Chapter 92: Steph and Elemia

"...The path splits," Julia's mother said.

Sure enough, the cave split into two in front of us.

And we could sense monsters coming from both directions.

"In that case, let's split up. Me and Julia, Ed, Jeremiah, and Steph."

"Understood."

After replying to Dad's suggestion, I turned to Jeremiah and Steph.

"Shall we go then?"

"Yes," "Yes."

With Jeremiah acting as scout, we silently proceeded through the cave for a while.

We'd been going for about five minutes when Steph called out.

"Again?"

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A group of owl bears appeared from the depths of the cave.

There were six...no, seven in number.

"It'd be a pain to deal with them one by one."

It's not much experience to fight monsters of this level.

Of course, this is also meant to weaken the evil god's power, so we can't just let it go.

"Well, I'll take care of them all then," Elemia said, unsheathing two daggers from the sheath at his waist.

Elemia used his <Dark Magician> ability to cover the two blades in "darkness".

"--【Death Eye】"

As he muttered, Elemia ran.

He ran from shadow to shadow through the group of owl bears, swinging his dark twin daggers with blinding speed.

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The owl bears were completely unable to move during this time. In fact, they didn't even notice Elemia's presence.

"...<Assassinate>"

Elemia, who had somehow returned to us, muttered.

The owl bears shook and shook, making a loud thud, and collapsed to the ground.

Assassinate. An instant-death magic technique that Elemia created by combining [Assassination], [Spirit Magic], and [Dark Element Magic].

Let's take a look at how much stronger Elemia has become in the past five years.

Elemia Lotteroot Kyrebel (Foster daughter of the Kyrebel family, [Priestess of the Dark Forest])

12 years old

Dark Elf

Level 43 (↑22)

HP 71/71 (↑41)

MP 3654/3864 (3774+90, ↑3797)

Class

Assassin C (NEW!) (A combat engineer specializing in "killing". As the class rank increases, physical agility and physical Applies a bonus to the ability to manipulate, sense presence, and stealth. Small bonus to the acquisition of skills useful for assassination.)

<Dark Magician> D (NEW!) (A magician who specializes in the manipulation of dark magic and spirit power. As class rank increases, the ability to create and control darkness is adjusted. Each time class rank increases, MP is increased by +30.)

<Instrumentalist> D (NEW!) (By adding magic power to the performance of an instrument, various support effects can be added. The amount of magic power that can be added increases according to class rank. Each time class rank increases, MP is increased by +15.)

Skills

Legendary

[Fatigue Transfer] -

[Spirit Magic] 5 (NEW!)

[Telepathy] 5 (NEW!)

[Death Eye] 3 (NEW! Can see through areas where fatal damage can be inflicted. Depending on the target's level, magic, skills, etc. )

[Dual Magic Dagger Technique] 2 (NEW!)

- Expert

[Lightning Magic +1] 4 (NEW!)

[Lightning Magic +1] 1 (NEW!)

[Shooting] 2 (NEW!)

[Sniping] 1 (NEW!)

- General

[Gun Technique] 9 (MAX, NEW!)

《Blessing of the Dark Forest》

》

Elemia has acquired three classes.

I didn't say she acquired them, but I synthesized them using [Skill Magic], but it was undoubtedly Elemia's efforts that allowed her to meet the conditions for synthesis.

[Assassination Technique], close combat, and scout-related skills have been integrated into <Assassin>, and [Dark Magic] and magical technique-related skills have been integrated into <Black Magician>, resulting in a much cleaner looking stats.

After that, Elemia continued to use Assassinate to eliminate the hordes of monsters he came across.

Elemia's dance of slaughter never tires and never (almost) runs out of MP. At first, Elemia was going to abandon Assassination Arts, but her aptitude for Assassination Arts was quite good. In the end, Elemia came to terms with her past and chose to combine the abominable skills she had acquired with the Yatagarasu with her own magical talent to sublimate them into magical techniques.

