Chapter 38
Chapter 38
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: The Blind Girl's Arrival
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After I utterly crushed the golden knight in our sparring match, Lize and Claudia openly teased the guy as he sulked in a corner of the training grounds. That's when we were sitting in the shade, taking a short break.
"Eh, Erika? Why are you back so soon— Who's that next to you? And why are her eyes covered?"
Erika had returned from patrol duty with Iris. And she had brought along some grubby little girl.
It was still way too early for patrol to be over, and Iris was nowhere in sight. Instead, she'd dragged back some girl we'd never seen before. We all stared at Erika in bewilderment.
The girl was wrapped in rags that were barely better than scraps of cloth instead of proper clothes. Her calves peeked out from underneath, caked in dirt. Even her face was swathed in layers of cloth, leaving only part of her lower face barely visible.
'Wow, she's still pretty even like that.'
True to this mod-overloaded world's standards for women, even covered head to toe in filth and rags with only her lower face showing, her nose, mouth, and jawline screamed beauty.
The men in this world had their common sense warped, though. They wouldn't bat an eye at a woman with such standout looks dressed in something that revealing.
"It wasn't me who covered them. She's doing it out of consideration for us."
Erika was carefully leading the girl forward step by step, holding her hand. The girl meekly followed Erika's guidance.
"And there was a good reason for bringing her to the knights' order. She hasn't eaten anything for days, so I'm planning to start with some bread and soup."
"A good reason? Hasn't eaten for days? What the hell does that mean?"
"I'll explain later. For now, I'll take her to the dining hall. Or you can ask Iris when she gets back soon."
The two disappeared into the castle. Lize, Claudia, and I exchanged bewildered glances, wondering what the heck had happened out there.
Of course, staring at each other wasn't going to give us any answers.
"Has she ever brought someone back to the knights' order like that before?"
"Nope. Never once. Now that the castle's protective magic is confirmed safe, it's no big deal. But back then, I was always worried that stuff would kill us if we ate it. How could we feed it to outsiders when we were scared ourselves?"
"We were too busy looking out for ourselves to worry about anyone else. Now that you've killed that pig of a lord, we've got some breathing room. But before that, it was seriously tough."
Claudia clicked her tongue in annoyance, as if just thinking about it pissed her off. Yeah, considering how much worse that guy's personality was than in the game, I could imagine the hell they'd endured under him.
"Thinking about how you took down that pig makes our newbie seem even more impressive all of a sudden. How about it, newbie? Want me to hug you again? Erika dropped me right away last time, so we didn't get much. Huh?"
Lize flashed her signature smile and spread her arms. Between them, her massive breasts jiggled enticingly in her thin sleeveless top. I averted my eyes. Lize let out a delighted giggle at my reaction.
"Getting shy like that. If you want a hug, just say so anytime, anywhere. Oh, and in case you forgot, my offer to grant any one wish is still on the table. And I mean anything goes. Name it."
"You got nagged by Erika to act more ladylike, and you still can't let it go?"
"So, you don't want to?"
"......"
I shut my mouth. Lize poked my cheek with her finger, wearing that same smile. Claudia watched us with a strangely pleased expression.
She was right, so I couldn't flat-out refuse. Hate it? As if. Unless a guy was gay, who in this world would turn down that kind of physical contact?
Besides, Lize had realized I wasn't rejecting her outright and that my body definitely reacted to hers. She was getting bolder by the day.
Something was bound to happen soon. Whether I started it or she did.
'...The story's already derailed, so maybe it doesn't matter.'
Ever since the Golden Twilight Knights' captain showed up claiming he'd monitor me, thoughts like that kept popping up. They shook my already wavering self-control even more.
The main reason I'd been forcibly pushing away Lize's advances was to avoid messing up the story. But now that one thing had already gone wrong, holding back felt pointless.
I'm not an idiot. I'd long since noticed Lize's feelings for me went beyond mere comrades in the knights' order. Come to think of it, it'd been that way since our first spar.
