By the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, we have
(12a1+22a2+⋯+k2ak)(a1−1+a2−1+⋯+ak−1)≥(1+2+⋯+k)2=4k2(k+1)2.
This implies
a1−1+a2−1+⋯+ak−1k≤k(k+1)24j=1∑kj2aj.
Also, using k21−(k+1)21=k2(k+1)22k+1≥k(k+1)22, we obtain
k=1∑na1−1+a2−1+⋯+ak−1k≤k=1∑nj=1∑kj2ajk(k+1)24≤2k=1∑nj=1∑kj2aj(k21−(k+1)21)=2j=1∑nk=j∑nj2aj(k21−(k+1)21)=2j=1∑nj2aj(j21−(n+1)21)<2j=1∑naj.
This proves the desired inequality.
Consider aj=j1 for each j. Then
k=1∑na1−1+a2−1+⋯+ak−1k=k=1∑n1+2+⋯+kk=k=1∑nk+12
and ∑k=1nak=∑k=1nk1. For any c such that 0<c<2, we have
ck=1∑nak−k=1∑na1−1+a2−1+⋯+ak−1k=c+(c−2)k=2∑nk1−n+12<0
for sufficiently large n, since the harmonic series ∑k=2∞k1 diverges to positive infinity. This shows we cannot replace the number 2 by any smaller constant c.