'Did we seriously just commit murder…' I wondered, having been urged by the princess and my sister.
"What happened!?" The princess soon shouted, looking at the teachers and hiding her slightly trembling form, probably due to the mana being sucked out of her. As for my own mana usage I had fallen to 13'456 / 41'572 which just went to show how much mana the Arcana used.
"W-We don't know!?" One of the teachers responded.
"Well, find out! That was the prince of the Southern kingdom!" The princess yelled.
"Y-yes your highness!" The teachers yelled, one rushing to investigate while the other ran towards the academy's main building.
"..." My eyes twitched as I watched the princess act as if we had absolutely nothing to do with the two deaths.
'Alright, that's enough culture shock for today. Let's go home.' I thought, getting out from under my sister before walking all the way back home, ignoring the fact I hadn't even had morning classes yet.
When I got back to the dormitory Luna was surprised, but after recounting everything that happened and how I killed someone, she understood my plight and made me something to eat. It was rare if ever that anything out of the usual happened to me.
Well, actually after asking about the kidnappers incident I found out that actually quite a lot happened in the Barony and the mansion was assaulted several times. It's just that I slept through all of it most of the time.
I also found out that Luna had killed people before. The first time was apparently before we met, while the second time was when the kidnappers had broken into the estate and the third was shortly before we left when a team of assassins broke into the estate for my father.
From that I also learnt that Luna was currently a rank-2 mage, closing in on rank-3. Even the royal family wasn't so extravagant; they couldn't have rank-3 mages as normal maids.
Rank-2's and 3's made up the bulk of the nation's fighting power, with most people either being happy with rank-2 after graduating, or a good portion getting to rank-3 either a few years later or in their final years at the academy. Rank-4's and above were rare. Though by the world's standards even rank-1's were incredibly rare.
I sighed as I thought about everything, on the other hand, today's harvest was tremendous.
'What a haul' I thought. Ignoring the daylight murder and my feelings on it while choosing to immediately use the stat points and more than double all my stats. The reward saved me 9000 whole exchange points. It truly was the sloth system considering how I got so much from so little. As for the free upgrade which was worth 50'000 exchange points, I decided to save it.
<...show skills, knowledge, blessings, Arcana…>
'Ah… High stats, truly satisfying.' I thought as I looked at my status panel, somewhat used to the pain an increase in stats caused.
…
The next day after being drilled into by Oswald and eventually getting my day leave approved, the princess asked me on another date around the capital. I wanted to refuse, but she blackmailed me about having the arcana so I had little choice.
"So, any particular reason you dragged me out here?" I asked, as we were served ice cream at a stand at the side of the road.
"Yes."
"..."
"..."
"Mind elaborating." I added.
"I want to make it known we're a couple."
"Uh-huh. And may I ask why?" I asked, my trouble sensors tingling.
"So that the 34 princes and dukes from around the continent and neighbouring continents will leave me alone."
"... You mean to say there's 34 other people like Jones?" I asked.
"No. Half of them are forced by their parents while half the remaining will get the message."
"…"
"There's only about 8 who are like Jones."
"..."
"Don't fret so much. Jonas was the third strongest among them."
"..."
"It's really not that bad. The 2nd strongest is a duke's son who's 6 years older than me and unhealthily obsessed who's just barely a rank-3. The other is the prince of the neighbouring continent's empire. He's 5 years older than me, but his strength is rumoured to have reached rank-4…"
"..." I wanted to cry. Why could this princess not just dump me or something? Now I was being used to deflect her unwanted marriages.
…
A few more months passed by, the massive stat difference and preparations made to deal with the prince had put me cleanly above all my classmates. Even Moxia stopped challenging me after seeing what I could do.
Today was a rather depressing day. As was the whole week. Rain had been pouring in a torrent the whole week.
As for me, I was sparring the finance minister's daughter, the annoying mage girl I had thought for the first time. After getting used to mages I found her a lot less annoying though.
Most attacks could be blocked by just imbuing my sword with weapon aura and madly swing it at all her attacks. I also found out her name was Hayenor Financa. She didn't have a middle name since her family just became nobles before she was born, her father was originally a commoner and had only managed to get to his position and gain the king's favour after a literal century of hard work. It turned out the current king was 180 years old as well and had ruled for 130 years now… You would think I knew that already, but I evidently hadn't.
The point was, her elder brother apparently had a crush on my elder sister and she was asking on his behalf as I was her younger brother. I only had a bit of advice to give. "He must be at least a rank-2 for my sister to consider him. He must always be ready for a spar. He must meet a minimum standard of looks and be smarter than her. I think that's about all she needs to be happy." I answered.
After the short exchange while we sparred in practical combat classes, the day ended without incident… Almost.
'...' I sighed.