kscans

Chapter 135 - Mother

Ren was near the balcony railing, facing outward.

In that direction was a garden, but it was now night. The garden had only a few faint magical lights here and there, so the scenery was barely visible.

Hayato approached Ren.

"Ren-chan, what are you doing?"

"Ha, Hayato-san!? It, it's nothing!"

Ren's shoulders flinched for a moment, and she said so without looking at Hayato.

(Does she think I can be fooled that easily...?)

It would be difficult to believe it was nothing. When he moved to Ren's side, he understood the situation. Ren was eating Bucket Pudding. And she had secured several of them.

"Ren-chan..."

"Please don't say it so disappointedly. There are many rivals other than Esha-san today, so I have to secure and eat them early. If I can't eat much, I might end up cursing everyone around me. In other words, it's not an exaggeration to say this is a form of salvation for the people around me!"

"...Well, you don't have to explain it with such passion. But, are you okay? Being here all by yourself. Aren't you bored?"

"I don't usually mind, but everyone is over twenty, so the conversations don't quite match up. I'm fifteen in human terms. Esha-san can keep up even with talk about curses, though!"

"Esha is amazing."

Hayato thought that Ren being fifteen was probably part of her character setting.

The Genesis Dragons are said to have been in this world since its beginning, so their actual age in the game is much older. However, Ren's actual age is fifteen. That's what she meant by being fifteen in human terms.

As he was thinking that, Ren was staring intently at Hayato.

"Is something wrong?"

"This is the perfect time, so let's talk about curses!"

"I don't think there's ever a perfect time to talk about curses... but I guess I can listen to your story for a bit. Everyone else seems to be talking to other people today, so I wanted someone to talk to too."

"My brother is quite popular today, after all."

Ash was surrounded by the combat maids and the gothic lolitas. He didn't look like he was enjoying it, in fact he looked quite troubled, but there was no sympathy. Hayato didn't want to trade places with Ash in the slightest, but that aside, it was a little irritating.

"I wish all the handsome guys would just disappear."

"Um, he's my brother, so I'd rather he didn't disappear. Anyway, about the curses, what kind of curse goods do you like, Hayato-san?"

"If I had to say, I don't like any of them."

"I see, you're not familiar with them. Understood. Allow me to introduce my curse items!"

Hayato's face twitched slightly, but he thought it would be fine just this once, and decided to listen to Ren's story.

"...and so, I was thinking of having a demon summoned into an item next. In a possession-like way."

"You're going to ask Adrian-san? But can you make a curse item that way?"

"I don't know, but I think it's worth a try. Collecting curse items is tough. Basically, they're rare drops from monsters. But wouldn't it be great if you could make them?"

"Summoning a demon into an item, huh. Is it really worth a try?"

"If it works, will you change your skill composition, Hayato-san? If production skills and demon summoning skills are combined, you might be able to make curse items to your heart's content, so I'd really like to ask you to."

"I'm interested, but I don't think I'll change my skill composition."

Hayato didn't know if there was a system for possessing items with demons like Ren said. Even if there wasn't, he thought that if Diite heard about it, she would say, "That sounds interesting. Let's do a version update then."

However, there might be another way to make cursed equipment. Hayato knew that there were still unknown systems in this game.

When he fought Diite, there was a system that could be called a skill combo, where you could steal the opponent's weapon with the Stealing skill after a Blade Catch.

He thought that such a system probably only existed for combat skills, but he felt it wouldn't be strange if something like that appeared for production skills too.

Perhaps the investigation or verification teams of the Bandit clan knew something. Hayato decided to ask them later.

That aside, he switched his thoughts back to his conversation with Ren.

"In any case, you really like curse items, Ren-chan."

"Oh, right, about why I like curses, I've been thinking about it since then, and I think it's my mother's influence."

Hayato had previously asked Ren the reason for her love of curses in the Labyrinth Castle. At that time, she said there was a reason but she had forgotten. Since her love of curses was from her time in the real world, it probably wasn't good to jog her memory too much, but he thought a little would be okay and continued the conversation.

"Your mother, Ren-chan? Um, the one who's trapped in the Dragon Soul artifact?"

That was the in-game setting, but he asked anyway. Hayato only knew that Ren's mother was an actress, but that was a real-world fact, so it wouldn't mean anything to Ren.

"That's right. Come to think of it, there's only one fragment of the treasure left. We haven't been able to gather any for the past six months. You're amazing, Hayato-san."

"This may be strange to say, but you seem quite casual about it?"

Her mother's soul was trapped in that artifact, yet Ren seemed somewhat detached.

Hayato had no parents. He didn't know what a girl of her age would think about not having a mother, but he thought there would be a little more to it.

"Hmm, I think I said this before, but I've never met her directly, so even if you say 'mother,' it doesn't really register. I only know my mother like I'm watching a highlight video from the Clan War."

"And yet, your love of curses is your mother's influence?"

"That's right. The mother I know was always in videos of those kinds of fights. And I remembered that I received a cursed doll as a present from her. It's gone somewhere now, but I think that's what cemented my love of curses."

"I see."

Hayato had a thought. Could those videos be movies?

The movie Veru told him to watch had a cursed doll in it. It was more about overcoming a curse than fighting with one, but you could say she fought with a curse.

Also, he had looked up information online that Ren's mother, Kilika, had appeared in many horror and suspense movies in her youth. If Ren had seen those, it was possible that her love of curses was influenced by them.

Hayato guessed that Ren's love of curses might have been a way for her to feel closer to the mother who had been absent since she was old enough to remember.

"Um, Ren-chan, are you maybe lonely? You know, without your mother."

Ren looked at Hayato with a blank expression. Then she crossed her arms and tilted her head.

"No, I've never met her, so I've never felt lonely. My father and brother were very considerate. Neither of them have much delicacy, but they were considerate in that way. Oh, but..."

"But?"

"It was lonely being the only one who knew nothing about my mother. My father and brother both have some memories of her, but I have none at all. I felt kind of like an outcast, so I guess I was lonely. And they were both considerate and didn't talk much about my mother in front of me. Though they would tell me anything if I asked."

"I see... Ren-chan, you can eat as much pudding as you want."

"Please don't be so obviously sympathetic. Besides, that's in the past. I don't feel anything about it now."

"What kind of change of heart was that?"

"I wonder? I think there was something that made me think, 'we're all in this together now,' but I've forgotten."

"Is that so? Well, if you're fine now, then there's no problem, right?"

"Yes, there's no problem. Oh, right, it's not that kind of problem, but I have a small favor to ask of you, Hayato-san."

"What is it?"

"Lately, my brother has been doing all the work, and I haven't been able to contribute much. Even in the World Tree yesterday, I just followed my brother and wasn't of much use."

"Do you think so? I think Agres saw you as a greater threat than Ash, which is why he tried to defeat you first."

When Ash and Agres fought on the fifteenth floor of the World Tree, the one Agres tried to defeat first was Ren. If he had fought Ash as things were, Agres would almost certainly have been defeated by Ren's curse magic.

Besides, Ren's Dragon Curse was a considerable threat of a skill. Especially against human-type characters, lowering their STR by half was enough to unequip most of their gear. The only problem was that its effective range was a bit small, but that was about the only drawback.

"That may be true, but I want to power up in a more combat-oriented sense."

"Power up?"

"Yes. In other words, I want to wear better-performing cursed equipment and aim for a build completely focused on firepower. High risk, high return."

"Your ambition is good, but why with cursed equipment... Oh, right, the more cursed equipment you wear, the more damage your curse magic does. I made something I shouldn't have."

The Orichalcum Five-sun Nails Hayato made for Ren had the effect of increasing the damage of curse magic the more cursed equipment she wore. Ren still had empty equipment slots, so the idea was to equip more cursed gear to increase her firepower.

However, not just any cursed equipment would do. Unless it was cursed equipment that led to an increase in curse magic damage, her firepower wouldn't increase.

"So, let's go defeat a monster that drops cursed equipment as a rare drop. With your knowledge-based skills, Hayato-san, I think the drop rate will increase. The deeper parts of that Labyrinth Castle would be perfect, I think."

"Is 'no' not an option? I don't know what we can do in the remaining three days, but I guess I can help out."

"It's decided then. Let's head out tomorrow!"

Hayato, thinking, "Oh, well," decided to grant Ren's request.