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Translator: uly
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: A Week of Training
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[Lucas René Ascanien]
Title: Empire's Greatest Idiot
Stamina: -4.8 (+0.2)
Mental Strength: -9 (+1.0)
Mana: ?
Skill: +0.015
Impression: -10
Luck: -8.985 (+1.0)
Traits: Dawn777, Divine Power
'Mental strength went up by a whole 1?'
It had definitely been -10.
My luck, which had been -9.985, had improved the same way. Considering it had only been rising by 1/1000 at a time, this was tremendous progress.
Stamina had risen by 0.2 as well. Even though there hadn't been a situation to boost stamina, the fact that it had increased suggested some connection to mental strength.
Had just making one friend changed things this much for this guy?
Excluding very early childhood, Leo was essentially his first friend, so it was a highly plausible theory.
'....'
It was too pitiful to watch.
'Hold on.'
There was something else I needed to check around now.
I shifted my gaze, and another window appeared.
[Dawn777]
— Until the final ending 'Chapter X. Death': 767 days, 23 hours, 18 minutes, 01 seconds
— Chance of Change: 5.3% (+5%p)
5.3%.
A 5%p increase just from gaining one ally—satisfactory.
It meant Leo would be that helpful to my survival going forward.
'Hmm, I'm curious. Let's check Leo's status too.'
Come to think of it, until now, I'd had to quickly check affinity before my gaze could shift away, so I hadn't had the leisure to look at status windows.
I stared into Leo's eyes and called up his status window.
Leonard Wittelsbach
Affinity: 0
Title: ?
Stamina: +7.5
Mental Strength: +9
Mana: +7
Skill: +8.5
Impression: +10
Luck: +9.5
Traits: ?
'…These insane stats are a first.'
Affinity jumping from -9 to 0 in an instant—a 9-point rise—was shocking, but… that wasn't the important part right now. Overall, this was better than the status windows of several professors I'd peeked at out of curiosity.
No matter how I thought about it, if someone was going to appear in a novel, they ought to be a character like this.
"What're you doing?"
Leo waved his hand in my dazed field of vision.
"Nothing."
I shook my head, brushing off the slight reality check.
After that, I answered Leo's trivial questions until it was time for the first class to end, then left the infirmary with him. No one was around.
"From here on, don't act like you know me."
"Huh?"
Leo asked with a baffled look.
"If you suddenly start acting friendly toward me, the other kids will think it's weird. If you have something to say, only come find me when no students are around."
Leo stroked his chin at my words, then nodded readily.
"That makes sense. See you then. I'll tell them at home to get the medicine you mentioned, so don't worry."
"Yeah, thanks."
It ended more smoothly than expected.
Given his obsession with magic, I'd thought he'd cling to me as a person too, but him being this straightforward was nice.
Let's keep it ordinary.
'Now, what I need to do is build my skills.'
I had to make up for the 10-year gap starting now.
The problem was that magic was hard to self-study, and since the academy had no personal training grounds, I had to use the communal ones… but I'd already solved that. I'd arranged to spar with Leo.
The academy provided personal training grounds to students who performed well, like Leo.
No need to sign the logbook, no worry about others entering.
Of course, I hadn't asked for spars just for the location.
I'd judged that Leo's movements were the most textbook-perfect, making him worth learning from.
In fact, a skill score of 8.5 put him on par with the professors here.
Across all categories, ordinary people ranged from -1 to 3, while academy students were typically 3-5.
'I wonder how much I can raise mine.'
And so, a week had passed since I started training with Leo.
The results were good. My control had improved rapidly to the point where it was hard to believe I hadn't properly used magic in the past 10 years.
"Nice! At this level, you won't accidentally threaten civilian lives with a mistake."
On the seventh day of training, Leo wiped his sweat and grinned in satisfaction.
Right. The issue with my magic so far had been that it was too strong to control properly.
It was chilling that he could say such a thing with a smile, but Leo's words weren't hyperbole or metaphor—they were fact.
I knew how to output mana weakly, like in class, but sustaining magic at an appropriate level for a long time was still difficult.
I didn't want to see my magic harming anyone no matter what, so I'd responded to Leo's maniacal summons over the past week for that reason too.
'I was a bit taken aback at first… but to face off against my brother, you need at least this much mana.'
A solid foundation like this was satisfying talent.
"Oh, the medicine you mentioned will be a bit delayed. Wait four days, and it'll be here. I'll bring it then."
"Yeah, thanks."
"See you tomorrow."
Leo waved and disappeared.
'Smooth sailing.'
The brief spike in attention at the start of the semester had faded as I completely avoided using magic, and there'd been no contact from my brother.
I called up my status window.
Lucas René Ascanien
Title: Empire's Greatest Idiot
Stamina: -3.8 (+1.0)
Mental Strength: -8.7 (+0.3)
Mana: ?
Skill: +0.515 (+0.5)
Impression: -10
Luck: -7.485 (+1.5)
Traits: Dawn777, Divine Power
Not bad for gains over a week of training.
