Elsewhere, by the road between cities, and late into the night…

《Ahhh, this is the worst. Can't sleep again, can't look at the night sky again.》

Straf thinks as he lies face down in the grass, with Cycelia sleeping on her side next to him. The campfire crackles softly and sparks at random intervals, lighting both of them up and warming the cool night air.

《This sucks. It's like someone reminding you that you can see your own nose.》

He sighs and looks at Cycelia. Her shoulders rise and fall slowly as she breathes, presenting a doll-like face while she sleeps with her pink lips slightly parted.

《Must be nice, just being able to fall asleep like that. I need to think of something to do- Hold on, that's right.》

Straf sits up to his knees.

「Stats.」

Straf's status screen opens, he waves his past the partially transparent rectangle and looks at his available skills.

[Cultivation]

[Active skill]

Enables the user to slowly increase his attributes by focusing on it and having a clear mind. Only one attribute may be increased at a time.

Next level increases effect speed.

《That's right. I forgot I was planning to use this. Focus and clear mind, huh?》

Straf looks at Cycelia again.

《Well, it won't be easy to focus with her there… There's a quick way to clear my mind, but I would have a lot of explaining to do if she'd wake up while I'm at it.》

Straf gives his attributes a quick check.

Strength: 146 [+] ▲ Perception: 21 [+] ▴

Agility: 109 [+] ▲ Endurance: 106 [+]▲

Dexterity: 125 [+] ▲ Willpower: 10 [+]

Luck: 139 [+] Intelligence: 50 [+] ▴

Charisma: 197 [+] ▴ Wisdom: 51 [+] ▴

《Right, last night I was busy with the handkerchief. Now I have absolutely nothing to do, I might as well try raising my willpower with this. Is it as busted as I think it is?》

Straf waves his hand and dismisses the screen. He rubs his chin as he looks towards the road in the darkness.

《Will it work if I just think about my willpower?》

Straf gets into a more comfortable position as he kneels on both of his knees, he stares at the road while thinking.

《Willpower. Willpower. Willpower. Willpower. Willpower. Willpower.》

He repeats the word in his head for half an hour like an odd prayer, or a mantra, blankly staring into the dark. The fire dances and crackles, the radius of light growing and shrinking as the flame rises and falls.

《That should be enough. Let's see.》

「Stats.」

Strength: 146 [+] ▲ Perception: 21 [+] ▴

Agility: 109 [+] ▲ Endurance: 106 [+]▲

Dexterity: 125 [+] ▲ Willpower: 10 [+]

Luck: 139 [+] Intelligence: 50 [+] ▴

Charisma: 197 [+] ▴ Wisdom: 51 [+] ▴

「Tsk. Seriously? Not a single point? Maybe I'm doing it wrong…」

Straf waves his hand to dismiss the screen again, takes a deep breath, and sighs the breath out. He takes a peek at Cycelia, comfortably sleeping next to him as he's kneeling within arm's reach of her.

「Guess I have to do it the hard way and actually clear my mind.」

He closes his eyes and lowers his head a little. He puts his hands in his lap stacked on top of each other.

「Ah, guess I should sit up straight too.」

He wiggles a little and straightens his back out of a slouch. He takes a breath and sighs again.

《Okay. Focus. No thoughts, head empty. Darkness. Black. Void-》

Out of nowhere, he shakes his head violently and blinks a few times with wide-open eyes.

《Shit! No, no void! No holes! No spaghettification! Just emptiness! Just nothing! Just willpower!》

He forces his eyes shut again, and thinks about not thinking. Meanwhile his voice, the rustling of grass, and of his clothes managed to pull Cycelia out of her shallow sleep. She groggily and partially opens her eyes, blinking a few times.

She looks up and sees Straf kneeling next to her. Eyes closed, face serious, back straight. He sits with a pose emanating exotic, but noble aura. The light from the campfire casts shadows on his face, accentuating his handsome features even further.

Ba-dump.

《He's keeping watch over me so I can rest easy? He's such a great guy! What a knightly catch!》

Cycelia thinks, then closes her eyes and drifts off back to sleep with a relieved sigh, smiling softly. Straf is still single-mindedly focused on his willpower…

The birds sing a song, and Straf feels a familiar warmth on his face. He opens his eyes. The sun's rays are shining on him as it rises from below the horizon. Without him noticing, hours passed by seamlessly.

「…That quick? Stats.」

He opens his status screen again, looking at his attributes.

Strength: 146 [+] ▲ Perception: 21 [+] ▴

Agility: 109 [+] ▲ Endurance: 106 [+]▲

Dexterity: 125 [+] ▲ Willpower: 14 [+]

Luck: 139 [+] Intelligence: 50 [+] ▴

Charisma: 197 [+] ▴ Wisdom: 51 [+] ▴

「What, seriously? That's it? Tsk. I'll have to do it every night to get it to a decent level at this rate.」

He clicks his tongue and dismisses the screen, waving his arm again. Cycelia moans and lazily opens her eyes.

「…Straf?」

「Ah, you're awake, Lia? Did I wake you?」

「No, I was-」

She yawns, covering her mouth with her hand like a well-mannered lady. Straf yawns as well.

