Chapter 302: Appraisal

In the room that had grown a little light, I sat on the simple bed and looked at my hands. It had been a while since I killed people, or ran into a place where people died. Had any skills stacked on? I looked.

Death-Transfer Art, Sword 6, Spear 1, Brawl 4, Bow 6, "Divine Legs" 3, Fire 2, Light 1, Water 4, Stealth 6, Concealment 6, Appraisal 4, Detection 7, Purification 3, "Deception" 2, Sex Technique 2, Mana Bag 4, Poison Sight 4, Berserker 2, "Super Strength" 3, Mental Magic Resistance 6, Calculation 3, Mental Magic 3, Cooking 3, Lightning 2, Healing 3

Hah? What had changed? I thought I wanted to be shown only what changed, and it displayed,

Water 4, Appraisal 4, Cooking 3

I did not know from whom or what it had come, but some of it had gone up a little. Had "Water" risen because I used it until I ran dry? There was no HP display, but an MP display would have helped. That was an RPG-first idea, so of course nothing that convenient existed. I had heard of "Hero Summoning," but if you were a Hero, would a window open and show numbers for HP and MP? If so, I was jealous.

It was still early to get up, so I lay on the bed and looked at Lily. Appraisal had gone up. Maybe I could see Lily now? I looked.

Sword 4, Brawl 2, "Divine Legs" 1, Fire 1, Light 1, Concealment 6, Perception 3, Detection 4, Treatment 3, Purification 2, Sex Technique 6, Healing 6

Hmm. A lower-compatibility version of me, maybe. You could not raise things that easily in the ordinary way, so this was probably already high. Still, looking felt the same as peeking. I should seal looking at other people’s abilities... that was what I thought, and then Lily’s Sex Technique was "6"!! A "6," it said! So that was why a wilted, useless son could still be whipped back up... fearsome, Lily’s Sex Technique. A waste to have her as my maid? If she worked in a different field she could make a killing?

I closed my eyes and sleep came again.

"Lord Robbie, please wake."

Lily whispered at my ear. I opened my eyes and she was right there. Then she kissed me and put her tongue in. Her tongue slid around inside my mouth... uuh, was this Sex Technique too? While I thought that, she let my mouth go. I had been drained twice last night, so this morning nothing else happened. Those two shots had not been a dream, right? Even Lily would not do that in the palace first thing in the morning... probably?

Lily and Anouk hitting it off was frightening. A maid attached to Her Majesty and a maid attached to the ambassador, both doubling as guards and as hands and feet. A lot of overlap.

"I will bring wash water now. A change of clothes has been prepared. Please put that on."

Change, she said, when I was only wearing underwear. So I only had to put clothes on.

I accepted breakfast with thanks. I was grateful I could eat a meal safely this morning too. After wandering the border of life and death last night, I felt I ought to be grateful for each meal. I would probably forget before long.

After breakfast I thought they would send me back to the embassy, and then Dee showed up first thing (pitiful, worn-out face) and told me to come. Right. Seeing Dee’s face reminded me. I had left the bodies of last night’s people? inside the mana bag.

What if I had died like that? Would everything in the mana bag have spilled out here? Then Her Majesty and Anouk and the rest might have had corpses rain down and pin them. That kind of disrespect was not allowed! Good I had not died. Obvious, but still.

None of that mattered to Dee. He walked ahead of me. Maybe it was my imagination, but his shoulders were down and there was no drive in him. Had he been blamed and pressed over all of it?

I did not know what part of the palace we were walking, but we took stairs down underground. The air turned a little damp and cool. Farther in there was an open space. About ten men stood there.

"Lord Robin Marie, thank you for coming. I am sorry, but I cannot give my name, so if you need one please call me Ai. To the point. Could you take out last night’s corpses? Empire bodies here, kingdom bodies here, please."

The person called Ai cut to business at once. Not even a morning greeting. Brief!

I popped them out where he pointed.

"Hoooh!"

Voices rose from everyone present. Looking at the corpses’ faces again was frightening. Not one peaceful death face. Pain, or a grudge. Being a man who had just eaten breakfast felt like something they would resent. I was not going to throw up at this point, but looking at corpses first thing in the morning was not a joy even once. On top of that, the girl who had died from poison did not have a good color. A very strange color. Not just pale. Brown and purple mixed in. What did you have to do to turn that color? Not something to look at in the morning...

"Strip the clothes."

Ai ordered, and the men took knives and cut the clothes off the way you skin a beast. They checked whether anything was inside the clothes, whether there were marks on the bodies. They rolled the men, pinched them with tongs, and looked. I found myself thinking that rigor mortis did not affect that part. They spread the girl’s thighs and looked inside too. These people were used to it and watched with no feeling at all. Work or not, hard work.

"Is that all?"

Ai asked, so I said,

"Come to think of it,"

and put out men’s fingers, swords, that kind of thing. I had picked up what had fallen at the time, at random.

"Mm."

Ai groaned. What had he wanted?

It hit me then. The man who had gone up in flames. Who had carried that one? At the time of the fireball, had I been unable to put him in the mana bag? If there was a rule that living things could not go in, that would be if I judged them living. If I had thought of the burning man as a thing, could I have stored him? I thought about a thing I could not even do. What had the expression on the severed head looked like? Yes. I think nothing but extra things. Yes.