[Lucus Rein Astian ]
Title: Empire's Biggest Idiot
Stamina: -4.8 (+0.2)
Mental Strength: -9 (+1.0)
Horsepower: ?
Tech: +0.015
Impression: -10
Luck: -8.985 (+1.0)
Trait: Dawn 777, Divine Power
'Did your mental strength go up by 1?'
It was clearly -10?
The same goes for the luck that was -9.985. It's a huge improvement considering that it used to increase by 1/1000.
Stamina also increased by 0.2. Seeing that the value increased even when there was no situation where stamina should increase, it seemed to be related to mental strength.
Did this guy change like this just because he made a friend?
It was a very plausible inference, since Leon was practically my first friend, except when I was very young.
'… … .'
I feel so sorry that I can't watch it.
'for a moment.'
There's something else we need to check at this point.
As I moved my gaze, a window appeared.
_____________________________________
[Dawn777]
— 767 days, 23 hours, 18 minutes, 01 seconds until the final ending 'Chapter X. Death'
— Chance of change: 5.3% (+5)
_____________________________________
5.3%.
I was satisfied with the 5%p increase I got from making one colleague.
That means Leon will be helpful to my survival in the future.
'Well, I'm curious. Should I take a look at Leon's too?'
Come to think of it, I didn't have time to look at the status screen because I had to quickly check the favorability rating before my gaze fell away.
I looked into Leon's eyes and brought up the status window.
_________________________
Leon Hemsmith
Favorability 0
Title: ?
Stamina: +7.5
Mental Strength: +9
Power: +7
Skill: +8.5
Impression: +10
Luck: +9.5
Characteristic: ?
__________________________________
'… This is the first time I've seen such crazy numbers.'
It was surprising that the favorability rating went up 9 points from -9 to 0 in an instant, but… that wasn't the important part. It was better overall than the status screens of some professors that I had looked at out of curiosity.
No matter how much I think about it, if he was going to be included in the novel, he had to be this kind of character.
"What are you doing?"
Leon waved at my blank vision.
"No, it's nothing."
I shook my head, clearing my mind of the slight dizziness.
After that, I answered Leon's petty questions, and when the first class was about to end, I left the hospital room with Leon. When I looked around, there was no one there.
"From here on out, don't pretend to know anything."
"what?"
Leon asked with a bewildered face.
"If you suddenly become friendly towards me, the kids will look at you strangely. If you have something to say, come to me only when the students aren't looking."
At those words, Leon rubbed his chin and nodded readily.
"That's right. Then, take care. Don't worry, I'll ask you to get the medicine you mentioned at home."
"Okay, thank you."
It ended cooler than I thought.
Looking at the obsession with magic, I thought humans themselves would be slimy, but it's good that they come out like this.
Let's go normally.
'What I need to do now is to improve my skills.'
The ten-year gap must now be filled.
The problem is that magic is hard to learn on your own, and I don't have a private training facility at school, so I have to use the public training facility… But I've already solved it. I've decided to train with Leon.
The school provides private training facilities to students who perform well, like Leon.
There is no need to write your name in the ledger or worry about someone else coming in.
Of course, I didn't ask you to spar just by looking at one location.
The reason I asked Leon was because I thought Leon's movements were the most textbook-like and worth learning.
In fact, a technical score of 8.5 was similar to the level of the professors here.
In all items, the general public usually ranges between -1 and 3, while the students here usually ranged between 3 and 5.
'I wonder how much I can raise.'
So, it's been a week since I started training with Leon.
The effect was good. It was hard to believe that I hadn't been able to use magic properly for the past 10 years, as my control became more refined quickly.
"Okay! At this point, it's safe from accidental civilian deaths."
After completing the 7th day of training, Leon wiped the sweat and smiled with satisfaction.
Yeah. The problem with my magic so far has been that it's too strong and hard to control.
As creepy as it was to say such things while smiling, Leon's words were not a metaphor or an exaggeration, but the truth.
I knew how to use my magic power very weakly like in class, but it was still difficult to use it for a long time at a reasonable level.
I've been responding to Leon's frantic calls for the past week because I never wanted to see anyone hurt by my magic.
'I was a little confused at first… but I need to have this much magical power to deal with my brother.'
It was a satisfactory talent considering the basics were at this level.
"Oh, the medicine you mentioned is a bit delayed. Just wait four days and it will arrive. I'll bring it to you then."
"Okay, thank you."
"See you tomorrow."
Leon waved his hand and disappeared.
'It's going smoothly.'
The interest that had briefly increased at the beginning of the semester gradually died down as I stopped using magic at all, and I haven't heard much from my brother.
I called up the status window.
Lucus Rein Astian
Title: Empire's Biggest Idiot
Stamina: -3.8 (+1.0)
Mental Strength: -8.7 (+0.3)
Horsepower: ?
Skill: +0.515 (+0.5)
Impression: -10
Luck: -7.485 (+1.5)
Trait: Dawn 777, Divine Power
Not bad for a week of training and increased volume.
He stayed in the training grounds and practiced a bit more, then took the pendant out of his shirt.
It was a place-moving artifact that I bought by emptying all my money. It would be bad if I were to be seen going in and out of the training grounds, so I connected it so that I could move straight from the dormitory to here.
Just in case, I also wrote down the buyer's name as Leon and received it.
'It's good to be thoroughly prepared.'
