I didn't sleep. I hadn't needed to in a long time. The night passed slow, the moon moving across the sky while I sat by the window. The ton of treasure in my shadow pressed down on my bones, but it felt lighter than yesterday. My body was adapting. In a few more days, I could add more weight.
The common room was still dark when I went downstairs. Charmy was already in the kitchen, her cotton sheep floating around her head. She handed me a warm roll without asking.
"Eat. You look thin."
"I'm over two hundred pounds."
"Thin. Eat."
I ate. It was good.
The others came down one by one as the sun came up. Magna first, rubbing his eyes. His sunglasses were taped together again. "Morning. Any news?"
"Nothing yet."
Luck came next, already crackling with energy. He jumped over the back of the couch and landed next to Magna. "I want to fight Ouga later. His lightning resistance is at mid. I need to make it go higher."
"Later," I said. "Still adapting."
"Fine. But soon."
Asta came down the stairs so fast he almost tripped. "DID THE STARS UPDATE?! ARE WE POSITIVE YET?! DID ANYONE CHECK?!"
"No one knows yet," Finral said, walking in with a cup of tea. "The Wizard King sends the updates to the captains directly. It's not like the rankings board in town that changes automatically."
"Then we need to ask Captain Yami! Where is he?!"
"Probably asleep. It's barely dawn."
"WAKE HIM UP!"
"I'm not waking him up. You wake him up."
Asta looked like he was actually considering it. Then he sat down. "Fine. I'll wait. But if he doesn't come down soon, I'm going up there."
Noelle came down the stairs looking perfect as always. Her hair was brushed. Her robe was clean. She sat at the table and Charmy's sheep brought her tea. "You're all too noisy this early."
"We're getting stars today!" Asta said. "That's worth being noisy!"
"We don't know that for sure."
"I know it! I can feel it in my muscles!"
"Muscles don't tell the future."
"Mine do!"
I stayed quiet through the morning. The others ate breakfast. Asta did push-ups. Luck and Magna argued about who would get to fight me first. Finral read a book. Vanessa drank wine and gave Gauche advice about his sister that he absolutely did not ask for. Gordon mumbled in the corner. The usual chaos.
Around noon, Yami's door opened. He walked down the stairs slow, a cigarette burning in his hand. He looked tired but not unhappy. In his other hand was a piece of paper.
Asta saw it first. "CAPTAIN! Is that the star update?! Did we get stars?! How many?! Tell me!"
Yami walked to the center of the room. Everyone gathered around. Even Gordon stopped mumbling. Even Gauche put down his Marie picture.
"The Wizard King sent word this morning," Yami said. "The mission report from the dungeon has been processed. Capturing two Diamond mages. Clearing the dungeon of hostiles. Securing Mars as a cooperative asset." He looked at the paper. "We've been awarded sixty-one merit stars."
Nobody moved. Nobody breathed.
Asta's mouth opened. No sound came out.
"Sixty-one stars," Yami said again. "That brings us from negative thirty to positive thirty-one."
Then Asta exploded.
"POSITIVE THIRTY-ONE?! THIRTY-ONE?! THAT'S SIXTY-ONE MORE THAN YESTERDAY! SIXTY-ONE! THAT'S—THAT'S—I DON'T EVEN HAVE A WORD FOR HOW BIG THAT IS!"
"It's the biggest single increase in Magic Knights history," Finral said. His teacup had fallen on the floor. He didn't notice. "The previous record was twenty-two. We almost tripled it."
"HOW?! How did we get so many?!"
"The S-rank mission," Yami said. "Dungeons are rare. Capturing enemy mages alive is even rarer. The Wizard King called it 'exceptional performance under extreme conditions.'"
Magna sat down hard in a chair. His sunglasses fell off. He didn't pick them up. "Positive thirty-one. We're not the worst squad anymore."
"We're not even close," Vanessa said. She set down her wine glass for the first time all morning. "The Purple Orcas are below us. The Green Mantises are below us. We're only twenty stars behind the Blue Rose Knights now."
"TWENTY STARS!" Asta was running in circles. "We can catch them! We can catch everybody! We're going to be the number one squad in the kingdom!"
"Don't get ahead of yourself," Yami said. "The Golden Dawn still has seventy-something. But this is a start."
"A start?!" Magna finally picked up his sunglasses. "Captain, we've been negative for years. Years. Every time we got close to zero, someone blew something up or poisoned a village or got in a fight with a noble. And now we're positive thirty-one. Just like that."
