Became a Strategist with a 100 Intelligence and 100\% Accuracy-Chapter 248: The Most Efficient

"Magic to heal diseases?"

"Yes...!"

It seemed a bit out of the blue, but I knew that she wasn’t the type of person to say something meaningless, no matter how unexpected it seemed.

"First, please have a seat on the couch."

***

"Magic to heal diseases?"

"Yes...!"

It seemed a bit sudden, but I knew she wasn’t the type to say meaningless things, no matter how unexpected they might be.

"Please, sit down on the couch first."

I could hear all the details from her.

"Did your lord say that?"

"Yes, yes...! So, um, she asked if there’s any magic that works on diseases."

Reika's explanation was as follows.

Not long ago, she had been healed by magic—now, the question was whether there was magic that worked on diseases.

It seemed like she didn't know such magic, but since she had been asked, she had come to me, who was somewhat like her magic teacher.

"Maybe Swen-sama... If you are my teacher, you might know..."

Reika had come to me because, when she was stuck, I had helped her in various ways.

Thinking back, the reason we met was because she had mistaken me for a wizard and became my student.

At that time, I had just made up some story.

I paused for a moment, then, seeing Reika struggling with her words, decided to tell her the truth.

"Actually, I don’t know the details."

"R-really...?"

"Yes. I only have a vague understanding of mana... but I don’t know how to handle it or amplify it. So, it’s all thanks to your talent, Reika. I didn’t do anything."

There was no reason to continue hiding or lying to her.

Now that a wizard like Reika had appeared, other wizards would definitely emerge, so there was no point in continuing the deception.

"Ah..."

Hearing her voice tremble a little made me feel unexpectedly guilty.

"If I disappointed you, I’m sorry."

I lowered my head, but Reika quickly waved her hands in panic.

"No, no...! Disappointment... no, not at all! Even so, just like you said, Master, I went to the mountains and meditated... By doing that, I was able to feel more mana, control it better, and increase the magic I can use... So... so it was enough help for me. You’re still my one and only teacher...!"

"Reika..."

"So, so... there’s no reason for you to feel sorry... I think..."

I couldn’t help but chuckle as I looked at Reika, who was struggling to speak.

Well, since she was saying so much, it would be strange for me to keep insisting otherwise.

"I understand. Anyway... I don’t know any magic to cure diseases. I actually wanted to ask you."

"Me?"

"Yes. Don’t you feel anything, like a sudden intuition or something?"

As far as I know, Reika had learned magic purely by intuition—from ice magic to healing magic, which she ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) used to save Serpina.

If there were any magic to cure diseases, she should have sensed it herself.

But—

"...I... don’t feel anything like that yet."

"Really?"

I was slightly hopeful, but it seemed to be the same as I had thought.

If she had realized it earlier, she wouldn’t have come to ask me about it.

"Well, I’m sorry... for being useless..."

"Useless? The first wizard on the continent, Reika, saying that is a bit too much, don’t you think? Excessive humility isn’t a virtue, you know?"

"Humility...? Me, someone like me..."

Anyway— it seemed there was no magic that could heal diseases.

Here’s one important fact.

Why did Serpina ask Reika about that?

The answer was obvious. She must have wanted to save people... Having had that thought, she must have ordered the forced relocation, knowing her reputation would fall.

"So, how did the conversation end?"

"Well... there’s a magic that temporarily boosts immunity so that people don’t feel like they’re getting sick... but I told her there’s no magic to heal diseases."

"I see... What?"

"Huh?"

"What did you just say?"

I was taken aback, and Reika blinked at me in confusion.

"What? What’s wrong... Did I... make a mistake? If I made a mistake, it’s definitely my fault, not yours, Swen-sama..."

"No, no. That’s not it. You said it boosts immunity? To the point of not getting sick?"

"Ah... This is, um... the magic I used when I treated Lady Serpina recently..."

Reika slowly raised both of her hands and began gesturing as she explained.

"So, in Serpina's case, I concentrated mana on the wounds to make them particularly strong... Well, for this case, it’s like spreading the mana throughout the body so that the person doesn’t get sick... something like that?"

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

Her explanation wasn’t very clear, but it couldn’t be helped.

Reika hadn’t learned magic from anyone. She had learned all her magic by herself. Just like how humans instinctively try to breathe and walk from the moment they’re born, she had naturally figured it out.

"So, if you do that, they won’t get sick?"

"Yes? Ah... Yes... The magic effect lasts for at least a week... so for a week, you won’t get sick. Maybe... they’ll even get healthier?"

"Healthier?"

"Well... how should I put it... stronger people will probably get even stronger... I guess? Since you’re spreading the mana’s power through the energy in the body..."

The explanation was still messy, but that wasn’t the important part.

The key was that she could cast a kind of "buff" to enhance physical abilities!

And it seemed that while under this buff, one wouldn’t get sick. While I didn’t know how far medical science in this world had advanced, it made sense that her words were correct considering that diseases come from weakening the body’s immune system.

"Reika, how did you figure that out? That it would work like that?"

"Huh? Oh, I just thought of it when I was treating Lady Serpina... I thought, 'Oh, I can apply it like this...'"

'Oh my god...'

With her usual shy and hesitant demeanor, I had always forgotten one crucial fact.

The woman in front of me, Reika Nighhardt—she was the continent’s greatest wizard.

