“This was intense!”

Rine is still blushing because of the hand-holding and the lap-pillows. While she says she understands the premise that I want to grind these WPs, I’m sure that she actually doesn’t.

Her head is already too full with flowers to fit anything meaningful inside anymore.

After dinner and interviewing her thoroughly, I learned the five divine laws.

You may only serve one god at a time. You may not change your gender. You may not bring the dead back to actual life. You may have only one partner in marriage. You may not officially change your name, unless due to marriage.

These are very… strange. I mean, with all the possibilities to enforce divine will, they went with these five rules and are even threatening the mortals with genocide if they break them.

What about murder? Rape? Adultery? All the stuff the various religions in my world say are bad, aren’t much of a big deal here, but woe betide anyone who changes his name, because it could cause his entire species to be wiped out. Bullshit!

…nonetheless, I better write them down. Even though they’re pointless.

The hero-system lacks a journal-function, so I can’t reread the details of the setting, which means if I want to come back to it, I better write it down manually. What a shitty system! Journals are common nowadays!

Well, this world is not a game. So why should anyone include a function which would actually be useful?

“Phew…” I open our [Inventory] and it’s still jumbled. Let’s look where the paper is. Wait, weren’t only drop items in the upper-left corner just now? Why is there a paper? A letter? A letter from Kyou-san!

Hastily, I take it out and read it.

Just reading the first words, I rub my eyes and read again. I really think that I just read ‘Die Ken’ instead of ‘Dear Ken’.

Yep, ‘Die Ken!” With an exclamation mark.

Die Ken!

Please, just die! I’m currently with Inoue Masahiko’s party and we want to find you. You must also be anxious about the curse, so tell me, where shall we meet? Be quick or you will regret it. Tell me the prominent landmarks you can see, so we can meet up at one.

Momokawa Kyou

P.S. I know you pulled Rine-chan into this!

I can see the anger she was feeling when writing that letter. We could probably meet up here, on top of this mountain, but then she would most likely complain that this is too stressful. So someplace I can see from afar, but won’t be too hard to get to.

Also, since she’s hanging out with Inoue, it should be better be a place where we can flee from them if things go wrong. They’re still after Rine, even though she’s our prey! But I’m a bit vulnerable right now. So where should we meet up…

I look around and see a mountain range, a tall mountain between smaller ones. Looks like a one-finger salute. This might work. There is a forest right before it, so there would be an escape-route.

I write down that location between some insults, using the backside of the same letter, and put it in the middle of the inventory-screen. Kyou-san always wants to keep the important stuff there for some reason.

Since Rine will just follow whatever I say, I see no need to tell her yet. While she’s still trapped in her own delusions, looking at me, looking at her hand, giggling, smiling—in short, annoying me—I just check my status.

Still the same. How about [Abilities]… I may have ground some AP… too bad that there are no pop-up messages for level ups and acquired skills in [Pikeman] and [Scout].

What a joke. I got another [Survival]-skill: [Mountain-climber], which makes it easier to move around any mountainous terrain. Funny thing that I found it in my status while I can’t use it. My [Scout]-class is blocked!

But why did I get it in the first place? Could it be that the skills you learn depend on your activities? Or your needs?

On the other hand, I only wear hide armor, so why did I get the [Chain] and [Cuirass] skills?

But [Hide] was the first I got back then… Then [Leather], [Chain] and [Cuirass]. So maybe it is related.

Let’s take a look at the [Perception]-ability. The order of learned skills were [Farsight], [Focus], [Darksight], [Dormurnal], and [Pitch]. It seems almost logical, even though I needed [Dormurnal] the most. Maybe it's a high-leveled technique, while [Pitch] is not. Aside from that, the sequence makes sense. I needed to see the monsters from afar, focusing on their movements and attacks and then I got [Darksight]. Wait, didn’t I start cave exploration and night-combat shortly after attaining [Darksight]?

It’s not like I needed [Distraction] from the [Stealth]-ability, either.

I guess I figured it out.

After collecting a certain amount of AP, you learn a skill, which reflects your past behavior, as long as your rank—which is something like an ability-level—is high enough for that skill. If you can’t learn a skill, which fulfills the conditions, you learn a random skill, which is at your level.

If this is correct, I can decide the skills I learn myself to a degree. Or rather, I could, if I had any idea which skills exist! Ah! Hero-system, you’re so non-transparent! How are we supposed to use you efficiently, if you offer no guide besides that shitty, detail-lacking booklet!?

