Chapter 197
Chapter 197
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 197
Chapter Title: Epilogue: The Strange Adventure of 7% -2
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The mole's eyes had degenerated.
Having been made to live its entire life in the dark underground, those cloudy eyes could only distinguish between light and shadow.
So even if some mole happened to come across a rainbow by chance, it would feel no beauty or thrill. The spectrum-arcing ring in the sky would convey no感動 to the mole.
But if some madman—or someone who pitied the mole—gave her a pair of perfectly functioning, delicate eyes.
The mole would now be able to see so much. Even the unnecessary things.
She would look around at the world made of vivid colors and feel its beauty, but she would also witness the hazy parts of her dark tunnels.
The texture of thick, clumpy soil grains, the sense of space that looked oxygen-poor, the ashen gray of the endless pebbles swept away, and even the pitiful, grotesque wriggling of the earthworms she had to put in her mouth and chew.
Things she wouldn't have cared about if she couldn't see them.
Now the mole stood at a crossroads. Would she endure the pain according to her designed purpose and live in the tunnels, or would she head to the surface to see the rainbow?
It was a story from far in the future.
Whether those sharp new eyes were a curse or a blessing would be decided in the moment of choice.
Akshin-chan had considered about 81 workarounds. Could she bypass this murderous Gingoa restriction and kill the boy through "accident" or "mistake"? Or hypnotize herself or create a second personality...
Impossible.
Only after two instances of incontinence and three convulsions did she truly feel how obsessively the mad wizard had sealed off every loophole. It was nearly perfect against anything "lethal."
A monster that could shrug off the hypnosis app in seconds even when afflicted.
As long as this Gingoa existed, returning to her true form was impossible. Nor was there an easy way to release it. If the original in the mad wizard's mind had been freed, maybe—but not now.
So she had to submit once more. Obediently set out for home and reach the Imperial Academy.
Urk. Irritation surged up, and Akshin-chan kicked at the blanket furiously while rolling around on the bed.
"Those bastards abandoned me, so why do I have to crawl back begging!! Evil—!!"
As she vented her stress like that for a good while, the door creaked open a crack, and the boy peeked in.
This pitiful girl, presumed to have been toyed with by a dream demon, would have outbursts several times a day. Hadn't they changed the bed sheets twice already today?
"Did you... do it again? That... incontinence thing?"
"I didn't!"
"Good. We were out of bed sheets..."
"Shut up and mind your own... Wait, why are you talking down to me?"
Akshin-chan glared daggers at the impudent human boy, who had used polite speech even on first meeting but now dared to speak casually despite being a short-lived species.
She desperately wanted to mix in a chilling murderous aura or a mind-breaking glare just by looking. But she knew that would trigger Gingoa instantly.
A mercenary seasoned on the battlefield could faint a child with mere intimidation and killing intent.
Even such indirect harm was deemed "malice" by Gingoa.
So... Akshin-chan expressed her rage while trying her best to soften her eyes. To the boy, it just looked like a haughty girl pretending to be angry out of embarrassment.
The boy chuckled at that lukewarm fury.
"You're a commoner, right? Aren't you?"
"?"
"I thought you were a noble at first. They say nobles are quiet and fairy-like. Dignified and all. But you..."
Your face is fairy-like, but you're noisy, rude, and crude.
With her high wisdom, Akshin-chan perfectly translated the nonverbal implications in that ellipsis into words.
And immediately hurled a pillow at him. The straw-stuffed pillow whooshed through the air and smacked the boy in the face.
"Ack!"
"I'm a greater existence than some puny noble!"
"Say stuff like that, and you'll vanish without a trace... Nobles are scary. You gotta be careful."
Akshin-chan wanted to retort that such socially constructed statuses humans made were fragile things she could shatter with a flick of her wrist.
But right now, unable to harm humans, she couldn't prove it.
Besides, even if the boy looked up to her in awe, it meant nothing. Akshin-chan quelled her anger. No point getting mad at this kid.
She sat cross-legged on the bed, propped her chin on her hand, and asked the boy indifferently.
"Let's... talk. So, why'd you save me?"
"Well, a victim of a succubus showed up in my house... The priest said the Goddess likes it when we help others."
"Oh, out of the goodness of your heart? I doubt it. You want something from me, right?"
"...No, that's not—"
Akshin-chan's eyes held certainty. Not suspicion. The proposition that "the boy saved her not out of pure kindness, but interest in some benefit" was true.
When the boy asked, "You're a commoner, right?", there had been a glimmer of desperate hope in his eyes. By the time he was convinced she was a commoner, disappointment had flashed across.
He had hoped she was a noble.
So he could praise the commoner who helped him and extend a hand in return... Something like that sweet, naive dream. Freely hoping, freely disappointed. Pathetic.
But it reeks of tragedy.
The boy knew nobles were scary. He knew touching a noble lady's body carelessly could get his head chopped off.
Having seen her incontinence, his death probability shot even higher. Plenty of ladies would lop off a commoner witness's head to keep rumors of "piss pants" out of high society.
Logically, he shouldn't have offered help—he should've bolted. But he hoped. Bet on the chance she was a kind noble. Desire was palpable.
Akshin-chan grinned.
"Spit it out. What do you want?"
"......"
"I'm not a noble, but... yeah, I'm a mage of the Violet Magic Tower. Disciple of the Violet Magic Tower Master's direct disciple. Know what kind of status that carries?"
"A mage? But you look about my age."
Should she show him something with illusion magic? No, Gingoa might freak out unpredictably, and making him feel it physically could be risky.
Then just add more convincing details. Akshin-chan quickly weighed options and spoke.
"The Violet Magic Tower Master's direct disciple has jet-black hair and red eyes. A lecher who always has two women on his arms."
"...A lecher."
