Chapter 10

Character name: Arthur the Great von Jairus

Age: 25 years (Currently 22)

Profession: Magician

Job: Tutor/Magic Teacher

Title: Bastard Genius | Apprentice of Archmage Merlin

Personality traits: Proud, Patient, Realistic, Cynical, Pragmatic, Cold, Kind, Idealistic

Likes: Spicy food, Magic, intelligent and realistic people, dreamy people, magical knowledge, ancestral knowledge, calm environments, Innovation, happy endings,

Dislikes: Demons, tragedies, cold food, stupid people, capricious people, overly ridiculous environments, lack of effort, politics.

Arcane Arts: Body Strengthening, Anti-Magic Defense, Extrasensory Detection

Unique Force: Magical Mastery

Weaknesses: Hostility towards demons, unsociable attitude, average physique, love of spicy food.

History: The arrogant youngest grandson of an impoverished marquis. He ostensibly desires to etch his name into history as the mage who made magic possible to combat demons, but in reality, it's merely a means of revenge against the demons for killing his mother, one of Hazar's empress candidates.

Ridicule and disdain for his ideals from his fellow disciples led him to abandon his ideas on the surface while, secretly, he still searches for a way to fulfill his wish through the help of a like-minded person.

However, his initial efforts in the dark would be in vain, as even those who sought to create truly useful combat magic disdained the method he chose to achieve it, leading him to temporarily leave his position as a disciple of Archmage Merlin and become a magic tutor, with the ultimate goal of influencing a young genius of his caliber to work together and create a means by which anyone can fight with magic.

But he wouldn't have much success in that either, and even got a stalker for his troubles, which led him to enter the Academy as a teacher in a last search for that person, where he would meet the heroine as his student.

He's the only one in the world who can effectively use Combat Magic thanks to his unique strength, making him a valuable combat force for the heroine's party. (Mana is considered an element, the eighth element, similar to the fifth element called ether.)

Capture Strategy: The player must significantly increase the heroine's magical knowledge through the study of numerous magical books during her time at the Academy, as well as increase her magical skill satisfactorily before the second academic year.

Once you become Professor Arthur's student by choosing the Magic major (there are no majors in your first year), you must maintain your reputation as a model student of quiet, studious, and intellectual as much as possible, and you must always choose dialogue choices that not only showcase your magical knowledge, but also your understanding of it, which is impossible without having previously studied magical knowledge.

Of course, you should also choose dialogue options that emphasize a general distaste for demons and, taking advantage of the fact that the heroine's backstory can be shaped by dialogue choices, create a background in which Arthur and she can sympathize with each other, significantly increasing Arthur's preference for the heroine.

This will be even more meaningful if you also put in the effort to do magical research. It's not complicated at all thanks to the system, so don't worry. Simply combine various materials to create new things or thoroughly solve small magical mysteries, and Arthur will be delighted with your exploratory wizardly spirit.

Of course, you shouldn't just consider his research interests or his preference for intelligent, magic-mad people. You should also consider his other likes and, of course, his dislikes. Inviting him to spicy food at a fancy restaurant under the guise of discussing a research topic increases the chances of him agreeing to go out with you and earning you affection points, for example.

Keep going like this until Arthur trusts you and believes he can involve you in his personal research to create a tool that will help humans cast almost instantaneously any attack spell.

Don't make any mistakes in your dialogue; if you choose one that Arthur misinterprets as ridiculing his goal or doubting his purpose, depending on the situation, you could lose this character forever as a future companion (Harem Member).

If you manage to do things right in the end, Arturo will develop deep feelings for you and will easily follow you if you ask him to be your partner, with the goal of marrying you (He doesn't care at all about the age difference and such things, haha...)

PS: Once you reach a certain level in the relationship, Arthur will become unexpectedly shy when flirting, so don't take it too far or he'll temporarily run away from you... although it might not be a problem for girls who enjoy that kind of thing... .😅.

Anyway, Kazuto-Sensei out.

……

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As some of you may notice... that was a very condensed and easy-to-understand conquest strategy for readers, meant to help players, which your humble servant wrote back in his days as an ordinary young man in Japan on the forums of the company that created the game.

