Chapter 18 – System Error

Lynett

After meeting Yoko and Harri, mother started to ask a lot of questions. Where were they from? How old were they? What did they do for a living? How did we meet? For how long have I known them? I mostly answered the same way I did with everyone else: they are a foreign couple that I happened to meet randomly, and I befriended them after they helped me.

Trying to give as little detail as possible –since lying too much will only backfire- I told her that I didn’t know that much about them. However, without stating it clearly, I strongly suggested that they eloped, running away from the prejudices of being an interracial couple. When she understood this, mother immediately threw in the towel. She knew better than anyone else the struggles of being romantically involved with someone from another race, so I knew she would stop asking any more questions. Sorry for using your weakness against you, mom…

After that, I rejoined Yoko and Harri in the courtyard, where they were waiting for me.

“Are you done?” Harri asked, as he saw me approaching.

“Yeah, somehow. How was my mother’s core?” I immediately inquired, turning my attention to Yoko.

“Intact,” she responded. “There is nothing wrong with it.”

I let out a relieved sigh, as it lifted a huge weight off my mind.

“Lynett, you said your mother was an elf, but isn’t she a high-elf?” Yoko asked.

“Heh? That’s right. Is there any differences?”

“Yeah, it’s not really the same thing…” She muttered, as she started rubbing her chin. “Forget about it, what’s wrong with her ears? They have such a weird shape. Is it a new fashion trend among mortals or something?”

Hearing her words, I felt a little offended as my eyes twitched. “Of course not… That’s my stupid aunt’s doing. I made sure she regretted it, though.”

The two gods in front of me furrowed their eyebrow, as they quickly exchanged an inquiring glance.

“Is that so?” Harri asked. “But… Why didn’t you grow them back? I mean, you’re obviously bothered by it. When the minx lost one of her tails, she grew it back.”

Widening my eyes, I turned my gaze on Yoko. “You once lost a tail?”

“Yeah. I got into a fight with Drakarth.” She grunted, as I clearly saw the veins of her temples popping out. “This motherfucker… I made sure to return him the favor. No one touches my tails.”

“… Drakarth? You pissed off the God of Anger? I knew you had some guts but…No wait. You grew your tail back? You can do that?! I was pretty sure you didn’t have such a power!”

“And you’re right, I don’t.” Yoko shrugged. “I don’t have such a high affinity to the light attribute, so I asked Naia to do it for me. She owed me favor, you see?”

“Oh… Of course. I got my hopes up for nothing…” I sighed. “So you’re saying that I need to find Naia if I want my mother’s ears back?”

“Why would you need to find her?” Harri inquired, raising an eyebrow. “Can’t you do it yourself? This much should be nothing for you. Aren’t you the Creator?”

I let out a loud sigh. “That’s the point… If I could, I would already have grown them back, but I can’t. It’s not like I didn’t try, but the [System] won’t let me do it.”

“The System?” Yoko and Harri both repeated, as they narrowed their eyes.

“Yeah. At first, I thought I couldn’t heal my mother’s ears because of my lack of control, but for the past twelve years, I did practice a lot.” I started to explain. “You know, there are a lot of stray animals wandering around the mansion. Since I feed them, they came to trust me and let me touch them. I’m not sure if they get into fights with each other or if the inhabitants mistreat them, but they’re often badly injured, and some of them are even missing a toe, a tail or an ear. Uhm… It’s a little cruel, but I’ve kind of been using them to practice healing magic.”

Without saying anything, Yoko and Harri carefully listened to my story. Since they didn’t seem to want to add anything, I continued.

“So just like that, I practice for years, without any improvements. Opened wounds or internal injuries weren’t a problem, but I couldn’t do anything about their missing parts. Still, I didn’t give up. And after years of practice, a change finally occurred. Not what I was expecting though… As I was focusing on the missing tail of a dog, I felt something changing. I’m not sure what, but this time, I was convinced it was going to work. So I tried visualizing its tail, and as I thought, for the first time, mana started materializing around the missing part. However, just as it was about to work, the [World System] sent me a notification, interrupting my magic…”

“You got interrupted?” Harri repeated, drawing his head backward and squinting.