"I said disciple, but... I'm more like his plaything. Test subject for all sorts of illusion magic, or toyed with inside and out."
The boy's face paled slightly. He seemed to have imagined the tragic story of a wicked mage's abused slave.
"But that's not the point. The point is... I'm favored by him. Enough that if I return to the Violet Magic Tower, I could completely overhaul one commoner's life."
"......"
The boy seemed convinced. Mages, knights, merchants—those with power always kept beautiful women by their side.
Akshin-chan's beauty was strikingly captivating, so being "chosen" like that wasn't odd. The boy agonized over whether to offer comfort or get to the point.
"I... have an older sister..."
There was no saving a girl from someone like the Tower Master's disciple. So the boy ignored the misfortune before him.
He wasn't confiding in an unfortunate girl living a wretched life. He was spilling his guts to a Violet Magic Tower mage.
Tap, tap. Akshin-chan's legs swung alternately as she sat on the bed.
"Hmm..."
There were once orphaned siblings wandering the streets, begging. They scraped by until one day the sister manifested holy power.
Upon joining the Goddess Church, she begged to let her brother live with her too, and it was granted. The boy became a church laborer.
But from some point, his sister started wasting away and lost consciousness. Not just her—several other priests too.
Yet the high priest leading the Elmeister branch said, "It's fine." No problem; it was just a trial from the Goddess.
Once the fever broke, they would be reborn as the Goddess's faithful servants.
The boy had no choice but to believe. But the weirdness didn't end there. Strange people stormed the temple, smashed the goddess statue, knights from the territory came and went...
The high priest vanished one day.
And so, in the smashed, unmanaged church building, only the boy and his sister remained, scraping by day by day.
"I get the gist."
The high priest was probably enthralled by a succubus. Slowly brainwashed the church members. The sister might've been drained by a dream demon.
Akshin-chan beamed.
"It'll all be fine. The Violet Magic Tower are masters of the mind, so if I ask when I get there... yeah, your sister's condition should heal right up."
"...Really?"
"Of course, really. But see, I'm broke right now. Need travel money to get to that distant tower. You got any—"
How much can you give for your sister?
"......"
That one line was enough.
Trusting Akshin-chan's promised week, the boy kept only enough money to last that week tightly. He handed the rest of his savings to her.
"See ya later. I'll bring good news."
"I'll... wait, keep waiting. Pray every night."
"It'll reach. The Goddess hears all prayers from the earth."
Hears them, that's the problem.
Akshin-chan snickered, tucked the heavy coin pouch inside her robe, and left the church building. On the way out, she peeked into the entrance.
Chump change.
Not enough for teleport facilities, tight even for a private carriage. Public coach, maybe.
She needed a bit more cash. Surely some way to score big money would come if she thought...
As Akshin-chan pondered her return route, Gingoa chimed.
"Nngh...? Ah, yeah. You're saying I can help the boy, right?"
She tapped the choker around her neck and muttered to herself. Yeah, Akshin-chan had mended the minds of humans directly corrupted by succubi.
Restoring consciousness to the boy's comatose sister should be a breeze.
"But why should I?"
Akshin-chan shrugged. Walking past a dying street urchin—was that so wrong? No way.
Besides, getting tangled in grudges would only hurt her.
"I never directly harmed the kid. Just passively ignored him. I'll keep the promise too. Got the money, so when I reach the academy, I'll tell the mad wizard about his situation."
But the road to the academy was long. Bandits midway, and she'd be done for.
Then the boy's situation worsens as living expenses run dry. Sister starts looking resentful. Can't scrape money as hoped. Waiting. Waiting.
Clutching his starving belly, until the moment life fades, waiting for the girl he saved... Ultimately dying in despair over vain hope.
"What I did was still kindness, right? Yeah?"
Gingoa fell silent.
Yeah, the mad wizard was... fair in his own way, no matter the situation. He always followed the game's rules. If he'd constrained her to unlimited kindness.
Even if caught as a slave and forced to labor 30 years without resistance, no way out, right?
Besides... unless the boy showed startling kindness back, he ignored Akshin-chan's own plight of being tortured by the mad wizard. The weak showing "kindness" doesn't count.
This gray area.
In this viciously ambiguous gray zone, she could dance as she pleased! Akshin-chan cackled to herself alone. Let him wait desperately and die.
Throb.
"......?"
Then, something vague... very vague sensation brushed her inner self. But she dismissed it as nothing and shook it off.
She needed travel money.
And the idea to score cash came from the boy: information. This world always had people buying and selling info everywhere...
Info on the mad wizard would be enticing.
Close aide to the rising dark horse Second Prince, but holed up in the tower so long info doesn't leak.
Rumors of frequently inducing hallucinations in students, but truth unknown.
Rumors circulate only in upper crust gripping power tight; existence itself ambiguous.
Pose as a Violet Magic Tower mage leaking internal info and sell it.
Contacting info brokers was simple. A light half-day stroll uncovered all four info outfits in Elmeister territory.
Filter out the Defense Bureau trap, two too-small ones, and pick a trading partner.
...Worried spilling secrets would trigger Gingoa?
Right. So don't reveal truly vital info, like the mad wizard's name or ultimate techniques.
But fabricating lies to sell would be scamming, fleecing backs, so Gingoa would trigger?
Right. So sell plain facts. But ones that sound thrilling to buyers.
Slander, basically.
"This 'Mad Wizard' guy... likes casting sensitivity-boosting spells on little girls and watching them writhe. Sadistic hobby."
"...And the Second Prince has a lunatic like that as a close aide?"
"His abilities must be that outstanding. They probably overlook some personality flaws. Not sure on that part, though."
Take it, mad wizard.
My rage at being abandoned, sorrow, regret, fury...! I'll repay it by covertly trashing your reputation!