Chapter 8: Mindfulness Points

After leaving Sean’s place, the sky was already covered in an orange-red sunset.

Lulu Mia’s shadow stretched long under the fading sun.

The uneven street exuded a peaceful atmosphere, with smoke curling up from every household.

The scattered gray walls and red tiles gave Lulu Mia a strange feeling of wandering in a foreign land.

Of course, another world was indeed a foreign land.

Jokingly thinking so, Lulu Mia stretched out lazily.

To say she had no fear of being transmigrated to an unfamiliar place would definitely be a lie, but as always, transmigration was an unchangeable fact.

Instead of wasting time lamenting, it was better to think about the path ahead.

How many people longed to be transmigrated into a world of swords and magic but never got the chance? Her worries were a luxury.

The printing press matter was temporarily settled.

She only needed to check on its progress regularly over the next two days, and as long as she could deliver the finished product—even if it couldn’t be immediately commercialized—it would buy her some time.

Unless both the Fourth Princess and Ryan were fools who couldn’t see the printing press’s value.

What came next would depend on the reactions of the Fourth Princess and Ryan.

Lulu Mia had already planned her strategy.

Although Ryan was the owner of the Magic Workshop and could decide his own fate, the real decision-maker was the Fourth Princess.

She just needed to find a way to win the Fourth Princess’s favor, and all would be well.

“Come to think of it, one gold coin can support a family of three for a month, so the purchasing power should be around three thousand [currency units]. How did the original owner manage to borrow five thousand gold coins from the Fourth Princess? And the Fourth Princess actually lent it?”

Lulu Mia scratched her head in confusion. Although the original owner was born bearing the title closest to a god-created angelic doll, five thousand gold coins equaled about twenty million RMB.

The Fourth Princess and the original owner had never met before, yet she lent such a huge sum at once.

It was unbelievable.

Even with money, no one would spend it so recklessly.

The most absurd part was that the original owner’s memories barely described the process.

She simply lacked money, sought out the Fourth Princess, who lent it to her—just that simple.

“Gurgle gurgle.”

The baby dragon’s stomach protested to Lulu Mia.

Hadn’t it just eaten?

How was it hungry again?

Lulu Mia smacked her lips.

The aroma of dinner wafting through the streets forcibly broke her train of thought.

She then noticed the sunset was giving way to night, with faint stars appearing in the sky.

Perhaps because of the deepening night, the Magic Array covering the royal capital appeared brighter than in the afternoon.

The soft purple Magic Shield drifted with slanting lines against the starry backdrop, evoking the image of constellations.

“If I had known, I would’ve agreed to stay for dinner earlier.”

Lulu Mia sighed.

The sky was getting darker, and she had to figure out where to stay.

The original owner had previously lived in a noble mansion near the academy, but she was evicted for failing to pay rent.

One of the people who came to collect debts from Ryan before was actually the mansion’s landlord.

There was no way she could go back to the workshop, so the only option left was the student dormitory.

Saint Easter Academy provided each enrolled student with a bed to ensure those from border regions wouldn’t have to sacrifice their studies to make a living.

These dorms were usually six-person rooms.

If one wanted more comfort, they could pay extra to move up to a four-person, two-person, or even single room.

Lulu Mia recalled that the original owner vaguely remembered her bed was in a six-person room for water-element students.

Since most dorm residents were nobles who voluntarily paid extra to move to better rooms at the start of the semester, Lulu Mia’s six-person room currently housed only one other student.

But even that single roommate had been offended by the original owner multiple times.

Lulu Mia clenched her teeth in anger at the original owner again.

“No choice. I just have to grit my teeth and go back.”

She couldn’t exactly sleep out on the street.

These few days, she had to resolve Sean’s wages and needed to stay energetic to calmly figure out how to earn money.

While planning how to make amends with the only roommate (by playing the victim), Lulu Mia hurried back to the academy.

Along the way, she finally realized how conspicuous her dragon horns and tail were on the street; almost everyone who passed by would turn their heads.

Fortunately, the King of Oernheim Kingdom’s capital had many magic automatons.

These automatons were customized by their owners’ preferences to have various appearances.

Compared to them, Lulu Mia’s look was relatively normal, so the surprised glances from passersby were still bearable.

But just as she was about to enter the gate, a group of people blocked her path.

They were a group of dark-skinned men, dressed in styles completely at odds with the academy’s, basically idle members of society.

Standing under the dim streetlamp by the gate, they swept intimidating gazes at every student entering or leaving, clearly looking for someone.

They were looking for her—the original owner’s debt collectors.

Lulu Mia’s skin tightened as she instinctively took a step back.

Compared to these people who would do anything for money, even Ye Ando seemed harmless.

Before the Fourth Princess found her, the original owner had been threatened by this group.

If next time they saw her and she couldn’t pay, they would drag her to the black market and dismantle her.

Time to make a quick escape.

Lulu Mia didn’t hesitate and turned to run.

Only a fool would bet their life on this.

If she couldn’t get in the front gate, she could just climb over the wall.

Unfortunately, she had barely run a few steps before her conspicuous dragon horns and tail caught the debt collectors’ attention.

Lulu Mia instantly became a rat crossing the street, chased by the crowd shouting, “If you’ve got guts, don’t run!”

Ignoring the shocked stares of other students, she closed her eyes and dashed forward as fast as she ever had.

She dared say she had never run this hard for herself before.

Her gaze locked onto a low wall ahead.

Feeling the heavy breathing closing in behind her, she grit her teeth and glared fiercely.

