Published at 5th of December 2025 6:51 am

Chapter 9

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[Lucas Rene Askanien]

Title: The Empires Biggest Fool

Health: -4.8 (+0.2)

Mental Strength: -9 (+1.0)

Magic Power: ?

Skill: +0.015

Impression: -10

Luck: -8.985 (+1.0)

Traits: Dawn777, Divine Power

My mental strength increased by 1?

It had definitely been -10 before.

Luck, which had been -9.985, also showed improvement. Considering it had been increasing by 1/1000, this was significant progress.

Even health had increased by 0.2. The rise in health, despite not being in a situation conducive to physical improvement, suggested a link to mental strength.

Did making one friend cause this change?

Aside from very early childhood, Leo was essentially my first friend, so it was a plausible theory.

.

It was hard to watch without feeling sorry.

Wait a moment.

There was something else I needed to check.

Shifting my gaze, a new window appeared.

---

[Dawn777]

- Final outcome Chapter X. Death in 767 days, 23 hours, 18 minutes, and 01 second

- Change possibility: 5.3% (+5%p)

---

5.3%.

Gaining one ally increased it by 5%p, which was quite satisfying.

It meant that Leo would be a significant help in my survival moving forward.

Hmm, Im curious about Leos status.

Come to think of it, I had been too focused on quickly checking favorability to have time to look at status windows before.

I called up Leos status window as I looked into his eyes.

---

Leonard Wittelsbach

Favorability: 0

Title: ?

Health: +7.

Mental Strength: +9

Magic Power: +7

Skill: +8.

Impression: +10

Luck: +9.

Traits: ?

---

This is the first time Ive seen such crazy stats.

It was astonishing that his favorability had risen from -9 to 0 in an instant, but that wasnt the main issue. His overall stats were better than those of many professors whose status windows I had peeked at out of curiosity.

If I had to enter a novel, I should have become a character like him.

What are you doing?

Leo waved a hand in front of my blank gaze.

Nothing.

I shook my head to clear the slight sense of disillusionment.

After that, I spent time answering Leos trivial questions until the first class ended, and we left the infirmary together. There was no one around.

Dont acknowledge me from here.

What?

Leo asked, looking perplexed.

If you suddenly start being nice to me, people will think its weird. Come find me only when there are no students around.

Leo rubbed his chin, then nodded.

That makes sense. Alright, then. Dont worry about the medicine; Ill have my family get it for you.

Thanks.

It ended more smoothly than I expected.

Given his obsession with magic, I thought he might be clingy, but this was nice.

Lets keep it simple.

Now, I need to improve my skills.

I had to make up for the ten-year gap starting now.

The problem was that self-studying magic is difficult, and without a personal training room at the school, I had to use the common one... but that was already solved. I had arranged to spar with Leo.

The school provided top students like Leo with private training rooms.

No need to sign in on a ledger or worry about others intruding.

Of course, the training room wasnt the only reason I asked Leo to spar.

I judged it worthwhile to learn from Leos textbook-like movements.

In fact, a skill score of 8.5 was on par with the professors here.

In general, normal people ranged between -1 to 3 in all categories, while the students here usually ranged from 3 to 5.

Im curious to see how much I can improve.

Thus, a week had passed since I started training with Leo.

The results were good. My control improved quickly, to the point that it was hard to believe I hadnt used magic properly in ten years.

Good! At this level, youre no longer a threat to civilians by accident.

After finishing training on the seventh day, Leo wiped his sweat and smiled with satisfaction.

Right. The problem with my magic had always been its excessive power, making it hard to control.

Leos comment was chilling but true: it wasnt a metaphor or an exaggeration.

While I knew how to suppress my magic during class, maintaining a moderate level of magic for extended periods was still challenging.

I didnt want to see my magic harming anyone, so I had agreed to Leos relentless calls for training over the past week.

I was a bit taken aback at first but I need this level of power to deal with my brother.

The fact that this was considered basic was a testament to my satisfying talent.

Oh, by the way, the medicine you asked for will be delayed. Itll take about four more days. Ill bring it then.

Thanks.

See you tomorrow.

Leo waved and disappeared.

Things are going smoothly.

The interest that had briefly surged at the start of the semester subsided as I stopped using magic altogether, and there was no contact from my brother.

I called up my status window.

---

[Lucas Rene Askanien]

Title: The Empires Biggest Fool

Health: -3.8 (+1.0)

Mental Strength**: -8.7 (+0.3)

Magic Power**: ?

Skill: +0.515 (+0.5)

Impression: -10

Luck: -7.485 (+1.5)

Traits: Dawn 777, Divine Power

Considering the amount increased after a week of training, it wasn't bad.

After staying at the training ground for a bit more practice, I took out a pendant from under my shirt.

It was a teleportation artifact I had bought with all the cash I had. Since it wasn't good to be seen entering and leaving the training ground, I connected it to go directly from the dormitory.

