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With the evening light at my back, I slowly approach the entrance to Melisa's house.
'Surely the stupid old man must be eavesdropping right now… What must he have thought when he saw me coming with Alessia and Delia?'
Despite how slowly I move, I eventually reach the front door.
I can see thanks to my interface that all three are inside the house, but what I'll find when I get inside....
'Come on, Emir! Don't be a coward; how bad can it be? At worst, Melisa convinced Alessia and Delia to leave you.... Yes... I'd better not pursue that line of thinking.'
Just as slowly as I moved towards the house, I put my hand on the door handle.
'At least they're not yelling at each other.... That's a good sign, isn't it?.... It's got to be good... Please, God. I never ask you for anything... Well, almost never... Couldn't you give me a little help? The repairs to the Solitary Temple are going to cost a pretty penny, you know... No, you'd better forget I mentioned that.'
No matter how desperate I might be, trying to blackmail God will surely backfire.
'I'm helping Delia in her sacred duty to help those in need! I helped her even more than your stupid templ.... Shit!'
Definitely, praying to God for help is not one of my strong points.
'The smart clone? No, it's not going to do me much good in this situation. Whatever the choice, they've already made it. Now I just have to figure out which one it is.'
As I turn the doorknob, I see that the front door is ajar, as if inviting the unwary to enter.
People who don't know how terrible the fury of its sole inhabitant can be.
When I finally enter the hall of the house, I see that Alessia, Delia, and Melisa are sitting on the sofa in the living room.
All three are looking directly at me, and the atmosphere between them seems like the tense calm before a storm.
'Ugh, the atmosphere feels so tense..... I guess Alessia's intentions didn't pan out.... Well, at least Melisa didn't kick them out of the house. That's something'
'- Haa... Alessia is right; who am I kidding? At my age, I shouldn't be so fussy.... No one in this city wants to be in a romantic relationship with me; Emir is my only option... And what an attractive option Emir is! That beautiful face, that athletic and strong body.'
Melisa's gaze is by far the most intense of the three.
She must be really angry about the fact that I left Alessia and Delia at her doorstep.
' - With that combination, Emir could conquer any woman, but he chose me! Even if our initial circumstances were... quite rare, he could have ignored me after that first night. However, he didn't... Besides, it's true that I hadn't noticed it until Delia mentioned it, but.... how could I not love him when he showed me sides of me that I didn't even know I had? When I think about what we did in that shady alley.... Haa... No. I can't risk losing him over this.'
As soon as I finish entering the house, Melisa's outline begins to faintly glow with a pinkish light.
But, as all three of them are looking at me, none of them seem to have noticed the event.
'Really? Now? wait! That means…'
'- His having other women makes me uncomfortable, but Emir will most likely get tired of them in the future. And I... I'm going to see to it that he never gets tired of me. In fact, I can probably make him see that he doesn't need other women besides me.... These little girls don't look much older than 18 or 19.'
I don't like the look of disdain with which Melisa is looking at Alessia and Delia, but there will be time to work on that.
If my guess is correct, we'll have plenty of time.
' - I would have been a fool to hand Emir over to them without putting up a fight. I am older than them, and that will surely make them more attractive to the untrained eye. But with age comes experience, and that is something someone as sophisticated as Emir will surely appreciate in time.... Ha! I think Alessia will regret changing my mind. I'm going to... Why am I glowing?'
Gradually, the glow increases in intensity, becoming more evident.
'- Haa... I don't like Melisa at all. Her expressions and words hide too many things... but her interest in Emir seems sincere, and that pink glow is the sign I was hoping for. Now I know that God put Melisa on our path, even though she seems so determined to question our relationship.'
Delia's religious fervor-filled gaze with which she is looking at Melisa makes her thoughts obvious to me.
'I guess now she'll think Melisa's fated to be with us too, or something like that.'
'- This must be another test that God sends us to make our relationship grow and become stronger. Yes, I am now convinced that meeting Melisa is a gift from God. After all, the more the merrier. Being in bed with Emir and Alessia is amazing. I can't imagine how great it will be to have one more person with us.... There's so much we could do'
'- Well, it's done... The result is far from ideal, but I'll have to settle.... As I suspected, Melisa has no problem accepting Master's eccentricities. Her only problem is Delia and me... That being the case, it is necessary to keep her under control. And that is only possible if she accepts, however reluctantly, that Master has romantic relationships with other women.'
