Chapter 81 : If you do bad things, you will be punished

The appearance of the princess was bound to turn the Jibchack family upside down.

Naturally, they never expected someone like her to come to a place as insignificant as the count’s house.

Well.

At least the family head, Trash, might have been able to make excuses and guide her to the parlor, but unfortunately, he was absent at that moment.

In the end, there was no one to stop her from entering, and thanks to that, Seria and Alkine were able to immediately head toward the noisy place they could easily see.

And… this is how the current situation came to be.

“Trash Jibchack. I’ll give you a chance to argue, so say something.”

“…Nothing.”

Our princess swiftly ended the matter and completely roasted Trash.

Of course, Trash didn’t behave this meekly from the start. In the beginning, he blabbered on with every excuse to escape the situation.

“…Rudion. Do you want to try this?”

“This?”

“Yes, give it to me for a moment.”

Seria suddenly took the forbidden book of mental brainwashing and skimmed through it for a moment before she tried to do something to Trash and then became very obedient.

Is this what power suppression is? I guess mental brainwashing counts as a form of power too?

“Take it back. Ah, it’s dangerous, so you should keep it in your inventory.”

Following Seria’s words, I put the forbidden book into my inventory.

By the way, Seria. What does she think she’s going to do, learning that?

I’ve always been curious about what she’s thinking, and now I had a way to find out.

‘Search’

Well.

I do feel a bit guilty for secretly reading her thoughts, but… it’s clearly her fault for always doing strange things and acting so shamelessly.

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

[She wants to clarify that she didn’t understand even half of the forbidden book’s contents.]

…It was a bluff?

I had thought that, with Seria, she could probably read the forbidden book and use it right away, but unexpectedly, it seemed she couldn’t.

But… well, that’s beside the point.

‘Did I not see that correctly?’

I quickly double-checked the status window I had overlooked before.

[Seria Rubetia]
[Strength: 5]
[Toughness: 3]
[Agility: 6]
[Magic: 101]
[Traits: Genius in Magic (division calculation, magic analysis, magic acceleration, reverse calculation automation, magic amplification), Conceptual Phenomenon (Aether manipulation, energy fusion), Kairos [sealed]]

The numbers were extraordinary.

Why is her magic so high? It’s already over 100?

And what are all these traits? What’s “Conceptual Phenomenon” and “Kairos”?

I was thrown into confusion by all the unknowns. Of course, since it’s Seria, I figured she would figure out how to use it all on her own, so I didn’t worry about it.

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

I was in awe when suddenly, something else came to mind.

[Searching for additional information related to the traits.]

What’s this additional information?

So many things kept coming up that I didn’t know, but honestly, I wasn’t expecting much.

No matter how impressive it is, could it really surpass Seria’s rate of growth?

With that thought in mind, I casually glanced at the additional information, which… was enough to leave me stunned.

[Affinity: 59/100]

Wait? Her affinity is what?

“What is it, Rudion? Why are you staring at me all of a sudden?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. Nothing at all.”

“That doesn’t look like nothing. I’ll ask you again later.”

I quickly closed the window that had popped up, but what I saw was already burned into my mind.

Noticing my confusion, Seria looked at me with suspicion, and I had no idea what to say.

‘59? That’s practically the end of the route.’

Even though there was no romance system in the game, there was definitely a depth to the story unlocked by affinity, and you could feel it.

At 10, you were just close friends, where you could borrow things from each other if you cared enough.

From 20, you’d help out with requests even without ownership.

At 40, you became someone important to each other, willing to sacrifice for one another without hesitation.

And… when it reached 60, you could understand why people complained about the lack of a romance system. From here on, you were practically a couple, even if no one said it.

Unfortunately, I didn’t know what happened after that. In a game without romance, there was nothing beyond that.

When you hit 100, you just got a reward.

‘At this point, since it’s already over 60, it doesn’t seem like there’s much left to close the gap.’

But right now, Seria’s affinity is 59.

It was just one point away from 60.

Given how long we’ve been together and what I’ve felt during that time, I thought it would be around 20 to 30 at most.

But now, not only is it higher than expected, but I was more surprised by how she hadn’t made this number obvious.

I was puzzled about how to respond to her deep affection.

‘For now, I’ll just pretend I don’t know….’

But I’d have to explain about the item I stole soon, and it wouldn’t take long before it would be discovered.

I could hide it, but… there wouldn’t be much point in hiding something like this.

I really don’t know what to say. I feel grateful, yet guilty.

…Wait. Then what about the president…?

Suddenly, I noticed Alkine, who was sitting beside Seria, observing the situation.

She confessed her feelings just yesterday. I wondered if her affinity might be high too.

