Ch.8181. If You Do Bad Things, You Will Be Punished.

# The Princess’s Arrival

The Zivchak Family was thrown into chaos by the princess’s arrival.

Naturally, they wouldn’t have expected her to visit a mere count’s residence.

Perhaps the family head, Trash, could have guided her to the reception room with various excuses, but unfortunately, he was absent.

In the end, no one could stop her from entering, allowing Celia and Alkine to immediately head toward what was clearly a chaotic scene.

And… that led to the current situation.

“Trash Zivchak. I’ll give you a chance to defend yourself, so say something.”

“…I have nothing to say.”

Our princess swiftly concluded the matter and thoroughly roasted Trash.

Of course, Trash wasn’t this docile from the start. Initially, he tried to escape the situation by making all sorts of excuses…

“…Ludion. Can I borrow that for a moment?”

“This?”

“Yes, just for a moment.”

Celia suddenly took the forbidden book on mental brainwashing, briefly skimmed through it, and then did something to Trash, after which he became very compliant.

Is this what they call physical restraint? I suppose mental brainwashing counts as a form of force?

“Take it back. Oh, you should put it away since it’s dangerous.”

Following Celia’s advice, I put the forbidden book in my inventory.

By the way, Celia. What are you thinking, learning such things when you’re a princess…

I’ve always wondered what goes through her mind, but now I had a way to find out.

‘Search’

Reading someone’s thoughts like this makes me feel a bit guilty… but it’s Celia’s fault for always doing strange things and acting shamelessly.

With that self-justification, I peeked into her thoughts…

[She wants to explain to you that she actually didn’t understand even half of the book’s contents.]

…So it was a bluff?

I thought someone like Celia would be able to master a forbidden book after just one look, but surprisingly, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

But… that aside.

‘Did I see that correctly?’

I check the ability stats section again, which I had glossed over when reading her thoughts.

[Celia Rubetia]

[Strength: 5]

[Endurance: 3]

[Agility: 6]

[Mana: 101]

[Traits: Mana Genius (Split Calculation, Mana Analysis, Mana Acceleration, Automatic Reverse Calculation, Mana Amplification), Concept Materialization (Ether Manipulation, Energy Component Fusion), Kairos [Sealed]]

Those numbers were extraordinary.

Wait, why is her mana stat like that? She’s already exceeded 100?

And why are there so many traits? What’s Concept Materialization, and what’s Kairos?

All these unfamiliar things popping up were quite confusing. Of course, since it’s Celia, I’m not worried because she’ll surely know how to use them properly.

‘I knew she was growing quickly, but I didn’t expect it to be this much.’

As I was still in awe, suddenly something else appeared.

[Searching for additional information related to traits.]

What additional information?

Though there were too many unknowns appearing, I didn’t have high expectations. No matter how impressive, could it be more surprising than Celia’s growth rate?

With that thought, I casually read the additional information… which was enough to shock me.

[Favorability: 59/100]

…What? How much favorability?

“What is it, Ludion? Why are you suddenly staring like that?”

“Nothing, it’s nothing at all.”

“That’s not a ‘nothing’ face. I’ll ask you again later.”

…It seems I saw something I shouldn’t have, and though I quickly dismissed the window that appeared, what I had already seen couldn’t be erased from my mind.

I had no idea what to say to Celia, who had noticed my bewilderment.

’59 is practically at the end of the romance path.’

There was no romance system in the game, but there were definitely elements in the stories that unlocked according to favorability levels.

At 10, you’re good friends, willing to lend precious items if there’s a good reason.

From 20, you start granting favors even without a reason.

Above 40, you become important to each other, willing to risk your life for the other without hesitation.

And… at 60, you understand why people complained about the lack of a romance system. From that point on, you’re practically affectionate lovers, or something even beyond that, just without saying it.

Unfortunately, I don’t know what happens after that. In this game without romance, there was nothing beyond that.

Reaching 100 just gave you one reward, that’s all.

‘There didn’t seem to be much room to close the gap after exceeding 60 anyway.’

But now Celia’s favorability is 59.

Just before reaching 60.

Based on the time we’ve spent together and what I’ve felt, I thought it would be at most between 20 and 30.

Setting aside why it’s so high, what’s more surprising is that she hasn’t shown much of this deep affection.

I was getting a headache trying to figure out how to respond to her unexpectedly deep feelings.

‘For now, I’ll pretend I don’t know…’

But soon I’ll have to explain about this item I stole, so it will be exposed quickly.

I could hide it, but… there doesn’t seem to be any benefit in hiding something like this.

I really don’t know what to say. I feel both grateful and sorry.

‘…Wait. Then what about the president…’

Suddenly, I noticed Alkine sitting next to Celia, observing the situation.

