Change (2)

The place Karia took me wasn't all that far.

A back alley in the bustling district surrounding Artea Port—just a few minutes' walk from the Artea mansion. That was our destination.

"Artea Port is a place where people are constantly coming and going. That makes it perfect for hiding something—or for spreading rumors."

I had a rough idea what she meant.

Most of the people lingering here were sailors. Men who stayed a few days before sailing elsewhere, drifted from port to port, and might someday circle back this way.

In a town where the faces on the street changed daily, remembering any one person would be next to impossible.

"But when it comes to my employer, we're making an exception. By tomorrow, the rumors will be spreading everywhere."

Yeah, I figured.

"Right? Who knew there were this many disgusting perverts in one place. Scrub trash who couldn't lick the heel of my boot even if they worked like dogs their whole lives, and yet they don't know their place."

Even among that sea of strangers, though, I got the feeling that *I* would be the one thing about this port that stuck in people's memories.

Because with every step I took, the gazes of passersby clung to me like burrs.

Ever since I arrived in this world, I had always been the center of attention. Mostly the bad kind of attention, sure, but being watched was just an everyday part of my life.

Back then, most of those looks had been uneasy ones. The history baked into the name Lucy Aln had planted fear in people's hearts.

Today was different. Today, the looks aimed my way carried a sick, oily slickness to them.

It wasn't that they didn't know the name Lucy Aln. The way they'd glance over, meet my eyes, flinch, and hurriedly look away proved they knew my reputation perfectly well.

Which meant these people were sending *those* kinds of looks even knowing exactly who I was.

Had the change from my rise in rank really been that dramatic? No matter how hard I glared at the mirror, I couldn't see any big difference.

"Well, good thing we prepared as much as we did."

Prepared? For this?

"That snake of an auntie. What exactly did you prepare?"

"Wouldn't 'sly old fox' be kinder at a time like this? 'Snake' makes me sound so venomous."

Isn't a fox even worse?

"A fox? Don't tell me you want to be told you look like that Face-Con Fox of yours?"

"...Thaaat would be a no. Yep. Snake it is. Snake is better."

Karia, who had been wobbling her head back and forth, soon shut out the noise around us and answered my earlier question.

"If you want to slip out from under the Inquisitor's radar, you need an alibi proving you were never in Burrow Territory, don't you?"

Ah. So that was it. If the people at the port had my face burned into their ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠memories, no one would ever believe I'd been staying with House Burrow.

So that's why she said there was no need to cover my face.

"And, well, partly I wanted to give my employer a hands-on demonstration of how much she's changed. Two birds, one stone."

...Thanks for nothing.

"Honestly, you're so full of yourself for someone who's supposedly not an old maid. Try living a little. You planning to die alone?"

"...If it weren't for everything I owe you!"

When I saw Karia's hand trembling, itching to deliver a knuckle rap to my head, I hurriedly shut my mouth.

A few minutes of walking later, we arrived at a restaurant.

It seemed quite popular—the building was packed with people eating, a roar of chatter filling every corner of it.

As I watched a stately older woman effortlessly corral a rowdy crowd of sailors, my gaze drifted, almost on its own, toward Karia.

To ask if *he* was here.

"This is the place."

As if to say I'd see for myself, she grabbed one of the waiters and murmured something to him.

The waiter led us to a private room on the second floor, and when Karia pulled on the antlers of a deer mounted on the wall, a passage down into the basement revealed itself.

"Doubts gone now?"

I couldn't answer. The hidden lair Karia had built was stirring something deep in my soul.

This is awesome! This is SO cool! She's like a real-deal spymaster!

Wow. Seriously—how long has it even been since Karia was freed from that evil god's curse? How did she build a system like this already? Isn't she competent to an almost unfair degree?

"It's nothing much. I just touched up a system one of my subordinates had already put in place."

If *this* was nothing much, I'd love to know what Karia considered impressive.

So this was the caliber of the woman who once stood beside Benedict.

Thank god she's on our side.

...I should probably ease up on calling her an old maid from now on. A *little*.

"Here we are."

Jackal was sleeping in one of the many hidden chambers below the ground.

A breath so faint it might stop at any moment. A brow knotted in pain. Muffled sounds escaping his lips without ever forming words.

He looked exactly like Phoebe had, back when Nakrad struck her down.

"Well? Think you can fix him, employer?"

Yes.

"Why ask what you already know? Instead of wasting time on pointless worrying, why not spend it figuring out how to land yourself a man?"

"I really should learn to keep my mouth shut."

Letting Karia's grumbling wash over me, I fixed my eyes on Jackal's body.