With that thought in mind, I used the search skill on Alkine, and fortunately, her numbers were at least normal.

[Alkine Devaran]
[Strength: 72]
[Toughness: 32]
[Agility: 68]
[Magic: 76]
[Traits: Sword Master [partially unlocked], Human Tank (strength boost, steel toughness, balance expert, superhuman endurance), Extraordinary Dexterity]
[She followed you to help, but she’s embarrassed because there’s nothing for her to do.]
[Affinity: 18/100]

‘Compared to this, my stats look really pathetic.’

I didn’t think much of it when I couldn’t see their stats, but now that I could, it was hard not to compare.

Anyway, her stats were very high, but they weren’t too far off from what I remembered, and the traits were exactly what I had in mind.

And the affinity level seemed normal… well, no, actually, it’s abnormal since it popped up now.

Wow, this is insane. When did I work so hard to charm these people?

‘The bracelet… maybe I shouldn’t have stolen it.’

It felt great when I stole it, but now that I was learning things I didn’t really want to know, I regretted it. Was this the red pill or whatever it was?

They say you get punished for doing bad things, but I didn’t expect it to be like this.

“Why is she suddenly acting like that?”

“I don’t know either.”

Seria and Alkine’s gazes grew heavy.

The matter regarding the Jibchack family was concluded by giving full authority to the Central Guard.

The Central Guard has direct connections to the royal family, so there was no need to worry about corruption or bias.

Because of that, we were planning to entrust all the forbidden books from the Jibchack family to them, but…

“…We don’t have the capacity to manage this separately. I’m sorry, but could you please take care of all of them except for the most important one?”

Well.

That makes sense. It would be difficult for them to receive so many forbidden books all at once, considering how busy they are.

In the end, all the forbidden books, except for the one related to mental brainwashing, were placed back in my inventory.

“I hate to ask now, but how large is this space? Even with the things we’ve put in so far, it seems quite a lot.”

Seeing Seria put nearly twenty forbidden books back into her inventory, she asked a question.

The size of the inventory? I had never really thought about it.

I was just using the same sense I had in the game. In the game, the inventory was basically infinite.

When I mentioned that, of course, it caused quite a stir.

After a brief commotion, Seria and Alkine entrusted their luggage to my inventory, and slowly, I started to feel hungry.

We had been dragged around before breakfast, and it took a while to handle everything, so we ended up missing the timing for lunch.

“It’s a bit of an awkward time, but should we eat something before we head back?”

“I’m fine with that.”

“Me too.”

So, I casually suggested it, and Seria and Alkine must have been hungry too, as they accepted immediately.

But what should I do? The restaurant they headed toward was the same place where the “Empire’s Greatest Feast Operation” had unfolded just the other day.

I wondered if I would hear the manager and the staff wailing again…

“There’s so many people.”

“Was it always this crowded?”

“This place is popular, but it shouldn’t be this crowded.”

For some reason, there were so many people that there was even a line, and it didn’t seem easy to get in.

It was a late lunchtime, too late for lunch but too early for dinner, so why was there such a crowd?

I decided to sneak a peek at the thoughts of the most excited person in the line.

[They’re excited to eat at the restaurant praised by the princess and the saint.]

I immediately understood.

After all, that day, the saint had visited, and with how many people gathered around, it would have been strange if the rumors hadn’t spread.

“It’s because of you.” — Seria

“Me?”

“More precisely, it’s because of you and Lilith.”

“…Ah.”

Seria, looking embarrassed, started to glance at Alkine, as if she realized something.

Seeing that, Alkine looked puzzled, so I briefly explained the situation. She then began to scold Seria with a look of disbelief.

“Seria. Have you never thought of covering your face as a princess?”

“It’s the face that Rudion thinks is beautiful, so how could I cover it?”

“…You say that in front of him?”

“What’s wrong with that?”

…Now, even remarks like that don’t sound like jokes anymore.

Thinking back, she had said things like this often. I probably brushed it off as a joke without taking it seriously.

While I was lost in my serious thoughts, Seria and Alkine quickly began to look for other options.

“Let’s not eat here. Let’s go somewhere else.”

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

“Do you know any other good places?”

“There are a few nearby. Let’s go.”

With Seria’s face to back us up, we could certainly get in, but of course, she wasn’t the type to think like that.

In the end, the sequel to the Empire’s Greatest Feast Operation was not released, and a spin-off launched at a different restaurant.

With Seria still not covering her face, Alkine was left flabbergasted, and so ended our outing.

By the way… right after returning to the academy, I had a one-on-one meeting with the dean, and in the end, I received demerit points.

“Didn’t you tell me I could resist?”

The reason was unauthorized absence.