Leveling Up Again (Part 3)
Unable to hold back her fury after the Crown Prince hurled endless curses at Adrian, Catherine’s face drained of all color.
She quickly scanned the area, eyes darting around to make sure no one else had overheard.
The temporary tea table set up in the training grounds was thankfully deserted—only the three of them remained.
“Adrian, what if something happens?”
Catherine’s voice trembled with worry as she slipped back into her old habit of addressing him as “Your Highness,” instead of his name.
Arsia’s reaction was even more unyielding than Adrian’s.
“I hate the way the prince looks at you. I don’t want to be involved, so get lost.”
Arsia’s icy, robotic tone cooled Adrian’s temper for a moment, but the absurdity of the situation left him unable to hide his surprise.
Was the prince really trying to pick a fight with me?
“Your Highness, even the marquis…”
Catherine had only served as Arsia’s dedicated maid for three days, yet she had already sensed the dangerous obsession burning in the prince’s eyes.
Adrian weighed his options, the sight of Catherine’s anxious face and Arsia’s fierce refusal settling into his mind.
“Bring him here.”
“Pardon?”
“That errand boy—send him over.”
“Understood.”
Catherine hesitated, clearly puzzled by his request, but soon she turned and walked back the way she had come.
A moment later.
“I bring greetings from Count Klein.”
And… “Heh!” From Marquis Lawrence?”
After the territory conquest, this man had earned a fearsome reputation, but now he approached Arsia with a fawning smile before freezing the instant he spotted Adrian.
His uniform bore the insignia of a royal knight, yet here he was, running personal errands for a prince.
Disgust filled Adrian’s face, while the knight fidgeted nervously, glancing at Arsia for help.
Arsia, however, showed no interest whatsoever.
Her eyes were fixed entirely on the giant cheese cake Adrian had specially ordered for her.
What a ridiculous fool.
When had he started acting like this toward Arsia?
“What brings you here? Speak your business.”
His words sounded soft when spoken politely, but the tone carried the chill of Brigham Empire ice and the sharpness of a razor blade.
He froze, then flinched violently when Adrian tapped the table with a finger.
“Prince Luke Win Lheinhatz has invited you to dinner and sends this flower.”
With that, he produced a lavish bouquet from his spatial ring—far too ostentatious for a low noble to display.
It was crafted entirely from gold and jewels.
“Give it to me.”
Adrian snatched the bouquet and handed it to Arsia, who was still happily munching cake.
She accepted the metal lump with a puzzled tilt of her head, then immediately handed it back.
A classic example of learned behavior.
Since Adrian stored his spatial ring contents in his personal inventory, she had instinctively returned it.
Adrian tucked the bouquet away without a second thought.
He would sell it off later in the capital and make a show of it.
“T-that is meant for Count Klein, my lord…”
“I delivered it. And the count sent it back. What’s the issue?”
“N-no, my apologies.”
He swallowed hard, his gaze burning with intensity as he stared at Arsia.
She merely tilted her head, waiting for an explanation.
“I would like an answer regarding the dinner invitation.”
“What about you, Lord Adrian?”
“The prince only invited Count Klein.”
“Then I decline.”
“A-ah, Your Highness, please reconsider…”
Was this prince’s loyal lackey? The man was annoyingly persistent.
Adrian tapped the table again with his finger, locking eyes with him.
“What is your family? I heard that a royal knight requires strong backing. Is that true?”
“My family… why do you ask that?”
Adrian smiled gently. “If I decide to bring my Sky Fortress here and raze your entire house to the ground, would you mind? Have you seen the news?”
“…!”
“Still, I can’t cut down a prince’s errand boy’s head, so how about I slice off the heads of your parents instead?”
It was a sudden, absurd threat, but the knight clearly saw Adrian as someone who could actually carry it out.
His face turned ghostly pale, as if already dead.
“From now on, if anyone makes an unpleasant suggestion to Arsia, I won’t stand idly by.”
“But I am acting on His Highness’s orders…”
“I am the one who is displeased. Do I need to consider your feelings too?”
He stepped closer, placing a hand on the knight’s shoulder.
