‘A special reward…?’

For some reason, the system didn’t reveal the reward details outright.

Luca tilted his head.

‘Could it be such an enormous reward that even the information can’t be disclosed?’

It was said that every time he completed a quest, his bond with the story grew stronger.

And this time, he’d completed the very first Favorability MAX quest.

It was likely that his connection to the story had grown considerably stronger.

‘Well, that’s not bad at all.’

Feeling suddenly pleased, Luca looked at the application labeled “Map”.

‘There are so many restrictions on this, I doubt it’ll be that useful.’

Just because it was a map app didn’t mean it would reveal all locations and information as it would in the modern world.

That’d be too overpowered.

If such perks were possible, god wouldn’t have gone to such roundabout lengths to patch up the story.

If it worked like that, he could just search for the Demonz base, tell Eltima the location, and end the story with an ambush.

‘It’s fine as long as it’s just useful enough.’

With that thought, Luca tapped the map app.

A hologram popped up over his phone.

“?”

A map unfolded in 3D.

Marveling at the way it portrayed the surrounding terrain in three dimensions, Luca was impressed.

‘Not bad.’

A 3D map that perfectly recreated even the academy buildings.

Luca fiddled with the hologram, scanning the surroundings, until he made a curious face.

‘This isn’t really a map so much as a game map.’

A normal map has everything laid out, but a game’s map only reveals areas that the player has traversed.

That’s how this one was.

Places he’d already been were lit up, the rest shrouded in darkness.

‘I don’t mind. Anyway, I can just look at the maps Ottbo has if I need them.’

As he’d noted, the map technology in this world wasn’t very different from the modern era.

There’s the difference between 2D and 3D, but there was no need for him to care, since he wasn’t going to use it much.

The important thing was the question marks scattered throughout the 3D map.

‘Could this be…?’

Luca pressed a question mark with his finger.

[???]

???

???

???

They just showed up as question marks.

But Luca, as if he’d guessed something, tapped his phone.

Fortunately, he could turn on other apps while the map was open.

“… Of course.”

Luca grinned.

The locations of the question marks in the academy.

Those were the spots in the original work where the protagonist found something while exploring the academy.

‘Probably things Eltima hid.’

Things she hid during her own adventures, or objects she received from companions.

In the story, they were set up as things she’d hidden in the academy for the students who would fight the Demonz in the future.

‘This is pretty interesting.’

The treasures Eltima hid could be extremely helpful.

Even if he left them in Space, some would surely come in handy someday.

‘But there seem to be way more than in the original.’

Part of it was that the academy grounds were large, but there were more question marks than expected.

Comparing to the original story, the number was overwhelmingly larger.

‘… Maybe the Demonz took some of them?’

If it was Martin Curves and his demonic eye, maybe he’d found some of the ones Eltima concealed for the children in a special way.

‘Or maybe the protagonist just didn’t find them all.’

Thinking so, Luca skimmed over the placement of the question marks.

‘If the protagonist didn’t touch them, it should be fine.’

At this point, the focus of the story had shifted to Luca, so concerns regarding the protagonist could be considered later….

Still, it was best to prepare, just in case.

‘And showing Pasmo’s location on the map, huh.’

Looking through the app, Luca found a menu.

Inside, he found an option for showing locations.

For now, only the function to display Pasmo Thier’s location was available.

‘Nice that it can be toggled on and off.’

If Pasmo’s location kept appearing, it’d be distracting whenever he used the map app, so he was relieved the toggle existed.

‘Well, this isn’t bad at all.’

The map app performed even better than he’d expected.

Luca let out a satisfied expression and then yawned.

‘We really were pushing ourselves.’

Ottbo had been the one driving, but everyone else had become exhausted too.

They’d traveled for 30 hours, switching between the auto-carriage and the airship, so it was only natural everyone was tired.

On top of that, the recent meal brought on a food coma.

‘Maybe I should take a nap.’

He didn’t know when he’d wake up if he slept now, but Luca couldn’t fight off the drowsiness and closed his eyes.

Then, when he opened them again—

“Shaak… shaak……”

“…?”

Someone was sleeping next to him.

Luca stared blankly, not understanding the situation for a moment, then flinched.

‘What, what’s this? Who is it?’

Night must have fallen while he slept; with the room dark, he couldn’t see the face well.

But instinctively, Luca knew who it was.

‘P-Pasmo?!’

Pasmo was sleeping on his bed.

“……”

Luca quietly checked himself.

Fortunately, his clothes were on.

Sighing in relief, Luca thought,

‘Why is Pasmo on my bed?’

Normally, if anyone entered his room, Bella would notify him.

So how did Pasmo sneak in while he was asleep?

Of course, he didn’t really need to dwell on it.

‘Bella must’ve just let her in.’

Giving a small sigh, Luca quietly slipped out of the bed.

Stepping out into the living room, he found Bella sitting on the sofa and spoke curtly.

“There was an uninvited guest in my bedroom. Are you neglecting your duty to protect the Traverse family’s second son?”

“Oh my, I don’t recall anything that threatened you, master… Ah! Unless it was a crisis of chastity? Hoho!”

Watching her flirtatious grin, Luca pouted.

“When did Pasmo get here?”

