Although he didn't know why the princess was so worried about him, Noah calmly answered her question.
"If you are talking about those criminal bounty hunters, I have already run into them. In the last 27 hours, a total of 41 people have found me. But I have already dealt with all of them."
Seeing his perfectly calm expression, Stella suddenly recalled the bloody scene in the arena the other day.
The boy had looked exactly like this back then.
Entirely expressionless, he had violently pierced a man's heart without a single flicker of emotion in his dark eyes.
"You... you did that to all of them?!" Stella gasped.
'He killed them all?!'
Noah quickly understood what she was trying to ask.
"No, of course not."
'Phew'— Stella let out a heavy sigh of relief.
"I spared three of them," Noah added.
"What?!" Stella shot to her feet in absolute shock.
'Out of 41 people, 38 were killed?!'
'That is what he just meant, right?! He's saying he murdered 38 people in a single day!'
"Your Highness, you don't happen to cosplay as a police officer, do you?" Noah asked flatly.
"..."
Of course, Stella hadn't tracked him down to arrest him.
In fact, her goal was quite the opposite.
"I was afraid they would capture you and drag you back to the arena, so I wanted to find you before they did."
"You mean you are willing to protect me?" Noah was extremely surprised.
After all, his current status was merely that of an escaped, illegal slave.
Meanwhile, she was the Second Princess of the Empire—a heaven-blessed prodigy with unparalleled talent.
A person of her massive status had personally scoured the slums to seek him out just because she heard he had a bounty on his head, and she was even willing to physically protect him?
'Is this girl... a saint?'
"As a princess of this nation, my entire purpose in growing stronger is to protect my country and its people! Is there anything strange about that?!" Stella huffed, crossing her arms.
"I am a slave."
"Slavery is an inhumane, illegal system! Once I become a powerful Mage-Knight, I will immediately give my full support to my Father to have those dark arenas violently abolished!" Stella declared her ideal with a fiercely resolute attitude.
This was her ideal.
It was not just an empty dream, nor a naive delusion.
Yes. Because she was a genuine A-Rank Blazer! An existence destined by fate to stand at the very pinnacle of the world!
If she could formally graduate, become an official Mage-Knight, and obtain her license, suppressing the corrupt, anti-royalist noble faction within the Empire would be an absolute piece of cake.
The only problem was that, right now, she couldn't legally use her Device in public.
That was exactly why she had secretly gone to the underground arena in the first place.
Under the arena's illegal deathmatch rules, the use of a Device could be temporarily permitted for combat experience.
Even if it was a highly illegal gray area, it was still a rule she could exploit to train her magic.
But if she were to use her Device to openly attack and destroy the illegal organizations in the city right now, she would be acting as an unlicensed vigilante without just cause.
Violating the League's strict regulations would become a massive, permanent obstacle to her future as a Mage-Knight; it would ruin her official record forever.
"Is that so? Then I will be counting on you to protect me, Your Highness," Noah smiled slightly.
"Hmph! You don't believe me, do you? It doesn't matter. I will prove my strength to you sooner or later."
"I believe you. In fact, I believe you without a single doubt."
Through his Truth Seeker skill, Noah had easily obtained Stella's hidden ability values.
The people of this modern universe did not have a Falna granted by the gods.
Because of that, Truth Seeker seemed to have absolutely no restrictions on reading them; regardless of how strong a Blazer was, their power couldn't block his appraisal.
Take Stella, for example.
Looking at her raw stats panel alone, this girl was a literal, world-ending monster disguised in the form of a beautiful young lady.
[Stella Vermillion] > * Blazer Rank: A
Ability: Concept Interference (Dragon God Manifestation)
Device: Lævateinn
Attack: A
Defense: A
Magic Power: A
Magic Control: B
Stamina: B
Luck: A
The more powerful a person's raw magic was, the exponentially harder it became to physically control.
To possess the world's absolute strongest reserve of magic power and still achieve a B-Rank in Magic Control meant she was an unparalleled genius.
Aside from her slightly lower stamina, she was a perfect, flawless warrior.
Was this to be expected from the absolute pinnacle of the League's six ranks?
No, to be precise, it should be considered five ranks.
A-Rank through E-Rank.
Although F-Rank was officially part of the classification system, in the League's eyes, an F-Rank Blazer was practically no different from a normal human.
Because F-Rank magical abilities were far too incredibly weak, the general public view was that F-Ranks were just slightly stronger commoners.
Of course, while F-Rank was technically the lowest, surprisingly few people actually possessed it. It was considered a complete anomaly.
Most weak Blazers simply stagnated at E-Rank, which was the baseline average for Blazer abilities across the globe.
To have all of your attributes fall completely below the global average could, in a twisted sense, also be considered being "chosen by the gods."
A person like that was a "child of misfortune."
A Blazer of that pathetically low level, even after graduating from a specialized academy to become a Mage-Knight, would be entirely unable to participate in frontline combat work and could only take on boring administrative roles.
Ability > Total Magic Power > Magic Control > Attack > Defense > Stamina.
Through continuous surfing on the internet, Noah had learned the League's strict order of importance for grading a Blazer's aptitude.
Besides the inherent, destructive strength of their unique Ability itself, the most important factor was their total amount of raw Magic Power.
Whether it was offensive attack or physical defense, both were ultimately determined by the total volume of magic power a Blazer possessed.
A-Rank magic power could naturally produce an A-Rank attack and form an A-Rank shield.
If a person only had F-Rank magic power, then their absolute maximum attack power would never exceed that pathetic level.
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