Engraved seals last much longer than those simply drawn on the same medium, the problem is low mana efficiency. To reduce an engraved seal’s mana consumption, we fill the pathways with mana-conductive materials, which further balloons the already considerable cost of engraving spell seals.

  — Excerpt from Comprehensive Introduction to Scribing and Seals

  Day 122, 9:50 PM

  Sixty-seven loops. It took sixty-seven loops to make a blueprint of Newstar’s realm. Each of those loops I ended with becoming a mageknight, each time getting a new class for my effort, the realm mageknight.

  I didn’t work on it, even if the first level up condition was fairly simple. Time was critical, and once I changed the loop’s starting point, I would have plenty of it for experimentation.

  First thing first, brewing the potions, then purchasing the backpacks and supplies we would need. Then committing the realm blueprint to paper in a way Newstar found the easiest to read during the previous loops when I tested with in-progress versions.

  I should have enough time to visit Ruby one last time and say goodbye. Doing so would create an unknown, a random factor I was adding to the future, but I was under the impression the woman viewed me as more than a boy-toy and a pleasurable pastime, so she deserved better than me vanishing without saying goodbye.

  I rushed into the alchemists’ guild. “Greetings, Anise, I apologize. I am in a hurry.”

  With that I headed to the quartermaster, got the ingredients I needed, and spent the night brewing potions. Repeating the same process with identical ingredients over sixty times made me quite proficient, and I brewed everything I would need without losing focus.

  Fortunately, Anise wasn’t at the counter in the morning.

  “Morning, Oak,” I greeted the clerk. “Do you mind selling these for me?”

  I gave him the excess potions, signed the receipt, and left for the marketplace to pick up the backpacks I had commissioned along with the provisions. After claiming the goods I planned for, I went on in search of items I found necessary as the loops progressed, including chalk and luminescent fungi, which I collected personally on my way over to Hailstown.

  I was giddy. The plan was unfolding, the big payoff ahead of me, and what was probably the most powerful class in the world just waiting for me to snatch it. I tried to tone down my excitement, but I couldn’t.

  I dashed into Hailstown, heading straight for the library.

  “Good evening, beautiful.” I smiled at Ruby, who shot me a familiar gaze, the one women reserved for crazies.

  “Don’t be cold. I’m leaving Hailstown soon, and you were by far the most beautiful ray of light which had graced my gloomy days here.”

  “What are you talking about, Dandelion?” Her frown deepened. “You’re the townlord. You can’t leave whenever you feel like it.”

  “I scheduled a meeting with Thunderbluff’s citylord to discuss the matter. The fines will eat through most of my savings, but that’s all right. Money is for spending.”

  Ruby blinked at me like I broke something in her, and it wasn’t her heart.

  “You have enough savings to buy yourself a clean slate and leave this dump?”

  I smiled at her. “I would buy you as a slave, if I had the money, but unfortunately I’m too poor as of yet.”

  She snorted. “You could never afford me. Besides, I wouldn’t leave my instructor even if you bought me.”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  I leaned over the counter, drawing closer to her. “It’s a moot point. Would you like some dinner? My treat?”

  She snorted, but didn’t say no.

  “I’ll wait for you at Basil’s in an hour. Got to drop off these backpacks at my room at the keep, and I have some notes to write down, but I will be leaving after the tournament ends. Would you share my company tomorrow and the day after?”

  “You rotten bastard,” she growled. “You’re serious?”

  “About everything.” I grinned back, and she struggled to hide her smile. “Especially about buying you as my slave. That would be nice. I would do things to you, they would make a decent woman blush just knowing they were possible.”

  She blushed, and I laughed.

  I was about to say she was playing at being decent when a shout came from the back of the library. “Quiet! This is a place of study!”

  I shut my mouth instantly and moved out, waving at Ruby and making suggestive hand gestures. She rolled her eyes as I left, but I could tell she was amused.

  A fine woman. A shame she’s not my Manny.

  I went to my room, leaving my bags with no one seeing me before I jumped out the window and headed for Basil’s. Despite her tough act, and a genuinely tough teacher and supervisor, Ruby arrived at Basil’s on time.

  “Must you leave?” she asked, pressed beneath me three hours later.

  “I have to. Just like you, I need to advance, and staying here is stifling my growth. I have no idea why the old Dandelion shackled himself to this place. You’re the only real treasure around.”

  “Assuming the stories are true—” Ruby blushed before she started giving me a serious answer, but I wasn’t interested.

  I sealed her lips with mine, and after a long kiss, whispered three words into her ear. “No talking tonight.”

  The time until the tournament’s end passed with boring days full of writing content I knew by heart, contrasted by nights full of vigorous activity.

  “Don’t go, it’s so boring here,” Ruby said on the morning of the tournament’s finals. “I don’t have anyone to talk to. Hardly anyone enters the library, and even the few who do are no better than commoners.”

  I kissed her forehead and got up. “Can’t you have deep conversations with your master?”

  She shook her head, despondent. “I’m as dull to him as commoners are to me. I’m his seventh apprentice, and he just answers my questions mechanically, like he’s already heard them before. The only spark of interest he showed was when I asked him about your condition, which fascinated him as much as it did me. And I’m guessing for similar reasons.”

  “You’re wondering whether losing your memories would wash away whatever’s binding you, since I don’t seem to be constrained by whatever contract I originally signed?”

  Initial Logical Deduction probably pushed me to reach such a conclusion, because I don’t think I ever would have made such an inference on my own.

  Ruby suddenly covered herself up, like that would do anything.

  “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone. Does that mean you would want to be my slave, assuming I gathered enough manarium to purchase you?”

  She held my gaze for a long moment before shaking her head. “I mean, I would, but I would need more resources to grow, and you’re just a knight. I’ll probably outlive you, and even if you would treat me well, I don’t know what your legal inheritors might do.”

  “And if we suppose I reach a higher realm and outlive you?”

  “I would enjoy being your slave much better than the empire’s. Once I reach my full potential, they will keep sending me on dangerous missions until I break through to the next realm or die. The odds of me repaying my debt are close to zero.”

  I nodded. It was a sad destiny becoming an imperial slave, placing resources before personal freedom. Then again, adventurers also risked their lives to earn some manarium, and even nobles had to defend their positions against their peers and fend off saurian assaults.

  The way the world worked, I guessed even the imperials faced dangers unseen by others, probably in the form of competitors for the throne and eager successors.

  Still, I needed to issue one perfectly clear warning to Ruby.

  “Do not consume mindburst poison. Whatever its effects, I am almost certainly a unique case, a miracle never before seen. Please don’t try to wipe away your memory just to escape debt.”

  “I won’t.” She shook her head. “Even if I forget the debt and break the binding magic, the imperials would hound me and put me to work soon enough, only without the benefit of a lifetime’s worth of knowledge.”

  Ruby smiled at me. “Don’t worry, I won’t do anything stupid.”

  I looked her in the eye and believed her.

  “I’ll buy you when I’m rich enough. Do you know anything about massages?”

  She burst into laughter and shook her head.

  “You better start learning quickly. I’ll have you as my personal masseuse in less than ten years, mark my words.”

  Ruby kept smiling happily. “And what will you have me do?”

  I pulled on her sheet, revealing her in all her glory.

  “You will do things that would make decent women blush if they know they existed.”

  She blushed, and much to her disappointment, I left her bedroom, pulling my shirt on.