Show Me Your Stats!-Chapter 99

"However, in times like these, it’s not an option to leave the administrator’s seat vacant. Therefore, Ran Gretel, son of Ran Graffni, will be appointed to the administrator's position and will repay the debt in his father's stead."

The owner of the stats Ayra had seen the day before had been none other than Ran Gretel, who had brought food to his father suffering in prison. A young man who looked exactly like his father, but unlike Graffni, his intelligence stat was actually impressive. To Ayra, it felt like the heavens had dropped a perfect candidate into her lap.

"Ran Gretel will serve at the castle day and night without pay until the entirety of the embezzled military funds has been repaid. Ran Graffni will remain under house arrest until his son has paid for his crimes in full."

At those words, Ran Graffni collapsed in sobs, falling to his knees. Though he had avoided severe punishment, his beloved son being forced to atone in his place brought no joy to his round, tear-streaked face. Bloom, watching the sobbing man, let his rigid expression soften just a little.

"The official who embezzled the funds will be pursued and captured. As for his punishment, that decision will rest entirely with the knight commander."

Having finished speaking, Ayra carefully studied the administrators and knights. The two groups whispered among themselves, and soon enough, most faces showed reluctant approval. The administrators thought the outcome was tolerable—Graffni had been dismissed, but his son had taken over, so it wasn’t too harsh. Besides, Graffni wasn’t exactly young anymore.

The knights, on the other hand, were quite satisfied. Having the son pay for the father's sins was a humiliating punishment in their eyes, and the fact that the military now had full authority over the traitor's fate was even better. They were also pleased that the stolen military funds might finally trickle back down to them.

Of course, the person most pleased of all was Ayra. The pain she’d endured due to the incompetence of the former administrator! She’d been agonizing over how to get rid of him—and now, this embezzlement case had handed her the perfect excuse.

And that was how Ran Gretel ended up standing in the study today, holding a stack of papers. Ayra glanced the pink-haired youth up and down before opening his stat window once again.

HP: 2,546

MP: 1,489

Physical ATK: 187

Magic ATK: ???

Favorability: 35♡

[View Details]

Title: Fresh-Faced Administrator

Occupation: ???

Strength: ???

Intelligence: 302

Skills: ???

Title List: [Click!]

Associated Individuals: ??? [Click!]

Current Thought: Opens upon reaching SpiritGM’s final level

Even on a second look, it was a stat window that brought her joy. Graffni’s Intelligence had barely hit 100—his son’s was over 300. Curious, Ayra had casually asked about it, and he’d bashfully admitted that his hobby was reading.

On top of that, he’d already helped with some of the administrative work in place of his father, so he wasn’t completely ignorant of the job. He’d grown up running around the mountains with his siblings, so his HP could handle the overtime. Whether due to guilt over his father’s actions or just by nature, he was extremely earnest and reliable—someone who would at least pull his own weight. He didn’t seem prone to causing ridiculous accidents either.

Just to be sure, Ayra also checked the main quest—and sure enough, Ran Gretel was the answer.

<Quest!>

[Territory Survival: Preparedness in the Face of Disaster]

Save the territory before the time runs out (D-137)

✔️ Achieve ≥ 60% Territory Approval (33/60)

✔️ Recruit 5 Loyal Retainers (4/5)

❌ Reach SpiritGM’s Final Level

Reward: ??% of the territory’s population survives

Recruiting Hera as a retainer had been a massive ordeal, so Ayra had been bracing for trouble with the remaining slots—but to think someone like this would just fall into her lap? Watching Gretel with growing satisfaction, she didn’t realize how unsettling her gaze looked. Gretel shrank back, uncertain of what he’d done wrong. Just then, a knock came at the door and Jinas stepped in.

“Oh, Administrator, you’re here too. I brought tea—would you care for some?”

Even Jinas, normally composed to a fault, wore a rare bright smile.

Gretel had probably braced himself for cold treatment, knowing his father’s crimes, and yet both the lord and the chief steward had warmly welcomed him. For days, he’d been walking around looking dazed. But once he started the handover and saw how his father had been handling things, he began to understand why. Naturally shy and now burdened with guilt, his shoulders only drooped lower with each passing day. The kinder Ayra and Jinas were to him, the deeper he sank into guilt.

“P-Please, the title ‘Administrator’ is far too much. J-Just call me Gretel... please...”

This chapt𝙚r is updated by freeωebnovēl.c૦m.

He was nearly in tears, but neither Ayra nor Jinas responded. They had no intention of being cold to him—not even a speck. Their plan was to be as kind as possible, to weigh him down with guilt and debt until he willingly planted himself in the administrator’s seat for good. Since Gretel had started working, both the lord and the steward—who had been horrifically overworked—were now getting a luxurious four to five hours of sleep per night.

