The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - LLD Chapter 36: Love and Hate (1) (Part 1)

A translucent message appeared:

◆ Serapia cannot reach the [Affection] status.
◆ A character with [Affection] status is drawn to you and loves you fervently.
◆ They are willing to sacrifice everything for you with all their heart and devotion.
◆ If they are of the opposite sex, this includes their body as well!

In short, it was a state close to love.
No—more than close. It was just love.
Of course, love came in many forms.

But the love being referred to here seemed to include even physical love.
In that sense, Serapia could never enter the [Affection] state toward me.

◆ Affection Blocker – Older brother, Family, Taboo.
◆ Unless the affection blocker is removed, [Affection] status cannot be reached.

Because there was an insurmountable wall between Serapia and me—.
Granted, we weren’t blood-related. We were step-siblings.
Even so, incest was still incest.

“So this is what it meant when they said there are some people who can never enter the affection state.”

It seemed this was exactly what that meant.
In a way, it was a relief.
Serapia’s favorability toward me reaching [Affection]?

…Just the thought was horrifying.

And with good reason—my own favorability was at [Hatred].
I had a strong will to destroy and kill Serapia no matter what.

The only reason I was holding off was because of Ian’s words.

“Ridiculous…”

Just as I was swiping away the floating message—

◆ Kai’s favorability toward you has greatly increased!

“…What now?”

Were they all losing their minds?

Kai’s mind was in utter disarray.

Smoke rising from chimneys of every house in the County.
People gathered around campfires, eating warm soup.

Children’s laughter rang out—kyaruru!

It was all thanks to Adrian.
Everything was thanks to what Adrian had brought from this one trip.

With just a single trade run, he had brought a windfall, completely solving the county’s long-standing problems.

‘How…?’

Kai couldn’t understand.
Sure, he too had tasted monster meat and knew it had high value as a product.

But as the saying goes, a protruding stone gets struck first.
It wouldn’t have been strange if he’d been crushed by the territorial habits of the existing merchants.

Of course, the product’s value might have guaranteed some success.

But according to the soldiers—

“When we went to buy goods, the merchant guild members were so kind to us.”
“They even gave us freebies, asking us to put in a good word with Lord Adrian!”

Apparently, Adrian had subdued the merchant guild.
He had taken control of the entire Frecce guild.

And he did all that with just a single trade run.

‘How…?’

Kai couldn’t believe that this was the work of the Count’s former disgrace.

He didn’t stir up chaos like a thug.
He melted into Frecce, created harmony with them, and naturally earned their loyalty.

He didn’t solve everything with brute force.
Sometimes he cooperated. Sometimes he negotiated.

That… was something Kai could never do.

He could swing a sword and cut down obstacles better than anyone.
But he didn’t know how to build anything afterward.

That’s why he couldn’t protect Serapia.
That’s why he couldn’t protect anyone.

But Adrian was different.
He knew how to persuade people. He knew how to live alongside them.

He wasn’t just growing stronger in force—he had the talent of a great lord.

He was simply… different.

The man Kai once thought was just a disgrace—Adrian’s caliber itself—

Wasn’t just different.
It was overwhelming.

So vast that Kai couldn’t begin to measure it.
He could no longer call him the Count’s disgrace.

And that wasn’t even the end of Kai’s shock.

“How did he manage to return to the County?”

The County of House Whitewolf was now completely isolated by a blizzard.
And northern blizzards were not to be taken lightly.

In an already barren land—
When the snow falls, everything loses its color.
The entire world becomes buried in white. That expression couldn’t be more fitting.

If a strong wind swept through, it would become a blizzard, making it impossible to see even a few steps ahead.

Chief Steward Bernard hadn’t been exaggerating.
The County was preparing for a long-term isolation.

And yet, Adrian had returned.
He had pierced through the blizzard.

With multiple wagons loaded full of relief supplies.

“A-Actually…”

One of the soldiers hesitantly answered Kai’s question.

“Well…”

But he kept trailing off with a puzzled expression, as if he couldn’t believe what he’d seen himself.

What on earth had he witnessed…?

“Lord Adrian used magic.”
“…Magic?”

Kai too was stunned.
Because—Adrian? Using magic?

“Honestly, we didn’t think we’d make it back to the County through the blizzard.”
“The snow was piled up to our heads, and we couldn’t tell where anything was.”
“Then the whiteout hit, and we completely lost our sense of direction.”

Testimonies poured out from the soldiers.
In other words, it wasn’t just one or two people mistaking what they saw.

“But then, Lord Adrian reached out his hand—and the piled-up snow disappeared.”
“The snow disappeared?”
“Yes! Whoosh—! The snowdrifts were sucked away somewhere…”
“To us, it looked like he was casting magic!”

The soldiers reminisced with excitement.

Words like “It was amazing,” and “He looked like a great archmage splitting the sea!” kept coming out of their mouths.

Not just one or two.
A dozen or more were saying the same thing.

So it couldn’t have been a hallucination.
And the odds of it being a lie were extremely low.

“What the hell…”

Still, Kai couldn’t bring himself to believe it.

Adrian using magic?
That was… impossible.
Because Adrian had zero talent when it came to mana.

Mana—the energy that forms the foundation of the world.

Mana is the primal force present in nature that shapes the very laws of the world.

That’s why mana was said to be an almost infinite energy source.
But for a single being—a human—to handle it was virtually impossible.

Simply put, when humans tried to use mana, they would die because they couldn’t withstand it.

But humanity’s desire for power eventually found an answer.

A long, long time ago, a sage known as the Great Wise One discovered a way to process and convert mana into usable energy.

Today, this is known as Available Energy.
And this usable energy comes in two main forms:

Mana Force
Aura

Mages use Mana Force (think of it as magic power).
Knights use Aura.

However, the mechanisms of these two energies are fundamentally incompatible—they actually clash with each other.

Those who use Mana Force cannot handle Aura.
And those who handle Aura cannot use Mana Force.

A mage cannot become a knight, and a knight cannot become a mage.

But whether it’s mana force or aura—
In the end, both are just refined energies derived from mana.

In other words, both are fundamentally rooted in the power of mana.
To use either mana force or aura, one must first be able to sense and manipulate mana.

And Adrian…

Had virtually zero talent for that “mana.”
Mana Sensitivity: 0.
He couldn’t feel it, let alone perceive it.

Translatin_Otaku

•