Because of the different types of powers and abilities, people were divided in rank based on their physical or magical abilities following the same system as the dungeon rating. 

They went from H to EX. 10 ranks divided into four Tiers. 

The third tier went from H to F. If I were to give an example, someone with H in strength would have the strength of a normal adult male who never worked out, while someone at F would be as strong as the strongest human in my old world. Monsters in this tier were the most numerous and could be dealt with by using enough smart and good weapons even without mana. 

Then, there was the next tier. It was simply called the 2nd tier, but I rather call it the superhuman tier. 

Strength: E

Speed: D

Agility: D

Dexterity: D

Endurance: E

Mana: B

Those stats might seem rather weak at first, but there was one thing, one rule that gave those stats a totally different meaning. 

Humans can never surpass E rank in terms of physical ability. This was an absolute. This was a rule. We were one of the beings with the weakest bodies after al-and I easily broke that limit. 

But, my greatest improvement was in no way related to my physical stats, but rather, my Mana, B rank, or more precisely, the Saint rank. 

From what Irene said, with my current Mana, I could potentially become a court wizard even in the empire… Well, I could if there wasn't a little very little problem. 

---

"*Arghhh* Why the fuck is that fire tempest so hard to use to use?" 

"*Pfft* Dear young master, I am baffled that you would even dare to call this… thing, a fire tempest."

*Snickers*

I ignored the jab from the pink-haired maid and the snickers coming from Yumeko and Saeko as I looked crestfallen at the pitiful lick of fire swirling in my hand. 

Ram was correct, calling that a fire tempest was an insult. 

Fire tempest was the evolved form of the fireball and a spell that stood between the intermediate and advanced rank magic. 

In theory, when this spell was correctly launched, one could burn everything in a five to ten meters radius. 

Of course, burning everything was an exaggeration, but it was one of the rare spells whose matrix allowed to pump a great amount of mana in it, making it so that even Saint ranks mage used it as a substitute for their true spells. 

Right now, learning true Saint rank spells was impossible. Saint rank spells were considered as strategic weapons that could take tens of minutes to cast. The fastest to ever cast one took 3 minutes to finish all the calculations necessary. 

They were the kind of spells that affected the weather itself. 

"Sigh, I really suck at magic."

"This Ram will feel offended if you continue spouting such bullshit. At least wait for a year before saying something like that."

I let out a bitter smile at those words. I know that I was being a little impatient. Human magic was different from the other races, we weren't inherently born with the ability to use magic and as such, where other races just needed their imagination, we needed math and physics. 

A simple analogy would be how birds can naturally fly, while we have to use planes to do the same. 

"Well, you are right. But it does not matter. Practice makes perfect, and now that the excursions to Little garden is canceled until further notice, I guess it's time for me to prepare for my original plan."

This time, even Ram did not offer a comeback. After all, she knew what I was talking about. Yumeko and Saeko were simply looking curiously at us but otherwise did not interject. 

'Hum, I never did explain to them that I was about to hunt the murderer of mine and Shuka's parents right?' 

I debated explaining when, 

"Darling!! It's already been a few hours since you began training, why don't you take a pause and take a look at what I made for you."

…

…

…

Wut?

My sight fell on a rather beautiful bento that was placed next to Anna. 

After our discussion, I decided to do some light training to make the circulation of my Mana faster and more instinctive. Doing magic was just a bonus. 

We were currently in a rather large clearing placed behind the Mansion. The sun high in the sky and the calm wind made the current weather rather hot, but not so much as to be a problem. Basically, it was the most perfect. 

We were in spring. The joy of youth, but why? Why did I suddenly feel so cold the moment I saw that Bento? 

'Na. She wouldn't dare, right? I mean I am not the only one. She wouldn't dare to do so with so many of us right?' 

Calming my beating heart, I walked towards Anna who was seated on a large nape under the shade of a tree, followed by the other girls.

My dear little sister was absent since she had to meet her teachers. We did not need to go to school until we were 15 years old, but we still needed some homeschooling. 

As we took place around Anna, she opened the large bento box and showed us two smaller boxes placed in it. One blue and one pink. 

"This is for us." She said as she took the pink one, " and, this–is for you." she added after placing the blue one in front of me. 

Opening the bento, I found the food to be rather normal looking. Mainly meat and some rice and a little soup with fish. It wasn't the most balanced bento, but the smell was without a doubt rather appetizing. 

But… 

"Anna, let me ask you upfront. Did you add anything weird again?" 

The keyword here was again. 

Yeah, this wasn't the first time Anna prepared something for me. 

The other girls flinched a little as they also sent suspicious looks at their bento. Not that I could blame them. The last time Anna prepared something for them, she put some kind of laxatives in it. 

I must admit that some of my fantasies about girls were broken that day. It was also one of the reasons why we became so close so fast. 

In my case, thankfully she never tried to mix food with her love juice. Well, it was rather easy to understand why. 

In Shinometa, the large majority of the young teens were devoid of any important knowledge about sex. This was even more so for Anna. 

As such, she did not even know the name of the liquid coming from her and used it as an ingredient when making cookies or such. 

Thankfully, while the Anna I knew was also rather sheltered since that weird law didn't exist, she had at least enough basic knowledge in how babies were made. Not that it stopped from putting weird things in the food, like laxatives for the girls… 

"Ara ara~~, what do you mean darling? I would never do such things intentionally. What happened then was just an accident." 

"So you accidentally mixed Laxatives and sleeping drugs in the food you made back then?" 

"Exactly!!" 

The fact that she could lie with such a straight face without dropping her smile was praiseworthy. 

"I see. I believe you… So, if you lie. Let's see. You will be forbidden from calling me darling either again until further notice. I don't like lying children."

The smile on her face froze instantly. 

"Hahaha." an awkward laugh escaped her lips, but I paid it no attention to it. 

Taking one of the spoons because yeah, fuck Chopsticks. I took a little of the soup and slowly brought it to my lips. 

I was just about to gulp it down, when, 

"Wait!" 

A panicked shriek escaped Anna as she slapped the spoon out of my hand. 

"Hum… What does this mean? I thought there was nothing weird in my food?" I asked in the most relaxed way possible. 

Anna's face was beet red as she lowered her face in shame. "I am sorry."

"There, there, there." I smiled as I patted her head, "It wasn't so hard right? Good girls shouldn't lie okay?" 

I knew that coming from me it was rather hypocritical, but hey, being hypocritical was one of the perks of being human. 

"Since you apologized I won't strip your right, but… You still lied a little. So you need to be punished. Hum…Let's see."

My eyes wandered before finally falling on Ram. A beautiful idea bloomed in my head as I watched her uniform. 

"For your punishment, you will wear maid clothes for me."

I totally ignored the weird glances the other girl threw at me. 

What? I liked maids. No way I was missing this occasion.