Chapter 233: Shouting Love from the Center of the Lord's Castle
Chapter 233: Shouting Love from the Center of the Lord's Castle
Some remnants of the ant swarm did emerge from the nest, but their numbers were small. We didn't spot a single Transcendent Species, so unlike our entry, our exit was remarkably easy.
We had a bit of a tough time with the Queen Ant, but in truth, we'd only been in the dungeon for two days.
It was a much shorter stay than usual, but Diana paid it no mind, leading us straight for the teleport.
“Come on, let's go. Quickly. Why are you walking so slowly today?”
And just who was it that dragged us to the dungeon in the first place?
Well, for Diana, this was a situation where the dream she'd chased her entire life might finally come true. I could certainly understand her excitement.
And so, after just two days, we returned from the dungeon and headed straight for the mansion.
“Hmm. Well then, we'll be excusing ourselves. I'm afraid we might not be able to join you for dinner. Have a good night.”
The moment we arrived at the mansion, Diana turned to Sara and Leia and said as much. Then, she grabbed my sleeve and began pulling me along, as if urging me to hurry to the bedroom.
‘Have a good night?’ It's barely evening, you little rascal.
Skipping dinner, too? Just how long do you plan on being at this?
Activating the skill only takes one time, you know? What a cunning little thing.
Even as Diana pulled at my sleeve, I planted my feet and refused to move an inch.
Of course, I definitely didn't mind her being so pushy. In fact, I was thrilled.
But there was something I had to take care of first, wasn't there?
“Silvia. How long do you plan on following us?”
That was right. From the moment we left the dungeon all the way to the mansion's front gate, Silvia had been quietly trailing behind us.
When I spoke, Silvia flinched as if she'd been caught and subtly averted her gaze.
“Guwon. It's already getting late. It's dangerous for a woman to be walking around alone at this hour. Why don't you let Silvia stay at the mansion for tonight?”
Seeing her, my angel at my side spoke with a pitying expression, saying something befitting her angelic nature.
As I thought, Leia seemed to identify with Silvia's plight, which is likely why she felt so sorry for her.
Perhaps not expecting one of my women to stick up for her, Silvia began to gaze at Leia with eyes full of gratitude.
Too many people are starting to recognize my angel's true worth.
It would be a problem if she became so famous that some bastard tried to make a move on her. Of course, the one who'd be in trouble wouldn't be me, but the life of whatever bastard tried.
To be honest, there were a couple of things wrong with what Leia said.
First of all, it was still early evening; the sun hadn't even set. More importantly, how could a knight wearing such magnificent armor possibly be in danger walking around alone at this hour? I'd bet my life that even a guy completely wasted on booze would straighten up in the face of that armor.
But since my angel had spoken out of the kindness of her heart, I couldn't bring myself to nitpick over such trivial details.
And besides, even though I'd spoken to her like that, I had no intention of sending Silvia away.
We may have only been a temporary party for two short days, but we'd gone through hardships together. Silvia had even suffered a serious injury protecting my girls.
I couldn't just be cold and heartless to her.
Besides, I was already mulling over what to do about Silvia's situation.
I hadn't made a final decision yet, but letting her stay at the mansion for the night seemed like the best course of action.
“Alright. In that case, a room for her…”
“Just tell Vanessa. She'll take care of it.”
Diana moved behind me and started pushing my back.
Don't be so pushy. It just makes me want to tease you more.
Well, I decided to save the teasing for later. For now, I let Diana push me toward the bedroom.
“Alright, so what should we do?”
“Hmm… Just a second, I need to sort things out in my head. Why don't you go wash up first? I'll get my thoughts in order while you do.”
“Oh… I, I see…”
Diana, who had been looking at me with such anticipation, seemed a bit crestfallen at my words.
“Sorry, sorry. It's just a little too complicated to explain in one go. Or… is it that you don't want to be apart from me? Want to wash up together?”
“Mm. Let's do that.”
Huh? Really?
Contrary to my expectations, Diana immediately nodded.
And here she was, the one who usually threw a fit and refused whenever I suggested we bathe together.
I guess her desire not to waste any more time was stronger than her embarrassment.
Whatever! If I get to bathe with her, I'm all for it!
Of course, I was happy we were bathing together, but if I didn't get my thoughts in order, I'd just get an earful from Diana again.
As I got in the bathroom and started washing, I decided to first organize in my head how I was going to explain everything.
I had to sort this out quickly so I could fully enjoy my bath with Diana.
First, assuming my theory was correct, Diana had broken through the level 100 limit only to hit the next ceiling.
The method for breaking a level cap is always the same.
You have to max out your job level, max out the stats related to that job, and then undergo a class change.
Diana had probably already maxed out her job level.
After all, she wouldn't be saying she couldn't grow any stronger for no reason.
That's why I suspected that one of her stats, either Intelligence or Spirit, hadn't reached its cap.
Unlike me, who can just dump bonus points into stats, the people of this world only have two ways to raise them.
Natural growth through performing related actions, and stat gains from increasing one's job level.
For Diana in her current state, neither of these was a viable option.
First, with natural growth, the higher a stat gets, the harder it is to raise it further.
I didn't know the exact level she was capped at, but at her stage, it would be practically impossible to raise stats through natural growth.
As for raising her job level, that was also out of the question for Diana, who had already maxed out all her mage-class jobs.
That's why I was pinning my hopes on the new skill I'd acquired at level 100: Apostle Appointment.
The name varied from game to game, but this was a staple skill in Great Earth's titles.
Here, fitting for the 'Saint' job, the skill was called 'Apostle Appointment,' and the target was referred to as an 'Apostle.'
