"...Huff, huff."
Exhausted, I slumped down with my back against a nearby building.
To get straight to the point, I somehow managed to complete the month-long exploration mission.
'Damn, that was tough.'
The reason I said I would do the exploration wasn't anything special.
In the game, when you had subordinates with nothing else to do, you'd group them and send them to explore.
If you were lucky, you could discover new talent, and on very rare occasions, they'd bring back an item.
Unless you were extremely unlucky, it was a command that could net you a bit of money — that command being [Explore].
However, no matter how much this was a game world, for someone like me who had possessed a body here, this was real life.
And what did exploration entail?
Trekking all over the place with nothing but my own two feet.
'Haa...'
Still, it wasn't entirely fruitless.
First off, I was able to earn a bit of money.
Nothing fancy — just that as I wandered through the village, I would encounter people asking for help.
Helping them would net me small rewards.
Just doing odd jobs day by day brought in a little income.
In-game, the explore command just passively gave you money from somewhere, so I never thought much of it—but seeing the system working behind the scenes this way helped it all make sense.
I managed to gather 75 gold.
It wasn't much, but better than nothing.
Secondly, I found that the security around here wasn't exactly great.
Not surprising given the atmosphere of the town, but it raised a question.
'When Lady Luna came to get me, she came alone, and even walked...'
You'd expect to run into bandits or worse.
That's why I stuck to exploring the fiefdom within the city walls.
If I went out and actually ran into bandits, someone weak like me would be instantly killed.
Even so, she had walked alone to meet me multiple times.
I hadn't been with her long enough to know her deeply, but I could tell she wasn't stupid.
She wasn't someone who acted without thinking.
In this game, when traveling between cities or fiefdoms, there was a definite chance of a random bandit encounter.
To avoid this, you had to hire two or three escorts using funds.
At first it was annoying because of the cost, and later, because of having to click buttons repeatedly.
Still, it wasn't like there weren't ways to avoid "random encounters."
First, possessing a rare item called [Lantern of the Dead].
As long as you had this, bandits wouldn't appear.
Second, having a strength stat over 90.
Bandits wouldn't pick fights with someone that strong.
'...Could it be her strength stat?'
Lady Luna's strength... was it higher than I thought?
She was strong, sure, but I didn't remember it being over 90.
Still, the game had these annoying [modifiers], so I couldn't rely solely on the in-game data.
I wish I had a damn status window or something—but no, of course an old game wouldn't have that.
Now that I think about it, even when walking up and down hills all day, she didn't seem tired, and she even carried me, a grown man, on her back.
'Has Lunarian Iniang had some kind of stat anomaly applied?'
Well, the very idea that Lunarian Iniang would unify the continent was already an anomaly in itself.
If I just had a bit more solid information, I could be sure...
'…Thinking about it won't change anything.'
Still, brooding like that did help me recover some energy.
Having low strength was really inconvenient.
Do I have to keep living like this?
It would be nice if there were some way to increase stats through training.
There was a way to raise stats, but it was so difficult that I couldn't even attempt it.
I stood up and headed into the castle for the meeting.
"Ah, you're here..."
"This way!"
Inside the castle, Luna and Tifa greeted me.
But one face was missing.
"Where is Lord Cain?"
Luna answered.
"Cain stepped out briefly. He said he had something to do."
I gave a light nod.
"Anyway, since our strategist is here, let's open this up?"
Tifa tapped something sitting on the table.
"What is that?"
"Oh, this? One of the market vendors' shops had collapsed, so I helped rebuild it. When I was digging, this thing popped up."
"Wait, so... you didn't work on commerce?"
"How would I even know how to do that! I just built a house. Oh right, assign me to commerce again next time. I'm not done building yet."
It didn't seem like she had accomplished much.
Still... the 100 intelligence prediction did assign her to commerce.
If something was hidden, it would definitely be inside that box.
"So what is it, exactly?"
"I was just about to open it. It's super heavy, so something has to be inside... but no matter how hard I try, I can't open it. The lid's slightly ajar, though."
"Did the shop owner know anything about it?"
Luna's tone was unexpectedly casual when asking Tifa.
So that's how she talks to childhood friends...
"Nope, he said it was the first time seeing it. He was just thankful for the help and said I could keep it."
"Well, then..."
I looked around and fetched something stick-like that resembled a lever.
"Alright. Let's try opening it."
"Ah! Let's use this. Thanks! You're so smart!"
Getting praised for something like this didn't feel great...
Tifa jammed the stick into the crack and started prying it open.
"Hnnngh! Hrrnnngh!"
