One Lesson from the Skill Thief
I learned one lesson from the Skill Thief: guessing is bullshit. Grinding is king.
The Skill Thief event wasn’t particularly difficult. It was the usual pattern—something happens, you click a few choices, the game tracks the target automatically, then a vague villain CG appears with some lines of dialogue and it’s over. The prompt had said “northern forest entrance,” so I assumed that was where it would be and headed out on my own. The problem? It was fucking huge.
In the game they just said “northern forest entrance” and called it a day. In reality the entrance zone was enormous, and it was unclear where it actually began or ended. I’d already felt the difference between game and reality many times before, but this was the moment it truly hit me again. The real issue was that I only realized it after wandering around for twenty minutes, which left me too embarrassed to look Abel or Lane in the eye.
I mumbled something vague about “the ley lines being twisted” and they accepted it without question. The favorability I’ve built up until now is finally paying off. Good job, me.
After that everything proceeded normally. Lucas and the mage-class students reverse-calculated the teleport coordinates. The Fighter and Swordsman students found traces at the site. We split up to search, and our trio simply got lucky and discovered the target first.
“Hero, do you have any healing-type skills?”
“…………I do……”
“Then I’ll have to ask you to use them. This bastard is too vicious to let him die from blood loss.”
“Fine………”
The hero pressed his blood-drenched greatsword against the serial killer’s wounds. With a sizzling sound, the bleeding stopped. The amount of blood loss should have caused fatal shock long ago, but the man’s status as a class holder had kept him alive. Or maybe that was just bad luck. Dying from shock here might have been the kinder fate.
The killer had already passed out. His eyes had rolled back and he showed no reaction at all.
“Is he faking it?”
“……No………he’s definitely……unconscious……”
“Just in case, please keep watch. I’ll let the other students know.”
“………Namgung Min…….”
“Yes?”
“……You’re strangely……skilled at this……….”
Ah. Was this about how I’d cut off the serial killer’s limbs? It was true that staying completely calm while blood sprayed and limbs flew was unusual. Lane had been blinded by revenge, and the hero had seen far worse scenes in the American Gates as a child. I hadn’t seen such things often, but…
“……It’s just that this level of shock is mild for me.”
“…………Mild……?”
“Yes. I’ve seen far more……impactful things before.”
After all, I was the one who had gathered my parents’ corpses after they were killed by a god. Having seen every horrific sight imaginable back then, the mere sight of severed limbs didn’t move me. ……Let’s stop thinking about it. It’s coming back again.
“Anyway, please keep watch.”
“………Understood…….”
“So……Lane? Could you let go of my hand now?”
“……Can’t you shake me off?”
“Didn’t I already tell you…….”
I’m weak, remember? The hero is right next to us so I can’t say it outright, but why is she doing this? From her perspective she might think she’s holding me gently, but to me it feels like a mountain is pressing down. ……She isn’t thinking something like I’ve been toying with him until now! right?
“Can’t……let go. Too……weak……….”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
“………But strong.”
Why is her muttering so terrifying? In games or manga, characters who mutter to themselves are usually just edgy chuunibyou types, but this is way scarier than I imagined. A girl who could fold me in half like a piece of paper is holding my hand and muttering like a madwoman.
I sent the hero a pleading look, but he met my eyes for a moment before turning away. That bastard really is a saint.
“Strong, yet……at the same time weak……”
“Um, Lane?”
“For me……ah.”
“Lane?”
“Simple. It’s simple.”
Thud. After muttering those strange words to herself, Lane suddenly released my hand. You’re not planning something weird, are you?
But contrary to my worries, Lane—who had been looking down—lifted her head and smiled brightly at me. It was a beautiful smile, but……there was something eerie about it. Really.
“Namgung Min? You should make the call now.”
“Yes……Lane? Also, since the hero is right here, there’s no need to speak so formally to me……”
“Namgung Min, sir.”
“………Understood.”
She acts perfectly normal in front of others, so why is she like this when we’re alone? Even while calling the instructor I found it strange, but no matter how much I thought about it, nothing like this appeared in Lane Arthur’s favorability dialogue. She doesn’t even use polite speech with the player in the game, so my game knowledge was useless here?
“Ah, Instructor. We’ve captured the culprit and eliminated the Skill Thief. Yes, yes. We’ve also confirmed the stolen skills have returned……”
Whatever. The event was resolved successfully, so I’ll just be satisfied with that.
