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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: TushChen
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“…? No?”
So Gaunis couldn’t read it either.
“W-Wait, so you’re saying this guy stole my authority arbitrarily and I don’t even know his name?”
“You’re exactly right.”
“Hold on. I can find everything with just a few searches, you know?”
Gaunis started operating the Celestial Network and inputting something.
It seemed she was inputting anything, hoping for a stroke of luck.
Gaunis’ luck comes when she ‘wants’ something and acts on it.
So if she wants to find ■■■■’s identity, luck might take her side.
Using the power of luck through the threads of fate, she might be able to discover ■■■■’s identity surprisingly easily.
However, suddenly, I had a bad feeling.
Would the creator of the system, of all people, have made it easy for Gaunis to discover their identity?
“Wait!”
With that bad feeling, I reflexively grabbed Gaunis’ hand and pulled her towards me.
“Eek!”
Suddenly, a blinding flash of intense sparks burst from the Celestial Network screen.
The Celestial Network, which had been emitting high heat and flashes as if it would burn everything around it, exploded with a bang and disappeared.
“Wh-What was that just now?”
Gaunis looked alternately at the empty space where the Celestial Network had been and at me.
Her hand gripping my forearm was trembling finely, probably from the shock.
“They took measures to prevent you from finding them.”
But that wasn’t the end of it.
Faint golden characters began to flicker all over Gaunis’ body.
At the same time, Gaunis started coughing violently, clutching her throat as if she couldn’t even breathe due to intense pain.
‘Don’t tell me…!’
I had seen this in the novel.
One of the punishments for breaking the ‘Star Contract’ between constellations.
This must have been in the contract Gaunis had made with ■■■■ when she was scammed.
At this rate, Gaunis could lose her life.
“…Kuk!”
To think they would go this far.
Indeed, they were not an opponent to be taken lightly.
A power that could nullify even Gaunis’ luck, which was a powerful authority.
It must be an even higher-ranking constellation, or a god, or perhaps something even beyond that.
To make matters worse, I suddenly felt an added weight to my body.
Along with a severe headache, breathing became difficult.
Ding!
Originally, humans couldn’t stay in constellations’ spaces for long.
The reason I had been able to stay for such a long time was that I had temporarily nullified the authority that occupied most of Gaunis’ status.
The strongest sword according to the setting couldn’t be used for about an hour.
I couldn’t stop the return.
But there was a way.
“…Summon. Star Contract document.”
Ding!
A single sheet of paper fluttered down.
The contract document I summoned was the bundle of contracts Gaunis had signed.
And I raised the pen used by the first Duke of Deinhart.
One of them was the power to ignore a constellation’s refusal of visitation and enter their dwelling.
The other two were still undiscovered.
I decided to add one setting here.
“This pen should be able to change the contract clauses of the Star Contract.”
Ding!
It was disappointing, but that was enough.
After all, what mattered here was just one clause.
The strength was gradually fading from Gaunis’ hand that was gripping me.
There wasn’t much time left.
I quickly searched for the problematic clause.
[‘Party B’ must not try to find the identity of ‘Party A’.]
This phrase was the most direct, but it wasn’t this phrase.
I couldn’t modify this phrase with just one word.
What I needed to modify was…
[If the clause is violated, ‘Party A’ and ‘Party B’ will pay the price with their lives.]
I modified one word here.
‘Life’ to ‘dessert’.
Ding!
With that message, I picked up a snack scattered around the room and threw it towards Gaunis.
The flying snack exploded with a spark just before reaching Gaunis.
“Cough.”
As the pain subsided, Gaunis shed tears that had flowed physiologically while gasping for breath.
The golden patterns were disappearing from Gaunis’ body, which had been driven to the brink of death.
“…Wh-What did you do?”
Gaunis knew that I had just done something to save her.
Questions swirled in her pink eyes, moist with tears.
“This pen has power in it, so I used that. It was quite a price to pay.”
I waved the pen in front of Gaunis and then put it into my pocket.
Today might be the worst day ever for Gaunis.
She was hit for the first time in her life, and on top of that, she was driven to the brink of death.
