7
Chapter 7
Ciel was tired, and it was getting late, so we spent the night at an inn affiliated with the guild.
Thankfully, I was able to pay for it with the money I stole... I mean, the salary I rightfully earned.
It seemed the other kids at the Mining Site were all too busy running for their lives.
After searching the warehouse from corner to corner, I found quite a few valuables. Selling them off to the guild got us enough to not worry about basic necessities for the next few days.
And so, instead of the hard, filthy dirt floor of the Mining Site, I was treated to a product of civilization.
I entrusted my body to the wonderful invention that was a soft, fluffy bed, looking forward to some relaxing rest for once... but I couldn't.
I didn't sleep a single wink.
"I'm seriously going crazy."
It was to be expected.
I mean, there was someone else right next to me. And a girl, no less. How was I supposed to sleep in this situation?
An urge to smack my past self in the head rushed through me.
-We have plenty of money, so let's get two rooms....
-Why?
-...What do you mean why? There are two of us, so we get two rooms.
-If we only rent one room, it cuts the cost in half.
-Well... that's true, but...
-Do you not like being around me?
-No, it's not that... it's just. It's a bit distracting.
-Am I distracting?
-That's not what I'm saying... We're different genders, you know. So it's a bit... you know.
-What's going to happen if we sleep in the same room?
- ...I'll just get one room, so please drop it.
No matter what happened, I should have insisted on getting two rooms back then.
'Looks like I'm pulling an all-nighter.'
I don't have coffee, but with the Healthy Body trait, staying up all night shouldn't be a problem.
It's kind of ironic.
The very reason I have to stay up all night is partly due to the ridiculously versatile side effects of that Healthy Body trait.
It's not like it's doing me any favors.
'I really need to be careful when choosing my traits.'
That was the only conclusion I could come to.
Now that the game has become reality, the effects of traits have changed significantly.
A trash trait that couldn't even block a basic Sleep Magic spell had freed me from my death sentence and completely turned my quality of life around.
...Well, I guess there's the minor issue of being so excessively healthy that I have no real use for it, but anyway.
Having personally experienced game text manifesting into reality like this, I had to take that into account when choosing my traits.
I looked back at the list of Legendary rank traits I hadn't chosen last time, lost in thought.
Actually, I did consider holding onto it and not using it right now.
I thought it might be good to save it so that if I ever faced a threat I couldn't handle, I could acquire a specific trait to solve the problem on the spot.
However, thinking back to what happened last time I did that... it was definitely better to choose one now in advance.
So, after narrowing it down, the trait I chose was...
[Sovereign's Grace (Legendary)]
[Sovereign's Grace imbues your soul. You are now immune to all Mental Attacks.]
This is it.
A simple effect.
But this was undeniably important.
The first character I played actually didn't invest in mental resistance, and ended up getting dominated and controlled by the demons, leading to a bad ending.
Many of the bosses and powerful enemies in this game drive people insane, making mental resistance an absolute necessity.
Besides, this trait had been suspicious since the previous game.
It was never explained in-game what Sovereign's Grace actually was.
A being called the Sovereign never appeared in the game, either. I could say this with certainty after scouring every single line of text in the previous game. This was a definite fact.
Yet, the function of granting immunity to all Mental Attacks worked even on the Final Boss, the Demon King.
Before, I had just brushed it off, thinking it was just a game anyway.
But thinking about it differently, it meant that Sovereign's Grace was something that stood above the Demon King.
It meant it was a being ranked higher than the strongest being in the lore.
And if I chose this, I would be able to imbue my soul with the rank of such an existence.
Exactly what kind of effects it would bring, or what kind of events it would trigger, was completely beyond my ability to predict.
But at the very least, no other trait on the Legendary list had as much potential as this one.
Ultimately, my deliberation didn't take long.
I immediately selected Sovereign's Grace.
And then.......
'...What exactly changed?'
I felt like I had been scammed.
I couldn't feel any difference at all.
'...But it's not like I can test this out.'
It wasn't like I could just waltz into a demon habitat by myself to test whether I'd get hit by Mind Control or not.
Besides, even if I didn't like the effect, it wasn't like I could get a refund now.
In the end, I pushed the trait out of my mind and looked around.
Since it was an inn attached to the Adventurer's Guild, I was able to go inside even though it wasn't guild operating hours yet.
Now that I was done choosing my trait, I walked back over to the bulletin board and checked the request form I had seen yesterday.
A request form gleaming with a golden border.
It had the exact same design as the request to capture that mysterious organization called Black Fang or whatever.
The implication of that was obvious.
It meant that both this and that were requests issued directly by the Empire.