……Come to think of it, the quest window never appeared.
For a Survival Test it might be different, but an event on the scale of the Skill Thief should have triggered a status window. It seemed the system only intervened for class quests and character events.
That was what I was thinking as I ended the call.
WARNING! The Bad Ending Route has opened!
Bad Ending Route <Birdcage> Condition: ??? Favorability above a certain threshold, half of ???'s character events cleared, ???
Pay close attention to your choices, speech, and actions! Bad endings cannot be reversed!
“………Huh?”
“……What?”
That person is visible. My other half, who is both strong and weak.
“……What?”
Even the way he suddenly stares into empty space with a dazed expression after ending the call is carefully stored away. Strong yet weak. The fortune teller who embodied that contradiction was the only person Lane could face comfortably.
I don’t have to submit. I don’t have to humiliate.
It was different from Liu Yen’s case. If the great heiress gave off the feeling of not acknowledging anyone as either strong or weak from the start, then this fortune teller was stronger than her in some ways, yet weaker in others. More precisely, it was a question of whether Lane herself could accept it.
I see. So strength alone……doesn’t determine who is strong and who is weak.
Perhaps those she had despised as weak until now were stronger than her in certain aspects. But Lane immediately discarded this realization, this mental growth. Acknowledging such an “exception” was enough with just one person. Her narrow heart could only hold one.
Ah.
Strong yet weak. But from his perspective, Lane must also appear both strong and weak. She might be physically stronger, but in eloquence, in the charisma that draws people in, Namgung Min was clearly superior. Therefore, they should complement each other. If the two of them became one……they would become a being no one could defeat.
Weak to the strong, strong to the weak.
She knew her core mentality was distorted. That was why she had envied Liu Yen, who could smile and deny that principle. But now such things didn’t matter. With Namgung Min, she could become the strongest of the strong, and then something like “weak to the strong, strong to the weak” would lose all meaning. When everyone else was weak, what was there to worry about?
Therefore……
I must protect him. Lane knew it well. Namgung Min was a radiant existence. People flocked to his eloquence, his ability, his charisma. And that included the vile moths drawn to his flame.
Just thinking about it, there were already several. The great heiress, the imperial princess, the blonde fighter.
In Lane’s mind, insects with human faces and moth bodies appeared. Creatures wearing the face of the great heiress, the face of the imperial princess, the face of the blonde fighter approached Namgung Min. Crunch. And Lane crushed the insects with an expressionless face. So they could never rise again, never look at him again.
I must protect him.
Namgung Min’s physical power is weak. That must be why he travels with the hero—to compensate for that weakness. Therefore, Lane, who was “strong,” had to protect him. Just as Namgung Min had used his own strength to protect her after she lost her psychic abilities, now it was her turn.
Smiling. Watching Namgung Min deep in thought, Lane smiled once more.
I’ve lived until now for this very moment.
Only now did she understand why she had lived this way. Being abused from childhood and instilled with the distorted logic of “weak to the strong, strong to the weak.” Living that way, submitting pathetically to the strong while trampling and ignoring the weak. Because she was such a twisted fragment, she was able to find her perfect match.
If she had lived like an ordinary noble daughter, could she have felt this much happiness and satisfaction? Just as one only understands the value of a home and food after living on the streets, because her life had been distorted she was able to meet Namgung Min. She was able to find the other half she absolutely needed.
Now, then……
There was something she needed now. The Arthur family.
Thank you for everything until now, Father.
Lane smiled. Even while remembering the abuse and pain she had received, she felt gratitude for the fact that it had allowed her to meet Namgung Min. But now, she no longer needed her father. He was no longer strong.
Therefore……
The head of the Arthur family was stronger than Namgung Min, and stronger than Lane herself. However, he was not stronger than Namgung Min and Lane combined. She held that vague conviction.
I’m coming now to inherit your position.
Everything was for the two of them to live together. Ah, yes. Once she had the family in her hands, she would make a beautiful birdcage. Large and exquisite. She would put everything necessary inside so that he would never think of leaving. Then she would put the two of them inside and lock it. So they could never escape for the rest of their lives.
……So this was a prophecy.
Lane looked at the Lovers tarot card she had carefully kept in her bosom. Just like the man and woman connected in that card, she had no doubt that she and Namgung Min would become the same. The fortune teller who had given her this card was the most accurate in the world. This was surely a future that would come true.
