Mark of the Beast Lord

As I expected, Melissa still refuses to answer why she's forcing her daughter into making contact with me, going as far as to include her in a dangerous plan. But at least I got another answer in return.

As soon as Mia left, Melissa returned to my first question, telling me what Mia was about to talk about and why she was interrupted.

Melissa: "The mark she was referring to is called [Mark of the Beast Lord]. It's a skill that becomes available to everyone who's a leader of a tribe of beastmen or who has the potential to become one. It strengthens the user physically, but the mark that appears in the body itself is a symbol of leadership."

Miwen: "So the beastmen refuse to follow someone who doesn't have the mark?"

Melissa: "Yes, that's generally the case."

I can see why Mia would have a complex about it then, if her mother who's the leader has this skill, while she, being her daughter, does not. It would be a constant reminder, ever since birth, that she cannot follow in her mother's footsteps. Still, she must've been agitated, because unless this mark provides a great physical buff, I don't see her winning against that harpy guy.

Melissa: "I cut her off not because I wanted to hide that from you, but because I know that this is an awkward topic for her, so before she said something she'd regret, I decided to intervene."

She takes good care of her daughter... which makes me even more confused about her actions. She must be seeing something else, either for her or for her daughter to gain. Wait, was she serious about the whole marriage thing?

Nah, it couldn't be...

Miwen: "I see. Looking at your skills I can confirm that you indeed have this [Mark of the Beast Lord]."

She has quite a number of skills, so it never occurred to me to check them one by one, but I'll start to do it now during my visits.

Melissa: "I wouldn't lie to you."

Miwen: "But you'd keep the truth from me."

Melissa: "For now."

Oh, so there's hope then? Alright, I can play the long game just fine.

Miwen: "Well, since Mia took the items with her, I guess there's nothing left for me to do here."

Melissa: "Hm? Don't you wanna know about the angel's execution?"

Miwen: "If he's dead there's nothing for me to complain."

I don't have too much interest in this execution. It's not like I'm so kind-hearted that I'm feeling guilty about his death or anything like this, the guy was an enemy, he was fighting in a war, if he hadn't accepted the possibility of his death, then he should've stayed home.

At the same time, however, I also don't have such a sadistic side that I would want to personally watch or hear about it, I think my time is better spent thinking forward right now.

Miwen: "Instead, why don't you tell me the state of the war right now?"

Melissa: "Mhm... The enemy must've noticed the absence of their general, there was no attempt to disembark, and no ships were seen at all. They must've taken the day to rethink their strategy, resupply, or rest."

Miwen: "That's good then, it probably means that we dealt a surprise blow to them."

Any day that we push them back or stall their army, is another day that I can contribute to Melissa's war effort. Although the Gacha is completely random, sometimes good items come from it, given enough time and a bit of luck, I could supply her entire army with heroic weapons, unbreakable armor, or even tricky items like the cloak we used last time.

Miwen: "I guess the next step is to deal with the Seven Rainbow Miracles."

Melissa: "Do you have a plan for her?"

Miwen: "Not yet. Her position is much more secure."

That girl doesn't step in the island itself to begin with, so that alone limits what I can do tremendously. What's more, thinking about it rationally, all we know about her is that she can conjure up these massive, almost unbreakable barriers, but her epithet suggests that she has at least seven abilities. I can only hope that not all of them are as strong as the barriers, but it's best to prepare for the worst-case scenario.

Still, her barriers are already a big problem that I don't know how to deal with, the most I can think of is accumulating a lot of good long-range weapons and start bombing the shit out of her, but that would take time to become viable...

Melissa: "That's fine, what you accomplished is already a massive victory for us."

She's right about that, her army will suffer way less and the casualties on her side should start dropping.

Since I already gave Melissa what I had for today and she also gave me the report, I decided it was better to leave. Even if I like being around her in this prison more than being alone in the Kingdom, I know that she also has things to do, so it's better not to waste her time too much.

There's also the fact that I wasn't going to be alone in the Kingdom the moment I came out of it.

Miwen: "So you're awake Claire? I thought I'd need to wait until tomorrow to talk to you."