“Yup.” I sighed. “Ever since, each time I tried again, the [System] wouldn’t let me use magic. It’s exactly the same thing with Mind magic. Do you guys know anything about this?”

Harri shook his head. “Nope, not a clue. It never happened to me before.”

Ah… Figures. Even if they did experience something similar, I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t even notice it. If they can’t receive any messages from the [World System], they can’t have any way to know about this. This is problematical. I’m absolutely on my own, there.

After staying silent for a while, Yoko eventually spoke up. “What’s the strongest magic you’ve ever used?” She asked.

“Huh? Uhm, well… Giving blessings, I guess?” I responded, unsure of myself.

“It doesn’t count. That’s not magic, pick something else,” she immediately said.

A bit confused, I tried looking in my memories the times where I used magic. I wasn’t sure why she wanted to know that, but knowing her, Yoko probably had something in mind. Unfortunately, I didn’t recall a lot of times where I actually used magic. I preferred using my small admin tricks over magic, since unlike magic, admin skills didn’t require any mana, and thus, left no traces. There was also the risk of my magic going rampage. Over the past few years, I grew confident in my control, however, now knowing that I subconsciously infused mana all around the place, I’m clearly still lacking. Besides, since there was no place for me to practice without causing damages, I never used any high level magic besides healing magic. So, the strongest spell I’ve ever used? I’m not sure… Oh! Wait, there was that one time…

“Then bringing someone back to life.” I finally answered, after thinking for a while.

Hearing this, Yoko and Harri both widened their eyes. Obviously, that’s not a common magic.

“You resurrected someone?” Yoko asked, clearly not believing her ears.

“Uhm, not exactly. She wasn’t really dead, so it’s not really resurrection. She was about to die for real, though. She just stopped breathing and her heart stopped beating. However, her soul wasn’t completely gone yet. So I just used healing magic to restart her heart, and voilà! Her soul returned and she came back to life.”

Without uttering a word, Yoko and Harri exchanged meaningful glances.

“Uhm… Is it that uncommon?” I asked, a bit worried.

“Not really,” Yoko answered. “As long as it’s not too late and the vessel is intact, a soul can always return to its body and the person ‘come back’ to life. That’s not the problem. You do know that basic Healing magic only accelerate the healing process, right?”

“Uhm? Yeah.”

“Anything beyond that is advanced magic. So if you can’t use Healing magic to regrow limbs, you shouldn’t be able to use it to restart a heart. In other words, what you used back then probably wasn’t Healing magic, but Lightning magic.” Yoko explained.

Lightning? Well, that makes sense. It would work like a defibrillator, wouldn’t it? Shocking people to stop or restart their heart. That sure is convenient, and also terrifying. But that’s not the problem.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of the Lightning attribute…” I muttered, skeptical.

“That’s not surprising,” Harri said. “It’s a hybrid attribute. Basically, a magic obtained by combining two different attributes. However, since you would need a high affinity with two attributes, it’s extremely rare, even among Gods, so not a lot of people know about it.”

“Huh?”

“What are you so surprised about? Shouldn’t you know that already? Are you really the Creator?”

No, no, no. That’s exactly the point. I’ve never invented such rule. Actually, it’s not the first time something like this happens. When I first heard about Soul and Mind magic, I thought they were only rumors, since I never invented such a thing. I only defined six different elemental magic: water, fire, wind, earth, light and darkness. There shouldn’t be anything else. Yet, I eventually discovered about Soul and Mind magic, and since they’re both forbidden arts, I couldn’t find a lot of information on it. While Soul magic doesn’t seem to be a problem, I can’t use Mind magic at all. And now I discover another form of magic that I didn’t invent.

If I’m really the Creator? To be honest, I’m starting to wonder too. Maybe I’m not after all. Maybe the gods just pulled a massive prank on me and manipulated my memories, making me believe that I had a past life where I created everything, whereas it’s not the case. But it seems a little far-fetched as a hypothesis. What would explain my admin class, then?

