Chapter 226

My friends froze for a moment with faces as if they had seen a ghost, then rushed at me upon seeing my face.

“Luca!”

Elias, who came running like crazy, l iterally clung to me. The moment my body’s center tilted sharply backward, Leo raised his wand and supported my back with magic power.

Elias grabbed my face roughly and started examining it here and there.

“Why didn’t you call us?! Are you okay? I was about to just ignore your words and break all the space magic!”

“I was really tense, but I’m glad….”

Narce said with a sigh of relief.

Leo, standing a few steps back, scanned me from head to toe with a confused face. He seemed bewildered because there was no change compared to before I left.

“You didn’t…. No. You’re the same.”

He must have meant if I turned back time.

Just in case that stalker was around me, I looked around, but Narce had already set up space magic.

Leo, who quickly regained his composure, peeled Elias off and held a transparent bottle containing the antidote in front of me.

“I prepared the antidote. Drink it.”

“Sorry after you went through the trouble to prepare it. I can’t drink it now.”

“What? Can’t drink it?”

“Yeah. Until this week.”

“…….”

My friends stared at me blankly.

Narce, who realized the situation, said with a serious expression.

“…The mind control magic didn’t work.”

“Yeah. It seemed like he strengthened his mental strength with an artifact. I tried to find and destroy the artifact… but he was a skilled person similar to Ainsidel, so it was hard to dig in alone.”

“What? He wasn’t just any Pleroma?”

“You should have called us!”

Elias shouted like that and clung to me again like a sloth. Leo peeled the guy off again.

Narce seemed to think the same, looking at me with the same eyes as Elias, then shook his head.

“If Lucas had called us, he would have just run away. Once he runs away, we can’t use the method of luring him out with the potion again… there was no way.”

It seemed like he had read the judgment I made at the time using his ability.

“You say he’s a skilled person similar to Ainsidel, but he would have run away? Does he have no pride?”

Elias said that with a dumbfounded face and clicked his tongue.

“…No, I get what kind of human he is. I thought until now that except for his special ability, he was nothing special, but if he was that skilled, the part where he didn’t appear until now and just watched changes the evaluation.”

“What do you think?”

At my question, Elias answered with a disgusted face.

“Isn’t this bastard a guy with no beliefs? Instead of beliefs, he’s full of his own desires.”

I nodded.

Even before meeting him, I felt it countless times, but what I strongly felt today was exactly this.

Blinded by love, he brings an enemy right into the middle of the Pleroma world to play?

Even though I was their enemy, as a mage of the same combat type, I couldn’t help but be bewildered. There was no courtesy or respect for the group he belonged to at all.

To him, the most important value was not the group’s benefit or anything else, but his own emotions, and no logic or value other than his emotions could stop or move him.

And these kinds of bastards are difficult opponents to handle if they are at least of equal skill or higher.

“The most hopeless guys to fight are those without beliefs…. These guys completely turn the board into a mud pit.”

“That’s right.”

When I said that, Leo asked.

“Then, during the past two hours, you went and talked with that person?”

Two hours would be two days in that place’s time, but I wasn’t there that long. It seemed like time flowed normally until I fainted due to his magic at the beginning.

When I nodded, Leo asked once more.

“…What exactly did you do. It’s really a huge relief that you came back safely even after contacting a skilled person… but is it possible?”

“I went with a plan. I played along a bit.”

Narce already seemed to know what I did, glancing at my hand.

Leo, understanding the meaning, grabbed the back of his neck and looked up at the sky.

I agreed because I didn’t like it much either.

“…Was there really no other way?”

At Leo’s murmur, Narce shook his head.

“For Lucas to call us, he had to have held that person’s feet. It would have taken at least 10 minutes, and then Lucas would have been seriously injured alone.”

“…….”

Leo wiped his face with one hand, let out a deep sigh, and came to me.

“You did well. It’s fine for me, but it must have been hard for you. It will end soon, right?”

“Of course. I went in after preparing the way to end it.”

When I smiled to reassure him, Leo also smiled roughly.

After that, I was led by my friends into the mansion.

Returning to the Wittelsbach garden felt like coming home.

Once it was confirmed that I returned completely healthy, the initial strategy worked, and I was waiting for the next step, the tense atmosphere gradually relaxed.

Of course, it wasn’t over yet, so there was no reason to be comfortable, but my friends seemed mentally tired from waiting all evening. The mood flowed as if they were taking a brief break.

