitter smile formed on my face. I should probably high-five that hand to maintain my character, but I didn''t really want to go that far to pretend to be someone else.


    So I just left her hanging.


    Raisa blinked a few times before puffing up her cheeks.


    "Hey! You''re supposed to hit the palm of my hand with yours!"


    I tilted my head to the side and held it up with my fist. What kind of excuse could I make up? Hmm, well-


    "I know, I know. It''s just... I''m second-guessing my desire for power."

 Chapter 21: A Friend

    <h4>Chapter 21: A Friend</h4>


    Raisa looked rather lost and slowly lowered her hand after I left her hanging.


    "What do you mean? Why are you second-guessing your desire for power? How could having it even be a bad thing?"


    I didn''t really want to make a speech about how too much power was bad.


    There was a saying that power corrupts people or something along those lines, but I thought it was a bunch of bullcrap. Maybe I waspletely wrong in thinking that, but that was my opinion.


    I didn''t believe that power could just change a person''s character. At most, maybe it could reveal a bad part of it. For example, some see nobles as evil and privileged, whilemoners are innocent and mistreated.


    While I can''t disagree with the privileged and mistreated part, I didn''t believe that just being amoner would make someone a good person. The Peasant Rebellion was one such example, where many people willingly continued to rebel despite killing their own in the process.


    And none of that really matters because I''m not sure if Raisa would even be able to understand what I meant if I tried to exin.


    As such, I had to do the art of bullshitting my way out once more. Raising a finger, I made it clear that I had something to say, even though my head was more or less empty.


    "I gave up on chasing power because I realized my methods to do so were unhealthy. Of course, I want power, but at the same time, I''m not willing to give up everything around me for the sake of it. There are some things I care more about than power."


    That was not true in the slightest. Well, I guess it was technically true because Bryson was a power-hungry maniac in the game''s story, but still.


    Raisa''s eyes filled with curiosity.


    "What are the things that you care more about than power?"


    ...Well, there were a lot of things because I didn''t have any obsession with power. But that didn''t mean I was going to neglect my strength since it was going to be very important going forth for self-exnatory reasons.


    I tilted my head to the side.


    "I''d say the rtionship with my friends. Though, I guess the better way to put it, is that the reason I wish to gain power is in order to protect my friends."


    Raisa let out a gasp and pped softly.


    "That is such a unique and noble reason!"


    Really? Because like, it''s the most generic reason ever. If you''ve read like, more than two story books then you''ve seen that same trope.


    Hm. Is this how scam artists feel?


    Raisa went back to leaning against the wall and looked up into the sky.


    "The reason I wanted power was to regain honor for my family. But now that you''ve said that, I realized the whole reason I wished to have power in the first ce was because of my family."


    She chuckled as a bitter smile formed on her face.


    "If it wasn''t for you telling me that, then I probably would''ve neglected the rtionship with my family and forget why I was even chasing power in the first ce."


    While lingering in mncholy for a few moments, she suddenly jumped up.


    "Ah, right! We have to go back inside the manor!"


    Without another word, she grabbed me by the wrist before dragging me along back to the entrance of her manor. Very quickly leading me over to arge room with what looked like a fifty-meter-long table. And on top of the said table were countless different dishes, filling it up to the brim.


    I found myself unable to recognize what food was even on most of the dishes, but whatever it was, it was expensive.


    I looked over at Raisa.


    "Wow, how many people did you invite?"


    This, in turn, made her flinch.


    "E-Eh? What do you mean, I only invited you."


    I looked at her, then looked back at the food on the table.


    "...So are you having a party with everyone inside the manor?"


    Raisa looked at me strangely.


    "Eh? N-No, I wanted it to only be the two of us."


    I blinked a few times.


    "Hey, I don''t think I can finish all that. Does that mean you''ll be eating that much?"


    Raisa doubled over with a tense expression.


    "No! No! I''m not that much of a pig!"


    I scratched the side of my head.


    "Then why is there so much here?"


    Raisa sped her hands together and averted her gaze slightly. She spoke sheepishly, almost like she was afraid of being heard by me.


    "S-So you could get whatever you want."


    Ah. I guess now that I think about it, that much was obvious.


    "What will happen to the stuff I don''t eat?"


    Raisa tilted her head to the side.


    "It will be distributed to the servants, and if there is still more than that we will hand it to the serfs of ournd."


    I felt a fairlyrge burden leave me.


    "Oh, that''s good then."


    Frankly, I was probably too used to not having enough food that having too much was like a foreign concept. Raisa hurriedly got a te and a fork for me then proceeded to just creepily watch me.


    Now I was in a situation where not only was I not used to picking and choosing my food, but someone was also constantly watching me like some monster in a horror movie.


    In the end, I couldn''t take the stiffening atmosphere and coughed.


    "Um, are you going to get anything?"


    Raisa had a wide smile on her face.


    "Oh, I''ll just get it after you!"


    ...I know she was trying to be polite or hospitable, but it was really difficult to feelfortable with how she was staring at me. I might''ve just bolted out of the damn ce if it wasn''t for the fact she blinked every now and then.


    Although this game wasn''t a horror, I wasn''t taking any chances!


    After steeling my resolve, I decided to just take random things here and there from the table and then began to try them. Raisa''s stare only became more oppressive afterward, which made it really hard for me to focus on the food.


    By the way, it was actually really good. It seemed like each of them had some sort of special recipe behind them, whether it was the meats or the sweets provided.


    She seemed a little panicked though.


    "Ah, is the food not to your liking?"


    I smiled bitterly.


    "It''s fine. No, in reality, it''s actually really good. Aren''t you going to get some now?"


    Raisa let out a sigh of relief and tilted her head to the side.


    "Ahaha, that''s great! I was going to eat, but for some reason, I don''t feel all that hungry anymore."


    The side of my face twitched. It was then I was forced to eat the rest of the food on my te in awkward silence while Raisa was looking at me almost like I had killed her dog or something.


    Once I set down the te and fork, Raisa smiled happily.


    "Are you full now?"


    I gave a nod. In response to that, she immediately dragged me outside once more, but this time it was apparently a personal hunting ground that they owned. Several guards came along for our safety, but they kept a moderate amount of distance at Raisa''s request.


    From there, Raisa began leading me around the hunting grounds, going past trees and other such things. She had given me a ratherrge metal sword, which made me a little worried that I would cut things I wasn''t supposed to, such as myself.


    Eventually, we went off and chased a deer, which I was able to kill with a bit of effort. When I asked if she wanted to also try and kill something, she dismissed it entirely and then brought me over to a different part of the manor and had us listen to a band of musicians y their music.


    You might''ve expected it, but Raisa spent the entire time staring at me instead of listening to the music.


    I guess the song wasn''t even that good anyway, as it was extremely outdated and had no bass since... there was no instrument that could do that.


    By the end of the song, she grabbed onto my arm and began pulling me over to another ce. Honestly, I was beginning to feel like I was her toy or something.


    This was really going way too far, and I was honestly getting way too tired for this.


    I stood my ground, not letting her drag me around anymore, she stumbled but was able to keep herself up since she was holding onto me. Raisa spun around to look at me with concern.


    "Ah, do you need to use the washroom?"


    A bitter smile formed on my face.


    "No, that''s not it."


    Raisa looked on for a few moments before coughing awkwardly.


    "T-Then what is it?"


    I gently plucked her hand off of mine, letting my arm finally rest by my side.


    "Is this your first time having a friend over?"


    Raisa blinked a few times.


    "...Friend? Well, I''ve hosted many guests before, so I would say yes."


    I stared back at her directly.


    "Does that mean you don''t consider me as a friend?"


    Raisa flinched.


    "Ah, i-if you''re ok with that then of course I do!"


    I took a deep breath and nodded a few times.


    "Ah, in that case, you''ve been going about this the wrong way."


    Panic spread across her face rather quickly.


    "I-It is? But I''ve done this so many times before! This is what people do for fun!"


    I raised my hand to tell her to stop through a gesture.


    "I''m not entirely sure what other people do and what they consider fun, but what you have been doing is entertaining a guest."


    Raisa slowly nodded.


    "Yes, d-did I do it too sloppily?"


    I really wanted to say more than sloppily, youpletely screwed it up. However, that would probably make her faint with shock with how hyper-emotional she was right now.


    "You... took the wrong approach. Think about how you treated me all of this time. You were so focused on me, whether or not I was having a good time or not."


    Raisa didn''t seem to notice what was wrong with that before I pointed at her usingly.


    "That''s wrong!"


    Raisa eximed.


    "Ah! It is?!"


    I massaged my temple while lecturing her.


    "When friends get together, they are supposed to have fun together. You aren''t trying to please some sort of higher-up or boss of some kind! This entire time, you were always so concerned about my well-being and whether or not I was having fun while you sat at the sidelines the entire time."


    A bitter smile formed on my face.


    "If I just wanted to eat good food, go hunting, or listen to some musical performance by myself I could do it. The main purpose of getting together is to actually enjoy the things we do together."


    Raisa looked astounded.


    "E-Eh? But I was having fun! I-I swear!"


    I pinched the bridge of my nose.


    "Do you know what I liked best about my visit?"


    Raisa sped her hands together and looked nervous.


    "W-What?"


    I sighed.


    "It was my time in the garden."


    Raisa immediately gasped.


    "Ah! T-Then I will get more flowers and-"


    I raised my hand once more, cutting her off.


    "I didn''t care all that much about the flowers. What I cared about was when we began to talk to each other, like actual friends. Talking about the things that we are nervous about, our questions, or just what we just so happen to be thinking about."


    Raisa froze up, her mental state looked like it was in a frenzy right now.


    I put a hand on her shoulder, hoping that would keep her together.


    "Hey, when you invite a friend over, then it should be something you should be excited about because you know you''re also going to have a good time. Does that make sense?"


    Raisa blushed harder than ever and slowly nodded.


    "Y-Yeah."

 Chapter 22: Daughter of Chaos

    <h4>Chapter 22: Daughter of Chaos</h4>


    Looking down at the squirming and blushing Raisa, I couldn''t help but feel like I was looking at a kid. Oh, how first impressions change...


    Before, I thought she was a rather scary woman that I couldn''t get along with, but now I wouldn''t be surprised if she suddenly called me Onii-tan.


    In the end, her legs began trembling before giving out entirely, leading her to fall to her knees. Raisa was on the verge of crying as she looked at me.


    "I-I messed up really badly, didn''t I?"


    A wry smile formed on my face as I got down on one knee as well and continued to pat her shoulder.


    "Nobody gets it right on their first try... Well, most people don''t."


    Raisa looked up at me, trying to hold back tears, though they ended up pouring down anyway.


    "I''ll make sure it''s perfect next time!"


    I raised a finger and shook my head.


    "No."


    A fearful expression formed on her face, but I hurriedly followed up.


    "Remember, we should be having fun together. In other words, you should be excited for next time."


    This time a genuine smile formed on my face, after which she began to as well.


    We weren''t able to do all that much after that because I truly was tired and it had gotten quitete. Though reluctant, Raisa thankfully did end up sending me back. Though it was still a little early, I wasted no time washing up and going to bed, falling asleep like a rock.


    I wasn''t a person that had vivid dreams. In fact, the times that I could even recall having dreams in the first ce were scarce. As for recalling what the dream was about, the number of times that happened could be counted on one hand.


    However, tonight I began to have one of the most vivid dreams of my life.


    ...And it was about a book.


    To be specific, the book that I had touched once entering a study in my manor. It was as vivid as a lucid dream, but I didn''t actually have any control.


    There was a giant replica of a book in front of me, while a hoarse voice was calling out around me.


    "Flip the page! Gain limitless power! Flip the page! Gain limitless power!"


    ...Whoever this guy was needs to drink some damn water. His voice was honestly kinda harsh on my ears.


    This entire thing continued on for an ufortably long time, pissing me off more than anything. If it was actually reverse psychology and wanted me to avoid the book, then it was doing a damn good job.


    Fuck! Leave me alone!


    I spent the slow night internally cursing at the book. I may have said many things about the book''s mother and how I fucked her, but I honestly don''t know how you would fuck a book, and what was even considered a book''s mother in the first ce.


    When I finally woke up, I felt exhausted.


    Rage boiled in me as I held back the desire to rush into the room with the book. It would be immature to do so, after all.


    ...Doing that would have to wait until I learned the fireball spell.


    That or if I could figure out who the book''s mom was and how to fuck her.


    After getting out of my room and walking down the hallway, I saw James. He looked at me as though I was a crazy person.


    "You went to the Darcy family? If you were going to a ce like that then you should''ve informed me to make preparations!"


    I blinked a few times.


    "...The Darcy family?"


    James looked back at me as though I was stupid.


    "You went to a noble''s house without even knowing who they were?"


    Though he was saying words to me, I couldn''t really hear them right now. It should''ve been obvious to me, it made sense that Raisa was part of the Darcy family. Yes, it was only a passing fact in the game, but they mentioned that family was the one that was strangely weak among the three archdukes in the kingdom.


    The reason why that mattered, was because the Darcy family was one of the main antagonists of the game''s story. In fact, if youbined all of the people together, they would spell more trouble than the main antagonist, who was me.


    King of ughter, Queen of Massacre, and Daughter of Chaos.


    Those were all the names that the game gave them. Near the midway point of the story, these three characters would all be introduced. The reason why I didn''t recognize Raisa earlier was that all three of those characters were grotesquely changed from their human form, obtaining tentacle appendages.


    In fact, the Daughter of Chaos didn''t have white hair nor green eyes, but ink-ck hair and ruby-red eyes. I always unconsciously thought that under normal circumstances, they were a family with ck hair and red eyes.


    I tapped my chin a few times.


    Right now with the trust Raisa had in me, I could hatch up a n to kill her and her parents in one fell swoop. Then, I could get rid of all three murderous abominations with a rtively low amount of effort.


    If it seeded, that would prevent an extremelyrge amount of deaths and prevent us from even needing to save certain people in the main cast.


    James was calling out to me and waving his hand in front of my face, but I ignored it.


    There was just one tiny thing bothering me. From the interaction I had with Raisa earlier, she seemed like a naive kid. She didn''t seem to be the type that would aspire to be a bloodthirsty killer.


    If that''s the case, it might be possible that the Darcy family wasn''t actually responsible for turning into the abominations that they were and instead forced to be by some other third party. That would mean killing them would be useless.


    ...Yet, I heavily doubted that it was that simple.


    Else those three wouldn''t be the only people converted into those kinds of monsters. Even if that wasn''t their intention, they had taken some part in bing those things. After a bit of deliberation, I figured it would be better to use Raisa''s trust to find out what was going on behind the scenes in the Darcy Family.


    Maybe then, I could find the source of the problem and nip it from there.


    ...Hm? Why am I looking at the ceiling?


    It was only now that I realized I was put onto a stretcher and being carried off by a few butlers.


    I hurriedly got off of it and turned to look at James, who was looking at me in concern.


    "What are you guys doing?"


    James'' brow furrowed slightly.


    "You appear to be sick. We are having you visit a doctor."


    I felt a headacheing on. Waving my hand dismissively I walked on my own.


    "I''m fine, I''m fine. I was just... thinking about something."


    James paused before responding.


    "Are you sure?"


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "As sure as I''ll ever be."


    James let out a small sigh.


    "Don''t overestimate yourself. Seek treatment if you need it."


    I gave a small nod.


    "I know, but really, I''m fine."


    It was definitely quite difficult to shake him off, but thankfully I was able to do so. Thankfully, he did end up letting me go. I had breakfast with Jess, then a bitter I got onto the carriage.


    At first, I simply epted the fact that sitting there was going to consist of awkward silence. However, I suddenly remembered that I should be meditating to get a better feel for mana anyways.


    With that in mind, I crossed my legs and closed my eyes, slowing my breath down in an attempt to block out all other sensations. It took a second, but I was able to sense mana like before, and I then began practicing moving it around.


    However, before I could get Into it, Jess suddenly called out to me.


    "Brother, do you hate me?"


    I opened my eyes to see Jess looking at me with mncholy. It appeared that I had done something incorrectly to cause some sort of misunderstanding.


    "No, I do not."


    Jess looked down to the floor of the carriage, kicking her legs ever so slightly.


    "Then why do I feel so distant from you? It feels like you''ve changed."


    ...That''s probably because I actually did change. Or more urately, the real Bryson was reced by some rando that was me. My mind suddenly worked into overdrive, trying to figure what I could say to skirt around the fact I wasn''t actually Bryson.


    "Sorry. I''ve just realized some things."


    Jess looked at me despondently.


    "Does that mean you wish to stay apart from me?"


    Once again, I shook my head. It appeared she was extremely insecure about something.


    "It''s not like that. I just have some new goals in mind and I''m focusing on those."


    Jess blinked a few times.


    "Does that mean you won''t be showing up to dinner as often?"


    I scratched the side of my head. My n was to go out to the slums every day instead of having dinner to stabilize the situation. The only times I would not, was if there was something else such as a ce that I needed to go to.


    "From now on, I''m not sure if I will even end up attending."


    Jess waited a few minutes before responding.


    "I see."


    Silence proceeded to fall, which made me think it was fine to start meditating. And so, I did exactly that.


    Unfortunately, my session would be cut off once more.


    "If you won''t be showing up to dinner, then could we act as we did before in old times?"


    Jess spoke up once more, prompting me to open my eyes again.


    ...Did you really have to phrase the question like that? How the hell was I supposed to know what old times meant when I literally just took over this guy''s body!?


    "What do you mean by that?"


    Jess tilted her head to the side.


    "Well, maybe we could stay in the same room again, and take our baths together. You weren''t so resistant to it before, you know?"


    My eyebrow twitched.


    Say what now? Are you telling me Jess and Bryson regrly took baths together before this?


    ...I guess it isn''t too strange considering they are siblings and all. If it wasn''t for the fact that Jess was one of the capture targets for the main character, then I might''ve thought she was actually in love with me.


    Thankfully, that wasn''t the case. Incest was a big no-no. I mean, Raisa''s family was enough reason to learn from example.


    I scratched the side of my head.


    "Would bathing together really make you happy?"


    Jess gave a nod.


    "Yes."


    I pinched the bridge of my nose, hesitating for a few moments. Then, I made a decision that I would end up regretting.


    "Ok then."

 Chapter 23: Rumors

    <h4>Chapter 23: Rumors</h4>


    Without knowing any better, I left Jess in the carriage, who was smiling to herself. Without another word, I made my way to ss.


    On the way to take the steps, I couldn''t help but notice two people I hadn''t seen for quite a while.


    Carrot Top and Baby Man.


    To be honest, I''d almost forgotten they had even existed. They still looked as ridiculous as they always did, but there seemed to be bags forming under their eyes. For whatever reason, they weren''t getting enough sleep.


    Not that I cared.


    Surprisingly enough, they stayed true to their word and hadn''t talked to me or approached me all this time.


    Well, to be fair they never agreed to it in the first ce, but still.


    Upon making it to the ssroom, Nathan tapped my arm.


    "Hey, let''s have a talk outside the school during English ss."


    I gave a quick nod.


    "Sure."


    His eyes were open just a little too widepared to normal, showing that he was just a tad bit overstimted currently. I couldn''t help but think of the ns he had mentioned to me earlier.


    It seemed that all the pieces were in ce and it was going down today.


    Regardless, it was time for us to focus on ss. Raisa greeted me, and I casually greeted her back before sitting down. Later on in ss, Harold began exining the simple earth spell, which was simple enough.


    Everyone spent their time in ss practicing it, some far more proficient than others. I noticed that Sam and Raisa were both able to cast it easily. There were also a few from the main cast of the game that was doing it as well, but that was to be expected.


    As always, Nathan was seeding in casting, but failing in controlling his powers properly.


    Seeing others like that made me realize I had been cking in my meditation. I suppose I would focus more on thatter.


    Math ss was the same boring thing it was as always. Although Karin had moved on to teaching multiplication, it made no real difference. She slowly exined it through visual disys, drawing thirty-six different boxes in the form of a square to show the answer to six multiplied by six.


    Apparently, that was how you showed your work by the way.


    After eating lunch, Nathan and I ended up breaking off from Raisa to head out of the school. Raisa seemed a little disappointed but didn''t fight against it. After making our way out and to a back corner of the school I spoke up.


    "So, what are you going to do?"


    Nathan took a deep breath. He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. A neutral frown was on his face.


    "I learned a lot about him while spying and was able to catch him nning a meeting with someone. The ce is a back alley, so my guess is that he''s going to try and kill that person and be a blood mage then and there."


    I raised an eyebrow.


    "You sure you can handle that alone? We haven''t learned any real offensive spells yet."


    Nathan narrowed his eyes slightly.


    "A wooden spear is more than enough. Right now, he still isn''t a blood mage. If I can catch him before he bes one, then it should work out."


    A smirk formed on my face. I leaned against the wall with him and looked up into the blue sky.


    "You''re ying a real dangerous game."


    Nathanughed before pointing at me with a finger gun.


    "We''ve always been ying a dangerous game. After all, it''s Downfall From Grace we''re talking about."


    I let out a sigh.


    "Alright then. What do you need from me?"


    He scratched his arm as he spoke.


    "You''re going to be setting up the free food thing at the same ce right?"


    I gave a nod. That was my intention in the first ce.


    "If everything goes to n, yes."


    Nathan rubbed his chin in thought.


    "This would be way more convenient if there was something like watches, but whatever I guess. If I''m not there by the time you finish your first bowl of pottage...e looking for me."


    My eyes narrowed ever so slightly. That kind of timeframe was just way too unreliable, especially considering he didn''t know when I would end up leaving and how fast I could even finish a bowl in the first ce.


    "Where should I look for you?"


    Nathan shrugged his shoulders.


    "It actually isn''t that far off from where you are. If you remember where I came from to meet you, go that way and after passing by five houses it will be the alley to your left."


    After a few moments of thought, I once again gave a nod.


    "Got it."


    From there I tapped my chin a few times before letting out a sigh.


    "I found the Daughter of Chaos by the way."


    Nathan''s head snapped to me. He looked rather confused.


    "I didn''t think you were the type to go out of their way to do dangerous things... how did you even get to meet the Darcy Family?"


    A bitter smile formed on my face.


    "Raisa is part of the Darcy Family. I''m fairly certain she''s the Daughter of Chaos considering there''s only one child from their family."


    Nathan''s face twitched in surprise. A wry smile formed on his face as a chuckle seeped out from him.


    "To think that she''s just been there all along. So, what are you going to do about it?"


    I held up my chin with my thumb and the side of my index finger.


    "She has a lot of trust in me right now. Not to mention, she seems to be in puppy love with me right now which is significantly lowering her judgment abilities. My current goal will be to investigate how they became the trio of murderers and if there''s a party behind it."


    My eyes narrowed ever so slightly.


    "But I also n on making the building blocks so that should the timee, I can kill all three of them in one fell swoop."


    Nathan nodded approvingly. He then proceeded to smirk as a derisive chuckle came from him.


    "I would say not to get attached, but..."


    He shrugged his shoulders.


    "If anything, you may have problems not getting attached enough."


    I simply rolled my eyes.


    "Come on, like you''re any better than me. Minori''s been on your back for a while now hasn''t she."


    Nathan clicked his tongue and held onto the side of his head with frustration.


    "Stop, don''t remind me. You ruined my good moodpletely."


    I raised my eyebrow with a smile.


    "Come on, it can''t be that bad to have an angel herself praise you!''


    Nathan pressed his lips together into a t line.


    "...It feels like I have two moms nagging me all the time. They keep asking about you, and telling me that I should be staying away."


    I couldn''t help but belt over inughter.


    "If it makes you feel better, I''d be down to take on your burdens if that were possible."


    Nathan tilted his head back until it hit the wall and sighed.


    "Honestly... it feels likepensation for not having a mom before. But this definitely was not what I imagined it would be like."


    His expression rxed while his eyes opened up a little wider.


    "It''s just really pissing me off that they''re judging and saying so many things about you without even knowing the kind of person you are."


    I put my arm over his shoulder and shot him a smile.


    "Come on, you know that kind of stuff doesn''t bother me. Plus, if it wasn''t for the fact I took over this body then the rumors probably wouldn''t be all that far off."


    Nathan simrly smiled, but it was more of a sad one.


    "I know, I know. But still, I just don''t like it."


    We remained there in silence for a little while. At some point, Nathan broke the silence with a question.


    "By the way, how''re things with Jess?"


    My eyelid twitched. Of course, you were asking about her.


    "To be honest, most of the time, the moments I share with her are just her silently ring at me. From what I''ve gathered, it seems that she''s lonely or something along those lines. My guess is that it''s rted to how our parents have yet to show up. Just this morning she made me agree to bathe with her."


    Right after I said thatst line, I noticed the way that Nathan looked at me had changed considerably. His eyes burned with extreme jealousy.


    Suddenly, Nathan jumped up to grab me by the shoulders, pulling me down to his height. Then, he began shaking me back and forth.


    "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT? HOW COME WHEN I TRY TO PEEK YOU DRAG ME AWAY BUT YOU JUST GET TO BATHE WITH HER FOR FREE?"


    I took a deep breath while being shaken.


    Naturally, as a mature person, I was going to be the bigger man here.


    As such, I grabbed onto his shoulders.


    ...and began shaking harder than him.


    "BITCH, YOU THINK I WANTED THIS? HOW DARE YOU CALL MINORI''S WORDS OF WORRY NAGGING! DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT I WOULD GIVE TO LISTEN TO THOSE DIRECTED AT ME?"


    Naturally, being the bigger man meant screaming louder and shaking harder. I mean, what else could that phrase mean?


    From there, we spent a good thirty minutes or so just yelling at one another. Not once did the topic stray from how jealous we were of the other.


    Eventually, we calmed down from our heated argument, which was basically just us gushing over our respective waifu and how they were amazing.


    Naturally, the conversation progressed nowhere because neither of us cared about the other''s mentioned good points. I mean, that''s only natural considering Jess is just a boring girl with big breasts.


    As for Minori, she just radiates positivity!


    Ah, wait. I''m not arguing about Minori... for now.


    Nathan and I decided to go back to catch what was left of English ss, which surprised Dennis as he didn''t think we would ever show up.


    As for gym ss, Rae just showed us some more stances that were still fairly basic and made us practice them.


    Once school was over, Raisa ended up inviting me to her manor once more, but I rejected her. Even if it wasn''t for the sake that I told Nathan I''d be out there giving away food, I didn''t want to set the precedent that I would be avable every day.


    Upon getting on the carriage, I simply closed my eyes and began meditating. I heard Jess get on the carriage at some point, but she didn''t disturb me.


    The moment I got off the carriage, I headed to James, informing him that I wished to attempt handing out food once more. With that, our group set off once more to the same ce.


    After setting everything up, including the sign, I simply sat down at the center of the table. This time, the chefs only prepared ten different sets of meals. That way, even if nobody came up to eat, then at least each person with us would get one bowl.


    Once the pottage was ready, I began eating it.


    Nathan''s words hung up over my head, but I didn''t try to shovel the food down. I decided to try and eat normally, to best follow the time frame he had set up. By the way, while a crowd had formed none of themoners stood up to have a bowl.


    There were murmurs once again. I could barely catch a few.


    "He''s here again?"


    "He must really need people to experiment on!"


    I had no idea what they were talking about, but it looked like there were many rumors surrounding me.


    Once I was halfway through the pottage, to my surprise, I heard a person approaching. I raised my head.


    "Ah, would you like-"


    "You!"


    I froze in ce.


    It was Minori, and she looked... angry.

 Chapter 24: Promise

    <h4>Chapter 24: Promise</h4>


    After seeing that the person that had stepped forward was Minori, I slowly lowered my head, focusing my attention back on eating. However, this seemed to spur her on even harder.


    "How dare you pretend to be a good person! I know what you''ve done to Natan! I bet the moment anybody sits down to eat with you they''ll be poisoned!"


    The butler next to me furrowed his brow, taking offense at that statement.


    "Preposterous! How could the food be poisoned when Lord Bryson personally steps down and eatsmoner food to show you that it is edible!"


    Minori pointed usingly.


    "See? It''s that high and mighty attitude you nobles always have! I bet you''re just pretending to eat the food to get some unsuspecting victim! You must have specific bowlsced with the poison, and then you''ll take their body to use for experiments!"


    The butler looked appalled. His face flushed with anger, and he couldn''t even find the words to speak.


    I spoke in a quiet voice.


    "Don''t worry about it."


    The butler looked at me with a bit of sadness.


    "But Lord Bryson..."


    I did not respond. Instead, I focused on eating the meal in front of me. Minori continued her speech, emboldened by the fact that the butler stood down.


    "I know what happened on the first day of school! You beat up Natan just because he was amoner and couldn''t do anything back! His head was bleeding, and he even had trouble moving his arm!"


    ...Dammit Nathan, I knew it was a bad idea to beat yourself up.


    Minori was absolutely livid.


    "And then on the very same day, you kidnapped him against his will, torturing him for your own experiments and only sending him back after he was entirely broken! I... I can''t even recognize him anymore! He''s so different from what he once was!"


    Well, at least there''s a good excuse for Nathan''s sudden change in behavior.


    The murmurs from the crowd grew even louder.


    "I-Is that right? Thank god I was smart enough not to be tempted by the smell."


    "That''s true! I heard that amoner desperately tried to escape his carriage, but he forcefully pulled him back in!"


    "That man is truly a monster! Does he not even see us as anything more than cattle?"


    My hearing was better than average, so it wasn''t really hard to pick up on what they were saying once they began talking a bit louder. However, I just tuned all of it out. A guard tapped me on the shoulder and whispered to me.


    "Do you need me to drive her away?"


    I discreetly shook my head while taking another mouthful of pottage. All of the servants with me seemingly wanted to do something. However, most of them found it too awkward to speak up, while the ones that were brave enough were shot down by me.


    Minori balled both of her hands into fists as she shouted at me.


    "Leave! Get out of here, you demon! Nobody wants you here!"


    My left ear began to faintly ring. If you couldn''t tell, that was because Minori was to my left, yelling over and over again. I began to tune out to the world and began thinking about the situation.


    ...Maybe this solution wasn''t going to work. It wasn''t just Minori, but rather it appeared my reputation among themoners was far worse than I had imagined. From all the murmurs, I knew that my image in their eyes was practically irredeemable. Trying to correct them would probably just lead to even more rumors that would get worse.


    Well, it was only a temporary solution in the first ce.


    It was at this point I realized something fascinating. While lifting up the spoon to eat some pottage, I could sense the mana flowing through my body rather clearly. Despite the fact I was actively moving, I was still able to meditate.


    I wasn''t exactly sure what had brought it on, but it felt like so many possibilities were suddenly opened up to me.


    Nathan did say that he was going to try and contact Bernie, so maybe I could count on him for the Peasant Rebellion. In the meantime, maybe I could use the fact I could meditate while doing other things to be quite powerful.


    Minori stamped her foot on the ground several times, as though she still couldn''t vent out her frustrations.


    "I can''t even believe people like you exist! The world would be better off if you were just de-"


    "Um!"


    To my surprise, someone from the crowd called out. What''s more, that person was Arianne.


    For context, she was one of the capture targets in the game. She was also in ss A, and got in because of her high magical talent and passable grades. Her circumstances were quite simr to Natan''s as she was also amoner, but I guess to make the protagonist more special her powers were a notch below.


    Her general characteristic was her shy persona. To be honest, while it was surprising Minori was so aggressive like this, it wasn''t as though she never does something like this in the story.


    However, Arianne was a true person of inaction. Although she may fight for the sake of the kingdom, she could only really show her true ability if it was with someone else. As such, it was extremely strange for her to step up now.


    The future was changing in ways that I didn''t understand.


    It made me feel a bit unsettled, but this was what I had signed up for.


    Arianne came from my right and took a few steps forward, but nearly tripped on herself while doing so. It was clear that she was nervous.


    "I don''t think that Bryson is that kind of person!"


    Minori was rather shocked at first, before ring at me once more.


    "You forced one of us to speak on your behalf? What did you ckmail her with? I bet you raped her, didn''t you?!"


    Arianne stomped her foot on the ground.


    "No! That''s not true! I-I''m still a virgin!"


    ...That''s the part you wanted to clear up?


    Minori looked at Arianne with concern, clearly still believing she was forced to say those words.


    "You can''t let him ruin your life! I don''t know what he has done, but if you keep listening to him it will only get worse!"


    Arianne grit her teeth and clenched her fist. She shouted rather loudly.


    "NO!"


    Minori jumped, momentarily shocked. Arianne used that time to say what she wanted to without being interrupted.


    "I-I''ve never talked with Bryson personally, but I think he is a very kind person."


    She lowered her head and began to shiver.


    "I also heard all of the rumors about him and was so scared when I saw that he was also in my ss. Because I was so scared, I tried my best to not get noticed by him at any cost, and felt dread even when he looked in my general direction."


    ...What? I''m not that ugly, am I?


    Arianne raised her head, and her eyes looked a little glossy.


    "But he never spoke rudely. When amoner was getting bullied by the teacher, he was the one that stood up for them and personally vouched for them. After that, he even invited them to eat lunch together."


    She began to smile, probably without even knowing.


    "Then, just to make themoner feel more involved, he also orderedmoner food even if it must''ve been distasteful!"


    Hey, the pottage they make isn''t bad.


    Arianne took a deep breath.


    "He didn''t buy food for the other so that they didn''t feel indebted so that they could speak together as equals!"


    What? Did I do that? I just remember being afraid of the prices...


    She then spoke shyly. But while her voice was far softer, it was still loud enough for everyone to hear.


    "I''m so jealous of their friendship. So many times I wanted to try to approach... but I was still too scared."


    Minori seemingly lost most of her strength, but still pointed a trembling finger at Arianne.


    "That... that can''t be true..."


    A small frown formed on Arianne''s face as she looked Minori directly in the eyes.


    "Even if it wasn''t true, even if all those things you said about him were right."


    Tears began to well up in her eyes as her frown deepened.


    "How could you say that he would be better off dead? That''s just too cruel!"


    She then began to cry uncontrobly, like it was actually her that was insulted and not me. Her hands proceeded to wipe away the tears from her face, but with how hard she was crying, they were going to have their work cut out for them.


    Minori was rendered speechless, leaving the only sounds of Arianne weeping and my spoon moving.


    It was then that I finished all of the pottage. I then stood up, bringing everyone''s attention to me.


    There was a sheathed sword affixed to my belt, and I pulled it out without hesitation. From there, I began walking in Minori''s direction. The crowd nearby her immediately parted, faster than Moses parting the red sea.


    Arianne looked rather shocked by my actions.


    "Th-That."


    As for Minori, she froze up in fear, with her eyes widening. The closer I got, the rougher her breath became. I could see in her eyes how scared she was and the regret of all her actions earlier.


    When I had gotten next to her, she closed her eyes, waiting for what she thought was inevitable. As for Arianne, she had reached her hand out toward me.


    "W-Wait, stop!"


    The people out in the crowd all also directly eximed in fear, with some directly fainting. In fact, even the servants I had brought along began whispering to themselves while their eyes widened in trepidation.


    Then, I walked past Minori.


    The entire time, while everyone''s gazes were on me, I was also meditating, sensing the mana in my body. While meditating did do part in blocking out the surrounding world, that didn''t mean I didn''t notice what was happening.


    It wasn''t as though I could just turn off all my senses just from meditating.


    I just didn''t care about anything that was happening. Sure, Arianne was supporting me, but I wasn''t going to go with her to try and clear up my reputation or listen to what else she had to say. Neither did I exin my actions to them.


    If you didn''t remember, I told Nathan that if he wasn''t at the table by the time I finished my first bowl, then I woulde looking for him.


    It didn''t matter what was happening, because it was a promise I had made to a friend.


    Even if hell itself would descend onto Earth right now, I was going to fulfill that promise. Nathan knew that was the kind of person I am, which is why he asked me toe look for him instead of saving or helping him.


    And so, I walked and counted the houses as I went.


    I did not look back.

 Chapter 25: All According to Plan?...

    <h4>Chapter 25: All ording to n?...</h4>


    I couldn''t help but feel a little concerned. When Nathan spoke of his n to me, it honestly sounded quite wishy-washy to me, but I have confidence that he knew what he was doing.


    It was probably going to be hard to fight against pretty much anyone with how our strengths were now, especially someone that could potentially be a blood mage. Perhaps Edward had actually be a mage earlier than we had thought.


    If that were the case, that would mean Nathan was in serious trouble. I hardened my expression while the grip on my sword grew tighter. My legs gradually picked up the pace, turning from a walk to a full-on sprint.


    I counted the houses.


    The first.


    Second.


    Then third.


    Fourth.


    And finally, past the fifth house.


    I looked down the alleyway to my left, and my worries were confirmed. There was someone on the ground begging, while the other was holding a knife to a girl''s neck.


    It was time to get ready to fight.


    ...Or so I thought.


    I used my free hand to rub my eyes, to make sure I wasn''t seeing things, but no, I was seeing it correctly. For some reason, Edward, the blood mage, was on his knees begging, while Nathan was the one holding a knife to the girl''s neck.


    What the fuck was going on here?


    Confused, I looked at Nathan, while he looked back at me with a bitter smile. I raised an eyebrow.


    "Did you turn to the dark side or something?"


    Nathanughed casually like he wasn''t holding a knife to a girl''s neck.


    "Nothing like that. The situation is just... a littleplicated. But in short, everything is under control."


    I looked at him strangely.


    I felt like he had a little too much control in this scenario, but regardless I had my sword at the ready. Nathan took a deep breath before exining the scenario, almost like he was reminiscing on an old fond memory.


    ...


    Nathan was just randomly walking around the area until he happened toe across Edward. It was at that point he began to discreetly tail him. He made sure to take turns to make it look like he was going in a different direction and that the fact he was nearby was just a coincidence.


    He also made sure to almost always be facing another way. Sometimes he would ogle some random girl to get away with it, or take interest in some random thing at a stall. That way, his presence would be more inconspicuous.


    And eventually, Edward ended up walking into the alleyway. Nathan didn''t follow after, just leaning against one of the walls as though that was actually his house.


    The girl was already there.


    "A-Ah, you''re here?"


    Edward responded promptly.


    "Yes, I''m sorry, I can''t help that much, or else I won''t be able to eat tomorrow. Still, I have some to spare."


    The girl sounded dissatisfied.


    "Wh-What? Only this much? I... I won''t be able to do anything with just this! You have to give me more!"


    Edward seemed rather panicked.


    "I''m really sorry, this is all I can spare. I can help you look for other people that may have some to spare."


    The girl had fallen silent. Nathan wasn''t sure what exactly was happening, but out of nowhere, she had suddenly spoken up.


    "Thank you. Don''t worry about all that other stuff. As a show of my appreciation, why don''t you have this candy?"


    Edward let out augh.


    "Ah, no, no. I don''t need anything!"


    The girl alsoughed, though it sounded a little strange.


    "Don''t worry about it, just have the candy, please! I want to see you eat it."


    Edward stammered.


    "Uh, well, if that''s the case, I guess..."


    "Stop right there."


    Nathan had stepped in, with his wooden spear raised. The girl initially had a bright smile on her face, but shock immediately appeared once she saw him. As for Edward, he looked back and had a tense expression on his face.


    His first reaction was to block the girl and defend her.


    "What do you want? This girl did nothing wrong!"


    Nathan''s eyes narrowed.


    "You fucking idiot, how gullible can you be?"


    While Edward was confused, Nathan suddenly threw his wooden spear full force, prompting Edward to close his eyes and raise his arms to guard himself.


    Then, a girl''s scream rang out, while a knife ttered onto the floor.


    The girl tried to stab Edward, while Nathan hit the girl''s hand, causing her to let it go out of pain. Nathan shouted.


    "Run away, dumbass!"


    Edward looked rather confused, still standing in ce. The girl''s widened all the way, as she beganughing like a maniac. She dived for the knife that had fallen and sped her hand around it.


    But before she could lift it up, Nathan mmed his foot firmly onto her hand, leaving it in ce. He didn''t hold back, evident from the expression of pain on the girl''s face. She used her other hand to try and forcefully pry Nathan''s foot off, but wasn''t able to. Regardless, the girl refused to let go of the knife.


    The girl shed Nathan a smile and tilted her head to the side.


    "Hey~ Do you mind getting off my hand? It really hurts, you see..."


    Edward flinched.


    "C-Could you stop stepping on her?"


    Nathan''s eyelid twitched. He looked at Edward as though he was a monkey.


    "Do you really not understand the situation right now?"


    Edward looked down at the ground and scratched the side of his head.


    "I know, but... that looks like it hurts her."


    Nathan frowned rather deeply, very clearly pissed.


    "Bitch, if you care so much about other people, then you can''t care about this person! Do you even know what she was actually trying to do to you? That damn candy is drugged to make you fall asleep. Then, she nned on carving you up with the knife and eating you. Did you not notice the damn bloodstains around her lips."


    Edward blinked several times.


    "I... that''s jumping to conclusions."


    The girl let out a mischievousugh, like a kid that just pulled a prank.


    "Actually, that was exactly what I was going to do, hehe. Your blood just looked so tasty."


    Edward looked like he was in great physical pain as he cringed and held onto his head.


    "B-But still, you should let her go."


    Nathan took a deep breath.


    "If you decide to let this girl go, she''s going to lure more unsuspecting victims. They are then going to die in a painful and horrifying way."


    Edward looked at the girl as a weak smile formed on his face.


    "H-Hey, if he lets you go then will you stop killing people?"


    The girl had a wide smile on her face as she nodded a little too excitedly.


    "Of course!"


    Edward smiled awkwardly.


    "See! We can let her go then!"


    Nathan gazed at Edward disdainfully.


    "You know she''s lying. It''s written over your face."


    Edward fell silent after hearing that. He looked down at the girl, who shed him a crazy smile and continuously winked at him as though they were actually friends sending discreet messages to one another.


    "But... you never know. Maybe she will change."


    Nathan looked back at him nkly.


    "Fine then."


    He lifted his foot off, and the moment he did so, the girl scrambled up to her feet, let out a guttural scream, and lunged at Nathan, knife in hand. As for Nathan, his expression didn''t so much as change.


    He had experienced how to fight people with knives enough that even Brian would hesitate to use one against him.


    The girl lunged forward, and in Nathan''s eyes it was such an easy attack, it was practically a joke.


    He slid past it, getting behind the girl in one swift motion and twisting the arm that was holding the knife. She involuntarily let it go once. Nathan easily caught it while it was falling out of the air and pressed it up against her neck.


    "Stop that unless you want to die."


    The girl had a smile on her face.


    "Aw~ you saw?..."


    While Nathan was disabling the arm with the knife, her other one was reaching behind toward his neck. There was a tiny splinter of wood in her hand. She was hoping that Nathan would focus too much on the hand with the knife, but Nathan was too experienced to be fooled by that.


    In the end, the girl dropped the wooden splinter with a giggle.


    "Please don''t kill me~"


    Nathan shot a nce at Edward.


    "Do you see now?"


    Edward had a bitter expression on his face.


    "But still..."


    It was then that Brian showed up.


    "Did you turn to the dark side or something?"


    ...


    Hearing the story so far from Nathan made me cringe. How naive could this guy be? And he was supposed to be the blood mage that recklessly killed innocent people?


    I held onto the side of my head with frustration.


    "Edward, you realize that you''re being an idiot, yet you''re not even trying to change?"


    In response, he sat down, with his arms wrapped around his knees.


    "But she''s still a person, right? Killing her is cruel."


    Nathan let out a soft sigh.


    "Yes, you''re right. She is still a person. Even with how messed up she is right now, I''m sure there''s still a good heart in her somewhere."


    Edward looked up at him as though he was seeing a new hope.


    "R-Really?"


    Nathan gave a small nod.


    "Really. In fact, I''m sure if we tried hard enough and helped her properly, we could even get her to reform to be a better person."


    Edward began smiling.


    "Then-"


    "But there are many people like her in the world. Helping her out may be possible, but it will be a meticulous process that will take several years. Because of how this world is, people like her are created one after another."


    Nathan blinked a few times.


    "People that are broken."


    He sighed.


    "While they can be saved, the source of the problem will keep creating them far faster than they can be fixed. And in the end, people that just wanted to live a somewhat passable life end up getting thrown to the abyss."


    His eyes appeared to be hollow.


    "As much as we may want to say everyone, no matter what there will always be sacrifices so long as the imperfections of this world exist. And even if we do fix those that are unfortunate enough to go through with it, the suffering they have faced will never disappear."


    Edward''s expression softened as tears began forming in his eyes.


    "Ah... that''s right."


    As for the girl, she began giggling way too much for a person in her position.


    "Wow!~"


    She forcefully tilted her head upwards so that she could look at Nathan, despite the fact her neck was lightly cut by the knife as a result.


    "I think I''ve fallen in love with you~"


    She proceeded to stick her tongue out and licked the side of Nathan''s neck, prompting him to frown deeply. The girl proceeded to bite down and roughly kiss him, making unnecessarily loud sucking sounds.


    While Nathan was momentarily shocked, the girl grabbed Nathan''s hand which was holding onto the knife with both hands.


    And to everyone''s surprise, she pushed it into her neck while leaning forward to make sure it cut through.


    The entire time, there was a blissful smile on her face, as though dying by Nathan''s hand was cathartic in some way. Blood poured out from her mouth and nose, reminding me of how Nathan looked when he died.


    We all watched in silence as her expression gradually dulled before copsing onto the ground like a ragdoll. A puddle of blood was gradually forming.


    Edward grabbed onto both sides of his head and bit his bottom lip so hard it began bleeding.


    "She... she... why?"


    Nathan looked a little despondent as he crouched down. He gently rolled the girl over so that she was facing the sky, then closed her eyes with his hands.


    "Sometimes people are so absorbed in the pain, they can no longer see the light of the future. So they choose to abandon that future. They don''t believe it is possible for things to get any better or less painful, and are desperate to escape the pain."


    Edward looked down at the ground.


    "...And there are many people that are going through the same thing?"


    I let out a soft sigh.


    "More people than you think."


    Edward clenched his fists tightly, filled with anger.


    "How... How do I stop this?"


    Nathan looked at me, and I looked back at him. We came to an understanding.


    In the back of mind, I couldn''t help but wonder if Nathan had nned all of this from the start.

 Chapter 26: Not What I Signed Up For

    <h4>Chapter 26: Not What I Signed Up For</h4>


    We had met with and talked to the blood mage, Edward, early on. As it turns out, he hadn''t be the crazed murderer he was in the previous game just yet. In fact, he was incredibly innocent and naive at this point.


    But if nothing else, he had the desire to save people.


    Assuming we could recruit him properly, then not only would he no longer cause trouble in the future, but instead the guy would be an ally.


    Yet, right now he did not know he was a blood mage.


    As such, I hatched a little lie to tell him earlier on.


    "Wait a minute."


    I put on a mildly surprised expression as I looked at Edward, which made him look confused.


    "W-What?"


    While maintaining a serious expression I walked over to him and held up his chin, looking directly at his eye.


    "Your eyes..."


    Edward furrowed his brows in worry.


    "Is something wrong with them?"


    I narrowed my eyes and pulled away with a frown.


    "Those are the eyes of a blood mage."


    They definitely weren''t.


    Edward tensed up. He looked down at his own hands as though they were fake.


    "Blood mage? What is that?"


    Nathan furrowed his brows intensely.


    "What? I''ve heard of those, apparently, they use blood to perform magic spells. It''s also well known that they kill many innocent people for the sake of their power."


    Edward looked spooked. He frantically stood up, almost like he was getting ready to run away because he was scared of himself, but then stopped in ce as though realizing that wasn''t exactly possible.


    "Am I really a blood mage? But I don''t want to kill other people! Do I have to..."


    He looked at the corpse of the girl next to him and began shivering. His eyes appeared to be filled with despair as he looked at the bloody knife in Nathan''s hand.


    "If I''m really going to kill people, then... I''d rather die."


    I cleared my throat.


    "I''m not sure if that''s necessarily the case. It''s just from what I''ve heard, but I believe blood mages kill people because they desperately want to get more power. In the end though, that just ends up getting them killed."


    Edward blinked several times.


    "So I just never use my powers?"


    I gave him a nce.


    "If you want to make a change in the world, you need at least a certain degree of power."


    Edward shook his head violently.


    "But I don''t want that power if ites at the cost of others'' lives."


    It was at this point that Nathan dropped the knife. While still bloody he walked over and crouched down to look at Edward at eye level. His expression was a little scary, but that might''ve been the blood giving off that impression.


    "As the name implies, a blood mage needs blood. That means you can use animals."


    Edward blinked several times. He seemed quite clueless.


    "But where do I find the animals?"


    Nathan responded immediately.


    "Animals are killed every day to be prepared for food. They need to be drained first if they are to be preserved for longer periods of time. In other words, you can help other people drain blood and get magical power for it."


    Edward looked like he had been enlightened.


    "Ah, I can help people and be more powerful?"


    Nathan smirked.


    "Sometimes instead of picking A or B, you find a third solution."


    Edward then looked at his hands.


    "...But how do I use my powers?"


    Nathan''s expression fell. Considering that we weren''t actually sure what activated it in the first ce, that was a little difficult. Regardless, it seemed Nathan had an idea.


    "I got some ideas. First off, let''s bury this body and get out of here. We also can''t keep Bryson here as he has things to do."


    Edward looked at me and from his eyes, I could tell he was still in shock.


    "Ah, goodbye Bryson."


    I casually waved.


    "See youter Edward."


    With that, I left. Nathan worked on burying the body. It seemed he had no ns of using the corpse to test Edward''s powers, probably because it would be too much for him.


    After sheathing my sword, I went back to the table, where I had left without exining a single thing. I noticed that the crowd had dispersed for the most part, though there were still a few people lingering around.


    Minori was nowhere to be seen.


    However, the table that seemed to usually be reserved for only me and the people with me, had someone new sitting at it.


    Arianne.


    She was slowly nibbling away and the food in her bowl, almost like she was too shy to actually eat any of it. Upon noticing my arrival, she shuddered before looking down at the pottage while freezing in ce, almost like I wouldn''t notice she was there so long as she didn''t move.


    Arianne sat one seat away from the one I was originally sitting at, evidenced by the empty bowl that was still there.


    Though I could just sit next to her, I decided to refill my bowl and sit back where I was originally sitting and began eating. I essentially just pretended that she wasn''t there the whole time.


    I noticed that she would asionally sneak a nce or two at me but still didn''t say anything.


    At some point, I decided to speak up.


    "You said you were scared of approaching us?"


    Arianne was a little surprised but gave a small nod.


    "Y-Yes. I know it sounds stupid but..."


    I let out augh.


    "But you also stood in the center of a huge crowd and stated an opinion you knew all of them would disagree with. Don''t you think that''s even scarier?"


    A small smile formed on Arianne''s face as she began tough nervously.


    "That was really scary. I-I don''t even know how I was able to say all of that."


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "For whatever reason, there was something you felt more strongly about that overpowered your fear."


    Arianne looked up and blinked a few times.


    "T-That makes sense. But... what was it that overpowered my fear?"


    Why were you asking me that?


    A bitter smile formed on my face.


    "Should that be a question you should answer yourself?"


    Arianne let out a smallugh.


    "But I really don''t know. And I-I''m still scared."


    I let out a sigh and leaned back in my chair. With one arm resting over the back of my chair, I leisurely raised a finger.


    "Then how about you think about it like this?"


    Arianne looked at me curiously. With a smirk, I continued.


    "You said you were scared of approaching people, right? Then what if you think about something you''re more afraid of? Perhaps you never make any friends for your entire life."


    Arianne pouted.


    "That does sound scarier..."


    I nodded.


    "But people usually don''t really think about that kind of thing, especially when it feels like they still have time to work on it, so you aren''t really afraid. But then time passes, and it bes toote."


    My expression rxed into a frown.


    "And before they know it, it''s already toote."


    Arianne sat there silently for a few moments. Then, she stood up and moved one seat closer, so that we were next to each other. After Nathan, she was the first person that sat next to me at this table.


    After moving over her food, she began eating normally.


    From there, she didn''t speak the entire time, and neither did I. Some people were curious and looked at us, but none of them dared to get closer than before.


    Once Arianne finished her food, a smile blossomed on her face.


    "Wow, I... had so much fun. Is that weird to say?"


    It definitely was, considering we basically didn''t do anything at all. But if that''s how she felt, she must''ve been far too lonely for her own good because of her shyness.


    With that in mind, I shook my head.


    "Not weird at all."


    Arianne put one hand over her heart and looked at me gratefully.


    "Thank you so much for everything."


    I waved my hand dismissively and told a tiny lie.


    "The food isn''t that expensive, don''t worry about it."


    Arianne let out a soft giggle.


    "The food was nice, but it''s not just that. I just feel so happy now."


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "It''s a two-way streak. Sure I put myself out there, but at the same time, it needs you to be courageous enough to approach. So I should thank you for that. I mean, you are the only one sitting with me despite all the people nearby."


    With a bit of mncholy, I took a deep breath.


    "If it wasn''t for you, then I would''ve already given up by now. The way most people see me made me think that this was pointless. I kinda just felt like an idioting out here. But even with what you said, people are too scared. Yet, even if I wasn''t able to help as many people as I wanted, at least there''s you."


    Arianne smiled.


    "I''m really d I stopped believing those rumors."


    I stood up and gave her a wave.


    "Well, it''s time for me to go. I''m sure you also have ces to be. Goodbye."


    Arianne stood up and bowed.


    "Goodbye, Bryson."


    She helped out a little with the packing up, though she didn''t really understand what to do, so she wasn''t all that helpful. But at the very least, the gesture was there.


    While in the carriage I began meditating once more, but I honestly felt quite tired from everything that happened today. When I finally did get back, it was only then I remembered I was supposed to take a shower with Jess.


    I thought I would need to go to her room to tell her I was back, but before I got there, I saw her waiting outside of the showers. It looked like even if I forgot, she wouldn''t have. There was still a stern expression on her face as she waved me to go inside.


    I decided to do as told. Upon getting inside, I decided to go to a corner to change my clothes, but as I put my hand on a button-


    "Wait."


    Jess called out to me. I turned around, and she looked at me like I had done something wrong.


    She gestured to me.


    "Get over here."


    Confused, I walked over. After which, Jess began unbuttoning my clothes.


    ...Is this what Bryson used to do with Jess?


    I think I see why he had to forcefully distance himself from Jess.

 Chapter 27: A Motherly Jess

    <h4>Chapter 27: A Motherly Jess</h4>


    Jess began undressing me, and unabashedly stared at me the entire time she was doing it. I''m not sure if I was hearing things, but I heard a gulping sound.


    I cooperated, moving my arms so that she could take them off, but in the back of my mind, I was wondering why this was even happening. She seemed quite unafraid and even picked up the pace while taking off my belt, almost like she wanted to hurry before I could back out of doing this.


    In the end, I found myselfpletely naked in front of someone for the first time. It did feel a little weird, but it wasn''t as embarrassing as I imagined. Maybe it was because Jess was my sister? But it was kinda hard for me to see her as one given that I wasn''t actually Bryson.


    I didn''t really get it.


    Jess took a little while, but she then did it on her own as well. I decided to step into the actual bathing area first. As expected of a noble''s manor, it was pretty damnrge. There were a few different areas to take a shower and arge bath in another section.


    This was also why I felt it was fine to bathe together since there was more than enough space for us.


    I turned on one of the faucets, letting the water rain down on me. When I heard Jesse in, I called out to her.


    "Do you need me to wash your back?"


    I reached over to the bar of soap, but before I could take it, Jess grabbed onto my hand.


    "I don''t need any help. I''m supposed to be bathing you, just like old times, remember?"


    I blinked a few times.


    "...Is that necessary? I''m fairly old now, right?"


    Jess was stubborn.


    "But I''m older."


    My eyelid twitched.


    Well yeah, of course. You''re always going to be older. Does that mean you''re going to treat me as a child even if I''m eighty-six?


    "That doesn''t make me a kid, you know?"


    Jess clicked her tongue.


    "Stop saying so many things."


    Without waiting for my response, she began scrubbing me with the bar of soap, unafraid of touching my body whatsoever. It definitely felt a little strange, which was to be expected.


    But honestly, it felt a little strange in a different way.


    I wasn''t sure before, but now I knew that Jess definitely cared for her brother a lot. For the first time in my life, I felt like I was truly cared for. It was definitely weird because I wasn''t actually her brother.


    It would probably be bad if she found out.


    Jess waspletely unreserved as she washed me, treating my body like it was her own. It was definitely really off-putting when she started to wash my more private areas, but I forcefully choked down myints.


    Once she had finished, I figured that she was going to wash herself, but she was still behind me. I felt a little awkward to be honest. Although she wasn''t directly touching me, I could feel her presence.


    I''m honestly not sure if it was the same for other people, but I was always distinctly aware of when people were close to me. Even when they were just nearby, it felt like a weight was pressed onto that part of my body, making it tense up considerably.


    Because of that, if someone was looking over my shoulder for maybe a minute or two, I would feel shoulder cramps and feel the need to stretch it out.


    It seemed despite getting a new body, that fact didn''t change. As such, I could feel my body ufortably tense up, which was honestly getting painful. Not wanting to feel that pain, I called out to her.


    "Um, I think you should wash yourself now."


    Yet, it was at this point that Jess suddenly went forward and wrapped her arms around me. This made my difort rise from a ten straight to a one hundred. A desire to break this hold and run away bubbled up in me, but I forced it back down.


    Jess whispered to me.


    "Why are you so scared of me?"


    I didn''t respond. I mean, how was I supposed to respond in the first ce?


    Jess deepened her hug and rested her head on my shoulder, letting her head lean against my own.


    "Did I do something? I''m really really sorry if I have. I don''t want to push you away when it''s only the two of us."


    I took a deep breath. Trying to prepare myself so that I didn''t screw this up.


    "It''s not something that you did. At least, I''m pretty sure it isn''t."


    A small frown formed on her face.


    "Then why did you want to get a separate room? When you even stopped taking baths together with me, it hurt a lot, you know? And when you wouldn''t even eat at the same table... I thought... I thought..."


    She started to cry. It was a little hard to notice because of the water already on her face, but the sobbing was enough to tell that much. After a minute or so, she calmed down.


    "You really don''t hate me?"


    I shook my head.


    "No, I don''t."


    To be honest, I didn''t really feel anything about her. Even now, to me, I just thought of her as Nathan''s 2D waifu. Though, it felt a little weird now that she was 3D.


    "I guess it''s just that it felt a little unnecessary to do all those things together now that I''ve be older."


    That was probably what Bryson thought too. After all, I''m pretty sure most brothers and sisters don''t shower and share the same room even after they''re older than eighteen. Maybe sharing a house is reasonable, but past that is just too far.


    Though, From the way Jess began hugging tighter, it seemed she disagreed.


    "Unnecessary? Why would you stop just because it''s unnecessary?"


    The corner of my lip twitched. Maybe because it was weird as fuck?


    Though, I definitely couldn''t say that.


    "It just felt... ufortable."


    Jess let out a displeased murmur.


    "I''ll never hurt you, there''s no need to worry about that."


    A bitter smile formed on my face.


    "Haha, I''m not worried about that."


    Jess spoke softly.


    "Then why are you still so tense?"


    I felt the words get caught in my throat. She kinda stumped me right there. While I could say all the things in the world, at the end of the day, I wasn''t that good at controlling my bodynguage.


    I suppose that''s why Raisa said I was a bad liar.


    Jess seemed to take my silence as an affirmation. She began slowly running her fingers down my muscles where they were most tense.


    "Just rx them, ok?"


    I blinked a few times. Right now, they felt locked harder than Alcatraz. I really needed her to get away from me to stop that.


    "M-Maybe if you could get off me first?"


    Unfortunately, Jess was against that.


    "No. I''ll get off once you aren''t afraid of me. I swear on my life I won''t hurt you, just rx."


    It wasn''t as though I didn''t believe that, but while the conscious part of my brain agreed, subconsciously, it was still screaming to get away at all costs like Jess was secretly a demon.


    "I-I get it, it''s just my body is cramped up."


    Jess became rather unreasonable.


    "Then just stop cramping up."


    ...Was she being serious?


    Well, given the fact she was still holding on to me tightly, I suppose she was. There was a tiny voice in the back of my mind whispering that I could just break her off and then everything would be fine.


    It was so quiet but incredibly tempting.


    However, my logic was still winning for now, as I knew doing something like that would ruin my rtionship with her. I''m not sure if something like that happened in the game, but I''m not sure what Jess would do if I did.


    In the end, it looked like the only safe solution was to stop tensing up. Unfortunately, that was harder said than done.


    I spent a long time trying my best.


    Even after thirty or so minutes, Jess stuck to her word and hadn''t let me go. The entire time, she was also trying to help, brushing her fingers lightly across my body where it was most tense.


    However, that was honestly part of the problem.


    Though, while it took a long time, I found myself slowly getting used to her touching me.


    At some point, it struck a chord within me as I realized how unbelievably weird it was to be in this situation. If you heard that two people of the opposite gender were clinging onto each other with no clothes, you probably would think of a certain other thing.


    My eyebrow twitched in helplessness.


    "I''m not sure if I can do this, Jess."


    Jess was incredibly stubborn though.


    "Please keep trying."


    With a bitter smile, I decided to continue on. In silence, I continued trying and losing track of time in the process.


    In the silence, Jess suddenly spoke up.


    "Our mother and father are always out with their business. The servants may have raised us, but they will always keep their distance. I''m the only one connected by blood that will stay with you."


    She blinked a few times.


    "So... I''ll always try my best to be a mother for you. I won''t be the best, but I''ll try my... my hardest."


    Near the end, I could feel that she was breaking down. Once again, she began to cry. It was at this point I gently reached out to hold onto one of her hands. The words she had said to me were unbearably sweet, but I still caught on to what she was unintentionally mentioning as well.


    That she hadn''t grown up with a true mother or father figure either. Yet, she was still trying to go one step further, attempting to act like a mother even when she basically didn''t have one herself.


    I understood.


    Jess was old, already neen. By Earth''s society standards, that''s an adult, even if the person in question is probably still pretty stupid.


    But while Jess had lived the years, she was almost still a child. Not to mention, one that had tried to take far too many burdens onto herself. I guess I could see why Nathan liked Jess so much.


    Though, this part of her definitely wasn''t directly mentioned in the game. He must''ve caught onto some very discreet details if he was actually able to infer her personality to this extent.


    After calming down, she continued to gently brush my body with her fingers. While my body was still tense, I truly put my all into rxing the best I could. Slowly but surely, the muscles in my body started to loosen up a bit.


    While that was the case, I could tell that they were ready to tense back up at any moment. If I felt even slightly agitated, then all the progress would''ve been lost, as my muscles would lock up once more.


    Before, I was just trying to calm down for the sake of getting out of this situation, but now there was a second reason. I didn''t want her to think that I was scared of her, because I really wasn''t.


    In the end, I began to slump. In my efforts to rx, I tried to stop using my muscles altogether. That ended up leading me to fall over, but Jess caught me, making sure I didn''t fall.


    This way, I was really leaning into her but decided to just go with it. My jaw also went ck, while my eyes were hardly open, simply because I didn''t want to identally tense anything once more.


    After an indeterminate amount of time passed, I felt my body actually rx, almost like it had be a ball of putty. This was actually a little mind-blowing to me because I never thought it would be possible for me to rx like this while someone else was touching me.


    Jess had a big smile on her face as her hug tightened considerably.


    It felt quite warm.


    ...Was this how it felt like to have a caring mother?


    Jess gently stroked my hair and even massaged it. The feeling was so strange.


    It felt so caring.


    She then began wiping away at the bottom of my eyes. It took a while, but I soon realized the reason was that tears wereing down my face. Tears that I had no idea existed.


    Jess whispered softly to me.


    "Shh... just go to sleep."


    My logic was about to kick in, telling me that I should change into my clothes and go to my bed.


    Yet, before that, my eyes ended up closing as I drifted off to sleep.

 Chapter 28: To Fuck a Book’s Mom

    <h4>Chapter 28: To Fuck a Book''s Mom</h4>


    I had a dream again. As to be expected, it was about the stupid book.


    Except this time, the book was put to the side and closed. Instead of being super-sized so that it filled most of my vision, it was simply next to me. It was then that the annoying whispers once again filled my head.


    "You are weak. Pathetically weak and you know it!"


    I''ve just started to learn magic, isn''t that a bit of an unfair assessment?


    "How are you supposed to protect your family if you''re as weak as that?"


    ...Bro, I don''t need to protect my family. All of them are strong as hell and doing fine on their own. Sure Jess might''ve done something stupid that got her caught by the mage association, but I just have to make sure she doesn''t do that stupid thing.


    Otherwise, her power will be fit for a person that was in ss S. At the end of the day, she was still someone with extremely good magical talent and the discipline to study enough to get full marks on a test.


    Unless the protagonist went through some key events that were really damn hard to get to, then Jess would actually be far more powerful.


    Though I did not say anything, it appeared that the book had noticed my indifference toward what it had been saying. After a little while of awkward silence, a figure gradually began manifesting in front of me.


    It consisted of a dark pink mist, vaguely taking on the shape of a humanoid form, with simr, but still different body proportions to me. Where the eyes would supposedly be, were instead devoid of the pink mist, and the same went for his mouth, making it possible to determine this thing''s expression.


    On top of that, there were two long horns on both sides of the thing''s head. Honestly, it kinda felt like it waspensating for something.


    There was a small frown on the thing''s face.


    While it was hesitating to speak, I pointed at it usingly.


    "Are you the book''s mom?"


    The figure looked at me strangely.


    "What? No! I''m a guy!"


    I clicked my tongue.


    "Unfortunate. And here I thought I was going to have a chance to fuck the book''s mom."


    The figure stamped his foot on the ground.


    "What? Leave my mom out of this!"


    I tapped my chin a few times.


    "...Wait, so you are the book? Hey, could you tell me where your mom is?"


    The figure clenched his fist.


    "My mom already died a long time ago, you-"


    He suddenly stopped himself, reeling back in that anger.


    "Hm. That was unbing of me. I am here to talk to you."


    I simply raised a finger in the air with a straight face.


    "It''s fine if it''s just the corpse, please tell me where it is."


    The figure flipped out, shaking a fist at me.


    "Shut up! Stop trying to change the subject! I know you aren''t Bryson, bastard!"


    I tilted my head to the side.


    "Hm? But that is indeed my name."


    After that, I put on an expression of concern. I looked off to the side, with the tips of my fingers gently pressed on my chin.


    "Oh dear, it appears you need help..."


    The figure seemed to be raising an eyebrow.


    "Huh? Why do I need help?"


    I let out an exaggerated sigh and put a hand on my head in frustration. Afterwards, I gave a deep bow to him.


    "It appears... your brain does not work. I''m deeply sorry for your loss. It appears I dodged a bullet. If your stupidity was contagious, I might''ve caught it from fucking your mom!"


    The figure''s entire body began trembling as he iled his limbs around.


    "You piece of shit! Just fucking listen to me when I''m talking, why can''t you have some respect here?"


    I raised an eyebrow and held out a hand towards him like I was a butler.


    "Oh dear, all of this screaming. I tried to talk all civilized, yet you simply keep cursing. I would ask you to stop raising your voice like a barbarian, but I understand your brain is simply unable to function on a level higher than a monkey''s. And to even demand respect... though it is too much to ask a monkey to understand respect, much less... whatever you are."


    I put a hand over my head and sighed as though it was truly a pity.


    The figure began letting out various sounds like he was just barely holding himself back from screaming, but it was seeping out anyway. Though he clearly did not have any veins, it almost seemed like a vein was popping out from his forehead.


    Eventually, he took in a deep breath, once again pulling back the anger. However, it still seemed too much for him as he began stamping his foot against the ground and cursing.


    "Shit! Shit! Shit!"


    He violently shook his head before pointing at me.


    "Whatever! The reason I''m talking to you right now is that you''re obviously not Bryson! I don''t know who you are, but if you''re a demon this is going too far! I''ve set my sight on this guy for way longer than you have!"


    I simply shrugged my shoulders.


    "Well I was born with this body, so it''s pretty natural that I have the right to it."


    The figure crossed his arms with a frown.


    "Don''t think I''m stupid. I''ve been observing him for a long damn time, and I know how he acts. I may not know who you are, but for sure you aren''t Bryson!"


    I shrugged my shoulders helplessly.


    "People change, little monkey. Oh wait, that''s an insult to monkeys."


    The figure stared back at me silently. As for me, I still kept my nonchnt attitude the entire time. He spoke in a low tone, clearly pissed off.


    "People don''t change like that. I know that for a fact."


    With a smile, I put both of my hands on my hips.


    "Then if you really don''t believe me, why don''t you call me Also Bryson?"


    The figure''s eye twitched.


    "Huh? What the hell are you talking about?"


    I clicked my tongue.


    "I guess that doesn''t really click, huh? What else will I name my second youtube channel then?"


    The figure looked at me as though I was some sort of ethereal alien, which was a little strange as he was more like the ethereal alien here.


    "...If I have to fight you for Bryson, then I will!"


    I rubbed my chin in thought and looked to the side.


    "This must be how women feel, being treated like an object... You really should learn how to treat people equally, man."


    The figure no longer listened to me.


    "Talk all you want, you aren''t getting out of this!"


    It lifted both hands up, summoning giant dark pink spectral masses which split off into several different tendrils. A few of them shot into the ground, burrowing towards me with spikes jutting out from the top as they traveled.


    A few took on the form of snakes and rushed toward me. As they traveled, they suddenly split into two as they traveled, both arcing outwards and erratically pathing towards me. They then continued splitting, confusing me as to which direction they wereing from.


    Then there were a few that took the form of a hawk flying high into the air. After getting fairly close, it began to dive-bomb me at what felt like the speed of light.


    Seeing all these different thingsing toward me, I quickly came to a conclusion.


    Unless I suddenly became the sh, there was no way in hell I could dodge even half of these things. I couldn''t help but wonder if the situation right now was bad for me. Or rather, I was questioning how badly this was going to screw me over.


    With a crash, all of the ck apparitions mmed into me one after another. The noise was incredibly loud, in fact nearly deafening.


    When all of it calmed down, I opened up my narrowed eyes to see...


    I waspletely fine. In fact, if anything I felt a little refreshed from the wind that had blown by.


    The figure began pointing at me in disbelief.


    "What? Impossible! Even if you are a Mythic Demon you would''ve at least suffered a few scratches from that!"


    I pped a few times and looked at the figure pitifully.


    "Little monkey, sometimes the truth is going to be hurtful, but being stupid and ignoring it won''t get you anywhere."


    The figure didn''t seem angered by my statement. Rather, it seemed to be too overwhelmed with shock to think of anything else.


    "What?... There is no demon possession? But how? That''s impossible!"


    I rolled my eyes.


    "There was a guy that meditated under a tree for a bit and got enlightenment, so why is me changing a little bit so strange?"


    The figure lowered his head and began mumbling his thoughts.


    "...That''s true... then..."


    Huh? There actually was some dude that meditated and received enlightenment here? Hm. Maybe the person developing this game was a Buddhist or something.


    The figure slowly turned to look at me with what appeared to be serene eyes.


    "If you really did reach enlightenment... it appears I can''t exactly force this on you."


    I used my pinky to pick at my ear despite the fact there was no earwax.


    "You didn''t notice after spending hours droning on about power to my face and annoying me?"


    The figure flinched. He seemed to be somewhat afraid.


    "You can recall those memories?"


    I blinked a few times. Was I not supposed to be able to do that?


    "I mean I guess it is kinda hard to remember my dreams and all that."


    The figure didn''t seem to hear me. He only began muttering something to himself, clearly deep in thought. He never spoke his full thoughts in the mutters, only asionally speaking a few words under his breath.


    Though I could hear them, they were disconnected from full sentences, making it hard for me to gather anything. Regardless, the figure continued like I wasn''t even there.


    "Like that... then maybe..."


    After a moment, it eventually sat down cross-legged. It waved its hand, causing a table to appear in front of it.


    A piece of paper appeared on said table.


    He tapped on the table once, as though really wanting to bring attention to it.


    "How about we make a deal? Those words that you saw really are true. You have great potential to use Dark Arts. While it may not be the best I''ve ever seen, it would be a shame if you never ended up using it. I''ll help you use them and even teach you. In exchange, all I ask for is to share some of the things that let you be enlightened."


    Terms with the words that he had said appeared on the paper, and they were all in very simplenguage. Everything was concise and clear, nothing like a devil''s contract. Realistically, I don''t think he was trying to scam me either.


    But still.


    "You make it sound like I need your help in the first ce."


    The figure''s face twitched.


    "...You may not need it, but it will be very helpful for you. Look, the kingdom isn''t as peaceful as you may think it might be. Your magic power is way too low for you to rely on, but with your talents in Dark Arts, you''ll be able to do so much!"


    A smirk formed on my face.


    "You act like I didn''t already know all of that."


    The figure seemed a bit surprised, but didn''t seem to find it unbelievable.


    "Look, maybe we got off on the wrong foot here. I''m really not trying to trick you. I don''t know how I can get you to believe me, but that''s really the case.


    I gave a quick nod.


    "I know you aren''t."


    From there, I pointed at him.


    "Maybe think a little more about why I rejected you and maybe you''ll understand some of this enlightenment stuff you care so much about."

 Chapter 29: New Spells

    <h4>Chapter 29: New Spells</h4>


    The figure was rendered speechless by my words. In the end, he ended up abruptly stopping the dream altogether.


    As a result, I suddenly shot wide awake.


    It was at this point I had to think back on previous events to find out how I ended up in Jess''s bed, with Jess herself wrapped around me like a spider. It took a second, but I remembered that we were in the bath together and Jess was being stubborn about not letting me go.


    I thought she would actually let go of me afterwards, but it would appear that was too naive of me. Despite her being asleep now, it was unrealistic for me to slip out of her grasp because not only were her arms around me, but her legs were as well.


    It felt suffocating, and I could feel my body tensing up once more. I guess while I worked hard to do it before, that didn''t mean I could just do it onmand.


    Soon after I had tensed up, Jess slowly opened her eyes as well. It appeared she had somehow sensed the change in my body. There was a small smile on her face as she used a hand to stroke my hair.


    "Shhhh... go to sleep, ok?"


    It felt bothfortable and ufortable at the same time. A bitter smile formed on my face. If I really had to go through with this every single day... that would be exhausting.


    Yet, I suddenly remembered something. I was able to meditate while eating food, blocking out my external sensations. And so, I closed my eyes and tried to focus on meditating. It was definitely a little hard at first, but with time I was able to do it.


    The mana in my body became clear to me.


    While my muscles were still tensing up, it was easier to calm them down. At the same time, I practiced moving the mana around in my body. After perhaps an hour or so of that, I finally ended up falling asleep.


    ...


    When I finally woke up again, I found Jess lightly patting my face, getting me to open my eyes.


    "It''s time to go to school."


    With a yawn I got up, rubbing the back of my head. I still felt a little sleepy, but if nothing else I felt well-rested.


    I was already clothed, so I simply went down to have breakfast. Jess hurriedly followed after me, and it seemed she was upset that I didn''t wait for her to go with me. It appeared like there were many tiny things that she wanted from me.


    Regardless, when we did end up getting into the carriage together, she didn''t bother me. I half expected her to force me to sit in herp or something simr, but thankfully she didn''t do anything.


    I spent the time meditating.


    Upon making it to the school, after just walking a few steps I felt someone tapping my arm.


    "Hey, do you mind spotting me a piece of gold? I want to buy an animal so that Edward can practice his blood magic on it. He gets too nervous when I mention trying to help someone else drain blood."


    I gave a quick nod before pulling out a piece of gold from my pocket.


    By the way, there were roughly one hundred of them on me. It made me wonder how much Nathan had, because if a meal cost ten gold coins, then surely a pig would be more than that.


    It seemed he was saving up quite a bit if all he needed was one gold coin.


    After taking it, Nathan pocketed it without another word. Then the two of us proceeded to enter magic ss. Raisa enthusiastically turned to me with a smile and waved her arm unabashedly.


    "Hi, Bryson!"


    I gave a small wave back.


    "Hey little ki- I mean, Raisa."


    Arianne clearly was hesitating, but she did end up greeting me as well.


    "H-Hello Bryson!"


    She immediately covered her mouth right after, probably because she said it way louder than intended. I simply chuckled lightly while waving towards her as well.


    "Hello, Arianne."


    I couldn''t help but notice that  was staring at me like a hawk, with her same stern expression. It seemed she didn''t expect me to get on familiar terms with this many people.


    I didn''t focus on it though and just went to my seat.


    After thest few people walked into the ss, Harold cleared his throat and tapped the board to announce the start of ss.


    "Today we will be doing something a little different. We will be learning the fire spell, but because of its more dangerous nature, we will be having the lesson in the target range. The fire spell itself doesn''t have any propulsion properties, but you can still throw it manually with a flick of the wrist."


    He stood up from his seat, gesturing for the rest of us to follow, and so we did.


    I couldn''t help but think of finally being able to burn the book, but in fairness, it seemed like it would finally leave me alone. For now, I wouldn''t burn it, but if it started to act up then I always had something to fall back to.


    It did not take too long for us to make our way to the target range. It actually ended up being evenrger than the gymnasium. From a rough estimate, I saw that there were targets that were even a kilometer or so away.


    There was also a chalkboard in the room, which Harold used to exin the fire spell. The rest of us stood around, watching him. Once he finished, he once again emphasized safety.


    There were several different markers along the practice range in different colors.


    Harold exined that we should use the gray markings to indicate how far we should be from one another. They were also the ones that were closest together, roughly two meters apart. It seemed like when we needed to learn even more powerful spells, we would have to stay further apart.


    Nearly the entire target range was covered in the same ck stone that the ss had. There wererge targets far off in the distance, with varying shades of gray, but still made out of the same stone.


    For us, we had target dummies just a few meters away that were simrly made of that same stone.


    While each of us took a spot, Harold called out soon after.


    "Remember the first and most important step! It is easy to hurt oneself while casting the fire spell. The entire time you must channel your mana to coat your body to prevent the me from burning you. Keep in mind that this only works because the spells you cast are naturally attuned to your own mana, it will not work with others as they are differently attuned, so keep it away from one another!"


    Hm... that was quite interesting. What if there was a way to change how your mana was attuned? Wouldn''t that mean you could theoretically cancel out another person''s magic?


    Well, that was a thought forter.


    I focused on channeling my mana, forming a thinyer around my entire body. With the meditation I had done recently, this wasn''t too hard. However, it was noticeably harder to cast the spell while also maintaining theyer of mana.


    Regardless, I had meditated while eating before, so this much wasn''t too hard for me.


    Slowly but surely, I ended up casting the fire spell, causing a tiny ball of fire to appear on top of my finger. My eyes flew open as I watched the tiny mes dance in front of me. I could feel the warmth on my skin, but it wasn''t painful because of the mana shielding me.


    I then flicked my wrist, throwing it at the target in front of me.


    A tiny explosion seemed to be on the verge of urring upon collision, but it rapidly dispersed right afterward.


    Raisa let out a cry of surprise.


    "You already finished casting?"


    I blinked a few times.


    "Uh, yeah."


    It was then I noticed most people were looking at me in shock, including Harold. As for Nathan, he didn''t care at all, which was expected.


    Sam''s eyes widened as he blurted the thoughts in his mind.


    "Impossible! You... you must''ve..."


    Harold rubbed his chin as he looked at me.


    "That is quite impressive. Have you already practiced the fire spell, Bryson?"


    I shook my head.


    "Nah, first time."


    Harold narrowed his eyes slightly.


    "Your focus is impable! It''s a shame that your talent isn''t higher..."


    I waved my hand dismissively and chuckled.


    "Haha, I like to see it as being thankful that I have the talent in the first ce. There are plenty of people that don''t have it, no?"


    Harold was stunned for a second, but ended upughing as well.


    "I suppose I was looking at it in too negative of a light."


    Shortly after he said arge fireball formed among the students. It was Nathan, and the fire he conjured was nearly bigger than him. His eyes flew open in surprise while he awkwardly leaned his head back as he stuck the hand holding the fire spell out. There was a frown on his face, almost like he was facing something disgusting.


    He seemed to be sweating, but it was cold sweat more than anything.


    "Ah, shit! I thought I put less power in this time!"


    Harold looked over and also began to sweat. He raised his hand and seemed to be casting something to salvage the situation.


    With a weak lob, Nathan threw the fireball forth. It just barely made it to the target, but that was more because of the size of the thing rather than anything else. It looked like a rather huge explosion was about to ur, but before it did the fires quickly dissipated.


    Harold let out a sigh of relief as he lowered his hand, not casting the spell.


    After the fires dissipated, Nathan put both hands on his hips with a frown. Harold called out to him.


    "Natan! While your magic aptitude is high, your control is weak! You must work on that."


    Nathan took a deep breath before leaning over dejectedly.


    "Yeah, I know. And here I thought I was getting better at controlling it. Guess it''s harder than it looks..."


    I couldn''t help but remember the number of times Nathan hadined about the main character having difficulty in learning spells. He had always jokingly boasted about being able to learn all the spells in a sh.


    And under normal circumstances, that wasn''t too big of a deal to boast about, since a situation where you were required to prove yourself realistically wouldn''t appear. I mean, it''s not like you could expect reincarnating as the very main character you always talked trash about.


    Regardless, Nathan was actually progressing fairly well. By my estimate, it was roughly on par with my pace, because it was harder to controlrger volumes of mana. Still, I was pretty sure my learning speed was faster by a decent amount.


    I guess the tables turned when we reincarnated, considering he was better at studying than me.


    Though, soon after someone pped rather exaggeratedly


    "Wow, you''re so good at this Natan!"


    I looked over to see it was Charlotte, one of the capture targets. This was honestly quite surprising as she was actually a noble herself. But even more than that, we were still in the prologue stage, meaning there shouldn''t have been an event for him to get to know her.


    I saw that Nathan didn''t seem pleased at all, only having a tired expression on his face.


    Ah, it seemed he attracted her unintentionally.

 Chapter 30: Tsundere

    <h4>Chapter 30: Tsundere</h4>


    Charlotte was a rtively short girl, but still taller than Nathan. Her hair was blond and bunched up into two pigtails on either side of her head. She looked the part and was also a tsundere. Jess was also kind of a tsundere, but not in the sense of how most people see them as. Charlotte fit that model more, though there were a few kinks about her here and there.


    She walked over to Nathan, with her fingers interlocked together. She innocently puckered her lips, almost like she was about to kiss someone.


    "Could you teach me Natan? I''m not really getting it."


    I saw Nathan''s eyelid twitch. He slowly turned around and looked back at her with a nk expression.


    "Did you not hear what the teacher said? The only thing I''ve got going for me is my magic power. As for my control, it''s nonexistent."


    Harold furrowed his brow when he heard that.


    "Your control is actually above average as of now. My intended meaning is that it is still not sufficient for your current level of power."


    The corner of Nathan''s lip twitched. It looked like Harold wasn''t too good at reading the mood. As for Charlotte, her briefly despondent expression lit up.


    "Ah, I really need help with my control so you should help me out!"


    Nathan massaged his temple with the palm of his hand.


    "And not the teacher that is supposed to be teaching you those things?"


    Charlotte puffed up her cheeks and pointed at him.


    "I''m a noble ordering you to do this!"


    Harold let out a sigh when he saw this.


    "You know you are not allowed to exercise your status like this while in school. Besides, if you have questions about controlling your mana, then it would be best if you consulted me, as Natan said."


    It was Nathan''s turn to smile confidently, now that the teacher was backing him up. As for Charlotte, she looked quite upset. She looked at the teacher, then at Nathan.


    "But... I..."


    She pointed at Harold with a frown.


    "This doesn''t involve you!"


    A wry smile formed on Harold''s face.


    "Unfortunately, I am directly involved since the two of you are my students and I am the one responsible for teaching."


    Charlotte puffed up her cheeks before exaggeratedly waving her hands.


    "Whatever! I''ll just practice on my own."


    As she said, Charlotte did go off on her own to practice, though her gaze seemed to unconsciously drift over to Nathan from time to time.


    While all that was happening, I was instead thinking of other things. Since it was possible to create a barrier of mana while casting the fire spell, then that probably also meant if I could stretch my focus even further, I could cast two fire spells at once, right?


    I attempted to do just that, holding both my hands in front of me.


    After forming the mana barrier, I attempted tomand my mind to do two of the fire spells at the same time.


    Yet, despite being the exact same spell, both requiring the same steps, it was incredibly difficult. My control over the mana had be rather sloppy, causing many mistakes along the way.


    In the end, I wasn''t able to properly form the spell on either end.


    I clicked my tongue.


    Harold seemed to notice what I was trying to do and called out to me.


    "It is best to focus on one spell at a time. Simply maintaining the barrier as you cast the fire spell is already draining enough of your focus. It is better to just learn how to do one spell at a time."


    I tapped my chin a few times.


    "No mages have learned to cast two spells at the same time?"


    A bitter smile formed on Harold''s face.


    "It is far easier to just cast one spell at a time. Even if a mage with good focus tried to cast two spells at the same time, they would be able to do it faster if they just cast them one after another. That endeavor is pointless."


    A smirk gradually formed on my face.


    If practically no mage attempted to cast two spells at the same time, that meant practically nobody would expect someone to.


    As a person with a lower magical aptitude than the strongest, I wasn''t going to win a head-to-head battle against someone fighting conventionally. That was just obvious from the get-go.


    However, if I could be a little more tricky and catch them off guard, that might be the opening that I need to win. In other words, I was going to practice casting two spells until I could reliably do it.


    Naturally, I wasn''t going to do it after Harold had told me not to. In fact, I nned on practicing in areas where no stranger would see me doing such. After all, the entire point of a trick was that it was a secret that the opponent didn''t know about.


    From there, we just continued practicing casting the fire spell.


    By the end, most people were spent on mana. As for me, while I was surprised by how much I could cast, I ran out of mana by the end.


    Everyone was a little tired for math ss. Given that it was also boring, I was having a lot of trouble not falling asleep. On the other hand, Nathan didn''t really have that problem, mostly because Charlotte was discreetly bothering him with either whispers or just poking him.


    I couldn''t help but feel a little sorry for him, but at the very least I wouldn''t have to deal with her.


    Soon enough, lunchtime came.


    Like before, Raisa, Nathan, and I all sat down at a table together. The first person toe up to us wasn''t actually the waiter, but Arianne. Her steps were unsteady, while her head was lowered.


    By the time she had gotten next to the table, her cheeks were flushed bright red.


    However, it looks like she was still able to muster up the courage to speak. Arianne bowed down so deeply like she was trying to greet the king.


    "H-Hi! Could I please sit with you guys? I-I mean you don''t have to ept it but-"


    Raisa looked at her curiously, though a small frown was on her face.


    "Why do you want to sit here?"


    For reference, Raisa was sitting next to me, while Nathan was sitting across. The spot that Arianne wanted to take was the one next to me. All things considered, that was pretty natural as the one she was most familiar with was me.


    Though, Arianne didn''t seem to be prepared for that question, flinching before going into a panic.


    "A-Ah, it''s not really important, but I maybe just... wanted people to talk to."


    Raisa seemed to calm down somewhat from her answer.


    "If that''s the case then... you can sit if you get the permission of these two."


    Arianne looked over to Nathan with puppy eyes, prompting him to feel too awkward to say no.


    "It''s fine by me."


    She then turned to me with sparkling eyes, showing how excited she was. In the end, looking at how happy she seemed to be, I couldn''t help myself...


    "No."


    Both Raisa and Nathan looked surprised by my response. As for Raisa, her expression fell and it appeared like she truly fell into the pits of despair. Though I was tempted to just let her wallow in sadness, I knew it would be too cruel for someone as emotional as her.


    Arianne shivered before turning away.


    "I-I''m sorry for asking!"


    Though, before she left, I grabbed onto her wrist and shed a smile at her.


    "You didn''t ask for permission when you sat next to mest time. Why would you need permission now?"


    Arianne stared back at me in a daze. It looks like she had to repeat the words I had said in her head multiple times in order toprehend the meaning. After a while, she began blushing even harder in embarrassment.


    "A-Ah, then..."


    I couldn''t help but startughing right then and there. It was only at this point that Arianne finally realized that I was just teasing her. Her hands retreated from the cuff of her shirt before she began pping me with the sleeve, letting out an embarrassed hum.


    I guarded myself as an uncontroble smirk was stered across my face.


    "Sorry, sorry."


    Eventually, it seemed Arianne had be embarrassed about the fact that she was hitting me with her sleeve and just sat down without a word. On the other hand, Raisa was staring at me like a hawk.


    She had been doing so ever since I said that Arianne had sat next to me.


    Raisa cleared her throat and looked at me with a smile, though it didn''t feel like a very happy smile.


    "Um, Bryson, why did you just let some random stranger sit next to you? And where did this happen exactly?"


    I blinked a few times. It seemed that she was getting jealous over something stupid.


    "It''s nothing special. I was just sitting at a ce in the slums and she just so happened to be there."


    Raisa''s smile twitched, but she kept it on her face. Her gaze then shifted towards Arianne.


    "Why did you sit next to him? It couldn''t be that you''re trying to gain his favor to turn your life around or something, right?"


    Arianne seemed genuinely shocked.


    "Eh? Nothing of the sort! I would never make someone fix my problems when they aren''t a part of it."


    Hm. And that''s part of why you find it so hard to make friends.


    Raisa still seemed a little dissatisfied but decided to drop it for now.


    "If you aren''t lying... then fine."


    Finally, it seemed as though the drama was beginning to settle down. Though that was not actually the case, given that Charlotte had walked over to our table.


    I must say, things were getting rather lively here pretty quickly.


    When Charlotte first arrived at our table, she just stood there silently with a frown on her face. Her arms were crossed intently.


    Though she hade here with far more vigor than Arianne, from the flush on her cheeks it looked as though she was just as embarrassed. Nathan noticed that she was standing behind him, so he turned to her and gave her a slight bow.


    "Sorry, you aren''t allowed to sit here."


    Charlottepletely lost herposure, her face flushing as she stumbled back, nearly falling over right then and there. Her mouth was open wide as she spoke.


    "Wa, wa, wa!"


    It was clear to even Arianne that the words Nathan said were taken deeply by Charlotte. Seemingly pitying her, Arianne spoke up.


    "Um, I don''t mind her sitting here. I-If she doesn''t do anything bad, then there shouldn''t be a problem, right?"


    Hearing those words, Charlotteposed herself.


    "Ah, right! Of course I can sit here!"


    Arianne''s face twitched.


    "That''s not what I-"


    Before she finished, Charlotte had plopped down right next to Nathan, much to his displeasure. He frowned as he told her off.


    "I said you couldn''t sit here."


    Charlotte flinched once more. She looked like she was on the verge of breaking down but quickly spoke up self-righteously.


    "I-I''m here because I wish to socialize with other nobles to broaden my connections and power! No other reason! That is the only reason I''m here and what amoner says has nothing to do about it!"


    She was definitely lying.

 Chapter 31: A Little Boy

    <h4>Chapter 31: A Little Boy</h4>


    Nathan began massaging his temple with the base of his palm. He obviously wanted nothing to do with Charlotte and especially didn''t want her to sit next to us. However, it looked like he also couldn''t bring himself to tell her off too strongly.


    In the end, he tried toe to apromise.


    "If nothing''s going to stop you from sitting here, then at least stay a little further away."


    Charlotte looked up with a proud expression.


    "I must sit a reasonable distance away from the nobles to show respect! There is no need to do the same for amoner!"


    While saying that, as if to prove a point, she shifted over even closer to Nathan, until her shoulder was directly brushing up against his. A blissful expression briefly appeared on her face before it turned strict once again.


    She had no ns ofpromising at all.


    This really seemed to tick Nathan off as a pissed-off smile formed on his face. He shot up, getting out of his seat and walking a sizable distance before sitting down. Without a single ounce of shame, Charlotte also stood up from her seat and got back right next to him.


    Once again, Nathan stood up and moved over, but Charlotte would soon follow him.


    Arianne, Raisa, and I just watched the two of them like we were watching some strange game. Soon, Nathan leaned over and pointed at Charlotte usingly.


    "Why are you following me? Stop!"


    Charlotte looked the other way and crossed her arms.


    "Following you? Don''t jump to conclusions all on your own. I am simply shifting over to a ce I feel morefortable!"


    She said it confidently, as though all her actions could be reasonably exined by just wanting to shift over.


    Nathan was rendered speechless by Charlotte''s superpower called shamelessness. In the end, he thought for a little while before sitting down in between me and Raisa with a smile.


    "Hah! You have to sit at a respectful distance from the nobles right? So go off and sit somewhere else!"


    Charlotte finally lost herposure, bing rather flustered and blushing rather hard.


    "Wh-What! You... that''s unfair!"


    Nathan shrugged his shoulders.


    "Huh? I just decided to sit here. But you can''t sit next to me as you need to keep a respectful distance from nobles, right?"


    Charlotte stammered, unable to form a full sentence.


    "Y-You... that''s because!... b-because..."


    With her own words used against her, she was at a loss, not knowing how to save the situation. While Nathan had his arms crossed and a confident smile on his face, he didn''t notice that Raisa was looking at him with a frown.


    Eventually, without warning, Raisa picked Nathan up and threw him out of the way.


    "Move somewhere else!"


    She then scooted a little closer while trying her best to keep a neutral expression on her face. While Nathan was dazed on the floor, Charlotte suddenly perked up and hopped on over next to him, pulling him up by the arm.


    However, there was an angry pout on her face.


    "Be grateful this noble is willing to help you!"


    Nathan immediately wrestled his arm out of her grasp before giving her a bow with a forced and angry smile.


    "There''s no need for you to help this lowlymoner. Just go on with your discussion with the other nobles!"


    I could practically see the aneurysm forming inside Nathan''s head right now. On the other hand, Charlotte only smiled when she heard what he said.


    "It''s good you know your ce! Now sit down!"


    She walked up to him and stood right next to him, close enough for Nathan to feel her unsteady breathing. Charlotte was unabashedly waiting for him to take a seat, so she could go right next to him after he did.


    I looked over my shoulder and noticed that a waiter was waiting there awkwardly, unsure of whether or not it was an appropriate time toe closer to hand out the menus. Feeling a bit of pity for the man, I waved to the two of them casually and spoke.