In that case, it can only mean one thing: someone or something is interfering with my world.

“So you can’t regrow limbs, but you can use hybrid magic? Interesting.” Yoko exclaimed with a small grin. “Let’s try something out. Harri.”

“Right away!” Harri responded, probably guessing her thoughts.

A second later, the atmosphere suddenly changed, as it felt a lot heavier. Everything turned into complete silence. The birds were no longer singing, the sounds of city were no longer reaching my ears, and I could feel the wind blow, but it was no longer whistling.

“What did you do?” I asked, looking all around me at the unchanged scenery.

“Don’t worry, it’s just a barrier.” Harri answered. “It’s in order to prevent any magic leakage. We’re at the exact same place, but completely cut off the rest of the world. As long as the barrier is in place, no one will be able to enter it or see anything that will happen in it.”

Oh… What a convenient magic! But… Why didn’t they use anything similar whenever they fought, then?

“Little test.” Yoko said.

Suddenly, a huge fireball appeared out of nowhere, causing me to jump backward in reflex.

“Yoko, what are you doing?!” I yelled out.

“Chill, no one is attacking anyone.” She calmly said. “I just wanted to test something. Try to extinguish it. You can use whatever magic you want.”

A test? Well, now that she says it, up until now, the fireball didn’t move an inch. It’s completely static, similar, yet different from the ones she attacked me with in the forest. It has exactly the same size, however, unlike before, its color appears neither yellow or red, but blue. A blue flame means a higher supply in oxygen, thus a better combustion process, right? I’ve already seen what damages her ‘normal’ fireballs make, I’m not sure I want to know for this one. So I just need to extinguish it. Unlike before, I’m not sure a blast of wind will be enough though.

“Don’t worry about holding back.” Yoko added. “Whether you decide to call for a cyclone, a tsunami or a meteor, it will be fine. So don’t restrain yourself and use your full powers.”

Heh? Seriously? I can do that? That barrier is awesome, I need to learn how to use it! It’s the first time I can use all the magic I want without thinking of the consequences. Fufu… I got a little fired up. In that case, I won’t hold back.

Similarly as I did then in the forest, I started to concentrate a large amount of mana. For a while, I compressed it as much as I could, increasing its power. Then, I unleashed it all in a blast of wind. Within a second, the violent puff of wind swept everything around but the fireball. I used more mana than I did in the forest, however, as I thought, it still wasn’t enough.

I decided to change strategy. If you need to put out a fire, most people would first think of using water. So let’s try water magic. Once again, I concentrated and materialized a large amount of mana into a waterball. I made slightly larger than Yoko’s fireball. However, it didn’t work either. Even if it was bigger, the waterball evaporated even before reaching its target.

As I repeated my attempts to extinguish the blue flame, Yoko started to giggle, amused by my failures. That’s offensive. You should never laugh at someone who is trying their best. Yoko may be right after all. I might need to call for a cyclone to put out this damn fire.

Well, whatever. There is Harri’s barrier after all.

Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes as I focused on my mana core. Disregarding anything else, I focused only on my dormant power, infusing the area with mana. I visualized the clouds forming, the humidity in the atmosphere increasing and the pressure dropping. Meditating for a few minutes, a violent wind gathered, swirling all around me, as the mana kept getting stronger.

“Oh my, she’s really doing it!” Yoko chukkled.

“Are you sure you’re not going to regret this?” Harri asked, a little concerned.

“Have some faith, love-boy. Everything will be fine!”

When I finally reached my desired amount of mana, I opened my eyes, locating my target. A grin crept onto my face. I unleashed it all, releasing all the energy of the condensation of moisture in rising air at once, provoking the formation of a cyclone.

Or so I thought.

Skill unavailable.

…

…

Are you kidding me [World System]?! Again?! I’m the Goddess of All Creation, damn it! If I want to call for a cyclone, I call for a cyclone! I created you, how dare you get in my way?! And ‘unavailable’? What do you mean unavailable! I have SSS-rank affinity for all attributes! I’ll let it pass for Mind magic, but any elemental magic shouldn’t be a problem! Yet, why do you keep interfering?!