An hour into chatting about trivial things, Narce and Elias were busy playing around with each other. Somehow addicted to board games, they now spread the board on the floor and were hitting each other’s backs. Leo was just propping his chin and alternating between looking at me and them, and I….

I slowly leaned my body and tilted the chair back.

‘The drug effect is amazing.’

At Asman’s time, I drank the antidote right after returning to the dormitory, so I didn’t feel it, but experiencing the drug without the opponent in front of me for the first time felt new. It wasn’t to the point of interfering with the mission, but occasionally thoughts of that Old Human popped up suddenly.

If I drank the antidote, my finger would burn, and it would be like letting go of the fish I almost caught, so I had no intention of drinking it.

Of course, I had no intention of fulfilling the stalker’s request exactly as is. Isn’t it just that I don’t drink the ‘antidote’ exactly?

“Hot?”

At that question, I was looking at the ceiling, then slowly sat up and looked at Leo.

It was a random question.

“No.”

“But why are you the only one in a shirt.”

I looked around. Even though the garden was a greenhouse, it was winter now, so my friends were naturally wearing robes. I put on the jacket I had taken off and answered.

“It could happen.”

“It can’t.”

Leo looked at me expressionlessly, then took the antidote out of his pocket and placed it on the table with a sound.

“Drink it.”

“…….”

“It’s a side effect of the drug. You must have drunk another drug somehow, but even if there’s no health issue, how are you going to perform the mission if you leave it like that. You’ll keep having other thoughts.”

“You’re a doctor.”

“Above all, you yourself think it’s disgusting. No matter how much it’s a strategy, the facts you know remain the same. The person you dated today is your stalker.”

When I looked at him with a face saying what obvious thing he was saying, he let out a hollow laugh and said.

“…Yeah, there’s no way you’d soften. Not drinking this must also be a kind of strategy from your position. Even without going that far, isn’t the opponent already at ease?”

“No, it’s ambiguous. He’s still doubting.”

“Your love?”

“No.”

I placed the glass I was holding on the table.

If it were doubting my love or something, would he have gone to the trouble of putting on a ring?

Unless there was a context worth considering like at Asman’s time, there was no reason to give unnecessary room to someone who gave me mental damage.

Above all….

“That stalker already knows my love is fake. I showed up after taking the drug, so how can he believe it’s real.”

“Then what is he doubting.”

“He’s doubting my intention in taking the drug. Whether my fake emotions stem from fatigue wanting to end the stalking situation. Or whether it’s used as a plan to strangle him, that is, as a trap.”

“…Hm.”

Leo thought deeply and nodded. He seemed to understand everything without separate explanation.

The two intentions have a gap like heaven and earth.

It’s easy to think of it as a kind of game theory. We are in a non-cooperative situation, and it’s a branching game where events unfold according to choices.

Now, each player must think strategically. It means considering the opponent’s possible choices against my choice, organizing the possible outcomes for me from those choices, and making the most rational decision.

To draw the branching diagram, let’s think from the opponent’s perspective. He must predict my choice and make the most rational decision for himself. Therefore, depending on ‘what my motive for choosing to love him is,’ my action direction will diverge, and soon his benefit will diverge.

If it’s fake emotions from resignation and helplessness like the former, as long as the stalker doesn’t cross the line, I can continue to play along with his dating game.

On the other hand, if it’s the latter? Since I would try to eliminate him after putting him at ease, from his position, it’s a situation to avoid immediately.

In the end, if he believes that ‘I came down the latter’s game tree and unfolded actions,’ this game becomes his victory, so for me, the most rational choice is to make him not believe in the possibility of the latter.

It hurts my head to line it up. So, to sum it up in one word?

‘I have to make that guy not realize he’s caught in my trap.’

This is the tool for that. The more his symbol is imbued, the stronger it becomes.

I thought while looking at the mineral fragment hidden by the glove.

Even though game theory hasn’t been established as a discipline yet, it won’t be hard to convince him.

Because it sums up to this one sentence.

“You have to predict the opponent’s moves, assign probabilities to each possibility, and make your move, and both sides are doing this. At this time, what should I choose to get a rational outcome?”

“…This is why fights are tiring.”

Leo shook his head and clicked his tongue.

For someone saying it’s tiring… is that what a guy who entered the combat magic field, which isn’t in his destiny, would say?

I just smiled.

“Yeah. What you said wasn’t wrong. Anyway, you’re the type to endure anything to win. I saw from the side everything you endured to turn the crown prince’s 10 years into dust, so how could I not know.”

