Chapter 25: Upturned Lips

Page woke up. The first thing she saw was an empty chair—Jyn wasn’t there. Wait, it’s a bit bright, isn’t it? It was already morning, actually. Jyn had said that they’d do a rotation, but she wasn’t here and clearly they’d slept through the night.

The second thing was that she felt something against her arm. She turned over. Kalender was hugging her arm. Not only that, but his head was practically nuzzled against her shoulder.

Uh… What to do…

She tried wiggling out of it, but, although he wasn’t clinging so strongly, she just couldn’t get out of it.

She considered herself to be someone who woke up quite late, and yet, this guy wasn’t awake yet. They were both heavy sleepers, it seemed, but for the first time, she’d been outdone on that front.

It didn’t feel bad, at least not with the peaceful expression on Kalender’s sleeping face, but she’d rather just not deal with this. What to do…

The door opened. She turned over and saw Jyn coming in. They met eyes.

“There is no threat,” Jyn said, before wordlessly wresting Kalender away from Page’s arm, the earlier mumbling something in half-asleep complaint. She picked up Page, stood her up against the wall like some sort of standee, and lied down beside Kalender, letting his hands find her arm. He nestled up against her shoulder, and she just let him.

The two went right back to sleep. Page wasn’t sure how to process all of that. At the least, it sounded like whatever problem they had last night wasn’t a problem anymore. She pulled out a pocket cookie and munched on it. It wasn’t breakfast, but she needed the pick-me-up.

She almost jumped back when Kalender shot up. He’d opened his eyes and realized he was hugging Jyn, and not Page.

“Huh?” If he remembered correctly, it should’ve been his turn on watch duty. He met eyes with Page.

“Huh?” If he remembered correctly, Page should’ve come after him. He saw the morning light through the window.

“… Huh?” Did I just sleep the whole night away? He looked down at Jyn.

“She just went to sleep a moment ago,” Page said. Kalender dropped his head as if to say ‘oh.’ Poor girl must have stayed up all night.

“What about Tak—Priestess Tak?” He made sure to address her with her Occupation. Apparently, not doing so meant you were either friends with the person, or belittling them.

“Jyn also said ‘There is no threat,’” she replied, miming Jyn’s intonation. Kalender chuckled.

He got out of bed, recovering his sword and Page’s quarterstaff before standing up.

Outside the window, the sun was midway to its noon position. “A bit of breakfast would be nice,” he remarked. The barracks likely had a mess hall for the guards and knights, but the cook might complain if they decided to insert themselves into the queue.

There was a knock on the door. “Miss Page?” Sherry’s voice filtered through.

Page opened the door, and Sherry was there with a picnic basket with enough capacity to feed a family of four for a week—probably, but that’s what it felt like. It was just too big.

“My! Knight Jyn tired herself out, didn’t she?” she said, smiling. Immediately, Page and Kalender knew she had something to do with it.

“Did you tell her anything?” Page asked.

“Oh, just business things.”

[+1 Excitement]

“Is that food?” Kalender asked.

“It is, it is! I had thought that Miss Page and friends would be hungry!”

She took the liberty to fix up the only table in the room, a small one meant clearly for writing on and nothing else, and somehow managed to make a buffet’s lineup of different breads and sandwiches.

“Wait, how’d you know where we were staying?” Kalender asked.

“Hum… A Maid’s intuition?” She had a playful look to her, but somehow, Kalender’s All-Language Fluency reacted, and instead he heard, “Don’t ask.”

He just laughed along. The sandwiches weren’t poisoned, surely.

Of course they weren’t. Sherry had confirmed upon Page opening the door that Page wasn’t violated in any way. Were she, though, and Sherry might have slipped something in to take Kalender out of action for twenty-four hours.

***

Sherry bid her leave once Kalender and Page had eaten their fill, saying she had “groceries” to do, the wording of which the pair rightly suspected. Still, it wasn’t their business. They happily took the +1 Excitement and left it at that.

“Speaking of,” Kalender said, “do you know about your stat?”

“Huh?”

Wait, we never told her? “Do you know how the … Companion System works?”

“N-not really, no.” She knew nothing beyond the stories of women being charmed and lost to the whims of men.

“Ah, well, there’s supposed to be an Affection stat. If it reaches 100, normally you’d be head-over-heels for me, then the System’ll let me give you Companion Skills. Normally.”

“Jyn did say it didn’t work that way with you…” Page was a little downcast at the topic. She remained resolved, however, to live free, even if under Kalender’s charm. The guy himself didn’t seem so bad—no, what she was sure of was that they had things in common, and that was enough proof for her that their relationship was genuine.

“For some reason, I can replace the stat with something else,” Kalender explained. “We’re not really clear on how it works, but it’s probably something that reflects the core of what our relationship is built on. Jyn’s is Respect. Yours is Excitement.”

