The Temple - 2

"Mind if I finish my other questions first before I get into that?"

When I asked, Kylie frowned for a moment, then gave a small nod.

"Fine. Ask whatever you want. I'll answer as best I can."

I started laying out my grievances.

"First off, the Status Window... isn't this thing kind of terrible? It's already vague enough being grade-based, and then whenever I try to look at someone it just says they're not a companion or a slave so I can't see their info..."

"Isn't that obvious? Did you really think you could just casually pull up other people's private information? And I already told you. There are no further updates planned."

No, but then what's even the point of having a Status Window...

I stared at Kylie with a look of pure disbelief, my face full of complaint.

Her expression didn't so much as twitch.

"Alright, Status Window's settled. Anything else?"

That is absolutely not settled.

But Kylie clearly had zero intention of entertaining further argument, and I wasn't about to pick a fight I couldn't win. I sighed and moved on.

"Haa... Fine. Next. I'm pretty sure I was supposed to come over exactly as I was on Earth—same body, same everything. So why is it that I can watch animals get killed, watch people bleed them out, skin them, and butcher them, and feel absolutely nothing?"

I thought back to how gore used to make me flinch, and how completely unmoved I'd been by scenes that should have been brutal. Kylie answered without missing a beat.

"Mm. Well. I made a few adjustments to your mind so you could actually live in this world without falling apart. When I gave you the undying body. Without that, things would've been pretty rough for you."

She wasn't wrong. The idea of someone messing with my head still sat wrong, but without that tweak I would have been a wreck every time Selena went hunting. That much was obvious.

"Anything else?"

"About the Slave Summon skill... the slaves who get summoned are suddenly torn away from everything around them. Do you do something so they don't feel homesickness or loneliness when you send them over?"

It was a question that had come up on the road to Hamel while talking with Selena. Kylie tilted her head and asked back,

"Why do you want to know that...?"

"Well... if someone ended up missing their family because of me, I'd feel bad about it."

"A piece of trash who said he was going to build a slave harem is worrying about that?"

Okay, yeah, I get that it sounds weird coming from me, but...

"Well. I'll answer anyway. I can't tell you."

Huh? What is that supposed to mean.

"What do you mean you can't...?"

"I mean I can't tell you. Classified. But we don't inflict suffering on other beings just for the sake of trash like you, so stop worrying."

Uh... so I'm the trash, then?

I felt some relief that the summoned slaves wouldn't suffer the way I'd feared—and at the same time I was still reeling from how harshly she kept rating me—when Kylie asked,

"So. Anything else?"

"Doesn't Slave Summon require way too much in the way of sacrifices? Burning a whole stat grade only gets you twenty percent?"

"Mm. Let me correct that first. The sacrifice value isn't a percentage. Each condition costs ten sacrifice points, and filling ten points costs... about twenty gold in this world's currency. So as long as you don't pile on too many conditions, you can summon with a fairly small sacrifice."

Learning for the first time that the required sacrifice scaled with the number of conditions, I immediately pushed back.

"Hey, shouldn't that information be in the Status Window?"

"This is the first time I've ever made such a filthy blessing. I wasn't planning any Status Window updates, but I'll make a special exception and fix the description for Slave Summon. So. Anything else you're curious about?"

Closing the barn door after the horse is gone, much?

Watching her say it so shamelessly, I just sighed.

"Haa... I think that covers everything I was wondering about for now."

"Good. If anything else comes up, feel free to visit the temple anytime. Ah. In case you somehow didn't catch that—that was just me being polite. It's a hassle, so handle things yourself whenever you can. Now get going."

She waved me toward the exit like she ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠couldn't wait to be rid of me. I made a quiet vow to drop by every single temple I saw just to annoy her, and was about to turn away when I realized I'd forgotten something extremely important.

"Wait. My reward."

The moment I remembered I still hadn't collected what I was owed, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Kylie clicked her tongue.

"Tch. Of course your memory works fine for the useless stuff."

...

I stared at her in pure disbelief as she made zero effort to hide how much she did not want to give me anything.

"Spit it out. And don't forget—it's only a little reward."

I looked at Kylie, who was stressing the word little all over again, and started thinking hard.

What would be good? The most important thing right now is getting Selena out of that mansion... Ah! I could just ask her to move Selena here!

The second the idea of a safe extraction hit me, Kylie spoke as if she'd read my mind.

