"Why? Oh, don't tell me you're interested in Edran's little sister. And here I am hanging on your arm... I hope I haven't caused you trouble," she says to the prince with complete audacity and still doesn't let go.

"Excuse me, Bianca. If you'll give me a moment..." he says to me and immediately gives all his attention to the girl, trying to remove her hands from his arm.

She really resists at first. Unbelievable. My bodyguard, who was waiting for me at the portal exit since I still haven't managed to get rid of him, tenses up. I understand. A noblewoman is behaving inappropriately with one of the princes. And she must realize this (or else Vincent, being a warrior, is stronger) because she seems to loosen her grip and allows herself to be moved away.

"Karina, I've told you I don't like you grabbing me."

"Oh, but I used up all my mana in the dungeon and I'm dizzy," she protests.

She doesn't do it at all like a helpless damsel. Rather, she states it as if it were her right to lean on him.

"And I offered you a potion that you refused," Vincent replies, the very picture of patience.

Then, I see how the girl's thin lips curve into a smile that I don't like at all; it's too bold, just like her words. Hasn't anyone taught her to behave like a lady?

"Of course, I've already told you that I don't accept gifts from any man who isn't my fiancé," she answers mockingly.

"But do you have a fiancé?" Alistair interjects, who along with Darius arrived at our location moments ago. "You scare away anyone with that high fire affinity of yours."

"You're just jealous, Alistair, you wish you had my control over flames. And no, I don't have a fiancé because the right one hasn't asked me yet."

She says this looking directly at Vincent without holding back.

Who is this girl?

Okay, yes, it's Karina Morven, from the ducal house Morven. One of the eligible protagonists of the otome, who likes to wear masculine clothes because she finds them more comfortable, talks as if social conventions don't apply to her, and is crazy about fire magic.

Basically, if you wanted to cause chaos with a few explosions in the game, you'd choose her.

"Lastly," Vincent adds, looking at her very seriously. He doesn't seem to have liked Karina's last comment. "My choice of the woman I wish to court is none of your business."

"That's because you're not considering all the advantages of dating a fire mage." She winks at him.

The nerve of this shameless girl. What is she doing? Implying she's passionate?

I can't stand it anymore.

"How do you know my brother?" I snap at her.

"Well, so you can speak... Though your memory seems somewhat damaged. You know perfectly well that our brothers have been great friends since they met in their first year at this academy."

"I don't remember who you are, but if your brother is my brother's best friend, you must be... hmm... from the house Morven?" I lie brazenly to try to hide that I have no idea who my brother's friends are in this world.

"Well, that's a low blow," she says as her expression changes. "You're like Sol and the others. I'm disappointed; I thought you'd have more personality if you'd really caught the prince's attention."

I didn't mean to imply she was too insignificant to remember. In any case, this direct and unfeminine girl, who I probably would have liked on Earth and enjoyed as a protagonist in the otome, is really annoying me here.

And more importantly: she's making my relationship with the prince difficult.

"Excuse me, Bianca, those two are delighted to have a fire mage in the group," he cuts in, nodding toward his friends. "And I won't deny that her spells are very effective and that, since Theodore is with Mary, her help has been very useful to us. Although we went on a different mission, because for the water dungeon one we need Theodore. However, Karina has that small problem of having no filter when speaking, and her parents, both with medium fire affinity, don't exactly help teach her restraint and manners."

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Since he says this in front of her, I assume he wants to give her a small critique.

"There's nothing wrong with my manners. All of you are just too stiff and refined," Karina blurts out, defensive with her hands on her hips.

Darius and Alistair don't hide their laughter. I roll my eyes. Vincent looks at me apologetically and says:

"See? You should have let me go with you."

"You know what? I think you're right," I tell him. "Let's replenish mana and go back. This trip has been most productive. We'll make room for you in our group."

"And us?" asks Darius. "Ronan, remember about the ride on your scorpion."

"Sorry, Darius," I hasten to tell him. "The dungeon limit is five and we're already three. Like you guys. But with Theodore you'll be four. I think the distribution is balanced."

They can't come, because I want to practice all my spells.

As for the prince... I'm sorry about the seed, but Karina is irritating me too much and I want to make sure I have a moment alone with him to clear up the misunderstanding from before.

"You can clean the previous dungeon once without me," he tells his friends.

Karina makes a very feminine pout—and I thought she was incapable of such gestures—and protests, trying in vain to hang onto his arm again.