“Kenta?”

If this was a game, I would message the admin!

“Kenta?”

Or better, just log out! I hate being in this world!

“Kenta!”

“What is it!?”

“You seem to be irritated.”

“I am. So be quiet!”

“We’ll find her.”

“Who? The one responsible for that shitty system?”

“Kyou?”

“What about her?”

“Aren’t you upset, because we couldn’t find her here?”

“…Uaah, I finally forgot! Why do you need to make everything worse?”

“…sorry.”

Wait, just stop using your weapons! I’m allergic to tears! Don’t cry!

Damn it, now I have to apologize for telling the truth! “I- … I’m sorry. You’re- right!” I can hardly say a word because of the bitterness.

She looks up to me, even though we’re about the same height, and uses her twinkle eye beam to destroy any form of resistance within me. Seriously, whenever I put her into a bad mood, she forces me to apologize and then hits me with a surprise attack. “Kenta… may I sit on your lap?”

How… how did you come up with that!? There is no connection, what’s going on, it’s irrational! “…why?”

“You said you want to earn that WPs. And it’s only a small thing… which would make me happy.”

I just pretend that I didn’t hear the last part. I don’t want to think about what's going on in her head because I fear for my own sanity if I do that!

So Rine has looked into the list of how to earn WP and found something she wanted to do.

I don’t want anyone to sit on my lap! I’m a healthy young man and Rine is an attractive woman. Nah, more like a beautiful girl with the behavior of a child, so only physically attractive. But nonetheless, I may ‘react’ if she sits on my lap.

I casually check her bottom. Yes, it’s beautiful. The healthiness inside me expresses its desire to fondle that behind. It seems round and firm and her pelvis are ideal for child-making. Thinking about having this nice ass right in front of my son is quite arousing, but this is this and that is that. Mind over body, accept your arousal but never give in.

So I give her my answer: “After considering my options, I must decline.”

Oh no. Not again! Don’t look like you’re about to break out into tears! I totally forgot about that.

...there is only one way out. “Phew… you won. Let’s get over it.” At least I’ll get a WP out of it.

Like a sunrise, Rine’s whole facial play changes from depressed to pure happiness.

I change my sitting position, so that Rine may sit on my lap. I just have to recite Buddhistic prayers, while she sits there.

Wait, I don’t know any. So I have to make it up, I guess.

Slowly, Rine approaches me and she seems to be very careful, which only makes me more conscious about it. Come on, she only will sit on my lap. It’s like with children. Except that I never had a child sitting there before.

With an expression between excitement and embarrassment, Rine finally sits down and her butt is squirming on my thighs.

Stop it! Stop rubbing your ass in that location!

Let’s begin the self-made Buddhistic prayer – gamer style!

– You shall not lust after a woman who doesn’t game, since she won’t let you spend your free-time on a PC!

– Don’t let the temptations of real life obstruct your attitude about gaming.

– Gaming is more important than having a life.

– You shall remain faithful to your marriages within games and… but games aren’t real, so it’s technically allowed to pursue love and lust in real life as well.

– Don’t let that comfortable and alluring butt destroy your reason, mind over body, soul over mind and gaming is your soul. So if you’re touching this ass, remember to do so soulfully.

Dammit! I’m already at the point I can’t think of anything else but the sensation of my thighs!

Wait, wouldn’t I forget about Rine’s butt if I fondle her breasts instead, which are easily reachable from this position?

No! Don’t give in! If I do, Rine will never leave me alone! She’ll surely insist that I’ll take responsibility!

I was wrong! Rine is no fake! She’s pure! So pure that it’s way more troublesome than her being deceitful! Because I can’t oppose her honesty!

I’m no monster.

At least concerning someone like Rine, whose personality seems to stem from a game! No normal human could be so direct about her feelings!

“Kenta? Are you uncomfortable? You’re backing away.”

“Ignore it, please. Just sit still and do nothing.”

“OK.”

And what does she do? “Don’t lean on me!” Maximum body contact!

“But it’s more comfortable.”

“Not for me.”

“Please?”

“Don’t think that ‘please’ will solve all your problems!”

“But… you’re warm.”

Pervert! She’s a pervert! And you, son, stay low!

Rine is warm as well, it’s a kind of warmth which can only be transferred by other human beings. Now that I think about it, she’s a princess. Following the stories of princesses in fiction, she may actually feel lonely. Never having much contact with anyone, except servants, not feeling personal warmth.

