Even trying to figure out what he was doing, I stayed still; good thing I did.

“What’s going on.”

Although I’ve never played a game with Favorability, I roughly grasp the meaning of ‘Unconquerable’ by intuition.

A character the developer didn’t consider, or an antagonist who cannot be swayed.

Maybe it’s someone who will die soon, thus preventing an ending, but given the clues gathered so far, the latter seems more appropriate.

Meaning, this system likely flagged him as ‘should not be conquered’ because Heike could negatively impact me.

There are broadly two possibilities.

First, ‘Bishop Ainsidel’ plans to reach out to Heike Ainsidel, and our power cannot stop that flow.

Second, ‘Ainsidel’ and Heike have already joined hands.

The Bishop has sufficient incentive to draw Heike in.

A descendant with the same Unique Ability as himself, could there be a better target?

For Pleroma, who must manipulate people’s psychology and avoid detection, the ability to know the past of all things would be highly sought after.

Especially given he has the aptitude to be adopted into the direct line, how could they not covet him?

Honestly, despite being Unconquerable and all, I couldn’t sense any danger from his actions until now.

The fact that his Favorability doesn’t rise, and that no trace of the Bishop can be found in the house, only makes it harder to guess what’s entangled, but it doesn’t signify immediate danger.

If I couldn’t find evidence today that he harbored ill intentions, I planned to remain vigilant but maintain the relationship as I had been.

But….

‘Didn’t think he’d really come out like this.’

I came here assuming he might harm me, but I didn’t actually wish for him to have threatening ulterior motives.

A slightly bitter taste lingered.

Anyway, a decision must be made.

He doesn’t know the extent of my abilities, so he can easily make excuses. Is it right to push him hard right from the start?

‘An opportunity must be seized.’

Let’s conduct an experiment.

After pondering for a moment, I twisted my lips into a smirk and said.

“Honestly, since you invited me all the way home, I thought we’d hang out a bit later, but it was surprising how you sent me off right at midnight.”

“……”

“As expected, it’s a waste to just sleep like this, right?”

Laid the groundwork, let’s see which way he jumps.

If he’s someone who joined hands with Pleroma, he can’t reveal the truth. There’s no failed mission execution quite like letting the target know your objective.

“…No. That’s not why I came.”

“Then.”

The moment he said that, the sound of heavy footsteps came from outside. The door rattled.

Kwaang—!

“Luca!”

Elias burst into the room, grabbing Narce by the scruff of his neck.

Narce, looking half-asleep, perhaps woken up or just dragged here abruptly, wore a dazed expression and a questioning smile.

A fleeting chill crossed Elias’s face, but only for a moment. He grinned, looking back and forth between the two of us.

“So mean. Trying to play just by yourselves?”

***

I looked down at the board game spread out before me.

Elias and Narce had already pushed an adjacent empty bed over to create space.

“Ah, I won this time. Right?”

“No, Elias.”

“Why?!”

“I took four of your red pieces. You have to leave one~”

“Aaaaaah! Wait! Just listen for a sec.”

But Narce slapped Elias’s arm without a shred of hesitation.

Elias briefly furrowed his brow, then cast sound-proofing magic, excluding Heike, and said.

“Narce.”

“Yeah?”

“Is it okay for a clergyman to hit people?”

“Hahahaha!”

As Narce laughed it off, Elias shook his head.

“Are all Italians this strong…? The person I met before was pretty tough too.”

“I was born in the Vatican, though~?”

“Anyway. Come to think of it, your Imperial language is really good. Like someone from before the Tower of Babel.”

Every time this guy, the most flippant person I know across all eras, makes religious analogies, I feel a sense of dissonance. It hits me again that he’s a person from an era untainted by internet slang.

Anyway, Elias said something unremarkable, then lay down at the foot of the bed.

He must have lost interest after continuously losing.

He buried his face in the blanket, then sharply turned his head.

“Heike.”

“……”

“Why aren’t you playing? This is the second round, and it’s no fun because you’re not playing.”

“……”

“Ah, it would be really more fun if just one more person joined~ Hm?”

Heike, who had remained silent since the friends’ intrusion, quietly opened his mouth.

“Sorry. I don’t know the rules.”

“Huh?”

It’s a game currently popular at school, so it’s unlikely he doesn’t know the rules.

Elias looked at us with questioning eyes, then, perhaps recalling Heike saying he had no one to play poker with, quickly said.

“That kind of thing~ You learn as you go. Just give up a blood vessel or two, and it’ll be fine.”

“Right, Heike. I’ll teach you well.”

Narce said in a gentle voice, grabbing Heike’s arm.

Anyway, Elias acting like this isn’t simply because he wants to play.

He knows Heike tried to do something to me. Still, rather than confronting him abruptly, he must have thought it better to ease the atmosphere before verification.

Still met with silence, Narce moved to sit beside Heike and said.

“Heike. What happened earlier that made you so down?”

Actually, he’s not silent because he’s down, but more because his friends barged in just as he was about to speak to me.

“I have something to say to Lucas.”

“Ah, go ahead. Should we leave?”

“No. It’s okay if you stay.”