Unlike Delia, Alessia seems quite uncomfortable with the rosy glow that is enveloping Melisa.
'Wasn't this what Alessia wanted? Really, there are times when I don't understand her reasoning at all.'
'- I'll see to it in the future that this acceptance is a little more sincere and not simply a product of the threat that, if she didn't, she would lose Master.... Haa... Obviously, she doesn't know him as well as I do.'
The four of us stand for a few minutes in a daze, watching Melisa's glow slowly begin to fade.
"Well, I guess that saves a lot of explaining," says Alessia, when Melisa finally stops glowing.
The blonde girl is the first one who seems to remember how to speak after what happened.
"What do you mean? What was that glow? What just happened to me?" asks Melisa, suddenly very worried and upset.
"That's a sign from God! He's giving you his blessing!" explains Delia, excited.
"God?" asks Melisa in disbelief.
'- What the hell am I getting myself into? Is this really the only way I can get married? I was never particularly religious... Wait... If the fox girl is right, and I guess she's right being a Saint, that means.... That maybe I can marry Emir without having to get rid of them first.... After all, the Solus God himself is giving me his blessing. They can't beat that, no matter what they do. What's more, the Saint will probably support me from here on out.'
"Before you say anything, Alessia and I also received the blessing of the Solus God for agreeing to be with Emir," Delia says, looking at Melisa with a mischievous smile on her face.
' - I knew it! This woman is not to be trusted. She plans to steal Master from us at the slightest chance. Well... let her try! If she wants to play dirty, we'll play dirty. Fortunately, it seems that Delia has also seen her true intentions. Now it's two against one. Later, I have to talk to Delia alone; we need to present a united front.'
' - Huh? That is... So... I... And Emir... But Alessia and Delia…. God blessed the three of us? Triple marriage? Agh... My head is spinning. This... This is too much'
Amused with how things were going so far, but seeing that Melisa seems to be having a nervous breakdown, I decide to interject into the conversation, "That's the sign that you've just acquired a new class. Don't worry. It won't affect you at all..."
'Or so I believe for the moment.... Hmm, how strange'
As I speak, I see that Melisa's full status now appears on my interface, as if she were in a group with us.
[Melisa] [Farmer Lvl 23]
[(Exibitionist Lvl 1)]
HP= 11 || MP=3
Agility=6 || Strength=8
Intelligence=18 || Luck=2
[Resistance]
Physical=0 || Magic=0
Poison=1 || Curse=0
'That altered state must be my fault….
She probably got it the last time we had sex. But I can't think about that for now…
I have to act fast so that none of my three girls notice anything weird…
Delia and Alessia know almost everything about my abilities to modify the status of the people in my party, but Melisa knows nothing, and she already seems to have more than enough to assimilate for one day.'
As expected for someone with only one available class, which on top of that is a non-combat-oriented class, her overall stats are unimpressive.
But unexpectedly, her Intelligence stat does look impressive.
'I guess that high Intelligence is what helped her succeed in life despite having only two points in Luck... Poor Melisa; she's almost as bad in Luck as I was before I started using my UI. She must have suffered a lot when she was younger.'
Luck is a misleading statistic in more ways than one.
First, unlike the other stats, its effects are not at all clear.
It is understood that the luckier you are, the more likely good things will happen to you.
But that definition is very ambiguous and unspecific.
Secondly, unlike the other stats, there is no way to train Luck.
Beyond the stat adjustments produced by classes, a person can exercise to increase his Strength or Agility, and study to increase his Intelligence.
The same goes for the rest of the other stats, but....
How do you train luck?
The answer is that you can't.
At least as far as I know.
'Anyway, I should not alter her Luck for now. Later on... we'll see... On the other hand, having so many points in intelligence, I guess she won't notice two less points'
Removing two points in Intelligence, I quickly add Harem member to Melisa's active classes.