Feeling despair and disappointment suddenly enveloping me, I feel on my knees.

“Hahahahahaha!” Yoko burst out laughing, as she made a fireball disappear with a simple snap of her fingers. “So this is what you meant by ‘getting interrupted’? Hahahaha!”

“Well, that was unexpected!” Harri exclaimed.

“… You saw it?” I asked, turning my gaze on them.

“Well, that’s the point. We didn’t. The cyclone you were supposed to call never appeared!” Yoko responded, still mocking. “We did feel it though! That abnormally high amount of mana that you gathered suddenly vanishing in one instant! Ten minutes of meditation for this, hahahahaha!”

“Can’t you see I’m already depressed enough like this? Stop laughing. That’s not funny…” I muttered, offended.

“Actually, it is!” Yoko bluntly retorted, as she kept laughing.

Pissed, I got up, picking up a random stick that I had found on the ground, and threw it in the air.

『Yoko, fetch.』

Immediately obeying my order, Yoko performed an elegant jump, worthy of the greatest gymnasts, and grabbed the stick in the air. Landing beautifully on the ground, she ran to my side, presenting me the stick, as her tail was waving happily in her back.

“Good girl.” I said with a wicked grin.

As soon as I picked the stick, her smile disappeared and her tail froze, realizing what she just did. “W-What the hell are you making me do?!” She shouted, as her face immediately reddened in shame.

On the other hand, Harri, who just witnessed everything, blinked several times, clearly not believing what he just saw. The prideful Yoko acting like a puppy. His face distorted in disgust, as all his previous handsome features disappeared in one instant.

“A dog…” He muttered.

Yoko immediately retaliated with a beautifully performed spinning hook-kick in his stomach.

Stepping backward, Harri grabbed his sides, coughing several times. “Y-You… Minx… Did you just hit me?” He said with a forced smile.

“You asked for it, love-boy. Who the hell are you calling a dog? Don’t you dare compare me to these worthless creatures.” Yoko grunted.

As they both started to laugh nervously, clearly intending to fight, I let out a heavy sigh.

『Yoko, Harri, sit.』

Before they had a chance to do anything, they both fell on the ground. While Harri, not comprehending what just happened, tried to stand up in confusion, Yoko immediately turned her gaze on me, glaring at me with her accusing eyes.

“Have you forgotten about the rules already?” I asked. “Besides, I thought you guys were having a truce.”

Coming back to their senses, they regained their composure as they simply clicked their tongue. They were still annoyed by each other, but at least, now, they weren’t displaying any hostility. After making sure they had calmed down, I freed them from my order.

“You really need to stop doing this…” Yoko complained.

“Soul magic?” Harri asked, finally understanding the situation.

I nodded. “I can’t call for a cyclone, but I since you and I are bounded, I guess Soul magic isn’t a problem. I don’t really get the logic though.”

“Well, good thing you didn’t really invoke a cyclone! It would have been really bad, otherwise!” He exclaimed with an ironic smile.

“Huh? What about your barrier?”

“Oh, that thing? Completely useless. Barriers are good, but they’re really fragile. Even if it’s mine, it isn’t able to handle anything above B-ranked magic, so if you had invoked a cyclone, I guess you would have destroyed the country, hahaha!”

… What? Seriously? No wonder they didn’t use any when they fought. But Yoko said not to hold back… I turned my gaze on her, accusingly.

“I figured out that you wouldn’t use all your power unless you thought there would be some kind of protection.” She explained. “I never said his barrier would protect anything though. I said it will be fine, and everything went fine, did it not?”

I got tricked… Playing with words like this, I really need to be careful of her. What if I actually did invoke a cyclone? That was a risky bet! Thinking about this, a sudden chill ran down my spine.

“Still, I think I’m starting to get a glimpse of your situation.” Yoko continued. “I always found it weird that you had such a small aura even though you’re the Creator, supposedly almighty. I first thought that you only suppressed it. However, it’s clearly not the case since you can’t even control your own mana properly. As a Divine, the fact that you got reborn to humans is also strange.”