“About an hour after you fell asleep, master. She was watching over you sleeping, then must’ve dozed off herself.”

Bella wore a face saying, “Those were the days.”

With a resigned sigh, Luca sat across from her and spoke.

“Was there any trouble while I was asleep?”

“Hmm~. Miss Isella came by to check on you, but when she saw two people inside the bedroom, she turned around with a face like she’d kill someone on the spot. Besides that, nothing happened.”

“…?”

Her rather violent story made Luca widen his eyes and ask slowly.

“Wait… Are you joking…?”

“Nope. This Bella told it as plainly as she could.”

“……”

Luca was briefly silent.

He wasn’t stupid—he knew Isella harbored feelings—and perhaps more—toward him.

In fact, he didn’t even need to guess.

[Favourability]

Isella – Favorability (9/10), competitive Spirit.

Just checking the Favorability app told him as much.

‘Not sure why “Competitive Spirit” is her leading emotion, but I guess it’s similar to Herote’s case.’

She felt all sorts of things for him, but the strongest was her competitive spirit.

‘I still don’t get why she’s competitive when she’s stronger than me… what a headache.’

At any rate, Isella’s feelings for him were certain—and now she’d found evidence he was letting others into his bedroom.

He didn’t have to calculate how that would make her feel.

‘… Wait. But why did Isella come at this timing?’

She never usually dropped by out of the blue—so why visit his dorm now?

Luca was suspicious.

Watching his expression, Bella beamed.

“Now that I recall—it sounded like Miss Isella said, ‘The Lady asked me to check if Luca had returned safely.'”

“… Milia, that crazy witch.”

Turns out, Milia was the cause of all the trouble.

* * *

“Alright. That’s enough for this trial run.”

Milia was smiling brightly.

She had just finished the momentous test run of her monitoring system, ‘Perfect Control’.

It still wasn’t perfect, but it had succeeded in functioning at a distance.

‘If I refine it a little more, it’ll auto-recognize everything in my surroundings, just as Luca suggested. And once I add in an intervention function…’

She’d gain a special power, distinctly different from the other imperial princes.

Bzzt bzzt bzzt.

“?”

At that moment, Milia’s student handbook vibrated.

She glanced at it with a curious look, then smirked, picking up the call.

“Did you take care of things? Luca.”

–Have you lost your mind, Milia.

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

At Luca’s gruff words, Milia giggled and glanced sideways.

Isella stood there, her face expressionless.

–You were watching me through your peeping device. Disgusting.

“P-peeping device?! And I wasn’t watching the whole time! I just happened to see you during today’s test run!”

Startled by Luca’s barbed words, Milia hurriedly explained.

But Luca’s attitude remained unchanged.

–This time, Ottbo was right and I was wrong. I never imagined you could be so devious, Milia. I’ve really misjudged you. You’re so disgusting.

“N-no! It was really just a coincidence! I was test-running the improved Perfect Control, and just as Pasmo Thier was heading to your room… oops.”

Mid-sentence, Milia glanced at Isella.

But Isella didn’t react.

She just stayed blank-faced.

–In the end, you even toy with loyal subordinates who’d risk their lives for your own pleasure.

“P-pleasure? I mean, sure, I did it for fun, but…”

–You crazy witch.

After a brief silence at Luca’s harsh words, Milia spoke up boldly instead.

“Yeah, I’m crazy. It sounded fun, so I sent Isella to check up on you. I wanted to see things turn into a disaster. But nothing happened, did it? Why is that? Can’t you two have a messier fight for me?”

–… Horrifying.

“If you’re going to curse, at least make it entertaining!”

Luca’s sigh came over the student handbook.

–Unbelievable. Don’t let this happen again.

“Nope. I’ll do it again.”

–…tsk.

Luca hung up, and Milia stuck out her tongue at the cutoff line before looking at Isella.

“Isella. How about you go visit again right now? I bet it’d be really fun this time.”

“… If I may… Lady, can I ask what you’re thinking?”

Her childish act did nothing to move Isella’s stoic face as she asked indifferently.

To that, Milia shrugged.

“I don’t know. You and Luca are both so frustrating.”

“What does that…?”

“Isella. I brought you out of there because I wanted a friend. That’s all it is—even now.”

With a soft hum, Milia looked at Isella.

“In other words, I wish you’d be more honest with your feelings. But you always hide your own heart and act for my sake. Even now, though you’re disappointed in Luca, you were too worried our relationship might suffer if you did anything, so you just came back quietly, right?”

“……”

“To be honest, I already knew everything about Pasmo Thier. That she didn’t return to the academy. That she was thinking of transferring to Lamata Academy.”

Having said that, Milia folded her arms.

“I deliberately didn’t tell Luca Pasmo Thier hadn’t returned. I figured it’d give you an opportunity. But that guy went and brought her back from the Lamata Empire just to spite me. That annoyed me, so I decided to play a little prank. Frankly, I kind of wanted you two to have a mess of a love triangle.”

“……”

A crack appeared in Isella’s expressionless facade.

Her face grew complicated.

With a serious look, Milia spoke.

“Isella. What do you really feel, deep down?”

“I…”

After hesitating a moment, Isella seemed to come to a decision, her face set.

“I… want to conquer him.”

“… Eh?”

It was an answer no one could have predicted.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep