I took a deep breath, stepped out of the bushes, and began to walk toward the children, making a conscious effort to appear calm and approachable.
Sometimes children could be harder to deal with than adults and teenagers, especially artistic ones like these two boys seemed to be, so I had to choose what to say.
"Hey, guys!" I called, waving my hand at them.
The laughter stopped abruptly and the three of them turned to look at me with surprised expressions on their faces. They hadn't imagined that there would be anyone else there besides themselves and the old monk.
I continued walking towards them, stopping at a safe distance so as not to make them run away.
"What are you doing here so late?"
"Who are you? And why does it matter? We're here because we want to be!" The boy with the red cap rebelled.
I smiled, trying to look friendly, but a vein almost popped out of my forehead. "My name is Leo. I'm just curious. This place is very special, and you seem to like it here."
The other two remained silent, and the girl seemed especially nervous.
"Of course we like it!" said the second boy. "It's fun to hit the bells with the rocks."
I moved a little closer and bent down to their level. "I see. But do you know that this temple is a holy place? The man who looks after it is very concerned about the noise. How about you find somewhere else to have fun?"
The boy with the cap frowned and clenched his right fist. "But it's cooler here! And that old man can't tell us what to do!"
The girl finally spoke, her voice trembling a little. "I... I think we should go, guys. It's getting late."
"No! We're staying!"
I realized that it wouldn't be easy to convince her, so I decided to use my strongest card against children.
"Do you like ghost stories?" I asked, looking them straight in the eye. "This temple has some pretty scary stories, you know."
The two boys became anxious as I broached the subject, and one of them took a step back.
"What kind of stories?" the boy with the cap asked.
"Well..." I began, lowering my voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "They say that the spirits that protect this temple don't like to be disturbed. Sometimes, at night, they go out to look for those who make noise. And when they do..." I paused dramatically, seeing the fear grow in her eyes. "... they catch the troublemakers and those people are never seen again. The Temple Grandfather didn't want to talk about it so as not to scare you too much and give you nightmares, but I think you're especially big enough to know these things."
The children exchanged nervous looks.
"Are you... are you serious?" the second boy asked.
I nodded solemnly. "Very serious. So maybe you should go back to the playground and leave this temple alone. You don't want to disappear and worry your parents, do you?"
The three of them shook their heads in the negative at the same time, and without another word of defiance, they started down the stairs. Within seconds, they were gone.
Akeno came out of her hiding place and asked:
"What did you tell them?"
"Just a silly ghost story. It seemed to work."
She laughed quietly. "Arara~ You're pretty smart, Leo. I'm impressed."
"Thank you. Now, what do we do?"
Akeno looked at the shrine. "Let's talk to the monk again and let him know that the problem has been solved. After that, we can go back to the club."
I agreed, and we walked back to the temple door together. When we knocked on the door, the monk didn't open it but asked:
"Did you manage to talk to the kids?"
"Yes. We talked to them and explained the importance of keeping the temple peaceful. We think they won't bother you again."
I heard the monk's sigh of relief: "Thank you very much. You don't know how much that means to me."
"Now all you have to do is sign the contract..." I said.
There was an awkward silence and the man replied:
"I'm sorry, but... I can't."
"What? But we did what you wanted!" I said, slightly annoyed.
"I know, and I'm very grateful for that, but..."
"It's all right, sir. If you have any more problems, please don't hesitate to call us. Have a good night." Akeno said and put one of her hands on my shoulder. "Let's go, work is over."
I was speechless. This situation was completely different from the anime, because I had managed to do the job perfectly. However, I also had no way to fight back with Akeno and try to forcibly get an elderly monk's signature, so I just followed her out of the temple.
[You have completed a mission with Akeno.]
[You obtained 1 heart with Akeno Himejima.]
[You obtained +25 XP.]
[Akeno liked the way you handled the kids disturbing the temple.]
[You obtained 1 heart with Himejima.]
[Akeno Himejima now has a very good impression of you.]
[Your relationship level with Akeno Himejima has gone from NEUTRAL to GOOD.]
[Quests, fights, and training can increase your XP and your relationship level with your friends.]
The stairs were long, so I had some time to think as we went down. It was obvious that my system was very useful in helping me develop my interpersonal relationships, and that was because most of the skills in that system depended on me having good relationships.
So I could gain experience and level up to gain attributes by completing missions and tasks, but I also had to focus on developing my relationships or my skills would be useless.
When we returned to where I had secured the motorcycle, Akeno said:
"You did a good job today, Leo."
I was still a little upset that I hadn't gotten the monk's signature, so I reacted a little more seriously than usual.
"Thank you, Akeno. It's a shame that I won't have a signed contract to give to Rias."
"Actually, you won't have one, so she won't reward you with anything. However, I've seen what you've done, I've seen how well you've done, so... what do you think about me rewarding you?"
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