'Adam is to be excluded from all cleaning and chores from now on.'
That was the order Aicolman gave the mansion's servants.
Most of the people in the mansion took it in stride.
10 years was about long enough to start moving up to a supervisor's post.
But the result wasn't an appointment as supervisor. It was total exclusion.
Instead, Adam was given new duties.
One, come to the office every day.
Two, take the medicine he was given every day.
Doubts sprouted among those hoping to become Aicolman's disciple.
'Medicine? What medicine are they talking about?'
Not long after, a young noble who saw Adam drinking a blue potion at the breakfast canteen realized what that medicine was.
"That's...... an elixir!"
A mana circuit amplifier that even nobles might drink once in their lives, if that.
The disciple hopefuls were in an uproar all over again.
Adam really was Aicolman's disciple after all.
"Didn't Master Aicolman clearly draw the line and say he wasn't a disciple?"
"He's probably protecting his disciple. Where do you find a slave who guzzles elixirs like that?"
A secluded, sealed-off space in the corner of Aicolman's mansion.
In a dark room reeking of musty dust, disciple hopefuls from prestigious families gathered.
The disciple hopefuls poured out their complaints.
Taking on chores to catch Aicolman's eye had been purely for the sake of becoming his disciple.
But that dream had collapsed overnight.
While the children of prestigious families cooked and did laundry, the former slave was guzzling elixirs and training.
"Do you think this is right?"
The nobles each chimed in with a word or two.
"No, of course it isn't."
"Even if Adam is our senior here, some things you can accept and some things you can't."
Then a noble boy in a black suit spoke.
"Right, that's the spirit. You all want some kind of payback, don't you?"
"Payback?"
"I'll help. I can't go home like this either. If Adam dies and the disciple seat opens up, who knows, he might take another disciple? If we use my family's assassination unit, we can kill Adam without a soul knowing and make it look like an accident. What do you say?"
The gazes of the dozen-odd nobles gathered there fixed on the noble boy who'd proposed the assassination.
"Isn't that going a little too far?"
"Right. It's not something to go that far over, is it?"
A chilly reaction poured down.
"Did anyone say he'd only keep one disciple? If anything, now that Adam's cleared the way, we should see it as a chance for us too."
"Th-that's..."
The noble boy's eyes wavered.
He'd crossed the line, and then some.
In truth, there wasn't a family gathered here without at least one assassin.
It was common sense that a family with a little money had an assassin or two, yet he hadn't stopped to think about why no one had bothered to suggest it.
"Can't believe we've been living alongside such a creepy bastard. How about we beat this bastard up first?"
"How utterly vulgar. We are nobles. Only by settling things with our own strength, without borrowing the power of our families, can we avoid shaming the ancestors who raised our houses! Did you grow up without knowing even that?"
At those words, everyone applauded.
"That's exactly it!"
"That's the dignity of a noble!"
Settling one's feelings fair and square with one's own strength alone, not the power of one's house.
That was the dignity of an Imperial noble, the kind a true strongman possessed.
Strength alone.
Only one's own ability had meaning.
Reminded of noble dignity, the disciple hopefuls grew excited.
"We will not borrow the power of our houses. The ten of us gathered here will punish Adam!"
As long as they didn't borrow their houses' power, everything was their own ability.
Even if it was a 1-on-10 gang beating, it didn't matter.
Wasn't gathering people an ability too?
The vanguard raised his fist high and shouted.
"Everyone, to Adam!"
"Ooooh!"
With a roar, the nobles called Adam out to the training grounds.
***
The nobles went to take out their frustrations on Adam.
It wasn't only for emotional reasons.
Now that there was a first disciple, it also meant there was a chance to become the second or third.
But either way, the first spot had been stolen by a slave, and it was a fact that the nobles had lost face.
This was a pecking order that plainly needed settling.
"Guhk!"
But now a gap had opened up so wide that not even a pecking order could be settled.
"You, how did you get so strong?"
"If I couldn't even throw a punch, how would I have survived here?"
In truth, Adam hadn't even used his fists.
"More importantly, were you always this light?"
"It's not that I'm light, it's that you're..."
Adam lifted a big-bodied noble with one hand.
It was a one-handed chokeslam, of all things.
"His strength is on a whole different level!"
Even Adam himself marveled at his own brute strength. The power of the elixirs was incredible.
Adam had become a doping mage, and mana on a completely different level from ordinary trainees boiled in his veins.
Adam was no longer the helpless slave he'd once been.
"Adam, I'm sorry. Could you put me down?"
"Ugh, of course. We've known each other for 3 years now, after all."
Adam kindly put him down.
By hurling him as hard as he could toward the bushes outside the training ground.
"Aaaaargh!"
Mid-flight, the noble boy realized.
The cause was the elixirs.
The sheer quantity of elixirs he'd guzzled was already breaking common sense.
But they couldn't back down here.
One of the disciple hopefuls jumped on Adam's back in a surprise attack and locked in a rear choke.
"Okay, got him!"
Adam exhaled and thrashed.
It was a precise joint lock that brute strength couldn't break.
'This is dangerous, isn't it?'
The instant he sensed the danger, Adam's subconscious reacted first.
The magic circle on the back of his hand flashed and began spewing bluish-white plasma.
