A Sinner’s Chance

The question I'd placed before Arya seemed to come as a great surprise to her as it took her a few moments to process the question and find an answer. I could practically see the cogs turning in her head as her face flushed and she gave a small nod that was just barely perceivable. Seeing her affirmation was a relief, it was a wonderful feeling to know that we both felt the same on some level. However, with her affirmation also came the need to explain my situation, it wouldn't be fair unless she knew exactly what she was agreeing to.

I took a deep breath before getting into the details that being with me entailed. The first thing that I informed her about was the fact that I was basically a slut. While it wasn't like I'd bed just anyone, I wasn't above having fun with anyone that caught my fancy, especially if I had recently been in a fight. On top of that I told her about Marian, Reine, and Ellie. Should she be staying with me she'd at least have to deal with Marian and Reine regularly, while I was unsure of if she'd ever have a chance to interact with Ellie, given Ellie's interest in being in a physical only relationship. I of course abided by the same rules, and should she find someone else I wouldn't push against it, though unless we did something about her condition, she'd likely be stuck with me as her only option.

It took her awhile to come to terms with the first condition, and it wasn't a big secret that I'd slept with a fair amount of women on the campus, but I'd promised that I wouldn't be going around recklessly like that anymore. Once she'd understood the terms and agreed I moved onto the second topic, my real identity and the task I'd been given to ensure my continued survival.

In fact, the biggest obstacle in our relationship stemmed from this and it was only fair that she knew my secret since I knew hers. The memories of Velen Arcturus, from which I received a deep bias against homosexual relationships due to the culture of the world he'd lived in. Of course since I still felt I was a man mentally there was no problem with women, but Arya's package triggered a mental revulsion that I'd been trying to get rid of for quite some time now.

On top of that, I needed to kill or otherwise defeat seven Outsiders that supposedly had this world locked away from the rest of the universe. I knew next to nothing about them, their capabilities, or even where they were, but they were at least on this world and were strong enough to fight against the Queen of Hell, some I imagined was around the strength of a God, and though that was a vague standard it was really the only one I had to go off at the moment. Perhaps things would be clearer when I approached that strength, but for now I planned to focus on becoming stronger, something the school was actually inhibiting me from doing since it utilized the Dreamscape for most of the dangerous activities.

It was hard for her to accept the far-fetched story of mine at first, but I had prepared beforehand to prove my claim. The first evidence being my Status Plate, which was showing my real Status, and the second, something that as far as I could tell had yet to be created in this world. As it turned out when Seshat's Library had said it held all recorded knowledge it really meant it, and the more mundane the information I was looking for was, the easier it was to manifest records of it. For instance, the process and ingredients necessary to produce soda.

Unlike how it would have been done in Velen's world, the method I used was done mostly through magic, specifically Air and Water. Honestly once I found out that Seshat's Library was more akin to the internet than an appraisal Skill, I'd used it frequently, usually looking for new applications on how to apply magic, and the more I learned, the more terrifying the applications of the lower four magic Affinities were.

Unfortunately, because the knowledge was recorded, much of it was done in scientific terms, or even in languages I couldn't understand. I recognized some as languages from Velen's world, but there were others that I didn't have any idea where they were from. Even worse, it wasn't like there was translation tomes available for the alien languages into one I could understand, so I was essentially stuck with knowledge from this and Velen's world. 

The process of making a soda for Arya was actually somewhat time consuming as even with Rokasut's Witchcraft, Air was an Affinity I was ill suited for, making the gathering of the required carbon dioxide an annoyance. Surprisingly infusing the carbon dioxide into water was actually easier since I had a better Affinity with water, it was then a rather simple process of mixing the other ingredients in the proper amounts.

Well the process was actually more involved than that and it was actually quite a pain to do so it wasn't something I planned on doing too often unless I could get the proper materials to automate it, the biggest obstacle for that was actually the existence of better metals than steel, as essentially all the records I could get my hands on called for certain types of steels that this world simply didn't produce, or at least not in easily obtainable quantities. It wasn't that mithral or other metals wouldn't do, I just didn't want to take the time to test out which changes and differences needed to be made for things to properly work. It was for that same reason that I hadn't bothered making the steels myself, as I had other things I'd rather spend my time on, like weapons, or women.

I'd practically ignored Arya for the better part of about five minutes before the final concoction was ready, but once it was done I handed the cup full of bubbling brownish liquid over to her. "Drink this, it's called Koke, a drink from the other life I told you about."

Arya was hesitant as she looked at the liquid that I imagined seemed more like some kind of potion rather than a proper drink, but I had demonstrated that it was harmless by drinking some, though I wasn't really sure how credible that was since it wasn't like killing me was easy, but then again, I had yet to be poisoned, so I didn't know if my regeneration could properly deal with it.

While I was thinking such Arya closed her eyes and took a gulp of the drink, her body twitching at the sensation of it. She set it down and looked between me and it. "It's so sweet, and it's all tingly, you sure this isn't something dangerous?"

I shrugged. "Probably, it hasn't caused me any issues." I honestly hoped it wasn't actually dangerous, as while I was able to find ingredients with the same name and the drink itself tasted the same, this was a different world, so there might be differences between them and what I actually wanted.

While I didn't know if Arya fully believed my story we continued to talk about the future while she slowly drank the Koke. I still planned on challenging the top four on the combat list, if only to see how far off I was from their strength. That said, we only had six months to either get our fathers to annul the nullification of our engagement, or we'd need to find a different solution. In addition I planned on working with Arya more closely to see if I could get over my aversion to actual flesh and blood dick.