Chapter 45
Chapter 45
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: How to Steal the Protagonist's Woman
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Luna stood there covering her mouth with her hand, unable to shut it.
Before coming to Schutra, she had met several magicians and witnessed their spells firsthand.
Fierce yet flashy fire magic, wind magic that flowed with the rhythm of nature, soft yet heavy water magic, earth magic boasting tremendous destructive power.
She couldn't cast such spells herself, but she could feel their effects indirectly.
They certainly weren't overwhelmingly powerful.
One could dismiss it as merely embedding a steel ball into an iron plate.
But if that were fired directly at a person, no one would be laughing it off.
No, she was starting to doubt if it even was magic.
There hadn't been any visible magic circle.
'No, I definitely saw something earlier.'
Luna hadn't seen it clearly, but she had caught a glimpse of something yellow glowing.
However, the magic circle—about the size of a coin from that distance—was too small for her eyes to make out.
Luna deliberately made her footsteps audible as she approached Seong Suho.
"Oh?"
"Um... I forgot to give you the key earlier."
"Ah..."
Seong Suho glanced at her with a hint of wariness.
He wore an expression like he'd been caught in a moment he didn't want anyone seeing.
That made Luna pout again.
'He still doesn't trust me.'
Even as she thought that, she recalled yesterday's events.
Women who expected full understanding without saying a word.
Luna didn't want to become one of those women.
"...I didn't mean to peek on purpose."
"Seeing it is fine."
"...?"
"But are your ears okay? This thing is so loud, it could damage them."
Seong Suho was pulling something out of his ears.
Luna thought to herself.
'...I was the one who wasn't trusted.'
She felt apologetic, yet a pleasant warmth began to spread.
"I'm fine. I'll just leave the key on the desk here. Keep up the good work."
"Sure~. See you later."
"...Yeah."
Even though evening hadn't arrived yet, Luna left the practice room with her heart fluttering.
"...When did she show up?"
I muttered to myself.
When I was flicking the steel balls, it was so damn loud that I'd bought some Enel earplugs and stuck them in.
I happened to spot Luna in my peripheral vision and realized she was there.
"Nah, she's not gonna go blabbing about it somewhere."
"True... a half-baked emotional type would be a real pain."
Luna herself wasn't the issue.
The real problem was Louis.
Sure, Louis liked Luna, but there was no guarantee he wouldn't look elsewhere.
For instance, the guy had a history of hitting on Sonya.
Once Luna was out of the picture, he might very well turn his eyes to another woman.
That would force me to seduce someone else, and if Luna turned yandere over it, I'd be in deep shit.
If she started blabbing about my abilities, it would seriously derail the mission.
"Got it. I'll be careful."
I locked the practice room door and moved on to testing with a proper-sized magic circle.
The result? Less power than before, but I could use it multiple times now.
"Armonia, if I exhaust all my mana and want to refill it, how much Enel would that cost?"
Good news. That wasn't too bad expense-wise.
But Armonia's next words crushed my expectations.
"What? Why?"
"Then how much to recover from mana exhaustion? Last time, healing my cracked rib didn't cost much."
Viola's "attack" (??) had cracked my rib before, but it healed in one go.
I figured treatment during this would be no issue.
But...
"What!? Why so expensive?!"
Thinking back, the day I experienced mana exhaustion, I spent the whole time in a listless stupor, barely scraping through the day.
In the end, mana recharges were limited to once per day.
And...
"This thing... is straight-up bullshit..."
Thanks to my mental breakdown from mana exhaustion last time, I'd overlooked this skill entirely.
Simply put, it was aim assist.
Before Luna arrived, I'd flicked steel balls purely with finger strength—no magic circle—and hit every shot.
The limit was my middle finger power (FP), so distant targets were out of reach.
"Ah..."
I puffed out my chest proudly and declared,
"Middle Finger Power! Short for Fuck Power! Cool, right?"
What? Got a problem?
The pre-Luna flicks were practice shots to test it out.