"Ah. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Just so you know, I don't interfere outside the divine realm. It's annoying and exhausting."

The reason it can't be done is because it's annoying and exhausting? Seriously...?

I gave her a look of pure exasperation at that ridiculous excuse, then had no choice but to start thinking of something else.

Should I ask her to raise my Slave Merchant rank to E? That would increase how many slaves I can manage, so I could summon a new one and use them to help get Selena out...

No, wait. I don't have any sacrifices left for a summon. There's nothing left on my Status Window I can cut, and the handful of silver in my pocket wouldn't come close... What about using Skill Management to pull Selena's stats or skills over? But then she'd be weaker.

I was still deep in thought, hunting for the single best reward I could get right now, when Kylie held out a small scrap of paper she'd somehow produced out of nowhere.

"I'll give you a Slave Summon Ticket. Good enough?"

I stared blankly at the scrap with the words Summon Ticket scrawled on it in lazy handwriting.

"I get to choose...?"

"I don't have time to wait around for that F-rank intelligence of yours to cough up a proper reward. You were only going to come up with stupid ideas anyway. Like asking me to raise your Slave Merchant rank to E when a single slave rental would do it. So just take it. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠This is the best reward you can get right now, so stop being a pain."

I stared at her in shock as she recited the exact thoughts that had been sitting in my head.

Can she actually read minds? Wait—more importantly, getting to E-rank is that easy?!

Kylie pressed the Summon Ticket into my hand.

"Any slave you summon with this won't count against your management limit. Now take it and get out."

The Summon Ticket she'd forced on me vanished the instant it hit my palm.

"Huh...? Huh?"

I stared at my empty hand making dumb little noises, and Kylie shoved me toward the exit.

An irresistible force pushed me several steps back from the statue. The priestess who had been standing demurely nearby asked with perfect courtesy,

"Were you able to obtain what you desired from your meeting with the Goddess?"

"Uh... I got something, yeah, but..."

I glanced back at Kylie—who had already turned back into a stone statue—as I answered, half-ejected from the place. The priestess beamed.

"Congratulations. This way, then. There is one more person who wishes to see you, Lord Mir."

Huh? Someone wants to see me?

I tried to think of anyone in this world who would be looking for me and came up completely blank. I tilted my head.

"Who...?"

The priestess only smiled gently and pointed off to one side.

What is this?

My confusion deepened, but a priestess who trusted Kylie wasn't about to lead me into a trap. I started walking in the direction her graceful hand indicated.

Following her guidance, I arrived somewhere that looked exactly like a middle- or high-school classroom.

What? Am I supposed to sit through doctrine class or something?

An instinctive wave of rejection hit me as I looked around the interior—and then my eyes landed on a man slumped face-down over a desk.

Huh. Looks just like my school days.

He was the spitting image of my old student self, the one who slept through everything except lunch. The priestess approached him and said quietly,

"I have brought him, Your Highness."

Excuse me? Your what now?

I couldn't believe the absurd words I'd just heard. I dug a finger in my ear and opened the Status Window of the man who was stretching and sitting up.

Not a king, though... Tracker? What kind of job is that?

The Status Window, which had improved not even a little, was showing me a job that did not match the title "Your Highness" in the slightest. I was still tilting my head over it when Aiden, working the stiffness out of a body that had gone stiff from sleeping in a bad position, opened his mouth.

"Uuunnngh... Yeah. Good work. Haaawn... Go on. I'll call for you tonight, so wait for me."

"Ahh! Yes, Your Highness! I shall wait for nothing but Your Highness's summons!"

Aiden stretched out a long yawn, and the priestess answered in a voice trembling with joy, her cheeks flushed bright red.

Why are you calling a Tracker "Your Highness"? And why are you making that face? Aren't you a priestess? Are priestesses even allowed to look like that?

I was staring in disbelief at the priestess still quivering with delight as she called Aiden "Your Highness" again—when I realized his voice was strangely familiar.

Wait a second... Huh? What? Why? From where?

I racked my brain trying to place that déjà-vu voice. Meanwhile the priestess left the room.

—Creeeak... Thud.

The wooden door shut with a solid sound that filled the room. Aiden, who had just arranged a late-night rendezvous with a priestess, slowly rose from his seat.

He was tall—probably taller than me. Red hair that lived up to the name Flameheart. The moment the man turned to look at me, I finally remembered where I'd seen him.

"Y-You're..."

"You left that pretty little slave of yours somewhere and came alone."