    "We need to order our food, calm down a little."


    Charlotte turned to Nathan and told him off.


    "See? You should learn to calm down a bit,moner!"


    She acted as though it was entirely Nathan''s fault all of this happened, rather than her own. Nathan massaged his temple with the base of his palm, still clearly angry, but ended up sighing in resignation and sitting down.


    As expected, she sat down next to him right after.


    It appeared today, Charlotte''s... ''perseverance'' won.


    The waiter looked at me gratefully before setting down the menus. I wanted to get something different than pottage, but when I looked at everything else that was free on the menu, none of them were particrly appealing.


    ...Welp, I guess I''m just getting more pottage.


    Raisa and Arianne simrly got the same item. Nathan simply waved his hand and spoke briefly.


    "The usual."


    Charlotte had her eyes on him and seemingly spurred on by his actions, waved her hand in the same way he did.


    "I want the same as thismoner!"


    When the food arrived, Nathan didn''t hold back and ate noisily and messily. While he wasn''t all that uptight, this was definitely intentionally far worse in an attempt to disgust Charlotte. Unfortunately, she didn''t seem to mind whatsoever.


    Instead, she was focused on the pottage in front of her.


    She lightly sniffed it a few times.


    "So this is whatmoners eat? This looks quite simr to the soup, just with lower-ss ingredients."


    After curiously stirring it for a little while, she took a spoonful. A frown appeared on her face shortly after.


    Nathan snorted when he saw that.


    "If you don''t likemoner food, then you shouldn''t have ordered it, stupid."


    Charlotte puffed up her cheeks and angrily took a big scoop and stuffed her face.


    "I like it a lot! What do you know? I-I can enjoymoner food too!"


    Raisa let out a small chuckle.


    "I must say, it definitely is far nder than what I am used to. But after having it for a while, I''ve realized it is a nice change of pace."


    Arianne put a hand on her cheek.


    "Ah, is noble food more vorful?"


    Raisa gave a quick nod.


    "The biggest difference is that they usually have special spices on top. That''s what makes them rather costly."


    Arianne nodded in recognition.


    "Ah, I see."


    As a bit of time passed, Charlotte snuck a peek at Nathan before stretching out.


    "Mm... I''m a little tired."


    She then leaned over, trying to rest her head on Nathan''s shoulder. As I expected, Nathan shifted away like Charlotte was the gue. In the end, her head had nowhere to fall on.


    Charlotte lifted her head back up and looked at Nathan as though he had done something wrong.


    "Why are you moving away? You should willingly offer yourself as a... soft and fluffy pillow!"


    Nathan was clearly against it and the two of them began doing their little push-and-pull fight once more. Raisa nced over at them, then looked at me. She alternated a few times, and I came to realize what she was thinking.


    I cleared my throat and threw out a randomment to Raisa.


    "If you''re trying to woo someone, you don''t want toe on strongly like that when they are clearly rejecting it. You''ll only push them away."


    Raisa flinched and nodded hurriedly.


    "Ah, yeah! Of course! I would... never do something like that."


    She was definitely thinking of imitating Charlotte. As for Charlotte herself, she seemed rather flustered as she clenched her fists.


    "H-Hey! I''m not trying to woo amoner! W-Why would a noble like me ever do something like that?"


    Nathan didn''t say anything, but from the tight smile on his face, he seemed to just barely stop himself from blowing his top off. Though at the very least, Charlotte seemed to calm down considerably, no longer forcing herself onto Nathan.


    Though she was still sitting quite close, it seemed Nathan was able to manage it.


    Lunch passed by rather slowly, with only some casual conversation here and there. It seemed as though most people weren''t thatfortable with one another. Regardless, it seemed everyone made their own effort to spur on their conversation.


    Before it really picked up, lunch was over.


    Without anything to really talk about, Nathan and I just went to English ss like usual. It was boring, as expected. Gym ss was pretty much the same, though Rae also gave a few interpretations she had onbat, but only touched on the basics, which was understandable.


    From there, the end of the school day hade quickly. I went on my way to the carriage, and Nathan walked back home. Once Jess got on as well, we went back home in silence. I spent my time just meditating.


    By the time we got back, I immediately got ready to head off to the slums once more.


    As we were getting set up, I went up to a butler as he seemed mostfortable talking with me.


    "Hey, for tomorrow I''m not going to be able to sit at the table because I have a ball to attend. Do you think you and your group would be willing to go out and set everything up anyways?"


    The butler looked mildly surprised. He looked at all the others who were also working on setting things up before shing me a small smile.


    "I believe that all of us would feel honored to help you with that, Lord Bryson."


    To really show that fact, the people who were setting things up all smiled and waved at me. I couldn''t help but recall that this was definitely not the way they looked at me before.


    It wasn''t like they were all that afraid of me, as though I was a tyrant, but they definitely didn''t care all that much about me. Chances are, if I died, they would''ve just moved on and served whoever else they would be assigned to.


    But now, it was different.


    I guess they were moved by my charitable acts.


    Once again, I found myself in the carriage. I spent the time meditating. Except this time, I was trying to manipte two separate strands of mana in the same way. Even simple movements were rather difficult, but it was something I knew couldn''t be rushed.


    As always, we set everything up. It was even quicker than usual since it seemed everyone was getting used to it.


    I sat down in the middle seat like always. Shortly after, Arianne appeared, hesitating for a moment before sitting next to me.


    "U-Um, hi!"


    I gave a small nod.


    "Hello."


    From there, an awkward silence descended upon us. One that I had no intention of breaking. Part of it was because I just felt toozy to have a conversation, but another part was that sometimes silence was enjoyable too.


    The people cooking didn''t make much, as themon trend was that most people didn''t even bother trying to sit down at the table. And they were right in thinking that.


    Although people looked slightly less afraid because Arianne was sitting next to me, at the end of the day they were skeptical people. Most of them probably believed that Arianne was actually paid by me to act like she trusted me and convince others.


    Of course, I could try to clear up those misunderstandings myself, but I didn''t really care enough about it. If they stubbornly decided to view me in that type of light with what little they knew of me, then so be it. I would only exin myself to those curious and willing to listen.


    The food was soon ready, and I expected the only people eating would be me and Arianne.


    There were still people watching me, but it was definitely less than before. It seemed like my appearances here were gradually bing old news. I''ve be irrelevant before I even gathered a following.


    Though, while I was caught up in those thoughts, a little boy rushed up from the crowd. There were several good-natured people that tried to stop him, but he just barely slipped on by.


    And when he got within a fifty-meter radius of me, all those trying to stop him were too scared to go out and bring him back.


    As such, the boy wasn''t stopped as he rushed over to me. Concerned and afraid murmurs immediately resounded among the crowd. Yet, in contrast to all that, the boy himself had a bright smile on his face.


    "Hey!"

 Chapter 32: Good Person

    <h4>Chapter 32: Good Person</h4>


    I looked over at the boy. He was short with dirty ck hair. Although his expression didn''t show that he was particrly hungry, his body was definitely somewhat malnourished. It made me wonder about the state of food in the slums.


    Just from the words ''slums'', it sounds pretty bad, but I just wondered to what extent it really was.


    The boy pulled out a chair next to me and got up on it with a bit of difficulty. He stood on top of the chair itself to match my height. Both hands were on his hips and he had a confident smile on his face. It almost looked like the pose a kid would make when pretending to be a superhero.


    "A lot of people told me that I should stay away from you!"


    After proudly dering that, I let out augh.


    "So why did you end up approaching me?"


    I noticed that Arianne was leaning over curiously, watching him as well. As for the boy he thought to himself for a moment, blowing up his cheeks like a pufferfish while thinking. Then, he raised a finger in the air like he was feeling for the wind.


    "Because I feel like you are a good guy!"


    I blinked a few times, looking at him for a good few seconds. If anything, I imagined his response might be rted to seeing Arianne and thus trusting me by proxy. I couldn''t help butugh.


    "I''m not sure it''s good to judge based on just that."


    The boy shrugged his shoulders.


    "A lot of people told me that too! I guess maybe I was wrong, but it really didn''t feel like it."


    He scratched the side of his head, with a somewhat uncertain expression. It looked like he was recalling something unpleasant.


    "I promised not to get too close, but then I had to!"


    I raised an eyebrow.


    "Why so?"


    The boy proceeded to point toward Arianne curiously.


    "You are too close to her! She could be dangerous!"


    Arianne flinched. It seemed she needed a few seconds just to process the words that hade out of the boy''s mouth.


    "E-Eh?"


    I couldn''t help butugh once more. From there, I held my chin with my hand before nodding a few times.


    "You know what? I think you''re right, she definitely doesn''t look trustworthy."


    Arianne panicked even more, blushing fairly hard.


    "Eh! W-What!"


    The boy nodded several times in a row.


    "Yes! Very untrustworthy!"


    I saw in the corner of my eye that Arianne seemed to be gradually breaking down, so I waved my hand.


    "Haha, I''m just joking. She''s one of my ssmates, so she''s no stranger."


    Arianne seemed to calm down somewhat. The boy frowned and put both hands on his hips. He seemed strangely serious for a kid.


    "That makes it worse!"


    Arianne gasped in surprise.


    "W-Wa-Wa-What? Am I really that unfitting?"


    I tilted my head to the side slightly as I looked at the kid.


    "Hm? Why would that make it worse?"


    The kid narrowed his eyes slightly and began to whisper like he only wanted me to hear, but Arianne was still well within earshot.


    "She would let you die if you were in danger."


    At first, I was rather dismissive about this kid and was about to tell him off. Yet, as the smile formed on my face, and as my hand was about to raise, I suddenly stopped.


    In the shitty dating game, there were actually several scenes where the protagonist would die if you ended up relying on Arianne. It wasn''t as though she purposely betrayed him, but rather her hesitance that made it so she didn''t make it in time, leading to an untimely demise, which sometimes included her too.


    Even as she became more confident in the story, this trace of hesitancy actually caused several problems for herself and those around her. None of them were too huge of a deal, that is, if you don''t consider the dying part.


    Though the kid could''ve just been spewing random nonsense, it seemed that the kid had somehow recognized Arianne''s character just from looking at her for a little bit.


    I rubbed my chin in interest as I spoke to the kid.


    "Don''t worry, I won''t trust her, alright?"


    The kid nodded enthusiastically.


    "Good!"


    From there, I leaned back in my chair and waved over to the chefs preparing some food.


    "Would you like a serving of pottage? You don''t have to take it if you don''t want to."


    The kid looked over and gave a nod.


    "Oh! That stuff sounds pretty nice, I remember trying it a few times. One big bowl please!"


    I didn''t need to say anything, as a chef was already bringing one over shortly after he had said that. He sat down in the chair happily, ignoring the dirt he had tracked onto the seat by standing on it. From there, he began eating, though he wasn''t particrly rushing despite his thin frame.


    I noticed that Arianne looked concerned, probably thinking of self-doubts, but I wanted to talk to the boy first. With an off-hand tone, I asked my question.


    "So why did you think I was a trustworthy person?"


    The boy smacked his lips before giving me a rather strange answer.


    "You look at people like they are really people."


    It almost made me feel like I was told that I knew that the floor was made out of the floor. However, I did somewhat get the sentiment of what he was saying. But all things considered, it could still be interpreted in a variety of ways.


    Glossing over his answer, I asked another question.


    "Then why do you think Arianne is a bad person?"


    The boy lowered the spoon that was about to stuff his face and let out a hum in thought. After a few moments, he shook his head.


    "If you mean that girl, I don''t think she''s a bad person. But you can''t trust her. She looks like the people that just watch."


    Arianne was intently paying attention to our conversation and seemed to calm down, but she was rather unsettled by hisstment.


    I leaned over the table, using my hand to hold up my head as I looked at him.


    "So what do bad people look like?"


    The boy opened his mouth, but seemed to be rather stumped by this question. After maybe ten seconds of thought, he began stirring the pottage lightly with his spoon before responding sheepishly.


    "They look like Mama. Mama is not a good person, do not let her trick you."


    Arianne looked over with concern.


    "Mama? What is she doing to you?"


    The boy blinked a few times.


    "She doesn''t do anything to me. But I remember how Mama looks. She will try to trick you. I always pretend I don''t know in front of Mama."


    That sounded rather ominous. Once again, I got horror game vibes, but I knew that this game wasn''t tagged as horror, so I shook it off. It appeared as though he couldn''t exin it himself, but was able to determine quite a bit about a person''s character just from their actions.


    This suddenly reminded me of a random lesson I learned in some psychology ss.


    For normal adults or even teens, if they were shown pictures of monkeys, wouldn''t be able to remember their faces or differentiate them if they looked too simr. In fact, many would doubt that there was even a realistic way to find a difference in the first ce.


    However, if you showed a young kid two photos of monkeys, then they would be able to recognize each one in another different photo.


    Apparently, it was because their ability to recognize faces was still deeply malleable. But over time, when they see mostly human faces, their brains begin specializing in it, leading them to lose the ability to differentiate monkeys.


    That''s why it was pretty reasonable for some people to have difficulty differentiating between certain backgrounds, such as Chinese or Korean. Yet, some people were easily able to differentiate between the two.


    Generally speaking, the people in question weren''t even able to give a specific exnation of why a certain person was this background and not the other.


    It was almost like instinct.


    From what I could tell, there seemed to be something simr going on with the boy. Perhaps he just so happened to connect the dots about a person once, and it just got easier and easier for him.


    But his overreliance on it was probably dangerous.


    I let out a casualugh.


    "If you can tell who is bad and good, then you must''ve avoided a lot of bad people, right?"


    The kid confidently scoffed.


    "Of course! As long as I avoid the bad people, I will be safe!"


    I then let out a soft sigh.


    "But how sure are you of that?"


    It was the kid''s turn to look at me strangely.


    "Hm? What do you mean?"


    I raised a finger up in the air.


    "You can trust good people, but what if a good person was tricked?"


    The boy puffed up his cheeks and shook his head vehemently.


    "Good people won''t be tricked!"


    I shook my head.


    "Anybody can be tricked. I can tell you right now, that I have been as well. Sometimes bad people make a good person do something bad. That means if you trust the good person, you may end up dead."


    The boy froze on the spot, thinking about it for a while. It seemed as though that wasn''t something he really wanted to believe from how he was humming, like a kid that didn''t get the toy he wanted.


    "I don''t think that''s true... but if a good person like you says it..."


    He then looked towards me with a resolute expression, almost like he had be a disciplined soldier.


    "Ok! I will be careful and not always trust good people!"


    I gave a small nod beforeughing.


    "Very well."


    He puffed up his cheeks right after in displeasure though.


    "Does that mean I can''t trust you?"


    I simply shook my head.


    "No, you can''t."


    The boy let out another displeased hum.


    "It feels weird when you say I can''t trust you. Usually, it''s the other way around!"


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "Just because you can''t trust someone, doesn''t mean you can''t give them a chance."


    The boy remained there for a while, thinking to himself as he looked off into the distance.


    "I see!"


    He looked over at Arianne with his arms crossed.


    "I don''t trust you! But I''m willing to give you a chance because it looks like the good person is giving you one!"


    Arianne was rather baffled, stuttering several times before a full sentence came out.


    "Um, t-thank you."


    From there, we just began to eat. After finishing, the boy got up from his seat and waved at me while running away.


    "See youter, good person!"


    I waved back as a wry smile formed on my face.


    "See youter, kid."


    Hm. We still hadn''t exchanged names with each other. That was rather awkward. Well, all things considered, it seemed he would probablye backter, so there was no need to worry about that.


    Arianne looked over at me pitifully after he had left.


    "W-Why am I untrustworthy?"


    I scratched the side of my head. How do I put it into terms that don''t make me look like a huge jerk? I can''t exactly say that she would let her friends die in front of her, even if it was true...


    Hm. Well, I thought of something.


    "If someone asked you to cut off their arm, would you be able to do it?"


    Arianne flinched.


    "I-I don''t think so..."


    I pointed at her casually.


    "That''s what makes you untrustworthy."


    Arianne looked confused, as she should be. After all, my exnation wasn''t exactly the clearest. But she pondered over it, seemingly understanding some things.


    Before I could think about it any longer though, a familiar voice called out.


    "Hey! You still got some pottage avable?"

 Chapter 33: Don’t Fuck Up Again

    <h4>Chapter 33: Don''t Fuck Up Again</h4>


    I looked over to who called out, and saw that it was Nathan, except there was also Edward, who had his arm draped over Nathan''s shoulder.


    It would''ve been a fairly normal scene if it wasn''t for the fact that Edward was taller by a decent amount, making the positioning awkward.


    Oh yeah, and there was also the fact that a gaping wound was on Edward''s chest, while his clothes were stained with blood pretty badly. Nathan was carrying a bloody knife in one hand, and dragging the carcass of a dried pig with the other.


    It almost looked like he was carrying the entire world on his back with the number of things he was dragging around.


    Also, the bloody knife and the person with a chest stab wound made Nathan seem like a really strange serial killer. Edward was still alive by the way, there was a weak smile on his face.


    Arianne recognized Nathan, but there was a fearful expression on her face, much like the other people that were around. The servants that were with me panicked as well, while the guards had already unsheathed their weapons.


    As for me, I simply waved my hands.


    "Hey chefs, you''re probably gonna have to cook a little extra. These guys seem like they''re about to eat a lot."


    Edward used his free hand to scratch the back of his head and chuckled weakly.


    "Haha, sorry."


    The guards didn''t lower their weapons though, which was fair enough. One of them spoke to me.


    "Sir, these people appear to be dangerous."


    Arianne bit the bottom of her lip and grabbed my sleeve.


    "W-We need to run away!"


    I raised a hand, while everyone was freaking out, getting them to calm down and look at me for a moment.


    "These are people I know. I''m sure some of you can recognize the one holding the knife too."


    Despite those words, nobody seemed that much calmer. That was evident from the weapons still in the guard''s hands and that my sleeve was still being tugged.


    I let out a sigh and shed Nathan a wry smile.


    "What if we just hear them out? I''m sure that they can exin things."


    Nathan cracked his neck with a smirk.


    "I was going to be doing that anyway. There''s a little something I want to publicize just a little bit."


    ...


    Nathan got Edward toe over to his ce. There, he brought Edward over to a pig that he had bought.


    "Try to use your magic on it."


    Edward nodded.


    "Alright, I''ll try."


    Nothing happened for a good few seconds. Nathan narrowed his eyes ever so slightly, not hiding his annoyance.


    "Are you not trying?"


    Edward stammered awkwardly.


    "I''m trying! I just don''t know how to! I''ve never used it before."


    Nathan let out a sigh, but epted that response. However, once ten minutes of them just standing around doing nothing had passed, he couldn''t help butin once more.


    "Why are you just staring at the pig? At least try something!"


    Edward held out his hands with a bit of exasperation.


    "I-I''m trying chants in my head, but none of them are working!"


    Nathan clicked his tongue and clenched one of his fists.


    "You don''t cast magic by chanting words, idiot! You actually have to be doing things!"


    Edward let out a gasp.


    "Ah! O-Ok."


    He proceeded to hold out his hands and close his eyes tightly like he was preparing his concentration for a spell. A low grunt came out of him as he did so. As stupid as it looked, Edward kept the pace for a whole twenty minutes.


    Nathan snapped once more.


    "Magic isn''t the fucking same as constipation! If it doesn''t work, then try something different! Isn''t that obvious?"


    Edward panicked slightly, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.


    "R-Right!"


    From there, Edward spent a rather long time just doing various strange poses as he stared at the pig, hoping that something would happen.


    In the end, Edward copsed onto the ground, too tired to continue on.


    Nathan massaged his temple with the base of his palm, clearly rather frustrated.


    "You''ve never done anything with your powers before? Think about it carefully."


    Edward held out his hands helplessly.


    "I don''t think I actually have any powers. I-I think that it may just be a coincidence I have the eyes of a blood mage."


    Nathan grabbed onto Edward''s head, forcefully turning it to him.


    "Listen to me. Look back in your memories, and try to recall something, anything."


    Edward frowned.


    "But I really don''t have any history like that."


    Nathan simply tightened his grip and looked back at him with a dead look in his eyes.


    "You said you want to protect people, right? Well there''s no way in hell you''re going to be able to do anything in your current state, you understand that?"


    Edward looked a little defeated, like the reality presented before him was too hard. Nathan continued.


    "Sure, you don''t know for sure that you''re actually a blood mage. But take a moment and think, there is a possibility that you are. If it just so happens that you are one, then you can save people."


    Nathan''s head tilted to the side ominously.


    "But every single second you spend as a normal person, others that you could''ve saved end up dying. With every moment you find yourself unable to be stronger, there will be fewer people you can protect from disaster."


    His tone dropped, and he spoke his next words quietly.


    "Don''t you remember that girl? She could''ve lived a long, quiet life, one where she could find the joys in life and die at a peaceful old age."


    Nathan closed in on Edward and whispered into his ear.


    "But she didn''t. She was too broken to even see life as a favorable thing, choosing death, and even smiling as the knife went through her neck."


    He barely moved his mouth to speak his next words.


    "She will never know what it truly means to be happy, and she will not be the only one."


    By the end of those words, Edward had burst into tears. He bit his lip until it bled once more, silently crying as Nathan''s words settled in his mind.


    Nathan backed off, and let out a sigh as he turned to look at the sky.


    "Maybe we can''t save everyone, but even if it is just one person, it willpletely change their life. Then... they won''t have to go through the same pain."


    Edward grabbed both sides of his head tightly, frowning as he clenched his teeth tightly.


    "I''m trying... I''ll find something."


    His eyes were bloodshot, yet they felt clear at the same time.


    "I have to."


    In the end, while he was extremely determined, he simply sat down in a kneeling position for a long while. Except this time, Nathan did notin about how long it was taking. Instead, he just stood over, watching. His arms were crossed and a neutral frown was on his face.


    Realistically, he could''ve gone to do something else, but he wanted to stay here to watch over the process.


    As Edward continued to sift through his memories, his expression began changing rather wildly. He began crying once more, but this time it seemed to be out of actual sadness. Edward even ended up muttering some words.


    "I''m sorry... I''m sorry... I should''ve stood up..."


    Images shed by his mind one after another. He saw people take away a girl that was one of his friends at the time. Edward tried his best to fight back against them, but his opponents were several adult men.


    There was no realistic way he could win with physical strength alone. In the end, he was beaten down, until he hit the floor painfully. With blurry vision, he watched as his friend was taken away.


    He wanted to stand up, but together with the pain and fatigue, he decided to remain on the floor. Edward was also consumed by doubt. Even if he did stand back up, what could he possibly do?


    His body was still weak, and now barely breathing. Yet, the adults hadn''t even broken a sweat.


    So why stand up?


    Yet, at the same time, while in all of that pain, the world seemed a little different to him. He could see, smell, and even sense... something.


    Edward was able to see faint outlines of red on everyone''s bodies. He could feel how fast his friend''s heart was beating, and that it was out of fear. Yet, he didn''t understand what any of it meant.


    And now, when reflecting on it, he realized.


    Edward''s eyes shot open while tears streamed down his face.


    "I... remember. That time..."


    Currently, Nathan had a knife with him. It was the same one that the girl had, and he figured that it could be used to butcher the pig after they were done. Edward''s eyes fell on the knife, and he immediately grabbed it.


    Nathan let him take it, but was honestly curious as to what Edward''s n was.


    It was at this point Edward looked like someone that waspletely insane. His eyes were open all the way. Together with his bloodshot eyes, he was holding a knife high into the air, uncaring about how dangerous that was.


    He mumbled to himself.


    "The pain... it was the pain that let me see..."


    Without warning, the knife plunged downwards in a sh, mming down into his own chest and into his heart.


    A dull crack resounded.


    He had broken one of his own ribs.


    Yet, despite the fact, he was still mumbling to himself.


    "If the pain lets me be a blood mage then..."


    The piercing pain flooded his mind, nearly overwhelming his entire body, which was to be expected considering he literally pierced his own heart. His vision suddenly changed, and he began to sense something else.


    A heavy scent of blood filled his nose, but it wasn''t actuallying from the blood spurting out of his chest.


    Rather, it was the pig.


    He could see the main veins in the pig snaking all around its body, and the blood flowing around it.


    While one hand was still holding the handle of the knife, driving it further into himself, he held out the other.


    The pig''s eyes abruptly burst, as it squealed in pain. Blood streamed out from them, along with the pig''s mouth, magically floating in the air. The blood shot at lightning speed, funneling into Edward, directly seeping into his body as the blood touched his skin.


    The wound around his heart rapidly stopped bleeding and instead began healing. As a result, his skin tightly clung to the de, making it look like it was actually just a prop rather than a real knife.


    Edward had seeded.


    But instead of being happy, he began crying all over again.


    "If I just stood up one more time... I could''ve saved you. With... With these powers."


    He kept muttering apologies under his breath, over and over again, until eventually he looked up into the air and screamed.


    "I''M SORRY!"


    Nathan had more or less understood what Edward was grieving about. He walked up and put a hand on his shoulder.


    "There is nothing you can do to change the past. But what you can do is learn from your mistakes, and don''t fuck up again."


    Edward looked up to the sky with an empty expression, parting his lips ever so slightly to speak.


    "Yeah. I won''t."

 Chapter 34: New Meat?

    <h4>Chapter 34: New Meat?</h4>


    After Nathan had more or less exined the story, and Edward confirmed it, the others seemed to calm down somewhat. It took a little while, but the guards did end up sheathing their swords and Arianne stopped tugging on my sleeve.


    It was a little awkward, but Nathan was able to hobble over with Edward. He simply sat him down at the nearest seat before taking a seat next to him soon after. Nathan let out a long sigh before setting down the pig carcass.


    He promptly pointed at it.


    "Hey, you can take this pig. It was bought with your money after all."


    I gave a nod.


    "Sure, but I recall you said there was something you wanted to publicize?"


    Nathan blinked a few times before looking up.


    "Ah, right! Since he''s able to do the thing now, I wanted him to open up a ce where he will drain the blood of animals for a fee. If it doesn''t end up popr, then we can always just make it free."


    He then pointed to Arianne.


    "Hey you, if you ever hear about someone that needs to drain an animal, then tell them about it. I think I''ll set it up a few blocks down from this ce."


    Arianne flinched but ended up nodding. My attention was focused on the carcass of the pig. I looked at one of the chefs.


    "Could you prepare it right now?"


    It seemed the chefs were hesitating as they looked at each other. Eventually, one of them spoke up.


    "Um, Lord Bryson, I''m not sure if that animal will be suitable for eating."


    My gaze shifted to the pig, getting a better look at it, and I could understand their concerns. Its skin had wrinkled considerably, while its body looked to be disproportionate to a regr pig, with certain parts of its body caved in somewhat. On top of that, it also looked unnaturally pale.


    If I had to say, it definitely looked unsettling. Probably because it almost looked like a normal pig, but a little bit off.


    However, at the end of the day, it was just a pig that had its blood drained. Unless Edward''s magic somehow curses things, then there shouldn''t have been any problem. With that in mind, I held my hand out toward Nathan.


    "Hey, toss me that knife."


    Nathan had noints and was about to do so, but then, a guard hurriedly spoke up.


    "Um, sir, that is not safe."


    I blinked a few times. Ah, right. You weren''t supposed to just throw knives around if you were a normal person. I coughed into my sleeve before responding.


    "Ah, yes please hand it over."


    Nathan stopped himself from throwing and walked over to hand it to me while holding the de.


    I promptly took it and pointed it at Edward.


    "Hey, get the blood off this thing. It''s yours, isn''t it?"


    Edward was startled somewhat, seemingly not expecting me to talk to him. However, he didn''t hesitate in reaching out his hand. The blood covering the knife, despite being dry, peeled off easily before floating over toward Edward.


    Watching the dirty knife suddenly be quite clean was rather satisfying to look at.


    It seemed that most people were also fascinated by it as well. As far as I knew, the fact that blood mages even existed wasn''t known among people in the kingdom. That made their surprise rather reasonable, as this wasn''t something known to be possible.


    Regardless, I ignored them and stuck the knife into the pig carcass, to be more specific it was a part of the leg.


    To my surprise, despite the wrinkled look making it appear dry, the meat itself was definitely not that. While the blood was gone, there was still a substantial amount of water content within.


    Most people appeared to be confused as to what I was doing, but I was more interested in how the pig looked on the inside. Simr to the outside, the insides were paler than normal meat. It was still red but had a lighter color to it.


    The fat in particr appeared to be glistening.


    Also, I found it rather easy to cut. While I didn''t know exactly how hard it was to cut into meat normally, I was still pretty confident it was softer. My guess was that while extracting the blood, the capiries took a hit, which weakened the overall structure.


    From there, I looked over at the chefs and called out to them.


    "Hey, give me one of those pans."


    The chefs looked rather panicked. One of them awkwardly waved their hands around with a nervous smile.


    "Ah, Lord Bryson, if you insist on cooking with that meat, then we can handle it!"


    I waved my hand casually.


    "I just want to try, don''t focus so much on that."


    They hesitated for a moment, but they didn''t take too long to listen, getting an arbitrary pan that wasn''t used yet and handing it to me. I cast the water spell to wash the meat off a little bit before putting it into the pan.


    With one hand holding onto the handle, my other went underneath the pan and cast the fire spell.


    I coated the fire spell with my mana so that it wouldn''t hurt me and then just waited.


    Arianne looked at me questioningly.


    "Y-You are using magic to cook?"


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "Why not? It''s also good practice."


    Nathan rubbed his chin in interest and got closer to watch over the meat as well.


    "I definitely wouldn''t be able to cast spells to cook like this. I would sooner cause a disaster than anything else."


    I let out augh. He was probably right, considering his overwhelming magical aptitude made it harder to cast weaker spells for more mundane things. It wasn''t as though he would never be able to, but he first had to improve his control further.


    At one point, one of the chefs approached me and cleared their throat.


    "Um, would you like to have some salt and spices to go with it, sir?"


    I thought about it for a little while, but shook my head.


    "I want to see how it tastes without any of that stuff first."


    The chef had opened his mouth, about to say something. However, he shut his mouth soon after before nodding to me.


    "Alright, Lord Bryson."


    After some time passed, the smell of the meat filled the air. It didn''t smell particrly bad or spoiled in any way. Soon I felt that it was the right time to flip, so I deftly twisted the pan and shot it up, causing the piece of meat to fly into the air and flip back onto the pan.


    Most of the chefs and servants looked at me with rather surprised expressions, while Arianne let out a small gasp as I did so.


    "D-Do you cook regrly?"


    I blinked a few times, unsure how to answer. After all, I doubt Bryson cooked at all, but back on Earth, it was something I was fairly familiar with.


    "There was a time that I did it by myself, but not recently, no."


    I refocused my attention on the cooked side of the meat. The color was a bit paler than what I was used to, making me think I hadn''t finished cooking it. However, a closer look made me realize that it was done, just that it looked a bit different.


    I continued on, slowly cooking away.


    Nathan went back to eating and also helped Edward a little bit since he was still rather weak, which was somewhat of a given since he stabbed his own heart and all that. And after some time, I felt like it was more or less done.


    I got another knife from some of the cutlery we had and cut a small piece of the steak off while in the pan and put it down onto my own te. There was nothing wrong with the smell, but I had to admit it looked like a pale piece of meat.


    Without much other thought, I used a fork to pick some up and take a bite out of it.


    My immediate impression was that it was a bit nd but other than that it was pretty good. The meat was pretty tender making it easy to eat and had a fairly decent taste.


    If there was salt or spices added to it, then it would probably taste even better.


    It appeared by now that most people had their attention on me. I sliced up the meat into more different parts and held out the pan near Arianne.


    "Do you want to try one?"


    Arianne looked as though she was about to say no out of politeness, but ended up nodding in the end.


    "Y-Yes please."


    She took one and ate it with a bit of trepidation. Though, immediately after her face lit up with a surprised expression.


    "This... tastes really good!"


    I blinked a few times. Honestly, I felt like she was exaggerating, but at the same time, I couldn''t judge her because she probably wasn''t used to eating meat. While it did taste a bit better than the other meats, it wasn''t exactly world-changing.


    I handed some over to Nathan and Edward as well. Nathan seemed to hold a simr opinion to me, saying that it was not bad. As for Edward, he quite liked it. I was going to just finish it, but one of the chefs, which I think was the head chef, approached me.


    There was onest piece of cooked meat, and he had stepped up before pointing at it.


    "May I try that, Lord Bryson?"


    It wasn''t exactly a big deal, especially considering there was an entire rest of the pig left. So I just nodded.


    "Sure."


    He had used his own fork and tasted the meat, causing his eyes to fly open in surprise.


    "This... This is revolutionary! My apologies for saying that it wasn''t suitable before."


    I couldn''t help but raise an eyebrow.


    "Is it? I guess it does taste a bit better, but it''s not a big deal."


    The chef looked at me like he couldn''t understand my attitude.


    "Lord Bryson, even the smallest increase in taste causes the price of food to hike up several times over! That''s why spices greatly outweigh the cost of the actual food itself. If it was known that there was a better form of meat, then it would be an incredibly huge business opportunity."


    I looked over at Nathan, and he looked back at me too.


    I don''t really remember the game mentioning anything about how the food that tasted better was grossly marked up. Or at least, there were no main events that were directly rted to that.


    ...Hm. I suppose if the opportunity just came to us, there was no reason not to take it.


    The chef looked over at Nathan.


    "Where did you buy that pig? Are you able to get more of them before other people find out?"


    A smile formed on Nathan''s face.


    "They were just the pigs from the main farm, nothing special."


    The chef looked rather disappointed.


    "Ah... it appears that this pig is only a strange exception then."


    Nathan narrowed his eyes slightly. He let out augh before pointing at Edward.


    "It''s not the pig, but rather his magic that made the pig like that, remember? If it wasn''t for his magic, then the pig would''ve tasted like any other."


    The chef''s gaze snapped to Edward. It seemed one hundred thoughts shed through his mind before he became set on what to do. He proceeded to sh him a smile before speaking cordially.


    "Would you like to work with the Bryson name in producing luxury meat? I can guarantee that you will find yourself with the riches you''ve dreamed of."


    Edward didn''t look moved at all, almost like the chef hadn''t said anything at all. It was rather apparent that, unlike mostmoners, he didn''t really care about his own wealth all that much. To him, it seemed as though it wasn''t a big deal if there wasn''t a meal on his te the next day.


    "I will work with Nathan. Since it looks like Nathan and Bryson work together, then I will work with him too."


    A cocky smirk formed on Nathan''s face.


    "Heh. You heard him."

 Chapter 35: Promotion Plan

    <h4>Chapter 35: Promotion n</h4>


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


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


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


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


    Not in this shitty dating game.


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


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


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


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


    I shrugged my shoulders.


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


    The butler''s expression twitched.


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


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


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


    The butler seemed rather unsure.


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


    I simply shrugged my shoulders.


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


    The butler seemed to be sweating somewhat.


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


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


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


    I tilted my head to the side.


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


    The butler stammered.


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


    "Hey, hey!"


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


    "Down here! Look!"


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


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


    I raised an eyebrow.


    "What are you doing here?"


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


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


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


    "My question?"


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


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


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


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


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


    "Not even close."


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


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


    A bitter smile formed on my face.


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


    The figure looked at me with a stumped expression.


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


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


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


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


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


    I shook my head.


    "I don''t look down on you."


    The figure rxed somewhat.


    "I see."


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


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


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


    I simply continued walking on, ignoring it.


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


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


    She looked at me with a nk expression, and I looked back with a simr one.


    "Will we have to do that thing again?"


    Jess looked a little confused.


    "What thing?"


    I quickly shook my head.


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


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


    Looking back, Jess''s patience was nearly unbelievable.


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


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


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


    At some point, Jess suddenly spoke up.


    "I feel you''ve changed."


    The corner of my lip twitched.


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


    "...Why do you say that?"


    Jess began scrubbing my hair, humming to herself.


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


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


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


    Sheughed gently.


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


    She took a deep breath.


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


    I suddenly felt a little odd.


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


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


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


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

 Chapter 36: False Truths

    <h4>Chapter 36: False Truths</h4>


    Unfortunately, right when I thought she wouldn''t, Jess did the thing again. Where she hugs me and only lets me go until I rx.


    I''ll spare you the details.


    All you really need to know is that it took a damn long time. I''m honestly not even sure if it was shorter or longer thanst time. In the end, I fell asleep once more. This time it looked like the book didn''t care enough to invade my dreams and bother me.


    And so, when I woke up, I found that I was once again being held by Jess.


    Naturally, my body began tensing up, and sensing that, Jess opened up her eyes. A small smile formed on her face.


    "Good morning..."


    I blinked a few times, looking back with my lips pressed into a line.


    "Are we really going to be doing this every day?"


    Jess looked at me like I was stupid.


    "What else would we be doing?"


    ...It seemed like I would have to get used to this life.


    Deciding to shove away those thoughts, I got up from the bed. Today there wasn''t going to be school. However, there was still going to be a ball sometime during the evening. Apparently, one of the servants would inform me when I would have to get ready.


    With that, I wasn''t really sure what I was supposed to do.


    Of course, I could meditate, but I was already doing that while walking down the hallway. It would be more effective if I was just standing still with my eyes closed, but I didn''t care too much about those tiny semantics.


    While thinking about that and walking around the ce, I thought maybe I could check up on how the chefs were doing with the pig that Edward had made by draining its blood.


    Yet, as I was thinking about that, I suddenly felt a strong wave of heat pass through the open window. I was on the second floor and it was currently the fall season. So that heat was rather confusing.


    I looked outside and faintly heard the sounds of someone cursing.


    "Shit! Fuck! I can do it this time... just..."


    I was about to look outside, but as I was about to, a massive torrent of fire shot upwards into the sky, almost like a firework. Immediately, I threw my head backward. Thankfully, I was able to easily avoid it, but still, I wondered what in the hell was going on.


    Looking down after the torrent of fire had passed, I saw that it was Nathan, once again cursing to himself as he raised his finger up once more.


    I yelled at him.


    "What the hell are you doing, dumbass? You can''t burn down a house made of stone!"


    Nathan looked up and called out to me.


    "Che! I was doing this to get your attention! There''s no ss in your window, so I can''t throw a rock at it to get you to notice! I''m kind of a genius since it worked!"


    My eyelid twitched.


    "Idiot! The reason I even noticed you in the first ce was that I could hear you cursing from inside here!"


    In the past, when Nathan wanted to hang out, he usually hurled pebbles at my window. However, he usually picked ones that were too big and once ended up even cracking my window.


    He apologized and fixed it, but that didn''t change the fact that it happened.


    Although cell phones were a widespread thing at the time, neither I nor Nathan had one. As such, we kinda just had to find other ways to contact each other. It wasn''t as though we didn''t want one, but a damn wholeputer was cheaper, and that was already a pretty big expense to us.


    Granted, theputers we used were only just barely above a toaster, but still.


    I suppose now that we transmigrated, his alternative was to shoot a massive methrower in front of my house because... that made so much more sense.


    "You dumbass! I told you before that you can just call for me while outside and I''ll get to you if I''m there!"


    Nathan immediately defended himself, like he already knew I was going to say that.


    "But this makes it feel more special! You don''t know who it is until you look outside to check!"


    I raised my fist out the window and shook it.


    "There''s hardly any damn mystery at all! The only person that would use a methrower outside to attract attention is either you or some shitty viin that needs attention before he does any of his evil acts!"


    Nathan crossed his arms and spoke righteously.


    "But you''re still not one hundred percent sure that it''s me, right? That builds up the suspense! I remember that was important for stories and stuff like that!"


    I held onto my forehead with exasperation, trying to calm down.


    ...Then I blew up all over again.


    "Story my ass! The story is already shitty enough, you don''t have to make it worse! It''s not even like this is important in some way!"


    Nathan shook his head and sighed. He put one hand on his forehead before tilting back his head overly pretentiously.


    "Some people just don''t understand art..."


    I let out a long sigh and decided to leave it like that. For some reason, Nathan was normally a pretty level-headed guy, but would asionally do something really strange and think it waspletely normal.


    Kinda like when he first beat the shit out of himself after just transmigrating, thinking that would somehow fix the changes we made to the story.


    At first, I thought this was some sort of long-running joke he yed, but it turns out that''s just how he was. Because why not, I guess. Maybe there was a reason he was like this, but even if there was, I at least knew that not even Nathan knew what that was.


    I navigated my way down to the entrance and saw Nathan waiting outside.


    He looked a little out of breath, which was reasonable because I recall my manor being pretty damn far away from the slums. I had some thoughts before of not using the carriage, but after realizing how damn far it was, I never said them out loud.


    Even though his way of getting my attention was rather stupid, it seemed like it was something important, so I was willing to hear him out.


    "So what is it?"


    He held out a hand to me robotically.


    "I don''t know why Charlotte is so annoying."


    ...Ok, maybe I should''ve phrased it by saying that it was probably important.


    "You''re pretty damn annoying yourself."


    Nathan put his hand up, almost like he was brushing thatment away.


    "That''s not relevant to what I''m saying."


    I stared at him without knowing what to think. Did he reallye all the way out here just to tell me this?


    "What do you want me to do about it? Aren''t you the person at fault for attracting her in the first ce anyway?"


    Nathan''s expression rxed somewhat.


    "You see, that''s the thing. I don''t actually remember interacting with her before. She suddenly just came up to me and pretended to know me."


    Processing what he said, I suddenly felt very strange. It distorted my physical senses too, making me feel like the ground under me was teetering as though I was standing on a tilting ship.


    "Are you sure you never talked with her beforehand?"


    Nathan nodded.


    "I wouldn''t just not recognize the main cast that easily."


    The main protagonist and Charlotte never should''ve met before the game started, which threw out that option. On top of that, it wasn''t as though Charlotte was friendly with Nathan all the way from the beginning.


    I then began thinking about it to myself as well.


    Now that I look back on it, the fact that Nathan was able to establish a connection with Charlotte was weird as hell. After all, themoners and nobles were very distinctly separated.


    It wasn''t like my going over to the slums was a normal thing. That''s why so many people were always watching me. The nobles stay among themselves, while themoners do the same.


    The only real interaction was either at school or when taxes needed to be collected.


    I took a deep breath and looked at Nathan.


    "...Do you have any guesses as to what happened?"


    Nathan massaged his temple with the base of his palm.


    "The only possible thing I could think of is her somehow being mesmerized by me getting a good score in sses and showing up to the teacher. And that''s ignoring the fact I imed you taught me. But even then, the way she talks to me is like she''s familiar with me."


    He frowned slightly and tilted his head to the side.


    "Well, I guess familiar is an over-exaggeration, but you get what I mean."


    I blinked a few times, thinking about what that could possibly mean. All things considered, the game was still technically in its prologue. The first choice you are able to make actually starts at the ball itself, which is where the first chapter starts.


    Of course, as amoner, you don''t go into the ball itself, but while wandering around on a day off, you just happen to be in the general area. One after another, you randomly meet with most of the girls as they leave the ball and just so happen to meet with them. Or, if they weremoners, you would just run into them.


    That''s how the game decided to introduce most of the female leads.


    So as for how Charlotte met with Nathan...


    "Is there some look-a-like of you running around?"


    We had changed the plot already by quite a bit, but I don''t recall us doing anything all that drastic. While this was a world of magic, it was still grounded by the medieval age with nothing too wacky happening. It was nothing like certain animated shows that contain bizarre adventures.


    Nathan ruffled his hair in frustration.


    "I don''t think this game would pull off something like that. Somehow or another, one of our actions made something really different happen. I don''t know which one that was or how it happened like this, but that fact remains."


    We stood there in silence for a few moments. I waved him over.


    "Let''s talk in my room."


    Nathan shook his head.


    "No, I''m sure some people saw mee over, but it''s best if the least number of people possible knew that we came into contact. I just wanted to tell you that there''s something strange happening."


    I blinked a few times before nodding.


    "We have too little information to talk about much at all in the first ce. I''ll take note of that. I''m still going to be doing the same thing, going to the ball and showing off the meat and all that. With your warning, I''ll just pay attention to stuff more."


    Nathan nodded before turning around.


    "Cool. As far as we know, we never met."


    With that, he left. Simrly, I continued wandering around the ce like nothing was wrong. While Nathan was a bit oblivious to certain things, I knew he wasn''t the type of person to mess something like this up.


    I tried to think of possibilities as to how he and Charlotte could''ve met, yet Nathan not recalling it whatsoever. After thinking about it for a while, the only real conclusion I came to was something messing with Nathan''s memories.


    Yet, I was confident that Nathan wouldn''t be so easily messed with. If a pocket of his memory suddenly disappeared, I''m sure he would be able to connect the dots to at least realize that.


    ...At least, I think so.

 Chapter 37: Accusations

    <h4>Chapter 37: usations</h4>


    Normally, the time I spent waiting around doing mostly nothing other than casual meditating, would''ve been rather boring. However, my mind was fixated on what Nathan had said.


    Either some kind of weird double of him was running around, or something was ying around with his memories.


    Regardless, as we had concluded before, there just wasn''t enough information. The only real thing I could do was start to pay attention to my own surroundings a little more from this point on.


    Well, that was easy to say, but since I nned on meditating most of the time it was going to be hard to. After all, one of the main things about meditating was focusing intently and blocking out the rest of the world.


    Nheless, it did not take too long before a servant came up to me and informed me that the ball would be happening soon. A few people worked to change my clothes and do weird things like applying what looked like rudimentary makeup onto my face.


    Though, most importantly, the head chef had finished working on preparing several servings of meat from the pig carcass from earlier.


    Apparently, almost all the nobles would be there, so there was definitely not enough for everyone, but it was still a decent amount. The head chef was so proud, that he offered to personally help carry it around with me and hand it out.


    A few others also volunteered to support him.


    With that in mind, I got in the carriage along with Jess and we began heading off. As the carriage started moving, Jess asked me.


    "What were all those guys bringing along?"


    I scratched the side of my head.


    "Um, well because of certain things some people found a special way to handle meat, and the cooks were quite excited and wanted to show it off."


    That wasn''t exactly true, but it was at least right enough to be passed off as correct.


    Jess seemed a bit curious, but lost interest shortly after. We then proceeded to spend the majority of the carriage ride in silence. I imagined it would take a while to get there, and it indeed did.


    At some point, Jess suddenly spoke up, bringing my attention to her.


    "Stay close to me. I don''t want you to get lost."


    I blinked a few times.


    Was this an appropriate time to say, ''You aren''t my mom''?


    Well, I couldn''t put it in too blunt of a way.


    "What if there are people I wish to talk to by myself?"


    Jess looked at me strangely.


    "Since when have you talked to anyone at any of these events? We''re just going to go back the moment it''s not considered disrespectful like always."


    I scratched the side of my head awkwardly. It turns out that Bryson was not a party person, which was fair enough. I wasn''t much of one either, but I was still going there with the objective of making it known that a guy that could prepare meat in a different way.


    That way, he should be able to get a decent amount of people to ask him to drain meat. And in that way, he should be able to increase his powers or store up on it, or however blood magic was supposed to work.


    I tapped my chin a few times.


    "After giving away the different meat and telling them about it, then I think I''ll be ready to go back."


    Jess gave a small nod and didn''t say anything else.


    When we finally ended up making it to the said event, we had to work our way around quite a lot of traffic. There were quite a number of carriages around the ce. The one I was on was closer to the center, my guess was that we either arrived early or that was because dukes got special treatment.


    I opened the door, but the moment I did, James, the head butler, frowned at me and shooed, quickly closing it. While I was confused, it didn''t remain that way for too long.


    A rather loud and booming voice echoed, amplified like the person in question was using a megaphone.


    "The dukes and their servants are now permitted to step forth!"


    From there, the carriage door opened and James motioned for us to get out. Jess took the lead, and with me right behind her, we walked over to the pce. I suppose this was to be expected, but my first impression of this ce was that it was absolutely huge.


    Raisa''s ce was also big, but this one was simply on a different level.


    It stood tall, like the pces people would talk about in legends. It covered a rather expansive area, and from the angle I was from, I could tell that the ceiling was way too damn high.


    It wasn''t as though a skyscraper could fit in this ce or anything, but the manor that I was in probably didn''t reach as high as this ceiling.


    Walking in, I saw many seats at the very back of the room. There were threerge main seats, where the three archdukes sat. Dous, the one hosting this party, had a very confident smile on his face as he watched everyone file in. By the way, Dous was the family name.


    Honestly, I had forgotten his actual name. I''m pretty sure it was mentioned in the game somewhere though.


    At a slightly less elevated position were the people rted to the three archdukes. In fact, I''m pretty sure I saw Raisa in one of those seats. There were also more seats in less elevated positions, supposedly for those lower in standing.


    There were also several sets of long tables, each with many different kinds of foods on top of them. They definitely looked quite nice, but I felt like more than making the food taste good, more effort was put into making it presentable.


    I didn''t focus on that though.


    From there, everyone bowed, which I was slightlyte on because I didn''t expect that.


    After that, Jess began walking forth so I simply followed behind. The other dukes and us all went in separate single-file lines and then filled up the seats underneath the archdukes''.


    By the way, we had an awkward empty seat next to us because our parents weren''t here.


    I noticed someone tapping on my shoulder and when I turned around to look, I saw Raisa happily waving to me with a rather bright smile on her face. Other than waving back, I didn''t do anything. It looked like it wasn''t the proper time to talk.


    From there, the same routine repeated itself for each of the ranks below a duke.


    Honestly, it made me feel like I was on stage or something, except there was no real audience. It also took a hell of a long time. Honestly, how do nobles have the patience for these kinds of things?


    At the very least I could spend this time meditating if nothing else.


    When everyone was finally seated, Dous stood up and gave a speech about... something. It was filled with words that you''d expect from a cocky noble. Many of them were big, and a lot of them referred to pride and whatnot. He also implied that he was better than everyone here with a few remarks, but didn''t say anything openly.


    Finally, it seemed like we were allowed to leave our seats and have something to eat.


    As I was walking over to the tables, Raisa immediately appeared next to me and waved.


    "Hi, Bryson!"


    I couldn''t help but notice a lot of people were looking in our direction when she said that, making me feel a little strange. Regardless, I waved back with a smile.


    "Hey, Raisa."


    Jess looked over at Raisa with a stern expression.


    "...What do you want from my brother, your highness?"


    Raisa looked rather taken aback, looking at Jess strangely.


    "I was just talking to him. Is that such a big deal?"


    Jess looked somewhat nervous. I guess Raisa was an archduke after all.


    "F-Fine. Please treat the Arden Family properly."


    Oh, myst name is Arden then? Huh, good to know. Raisa clicked her tongue and grabbed onto my hand.


    "That''s natural! After all, we are friends!"


    Jess looked at me like she thought I was a hostage of some sort. From her gaze, I was getting the words, ''if someone has a gun pointed at you, blink twice''. A bitter smile formed on my face.


    "Um, it''s a bitplicated but I don''t think she has any harmful intentions."


    Raisa puffed up her cheeks.


    "Why would I have harmful intentions!?"


    She seemed to be annoyed by how she was perceived, but I simply coughed roughly.


    "Of course not, of course not..."


    Raisa let out a huff before suddenly smiling at me again, without a sign of any of her previous frustrations.


    "Come on! I''ll show you which of these cuisines are the best!"


    When she said that, it made me suddenly remember I still had to show off the special meat for Edward. I gave her a small wave, indicating for her to slow down a little.


    "Hold on, before that, I actually brought along something I''d like you to try!"


    Raisa''s eyes widened slightly in surprise and delight.


    "Ah, you made something just for me?"


    My eyelid twitched. Did you really have to say it like that?


    "Er, no. Not exactly, but there''s a special way to prepare meat I found out about and wanted to show it to some people so they could experience it as well."


    Raisa looked a bit disappointed, but was now overtaken by curiosity.


    "Oh my, what is it?"


    As though on cue, the head chef took a step forth and opened up a metal cover to reveal a couple of steaks overtop of each other. Though, while there was a confident expression on his face, Raisa didn''t look too excited about it.


    While they were definitely generously seasoned, the paleness of the meat was understandably concerning.


    Still, Raisa hardly hesitated despite being visibly a bit scared of it.


    I couldn''t help but notice her mother and father were both looking at me intently at this point. It seemed they didn''t feel too strongly about me chatting with her, but when I offered this meat, they seemed a little angry.


    While she got a te and fork, her father suddenly stepped forth and shouted at me.


    "How bold! Are you trying to poison the only child of the Darcy family?"


    There was already a decent amount of attention on me because of Raisa talking to me, but now that her dad got into the picture, practically everyone was paying attention. Some were scared, but there were more mocking expressions on their faces.


    Most notable was Dous, an archduke himself.


    I couldn''t help but feel this was a bit warranted. But while the Darcy family was the weakest of archdukes, he was an archduke nheless.


    There was an invisible pressure set on me, but I raised my hand casually through it all and spoke evenly.


    "If you believe it is poisoned, then I can try it first."


    The head of the Darcy family stared me down, and I stared right back at him dead in the eye. He looked a little surprised that I wasn''t scared, but before things could escte any further, Raisa hade back in a fury.


    "Father! Stay out of this! Since when did you think everything involved you? This is between me and him! Even if the food is poisoned, I''m eating it!"


    I felt that was going a bit too far, but at least she was defending me. As for her father, he was temporarily shocked speechless but quickly regained himself.


    "Nonsense! If this involves you, then naturally, I, your father am also involved! Unless he eats one first, then you are not going to eat it!"


    They were making a rather big deal of this, weren''t they?


    Through it all though, the head chef was still standing confidently, seemingly more confident than even me right now. Raisa looked visibly upset by her father''smands but ended up handing the te and cutlery to me.


    She whispered and winked at me.


    "Sorry! I swear my father isn''t a representation of me!"


    I then casually took one of the meat, cut it, then shoved it into my mouth. Though, right when I did so, my eyes widened.


    ...Shit, why does this actually taste so good?

 Chapter 38: Some Promotion

    <h4>Chapter 38: Some Promotion</h4>


    It might''ve been because I had gotten really used to eating normal food, so noble food tasted far better to me. However, it wasn''t as though I hadn''t eaten that kind of food at all. While the food nobles were served wasn''t bad by any means, there was still a clear difference between the two.


    Damn, I guess when I first tried it, my cooking skills must''ve been pretty bad. Well, to be fair I didn''t even add salt, but still.


    While I was stunned, the Head of the Darcy Family pointed at me usingly.


    "See! It is indeed poisoned! How dare you?"


    However, unlike her father, Raisa noticed that my eyes had widened in surprise. She took a step closer and looked at what I was eating more closely.


    As for me, while it was probably more pressing to focus on the guy who had a lot of power and yelling at me, I still didn''t. Instead, I couldn''t really stop myself from taking another bite and smacking my lips.


    This only served to make the Head of the Darcy Family even angrier, and understandably so.


    "Are you listening to me?!"


    It was at this point that Raisa suddenly snatched the te and fork from me while I was eating and took a bite as well. My eyelid twitched in displeasure.


    "Hey! I wasn''t done with that!"


    Raisa stuck out her tongue before taking a bite.


    "You said you wanted to let me try it! Stop being so stingy."


    After sobering up a bit and realizing the situation I was in, I came to realize that everyone here was indeed looking. In fact, Raisa''s father was angry, but once he saw Raisa snatch the te out of my hands and take a bite, he was shocked speechless.


    In the end, the entire ce was incredibly quiet, with only the sounds of Raisa chewing lightly. Her eyes opened in shock as she looked back at me.


    "How were you able to make this? I-I''m ashamed to have even suggested showing you the best cuisine, you clearly already have it!"


    I blinked a few times and pointed at her usingly, ignoring all of herpliments.


    "Hey, I already used that fork."


    Raisa blushed rather hard but put on a stubborn front.


    "S-So what? I''m using this fork from now on."


    My eyelid twitched. I never expected her to stoop down to... that kind of perversion. Though I wanted to ask for it back, that would sound bad, like I was actually that kind of pervert that wanted used forks.


    While I was in my inner conflict, her father shouted at a nearby servant.


    "Bring me a te and fork."


    The servant hurriedly did so, and he himself came down to retrieve one of the steaks himself. I cleared my throat after he did so, raising a finger.


    "This is being offered for the experience, so at most one per person."


    The Head of the Darcy Family was clearly still quite disgruntled with me but took the steak anyway. He cut it with a knife, taking a small piece, almost like he was too shy to try more.


    When he did end up putting it in his mouth, he couldn''t help but gasp. Since he still had food in his mouth, he almost choked, but it was too small for him to actually do that. He went for the knife for cutting, but then decided against it and directly took a bite from it after picking it up with a fork.


    Several shocked gasps resounded. I heard several murmurs around the crowd.


    "What? Was the meat not poisonous?"


    "Eh? The archduke actually ate it! I-Is it actually a luxury?"


    "Of course it is! The archduke had forgotten noble manners after just one bite!"


    They gradually became louder and louder. As for the archduke himself, after finishing the steak he gave a small bow to me.


    "...It appears I have misjudged you. May I know how you acquire such pigs?"


    I waved my hand dismissively.


    "It''s not all thatplicated, nor will it be very restrictive. My original n was only to publicize it to a few people, but it appears the situation has escted slightly."


    Dous had his eyebrow raised, though there was still a cocky smile on his face.


    "Would you mind if I had one of these as well?"


    I let out a chuckle.


    "As long as I still have them avable, then anyone can try. However, for today it will only be one per person."


    He motioned towards a servant, who hurriedly also got a te, sheepishly took a steak from the supply, and headed back up to Dous. After that, Dous took a bite and was simrly surprised as the rest.


    "Hahaha, you must let me know what the secret to this is in private, Bryson is it?"


    I waved my hand casually.


    "In reality, the process itself is incredibly simple. There is no special pig for this, but rather, a way of preparing meat that allows any ordinary pig to reach this level. At least within this kingdom, it shouldn''t be too expensive. I have no ns of keeping any secrets."


    Dous narrowed his eyes slightly. It definitely looked like he was a bit angry, but didn''t show it directly.


    "But I must insist! Even if simply, something like this must be properly treasured!"


    I held out my hand with a bitter smile.


    "Unfortunately, it will be difficult to keep it a secret, due to the nature of the said secret. Perhaps after my exnation, you will understand."


    Dous took a second to respond.


    "Very well then. Though I must say, I couldn''t help but recall the Arden family always leaves my ball the first chance they get without so much socializing! Yet, you now have the audacity to call for the attention of all my guests!"


    A bitter smile formed on my face.


    "Apologies, my intention was to keep this a rtively small event, but it appears unforeseen events have led to this blowing up in precedence."


    Dous fell silent once more, seemingly thinking about something. Yet, whatever it was, he seemed to have dropped it.


    "Very well, let me hear the exnation."


    I nodded.


    "Ah, before I begin, the others should feel free to take more if they so wish. However, the same rule applies, only one per person."


    Dous made a gesture, as did thest archduke which had been silent until now. As for the dukes, they hesitated, but in the end, didn''t send anybody to get them.


    After finishing hers, Raisa whispered to me.


    "Hey, can I have a second one since we''re friends?"


    I rolled my eyes.


    "Friends or not, the rules are rules."


    She pouted.


    "But you made the rules! Besides, you already ate some of that, unless you throw it back up for me, it won''t be fair!"


    My eyelid twitched as I resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of my nose.


    "I''ll get some for youter, alright?"


    In the end, all of the steaks were distributed among the archdukes and those below them.


    I didn''t say anything about it though, since it didn''t break any rules I had set. More importantly, I had to make an exnation.


    "One of my close confidants had rescued amoner from a killer. This confidant of mine realized something about the person he had saved. Following the advice of said person, he stabbed his own heart with a knife."


    Several people were shocked, but others looked at me as though I was bullshitting. Then, I raised a finger.


    "And miraculously, this person found himself able to manipte blood and rapidly heal his own injury. It appears his powers allow him to immediately extract the blood out of a living being''s body, killing them effectively instantly."


    I paused for a moment, letting it sink in among all the people that Edward could indeed instantly kill someone, and that there was no clear way to go against it. Of course, there were more limitations than just that, or else he would easily be the hardest final boss.


    Regardless, a bit of fear imnted in everyone''s mind was definitely useful so they wouldn''t do anything stupid.


    After feeling everyone process what I said, I continued.


    "However, he has decided not to use his powers to kill, but instead help my confidant. If he uses his magic on animals, he will prepare this very meat, which some of you have tasted today. The blood mage has sworn to only work for him, and said that it extends to me as well."


    I held out my hands with a smile on his face.


    "He will be selling arge amount of said prepared meat at his store. It currently needs work on stock, but it will not be sold for too high of a price as it is widely avable, so there is no need to rush over to purchase any. This store will be located near the center of the southern slums."


    Dous rubbed his chin in thought before speaking out with a smile.


    "Moderating the supply would surely increase the profits several times over. If you wish to work with me, then I can guarantee that you won''t regret it."


    Almost immediately, I knew what this guy wanted. Before, I remember hearing some story Nathan told me about some nobles. Where said nobles were living, corals were rather rare as they were quite far from the seaside. The prices for said corals then shot up and having one was a show of pride.


    A merchant had seen the opportunity and tried to bring arge amount of coral over and sell it. However, it did not take long for him to be directly killed.


    This was because the nobles wanted the corals because they were rare, not because they actually liked them. It was a kind of show of status, simr to why certain paintings cost a fortune, even if the drawing itself was somewhat poor.


    It was because they were considered one of a kind, and when the artist in question died it was considered even rarer since more variations of art from that artist would be cut off.


    That was why the prices of many different art pieces only rose after death. There were multiple famousposers that weren''t actually famous until they died. The reason they had gotten famous in the first ce was actually that they were dead.


    That shallow way of thinking was just the culture among the rich.


    I was pretty sure Dous knew about that and wanted to take advantage of it to gather more money. Going directly against him would be a bad idea, so I decided to split the responsibility between me and Nathan.


    I sighed helplessly.


    "Unfortunately, I do not have that much control over the specific processes. I''ve actually wanted to do other things, but they were rather stubborn people that are hard to get across. Regardless, they did ept my proposal of promotion here, else it may have taken a while for any of you to realize this type of meat exists."


    Dous narrowed his eyes slightly before letting out a sigh.


    "I suppose it can''t be helped then."


    However, while he said that, it wasn''t hard to tell that he hadn''t yet given up on it yet.

 Chapter 39: Friends?

    <h4>Chapter 39: Friends?</h4>


    While Dous didn''t want to give up on the meat just yet, he didn''t continue harping on it. Though there was still quite a bit of talk about what had gone down among the nobles, it slowly began dying down as the people spread out at the banquet.


    As for those below dukes, they seemed tempted to approach me, but it seemed like they were too afraid. On the other hand, the other dukes were all showing interest in talking to me but were still a little intimidated by Dous.


    All of a sudden, when Dous stopped looking at me, one of the dukes directly approached me almost like a lightning bolt, wasting no time to strike up a conversation.


    "Son of the Arden Family, I would like to have a discussion about how you will prioritize the sale of this wonderful product you have promoted."


    Before I could even respond, another duke spoke up as well.


    "Hold on, I believe I have an interesting proposal you might want to he-"


    "I have a truly revolutionary idea if you would just talk with me privately!"


    Before the second duke could finish, another one cut him off. The other ones were also very eager to talk to me as well. I felt a headacheing on. Jess was also displeased by them and spoke up a little, but they ignored herpletely.


    It was at this time Raisa grabbed onto my arm, she looked a little displeased by the people bothering me, but smiled shortly after and spoke with me.


    "Although I can''t show you anything better than what you brought, I should still pay you back by showing you around!"


    A smile formed on my face, as I nodded.


    "Ah, well if it''s like that, then I can''t really decline, can I?"


    From there, I turned to the others and sucked in a cold breath, pretending I wanted to talk with them but couldn''t.


    "Sorry! Looks like I gotta go."


    Without letting them get another word in, I let myself get dragged around by Raisa to show me her favorite foods.


    "Try a slice of this cake! The frosting is one of a kind!"


    "Huh? Shouldn''t this be for after the main course?"


    "The what?"


    "Never mind."


    It felt a little weird, but I decided to go along with it. Especially because there were several dukes and/or their children hover handing around me like an extremely introverted person determined to confess to their crush, but too afraid to take that first step.


    Before I could worry about it, Raisa once again dragged me around for a tour.


    "This is a special fish that can taste even better than certain heavy steaks!"


    "Oh, fish sticks?"


    "Huh?"


    "Sorry, I was thinking about something else."


    Raisa continued to lead me around. She talked about what she liked whether they were already widely popr, or underrated in her opinion. We would both take a bit to try andment on them before moving on to something else.


    asionally, she would point at one food disdainfully and tell me to never try it.


    I still did try one of them out of curiosity, but right after I followed her advice and never touched anything she mentioned.


    At first, it was mostly just to avoid the other dukes, but I found myself enjoying myself the more it went on. Unlike when she first showed me around, Raisa didn''t have any real n, she was just stumbling upon something she liked and showing it to me.


    It felt quite refreshing.


    Honestly, it made me feel like I was back on Earth, just having fun with friends. After transmigrating, I honestly felt a little lonely. Of course, it was far less lonely because of Nathan, but we weren''t really able to carelessly have fun with each other like we used to.


    That didn''t mean we weren''t having fun in our own ways still, but it was limited.


    Still, the reason why we were doing this was that we wanted to have more fun in the future, and it would be a little hard to do that with a ruined kingdom.


    Yet, while it was refreshing, I couldn''t help but feel the smile disappearing from my face on asion.


    Raisa was a little scared of that.


    "Ah, did you not like it? W-Well, you don''t have to! It''s not particrly special or anything."


    I let out augh and waved at her dismissively.


    "No, no, it''s fine. I''m just thinking about some things."


    Raisa tilted her head to the side.


    "Is it those dukes that are following you? I can tell them to leave if you want!"


    With a chuckle, I shook my head.


    "Nah, no need to be so dramatic. They''re not as creepy as before and it''s not really them that I''m thinking about."


    Raisa looked at me strangely, taking a step closer. Her voice grew a tiny bit softer.


    "So... what are you thinking about?"


    I blinked a few times.


    "It''s not really important."


    Raisa looked ufortably curious but thankfully didn''t push it.


    "Alright then."


    We continued on without too much of a care, and soon enough I got too full to try anymore. Although Raisa did want to show more, in the end, she didn''t really feel up to it either.


    In the end, we found a random spot without too many people and just stood there. A lot of people were talking and quite a few snuck nces our way, but other than that it was peaceful.


    At some point, Jess approached with a stern expression.


    "Brother, it''s time for us to go. The dance and after that the sparring will start soon. It will be too disrespectful to leave at that time."


    I blinked a few times. Honestly, I had no idea what she was talking about.


    In the game itself, the main protagonists sometimes sneak into more obscure ces where a ball is happening to apany a girl, but never really get to see what happens in the ball itself.


    Actually, now that I think about it, Jess probably shouldn''t have been here this early. She was supposed to encounter the protagonist on one of the balconies as she took a break. From there, they would have some casual talk, but Jess would eventually go back.


    I had actually seen her leave, but she came back rather quickly, meaning she didn''t really have a conversation.


    In other words, Nathan chose not to meet her.


    While I don''t think either of us had memorized the game down to a tee, I''m very sure Nathan has memorized almost everything there is to memorize about Jess. He would even tell me about slight inconsistencies in her clothes as she changed between sprites that bugged him.


    Not anything jarring like a button missing in one sprite and in another. But rather more like the button itself is a little too big in one shotpared to the other.


    He definitely knew what he had to do to meet with Jess and remembered it. I doubted he could forget if he wanted to.


    But he chose to avoid it.


    All of that when normally I''d expect him to be throwing himself at any opportunity to see Jess. Though, I didn''t think about it too much.


    In some ways, I guess that was expected.


    Although she was technically 2D, she is 3D now. The appeal falls dramatically for people like us when that change happens.


    Speaking of Jess, she was staring at me strictly the entire time I was thinking about that. I coughed and hurriedly responded.


    "Ah, right. Uh sure, let''s leave."


    Though, the moment I said that Raisa tightened her grip on my arm considerably.


    "Eh? Wouldn''t you prefer to stay? We can still spend time together! And... I can''t leave, so you''d be leaving me alone, you know?"


    I could feel a headacheing on. My eyelid was twitching rather rapidly on its own, a testament to my anxiety.


    "Why can''t you leave? Nobody will really stop you, right?"


    Raisa frowned and looked down at the floor.


    "I guess I could leave, but my father would get mad. Not to mention, my ce is far from here and I wouldn''t be able to use the carriage without my father, so I would have to walk there."


    Hm.


    Those were definitely somepelling reasons. I looked at Jess awkwardly, who also looked back at me awkwardly.


    She seemed to be just as conflicted as I was.


    While I didn''t want to stay here any longer, it did feel a bit rude to just ditch her.


    After a bit of thought, I eventually let out a long sigh.


    "I''ll stay because you asked me as a friend."


    A small smile formed on my face.


    "It would be too much to abandon a friend like that, I guess."


    Jess looked slightly disappointed but wasn''t against that decision. In the end, she relented and left, but still kept her rtive distance. There were some rted to dukes that approached her, but they seemed to be influenced by her uncaring responses and gave up pretty fast.


    Nothing was publicly dered, but people began funneling out of the room one after another, heading off to a separate, but simrlyrge room. From what I remember, I heard many different people asking others if they wanted to dance.


    Though, with Raisa bringing around, nobody really approached either of us to ask that.


    A decent amount of nobles went to the center of the room and appeared to begin dancing. The majority of them remained on the sidelines and watched. Seeing as all of the archdukes and other dukes were dancing, I guess this was also somehow seen as a status thing in some way.


    There were some musicians on


    I was ready to justfortably wait at the sidelines, but that was when Raisa tugged on my sleeve sheepishly.


    "Um, would you like to dance with me?"


    A bitter smile formed on my face. Considering that I haven''t really danced ever, much less in the way that nobles do, there was no way in hell I was going to do that.


    "I... am very unfamiliar with dancing. As you heard from my sister, I don''t stay for dances and things like that."


    Raisa pouted, twiddling with her fingers a little bit.


    "You don''t have to be the best! It''s alright if it''s a little flimsy, it just has to be seen as a dance."


    I shook my head rapidly, showing how against this I was as a non-party person.


    "More than that, I''d rather not put the effort into doing something like that."


    An awkward expression formed on Raisa''s face. It warped several times, as conflicting emotions collided with one another. Right when she looked like she was about to drop it, she looked at me with a shaky smile.


    "I-It''s just that if a member of an archduke''s family doesn''t have a dancing partner, they see it as a loss of status. My father would be really angry if I didn''t have anybody. I had forgotten about asking a person, and asking anyone else right now would also be seen as desperation and lower our status."


    Raisa was trembling slightly as she looked up at me.


    "I''m really sorry, but could you please dance with me?"


    ...Well shit. If you put it like that, declining makes me feel like a huge asshole. To be honest, all things considered, I still really wanted to just say no. In fact, I wasn''t actually all that far off from just shutting her down right then and there.


    Although I still had to get close to her to investigate, I knew I could just patch things upter and it would still work out. I was confident in doing that much.


    I closed my eyes, getting lost in my own thoughts for a moment. The mana in my body became really clear to me by the way, but I didn''t focus on that. After thinking about it for a while, I eventually sighed for what felt like the hundredth time today.


    A small smile formed on my face.


    "Fine. But you owe me for this."


    Raisa smiled brightly, making me feel a little less regrettable about this decision.


    "Thank you!"

 Chapter 40: Song

    <h4>Chapter 40: Song</h4>


    Before I could regret and take back my actions, Raisa dragged me out onto the dance floor. Almost immediately, I felt that this was a stupid decision. I didn''t even know the first thing about dancing, so what the hell was I expected to do?


    Maybe I could somehow work something out if it was just on my own and improvising, but improvising was several times more difficult when you had a partner and no prior n together.


    It almost made me feel like I should just lie down and look at the ceiling as though there were stars. Actually, I was quite tempted to just do that, but while I didn''t really care if other people thought I was strange, Raisa got me up here in the first ce because she really cared about her own image.


    Even if that went against my own values, I wasn''t expecting everyone to follow what I thought.


    Still, nothing would change the awkward situation I found myself in.


    Upon getting near the center, we naturally attracted gazes from the crowd. For a little while, the two of us just stood there, without moving. Raisa seemed a little clueless as to what to do, and I wasn''t any better.


    ...Yeah, I really shouldn''t have agreed to this.


    Still, we couldn''t just stand here and do nothing. I saw the other people seemed to be some weird sort of tango dance and tried to imitate them, but Raisa was grossly unprepared. When I tried to hold onto her hand, she panicked and froze up when I grabbed it.


    Despite trying to lead, it didn''t really work because she was essentially unresponsive.


    I could feel my eyebrow twitch. She seemed to be rather overwhelmed for whatever reason. Huh, now that I think about it, Raisa still had her puppy love, didn''t she?


    With that in mind, she probably broke down because she just couldn''t take physical contact.


    I let go of her hand, which made her blink in surprise, realizing that she had been frozen in ce. With a bitter smile, I whispered to her.


    "If we can''t dance like the others, then we could try to do it our own way."


    I took a step back and took a deep breath. From there, I got down on one knee and held out my hand to the side. From there, I just decided to begin softly singing some random lyrics I could think of.


    "Hello, it''s me again.


    I''m just here to see how you''re doing.


    And I know you told me not to talk to you again.


    But I hope you''re well."


    I offered my hand to her, which she grabbed. After pulling me up, I improvised with some more modern dance moves and began dragging her along with me.


    "Still I''ll tell you I''m sorry, even if it doesn''t feel like my fault.


    And maybe no one''s to me, or maybe we both are.


    But don''t you remember what it was like to talk?


    Or was it only me that thought we cared?"


    asionally, I would stomp my foot along the ground, creating a secondary beat to go with the instruments in the background, making it feel more like a pop song. Despite not really knowing what I was doing, Raisa seemed to get into it as well, sometimes matching my movements, or swaying along with the song I was singing.


    "No this isn''t some sick game.


    I know you don''t care about what happens.


    Maybe you will never feel the same.


    Are you still chasing the ideal that ckened?"


    Somehow, despite both singing and dancing, I felt myself meditating once more. It was honestly a bit of a surprise, but I just went along with it, feeling the mana in my body.


    "I only told you the truth.


    But I know you think it''s a lie.


    And I don''t why you can''t believe,


    But I guess that''s why you had to leave."


    To be honest, I had no idea what I was even really singing. It wasn''t like this was a song I heard back on Earth, at least not one I remember. I was just making things up as I went.


    "Please don''t throw a tantrum.


    Maybe it''s already far toote.


    And maybe your thoughts are gone.


    But I''m not here for a debate."


    Raisa was looking at me rather strangely. It was sad in a way, but also curious. Perhaps she was thinking I was somehow talking about her and making fun of her or something. Still, I didn''t stop.


    "I guess this will only hurt you,


    Yet, I still want you to know.


    Sometimes it all works,


    And sometimes it won''t.


    Even if all you have left is hate,


    I hope at least you don''t regret."


    I continued to sing whatever came to my mind, but the general theme was all the same. The dance that I was having with Raisa gradually picked up as the both of us moved faster, doing movements that must''ve been very unconventional.


    I''ve honestly never been to a nightclub, but if I was, I imagine this would be the kind of dance there.


    Eventually, I was getting rather tired, and I could tell Raisa was too. Unlike the slow dances that everyone else was doing, this was more fast-paced. In the end, we gradually began slowing down.


    As I felt us feel the need to stop, I sang a fewst words.


    "What we built may never be something like Rome,


    But I know at least for me, it was something like home."


    From there, Raisa and I both stopped. As I started to pant a little, I realized that every single person was looking at us once more. When I think about it, that was only to be expected when I boldly started singing.


    However, it was far toote to take any of that now.


    The other people that had been dancing had stopped, only looking at us even though we had left. In fact, even the musicians had stopped ying their songs.


    Eventually, Raisa muttered to me.


    "How... did you sing like that?"


    I blinked a few times. To be honest, my singing couldn''t even be considered average among singers on earth. I was just a person that liked music and often sang along when alone. The overall melody wasn''t even that stable and was kind of all over the ce since I didn''t know what the musicians were going to do.


    It was at this point that Dous, who was also in the center watching, spoke up.


    "You sing in such a unique way, Son of the Arden family. Is it purposeful that your notes don''t move parallel to the music? Also, why did you add a second melody using your foot?"


    ...Huh? What the fuck was this guy talking about?


    I was just singing.


    It couldn''t be anything that special right? I mean, I honestly can''t imagine singing being all thatplicated. And since medieval people knew the concept of notes and how to y music, this much shouldn''t be all that strange.


    I scratched the side of my head.


    "Songs simr to this nature were something I remember hearing while in my residence. I don''t truly understand anything like the proper formatting or simr aspects."


    That wasn''t a lie because I did indeed listen to music from myputer. Dous couldn''t help but raise an eyebrow and rubbed his chin in thought.


    "It appears the head of your family may be more of a muse than he looks!"


    ...Hm. Sorry, Bryson''s dad, you''re a singer now, alright? I mean, nobody''s going to know since you never show up.


    "Perhaps so."


    Dous let out augh.


    "Well, it appears that the mood for dancing hase to a rest. Let us all move on to our final event, the spars!"


    I paused for a moment before looking over at Raisa, showing how clueless I was. She seemed to recognize my confusion before whispering to me.


    "All of the archdukes and dukes nominate one of their children to spar with wooden weapons, and theypete in a tournament."


    Oh, that didn''t sound too bad. But... how was it going to work if the supposed Duke of the Arden family wasn''t even here?


    Um...


    "What happens if the Duke is missing?"


    Raisa tilted her head to the side.


    "I suppose you just pick among the two of you instead."


    Before we could talk about it any further, people seemed to be focused on moving to another different room, which was basically a miniature coliseum, with arge tform in the middle.


    There appeared to be arranged seats for each rank, and it followed the trend with those of higher rank having higher seats. As I sat down, Jess sat down next to me. She whispered to me.


    "I''ll go up for the sparring nomination."


    Although I did want to have a bit morebat experience, this probably wasn''t the best setting for that. Not to mention, Jess was obviously stronger than me since she had been learning for longer.


    As such, I simply nodded. It would save me the trouble after all.


    From there, Dous called out each family one after another. With each call, all the nominations had stood up and walked to the edges of the tform.


    When he called for the Arden family, Jess had walked up.


    However, when she did end up at the correct position, instead of calling out the next family, he called out our decision.


    "The Arden family sent Jess? I would''ve imagined that the new and rising star, Bryson would''ve shown himself."


    I blinked a few times. Was I really a rising star? If you think about it strictly, all I did was promote some meat that I didn''t even directly make in any way, then sing a song.


    Maybe the standard for this world was just... really low or something.


    Despite being called out, Jess was not afraid.


    "We agreed that I would represent the Arden family in this spar."


    Dous leaned to the side andzily rested his head on his fist.


    "But the Arden family normally skips out on the spars, no? I believe the person that is responsible for this sudden shift should be the one that represents the Arden family."


    I mean, the real person responsible was Raisa who guilt-tripped me into staying, but she couldn''t exactly do that now could she?


    Jess continued to stare back at Dous stubbornly, however, it seemed like she was too afraid to continue arguing back. This didn''t seem to make Dous angry though. Rather, he seemed to be amused as his smile began to grow.


    "Oh? Is it that the Arden family wishes to decline my request? That would be rather rude..."


    I pinched the bridge of my nose and stood up. After sighing, I spoke.


    "I will represent the Arden family in this spar. That will do, right?"


    Dous promptly nodded with a smirk.


    "Of course, Bryson."


    Jess looked back at me with a reluctant look but didn''t go against my decision in the end. I began walking down while Jess went back up. There was a set of wooden weapons, so I took the wooden sword and got ready to fight.


    I couldn''t decide whether or not I wanted to fight seriously or just throw the fight early so that I could just go back.


    "The spar will start with the Arden family against the Louis family."


    Well, it looked like I would have toe to a decision soon.

 Chapter 41: Spar

    <h4>Chapter 41: Spar</h4>


    As I walked up to the stage, I couldn''t help but feel like I was strung along, forced to do things one after another. Somehow or another, they ended up attracting way more attention than they should have.


    It felt like I was the protagonist when in reality it was Nathan.


    Weird.


    Regardless, I stepped up on the stage with no real care about winning. On the other side, was some dude from the Louis family. He got up on the stage with a frown on his face. In one hand, he had a wooden shield, while the other had a spear. From the way he looked at me, he seemed to be rather dead set on beating me.


    A smirk formed on his face.


    "Why don''t we make a deal? If I beat you, then you''ll let my family share in the business of specially processed meat."


    I rolled my eyes and rested the wooden sword against my shoulder.


    "I don''t see why I should agree to that deal."


    The dipshit of the Louis family shrugged his shoulders.


    "Then if I lose, I''ll allow you to take a great share in my family''s businesses and have part of the profits."


    I promptly shook my head.


    "Sorry, I''m not making any deals."


    The dipshit''s eyebrow twitched.


    "What? But our business generates revenue of tens of thousands every day!"


    ...Revenue, huh? Since he isn''t talking about your profits, doesn''t that mean the amount you''re spending is more than what he''s making back?


    Besides, even if he lost, his goal was to establish a bridge of business between the two of us would be achieved, making it easier to bother me about the special meat.


    I waved my hand dismissively.


    "I don''t care, let''s just get this over with."


    The dipshit of the Louis family frowned rather intensely but ended up dropping the subject anyway.


    "Hmph! Suit yourself."


    Dous began announcing the rules.


    "The first person to verbally give up, or fall off the tform will be the loser! Any magical spells will be an automatic disqualification. Now, begin!"


    The tform was pretty damn big, so I thought about just walking off. Yet, as I was about to do just that, Raisa screamed at the top of her lungs.


    "I bet one thousand gold pieces on you! I''ll share half the profit if you win!"


    My eyelid twitched. This dumb mother...


    Now that I think about it, the root cause of pretty much everything that happened at this ball was actually Raisa. First, she blew up the new meat matter. While that was mostly her father, he wouldn''t have cared if Raisa wasn''t involved. Second, she begged me not only to stay but to dance with her.


    Now, she bet on this fight, with way too much money.


    Like, that was enough for one hundred meals!


    I felt like I had every single right to just walk off the stage with the amount she dragged me into.


    ...But she mentioned that I would get half the profits. Half of one thousand was five hundred, and while that wasn''t muchpared to my stash of one hundred thousand, It was still rather tempting.


    I sharpened my eyes somewhat as I stared down the dipshit of the Louis family.


    He raised his wooden shield in front of him, hiding most of his body and part of his face behind it, leaving just enough space for his eyes to stare me down. The spear was raised and pointed at me.


    From there, the dipshit slowly began inching toward me.


    Seeing this, I suddenly bolted forward, taking as much space as I could before he inched any closer. He seemed rather surprised by my sudden movements and remained on the spot, ready to receive an attack.


    However, before I got into his range, I simply stopped moving, so that if he wanted to hit me, he would have to take a step forward himself. The dipshit seemed rather confused and just remained on the spot for a few moments.


    Simrly, I just stood there as well, nning on being patient for this.


    It seemed that he didn''t have the same level of tolerance as he took a few steps forth and threw the spear toward me. I took a step back at the same time, and when the spear shot toward me, I grabbed onto its end.


    Before he could react, I pulled as hard as I could, causing him to stumble forth. His hold over his shield was no longer proper, exposing his head. Taking advantage of that, I didn''t hold back, swinging my wooden sword toward his right jugr.


    He didn''t even defend as my sword mmed against it. Both his right leg and arm weakened considerably, causing him to drop his shield and partially kneel down. Seeing as he looked like he was stunned by the pain, I released the spear and sent my fist for a liver punch.


    With a thump, the dipshit proceeded to let out a cry of pain, keeling over.


    To be honest, this was going so easily that it felt kind of strange. It didn''t really feel like a fight anymore, but more like I was just a bully beating a guy up.


    As a fun fact, the liver was one of the organs that weren''t properly protected by the ribcage. When that thing gets hurt, the body involuntarily crumples over due to a bunch of science stuff I don''t remember.


    It was essentially the same as hitting a guy in the balls, but at the end of the day hitting someone in the balls was kinda gross. More than the moral aspect, I''d just prefer to keep my fists away from those things.


    As such, the liver punch was the best alternative, and it would work on girls too.


    I actually found this out by fighting with Nathan. By the end, we had both developed a certain amount of resistance to the liver punch, but it may not be the same now because of the changed bodies.


    Ah, with that said, the dipshit of the Louis family was now groaning on the ground.


    I stepped on the wooden spear and held down his head with a hand.


    "I''m assuming this is the part where you surrender, right?"


    He didn''t respond, but it wasn''t because he was being stubborn or anything. Rather, it was the fact he was still recovering from the pain. It seemed that nobody had hit him there before, so it took a little while for him to gather his bearings.


    Eventually, he weakly muttered his surrender, after which I backed off.


    Once again, everyone was looking at me like I was a freak.


    ...Hm. Now that I think about it, maybe it was my fault things like this were happening.


    Ah, whatever.


    Dous let out augh and pped his knee several times after seeing that disy.


    "I believe that may have been the fastest spar I have seen where there is no immediate surrender. It truly seems you are an Arden son."


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "I guess that''s cool."


    From there, I simply walked off the stage. Dous continued to look at me for a little while but moved on. He then announced more people to get up, and they all had spars as well.


    I watched the fights continue on and noticed that most of them didn''t really...


    Hm. I guess the only way I know how to put it, is that they weren''t really fighting.


    I could tell just from watching them that they had obviously trained, learning proper techniques and knowing when to use them. However, it was nothing like a real fight. It looked like both sides would always give each other unnecessary leeway, giving up opportunities to attack for no real reason.


    It seemed as though while these people had practiced, none had actual fighting experience. I guess they might have fought against their guards, but I doubt those people would be truly trying to win.


    More spars continued to happen, as people were called up one after another. I couldn''t help but notice that none of the archdukes had been called up. It was at this point that I took the time to count the number of dukes, realizing that there were twelve of them in total.


    That would make it somewhat hard to organize this kind of format. Regardless, that wasn''t my problem to deal with.


    Though, soon enough, I would see the solution.


    "The Arden Family will now go against the Stewart Family. The winner will fight one of the archdukes!"


    So basically, the archdukes were given a skip on the battles, while the strongest of the dukes would have to fight them. That was pretty unfair given that the Dukes'' side would probably be quite tired from two fights, but I didn''t linger on that thought.


    Instead, I got up, and my opponent did the same.


    He had what looked almost like a mandible. It was a fairly long sword with the top part curved forth, simr to a scythe but with a less aggressive bend. If I had to guess, it looked like something you would use to pull away a shield or attack behind one. He used two hands to hold onto it properly, given that it was rtivelyrge.


    There were a fair amount of people that did have a shield, making that a pretty useful weapon. However, it put him at a slight disadvantage since I just had a normal sword.


    There was a cordial smile on his face, and he didn''t say a word as he looked at me, not bothering to try and wrangle a bet like the others. However, when I thought he was going to say something, he suddenly spoke.


    "Could you not fight in such a dishonorable way?"


    I raised an eyebrow. Huh? Since when was I fighting dishonorably? For starters, I had held myself back and wasn''t even fighting dirty.


    With a stiff smile, I responded.


    "And how in a fight is it dishonorable?"


    The guy from the Stewart Family furrowed his brows slightly.


    "Is it not obvious? You use tricks in the fight, unfairly throwing your opponent off guard."


    I rolled my eyes.


    "When you fight against a true enemy, do you really think they''ll care about something called honor? You can cling to that all you want, but at the end of the day, the one whose heart is still beating is the victor."


    The guy''s expression twitched. But after a few moments, a small smile formed on his face.


    "I suppose I cannot argue with that logic. Very well then."


    Dous hummed to himself but didn''t wait too long before announcing the start of the fight.


    "Begin!"


    I rushed forth likest time, and the Stewart guy had the same idea. Once again, I stopped right out of his range, and he did the same. From there, we just looked at each other awkwardly.


    He looked back at me intently. From the way the guy looked, it was pretty clear he had no intention of going first, especially after seeing what happened to the dipshit Louis guy.


    Though, making the first move was only bad if the other knew how to take advantage of it.


    With that in mind, I abruptly sprung forth holding my sword out like a rapier, but not holding it out all the way.


    The Stewart guy stepped back but wasn''t able to move far enough to avoid it. Though, he was still able to bring his own de over fast enough. If it kept going like this, then he would whisk my de away.


    Naturally, I changed it up, letting my sword suddenly dart upwards, this time putting my all into thrusting it toward his neck. Yet, to my surprise, this Stewart guy was even prepared for that, shifting his de to guard his neck. He didn''t really have to move the de much since it was already pretty long and covered most of him already.


    With a loud m, the wooden weapons collided. He was able to nullify most of the impact.


    However, he ended up leaving the rest of himself unguarded. While both of his hands were wrapped tight around the handle of his weapon, my fist shot toward his stomach just as it did with the dipshit Louis guy.


    Once more, a thump resounded and a cry of agony followed.

 Chapter 42: A Loss

    <h4>Chapter 42: A Loss</h4>


    It appeared that with my fight against Louis, Stewart was rather wary of my attack that went for the neck. That wasn''t wrong to be worried about, considering it was a way to temporarily disable some limbs if hit in the right spot.


    However, that made him let his guard down for my punch. It appeared he didn''t believe that was much of a threat, and that it was just any old one.


    That led to him crumpling down onto the floor.


    Likest time, I stepped on his sword and held down his head with my free hand.


    "I guess you lost this time."


    As for this Stewart guy, he let out a groan, but in between them, he wasughing. It was hard for him to speak in this position, but he still spoke up.


    "Do you mind if I could have another try?"


    ...Huh? This guy wants to go again? I mulled over it for a little while, wondering if I should even agree. Though while I was pondering, that didn''t mean I was silent.


    "Didn''t I tell you before that a true enemy wouldn''t give you any mercy?''


    Stewart''s expression hardened somewhat. He was still out of breath and in pain from that punch but forced out the words.


    "Nobody in my manor fights as you do. I wish to learn how to fight properly so that when I do face that true enemy, I can be the one beheading them instead of losing my own. To be frank, I doubt I will be able to experience a fight like this again in a while and wish to experience it once more."


    I took a deep breath and promptly let out a long sigh. Honestly, I didn''t want to continue this for longer than I should, but he said it in a way that made me respect him a little.


    Just a little.


    I backed off with a smirk.


    "Then let''s see if you can do better this time."


    The Stewart guy backed up a bit as well with shaky steps. It seemed he was still feeling the effects of the punch. But there was a determined expression on his face.


    I charged forth once more like I always did. He did the same and stopped once he was out of my range.


    But I didn''t.


    Against his expectations, I lowered myself down and stuck out my arm so that he couldn''t see the wooden sword underneath. Then, I pushed it out at full speed. He was still able to swing down with his spear in an attempt to get my sword out of the way, but I had actually aimed lower than he expected, mming against his thigh.


    The Stewart guy let out a groan of pain, but forced himself to continue standing. Though, I cheekily poked him in the side with a finger like what an annoying and mischievous little kid would do.


    Except I did it with far more force, which made him fall to the ground once more.


    Hended on his back, face up looking at the ceiling. I pointed my wooden sword at his neck. A bitter smile formed on Stewart''s face, one that was mixed in with pain. He began sweating, but I was pretty sure that was because the pain was pretty bad for him.


    He weakly raised a finger.


    "I did not expect that. Do you mind fighting me once more?"


    With a sigh, I pulled away the wooden sword.


    "I won''t do this with you forever, alright? You gotta learn some things on your own."


    The Stewart guy nodded as he got back up once more. His eyelid was twitching somewhat, while his pupils seemed to be dting in and out of focus. Still, there was a smile on his face. As a noble, he appeared to have quite the resilience.


    After a second of thought, I pointed my wooden sword at him.


    "Hey, what''s your name?"


    The guy seemed a bit surprised, but I surmised that was because he thought it was strange I didn''t already know his name. Regardless, he said it.


    "Liam. My name is Liam, Bryson."


    I gave a nod.


    "Alright then, I''m starting."


    I suddenly lunged forth again, and he did the same. From there, I did the same thing asst time, hiding my wooden sword with my arm as it shot out.


    In response, instead of trying to block it with his sword, Liam tried to retreat quickly, so that he could avoid it altogether. But as he lifted his foot off the floor, I abandoned my attack with the sword immediately and swept with my foot, mming hard into the one leg holding him up.


    He was directly knocked off his feet and mmed into the ground hard. Liam let out a violent cough as hended. It appeared that the wind was knocked out of him, which is definitely not a pleasant feeling.


    Eventually, he weakly held up a hand, about to speak, but-


    "What is the point of continuing this fight? The Arden family is clearly superior here, I hereby dere that the Stewart family surrenders!"


    Dous spoke up first.


    Liam had a somewhat distraught expression on his face, but heplied and wed up before limping off the stage. I simply walked off. Dous was being a little rude, but honestly, it was kind of helpful, since Liam was getting a little too bold and unreasonable with repeatedly asking for rematches.


    From there, all of the other winners from the dukes'' families fought against each other and the winners were slowly determined.


    And soon enough, Dous announced that it was my turn again.


    "Next is the archduke Darcy family against the Arden family."


    I got up on the tform like always, while Raisa got up as well, though there was an awkward expression on her face.


    She waved sheepishly with one hand while the other had a long wooden halberd.


    "Um, hi! C-Could you go a little easy on me? I''m not too confident in beating you."


    I pressed my lips into a t line.


    "And what is the point of that?"


    Raisa let out a gasp and stammered.


    "W-Well, I''m just not that good at fighting."


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "Then that just means I shouldn''t hold back. It''s better if I take advantage of any weakness you show, that way you will learn how to ovee those. As a friend, I shouldn''t hold back.


    And the same went for the people I didn''t care about. Holding back was just going to be frustrating when I''d rather hurt them more.


    Raisa blinked several times in surprise but slowly nodded.


    "A-Alright then!"


    The moment Dous announced the start, I rushed in once more. Raisa didn''t seem to know why I did that but did the same. I stopped before getting into her range, while she herself did the same.


    She had her knees slightly bent and her wooden halberd raised. She was intently watching me, waiting for me to make a move.


