A Matter of Concern (2)
◈ The Second Queen remains unable to escape her own past. Erase the regret carved deep into her heart.
◈ Let the Second Queen reunite with her old friend.
🎁 Reward: +10 to a stat of your choice
While Karia was busy tormenting Cuz Newman, I had been sneaking glances at my quest window — and the moment I read what the reward said, I froze solid.
A ten-point boost to any stat I wanted? Which meant this single reward alone could push four of my stats past 100?!
No. Wait. Scratch that. If I thought of it as something to top up alongside elixirs, it might actually be worth pumping Divinity past 200. Once a single stat breaks the 200 threshold, all sorts of changes start kicking in.
And those changes would probably hit even harder here in reality than they did back when this was just a game.
Hmm. Come to think of it, that's not great either. As long as I'm the Chief God's Apostle anyway, pushing Divinity past 200 won't exactly take ages.
So what I needed right now was the right move. Plug my weakest hole first — that's the correct play. Which means: raise Intelligence.
What, you're asking what difference 58 going to 68 even makes?
Fair point, honestly. Compared to boosting one of the stats I could actually put to use, it's objectively inefficient. It's the kind of moronic choice I wouldn't have considered for a second when there was a monitor between me and this world.
But you know what? I refuse to admit I'm a blockhead! Sure, I might be dumber than other people, but that doesn't mean I have to live as a blockhead with an Intelligence of 58!
"Um, Boss? You listening?"
I'd been spouting idiotic nonsense inside my own head, and Karia's voice yanked me back to reality.
Sort of.
"Your shriveled old-lady voice was hard on my ears, so I was only half listening."
"So you weren't listening."
Karia clutched her forehead and let out a pointed, theatrical sigh, then picked her explanation back up.
Two days after the end-of-term party where my altercation with the Second Queen had taken place, her side had made contact with House Newman first. She didn't know the exact nature of my relationship with the Newmans, but suspecting there was a connection, she'd planned to use them as a mediator — to offer me a formal apology and, at the same time, propose a deal.
On their end, the Newmans welcomed the chance to broker a deal between me — a power player of the royal court with ties to a ducal house and to Serane — with open arms, scheming all the while to skim plenty for themselves off the top.
But Newman's plan never came to pass. Because Karia had intervened before their scheme could become reality.
"If they'd just skimmed an appropriate cut, I was planning to ignore it and move on. But this bastard tried to cross the line."
"Th-that's a misunderstanding, Lady Karia. Our house does most of its work in the shadows, yes, but we are hardly trash who don't know what silver is. I merely took what was necessary for the brokerage—"
"Hey, Cuz. Keep it up and I'll tell Benedict everything I know about you. You think you can handle that?"
"...My sincere apologies."
Watching Cuz Newman spit out his excuses one moment and meekly bow his head the next, I felt something difficult to put into words — a complicated tangle of emotions.
When I'd first met him a few months ago, Cuz Newman had been a noble in the true underworld mold — arrogant, sinister, and ruthlessly thorough. So how did sitting next to Karia reduce him to a common two-bit thug?
"Anyway, back to business. The real reason I came looking for you, Boss, is that I wanted to advise you on what to take from this deal. If there's nothing you urgently need from the Second Queen right now, I'd appreciate it if you heard me out."
Recognizing the seriousness in Karia's eyes, I skipped the pointless commentary and simply nodded.
If I wanted something, I was in a position to obtain most things — and since I was walking the paladin route, there was hardly anything I'd need a queen's authority to accomplish.
When I made it clear I'd gladly take her suggestion, the corner of Karia's mouth curled upward.
"Then straight to the point. What I want, Boss, is for you to demand reports on the First Queen's movements from the Second Queen."
What Karia proposed was surveillance of the First Queen.
Living together with her inside the palace, Karia argued, meant she could weave an even tighter web of watchfulness than the people already doing it. When Karia raised her voice insisting they'd be able to respond instantly the moment the First Queen so much as twitched, a deep, festering hostility toward that woman bled through every word.
In the game, the First Queen had already been dead, so I had little information on her — I couldn't guess where that hostility came from. But I had no objection to the substance of Karia's opinion. That the First Queen was a dangerous individual was an established fact.
Let's do that, then.
"Do whatever you want, Auntie. A scheming old spinster who's rotten through and through — you'll handle her just fine."
"I know it must seem strange from your perspective, Boss. Of cour— ...Hm? What did you just call me?"
Apparently the words from a moment ago were not something she could laugh off, because the moment Karia's face flushed scarlet, Benedict hastily grabbed her by the shoulders.
"Let go, Benedict. Do I look like someone who'd get angry over something like this?"
"You might consider removing your hand from the dagger before making such claims."
"I'm not holding the dagger. I'm grabbing the throwing knife next to it."
"One and the same, surely."
While those two bickered and Cuz Newman sweated bullets, I tilted my head, suddenly noticing something strange — the sheer number of divine presences blanketing the entire street.
That was odd. Even just yesterday, this many clergy hadn't been lingering in Badronel Territory. What on earth had happened?
Karia, there's something I'd like to ask—
"Rotting old spinster Auntie, quit your whining for a sec. I've got a question. What happened in this street where all the masochist perverts live?"
