Chapter 114

After the informative discussion with the headmistress, I was feeling overwhelmed. A system developed to counter the gods who had been locked out of the dimension for hundreds of years, The Eternals who had somehow lost control of the system they had developed, the possible source for my power as a goddess low-rank enough to easily dismissed by an angel who was clearly weaker than most gods, upcoming ritual to inject me with the light energy...

So, when, rather than doing the reasonable thing and visit Oeyne to strategize about the upcoming meeting with the crown princess before starting to work on her mysterious weapon, I started walking around aimlessly, I felt justified. I needed to calm down.

I sneaked out of the school once more, and started walking around the forests aimlessly, occasionally hunting the beasts too weak to detect the threat I had been posing to them. After talking about the source of the system and everyone’s power, I couldn’t help but examine the concept of level-up from a fresh perspective.

It was hard to imagine how the society would look without high-leveled individuals, restricted by the mortal limits of their deficiencies, limited. Likely not as limited as my own past status, of course, but still, extremely limited. Of course, while we haven’t discussed that explicitly, it was not hard to guess that uncontrolled monster hordes didn’t exist before the system —or more likely, after the gods’ supposed the last stand that broke the control of the system.

However, it would be a lie to say that I didn’t understand the motivation of the Eternals. After all, I had already lived through the torture of being an insignificant bug, living under the mercy of the people stronger than me. Living under the yoke of the gods with no chance to resist their power couldn’t have been any easier.

“It’s all so complicated,” I murmured as I pulled my hair hard in frustration. All I wanted was to live comfortably with my girls without being threatened by the presence of the mysterious organizations, undead hordes, and other mysterious creatures... Was that too much to ask?

Since I had been already out, I created another elemental, and quickly searched for the girls. Finding Aviada was the easiest, as she was close to the school, still patrolling with her team. I quickly moved through their patrol route to make sure there was no undead ambush or other dangerous events, before replicated the same thing for Titania and Marianne.

Their state was a bit different. They were defending against one of the fake monster hordes, easily cutting through the mass, the corpses around the town indicating that the current horde was far from the first one. Even when she was acting like she was tired, Titania was far too strong to even Luckily, they were following my suggestion —delivered through the headmistress— and avoided the temptation to loot the fake gems, preventing the potential disaster. Yes, defending against the weakened monster hordes was easy, but only when the walls were intact, and high-leveled defenders were healthy enough to contribute to defense.

The quick trip to the town Cornelia and Helga were garrisoning didn’t reveal anything different —except the number of monster corpses under the town border, indicating that their priority didn’t match the importance of Titania’s defensive location.

Not a surprising find after the attempt to capture Titania by the mysterious organization —The Eternals, if the headmistress had been truthful in her explanation— which was supporting the necromancer invasion. I wouldn’t be surprised if they made another attempt in a few days.

Or at least, I hoped that killing three members over level thirty would at least delay them would slow them a bit. To be fair, it was most likely the case. There was no reason for an organization that could treat such high-leveled characters as disposable cannon folder not to be already ruling the world. Even if that wasn’t their ambition, they wouldn’t have been bothering to ally with the necromancers to distract the headmistress, or bother working together with the other princes to weaken the Crown Princess.

Of course, there was a chance that I was misreading their level of strength, and they were actually treating people stronger than me as cannon fodder, and in that case, I was utterly and truly fucked.

Still, that was a thought for another day, I thought even as I returned to the school, just to see the royal procession passing through the gates. I stayed on the walls, watching them as the members of her party slowly stepped out of their carts.

Then, the bodyguards gathered around the fanciest carriage before the door opened, and a woman stepped out, one that shared almost exact body size with the thief —almost, because her puffy skirt and shirt were making it hard to make a conclusive decision from that distance.

“I might have just found my thief...” I started with excitement, only for another, almost identical, woman to step out. Their faces were somewhat different, so were their eye color and other identifying details, but their body size and type were almost the same. Even their hair color-matched, a shining blonde, with a smoothness that suggested several maids had been working on the style for hours.

“Okay, it might not be that easy to identify her,” I murmured to myself as a third one stepped out... Then a fourth...

Only them the princess stepped out, distinguishing herself with the crown on her head —which was radiating magic thick enough for me to detect from the walls— and her even fancier dress. However, other than that, her bodily sizes were almost similar to her handmaidens. Their hair was color-matched, though the style was wildly different, their hair wasn't too different in size, making any possible disguise even stronger.

Smart, I thought even as I watched five of them —four handmaidens plus the princess— walk toward the guest house, each of them walking with impressive grace. It was clear that not a single one of them was below level ten, but the thief I had watched was clearly over level twenty, and maybe even closing in level thirty, with a decent physical stat spread to support her power.

Unfortunately, it was hard to get a more accurate assessment of their strength just by watching from a distance. “Smart,” I said with a nod. With five of them almost identical, it would be almost impossible to identify the thief from the body type and presence even when one tracked her identity to the group.

Endurance: 34 Wisdom: 46

HP: 5370 / 5370 Mana: 6600 / 6600 ]

SKILLS

Master Melee [100/100]

Master Tantric [100/100]

Master Biomancy [100/100]

Master Elemental [100/100]

Master Arcana [100/100]

Master Subterfuge [97/100]

Expert Speech [70/75]

Advanced Craft [50/50]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (1/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

[Cornelia - Level 21/25]

[Helga - Level 17/21]