    Out of nowhere, I leaned my body forward, but my feet hadn''t moved yet. Raisa visibly panicked, taking a step back and waving the halberd slightly, but proceeded to blush when she realized I hadn''t done anything.


    I took a step forward after she did, and continued to wait for a while.


    From there, I suddenly lunged forth for real this time. Raisa attempted to ward me off with her halberd, but she wasn''tmitting to doing so. That made it easy to continue forth, but it also meant she could still use it to block or counterattack.


    I went for her neck, but she raised the halberd to block while moving backward. Though I wanted to turn the attack into a feint before going for somewhere else, she was too far away.


    I simply continued to move forth, taking the space.


    From there, I lunged forth while keeping myself low. But instead of doing anything weird, I just swung, aiming for the knees. On the other hand, Raisa blocked with her halberd while moving back again, making it hard for me to transition my blocked attack into anything else.


    Still, all things considered, I had a significant advantage here. People with long weapons usually wanted to abuse that, attacking their opponents while they couldn''t. Then they should aggressively go closer to push them back, or force them to recklessly charge forth.


    Should they eventually recklessly charge forth, you could abuse that to get a good hit in and back off, keeping the advantage.


    Yet, Raisa wasn''t even trying to do that.


    This way would make it so I couldn''t hit her easily, but that wouldn''t change the fact she only had so much space. As I continued to go forth, she continued retreating. Eventually, she looked behind herself and frowned when she realized there wasn''t much more space to retreat.


    With this in mind, I stepped forth with a wide horizontal sh, knowing that the best way to guard against it was moving backward.


    Raisa panicked somewhat, leaning back to dodge the sword, but she overdid it and ended up losing her bnce and falling down. Her head hung over the tform, but she hadn''t fallen out yet.


    A small smile formed on her face.


    "D-Do you mind giving me another try?"


    She held out her hand, as though she wanted me to pull her up. I couldn''t help but feel that this was just really dumb. Was everyone going to ask me for a second chance?


    Still, since I considered her a friend, it would be a bit rude considering I still gave some random dude a chance.


    With that in mind, I let out a sigh as I reached out.


    "Fine, fine."


    Upon grabbing onto her, I tried to pull up.


    But Raisa abruptly pulled with all her might, putting me off bnce. Then, while I was falling over, she pressed a hand against my chest, lifting me up and using the momentum to toss me over herself with her full strength.


    As I flew in the air, seeing what was about to happen to me, a thought ran across my mind.


    This crafty bitch.


    Guess it''s not too strange that she became the Daughter of Chaos.


    Inded t on my ass, still somewhat stunned. As for Raisa, she looked rather nervous.


    "U-Um, sorry! Was that too far? You said that we shouldn''t hold back anything, and this was the only way I could think of to win! S-So, this way you learn, right?"


    A bitter smile formed on my face. I ended upughing out loud, more at myself than anything else.


    "Yeah, well yed. I definitely learned from this experience."


    Raisa awkwardly scratched the side of her head.


    "Ah, phew! I really thought I may have gone too far!"


    Quite a few people were stunned, especially so for Dous. He looked rather displeased, but eventually announced the result.


    I went back to my seat and continued to watch the rest of the spars.


    The other people rted to the archdukes came up to fight against the winning dukes. In the end, the other archdukes won rather easily. Part of it was definitely because the other party was tired, but the difference in skill and power was visible.


    Even if the grounds were more even, the results wouldn''t have changed anyway.


    Then, the three winners each fought against each other once, so there were two battles each. In the end, Raisa lost both times, while Dous''s son won both times, giving him the overall win.


    From there, everyone got up and headed home after Dous gave another speech.


    Though as he was saying it, I wondered if I was bing soft.

 Chapter 43: Distrust

    <h4>Chapter 43: Distrust</h4>


    While I was at the ball, there were other servants that worked on setting the ce in the slums to give away cooked meals. They worked faithfully at setting everything up, but the only difference now was that there truly wasn''t anybody sitting at the table.


    Before, when I was sitting at the ce, it felt like the table had served some purpose, but now it looked like someone had left out their unwanted furniture. Eventually, Arianne stumbled over but was confused when there was nobody there.


    After a couple of seconds of hesitation, she approached one of the butlers and asked about her concerns.


    "Where is Bryson? Will he being soon?"


    The butler smiled awkwardly and shook his head.


    "He is currently at a ball, however, he wanted us to continue on with the event in his stead regardless."


    Arianne blinked a few times before nodding.


    "I... I see."


    She didn''t seem to want to stay all that much, however, after a minute of indecisiveness, she ended up sitting down. Naturally, a bowl of steaming pottage was ced in front of her soon after.


    While Arianne began eating in silence, it almost seemed like nobody woulde. But soon after, a familiar little boy ran up to the ce. There was a bright smile on his face, but once he saw Arianne, he pointed a finger usingly at her.


    "Wah! Untrustworthy person, what did you do to the good person?"


    She raised her hands up like she was getting arrested by the police.


    "Ah, he needs to go to a ball, so he isn''t here."


    The boy raised an eyebrow and frowned deeper.


    "A ball? You made him go after a ball to y with? You must''ve lured him into a trap!"


    Arianne simply got more flustered, stammering over her words, and unable to properlymunicate anything. In the end, a butler walked up to the kid with a somewhat tense smile and exined the situation.


    "He is currently away at an event and has us hosting the event on his behalf."


    The boy looked at him skeptically for a few moments before nodding.


    "...I see! Now I know that the untrustworthy person is a liar!"


    Arianne seemed to be on the verge of breaking down in tears.


    "But I''m not lying!"


    The butler seemed like he was going to clear up the misunderstanding, but for whatever reason decided against itst second. And so, Arianne now had thebel of a liar. Though, the kid didn''t seem to have any reservations about sitting next to her.


    They didn''t really talk much, with neither of them intending on starting a conversation. Arianne was just too shy to do so, while the kid didn''t see a point in that.


    After a few moments, the butler walked over to the two and spoke with them.


    "Do you two mind if we also sit down? If our Lord is sitting down, it is honestly a little intimidating to do the same."


    Arianne waved sheepishly.


    "Ah, I have no right to dictate that kind of thing! You are the ones that provided everything after all."


    As for the kid, he seemed to have a different opinion.


    "Only if you have permission from the good person!"


    The butler let out augh.


    "Well, he did let us sit down before."


    The kid pursed his lips together before nodding.


    "Alright then!"


    With that, the servants had also sat down, making the table the most crowded it had ever been. And strangely enough, it was when I myself was absent. While they were just having a meal, a man in ragged clothes approached.


    "Could... Could I also have a meal?"


    The butler nodded.


    "Of course."


    He then personally got up to bring over a bowl, cing it near one of the empty seats to the man. One after another, two people ended up showing up as well, making a total of three new people sitting at the table.


    They all seemed rather reserved and honestly, a little desperate given their thin frames. Still, it could be considered a technical win, even if most people still were too scared of approaching.


    Though, considering how many people were together, the silence was rather awkward. In an attempt to make it a little less painful, Arianne spoke up about the first thing that came to mind.


    "S-So why did Bryson start doing this type of thing?"


    The servants all looked at each other, as though wondering if someone else knew the answer. Eventually, a butler spoke up.


    "We are unsure of the reason. There was simply one day when the Head Butler informed us that we were to do this and that it was by Bryson''smand. It is honestly quite difficult to pinpoint any specific reason."


    He paused, clearly hesitating, but still let the words flow out of his mouth.


    "I do have a guess, however."


    Pretty much everyone at the table looked at him, no longer that focused on the food itself. The butler raised a finger and furrowed his brows, showing his uncertainty.


    "From what I recall, our Lord without any real rhyme or reason invited amoner over to his ce. It appeared that he had taken an interest in the life of amoner and invited him over."


    The butler closed his eyes, almost like he was recalling a fond memory despite the fact he wasn''t really involved in it.


    "I remember the two of them went around the entire manor exploring it. I believe that our Lord wished to show themoner what his life was like in exchange for knowing his. But what makes me believe this the most, is when he asked for the chefs to prepare dinner for him."


    He scratched the side of his head like he was still puzzled.


    "For some strange reason, when the chefs had prepared food fitting for amoner and his own meal, he requested that they trade. From there, when themoner gave a rmendation and even handed it over with his used utensil, the Lord ate it without batting an eye!"


    The butler nodded to himself while raising a finger.


    "As such, the only conclusion I cane to is that he had undergone apulsion to understand what life is like as amoner. In my opinion, it means he wishes to humble himself and understand what the people he will rule over are like so that he can be a proper duke!"


    That wasn''t even close by the way if you couldn''t tell. But despite that, it appeared that everyone at the table was convinced that was the reason. Well, everyone except for the kid.


    He had a frown on his face but didn''t say anything.


    Arianne put a hand on her cheek as her eyes seemed to widen in admiration.


    "He is that dedicated to bing a fair and just ruler? That makes me feel as though I have not been trying hard enough to be under him."


    One of the maids sitting at the table put a hand to her forehead and let out an exasperated sigh.


    "It is nearly unbelievable! In all my time, I''ve never seen any other noble do something like that! But... I''m unsure if the decision he made is the correct one. More than understanding themoners, wouldn''t it be better to learn how to manage thends and business properly?"


    The butler that originally said that scratched his head.


    "In all honesty, I do agree. While this doesn''t seem to be the most effective, I believe he should be praised for his intentions!"


    The kid scoffed and muttered to himself.


    "Shallow fools."


    Though, none of the servants paid him any heed. However, Arianne looked over at him curiously.


    "Why do you say that?"


    The kid simply crossed his arms and looked to the side.


    "You aren''t trustworthy! I don''t talk to liars!"


    It was a bit contradictory considering he was technically talking to her, but other than that fact, he showed no ns of exining himself. Arianne simply felt rather awkward and began thinking about it herself.


    Eventually, a woman that had decided to sit at the table expressed her own opinion with a frown.


    "All of you are just saying that because he told you to, aren''t you?"


    The butler looked over with furrowed brows. It appeared that he took offense to that.


    "No, we are under no obligation to say so."


    One of the maids suddenly spoke up, as though to support it.


    "If it was before, then I would also think those were all lies, but something about him changed recently."


    She rubbed her hand against her neck like she was ufortable with not knowing how to fully express herself.


    "I don''t really know how to say it, but the way he looks at me isn''t so scary anymore. Before... he always had this re, and it made me think I did something wrong all the time."


    Another maid nodded several times to confirm it.


    "Yes! I''ve noticed that too! It feels entirely different. Sometimes it makes me feel like he''s a friend, but I obviously know that I''m still just a servant."


    This time, the kid scoffed rather loudly. He pointed his spoon at the servants and voiced his opinion.


    "He was never a bad person! The only reason he feels different is that you all judged him by his appearance, so he forced himself to change so that you felt morefortable!"


    All of the servants stared strangely at the kid. The butler raised an eyebrow before shaking his head andughing.


    "It is simply the words of a child, they are naturally emboldened."


    They gave the kid a look as though he was stepping out of his bounds. And they were kind of right, considering the servants worked and lived in the same building as me, while the kid himself only met me once.


    It was only natural to think he was just full of hot air.


    And it kind of was considering the actual Bryson was basically an entirely different person.


    The kid didn''t go out of his way to further argue his opinion and simply focused on eating. From there, time passed on rather uneventfully. Once the kid finished he got up from his seat and waved.


    "Goodbye stupid people!"


    He then stuck out his tongue before running away. Bitter smiles formed on the servants as they got over it. Things seemed to be dying down a little, with themoners that hade originally silently leaving.


    When Arianne simrly stood up intending on tidying up, someone unexpectedly called out to her.


    "Hey, what are you still doing here?"


    She looked over her shoulder to see that it was Minori, prompting her to gasp in surprise.


    "Why are you still here?"


    Minori frowned and crossed her arms. She was hiding behind a faraway building. After revealing herself, she slowly walked up, though took a quick nce to the left and right like she wanted to make sure someone wasn''t there.


    "Stoping here! That guy is going to do something to you when you don''t expect it!"


    Arianne simrly frowned, but she seemed a bit disappointed more than anything.


    "I appreciate your good intentions, but I''ve decided to trust him. If it ends up being a mistake, then I am willing to suffer the consequences for it."


    Minori was not pleased with that answer. She came up and grabbed both of Arianne''s shoulders before shaking them.


    "Why are you trusting him? There is a reason so many people are saying bad things about him! Maybe you don''t think those are true, but you should still protect yourself from suspicious characters."


    Arianne looked at her, but this time she looked concerned.


    "I don''t understand. Why do you hate Bryson so much?"


    Minori found herself rendered speechless.

 Chapter 44: A Compromise

    <h4>Chapter 44: A Compromise</h4>


    After Arianne asked Minori why she hated Bryson, the two simply remained there silently for a little while. The silence was a little strange, to say the least, but Minori eventually grit her teeth and spoke up.


    "Nobles... are no good. None of them."


    She appeared to calm down somewhat after saying that. Arianne tilted her head to the side ever so slightly and put the tip of her finger on her chin.


    "Why do you say that?"


    Minori clicked her tongue and waved to the side.


    "Isn''t thatmon knowledge? They steal from us! If it wasn''t for the nobles, then my parents..."


    She furrowed her brows slightly before clearing her throat.


    "The nobles steal from my parents, that''s why we''re so poor!"


    Arianne gasped when she heard that. With one hand over her mouth, she showed worry.


    "How much money did they steal?"


    Minori scratched the side of her head.


    "I don''t know, but it must''ve been nearly one hundred silvers!"


    Arianne looked rather confused at this point.


    "Eh? But nobles normally deal with hundreds of gold, and the value of gold is equal to one thousand silver!"


    Minori also seemed rather confused when she pointed that out, but quickly stamped her foot and screamed in anger.


    "That''s why they''re so despicable! They steal even when they don''t need the money!"


    Arianne began to look at Minori a little strangely.


    "Um, but nobles almost nevere to the slums. The only exception is Bryson, but he can''t possibly steal if he just sits at a table the entire time."


    Minori vehemently shook her head while her breathing became a little heavy.


    "T-That must be why hees! He uses it as a feint so that he can steal from us!"


    Arianne didn''t respond immediately. The two of them looked at each other for a few moments before Arianne spoke up sheepishly.


    "...Have you ever seen a noble stealing from your parents?"


    Minori furrowed her brows intensely. She held onto both sides of her head.


    "Why does that matter? So what, I''ve never seen it, but that''s what my parents say all the time!"


    Arianne slowly approached Minori before slowly wrapping her arms around her. However, the moment she tried that Minori let out a scream before swatting Arianne''s arms away and backing up.


    Right after, Minori seemed to have realized she acted a little too rudely.


    "S-Sorry... but I still stand by what I said! Nobles aren''t good, especially not that Bryson fiend!"


    Arianne was rather confused by it all, but decided to keep her distance since Minori didn''t appear to like that sort of thing. She took a deep breath.


    "Did you personally see Bryson do anything bad?"


    Minori''s expression twitched, but she still slowly shook her head.


    "No. But I can still tell what happened. It''s obvious."


    Arianne sped her hands together and looked down. She was rather confused.


    "I''m not sure why you think Bryson did whatever it is, but I hope that you can still give him a chance. Maybe if you get to know him a little better, you will realize that he isn''t that kind of person."


    Minori shook her head vehemently.


    "If a noble is trying to get to know you better they... they are simply doing it because they want to..."


    She hugged herself almost like she was cold and bit her bottom lip.


    "They want to take your body!"


    Arianne could tell what Minori was trying to say. She couldn''t help but tremble in fear when she heard those words.


    In fact, doubts began to form within her, that maybe the person that seemed so friendly was actually that way for different reasons. And these kinds of fears weren''t wrong to have either.


    It was already a fairly well-known thing that nobles would do that sort of thing. In fact, although few men admitted it, they were also targeted as well.


    Both of them had heard the stories, which naturally made them afraid.


    In the end, Arianne took a deep breath to calm her down, holding a hand above her heart. Then, a small, but bitter smile formed on her face as she looked back at Minori.


    "I... I will take your warning seriously. Now that I think about it, I have been a little too trusting of Bryson when I''ve yet to understand him that well. But at the same time, I believe that you should be a little bit less stubborn and at least give him a chance."


    Minori looked back with a bit of sadness on her face. Though, the anger and hard-headedness appeared to be gone.


    "Fine."


    Arianne nodded as a smile blossomed on her face, and Minori went on her way back home silently.


    That was when Arianne let out a gasp as she turned around.


    "Ah, I forgot to help tidy up!"


    The butler who had put thest chair away let out a chuckle.


    "Do not worry about it, we have it handled."


    Then, they headed back. Arianne hesitated for a moment before going back as well.


    ...


    Once my carriage had arrived back at the manor, I noticed that another carriage had arrived as well. It was easy to tell they were the servants that had worked on giving out food as they picked up and moved away pots, tables, chairs, and the like.


    When I stepped off the carriage, before both feet had touched the ground, I noticed someone had grabbed onto my wrist. I looked over, and sure enough, it was Jess.


    James looked at us strangely when that happened.


    "...Lord Bryson, you didn''t anger your senior sister, did you?"


    My eyelid twitched. I was about to defend myself, but Jess had spoken up first.


    "We''re going to take a bath together."


    James then looked at me with slightly widened eyes. Apparently, this was either surprising or unexpected to him. Not that I exactly me him for thinking that way. If I was a third party watching the interaction between me and my sister, I would also frown and think that bathing together was disgusting.


    But now that I was in the position myself, I really wanted to say that it was moreplicated and that I didn''t really ask for this. Yet, at the same time, I felt that would hurt Jess''s feelings by quite a bit so I kept my mouth shut.


    In the end, I just let Jess drag me along while James stared at me as though I was some sort of alien.


    It did not take long for us to be in the bathhouse once more. She immediately began changing my clothes, almost like I would begin running if she didn''t. From there, we once again went into the bathroom, while Jess began to wash me.


    I thought she might just stay silent, but she used this time to question me as well.


    "Why are you on such friendly terms with the archduke''s daughter?"


    I closed my eyes as I felt the water run down my face.


    "She is in the same ss as me. I''m not entirely sure why, but she took a fancy to me and has been very talkative whenever she sees me."


    Jess fell silent after hearing that. Though I couldn''t see her right now, my guess was that she wasn''t expecting such a straightforward answer and felt a little stumped on how to continue.


    Regardless, she kept washing me.


    Soon enough, Jess had finished once more. Afterwards, she began washing as well. It honestly felt a little weird for her to baby me like this, even if I felt like she was partly doing it for her own sake too.


    It made me feel somewhat obligated to help her as well.


    I hesitated but got the words out in the end.


    "Um, Jess, do you want me to help wash your back?"


    My words had the best of intentions, but Jess didn''t seem to like them very much.


    "No. Just wait there and try to rx."


    I scratched the side of my head, wondering if I maybe phrased that badly.


    "Er, ok."


    After a few moments, Jess came back and hugged me from behind once more, bringing about the tensing of my muscles. It was honestly kind of painful to be in this situation so many times. And to top it all off, it didn''t really feel like I was getting any faster at rxing myself either.


    Jess hooked her chin over my shoulder and took this time to ask me further questions in a soft voice.


    "Hey, is the daughter of the archduke threatening you in any way?"


    I thought to myself a little bit. While she definitely was a little bit annoying at times, it seemed she had the best of intentions.


    "No, she isn''t really."


    Jess continued on, asking me further.


    "Do you think she is a good person?"


    Well, in the game, Raisa would grow up to be the Daughter of Chaos, which was obviously not a good person. But she seemed normal for now.


    "It appears so, at least on the surface."


    Jess paused for a little while after hearing that. Eventually, she brought her lips right next to my ear and whispered, making my ear feel ufortably tingly.


    "Do you like her?"


    I thought about it for a little while.


    "Yeah, I think so."


    I felt Jess shudder a little bit.


    "You... do?"


    With a bitter smile, I began tapping my chin a few times.


    "She''s a pretty good friend, all things considered."


    But friendships were more so suggestions than a rule. So suddenly cutting them off wasn''t off the table.


    Jess let out a long hum.


    "I see."


    Silence lingered for quite a while between the two of us after that. Like always, I was just meditating. Though, at some random point in time, she shot a random question my way.


    "Do you mind letting me know what you''re nning?"


    Hm? Why is she making me sound like some sort of scheming viin?


    I mean, to be fair, Bryson was a scheming viin in the game, but still.


    "What are you talking about?"


    Jess shifted slightly, which I could distinctly feel because she was hugging me.


    "You attracted all of the nobles'' attention at the banquet, dance, and spar. It sounds like you are trying to do something big. Why don''t you let me help you?"


    I couldn''t help but chuckle.


    "I understand where you areing from, but you''re overthinking it. First off, I didn''t actually want the whole meat thing to blow up, but Raisa''s father just began shouting, and of course, everyone else took notice of it. As for the dance, Raisa begged me to stay and dance with her for her reputation, so I did."


    A sigh came out of my mouth.


    "But she had no idea how to dance, so I decided to do something a little weird to get her out of it. And for the spar, you already know that Dous was the one that forced me to go up. I was entirely willing to just let you take that on."


    Jess fell silent once more, pondering over what I said for a decent amount of time.


    "When you say it like that, it does make a lot of sense."


    She then nuzzled her head against my neck.


    "Still, just let me know if you need my help, ok?"


    I slowly nodded.


    "I will."


    From there, we didn''t say anything more. I was instead just forced to slowly untense myself until eventually, my eyes slowly closed and I fell asleep.


    ...


    I found myself in a dream once more, and with that being the case, I instantly knew why.


    A familiar pink figure had manifested in front of me. His arms were crossed and a defeated frown was on his face.


    "Hey, sorry to bother you while you''re sleeping, but could you please just tell me the answer?"


    He put one hand on his forehead in frustration and sucked in a cold breath.


    "No matter how I think about it, with every angle I can think of, I really just don''t know!"


    I rubbed my chin.


    ...Should I really tell him?

 Chapter 45: An ’Answer’

    <h4>Chapter 45: An ''Answer''</h4>


    I rubbed my chin in interest.


    At this point, the pink figure looked extremely defeated, dying to know the answer to a question I honestly don''t even remember. I think it was something about power?


    Or was it about his mom?


    Well, either way, I didn''t really know what to tell him because I kinda forgot. But saying that I forgot would make me look like an airhead. So with that in mind, I decided to bullshit my way out of the situation.


    "Of course, I could always tell you the answer."


    The pink figure nodded vigorously with his hands sped in front of him.


    "Please. I can''t take not knowing anymore."


    I proceeded to tap my chin a few times.


    "But you see, it''s moreplicated than that."


    The pink figure looked at me strangely. If he had an eyebrow, it would probably be raised.


    "Huh? You''re not trying to spin this into an insult, are you?"


    I waved my hand dismissively.


    "No, no. Why would you even think that? It''s not like I''m that kind of person."


    The pink figure visibly flinched despite being a mass of pink mist. He definitely seemed like he wanted to say something, but didn''t harp on it.


    "...Sure."


    I put my fist in front of my mouth and coughed, preparing myself to speak.


    "Unfortunately, just knowing that answer is not so simple as... knowing the answer."


    The pink figure looked at me like I was an idiot, but I continued nheless.


    "The most simplest way I could exin this is the phrase many people have heard in their lives, ''Never Give Up'', something you may have been told, or perhaps seen on some sort of poster."


    A small smile formed on my face.


    "But of course, it will never be such a simple thing. You can tell people that, and you can be told it. Yet, at the end of the day, it hardly changes anything. Maybe for one day, the person will feel impassioned to work harder, but that passion dies out incredibly quickly."


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "It may seem like the saying itself is wrong, because there is a mentality that someone somewhere was trying to express, but it is far tooplicated to be summed up in a mere few words."


    A shallow breath came out from my lips.


    "In the end, the true essence of ''Never Give Up'' was never about sess, but about failure. For practically everything in our lives, we will experience failure in some capacity. Even if you are somehow the best on your first try, it still doesn''t change the fact you could have been better. Some may argue differently, but that is still a failure in my eyes."


    I held out both my hands on either side like I was helpless.


    "More specifically, the time is talking about how failure shapes a person. It''s hard to understand how hard it truly is to continue trying after failing one time, especially when the mind is wired in a way that stops you from trying again because it is afraid of failure."


    My eyshes fluttered.


    "Sometimes just experiencing failure once is more than enough for a person to give up. Other times it will be several. But even if you are able to persist through those failures, you must also be able to resist in the face of criticism. People with the best of intentions will see those failures and tell you to stop."


    My head tilted to the side slightly.


    "The general culture may agree as well, also disagreeing with such a practice implicity. And where some may draw the line there, saying that you should keep on trying to prove all of them wrong, I don''t believe that still captures the truth."


    I paused for a moment.


    "Because sometimes, they are right. In fact, most of the time they are right."


    A bitter smile formed on my face.


    "And possibly the worst part is that you yourself may know that they''re right, and have always known. At this point, there''s practically no reason to continue on. Yet, you will see a few that continue on anyway. People that stubbornly march down their path, even when they can see the terrible end waiting for them."


    I took a deep breath.


    "Those kinds of people are irrefutably stupid, and they themselves know it. But they still press on like their life depends on it, when ironically enough it''s the opposite. And at the end, when they''ve put their soul into their work, almost all of them have nothing to show for it."


    A chuckle escaped me.


    "They end up dying, while the publicughs at them for their stupidity, and rightfully so. But at the same time, though infrequent, there are survivors. Survivors that stand while countless around them have fallen. Those are the people that have be unfathomable legends, that appears to have done the impossible itself. Because in a way, they have. They are people that should not have been able to exist."


    I proceeded to wave dismissively.


    "But no matter how many words I say, you won''t really understand it. To truly never give up, it''s to willingly be the idiot, go against your mind that desperately wants to protect you, and even against the world itself, which is strangely enough also trying to save you. All while fully knowing that the expected oue is that it will all end up pointless. That must''ve been what the first person to say such words had known."


    A smirk formed on my face as I crossed my arms.


    "That''s why I can''t just tell you the answer. Because no matter how long I take to exin, you will never really get it. I can use all the words in the world, but at the end of the day, you have toe to that understanding yourself. Anything else, no matter how close it is to understanding, will never be the same."


    Honestly, I felt like my logic was a little backward because you realistically couldn''t exin many things fully with just words alone. But the point of exnations in the first ce was for at least a vague idea or understanding, not something incredibly precise.


    Yet, against my worries, it seemed like talking as though I was an egotistical philosopher threw the figure off, as it genuinely pondered over my words. It held its chin between his thumb and index finger thinking so much.


    It appeared using big words and phrases, endlessly long and convoluted exnations, and an incredibly difficult message to understand had worked out.


    I guess English ss back on Earth wasn''t useless after all.


    Well, useless on Earth certainly, but if you transmigrate and so happen to find yourself in my situation, then not so useless.


    The figure ended up falling to his knees and holding onto both sides of his head with his hands.


    "I see now. You are right, unbelievably right."


    I was? Well, I wasn''t going to correct him.


    The figure let his hands drop to the ground powerlessly.


    "This is why they always say you can''t be taught enlightenment. I understand it now."


    From there, the figure looked up to the sky, or at least whatever was up in this weird white space.


    "Why... did it take me so long to find that out? By someone that hasn''t even lived a fraction of my lifespan too."


    Hm? But that''s like, not how fractions work. Even if you are like, a million years old there''s still a fraction. The only exception is if you are literally infinity years old, but that idea itself is a contradiction.


    Well, I guess it wasn''t hard to tell that this pink figure was an idiot already if he was fooled by that.


    The figure began muttering to himself.


    "If only..."


    Then he just cut himself off. From there he looked at me before getting down on his knees.


    "Can you please bring me around with you?"


    My eyelid twitched. Why would I want to do that?


    "That''s a bother, no."


    The figure continued to press me.


    "Please! I feel the only way I''ll ever be able to get the answers is if I follow along with you!"


    Without skipping a beat, I responded.


    "No."


    However, the pink figure was far more stubborn than expected.


    "Please! Please, I know you''ve already taught me so much and I''m grateful for that, but there is still so much of the world that I want to see!"


    ...If he does actuallye along with me though, he''ll just realize I''m a scammer.


    Seeing my silence, he only continued to beg further. Eventually, I let out a long drawn-out sigh.


    "You aren''t going to stop until I agree, huh?"


    The pink figure froze up.


    "...Well, not necessarily."


    I felt like I could already read his thoughts. He nned on asking me until I eventually died.


    "Fine. But you can''t be with me all the time."


    The pink figure nodded gratefully.


    "Understood! So long as it is for most of the day I can ept that."


    The dream promptly ended, making me wake up to see Jess looking at me with a smile. She looked slightly surprised to see me awake and brushed my hair with one hand while the other was wrapped around me..


    "Go back to sleep, ok?"


    I blinked a few times and decided to use the tiredness I felt to go back to sleep before I thought about it too much and began tensing up again.


    ...


    When I did eventually wake up, I felt a bit groggy. I tried to get up, but Jess immediately dragged me back down right after.


    "Stay a little bit longer... it''s not like you have to do anything today."


    She was right, as there was no school nor was there a ball. However, considering I couldn''t really be cking off with the ruin of the kingdom in the near future, days like these should be treasured.


    With that in mind, I let out a sigh and pried Jess''s arm off of me.


    "There is still business that needs to be attended to."


    Jess grumbled but didn''t stop me from getting up, after which she did the same. With a sigh, I straightened my clothes out and decided to go get the book, since it had spent the previous night crying to me like a little baby.


    After that, I began pondering over my options with the knowledge I had from the game. There was a part of me that wanted to call on Nathan to go on a little sneaky adventure to steal some core items, but he probably had his hands full dealing with the nobles that wanted the special meat and all that.


    He had already agreed with Edward on how they wanted to do business. Basically, they would only ept it if amoner willingly gave over one of their animals, after which they would charge for the draining.


    From there, the farmer would sell it then and there to a noble, all at the same ce.


    They did it this way because they didn''t want any nobles pulling any strings behind the scenes. Of course, that was still going to happen, but if most of the process was in front of them, it would at least limit their options.


    This way, the farmers would earn a bit more money, Nathan himself would get some money, since Edward declined taking a share, and the nobles would get good food for a rtively good price. Not to mention, Edward would get more powerful.


    Hopefully, we could earn a decent amount from the little shop that Nathan was doing, which would let us move around easierter.


    Thinking about it further, it was kinda embarrassing that Nathan had secured a source of ie first despite the fact he was amoner and I was a noble.


    Well, at least I can say I was a participant in helping.


    As I went about in the manor, I began skimming over details in the game. While walking down to the dining room, I suddenly stopped in ce.


    Ah, right. There was a ck market in this game too.

 Chapter 46: A Visitor

    <h4>Chapter 46: A Visitor</h4>


    I remembered there was a section of the game with a ck market. However, the only problem was that I had literally no idea where that ck market was. After all, the game was a visual novel dating game, not some sort of open world.


    As such, while I knew about its existence, I had literally no idea how to get to it.


    I bit my nail, wondering about it for a few moments. From what I recall, there were a decent amount of good items there, but the main protagonist would never have enough money to buy anything.


    But that didn''t mean he wasn''t able to get anything.


    There were certain items that could only be obtained by trading other items with simr value. From what I understood, those items were considered rtively high-end, so it wasn''t as though the protagonist was missing out on much.


    But we didn''t have any of those items to trade with yet as they weren''t avable. However, as a prince with a decent amount of gold saved up, I should be able to buy a decent amount of things.


    That would cut into the funds I needed to keep up with providing meals to themoners, but it shouldn''t be too big of a deal if Nathan starts earning rtively decent money as well.


    Hm... now would James let me go to a ck market?


    I imagined his face in my head, before shaking my head.


    The guy was stingy when he was rather against it even when talking about things like elixirs, which was a reasonable thing to buy. There was no way he would let me get one of those.


    Oh, and if you are wondering why I''m not buying the elixirs, I have no ns of getting any. Though difficult to get in the game, it was possible to get a decent amount of elixirs which would boost your growth in magic by quite a bit and even your physical strength by a little.


    Unfortunately, one of the setbacks you would findter in the game was that it got harder to improve your magic after reaching certain thresholds. After ying for a while, Nathan and I determined that elixirs were just baits that the developers put in to troll people harder with their shit game.


    But while we didn''t like them, they were really popr products among nobles, and it seemed that none of them realized the side effects. Probably because they were a little stupid or maybe the people selling them covered that fact up.


    While I had that train of thought, it ended up interrupted by a somewhat panicking maid that rushed up to me.


    "L-Lord Bryson! T-The daughter of the Darcy family is here to visit. We haven''t made any preparations for this visit, and she has requested your presence."


    I let out a sigh.


    "Now why is she here?"


    I went down to the entrance and greeted Raisa. She came with quite a few servants and guards following close behind her, though she paid them little mind as she ran over to me.


    "Hey! I got the thousand gold coins from the bet for you! I tried to make more bets after but nobody took me up on them."


    She held out a ck string-bound pouch to me, prompting me to blink a few times. Ah, right. That happened.


    "I thought we were splitting it in half?"


    Raisa tilted her head to the side before nodding.


    "Yeah, I bet one thousand gold coins, and for winning I got two thousand gold coins from them!"


    I raised an eyebrow.


    "Wow. Thanks, I guess."


    I took the pouch and immediately felt a hefty weight. It probably wouldn''t fit in my pocketfortably. Raisa then sped her hands together and looked off to the side slightly before asking me a question.


    "So... could Ie inside the manor?"


    I looked straight at her, but she didn''t meet my gaze directly. Did this girl really just use the bet as an excuse toe over to my ce?


    I sucked in a long breath and put on the same expression I saw James have most of the time.


    "Apologies, but the manor is currently not prepared to receive an esteemed guest such as you."


    Raisa let out a small gasp.


    "B-But you said that there''s no need for preparations if it''s just friends, right? So there''s no need to be prepared!"


    I waved my hand dismissively as I recalled the panicked maid.


    "The servants would be too ufortable receiving someone of your status in the ce. If you do visit the manor, the servants will all be iparably stressed. You wouldn''t be so cruel as to put them under such stress, would you?"


    Raisa panicked after hearing that.


    "Then... then what if you came with me?"


    I shot her a nk look.


    "To where?"


    Raisa shifted around and stammered several times.


    "Um, er, wherever you want to go!"


    ...Hm.


    Well, I did want to go to the ck market, but would she really be ok with that? After a bit of thought, I decided to try anyway.


    After leaning in, I whispered to her.


    "Then what about the ck market?"


    Raisa jumped up, looking quite flustered.


    "Ah, t-there? Why would you want to go there?"


    From the sounds of things, she was familiar with the ce.


    "Nothing much, I''m just a little curious about what''s there."


    Raisa promptly shook her head as a small smile formed on her face.


    "No, we really shouldn''t. That ce is dangerous!"


    Hm. It sounded like she also knew how to get there.


    "I understand. Then can''t you protect me?"


    Usually, it was the man that was supposed to protect the woman, but frankly, I didn''t care much for gender conventions.


    Raisa seemed rather stunned by that question. From what I could tell, she almost immediately replied with yes but stopped herself. She hesitated for quite a while before raising a hand.


    "Ah, yes! If I bring my personal bodyguard, then there shouldn''t be any problems!"


    Well, that sounded reliable enough.


    "Ah, so we''re going then?"


    Raisa jumped like she was startled.


    "Eh? Oh, ok, sure!"


    She wanted to hurry off and go right then, but I stopped her. I put away roughly half the gold I had on me into my room and kept the other half on me. From there, I got the servants to bring over some ck cloth we weren''t using along with a bucket of animal blood.


    Apparently it wasn''t too hard to get because there were a decent amount of farms that operated under the Arden family''s jurisdiction.


    Raisa looked at me strangely when all of the items got here.


    "What is all this for?"


    I smirked and gave a casual wave.


    "This will be for our outfits."


    While she was still confused, I barbarically tore the cloth in two, messing it up pretty badly. From there, I wrapped it around my body before tearing parts away until it worked as a cloak.


    Afterward, I dipped my sword into the bucket of blood and flicked the blood onto the clothes themselves. Soon afterward, I rolled onto the ground for a bit before repeating the process a few times after.


    To finish things off, I brushed off the dirt and roughly cleaned it by dipping it into some water.


    Once it dried, I was left with a dirty cloak that had faint blood stains covering it.


    It wasn''t perfect, but I imagined these clothes would be good enough to get most people to avoid bothering us.


    As I held it up, Raisa looked at it with visible surprise.


    "Eh? Why would you need something like this for the ck market?"


    I looked back at her strangely.


    "It''s basically a bluff against people that may want to attack us."


    Raisa continued to look at me with confusion.


    "Um... but most people just show up without even bothering to hide what they look like."


    What the fuck?


    Wait, but I distinctly remember that the main character wore a full-on disguise to visit the ck market. Is it possible the main character was just secretly really edgy or something?


    I thought about it for a bit, but decided to put the dirty cloak on anyway.


    "Ah, whatever. It helps set the mood."


    Raisa looked at me for a good few moments before simrly getting on a simr cloak. I let out a cough as I turned to her.


    "Do you know where we can get masks?"


    Raisa tilted her head to the side.


    "You want to get masks as well?"


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "It fits the whole getup, alright? Plus it makes you feel like you''re being really secretive, which can also be cool."


    Raisa scratched her cheek, clearly not understanding where I wasing from but smiled anyway.


    "O-Ok!"


    She led me into the carriage, and we went off to a store that sold masks. After leaving the dirty cloak in the carriage, I went off to browse the options.


    All of the masks end up looking overly decorated, with jewels over them. In fact, many of them didn''t fully cover the face, with some that looked like glorified sses.


    However, I did see that the store owner, a middle-aged woman, was carving away at a piece of wood, and right now it had the shape of a mask with only the eye holes finished. I walked up and pointed at it.


    "Can I have that one?"


    The store owner almost jumped up in fright.


    "Ah! Oh, sorry this mask isn''t finished yet."


    I waved my hand dismissively.


    "That''s fine, could I have it anyway?"


    She looked at me hesitatingly.


    "I''m not too sure. Right now I''m taking the ce of the actual store owner... so I can''t make those decisions."


    Oh, so she''s not the store owner. I let out a chuckle and put an elbow down on the table.


    "Ohe on, don''t be like that. I''m sure that the owner wouldn''t mind getting a little extra change with him, now would he? It''s not like it will take that much work to carve another mask to be like that."


    The woman visibly hesitated but seemed to be convinced.


    "Then will you buy it for fifty silver?"


    So half of a gold coin, huh?


    "Do you have change for gold?"


    The woman looked back at me, a bit taken aback.


    "I don''t think we have enough silvers to work out the change right now."


    Huh.


    Raisa happily came over and put fifty silvers down.


    "Don''t worry, I got it!"


    I shed her a smile.


    "Thanks."


    After receiving my mask, Raisa also got her own which almost covered her whole face and was white in color. When we got back on the carriage, I began thinking of a few things that could go wrong.


    "Is it really ok for the carriage to go along with us there?"


    Raisa looked at me confused once more.


    "Um, I think it''s fine."


    Huh? Really?


    "Oh."


    A moment of silence lingered. To break it, I pointed at her.


    "Alright, we will have code names when we refer to each other."


    Raisa tilted her head to the side.


    "Ah, that sounds fun, sure!"


    I ignored how lightly she was taking things and decided toe up with names.


    "I will call you... Daughter of Chaos, and you can call me the Prince of Despair."


    By the way, that was Bryson''s nickname after he had turned full-on evil.


    Raisa hummed in displeasure.


    "Eh? Why is mine daughter? What if... we did Princess of Chaos?"


    I waved my hand.


    "Sure, whatever. Just refer to me as Despair and I will refer to you as Chaos."


    With that, we were on our way to said ck market.

 Chapter 47: Not What I Asked For

    <h4>Chapter 47: Not What I Asked For</h4>


    To be honest, my nerves felt a little tense as I made my way to the ck market. From what I remembered of the game, while there weren''t too many plot points connected back to it, however, there was definitely a lot of danger.


    While we were making our way there, I noticed that Raisa was looking at me strangely. She obviously had something she wanted to say but didn''t mention it. Since I didn''t really care, I didn''t bother asking her.


    However, she did end up eventually voicing out her worries.


    "Bryson, did you love someone before?"


    I leaned forth, putting my elbow into my leg before holding up my chin lethargically.


    "No, I don''t think so."


    Was this a manifestation of her puppy love? Well, I guess I could just deal with it.


    Raisa looked off to the side while pressing the tips of her fingers together. She nced at me a few more times before continuing.


    "But then why did you sing that song?"


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "I don''t know, I just did."


    Raisa turned to look at me with a soft gaze.


    "But I really did feel the emotion from that song. You must''ve loved someone if you felt that strongly."


    Augh escaped me, one that went on for a little bit longer than what I was intending.


    "That was not a love song."


    Raisa looked at me strangely.


    "Eh? But what else could it be?"


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "I wonder..."


    Raisa clicked her tongue before puffing up her cheeks. It seemed she was dissatisfied with my answer but didn''t press me any further.


    Eventually, we did end up making it to the ck market.


    Though, when I stepped off it looked nothing like I expected. As Raisa said, it seemedpletely unnecessary for us to be wearing disguises, because quite literally nobody here was. Instead, the vendors were all set up in a shady area sure, but none of them were covered.


    This felt incredibly strange to me because I distinctly remembered people would be wearing masks and cloaks. Maybe the ck market was still in its infancy right now?


    I walked around with Raisa and her personal bodyguard to explore what was offered there.


    To my surprise, the items were far more ordinary than what I expected out of a ck market.


    The majority of what was being sold were things like salt, spices, and different kinds of jewelry. It almost felt like I was just walking around a street that had several stalls set up. Among the people shopping, I noticed a few nobles here and there going about without the slightest concern about their identity.


    I muttered my thoughts.


    "This feels... rather ordinary."


    The personal bodyguard, who was d in steel armor from head to toe spoke to me. Apparently, she was a woman.


    "The grand majority of the goods found here were obtained through smuggling. There are also those that wish to avoid taxes when selling that show up here. A very small percentage contain those that obtained goods illegally and are too afraid to sell it publicly, lest the real owner shows up or they are found out."


    I tried to scratch the side of my cheek and ended up only scratching the wood.


    "Oh... that makes sense."


    After giving all of the vendors a quick browse, I realized that none of the shops that appeared in the game were here. My first instinct was to believe that they woulde alongter, but then I recalled some details about those stalls.


    The sprites for them were rather old. In fact, it was incredibly random, but I remembered that there were weeds that grew onto the bottom of the stands.


    Connecting the dots, I realized what that meant.


    There was another ck market, that was the actual ce I wanted to go to. The real ck market.


    Not that this wasn''t one, since ck markets were all ces that dealt with illegal goods and the like, but you get what I mean.


    While absentmindedly wandering around the ce, I suddenly realized an item that looked oddly familiar. Though my pupils wandered, I kept my face straight. From there, I pretended to just curiously nce at the vendor and browse through the items.


    There were various strange trinkets that mostly just looked like junk. However, there was one thing I recognized among the pile, off to the side, almost falling off the table.


    A mask.


    It was a rough wooden mask that had been painted white. On top of it was an exaggerated frown messily painted on top with blue paint. As for the eyes, they were also crudely outlined with blue paint.


    There were chips in the edges, while the blue paint itself was rather sloppy, but it came together to make a strange creepy charm.


    It was the same mask that I remember seeing Bryson use before.


    From what I recalled, he had suddenly learned how to vanish from thin air at the same time he had acquired the mask. It could''ve been aplete coincidence, and he just learned some sort of magic at the time.


    But... what if that wasn''t the case?


    A mask as powerful as that would probably be very expensive. Still, I was going to try and purchase it.


    I casually picked it up and looked it over, then looked at the vendor who was a middle-aged man.


    "Does this have any special properties?"


    The middle-aged man''s lip twitched. When he looked at me, it looked like he was on the verge of saying something, but stopped himself. Shortly after, he awkwardly stammered.


    "N-No, sir. It is just a mask."


    He seemed afraid. I guess under normal circumstances he would''ve made a special story to scam someone, but my outfit was a little too intimidating for that.


    I proceeded to ask him with confusion.


    "Hah? Then why are you even selling this?"


    The middle-aged man smiled bitterly.


    "Perhaps someone would take a fancy to it. You can have it now for one gold piece."


    I looked back at him and tilted my head to the side, knowing he wouldn''t be able to see my expression because of the wooden mask.


    "Why would I pay that much for a piece of trash?"


    The middle-aged man let out a nervousugh.


    "Then what about one hundred silver?"


    ...Seriously? You can''t just convert one gold coin into silver and then pretend that it was actually less!


    "Are you making fun of me?"


    He trembled.


    "T-Then fifty silver!"


    I rubbed my chin in thought as I looked at the mask.


    "Tsk... it''s a terrible deal, but I suppose buying trash once in a while isn''t a big deal. Fine, I''ll take you up on that offer."


    Raisa stepped up when she heard that.


    "I''ll pay for it then."


    She set down fifty silvers on the table, after which the middle-aged man nodded respectfully, but still took all the coins quickly like he was afraid someone would take them.


    I nced over at Raisa and handed her a gold coin.


    "Thanks for covering me, have this."


    Raisa proceeded to wave her hands with a bit of exasperation.


    "There''s no need, really!"


    I shrugged my shoulders casually.


    "Well, you covered me before too, right? This is basically payback."


    Raisa stammered awkwardly.


    "Eh? Is this... part of being friends?"


    I mean... she did spend a total of one hundred silver. Why was she making a big deal about this?


    "I guess you could see it that way if you wanted."


    She let out a giggle before holding out both of her hands.


    "Then I''ll take it!"


    My eyebrow twitched as I dropped that gold coin in her hand, wondering why she was acting strange. Still, I didn''t harp too much on it. I was about to leave, without another care in the world, but suddenly stopped in ce.


    While I picked up the mask, I noticed a tiny symbol that was almost covered by the various junk and trinkets engraved into the table.


    A sword, piercing through an open book. The tip of the de was pointing downwards, just like what the book had told me. While my gaze was lingering on that part of the desk, the middle-aged man''s eyes also opened a tad bit wider.


    "Is there perhaps... an item here you are familiar with?"


    Was this guy hinting at me?


    Ah, shit. Did I actually unintentionally find out someone that knew about this Dark Arts cult? Or was there actually some other way to enter or something like that? I kinda wanted to take the book out and ask him, since he should probably know about this kind of thing.


    I definitely wanted to at least investigate this cult as it was never explicitly mentioned in the main game.


    However, this was an inappropriate time.


    "There is a familiar item, but I am not interested in purchasing it at this very moment."


    The middle-aged man nodded.


    "Ah, of course. The item should be here most of the time, but in my opinion, the value of it soars when the sun isn''t too high in the sky."


    Huh. So basicallye here when it''s night is what you''re saying. I just gave a nod before moving on.


    Raisa followed behind me and tilted her head to the side in curiosity


    "What was the familiar item?"


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "Nothing important."


    After we walked on for a little while, Raisa''s bodyguard spoke to me.


    "You are familiar with the ck market, Sir Bryson?"


    I looked at her strangely.


    "If I was familiar, then I wouldn''t have asked to be taken there in the first ce."


    She promptly gave me a small bow.


    "My apologies."


    Raisa pressed her lips together and waved toward her bodyguard.


    "Just ignore her, she''s just a little nosy."


    I didn''t say anything after that. We continued on for a little while longer. Raisa''s attention was sometimes caught by some jewelry, like brooches and pendants. However, she lost interest quickly, while I myself didn''t care about them.


    We then went back to the carriage. As I got back on, I let out a sigh.


    "I imagined that the ck market would be far more different than this."


    Raisa''s bodyguard called out to me shortly after I said that.


    "Why do you say that? Where we were perfect fits the ssification of a ck market."


    ...Maybe I shouldn''t haveined.


    "Ah, I just heard some stories about it, and this is nothing like that. Maybe if I go to a different ck market, then it''ll be different."


    Raisa let out a hum of dissatisfaction.


    "Like I said before Bryson, you can just ig-"


    "Sir Bryson, I highly rmend that you do not delve any further than you already have."


    I turned to look at her skeptically.


    "Why do you say that?"


    Raisa looked quite angry that her bodyguard was still interrupting and made it rather obvious from the way she red. However, her bodyguard paid no heed to that.


    "I am only telling you this because of the goodwill you have shown to the Daughter of the Darcy Family. That ce is far too dangerous. Even if I were to apany you, I am unsure if I can protect you."


    Yeah, I definitely believed that. But of all the dangers in the future, the ones in the ck market couldn''t bepared.


    I let out a sigh.


    "I understand. Perhaps you could tell me where it is so that I may avoid it in the future?"

 Chapter 48: Innocent Little Bunny

    <h4>Chapter 48: Innocent Little Bunny</h4>


    I could only vaguely see the eyes of Raisa''s bodyguard through her helmet, but they were definitely ring at me.


    "You are treating this matter far too trivially! Your status may protect you while in public, but not even being the daughter of the archduke is enough to protect you from everything in the ck market. Countless desperate and ignorant people are there."


    I raised both hands in the air.


    "Alright, alright. It sounds like you''re quite experienced in it though."


    She didn''t respond.


    Raisa just ushered me onto the carriage and shooed her bodyguard away before closing the door, leaving just the two of us.


    "She''s always super naggy like that, try to not let it get to you."


    I dismissively nodded.


    "Yeah, it''s fine. But I can''t help but wonder why she knows so much. It sounds as though she has gone there multiple times to purchase things."


    Raisa scratched her cheek with a finger.


    "Well, I never knew another ck market even existed. She never mentioned it to me before."


    I chuckled.


    "It sounds like that ce truly is dangerous."


    A small smile formed on her face.


    "Haha, yes. But... it does sound a bit exciting!"


    I rolled my eyes as a smirk spread out across my face.


    "You are treating it too trivially."


    Raisa gasped.


    "E-Eh? Why do you sound like her now?"


    I proceeded to ignore her and looked off to the side, instead inspecting the mask that I had bought. Honestly, holding it in my hand, I didn''t really feel anything special. After a moment of deliberation, I decided to try it on, hoping it wasn''t cursed or anything.


    But when I felt the cool wood press against my face, nothing of note happened.


    I felt a tad bit disappointed but didn''t give up just yet. Maybe there was some way to activate a mechanism that I didn''t yet understand. This was a world of magic after all.


    I gave Raisa a nce.


    "Say, how do I look?"


    A small frown formed on her face.


    "Um... I don''t really like how it looks."


    I rubbed my chin and nodded.


    "As I thought, it does look pretty bad."


    Raisa seemed nervous after saying her opinion but was surprised to hear that I had a simr one.


    "Then why did you purchase it?"


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "For some reason, I felt a calling to it like it was fit for me."


    Raisa furrowed her brows and pressed her lips together.


    "But how does it fit you? That mask basically contradicts you entirely!"


    Augh escaped me.


    "I suppose that''s not exactly wrong..."


    Silence fell between us for a few moments. Eventually, Raisa let out an ufortable hum and spoke up.


    "Could you take that mask off?"


    Huh? But I was nning on seeing if I could somehow find some mechanism behind it, in light of it not actually just being a normal mask.


    "Why?"


    Raisa pouted and looked down at the floor of the carriage.


    "It... makes me feel lonely. I want to see your face."


    My eyelid twitched. This girl was really just too strange.


    "Huh? Why does it matter that you can see my face?"


    Raisa held onto her cheeks with both hands.


    "I... I don''t know why! I just really want to see your expressions and eyes."


    With a sigh, I took off the mask, though reluctant.


    "There, is that better?"


    Raisa smiled brightly.


    "Yes! Way better!"


    A bitter smile formed on my face. She really was just a child that happened to also be eighteen, huh?


    "It''s really just that simple, huh?"


    Raisa blinked a few times and mumbled while looking at the floor of the carriage.


    "I... I guess so."


    She looked quite sad. Not like it was any of my business though.


    "Hey, Bryson?"


    Well, I guess if she verbalizes it all, then it bes my business.


    "Yeah, Raisa?"


    She walked over to sit next to me and gingerly grabbed my hand.


    "I''m really d that I got to know you."


    ...She''s acting like I saved her life or something. Hasn''t it only been a couple of days?


    "Haha, you''ve already gotten to know me in this short period of time?"


    Raisa let out a giggle.


    "I suppose putting it that way is incorrect, as there is still so much I don''t know. But there''s just... something so different about you."


    I rolled my eyes.


    "There are a lot of things that make me different from other people. Everyone is slightly different in height, there are several hair colors, facial structures-"


    "That''s not what I mean."


    Raisa cut me off and held onto my hand tighter.


    "It just feels so different with you. At first, I just approached you out of curiosity, but the way you talked to me just felt so... natural."


    The fuck was that supposed to mean?


    "I... see."


    Raisa brought my hand closer to herself.


    "If I talk with the other nobles, it makes me feel like my body is actually made out of ss, and could shatter from the lightest impact. Even if it is with my father or my bodyguard that I''ve trusted to protect me for years now, they still give me the same feeling."


    Her breathing got a little heavy. It seemed she was getting anxious, and maybe even on the verge of a panic attack.


    "I have to be incredibly careful. Every single step I take must be a cautious one, else I may slip and shatter."


    She then pressed her cheek against my hand, which made me shiver in disgust. But I didn''t pull away and let her continue on.


    "Yet, all of that seems to disappear when I''m with you. It feels as though... I''m just a normal human. One that has a beating heart and has breath in the chest."


    Huh.


    It was honestly a little vague at first, but I seemed to get at least a general understanding now.


    She was the daughter of an archduke. It was a regressing archduke, but it was still one nheless. This gave her one of the highest statuses among nobles, meaning she hardly had to bow to anyone.


    However, all the status in the world wouldn''t change the fact that she was still a person.


    A person can feel happy, sad. Have dreams, and desires.


    And usually, one of those wants was to just have a friend. It appears she has been desperately clinging to me because she noticed that I don''t particrly care for her status.


    I gently reached over to pat her head. A small smile formed on my face.


    "Haha. From what it sounds like, you haven''t had a friend for a long time. That''s probably why you feel like this."


    Raisa let out a gasp and smiled brightly.


    "So that''s what it was? Wow, being friends is amazing! I feel so happy!"


    Oh, Raisa...


    You just want to make genuine friendships. That makes you just like a little kid, doesn''t it?


    So innocent, so naive. It makes you quite cute, I must say.


    But you''re not a kid anymore.


    In fact, you are already too old now to make true friendships in this type of society. At this age, friendships are closely tied to interests and power. Not to mention, they can be brutally cut off at any moment.


    I mean, just the friendship I have with you right now is mostly because of my own interest in investigating your family.


    But still, that doesn''t mean I won''t y into your little fantasy of a perfectly innocent friendship.


    After all, it will make you that much easier to manipte.


    "B-Bryson?"


    I blinked a few times.


    "Ah, sorry, I zoned out a little bit."


    Raisa looked at me with a slightly spooked expression.


    "F-For some reason you looked a little scary."


    I scratched the back of my head awkwardly.


    "Haha, sorry, I just zoned out a little bit."


    Hm.


    I have to reel in my thoughts a little bit more, don''t I?


    Let''s just tuck that part of me away for now.


    "Anyway, is there anything you''ve been thinking of doing?"


    Raisa shook off her previous worries a few secondster before shaking her head.


    "Um, nothing really. I just wanted to see you."


    I gave a nod.


    "Is that so? I can apany you for a little while longer. When eveninges, I have to go somewhere."


    Raisa looked at me curiously, with big beady eyes.


    "Where are you going?"


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "To the slums."


    She leaned in a little closer.


    "Why are you going there?"


    Damn. I would''ve just said it from the start if she was going to keep asking like that.


    "I''ve decided to go to the slums and cook meals for those there when I can."


    Raisa''s eyes widened as an excited expression formed on her face.


    "Ah! That sounds so charitable! But I guess that''s expected from someone with a kind heart like you. You must''ve helped out so many people."


    A bitter smile formed on my face.


    "Unfortunately, it''s been a resounding failure. Despite my intentions, the people that came to the table and ate could be counted on one hand."


    Raisa looked at me with concern.


    "Ah, how can that be? Did something go wrong with the supply of food you had?"


    I shook my head.


    "Nothing like that. It''s more so themoners are far too scared to take a seat. Apparently, I am quite intimidating to them."


    Raisa tugged on my arm as her jaw dropped.


    "Ehhhhh? There''s absolutely no way that''s the case! How could you be scary?"


    I clicked my tongue as I shot her a nce.


    "Do you not remember how you looked at me when we first saw each other?"


    The corner of Raisa''s lip twitch.


    "Ah... I-I knew that you were a nice person from the start!"


    I massaged my temple with the tip of my finger.


    "You looked at me with disdain. Your mentality was the exact same, was it not?"


    Raisa fumbled over her words.


    "Ah, but... but... I..."


    She eventually hugged my arm like it was a stuffed doll she owned.


    "I''m sorry! I''m really sorry."


    Honestly, the fact she was holding onto my arm like that was annoying me more.


    "It''s fine, it''s fine. That''s just how people naturally are."


    Raisa looked down with a sad expression.


    "But... isn''t that just too sad?"


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "I said it was a natural thing, not that it was good."


    She leaned against me, using my shoulder as a pillow.


    "Could Ie along with you to feed themoners?"


    My muscles tensed up considerably.


    "What? So you can scare them away along with me?"


    Raisa didn''t respond immediately. But when she did, it was awfully quiet.


    "I just... want to be around you a little longer."


    To be honest, that might actually be rather convenient. Given the incident at the ball yesterday, there were probably going to be a lot of nobles loitering around the slums in an attempt to get some of the special meat that they were going crazy over.


    Having Raisa there would make things a lot nicer since she was the descendent of an archduke, thus not many would want to mess with her, and by proxy not approach me.


    "Sure, why not?"

 Chapter 49: Some Tension

    <h4>Chapter 49: Some Tension</h4>


    While I had agreed to let Raisae along, there was still some time before that would happen. I began to wonder what I could do in between to kill the time, but Raisa suddenly spoke to me.


    "Are you casting a spell right now?"


    I looked at her strangely.


    "Huh? No?"


    She looked back at me somewhat bewildered.


    "...Then why is the mana in your body moving so much?"


    I scratched the side of my head.


    "I''m meditating."


    Raisa gawked at me, like she saw a dinosaur in the zoo.


    "What? How are you doing that?"


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "Honestly, I''m not all that sure. I just kinda did it because it somehow started working."


    Raisa furrowed her brows.


    "You... just skipped so many steps."


    It was my turn to look at her with confusion.


    "What are you talking about?"


    Raisa took a deep breath, bing far more serious than she had been.


    "Ordinarily, it is incredibly difficult to manipte the mana within our bodies while thinking of something else at the same time. We have to meditate so much that mana maniption eventually bes second nature so that we can cast spells. The more second nature it is for us, the easier it is to cast spells that are more demanding on our mana maniption."


    She tilted her head to the side.


    "Um, but if you can already manipte it while doing whatever, then you''ve skipped all those steps. That means you can basically just cast any spell you want. Usually, only some of the greatest mages are able to move their mana at the same time as doing ordinary tasks."


    Raisa muttered thest part.


    "It''s difficult even to walk. In fact, most new mages hold their breath while casting."


    Huh. The way she said it made me sound extremely overpowered.


    But she was definitely exaggerating it to quite an extent. It wasn''t as simple as knowing how to manipte mana perfectly just because I could do multiple things while holding mana.


    Raisa helped me realize that I did start with a huge advantage out of basically nowhere, or at least from a ce I didn''t know yet.


    However, while I had an easier time focusing on multiple thingspared to other people, that didn''t change the fact that I was still unfamiliar with my own mana.


    "You are exaggerating it. I still had a decent amount of trouble casting the fireball. While I was faster, it wasn''t by too much."


    Raisa promptly shook her head.


    "But this means you''ll be able to learn stronger magic at an exponentially faster rate than others! The difference is not much now, but it very quickly will stack up."


    A bitter smile formed on my face.


    "You seem to be forgetting that my magical talent is basically average in our school."


    After hearing that, she froze in ce, without anything more to say back to me. She seemed to finally remember, no matter how good you were at manipting magic, everyone had a limit.


    There were ways to increase those limits, but they were incredibly difficult and unreliablepared to most stories and games. Under normal circumstances, there are bottlenecks that people ovee.


    But in this shitty game, the only reliable way was elixirs that didn''t really work, and the ways that actually worked generally involved extreme risk, such as nearly disassembling yourself in whatever a mana volcano was supposed to be. Most of these permanent methods were not known to the grand majority of people simply because of how crazy they were.


    They weren''t too important for the main character since his limit was already fairly high. It wasn''t that increasing his cap didn''t make him substantially more powerful. In fact, it was a very big power-up.


    However, there was quite a bit you could get away with just the base magical talent you were given.


    Of course, that wasn''t the same for me, but increasing my mana cap wasn''t the highest of priorities right now.


    "Well, at least it''s good to know that I won''t have to try too hard to manipterge amounts of mana at once."


    Raisa smiled somewhat sadly.


    "...Haha, I guess that''s the burden we have of being born as people with lower magical aptitude."


    Hm. I guess we could be simr in that nature, huh? Never really thought about it like that though.


    I focused on meditating a little bit more, and it was at this point I could vaguely sense the mana in Raisa''s body.


    I don''t really remember people ever talking about stuff like this.


    Exploring my sudden urge of curiosity, I tried to move the mana in Raisa''s body. And to my surprise, I was just barely able to grasp it, like water running down my hand. As for Raisa, she let out an audible gasp and pulled away from me, making that sensation disappear.


    Raisa''s eyes widened as she leaned over to whisper to me.


    "D-Did you just do that?"


    I slowly nodded, wondering why she was being so silent about it. Raisa took a deep breath before once again whispering gently to me.


    "...Make sure you don''t openly show that. It''s not an application of mana I''ve ever heard about."


    I narrowed my eyes slightly and followed her hushed tone.


    "Is that a bad thing?"


    Raisa sucked in a cold breath, whispering right next to my ear, yet was still just barely audible to me.


    "If the Magician Association finds out, they will take you. They may do it in a respectful way, but nothing will change that it is essentially a kidnapping."


    I slowly nodded.


    "I understand."


    The Magician Association. Basically the pieces of shit among the mages. I probably should''ve seen thising. If I were to describe them, they are basically just a bunch of stereotypical mad scientists but instead of science, it was magic.


    I slowly leaned over to Raisa and whispered back to her.


    "Do you mind if I practice this on you?"


    She looked at me for a few moments, hesitating slightly, but then gingerly nodded.


    "Ok."


    From there, I began trying to manipte the mana in her body once more. However, I quickly found it incredibly difficult.


    If I had topare, the difference was like the difficulty of just breathing normally and using your hand to fan air into your mouth to forcefully simte breathing. And manipting my own mana was definitely not as easy as breathing, so you could imagine that I wasn''t getting really far.


    This was probably substantially harder than dual-casting.


    Whenever I did briefly grasp onto Raisa''s mana, she seemed to instinctively withdraw and also attempt to regain her hold on the mana. Naturally, her ability to manipte it was stronger than mine, so I lost control immediately whenever she did that.


    It was definitely a little annoying, but it seemed as though she couldn''t really help doing it.


    In fact, I could tell she was trying to repress that instinct, but it was definitely not working.


    Eventually, the carriage stopped moving, and we ended up back at my ce. Naturally, I got off and Raisa followed me awkwardly. After a few awkward moments, we decided to spend the next moment just in my room, doing pretty much nothing.


    The servants panicked when she walked in, but Raisa ignored them all, making them feel rather awkward.


    Still, the chefs seemed to be panicking somewhat.


    One of them even came up to me and asked if I still had any of the special meat, but I didn''t. I would have to get some from Edwardter. This stressed out the chefs, but I didn''t really care too much about it.


    Upon making it to my room, Raisa spoke to me softly.


    "I... I think I''m understanding things about my own mana when you try to take control of it."


    I raised an eyebrow.


    "Eh? Really? You''re not just making it up so that I do this more, are you?"


    She promptly shook her head quickly.


    "No, it really isn''t like that! Before, I had to try to move my mana by myself, but when you try to take it away, my body automatically moves it in a really proficient way. If I can get used to moving mana just like that, it should make it far easier for me to move mana!"


    My eyes widened ever so slightly as I nodded a few times.


    "Then could you also try doing it on me?"


    Raisa flinched before smiling awkwardly.


    "U-Um, I''ll try my best."


    She ced a hand on my shoulder, but even as a few minutes passed, unfortunately, nothing happened. Her eyes were closed tightly and her brows were intensely furrowed.


    "I just can''t sense it."


    I let out a sigh.


    "Well, I guess it can''t be helped. I suppose it isn''t necessary."


    With that, I began trying my best to manipte the mana in Raisa''s fingers, which caused her to pull her hand away and wrestle back control over the mana. But soon after, she rxed and ced her hand back on.


    To be honest, from the outside perspective, it looked like I was willingly letting her touch me so she could get over some sort of trauma over touching people. Which all things considered, was very ironic.


    Regardless, I continued on.


    The progress was very little. Honestly, that was the same with just meditating normally, but at least after an hour, there was at least a feeling of progress, even if it wasn''t really visible. And after a day or two, there would be a noticeable difference.


    However, after an hour of silently doing this, I didn''t feel myself getting any better at this.


    I couldn''t help but ponder if there was even a point to doing all of this. On the surface, this looked like it could be an incredibly deadly technique. If I could control my opponent''s mana against their will, then not only would they be unable to cast spells on their behalf, but I could force them to cast spells that helped me.


    But that was simply far too unrealistic. The first reason being how hard it was to control other people''s magic. Of course, it was a skill that could be improved, but I didn''t have all the time in the world.


    I can''t just invest all my time into learning this type of maniption.


    On top of that, the body seemed to instinctively fight against this maniption. Even against a person that was absolutely terrible at using mana consciously, they would still be able to do it very practically subconsciously.


    If it was a person very skillful, it would probably be even harder to take control of their mana.


    Though doubts rose in my mind, I still continued to practice.


    Other than Raisa asionally letting out a sound of difort, and our shallow breathing, it was almost silent. My thoughts were few, naturally because it was hard to even think with most of my focus used up.


    But my mind wandered randomly as asionally thoughts popped up.


    They were quite random honestly, like if there was a ce to get a pet like a dog or cat. Not that I would ever get one, but I still wondered.


    Say, I was getting quite thirsty but was also toozy to pick myself up to get a drink.


    What happened to the real Bryson? Did he realize that his own consciousness was getting stolen before I entered? Was it the same thing that happened to Nathan?


    Hm.


    At some point, Raisa gently put a hand on my forehead.


    "Um, maybe we should stop here."


    I nced at her.


    "What''s wrong?"


    She smiled slightly.


    "Your head feels really hot. It''s like you have a fever."


    As my focus returned, I could actually feel the heat being emitted from my head. She was probably right, a fatigue was setting in that I didn''t realize before.


    "Ah, fair enough."


    The moment I got up and stepped out, a butler bowed to me.


    "The meal is prepared for the Lord and your Highness."


    From there, I scratched the side of my head awkwardly.


    "Ah, I see."


    Raisa pped her hands together and looked at me expectantly.


    "Oh! Do you have that specially prepared meat?"


    I shook my head with an awkward smile.


    "Uh, no. I have to get someter."


    Raisa pouted for a moment, but nodded understandably.


    "Ah, ok."


    We went down to sit at the dining table. Soon after we showed up, Jess also came. She gave Raisa a nce, remaining on her for a few moments before snapping to me. While Jess had a neutral frown on her face the entire time, it wasn''t hard to tell she was definitely thinking of something.


    I tried to just keep silent, but it didn''t seem like things would go my way.


    Raisa spoke up.


    "Is my presence disturbing you?"

 Chapter 50: Foundation of Trust

    <h4>Chapter 50: Foundation of Trust</h4>


    Jess maintained a calm expression despite Raisa''s questioning.


    "I am not disturbed by your presence, but I cannot say the same for your actions."


    Raisa frowned. She had suddenly changed from an innocent little girl to a cocky arrogant noble in a sh.


    "Oh? And what exactly about my actions are so offensive to you?"


    Jess couldn''t help but furrow her brows slightly.


    "...If you wish for me to be blunt about it, then I will. People like you only get close to others when they see benefits for themselves, often ruining the other person. I''ve seen it happen far too many times before!"


    Raisa clicked her tongue before smiling exaggeratedly.


    "Oh? That''s what you believe? And what exactly could I be so desperate to create a fake rtionship with Bryson? Is it really so strange to believe I just want to see him?"


    Jess promptly nodded.


    "Yes. Yes, it is. Do you think I don''t know what happened to the Baignard family? Suppressing the news may make people stop talking about it, but they do not forget."


    I narrowed my eyes slightly.


    "The Baignard family?"


    Though incredibly confident before, Raisa promptly panicked after hearing that. It looked like Jess wasn''t just distrusting her for no reason. Raisa grabbed onto my arm and gave me a strained smile.


    "Th-That isn''t what it seems like! I truly didn''t have a choice in the matter."


    ...Huh.


    Perhaps before she became the Daughter of Chaos, there were still some shady things going on.


    I gave a wave with my hand.


    "So, what exactly happened then?"


    Raisa tightened her grip around my arm.


    "P-Please, you really don''t have to hear it."


    I turned to her with a soft smile.


    "I promise I will listen to both sides of the story. If it truly wasn''t your fault, then you should have an exnation, right?"


    Raisa began losing her strength, faltering somewhat.


    "R-Really?"


    I promptly nodded.


    "Of course, given that you aren''t lying."


    She flinched but seemed to ept it. Jess took a deep breath before beginning her narration.


    "The Darcy family had contacted the Baignard family. As a Viscount, the Baignard family naturally responded in kind. It appeared as though they were getting along quite well, as they began cooperating in their businesses. Just a friendly rtionship."


    She then tilted her head to the side.


    "And all of it started because the daughter of the Darcy family had formed a connection with the heir of the Baignard family."


    Jess let out a sigh.


    "The Darcy family appeared rather generous, expanding these businesses greatly with their liquid funds. This allowed both families to prosper, and it appeared that the Baignard family would even promote rapidly with this kind of support."


    She narrowed her eyes hatefully at Raisa.


    "But then, at an outing with the daughter of the Darcy family and the heir of the Baignard family, only one person ended uping back. He was never found. Then shortly after, both the viscount and viscountess both disappeared as well."


    Raisa stood up with an indignant expression.


    "That wasn''t my fault! I never-"


    "Raisa, I will listen to you after she finishes speaking."


    I raised my hand and cut her off. Raisa was still breathing rather hard,


    Jess gingerly sat down with her arms crossed.


    "Then, the natural ownership of the businesses naturally went over to the Darcy family. And this isn''t a standalone urrence either. The Darcy family has a habit of cooperating with new and uing nobles, whether they be Barons or Viscounts before those families strangely disappear"


    She frowned harder.


    "But it looks like, for whatever reason, they seem to have gotten more greedy and ambitious. Perhaps they are desperate to drag others down with them in their fall."


    Jess practically spat thatst part, not hiding her disdain at all.


    Raisa mmed both hands on the table.


    "That''s not why! It''s not why at all!"


    Her face was spasming with uncontroble emotions. It appeared that she was about to break down right then and there. However, her shudders gradually began to fade, reced with a strange stillness.


    I waited for a moment before speaking.


    "You can exin what happened on your own end now."


    Raisa quietly sat back down in her own seat, and deliberately avoided looking at me.


    "When I met with the heir of the Baignard family, it was for the purpose of usurping their businesses. It was what my father had told me to do."


    Well, that wasn''t a very good start.


    Raisa seemed to realize how it sounded and quickly followed up.


    "But it was never supposed to end up like that! Just because we wanted to take their businesses didn''t mean we intended on killing them."


    Jess snapped, mming her hand against the table.


    "And how are you supposed to usurp all they have without killing?"


    Raisa leaned forth.


    "Because they were just supposed to be demoted tomoners!"


    Jess raised an eyebrow.


    "So you were not the first person to kill the heir of the family?"


    Raisa paused.


    She looked down at the table as though instead of a te with food on top, there was actually a deep and endless hole, in which she found herself trapped.


    "I wasn''t the one that asked to go on that outing. He made the suggestion to go hunting with him without our guardians. Since there were no dangerous animals within, I agreed."


    Raisa fell silent after that. Hearing how it went so far, I had an idea of where this was going. It seemed that Jess had a feeling as well, thus didn''t press her any further.


    It took her a decent while, but she did eventually speak up.


    "H-He tried t-to-"


    She slowly took in a breath.


    "Take my first time. He... pushed me down and didn''t listen to me saying no."


    Raisa looked down at the ground sheepishly.


    "So I... killed him just a little bit."


    The fuck? How do you kill someone just a little bit?


    Jess let out a sigh after hearing that.


    "Fine, I can overlook that. However, that does not change anything. In the end, you approached him with the intention of seizing everything they owned."


    Raisa frowned deeply.


    "But that wasn''t why I approached him at all! My father didn''t say anything about that."


    Jess leaned over, tilting her head to the side slightly, and spoke softly to Raisa.


    "And how are we supposed to believe that?"


    A bitter smile formed on my face.


    "As much as I want to defend you, Raisa, she is right. I have no grounds on which to truly trust you."


    Raisa looked at me with her mouth agape. Her eyes opened slightly as her face fell.


    "You... don''t trust me?"


    I leaned back in my chair and let out a soft sigh.


    "It''s not like I don''t want to believe you, but no matter what, there are going to be doubts. If you''ve had a previous reputation for doing things like this, then what will stop you from doing them now?"


    Raisa grabbed onto my arm with both hands and pulled.


    "Bryson! I''m really not doing it because of that, I swear! I just want to be friends."


    I waved my hand dismissively.


    "I''m not going to judge you based on your past or the rumors about you. Being friends is still more than fine, but you should understand that trust doesn''te that easily to people that have done things."


    Raisa slowly let go of me before giving me a slight bow in her seat.


    "What do I have to do to make you trust me?"


    I blinked a few times.


    Well, to be honest, I didn''t really know. It wasn''t as though I actually doubted her, but there was always that slight chance I was mistaken. Besides, more important than that, I feel as though Raisa''s father is definitely far from a good person. Chances are, if he feels the rtionship between the two of us is good enough, he will make her take action against me.


    I don''t know how obedient Raisa was to her father, which meant that I couldn''t be sure if she would choose following orders or our friendship.


    But maybe... I could make it so that she chose right now.


    "Trust is something that is built over a long time. But more importantly, over that long time, friends must never hide things from each other. Even if it''s an ufortable secret that may put you in a bad light, you should still share it with them."


    Raisa began squirming around quite a bit before eventually yelling.


    "Ok! I''ll tell you, I wet the bed when I was nine!"


    My eyelid twitched.


    "Er... more so secrets that are relevant to their rtionship. Those you can keep to yourself. Unless you want to share them, of course."


    Raisa stared back at me, hardly able to keep her lips from twitching.


    "...Oh. Could you forget that?"


    I blinked a few times.


    "It''s not like I can forget things at will. To be honest, reminding me is only going to make me remember harder. By the way, isn''t wetting the bed at nine like really ol-"


    "Stoppppp!"


    She grabbed onto both of my shoulders and began shaking me. I let out augh, while Raisa''s cheeks had be beet red. She eventually slowed down, before gingerly letting me go.


    I put a fist up to my mouth and cleared my throat.


    "Well, that''s enough talk about that. Our food is already cold by now, but... it''s still probably good enough."


    From there, while it was definitely awkward, the three of us finished up the lunch that was prepared for us amid the sounds of cking cutlery and res. The servants had already left the room a while ago, but I forgot when exactly they did.


    I got up and let out a small sigh.


    "It will take some time to get to the slums, so I suppose we can prepare to set off right now."


    Raisa jumped up out of her seat and bounced as she got closer to me.


    "Ah, I''m so excited!"


    Jess narrowed her eyes.


    "What is going on?"


    I looked at Jess before scratching the side of my head.


    "Ah, I was going to go out to the slums to hand out some food. Raisa wanted to join in so I let her."


    Jess''s eyes widened.


    "Eh? That''s what you''ve been doing all this time?"


    I tilted my head to the side.


    "Uh, yeah?"


    Jess promptly shook her head and pointed at Raisa.


    "But you can''t go with her!"


    Raisa bit her bottom lip and clenched her fists.


    "What? Why not?"


    Jess frowned and crossed her arms. She looked down for a moment before looking back at her.


    "Fine, but I''ll be joining in to watch."


    Raisa puffed up her cheeks.


    "What? I-"


    "That''s fine."


    I waved my hand without too much care. Raisa looked at me as though I had betrayed her.


    "Wait what? But I thought it was just going to be us!"


    I rolled my eyes.


    "Didn''t you remember? It''s supposed to be a ce where we hand out some stews. No matter what, anyone is allowed to sit down there."


    Raisa seemed to be somewhat dissatisfied, but if there was someone to me, she should me herself.


    With that, I got the servants to get ready, and the three of us then set off in a carriage to the slums.


    By the way, Raisa also had her servants follow us but refused her bodyguard''s request to sit in her own carriage.


    Oh well.


    I wonder how Nathan''s doing.

 Chapter 51: Familiar Face

    <h4>Chapter 51: Familiar Face</h4>


    Raisa tried to sit next to me in the carriage, but Jess forced her out and sat next to me instead. I didn''tment on the situation, since I didn''t really care.


    I just focused on meditating. Despite the fact there were people nearby, I still feltfortable enough to focus on learning how to dual cast. Of course, I wasn''t actually casting any spells, but rather moving mana into those ways.


    Time passed rather quickly.


    Before I knew it, the carriage had stopped and everyone set things up. Both Jess and Raisa looked around like lost children. It appeared the slums were not a ce that they were familiar with.


    It appeared quite new to them.


    Raisa furrowed her brows and wrinkled her nose.


    "Why does it smell so bad here?"


    Although Jess didn''t say anything, from her simrly tense expression, it appeared she had a simr opinion. I simply waved my hand dismissively.


    "This is just how this ce smells. You''ll get used to it."


    The servants quickly and methodically set up the tables and chairs before I even had a chance to help, so I just sat down. Though, while Raisa and Jess were arguing about the right to sit next to me, I heard someone else''s voice in the distance.


    "That is unbing of a noble! Back off right now!"


    It was a familiar voice, though I couldn''t remember who exactly it was. Curious, I ended up getting out of my seat and walking over to see what themotion was about. It did not take long for me to realize that there were quite a few nobles and butlers loitering around the ce.


    "Why are you defending thesemoners? You are simply the daughter of a Marquis, what can you do?"


    "I am not defending anyone! My only goal is to uphold the honor of nobles by preventing them from doing anything foolish!"


    It was hard to make her out, but through the crowd of nobles, I was able to see Charlotte, standing in front of an exasperated Nathan and a depressed-looking Edward. The crowd was so overwhelming, that it appeared ironically enough they weren''t able to get any business.


    Because even if some had brought animals, they wouldn''t have been able to be brought over to them.


    Charlotte was desperately trying to defend Nathan, but it didn''t seem as though it was working. It appeared that the nobles had figured out who was responsible for creating the specially processed meat because-


    "I can offer you a gold coin every day if you choose to work with only me!"


    "One gold coin? I can offer ten gold pieces every single day and a manor with all the servants you need for free!"


    "Hahaha, I can match whatever these people financially offer and also give you as many women as you want!"


    Edward simply had his head down. He was sitting on top of the counter of their stand because there were no other chairs. His legs hung listlessly, while there was only one hand on his knee.


    It was fairly clear that he couldn''t care less about any of the offers that the nobles were making. Honestly, I was kind of surprised he didn''t even seem slightly tempted. There was only a passive frown like it wasn''t actually nobles pestering him.


    Charlotte was dead set on defending Nathan, though there weren''t too many people focused on him in the first ce.


    This left Edwardpletely surrounded by nobles and butlers sent by their masters.


    With all of the bribes not working, someone that was standing back suddenly moved forth. A noble that was pushed aside frowned and looked back.


    "Hey, who do you think..."


    But froze up immediately when he saw who it was.


    Dous had made his move. Although the other nobles were clearly reluctant to give up this chance, they ended up moving out of the way, leaving only Dous. He walked up with a confident smirk.


    "Your name is Edward, I presume?"


    Edward took in a deep breath before responding unenthusiastically.


    "Yeah, I guess."


    Dous took several steps forward and gestured towards him.


    "My name is Dous, the first archduke of the Grace Kingdom. I am here to offer you a choice. You can choose to work with me and immediately gain status on the same level as a duke, or you will die."


    He extended a hand, expecting a handshake of sorts.


    Edward slowly turned his head to meet his gaze with Dous. This entire time, his expression had hardly even changed. Out of nowhere, he whipped out a knife. The nobles panicked, but Dous himself didn''t even flinch.


    I noticed that Edward was holding onto the de, and holding out the handle toward Dous. He lethargically ced it in Dous'' hand before grabbing onto Dous'' wrist, steadily bringing the de closer and closer to his own neck.


    When the tip punctured his throat, he spoke.


    "If you want to kill me, then just do it. I''m the only one that can do this special thing you care about, so at least I can die knowing you lose that."


    Talking caused the injuries in his neck to further worsen as it pressed against the knife, but his expression did not change.


    Dous continued to stare Edward down, searching for a trace of hesitance or a chance that he was bluffing. However, he couldn''t see anything. The nobles watched this scene speechlessly, with many contorting their faces, as though they couldn''t physicallyprehend how Edward was acting like that.


    And eventually, Dous lowered his hand. He tossed the knife down to the stand before letting out a scoff. With a smile, he turned to me, as though he had always known I was there.


    "I suppose you weren''t lying when you said he would be a hard person to convince."


    I shrugged my shoulders as a small smile formed on my face.


    "That''s just how it is. I am not one to lie for no reason."


    Dous looked at them for quite a while longer.


    "So how am I to purchase this meat then?"


    This time, Nathan stepped around Charlotte and spoke up.


    "We will wait for those willing to sell their animals to us. Afterwards, we will sell the prepared animal, as you all put it. Currently, we don''t have anything to sell because we''ve been unable to purchase any."


    Dous narrowed his eyes and looked back at Nathan.


    "You don''t suppose we could change the regtions just a tiny bit?"


    Nathan let out a sigh.


    "I''m afraid that this is how we''ve decided to do it. Apologies for any inconvenience."


    With that, Dous clicked his tongue before leaving.


    "Very well then."


    The nobles also began to disperse. But from the looks of things, they were going to be back. Though, Charlotte stayed. She had put both her hands on her hips and smiled proudly.


    "Hehe, all of them were scared off! Be grateful,moner, for you were in my presence."


    Nathan looked back at her like she was an idiot.


    "Why are you still here, huh? There are no nobles you have to prevent from disgracing."


    Charlotte got flustered.


    "What? I am simply here because I wish to be! Th-The only reason is that I want the special processed meat alright?"


    Nathan raised an eyebrow.


    "If that''s the case go negotiate with a farmer to try to get their pig off them like what all the others are doing. Then you''ll be able to purchase one."


    Charlotte froze up. She then swayed from side to side, showing some difort.


    "W-Well... I''ll do thatter! Besides, you should be thankful to me,moner! I... I defended you!"


    Nathan looked at her before letting out a long sigh. With a wry smile, he patted her head a few times.


    "I guess that''s fair enough. Thanks for that."


    Charlotte turned beet red while her entire body began trembling.


    "I-It wasn''t for you or anything, idiot!"


    Don''t you mean baka?


    She ended up running away. As for where I''m not too sure. But she would probably be fine. Nathan pointed at me with an angry expression.


    "Bitch! Didn''t you say you were only going to promote it to a few people? What the hell is this?"


    I held out my hands helplessly.


    "Ohe on, I''m just overperforming if anything. Besides, that was my intention, but the arrogance of some nobles makes the whole thing blow up far greater than it needs to be."


    Edward let out a sigh after he heard what I said.


    "Thankfully I wasn''t born a noble... my condolences, and thank you for setting it all up."


    I furrowed my brows slightly as I looked at him.


    "Shouldn''t you do something about the blood pouring down from your neck?"


    Edward looked back at me nkly for a moment before letting out a small gasp.


    "Ah, right."


    The blood covering his neck melded into his skin, while the wound itself disappeared.


    I rubbed my chin for a few moments.


    "By the way, could you save some of the meat for me next time too? I never really got to try it myself honestly."


    Nathan waved me away.


    "I was going to get you some anyway, just go do your own thing."


    I thought so.


    With a nod, I responded.


    "Alright, good luck to you."


    Both Jess and Raisa had already walked up behind me and watched everything go down. Raisa turned to me curiously.


    "Are you on good terms with them?"


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "I guess so."


    Jess red at Raisa.


    "Don''t think you can take advantage of their rtionship!"


    Raisa''s mood was ruined immediately as she puffed up her cheeks.


    "I wasn''t!"


    I walked around them to go back to the table. The servants seemed a little dazed from overhearing what had happened, but they were still able to focus on their respective jobs. Once I sat down, one of the servants immediately put a bowl down in front of me.


    At this point, I weed the uneventfulness that sitting at this table usually had.


    Raisa tried to sit next to me but was pulled up forcefully by Jess before she could. After some arguing, they eventually came to apromise. Jess ended up sitting next to me, while Raisa sat next to Jess, keeping me further away.


    I didn''t really get it, but I guess that wasn''t something I needed to care about.


    My eyesnded on Arianne, who was peeking out from behind a house, and upon noticing I was there came over as well. After a bit of hesitation, she sat next to me. Raisa immediately pointed at her with a bit of indignance.


    "Hey! Why are you sitting next to him? You have to be better friends first!"


    Arianne let out a gasp.


    "A-Ah! Do I?"


    Raisa quickly nodded.


    "You have to be truthful first! Only then will you be better friends!"


    Arianne seemed to be on the verge of tears. She held up her hands while her fingers trembled, almost like she was afraid of touching anything.


    "I... I''m really that untrustworthy? But I don''t even remember lying!"


    She awkwardly shifted out of the seat to move one space away from me. She bit the bottom of her lip and snuck nces at me, as though she would figure out how she had be a liar if she kept looking.


    A bitter smile formed on my face.


    At this rate, Arianne really was going to break down. After stuffing some soup into my mouth I shot a nce at her.


    "People will say many things about you. Sometimes they will be right, but sometimes they will be wrong."


    Arianne looked back at me with her eyes wide open. She stared at me for a good while, like she was trying to find the meaning behind my words. Not that there was any greater meaning.


    She slowly nodded.


    "O-Ok."


    Soon after, I heard someone else''s voice.


    "Ah, is this the ce I''ve heard about before?"


    I looked over, without caring too much.


    Yet, right after my face froze up.


    Because the person smiling across from me was Bernie, the guy that Nathan was supposed to get into contact with.

 Chapter 52: Discord

    <h4>Chapter 52: Discord</h4>


    A man took a seat across from me on the table. Realistically, he looked like any old middle-aged man, with brown hair and a beard. But there was one thing that I mustmend to whoever made this guy''s sprite.


    He had what seemed like a gentle smile on his face, but at the same time also felt fake to a certain extent.


    I honestly had no idea what about it made me feel this way. If you forced my hand to describe it, I would say that it made me feel weed, but also distant at the same time.


    Hm. Now that I say that, I realize it makes pretty much no sense. Well, at least it sounded better in my head.


    I think.


    Still, seeing this guy sitting across from me made me feel rather unprepared. It wasn''t as though I hadn''t been familiar with this guy. I had seen every dialogue option he had, after all.


    I gave a small bow.


    "Hello. A meal will be provided to you shortly."


    Bernie gave a quick nod back.


    "I thank you for that."


    The girls next to me took note of him but didn''t really care about him all that much. As for me, I didn''t speak to him more, but that was mostly because I wasn''t sure how to talk to him.


    The main reason being, Bernie had an extreme, and near irrational, hate for nobles.


    I never made a n to talk to him because I never expected to even have the opportunity to in the first ce. Instead, I just left it to Nathan to think and deal with. Now that the opportunity had strangely presented itself in front of me, it made me wonder whether or not it was worth acting on.


    Yet, no matter how I thought about it, being a noble meant it was highly likely for me to aggravate him. Of course, doing a good deed like the one I was doing right now gave me an advantage in talking to him.


    But as I said before, his hate for nobles was both extreme and nearly irrational.


    Honestly, I''d rather just not change his mood to give Nathan a better chance of talking to himter.


    "Which one of you set all of this up, may I ask?"


    But it seemed like it wasn''t going to work out too well, as Bernie seemed toe here with the objective of talking. I responded matter of factly.


    "I was the one that decided to do this."


    He let out a shortugh which didn''t have the intention of mocking but still had disdain behind it nheless.


    "Has your reputation fallen so far that you''ve found yourself resorting to this?"


    Almost immediately, the three girls that were sitting with me all looked at Bernie with both surprise and irritation. Raisa was quick to speak up.


    "How dare you say that! If he truly cared about his reputation, then he wouldn''t even be doing this! It would be more effective for him to curry favor among the nobles or forcefully suppress the rumors!"


    Bernie raised an eyebrow and turned his attention to Raisa.


    "Oh? You seem quite experienced in restoring a faulty reputation."


    Raisa visibly recoiled. Her mouth hung open as a few stammers came out, but she wasn''t able to formte any full words, much less a sentence.


    Another thing to note about Bernie was that he himself was actually a noble before. However, he decided to voluntarily relinquish his status as a noble and join themoners.


    As such, he knew quite a bit about the culture and general rules, which also gave him more grounds to judge nobles. Though, that didn''t mean he judged them that urately.


    The guards seemed a little antsy, but given that I didn''t order them to do anything, they didn''t do anything. Soon enough, a bowl was set down in front of him, with steaming pottage.


    He looked at it and scoffed right when it was set in front of him.


    "I must ask, is the food that I''m getting different from the food that you and the others are eating?"


    ...Is this guy dumb? Did it look any different?


    "I suppose strictly speaking, as it is pottage, different people may have somewhat different meals."


    He narrowed his eyes and peeked into my bowl.


    "I can''t help but notice the meat in yours while half empty is the same as the amount I was given. It appears that your servants are quite biased in their distribution."


    I rolled my eyes and took a deep breath.


    "You''re probably not going to believe me, but I always eat the meatst in my meal. We were given the same. Besides, even if it were different, does it actually present a significant difference?"


    Bernie shrugged his shoulders.


    "Perhaps not. But I guess making sure I know the distance between you and me is quite important, isn''t it?"


    Jess furrowed her brows.


    "If you are displeased by what my brother is doing, you are not obligated to participate. This is something he offered out of his own goodwill."


    Bernie let out a heartyugh, leaning back into his seat. Then, he mmed his hand against the desk, causing the bowl to shake and some of the contents to spill beforending on the table.


    "Oh, sorry! It appears I''m not allowed here. That sign you have there never said I had to follow your every single order and pretend to be dirt by the side of the road so how was I supposed to know?"


    Arianne put a hand above her heart and looked at Bernie with a gaze of disbelief.


    "How could you say things like that? Isn''t basic respect something to be expected when someone goes out of their way to perform a favor? Even if you don''t thank him, at least you could be grateful!"


    Bernie scoffed, but didn''t look at Arianne. Instead, he shot me a re.


    "I can''t believe you would even bribe amoner and force her to say good things about you. How screwed up can you be? Look, she won''t even sit next to you because she''s that afraid!"


    I couldn''t help but feel a sense of estrangement. Like I was losing bnce as a shift went in my head.


    In the shitty dating game, Bernie was nothing like this when he talked to the main character. Far from being rude, he was very amicable and open to talking. Although he would basically always remain very distant, that fact remained.


    Yet, right now, he was going out of his way to provoke me. His opinion of me had already been set before he had even taken a seat at this table, and he had no ns of changing it. A bubbling feeling of disdain gradually rose up in me.


    I oncemended this person for indirectly saving Minori, but now I couldn''t really do so anymore.


    A frown formed on my face.


    "Do not spill the food on the table."


    I said this because his hitting the table made him waste his own food. It wasn''t that big of a deal, but this still pissed me off a little. On the other hand, Bernie didn''t seem to care about my warning at all.


    He began smiling extremely cockily like he was better than every other person in the world.


    "Oh? Don''t spill it on the table? I see then."


    Bernie picked up the bowl as he was talking before throwing it at me, sttering steaming hot soup and food all over me and my clothes. I could feel a chunk of meat in my hair, the still hot contents burning my skin.


    However, the hatred in me was burning far greater.


    I realized now why I felt a sense of bubbling disdain.


    The girls sitting with me along with the servants were all terribly surprised by what happened and looked at Bernie with anger. The person in question still had a smile on his face, clearly proud of what he had done.


    Several of the guards immediately unsheathed their swords with the intention to seize him. But when I saw them take the first step forward, I raised my hand up into the air, prompting them to stop.


    Then, I looked Bernie dead in the eye.


    "Leave. Your kind is not wee to sit at this table."


    Bernie stood up without another thought.


    "Hah, that''s it? Not going to send your guards to bring you my head? Huh? And what''s supposed to stop me froming back? You will simply enforce your power to send me out?"


    I narrowed my eyes, ring at him with genuine disdain.


    "I will not permit you to be here if you do not apologize. Should you attempt toe anyway, you will not be served any food."


    Bernie belted over inughter, throwing aside the chair that he was sitting on.


    "Like I would ever need toe to this shitty ce! Have you ever thought there''s a reason why so many seats are empty despite the fact you are offering free food?"


    Spittle was flying from his mouth as he spoke.


    "That''s because they all know that you''re just putting on a pretense to improve your status! I''d rather die than apologize to someone like you!"


    I took a deep breath, and without changing my expression, I spoke.


    "I never said to apologize to me."


    Bernie raised an eyebrow.


    "Oh? So do I apologize to your feet?"


    I spoke in a t tone, almost like I had be a robot.


    "Apologize to the cooks that took the time to proportion the ingredients so that the meal tasted fine.


    Apologize to farmers that drove away pests from their crops so that that food could be in front of you now.


    And apologize to the maid that set up the chairs with a smile on her face, hoping that someone in need would sit down upon it and have a warm meal."


    I heard one of the maids behind me gasp. She probably felt embarrassed getting directly called out like that. The three girls all stared at me in shock.


    As for Bernie, the smile had disappeared from his face. However, the disdainful look in his eyes remained. He scoffed.