For those thinking, "Does this really work?" due to the intentional lack of information, you've obviously never played HAD; a game where even NPC dialogue isn't static and changes easily depending on the character's knowledge, reputation, profession, and actions.

Huh? Why did I mention reputation?

Isn't it obvious? I think I mentioned that the NPCs were almost like living beings, right?

According to this, naturally any behavior of the player is recorded in the minds (I don't know if they have any) of the surrounding NPCs and they spread them in the form of rumors to other NPCs (which can become increasingly distorted depending on the previous reputation and the region) positively or negatively affecting the character's reputation.

…by the way, it was surprisingly easy for the player to gain a reputation as a womanizing bastard or a flirtatious bitch if he was careless, haha…

However, one's reputation can also improve or worsen depending on their achievements and failures, and it plays a very important role in increasing the player's influence and making it possible for the heroine or hero to become the absolute monarch of the Empire, if desired.

It also grants titles of some kind, which, by the way, won't appear on the status screen until they're earned. (Titles like Bastard Daughter will never appear because, well, there are a lot of people given titles like that, and it would be too weird for them all to appear on the screen... so only those that make a big impact on society appear.)

Oops! Sorry... I got carried away by my knowledge of the game, hehe...

I was so focused on that, I forgot to mention something very important that could seriously affect my mission...

And I'm currently two years before the game's story begins, which means Arthur hasn't yet become the academy's magic teacher.

Today, I live as a guardian! Not to mention that my story is already set and there's no way for it to be changed by spur-of-the-moment decisions!

So of course, those strategies I made will have to be remodeled to fit this situation and allow me to win Arthur's heart...!

It hurts! It hurts my remaining male pride for having agreed to flirt with a real man!

Although I was already trampling on him by not being able to ask him to wear pants and a shirt instead of cute dresses or by my exaggerated affection for horned rabbits... ugh...

Anyway, I have to make an effort to have Arthur on my side if I want to save the world and my family.

It would be crazy to let the world end just because of my reluctance to flirt, right? Speaking of which, today is the last day I have left to complete the quest, so why haven't I heard from you?

Dad decided not to hire him in the end? That would be very bad!

You have to keep your promises, Father! My growth is in danger!

<System Notice: Congratulations to the player for safely completing the quest [Heart of Magic, Part 1]. The [Identification] and [Evaluations] functions have been unlocked. The player no longer has to worry about growing without breasts.>

I'm sorry, Father, for doubting you!

Thank you for saving your daughter!

I love you! I'll tell you later!

No, wait… that might make her faint again… I better not do that.

That aside, since my father finally hired Arturo, there's only one problem left to solve...

How do you make Arturo fall in love with a 12-year-old girl who looks 10 when she's 22?

It's a ten-year age difference and once again I look younger than I really am!

Although he didn't care much about the heroine's age, the girl was 16 at the time, so it's not that far-fetched that a romance would develop between them... But unless he really is a lolicon, it would be very difficult to win Arthur's love even if I knew how to approach him emotionally, right?

Even if my name is Kazuto/Ekaterina-sensei… I'm not a goddess of love or anything…

Besides that, I might end up being a cute little sister in his mind if I'm lucky...

Wait... does love have to be romantic to capture a goal?

Come to think of it, maybe it isn't like that after all. Maybe...

"If I become someone very important to him... Could he be loyal to me even if it's not love for the opposite sex?" I murmured as if I'd reached enlightenment as I sat in the palace garden, waiting for official news from Arthur at an elegant white tea table with beautiful floral designs.

As I watched Drudi run after an oddly cute but rather large looking insect with hungry eyes, I thought about how adorable it was before refocusing on the thought I had just had.

“Yes… why would I flirt with him? It’s not impossible to become important to someone without necessarily being romantically important. If I demonstrate as much passion for magic as he does and use my knowledge to please him, it’s not impossible that I’ll be as valuable, or even more valuable, than a blood sister to Arthur…”

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense.

The idea seemed pretty good to me...But will the system allow it?

System?

<The player needn't worry. You can try to win his heart that way to make him an ally against the Final Boss. It's not prohibited, but due to the significant age difference, I even recommend it. Still, as the player's body develops over the years, the foundation of your initial relationship could help you generate an intense and passionate love that...>

Lalalala, I can't hear you!

