While Minimine was still talking to Kalender and Jyn, on the other side of the room’s divider was a different kind of chat.
Gellar thrust at the floor with a broom, only for her weapon of mass-purification to be knocked away by the shaft…of another broom!
“Too slow!” Page chided with a grin. Having grinded her way to an incredible Lvl. 9, solidifying her place as one of the most powerful Librarians in Lyrica, she found intoxicating glee in fighting other people…sort of.
Gellar was still the more experienced fighter of the two, and she skillfully circled her broom around Page’s, knocking it away, finally leaving the thin layer of dust on the floor exposed to her attack.
Wait… Where did the dust go!
That was when she noticed the white rag beneath Page’s foot. The girl had done a foot sweep! Page herself held a smug grin as she held her broom over her shoulder, ready and willing to come at ye anytime.
Gellar clicked her tongue. She’d well and truly underestimated her opponent. She’d thought that Page was still stuck with the basic quarterstaff forms, but to think that she knew how to play dirty—though, they were just cleaning the floor, so wasn’t she technically playing clean, then?
“Not bad,” Gellar said. “Then, I’ll show you how yellow demons fight.”
Although she didn’t move, Page flinched. “How’d you do that?” she asked.
“Plenty of demons have the eyes that you have,” Gellar explained. “It’s a double-edged sword when you’re up against a professional.”
The two circled each other around a new dusty spot on the floor like sharks fighting over a lump of bloody meat. Although they seemed evenly matched for outside observers, that truth was that Page was panicking, and Gellar knew it.
After all, Page couldn’t see Gellar’s emotions anymore.
Wait—scratch that! A subtle flare of red erupted from the left, and she knew that was where Gellar’s attack would be coming from. She thrust her broom down to block it—but Gellar came in from the right!
“How?… How’d you do that!” Page shouted, left helpless to watch as Gellar swept away the last patches of dust with a smug grin of her own.
“Curious?” she teased. “No, I’m sure you can figure it out. Besides, isn’t your next stage already unlocked?”
Her next stage… That was the one where she’d be able to manipulate emotions to some extent, wasn’t it? Thanks to Gellar’s advice, she’d been able to control her emotional leakage this whole time, and the same advice thankfully extended to controlling the overall usage of Wisdom of Three.
In this case, the next stage was to manipulate someone’s emotions. It wasn’t as simple as instantly making someone happy or sad; rather, it was something closer to being offered choices unique to that person in that moment. They were the sorts of choices that wouldn’t be strange for the target to experience in the next moment—a necessary limitation, or else the demonic magic would fry the target’s brain, completely defeating the point of being a subtle sort of magic.
That said, there was a necessary condition to be able to use this kind of magic: the target had to be at an emotional tipping point. It didn’t have to be a major tipping point, but as long as they were in any state where they didn’t yet know what to feel, Page could use that as an opening.
“It doesn’t feel right, though…” she muttered. She was, after all, not interested in manipulating people. She recalled that time she had Excitement as a stat—a time which she had mixed feelings about. It wasn’t bad, but after Wisdom of Three’s override, which had essentially kicked out much of the curse’s System effects, she had come to realize just how much she’d missed by being so focused on feeling just one thing.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
To suddenly be the one with the power to make someone feel whatever she wants them to, despite the nuances, it just didn’t feel right. Was this what Kalender also felt? It must be.
“Trust your judgement,” Gellar said, bringing her out of her wondering. “I think it’s a precious thing that you don’t feel the need to use a power just because it exists.”
As many software developers say: just because it’s a feature, doesn’t mean you have to use it.
“Well,” Gellar continued, “there are still many uses for your new stage that I prefer you learn, if only to help you survive.”
“Sure?…”
“For example, manipulating your opponent’s intuition.”
Oh? Fighting people? Page was a little more interested now—and Gellar thought she was just too easy. She continued, “Intuition is closely linked to emotion, and if you are able to sow distrust in their next move, you will undoubtedly gain an advantage.”
Page assumed a serious thinking pose. “Oh, yes, yes, that makes sense…”
“And keeping your allies from breaking down in the middle of combat.”
Page nodded with a face of stunned agreement. “I wouldn’t want that to happen, truly, truly.”
Just then, a third voice intruded. “Page,” Minimine called out. She stopped beside Page, looking up at her.
Page had almost jumped, but she saw that it was just a fun-sized potato lover. “O-oh, y-yes?…” Said potato lover had an incredibly wrinkled forehead and freely radiated all the stress in the world. Naturally, Page did not know what was going on.
Minimine sighed. “I need a hug.”
“Oh, um.” Page leaned down. Despite the hug, it didn’t seem to be working. She tried headpats and hugging from various directions—but none of it was working!
Page was at her wit’s end. The displeasure radiating off of Minimine almost made her fear for her life, in a sort of “Appease the goddess or die!” kind of way. Well, in Minimine’s case, it was more like “Appease the goddess or feel bad that you can’t!”
Minimine sighed at the System screen floating in front of her.
[HEAVEN KEY turned by CYRRAIA, designation: GODDESS OF LOVE. Decision required: Acknowledge new Key Owner as CYRRAIA. Due to absence of an Overseer, decision will be reached via consensus.]
[CYRRAIA has attached an appeal. Message follows: “Everyone, please blame Three for this plan. I hope you would make your decision quickly, or else I won’t be able to escape the Overseer’s domain!”]
Minimine wrinkled her forehead even more. It was clear that Three had intended for Cyrraia to become the new Overseer, but that wasn’t something to joke about, okay? Cyrraia would have to carry this burden for the rest of her life, making decisions that would affect the whole world.
On the other hand, Cyrraia was the safe choice among all the goddesses. She didn’t have any interests that would destroy the world if taken too far, and most importantly, she couldn’t be charmed.
In a way of thinking about it, Cyrraia and Daniel—the original Harem God—“shared slots” when it came to their respective authorities. Because of that, Cyrraia’s, Daniel’s, and the ###### God’s Blessings were all incompatible with each other.
It didn’t mean that someone with Cyrraia’s or Daniel’s Blessing was completely immune to the curse, but there would certainly be resistance. On the other hand, Cyrraia, being technically made of 100% Blessings, was completely immune. To be more precise, the amount of magical force required to force the curse on her would obliterate all of her souls long before the curse could even begin initializing.
More importantly, if Cyrraia became Overseer, then Minimine would be able to put in a wide-net soul-search request, and she could finally replace Kellerin’s destroyed soul with something similar.
She didn’t want to see the poor Cleric continue being so lost and lifeless. It had to stop.
[Acknowledge CYRRAIA as new Key Owner? (Y/N)]
In the end, having an Overseer would solve more problems than it’d create.
[MINIMINE voted YES.]
[CIVILAS voted YES.]
[ANINA voted YES.]
⋮
⋮
⋮
[Consensus reached at YES - 98.1%, NO - 0.9%, ABSTAIN - 1.0%. Congratulations: CYRRAIA now holds the Key. Overseer authority handover process started in initial phase.]
[CYRRAIA has been granted probationary Overseer authority. Performance evaluation has started. EARTH KEY and peer performance review required to complete registration.]
[Overseer INFO message follows: “Thanks, everyone! Oh, and Minimine, see you soon!”]
Huh? Her moment of confusion was soon answered by a brightening glow from outside the window.