    "What does a noble like you even know? How dare you even pretend to understand others."


    Yes, the reason that I disdained him so much...


    "You think you''re a step higher than the aristocracy because you voluntarily abandoned it? While you hate nobles for what they are, you still haven''t done anything to correct the very habits that make them hateful. You are wasteful of food, speak as though you are above everyone around you, and forget to even consider that someone might be more than theirbel, whether it bemoner or noble."


    I casually brought a spoonful of soup to my mouth and drank it. Then, I added onestment.


    "You''re a hypocrite. Someone that can''t even follow his own values."


    Bernie stared at me silently for a good bit of time.


    "You use so many flowery words, but at the end of the day, you''re just a noble that feeds off those working under you. Treating them as your ves."


    I drank another spoonful of soup and responded after taking note of the taste.


    "And you pretend to be above nobles despite being no better than them yourself."


    Bernie narrowed his eyes before turning around to leave.


    "Che! Arrogant as always, just assuming you know who I am."


    Well, I may not know entirely, but I still had a good idea.


    Bernie was a noble that didn''t have high magic power, but was very creative and was able to create spells, giving him a high status despite being a lower noble and being overall fairly weak.


    One of those spells was one that could better preserve food that was widely used among nobles. However, the archdukes decided to ban that spell among themoners. It made him feel rather sad, but what was the kicker was that themoners that did end up using the spell so that they could survive winter were killed.


    From there, he decided to shed his noble identity. But other than doing that, he no longer did anything to help themoners.


    In the game, you were supposed to convince him to ovee his trauma and once again create a new spell that would modify the soil making the crops grow abundantly faster andrger.


    Of course, if he did make that spell now, I wouldn''t even have to be doing this.


    But now, I refuse to rely on a person like that.


    When confronted with an obstacle, the first thing that guy does is run away and thinks he''s doing the right thing.


    Someone that pathetic will always be useless when it matters most.


    He wasn''t worth making an ally.


    Sorry, Nathan. I messed up the n again.

 Chapter 53: I’m Fine. Like, Seriously. Please Stop Ask-

    <h4>Chapter 53: I''m Fine. Like, Seriously. Please Stop Ask-</h4>


    After Bernie had left, a short silence hung over the table. I looked at my hand which had been scalded by the steaming water. It almost made it seem as though it was shining bright red.


    A maid had hurried over and wiped me down with a handkerchief.


    "O-Oh dear..."


    I closed my eyes as she hurriedly rubbed against my face, wanting to rush it as quickly as possible, but also afraid to push too hard, lest it hurt me. She was definitely overthinking it though.


    I mean, I was literally being burned by hot soup right now.


    She had gotten most of it off, but my reddened skin and my now sticky hair had remained. Nheless, a small smile formed on my face.


    "Thanks."


    The maid gave a small bow.


    "A-Ah! Of course!"


    She used a hand to brush aside her hair, and smiled gently, but was bowing, and thus was not looking at me.


    "Also... thank you for trying to get him to apologize to me when all I did was set down a chair."


    I shrugged my shoulders and replied without bothering to turn to her.


    "You are one of those that were willing to follow through with my antics. So naturally, I would be offended when your supportive actions were undermined."


    The maid''s smile grew ever so slightly, but she didn''t say anything else before leaving her to go back to her post.


    Raisa seemed to be on the verge of bursting out in anger. She ufortably clenched her fist and grit her teeth.


    "How dare he? How can someone have such impudence?"


    A chuckle escaped me.


    "You turn into an arrogant noble whenever you''re angry, huh?"


    Raisa suddenly lost all of her anger, instead blushing in embarrassment. She looked at me with indignance.


    "E-Eh? That''s not true at all!"


    Jess was still ring in the direction that the guy had left. She simrly clenched her fist, but soon after rxed it. She let out a soft breath.


    "Does it hurt?"


    I raised my eyebrow.


    "Obviously, that stuff was basically boiling."


    Jess turned to look at me, while her lips parted ever so slightly.


    "But you didn''t react at all."


    I simply shook my head.


    "It''s not like I have to react to everything that happens to me, right?"


    Arianne held her hand above her heart, while the other clenched onto her wrist.


    "Why was he like that? It''s not like you even did anything to him."


    A smirk formed on my face as I took in another spoonful of pottage.


    "There was something I did."


    "What?"


    Arianne looked at me in shock. I promptly spoke before she could ask.


    "I was a noble."


    She furrowed her brows hearing that.


    "But how does that count?"


    My eyes narrowed ever so slightly.


    "Something like that is enough for most people."


    I raised my spoon up to my mouth once more, but there was no soup within it. After an awkward moment, I set it back down and let out a yawn. ncing at the others, I saw that none of them were even halfway through theirs.


    "Hey, if you just stare at the food it''s going to get cold. You might as well just eat it."


    The other three seemed to finally wake out of their stupors and slowly went back to eating. I couldn''t help but notice that Jess definitely had a difficult time getting through it, but she didn''t raise anyints, nor did she ever stop trying to finish it.


    Raisa seemed to already get ustomed to it while trying the food at school.


    Hm. Maybe the difference in the taste of food was a bigger deal than I imagined. Wait, so if the meals for nobles cost like, ten gold, then it should be a bit less for themoner meals.


    Since it was free at our school, it was hard to see the exact difference, but I assume that it averages at around seven gold per.


    As I was thinking about it, I realized that themotion was rising, but it wasn''t around us. By now, several nobles had passed by along with farmers dragging several animals with them.


    Most of the sounds were just people talking in fascination about something, while others were cries of fear. I haven''t yet seen the process of extracting blood from the animals, but from what I was hearing, it appeared to be quite brutal.


    Well, it looks like Nathan''s business is going well, and Edward''s prospects of power were high with this.


    I noticed that the boy hadn''te, but other than that, everything else was the same.


    The grand majority ofmoners still weren''t willing to give me a chance.


    It didn''t take too long for everyone to finish. Once again, we put everything away. Though Raisa really didn''t want to leave, her bodyguard eventually coerced her into leaving back to their ce.


    Thus after giving my goodbyes to her and Arianne, I got in the carriage with Jess.


    I thought it was just going to be filled with silence once more, but that was when she spoke up.


    "You don''t cry out even when you''re in pain?"


    I slowly opened my eyes, breaking out of my deep meditative state.


    "It''s not like I''m a robot programmed to cry out whenever something happens. If I can stop myself from crying out, it saves me energy and makes less of a ruckus."


    She furrowed her brows rather intensely after hearing that.


    "Have you been in pain all this time?"


    Huh?


    Her tone had suddenly dropped drastically like she was talking about someone dying. There was definitely a misunderstanding brewing, which would very likely get worse should I directly deny it.


    I mean, that''s like what all those tragic heroes do, right? When asked if something is horribly wrong, they just brush it off when the reality is they only have a few hours left to live.


    The scene yed out in my mind.


    "Have you been in pain all this time?"


    "No, I''m fine."


    "Oh heavens! You have been in pain all this time but have never told me! And even when I ask you, your response is to simply deny it! I must continue pestering you to death so I can save you!"


    ...Well, it probably wouldn''t be as exaggerated as that, but it probably would be that far off.


    Of course, straight up lying about it wasn''t exactly a solution either, so in the brief silence between us, I quickly tried to spin up an answer.


    ...No, rather, it should be a question!


    "Eh? Why do you think I''ve been in pain?"


    Jess tilted her head to the side.


    "Huh? Are you not in pain?"


    "Uh, I don''t think so."


    If I adopt an attitude of not even realizing the possibility of what she''s talking about, then it will wlessly look like everything is fine!


    Jess didn''t expect my response, judging from how her mouth hung agape.


    "But you''ve distanced yourself from me and have be far less expressive. Something like that... must have a reason! There must be a reason why!"


    A bitter smile formed on my face as I waved my hand dismissively.


    "Ah, I guess I can see why you''ve thought like that. But I mean, there was no particr reason for my change. People just slowly be different when they get older. It''s nothing particrly special."


    Hah! I wasn''t expecting herstment, but this should finish it.


    First, I partly agreed with her, to lower her resistance to my stance. After that, I denied her suspicions and gave a reasonable exnation. Now there''s no doubting it.


    ...So why is Jess still looking at me as though I was pitiful?


    "Bryson, when did you be such a proficient liar?"


    What.


    But didn''t Raisa say I was a bad liar earlier? Why was I a good one now?


    "Uh, I think you''re misunderstanding something. I''m really not lying."


    A sad smile formed on Jess''s face.


    "Then why do you shiver when you feel my touch? You''re afraid of something, but I don''t know what that is. Is the pain that bad? This... This is my fault, isn''t it? I''ve neglected you far too much, I''m sorry!"


    Neglected me? If anything, the reverse is the problem here! I mean seriously, who just forces themselves around someone else until they don''t find it weird?


    Jess didn''t seem to be aware of this as she got up out of her seat and practically threw herself at me.


    Once again, her arms wrapped around me, making me feel tense and ufortable.


    "Seriously, I''m not in nearly as much pain as you''re making it all out to be."


    "So you are in pain."


    My eyelid twitched.


    Jess was incredibly quick to pick out slight discrepancies that weren''t even real. I was starting to realize that no matter what I said, she was still going to have these concerns.


    "I don''t know how to express it, but your concern is unwarranted. Even in the worst-case scenario, it''s not like I''m dying."


    At least, not yet.


    Jess didn''t seem to hear me, as she had broken out in tears.


    "This is all my fault! I could''ve prevented all this."


    My expression gradually rxed as I watched Jess break down like this. This has got to be really unhealthy. She cared more about me than she cared about herself. In fact, she probably even cared more about me than I cared about myself.


    "You never had the obligation to protect or shield me. So even if whatever you think is wrong is true, it was never your fault to begin with."


    Jess let out a sad hum.


    "I do have that responsibility! I am your older sister!"


    I took in a deep breath, and despite feeling incredibly ufortable, I patted her head.


    "No, that isn''t. If there was a responsibility in the first ce, it would belong to our parents, who clearly have not done the best job."


    She took in a hoarse breath before shaking her head.


    "But because they haven''t taken responsibility, it''s naturally mine as the older sister!"


    I massaged my temple, trying not to get pissed off by her hard-headedness.


    "No. You may be the older sister, but that doesn''t change the fact that you are still a child, like me. Don''t forget that you still have to take care of yourself before anything else. Sure, I may not really know what I''m doing, but still."


    A smile formed on my face.


    "People can stand on their own."


    And with my sincere emotions on disy, surely, I would get through to her.


    Jess looked at me with her mouth slightly agape and her eyes widened.


    "But we aren''t children. Our age already defines us as adults."


    Jess, you piece of...

 Chapter 54: Missing

    <h4>Chapter 54: Missing</h4>


    When we got back, Jess dragged me off the carriage with her arms around me. The servants all looked at us rather strangely, and rightfully so.


    Even when changing clothes, she was very reluctant to separate. It was honestly kind of suffocating. She was a little weirded out by the book I had on me, but I was able to convince her to just set it aside for now.


    As she dragged me along and began washing me while pressing herself against me, I came to a realization.


    It was a realization I should''vee to far long ago.


    Jess is mentally unstable.


    I reviewed the conversation we previously had in my head, looking for any major ws in the things I said and how I responded. But while I can''t say my performance was perfect, it should''ve been enough to dispel most people''s worries.


    Honestly, she never showed any clear signs of it in the shitty game itself, though I guess you could at least get to a theory that she was a little loopy.


    After thinking about it for a while, I tried to tackle this situation once more, or else Jess was simply going to get even more obsessive about this.


    "Hey, haven''t you ever considered that going this far may be doing more harm than good? Instead, you could tone it down a little, right?"


    Jess only leaned into me more when I said that.


    "No, I was too distant before, so I have to fix this by getting closer."


    I let out a small sigh.


    "You probably won''t care, but I''m just going to say that you really don''t have to fix anything. But even under the assumption that something was broken, you have to take time to fix things instead of rushing. Doing too much at once can backfire and cause the opposite result."


    For what felt like the first time, Jess finally began releasing me, but soon tightened up far more than ever before. It was honestly quite painful.


    "H-Hey, you''re hurting me here."


    She slowly lowered her intensity finally. But still, she had begun crying.


    "Sorry, sorry. I''m so sorry, I must''ve messed up our rtionship because I was too close, didn''t I?"


    A bitter smile formed on my face.


    "I don''t want to tell you the answer that would hurt you, but if I am being honest, yes."


    This would finally get her to be a little crazy about it right?


    Jess was sobbing rather loudly, to the point that it nearly overpowered the other sounds. Eventually, she picked me up and dragged me over to therge bath that was inside. The water sshed when we entered, and the warmth of the water made me feel even more ufortable.


    I mean, it was already hot enough with Jess holding me like this, but this made it worse.


    My skin felt prickly, and a faint sense of pain, like needles piercing all throughout my body assaulted me.


    "Can we please not be in the bath itself? It''s too hot for me."


    I had to speak rather loudly just to get the message through her sobbing. But Jess just continued to cry.


    "I''m sorry... nothing I do is right, is it?"


    I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. This girl really was a handful, wasn''t she?


    "You have the right idea, but are just too forceful about it. Maybe try and just... let go."


    Jess''s breathing became ragged.


    "B-But..."


    A sense of frustration rose, but I forcefully shoved it down.


    "This is the right thing to do. Isn''t that what you want?"


    Please. You have to let go now, right?


    Jess pressed her forehead against the back of my neck.


    "I''m sorry. I can''t."


    Shit. You... no, calm down. Calm down.


    "Why?"


    Jess pressed her forehead against me a little harder, and just barely muttered loud enough for me to hear.


    "You are all I have left."


    Ah.


    I think I get it now. The biggest reason she wanted to care for me like this wasn''t actually for my sake, but for her own. She desperately wanted some form of intimacy and saw me as the only way to get it.


    I opened my eyes.


    "Sister, I am far from the only thing you have. There is an entire beautiful world out there with countless people to meet."


    Jess shook her head. I could tell because she was still leaning against me.


    "No..."


    Well. Like I said before, you have to take time to fix things. I wasn''t going to force it.


    "Ok, I won''t talk about it anymore. But seriously, I can''t take this heat. Can we get out of the bath?"


    Later, we got out, but Jess refused to stop hugging me until I untensed myself once more. As always, it took a while, but I did it and fell asleep.


    Shortly after, I had a dream, informing me that the book was talking to me again.


    As I came to, I saw the pink figure standing in front of me once more. He had his arms crossed, with a neutral expression. Despite dragging me into this dream, he just remained there silently.


    Since he wasn''t going to speak first, I decided to.


    "So why''d you bring me here?"


    The pink figure looked down.


    "I was observing your actions for the entire day."


    He paused like he had to think of what to say.


    "At first, I thought it might''ve just been me, but I now realize that you really are incredibly strange. You differ greatly from the norm."


    I held out my hands.


    "That means I stand out. If you don''t think about it too much, that''s a good thing."


    The pink figure nodded, apparently agreeing with my logic.


    "Yes. It is indeed a good thing. It appears your enlightenment has changed you, making you deviate from the norm to an astounding degree."


    I raised an eyebrow.


    "If that''s what you think it is, I guess."


    The pink figure froze.


    "Was my interpretation incorrect? Well, I suppose that was to be expected. Though I knew my level of enlightenment was low, it is only now that I understand how far below I am."


    ...It looks like either my acting was good, or this guy was just that good at deluding himself.


    "Um, yeah, sure."


    The pink shook his head violently before putting his chin into his hand.


    "If you were to learn divine arts... your power should be immeasurable."


    I raised an eyebrow after hearing that.


    "Divine Arts? Howe I''ve never heard about that."


    This guy wasn''t just talking out of his ass, was he? There wasn''t anything about Divine Arts before. I was honestly kinda starting to lose faith. If it wasn''t for the fact I saw that symbol of the cult outside, then I would''ve already lost all faith in it.


    The figure responded promptly.


    "I''m not entirely sure what Divine Arts are. However, there were a few people that have been famous for using it. ording to legend, Divine Arts are stronger the further one has walked on the path of enlightenment. Although few people know the actual technique, many care about this path of enlightenment anyway."


    He looked at me and spoke with a bit of excitement.


    "If you find out how to learn the Divine Arts, you will probably be incredibly powerful!"


    Hm. I heavily doubted that.


    "Ah, well that''s cool I guess."


    The pink figure blinked a few times.


    "D-Do you not care about this power?"


    I tilted my head to the side.


    "I guess it would be nice to have, but it''s not the biggest deal in the world."


    The pink figure nodded a few times.


    "I see. But if you do wish to learn, there is a man well known for his unbelievable power from Divine Arts north of the kingdom and past the forests. I am not entirely sure how to meet him, but if you can, then you should be able to be his disciple."


    Eh? Wait a minute. That should also be where you find one of the legendary spell incantations in this game.


    "...Is Divine Arts rted to magic?"


    The pink figure raised an eyebrow.


    "Huh? No, they arepletely different. They exist as a separate thing just like the Dark Arts."


    What? Then why would there be a legendary spell scroll just lying around there?


    "I guess it wouldn''t hurt to make a trip."


    If you were to go to the north and past the forests, you would find a strange cave. Inside that gave that special spell scroll. The spell itself was called ckout, and the effect was to blind all people within a certain radius within you, while not affecting yourself.


    It was like a shbang, but more reliable.


    Unfortunately, there was no ally detection function, thus it would blind those on your side too. However, it was one of the best spells, and made fighting certain boss fights at least ten times easier.


    After casting the spell, if the enemy was trying to shoot any sort of projectile, you''d be able to dodge it easily.


    Unfortunately, the spell had a cooldown, which was rare considering most spells didn''t have something like that. To top it off, the mana needed to expand the circle increased exponentially the bigger it was.


    If I were to use it, then I probably would only be able to blind those next to me. But that didn''t change the fact it would be incredibly useful.


    Hm... there shouldn''t be a need to fight just yet, but having that spell would be better than not I suppose.


    I''ll bring it up with Nathan at school.


    My eyes thennded on the pink figure, just staring back at me.


    "Do you still want something?"


    The pink figure tilted his head to the side and smiled awkwardly.


    "Er, not really. I''ll let you go back."


    And I woke up once more, with Jess holding me like I was a body pillow. With a bit of difficulty, I went to sleep, deciding to worry about itter.


    ...


    I had the ssical morning routine. Today was a school day, so I headed off on the carriage with Jess to go there. When I did end up making it onto the school grounds, I couldn''t help but notice that two people were copsed on the first floor.


    Curiously, I walked up to look at who they were and let out a small gasp.


    It was Carrot Top and Baby Man. They were lying face down on the ground, but I could still recognize them fairly easily. It appeared that they were not taking my abandonment of them too well.


    I remember they were rather energetic and bold as they followed Bryson around whenever they could, while Bryson himself just let them tag along. Now they were reduced to this.


    Jess scoffed.


    "Leave them on the floor. People that are unable to even keep themselves awake during school hours don''t deserve help."


    "Sure."


    I shot them a second nce before heading up the stairs and to ss. I made it there and was greeted by both Raisa and Arianne. Nathan wasn''t there, but I imagined he woulde soon.


    But then everyone else had shown up.


    Now, the only seat empty was his.


    Shit, did you get yourself in trouble Nathan?

 Chapter 55: Fake

    <h4>Chapter 55: Fake</h4>


    Harold took notice of the missing seat, gazing at it for a few moments. However, he looked away soon after.


    "I shall begin the ss."


    My brows furrowed, but I decided not to harp on it too much. Instead, I decided to use this period to ponder over what could''ve happened and what I should do about it. Then, if he was still missing after-


    "Sorry, I''mte!"


    My head snapped to the side, seeing Nathan awkwardly rush into the ssroom breathlessly. There was an awkward smile on his face as he scratched the back of his head.


    The first thing I felt was relief.


    Yet, I also felt a weird sensation. It was like the world underneath me suddenly bent to the side, making me feel like I was falling off the edge. But I put that aside for now.


    Charlotte looked at him with excitement and waved happily.


    "Natan!"


    She quickly put on a displeased expression though.


    "How could you bete? You are undermining the status of the Golden Gold School!"


    Nathan let out augh.


    "Haha, sorry, sorry. It''s good to see you again though, Charlotte."


    Wait, what?


    Charlotte blushed and turned away.


    "W-What? I guess it''s good to see you too, but it''s not like I really care!"


    Nathan simply smiled before sitting back down.


    No. Not Nathan. Because that person definitely was not Nathan. Unless Nathan suddenly learned how to method act perfectly as the main character, that was not him. It was more like this guy was Natan.


    The actual protagonist of this shitty game.


    ...But why?


    I noticed that Natan shot a hopeful and curious-looking gaze my way, but didn''t end up saying anything.


    It creeped me the fuck out.


    As for Harold, he simply chastised him for beingte before leading us all to the magic practice range. Once we got there, he announced that we would be having a test. Harold made it clear that this test was not nearly as important as things like the midterms or finals, but it was a test nheless.


    Several people were quite surprised that there was a test already, but nobody raised anyints. Although it wasn''t ideal for some people, it appeared they epted it because of the strictness of the school.


    Once we had made it to the practice range, Harold raised his hands and conjured a giant fifty-meter-wide target made out of ice that wasn''t too far away. It had slightly different shades of ice, making it easy to tell the thresholds within.


    Right afterward, he cleared his throat.


    "I will now begin exining the rules of the test. You will be required to use fire magic. There are three criteria that this test will be based on.


    First, how long you take to cast your spell.


    Secondly, how close to the center of the target that your spell is.


    Finally, how much destructive power is behind that spell.


    Thest two factors will have the most weight on your score, so please do not rush when taking the test. From here, I will call you up one by one to take this test."


    Hm. From the sounds of it, being able to cast the spell really quickly was not something valued all that much. That made me feel a bit irked since that was pretty much the only thing I was good at.


    But at the same time, I could understand the sentiment of not wanting people to just rush their spells.


    Though just because I could understand it, didn''t mean I liked it.


    He began naming people off and they proceeded to cast the fire spells and aim at the target. Though, for the first person that went, he already had to chastise them.


    "You must maintain a mana barrier to protect yourself! Should you be injured after casting your spell, the smallest punishment is deducted points, and the worst is being disqualified altogether!"


    The girl that was trying to skimp on the mana barrier had flinched, then casted the spell as she was supposed to. It took her probably five or so minutes until she finally finished, forming a decently-sized fireball in her hand. It was about a basketball in size.


    With a bit of awkwardness, she held it out toward the target.


    Several secondster, it shot forth, heading toward the center. However, it ended up losing some of its momentum, dipping down, then exploding more to the bottom of the target.


    She let out a gasp.


    "Could I redo that?"


    Harold let out a sigh.


    "No, your score is already set in stone."


    The girl looked to be rather disappointed by that, even though she didn''t do all that bad. Frankly, I''m not sure if I could conjure up a simrly-sized fireball without straining myself a bit.


    One after another, people were sent up to test out their skills.


    A thing I noted was that most people needed at the very least two whole minutes to finish casting their spell. I hadn''t really paid attentionst time we were to practice the fire spell, but it appeared as though it was quite difficult for them.


    At the time, it took me roughly a minute to cast the fire spell.


    But now, I was fairly confident in doing it in thirty seconds, assuming that power wasn''t too important. Unfortunately, it did seem that power was in fact important.


    Eventually, it was Sam''s turn to go up. He did so proudly and held out his hand, but before the spell even formed, Harold scolded him.


    "You were already preparing the spell beforehand. Since you''ve decided to do that, your time will be based on when you first began preparing until you finish casting now."


    Sam''s expression distorted significantly as the fireball formed from the tip of his finger.


    "You never said anything about that! I wasn''t breaking any of the rules you set!"


    Harold simply nodded.


    "Yes, I did not explicitly mention it. However, it is based on time, and it will only be fair if I take it from when you first started preparing."


    I couldn''t help but feel pity, but also a bit of contempt. I mean, Harold already clearly established he could see all of us moving our mana around, why are you trying to pull tricks now?


    Though, Sam ended up gnashing his teeth in anger. He finished casting the spell, making it slightlyrger than a basketball before propelling it to the target. The fireball didn''t hit the center but was not far off.


    He went off with a huff, and I heard a few people here and thereughing at him.


    More people went up, and I couldn''t help but notice a rather radical difference in magic power among the people. It was fairly easy to tell who got in this ss because they got full marks, and which ones got in because of how powerful their magic was with their beach ball sized fireballs. A scant few actually messed up the casting process itself. They were given a second chance, but Harold counted the time from when they first started casting.


    It wasn''t a hard pattern, but those that got in because of their power tended to be less urate, but those that had it the other way around usually hit close to the center.


    After some time, it was Raisa''s turn.


    She took a deep breath before raising her finger. In roughly a minute and a half, a fireball had appeared on her finger. Considering the average was about four minutes, that was quite impressive.


    A smile formed on her face as she seemed to realize it, but the size of it wasn''t that noteworthy, about fifteen centimeters. She frowned soon after but didn''t mull over it. After taking a few seconds to aim, she sent the fireball forth,nding just barely off the bullseye of it.


    She got a few passing approvingments and established herself as above average, but people weren''t that shocked. Though there were things to be improved on, Raisa left with a satisfied expression.


    After her, was Arianne.


    She was clearly nervous once she had gotten up. Her gaze drifted over towards me and lingered a few moments. It was almost like she wanted me to cheer her on or something.


    ...But like, that really wasn''t my thing.


    I decided to just smile a little, which seemed to be enough for her as she also smiled brightly before turning back.


    Arianne held out a finger towards the target and began casting. She had closed her eyes and was clearly concentrating rather hard. Once a few minutes had passed, it became clear that she wasn''t going to be finished any time soon.


    But after seven minutes had passed, a ratherrge fireball had formed on her fingertip. If I had to say, the diameter was about half a meter. It sparkedmotion among the ss, as that was pretty damn big.


    Still, Nathan''s methrower technique was still far greater than this.


    Unfortunately, it appeared Arianne had forgotten what she was supposed to do and lobbed it forth with her eyes closed.


    It was only when she opened her eyes once more did she realize her mistake.


    "Ah!"


    The fireball exploded at the bottom of the target. Technically speaking, it did reach the center of the target because of howrge the explosion was, but that was to the credit of the size of the fireball more than anything else.


    Silence fell after this strange disy, making those that thought this was impressive find it hard to say anything.


    Arianne covered her face in shame before rushing off.


    Next, I was called up.


    Once I did get up there, I heard someone cheer for me.


    "You got this, Bryson!"


    Except it was thest person I expected to do such a thing.


    Natan.


    I shook off the creepy crawly feeling I had all over my skin and just focused on casting the spell. Though soon after, I heard Raisa and Arianne also wish me good luck as though not wanting to be outdone.


    ...If you really cared about how well I would do, then you would''ve kept silent so I could focus!


    Brushing aside my frustration, I focused my mana on condensing the cores, trying to pour extra in to create arger fireball. Unfortunately, despite meditating for long periods of time, my mana reserve remained the same.


    As such, I soon found myself in a position where adding mana would strain me too much, lest there were not enough for the nodes. It''s not as though I didn''t have any more mana in my body, because I still had a decent amount.


    However, calling upon all of it at once would overwhelm the body from shock at the sudden deprivation. Even though many people wanted to cheese the system, they would still not make this kind of mistake. I guess it was still ss A after all.


    Upon connecting it all together, a fireball formed at the top of my fingers.


    I heard several surprised gasps once I finished. Probably since it had only taken me fifty seconds to conjure this thing. In fact, I probably could''ve done this under forty, but I just wanted to be extra careful and take my time lest I messed up the spell.


    I mean, I hadn''t messed up doing a normal spell yet, but you never know.


    Sweat formed on my forehead, and my body felt a tad bit weak. I had used up a decent amount of mana. And to show for it, I had a fireball that was just barely more than twenty centimeters wide.


    I flicked my finger, mming it into the center of the target.


    It wasn''t a particrlyrge fireball, so hitting the center was easy enough.


    After I walked off, it had then be Charlotte''s turn.


    She had walked on pretty confidently, having her arms crossed. Then, Natan called out to her.


    "You got this!"


    This made Charlotte blush, holding the side of her cheek in embarrassment.


    "Y-Yeah! I already knew that, idiot!"


    She was smiling. But to hide that fact, she tried to put a hand over her mouth. Still, it wouldn''t exactly take a genius to see her emotions from the rest of her face.


    But while she was flustered, it didn''t stop her from casting. After two and a half minutes, arge fireball formed at the tip of her finger. While definitely bigger than mine, it still felt short by a decent amount from Arianne''s.


    After taking a second to aim, Charlottended dead center on the target. Right after, she turned to Natan with puffed cheeks.


    "W-Was that good?"


    Natan let out augh and gave a thumbs up.


    "That was amazing!"


    Charlotte once again put a hand above her mouth to hide her smile.


    "Is that so? I suppose it''s only natural for someone like me."


    Then, Natan was called up.


    All of my focus sharpened significantly at this point. How well he performed here would tell me a lot about the current Natan.


    Maybe I could even use this to expose him as the fake.

 Chapter 56: Real Fake?

    <h4>Chapter 56: Real Fake?</h4>


    Natan stepped up to take the test.


    Incidentally, he was also thest one to take part in this test. My eyes narrowed slightly as I saw him go up. One thing I knew for sure, was that this wasn''t Nathan. At least not him in his usual state.


    However, depending on this person''s magical prowess, I can determine if they are tantly just pretending to be them and just have an incredibly good disguise.


    Charlotte hesitated, but spoke up.


    "Y-You better do well,moner! Don''t disgrace the prestige of ss A."


    Natan turned to her and gave a thumbs up.


    "I''ll try my best!"


    He held out his finger. Unlike how it was normally with Nathan, there was no clear awkwardness in his expression. After roughly a minute, he finished.


    And a fireball that was over fifty centimeters wide appeared in front of him. Many people sucked in cold breaths one after another, and this time people couldn''t hold back their voices.


    "What? How did he do it that fast?"


    "Isn''t that... the biggest fireball we''ve seen so far?"


    "B-But that should be impossible!"


    My eyelid twitched.


    Whoever this was, their magical aptitude was probably very simr to Nathan''s. However, I could tell this was far different from normal. The time he took wasn''t too strange, as this wasn''t far off what he usually took.


    However, that fireball was nothingpared to the massive methrower I saw before. If this guy wanted to, he could destroy the entirety of the target. That I was pretty sure of. Not to mention, he definitely did not have this level of control before.


    Natan thought for a little while with the giant fireball in his hands before flicking it a little awkwardly. It went at a weird angle andnded to the left of the target, which nobody had done yet.


    With a massive explosion, the side of the ice target broke away.


    Harold gave a few nods after seeing that.


    "I see you''ve lowered your power to make it easier to control, which is the right idea. However, don''t forget that you will have to control high volumes of mana in the future, so don''t neglect it entirely."


    Natan gave a salute to the teacher.


    "Yes sir!"


    Harold took a second nce at Natan. It looked like he realized something was strange too but brushed it off quickly after.


    Strange.


    This was strange.


    Was someone simply possessing Nathan''s body?


    Or could it be that Nathan himself actually did end up transmigrating again somehow and left me alone here?


    Now that I think about it, the personality he has now is incredibly simr to the protagonist of the shitty dating game. Could it be that it''s actually him? Wait, what if there were two people with Natan''s body just running around then?


    My mind went back to what Nathan had told me earlier. Despite not doing anything, Charlotte came out of nowhere and disyed arge amount of affection for him. I didn''t think about it too much then, but it appeared like I had to face the reality now.


    At this point, ss was over, so we were all guided back to the ssroom to greet some math.


    Karin, the teacher, would usually pick on either me or Nathan to give a ''hard'' question just to see if we could solve it. Though at first, it was probably a bit out of malice, now she just seemed curious about the limits of our abilities.


    And that was when Karin casually called Natan.


    "Natan, how fast can you answer this question?"


    On the board, was-


    10 - 5 x 8


    And upon seeing it, Natan noticeably panicked. His eyes darted to the left and right rather quickly. He brought his hands together and sped them together almost like he was about to start begging for alms.


    It was at this point I could confirm withplete certainty that this definitely wasn''t Nathan, at least not mentally. He wouldn''t have had trouble with this question at all.


    But while that was true, I had a strange nagging feeling from the back of my head. It made me feel like I shouldn''t purposefully make whoever this was have a harder life. That was also kindamon sense, as if Nathan really did transmigrate without me, then I would have to work with the hero, Natan.


    Yet, I was pretty sure this nagging feeling was unrted.


    Deciding to follow my instincts, I raised my hand.


    "Teacher, I believe Natan is currently exhausted. He had spent a very long time trying to manage a new business he was creating. Although he looks fine right now, I''m sure he''s just barely keeping his eyes open."


    As though to go against my words, Natan looked at me gratefully with wide and bright eyes.


    ...Couldn''t this guy at least try to go along with my story? He didn''t look exhausted at all.


    Karin furrowed her brows after hearing what I had said. Probably because Natan did not look tired in the slightest. In fact, he seemed to have the most energy out of everyone here.


    However, she decided not to question that part.


    "He has attempted to start a business? I can''t imagine that going very well. Most businesses need arge sum of starting capital to take off."


    I waved my hand dismissively.


    "It''s fine, he''s found something rather unique, meaning he doesn''t need the starting capital to start this business."


    Karin raised an eyebrow.


    "...I suppose that is interesting. While I won''t interfere with personal matters, understand that whether or not you are running a business won''t change how we grade you at this school. If you wish to stay, then keep up with your studies."


    Natan awkwardly scratched the back of his head with a wide smile on his face. He gave several small bows.


    "Alright, alright!"


    Karin smiled awkwardly before turning to me.


    "Then why don''t you answer the question?"


    With a wave of a hand, I said the answer.


    "Negative thirty."


    Sam immediately let out a chuckle right after I had said that.


    "It appeared like you rushed that, the real answer is forty!"


    Although the others in the ss didn''t say anything, they looked at me as though looking in pity. It appeared they also thought it was forty. On the other hand, Karin let out a disappointed sigh.


    "Did I not teach you all this on the third day?"


    Sam huffed.


    "It appears someone hasn''t been listening to the teacher because of their arrogance!"


    Karin nodded.


    "Yes, that''s true. The correct answer is negative thirty. Did you all seriously forget the lesson about order? Multiplication happens before subtraction!"


    Sam''s confident expression immediately fell.


    As for me, I just let out a soft sigh, feeling a bit of pity for how low the level of math was here. After reprimanding Sam, she continued to show various examples and emphasized the importance of remembering the proper order in math.


    Of course, this was all stuff you learn in elementary school.


    Instead, I focused my gaze on Natan, who was listening to the lecture with a stiff smile. He scratched his hair in frustration several times within the ss, clearly paying attention. But also clearly not understanding anything.


    Soon enough ss had ended, leading us to go to the cafeteria. I wondered what Natan was going to do, but he ended up sitting at the same table as me. Along with us, Arianne, Raisa, and Charlotte joined in.


    Though the moment Charlotte had sat down, she began pestering Natan.


    "Hey! It''s respectable to start a new business, but you can''t be overworking yourself!"


    Natan let out augh and nodded a few times.


    "Ah, okay, of course."


    Charlotte reached out a hand to cover his forehead, trying to feel for a fever and also an excuse to touch him.


    "Hmm... it doesn''t look like you''re sick, but that doesn''t mean you can keep pushing yourself!"


    Natan shot her a bright smile.


    "Haha, thank you for looking out for me."


    In response, Charlotte puffed up her cheeks.


    "W-What? It''s not like I''m looking out for amoner, idiot! I''m just... trying to see if your business is worth investing in!"


    While their conversation was happening, I just had my eyes on Natan. He seemed to get a little ufortable because of it and looked at me with a somewhat perplexed expression.


    "Is something wrong?"


    I chuckled before waving.


    "Ah, nothing like that. I was just wondering how the business you started up was doing."


    It wouldn''t be strange of him to be able to flub his way through an answer as basically all of the aristocracy knew about it, but I just wanted to see if he knew at least this. In response, Natan smiled rather brightly.


    "Oh! It went pretty well. There were some problems, but they were all dealt with. We were able to get a bit more than fifty gold on the first day! It could''ve been more, but Edward was starting to make weird sounds and said that he wanted a break."


    My eyes narrowed ever so slightly.


    This information felt... quite specific. It wasn''t exactly secret, but most people wouldn''t care to investigate things like this.


    "So... how many did you sell?"


    He tilted his head to the side and hummed.


    "I think... I heard one hundred? But we also used some money to buy an animal to be prepared for you."


    Heard one hundred?


    That was a strange detail.


    A possibility gradually formed in my mind, but if it was true then that would also have bad implications for me. As my worry grew, I noticed that Charlotte was shamelessly snuggling against him, and even rubbing the side of her face against his.


    Natan simply giggled.


    "Hey! That tickles!"


    Charlotte pouted.


    "A-Ah, sorry."


    She then pulled her face away from him. This scene was actually one that was supposed to happen a little far off into the future. It wasn''t anything special, but I was still reminded of it. It was at this point I felt that my thoughts were definitely confirmed.


    This was Natan. As in, the actual protagonist of this shitty game. And from the looks of things, he had always been ''conscious'' in a certain way. At least, enough for him to be able to observe what Nathan had been doing while he was in control.


    From the sounds of his rtionship with Charlotte, it appeared like the actual Natan had taken control of the body and talked with others without Nathan''s knowledge. My hands grasped onto my own chin as I thought about that.


    I wasn''t all that concerned about Natan, as he at least wouldn''t intentionally cause any trouble.


    But what about Bryson?


    It appeared that the main viin of the story still existed, and I was now sharing a body with him.

 Chapter 57: May I Know Why You Wear That Mask?

    <h4>Chapter 57: May I Know Why You Wear That Mask?</h4>


    Aftering to the conclusion that Bryson might not actually be gone from the story, I decided to think of a way to deal with this. I mean, it''s hard to imagine the main viin will be taking theft of his own body that easily.


    "So, Natan. Have you ever felt something like a personality shift or something like that? I''ve noticed that you are acting a little differently today."


    Raisa nodded shortly after I said that.


    "Yeah, I was thinking that earlier. It looks like it''s not just me."


    Charlotte turned to Natan in curiosity, waiting for his answer. As for the person in question, his expression showed that he wasn''t too sure about what he was supposed to say.


    From his nervousness, I could tell that he was hesitating.


    Though there was no way to confirm, my assumption is that he was wondering what to say so as to not inconvenience Nathan. Which was kind of ridiculous when you consider that Nathan basically hijacked his body.


    Eventually though, he nodded.


    "Haha... um, yeah. I''m not too sure why this happens either, but sometimes my personality shifts."


    Charlotte let out a surprised gasp.


    "E-Eh? Really?"


    Arianne and Raisa also both looked at him rather curiously. Before they raised their questions though, I asked first.


    "When does this change usually happen? Do you do it voluntarily?"


    Natan scratched the side of his head and took a moment to think.


    "Um, this change probably happens whenever I go to sleep. It isn''t voluntary because I don''t make myself to..."


    He suddenly cut himself off, as his eyes drifted listlessly before closing. His body wobbled once before goingpletely limp. Charlotte was rather shocked, but didn''t push him away. Instead, she just let himy down in herp.


    The next second, Nathan''s eyes slowly opened.


    "Ugh..."


    Charlotte tilted her head to the side.


    "A-Are you ok,moner?"


    Nathan blinked a few times before groaning once more.


    "Fuck, is this a nightmare?"


    Charlotte smiled unconsciously.


    "No, of course not! I''m right here!"


    Nathan coughed and ced a hand on his forehead.


    "Godammit, it really is a nightmare."


    He sat up and observed his situation, still muddled with sleep and mumbling to himself. But after a little while, he saw me and came to.


    "Wait, this isn''t a dream?"


    I shrugged my shoulders helplessly as a small smile formed on my face.


    "It appears so. Let''s meet up after lunch."


    Nathan looked around him, clearly confused, but nodded afterward. Arianne mumbled in a bit of shock.


    "He really does feel like an entirely different person."


    Charlotte leaned into him once more with a curious expression.


    "Really?"


    Nathan grit his teeth immediately and wrestled himself out of her grip.


    "I said no touching!"


    Charlotte pouted before backing off.


    "Ok..."


    A bitter smile formed on Raisa''s face.


    "Do you see how different he is now?"


    Charlotte turned to Raisa with a confused look.


    "Eh? Is he different?"


    My eyelid twitched. Honestly, I thought that the puppy love that Raisa felt was bad. However, the puppy love that Charlotte had was clearly several times worse. There was a phrase called rose-tinted sses, but this girl was definitely wearing a rose-colored blindfold.


    As confusion and awkwardness surfaced among us, I decided to just focus on lunch itself.


    The period was over soon enough. I gave Raisa the book I had on me for safekeeping, and while confused she epted. While the others went back to ss, Nathan and I went outside and into an alley.


    Nathan had one hand on his forehead in frustration.


    "So, what the fuck happened to me?"


    I held out one hand while smirking.


    "It looks like Natan had taken over your body while you were knocked out cold."


    Nathan looked back at me in shock, but soon his shock rxed.


    "Shit. That exins a lot of things."


    I raised a finger and twiddled it back and forth.


    "You should''ve figured this out earlier. From what I gathered, he''s actually able to see what you''ve been doing, how much I do not know. When you go to sleep is when he can be conscious. Also, it appears that he can''t voluntarily take control over the body."


    Nathan massaged his temple with the base of his palm.


    "That''s pretty damn annoying. Do you think I''ll be able to get through to him?"


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "Honestly, you probably don''t even have to. He didn''t seem to mind you taking control of his body and even tried to help hide this fact, though he really didn''t do a good job."


    Nathan smiled bitterly.


    "Hah. I guess if it''s like this, then it could be seen as having another ally."


    Yet, right after saying that his expression fell.


    "...Wait. Does that mean-"


    He didn''t continue speaking after that. Still, it was more than enough to get his meaning. After taking a deep breath, I spoke.


    "To be honest, I''m not entirely sure. So far, there haven''t been any signs."


    I thought back to the times that I do fall asleep. Nothing big happened the first time or so. However, now I only fall asleep while Jess is basically cradling me. I guess he maye conscious then, but only gets dragged around by an unreasonable Jess who forces him into the bed with her.


    That''s probably why I was already dressed by the time I woke up.


    Because someone else had done it.


    I rubbed my chin in thought. As it turns out, Jess''s unreasonable antics actually locked up the options for the real Bryson. Still, that obviously wouldn''t continue forever, and if he was willing to get more unreasonable, then those restraints wouldn''t matter.


    At least for now it seemed he didn''t want to go against his sister.


    That is, if the state my body is in is the same as Nathan''s.


    "Even if he is dormant in my body, I''m pretty sure that things won''t go too wrong for now."


    Nathan nodded.


    "Alright then. Is there anything else?"


    I gave a small nod right after.


    "Do you think we will be able to organize a trip to go past the forests in the North?"


    Nathan rubbed his chin in thought. He had already understood my main intentions.


    "We won''t have to worry aboutbat though for the next couple of weeks. Actually, now that I think about it, that spell can have other uses too."


    The ckout spell made people unable to see. This could be used to support various discreet actions such as thieving. As of now, I hadn''t thought of a specific way to use it, but I''m sure I would find a use before the time for real fights urred.


    Nathan closed his eyes and pondered for a little while.


    "Let''s do that next weekend. Honestly, it''s probably going to take a damn long time. We might as well search for other things on the way there."


    I gave a small nod.


    "Oh yeah, there are also a few other things to tell you about. Apparently, there seems to be some cult with a sword sticking out of a book as their symbol. Along with that, Bernie tried to sit at my table and I ended up pissing him off. I was also told there was some sort of Divine Arts guy past the forest."


    Nathan couldn''t help but chuckle after hearing that.


    "Ah, is that it? To be honest, I didn''t make the best first impression on that Bernie guy either. I tried to follow the normal dialogue presented in the game, but he started responding differently anyway. That n kinda went awry. Also, I''m a little concerned that the reason why Edward turned evil wasn''t because of some sort of trauma, but rather his ability."


    I raised an eyebrow.


    "Why do you say that?"


    Nathan let out a soft sigh.


    "I could bepletely wrong, but it seems that he mentally experiences the pain from the blood he absorbs. From what I understand, the pain is definitely a much smaller amount than what they actually go through, but he experiences it nheless. My guess is this is why he turned into that insane guy."


    My brows furrowed rather intensely.


    "That... is not too good."


    Nathan nodded.


    "But at least for now, his conviction doesn''t seem to be shaken. He is still very much the same person. Maybe that''s just because they are animals, but it''s still not bad."


    I slowly nodded.


    "Say, if he does go out of control, do you have an idea on how to deal with him?"


    Nathan promptly smirked.


    "I already dealt with that a while ago. I''d say there is a higher than ny-percent chance of it working."


    I waved my hand casually after that.


    "If you say so. Those chances are good enough for me."


    Nathan put both hands behind his head.


    "I''ve been trying to get some of the items to trade in the ck market, and while I haven''t gotten any of them yet, there''s some progress made."


    He rested his head back against the wall and sighed.


    "And that''s all the pains in the ass that I''ve been dealing with."


    I let out augh.


    "Then let''s head on back."


    I got the book back from Raisa before proceeding with English ss. The rest of the sses were fairly normal, nothing special happened there. Soon enough, it was time to go back home once more. Jess didn''t have anything to say, so the ride back was silent.


    Upon getting back, I thought about making contact with those people once more. They said that night would be better, but the evening should be close enough. Besides, I didn''t want to get too involved, lest they were a threat to me.


    While I had knowledge, mybat abilities were rather pathetic.


    For now, my only intention was to make contact with them.


    After telling my servants to go off on their own to the slums, I went to find the cloak and mask that I bought. Afterward, I got another cloth to wrap the cloak and mask in, not wanting people to see me leave in the getup.


    Though I hadst gone to the ce by carriage, I still remembered how to get there. Initially, I was expecting it to be the same ck market as the game, thus dedicated it to my memory.


    Not that it still wasn''t a good ce to know about, but still.


    After traveling for quite some time, I found myself not too far from said ck market. I found a nearby alleyway to go into and put on my clothes. Then, I made strides over to the ck market.


    I inevitably attracted a lot of attention, but that couldn''t be helped as the only person wearing a mask and cloak. Regardless, I still entered the ce before making my way to the ce I hadst seen that symbol.


    The vendor noticed me pretty quickly and gave me a wave.


    "Ah, I see you are back."


    There were still many different trinkets and junk spread out on his table. It was definitely not that popr to buy from.


    "Yes, I was here to see the avability of that familiar item."


    He nodded a few times before letting out augh. His voice dropped drastically in volume, making me nearly miss what he had said.


    "Haha, of course, of course. Unfortunately, I don''t have it here right now. After a bit of time, you can head over to the west of this location and make your way to a tree with a broken branch. Follow where that broken branch leads, then gesture a cross above your heart, and you should be able to purchase that familiar item."


    I gave a small nod.


    "When exactly will it be avable?"


    The vendor shrugged his shoulders.


    "Within the hour."


    After he said that, I decided to just go around the rest of the ce, seeing if anything else interesting wasid out around here. While I hadn''t seen anything noteworthy before, it was at least worth a try I guess.


    While traveling around, I only found myself disappointed by the expected oue. Though, before I could mull over it, someone called out to me.


    "May I know why you wear that mask?"

 Chapter 58: A Beautiful Mirror

    <h4>Chapter 58: A Beautiful Mirror</h4>


    When I first heard the voice, I didn''t think too much while turning to look at them. Yet, when my eyesnded on his face, I involuntarily ended up freezing up.


    The person I found myself looking at wasn''t particrly threatening in any way, but he was someone that I had recognized from this shitty dating game.


    Shen.


    Fucking hell, this guy is supposed to show up an entire yearter! Why the shit is he here now?


    ...Well, maybe he isn''t hostile right now.


    He looked like a guy my age with simr stature. His clothes were what you''d expect amoner to have, but were incredibly clean and also too pristinepared to the averagemoner.


    He had dark red hair, the same color as blood. There was a gentle smile on his face, which was rather weing. As for his eyes, they were closed, but they arced upwards making him look rather joyful.


    "Is there a reason you can''t answer my question?"


    "Ah, what was it again?"


    "Your mask, why do you wear that?"


    The corner of my lip twitched. Why was this guy taking interest in the mask? Honestly, I didn''t really want to stay another second near this freak of nature. Though it wasn''t like I didn''t n on fighting against this guy in the future, I was not prepared right now.


    I''ll just answer his question in a way that makes him lose interest.


    "I thought it looked nice."


    Shen let out an amicable chuckle.


    "Is that so? I can appreciate your tastes."


    I shut my eyes with the intention of blinking, but didn''t really want to open them anymore.


    "Thank you."


    With that, I continued walking on. Unfortunately, this guy ended up walking along with me.


    "Is there a specific reason why you are closing your eyes? The sunlight is rather dull, is it still too intense for you?"


    It wasn''t shown because of my mask, but I wore a bitter smile.


    "Haha, you could put it that way, yes."


    Well, it was probably a little too strange to keep my eyes closed, so I slowly opened them, but couldn''t help but feel a bit of fear despite that fact.


    The reason why I felt so unsettled was that Shen was known as the Mirror Demon.


    It was a good thing his eyes were closed because the moment he opens his eyes, any person that makes eye contact will be under hisplete control. However, it did not stop there. Any mirror that a controlled person or he himself had stared at with open eyes would be cursed.


    These cursed mirrors caused anyone that looked at him to also fall under his control, but at the very least, it was notably weaker. People with a certain standard of willpower were able to resist it, though continued exposure would definitely wear them down regardless.


    This was why I felt the need to keep my eyes closed, despite feeling he probably wasn''t going to try to control me. As of now at least, we were walking side by side, so I didn''t have to worry too much.


    But... I had to drive this guy away.


    "Ah, are you perhaps interested in this mask? Unfortunately, I''m not sure if you will be able to find a copy, as this was a random mask I had found in the ck market."


    Shen had one hand behind him while the other waved dismissively.


    "Haha, thanks for looking out for me, but I''m not particrly interested in covering my face. I was more so curious about the reasoning for covering up one''s face."


    I held out my hands helplessly while walking.


    "Well, if nothing else it gives an extra sense of mystery making the person seem more interesting than they actually work. This may simply be me being presumptuous, but it appears that it was sessful."


    Shen chuckled.


    "I suppose I cannot disagree."


    Silence remained between us, but he continued to walk along my path. This made cold sweat form on my forehead.


    Although I was pretty sure he wouldn''t make a move now, it would still be disastrous if he did right now.


    Like, I haven''t even gotten to the part of the game where the tutorial happens. So why was I just one step away from getting the game over screen?


    Well, it''s not like I was the protagonist, but still.


    In situations like this, it''s a little hard to point out the awkwardness since the person in question has the potential to end me immediately. However, if I don''t, this would actually have the opposite effect, as a normal unsuspecting person would have pointed it out by now.


    "Um, is there a reason why you are tagging along with me? Not that I particrly mind, but it feels a little strange."


    Shen let out an awkward gasp beforeughing cordially.


    "Ah, sorry about that. It''s one of those bad habits of mine where I tend to continue observing things I find interesting. For example, I''ve found myself looking at mirrors for several hours without even realizing!"


    ...That''s because the longer you stare at the mirror, the stronger its hypnotic effects, you fucking liar. Shen continued oblivious to my thoughts.


    "I mean, have you never pondered about how fascinating it is to see yourself within a mirror? Such a clear reflection, it''s almost as though it''s a window to see your true self!"


    I couldn''t help but scoff, despite knowing the unnatural difference in power between us.


    "How does that make sense?"


    Shen turned to me curiously.


    "Hm? Well, perhaps you could see your reflection in the water, but it would be distorted. And without a reflection, you''d never be able to see what you look like."


    I slowly tilted my head upwards, looking at the sky.


    "No. Perhaps you''ve taken care of your hair, and it shows. Or perhaps you have some scar or injury, which tells an entire story of its own. And sometimes just the way one carries themselves tells so much about them."


    My eyes narrowed ever so slightly.


    "But when you look at a reflection, you don''t see yourself, but what other people see you as. You see what those that have never known you before assume you to be. And to be honest, you don''t need a mirror to see your reflection."


    A smile gradually formed on my face.


    "All you need to see is a stranger''s face as they look at you."


    Shen let out an interested hum, raising a finger to brush against his chin.


    "That is a fascinating way to see things. But then how do you see your true self?"


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "I don''t know."


    "Eh? You haven''t thought of it yet?"


    He raised an eyebrow but kept his eyes closed. Afterughing a little, I responded.


    "It''s something that is constantly changing, no? That means even if you are able to get a perfect understanding of it, the fact you''ve gotten that understanding changes you, making it not as perfect once more."


    Shen nodded a few times with a smile.


    "So it''s always a mystery, you say? That... sounds rather disappointing in a way."


    I took a deep breath.


    "But that''s what makes it so interesting, no?"


    Shen looked at me with a bitter smile.


    "I see. So that is why you wear that cloak and mask."


    Well, it''s actually because I don''t want to show off my identity, but I didn''t have to say that.


    "You could see it that way, yes."


    Shen took a deep breath before stopping in ce.


    "Well, I''m sure you have business to attend to, and I simrly do as well. Farewell, though I do believe that this won''t be ourst meeting."


    My eyelid twitched. I mean, yeah probably not with you being the Mirror Demon. But did you have to make it sound ominous like that?


    ...Ah, whatever. I''ll just take sce in the fact he''s leaving me alone.


    "Farewell."


    Without turning to look back, I continued onwards. After ten or so seconds, I heard his footsteps going the other way as well. I reached up to my forehead to wipe the sweat away, but quickly realized I was wearing a mask.


    After a moment of hesitation, I put it back down, opting not to shift it off.


    Man. If this mask gave me the power of vanishing, then I wouldn''t have needed to deal with that damned guy! Well, I guess that was too much to ask from some random mask. After a bit of loitering, I made my way over to the tree with a missing branch as the person had said, then followed along the direction the branch would''ve been pointing at.


    It eventually just led to a dead end.


    Fuck. Was I just yed?


    "It appears you wish to join The Honest Truth?"


    Huh? That was something along the lines of green-shaded green. After slowly turning around, I saw who said that. He was in simr gear as me, wearing a ck cloak, but it was much cleaner, and the person didn''t have a mask.


    Still, I could only see the guy''s nose and mouth as the rest of the face was obscured in shadow.


    I gave him an honest answer.


    "I''ve heard that there is a ce where those interested in dark arts gather and wish to see it myself."


    The man in the ck cloak lifted his head ever so slightly.


    "Do you have the talent for dark arts?"


    "From the book I had read, it said that those with parents with strong magical aptitude will sometimes have a child with weak magical aptitude. In this case, they should have a strong talent in dark arts, and I am in the position of that child."


    The man looked back at me silently for a moment.


    "Very well. But if you are only here to take a look as you say, then I cannot show you the true hideout we have. Only those honestlymitted to the truth are allowed to see."


    I tilted my head to the side.


    "Then why don''t you tell me the reason I should join? Just a symbol doesn''t really show me that much."


    The man seemed to be rather perplexed.


    "Excuse me? Is it not obvious?"


    I blinked a few times.


    "Uh, no."


    "What? How so?"


    All of a sudden, another man also in a cloak burst out from a hidden door, expressing his disbelief. Honestly, it was quite startling, but the man didn''t care about that and continued on.


    "It''s only here that you''ll be able to improve your dark arts to the very peak! We''ve already grown so great, that all will soon fear us!"


    I couldn''t help but feel a little strange. Although it was true that Bryson was quite frightening with his usage of Dark Arts in the story, there was quite literally no mention of any other members.


    ...Unless Bryson was the one that got rid of them all.


    Perhaps they are actually quite strong. If that were the case, I might need to follow in Bryson''s footsteps and get rid of them.


    My eyes narrowed ever so slightly.


    "You''ve already gained power close to taking over the entire kingdom?"


    The man that burst out the hidden door nodded enthusiastically.


    "Yes! Of course!"


    As for the other one that was originally talking to me, he let out a sigh and facepalmed.


    "Dammit Jerry, I said that you weren''t allowed to open the hidden door while I''m still talking to potential members!"


    The man that appeared to be called Jerryined.


    "What? But, Nick, that''s only because you never let me introduce them to The Honest Truth!"


    As for Nick, he only stamped his foot with an aggravated expression as he pointed at him usingly.


    "That''s because you always scare away new recruits like an idiot! Now tell me how many people you''ve recruited after giving your input!"


    A brief pause ensued before Jerry began speaking.


    "N-None."


    "That''s right! Now stop messing things up!"


    Something told me that these guys may not be nearly as intimidating as I first expected.

 Chapter 59: Fan Club

    <h4>Chapter 59: Fan Club</h4>


    Though my first impression of these guys was not exactly the best, it''s known that really powerful people in stories tend to be entric. After all, having weird quirks about them gives them an excuse to not use their powers or help the protagonist for basically free.


    Not that anything like that happens in this shitty game, but still.


    After looking at the mess that they had be, I spoke up a question, interrupting their arguing.


    "Um, since you said that you''ve made great advancements in Dark Arts, do you mind if I see a bit of them?"


    Jerry stood up and brushed the dust off with a confident smile.


    "Of course! Behold, my powers!"


    I felt it probably wasn''t a good idea to use overwhelming power in such a cramped area. From what I remember of Bryson, he spread out a wide ck mist that indiscriminately came to life as tentacles the moment any living thing came near it.


    However, I decided to trust this overly enthusiastic guy.


    He held out one hand, with his palm facing the sky. Nick furrowed his brows as he was doing that.


    "Jerry, don''t overdo i-"


    "Gah!"


    Jerry grimaced while his knees buckled. However, in his hands were a few faint ck mist tendrils that dispersed after a second. No, I don''t think they evensted an entire second. They extended to reach roughly a quarter of a meter high, butpared to what Bryson was capable of in the game, this was basically nothing.


    Nick let out a helpless sigh as he held Jerry up.


    "I told you not to put more power in the spell when you clearly can''t handle it!"


    Jerry sucked in a cold breath with a bitter smile.


    "But I was able to do that much before, and I thought the break I had was enough..."


    I raised an eyebrow.


    "Was the process interrupted by something?"


    Nick shook his head, but there was still a proud expression on his face.


    "Ah, no. It may have not looked like much itself, but the ck mist he had created was as strong as steel, which would act as a lethal weapon!"


    ...What about just using an actual steel weapon?


    Sure, it''s not as covert, but you don''t get crippled after a second of using it and can actually use it for a good while. Well, I probably shouldn''t say that to him though.


    Nick rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.


    "Well, since you''ve already seen the entrance, why don''t you take a look at what we have here."


    I gave a short nod. Jerry stumbled back up with Nick''s help and led the two of them inside. Upon making my way in, I saw at least a dozen more people in ck cloaks all sitting around a wooden table and talking to each other. On the table were scattered and messy books along with old-fashioned papers that had an orange-ish color to it.


    As for the room itself, it was made of wood, while severalnterns ced around made it rather bright, unlike the cult-like setting they had.


    When we walked in, I noticed most of the group had turned to us and waved with smiles on their faces.


    "Ah, is it a new member?"


    "How much does he know?"


    "Hey, before you get fooled by the others, you should learn my technique!"


    All of them were rather enthusiastic. It gave me a really strange feeling.


    I came here expecting a cult, but instead, it was more like...


    Hm. How can I describe this?


    Ah, I got it. Like a hardcore fan club.


    "So far, I haven''t learned how to use Dark Arts, and I''m not entirely sure if I''m going to be joining. But hello, anyways."


    Several people nodded, though a fewints arose.


    "What? You might as well stay, you''ve already put in the effort of matching the outfit!"


    "Eh? Why aren''t you staying? Trust me, Dark Arts will quickly take over magic in the future!"


    "Haha, after seeing a bit of our prowess, you will surely be convinced!"


    After letting out a soft sigh, I let out augh.


    "Then what have you found out about Dark Arts so far?"


    Nick cleared his throat.


    "Before that, we may as well take a seat."


    Ah, I guess there''s no harm there.


    Nick and Jerry made their way to their seats while I took an empty one. From there, one of the members started to speak with a confident smile, not obscured by the hood covering his face.


    "Dark Arts is only possible when you block out the feeling of your own body, focusing only on the outside. After that, you must sharpen your focus to a point in your own mind, then call it out!"


    A girl next to me coughed and whispered.


    "He basically just means to rx all your muscles the best you can then try to imagine moving something out from inside your head."


    "Hey! Why are you telling him that? The way I said it was so much cooler!"


    The guy who initially spoke stood up and pointed at her usingly. As for the girl, she only let out a soft sigh before retaliating.


    "The way you say it is way too confusing! You always make it hard for the newbie to start out."


    The guy scoffed.


    "That may be true, but more importantly it has to sound cool! rity is a lesser priority!"


    My eyebrow twitched. These guys really were something else.


    "Thank you both for guiding me either way."


    They both seemed rather ttered and sat back down. While everyone was staring at me, I just waved dismissively.


    "Ah, just ignore me for now. Why don''t you just go on and do your normal activities? I''m quite curious."


    Nick let out a hum.


    "In all honesty, we don''t truly do anything."


    Jerry immediately mmed his hand on the table right after.


    "Preposterous! We discuss only the most important matters and trade the truths we have seen in the Dark Arts!"


    A bitter smile formed on Nick''s face.


    "Er, but we usually just talk about our daily lives. As for the truths in Dark Arts, we have to take long breaks before we cast them and it takes a while to find anything worth talking about."


    Jerry fell silent after. He raised a finger with determination, pointing it aggressively at Nick. It looked like he was ready to defend his point with vigor.


    "Ok, that may be true, but like what he said earlier that doesn''t sound cool at all!"


    Nick let out augh.


    "Still, it''s better to be transparent..."


    Hm. This really doesn''t feel like a cult. After looking to the left and right, I asked them a question.


    "So, have any of you found any new breakthroughs?"


    A member on the smaller side suddenly raised her arm and eximed.


    "Oh! I found that if you focus really hard, then the Dark Arts be even stronger!"


    Another one nodded fervently.


    "Ah, good discovery, good discovery!"


    As my faith in them started to wane, I heard a voice that randomly appeared in my head.


    "I understand how they appear, but they truly do understand Dark Arts at a deeper level."


    A heavy sigh escaped me. It was the book guy talking to me. If he was going to go as far as to speak up for them, then I suppose I could stay a bit longer.


    Though, the conversation immediately derailed to unrted matters.


    "I think I''ve been overdoing ittely, my head hurts a bit."


    "Ah, you must take care of your mind properly, else how will you perform the Dark Arts?!"


    "Yes, yes, I just overestimated myself by my past performance."


    One member let out a drawn-out humming sound.


    "Man, I forgot that I was invited to dinner by one of my neighbors. It was so embarrassing when they had toe to my door to remind me!"


    "Ah, speaking of, I actually forgot that I had invited people ironically enough!"


    The two of them beganughing, while others began joining in and exining things that they had forgotten. Eventually, feeling something a little off-putting, I interjected.


    "Say, have you all been forgetting things recently?"


    They didn''t seem too concerned and responded nonchntly.


    "Hm, yes a few, but not that much recently."


    "I''ve only forgotten one thing this past week."


    "Ah, I''ve been too clumsy thesest few days and even forgot which way the exit to my house!"


    The side of my face twitched. This sounded rather concerning, and honestly, was making me see Dark Arts in a bleak light.


    "I don''t think that level of memory loss is normal."


    Nick let out a chuckle and responded rather quickly.


    "What do you mean? All of us have forgotten a tiny thing like that before."


    I put my elbows on the table and put them in front of my mask.


    "But I''ve never experienced this level, nor have the people around me. Have you ever tried to think of what else you have been doing around the time the memory loss started to happen?"


    Nick looked confused but still spoke.


    "Well, I recall it was somewhat more frequent a year or so ago. Ah, that was also when I started practicing Dark Arts."


    A bitter smile formed on my face. He was basically exining to me the problem at this point.


    The girl next to me let out a small gasp.


    "Wait, you aren''t trying to say that the Dark Arts cause us to lose our memory, are you?"


    I shifted my gaze down.


    "That is one possibility to exin the memory loss."


    Jerry stood up and seemed rather against it.


    "What? There''s no way! The Dark Arts are too amazing for something like that to happen! I... I think!"


    Silence fell among the group, but everyone was turning their heads, trading nces. Whispers gradually rose, which quickly transferred to talking.


    "What? That can''t be the case! But... it is entirely usible."


    "My wife was saying that it was strange I kept forgetting the arguments we had."


    "But if it truly does mess with our memory, then what does... what does all of this mean?"


    Huh, nobody is ming me? That''s what I expect their first reaction to be, anger at least. But it appeared that they didn''t even consider having hostile intentions toward me.


    I slowly raised my hand, bringing the attention towards me.


    "Look, I''m not saying that you have to stop using Dark Arts altogether. Besides, you can still meet up without needing to talk about Dark Arts, but something else instead. This has definitely been meaningful."


    A sigh escaped me.


    "But from what I''m hearing, it appears there is a side effect to this magic. Of course, I can''t know for sure still, but I hope you all just be a little warier of using this kind of stuff."


    Right after, the voice of the book echoed in my head.


    "What? Why are you doing this? You''re treating memory erasure as though it is a pressing matter. While Dark Arts have an effect on memories, they will mostly target the ones that cause stress and only starts with recent memories. After time passes, it will go to ones that are so far back, they''ve basically been forgotten anyway."


    This book was treating memories rather lightly, huh?


    I couldn''t help but feel a little angry.


    Nick let out a long sigh and muttered.


    "Now that I think about it, the signs were all there, but I just didn''t wish to look at them. It appeared as though none of us wished to look at them. But... I can''t give up on them until I know for sure that it has side effects!"


    A sad smile formed on my face. The book had already confirmed it to me, but I felt like these guys wouldn''t believe the book. Instead, I decided to handle it myself. If it was only recent memories, then...


    "Then what if I test it? From there, if I find myself with missing memories, or if you can find missing points, then we will confirm that they do indeed cause memory loss."


    Silence fell once more. But after a minute, Nick nodded.


    "...Ok. I will believe it then."


    The rest of them began to nod along to it as well, although clearly reluctant to give up something they were so passionate about. There was also the book saying words to me, but I ignored himpletely. His words were in my head itself, but everything he said went out of both ears immediately.


    With a small smile, I began to follow the instructions they gave on performing Dark Arts, ignoring my body. However, I made my focus incredibly weak, because I knew Bryson had the potential to unleash really deadly Dark Arts spells.


    After all, I didn''t want to hurt the others here.


    While that happened, I reached for my mask and attempted to adjust it.


    Hm. I wonder if Jess is wondering where I am?


    Man, I still have to walk all the way back home. I wish I could just teleport there.


    Then, my vision suddenly blurred. And after, I saw my room.


    Eh? I really did teleport back home?

 Chapter 60: A Pledge

    <h4>Chapter 60: A Pledge</h4>


    There was the slightest tinge of pain in the back of my head, something I wouldn''t have noticed if I didn''t pay attention to it. Though I hadn''t actually started to try using Dark Arts at the time, it appeared I was sessful, just that the effects were rather... extreme.


    From the looks of things, the mask actually did work, just that it needed to be activated via Dark Arts, thus letting me teleport.


    It made me wonder what memory I had lost.


    For a second, I thought it was an illusion, but I really had teleported into the room.


    Except, there was a tiny prob-


    "Eeeeeeek!"


    A maid literally jumped up and dropped the broom she was holding in fright because I had suddenly appeared. As if to make matters worse, the mask I was wearing began to shudder and was releasing needlessly loud crying sounds.


    I really wanted it to shut up, but there was nothing I could do.


    Honestly, it kind of felt like I was watching porn, but I forgot to turn the volume down, making it start out way too loud. And on top of that, for some reason, the option to turn the volume down wasn''t activating immediately.


    I took off the mask, took off the hood, and tried to show the maid the most reassuring smile I could muster. Though, there was a strange salty taste in my mouth.


    "Hey, hey, it''s just me. Nothing to worry about."


    Although dazed, the maid did seem to calm down somewhat.


    "A-Ah, I see. I didn''t see you ent-"


    "WHAT''S THE MATTER?!"


    "EEYAH!"


    The door mmed open, revealing Jess, while the maid jumped up in fright once more, but this time directly fainted.


    An awkward smile formed on my face as I looked at her.


    "Ah, don''t worry, there''s nothing wrong. Well, at least with me. The maid on the other hand might need some he-"


    "Brother!"


    Immediately, I sensed that something was wrong. Jess was looking at me with her mouth agape in a frown, as though horrified. It was almost like I had broken an arm and was just trying to act strong in front of her.


    She rushed over before I could get a sense of what was going on and hugged me rather tightly.


    "I''m so sorry! I''ve been so neglectful, how could I have let this happen?"


    Thankfully, the crying from the mask had stopped by now,sting roughly five seconds or so. However, there was a more pressing problem.


    "What are you talking about? Letting something happen?"


    Jess began crying herself.


    "Isn''t it obvious? You are crying! Just look at you!"


    She took out a handkerchief and wiped at my face. It was only now that I realized that tears had covered it.


    Hm. It seemed the mask had other effects too.


    I quickly lifted the mask up and pointed at it.


    "Wait, no this is a misunderstanding. It was actually the mask that made the crying sound with the tears."


    Jess looked at the mask, then looked back at me even more pitifully.


    "Brother, please. You don''t have to act like this anymore! Your excuses aren''t even making sense anymore."


    My eyelid twitched. In hindsight, that exnation did really make no sense. If someone else presented it to me, I couldn''t believe it even if I wanted to. But that was the truth!


    "Ok, I know how weird that sounded, but that''s actually what happened. I wasn''t actually cry-"


    "Brother. You don''t have to say any more."


    Jess cut me off, but spoke softly. Her hug became gentle, almost like I was so fragile that I would break at the touch.


    "I am here for you now. Just close your eyes and calm down."


    ...Hm.


    Well, I wonder how those guys back at the fake cult are doing. They must be startled by my sudden disappearance. As for me, it appeared I would have to deal with Jess now.


    Eventually, Jess dragged me back off to the bathroom and got me to go in with her. She was even more insistent on everything this time, which made me feel a little unsettled at heart.


    Jess'' belief that she neglected me had definitely worsened by a great deal and it seemed nothing I would say could convince her otherwise. This was the exact opposite path that I had intended to lead her down.


    Welp.


    Talking to her now is useless, so I''ll just wait for her to calm down a bit before attempting to resolve this. And as such, I was once again assaulted with the unforgiving hug that made me incredibly ufortable.


    I''m not sure if I''ll ever get used to this.


    Soon enough, I fell asleep once more.


    Then, I was brought into a dream again. A familiar pink figure had formed in front of me. Before I had even gotten my bearing he started to speak.


    "That teleportation magic makes me quite curious, but I won''t ask you that right now, as there is obviously a more pressing matter. Ok, I understand what you''re thinking, that Dark Arts has some terrible drawbacks that make people forget who they are. But this is not true."


    I rubbed the side of my head and sighed.


    "Alright, I''ll hear you out then."


    The pink figure raised an eyebrow in surprise but continued anyway.


    "For starters, Dark Arts do not fundamentally change someone''s desires. Even if the memory that''s taken away is rted to their desire, that will not change it. That way, the personality isn''t affected too much."


    He raised a finger.


    "Besides, don''t you remember how those people in that Dark Arts cult were rather friendly? I''ll have you know that I''ve actually seen many of those people before, and they were far from close to that amicable before. Since Dark Arts removes the memories that cause stress and tension, it makes people far less irritable and hardly engage in any conflict."


    Ah. So is that why they were like that? Wait, but Bryson was the splitting opposite of that.


    "So, have you been using Dark Arts too and also forgetting your memories?"


    The pink figure let out augh.


    "I''ve had countless years of memories. If it wasn''t for erasing them, it is likely they would''ve gone insane from the countless years of doing nothing while my soul was sealed in a book. Besides, they are so far back that I wouldn''t be able to remember them anyways."


    I blinked a few times.


    "Are you sure you don''t regret it?"


    The pink figure looked at me for a little while.


    "In truth, I''m not certain if I would have the capability to talk to you if not for erasing my memories. There may have been a time where I have had regrets, but supposing that it existed, I''ve forgotten about it."


    I took a deep breath.


    "If that''s the case, then I can''t exactly me you for doing such a thing. But I don''t n on using it anymore, unless the only other option is actually just death."


    The pink figure looked at me questioningly.


    "But why? I recall that you said yourself that the person you are is always changing, so wiping away a few memories isn''t exactly removing your true self."


    A bitter smile formed on my face.


    "Yes, but that doesn''t change the fact that there are memories that I don''t want to forget. Maybe they''ll end up so far tucked into the back of my head that I won''t think about them for the rest of my life, but I still don''t want to forget about them."


    The pink figure smiled bitterly before raising a finger.


    "You are overthinking it. Something I''vee to realize after experimenting for countless years through others, is that the good memories are never erased. There is no need to worry."


    I let out a long sigh.


    "Yes, but the memory I wish to hold onto is a bad one."


    The pink figure looked at me nkly for a little while.


    "Did someone that you cared deeply about die? Though I don''t recall you ever encountering something simr to that, know that you won''t lose the memories of them. In the worst case, you will simply forget how they died in the first ce, but not the fact that they are dead."


    I shook my head.


    "No, something like that never happened to me. From what I''m hearing, if I use Dark Arts that memory will be erased."


    The pink figure''s eyebrow rose.


    "There is such a memory you have? What exactly is it?"


    I pointed toward him with a smirk.


    "What''s important isn''t the memory itself, but why I wouldn''t want to forget it. Maybe you can try to figure that out."


    The pink figure stared back nkly at me.


    "I''m already at aplete loss with the first question you''ve given me. Did you perhaps already understand the drawbacks, which is why you rejected learning Dark Arts?"


    I rolled my eyes.


    "How the hell was I supposed to know? You never told me. But even if there wasn''t this memory-wiping thing, the answer would still be no."


    The pink figure hunched over with a frown stered on his face.


    "What is this? Why are you giving me another question when I can hardly solve the first one?"


    I raised my lip before turning it into an exaggerated glower. Then I pointed at him like a teacher towards a trouble-making student.


    "You''re the one that asked for it! Plus, if you didn''t erase your memories, you probably would''ve already understood all these things by now! If you really want to understand, then you have to stop wiping away your memories."


    The pink figure was rendered speechless.


    "I... never thought about it that way. Perhaps if I had discarded Dark Arts entirely, I''d be able to learn Divine Arts."


    He fell into thought, and shortly after the entire dream had dispersed, making me wake up in Jess''s arms once more. I didn''t think about anything else before falling asleep, lest I find myself tensing up again.


    ...


    I woke up for another day, without too much motivation to get up. However, with Jess forcing me to get up, it wasn''t much of a choice.


    Upon getting on the carriage off to school, I began to ponder over Bryson.


    He recklessly used Dark Arts. From what I''ve heard, he was really into getting stronger, so while memories were erased, he retained that desperate need to get stronger. Maybe that''s the reason why he became a viin in the first ce.


    ...Phew. Thank god I didn''t start practicing Dark Arts.


    Maybe Bryson wasn''t actually that bad. But at the same time, just losing bad memories probably isn''t enough to turn a good person into a bad one. Yet while the chances are not high, I was still willing to give the actual Bryson a chance.


    But how should I make contact with him? And will he even care to listen?

 Chapter 61: Results

    <h4>Chapter 61: Results</h4>


    Several ways to contact Bryson hade to mind. Just trying to directly talk to him, leaving behind notes, or getting someone else to say it for me.


    However, I thought it would be better for me to get in contact with Nathan and see the results of how he handled Natan to see how it worked out for him. There was still a part of me that just wished Bryson was actually gone, but I felt that was unlikely.


    More than that, I decided to focus on meditating.


    I recalled the events of the game, which reminded me that I was supposed to challenge Natan after seeing the results of the test and being unsatisfied with that. Of course, I had no ns of actually doing that since it was basically pointless to involve us in that conflict.


    And on top of that, it wouldn''t fit the personality that I''ve crafted so far.


    Hm. Well, it would just be more convenient if fewer problems arose, so there was no need to think about it too much.


    With that in mind, I got off the carriage and made it to ss.


    Unlike most days, most of the seats had already been filled. Nathan, who was usually a littleter than me, was actually here beforehand. I''m guessing he was a little traumatized by the fact Natan had taken over for a little while.


    Shortly after, everyone was here.


    It was at this point that Harold began speaking, but a little more solemnly than usual.


    "I will now be reading out the rankings to you all for this test."


    Only when he said that did I have a sudden realization. That this was a rather brutal way to show results to them, making it so that they had topare with others directly. And the worst part is they don''t even show the specific mark you got.


    Yet, this was still understandable in the sense that it was probably not a tradition to hand out papers given their expense these days, and listing out the specific scores would take too long.


    And perhaps most of all...


    "The top of the ss is Natan."


    ...was that they wanted to fosterpetition.


    "What? How is amoner supposed to be number one?"


    Sam suddenly stood up, his blue hair flung around as though agreeing with his anger.


    Huh, this guy said the line that I was supposed to say. Well, not exactly, as I was supposed to say something about being preposterous, but it had the same basic meaning. And besides, now that Nathan has his processed meat business, he basically isn''t amoner anymore.


    Wait. Did this mean that Sam was going to challenge Natan instead?


    Harold let out a long sigh and red at Sam harshly.


    "Sit down. The fact that the person at the top of the ss is amoner is not strange in any sense. What determines who is best at this school is not their wealth or status, but their capability. Thevish decorations are here to show that the school does not need to care about your wealth to run and is perfectly fine on its own."


    Something was telling me that thest part was not the full truth, and may have been a belief that Harold forced himself into. That wasn''t going to make me stop him though, as he had the right idea at least.


    Sam let out what almost sounded like a low growling sound. It seemed that he was trying to contain his anger, but having a damn hard time doing it.


    As though to add insult to injury, the next person called out was also amoner.


    "In second ce is Cheryl."


    That was one of the heroines in the story you could pursue, but we haven''t really interacted with her at all.


    "In third ce is Charlotte."


    Harold continued to list people off one after another, with those feeling prideful at first slowly turning to shame.


    "In seventh ce is Arianne."


    If she didn''t panic so much, she would have definitely been at least fourth.


    "In eleventh ce is ."


    Huh. I don''t remember her test results to be honest.


    "In thirteenth ce is Bryson."


    Hm. Last I remembered, Bryson was supposed to get seventeenth ce, so this was a decent improvement I guess.


    "In fourteenth ce is Raisa."


    She did have a simr magical aptitude as me. It seemed my casting speed just barely let me stand on top. Raisa herself didn''t seem to mind being below me though.


    Not in a sexual way, if you were thinking that.


    You probably weren''t, but still.


    "In twentieth ce is Sam."


    "What?"


    Sam stood up immediately once more, clenching his fists tightly. Harold looked at him with a tired expression.


    "You are twentieth ce."


    All things considered, in a ssroom of twenty-three people, the twentieth ce wasn''t exactly the highest, but there were still three people under him.


    But that clearly wasn''t enough for him.


    "This test is ridiculous! It doesn''t truly capture what it means to be a mage!"


    Harold raised an eyebrow as he nced at him.


    "So you im that you are a better mage than Natan at this moment?"


    Sam fell silent. It looked as though he was going to step down. But something shed in his eyes as he aggressively stood his ground once more.


    "Being a mage is more than just casting the spell the best! There still needs to be a test of practically when put intobat."


    His arm swept outwards, before pointing to Natan.


    "I challenge you to a duel next week! If I win, then my test rank should be ced at the top instead!"


    Huh. I guess he did end up taking my ce. It appears he isn''t that different from Bryson, at least on the surface.


    Harold narrowed his eyes.


    "Sam. Do you really think that you are allowed to make the rules here?"


    A smirk formed on Nathan''s face.


    "I don''t see a problem with that, I''m willing to undergo this challenge."


    Sam turned to the teacher with a confident expression, probably spurred on by Nathan supporting him.


    "It is only fair! The truly better mage is the one that can use it in battle!"


    Harold furrowed his brows rather intensely, but Sam was doing it even harder. It seemed that something flipped within him, making him rather unrelenting for whatever reason. Eventually, Harold let out a long sigh.


    "If you truly wish to undergo this, then under the condition that you lose, you are no longer allowed to question my decisions. Should you break the rule despite losing, I will have you expelled immediately."


    Sam smiled after hearing that.


    "I''ll take those terms."


    Though, after that Nathan spoke up while rubbing his chin in thought.


    "But naturally, there should be something for me if I win, no?"


    Sam turned to look at him with a grim expression.


    "What is it? Money? Say your price."


    Nathan leaned back in a chair as a cocky smile formed on his face.


    "No, no, not money. Instead, I would like that stone you have on your belt. It is called a crystallized spell, no?"


    Sam''s expression froze.


    Ah, I didn''t actually remember that he had that. As you might expect, the crystallized spell is basically just a spell scroll but instead of paper, it''s made of something called iridescent stone. Also, it has a few uses before the thing breaks.


    I have no idea how much it costs, but what I do know is that it''s very hard to buy since apparently, they are a pain to make. So even if you have the money, you need to be of noble status to be qualified to purchase it.


    In a sense, selling it was a way for a magician to make ties with other nobles.


    To put it simply, it was something quite worthwhile. That made Sam hesitate.


    Nathan let out a sigh and held out his hands helplessly.


    "Well, if you really think you are going to lose, then we''ll just have to call it off then."


    A vein popped from Sam''s forehead. He clearly was angry, but more than that he was very aware that there was a good chance he was going to lose.


    After all, it''s basically the top student facing off against someone near the bottom.


    But after Sam mmed his fist onto the desk, hanging his head low, he muttered.


    "I agree to the stakes."


    Nathan exaggeratedly put his hand up to his ear as though he couldn''t hear him.


    "Ah, sorry, what was that?"


    Sam yelled right after.


    "I said I agree to the ridiculous stakes!"


    A smile formed on Nathan''s face.


    "All of you heard that, right? We can agree on that now."


    Harold let out a long sigh. He had one palm on his forehead.


    "This time is an exception. I will not be permitting any more private duels after this. If I ede to every request, then I''ll never be able to actually teach you magic, what you''ve enrolled here for."


    Nathan nodded.


    "Of course, teacher."


    From there, Harold began teaching us more about spells, but the entire time there was a rather heavy atmosphere, making it feel somewhat stifling. Most people were probably still thinking about this duel that was happening.


    As for me, I wasn''t holding my breath. Other than me and Nathan, all the others were basically absolute noobs inbat. We''ve already figured out countless different strategies, whether they were no-hit runs, or speedrunning the battles.


    Of course, it was a little different now that it was in 3D, but even in that scenario, we definitely had more experience with regrbat than these guys.


    For no particr reason.


    This atmosphere continued on into Math ss, but after Karin had announced there would be a test, it was quickly shaken off with people focusing up. Of course, the test was incredibly easy for me and Nathan.


    We were able to finish it in less than a minute.


    It was somewhat expected, but some people still looked at us with incredulity when we raised our hands to indicate we finished. Lunch was fairly normal as well, though I called out Nathan and handed my book to Raisa for safekeeping once more.


    Upon feeling my back rest against the wall, I spoke.


    "How have things been with Natan so far?"


    Nathan smiled bitterly. He crossed his arms and looked off to the side.


    "It''s honestly a little hard tomunicate with him, but I''ve exined some things to him a little more clearly and set some rules. While allowing him to go out while I''m asleep, I made it required for him to record everything he does as he does so. Heined about the price for paper, but I was able to convince him eventually."


    I gave a few nods.


    "Although I haven''t explicitly seen Bryson do anything yet, I imagine he''ll be up to something. Do you think he can be reasoned with?"


    Nathan narrowed his eyes ever so slightly before shaking his head.


    "Even in the chance that he is, we should take preparations in the case that he isn''t. We should set up some stuff on our trip to the forest. If he''s anything like Natan, then he''s already seen enough to get a gist of what''s going on. I''ll try to exin it to him directly."


    I gave a quick nod.


    "Oh yeah, I also met the mirror freak."


    Nathan sucked in a cold breath.


    "Thank god that wasn''t me. Ah, right. I also got one of your servants to send that meat everyone''s freaking out about to your ce."


    I rolled my eyes.


    "Thanks, I''ll treat it as emotional damage fees."


    We promptly returned to ss.


    Which was boring.


    But that''s nothing new.


    Then, came time for gym ss. Once we had all filed in, she raised her hand high into the air.


    "Alright, form groups of four everyone! Today, you will be fighting in groups!"


    Hm. Sounds interesting.

 Chapter 62: Oops

    <h4>Chapter 62: Oops</h4>


    Now that the notion of groups came about, Nathan and I looked at each other. We both narrowed our eyes slightly.


    I could tell he was thinking the same thing I was.


    We wanted to be on opposite teams, and see who would win in that situation.


    Yet, right after our eyes rxed somewhat. The reason being we were going to fight together in the future, probably with teammates as well. This was a good opportunity to get used to that.


    Perhaps after everything calms down a bit, we could have a fight like that. Unfortunately, that was going to be years from now at a minimum.


    While we walked over to one another, two others hurriedly rushed over to us.


    "Can I be your partner, please?"


    "Commoner! I grant you the privilege to be on the same team as me!"


    If you couldn''t tell, both Raisa and Charlotte had rushed over to us for the sake of partnering up. As for Arianne, she was ncing in our direction shyly, but despair emerged on her face.


    Well... I''m sure someone will end up taking her.


    I looked at Raisa with a somewhat forced smile.


    "Sure, I guess you could join."


    Nathan looked at Charlotte like she was the bane of all things good.


    "No! I reject this privilege, get away from me."


    Charlotte blushed rather hard, but was persistent.


    "If you know that it''s a privilege, that means you have essentially epted it already,moner!"


    That logic made no sense at all, but it was enough for Charlotte to reach over to Nathan, while he held her back.


    "I said no already! Go find another group to privilege or something."


    There was a ratherrge frown stered on Nathan''s face. Raisa looked at the scene and I saw pity sh in her eyes when she saw Charlotte. She sheepishly spoke to Nathan.


    "Um, Natan? Maybe you should just let her join. She probably won''t stop begging you until you ept."


    Nathan''s expression remained strict until she said thatst part. His eyelids fell, showing the exhaustion that hade over him.


    From what I remember, his mother, Minori, and Charlotte have all been harassing the poor man. At this rate, he was literally going to develop trauma.


    With a defeated sigh, Nathan relented.


    "Fine, fine."


    Charlotte raised both hands in celebration.


    "Yay! U-Uh, I mean, that''s only natural that you epted me,moner!"


    With that, our team formed. There was quite a bit ofmotion among the others about their teams, as people argued and gave various propositions to one another. One thing I noticed was that the nobles never gave any of themoners a second nce, while themoners didn''t bother trying to talk to them either.


    Huh. A team like ours seemed like a pretty big outlier.


    Once most of the teams had formed, there was one that remained with three people. Arianne and two othermoners were on that team. A guy on that team looked at the teacher with concern.


    "Um, what do we do if there are only three of us? Does that mean you will join us"


    Rae smiled brightly, yet her words didn''t seem to match that expression.


    "Part of your skills should be the ability to get yourself into a solid team or recruit one. Since you were unable to get yourself into a team with more members, you will be forced to deal with it. Of course, it may not necessarily be a disadvantage."


    Despite her somewhat encouraging words at the end, the three obviously didn''t seem very pleased. It appeared none of them really had confidence in each other.


    She then gave a big wave to gather everyone''s attention.


    "This time, the rules will be different. The first time you get hit by a wooden weapon on any part of your body, you are officially out. Falling outside is the same. You are not allowed to continue fighting, and I will personally call out who I saw get hit first. My call will be thest."


    Rae then pointed at two teams with both her hands.


    "These two will fight against each other."


    It was the team Nathan and I was on, along with the one Sam had formed. I guess the teams that fought each other were chosen randomly, so it was a good thing we didn''t just split up like that originally.


    Our team along with Sam''s had gone on top of one of the tforms, which were notablyrger. I''d say they were just a tad bit smaller than the one at the ball, which was still substantial because the tform there really was just that big.


    Rae continued to call out for other people to be grouped up one after another.


    I thought about the rule that our teacher had set. Unlike normal, it wouldn''t make sense to trade blow for blow, as getting hit first would mean getting out. That meant speed was more valuable than anything else, as well as making the hit clear enough for the teacher to make it out.


    To be honest, I wasn''t feeling all that good about this. The reason being was that I still didn''t really understand any sword techniques. But maybe we''d be able to get away with that anyway.


    I realized that  had been ring at me and was actually on Sam''s team as well.


    Huh. Well, it''s probably fine.


    While the eight of us were hesitating on whether or not to start, the teacher raised her hands into the air and yelled out rather loudly.


    "Begin!"


    From there, Sam was the first to rush in with his sword.


    "I''ll beat you right here to show you how futile it is!"


    Seeing him charge towards Nathan so tantly, I tried to casually sneak in a swing, but it turns out his reaction time wasn''t all that bad, allowing him to stop himself. He pointed towards me usingly.


    "Hey! Why are you interfering?"


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "It''s a team battle, is it not?"


    While saying that, I rushed forth, trying to get another swing in before his three teammates could back him up.


    Unfortunately, my sword onlynded against his with a ck.


    Sam had furrowed his brows.


    "You have no technique!"


    My eyelid twitched.


    "I don''t need technique!"


    At this point, his other teammates realized they shouldn''t just sit idly by. But at the same time, Charlotte and Raisa began to move.


    While Raisa had her wooden halberd, Charlotte had two giant wooden greatswords. I''m pretty sure you weren''t actually supposed to do that because it was a two-handed weapon, but she would go through the game easily wielding two metal greatswords, so there was nothing toin about.


    Raisa rushed towards , while Charlotte was next to her, going after two people by herself.


    With a wild scream, Charlotte brazenly waved greatswords that were the size of her around without abandon.


    "YAH YAH YAH YAH YAH-"


    Both Nathan and I felt inclined to take a step away because she was one of the main leads that were notorious for dealing friendly fire damage.


    The two nobles facing off against her began to panic, not really knowing what they were supposed to do against a person that fought like this. Regardless, they were still fairly well trained and were able to block her attacks, but weren''t doing much other than holding her off.


    Once Raisa hade close,  raised her wooden saber in a high stance, with the de at the same level as her head.


    Wanting to press the advantage of the length of her weapon, Raisa swung first, but  easily parried it, pushing it away, causing her halberd to be awkwardly off to the side.  didn''t waste another second and moved forth, wanting to end it as swiftly as possible.


    There was panic on Raisa''s face, but she hadn''t given up yet. Instead of trying to recover her grasp on the halberd, she shifted the grip and held it in front of her to use it to block.


    raised her hand for a vertical swing, prompting Raisa to hold her halberd horizontally, but that was actually a feint. She seamlessly transitioned her vertical strike into a low horizontal.


    A wooden ck rang out.


    While it was tricky, Raisa didn''t have too much trouble blocking it, as that was pretty much expected. This was because Raisa knew that was one of the standard positions that were made to easily switch the swing type on the fly.


    But just because Raisa had blocked it didn''t mean she was in any better position than she was before. She continued backing up, wanting to make space, but  was relentless, closing the space immediately.


    Raisa kept trying to lower her halberd so that she could take advantage of the de but each time  would m her saber against it, pushing it out of the way once more. After being continually forced back, Raisa eventually let out a hysterical scream, gripping the halberd until her knuckles turned white, and attempted to lower the de despite everything.


    Like how  always did, she swung to push it out of the way, using more force to ount for Raisa''s loss ofposure.


    Yet, all of a sudden Raisa went in the exact opposite direction. The wooden saber slid against the handle of the halberd while the other end shot toward ''s face.


    While her halberd did have a fancy ax on one end, there was a small sharp point on the other too.


    A victorious smile crept up onto Raisa''s face, and rightfully so as ''s eyes widened all the way.


    Then, a loud bonk resounded.


    And Raisa fell to the floor.


    ...Because Charlotte mmed the t side of her greatsword on her head unintentionally.


    "Raisa is out!"


    Rae called out with mercy, while Raisa got up from the ground while holding onto the side of her head in a daze.


    "W-What?"


    As she gathered her bearings, she realized what had happened.


    "Charlotte! We are on the same team!"


    Charlotte flushed a little.


    "S-Sorry, I didn''t see you there!"


    was in a daze, rather overwhelmed by the rollercoaster of events, but she didn''t remain that way for long.


    Ah, there was also the fight between me and Sam.


    He looked rather wary of me, probably because he had seen what I did in the ball. Regardless, he didn''t falter that easily. We shed with our swords, and I noticed an immediate difference.


    It felt like Sam actually knew what he was doing, while I was more just waving it around in a way that felt right. However, the difference was fairly clear from the beginning, as Sam gradually became more confident.


    His strikes had more power behind them not because of his strength, but rather the proper technique, and generally presented more of a threat than the ones I gave.


    There were several times when I could''ve grabbed the wooden sword, but that obviously wouldn''t work since I would just lose because of the rules. Regardless, my focus was not hung up on that, but rather on what I could do.


    I saw him go for a diagonal swing, which I preemptively blocked.


    And at this moment, my eyes caught onto an opportunity. While the rule was only wooden weapons would count to get someone out, that didn''t mean you just couldn''t hit the other with your fists. And so, I clenched my fist and sent it flying toward his liver.


    It should''ve been unexpected given that most of the focus was put on wooden weapons, but Sam''s eyes widened all the way as his hand darted down to cover his liver.


    A loud thump resounded.


    Sam grimaced, showing he felt some pain, but it wasn''t enough to make him fall down. He remained up and stared me down.


    It appeared this fight wasn''t going to be all as easy as it first looked.

 Chapter 63: Reckless

    <h4>Chapter 63: Reckless</h4>


    Now that I think about it, showing off my fighting style to basically all of the nobles put me on the backfoot when it came to surprising people. From what it looked like, Sam was consciously preparing for the moment I went for a liver punch.


    But at the very least, while it was blocked, there still seemed to be an effect.


    While Sam was a bit out of it, I used it to press my temporary advantage, trying to get an upper hand over him inbat.


    I performed several feints before twisting my sword like a snake, attempting to catch him off guard. Yet, Sam''s reaction time was enough for him to guard despite not expecting them.


