"...Hah, hah..."

    Exhausted, I slumped down against a random building in the city, trying to catch my breath.

    To sum it up, I’d finally managed to finish my month-long exploration assignment—barely.

    ‘God, that was exhausting.’

    The reason I’d volunteered for exploration was simple: in the game, if you didn’t have any specific tasks for your subordinates, you’d send them out to explore.

    Sometimes they’d find new talents, or on rare occasions, uncover valuable items.

    Even with average luck, exploration often yielded a bit of gold.

    But here in this world, exploration wasn’t just a menu command.

    It meant physically wandering around, moving from place to place.

    And my only means of transportation were my own two legs.

    ‘Phew.’

    At least it wasn’t all for nothing.

    For one, I managed to collect a little money.@@@@

    Wandering around town, I came across villagers in need of help.

    By assisting them, I received small rewards.

    In the game, exploration would just magically add gold to your inventory, but seeing how it actually worked in this world made it easy to understand.

    I ended up with a total of 75 gold.

    It wasn’t a fortune, but it was better than nothing.

    The second thing I noticed was that the area’s security wasn’t great.

    Given how bleak the town was, it made sense.

    But then, there was something strange about it.

    ‘When Luna came to find me, she came alone—and on foot.’

    It wouldn’t have been surprising if she’d encountered bandits along the way.

    That’s why I limited my exploration to areas within the city walls.

    If I ventured too far and ran into bandits, someone like me would be killed instantly.

    And yet, Luna had made several solo trips to meet me.

    From what I’d observed of her, she wasn’t stupid.

    She didn’t act without thinking.

    In the game, traveling between towns or territories often triggered random bandit encounters.

    To avoid them, you had to invest in escorts or take precautions.

    It was an annoying system—costly in the beginning and tedious later on.

    However, there were ways to avoid these "random encounters":

    Possess the rare item [Lantern of the Dead].

    With this item, bandits wouldn’t appear.

    Have a Strength stat of 90 or higher.

    With high Strength, bandits wouldn’t dare challenge you.

    ‘Could it be her Strength stat?’

    If Luna’s Strength was higher than I remembered, that might explain it.

    I recalled her being quite strong, but not above 90.

    Still, this game had its quirks—so-called “modifiers” that could alter stats in specific timelines.

    ‘A status window would be really useful right about now.’

    But of course, being an old-school game, there was no such convenience here.

    The more I thought about it, the clearer it became.

    Despite the uphill climbs and long walks, Luna never seemed fatigued.

    She’d even carried me, a full-grown man, on her back without breaking a sweat.

    ‘Did Lunarian Iniang get some kind of stat boost in this timeline?’

    It wasn’t impossible.

    After all, the very prediction that "Luna will unify the continent" was already a deviation from the norm.

    If I had more concrete information, I might be able to confirm it...

    ‘Forget it. Thinking about it won’t help.’

    Strangely enough, ruminating on these thoughts gave me a second wind.

    Low-Strength characters were truly a pain to deal with.

    Was I doomed to live like this forever?

    If only there were a way to train and raise my stats.

    Technically, there were ways to boost your stats in the game,

    but they were so difficult and time-consuming that it wasn’t worth it.

    I stood up and began heading back to the castle for the meeting.

    *****

    At the Castle

    "Oh, you’re here—no, I mean, you’ve arrived."

    "Over here!"

    When I entered, Luna and Tifa were waiting for me.

    But one person was missing.

    "Where is Kane?"

    Luna answered my question.

    "Kane had some business to attend to. He’ll be back later."

    I nodded lightly.

    "Anyway, since the strategist is here, can we open this now?"

    Only now did I understand why my 100 Intelligence had insisted on sending Tifa to handle trade.

    If you could find this much gold in one go, it was clearly the best decision.

    "Tifa, where exactly did you find this chest?"

    "Huh? I told you, didn’t I? While laying the foundation for that shop, it just turned up."

    Normally, trade-related tasks would involve managing the market, not rebuilding a merchant’s home.

    In this case, the chest was effectively found because Tifa had gone there herself.

    ‘As expected.’

    I’d already suspected as much, but now I was 100% certain:

    My Intelligence stat is a perfect 100.

    It’s the only explanation for such absurdly favorable outcomes.

    There’s no room for doubt anymore.

    "What should we do with this? Recruiting more soldiers seems like the best option, right? What do you think, strategist?"

    Tifa had conveniently asked me the perfect question.

    ‘What should we do with this money?’

    The answer came almost instantly.

    "Um, everyone, may I make a suggestion?"

    "?!"

    Luna cut in with an unusually serious expression.

    "I’d like to distribute this money... to the townspeople."

    "???"

    Tifa immediately frowned.

    "Hey, what are you talking about? We’re short on funds for our own operations! Are you saying you’re not going to recruit soldiers?

    We’ve barely got 2,000 capable fighters. Are you planning to just watch when the enemy invades?"

    "But... the townspeople have been struggling, especially after the recent typhoon. This is our territory, after all.

    And this chest... it came from their land."

    "Hey! This is our land.

    Anything that comes from it belongs to us. That’s common sense!"

    "I know that, but..."

    "Ugh."

    Tifa ran her fingers roughly through her hair.

    Despite her rough behavior, there was something undeniably captivating about her—

    a kind of rugged charm that came through even in her frustration.

    "Luna, I get it. I know you want to help people—it’s one of the reasons I joined you.

    But we need to use this money to build our foundation first.

    Even someone like me, who’s never set foot in an academy, knows that.

    You’re smarter than me, so you should know it even better."

    "...I suppose you’re right."

    Luna’s head drooped, clearly discouraged.

    It was obvious the state of the town had been weighing on her.

    She felt helpless as a leader, unable to do anything for her people.

    "Hey, strategist. Say something to her.

    You’re smarter than me—you can convince her better than I can."

    Convince her, huh?

    I was planning to do that anyway.

    After all, idealism doesn’t put food on the table.

    But then...

    "I think we should go with the commander’s decision."

    "...What?"

    "Come again?"

    Both Luna and Tifa stared at me, stunned.

    They probably hadn’t expected that answer.

    I didn’t either, to be honest.

    But what could I do?

    ‘What should we do with this money?’

    The answer was clear:

    [Provide aid to the impoverished in the territory.]

    If my 100 Intelligence was saying this was the best course of action,

    then distributing the money to the townspeople was the right thing to do.