Show Me Your Stats!

After various trials and errors, Ayra finally confirmed that Janus could properly control magic power. He immediately began teaching him the most basic physical magic.
This was the sort of spell young mages just entering the Labyrinth would first learn, and the range of its effects could vary drastically depending on the mage’s power and finesse. At the lowest level, one might lift a sheet of paper. At the highest levels, one could carve through solid rock with pure physical magic alone.

And Janus’s talent far exceeded Ayra’s expectations. Within just a few minutes, he effortlessly levitated a piece of jerky and even tore it apart in midair. To be pulling off such feats on his first attempt—Ayra was thrilled by the sheer potential and eagerly continued his instruction.
There was only one disappointing point: Janus’s MP was a mere 87.
“What a shame. If only you had more mana, you could be using some really impressive spells. Still, there’s plenty of time ahead, so we can just build it up little by little.”

Besides, though the total MP was just 87, it regenerated so rapidly that it never actually depleted. Dragons lived long lives anyway. If Janus just continued gathering mana, his total capacity would naturally grow. After all, the more mana one accumulated, the more the body adapted to store it. That’s why older mages usually possessed more mana. And what about long-lived species like dragons? Ayra grew excited at the thought—just as Janus popped the shredded jerky into his mouth and casually remarked:
“I could gather more here, but I’m not going to.”
“Huh? Why not?”

Janus tilted his head and clenched and unclenched his hand, then pointed to a single spot at the tip of his pinky finger.
In an instant, his fingernail shifted into a sharp spike and pierced his skin. Ayra’s eyes widened as he watched intently. Normally, Janus’s wounds would heal in an instant—but this time, it was different. Just one tiny spot remained unhealed, a faint red mark barely visible. Ayra stared without blinking, then quickly realized what was happening and murmured in awe.
“Your body is made of magic… That’s why your regeneration is so monstrous…”

“Is that so?”
Janus responded like it had nothing to do with him, then added casually.
“Anyway, once a part of me transforms into mana, it doesn’t go back to normal.”

“…What?”
Ayra jumped in alarm and stared again at the pinpoint wound. As his brow furrowed, Janus reached out and smoothed the crease with his finger.
“You mean it never heals?”

“It heals… just really slowly.”
After confirming again that the wound was lingering, Ayra looked disappointed.
“Damn… Then you shouldn’t keep learning magic. You’ll end up leaving scars like this…”

“It’s just a scratch.”
Janus shrugged like it was nothing, but Ayra let out a heavy sigh. It wasn’t that he was sad Janus couldn’t learn magic—it felt more like he’d marred a flawless gemstone. As Janus rubbed the mark with his thumb, he muttered thoughtfully:
“Come to think of it… I vaguely remember a dragon that went a little crazy.”
“A crazy dragon?”

If Janus thought a dragon had gone crazy, what level of insanity must that have been? Ayra stared at him in disbelief. Janus narrowed his eyes, as if digging through ancient memories, then spoke of a dragon Ayra had heard of before.
“There was this one bastard who lost it, said his fated mate didn’t exist in this world and decided to learn magic. In the end, he actually found them.”
“There was a dragon that learned magic?! When the hell was that?”

“Right around the time that so-called Dragon King the humans talk about kicked the bucket?”
Wait a minute… That dragon? The lunatic who supposedly shattered the dimensional wall and created a flood of possessed and reincarnated people?
“He did all that just to find his fated mate?”

The story of the dragon who pierced the dimensional wall was like a fairy tale passed around the Labyrinth. According to old records, one day a dragon suddenly appeared in a city of mages. It defended them for a while, then broke the dimensional wall and chose one of the mages as its mate. After the Dragon King Aeolga died, it founded the Labyrinth in his place…
So it wasn’t just out of boredom…?
No wonder “Labyrinth” had such an Earth-like name. It must’ve been coined by that crazy dragon’s mate—the first Labyrinth Lord, who had been brought over from Earth.

Ayra stood frozen in stunned realization, piecing together a new historical truth. Meanwhile, Janus looked around the room like he was searching for something to test his new magic on. Ayra retrieved a magic device from his subspace.
“Want to try attacking this with magic?”
What he pulled out looked like a punch machine—it was a measuring tool that calculated the speed, force, and efficiency of a physical magic attack to assign a score. Janus immediately gave it a whack with magic. The gauge showed Level 1 out of 10. But Ayra could see an additional number.

Just like when a player attacks a monster in a game, a number popped up above Janus’s head. The number was 18.
‘Two digits? That’s actually kind of cute.’
He watched ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) as Janus kept smacking the device, and each time, the number 18 popped up again. Ayra’s expression grew complicated. The way the number sounded phonetically reminded him of a very specific curse word.

“At the very least, you should be able to break into Level 2.”
Maybe it was pride or stubbornness, but Janus suddenly increased his MP—seemingly aware of his stat page somehow—and brought it up to exactly 100. Then he broke through to Level 2.
Amused now, Janus continued pounding away. Watching him, Ayra thought:

Pebble’s really pissed off, huh…
Even with the power increase, the number above Janus’s head still read 18—just like before. Ayra could practically feel Pebble’s fury, no doubt still fuming after having a front-row seat to the inside of Janus’s throat. Since it wasn’t visible to Janus anyway, Ayra let his little familiar vent.
After spending a short break helping Janus, Ayra plopped back into his chair and resumed working. Even with new administrative staff, the paperwork piled on his desk was endless. Just when it seemed things might slow down, another wave of tasks would arise. This time, the cause was the upcoming three-day festival held before the start of proper winter.

The schedule was as follows: On the first day, the temple announced the beginning of the festival. On the next two days, the lord’s manor would open its gates and distribute food to the people. Then on the final day, the temple would declare the festival over.
As a result, not just Ayra, but also his retainers and all the manor staff were absurdly busy.
“Current approval rating: 51%... I need to raise it by 9% to reach the final level. And this festival is a golden opportunity—I can’t afford to waste it.”

In the past, such a festival would’ve been unthinkable due to financial constraints. But now, Sola was free from debt. On top of that, they’d just swindled a huge sum from Soblets. Thanks to that, Jinas looked truly delighted while drafting the list of goods to distribute to the people.
As Ayra racked his brain for ways to boost the approval rating during the festival, he opened the map window.
“No suspicious activity yet…”

Ever since he outmaneuvered Orsang at Jumenie, Ayra had developed the habit of checking Soblets’ movements every three hours via the map.
“Soblets won’t attack Sola right away.”
While selling skitte silk, Ayra had been careful to keep Sola’s name out of everyone’s mouths—to give Soblets no justification for war. That’s why he used exiled members of the Lan family to handle external trade instead of anyone directly tied to Sola.

Thanks to these efforts, Orsang had no current pretext for launching a war. But Ayra knew that wouldn’t last long.
“He’ll come up with something eventually…”
Orsang was cruel and prideful. There was no way he’d swallow such humiliation. He was likely sharpening his blade, waiting for the perfect excuse to strike. And yet, Ayra’s face showed no trace of fear—only the hint of a smirk.

“Whatever. It’ll still be easier than dealing with Janus.”
Thinking that, Ayra stared at the map a moment longer before closing it and diving back into his work.