She just confessed her feelings yesterday. She might have a favorability stat too.

With that thought, I used Search on Alkine as well, and fortunately, her numbers were somewhat more normal.

[Alkine Debaran]

[Strength: 72]

[Endurance: 32]

[Agility: 68]

[Mana: 76]

[Traits: Sword Master [Partially Unlocked], Human Tank (Strength Amplification, Steel Endurance, Master of Balance, Superhuman Stamina), Extraordinary Dexterity]

[She followed to help you but feels awkward having nothing to do.]

[Favorability: 18/100]

‘Compared to these, my stats are really pathetic.’

When I couldn’t see them at all, I just accepted it, but now that I can see them, I can’t help but compare.

Anyway, her abilities are extremely high but not far from what I remember, and her traits are exactly what I recall.

And her favorability is normal… no, it’s abnormal from the moment it appeared.

This is driving me crazy. When did I work so hard to win them over?

‘The bracelet… was it a mistake to steal it?’

It felt good when I stole it, but now that I know information I didn’t want to know, I regret it. Is this what they call the red pill or whatever?

They say you get punished for doing bad things. I didn’t expect to receive it this way.

“What’s suddenly wrong with him?”

“I don’t know either.”

The gazes of Celia and Alkine felt newly heavy.

///

The matter of the Zivchak Family’s disposition was concluded by entrusting full authority to the Central Guard.

The Central Guard is directly connected to the Imperial Palace, so with the princess personally handing over the case, there was no need to worry about corruption.

Because of this, I was about to entrust them with all the forbidden books we had collected from the Zivchak Family…

“…We don’t have the capacity to manage all of these separately. I’m sorry, but could you handle the rest except for the most important one?”

That’s what they said. Well, they’re busy, and taking all these forbidden books at once would be troublesome in many ways.

In the end, all the forbidden books except the one related to mental brainwashing ended up back in a corner of my inventory.

“I’ve been meaning to ask, how big is that subspace? It seems like you’ve put quite a lot in there already.”

Celia asked this question after seeing me put back nearly twenty forbidden books into my inventory.

The size of my inventory? I hadn’t really thought about it.

I was just using it with the same sense as in the game. In the game, it was basically infinite.

The commotion that followed after I mentioned this was unavoidable.

After a brief uproar, and after Celia and Alkine entrusted their luggage to my inventory, I started to feel hungry.

We had been dragged away before breakfast, and it took some time to hand over everything, causing us to miss lunch as well.

“The timing is a bit awkward, but shall we eat something before heading back?”

“I’d like that.”

“Me too.”

When I suggested it, Celia and Alkine immediately agreed, probably because they were hungry too.

But what should we do? The restaurant they headed to was the same place where the “Empire’s Greatest Meal Operation that Calls the Storm” had unfolded just the day before yesterday.

I wondered if we would hear the wails of the manager and staff again…

“There are so many people?”

“Was it always this crowded?”

“It’s popular, but not to this extent.”

…For some reason, there were so many people that there was even a line, making it difficult to enter.

Why are there so many people at this awkward time, too late for lunch and too early for dinner?

With that question in mind, I decided to peek into the thoughts of the most excited-looking person in line.

[They are excited about dining at the restaurant praised by the princess and the saint.]

I understood immediately.

Well, considering how many people were around that day because of the saint’s visit, it would be stranger if rumors hadn’t spread.

“This is because of you, Celia.”

“Me?”

“More precisely, because of you and Lilith.”

“…Ah.”

After hearing that, Celia seemed to understand and started awkwardly looking at Alkine.

Seeing this, Alkine was puzzled, so I briefly explained the situation, and she began blaming Celia with an incredibly incredulous expression.

“Celia. You’re a princess, didn’t you ever think about covering your face in public?”

“How could I cover a face that Ludion says is pretty?”

“…You really say such things right in front of him.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

…Now even those kinds of comments don’t sound like jokes anymore.

Come to think of it, she often made remarks like that. Maybe I took them too lightly, thinking they were just jokes.

While I was lost in serious contemplation, Celia and Alkine quickly started looking for other options.

“Let’s go somewhere else since it doesn’t seem right to eat here.”

“Agreed. We can come back here another time.”

“Do you know any other good places?”

“There are a few over there. Let’s go.”

Of course, they could enter if they used the princess’s face, but naturally, they wouldn’t think of doing such a thing.

In the end, the sequel to the Empire’s Greatest Meal Operation wasn’t released, and a spin-off was released at another restaurant instead.

This outing concluded with Alkine being dumbfounded by Celia, who refused to cover her face until the end.

By the way… immediately after returning to the academy, I had a one-on-one meeting with the principal and ended up receiving penalty points.

“Didn’t I clearly tell you that you could resist?”

The reason was unauthorized absence.