CH 69

[……See you later then.]

With that, she smiled softly and turned on her heel.

[Lily Harmonix……]

As I watched her back as she left, which never lost its neat and tidy appearance at any time, I found my mouth speaking her name for no reason.

[D*mn it. Those b*stards devs doing a great job……!]

I spit out words that I don’t know whether they are hateful or complimentary.

(……Well, I guess I could say things are going well for now.)

I would say that my second encounter with her ended with a generally satisfactory result.

Judging from the way she reacted to today’s events, which was favorable from the very beginning, it doesn’t seem like she has a bad feeling toward me.

I had wondered what would happen after my unexpectedly unsightly behavior at the bar last time, but it seems that my actions at that time had a positive outcome.

(At least, her flag hasn’t been broken yet.)

If that’s the case, I want to bring her into the fold at all costs.

Of course, not because of her looks, but purely because she’s useful.

I look at the data in my hand.

There, her affinities were clearly written.

――――――――

STR – Normal

VIT – Normal

MGC – Bad

MND – Good

AGI – Bad

FOC – Great

――――――――

If I were to only look at this, she doesn’t look like a powerful character at all.

She has a total affinity value of 19.

Although higher than the average of 18, it’s quite common compared to Unique Characters which has about 20.

In addition, the allocation of her stats is also complicated.

Her high FOC makes her suitable for a thief, but her AGI is low, and her MND is high, so it would have been good to have her go through a Healer path, but her low MGC drags her down.

However, there’s one Class System that can take full advantage of this strange stat distribution.

Those are the <Bards>.

This Class requires only “FOC”, which is necessary for their performances, and “MND”, which nurtures a rich sensitivity, allowing her to take full advantage of her high FOC and MND.

————-Bard.

This is a Class that is quite unique among the many Classes in B&B.

They themselves have almost no combat power, and their main job is to strengthen allies and weaken enemies by playing their instruments and singing.

Its greatest feature is that it has a wide range of effects, and unlike the magic of Magic Users and Priests, their Skills don’t consume MP.

Hearing all that may make it sound like a great Class, but it has the weakness of being vulnerable because you can’t do anything else while playing, and there’s also its weakness of taking a stupid amount of time to master its essential skills compared to other Classes.

As it has a very slow Proficiency Gain, being on the level that makes you doubt if it’s being buggy, and the possibility of having stones thrown at you if you let others hear you play while you’re still an unskilled musician, it’s a very severe Class.

Of course, I gave up on Bard Skills right from the start and didn’t even bother Class Change to it.

In that sense, she is a rare person who has been a Bard from the beginning and has the skills to play well, but that’s not all.

The first Limited Edition of <Brave & Blade> came with a very thick booklet.

In the end of the booklet, there is data about her in the Character Section.

And there, her secret was casually written down!

・Unique Skill

【Lorelei’s Voice – Acquisition Level: 1】

Special abilities that only Unique Characters have, <Unique Skills>.

She has the ability to “charm anyone who listens to her voice”.

I don’t know how it works against monsters, but it’s a great skill for negotiating with Humans.

(As expected, we must definitely recruit Lily!)

While we can handle the combat if we try our best, many events require negotiations with NPCs.

With Lily on our side though, I will be able to leave all those events to her.

※　※　※

With renewed determination, I started moving aggressively the next day.

I usually walk around the neighborhood, leveling up and collecting items, but in between, I always go to visit Lily.

I would frequently give her gifts and listen to her requests.

Her attitude gradually softened, and by the fifth time we spoke……

[This might be a brazen request…… But from now on, can we call each other by our first names? Of course, without the “-san” or “-chan” suffixes!]

Or so she said.

[This woman! She’s so cunning! She’s so d*mn cunning!]

I cringed on the spot, but I agreed immediately.

No, it’s not that I’m easily seduced or anything like that.

Unnn, it’s just that nodding to everything like this is probably better for her to let her guard down.

I repeated these excuses in my mind, not having any clue who I’m making excuses to, before finally, when the number of conversations I had with Lily was about to exceed 20, the turning point came.

No matter how much I asked her what she wanted, she never asked for anything herself.

When I met up with her and just like usual, asked her if she wanted something, after prefacing it by saying “It might be a little different from something I want but……”, Lily looked at me seriously and said.

[————-There’s something I really want to tell you. Will you accompany me to a dungeon?]