I shook my head while uselessly covering my ears even though I know the system is communicating with me telepathically.

I didn't want to hear any of that!

“Ekaterina-sama?” Jessica’s voice, which appeared before I realized it, abruptly brought me back to reality, and I blushed at the sight of her looking at me as if I had gone crazy with her eyes (Her face didn’t change at all, but her gaze said it all…)

—Hey… what's up, Jessica?

“Mireia-sama asked me to inform you of the arrival of tutor Arturo Magno von Jairo. They are both waiting for you in the guest room, so please follow me.”

"Well!"

I blink open my eyes and quickly answer with some nervousness as I get up from my seat, being careful not to trip.

I followed Jessica into the Palace's guest room while saying a rather cheesy goodbye to Drudi, who just glanced at me casually for a few moments before comfortably returning to eating the insect carcass.

Drupi…,(😭🥰)

As we walked silently through the quiet, beautiful halls adorned with shining armor, our footsteps echoed softly, the passing maids bowed to me with friendly smiles as soon as they saw me, and I greeted them shyly, making them squeal happily as if they had caught the attention of their idol or something.

You asked me why they're like that? Did the original Ekaterina actually manipulate them? Maybe I should look into that?

I asked myself these questions as I walked, also feeling that it was a bit of a challenge to live in such a large palace due to the great distance to my destination. It's a good thing Jessica knows the palace well, or I'd get lost if I came alone...

As we reached the guest room, I became more and more nervous. How was I supposed to feel relaxed?

It was already difficult for me to deal with the male capture targets in the game, not only because I was male, but also because their personalities were not easy to deal with.

In the case of Arthur, although I was initially able to convince him with my magical knowledge and a good theoretical basis in magic (Thanks, body strengthening) to be my tutor, trying to establish a simple conversation with him was a very annoying problem.

Especially since you have to make good use of their likes and dislikes to move the relationship forward without seeming like you're investigating them like a stalker, which isn't easy given their high intelligence.

You have to be quite creative with your choices and actions, even in the game, and this world was now real. I'm sure the difficulty of using my knowledge to win her affection increased significantly.

Fortunately, I just need to become a sort of little sister to him, otherwise, this would truly be a mission impossible. I could almost hear a guy's voice saying, "Your mission, if you choose to accept it..." and me saying, "I can't!" as I imagined it.

Still, I was wondering where to start… Even though I know now that I don't need to flirt with him or anything like that, I still don't think I have the best social skills. If I did, maybe I would have been more popular in my previous life… lol

Not only that, this Arturo is a younger version of the one I know!

Who knows what seemingly small but significant differences I'll have to deal with when dealing with him?

I mean, I read somewhere that in just a few years a person's preferences could change or something...

Wouldn't that be what could happen...?

…This wouldn't be so troublesome if I could use my [Captivating Charm] to make it easier to gain affection points with Arthur, but not only can't I use it yet, but I don't feel entirely comfortable manipulating people with magical powers.

Only villains do that.

Furthermore, the four capture targets I'm aiming for have high willpower and perception, so it would be useless even if I could use it anyway.

—Mrs. Ekaterina, we are here.

"Oh... yes"

Deep in my thoughts of worries and uncertainties, Jessica spoke to me as I stood in the doorway, and I gulped excitedly, preparing to meet my future magic tutor and teammate... I hope.

Jessica then knocked on the door, receiving an immediate response: “Open the door.”

It was my mother's voice, who was with Arturo in the room. That reminded me I wouldn't be alone, and I sighed with relief. I didn't need to overthink things; what will come will come. For now, I should focus on passing his exam successfully.

With that in mind, he finally entered the guest room, leaving Jessica behind, and looked at my mother, who was elegantly seated opposite a young brown-haired man. She looked at me with a warm smile and called, "Ekaterina, come here to meet your tutor."

Nodding, I respond with “Yes, Mother” and walk towards her as calmly as possible while ignoring my pounding heart, but when the other party turns to look at me, I am stunned by her appearance and stop in my tracks.

My face froze, completely rigid at what I couldn't help but consider as something that shouldn't be a living man at all.

What kind of living work of art is this!?