Once, twice, three times.
No matter how many times she tried, the box didn't budge.
"Ugh, why won't it open? There's no lock or anything!"
"...Tifa, want me to give it a try?"
Luna, who had been watching, offered.
Tifa nodded.
"Yeah, maybe this is something you're meant to do."
Luna took the stick.
"...Hnnngh!!!"
With one mighty pull.
SLAM!
"It opened!"
The box that hadn't budged for Tifa burst open with a loud crash.
And from that, we learned something.
Luna's strength is higher than Tifa's.
Even though Luna looked delicate and Tifa was all muscle — in this game, stat numbers ruled everything.
If they ever fought one-on-one, Luna would likely win.
And the second point.
Tifa's strength is in the high 80s to low 90s.
Even with modifiers, non-ruler stats don't fluctuate that wildly.
Which means the radiant truth is this:
Luna's strength is mid-90s or higher.
'Lady Luna, you're strong.'
"This is..."
"...Oh my god."
Luna and Tifa gasped as they looked into the box.
Curious, I stepped forward and peered inside.
And then I immediately understood why they looked so shocked.
"...Gold, huh?"
The inside of the chest was filled to the brim with gold coins covered in dust.
Who would have guessed that something like this would be inside such an old, rusted chest?
"Whoa! How much is this?! Hold on a second!"
Tifa, more excited than anyone, poured all the gold coins out of the chest and quickly started counting.
If nothing else, her speed at counting money was impressive.
"Hey! The total is 6,833 gold! That's insane, right?"
Luna was surprised too, but of course, I was even more shocked.
Was there an event in the game where fulfilling a commerce command gave out thousands of gold?
I've played this game for 10,000 hours. I've probably seen every event.
So I can say this with confidence.
There was no such absurdly rewarding event.
And finally, I understood why the 100 Intelligence brain told Tifa to focus on commerce.
If you can score this much gold at once, of course you go for it.
"...Ms. Tifa, where exactly did you find this chest again?"
"Huh? I told you, didn't I? I was laying a foundation to rebuild a house and just found it there."
Normally, when you're assigned to commerce, you'd manage the market or something, not rebuild a merchant's house. If you think about it like that, this chest was essentially a result of Tifa's initiative.
As expected.
I already had a hunch, but now I could say it with 100% certainty.
My Intelligence is 100.
Only a stat like 100 Intelligence could explain this level of favoritism.
There's no need to doubt it anymore.
"So, what should we do with this? Recruiting more soldiers seems like the obvious choice, right? Strategist, what do you think?"
And just then, Tifa asked me the perfect question.
'What should we do with the money we've gathered?'
And the answer was—
"...Um, I have a request for everyone."
Luna suddenly spoke up, wearing a very serious expression.
"I want to... distribute this money to the people of the village."
"???"
Tifa immediately showed her disapproval.
"Hey, what are you saying? We don't even have enough military funds to operate! Haven't you been recruiting? We only have 2,000 capable soldiers total! What, you wanna just stand there and watch while enemies invade?"
"But... there was that typhoon not long ago, and the villagers are having a hard time. We're the ones ruling this place... and besides, this chest came from our land, didn't it?"
"Hey! This is our domain! Our territory! Everything that comes out of here belongs to us, that's just common sense!"
"I know, but still..."
"Haah."
Tifa roughly ran her fingers through her hair.
Honestly, despite her rough demeanor and speech, if she just kept her mouth shut, she had a pretty sexy vibe.
"Luna, I get how you feel. I'm the one who helped you get set up here so you could help struggling people. But even I know—someone who's never even stepped foot in an academy—that we can help even more people if we use this money to build our foundation first. You're smart. You know that better than I do."
"...You're right, I guess."
Luna looked down, visibly dejected after hearing Tifa's words.
It was true that the village was in rough shape. I knew that better than anyone after a month of exploration.
Luna must've been feeling torn up about it.
She's their leader, yet she can't do anything. That must be driving her crazy.
"Hey, Strategist. Say something to Luna. You're smart, right? You can probably convince her better than I can."
Convince her, huh.
Truthfully, I had planned to.
I knew idealism doesn't put food on the table.
But.
"We should follow our lord's will in this matter."
"...Huh?"
"What did you say?"
Both Luna and Tifa stared at me in surprise.
They probably didn't expect that.
I get it. I didn't expect it either.
But what can I do?
'What should we do with the money we've gathered?'
And the answer was—
Aid the domain's poor.
With 100 Intelligence, I thought it through and this was the best move. Distributing the money to the people of the village.