chapter_0213

…What? Claim? From me?

No, just criticise me along
with everyone else!

I really don’t want to owe you
anything!

I don’t want you to claim
anything from me!

Can’t you just call me a damn
wench and be done with it?!

I screamed internally, but
those words never reached the First Prince.

Quite a bit of time had passed
since the Partan Family’s party.

As you can see, I’m still
alive, which means that the party ended neatly with the First Prince
taking care of what I had caused.

The word debt had ominous
undertones, but seeing as he didn’t come looking for me after the
party ended, it seemed like he wasn’t planning to deal with me
right away.

Honestly, it would have been
better if he punished me on the spot. That way, I could finish what I
was told to do and move on from everything.

Leaving things unresolved
makes me feel constantly uneasy!

Let me prepare like Sloppy
Armadi!

Wow, I never thought there
would come a day when Sloppy Armadi would be reconsidered in a
positive light. Can’t I just not repay the debt?

Is that even possible?

Who knows what the First
Prince might do to crush me if I tried that!

Unless I become strong enough
to ignore him, if he decides to target me, I’ll be at his mercy!

Not even Benedict can help me
out of this one!

No matter how monstrous he is,
he can’t win against an entire nation!

…Uh. Hmm. He can’t win,
right?

Given it’s Benedict, I can’t
say for sure.

Anyway, since the First Prince
issue isn’t something I can deal with right now, let’s talk about
something else.

Should I start with the
[Mesugaki] Skill?

To cut to the chase, the
normalisation of titles happened only that one time.

I experimented countless times
after the party, but the titles never changed.

No matter how many times I
tried to call the First Prince by his name, I kept ending up calling
him the Hikikomori Prince.

The same went for other
titles. I couldn’t get any of the names right.

Grandpa and I researched in
various ways, but in the end, we couldn’t figure out why.

If we’re trying to explain
this phenomenon, we could say that Sloppy Armadi intervened to keep
his promise to improve my reputation.

But you know, it doesn’t seem
likely that Sloppy Armadi would do something like that.

If the Sloppy Lord were
someone who cared about such things, wouldn’t he have reduced the
[Mesugaki] Skill penalty a long time ago?

Think about it. That jerk
likes it when I criticise him and even loves it when I’m in
trouble.

There’s no way he’d help me
out just because I’m struggling…

No wait lord, I got carried
away and spouted nonsense just now.

Let’s change the topic or
something bizarre might come out in the next quest if I keep bad
mouthing.

Sure. Talking about the reward
from the Duke Partan should be appropriate.

After the party, when I met
the Duke again, he said I could ask for whatever I wanted.

He said that if it was within
his power, he could make it happen no matter how outrageous it
sounded.

And he wasn’t wrong.

With the influence of the
Partan Duke’s Family, it wouldn’t be difficult to realise anything
that a noble lady could imagine.

The only thing he might not
have expected is that I’m not an ordinary lady.

Honestly, the things I desire
now are beyond what the Duke could provide.

Top-tier armour or shields,
skills…

These items can’t be bought
with money; you have to go out and get them yourself.

If I was developing a
magic-oriented build, there would have been plenty of things to ask
the Duke of Partan for, but unfortunately, I’m a paladin.

I could request other things
from the Duke, but asking for something ordinary when such a
significant figure asks for your wishes feels like a waste.

As various items floated in
and out of my mind, one idea finally stuck.

Something that was impossible
in the game.

But it is possible in reality.

The direct intervention of an
NPC.

‘Your Grace…’

“Would it be alright if I
asked for the right to make a request to the Careless Duke?”

I would delay my reward until
later. Instead, please grant whatever I ask at that time.

It was a slightly unreasonable
and potentially rude request, but the Duke nodded without any sign of
displeasure.

Afterward, we chatted about
ordinary things.

Like what happened at the
Academy. Or how Joy was doing at school. Typical advice that older
people usually give.

“Oh, now that I think about
it, you said you gave Joy some advice. Can you share what that was?”

Since it wasn’t a secret, I
told him right away.

About how to lay the
groundwork when raising a magic character.

The Duke of Partan listened to
what I had taught Joy and then furrowed his brows, muttering to
himself.

It felt like watching a mafia
boss plotting the downfall of a rival organisation, making me
instinctively straighten my posture. But he wasn’t devising an evil
plan. He was just dissecting the idea I had mentioned.

“Amazing.”

In the end, he expressed his
admiration.

“Repetition and Mastery?
Training magic like muscles… The old men at the Tower would scream
if they heard this. Nonetheless, it seems worth researching. Lady
Allen, who taught you this?”

‘No one taught me.’

“Careless Duke, it’s
impossible that the other sloppy fools could come up with such an
idea, right?”

This is real. This build is
something I created and devised myself! Until the game turned into a
flop, there was no better build than this!

“You came up with this
idea on your own?! As expected, it’s probably because you aren’t a
mage.”

The Duke praised me, saying
the word genius wasn’t enough to describe me, and then let out a
hollow laugh.

“I invited you to reward
you, but instead, it feels like I’ve received something. Really, is
there nothing you want right now? Even something trivial is fine. I
don’t want to owe more.”

‘Then there’s one thing…’

“Well, there is one thing
I’d like to ask.”

I asked him what had happened
before the Partan Festival that caused him to leave the territory. I
was curious about what significant event had caused the Duke to leave
so urgently.

He answered my question
without much thought.

“The Duke of Burrow asked
for my help. Given the urgency of his request, I thought it might be
something serious, so I went there myself. But by the time I arrived,
everything had already been resolved.”

He grumbled, saying he had
wasted his time before the festival.

Was there an issue on the
Burrow Family’s side at this time? They shouldn’t have any
problems…

I had doubts, but since the
Duke had confirmed that nothing was amiss, I decided it wasn’t a big
issue.

Besides that, there weren’t
any significant events.

Arthur begged me to take it
easy on him, I sparred with Frey because she insisted—things like
that.

After leaving the Partan
Territory and returning to the Allen Family estate, I informed
Possell that I was fully recovered and trained with the other
knights.

“You are much stronger now,
Miss, so I won’t be going easy on you like before.”

‘That’s what I wanted!’

“Haha. Who needs whose pity?
Do you think I can’t outperform those other sloppy knights?”

“Excellent attitude, Miss!”

To summarise my feelings, it
was as if dying might have been easier.

When I was training alone at
the Academy, no matter how hard I pushed myself, I only felt like I
was going to die.

But training with the Allen
Family was on another level. When pushed to my absolute limit, my
mind would go blank, and I couldn’t think of anything.

But despite all the hard
training, my progress was slow.

At first, I thought it was
because my stats were already high, so growth was naturally slower.

But then I remembered
something important.

The reward given by Armadi in
Menestail. It said that while my stats increase automatically, I
wouldn’t grow through training.

To put it simply, while I was
putting in all the hard work with the Allen Family knights, I wasn’t
gaining anything from it.

When I realised this, I felt
so empty inside.

I went through the stages of
denial, cursing Armadi, and then calling myself an idiot.

Even though there are things
that can’t be measured by proficiency or stats, it still felt like a
waste.

Spending my time roughly like
this, before I knew it, the start of the Academy’s second semester
was right around the corner.

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