The first to appear and the greatest, the pinnacle of the magical world!

"But... if someone has already caught the disease, even gathering mana won’t help... So, in conclusion, I wasn’t much help..."

"No, Reika!"

Without thinking, I grabbed her hand tightly.

"Ah...!"

"I think that alone is a meaningful discovery. You’re amazing, Reika. Really... honestly, your humility is starting to feel silly!"

"Ah... oh..."

Reika blushed deeply, embarrassed by my praise, and lowered her head.

Well, it might not help immediately... but now that I knew she had this "buff" ability, I was sure there would be a time to use it.

"I’ll be counting on you in the future, Reika."

"Yes? Ah... yes, yes...!"

She seemed flustered, shaking her head back and forth, but soon smiled and nodded at me.

Watching Reika smile, something inside me that values efficiency began to reflect.

'Honestly, it would be better if we could just live peacefully without needing magic...'

But what could I do?

Those born with talent in troubled times inevitably shine, and they’re bound to be dragged into the bloody battlefield where blood flows like rivers.

Even so, I hoped that I wouldn’t have to use her abilities anytime soon...

***

"The plague... is it Lady Serpina you're talking about?"

"It seems so."

Looking at Serpina, who smiled bitterly, I let out a long sigh.

"Well, it can't be helped. She abandoned her territory for no reason and withdrew her forces. And then, at the perfect timing, a plague started to spread from the abandoned territory. Not to mention, recently, a mage has appeared in our army. And the one responsible for all of this... is none other than her—the woman herself—"

—Serpina von Eingart.

The infamous villainess and tyrant who threw the world into chaos, a woman who must never appear again.

"But in the end, it's just a rumor, isn't it?"

"A rumor, huh... Yeah. That's all it is. But what can we do? Swen. You might not know, but... this situation is very familiar to her."

She had told me this.

She lived her life always feeling that every bit of malice in the world was pointing at her.

How must it feel to have those she trusted the most betray her and target her life for their own gain?

The depth of those feelings was surely far heavier than the weight of the words she'd spoken.

"And then, someone decided to ride the wave of these rumors."

"Could it be... Yuri Aishus?"

"Oh?"

"In this situation, there doesn’t seem to be anyone else who’d benefit from spreading such a rumor."

As far as I knew, Yuri had already lost Ernandorf to a senseless war.

Her battle against Chel Brans, who had become her bitter enemy, was muddied by the plague.

It wasn’t even something she could be blamed for—the natural disaster that had shifted blame to our own army. She probably thought it would help regain the support of her people, who had been abandoning her...

But could she have been so careless to not realize that openly declaring something like this would only escalate the risk?

If it was just a rumor about the territory people, then keeping quiet would be in her favor—it would be her trump card.

"Moreover... Lady Serpina relocated the citizens. Just thinking about that seems like a breakthrough on its own...?"

"...."

"So... what do you think?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, do you think the rumors will calm down?"

"Ah... calming down, huh..."

Serpina lowered her eyes slightly and then once again put a smile on her lips.

It was a smile that seemed like it would crumble at any moment, the same kind of smile Airen had worn when Lyn had abandoned her.

"It can’t be helped, can it?"

"...What?"

"The malicious rumors surrounding her aren't just about that. It has to be accepted."

The moment I heard those words, for some reason, a wave of emotion surged up inside me, and I couldn't help but raise my voice in front of her.

"Yet, my lord, in order to prove that those rumors are true, Yuri must explain why you forcibly relocated the citizens. If she can’t refute that, then the claim that you spread the plague with magic cannot stand!"

The strongest argument that supported the idea of Serpina releasing the plague was that she was a notorious villainess and tyrant.

But, how could such a tyrant have relocated her citizens before the plague spread?

Wouldn't that seem like she was trying to save them?

"She didn’t overlook that possibility. However..."

"...?"

"You may not know this, but the sentiment of the citizens who were relocated to the northern undeveloped lands isn’t exactly favorable."

From what I understood, there were people who still had family in the central region, where the plague was spreading, and some even resented Serpina, the one who was supposed to be the one they should be thankful to.

Even when the lockdown order was given, there were those who couldn’t reunite with their families and harbored dissatisfaction toward her.

Though the move was made to save as many lives as possible, I had to be prepared for the fact that not everyone would appreciate it... but the receipts the world demanded from her seemed to be more than she had prepared for.

"Such..."

"Whatever we say, it probably won’t matter."

Will it be brushed aside as just a coincidence?

Her intuition was astonishingly accurate. Probably, even if I touched on that contradiction, she'd just dismiss it, saying it was all "just a coincidence."

"It’s fine. It’s not something I’m unfamiliar with. My life has always been like this..."

...It has always been this way.

"After all, I’m... a tyrant who should never have existed on this continent."

As Serpina finished with that, I felt genuine anger rise up inside me for the first time in a long while as I looked at her side profile.

'What is this... I made a decision for our army, and actually saved many who were close to dying... But Lady Serpina's reputation is worse than ever. And it’s all because of something she didn’t even do wrong.'

Is this really the best result?

If we can gain the upper hand strategically, does it not matter if she is left in tatters?

――It was then.

'!!!!!!!!!'

I realized, as though struck by lightning.

The meaning of the "most efficient solution" predicted by my 100 Intelligence.