So I’m a Fish, So What?

Good evening ladies and gentlemen!

I hope everyone’s doing great on this fine full moon night, ‘cause I certainly am looking forward to tonight’s show!

My loyal sla–cough, servant, Alexia has finally kicked off her little hostage rescue operation!

I am currently lying comfortably on the inn’s bed, eagerly peeking at the outside world through her eyes, hoping to catch myself some prime entertainment.

Both my eyes are closed and my sphere was temporarily deactivated, which made it feel like I’m watching a first person VR action movie, but much more realistic.

Parting my lips, I took a light chomp out of a crab stick skillfully resting in between my fingers.

Although they’re called ‘crab’ sticks, they aren’t actually made out of crab meat. They weren’t so here nor back on Earth.

Rather, they’re actually made out of a specific type of fish and then processed into a shape similar to that of a certain crab’s leg, hence why they got the name.

I just took the principle and applied it to just about every single species of fish this world has and created an isekai version of crab sticks!

And I gotta say, that was one of the greatest decisions I’ve ever made!

The sheer number of new fish species available in this world’s ocean allowed me to create a few dozen new flavors of crab sticks.

Every time I dip my hand in the bowl, I can experience a whole new taste!

If there’s something I’m regretful about, it would be the complete lack of sauces in this world. Really takes away a lot of soul from the experience.

Anyways, enough rambling about food. I always get sidetracked when it comes to similar topics.

Alexia stealthily scuttled through the alleyways, her speed too fast for most common people to detect.

Her footsteps were near inaudible, courtesy of her specially made boots and Silence skill.

Gradually, her surroundings turned from lively to deserted. And soon, the already sparse signs of human activity disappeared altogether.

Taking a closer look, I discovered a thin, almost invisible barrier extending from somewhere ahead of her and making contact with the ground right behind her feet.

A quick analysis from Sage returned its basic functions: intrusion alarm and sound insulation.

…Well, Alexia’s efforts for stealth all went down the drain, and to make it worse, she’s none the wiser.

Maaan, and she wasted a couple of hours on this? What kind of trashy assassin doesn’t use their Magic Perception skills to scan for barriers and traps in advance?

It appears I need to give my precious little Alexia a few training sessions. Hehehe~

I mean, If she didn’t have a mask on to hide her face, she might’ve also endangered the people she’s trying to rescue. Would be quite the ironic result, wouldn’t it?

Running out of a narrow alleyway, Alexia’s body comes to halt in front of a huge, luxurious mansion.

And when I say huge, I mean HUGE. Compared to the mansion of Foren’s mayor, this might as well be a palace.

Obviously, it’s totally unreasonable for some ‘slaver gang’ to own such a place, but if its real owners are the Word of God church, it all makes sense.

I find it absolutely laughable that a giant theocracy whose history dates back to a few centuries –maybe even millennia– actually needs to disguise its subsidiary organization as slavers, or any kind of illegal gathering at that.

What disgusts me to no end is that they operate as any normal illegal organization would while full well knowing that this is supposed to be nothing more than a disguise.

And if they’re ever confronted with their sins, they’d instantly counter with the we’re doing it for humanity excuse without a second thought.

Personally, I find such self-righteousness incredibly revolting, which is why I seldom explain my actions or give excuses.

I just do whatever the fuck I want, and if anyone doesn’t like it… Well, better luck next life? Something along those lines.

Thinking about it, the pope does seem kinda similar to me in this regard. He’s an old man with a harsh past resolutely seeking salvation without a care for how he could be seen.

And I’m a monster in a child’s skin resolutely fulfilling my goals and desires without a care for any consequences that don’t concern me.

Although our goals, values, and methods are diametrically opposed, we’re both determined people who’d do just about anything for our goals.

As Alexia nimbly jumped over the fence, she was immediately greeted by two arrows and two fireballs, each coming from a different angle.

Realizing that she had already been exposed, she made a split-second decision to give up her enchanted cloak and use it to defend herself.

It might have only been enchanted with a passive Stealth skill, but any item that has magic or skills woven into its essence also gains a bit of physical strengthening.

Finally making a smart move, Alexia activated her Magic Power Perception and locked on to the position of her assailants.