What? “What does that mean?”

Kalender scratched his cheek. “Remember when we came from Emergency Bakery the other day?”

Page thought back—to what had happened, what she’d been thinking, and what she’d felt. It dawned on her.

“… I see.” She pulled up her status sheet in her mind, but she couldn’t find this Excitement Kalender was talking about. “How did Jyn see it?”

“Hm? You can’t?”

“There’s a Companions section, but there’s only you in it…”

***

Name: Page Turner
Age: 18
Occupation: Librarian
Lvl. 7 Human
HP: <ERROR>
MP: 14/14
XP: 2%

[Skills]

Available points: 1

Collection Transmission (3/5)
Create Collection (1/1)
Add to Collection (1/1)
Search Collection (1/1)

[Companions]

Kalender (Leader)
Champion of Reincarnation
Lvl. 2 Human
Skills Received: N/A

***

Kalender squinted at her. Weird. Shouldn’t Jyn be listed as well? So I’m the only one who can see everyone? It didn’t really make sense to him why things were the way they were. But didn’t Jyn see it back then? She was really surprised back then.

“Maybe you have to think about it?” Kalender suggested. “Like, maybe it’s a hidden feature? Like trying to pull up descriptions.”

“Ah!” It worked. “Oh, yeah, it says Excitement, alright.”

You are reading story Platonic Harem Isekai at novel35.com

This lifted an unknown burden from her shoulders. She knew, now, at a personal level of certainty, that she was in a much different place than little her could have ever fantasized about. She was breathing in the air of the frontier of the unknown, and of the System that touched every aspect of life on Gaia, no less!

She snapped towards Kalender, surprising him. “You promised me a magic weapon!”

Kalender squinted at her sudden shift, then his eyes widened. “Oh! That one!” The multi-shot fire gun!—no, that’s not really that catchy…

Two hands grabbed his shoulders and shook him, annoying him to immediately get to work.

A corner of Jyn’s lips turned upwards, though she remained asleep.

***

It was another afternoon under the shade of the weapons shed. Lens waved towards Page and Kalender, quickly noting the absence of a certain Knight. She smirked.

“Having a good day, are we?” She teased. The two were skipping along like children who’d found their long-lost besties. If it weren’t for the strange bundle they carried between them, she would have showed them a more implicit smirk.

Did she know they had sophisticated concept weapons hidden under there? No, but it was Kalender, the unspoken, unnamed genius responsible for fixing the barrier and popularizing a new method of attack for low-MP mages among adventurers in the area.

One would think that those mages would have asked him for his name at some point, but they hide their introversion under a veil of love for magic. It’s really just too scary to casually ask someone for their name when you don’t intend on establishing a long-lasting friendship, okay? What if they think you’re being too familiar at this stage?! T’was a tough life.

"“Lens!”" The girl in question had to pause. If two people called your name in sync, you would, too. "“We have a favor!”"

Scarier words have never been said. The two stopped in front of her.

“W-what is it?”

“Can we have the magic practice field all for ourselves?” Page pouted.

“Y-you know I can’t do that! Not more than once, but—still!”

“We’ll let you in on a secret?” Kalender smiled while saying such exclusive, one-time access words.

Lens was honestly conflicted. Even when weighed against the most pressing issue, being let in on what would undoubtedly be a secret test by an unknown magic genius was just that much enticing.

“There’s a bigshot using it right now, you know!” she reasoned—mostly to herself. “And she reserved it, too! F-for some other fancy bigshot people like herself!”

Kalender squinted. “Is she … a Priestess?”

Lens hesitated just one second to answer. “I-I won’t tell!”

“Ah, if it’s Priestess Tak, I know her,” Kalender confidently said. He leaned in a bit closer. “One can say we’re actually working together. Keep that under the rug, alright?”

“Guh. If you know her, then I guess it should be fine to let you sort it out yourselves…”

Lens escorted them all the way to the magic practice field, just to keep the patrolling guards from annoying them.

They reached the edge of the field, and the first thing they saw was Tak speaking with four other Priestesses—or Clerics? Kalender couldn’t tell.

“C-combat Clerics?!” [+1 Excitement]

Page’s voice had been loud, drawing the attention of the group of Minimine adherents. Upon seeing Kalender, they bowed.

“W-wow, so you really know them…” Lens remarked. “Somehow, I feel like I shouldn’t be here, so I’ll just let you to have at it. See ya.”

Lens whisked herself away. The two bid her bye-bye, and they descended into the practice field, meeting with the group.

“M’lord,” Tak greeted. “These are an advance party of Warrior Clerics from Northwell.”

Northwell? That shady chicken scratch mentioned taking Tak to that place. The lady herself noticed his concerned expressions.

