Since yesterday, my life has taken a turn for the better.

I stumbled upon a charming little cottage nestled in the sand dunes by the beach.

I had been looking for a place to rest my weary bones for quite some time, and this little cottage was the perfect haven for me. It had everything I needed, from a comfortable bed to a well-stocked kitchen, mind you they were all mine. I carried them around in the skill [Bag Universe], which looked like a literal hole in the fabric of the universe when I used the skill to put something in or took something out.

The best part was the spectacular view of the ocean from the porch.

I haven't been Sword for a while now, since shortly after the battle between me and Leoren.

Now, I was just a thick-set older man, with arms and legs like tree trunks, and a body that had seen better days. Short, also, but not so short that I could have been mistaken for a dwarf.

There was a question on my mind: how come I was, mentally, the same as I always was?

Maybe I was a bit more deranged than ever before, but with the buff affecting my stats and whatnot and they, in return, affecting my body, why am I not smarter, wiser?

I could forgive that my strength and constitution stats didn’t affect how I looked physically, showing not a lot of muscle, but in the end, the strength was always there.

I could crush metal with my bare hands and take a stab to the chest with ease, but doing math or something still takes the same amount of time as before.

So, why?

Is it because of the insanity de-buff? Did it already reach opposite levels of magnitude so that it prevents my mental stats from turning me into a braniac?

What DOES happen when my sanity levels reach below zero?

…

I guess that’s a matter for another day.

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But as I lay on the beach, shirtless, feeling the sun's warm rays on my skin, I couldn't help but feel content. I was happy to be away from the battles and the chaos of the world, and to be enjoying the simple pleasures of life.

“Faye," She was next to me, hovering in the air with her legs crossed in a very lady-like fashion, looking blankly into the sea, "can you tell me if in this world beast-folk and demi-humans have a higher chance of being slaves than the other races, humans, elves, dwarves and the like?”

I thought that recalling that specific knowledge should take her a second, but the moment I finished speaking, she answered, “Yes. In Alaran, the human kingdom we find ourselves in right now, which has the highest general rate of slavery, being a member of one of the beast-races increases one's chances of becoming a slave by 37,56%, and being a member of the demi-races increases the chance by 23,94%.”

“Still, even if only 1% of the population were slaves, then it's not a high increase, would it? Wouldn’t even be 2% but 1.37 and 1.23. But, as a whole, for 1% of all of the populous of this country to be slaves would still be a high-ass number. Like, honestly, that's a lot, in my world, in the time that I lived in, I don't think that any country had a ratio that high, at most 0.005 percent."

That was a depressing subject, so I switched it.

"Faye, I sometimes wonder where you get your information from. How do I know what you just said was even correct? You wouldn’t lie to me, would you? Just make up things and tell me that they are true? That would really break the trust I have in you.”

“I only perform the task given to me with the knowledge my Goddess has allowed me.”

“Well, I do kind of trust Alexandra. I do hope she's doing well. It had been decades since I had last heard from her, but in the grand scheme of things, two decades was nothing to a god, right? Do you think she wonders if we're doing fine? I hope she is. Maybe she is that kind of god who gets stronger or even only exists because people believe in her? Anyway, it's the thought that counts, in more than just one way.”

She didn’t answer.

Faye's lack of response to my question about Alexandra left me feeling a little hurt.

Sometimes her apathy got to me, and I couldn't help but wish that she showed a little more emotion.

Then I said to myself, “...if they really have such a high chance to be a slave then... Yeah, that makes a lot of sense,“ I stood up and went over to Faye to stand right in front of her, “by any chance, could you turn me into one of the demi-folk? Appearance change is something you can do, that has been established but is a race change also something that could happen?”

“As I told you once before, it is exceedingly complicated to manually-”

“Just my race, it can’t be that difficult, can it? Nothing with appearance or height or whatever, just me to beast-me.”

Silence, she must have been in thought. I imagined that hers were going at an incredibly fast rate, then she said, “I may try by your request.”

I don't know why but I smiled, feeling a strange excitement at the prospect of, once again, becoming something new, something different but in a different way than I have been before.