TZZZT—!
"Hey, get off him, quick!"
The disciple hopeful who saw the plasma immediately hid behind cover.
A sudden explosion followed.
Blue flames shot up spectacularly, and a fierce gale swept through the training ground.
"Adam, this is way too much."
"Can't believe you'd use magic in a bare-knuckle fight."
"......"
Instead of answering, Adam gasped for breath.
"Hey, what's wrong with you?"
The nobles, who'd appointed themselves his educators until a moment ago, approached cautiously.
"Don't come near me."
His voice was as rough as scraping metal, and his whole body was like a ball of fire.
When he slumped to the training ground floor and clutched the back of his hand, another glowing sphere popped out.
"You, what's going on with that thing, seriously?"
The explosive sphere that had dropped to the floor blinked.
Beep-beep-beep.
Adam threw a sphere far up into the sky.
Another one dropped right after, and he threw that one too.
That bizarre act repeated about ten times.
The countless pillars of blue fire and the roar of explosions echoed across the whole estate.
At the moment his heart was pounding hard enough to burst, the explosive spheres stopped forming.
'Is it over?'
Adam collapsed face-first onto the floor right there.
Aicolman, who'd been looking down at the scene from atop the mansion, stroked his beard.
"Impressive. Since the magic is strong, the curse's risk is enormous as well, is it?"
***
Aicolman's office.
Adam opened his eyes in the room thick with the scent of wood.
He felt hazy, like after a bad bout of fever, and yet strangely refreshed.
'Probably because my mana increased.'
Aicolman, who'd been smoking beside the bed, asked.
"You're awake?"
There was no need to ask something like, 'What caused it?'
It was obvious.
"Teacher, this grimoire curse thing is way more fucked up than I thought."
"As I always say, I'm not your teacher. And as you said, grimoires are usually nasty in character."
Character.
It was a tone that made it sound like the grimoire was alive.
"The grimoire I read is in the study. Could you bring it here?"
He'd gotten the magic circle through the grimoire.
So if he read the grimoire again, there might be something in it, right? That was the idea.
At that idea, Aicolman shook his head.
"It isn't there."
"That's why I said I'd check with my own eyes."
"That's not it. I mean the grimoire most likely isn't in my house anymore."
What's that supposed to mean?
"I took it out of your study, Master Aicolman?"
"That's how it always goes. A grimoire isn't something a human carries around. You can leave it anywhere, and one day, when an owner it likes shows up, it sneaks onto a bookshelf, and when it's done with its business, it vanishes. That's how those things are."
They really do whatever they want.
Is a grimoire some kind of cat?
Carving magic circles on a whim, laying curses, running off.
"Are all grimoires like this?"
"In my experience, at least, there isn't a single exception. Even so, the grimoire is something nobles try to get their hands on, curse or no curse."
Adam nodded vaguely.
Of course they did.
There's no power without a price.
"If anything, this is getting off cheap. For your reference, when I went berserk, I turned a whole village into a forest."
Adam stroked the magic circle on the back of his hand as he spoke.
"What do I have to do to fix it?"
Aicolman tapped at the bricks sitting on the table.
Huh? What?
Ah, they're books, not bricks.
"For now, the important things are knowledge and control. Read through them, even if it's just a skim."
Judging by the price tags, they were expensive books easily worth more than two slaves.
"Wow, is it okay to give me something this expensive?"
"What can I do? It's cheaper than having my house blown up."
"Thank you!"
"Ah, for your reference, until you fix it, go stay on the big mountain behind the mansion. It's my land, so there won't be anyone to complain."
Did I hear that wrong?
Go to the mountain?
"You're telling me to leave?"
"Then you want me to keep a living explosive like you in the house?"
"That's true, but... Yeah, there's no arguing with that."
Adam readily agreed.
No matter how much money there was, even he could see that staying in the house in his current state would be a nuisance.
Aicolman immediately summoned the servants and announced Adam's temporary dismissal.
***
"Adam, I'll miss you!"
"Yeah, you take care too. And don't go spreading made-up rumors again."
His luggage was simple.
A change of clothes, rope, flint, and expensive mana elixirs.
He decided to procure food locally.
When asked what he'd do if there was really nothing to eat, Aicolman gave a very clear answer.
"There are plenty of mountain bandits there."
"Aha. So carrying a lot of stuff would make me a target, is what you mean?"
"Wrong. I mean rob the bandits of their things. Their things alone will probably be enough."
It was a rugged supply method that brought the Mongol army to mind.
"Since I've left it alone, the mountain bandits and thieves apparently think it's their land and have settled in for good."
Aicolman encouraged the robbery, saying it was fine to steal from thieves.
"Take care out there. As long as you fix the grimoire's curse, I'll introduce you to a good job."
"How could I run off after receiving the grace of your teaching?"
"Hmm, you certainly know how to say pretty things. Though I wonder if you'd still say that if you knew the worth of a mage who's obtained a grimoire."
In a heartwarming atmosphere, the two waved and parted ways.
Tzzzt.
Right before he left the mansion, a bomb dropped and blew the garden away.
KA-BOOM—
It seemed like a junior behind him muttered 'fuck' under his breath, but it didn't much matter.
Cleaning wasn't Adam's job anymore.