Change (1)
Yeah. I knew it already. I knew the perverted, pedophilic, sex-offender Chief God would never actually make me taller.
He'd already given me more than enough rewards — if he'd thrown in a height boost on top of that, what would that make him? A pedophile Chief God? Something wearing the Chief God's face as a mask?
I knew all of this, and yet.
"Grandpa! You said it would change! You said I'd be different!"
"Did I not plainly tell thee that individual results may vary?"
"Still, this is too much!"
You could've given me at least a little!
Was I asking for so much?!
If you'd grown me even three centimeters, I would've been satisfied!
But what is this?!
Nothing changed! Not one thing!
"...Hm. It doesn't seem to me that nothing has changed."
"Like what? I've been staring into a mirror and I couldn't spot a single difference!"
Don't half-ass your comforting! It's not like the reality of me being a tiny little shrimp is going to change either way!
"Go ask Lady Rina, bound up over there. She'll tell thee quite thoroughly."
"...I'd rather not."
...Okay, I retract my statement about nothing changing at all.
I couldn't tell what, exactly, but something about me apparently had changed.
When I met Phoebe that morning, her cheeks flushed pink as she went on about how I'd become so much more beautiful.
And Johann, whom I ran into passing by, remarked that I now carried an air of aristocratic elegance on top of that.
And then there was the face-obsessed fox — who, on a normal day, at least tried to keep up her act of being a functioning member of society whenever she looked at me — but the moment she laid eyes on me this time, she slammed her head into the floor and started spewing this:
"I beseech thee, grind thy heel into my skull! Call me disgusting! Spit upon me, and I shall know no greater bliss! Hrk. Hrrk. A rope? What didst thou intend to do with it? Use it on me however thou pleasest — I care not! Do with me as thou wilt!"
Ha. Even thinking about it now, it was genuinely, truly disgusting.
How on earth did the so-called Master of the Forest become such a degenerate?
If I untied those bindings now, she'd just start spouting nonsense again, and I don't trust myself to sit there and politely listen to it.
But I can't figure out for myself what actually changed, either.
"Can't you just tell me, Grandpa?"
I'm asking you to just say it! You don't want to watch the face-obsessed fox carry on like that either, old man!
"...Ahem."
In response to my question, Grandpa simply cleared his throat.
No, seriously, what is it? What could it possibly be?
Just as I was wondering how to press the tight-lipped old man, the parlor door opened and Karia stepped in.
She stood in the doorway studying my face for a moment, then hurried inside and locked the door behind her.
"What are you doing?"
"What's with the sudden theatrics? You're old, Auntie, but you're not due for dementia yet, are you?"
"Don't tell me you're not even aware of your own change, boss?"
"That's right?"
"Change? What change? I'm as cute and pretty as ever, aren't I? Unlike an auntie who just keeps aging by the day?"
"...Haah."
When I tilted my head, Karia let out a long sigh, picked up the parlor's standing mirror, and brought it over in front of me.
"Since you clearly have no idea, I'll explain it piece by piece."
Then she grabbed the back of my chair and swiveled it toward the mirror.
"First, height. You've grown about one centimeter."
...What? I grew?! A whole centimeter?!
I snapped my head up at the unimaginable news, and Karia pushed it back down, saying this was hardly the time to fixate on that. Yes it is the time. A centimeter is an enormous amount.
"Next, your face. Your eyes have gotten a little more provocative. Your lashes are longer, and your jawline's slightly slimmer."
Is... that so?
Even when you point them out one by one, I honestly can't tell?
Doesn't it look about the same as before?
"The changes to your body are bigger. Your waist has narrowed and your hips have filled out. Your arms and legs have put on muscle, so you've got definition now."
That one I could sort of see.
Looking at the whole picture, I hadn't noticed, but examining each part Karia pointed out, I could feel that something was different.
But hey, listen.
"So in the end, nothing major changed, right?"
"Which is to say, I'm as beautiful as always, obviously. Why are you rambling through an explanation of something self-evident?"
I get that something changed, but it's not like it's dramatically noticeable, is it?
When I asked that, Karia asked if I was being serious. When I nodded, she pressed a firm hand to her forehead and her voice took on a sharpened edge.
"To put it bluntly — you've gotten sexy, boss."
No.
What?
S... sexy?
I was still blinking at the completely unexpected word when Karia continued.
"Before, you gave off the impression of a girl who was just impossibly pretty and cute. Now you've got allure layered on top of that. Get it now?"
Oh.
Ohhh.
So basically, my charm stat went up compared to before?
Putting it in game terms really makes it click.
Ahh. So that's why the face-obsessed fox threw her little fit. My charm spiked and she became utterly incapable of restraining her own degeneracy.
...Should I be happy about this?
Any stat going up is obviously a good thing, but I couldn't quite bring myself to smile.
I was already suffering from all sorts of perverts swarming around me — and now it's getting multiplied?
This is not the kind of growth I asked for!
If you had spare resources to raise my charm stat, put them into divinity, stamina, agility — stats that would actually help! You perverted lolicon Chief God!
Stop being so honest about your personal fetishes and try hiding your degeneracy for once!
"That's also why I locked the door. Behind me were the head of House Artea, the pervert apostle, and your personal guard. Imagine the state you'd be in if all three of them had gotten a look at you."
I pictured the three of them walking into this room in my head.
First, Isabelle. That divinity-freak would be positively quivering with excitement the moment she saw my divinity's grade had climbed another tier.
Next, the apostle who serves the goddess.
That was the guy who made a whole spectacle of himself just seeing me in a dress — if he saw me with my charm stat boosted on top of it, he'd absolutely start spewing every kind of nonsense imaginable.