Ainsidel said, gazing somewhere between the wall and the floor.

“During the day, I said I could read the past of objects with my Unique Ability.”

“Right.”

“I can read people’s pasts too.”

I raised an eyebrow slightly.

An unexpected answer.

My eyes briefly met my friends’.

“I tried to read your past. I’m sorry.”

“……”

Even gave him an escape route, yet he comes out honestly like this.

“Why did you try to read my past?”

“…I…”

Heike muttered with an emotionless face.

“Just in case I might touch upon your scars or… some unpleasant topic. It’s the first time I’ve gotten close to a friend I wanted to befriend, so I wanted to do well this time.”

“Heike.”

“…I know I shouldn’t have.”

Slowly, the sound of him subtly clearing his throat drifted out, as if forcing out words he didn’t want to say.

Though his expression wasn’t visible, I could see his fingertips pressing hard into his knees.

“I didn’t want to make a mistake, but I caused a problem beyond a mistake. I’m sorry.”

Better take a step back.

If he had joined hands with Ainsidel, he wouldn’t have revealed his ability to me so straightforwardly.

Honestly, I expected him to evade with something like ‘Just came to see if you were sleeping well,’ not this gut-wrenching answer.

In other words, this either has another calculation behind it, or it’s the truth.

I looked at Narce. He gave a slight nod.

‘Certainly, based on his overall behavior, he does seem friendless.’

How long has he been without friends to act with such poor social skills?

Thinking his communication skills aren’t great, did he perhaps think reading memories and tailoring himself to the other person was a better approach?

Perhaps having not interacted much with people, his interpersonal skills seem stuck in childhood.

‘That doesn’t mean it wasn’t wrong, though.’

Whether he’s connected to Pleroma or not.

That’s what’s important to me, not lecturing him on social skills.

Since he apologized, I can’t keep getting angry and dragging it out, and if I was truly upset, I could have gotten angry the moment he picked the lock and entered, so I have no desire to react harshly to his mistake either.

“Hey…. This was wrong of you, Heike. You know that, right~? Even without using that, you speak perfectly fine.”

Anyway, Elias too, perhaps thinking he wasn’t dangerous enough to turn into a complete enemy, is continuously trying to lighten the mood.

Heike simply nodded.

“So, Luca? What do you think.”

“So, you planned to study up on me and tailor everything to me?”

“……”

“Heike. The process of figuring that out *is* the process of becoming friends. That’s what I think.”

“…I’m sorry. I lacked experience, I was scared you’d be disappointed in me.”

Although his face remained nonchalant, he genuinely seemed to have no intention of making excuses.

It’s been a while since I met someone with such rock-bottom interpersonal skills, so I have nothing more to say.

Clasping my hands together, I opened my mouth.

“I was very startled, and still find it absurd, but… thanks for telling me honestly anyway.”

“……”

“Hey~ Clean slate. So, all settled?”

Elias said, looking back and forth between us.

Settled… Since I wasn’t angry in the first place, it was already settled in my mind, and I have something else to ask.

“Heike. But I didn’t really feel like you wanted to be very close friends with me. Didn’t you dislike me?”

In other words, why isn’t the Favorability increasing?

“Can I be honest?”

“Of course.”

“Not now, but at first, I did find you somewhat unlikeable.”

“Why?”

“Pleroma are kind of….”

“……”

That’s my line, you bastard…

Someone with your family name is a Pleroma Bishop, who are you calling Pleroma now?

Narce gave a small nod, confirming there was nothing wrong with his statement.

“Now I know you’re not Pleroma, Lucas. If you were, all the students at our school should have gone into *Vitriol* by now.”

Stroking my chin, I fell into thought.

“Heike. Aren’t your feelings similar even now?”

“Did it seem that way?”

He gazed into the air and continued speaking as if entranced.

“Maybe. I find everyone in this world difficult, including myself. Even at this very moment, I don’t know what expression to make, or what emotion to feel more clearly.”

“……”

“I think of you as a cool teammate, but… that might just be stubbornness from wanting to befriend you, not the impression I truly feel. Of course, even the thought of wanting to be friends, I don’t know if it started from a preference for you, or from a fixation on wanting to try making a friend just once.”

‘Hmm, I see.’

Whether this can be directly linked to him not giving Favorability points is uncertain, but if he’s the type who feels almost no emotion in everyday life, it could certainly affect Favorability. Since some people give points easily, and others don’t.

‘The problem is… doesn’t that mean there’s a possibility it *could* rise? That in itself is also questionable.’

Is it normal to record the Favorability of an Unconquerable target?

Isn’t it Unconquerable because Favorability can’t be raised? Or is it Unconquerable because there’s no ending?

‘…Seems likely it’s both. Would need to have played such a game to know for sure…’

Still, the fog has lifted somewhat compared to before.

Which Pleroma would spell out their abilities to their target?

That guy seems like nothing more or less than a high school student who has no friends and lacks emotion.

So now the remaining possibilities are drastically reduced.

The most plausible scenario is this.

Pleroma will soon approach Heike.

“……”

My goal was to prevent the ending where an Unconquerable target is neglected and leads to catastrophe.

