Chapter 40: Confession?
Rovel started his day with a bit of shopping. First, he spent a respectable 10,000 game currency on two high-quality wooden swords, stowing them in his inventory as reliable backups.
Then… he spent a staggering 70,000 game currency on three limited-edition Homu dolls. The price tag made his eye twitch. 'Why is this merchandise so absurdly expensive?!'
Still, he rationalized the purchase as a strategic investment. This was a specific, targeted countermeasure for dealing with Bronya; from that perspective, the cost was more than justified. Of course, Rovel didn't delude himself into thinking three plush dolls would make the stoic girl go easy on him, but they were a perfect tool for building trust. At the very least, they were a start.
If all else failed and he found himself in a situation he couldn't talk his way out of, he could always resort to brute force. He still had a stack of ten unused ultimate healing potions tucked away in his bag, a last resort for when diplomacy and Homu dolls weren't enough.
"Money from a fool really doesn't last long," Rovel sighed, glancing at his remaining balance of just over 20,000. It had been a nice, fat number just a few minutes ago.
As he was organizing his inventory, his eyes fell upon four vials of a viscous, dark liquid labeled 'Death Soldier Blood'. He wondered if they could be sold. He hadn't seen a single player mention harvesting materials from monsters on the forums, let alone selling them.
Perhaps it was the harvesting process itself that was the barrier. Without the right tool or skill, it was likely impossible, so no one had bothered. But since he possessed the Mobius Scalpel, gathering such things was trivial. For now, with no obvious marketplace for monster parts, he decided to hold onto them.
A strange quiet had settled over the city today. He'd been wandering the streets for nearly two hours and hadn't encountered a single Death Soldier. The lack of activity was beginning to feel almost eerie.
Just as Rovel was about to call it a day and log off, a desperate cry for help echoed from a nearby alley.
"Help… someone, please help me…"
Rovel turned toward the sound, a sense of weary resignation washing over him. 'Do I have some kind of protagonist-magnet constitution? Is "damsel in distress" a hidden passive skill I unlocked?'
He peered into the grimy depths of the alley. A girl in a torn Chiba Academy uniform was backed into a corner, trapped by two sneering delinquents.
"Heh heh, scream all you want, little girl. No one's coming to save you," one of them, a blond with a particularly nasty grin, spat out the classic villain line.
"Did you really think transferring schools would be enough to get away from us? Just be a good little doll and do as you're told!"
The blond's hand shot out, grabbing a fistful of the girl's uniform. With a sharp tug, the fabric tore, exposing the pale skin of her shoulder and collarbone.
"No!" she shrieked, stumbling backward. She lost her footing and fell to the cold, grimy pavement, instinctively curling into a ball and trying to cover herself with her hands.
"You don't get to have freedom until we're tired of you, you stupid woman!" the blond sneered, his smile turning utterly reptilian. His companion was already shifting impatiently, his eyes roaming over the girl's prone form.
"Hold her down for me."
"You got it!"
Working together, they lunged, pinning the terrified girl to the ground.
'Someone…''Anyone…''Save…''Save me!'
Just as her vision started to blur with tears, a shadow moved with impossible speed. There was a sickening crunch, and the thug holding her shoulders down was suddenly airborne, slamming into the brick wall behind her with enough force to crack the mortar. He slid to the ground in a heap, unconscious.
"Who the hell?!" the blond thug yelled, spinning around in disbelief.
Rovel walked toward him, his footsteps echoing softly in the narrow space.
"Playing the hero, are you, kid?" the blond snarled, pulling a wicked-looking dagger from his pocket.
In the next instant, before he could even adopt a fighting stance, a foot swept out, a steel-toed boot connecting squarely with his wrist. The dagger clattered uselessly on the pavement. A second kick, a blur of motion too fast to track, snapped against the side of his neck. The blond's eyes rolled back into his head, and he crumpled like a puppet with its strings cut.
[Defeated Thug (Level 3) x2. Acquired 40 EXP.]
"Are you okay?" Rovel asked, his voice calm. He shrugged off his own jacket and tossed it gently over the girl.
"W-Watch out!" she suddenly screamed, her voice tight with panic.
The blond thug, the one Rovel had just knocked down, was staggering back to his feet, his face a mask of fury.