Leo murmured as if to himself and said.

“It’s just that I felt a bit disgusted emotionally.”

“I feel it more. Anyway, I have one favor to ask you.”

I took off the gloves I was wearing.

“What….”

Leo, seeing the shining blue gem, was visibly freezing without a sound.

Leo wiped his mouth with his hand as if he couldn’t believe what he saw, exhaled shortly, touched his forehead, and bowed his head.

The silence was chilly. It seemed better for me to speak first, so the moment I called him, a gloomy question without laughter came.

“How exactly should I accept this?”

If this were the Bavarian palace, no one would have been able to open their mouth. If I were in Nicolaus state, I also wouldn’t have been able to answer him until he permitted my speech.

I knew why he was acting like this. Logically, accepting Pleroma’s courtship doesn’t make sense. Even after hearing my explanation, there’s bound to be a gap between strategy and emotions.

But it’s a situation where I have to ignore those emotions to win.

I tilted my head and said softly.

“You shouldn’t accept it. I’ll take it off soon.”

He looked at me for a while, then nodded, feeling that this was nothing more or less than strategy.

He took my hand and pulled it.

“…Sapphire? It’s the same as the gem I put on your artifact.”

“Yeah. And I said I have one favor earlier.”

I pulled off the ring.

A red scar like pooled blood appeared. It’s a trace of artifact magic power, so it doesn’t heal naturally.

He must have intended to leave this for life.

“Can you erase it?”

“…….”

Leo’s face froze coldly.

“I think the same.”

“…What are you assuming?! I haven’t said anything yet.”

Leo let out a hollow laugh and said quietly. His face darkened uncontrollably.

“You’re not in your right mind.”

“Sorry. But how effective this method is, I’ve already several times….”

“I mean that person.”

Leo said that and examined the inside of the ring and my finger.

“That’s why you said you can’t drink the antidote? Because the antidote magic power would be detected here?”

“Something like that.”

“Can I erase it….”

Leo, who had been touching the scar with downcast eyes, sensed the artifact magic power flowing in his hand a few times, then looked at me and smiled.

“Even if I can’t, I have to. Somehow.”

“Refreshing.”

“You’re refreshing in another sense…. Who puts on a ring like this to put someone at ease.”

“If I can gain by wearing it briefly, isn’t it worth trying?”

I said that with a soft smile, but Leo ignored my words.

“Fortunately, the artifact itself isn’t that sophisticated. Making it effective on a small area like a finger gives a forced feeling. When to erase it? Just say.”

“This weekend.”

Leo, who had been silent, smiled fishily and answered.

“…Yeah, that’s… short.”

He seemed to want to go hardline against Pleroma unconditionally. From the position of having attacked to change strategy, I could fully understand his feelings.

“…Anyway, with this, he must be fully at ease. No need to reassure more now.”

“Yeah.”

“So, can you maintain sanity while the drug effect is on? It’s over if it interferes with the mission.”

Over for whom? It sounded like Leo would come to finish me himself.

“There’s a way.”

“What way. Any potion with even a bit of that antidote component will react to that brand.”

I just smiled and shrugged. At that answer, Leo raised his eyebrows.

30 minutes later, I popped the high blood pressure medicine Leo brought from home into my mouth.

It’s a type of sympathetic nerve blocker.

It detects potions? Then, if I take non-potion medicine, wouldn’t that work?

Mind and body interact. If I suppress the body’s reaction, the mind can’t help but lose vigor too.

Did he think I’d obediently love him just because he prevents me from taking one antidote? If he thought that, he’s sorely mistaken.

As I looked at the high blood pressure medicine with a satisfied face, I felt Leo looking at me with a strange expression.

“…….”

“Why.”

“Not that you do everything… no, you utilize all sorts of things well. There’s always someone above the jumper.”

“You have to utilize all available resources. Now, I need to test it.”

When I stood up, Leo snapped his fingers. Vines that grew from somewhere pulled my hand.

“What to test.”

“I need to see if distracting thoughts come or not while solving one problem book. Well, there probably won’t be anything more to see.”

And after that, I would go meet Heike.

Even though I answered, the vines didn’t disappear. I alternated between looking at the grass wrapped around my hand and Leo, then shrugged.

“Anything more to say?”

“How about testing in another way.”

Leo thought deeply and raised his eyebrows.

“We haven’t trained since the exam ended anyway.”

“Right.”

As I smiled subtly, anticipating the next words, Leo smiled with a smirk and stood up.

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