Chapter 2

“Fuuuu....”

Jae exhaled as he sprawled out on the amazingly soft, silk bed. Currently, he was in the room assigned to him by the palace butlers and maids.

..It really is amazing

Once again, he recited the words.

Open Status.

And then, a transparent, floating screen appeared in the air in front of him, like from a videogame. He was obviously amazed that it actually worked, but at the same time, he was half-expecting it because it is a concept that shows up a lot in the fiction he liked. Earlier, Jae didn’t have much of an opportunity to look at his ‘Status Window’ because he needed to pay attention to what the princess was saying, but now that was done, he could study it in detail.

Jae looked closely at the display.

〔Status〕 Jae Kang [Cursed] Level 1 Class : No available classes Health Points (HP) : 317/317 Mana Points (MP) : 100/100 Title :「Apostle of Sin」 Strength : 17 Endurance : 17 Race : Human Dexterity : 17 Agility : 18 Age : 16 Magic : 20* Wisdom : 0 Trait:「Steadfast Mind」 Luck : — Distributable Points: 0 Titles:「Apostle of Sin」「Cursed by a God」「Sinful God's Affliction」「World Traveller」 Resistance Skills:「Mental Abnormal Status Nullification [Lv.MAX]」 Communication Skills:「Seronian Language Comprehension [Lv.MAX]」

“...It’s still there......”

He frowned.

“Isn’t that bad?”

Jae re-read his status.

“…It definitely says, ‘Sin’ and ‘Sinful God’.... There's even a 'Curse'...”

He thought for a moment before coming to a conclusion.

“…Shit. This is really bad, huh.”

Jae didn’t know about the main stats, but surely him having two Titles with ‘sin’ in them was bad news. Not to mention the 'curse'.

He tried his best to keep calm.

…I should be okay as long as nobody finds out.

Right. And, there's the silver lining that he has the max level「Mental Abnormal Status Nullification」skill, probably originating from his trait,「Steadfast Mind」. Whatever it is, it sounds extremely useful.

Anyway, hiding it would most likely be a very tough act to keep up. To live in this royal palace where countless important people and items are located, as well as his classmates, the so-called "Heroes", all without anyone finding out about his status… For all he knows, there could be someone here who can look at other peoples' Status.

...It would be extremely difficult to continue hiding it. Realising this, Jae decided to look around the palace.

The Princess said dinner will be in three hours right? If the time is the same as on Earth, then that would be at around half-six.

Good. There’s plenty of time. Jae closed his Status, got up from the bed and walked out the room. After all, it would be good to know the layout of the place, just in-case something bad happened.

Walking through the halls of the palace, Jae passed some of his classmates, chatting. He didn't stop to speak to any of them, since their relationship couldn't really be called 'friends', and they probably didn’t want to talk to him anyway, with the current situation and all, so he simply ignored everyone he passed and made a mental map of where everyone’s room was. It was easy enough to do, since they had nameplates engraved in metal plates on the doors. When he arrived at the final corridor, someone exited a nearby room, seemingly in a hurry.

He almost bumped into Jae because of this, but luckily moved out the way before they collided. The boy turned to Jae after just missing him, and spoke.

“Ah, Jae. My apologies for that; I’m in a bit of a hurry. See you later!”, he said briefly, before running off down the corridor.

Jae stared at the guy’s back until he rounded a corner. He was a little confused, and then looked back towards the room he came from. It wasn’t that guy's room.

…Chris, huh. What was he doing in Ashley’s room?

Jae began to suspect something suspicious was up. The door was slightly ajar, so Jae was about to peek in when Ashley herself came out.

“Hm? Jae...? Your room isn’t on this corridor… Do you need something?”

She was right. Well, it was evident, since the boys’ and girls’ areas are separated. Ashley was one of the few people in this class that spoke to Jae, including Chris―it wasn’t because they were all well-acquainted, but more so that those two friends were just nice to everyone. Because of that, Jae hesitated before speaking a bit stiffly.

“I’m just taking a look around the place.”

“I see.”

Ashley formed a smile that gave off a curious feeling, “Well, sorry about him, but it looks like you’re fine.”

"Yeah, don't worry about it."

“Chris just went to admonish Ryan; apparently he stole something.”

"Ah, I see.”

Guess it explains why that guy was in such a hurry. Though I don't get why he cares so much.

“Oh right, we were in my room with some others when someone came in and told us what happened.”

“...Sure.”

“Ah, I’m sorry, would you like to come in and--”

“―Sorry, but no thanks. I have something I need to do. Later, then.”

I can't drag this on any longer. Don't want to waste time unnecessarily. Good thing this was the last dorm area to check.

“…I see... Well then, I’ll see you later.”

Jae nodded before quickly leaving the corridor.

"......"

Ashley continued to stare at the place where he left, still with a curious expression, and mumbled to herself.

“…Did he always have such an 'ominous' feeling around him…?”

It was dinner time. The whole class had been guided to a large dining hall, where a huge feast had been prepared for them. The Princess, Eleanor, had told them to eat to their hearts content since they were celebrating the Heroes’ arrival, and so the students all accepted and began to chow down.

Jae glanced around at everyone in the room as he sat down. It didn’t seem anyone knew about the Status yet, so he could rest easy for now.… Or at least, that’s what he was hoping for―Turns out there were indeed a couple of people who found out about it during the previous free time. Anyway, these two students...

They called themselves 'Yamato' and 'Sora', right? Really cringey and embarrassing actually, considering that they're not actually Japanese.

Apparently, some random guy overheard them talking about the Status, and, because everyone was eating at the same table, the information spread rapidly―like wildfire―among the students, to the two’s dismay. Jae was alarmed too, when his classmates started to open their Status’ one by one, with great tension, as if confirming their lottery numbers, and then comparing their status’ to their friends, as if to try and figure out who has the winning numbers.

This is... bad.

It’s not like he didn’t understand their excitement, but couldn’t those two have not discussed such an important thing so loudly in such a busy area?

Shit. Let's book it quick.

Swiftly, Jae pocketed some food and sneakily tried to leave the room. It was a shame their bags didn’t get summoned with them, so he couldn’t carry much, but that was alright. As soon as Jae exited the room...

“Jae, right?”

It was Ryan. Jae turned around to face him with an apprehensive look.

"....Yes...? Do you need anything?”

What does he want? Man, just go away, please, Jae internally complained.

Ryan, on the other hand, smirked.

“Huh, not particularly... Just wondered where ya headin’ to? Eatin' time aint over yet, is it pal?”

Jae replied briefly, “My room.”, and asked when Ryan kept following him as he walked away, “…Look, what do you want? I ate enough, and besides, you can't even pretend to care about a random guy's wellbeing. What is it?”

“Woah there, why so aggressive, huuuh? Who said I wanted anythin’?”

Ryan glanced between the food in Jae's hand and his mouth.

He's leavin' the hall while still eatin' some food. So, there's a reason this guy didn't wanna be in there—in a room with the entire class.

His smirk disappeared after Jae blankly looked at him with an expression that said 'I know you want something. Just spit it out'.

“...Seems I'm caught huh. Well, it’s true that I don’t want anythin’ though.”

Ryan continued as a grin surfaced on his face.

“―Just curious. After all, you… ya knew about the ‘Status’ thing before it was circulated, didn’t you? Why's that?”

After seconds passed, Jae replied with a weak smile.

“You know why those two knew about it originally? They probably read it in a book or something. I’m just the same.”

Ryan’s grin disappeared and was instead replaced with a frightening glare. He stared Jae in the eyes with piercing eyes, while Jae simply looked back with the same weak smile.

For fuck's sake man, what do you want from me? Just leave me alone.....

How much time passed like this? It was at the very least a few minutes before Ryan finally gave up. As if nothing had happened, he opened his mouth again.

“Although somethin' tells me you got somethin’ to hide… Well, since you’re at such a disadvantage, I’ll give ya a piece of info ya may or may not like to hear.”

Smiling once more, Ryan spoke.

“'Lucas' has a skill to see other people’s Status.”

He continued.

“It’s weakness…? Well, I’m not just givin’ that to ya for free, huhu. You owe me.”

After these parting words, Ryan kept laughing ominously as he walked back to his room. Jae thought nervously about what he said even after he left.

...Does Lucas really have a skill to see others’ status?

Of course, Ryan could be lying about this information, but Jae is unsure whether this is true. In any case, Jae should prepare for the worst.

…If that guy sees my status and reports about it to someone, it could spread…

And, in that case...

I hope it doesn’t get to that point, but… if worse comes to worse…

"Ahh, this won't solve anything."

Burying those thoughts for now, Jae walked away somewhere.