After a tea time in which the novice administrator sweated buckets, Ayra prepared to go out. These days, Solar was transforming into a winter city, and his outfit was basically full-body armor. Each morning now saw snow piled on the roads, and the cold wind was only getting sharper. Before stepping out, he pulled on gloves, fur-lined boots, and a thick robe over a rabbit-fur-lined coat.

As usual, he slipped out of the castle with a teleport spell to avoid attention. While trudging along toward Janus’s house, Ayra turned over a thought that had been bothering him for a while.

‘Come to think of it, the average age of the castle’s retainers is weirdly low.’

And he wasn’t just talking about the four retainers under his own command. Most of the older retainers who’d served before Ayra’s arrival had either died or moved to other territories. The only remaining old-timer was Botello, the head attendant—so frail now he could barely move. The former chief steward had died in a fall in the mountains. The previous knight commander had died. The vice-commander had immediately fled upon being promoted.

‘If I chalk this up to coincidence or “generational change,” I might as well replace my brain with a decorative ornament.’

Given the timing, Ayra was sure that even Graffni’s entanglement in the military embezzlement had some common hand behind it.

There was one other person who, though not a retainer, had recently been replaced—Aterra te Act. But when Ayra looked into it, he found that the former High Priest hadn’t died or left. He was supposedly bedridden with illness, yet when Ayra checked up on him near the temple, the man’s HP was actually decent for someone his age. He did have an illness, but it was the sort common to elderly men.

‘Suspicious... really suspicious...’

While he was lost in thought, he arrived at Janus’s door. Pushing those headaches aside for now, Ayra stepped up and knocked politely. The door immediately burst open, revealing Janus wearing a face that all but said, You? Knock?

Ayra beamed like sunlight.

“If you’ve got time... wanna go on a date with me?”

❄

The date destination was a set of ruins that Ayra had once mentioned before. The place was about half a day’s ride away—close enough to reach easily, far enough to ensure privacy. Everyone else was either busy praying at the temple or struggling to make a living. No one cared about some collapsing ruins.

Today, I’m raising that favorability no matter what...

Glancing at Janus, who was riding leisurely beside him, Ayra clenched his resolve again. He’d even asked the Pebble for maximum support.

Once they arrived, they dismounted and tied the horses nearby before stepping into the ruins.

The weather had turned cold quickly lately, and the lake beside the ruins was already glazed over with a thin layer of ice. The sunlight glittered on the frozen water like a giant mirror, with massive, cracked stone columns rising in the background. Crumbling walls, weeds sprouting from fractured tiles—it looked like a scene straight out of a novel.

Well, I’m a mage with a dragon for a lover—my life is basically a novel already...

Janus seemed to like the place. Ayra liked it too. The ruins, remnants of a once-great territory that existed before Solar, stirred his scholarly curiosity.

“A shame, really. If not for the ma-beasts, this place—with all its water sources—would’ve been great to live in.”

Judging by its size, hundreds of years ago, this had likely been a bustling city. Ayra guessed that ma-beasts had started appearing once the dragon that protected this place died. He traced the outline of a dragon relief on the wall with his fingers. A tiny human had been carved standing in front of the great beast. With so many carvings of dragons and humans around, Ayra muttered without thinking:

“They must’ve been really in love.”

“Not exactly. It was one-sided. And even that only lasted about a hundred years.”

Janus smirked and tapped the spot Ayra had just touched. The relief of the human figure flaked away like a crumbling cookie. Frowning at the damage, Ayra whipped his head toward him.

“What do you mean, ‘only a hundred years’? The records say the territory lasted for three hundred.”

“Technically, it took two hundred years to fall. The human died, the dragon spent about a hundred years grieving, then left. The territory slowly crumbled over the next hundred.”

That wasn’t in any record Ayra had read. The documents said the dragon found a partner, the land prospered for three centuries, and they died together. He pulled out his notebook from subspace, jotting down the information—and suddenly stared at Janus.

His eyes narrowed.

“Janus... don’t tell me you were alive back then? Did you see it yourself? Actually, how old are you?”

“I’ve lived longer than most humans... but I didn’t witness it myself.”

As he spoke, Janus moved faster than the eye could track, snatching the notebook from Ayra’s hands. Knowing full well there was no point fighting the physical difference between them, Ayra didn’t even try to get it back. She thought she had a trump card.

That illusion was quickly shattered.

“Why the hell are you recording my sleep schedule and diet?”

“......!”

She had written it all in ancient language—one she rarely used outside the dungeon—yet Janus read the observation journal aloud without a hitch. Ayra lunged belatedly, but Janus easily sidestepped her. She didn’t dare use magic—what if it damaged the notebook?

“High cold resistance and preference. Strong tolerance to estramatol-class substances... Wait, when the hell did you give me this?”

Estramatol-class drugs were odorless, gaseous sleep agents...

“Strong resistance to Mondaphyra, Asteopham, and Gajimalgam-2 class substances...? What even are these?”

Sedatives, paralyzers, stimulants... and a few other minor, odorless compounds...

Unfortunately for Ayra, not a single one of them had worked.