Chapter 4
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: No Way, Are You Mr. Stay?
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"What is this?"
If the target has even the slightest trace of mana, I can't open their status window.
In other words, in this world where the very air contains mana, I can't view the status window of anything capable of breathing.
There are countless cases where I can't even see the status window of butchered meat, so enough said on that front.
! Target is trapped in abnormal status 'Eternal Prison'.
Eternal Prison: A curse where all mana in the body dissipates, the dantian is sealed, and the soul is imprisoned eternally, severing the connection between body and soul.
! Cannot be resolved by the target's own will.
! Eternal Prison Characteristic - Equivalent Exchange: The resolution method will be permanently engraved on the target's body.
💉 Treatment Method: Infusion of Yang Energy
! The greater the target's physical and mental sexual arousal, the higher the effect.
Status window user-desired engraving will appear above the target's body.
! Curse can only be resolved by infusing yang energy into the engraving.
Yet right now, floating before my eyes was May Luina's status window—something I absolutely should never be able to see.
[You can hear the inner thoughts of the viewed target. Will you listen? Y/N]
A notification with text I'd never seen before.
I stared blankly at the utterly unexpected status window for a moment before shifting my eyes from the alert to the forbidden words scrawled across it—words I must never cross, no matter what.
"May Luina became a vegetable because she's cursed?"
Eternal Prison.
A curse that dissipates all mana in the body and severs the connection between body and soul.
The status window stated that May Luina was afflicted with it.
Sure, if all her mana had vanished, it made sense that I could see her status window.
Having made sense of why May Luina's status window had appeared, I shifted my gaze downward.
There, the curse's treatment method was listed—the way to free her from her vegetative state.
"Is this for real...?"
The Papal Court, which could dramatically revive even the half-dead with a quick prayer, had declared her beyond saving. Yet here was the treatment laid out so concisely.
Infusion of Yang Energy.
The Papal Court couldn't figure it out, and the status window summed it up in five simple characters. Was my status window... actually an incredible ability?
Infusion of Yang Energy wasn't something I could just gloss over.
It didn't specify exactly how to infuse it, but the lines below the treatment method painted a rough picture.
"The greater the target's physical and mental arousal during the infusion, the better the effect... Yeah, that has to mean what I think it means."
Yes, it was phrased ambiguously, but the status window was telling me point-blank: if I wanted to lift May Luina's curse, I'd have to infuse yang energy myself.
And I, who dreamed of running a quiet café somewhere peaceful instead of babysitting a vegetable in this hospital room forever, had no choice but to do it.
But I'm a model citizen who follows the law even without one breathing down my neck, and I'm not bold enough to pump someone full of yang energy without their consent.
What if I got caught? I'd be the scum of the earth who violated the world's savior without permission.
No exaggeration—summary execution on the spot wouldn't be the least bit surprising.
"So, all I can do is ask her if it's okay to infuse her with yang energy."
Mutual consent turns yang energy infusion into something that's not a crime—hell, the state even encourages it.
They hand out subsidies on a national level when yang and yin energies bear fruit, after all.
[You can hear the inner thoughts of the viewed target. Will you listen? Y/N]
I gazed at the silver-haired saintess, May Luina, her eyes closed and utterly still, then slowly raised my finger over the alert.
Ding.
[Selection confirmed. You can now hear the target's inner thoughts within a certain range.]
The confirmation message faded, along with the translucent blue alert window vanishing from my vision.
At the same moment, a familiar yet unwelcome voice began emanating from May Luina's tightly shut lips, which showed not the slightest twitch.
[Hng, ugh. Waaah... Please, anyone, get me out of this horrible place...! Please... I'll do anything... anything...!]
"...Huh?"
May Luina was wailing like a child, going "waaah."
Desperately pleading for salvation, repeating "please" twice over.
"For real."
The sight of May Luina right now felt utterly foreign and unfamiliar to me.
I've tended to her plenty of times after meeting her often, but I'd never heard her voice like this.
No, I'd never even seen her cry like a child before.
Wait, is "seeing" the right word when she's only bawling inwardly while her exterior doesn't budge an inch?
Her inner thoughts were so disorienting that petty questions like that popped into my head amid all this.
I never imagined she'd be sobbing like this. It doesn't match her image at all.
May Luina had never once failed to wear a benevolent smile in public—she was a born actress.
Of course, when I forcibly turned myself into her emotional trash can, the saintess act vanished, and she'd unleash every petty tantrum imaginable before me.
She'd whine that living up to her saintess image felt like being caged, then suddenly sigh, "Eh, how could someone like you understand my feelings? Of course you can't. That's why you're just sitting there with that dumb, blank look, unable to empathize. Oh, and I'm not asking you to. You couldn't anyway. Nothing's more repulsive than fake empathy from someone living in a different world." Proving she was utterly unhinged herself.
A sociopath who'd turn someone into her emotional trash can without consent just to suit herself, leverage her status and power to deny any refusal, then pressure them with "Think you can handle the consequences?"—that's the May Luina I knew.
[W-waaah... I'm so lonely. It's suffocating... P-please. Anyone, just talk to me... I'm begging you. Even a short conversation, just once...]
She wasn't the type to whimper so pathetically.
Of course, I wasn't refusing to accept this side of her, or getting mad like "This isn't the May Luina I know!" or anything dramatic like that.
It was just so unfamiliar it was a bit hard to process.
[Hic, hng... Does no one really hear my voice? Am I doomed to wither away alone in this darkness forever...? I-I hate that... so much...]
"Hey, May Luina. Can you hear me?"
I could listen to and comfort a girl I liked crying for as long as she needed, but enduring the sobs of one I didn't particularly like was torture, so I spoke up first.
I'd reconcile the gap between the May Luina I knew and the one before me gradually.
"If you can hear my voice, stop crying and answer first? It's hard to talk when you're bawling nonstop."
[W-waa... Huh?]
"You weren't the type to cry like a baby. More like someone dead set on tormenting men with fresh new ways to make them weep."
[C-can you hear my voice...? A-ah. Th-thank you! Thank you so much! Finally, after a whole month, I've met someone I can talk to! Hic, I-I was so lonely. I don't know who you are, but thank you from the bottom of my heart for coming...!]
The polite, delicate voice of May Luina that I'd only heard on TV, never directly except our first meeting.
A sweet tone that stirred protective instincts in everyone, but it fell completely flat on me, knowing her true colors all too well.
[B-but, when did I ever torment anyone? I don't know where you heard such rumors, but you're mistaken... Ah. N-no way.]
May Luina tried defending herself at first... well, her inner self, but she cut off as my voice jogged her memory.
[N-n-n-no way, y-you... S-St-St-Stay...?]
Then, sensing she'd truly fucked up, her voice trembled as she questioned my identity.
"Wow, the great May Luina remembers my name. What an honor. Yep, Stay—your one and only emotional trash can in the world, emergency room errand boy. At your service."
[Eeeeek!!!]
My confirmation elicited a shriek like she'd gone ghost-hunting in an abandoned building and come face-to-face with the real deal.