The Second Chapter of Cash Payback
I asked her, surprised. Arsia answered in the most obvious way possible.
“I am Master’s supporter.”
Her voice was flat and mechanical, like a machine reciting a script.
But that familiar tone grounded me again.
“What? Who wouldn’t know that? I’m asking because I’m curious.”
Arsia tilted her head, as if genuinely puzzled by my question.
I narrowed my eyes and poked at her shoulder armor a couple of times.
“How did you even come out of the game?”
Only then did she seem to understand. She nodded.
“I was wondering how to maintain your substance in the game.”
It was clear she understood her own existence perfectly. The game’s NPC supporters should be able to tell reality apart.
“Yeah.”
I sat at the edge of the bed, waiting for her explanation.
Arsia kept staring at me calmly and continued.
“I am a homunculus. The creator is Master Lucas, and the appearance and combat capabilities were decided by Master as Heavenly Aria.”
“So you’re one of Lucas’s legacies?”
“Correct.”
I would have been warned in advance if there was another homunculus like this.
She seemed reluctant to hand over her supporter, quietly protesting.
If I had known, I would have chosen a more versatile one instead of a bodyguard supporter.
“Are your stats the same as in the game?”
“Yes. Your stats recover according to the level-ups in Chronicle.”
Arsia already had full level 250 stats. Levels just capped them.
I rubbed my temples, thinking.
If this girl could use all her 250-level power, would she be one of the strongest in the world by our standards?
“Functionally, her stats are on par with a Grandmaster.”
“Ha…”
A huge sigh escaped me.
Grandmasters matched the peak of mages at 8 or 9 circles. They stood shoulder to shoulder with the continent’s greatest warriors.
Giving me a Grandmaster homunculus was an unexpectedly valuable gift. I had been worrying about how to hide her.
‘If the world finds out a Grandmaster-level homunculus exists, it’ll be chaos.’
Maybe Lucas the Duke could have conquered the world if he had tried.
Anyway, having a loyal ally who only obeys me and has enormous potential was a massive strength.
‘If I had picked a low-grade supporter by mistake, I’d be regretting it now.’
A low-grade supporter would have been useless.
Lucas the Duke had played a prank with the gift, so I doubted future supporter management would be easy.
“Where did you even appear?”
“I was in standby maintenance mode at the hangar. The hangar is located in the Holy Land Everhill, and the homunculus management server detected Master’s terminal address and transmitted me here.”
Transmission? No, it was space movement because it was a physical object.
“So I could send you back to the hangar right now?”
“Transmission is only possible on first departure. To return to the hangar after departure, you must move there yourself. Even without the hangar, the standby recovery function is available, so there is no problem with movement.”
I had wondered if I could summon or dismiss her at will, but that seemed too much to hope for.
Still, I knew Arsia would be an enormous help later, but right now her treatment was the bigger issue.
I wasn’t in a position to look after anyone, and knights might discover her identity without a power-concealment skill like mine.
“Power concealment is possible.”
“That’s good. What about stealth?”
“No. I am set as a warrior class, so there is no stealth function.”
“Figures.”
I instructed her to conceal her power. The protective barrier covering her armor vanished along with the mana she emitted.
“There was no other choice.”
After a long time of thinking, I let out a bitter laugh and decided on her treatment.
‘There was no longer any damage to the image.’
* * *
‘Adrian-nim now openly brings women into the mansion?’
‘Ah, I heard that too. A servant saw the girl lying naked on the bed.’
‘How did our once-brilliant young master become so indecisive…’
Arsia had changed into a hastily ordered beige one-piece dress from quick delivery because of the armor.
I walked proudly through the mansion with her.
Whispers followed us everywhere, but I didn’t care.
After all, bad reputation only accumulated on top of bad reputation.
The only thing that bothered me was one question.
“So when are you getting married?”
It was the mother’s sudden remark while enjoying tea in the parlor.
I nearly spat out my tea.
“I haven’t thought about that yet.”
“Miss Arsia is a commoner, right? Don’t worry if her background is an issue. I myself am from a commoner family too. As long as she’s not a prostitute, I’ll welcome her anytime.”
Even without proper manners, the mother came from a merchant family of considerable scale, so in the eyes of society she ranked as a high-class daughter.
That was why she was different from ordinary commoners.
“You should calm down a little.”
Incidentally, Arsia said she was from ‘Holy Land Everhill’ and had learned about our relationship through the game.
She wasn’t lying.
“So when did you visit, Lady Arsia? I haven’t heard there was a guest at the mansion. And you came from another country but you don’t seem to have any luggage.”
Host Knight Vice glared at Arsia with sharp eyes.
I shrugged casually and answered lightly.
“I flew here by teleport.”
“Huh?”
A dumbfounded answer.
Host Knight Vice’s suspicion was cleared by the mansion’s only magician, Jade, who occupied a corner of the parlor.
“As expected… We have been checking mansion coordinates frequently for safety, and traces of a one-time connection with Everhill were found.”
“R-really?”
Magician Jade was from Cedric’s side, my half-brother.
He wouldn’t tell me lies for my sake.
And he would have found out through background checks for safety reasons.
I didn’t add anything unnecessary.
If I talked too long, the story might have gaps.
Right now I was only pretending to be an irresponsible noble lord who had brought a strange woman into the mansion.
* * *
Arsia’s existence was also known in the lord’s castle.
Of course Father was overjoyed. When half-brother Cedric came over, he looked pleased with Arsia and left a suspicious comment: ‘When the time comes, just hand her over to me.’
Still, we somehow managed to get along.
I should just get stronger and stop being so cautious about what others thought.
At that moment Arsia suddenly walked straight toward me.
“Why?”
I asked about her purpose. She answered with the same emotionless eyes.
“I need to release moisture.”
“How?”
“Human body structure. So through urine…”
She was talking about peeing.
Now that I thought about it, she had casually eaten snacks and drank tea.
A homunculus, but her body functioned almost like a human’s.
I pointed toward the attached bathroom.
But strangely, Arsia didn’t seem to want to go to the bathroom.
“Released moisture undergoes purification, so it is drinkable.”
“What a useless ability.”
It was a highly suspicious skill for the legendary grand mage Manuel Lucas’s hobby.
While Arsia was in the bathroom, I shook my head and turned on the broadcast device like an Earth TV.
[Special broadcast. Lucas the Duke’s homunculus—does it really exist?]
I had just turned it on without thinking.
But the content was enough to grab my interest.
[Lucas the Duke’s homunculus revealed. Twenty years have passed.]
[But no homunculus has been found anywhere.]
[Despite the global information agency keeping a close watch, they still haven’t found it after twenty years, so we must question his words themselves.]
Someone in the room had a Lucas the Duke homunculus and was watching a broadcast full of negative content. I felt my jaw drop.
It was like a broadcast wishing the fish would jump ship.
The broadcast discussed several possibilities afterward, but most were baseless rumors, so I switched the channel.
“I’m back, Master.”
“You don’t have to report every time you go to the bathroom from now on.”
“Yes, understood.”
The conversation had no nutritional value, but having one more person to talk to at home wasn’t bad.
Arsia sat next to me in her usual spot and reached for the snacks as if she were human.
[Breaking news. Military conflict erupting again along the Croisen Empire border. The provocation from the Croisen Empire has intensified this year, reaching the fifth localized war.]
News was streaming on the broadcast device, but I was too distracted watching Arsia to pay attention.
“Now we should go level up.”
“Understood.”