Sure, now I could chalk it up to everything I'd done—like dealing with the lord and causing all sorts of chaos. But back when we first met, I still couldn't figure out why.
"Enough teasing the newbie. So, are we just gonna wait for Iris?"
"Of course not."
Before I could say a word after seeing Claudia and Lize exchange glances, they each grabbed one of my arms and dragged me into the castle.
I only realized where they were taking me once we reached the dining hall.
A little warning would've been nice.
Three days had passed since Erika brought the mystery girl into the castle.
The girl explained everything about herself. From her name being 'Inermar' to how she'd lost her eyes.
'There's no NPC like that...'
I racked my brain, but nothing came to mind.
No matter how much mods changed appearances, they didn't alter core traits. Lize's personality had flipped 180 degrees from the original, but she still wielded ice and dual daggers as her main weapons.
In other words, she was either an unimportant NPC or someone who didn't appear in the game at all.
"You did great in sparring! Here's a towel to wipe your sweat!"
In the end, we glossed over Inermar's true identity. Instead, at her strong insistence, she took over all the castle's odd jobs. She wanted to repay the kindness.
Truth be told, there weren't many chores to begin with. Thanks to the restoration magic on the castle, cleaning was unnecessary. She just lightly organized the storage rooms, and that was it.
At most, she brought us water or towels right after sparring. It was amazing how she moved around so deftly despite being blind.
According to her, she'd memorized the entire castle layout with Iris's help on her first day. Not your average smarts.
And there was one more piece of good news.
"It's His Majesty's orders. I'll be heading back now."
The golden knight who'd been dogging my every step left after just five days, citing an imperial command. I didn't know the exact reason, but hey, if he was leaving early, what was there to complain about?
Thanks to that, I could finally use the Ability Check Orb again.
[Stats]
[Level] 16
[Health] 1
[Mana] 1
[Faith] 1
[Stamina] 1
[Proficiency] 1
[Strength] 1
[Magic Power] 7
[Holy Power] 10
[Durability] 1
I dumped all my stat points into Magic Power. Along with Holy Power, it was crucial for making the most of buffs.
Raising Magic Power boosts attack spell damage and the potency of all buffs. Holy Power extends buff duration, while Magic Power amps up their effects.
Like Holy Power, early investment in it had insane returns. At 10, it gave nearly a 1.2x increase.
Maxing the Bloodied Sword's attack buff at 49.5% would jump to almost 60%. A 10% difference was nothing to sneeze at.
'I do need to reveal my stats have gone up... Just can't find the right timing.'
With that thought, I pulled my hand from the Ability Check Orb. The blue glow faded, and darkness settled around me.
I'd prepared excuses in advance. I couldn't hide it forever. I was just putting it off because no good opportunity had come up.
I glanced around cautiously and stepped outside. I'd chosen late at night on purpose, but if someone asked what I was doing here, I'd still need some half-baked excuse.
"Newbie knight?"
'Whoa.'
I jumped at the voice behind me and spun around.
It was Inermar.
By now, I was used to the blind Inermar recognizing me. Her other senses were heightened to compensate—she could tell who it was just from footsteps.
Iris had been fascinated by that ability.
"You're up this late?"
"That's my line. What are you doing here instead of sleeping?"
"I couldn't sleep either."
"Couldn't sleep? Why?"
"I keep wondering if it's okay for me to be this comfortable. My body's at ease, so other thoughts keep creeping in. The work here's nothing much, but I get three square meals a day, and at night I can stretch out in bed..."
It wasn't the kind of worry I could soothe, so silence hung between us for a while. What could I do if she felt uneasy about it?
Finally, unable to stand the awkwardness, I forced a goodnight and turned to head to my room. That's when Inermar hesitantly called out to me.
"Um... Newbie knight."
"......?"
"If it's okay with you... Would you maybe want to take a night stroll together?"