Claire: "Don't give me that, I asked for permission to enter, no way I could do that while sleeping."

Even though she's awake it seems like she's a bit tired and in a bad mood.

Miwen: "That's true. but since you came here on your own, you should already know what I want to talk about, right?"

Claire: "I know. It's about me not waking up right? But listen, it's not like you needed me anyway, and I swear it was just this one time, so, can you let this one pass?"

It would be quite problematic if I needed her and she couldn't come because she watched too many movies. It's also troubling that she seems to be tired right now. If something happened, she would be much less efficient, and dare I say, useless. So even if this is something quite minor, I should at least warn her a bit, for both of our sakes.

Miwen: "Listen, just between you and me, I don't think that this is that serious, so I won't scold you for it or anything like that. But sleeping late is bad for your health, will dampen your mood and ruin your energy for the day alright? So try to be moderate, at the very least."

Claire: "Fine, Dad."

Miwen: "C'mon don't be like that."

Claire: "Should I call you daddy then?"

Now I'm scared as to what kind of movie she watched that night.

Claire: "I'm just kidding, ok? It's just that the last person I talked to before I... well, you know, meeting you and all of that, was my dad. He was also reprimanding me at the time. It made me quite nostalgic."

She must be referring to right before her death then.

It's not something I'm comfortable listening to, but...

Miwen: "...Do you wanna talk about it?"

Claire: "It's fine. Like this time, it was deserved after all. I don't really wanna talk about it though. And you don't need to worry, I'll refrain from troubling you more than this."

I have yet to know how either Licia or Claire met their ends, it's not a topic easy to touch on, and even though I sometimes get some clues, I keep myself from assuming anything about it.

Well, I'm feeling a bit bad about making her awaken these memories, so I'll try to lighten things up a bit.

Miwen: "Look, let's compromise alright? If you really wanna do it, then you can choose a day per week when you can watch as much as you want or do anything, really, just tell me beforehand. Also if I need you, then you better come, even if it's your day off."

Going to the dungeons is a new experience for me, so I don't mind doing it every day. But for the girls, this is much closer to a job since they are used to raiding dungeons and lack that feeling of exploring the unknown. It even was Licia's job as an adventurer before I summoned her.

So taking this into consideration, I can give them a day off. To be fair I should give them the weekends off, but then it would slow down our leveling more than what I'm comfortable with.

Claire: "Really? Yay! Then I'll take today off!"

Miwen: "No, you've already spent this week's day off."

Claire: "Huh? But I didn't even-"

Miwen: "If you complain too much I'll take away your days off. Or better yet, I'll give them all to Licia."

Claire: "Nonono, please, I'm sorry ok? I'll take one next week."

What's with this reaction? It's not like I overwork them anyway, I just make sure that they must be always ready to come to work whenever I need them. I also made them work in a cold and dark space, risking their very lives every time without a day off until now...

Hm... Looking at it this way, I might actually be a pretty bad employer.

Well, at least since the event started, they haven't even been to the dungeon, so it's more like they work a week and then get a week off. Quite generous all things considered.

And it doesn't seem like they mind it either way, we also have some fun in the dungeon after all, so it's not as bad as one could make it look. Instead of work it's more like a social gathering. A fun little team activity. Yeah, that's what it is.

Miwen: "You can go now. Just remember to tell me about your day off beforehand."

Claire: "Will do!"

Everyone deserves a day off, and now that I think about it, this is the perfect opportunity to hang out with cute girls. I can take Claire to the cinema, for example, that would be as fun as raiding the dungeon, if not more.

Seeing the results, Claire managed to get quite a big win over me, was she perhaps manipulating me by appealing to my emotional and kind side? Well done to her if that was the case, it clearly worked.

But instead of seeing girls sad, I prefer to tease and see them with happy smiles, so I'll count this one as a victory for me too.

The only problem that I face now is how to explain to Licia that my scolding of Claire ended up with her getting a day off.

Hah... Thinking about it, I should probably leave the scoldings to her in the future, I'm clearly not very good at it.