<616 – Delicious Linked Quest (40)>
After the inauguration ceremony of the Saintess Alliance, Titosso poked her side and asked.
“How was today?”
“Everyone was really nice! They gave a huge amount of donations to help with academy activities and even said I could spend it as pocket money instead of just using it for the Saintess Alliance’s funds!”
“Whoa. How much did you receive?”
“I’ll split it with everyone, so I’ll give you a quarter!”
“Are you foolishly dividing it like that?”
Yufi, who was quite resourceful, grumbled at Titosso’s naive demeanor. However, when she saw the large amount of points deposited into the Magic Watch, she made a dumbfounded face and exclaimed, Ugh?
[Titosso has sent 25 million points.]
“One, ten, hundred, thousand… tens of millions? What is this? That covers the tuition for the Fourth Year all at once!”
Second Year promotion: 100,000 points.
Third Year promotion: 1 million points.
Fourth Year promotion: 10 million points.
Even if she failed her promotion test and had to pay ten times the forced promotion amount, she now had a fortune that could easily see her through the Third Year.
With Yufi’s skills, she could advance even if she was in the Lower Class, so her promotion was practically assured.
“It’s more money than the points Papa sends from home!”
“Whoa! That’s enough to quit being an instructor!”
“Eh? The Warrior Party has never received such support before, why…?”
As the three Saintesses gaped in surprise, Masugaki, who had come to check out the inauguration, chuckled and laughed out loud.
“Tens of millions of points? That’s the first time I’ve seen something so lame♡ It’s a tribute from the Divine Alliance trying not to crumble under pressure, so it’s naturally a large amount~!”
“Yikes! It’s Masugaki! What were you doing during the handshake event? Who did you shake hands with?”
“Didn’t shake hands with anyone♡ I’m a ‘student on leave’ so I can stay here as long as I have a visitor’s pass~? I don’t really care about these petty stories. Don’t you have a special greeting for your ‘BFF’ who you’ve met after a long time, Oknodie~?”
Gasp. What kind of greeting should I give to my BFF?
“Then should I give you a Dark Mana Stone?”
“Sounds good♡”
While handing over the highly concentrated Dark Mana stone from her backpack, she couldn’t help but tilt her head, wondering if this was right, like giving a friend a gift.
“By the way, when are you going to hand over the monster army left in the Empire and the commander Heinrich from the Chimera Research Facility?”
“As long as they’re useful for the Underworld Defense Army, you can keep using them! Just don’t let them get wiped out. Masugaki needs a reliable army right now, right?”
“Exactly! That’s what I like about Oknodie♡ It’s sad if a child grows up strong, but the Emperor can go back to the Academy and live a happy life, free from the previous Emperor’s hold. You get me unlike those lame ones who just talk nonsense♡”
Feeling cheered up, Masugaki hummed a tune and asked again.
“But having them all the way up to the Hero Unit seems excessive. You could take that back~?”
“The Crown Prince abandoned the heroes? Do they really need those people at the Academy?”
“It’s too extravagant to have powerful forces that can only be used in front of people who know their identities because you can’t use them easily without getting exposed to others.”
“Even if I give them as a gift, if they can’t be utilized, they’ll just be a burden. Got it, I’ll take them all back if you give them to me!”
“This next matter is separate, but a lot of traitors who colluded with the Demon King’s Army during the invasion have been discovered within the Empire~? But it seems they have quite a bit of Dark Mana.”
“Why’s that?”
“The lame Oknodie can handle Dark Mana well, so can’t we harvest it and use it as a resource~?”
Ah, it looks like Masugaki has opened her eyes to the creative economy.
To gather Dark Mana, one must risk their life and earnestly pray for their body to hold up after swallowing it. Otherwise, you have to sneakily collect it from existing creatures and demons containing Dark Mana for a boost.
Most people don’t need to use Dark Mana to this extent.
It’s mostly those desperate for it, like Dark Mana terrorists wanting to spread it to more people, politicians wanting to drown their opponents, or upper executives of dark organizations trying to improve their abilities to incite rebellion against their superiors.
But Masugaki, with the Empire’s vast economy built by the former Emperor, has accepted safely extracted Dark Mana into her body.
“Oh? Doesn’t the Empire also have technology to extract high-purity Dark Mana on its own?”
“They did have Dark Mana refining technicians♡”
“Why is that in past tense?”
“The Revolutionary Army cut off the head of a refining technician who fled when the Empire fell♡”
“Oh dear. I’ll pass on the techniques later!”
“Is that a promise~?”
After finishing the meeting with Masugaki, she finally wrapped up all her outside plans.
“Now, Senior Nepher-tem!”
“Hmm?”
“Since the Saintess Alliance has successfully launched, please take the position of the Saintess Director!”