And finally, Karl...
Hm. He'd probably be fine?
What matters to him was never my looks — it's the fact that I'm his master.
I doubt a change in my charm stat would alter anything there.
Besides, he's a kid who wants to become a proper knight.
"Lady Karia? The door is locked!"
"I'll open it! One moment!"
Karia answered the pervert apostle's voice, then pulled a long robe from her sub-space pouch and draped it over my shoulders.
"Wear this for now. That should take the edge off, at least a little."
Then she stepped outside, caught the others, and gave them some instruction or other.
I couldn't make out the words, but it was probably something along the lines of: don't make a scene when you see her.
"Grandpa. Grandpa."
"What is it."
"Was it really that hard for you to say I'd gotten prettier? You're a truly pathetic holy knight."
"...Child. What in the world didst thou just call me?"
"I meant it exactly as it sounds?"
All he had to do was say 'you got prettier.' Instead, he just stands there coughing because he can't get the words out.
I didn't even need to look to know how he used to be.
"The moment a woman stood in front of you, you'd clam up, fidget around like a fool, and Garad would swoop in and steal her right out from under you."
"How many times must I tell thee — it was not like that!"
"Oh. Did that thought slip out? My bad."
"Slip out, my foot! Thou did that on purpose!"
Ignoring Grandpa's grumbling about how the youth these days had lost all respect for their elders, I watched the group file into the parlor.
Karl was briefly at a loss for words, but soon approached my side and offered a solemn greeting, telling me I had become exceedingly beautiful.
Isabelle did her best to maintain a dignified front, and ultimately failed to hide the way the corners of her mouth kept loosening.
As for the pervert apostle, he walked right up to me wearing a face of grave solemnity, reached into his sub-space pouch, and produced something resembling a lute.
"In place of the goddess I serve, I shall now perform a song in praise of the young lady's beauty."
"Karl. Karia."
"Pathetic old auntie."
"Yes?"
"Mm."
"Beat him up."
"Beat him up."
"Understood."
"That was already the plan."
"Do not stop me! The goddess herself has granted me this inspiration! Gyaaah! Not the instrument! Break my bones if you must, but spare the instrument! Anything but the instruuuument!"
After wrapping up the commotion by trussing up the pervert apostle and tossing him in next to the face-obsessed fox, I asked Karia how things had been handled while I was out cold.
Specifically, the interrogators from the Church of the Main God, and the cleanup of Burrow Territory.
"The interrogators got sorted out nicely. That pervert apostle is human garbage, sure, but he's still an apostle of the Art Order."
After securing the right to paint my portrait, that degenerate had immediately contacted the Art Order and summoned their personnel to Burrow Territory.
Thanks to that, by the time the interrogators — who'd been driven off by the pervert — came back with reinforcements, the Art Order's people were already handling the cleanup of Burrow Territory.
Unable to start a fight between the Art Order and the Church of the Main God, the interrogators had no choice but to wash their hands of Burrow Territory entirely.
Apparently the Art Order in this world is stronger than the one I knew.
In the game, they had a certain standing, sure, but they were never at a level where they could stand opposed to the Church of the Main God.
"The cleanup of Burrow Territory went smoothly too. Thanks to the miracle you performed, boss, Tariki's demonic power has vanished without a trace."
If I had simply stopped at subduing Nakrad, Tariki's demonic power would have lingered over Burrow Territory still.
But because I performed a miracle and wiped away every last shadow of it, not only did the evil god's power leave no remnant in the territory — a kind of blessing settled over the entire domain.
By all accounts, even those who'd fallen under Tariki's sway were recovering quickly.
"As for Nakrad, we've sealed him in the Art Order's basement. We'll interrogate him at our leisure later and pry every last secret out of him."
"So then..."
"So everything's handled, Auntie?"
"Ehh. More or less."
As she answered my question, Karia activated the magic engraved in her ring, cutting off all sound from our surroundings.
"Everything except young master Burrow, I'd say."
Jackal? What about him? I'm the one who carried him here while he was unconscious, aren't I?
"He wasn't just bewitched — he made a contract with the evil god himself. Tariki's demonic power is still inside him. If we leave him as he is, before long someone finds out exactly what he's done. And that's not what you want, is it, boss?"
I nodded at Karia's words as she gave a shrug.
I don't want him dead. He's an annoying brat, sure, but he's also someone I've got a one-sided sort of closeness with.
"So for now, I've locked him up somewhere suitable. Told Duke Burrow some excuse about him having gone missing."
Her judgment had undoubtedly been the right call.
If she'd left him unattended, Jackal would have ended up in a very ugly situation one way or another.
"So what are you going to do?"
At her question, I thought.
What I'm going to do was already decided.
First, I erase the evil god's power wedged inside him.
Then, since he caused everyone so much trouble, I torment him a suitable amount.
And after that...
Well.
He should probably pay a price, I suppose — though I don't know exactly how yet.
I'm not some arbiter of sin, after all.
"As for Jackal..."
"Where's that idiotic inferior young master right now?"
"You're going yourself?"
"Yep."
"That's more like it."
If this were before.
Before my divinity's grade had risen.
And before I'd completed the Mercy of Armadi tutorial — back when I didn't really know how to handle that skill.
I would have had to ask Phoebe to remove Tariki's demonic power.
But not anymore.
The me of right now can handle all of it on my own.
Heh heh. Perfect timing, really.
I was just saying I needed a place to test my growth — and now, look, a lab rat has appeared who I can beat half to death without a shred of guilt.
All right. Let's see how long I can play with him before something breaks.
And if he does break...
Hm.
I'll just ask Phoebe to fix him. Should be fine.
Probably.