Chapter 722

“Are you saying that there is a second me out there?”

“No! No…” Carmine shook her head. “The Archbishop had an extremely resilient soul and a much stronger constitution than Master…”

“…”

“What I’m saying is that when you cut away a piece of soul, you cut away a piece of yourself.”

“A… piece of myself.”

“It would be the parts of you that you wanted to lose. Some would be things that you see as weaknesses, the parts of you that you dislike. The other would be parts of you that were closely connected with your party, although, I think they’d be the same.”

“The parts I want the least are my party?”

“No! I mean, why does one form a party? What are you looking for in those you work with? They are, inherently, there to pick up the slack for your weaknesses. It’s like the things that you find weakest about yourself that are the same things that you rely on your slaves the most for.”

“I guess that kind of makes sense.”

“If I’m right, then that explains why you’re… different. Do you feel different at all?”

I thought about it for a moment. “I guess, I haven’t been afraid since I’ve come here. I’m also struggling a bit more to make decisions.”

“It’s likely that you cut away your fear and your impulsiveness.” Carmine agreed. “I’d also say you’ve cut away some of your compassion, and your restraint.”

“What do you mean by that?” I grabbed her arms.

She let out a laugh. “It’s kinda funny, you’re less impulsive but less restrained. It may take you longer to make conscious decisions, but when you do something, you do it with a heavy hand.”

I let go of her arm, feeling a bit worried over what she had just said. However, even thinking of doing something about it caused a bit of fear and discomfort to emerge inside my heart.

“I lost my blessings and my slave connections.”

“Those are the easiest to explain. You would have needed to sever your slave connections to send them back. They were sent back home with the piece of your soul that still had the connection in it. That might be why they didn’t try to rescue you. They may… think you’re dead!”

I spun around. “Really?”

“All they would have is a piece of your broken soul. If they tried to call the rest of your soul and resurrect you, they would fail. That broken piece will degrade with time. It’s not being eaten away by miasma, but considering how much is left, it might be gone in a month or less.”

I took a calming breath. With time dilation of this dungeon, it will only be three days by the time we’re out. I might still be able to recover it if we’re fast.”

“I’m sure the girls wouldn’t just let it dissipate either.”

That’s right, I had no reason to worry at all. Miki was a nine-tailed fox. She could keep my soul protected indefinitely. The only thing that bothered me was just how much pain my girls might be in knowing I’m gone. See? I still had compassion! Well, it wasn’t to the point where my heart hurt or anything. It felt more like it’d just be unfortunate. Knowing what I knew now, I’d start second-guessing everything if I kept thinking about it. It was best if I just moved on.

“Master, speaking of which, how do you plan on escaping from this room?”

I put aside my concerns about the missing part of my soul. Right now, we were still trapped in the dungeon. That was what we needed to work on at the moment.

“First things, first, am I still able to switch positions with a party member?” I used my ability, and let out a breath when I saw my position in the room change.

“Ah… M-master! Don’t do that so quickly without asking!”

“Sorry… but at least I know how we can escape.”