As if!

I’m sure she was always a spoiled brat, without a shred of real empathy, unable to restrain her urges. So she constantly verbalizes them, pressuring everyone around her with emotional outbreaks if they won’t do her bidding.

A true princess!

I want to throw her off my lap, but it’s for WP-grinding. Grinding needs endurance and since I’m a gamer, that’s what I have most.

“Phew.” So I just sigh. And wait.

You gain 1 WP. It’s natural for a young couple to seek bodily contact and having your wife sitting on your lap is a good method to fan the flames of youth.

Finally!

…

Wait, Kyou-san mentioned that she knows how Rine and I are ‘connected’ now. Does she get all these WP-Updates, too? That would mean that she knows about everything I do with Rine.

Is there no privacy in this ‘marriage’?

Somehow I get the feeling that Kyou-san will be angry with me, but most likely only because she hates me and it looks like I’m exploiting the whole ‘second marriage’ mess.

Why do I get the feeling that I miss something fundamental here, though?

“By the way, Rine? When do you plan to get off?”

“Hm? Oh. Can’t I just stay?”

“No? We got the WP.”

“Tomorrow then.” With these words she stands up and smiles at me.

I facepalm. I get the feeling that I’ve done that quite often since I met Rine. But there is no logical reason to decline another session. Since it gives WPs.

And it should be quite profitable over time.

Let’s calculate a bit. The XP-boost is 500 WPs and we have currently 112. That’s 388 left. Kyou-san and I grind about 6 WP per day plus some irregular ones. If Rine just does the same as Kyou-san, we can add another daily 6 WPs. Wait, she sits on my lap, so it’d rather be 7 WPs. If I estimate that we get about a half WP per day due to irregular actions, we would get 13.5 WPs per day.

That’d be 28.74 days, so 28 days, 17 hours, 45 minutes and 36 seconds.

…

Wait, something is wrong! I may be good at math and did countless calculations back home on my PC to optimize my characters in my games, but I’m not that good!

Following a feeling, I open my status and there I see it. A new [Academics]-skill, [Calculator]. It basically just makes me a calculator. Even though I want to call it useless, I can’t help thinking that I’m constantly calculating things like XP-gain, WP-ratio and other system-related data. I sure would have needed that skill much sooner!

On the other hand, it supports my theory how I learn specific skills. I must have got the [Calculator]-skill because I’m doing all this math the whole time. But before that, it was more important to learn about this world, so I learned [Fast Learner] first.

But if I can utilize it, then…

“Kenta? What are you thinking about?”

Suddenly feeling Rine’s breath on my ear, my thoughts are wiped out. Unnerved, I turn my head to Rine, who again came unnecessarily close to me. “Thanks to you, nothing.”

“Hm?” Her typical head-tilt. She doesn’t understand.

“Nevermind. Can’t you just lay down and sleep now? I'd like to wake up early and it’s not safe enough for us to sleep at the same time.”

“OK… could you tell me a story? Since it’s still early?”

What is she-… no, Rine being childish is already an established fact. So why do I even bother to argue?

“I don’t know many.” I could retell a game story or some simple fairy tales, like Urashima Tarou or Momotarou. Maybe some western ones, too. Let’s go with Momotarou. We did a play back in middle school. I was a tree and oni underling #1. The first one, who got murdered. Somehow I’m pissed off, again. Let’s just get over it.

“A long, long time ago, there was an old couple…” I’m not that good at storytelling, and I had to stop here and then to remember the story line again, but in the end, I got it more or less right…

She’s finally asleep.

… I can’t believe how beautiful Rine looks when she’s asleep.

However, I keep some distance. I haven’t forgotten that a sleeping Rine has a death zone around her. Her sword is right beside her, so coming close would be a fatal mistake.

Like so often, I use this time off to look at my status. Or more like, Rine’s in this case. There are some [Abilities], I didn’t know of before, like [Animal ken] and its [Riding]-skill. So Rine can ride a horse very well, huh?

But even though she has some active abilities, there are only a few skills. She earned every single one of them the hard way. [Divine Magic] and [Sword] are particularly high-ranked. Even though she shares some of Kyou-san’s [Divine Magic]-spells, there are still differences. Rine doesn’t know [Stamina], but [Delay Poison], for example.

Since Rine probably already had her skills before becoming a hero, I can’t prove my theory regarding skill-acquiring.

For example: Why doesn’t Rine have skills like [Nightly Death Zone], [Killing with one blow], [One murders all] and [At-will crying]? That’s what she does all the time! At least she has one single [Sword]-skill [Dismember], that actually disturbs me. It’s an attack-combo with heavy blows, which actually might chop off limbs.

But that’s not the main-reason why she’s so OP. It’s her sword!

[Friedensbote] Description:

A royal treasure of the Feuerberg-kingdom. A sword blessed by the human gods and a gift of the founder of the 'von Stolzherz'-family to his heirs. It's true power can only be unleashed by its rightful owners. Special (Exorcist): Double damage vs. undead and demons. Special (Heritage): All special traits are only active if someone of the von Stolzherz bloodline wields the weapon. Special (Increase attack): Adds twice the wielder's level to Attack. Special (Keen Edge): Manifold increase of keenness. Special (Prevail): Increases attack depending on the level of danger the wielder is exposed to. Status: +250 Attack (basic); +298 Attack (wielded by Katarine von Stolzherz) Value: Invaluable

It’s like an end-game-item. The higher your level, the more powerful it becomes. Additionally, it becomes stronger, the more dangerous it gets, who knows how much of an increase that brings?

I still don’t know how exactly [Attack] and [Strength] are related to each other, but her weapon clearly outclasses my spear even without any boost, and her [Strength] isn’t too far behind from mine.

Also, even the hero-system struggles with a price tag. Even if I sold it, I don’t know if I can get enough for a second decurse-attempt. Well, not like I can return to Esse after selling it. It’s a royal treasure, after all.

Again, I compare her stats with mine. I’m sure I'm missing something.

Ah.

The etna’s blessing. It has run out.

I guess even such an overpowered status boost only lasts half a day.

―○●○―

It’s morning when someone wakes me up with a sickeningly gentle wake-up call. “Wake up, my dear.”

I jump up as if stung by an adder while shivering. I’m wide awake and see Rine who already put on her armor and with a dreamy look on her face. After doing some breaths of unease, I ask the important question: “Why are you calling me that? Again!?”

“Because we’re married.”

“No, we’re cursed! Read my lips: We-Are-Cursed! We-Are-Not-Married!”

She listens to my words with her typical head-tilting, and after a second, she nods in disappointment. I hope this won’t become a daily routine. It’s bad for my sanity.

With this matter at least temporarily closed, I explain today’s goals. “I’ve contacted Kyou-san and we will meet up before the woods of these mountains.” I point at the rocky one-finger salute.

“OK.”

“Kyou-san is surely accompanied by some other heroes. They’re also after you, so you’ll hide behind some trees and wait for whatever comes. If everything goes right, Kyou-san will join us again and then-” Should I tell her that we will hand her over then? Well, let’s see about it, after we meet up. “-then everything will work out somehow.”

“OK.” She smiles like there is no worry in this world. It makes me sick, but at least it’s bearable, unlike her tears.

Climbing down the mountain we were on was the hardest part of the whole trip. Since Rine is in kill-mode again, any combats are a cake-walk here. As long as I keep her back covered, at least. Now I know that Rine is more of a glass-canon character, so I have to cover that. Especially as I’d like to depend more on her from now on.

The curse is getting worse though. I’ve the first minor [Attribute]-debuff, but I can still fight these kinds of opponents without any major problems. Actually, it’s still easier fighting them in this state compared to the time when I had to protect Kyou-san as well. I just have to worry about myself, after all, aside from giving Rine the small assist here and there.

Now that I’m on my way to retrieve Kyou-san, the pressure has lessened and I can finally relax a bit. I even converse with Rine! “And after school, you return home and can play games.”

“What kind of games? Cup-and-ball?”

“No, video games. It’s… well, where should I begin…” OK, I do most of the talking, but it’s her fault that she asked me about Japan. Even though I miss home and have yet to return, it’s nice to talk about it.

Seriously, as long as Rine is quiet, she’s quite a pleasant comrade. Well, the same goes for Kyou-san. Why can’t both of them be quiet most of the time? Is that too much to ask for?

We arrive at the location. “So, this is the rendezvous point. I don’t sense anyone here, but this is for the better. Rine, we’ll go into the woods.”

“Why? Shouldn’t we wait here?”

“Like I explained before, you’ll hide in there. It won’t do good if fake’s party detects you. Also, I’d like to set some traps.”

“Why? For hunting?”

“Something like that.”

“Kenta, I see you smiling, but it’s kinda sleazy.”

“I know.”