The moment they pushed open the heavy mahogany door, the faint scent of wood and the mansion's luxurious quiet instantly shut out the noise of the Adventurers Guild.
Yunyun hunched her shoulders as if afraid she might damage the expensive carpet. Her large eyes nervously swept around the room before finally settling on the enormous crystal chandelier in the center of the living room.
"U-um, Kōichi-san, can I really choose any room I want? Even one with a terrace where I can see all of Axel?"
Her voice was barely louder than a mosquito. She twisted her index fingers together, her face full of self-doubt, as if asking whether someone like her was really allowed to live in a place like this.
Kōichi casually tossed his coat over the back of the sofa, then turned to look at the girl who had been treated like an oddity in Crimson Demon Village and was too shy to make friends outside it. He smiled helplessly.
"I already told you, this will be your home from now on. As long as you're not afraid of Aqua getting drunk in the middle of the night, wandering into the wrong room, and mistaking you for a body pillow, or Megumin practicing Explosion Magic in the courtyard at dawn and shaking you out of bed, you can pick any room on the second floor. If you really can't decide, I'll just assume you're taking the one next to mine."
"Huh?! N-next to yours?!" Yunyun's face instantly turned so red it looked ready to bleed, and a clear wisp of steam rose from her head. "Th-that's improper! No, I mean... that's too much of an honor! No, no, no, I'll take the room at the end of the hallway! Please let me have that one!"
Watching Yunyun clutch her enormous bundle and dart up to the second floor like a startled rabbit, Kōichi shook his head, a teasing smile tugging at his lips.
"She really is easy to handle. That old village chief wasn't lying. Still, compared to winning over a beautiful girl, what matters more right now is..."
Kōichi sat cross-legged on the living room's leather sofa, which was so soft it felt like it could swallow him whole, and pulled the faintly glowing Adventurer Card from his chest.
As a Reincarnator, he knew full well that in a world full of bizarre monsters, only by mastering enough unreasonable magic could he survive the trouble ahead like a proper villain.
"Let's see what kind of power a noble Wizard can awaken after a battle on Sylvia's level."
As he poured his will into it, the words on the card began to pulse violently. In the skill column, lines of terminology carrying an air of intelligence, and danger, slowly appeared.
Kōichi's fingers moved through the air, precisely allocating the attribute points he had saved for so long into the areas that would maximize his magical power.
He could feel a surging flow of magic rushing from his heart through his whole body. It was completely different from the raw strength he had felt before, a strange sensation of holding the natural elements in his grasp.
Just as he was immersed in the thrill of growing stronger, Yunyun suddenly screamed upstairs, followed by the heavy sound of something hitting the floor.
"Waaah! I'm sorry! I accidentally crushed that glowing orb, the motion-sensor light! Kōichi-san! Do I have to sell myself to pay for it?!"
Kōichi snapped his eyes open and helplessly pressed a hand to his forehead.
"This is exactly why I said this house only has about half a normal person in it, and that's counting me."
Leaning back on the sofa, Kōichi stared at his Adventurer Card in thought.
"Megumin's head may be packed full of explosives, and she may be a walking nuclear weapon, but the fact that she only has enough endurance for one shot a day is a real headache. Yunyun is a textbook Crimson Demon Clan genius, able to fire off all kinds of flashy attack magic with ease. The perfect secondary DPS. So what about me?"
Kōichi rubbed his chin, his gaze gradually turning deep and devious.
As an adventurer trying to survive in a lawless place like Axel, he valued efficiency and suppressive power far more than flashy but impractical large-scale ritual magic.
"In that case, I'll take speed and brutality all the way."
He no longer hesitated. His fingers tapped rapidly across the card.
Without holding back, he spent 15 Skill Points to unlock two extremely expensive passive skills, [Magic Power Enhancement] and [Instant Casting].
When the final speck of starlight sank into his body, Kōichi felt as if the mana in the air had become an extension of himself. With a single thought, he could gather it instantly.
He stood and strode into the mansion's backyard, which was spacious enough to race horses in.
Moonlight poured over the neatly trimmed lawn. Kōichi slowly raised his right hand toward a decorative landscape boulder in the distance.
"Fireball."
No long chant. No embarrassing lines.
The moment his voice fell, a fireball the size of a washbasin, its core blazing white-hot, formed almost instantly in front of his palm and shot forward with a piercing whistle.
BOOM!!
The fireball struck the boulder with perfect accuracy. Scorching flames swallowed it at once, and the shockwave from the explosion even tore up a layer of turf around it.
Fine cracks appeared in the once solid stone under the intense heat. Its power had completely surpassed the Intermediate Magic of an ordinary Wizard.
"Oh, this feels nice..." Kōichi looked at his faintly warm palm and smiled in satisfaction. "Casting time is down by at least seventy percent, and the power is up by about half. If I fired a barrage at Kazuma right now, he probably wouldn't even get the chance to scream."
Just as he was about to test accuracy with an Ice Spike, Yunyun's tearful shout came from the broken upstairs window.
"K-Kōichi-san! Please stop! I know I broke the light bulb, but please don't burn down the house with Fireball! I-I'll come down right now to apologize! Please don't treat me like a monster and subjugate me! Waaaah..."
Kōichi stared speechlessly at the girl leaning out the window, desperately waving a handkerchief like a white flag. His cool skill-testing moment was instantly ruined by this thick Crimson Demon Clan-flavored tragedy.
"Hey, Yunyun! I was just testing a new skill. I wasn't trying to burn down the house! Calm down, and stop waving that white flag. The lord next door is going to think the Demon King's Army has taken over our mansion!"
He put away the card and sighed.
It seemed that before becoming the strongest Wizard, he would first have to learn how to calm down this lonely girl, who could spiral into fantasies of selling herself to atone over the smallest thing.
When Kōichi pushed open the side door leading back into the living room, he happened to see Yunyun preparing to dive downward in a pose so perfect it was almost uncanny.
It was the Crimson Demon Clan's unique dogeza of apology, overflowing with dramatic tension.
Her eyes were squeezed shut, tears welling in them, and she was muttering some outrageous declaration about how, since she could not repay the debt, he should treat her like a gargoyle in the mansion and order her around as he pleased.
Just as her forehead was about to hit the expensive marble floor, a warm, broad palm gently settled on her soft black hair.
"All right, stop. If you bow any harder, the carpet cleaning fee will cost more than that motion-sensor light."
Kōichi's voice carried a helpless hint of laughter, sounding especially gentle in the empty living room.
Yunyun froze in midair as if someone had pressed pause.
She felt the warmth from the hand on her head. The sensation of being treated so gently sent a tingle from her scalp all the way down to her toes.
She raised her head shakily and met Kōichi's eyes, which looked especially deep beneath the moonlight.