Chapter 22: Detoxification Magic Can Be Used Like This? Speculations on Earning Points

The night had deepened.

Amid faint creaking sounds, Allen opened his eyes.

Moonlight slipped through the window, casting a pale sheen upon the floor.

He found himself lying on the bedroom floor.

Allen rubbed the back of his neck and straightened up from the ground. Fortunately, Paul and his wife had thoughtfully spread a mat beneath him.

He sniffed the scent on his clothes and murmured helplessly to himself.

"...There’s a strong metallic scent of blood on me. I killed a wild boar today, so I must have gotten its blood on my clothes... I guess they put me on the floor instead of the bed to avoid staining the bedding—pretty straightforward of them... But Paul really went all out, didn’t he? Was that necessary? In the end, you should be thanking me. Without me, where would you get your clinic play from..."

Creak, creak.

Allen paused. Besides his own muttering, there were other unusual sounds in the air.

Faint whispers came from the master bedroom next door.

"Darling... I can’t take it anymore..."

"Oh? It’s only just begun!"

"...No..."

"...Want..."

"...Ah..."

Allen slapped his own face.

‘Bad luck! I shouldn’t have woken up at this moment!’

He lay back down, but the increasingly intense noises next door made him feel like needles were prickling his skin.

He forced himself to calm down, focusing his attention on the embryonic core of the Holy Dragon Qi in his abdomen.

Next to the healing magic glyph shaped like a small tree, a water-patterned glyph flickering with a brownish light was quietly embedded in the antidote magic slot.

In the original story, antidote magic was rarely described. No, not rarely—rather, it was mostly used for ordinary purposes like curing upset stomachs or sobering up. Antidote magic... it seems that at higher levels it can remove negative statuses from oneself, like a mercury antidote for control?

...Better not try it now; the mana recovery is too slow and it wouldn’t be worth it.

"Darling..."

...I need to think of something else to divert my attention... Silfie’s hair—still uncut at this hour, how fortunate—I caught that... Her delicate, sculpted features make her look like a chibi doll...

"Ah... I really can’t take it anymore..."

Hmm... that’s Senice’s voice.

"Use healing magic and antidote magic..."

Hmm... that’s Paul’s voice... Wait! What the hell are healing magic and antidote magic??? Can antidote magic really remove this kind of negative status??

Allen suddenly opened his eyes wide and flipped up from the floor like a carp springing.

They’re an old married couple, so why the hell are they at it every day... Wait, Paul is... let me see... 24 years old?! And Senice... 22? ...Ah, that means Senice had a child at 17 and got pregnant at 16... Paul, you’re inhuman! ...Well, that does put them at an age full of vigor... No wonder... Eh... I can’t sleep anyway. I’ll take a shower. The bathroom is quite far from Paul and Senice’s bedroom. They probably won’t hear me... Then again, if they hear it, it might just excite them more...

Allen shook his head, tiptoed to open the door, peeked out, and immediately stiffened.

In the dim corridor, Lilia was slumped by the door to Paul and Senice’s bedroom. A faint light seeped from the crack beneath the door, casting a straight line of light across her face. She wore only a shirt, her hand slipped beneath...

Allen silently withdrew his head and then painfully covered his face.

Is this some kind of family tradition?! Whoever comes has to lurk outside the master bedroom door? What’s so damn captivating in there that even I’m getting curious!

He sighed silently, returned to the floor where he had been sleeping, and was about to lie down again when his eyes caught the soft gleam of the hide he had stripped from the wild boar earlier that day.

Allen blinked and was fully awake.

Since sleep was impossible, he might as well go out and fulfill the promise he made yesterday, then come back early tomorrow to shower... If luck is on his side, maybe he’d gain something...

Allen nodded, got up, and opened the window. Moonlight instantly flowed over the back of his hand like water.

Outside, the night in Buena Village was utterly silent. A breeze stirred the grass waves from afar, brushing against Allen’s face.

He vaulted through the window and landed silently in the courtyard, then disappeared into the darkness.

—

Early the next morning, the chirping of birds outside woke Rudy. He opened his eyes in a daze, then his expression froze in surprise.

A delicate shrine sat before his bed.

The shrine was very small, about the size of Rudy’s face, with smooth surfaces, clear grain, and emitted a woodsy scent tinged with moisture, evoking the feeling of a forest after rain.

He blinked and slowly turned his head to the side.

On the chair by the bed, Allen propped his chin on his hand, eyes narrowed as usual.

"Good morning, Rudy."

Rudy blinked again, then realized he had fainted yesterday after being poisoned. Before passing out, he held a slight grudge against Allen, but seeing the shrine instantly wiped that away.

"Good morning... Allen."

"As promised yesterday, I had planned for the three of us to make this shrine together in the afternoon, but something unexpected happened. Uh... it’s partly my fault—I didn’t expect you two to be unable to handle eating too much powdered seed of the Batilis flower at once."

Allen rubbed his tired eyes and pulled a black leather pouch from behind him.

Rudy’s gaze shifted from Allen’s face to the pouch, recognizing it as the piece of wild boar hide Allen had carefully cut off yesterday.

‘It looks like a bucket bag a girl might carry in a previous life... It even has hidden snaps made from some kind of dried plant seeds. Allen really put a lot of thought into this... But what’s it for...?’

While pondering this, Allen reached out, took the shrine from Rudy’s hands, and neatly slipped it inside the pouch.

"Here, this way it’s easier to carry and hide. If you keep it under the bed, even if someone sees it, no one would be likely to open it up and see what’s inside, right?"

Rudy twitched his mouth.

‘Hey... don’t you know people are naturally curious? This might actually attract more attention!’

Still, he solemnly reached out and accepted Allen’s gift.

Allen then stood up.

"Alright, the master and mistress seem... uh, tired today and haven’t gotten up yet. Lilia... hasn’t risen either. So you can stay in bed a little longer."

The morning sunlight was soft, bathing Allen’s face. He stretched lazily and yawned.

"I’m off to take a shower. Killing that boar yesterday left me smelling like blood even now."

Looking at him, Rudy felt that the normally somewhat intimidating Allen seemed far less frightening today.

"Thank you, Allen."

Allen stood, about to leave the room, but turned his head and noticed the earth magic figurine of Lochis on Rudy’s desk.

He blinked, pointed at the figurine, then looked at Rudy.

"By the way, can I have this? It’s a Lochis made with earth magic, quite exquisite."

Rudy, focused on the shrine, glanced up at where Allen was pointing.

"Sure, I’ve made many models of Teacher Lochis. If you want, take this one."

‘Allen surprisingly has good taste...’

Allen smiled and unceremoniously picked up the Lochis figurine, then walked out.

Compared to one-sided giving, mutual gifts are a better way to maintain closeness between people.

[Further increased Rudy’s favorability; childhood involvement level improved.]

[Current stage: Childhood; accumulated involvement score: 52 points.]

[Evaluation: Two points are still points.]

Allen twisted his stiff neck and watched as the system panel faded away before him.

From multiple system feedbacks so far, he had found that the simplest and most effective way to raise childhood involvement was to generate positive feedback through interactions with main characters, reflected as increased favorability.

Is gaining points mainly about deepening ‘connections’ with main characters? He couldn’t be certain yet and needed more samples to analyze the underlying logic of point acquisition. Earlier, when he asked the system directly, it either feigned ignorance or gave vague answers—damn riddler...

This time... only two points, less than expected, but better than nothing.

He yawned again and headed down the corridor toward the bathroom.