After hugging Catherine for a moment, Jace separated from her.
Then he took her hand, and his marionette Christoph blinked behind them both and put his hands on both their shoulders.
"Let's go," he said, and soon their figures faded into the spirit world.
Jace was not sure that staying in Bansy Harbour would be wise anymore considering that they had just had a demigod-level advancement here; it was likely that many Beyonders around sensed it.
Who knows, maybe the infamous 'Sea King' Jahn Kottman was flying to them right now.
As they moved in the spirit world, Catherine asked while still recovering, "Where are we going?"
Jace looked at her. "Bayam," he said.
He had already rented a good place for them to stay a few days prior.
—
The place Jace had rented out was one of those isolated cabins that rich people stayed in when on holiday.
At first, he was just going to book a suite in a luxurious hotel, but he realized that Catherine, after her advancement, would have some trouble stabilizing herself, and it was better to be away from people. So, he booked a fairly luxurious wooden cabin near a forest with a sweet view.
The three of them directly appeared in the bedroom of that place. As they did, Christoph immediately blinked away outside to tend to the place.
Jace walked Catherine to the bed. "You should rest," he said.
Catherine obliged without a word and laid on the bed, and Jace covered her with a blanket...
——
In the morning, Jace went to the market with Christoph, bought things for him to cook for breakfast, came back to the cabin, and started cooking.
Soon, he opened the door to the bedroom and knocked on the open door.
Knock, knock.
Catherine, whose hair looked disheveled, opened her eyes and looked at Jace sleepily.
"Breakfast is ready. Take a bath," he said, and walked away.
—
Catherine woke up, walked into the bathroom, and undressed herself.
Her body was more shapely and significantly stronger now, even more than when she was a Sequence 5 'Disciplinary Paladin'.
She stepped into the steaming hot water that was already drawn for her and sat in the tub with a relaxed posture, her eyes closed.
As Jace had told her before, her powers of previous sequences of the Arbiter pathway had gotten significantly more powerful—at the demigod level. But that was an insignificant gain compared to others in her advancement.
Her mind now was fundamentally rewired to the mind of a Lawyer... and not only that, she had gained every power of the 'Lawyer' pathway up to Sequence 4.
The Sequence 9 powers of finding legal loopholes and unparalleled eloquence, the strength of a Barbarian at Sequence 8, the four types of 'Bribes' for Sequence 7, 'Distortion' for Sequence 6, and 'Disorder' for Sequence 5.
All these powers were at the demigod level as well.
And then there were the powers of Sequence 4: 'Magnify', 'Bestowment', and 'Exploit'.
She was now a Sequence 4, 'Earl of the Fallen', a demigod...
But her emotions felt dull; it was... less human. It was something Jace had told her about: when a person becomes a demigod, they become less human and their personality becomes more intertwined with their pathway.
Like how a demigod of the Marauder pathway would keep swindling and stealing, not out of necessity or for wealth, but just because they can.
A demigod of the Arbiter pathway would likely be authoritative and have a dislike toward those who break the law, and demigods of the Lawyer pathway would likely want to corrupt and distort the system to accommodate themselves.
But since part of whatever godhood she had was from the Arbiter pathway, her personality was well-balanced.
Of course, most of her godhood was from the Lawyer pathway, as she had gained the said godhood at this pathway's sequence. Even now, her 'incomplete mythical creature form' would have some features of the Arbiter pathway.
She sighed and started cleaning herself after relaxing for a while.
According to Jace, for a demigod to not be affected by their... 'inhuman-ness', they needed to have emotional anchors through various people...
Fortunately and unfortunately for her, she only had one such anchor. Her parents were long dead, and her cousins were distant enough that they could only be acquaintances at best...
The only one she had as an anchor was a freaking 18-year-old. It was unfortunate that she didn't have any more, but fortunate that she at least had one—who had given her the chance to become a demigod... so it all balanced out well, she supposed...
—
When Catherine came out after her bath, she wore only a white bathrobe.
She sat before Jace and started eating the light meal he had prepared.
Jace looked at Catherine, whose hair was still damp. She looked beautiful and elegant as always.
"How are you feeling?" he asked casually as he ate.
"...I am still hearing whispers sometimes, and my mind hurts occasionally..." she answered.
"That should resolve itself in a day or two."
"Hm," Catherine nodded as she continued to eat.
After breakfast, they were both on the couch, with Jace sitting on one side and Catherine laying down on the couch with her head on Jace's lap.
"Now what?.." Jace asked as he played with Catherine's hair, who lay with her eyes closed.
"Mm?"
"You are now a demigod, don't you have an ambition or something?" Jace asked.
Catherine was silent for a moment. "...Nothing really... I saw an opportunity and took it. There isn't really anything I want to do..."
"Perhaps you should join MI9. You have a contract with them anyway..." Jace said.
"Hehe," Catherine chuckled. "They didn't even know that I was a Sequence 5 before; they believed I was a Sequence 6."
Jace looked down at her with confusion. "How?" he asked.
Catherine smiled. "When I met the handler, I was a Sequence 6. Later, I became a Sequence 5 without informing them, and after that, I rarely met the handler. And even when I did, he wasn't able to detect it, given he is still a Sequence 7."
"Oh," Jace nodded in understanding.
Catherine continued, "For now, I'll just take it easy for a few years and see how things go while I help you do the things you want."
Jace nodded...