“It’s likely, but her holy-attribute magic is at level 10, and her base level probably exceeds 40.”
The report was delivered in a calm tone, but the king and chancellor’s eyes widened in shock.
In addition to combat and production skill levels, a person’s status includes something called a base level. This base level affects fundamental stats like HP, MP, physical attack power, and magical attack power. The average base level for commoners is 5 to 10, for Royal Academy graduates it’s 15 to 20, and for knights or mages serving in the palace, it’s 30 to 35. Those exceeding level 40 are limited to the commanders of knight corps and mage corps.
This time, based on the number of MP potions Sei consumed during the enchantment process, her maximum MP was estimated to be around 5,000. The only person in the palace with a maximum MP of about 5,000 was the Commander of the Court Mage Corps, whose base level was 45. From this, Airhardt deduced that Sei’s base level was likely above 40.
“That’s awfully high…”
The chancellor’s murmur was understandable. Regarding Aira, who was summoned alongside Sei, the First Prince had confirmed her status and periodically reported to the king. According to her self-reported levels upon enrolling in the Royal Academy, both her base level and magic skill level started at 1. Over the past six months of academy classes, her base level had risen to 16. Considering other students typically reach 15 to 20 over three years, Aira’s base level clearly increased unusually quickly. This rapid growth wasn’t limited to her base level; her magic skills also leveled up simply by using them. With active level grinding aided by potions, her holy-attribute magic had reached level 4, rivaling the court mages. Even so, both her base level and magic level were far below Sei’s.
“Is her level so high because she’s a saint, perhaps?”
“That’s still unclear. I’ve had the corps members search the records, but so far, we haven’t found any documents detailing a saint’s specific status.”
“You’d think there’d be at least some mention of that…”
“Perhaps the key point isn’t detailed stats but whether they can dispel evil or purify miasma. There are plenty of records about that.”
The palace library’s books contained many accounts of how past saints dispelled evil, but none had yet been found detailing their specific statuses. As for their personal lives, romantic tales involving royalty or knights from their eras existed, but there were no stories of saints making potions or performing magic enchantments like Sei. There was a reason for this bias in the records. Among past saints, some had performed magic enchantments like Sei. While they didn’t create legendary cores as she did, they could still produce cores of a quality unattainable by ordinary means. Wisely, the leaders of those times feared saints being exploited for purposes beyond their intended role and prohibited records of anything other than dispelling evil, leading to the current state of affairs.
What those past leaders had considered aligned closely with what the current king was thinking. This could be inferred from the king’s expression, which grew increasingly grim as the confidential discussion in the office progressed. The heightened likelihood of a saint’s existence was, in itself, a joyous prospect, but regardless of whether Sei was a saint, her exceptional abilities had significant implications for national strategy. If her capabilities became public, it was easy to predict that individuals both within and outside the kingdom would vie to control her. Such scheming could destabilize the nation, a scenario not hard to imagine. As king, he had to consider how to protect Sei from those forces, and looking ahead, he couldn’t simply rejoice.
“We’ll need to strengthen her protection.”
The king’s final statement after the discussion was a shared understanding among those present. The Medicinal Plant Research Institute, where Sei currently resided, was far from the palace. Recently, more people unrelated to the researchers had been coming and going due to Sei, but outsiders rarely approached the institute otherwise. As a saint candidate, Sei had been secretly guarded since moving to the institute, and its location made it easy to spot suspicious individuals. Since Sei spent most of her time there, the number of guards had been kept low. However, considering the possibility of this investigation’s results leaking, the current guard detail felt insufficient. Given that her abilities were already known to the mages, they decided to urgently increase the number of guards. That said, adding too many posed its own problems. Johan had reported that Sei wished to live as an ordinary person. Unlike Aira, she wasn’t constantly surrounded by guards; currently, they were assigned discreetly so she wouldn’t notice. After deliberation, the king and his advisors decided to address this by infiltrating guards into the institute as cafeteria cooks or researchers, keeping a few near Sei at all times.