How romantic.
Therefore Lane was happy. Purely, and in her own twisted way. She was filled with a happiness she would never feel again.
After finding the culprit, everything went smoothly. The students who had spread out far for the search were recalled, and the serial killer—with both arms and both legs severed and bound—was covered with a black cloth because the sight was too gruesome and sent to the underground prison.
“There was an underground prison?”
“You didn’t know?”
“If I knew something like that, I really would be a fortune teller.”
“………Was that a joke?”
“It was.”
“God is fair after all. Giving you this kind of sense of humor.”
Hey, Lucas. Don’t diss me so openly.
Although the culprit had been caught, today’s test was canceled and all students returned to base. The remaining matters would be left to the academy and the Arthur family. Still, since my contribution had been significant, I ended up having coffee alone with Lucas at this hour.
“Alright, let me say this clearly first.”
“Yes?”
“Thank you. Truly.”
“……It was nothing.”
“This is gratitude as the Arthur family heir, and……”
“Lucas?”
Lucas suddenly stood up, let his long silver hair fall forward, and bowed at a perfect ninety-degree angle. A posture I never imagined the proud heir of Europe’s greatest noble house would take. Yet Lucas’s words were completely sincere.
“This is what I say as one older brother.”
“Lucas.”
“Thank you. Really………thank you.”
His voice was beginning to tremble.
“Although I couldn’t see her when she was very young, Lane is my precious little sister. However, to be honest……it was hard to say this.”
“……….”
“The same with Lily’s matter. It seems I’m not as confident as I thought. How pathetic.”
“Lucas.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t need comfort or advice………I just wanted to say it. My weakness.”
Yet after straightening up again, Lucas was smiling as if refreshed. He extended his hand to me.
“Fortune teller. No, Namgung Min. I have a request.”
“What kind of request?”
“Will you……become my friend?”
……Wow, I never expected to hear those words from Lucas Arthur first. Of course, it was a pleasant miscalculation.
“That’s too much. Weren’t we already friends?”
“What? Ha, hahaha!! Yes, that’s right. Namgung Min! You’re not thinking of using polite speech with a friend, are you?”
“……Yeah. Lucas, what does being friends mean to you?”
“Now that’s something I can accept.”
I shook hands with Lucas. ……Come to think of it, this was the first time. A friend I could speak to comfortably instead of using polite speech.
Both here and in reality.
As expected, friendship and friends are wonderful things. I want to have this kind of relationship with everyone else too.
“Ah, now that I think about it, what will you do with that serial killer?”
“Don’t worry. He’s already been sent to the Arthur family.”
“……Oh, I don’t even want to imagine it.”
“The Arthur family’s torture methods are quite famous.”
Since the Arthur family had begun as mere executioners, the unique torture techniques passed down through generations were said to surpass imagination. I’d better stop imagining it or I might upset my stomach. Let’s just forget it cleanly!
The Arthur siblings……are good people.
I’d become friends with the older brother Lucas, and it seemed I was also friends (?) with the younger sister Lane. Clinking coffee cups with Lucas, I thought of something else.
What on earth was that bad ending about?
My favorability with her should still be moderate, and the only character event I’d seen was the imperial princess’s. Surely I just couldn’t see them, and several character events hadn’t already begun without my knowledge?
No way.
Still, even though it warned me to be careful with my speech and actions……I had no choice but to live as I had been. If I started being overly cautious and missed events, the ending could go wrong too. I could only believe it would turn out well.
What could possibly happen?
Thinking so optimistically, I downed my coffee in one go. The moment I set the cup down—
“……Come to think of it, Namgung Min.”
“Yeah?”
“The retest is in a week, so isn’t that enough time?”
“For what?………Ah.”
“Yes……the love fortune telling.”
Right. I’d completely forgotten. ……But wait.
“As a friend, I’m begging you……! Please make things work between me and Lily!”
“Ah, um. Yeah……of course.”
Fuck, I’m a forever alone. I can’t actually read fortunes, so I’ll have to give appropriate advice instead. But I’m a forever alone?? What the hell am I supposed to say?
……It was the day I gained a friend and gained more worries.
“In that sense.”
“What?”
“Let’s go on a date, Liu.”
Crash!! The imperial princess’s and Lane’s teacups shattered.
……No, why are you two reacting like that?