“That’s absurd! How can I take on such a huge title?”
“Really? The position of the Saintess Director isn’t particularly burdensome. I don’t know what others think, but I don’t really need that position.”
To someone like me, who’s a Veteran Player, it felt as trivial as giving a child a toy crown, but it seems the title of Saintess Director is of a different stature to Senior Nepher-tem.
“You received the points, right? A whopping 25 million points even after splitting it four ways. The leader of an organization ready to part with a fortune to ease your promotion worries — how can you think of this as a light position? W-Well, maybe it might be small and trivial to Oknodie…”
“Right, it feels burdensome to you! So, can’t you just give it to me? Huh? Huh?”
For some reason, Titosso was greedily pushing for a position that didn’t suit her.
“What would Titosso do as Saintess Director?”
“I’d plant a streetlight every 50m all around the world! Then I could perform reflected attacks anywhere using a mirror. Isn’t that cool?”
“If you told that to Masugaki, she’d probably smack you for talking such lame nonsense!”
“Hmph. That’s so mean… I worked really hard on that strategy.”
“Titosso really shouldn’t think about strategies!”
When I struck her with the cold truth right in front of her, the Hmph quickly turned into Hing!
“Why not just give it to me instead?”
“Why’s Yufi being greedy too?”
“The Warrior Party hasn’t properly secured support for a long time. Excluding the incident where Ishtar got tricked into making the Foundation the support, we’re practically empty.”
“Professor Destroyer said it’s because the last party made a flashy mess that people tend to dislike the Warrior Party!”
“I know the reason and I don’t want to know any others. I just don’t want to miss out on this abundant pool of points for the future.”
“What’s the benefit of having points?”
“Ishtar’s training time will extend. There’ll be no need to earn points. You can substitute attendance for a few lectures just by paying points.”
Honestly, Yufi’s plan felt more plausible than Titosso’s.
But still, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s impossible.
“Still, it’s troubling. The Saintess Alliance was established to make Senior Nepher-tem the Saintess Director.”
“Is that really the only reason? If there are other intentions, I think it’d be better to burden me, Ishtar’s comrade, instead of using me.”
“Yufi is a bit self-conceited and narcissistic, isn’t she? Didn’t you say you didn’t need Saintess powers at all? Having overcome that initial hardship, I’m practically invincible!”
Instead of whining like Titosso, Yufi dusted her hands off crisply.
“I just said that to poke you with a stick to see if you’d get mad. I had a feeling it would be pointless after all.”
“Well, since all the other Saintesses have forfeit, Senior Nepher-tem should take the position of Saintess Director!”
“Alright…”
The moment Senior Nepher-tem accepted, the long event finally reached its conclusion.
[Nepher-tem has become the Saintess Director.]
[The God of Satisfaction Apnonia is very pleased with the Saintess who has proved her faithfulness despite the curse of misfortune and adversity.]
[Nepher-tem’s [Curse of Misfortune] is extracted as [Rune of Misfortune].]
[As a final reward for the linked event, you obtain [Rune of Misfortune].]
Rune of Misfortune: Powerful magic is compressed into rune form. Strong curses can also be used as rune magic. However, this misfortune reduces luck just by holding it due to its overwhelmingly strong curse overlap.
[Holding Effect – Reduces all success probabilities by 50%.]
[Equipping Effect – Reduces all success probabilities by 100%.]
Even though I wasn’t Titosso, I almost fainted exclaiming Hieeek!
What the heck is this terrifying stat?
Reducing all success probabilities!
This effect ranks at the top in the category of curses — a truly horrific and brutal effect has emerged.
If you mess up twice, you’ll fail at least once.
The holding effect is scary, but the equipping effect is even worse.
You’ll fail every time, no matter how many times you try.
It’s practically impossible for someone equipped with this rune to survive.
You can only gather experiences of failure and disaster unless it’s under perfectly mastered techniques or perfect situations.
But Senior Nepher-tem was liberated from those unfortunate days as the rune was extracted.
“My knowledge of rune effects originally was that the holding reduction was 25% and the equipping reduction was 50%.”
I can’t believe Apnonia’s runes are this powerful.
Has the power balance among the gods changed from what I knew?
Shoving aside trivial questions, I began to contemplate joyfully.
This fierce rune is now mine.
Where should I use this?
Should I save it for the Principal Hunt event?
Or should I use it in the battle against the Student Council President?
It’d be better to hold onto it longer and use it on a more annoying boss, but the overly strong effect would mean just having it could cause too many inconveniences.
“Let’s get rid of it as soon as possible!”
I need to quickly equip this thing on someone I despise and dispose of it.
Right now, who would I find that I despise that much?
In my thoughts, only one name popped up.
“Chairman of the Foundation!”