「Aaahh… Damn, you spread your yawning to me.」

「…Sorreh.」

She slurs an apology and rubs her eyes, and sniffles.

「Did you sleep well?」

「Well, I…」

She looks down, a little puzzled and seemingly unsure of her feelings.

「I slept well enough, but I thought I had a pretty sad dream. I don't remember any of it, though. What about you, Straf? Did you sleep at all?」

「Nope. I was busy with more important stuff.」

Ba-dump.

「Ah- Ah… I see…」

Cycelia looks away from Straf, blushing ever so slightly. Straf gets up and stretches.

「Well, ready to continue onward? Honestly, if I miss a classic like a tournament arc, I don't think I will crawl out of the pit of depression that will throw me into.」

「…Arc? Like a bow?」

「No, like in a- Forget it. It's plot related. Or not really, it's just filler. Let's go.」

「Huh?」

Straf sets off towards the road, confusing Cycelia with an added strength due to her grogginess. They walk for no more than two hours, before Straf notices movement in the bushes by the side of the road.

「Don't tell me…」

Two men drunkedly stumble out from the treeline and its bushes onto the road, right in front of Straf and Cycelia. One armed with a dagger, and the other a sword, the highwaymen point their weapons at them.

「Ah, of course. Ethanol-motivated extremists. My favorite.」

Straf extends his palm at the men, shrugging his shoulders with his other hand on his hip.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

「This is a robbery!」

「Hand over your valuables!」

The men exclaim, flashing some of their missing teeth as they threaten Straf and Cycelia. Cycelia responds by drawing her sword. She points the tip in the direction of the haggard men. They are dressed in torn and patched rags, wearing cloaks of burlap and their feet are covered by dirty cloth instead of shoes. One of them is shirtless, and both of them have a hole torn in their pants at the knees.

「I'm not about to give the last of my traveling funds to some criminal lowlife!」

Cycelia shouts back at them, Straf glances sideways at her.

「Lia… You don't know what life circumstances pushed them to a life of crime.」

「Huh!? Are you saying we should hand them our money!?」

Cycelia's jaw drops in surprise as she listens to Straf.

「No, but I'm saying it's very out of character for you to be mean to someone to who's meant to be your subject. Good rulers don't treat subjects on the bottom of the ladder like undesirable trash.」

Straf calmly explains his views to Cycelia, she loses her spirit and the tip of her sword droops.

「That's right! We don't like the king!」

「Yea! The king never did anything for us!」

The men shout out in agreement. Straf nods and points his palm towards them.

「See? You have a backing in the commoners. To rule, you need the consent of the little people. Fear of one's leader lasts for a lifetime, but respect spans multiple. I just picture you to be a girl too nice to rule through oppressive power.」

Cycelia grows a little sullen as she listens to Straf's wisdom, her shoulders slump. Straf turns his head to the men.

「So you don't support his coup?」

Straf shouts a question at the men.

「The wha?」

The shirtless man slurs a question back.

「What's a coup?」

The shirtful man asks his friend.

「Iunno, I think it's some rich people speak.」

The shirtless man answers with a shrug. Straf and Cycelia glance at each other momentarily.

「You don't know about the coup and the usurper king? There's been a new, illegitimate ruler!」

Straf shouts at the men again. They look at each other.

「I don't like the new king, or the old king!」

「Yea! None of them did anything for us!」

Straf's eyebrows rise as the men shout.

「As an addendum, noblesse oblige only works out if your peasants aren't stupid and unwashed alcoholics. I admit I respect their disrespect towards authority, though.」

Straf says, turned to Cycelia again. He then takes a step forward in front of her.

「Lia, is it going to be a problem if I splatter them like… Whatyacallems from that time…」

He asks as looks over his shoulder back at Cycelia, his voice trails off a little while he thnks.

「…Burrowers?」

Cycelia asks with worried eyes.

「Yeah, those. I'm kind of in a rush-」

「Straf! We can't- I can't. My lineage is burdened by sin and stained with blood. It's exactly as you say. I want to deal with them without killing them, I don't want to be a ruler that picks killing and death as the first choice!」

Straf sighs as he hears Cycelia's lofty declaration. One hand rests on his hip, and the other rubs his eyebrows on his head, lowered in frustration.

「…Even if they're drunk, in your way and committing armed robbery?」

「Yes! I want to be merciful and just, to make up for at least a part of my family's past!」

Straf rolls his eyes as Cycelia preaches her epiphany.

「Fine…」

「Thank you for opening my eyes, Straf.」

Cycelia takes a different stance, one befitting a noble knight rather than a furious warrior. Straf furrows his brows.

「Listen, let me handle this. I'll try hold back very hard to not kill them, alright?」

「Um. Alright.」

Cycelia nods and sheathes her sword, taking a few steps back.

「What are you whispering about to yourselves!? Hand over your money already!」

「Yea! I don't want to be sober again! Life is pain!」

The drunk highwaymen shout at Straf, and Cycelia behind him. Straf sighs.

