Volume 4 - CH 2

11-13 minutes

◆4-02　Falling in love with Patrick and Level 99

Eleanora and I walk around the mansion looking for Patrick, not the blue bird of happiness.

No one is in his personal quarters except Damon in his office. Just as I am wondering where he is, I hear his voice coming from the entrance hall. He had been out for a little and had returned.

“Welcome back. Do you wanna eat? Do you wanna take a bath? Or do you wan—”

“Welcome back, Patrick. Okay, I’d like you to put your hand on this crystal.”

I was interrupted by Eleanora for the important part.

Well, okay. I was only trying to say the obligatory welcome home.

Eleanora has a big smile on her face as she holds out the crystal in both hands. Cute. When confronted with the crystal, Patrick looks a little uncomfortable. That’s impossible.

“Tadaima. Ah, Let’s do that later. It’s not like I have to do it now—”

“If Patrick doesn’t do it first, I won’t get my turn.”

Knowing from his expression that he wouldn’t like it, I moved fast.

I grab Patrick’s wrist firmly with both hands and bring them close to the crystal. He fights back and tries to retract his hands, but to no avail.

Eleanora raised the crystal in her hand and pressed it against Patrick’s palm.

It’s a combined effort between her and me. Let’s call it “forced level measurement.” It’s a technique to force the level measurement.

“Yosh! Good job, Miss Eleanora! Look at the numbers!”

“Let’s see… 99! It was 99! Patrick, you’re amazing!”

Eleanora jumped up and down with joy when she saw the numbers on the magic tool. Please don’t drop it, okay? You can’t let the crystal slip and smash on the floor, okay?

But I also understand Eleanora’s joy. I’m happy for myself as well. Oh, Patrick, you’ve become such a fine—

“This is what a mother feels when her son grows up.”

“I don’t remember being raised by you.”

Are you rebelling? Okaa-san, if you are going to run wild on a motorcycle, I want you to ride a CBX.

I thought about demonstrating a sound imitation of a 6 cylinder series engine, but let’s not kid ourselves here and celebrate honestly. I’ll leave the motorcycle impersonation for another time.

“Congratulations, Patrick.”

“…Thank you.”

He doesn’t seem too happy about it. Not sure why he looks reluctant to take the level measurements. By the way, I don’t think Patrick has talked much about his levels lately.

Why? He is level 99, right? His level is probably the second-highest in the world.

Patrick and I are the strongest in the world, hmm? We don’t need to have the two strongest people in the world. I was the strongest yesterday, and now we are tied for first place.

We must hold a battle to determine who is the strongest. The battle has already begun.

While assessing the distance between Patrick and me, I say.

“Time to decide who is the strongest between us.”

“Haa… I knew this would happen, and I wouldn’t say I liked it. I’m just going to stop and let you be the strongest.”

“Ha! You sound like the self-proclaimed weakest protagonist! Patrick is the strongest, but he hides in the shadow! On the surface, I’m the strongest, and I look nothing like someone with power!”

In most stories, those who want to decide who is the stronger and the weaker. The pattern is that the peaceful one that said, “Let’s not fight,” was actually the stronger one.

No, no, no. I am stronger.

Despite my willingness to fight, Patrick is unwilling to do so. He gives me a pitiful look.

“When we met, wasn’t Yumiela a bit more reasonable? Hasn’t she been getting more and more violent lately?”

“I don’t think I’ve changed that much.”

Guess I’ve always been like this. We’ve been together for so long, and he has seen so many different parts of me. Though I don’t think I have a violent side. I almost got sidetracked. We are in the middle of a battle to determine who is the best.

As I gradually move closer to Patrick and close the gap to my advantage, I say.

“This is a reasonable way. In principle, the higher level is stronger, and if the levels are the same, you have to fight each other directly to find out who is stronger. See, it’s reasonable, right?”

“Reasonable?”

Patrick asked as if I didn’t know what ‘reasonable’ means.

There are two level 99s, and the only way to find out which one is stronger is to fight and see which one is stronger. The one with the better basic potential, the so-called talent, might win. They might win or lose in areas other than levels, such as swordsmanship or magical accuracy.

With the two of us, we do not need to worry about the three-way deadlock caused by compatibility.

Now let’s start the strongest lovers’ quarrel on earth.

Eleanora spoke up from beside me as I was getting enthusiastic.

“Yumiela-san, I believe you mentioned that you have surpassed level 99?”

“Ah.”

“Remember your reason for using this crystal? It was not so long ago, and you have forgotten?”

“I did.”

Right. I wasn’t level 99 anymore. I didn’t even realize it until Eleanora pointed it out to me. Determining who was the strongest was an event that I had planned to do once Patrick hit the level limit, so my feelings got the better of me.

You stick to a schedule even though circumstances have changed and you no longer need it. It happens.

