Ch.148148. Buff

It’s a complete mess. That one phrase perfectly sums up the current situation.

They say leaving home leads to hardship. There’s not a single false word in that old saying.

To summarize the situation:

While Ludovic was unconscious and I was facing suspicious glares, something flying toward me suddenly stopped mid-air.

Looking closely, it was a sharp dagger.

…Insane.

Looking in the direction it came from, I couldn’t see anyone, but I knew exactly who was there.

‘She really came.’

The head of the Elnos Association. Lina, was it?

A Tier 1 hostile character in the world setting who’s nearly impossible to encounter in the system, making meeting her both fortunate and unfortunate.

And that person just tried to kill me.

The reason… well, I’m probably the easiest target among everyone gathered here.

I guess she wanted to test the waters.

Ludovic was still unconscious, and I nearly got assassinated.

It was a confusing situation, but there wasn’t anyone present who couldn’t properly assess what was happening.

“Ms. Alkine. I’ll leave that to you.”

“What’s this about? Passing this off to someone else.”

“I need to defend Ludion.”

“Well… good luck with that.”

In this situation, Alkine headed toward where Lina was, while Celia stood in front of the three elders surrounding the collapsed Ludovic.

Lilith was… I’m not sure what she was doing, but she was spreading impressive effects around me.

That’s roughly the current situation.

…But what is Lilith really doing? Actually, it’s the least significant thing happening, but it’s really bothering me.

Brilliant light was surging around me, and a glow was slowly rising from my body, making it look cool.

It looked impressive, but… why was she doing this now?

…Wait. Could this be a buff?

That thought suddenly occurred to me, so I quickly opened my status window, and surprisingly, my guess was correct.

[Toughness: 8(+15)]

Everything else remained the same, but there was an additional stat attached to the toughness section.

And it was an absurd value of 15.

I immediately called Lilith, who I thought was just messing around.

“Hey, Lilith.”

“What?”

“What did you just do?”

“…Don’t know.”

Why is she being shy?

After doing something this ridiculous, what’s there to be embarrassed about?

Buffs. Common elements in games, but extremely rare in this world.

How rare? Well… they basically don’t exist.

If they were common, people would have switched to buff-stacking meta the moment they realized they couldn’t grow normally.

Anyway. Providing a buff with such a high value as 15 was truly… truly amazing.

Well, I mean, right now there are people next to me who easily exceed 100, so increasing my stats by 15 doesn’t really narrow the gap…

Comparing with the world’s strongest tier is foolish to begin with, so let’s set that aside.

Whatever the case, since it has limitless potential… I should be praising Lilith.

“All hail Lilith.”

“What are you saying?”

“By the way, Lilith. Did you get this as a favorability reward too?”

“I think so. But I can’t control it.”

“Then how are you using it now?”

“…I told you I don’t know.”

However, when I tried to ask for details, I didn’t get any meaningful answers.

She genuinely seemed not to know, so I decided to let it go.

From what I can tell, it’s probably the “Blessing” ability, but like the Holy Sword from earlier, it can’t be controlled.

It would be amazing if she could use it freely. But if it fluctuates unpredictably without knowing the conditions, we probably won’t be able to use it when we actually need it.

I decided to think about that part later. For now, I needed to focus on resolving the immediate situation… hmm, the light rising around me was getting stronger.

It was getting to the point where it was blinding, and I wished she would stop.

“…Are you going to keep doing that?”

“Someone who almost died should just stay still.”

Well, I did almost die, that’s true.

But is that related to this? Even with increased toughness, I don’t think it would have blocked that dagger from earlier.

But Lilith didn’t seem inclined to remove the buff… so I had to start the conversation while still glowing brightly.

Celia had exchanged a few words, but ultimately, I was the one who created this situation, so nothing would be resolved unless I stepped up.

But… I had nothing to say.

“First, let me tell you. I really didn’t do anything.”

“Sure. You didn’t. Not right now, anyway.”

So I tried denying it, but of course, at this point, it was hard for them to believe me.

I understand. While Ludovic has experienced pain when seeing sins before, he’s never actually fainted.

What did he see in me? I couldn’t understand.

That would be the same for those old men too.

So there’s no way to convince them. Neither I nor they know anything, so it’s a maddening situation for everyone.

As I was starting to get a headache from these thoughts, Celia stepped in and called out the names of the three remaining people.

“Mr. Vattier, Mr. Leumann, Mr. Iser. May I say something?”