“Heh? What do you mean?” I inquired, furrowing my forehead in concern, as she tilted my curiosity.

“Do you know what’s the main difference between us, divine beings, and mortals?” Yoko asked.

“Uhm… Immortality?”

“Correct. Well, to be exact, it’s semi-immortality. Even gods can die. However, unlike mortals, we, divines, do not age. We also have a higher metabolism, making us immune against diseases and poisons, a stronger authority and obviously, stronger powers. That’s the main difference between us and mortals.”

“Umh, ok.” I simply replied, disappointed of her answer.

“You don’t get my point, do you?” Yoko asked. “Didn’t you say that you were reborn? Doesn’t it mean that you started as an infant, and up until known, kept aging?”

…

She’s right! As a supposedly divine being, it’s definitely not normal! I shouldn’t be aging! According to what I heard, this world is at least 30 000 years old. Still, physically speaking, Yoko and Harri remain exactly the same as how I first designed them. It’s pretty logical. I created them this way, so no matter how much time pass, they won’t change. But I’m different. I didn’t create myself. I died and I got reborn as an infant. I should have thought about it sooner, seeing my status. My Divine race was locked ever since the beginning. So up until now, the [World System] hasn’t been considering me as a Divine, but as a mortal?

Reading my expressions, Yoko smiled. “Did you finally get it? Mortals do not invoke cyclones. They do not grow limbs and they do not intrude each others’ mind. They also have no aura.”

… Well, it makes sense. If my divine race is locked, then it’s logical that I wouldn’t be able to use any of my divine skills. No wonder the [System] said they were unavailable. But then, how do I unlock it? There has to be a way. If not, then it wouldn’t even appear in my status to begin with.

“How do I fix this?”

“Beats me. How am I supposed to know that?” Yoko shrugged. “Still, who would have thought the Creator would be a mortal? Talk about irony!” She added with a sarcastic tone.

Figures. Maybe there is some kind of confusion between my past life and my current identity. Actually, thinking about it, it’s very high-likely. It would also explain my pathetic physical stats. In my former life, since I was bed-ridden all the time, I never did any physical exercise so I grew up to be a really weak person. Now, even if I’m nowhere near as weak as before, I’m still physically much weaker than most people. And I can’t say that I did a lot to fix this feebleness either.

How problematic. Well, at least, now I have a lead. Even with my Divinity locked, I’m still part of the Divine race, so I just need to find a way to change my racial parameters.

I’ve never heard of anyone changing race before, however, there were cases of elevations. While a demon could never become human, a ghoul could become a vampire through elevation, just like a wolfman could become a fenrir. Even if races were pre-determined, unlike divine beings, mortals had the possibility to infinitely elevate themselves beyond the point from which they departed. However, mortals’ life is too short for them to fulfill the requirements to elevate, so there were very few cases of elevations.

As for me, I’m not trying to elevate. Even sealed, I’m technically already a Goddess. But elevation might be the only thing that can directly change racial parameters, so finding more information about it could help me to find a way to unlock my Divinity.

“Do you guys know anything about elevation?” I inquired.

“What? You want to elevate?” Harri asked, widening his eyes. “Well, it’s not impossible, but I heard it’s really hard. Even harder than earning titles.”

“Titles? Are they hard to earn?”

“Yeah, most of people don’t have any.” He started to explain. “Having a title is enough to make you special, while having several is enough to make you famous. Not necessarily in a good way, though. Some titles are better than others, and most of the time, harder to get.”

Oh… I had no idea. I was born with two titles, and later earned another two, so I thought it was only natural for people to have a lot of titles. I guess not. But a title isn’t necessarily good, he said? I can totally relate to that. I’m not really proud of my latest title, [The Liar]. I randomly earned this one a few years ago. I guess it was inevitable. I hate to admit it, but it’s true that I’ve been lying non-stop in this life.

“So, how do people elevate themselves?” I asked, returning to the main topic.

