Two fourth-year students, both eighteen years of age, left the main entrance to the so-called ‘Perlenstadt Catacombs’, more commonly known nowadays as the Great Dungeon due to its enormous magical properties.

  The main entrance was on the ground floor of the Academy’s General Building, which was at the center of the four dormitory and administration buildings that surrounded it.

  Foot traffic here was quite busy, with many students, usually young boys, travelling down in the Great Dungeon in search of easy monsters that they could farm XP levels for their skills and magic.

  Due to the thick unnatural miasma coming from the deeper caverns, such monsters were constantly spawned and replenished here.

  But Wilhelm and two of his lieutenants, working as instructors for now, entered with a different reason, one with a pile of maps in hand, while another carried a small pile of empty papers.

  The Great Dungeon wasn’t just a source of XP for a lot of new folks trying to learn magic and what else, it was also a great source of monster cores and mana crystals.

  Of course, as a result, both the Imperial Government and the Grand Academy would never interrupt the activity beneath them, but to Wilhelm, all that was foolish.

  He could hear all those whispers, the plans, and the movement of the demon horde. Awful things were soon bound to happen. For now, though, it was safe here, and as they walked into the first floor of the dungeon, where foot traffic remained high, his two officers got to work.

  Since one of his men held the official maps of the dungeon, they followed its routes religiously. But, something else was happening on the paper pile held by the other officer. On top of it, a floating fountain pen, controlled by Wilhelm’s skill, worked its magic, drawing everything that was in front of them into a highly detailed map of the first floor.

  Each time they descended to the next floor, the officer moved the finished map to the bottom of the pile, and the floating fountain pen would immediately draw on the next empty paper.

  “So this is where the portal might spawn?” one of the officers, who held the official maps, asked.

  They were now getting deeper and deeper, and there were now virtually no people, and the lights from the walls were becoming dimmer, the floor becoming colder and more cracked.

  “Who knows?” Wilhelm remained neutral, as he started to hear the whispers and croaks of the monsters around them. He avoided them as best as he could, as his goal here was to create an accurate map, not farm XP.

  “That answer again,” the officer holding the new maps frowned. “I don’t like it.”

  “Neither do I. But you both know how it works with Archdemons anyway. I may know a lot about them, but there are still blind spots. So we have to always be extra vigilant.”

  “I see. Now that I’ve noticed it—you’re drawing the monster concentrations as well?”

  “Of course. Should the need arise that we have to traverse this place in a crisis, I don’t want any slowdowns.”

  “As expected of our commandant. Not a single stone unturned, always,” the officer holding the official maps grinned.

  “I have to try hard,” Wilhelm took his steel flask from one of his coat’s internal pockets with a tiny, tired laugh. “I wouldn’t want to disappoint our new friends after all.”

  “As if those privileged brats have a right to be disappointed in you. I bet none of them will even stay and fight—it’ll all be up to us again, the Defense Forces!”

  Wilhelm didn’t answer his subordinate’s outrage, as he took a deep sip of his flask’s whiskey.

  Soon, Wilhelm stopped, checking a massive room with fancy runic designs in it. As the trio entered, silence dominated its halls. There was a ritual area inside, with a glyph circle and a mana condenser ball at the center, connected to the sigils inside.

  For a few minutes, Wilhelm circled the engraved symbols, analyzing them silently and thoroughly. Then, he ran his hand on the lines. A faint golden glow emanated from them as he channeled some of his mana into it.

  Neat. This mana condenser should work nicely for that pink-haired brat.

  Immediately, the floating fountain pen marked the place as ‘Ancient Formation Ritual Room—Class A’.

  A smile grew on Wilhelm’s face.

  “The secondary objective is complete,” Wilhelm told his men. “From now on, stay alert for monster attacks. We’ll proceed to the deeper floors for the primary objective.”

  The two officers stiffly nodded, and Wilhelm led them outside the room.

  +++

  Alexa collapsed after having to conduct basic strength training under Wilhelm’s instructions. Wilhelm himself seemed to just watch from the side of the training room with a disinterested expression, his eyes aimed at the pocket watch on his gloved hand.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “I did it,” Alexa said, half crying and half ecstatic. “I saw…the notification. My, I’ve finally become truly strong…”

  “If you call being able to lift two pounds of weight for fifty reps as ‘truly strong’ then sure, go on.”

  “Why you, you dirty peasant—can’t you ever let me celebrate my grand milestones?!”

  Alexa audibly grumbled. Behind Alexa, Adele smiled a bit, proud.

  “Your Highness, rest assured, the great effort you exert is not unappreciated. You truly are a hardworking individual,” she gracefully smiled further.

  Alexa smiled at her lady-in-waiting, flicking her hair a bit.

  “Finally, there’s someone who isn’t blind like Mr. Scary Face over here. Someone who can see and praise my truly great achievements,” Alexa nodded with smug satisfaction.

  Wilhelm on the other hand groaned, standing up.

  “Alright. Now you just need to repeat this routine for the better part of this week. That should train you enough to push your STR stat to L plus. Then, we’ll need to do something about your body’s constitution…”

  Alexa tilted her head, curious.

  “How is that even trained, actually?”

  “Normally, it’s done by repeatedly injuring yourself. Whether by blunt force, magic attacks, or—”

  “What?! How barbaric and terrifying! Who even subjects themselves to such things for a mere stat point?”

  “Soldiers…adventurers…knights…battlemages?”

  “...”

  “Technically, all of the other training routines that improve SPD, STR, and DEX also help with body constitution. It’s just that taking damage and having your body learn to resist and repair it also helps speed it up. But, say, have you missed anything in your system’s notification logs?”

  Alexa frowned, before mentally opening her stat window. Then, she went for her notification logs, since she usually ignores things when she’s too tired to give a crap about the world and weird blue stat boxes in front of her.

  What she saw made her eyes go wide.

  Oh…so I missed that yesterday while I was running around and everything…oh yeah, I also did extra dance lessons with Ms. Lafayette…

  She nodded to herself.

  “So it seems…” she grinned. “If this is the case, then I just need a little bit more effort to fully ensure that my physical stats are all L plus!”

  She quickly checked her updated stat window to be sure.

  “I see, it’s confirmed, Mr. Scary Face! I indeed am close to meeting your requirements—”

  “My patience may be eternal but each time you utter that cursed nickname I genuinely reconsider whether this world really does deserve its continued existence.”

  “Alright, fine,” Alexa smiled calmly. “I shall grant you the right to be called by the Crown Princess of Lotharingia herself with your—”

  “Keep making yourself sound big first.”

  “—I am very important and most valuable, thank you very much, so you should be greatly thankful for this act of benevolence, because from now on, I bestow you the privilege of being called ‘Wilhelm’ by myself.”

  “Isn’t it supposed to be you asking permission if you can call me by my first name and me granting it? How did you even jump over that part completely?”

  “My, Wilhelm. You underestimate the authority I hold above peasants such as you. If I want to do something, I do it.”

  Wilhelm stood neutrally, his facial expressions turning blank as he looked at Alexa’s smug look. On the sidelines, Adele happily cheered Alexa for placing the poor instructor in his place. In any case, now, he had no choice. As Alexa decreed, they’d be on a first-name basis.

  “...Then what should I call you?” Wilhelm asked.

  “Hmm,” Alexa placed her hand on her chin. “To be quite frank, being called ‘Your Highness’ by those near me is a bit annoying, unless I’m in a formal setting. But you’re still a peasant below me, so we must delineate that line between us. Hence, I advise you to follow Phoebe’s fine example. Please call me ‘Lady Alexa’.”

  “I swear, the way nobility works is worse than the cult of ranks in the military,” Wilhelm finally let out a tiny groan. “Alright, fine. What do you want now, ‘Lady Alexa’?”

  “I’ll be taking my leave to clean myself. Then, I’ll return to your office to practice more glyphs! Oh, and would you please teach me how to brew potions too?”

  “Not now,” Wilhelm walked past the two. “I’m not in the right headspace to teach you extra stuff for now. Maybe tomorrow.”

  “Peasant, how dare you deny a request of mine! I thought you’d learned your job under me better, yet you revert to this again!”

  He simply lazily waved his hand, as if her justified complaints went through his ears on one side and out of the other before he could even decipher them. How truly infuriating, he seemed to have mastered that devious technique at this point.

  But, Alexa didn’t bother to annoy him further, as Wilhelm fully left the scene. Even if his denial of her authority was quite infuriating, the fact that he had been so helpful and accommodating regardless still made Alexa quite thankful internally, and she couldn’t help but smile a bit.

  After all, in the end, he’s going to help me anyway.

  “I swear, that guy’s just too stubborn. He’s the only one in this place who doesn’t fully grovel at my feet,” Alexa mumbled. “But I guess that’s just him. Does he even see me as royalty?”

  “Maybe not. Do you perhaps like him, Your Highness?” Adele curiously asked behind.

  “Heh,” Alexa laughed. “I do like him. He’s a very good peasant. He knows a lot of things that benefit me. He seems to have a truly good backbone as well, and he seems like a capable officer. His roughness and coldness are quite infuriating, but I suppose it does have its charm.”

  “Ah, so it is like that,” Adele laughed a bit. “I see, I see. You’ve been surprising me so often this year already, Your Highness!”

  “Hmm?” Alexa stared at Adele with narrowed eyes. “What did you mean by 'surprising'?"