Nigel blinked. Wasn’t that an absurd number? He wondered if something was wrong, so he turned the window off and on, but the number over 40,000 did not change.

“Wh.. What?”

“What’s wrong?”

“No, nothing..”

Nigel was bewildered and looked at Inas’ status window again, flustered. However, no matter how hard Nigel tried, the stats in front of him did not change.

He was at level 40,000, how was that even possible? The level of the best knight of Duke Magnus was level 72. Even Schumach, who was called the Kingdom’s First Sword, was level 91 when he ran into him not too long ago.

He believed in the excellence of his knight, so he thought that the level that would be in the 80s or 90s, but 40,000 was beyond common sense. Although, the existence of this status window itself was absurd in the first place..

Was something wrong? However, even if Nigel repeatedly opened and closed Inas’ window, the stats stayed the same. Nigel stopped denying reality and opened the skill window. That part was even more staggering.

He quickly swiped the skill list upwards, but it didn’t end. Moreover, but the contents were ridiculous. This was even the first time Nigel knew that a skill could be mastered. Inas was the only person who had mastered his skills. In addition, it was all his skills that were mastered.

Especially master at Aura Sword, Nigel knew that Inas was still at the level of a beginner when it comes to Aura Sword. Of course, that was still a great achievement, and thanks to the manifestation of the Aura Sword at such a young age, Inas became one of the only three Swordmasters in the kingdom, but he did not yet reach the level of a master. Nigel was sure of that.

Besides, Lemad Kingdom Arcane Swordsmanship? In the first place, Inas had never been near Lemad. The Lemad culture he encountered was only in the form of pots or paintings. Nigel was also sure of that.

But that was still nothing compared to the list that followed.

A master of ultimate magic1?that were considered impossible to do in the first place. The Inas that Nigel knew was a swordsman, not a mage. However, magic was proudly listed on Inas’ skill list. If this window was true, then Inas was a mage. The first thought that came to his mind was..

Deceived.

Inas had deceived Nigel.

Devastated, Nigel got rid of the window. Naturally, the arms that were wrapped around Inas’ neck lost their strength, and Nigel lied down on the bed. He was so shocked that his hands were trembling.

Inas was perplexed to see Nigel who had lost interest in him in an instant.

“Nigel-nim?”

“Sorry. I’m just a little tired..”

“Are you not feeling well? Do you have a headache?”

“It’s not like that. Sorry, I’m going to sleep.”

“Nigel-nim..”

“Leave. I’m going to sleep.”

He thought that an angry Inas might kill him, but at this moment he only felt betrayed and didn’t want to see his face.

Inas, a loyal knight who he thought would tell him everything, had deceived him. When he was killed, it didn’t hurt, and waking up quickly right after even made it feel unrealistic. The anger that he had suppressed only came rushing in after seeing the truth from the skill window, which he had trusted for ten days.

Nigel ignored Inas, who was calling out to him, and covered himself with a blanket.

***

Angry to the very end, Nigel ignored Inas the entire day. As soon as Inas came, not only Inas but also the people around him were puzzled at Nigel’s change, who would usually become fretful when he was not sticking to him.

As an experienced butler, even Georg, who would usually look after Nigel in silence, spoke up.

“Master. Has Sir Inas done anything disloyal to you?”

“What?”

“Or is it that you’re not feeling well..”

“I only ignored him for a day. Is that so weird?”

“No. I apologize for being presumptuous.”

Georg bowed his head and apologized, but the expression on his face said that the current Nigel was very strange today. Nigel felt weird seeing the butler who was so good at managing facial expressions had shown such emotions.

Did he really like Inas that much?

Yes, of course he liked him. It a one-sided love that lasted for 10 years. Nigel’s love was desperate. Although Inas had deceived and killed Nigel..

“Ugh..”

The more he thought about it, the worse it felt. He cried all day and had no strength to cry anymore. Nigel got up from his seat, tired of crying. Even if he cried and writhed in his spot, nothing will change. He should move on when he could afford it.

“Call Inas.”

“Sir Edenbach went out to the mansion of Count Rudio.”

“If it’s Count Rudio..”

Nigel recalled the report he had received before he regressed. If it was Count Rudio, he had held a banquet to show off his wellbeing after getting caught up in a bad incident this time around. However, he didn’t think the previous Inas attended the banquet at all. After thinking for a while, Nigel stopped biting his nails.

“Did I also receive an invitation?”

“Yes. Would you like to go?”

“That’s right.”

Originally, Nigel would not attend a banquet unless it was held by a powerful aristocrat. Perhaps the decision was quite surprising, as the butler looked puzzled, but then he bowed down politely and went to prepare the carriage. Nigel changed into a light and soft suit and headed straight to the count’s mansion.

When he arrived at Count Rudio’s mansion, there was a small commotion. Nigel, who was not in good health, rarely attended banquets unless it was hosted by the royal family. It was the first time he had attended a banquet held by an ordinary count.

A familiar face suddenly approached among those who were curious about his purpose for coming but could not approach hastily. It was Artal, the archmage of the royal palace.

“Prince2?Magnus, I didn’t expect to see you at the banquet.”

“It has been a long time. Are you in good health?”

“Yes. The herbal medicine from Hagra that you sent me the other day was well received. Thanks to..”

The archmage’s grinning face crumpled when he started grumbling about his body. Nigel opened his information window while half listening to Artal.

Currently, he was an old man who rubbed his hands and stuck to promising young mages, but when he was young, he had killed hundreds of soldiers at once and at least thousands of soldiers during the war by blasting the ultimate magic Meteor Storm and was the main protagonist who drove them to victory.

He was a pretty strong mage.. He could certainly compare the level of Inas’ magic. Perhaps [Master] might not be that big of a deal..

Low.

Nigel shut his mouth at the unexpected stats. He was said to be the greatest mage in the continent, but this was low. Too low.

What the fuck was this?3

Nigel barely suppressed the frank emotions that were about to come out of his mouth. An archmage’s skill only at level 2? The man who had won them the war with his magic was in fact so insignificant. Artal glanced at Nigel, who had clenched his mouth shut, and seeming to sense that something was wrong, he backed away.

Nigel, who chased away any approaching person with his eyes, went to the corner of the banquet hall and looked around with his arms crossed. Inas seemed to be away for a while.

Scanning the banquet hall, Nigel thought about Artal’s level. There was no way Artal was incompetent. It was thanks to the war that these days mages who reveal their wealth and glories were still treated as public servants. Although he looked pathetic, Artal was a real archmage. And a high level one, at that.

His Meteor Storm was only level 2, but in war, he managed to kill hundreds of people with one magic shot. So, how powerful would Meteor Storm be at level 100?

He had no idea. Confused, Nigel looked around for Inas and finally found the man coming out of a terrace.

Inas was talking to a red-haired boy. The boy with red hair and blue eyes showed deep respect for Inas, and Inas casually listened to the boy’s words.

He had been engulfed in fear a little while ago, but now Nigel’s heart burned with jealousy.

It was surprising that Inas, who didn’t like banquets as much as Nigel, was hanging out with others, and it was also shocking that Inas was having such a pleasant conversation with a boy who was about 17 years old.

At that moment, the sound of people talking was heard in Nigel’s ear.

“Is that the boy who solved the disappearance case in Count Rudio’s estate?”

“I heard that he’s an ordinary adventurer who’s on a journey..”

“You said that he saved Count Rudio’s daughter, then wouldn’t the count hire him as a knight?”

“Since he’s been invited up to this point, he might be thinking of at least sponsoring him.”

As soon as he heard the story, he understood the situation. Last time, and this time too. He heard that an accident, which almost turned into a big deal, had been solved by an adventurer’s party, and that boy seemed to be the adventurer.

Nigel tried not to be jealous. Encouragement towards young adventurers who had done good deeds. Indeed, that was an attitude of a knight who set an example for others. He didn’t have to worry about weird things. In the first place, the boy, who was nothing more than a commoner, was no match for Nigel.

“..”

Could he be a match?

Nigel opened his status window.

Single digits. MP that was pretty much at the lowest and HP which was lower than the archmage, who was now an old man4. Without his family, he had such a low stats that it would be difficult for him to survive alone. Stats weren’t very important for Duke Nigel, but having his horribly low stamina and mana quantified was honestly quite shameful. At the same time, he felt nervous.

In fact, maybe Inas got tired of protecting his overly weak master? He had heard quite a few stories of knights who admired a strong master and worshipped him. Inas was a loyal swordsman, but at the same time he was a strong knight. He might not be satisfied with the role of an escort knight for a weak master.

“Ugh..”

Thinking about it that way, he was terrified. What if Inas got fed up with Nigel and killed him to make a fresh start?

Nigel drove the terrible image out of his head. It was an excessive assumption. Above all, Inas still had a friendly face even when he killed Nigel.

First, Nigel decided to check the boy’s information window to find out about his opponent. Knowing your enemy is the most basic step in strategy.

An information window appeared in front of Nigel’s eyes.

There were strange words.

T/N:

I’ve gone through the 3 free chapters + 1 chapter using a free ticket, so from now on updates will come in 3-4 days at the earliest. It’s a different story if I buy chapters, but I don’t really have the money. Might open for donations later but we’ll see.

1?Papago and google translated the word as cannabis (lol) and anti-magic. Considering the context that these seemed to be special types of magic (think of Comet or Ultima from Final Fantasy 7), I decided to call them ultimate magic for now.

2?Nigel isn’t really a prince (as far as I’m aware) but it’s more of his position as the Duke of Magnus that makes his status kinda equivalent to a prince. It just shows how powerful the duchy is in the kingdom.

3?Here Nigel said ?? ? ?? ???. The word ?? itself is kind a rude way of calling someone (eg. bastard), and I don’t know if adding the ? changes the meaning, but gtl translated the sentence to ‘what the fuck are you doing’. It didn’t make much sense to me for Nigel to curse the archmage all of a sudden, so I altered the sentence so it’d make a little more sense. Once again, feel free to correct me.

4?This sentence translated weirdly, but basically he was trying to compare how shitty his stats were. Using the archmage as a comparison for HP because I think the general knowledge is that mages have low HP and high MP, and since the archmage is an old man that means his stats isn’t exactly in his prime. Yet Nigel’s own stats is still way lower than that lol.