Harri shrugged. “To be honest, I have no clue. Since it doesn’t concern us, we don’t know much about elevation. You should ask mortals about that.”

“Is that so…? Well, it’s ok. Thanks anyway.”

It’s a bit disappointing, but I’m more than satisfied of what I learnt today. Even if they can’t help me any longer, Yoko and Harri provided me way more than enough information.

◊◊◊◊◊◊

As the sun dipped lower in the sky and the daylight drained away, giving way to the dark of the night, the birds returned to their nest and the crickets started to sing in the swaying grasses. A cool breeze replaced the heat of the day.

After an exhausting day, I returned to my room and let myself fall on the bed. So many things happened today. Overwhelmed by all the events, I didn’t really take the time to think about all this rationally, and put things into perspective.

I’m leaving. I’m only starting to realize this now. I spent my whole life here, so I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little apprehensive of the future. Ever since I arrived here, I’ve never left this place. It’s going to be the first time that I’m left on my own, without any supervision. Even in my past life I was never once left alone. It should be fine. Besides, I’m going to meet Aoban.

Now that I think about it, is he aware that I’m coming? Uncle Jack warned mother, but did he think of warning brother? If not, I could surprise him. I wonder if he’ll be happy to see me? I hope so. I hope he’s not going to ignore me. In my past life, I was an only child, but I’ve heard that usually, siblings ignore each other at school. I don’t think Aoban would do that, though. He’s way too kind and protective. With such a gentle personality, he must be pretty popular. Maybe he already has a girlfriend? He’s already at that age after all. I don’t really want to share my brother, but I can’t be too selfish either, so I guess I’ll support him –probably.

Still, even if it’s only for a few months, I’m finally returning school. How long has it been? If it wasn’t for my uncle’s scheme, I would be really happy about this. Attending a magic school with brother and meeting new friends, all what I’ve been asking for. Yet, I can’t really enjoy the situation. I mustn’t let my guard down.

As I kept thinking about what was going to happen from now on, a wave of fatigue swept through my body and I let myself sink off to sleep.

The next days went by in a flash. I enjoyed the rest of my time here together with mother. Making her leave the residence was impossible, so we stayed in the courtyard, enjoying the nice weather. We talked about everything and nothing, but she mostly told me not to worry about anything, listen to the teachers well, do my best and enjoy school life with brother. Basically, a mother talk. Sometimes, she looked even more excited about this than me. Well, I guess sending off a child to a renowned school would be exciting for any parents, even if it means separation.

As always, Yoko and Harri were here too. I figured out that it’d be a good idea for all of them to spend as much time as possible together before I left, and I was right. At first, the atmosphere was just as awkward as before. However, it didn’t last long as Yoko and Harri started quarrelling over nothing again, forgetting about the etiquette and relaxing the atmosphere. Seeing that they weren’t bad people, mother started to open herself and is no longer intimidated by their presence. I guess they grew on her. She even called them ‘amusing’.

The servants also adapted pretty fast to the situation. My Aunt’s behavior made it obvious that she was being cautious of me. The servants weren’t blind, and soon noticed that. It was actually the main reason why they started to approach me, disregarding the fact that I was a half -only after that, they started to genuinely care for me. So, when they were informed of my departure, most of the servants became alarmed, knowing that no one would be protecting them from Aunt Nora’s mood swings anymore. Well, with Yoko and Harri around, I doubt she will find the time to bully the servants.

And before I noticed it, the day of my departure already arrived.

I only had one bag. I only took clothes with me. No books, no personal effect –besides mother’s ring, which was hanging down my neck, as always. The school would provide most of the supplies needed.

“Alright, everything is ready,” Ivy said, as she was done loading my luggage in the carriage. “So you’re really leaving…”

“Yeah, take care of my mom, ok?” I winked at her.

“Of course.” She responded. “You too, young mistress, take care of yourself and the young master. And have a lot of fun!”

