As a child, Walter hated it when his parental figures turned off his console.
When not playing Sorcery Chronicle, he left the game running. If his guardians approached it, he sniffled, then sobbed, and finally grabbed their shins to keep them away. Too little to stop them, he flopped on the ground, screaming. He had to explain to the exasperated woman, the one that called herself mommy, why a well-behaved child acted so bad.
How could they not know they were alive inside the television, and turning the machine off would kill them?
Begging didn't stop their impatient poking of the power button.
Ending the game ended the world.
The floor disappeared. Underneath it lurked miles and miles of polluted flesh, a rolling mass of mouths, and quivering eyes. The teeth snapped at the flailing boy and chewed him like an ice cube.
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A hypnic jerk awakened Walter from the nightmare. He stared at the Pilgrim Folly's ceiling, and his heart slowed to normal.
Rain patted on the roof of the inn, and the droplets sucked the ambient heat from the air. The rainclouds were a patchwork in the sky. Sunbeams cut the lingering mist, a momentary resistance against the soft chill, before quietly sheathing again.
Glass products were a luxury of the rich, so their room lacked windows. Wooden slats slotted into the pane, as a replacement, but last night was muggy, so they left them off for comfort. Neither woke when the weather broke. The window remained open.
Accompanying the cold, today's smells of the city drifted in, a mixture of wet cobblestone, plaster, and polished wood. This time, Walter enjoyed the rustic aroma since it reminded him of a resort town.
The weird world-hopping situation notwithstanding, he thought, a vacation like this could be romantic.
Admiring the little things let Walter relax.
Elin snored on the bed above him.
Walter directed his 'mind-pointer' to a nearly-transparent icon in the corner of his vision and 'clicked' it. A pop-up questioned, "Disable screenshot mode?" He clicked, "Yes." Walter's HUD blinked into existence, and he winced. For an instant, turning it on felt like jabbing a needle into his forehead, and the shock made him firmly conscious.
"Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology, huh?" Walter grimaced at his intentional misquote.
After Laira, the Oracle, corrected the mistranslated [Eyes of the Archwizard] to [HUD], the magic modernized how it performed. Now it served as an augmented reality overlay, formatted similar to a game. The more he dwelled on it, the more it revised.
A person's vague aura, the impression of their HP and MP, evolved into crisp and bright lines, and it matched their silhouette perfectly. Now, the feature went beyond knowing something was there. He could identify people and monsters through walls, what they wore and held, and even their actions. Using his mind-pointer floated a target's HP and MP, and their name, but only if Walter learned it beforehand. At least the pointer was useful now.
Reviewing the facts, Walter concluded magic was a mix of subjectivity and objective reality. He could see outlines in public areas, like the road or the restaurant of the Pilgrim's Folly, or places he occupied, like their lodging. Private spaces were off-limits. No viable reason sprang to mind, other than Walter subconsciously respected their privacy.
This fact saved their lives in the Abomination dungeon. Perceiving the hobgoblins allowed them to prepare for the ambush. The moment felt like a scripted game event or, more accurately, a setup, and Walter wondered why they would race to another dungeon to attack them. It's a mystery he wanted to solve.
The elements of his HUD increased. His level, fixed at zero, appeared above his HP bar, and a permanently empty MP bar below, as if to taunt him. Additionally, a mini-map showed him the nearby area, attached to the opposite top corner of the HP bar. Unless he already visited a place, though, it remained in a fog of war.
Finally, the scales that cursed them affixed to the bottom corner, and mind-pointing it provided its name. [Scales of Love and Lust - Ouroboros Modification]. It tilted at two-thirds full, against Elin.
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Great, it's not a regular curse, it's a super one.
Well, all this data is helpful, I'm sure, but if I can't do anything with it, then what's the point? My life, in this world, is proof that knowledge is not power. Without Elin rescuing me, I would have died. Frankly, if she had this HUD, then I doubt anyone could challenge her. It seems unfair.
Walter rolled and studied Elin's glowing outline.
She liked to sleep on her side, and while dreaming, usually pulled her pillow into a hug. The idea that the battle-tested warrior turned into a cuddling girl at night made him grin.
A perfect woman slept in the same room as me. Even the gap between her thighs was perfect.
Clink.
Oops.
Elin lifted her head off the mattress, and it wobbled. Her voice barely carried from the bed. "Walter? Are you asleep?"
"Sorry," he said.
She placed the pillow back under her head, "It's okay. Can we get up soon?"
The permission-seeking language she developed continued to grow. It started at her declaration to never allow another [Charm Person] side effect, and now it dominated her behavior, too.
"It's raining. Besides, we have silver saved up. Let's take a day off?"
"Yes," her voice softened further, "But we still need more money. Autumn isn't far off, and my sword is worn out. Breakfast would also be nice, right?"
Walter's stomach agreed with a loud gargle. "Well, you're not wrong."
He could see her cover her mouth to keep a giggle from leaking out. "Then, should we eat and register an itinerary?"
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During the walk to the Adventurer's Guild, Walter suspected the weather would not permit a dungeon delve. Elin's shoulders were damp by the time they arrived. After leaving for the dungeon, the rainfall increased and soaked Elin's attire.
"We're turning back," Walter said.
"A little rain is fine," Elin marched forward, "You won't let it slow you down, right?"
"Look," Walter commanded. When Elin turned, she saw Walter shaking his arm with beads of water shaking off. The canvas shell of his gambeson repelled the water, because of a paraffin-like substance rubbed into it. The interior of the armor was bone dry. "The rain isn't an issue for me, but I'm concerned about you. You need protection."
"I'll be fine. Can we go, please?"
Walter stared at her a moment before a curt, "No," and reached for her hand.
She yanked her hand out of his, his strength was no match for hers. She started to talk, said, "Walter," and fell silent at the consequences.
He watched the weight fall against him with a resounding clack. Her eyes bulged, and she kept glancing between his eyes and his hand. Walter reached out again, she stepped back, and another clack echoed.
"By the mercy of Gaia, is refraining from commanding you not enough? Will denying you punish me as well? This isn't fair! Look, Walter, I'll play along after the mission, but we really should earn more silver. Please, follow me to the dungeon."
"Your logic is backward," Walter said, "The weight landed on my side."
"It's the same thing!" She stomped her foot. "Both sides cause me a problem!"
"I thought the husband's side of the scales existed to protect the wife?"
Elin blinked, then shook her head with confusion. "What do you mean, 'protect the wife'? Why would she need protection?"
Rain plopped around them as Walter brainstormed a way to question the legality of rape, without freaking her out. After he imagined three failed scenarios, and he could guess the answer, he cautiously reached out again and wrapped his fingers around her wrist. Her arm twitched with token resistance, yet failed to pull free. The scales detected she faked it since they didn't unbalance. When he walked back to Letun, her shoulders drew forward at first as she was slow to follow.
Bits of trivia about medieval history popped in and out of Walter's head.
People married early, and married women belonged to their husbands, maybe even as property. The mortality rates of that era were horrendous.
I'm not a scholar, so I can't really rely on my information about the medieval period. But, I don't have to be knowledgeable. All I need to know is heroes from my world carried imperfect knowledge to this one, and their culture absorbed it as gospel. If they marry early, then Elin feels like a career woman too old to start a family.
What a minefield I stepped in. I have no idea how to disarm a trap, so I'm just going to throw rocks until it's all out of the way.
"Walter," her voice meekly spilled out, "you're taking advantage."
"Yeah, I am. If I walk back on my own, you'll ignore me and go to the dungeon, and I don't want you delving solo. We're taking the day off to do some important stuff, anyway."
"Stuff?" she followed and kept her head down.
"I made some promises I want to keep. You're getting a new sword, a good one, and some armor, too. I'm going to share some information I have on being a paladin, I don't know if it'll help, but it might. Finally," he sucked in a breath, "You don't have to, I know it's complicated, but we're going to solve your part of the scales."