I even registered it under Leo's name to cover my tracks in case anything happened.

'It's good to be thorough with preparations.'

I blew magic power into the pendant.

When I opened my eyes, the familiar scenery of my dorm room unfolded before me.

Thunk

"...!"

Something was off with the state of my core.

The core, usually connected tightly around the heart, was now floating and rattling for some reason.

'Could it be because of the medication?'

In the novel, Luca became weaker as he got older, so it made sense.

I had expected my core not to be in good condition, but I didn't expect to see results after just a week.

'I need to start considering this.'

I opened the calendar.

For now, even though I had obtained the herbs, the current Leo wasn't the future Leo, so he couldn't convert them into a core enhancer.

Therefore, I needed to adjust the mixing ratios and other conditions based on my knowledge rom the novel.

Even if I drank the enhancer consistently, a body whose core had been suppressed for ten years wouldn't improve dramatically overnight.

I couldn't wait around leisurely, expecting my brother to notice at any moment. I needed to use auxiliary tools to create a more stable condition.

I gazed at the glowing red pendant, lost in thought.

'It might be good to get another auxiliary tool like this.'

Once I enhance my core, I should look for other items as well.

There are tools that allow one to use certain magic freely without needing knowledge of that magic.

These magical tools are supposed to be registered with the imperial family and have a maximum quantity limit per person. However, fortunately, this doesn't apply to underage students.

If my brother moves faster than expected, these tools will be useful, so I need to prepare them just in case.

I took a transaction statement from the school's bank out of the drawer.

"Hmm."

There were numbers in the available withdrawal amount column that were hard to count at a glance.

Even if Father considered me a discarded son, he still did what he could without much effort.

But

Of course, I can't use this money.

If it was the money in my room's safe, that would be different, but I can't touch the money in the bank vault.

Luca, during his first year, spent less than a million won on food and tuition.

'Since he stayed in his room all the time, it's understandable.'

The useful tools start at least at five hundred, and if I want to find something satisfactory, I need to prepare at least a thousand.

Withdrawing that much money would immediately alert my brother, which is inevitable.

I thought about withdrawing a little each day, but for someone who hadn't spent even a hundred over a year, withdrawing a thousand in a short period would be suspicious.

So, there's only one option.

I'll earn it myself.

I spread the newspaper on the desk.

'It's not the time for the protagonist to be active yet, but at this point, stories about him should start to emerge.'

I flipped through the newspapers from last month to today's issue and stopped when I saw an article.

'Here it is.'

[Average of 6 cases per month 15 cases... 150% increase in 'Beast Incidents' in administrative districts outside the capital]

An article about the recent increase in beast incidents.

In the original story, the protagonist hid his identity as a member of the imperial family and went around killing beasts.

Since beast incidents have surged this year, the Imperial Magic Law Enforcement Agency has started attaching bounties to beasts and granting extermination rights to individual mages.

At first glance, it seemed like a reasonable response, but...

It's not yet at the point where they need to outsource to the private sector.

Despite that, the reason the Enforcement Agency delegated the 'cleaner' role to individuals was that they couldn't afford to use their high-level personnel for such trivial tasks.

'That's why the protagonist steps up.'

Anyway, there are two points to note here.

'Bounties on beasts with individual mage extermination rights', 'Protagonist forged his identity'.

It's an optimal situation.

However, considering that most of the empire's citizens know my name, acting openly is foolish. It's practically suicide.

This brings us back to the fact that the agency is severely corrupt.

They offered decent money for each beast but set the budget for regional office operations ridiculously low.

After deducting facility maintenance costs, there's barely enough for activity allowances.

'The agency never intended to hire people properly.'

They foolishly thought that since it was a village issue, the residents would take care of it without spending money.

As expected, the process went as one might guess.

In the story, the protagonist passed with a forged ID in just 10 seconds. There was no process of keeping the ID or cross-checking names with the mage registration list.

I vividly remember this because it was so absurd.

When I was a reader, both the protagonist and I were dumbfounded by the agency's incompetence, but now...

'It's a favorable situation.'

***

"Yes, relying on tools' power is good. What's your budget?"

When I explained my plan upon arriving at the training ground, Leo nodded and stroked his chin.

Leo, seemingly planning to make a list himself, took out paper and a pen from his bag and sat on the training ground floor.

"I haven't fixed it yet. I'm thinking flexibly based on earnings."

"Flexibly... huh?"

"The money is all in the bank, so it's hard to withdraw. So, I have an idea."

"What's not there?"

"I didn't say it's not there. Anyway, in short, there's no cash.... How long do I have to say this?"

I laughed, looking at Leo.

Leo, equally puzzled, smiled soullessly.

'I understand, but I haven't explained it properly yet.'

I took out a thick stack of papers from my bag and spoke seriously.

"Listen until the end. Of course, I have a plan."

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