I turned to mother. As I smiled at her, she stepped forward and gave me an affectionate hug. I felt a little embarrassed since everyone was watching, but tried not to pay any attention to it returned her hug. We stayed glued to each other for a while before she drew back, displaying a gentle smile.

“Take care. And say hello to your brother for me, will you?” She said.

“I will.”

She was smiling, but I could see a hint of sadness in her eyes.

Beside mother and Ivy, Yoko, Harri and all the other domestics came here too to send me off. My uncle and my aunt were here too, but it was just on formalities. Taking my time to look at everyone, I showed them my brightest smile, not to worry them, before politely giving a polite bow.

“Well then, I’ll be going now. Thanks for everything.”

I turned my gaze on Yoko and Harri. Without uttering a word, I simply gave them a meaningful look.

“Don’t worry,” Yoko said. “Do what you have to do, we will do our part.”

“Thanks. I’m counting on you.”

Giving one last smile to everyone, I got in the carriage.

“We can go now,” I said to the driver, who was waiting for me.

Once he made sure I was comfortably seated, the driver ordered the horse to move forward, as we finally set out. If everything went fine, the journey would last two weeks. Normally, it would have last longer, but since it was only me, it was a small carriage and moved faster than the one who took several students at once.

In one instant, we left the city. As the scenery of buildings changed to a scenery of trees and endless meadows, and the city slowly disappeared behind us, I suddenly felt a feeling of adventure growing into my chest. Leaving the place where I grew, I was out for the outside world. Forgetting about all my apprehensions, I leaned on the window, enjoying this new feeling of excitement.

Nora

She’s gone. Finally. I won’t have to be careful of my every move anymore. Can you believe it? Being cautious in my own house, what a joke. Having to tolerate this little demon and her mother without doing anything… It was suffocating.

However, it’s over now. She’s gone and she won’t be coming back. But I’m not sure it’s a good thing.

After all the troubles we had to get Azariah back, letting her go now would be stupid. But her children are in the way. Aoban shouldn’t have survived, and the girl should’ve never been born. We only needed the damn elf, yet it didn’t go as planned. Stuck in a situation where we had to use the kids as a mean of pressure on Azariah, Jack changed his plans.

He found a way to get rid of Aoban without killing him. It was going to take several years, however, without anyone suspecting anything, the boy would eventually lose his position as the heir and we would gain power. The girl was useless, so Jack planned to marry her off to whoever wanted her, but like this, he would get rid of the children and isolate Azariah again. His plan was good. There was just a little problem: he didn’t know the girl wasn’t normal.

He found out about it just a few days ago. But after all this time, he wasn’t going to drop anything. The plan didn’t change. However, instead of just sending off Aoban, he would also send off the girl. He would get her the same treatment as her brother. Jack didn’t lie. After the tournament, we won’t have anything to do with them anymore. Whatever they do after that, it won’t be our problem. But there is still Azariah’s issue. If she leaves, everything is over. What is he thinking?

Besides, the girl is dangerous. I don’t think Jack understand that. I know that he wanted to get rid of her without angering her, but that’s not enough. She will eventually understand. We need her gone. Definitely gone.

As the carriage disappeared in the horizon, the servants started to go back to their work, avoiding meeting my eyes. Jack already returned to his office. I need to return too, I can’t cross my arms and wait. I have to do something.

However, as I headed back inside, I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“What?!” I yelled out, turning around.

Then I saw her, stupidly smiling at me. That’s right, the beastwoman. The lowly bitch who was going to stay her for the next months. Tolerating her presence is already hard enough as it is, now, what does she want?

“What is it?” I grunted, not hiding my irritation.

Still, completely oblivious to my mood, the bitch kept smiling like an idiot.

“Hello there~!” She happily exclaimed.

“If you have nothing to say, then don’t talk to me.”

“Don’t be so cold! We’re going to be roomies for the next months, right? Let’s get along!”

“What do you want?” I asked, clicking my tongue, as I slowly lost patience.

“I told you already, didn’t I? I just wanted us to spend some time together so that we can get to know each other. So how about a little game?”