I breathed magic into the pendant.
When I closed my eyes and opened them, the usual dorm room scenery unfolded before me.
Thud-
"…!"
The core condition was somewhat unusual.
The core is made up of structures surrounding the heart, and the two are usually tightly connected.
But now, for some reason, the core was floating and rattling.
'Could it be that this happened because of drugs?'
It makes sense, since Luca in the novel becomes weaker as he ages.
I thought the core condition wasn't good, but I didn't expect it to respond in just a week… .
'I guess I should start thinking about this too.'
I opened the calendar.
First of all, even if you have the medicine, you can't turn it into a core strengthener because the current Leon is not the future Leon.
Therefore, a process of adjusting the mixing ratio and other conditions is necessary based on my knowledge of the novel.
And even if you consistently take strengthening supplements, your body, which has had its core suppressed for 10 years, cannot dramatically improve all at once.
Since I can't just sit there and wait for my brother to notice, I have to use some kind of auxiliary tool to create a more stable situation.
I was lost in thought, looking at the red glowing pendant.
'I think it would be a good idea to get another one of these aids.'
After strengthening your core, let's look at some other things.
Although it costs a lot of money, there are tools that allow you to use specific magic freely even without knowledge of that magic.
In principle, these types of magical tools had to be registered with the imperial family, and there was a limit to the maximum number that could be held by a person, but fortunately this did not apply to students under the age of adulthood.
It would be useful If my brother moved faster than expected, so I needed to know the items in case something happened.
I took out the statement from the campus bank from the drawer.
"hmm."
The Withdrawable Amount column had a number written on it that was difficult to count at a glance.
Even if the child was abandoned by the father, he would do what he could without much effort.
But….
Obviously, this can't be used.
I don't know about the money that was in the safe in my room, but I would never take money that went into a bank safe.
Luca didn't even spend a million won of our money during his first year of high school, excluding food and tuition.
'Of course, since I was only in the room.'
A decent tool will cost you at least five hundred, and you'll need to prepare at least a thousand to find something you like.
It was obvious that my brother would fly here the moment I withdrew that much money.
I thought about pulling out every day and preparing, but it would be suspicious if a person who hasn't used a hundred for a year were to withdraw a thousand in a short period of time, whether by dividing it up or pulling it out all at once.
Then there is only one thing that can be done.
I earn it myself.
I spread the newspaper on the desk.
'It's not yet time for the main character to be active, but it seems like the story will start to come out to the world at this point.'
After flipping through the newspapers for a while, from the daily papers published last month to today's daily paper, I stopped.
'Here it is.'
[Monthly average of 6 cases → 15 cases… Number of 'dangerous damages' in administrative districts outside the capital increased by 150%]
An article about the recent increase in damage caused by demons.
In the original work, the protagonist hid his identity as a member of the royal family and went out to kill demons himself.
As the number of cases of damage from demons has increased rapidly this year, the Imperial Magic Security Headquarters has begun placing bounties on demons and granting individual magicians the right to subdue them.
If you look at it that way, it seems like a possible response, but… .
It is not yet a situation where it is difficult to handle the number of cases to outsource to the private sector.
However, the reason why the Magical Security Headquarters delegated the qualification of a 'cleaner' to an individual was because they judged that they could not use the headquarters' high-level personnel for such miscellaneous work.
'That's how it comes out, so the main character comes out.'
Anyway, there are two things to note here.
'After placing a bounty on the demon, granting each wizard the right to subdue him', 'The protagonist forged his identity'.
It's the optimal situation.
But it would be crazy to act so openly when most of the people of the empire know my name. This too would be tantamount to suicide.
What should be noted again at this time is that the headquarters is quite rotten.
The headquarters had set a reasonable amount of money for each of the demons, but the operating budget for the administrative offices in each region was set to be seriously insufficient.
After deducting the maintenance costs of the facility, the amount that could be provided was at best only the level of activity assistance.
'Because in the first place, the headquarters had no intention of hiring people properly.'
The headquarters had the absurd idea that since it was a village affair, the villagers would take off their shoes and run it without having to spend any money.
So it's obvious how things would have turned out.
The protagonist of the story passes through in just 10 seconds by presenting a forged ID. There was no process of keeping the ID or comparing it with the names of people registered in the wizard registry.
It remains vivid In my memory because the main character was so dumbfounded.
When I was a reader, not only the main character but also my mind was blown away by the handling of the matter, but now… .
'It's a good situation.'
• * *
"Yeah, it's definitely a good idea to borrow the power of tools. How much is your budget?"
When we arrived at the training grounds and I told him about my plans for the future, Leon nodded and rubbed his chin.
Leon took out a piece of paper and a pen from his bag and sat on the floor of the training ground, intending to make a list himself.
"I haven't set it in stone, and I'm thinking about it flexibly depending on the income."
"Fluid… Huh?"
"All my money is in the bank right now, so it's hard to withdraw it. So I thought of something."
"What's missing?"
"I didn't say I didn't have any. Anyway, in short, I don't have any cash… How long do I have to say this with my own mouth?"
I looked at Leon with a smile.
Leon, too, was smiling soullessly with a face that said he didn't understand English.
'I understand, but I haven't said anything properly yet.'
I took a thick wad of paper out of my bag and opened my mouth seriously.
"Listen to what people say until the end. Of course there is a solution."