Chapter 21: An Anticlimactic Solution
Before we started looking through books, I had a thought, so I decided to ask Tamamo about it.
‘Hey Tamamo, do you know what the effects of the curse you get for overusing charm is?’
{I’m not too sure, but I can go and find out. Why do you ask?} She asked, puzzled.
‘Well, it might be a stretch, but what if the curse is that it turns the skill itself into a curse. Then wouldn’t it take care of itself because of my status effect immunity?’
{…}
{I’ll go and ask the God of Statuses; he should know everything about every skill. I’ll be back shortly.} She said and our connection went quiet.
“Hey Velvet, before we start looking, lets get to know each other better.” I said.
“Why so suddenly, I thought this was an urgent matter?” She asked confused.
“It is, but the idea I just had about this skill might make searching through all of these books pointless. Tamamo went off to check this theory with the God of Statuses, so we should wait for her to get back.” I explained.
“I see, then if we do this can I ask a question first?” She asked.
I could see the curiosity in her eyes, so I nodded my head in affirmation.
“Can you talk with the Goddess whenever you want?” Was what she asked.
“I can talk to her whenever I want for however long I want, and better yet, I get to see her every full moon.” I bragged. It was at this point I realized that, when it comes to Tamamo, I get this weird feeling of superiority. Like I get to have her all to myself.
I don’t know why I realized this just now. I lived this whole life in a shrine dedicated solely to her, surrounded by people who worship her, and I never realized this. I guess it took meeting someone else that can talk with her to fully cement the fact that I’m special to her.
“Fufufufufufufufu. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.” I started laughing uncontrollably.
“What’s so funny?” She asked while looking at me like I went crazy.
“Sorry, I just realized something about myself that I never noticed before and couldn’t help but laugh about it.” I said, catching my breath.
“And what, pray tell, is this revelation of yours?” She said a bit fed up.
“Well, and I know I’m going to sound a bit stuck up, I noticed the reaction you had when I told you about how I talk with Tamamo all the time was a bit jealous. When I saw that, I thought back on where I’ve lived and who was around me until now, and thought all these people worship Tamamo sooooo much, but I’m the only one of them who gets to talk and be intimate with her, and I couldn’t help but laugh.” I explained, starting to chuckle again.
“You really do sound stuck up when you say that, but I’m not going to blame you. I’d feel the same, if not more superior, if I was in the same position. Though there is one person who won’t like that.” As she said these words, she clamped her hands over her mouth. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“What do you mean?” My tone went from joyful to cold. “Velvet, is there something I need to know about regarding Tamamo?”
“Luna your expression is really scary right now.” She said as she tried to get away from me.
“Whatever do you mean, Velvet, now answer my question.” I said as I froze the window and door so she couldn’t escape. “Now, tell me everything.”
It didn’t take long for Velvet to spill the information she knew.
“I see, I’m not very fond of torture, but I guess it never hurts to learn a new skill unless it’s charm.” I said, my mood still cold.
“Forgive me Goddess, I might have put your wife on a strange path.” Velvet said while tears flowed down her face.
{What does she mean by that, Luna, and why is the window and door frozen, what happened?} She asked, very confused about what could have possibly happened in the 30 minutes she was gone.
‘Welcome back, Tamamo, what were the results of your inquiry?” I asked, the cold smile still on my face.
{Hey, Velvet, what happened to Luna, she’s being really weird right now?}
“I’m sorry Goddess, we were having a discussion about you, and I accidentally let slip about that vampire in the Demon Empire.” Velvet said, getting even more depressed.
{Yeah, that’ll do it. Hey, Luna, calm down and think. That vampire is hundreds of years old and leagues stronger than you.} Tamamo said, trying to calm me down.
“I know that; Tamamo. I’m not planning on going for him at the moment, as much as I want to. But that doesn’t mean I can’t start preparing for prolonging his suffering for as long as possible. I mean there are so many options to go for, even more since I also have high level healing magic. Fufufufufufufufu. Just you wait you filthy mongrel. Just. You. Wait. Fufufufufufufufufufufufufu.”
“Goddess, I think Luna might be broken. What do we do?” Velvet asked, getting even more scared.
{Don’t worry, she’s not broken, just possessive. It’s honestly quite cute.}
“HOW! How is anything she just said cute!?” She said, reaching a breaking point.
{You’ll understand when you find the one you’re fated to be with. For the time being all we can do is wait, she won’t be like this for much longer.}
After about 10 minutes after Tamamo got back, I finally snapped out of my dark thoughts.
‘So, Tamamo what did you learn from the God of Statuses?” I asked as if the past 40 minutes never happened.
{It was as you thought, Luna, the charm skill turns itself into a curse that ultimately ends up killing the holder by having all of those it charmed turn on the holder by switching their feelings of affection into pure hatred.} She explained to both me and Velvet.
“How nasty.” We both said simultaneously.
{I know right. Though I guess that’s what happens when you use what is basically a brainwashing skill too much. It’ll have to backfire on you at some point or the world would pretty much belong to one person.} She said, giving her opinion on the effect it could have if left unchecked.
‘I agree, but I didn’t even want to obtain this skill in the first place. I just randomly got it when I tried acting cute when I was little.’ I said getting depressed.
{Even the God of Statuses was surprised when I told him why I was asking about this. He told me that he thought he got rid of that skill a long time ago.} She said trying to make me feel better.
‘I guess that just goes to show that even gods aren’t all-knowing huh.’ Cheering up a little due to Tamamo’s words.
{None of us ever claimed to be.} She said in reply.
“You both realize I’m still here, right?” Velvet asked after getting tired of being left out of the conversation.
“Sorry about that, also sorry for wasting you and your subordinates time finding all these books when it turns out I just need to max out the skill and it’ll take care of itself.” I said apologetically.
“It’s no problem, all those books were just laying around collecting dust anyway. You can still read them; you never know what will happen in the future when you’re immortal.” She said, laughing it off.
“True enough.” I agreed.
“So, with this out of the way, what do we do now?” Velvet asked.
{I for one, would like to know what the two of you were talking about earlier. You said it had something to do with me, right?} Tamamo asked in an amused tone.
We continued to talk about random stuff the rest of the night.
Author's Note:
Now I feel a bit of pity for the things I'm going to have that character go through when we get there. Not much, but just a little. It's like that "Oh no... Anyway" meme. No one will get in the way of Abyss Fluff and Moon Fluff. I won't allow it. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. Thanks for reading.