Chapter 13: Favorability Ranking!!!
"..." I walk through the corridors, arriving at the dining room where I know Augustus is, I stop in front of the door thinking about giving up, but if I give up I will only be a coward.
’No cowardice, no cowardice!!! I need to do this...’ I put my trembling hand on the doorknob and with a sigh I open the door.
Inside the room, I see several maids standing and waiting while I quickly notice Augustus sitting in the chair, he hasn’t started his meal yet and immediately looks at me.
I also look at him while the maids widen their eyes, not expecting my arrival that interrupted Augustus, but without caring about their looks, I enter the room and go to the table that has many empty chairs.
"H-Hey you can’t come in here," a maid comes up to me saying this, but I just ignore her as I walk up to the chair closest to Augustus, I sit in it while Augustus moves his hand, stopping the maid who goes back to her place.
"..." Augustus stares at me, as if he can’t understand what I, who have always stayed in my room, want here with him.
"Good evening, little brother, I came to have a meal with you," I say to him, pulling one of the plates on the table towards me, the maids around are restless as the atmosphere is strange.
"...Little brother?" He just says that.
"Exactly, you’re my cute little brother, so I decided that since we’re family, we should be more united, you know?" I say to him, picking up a fork and knife as I elegantly cut a piece of meat as if there was nothing unusual.
"And why would you do that?" He questions with doubt, still trying to make sense of why I’m here, but before I can answer, I put a piece of the meat in my mouth and chew.
"Hmmm, this is very good, if I had known the dinner food could be so delicious, I would have come much earlier," I say, completely ignoring his question, he decides to give up and starts cutting his own food.
The maids’ looks are bad, but I ignore them as I grab a red fruit and cut it, the fruit’s pulp immediately drips onto the plate, its color and viscosity reminds a lot of blood.
’Even the fruits are scary!! Why the hell did I have to be reborn as a demon! I mean, I could be Grace who is the heroine!’ I think about this as I try the fruit pulp with a spoon.
"Pfff" I spit, the taste is so repulsively sweet that it becomes unpleasant, immediately the whole atmosphere becomes horrible as Augustus stops eating and the maids look at me as if I were a criminal.
In this situation, there is only one reaction I can do that will not cause problems with Augustus.
"This fruit is crap!! It’s so sweet, seriously, little brother, I don’t know why you would eat this sweet thing," I say honestly, pushing the plate away and grabbing another.
It may seem like just arrogance on my part, but incredibly Augustus likes the purest honesty, it helps reduce his paranoia, trying to disguise it would only increase his distrust, criticizing was the best choice.
"...I agree, I don’t like this fruit, but the maids keep adding it," He says, while resuming eating, I also start eating a salad, trying it.
’Damn, this is so good!!! Why don’t they serve me that too! The world is so damn unfair, seriously! If I could eat this every day, I wouldn’t care how dangerous it is to be around Augustus’ I like this food, it’s too good.
"Little brother, is there anything you recommend from the foods on the table?" I ask him as he stops and thinks for a moment, pondering whether to ignore or really talk to me.
"Almost everything is good, I don’t know what you like," He speaks honestly as I smile.
"Of course I like sweets! Every girl loves sweets! And not that horrible sweetness of that fruit, something with a pleasant sweetness and softness like chocolate!" I say as he moves one of the plates closer to me, the plate has a slice of cake.
"It’s good," He just says that as he resumes eating, I quickly grab a fork and try it, feeling the softness of the cake, the dough is so good and well-prepared and the chocolate in it is divine! It has the right amount of sugar.
"Hmmm, that’s good, I could eat this every day!" I say, eating the cake quickly, but elegantly without spilling anything, it’s a reflex, although Evelyn has never been properly taught, she learned by observing and copying.
So her etiquette is at the highest and most polished level, equaling everyone else in comparison, in the end Evelyn is brilliant, she just lacked strength in this unjust world, if Evelyn were an angel with her intelligence, she would be highly respected even though she is weak.
"..." I see Augustus giving a small smile that quickly disappears, returning to his cold, neutral expression, he’s always like that, cold and contained, but I see that he doesn’t hate me.
"You know, little brother, we should do this more often! I’ll come here much more often in the future," I say to him, and he looks at me and decides to speak.
"Why?" He asks a question that will determine whether I can continue coming here or not.
"Obviously because the food here is damn good!" I say, and his eyes widen.
"The...food?" He asks, confused.
"It’s obvious, the food here is a wonder, there’s no way to miss this delicious banquet that’s served every night, if it’s for a real piece of cake, it’s worth the risk," I say, going back to eating.
"..." He remains completely silent as he resumes eating his meal, although the maids are looking at me with judgment and dislike, I don’t care.
[Augustus’s Favorability +3 (Total = +3/100)]
’Hahahaha, I knew it!! He didn’t deny it, so I have permission to come here other nights, it’s a great start!!!’ With positive favorability, I won’t have as many problems anymore.
’Now that I have positive favorability, the Rank should appear!’ I say as I continue my meal, waiting for the Rank to be shown, although I already know it, so I don’t care that much.
[Favorability Rank
10 Acceptable
20 Interest
30 Friendship
40 Loyal Friend
50 Best Friends
60 Romantic Interest
70 Infatuated
80 Love
90 Genuine Love
100 Maximum Love
??? Completely Obsessed!!! (Extremely Dangerous, When an Individual acquires this favorability, it cannot be reduced, the individual becomes unpredictable and romantically jealous and dangerous to both you and those around you)]
"...H-Huh?" There’s a new Rank, in the game the maximum was 100, so much so that the system itself shows that the maximum favorability is 100, so I’m shocked by this unknown change.
’What the hell is this new option? What do you mean by "Obsessed"?’ In the game, no one gets to that level of love, this makes no sense to me at all, and the game never gave any negative warning on favorability like this danger alert.
’T-This is bizarre!!! Grace, be careful! As the heroine, you’re screwed if someone loves you at that level’ I hope Grace is at least a little careful, this new Rank seems scary.
I mean, we’re demons, if we’re already dangerous normally, just imagine with this new Rank! What madness, I hope this doesn’t cause me problems in the future.
"Is something wrong, Evelyn?" Augustus asks me as I think about what to say.
"Yes! I have a serious problem here! Your cake is gone!" I say quickly, making up an excuse for my lie, fortunately I noticed right away that he had given me his slice of cake.
"You didn’t have to give me your slice, here, I’ll give you a little sweet as a gift," I say, taking a small candy from my dress and handing it to him, he accepts it with some strangeness while placing it on the table.
"Thank you..." He just says that while resuming eating.
"It’s nothing" He’s so kind! How can someone so gentle be so scary to the point of brutally killing someone? I swear if that damn Dev of the game wasn’t so damn good at creating the story, I would have flooded him with online criticism.
"Why do you have a candy in your clothes?" He questions, letting his paranoia attack slightly, but at this level it’s still manageable.
"It’s obvious that it’s to eat! I don’t have maids serving me, so no one brings me anything, seriously, they’re so incompetent! But that will change soon, very soon!" I say to him, cutting a piece of some kind of chicken.
"...You eat a lot," He says, looking at the pile of plates I’m quickly devouring, even though I’m eating elegantly, I’m still eating quickly.
"Yes, yes, I eat a lot, after all, my beauty needs to be sustained! It’s hard to be so beautiful when they take such poor care of me, so I’m taking advantage of your remarkable kindness at the moment to eat a lot," I say as I bite the chicken.
’This is so delicious!!!’ I could stay here eating all night, besides, I’m eating a lot to accumulate energy for my evolution, I’ll need as much energy as possible to not die.
There is this risk, but it is a necessary risk, if I don’t evolve my ability and become a living puppet, I will be eternally weak and they will kill me soon, so either I evolve my ability and survive or I die for good.
"...You don’t need to eat so fast, my maids can take part of the meal to your room," He says kindly as he resumes eating.
"How great that I have such a cute and kind little brother!!! But I don’t want to, I won’t let your maids take your food to deliver to me, don’t worry, I much prefer to stay here and eat with you," I say, savoring the delicious sauce of the chicken.
"Why do you prefer to stay here?"
"Because any meal becomes 100,000% more delicious when eaten next to a cute little brother," I say without looking at him as I eat a piece of a sliced fruit.
[Augustus’s Favorability +1 (Total = +4/100)]
The favorability increases by one point as we start eating in silence, unfortunately, as it rises, it will become more difficult to increase, but for now it’s fine.
’The food is delicious, but I still want something like a greasy pizza full of cheese! Or a good mango energy drink!’ Old habits never disappear.
If I hadn’t died and reincarnated, my meal today would possibly be a pizza with a mango energy drink to celebrate the acquisition of the last piece of the game that was missing for me.