Kawaii Pt.III
"Uh-uh… So you killed one of these 'Sub-Circle' members and took over as one of them, basically infiltrating the enemy and finding out more information on them, then coming to find me?"
I asked Kawaii as I took a bite of the crackers placed in front of me. I had managed to get her off of me and she ordered for some snacks.
"Yeeewwwwssss!!! Kawaii sooo hawwwppy! Kawaii fooouund mawwstewwwr!"
"Wait… how did you find me again? Also why are you speaking like that?"
"Kawaii shwould stawwp?"
"Yes please."
"Okkie!"
She said then cleared her new throat.
"There is a certain screen in front of me that showed me where you were."
Her speech was fluent. That [Assimilation] skill was really impressive, wasn't it?
"So you can see the system as well?"
"Hmhm."
She nodded proudly
'Interesting… and Yokino and others still can't see the screen? Is there some form of qualification?'
[Servant Yokino does not have the required amount of Loyalty Points to access the system]
'[Loyalty Points]? What's that?'
[Points that your servants acquire. It determines how much love they have for you]
'Eh? Since when?'
<<Notice: You acquired the Familia Head Specific Skill [Loyalty Test]>>
'Oh… that's right. And which of my servants has the highest of these?'
[1 – Kawaii (250)
[2 – Shiroi (190)
[3 – Sylvie (189)
'Those are the 3 with the highest? I honestly didn't expect Shiroi to be up here. What's the required amount of points?'
[150 Loyalty Points]
'Egh… how much loyalty points does Yokino have?'
A screen popped up before me and showed me I was shocked speechless.
'So much for my best friend… Welp.'
"Master, master! Are you ok?"
I hadn't even noticed that Kawaii's face was inches away from mine.
'Agh! S-sorry. I just saw something interesting.'
"Master?"
'Ignore me… Anyway Kawaii. What is it that you have learnt?'
"Oh yea, there is going to be a fake auction tomorrow to trap you."
She said, right before nibbling down on a bowl of biscuits.
'The auction was fake? As expected. But why didn't Yokino tell me that exactly. It's not like anyone can actually see the message she sends to me.'
"Two members of the 'Sub-Circle' are pretending to be poor folk. Vladimir Kyde and Violet Kyde of the House of Kyde. The weakest out of all the workers, but quite dangerous and more influential than most."
'So they aren't her parents?"'
"Oh no, they actually are her blood parents. She is just one of their many artificial childbirth projects. Made from the blood of a vampire and two humans. I think they wanted to artificially produce vampires but failed and made Ulva instead."
'What do you mean failed and made Ulva instead?'
"Well, you see, they kept on trying to create artificial dhampyrs, but it would never work. So they came up with the plan of making their own daughter into a dhampyr and then clone her instead. Doing so, they managed to create Ulva and a bunch of other clones under Project Blood Bite."
'Huh? I'm confused. Is Ulva their daughter or a clone of her?'
"Um… I'm not sure. There is too much information there that is not known since the incident about 3 years ago."
'What incident?'
"Apparently someone destroyed their old lab and all their research just disappeared. They blamed it on others, so ever since then, they've been tight lipped on their research projects."
Seriously? In this fantasy setting? Cloning and other stuff? Damned scientists should go to the right genre!
'I see… do you at least know how many clones they had?'
"According to this woman's memories… two hundred and seventy-nine."
I stood up in shock.
'That many!? What the hell? Maybe while I'm rescuing Ulva, I should try and get those kids-'
Almost as if she had been reading my mind, Kawaii said something.
"Don't bother trying to rescue them. They are all dead."
'Dead?'
"Percy McAllister."
She mentioned a name.
'Who?'
"Also deemed "The Boss". He has a hobby of raping demi-humans to death."
'Total creep right there.'
"Indeed."
I took another sip of my tea, then asked.
'Where will Ulva be? Since this whole auction is fake and all.'
"She will be in the nobleman's room."
'Eugh… he wants to rape her?'
Kawaii nonchalantly nodded. Her unfazed appearance was actually starting to get creepy.
'So they wanted to have me kidnapped?'
I asked.
"No. That was Grimm."
'Grimm?'
"Yes. A vampire named Grimm Black."
'Ugh… that's so cringe.'
"Master, you have to be very careful around him. He is actually one of the more dangerous members according to this woman's memories."
"The dangerous, huh? What are his abilities?"
"I don't really know. All I know is that he is quite good with ice magic. And he is also very cunning. Something about him committing a grave crime that forced him out here. He has even taking out several high ranking adventurers before. He also claims to have defeated a drake."
My mind went back to that time I fought the wyvern and almost died. That thing was definitely not weak. And I could only assume that drakes were way more powerful, since those guys would probably be of direct dragon descent.
I took a sip of the tea in front of me. I let loose and laid back. I stopped straining myself so much and cancelled the [Humanoid Form Transformation]. I let out a heavy sigh and stretched my wings. It had been so long since I was able to relax like that.
"Oh master, I also have a request."
'Hmm? What is it?'
"I want to kill the Nobleman Percy McAllister."
The look in her eyes was scary. Her deep blank grey eyes that seemed to contain fathomless rage. I simply couldn't understand where all of that was coming from.
'Kawaii?'
"I'm sorry, it's just… I made a promise to the person who gave me their body. I told them I'd set all the prisoners free and kill the nobleman. I don't know why, but I want to complete that promise."
'… I didn't expect this.'
"Master please, give me the permission to do this."
I really didn't like the thought of other's lives constantly being placed into my hands. I wasn't some sort of Judge.