"Bianca, you're evil," she ends up saying to me. "You're leaving me alone with these two blockheads."

I look at Darius. I see that he doesn't dislike at all the idea of the three of them going without the prince. In fact, he doesn't even feel offended that it's precisely her who calls them blockheads.

Well, Darius wasn't one of the romantic routes, but Alistair was. And if not, I don't care. Let him forge his own route if he's capable of winning Karina's heart, who seems to have already chosen the prince.

My prince.

I hear a soft bark. It's the puppy. With my hand I push his head back inside the backpack pocket. The last thing I need is for Karina to see him and want to hold him.

"So, Bianca and Ronan, how do you want to coordinate?" Vincent says to us before we say goodbye and each head to our room.

"I'll let you know at dinner. Since we need to recover mana, it would be best to wake up very early tomorrow. Let's see how many empty pouches they let us take this time. We might complete the mission several times in three or four hours."

"What?" asks Alistair.

"Efficiency and having a necromancer in the party," I tell him while shrugging with a smile. "And now, if you'll excuse us, I'm eager to clean up and rest a bit."

The bathing part is true, but as for resting, I'll pass. I want to cash in the mission, see what I can buy with those points at the shop, and prepare for tomorrow. It's a shame that Ronan has to sleep his seven hours.

Well, at least we can wake up quite early, since only 20 hours need to have passed since he got up this morning. We'll have to ask the kitchen staff to prepare breakfast to go.

I'm meeting Ronan in a couple of hours at the counter they've set up in the auditorium for the trials. That gives me plenty of time to get cleaned up, exchange a few polite words with Judith who's leaving now for her mission to collect medicinal herbs, and sit down at my bed for a bit to calmly review my stat sheet.

I've got three low-level masteries: runner, sword mastery, and scholar. Since it takes more and more practice to level up, I figure I'm still a ways off from intermediate. Though with the sword, it shouldn't take too long, as I use it a lot in real combat to take down enemies.

I have one minor mastery: bow mastery. That one should be easier to level up, so I'll see if I can manage it in one of the next batches of ice golems.

As for my spells, the system already warned me that earth control and fire element channeling are close to leveling up, and I won't be able to progress if I don't improve the ones I've neglected. I dive into the system, tapping my fingers on the pop-up screen that appears before my eyes to see if I can find what I'm looking for.

Let's see... my specialization's limitations... If I tap on the specialization itself, nothing comes up, so here I am, searching from the spells themselves, and... yes!

To ensure balance, the five basic spells of each elemental magic affinity (air, fire, water, earth, and spirit) must not exceed a maximum difference of two tiers in their respective levels. If any of these spells reaches grandmaster level, the maximum allowable difference is reduced to one tier. In the case of the spirit affinity's basic spell, channeling, the tier difference specifically applies to the channeling level of each element being utilized.

I'm going to make sure those are the spells I think they are.

Your basic granted or chosen spells are: breath control, fire dart, splash, earth control, and channeling.

I don't find anything else to confirm, for example, that stone bullets can stay at minor level forever; but it makes perfect sense to me. Otherwise, every time I learned a new spell at a minor level, I'd stop being able to cast my other spells.

Tapping on the basic light spell, heal, I find the following:

Light, along with Darkness, belongs to the non-elemental magic affinities. For now, there are no requirements in this affinity to maintain the balance required by your Aetherblade specialization.

For now? I think. Ugh, I really hope it doesn't cap my light magic later just because I don't have affinity with darkness.

Anyway, I keep digging.

My wisdom is 10. I don't need the system for this; I know from classes that when a stat reaches 10, perks unlock. And it's not ideal—I'd prefer intelligence—but my agility is at 9. Since both runner and bow mastery give me agility, I don't think it'll take too long to get it to 10. That'll give me a special active skill that boosts reaction speed and movement by 50% for 15 seconds, with a 24-hour cooldown. Not bad if you're facing a boss and it's a tight fight.

Now, my question is whether there's any limitation on how my stats can level up because of this balance thing. Like, if I could, say, have 20 intelligence with a constitution of 7.

A stat's value cannot exceed 10 points unless the stat it's based on is at least 8. That is, wisdom for intelligence and constitution for strength and agility. For higher values, future restrictions will be established.

Hmm… that means if I want to raise agility to 11, I have to raise constitution to 8 first.

I have that gem, the +2 HP one from the desert dungeon. The bonus isn't applied yet because I need to socket it into an item that has a socket slot.

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