Show Me Your Stats!

Unlike before, Argan’s tone became a little more polite. As his face twisted into an awkward grimace, he nodded, and at the sudden shift in situation, the messenger hesitated and bowed as he picked up the dirt-covered magic stone pouch.

Ayra wasn’t planning on informing Prataris or the Labyrinth, so she pretended to relent and turned her body again. There was no point in revealing this information—if Solar was torn apart, only more wolves would circle the estate. But the frustration still remained, and the voice that left her mouth was cold.

“What do you mean by a joke? Then why bring so many troops to my estate?”

“This area is often plagued by monsters. I brought more troops along to help hunt them and to provide security for Solar.”

A laugh escaped Ayra at the excuse. Argan, frustrated by things not going according to plan, was breathing heavily, and it seemed like he wasn’t willing to leave without making some kind of impact.

“For the next few days, I will stay ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ at the castle and observe if you have the ability to pay back the interest. I’m worried if you’ll be able to repay the principal before winter ends.”

He indirectly stated that Solar wouldn’t be able to repay the principal by winter and would eventually have to surrender the land. Ayra wanted to tell him to get out of her land, but she couldn’t. For now, Argan held absolute power.

At the same time, she thought that keeping Argan around might allow her to extract more information. Ayra nodded as though agreeing.

“Fine. Seeing as Lord Nilma Arbalte sent you, I will receive you as a guest.”

Argan’s lips, which had tried to force a smile, twisted into a sneer. It seemed he understood the underlying message—that without your father, you are nothing.

Just before leaving the tent, Ayra turned back. She almost forgot.

“Ah!”

The messenger, who had been sighing in relief, suddenly collapsed, clutching his waist, and fell to the ground. Argan, startled, jumped back, watching in shock as the messenger writhed in agony. Ayra saw the guards unsheath their swords as they rushed to protect their master. While everyone was on guard, Ayra widened her eyes in mock surprise and spoke calmly.

“Seems like he’s feeling quite ill. Perhaps his mouth is hurting? He should get treatment quickly.”

Though the guards suspected magic had been used, there was no solid proof. They hesitated, and Ayra smirked as she exited the tent.

She had warned them to be careful around a Labyrinth Mage, and their failure to heed that warning was their own fault.

❄

“Are you not going to do your job properly, Stone?”

Ayra scolded as Stone shed dew-like tears. His pitiful crying was so cute that Ayra squeezed him tightly with both hands. This small spirit knew well that Ayra would always shower him with affection when he played the cute, pitiful act. After sending him a flurry of small hearts, Ayra sighed, irritated.

The past few days had been nothing but stress for Ayra.

A few days ago, reluctantly, she had let Argan into the castle, hoping to extract some useful information from him. While he couldn’t cause much chaos after witnessing his messenger’s spine rupture before him, he still caused a lot of trouble.

At first, when Argan entered the castle, he had tried to defend himself by hurriedly bringing in a mercenary mage. However, once the mage sensed Ayra’s origins, he began to retreat, and Argan’s attitude changed, becoming much more subdued.

But while he didn’t cause trouble outright, he did engage in all sorts of petty behaviors. With 2,000 soldiers camped outside, the atmosphere in the castle was tense as the outsider stirred up disorder. As was typical when a country faced hardship, the people were quick to blame the lord, and the slight increase in support from a few days ago had already begun to drop again.

Despite her patience in trying to gather information, Ayra came up empty. From what Ayra gathered, Argan seemed to only know that Solar held something of value for other estates to covet. After following him around for days, all she had gotten were his rude comments.

In the end, Ayra couldn’t take it anymore this morning and cast a hallucination spell. After seeing a few brief illusions, Argan panicked and fled on his own. As soon as he left the castle, he cursed at it and hastily led his army back to Bolni. Someday, she would make sure to deal with Argan...

Once Argan left, Ayra was left with nothing but the stinging fatigue and stress. She sighed and looked thoughtfully at her artificial spirit.

“Now, I think I understand how this works.”

The notification windows, stat windows, and choice options—everything was a result of analyzing a person’s personality and experience. Although Ayra wasn’t a psychology major, she could roughly guess what the artificial spirit was doing when it was in “loading” mode. The spirit dug deep into the complex memories of humans, even pulling out deeply buried subconscious ones, and ruthlessly brought them to her.

Such a useful yet terrifying ability. She didn’t know the exact mechanics of the magic, as she didn’t remember casting it, but the idea of executing such a powerful spell filled her with exhilaration. Ayra blushed slightly, admiring the spirit she had created.

“My smart little Stone, so cute.”

She praised the spirit as it danced happily. Then a knock sounded at the door. Before granting permission to enter, Ayra pulled up her stat window.

<Hess Lu Jinas>

HP: 1,087

MP: ???

Physical Attack: ???

Magic Attack: ???

Favorability: 17♡

With a slight glance, Ayra noticed the quest window update as well.

<Quest!>

[Let’s level up the smart Stone.]

*Accumulate Stat Window Active Time (5/12 hours)

*Check NPC Stat Windows Hidden by Obstructions (123/200)

*Achieve 15% Support (13/15%)

Reward: ‘Detailed View’, Unlock MP Stat

Ayra clenched her fist. Damn, the support rate dropped by 1%.

As she leveled up, the difficulty of the quests was steadily increasing, and this time, it involved the support rate. Ayra speculated that as she gained more favor from others, reading their thoughts might become easier. However, support rates were tricky and couldn’t be solved just through repetition. Sighing lightly, Ayra opened the estate window and entered her commands.

The door opened, and Jinas entered with a pile of documents.

Estate Name: Solar

Lord: Solar Sing Ayra

Area: 2,300 Zenta

Population: 156,327

Debt: 10,000 Cell (Monthly Interest: 50 Cell)

Military Strength: