"I simply cannot believe you allowed Lady Aurelia to be captured by the enemy."
"I didn't 'allow' anything, Antenora." This was the tenth time she had complained about what happened at the castle.
After regrouping, we had immediately rushed back to the castle to recover Aurelia, but she and the archbishop were already gone. We freed the slaves who were still there and performed a burial for Priya's friends, but other than grabbing the count's diary and a few documents, that was all we left with.
"Ryuuko is right. She tried her best to save my sister and even fought someone of such a high caliber. It is not right to blame her for what transpired."
"Thanks, Lucrezia." I grinned.
"Even so, you should be treating the situation more seriously. Now that you're a part of my family, Aurelia is your sister too!"
Huh... I never actually considered that. Damn... Family, huh? I can't really say...
Yikes. I immediately cut myself off from that train of thought. There was absolutely no way I was going to make Lucrezia hate me again.
"Right, well... First, we can start by going over the documents and the count's diary. Maybe that'll help us track down the archbishop."
"What do you think I've been doing, fool? They're all written in some coded language that I cannot decipher." Antenora glared at me.
"Well, why don't we work together and try to figure it out?"
I really didn't want to get into another argument with her, especially since Lucrezia was already upset.
There was no doubt she was shaken after having her sister taken away from her again despite being so close, but she was controlling her emotions well.
She had broken down briefly and wept when I first brought her the news, but she managed to quickly stem the flow of her tears. Other than her still-trembling hands, the flood of her emotions was kept in check.
I wanted to stay next to her and offer her comfort. Perhaps even whisper sweet words that I didn't know how to.
But I could see the strength of her resolve in her eyes and her erect posture. I knew that she was trying her best to stay strong despite her sister being ripped from her arms yet again.
The feeling of losing something right before your fingertips... I knew that well.
So no matter how much it hurt me to see her like this, to see her holding in her pain, I couldn't say a word. To do so would be to spit on her efforts thus far.
It would be an insult to the strength that she was showing us.
I had to do the same.
We both pored over the documents, but couldn't find anything of note. We'd need to find the cipher or whatever was used to encode this.
While Antenora and I worked tirelessly sifting through documents, Lucrezia was spending time with Priya and trying to soothe her storm of emotions.
I could understand what she was going through, but not completely. I doubt anyone could do that.
I cried like a bitch when my master died, but I couldn't imagine how it'd feel to have all your friends killed in front of you in the span of a single day.
But whether one or four, the loss of people that you cared about truly hurt. I knew that much.
As much as I wish I could comfort Priya, I knew I was shit when it came to pep talks and cheering people up, so I let Lucrezia handle that while I kept trying to find a way to decode the documents.
I'm pretty sure Antenora knew she wasn't the best at emotional stuff either, because she parked her ass in front of the campfire and never looked away from our pile of work.
"I think I'm gonna turn it in for tonight."
"...Thank you for your assistance, Ryuuko. I apologize for being so harsh on you. Lady Lucrezia was truly looking forward to reuniting with her sister."
I shook my head and smiled, extending a hand toward Antenora to show that I wasn't going to hold a grudge. "S'okay. We were all a little emotional back there, and conversations tend to get heated like that."
Antenora nodded and shook my hand. "Good night. You're not terrible for a human."
After receiving the highest order of compliment from Antenora, I slept like a fuckin' rock.
When I woke up, everything was sore.
"I might need another day, guys."
"The longer we take, the longer Aurelia is in danger." Antenora said.
Lucrezia hesitated for a moment and then spread her palm out. A blue magic circle appeared and pulsed once.
She smiled faintly and closed her palm, causing the magic circle to disappear.
"What was that?"
"It is a circle of familial bond that I share with my sister. We have one too." She tapped my forehead.
For some reason, I thought that was incredibly embarrassing, so my cheeks instantly turned red. I mean, we're practically bound together now!
Wait, what am I talking about!? We are bound together now!
Totally, totally lewd!
"So long as I can form the circle, she lives." Lucrezia was about to continue, but she glanced at my cheeks and frowned. "You look like you've got a fever. Perhaps we really should stay a little longer."
"No, I, err... Yeah. Thanks, Lucrezia."
The day passed with me resting in my tent until late in the afternoon when the sun had just started setting.
I poked my head out of the tent, only to come face-to-face with Lucrezia mere centimeters away. The two of us blushed and I immediately ducked back inside the tent.
"S-Sorry!"
"N-No! I should've called your name first!"
It turns out, Lucrezia was just planning on bringing me some food.
What a sweet girl...
After I finished eating, I popped back out of the tent to wash the utensils with Lucrezia's magical help before joining Antenora in her efforts to decode the documents.
She hadn't made much progress compared to yesterday, and I had a sneaking suspicion that it would only be the same today no matter how hard we tried.
Antenora and I got down to business, but it wasn't long before we were interrupted by someone.