    In all honesty, I was actually kind of surprised by Sam''s capability.


    While the story definitely makes hime out to be a pushover, at the end of the day it looks like he was still someone rightfully in ss A. Though he was far from the best in the ss, it was still a fact there were hundreds of students below his rank.


    His sword shot toward me like a spear.


    Yet, at the same time, his fighting style just felt way too prim and proper.


    I let his de m into my hilt before pushing it away.


    Like all the other nobles.


    A bright smile formed on my face while my hand reached out toward his face.


    Theycked cruelty.


    Sam''s eyes widened as he paled. He looked at me like I was some sort of beast, which I personally found a little rude.


    But of course, I decided to give him his deserved-


    Ah, wait.


    Suddenly I stopped my hand, letting my smile fall.


    I forgot this was a spar.


    Instead, I ducked down and lowered my hand.


    Because I wasn''t fighting this battle alone in the first ce.


    Nathan''s knee pressed hard against my back. His eyes flew wide open as he basically threw himself and the spear at Sam. A neutral frown remained on his face the entire time.


    Sam saw iting, but the fear had dulled his reaction speed.


    And so, a loud thump resounded.


    Sam cried out in pain as he recoiled backwards, hitting the ground loudly as a purple bruise formed on his forehead.


    "Sam is out!"


    He would probably beining at this point if it wasn''t for the fact he had been directly knocked unconscious.


    But still, while we won here, it didn''t change the fact it was still a three-on-three. Charlotte looked rather fancy by holding off two people, but at the end of the day she wasn''t able tond a hit on them, so they were still at a standst-


    "Louis is out!"


    "You blundering fool! Why did you strike me?"


    Huh. Louis, who was one of our opponents, was hit by his ally, another noble.


    "Apologies!"


    The other noble apologized, but there was still a frown on Louis'' face as he walked off. It wasn''t the nicest attitude, but at least he didn''t make a scene like Sam always does.


    Um, I guess it was a three-on-two now.


    This seemed to be a byproduct of nobles not knowing how to fight with one another effectively. The true culmination of that was Charlotte though. Honestly, I have no idea where she learned to fight like that. It made her seem like an uncontroble wild animal.


    and the other noble were both panicking somewhat while they fended off Charlotte''s strikes.


    Her use of the greatswords was both barbaric, yet ingenious in a way.


    While she treated them as weapons, she also used theirrge size as shields as well. When one strike would go out, the other would cover the more unguarded side of her before quickly bing an attack of its own.


    Of course, there were weaknesses to doing things like this, but  and the other noble didn''t know them.


    Nathan and I looked at each other with our weapons raised. Then, we lowered them and just watched Charlotte do her thing. It wasn''t that we were just leaving her out to dry, but rather the fact that trying to fight in tandem with Charlotte was basically impossible.


    And so, We just stood there and watched the stalemate going on for what felt like hours. Rae continually called out names as people continued to get eliminated one after another. Something I noticed was that noble teams always won against themoner ones.


    It made logical sense, since nobles were better fed and were actually taught the proper techniques.


    I didn''t care too much about it though.


    Most people were rather awkward while they were fighting, too afraid to close the distance because they didn''t want to get hit and called out. This made the overall pace of the battles on the slow side, but since it only took one hit, it could only go on for so long.


    About a third of eliminations were actually based on friendly attacks rather than enemies. It wasn''t as though anyone was particrly bad at fighting, not even Arianne.


    However, the aspect of teamwork seemed far too much for them.


    "Hah... Hah... Hah..."


    Charlotte began panting like a horse. Sweat had already drenched her short orange hair, making it press tly against her head. Ordinarily, nobles didn''t like to go so far that they began sweating, so this was strange within the realm of nobles.


    But for Charlotte, this was only natural.


    Her opponents, both  and the other guy were also tired but were at most breathing a little faster rather than panting as though on the verge of death like Charlotte. At this point, both Nathan and I began walking closer.


    Charlotte was clearly running on fumes at this point, but how fast she swung her greatswords remained exactly the same. I noticed that Rae was looking at Charlotte with a bit of a frown, clearly not favoring how she fought.


    And as expected, it was eventually too much for her.


    However, Charlotte didn''t gradually slow down. From how vigorously she fought, there were no signs of fatigue.


    Yet like her strings were cut, the greatswords suddenly fell out from her hands as she fell face-first.


    Right at that moment, both Nathan and I sprung forth, thrusting our weapons swiftly.


    Both  and the noble werepletely caught off-guard. Just when they thought they could rx because of Charlotte falling, two thuds rang out.


    The two of themnded on their butts.


    " and Bard are out!"


    Nathan and I shed smiles at each other.


    A strategy we had employed before when ying this shitty game was actually what we had just done. Instead of trying to join in on the fight with Charlotte, we wait just behind her area of attack before lunging at the moment she inevitably falls to the ground exhausted.


    Despite having two greatswords and an incredibly aggressive fighting style, she ironically fits the role of a guardian.


    Rae looked over at us withplicated expressions but brushed it off shortly after. By now, everyone hade to, including Sam, though he was rubbing his forehead in pain.


    There was a strict expression on Rae''s face.


    "All of you have at least a somewhat eptable standard for fighting individually, however, the grand majority of you are incrediblycking when ites to fighting as a team. What do you think will happen if you are out on the battlefield and identally hit an ally? Do you think you will have time to convince them it was an ident before they turn on you?"


    She let out a sigh.


    "Far too many of the eliminations were done by a friendly hand. Of course, none of you meant it, but nobody will want to be allied with someone that has in one that has fought with them, purposefully or not. From now on, we will be starting from the ground up and learning how to fight alongside someone else."


    From there, Rae pointed at Charlotte with a small frown.


    "And you, how can you be so reckless when you have teammates with you? Even after eliminating a friendly yer, you continued with that recklessness, not even bothering to check if one of your allies were nearby. And yet, you were unable to get a single elimination yourself!"


    Charlotte was on the floor, but looked up as the teacher lectured her. Unlike her normal stubbornness, she looked down with a soft frown.


    "Sorry..."


    Rae looked like she had more to say, but decided against it upon seeing Charlotte''s reaction. She took a deep breath.


    "That''s all for ss today. I hope most of you reflect on how you could''ve worked with your allies better."


    She was definitely a little too strict about this whole thing overall. I mean, all things considered, we weren''t even that experienced in the first ce and weren''t even taught how to fight with others.


    If it were say ss B that were required to do this, the rates of friendly eliminations would probably be far higher.


    But I guess it may have been that she was angry at some other ss for not learning this properly and transferred that anger onto this ss.


    Nathan and I were about to leave, but someone called out in our direction.


    "U-Um,moner? Could you help me?"


    It was Charlotte, who was still on the ground. She had an awkward smile on her face. From ying the game, we knew that whenever Charlotte went all out like this, she would copse right after and be unable to move for at least a few hours.


    That was enough to know she wasn''t faking it to garner sympathy.


    As for Nathan, he had a ratherplicated expression. I could tell there were several voices screaming in his head not to help her and just leave. If he did end up helping, then the already bad harassment would simply get worse.


    Yet-


    "Fine. But only to your carriage. Get your servants to do the rest."


    Charlotte smiled brightly.


    "Ok!"


    Nathan went over to give her a piggyback ride.


    "Your arms are probably dead tired, but your legs should be able to hold on at least."


    Charlotte proceeded to wrap her legs around his waist, while Nathan grabbed onto her limp arms and brought them over her shoulders.


    Raisa looked at that while holding onto her head. She stumbled over to me with a simr awkward smile.


    "C-Could you help me too?"


    A bitter smile formed on my face. It would be too much to reject her after Nathan was so amodating, as tempting as it was.


    "Alright, but only the shoulder."


    Raisa was visibly confused about what I meant, so I decided to just show her by taking her arm and cing it on my shoulder so she could use it for support. From there, we walked out.


    And we were close enough to overhear Charlotte talking.


    "Hey,moner, was she right? That I don''t fight properly?"


    Nathan smirked, but not in a mocking way.


    "Of course she was."


    Charlotte let out a sad hum.


    "Then... should I learn a different way of fighting?"

 Chapter 64: Pretty Cool

    <h4>Chapter 64: Pretty Cool</h4>


    After Charlotte posed that question, I turned to look at Nathan. Though Rae''s strict lecture about friendly fire had also happened in the story, there wasn''t actually an option to console her or give advice.


    Because the protagonist wasn''t supposed to be able to even attract her this early in the first ce. But ironically enough it wasn''t even Nathan that did it, but the actual protagonist, Natan, that had somehow wooed her.


    Charlotte''s eyes seemed to sparkle somewhat, while her lips formed a small frown. Unlike her normal stubbornness, she seemed quite vulnerable at this point. Despite not looking at her, I''m pretty sure Nathan could tell, as a somewhat serious expression appeared on his face.


    I wondered what he would say.


    After letting out a sigh, Nathan spoke.


    "You''re asking if your fighting style is bad?"


    Charlotte hesitated before responding.


    "Y-Yes."


    Nathan closed his eyes and responded relentlessly.


    "Of course it''s bad, isn''t that much obvious from what happened today?"


    Charlotte let out a sad hum.


    "I-I see. I guess I should change it."


    The corner of my lip twitched. From what I knew, this was definitely not something that he should''ve said. While Charlotte''s fighting style indeed was reckless, it still works. That much was clear from the results of the battle. We were basically able to take down two people effortlessly with her overbearing distraction.


    While ying with her would frequently make us rather pissed off because of the friendly fire damage, it still didn''t change the fact that she was a rather strong asset. Despite her personality, she was quite powerful in both magic and in physical strength. And that fighting style was just how she worked.


    But this was his decision anyway, so I decided not to interfere. Yet, right when I thought that he was just going to leave it at that...


    Nathan raised an eyebrow.


    "Huh? When did I say to change it?"


    Charlotte''s eyes widened slightly in confusion.


    "Eh? But you said it was bad."


    Nathan frowned rather deeply. It was almost like he was pouting like a spoiled child.


    "Yeah, it''s bad, but that''s just how you''ve learned to fight, right?"


    Charlotte let out a small gasp, pushing herself up slightly.


    "W-Wah! How did you know?"


    Nathan rolled his eyes as a wry smile formed on his face.


    "That much is obvious from how different it is from everyone else."


    Charlotte tilted her head to the side slightly and shifted her position on her piggyback ride.


    "Oh..."


    Nathan took a deep breath.


    "Of course, if you''re working with people that don''t understand what you''re like, there''s no chance you will be contributing in a good way. But with people that have realized how you are and have figured out ways to work around it, then you''ll be... a reliable partner."


    Charlotte blinked a few times. It seemed she wasn''t really getting the message.


    "Is... that a good thing?"


    Nathan let out a long sigh, trying to settle down his irritation.


    "Ok, ok, let me say it like this. You probably never get to know, because all you''re doing is just swinging your swords around like an absolutely mindless barbarian, without even looking back once."


    He smirked.


    "But looking at your back from afar is incredibly reassuring. You swing those greatswords keeping all the threats at bay, like a protector. So long as I remain behind you, and you''re still standing, then I won''t have to worry about a thing."


    Nathan paused.


    "And... I guess that''s pretty cool."


    Charlotte blushed fairly hard and pressed her head down against Nathan''s shoulder. Her voice came out muffled.


    "M-Mh. I-I already knew that idiot! You... don''t have to tell me."


    She squirmed rather intensely, prompting Nathan to yell at her.


    "Stop moving so much! At this rate, you''re going to fall!"


    Charlotte calmed down somewhat but was still incredibly flustered. Raisa whispered to me with a confused expression.


    "Is he serious?"


    I guess she didn''t see her as that amazing after experiencing the friendly-fire queen firsthand. With a bitter smile, I whispered back.


    "Um, he''s definitely exaggerating a little bit. But... it''s not exactly a lie."


    Though to be honest, I felt like that kind ofpliment was more fitting for a guy, but it seemed Charlotte wasn''t bothered by that kind of thing. The two of them continued on silently.


    When it dide time for Charlotte to be sent off on her own, she ended up resisting getting off. At the end of the day, there was almost no power in her arms, so she was essentially just dangling from Nathan with her legs wrapped around his waist.


    Charlotte was throwing a tantrum, rocking back and forth. Nathan nearly lost his bnce several times, and was yelling rather loudly at her while desperately trying to stay on his two feet.


    I watched silently with Raisa next to me.


    A soft breath escaped me.


    "He always does this..."


    Raisa turned to me with a questioning look.


    "Huh? What do you mean?"


    Aplicated expression formed on my face.


    "I suppose the best way to put it is that his personality always gets him into trouble he doesn''t want. This isn''t the first time that someone has stuck to him like this."


    Iughed and put a hand in my pocket.


    "He couldn''t even tell that girl liked him at the time. In his mind, she was just an incredibly annoying friend. When I tried to bring it up with him, he thought I was lying to him for the longest time. It was only when she ended up confessing right to his face that he believed me."


    Raisa''s lips parted ever so slightly.


    "S-So, what happened after that?"


    It took me a little while to respond.


    "Things didn''t work out between them."


    Raisa had sped both her hands together, rubbing them back and forth slowly.


    "Is that so?"


    She looked at me with a bit of hesitation. Feeling the conversation was more or less over, I decided this was a good time to leave. Yet, when I took a step forward, she ended up grabbing onto my arm.


    "Wait, would you like toe over to my manor? I... I held off on asking yesterday!"


    I turned to look at her strangely.


    "Right now? Isn''t there like some sort of process that nobles have to go through?"


    Raisa pouted.


    "But you said before that there''s no need to prepare between friends!"


    I blinked a few times. Hm. After thinking back, it does appear that those words did in facte out of my mouth.


    "Then..."


    The first thing that came to mind was if I coulde into contact with her father. Since he was an incredibly greedy man that wanted topletely devour other nobles, it would probably be pretty easy to talk to him. After all, if the biggest desire of someone was known from the start, there were many tricks you could do to tiptoe around it to get other things you wanted.


    "...Alright, let''s just go."


    But it would probably be better to slowly break down some barriers before trying to push for anything big. For starters, I should discreetly urge her to break some rules so she voluntarily does it herself.


    After breaking some simple ones, she wouldn''t find it too jarring to break some bigger ones. At that point, I may not even need to beat around the bush and can directly ask her to do some things.


    And eventually-


    "Bryson? Come on, let''s go!"


    "Ah, right."


    Raisa dragged me along with one hand. A bright and innocent smile formed on her face. Yet, before we got to her carriage.


    "What do you think you''re doing, your Highness?"


    Jess interrupted, grabbing onto Raisa''s wrist. Thatst part came out rather forcefully, as though she really wanted to make Raisa''s status as an archduke clear. There was a nasty frown on her face, and while her eyebrows were arched downwards so far they appeared to be digging graves.


    A tired and annoyed expression formed on Raisa''s face.


    "Excuse me. I''ve decided to go on an excursion with my friend. This matter is unrted to you, Jess Arden, so why don''t you let go?"


    She emphasized the friend part rather antagonistically. Jess narrowed her eyes, while the frown on her face deepened.


    "This matter involves an Arden family member visiting the predatory Darcy family. The difference in status makes it crystal clear that you are using your power to oppress others into agreeing with you."


    Raisa grit her teeth.


    "What! I never..."


    She started off incredibly enthusiastic but gradually lost the power in her voice as a realization came over her. That I may have only been agreeing to be with her in the first ce because she was an archduke.


    Honestly, I felt she was rather stupid for not thinking about it before, but from the lost expression on her face, it appeared to be some world-shattering revtion. She looked at me with a pleading expression.


    "Y-You really don''t have toe if you don''t want to, I just wanted to extend the invitation!"


    Jess narrowed her eyes.


    "That''s difficult to believe when the daughter of an archdukeys their hand on another."


    Raisa flinched before letting my arm go, prompting Jess to do the same. Still distressed, Raisa bit the bottom of her lip before looking at me with sparkling eyes.


    "W-Was I really being forceful?"


    I blinked a few times. Honestly, Jess was somewhat working against my ns. In my opinion, brazenly going against Jess and agreeing to go with Raisa like this was some shitty love story felt like too much.


    While I doubt Raisa would catch onto anything, people with a discerning eye on the outside may catch onto the strangeness of how willing I was. In particr, I was worried about her father noticing, even if he wasn''t here.


    But... at the same time, this was like good cop bad cop. The juxtaposition between the two of our attitudes will make her more willing to trust me, so this was still a win in the end.


    A helpless smile formed on my face.


    "Maybe we cane to apromise. I don''t feel any hostile intentionsing from Raisa, but Jess probably doesn''t agree with that sentiment. What if instead, we both go out to the slums to hand out food as we did two days ago?"


    Raisa looked disappointed, but that onlysted for a second before she nodded enthusiastically.


    "Ok!"


    Jess looked between the two of us several times. From the look on her face, it wasn''t hard to tell she still didn''t like it when I had any interaction with Raisa, but it seemed she was still intimidated by the difference in status.


    "...Fine."


    And so, Raisa ended uping with us to our manor, much to her servants'' surprise. When we reached there, we only took a few moments to set everything up and set off once more to the slums.


    Despite the fact I had been here not too long ago, it felt like a while since I had been here. In the back of my mind, I suddenly remembered needing to contact the Honest Truth cult and tell them about the results of using Dark Arts.


    However, I couldn''t figure out what memory I had lost. It was surprisingly hard to recall a lost memory. Though, I guess that made a lot of logical sense since a forgotten memory was unrecable in the first ce.


    Once we had gotten there, I got off the carriage and got ready to get a chair out of the carriage, but I ended up meeting another familiar face before I could start.


    Bernie.


    He had a solemn look as he stood there, with his arms behind his back.


    Raisa and Jess both frowned deeply when they saw him. Although they hated each other, it seemed their hate for this guy was greater. Raisa pointed at him.


    "Did you not remember his words? You are hereby banned from sitting at this table!"


    Jess narrowed his eyes.


    "Step. Away. From my brother."


    Bernie slowly raised one hand silently, bringing the attention to himself.

 Chapter 65: Puppet With No Strings

    <h4>Chapter 65: Puppet With No Strings</h4>


    To be honest, I didn''t really want to talk to Bernie. However, it seemed like there was something he was determined to say, so I decided to let him go through with it. When the others were about to object, I cleared my throat, speaking before they had the chance to.


    "Let''s just hear him out."


    Jess and Raisa both frowned, but it seemed like they were at least willing to do that much.


    Bernie closed his eyes, mulling over how to start for a few seconds. Then, he slowly opened them.


    "Upon reflecting on my actions, I have realized that they were out of hand."


    Jess raised an eyebrow.


    "You truly needed this much time to tell that yelling and throwing the food that was given to you at the person that provided it was out of hand? Are you that empty-headed?"


    Bernie took in a deep breath before nodding.


    "Yes. I am that empty-headed."


    Raisa clicked her tongue.


    "So then why are you still here? If you''ve realized that, then you should leave!"


    The corner of Bernie''s lip twitched, but he did not lose hisposure. His eyelids fluttered as he lowered his head ever so slightly.


    "I am here to apologize."


    He put a fist above his heart and gave a formal bow like he was on stage or something.


    "I realize that my actions have been blindly arrogant and foolish. For that, I wish to say sorry."


    I raised an eyebrow as I looked at this man. He seemed to be rather slow if he was that blinded by rage. Chances are, this less-than-favorable side of him probably contributed to why the farming spell he created got so restricted.


    But at the very least, it seemed he was someone that could reflect.


    After letting out a soft sigh, I responded.


    "So what?"


    Bernie gave me a gaze while dazed.


    "Excuse me?"


    I raised one hand up and held it out to the side.


    "I never asked you to apologize to me. If you can recall, I said to apologize to the chefs, the farmers, and the maid."


    He blinked a few times.


    "Um... which farmer?"


    Well. I dunno.


    And there was no realistic way for him to know either.


    Realistically, I should have taken a step back here, but...


    "Every farmer. They have all taken part in providing for the kingdom."


    At this point, even Raisa and Jess looked at me with somewhat bbergasted expressions. Bernie remained rooted at the spot, staring at me rather intently. This situation almost made me forget that Bernie was the one being condemned and not me.


    ...Were they waiting for me to take that back? Considering how big the kingdom was, that definitely was way too far.


    A maid sheepishly spoke to me.


    "U-Um, Lord Bryson that is rather..."


    The corner of my lip twitched. Well, this is somewhat embarrassing.


    "Ok, Ok, maybe in-"


    "I understand."


    Bernie closed his eyes before furrowing them rather intensely. A deep frown formed on his face while the fist above his heart grabbed onto his shirt rather tightly.


    "This is the only suitable punishment for someone that so willingly neglects the efforts of those that work so tirelessly. When I am finished, I wille back to personally apologize to the chefs and maid."


    He let out a soft sigh.


    "And perhaps then, I will be able to properly apologize to you."


    Without another word, Bernie had left.


    This guy... he wasn''t actually going to apologize to every single farmer, right?


    From what I remember Nathan had told me, there were like, eighteen thousandmoners. Even if every family averaged six people, which was a gross overestimate, he would have to go to three thousand different doors to apologize to them.


    Hm.


    Yeah, I probably should''ve stopped him earlier, especially when he''s one of those hardheaded kinds of people. Yet, at the same time, he was never going to be an important asset if his emotional intelligence was that low.


    I couldn''t say anything about his theoretical intelligence since he was known in the game for making new spells, but still. He was an oblivious genius at best.


    After the man had left silently, Jess spoke with a hint of confusion.


    "Will he truly go to every singlemoner to apologize?"


    Raisa narrowed her eyes.


    "As if. He only shamelessly dered that after realizing it would be too damaging to his image should he decline."


    Jess turned to Raisa with an appalled look.


    "Isn''t he amoner though?"


    Raisa blinked a few times.


    "One''s pride is more than enough for people to do the unthinkable."


    The corner of Jess''s lip turned up.


    "Ah, of course. I forgot the proof of that is right in front of me."


    Raisa narrowed her eyes.


    "...Don''t go too far."


    I massaged my temple with the tip of my finger.


    "Ok, ok, I didn''t bring you guys here just to fight the entire time."


    Although this good cop bad cop thing was still going on, listening to their voices made me feel tired even though it was still early in the evening. The two of them were still ring at each other but eventually calmed down enough.


    They saw me helping to set up, thus tried to follow my example, but they were generally rather clueless and didn''t do much before everything was already finished. I took my seat as always, while Raisa and Jess began arguing once more about seating arrangements.


    "What could I possibly aplish by sitting one seat closer? Hardly anything changes!"


    Jess frowned, momentarily stumped by that question.


    "And what if you were to drug him by taking advantage of your position?"


    The two of them continued on until eventually, Raisa was able to convince Jess, but that was on the condition that should anything happen, she was required to stay far away from me at all times.


    That sounded strict, but it was a strange amount of trust considering it was very easy for a single event to ruin someone''s entire life.


    Huh. Now that I was sitting with two girls to either side of me, I felt kinda like a yboy. But at the same time, I couldn''t really get embarrassed over it because one of those girls was literally my sister.


    At some point, Arianne showed up, walking to the seat directly across from me. She looked at me awkwardly for a few moments, with a small trembling frown.


    "A-Am I allowed to sit here?"


    I looked at her nkly. Why the hell was she asking? Didn''t you sit here without uttering a word before?


    "You never needed permission in the first ce, and you knew that. Just sit if you want to."


    "O-Ok."


    Arianne gave a quick nod before taking a seat.


    I looked around and noticed that other than a few people giving nces, nobody approached the table once more. A part of me felt quite defeated, as it really didn''t feel like I was making any progress whatsoever.


    It made me wonder what exactly the rumors were about that made them this afraid. Or was it because of thebined presence of Raisa and my sister that made them afraid?


    ...How long would this continue for?


    Was it that crazy to give me a single chance? The food clearly wasn''t poisoned as I was eating it every single damn day. What else could be holding them back?


    Or do they really just don''t need the food?


    Maybe I stationed myself in a more affluent part of the slums? As strange as that sounds.


    I let out a long sigh after taking in a mouthful of pottage.


    "Hm... am I just being an idiot? No, no that can''t b-"


    "Good person!"


    After being interrupted, I raised an eyebrow. Then, I turned over to look over my shoulder. And as I expected, I saw a familiar-looking boy that would brazenly express his opinions. However, there was a... fearful expression on his face.


    "Get away from the really bad person! Quickly!"


    I narrowed my eyes slightly in interest. Clearly, he was referring to either Jess or Raisa, but I wasn''t sure which. A smile formed on my face.


    "Who is the bad person?"


    The boy pointed towards Raisa.


    "That one!"


    Raisa had also turned around by now and was taken aback by what the boy had said. She visibly recoiled, putting a hand over her heart and gasping.


    "W-What? I''m not a bad person!"


    The boy looked back at her with a neutral frown and hollow eyes. It was somewhat frightening as he looked like a doll from a horror movie.


    "Not bad person. Really bad person. Really, really bad."


    Jess looked a bit confused by this kid, and probably believed the basis of his logic was wed but nodded in agreement.


    "You are right, you have good judgment."


    I rubbed my chin in thought. To be honest, while Raisa does end up bing an absolute menace further into the story, she seemed like a rtively innocent girl right now. As such, I had no idea why the boy was seeing her as such a bad person, he went as far as to emphasize using really several times.


    Clearly, it didn''t go off the more traditional moralpass of good and evil. After all, he considered Arianne a bad person and me a good person.


    But that begged the question, what exactly was the criteria?


    "Hey, kid. Why is she a bad person?"


    "Really bad person."


    He corrected me, prompting me to chuckle.


    "Ok, why is she a really bad person?"


    The kid frowned before tilting his head to the side. He thought for a little while before answering.


    "A puppet with no strings!"


    ...Huh? What the fuck was that supposed to mean?


    I looked to my left and right to see if it was just me, but Jess and Raisa looked equally confused, but they soon got over it by believing it to be the ramblings of a child. And chances are, I would''ve too.


    If it wasn''t for the fact I had seen how scary specific this little guy was in determining Arianne''s characteristics, I wouldn''t have thought twice.


    I gestured toward him with a smile.


    "This may be a really bad person, but they aren''t dangerous right now."


    Raisa looked at me like she was betrayed, but I ignored her. The boy puffed up his cheeks.


    "How does that make any sense? Bad people are dangerous!"


    From there, I raised my finger casually.


    "Sometimes you have to learn to know when bad people are dangerous and use the safe times to find a way against how dangerous they are."


    The kid fell into thought for a moment. Jess furrowed her brows and narrowed her eyes as she directed her gaze toward me.


    "Brother, what are you talking about?"


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "I''m not too sure myself. Just go along with it."


    The kid scratched the side of his head before sucking in a cold breath.


    "Ok! I will try if you say so!"


    He walked towards us like a rigid robot but had his eyes dead set on Raisa like she would suddenly jump out and eat him at any point in time. Once he had reached just a few meters away, he froze up.


    "...I don''t want toe any closer! It''s too scary!"


    I scratched the side of my head.


    "You don''t have toe closer if you don''t want to."


    Opposite to my expectations, he took a step forward.


    "I feel a little safer when you say that!"


    A bitter smile formed on my face. It seemed that the logic this kid worked off was incredibly strange. But for some reason, that made him feel a bit endearing to me.


    "Then what would I have to do to make you feel safe? Other than getting rid of the bad person."


    The boy lowered his head in thought for a few moments, before raising it with confidence.


    "You have to protect me!"


    Pretty much everyone here was looking at me like I was stupid for ying into this, but I didn''t really care.


    "Alright then."

 Chapter 66: Buisness Relationship

    <h4>Chapter 66: Buisness Rtionship</h4>


    In the end, I found myself sitting at the table with the strange kid in myp. To be honest, this wasn''t veryfortable with me, being some sort of budget Santa. Yet, apparently, it was the only way that this little guy was willing to sit with us while Raisa was here.


    Regardless, he was still ring at Raisa the entire time while grabbing onto part of my shirt almost like I was a weapon he could use to defend himself.


    The chefs were rather confused, but still prepared another and ced the bowl in front of me. After ncing back and forth between Raisa and the food in front of him, he eventually went to the food and began eating it.


    Raisa let out an exasperated sigh. She rested her head against the table while looking over at us.


    "But why is he so insistent on me being a bad person? I have a reputable image among themoners!"


    The kid stopped eating for a moment to shoot her a dirty nce.


    "Stringless doll! ss doll with no strings!"


    Once again, he brought up hisparison of a doll with no strings, but this time he added the detail of ss. This made Raisa''s eyes fly open. At first, I had no idea why that surprised her, but then I remembered.


    She told me before that she felt like ss.


    With a bitter expression, she nced at me.


    "Did you tell this kid about me?"


    Before I could respond, the kid disdainfully clicked his tongue.


    "I don''t need to be told that you''re a stringless ss doll! It''s super duper obvious just by looking at you."


    Raisa pressed her lips into a line. She looked rather depressed, but it seemed to be more because she was confused about why this kid didn''t like her. Without another word, he continued eating.


    With a small smile, I pet his ck hair.


    Saying that it wasn''t smooth was an understatement. It was caked with dirt, while the hairs themselves were dry and stiff. He clearly hadn''t taken a shower or bath in quite a while, but that didn''t seem to bother him.


    It definitely was not nice to stroke. To be more urate, it was honestly a little gross.


    But I didn''t stop, continuing to do so while the kid ate his meal.


    Raisa stared at me longingly as a faint blush formed on her cheeks.


    "You... look a lot like a father."


    I tilted my head to the side as my eyesnded on her.


    "Is that so? That''s quite ironic since it''s going to be a long ass time before I be one, assuming I do in the first ce."


    Raisa pouted and rubbed her index finger along the table.


    "Well... maybe it won''t be too long."


    I rolled my eyes and smirked.


    "Yeah, maybe. If you think about it, the heat death of the universe isn''t too far off either."


    Both Raisa and Jess looked at me strangely.


    "Huh?"


    "What?"


    I put a fist to my mouth and coughed.


    "Uh, nothing."


    The kid scoffed before ring at Raisa disdainfully.


    "Stop questioning the good person, bad person!"


    Arianne had remained rather silent for most of this time, but she was looking at Raisa curiously.


    "I... I might be wrong, but I don''t think Raisa is a bad person. No matter how I look at it, I can see her as evil."


    The kid frowned.


    "Hmph! You don''t have to believe me!"


    Out of curiosity, I tapped the boy''s forehead. When he looked up at me, I directed my finger toward Jess.


    "Say, is she a bad or good person?"


    Jess looked at him curiously, wondering what he had to say. The boy looked at her for a good few seconds before tilting his head to the side.


    "Mm... confusing. I think she is a bad good person!"


    My eyelid twitched. What was that even supposed to mean?


    It seemed that most of the others had the same sentiment as me. With a small smile, I probed.


    "What do you mean by that?"


    The kid rubbed his chin and kicked his legs back and forth, awfully close to mming his heels against my calves.


    "She is almost a good person. Trying to be good, but bad at it."


    Jess seemed somewhat off put by that answer, but smiled in the end.


    "Hah. It seems you do have a good eye for people. What is your name, child?"


    The kid smiled brightly.


    "Gray!"


    I gave a nod.


    "Ah, so your name is Gray."


    Jess shot me a puzzled look.


    "You didn''t know his name? But you sound familiar with him."


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "I never asked."


    Jess gave me a nk stare.


    "Ok..."


    While Raisa was staring at the boy, on some whim, she reached out towards his head, probably wanting to pet his head as I did. However, before she even got close, Gray knocked her hand away and frowned.


    "Stop! Get away from me, stringless ss puppet!"


    Raisa was clearly quite upset but didn''t argue back, probably because it was a child, and the words of a child were never taken too seriously.


    After finishing his meal, he got out of his seat and scurried away, but not before giving me a wild wave and saying goodbye. After his departure, it felt strangely quiet. However, that didn''tst for long as Nathan and Edward had both made their way over to us, looking rather worse for wear.


    Regardless, there was still a bright smile on Nathan''s face, even as his eyelids threatened to drop down and send him into a long slumber.


    He sat down next to Arianne, but wasn''t really focused on her, instead looking at me.


    "Hey, I''ve been thinking about ways to keep the money we''ve been earning safe, and the only real way I''ve thought of is giving it to you. Frankly, hiding it is practically impossible given how robbers practically tear up the entire ce to find things."


    Edward was also carrying along a pig that had been drained of its blood. He set it down carelessly, with a loud thump, after which a few servants picked it up and put it into the carriage. From there, he pulled out a seat and practically copsed into it. His eyes were unfocused. As for the issue of money, he didn''t seem to care in the slightest.


    He isn''t doing this because Jess is here, right? Wait, he probably would''ve done this anyway as he did need someone to hold onto his money, so I''m just overthinking it.


    I returned my attention to Nathan and gave him a nod.


    "Alright, I''ll hold onto it. But you should still keep a little bit on you for emergencies."


    Nathan waved his hand before handing me a satchel of gold coins. From what I could tell, there were about two hundred gold coins within.


    "I already took that into ount. Don''t worry about it."


    I reached over to grab it then pocketed it without another word. The entire time, Jess furrowed her brows while looking back and forth between the two of us. She had concerns, but Raisa was the first to interject.


    "Eh? You are able to simply trust him with the money you''ve made that easily? Do you... have some sort of ckmail against him?"


    Nathan looked at her and raised his brow.


    "I trusted him because I wanted to. Why are you trying to make things moreplicated than they really are?"


    Jess couldn''t help but bring up her own question as well.


    "Since when have you two had this rtionship? I only recall seeing youe to our manor one time. Is my brother... perhaps ckmailing you?"


    My eyelid twitched.


    "Why do you guys keep defaulting to ckmail? You make it sound like it''s impossible to have a business rtionship without it."


    The two of them proceeded to look at me as though I was stupid. Raisa cautiously answered.


    "I thought... that''s the only way business rtionships worked."


    I thought she was rather stupid for saying it but...


    "I believe that is true. From my experience, it has only been like that."


    Jess, for what felt like the first time, agreed with Raisa. It made me look kinda stupid instead.


    I let out a sigh.


    "Well, it''s not. Just ept that much, alright? There are exceptions to everything."


    From there, I opened the bag to take a peek inside, wondering if they were all gold coins, or if there were others mixed in. But it turns out that they were actually just all gold coins. Raisa had caught a nce as well while I was closing it back up, before looking at Nathan with wide eyes.


    "If you have this level of wealth, then you can easily acquire a noble manor and be a baron if you wish! You can rise up greatly from your status as amoner."


    Hm... but it doesn''t sound like it would actually be able to do that much as of now. After all, this was only twenty meals worth of money. Surely if he could keep this consistent earning amount then being a noble was probably feasible, but that was probably more trouble than it was worth.


    Nathan appeared to agree with this sentiment as he rolled his eyes.


    "And what is that supposed to do other than waste the money I''ve gathered and waste my time?"


    Raisa blinked a few times before responding.


    "You would be able to escape this detestable ce and have your higher status publicly known. Is that not the dream of allmoners?"


    Nathan shrugged his shoulders.


    "I dunno. But I could care less."


    Both Raisa and Jess looked at him in confusion. I guess it was iprehensible to them why he was thinking the way he was. And honestly, that was fair enough. After all, they didn''t understand that the actions he was taking were in consideration of saving this doomed kingdom as well as saving the lives of some of the main cast.


    Nathan didn''t seem to care too much about their opinions and instead shook Edward, who had his eyes closed.


    "Hey, if you''re going to fall asleep, go do it at your home."


    Edward let out a weak groan before shaking his head.


    "No, I''m fine... I''m fine..."


    Nathan''s eyelid twitched. A bitter smile formed on his face once more.


    "I told you before that if you can''t take it, then just stop."


    Edward gave a weak nod. Wanting to know more, I asked.


    "What''s happening with him?"


    Nathan clicked his tongue.


    "Turns out this guy can''t absorb too much blood at once or he gets overwhelmed by it. He turns kinda crazy and needs someone to forcefully stop him."


    He proceeded to give Edward a p on the back, which startled him.


    Though Edward himself quickly calmed down, his body reacted rather violently. He let out a groan and gradually began lifting up his arm against his own will. And out of nowhere, veins began appearing all over his arm, bleeding into his own body.


    That was strange, but what made it really strange was that the veins weren''t just blue. Some of them were also bright red, and the two colors inteced over each other chaotically.


    For a moment, he looked like a monster, prompting the guards to draw their swords. But right after, it all suddenly disappeared, and Edward''s arm fell, mming onto the table with a thump.


    Edward himself shook his head and blinked rapidly.


    "Ah... I guess I did overdo it."

 Chapter 67: Beautiful

    <h4>Chapter 67: Beautiful</h4>


    Seeing Edward''s disy, I couldn''t help but chastise him.


    "If it wasn''t for Nathan holding you back, how bad would the problem have be? You may have even be a mass murderer."


    Like how you were in the actual story.


    Edward smiled bitterly and gave a bow to me.


    "I understand. I will try to keep things within eptable bounds."


    Jess pointed at him with curiosity.


    "Is he the manufacturer of the specially processed pale meat?"


    I gave a quick nod.


    "Yeah, it looks like he''s the only one that can make it in this kingdom."


    Jess had a somewhat shocked expression, while Raisa''s eyes lit up. She reached out to him.


    "Hey, can I-"


    "Raisa."


    I cut her off. With a soft sigh, I continued.


    "You aren''t thinking of making a deal with him, are you?"


    Raisa''s expression froze. It looked like her instinct was just to reach out to every chance there was to be profitable. While she was still silent I continued.


    "Just so you know, despite doing all of the important work, this guy only epts the bare minimum as payment. He isn''t like you, seeking every possible chance to increase your wealth further."


    Raisa trembled and looked down to avoid looking at anyone.


    "I... I''m sorry."


    Jess seemed rather surprised that I had said that much, but didn''t linger on it.


    Two bowls arrived and were ced in front of Nathan and Edward. They began eating without another word. It was fairly peaceful, with only the sounds of cking cutlery, and soft chewing. Nobody brought up any conversation, but it wasn''t as though there always had to be someone talking.


    Soon enough, I had finished my meal, though the others were still partway through. While I was contemting whether or not I was hungry enough to have another bowl, I heard someone call out from behind me.


    "Natan, why are you here?"


    I turned to look over my shoulder and saw that it was Minori. Unlike usual, her tone was far less aggressive, however, it felt like she was repressing it rather than that anger disappearing.


    Nathan''s frown deepened while his eyelids fell ever so slightly.


    "Why can''t I be here?"


    Minori''s eyebrow twitched when she heard Nathan''s response. She bit the bottom of her lip anxiously. If I had to guess, she was confused by how different Nathan waspared to the actual protagonist.


    "Why... Why is this happening?"


    She put one hand on her forehead, the fingers digging into her short light-brown hair. Her eyes were a little bloodshot as she red at me.


    "It has to be you! You were the only one that could''ve... that could''ve..."


    I turned back to the front and closed my eyes, ignoring her words. On the other hand, Nathan stood up.


    "Minori. I''ve told you before that the change that happened to me was because of the things I''ve realized. Most of it was on my end, and perhaps the tiniest bit could be because of Bryson. I already told you to stop ming him."


    Practically everyone, except for Minori and me, looked at Nathan in mild shock. Probably because amoner defending a noble like this was pretty rare.


    Minori sped her hands together and tightened her grip until parts of her hands had be white.


    "Then why do you look at me so differently? I-It''s like you hate me!"


    Ah, this is probably something I should''ve mentioned before, but Minori was actually one of Nathan''s most hated characters, only second to the head of the Mage Association. Not because I liked her, but because he just didn''t like anything about her.


    Though we would argue, he wouldn''t bring that fact up too much out of consideration for me.


    Nathan walked around the table, but still remained several meters away from her. He put his hands behind his back. A resolute expression formed on his face.


    "I was going to avoid having this conversation in public, but if you''re going to start it here, then so be it. The reason why I''ve changed like this is that I understood that I can''t just judge people from the first moment I''ve looked at them. Nor can I jump to conclusions just like that."


    He tilted his head to the side ever so slightly.


    "Just like what you are doing right now. Do you really think Bryson is behind every single change in me?"


    Minori became a little hysterical.


    "Then what else could it be?! You were taken by him to his manor and when you came back you didn''t even look in my direction! He must''ve... done something!"


    The servants furrowed their brows and began mumbling to each other, but weren''t all that quiet.


    "Is that true? What did he do?"


    "Ah, for some reason the two of them opened the door while I was using the loo! But... that''s only really hurtful to me."


    "Wait, I remember Lord Bryson treated themoner to a meal, and personally gave up his own food when the chefs tried to serve themoner something inferior."


    Jess turned to me with a confused expression.


    "What did you do when you brought thatmoner to our home?"


    What the fuck was I supposed to say to that? I obviously couldn''t tell the truth that we were nning how to use our future knowledge of this game to overturn this kingdom''s demise.


    Though, while I was panicking, Nathan answered for me.


    "I asked him if I coulde to see what a noble''s life is like. And he epted, then showed me around his entire manor."


    He took in a deep breath before continuing.


    "Minori. For how long will you be blinded by your own visions of the world? Have you even realized that there is a world outside of you, that goes on whether or not you''re there to see it? Have you even considered that there might be something more than what you think is going on in another person''s head?"


    Nathan walked up to Minori, before nkly staring at her face.


    "Have you ever considered that what I''m telling you right now isn''t a lie, but theplete, undistorted truth?"


    Well... it was definitely a little bit of a lie, but-


    Tears began falling from her face. She began to mumble words with difficulty.


    "No... not you too. I thought... I thought at least you would stay with me."


    Minori directly pushed Nathan out of the way and ran towards me.


    "IT''S YOU! IF IT WASN''T FOR YOU! I''LL FUCKING KILL YOU."


    Her words prompted several guards to unsheathe their swords, but ended up hesitating.


    Because the original speed she was running at had died down tremendously. By the time she had actually reached me, it was slower than a snail''s pace.


    Regardless, the guards moved forward, pointing their swords at her.


    "Step away from the table!"


    However, she didn''t listen. Instead, Minori spun my chair around, forcing me to face her. She ced both hands on my shoulders as she cried, her teardrops falling onto my pants.


    "Please... Please bring back the old Natan. You can do anything you want to me and I''ll do whatever you want, just please bring him back to me."


    This... was a rather strange scenario. I should definitely tell her a way to get over this or some sort of resolution.


    But...


    Before I knew it, my left hand gradually went up, and a smile slowly began forming on my face. As gently as I could, I held onto the side of her rough dirty face, brushing my fingers through her stiff hair.


    Now that I think about it, these actions are probably the same thing some disgusting viin in a story would do, before dering their conditions like a devil.


    From how she tensed up, and now everyone was looking at me, except for Nathan, it seemed as though they agreed that was what I was going to do. That I would go on to list some irresistible deal that would never be truly fulfilled, to drag her along before finally breaking her.


    But instead, tears fell down from my face, as a few soft words escaped me.


    "You are so incredibly beautiful."


    Those words came straight from my heart. I almost didn''t realize I was smiling, because of how natural it felt. And almost everyone looked at me as though I was some sort of monster. Only Nathan let out a sigh and shook his head.


    Minori''s eyes widened all the way as she looked into mine. She was shocked, and rightfully so. After all, it was hard to expect some random noble was actually a reincarnation of some nerd that liked her way too much in a video game.


    But there seemed to be something even more shocking to her than my strange response. She paled somewhat before holding onto her stomach in pain. After stumbling away from me, Minori turned and violently vomited onto the floor.


    ...I''m not that ugly, am I?


    She didn''t spend a second longer before running away with all her might. Unfortunately, she ended up tripping,nding face-first on the floor, but immediately picked herself back up and continued running like she was going to die if she didn''t.


    All of the servants with me were terribly confused.


    In particr, Jess and Raisa looked at me as though I was actually a creature that had stolen a human''s skin and was wearing it to blend in. Raisa licked her lips before posing a question.


    "S-She was beautiful to you?"


    I gave a small nod.


    "Yeah."


    The strangeness of that statement was not lost on me. Although Minori wasn''t ugly by any means, there was hardly anythingpelling about her appearance. In fact, she was easily overshadowed by every other character in the main cast who either looked better or had something special in their appearance that made them stand out.


    When I first saw her, I too thought that she was nothing special.


    But now, just looking at her made me feel entranced for some reason.


    Raisa gently touched my arm with the tips of her fingers.


    "W-What about her is beautiful?"


    I blinked a few times.


    "...I don''t know."


    Raisa''s expression twitched. She was incredibly thrown off by my answer. It was at this point I felt myself sobering up, graduallying down from that strange state and returning to normal.


    I tapped my chin a few times.


    "Huh. She was so persistent before, but I was able to chase her away with only one word."


    Nathan went around the vomit and shot me a bitter smile.


    "How much do I have to pay for a lesson?"


    I let out a sigh and held out my hands helplessly.


    "Since I feel generous, I''ll give you a fifty-percent discount. Just give me half your lifespan."


    Without skipping a beat, Nathan responded.


    "Deal."


    The two of usughed, while everyone else looked at us like we were aliens, which wasn''t exactly wrong all things considered. From there, everything went on normally. But everyone except for Nathan and me were still feeling the aftereffects of shock, not really focused on what they were doing.


    Edward was looking at me as though he wanted to burn a hole into me. I thought if I just ignored it, he wouldn''t bring anything up, but when he finished his meal he posed a question to me.


    "Have you known that girl for a while?"


    I scratched the side of my head as an awkward smile formed on my face.


    "Not personally, no."


    Edward simply looked more confused, but didn''t ask further. We soon disbanded the group and tidied everything back up. After saying our farewells, I found myself in the carriage with Jess looking at me like I was some rare animal in the zoo.


    "Although it is not proper for a noble to lust after amoner... I will not stop you."


    The corner of my lip twitched.


    "No, no. To be honest, I don''t think I''ll ever be able to look at her in that way."


    Jess furrowed her brows.


    "Then how do you see her?"


    I chuckled.


    "Maybe it''s like how Raisa put it before. That I appear to be a father."

 Chapter 68: Jeff

    <h4>Chapter 68: Jeff</h4>


    The rest of the night was ufortable, as it always was with Jess''s unreasonable requests. At this point, I decided to think of it as practice for meditating. In a way, I could be considered incredibly diligent if you took away the fact this was against my will. As for the book guy, it didn''t interfere with my dream this time which was honestly a little bit surprising to me.


    Before I knew it, I had already begun climbing up the steps for a new school day.


    Honestly, it felt kind of strange that the better you ced, the further you would have to walk in order to get to your damned ss. It wasn''t something I had really thought of since I didn''t have to do the walking myself, but now that I was, I just felt like it was an incredible pain.


    Once I had reached the fourth floor, I let out a sigh.


    "You are Bryson Arden, correct?"


    I turned to look and noticed that it was a guy that was part way climbing up to the fifth floor. Upon looking at him, I immediately figured out who it was.


    Jeff.


    He was a buff guy just like a jock in ss S and also one year above me. But more importantly, he was the guy trying to court my sister and the guy Nathan hated, albeit not the most out of all the characters.


    "Yes, I am."


    As you could probably tell, the only reason he wanted to talk to me was that I was rted to Jess.


    "So... what is the rtionship between you and your sister?"


    Though, before I could even open my mouth.


    "Do not. Talk to my brother. Jeff."


    Jess, who wasn''t too far behind me, had told him off. I mean we literally came in the same carriage, so I felt Jeff should''ve seen thising. In a sense, their names were quite simr, so one might be able to argue they were meant for each other.


    "S-Sorry, Jess! I just thought it would be better if I got to know your family members, then built good rtions with them, I could get them to convince you to date me!!"


    However, while Jess treated everyone rather bluntly, she was particrly blunt towards Jeff. Apparently, he had tried to court her before but was turned down. Nheless, the man was persistent and kept trying, which pissed her off.


    "How many times do I have to tell you to drop it, Jeff? I have no time for you, and even if I did, I wouldn''t bother with you. This has only involved me, but if you involve my brother and waste his time too, I promise you this will get very ugly."


    And as you could probably tell, they were both very honest with one another, which should''ve made everything rather clear-cut, but...


    "Jess! I... I wasn''t really involving him. It was just a separate matter... that would just so happen to be rted. It''s all a coincidence, I swear!"


    ...It''s not a coincidence if you show you were clearly aware that it wasn''t.


    But all things considered, Jeff wasn''t actually that bad. He would never go too far, but it seemed his brain was still rather hormone-filled as he desperately tried to profess his love to Jess. He was akin to one of those teenage boys that were desperate to get their crush to like them.


    It wasn''t that unfitting of a rtionship, as he was a Marquis, which was one rank below Duke. But I guess it was actually that reason that kept him going, as he thought the reason he was rejected was because of his status.


    Unfortunately, while Jess was still a noble through and through, she didn''t care that much for status. After all, she would willingly go out with the protagonist if certain conditions were met.


    By the way, one of the prerequisite events for such a thing was to encounter Jess while walking up the stairs.


    However, Nathan never ended up doing that. I would know because Jess and I basically went up this staircase together most of the time. Sometimes one of us would enter first and the other a littleter, but neither of us cared too much about that.


    With a bitter smile, I looked at Jeff.


    "If you really wish to court her, I believe the first thing you have to work on is your attitude."


    Jess seemed against me having a conversation with Jeff, but since I was the one starting it, she only watched on with a re. As for Jeff himself, he looked back at me with shock.


    "Huh? What are you talking about?"


    I let out a long sigh.


    "Do you really think she''s going to like someone that pisses her off all the time? Even if you continue to profess your love, it will only backfire after you''ve done it too much. The first thing you have to learn is to moderate yourself, and secondly think with more than just your lust. She may not even be the right person for you."


    Well, I actually knew that she wasn''t.


    Jeff furrowed his brows, looking rather depressed.


    "What? So all this time I''ve... Ah, shit!"


    Without another word, he hurried on upwards, almost like the faster he got out of our sights, the more it would make up for him bothering her.


    Regardless of how the story would go, Jess would never end up dating Jeff. In fact, after quite some time, Jeff would actually learn to give up himself. Not because he thought it was hopeless, but because he realized that he himself didn''t really like Jess that much.


    Jeff thought he loved her, but it was just lust driving him.


    He got quite depressed over it, but he still did find someone else. Not that it wouldst long, because they would die in almost every ending, but still.


    Once he was gone, Jess let out a sigh.


    "You didn''t have to say anything. I would''ve dealt with it."


    I waved my hand casually.


    "Hey, I was honestly saying it more for his sake. Someone with that kind of look easily confuses their true emotions. It would be better if he moved on sooner."


    Jess blinked several times rather cluelessly.


    "...Yes, I understand."


    If you don''t get it, don''t say you understand. Ah, whatever, it doesn''t really matter anyway. I left without saying farewell as that was how we usually did things and found myself at ss once more.


    Things were the usual. Learning more features about spells in Magic ss, and some spells as well. There was no practical practice today. Then, there was math, where the teacher handed back the results, making some cringe and others sigh in relief. Obviously, Nathan and I easily got full marks.


    We had the same people sitting next to each other, and there was a notable increase in friendly conversation, though it was difficult to hold onto a topic.


    After having lunch, we went directly to English ss, where there was a test. Naturally, there was only elementary stuff. I noticed this wasn''t difficult in the slightest for any nobles judging by their expressions, butmoners other than Nathan struggled rather badly. All of them seemed to panic at one point or another.


    At gym, Rae was rather strict in her lessons, teaching us how to work with our teammates and how to be better aware. There was some information there that was actually pretty insightful, making me pay attention just a little bit more.


    Something that surprised me was that Sam hadn''t kicked up a fuss the entire time, only asionally ring at Nathan. Not that it would actually aplish anything. It appeared he was bottling all his emotions up, and nned on letting it all out in the magic duel he set up with Nathan.


    Upon exiting the school, I found Raisa was calling towards me once more.


    "Um, perhaps you coulde over to my manor today? I-If it isn''t too inconvenient."


    A small smile formed on my face.


    "Ah, well I guess-"


    "It''s too inconvenient."


    Jess decided to finish my sentence with me, ring at Raisa. It appeared as though Jess was really intent on not letting me get closer to any other nobles. She really didn''t have any good impressions of nobles trying to form rtions, and it was for good reason.


    Jess exined the story of how the Darcy family directly absorbed other noble families, leaving the members either dead or penniless. That was reason enough.


    ...But at the same time, she was being a little overprotective.


    With a forced smile, I turned to look at Jess and waved dismissively.


    "I won''t disclose anything nor will I follow her into any forests. They wouldn''t be so bold as to harm me right in their manor."


    Raisa looked quite sad, and weakly stomped against the floor.


    "I would never try to harm you! Manor or not!"


    I narrowed my eyes slightly. The reason why I wished toe over was to try and meet her father.


    "Of course, that may not be the same for your father."


    Raisa opened her mouth to protest but closed it soon after. She faltered but hadn''t given up.


    "I... I won''t let father do anything to you. He... He will at least respect my own requests."


    Jess narrowed her eyes, taking a good look at Raisa. It wasn''t that easy to tell, but I knew Jess was clenching her teeth really hard despite her mouth being closed. Yet, while it seemed like she wouldsh out, instead she sighed.


    "...Fine."


    I had a feeling she was still fairly intimidated by Raisa''s superior status, so she decided not to be so incredibly uptight. As for Raisa, she had an innocent shocked expression, not expecting her to actually concede.


    From there, she immediately grabbed onto my wrist and led me to her carriage.


    "Come on, Bryson!


    Once we got in the carriage, I noticed that she was acting a little giddy, fidgeting around a lot. Naturally, despite how awkward she was making this, I was basically immune to it.


    Because I was meditating, pretending that the outside world didn''t exist.


    ...Damn, if only I did this back on Earth. Well, then again there wouldn''t be any good excuse to meditate for hours on end when there wasn''t mana.


    Though, it seemed Raisa''s energy was simply uncontainable as she ended up speaking anyway.


    "I thought really hard about how to be a friend this time! I definitely did it correctly, just wait to be impressed!"


    ...If you were thinking about it really hard, that means you already messed up.


    Well. I guess I''d see what she had in store this time.

 Chapter 69: Another Application of Mana

    <h4>Chapter 69: Another Application of Mana</h4>


    While meditating on the carriage, I gradually felt something. I could feel something familiar in the distance. However, I couldn''t really tell what it was. The only thing I was pretty sure of, was that this familiar sensation was rted to mana.


    Out of curiosity, I attempted to reach out to it.


    It was quite difficult, but over time I was slowly able to reach out with a tendril of mana. And when I did touch it-


    "Yah"


    Raisa let out a small scream and jumped out of her seat. She looked to the left and right with a panicked expression.


    "Eh? Did you see a bug on the carriage?"


    Ah. I think I understand now.


    "Um, sorry. I think that might''ve been me."


    Raisa looked back at me with an appalled expression.


    "Wha- How were you the one that did that?"


    I scratched the side of my head.


    "There was this familiar sensation that made me curious, so I reached out to it and that happened."


    Raisa fell silent for quite a while. After thinking to herself for quite a while, she rushed up and grabbed onto both my arms with a serious expression. She made sure to speak in a soft, but urgent voice.


    "Don''t talk about this to other people. Let''s stop discussing this for now and go to my room first."


    I gave a small nod. It appeared I had done something even stranger than just manipting someone else''s mana this time.


    Once the carriage did stop, I noticed that the maid looked rather surprised, showing that my visit was probably not expected by most people around here. Nheless, Raisa promptly grabbed me and dragged me all the way to her room.


    Several servants looked at us with confusion, including Raisa''s personal bodyguard, but she told them all to leave and not to bother her. In the end, I found myself in her room.


    As expected of arge house, there were alsorge rooms. There was a ratherrge bed on one side with an overhead curtain, which served a purpose I could not think of. There was even a rtivelyrge dining table with several chairs inside as well, along with a private bathroom.


    Huh. Was it the Arden family that was rtively frugal, or these guys that spent too much? Wait, this was probably because of the difference in rank now that I think about it.


    "Hey."


    Raisa called out to me, breaking me out of my thoughts.


    "Ah, yeah."


    She blinked a few times before taking a deep breath.


    "Shouldn''t you already have known what you were doing was strange? You have studied magic, have you not?"


    My eyelid twitched. In truth, that was Bryson that had done all that. What I knew was still limited to what the game had said about magic (which was very little) and what the teacher had exined to us. After taking a seat at the table, I responded.


    "I guess I thought it was strange, but I haven''t read anything on that kind of thing yet."


    Raisa sat next to me before taking a deep breath, with her brows still furrowed.


    "That''s... really strange you don''t even know this much, but whatever. Originally, people have an incredibly difficult time sensing mana that is near them, but it is said that prestigious mages are able to do it if they are in direct contact with said mana. Those that are a step higher can vaguely sense other people, but only if they are in the process of using mana."


    She let out a sigh.


    "Although nobody has ever heard of a mage manipting someone else''s mana through contact, it isn''t so oundish that one would think it is impossible. However, what you have done hasn''t been something ever recorded, or even thought to be possible. My mana wasying dormant, so you shouldn''t have been able to sense anything in the first ce."


    I raised my eyebrows.


    "Huh. So doing that can actually be considered something pretty cool, huh?"


    The corner of Raisa''s lip twitched.


    "I... suppose you could see it that way, but this really is something you should be keeping a secret. Some people maybel you as a heretic or perhaps a demonic species."


    What? Well, to be fair Bryson wasbeled as a heretic in the story, but that was because he was using Dark Arts extremely recklessly. I felt it was too far to call myself that when this seemed more like a party trick.


    It had the same energy as tapping someone on their right shoulder while quickly ducking to their left and saying, ''Huh? No, I didn''t tap you on the shoulder.''


    I mean seriously, what else was I supposed to do with this ability?


    ...Actually, now that I think about it, that might be quite fu-


    "You aren''t thinking of using it, are you?"


    Raisa interrupted my thoughts, making the smile on my face freeze.


    "Uh... no."


    Raisa''s face twitched as an annoyed smile formed on her face.


    "I told you before that you were bad at lying, why did you even try?"


    Hey,e on! I was told I was good at lying earlier...


    She let out a long sigh.


    "Listen. I''m not telling you this because I''m overly paranoid, ok? I believe that you aren''t some heretic or demon, but other people wouldn''t be as understanding. You seriously have to keep this a secret."


    I gave a small nod.


    "...Alright."


    Man. Why was I getting babied so much by the women around me? Maybe my face was a bit too chubby. But then again, this isn''t my actual body, but Bryson''s. His cheeks are caved in, so that couldn''t be it.


    Unless... she could see that I actually had chubby cheeks despite being in someone else''s body?!


    Wait, why the fuck was I talking about that?


    I couldn''t help but feel strange at Raisa''s strange look.


    "I mean, it''s not like I could actually do anything dangerous with this kind of ability, other than maybe ying pranks."


    Raisa let out a helpless sigh.


    "It''s not about how lethal it is, but if it goes againstmon logic. There are a lot of wizards that could really wreak havoc on the kingdom, but they have few actual restraints put on them."


    Well. She definitely had a point.


    "So... should I just give up on doing things like this then?"


    Hearing my words, Raisa clearly hesitated. It was easy to tell she really wanted to say yes, I should give up. However, there was a part of her that couldn''t. She hesitated before speaking.


    "O-Of course it''s bad, but if that''s the way you like to fi- um, use magic, then I think it''s fine. You... are like a protector and that''s cool!"


    ...


    "Did you really just try and copy what Nathan said before?"


    Raisa blushed rather hard and averted her gaze.


    "Wha! N-No..."


    I pinched the bridge of my nose.


    "For starters, the answer that he gave doesn''t even apply to my situation. They may seem simr in principle, but they really are different things. And second, I was literally right next to you when he said that. Do you really think I forgot?"


    Raisa covered her face with both hands and remained silent. It appeared the embarrassment was too much for her.


    I let out a long sigh.


    She really just tried to hit on me with the monkey see monkey do approach.


    "Whatever, can you just tell your honest opinion about it?"


    Raisa parted her fingers and peeked at me with one eye.


    "You''ll forget about it?"


    My eyelid twitched.


    "I''m not trying to remember, but if you keep bringing it up, then I''ll think about things like how you wet the-"


    "Okaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy!"


    Raisa lunged at me and covered my face with her hands, almost like she was trying to transfer some of the shame she felt to me.


    "I''ll tell you, ok?"


    She took in a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. While her cheeks were still a bit red, she exined it to me without panicking.


    "While it would be heretical for someone without much progress in magic to show this off, that doesn''t mean you can never use this ability in public."


    I raised an eyebrow.


    "Huh? How the hell does that work?"


    Raisa patted her cheeks twice before continuing on.


    "If you be a very reputable mage that is known to be quite strong and has reached the peak in the traditional way, it''s different. After some time, if you suddenly reveal this new ability, people will think that you have just made progress into magic past the peak, and this is only the natural next step."


    I tapped my chin a few times.


    "How do you know all that?"


    Raisa tilted her head to the side.


    "One of my tutors had exined to me the history of magic. Originally, people had only casted spells through t diagrams that could be easily drawn on paper. However, Leo, a mage from long ago, had discovered casting spells without a t diagram. Since he was a mage at the peak, everyone followed his example and came to discover that magic could be far more powerful andplicated, making many different new spells."


    Oh. I guess that''s why there weren''t spell scrolls and instead those weird stones.


    "So you''re saying I should practice it and only reveal that I can after I be the best mage there is?"


    Raisa nodded with a smile.


    "Yeah! That should work."


    A bitter expression formed on my face.


    "...Will that even be possible with my limited supply of mana?"


    Raisa''s expression froze.


    Because I had a point.


    This world was rather cruel in a way, since everyone was born with a certain magical aptitude that would determine their ceiling. Even if I theoretically understood how to cast certain high level spells, I wouldn''t have the mana to actually carry it out.


    That was really shitty, but at the very least this game didn''t make it so the protagonist had no magical aptitude, else that would really be taking it too far. Unfortunately, I was not in the position of the protagonist.


    Raisa blinked a few times before responding.


    "It''s not like it''s impossible to raise your magical aptitude! It may take a while, but you can definitely get there. You don''t necessarily have to be the strongest mage for you to reveal this power and have it backed up by others."


    That sent me into thought. Yes, she definitely wasn''t wrong about raising magical aptitude. However, she was thinking of using elixirs. As for me, it made me think of a rather brutal, but possible way to do it.


    Iridescent stones and crystals.


    To be specific, forcefully imnting it into the body by removing something inside oneself. Essentially, the body would be tricked into thinking that the iridescent stone or crystal was part of the body and automatically attune the mana contained within.


    Depending on the kind of stone or crystal one used, one could increase their own mana regeneration and/or their mana capacity to different extents.


    This wasn''t known to the people in this game because of a very simple reason. It was incredibly brutal. People weren''t just going to test that kind of thing.


    ...I think.


    The only reason I knew this was because the protagonist could use these stones and crystals to increase their magical aptitude at the cost of their health. It wasn''t all that helpful since the protagonist already had a high magical aptitude, but the difference was substantial.


    For a person that had a low magical aptitude, the difference would be enormous.


    In our ythroughs of this game, we would usually use one or two of our more valuable iridescent crystals to have an easier time clearing them. Of course, we also tried not using it to see if there was a different oue, but other than a few changed dialogue lines, there was nothing.


    Just one crystal... could help me tremendously. And it shouldn''t be too hard for me to secure the funds to get it as a noble.


    "Bryson?"


    Raisa called out to me with a worried expression.


    "I could be mistaken, but it appears you are pondering over something dangerous."


    Well. Strictly speaking it was, but if controlled, then it was rtively harmless.


    "There is a way I can think of to increase my magical aptitude, but it will probably be a little bloody."


    Raisa furrowed her brows.


    "Don''t do anything stupid. There are people worried about you, ok?"


    I gave a quick nod.


    "Alright."


    At first, I was about to brush it off, but then suddenly remembered Jess. Since she forced me to take a bath with her all the time, she would definitely notice if I made an incision on myself to insert any crystals.


    If she thought I was doing self-harm, then Jess would go full-on crazy overprotective older sister.


    Well, it''s not like I had to do it right now.


    But... I really wanted to know what kind of price those things were. Since Nathan had secured a hefty sum of ie, I wasn''t too worried about keeping all the money I had on me.


    "Hey, do you mind if we go to a real ck market?"


    The only ce the protagonist was able to afford low-end crystals was in the real ck market. Still, it was a bit of a rip-off even then. But it shouldn''t be a big deal for me.

 Chapter 70: Definitely Not Suspicious

    <h4>Chapter 70: Definitely Not Suspicious</h4>


    Raisa frowned at my proposal.


    "My assumption is that you are not referring to the one that we had gone to previously. I do not believe my bodyguard would allow it, she had declined itst time. Why did you bring it up again?"


    I tilted my head to the side.


    "There was a method to increase my magical aptitude that I thought of involving that. Basically, it would require arge amount of iridescent crystals, and that''s probably the only ce where I could get them for cheap."


    Raisa furrowed her brows somewhat.


    "How many would you say that you need? And what are you even going to use them for?"


    I scratched the side of my head. If I was going to rely on the strategy of forcefully imnting them, then I would need quite a bit to get to the required power. In other words, pretty much every part of my body would need to be cut open. I would definitely have to be quite worried about my health as there would be side effects, but I would think about thatter.


    "Preferably at least... one hundred. The n I have is a bitplicated."


    Raisa frowned.


    "That... if you really need that much, it would be hard to get it through legal channels. At least they are crystals rather than iridescent stones."


    Stones were more expensive by the way. The reason being that they held a higher mana capacitypared to crystals, but they did have a drawback of slower mana regeneration.


    They kinda worked like mana potions, but they were awkward because you couldn''t supplement your own mana since it wasn''t properly attuned to match each other. That meant the mana for any spell you cast would be limited to the mana in the stone.


    This was why the stones were so much more valuable.


    But in the case of crystals, mana capacity wasn''t as big of a drawback if I was inserting them into my body, as that attuning problem was dealt with. Whether or not I try to implement it would depend on the price.


    "Do you know where the ck market is? If you could mark it on a map and give me instructions on how to get inside, then I would owe you one."


    Raisa let out a soft sigh.


    "I''m not too confident about the specifics right now, but I should be able to get you those after a couple of days."


    A small smile formed on my face.


    "Thanks."


    She pressed her lips together, then stared at me with a bit of annoyance.


    "Mm... but if you didn''t go and do that, then we would''ve had more time to talk to each other and be friends."


    I looked at her nkly for a few moments. Was this girl actually stupid?


    "Were we not talking like friends this entire time?"


    Raisa tilted her head to the side with a dazed look.


    "Eh? It was?"


    A wry smile formed on my face.


    "Did you not drag me here to bring up your concerns about my safety? Is that not what a friend would do?"


    She was lost in thought for a moment before letting out a gasp.


    "Ah! That means I''m being a proper friend?"


    I gave a weak nod.


    "Yes. You could say that."


    Raisa smiled brightly as though she wanted to show off how proud she was of herself.


    "Ah! I did do it properly! I told you that I was able to be a proper friend! Heh, I didn''t even have to use any of the topics and responses I memorized!"


    My eyelid twitched.


    "If you did use topics or responses you memorized, then you would have failed."


    Her face paled after I said that, and her smile froze on her face.


    "Wh-What? But I worked hard making sure that the lines looked as natural as possible!"


    I pinched the bridge of my nose.


    "The fact you went over lines in the first ce means they weren''t natural.


    Raisa''s jaw dropped.


    "Eh?! Then how am I supposed to n it properly?"


    I reached over to flick her forehead with a small smile.


    "Idiot, you aren''t supposed to n anything in the first ce. I''m pretty sure I already told you this."


    Raisa pouted and rubbed the spot I had flicked her.


    "But... it''s too scary to try it without a n."


    A chuckle escaped me.


    "You''re doing it right now, aren''t you? And I think you''re doing just fine."


    Raisa was a bit confused, but began smiling.


    "A-Ah, right! I''m doing it properly!"


    I couldn''t help butugh.


    "Well, do you want to do that mana training we did before?"


    Raisa''s eyes lit up when she heard that.


    "Oh! Yes, my control over my mana had improved so much I could hardly believe it!"


    From there, I grabbed onto her arm and cleared my throat.


    "By the way, do you think it would be too much if I forcefully held on while trying to manipte your mana?"


    Raisa blinked a few times.


    "Um... I''m not sure, but I think it''s worth trying."


    I gave a small nod and began trying to move the mana I felt within her arm.


    "Tell me if it''s too much."


    Like all the times before, she immediately tried to pull away, but I kept a firm hold on her arm. Raisa continued to try to pull away and grit her teeth. Her green eyes were filled with panic.


    Was this too much?


    "Um, are you ok?"


    "I''m fine!"


    Though while she did say that, her other hand grabbed onto my wrist and pulled desperately in an attempt to pry it off. To be honest, I couldn''t help but find this scene quite strange.


    Hm. It totally looked like I was that evil guy in stories that forcibly grabs onto some girl''s arm.


    Her tugging was definitely painful for me, but my physical fitness appeared to be a few steps above hers, so it wasn''t too hard to maintain the grip.


    After a couple more seconds, I could see sweat had formed on Raisa''s forehead. Her struggle gradually became more violent, as she began kicking at the ground to push herself back, but that ended up making her lose bnce on the chair, falling backward.


    Seeing this, I decided to stop but continued holding on so she herself wouldn''t fall.


    After the chair ttered to the floor I shot her a re.


    "Hey, if it''s really that bad, then just say it."


    Raisa was breathing like she was drowning just a few moments ago, unable to even respond to me properly.


    "S-Sorry..."


    I took a deep breath.


    "You don''t have to apologize to me. If anything, you should be apologizing to yourself."


    Raisa gave a weak nod, with her eyes zed over. Her trembling was clear to me from the arm I was holding.


    "Y-Yeah. Could we do this on my bed though? If we do this on the chair or floor, then I''ll probably hurt myself."


    ...I really wish she were a little more specific in her word choice, as it makes it sound like we were doing something else.


    Not to mention, her current state made it look like I drugged her or something. Nobody would walk in to see this, right? She did tell all the servants not to disturb us, so my worries were probably for nothing.


    "Bryson?"


    "Oh, yeah. Doing the mana training on the bed is fine."


    With my assistance, she hobbled over and copsed onto her bed.


    "Ah, grab onto both my arms so I don''t use the other to try and pry it off."


    I hesitated, but grabbed onto her other arm as well. She was now directly facing me with an innocent expression, not seeing anything wrong with this at all.


    Shouldn''t you be more aware of this? I mean, didn''t some guy like... try to rape you and all that?


    It totally looked like I was about to vite her. Of course, I wasn''t going to do that. There was no way I was giving my first time to her. You may say I''m stupid for valuing my virginity as a male, but I still had my pride.


    "Um... I''m ready. You can start."


    I took a deep breath.


    "Alright then."


    From there, I began trying to manipte her mana. As expected, she began struggling. At this point, I arbitrarily decided to try and manipte the mana in both her arms after splitting my focus between the two.


    Surprisingly, it was far easier than I had imagined. It was likeparing trying to use two pencils to write at the same time and typing on a keyboard with both hands. One was essentially impossible, while the other was something many people did easily.


    However, Raisa did not seem to be having it. She kept tugging violently away from me, essentially throwing her entire body away to do so. Honestly, this kind of reminded me of the way someone reacts when tickled.


    Now that I think about it, there was one time when I had a massage, and this one part made me feel incredibly ticklish. I would unconsciously move my hands to push the massager''s hands away even though I wasn''t intending to.


    Though, it seemed the intensity was definitely on a different level. Because Raisa had already mmed her foot into my face, trying to push me away. Thankfully, she had taken off her shoe, so it wasn''t too painful with the sock in my face.


    Seeing how violent her reactions had be, I decided to stop even though she hadn''t said anything, unless you consider grunts and groans speaking.


    Raisa weakly copsed in the bed, trembling rather violently. However, a bright smile had formed on her face despite how terrible she looked.


    "Wait... I think I..."


    I let her go, after which she hurriedly sat up and mumbled to herself something about mana. Suddenly, I found myself able to sense her mana quite clearly. She was moving it around and I quickly recognized what she was doing.


    She was casting the fire spell.


    After a minute had passed, a small ball of fire appeared above her hand. Despite watching the process unfold, I was still rather shocked.


    "Woah."


    A bright smile was on Raisa''s face.


    "I improved so much in just a couple minutes! This is basically a month of training in an instant! I... I almost can''t believe it!"


    For reference, she took a minute and thirty seconds to cast the fire spell before. She had cut off a third just like that. Raisa was catching up to how fast I could cast.


    Raisa dispelled the fireball before grabbing onto my shoulders.


    "D-Do it for even longer this time! It will be even better like that!"


    ...Seriously, why did you have to word it like that?


    "Are you sure? You don''t look that good right now."


    I wasn''t exaggerating. Although her eyes were bright and a smile was on her face, some of her long white hair was matted with sweat and wrapped on her, while her entire body was trembling almost like she was possessed by the spirit of a hummingbird.


    Raisa let out a somewhat crazy-soundingugh.


    "I''m fine, I''m fine! Just do it again! If it''s really too much, then I will tell you to stop."


    Huh. While her body was sending out many different signals saying that it definitely wasn''t ok, her mind seemed to bepletely oblivious to that.


    But while she was getting overly excited over the benefits she was getting, it wasn''t as though I was getting left in the dust either. It was incredibly vague, but doing it like this made me quickly get a handle on manipting her mana.


    In fact, in those brief moments where I yanked out her mana and pushed it into my hands, I could feel my body automatically trying to attune it, albeitzily. While unsessful due to Raisa''s instinctive struggle, I was still incredibly interested in this.

 Chapter 71: It’s Not What It Looks Like. Seriously-

    <h4>Chapter 71: It''s Not What It Looks Like. Seriously-</h4>


    After a brief moment of hesitation, I grabbed onto Raisa''s arms once more. She appeared rather jittery like she had been electrocuted. If her hair had all shot upwards, then it would''ve really made it convincing.


    "Bryson? Start it! Come on!"


    The side of my face twitched. I couldn''t help but feel that Raisa was getting a little too excited about this. Not even after a second when I grabbed her, did she urge me on. Was there really a need for it to go this far?


    There was a part of me that felt like I should probably stop here, but after thinking about it, I couldn''t really think of a proper reason. But that also might''ve been my desire to learn how to attune mana taking over me more.


    After taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and attempted to wrestle the mana out of her control once more. As always, Raisa began struggling like she always did. The only difference was that she was already using her feet to push me away right from the beginning.


    I tried to keep my eyes closed and just focus on trying to yank her mana, but it was admittedly quite hard to do so. It did take a while, but I was able to forcibly yank out some mana and push it into my own body. The resistance had immediately be several times stronger, as the moment the mana had entered my own body, it was pulled right back out.


    However, while it was just a moment, I saw how my body attempted to attune that mana.


    After she had wrestled control over her own mana, I worked on trying to yank it away once more, and in that brief moment I felt it in the palm of my hand, I attempted to attune it.


    Raisa''s struggle had amplified several times over. Just the muscles in her arms tensed enough to make me feel like I was holding onto two steel bars. At this point, I felt it was time to let go but-


    "Raisa? What''s wrong?"


    The door had burst open, revealing Raisa''s father. I immediately felt cold sweat form on my back.


    "This isn''t what it looks like."


    I said that knowing full well we were on the bed while I was holding onto her arms as though to prevent resistance. As for Raisa herself, she was panting rather hard with flushed cheeks. She had copsed onto the bed as though incredibly weak. There was also... a smile on her face that was somewhat suggestive.


    As for Raisa''s father, he looked at us nkly for a few moments, making me rather nervous. He probably wouldn''t believe me even though that was the truth. I mean, if I was in his position, I wouldn''t believe it either.


    While bracing myself, I suddenly saw a strange smile form on his face.


    "Ah, I see. My apologies for interrupting, please continue."


    As he closed the door I saw his lips turn up sinisterly, just before his face went out of view.


    He was definitely misunderstanding the situation. Chances are, he assumed Raisa was taking things into her own hands and trying to get a connection into that pale meat business that had shaken up the nobles.


    ...Her father would probably bring it up with herter.


    I turned back to Raisa.


    "Hey, did you see what happened just now?"


    Her eyes zed over as she began giggling.


    "Yeah! I understand how to manipte my mana now!"


    My eyelid twitched. After letting her go, I sighed.


    "No, not that, your father walked in just now."


    Raisa gave a weak nod before looking around.


    "Ah... why did he leave?"


    ...Well.


    I cleared my throat.


    "Um, he left because he misunderstood the situation, thinking you were trying to manipte me with the new business I had conjured up."


    She tilted her head to the side, a confused look making its way out past her misty eyes.


    "Why... would he think that?"


    Why did you have to ask about that part?


    "That''s not important. More than that, you''re going to pretend that you were doing what he thought, or else there''s going to be a bad misunderstanding."


    The situation had already yed out in my mind. Her father was going to bring it up and probably encourage her in some fashion while Raisa herself would deny that she was doing anything.


    If she did manage to convince him, then this would spark quite a bit of conflict and try to force her. Chances are, if he couldn''t force her, he would try to make use of it in other ways.


    It would be much better if he clearly articted any thoughts to Raisa, who could then ry them to me. That way, I could also get a better understanding of his personality. With that, it would be easier to negotiate around him and peel back a fewyers of any secrets he may have.


    She would unintentionally be my spy.


    Raisa on the other hand, in her frazzled state, was oblivious to my thoughts.


    "What? But aren''t we friends? Why would I have to lie about that?"


    I cleared my throat.


    "That''s the problem. I do want to be friends with you, but don''t you remember how Jess was? She didn''t believe it at all."


    Raisa pouted. She looked rather childish, and her muddled state wasn''t helping.


    "It makes me sad that she doesn''t believe..."


    I nodded and put on a serious expression.


    "That''s because different ranking nobles aren''t supposed to have a true friendship. Instead, it has to be one where the higher ranking one pressures the other."


    Raisa let out an annoyed hum.


    "What? But I''m not pressuring you, am I?"


    I shook my head promptly before raising one finger.


    "That''s the problem. While I am fine with this rtionship, and you are, other people won''t be. You will have to pretend to your father that this is fake, or else he will try to break this rtionship apart."


    Raisa''s eyes widened considerably.


    "H-He will? But why?!"


    I blinked a few times.


    "...Nobles aren''t supposed to have real friends. If you really want this to continue, then you will have to pretend that we aren''t real friends."


    Raisa looked somewhat despondent but nodded weakly.


    "Ok..."


    I took a deep breath. She was probably more easy to convince since she couldn''t think properly right now.


    "Your father will probably try to tell you to do some things. You should ry them to me so we can pretend that you did them when you really didn''t."


    Raisa nodded while blinking erratically.


    "I-I will do it. I really want to stay friends."


    It was at this point that she gradually began to recover and sat up.


    "Let''s do it again!"


    The corner of my lip twitched. No, that could mean many things, I was just being weird here. Yes, that''s it.


    "We should stop here."


    Raisa tilted her head to the side as a small frown formed on her face.


    "What? Why?"


    I then pointed to her hands. Her palms were bleeding badly from several cuts in the shape of her fingernails. In fact, even her bottom lip was bleeding, and pretty badly too. It was almost impressive that she hadn''t even noticed.


    "You''re hurting yourself pretty badly. We could always do this at another time."


    And the most important thing was that I already had a good idea on how to attune mana.


    Raisa opened her palms and took a better look at them. Her eyes widened while her mouth was agape. In shock, she gently pressed against her lips with the tips of her fingers to see blood.


    "When did this happen?"


    I let out a soft sigh.


    "It looks like we went too far this time. Did your magic control improve at least?"


    Hearing that, Raisa sat up and began casting the fire spell once more.


    This time I noted that it was actually quite easy for me to see her mana fluctuations as she casted. In fact, it almost came to me naturally.


    And she was indeed faster once more.


    After forty-five seconds, a small fireball had formed above her fingertip. Although it was smaller than the thirty-second cut from before, it got harder to continue to reduce casting speed the shorter it got. While smaller, this improvement was actuallyrger than the first one.


    A wide smile spread out across Raisa''s face. She was ecstatic that her magic control had suddenly improved by so much.


    "W-We could do it just one more time, right?"


    I let out a long sigh.


    "I''m not sure if you realize, but our practice seems to leave you overly excited. If you don''t calm down a bit, there might be other side effects to continuing on like this."


    Raisa blinked a few times.


    "But I feel amazing!"


    My eyelid twitched.


    "Well, your body doesn''t agree with you. We can do this some other time."


    She was still trembling faintly and panting rather hard. It was easy to tell that she was exhausted.


    "T-Then when can we next do this?"


    I scratched the side of my head. Honestly, I wasn''t too interested in focusing on training this kind of mana control. My progress in dual-casting hasn''t gone that far yet, so I wanted to focus more on that.


    But now that I look at my schedule, there''s almost no time whatsoever to do that.


    "Um... maybe on Monday?"


    Right now it was Wednesday, but it wouldn''t be too long before Monday ends up rolling around. Raisa seemed to want it toe sooner but nodded anyway.


    "Ok then."


    From there, we just talked about random things. Well, while I say that, it was more Raisa talking, going from one subject to another, still riding the high she got from improving her magic control.


    I didn''t really have anything to talk about, so I didn''t stop her, only letting out the asional ''yeah'' and ''uh huh'' to indicate I was still listening.


    It might sound like that would''ve been a painful experience, but I found it enjoyable.


    After a while, she got embarrassed realizing she had been talking for so long, and sent me home. When I did get back, it just so happened to be the same time as when the servants that set up in the slums did as well.


    Though, to my surprise, I saw Jess had stepped out of that carriage.


    After a second, I pointed at her with my hand at my waist.


    "You went there?"


    Jess turned to look at me before giving a nod.


    "I wanted to understand why you would go out like that every day. However, it feels like I''ve missed something. The only thing I had received were scornful gazes."


    Hm. She didn''t look ugly. Or perhaps was it the fact she was my brother that made everyone hate her?


    "I guess nobody sat at the table then, right?"


    Jess let out a long sigh. Hah, I guess it wasn''t really my reputation, but the fact that I was a noble that drove-


    "Only five people came down to sit with me."


    ...Excuse me?


    "Um, did you recognize any of them?"


    She shook her head.


    "They were not any of the ones I had seen sitting with us before."


    ...Ah. So I was ugly.


    "Why do you look so upset?"


    "I''m not upset!"

 Chapter 72: Douglas’ Son

    <h4>Chapter 72: Dous'' Son</h4>


    Before long I was presented with a new day. On the way to school, I began contemting over how those people at the Honest Truth cult were doing. After all, I said I would do something, but just suddenly ghosted them for basically no reason.


    ...With how their memories were, would they even remember?


    No, they should, since Dark Arts would only wipe memories in the past, ording to what I''ve been told. Hm. This time I really can''t get dragged by anyone and actually go there for once.


    Still, I wasn''t able to figure out what I had forgotten. To be honest, that was somewhat frustrating. Maybe it was a good thing I didn''t go back right away, because if I told them there were no nks in my memories, then it might encourage them in an unreasonable manner.


    While in the carriage, I decided to ponder over this.


    Hmm... the nk could''ve only happened before I used the Dark Arts. I guess I''ll start recalling things backward. First off, I met with the cult and got invited inside in a rather unconventional way. It was quite surprising.


    Before that, I was just wandering around and decided to get some cardio in by walking around.


    Before that, I met with the guy selling weird trinkets at the ck market and found out the directions through him.


    Before that...


    Wait.


    Why do I feel a lingering sense of fear?


    It''s making me feel rather uneasy for some reason when realistically there shouldn''t have been any threats.


    No, I can''t just overlook it. This... is probably the missing memory.


    "Are you ok, brother?"


    Jess called out to me in concern, but I simply nodded.


    "Yes, just trying to concentrate a bit harder on meditating."


    ...Ah, wait. Somehow, I do remember. I was walking away because I was scared of someone. But who was I scared of again? I remember... being afraid of opening my eyes.


    Oh.


    I definitely met with the Mirror Demon, Shen.


    Hm... how did I deal with that, I wonder?


    A bit of cold sweat formed on my back. Although I was able to recall the important parts, it appeared that was because only part of that memory had been erased. It was definitely an unpleasant memory, for sure, but that kind of thing could''ve been quite important.


    And that was only from using a small amount of Dark Arts.


    Shit. I really shouldn''t use that ability unless I really have to. But the ability of teleportation was way too overpowered to just neglectpletely. While I said I wouldn''t use Dark Arts, long-scale instant teleportation wasn''t something magic could aplish. At least, not from what I knew in the game.


    In fact, even teleporting a couple of meters or so with only magic was incredibly difficult, and it acted more like just running really really fast to a point. These kinds of spells would fail if there was anything in between them and the destination.


    But the teleportation ability that the mask gave me was far greater than what current magic could aplish.


    More than just the ability itself, what I valued was something more than that. The ability to bluff that I was secretly some sort of super powerful magician in hiding. That way, I could scare some people and get around some things morefortably.


    Even though in reality, I didn''t have much magic power at all.


    "Um, brother? We''ve already arrived."


    "Ah, right. Thanks."


    After Jess notified me, I hopped off the carriage and headed over to school. I thought I would just get to ss like normal, but as I was going up, someone called out to me.


    "Oh, Bryson?"


    I looked over and found myself a little confused for a moment, but after giving his face a second look, I realized who this was.


    Richard Dous.


    In other words, the son of Dous, the archduke that implicitly held the most power among those in his rank. He looked like his father, with blonde hair, a modest beard, and piercing blue eyes. While not overly muscr, it was clear that he hadn''t been cking in his physical fitness.


    I''m not too sure if I would be able to beat him in a directpetition of physical strength.


    Jess had seen him and immediately recognized who he was, promptly frowning. It seemed she wanted to step in, but was too afraid to. Considering she was more than willing to offend the other descendant of the archduke, Raisa, it seemed this guy was a big deal.


    "Hello, I believe your name is Richard?"


    Richardughed.


    "Ah, it looks like you already know me!"


    While he said that, there was no surprise on his face. It was probably normal that people recognized him already.


    "I''ve been meaning to meet with you, but several things came up. Do you mind following me to have a little chat?"


    I snuck a look at Jess, who was biting the bottom of her lip before looking away.


    "...Alright."


    Although he phrased it as a request, it was probably an order. I felt a decent amount of unease around this guy because I knew very little about him. In fact, most sane yers would never actually see this guy, and the more hardcore ones that did would''ve probably forgotten him entirely.


    The only reason I did remember was that I really did y that game way too much.


    Anyway, Richard led me up to the fifth floor, where ss S was. I couldn''t help but feel a little uninvited here. Yet, while I said nothing, he appeared to be responding to my thoughts.


    "Don''t worry, if you''re with me, then people won''t find any fault in youing to ss S. Besides, you''re already in ss A, so it isn''t exactly a big deal for you toe up here once in a while. If you were in a lower ss, it would be a big deal though..."


    Now that I think about it, there was some random line that said those in lower sses can''t go to the ones above. Perhaps the reason why the building was structured like this was so that people in lower sses wouldn''t have any excuse to go near the higher sses.


    Once we reached the top, there was an immediate difference I noticedpared to all the other floors. Instead of being decorated withvish decorations, or with golden walls, it was basically quite bare.


    The walls were ck.


    But that was because it was made of that special stone that repelled magic. Ironically, while it looked dingy, it was actually far more expensive than any of the lower floors.


    Dous eventually led me over to a room and opened it up, gesturing me to follow him inside.


    "This is my room."


    While processing those words, I was greeted with a room with countless decorations. To give you an idea, there was a bed, but the frame of that bed was made out of gold and ented with some sort of mahogany-colored wood.


    Usually it was the other way around, right?


    There was also a table with chairs around it.


    After looking around, I found this ce was actually quite simr to Raisa''s ce. Then, I held onto the side of my head with pursed lips.


    "People in ss S just... get a room like this?"


    Richard looked back at me slightly confused but chuckled after.


    "Ah, right. You all must not have this kind of treatment because there are more of you. In truth, there are some people that decide simply to live here. Personally, while I find it convenient, there isn''t much to do here other than study, so I only stay when needed."


    I recalled that the game did mention that those in ss S got their own rooms. But unfortunately, you would not get that privilege if you were promoted to ss S from a lower ss. I don''t get why, but that''s just how it worked. ording to the game, starting in ss S and reaching ss S via promotion gave very different statuses.


    Even when the protagonist improves their academics enough to reach ss S, he would have to continue living a poor life while everyone else got the free life of a noble. Not that it really affected the yer, but still.


    Richard had a seat and gestured for me to take one as well, so I did.


    This guy was definitely going to ask about the pale meat business. It was probably going pretty well since Nathan had handed off two hundred gold coins to me. I knew a person like him would keep a lot of funds on him because he would use them, so that much surplus to hand away meant that it was going quite well.


    I already felt a sighing out of me when Richard began speaking.


    "About what had happened at the ball my father had hosted..."


    Ah yes, you are interested in acquiring more of that pale me-


    "Please teach me."


    ...Huh?


    Richard was smiling but had his hands sped together as though asking me a favor. I furrowed my brow in confusion.


    "I already said that I am uninvolved with the production process of that meat, there is nothing to teach you."


    Richard blinked a few times before waving his hand dismissively.


    "Oh? That meat does taste pretty good, but I''m talking about something else. Teach me how you fought like that. Watching you spar like that was eye-opening. None of my personal trainers have ever shown me fighting like that."


    What?


    "Um, you got me toe here just to ask about my fighting style?"


    Richard raised an eyebrow.


    "What do you mean just? Your way of fightingpletely caught people off guard! It wasn''t even a matter of strength as youpletely demolished your opponent without them being able to resist!"


    He became more passionate with each word he spoke, making exaggerated gestures and nearly getting out of his chair. A bitter smile formed on my face.


    "You really like spars, don''t you?"


    Richard let out a heartyugh with both hands on his sides.


    "Of course! I made my Dad set up that sparing section of the ball after all. Originally, I wanted it to be with real magic and actual weapons, but no matter how much I asked, he would only let me have this much."


    ...Huh.


    This guy sounded just like a hot-blooded battle maniac. However, if he got into ss S, that meant he didn''tck in his education or his magic theory. Getting that level of education despite having this personality was kind of terrifying in its own right.


    In other words, he was either an absolute genius, or he could force himself to do things that went against his wants if he knew they were valuable.


    Richard smiled brightly and leaned over.


    "So, could you teach me? I really wanted to fight you, but that stupid girl used an unfair tactic to win! Che! I should''ve beat her up some more."


    I let out augh.


    "Well, that''s not really unfair."


    Richard raised an eyebrow as he shot me a confused look.


    "How is that not unfair? You would''ve won if she didn''t trick you!"


    With those words, I raised a finger.


    "Yeah, and that''s what I did as well. In reality, the way I fight isn''t really a technique I can teach. More urately, it''s a mentality."


    I held out one hand.


    "That girl, Raisa, had actually picked up on the way I fought just by watching and used it against me. She had seen that I was willing to give other people a second chance in the duel, thus thought about how to use that fact against me."


    Richard furrowed his brows. He rested his elbows on the table and sped his hands together.


    "But she was already on the floor. If you had just kicked her, then she would''ve fallen out of the ring. That strategy was far too risky."


    I gave a nod.


    "Yes, it was risky. But you will just have to make bets like this in fights sometimes. There won''t always be a guaranteed way to defeat your opponent. This is part of the mentality I''m talking about."


    Richard gave a quick nod.


    "So what is this mentality?"


    I leaned back in my chair as a small smile formed on my face.


    Was it a stupid idea to bargain with a guy that could ruin my entire life?


    Yes.


    Was I going to do it anyway?...


    "I could tell you of course, but surely you have something in mind topensate me for these teachings."

 Chapter 73: A Deal?

    <h4>Chapter 73: A Deal?</h4>


    Richard stared me down, and I personally became really nervous. However, I made sure to keep the same smile I had, lest I showed my nervousness.


    After some time, he rubbed his chin before shaking his head.


    "No, I didn''t really think of anything to give you."


    I blinked a few times.


    "You didn''t?"


    Richard scratched the back of his head with a clueless expression.


    "I mean, normally people just do things I ask them to. Now that I think about it, it is a little strange that they would just do things for free... but that''s how most of them are."


    Wh-


    This guy...


    "Did you remember the people that did those favors for you?"


    Richard raised an eyebrow.


    "Um, some of them I guess. Not too many though."


    ...My condolences to the ones that tried to curry favor with this dense guy. Wait, but he''s actually really smart, so how can he be dense?


    Oh, right. There were no sses onmon sense or basic social customs.


    Hm.


    I guess there''s no reason to harp on it too much.


    "To be honest, the way I fight isn''t really something that can be taught, but more so understood. At the same time, it was something I learned through a lot of effort, so it would leave me feeling a little unhappy if I were to just give it away for free."


    Richard gave a quick nod.


    "Ah, alright. How about ten thousand gold coins?"


    Holy shit. That''s one thousand meals right there. But at the same time, money wasn''t something that was that huge of a concern right now, since I technically had one hundred thousand for now, and Nathan had him that pale meat business.


    I inteced my fingers and covered my expression with my hands just in case any emotions there slipped out.


    "Isn''t there anything else you can offer other than money?"


    Richard scratched the side of his head.


    "Um, I don''t know. What do you want?"


    ...


    Is it possible this guy is just pretending to be stupid? Fuck. Honestly, I didn''t really know what nobles did in rtion to each other in terms of bribing and other simr actions.


    My question was posed because I thought that this guy was aware of things like that. But then again, that was expecting too much out of a person that didn''t understand the concept of bribes in the first ce.


    I suppose doing it in a more normal way was fine too.


    "How about you just owe me one? At some point in time, I may send you a letter requesting some help from you. Of course, if you think that it is too much, you don''t have to do it, but I would appreciate at least an attempt."


    Richard promptly nodded.


    "Alright, sure."


    I felt a little relieved. Although this kind of arrangement is absolutely worthless when the party that owes the favor is untrustworthy or shameless, as they probably won''t even do anything. However, Richard seemed to be a little too oblivious to have that character, so I was willing to gamble this much.


    Though unreliable, I gained quite a bit from this.


    With a smile, I started.


    "Very well. The mentality I will talk about can be summed up most simply in a single word."


    I raised my hand.


    "Cruelty."


