Chapter 47: Favorability and Its Future
"Tell me, why are you here so early?" I ask this servant who failed at something as simple as watching over Evelyn, it wasn’t even that difficult, Evelyn is weak and has no means to put any security in the room.
"I’m sorry, Esther-sama...she somehow discovered me, I tried an approach of revealing myself to blame someone else...but somehow she knew I was your servant," the servant speaks, bowing.
"..." I think about it, soon sitting in a chair crossing my legs as another servant enters, a slight cut wound on the face, this was the second servant who went, he had the duty to see the room.
’He was injured?’ What a rarity, he is quite strong so seeing a cut on him is significant, but it doesn’t matter if in the end he failed, I doubt he obtained anything useful, at most he saw the basics.
"..." The servant bows beside the other as he waits, with this I know he also failed and was discovered, just the fact that he doesn’t speak and stands beside the other confirms the obvious.
"Invading a room without security and observing a weak girl, two extremely easy things, and still they failed, they have really deteriorated compared to the past," I say coldly.
"Why did they fail?" I ask, trying to understand how both failed, the servant who arrived later begins to speak.
"I even managed to enter the room and looked around for anything useful information, but shortly after that the swordswoman servant appeared and interfered with everything, I also tried to copy her appearance and trick Evelyn into saying something, but she knew I wasn’t real."
"As for me, I was discovered out of nowhere, in an instant she was normal and the next she told me to reveal myself and even said who I was serving."
"She also said these exact words to me [Tell Esther that she doesn’t need to spy on me, if she’s curious about me she can come see me here, I’d love to chat with her]," he says, in a way this excites me.
’Finally someone who knows how to have fun’ She had a good reaction, not to fight, attack my servant or come to demand an explanation, but to invite me for a conversation, I like that, it’s pleasant.
’What a cute hamster, she gets all scared when she’s in my presence and yet has the audacity to call me for a conversation’ This interests me greatly.
"Esther-sama...are you...smiling?" The servant speaks as my face closes in a cold when he speaks, interrupting my thoughts.
"You failed, how can you deal with this? The security in Evelyn’s room is the most ridiculous in the castle, any random trash can invade that room, and yet you were discovered," I say, returning to what matters.
"Did you perhaps underestimate that girl too much? I told you to pay attention, do my orders have so little value?" I say, tilting my head, wondering if I should get rid of them.
’No...they are still useful, and although they failed, it doesn’t change the fact that they are "loyal" enough and throwing them away would be a waste’ It’s easier to send them to activities outside the castle as punishment.
"..." They remain silent, knowing I hate lies and stupid excuses, if someone lies to me the lie must at least be good and unique, not a silly and obvious lie, and excuses are just empty words that people use to not truly own up to their mistakes, the only excuse I want is a useful action that outweighs the weight of the error.
"I don’t want to get stressed, I liked Evelyn’s request, it takes part of the weight off your failure, retire, I’m studying now and then I have magic lessons." I’m focused on increasing my power now that the rules on how much power we could accumulate no longer exist.
Now I can increase my magical power, physical strength and even strengthen my blessing so that it can have an even greater effect.
"Understood, Esther-sama, thank you for your generosity," the two speak as they quickly leave through the door, not wanting to irritate me after having failed.
"This is still different from what was expected...so why does it seem fun," I murmur, feeling interest in the change, normally I hate changes, hate everything that means things different from what I predicted.
I can predict almost everything, the steps of the other candidates for the throne, the behavior of servants and nobles, even the behavior of the Demon King is something that can be predicted if I use all the years I’ve observed his actions.
Of course, there’s the heroine Grace, she’s not so predictable because I don’t know her, but she’s a variable that I can easily predict in a few months, and Evelyn is a strange kind of change.
I think I can even say it’s fun, it’s a change of someone at the bottom of the well trying to climb to the top, knowing that slipping even once will make her fall back to the bottom.