Using the dust kicked up by the fireballs as cover, she aimed both of her hands at the archers on the mansion’s rooftops and shot a paralyzing bolt from each hand.

Correct decision.

Mages’ attacks are much slower since they need to prepare the spell construction and input their magic into it.

Also, their spells are much easier to detect and dodge with Magic Power Perception.

Archers however, only need to nock, shoot, and hide. The only sign you get is the weak sound of their swift arrows breaking through the air.

Clearly, the archers are much more of a threat than the mages in the present situation.

Unprepared for a counter attack, both archers were accurately hit with the crossbow bolts, resulting in a complete loss of body control shortly after.

One of them was lucky enough to get stuck to the edge of the roof by his clothes, but the other wasn’t so lucky.

His body tumbled down and fell to the ground head first, his neck twisted into an abnormal angle. 

As you might expect, he died instantly.

Alexia took advantage of the confusion caused by the archers’ screams to quickly finish off the second archer with a bolt to the head before hastily dashing behind a large wooden cart.

Her quick and sharp decisions would’ve allowed her to storm any bandits’ den with ease, but her opponents were unfortunately not your regular bandits.

The mages recovered from their stupor right away and cast two rapid fireballs targeting the wooden cart, their near instant spell cast a testament to their prowess.

Alexia hadn’t even the time to blink before her new hiding place was engulfed in flames.

There weren’t many obvious surface injuries on her body, but I could feel that a good chunk of her HP was gone, and it was further decreasing due to high temperature.

Frankly, this entire operation was a complete mess up on Alexia’s part.

Her preparations took too long but were still inadequate, her information gathering was just awful, and her vigilance is so bad I don't even know how to comment about it.

She’s still alive only because I already dealt with a large number of the church men, including their elites back when I rescued Neo.

The only silver lining is that her reactions are quick enough and her shots are ruthless enough. 

Otherwise she would’ve been dead just after her intrusion was first detected by the barrier.

Sighing, I sent a few healing spells through my connection with her and lent her the rarely used combination of Battle Divinity, Magic Divinity, and Dragon Power.

Of course, I only sent her the increased stats and bore the consumption by myself.

She’s currently too weak to bear the ridiculous consumption of Divinity skills, let alone the addition of Dragon Power.

By the way, I wanna take a quick moment to complain here. Soul contracts are too fucking overpowered, aren’t they?!

If I can send all the effects of my skills through them, then could I not just train an insanely bulky meat shield, contract them, and release all my skills through them while staying in the safety and comfort of my house?

Why is wireless casting even a thing…? What the heck is wrong with this world?!

Sorry… just wanted to vent my confusion for a bit.

As I directed my attention back to Alexia’s side, I found her just standing there motionlessly for some reason.

“Well? Why’d you stop? I increased your stats and healed you. Go do your thing already.” I ordered, confusion evident in my voice.

“...You have no specific orders for me, Master?” She stiffly inquired, her voice quivering.

Huh? Oh, that’s it. 

She must’ve understood that her increased stats came from me and thought I had something for her to do.

Come to think of it, every time I’ve contacted her through the contract up until now was to convey some kind of order.

Is this a real life example of Pavlov’s dog? I’m pretty sure I haven’t been so harsh on her that she developed conditioned reflexes to my presence, right?

…Whatever. If I let myself get caught up in those thoughts, I lose.

“Nope! Just watchin’ the fun, though you’ll definitely need a few training sessions when we meet up. Go ahead.” I simply dismissed her.

“Yes, Master!”

I’m kinda starting to get why D loves watching the world as a spectator instead of an active participant.

And my personality has very much been affected by hers during the extended time spent accompanying her.

I mean, it doesn’t really affect me negatively, but… the fact that she’s affecting not so subtly has me feeling quite conflicted.

Two divinity skills, each increases all stats by 200, along with Dragon Power, which increases all stats by nearly 2000 and disperses magic in the surroundings.

Yeah… If Alexia had lost after I gave her such a boost, I might as well find myself a new servant, ‘cause that would be a clear indicator that this one is defective.

She did struggle to adapt at first, but that’s reasonable considering her stats were doubled a few times all of a sudden.

But soon, she was able to roughly control her newfound but temporary strength and went on to kill every single member of the slaver organization with ease.

It appears that she has a bit of unneeded mercy in her heart though. She went out of her way to end all of their pathetic lives painlessly after going through the trouble of paralyzing them.

Oh, boy. She just made her training sessions just a lot harder than they should’ve been.

I personally have no issues with bestowing painless death upon my enemies as evident by the way I killed that scout back when I fought Shadow’s group, but I can’t let that blur my judgment.

She’s is on a hostage rescue mission for D’s sake! A moment of delay could be the difference between a dead hostage and a living one!

So why the fuck is she going out of her way to make their death’s painless when she can bulldoze through them at minimum time?!

She’s here to save her freaking family! And her enemies are the ones who have kidnapped her family and coerced her to partake in slaving operations!

Tsk… Human emotions truly are an enigma.

“You have the night to relocate your family and a day to spend with them. I want you to be on the road the day after tomorrow. Understood, Alexia?” Losing interest, I left an order for Alexia before withdrawing from the connection

“Huh…?” She paused, surprised to be directly addressed. “Yes, Master!”

It was entertaining at first, but Alexia really spoiled it all at the end.

I must make sure that her training sessions include a high dose of suffering in them, or else I wouldn’t know how to vent my frustration.

Really though… I prepared my snacks while expecting a top-tier box office spy movie, only to be greeted with a third rate rip off created by a group of ten-year olds at best.

What a letdown!

Suppressing my thoughts, I made sure Neo’s hadn’t kicked her blanket before gradually entering a state of meditative sleep.

 

As the sun shine snuck in through the window seams, I felt myself being shaken by a pair of petite, but strong hands.

Opening my eyes, I was greeted by the killer combo of Neo’s angelic face and deer-like, curious eyes.

You might be thinking, how could little Neo be so proactive as to wake me up from my sleep on her own? And why did she do so?

The answer is: She didn’t do it on her own.

Before she drifted to sleep yesterday, I specifically asked her to do so after she wakes up so that we can continue our journey with haste.

In fact, I can still accurately sense my surroundings when in meditative sleep, but this was one of my attempts at helping Neo break out of her timid shell.

Unfortunately, I highly doubt this achieved any substantial result.

Naming made it much easier for me to communicate with Neo, but it might also render all my efforts to help her open up moot.

A clear example of a double-edged weapon.

However, I already have another plan in mind for the worst case scenario, which is to let Alexia act as the bridge between Neo and the rest of the world.

Although I have a soul contract with Alexia, it shouldn’t have any effect on the Naming bond between me and Neo.

So I can take advantage of that to let Neo come into contact with the outside world. It’s gonna have to be a slow, gradual process though.

I wouldn’t want to overwhelm Neo’s already fragile mental health for any uncalled for reason, after all.

“Good morning, little Neo” I cheerfully greeted. “Looks like you remembered what I asked you to do, huh? I think you deserve a reward for that! What do you want?” I asked while caressing her little head.

Hearing my words, her eyes widened and I swear I could see her pupils shining.

“.....Tasty…Numnum!” She replied with as much haste as she could, her little arms raised in anticipation.

Weirdly enough, it looks like my foodie attribute has affected Neo in more ways than one…

Or it may be that Earth’s overdeveloped cooking coupled with this world's high-quality ingredients made for a killer combo.

“That’s a-okay! You can pick whatever food you want for today’s meals. But first, we should wash up and get ready for the day.” I chuckled.

“Mhmmm…!” She nodded excitedly in response, an angelic smile decorating her little face.

Hopping out of bed, I took out a few items from my storage required for my little Neo’s daily preparations.

This little cutie’s presence was enough to heal me from yesterday’s letdown.

Hmmm, let’s do it this way.

I’ll decrease the suffering in Alexia’s training, but she must double –triple even– her efforts in aiding me with Neo’s treatment.

Hopefully, she’ll take this chance to prove her worth, else she might be reduced to just another unnamed mob character.

‘Cause right now, she isn’t bringing me much fun– None at all, actually.

That’s for future Violet and Alexia to worry about though.

The current Violet just needs to focus on pampering Neo and safely reaching Gerya!

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