The man flinched violently at the warning, then swallowed again and looked away.
“Return and tell the prince everything exactly as it is.”
Adrian’s voice dropped to a whisper only the knight could hear.
“I hope we can continue this relationship smoothly. But if you provoke me any further, I may lose control. To be clear, she belongs to me.”
A brief show of courtesy, yet the threat was unmistakable.
The royal knight swallowed hard, terrified of what he had just heard.
“S-so… I should tell him that, as is?”
“Yes. Not a single word changed.”
Even a marquis like Adrian faced danger for such audacity against a second prince backed by royal authority.
He would undoubtedly be labeled a madman or a mad dog in the prince’s eyes.
And that reputation would only grow stronger.
Adrian flashed a warm smile and issued a dismissal.
“Not leaving?”
“W-what?”
“Why not? Tell me your family name. Or shall I just look it up myself…”
“It has been an honor to meet you, Your Highness! Then I will take my leave!”
The knight fled without another word.
“So you were always like this?”
Catherine stared at Adrian in shock.
“I’m cold to my enemies.”
“Enemies? Do you mean the prince?”
Adrian laughed softly, tilting his head as he studied Arsia’s wide-eyed, blushing expression.
* * *
“He really said that?”
“Y-yes. His eyes were completely serious.”
“Tsk. Marquis Lawrence, you seem to have missed the point. You may leave now.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
In the Lheinhatz Kingdom, Crown Prince Luke Win Lheinhatz dismissed the royal knight who had served as his errand boy and furrowed his brow.
His most trusted advisor and core noble, Marquis Hamilton, the Auditor General, spoke cautiously.
“Your Highness, it seems it is time to withdraw. Provoking Marquis Lawrence further is unwise.”
“What?”
“If you truly desire her, why not wait until after you claim the throne?”
Luke’s face hardened with displeasure.
He turned his head to glare at Hamilton.
“Marquis Hamilton.”
“Y-yes?”
“That is an excellent idea.”
“A-ah, yes.”
Marquis Hamilton sighed in relief behind Luke’s back.
The reason Luke pursued Adrian was obvious even to a fool—two Aura Masters, one young and beautiful.
But now was not the time for open emotional conflict.
Internal fractures could shatter the kingdom before the royal power struggle began in earnest.
Marquis Lawrence was a ticking time bomb he could not afford to detonate yet.
For months Luke had lived in constant dread, fearing that the marquis would explode with rage.
Now, at least this way, the matter could be put to rest.
Once Luke became king, he could do whatever he wanted.
“I never thought my eyes would wander like this.”
“It would be best to apologize for the past.”
“You mean I should calm Marquis Lawrence down first?”
“Yes. The unruly Marquis Lawrence must be educated, but now is not the time.”
“There is no choice.”
Luke had never truly considered the matter serious.
Adrian and Arsia were not even married yet, and noble women had many affairs after marriage anyway.
He would simply endure for the sake of true pleasure.
“I have one more reason to become king.”
“You will become king, Your Highness.”
A subject should be willing to lay down his life for his lord.
Yet here you are, obsessed with a woman and growling at your master?
Luke believed all of this was simply because he was not yet king.
Of course, to Adrian—the man who could not understand his thinking—it only made Luke seem like a madman.
“His Highness endured the insult and moved on?”
“Yes!”
The royal knight, who had faithfully relayed the blackmail, confirmed with his fellow knights that nothing had happened between Luke and Lawrence.
The news spread like wildfire.
The Marquis Lawrence possessed a temper fiercer than even the prince’s.
* * *
Here, a brief interlude is needed.
The mid-story check refers to a review of my current stats, assets, and inventory.
First, my stats.
Job: Archmage
Rank: 7th Circle
Mana: 14,750
The job and rank are straightforward, but that mana figure is striking.
Mana is the fuel for magic.
Average for 7th Circle mages is around 10,000, so I possess 1.5 times the mana of a normal 7th Circle mage.
More mana does not automatically mean stronger attacks, but it extends the duration of spells.
With equal power, I can cast longer and more frequently, an ability that cannot be ignored.