And in his hand, a handgun had appeared.
"Don't you underestimate me! You damn—"
A silver glint, faster than the eye could follow. The Mobius Scalpel appeared in Rovel's hand for a fraction of a second. There was a sharp schlick, and the handgun simply fell apart in the thug's grasp, the barrel and grip neatly severed into two useless pieces of metal.
Rovel merely glanced at him.
That single, cold look was all it took. The thug's face contorted, not with anger, but with pure, unadulterated terror. He collapsed back to the ground, a dark, wet stain spreading on the concrete beneath him as a foul, yellow liquid seeped from his trousers. His mind had snapped.
A monster…
The person standing before him was definitely a monster!
The realization was his last coherent thought before he, quite literally, fainted from fear.
"You shouldn't walk alone at night from now on," Rovel said, his gaze falling on the name floating above the girl's head: Asakura Miyuki. He felt a faint flicker of familiarity, though he couldn't quite place it.
With that, he turned and walked away, melting back into the city streets.
Asakura Miyuki clutched the jacket to her chest, watching Rovel's departing figure. The look of pure admiration on her face slowly, chillingly, twisted into a sinister, possessive grin.
If Rovel had been there to see it, he would have noticed the status display above her head going haywire. The trust level, which had been at zero, began to skyrocket.
20… 40… 100!
Then, it flipped, changing into a new metric: Affection.
20… 40… 100!
…
The next day, Rovel invited Raiden Mei to the Kendo Dojo for a training session.
"Does Mr. Rovel have the funds for this now?" Mei asked, her curiosity tinged with a hint of gentle teasing.
"Ah, let's just say a generous fool made a donation to my cause yesterday," Rovel replied with a shrug. "I'm still a bit poor after buying a few things, but renting out the dojo for a few hours is no problem."
"Since Mr. Rovel has invited me, of course I will accept!" she said, her smile radiant.
Just like that, after sparring with Raiden Mei for half the day, he finally dinged. He had reached level 9.
The journey from level 9 to level 10 required a daunting 10,000 experience points. He was still short 8,500, but with Mei's help, it felt achievable within a few days. As for his Basic Kendo skill, its proficiency had shot up by another 14,000, bringing the total to 40,000 out of 100,000.
At this rate, he could hit level 10 in a week at most, and his Basic Kendo would evolve to the next stage. He wasn't sure if that was the final stage, but if it wasn't, and the proficiency requirement increased tenfold again… the next milestone would be a million. Even with all his buffs, that would take two or three months of consistent sparring with Mei.
"Your progress is so fast, Mr. Rovel," Raiden Mei said with a light, musical chuckle as they took a break. "I'm afraid it won't be long before you can defeat me."
She was genuinely happy for his improvement, but at the same time, a tiny seed of worry had taken root in her heart.
'What if… what if he abandons me after he gets stronger?'
She immediately shook her head, chiding herself for the thought. No. Rovel wasn't that kind of person. He would never do that.
"I feel like I still have quite a long way to go," Rovel said, shaking his head gently. He opened the bento box Mei had prepared and began to eat, the delicious aroma filling the air.
After a few moments of comfortable silence, he set down his bowl. His easygoing expression vanished, replaced by one of deep seriousness. "By the way, Mei… I want to tell you something. It might be important."
A wild, impossible thought bloomed in Mei's mind, and a wave of heat rushed to her cheeks, staining them a deep crimson. Her heart hammered against her ribs, a frantic drumbeat in the quiet dojo. She could only manage a barely perceptible nod, her eyes fixed on the floor as she waited for him to speak.
"…Mei," he began, his voice low but firm, "I will never leave you. Please, you must believe me."
The words sounded like a confession, shouted from the depths of his soul.
But it was strange. The atmosphere wasn't sweet or romantic. It was heavy, charged with an unspoken gravity, feeling less like a declaration of love and more like… parting words.
However, lost in the dizzying rush of emotion, Raiden Mei didn't seem to register the ominous undertones. She only heard the vow, the promise she had desperately wanted to believe.
"…Yes," she responded earnestly, her voice barely a whisper. "I believe in Mr. Rovel."
Above her head, invisible to her, the affection level that had been hovering at 10% began to climb, steadily rising until it settled at a solid 30%.
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