    Richard raised an eyebrow. He nodded, telling me to continue, so I did.


    "To put it most simply, it means doing whatever it takes to win."


    I ced one hand on the table and leaned over.


    "For starters, know there are many things we are unwilling to do to another person either consciously or subconsciously. This can include dirty things, such as going for one''s genitals, or spitting at someone."


    Hearing that, Richard posed a question.


    "Isn''t that cheap?"


    I held out my hands on either side with a smile.


    "At the end of the day, the winner is the one that emerges victorious, regardless of the methods, correct?"


    Richard nodded.


    "That is true."


    I took a deep breath and went on with my spiel.


    "If you boil it down, it just means taking advantage of another person''s weakness, but there are some we ignore without thinking about it. For example, if you grabbed onto someone''s eye, you may find it too hard to pull out, but it would cause the person in question extreme pain, which can be used to win."


    Richard nodded with a fascinated question. I had a bad feeling, so I added something.


    "By the way, you shouldn''t do things like that in a spar."


    He put one hand to his chin and furrowed his brows.


    "Why is that?"


    I let out a sigh.


    "A spar is more friendly, so you don''t do anything that can permanently harm the other. Most of these things won''t apply for sparring, but believe me when I say you will probably put this into practical use rtively soon."


    ...Too soon, to be honest.


    Richard let out a long hum before smiling.


    "Alright!"


    Seeing as he agreed, I cleared my throat and continued.


    "The reason why this isn''t a technique that can really be taught is that everyone has a variety of different weaknesses. This cane from their physical body or their personality. Understanding how to take advantage of that can let you make bets that you will probably win."


    He looked a bit confused, so it was probably time for an example.


    "Imagine if a person was wearing heavy armor and heavy weapons. Since those are exhausting on stamina, you can half-heartedlymit to the fight, waiting out until they are quite tired, then finishing them off."


    Richard''s eyes sparkled, but then he furrowed his brows. He opened his mouth, about to say something, but then shut it right after. His eyes returned to sparkling like they were before.


    He didn''t seem displeased, so there was probably nothing wrong.


    "In the spars, you may have seen me hit someone in the neck. However, I didn''t randomly hit them there. There are certain arteries that the brain depends on mostly for blood going to the brain. More than just hitting it, it''s more like I press my sword against part of their neck."


    The corners of my mouth crept up.


    "That way, one side of their body goes numb, giving an opening for a lethal strike."


    Richard frowned as he scratched his head.


    "But I don''t really know any weaknesses. Could you teach me?"


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "I could, but while that would increase your power right now, it wouldn''t in the long term."


    That was kind of bullshit, as I could just exin the various weak points of the human body to him as well, but I was just toozy to.


    "After all, a lot of opponents you may fight without any prior knowledge. In those times, you will have to find out their weaknesses as quickly as possible. In other words, even when you are fighting with your life on the line, you have to remain calm."


    Richard ced both hands on the table.


    "Understood. Remain calm."


    I shook my head.


    "You are brushing this off too simply. While it sounds easy in theory, this is actually also a skill you will have to practice, along with your deduction abilities. The human body normally puts all the energy into the body during a crisis and takes away power from the mind, even more so for the part responsible for logical decisions."


    I lowered my hands and tapped on the table with my index finger.


    "The easiest way tobat this is to put yourself in more scary situations, but that isn''t realistic. Instead, whenever you are sparring with someone, don''t just let yourself go in fighting. Take a step back and hold yourself in before going berserk, and think of a general n."


    Richard sucked in a cold breath.


    "I''ve never done that before. Do you always do that too?"


    I let out augh.


    "Of course, otherwise why am I even teaching you this?"


    Hm. That''s most of it, I think.


    Ah, right, there was one more.


    "After you do have a calm mind, you will have to think of things from the other person''s perspective as much as possible. This is obviously quite hard to do, but the better you can, the easier it will be to find out things that may not be immediately apparent and take advantage of them."


    Richard continued to rub his chin almost like he was trying to grind it down, then frowned.


    "That sounds really difficult."


    Iughed.


    "Of course it is. It''s not as simple as just telling you some techniques that you can copy. But while it is far more confusing, it has the matching results."


    A smile formed on his face.


    "That does make sense. I suppose this makes it understandable. Strength is not everything... it is also how you use that strength."


    I stood up and pointed at him with a smirk.


    "You''re catching on quick."


    Richard crossed his arms and smiled confidently.


    "Of course I would!"


    I then walked out and gave a wave.


    "Don''t forget that you owe me a favor."


    Richard let out augh.


    "Of course, that was the deal."


    Thankfully he didn''t realize I was just saying go for the weak spots but lengthening it like how a high schooler adds extra words to an essay.


    He stayed in the room and mumbled to himself, digesting the words that I had said to them. When I stepped out in the hall by myself, I felt out of ce. Even though logically, I should feel morefortable while not around an archduke''s son, for some reason it felt worse like this.


    Ordinarily, there would be a few people roaming around the halls, but here, I only saw one.


    Even with just a few people, it was still possible to blend in with the crowd, but now there was no crowd. It made me ufortably aware of said person in the hall.


    A girl with light blue hair, like ice, and bright yellow eyes. She had casual-fitting clothes that matched her hair color.


    Wait, now that I think about it, even if this girl was in a crowd, she would stand out like a sore thumb. But more importantly-


    "What are you doing here?"


    She narrowed her eyes, almost as though wanting to pierce through me. I simply gave a cordial smile and chuckled.


    "Oh, someone invited me toe to their room to chat. Now that it''s over, I intend on heading to my ss."


    Her eyes had narrowed further, but she did eventually drop it and walked past me. After letting out a soft sigh, I went back to the staircase.


    Her name was Lumi, but like Richard, I knew very little about her.


    She was in ss S as well but was a first-year. In theter stages of the game, if you were able to be promoted to a higher ss, you would meet her. The strange thing about her was that she never panicked.


    That may not sound like anything special, but the kingdom goes under several cmities that threaten the entire poption several times. However, she would never end up dying. In fact, she was never even scratched.


    You have opportunities to talk to her, and a secret we found to get a few extra dialogue lines was if you never took a hit during battles.


    But other than that, there''s not too much.


    Another small fact was that she was the onlymoner in the first-year ss S.


    In short, she was either unbelievably powerful or unbelievably lucky. Either way, I found it more trouble than it was worth to involve myself with her. She didn''t seem to care about much, so it was better to leave it that way.


    I made it to ss and was somehow still a little early, so I decided to pose a question to the teacher.


    "By the way, Harold. How do you attune mana?"

 Chapter 74: Huh? Oh, Yeah

    <h4>Chapter 74: Huh? Oh, Yeah</h4>


    Harold shot me a confused look after I asked my question.


    "Our bodies naturally attune mana. Why are you worrying about that?"


    I scratched the side of my head.


    "I was just thinking that if we could attune mana outside of our bodies manually, then it would be easier to cast spells."


    Harold let out augh.


    "Imend you for your creative thinking, but that''s unfortunately impossible. For starters, an esteemed mage can only see concentrated mana, but it is not possible to reattune mana that has already been assigned to an object or person."


    I held my chin with my hand.


    "Why can''t mana be reattuned? And why can only concentrated mana be seen?"


    Certain teachers would just get impatient at this point and start rebuking me because they were getting annoyed as they could only barely meet the requirement for teaching because nobody else wanted to. Harold wasn''t one of those.


    "There have been mages that attempted to absorb the mana within iridescent stones, but the natural process that the body uses to attune does not work before that mana is repelled out of the body. As for why only concentrated mana can be seen..."


    He held out a finger, after which a ball of water formed on top of it. Right after, it vaporized into steam. Harold smiled.


    "While we are able to see the steam whale concentrated, if it spreads out into the air, your eyes are unable to pick up on them at all. It''s not that it has disappeared, but rather just unable to be seen."


    Hearing that, I gave a small nod.


    "Ah, I see."


    But while I said that, I didn''t exactly agree. Because I still remember what I had almost aplished while extracting mana from Raisa. I first observed how the body attuned mana by itself and tried to replicate it manually, doing it in a more forceful way.


    I didn''t seed, but I could tell that I was on the right track.


    As for seeing mana that wasn''t condensed, while I had no basis for going against it, I still wanted to challenge it. So far I didn''t even know how to begin to go about that, but a man could dream.


    And kids could too, I guess.


    While my thoughts wandered pointlessly, the lesson continued on. Nothing too eventful happened at school. The only things I could really remember was Nathan asking me to get him a metal spear and the disheartenedmoners once the results of the English test were announced.


    Charlotte tried to volunteer to get a spear instead, but Nathan rebuked her until she backed off. I understood why, as she would probably go for something more gaudy and expensive rather than practicality.


    I told the servants to go and get a spear and went on back.


    Although it felt a little weird not to go to the slums for two days in a row, I said that this wasn''t something to be put off. As such, I got my getup on and headed over to the ck market once more. I brought along ten gold pieces and fifty silvers just in case there was anything at that ce, though there probably wouldn''t be.


    It had still been as lively as it had been before. Following where I remembered where the hideout should''ve been, I retraced my steps. When I did end up getting there though, the hidden door was already open.


    Or more urately, it wasn''t there anymore.


    As of now, it was prettyte, so they should''ve been here. However, there wasn''t a single person in the room. The room itself was dark and dingy. To get a better look, I casted the fire spell.


    The ce was trashed. Chairs were scattered, while papers were ripped apart and all over the floor. Several candles had been toppled over, with their waxes spreading out and staining the floor.


    But there weren''t any traces of fighting. At least, not physically.


    Although I wasn''t too strong about it and mentioned that they could continue meeting with one another despite not using Dark Arts anymore, it looked like they disbanded. They hadn''t even waited for my answer and ended up giving it up themselves.


    I guess they didn''t really need my confirmation that Dark Arts made gaps in their memory. They were already aware of it but forced those thoughts to the back of their minds. When someone had shown up and made those thoughts surface, they were forced to confront it.


    And this was the result.


    I heard a voice speak faintly in my mind.


    "Are you happy with what you''ve done? You''ve taken away something they all enjoyed. Now they are likely no longer friends with one another."


    It was the book talking to me. Even if I couldn''t recognize his ent, there was only one person I knew that talked like that.


    "I didn''t take away anything. My words only forced them to confront a reality that they were already somewhat aware of. If that was all it took for them to disband and stop being friends, then it was bound to happen sooner orter."


    With that, I turned away, not giving that abandoned ce another look. Although I could''ve left right then and there, I decided to see if the person that originally introduced me to that ce was still there.


    I wandered around the ck market once more. Although people were still off-put by my appearance, they seemed to have gotten somewhat used to it, and thus didn''t pay that much attention to me.


    The things that were being sold pretty much stayed the same. There were a decent amount of people just browsing around and buying as though it was a convenience store. It really made it feel like I was going overkill, but I still had no ns ofing here without a disguise.


    I paced around the entire ce, but unfortunately, I was unable to find the person that had originally introduced me. It appeared that the entire group really just up and left like that.


    I remained at thest stand set up there for a little while, thinking to myself.


    Now with no more reason to think further about that weird cult, I took a look at the wares this guy was selling. There were various pieces of jewelry at his stand, but none of them looked particrly shy and many of them looked damaged in some capacity.


    However, there was one of them that almost looked brand new. It was a pendant linked together by a thin chain. It attached itself to a ck four-pointed star along with a small red bead at the center.


    I pointed towards it.


    "What does this do?"


    The seller looked at me with aplicated expression.


    "It is a piece of fine jewelry! Why don''t you take it for a piece of gold?"


    My eyelid twitched. I turned to look at him nkly.


    "Why would a piece of jewelry like that cost so much?"


    The seller flinched. He ended up letting out an awkwardugh.


    "Haha, sorry. It appears you understand the style isn''t too popr... but it''s about personal taste!"


    I blinked a few times. What the fuck was this guy talking about?


    "Huh?"


    The seller broke his smile and sighed.


    "Ok fine, I can sell it at a loss for only one hundred silver coins."


    ...It appeared all of these guys thought other people were idiots. Without another word, I responded.


    "Fifty silvers."


    The seller frowned slightly but pondered over it for a little while before letting out a defeated sigh.


    "If that''s the case, then I will be generous and sell it at a great loss, simply because this is your first purchase."


    From how he was talking, I could tell that I was being heavily scammed, but honestly, I was fine with it because these kinds of people would drag it out as long as possible just to get a little bit more. It looked nice enough, so I decided to get it.


    After handing over fifty silvers, I took the pendant. It was cool to the touch and made out of some sort of metal. The red bead itself was somewhat transparent, but it was hard to tell unless you were looking at it up close.


    Not thinking about it too much more, I put it on.


    I won''t lie, in the back of my mind, I hoped that it had some sort of special ability, but the mask thing was a stretch already, and even then it was a usible stretch because of the knowledge I had in the game.


    On the other hand, I''ve never seen this ne before. If it was actually something remarkably special, then it probably would''ve appeared in the game.


    Still, I tried to imbue it with some mana while holding onto it, but as expected nothing happened. I considered using Dark Arts, but there was no way in hell I was going to do a stupid experiment like that at the cost of my memory.


    The seller was in the middle of trying to convince me to buy something else, but I had already lostplete interest. There was a strong temptation to just teleport back home, but I decided against it.


    Yet, before I could begin heading home-


    "Hey, what are you doing buying stuff? We have ces to be."


    Someone had grabbed onto my shoulder. I turned to look at them and noticed they also had a ck cloak, but no mask.

 Chapter 75: Wait, This Looks Familiar

    <h4>Chapter 75: Wait, This Looks Familiar</h4>


    After a few moments, I realized it was some woman that had grabbed onto my shoulder. While she had a cloak on, I could still tell she seemed a bit confused.


    "You bought a mask too? Ah, whatever. Just follow me right now, we''re going to be left behind."


    There was definitely a misunderstanding happening here, but I decided to go along with it for now. If things really did get dicey, I could just teleport right out so long as I touched my mask. But first, I would see if I could get away with just using my sword.


    "Sorry, I just got caught up in the shy stuff."


    The woman in the cloak let out a sigh before turning around.


    "Just hurry up."


    She began hurriedly walking away. It appeared there wasn''t too much of a rush since she wasn''t running. While following behind her, I began wondering what this could be exactly, but honestly I wasn''t too concerned.


    From what I knew, this was rtively close to the slums, and the most shady organizations had bases closer to the capital. Although security was more strict there, they had their ways around it being more prestigious than others.


    On the other hand, the only notable one I could remember near the slums was a group called the, "Survivors". They mostly stole frommoners, but would kill if there was too much resistance. In essence, they were just a violent gang.


    They were apparently able to gain a substantial amount of funds that way, and were able to do quite a few things with that money. However, there were no spellcasters. If there were any, then they were probably better off using a weapon, since all of them would use various weapons.


    Weapons weren''t particrly expensive, but they were still not something amoner could casually buy. This was what made them stand out more.


    Most gangs here just had improvised weapons like sharpened wooden stakes. As such, I wasn''t too worried. A sword was more than enough of an advantage. I also had magic as well.


    While I was thinking, the woman led me to a ratherrge crowd of people all in cloaks. I could see why she misunderstood that I was part of this because we all basically looked the same.


    From what I could tell, there were roughly fifty or so people here. They were all moving along toward the slums. The sounds of footfalls blended in with each other as how the drops of rain would, but were just louder.


    Although it was hardly mentioned in the game other than a short passing moment in the prologue, there were apparently five main regions within the kingdom. At the center, was the Capital, which was where my house was located. Then, there was the Noble District, which contained most of the nobles, and where the Golden Gold School resided.


    Even further, was the Trade District. Here was where most of the actual businesses resided and where merchants woulde to as well. There were ces to live here, but it was mostly just traveling merchants temporarily settling there or fairly richmoners that weren''t wealthy enough to be on par with nobles.


    Afterwards, was the Common District, where I was right now. It took roughly four hours for me to speedily walk over here from the Capital, if you were wondering. Anyways, this district was mostly farnd. The people here tended to have veryrge farms to themselves. It was also muchrgerpared to the other ces. If youbined the other three districts, they would only be a little bit bigger than this one.


    Finally, there were the Slums. You could probably tell what it was like here from its name. People had a hard time getting by, and those that had farms did not have veryrge ones. Nathan''s house was technically here, but it was very close to the Common District they were part of that ce instead. In terms of size, it was simr to the size of the Common District in terms ofndmass.


    Hm.


    Now that I think about it, the protagonist has to run a long damn way just to get to the school each time. Apparently, that was supposed to be his setting, while the othermoner students would just hop on a carriage that was more like a bus because they were normal.


    I wonder if Nathan stuck to that setting or not.


    My thoughts continued to wander about rather useless things, though I didn''t forget to meditate along the way. Because of that, I eventually bumped into the person in front of me unintentionally, causing the guy to grumble with annoyance.


    I was going to apologize, but a voice that was nearly as loud as a scream rang out.


    "We, themon people, have had enough of you! As a representative, the Survivors will deal with you!"


    It made me flinch and also cringe as it sounded like the person was ripping apart their own vocal cords. From the sounds of things, they weren''t very happy for whatever reason.


    Also, did she say Survivors? This... may get out of hand. Well, I could always teleport away.


    At this point, I began to realize that the surroundings felt a bit familiar. Specifically, I noticed that the houses around me had distinct traits I remembered, such as a piece of rotting wood, or a brick slightly out of ce.


    The fifty or so people with cloaks on gradually began spreading out. I decided to follow suit, and in doing so, was able to get a better view of what was up ahead.


    Hm.


    There was a table and some chairs. At the table was a girl that looked an awful lot like my sister. Not to mention, there were chefs and butlers that looked a lot like the ones I had.


    Ah, wait.


    This is where I set up that relief thing. Those were actually my butlers, and that was also my actual sister. Kinda strange how I ended up on this side in this situation.


    The person that had shouted out earlier drew out a shortsword. From the voice, it sounded like a rtively old woman.


    "You nobles have trespassed onto our territory for far too long! Now, you''ll have to face the consequences."


    The encirclement that had formed around them all made it so that I just so happened to be facing opposite to them. That allowed me to look at her for the idiot she was. If this really was her territory, then why didn''t she at least like, try tomunicate that?


    Was there no way to respectfully do it?


    It more just sounds like a stupid excuse tounch an attack on some random people.


    While thinking that, I saw the kid, Gray, stand up on the middle of the table. With an indignant expression, he pointed toward the woman.


    "Get away, Mom! This table has no space for bad people like you!"


    My eyelid twitched when I heard that. So this was the kid''s mom?


    I looked at the woman and noticed that she had fallen silent. I could only see her mouth, but that was enough to see her bitter expression. She was hesitating for a little while before speaking out.


    "Mom? I am not your mother, just some unrted organization leader! Now get away from here child, we will be tackling the real criminals here!"


    Gray frowned and maintained a resolute expression.


    "Why are you lying, Mom? If you want to lie, then go somewhere else to do it!"


    He made a shooing gesture, like that would somehow blow them away. The cloaked figures looked at each other as though wondering what they were supposed to do in this situation. In the end, all of their gazes ended up falling on their leader.


    After a moment of silence, the entire act she put up was stripped off.


    "Gray! Why are youing to this rotten ce? I have already prepared expensive food for you every day, yet you won''t eat a single bite. But instead, youe here, to some random noble? I''ve already gotten someone to check and the standards are far lower! The food back at home is better!"


    Wait.


    Several dots began connecting to each other within my mind. The reason why this whole attack was happening in the first ce...


    ...was because the gang leader was petty about her son having his dinner here instead of at home?


    I...


    How shallow was that? Is that a real person? I can''t physically ept this person as a human being out of my respect for the human race.


    From how Gray carried himself, he seemed to have a simr opinion. While I was only staring at his back right now, he still gave off a solemn air. He spoke tly.


    "I don''t want the food you get from stealing and killing other kids."


    ...What?


    A heavy silence fell for quite a while. From how the hooded figures remained silent, it seemed like they couldn''t truly deny it. The looks that Jess and the others gave this group changed as well.


    Before, they felt like they were in the wrong, but that quickly changed.


    This change was not lost on the leader. She pointed towards Jess in hysteria.


    "Stealing? It''s the nobles that are truly stealing! Can''t you see? They are living their lives in pure luxury bathing in pure money! They are the reason why we are living like this. If it wasn''t for them, then would we have to do this? All they have to do is hand over some of their money, but they are all greedy bastards!"


    Her breathing became heavy.


    "I just did what I needed to. So that we could survive."


    In response to that anger, Gray spoke softly.


    "Mom. You did that a long time ago. After getting money to eat food, you had to get more. It didn''t matter how much you got. You... kept stealing. If they gave us money, bad people like you would take it all. I like what he is doing now. Now people can eat, but won''t get greedy."


    It seemed his mother was unable to refute a single thing she had said. In the end, she gave up on convincing him.


    "Gray, get away from here right now."


    Gray crossed his arms like a problem child.


    "No! Only when you get away first!"


    From there, the leader began screaming at her child, while the child himself resisted stubbornly. It almost seemed like Gray was actually in the toy store, insistent on getting the toy he wanted.


    Seeing this was giving me an aneurysm, as it would to most people. With that in mind, I began walking forth, attracting quite a few gazes in the process. The guards pointed their swords at me threateningly, but they were still quite a ways away. The leader in particr looked at me with indignance and directed her anger towards me.


    "You! I haven''t ordered you to move yet! This is a direct vition of my orders, don''t you understand what that means? Go back now, and I will overlook it."


    I let out a chuckle.


    "Well, there''s a small problem with that, as I don''t understand. After all, I was never part of your group in the first ce."


    Gray turned around and the moment we made eye contact, he smiled brightly.


    "Good person!"


    A chill went down my spine as I realized he had somehow immediately recognized who I was. Though, I decided to y it off as though expecting it. Jess had also turned around. When her eyesnded on me, they widened, but she didn''t say anything.


    She must''ve recognized the mask.


    On the other hand, Gray was much more expressive, running towards me without hesitation. This made his mother panic.


    "Gray! Don''t get close to that man, get over here right now!"


    That was quite the reasonable response for when your child runs towards a masked man in a cloak with a sword by his waist. Unfortunately, all of that was lost on Gray, who moved past the guards and got up in front of me. He raised both of his hands high up in the air like he was celebrating.


    "I thought you weren''t going toe, good person!"


    His tone shifted to be incredibly casual like there weren''t fifty or so armed hostile people surrounding us right now. I couldn''t help butugh.


    "To be honest, I wasn''t nning to, but I was wondering what all these guys were doing. It just so happened to lead me here. May I know what this little gathering you have here is called?"


    The leader seemed displeased with my attitude but still responded with pride in her voice.


    "We are the Survivors. Remember that."


    ...Huh.


    This was honestly unexpected. In the game, they were only supposed to start going haywire at around the third month, attacking people far more aggressively than usual. But now, it had hardly even been two weeks and they were doing just that.


    My guess was that it had something to do with her kid. This was something that was bound to happen, but because of my presence, it happened quicker. There would be some people that would me him in this case, but it really isn''t his fault.


    I looked down at him and saw his bright smiling face. Out of what felt like obligation, I patted him on the head. This greatly infuriated his mother though, making her re up.


    "Get your filthy hands off of him! Stop acting like you''re his parent!"


    I turned to look at her. The reason why I came up in the first ce was to attempt to stifle this conflict. Yet, when I heard those words, I ended up responding without really thinking.


    "Your child runs off to some stranger rather than you to feel safe. How much of a failure do you have to be to screw up parenting that bad?"


    Hm...


    I probably shouldn''t have said that.


    "KILL HIM! KILL HIM NOW. THIS IS AN ORDER."


    She seemed a little angry.

 Chapter 76: This Isn’t Over Yet

    <h4>Chapter 76: This Isn''t Over Yet</h4>


    After hearing the orders their leader gave, the closest cloaked figures rushed towards me.


    The guards just sitting around looked rather confused, not knowing who was the real enemy. Jess noticed this, but also knew that I was obviously not an enemy since she knew who I was.


    With that in mind, she stood up andmanded them.


    "Protect that man as though you were protecting me."


    She was confused about my presence, but didn''t pause when it mattered. On the other hand, the guards still hesitated for a moment. Thankfully, they still did rush over to protect me in the end, but not without suspiciously ncing at me from time to time.


    Gray didn''t think much of the people rushing towards me and just raised a fist in the air.


    "Go get them, good person!"


    He made me sound like a superhero or something. I drew my sword, all the while still standing next to Gray. The guards weren''t going to be fast enough to reach me before the cloaked gangsters with their heavy armor, so I would have to hold out for a little bit.


    But... that wouldn''t be too hard.


    "Hey, what do you think would happen if you ended up injuring your boss''s son? Even if it was an ident, a person with her temper..."


    Hearing my words, Gray wasn''t offended, but rather stood in front of me with both hands on his hips proudly.


    "Hah! You cannot pass me!"


    Five cloaked figures that had gotten within striking distance had frozen up, unsure of what to do. Unfortunately, their leader was quick to point things out.


    "Just subdue my child and bring him out of the fight, idiots!"


    Before I could say anything to Gray, one of them lunged forth and scooped him up before dragging him off. Gray resisted violently, kicking, screaming, and punching, but he was still a kid in the end.


    I clicked my tongue and stared at the four. They each had gleaming metal shortswords, which seemed to be their trademark or something. While I didn''t want to look like a pansy and run, I also didn''t see myself winning against them.


    Besides, there were people waiting just behind ready to take over if one fell. All things considered, they weren''t just mindlessly rushing in, lest they end up interrupting each other.


    I began turning around, with the intention of running away. Unfortunately, the points of two swords were going to my head at the same time. I stopped and threw my head back. At the same time, I raised my sword horizontally, holding the t side of the de with one hand.


    Two ngs rang out, as their shortswords mmed into mine. With a forceful shove, I threw them back. Though, as I was doing that, two cloaked figures appeared on both my left and right.


    They thrust their shortswords toward me, making me curse internally.


    While their attacks were rough, showing theirck of any technique whatsoever, their attacks were still made with thought. They purposely aimed it further back, so that they would still hit me even if I backtracked.


    Left with little other choice, I went forth instead. I clenched my hand around the handle and gave a strong swing towards the two that were trying to get a hold of their swords. I did it with the intention of giving them both grievous wounds, but...


    Two thuds rang out.


    I cut apart their cloak, revealing leather armor underneath. While I was strong enough to push back two swords at once, I apparently couldn''t cut through leather armor with a sword. While a deep mark was left behind, I couldn''t even prate the damn thing.


    Fuck. Leather armor was nothing like this in Minecraft, since when could it just block a damn metal sword?


    The good news was the blow still seemed to cause them pain, making them stumble backward. The bad news was that the two on my left and right were both already in the middle of swinging their weapons, one toward my chest and the other toward my back.


    I had nowhere to go.


    It was at this point that I became acutely aware that while they had leather armor, I only had my regr clothes underneath. I noticed that the swords wereing at different elevations. And a crazy idea popped into my mind, which was honestly quite stupid.


    But I acted on it before I could hesitate.


    I threw my head back and leaped into the air, and tried to keep my body as straight as possible. One shortsword passed right by my face, while I felt the other glide against my cloak harmlessly.


    While still in the air, I shed toward the one on my right mostly to ward him off and grabbed onto the arm of the one on my left. My sh had only struck air, but that was to be expected. As for the arm I grabbed, I pulled down as hard as I could, forcing him to fall down along with me.


    Right when I felt my shoulder hit the ground, I pushed against it hard, still pulling on the person''s hand, and rolled over them. I saw some of the other cloaked figures a few steps away hesitating, thinking about joining in, but they didn''t end up doing so in the end.


    As for the other three still standing, they rushed over without waiting. Seeing this, I decided to test something. When the guy on the ground tightened his grip on his shortsword, I shed his wrist.


    Blood sprayed out while he cried out in pain. Not waiting a heartbeat, I roughly picked him by the top of his cloak, getting some of his hair in the process. I put the de against his neck in one swift motion.


    "Not another step."


    Unfortunately, my n didn''t work. The cloaked people didn''t hesitate for even a second, opting to try and surround me once more.


    These people were cruel. They didn''t even hesitate over the lives of one of their members if it meantpleting their objective. My vision became tinted with red from that realization.


    That meant I had to be cruel too.


    I pushed the de into his neck while pulling it to the right quickly. Blood rushed out like a waterfall. He would die in a matter of seconds. With a grunt, I threw his body forward, letting it crash into one of them. The other two tried to surround me, but that would still take a few seconds. I, on the other hand, didn''t wait a second before essentially throwing myself to the one on the right.


    The guy didn''t panic though. He held his shortsword in front of him, ready to shield himself. Not to mention, he took advantage of myck of bnce due to rushing and grabbed onto my pendant, tugging hard.


    I had tomend him for being smart, these guys definitely had practical experience to adapt like this.


    He intended on pulling me in so that I cut myself on the de. If I tried to attack, we would trade wounds. But if I tried to block, while I would probably be uninjured, I would be in an incredibly disadvantageous position as I would be hunched over from him pulling the pendant.


    Considering he had leather armor as well, both options would be bad for me.


    However, there was still a third one.


    When I felt him tugging on my pendant, I didn''t resist whatsoever. Instead, I went with it, throwing my head forward while guarding my body with my de. I saw his surprised expression for a split second.


    Then, a bang resounded.


    I mmed the mask against his forehead, knocking him back.


    Fucker, you may have leather armor covering your body, but you don''t have a mask protecting your face!


    The mask moved up, revealing my mouth. As for the guy, while he was disoriented, he was still standing and was just moments away from recovering. While this may seem advantageous, there was still someone behind me.


    I had to finish this quick.


    While thinking that, my eyesid on his bare neck. Specifically, the jugr vein.


    I pounced forth opening my mouth wide and bit down hard on the side of his neck. The strong metallic taste of blood filled my mouth, while my ears rang from the sound of screaming.


    A wound here meant death.


    He would bleed out until he died.


    I was very familiar with the human body, for the sake of killing them.


    Without thinking more about it, I shoved him away, in case he shed at me in his death throes. At the same time, I spat out some of the blood and torn flesh in my mouth. While I was willing to go very far while fighting, that didn''t mean it didn''t disgust me.


    You may think I''m an animal, but it was simply the most effective action at the time.


    Attacking by biting wasn''t actually the smartest move of all time. For starters, there was only so much your teeth could handle assuming you''ve taken care of them properly. Thankfully, it seemed Bryson did that for me.


    But more importantly, biting down forces you to move your head to a vulnerable position.


    That gives a golden opportunity to split your skull open or at least damage your brain. Even if those things weren''t a possibility, there were still the eyes that would be quite easy to take advantage of.


    However, while stunned, that guy was not in a position to use that golden opportunity.


    Which is why he is now dead.


    I turned around while warm blood coated my chin, dripping down to my neck. The cloaked figure behind me was spooked by my appearance, visibly flinching. It appeared that while these people had experienced bloodshed, they hadn''t gone that far yet.


    The other cloaked figure had only just now tossed their dead teammate off of themselves.


    Assuming those in the crowd didn''t join in, I had roughly five seconds for this to remain a one-on-one fight. As such, I didn''t hesitate in rushing in and began casting the fire spell at the same time.


    While it would normally take forty seconds for me to cast a traditional fire spell, that was if I made a full-sized fire spell. The smaller it got, the faster I could cast it. Of course, it wasn''t that simple as it became more tricky the smaller it got, but my control over mana was already more than enough.


    I raised my sword in the air clearly and did a traditional overhead swing, with no tricks. Naturally, it was blocked easily by the person in question. I continued pushing down, which the cloaked figure began taking advantage of, twisting his sword with the intent of parrying before counterattacking.


    But before that happened, my left hand shot out. My index finger went right next to his eye.


    A smile formed on my face, contradicting my mask. And I just couldn''t help myself-


    "Boo."


    Then cast the fire spell.


    "GAAHHHHHH!"


    It was only a tiny fireball, a few centimeters wide, but that was more than enough to essentially disable him. The man dropped his shortsword and covered his face with both hands, all the while stumbling backward.


    My sword shot out in between his arms and pierced into the left side of his neck. As you may expect, I cut into his jugr vein.


    After that, I immediately turned to thest one. But instead of rushing forth to avenge anyone, the guy ran away. To take his ce, five other people walked up. To be honest, I had little confidence in performing what I had just done again with nearly as much ease.


    But I didn''t have to.


    Because the guards had arrived by now and stepped in front of me in order to take them down for me. Now that the ones I had been fighting ran away on their own, it was no longer cowardly to retreat, and so I did without hesitating.


    While there were fewer guards than cloaked gangsters, there was still a big difference in power. Leather armor definitely surprised me with how well they could resist shes, but there was still a big difference when it came to metal armor.


    The attacks thatnded on the guards mostly just scratched their armor. I wasn''t sure if they still took damage through it but none of them were faltering so they were probably fine. As for those in cloaks, they would be able to take one hit if they were lucky, but were usually cut down by the next.


    Jess was staring at me with great worry, but let out a sigh of relief after. There was aplicated expression on her face, probably in part due to my bloody mouth. However, it appeared that this wasn''t over yet.


    The leader was holding onto something I recognized.


    An iridescent stone.


    "This isn''t over yet!"

 Chapter 77: Mama, You Should Know

    <h4>Chapter 77: Mama, You Should Know</h4>


    I felt a little nervous. From what I remembered, the Survivors only had cold weapons. There was no mention of them ever having the financial capability to get their hands on an iridescent stone.


    Unfortunately, no matter how unlikely it was to happen in the game, it ended up happening here. I saw the mana within the stone fluctuate, filling in the pre-carved gaps in the stone to form aplex spell.


    ...Well. Hopefully, it wasn''t anything too big.


    "Did you really think I didn''te here without a n? Now all of you will die, this spell has more than enough power to wipe you out!"


    The leader shouted that as the spellpleted. It made me feel a little disgruntled. I could tell she wasn''t lying. But it was also understandable. I mean, nobody was going to take the time and effort to engrave a water ball spell like that.


    Yet, while it was understandable...


    "What the fuck."


    ...That didn''t mean I was too happy about it.


    A vine ruptured out of the ground, sending long cracks across the floor and scattering dirt into the air. That vine rapidly grew into several different stalks, branching out into several directions. And at the top, a gaping maw that resembled a venus fly trap had appeared. The only difference being that there were actual teeth in the mouth, and the fact that they were sharp.


    Cold sweat formed on my back.


    The vine monster looked down at us with a gaze of contempt, almost like we were insects.


    I knew that there was no way in hell I could do anything about that thing. It wasn''t like a sword could just cut that thing down. Well, I guess if you were a swordsman in an anime, sure, but I''m not one.


    It let out a roar, shaking the ground, and nearly bursting my eardrums.


    Hm. I did isekai though...


    The vines and gaping mouth shot down toward me.


    Wait, no those were stupid thoughts. Shit, was Nathan nearby? If he used his giant methrower thing, then he might be able to kill it. But then again when I eyeballed it, this thing was like, around ten meters tall.


    My entire vision was filled with the sight of the vine monster''s mouth.


    No. Even if Nathan was good, it would require a bit of luck for him to one-shot this thing. On top of that, he needed roughly a minute to even channel the spell. And from what I could tell, I had about one and a half seconds before I ended up being-


    "Insolent!"


    Jess flicked her arm. A massive wave of white mist shot out, freezing the vine monster the moment it came into contact, coating it in a thickyer of ice. However, it did far more than just immobilize the vine monster. The ice continued to spread out and directly enveloped almost half of the members wearing ck cloaks.


    It even went further past the gaps between people and left irregr marks of ice on the nearby houses and paths.


    I looked down at my cloak and noticed that some frost had formed on the outside.


    The cold sweat on my back just got even colder.


    Shit, I forgot that Jess was already a well-established mage. From what I could tell, this spell belonged to the Domain ss. That was definitely not an easy spell to cast. Even in the game, the main protagonist can only learn these kinds of spells in the third year.


    While she was only in her second year at the Golden Gold School, she was in ss S.


    I let out a soft sigh.


    "Thanks for that."


    Jess crossed her arms and turned away.


    "It''s only natural."


    Yet, right when I was letting out a sigh of relief-


    "Hahaha, you sure have some impressive magic there girly. But how long can you keep doing that, I wonder?"


    The leader walked out from behind the vine monster that had shielded her. She lifted the iridescent stone above her head confidently. There was a small crack in it, but other than that it was still usable.


    I turned to Jess.


    "Hey, you can do that again, right?"


    In response, she just furrowed her brows deeply. I cleared my throat, and decided to repeat myself just in case she couldn''t hear me.


    "Right?"


    Jess only frowned.


    Ah. Now that I think about it, Domain-ss spells were also notorious for using up arge amount of mana to match their devastating effects. Jess herself didn''t have much practical experience and must''ve gone super overkill in order to deal with that vine monster.


    ...and now she had no mana left.


    I watched as the iridescent stone lit up once more with mana.


    Hm. Did this mean we were fucked now?


    Suddenly, my memory shed back to the time I was with Raisa in the carriage. Just like that time, I could sense that mana fluctuation in the distance. What if... What if I...


    A strand of mana shot out of me, rapidly traversing toward the iridescent stone. And with all the force I could muster, I yanked at the mana.


    Another crack formed in the stone. But this time, the spell was canceled before it could activate. I let a long sigh of relief out. As for the leader, an ugly and confused expression formed on her face as she looked at the stone.


    She tried it once more, but I just yanked at it once more.


    A third crack formed on the stone. The leader mumbled several curses one after another under her breath. Jess blinked a few times, a bit baffled by the woman''s strange behavior.


    Then it happened again.


    The woman didn''t hold back this time, instead explicitly yelling and stomping her foot.


    "What? Why the fuck isn''t it working? There should be more than enough mana!"


    Hearing this, I could help but burst outughing. Both Jess and the woman looked at me strangely. After calming down slightly I pulled down my mask and pretended to be cool, shrugging my shoulders.


    "Why don''t you try activating it again? Though, without my permission, nothing will happen."


    The woman''s eyes widened.


    "What? You are the cause?"


    Raisa''s words about being a heretic shed through my mind. I then tapped onto the pendant I was wearing a few times.


    "This thing right here makes all mana in the area my domain. Whether or not you can cast your spells depends on if you have my permission. I must say, I was quite curious about what spell you were so confident about. But after seeing it, I can''t help but feel..."


    I tilted my head to the side.


    "Disappointed."


    That was obviously a lie, but I wanted to sound cool, so-


    The look Jess gave me simply became a stranger. As for the leader, she didn''t even consider moving further away and began channeling the spell once more.


    "No, I refuse to believe this!"


    To be honest, it caught me off guard and I almost wasn''t ready. But it turns out that mana can travel several meters in just a split second.


    Then, the iridescent stone shattered, bing several tiny little pieces scattered across the ground. She proceeded to fall to her knees and brushed her fingers across the fragments, mumbling to herself like a crazy person.


    Huh.


    This woman was acting as though her career depended on that thing.


    "T-The only thing keeping me the indisputable head of the organization... is gone!"


    Oh. I guess her career did depend on it.


    Now that I think about it, this whole incident was going to make it even harder for me to get any people to sit at the damn people and have a meal. A flood of fatigue and annoyance threatened to overwhelm me, so I just pushed away those thoughts for now.


    Seeing their leader fall, the surviving cloaked figures decided that fighting was no longer worth it and ran away with all their might. The guards didn''t chase after them, because they weren''t supposed to in the first ce.


    But there was one that ended up staying behind.


    It was a woman. She was still holding onto Gray, who was still struggling until now. The woman looked rather lost, not knowing what she was supposed to do. Looking at her, I coughed.


    "Just let go of the kid and run away. What are you still doing here?"


    At my words, the woman flinched and let Gray go. After staring at me for another few seconds like a creep, she turned tail and bolted off. Upon being let go, Gray looked around until he spotted me, then ran towards me with a bright smile on his face.


    "Thank you, good person! You dealt with all the bad people!"


    I let out augh. Once he got up next to me I patted his head once more.


    "I didn''t do much. It was the guards and the kind girl next to me that did most of the heavy lifting."


    He pouted after I said that.


    "But you still did the most!"


    A smile formed on my face. I was definitely getting more credit than I was due, but it didn''t feel so bad.


    "Thank you, thank you."


    I turned to look behind me and saw his mother still in a mess over the scattered fragments. It was almost like she was the one that shattered and not the stone. Without realizing it, I let out a sigh.


    I rubbed the blood off my sword with my cloak before sheathing it. I also semi-cleaned my mouth by wiping it with a sleeve, though that might''ve just made it messier.


    "Hey, kid."


    "Yeah?"


    Gray enthusiastically responded to me. It made me feel a bit lethargic, to be honest. Without responding to him, I slowly walked toward his mother. He followed from right next to me like we were on a walk.


    Once his mother was in front of us, I pointed at her.


    "Since she''s your mother, then you should decide what to do with her. Though, it seems like she''s already paid the price back in full from her reaction."


    Under normal circumstances, I would have killed anybody that tried to take my own life. If possible, I would want to make it a tiny bit more painful as well. However, this was still someone''s mother.


    It would probably be pretty hard for this kid to live without a mother after all.


    Hopefully after this, she can stop her crazy deeds and the two of them can be a happy fam-


    "I want to kill her."


    ...Huh?"


    "Sorry, what did you say?"


    I was so baffled by the words that came out of his mouth, that I had to hear them again.


    "I want to kill her."


    Gray''s words rang out with the exact same intonation as before. He made it very clear. However, it looked like his mother hadn''t even heard him. Seeing this, Gray called out to her.


    "Hey."


    ...


    "Hey!"


    ...


    "HEY!"


    Gray stepped on top of the fragments and looked down at his mom, forcing her to look up.


    "Mom. You want to keep controlling the friends you made, right?"


    His mother instinctively started to nod, but quickly shook her head instead.


    "N-No, of course not!"


    ...She caught on quite quickly.


    Gray smiled when he looked down at her. Was he going to forgive her?


    "So you are ok with going back home and no more stealing?"


    She nodded hastily.


    "Yes, of course!"


    Hm. It looks like she was lying, but if the kid couldn''t see it, then I wasn''t going to point it out.


    "Is that true, Mom?"


    His mother smiled awkwardly.


    "Why wouldn''t it be true? You are my one and only precious son, after all."


    Gray''s tone suddenly dropped.


    "Mama, you should know I can tell when you lie to me."

 Chapter 78: Liar

    <h4>Chapter 78: Liar</h4>


    Seeing the sudden shift in Gray, there was only one thought in my mind.


    Eh? I could''ve sworn he normally called her Mom, not Mama.


    While I was thinking of useless things, his mother panicked slightly.


    "W-What are you talking about? I''ve never lied to you!"


    There was a shortsword on the ground, which belonged to Gray''s mother. He picked it up and pointed it at her.


    "A long time ago I believed everything you said, Mama. But does Mama remember what she said when I asked where Daddy was?"


    She furrowed her brows. It seemed she didn''t remember.


    "I... I told you where he went."


    Gray responded softly.


    "Mama said he went away to find a new job."


    His mother hurriedly nodded after hearing that.


    "Yeah, exactly?"


    Gray tilted his head to the side ever so slightly.


    "Then why did I see Daddy dead?"


    Silence fell. His mother''s expression warped greatly.


    "I... I didn''t know about that. It looks like he wasn''t able to secure work."


    "Mama."


    Gray''s eyes widened ever so slightly.


    "I know Mama killed him."


    "What? Impossible! I... I..."


    Oh, dear.


    Before she could find an excuse, Gray continued.


    "But that''s not the biggest secret I know."


    Everyone froze up and looked at Gray, frozen in ce. There was something worse than that?


    Gray pointed the shortsword dangerously close to her face.


    "Mama''s eyes. Mama is looking at me the same way she looked at Daddy before killing him. If I let Mama go, she will find a way to kill me."


    Wow. He could even tell that sort of thing?


    Now that I took a closer look, the way she was looking at her son had be rather hateful. It seemed she was unable to even hide it anymore.


    "That''s... not true."


    Gray began to speak with mncholy.


    "I know there was a time when Mama tried her best to help us. I know Daddy was bad and used the money badly. I know Mama just wanted us to survive together."


    A smile formed on his face, but it looked sad.


    "But Mama is already gone."


    Huh?


    "Isn''t she right there though?"


    Gray shook his head.


    "Mama disappeared when she met with her many dangerous friends."


    He pulled the shortsword away.


    "I don''t want to die. But Mom wants me to die. So... I have to..."


    While trying to catch up with his thought process, Gray suddenly swung the shortsword with all his strength, disappearing into a blur. His mother yelped and raised her hand to block it, but-


    Brutal cracking resounded through the air.


    Both a hand and a head flew up into the sky beforending on the ground with a st, coating the ground with blood. I blinked a few times, reevaluating what my eyes had seen.


    Thisnky kid that looked like he wasn''t too far from starving just used a shortsword to cut through both his mother''s wrist and neck. Setting aside how wrong the situation felt, even I wasn''t too confident that I could do something like that with that much ease.


    But while all those thoughts rushed through my head, my eyes ended upnding on Gray, who in turn was looking at the corpse of his mother. He dropped the sword and began to sniffle.


    Soon enough, he frowned deeply as tears began falling from his face. He wiped them away with his dirty hands, but whatever was wiped was quickly reced with more tears.


    ...If it''s that hard for you to kill your mother, then why did you do it?


    I let out a long sigh and patted his head.


    "I don''t understand your choice, but you''re going to have to deal with the consequences. What are you going to do now?"


    Gray spoke between sniffles.


    "I don''t know."


    He already began calming down somewhat.


    "I just didn''t want to die. But I don''t know how to live."


    Huh. Did this guy suddenly age several years to be an edgy teen?


    Well, I guess he did literally kill his mother with his own hands. And there''s also the fact he saw his dead father when he was younger.


    Ok, maybe it''s fair enough then.


    "...Maybe you can take your time to find out with these people. If they allow it, of course."


    I turned to Jess, and she shot me aplex look back. Her eyes were asking me if I was serious, to which I nodded. She sucked in a cold breath before crossing her arms.


    "I suppose it could be arranged. But we won''t be able to take in every kid that ends up without a home."


    Gray wiped away thest of his tears before looking at me with a smile.


    "If that''s what good person says, then I''ll do it."


    In the end, the servants and everyone else started to pack up. I almost joined in out of instinct but remembered I looked a little different right now. Although both Gray and Jess definitely knew who I actually was, it was probably better for fewer people to know.


    Gray hopped in the back of the carriage, warranting some curious looks, but nobody directly objected to it. As for me, I simply left and decided to walk home. It was incredibly tempting to just teleport back, but I already resolved that the feature would only be used for emergencies.


    ...But damn. How bad would it be just to use it one time?


    No, no. No. I can''t.


    Fuck. This is going to take a while.


    Jess called out to me as I left, asking me if I wished to join in on the ride, but it would be a little hard to exin once we did end up reaching the manor, so I decided against it. When they headed off, I did so too.


    Then, I suddenly thought of an alternate solution.


    I could just hop off halfway and make my way back then.


    My gaze shifted to the carriage, but it was already just a dot in the distance.


    Fuck.


    Fucking hell.


    ...


    When I eventually made it back, it was fairly deep in the night. I decided to just run, pretending I was the protagonist of the game. While I didn''t work that hard on maintaining my physique recently, it was still pretty damn good.


    Bryson probably exercised every day. But I guess that was normal considering how power-hungry he was.


    I should find some time to do that, assuming that nothing happens.


    Naturally, I took my mask, pedant, and cloak off before returning and bundled it up hoping that it wouldn''t look too suspicious. The moment I walked in, I found that Jess was waiting for me.


    She had her arms crossed and was ring at me when I set foot inside. It seemed that I was in trouble.


    "I don''t know what you''ve been doing, and while I feel greatly unsettled by that, I will not ask about it. I''ve decided to trust you, and ept that if you haven''t told me, then there is a reason for it. But... please don''t keep me in the dark forever."


    A small smile formed on my face.


    I guess I was exaggerating things a little bit. She isn''t that much of a bro-con.


    "Haha, don''t worry. Soon enough, whether I want to or not, you will understand... basically everything."


    After all, you were one of the pivotal allies in that shitty ass game. Only time will tell when your role bes indispensable. Besides, Nathan is probably super desperate to even just get more time to look at you.


    Jess smiled softly.


    "Alright, let''s go then."


    I blinked a few times.


    "You don''t mean... bathing together again, right?"


    Jess looked back at me with a confused expression.


    "Huh? What else would it be?"


    Hm. Maybe her being a bro-con wasn''t actually an exaggeration.


    ...


    Another painful session resumed, but I ended up falling asleep faster since I was quite tired from running.


    To be honest, I had fully expected the book to interrupt my dreams once more and ask a bunch of pointless questions. However, he never did end up appearing. It left me waking up in that awkward situation where Jess was holding onto me like before.


    Did other brothers and sisters do this kind of thing?


    Hm. I never had any siblings, so maybe I was actually the one being weird about this.


    Gray ended up joining us and took a room with one of the servants. He greeted me excitedly with the uniform of a butler, but it clearly didn''t fit him. His hands weren''t visible because of the overly long sleeves, while his pants were rolled up several times over just so that they wouldn''t touch the floor.


    He was enthusiastic about helping about, but from the look of the butlers, he was more a detriment than anything else.


    With that, another whole school day went on. Jeff tried to catch me at a point where Jess wasn''t around to ask me for tips about how to get with her by waiting past the doors on ss A. Unfortunately for him, Jess had sniffed it out and scolded him before any meaningful conversation could happen.


    He was probably going to try again.


    Nathan asked toe to my ceter to discuss our n to head to the north, and I agreed. sses passed by fast, though lunchtime was a little bit strange.


    "Could I sit here?"


    With a nk expression and a t tone,  walked up to our table and requested to sit with us. Even though she asked, it felt as though she was actually forced into this. However, this was kind of just her personality.


    I say kind of because she does change quite a bit as the story progresses.


    The five of us, Nathan, Arianne, Raisa, Charlotte, and I all looked at each other. We were trying to see if any of us actually knew this girl personally, but it was quickly bing apparent that we didn''t.


    caught onto our confusion and bit the bottom of her lip.


    "Nevermind, forget I asked."


    I covered my mouth with my fist and coughed a few times.


    "Well, there''s no particr problem with you sitting here. Though, it may be hard to talk with one another since we don''t know you too well. Maybe you could introduce yourself?"


    gave me a long stare, which felt like it was filled with malice even though it probably wasn''t. Out of nowhere, she suddenly stood up straight and put one hand over her heart.


    "My name is , of the Glyn family. The rank of my father is an Earl, my current age is eighteen and my height is one hundred and sixty-one centimeters. My eye color is light blue. My birthday is on..."


    I... who even introduces themselves like that? Is this a text-to-speech of her driver''s license?


    Now that I think about it,  never really did have any basic social skills.

 Chapter 79: A New Direction

    <h4>Chapter 79: A New Direction</h4>


    "...My hair is straight and blonde. My-"


    "Wait, wait, wait."


    I raised my hand with a slightly distressed expression.


    "That wasn''t what I meant by an introduction."


    looked back at me with a nk look.


    "I believe my introduction was going just fine. Is the purpose of an introduction not to describe oneself for the purpose of understanding the other?"


    A bitter smile formed on my face.


    "Well, I guess, but you don''t have to go into things like your physical features. It''s pretty easy to make out most of those just by looking at you."


    "I understand. So it must be things not immediately apparent."


    She responded swiftly, prompting me to nod.


    "Ah, yes. Like that."


    thought for a moment before continuing on.


    "To continue with my introduction, my family has several connections with the Mage Association. There are also a few named merchants that will sell us in-demand products first before-"


    "No, no, no. Sorry, maybe I didn''t exin it properly."


    I raised my hand to cut her off once more, while my eyelid began twitching.  was confused.


    "What? I followed your instructions, did I not?"


    I took a deep breath, trying my best not to show how much I was cringing.


    "What I meant about introduction, is to say the name you prefer to be called, and after that, something interesting about yourself. Perhaps one of the things that you like."


    At this point... it would be clear, right?


    blinked a few times before nodding.


    "Alright. For those of nobility, you may simply refer to me as . As for themoners, you can refer to me asdy-"


    "Stop. Stop."


    For what felt like the thousandth time, I held out my hand to stop her.  furrowed her brows.


    "Are you simply trying to find trouble with me? If you do not appreciate my presence, you can just say it."


    I let out a long sigh while pressing two fingers to my forehead.


    "Look, I guess it might be a little hard for you to expect, but while we are sitting at this table, I don''t want you to bring your rank into this. If that''s too much for you, then it''s probably best if you don''t sit here."


    remained silent for a while. To be honest, I was a little surprised by how much this girl cared about the rank of nobility. There wasn''t really a trace of this in the game itself, as she didn''t really need convincing thatmoners were people too before liking the protagonist.


    She was probably going to take off in a huff, but-


    "I''m sorry."


    ...Oh.


    "What are you sorry for?"


    waited a good minute before responding once more.


    "I''m sorry for... not doing the introduction properly."


    I couldn''t help but let out augh. From the sounds of things, it was actually something else, but I didn''t care enough to ask her.


    "Alright, I guess the best way to exin things is to give you an introduction instead."


    After bringing a fist up to my mouth, I coughed.


    "My name is Bryson. If you wish to, you could call me Brian instead. Something that I enjoy doing is... er- singing."


    Just in case Nathan ended up slipping up and calling me Brian, this would be a good enough exnation. I noticed Nathan was staring at me for a certain reason, but just ignored it.


    "That''s my introduction. How about you try now?"


    clenched her fists tightly and kept her head down. I decided not to point it out for now, it would be difficult to get it perfect on the first try I guess.


    "My name is . I-If you wish, you can call me..."


    "Er-  is already quite short, so it might be too much for a nickname."


    cleared her throat and nodded.


    "Ah, yes. Just call me . Something I enjoy doing is..."


    She blinked a few times, remaining silent while the rest of us were just staring at her awkwardly.


    "Um, I recall nobles usually enjoy hunting, so I guess I enjoy that."


    Was that how it worked now?


    She looked at me with calm eyes.


    "Can I sit now?"


    I scratched the side of my head.


    "Um, I guess so."


    After that, she sat down and began looking left and right, staring at each person explicitly in a way that made pretty much everyone ufortable. All of a sudden, Arianne suddenly tugged on the sleeve of my shirt. She spoke after I turned to look at her.


    "Um, am I being a bother by sitting here?"


    I chuckled before shaking my head.


    "No, why would you think that you are a bother? If you''re worried that your general social skills are at the same level as... a certain someone... don''t worry, they are still pretty good."


    Arianne let out a sigh of relief before nodding. I had no idea what that was about but decided to just let the topic rest. Before silence dominated the entire scene, Nathan pointed at  with a t expression.


    "Do you actually not have something that you enjoy doing? How the hell do you get by in your free time then?"


    tilted her head to the side slightly.


    "But I said there was hunting. Nobles enjoy hunting."


    The corner of Nathan''s lip twitched.


    "Would you go out of your way to hunt even if there was nobody telling you to do so?"


    scratched her cheek.


    "I would say that is unlikely."


    Nathan leaned over and pointed at her usingly.


    "Then you clearly don''t enjoy it! What, do you just spend your free time just standing still?"


    Raisaughed awkwardly.


    "Well, while I may not be particrly insistent on hunting, I do find it somewhat enjoyable."


    Arianne let out a smallugh.


    "Ah, I wouldn''t have a good answer to that question either. My answer would be something like... spending time with my mother."


    I pointed at her and spoke nkly.


    "No, that''s still miles better. That''s a legitimate thing to enjoy, and besides, it wasn''t like you were lying to get an answer."


    "A-Ah, is it? I-I see."


    Nathan rubbed his chin in thought.


    "So what do you do when you have no responsibilities then, ?"


    responded nkly.


    "I study."


    Nathan sucked in a cold breath, while a frown formed on his face.


    "Oh god... so you''re one of those types."


    blinked several times.


    "I don''t get it, what''s the problem?"


    Nathan scratched his ear.


    "I guess it''s not exactly a problem, but-"


    "Talk to me too! Why are you only talking with that girl..."


    Charlotte interrupted him with a pout. It could''ve just been my imagination, but I think I saw a vein pop in Nathan''s head.


    "I was literally talking to you just a few moments ago. Am I not allowed to have a conversation with other people?!"


    Charlotte puffed up one of her cheeks and crossed her arms. She looked to the side to avert her gaze.


    "W-Well it makes me feel weird when you talk to her. Besides, you already have me to talk to,moner! There''s no need to talk with anyone else."


    Nathan began berating her, which appeared to be rather shocking to . In the end, she didn''t talk much at all. I wasn''t sure why she wanted to sit with us, but nothing really changed, so I guess I didn''t have to make a big deal out of things. Our lunch passed by as it normally did, and the rest of the school day did as well.


    Before the day ended, Raisa discreetly passed me a piece of paper. Considering that she was looking away while tapping on me, that was probably the map for the ck market. Without acknowledging anything, I just took it and moved on.


    After I got on the carriage to get back home, Nathan followed me without muchint. However, he suddenly shuddered.


    "Wait."


    "What?"


    He turned to me slowly, like he was a poorly oiled robot.


    "...Is Jess going toe too?"


    My eyelid twitched.


    "Isn''t that obvious? We ride the same carriage every day. You obviously know that too."


    Nathan immediately stood up before running, with his arm at a ny-degree angle, while his fingers were stretched out straight. But before he got out of the carriage, I caught him by the back cor of his shirt.


    "Dude, chill. What, do you think Jess is going to kill you or something? I thought you liked her."


    Nathan turned to look at me from over his shoulder.


    "What do you mean? She obviously hates me! I-If I just stay out of her sight then maybe-"


    "What is going on here?"


    Jess interrupted him, making Nathan pale like he was just a step away from death.


    "I... I..."


    Jess then looked at me with an using look.


    "Why did you force themoner toe again, brother? He clearly doesn''t wish to."


    Nathan let out a leakyugh, like he was a squeaking pipe.


    "Y-Yeah, I... definitely don''t wish to..."


    Jess red at me, but before she could berate me more, I rified things.


    "Hold on. He was the one that asked toe to me in the first ce. Second, the reason why he got so scared was because of you."


    She raised an eyebrow.


    "Because of me? How could that be?"


    "N-No, it''s not like that at all..."


    Nathan tried to defend himself, but could hardly keep himself standing. I let out a sigh.


    "He has the misunderstanding that you actually hate him. Because of that, he doesn''t want to bother you."


    Jess shifted how she crossed her arms.


    "That... but how can that be true?"


    "Haha, it''s not... it''s not..."


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "To be frank, he almost ended up running the entire way to our ce on foot just so he wouldn''t have to bother you."


    Jess turned to look at him.


    "If my brother is trying to force you, then just tell me. Were you the one that requested toe?"


    Nathan scratched the back of his head.


    "Ah... yeah. Well, I don''t really need toe I guess."


    I coughed.


    "Jess, just rify things a bit, alright?"


    Jess turned to look at Nathan.


    "Do you believe I dislike you?"


    "W-Well..."


    Nathan turned away further, facing the opposite direction. It looked like he wanted to turn away even more, but that wasn''t exactly possible. Jess tilted her head to the side. While confused, she decided not to act on those just yet.


    "I don''t dislike you. If I gave you that impression, then I''m sorry. So long as you have my brother''s permission toe, then don''t mind me."


    Nathan blinked several times before turning to her with a surprised expression.


    "E-Eh? You really don''t hate me?"


    Jess smiled bitterly.


    "I''m a little confused as to why you even believe I hate you. I don''t recall any of your actions having an offensive nature."


    Nathan proceeded to sit back in the seat next to me with augh. He crossed his arms and tilted his nose upwards like the traditional cocky viins inedy anime.


    "Haha, yes! Of course I knew that! I uh... definitely wasn''t avoiding you or anything like that."


    Jess blinked a few times.


    "I... I see."


    The carriage ride back was quite silent. Nathan''s confidence eventually began dwindling once more. Although nobody was saying anything, he had both hands on his head in distress.


    Tsk. This stupid guy was thinking that Jess hated him again despite the fact she literally went out of her way to say she didn''t.


    I spent the rest of the carriage ride hoping that Nathan wouldn''t try to yeet himself out in the middle again.

 Chapter 80: Just Immobolizing, Alright?

    <h4>Chapter 80: Just Immobolizing, Alright?</h4>


    Nathan was on the verge of yeeting himself out once more, but with my genius thinking, I forced Jess to reassure him she didn''t hate him a second time. Although she was resistant to the idea, thinking there was no need, she did it in the end, which let Nathan''s fragile self-confidence tide over to the end of the journey.


    I told the servants to go along without me to the slums. As for that pale meat business, Nathan just left it to Edward. In reality, there wasn''t much of a point in him being there in the first ce since Edward could do most of it on his own.


    When we finally did end up getting to my room, Nathan let out a long sigh.


    "Damn. I thought I was going to die. If I knew that was the case, then I would''ve just run over here."


    My eyelid twitched.


    "You don''t seriously think she still hates you, right?"


    Nathan scratched the side of his head.


    "Well... I guess if she said it that many times, I guess not."


    Huh?


    "Then what the fuck was the problem, man?"


    Nathan frowned before blinking a few times.


    "...I don''t know, bro. How the hell am I supposed to adjust when the 2D character suddenly bes 3D? This like goes against every single one of my morals."


    I let out a long sigh.


    "Ah, whatever. To be honest, I thought I was going to have more difficulty getting you away from her rather than needing to convince you not to break down the moment she nces in your direction. I guess this is better than what I could''ve asked for."


    He rubbed the side of his head.


    "And what about you? Not once have you tried to clear up the misunderstanding personally, nor have you gone to see her."


    The corner of my lip twitched. I didn''t expect him to redirect it to me.


    "...Well, it''s not convenient for a person in my position. She''s not even in our ss."


    Nathanughed and pointed at me like a 6th grader picking on someone.


    "You know that doesn''t matter! We already broke character the moment we got here anyway."


    I tilted my head to the side and thought about it for a moment.


    "Well. I guess talking to her wouldn''t really change anything in the end."


    For a moment, we just looked at each other silently. I soon decided that enough was enough and spoke up.


    "Anyway, we were nning that trip to the forest, right?"


    Nathan blinked rapidly.


    "Ah, right. I was thinking we should stop by a shop along the way to get some basic gear."


    I tapped my chin a few times.


    "Um, why not just do that now?"


    Nathan shook his head.


    "I think it would be best that we leave as few traces of what we were doing as we can just in case anything crazy happens. You remember I was the one that covered up for you all those times, right? Just trust my judgment."


    I gave a quick nod.


    "Ah, yeah. I assume that we will be needing cloaks and masks as well then?"


    Nathan rubbed his chin.


    "I would say so, yeah. Do you have one already?"


    I walked over to the bed and pulled out the cloak and mask I had stashed behind the headboard. Nathan raised an eyebrow when he saw that.


    "You found his mask already?"


    I blinked a few times before nodding.


    "Ah, yeah. I found it in the fake ck market. Speaking of ck markets, I got Raisa to hand me a map to the real one and she just handed it to me today."


    I then pulled out the paper, but the moment my gaze fell on it, my expression fell.


    "What''s the problem?"


    Nathan walked up so that he could take a look at it as well, after which his expression twitched violently.


    ...Because the map was more like a children''s drawing. Large splotches of thick strokes of ck ink filled the paper with rough drawings of houses that were not proportional by any means. In red, there was a path that led to an X as though it was a shitty treasure map.


    "I... I put too much faith in her."


    Nathan could no longer hold it in and burst outughing, nearly falling down to the floor.


    "This... HAHAHAHA... this is great, man! You have to appreciate just how specific it is. I mean look, the window on that house doesn''t actually connect fully, and look at how precisely the X shows where the location is! There''s even a beautiful pathid out."


    I silently folded up the paper and closed my eyes.


    "...Nevermind. So what was your n going forward?"


    He raised an eyebrow.


    "Did you not think of anything?"


    "..."


    I remained silent. Not because I was guilty or anything, I mean, I was thinking abouting up with a n but... it just kinda ended up this way, y''know?


    Nathan rubbed his temple with the base of his palm.


    "Honestly, I was kind of expecting this. Don''t worry, I already made a pretty detailed n. After we get our gear, I was thinking that after we first pass by some of the stores in the Trade District. Although my hopes aren''t high, we may find something quite precious..."


    ...


    "I didn''t think leather armor would be this ufortable. Isn''t this stuff supposed to be easy to move in?"


    Iined while adjusting my mask, trying to get it to fit my face better. As for Nathan, he simply let out a sigh.


    "It''s not like we can just get things tailor-made for us. Especially considering that would just leave more traces. Small ones, but they still can''t be ignored. The size is going to be a little off and there''s not much we can do about it."


    I clicked my tongue.


    "Well, just because it makes sense, doesn''t make the situation any better."


    Nathan shrugged his shoulders.


    "It''s not like our situation could get much worse in the first ce..."


    After he said those words, I ended up falling silent. He was quite right. While these days so far have been rtively peaceful, I also remembered that was just a tiny prelude to the absolute chaos that would soon ensue.


    ...But damn, this leather armor is rubbing my armpit the wrong way, and it is incredibly annoying.


    Nathan had gotten his own ck cloak and mask. While it wouldn''t be too hard for me to also get him one, he had already made it so there was no point. And more importantly, it looked a lot more realistic, probably because there were plenty of old and torn-up rags to choose from.


    As for the mask he had...


    Unlike mine, which had a huge frown, his had an exaggeratedly wide smile. I asked if he was trying to be the Joker or something, but he said that it was one of the only masks he could find and it also matched mine, so he thought why not.


    We were currently walking down the streets of the main trade sector. Quite a few people gave us strange looks because of our getup, but they didn''t care too much before moving on. Most people here had things that had to tend to whether that was business, or finding something to buy.


    Around us, there were several tall buildings belonging to some famous merchant organizations. While most didn''t have any actual noble titles, their power was either on par or not too far from most actual nobles.


    They had severalyers to them, and with each one you go up on, the pricier and rarer the items. In fact, most of them had quite a few iridescent stones with a spell pre-programmed into them. From devastating firestorms to a near-instant rock wall to create cover, all of those could be found.


    Especially if one went to what was called the Trady Trading Shop. While the name was weird, it was still a behemoth of a ce. And as of now, the doors to enter were right in front of us.


    So naturally, we took a left.


    Ah, what? No, you read that right, we didn''t go in there. After all, we were here to see if we could find something that didn''t have known value yet, but was still being sold. The things in that shop are all things that are in demand, whether they be cheap or not.


    As such, we ended up wandering around to look at some of the stalls set up on the side of the road, for people too poor to actually buy a shop. While we were looking around, that didn''t change the fact that we were slowly making our way out of this district.


    After all, it wasn''t like we really needed anything. We were just taking our chances while passing by. As expected, most of the stuff we passed by was either junk or things that weren''t all that useful to us right now.


    That didn''t mean the stuff was low quality. In fact, there were a decent amount of iridescent crystals and a few iridescent stones here and there. They didn''t have a spell carved into them though, obviously.


    We didn''t have much hope, but when we were nearing our journey, we ended up finding something that excited both of us.


    The entrance to the Common District. Which was just a dirt pathway.


    Huh? Were you expecting us to find some sort of treasure?


    To remind you, we reincarnated into a shitty tragedy dating game. There''s no way they''d just present us with opportunities like those. No, no, no. To be more urate, they would do things more like-


    "Stop right there!"


    Sending a bunch of bandits to ambush us. Kind of like what was happening right now.


    Ah, wait-


    Roughly ten or so bandits had surrounded us. They wrapped their faces in cloth to obscure them, their own kind of mask. Along with that, they all had knives in their hands, ready to fight if we decided to resist.


    See, while people are in the Trade district, there will be guards that prevent things like stealing, so that people can feel assured that they won''t have to worry about that kind of thing while shopping.


    However, the moment you step out...


    My gaze drifted over to a guard, who simply nced over before looking away.


    Yeah so like, they don''t give a flying fuck, because apparently, that''s not their job. If one were to exit the Common District at certain ces, then they would probably get this kind of ambush.


    The ones where rich people usually left, but also weren''t too crowded.


    "Drop all your weapons now if you don''t want to die! Everything you have will be taken from you."


    I drew my sword while Nathan took out his spear. With a chuckle, I asked him a question.


    "Do you think they''ll have some money on them?"


    While it was hard to tell, I still saw that Nathan rolled his eyes.


    "Of course not. Why else would they be stealing like this?"


    "Hey! This isn''t time for conversation! Hurry up and drop your weapons!"


    I tilted my head to the side.


    "I guess this isn''t really a proper time for conversation, huh?"


    "Yeah, so hurry up and drop your-"


    Nathan and I suddenly bolted in opposite directions. He took advantage of his short height to get a good angle and pierced the man from underneath his ribcage into his heart.


    As for me, I went towards the closest bandit in the back and shed at his eyes, making him scream.


    "Why do you always waste time with non-lethal injuries?"


    Nathan chastised me. I simplyughed.


    "It''s to immobilize them, alright?"


    These bandits probably weren''t expecting this.

 Chapter 81: Definitely Not Suspicious People

    <h4>Chapter 81: Definitely Not Suspicious People</h4>


    Right off the bat, two people were put out ofmission. That only left eight people, and while that number greatly outnumbered us, they were rather shaken up. It appeared that these kinds of people were all talk, and had only picked on targets they thought were easy.


    It seemed this much bloodshed was too much for them.


    Right after puncturing the man''s heart, Nathan yanked his spear back, causing the body to lurch towards him and copse next to him. In that brief moment, he attempted to do the same thing but those nearby immediately backed off and guarded the bottom of their rib cage.


    However, that did little to discourage him as he lunged forwards to m his spear against the side of their knees. Making them groan in pain before falling down.


    As for me, while those next to me were shaken up, there were still a few that rushed in with their knives out. Unfortunately, they really underestimated the difference in reach a sword and a knife had.


    With ease, I shed at the nearby hands and wrists. As a few fingers ended up flying through the air, they cried out in pain and dropped their weapons. However, I did happen to underestimate their fortitude as most of them wasted no time in bending over to pick up their weapon with the other hand.


    However, they weren''t the smartest, simply looking down at the weapon instead of at me, revealing the backs of their necks. Not letting such an opportunity go, I threw myself forward and shed at the backs of their necks one after another.


    Although it was hard to get a deep cut because of the angle, it was still more than enough. The bandits fell one after another. I snuck a nce over my shoulder to see Nathan directly lunging his spear through their heads. His target was the eye for the most part, but would also go through the mouth as well.


    In a sh, only two of the bandits were left, one for each of us.


    Deciding that it was no longer worth it, they both fled. Mine was going towards the Trade District, meaning he would soon be considered under the protection of the guards upon reaching there.


    Understanding that, I put my all into running and pulled my sword back all the way.


    When he was just a few steps from reaching that ce, I drew a horizontal arc with my sword and beheaded him. The resistance I felt was surprisingly small. I was unsure if that was because the sword was good, or it just wasn''t that hard to behead someone.


    On the other hand, Nathan picked up one of their knives and just threw it at them. Itnded squarely in the back of their head, causing them to copse onto the ground.


    I called out to him.


    "I didn''t think you were going to kill him?"


    Nathan sighed.


    "It''s best to have fewer people see us and get away with it. If I can just kill him, then there''s no point in leaving him alive, no?"


    I blinked a few times.


    "Um, I guess so."


    I heard the guard let out a sigh before picking up one of the dead bodies and carrying them away. It appeared that disposing of bodies was part of his job too, and was probably something that he had done at least a few times before.


    We continued walking on, and most people ended up leaving us alone. That was probably because Nathan didn''t even bother cleaning his spear, letting the blood dry the tip. It seemed fairly peaceful for the most part, but I then heard Nathan cursing under his breath several times and mumbling to himself as though he were crazy. He rubbed his temple with the base of his palm aggressively.


    With a bit of concern, I called out to him.


    "Uh, you ok there?"


    Nathan let out a long sigh. And tapped the side of his head a few times.


    "This guy in here doesn''t like the fact that I killed all those people."


    My eyelid twitched. Ah, right. It seemed that the original hosts were still in our bodies, making this rather awkward. It made me wonder how mine was doing, but that wasn''t important right now.


    "Even though they were the ones that were attacking first?"


    Nathan shrugged his shoulders.


    "He said that we should''ve let the people running go."


    I rubbed my chin after thinking for a while.


    "Yeah, I guess that is a pretty reasonable request. But letting them go would be bad for something about traces, like you said?"


    Nathan nodded while pressing two fingers to his forehead.


    "Yes. It would have been, but this guy doesn''t get it at all."


    I let out a chuckle.


    "Well, I guess you can try to convince him or just give up on that for now."


    Nathan smiled bitterly.


    "Well, maybe it was a little too much..."


    My guess was that he didn''t really mean that and just wanted to pacify the guy in his head. By the way, I didn''t bring the book along with me, just because this was supposed to be more secret than usual. The book was understanding and didn''tin.


    Wait. Hold on a second.


    "You can talk with him normally?"


    Nathan blinked a few times. He looked around to see if anyone was near before speaking to me with a hushed voice.


    "Ah, apparently it was difficult for him, but he was able to find a way to talk with me. From what I gathered, while the host of the body will always be conscious, and able to see everything that happens, they have second priority when ites to controlling the body. In other words, when we wake up, they lose control, and only gain control if we fall asleep."


    I raised an eyebrow.


    "So that means that Bryson has seen everything that has happened until now, huh?"


    Nathanughed before nodding.


    "Guess so."


    Hm, that was within my expectations anyway.


    "So uh, since you''re probably listening to this, Bryson, why don''t we have a chat?"


    ...


    Nathan nced at me.


    "Um, did he respond?"


    I shook my head.


    "No, it doesn''t look like it. But there''s no rush."


    We continued on walking without much thought. At some point, I spotted Bernie, who was at someone''s door apologizing to them. The person in question was really confused, but epted the apology with a confused smile before closing the door.


    Huh. I guess he really was doing his thing.


    Nathan gave me a strange look.


    "Why the fuck did that guy turn into a door-to-door salesman?"


    I coughed a few times.


    "This and that may have happened and now he''s going around apologizing to every single farmer in the kingdom."


    Nathan paused for a moment.


    "...How the fuck did you convince him to do that?"


    I tilted my head to the side.


    "Honestly, I don''t even really know myself. It feels more like he was the one that did it to himself."


    Nathan chuckled.


    "Huh. I see."


    While we were walking, there was a fairlyrge group of bandits dressed up just like the people we had seen earlier. They casually walked up to us, with the one in front clearing his throat before speaking up.


    "Hey, you two creepy guys with masks, have you seen a group of people that look like us around here anywhere? They were supposed to show up here by now, but aren''t here."


    Hm. I do remember seeing them not too long ago. Nathan let out augh before shaking his head.


    "Ah, no, we haven''t seen them. We were just wandering around for a bit."


    The bandit nodded a few times. It felt a tad bit strange considering we were actually the ones that killed them.


    "I see, well, thank you anyways for telling us."


    Nathan waved casually.


    "Of course, of course. We''ll be on our way now."


    "Hold on."


    The bandit raised his hand. Although his face was covered, it was still easy to tell a smile was forming on his face because of how tightly the cloth was wrapped around him.


    "First, drop your weapons. Don''t think that I''ll be intimidated by that so-called bloody spear you have there. I can tell that you just used some sort of fake red dye! I mean, blood isn''t that dark of a color. I would know, you see."


    Um... but it was real blood. I guess the color was indeed a tad bit darker because it had dried, but that definitely was real blood. It seemed as though the bandit didn''t actually have a concept of what made sense and what didn''t.


    Nathan tilted his head to the side. Though I didn''t see his face, I knew he was getting annoyed.


    "Oh, is that so? My kindness earlier means nothing to you?"


    The bandit shrugged his shoulders.


    "It''s not that it means nothing to me at all, I will leave you with your clothes, but everything else will be going to us. No hard feelings, that''s just how it is when one party has power over the other."


    Nathan took a deep breath.


    "When one party has power over the other, you say?"


    I slowly took out my sword and held it out, as though I was going to drop it. The bandit nodded with a pleasant smile on his face.


    "Thank you for being so cooperti-"


    Nathan once again rushed forth and pierced the man through the heart. I rushed forth as well and directly cut off one person''s hand, making them copse to the ground while crying out in pain.


    "Y-You bastards!"


    One of the bandits from behind screamed that out before running away. Both Nathan and I had narrowed our eyes, not wanting this guy to get away. But this time it was different, because there was still a wall of people in front of us.


    But... that didn''t mean we were going to give up.


    "Hey, Nathan."


    I called out to him, to which he responded almost immediately.


    "Yeah, I got it."

 Chapter 82: Who The Fu-

    <h4>Chapter 82: Who The Fu-</h4>


    Nathan put one foot against the guy in front of him, pushing him away while pulling out his spear from the guy''s body. At the same time, he used his free hand to take away the knife he was holding.


    Without waiting, he threw the knife towards the runner.


    This made one of the bandits shout.


    "Duck!"


    The runner did not even nce over before dipping his head down and covering it with both hands. With that, the knife ended up just barely passing by nicking the back of his hand as it went.


    I wasn''t just standing by either, but I honestly had no idea if this was going to work. My eyes widened all the way as an incredibly tiny fire spell formed on top of my finger. It was virtually harmless if itnded on someone''s body or limbs, but that was not my target.


    While the guy still had his head down, I let it loose, hoping that he wouldn''t suddenly shift his direction. I was betting on the fact that it was awkward to do so while one''s head was down.


    As it traveled through the air, most of them ended up missing it entirely.


    And when the runner lifted up his head, it struck the back of his head.


    "Agh!"


    A frown formed on my face immediately. A ck spot had formed on the left side of the neck.


    I missed.


    My target was the nerves in the spine so that the brain would lose control of everything below the neck. While I would''ve liked to make another attempt, he had already turned the corner, making me curse under my breath.


    Nathan clicked his tongue while backing off.


    "Dumbass."


    I got in front of him while smiling bitterly.


    "Bullets travel instantly in an FPS, alright? How the hell are my AWP skills supposed to transfer?"


    Three different bandits rushed towards me. While they were confused about what I was talking about, that didn''t stop them. I could''ve done a horizontal sh if I was confident in my strength, but instead, I did an overhead one, bringing it down on the one in the middle.


    He brought up his knife to block, while the other two thrust their knives toward me, aiming for my body. With my free hand, I directly grabbed the wrist of the one on the left andpletely ignored the other.


    Before my sword hit the man''s knife, I clenched harder on the handle while tilting it to the side. Because of how small the knife was, it let me pass by it easily. Unfortunately, the angle was too awkward for me to go for the neck, so I simply went for the shoulder, and with a bit of resistance-


    "AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"


    -cut through and sent his arm falling to the ground. As for the knife that was previously unhindered going to my stomach, it had suddenly stopped, freezing in the middle of the air. With a tremble, the knife fell down to the ground.


    Because Nathan had stepped up and pierced through that bandit''s chest, thrusting the spear from underneath my arm. Other than breathing heavily, he himself had no reaction. My strength was superior to thest bandit, allowing me to have control. However, it wasn''t enough topletely outss him, thus I wouldn''t be able to do much with the knife itself.


    As for the bandit, he didn''t just sit still while watching me swing my sword. His free hand went for my throat, attempting to choke me out. I tensed the muscles in my neck, forcibly resisting the constriction.


    I was still able to breathe, albeit just barely. But instead of trying to pry away his hold on my neck, I suddenly pulled with the hand holding onto his knife, catching him off guard and making him stumble forth.


    At the same time, I pushed myself forth and raised my leg, mming my knee against his liver. He was essentially disabled, letting go of both me and the knife, while crumpling down to the ground.


    It made it more than easy enough to ram his knife into the side of his neck, while he was still holding onto it.


    In a sh, two bandits were dead, while the third one was crumpled onto the ground, crying in pain because of his missing arm. The remaining bandits stared at us in shock. After a brief moment of hesitation, they all began running away, splitting off in different directions.


    It wasn''t that big of a deal I guess, since one had already escaped a while ago.


    But I still fumbled with the dying guy''s knife to get a hold of it before throwing it at one of them.


    Unfortunately, it missed, and by a longshot too.


    Trying to throw weapons with one hand urately was frankly, insanely difficult. Though I had practiced before, I could only do it semi-urately with two hands. Nathan made it look so easy though.


    With a plop, one bandit had fallen onto the ground with a knife wedged into the back of his head.


    Nathan sighed.


    "This is what happens when you only use the AWP man."


    I clicked my tongue.


    "Better an expert than a jack of all trades."


    Nathan shook his head.


    "Anyway, we''re going to have to go faster if we don''t want to encounter more of these guys. They are clearly part of a bigger organization and will probably send people to search for us."


    I gave a quick nod.


    "Yeah."


    With that, we began running. From what I remembered from our first gym session, our physiques were more or less tied. We ran for an hour or so, passing by people, and making them look at us with confusion.


    Thankfully, we never ended up encountering those bandits from that point.


    To be honest, I found keeping this pace up for a whole hour was already very impressive from this body, but I was getting winded. I probably wouldn''tst much longer. On the other hand, While Nathan was breathing heavily, it was still at a steady pace.


    Was having this kind of stamina normal for people in this shitty game?


    No, we outssed the rest of our ss in terms of physique, so it definitely wasn''t normal. Even when running at half our current speed, there were some that couldn''t go any further after a couple minutes.


    I guess he really was given a body that monstrous. Well, mine was too, but still,parisons easily make valuable things feel worthless.


    It took us a little while, but we made it to the slums. There weren''t exactly any defining walls or marks to indicate that it had be the slums, but there was a big enough difference to tell. The buildings themselves had be more dpidated and had be more concentrated.


    While most ces in the kingdom had manyrge paths for carriages to go through and people to walk on, this was very different. Since we hadn''t gone along the main path, up ahead was only a very high concentration of buildings, at most one meter apart.


    It was simply alleyway after alleyway, twisting and winding around so much that it was probably easier to get lost here than in a forest.


    Nheless, we went through, focusing mainly on just going forward as much as possible. There were a decent amount of people that we passed by, however, nobody dared to even get close to us, immediately ducking into another alleyway, or going back into their house after seeing us.


    That much was pretty understandable considering that we were covered in still fairly fresh blood, and Nathan still had his spear messy from the earlier fight. Although it was technically a more dangerous area here, there was hardly any obstruction simply because most people here understood quite clearly that they should mind their own business.


    Though, it was still a hassle to navigate our way through all of the alleyways. Eventually, we got through, and before us was a rather tall wall, made out of stone. It wasn''t the special stone that reflected magic, although it would''ve been ideal if that was the case. However, it was unrealistic even by the rich kingdom''s standard for something like that.


    The walls themselves were about thirty or so meters high. It wasn''t too exaggeratedly high, but also wasn''t that low. However, it was still going to be very hard to climb up since the walls were smooth. However, Nathan had already nned for this.


    We got out the grappling hooks that we had bought earlier at this point.


    Nathan let out a small sigh of relief while spinning the head of the grappling hook.


    "Thankfully it wasn''t too high, else we would''ve had to resort to blowing up the wall."


    I too followed his example and shortly after we threw our hooks on top of the wall. It would''ve been hard with our original bodies, but these ones were basically a cheat. After giving a short tug to make sure that it was correctly fastened, we scaled up the wall with the rope''s support.


    Of course, there was an official exit we could''ve taken which was fine to take. However, Nathan didn''t want to leave a record of us personally leaving the city. But more importantly, the processes you had to go through were a huge pain in the ass.


    Upon getting to the top, we scouted to see if there were any guards nearby, but there were either no guards at all, or they just weren''t around at the top of the walls. Using the same grappling hook, we slowly scaled down the other side of the wall. The journey both ways were fairly treacherous, but so long as we were willing to get crippled, then falling wouldn''t kill us.


    After making it to the other side of the wall, a wide in had spread out in front of us, with a very wide and long dirt path far off to our right. As for the forest itself, it was a rather far distance.


    Still, we continued on regardless.


    There wasn''t all that much time to waste since we only had two days to spare before it would cut into our school time, which was pretty important for the magic lessons alone. At most, we should take half a day to reach the forests, leaving us a day to do our business there beforeing back.


    As such, we began running once more.


    I told Nathan to slow it down a little bit since my stamina wasckingpared to his, so it took a decent amount of time. While crossing the ins, I spotted several carriages that looked like dots in the distance. It appeared that the kingdom had a decent amount of business from outside sources at the very least.


    Once we had gotten fairly close to the forests, Nathan stopped.


    "The forests are going to be different from before. Chances are, there will be a considerable amount of danger. We should take a short break here to recover our stamina and make our way through after. Also, don''t forget to keep your eyes peeled."


    I let out augh through winded breaths.


    "Of course, you told me that before."


    We sat down in the grass to catch our breath. We had brought along some food with us, but not a considerable amount, so we held off on eating for now. Our n was to catch some game along the way, which was honestly a tad bit arrogant considering we had no idea how to hunt, but I''m sure we would figure something out along the way.


    That, or we would have to starve for a few days.


    The path that we were on was nowhere near the main path that carriages took, so we were pretty confident that we would be left alone.


    But...


    "Hello there, adventurers. May I know why you are here?"


    Who the fu-

 Chapter 83: Sophia

    <h4>Chapter 83: Sophia</h4>


    Upon hearing that voice call out to us, all I felt was confusion. But when I turned to look at her, I felt my blood freeze.


    It was Sophia, the heroine you could only meet by the hidden condition.


    She had long green hair that seemed to faintly shimmer. Her eyes were a light blue, and her frame was dainty. However, she was also more than six feet tall. Even if we were standing up, we would have to look up to see her face, and right now we were sitting. Her clothes were a in green, but that was to remain camouged among the forest.


    Though, the most discernible trait out of everything was definitely her pointy ears.


    In other words, she was an elf.


    Nathan and I bothined about the fact that she had green hair, but honestly, it didn''t matter that much. After all, we didn''t really care about this character.


    "Why do you need to know why we are here?"


    That much was clear from how Nathan responded to her question. He was definitely needlessly hostile. However, the expression on her face didn''t change. Wait, no, the corners of her lips had turned up ever so slightly.


    "Oh, I suppose there is no need. Please excuse my manners, as I am simrly an adventurer just like you."


    That was a lie.


    "You see, I feel like our kind should stick together! It''s quite dangerous to be roaming around the wild when there are beasts around. I only wished to get closer to one another as it would be mutually beneficial!"


    Nathan began rubbing the side of his head with the base of his palm.


    "There are other people you can get close with. We have our own business to tend to."


    She ced her palms together andughed amicably.


    "Ah, of course. If you have business to tend to, then naturally that means you could use some help. Why don''t Ie along with you?"


    I nced over at Nathan, but it was hard to tell his expression considering that there was a mask on his face. It seemed that he had forgotten Sophia''s ultimate strength was shamelessness.


    I turned to her and spoke tly.


    "There isn''t anything particrly wrong with you following us, but it isn''t as though we are going anywhere special. We just wanted to cross the forest to take a look at the other side."


    Sophia put a finger on her chin and tilted her head to the side. There was a bright smile on her face.


    "Ah, if that''s the case, then I should definitelye along! I know how to navigate the forests pretty well with my experience."


    I tried to make her lose interest by making it sound less interesting, but that didn''t seem to work. Her interest had already been piqued and wouldn''t settle until a little whileter. Ordinarily, guys wouldn''t find anything wrong with a girling along as well, but we were nning on working on things that had to be kept secret.


    It wasn''t as though there was any problem with Sophia in particr, other than being annoying. However, we nned on dealing with the dual body problem while we were on our own.


    Another personing along would ruin all of that.


    With one more weak attempt, I let out an awkward chuckle.


    "There''s no need. It would be needlessly bothersome and unnecessary."


    Sophia simplyughed in response.


    "Don''t worry! It isn''t bothersome for me at all!"


    No, no. You don''t understand, it''s bothersome for us.


    "Are you sure? It sounds as though the reason why you want to join is not to help, but rather something else."


    She raised an eyebrow.


    "What could you possibly mean? My only intentions are to help another person out."


    I blinked a few times.


    "You said before that you were an adventurer just like us. However, one thing you should know is that our kind is prone to be opportunistic at the cost of others. Considering this is the first time that we have met, it is difficult to trust you toe along as well."


    Sophia stared back without speaking for a few minutes. She was still smiling like she always was, but because her expression hadn''t moved for quite a while, it looked a little creepy.


    Then out of nowhere, she spoke.


    "I suppose that is true. It can''t be helped then."


    Despite the fact that she said that, I felt a bit dazed. She definitely wasn''t the kind of person to give up that easily. Of course, it may seem a little stupid to be arguing with her despite knowing that fact. However, this really wasn''t something we could just let go without that much thought.


    Yet, while wondering what had made her give up so easily, I came to realize that she was still standing around. Wait, no, she just sat down not too far from us as well. Nathan cleared his throat and spoke up.


    "Didn''t you say that you weren''ting with us? Why are you still here?"


    Sophia waved her hand dismissively.


    "Oh, I''m not tagging along or anything like that. I am simply sitting down because I am a bit tired."


    My eyelid twitched.


    "You won''t just so happen to be going with us after we start to leave, will you?"


    She shrugged her shoulders.


    "Well, that would never be my intention, but if the paths we wish to take just so happen to line up, then there''s no helping it, is there?"


    Ah.


    Of course.


    Why did I think she actually gave up?


    What kind of dogshit luck is it to encounter this heroine now? Not to mention she''s supposed to be really hard to encounter in the first ce.


    My mind spun for a few minutes before I tried toe up with a way to get her away.


    "Just so we can be sure it''s not a coincidence then, may you tell us where you intend to go after you finish your break?"


    She tilted her head to the side.


    "Oh, I''m just wandering around a bit, so it could be anywhere."


    ...


    This fucking...


    No, I should calm down. After taking a deep breath, I drew out my sword slowly before pointing at her.


    "Seriously, we don''t want anybody following along with us, alright?"


    She held up both her hands while putting on a shocked expression.


    "Ah, what are you talking about? I don''t want any trouble, I just want to take a rest!"


    I sucked in a cold breath.


    "Come on, we both know that''s not true. While we have no intention to stir up any trouble, we still can''t have someone suspicious following us around. Naturally, we will take drastic measures if necessary."


    A smile formed on her face. She stood up and deftly pulled out a rapier, pointing it at me just like how I was.


    "Then how about this? We could have a duel. If you draw blood on me first, then I will leave without another word. However, if I draw blood on you first, then I can tag along and the two of you won''t make it difficult for me."


    Fine, fucking bi-


    Wait. No, I''m being dragged along with her pace.


    "There is no reason for us to ept this proposition."


    Sophia casually shrugged her shoulders.


    "If you don''t, then I can just do what I can to stick around anyway."


    A mild aneurysm gradually began forming in my head. Although I was pretty confident with talking my way around people, she had driven me into aplete corner through logic. Shameless logic, but logic nheless. I can''t even remember thest time something like this happened to me.


    With how Nathan was looking at me, he seemed to realize that I had no more to say, and was baffled by it as well.


    After scratching the side of my head, I turned to her and responded.


    "...Is itpletely necessary that I am the one that takes you on?"


    She shook her head.


    "No, it could be either of you, I don''t mind. However, I would appreciate it if the other doesn''t interfere. If I believe that you won in that fashion, then I will just follow you from a distance anyway."


    My eyelid twitched. She was still stating conditions? From there, I turned to look at Nathan.


    "So... what do you think?"


    It was hard to get a grasp over how good Sophia was at fighting, but she definitely wasn''t weak in the story. At the very least, she was on par with the protagonist after a few years in.


    Considering that right now was about a year and a half before it was possible to meet her, that made it even harder. While being as objective as I could be, I had no idea whether or not I would be able to win against her.


    Chances are, it was the same for Nathan.


    Seeing our hesitation, her smile had only gotten brighter.


    "Come on, don''t be afraid of little ol'' me! I''m just a girl, surely a strong man like you could easily defeat me."


    Even if you want to use the male stereotype to egg us on, it sounds even more like a trap if you use it while being a girl yourself. But then again... it seems the options were limited.


    After thinking for a little while, I thought of something.


    "Instead, we could do a duel where the two of us fight against you."


    It was a bit shameless, but I honestly wasn''t sure if we could beat her even then. Sophia promptlyughed after hearing that. That made me think it was a good sign, but-


    "No."


    Though still smiling, her expression became t.


    "How can it be called a duel if multiple people are participating?"


    I blinked a few times.


    "Well, it doesn''t have to be a du-"


    "Yes, it does."


    She cut me off before I could finish my sentence. To be honest, I don''t remember her being this battle hungry in the story before. But then again, whether or not she wanted to, with the development of this shitty game, that was guaranteed to happen.


    Once again, I looked at Nathan, who looked back at me. He gestured by pointing his chin toward my sword. I think he was trying to say that I would have a better chance against the rapier with a sword, though I personally thought a spear would have a bigger advantage because of the reach.


    I mean, they were kinda the same weapon, but one was longer, right?


    But then again, Nathan knew more about cold weapons than me, so I decided to trust him.


    "Fine, I guess I can fight against you."


    She smiled.


    "That''s what I like to hear."


    With that, I stood up, with my sword at my side. By the way, it still had traces of blood over it, since the only cleaning I did was wiping it on other things. That made it fairly clear that even if I didn''t kill people, something that could bleed was shed through with this sword.


    But... that hardly bothered her.


    I took a couple of steps back, just in case she was actually really fast and could catch me off guard with an attack. After gaining several meters of distance, I feltfortable enough to start.


    "I guess we can just start then?"


    Sophia''s smile grew a little wider as she suddenly bolted forth. It was faster than I expected, but still not too much for me. Her rapier was pulled back all the way. She was definitely going for a full lunge right off the bat.


    Right when I processed all of that, I threw myself to the right. Frankly, parrying a rapier looked like it was really difficult with how small the damn thing was.


    Yet, against my expectations she did some strange ass footwork that twisted her momentum to the side, rendering my actions pointless as the sharp tip of a rapier barreled towards me once again.


    I then decided to parry with my sword, to get the toothpick away from me. I imagined that she would be aiming for my body, since the main goal was just to draw blood and the body was the biggest target. With that in mind, I swung my sword from underneath her rapier.


    She didn''t do anything much against it, letting me shift the de upwards.


