Ch.131131. Do I Have to Pay with My Body?

Various events happened and subsided in an instant, but night arrived quietly as usual.

Unlike the night that came the same way, Lilith’s heart was far from quiet.

“Hmm…”

Normally, Lilith would fall asleep as soon as she lay down, but for some reason, sleep wouldn’t come tonight.

Why? It wasn’t like she wasn’t tired after being caught up in today’s incidents.

“How strange…”

The deeper her questions grew, the more alert her mind became, and naturally, the events of the day began to surface.

Ludion and Celia who appeared when she was kidnapped in her sleep and couldn’t do anything.

And Ludion, who acted out of character by using violence and beating up Fanatic…

-“Despite how he looks, he’s quite affectionate toward his people. He must be quite angry.”

Celia’s words came to mind.

“His people…”

Ludion had gotten angry for her sake.

That meant he considered her one of his people.

She felt her face heating up slightly.

She knew that when Celia said “his people,” it didn’t necessarily mean the same position as herself.

It was probably just a figure of speech… so why wouldn’t this heat subside?

Lilith was confused. The sensation she was feeling now was unfamiliar and awkward.

“No, it must be a silly misunderstanding. Well, I’ve always been grateful to him anyway…”

She muttered to herself, trying to shake it off. She patted her cheeks with both hands to cool down the heat.

And rationally, she decided to go back and review the entire situation from the beginning.

She had already received a lot of help in various ways.

From the training help she received when the semester first started, to the many times he had looked after her subtly, though she hadn’t thought much of it at the time.

And before, there was that stalker following her… ah, that stalker was today’s kidnapper.

Therefore.

Lilith judged her current feelings to be a psychological trick born from gratitude overlapping with the urgent situation.

So… she thought these feelings would return to normal if she recalled the moments after everything was over, not the moment he saved her.

But that was completely wrong.

-“If we lock them all up, the heretic activities should quiet down, right?”

The first thing that came to mind was what Ludion had said on their way back.

…She didn’t understand why he would care about that too.

Heretic activities should have nothing to do with him.

Of course, he had said it thinking he was cleaning up his own mess, but Lilith, not knowing this fact, began to interpret it in her own way.

As if Ludion had decided to go to Ritten for her sake.

She already owed him so much. If she became indebted any further, she felt her way of thinking would be distorted.

She feared she might subconsciously start thinking that Ludion would solve everything for her, no matter what happened.

‘Will there ever be a day when I can repay him?’

In truth, Lilith couldn’t stand being in debt.

Even her pushing Celia to confess to Ludion was strongly influenced by this personality trait.

But she hadn’t been able to give anything back to Ludion yet.

She had thought that if she succeeded as a saint someday, she might be able to help him to some extent, but seeing how he was now, it seemed like he wouldn’t need her help at all.

So, it always bothered her.

Help given without expecting anything in return. For Lilith, that was another challenge, another concern.

She knew it was a privileged worry, but still…

-“Wait. Am I going too?”

-“Of course. Why, don’t you want to?”

-“No… that’s not it. I just thought I’d only be in the way if I went.”

-“Why worry about that? We’re going to catch the guys who tried to sell you off. You should at least go and teabag—I mean, mock them to feel better.”

-“…That’s true.”

-“Then just come. You’ve got nothing to lose, right?”

Because receiving help sometimes comes with a deep sense of powerlessness.

How could there be nothing to lose? She would have to be indebted to him once again.

Even while thinking this, she felt pathetic for having to accept his consideration in the end.

“Why do you help me like that? You could just leave me alone.”

Lilith kicked off her blanket in frustration, but quickly calmed down when the cool air hit her.

Perhaps because of that, her head seemed to cool down a bit.

“Haah…”

She never intended to stand alongside them from the beginning.

How could someone like her, who just happened to be lucky enough to take on the role of a saint, stand alongside such monstrous people?

Even their current relationship. In fact, if you removed the modifier of “academy classmates,” it probably wouldn’t have existed from the start.

Thinking like this, when such warm consideration continues… she feels a bit guilty.

She starts to think that she wants to be helpful, not just receive help. Beyond the concept of repaying a debt.

‘It’s impossible.’

Originally, she didn’t even think about such things.

How could she be helpful? She and they were people from different worlds anyway.

They were people who could do perfectly well without someone like her.

So she thought she just needed to do her own job and be a decent conversation partner.

But now she… wanted to help somehow… huh.

When her thoughts reached that point, Lilith’s mind drew a completely unexpected conclusion.

‘Should I repay him with my body?’

The fact that men like that sort of thing.

That someone like her, without abilities or anything else, could only do such obscene things.

“…I must be really crazy.”

Of course, that’s not acceptable. She just thought about it, but she had no intention of desperately trying to repay her debt that way.