To put it simply, it's a skill that subordinates the target to me.
It's easier to understand if you think of it like the pet system in other games.
Once an NPC is subordinated to me, I can view their stat and skill windows as if they were my own, and I can even manage them by distributing their points.
In game terms, they become a true party member.
You can have non-subordinated characters as companions and fight alongside them, but there's an inevitable difference in terms of growth potential and tactical flexibility compared to characters whose stats and skills I manage directly.
But the effects of Apostle Appointment didn't stop there.
First, depending on the skill's level, all subordinated characters receive additional bonus stats.
This was likely a feature for when you subordinate high-level characters, since their growth is mostly complete and they have very few bonus stat points left to distribute from leveling up.
For someone like Diana, who had hit her level cap and likely had almost zero bonus stats left to assign, this effect was a godsend.
And one last, most important effect remained: as the skill level of Apostle Appointment increased, my sexual compatibility with the target character would improve.
My girls were already incredible in bed, but if our compatibility got even better… Khuhuhu.
Ahem. I seem to have let out a vulgar laugh without realizing it.
Anyway, my plan was to use this Apostle Appointment skill to have Diana undergo another class change and break her level cap.
However, there was a critical problem I had to solve to make that happen.
First, the skill level. It went without saying, but my Apostle Appointment skill was only level 1.
That meant it would only grant 1 bonus stat point. Surely Diana hadn't been stuck, unable to class change for all those years, just because she was short a single stat point.
In other words, to get Diana to class change, I needed to raise the skill's level. And to do that, I needed to perform Apostle Appointment many times.
But at the moment, my only candidates for Apostles were Sara, Diana, and Leia.
Even if I dumped all my remaining skill points into it, I had no idea if the skill level would be high enough to allow Diana to class change.
Still, there was a potential solution to this problem.
I could just have her take up another job related to the stat she was lacking.
I'd heard that the people here, lacking the concept of detailed stats, didn't really favor having multiple jobs.
Which made sense, in a way.
After all, it would be difficult to master even a single job in one lifetime.
But for Diana, with her infinite lifespan, it was a different story.
Even without trying to rely on bonus stats, just being able to see her exact status through Apostle Appointment and advising her to take on related jobs would be a huge help for her class change.
But there was a problem even more important than stats: the condition required to activate the skill.
The activation method itself was simple.
You have sex with the target, cum inside them, and then imprint the seal. Done.
However, you couldn't just appoint anyone as an Apostle simply by having sex with them.
Apostle Appointment had a condition, and that condition was… the partner's affection level had to be 100. In other words, maxed-out affection was the prerequisite for activating the skill.
Yes, that affection level. The very one from games that lets you easily see how far you've progressed in conquering a heroine.
Naturally, here in reality—not a game—an affection score didn't exist.
If this were like the game, the affection level itself should have been visible starting from Analyze Level 1.
But all I could see were their level and job level.
It seemed that no matter how omnipotent the game system appeared, it couldn't assign a numerical value to something as ambiguous as emotion in the real world.
In other words, in this real world where the concept of an affection score didn't even exist, it was uncertain whether Apostle Appointment would activate at all.
To be honest, I was leaning toward the conclusion that it wouldn't work.
After all, it was too ambiguous a concept to apply to reality, wasn't it?
I believed that Sara, Diana, and Leia all liked me enough that their affection would have been maxed out at 100 if this were a game.
Otherwise, there was no way they would trust and follow a fool like me.
But no matter how much they liked me, whether the game system would recognize that as 'max affection' was another matter entirely.
Okay. My thoughts are in order.
Now, to enjoy my bath with Diana…
“Are you done washing? Then let's get out.”
Just as I finished sorting everything out in my head and was about to enjoy the bath, I realized Diana was already sparkling clean.
What's more, I had somehow finished washing myself in the process.
Goddammit! No! This was such a golden opportunity!
But I couldn't keep Diana, who was practically fidgeting with anticipation, waiting any longer.
Damn it… Next time, I swear I'll savor that fresh, supple body of hers in this very bathroom.
My feet felt heavy with regret, but I forced myself out of the bathroom.
Right. It's not like Diana is going anywhere. There'll be plenty of opportunities in the future. For now, I should enjoy the pleasure at hand.
But first, I decided to explain everything to Diana.
Since I'd spent the entire bath thinking it over, I was able to deliver the explanation simply and clearly—leaving out all the talk about games, of course, as that would be too difficult to explain.
Not that it mattered; my Diana is so smart she probably would have understood even if I'd done a terrible job explaining.
“Hmm. I understand. So in the end, you're saying the only way to know if this 'Apostle Appointment' can be used is to try it ourselves.”
“Yeah, that's about the gist of it.”
“Understood. Then let's begin immediately.”
“Before that, there's something I need to confirm.”
“What now?”
“If this skill succeeds, you'll be bound to me forever. Are you prepared for that?”
It felt a bit redundant to ask now, but I still felt I had to confirm it.
The moment she heard me, Diana frowned as if offended and threw herself into my arms.
Unable to reach my lips even on her tiptoes, she hopped up, wrapped her arms around my neck, and forcefully pressed her lips against mine.
Since we had both just stepped out of the bathroom, we were both completely naked.
Thanks to that, I felt not only her lips, but the soft sensation of her entire body pressed against mine.
“I see no need to answer such a question at this stage. Or do you require proof beyond this?”
Right. I suppose there was no need to ask such a question of the girl with whom I was already sharing a lifespan through our kisses.
“No. Sorry. That was thoughtless of me.”
“As long as you understand. Now then, let's begin.”