Chapter 38: Let Me Arrange a Fortuitous Encounter for You!

Wigfart’s soft-heartedness resulted in Vivian climbing up the ladder he provided. In truth, Ron was not ready for Vivian to leave this starting village. He currently only housed a few fragments of his soul and lacked the strength to protect her. His new book had already launched, and the feedback from readers was quite positive; he had no intention of changing the protagonist midway. After all, to change the lead, he would have to abandon the current book and restart a new one within the same worldview.

Although Vivian had managed to stay by Wigfart’s side through her charm, she knew her teacher would eventually have to leave. In this morning’s newspaper, the Emperor had called for all mages in the nation to mobilize for the front lines. While it was merely an appeal, it was likely that a mandatory conscription order would follow. Throughout history, no empire had ever emerged from an Abyssal upheaval without suffering grievous wounds.

["Ron, what was up with that spell?" After returning to her dormitory, Vivian finally processed the event; the sudden burst of mana was absolutely abnormal.]
["That spell couldn't have been burning my lifespan, could it!" Vivian felt a belated sense of dread.]
[You yawned: "So what? If it really was burning your lifespan, what would happen?"]
[Vivian stroked her chin: "Then I’ll just use it less often. I stay up late every day anyway; I don’t have much lifespan to spare."]
What kind of logic is that...
["It was just drawing upon the stored mana within your body; it has no impact on your health," you said to Vivian, speechless.]
[Vivian narrowed her eyes: "Stored mana... I didn't even know you knew about that."]
[Vivian recalled a paper she had read previously.]
[To solve her constitution issues, Vivian had read almost every important academic work from the past several thousand years, including many that were filled with heresy.]
[One paper had once mentioned that there was a hidden mana storage region in a mage's body, but no existing magic could access it.]
[It also suggested that this might be why the Mad Demon King promoted that specific cultivation method, as it was the source of his infinite mana.]

Ron was slightly surprised, but he quickly calmed down. In fact, it was only natural for someone to have discovered this. It was a pity, however, that the mage’s discovery was quickly dismissed as heresy and tossed into the academic scrap heap. The primary reason was that the author was a necromancer, and his conclusions were derived from dissecting over three thousand living mages; naturally, the magical community could not accept such a report. He himself soon died under the siege of other mages. Since then, some had tried to verify the discovery, but the backdoor Ron had hidden was extremely subtle; one would need the audacity to dissect thousands of mages to replicate the conclusion.

[Ron-meow actually knows how to use this stored mana.]
[Vivian had new speculations about your identity.]

Vivian was no fool. The various traits she had displayed had already proven her uniqueness. Ron didn't plan on hiding his identity forever, but now was not the right time to show his hand.

[Vivian did not dwell too much on this question.]
[Compared to that, she was more concerned about who was performing such a horrific sacrificial ritual near Palavi.]
[Is the Demon King’s soul fragment really that important? Important enough to sacrifice the lives of ten thousand people to obtain?]
[Having always lived under Wigfart’s protection, Vivian did not yet truly grasp the importance of power.]
[After leaving the Mage Tower, Vivian went to the Greila family’s trading firm.]
[Those few thousand bottles of mildly toxic potions had helped her immensely, and it was time for a return on investment.]
[The Greila family was a famous trading firm in Palavi, possessing some renown across the entire continent.]

If I remember correctly, Greila’s surname is Kent. Ron still had some impression of that name.
[Her family’s history can be traced back to the era of the Mad Demon King.]
Very well, it seems it really is Sarah’s trading firm. Ron’s impression of Sarah was not deep; after all, among his thousands of experiences, she was not the most beautiful one. He only remembered her because she had a fiancé at the time, and she had very round buttocks—when entered from behind, they formed a perfect heart shape.

[Vivian soon received an assignment: to help the firm transport a small cart of grain to a nearby village, where a winery belonging to the firm was located.]
[Because the war on the front lines was tense, the Kent trading firm was short on transport capacity, so Vivian went alone.]
[Vivian loaded the grain directly into her storage ring.]
[Although Greila had said the ring should be returned, she never seemed to ask for it back.]
[Vivian had intended to return it, but Greila always waved her off, telling her to keep it for now; her family had plenty of such rings, and she could just return it whenever her old man remembered.]
[This was clearly a small perk Greila gave to her good friend.]

As Vivian transported the grain to the village, Ron leaned back in his chair, deep in thought. He was toying with the [Deep Blue Ring] card in his hand. He had a "Protagonist’s Encounter" in his possession, and it was time to find an opportunity to give it to Vivian. But in what way could the ring appear before Vivian in a reasonable, logical manner?

Ron suddenly thought of fishing. Vivian had once mentioned that the uncles in the village always managed to fish up treasure chests. If I trick Vivian into going fishing, and she fishes a ring out of the lake, that should be reasonable enough, right? After all, in his book, Vivian was the undisputed protagonist; she had a bit of plot armor, and the readers wouldn't complain. Besides, the [Deep Blue Ring] wasn't exactly an outrageous cheat.

Ron nodded, feeling his idea was flawless. As long as the readers didn't bash him for giving Vivian too overpowered a cheat, it would be fine. Just as Ron was thinking this, he saw that Vivian had encountered mountain bandits.

[The bandits, seeing that Vivian was beautiful and well-endowed, blocked her path in a "friendly" manner, intending to interact with her.]

Excellent! A pillow just when I was getting sleepy! Ron’s eyes lit up. Since she had encountered robbers, it would be perfectly reasonable for her to counter-kill them and return to their lair, right? And since she had broken into the lair, it would be perfectly reasonable to discover some treasures the bandits had plundered, right? Don't worry about how the bandits managed to steal a magic ring; it wasn't a powerful cheat anyway.

Ron nodded and prepared to urge Vivian to go up the mountain to suppress the bandits. But when he looked, he saw that Vivian had already started fighting her way up.

Damn it, why are you so fast?!

It turned out that Vivian’s hometown was always being harassed by bandits, so she harbored a deep hatred for such people. Now that she had the strength, she naturally destroyed every one she saw.

[Vivian captured all the bandits and intended to confiscate their loot.]

Excellent! Now was the time to trigger the "Protagonist’s Encounter"! Ron placed the [Deep Blue Ring] on the table, preparing to use his "Protagonist’s Encounter" authority.

[Vivian saw a special box among the loot.]
[Vivian opened the box.]
[Inside the box lay a ring.]
[You recognized this ring.]
[This is your ring.]
[The Ring of Holy Triumph.]

"..."

Ron looked at the [Deep Blue Ring] in his hand and suddenly felt like a clown.