《Riiight. I said I won't kill them, but how do I do that? A couple rabbits were enough to nearly kick someone's head off.》

Straf eyes drift up and aside as he thinks. The men glance at each other, getting more impatient by the second.

《Hold on, wasn't [Contextual Time Perception] an active skill too, after the upgrade? Doesn't that mean I can activate it like [Burglar's Feet]? Let's try that at 200%.》

「Are you deaf!? Dummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm-」

Straf lifts his hand, he activates [Contextual Time Perception]. Straf feels the familiar sensation of moving like he's underwater, as he wiggles his hand back and forth. The highwayman's voice stretches across time, as Straf sees everything slow to a crawl.

《Okay, it works. But it's not half the speed of real-time! I had the feeling it wasn't for a long time now, but why? Is it my perception? My agility? Dexterity? It must be those last two combined, or averaged.》

「-mmmb or something!?」

The man finishes his extended shout as time returns to normal.

「Did you see his hand? It turned weird, and blurry.」

「Who cares!? Mine blurs if I stroke fast enough too! Be more scary!」

The shirtless man says and smacks his unnerved compatriot on the shoulder to get him to play along.

「Okay, listen. I'm in a hurry, this random encounter is going on for far too long, and you subverted my expectations of the downtrodden but noble people cliche.」

Straf spreads his arms and moves his hands as he explains rapidly.

「I know you're probably not that bad people and just desperately want to get boozed up again, yadda yadda yadda, so…」

He sighs and shrugs.

「How about a bet? I'll count to 3, and if you can say, give me all your money and keep your pants on, I'll give you everything we have without a fight. That will be a lot of boozing for you.」

Straf grins and holds up his index finger as he talks.

「He's trying to trick us with his math trick-」

「Shut up, idiot! I can count that high! It's this much!」

The shirtless man shows his friend three fingers. His friend's jaw drops in awe.

「Ooooh. Okay.」

「Alright! We agree!」

The shirtless highway man responds. Straf spreads his arms.

「But if you lose you give me all your money! You already agreed, no backing out!」

「Straf, is that really a good idea?」

Cycelia is slightly concerned as she asks. The highwaymen look at each other and laugh, grinning ear to ear with mostly toothless smiles.

「Okay. One. Two. Three.」

「Ggiiiii-」 「Ggiiiii-」

《Okay. Hopefully 1200% or so shouldn't cause any issues.》

Straf thinks as he looks at the men, who appear almost frozen in time. Their mouths moving magnitudes slower than the slowest snail in the world. He casually walks up to them, and pulls their pants down.

《Huh. At least the pixels and black bars won't be necessary.》

His eyebrows rise a little as he takes a glance at their loincloth underwear, very much reminiscent of a sumo wrestler. He turns around and walks back to where he was standing, then re-assumes the pose he had.

「-vvee me all your money!」 「-vvee me all your money! Ha!」

The flow of time returns to normal for Straf. The men finish shouting, the shirt-wearing bandit lets out a little smug laugh.

「You lose.」

Straf announces, Cycelia blinks in disbelief, and the men look at each other in confusion.

「But we did say 「give me all your money」!」

The indignant robber protests.

「And did you keep your pants on?」

Straf's question makes them double-check.

「Wha-!?」 「How!?」

They quickly pull their pants back up, surprised and embarrassed. Straf starts walking towards them.

「Now hand over your money. You lost.」

「That's not fair! We didn't know we'd lose! Why should we listen if it wasn't fair!?」

One of them protests. Straf sighs, but keeps walking.

「Buddy… I can do much worse than pull down your pants. How about your skin? Pay up. And get lost.」

Straf speaks to the shirtless man, with voice devoid of patience. He stands right on front of their blades, in a completely casual stance with his hands on his hips. He's invading the shirtless man's personal space by leaning into his face, like somebody looking for trouble on the street. The men nervously glance at each other, then Straf, then each other again.

「Pay him. Pay him pay him!」

The shirtless man urges his shirted friend. He pulls his shirt up and his friend loosens the tie around a very floppy coin sack's neck, tied to his waist underneath his shirt. He reaches in and takes some coins out, then hands the coins to Straf, who is already sticking his palm out.

As soon as they drop the coins into Straf's hand, they turn and run into the bushes from whence they came. Straf chuckles and smirks a little.

「Heheh. This is the price you pay for wasting-」

Straf takes a look at his palm to count the coins. His smug smirk is erased instantly.

「What the f- Are you serious!? That's all you had!? Two copper coins for all this shit!?」

Straf shouts at the armed hobos, who have long disappeared.

「That was a nice solution, Straf. Thank you.」

Cycelia walks up to Straf, smiling and happy. Straf pockets the coins, shaking his head.

「I didn't picture someone as strong as you to hold such gentle rulership ideas, Straf. My family mostly ruled through fear, and it only recently changed thanks to my grandfather…」

「Huh? No. I was saying might makes right, but bread and circuses are the way to go. If your father could afford a quarter of their life's worth as a year of your pocket money, you should bribe the masses into supporting you.」

「…Huh?」

「What?」

Cycelia tilts her head and looks away at a random angle, thinking what to make of Straf's wisdoms. They continue onwards along the road, the sun still far away from its zenith…