Physical attributes
Strength: 2.5
Constitution: 2.5
Agility: 2.5
The most surprising of all is the body stats.
A healthy adult male averages 1.0, meaning I am 2.5 times stronger than a normal adult man.
Even as a mage, I am as sturdy as a knight.
Of course, knights boost their bodies with Aura, but I can apply my own magic buffs.
Therefore, my basic physical ability alone is knight-level.
So in a Vanguard fight, I can still fight as a magic user while evading.
“Even I find that combination strange.”
The reason I possess such bizarre stats is that I have been using Arsia’s game system actively.
Duke Lucas’s game system allows all in-game abilities to transfer perfectly into reality.
This means any body training I do in the game carries over to the real world.
I have been steadily raising my physical abilities through various potions.
Thanks to this, my mana is also above average.
It probably took hundreds of millions of in-game coins to reach this level.
“It feels like I’m slightly abusing the system, but for smooth growth, every advantage counts.”
Thanks to my growing body stats, I learned swordsmanship from Vice, the old escort and current captain of the Lawrence fiefdom’s knights.
But between my duties, I never found time for consistent training.
How could I practice swordsmanship when I couldn’t even log in?
Still, I plan to pick it up again the moment I have free time.
If my understanding of swordsmanship improves, creating a magic staff shaped like a sword might not be a bad idea.
With my abilities, I could infuse magic into a sword instead of Aura and imitate a magic swordsman at will.
Whether it would actually work is another matter, but it’s certainly an interesting thought.
“Next, let’s examine my assets.”
The largest asset I own is, of course, the fief.
The marquis territory of Marinkopf granted by the king was already large within Lheinhatz Kingdom.
[Lawrence Marquis Territory]
Owned Cities
Marinkopf: Population 5.21 million, Annual production 130 trillion
Wells: Population 1.04 million, Annual production 25 trillion
Rickport: Population 0.52 million, Annual production 11 trillion
Stockton: Population 0.35 million, Annual production 9 trillion
Total Population: Approximately 7.12 million
Annual Production: 175 trillion
Annual Tax Revenue: 62 trillion
These figures are from last year, and the tax rate appears to be the king’s average of around 40%.
Just looking at the numbers, the scale is impressive.
The tax revenue is seven times that of the Lawrence barony.
However, I plan to lower the tax rate to the low 30s percent.
Short-term revenue will drop, but expanding fiefdom businesses, creating jobs, and raising wages should eventually increase tax income as well.
Note that a 30% tax rate may seem high, but it is not particularly high.
This figure represents all taxes—income tax, resident tax, property tax, consumption tax, gift tax, inheritance tax, acquisition tax, license tax, and more—calculated as a percentage of total annual production.
“If I compare it directly, would it not be similar to or even cheaper than South Korea?”
South Korea’s GDP is around 1600 trillion, with annual national budget exceeding 450 trillion.
At first glance, the numbers are strikingly similar.
Of course, calculating true effective tax rates is more complex, but these are rough estimates.
Anyway, 30% of my annual tax revenue goes to the royal family, and the remainder is my fiefdom budget.
Based on last year’s 62 trillion in tax revenue, that is roughly 43 trillion.
As a marquis territory, the amount is truly immense.
“But there was one problem.”
During the territory conquest, I had hastily spent too much on weapons, leaving my balance empty.
If I continued, even the soldier salaries would be in arrears before I could pay off the next weapons installment.
Yet.
[Deposit Balance: 42.625 trillion]
I no longer need to worry.
In truth, I obtained the money.
For reference, the source was the spoils of war—weapons and assets—seized from the four baronies after victory.
As the new lord, I was prohibited from expanding territory for one year, so the fiefdom was reverted to the king’s direct rule.
However, the personal assets and weapons of the four baronies were transferred to me.
The reason I waged the territory war was revenge, but filling the treasury was also a key factor.
Seizing the enemy’s wealth and enjoying riches—how splendid.
“Next, let’s look at my current holdings.”
The five major corporations I own, totaling over 5 trillion, are currently in the middle of a management merger, so there is no change.
So I recalled the reward list from clearing Arsia’s game and the special items that emerged from the four baronies’ vaults.