Without realizing it herself, she had already climbed over and tumbled into the academy grounds.

“Why are you just standing there? Go after her!”

“It’s the academy inside. Have you forgotten what happened recently? Climbing over the wall could cost you your life.”

“Oh… right, damn it. She got away again.”

“Don’t let me catch you next time, or I’ll chop off your legs!”

Listening to the cursing voices fading outside the wall, Lulu Mia’s heart pounded wildly as she exhaled deeply.

Looks like she’d have to change her style before going out next time to avoid running into these debt collectors.

They were far scarier than the Fourth Princess.

She wiped the cold sweat from her forehead.

The biting cold wind made her instinctively wrap the tattered burlap tighter around herself.

Once her nerves settled, Lulu Mia made her way to the nearly closed cafeteria.

She casually ate some bread and salad, then followed her memory to the student dormitory tucked in a corner of the academy.

From the outside, the five-story dormitory was quite luxurious.

White walls and red tiles complemented each room’s balcony and large windows, with fountains and courtyards surrounding the building.

It rivaled the mansions of wealthy nobles, making Lulu Mia appreciate that the academy had a noble student ratio of 70%.

Besides that, there were couples strolling hand-in-hand in the courtyard and training grounds.

Many aspects of this world were quite different from modern society.

For example, people reached adulthood at fifteen, and nobles often got engaged before fifteen.

Marriages between noble families helped their development, so the school didn’t forbid early romance.

It was worth noting that Lulu Mia frequently saw patrolling guards.

The academy seemed to be in a state of emergency.

Guards were stopping people to question them, and the students being interrogated wore serious expressions after hearing the guards’ words.

Because she climbed over the wall and the debt collectors might still be outside, Lulu Mia didn’t want to attract trouble and hurried into the dorm.

“Anyone here?”

She knocked on the dorm door, but there was no answer.

Each dorm room had its own key, and the original owner had lost hers long ago.

So she went downstairs to borrow one from the dorm supervisor.

Pushing the door open and finding her bed empty except for a bare board, just as expected, Lulu Mia couldn’t help but hold her forehead.

Cursed.

Luckily, she hadn’t thrown away the tattered burlap she brought from the prison; otherwise, tonight she would really have to sleep on the hard bed board.

She glanced at the bed of the only roommate, a girl named Amy, who had chosen the lower bunk closest to the window.

Amy seemed to have a carefree personality; her pink bedsheets were casually scattered with gold and silver coins, alongside something like an account book.

From the amount, there had to be at least ten gold coins.

Lulu Mia blinked her big eyes in surprise.

Since Amy was both a classmate and a noble, the original owner had more interactions with Amy than with Lige.

According to memory, Amy’s family was a noble house from a small border town in the southern part of Oernheim Kingdom.

The original owner often mocked Amy as a “poor brat who couldn’t afford a single room,” “a country noble begging in the city,” and sometimes would team up with shady friends to steal Amy’s homework before class to embarrass her.

Aside from not splashing water in the bathroom or physically assaulting her, the original owner’s actions bordered on bullying.

Amy, having no money or power, had always endured the original owner’s torment without resistance.

Ten gold coins were enough for a family of three to live on for a year, yet Amy casually left them on the bed. Lulu Mia thought Amy was too careless—her family couldn’t be one that treated money lightly.

An idea flickered in her eyes.

If she kept up the original owner’s nasty attitude and forced Amy to lend her the money, wouldn’t that solve Sean’s wages?

Once she had money later, she could repay Amy with interest.

“But won’t that drop my Mindfulness Points?”

Worried, Lulu Mia sat on her upper bunk, her porcelain-white calves lightly swinging in the air.

She still didn’t know exactly what Mindfulness Points meant, only that doing bad things lowered them.

After a day, they had dropped from 60 to 45, a speed that made her uneasy.

What if one day they dropped all the way to zero?

No one knew what might happen.

As if responding to her thoughts, the panel appeared again in front of her.

「Name: Lulu Mia」

「Titles: ‘Fragile Baby Dragon’, ‘Poor Ghost’, ‘Holy Grail: 0’, ‘Shameless’, ‘Commoner Student’, ‘Lige’s Favorite’, ‘Interesting Magic Automaton’, ‘Fourth Princess’s Puppet – Temporary’, ‘Bluffing with Authority’, ‘Disguiser’, ‘Fraudster*2’」

「Mindfulness Points: 45」

The glowing white interface hovered half a meter before Lulu Mia.

Her gaze instinctively stopped on the Mindfulness Points.

Suddenly, without warning, the glowing white text came alive, merging, twisting, and extending on its own.

New lines appeared beneath the Mindfulness Points section.

「Magic Level: 1, Magic Power: 13/13.」

「Learned Spells: ‘Water Bullet’: 207/500, Novice, 293 proficiency points to next level.」

「‘Purify’: 9/100, Unskilled, 91 proficiency points to next level.」

「‘Fireworks’: 130/500, Novice, 370 proficiency points to next level.」

「‘Fireball’: 2/100, Unskilled, 98 proficiency points to next level.」

“This is…” Before Lulu Mia could speculate, another line of explanatory text popped up.

(Influenced by ‘Fragile Baby Dragon’, the unconsciousness threshold is 50% higher than a normal baby dragon, but stamina is lower.)

(Influenced by ‘Lige’s Favorite’, fire-element magic learning speed slightly increased.)

(Influenced by ‘Fourth Princess’s Puppet – Temporary’, fire and dark-element magic learning speed slightly increased.)

“Ah?”

Her teal eyes instantly widened, and Lulu Mia sat up straight.