Acting confident while knowing my life depended on someone else's mood was quite hard.
Even more so when I knew that anything wrong that came out of my mouth could end up in a violent death sentence, and that I'd had no chance of resisting.
It was the second time today that I was forced into this tough spot.
The first time was, obviously, when I met Melissa and the extremely overpowered army that she fielded.
Since most people in her army had a higher level than what was documented and confirmed on Earth, I was pretty sure my life would end a second after any mistake.
Still, I played reasonably well with the cards I was given.
If I tried to brawl with her, I'd be less than dust by now, so just by leaving her presence alive was already a small victory.
Managing to place myself as someone she should keep alive, even if momentarily, was even better.
With all of that behind me, I could finally be at peace inside my own Kingdom, where there was no harm in sight, and I could organize my thoughts and consider my next steps.
I mean... Wouldn't that be nice?
Unfortunately, I couldn't be further from that dream-like scenario.
In front of me was a calm and collected girl called Licia. She was usually quite caring and mindful.
I left her hanging, ignoring her requests to join me for a few hours, without explaining any of it.
But not to fret, Claire was with her.
I had been doing my best to nurture a good relationship with her and, through our sincerity, we had begun to trust each other a little. Claire was proudly the type to speak her mind.
Of course, I left her hanging as well.
From their perspective, I had essentially disappeared and cut off all contact.
The only thing they knew was that I was exploring a potentially life-threatening land of which neither of us knew anything about, except for the little tidbit about a certain war happening in the region.
So, understandably, when I returned to the Kingdom, they welcomed me with a mix of emotions on their faces.
Licia: "Is everything alright? What happened? Why didn't you let us join?"
Almost jumping towards me, Licia gave me no time to explain myself, shoving her face before me.
She'd frantically search for injuries between each question, going as far as to raise my shirt to check my back.
Claire: "You'd better have a good explanation for this, Miwen. Because I feel like we had an agreement that if anything happened, you'd call us to your side. So? Did it take you this long to traverse the snow?"
There was nothing that I could've done about that. If I allowed them to join my side, I'd be putting their lives at risk, alongside mine.
While the threat I posed to Melissa couldn't be lower, if I suddenly summoned more allies out of thin air, she'd undoubtedly take action to stop me, even if I had no more allies to call.
Shamefully as it may be, just like it was with Licia when she was first summoned, being weak worked in my favor.
Of course, I still wanted the girls to make their own decisions, but this time, I had no regrets.
After all, nothing was as important to me as protecting them.
Still, I chose my words carefully when explaining what happened. I didn't want to make them feel any worse than they already were.
Licia: "... If that's the case, I guess there was no helping it... But you know, I've become so used to you and your Gift blowing my common sense away that I thought for sure no matter what happened, you'd be able to communicate it to us."
Once I got them to calm down a little, we sat on the Kingdom's grasslands, letting the breeze cool our heads.
Licia was still agitated, tapping her foot on the soil.
Claire: "Hmph... I'm even more mad now that I know I wouldn't even be able to help you if a fight broke out. But... Given the circumstances, I believe you took the best course of action, so congrats on that."
Surprisingly enough, Claire seemed as worried as Licia.
Her way of showing it was completely different, though. She turned her head, facing away from me, pretending not to care while occasionally glancing my way.
Given their initial reaction, the endless questions, and the small tears, I thought it'd be way harder for them to understand the situation, but to my surprise, they got over it pretty quickly.
I guess it was expected of veterans who faced death multiple times in their lives, and yet... they were still that shaken.
Still, it didn't take them long to begin their analysis, taking turns questioning what they'd do in my situation.
Eventually, they reached the same conclusion: Fighting would be futile.
Disappointing as it may be, their presence would only make matters worse.
Miwen: "That's not all, though. Upon reaching the fortress where Melissa lives, she took me directly to my prison cell and made her guards leave, where she laid bare her intentions..."
I lay on the ground, talking to the clouds.
Licia: "...Huh?"
Licia's head instantly turned towards me, her eyebrows raised, and her fists clenched.
Miwen: " Of course, I wasn't going to let her do as she pleased with me, so I made a different proposal to her. It took a bit of convincing, but after I showed her what kind of weapon I had in store, she became much more agreeable..."
I continued telling them what went down, paying her no mind.
Claire: " Of course, so- W-Wait a minute. Y-You did what?"
She took a second longer to catch on, but her reaction was as cute as Licia's. Somehow, her face was even redder with shame.
Miwen: "And so, after throwing everything I had at her, I decided it was a good time to leave. I think she probably sees me in a new light now, so I'm hoping tomorrow will go better."
Claire: "Even I see you in a new light."
Licia: "P-please stay here tomorrow... I have a bad feeling."
I couldn't bear the heavy atmosphere much longer, and seeing how they reacted when I mentioned the Snow White Wolves Chieftainess, I knew I'd forever regret not messing with them.
Even though I was usually serious, when it came to their cute reactions, I was completely addicted. Even Licia's light punches against my chest and Claire tossing blades of grass at my face couldn't stop me.
After a few minutes of my laughing at them, the two grew really mad and forced me to apologize.
Still, I counted that as another victory, feeling like I was on a roll.
To end the day, I claimed the Kingdom Points I could and did some rolls in the [Mana Banners], as it wasn't restricted by the [Event].
I had yet to confirm if I could truly increase my mana pool this way, but since I could do it while keeping myself one mana point away from mana depletion, there was no reason not to try.
The result was what I expected: Another ring with nothing to show for it.
However, this gave me an idea.
Since I had no use for them or the arrows at home, I could gift them all to Melissa. Maybe she could find a use for them.
At the very least, since I saw her carrying a bow, I knew that the arrows would be useful. Besides, thanks to the quiver I had, I could produce infinite copies of the arrows, so she would never suffer from a lack of ammunition and could maybe even melt the arrowheads to make armor or other weapons as she needed. Though that would probably take her a while...
Regardless, that sounded good, so I decided to leave the Kingdom to make some duplicate arrows, but as soon as I clicked the option to return to Earth...
[The current event type 'War' only allows the user to transfer between it and the user's Kingdom. The user's access to any other place is therefore blocked until event completion.]
Wait.
Wait, wait, wait.
I wasn't told that! How was I supposed to know? Shouldn't the system have told me that first before I chose the event? This was important information! You can't just omit it from me, goddamnit
I couldn't believe it. I had clutched two seemingly impossible wins, only for my ability to hand me the biggest loss imaginable.
If this restriction applied to Claire and Licia as well, it would be a massive headache, and I'd be forced to rethink all of my current plans.
Unfortunately, the only way of knowing was to test it.