"Not just like that," Yami said. "You four went into that dungeon and almost died. Luck got beaten half to death by a smoke mage. Asta got thrown through a wall. Ouga got impaled by spikes. Noelle cast her first real combat spell under pressure. You earned every star."
Gordon was crying in the corner. "...positive stars... people won't look at us like garbage anymore... my poison magic didn't ruin everything..."
Charmy's sheep were already cooking. "Feast! We need a feast! Someone get more meat! ALL the meat!"
The celebration went on for hours. Charmy made so much food the table almost broke. Magna and Luck arm-wrestled and knocked over a bookshelf. Gauche showed everyone pictures of Marie and threatened anyone who looked too long. Asta kept reading the star count out loud like he couldn't believe it was real.
"Thirty-one! Positive thirty-one! I'm going to tell Yuno! He's going to be so impressed! Well, he won't show it, but he'll be impressed on the inside!"
"He's not going to care," Noelle said.
"YES HE WILL! He'll do that thing where his mouth twitches! That's Yuno for 'I'm very impressed and also you're my greatest rival!'"
"That's not what it means."
"It means exactly that!"
I stood at the edge of the room and watched. The weight in my shadow pressed down. The wheel turned. Nobody knew what I had given up. Nobody would ever know. That was the deal.
Yami found me after a while. He leaned against the wall next to me and lit a fresh cigarette. "The Wizard King sent a separate message. Private. For me only."
"What did it say?"
"That the Black Bulls have a benefactor who wishes to remain anonymous. That the sixty-one stars were authorized personally by him as a special commendation. That no one is to ask questions about where the extra merit came from." He looked at me. "You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"
"No."
"Didn't think so." He took a drag. "Whatever you did, whatever you gave up... it was stupid. You know that, right?"
"I've been told."
"Good. Because you could have kept that treasure. Bought yourself a noble title. Lived in a mansion. Never had to work again."
"I don't want a mansion. I want my squad to be respected."
Yami was quiet for a moment. "When I first met you, I thought you were a cold-blooded killer. No attachments. No loyalty. Just someone who wanted power and didn't care how he got it."
"I was like that."
"And now?"
"Now I have people I care about. It's inconvenient."
Yami laughed. "Yeah. It is. But it's also what makes you a Magic Knight. Not the robe. Not the grimoire. The people." He pushed off the wall. "Don't tell the others what you did. They'd just feel guilty and try to pay you back."
"I wasn't planning to."
"Good. Keep carrying that weight. Both kinds."
He walked away.
The celebration went late into the night. Asta fell asleep on the couch with a piece of paper clutched in his hand. Magna was slumped in a chair, his cracked sunglasses on his forehead. Luck was curled up near the fireplace.
Noelle found me on the balcony. The stars were out. The castle was quiet.
"You're always out here," she said.
"I like the quiet."
"You like being alone."
"Sometimes."
She stood next to me at the railing. "The captain said the Wizard King called our mission 'exceptional.' He said we earned every star. But you were in that meeting with Julius. You talked to him alone. And then we got sixty-one stars. More than anyone expected."
"The mission was exceptional. We captured two mages. Cleared the dungeon. That's worth stars."
"And the treasure? The nine tons you were carrying? You're only carrying one now."
"I put it in the vault."
"No. I checked. It's not there."
I didn't answer.
"I'm not going to tell anyone," she said. "Whatever you traded, whatever you gave up... it's yours. But I want you to know that I know. And I'm grateful. Even if you won't say it."
"There's nothing to say."
"There's always something to say. You just choose not to." She turned to go inside. "You said you'd protect me until I become invincible. But who protects you?"
"I don't need—"
"Everyone needs protection. Even giants. Even people who can adapt to anything." She walked away before I could respond.
I stayed on the balcony. The stars were bright. The weight pressed down. The secret stayed locked inside me.
Nine tons of gold and jewels and ancient artifacts. Gone. Traded for a number that would make my friends proud. That would make the nobles stop sneering. That would make the other squads stop treating us like a joke.
It was worth it.
Tomorrow would bring new things. The commendation ceremony. The nobles pretending to respect us. The missions that would test us. The enemies still out there.
But tonight, the Black Bulls had positive stars. My squad was happy. My friends were proud.
And that was enough.
(Author note: Sorry guys! I apologise for not uploading for days. I was sick mentally and physically so i had to take a break. Anyway enjoy the chapters from now on!)