    But then, she lifted her hand up high, letting it point down toward me. In a sh, the de of the rapier disappeared. No, it didn''t disappear, rather, it shot right toward my eye.


    What the-


    Without thinking too much more about it, I turned my head. The point of the rapier mmed into the side of my mask, leaving a thin sharp mark on the side of it.


    Damn, is this how Nathan felt?


    Well, whatever the case, I underestimated how seriously this girl was taking this.

 Chapter 84: The Real Bryson

    <h4>Chapter 84: The Real Bryson</h4>


    Sophia brought up a duel, one where the winner would be determined by the one that first draws blood. However, she aimed directly for my eye. Though I could be wrong, I''m pretty sure she wanted to have the point go through the hole in my mask, and thus guarantee that she hit my eye.


    I don''t remember her being this cruel in the story.


    Well, then again, the game wasn''t exactly the highest of budgets. When she fought in the game, it was a very basic animation you would probably expect from most games. Considering how many different routes they made, I suppose it would be hard on their budget if everything was high quality. But how reasonable it was didn''t exactly help me-


    Despite being caught off guard, that wasn''t enough to stop me from going for a counterattack. I attempted to slide the sword past and sh at her arm. Yet, she brought back her rapier, then used the base to push against my sword, forcing it away.


    In the end, our hilts mmed into each other with a bang.


    My hand was trembling while trying to keep her de away while inching mine closer. While we were close to evenly matched, I still had the advantage, slowly pressing forth. I noticed Sophia''s eyes had widened.


    She suddenly stopped resisting, leaping backward and continuing to backpedal a few steps.


    I narrowed my eyes ever so slightly.


    "The condition to win the duel was to draw blood, yet you even went for my eye?"


    Sophia flicked her rapier to the side andughed.


    "Ohe on, don''t act like you haven''t done something like that too. I can tell from your fighting style."


    She then clicked her tongue.


    "You have absolutely no technique, but still have a general idea of what you''re supposed to do. I''m sure that you grew up in the slums and had many fights. Didn''t you?"


    Well-


    I''m not sure if that''s true or false if I''m going to be honest. But at least in the context of this world, it was wrong. I simrly let out a chuckle and shrugged my shoulders.


    "I could be a noble for all you know. Who''s to say I have toe from the slums if this was my fighting style."


    She slowly began approaching but wasn''t against talking.


    "Oh, I never said that you weren''t a noble. I''ve seen plenty of fallen nobles too, but regardless, you must''ve grown up in the slums if that''s how you fight."


    ''Impudent!''


    Huh? Did I say that?


    I definitely heard it. But... I''m pretty sure I didn''t say that.


    "Did you call me impudent?"


    Sophia raised an eyebrow.


    "Hah? I suppose you could interpret it that way. It appears you really are a fallen noble then."


    Huh. So... the only other person it could''ve been, was me. Or, to be more urate, the original Bryson.


    ''Fallen noble?...''


    A small smile formed on my face.


    "I dunno, but it seems like you made me mad."


    Sophia blinked a few times.


    "Why did you say that as though you weren''t yourself?"


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "Maybe I''m not myself."


    Sophia looked at me with a confused look, while Nathan red at me, probably because I was being a little bit too loose-lipped. I held out my sword once more, with my hand out to the side.


    While I wasn''t too confident about winning after that first exchange, at the very least I wouldn''t be caught off guard now. Plus, I now knew that my strength slightly surpassed hers.


    I took a deep breath, then-


    ''You''re doing it wrong.''


    Bryson spoke up in my head and I noticed a will had guided my limbs. While I felt that I could easily resist it, I decided to just let it happen.


    I pulled the sword back and raised it up to my shoulder, with the sharp part of the de facing the sky. My other hand that was usually free instead went to lightly press against the side of the de near its center. As for my legs, they spread apart quite far, almost like I was about to kneel.


    Sophia raised an eyebrow when she saw this.


    "Trying to take a stance now? If you don''t understand how to properly use a technique and just blindly copy it, the results will be bad. I''m saying this just because I don''t want you toin about that after you lose."


    In response... I said nothing.


    If I did try and say something, I could tell that would weaken Bryson''s control over the body, and since I wanted to see what he was going to do, I naturally didn''t.


    This left a few moments of awkward silence, during which Sophia slowly approached.


    When she was just two meters away, I wordlessly lunged forth, obviously not because of any action I had made. I felt my hand slide down the de before it suddenly blurred. Despite still feeling the movement that my muscles made, I didn''t really understand what I was doing.


    Unlike how I usually fought, my feet began sliding, one reaching out and tracing the path of a semi-circle as my de shot towards the side of Sophia''s neck, gliding over the arm she was using to fight.


    Once again, a shocked expression formed on her face, but she didn''t actually lose herposure. Instead of backing off, she continued forth with her own rapier while ducking. I felt one of my feet m into the ground while my body spun.


    The de went over Sophia, but her rapier was simrly dodged, only nicking the outside of my cloak. However, that was apparently not all that Bryson had left. With the arm that wasn''t holding the sword, he brought down an elbow, mming down into Sophia''s lowered head.


    A loud thud resounded.


    The hit connected, making Sophia copse down to the floor. With that, Bryson then pointed the sword toward her neck. But for good measure, I took over and nicked the side of her arm, since he didn''t seem to have the intention to "draw blood" in order to win the duel.


    ''Hmph. If it wasn''t for the fact that you stole my body...''


    To be honest, I was kind of baffled by the sudden change. While I had felt some of the techniques that had be muscle memory in this body before, the difference between what I could perform and what the actual Bryson was like arge chasm.


    I honestly didn''t really understand what he did with the sword. While I''m pretty sure I was at least decent at using it, it seemed quite stupid in front of a pro. Not to mention, I usually only move my feet drastically when I intend on dodging.


    But Bryson moved them quite violently, further enhancing his strike and increasing his flexibility in movement. Yet, out of all of that, I was actually surprised at the fact he had used his elbow.


    I honestly can''t recall if I''ve ever even done that.


    In reality, I''m far more focused on using my hand to grab, so using the elbow doesn''t reallye naturally. If I was in that situation, instead of the elbow, I would''ve grabbed her hair.


    And realistically, hitting her down like that was far better.


    In conclusion, he was better than me at fighting.


    ...But still, I preferred how I fought more. His way was just a tad bit too clean, in my humble opinion.


    Sophia let out a groan as she rubbed the back of her head.


    "You would hit a girl like that? What a brute you are..."


    I simply rolled my eyes.


    "What? So I''m supposed to just not hit you and let you win?"


    Sophia clicked her tongue before getting up. She looked at her arm, where I made a tiny nick that she was bleeding from.


    "I suppose you are the winner of this duel."


    She then took another look at me, like she was inspecting an object. I figured she would stop at some point, but her awkward stare lingered for quite a while.


    ...Bro, I''m not a jewel that you appraise.


    I cleared my throat.


    "You said you would be leaving, no?"


    A bitter smile formed on her face.


    "Yes, yes. I will not go back on my word, despite how much I don''t wish to do so. But before I go, I must ask, do you have multiple personalities? Otherwise, I can''t exin such a drastic shift between fighting styles."


    I felt a strange sense of deja vu. But I didn''t stand there to think about the question. Instead, I just shrugged my shoulders.


    "I mean, it''s probably too much of a jump to say multiple personalities just because I can act two different ways. People areplicated, so it can just be the same personality, no?"


    ''What? Are you trying to insinuate we are cut from the same cloth? Preposterous!''


    I ignored the fact he was talking to me.


    Sophia''s smile softened somewhat.


    "Haha, that is true, that is true... but I must say, you should really learn tobine the advantages of both styles. It''s such a waste to only use one and not the other. If I had known that you would just use techniques beforehand, then I could''ve subdued you far more easily. But I was guarded because of how rough you initially were."


    ''...Sorry, what are you trying to say? I''ve practiced my movements for a grand many years! How could they possiblypare to barbarically swinging a sword around?''


    I noticed that Bryson was trying to take over to speak on my behalf, but I stopped that, so he could only speak in my thoughts.


    "I guess so. Could you actually leave now?"


    Sophia let out a sigh and flipped her hair.


    "Driving me away as though it isn''t a blessing to look upon a pretty girl such as me?"


    "Yes."


    She chuckled at my nd response.


    "My name is Sophia. At the very least you could tell me your name?"


    I tilted my head to the side. There was no way in hell I would actually tell her my name.


    "...You can call me The Prince of Despair."


    It was a rather edgy name, but it was the one that Bryson had originally used, so I just decided to go with it. Sophia didn''t seem to be that bothered by the fact I used an alias and waved.


    "Very well then, Prince of Despair. I hope to see you and your friend again soon."


    She gave a brief nce and Nathan before leaving, for real thankfully. Nathan was staring at me quite hard the entire time.


    Once Sophia had essentially had be a dot in the distance, Nathan walked up to me and spoke up in a soft voice, as though the trees had ears.


    "So, Bryson''s woken up?"


    "I guess so."


    A small smile formed on my face.


    "Hey, why don''t we have a chat, you and I?"


    ...He didn''t respond.


    It was probably going to be quite difficult to start a conversation with this guy.

 Chapter 85: Introductions

    <h4>Chapter 85: Introductions</h4>


    "I assume he isn''t talking anymore."


    Nathan crossed his arms before saying that. I let out a chuckle in response.


    "Well, I guess it was never supposed to be that easy. But at least we now know that he does in fact exist."


    I narrowed my eyes ever so slightly.


    "Doesn''t really feel like a noble with all the hiding he does. No wonder he turned out to be a vill-"


    "Preposterous!"


    When I was about to finish my sentence, I could tell Bryson was trying to take control, so I let him. It seemed he wasn''t happy with my response. Nathan couldn''t help butugh.


    "Preposterous? I don''t see anything preposterous with that."


    My face warped into a deep frown.


    "Excuse me? How is that not preposterous?"


    I couldn''t help butugh right after, which must''ve made me seem like an insane person.


    "It''s kinda strange that the viin is speaking like that."


    "Viin? What is this ridiculousness! You are the bloodthirsty demon!"


    I raised an eyebrow. Now that I think about it, Bryson hadn''t actually done anything yet. At least, I''m fairly certain that he didn''t do anything. Wait, there were rumors, so maybe...


    No, no. That''s not the point anyway. I should focus on important matters.


    "Would you believe me if I said that you would''ve be a viin if it wasn''t for the fact that I took over your body?"


    "...Viin? How would I be a viin? Are you simply blinding and using nobles of being a viin? This is simply taking it too far!"


    My eyelid twitched.


    "It''s nothing like that. More urately, it''s because my friend and I have seen the future. And in every single one of them, you be a viin. Someone that kills countless people and single-handedly found a way to invite a massive wave of monsters toe down upon the kingdom."


    "Excuse me? I''ve hardly even used my position to acquire or create any businesses, yet you use me of such a thing?"


    To be honest, I understood where the actual Bryson wasing from. I mean, just the fact that he had slowly saved up a hundred thousand gold just in terms of his allowance meant that he hardly spent money on anything.


    Out of everything, Bryson definitely was not a greedy person, and with how there was practically no rtionship developed with other nobles either (Carrot Top and Baby Man were far too weak to count), he definitely didn''t care much about political power either.


    But there definitely was one huge w, that was shoved into my face far too much.


    His desire for power.


    I already had a good guess as to why he had be the way that he did.


    "I assume you''ve been with me for most of the time, so you should understand most things, correct?"


    "Of course, I''ve witnessed your demonic acts of maniption and savagery!"


    Nathan was chuckling, but I just ignored him. A soft sigh escaped me.


    "Do you recall Dark Arts?"


    Nathan looked at me curiously, but remained silent. As for Bryson-


    "Exactly! That''s your demon arts, is it not?"


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "Unfortunately, it isn''t. I''m sure even you understand that my capabilities are still limited by what your body is able to do."


    There wasn''t a response for a good while. I decided to continue.


    "With how crazy you were about getting more powerful, what do you think would''ve happened when you discovered your new ability?"


    "...I would''ve used it."


    I held onto the side of my head.


    "And you remember the side effect of losing your memory, right?"


    "I would not have used it to that extent."


    His response, or I guess technically my response, made meugh.


    "I had initially denied using it and even went out of my way to find out what really happened. Would you have been capable of doing such a thing?"


    "...Regardless, I would have never used it so much that it would have deteriorated my mind so! Don''t be ridiculous, I''m not that foolish!"


    I tilted my head to the side.


    "But you saw how it ended up for them, did you not?"


    "I am unlike such foolish peasants!"


    A small smile formed on my face.


    "Oh, you are so, so confident. But if that really was the case, that means you killed your own sister while in full control."


    "Preposterous! I would never do such a thing, it is you that is manipting her!"


    This was something I had been a little bit unsure of, his rtionship with his sister. I wasn''t entirely sure if he actually cared about his family, but from this, it seemed he at the very least cared about his sister.


    I decided to try and use that.


    "You may not believe me, but I''ve seen countless realities where you''ve killed your own sister. And even if you hadn''t, it wasn''t because you had spared her, but rather that you were unable to."


    "What kind of ridiculous nonsense-"


    "I really hated you for that."


    Nathan interrupted Bryson. He stared nkly at me, with cold eyes.


    "What kind of brother even kills his own sister? Losing your memories is no excuse. You shouldn''t have needed your memories to know that giving up your sister was wrong."


    Although that was a bit unreasonable, it seemed to be rather effective as Bryson had quieted down. After an awkward moment of silence, I found my vocal cords moving on their own once more.


    "...There is no reason for me to believe the word of demons."


    I smirked.


    "Even if we can prove that we know the future? Actually, haven''t we proven that already?"


    "...You both are simply demons attempting to manipte me."


    I took in a deep breath before drawing my sword and cing it right next to my neck. Bryson struggled intensely.


    ''What are you doing? Stop, demon! Are you really willing to go this fa-''


    "Hey, Bryson. I won''t disagree about us being demons, but if you want any hope of your sister or you surviving, then you''re going to have to depend on us."


    A smile gradually formed on my face. The sword gently pricked into the gentle skin of my neck, causing a small trail of blood to fall down.


    ''Demon! Get rid of this sword right at this insta-''


    "It seems you don''t really understand your position here, Bryson."


    He stopped struggling right after I said that. That made my smile grow even wider.


    "For better or for worse, our goal is to... save the kingdom. If you try to make this difficult, then I will have no choice but to kill this body. And I don''t particrly value the life we share, especially considering that I have already died once before."


    Bryson didn''t respond. As such, I decided to continue.


    "You''re a smart person, I know that much. Now tell me, do you think I am lying?"


    ''...No. A demon such as you could simply kill this body and inhabit another one. Of course it doesn''t matter.''


    Well, a misunderstanding was definitely forming, but I decided not to clear it up.


    "Anyway, from what it sounds like, our goals aren''t even contrary to one another."


    ''What is it that you demons want?''


    A chuckle escaped me as I put the de back in the sheath.


    "To protect some people."


    I let him control me again to speak.


    "What?"


    Nathan clicked his tongue.


    "I''m going to be the one to protect Jess, since your sorry ass wasn''t able to."


    I felt a frown form on my face once more.


    "Prepos..."


    Though starting it with vigor, he quickly trailed off. It appeared he was quickly losing confidence in his words. Eventually, I spoke up.


    "We''ve implied this many times before, but there are going to be a lot of cmities that will strike the kingdom soon enough. If we don''t be powerful enough and gather enough allies, every single person will die."


    "What will happen?"


    I narrowed my eyes ever so slightly.


    "For starters, there will be a mad noble from the Jestia family."


    "There are quite a few crazy ones..."


    A chuckle escaped me.


    "To be more exact, it would actually be amoner. One that has the ability to steal bodies from other people. The head of that family should act up soon enough."


    "Then we should go there to stop them! Why are we here instead?"


    I stood up and brushed the dirt off my pants.


    "Think about it, do you really think anyone would believe us? This will be a problem we will have to solve ourselves, and we need power in order to do that."


    Nathan also stood up.


    "It''s about time for us to go anyway."


    We then dashed into the forest. The daylight quickly disappeared, as we made our way into the dark foliage, constantly stepping from side to side to avoid the trees. While we went, Nathan casually spoke up.


    "By the way, the guy in my head keeps asking how you''re able to talk with your body."


    I simply shrugged my shoulders.


    "I just let him do it, then he is able to do so."


    After that, Bryson interjected as well.


    "Is speaking not something trivial? Why would it be difficult?"


    Nathan tilted his head to the side while running. There was a brief moment of silence before he spoke up.


    "Hm. Interesting. I''m unsure of whose fault it is, but he is still unable to speak up."


    Bryson spoke up.


    "Even simple things appear to be difficult for you, huh?"


    Nathan let out a short chuckle.


    "Yeah, they are."


    Probably not expecting that reply, Bryson was unable to respond. We were just left to push aside branches and make our way over therge snaking roots of trees. I didn''t particrly care about the silence, so I just focused on making my way through.


    There were quite a lot of bugs, but I didn''t get a good look at any of them since I didn''t particrly care about them. Though...


    ''Disgusting! What is that thing? This ce... is even more repulsive than the slums!"


    It seemed Bryson had a different opinion though. Right when I thought our entire trip was going to consist of silence, Nathan had spoken up in between steady breaths.


    "Ugh, Natan is nagging me to give out introductions. Basically, he wants to say his name is Natan and that he likes talking with other people."


    While he had a mask with a smile on, I could tell he was frowning, so I just couldn''t help butugh. Nathan continued on.


    "...And since he wants me to introduce myself too, I''ll just say I''m Nathan. That''s all you really need to know."


    Bryson tried to speak up, but because I was focusing hard on breathing properly, he was unable to.


    ''Introductions? What is the point of such a pointless act?''


    Betweenbored breaths, I spoke up.


    "Bryson says that''s his name and that he has a lot of money."


    ''What? That''s not what I-''


    "As for me, you can call me Brian. I''m not too sure why, but I find it rather easy to give someone a good impression after talking to them for a bit. I guess that''s what Bryson calls manipting."


    ''Stop putting words in my mouth, you demon! I-''


    Nathan let out a long sigh.


    "Natan wants me to tell you that he says hi, I guess... and that he''s really happy to meet everyone."


    My eyelid twitched. I already knew that Natan was that type of guy, but despite being unable to hear his voice, I still felt tired dealing with someone like that. Bryson was still arguing, saying a ton of things in my head, but I just ignored them.


    But before I was able to think about it further, a rather loud growl came from in front of us.


    Nathan stopped, and so did I.


    This part of the forest had fewer trees, and in front of us was a bear, standing in front of a cave. Except... it was a little big.


    Just a bit over twice the size of a normal bear.


    Ah, right. This was a magic beast.

 Chapter 86: Bear

    <h4>Chapter 86: Bear</h4>


    By definition, a magic beast was some sort of animal that hade across some mana source or something simr. It would cause them to mutate out of proportion to be farrger and usually gave it some basic ability that it instinctively could use.


    The bear that was in front of us was just that. Despite being an animal, its confidence in itself was quite high, and rightfully so. After all, all other normal animals within a kilometer radius would scatter away. That was probably why our journey so far had been so smooth.


    In the case of this bear, there appeared to be a fifth limb growing out from its back. Unlike normal ones, this one had an extra joint, and was much thinner than the other ones. It hung limply, and a small detail I noticed was that the hand had seven fingers. I do remember the game mentioning that mutation was rather vtile, but the art never had anything like this before.


    The bear stood up on its hind legs and let out a needlessly loud roar. While I''ve never heard a bear roar before, I''m pretty sure it wouldn''t have been as loud as this. For now, it seemed to be just sizing us up.


    It was quite hard to tell if one didn''t look closely, but there were certain parts on the bear that looked a bit more rugged, like a dark-colored rock. It would be fairly clear if it wasn''t for the fact that it was covered in fur.


    In the game, they would also have an element assigned to them to signify that they were some sort of special monster. It was the kind of system you see in most gacha games, which was probably inspired by Pokemon. For example, a fire element. Offensive water or ice magic would be effective against it, while nature-rted magic was weak.


    Seeing as we hadn''t yet backed off, the bear let out a growl before going down and slowly approaching us.


    But the difference in this game was that the same magic type had nearly no effect at all, and would sometimes even empower the magical beast. In other words, you would be better off using nature magic instead.


    The dull ck rough parts of the bear started to glow, bing red. It also began to increase its speed.


    Naturally, investing in only one type of magic was a pretty bad idea, but out of the beginner magic spells, the only one that had any real offensive capability was the fire spell.


    Oh yeah, while I may have said our bodies were monstrous before, that wasn''t actually taking into ount actual monsters. If I were topare us to this magical beast, it was just likeparing an ordinary person and an actual bear. Not to mention, we still only knew beginner magic. Which meant if we encountered a fire elemental magic beast, that would be pretty bad for us.


    Ah, also if parts of the magic beast glow red, that means they are a fire elemental.


    In other words, just like the bear that was running towards us right now, with its jaws wide open and a fireball forming in front of its head.


    ''Shit! Move, you imbecile! Can''t you see there is a magical beast right in front of you? Are you frozen up in fear?! Run! Run you fool! Did you really just threaten my life so that you could kill my body here?''


    That was probably the rational thing to do, as realistically even a weak magical beast was still out of our league with how early on we were. Not to mention one that countered Nathan''s methrower.


    But... one feature magical beasts had in the game was that they would always drop at least semi-decent loot. After all, they would always at least drop a few iridescent crystals. I caught a nce at Nathan''s eyes beneath his mask, and they were the same as mine.


    We weren''t willing to give up a treasure when it was handed right to us.


    The bear suddenly flung the fireball forth.


    I didn''t wait to leap upwards. At the same time, I fished out the grappling hook and threw it towards a nearby tree. Arge explosion came from right underneath me, knocking the air out of me and throwing me forth along with a st of hot air.


    Ignoring my current state, I pulled hard on the rope, despite not knowing if it had caught on anything because of the mild daze the explosion put me in.


    Thankfully, it did end up hooked onto a branch and I began swinging like I was Tarzan in the jungle. Unfortunately, partway through the branch snapped, leaving me to fall on the dirt and tumble about.


    ...I''m not fat, I swear.


    After getting up, I looked back to see the bear five or so meters away, but it wasn''t facing me. I only caught a glimpse, but I saw Nathan dart backwards and take cover from behind a tree. But looking at two trees that were currently on the ground and on fire, it seemed that his cover was now gone.


    It seemed Nathan was currently facing it head-on right now.


    Since that was the case, I should be the one that uses itsck of attention on me tounch the decisive attack. I ran closer, not caring all that much about keeping my presence quiet. I mean, if it did shift its attention to me, then Nathan will have to do the heavy lifting instead.


    Unfortunately, my wishes didn''te true as the bear continued fighting with Nathan. Knowing that it was unreasonable for him to keep up for long, I mbered a bit up a tree close to the bear with my sights on its deformed limb on its back.


    Since I already had my grappling hook out, I might as welltch onto that thing and get on its back. While it may have mutated from the crystal, it was still an animal that had no easy way to attack things on its back.


    "Hup!"


    With most of my strength, I threw the grappling hook, shooting out towards the arm. It shot through the air like a shooting star!


    And... uh... might''ve been going a little off the mark.


    Ok, maybe really off mark.


    Yet, before I could think about reeling it back in to give it another try, I saw Nathan dash to the bear''s side andunch a massive fireball to its side. The bear let out a roar as it stumbled away, but waspletely unharmed.


    But the grappling hook that I had initially missed was right on target!


    I guess he was always the one cleaning up after me.


    When I pulled, the arm bent back at an angle, but was still rather sturdy. As for the bear, it let out a cry of pain. It seemed that part of it hurt rather badly


    Without waiting another second, I leaped off the tree and pulled on the rope with both hands like I was climbing up, but the sensation was a bit strange considering that I was swinging in the air. It was also surprisingly difficult.


    The bear continued to cry out in pain and stood up on its hindlegs, but that only made the angle for the rope easier to climb up, letting me move up its back kinda like I was rock climbing. Naturally wanting to oppose me, it began rocking back and forth, but with my tight grip on the rope, it could only make me lose my footing, but not throw me off.


    By the way, the fur was as soft as a pillow. If it wasn''t for the fact I should be fighting, I''d want to try sleeping on this.


    When I had made it near its head, it changed strategies. It went down onto four feet and began running, making me feel like I was falling down a rollercoaster. But that was a pretty big mistake. It would''ve been much harder for me to make my way to the back of its head. But now, I just had to not lose my bnce.


    Several ms resounded as the bear smashed into nearby trees, directly uprooting and knocking them over. If it wasn''t for the grappling hook, I definitely would''ve been thrown off by now, but I was able to manage just barely.


    I adjusted the angle of the grappling hook as I made my way past the deformed limb. Then, while one hand was holding tightly onto the rope, the other drew my sword.


    The weak point that came to my mind first was the head, but I wasn''t confident that I would actually be able to pierce through the skull of a magical beast, especially when I had to focus on bncing myself.


    As for the eye, the angle was simply unrealistic for me.


    This led me to focus on the neck, or at least, where I think the neck was. To be honest, the neck was so short and thick, that it seemed like there wasn''t one in the first ce. But going for the weak part of the spine was the only real option here.


    As such, I stabbed the part that connected its head and body with a grunt.


    I pierced through some of the tough flesh, but I felt it stop the moment it hit bone. The bear let out another roar of pain and slowed down its running significantly. With a frown, I gripped tighter around the handle of the sword and forcefully moved through the flesh, trying to find a weaker part of the bone.


    While this happened, the bear stumbled to the left and right, letting out fearful cries, and mming into trees as ast-ditch effort. To be honest, it almost worked as the grappling hook nearly came loose, but I tugged on tightly enough for it to remain.


    I continued to force my de through. Only a bit of blood seeped out in the process, but from the bear''s reaction, it seemed to be effective. The flesh was just that tough.


    Right as I began to feel a bit nervous, I felt the sword slip a bit further in and hook onto something. The moment I felt that I let go of the rope and put both hands on the sword. It was deep enough to support me anyway.


    While gritting my teeth, I twisted the sword with all my might. My arms shook violently, and the bear''s struggle became far more intense.


    It suddenly shot upwards, like a horse trying to throw a guy off its back.


    Unfortunately, now that I let go of the rope, there was no way for me to bnce. I was definitely going to fly like a bird. Just that the bird is a penguin being pitched like a baseball.


    But as I shot upwards, I just barely heard a dull ck as the resistance from my sword lessened. A smile formed on my face, but it disappeared just as it formed, because I suddenly found myself flying through the air with no concept of up and down.


    It reminded me of the time that Raisa threw me.


    Soon enough, I mmed into the ground, breaking the fall my shoulder, which hurt quite a lot, but at least it wasn''t my head. A deep m resounded not too far away.


    The bear had fallen.


    While I was still dizzy, I heard a snarky voice call out.


    "Were you even trying to aim? Your grappling hook wasn''t even going towards the bear, dumbass."


    With one hand on my head, I pointed at Nathan weakly.


    "Bitch, you weren''t the one that had to do all the hard work, so shut up."


    Nathan chuckled.


    "Oookay Mister Sad Face."

 Chapter 87: A Giant Fucking Hole

    <h4>Chapter 87: A Giant Fucking Hole</h4>


    I was still feeling a bit out of it after shaking back and forth like that. To be honest, I was a tad bit worried I scrambled up my insides, but everything seemed fine enough.


    Bryson was asionally muttering words, but I wasn''t able to piece together any full sentences. Still, I was able to gather the fact that he was stunned. Though you could probably imagine, he was yelling at me about how stupid I was pretty much the entire time while fighting.


    However, I was already a grandmaster at tuning people out, so I hardly even noticed it.


    Though I still felt a bit tired, I got up and rushed over to the bear. After all, after killing a mob, naturally, there was going to be loot!


    Nathan also made his way to the bear.


    "Looks like the corpse doesn''t just poof into a bunch of useful materials."


    I got my grappling hook and sword back beforeughing.


    "Well, if it''s this big then there should be quite a bit of good stuff! It won''t just end up being a couple of crystals."


    Nathan rubbed his chin before trying to use his spear to pry out the rougher patches of skin that it had. A bit of blood spilled, but it wasn''t that exaggerated. What looked like arge dark brown rock hade out from the bear''s body. After thinking for a while, Nathan mmed his spear against thatrge dark brown rock, cracking it.


    A tiny iridescent crystal shined from within.


    "Huh. Maybe we will only end up getting a few crystals after all."


    My eyelid twitched.


    "...So it''s still a damn scam even when everything bes realistic. I guess I shouldn''t have expected much from this damn game."


    Nathan let out a small sigh while holding up the iridescent crystal, holding it up to the sunlight.


    "Since it wasn''t too big, it was definitely a magical beast that had only recently formed, so that''s reasonable enough. Besides, we wouldn''t be able to carry it all even if it did have all that much. It''s not like we have a cart of anything."


    I clicked my tongue.


    "Why can''t this game have anything convenient like a spatial ring?"


    Nathan shrugged his shoulders and continued to pry out the hardened patches.


    "I guess it''s consistent considering the general intelligence of people here isn''t very high, so making things like that is asking too much from them."


    I rolled my eyes while prying away other pieces of the dark brown stone before shattering it to get the iridescent crystal inside.


    "It''s not like the general intelligence of people is particrly high in the first ce."


    Nathanughed as he pierced through the flesh of the bear with his spear, trying to feel it out. After doing it several times, he let out a sigh.


    "Looks like there aren''t any more further inside. It looks like we really will only be getting a few crystals... and they are damn small too."


    I felt a lot more discouraged after realizing that the profits of defeating this magical beast weren''t exactly the highest. We were able to harvest five really small crystals, and two medium-sized ones. The smaller ones realistically didn''t have that much value other than for decoration or making jewelry. Thankfully, the two medium ones should fetch a decent price.


    Nathan took a deep breath as he picked up.


    "When we get back, I''ll leave it to you to sell or use them. If I keep them, then someone''s just gonna steal it."


    I gave a curt nod after pocketing the ones he didn''t take.


    "I don''t n on selling them just yet, I want to do an experiment with them, but since I feel like it''s going to take a while I''ll hold off for now."


    Nathan let out a hum indicating that he heard before extracting a ratherrge chunk of flesh from the bear.


    "It looks like this stuff isn''t too muscle heavy, so it shouldn''t be that tough to chew."


    I blinked a few times.


    "I already feel like I know the answer, but I''m going to ask anyway. Are we eating that stuff raw?"


    Nathan nodded his head.


    "There are going to be other animals that will be attracted by the bloody smell. Now that the thing is dead, the deterrence force isn''t going to be great. If we cook, then we''ll probably need to fight something. If we bring the raw stuff with us to cookter, the heavy bloody smell will also attract things."


    A frown formed on my face.


    "But it''s going to taste nasty."


    Nathan''s eyelid twitched.


    "You''re thest person I want to hear that from."


    ''What? You couldn''t possibly be thinking of actually-''


    Bryson seemed rather startled at the proposition to eat raw meat. But we didn''t really bring that much in the first ce, so it wasn''t like I was just going to give up on it. Although I wasn''t sure if Nathan was right in his judgment, I just decided to trust him anyway.


    Nathan split it in two and tossed me one half before biting down on the flesh. I simrly did it as well, despite Bryson''s many protests. At first, I only took a small bite, but I took a slightly bigger one after. And then a bigger one after that.


    Until I ended up eating the whole thing by the time Nathan had only finished half of it. He raised an eyebrow and gave me a look with the same energy as I told you so.


    ''This taste... I can understand themoner food, but how could you even eat this?''


    It seemed Bryson could also taste the same thing I was, being in the same body and all that. He kept trying to vomit, but I obviously wasn''t going to let him do that, so he was just in this constant state of sickness.


    Soon enough Nathan finished eating as well, so we decided to head out deeper into the forest. In the end, other than a few bugs here and there, things were rtively peaceful. There were hardly any animals that we had to be worried about running around.


    The taste of blood was still quite strong in my mouth even after all this time, which was what Bryson wasining about, but this wasn''t the time.


    After running for what felt like a few hours, we ended up making our way out of the forest, and out to arge grassy in. Upon seeing that, I got on my knees and let out a few rough breaths.


    "We finally made it."


    Nathan looked at me strangely, but I just ignored it. More importantly, my eyes were fixated on what was just a couple meters ahead of us.


    Or more urately, what wasn''t there.


    In the middle of the ins was, to put it inly, a giant fucking hole. The canyon was about two kilometers wide, and the drop off looked like what you would expect from a sinkhole.


    While there waspletely normal greenery all around, it suddenly transitioned to a dark gray rock. The walls of the canyon were also made of the same rock too, and the light of evening shone within, but it wasn''t enough to see the bottom, as it disappeared to just be ck all of a sudden.


    The reason why Nathan got us the grappling hooks wasn''t actually for climbing up the city walls, it was just something that happened to be there along the way. In reality, the purpose was to scale down this thing with rtive safety.


    I still remembered the words of the book and how he mentioned that there was supposed to be some sort of master at divine arts waiting somewhere around here, but there wasn''t a single sign of that, and it would be rather strange for a master to be around here anyway.


    In the first ce, I didn''t put too much hope into his words considering that something like that never happened in the game. As such, I wasn''t that disappointed.


    From there, we began preparing. Nathan made us buy some extra rope so that in addition to the grappling hook digging into the ground, we would also tie it to a nearby tree for extra insurance. To be honest, I would''ve just thought the grappling hook was enough, but considering I wouldn''t be able to get out if it failed, that was probably a good call.


    The original setting in the game was that if you jumped in, then you would die. However, if you had learned how to fly using wind magic, then you would be able to explore the depths below and even acquire a new skill. It wasn''t all that strong considering how hidden away it was, but it was still something that we were able to find after many ythroughs in the game.


    Naturally, we hadn''t learned that kind of magic yet, so we were finding another way around it. To be frank, most of our equipment was actually just rope. If it turned out that the rope we had individually wasn''t enough, then the n was to use the rope and bind it together to make a super long rope.


    Nathan took a deep breath.


    "I''ll go down first. You stay up here just in case something goes wrong. If the rope isn''t long enough, then you''re going down instead."


    "Yeah, I know you told me already."


    With a nod, he then began scaling down the side of the canyon. As he slowly made his way down, his figure gradually began to disappear, until it was covered in the darkness entirely. It almost seemed like he was being swallowed by a giant beast, making for a rather ominous appearance.


    Down further was supposed to be a miniaturebyrinth with some basic puzzles that would eventually reveal a book that exined how to use the ckout spell. The reason why we hade out here in the first ce.


    After roughly twenty or so minutes, I saw that Nathan was climbing back out. He called out to me while climbing up.


    "Looks like the rope isn''t enough. We''re going to have to tie them together. You''re up next."


    I let out a sigh before nodding.


    "Alright, fine."


    Bryson thought I was crazy for doing this, but after gathering up all the rope and tying them together, I started making my way down, all the while Bryson called me crazy the entire time.


    Oh yeah, Nathan has a fear of heights. I know it might not look like that considering the fact he just went down without batting an eye, but he still did. I personally didn''t, but as I continued climbing down into the darkness...


    I thought maybe I should''ve had that fear.

 Chapter 88: Fear

    <h4>Chapter 88: Fear</h4>


    Hm... if I was afraid of the dark, this would be pretty unbearable, no?


    ''Please don''t go any further! Stop! Stop, you fiend! What if somethinges to kill my body? At the very least it must be inconvenient for you to switch to other bodies, right? Stop this at once!''


    Yeah, definitely considering how Bryson was acting, he was deathly afraid of the dark. That was a tad bit ironic considering his main powers were literally called dark arts. Could it be that the reason Jess acted like that before was that Bryson was always a whiny scared baby and she had to take care of him?


    ...Yeesh.


    Maybe it wasn''t Jess'' fault after all and just that Bryson was a chump. Damn, did this game really make the final viin of the game like this?


    I continued to listen to Bryson''s incessant chattering, consisting of the ramble a seven-year-old child would have when their mom leaves the room. Jesus christ, I thought I was at least being born in the body of someone that was somewhat cool, considering that he was way better-looking than me.


    ''You can''t! You can''t! What if there are scary monsters?!''


    But I guess it was too much for me to put any trust in a person''s appearance in the first ce. To be honest, I was contemting whether or not it was actually worth it to even continue living on if I had to share it with such a baby.


    ...No, wait a minute. If I think about it, I was probably scared of the dark too, right? I mean, I do remember being scared of stuff when I was like seven, but now I waspletely fine, right?


    In other words, I should start conditioning Bryson so that he isn''t so afraid anymore. He may be a bit old, but it should be easy enough.


    Gah, I''m just too much of a genius, aren''t I? Maybe I was put into Bryson''s body because they knew my intellect was just that superior.


    "Hey, Bryson. What do you think would happen if I just let go of the rope right now?"


    ''What? You insane madman, you n on killing me here? How dare you! I still... I still haven''t...''


    I simply rolled my eyes.


    "I''m not going to kill us. The only thing I want to do is help you get over your fear of the dark, so I will let us fall for a bit and show you how harmless it is."


    ''W-What? This is preposterous, you can''t possibly be serious. It''s not as though I actually have a fear of the dark! It''s beyond reasonable to be afraid in this situation!''


    I clicked my tongue.


    "Yeah, yeah, sure. That''s what they all say."


    ''Wait, you couldn''t possibly be-''


    And with that, I let go of the rope and let myself freefall with a bored expression on my face. As for Bryson...


    ''AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH''


    He didn''t seem to be faring well, but this was the first step to oveing your fears. Confronting them! Of course, too much exposure at once would probably cause trauma, but I''ll make sure to keep it at a minimum so that he can get over his fear without getting any mental problems.


    ''PLEASE GRAB THE ROPE, I''M SORRY, JUST GRAB THE ROPE, I WON''T COMPLAIN ANYMORE. DYING IS PAINFUL RIGHT? SO JUST GRAB IT! PLEASE PLEASE IF YOU''RE GOING TO KILL ME JUST USE THE BLADE INSTEAD OF THIS TORTURE!''


    Geez. He''s really being a drama queen huh? I only let go of the rope for like, ten seconds. If this world has the same gravity as Earth, I guess that means I''m falling at a speed of about 98 meters per second. But that was a great exaggeration considering I didn''t take into consideration drag, so it was like probably just 40 meters per second anyway.


    ''STOP DON''T KILL ME LIKE THIS! AT THE VERY LEAST CHOOSE A HUMANE WAY! PLEASE IS THAT REALLY SO MUCH TO ASK FOR?''


    Hmm... that was only a bit above the speed limit on the highway. Bryson was totally overreacting.


    ''FUCK, GOD IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, WHY DID YOU GIVE SUCH A CRUEL FATE TO ME?''


    Why was this guy so scared? It seemed like I would need to work hard on conditioning him since he was such a crybaby. Damn, this is going to be a pain. But it was probably an even worse pain for his parents. Er, or I guess the servants since his parents never seem to be around so they probably raised him.


    ''I just wish... to see my sister''s face one more time.''


    My eyelid twitched.


    "You really relied on her whenever you were afraid huh? That''s why she turned out like that, you freak."


    Well, I guess this is enough for a little scare. I grabbed onto my cloth with both hands and then wrapped it around the rope. With a rough tearing sound, the cloth was obliterated rather quickly and my hands themselves got really scratched up.


    The fall slowed down dramatically until I was hanging in the air.


    ''W-What is...''


    "I''m helping you by letting you confront your fears. This way, you won''t be so afraid of things anymore."


    There was a long pause, probably because he was just too filled with gratitude.


    ''BULLSHIT, HOW WOULD THIS HELP ME AT ALL?''


    Tsk. Guess Bryson''s the tsundere type after all.


    "You could phrase your thanks in a bit of a nicer way, don''t you think?"


    Bryson once again paused, probably thinking about how to thank me.


    ''HOW COULD I POSSIBLY THANK YOU FOR SOMETHING LIKE THIS? YOU TOOK OVER MY BODY AND NEARLY KILLED ME!''


    I let out a long sigh.


    "See? It''s because you''re like this that you really need someone like me to help you."


    ''EXCUSE ME? HOW HAVE YOU HELPED?''


    The corner of my lip turned up.


    "If even something like this scares you, then that just shows how overly fearful you are! Although I have little information on how you were before, I am pretty sure you were some burdensome kid that would always rely on your sister."


    ''YOU...''


    He didn''t respond for quite a while, so I decided to start climbing down while he sorted out his thoughts. After waiting for about five minutes, he finally spoke.


    ''W-Was I really a burdensome kid that relied on my sister?''


    I beganughing uncontrobly.


    "I have no idea, but from how you sound, it appears that you know the answer all too well yourself."


    ''Eh? But I thought I was being rather reasonable...''


    Ah, how oblivious this man was.


    "It may seem reasonable to you, but have you ever thought that was just reasonable because you don''t understand what is truly considered normal?"


    ''Huh?''


    I took a deep breath.


    "It''s clear to me that you hardly participate in balls that nobles arrange and leave the first chance that you get. Yet, everyone else stays instead. You are the one that''s out of ce here."


    ''...I suppose that is true. But how could this even rte to nearly killing me?!''


    I cleared my throat, prepared to lecture him.


    "Let me tell you something. The guy that came along with me, Nathan, has a crippling fear of heights!"


    ''Huh? But he hardly reacted to the depths of the hole and even climbed down it. That''s clearly a lie.''


    In response, I simply shook my head like it was a pity.


    "Yes, he was afraid, but he also knew realistically that nothing would happen because he made sufficient preparations beforehand."


    ''Then that clearly isn''t a crippling fear, is it not?''


    I raised a finger upwards with an indignant expression.


    "Of course it is! Couldn''t you see? After trying it out himself, he found that it was too much for him, thus decided to let me do it instead. Because I didn''t have that crippling fear, I was fine."


    ''No, but isn''t itpletely reasonable to be afraid of falling down into a pit like this?''


    I wagged my index finger back and forth. While it was basically pitch-ck down here, so there was no way to see what was happening, there was also the fact he could feel the same things as me, so he knew what I was doing.


    "We have already put multipleyers of security just in case. That is plenty of preparation, so there should be no realistic fear since if there is no threat of death, you shouldn''t be afraid!"


    ''What? How is falling down from here not something that has the threat of death?''


    I raised an eyebrow as my smile widened.


    "Ah, my young padawan. There is a rope, so I can just catch myself before we end up falling."


    ''But if you kept falling, then you would''ve hit the ground and then killed me!''


    I rolled my eyes as I decided just a smidge of gaslighting was needed.


    "But I didn''t, right? Use your head for a moment, did I end up dying? No."


    ''...I do suppose it is quite obvious the sounds of climbing down the rope had hardly made an echoing from below. Then falling itself wasn''t too dangerous since the way down is incredibly great.''


    Eh? It was? Oh, I just felt like it was probably long enough.


    "See? You''re getting it now."


    ''No, but realistically most people would be afraid in that situation. That isn''t something any sane person would do! It''s because the two of you are demons that you aren''t afraid! You... you even bit a person like a savage!''


    A chuckle slipped through my mouth.


    "Oh really? Think about it for a minute. Would it be better to bite someone, or die?"


    ''...But it wasn''t necessarily-''


    "So you''re going to risk your life just because you are a little reluctant? Bryson, I''m sorry if this is too much for you to hear, but think about how things have been for the past few days. Your reputation is terrible, and people are afraid of you. However, despite that fact in recent times quite a few people havee to approach me of their own volition, right? I wonder how many people approached you like that before?"


    ''...''


    Seeing he wasn''t going to speak, I decided to go on.


    "It''s because they are more afraid of how you act, rather than how I act. The way I do things is far more reasonable than you, which is why they aren''t afraid of me."


    ''But that just doesn''t make any-''


    "You are a person that is logically smart, but you don''t get people at all, right?"


    ''...''


    Looks like I was spot on. I could tell because I''d been with Nathan for so long.


    "Don''t worry, I''m experienced in this sort of thing. I''m just trying to help you. Can you recall how you reacted when I just gave you a tiny fright? Then what will happen when your life is actually in danger!"


    ''That... was an embarrassing disy.''


    "Exactly! So together, we will work on helping you conquer your fears, so that you won''t be such a burden anymore."


    ''...But still, I feel like you are beingpletely unreasonable. I am fairly certain you are trying to trick-''


    "Hey, hey, hey, you yourself admitted that you aren''t a people person. Haven''t you considered people don''t tell you that it''s stupid to be afraid of the things that you are because they don''t want to hurt your feelings? But I''m going to be truthful for your own good!"


    ''This... I still can''t shake the feeling you are being disingenuous.''


    I pursed my lips together. Why did he have to actually use logic? Maybe I didn''t give him a good enough scare. While thinking that, I realized that I reached the end of the rope. It seemed that the rope wasn''t long enough.


    "Oh really? Then I will show you how ingenuous I am."


    ''What? W-Wait, you-''


    Then I let go of the rope again.


    ''AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!''

 Chapter 89: The Easiest and Hardest Puzzle

    <h4>Chapter 89: The Easiest and Hardest Puzzle</h4>


    Now, Nathan told me that I shouldn''t let go of the rope when he exined the n. Usually, people wouldn''t say those kinds of things because that was kinda obvious. But he did emphasize it to me.


    Probably because he thought I might''ve let go of the rope, like what I was doing right now.


    But it couldn''t be helped, the amount of rope we brought along wasn''t enough to reach the bottom. So naturally, that meant falling down without the rope was the only way to get down.


    Now, a more sane person probably would just climb back up, and that''s also what Nathan would''ve done. But while he didn''t say it, there was a reason why Nathan let me go down instead of him when we found out how deep it was.


    Because he knew that I was more willing to risk my life than cut my losses.


    And so, with Bryson''s voice screaming in my head, I began sliding down the side of the wall. The bumpy rocks kept mming into my side and tearing into my cloak, while my feet jostled whenever they hit a bumpy rock.


    It was definitely a painful journey, but the incline was enough so that I wasn''t falling at a speed that was dangerous. The biggest risk I was facing right now was actually whether or not a rock too big would end up cutting into me and make me bleed to death down here.


    But I was willing to take my chances.


    It only took ten seconds before I found my feet suddenly mming into the ground. Pain shot through my bones, especially so for my joints. There were a lot of bruises all over my limbs and my back. They had already begun to swell somewhat. If I looked at them, they might already be purple.


    But the important part was that I got to the bottom and that I was still alive.


    Once Bryson realized that we had gotten down rtively safely, he began mumbling things to himself and crying out in pain a lot. Since it seemed he was going to be sticking to that for a while, I decided to just cast the fire spell and hold it in my hand as a source of light.


    When the fireball suddenly materialized in front of me, I squinted and began adjusting to the light. Although the fireball I had in my hand wasn''t that small, it was still inconvenient to look around because of its flickering.


    Regardless, I was still able to roughly make out my surroundings. Unlike how it looked from above, it was very clearly not natural. The wall behind me was now a t surface with various symbols carved into them that seemed to resemble Egyptian hieroglyphics to a certain extent. I recognized basically none of them, and they were hard to make out clearly with just the light.


    Still, all those symbols didn''t really matter for solving the puzzle. I began walking around to explore the surrounding area to see if it matched up with how the game was.


    As I did, Bryson called out.


    ''Ow! How are you walking? Stop, stop, just take a break for now, I''m not sure if you could tell, but this is painful!''


    I rolled my eyes as I continued walking.


    "So what? You want to take a break when you feel a bit of pain? Do you think after a person cuts you they''ll give you some time to rest before fighting?"


    ''...''


    "Knowing how to retain yourposure through pain is a basic skill for any person that intends on fighting. I see that this is another problem you have, being too sensitive to pain. We should work on that as well."


    ''...Actually... I was just joking earlier. T-This amount of pain does not matter, so there is no need to go through training.''


    I raised an eyebrow.


    "Alright then, don''t forget those words."


    I was able to finish my preliminary exploration pretty quickly. Although from above, it looked incredibly wide, from down here, it was about the size of a gymnasium. Despite the various things that would probably fall down here, the ground itself was actually spotless. In fact, some of the dirt I had tracked in had disappeared at some point.


    But more importantly, everything here was the same as it was like in the game. Though, it felt a little surreal to see it from this perspective.


    At one end of the room was a ratherrge ck door. On that door was a ten-by-ten grid of squares. As of right now, all of them just appeared to be indents. However, along with that, there were also gray bricks that protruded out of the walls.


    If they are pushed, then they will cause certain squares to light up, or if they are already lit up, they would be turned off instead. As for the number of buttons, there were exactly fifty-seven lined up along all the walls.


    The goal was to get all of them to light up.


    If you couldn''t already imagine, this puzzle was an extremely huge pain, as if discovering this secret in the first ce wasn''t hard enough. The buttons themselves each lit up at least fifteen different squares. And on top of that, the buttons would revert to their original state after being pressed, so it was verymon to not only forget the location of the buttons but also be unable to figure out whether or not it was turned on in the first ce because it wasn''t a lever.


    I did give it a good few attempts when I first tried it, without nning to search up how to do it since I didn''t think that was a good way to have fun in games. But it did not take me too long to give up before searching up a walkthrough.


    ...Yet, it would turn out that nobody had posted a walkthrough of this portion of the game.


    That was fair enough considering how hard it was to find this secret, and even if it was found, not many people would have the tenacity to solve it. While initially trying to solve the damn thing, I thought there was a behind me to fall on.


    But in reality, there was no. Instead, I just continued falling further.


    I still had no idea what the developers of the game were thinking putting this kind of bullshit in. Keep in mind, I had nothing against puzzles being hard, but they had to be hard for the right reasons. It wasn''t a cool riddle, or a puzzle with some sort of special way toe to a solution.


    This was simply a difficult puzzle because it took a normal puzzle and made it bigger.


    At first, I gave up on it, but eventually, I ended uping back. Like a dumbass, I tried to solve it normally, but soon enough I wrote down what every single button did on paper and worked out the solution that way.


    Naturally, the process was slow and tiring but I did eventually figure it out. While I would like to say that I used some sort of genius method to figure that out, it was really just trial and error.


    I really wanted to find some sort of smart way to do it, but in the end, I was basically just banging my head against the wall the entire time.


    By the way, I was nning on dangling the answer in front of Nathan, but he was able to solve it without even writing it down on paper. He only spent a few hours on it and finished it.


    However, because I worked so hard on it for so damn long, I already memorized the sequence of numbers a long time ago. In fact, I doubt I could even forget them. I began to mumble under my breath as I approached the first button on the left.


    "One... Three... Four... Seven..."


    Following my words, I pressed the first button, then the third one, and so on. Bryson eventually spoke up in my head when he saw what I was doing.


    ''What are you doing? Is this not a puzzle? You should at least look to see your progress.''


    Ipletely ignored him.


    "Fifty-three... Fifty-four... Fifty-seven."


    After clicking thest button, I turned to look at the door. Every single square was shining brightly, and its shine only continued to grow brighter. At first, it was still rather dark and dingy, but soon enough the entire room was so bright, it was as though the sun itself was right there.


    ''What? You solved it already?''


    Ignoring how amazed Bryson sounded, I closed my eyes and covered them with my arm. It was getting too bright even for me. After some time, a faint rumbling ensued as the light gradually died down.


    After opening up my eyes, I saw that the gates had opened up all the way. The light that they had been emitting was actually still as strong, but now both doors were directly on the walls. It kinda looked like they were ented by neon lights.


    Anyway, while the doors were fairlyrge, the area behind them was actually fairly small. It was a small room with a cramped ceiling. And in that room, was a pedestal with a fairlyrge book on top.


    It was the tome for the spell ckout.


    ''...So you have been here before. No wonder you were able to do it on the first try. Was this scroll left behind by you?''


    Iughed at Bryson''s conclusion.


    "No, are you kidding me? Were you even paying attention to my initial exnation? I''ve already seen the future. Because I solved it then, I obviously don''t need to try all over again."


    ''The future...''


    It seemed that he didn''t believe me at all when I initially said that, which is fair enough. But now, it seemed like he wasn''t doubting it entirely at least.


    I gingerly grabbed onto the ckout tome with both hands. It honestly just looked like one of those old books you''d see in a library. The cover had a rough texture and was damaged in various ces. The pages themselves seemed to be wrinkled, probably because it was sshed by water at some point.


    I let out a soft sigh.


    "Now... I just need to find a way back up."


    ''Wait, you didn''t have a n for that?''


    "Nope."


    I walked out with a careless expression, but then I heard a voice that sounded like it wasing from every direction.


    "You require a way back up you say?"


    ...Hm. I must be going crazy. After all, there isn''t supposed to be anybody down here.


    ''W-Who''s that? You know the future, right? Exin!''


    Ah. Well, maybe we were both going crazy.

 Chapter 90: Excuse Me?

    <h4>Chapter 90: Excuse Me?</h4>


    I looked around, trying to see if anybody was in view, exining the voice that I heard. That wouldn''t exin why it sounded as though it wasing from every direction at once, but it would at least feel less strange.


    But there was nobody there.


    ''Excuse me? If you are truly from the future, then you should know what that voice was, correct?''


    ...Hm.


    Did Bryson have hallucinations in the story before? No, I don''t really remember anything like that. Unless he did but just never showed it. Speaking of, does that mean we share hallucinations despite having different minds?


    That''s an interesting question.


    But I should probably be more focused on what''s happening right now. I narrowed my eyes ever so slightly.


    "So, you asked me if I wanted to go up? Does that mean you''re going to help?"


    I blinked a few times. Before long, the voice responded.


    "Oh, that much I could do easily. But before that, why don''t we have a little chat?"


    The voice sounded rather old and weathered. I''m pretty sure it was some old man. Despite probably not having many years left in his life, he spoke incredibly slowly, as if there was nothing for him to rush for.


    But it also didn''t really have the normal intonation most people had. It threw me off because I didn''t even have an inkling on whether or not he was hostile or not. Normally, no matter how hard people try to hide it, I''m at least able to get a weak idea.


    Yet, this time, I had absolutely no idea.


    It set out countless warning bells in my head.


    "Talk you say? Well, I wouldn''t want to intrude on your time. As for getting out of here, I can just do it on my own."


    ''Is... this someone hostile? Under what circumstances would youe here despite knowing that? Are you daff?''


    I ignored Bryson. The voice chuckled before responding.


    "If it''s time, then you don''t have to worry about that. I have plenty of that. You aren''t intruding on anything. Actually, I would prefer it if you gave me some of your time."


    The corner of my lip twitched. What the fuck does this guy want?


    "...What do you want to talk about then?"


    I did not grab onto my sword, but I put my hand in a position that would let me grab it easily should the situation arise. The voice didn''t respond immediately, raising the tension I felt exponentially.


    I already expected to be thrust into situations that I wouldn''t expect since they weren''t shown in the game. However, it seemed that things deviated far more than expected.


    As I felt the adrenaline in my body reach its peak, I heard the voice once more.


    "Oh, right. You can''t see me if I''m in this state. My apologies."


    A few momentster, an old man suddenly materialized right in front of me. My eyelid twitched when I saw him. All of the tension I had felt dropped in an instant.


    The old man had long white hair, along with an overly long white beard that reached his waist. It could''ve given him a sage look if it wasn''t for... his fashion sense. Now, don''t get me wrong, fashion in this age was kinda weird. However, it was still eptable.


    But the old man in front of me was wearing what I could only describe as more than a shirt, but not quite a dress. It had various shades of green and purple, along with white underneath.


    The dress didn''t even reach his waist, which revealed pink pants that had about twenty rows of frills going around the legs.


    I was unable to say anything for quite a while.


    The old man seemed confused. He looked down at himself.


    "Hm, am I still invisible? Ah, no, that''s not it. Hello? Are you there?"


    He began waving his hand in front of my face, trying to get my attention. After breaking out of my stupor and blinking a few times, I was able to snap out of it. I stared at the person in front of me for several seconds.


    "Who... are you?"


    The old man scratched the side of his head.


    "Hm? Oh, you don''t know? I could''ve sworn that I was quite renowned. Well, that doesn''t matter. I believe my name is Dan."


    Believe? Is he unsure of his own damn name.?


    "...Um, hello then Dan. My name is Bryson. What did you want to talk about?"


    The old man gave several nods.


    "Ah, yes. I was just wondering, how were you able to solve the puzzle I created so easily? I intended for it to be solved by using your memory, but it appears you have some other method."


    ...What? I clearly remember that this wasn''t supposed to be something that happens. I mean, in the game even if you get it on your first try, nothing like this happens. But still, I guess I should answer.


    "I guess you could say it was luck."


    The old man raised his eyebrow.


    "Is that so?"


    He didn''t seem to believe my answer. However, he didn''t actually care all that much anyway.


    "Well, the real reason I came was actually because of something else. While watching you, I couldn''t help but notice that there were two separate minds residing within your soul. I can''t be certain, but I believe I''ve never seen anything like that before."


    ...


    What?


    ''He... he knows? That must mean he understands a way to reverse it! Quickly, ask him!''


    Wait, there are people that can tell that sort of thing? Crap, maybe he really is able to separate me from Bryson''s body. But... that definitely wouldn''t help me. This was the best way to keep the main viin in check after all.


    "...Why do you wish to know about my state?"


    The old man tilted his head to the side and began seriously thinking about it.


    Even though I wasn''t really asking a question but rather telling him to buzz off in the first ce.


    He smiled before lifting a finger into the air.


    "I don''t know!"


    ...Is this guy a fucking idiot?


    "Then why did you ask in the first ce?"


    The old man let out augh.


    "Who knows? Couldn''t you tell me?"


    My eyelid twitched. Although I couldn''t put my guard up against someone that looked that stupid, that still didn''t mean I was going to trust him. Certain things are better kept secret after all.


    I set my mind to tell him off right then and there, but-


    "Raggh?"


    A soft cracking sound resounded from the ground between the two of us. A nearby indiscernible crack formed in the ground before something burst out a momentter.


    "Ragh!"


    Tiny rocks flew into the air, as... a child zombie appeared out of the ground. What the fuck? Since when was this a horror game?


    I was reaching for my sword, but it was at that moment the old man reached out with his hand. A blinding yellow energy shot out and wrapped around my wrist. Despite the fact it was only wrapped around my wrist, My entire body froze up.


    As if that wasn''t bad enough, all the mana in my body was suddenly ejected, like it never even existed. An intense wave of nausea assaulted me, but I couldn''t even sway from side to side as my entire body was frozen.


    Cold sweat formed on my back.


    This... I wasn''t going to die like this, right? That would be way too underwhelming. At least in my previous life, I kinda looked like a hero!


    The old man''s expression hardly changed at all. In fact, there was still a smile on his face while his tone stayed the same.


    "Ah, sorry. Don''t mind this child here. I''m fairly certain she is down here because she wished to apany me."


    Though I was paralyzed, I was still able to get a better look at the zombie child. Its skin seemed to be in the process of rotting, while parts of its bone could be seen from all over the limbs. It had some dpidated rags covering its body. However, strangely enough, both eyes seemed fine. Other than being slightly bloodshot, they were normal.


    After climbing out of the ground, the zombie child looked at me curiously. It ced a finger on its chin and tilted its head to the side.


    "Ragh?"


    It was at this point, the blinding yellow light suddenly disappeared. I copsed to the ground due to the suddenness. My consciousness nearly nked out right then and there, but I forced myself to remain awake.


    The zombie circled around me several times, but clearly wasn''t going to attack me any time soon.


    After shakily standing up, I looked at the old man once more, with a different attitude this time.


    "What is it that you wanted to hear again?"


    There was no way in hell for me to beat him in a fight, not even escape. Whatever the fuck that was, it waspletely overwhelming. My only choice was to hope that he didn''t kill me, and that started with listening to his demands.


    The old manughed, but it didn''t feel all that amicable to me.


    "You don''t remember? I just said it! How were you able to get two minds into one soul?"


    I blinked a few times. It was probably best to just tell him the truth, though I wouldn''t tell the whole truth.


    "I am a person that has seen the future. Though I do not know everything that happened, I saw enough to know that the original owner of this body had caused quite a disaster to the kingdom that I care about. As such, I''ve inhabited his body."


    The old man''s eyes widened considerably.


    "...Is that how you were able to solve my puzzle so easily as well?"


    I gave a small nod.


    "In reality, I''ve actually spent countless days attempting to solve it until I was eventually able toe across the answer."


    His smile had grown much brighter.


    "That is quite interesting. Quite interesting indeed."


    I took a shaky breath.


    "...Would you like to know some of the future events?"


    The reason I told him about that in the first ce was that I thought that was a decently high enough leverage. That way, he may let me go easier, so-


    "Why would I want to know that?"


    ...


    Excuse me?


    Who didn''t want to know the future at least a little bit?


    The old man smiled when he saw my baffled expression.


    "I''m not so sure what part of my statement is confusing to you, but perhaps I should exin what I believe my life was like to make things a bit clearer."

 Chapter 91: Damn Old Man

    <h4>Chapter 91: Damn Old Man</h4>


    To be honest, I didn''t really want to hear about some old man''s story. However, considering the difference in our power, it wasn''t like I really had a choice in the first ce.


    "Please go on ahead and tell me about your life."


    He nodded a few times before deciding to start.


    "I imagine my situation was actually quite simr to yours. From what I have investigated, I should be a person that was born into a noble family. However, unlike my brothers and sisters that had a high magical affinity, I actually had none."


    ...Wait, how did he know that my situation was simr?


    Several thoughts swirled around in my mind before a random thought suddenly popped into my head. Didn''t the book say something about the north of the forest being the ce where the guy that mastered Divine Arts was?


    Unable to suppress my curiosity, I ended up asking him.


    "Wait, are you the so-called sage or something of Divine Arts?"


    The old man raised an eyebrow beforeughing.


    "So you do know who I am! Yes, that is correct, but that is more of a title that people have given me."


    Holy shit. He was actually here the entire time? Did that mean there was some sort of way to meet with him after reaching this part in the game?


    Wait, that doesn''t matter anymore. Why am I thinking of the game again?


    Seeing me pause, the old man decided to continue.


    "From what I recall, there are people that say there is such a thing as Dark Arts and Divine Arts?"


    I slowly nodded, though that wasn''t actually something I knew from the game.


    "Yeah, there was this book dude that was a guy that used Dark Arts and told me toe here to meet you. Apparently, you can use divine arts if you are enlightened?"


    The old man narrowed his eyes ever so slightly.


    "You see, the truth is Dark Arts and Divine Arts are the same thing. For some reason, people are rather insistent onbeling them as different things."


    I blinked a few times.


    "What. So you''re telling me that I can do the things you just did as well?"


    He shrugged his shoulders.


    "It''s not exactly off the table, though it may be difficult."


    The zombie girl had run up to the old man''s leg and hugged it, prompting him to pat her head a few times. He took a deep breath before looking to the side.


    "I''m sure you''ve been through it as well, being outcast by your family due to your talent in magic. Though, you probably understand that better than I do. From what I''ve heard from other people, I went off to live in the streets, doing what I could to survive. Eventually, I was taken in by a family and raised by them, but I can''t be sure of which one that was."


    The old man was looking at the symbols on the walls, observing them rather intently.


    "Nobody seems to know when exactly, but I eventually discovered these powers that I had. From what I understand now, they normally start out close to a pitch-ck color. Though, it always shone bright yellow when I used it."


    He blinked a few times as the smile on his face grew ever so slightly.


    "Apparently, I was a bit of a mischievous child, as the first thing I ended up doing was directly banishing my family and the mansion they were in out of existence. I do believe that it wasn''t intentional, but I can''t be all that sure."


    ...That''s being mischievous? Wiping people out of existence?


    The old man tilted his head to the side.


    "Apparently for quite a while, people hailed me as a god, and despite trying to move away, people still began doing that as well soon after I had arrived no matter where I went. It appears my feats were far too strong."


    He then looked at the zombie child, who had let go of him at some point and began running around the ce like a free spirit.


    "At some point or another, I came across this child. I''m not sure what our interaction with each other was, as I was unable to find out from other people and this child is no longer able to talk. But what I do understand is that I am to stay by her side so long as she wishes someone to stay with her. By the way, I recall that she was the one that made these clothes for me. Aren''t they nice?"


    ...Well, I guess that exins his get-up.


    The old man closed his eyes.


    "The only thing I truly know for sure is that I wished to live."


    I scratched the side of my head.


    "So it looks like all your memories were wiped out because you overused your abilities."


    The old manughed the loudest he had yet before shaking his head.


    "No, no. Not overused. There is the cost of losing your memories from using this ability, but there alsoes a second function."


    He raised his finger into the air.


    "For every second of memory that you lose, even if it is while unconscious, your body also survives for a second longer. I''ve used this ability on purpose countless times to allow me to stay on this Earth for a little while longer."


    I raised an eyebrow.


    "I see. That means I must avoid using it at all costs."


    The old man looked at me with confusion.


    "Hm? What''s wrong? Those that are able to use this can essentially obtain immortality. It''s not as though memories are exactly difficult to acquire."


    I stared back at him nkly.


    "Why would I want to live even a second longer, when living is already this damn painful?"


    The old man fell silent after hearing that. For a while, there were only the soft sounds of the zombie girl''s footsteps. She still had that curious look that didn''t really fit the situation at hand.


    The old man let out a long sigh.


    "I suppose if that''s how you think, then your ability isn''t exactly suited to you. Or at least, the you that is in control currently."


    I smirked.


    "It isn''t suited for the other person either. The only thing he did was kill countless people, including his own sister."


    Despite fully expecting Bryson to talk back in my mind, he didn''t actually say anything. Actually, I can''t recall thest time that he spoke. Though, before I could think more on that, the old man spoke.


    "Hm... What color was his application of power then, may I know?"


    I blinked a few times.


    "...It was pitch ck. So I guess he wasn''t enlightened enough or something?"


    A small smile had formed on the old man''s face.


    "It appears your friend didn''t truly understand his own desires."


    "What does that even mean?"


    To my puzzled look, he put both hands behind his back and began walking to another side of the room. He stared at the wall intently before speaking.


    "These powers only manifest when you stronglymand upon your desires. The clearer your mind, and the clearer your intentions, the stronger this power is. However, the way that it manifests will depend on what that desire truly means. For most, they will be very erratic, usually manifesting into the form of many different animals or objects."


    The old man put one finger against the wall and slowly traced it against the wall.


    "This happens when what one believes is their desire is actually quite different from what they truly desire. Only when onees to understand themselves more, and begin staying true to their mind, will this power instead manifest to be a dazzling yellow. There aren''t anyplex objects or animals formed when used this way."


    He chuckled.


    "Instead, it just appears as a golden beam a grand majority of the time. However, the actual power is iparable to what it could be while pitch ck. While most havebeled them as Dark Arts and Divine Arts, the name I personally gave it was Desire Manifestation. I suppose I could understand why certain people separated them and considered mastering it to be rted to enlightenment."


    Huh. That is kinda crazy. So it seems that Bryson''s true desires weren''t actually to murder nearly everyone in the kingdom. However, they ended up manifesting in that way. Then what was his actual desire that made him do all of that in the first ce then?


    Well, I could find that outter.


    "You remember quite a lot despite the fact your memories should''ve been wiped. How did you do that?"


    The old man smiled before gesturing to the walls.


    "I document them."


    "...Huh?"


    The old man chuckled.


    "One thing I''ve noticed is that while my memories can be wiped, my ability to speak is never impaired. As such, I''ve attempted to transcribe every single event that happened in my life and turn them into anguage so I can remember it all. Every single symbol on the wall is another character that represents a part of my memories."


    My eyes widened ever so slightly and took another look around the ce. Now knowing that all these symbols supposedly represented different parts of his life felt a bit strange.


    "Woah, sounds like a total cheat to the system."


    The old man shrugged his shoulders.


    "If it worked, then yes it would. But to be frank, it wasn''t the most sessful. Some things I can remember, and other things I can''t. However, it worked fine enough. If you wouldn''t mind, could you create a symbol you think represents you on this wall?"


    He pointed to a small section that was nk.


    Though I really didn''t care to, I found myself nodding, and not because he had the power to absolutely obliterate me.


    "Alright, how do I make it?"


    The old man waved his hand.


    "Just point at it and have an image. I should be able to do the rest."


    While a tad bit confused, I walked over and decided to do as he said. In just a second, a bright light shed in the area I was pointing at, and the image that I had imagined formed on the wall.


    On that image was both a hand and a neck. However, there was also a dagger in the hand pointing at the neck. From the way the hand looked, one could tell that the hand and neck belonged to the same person.


    In other words, it was a picture of someone holding a knife to their throat.


    The old man walked over and looked at it with furrowed brows.


    "What is this supposed to mean?"


    I remained silent for a decent amount of time. After gathering my thoughts for a while, I spoke softly.


    "It''s a symbol of hope."


    The old man turned to me with a slightly angry expression.


    "How is this-"


    However, before he finished he paused. Aplicated expression formed on his face before he suddenly began smiling andughing.


    "So that''s what it was!"


    He was nearly in tears as heughed, interrupting himself.


    "From our initial conversation, I imagined that we were actually more different than I thought, haha!"


    The old man calmed down and showed me a gentle smile.


    "But now I see that we are actually far more simr than I initially believed."


    ...Damn this old man.


    How''d he even fucking figure that out?

 Chapter 92: Blackout

    <h4>Chapter 92: ckout</h4>


    The old man continued to stare at the symbol for a long time, presumably in order to memorize it so that it could be part of his nguage". I couldn''t help but wonder if storing memories as letters were actually physically possible, but I decided that was something beyond me, so there wasn''t much point to it.


    After a little while, I stared down at the tome that I had in my hands. Now that I think about it, this was originally his, right? He wouldn''t like, kill me for having it or anything... right?


    ...


    Well, I would usually be confident of that, but that old man was basically impossible to read, so I had no idea if I would actually be able to without attracting his ire. Which was almost thest thing I wanted to do given how powerful he was.


    With a hesitant finger, I pointed at the book in my hand.


    "Um, is it alright if I take this? If I go by where I got it, looks like it''s yours or something."


    The old man raised an eyebrow before waving dismissively, like the book in my hands was a piece of trash.


    "Oh, that? It''s not even anything that special, you can have it. I would''ve prepared a better reward forpleting that, but I was toozy to. The only thing that book has is a spell I made by using the principles of desire manifestation, but one that uses mana as a source."


    I looked down at the tome once more with one raised eyebrow.


    "Wow, I didn''t even know that was a thing. You sound like a scientist or something."


    The old man looked up to the sky. A small smile had formed on his face.


    "I suppose. Might I ask what you intend to use that for, being a person that has seen the future?"


    The corner of my lip turned up.


    "To help find a way to change myself."


    The old man paused for a moment beforeughing softly.


    "Hm... My old bones should probably follow in your footsteps. I''ve been down here long enough."


    With that, he lifted up a finger. A blinding golden light emitted from his body prompting me to cover my eyes with the tome. Suddenly, the gravity increased several times over, making my legs crumple down onto the floor.


    I forced myself to stand back up, though it felt like my knees were about to break.


    Yet, a momentter, I felt all the weight disappear. I got a strange feeling that came from going up in a rollercoaster before going down. Almost instantly, I braced myself, still wondering what the hell was going on.


    However, a strong force kept me down on the ground. When I opened my eyes again, I saw the...


    Not so old man?


    Some dude that was wearing the same clothes as the old man was in front of me. He had a smirk on his face and short ck hair, just like me. Though, his eyes were golden yellow. On top of his shoulders was the zombie girl, except she wasn''t actually a zombie anymore. She had one hand on the guy''s head and smiled brightly.


    I guess he wasn''t lying about


    After regaining my bearings, I realized that I was now at surface level, not actually down deep in the caverns like I originally thought. After looking around, I noticed Nathan looking at me with a bewildered expression.


    It looks like I had some exining to doter.


    The guy that looked like me gave a small wave.


    "I''d like to meet you once more, Bryson. Ah, and one thing that I didn''t forget."


    He smiled and pointed at me.


    "Don''t be afraid of who you are. That''s dumb, alright?"


    The fuck? Why are you speaking like that now?


    "Um, alright... old man."


    The guy let out augh before spinning around on the heel of his foot and walking off. Though, as he was leaving, he still spoke.


    "By the way, I gave you a blessing, so don''t waste it, alright?"


    My eyelid twitched.


    "I never asked for your blessing, old man."


    The guy chuckled.


    "Well too bad, I gave it to you."


    The girl on his shoulders turned back to me and gave a wave.


    "Goodbye!"


    Out of what felt like obligation, I weakly waved back. A bitter smile formed on my face. Once they were out of sight, Nathan walked up next to me.


    "What the hell was that?"


    "Well..."


    I exined the gist of what happened to Nathan. Despite it just being a retelling, he seemed as surprised as I was seeing it in person.


    He clicked his tongue while rubbing his chin.


    "So supposed gods can just pop out of nowhere? This must''ve been some plot point that got removed because it was far too shitty. Unfortunately, it looks like it''s kept in this version."


    I shrugged my shoulders while holding the tome up.


    "At least we got what we came here for."


    Nathan nodded and pointed at it.


    "Can we just instantly learn it like how it works in-game?"


    I held the book with both hands, feeling its thickness. After sucking in a cold breath, I responded.


    "Unless ny-nine percent of this book is actually useless, I don''t think it is with how damnrge the thing is."


    I opened up the first page. It was filled with various symbols that I had no way of understanding. After realizing that Nathan wouldn''t be able to see, I sat down with it in myp, while he looked over my shoulder.


    "You understand any of this crap?"


    Nathan shook his head.


    "Not even a little bit."


    I flipped to the next page, however, there were still only symbols. After looking at it for a few moments, I flipped it again. Only to see that there were still symbols. My heart began to sink ever so slightly.


    At this point, I began flipping through the pages rapidly, skipping over the moment I saw that it was just more symbols. This guy couldn''t have possibly just written the entire book using the weirdnguage system he used, right?


    Right?


    ...Right?


    By the time I had flipped through over half of the book, I had lost almost all hope, however, there turned out to be words near the end, thankfully. Nathan put his finger on the page and began reading.


    "Basic theory of desire something something... magic can bepared like water or something and desires are like oil..."


    After roughly skimming like that through the whole page, he turned it, only to read more theory. To be honest, I wasn''t following at all. Sure, I could read it as fast as he was, but that didn''t mean I would actually be able to understand the content. After all, I needed at least a second to process it.


    Regardless, I didn''t focus too much on it. If Nathan was able to understand it, I would just ask him to teach me itter. He actually tutored me back in high school. Not to a very high capacity, because he didn''t really care about getting grades, but it was enough so that I could be on par with him without too much difficulty.


    He was a pretty fucking awful teacher at first, but it did not take too long for him to adapt and be better than all of the teachers I''ve ever had.


    Like this, Nathan made his way through fifty pages, probably in less than ten minutes or so.


    All of a sudden, he stopped.


    I wasn''t really paying attention, so I had no idea why he stopped. After ncing at the paper, I saw what it had said.


    ''Apply the most basic application of Desire Manifestation but while using mana instead.''


    After reading that, I turned to Nathan and saw that he pushed his mask up a bit to fit his hand under. Along with that, there was a trail of blood going down the side of his arm. He probably bit his thumb.


    It was one of his habits to control himself when he gets pissed off.


    If you didn''t understand by this point, that meant he was angry.


    Nathan slowly lowered his mangled thumb.


    "This motherfucker put nearly one hundred of pages of unnecessary bullshit before saying the actual spell?"


    I blinked a few times.


    "...The spell was hidden on thest page?"


    Nathan slowly took in a deep breath.


    "Motherfucker thought I the reader was retarded and drew out the stupid exnation of desire manifestation for fifty more pages than necessary."


    I wanted to disagree with him, but with how this book was structured, it was way too hard to. Like, why the fuck was the first half just symbols? And even if we pass by that, he could''ve just put the final page, which was basically the entire spell, onto the first page instead.


    ...Maybe it was supposed to be read backward, like a Japanese manga?


    No, that didn''t make sense. The words were made to be read from left to right.


    Huh.


    While I was thinking about that, Nathan was thinking before suddenly, his eyes widened.


    "Hey, what are you-"


    Before I could hear him finish that sentence, everything went ck.


    Not in the way that meant I went unconscious or anything. As in literally everything in my vision suddenly turned ck. On top of that, I lost all feeling in my body. Or to be more urate, I wasn''t even sure if I currently had a body right now.


    It felt as though my consciousness was just floating about in an endless void. This was kind of how I imagined how it would be like to just be a brain in a jar, but far more intense. Most people would probably go insane after being in this state for too long.


    I''m not saying that I would be an exception, but at least for now, it felt strangely peaceful.


    I tried to close my eyes, but quickly realized I couldn''t even feel them in the first ce. Besides, everything was already ck, so even if I did have eyes, there wasn''t much of a point.


    Yet, before I could get too ustomed to it, I suddenly regained all feeling at once. My legs hurt quite a bit, in a strange position, while the light felt bright, despite the fact my eyes were already closed.


    After I regained my bearings, I shakily stood up.


    "What the fuck was that?"


    I saw Nathan looking at me from the side. The corner of his lip twitched.


    "Um, Natan was able to just cast the spell by himself. I''m not exactly sure how he was able to do it so easily, but... that''s what he did."


    After shaking my head a few times and rubbing my eyelids, I frowned.


    "Shit... that''s the effects of the ckout spell? I thought it was just something like a shbang."


    Nathan raised an eyebrow.


    "Oh really? What is it like?"


    I narrowed my eyes ever so slightly.


    "You can''t feel anything. Other than your consciousness, there is no proof of your existence."


    A smile slowly formed on Nathan''s face.


    "That means we can do quite a bit with this spell, huh?"

 Chapter 93: Motive

    <h4>Chapter 93: Motive</h4>


    "Hey, you try casting the spell on me too."


    Nathan spoke to me rather bluntly. He just assumed that I would be able to cast the spell just like that, when in reality that was probably not the case.


    "Hey, just because Natan was able to do it instantly, doesn''t mean that I''ll be able to as well."


    Nathan raised an eyebrow.


    "But I pretty much get all of it anyway."


    My eyelid twitched. A tense smile formed on my face.


    "Well, I wasn''t able to catch up to how fast you were reading, so I didn''t catch it, all right?"


    Nathan simply waved his hand dismissively.


    "Eh, how hard could it be? Just try it. I mean, the Bryson from before should be pretty used to using this desire thing."


    I rubbed the side of my head.


    "Other than using it for a brief moment, I''ve never used it before. But fine, I''ll try it out anyway."


    Although it was already somewhat unclear, I tried to recall how I felt while using Dark Ar- er I guess Desire Manifestation. I closed my eyes and let out a long breath. In that old man''s words, who now that I think about it never even told me his name, you have to understand what you desire and clearly feel it.


    But how would that be applied to magic?


    For some reason, some of the symbols I saw within the first half of that book shed through my mind. Somehow, I intuitively understood that to cast this spell, you couldn''t think too hard about it. I simply moved the mana in my body without really thinking.


    Then, I felt a formless wave ripple out from around me.


    My eyes widened slightly. I honestly didn''t expect to get it on the first try, but I guess it wasn''t that big of a deal considering I was able to cast Dark- er Desire Maniption I guess. Although it only rippled out about one meter away from me, I was still surprised at how little mana it consumed.


    From my guess, I should be able to cast this spell at least five times before feeling too mana-exhausted, assuming I had all my mana.


    I turned to look at Nathan. His body trembled somewhat. He looked like he was trying to keep his bnce, but was a bit awkward about it. After a second or so, he began tilting to the side and ended up careening to the ground, with unblinking eyes.


    With a soft thump, hended in the grass. I simply watched, counting down the seconds to see how long itsted.


    After five seconds, he suddenly began blinking as a small frown formed on his face.


    "Damn. I thought I would still be standing up."


    I raised a finger and raised an eyebrow.


    "You were standing for a moment there, but then you suddenly took on the spirit of the Leaning Tower of Pisa."


    Nathan clicked his tongue.


    "Well, guess it''s not that easy."


    I rolled my eyes andughed.


    "Why did you even try that? You couldn''t possibly be thinking of learning how to fight while all your senses disappear."


    Nathan stared back at me seriously,pletely unflinching.


    "Yes, that is what I was thinking."


    My face twitched.


    "...That is going a bit far, I would say."


    Nathan shrugged his shoulders.


    "It shouldn''t take that long to learn."


    ...I would normally say that he''s full of shit, but that might be possible for someone like him. To be clear, he''s the kind of guy that just learns things really quickly when ites to physical activities.


    When we used to fight all the time, he very quickly learned every single trick I knew and evolved them as well.


    But anyway, there were more important things to deal with.


    "Say, don''t you like have a duel with that one guy in two days?"


    Nathan blinked a few times.


    "Oh right, I almost forgot."


    I pointed at himzily.


    "Sounds like you did forget."


    Nathan took the rope before looking forth and began walking.


    "Since I now know, it would be inurate to say that I forgot."


    "...No, but, that''s what the word means."


    Nathan cleared his throat.


    "Anyway, don''t you think it''s about time that we dealt with the first one? We''re bit ahead of schedule anyway."


    I blinked a few times. It''s not that I didn''t know what he was talking about, but I felt hesitant.


    "Should we so soon?"


    Nathan clicked his tongue.


    "Is it really even that soon? There are only two weeks before it''s supposed to happen."


    I scratched the side of my head as I followed along with him after tucking away the tome.


    "I forget if I told you this already, but do you remember those bandits that woulde out a few monthster?"


    Nathan turned to me with an eyebrow raised.


    "What?"


    I narrowed my eyes ever so slightly.


    "They decided to attack the ce where I held lunch break in the slums."


    "It would be more urate to say dinner break."


    Hearing his words, I simply rolled my eyes.


    "Yeah, yeah, smartass. Anyways, what''s important is that the events seem to be going out of line a lot. At this rate, who knows if we can even act on the knowledge we have?"


    Nathan fell silent, but only for a moment.


    "It''s the only thing that we can go off of. We''re bound to be quite wrong in certain situations, but that just means we have to get powerful enough to forcibly ovee those mistakes."


    So we need to be stronger, huh?


    I didn''t say anything, which was one of my ways of telling him I understood.


    We both climbed up onto some nearby trees. By now, the sun was already gone, and only a few wisps of orange light were on the horizon. The day was going to be over soon, and going through the forest at night was going to be a pain, so we naturally didn''t.


    We were next to each other, though each on a different tree. In a sense, it almost felt like we were both on an apartment balcony, just one room away from each other. Despite feeling exhausted, I didn''t fall asleep immediately.


    Nathan was simply sitting there as well.


    A few minutes of silence ensued before he decided to speak up.


    "Say, what happened to Bryson?"


    I blinked a few times.


    "...Now that I think about it, he hasn''t been talking for a while now."


    If I recall, it seemed to happen near the time that the old man binded me with his show of desire manifestation. It seemed that Bryson was somehow knocked out cold because of that.


    "Well, he shoulde back sooner orter."


    Nathan shot me a strange look, but didn''t pursue it any further.


    We still didn''t fall asleep for a while. And in the end, a few words slipped through my mouth before I even knew it.


    "Do we really have to save the kingdom?"


    Nathan didn''t respond. I took in a deep breath.


    "I mean, it''s not like either of us really cares in the first ce, right?"


    Nathan leaned back, resting his head against the tree. He let out a long sigh.


    "Then what else are we supposed to do?"


    ...A bitter smile formed on my face.


    "I don''t know."


    Nathan let out a smallugh.


    "Then we might as well keep trying. After all, there must''ve been a reason why we liked that shitty game so much, right? Maybe we can find it if we keep going."


    I shut my eyes and grimaced.


    "Fuckin'' hell. I never should''ve made that stupid promise."


    With that, I let myself fall asleep. To normal people, it would be quite difficult to fall asleep in a tree. And it definitely wasn''t that easy, but Nathan and I had done this very thing many times before.


    It was the only way to get people off our asses and waking us up while we were sleeping to ask if we were lost.


    ...


    My eyes suddenly opened, and a feeling of falling assaulted me. Instinctively, I reached out behind me and grasped onto the tree. After my mind cleared a bit, I realized I nearly fell off the side, because my bnce was a bit poor.


    I guess it was because this body had too many muscles, making it heavierpared to my old one.


    I looked to the side and noticed that Nathan had already woken up. But considering that he was currently rubbing his eyes, it probably wasn''t too long ago. After yawning, I called out to him.


    "So should we go back and take care of the first one?"


    Nathan gave a small nod.


    "Might as well."


    With that, the both of us leaped off the trees and began running through the forest. Unlike the first time, it waspletely uneventful. The only real thing that happened was meeting with the rotting corpse of the bear we had killed earlier.


    Nathan said that the smell of blood would attract other beasts, but other than the chunk we took out to eat, it was untampered. Which meant he was wrong on that call. On top of that, since we were going back earlier than expected, there was no actual reason to eat the raw meat, since the rations we brought along were enough.


    Other than letting out a sigh, he didn''t say anything as we passed by, but there was probably a nasty expression on his face. With a smirk, I called out to him.


    "Hey, it''s not like we really understand the ecosystem of this world in the first ce. It''s reasonable to make some mistakes here and there."


    Nathan put one hand on his mask.


    "The problem isn''t the mistake. Everyone makes those. The real issue is I have no idea why that happened. If I''m going to make a mistake, I''d at least like to learn why so I don''t make the same one again."


    "You sound like one of those shitty teachers, man."


    To myment, Nathan only clicked his tongue. I decided to just continue along with him.


    Before long, we found ourselves at the wall again.


    Nathan untangled the grappling hooks and gave one to me. We got over the wall without much issue. We stayed at the peak for a few moments before surveying thend.


    I looked at Nathan.


    "What was the name again of the first asshole again?"


    He responded promptly.


    "Elijah."

 Chapter 94: Wanted

    <h4>Chapter 94: Wanted</h4>


    The first main conflict in the game, ''Downfall From Grace'', is that one noble suddenly goes on a power trip and starts abusing it beyond the unspoken rules and also begins to killmoners. This caused quite a bit of tension to form between the noble andmon ss, which was one of the sparks that started most of the chaos.


    Naturally, the most logical thing to do with that information was to nip all of that in the bud.


    Though, it was a tad bit moreplicated for various reasons. From how events have already been out of order, I already doubted that it would actually fix anything, but it was worth a shot.


    I narrowed my eyes ever so slightly and turned to Nathan.


    "Say, I''ve found out where that guy''s ce is."


    Nathan turned to me with a weird look.


    "Didn''t you just ask for his name? How did you even look him up?"


    I raised a finger as a self-righteous expression formed on my face.


    "It''s for the dramatic effect. Like, they do that in movies, right?"


    Nathan''s face twitched.


    "...Whatever, just lead the way there."


    With that, we climbed down the wall before making our way through the slums once more. Though I couldn''t help but notice... that some people were looking at us. However, other than taking a peek, they didn''t do anything.


    Well, other than rushing into their houses.


    We definitely were a bit bloody and roughed up, but still, it was probably a bit too much to have that kind of reaction considering they weren''t all that scared the first time we passed by.


    Nathan didn''t seem to notice this, and I didn''t think it was that big of a deal so I didn''t bring it up.


    As we made our way through the Common District, the res became rather obvious though. And unlike how it was like in the slums, people began running away, as they intended on doing something.


    Then as if it couldn''t be any more obvious, we saw wanted posters with drawings of us in our disguise. Apparently, our titles were rouge lesser mages. Though, I must say it was drawn pretty poorly. The reward said ten gold coins would be awarded for our capture.


    ...I couldn''t help but feel a bit slighted for how low the reward was, but I suppose I couldn''tin. We only killed a few people, after all.


    Huh? What do you mean? Of course, that''s a small deal.


    I put one hand on my mask to adjust it.


    "It looks like we''re going to havepany soon."


    Nathan clicked his tongue.


    "So much for being undercover."


    A chuckle escaped me.


    "As long as they don''t figure out who we are, then we''re pretty much still undercover."


    Nathan took a brief scan of our surroundings before calling out.


    "Follow me."


    I simply raised an eyebrow.


    "We''re running away?"


    Nathan responded seriously.


    "If all themoners are in on it too, then this isn''t just some bandit group behind the scenes. Someone bigger is at y here, and right now isn''t the time to stir up trouble with them."


    Honestly, I didn''t really understand what he was so concerned about, but like most of the time, I just decided to trust him.


    "Fair enough."


    Nathan ducked into an alley between two houses. From there, he began leading us down another street before ducking into another alleyway. The entire time, his head was on a swivel, paying attention to everything around him. Though, I noticed that he paid attention to the people more than the ways we could go themselves.


    Before long, we went into another alleyway, but after he took a quick peek outside, he stopped. I raised an eyebrow seeing this.


    "So we aren''t running?"


    Nathan shook his head.


    "No, we just have to use their informants against them. We should switch our clothes out for now and continue running but pretend we are searching for something."


    He immediately took off his cloak and mask and bundled them up. We did bring along a backpack for the sake of carrying our supplies, but it didn''t really fit properly inside. Still, it was passable.


    A bitter smile formed on my face.


    "Won''t my clothes be a little bit too high quality though?"


    Nathan clicked his tongue.


    "The clothes you wore were in as hell anyway. After it got roughed up this much, it will look no different from mine."


    Hearing that, I took off the cloak and realized that Nathan was indeed right. There were quite a few tears in my clothes already, which definitely didn''t exactly radiate ''high-ss''. Nathan pointed to my chest though.


    "Get that golden thing off though, it looks ugly and will also give us away."


    There was a brooch affixed to these clothes that he was pointing to. After a bit of struggle, I ripped it off. After taking a look at it, the corner of my lip twitched.


    "Oh... it has atch so that it cane off normally."


    Nathan looked at me like I was an idiot.


    "Why wouldn''t it?"


    After stuffing it in my backpack I coughed.


    "So what''s the n?"


    Nathan waved his hand dismissively.


    "Same as always, just follow me."


    He ran towards the way we came, before taking a sharp left. As he did so, his head was looking back and forth rather quickly. I decided to follow his example. The streets also had a few people here and there mirroring our actions.


    A man ended up running next to us with a smile. While still huffing, he spoke to us.


    "Hey! If we work together to find him, why don''t we split the bounty?"


    I promptly shook my head.


    "Hell no! We can find them ourselves easily! The bounty is ours, and ours alone!"


    Apparently, these guys cared so much about a few gold coins, but I decided not to think about it that much. Maybe it was the chase they cared about or something.


    The man looked disappointed in my answer, but didn''t press further to negotiate, he simply continued running.


    We basically blended in with the crowd perfectly and were eventually able to make our way into the Trade District. Here, there were still a few people running around aimlessly, but most of them were just walking around and looking at the wares people had to offer.


    Eventually, when few people were nearby, Nathan signaled to me and started walking around casually. It seemed a bit hard to blend in with the others with how we looked, but I decided to follow along and looked at everything around us as though in awe of it.


    As we got closer to the Noble District, there were fewer people, and the kinds of people looked far more wealthy. Eventually, one of the more boorish-looking ones frowned at us and waved toward us like we were a bad smell.


    "What are vagrants doing here? Stop dirtying these streets, you pests."


    I gave a forced smile and scratched the back of my head awkwardly.


    "A-Ah, sorry sir!"


    Nathan kept his head down and grabbed my arm before dragging me aside. We soon reached an alleyway, though it was honestly quite hard to find around these parts. At this point, Nathan set down his bag with a sigh.


    "Alright, let''s put on the usual now."


    Soon enough, we were back in our disguises. It wasn''t too hard to sneak by once more and reach the Noble District. You''d think there would be more security, but then againmoners would go there semi-frequently, even if we just count the ones going to school.


    It seemed that most people didn''t recognize our disguises here. Other than strange looks, nobody had any overt reactions. I wasn''t the best at directions, so I took a wrong turn once, but we were able to get back on track soon enough and reach his ce.


    "That looks like how it would in game, right?"


    Nathan blinked a few times.


    "It''s close enough. Let me double-check."


    There was a fairlyrge manor, though it paled inparison to the ones other nobles had, or even the one I was in. The ce itself was probably the size of two average houses.


    However, there was a gate barred around the ce, as though trying to say that thisnd still belonged to them, even if the house wasn''t that big. Two guards were standing at the entrance.


    Nathan walked up to one of the guards and spoke bluntly.


    "Is this Elijah''s ce?"


    The guard looked at him with a bit of confusion.


    "Um... yes. What business do you have with him?"


    I stepped up and cleared my throat.


    "We are here to bring him a message. However, we would need to do it directly considering that it contains more sensitive matters."


    The guard turned to me but didn''t look like he was going to relent any time soon.


    "I was not informed of this. Please go back."


    Hm. Well, I had a feeling that this wouldn''t work out so easily.


    "This is rather urgent. I was given proof, but I''m not sure if you would recognize it. However, if you take it to Elijah himself, he will know."


    I took out the brooch that I had ripped off from my backpack and showed it to them. Other than being a bit dirty, it was still in fairly good condition. The guard took a closer look.


    "...I will still confirm. Please wait here."


    I handed him the brooch, which he took before marching off.


    One of the guards ended up leaving, while the other one remained. Nathan looked at me as though asking me what the hell was I doing. However, I simply smiled.


    I already thought of how we were going to do this.


    After all, in the first ce, the Elijah we were trying to kill wasn''t exactly Elijah.

 Chapter 95: Elijah?

    <h4>Chapter 95: Elijah?</h4>


    Nathan and I waited as the guard left, while the other guard firmly kept his eyes on us, suspicious as he should be.


    I can''t exactly take credit for this, but Nathan was able to figure out most of the backstory behind this guy.


    In the original game, while Natan was just at his home, Elijah would''vee all the way to his own house in an attempt to kill his own mother after killing many others. The noble himself wasn''t the most powerful, but he was still able to cast basic spells. In a sense, this was kind of like the tutorial for outdoorbat in the game.


    While holding onto the hilt of his sword, the guard spoke to us.


    "You are truly on official business?"


    "As hard as that may be to believe, yes."


    But one might ask what exactly the motive behind this was. After all, it was rather strange for a noble to juste down to the slums and attack people. Although they may not always be doing the most productive things as nobility, they still probably had better things to do.


    Well, apparently the person in control of Elijah''s body wasn''t Elijah himself. Nathan decided to read all the lore you get, and happened to read into Elijah''s ce. Apparently one of the maids had suddenly died when Elijah himself had suddenly changed.


    And as it would turn out, that was because the maid had taken over Elijah''s body.


    Nathan began tapping his foot.


