Chapter 65
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 64
Chapter Title: I Became a Time-Limited (Not) Genius (3)
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The moment I entered the dungeon with Yuria.
As expected, I could feel power overflowing through my entire body.
The dungeon's trait, which was supposed to apply only to monsters. The enhancement was taking effect on me as well.
"Yuria. Don't you feel like your power's just surging when you enter the dungeon?"
"Oppa. What, you think I'm a monster? Or... are you beating around the bush about how your little sister's so pretty and sexy that she must actually be a succubus??"
"I just meant you're excited at the thought of fighting monsters."
"......Ah."
Yuria scratched her head sheepishly. I quickly checked her condition, but there was no sense of her presence growing stronger or anything like that.
Of course, now that we'd entered the dungeon, she was more tense than usual, so her vibe was sharper...... but the scale of her power felt exactly the same.
It seemed Yuria wasn't affected by the dungeon like I was.
......Even thinking about it now, it still didn't make sense. Why was I getting the dungeon's support?
From what I'd barely pieced together while clinging to life thanks to Igni, my bloodline ability was something that applied to the body itself.
Powerful enough—like a dragon in hibernation—to evolve on its own.
Maybe this very adaptability was the bloodline ability itself.
I couldn't be certain either way because there was no perfect way to explain it.
Most of the power I wielded had been gained by sheer grit and malice through deadly crises. Even if I had some unidentified bloodline ability, it probably wasn't directly related.
At best, some indirect influence. Or none at all.
The one additional clue was that the dungeon was judging me as a monster......
Was that connected somehow?
"Yuria?"
"What's up, Oppa?"
"Superhuman physical prowess, solar mana, massive aura. Take all that away—what's left of me?"
"Handsome face, dangerous aura, huge package?"
I flinched for a moment at Yuria's instant reply.
"......You haven't even seen the last one."
"Ehehe. When Oppa passed out......"
Kwang!
"Ack! What, what is it! I hit through the protector—why does it hurt so much?!"
"Because armor doesn't perfectly block impact. Hit it right, and the shock circulates inside, amplifying itself. Piece of cake."
"Tch...... Never even heard of a technique like that at the academy......"
Of course. Assassins use it.
After grumbling for a while, Yuria pouted her lips.
"Anyway, that was a joke. Just something I said 'cause Zahav men have always been hung like that, generation after generation."
"Huh."
If I'd been average-sized, I'd have been suspected as a fake right then, huh?
Today, I decided to be grateful to my faceless father.
Still, I'd poked at Yuria out of frustration, but as expected, no useful answer came back.
Though I did learn one thing.
Yuria had reacted like she'd never even considered the idea of a non-monster human getting stronger in a dungeon.
Which made sense—House Zahav had managed dungeons for over a millennium, and this had never happened before.
In other words, no matter what else, I had to be careful not to let slip that I gained power from the dungeon.
"Whew."
Zahav soldiers now wore serious expressions amid the completed stockades and simple field fortifications.
I gave them a casual wave before properly diving into the dungeon with Yuria.
"Whew. Now I feel alive."
Since the goal was management, not conquest, we didn't venture too deep.
I had no desire to provoke whoever that "person" Shakar had mentioned, either.
Instead, we hunted monsters at just the right depth, and I occasionally offered pointers on Yuria's fighting style.
A somewhat plain but deeply rewarding time.
Maybe because the dungeon had buffed me, or just from moving around, my slightly stiff body had fully recovered.
Now I was confident I could rampage my mana once without any real aftereffects.
Of course, assuming Igni's fang was fully charged.
I'd used up all of Igni's mana, so from here on, I'd have to fill it with my own aura.
As I rolled my shoulders with a grin, Yuria—who was filthy with monster blood and chunks of flesh—glared at me.
"Not human......"
"No, those were all things you could do."
"Humans can't move like that, Oppa......"
She was the one who'd asked me to watch her fight first, but who'd have thought she'd shoot me resentful looks after I pushed her just a little.
Unfair. I'd tailored it all to her level so she could handle it.
......Actually, now that I thought about it, back in Calypso, one of the orphan crew had wanted to get stronger, so I'd trained him—and gotten the exact same complaint.
For a moment, I wondered if my methods were a bit too harsh.
Unlike usual, Yuria wasn't clinging to me or humming happily. She trudged straight back to the inner keep, utterly spent.
If I ended up going into the dungeon with Yuria again, I'd think about it then.
