Chapter 21

For dinner, we had roast beef, warm vegetable soup, and soft white bread.

I relished the taste while remembering the setting where beef and white bread were luxuries reserved only for the wealthy.

And I left a little bit behind to pass down to Gina.

Unlike court officials hired by the palace, giving private servants leftover food or extra portions as a reward seemed to be part of their compensation.

Even if good ingredients were used for my meals, the going rate for what Gina herself could eat was apparently hard black bread, burnt scraps of meat, and vegetable peelings.

“I am grateful for the bounty from above.”

With those words, Gina began her meal.

The “above” she referred to was a double entendre meant to include both the god of the heavens and myself as her master.

It really was a world with an intense class divide.

I couldn’t help thinking that Gina’s table manners might actually be more refined than mine from my past life.

Staring at her while she ate would probably make it hard for her, so I stood up and read a book.

Once I reached level 5, I wanted to learn the “Wind Shot” magic.

Its range was shorter than Thunder, but its power was higher.

Honestly, I couldn’t help wondering what kind of wind possessed higher power than lightning, but I decided to shrug it off with the excuse that this world operated on video game logic.

Even if there were some sort of rules behind it, my brain probably wouldn’t be able to understand them anyway.

“Master.”

Gina called out to me after finishing cleaning up the meal.

“Yeah. Let’s start the test, then.”

“Then shall we use my room again?”

I shook my head at Gina’s offer.

“Right here is fine. We’re only going to use Slip.”

Since I just needed to check the magic power recovery rate, Slip was enough, and for Slip, there was no need to move to another room.

This room was wastefully large, after all.

It contained a long table and chairs, a large round table for guests, and a sofa, but aside from those, there was an empty space covered with a red carpet.

The bedroom with the bed was in a separate room connected by a door, something you might describe as feeling like a hotel connecting room.

“As you wish.”

Gina nodded and retrieved a copper desk clock from her Asset.

Next, she pulled out a red magic crystal about five centimeters in size and handed it to me.

This magic crystal displayed the current amount of remaining magic power of whoever touched it, making it necessary when conducting tests without relying purely on gut feeling.

“Shall we begin, then?”

I cast Slip once, waited a short moment, and then activated it a second time.

As I did, the top portion of the magic crystal I held in my left hand lost its brightness.

That indicated I had consumed forty percent of my magic power.

“Now we just wait for it to recover.”

Since we were only checking the rate at which magic power regenerated, it was pretty straightforward.

Thanks to my status as a prince, which made acquiring the necessary items a breeze, I made sure to properly appreciate that advantage.

One hour—or one hau in the local unit of time—passed, and the crystal grew slightly brighter.

It seemed my magic power recovered by 1 point per hour.