I stayed in the training ground to practice a bit more, then pulled the pendant from inside my shirt.
It was a teleportation artifact I'd bought with every bit of cash I had on hand. Entering and leaving the training ground could draw eyes, so I'd linked it directly from the dormitory to here.
To prepare for the worst, I'd had it registered under Leo's name.
'Preparation is best when thorough.'
I poured mana into the pendant.
I closed my eyes and opened them to the familiar sight of my dormitory room.
Thud—
"…!"
My core's condition felt off somehow.
The core is structured around the heart, usually tightly connected to it.
But now, for some reason, the core was floating loosely and rattling.
'Did the drugs cause this?'
In the novel, Lucas weakened with age, so it made sense.
I'd expected his core condition to be poor, but I hadn't anticipated a reaction after just a week….
'I need to start thinking about this soon.'
I spread out the calendar.
First off, even though I had the ingredients, the current Leo wasn't the future Leo, so he couldn't convert them into core reinforcer yet.
Thus, I needed to adjust ratios and other conditions based on my novel knowledge.
And even steadily drinking reinforcer wouldn't dramatically improve a body suppressed for 10 years overnight.
I couldn't leisurely wait for my brother to notice whenever he might, so I had to use auxiliary tools to stabilize it even more.
I gazed at the glowing red pendant, lost in thought.
'It'd be good to get one more auxiliary tool like this.'
After reinforcing the core, I could look at others too.
They cost a fortune, but there were tools that let you freely use specific magic without the knowledge.
Such magic tools were supposed to be registered with the imperial family by principle, with limits on maximum per person, but thankfully minors and students were exempt.
They'd be useful if my brother moved faster than expected, so I needed to scout items for contingencies.
I pulled the academy bank transaction ledger from the drawer.
"Hmm."
The withdrawable amount field had a number too big to count at a glance.
Father was the type to provide what he could effortlessly, even to a discarded child.
But….
Of course, I couldn't use this.
Money in my room safe was one thing, but money in the bank vault was absolutely off-limits.
In his first year, Lucas hadn't spent even 1 million imperial currency—excluding food and tuition.
'He stayed holed up in his room, so naturally.'
Useful tools started at least at 500k, and for something really good, at least 1 million.
Withdrawing that much would have my brother flying here instantly—no need to see it to know.
I'd considered withdrawing bit by bit daily, but a guy who hadn't spent 100k in a year suddenly pulling 1 million short-term, split or lump sum, would raise flags.
So, only one option.
Earn it myself.
I spread the newspaper on the desk.
'The protagonist isn't active yet, but around now, rumors should be starting to spread.'
I flipped through from last month's daily bundles to today's paper, then stopped.
'Here it is.'
[Monthly average 6 → 15 cases… 'Magical beast damage' in capital outskirts admin districts up 150%]
An article about rising magical beast damage recently.
In the original story, the protagonist, hiding his imperial status, went around killing beasts himself.
With cases surging this year, the Imperial Magical Security Bureau had started putting bounties on beasts and granting extermination rights to individual mages.
At first glance, it seemed like a feasible response….
But it wasn't yet at the point where they needed to outsource to civilians en masse.
The reason the Bureau delegated 'cleanup' rights to individuals was their judgment that they couldn't waste elite personnel on such trivia.
'That's how the protagonist gets to step in.'
Anyway, two things to note here.
'Bounties on magical beasts with extermination rights to individual mages,' 'protagonist forging his identity.'
Perfect situation.
But with most imperials knowing my name, acting openly would be insane—suicidal.
Which brought attention back to how rotten the Bureau was.
They offered decent bounties per beast, but set local office operating budgets to disastrously low levels.
After maintenance costs, all you got was activity stipend level.
'They never intended to properly hire people to begin with.'
The Bureau absurdly assumed villagers would roll up their sleeves and run the offices for free since it was their village.
So, how things proceeded was obvious.
In the story, the protagonist flashes a forged ID and passes in 10 seconds flat. No holding the ID, no cross-checking registry names.
It stuck in my memory because the protagonist was so dumbfounded.
As a reader back then, not just the protagonist but my own jaw dropped at the processing, but now….
'A fine situation.'
* * *
"Yeah, borrowing the power of tools is smart. What's your budget?"
I arrived at the training ground and shared future plans, and Leo nodded while stroking his chin.
Wondering if he'd make a list himself, he pulled paper and pen from his bag and sat on the training ground floor.
"Haven't fixed it—thinking flexibly based on earnings."
"Flexibly… huh?"
"All my money's in the bank right now, so withdrawing's tricky. That's why I have an idea."
"What're you short on?"
"Didn't say I was short. Anyway, long story short, no cash…. How long do I have to say this out of my own mouth?"
I smiled at Leo.
Leo grinned soullessly, face full of confusion.
'He gets it, but I haven't properly explained yet.'
I pulled a thick stack of papers from my bag and spoke seriously.
"Listen till the end. Of course I have a plan."