I roughly aimed, closed my eyes, fired—and nailed exactly where I wanted.
It wasn't vision-related; purely hand coordination.
In other words, as long as I could see the target, I could flick and hit precisely.
"Oh! Make me one of those superconductor rounds you mentioned."
With Armonia's response, a gleaming silver bullet appeared in my hand.
Pointed tip, just like the bullets I knew well.
Perfect size—seemed easier to flick than steel balls.
"Nice, thorough as always. Alright, let's do a few more."
I pocketed the Enel bullet and resumed practice with steel balls.
I sat on the terrace chair, gazing at the sunset as usual.
It was still too early to call it a sunset—the sun hadn't lost its vigor yet.
Unlike weekdays, students were chatting amiably around me.
The weekend vibe was distinctly different.
"Weekends are too conspicuous to hang out together."
...Was that a subtle dig? Nah, probably imagining it.
"Sticking with Luna will start rumors for sure. Better stay low-key until she's fully on board."
I wasn't worried at all. Same for Luna, I thought.
But rumors from an ambiguous relationship could be a huge boon—or backfire spectacularly.
Above all, Luna wasn't my real target.
"That loser's the type who responds best to a big, decisive blow."
NTL comes in many flavors, but boils down to two categories.
Slowly stabbing with a dagger, or blasting with a shotgun for style points.
In my view, Louis was shotgun material.
The dagger approach shines without prior romantic feelings—didn't fit Louis.
From my experience (game-wise, not real life), the less you get caught, the further you progress.
Even after fully conquering Luna, staying hidden is key to smashing the loser.
"By the way, Armonia."
"You said missions go beyond Schutra. How do you plan to cover for me here?"
I'd wondered before, but blindly vanishing was impossible no matter how I sliced it.
"Results, huh..."
Pondering how to rack up those "results," I felt nearby female students' gazes.
Not on me—on something on my table.
I glanced at the makeup box beside my chair.
Intricate, beautiful patterns covered it densely; even I, a guy, couldn't look away.
The girls whispered among themselves, eyes glued to the box.
"Guess this thing's the real deal."
I cracked it open slightly.
Inside were tons of items whose purposes I couldn't even guess.
I closed it again.
"How does a box hold so much stuff...? I'm scared I'll mess up the arrangement just by opening it."
She sounded surprisingly knowledgeable.
"Oh... You used to do makeup?"
"What!?"
My yell-like outburst drew every eye on the terrace to me.
I scanned around, cleared my throat, and pretended to stare into space innocently.
People glanced, then resumed their chats.
"...Never thought Armonia did makeup."
"Why not now?"
"...Right."
I occasionally prodded at Armonia's past out of curiosity, but didn't push when she stonewalled.
...I'll drag it all out during our eventual physical chats.
Shelving Armonia thoughts, I recalled the practice room session.
"This is a problem..."
Flick practice revealed a few issues.
"Gonna need some brain attribute studying."
The magic circles I could use were limited to what I'd learned in revival class and those in the practice room manuals.
Luckily, no issues for current use, but optimizing efficiency required study.
Problem was, I had zero clue how to start.
No foundational knowledge at all.
"Just pumping brain attribute won't cut it, right?"
"No stored knowledge databases or anything?"
Not precise calculations, but creative invention—that was the hurdle.
I used to scoff at studying, but circumstances changed.
Flicks were undeniably useful; mastering them meant brain attribute study was essential.
As I mulled it over, one person came to mind.
"Professor Sonya!"
Compared to elderly profs or specialists, her skills might lag—but that's prof level.
For a student like me, she should suffice.
No specialist profs anyway...
Most importantly, she had affection for it.
Kept the club going, respected the late brain attribute prof.
......And affection for me.
Affection reminded me of last night.
"Haa... Going all night really drained me."
"Sleeping together counts too."
Clang!
Suddenly, glass shattering behind me pierced my eardrums like a scream.
"Huh?"
I whipped around in shock, and what entered my view was...
"Th... uh... th... that..."
Luna, staring at me in horror.