After that, I gave myself a quick wash and changed clothes before heading to the dining hall to fill my ravenous stomach.
For some reason, a few maids whispering as they saw me caught my attention.
Human instinct—when it feels like someone's talking behind your back, curiosity kicks in. I subtly heightened my senses without showing it and eavesdropped on their whispers.
"If Lady Jevella's gone to such lengths to prepare...... the rumors must be true? Time-limited life? That can't be......"
"Nah. More like she's really determined today? The lord seems oddly uninterested in that sort of thing."
"True. ......Maybe he likes men?"
"No way. Look at the people the lord keeps around—all women? He likes women, sure, but...... maybe he has peculiar tastes."
"Peculiar how?"
"Likes things Lady Jevella and Lady Yuria lack. Like only married women, or other races, or......"
"Or?"
"Or maybe he just likes making women squirm?"
The two maids exchanged those words in tiny voices while politely bowing to me.
Hardly moving their lips, keeping their voices to the bare minimum—it was impressive in its own way.
Especially since no other Zahavs had noticed so far.
Though to me, who'd grown much stronger lately, it was all crystal clear.
Anyway, Jevella had prepared something. Whatever it was, it didn't seem bad for me, so I felt a flicker of anticipation.
Heart pounding, I arrived at the dining hall. Probably because I'd notified them of my arrival time, the table was laden with steaming-hot food......
Every single dish radiated intense energy. Like they were elixirs themselves.
"Sis......? What the hell is all this......?"
"Right on time, Enoch. Come, sit. They say it's best before it cools."
"No, what is all this stuff?"
I blinked and pointed at the table. There, cooked to perfection, were familiar sights I'd scraped together from Calypso's black market.
Giant humanoid-root stir-fry, a whole crimson fish steamed and served in a stone bowl, salad featuring fingernail-sized but ruby-lustrous fruits, and more.
Mandragora, magma fish, flare berries, etc.
From merely famous tonics to rare ingredients treated as full elixirs.
Some I recognized, some I didn't—but what was clear was that the table brimmed with all manner of body-boosting flora and fauna.
It was enough to startle even me, who'd once scoured all of Calypso, shoveling down anything remotely beneficial amid my human experimentation side effects.
And judging by the energy they gave off, it wasn't just mana-rich—they were all infused with fire-attribute mana.
In other words, foods known for their abundant yang energy, or for stimulating it.
Only then did the maids' words make sense.
Anyone would see it as the work of someone dead-set on their goal—or desperately trying to prolong a dying man's life.
"Jevella sis."
"Don't give me that look. You've been through a lot lately, so I prepared this hoping it'd help even a little."
"I don't need this much...... Hell, gathering this quantity must've cost a fortune. How much did you spend?"
"About 900,000 gold? But it's an investment in you—no one will mind. It's from the money you earned in the first place."
"No......"
I'd brought in 2 million gold, and now 900,000 was vanishing in one meal.
Of course, they'd calculated that the remaining 1.1 million was plenty.
But I still couldn't shake the feeling it was overkill.
Strange. Just a few months ago, I'd have hunted down anything good for the body and crammed it down my throat.
Yet now, faced with this spread of elixirs and tonics, I felt it was wasteful.
......I could guess the reason.
I wasn't just responsible for myself anymore.
I'd decided to live as Enoch Zahav, and 900,000 gold was more vital to the territory than my already stable body.
A mindset born of thinking of Zahav lands as my own.
......Conversely, the reason Jevella went this far was probably because she saw me as the head of House Zahav.
The deep-rooted custom of revering the strong in the south. House Zahav stood at its center—and its pinnacle.
It wasn't odd for them to shower me with it when they had surplus.
So I could grow stronger and protect everyone from greater threats.
The structure where all southern resources flowed to the powerful.
In a world of superhumans, it might be an excellent survival strategy.
But.
"Jevella sis. I entrusted you with internal affairs, but for expenditures this big, at least consult me first."
"S-sorry...... Are you mad?"
"Not mad. Just...... it's a waste."
"A waste? What's lacking? There shouldn't be......"
"It's not lacking—it's excessive. With 900,000 gold, there are so many other things we could do."
"You had other plans you wanted to try, then."
"Nothing set in stone, but yeah, a few experiments I wanted to run."
I let out a deep sigh and began listing the things I'd pondered while staying in the south—the incomprehensible or regrettable aspects.
"The south's economy is way too unstable right now. The fertile land makes farming thrive, and fruits are a specialty crop...... but it's still not enough to cover dungeon management costs."