Chapter 2: A side character and a protagonist (2)
On his way to Estelle's shrine, Benjamin learned more about her home.
It turned out that each of the three sisters handling the shrine were believers of different deities, with those three deities being sisters like them.
Estelle was a devoted follower of the Goddess Of Earth, Meili, which she called Her Excellency. Her elder sister, Moon, believed in the Goddess Of Moon, whose name she had shared.
The last eldest sister was a follower of the Goddess Of the Sun and was named after her goddess.
Estelle added with a smile, "My Mother protested against me being named after the goddess. She argued a lot with Father and even threatened to leave him with me in her belly!"
"She must have gone through a lot, then," Benjamin replied. He kept to himself that there should have been some kind of an important reason for Estelle's mother to go to such an extent to keep her off the goddess' name. Of course, it could have been anything simple, like her not wanting to pass her daughter to the shrine before she was even born—a motherly desire to give her youngest blood a broader perspective in life.
It could have been the opposite, and there was a deep reason for her to be so adamant about it. If Benjamin had to bet on which of it had been, he would bet on the latter, just because Estelle was born as a protagonist.
He also was the type of a man to act with the more dangerous possibility being the incentive behind the events.
"That's right! I wouldn't mind being named after Her Excellency, but my name feels more precious since it's the one Mother has picked for me. I love my name," Estelle added another cute comment to her story.
Many private matters were brushing her lips and heading to Benjamin, but Estelle didn't seem to be bothered about it and was, in fact, yearning for a lot of conversation. So many months without talk must have left a heavy toll on her mind.
Cheerfulness and honesty were all but written on her, so Benjamin had settled to respond well to her feelings.
"Since you can fight, what kind of techniques do you have?" Estelle asked after sharing quite a ton of information about herself and her family. Her interest quickly switched from herself to him.
Benjamin chuckled, "As much as it pains me to admit it, I only have two. One of them allows me to get some currency after fighting others, and another to see through people. The latter is the reason I could tell you are a protagonist."
"Oh, I see!" Estelle accepted Benjamin's words without much thought. "Getting some money is more valuable than you can imagine! I tell this from the experience! Um, I hope we will find a way to use it to the extent!"
"I count on you, Estelle," Benjamin genuinely replied, his voice drawing a beautiful smile from the wolf priestess. She was more than glad to hear about him cooperating and integrating his currency-making skill with her poor circumstances.
She was also very reserved after confessing her troubles to him. Had it not been for that, Estelle probably would have leaped at him and begged him with puppy eyes to help her.
It would make her cheerfulness disappear, and Estelle had already grown to respect Benjamin based on responses and comportment, so both had fortunately avoided the worst possible timeline.
"If that's the case, though, what kind of skills would you love to have?" Estelle's questions continued.
For this one, Benjamin fell into thought.
He soon grinned and passed his reply, "Let's see. I would like to have the skill to recall any page from the books and comics I've read word-to-word, the skill to fall asleep at any moment, and also the skill to just take a dump quick without holing myself up in the toilet. Oh, maybe it'd be better to have a skill just to control excretion. That might be it since I sometimes happen to feel like running to the toilet when dealing with stressful stuff. I'm one of those, you see."
"…" Estelle was astounded, her face blank. She surely didn't expect to hear about those convenient skills and instead wanted to learn what kind of battle style Benjamin had.
But if she were somewhat more intuitive, she would have been able to read between his words.
The first skill Benjamin wanted was because he used to station and wait for a long time during guild wars or long quests. In those boring moments, having the skill to read a book or comic in mind would have been a blessing. Benjamin would simply read his favorite arcs or moments and kill the time.
Therefore, it meant that he was used to spend a lot of time in patience—a seasoned warrior.
His second skill was more related to it, but it also had roots in his real life. As an orphan, Benjamin never had his own room until he came of age and started making money through the virtual reality world.
Even in his own room, without any other roommates, the old habits didn't allow him to fall asleep as fast as he wished.
The third skill would have been a real saving at the beginning of his career when he was forced to meet with other guild leaders and superlative residents of the virtual reality world.
Since it was so real and those residents weren't like common NPCs at the time, Benjamin was exposed to so much stress that his stomach churned, and he felt like reigning on the throne in the toilet rather than staying with them.
This flaw became much more controllable now that he had grown more confident and stronger, with him knowing the formal and informal speech like the back of his hand, but there were moments when this irritating flaw would show on his face, exposing his real feelings.
"No! No!" With her long hair swinging left and right, Estelle protested, "I want to know about fighting skills!"
Benjamin grinned, "Wouldn't it be better to show you what I am capable of? Let's summon a phantom."
"Oh… are you sure?" Estelle inquired with big eyes. "I fight them alone, and each battle eats so much of my precious talismans! I also get bruises and wounds that impede me in my duties."
Benjamin saw Estelle in a much different light after this statement, "I'll fight alone. But first things first. I can already see the shrine, and I recall you promised me to share some of your choco milk with me."
Indeed.
Estelle couldn't get her hands on her favorite choco powder, but she held herself in check and saved some of it for precious moments.
Meeting Benjamin was one of those moments.
"But of course!" Estelle's green eyes twinkled. 'I can finally drink choco milk!'
She was so happy that her wolf ears flapped up and down.
If Benjamin were to have an x-ray vision, he would have been able to see a waving tail behind her ass, too.
He himself couldn't help but smile inwardly, 'I'll have to share with her some of mine cup of choco milk, right?'
It'd be worth it just to see more of that adorable wolf.