I stood, drunk out of my mind, receiving the worst news possible from Index.
“Arlan, Bon just got a notification saying he dealt damage to a Level 20 Minute Mage.”
My stomach dropped. Even in my state, I understood how bad that was. Yes, he technically wouldn’t know what a Minute Mage was, but a literally never-before-seen Class would obviously raise suspicion. They reported every little thing they saw, I couldn’t expect them to let that be. And if the Empire heard of it, then it was only a matter of time before the Demons heard of it. And then the Demons would the Empire that they wanted me dead, and we’d be in a situation like the Koinkar Kingdom all over again.
In that instant, I mentally swore off alcohol for the rest of my life. I’d just wanted to relax and forget about my situation for a moment. Obviously a mistake.
But now I needed to do damage control. My mind raced, sluggish as it was, through the possible solutions.
Not that Index wasn’t telling me exactly what it thought I should do.
“Start with Bon, obviously. Sneak contact with him, hit him with Sanguine Bond plus Noxious Grasp. He doesn’t have much Health left, shouldn’t take more than a couple seconds. Then hit Jannin with Chill and as many Rays of Frost as you can. Then—hey. Are you listening? Get started. I know you’re drunk, but I can guide you through the fight if you get disoriented. All you have to do is follow my commands and this problem is solved.”
“Wh, what in the flames just happened?” Bon muttered, still clearly half-asleep.
He at least didn’t seem to be aware of the notification he’d just received. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as it seemed.
“They’ll stay,” Index said. “System notifications stick around as readable in your head for about thirty seconds after appearing. As-is, it seems like Bon either hasn’t read them yet, or already read them the moment you hit him, but just forgot what they said. But either way, he’s going to be able to read them for thirty seconds after this.”Fuck. I tried my hardest to think my way through this. Maybe I could—
“Kill him before he tells the others. He hasn’t read them yet, so he won’t be able to accuse you of anything in his dying words.”
What about…
“You can play it off as an accident, or you could probably convince Ainash to kill the other two. She’d be capable of it. This is your best shot at survival.”
Index, I thought, please let me think.
Precious moments were ticking by where Bon didn’t know the truth about me. I could just kill him. But…Sure, he’d said some shitty stuff, that still wasn’t anything that deserved a death sentence. If there was a way to get through this without murdering an innocent man, I’d much rather take that path. And I was worried about what kind of influence that would be on Ainash, too; despite what I sometimes liked to think, she wasn’t just a cute kid. She could, and would, kill people—especially if I set the example that doing so was okay. Even if I explained things to her afterward…not a very good way to keep her from doing even worse things to even more people who deserved it even less.
You said…him damaging me? That was what gave a notification?
“Yeah. Typically speaking, the System likes to give information on what you’re doing. Stuff that matters. But it also doesn’t give stuff out if it could give an unfair advantage. When you take damage, receive a Status Effect, that sort of thing, the System won’t give out any information on your assailant, since it could be a sneak attack. Could be someone trying to hide in a crowd, or even just giving away stuff like species information could tell you whether your attacker might be flying in the air or digging underground. That sort of thing. So, when it comes to dealing damage, the System reasons that you must already know where and who you’re damaging, so—”
Just. Is there anything else that’ll give him info on me?
“No, no, nothing you can do. Just avoid getting hurt by him, and he won’t get any more notifications on you. So I guess you could kill him without getting close so he can’t damage you or something, to be safe.”
Don’t…don’t want to kill him. I’m just gonna…
“If you really don’t want to kill him, I suggest just waiting until you can go back with Time Loop. It’s a waste of precious resources, though.”
Might have to do that. But I’m gonna try something for now.
I stumbled toward Bon, who was rubbing his face and being helped up by Jannin and Poppins.
“Jannin…” I muttered, “get your healing Spell ready.”
“Oh, yeah, he’s probably still low,” Jannin nodded.
But Bon’s current Health wasn’t why he’d need the healing. I collapsed to the ground by his side, still only barely able to hold myself up, and placed a hand on him. Then in an instant, I activated the trio of Spells, Crippling Chill, Sanguine Bond, and Gravity Well, all on him at the same time.
Instaly, Bon gasped and fell back to the floor. His own drunkenness was working for me here, making him obviously much more susceptible to losing consciousness from the combination of Health loss, Stamina loss, and the bodily impact of Gravity Well. Which was what I was betting on.
That problematic notification would only last thirty seconds, Index had said. So as long as I could just keep him unconscious—or at least keep him distracted—for a bit longer, it wouldn’t be a problem anymore.
“What the Hell?!” Jannin yelled at me. “What did you just do?!”
Poppins, evidently taking more of a proactive role, jumped forward and tackled me away, wrestling my hands to the floor. Careful not to instigate him into hitting me or dealing damage to me, I didn’t fight back, and kept myself from activating Noxious Grasp while he was in contact with me. I didn’t really need to be touching Bon to use my Spells on him, other than Sanguine Bond, so it wouldn’t be too much of a problem.
“Heal him,” I said to Jannin. “Keep him from dying.”
“That’s what I—what…” Jannin looked utterly baffled by my actions. Which was fair.
The seconds ticked by, and Bon thankfully didn’t seem to be waking up, nor did he seem to be dying. He was a Level 9 Melee-Type, so he should’ve had a decent Endurance score. Especially if he wasn’t an adventurer; if he wasn’t out fighting monsters all day, he’d probably be focused more on the quality-of-life aspect of Stats, which Endurance definitely won out in, considering it kept you from succumbing to disease.
