Reincarnated Hero System

With his hands on her neck, Evan posed a question.

“Do tell, Agnes. What stops them from killing you before you can even think to activate the Mark’s effect?”

Answer: Unless she subjugated all their souls, then nothing.

But there was a limit on how many souls Agnes could subjugate. It was kind of like Evan’s Skill Slots. Just as the more powerful Unique Skills required more Skill Slots, so was it for Subjugating Souls in Agnes’ case.

Her strength would not be enough to subjugate as many souls as needed.

Evan let go of Agnes and leaned back, before thinking about the simulation created based on a real future which EOTD had seen—Aidos Online.

‘This plan of theirs also didn’t work out as the Demons surely didn’t have any Soul Marks…’

This whole section of their conversation revealed the inherent strategic weaknesses in Agnes’ plan and the critical need for a more reliable approach to dealing with the Demon threat.

And as far as Evan was concerned, the Demonic Hand did not have an approach which was sufficiently reliable.

Evan glanced out the window beside them, and he caught sight of some clergymen heading towards the nearby church for a midday service.

The sight reminded him of one crucial question he had not yet asked Agnes.

“This whole story about the war of the gods, FCS, and Artemisia hiding it on Aidos—Was it Ferrid who told you this?”

“Hmm? Ferrid did tell me some parts of it.”

“You’d believe the words of that man without seeking confirmation?”

Evan’s skepticism was clear as he asked this with a raised brow, but this made Agnes frown deeply.

“You insult me, Evan. Have you forgotten who I am?”

Agnes’ eyes gave off a dull glow and soul power surged from her body as she declared.

“I am the Priestess of the Lusos Tribe, Evan. I’m one of the very few people on this planet who is capable of confirming the authenticity of that information.”

Remembering the question that she had asked him earlier about Higher Existences, Evan quickly arrived at a conclusion after hearing her reply.

“You asked your tribe’s patron god…Canis told you this?”

Agnes shook her head, denying that she gained her confirmation of the First Finger’s words from the god of War.

“I’m a bit special amongst the priestesses, you see. I do not require a direct connection to draw upon the attention of other gods.”

She then shrugged her shoulders and leaned back before speaking of the reason why she had stated that telling Evan about this was her taking a risk.

“Granted, Canis did warn me not to speak of what I had discovered.”

Evan felt something was off about this. Despite going against the warning of the War god, Agnes did not seem too bothered.

“Did Canis not find out that you discovered this information from the First Finger?”

“No, he did not.”

That was very fishy.

Canis was Artemisia’s subordinate, so it was strange that despite having discovered that Agnes knew of this whole FCS matter, he had only let her off with a simple warning.

What’s more, unless Canis could not read thoughts like Artemisia could, there was no way that the god would not have figured out where she learnt this information.

“You’re probably thinking that Canis let me off easy, aren’t you?”

Agnes guessed Evan’s thoughts with a smile on her face and hearing her, Evan directly asked what else had happened.

“Didn’t I say it earlier? Canis is not the only god I spoke with.”

In other words, Canis did restrict her, but whoever this other god was, they removed said restrictions, hence, why she was able to speak freely to Evan.

‘The fuck? What’s with these gods? Playing some Divine Politics or something?

Well, count me the fuck out.’

Evan barely had the peace of mind to deal with Mortal politics on Aidos; getting involved in the godly politics was a headache he didn’t need.

Agnes couldn’t see his annoyed expression, but she could tell that the boy clearly wanted no part in whatever machinations the gods were up to.

“Hey, Agnes.

Let’s put away our roles and positions for a moment.

What’s your real motivation here?”

When the boy suddenly asked this, Agnes froze. She stared at him in silence for over a minute but Evan didn’t move his gaze away from her, indirectly telling her he wasn’t gonna listen to anything but the truth.

Eventually, she gave a reluctant reply.

“It’s nothing grand…”

“My original reason for wanting to save Aidos was because I want a certain goddess to be in my debt.

Sound grand to you? No. That’s as normal and personal as things can get.

So, start talking.”