And there it was—Tariki's aura, buried deep in the boy's heart.

It had seized hold of his heart and was drip-feeding itself into his blood, bit by bit, scheming to dye his entire body in its own corruption.

Watching it, I found myself newly aware of just what my rise in divinity actually meant.

So you can see it now.

Yes. Clearly.

The old me couldn't detect the faintest trace of Tariki's power. Not when Phoebe collapsed. Not when Nakrad seized Burrow Territory. Both times, I only figured out what he'd done after someone told me—I'd never once been able to *see* it.

But now I could.

Now that my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠divinity had risen and my body had changed to match, Tariki's aura was visible to me.

I could feel the agony carved into Jackal's flesh.

Then I have nothing more to say. Do as you wish.

Yes, sir.

I steadied my breath and spread divinity through my body.

The divinity I'd exhausted in that grueling fight had refilled within me, denser and more potent than before, and it took all of one tick of the second hand for a wave of warmth to wrap me head to toe.

Preparations complete. All right—let's give this a try.

Time to use the true Mercy of Armadi.

Until now, I'd thought of Mercy of Armadi as nothing more than a skill. The same as in the game—restore HP, cure status ailments, done.

And that was genuinely all I'd ever used it for. I'd never thought to push it further.

My knowledge as a hardcore veteran of Soul Academy told me that was all the skill could do, so that was all I did with it.

But running through the skill's tutorial changed my mind. I learned a truth I'd never even considered.

As you could tell from the fact that it bore the Chief God's own name, Mercy of Armadi granted the wielder a portion of Armadi's authority.

It wasn't just a healing spell. It was a *fraction of divine power*, apportioned out.

Even if the Chief God was a hopeless, incompetent scrub who poured all his passion into satisfying his own perverted tastes—a pervert through and through—he was still the Chief God.

There was no way a skill granting a share of his authority would amount to so little.

So here, then, was the true essence of the skill, learned by becoming Armadi's Apostle and inheriting a portion of his divinity:

The reaping of suffering.

Restoring health. Curing ailments. All of it—every last bit—had only ever been a side effect.

The essence of Mercy of Armadi was the authority to take suffering away.

That's the confident speech done, but honestly, I still hadn't grasped this power completely. I'd only properly understood the skill in the small hours of this very morning—how could I have mastered it already?

And yet I felt no worry at all.

I might know far less than I didn't, but I could surely drive out the aura of a miserable little creep who got beaten senseless by one small girl and now sat brooding in hiding, grinding his teeth for revenge.

And I could surely save one pubescent brat writhing in torment inside his nightmares.

I concentrated my divinity into my palm and laid my hand over Jackal's heart. The moment our skin touched, my divinity began flowing into him.

The instant it felt my divinity, Tariki's aura—rooted in his heart—thrashed and raged like a cornered animal.

As if it could keep the supreme radiance out of its territory by sheer tantrum.

The struggle was meaningless.

The divinity I now carried stood higher even than Nakrad, the one who'd planted this darkness here in the first place. No matter how wildly the dark flailed, before the light it had no choice but to lose its place.

Perhaps it realized in that instant that resistance was futile, because in a blink, Tariki's aura vanished without a trace.

Trying to make me believe it had fled the body, no doubt.

The sloppiness of the trick wrung a laugh out of me.

What was the point of hiding somewhere inside Jackal's body?

As long as Tariki's aura remained within him—as long as it tormented him—there was nowhere in my sight that darkness could hide.

If I wanted, I could have hunted it down relentlessly and snuffed it out on the spot. I chose not to.

Instead, I leisurely filled Jackal's body with divinity.

And just as a rising sun erases every shadow it touches, the places where Tariki's aura could linger began to vanish, one by one, from inside him.

The aura fled with everything it had, desperate to survive—but even that had limits.

Because running away only works if there's somewhere left to run *to*.

Backed into a dead end, all it could do was close its eyes and wait for death.

"Hey there, pathetic scrub Tariki♡"

In the end, abandoning even the pretense of a fight, Tariki's aura burned away beneath my divinity.

"I'll torment you like this too someday♡ Look forward to it♡"

Before long, I confirmed that Tariki's aura was gone and withdrew my divinity from Jackal's body.

Moving my divinity really had gotten so much easier.

I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠can't tell from the outside, but apparently a lot's changed on the inside.

Mmm. Which means my physical abilities have probably changed too, right?

I should ask Carl for a spar when I get back.

Time to find out exactly how far I can go now.

...

Uh.

What kind of nonsense is THIS?