To my surprise, it was none other than Priya. Lucrezia urged her forward with a serene smile and a gentle push.
"U-Um... H-Hello!"
I gave her a friendly wave.
"'Sup, Priya? Feeling better?"
She gave me a small nod and a brave smile. For a small girl, she sure was dealing with this a lot better than most people I'd seen back on Earth. Her hands were still trembling, but at least she wasn't having a full breakdown.
"I... noticed that you and miss Antenora were t-trying to read the documents a-and, um... I remembered s-something..."
Priya was fiddling with her hands quite a bit at the moment and shuffling her feet nervously. It was pretty cute, and her short stature and petite features made it hella cute.
I glanced at Antenora who pointedly looked away, shifting her sitting position as if to say "You handle this."
I thought this sorta stuff would be easier for telepaths, but I guess not...
"Anything helps, Priya."
There was a moment's hesitation before Priya finally spoke. "Well, t-they were talking about some s-sort of underground library near Juryez... M-Maybe that can help...?"
My brow furrowed in contemplation. It was a possibility, of course. I recalled the small study in the "Twelfth Constellation's" base. There were quite a few books and documents there which were written in plain text, and I remembered that there was indeed something similar to a cipher within the thick religious text on the lectern.
"S-Sorry I c-couldn't be more useful...!"
It looks like Priya had interpreted my long pause and shallow frown as displeasure, so I quickly set to correcting that by showering her with praise until she blushed and ran back to the safety of Lucrezia's arms.
Again, she was hella cute.
I grinned before turning back to Antenora.
"Any idea where Juryez is?
"Indeed. It is not too far from the Fissure. Around four days' journey, I believe. More importantly, it is a trade town that is rife with slavers. It will no doubt be dangerous for us to enter the town overtly."
"Shouldn't be a problem if the library's on the outskirts. It's probably in another cave like the other bases, yeah?"
Antenora nodded. "We can only hope and see."
While Lucrezia and Priya decided to turn it in for the night, Antenora chose to continue trying to decipher the documents while I busied myself with figuring out just what the hell those messages meant.
As I thought, titles worked the same straightforward way as they did in a few table-top roleplaying games I'd played. They pretty much allowed me to use certain items or access areas which were dependent on a title.
However, it was really the message about my Corruption being modified that mystified me. As far as I could see, my Corruption was pretty much the same as it had always been except for the fact that it was now triple digits and hovering at a healthy 130. But then again, it did say "pending."
There was one major change, though. Unlike the other stats, Corruption's maximum limit was now raised to 999 instead of 99. Something about this didn't exactly make me jump for joy, but I'd have to find out about it later. Weirdly enough, it didn't seem like the rulebook was going to give me what I wanted right now.
Perhaps [Rulebook] might be subject to the system as well? That would explain the need to "unlock" Corruption skills...
Speaking of weird, my Darkness having "exceeded the system's limit" was pretty baffling as well. It was the same value as it was before: a completely indiscernible formula.
The rulebook had mentioned several instances of being able to surpass the system's maximum limits, but it required something known as [Breakthrough Permission] which was acquired through special conditions unique to each person.
I sighed.
It didn't look like I was going to be able to figure anything concrete out. Frankly, it wasn't that surprising since I already knew that the rulebook was limited to information contained by the system.
Stuff like this which explicitly surpassed the system or modified a component of one of the system's values weren't going to be covered, but it was worth a try anyway.
The only thing that I could actually find any solid information on was the Corruption skills. Using these skills actually expended my Corruption score, and most of them produced rather nasty effects.
I sure as hell wasn't going to be taking any of these skills for a while. Or ever, actually. I don't think I need [Brain Consumption] in my list of skills, thank you very much.
After settling into my sleeping bag, I closed my eyes and let out a long sigh.
It wasn't really so much of a relief thing rather than a "Holy shit it's finally over."
My body had still been god damn tense after that fight with the arch-bitch and it still was, which sure as hell wasn't helping my recovery.
More importantly, I didn't want a repeat of that ever again, so it was time to fucking grind. Like, really grind.
I'd been neglecting it because of this whole thing with Lucrezia, but the encounter with the archbishop had really put into perspective how weak I really am.
I was only managing to coast along because everyone we'd met so far hadn't been monstrously strong, but even the close shave with death I had when fighting against Jusis should've told me that I wasn't ready to fuck around yet.
I mean, sure, I was broken. But I wasn't completely busted. At least, not yet.
I sighed again. At this rate, I couldn't even guarantee that I could protect Lucrezia for sure, which means I definitely wasn't anywhere close to being able to fight that bitch of a God.
If I wanted to get anywhere close to my goals, I'd—No. We'd need to get stronger.
I promised, after all. Lucrezia and I would walk side by side from now on.
I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep. I'd have plenty of time to convince everyone to train tomorrow.