Evan candidly admitted this initial reason for coming to Aidos—besides wanting to enter the world of his favourite game, that is.

His reasons weren’t anything ground-breaking or mind-blowing, so he was telling her she shouldn’t feel pressured if she didn’t have a grandiose explanation either.

Understanding his unspoken message, Agnes finally started talking.

“I wouldn’t say this world has done much for me.

The very people who brought me into it stay clear of me like I’m some sort of monster. Somehow, Abby’s parents are more ‘parents’ to me than my actual parents.

The people of my tribe once shunned me because of my power…because I could see through the depths of ugliness in their souls.

Rival tribes detested me and tried to kill me since I could always fish out all of their spies and double agents.

Growing up, I came to dislike the world, thinking my experiences were just how things were everywhere.

It nearly reached a point where wouldn’t have cared if the World burned.

But there are a few people who’ve treated me normally ever since they knew me. One of them was a major nuisance during our first few years together, but now she’s the person closest to me in this world.

She happens to like this world a lot, and for her sake, I don’t want to see it destroyed by some Higher Existence because of someone else’s actions.

Even if the means of saving it involves sacrificing millions.

Granted, that is just one of my reasons. Another is my fascination with souls.

My desire to study people’s souls and discover more people with interesting souls like yours, Evan.”

“You’re leaning, Agnes.”

Evan’s words snapped Agnes back to reality and she realised she had leaned almost halfway across the table while she was half-fervently speaking about ‘Souls’.

“Oh, my apologies.”

She leaned back in her chair, taking a moment to reduce the flow of soul power into her eyes before continuing

“Aidos is a pretty big world, and I’m always thinking; Just how many interesting Unique Souls are out there? No way I’d have those billions of potential Unique souls die off.”

“Now, that’s very personal…and a bit twisted.”

“I know. Maybe you were half-right to call me a lunatic.”

The girl chuckled lightly as she responded to Evan, admitting the peculiarity of her fascination and obsession with souls. Evan silently checked her Karmic Alignment and wasn’t surprised when he saw the ‘Chaotic Neutral’ present there.

“You know, now that I think about it…I revealed A LOT of classified information to you today, Evan.”

“Are you really just now realising this?”

Evan gave her an incredulous stare but Agnes didn’t mind it and just placed her focus on the untouched food before her.

“Thankfully, Old Man Ferrid can’t use Soul Binding Contracts on me. He may discover something via the law of fate but…”

She looked up at Evan, a bright smile spreading across her face as she concluded.

“I’d trust your Irregularity to distort his deductions for me.”

“Maybe I’d try turning that off for a while, let Ferrid discover that you just spilt a bunch of secrets to the same Hero he wants to kill the most.”

When Evan said this, Agnes flinched momentarily and looked up at him with what he could only assume was a pleading gaze.

“Please don’t do that, I don’t want him trying to find me and accidentally encountering Abby or Zestari.”

It turned out that it wasn’t that she was scared of the First Finger’s anger, but she wanted to avoid an encounter between the man and her best friend.

Evan rang the bell to call for a waiter and ordered a little dessert, both for himself and for someone else who would be coming here soon as he had just heard some spirits around him talking about said person.

“So, in the end, you still wouldn’t agree to back down, would you?”

Agnes’ question redirected his focus onto her from the murmuring spirits talking about Eliza, and then he raised a brow in confusion.

However, he quickly realised what she was talking about and he responded.

“Of course not.

Your plans are all full of holes and I believe I just pointed out all the flaws in every single one of them.

My point still stands, I wouldn’t let the Demonic Hand break open the Dimensional Rift.”

Evan’s declaration was resolute, leaving no room for negotiation. Agnes frowned slightly at his unwavering stance, understanding that he was going to interfere and mess up their plans at every turn.

Ignoring her expression, the boy sunk into his thoughts.

‘Even if they don’t break it prematurely, that’d just buy us a few years since the seal would eventually run out of power and break on its own in due time.

However…those extra years would give us more time to enhance this World’s overall strength. It should also be enough time for those guys to return.

I wonder just how many of them would actually come back.’