[LitF] 13. Stats, Traits, and Waiting Time (Patreon)

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"One year and four months!" Arthur yelled. "One year and four months inside this Fate-forsaken place, obeying your every command, accepting your suggestions like a golem! One year and four months feeling like shit! One year and four months, and I can't remember half of it! And the one time you ask me to make a decision, I make it only to have you refuse me? This is my will, Graham!" He was panting by the end of his outburst. He was feeling better now but not perfect yet. "You said you're my knight. Does it contract my father's orders to start training me on my chosen path right now?"

"No, milord."

"Then do as I command without your Fatedamned patronizing."

"As you will it, my prince."

Was it... a smile Arthur heard in the man's words? No, it couldn't be. Arthur refused to believe the knight was mocking him. He would blow up if he found out that was happening.

But he couldn't ignore it or fool himself.

"Why are you smiling, Graham?" he demanded.

And then, the man laughed. Yes, he had the gall to laugh. It was even the first time Arthur heard him laugh!

"Your Highness, my wife said you had a fire inside you. I doubted her until now. I'm glad you showed it to me, for you can't level up without a lot of drive and the resolve to meet your desires. I'm glad I was wrong."

That astonished Arthur enough that he lost all the steam from his ire. The man... approved of his tantrum?

"I understand your confusion, Prince Boria. Your head maid teaches you propriety, and a lot of what my wife taught you is about life in polite society. However, there always comes a time when a man or woman must fight for what they believe. Not to the point of ignoring all consequences, but some boundaries must be pushed, or they will never be their own people. An immature child complains without knowledge or reason, so they are to be ignored or punished, but yours is the righteous outcry of a man who has the right to decide his own destiny. Don't go screaming everywhere or complaining about everything, or you'll become a buffoon, but when you believe in something, be ready to fight for it."

Arthur didn't even know what to reply. As Graham said, that went against much of what he had learned.

"If you were still a squire, sire, you would have just passed your first test as a knight," William completed. "Congratulations."

"What? This makes no sense."

"A knight is a warrior, milord. We must know how to behave with civilians, but we must also be ready to kill. We must know when to channel our ire to bring death upon our enemies. We must know when to step back and when to attack. I disagree with you; I believe it would be better for you to consider this decision after a few nights of rest. But your anger is justified for the very reasons you enumerated. You showed righteous wrath in the face of what you perceived as injustice and didn't lose yourself in the feeling. You presented good arguments, though not perfect. That's all you can ask of an honored squire. You would've passed the first test."

Arthur now knew even less what to say. "Huh. Thank you?"

"You're welcome, my prince." He nodded. "Now, you had to decide your future before we continued because of an achievement series.

"The first one in the series is the B-tier Focused Builder, which you'll get. You gain it from investing 100 points on a single stat, starting with the first point you ever use and without spending points elsewhere. In your case, it's agility. However, you won't pursue the following achievements."

The prince raised an eyebrow. That was a first. "Why not?"

"Because they would need you to invest 500, then 1,000 points on agility, Your Highness. A warrior build would see you get all three, but you chose to become a mage. You won't ever go past 110 points of agility.

"Now, I apologize, but I must ask: are you sure about this? This is the most important crossroads of your life, Prince Boria, and I was told you always dreamed about becoming a knight. What you decide here will block all other roads for you forever. There is no going back, no starting over. Is following Charlotte's plan really what you want?"

Arthur felt the moment's weight, but he didn't need to think much. He wasn't being hot-headed. He had good reasons to decide to become a mage.

"I wish I could be a knight, Graham. I really do. But I can't, can I? I didn't come to this dungeon for my benefit. I'm doing this for my people, country, and family. I'm doing this to end a war, which requires becoming the best killer I can be. Charlotte's vision will let me accomplish that." He sighed deeply. "Also, I believe Charlotte knew me better than my father does. That I do. I loved her like a mother, and she loved me like a son. She's also the person I trusted the most. If she says this is the path forward, this is the one I'll tread."

There was a long pause after that. Arthur didn't mind. Every passing second only made him surer of his words.

"Thank you, sire. You bring honor to my wife's memory. I'll help you show the world how right she was about you."

Arthur smiled. "She was the one who honored me with everything she did for me."

Graham sighed. "That she did, milord. Let us begin. As I told you before, you can now improve your stats by three every two seconds instead of every minute. Increase your agility to 110 to get the Focused Build achievement. You'll also gain two other achievements while at it. Tell me when you're done."

Arthur nodded and obeyed at once, pushing three points into agility.

| Agility +3 → 22

| Remaining distributable points: 1,497

As usual, Arthur's muscles contracted and relaxed quickly. Now that the improvement percentage was much lower than the first few times he had done it, it didn't hurt as much or cause him to lose his balance.

He kept going.

| Agility +3 → 25

| Remaining distributable points: 1,494

(...)

| Agility +3 → 52

| Remaining distributable points: 1,467

「 Achievement: Boundless Agility I

Tier: E

Reward: +6 stat points

You reached fifty points in agility!

You can't die if your enemy's attacks can't reach you. Your enemy can't survive if they can't run faster than you. You shall reach a grand fate before anyone else. 」

(...)

| Agility +3 → 100

| Remaining distributable points: 1,425

「 Achievement: Boundless Agility II

Tier: D

Reward: +12 stat points

You reached one hundred points in agility!

The road ahead of you is long. Some stroll ahead, but you rush in a race only you are aware of. You won't let anyone reach a grand fate before you. 」

「 Trait: Self-Aware Movements

Stat: Agility

Grade: 1

Level: 1

You are now more aware when moving at high speeds. 」

(...)

| Agility +1 → 110

| Remaining distributable points: 1,427

「 Achievement: Focused Build

Tier: B

Reward: +48 stat points

You spent one hundred points on a single stat from your very first point!

As the saying goes: jack of all trades, master of none. You see the wisdom in that and can barely believe the fools who would stretch themselves thin. You will accept nothing less than mastering your chosen path. Your grand fate shall be forged with focused intent. 」

"I did it and got a trait," Arthur informed—or tried to.

His words came all jumbled, and he bit his tongue. He moved his hands to his mouth and ended up slapping himself. He tried to step back, but his movement was so fast that he swung his leg nearly 180 degrees and almost fell face-first to the ground. The pain from extending his leg more than he was used to was bad enough, but the humiliation was worse.

He kept stumbling upon himself for a few moments until he managed to crouch and stay still.

"You must learn how to control your higher stats when they increase too much, Prince Boria," Graham explained. "Improved resolve from high mind stats will assist with that. Now that the Focused Builder achievement is out of the way, go ahead and increase all your stats to 100.

"After you're done improving all stats, we'll acclimate to your new capabilities for a few days. Then, we'll increase your stats again and repeat this process until you've spent all your points. I suggest starting with your mind stats for the extra resolve and to improve your point-spending cap from 3 to 30 points every two seconds.

"You might notice that you can gain these stat-specific achievements even if you invest in another stat midway through. These are achievement sets, not series. They are related but don't require constant time-limited work."

Arthur nodded—much faster than he wanted to—and did as told. He got achievements whenever a stat reached 50, then 100, then 500. Every time it reached 100, he got a trait, too.

He had no idea what traits were but couldn't move his mouth well enough to ask.

「 Trait: Quick Mind

Stat: Wisdom

Grade: 1

Level: 1

You can now think faster and better. 」

「 Trait: Knowledge Hoarder

Stat: Intelligence

Grade: 1

Level: 1

You can now memorize things more easily. 」

「 Trait: Enhanced Senses

Stat: Perception

Grade: 1

Level: 1

Your five physical senses are now better. 」

「 Trait: Strength Wave

Stat: Strength

Grade: 1

Level: 1

You can now apply pressure outside your body. 」

「 Trait: Long Live Yourself

Stat: Vitality

Grade: 1

Level: 5

You can now live longer. 」

「 Trait: Mana Condenser

Stat: Magnitude

Grade: 1

Level: 1

You can now store more mana in your mana pool. 」

「 Trait: Magic Reach

Stat: Efflux

Grade: 1

Level: 1

You can now send your mana further away from you. 」

「 Trait: Material Consumer

Stat: Absorption

Grade: 1

Level: 1

You can now absorb mana from inorganic matter. 」

The prince didn't know whether the traits or just the higher stats were responsible, but everything changed.

He could think clearly and faster than ever before. He also felt more aware of his surroundings and of his mind. He could remember things much better and quicker.

There were so many colors in the world, too! So many details, smells, and sounds! Even the air felt different on his skin, not to mention his clothes and the ground on his buttocks.

He could think fast about anything and noticed real-life inconsistencies like never before. How did the lightning bolts not create thunder? He heard them zapping in the other rooms, but it was so low! He clearly recalled reading that there should be thunder.

He had gained a lot of muscles that felt like steel, too. His body felt clean, somehow. And light. And solid.

Fate, the world felt more solid!

He was more centered, living the moment better. He was here, now, and it felt like it.

And mana! There was so much mana inside and around him! It was like unlocking a sixth sense. He felt mana particles and waves all around him without them ever touching him. It was as if his mind could reach beyond his body. It was so weird.

"Focus on breathing first, sire," Graham said, and it felt like he was screaming at Arthur. It didn't hurt, however. It didn't even feel very annoying. It seemed perception helped with that too, or people might go crazy. "Slow breathes. We'll get you there."

Arthur tried to breathe slowly. He really did. But there was just so much happening everywhere! So many new sensations! He kept getting distracted, but not by fleeting thoughts. He just felt too much aware of everything.

"Breath, milord," Graham would repeat every now and then.

The prince kept trying.

= - = - =

Arthur lay on his bed, checking his stats.

「 Stats

Level: 1

Next level: 0%

Available points: 0

Body:

- Strength: 100

- Agility: 110

- Vitality: 500

Mind:

- Perception: 100

- Intelligence: 147

- Wisdom: 100

Mana:

- Absorption: 500

- Magnitude: 200

- Efflux: 100 」

Personally, he felt like his stats were all over the place, but everything had a reason to be.

"You can't reach level 100 if you can't survive, sire," Graham had explained. "500 vitality will do for now, but the goal is getting it to 1,000. That will give you a new trait that allows you to regenerate a lost limb in one year."

As for investing in absorption before magnitude, "As you undoubtedly noticed, Prince Boria, mages require considerable training to use magic. That means spending a lot of mana, which you'll need to recover quickly, or you'll have to wait too long to cast again. That will also prepare you for your future. My wife's vision for you is of a mage that takes maximum advantage of their element to fight for prolonged periods with devastating efficiency.

"You will mostly bend the metal around you to your will, which will have high upkeep but not require that much mana to be used initially. That said, you'll eventually improve your magnitude to pack a more potent initial punch when needed. I'll explain the subject better when the time comes to teach you real magic, which will be much faster with your improved mind stats. For now, let's focus on acclimating you to your stats."

Graham's wisdom knew no boundaries. Arthur indeed needed to acclimate to his stats.

He almost destroyed the house once.

He turned on the bed while sleeping, but it was too fast, and his bed was destroyed. The scare made him stand up too fast, and he jumped high, hitting his head on the cave chamber's ceiling. The pain only added to the confusion, and he picked a random direction to run once he was back on the ground.

An armored man appeared from behind to hold him tight.

A few seconds later, when he truly woke up, his face was inches from a wall that would've led deeper into the building. The wooden plates would do nothing to stop him, as proven by the destroyed one that fell from the ceiling.

His strength made him ten times as strong as an unawakened bodybuilder. His agility made him ten times as fast as an unawakened athlete. He could see better, hold more information, think faster and more logically, and...

And without his high mind stats to give him strong willpower, something would always be poking from his clothes. No one had ever told him a high vitality could affect him like that. Forget the hormonal issues he had during his teenage years; his body was healthy, and it wanted to spread that healthiness to the whole world, all the time, unceasingly.

The prince was glad Sophie was kept out of sight. He recalled how beautiful she was, but blessedly she had been seventeen the last time he saw her. Enough to make him wonder about her current appearance, but that was all; she had looked too young for him. He had had a mature enough mind when he entered the dungeon, and the high stats pushed him further. Graham shared the complex math with him, suggesting he saw himself as a twenty-one to twenty-four-year-old.

"It will pass, milord," Graham had suddenly said one day as Arthur tried to pick up a metal cup without bending it. He wasn't having much success that day. He kept thinking of... unrelated matters. "Your mind is overwhelmed by chemicals and confused about your sudden change. It'll only take a few months for things to normalize. That was another reason it was best to push vitality to 500 first. We can't have you this distracted once we start killing monsters."

Tomato-red from embarrassment, Arthur had only nodded and kept failing at picking the cup up. Having a high resolve didn't make him any less self-conscious.

Most of his physical training was about learning to do things delicately, which boiled down to moving slowly and limiting his strength. Supposedly, if he did that a lot, it would become second nature even while he was asleep. It was similar to how unawakened learned not to pee in their beds. As for vitality, there was no training in it.

"How about injuring myself to train vitality to heal me better?" Arthur asked Graham one day. "It even unlocks secret skills in some stories!"

"That's unfortunately not how the world works, my prince. Many squires end up in the ward during knight training because they pursue such legends. There's no such thing as training your body to heal you better either."

The mental training was mostly about being patient. The high mind stats, and thus improved resolve, were crucial for that.

His high wisdom made his mind a little too fast and agitated, always thinking about anything it could. High intelligence meant he recalled things better, so he quickly jumped from topic to topic. His high perception greatly distracted him because he could see, hear, smell, taste, and feel too well. Graham and Tamara sounded like they were screaming, and their faces were too nitid. Also, while feeling mana didn't come from a mind stat, feeling so much mana around him was exceptionally distracting.

So, Arthur had to force his thoughts to stop or move toward a helpful subject—especially considering where his vitality kept pushing them.

As difficult as body and mind training was, what made them genuinely challenging was that Arthur also had to do magic while he did everything else.

Not just the magic he had trained on, either. That would've been tricky enough, yet besides making the nail float beside him while he walked, he also had to constantly push mana out of his body and reserve some focus to absorb the energy faster from the environment. Mind stats or not, it felt like he was juggling dozens of things non-stop.

"As I said before, milord, you'll fight while constantly using your mana. Doing things like this now is a great training opportunity. Both your stats and using mana will become second nature for you together."

"Don't worry, sire," Graham added in another opportunity. "Your high mind stats will let you adapt to your new power soon enough."

The man could've worked as a diviner because, mere three weeks later, Arthur was perfectly in control of his entire self.

High-mind stats also made it much easier to do magic. He could access the knowledge he needed and use it incredibly fast. Having a nail floating beside him became such a second nature that he found it weird not to bathe or go to sleep doing it.

So odd, in fact, that he shared it with Graham.

"I'm glad you told me, Prince Boria. From now on, half your magic training will become not doing magic. In a way, we awakeners become our elements when we pick them. Only awakeners know what it feels like to connect to our element. But you are not metal. Confusing yourself with your element can lead to many issues, not to mention if you are ever cut from it."

"Cut from it?" Arthur asked, surprised.

"Voidsteel shackles can cut you from magic, sire. It's not a pleasant feeling, but it's worse for mages. Some go crazy."

They spent another week guaranteeing he had full control of his stats and establishing a better line between himself and his element.

If anyone had ever told Arthur he might get addicted to mana one day, he would've laughed in their faces.

The prince had succeeded and finished that part of training yesterday. Today, he had been asked to stay in his bedroom while Sophie did some exercise outside. The wooden panels, he had learned, were enchanted not to let sound pass, so he couldn't even hear what was going on out there.

And so, he waited, idly looking at his stats while making a nail float and move above him, pushing some mana out of his body and absorbing some more.

One's absorption stat worked by itself. Just having it meant Arthur absorbed mana from the environment whenever his mana pool wasn't full. But now that he had actual mana stats, he could absorb more energy by focusing on it. The more he focused, the more he pulled up to a limit set by the stat.

Speaking of absorption, did it have anything to do with his skin pores? Sophia had had such nice skin that she might be able to take more mana—

The prince shook his head. For all his resolve, his vitality still troubled him, partly because it was so higher than all his mind stats combined.

He swapped windows to his traits to distract himself.

「 Traits

Strength:

- Strength Wave (1-1)

Agility:

- Self-Aware Movements (1-1)

Vitality:

- Long Live Yourself (1-5)

Perception:

- Enhanced Senses (1-1)

Intelligence:

- Knowledge Hoarder (1-1)

Wisdom:

- Quick Mind (1-1)

Absorption:

- Material Consumer (1-5)

Magnitude:

- Mana Condenser (1-2)

Efflux:

- Mana Reach (1-1) 」

Arthur had never heard about traits, but Graham had explained it to him these past weeks.

"Think of traits as an evolution of your stats, my prince. You can't invest stat points in them, but they get better when your stats reach certain thresholds. They range from tier 1 to 3. On tiers 1 and 2, traits have 9 levels each. On tier 1, every 100 points on a stat increase its level by 1. For instance, your strength is 100, so the Strength Wave trait is at tier 1, level 1. We call it 1-1, as you can see in your traits window. A tier 2 stat levels up every 1,000 points instead. Tier 3 has no levels."

"Why not?" the prince had asked.

"Tier 3 means you reached 10,000 points in a stat, Your Highness. His Royal Majesty's records only contain tales of two people who ever amassed that many points overall. One of them wanted to live forever and spent all points in a single stat, vitality. She said 10,000 was the limit, and when... asked under duress, she showed her stats and traits to the world. Her vitality traits showed tier 3 and level 'max.'

"Your Long Live Yourself trait gives you 45 extra years of lifespan at 1-5. The trait itself isn't as clear, but we can figure it out with the right tools. You get a lot more lifespan at tier 2, and at tier 3... That woman would've lived for over two thousand years if she hadn't been killed—and the only way to kill her was to destroy both her heart and brain."

Arthur had been marked by the story. It was just.. sad. It explained a lot about traits, though, and showcased how weak they were in tier 1.

At 1-1, Strength Wave let him use part of his strength outside his body, but the range was a measly tenth of a yard, and the ratio was so low he could only hold things comparable to 2 or 3 points of strength. Things improved to double the range and ratio on level 2. Since level 2 also meant doubling one's stats, the strength one could showcase was around 10 to 12, which started getting useful.

Graham had said that his attacks reached further during battle thanks to this trait, though he hadn't revealed at what tier or level it was.

Self-Aware Movements was useless at 1-1 and would keep being so up to 2-3 or 2-4. It made him more aware of his movements in a complex way that, after Graham explained it, Arthur concluded to be a roundabout manner to increase how fast he could think. The issue was that the ratio was way too shitty, so it needed many levels to become good.

Long Live Yourself was one of the best traits at tier 1. Each level increased his lifespan by 9 years. At 1-5, Arthur had already gained 45 years of extra lifespan compared to an unawakened.

Enhanced Senses was the most underwhelming trait of all, at least at tier 1. As its name implied, it made his senses better. Each level would give him a noticeable boost that would be all but useless. Only scouts, guards, and merchants really needed it. Even after Arthur became king, he would need only so much perception to deal with his subjects.

Contrastingly, Knowledge Hoarder was one of the best ones with Long Live Yourself. At 1-1, if Arthur read anything 30 times, it would be forever in his memory to the last letter. Looking at something for half a minute would also let him remember it to the last detail—at least the details he had noticed.

The times he had to read and the length he had to look decreased on each level, but not too much. It started strong and didn't grow too well, the opposite of the vitality trait.

Quick Mind was average. At 1-1, it did almost nothing but would improve Arthur's thinking speed by around 50% at 1-5. Yet, he already felt like he was benefiting a lot.

High wisdom made him capable of understanding things more quickly and improved his logical mind. It had to do with forming connections and not being overwhelmed by complexity. He also could notice more subtle connections between different subjects more quickly.

The trait worked differently. It didn't let him understand things faster, like the stat, but rather calculate and decide things more quickly. That was most noticeable while doing math; he was already around 10% to 20% faster than before. That decision power would supposedly also be helpful during battle.

"At high levels, Quick Mind can turn even a weak warrior into a beast on the battlefield, Your Highness," Graham had said. "When aided by high intelligence, it can create top generals who recall tactics and strategies instantly or grand wizards who recall their knowledge of magic. And the Knowledge Hoarder trait at a high level will let you learn things much faster, be you a general or a wizard. Either can then quickly decide on what to do. Eventually, you'll raise both stats to 1,000, partly to get the traits to tier 2."

Material Consumer, the absorption trait, was absolutely useless even at 1-5. It let him take mana from any inorganic matter, not just things supposed to give him mana, but potions were much more efficient than that. There was a theoretical tipping somewhere in tier 2 when holding an object with a lot of mana would be better, but Graham said no one had shared the specifics with his father.

Arthur really didn't like mages. So greedy! He sighed; he would become one anyway.

Mana Condenser automatically condensed any mana in his body, thus improving his reserves. At 1-2, it was barely noticeable, something between 5% to 8%. It would become considerably better as it leveled up, too.

That condensation thing was like the mana contracting exercises he had done, except the mana remained condensed despite him doing something about it. It helped explain where the idea of doing said practices had come from or why there was no creativity behind them.

And finally, Mana Reach literally improved how far from his body his mana could reach while still under his control. Without the trait, it had been limited to 3 inches. Now, at 1-1, it had already improved to 3 yards. It would double for each level after that.

"Don't confuse it for your spells' reach, sire," Graham had alerted. "This trait determines how far the mana under your control can get. At your level, it only affects your prehension range. Actual spells can leave your area of influence if they were created to do so—but it requires advanced mana theory. A spell's reach is then defined by how much mana it has and how much it spends to keep going. Paradoxically, the more mana a spell has, the more it needs to use to move all that mana forward. It's not a terrible ratio, but it still affects things considerably. That's why in the stories, mages often need a long time to cast powerful or big spells. That's also partly why mages must improve their intelligence and wisdom. Spellcasting involves many variables and calculations."

And that's how Arthur had learned that math, his old nemesis, had won in the end; it would be a permanent part of his life forever.

No one had come to his room yet, so Arthur went from traits to achievements before his thoughts could wander again.

「 Achievements

Total: 74

1. Awakener

2. Early Awakener

3. Precocious Awakener

4. Impatient Elementalist

5. Dungeoneer

6. Dungeon Insistence

7. Dungeon Craze

8. Dungeon Obsession

9. Mana Capable

10. Dungeon Variety

11. Natural Grower

12. Natural Enthusiast

13. Dungeon Fest

14. Peak Natural Vitality

15. Peak Natural Strength

16. Peak Natural Agility

17. Peak Natural Absorption

18. Peak Natural Magnitude

19. Peak Natural Intelligence

20. Peak Natural Wisdom

21. Peak Natural Efflux

22. Peak Natural Perception

23. Waste Not, Want Not

24. Monster Gazer

25. Weightlifter

26. Runner

27. Literate

28. Mana Enthusiast

29. Mana User

30. Mana Thirsty

31. Mindful Eater

32. Observer

33. Streetsmart

34. Persistent Watcher

35. Bodybuilder

36. Lightfoot

37. Bookworm

38. Mana Hoarder

39. Mana Spender

40. Mana Sponge

41. Healthy

42. Perceptive

43. Wise

44. Peaceful Observer

45. Musclehead

46. Speedster

47. Intellectual

48. Mana Lover

49. Mana Waster

50. Mana Addict

51. Detail-oriented

52. Sage

53. Vigorous

54. Boundless Agility I

55. Boundless Agility II

56. Focused Build

57. Boundless Wisdom I

58. Boundless Wisdom II

59. Boundless Intelligence I

60. Boundless Intelligence II

61. Boundless Perception I

62. Boundless Perception II

63. Boundless Strength I

64. Boundless Strength II

65. Boundless Vitality I

66. Boundless Vitality II

67. Boundless Magnitude I

68. Boundless Magnitude II

69. Boundless Efflux I

70. Boundless Efflux II

71. Boundless Absorption I

72. Boundless Absorption II

73. Boundless Vitality III

74. Boundless Absorption III 」

Reading his achievements would let one follow his life until now.

Not that there was much to see. Arthur had awakened, then trained, trained, and trained. Then, he pursued achievements by doing things that felt like more training. Lastly, he had improved his stats.

There was, unfortunately, no achievement for learning how to control said stats—except vitality. Fortunately, he felt he would be done with that in another month or so.

Maybe there would be an achievement after that? Arthur knew there was an EX-tier achievement for having 100 achievements, but that wouldn't come so soon unless Graham had something up his sleeve...

...which the man might actually have.

The Grand Knight constantly gave tips on what was coming but kept the details close to heart, on the king's orders. Arthur could do nothing about that, just as he could do nothing about how impulsive he had been when picking a path. His 100 wisdom told him he should've at least asked more about each approach before making a decision, but the knight said he wouldn't have revealed anything even back then.

"His Royal Majesty ordered me to let you follow your heart with only a little data, milord," William had said. "I was also forbidden from telling you the reason behind it. It has to do with issues that might arise if your future is too tightly controlled. Letting you know what we want you to do might affect things too much."

So much for brutal honesty—

A light knock on the door distracted him from his thoughts.

"Come in," he said.

While Arthur couldn't hear anything through the wooden panels, Graham and Tamara could. The former was a grand knight and certainly had ways around weak enchantments. As for Tamara, who knows what sorts of maid skills she had?

So, she heard his words and opened the door. "Your Highness, you can leave now," she informed.

"Thank Fate," he said, stood up, and left.

Outside, he found a medium-sized square table covered by a white sheet and filled with food. There were four chairs around it, two already occupied by Graham and Sophie.

"Happy birthday, Your Highness!" Tamara said as she followed him outside.

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