For the last week I kept training.

Basic magic in the morning. By noon, my arms were already heavy, but the sword didn’t care. It rose and fell anyway. Nights were quieter. Mana breathing... I could do it anytime now.

At some point, it stopped feeling like effort.

It became a habit. A routine. My life was peaceful.

Too peaceful.

Like a storm was quietly waiting somewhere ahead.

"System."

[....]

I want to use the shop. Open it.

A whole market appeared in front of me.

I scrolled.

[Cooking Skill] [Healing Spell] [Blink]

I kept scrolling.

[....]

Then I saw it.

A basic skill. 100 PS.

Inventory.

Literally an inventory. Like in the anime. A pocket dimension to store things.

But why was it so cheap?

I read the description carefully. Everything seemed normal. No hidden conditions. No catch I could spot.

I stared at it for a long moment.

Too cheap.

In a system where basic magic cost hundreds, something like this being priced at 100 PS didn’t make sense.

Which meant one of two things.

It was useless.

Or it was broken.

I smiled slightly.

"Let’s find out."

I bought it.

[Skill Acquired: Inventory] [Available Slots: 20]

I picked up my sword from the ground.

"Store."

It vanished.

I paused.

20 slots for 100 PS.

Yeah... that was definitely broken.

I checked my remaining PS balance and thought, why not. One premium spin. Might get something useful.

"System, open the Gacha Store."

[Gacha Store] [Premium Spin: 100 PS]

I clicked.

Something tapped my shoulder from behind.

I looked behind.

Luna.

Standing there in a full maid outfit. Frills. Headpiece. Everything.

My heart was still recovering.

"What...."

"This is a surprise for using the Premium Spin," she said, looking completely flustered.

I stared at her for a long moment.

Do these gods have some sort of fetish, I thought.

She cleared her throat and started singing anyway.

"Round and round the wheel goes~!"

"Yeah yeah I know."

The wheel spun.

"Congratulations~! You have won Pain Resistance!"

"...Pain Resistance."

I exhaled slowly.

"...That’s great!"

I meant it genuinely. Pain Resistance on a body that was regularly bleeding into a cave floor and testing high rank magic on a silver mana heart?

Genuinely great.

Luna stood there still flustered, maid outfit and all.

Is she waiting for a reaction? I thought.

I looked at her.

"Nice outfit."

Her face went red.

I smiled.

Then a thought crossed my mind.

Wait.

If I have Pain Resistance now... the penalties would be way more tolerable. I could basically say whatever I want.

Apparently my face gave it away.

Luna’s eyes narrowed.

"By the way," she said, completely casually. "From now on, all skills will be deactivated during penalty time."

"Wh— wait. Wait." I held up a hand. "Why? That’s not fair!"

She smirked.

And left.

I stood there staring at the empty space where she had been.

She knew.

She already knew what I was thinking before I even said it.

I looked up at the ceiling.

"Are you guys watching that closely?"

No answer. Obviously.

I sighed and sat back down.

Somehow losing to a twelve year old girl in a maid outfit was the most humiliating thing that had happened to me since waking up in this body.

And that was saying something.

"System, can you show me the profile of other people too?"

[Yes. But it will cost you.]

"How much?"

[10 PS per person.]

"What the fuck, are you trying to loot a poor man?"

[For first time users there is a newbie offer.] [90% discount on first use.]

"...That’s literally just a scam to get me hooked."

I closed the shop.

[Goddess of Greed is laughing.]

"Yeah, laugh it up."

***

Sebastian left that evening.

No announcement. No formal goodbye. A letter, from my father his presence was required elsewhere. He packed in under an hour, appeared at my door one final time, said "I will take my leave, Young Master," and was gone before I could think of anything worth saying back.

I stood at the window and watched the carriage disappear through the gate.

Interesting, I thought.

Because Sebastian Crowe was not just a butler. He was an assassin. My father’s eyes inside this estate. And my father had just pulled those eyes away.

Which meant one of two things.

Either my father had stopped caring about what I did.

Or he had decided he already knew.

I wasn’t sure which one I preferred.

The estate felt different after that. Quieter in a way that had nothing to do with noise. The servants moved the same. The halls looked the same. But something had shifted, some invisible pressure I hadn’t noticed until it was gone.

So this is what it feels like, I thought, to not be watched.

I remembered.

Being watched by dictators.

Now the silence felt different.

I went back to training.

Three days passed. Then five. Then seven.

Each morning the same: cave at dawn, magic until my mana bottomed out, sword work until my arms stopped cooperating, mana breathing on the walk back. Each night was the same: the diary, the plot points, the plans that kept changing because I kept learning things the novel hadn’t mentioned.

I was making progress. Real progress.

But the main quest remained untouched.

Aria was still in the capital. Still receiving treatment. Still completely unreachable.

After an intense training session I went for a bath.

Something feels different.

I got up. Crossed to the mirror.

The person looking back had stopped surprising me which was its own kind of surprise. Somewhere in the last few weeks I had stopped seeing the original Kael when I looked at this face. I had started seeing something else. Someone in the middle of becoming.

The jaw was sharper. The shoulders filled the frame properly now.

I looked for another moment.

Then I turned away and went to work.

There was no point staring at what I was becoming when I could be accelerating it.

***

The next morning, on my way to the cave, I heard something.

Crying.

Not a child exactly but small. Quiet.

It didn’t fade when I stopped moving.

It got clearer.

Deep forest. The part where normal animals didn’t go. Where even the undergrowth thinned out for reasons no one explained.

I followed it anyway.

Pushed through the undergrowth. Deeper.

Then I found it.

"...A girl."

Seventeen, maybe. Twenty at most. Sitting on the ground like she’d been there for a while, or like she didn’t know how to leave.

I stood there for a moment.

...So how did she get here?