I Maxed Out My Luck Stat

"I-I’m so sorry for my wrongful actions, Richard. I have no excuses for my indiscretions, and I will accept whatever punishment you give me. All I ask is that you do not prevent me from serving you again. I know this is impudent of me to ask, but please... please punish me through any other means but that."

Richard was dumbfounded by the seemingly unending stream of apologies that rushed out of Neia’s lips when they returned to their room.

He had only just started chastising her for taking things too far in many instances and nearly landing them in trouble. For one... Why did she boast about her ’aide’ being able to take down everyone in the Naming Ceremony?

Richard knew Neia had a very high opinion of him, but her statement brought them the attention of someone rather troublesome.

It was a miracle they were eventually able to shake him off, but he had a bad feeling that the mysterious man would appear again. All of this could have been avoided if Neia had played her part in moderation. Instead, she was too assertive as Richard, and she ended up drawing more attention than he expected.

Naturally, he also took issue with Neia making a girl pee herself in public, while also exposing her Principal Disposition.

That was just too brutal.

Richard still had some common sense from Earth, so he clung tight to his morality.

He didn’t think humiliation to such an extent was fair.

Of course, Neia saw it differently, but seeing her Master so dissatisfied with her and bringing up some actually valid points made her reflect on her own actions.

She had to apologize profusely.

Not only did she fall to her knees and prostrate herself to him, but she also had teary eyes and a trembling voice while addressing him. It almost felt like a scared little child talking to her parents after doing something very wrong.

Richard didn’t know how to feel about this overwhelming display of guilt.

’Damn... Now she is making me feel bad.’

When Richard stared into her perfect blue eyes, watching the beautiful gems become distorted by the nearly overflowing tears, he couldn’t help but feel a sharp pain in his chest.

’Is she doing this on purpose? Is she trying to guilt-trip me?’

He was astounded.

Richard had never seen Neia this emotional before, and the sheer magnitude of it almost felt fake in his eyes.

Surely she didn’t feel so strongly about his reprimands.... Right?

WRONG!

Neia had already solidified Richard as an authority figure in her life, and he stood at the highest level of authority. Since she didn’t have any friends or family, he was the most important person in her life.

That meant she cared very deeply about how he perceived her.

Now that she had done something he didn’t like, she threw aside all her justifications and logical reasoning and simply threw herself to his feet to correct her image in his eyes.

But, when logically examining things... Neia wasn’t actually wrong at all.

It was actually Richard who was too naive.

Neia had displayed the correct attitude of a Noble and ended up drawing the right kind of attention in the end, becoming the star of the occasion. This ended up bringing a lot of honor to his family.

There was no doubt that his reputation had soared, thanks greatly to this.

Of course, the results weren’t entirely good.

Because of Neia’s actions, Richard had new allies... but he had also made new enemies.

—The Noble Families.

Neia humiliated their representatives in the Friendly Games, which in turn meant their families would suffer the shame of defeat.

It also wasn’t an ordinary kind of victory, but a humiliating one.

That was even worse.

One could argue that the Noble Families already didn’t have good motives regarding Richard, and that was true. However, now that ’Richard’ had done this, they had more of an incentive to destroy him—especially in the Academy.

However, Richard was only thirteen years old.

He still had about three years left before he could become a student there.

Meanwhile, the likes of Arthur, Jason, and Liliana were getting into the Academy at nearly the same time. They would be able to incorporate their strengths long before he entered, which means he would have seniors who detested him once he got in.

This was incredibly worrisome.

However, Richard was quite dense, so he hadn’t started thinking along those lines quite yet.

Instead—

"I-It’s fine... No need to apologize any longer!" His cheeks were somewhat red as he looked away while coughing slightly.

Neia was now twenty-two years old, and she had matured nicely.

Even now, three years after she started sleeping in the same room as him, she still preferred to be naked around him. Even now, as she prostrated herself before him, she was naked.

It was a little too much stimulation for Richard.

Yes, he was an adult in his mind, but he was stuck in a teenager’s body.

His vampiric hormones were running wild.

’And she’s talking about me punishing her... Ahh... This isn’t good. I may need to jerk off again tonight, just so I can keep things in check.’

Poor Richard...

He didn’t know that Neia was perfectly fine with him using her body and would actually be pleased with such an outcome. Instead, he would have to continue his practice on Earth and use his own hand to satisfy his lust.

This was his own punishment—his penance—for being so stupid.

"Y-you... forgive me?"

"Yes, I do. Now stand and cover yourself. It isn’t even bedtime yet, and yet you disrobed!"

Neia smiled with glee, satisfied that she had been forgiven.

"It was to show my sincerity, Richard!" As she jumped to her feet, her overflowing chest bounced with such a perfect jiggle that it felt unreal. "Thanks for overlooking my indiscretions. I will do my best to act in accordance with your wishes next time."

"It’s not exactly your fault, but... sure..."

Richard hadn’t particularly given her express instructions involving how to behave in the event, so he couldn’t exactly blame her for not following his instructions.

It wasn’t as though she could read his mind.

As such, punishing her in the first place would be too cruel and unfounded.

In the end, he could only fold.

’Sigh... I wonder what the others are going through in their respective households.’ This time, Richard decided to restrict these words to his thoughts, lest Neia sneak into each residence to spy on them once again.

’I certainly hope that Liliana girl isn’t going through too much.’

Richard felt bad about her the most.

If only he knew the full extent of her scheme to expose and humiliate him... how she planned, alongside her ally, to completely demolish every ounce of reputation he had.

One could only wonder how he would react if he were aware.

Neia had actually helped him more than he could ever imagine, but he didn’t know.

"Welp! No use thinking about all that now..." Richard shrugged and fell to his bed, a broad smile forming on his face as he recalled the good parts about the Ceremony.

’I wonder what my parents will say once they hear what Neia accomplished in my name.’

[A/N: Character Arts are now visible on the novel’s profile. Vote for your favorite characters and let me know who else you’d like to see.]