'Kawaii… I-'
"Master! I beg of you."
She bowed her head to me and even went down on one knee.
'Well, if you put it that way, how can I say no?'
"Really? Thank you master!"
[The servant Kawaii's Loyalty points have gone up by 30]
'Eh? Loyalty points go up if I allow my subordinates to have their way? Interesting.'
She jumped up and grabbed me in a tight hug. She really was squishy and soft. Felt nice.
"Hehe, that's ok, Kawaii. Kawaii? S-stop that!"
I spent that night in Kawaii mansion, exploring the place, going through the armory and taking a bit of her gold. While I slept, something weird happened though.
[The servant Shiroi has entered a dungeon]
[The servant Reiman has entered a dungeon]
[The servant Sylvie has entered a dungeon]
[The Servant Shiroi has completed the First Floor of the <<Forbidden Dungeon>>]
[The Servant Shiroi has completed the Hidden Quest: Dungeon Floor Soloing]]
[The servant Shiroi has received one [Special Dungeon Chest]]
[The servant Shiroi has reached max racial level]
[The servant Shiroi's evolution has begun]
[The servant Shiroi successfully evolved into a White Faery Hound Queen]
[A specie variant of the Faery hound species. A very quiet creature that likes to hunt in packs. It is a natural born leader that takes charge of a pack and even the strongest have the ability to summon Mist Wolves]
[Some gods have taken an interest in the servant Shiroi]
[The servant Shiroi has received the [Blessing of the demi-God of Strength, Kadil]]
[The servant Shiroi has received the [Blessing of the Goddess of White Mist, Silica]
'Huh? What's this about?'
[The servant Sylvie has reached max racial level]
[The servant Sylvie's evolution has begun]
[The servant Sylvie successfully evolved into a Light Pixie]
[A very hyper creature that likes to play pranks on people. They are known for bringing havoc to weary travelers just for the fun of it.]
[The God of Light, Aoris has taken an interest in the servant Sylvie]
'Syvie did what now?'
[The servant Reiman has reached max racial level]
[The servant Reiman's evolution has begun]
[The servant Reiman has successfully evolved into a High Ratman]
[The evolved form of a rat man. They are faster and stronger than the average rat man.]
'Reiman too?'
Day 29
The previous night, Kawaii allowed me to sleep at the mansion. It was quite the welcomed offer. I told her to grab a few items such as food supply, clothes, armor, weapons and books and stockpiled them into my inventory. We also found some booze and meat at the bottom of the mansion, so Minerva wouldn't kill me for not getting her anything.
We did this in the middle of the night, when we were certain that no one would see us. It would be weird, even to the servants if their boss is helping someone smuggle food. I then told Kawaii what her mission was. She was to go secure Ulva and protect her until I arrived, or if possible, take her out of the mansion. We had decided that we'd just leave the hero party alone. Nukeme was going to be with me the entire time.
Then there was Yokino. She had made me quite alarmed with the message the system gave me. Apparently she had less than fifty percent of her health points remaining and had lost a lot of mana and stamina. In fact, she was off the grid now. I had no idea what was happening to her now. She had completely disappeared from the system itself. I had completely ignored her disappearance the other day as she just working about in the city, since I knew where she was at all times, but I was starting to regret that decision.
Also, while I slept, I received some weird news about some servants evolving. Shiroi, Sylvie and Reiman. Those three had evolved. I told Kawaii and she said that she didn't care about them. I guessed that those three were the only ones who actually took the dungeon training seriously. I would have to talk with the hob-goblin captains later about training. Nukeme was the only one with a good excuse, considering he was here with me.
I thought it best to use the day for some profitable training. I was back to full strength, but I needed to prepare in the case of all-out warfare for Ulva.
I activated the skill [Shadow Being Summoning]. It took about 30 mana points to do so, but I honestly felt like it was worth it. Because a being, about seven feet tall appeared out of my shadow. It was pitch black with a body that seemed to be alit with black hazy flames. Its eyes and mouth were simply white and I couldn't tell whether it was a simple two dimensional shadow or a three dimensional being. I looked at its stats and it was quite powerful. Was D+ in rank, had better defense than the current Kawaii, as well as better attack power. It even possessed magic skills and other stuff. It was only weak to light magic and it would never disobey or question a single order of mine.
I punched it full force, but my hand went right through it. But it could actually hit me if I ordered it to. Logically speaking, if I put just 1 of these guys against an army of only swordsmen, this guy would win easily. I even had Kawaii duel it. The outcome however, wasn't what I was expecting.
Kawaii's stats lied to me! She was in a completely different league of her own! That was when she told me that, unlike monsters, humans were unbelievably weak and for that reason, they came up with the creation of [Techniques] that would help them overcome their weaknesses and fight on an even field with other monsters. This was one of the reason why they were still in power over the lands.
That explanation made more sense to me than my original assumption of them just being numerous. I decided to spar Kawaii by myself. It was actually not even a fight since my methods of using magic, according to her, weren't normal. That made me wonder how stupid the residents of this world were not to utilize magic like how I did.
What I did that got her pissed was when I channeled mana into three balls up the battle area, used my affinities to turn those balls of mana into fire spheres and then rain them down on her. She had to use a technique to block those fire balls and in the process, I tripped her with her own shadow, basically ending the spar.
After having to listen to her complain for a bit, I got a message from Nukeme telling me that the Adventurer party we met had gone to the rented room in search of me. I ordered him to escape, but when he tried, they all caught him and forced him to tell them where I was.
At this point I was tired of them, so I just went there, grabbed him and teleported back to the mansion with Nukeme.