“Don’t try to find the person who sent the email by yourself again. I can’t use this method multiple times.”
The content would have reverted from ‘dessert’ back to ‘life’.
If Gaunis tries to find ■■■■ again after this, the clause staking her life would apply again.
‘There must be some way…’
The next moment, I raised my eyebrows in surprise.
“Thank you.”
Unexpectedly, Gaunis thanked me obediently.
“I-It’s just out of courtesy, don’t take it seriously! Ugh… I’m a constellation, but this keeps happening. Getting hit by a mortal, receiving help…”
Seeing her like this, I felt a bit bad for tormenting Gaunis.
Ding!
Damn.
Even if I wanted to comfort her, there wasn’t enough time.
I had to quickly get to the main point.
“Hey. Gaunis.”
Gaunis looked at me with a gloomy face at my call.
I opened my mouth to Gaunis with resolute determination.
“I’ll definitely catch this scammer for you.”
“…Ugh.”
Gaunis nodded her head slowly.
I wasn’t sure if she was properly comprehending what I was saying.
“For that, there are a few things you need to give me.”
“Things to give…?”
“First, the blessing to use the Celestial Network, and one luck blessing. You can give up to C-grade now, right?”
“H-How do you know that?”
“Because of the system. I’ll explain again later. We don’t have much time. Hurry.”
Gaunis, still in panic from what happened earlier, hastily bestowed blessings upon me.
Ding!
Luck was one thing, but I didn’t expect to get the Protection of the Threads of Fate as well.
This wasn’t a power that Gaunis could just hand over even if she wanted to.
It seemed that the Threads of Fate themselves had taken an interest in me because of what I had done here.
While the Protection of the Threads of Fate was certainly an excessively good blessing, receiving this blessing itself couldn’t be said to be entirely a good thing.
‘I hope unnecessary beings don’t take an interest.’
It could become troublesome if some powerful humans or constellations noticed this blessing.
As I was lost in thought, Gaunis shook my arm and asked.
“…This won’t happen again, right?”
“Probably not if you don’t try to track down the person who sent you the email separately. But if anything happens, call me through the Celestial Network.”
“I don’t want to! You spanked me too!”
Seeing Gaunis still arguing vehemently but lacking energy, I added one more word of comfort.
“I’ll buy you dessert when I come next time.”
Gaunis’ eyes lit up at my last words.
“L-Limited edition? You’re not so ill-mannered as to not know that, right?”
“Limited edition.”
With little time left, I just patted Gaunis’ head a few times.
Since I could use the Celestial Network now, I would be able to keep communicating with Gaunis.
I should comfort her through email at least.
Ding!
I closed my eyes and let my body be pulled by the force drawing me back.
When I opened my eyes, I felt gazes pouring in from around me.
An intense light about the size of a fist was pouring down from above my head, illuminating the wide space.
“Sen…ior?”
As I lowered my head slightly, I saw Livia looking up at me with a worried gaze.
It seemed I had caused concern by staying over there for too long.
“It’s okay.”
I unconsciously tidied Livia’s hair gently and lightly kissed her forehead.
Oops, I thought, but fortunately, it seemed others hadn’t seen this.
“Synchronization rate… 88%.”
The gazes of the students, including the professor, were all focused on the star above my head.
At Roman’s astonished words, I just smiled weakly, feeling tired.
Instead, exclamations of admiration burst out around me.
“A synchronization rate over 80% on first contact… Hasn’t that only happened to five people so far?”
“Is that even possible? Crazy…”
I gave a slight nod to Roman, who was completely frozen, and returned to the crowd of students with Livia.
As I approached, the students stepped back slightly, their gazes filled with awe.
‘There are some things I’d like to look into right away…’
I wanted to turn on the Celestial Network right away to experiment, but I decided to hold back for now.
Searching for ■■■■’s identity was also a lower priority task that had to be done a bit later.
After all, only one of today’s tasks had been completed so far.
The real deal was the First Incident that would occur during the third evaluation.
In that event, I had to complete one more achievement.
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That was A LOT of system windows. One of the most tiring chapters :huffs:
