Player 0.4 [You have died.] [Reset in progress.]

“Is it true you completed Augustus’ test in under ten minutes?”

“I heard you haven’t accepted the offer yet—what are you holding out for?”

“I’m specializing in Magical Contract Studies,” someone added eagerly. “If you want help negotiating terms, I’d be happy to review the offer.”

My classmates surrounded my desk from all sides, barraging me with questions.

News of the internship offer had somehow spread like wildfire across the campus. I barely managed to down my breakfast and get to my class on time.

Whatever reputation and rumors that had previously prevented students from casually approaching me, they were evidently no longer barriers in the wake of this newfound curiosity.

“Quiet down, class.” A bright and almost amused voice sounded from the doorway.

Despite the pleasant ring to it, the crowd dispersed instantly upon hearing it.

I recognized it as well; it was the youngest professor who had sat in for my entrance exam: Professor Hira Brennan.

She strode into the room, her heels clinking against the stone floor and her crimson hair flowing down from beneath the exaggeratedly large, pointed black hat.

Since enrolling at the academy, I had come to learn that she was an exceptionally powerful fire mage. A prodigy, even. However, the course I was in was not one of her famous combat courses, but a history course she taught on military strategies and tactics.

I had purposefully enrolled in her class, finding the subject of great interest.

While I had diligently attended Professor Whistle’s lectures in my own realm on past wars and the strategies used, that knowledge was not unique. My opponent also likely had access to insights regarding the various wars and conflicts that occurred in our realm.

The Science and Art of Warfare course was thus the perfect opportunity for me to study successful tactics deployed in a realm that was full of overwhelmingly powerful mages. And for better or for worse, they had experienced countless all-out wars.

“I know you’re all very excited given your classmate’s accomplishment,” Professor Brennan continued, her red lips curving slightly, “but we do have a lesson to get through. However, I believe today’s topic will be particularly relevant.”

She motioned toward the board with her index finger, whose nail was nearly as long as my pen and about as pointy. Words materialized across the board in glowing script: The Achievements of the RRM in the Modern Era.

Excited voices rose around me. This was evidently a topic of great interest for the class, myself included.

“There’s one mage whose unique battle tactics we'll focus on most,” she added.

Her eyes flicked toward me, and she winked.

“Augustus Vointdel, the youngest RRM to obtain Tier One rank.” 

A loud murmur rippled through the room. Several heads turned toward me.

~Master, it looks like you’ll finally learn exactly who that mage is.

***

Professor Brennan may have begun the class by mentioning the most famous mage within the RRM, but nearly half the class had passed without another mention of Augustus.

Instead, the half-dozen blackboards behind her had slowly filled with diagrams and sketches of battle lines, rivers cutting across valleys, and clusters of small red crosses marking where the RRM had clashed with opposing forces. Each new example appeared with a flick of her finger, the glowing ink rearranging itself as she walked the room.

So far, the lecture had focused on the campaigns the RRM had fought over the last half-century. Not merely their victories, as the lesson title suggested, but also the battles where they had failed miserably.

Professor Brennan stopped beside the newest of the diagrams: a small farming village drawn at the intersection of two roads and bordered by a river bend.

“Can anyone tell me,” she asked, tapping the drawn village with one long nail, “why the RRM failed to retain control of this settlement?”

A few students leaned forward, studying the board. Others flipped through their textbooks. No one spoke up. That was understandable. As with Professor Sullivan, providing the wrong answer resulted in points being lost.

But despite that, my hand went up.

Professor Brennan noticed immediately.

“Luca Frey… again?” she said, arching one brow. Her gaze swept the room, but there were no other volunteers.

“Very well.” She gestured toward me with a flick of her fingers. “Enlighten the class.”

I cleared my throat and began speaking.

“They treated the village as a logistical asset rather than a population.”

The drawn map on the board shifted slightly behind the professor, by her command, enlarging the roads leading into the settlement.

“The RRM secured the roads and stationed their forces along the river to control supply movement. From a purely strategic standpoint, the position was ideal.” I pointed toward the diagram, and the professor highlighted the regions with her magic. “But they failed to account for the human element.”

Several students looked toward the board and me.

“The villagers’ livelihoods were disrupted the moment the RRM arrived. Crops could not be attended to. Movement was restricted. And the presence of armed mages made the settlement uneasy.”

I paused.

“In other words, the villagers had little incentive to support the occupying force, even if it was from their own kingdom. For all intended purposes, the RRM were strangers. This left a gaping hole for the enemy to make use of.”  

A few murmurs passed through the room.

Professor Brennan nodded her head slightly. “Continue.”

“With the population alienated,” I said, “information would inevitably flow outward via gossip and grievances. Enemy scouts wouldn’t even have to infiltrate the village themselves to gather what they needed.”

I gestured once more to the board.

“The RRM controlled the battlefield,” I concluded, “but they failed to control the loyalties of the people living on it. That created an intelligence leak large enough for the enemy to exploit.”

Silence filled the classroom, as if everyone was holding their breath.

But then Professor Brennan smiled. “Precisely.”

With a flick of her hand, the map shifted again. Small red crosses appeared along the outskirts of the village, marking enemy ambush points.

“The RRM agents believed securing the terrain was sufficient,” she said, pacing slowly across the front of the classroom, her heels clicking sharply against the stone. “But wars are not fought on land alone.”

Her gaze swept across the rows of students.

“They are fought among the people who live on it.”

She tapped the board again.

“That means human emotions—fear, resentment, loyalty—are factors every strategist must account for.” She tilted her head slightly. “And those forces rarely obey logic or self-preservation.”

A few students nodded while others hurried to keep up with their notes.

“To ignore that inconvenient reality,” she continued, “is to invite precisely what happened here.”

Her finger traced the supply routes leading into the village. One by one, they cut off before reaching the village.

“The RRM’s supply lines collapsed overnight.”

The sound of frantic scribbling filled the room.

Professor Brennan turned back toward me, a spark of amusement in her eyes.

“Excellent analysis, Luca Frey. If I didn’t know any better, I might think you’d had practical experience on the battlefield.”

I felt blood shoot up to my face.

She wasn’t entirely wrong. This was the one class I didn’t require Apophis’ help with. I had practical experience fighting on the battlefield before. And as the son of a merchant, I had seen firsthand how easily people abandoned reason when emotions were involved.

Not to mention the countless wars I had already studied.

“No wonder Augustus wants him as an intern…”

The whisper came from somewhere behind me. I wasn’t the only one who heard it.

“Shall we move on to the accomplishments of Augustus Vointdel?” Professor Brennan said smoothly.

A ripple of interest spread across the classroom.

But not everyone shared the enthusiasm.

From my right, a thin boy with curly brown hair and a freckled face muttered under his breath, “Augustus this… Augustus that…”

He leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, and looked my way.

“Honestly, I’m not surprised you turned down his internship.”

That caught my attention.

“What do you mean?” I asked quietly. I didn’t bother correcting him.

The boy lowered his voice further. “My cousin was his dorm roommate for nearly five years. According to him, Augustus is nothing more than a fraud.”

~A fraud who reached Tier One of the Royal Mage ranks? That seems improbable, Apophis snickered.

I had to agree.

Luck and deception could only carry someone so far. And I had already seen Augustus’s magic firsthand. He was the real deal.

Still, hearing a less flattering version of him was… interesting.

“What did your cousin discover?” I asked.

The boy scoffed.

“Everyone says Augustus has a mana core of over three hundred belden,” he said. “But that’s a lie.”

“A lie?” I prompted.

“It was written off as a measurement error later,” he explained, “but my cousin saw the original evaluation himself. Augustus’s mana core was only seventy-three.”

“Only seventy-three? That makes no sense.” I frowned.

“Of course it doesn’t,” the boy said. “The device used to measure mana cores today? Augustus’s best friend developed it. And guess whose core suddenly jumped from the seventies to over three hundred once that device appeared?”

He gave a small shrug.

“Coincidence? I doubt it,” he said.

I tilted my head. “So you’re saying his core was measured in the seventies when he was younger… and later measured above three-hundred with the new device?” 

“Exactly.” The boy snorted. “Unless he somehow managed to grow his mana core.”

He laughed under his breath. “Hah! As if that’s even possible. That’s why he refuses to have his mana core remeasured.”

I didn’t laugh.

Instead, my thoughts drifted to something that Apophis stated a few days back in the dining hall regarding mana-rich food… and the possibility of a mana core increasing over time.

Perhaps Augustus hadn’t falsified anything at all.

Perhaps he had simply discovered something everyone else believed to be impossible.

I knew that even back in my realm, Claude Noire had produced a method to increase one’s mana core. Not that anyone would ever willingly undergo the procedure. However, what if there was a method of increasing one’s mana core without any of the torturous elements?

If that was possible… Then that internship was well worth a proper discussion and negotiation.

But first, I needed to see Augustus in person to confirm that he was what I hoped he was.

***

The royal palace was larger than any other I’d seen in my realm. Uselessly large in my opinion. It sat on grounds, with the gates and the actual palace a good half-hour walk apart.

A pair of guards stood watch at the outer gate.

“How can I assist you?” one of them asked as I approached.

“I was told to present this.” I held out the small token Augustus had given me.

The guard’s expression changed instantly.

His eyes widened momentarily. “One moment.”

He then turned away and tapped a small communication device strapped around his wrist. 

“Yes… understood,” he murmured after a brief pause.

The guard faced me again.

“Please follow me inside, Luca Frey.”

I blinked.

Apparently, the token alone was enough for him to identify me.

I suppose Augustus doesn’t hand these out to anyone.

The palace grounds were even more extravagant than the exterior had suggested—and significantly more annoying.

By the time we passed the third garden of pruned flower bushes, the tenth marble statue of a long-dead monarch, and a set of magically suspended upside-down fountains that existed purely for spectacle, I had worked up a light sweat.

If this procession was meant to impress visitors with the magnificence of the royal family, it was doing a poor job.

All it accomplished was to exhaust me.

It all felt particularly unnecessary in a realm where teleportation magic clearly existed, and magic was used freely for the most trivial of matters.

Servants moved quietly along the stone paths, their gazes lowered. A few nobles paused mid-conversation to glance at me with mild curiosity as I finally entered the palace itself.

Unfortunately, the walking did not end there.

The guard had me climb up staircases, cross long corridors, and pass towering oil paintings of solemn-looking kings and queens. Eventually, the guard stopped before a heavy wooden door fitted with a large golden handle.

After the long walk to reach this room, I sincerely hoped the man on the other side was worth the journey.

“Luca Frey is here,” the guard announced, pushing open the door.

Inside the room stood the blonde mage himself, rising from a large armchair. Augustus’ expression brightened when he saw me.

“Luca Frey,” he said with a welcoming smile. “I am pleased to see you so soon.”

I nodded in return. “It’s good to see you.”

But I had something more pressing than pleasantries.

[[ Apophis, can you approximate the size of his mana core? ]]

At the same time, my right hand’s fingers moved, activating the Random Character Check.

Apophis’s laughter echoed through my mind.

~Master… Augustus has good reason to avoid mana core measurement devices.

The snake’s voice dripped with amusement.

~Because his mana core is already far beyond three hundred.

My eyes widened at this insight.

~It is slightly over four hundred.

Moreover, the Random Character Checker had rolled to a stop, revealing one more detail.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!