Ten seconds passed, which meant Sanguine Bond wore off. Stretching out my good leg, I managed to tap Bonnin’s shin with my own leg and reactivate it without anyone noticing. Jannin was too busy frantically casting his healing Spell over and over, and Poppins was too busy yelling at me.
“What did you do?!” he screamed at me. “Why?! I thought you’d calmed down!”
I was too busy counting up in my head to answer. From the moment I’d hit him, it’d been…what, twenty-five seconds? Hopefully the constant sap of his strength would keep his already-weakened mind from paying attention to the notifications mentioning my Class, which must’ve now been buried underneath a bunch of other ones talking about all the other Spells I’d been casting on him.
“Decent strategy,” I heard Index say, “this might actually work. Though I’m still just rooting for you to accidentally kill him. Still probably the safest option.”
Twenty-eight, I continued to count, twenty-nine, and…thirty.
I sighed and let off Gravity Well, with Crippling Chill and Sanguine Bond slated to end on their own soon, as well. With a flash of light, Jannin cast another of his healing Spells.
“...Darn. Seems like he’s gonna live,” Index sighed. “Oh well. You should be safe from him knowing your Class now, at least. Well, as long as he didn’t read it during that short time he was awake.”
After enough time passed that Jannin got off another heal, I heard Bon groan once again. Poppins seemed to hear it too, as he cast a frantic glance back at his fellow guard. Then he looked back at me. “D…do not do anything! Do you hear me?!”
“Mhmm,” I nodded. I felt like I was somehow both drunk and had a massive hangover at the same time. “S…sorry.”
“Y, you…why did…” he looked completely exasperated. But Bon stirred, showing that he was at least in decent shape, now that the curses had worn off. Since they only drained Health and didn’t actually cause any bodily harm, he would most likely recover pretty quickly—at least, he would as opposed to something like a knife wound that took away a similar amount of Health.
“Father, why you attack again? Should I attack too?” Ainash said. Looking over, I saw that she was still standing ready for battle.
“I’ll…explain later,” I got out. “But we’re safe. No need to attack.”
“They need to leave,” Jannin said to Poppins in the meanwhile, looking over at me as he helped raise the half-conscious Bon to a sitting position.
Poppins nodded. He was still kneeling on top of me, with his gripped on my shoulders. He was breathing shakily, as I was sure anyone would be, considering he’d just witnessed what I was sure he thought was a drunken assassination attempt.
“S…sorry,” I said again. Fuck, I really should’ve considered my arm and the damage notification.
I mean, even if it did come down to using Time Loop, that was still something I absolutely needed to avoid doing unnecessarily; if I had to use Time Loop to come back to today, then once midnight passed again, I’d instantly be down any uses I’d expended to come back to this point from the start of the day, which would obviously be less than ideal. I was lucky it was as easy to resolve as it was here, with Bon being so drunk.
So…I thought to Index, any damage anyone deals to me, they get to see my Class.
“Yeah. So you absolutely need to be careful with that.”
It was one thing to keep on Dark Plate whenever I could—annoying, but fine. But not taking and damage? I hadn’t really thought about that until now. Seemed like trying to integrate myself in here with a secret identity would be a lot more complex than just getting past a Truth Stone or two.
“…What’s happening?” Erani groaned, sitting up from the floor.
Poppins looked over to her, then shook his head, taking a series of deep breaths in an apparent attempt to calm himself down. “You’re getting kicked out, is what’s happening.”
“S-sorry,” I said once again. Though it felt like my apology fell on deaf ears—not that I really expected him to forgive me when there was no logical reason for me to attack him, stop, and then inexplicably attack again. Maybe they’d get it if it was just the once, but a second time…Yeah, that probably crossed a line. Or several.
Poppins finally got off of me, but his hand was on the hilt of his sword. “J…just get out. Please.”
I silently nodded and waveringly climbed up to my feet. At this point, Bon’s eyes were half-open, and he seemed to be conscious.
“...What happened?” He asked Jannin, who was still casting his healing Spell non-stop.
I turned and began limping away. “Hey, Ainash, let’s head out. Don’t think they want us here anymore.”
“Father, you sure we don’t kill them?
“Yeah, yeah, they’re not bad guys. Just…mean guys. And you don’t kill mean guys. You only kill bad guys.”
“Okay!”
“Hey…” Erani seemed to be waking up to consciousness as well, still completely drunk. “What was that noise?”
I put an arm around her and helped guide her out the door, though I wasn’t exactly in any shape to be guiding anyone anywhere.
“Nothing,” I said, not wanting to worry her right now with the identity scare or with telling her about what Bon had said about her. “Just…an argument escalated. Let’s find somewhere to sleep, and we can talk tomorrow. What’s one more night outside, right?”
“Mm, yeah, sure. It’s nice out, anyway. And you’re warm,” she smiled drunkenly and leaned her head against me as we walked.
Someone shut the door behind us as Erani and I stumbled back out into the dark night. Ainash walked behind cheerfully.
Hey, Index…watch them while we sleep, okay? Just to see…make sure Bon doesn’t remember anything.
“Yeah, sure. Just make sure you don’t wander off too far away before you go to sleep.”
Mhm. Thanks. I could barely walk still, so there were no worries about going too far before I passed out.
The plan wasn’t totally ruined, though. We’d camp out here, and then tomorrow, once Time Loop was back, I could use it for those free Spell Crystals. The Upgrades were in sight. Gravity Well, Ethereal Armor, Sanguine Bond, all three were waiting on me for Upgrades.
But first, I thought, …sleep.
And then I passed out in a bush.