TLed by NolepGuy
Chapter 150
Outstanding martial prowess is born from a resilient body.
No matter how confident you are, if your body is a mess, it’s nothing but vanity-filled arrogance. As someone who considers himself the strongest in this worldview, I was diligently exercising again today.
“Ricardo, what are you doing?”
“Exercising.”
The Young Lady, who saw me hanging from the doorframe doing pull-ups, asked with a Question Mark on the Head.
“Exercising…?”
For someone whose only form of exercise in life has been jaw exercise, the Young Lady couldn’t comprehend me.
“Why are you doing it?”
“Just because.”
“Hmm…”
The Young Lady wasn’t fond of exercise.
Even just approaching the Training Grounds, she’d say, “Ugh… the smell of sweat,” and keep her distance. She wasn’t someone who was close to sweat.
I was exhaling lightly with a “Hoo” as I repeatedly pulled myself up on the doorframe, while the Young Lady, lying on the bed and yawning, spoke in a drawn-out voice, seemingly bored.
“Ricardo, you look like a frog hanging from the ceiling.”
“That’s quite an odd way to put it.”
“But it’s true.”
It was indeed an accurate observation.
Since the estate lacked Exercise Equipment, I had to make do by hanging from the doorframe for pull-ups, and even to me, my appearance looked rather unimpressive.
I resolved to create Exercise Equipment that the Young Lady and I could use together and focused on my workout.
“321.”
“322.”
“423.”
“Ricardo, the number suddenly jumped up.”
“It’s just your imagination.”
The Young Lady seemed to care more about my health than I expected.
For the sake of the Young Lady’s eye health, I stopped doing pull-ups and switched to push-ups instead.
When the count exceeded 400,
I caught a glimpse of the Young Lady wriggling, seemingly stimulated.
“Eeeek!”
The sight of the Young Lady flailing on the bed.
With a Small Smile, I watched the Young Lady, who seemed to be exercising passionately, and spoke.
“What are you doing?”
“Exercising.”
“That’s not exercising; it looks more like you’re imitating a fresh mackerel.”
“Eeeek! Huff!”
“You look like a mackerel.”
The exhausted Young Lady collapsed onto the bed, panting heavily.
“Pant… Huff… Huff… I’m dying.”
It seemed that for someone who had been isolated from exercise, the weight of gravity was quite burdensome.
Even though she was doing push-ups with her knees on the ground, the Young Lady, unable to move her legs, found it difficult to lift her body using only her upper body strength without the aid of her thighs. Knowing this, I tried not to laugh at her effort.
“Pfft…!”
But I couldn’t hold it in.
The sight of the Young Lady flailing on the bed was just too shocking.
“Pfft…”
“Don’t laugh!”
“Pfft… How can I not laugh when it’s funny?”
“Eeeek!”
The Young Lady, as if to rebut my mockery, repeatedly puffed up her cheeks and exerted herself.
“Eeeek!!! One!”
“Fail.”
“Huff…”
As expected, the Young Lady wasn’t close to exercise.
After laughing for a while,
I brought my hand to my shirt and began unbuttoning it. The material of the shirt wasn’t conducive to sweat evaporation, and unbuttoning it when hot was a habit ingrained in me.
Momentarily forgetting that the Young Lady was beside me, I unconsciously unbuttoned my shirt.
“Oh…”
The Young Lady, witnessing this directly, was exhaling through her nose with her eyes sparkling.
“Ricardo, your chest is huge!”
“Ack! What is this! That’s sexual harassment!”
“Oh…”
Startled by the Young Lady’s lewd remark, I wrapped my shirt around myself and hunched my shoulders. The Young Lady’s sparkling eyes, fixed intently on my body, seemed quite suggestive.
How should I put it? It felt like a Switch had been flipped in the heart of an innocent Girl. Having never seen the body of an outside Man before, the Young Lady’s eyes seemed livelier than usual, with her ears turning red.
The Young Lady, her eyes twinkling, stared at my hand holding the shirt. With a sly Smile, she said,
“Show me!”
“Show you what!”
“Your body!”
“No!”
Can a Noble Lady really act like this?
Flustered by the Young Lady’s bold statement, I shook my head, my face flushed.
“Saying you want to see someone’s bare body is extremely disrespectful!”
“Eeeek! Show me!”
Once the Switch was flipped, the Young Lady showed no sign of backing down. Puffing up her cheeks, she reached out her hands, flailing to push away the hand holding my shirt. Blushing, I fled.
“Pervert!”
“I’m not!”
“What do you mean you’re not? You’re being lewd!”
“Eeeek! Then look at mine too!”
“What? Uh… that’s…”
Looking at the Young Lady’s huffing face, I fell into brief contemplation.
Once at the Young Lady’s face.
And once at the Young Lady’s wicked intentions.
For a moment, a lewd thought crossed my mind: ‘It might not be so bad.’ However, clinging to reason in this internal Battle, I took a Deep Sigh and steadied my mind.
“I refuse!”
“Why not! Show me!”
“I refuse! Go back!”
The Young Lady made a large circle with her hands and evaluated my grand Pectoral Muscle. Though her description was exaggerated, comparing it to two giant rocks, she exhaled through her nose in admiration. I brought my hand to my forehead.
“It’s this big!”
“So what if it is!”
“It’s magnificent! It looks sturdy, and I want to touch it!”
“Why are you suddenly interested when you never cared before!”
“Just because.”
The Young Lady gave a plain reply, tilting her head slightly. I sighed and flicked her forehead to put an end to the commotion.
“Eeeek! Why did you hit me!”