In my previous life, I was a homebody college girl. There was the time I bought a mobile battery that I was going to take with me on a trip, only to find out that the trip had been canceled. I wasn’t planning to go to the electronics store, but I forced myself to go, and when I got home and opened the battery box, suddenly I realized. I don’t need this.

It was a blind spot. Am I still the strongest in the world? Should we have the battle to determine who is the strongest, just in case?

Patrick takes this opportunity to try to talk me out of it while I’m not sure whether to get out of my fighting stance or not. How unwilling are you to fight?

“See! Yumiela has surpassed the level cap. This means that Yumiela is stronger than me, who is level 99. Right? We don’t have to fight.”

“I’m number one in the world?”

“Yeah, you are number one.”

“What if I’m the second best?”

“…Is that possible?”

The world’s second place was the world’s second place. Even though the world’s number two is the world’s number two, the world’s number one is the world’s number one, and since I am the world’s number one and not the world’s number two, that means I’m the world’s number one.

Okay, then I don’t have to fight with Patrick.

He sighed heavily as I released my fighting stance.

“I’m saved. Thank you, Miss Eleanora.”

“Did you forget about Yumiela-san’s level?”

“I’ve been dreading what would happen earlier for so long that I didn’t realize the preconditions had changed.”

Oh, Patrick had that kind of thought.

Was his reluctance to measure levels because he expected me to ask for a fight? It doesn’t make sense to me. What boy wouldn’t be interested in being the best in the world?

Anyway. Now that Patrick’s level is at its maximum, he no longer needs the crystal. I can destroy them to my heart’s content.

“Then, it’s my turn.”

“Why were you waiting for me to return? You could have measured your level first.”

I knew that’s the image I had.

I give the same brief explanation I gave to Eleanora to Patrick. There is a possibility that the crystal will break because it can’t withstand my power.

“That’s why the crystal break.”

“It’s a valuable item, even though it’s on the market for some. Don’t break it.”

“They break because of irresistible force!”

“Don’t break it on purpose, okay?”

There is no way it would do that. Only three things can happen: it may break physically due to an irresistible force, display an error message, or display more than three digits numbers. I would never break a valuable magic tool voluntarily.

Patrick looked at me as if I would do that, let’s move on.

“Alright, I’ll take my measurement.”

“Here you go!”

With a smile on her face, Eleanora presents the crystal to me.

Her hands would be covered in blood if the crystal exploded in this state. It would be a disaster if any flying debris hit her face.

I move the vase away from the desk.

“Put it here, it will explode.”

Eleanora was a little unhappy but placed the crystal where it was instructed. Then she takes a few steps back, perhaps afraid of the explosion.

Meanwhile, Patrick is alarmed and takes a step forward. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of all the damage from the explosion.

Alright, 3, 2, 1, and explode!

“Huh?”

Touching the crystal lightly, nothing changed.

There was no sign of an explosion, not even a hint.

I wonder why. Was it an error?

When I looked around in disbelief, my eyes met Patrick’s, who looked relieved. Did he hate explosions that much?

It couldn’t be helped. Let’s get back on track and see whether it’s an error or more than three digits.

As I tried to turn my attention back to the crystal, Eleanora quickly slipped past Patrick.

Judging that there would be no danger, she approached without any restraint. She stood directly across from me with the crystal in between.

And Eleanora bent down and looked into the crystal.

“13!”

“Huh? 13?”

How the heck is it level 13? How can my level be so low?

Oh, you mean ‘13!’? It’s the factorial of 13.

13 x 12 x 11 x 10 and so on, equals 6 billion?

I’m proud to say that I am at level 6 billion. I didn’t realize that I had saved so much overflowing EXP.

Overwhelmed with emotion, Patrick came up to me and peered into the crystal.

“Oh, it’s really 13. What in the world is this?”

“It’s not. It’s 13! right?”

“Why did you raise your voice?”

The way Patrick put it, it sounds like it’s only 13.

Huh? What does the crystal say?

It is unlikely that the measured levels are displayed in factorial, and if the number is about 6 billion, why did Eleanora bother to rephrase it?

That reminds me. Eleanora is good with quick math. When she saw a number that exceeded a hundred million, she would freeze and count the digits as hard as possible, ten hundred and a thousand.

I have a terrible feeling. Sweat runs down my back even though the weather is not hot.

Ignoring the discomfort in my back, I look into the crystal. I look at the measurement results, keeping my hand on the crystal and covering it.

“Thirteen?”

The number that caught my eye was 13. The natural number is greater than 12 and less than 14—thirteen in English. There were no other notations, only the numbers floating on the crystal.

The results were the same once I took my hand away and re-measured it.

Taking into account the possibility of something wrong with my eyes, I ask Patrick.

“It’s thirteen, right?”

“It is.”

“Thirteen, huh.”

The world bent with a snarl. Amidst the spinning vision, I was calmer than anyone else.