    "He''s taking an awfully long time."


    The guard responded with a bit of contempt.


    "Thend isrge. He will not be able to move that quickly, especially while equipped with that armor."


    Backtracking from there, the maid herself was also originally someone else. Although there was no clear indicator of how back this chain went, what Nathan found out was that the original person was someone from the slums and one that held grudges.


    Somehow or another, he was born with an anomalous mana that could allow them to take over someone else''s body through a certain amount of physical contact.


    If we were to go for the specifics, there was a maid''s diary that mentioned another maid that used their body to ''please'' Elijah, but ended up dying. While I don''t think the transfer process was that rigid, there were at least decently strong restrictions if the person was actually willing to go that far.


    The guard that had originally left was nowing back to us.


    I was able to spot that he still had the brooch in his hand, meaning he didn''t steal it. Not that he would, considering what I got from his personality.


    Anyway, the transfer process itself doesn''t mean that the guy is able to take the memories of the person they take over. At best, they are shaky memories, and it seems that his general sanity also goes down each time it happens, or he was just always crazy.


    And because he didn''t have those memories, he would do everything possible to pretend to be Elijah, including acknowledging fake memories.


    The guard handed back the brooch to me cordially.


    "You can enter."


    Even if they didn''t really exist.


    The guards, though a bit surprised, opened the gates and stood at its sides, waiting for us to pass through.


    Nathan stared at me for a few moments before silently going forward. I naturally went along with him. A smirk formed on my face. Since we were granted entry, that must mean Elijah himself was unaware of those memories.


    On the contrary, if we were denied entrance, it would probably be because Elijah remembers not making any strange promises like that.


    Before long, we were taken to the study, after which Elijah looked at the two of us with an eyebrow raised. The guards left to go on their post and he didn''t seem concerned about them leaving. In fact, he looked ratherposed for someone that was supposed to be insane. He was sitting down while sipping on a cup of tea, with his pinky finger pointed out.


    I felt a bit strange but decided to shake it off.


    Instead, I decided to y around a little bit.


    "So you understand what business we are here for, sir?"


    Elijah narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. A sly smile gradually spread out from his face.


    "To be frank with you, I have not. I couldn''t possibly understand what business I have from two wanted killers."


    I narrowed my eyes ever so slightly. After a moment, I drew my sword.


    "Can I take this as you cutting ties in our partnership? That won''t end well for you, I must say, Sir Elijah."


    Despite my threat, Elijah still only had a smile on his face. I couldn''t help but wonder if I had miscalcted.


    "Oh, is that so? But I don''t recall ever making any ties in the first ce. The reason why I let you in is that I recognized that only the families that are incredibly wealthy are able to acquire objects such as these."


    He raised one finger into the air, and in a sh, twenty separate spears made out of rock had formed behind him.


    ...This level of magic was definitely not possible for Elijah that was possessed.


    In other words, I fucked up. My calctions were entirely wrong, meaning he let us in despite not knowing who we were. After slowly putting away my sword, I gave him another look.


    "It appears we were mistaken. However, there is still business between the two of us that can be discussed."


    Elijah raised an eyebrow before putting one leg over the other.


    "Oh, is that so? I don''t see why I shouldn''t just kill you right here."


    I let out a smallugh.


    "One reason is that you will end up dying soon, though if you don''t care much about that then it should be fine."


    Elijah simply smirked derisively in response.


    "Haha, and how have youe to that conclusion? I can''t be killed so easily. Besides, I have not formed any grudges with any of the nobles. If you truly were a noble with power, then you wouldn''t have gone so far as to wear a disguise, but rather approach me directly."


    I let out a small sigh.


    "It is indeed true that we were lying about having previous business with you, but that was on the assumption that you had already died."


    Elijah frowned.


    "Stop speaking utter nonsense. If I were dead, there wouldn''t be any fake business to have."


    I raised a finger.


    "But what if that person was able to steal your body?"


    Elijah looked back at us nkly.


    "...You have some ridiculous ims, I must say."


    I tilted my head to the side ever so slightly.


    "Then are you willing to entertain these ims? You may see something rather... surprising."


    Elijah looked at us for a good few seconds before setting his teacup down with a ck.


    "Very well then, how will you prove such ims?"


    Damn, he actually listened? Well, that makes things simpler.


    "Call all of your servants here for an emergency meeting. I wish to have a small talk with them."


    ...


    "So, what do you n on doing now?"


    Elijah looked at me with a smile. We were standing in a fairlyrge hallway, with all of the butlers and maids lined up. They looked somewhat nervous, but seemed to be holding it together for the most part.


    "It is more interesting if the n isn''t revealed at the start, no?"


    While I said that, I honestly didn''t actually have any real n. To be honest, I was just expecting this to be a rtively easy kill mission. However, things ended up bing a guess the faker instead. It''s not like I never yed Amogus, but still.


    For starters, I tried to observe how everyone''s mana looked since I was able to get a rough picture of it. At first, I was expecting this to be a bit easier, assuming that most of them wouldn''t have any mana affinity, but as it would turn out they actually all had at least some affinity with mana.


    And here I was thinking there was a small chance only the fake would have any mana.


    To start, I pped a few times to bring attention to myself.


    "Hello everyone. I''m sure you are all wondering why I have brought you here. Some of you may recognize this face already, and some may not. I will let you know now that I am a wanted killer along with my friend here."


    Most of them were quite shaken up. It looked like my prediction was right and that some people already noticed. My eyes were open as wide as possible just to take in all the reactions at once. Thankfully, there were only about thirty of them so it wasn''t too hard.


    Seven of them widened their eyes considerably, meaning they felt a bit of fear and perhaps confusion. Regardless, it seemed that showing overt reactions was something they were trying to avoid. I doubted the imposter would genuinely be afraid of a wanted killer in this setting, so I crossed those seven off in my mind.


    "Please do not panic, for I am not here to harm... most of you. After all, your master is right here watching. I wouldn''t do something so bold."


    Three of the remaining twenty-three people began fiddling around with their fingers. Such a line could make the fake person ufortable, but I was pretty sure that they would be able to control themselves.


    "Though, I will be picking on one particrly unlucky person. As for them, I''m afraid they will have a rather terrible fate."


    Two people were far too calm about my words, almost like they were rebelling. A person trying to blend in wouldn''t try to stand out at this point and try to bring attention by showing ackluster expression.


    As for the others, they were all fairly natural, so I couldn''t decipher much from them.


    "As such, I will naturally be inspecting just a tad bit more closely."


    I began walking near people. This time, it wasn''t for the sake of intimidation, but rather trying to see how they would react to how I smelled. It might have only been a day, but after rolling around in the dirt and getting a bit bloody, the smell obviously wasn''t going to be pleasant.


    Of the remaining eighteen people, fifteen of them had their face tense up ever so slightly, while the remaining three made an actual disgusted expression, albeit only for a moment.


    In this case, the original person came from the slums and thus should be both used to that smell and new to it. Since they didn''t show any obvious signs so far, the person in question was definitely good at acting.


    While they may have been used to a bad smell ordinarily, their new body should have a newly tuned sense of smell that would find it disgusting. They would not have the experience to keep a straight face despite feeling disgusted.


    So that meant it was probably one of the three.


    "Hey, you, you, and you. Take a step up. I would like to question all of you."

 Chapter 96: The Fake

    <h4>Chapter 96: The Fake</h4>


    After pointing to three different people, Elijah turned to me with a raised eyebrow.


    "You called each and every butler and maid just to single a few of them out? Have you done previous research on them?"


    To be fair, I could get where he wasing from. Calling out all the maids and butlers was definitely a nuisance. I thought about also calling the guards, but I deemed it unlikely that the fake would be among them.


    Still, it would be more effective if he didn''t know, so...


    "You may ask your questions after the performance. For now, just let me ask a few questions."


    The first person that I called up was a maid. She had short blonde hair and blue eyes. She definitely wasn''t the tallest either, but she had a rather defiant expression on her face. It seemed like she was beginning to lose herposure, grinding her teeth somewhat.


    This person definitely didn''t seem to have toorge of a temper. Though, they were holding it in pretty well before.


    The second person was a butler. He had a somewhat clueless expression on his face, still rather confused about what the hell this was all about. Rightfully so, but that didn''t mean he couldn''t have been the suspect.


    Assuming that this person actually was innocent, he was probably just some unlucky person wrapped up in all of this.


    The third person was another maid. She was on the taller side and had longer hair. She had a neutral expression for the most part and didn''t seem to be particrly shaken up by this situation.


    I gave a quick sweep between the three of them. Then, I turned to look at Elijah, who was still patiently trying to see my antics through.


    "Now, what would you think if I said one of these people hypothetically wished to kill you?"


    Elijah raised an eyebrow.


    "It would be quite difficult for me to believe. None of the people here were forced to stay against their will. Besides, if they were to kill me, then who would pay them?"


    I gave a few nods.


    "Yes, yes, that is quite the logical thought process, and I would agree with that. However, that is only assuming that each of them is who they im to be."


    "That''s ridiculous! What are you even here for other than to disrupt us? Do you really think we''re afraid of you?"


    The first maid with blonde hair suddenly burst out in anger. The butler cast his eyes aside, however, I could tell that he had the same thoughts from his expression. As for the other maid, she still wasn''t reacting.


    Elijah raised an eyebrow.


    "I''ve seen all of my servants on a daily basis. Do you not believe that I would be able to spot someone attempting to disguise themselves?"


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "Well, this is a world of magic after all. Who''s to say that there isn''t someone that could perfectly mimic someone''s outer appearance?"


    Elijah scoffed and narrowed his eyes slightly. He was beginning to lose interest.


    "Someone that had that kind of magic wouldn''t need to go through so much trouble to disguise as one of my servants."


    I pped twice.


    "Of course, of course. But why don''t we double-check just to make sure?"


    Elijah gave me a long hard look before clicking his tongue.


    "Very well, ask your questions then."


    I nodded.


    "My thanks. By the way, since I don''t personally know any of them, I would like you to confirm the truth of their questions. Now, may each of you speak your names?"


    The first maid crossed her arms and said it through clenched teeth.


    "Denny."


    The butler shyly uttered his.


    "Um, Servant Baros."


    And the maid calmly answered with hers.


    "Noelle."


    Elijah nodded.


    "Those are all correct."


    I gave a quick nod before continuing.


    "Now when did all of you be maids and butlers for this residence? I''m not asking for an exact date, but a general approximation."


    "What? Why do you want to know that?"


    Denny spoke up with anger. As for me, I tilted my head to the side and stared her down.


    "Oh? Are you unable to answer the question? That''s a little strange, isn''t it?"


    Denny flinched before scoffing.


    "It''s been... two years or so."


    "Five years now."


    "One year."


    "That''s correct."


    ...Hm. It seems my credibility is starting to go down by quite a bit. Oh well, it shouldn''t be too long.


    "Why did you all be servants for this household?"


    "...I have to support myself somehow."


    "I''ve looked for work, and was able to find it here."


    "The same as them."


    Elijah let out a sigh and turned to me.


    "Isn''t this getting a little bit ridiculous? These questions prove nothing."


    I held up one finger.


    "Then let me end it with one final one. When was thest time you''ve been groped by Elijah?"


    Elijah narrowed his eyes and stared at me with a bit of anger.


    "What are you asking?"


    A chuckle escaped me.


    "You wanted this to go faster, right? This is the only way that I can do so."


    Elijah gave me a hateful stare but let it continue.


    "Answer his question and that will be the end of it."


    The first maid clenched her fists.


    "A-A few days ago."


    The butler kept his head down.


    "I would prefer not to answer."


    Then, thest maid spoke up.


    "Never."


    I then turned to Elijah with a smile on my face.


    "Did you notice something strange?"


    Elijah had a strange look on his face and was now staring rather intently at his servants. He eventually spoke up.


    "Denny, what did you say?"


    Denny flinched.


    "W-What? Was I not supposed to say the truth?"


    Elijah''s eyes widened ever so slightly.


    "...The truth?"


    A sly smile formed on my face, though my mask covered it. I was starting to get a feeling that something strange was going on. For starters, it didn''t seem like this person had any family around. Although that wouldn''t be anything strange during modern times, I remember in these times people had families a tad bit earlier than usual.


    It was a bit of a stretch, but I was willing to consider the possibility that Elijah was, to put it bluntly-


    "Denny, I have never even gotten close to you before."


    Gay.


    Denny''s eyes widened.


    "W-What? But that''s impossible!"


    To be honest, I wasn''t perfectly confident, because with people everything is rather uncertain. That''s why I would always y with probabilities. Analyze certain factors about a person and find out the possible reasons. Though one of the biggest things was the fact that the real Elijah was still himself.


    The entire time, it sat in the back of my mind as I thought of multiple exnations, this being one of them. It was too hard for the person to get close as a maid because the person in question wasn''t interested.


    I giggled and looked at Denny.


    "I figured it was you from the start. The only problem was a way to convince everyone here."


    "What? No... but... how?..."


    That was kind of a lie, but I had my suspicions about her from the start. Under normal circumstances, a person with a brash and impulsive personality is very unlikely to hold onto secrets of any kind, unable to keep them even if they tried.


    But the difference was that she was too calm at the start for someone with that personality. It seemed quite difficult for these people to control themselves considering how they acted in the game, so I figured that they would be one of the ones that would eventually crack.


    Elijah pointed at her and yelled rather loudly.


    "Seize her!"


    Several guards came out all of a sudden like it was an ambush, and seeing this I immediately yelled out.


    "DO NOT TOUCH HIM."


    The guards froze up for a split second before turning to Elijah, trying to confirm things. This time Elijah looked at me with recognition, but also confusion.


    "Didn''t you say there was a fake? You found her, why are you trying to protect them?"


    I raised my hand.


    "I''m not trying to protect them, but rather you. Though it may be hard to believe, my friend and I have been tracking down this person for quite a while. His ability is strange mana that is able to steal another''s body through physical contact."


    Denny, or the person currently in Denny''s body, widened his eyes significantly.


    "What? How do you know that?"


    I chuckled.


    "As I''ve said, my friend and I have been tracking you for a long time. Of course, switching bodies makes it a bit harder to follow your tracks, but that''s all. You can''t escape our eyes so easily."


    Elijah raised an eyebrow while looking at me.


    "What? Are you sure? I''ve never heard of any magical spell that allows one to take another''s body..."


    I let out a small sigh.


    "Say, which servant out of these is your least favorite?"


    Elijah looked at me for a good few moments.


    "What?"


    He couldn''t see my face, but it seemed Elijah noticed I was smiling from my eyes.


    "We can just sacrifice them if you wish to see the ability, should you still have your doubts. After all, servants and the like are all receable folk."


    Elijah rubbed his chin before nodding a few times.


    "I suppose that is true... but if that really is the case, then it is better to be safe. How do we dispose of her safely?"


    I held out one hand towards Nathan.


    "He can simply burn her might finely. There shouldn''t be a way for her toe back after that."


    In the game, the best way to actually fight him was closebat at first, then backing off and using the fireball spell. That was because he wouldn''t try to steal bodies at first, but the problem was when he starts to get low, he would then try to steal your body, after which it would be game over should he seed.


    Speaking of the game, I had already readied the ckout spell.


    Denny stared at me with hateful eyes and was practically frothing at the mouth.


    "Damn you!"


    I saw the mana in his body begin to move strangely, which meant he was probably casting a spell. But I wasn''t all that afraid.


    The attention was not on me though, as basically everyone else was staring at Nathan, who had already conjured a fireball that was farrger than necessary.


    I guess that''s why nobody tried to stop Denny as her figure suddenly shed forth.


    RIght. Just because they were maids, didn''t mean they didn''t know any magic.


    ...But, this was what I wanted from the start.

 Chapter 97: Menace

    <h4>Chapter 97: Menace</h4>


    Denny''s appearance had changed strangely after getting angered. The skin on her body began to melt as though it was some viscous liquid. The hair immediately whitened to be thin and frail.


    Yet, despite that fact, the body seemed like it was basically dying on the spot, the mana within was roiling around rather violently.


    ...Shit, it was nowhere near this disgusting in the game.


    Dennyunched towards me like she was actually a headcrab, which honestly made me feel a bit disgusted.


    Getting those thoughts out of my mind, I immediately casted the ckout spell as the fleshy figure shot towards me. Not missing a beat, I also threw myself to the side, dodging the mass of goop.


    While doing that, I noticed that Elijah, who was standing fairly close to me suddenly copsed to the ground.


    ...It seems that he had been caught up as well.


    The goop just fell to the ground and stopped moving.


    As for Nathan, he had already prepared the fireball and just threw it down, not caring that it was a tad bit toorge. Seeing it travel through the air, everyone ran away while screaming in a panic, save for Elijah who was caught in the spell.


    I grabbed onto his body and rolled over a few times.


    With a ssical boom, the fireball exploded and the aftershock rushed forth. I brought up Elijah''s body to block, letting him tank the brunt of it.


    After it settled, Elijah began gasping for air and groaning in pain while covering his eyes. I set him down promptly and took a look at him.


    The front of his body was immediately covered in ash, while his clothes were messed up.


    It took him quite a while to regain his bearings. He eventually shook his head and coughed a few times before speaking.


    "What... What happened?"


    I tilted my head to the side.


    "Our target ended up trying to attack me in revenge, so we eliminated him."


    With a confused look and his hair still frazzled, he looked at me.


    "What? Was that the effect of that thing''s ability?"


    My eyes narrowed ever so slightly.


    "If you mean how he turned into a gtinous substance, then yes. However, if you mean temporarily purging your consciousness, then it''s because of our magic. My apologies, it wasn''t my intention to put you through that."


    That was a tiny white lie, but he didn''t have to know. He furrowed his brows.


    "You... know how to do that?"


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "Both of us can do it rather easily. Would you like some proof?"


    Elijah hurriedly shook his head.


    "No, no..."


    It seemed he was a bit traumatized by that. Seeing him like this, I felt it was good timing.


    "Well, I suppose this is a good time to tell you that my friend and I aren''t afraid of you. If we wanted, we could kill most people in this kingdom rather easily. Just like the person we were chasing down just now."


    Elijah was stunned for a few moments. However, he was able topose himself rather quickly.


    "...So what are your intentions? How did that person be your target?"


    I tilted my head to the side.


    "We simply wish to restore a bit of order to the kingdom. To be frank, there are far too many anomalies that still exist, that will be difficult to containpletely. Soon chaos will reign, and our only goal is to quell some of it."


    Elijah raised an eyebrow and smiled a bit.


    "So you two are the knights in shining armor?"


    I let out anotherugh after hearing that.


    "Well, I wouldn''t exactly say that. We will save those that we want to save. As for the others, their lives aren''t our concern. At the end of the day, we are only looking out for the same thing everyone else does. Our self-interests."


    Elijah went silent for a few moments before speaking up.


    "So how would one be one of your said self-interests?"


    I chuckled and walked and brought my face closer to him.


    "Naturally, anything that is useful. Isn''t that only natural?"


    Elijah gave a small nod.


    "That much makes sense..."


    I tapped the bottom of my mask a few times.


    "In truth, I''m not entirely sure if you could be useful, but if we find a way, then we will contact you."


    Then I took out the brooch and made a small nick on it with my sword.


    "And if you see this, then that will mean it came from us."


    Elijah stared intently at it for a few minutes, probably memorizing it.


    "...You just ruined a perfectly good mark of royalty. Do you not know the value of money?"


    ...Really? But this thing is tiny as fuck, man. How could it even be that valuable?


    "Well, it simply makes it hard to replicate, no?"


    Elijah smiled bitterly.


    "I suppose that is true. Is that all the business you wish to discuss? If possible, I would like to... change out from this."


    I gave a quick nod.


    "We shall take our leave then."


    Nathan shot me a look before following along behind me. Even now, he didn''t say anything, probably too afraid he would mess things up by speaking out. While we were leaving, Elijah called out to us again.


    "So did you kill those people for the sake of the kingdom?"


    I looked over my shoulder and gave him a look right in the eye.


    "They were annoying, and the kingdom doesn''t need more annoying people, correct?"


    Elijah flinched before falling silent. I turned away and internally celebrated as we headed off. Once we eventually got off the premises, Nathan turned to me and let out one soft chuckle.


    "It seems like you still got the hang of it, even if they are people from medieval times."


    I clicked my tongue.


    "Medieval times or modern times, people will still be people. It''s not like there aren''t different cultures in the modern world. Realistically, nothing changed."


    Nathan cracked his neck.


    "In the end, you''re still quite the menace, huh?"


    I held out my hands hopelessly.


    "You act like I did something impressive. It only looks that way because you are emotionally ipetent."


    Nathan rolled his eyes.


    "Uh-huh, sure man."


    We split up after a little while and both headed back to our original homes. We threw away the rope we had initially brought along as well as the few leftover rations we had. It wasn''t too difficult to find a ce.


    I wonder what the person who''d end up finding it would think.


    Upon making it back, the first person who ended up noticing me was actually Gray. I kinda forgot the kid actually joined the butlers.


    "Hey good person!"


    I was already out of my disguise, though I wanted to get to my room as soon as possible to put away said disguise.


    "Hey, Gray. I''ll just be heading up to my room."


    Before he could even respond, a familiar voice yelled out.


    "Brother? Is that really you?"


    It was Jess. She rushed down the stairs and immediately gave me a hug despite how dirty I was. With a pout, she responded rather angrily.


    "Where were you? Why do you look like this?"


    My eyelid twitched.


    "I wanted to explore around for a bit. I already wrote it in the note."


    Jess cried out in indignation.


    "You can''t just leave with a note like that!"


    I pursed my lips together.


    "Well, it''s not that big of a deal, is it?"


    "No, she''s right, it is a big deal."


    A few moments after, the head butler, James appeared. He had a rather pissed-off expression on his face.


    "Even if you did wish to leave, you must personally inform me first. Going out on your own is not as safe as you may think it is, even if you are a prince. In fact, there will be people that purposely target you because of that. Right after you left, there was news of rogue mages going around killing people."


    I thought Jess would freak out after hearing that, but she just gave me a nk look for quite a while.


    ...Wait, did she know that was me?


    Hm. This makes things a littleplicated.


    James pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath.


    "Next time you do such a thing, inform me. I have no intention of restricting your freedom, but your safety must be guaranteed."


    James'' suggestion was very reasonable, but there was no way I could put on my getup without basically tantly revealing my identity if I went with others. I already didn''t have any hard alibi to say that I wasn''t said person in the first ce. I tilted my head to the side.


    "But what if I want to go out alone?"


    James narrowed his eyes.


    "...No. Did you not just hear what I said? You''re treating your own life as a joke!"


    I clicked my tongue.


    "Oh, really? I''m pretty confident that I''ll end up living longer than you."


    James red back at me.


    "It seems you are in a special mood once again. I suppose that part of you hasn''t changed..."


    With that, he turned around and left without another word. Jess silently remained around me, while Gray eventually turned around and left after losing interest. I took in a deep breath.


    "Are you going to let go yet?"


    Jess sucked in a cold breath.


    "First, let''s go to the bath."


    ...Now that I think about it, the reason why my sleep in a tree felt so nice was probably that the normal sleeping conditions I had were way worse.


    I guess it is what it is.


    The usual painful session went on.


    ...While in the middle of the night, I felt someone poking me, and briefly woke up. I didn''t open my eyes because I was still tired, so I just tried to shake it off and go back to sleep. Unfortunately, it seemed that I wouldn''t have my way as I was simply getting poked more.


    Eventually, I weakly opened my eyes and saw Jess looking intently at me. Her limbs were still wrapped around me, making me feel like I was trapped. Jess pouted.


    "Hey, you didn''t give me the daily update."


    I blinked a few times, still feeling muddle-headed.


    "The what?"


    She tilted her head to the side.


    "Usually you freak out and tell me how you''re not you, and that I should run away."


    My eyelid twitched. It seemed that the actual Bryson was desperately trying to resist while I wasn''t paying attention. However, from how Jess'' behavior had hardly changed, it seemed that it didn''t have very much effect.


    I guess this situation confirmed that the real Bryson actually is lying dormant for now.


    "Brother?"


    Jess cut off my thoughts, reminding me that I should be responding to her in this situation.


    "Ah, sorry. I''m currently the version that the other Bryson told you to run away from."


    Jess tilted her head to the side.


    "Oh, is that so?"

 Chapter 98: Just a Tad Bit Crazy

    <h4>Chapter 98: Just a Tad Bit Crazy</h4>


    Jess wasn''t even slightly flustered when I dered that I wasn''t actually her brother.


    A bitter smile formed on my face.


    "Unfortunately, yes. So why haven''t you been running despite your brother being so insistent on it?"


    Jess puffed up her cheeks.


    "...From my perspective, you two are the same person. Even if you really were two different people, there wouldn''t be that much of a difference. The two of you would probably get along really well."


    Ah, yes, of course. That makes... so much sense. We have definitely been getting along so well. Definitely no arguing or disagreements or anything of that kind.


    "You seem quite sure when you hardly know anything."


    Jess let out a smallugh.


    "...I don''t know, but you don''t feel just like him. Always trying so hard."


    She buried her head into my neck and then muttered.


    "While it may be impossible for me to help normally, at least I can do this."


    I blinked a few times and thought about all of her strange past actions.


    "So you did all of that despite knowing that I was a different person?"


    Jess waited a second before speaking.


    "...Well, it''s still my brother''s body. I was surprised when you first let me do what I wanted, and I decided to take what I could."


    Wait wh-


    This girl is... a little more messed up than I thought. My face twitched.


    "You really like your brother that much? Isn''t there something wrong with you?"


    "Maybe just a little bit."


    Jess peeked up ever so slightly, just enough for me to catch a glimpse of her narrowed eyes and strangely wide smile.


    Fuck.


    Jess hurriedly ducked down, as though realizing she had shown something she shouldn''t have.


    "...Ignore that."


    I forced an answer through clenched teeth.


    "...Alright."


    It was best not to go against a person while they were on a tipping point unless you wanted them to release themselves, so I naturally didn''t.


    I don''t remember this in the game. She definitely was not this crazy. At least... I don''t recall her being this crazy. Jess was always lukewarm with the main character at best, so I just thought she was kind of a boring character.


    Now that I think about it, she would always make me face away while hugging me. Did that mean she always had that kind of face while doing that sort of thing? No, no, that would make it a horror game.


    This isn''t a horror game. It''s a tragedy.


    I have to remember that. Yes, I should just... stop thinking about that.


    It''s fine.


    But Bryson, did you know that your sister was this crazy? I never thought I would ever have to deal with this kind of yandere bullshit even after transmigrating into another world.


    Er... I mean, ever.


    Ok, well maybe a little bit. But at the very least since I have a bit of experience dealing with them. The first step is to avoid getting their attention altogether so you never have to deal with them in the first ce.


    But sometimes... things just don''t go the way you n. Especially since they themselves usually don''t know they are crazy until they actually start showing it.


    Upon failing the first step, the second step is to make sure you don''t overly resist them, as that will only make the person in question more violent and desperate. In certain situations, making them forget you is a viable solution, ideally faking your death, but depending on the obsession, this may have the reverse effect.


    Some would still search for you regardless, and every passing moment would only amplify it.


    And Jess was definitely one of them.


    The third step was to use their obsession against them and gain control over them. This would give me the agency, and depending on how it''s handled, you could move on to the final step.


    Make them kill themselves.


    It''s easier than you think.


    Now, I would normally do that, but Nathan would probably give me a really painful death if I actually went through with it. I suppose Jess could still be useful, so it may be best to keep her around instead.


    "Brother... you feel colder for some reason."


    A smile formed on my face.


    "Haha, I''m sure that''s just your imagination, sister."


    I could feel Jess tremble. Strangely enough, it was far easier for me to sleep despite the fact I was in direct contact with another person.


    Before I knew it, my eyes closed.


    ...


    Unfortunately, there was a person that disturbed my otherwise peaceful sleep. It was a familiar pink horned figure. The book, as I would say. He looked at me silently for a while before clearing his throat.


    "I will ignore most of what happened. But regardless, were you able to find the sage up north?"


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "Apparently he doesn''t really consider himself a sage. That''s kind of rude to just assume someone''s title, you know?"


    The pink figure was speechless for a brief moment before snapping back at me.


    "If you didn''t find him, then you can just say that!"


    I rolled my eyes.


    "I really did find him. Well, I guess more urately he was the one that found me. He kinda just came to me while I was messing around with a puzzle he made."


    The pink figure was visibly excited, despite having little features since he was made of some mist.


    "So were you able to understand Divine Arts? Everyone thinks that it''s a legend in current times, but I know that its true!"


    I scratched the side of my head awkwardly. Would it be too much to break it to him?


    "Um... From his words, apparently this Divine Arts doesn''t actually exist. And apparently, Dark Arts isn''t a real thing either."


    The pink figure froze in ce. A secondter, he threw a tantrum, swinging his limbs about.


    "Just say that you never met him! Why are you wasting both of our time?"


    I couldn''t help butugh.


    "If you don''t want to believe me, you don''t have to. It''s not like I really gain anything out of it anyway."


    The pink figure suddenly quieted down, rubbing his chin in thought for a little while.


    "Tell me what you heard from him."


    I puffed up my cheeks and held out my hands helplessly.


    "Don''t wanna."


    The pink figure angrily shook his fist at me.


    "What? Just tell me! I was the person that even told you about him in the first ce!"


    I raised an eyebrow.


    "Wow, did anyone ever teach you to ask nicely if you want something?"


    The pink figure bit his lip, still on the verge of exploding out in anger, but forcefully reigned it in.


    "Please... tell me..."


    With a smile, Iughed.


    "That''s more like it. What a good boy you are."


    The pink figure red at me.


    "...Could you just tell me?"


    Feeling he wasn''t going to y into this anymore, I relented.


    "Fine, fine. He called it ''Desire Manifestation''. Apparently, there was never a difference between what people called Dark Arts and Divine Arts. But rather, it was how they used it. He would also lose his memories after using that ability, but somehow or another, using it also extends your life. Like, reversing aging and all that."


    The pink figure gawked.


    "What? But... I''ve been practicing for thousands of years, and I''ve never gotten close to how I saw him use it."


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "He said that Desire Manifestation will be stronger depending on how clear your intentions are while using it. Or, I guess desires. But along with that, they also have to align with what your actual desires are. And what you think you desire isn''t necessarily what you actually desire."


    The pink figure fell into thought for a long while. After a moment, he muttered.


    "So that''s what enlightenment is?"


    I blinked a few times.


    "Guess so."


    He closed his eyes and sucked in a cold breath.


    "Does... does that mean... Hey, sorry to make you suddenly do this, but leave me alone for a little while."


    Why is he acting like I wanted to be with him in the first ce?


    Without another word, the dream suddenly ended. It seemed that the book wanted to think over things.


    ...


    Upon waking up, I found Jess was acting like she always had. It almost made me think that everything from that night was actually a dream.


    Almost.


    Because I can''t even remember thest time I had a real one of those. Besides, the book visited when I should''ve been dreaming. In fact, it was almost just like every single other school day that I''d had.


    Though, the only tiny difference was-


    "Hi, good person!"


    Gray was still calling me that the moment he saw me. A bitter smile formed on my face as I saw his enthusiastic expression.


    "I have a name, you know? It''s Bryson."


    Gray tilted his head to the side and put a finger on his chin.


    "But I didn''t say anything wrong?"


    I let out a small sigh.


    "Yeah, yeah, I guess so. Sure."


    Before I knew it, I was once again on the carriage heading off to school. Jess was as silent as she had been, though it took on a different meaning for me right now. I simply kept my eyes closed and meditated using this time.


    Once I found myself in the ssroom, Raisa turned around in her seat to look at me before ss started.


    "Hey, why were you out for two days?"


    I rested my head against my fist and rolled my eyes.


    "How did you even know about that."


    Raisa cleared her throat awkwardly.


    "Um... I was just trying to visit you for a little bit and found out."


    She tilted her head to the side and scratched her cheek. Then, she whispered under her breath.


    "Are you the one that''s wanted?"


    I blinked a few times. It would probably be best if she didn''t know about that.


    "What? Just because I bought a mask that kinda looks like the posters, you think I''m the same person?"


    Raisa let out a small gasp.


    "E-Eh? No, no, nothing like that."


    I sighed andzily put one hand on the desk.


    "Anybody could wear a mask. Besides, do you really think I''d have the time to find someone with a matching mask to go along with me? I just wanted to explore the ce a little without guards protecting me all the time. I get it''s technically dangerous... but still."


    Raisa awkwardlyughed.


    "Ah, of course! Sorry about that."


    Thankfully it seemed she believed my lie. And with what I just said, she should be a little more willing to break the rules that are ingrained into the head of nobles. It wouldn''t do much now, but time is a powerful thing.


    Sam suddenly stood up when Nathan entered the room.


    "Are you ready for the challenge? It''sing soon!"


    Nathan shrugged his shoulders and smiled.


    "I''m ready for it right now. But what about you?"


    Sam was slightly flustered but recovered quickly.


    "What? Of course I am! Let''s do it right now then!"

 Chapter 99: ’A Fight’

    <h4>Chapter 99: ''A Fight''</h4>


    Harold watched the two of them arguing and let out a long sigh.


    "We will go to the sparring stage. But I will only give you a maximum of fifteen minutes to settle this. Let''s hurry along now."


    Without even checking if everyone was here, Harold had led everyone over to another room on this floor. It appeared to be arge auditorium, with lines of seats all over the ce. There was also a giant tform in the center.


    Although empty, there were hairline cracks and traces of bloodstains that spoke of how fierce battles here had once been. I arbitrarily took a seat while Sam and Nathan went on opposite sides of the stage.


    Harold held out his hand towards Sam.


    "First hand over your part of the bet."


    Sam looked somewhat surprised.


    "What? Why? I''m not going to lose anyway!"


    Harold sighed with one hand on his forehead.


    "And what happens if you use it and lose the battle? Then you won''t be able to uphold your part of the bet."


    Sam''s eyelid twitched. It seemed that he had nned to actually use that iridescent spell stone to win the match.


    "...Fine."


    Unfortunately, he ended up needing to hand it over before he could use it.


    Raisa had sat next to me and poked my side to get my attention.


    "Hey, does Sam stand a chance of winning?"


    I rubbed my chin for a few moments.


    "Realistically, no. But there is a theoretical way for him to win."


    Arianne, who was also sitting next to me spoke up.


    "Eh? But isn''t his magic and strength both lower than Natan''s?"


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "That''s why you have to find a way to win without using those things. It would be the same thing I would do if I had to win a fight against him no matter what. But I don''t see that happening in this lifetime at least."


    Arianne scratched her cheek.


    "So what would you do?"


    With a smirk, I put a finger up to my lips.


    "It''s a secret."


    The two of them stood there without any sort of weapon. Nathan simply put his finger up.


    "I will give you one chance to surrender."


    After he said that, a five-meter-wide fireball immediately formed above him. Sam kept a smile on his face, but it was rather strained. He seemed to be sweating somewhat.


    "Surrender? Why would I do that?"


    Although he appeared to be shaking in his boots, I could see the mana in his body moving, meaning he wasn''t nning on going down easily. Though, how much that resistance would do was questionable.


    Nathan raised an eyebrow.


    "Suit yourself."


    He threw the fireball at him. Harold looked a tad bit nervous, but was ready to interfere at any time.


    Although that giant fireball was incredibly intimidating, one of its main weaknesses was that it moved really slowly. That was the disadvantage that came from being one of the most basic spells out there.


    Sam immediately sprinted diagonally to the left the moment he saw the fireball descend toward him. He was able to get out of the center radius, but was still going to get caught in the explosion.


    Though, right before the fireball touched the ground, a ratherrge wall of water appeared on his right side. The explosion rushed over to him, vaporizing the water, and went further to singe his clothes.


    However, he was still more or less fine.


    Though he looked a bit disoriented, Sam did not stop running, this time going straight for Nathan. While this was supposed to be a battle of spells, it didn''t necessarily have to be settled that way, considering that mages often would run out of mana, and it would be quite awkward to call that a draw.


    Still, the tform was quite long, meaning that running would take a little while. I guess that''s why Sam decided to wait until Nathan first casted his own spell.


    It appeared that Sam already knew he was no match in terms of spell casting and wanted to bet everything on hand-to-handbat. Honestly, it wasn''t even that bad of a n.


    But...


    Nathan stood still the entire time without flinching. From the way Sam was confidently smiling, it appeared he thought that was because Nathan was afraid. Yet, in just a second, that smile turned into a deep frown.


    Sam had a confused expression on his face.


    He hadn''t even realized that Nathan had suddenly shot forward, and shot an uppercut towards his stomach. Taking advantage of his short stature, Nathan was able to easily hit under the rib cage and squish all of the organs together. More than a hit, it was more like lifting something up.


    It was a hard thing to pull off, but a brutal one if done properly.


    Sam immediately copsed to the ground onto his knees. His head fell downwards, but before it could finish that, Nathan''s knee shot up and mmed into it.


    He shot backward andnded on his back, sprawled on the floor, unconscious.


    It only took a few minutes for that battle, and most of it was just the two of the charging up their spells. Harold rubbed his forehead with frustration.


    "Alright,e get your reward, Natan. I will take Sam to the infirmary and we can then start our lesson."


    Arianne was a bit shocked.


    "T-That happened so fast."


    I scratched the side of my head.


    "He does have a lot of experience in fist fights, so that''s natural I guess."


    Raisa let out a hum and put a finger on her bottom lip.


    "I did hear that being amoner means that you do that kind of thing a lot."


    Arianne looked at her strangely.


    "It does?"


    I cleared my throat awkwardly.


    "Well, he is from the slums."


    Though, just barely on the edge of it, so he basically wasn''t. But that was an unnecessary detail.


    Soon enough, we were all back in ss. Everything was basically normal, except for the fact that one person was now missing. Harold had covered basically all of the single-core spells by now. He gave us a basic overview of them this time and told us that there would be a test tomorrow.


    Normally, hearing those words I would start to freak out and all that. However, the lesson so far was actually pretty easy. I say so far because I knew school was always supposed to start off easy before getting more difficult.


    As such, I wasn''t too worried about the test.


    Math ss came, and by now we were finally starting to learn multiplication and division, though it was still fairly basic. As for English, I''m sure the lessons probably got harder, but I realistically couldn''t see any difference considering I was already fluent.


    Though, gym ss had also be a little different.


    Rae raised her hand high into the air once everyone was here.


    "Alright! You have already learned the fundamentals of fighting with another person. This time, as your first test will be all of you fighting against me at the same time."


    I scratched the side of my head.


    "So basically we win if we defeat you?"


    Rae then shook her head.


    "For the first couple of tests, it will be easier than that. You just have tost for fifteen minutes this time. As long as one person is still standing by the end, then all of you have passed this test."


    Nathan looked at her strangely.


    "Why does it sound like you''re supposed to be some bully in a martial art story?"


    Raeughed when she heard that.


    "You could see it that way, that''s for sure. Now everybody take your weapons. I will begin by standing in the center. All of you can take whatever position you want and have forty minutes to n. If you''re ready earlier, then you can just start a bit sooner."


    To be honest, I kinda forgot about this part of the story.


    Originally, Rae would beat up pretty much everyone easily. The only way to win in the game was to raise trust among everyone and be a leader that everybody would follow after.


    But since Nathan and I were here, I think there was still a chance against her. As for Sam, he was still in the infirmary, but he probably wouldn''t do much anyway.


    I called out to everyone.


    "Since the main goal is just to remain standing for fifteen minutes, I''m pretty sure it would be best to spread out and make sure to dy her for as long as possible. It''s not necessary to actually beat her in the first ce. As long as everyone stalls for a minute, that will be more than enough"


    Realistically speaking, not every person would be able to stall for a full minute, but if the average was that amount, then it would be a win. On paper, that should be feasible.


    Nobody seemed to be against my decision, so they all spread out. Though, there was one person standing next to her, Charlotte. She held both wooden greatswords with a determined expression.


    As for Rae herself, she held onto a wooden sword shaped like a katana. I''m not sure why the teacher decided to use that weapon. From what I''ve heard, katanas were quite noteworthy since the Japanese had only low-quality metals to work with, but with their forging technique were still able to make useable swords. Namely, katanas.


    However, they were realistically weakerpared to other weapons.


    Well, maybe she was going easy on us.


    Rae was holding onto an iridescent crystal. She spoke up.


    "When I throw this thing up, the timer starts. When fifteen minutes are about to be up, it will start falling. If it hits the ground while someone is still standing, that''s your win."


    After saying that, she tossed up the crystal. Charlotte immediately did her usual technique and began wildly swinging her greatswords around. The game itself didn''t describe these scenes in great detail, but I figured that Charlotte should be able to hold her off for a decent while.


    The practicality of swinging those greatswords like that may be questionable, but there''s practically no gap to take advantage of.


    ...Or at least, that''s what I thought.


    Rae suddenly bolted forward, bending her body to the side and weaving in between both greatswords. She mmed her fist into Charlotte''s chest, causing her to shoot backward and end up letting go of both greatswords.


    She didn''t even use her katana.


    Seeing this, everyone in the ss tensed up, seeing how brutal Rae was. It definitely wasn''t a casual test. She didn''t even spend a second waiting and rushed over to someone else. While everyone tried to distance themselves, Rae was still a degree faster. It took only a few seconds to reach her next target, some noble.


    After giving a paltry swing, the noble was immediately knocked unconscious by an elbow to the head.


    This continued for quite a while. Raisa tried to hold her own but was only partway through a swing before falling down. Arianne was too nervous and wasn''t even able to get in a hit before getting knocked out.


    The teacher had no mercy whatsoever.


    And then, she made her way over to thest two people standing. Nathan and me.


    Oh yeah, about one minute had passed at this point.

 Chapter 100 Lecture

    100 Lecture


    "This is quite the situation, isn''t it?"


    I said that with a bitter smile on my face. Nathan narrowed his eyes and sucked in a cold breath as well.


    "I never thought that it would actually be this hard."


    Nathan stood a few steps behind me and held onto his spear a little tighter. Rae instantly turned to us after finishing off thest one that wasn''t us. Her face was expressionless, showing how much focus she was putting in. For some reason, despite being very likely able to win this easily, she showed absolutely no mercy.


    To be honest, it seemed like Rae''s physical feats were almost unrealistic, to the point of beingpletely unreasonable. And that''s already considering that both of us had pretty sturdy bodies.


    Honestly, I was getting somewhat of a big head thinking that maybe I would be able tost five minutes myself, while Nathan and I together could tough out ten minutes.


    Right now, I would ept being able to survive for two or so moves.


    Rae bolted towards us, her footsteps heavily thumping against the ground. As I watched her approach, it felt like a god of war itself had descended. From the way she had been fighting this entire time, I felt like this definitely wasn''t Rae''s first time going solo against many.


    But that wasn''t important right now.


    I lowered my stance and tightened my grip around my sword. The goal wasn''t to win but to hold on for two moves.


    When Rae was just five or so meters away, I stepped forward. With how fast she was going, it was only an instant before we were face to face. The first thing she did was bring down her wooden katana down diagonally, I brought up my arm to block and tensed up, preparing it for a blow.


    A loud thud resounded throughout the gymnasium.


    I cringed in pain. That strike was felt by my entire body. I almost believed that my bone itself had cracked. But still, it was enough for me to remain conscious, though it was definitely tempting to copse right there.


    With thest bits of my strength, I lunged with the sword, piercing forth as though I had a spear. Since she was close, I figured it would be harder to dodge. Yet, Rae somehow slid over to the side just barely enough, then caught my sword in between her arm and body.


    My eyes widened in shock.


    But still, Nathan was behind me. Right when Rae hadmitted using both arms, one to swing, and the other to catch my sword, was when he lunged forth, cing his knee against my back to go over me.


    As his spear shot forth, I internally thought it wasn''t bad to get at least one hit in.


    Yet, Rae simply grabbed the spear while my sword was still caught. Then, she let out a grunt as she bent backward while pulling up both of us. Both Nathan and I were conditioned to never let go of our weapons during a fight.


    And as such, both of us were lifted straight up into the air.


    Damn. I guess Rae lifts.


    While both of us were still in the air, she suddenly let go. For a brief moment, I saw her fist shoot out toward me. All I could think of in my head was that''s not goo-


    ...


    While still feeling a little dazed, I eventually woke up. After regaining my bearings for a bit, I got up and made sense of my surroundings. The ceiling was white, along with many beds lined up, all of which had curtains that could separate everyone, but right now they were drawn back.


    This was the infirmary.


    Along with me, every other student was sitting up in their beds. It seemed they had all woken up a bit earlier than me, but still seemed a bit dazed in their own right. Standing near the middle was Rae. She had her arms crossed and a strict expression.


    There was no more trace of that battle god that absolutely destroyed everybody within two or so minutes.


    It almost made one question whether or not pursuing magic was worth it in the first ce if something like that was possible.


    Rae looked at me for a little while. After confirming I was conscious, she rose her hand and drew attention to herself.


    "Alright, now that everyone''s awake, I will give myst few words to end off the test. From what I''ve seen, the majority of you are clearly not taking my lessons seriously, opting to half-heartedly go through them. Sure, it may not be as interesting as magic to you, but I''ll have you know that your physique matters more than you would think despite being a mage."


    She let out a soft sigh.


    "I''ll let all of you know right now that I am a mage. Having the physique that I do has let me seed in being a far stronger than usual one. In all honesty, I highly doubted that you lot would''ve been able to pass the test that I had set. In reality, it was more for the sake of a wake-up call so that some of you out there will stop cking. You know who you are."


    Rae suddenly dropped her strict tone before smiling brightly.


    "As for certain people, I''m quite proud of the progress that you''ve made. There are currently two people I''m thinking of giving my nomination to, but who they are will be kept a secret."


    Nominations were rted to promoting a higher ss. The short of it was that they were pretty important and that everyone was trying to get one of them. She winked before waving.


    "Ok, I''ve said what I wanted to say. ss is dismissed. You can go home now if you want to, or if you need to spend a little more time resting, you can do exactly that."


    I rubbed the side of my head and regained my bearings somewhat. Unfortunately, it seemed that there was still quite a ways to go in training my body. Now that I think about it, I''ve been neglecting that quite a bit.


    Maybe I should start running to school as well.


    Hm. Bryson has probably spent quite a lot of time training his body each and every day as well. It would be too much of a waste if I stopped doing that kind of exercise now.


    With those thoughts in my mind, I got up and left the infirmary. Nathan had already left while I was thinking. Still feeling a bit of a headache, I held onto the side of my head as I went down the stairs.


    As I went down them, I heard someone yelp.


    "A-Ah! It''s you?"


    It sounded very familiar, prompting me to turn to look.


    And I saw Minori. She was staring at me with aplicated expression. After staring at me for a few more moments, it seemed that she couldn''t stand it anymore. While covering her face, she ran away.


    While doing so, she tripped on the stairs and collided with a few innocent bystanders. After tumbling down with them, she got back up and left without even apologizing to them.


    The few who were knocked over rubbed their sides painfully and looked around with a confused expressions.


    "Was that girl hitting on me?"


    "No, I don''t think that expression is that literal."


    I walked on past them while they were having a strange conversation. I rubbed my chin in thought for a little while. Was it a good thing that she ran away desperately the moment she saw me?


    ...Hm. To be honest, it''s quite hard to see that as a good thing. Especially because of how much it pains my heart. It seems that I came on too strongly by saying she was beautiful. I suppose a better approach would''ve been to take things a bit slower.


    Welp, I guess I''ll just have to make do.


    On the carriage ride back, I meditated while focusing on trying to dual cast the same spell at the same time. Of course, I never actually cast it fully for the sake of the condition of the carriage, but I was still learning fine.


    If I had to say, working on meditating for this long has brought quite decent results, since I''m It looked like she had something to say.


    15:41


    Well, I guess it was too good to be true that someone would actually end up trusting me and sit down, basically meditating while doing almost anything that doesn''t require a high level of concentration.


    Most of my time was spent doing it normally, but by now, I was fairly confident in being able to cast two fireballs with decent size within two or so minutes. However, when it came to doing two different spells at once, I was actually not in the slightest confident at all.


    Frankly, splitting the focus like that was probably not what the human brain was intended to do. But at the same time, it''s not like the human brain was intended to discover and learn about calculus, yet that''s still something that became standardized.


    It was probably a stupid idea, but it shows up in anime sometimes. So... maybe I could make it work.


    After settling things there, I took a carriage over to the slums like what I usually did, and on the way there I tried to cast both the water and fire spells at the same time. Unfortunately, I wasn''t even able to get started by the time I arrived, as my concentration was broken and both spells fizzled out.


    I let out a soft sigh and helped out the rest of the butlers and maids set everything up. Gray was also there, and while he was a tad bit slow, he was still actually being a help. Considering he was just making a mess previously, this was a pretty significant change.


    Jess had alsoe along, and when I took a seat she took one right next to me. Before the food was finished cooking, Arianne also came along and took the seat next to me. She sheepishly waved.


    "H-Hi Bryson."


    I casually waved back.


    "Hey."


    After that, it was basically silent. Though, I didn''t find it all that awkward. I leaned back in my chair and let out a sigh, thinking that probably nobody would sit here other than people I actually knew.


    Yet, to my surprise, a middle-aged woman came to the table right across from me.


    I sat up and took a look at her. But then, I realized she didn''t have the intention to sit down right away. Instead, she looked at me for a good while.


    It looked like she had something to say.


    Well, I guess it was too good to be true that someone would actually end up trusting me and sit down, huh.


    She''s about to ask to speak with your manager... and her name is Karen.


    Disgrace

 Chapter 101 The Reason

    101 The Reason


    I gave the middle-aged woman a good look and decided to initiate the conversation.


    "It appears that you wish to speak with me?"


    Though a tad bit surprised, the middle-aged woman nodded.


    "Yes, I''m just thinking of how I should phrase this."


    Her voice was a bit coarse, maybe because she was a person that yelled a lot. The woman took another few seconds before taking a deep breath.


    "I do appreciate what you are trying to do for us. It is a charitable gesture that not many others are willing to do. However, you are approaching this wrong."


    I raised an eyebrow and crossed my fingers together.


    "Oh? Why do you think that?"


    A bitter smile formed on the woman''s face.


    "It''s because most people are notfortable sitting along with you. What you have been doing would be far more sessful if you weren''t here, as it intimidates people. I believe you also have better things to do, so this would probably be a benefit to you as well, correct? So long as you make sure that your household is responsible for this charitable act, then there should be no moreplications."


    I nodded a few times before hanging one arm over the back of my chair.


    "I guess that does seem like a good solution from your perspective, right?"


    The middle-aged woman didn''t seem to expect my response but nodded.


    "Yes. Is it different from yours?"


    I took in a deep breath.


    "Yes, it is. Perhaps to you and everyone else around me, the only reason I''m doing this is for the sake of my terrible reputation, correct?"


    The woman was flustered as she hurriedly waved her hands in front of her.


    "No, no, it''s nothing like that at all! Your generosity ismendable. After all, why would you go all the way out here and waste your valuable time if it was just for your reputation?"


    I rolled my eyes and leaned back in my seat.


    "For starters, the main reason I even came here in the first ce wasn''t for the sake of my reputation, or for the sake of a charitable act. If you just thought about it for a moment, while I have assets, they are not enough to provide for every singlemon person."


    My eyes narrowed ever so slightly.


    "While I can do a certain amount with money alone, it will still not fix any of the root problems. Now, can you think of why I am here?"


    The woman only stared back at me with confusion. Although this was expected, I still felt a tad bit disappointed. I sat up in my chair and rubbed my temple with my knuckle.


    "Although we may not always notice it, when you sit down with another person to have a meal demands a certain amount of respect. Few people would want to eat their meal at the same table as an animal, and simrly so with someone they don''t wish to talk to. The reason I came here was to give anyone the chance to sit down to talk."


    I held out one hand.


    "Ie here for the purpose of seeing each other as equals. Not for status. And that is something that I expect to go both ways. I will not definite someone by the fact that they are amoner, but that also means when I am here, I do not wish to be defined as a noble. If they are unable to do that, then I do not want them to be sitting here."


    Arianne flinched and looked at me nervously.


    "E-Eh? That''s how it was? I-I''m sorry I didn''t do it properly!"


    I waved my hand dismissively.


    "You don''t have to worry about that. To be frank, you''ve probably been doing too good of a job."


    Arianne tilted her head to the side in confusion.


    "Hm? But I didn''t know any of the rules before."


    I poked her in the forehead, causing her to cry out with a bit of indignance. Then, I let out a smallugh.


    "You''ve already been doing it instinctively, so there''s no need to worry about that. Just keep doing what you have been."


    She scratched her cheek before muttering weakly.


    "Ok..."


    When I turned back, I realized that the middle-ageddy had already disappeared.


    ...Hm. It looks like this n really was a shitty one. Only people I personally know are willing to sit down.


    After the food was prepared, another person sat down, but that was just Gray. After sitting down, he shot me a smile.


    "Thank you for the food, good person!"


    Arianne hurriedly followed his example.


    "A-Ah, yes, thank you!"


    A small smile formed on my lips.


    "Yeah, no problem."


    I guess it wasn''t apletely terrible n.


    ...


    Before I knew it, an entire week had passed. The daily routine was more or less the same, but I would also ssh in a basic physical workout of pushups, situps, and running. I also practiced swinging the sword a bunch, but I definitely didn''t know what I was doing, so I just ended up shing the air the entire time.


    Still, I was getting a better feel for it.


    As a side note, the book still hadn''t talked to me this entire time. It seemed whatever he was thinking about was something really deep. Also, the real Bryson still hasn''t talked to me since. I was getting a bit concerned, but there wasn''t exactly a known way to go about waking up the second person inhabiting your body, so I wasn''t able to do much.


    As for the whole going to the slums and serving food there was not going well, as always. However, Nathan''s business of using Edward was going really well. He sent some free stuff over to me asionally too.


    There were still nobles wanting to get in on the pie, but that had mostly died down. As for the farmers that were raising cattle and the like, some would especially visit Nathan just to encourage him and thank him. It seemed that the prices for such things had raised dramatically and those people were fairly well off now.


    Although there were still other issues that Nathan and I were nning to tackle, we had agreed that both of us were still just a tad bit too weak to handle them effectively. As such, both of us ended up just ying it cool and doing our own thing most of the time.


    Apparently, Nathan was just a few steps away from collecting a few key items to trade in the ck market. As for its location itself, I was eventually able to get a precise location by first getting my own map and bringing it to Raisa to mark.


    I had to even exin what various different portions of the map corresponded to. To be honest, I was actually surprised that Raisa had this much difficulty when she seemed to be doing fine with her studies.


    Though I haven''t confirmed it personally myself yet, the chances of this being the actual ck market were far better.


    There was also the training that I did with Raisa where I attempted to manipte her mana against her will. The process involved would definitely look suspicious to an outsider, which also probably caused strange rumors among the servants of her household. But that wasn''t my problem... kinda.


    Anyways, right now it was the weekend, so there wasn''t too much to do. I still had a few of the iridescent crystals from the magical beast we killed not too long ago. There was a thought that had popped into my mind while trying to manipte Raisa''s mana that I wanted to test out.


    Admittedly, there was part of me that knew Harold would definitely admonish me for trying something like this, which was why I had no ns to consult him for advice.


    The idea was to try and attune the mana in the crystals to be the same as mine, meaning I would be able to add it to my own and artificially increase my mana capacity.


    This came up while trying to manipte Raisa''s mana because of the fact she was also considerably improving in her own mana control. It meant that the body knew intuitively how to control mana properly, and by copying it, Raisa was able to improve her own control.


    So wouldn''t that also mean the body instinctively knows how to attune mana? If I was able to replicate it but do the same thing from outside, then I would be able to use iridescent crystals and stones without them being engraved. On top of that, there would be no mana confliction, thus allowing me tobine the mana from multiple crystals to make one giant spell.


    It was definitely good in theory, but how to go about it was definitely not something I was sure about.


    Regardless, I was going to try.


    A few small iridescent crystals were spread out in front of me on a table. I ced my hand on them and tried to manipte the mana within them. There was a surprising amount of resistance for something that was an inanimate object, but it was definitely lesspared to when I tried with Raisa.


    With a bit of concentration, I was just barely able to extract the mana from within one of the crystals, only possible because of the training that I had with Raisa.


    From there, without knowing what else to do, I tried to forcibly put that mana into my own body, from the hand.


    It traversed through the fingers without too much difficulty, though it felt like the mana was resisting mine. However, when it ended up reaching the palm, I suddenly felt an extremely strong resistance, almost like my body just couldn''t take the stranger invading.


    The back of my hand suddenly burst, spraying out blood. I cringed in pain, as the feeling of my skin tearing apart like that was not exactly what I would call pleasant.


    I took a few deep breaths and reexamined my injury.


    It looked quite ghastly, almost like I had partially turned into a monster. Bits of bone were peeking out from where my knuckles should be, and the fleshy red also looked quite unpleasant.


    But all things considered, it was a light injury. Nothing overly important was damaged, and it should heal somewhat soon. After confirming that, I decided to try again.


    The crystal I originally used was recharging, so I moved on to another one. This time, I only took a small amount of mana, not enough to even cast the most basic of spells. Doing the same process, I made it forcibly enter my body. There was still resistance, and it also amplified the pain I was feeling from the back of my palm, but I ignored all of that.


    Nothing happened immediately. In fact, even after ten or so minutes nothing really changed.


    But I was patient. And after an hour, it was fully attuned to my own mana.


    That''s mananapping. You know, like kidnapping, but mana. Anyway, the point is Brian is evil!

 Chapter 102 The Path Less Traveled

    102 The Path Less Traveled


    I remained there for quite a while, taking in the fact that I had actually seeded in attuning mana.


    Granted, it wasn''t exactly the biggest of sesses because the amount was incredibly small, and had no practical use inbat. However, it was still a step forward. The biggest limitation I was facing right now was the fact that I can only attune so much mana at once without destroying my body in the process.


    But this was fine for now because I simply wished to find out the process that the body used to attune mana. Clearly, there was one since ambient mana would gradually be processed from the body to be usable.


    If I find a way to also consciously perform such an action, then I may be able to ovee the natural mana regeneration limits. Though, that was easier said than done.


    I began working at it again, extracting a small amount of mana and letting it gradually attune to be part of mine. Although it didn''t sound that strenuous, it was actually quite taxing for me as I was trying my best to concentrate on the process itself, attempting to learn how to replicate it.


    If I had topare it to something, it was like trying to learn how to consciously control every beat of my heart. Although it didn''t seempletely impossible, it also was a far reach.


    The biggest problem I found was that the pain in my torn-up hand was disrupting my concentration, making it hard to truly focus on what was happening. It wasn''t too big of a deal to suppress one''s outward reactions to pain, but regardless of that, the pain is still there.


    After a couple more attempts without much progress, I decided to try and extract mana into my other hand, the right one. Yet, while I only did a little bit of mana, the same amount as before, a small red bubble suddenly formed on that hand and burst as well.


    I sucked in a cold breath. It didn''t hurt nearly as much as the entire back of my hand exploding, but it still felt like a pinch that was magnified several times over.


    ...Damn. It looks like while there is skin on my body, it''s too difficult to maintain mana that isn''t attuned to mine. Instead, it is just forcibly repelled and destroys my skin in the process.


    In other words, I could only practice this type of thing while there was an open wound on my body.


    A small sigh escaped me.


    Normal people would probably stop here. Well, I guess normal people probably wouldn''t be doing what I am in the first ce. However, I''ve always been a bitcking when it came to my direct ability. However, that didn''t stop me from trying to get on the main ying field and I found ways to do so. In other words, I had to find ways to circumvent that restriction ofck of talent.


    Even after transmigrating, this was still true.


    Of course, starting at ss A and as a noble meant I had a huge edge over the grand majority of people in the kingdom, but those weren''t the people I cared about beating. I had to fight those at the top.


    Even with Nathan''s help, I''m not sure if we would be able to take them on, meaning I had to be as prepared as possible. I''m sure he was also doing his own preparations.


    As such, I was willing to go very far for the sake of being stronger.


    I fully intended on recing as many parts of my body with iridescent stones or crystals if it came down to it. A person only needs about half of their small intestine to survive and therge intestine is also optional, meaning there was quite a bit of breathing room.


    The actual process might be a bit bloody, but the results are what matters.


    In all honesty, I didn''t want it toe down to that since there would be quite a few health issues, not limited to sicknesses that happen just by having too many iridescent crystals within one''s body.


    They were pretty nasty as well, but that didn''t matter too much right now.


    After taking a deep breath, I began practicing slowly injecting mana into my wounded left hand and tried to catch the process of attuning.


    Hours ended up passing by while I just cooped up in my room. The rate that I was extracting mana was slower than the rate the crystals refilled themselves, so there was no worry about not having enough to practice from. asionally, I would cast a basic fire spell and gradually let it dissipate just to let more mana enter my body.


    There were a few concerns I was beginning to have, one of them being the flesh on the back of my hand continued to grow redder as I practiced, and the pain slowly started to increase. It appeared that my body was telling me that this was a bad idea, increasing its protests over time.


    However, I just ignored it. Sacrifices and the like are only natural when attempting to do something like this. I''ll just suffer the consequencester.


    The first thing I ended up finding out after observing it many times over, was that most of the mana I was trying to attune wasn''t actually being attuned, but rather just being ejected from my body.


    It appeared that not having skin made that process happen without injury, as the skin was preventing that ejection.


    However, there was still a tiny portion that actually was attuned. The only issue was how incredibly small the amount was made it hard to actually notice the process since most of it was actually just ejecting it away.


    But the important point was that the rate of attuning went uppared to the normal process, making it noticeable.


    Yet, if I was telling the truth, I got almost nothing despite investing hours into this. And to be honest, this much was expected from me. I remember quite a few times in school, there would be those poems, and in them was the metaphor of, ''The Path Less Traveled''.


    Basically, it just meant not following the crowd, doing what everybody else was doing. In a more literal sense, it was usually referring to not falling into the trap of going through high school, then going to a post-secondary, then trying to find a job like everyone else.


    I remember the teachers showing it off, tooting how inspiration it was, despite the fact that they hardly ever went off this path less traveled themselves. At the time, the strong sense of irony made me just think that path was a bunch of bullshit.


    Yet, here I was taking that very same path. Instead of trying to replicate how everyone else was casting spells, I decided to try to find something else.


    To be honest, the reason and way I started doing things differently from everyone else were a bit blurry. However, the actual process itself wasn''t.


    While many people will say that you should shoot for the stars and the like, doing something uniquepared to the crowd, there is one thing that many usually do not mention.


    The reason why this path is the less traveled one.


    What it''s like after making it down that path is a dreamy fantasy to many. And sometimes, that isn''t wrong at all. But the problem is actually getting there in the first ce is unrealistic.


    To put it simply, there are many entrepreneurs, but there are countless failed ones. Somewhere there was a statistic that said about a fifth of businesses fail within two years, while about half do after five years.


    The biggest reason for this kind of failure is that working towards these kinds of goals goes against how the human brain is naturally programmed.


    Above all, the human brain''s goal is to protect itself. However, the ways that go about it can actually work against that goal. After failing something several times without making any progress, it bes far harder to continue at it.


    This wasn''t as simple as being discouraged. Instinctively, the brain will try to push one away from those kinds of things. Oveing that instinct is far more difficult than one could imagine.


    To continuously fail over and over again, yet still keep trying is not something many people can do. The definition of insanity itself is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.


    Yet, there are people out there that do that kind of thing.


    And in reality, calling them insane isn''t even that wrong. There are certainly those that luck out ande to sess early. But many times, that sess doesn''tst very long.


    The difference between long-term sess and short-term sesses down to whether or not the person has an incredibly strong obsession with working at it. An obsession so strong, that it can easily be ssified as a mental illness.


    And only with that obsession, can anythinge out of it.


    In summary, the path less traveled only wees those that are crazy. The ones that were going to gamble for a miracle to happen.


    And I too was one of those crazy people. The kind of person that gambles on a miracle.


    That''s why I continued to extract small amounts of mana and focus on the tiny amount that was attuned through the pain, stopping for nothing.


    "Um, Bryson, it''s time for dinner."


    Ah. Well, almost nothing I guess.


    Tasty food is too important to be ignored.


    Disgrace

 Chapter 103 An Issue

    103 An Issue


    After being called to head over to dinner, I immediately noticed a fairly big problem. Having a hand with a giant open bleeding wound was bound to give rise to questions. I should''ve seen this sooner, but I hadn''t really thought about it at the moment.


    Although the questions themselves weren''t the biggest deal, attracting too much attention would be bad for now. In reality, the wound was actually fairly shallow, it just looked pretty bad.


    If I had to say, this wound would probably heal within a week or so.


    I looked around the room, sifting through the various things inside. Eventually, I was able to find a pair of gloves.


    "Hm. This will be convenient."


    After getting a random cloth to wrap around my left hand, I put on both gloves and headed down. There weren''t that many chefs, and the amount of food served was smaller than normal.


    As though embarrassed by this, one of the chefs bowed to me and apologized, but I reassured him it was fine. It was to be expected though, as most of them had gone out to the slums on their own, Gray included.


    It was just because I wanted to reserve the weekends and spend time doing my own thing. As such, I basically decided to not go on weekends, but go on weekdays if there was no other scheduling conflict.


    Jess had also shown up and didn''t say much at all to me.


    The meal itself was uneventful. Soon enough, I ended up going back to my practice. It was only when Jess ended up calling out to me, telling me it was time to take a bath. This was one of the initial concerns I had, Jess seeing my injured body and freaking out because of it.


    Though it shouldn''t be too big of a deal, I guess.


    Before I could protest, Jess had already begun taking off my clothes. Naturally, it drew her attention when she saw my bloodied hands. With widened eyes, her gaze snapped from my hands to my face.


    "What happened to you?"


    I blinked a few times.


    "I was trying to learn magic, and this ended up happening. The wound is quite shallow, so it isn''t as bad as it looks."


    Jess stared at me for a long while.


    "Don''t do it again."


    I put on a slightly sad expression.


    "But... if I''m not strong enough, then how will I be able to protect us?"


    Jess only flinched slightly, but that was enough for me to see that she was kind of blown away.


    "Protect us? What are you talking about?"


    A small smile formed on my face.


    "Don''t you understand? There are many powerful people around us, Sister. If there''s nobody strong enough to deter them, then how can we stop them from taking advantage of us?"


    Jess'' attitude had softened after that, wrapping two arms around my torso.


    "Oh brother, don''t worry. There arews in ce to stop them from doing something like that."


    18:15


    I promptly shook my head.


    "There might bews to punish them, but what''s the point if someone kills you, Sister? In the end, you''ll still be dead."


    Jess froze for a moment, lost in thought. While next to my ear, she whispered softly.


    "That''s right. But don''t worry about it, your Sister will be so strong, the entire kingdom won''t be able to do anything to us, ok?"


    I suppressed my instinctual reaction to shudder, though that left the side of my head painfully tingly. With a small smile, I responded.


    "But Sister, you aren''t that strong right now, so how can I believe you? If you do be strong enough, maybe I''ll stop trying then..."


    Jess hugged me considerably tighter, while her voice got a bit more high-pitched.


    "Brother..."


    She seemed to be on the verge of protesting against it, which honestly made me sweat.


    "Fine. Your Sis will be the strongest in the world."


    Thankfully, it was epted. I knew that outright going against her would immediately make her retaliation more fierce instead of any positive oue, so I turned it into an issue of Jess not being strong enough rather than my own recklessness.


    I only imagined it had a seventy percent chance of working, and it seemed luck was on my side today.


    Jess silently brought me over to the bathroom and began washing my body delicately, making sure to avoid my injured areas, but still getting the skin around them. For a little while, she slowly dripped warm water down my hands, which felt both painful and rxing.


    Blood seeped out and gave the water a copper tint, but it was otherwise fine.


    Afterward, she did the same thing as she would always do. Though, unlike how she normally stayed silent, she muttered something into my ear.


    "Don''t worry, Brother. Your Sister will be strong very soon. It''s only natural as the first heir to the Arden family, the one that became nobility solely through battle prowess alone."


    Huh. That''s an interesting fact. I only ever knew that the Arden family had a decent reputation when it came to fighting. However, I didn''t know that they had be nobility solely from being good at fighting.


    How good would you have to be to be a duke because of that?


    ...It seems that must be one of the reasons why Bryson was so desperate to get stronger. After all, his family was basically famous because of their power.


    My thoughts were suddenly cut off when I felt Jess nuzzling her head against the side of my neck, rubbing it back and forth until I got itchy. I also couldn''t help but notice that the way she was holding me had changed.


    Before, I''d say itmunicated you aren''t allowed to go away from me. Now, it''s something more like don''t be scared, little child.


    Though this definitely meant I was getting far closer to my goal with Jess, I was surprised by how fast it was going. Even if she was quite crazy, there was still enough logic in her if she was able to act more or less normal for quite a while.


    Still, it''s not like I wasining.


    This would make her easier to control.


    ...


    Before I knew it, it ended up bing the start of a new day. After getting ready and heading down, I noticed that there was amotion near the entrance.


    "Um, sir. Please understand that you cannot barge in here, even if you are acquainted with the lord."


    "I need to tell him something as soon as possible."


    I made my way down to see Nathan standing in the middle of a few guards. They were holding their weapons, but not pointing it at him, probably because they knew we were rted in some way.


    I cracked my neck and forcibly blinked a few times to wake myself up.


    "Let him through."


    After waving my handzily I walked to Nathan, who also walked straight to me. I noticed that he had bloodshot eyes and bags underneath them. It seemed he was breaking his back working overtime.


    His overall grimy appearance made him look even more worn out, but that was kinda just something that came from living in the slums a lot.


    Regardless, there was a solemn expression was on his face.


    Considering how urgent Nathan was about this, I figured this was a serious issue. Yet, it seemed he couldn''t find the words for quite a while, just standing there awkwardly. Eventually, his lips parted as he got out the words he wanted to say.


    "I think I fucked up."


    I took in a deep breath as I felt a headacheing on. If he was being like this, then chances are the problem was a pretty big one. While rubbing the side of my head with the base of my palm, I nodded.


    "Alright. Come to my room and we''ll talk about it."


    After making it to my room and sitting down. Nathan began exining the issue to me.


    "I think I ended up starting the Poverty gue early."


    I remained silent for a few seconds.


    "What? How the hell did you do that? Isn''t that supposed to only happen like, six months from now?"


    Nathan scratched the side of his head and let out a sigh of frustration.


    "One of the items I needed to exchange on the ck market was a crystallized eye. I was able to find the location of its grave within the first few days, but now that I think about it, the timing of the gue showing upes along with digging up the grave before it happens. I first thought it was a coincidence, but now most people are showing signs of it."


    My eyelid twitched. He was talking about a specific event where the main character can dig up someone''s grave. That option only appears after a certain amount of time, and eventually disappears because someone else ends up digging the grave.


    Timing it with the event that was called Poverty gue, it ended up appearing just a few weeks afterward. Although they didn''t seem rted, it seemed the disease originated from underneath that very grave.


    I took in a deep breath.


    "Whatever, that was bound to happen if that really was the source of the disease, there''s no helping it. Realistically, that''s not something we could''ve known about."


    The reason the event was called Poverty gue, wasn''t because the gue itself was broke or anything. Instead, it was because this disease mostly only affectedmoners. While the disease was rampant, rapidly spreading to every single person in the entire kingdom, the disease itself could be fought off just with the body''s immune system.


    The only problem was that it would take a lot of energy, meaning that if one did not eat well, their body wouldn''t be able to keep up and they would die.


    If we didn''t want countless people to die, then we had to figure out a n right now.

 Chapter 104 Poverty Plague

    104 Poverty gue


    While the situation was obviously urgent, both Nathan and I just ended up sitting and looking at each other. Though, it''s not like we had anything else to do, because we had to think of a solution.


    The ironic thing about the Poverty gue was that if everyone was living fairly, then the fact that this disease even existed in the first ce might be unknown. In fact, if it was taken to the modern world, there would probably be many people that would want to contract the disease so that they could lose weight.


    Because really, that''s all that it did. In the modern world, it was less of a threat than themon cold. Yet, here, many would end up starving to death.


    The rather unfortunate thing about this was that regardless of the choice you made in the game, there would still be at least about one thousand or so deaths. And if you didn''t make several different choices beforehand, half of themoner poption would end up dead.


    There was also a decently high chance that Minori would die this way too, but I wasn''t too worried about it since all I had to do was get her extra food.


    ...Though Nathan would probably have to arrange that considering her current attitude towards me.


    After rubbing my forehead for a little while, I spoke up.


    "To be frank, the n that I was trying before didn''t work for jack, so that definitely won''t help at all. As for Bernie, even he wouldn''t be able to mitigate everything, especially considering that it''s a little toote now to grow stuff."


    I clicked my tongue.


    "But at the very least he came to me before to apologize, so maybe it won''t take too long for him to develop that magic spell."


    Nathan sped his hands together and rested his forehead against them.


    "That doesn''t change the problem right in front of us though. How much food have you gotten so far?"


    I blinked a few times. Now that he said that, I remembered telling James to get a bunch of food before. But now, it looked really awkward because of how little of it actually ended up being used for the sake of others.


    I narrowed my eyes and got up from my seat.


    "Hold on, I''ll go check with the guy I told to buy a bunch."


    I made my way to James'' study. He was sitting down working on some documents and was clearly quite surprised by my appearance, but greeted me regardless.


    "Hello, Lord Bryson. School is starting soon, so you should hurry on already. Although I''m sure you know this, Education isn''t something to be neglected."


    I waved my hand dismissively.


    "Yes, I will go soon. But before that, may I ask about the food I told you to buy?"


    A bitter smile formed on James'' face.


    "Ah, of course. We have an incrediblyrge amount of surplus as your method hasn''t worked very well. I''ve already considerably slowed down the amount we are purchasing, so you don''t have to worry about it."


    I put a hand up to stop him.


    "How much do we have right now?"


    James tapped his finger on the table a few times as he looked at me.


    "The entire warehouse reserved for provision is at max capacity."


    I took in a deep breath.


    "Can we dramatically increase the amount we are purchasing for food?"


    James waved his hand with annoyance.


    "I''ve already told you I lowered how much I''ve been purchasing."


    I sighed and cleared my throat.


    "No, I''m telling you to dramatically INCREASE the amount we are buying."


    James was writing something before freezing in ce. The ink gradually spread out as he looked at me as though I was a stranger.


    "Why are you doing this? This is clearly foolish, is it not?"


    Well, I guess it doesn''t hurt to give an exnation.


    "A friend hase to inform me that in due time, there will be many people who will be needing it."


    James narrowed his eyes in disdain.


    "Oh really? And you haven''t questioned it even slightly."


    I shook my head with a solemn expression.


    "In reality, he himself is not certain. However, I am not willing to take chances on this. The reason that he was able to be acquainted with me so easily was that he is capable."


    James pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration before standing up with a sigh.


    "He was the one that barged in earlier, no? If he wants to make use of the Arden family, then I want to hear the words straight from his mouth."


    To be honest, I was a bit slighted that he was suspicious of Nathan. Though at the same time, I understood it was perfectly reasonable for him to do this. In fact, I''d probably be rather shocked if he didn''t do this.


    "Alright, fine. He''s in my room right now."


    I led James over to my room. He had a strict expression on his face, while his hands were behind his back. His demeanor around me was usually fairly strict, but it was still mostly casual. But now, he had suddenly changed as though he wanted to look like the final boss or something.


    Upon entering the room and spotting Nathan, he spoke slowly.


    "I heard you imed that there will be a need for arge amount of food. Under what grounds are you making such statements?"


    Nathan was visibly confused for a moment but got a gist of the situation rather quickly.


    "Yes. While I can''t be certain, I believe I identally released a gue that will cause people to fall to famine far faster than normal."


    James furrowed his brows greatly.


    "Oh? So you''ve fallen to a hallucination and wish to use the Arden family to act upon it? Go home with your delusions, the world doesn''t revolve around you."


    Nathan took in a deep breath.


    "I understand that it is difficult to believe, but please hear me out regardless. I don''t have the connections nor the manpower to do such a thing. If it''s in terms of funds, then I canpensate you."


    Hearing this, James was taken aback for a moment. Butter he clicked his tongue.


    "And how much money do you have? Will you really be able topensate?"


    I cleared my throat a bit, cutting him off.


    "He is the one in charge of the pale meat business in the first ce."


    James was a bit bbergasted. He calmed down after a moment before letting out a sigh.


    "Fine. But you mustpensate for this upfront."


    Nathan nodded then turned to me.


    "Could you take out the funds I''ve given you?"


    I went over and took out the gold coins I had stashed away behind the head of my bed. James looked at me strangely.


    "Isn''t that your own possessions? Why are you taking it out for him?"


    I shook my head.


    "He was the one that had entrusted the majority of his earnings to me. He will asionally send them to me for safekeeping."


    James looked back and forth between the two of us.


    "...It seems you two have quite a lot of trust for each other."


    I shrugged my shoulders.


    "Sometimes things just happen that way."


    After looking between us for quite a while, he sighed.


    "Fine. I will use the funds from the Arden family. But how can you be so sure about the gue that is spreading?"


    I decided that I should step in here instead so that it would be more believable.


    own."


    15:30


    "I''ve heard before that there was an old disease that was fairly harmless in the past. It would make one feel abnormally fatigued, but give them lots of energy. But the defining trait is one''s body starts to release an abnormal amount of heat."


    James raised an eyebrow, not getting what I was trying to say. I pointed at Nathan.


    "Try to touch his skin."


    James walked over and tried his best to touch as little of him as possible. But still, he let out a small gasp.


    "This... is not normal."


    I cleared my throat.


    "The actual disease itself isn''t actually lethal, as it just makes one more hungry, needing more energy to maintain their normal functions. After maybe a week of experiencing it, one is supposed to be immune to it altogether. However, the problem is that most people won''t have that extra food needed in order to survive."


    James thought for a moment before giving a small nod.


    "I suppose that is reasonable."


    He took in a deep breath.


    "Alright, just go to school now. If you wait any longer, you might bete. I''ll handle the rest on my own."


    Right after saying that, he let out a long sigh while holding a hand to the side of his head. It seemed that he was already overworked as it was.


    ...Well, that''s not my problem I guess.


    Nathan cleared his throat awkwardly.


    "Also, do you mind if I have something to eat?"


    James looked mildly offended at first but seemed to remember the reason why that was happening.


    "Fine, go ahead."


    Nathan got a prettyrge piece of bread and got on the carriage with me and Jess. He voraciously ate the bread, making him really look like a beggar. Jess didn''t seem to mind at all, despite the fact that most nobles probably would.


    Once we got to school, I could already see that other people had simr symptoms to Nathan. They were holding onto their stomachs as though they were in pain. Seeing this, I sighed.


    "It looks like it''s already spreading."


    Eh, you guys are overreacting man.


    Disgrace

 Chapter 105 Connections

    105 Connections


    The symptoms of the disease itself weren''t all that obvious, but it was still enough for us to tell that a good amount of themoners had already been infected not too long ago. It seemed that they were going to kick up somewhat.


    Nathan narrowed his eyes.


    "It shouldn''t be thergest issue since you can provide arge amount of food, right?"


    I scratched the side of my head.


    "Well, I''m not sure if I can feed every single person in the kingdom. That would probably be too much."


    Nathan clicked his tongue.


    "Maybe we can get more people in on this."


    I turned to him as a thought formed in my mind.


    "What if you added an additional condition to purchase that pale meat you have? Like, forcing them to donate a bit of food to people or something."


    Nathan immediately shook his head upon hearing my suggestion.


    "To be honest, there is already quite a bit of tension between the royalty and me. If I make any more demands, I''m pretty sure that might strain it too much for some people."


    I pursed my lips together and sighed.


    "Well, whatever. It can''t possibly be that bad. At most, some people will die. This was bound to happen anyway."


    Nathan calmed down a bit and nodded.


    "Yeah, I guess so."


    Once we made it to ss, everyone seemed a bit stressed. With the condition that some of themoners were in, they looked like this was theirst day on the earth.


    But that was more just because of the disease.


    Speaking of, we had a test not too long ago and today was when the results were being announced. If I''m being honest, I didn''t do all that well since there were questions I felt a bit iffy on.


    That''s kinda to be expected since I had not even studied for a breath.


    Regardless, Harold was starting to list off the rankings out loud.


    "In first ce... there are three people tied. Natan, Raisa, and Cheryl."


    Raisa seemed quite excited, while Nathan didn''t seem to care even slightly. As for Cheryl... well, who cares about her.


    I raised an eyebrow. It looked like there were quite a few top scorers.


    "In fourth ce is ."


    She ended up biting the bottom of her lip. Though her score wasn''t bad, it seemed she made a small mistake that brought her down from first to fourth.


    "In fifth ce is Arianne."


    Arianne put one hand on her chest and let out a sigh of relief.


    "In sixth ce is Charlotte."


    She had her lips pursed, but that was because she was trying to hide her happiness more than anything else.


    "In seventh ce is Bryson."


    I raised an eyebrow. In all honesty, I did better than I thought I would. It seems I got a bit lucky with the answers.


    "In eighteenth ce is Sam."


    Sam himself clenched his fist tightly, grimacing as though in a lot of pain. The results clearly upset him, however, he no longer made a scene. Once bitten twice shy, I guess. Speaking of results, I''m pretty sure it was only a few more days before the results of the ss promotion were announced.


    It happens once every month, and with my results so far there was basically no chance that I would get promoted.


    In the original story, I think it was just some random people that promoted from ss D and ss C to higher levels, but other than that there wasn''t anybody able to make that step.


    The sses went by pretty quickly. As for lunchtime, we had the usual group all sitting together. It did not take long for everyone to finish their food. Although it wasn''t very noticeable, my appetite had also increased by a bit.


    It was very noticeable that both Nathan and Arianne were rather desperate to eat more.


    After Arianne had finished her own meal, she began fidgeting around awkwardly. I stared at her for a while and spoke up.


    "If you''re still hungry, just get some more food."


    Arianne jumped up in shock, as though not expecting anybody to notice her strange actions.


    "Wh-What? Um... I already finished eating. It would be improper to get any more."


    I then looked her in the eyes.


    "If you feel hungry, then just get more to eat. An attitude like that is going to get you killed in one of the stupidest ways possible."


    Arianne blushed and looked away.


    "But... we are only permitted to have one of the free meals. Afterward, we would have to buy them."


    Raisa tilted her head to the side.


    "Then I can just buy one for you. It''s not a very big deal to me."


    Charlotte gave another nod.


    "Of course! I can too. If you are poor, then you just have to rely on someone who has the funds to support you."


    She then proceeded to peek at Nathan from the corner of her eye, seemingly trying to imply that he should rely on her. Though it was only stealthy in the eyes of a child, as it was quite conspicuous to everyone else at the table.


    Arianne only blushed harder with everyone''s words while keeping her head down.


    "But... I couldn''t possibly ask of so much from you."


    Raisa looked at her strangely.


    "Did you forget that I''m the daughter of an archduke?"


    A smile appeared on her face as she brought one hand closer to her chest.


    "Something like this is nothing."


    15:32


    She proceeded to wave over a waiter and ordered some more for them. Nathan himself had actually already gotten some extra food using his own money. Arianne had a hard time looking at everyone else at the table, but a small smile had formed on her face.


    "Th-Thank you."


    Although it had only been three or so weeks, this was how the atmosphere with everyone had changed to be. It kinda looked like this was actually a group of friends that had known each other for a year or so.


    After the waiter left, I spoke up to Raisa, thinking that she could help out in our predicament.


    "Speaking of, daughter of an archduke."


    Raisa turned flustered when I spoke to her that way, but tried to keep herposure.


    "A-Ah, there''s no need to refer to me in that way."


    A small smile formed on my face.


    "Fine, fine. Raisa, would you mind helping me with a little problem?"


    Raisa looked at me curiously.


    "Eh? What is the problem?"


    I took in a deep breath.


    "In summary, there''s a disease spreading around very quickly that makes the body use more energy than it''s supposed to. Other than making a person eat more, it''s rtively harmless. However, if they don''t end up eating enough, then they will starve to death. Most of themoners probably aren''t prepared for this, so I''m asking if you could help in providing food for them."


    Raisa seemed to be in a bit of a trance but hurriedly nodded.


    "Ah, of course! I can do that easily."


    Arianne''s eyes widened.


    "What? Do I have that?"


    Nathan let out a small sigh.


    "Yeah, probably. I have it too, though it''s progressed a little further than yours."


    Charlotte practically jumped out of her seat upon hearing that.


    "A-Ah? Will you be ok?"


    Unlike a normal person that would want to get away from someone that was sick, she actually opted to get closer in concern. As for Nathan, he simply rolled his eyes.


    "Did you not hear what he just said? It''s harmless as long as I have enough to eat."


    Charlotte still didn''t stop panicking and fished out a few coins from her purse and handed it out to him awkwardly.


    "W-Well, it can''t be helped then! I''ll give you a bit of money to buy food."


    Nathan only stared back at her with a deadpan expression.


    "I already have enough money. Didn''t you see me paying for myself earlier? More importantly, you should be doing something to help other people that can''t afford food. The sickness has practically already spread to every single person."


    While they were still having their strange argument, I cleared my throat and spoke to Raisa.


    "By the way, make sure that you try to get food from out of the kingdom, as buying the food from the farmers and giving it back to them doesn''t really do much."


    Raisa hurriedly nodded.


    "Ah, ok!"


    Hm. Well, it seems that the issue won''t be such a big deal after all. Unlike the original story, we were able to use the power of money to forcibly solve the issue of the gue.


    While I wasn''t sure if what I had was enough, James said he would use the family funds, which were surelyrger than my allowance. On top of that, Raisa and Charlotte were both going to pitch in as well.


    I sent a smirk toward Nathan. After a little while, he sent me a bitter smile back.


    It was too early to say, but a solution like this almost made it feel like we were cheating. Just using the connections with our friends. It looked like we were just overthinking and worrying for nothing.


    Probably.


    I don''t think I jinxed it.


    ...


    Later on, I figured out what James had done. He basically got a bunch of people to take carriages filled with food and handed it out to people, saying that it was in the name of the Arden family.


    While I was sitting at the table in the slums, I saw one of those carriages pass by.


    Despite people obviously being hungrier than before, nobody new ended up sitting with us. It was only the usual, Arianne, Gray, and a few of the servants.


    Though, before I could sigh in disappointment and pack my things, a middle-aged man came up to the table. From his bloodshot eyes, it seemed like he was also infected by the disease and was hungrier than usual.


    But instead of sitting down, he pointed at me.


    "You... You were the one that made us like this!"


    Huh? The fuck were they talking about now?


    Maybe he wants topliment you or something, you know?


    Disgrace

 Chapter 106 Stump

    106 Stump


    I took a good look at the middle-aged man in front of me, using me of something. He looked like he didn''t really know what he was talking about, but was desperate to me someone.


    ...How does it turn out to be me that everyone''s ming all the time?


    Well, I guess it''s best to figure out what this is all about.


    "And what exactly is it that I did?"


    The middle-aged man clearly hesitated but eventually gathered his resolve.


    "Ever since your family has been handing out that food, there''s... there''s this weird sickness spreading around!"


    I blinked a few times.


    "And that is enough for you to believe that I am the reason for this sickness?"


    The middle-aged man paused before nodding.


    "Y-Yes!"


    I let out a long sigh. Jess, who was sitting next to me, seemed to be on the verge of blowing her top off. It seems like I should step in before that happened


    "Then as an apology, you can sit at this table and eat as much as you want."


    The middle-aged man looked rather confused.


    "B-But..."


    A bitter smile formed on my face.


    "It''s not like you can get sick again when you already are, right? Besides, I''ve already eaten from the same pot. If you think I poisoned the bowls or something you can get your own."


    The middle-aged man scratched the back of his head. I noticed a few onlookers staring at us and whispering amongst themselves. The man himself nodded though.


    "Ok..."


    It looked like he really was that hungry. Though it was a reluctant one, I finally was able to get one more person to sit down.


    After some time passed, Arianne hade along as well. She didn''t say much, other than apologizing when asking for a second serving. As for the middle-aged man, he had ended up finishing his share quickly enough.


    He gave a small bow towards me and sheepishly spoke.


    "...Thank you."


    I waved my hand dismissively.


    "I''m the reason for the problem, right? There''s no reason for you to thank me."


    The man looked back awkwardly, with one arm on his neck. Heughed like he was in pain before nodding.


    "Y-Yeah."


    As he prepared to leave, I called out to him.


    "You cane back tomorrow if you want. I can''t guarantee that I''ll be here, but at the very least there should be some people cooking some stuff."


    The man gave me a curt nod before leaving.


    Arianne looked at me strangely.


    "Eh? What were you talking about? Did you do something to him?"


    I shrugged my shoulders before swiveling some of the soup in my spoon.


    "He used me of being the one spreading the sickness."


    Arianne tilted her head to the side.


    "How would you have done that?"


    I chuckled and held out one hand.


    "Well, it wouldn''t be hard for me to have done it. Though, probably not intentionally."


    I mean, Nathan literally caused it to spread just by opening up some person''s grave. Though, Arianne seemed to only get more confused by my response.


    "Then why did you take responsibility for it? It looked like even the man didn''t think that he believed it was you either..."


    Izily held up a finger.


    "Arianne. One thing that humans like to do a lot is to me other people. Especially if they are different."


    Arianne tilted her head to the side.


    "But isn''t that a stupid way to judge someone?"


    Iughed before leaning forward.


    "If you had to choose between someone to change your clothes, would you prefer it to be a girl or a guy?"


    Arianne immediately blushed before responding rather quickly.


    "G-Girl!"


    I smiled.


    "See? You don''t even know who they are, but you would still judge someone based on their initial traits. Sure, it may not be the most factually correct, but the human brain is programmed to react in that way. To judge things based off of preconceptions in order to get a sense of understanding, even if it is a false one."


    I tapped the table a few times.


    "On top of that, if you can just me someone else for all of your problems, then you yourself won''t have to take any of the me. After all, by passing all the me off, you won''t have a reason to feel bad anymore. And it really is convenient to just put it on those assumptions you made earlier."


    Arianne furrowed her brows.


    "But isn''t that... bad?"


    I gave her a nk look.


    "Maybe. But something people care more about than being right is their pride. Admitting that they are wrong is quite hard for most people, so much so they''d rather destroy their rtionships with other people over asserting how correct they are while knowing they are wrong."


    Arianne seemed partially dazed. It was almost like I just sh banged her with words.


    15:33


    "...B-But, would that hurt your pride then?"


    "Good person doesn''t need anyone to tell him that he is good!"


    Out in the back, Gray had shouted out while carrying something. It appeared a few butlers and maids were trying to exin his job to him, while he was trying his best to act on it. As for me, I couldn''t help but smile a little wider after hearing those words.


    "What he said. I''m a prideful person, which means it doesn''t matter what opinions other people may have. I will still always be proud."


    I kinda felt like I was repeating myself with what I said to Raisa a while before, but whatever I guess.


    Those were definitely words that I stood by.


    Though, it would end up being tested the very next day.


    "He''s the one behind all of it!"


    "My daughter died because of you!"


    "Hang him! Hang him now!"


    ...


    "N-Nathan?"


    "You better make this quick, else I''m not listening."


    Nathan responded harshly to the person asking him a question, which was Minori. Currently, the two of them were walking in the slums. Next to Nathan''s side, was Edward. His eyes seemed to be on the verge of lifelessness as he followed behind silently, almost like he wasn''t even there. He would''ve blended perfectly if it wasn''t for his arm asionally twitching, causing his hand to go into a grasping motion, almost like it was reaching out to get a death grip on something.


    He and Edward were going back to set up their stall where they would sell pale meat. Minori was tagging along to have a chat with Nathan, mostly because this was the only time that he would ever entertain her.


    Just two lines in, she already had the feeling that she was walking on eggshells.


    "I just... I just wanted to know about Bryson."


    Nathan already had a nasty expression on his face, clearly pissed off.


    "This again?"


    Minori flinched and hurriedly coughed.


    "No, no. I just wanted to know something. C-Could you tell me, is he a good person?"


    Nathan sneered disdainfully.


    "Oh, you care now? What happened to the certainty you showed before? You were telling me that he was a bad person with so much confidence. You''re questioning it now? HUH?"


    With every single word, he seemed to get angrier and angrier before snapping at the end, shouting at her. Minori flinched once more, with a miserable expression on her face. Tears had already begun forming, but they hadn''t fallen yet.


    "I''m sorry! I''m sorry! P-Please... just tell me."


    While expecting to be yelled at again, Minori only received silence for a good while. Nathan didn''t say anything for a while, but when he did, he was strangely calm.


    "If I had to say whether he is a good or bad person, then I''d have to say he''s a bad one. But if there was one person I would choose to save out of every single other person in the world, it would be him. And if he ever told me to die, then I''d do it in a heartbeat. Actually, I''d do it faster."


    A small smile formed on his face.


    "But in either case, he would never ask me for something like that, and curse me out for saving him if I ever did."


    Minori furrowed her brows.


    "...Curse you out? For saving him?"


    Nathan let out a small sigh.


    "I owe him more than my life. But still, I''d be a selfish person and choose that he lived, even if he wants to die. And funnily enough, he would probably have the same thoughts about me."


    Minori only furrowed her brows harder.


    "What? I..."


    Nathanughed and waved exaggeratedly.


    "Sorry, I was kinda just talking on my own. You said you wanted to know if he was a good person, right? Then how about instead of hearing it from someone, you go see for yourself."


    Minori didn''t exactly seem satisfied with that answer, but bit her lip and nodded.


    "...A-Alright, Nathan."


    Nathan nodded a few times.


    "Since you didn''t take too much of my time, then I''ll add in something else too. I don''t really understand emotions and those kinds of things too well. But something I do know is that no matter what storms of hate try to blow over that man, he will still be standing up effortlessly. However, that isn''t because he is some massive strong tree. It''s because there''s hardly even a stump left of him."


    He paused for a moment and even stopped walking. With a sad smile, he looked in the distance, where he remembered Bryson''s manor would be. While all he could see were a few run-down houses in front of him, for some reason it still felt as close as ever.


    "Basically, it''s because there''s nothing left to blow over."


    But a couple of termites will fuck him over.


    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and


    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!