I stared at the blue window that popped up in front of my eyes for a moment and thought to myself.
“Should I check the status window…? Ah, if I consider this as checking, will it work? Check.”
[Player’s intent confirmed. Opening status window.]
The message appeared on the blue window, then it expanded, revealing something.
[Name: Ain (Saint John)]
[Level: 13]
[Class: Warrior]
[Traits: Blessing of the Goddess, Player, Curse of Misfortune, ■■’s Blessing]
[Stats]
[Strength: 12]
[Agility: 16]
[Health: 13]
[Stamina: 11]
[Magic Power: 19]
[Luck: 00]
[Spiritual Power: ??]
[Skills]
[Time Stop: MAX.LV]
[Mind Control: MAX.LV]
[Enhanced Senses: MAX.LV]
[Void: MAX.LV]
[Swordsmanship: 6LV]
[Magic Utilization: 7LV]
[Body Combat: 4LV]
Literally, the status window.
It was currently displaying information about me. I examined it carefully.
“The name is set as ‘Ain’ with ‘Saint John’ in parentheses. Level… just 13. The class is Warrior, as always in games…”
[Warrior]
[<Trait: Blessing of the Goddess> received. You can level up by defeating opponents.]
Same explanation as in the game. I continued reading through the status window.
“And… traits include the Blessing of the Goddess and the Curse of Misfortune unchanged.”
The Warrior trait, the Blessing of the Goddess, and the unique trait only I (Ain) possess, the Curse of Misfortune.
After staring at them for a moment, explanations appeared.
[Blessing of the Goddess]
[Removes limits on talent. Can be recognized by the Holy Sword.]
[Curse of Misfortune]
[Drops Luck stat to 0. Born under an unfortunate fate.]
“Hmm, these are exactly the same as in the game…”
The Curse of Misfortune.
The tragic curse that makes me the protagonist of NTR games and the blessing as a Warrior. Then, I turned my gaze to other traits.
“But these things weren’t in the game. ‘Player’ and ‘■■’s Blessing.'”
I briefly checked their descriptions.
[Player]
[Can view the status window. Skills can be used simply by wishing for them.]
[■■’s Blessing]
[Receives the power of ■■. A new stat, ‘Spiritual Power,’ is created. The received power’s level is MAX and influenced by Spiritual Power.]
I narrowed my eyes after examining the Player trait.
Such traits didn’t originally exist in the game. After all, the Player isn’t a character within the game.
Did my possession as Saint John create new traits? When I possessed him, the originally non-existent Player trait appeared.
Its effect is also extremely simple: ability to view the status window and use skills by wishing for them.
Seems like privileges gained from becoming a Player. Anyway…
“What’s this?”
■■’s Blessing.
This is also an unheard-of trait. Received the power of something? Created a Spiritual Power stat?
“…I’ll probably understand if I keep looking. Next.”
Next were the stats.
“At least Magic Power stat is relatively high… though the fact that not even one ability reaches the 20s is quite despair-inducing. This…”
[Spiritual Power: ??]
Spiritual Power. This stat also didn’t originally exist.
“It said Spiritual Power stat would be generated from ■■’s Blessing. But why the question marks?”
No idea. Perhaps my Spiritual Power cannot be measured. Though I’m not sure how solid my mental state is.
“Let’s check the description.”
[Spiritual Power]
[Represents the Player’s spiritual power, equivalent to the strength of the soul. Related to the exercise and potency of powers.]
“Spiritual power… exercise and potency of powers…”
“…Sounds like nonsense.”
Though I somewhat understood the explanation, it felt like nonsense from my perspective.
Deciding to skim over it for now, I moved on to check the skills section.
[Time Stop]
[Mind Control]
[Enhanced Senses]
The first three that caught my eye were these.
Just like everything else I’ve seen so far, these three skills didn’t originally belong to me.
Surprisingly, their levels are set to MAX, meaning there’s no further growth for these skills.
“These powers must have come from the received powers… but…”
Time Stop, Mind Control, Enhanced Senses…
“…Harem game powers?”
As soon as I saw them, this thought came to mind.
Typically divided into Time Stop Villains, Hypnosis Villains, etc., these are abilities you’d see in harem games.
Even Enhanced Senses… depending on usage, could potentially be applied that way. Of course, unless the enhancement applies only to me.
“Anyway… Was the broken text in ■■’s Blessing referring to harem games?”
If it was harem games, maybe it got censored. No way to know for sure.
In any case, let’s call it “Blessing of Harem Games” moving forward.
With that thought, I checked each skill’s information.
[Time Stop]
[Halts the flow of time in the world. The user can move within the stopped time. Range and duration are affected by the Spiritual Power stat.]
[Mind Control]
[Controls the minds of targets viewed. Multiple targets can be controlled simultaneously. Number of controllable targets and control strength are influenced by the Spiritual Power stat; failure may occur if exceeded or if target’s Spiritual Power is too high.]
[Enhanced Senses]
[Enhances the senses of the target. One’s own senses can also be enhanced; intensity is affected by the Spiritual Power stat.]
After quickly scanning the explanations, I tilted my head and lit up with excitement.
“With these, it might actually be possible?”
At first, I was a bit startled by the existence of traits, stats, and skills that didn’t exist in the original game, but for me, it was rather a favorable situation.
With these skills… escape isn’t impossible. Of course, experiments are needed to see how far they can go…
“A glimmer of hope.”
Of course, if this status window before my eyes is just my delusion, then it’s game over.
“Should I check?”
Since things have come to this, I thought it necessary to confirm whether what’s in front of me is my delusion or not. I picked up the pillow on the bed and…
SWOOSH!
Threw it far away. As I watched it fly,
[Time Stop]
I intended to use Time Stop.
DING!
And then, like a bell ringing, a gray ripple spread across the space.
“…Whoa.”
Everything around me turned gray, and the pillow hung suspended in mid-air.
Seeing this, I was certain that none of this was a delusion.
“…This is fun.”
I got out of bed and approached the pillow suspended in mid-air.
I grabbed the pillow and decided to cancel the Time Stop.
The pillow began falling again due to gravity, which I promptly tossed back onto the bed.
“Then, let’s finish checking. Thinking about it, there’s another skill at MAX level, right?”
Muttering to myself, I glanced at a corner of the status window.
[Void]
Void, void… couldn’t tell what kind of skill it was just by the name.
I checked the information.
[Void]
[You are a void person. The unfilled void within provides infinite Spiritual Power. Immune to mental attacks.]
“Provides infinite Spiritual Power?”
Is it referring to the stat? If so, the Void skill would be immensely valuable, perhaps even one of the most important skills for me, assuming Spiritual Power is consumable.
Additionally, immunity to mental attacks is a pretty great option. Maybe Lilian’s charm broke because of this.
“…Anyway, that’s enough confirmation.”
There are other skills, but there’s no need to check them. What matters to me now isn’t swordsmanship or magic utilization.
“Let’s do some experiments and escape as soon as possible.”
The longer I stay here, the more dangerous it becomes for me. It’s best to escape as soon as possible.
That’s when it happened.
Knock knock knock.
A knocking sound came from the door of this room, along with the soft voice of a woman.
“Ain-sama, are you there?”
“…Uh-oh.”
It’s the succubus assigned to attend to me. I responded.
“Ah, yes! I’m inside!”
The original Ain is the epitome of a naive and down-to-earth country boy. He’s very kind-hearted, shy, and has a very gentle disposition.
Of course, anyone seeing me in this current state wouldn’t think that, but that’s beside the point.
What’s important is that showing suspicious behavior before leaving this place wouldn’t be wise.
Therefore, I acted as the naive country boy Ain while approaching the door. Pretending to be flustered, I opened the door.
There stood a beautiful woman with red hair, smiling softly as she looked at me. I deliberately stammered and asked.
“Ma, Marianne-sama… Why are you here?”
The woman in front of me is Marianne, a succubus.
She is the close aide to Queen Lillian, tasked with monitoring and attending to me.
She smiled and said.
“Her Majesty the Queen has summoned you, Ain-sama. Will you come?”
“Hmph.”
Her tone was polite, but it was closer to a notification that didn’t allow refusal. Of course, it’s natural. After all, if the queen calls, you can neither refuse nor not go. It’s absurd to reject a meeting with the leader of an entire race while being inside her castle. In the original scenario, he would have rushed there immediately, fainting from excitement.
Only now is the situation not ideal.
“Perfect timing, huh.”
I was about to escape right after doing some experiments, but didn’t expect to get caught like this.
“…And judging by the timing… There’s a chance that going now might lead straight to a bad ending.”
The queen summoning me directly like this could mean that she’s finally ready to consume everything about me. After all, the point where I (Saint John) possessed this body (Ain) is quite far into his stay here.
Thinking about it, I shouldn’t accept the queen’s invitation. There’s no telling if my powers will work on her.
“I wasn’t planning to act so hastily, but there’s no choice.”
Let’s escape now that it’s come to this.
[Mind Control]
“…Eh…”
I stared intently at Marianne while lowering my gaze. Her eyes became dazed, and she wore a vacant expression.
Feeling that the Mind Control had worked, I spoke.
“Marianne.”
“Um? Why… are you saying that, Ain-sama?”
“Tell the queen that I’ll need some time to prepare, so please wait a little longer.”
Words the original wouldn’t have dared to say.
However, Marianne didn’t find it strange. Instead,
“…Okay…”
She replied like that, nodded her head, and started walking toward somewhere.
“…Good. Let’s go.”
[Time Stop]
Woosh!
I muttered under my breath and froze time in the area. A gray ripple spread as the surrounding time froze.
In the now completely gray world, I gazed in the direction of the queen’s audience chamber and murmured.
“Thank you for your kindness, Your Majesty. But I’m not ready to die yet.”
I hadn’t forgotten the favors she extended—feeding and sheltering me—or the comfort I received, even if it was all pretense. Though I no longer intended to give her my body and soul, I still expressed my gratitude.
“Farewell. I hope you’ll forget someone like me and live happily ever after.”
…Was that gratitude or a wish?
Whatever.
With those unilateral words of farewell, I swiftly headed toward the castle kitchen.
I have a long journey ahead, so let’s gather supplies, including food, first.