However… Lilith had already imagined it. She had realized it.

That when she imagined doing… that… with Ludion, what she felt wasn’t disgust.

That such emotions were also intertwined at the foundation of everything she had been concerned about…

At that moment, the conclusions of all the thoughts she had been having converged at one point.

And numerous letters began to appear before her eyes.

[Favorability System has been opened!]

[You can acquire special rewards and exclusive stats when reaching certain favorability levels.]

[Current favorability: 55/100]

[5 remaining until next reward.]

‘Favorability…?’

Just three syllables.

She couldn’t read more than that, but the letters mercilessly continued to appear.

[You have reached favorability 20!]

[You acquire special rewards and exclusive stats.]

[You have reached favorability 40!]

[You acquire special rewards and exclusive…]

[Exclusive stat ‘Creation’ is opened.]

[You gain ‘Revelation’ bonus as a favorability reward.]

[Exclusive stat ‘Creation’ increases.]

[You gain ‘Blessing’ bonus as a favorability reward.]

[Creation stat has reached 3. Related knowledge is granted.]

[Caution. This will be accompanied by considerable pain.]

Lilith couldn’t read all the letters that appeared like that.

Before she could read them, an excruciating headache started first.

“Huaaagh?!”

It served as a sleeping pill for Lilith who had been having trouble sleeping… but because of it, she couldn’t see another window that appeared at the last moment.

Well, she could check it after waking up… but what was certain was…

[You have satisfied certain conditions of the Favorability System!]

[From now on, you can check each other’s favorability.]

[Kairos: 81/100]

[Ananke: 53/100]

[Phanes: 55/100]

It was the appearance of a dark horse.

///

It had been a while since I thought that a day passed so quickly.

After leaving the dean’s office and running into Professor Reina, we first went to the professor’s lab to talk.

We spent quite a bit of time here.

Explaining why we ran away without taking the exam was actually quick, but we needed time to discuss what to do about the exam we didn’t take.

In conclusion, we were given the privilege of taking a private assessment among ourselves before the exam results were released, after this matter was resolved.

It was true that we ran away without taking the exam, but since the reason was based on the academy’s security issues, it was a reasonable arrangement in a way.

Afterwards, we went to the Imperial Palace to put Fanatic in the underground prison.

Actually, I wanted to send Celia alone to the Imperial Palace.

It felt awkward to just show up at someone else’s home.

But Celia was so insistent that we ended up going together.

Since we were already there, I thought about staying overnight and cleaning out all the items in the imperial treasure vault… but Celia suddenly made a love declaration, causing a big commotion, so we couldn’t do that.

“Ludion, you rascal! Didn’t I tell you not until after graduation!”

“Brother! It’s impossible! That guy is too strong!”

“Hehe, my little brother… there are times when a man must fight even knowing he will lose.”

“Brother…! You’re so cool!”

It wasn’t urgent enough to farm items while receiving attention from Celia’s father and three older brothers who wanted to kill me.

We just put Fanatic in the underground prison and ran away quickly.

That alone made it late evening. We definitely moved quickly using Celia’s flight.

It felt like time had passed quickly compared to what we had accomplished.

After the day ended, the next afternoon.

Alkine’s exam should be over too. We gathered at the academy’s main gate to go to Ritten.

But…

“…”

“…”

“What, why, what.”

The atmosphere among the three going together was unusual.

Celia and Alkine were glaring at Lilith with extremely dumbfounded expressions, and Lilith was desperately avoiding their gazes.

“Did something happen between you guys?”

Wondering why they were acting like that, I asked, and Celia sighed deeply before speaking.

“Ludion. Check Lilith’s favorability.”

“Suddenly?”

“You’ll understand why we’re acting like this right away if you look. Oh, and while you’re at it, it would be good to check Alkine’s favorability too.”

Check Lilith’s favorability?

I took out the ring I hadn’t used in a while and had almost forgotten about.

[Ring of Exploration]

[It ‘explores’ the designated target.]

An item that allows you to see the other person’s abilities, thoughts, and emotions.

However… when I use it, for some reason it’s an item that can also see favorability.

I use it to check Lilith’s favorability.

[Favorability: 55/100]

“…What?”

This is certainly surprising.

Setting aside the fact that it appeared when it definitely wasn’t there before, why is the number like that?

Oh, right. She said to check Alkine’s favorability too.

Hiding my bewilderment for now, I also check Alkine’s favorability.

[Favorability: 53/100]

…?

“I… might not have liked you very much after all.”

Perhaps guessing what I saw from my expression, Alkine said this with a hollow laugh.

…No wonder she looked down all day during the practical exam. Was it because of this?

No… I… I decided to hold my tongue for now since I didn’t know what to say.

An extremely awkward and uncomfortable silence filled the space.