This must have been a very painful path for Elemia, who is still tormented by guilt. But Elemia accomplished it without a word of complaint. For that alone, I respect Elemia from the bottom of my heart.

Even so,

"It's easier with Lady Elemia here," Steph said nonchalantly, worrying about the split ends in her bangs.

Yeah. Or rather,

"... I'm bored."

"Yeah, I guess so."

Eremia quickly takes care of any monsters we come across, so Steph and I don't have a role to play. We leave the searching to Jeremia, so Steph and I are just chasing after her.

"Well, shall we have some girl talk?"

"I'm not a girl."

"Come on. What do you think of Lady Jeremia?"

"What do you think of Lady Jeremia, young master?"

A crash! There was a noise.

I looked and saw that Jeremia had dropped the dagger in his hand.

Steph and I looked at Jeremia, who was about 10 meters ahead of us, and

"Oh, um... I wonder if he's tired?"

Jeremia picked up the dagger while muttering in an exaggerated way.

Her eyes are fixed ahead, but I can see that she is listening in my direction.

Elemia has sharp senses, so she must be able to pick up on Steph and I's conversation even while fighting.

...But anyway, Elemia doesn't get tired.

I broke out into a cold sweat and thought about it--

"Th-"

"You're a child so you can't understand, right? You're a reincarnated person, right?"

"Ugh..."

Steph read your mind...?

"W-well, why are you suddenly asking me that?"

"Well, in a few years, Lady Elemia will be of marriageable age, right? Even though you're an adopted daughter, you're still the daughter of the noble Kyrebel family. Of course, marriage proposals will come in. Right now, the Kyrebel Marquis family is the center of attention in the royal capital."

That's... true.

"If that's what you want, you'll regret it later if you don't catch it properly."

Steph's reasoning left me speechless.

At that moment, Elemia returned after finishing clearing out the horde of evil titans.

"Edgar... what do you think of me?"

Elemia asked, looking up at me.

"Um... a troublesome little sister?"

"Ugh... I'm supposed to be the big sister..."

When I replied to cover it up, Elemia was dejected.

"Well, what about me, young master Ed?"

Steph is now 20 years old. She still has the same baby face, but she's grown a little taller and looks a little sharper. Her training as a <Magical Warrior> has refined her mannerisms, and I was surprised to see that she now looks somewhat dignified even when working as a maid. Her way of speaking has lost some of her vagueness, and depending on how you look at it, she might seem like a capable maid.

However,

"Hmm... she's like a little sister you can't take your eyes off of?"

"Isn't she the same?"

They both comment.

Even though she has shown remarkable growth as a <Magical Warrior> and as a maid, she still seems a little dangerous and you can't leave her alone.

"And when it comes to keeping an eye on her, you have to be careful, young master."

"Yeah, that's true! Neither Steph nor I can come close to him in terms of combat ability, but Edgar is a bit of a genius. When he gets excited about improving his skills, he loses track of time."

"You're a real boy, aren't you?"

"That's right! Like a little brother you can't leave alone?"

Steph and Jeremiah get excited talking to each other.

I've been telling Steph for the past few years not to be reserved with me just because I'm a maid, so lately I've been getting my act together with her.

"Jeremiah and Steph get along well, don't they?"

They seem like oil and water in terms of personality, but they seem to get along well and I often see them chatting at the mansion.

"Yeah. As both of them are caretakers of the young master, they seem to get along well."

"...Jeremiah isn't my caretaker, is she?"

"But we often work together as partners, so I'm more like Edgar's caretaker, aren't I?"

"No, I think Jeremiah is a bit of a handful. She pushes herself too hard and tries to put up with everything."

"W-well... but, judging by our age, I'm Edgar's older sister, you know?"

"That's right. Lady Jeremiah, you were feeling down because Young Master Edgar wouldn't call you 'older sister'?"

"Oh, "I'm not depressed! Can you not just tell people about that!?"

"Hehe. You're grumbling in front of the maids, that's not good."