“My sisters there have already taken measures,” she explained. This eased some of his concerns.

Kalender faced the Clerics. He wasn’t really sure how to interact with them, so…

“Hey, y’all,” he greeted. It must’ve come off as incredibly underwhelming, as some of the Clerics chuckled a bit. Tak shot them strict glances, reminding them that this was the guy their goddess told them to support.

“Excuse them,” Tak said. “Though they are like that, even Lyrica’s knights will be hard pressed to fight against them.”

Warrior Clerics ain’t a joke, huh. Beside him, Page’s eyes sparkled, taking in every little detail about them. Tak wore much of all of the things that would make someone call her a Priestess, just with some armor around her neck and shoulders. The Clerics, however, wore pants under a kind of split coat, something that would fall to the sides when on horseback. They were all white and grey in theme, as were the colors of the goddesses of Reincarnation. There wasn’t any visible armor on them, but they were probably hidden under their coats—or were even the coats themselves.

“It’s a surprise to bump into you here, though,” Kalender continued. “Page and I were supposed to test out some new equipment. Ah, actually, it’s a good thing you’re here. It’s better to be surprised now than later, and all.”

“Oh?” Tak raised an eyebrow. “We will be the ones surprised? How quaint timing. We were winding down from our own demonstrations. Might as well have something to watch.”

Somehow, Tak was being competitive. Kalender didn’t know why she was being that way, but a little bit of pointless competitive spirit should be fine.

On the other hand, Page couldn’t wait to show off and see some eyes popping out of their sockets from the Clerics! One-upping a professional was its own kind of smug, after all. [+1 Excitement]

“First, something conventional!” Kalender unveiled what was recognizably a handgun. Clay bullets went in through the handle. A small magic circle behind the barrel picked them up—somehow, because it was magic—and shot them out with air. Each shot cost 0.25 MP, which was just slightly less than a chanted earth bullet shot from the palm.

It popped each time Page fired, which surprised Tak and the Clerics at first. Otherwise, it was unremarkable. The power was just about the same as an earth bullet, though with smaller projectiles moving at faster speeds.

It also needed Kalender’s precisely-dimensioned bullets, otherwise the air seal between the bullet and the barrel would be too bad. That should be a problem, but he’d made a bullet mold that anyone could stuff dirt into and it’d churn out a bunch of bullets, so it shouldn’t be a problem to have both Page and Jyn help with manufacturing sometimes. The handgun was a backup weapon, anyway.

“Second!” He brought out an armlet, earning confused looks from everyone present. Once Page wore it, she noticed some familiar wooden pieces snugly fit into small pockets. She put two and two together, and she remembered Jyn’s remarks. Kalender had taken those to heart.

He handed her her quarterstaff. It was still much the same, but there was a horizontal slot in the midsection where she could stick in a single wooden piece, doing away with the bulky box formerly stuck on like a koala. The watching Clerics, however, had never seen such a convoluted quarterstaff before. There just wasn’t any point in a three-piece construction.

“I made you one for the multi-bullet thingy—gosh darn, I need to come up with a decent name for that…” Kalender told her, showing her each of the wooden pieces. [+2 Excitement]

He continued. “Of course, I also put the usual bullet and ball spells, so you have at least eight pieces in two rows on your armlet. The third row has the specials. I made multi-bullet ones for earth and fire. Jyn also mentioned it, so I threw in a magic spearhead one, but I wondered if it was useful, so I went ahead and turned it into something that turned your quarterstaff into a 3-meter lightsaber. Ah, and you can control the length. Kinda pointless, though.”

[+2 Excitement] “C-cool,” she just barely managed to say. In truth, she was conflicted. She only had 14 MP, and yet there were so many things to try.

Sadly, her brain stopped functioning before Kalender mentioned the lightsaber—lightspear? It’s not like she’d make a good show of demonstrating such a thing, anyway.

Nevertheless, she tried out everything else, squeezing her MP dry, just shy of the last drop.

Tak and the Clerics were already amazed when Page was clearly just using a single weapon, but she was firing several types of elemental spells out of it.

“M-multi attribute weapons…” Tak muttered. It was in the realm of legend, and yet there it was, flames and ice from a mere 50-Note quarterstaff that Page had paid for just the other day.

Then she got to the good part.

Ten flame bullets revolved in a halo from the tip of her staff. Each time she willed it, one bullet flew downrange—and she willed it five times a second. She even made a show of it by switching to the earth bullet multi-shot spell, tossing five marbles into the air, and invoking the ready state of the spell, which caught the marbles before they fell and coralled them into a halo once again, firing all five in quick succession.

She wiped her sweat and butted the staff against the ground. Glancing towards the Clerics, she was pleased to note that they were all gawking, bringing a smile to her lips.

[+5 Excitement]

[Please select a new skill for Companion: Page Turner]