Namia, the Succubus Lord, was actually inside the room all along. Did she watch me and Igni do all those things too…?
As everyone looked at her, she swallowed the last kernel she was munching on and asked “What do you want?”
“How long have you… No, never mind.”
I probably didn’t even need to ask about it. Let’s just think that whatever I and Igni did was already known to everyone else. Speaking of Igni, she fell asleep shortly after regaining her senses.
Although she managed to heal physically with the slow-acting potion and the effects of her evolution, her mental fatigue must be pretty severe. Right now, she was being carried off by Ember’s clones, who laid her down on the sofa outside of the conference room.
Wasting time without doing anything was counterproductive, so I asked Fina and the rest to bring all the paperwork that I needed to process. As they left, only Fang and Namia were left with me in the room.
“Fang.”
I waved at her with an apologetic smile. Her ears slumped down like a dismayed puppy as she slowly walked to my side. Her eyes were watery, and her expression was now a complicated mix of dismay and sulking.
As she stopped right beside my seat, I gently waved to her as I slapped my thigh, gesturing for her to take a seat.
“…!”
As I did, her ears quickly perked up in excitement, and her expression brightened instantly. Without hesitation, she jumped up and landed right on top of my thighs; her butt was soft and bouncy like marshmallows. And her fluffy tail was tickling my exposed upper body.
I gently patted her head, softly rubbing the space between and including her ears, and apologized with all of my heart.
“Fang, I’m really sorry for breaking the order. Although it was an emergency, I guess I’m still at fault here. I promise the next time I’m free, it’ll be your turn.”
To my apology, instead of answering, Fang just leaned her full weight on me. She seemed to be enjoying our little skinship, as I could feel her tail rubbing against my thing while wagging wildly.
“Brat.”
Just as the two of us were starting to feel comfortable, Namia called from the side with a deep frown.
“We need to talk.”
Both I and Fang looked at her with furrowed brows. Well, the reasons we did it were probably different, but our reactions were the same. I gently lifted Fang off of me before letting her sit on the chair in my stead.
I walked to Namia and looked down at her. She was smaller than me, after all.
“Talk? What do you want to talk about?”
As I was just about to ask, her face suddenly became closer as I felt her dainty hands press my cheeks. Her red eyes stared straight ahead as if trying to peek into my soul. I didn’t even see her pre-movements, and she managed to pull my face closer!
This girl must’ve recovered to full strength already! But if that’s the case, why didn’t she restore her body and stay as a small girl? Could it be that she can’t undo Noir’s skills?
“You… Did you tamper with your destiny?”
As I was lost in thought, her voice echoed inside my ears and brought me back to reality. Her question made me flinch a little, as it wasn’t that far from the truth. Without letting it show in my expression, I asked instead.
“… Why do you think so?”
“Your future. It’s blank.”
“Blank?”
“Yes. Completely empty, like you don’t exist in this world or something.” .
As she was speaking, she was forcefully turning my face at various angles while not breaking eye contact with me.
“I haven’t seen a case like this before, even after living as long as I did. After all, it should be an impossible occurrence.”
While looking around my eyes, she suddenly gasped and took a little distance from me.
“You… Why do you only have negative karma?!”
She busily glanced around, as if checking if there was any danger nearby. After realizing that there was nothing dangerous around, she moved as far as she could from me.
“… Why are you distancing yourself from me?”
I know that having negative karma would only bring me closer to death, but her reaction seemed a bit over the top for a simple life-threatening event.
“You don’t know?! Being near someone with negative karma leads to those nearby rapidly losing their good karma!”
She hugged and gently rubbed her arms as if feeling goosebumps before continuing.
“I watched a lot of god-level monsters die from just having their bad karma reach double the amount of their good karma! And it wasn’t a pretty death either!”
With a wave of her hand, a few floating objects orbited around me. As they started slowing down, I realized that they were actually small mirrors about the size of my palm.
Each mirror reflected my face in various colors, like stained glass. After completing their purpose, they all returned to where Namia was as she scanned each of them.
“… As expected, you have no good karma left. I guess *#%$ is also part of it since she pretty much dumped the Successor title on you… But the real reason seems to be a… Skill?”
A familiar name came out of Namia’s mouth. Although I said familiar, it was something that I could not even hear, as the world itself was censoring it.
“Can you tell me more about that girl you were talking about?”
“You mean *#%$? Ah, could it be that you still aren’t allowed to hear her name? If yes, then forget it.”
Why do they keep on not explaining whatever she was or where she is, the girl-who-can’t-be-named? As I was just about to ask, Namia started adding more information.
“If I told you her name, then you’d probably die instantly with how your karma is already low.”
Instant Death?! That’s something I wouldn’t want to play around with.