What? What is this bitch thinking? No, wait. This situation feels very familiar. The last time somebody came to me, smiling like an idiot and asked to play, it ended up very badly for me. Recalling that one time, an unsettling chill made my skin crawl. I have a bad feeling about this.

Lynett

It’s been quite a long time since I left. I’m not sure how many days have passed exactly, I lost the count, but I was hoping that we would arrive soon. As I thought, being separated from my family from the first time was quite depressing. I can’t wait to meet brother.

After a few hours, I grew tired of watching the scenery and the driver didn’t talk much either. He just wanted to get his job done as soon as possible and had no interest in conversing with the young girl I was. So the journey quickly became boring. There were no longer any feelings of adventure or excitement left, just boredom and loneliness. I was hoping for something to happen. And as if to answer my wish, something did happen.

One night, as I fell asleep watching the shimmering stars illuminating the dark night, a sudden notification sound from the [World System] woke me up. Can’t even sleep in peace, now the [System] is even interrupting my sleep…

Letting out a lazy yawn, I stretched before rubbing my eyes, inspecting the message that appeared in front of me.

System error

A general system error occurred.

Modification of the system code or a critical data structure was detected: external error.

Failed to retrieve updates from server.

Error 11. Server 5 has been corrupted.

Antivirus software activated.

…

…Huh? What the heck? Everything was fine, then suddenly, a system error report? It never happened before. Is it serious? I’ve already seen that kind of screen in my past life. They would appear whenever a file was corrupted or a virus took over the computer, just before machine crashed. However, right now, there is no computer, just the [World System]. But it just got infected by a virus? In that case, isn’t it really bad?

As an unsettling feeling started to grow in my chest, a second window popped up.

Error report

*** STOP: 0x000000012 { 0x0000000000, 0xCF00EF00F, 0xEFFFE45, 0xC00000000 }

BAD_POOL_HEADER

(vmod.fault.SystemError)

*** dxgmm.sys – Address 0xf80ff453dc32 base at 0xffff36ffd87 DataStamp 0x6ue655d

SYSTEM_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED

SERVER 8xf00056 failure

Fc557900 31ecb0ca7 80ff4009e – Fs_Rec.Sys

fec1478c8 0973e678 80144000 – Serv_DD.Sys

(multi-platform.driver.revision : 00alpha2)

r00-15 FIREWALL_SWITCH_ENABLED

*Collecting data…

*Initializing server….

**

*Contacting system admin…

*Get the authenticated user (Aileen)

* @param string Aileen

Public function authUser (Aileen = null)

**

*Check if the user is authenticated as admin.

*@param string permission

Public function adminCheck ()

English, please. I don’t understand any of this. I may have touched computers or played some video-games before, but I’ve never been a technophile. Unlike the people of my generation, I’ve never really been comfortable with all the technologies we had. I don’t even know how to use a Bluetooth connection, so how am I supposed to understand this gibberish?

An unidentified object has been detected. BSE process corresponding to the threat: Unknown

Would you like to shut down the system to prevent any damages?

Yes

No

Well, that’s already more understandable. The correct answer should be ‘Yes’. I may not be very bright when it comes to computer, but I know enough to know that a computer with a corrupted server needs to be restarted. However, the [World System] can’t be considered like a normal computer. Even if it’s only for a few seconds, I’m pretty sure that shutting it down is a bad idea. The [World System] is what is running the entire world. Wouldn’t restarting it means to also restart the World? So I can’t shut it down.

Normally, when your computer crashed and the problem couldn’t be resolved by restarting it, you would need to contact the system admin or the technical support group. Little problem: there is no technical support group, and I am the system admin, meaning I am absolutely on my own, here.

Well, in all cases, ‘Yes’ is not an option. So I guess I’ll just go with ‘No’.

System report

NO_SELECTED

System control: recovery option disabled.

*Beginning the threat prevention.

*Modifying the parameters…

*Privileges analyzing authUser (Aileen = 1)

**

*@Param restrictions lvl 1 removed.

Your privileges have been raised.

Administrator skills level 2 unlocked. The Administration control panel is now available.

Eh… What?