’Perhaps it’s that...perhaps she amuses me because I know I can knock her down to the bottom of the well at any moment’ Her changes are something that to a certain extent can be predicted, she’s trying to grab power around the edges, avoiding conflict until it becomes too big to be easily eliminated.
So it’s not an unpredictable change, what’s really unpredictable is the method she uses, her methods are fun to observe.
"Ah yes, it reminds me of math, not just knowing the result, but also the method to get to the result...that’s it...it’s fun to see how she climbs to the top even though I know exactly how far she’ll go," I’m satisfied to have found the answer.
’I wonder when the perfect moment will be to knock this hamster down again to the bottom of the well from which she so desperately crawls’ This is something I’ll leave for the future.
For now...I’m satisfied with the results that are being delivered to me on her part, I will continue my observation while trying to predict.
’I hope it continues to be interesting for at least a few more months, Evelyn’
...
...
...
"W-W-WHAT!!" I look at the bizarre system alert out of nowhere, it’s not really bad, it’s just so unusual, strange and abnormal that it’s bizarre.
"Evelyn-sama, is there a problem?" Eve asks as she continues tidying my room with Clarissa putting the things that were messed up back in place.
"Huh? Ah...yes, I’m fine," I say, still looking at the unnatural message.
[Esther’s Favorability +17 (Total = 18/100)]
’Why the hell did I gain 17 points of favorability with Esther?’ I’m confused, sitting in a chair staring at the system warning, I didn’t even see Esther, how did the favorability go from acceptable and reached close to interest?
’Does this make sense?’ In the game, favorability could only be increased near the person, although it was possible to lower the favorability away from the person, there was no way to increase it without being with the person.
’Another thing completely different from the game!’ I know I can no longer trust the game 100%, but it’s still the only thing I have as a basis to know about things.
’What if...and if...my favorability is different from Grace’s favorability?’ Thinking about it, Grace’s Favorability is a skill only she has, maybe what I have is something completely different that just looks similar.
’I’m not a heroine, I’m a romantic target, and my system only allows me to see the favorability of romantic targets of the routes, but the Demon King also gained favorability even though he’s not a romantic target of the game...’ I can’t get this out of my head.
I think about that new type of favorability that has no numbers, just three question marks, it wasn’t in the game either and the system itself warns that it’s dangerous.
[??? Completely Obsessed!!! (Extremely Dangerous, When an Individual acquires this favorability it cannot be reduced, the individual becomes unpredictable and romantically jealous and dangerous both to you and those around you)]
"This...could it be..." I think of something.
"Evelyn-sama, you seem to be thinking too much...are you really okay?" Eve says as she puts my dresses in the closet.
"I’m fine, just thinking a bit about Esther," I don’t want to tell about the favorability, I don’t even know exactly what to say about it.
I just know this new favorability is unpredictable and even dangerous for me, I should never let someone go above 100, considering they are all demons, the danger each one represents is immense.
’Well...it’s not like I’m going to try to conquer someone...’ I don’t want their love, just friendship and at most best friend friendship, and that happens at the 30, 40 and 50 counters.
30 Friendship
40 Loyal Friend
50 Best Friends
’Should I be happy then?’ The system showed me the same favorability counter as the game, so with Esther having 18, it’s only 12 more to get her friendship, and 22 more to get her to be a loyal friend.
’I guess I’m in luck finally, it was kind of strange the 17-point jump even without me doing anything, but the more I gain in the beginning the better, Esther is like one of the most dangerous ones and having her as a friend will prevent her from doing bad things to me!’ I decide to just accept it, hoping not to regret it in the future for ignoring other strange points.
I’ll just consider this as luck, since while Eve was carrying me from the breakfast room to my room, a door opened and my head bumped into it, so maybe the previous bad luck turned into some luck now?
"Hey, Clarissa, thanks for the help with the food, it really helped that you got the food from the kitchen and brought it to my breakfast room," I say, thanking Clarissa, it was brave of her.
"Ah, that...it’s my duty as a maid," she says, bowing shyly to receive the thanks.
"Well, I appreciate it anyway, it’s great," I say, satisfied with it.