Well then, what the hell am I going to do with Ustos? I can’t leave him in my dorm because he’ll die, and that can’t happen. I need to get him out of here.

After that, I can just pay some grunts to take care of him for a month. Thinking about it, can’t I just keep him out of the academy forever like this? No, although getting rid of the idiot would be very nice, I don’t trust any goons I hire to not get some stupid ideas and do something idiotic with Ustos, which will then likely ruin the plan. And besides, I need Ustos for information, even though I think I got every bit of useful knowledge out of his small brain, there may be some snippets of information I haven’t gotten out of him and those could prove annoyingly crucial.

As I split off from Keswick and enter my dorm I think about how I’m supposed to sneak a full-sized adult out of this damned academy. And as I enter my home, I move the idiot in question to a window so he can get some sunlight.

Hmm, what to do? I know that people are lax with security here because they're confident in their cute little soul necklaces, but they probably aren’t stupid enough to not check a man-sized bag for something suspicious in it.

Bribery probably wouldn’t work, and if it would, I don’t have enough money to even try. Sneaking him out also isn’t an option. The only thing left to try that comes to my great mind is getting another soul-bound necklace. But I can’t just steal a necklace, if I do just that the annoying wizards will be alerted, and they will probably track down the necklace and its stealer with a spell.

So I need to do something more drastic, I need to do the same thing to them as I did to Ustos. But that brings up an issue, if I just kidnap a random noble, their family is going to notice and alert the academy, and then I’ll be tracked down.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

So the target needs to be some forgettable noble, like Ustos, but even worse, if they disappeared for a month, no one should care. And I have just the person in mind, he is a second-year, and the only other bastard in this place too, I heard his family wanted to make something of him, so they decided to enroll him in the academy. And I also heard from Keswick, of all people, that his family wants to teach him discipline or something silly like that, so they decided to make him live amongst the commoners for the entirety of his future breaks in the academy. I don’t actually know his name, everything I know comes from Keswick because she felt bad for him and all.

So I think I have the idea down when the break comes, the target will leave the academy, I will follow him out, and when the time comes, I will knock him out. After knocking him out I will permanently repossess his necklace and robes, after which I will take him to the goons I will hire. When that’s done, I will return to Ustos and make him put on the robe and necklace, and we will both walk out of the academy with none the wiser. After which, I will also give Ustos to the mercs to take him off my hands. Beautiful.

Returning to the academy will be much easier, I and Ustos can just walk back in, but that other guy has to die, I can’t just let him go free and I also can’t keep him alive, because the academy will notice him missing and track down the necklace, which will then lead them to me.

Wait a second, I look at Ustos, he’s sitting on his chair quiet, and with his eyes closed. I walk up to him and remove the ropes off from his chair, I slap him out of his sleep or meditation or whatever and tell him, “Get up.”.

He doesn’t move. “I said get up!”, his legs start shaking and he looks more concentrated, but he still doesn’t budge from his spot. He’s not getting up, or rather, he can't get up. Because he’s been sitting in a damn chair for 11 months, of course, he can’t get up, his leg muscles have probably atrophied.

Damn it what the hell am I supposed to do now? I’m not a physical therapist. I mean, atrophied muscles probably need exercise, right? So what kind of exercises?

I make Ustos do leg exercises, small ones like moving his leg up a little and such stuff, and I hope it works, and he doesn’t resist the exercise, probably because it’s to make him be able to walk again.

All right so I’ll just be making him do them for the month that’s left before the break, and hopefully, he’ll be able to walk around the time the break comes. Next up on my list is actually knowing who the hell I am going to steal the soul-bonded necklace from.