Chapter 53: Change of Plans
"Eve, I’ve decided we can’t keep going like this!" I say to Eve, quickly standing up from the chair with my voice full of determination.
"What do you mean, Evelyn-sama?" Eve asks, confused, already used to me doing this kind of thing completely out of the blue and starting conversations in this strange way.
"What I mean is that we need to move forward! I want to leave the castle with you to hunt monsters in dungeons! In other words, we’re going to become adventurers." When I say this, Eve is completely shocked.
She knows what an adventurer is. She has read various books from the library about fencing, swords, and some were relatively suspicious, but we can overlook that, and among them were those that talked about adventurers.
"You...want to go out? To hunt monsters? You? Is this for real? I mean...you? You want to be an adventurer? With that physique? I mean, you’re...well...Evelyn-sama, you...how can I put this...you are..."
"...Weak, I KNOW!!" I say furiously. Her doubt makes it all the more humiliating. The way she speaks, restraining herself from calling me weak, is so ridiculous that it becomes humiliating.
"Eve, be serious!! Are you by any chance seeing me as a child? I know I’m weak, but first and foremost, I’m an intelligent strategist!" Eve has no idea how brilliant I am at creating strategies.
Before, I was already good at creating game-related strategies to get the best results, and now with Evelyn’s genius brain, this ability must have expanded.
"Evelyn-sama...you can’t even open a jar without looking like you’ve run a marathon, you can barely move that table to another place, you’re so weak that you needed my help to open a stuck door."
"Your strength is so low that if you run through 4 castle corridors, you start to get tired and have to start walking. Your physical ability is so ridiculous that I swear I saw an extremely fat pig run longer than you when I went to the kitchen."
"You’re so weak that you ran into a door, started bleeding, and then fell to the ground. Honestly, you must be the weakest being I’ve ever seen in my short existence, even the homeless are stronger than you, Evelyn-sama...no offense, of course." She says after having offended me in every possible way.
’What kind of image am I giving others?!! I’m not that weak!! Eve, you’re tarnishing my image!!’ I can only get angry mentally, without expressing my rage.
"Look, Eve, this is important. I’ve noticed that we can’t grow together in the castle. That would take too long and could fail at any moment." I say to her firmly, hiding the humiliation I felt.
I can’t take the castle’s secret items because they’re extremely important to Grace. I was counting on the competition prizes to get stronger.
However, it turns out that I might not win anything. Seeing Esther destroy my seemingly guaranteed victory made it clear to me that I can’t rely on these competitions.
So, the only option left is to become an adventurer to get relics, monster materials, and a lot of money, after all, I need to make Eve very strong to protect me in the future.
Eve currently must have the power of a Rank B adventurer. Demons, humans, and beastmen have adventurers because monsters attack important locations, agricultural areas, and homes if they are not contained.
So someone has to hunt them, and this job falls to the adventurers who will go out in search of reducing the numbers of monsters in search of wealth, materials, and other things.
As for angels, it’s complicated to say whether they have adventurers or not. Their territory is the most peaceful, but there are angels who work as adventurers in other continents that are not the angels’.
"But of course, Eve, I can’t let you go alone! I need you to protect me, and I also need to evolve you, as well as...get used to this as well."
I need to get used to this dark world. And killing monsters is a method. Of course, it won’t be me who will kill the monsters, but Eve. But just seeing it is already somewhat frightening, yet I need to get used to exactly this kind of thing.
"Okay...I assume you already have a plan, right, Evelyn-sama?" Eve asks, and I nod affirmatively. It’s obvious I wouldn’t have proposed this without having thought about anything beforehand.
"Yes, I have a great plan to both strengthen you and start our team! First, you need to know that we’ll be going alone as our team. We won’t accept any other groups!" I warn her from the beginning.
"Why? Wouldn’t it be easier to take other people from other teams with us?" She asks a good question, but she doesn’t know how terrible some people can be.
"It’s because there are a lot of ’rats’ in the guilds, ill-intentioned people who would abandon you in dangerous places to keep the mission’s reward or just to rob you after monsters have killed you!"
"They are more common than I’d like to admit, and they target mainly novices who think they’re weak, and let’s face it...I have a shitty reputation of being a failure."
"I would certainly attract a lot of these people who would want to do horrible things to my body and rob me! Maybe even sell me in the slave market!"
"It’s better not to take the risk." This different world from the game will take a few years until the competition for the throne is over. Seeing Marie’s favorability decline made me realize that I shouldn’t be obsessed with just increasing favorability with everyone.
It’s better to increase it slowly and gradually, because unlike the game where days, weeks, and even months pass in a few sentences, such things don’t happen here, and since it doesn’t happen, I’ll always have time.
’Maybe 1 or 2 years as an adventurer will be enough. In the game, the original Evelyn from the alternative route only managed to become a living puppet after a few years, so I believe I still have a good amount of time.’
The world won’t end tomorrow. I was so scared and paranoid about Esther destroying the world that I forgot she’s still too weak to commit global genocide. Esther herself will need to strengthen a lot in the next few years before she has that power.
And during that time, I’ll strengthen myself to stop her. I have an advantage that no one else has: I know the future partially. Of course, with the changes I’m making, the future will be different.
But the basis should still be the same, so I think I can spend some time being a good adventurer, earning money and power.
"I understand what you mean, Evelyn-sama, but then...can you leave the castle?" She asks, and I give a big smile.
"Of course I can. Normally it would be dangerous because they could kill me or kidnap me, but I have you! And with you, I know I’ll be safe!" Even if I’m kidnapped, Eve can always know where I am as long as I want her to.
"Now, Eve, we just need to think about some basic things, like the team name! We need a really cool name, and also our formation. I have to be with you in the fights, but I also don’t want to get in the way."
I need to command Eve. She can’t do everything alone. She is still a puppet at my service, and without orders, her power is limited, even if she is giving it her all in the fight.
I never really understood this part, but I think it can be explained by my puppets being able to use a large part of their power on their own, but only being able to use all their abilities if I am commanding with orders.
"Evelyn-sama, please don’t humiliate yourself. Choose a simple, direct, and truly good name. Nothing absurdly long or...strange." She looks at me with a look that seems to say, "You’re terrible at naming things," even though it was me who named her Eve, which is a good name with good symbolism.
"I won’t humiliate myself!! I’ll choose something good, don’t worry about it. Ah, yes...there’s Clarissa...she’s a maid. We can’t take her with us. I’ll leave her taking care of my room." I murmur the last part.
She is weak, she won’t help us at all being together. In fact, she’ll only hinder Eve in the fights. I hate to admit it, but the whole burden of fighting will be on Eve’s shoulders. I definitely need to give Eve a treat afterwards for accepting these ideas of mine.
"Are you...going to trust her with that?" Eve asks, but we really don’t have much choice but to blindly trust her with this.
"Ah, I guess so? It’s not like we have a choice. My room will have to be left alone. It’s better to have someone taking care of it than just abandoning it." That’s all I can do, so it’s obvious I’ll leave her taking care of it.
"...Haa...Evelyn-sama...are you really ready for this? I really don’t know if this idea is good. You are clearly weak, and not just physically."
She says, implying that I’m incapable of seeing Eve killing monsters.
"Eve!!! That’s rude! And...and it’s also...humiliating. I can do it. Don’t treat me like a child!" I will definitely be able to when the time comes. I won’t back down and cower just because of a little thing.
"Okay, I’ll trust you, Evelyn-sama...but understand that if you’re in danger, I’ll retreat, taking you with me to keep you safe, even if that makes your plans fail. Your life is always the priority, understood?" She speaks with an extremely serious look.
"O-Okay, Eve!" I say, shaken by her commanding and extremely serious gaze.
"Perfect, then I’ll listen to what you have to say now." She says, smiling as if she hadn’t just shown a frightening seriousness.