[Barbarian Tribe Hunt]
[Hunt the barbarians hiding out somewhere and bring back their heads. A reward of 5 gold will be paid per head.
The methods to identify the barbarians and their characteristics are detailed below.......]
Hunt. Barbarians.
Judging solely by the expressions used in this official document, it sounded like they were asking us to bring back the heads of primitives.
But requests issued by these Empire bastards had to be read through a filter.
Being labeled a barbarian simply meant they had rejected the Empire's rule.
To these bastards, it was common sense to treat anyone who went against them as animals.
Therefore, it was safe to assume that this request was actually the Empire asking the Adventurer's Guild to annihilate a minority Tribe that refused to submit to their rule.
'At this point, it's pretty much confirmed.'
These were the Tribe I had seen in the spoiler post.
A girl who was framed with bizarre titles like the Heavenly Killing Star by a bunch of insane cultist Fanatics.
Rien.
The second companion I needed to gather was probably captured by them.
And I knew.
The location where they were hiding.
I had seen the location of the mountain they secluded themselves in from the spoiler post.
A smile naturally formed on my lips.
Was this the privilege of a Possessor?
"Did something good happen?"
Suddenly, I heard a voice from behind me.
Turning my head, I saw a familiar face.
Ciel was looking at me while yawning.
Was it already this late? I could see the morning sun rising through the window.
Anyway.......
'How am I going to explain this.'
I found myself in a bit of a predicament.
I couldn't bring up stories about the original work or spoiler posts to her.
That was obvious.
Even if I suddenly shouted, 'This world is completely fake! You're all just NPCs in a game!' I would only be treated like a lunatic.
I rolled my eyes for a moment before soon finding a suitable excuse.
"Because of this."
What I pointed to was the request related to Black Fang.
There was no one who didn't know how rotten the Empire was.
It would be natural to say I laughed out of sheer satisfaction from reading about the guys who dealt a blow to the Empire.
"Do you like it?"
While I was thinking that, Ciel unusually asked for my thoughts first.
It was rare for her to do this.
Well, she was also trapped in that Mining Site.
Her hostility towards the Empire must be quite severe.
Since I already knew how terrible the Empire was from playing the previous game anyway, I joined in on badmouthing the Empire, feeling a bit nostalgic.
"Anyway. It's decided where we're going next."
After smoothly getting past the crisis like that, I slowly got to the main point.
We had to act together from now on, after all.
It was difficult to find a way to explain why we needed to go to that mountain without mentioning my knowledge of the original work, but fortunately, there was a request I could use as an excuse.
A request to gather poisonous herbs that only grew on that mountain.
That was how I was able to convince Ciel of the reason our destination was set there.
And then,
"I can't go with you."
I was rejected.
My mind went blank for a moment.
Why exactly?
Could it be because of what happened yesterday?
If so, it was incredibly unfair.
I wasn't like this because I was some kind of pervert.
The root cause of the problem was Ciel's bizarre sleeping habits in the first place. If she hugs someone like a body pillow, that kind of reaction is only natural...
'Ah.'
I chased the dirty thoughts out of my mind.
Right, she had collapsed from overexertion just a day ago.
It was only natural that she couldn't go anywhere dangerous.
"Once I feel a bit better, and I finish what I need to do, I'll join you."
Ciel observed my face with a blank expression before speaking.
But she had things to do?
Curious, I asked her.
However, the answer I got was even more out of the blue.
"I need to go tell my mom that I love her."
"Out of nowhere? Why your hometown?"
"I'm not going to my hometown, I'm going to her grave."
"...I see."
That confirmed it.
I must be cursed or something.
I should just keep my mouth shut for a while.
I offered Ciel some appropriate words of encouragement and began preparing for my long journey.
...It felt like things were getting ridiculously tangled right from the start, but...
It must be my imagination.
It had to be my imagination.
*****
Left alone, Ciel fell into a daze, lost in thought.
And she recalled the words she had heard.
That organization called Black Fang was definitely referring to her and Ian.
Before they knew it, an organization had been formed. Ciel was flustered, but Ian's reaction was different.
Ian had excitedly talked about the necessity of that organization and the reasons why they needed to overthrow the Empire.
Ciel recalled a conversation they had shared a while ago.
-Do you really want to change the world like that?
-Why? Are you going to help me?
-...I don't know.
Ciel felt that if it were now, she could answer the question she had put off for so long.
Because Ciel now knew what love was.
She would help him.
As long as he continued to rejoice like he did now.
As long as he continued to smile like he did now.
If it was to make him happy.
I could do anything.
Because that is my *love*.