At my offhand question, the table went dead silent. Only then did I realize that the reason these people had gathered first thing in the morning wasn't simply to talk business.
What's going on?
"I didn't even tell you to shut up and you clammed right up. Being that good at reading the room is honestly creepy in its own way. Tell me the truth. What happened?"
Benedict made a show of avoiding my gaze. Newman watched Karia's expression, then pressed his lips firmly shut. And at the center of it all, Karia held her silence, as if weighing what she could and couldn't say.
Child, if they choose not to speak of it, surely they have their reasons.
The old man's words — that these were people who cherished me, and that I ought to respect them — drew a hollow laugh out of me the moment I heard them.
He'd meant it for my sake, I knew. But that single remark cemented my conviction.
Setting Benedict aside, if even Grandpa and Karia felt the need to hold their tongues about something, there was only one thing it could be.
A death — one that had happened because of me.
Karia and Grandpa both knew I wasn't so mentally fragile. Faced with almost any ordeal, I'd grumble and complain, sure, but I'd never run away, never collapse into despair.
Death, though, was different. I'd shown my sensitivity to it many times by now.
Once you have the broad outline, filling in the rest is simple. Divine presences filling the street meant this was connected to the clergy. With that many of them, this was no ordinary death — and the sheer breadth of the area they covered meant the dead weren't just one or two.
Of the people recently present in Badronel Territory, who could slaughter several members of the Church of the Main God — an organization whose reach spanned the entire continent — without a flicker of hesitation? And who among them was connected to me?
Even with an Intelligence of 58, at this point anyone could piece together what had happened.
Rasha. She had killed the Church's clergy in Badronel Territory. And she'd done it for my sake.
If I had to guess, it went something like this: someone from the Church had witnessed me drawing on the Chief God's Divinity to block Rasha's attack, and Rasha — who had taken a liking to me — had shut the priest's mouth before he could file his report. All so I wouldn't end up in the Church of the Main God's crosshairs.
So I'd been saddled, out of nowhere, with her goodwill — and I couldn't feel a shred of gratitude. Not once in my life had I ever wanted to protect my own safety at the cost of taking someone else's.
Ahh. So this was how Erin must have felt when I told her she could rest. Goodwill in a form you never asked for leaves a genuinely filthy taste.
"Uh... Lucy? Are you alright?"
I must have looked as bad as I felt, because Benedict shot me a worried glance — but instead of answering him, I locked eyes with Karia.
"Where did that brain-dead muscle pig go to shovel down her feed?♡"
"...Could you maybe not be so tactless at a time like this, Boss?"
The sigh-heavy answer confirmed my guess. Rasha. She'd pulled some colossally stupid stunt.
"Your ears still work even if the rest of you's falling apart, don't they?♡"
"What are you planning to do?"
I didn't answer Karia's question. Not because it was something I couldn't say — I simply couldn't answer, because I genuinely didn't know what I'd do when I came face to face with Rasha.
Part of me wanted to blow up at her for meddling where she wasn't wanted. Part of me wanted to snarl that if she had no sense, she should just shut up and die quietly. And since I was this irritated, I wanted to make her just as irritated in return — but if you pressed me on what exactly I wanted to do, I honestly couldn't say.
One thing, however, was crystal clear: I had to meet Rasha.
"She has moved toward the Archipelago."
The answer to my question came from an unexpected quarter. Under the sharp stares of Karia and Benedict, Cuz Newman wiped his sweating brow but held his ground and continued.
"There's a woman making a name for herself in the Archipelago as of late. I imagine she's gone to fight her."
"Hey. Cuz."
"Count Newman. You."
"...As I said before, I owe Lady Alrn a great debt. If that is what she desires, then seeing it done is my duty."
Whether there was another reason, or whether he was simply a man who kept his word, I couldn't tell — but watching Cuz Newman refuse to back down in front of two glaring veterans, I caught a glimpse of the dignity befitting the head of a noble house.
So she'd gone hunting the strong, had she? Then this was easy. If I planted myself right beside that strong one, I'd naturally run into Rasha sooner or later.
The Archipelago, huh. Perfect timing, actually — I'd have needed to head that way sooner or later to keep my promise to Senar anyway.
I might as well drag my friends along while I was at it. The medium dungeons over there had plenty of interesting ones. Clearing them one by one would sharpen everyone's dungeon-clearing skills considerably.
Hmm. If things worked out this way, then as long as I made Rasha as miserable as she'd made me, everything would fall neatly into place.
Arms crossed, deep in thought, I suddenly lit on an idea. How do you anger someone whose life's joy is hunting the strong? Simple — you make it so they can't hunt them.
The instant the thought arrived, I fired the question at Cuz.
Lord Count Newman...
"Mister Pissant House Head. About that weakling who made her name in the backwater Archipelago — can you get me information on her?"
"Of course."
Listening to Cuz's briefing, I felt the corner of my mouth curl upward. So my idea really was feasible.
Excellent. Shall we beat Rasha to the punch and hunt the strong one she's been eyeing — first?
Just how furious would Rasha get when the prey she'd set her sights on got snatched right out from under her?
Heheh. Just imagining it is delightful.