However, Vattier carefully objected to Celia’s intervention.

“Your Highness. Even if you are the Imperial Princess, continuing to defend that man in this situation…”

“I asked if it was alright for me to speak. That’s what I asked.”

“…Yes. It’s fine…”

Celia, you shouldn’t talk to elders like that.

Still, it was reassuring. Is this what it means to be an Imperial Princess?

With her forcibly acquired right to speak, Celia asked a simple question.

“Do you all know exactly why Ludovic fainted?”

“Ludovic can see people’s sins. If those sins are too great, he feels pain.”

“Hmm. From what I saw, he didn’t seem to be in pain? We all saw it. He just suddenly collapsed.”

“That’s…”

It was half sophistry.

By that logic, one could argue he fainted without having time to feel pain.

However, even though this was outside the empire, Celia was still the Imperial Princess.

Circumstantially, it was clear that I was the bad guy, but was it worth pushing the accusation while ignoring the Imperial Princess’s words? Probably not.

“Very well. Then let’s continue this conversation after Ludovic wakes up.”

“That’s a good decision.”

Thanks to that, we gained a little time.

“Then until Ludovic wakes up, we’ll go handle that other matter over there.”

In the end, it was just a brief reprieve that would end when Ludovic woke up, but it gave us time to check on the other situation that had occurred simultaneously.

With that thought, I turned around and saw that Alkine was already returning, apparently having finished the situation.

Wondering if I had missed something, I looked and saw Lina tied up with rope and thrown into a corner.

She actually caught her. Even though Lina specializes in assassination and should be incredibly good at escaping.

Alkine must really be ridiculously strong right now.

Having perfectly succeeded in capturing Lina, Alkine frowned as soon as she saw me.

“What’s with that light?”

It was because Lilith was still emitting light around my body.

“Hey. Alkine senior caught her, so you can stop now.”

“…No.”

What’s wrong with her?

I really can’t understand.

So the conversation with Alkine continued while my body was still glowing brightly.

Alkine pointed at the tied-up Lina and asked.

“So. Who is she?”

“She’s the head of the Elnos Association. She must have tried to escape, but you caught her well. But then again, with your abilities, it makes sense that you could catch her.”

“It wasn’t that easy. Even after I immobilized her, she resisted and attacked. I was a bit surprised.”

Her ability, Providence. I thought it was just overpowered, but it seems there can be some resistance.

But when she says she was surprised, it’s probably about the resistance, not the attack, right?

“You caught her well in the end. That’s what matters.”

“I guess so.”

“Right.”

“Then praise me.”

“…What?”

What kind of request is that all of a sudden?

But it didn’t seem to be a joke, as she was looking at me with quite an expectant expression.

Of course, it wasn’t a confident expression. She was blushing to the point of being cute.

“No, well… I was thinking that you always react to Celia and Lilith in various ways, but you always seem a bit indifferent to me. That’s the feeling I get.”

Even her excuse was unbearably cute.

No, I don’t think I’ve been like that… or have I?

Thinking about it, as Alkine said, I’ve mostly just thought “she’s awesome” to myself about her achievements without expressing it separately.

It wasn’t intentional… but given the situation, and the fact that I naturally assumed Alkine’s accomplishments were a given, it seems that’s how it turned out.

In terms of convenience, she falls behind Celia, and in terms of novelty, Lilith, who’s only been with us for a day, is overwhelming.

Being caught in between, it’s not strange that she might feel neglected.

Setting aside whether it’s appropriate to bring this up now and ask for praise… the fact that I’ve been insensitive is true.

There’s no reason not to accept that, so I decided to praise her as she wanted.

“Oh, brave warrior. How magnificent of you to capture the evil leader.”

“…That’s not what I wanted… but with you saying that while emitting light, it does feel a bit divine.”

…I felt a bit awkward and spoke jokingly, but she visibly deflated, so I quickly praised her again.

“I’m joking, Alkine. You know I always think you’re amazing even if I don’t say it, right?”

“Do you really think that?”

“Of course.”

Really. Why is she suddenly concerned about this?

I felt like we needed to talk more about this, but we couldn’t.

“Ugh…”

“Are you awake! Ludovic!”

“You don’t need to speak so loudly, I can hear you. My head is ringing, so be quiet…”

Just then, Ludovic woke up, naturally interrupting our conversation.

“We’ll continue this conversation later.”

It wasn’t a big issue.

After all, I already had a date scheduled with her.

For now, I decided to face the problem related to Ludovic first.