Hit by the Flick, the Young Lady rolled on the bed with a Degururu motion, clutching her forehead and venting her Resentment.
“Because you were wrong.”
“That’s unfair!”
“It can’t be helped.”
“Fool!”
My face burned.
Truly.
*
An evening after a heated incident that left my face burning.
In the room where Darkness had settled, I was exhaling heavily.
“1001 reps.”
“1002 reps.”
Sweat was pouring incessantly from my body as I did push-ups with my shirt off. Beads of sweat gathered on my savagely defined back muscles, dripping onto the floor along my chin, while veins bulged menacingly from my swollen arm muscles, which looked as if they might burst.
Doing push-ups while in a handstand seemed to be far more effective than I had anticipated.
[Limit Break is testing the limits of ‘Physical Strength.’]
“Hoo…”
I pondered.
What must I do to become stronger?
It was a simple question to ask but one that required much deliberation to find the Correct Answer.
I had to consider the Story.
And I also had to think about the Protagonist’s growth, so recklessly absorbing Fortuitous Encounters had its complications.
The Fortuitous Encounters I could obtain were limited to those of the Heretics and the ones in the Side Story.
In truth, for now, the only thing I could do was consistent Training. It was the most reliable method and the Royal Path that didn’t rely on luck.
But still.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that there might be a faster way to reach my goal. The thought kept occurring to me that there could be a shortcut, an easier path if I used some trickery.
A way to make the most of what I had and rapidly increase my strength.
“Huff… 2301 reps.”
I was convinced it existed.
And I found the method not far from where I was.
[Limit Break.]
This was the best trick I knew.
By the time the hot beads of sweat had soaked the floor thoroughly.
“How long are you going to leave me like this?”
From the Crystal Sphere placed on the bed, I heard the familiar Voice of The Man.
The familiar Voice of The Man, who was bound in chains and unable to move his Entire Body, spoke to me with a deep sigh.
I rose lightly and answered The Man.
“Until your answer satisfies me?”
“…”
“Have you thought about the proposal I made?”
“…”
“I’d appreciate it if you could answer quickly.”
The person trapped within the Sealed Jewel was Hans.
Hans, who was imprisoned in the Heretics’ Fortuitous Encounter known as the ‘Sealed Jewel,’ had his head bowed.
Overcome with shame, he couldn’t lift his head, and because of the proposal I had made, he bowed even deeper.
I smiled as I looked at Hans.
“Hurry up and make your choice.”
Hans wasn’t entirely a bad guy.
Of course, he was a bad guy who killed people to become stronger, but he killed those who deserved to die.
Hans’s moral boundary of ‘good’ began to crumble in earnest after he killed the Tower Master with his own hands.
I knew of a scene that briefly appeared as a flashback when Hans chose to sacrifice himself to protect Yuria and the Protagonist’s group.
-Still, I am a bad guy.
The people Hans killed for the sake of Dark Magic Awakening were Villains.
In Dungeons, they killed people for profit or were Soldiers who covered up wrongdoing in exchange for money.
Of course, the fact that he once tried to kill me wasn’t something I could forgive, but he was someone who knew how to adhere to his own principles.
I extended a hand to Hans.
Not to request the troublesome task of becoming a Spy for the Heretics, but to ask for something a bit more burdensome.
What I asked of him was a simpler and more straightforward matter than that.
To protect the Young Lady.
To become stronger, I needed to defeat stronger opponents, but the Threats of injury were an inevitable issue to face.
While Hans’s Martial Arts weren’t strong enough to help me significantly, he wasn’t weak either. I thought he could be a card I could use as a last resort.
Hans, with his head bowed, spoke to me in a serious Voice.
“What’s in it for me?”
“Survival.”
“…That’s certainly an offer I can’t refuse.”
“Right?”
Hans nodded with a hollow Smile, stepped out of the Sealing Sphere, and began chanting a Spell Formula.
“What are you doing?”
“Wizard’s Contract.”
“You’re doing that?”
“If I’m going to do it, I might as well do it properly.”
Wizard’s Contract.
A magic considered taboo among Wizards.
It was an absolute magic bound by life itself, where breaking the terms resulted in Death. It was a lifetime pact made when pledging loyalty to a Master or serving an owner.
For Hans, agreeing to such a thing was akin to voluntarily placing an unbreakable shackle around his neck.
The walls began to fill with Crimson Letters containing the Terms of the Contract. As I watched the walls covered in red, I murmured softly.
“Do I need to clean this up?”
“I’ll do it.”
“Then it’s fine.”
The content of the deal was simpler than expected.
“I, Hans, declare a Wizard’s Contract with the Weak Person Ricardo.”
The Terms of the Contract were subordination to ‘Ricardo’ and ‘Olivia.’
It stipulated that no harm could be inflicted upon them, nor could any statements regarding such harm be made. The Penalty for breaking the contract was.
“If the deal is broken, the Weak Person Hans will die from a heart explosion.”
I added a clause.
“Let’s make it the head instead of the heart.”
“…”
“We need to be thorough.”
The deal was sealed.
With a defeated expression, Hans sat on the bed and spoke to me.
“So, what do I do first? Protect Olivia?”
“No. Do that when I ask you to. For now, let’s start with this.”
I pulled out a Magic Tome, a Fortuitous Encounter that would have fallen into the hands of the Heretics, and handed it to Hans.
“Let’s balance things out first.”
And Hans.
“Brother.”
Became a loyal dog.
***
In the distant Future,
Hans wiped his sweat as he stood before the colossal Ricardo’s Statue.
“That makes 1301 reps. Glory to Him…”
Ricardo looked at Hans and said.
“Stop spouting nonsense.”