Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem

"Can you guys shut up? I'm trying to sleep." Anerias' angrily hushed voice scared Zach into retracting his head like a turtle.

"Sorry," Zach apologized.

"If you're energetic enough to complain, take over and keep watch. No? Didn't think so." Violina was not apologetic.

But Anerias didn't say anything and just put his head back down to continue sleeping.

Violina looked at Anerias as if she had realized something. She turned to Zach again.

"...Setting aside whether killing other people makes us stronger, if both of our theories are correct—Anerias isn't going to like this—isn't it good that we fought all of those monsters? As in, with how close our encounters with the tiger and those assassins were, what would have happened if you hadn't leveled up, Zach?" Violina asked uncertainly.

Zach's eyes widened slowly as he considered the possibility of what Violina had said.

If his levels had only affected his physical strength, they probably wouldn't have changed anything.

But if they had done more than that, which they most likely had.

Yanal had said that increasing his level would raise his authority, which would let her tell him more information. It wasn't as simple as giving him more muscle or steroids.

It wasn't unlikely that Zach had managed to snap out of the tiger's intimidation, thanks to his increased level. His increased level could also have affected his skill and helped him block the tiger's leap.

"...there's no way…"

"Also, no one died or get permanently crippled. All the monsters that found and attacked us were just barely within our limits and helped us learn how to deal with new enemies. If Dukiel and Julius had also encountered something after you guys split up, I would have guessed it was the instructors' arrangement."

Zach was silent.

If Violina's guess was true, then was Zach's Divine Luck more like being fortunate enough to receive the trials he needed to grow stronger so that he could handle worse trials in the future?

'How the fuck is that supposed to be luck or fortunate? I get to suffer so that I can suffer more in the future instead of dying? Won't me becoming stronger or tougher just lead to me running into even more trouble? Fuck this.'

Violina noticed Zach's deepened frown and apparent anger. She did not understand. Wasn't it a good thing?

Violina shrugged, shook her head, and sighed.

"It's too early to say anything about everything, anyway. But just consider that you might not be purely unlucky. If you had been, we would have run into this tiger on the first day and died without being able to fight back."

"...I guess that's true, at least."

"Just…Don't take Anerias' words to heart. Or what the others say, for that matter. No sane person would hold you responsible for everything we went through."

Zach's frown eased, and he looked at Violina with eyes wide of surprise. He had not expected to receive genuinely comforting words from her.

Zach frowned again.

"Didn't you also blame me, though?" Zach questioned Violina.

She hadn't been as vocal as the others, and she had focused more on dealing with the monsters and making sure everyone was alive and following orders. But Zach had felt several accusatory glares coming from her direction, too.

"Yeah. Still do."

"What?"

"I never said I was sane." Violina shrugged.

Zach was stunned. He decided to stop talking to Violina and focus on his mental well-being. He looked at the starry sky again.

However, only a few minutes passed before he got a bad feeling. He felt watched.

Zach looked at the others. They were all asleep, including Violina. She had fallen asleep with her arms wrapped around her legs and her head resting on her knees, still next to him.

Zach turned toward the forest. He squinted as he tried to see anything through the forest's darkness. But he couldn't see anything. Helpless, he turned to Yanael.

She had unsheathed her sword and shield. It looked like her wings and halo were about to pop out as well. She was looking around with alarm.

Just like Zach, she had also sensed something, but she couldn't pinpoint it.

With the crescent-shaped cliff wall behind their backs, they only needed to keep watch over the forest.

As time passed the bad feeling only deepened without any signs of anything happening.

Zach slowly reached out with his hand to poke Violina and wake her up so she would be ready in case something happened.

At this point, especially with Yanael's reaction, Zach was convinced it was not just a bad feeling. Something was creeping up on them.

Zach was ready to cast a barrier to protect them all at a moment's notice.

Right when his hand touched Violina's shoulder, he heard something. He turned around. It sounded like one of the others had shifted on some gravel or dislodged a pebble from the cliff wall.

Zach frowned. The four of them were sleeping like babies, still.

Zach's eyes widened in realization. He looked up for the first time.

There, in the darkness, Zach saw a silhouette against the starry night sky, blotting out a section of the stars. On a night without a moon like the one they were under, there was no way Zach would have noticed the dark silhouette if he hadn't gazed at the starry sky for several hours.

Zach gulped.

The silhouette moved.

There were two new green stars in the sky, and they were looking right at him.

Zach felt like he saw the tiger smile at him.

Zach didn't freeze up in fear, even if he was scared shitless.

He cast a flat, circular barrier along the cliff wall like a ceiling above them. Less than a second later, the tiger moved and shot down the cliff wall.

With the same sharp claws it used to crawl up the wall, it sprinted down and threw itself at the barrier.

Something cracked.

It wasn't the tiger.

A moment after the tiger's collision with the barrier, the barrier vanished in a quick rain of golden sparks.

Zach almost puked from the feeling of his internal organs trying to escape his body through his mouth. It was like he had been uppercut-sucker-punched right below his ribs.