"Uh, but Steph sometimes disappears when she's working as a maid."

"If Lady Jeremiah is really on the lookout, she'll find me right away. Haha, maybe you want Master Edgar to find you and comfort you kindly..."

"W-w-w-what?! That's not true!"

Eremia's face goes red after being teased by Steph.

Poor Jeremiah has established herself as the one we all pick on, and now she's being teased by not only me and Julia, but even Steph, the maid.

...But well, at first, she was overly considerate so that we wouldn't abandon her. It's much better now than that. In my previous life, there were some people at school who got exhausted from playing characters. But, within reasonable limits, having a character is also proof that you are accepted by those around you. By the way, did I have a character at school or work in my previous life? Well, let's not talk about that. No one ever gave me a nickname, and I don't care about the fact that I was always called "Kagi-kun."

"Even so, to the young master, we are two younger sisters, but to us, the young master is our younger brother. Don't you have an older sister?"

"If you mean an older sister, then you have Melvy. She's not here today, though."

Melvy is out in the fairyland today, so she hasn't come with us.

The reason is that we have finally decided to resume the work of removing the peeling barrier.

The peeling barrier removal machine itself was a fully practical machine that we had succeeded in creating after about a year of work. In the process, I had acquired the class of <Machinist>, which dramatically improved the precision of my machine work. Furthermore, thanks to the effect of <Machinist>, he was able to somewhat understand the operating principles of machines he had seen, and by combining the mechanisms of various machines he had seen in his previous life, he was able to assemble a machine that worked quite reliably.

So, in reality, it would be strange if the peeling barrier had not been lifted a long time ago.

So why had the peeling barrier not been lifted yet? It was because Mother Julia was opposed to it.

"It's a barrier that sealed away the legendary elves, right? The caster must have done something to it, and when the barrier is lifted, we will contact the caster.

A powerful demon will be summoned, or a huge explosion will occur on the spot... Anyway, I think there is a possibility that something could happen.

So I want you to wait until Edgar is older and confident that you can handle such a situation before you deactivate it."

My mother's reasoning was reasonable.

In the end, we had a family meeting at the Kyurebel household, including Melvy, and we decided that we would start the work of deactivating the peeling barrier when I turned six.

And today is my sixth birthday. Melvy had been acting restless since yesterday, so before coming here today, I flew to Fairyland through the gate and started up the deactivation machine. Once it was activated, all that was left to do was for the machine to slam dimensional fleas into the barrier at regular intervals, but Melvy said she wanted to stay in Fairyland for a while and stayed behind.

Now that the machine was working, it was only a matter of time before the barrier was deactivated. In three weeks of time outside Fairyland, it would be possible to completely chip away at the peeling barrier.

However, because of the problem with the alarm system that Mom was worried about, they decided to stop the work when the barrier was less than one meter away. The deactivation machine has a mode to maintain the current state at a pace that barely prevents the barrier from recovering, so there is no risk of the barrier recovering even if they leave it alone.

And after preparing their forces and preparing as much as possible for unforeseen circumstances, they plan to completely deactivate the barrier.

"It's Melvy's long-cherished wish that has lasted more than a thousand years. I want to leave her alone for now. Melvy has been working so hard for so long, I don't think there are any words I can say to her."

"I think so," Steph nodded.

"...Even so, I feel like Edgar and Melvy understand each other really well."

"I wonder... I can't lie to Melvy."

"I think it's amazing that someone who can't lie to me trusts me that much. I... I'm sure I couldn't."

"I don't think Elemia is the type to lie either."

"It's not about whether I lie or not, I just worry about what I'll do if she suspects me, or it's scary how she seems to know everything... Ah, it's not like I hate Melvy or anything."

"Elemia is the type to be considerate. Melvy seems to have a lot of experience in life, so once you get used to her, it's very easy. She's good at turning a blind eye to our dirty parts."

Melvy is a fairy with a big heart who can see through lies but isn't a clean freak, and can accept both good and bad.

"But if you lie, you'll get found out. I once broke a vase in the mansion, and Melvy said, 'I'm not going to say anything bad, so just apologize'..."

"No, you should apologize."

Melvy can see through lies, but she is well-liked by the servants of the mansion because she is considerate of the other person's reputation and position. Some of the servants even call her "big sister" or "big sister." Recently, she has been doing things like counseling using [Fairy Song] and [Hypnotism], and thanks to them, the turnover rate at our mansion is extremely low compared to other noble houses.

In addition, Father Alfred and Mother Julia, who are the owners of the mansion, are (basically) gentle people. Because of this, servants at the Curiebell mansion seem to be the most popular job in the royal capital, and there are plenty of excellent servants to choose from. Because of my secret, it's a great help for my family, who need to carefully select people who can keep their mouths shut. Moreover, Melvy can tell when someone is lying, so she's extremely reliable when it comes to maintaining confidentiality. In addition, she can filter out "bad people" who can't see Melvy, so the level of the Kyurerube family servants is high not only in terms of ability but also in terms of personality.

"She's a cheat fairy, isn't she?"

I muttered this without thinking,

"I've always wondered, but what does cheat mean, Master Ed?"

"Oh, it means something so amazing that it's unfair. Originally it was something like "unfair," but I used it more like "amazing."

When I answered, Steph and Jeremiah looked strange.

"Um... Master. No matter how you look at it, isn't that what you're talking about?"

"Yeah... Edgar, you're the epitome of a 'cheat'."

Yeah, well, that's true.

Let's take a look at my current status.

《

Edgar Curever (fourth son of the Marquis Curever family, noble of the Santa Mana Kingdom, 《Brilliant Boy》, 《Bottomless Orochi》, 《Negotiator》, 《Dragon Slayer》, 《Friend of the Fairies》, 《Spirit Magician》, 《Amida's Messenger》, 《Mentor》, 《Jackpot Guy》, 《Tragic Hero》)

6 years old

Level 59 (↑19)

HP 213/213 (153+60,↑59)

MP 32699/32699 (32439+230, ↑26698)

Class

<Alchemist> B (NEW!)

<Machinist> C (NEW!)

<Shooter> B (NEW!)

<Psychic> C (NEW!)

<Elemental Master> C (NEW!)

<Magician> C (NEW!)

Skills

- Mythical class

[Unfailing] -

[Skill Magic] -

[Evil Eye of Truth] 1 (NEW!)

- Legendary

[Electromagnetic Magic +2] 7 (NEW!)

[Enchantment Magic] 7 (NEW!)

[Dimensional Magic +1] 6 (NEW!)

[Phantom Magic] 3 (NEW!)

[Extreme Fire Magic] 2 (NEW!)

[Magic Spear Technique] 2 (NEW!)

[Fighting Spear Technique] 2 (NEW!)

[Database]-

-Master level

[Spearmanship +1] 9 (MAX, NEW!)

[Steel Thread +1] 7 (↑2)

[Martial Arts +1] 4 (NEW!)

[Healing Magic] 3 (NEW!)

-General

[Command] 7 (↑5)

[Prayer] 6 (↑5)

《Protection of the Good Gods +1 (Attrazeneque)》

《Protection of the Good Gods (Kanuman)》

》

...Yeah. I'm sure there are many things to point out, but I'll start by explaining the easy-to-understand parts.

The [Instant Interpreter] that I used for so long disappeared as soon as I turned three years old. Therefore, I now communicate with those around me in the common language of Malquect. It's not that I was good at English in my previous life... but thanks to my baby's flexible brain and [Unchanging and Untiring], I was able to learn the language quite smoothly.

Well, I think the skills have been integrated into the classes, so overall it's a bit neater, but it doesn't change the fact that they're stats that can't be shown to others.

The worst part is the fact that I found six of them.

According to the help information,

《

<Alchemist> (Can process all things using magical powers. Can also intuitively grasp the composition of anything they see. As class rank increases, processing skills and intuitive understanding are adjusted. Each time rank increases, MP is increased by +20.)

<Machinist> (Professional in machine production. Adjustments are made to the production of all machines. Can also intuitively grasp the mechanisms and operating principles of machines that they see. As class rank increases, adjustments are made to production skills and intuitive understanding.)

<Shooter> (Professional in throwing and shooting. Adjustments are made to the handling of all thrown objects and projectiles that follow a ballistic trajectory. Adjustments increase as class rank increases.)

<Psychic> (Supernatural ability) Using this, they can perceive the unknown and create impossible phenomena. Each time their class rank increases, their MP gets +20 added.)

<Spirit Magician> (They can freely manipulate spirits and elemental magic to create the phenomena they want. As their class rank increases, the amount of spirits and elemental magic they can use increases. Each time their class rank increases, their MP gets +30 added.)

<Sage Magician> (By freely manipulating life energy called "ki", they can obtain various support effects such as physical strengthening, improved athletic ability, and the ability to sense and block presences. As their class rank increases, the amount of "ki" they can use increases. Each time their class rank increases, their HP gets +20 added.)

》

... and that's how it goes.

As they combine various skills of that type to synthesize and raise their skill levels, before they know it, they've met the conditions for synthesis.

All of these classes are extremely useful, but if I start explaining each one, it will never end, so I will explain them when they come up.

I think I have managed to organize my endlessly increasing skills, but I plan to continue pursuing new skills with [Unchanging and Untiring], so it will probably get messy again in a while. I envy Jeremiah's neat stats. Well, if we're talking neat and tidy, Steph is the best. After all, she's only a <Magic Warrior>.

Anyway, my stats were like this, and I still had to be careful not to be seen by others.

"But Steph's <Magic Warrior> is pretty good, isn't it? It's a skill that a hero would normally use."

Maybe it's because of aptitude, but I still don't meet the conditions to synthesize <Magic Warrior>.

I don't meet the conditions for the skills Jeremiah has acquired, such as <Assassin> and <Dark Magician>, so maybe classes are more selective than skills.

"All of this is thanks to the young master's [Skill Magic]."

"Elemia's [Fatigue Transfer] is amazing, isn't it?"

"I've never seen anyone else have it, but it seems to pale in comparison to Edgar's [Unchanging and Untiring]."

"That's not true. In Elemia's case, she can transfer fatigue to the person she's fighting. [Unchanging and Untiring] can't do that."

"But when there's no one to transfer to, I just get tired. I've gotten a little better at controlling it, even transferring to allies."

After exploring various ways to use [Fatigue Transfer], Elemia has become able to narrow down the destination of the fatigue transfer. For example, if I'm with her, she can focus the fatigue transfer only on me. Since I don't get tired thanks to [Unchanging and Untiring], this effectively erases Elemia's fatigue. However, she can't prevent it from being transferred to anyone, so if she's with someone other than me, the fatigue will be transferred to that person. In other words, it's still a skill that will cause trouble for other members if she doesn't use it together with me. Even now, by transferring his fatigue to me, Elemia doesn't get tired, and by concentrating his fatigue on me, it doesn't transfer to Steph who is accompanying him.

"It seems like you rely on Steph, Edgar."

"Eh... is that so?"

I'm sure he thinks it's a bit dangerous.

But it's true that if Elemia relies on him too much, he might get crushed trying to live up to his expectations. Rather than relying on him, it feels like Steph is more comfortable to work with because she's the type to sulk when things get tough.

"Hehe, you can rely on me more, Ed?"

Steph leans in close and laughs.

Steph has grown even more with age, and her chest softly brushes against my shoulder.

Yeah, that's bad. It's scary to think that she's still growing like this.

"Well, I can rely on her as a front-line guard."

I'm six years old, and Jeremiah is still twelve. I'll leave the front line to Steph.

That said, she rarely blocks the enemy's attacks and waits for her allies to attack. Steph herself has high firepower, so she cuts in with her magic sword,