‘But if this guy is about to fall…’

He might not just fall and end up as a low-level member of the organization, but could become a definite antagonist.

Honestly, when thinking of villains in the novel, Pleroma and Adelbert come to mind together.

But wasn’t Adelbert clearly conquerable?

Heike has the potential to become an even more serious villain than that.

‘Then.’

Is it right to deal with him beforehand?

Of course, he hasn’t done anything wrong yet, so preventing Pleroma’s approach is the most ideal, but wasn’t he ‘Unconquerable’ precisely because that couldn’t be done?

Slowly, I lifted my head and looked at the Class 1 Ainsidel’s face.

Narce, having read my thoughts, audibly inhaled.

“……”

“If you’re uncomfortable, I won’t acknowledge you from now on.”

“No, not to that extent.”

Ultimately, wasn’t the reason he approached me today ‘to become friends’?

Having imagined the worst-case scenario of ‘to feed information to Pleroma,’ this level of issue just makes me scoff and move on.

Besides, if our relationship sours, that creates its own problems. It means throwing away teamwork for the 3rd exam.

“Don’t feel too guilty. I wasn’t that angry.”

“……”

“I’ve had thoughts like that too. Thinking if I knew the other person’s feelings, we could become closer, things like that. Trying to implement that on someone sleeping was definitely wrong, but…”

Scrutinizing Heike’s face carefully, I continued.

“Considering your current situation, I understand why you acted that way. I’m fine now, so don’t stay down for too long.”

“…Thank you.”

Unlike his utterly expressionless face, his fingertips curled into his palms, pressing down hard.

I know well what state his mind must be in.

Just then, Elias shot up from his seat.

“Guys.”

“Yeah?”

“Why.”

“All settled~?”

“Well, something like that.”

“Listen.”

“To what?”

By the time I asked, it was already too late.

About 30 minutes later, I scooped up a handful of goose feathers covering the floor and tossed them into the air.

“…Didn’t know this was such a time-honored tradition…”

“Hoo~ Fun!”

Narce laughed, neatly folding a pillow devoid of stuffing.

I don’t know why he’s laughing after getting beaten up with a pillow by Elias.

‘Come to think of it, this is his first time experiencing school life with peers too, having lived as a Cardinal.’

Still, the atmosphere, which had been completely frozen earlier, did loosen up. Because Elias ended up thrashing Heike along with everyone else.

Still, there are limits, doing this in someone else’s house…

“Guys. When are we going to clean this up? If we call the servants, the family elder might hear about it.”

At my dry laugh, Heike said.

“It’s fine…. We can secretly burn it.”

“Just don’t touch it.”

“Burn? Will uncle scold us if we throw it in the trash? If we say we were playing with friends, wouldn’t he just let it slide~?”

At the mention of his uncle, the color drained from Heike’s face, which had been flushed from running around just moments before.

“Probably uncle…”

“Why?”

“…Never mind. Since you guys are here, maybe he’ll say it’s okay.”

“You don’t seem close to your uncle~?”

“No.”

Since Heike finished his sentence firmly, unusually for him, nobody continued on that topic.

Of course, it doesn’t matter. Elias probably had no intention of continuing that conversation anyway.

It seems unlikely much more information can be gleaned from Heike here.

Except for one method.

‘It would be nice to get some information using Divine Power.’

Extracting information and erasing memories is also a good method.

But there’s a reason I haven’t done it.

Since Heike possesses a mind-related Unique Ability, mental manipulation might not work.

Didn’t even Narce say he felt like ‘hitting roadblocks’?

‘Maybe try bluffing that everyone uses subjugation magic when they become friends these days?’

No.

Even that guy wouldn’t believe this.

“Guys, want to drink more?”

“We have school at 7 tomorrow, Elias.”

“Right. Need to sleep now. I’m going to bed.”

Heike magically swept the goose feathers into a corner in one go, then stood up.

“And, Lucas. About earlier…”

“Didn’t we finish talking?”

Heike gave a faint smile at those words and nodded.

As he was about to leave the room, he turned back and looked at us.

“Thanks for today. For looking out for me.”

***

We moved to Narce’s room, the furthest one away.

“First time seeing someone try to make friends using their Unique Ability.”

“Surprisingly, there was no malice.”

Elias and Narce conversed quietly after casting sound-proofing magic.

That truly is the surprising point.

Narce muttered.

“For now, it doesn’t seem like it’ll be a problem, but still, he’s not entirely unrelated to that side. I’m sure.”

“Judging by my abilities, it seems likely Pleroma will contact that friend soon. What do you think?”

At my words, Narce closed his eyes, then opened them after a long moment, frowning.

“Maybe… I don’t know. What you said, Lucas, seems closest to the truth.”

“Oh, maybe Narce is seeing the future?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow~ Cool.”

Elias said that and clasped his hands together.

“Guys. First off, I know what else you want to talk about. You probably want to talk about what to do with that friend now. But now you need to hear the real reason we came here.”

Elias naturally shifted the real purpose.

Though we didn’t come because of Primrose Path, I looked at Elias.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep