After school, I went looking for a house for my master. Emma knew a good real estate agent, so she introduced us. He was a friendly man in his forties, but he was extra friendly with Emma. From what I understood, he mostly worked with the nobility—helping them find mansions and the like.
“My name is Domado. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Noir. I mean no offense, but you are a member of the nobility, are you not?”
“Yes, I’m the son of a baronet.”
His smile vanished, and he made no attempt to hide his disappointment. Honestly, I was fairly used to this kind of treatment. There were plenty of people who didn’t even consider me a noble. But this guy was different. This was his business after all, and he quickly put his best smile back on.
“What are you looking for exactly?”
“I’m hoping for a comfortable estate with a big yard where I can relax. My budget’s around…let’s say two hundred million, tops.”
Domado’s eyes glimmered, intrigued. He knew a good property and took me there right away. It was a little outside town, but it was a chic two-story house. The imposing black iron fence contrasted with the gleaming white walls. It really was a sight to behold. It wasn’t currently inhabited, but it seemed to have been regularly maintained.
He told me about the property as he let me in. It seemed like it’d be a nice place to live.
“How much?”
“Two hundred and fifty million rel, but I could do it for two hundred, since you’re an acquaintance of Lady Emma’s.”
“If my master approves, then I’ll take it.”
“Well, then, I hope she does.”
I felt like I could trust him.
Once I’d finished with the tour, Emma and I went shopping. We looked around some weapons shops, but nothing caught our eye. As we said our goodbyes, Emma turned to face me.
“Could you ask Ms. Olivia if she’d consider training me?”
“Sure thing. She usually listens to me.”
“Thank you, Noir!”
Emma waved goodbye, and in that instant…a rush of wind flipped up her skirt.
“Eek!”
Hm, aqua blue, a bold choice. I earned a little LP from that. My guess was that my Lucky Lecher skill had gone off.
“Y-you looked, didn’t you?”
“I have a skill that lets me adjust my visual acuity, and I turned it down really low.”
“Yeah, right,” Emma said. “You’re such a perv.”
She ran off into the sunset.
Well, sorry for being a pervert, but surely it’s only natural for a boy in the throes of puberty, right? Mind you, my father was still a pervert, and puberty was a distant memory for him. With my mind full of such enlightened thoughts, I made my way home.
<Grrr…uugh, Noir, save me, please.>
I found Olivia in the living room with Tigerson. She was playing aggressively with the tulip growing on his head.
“Why do you have a flower growing out of your head? Sure beats me!” She giggled.
Oh, no, you really need to be gentle with that! I recalled Tigerson saying his flower was as sensitive as a human’s genitals.
<Hnn! I told you, that’s sensitive!> Tigerson flopped over, breathing heavily and at his wit’s end.
I’m sorry, Tigerson, but as her lowly disciple, I’m in no position to stop her.
“If I may interrupt, master,” I said. “I found a house I think you’ll like.”
“Oh my god, I love you, Noir!”
Olivia threw her arms around me and stroked my hair.
“Get any LP?”
“Yeah…”
“You better save it up, okay? How else are you gonna surpass the great Olivia?”
Was that even possible? Sure, she had lost her three big skills when she gave them to me, but she’d learned an incredible amount from them before she did.
“Oh, yeah,” I said. “That reminds me. Emma asked if you’d be willing to train her.”
“Ugh… teaching girls is no fun.”
“Don’t be like that. I’d like you to train me too, while you’re at it. I want to get stronger.”
I looked right at her, brimming with sincerity, but saw nothing except impish glee in her eyes. She was treating my request like a joke.
“I’m serious!” I pleaded, lowering my head. “I want to clear the last level of the dungeon and become the greatest adventurer in the world. I want to completely transcend social status!”
“The great Olivia’s training won’t be a cakewalk, you know.”
I knew that. If I wanted the guidance of the legendary adventurer herself, then I needed to prepare for the worst.
Olivia tickled Tigerson’s flower as she gave it some serious thought. Tigerson’s awkward moans filled the room. Good luck, Tigerson…
“All right, I have two conditions. First, I want you to earn a hundred thousand LP.”
“A-a hundred thousand?” That was a lot. I wasn’t sure whether I’d even earned that much LP in total since I first acquired her skills.
“Based on what you’ve told me, you still haven’t quite gotten the hang of Editor and Bestow,” she explained. “And I think that’s a waste.”
Using those skills effectively in combat required a lot of LP. I’d run into plenty of situations where the cost of disabling a powerful enemy skill got straight up ludicrous.
“Okay, I’ll do it. What’s the second condition?”
“I want you to break Sacrifice.”
“Huh?! But why?”
Sacrifice allowed me to destroy skills to earn a temporary buff. It had been seriously handy when I fought the Death Chains. Without it, I might not have been able to save my master. But it also caused excessive strain on the body and using it over an extended period would physically weaken the user—making it easier for them to get sick, and ultimately shortening their lifespan.
“I’m sure you could make up for the lost skills with Get Creative, but the weaker you become, the more LP you’ll need just to sustain yourself.”
That made sense. I wasn’t super interested in harming my body, but Olivia seemed to have another problem with the skill as well.
“Relying on that technique makes you mentally weak too. You know that Litorean chick I beat up? Once she couldn’t use her precious Sacrifice skill, she was utter trash! Ah ha ha ha!”
Litorean was a cleric whom Olivia had fought in the past. As famous as she had been, she must’ve been really weak at the end for my master to laugh at her like that. I guessed Olivia was right; it was risky to rely too much on one technique. So I did as I was told, and I Edited Sacrifice’s description to nullify the skill. It didn’t cost very much at all.
“I did it.”
“Good boy. Now work on earning that LP!”
“Yes ma’am!”
I got right to work, hoping to earn what I’d promised to as soon as possible.