As Kyle was thinking, Eleanor called out from downstairs. "Kyle! Dinner is ready!"
His stomach growled in response. He had been staring at the system screen, choosing a class for several hours. It's normal that he's really hungry right now.
`Testing the skill can wait... I'm fucking starving right now!` He forced the screen away and descended the steps.
The table was lit by candlelight.
Alden sat at the head of a wooden table while Eleanor was placing a pot of hot stew on it. Her hips swayed as she turned around, showing the bounce of her ass.
"There you are!" Alden gestured to a chair. "Eleanor's rabbit stew could bring the dead back to life."
Kyle sat across from Eleanor. Her breasts hung down when she bent slightly to fill the stew into Kyle's bowl, giving a clear view of her cleavage.
`Fuck!` Kyle's cock went hard as he looked away. `Calm down, big boy.`
"So, where am I, exactly? I mean, what's this place called? What's beyond the forest?" Kyle asked as he started eating.
Alden tore off a piece of bread. "You're in Valdor Kingdom... Well, at the edge of it. Our village is Oakhaven. Nearest city is one day west, Stonehelm."
"Valdor rules all these lands?" Kyle asked.
"Mostly." Eleanor smiled as she said. "To the south, behind Blackroot Mountains, you've got the elf forests."
"Elves?" Kyle asked, pretending not to know.
"Arrogant tree lovers," Alden said. "They'll shoot an arrow at you before asking any question."
"Elves aren't our only neighbors. To the west, there is Hazard Kingdom." Eleanor continued. "The second largest kingdom after Valdor. The desert covers most of the kingdom."
"There are other kingdoms adjacent to Valdor." Alden chuckled. "Although they are very small."
Kyle nodded, then said. "What about north?"
"North..." Eleanor's smile faded. "There are the Demon lands. They usually attack the kingdom."
"Especially after the hero's prophecy announced by the church a year ago," Alden chuckled darkly.
"The hero's prophecy?" Kyle raised his eyebrow.
"When a demon king appears, a prophecy comes to the church about the hero who will defeat the demon king and save the world," Eleanor replied. "This time, the hero is the son of the last hero and the last saintess."
`Hero? I bet he already has a harem.` Kyle smiled. "Thank you, both of you."
"No problem. If you have any other questions, ask them whenever you want." Eleanor chuckled lightly.
Kyle stared at Eleanor for a moment, then a sudden idea occurred to him `Can I... see her stats? Like my stats screen?`
Kyle focused his gaze on Eleanor and then imagined the status screen. Suddenly, the blue system screen appeared in front of Eleanor's face.
[Name: Eleanor]
[Strength: 4 | Intelligence: 9 | Endurance: 5 | Agility: 6 | Magic: 0]
[Affection: 9%]
`Holy shit.` Kyle almost choked with his food. `It works!`
He quickly turned his gaze to Alden. A new screen also appeared in front of him.
[Name: Alden]
[Strength: 6 | Intelligence: 8 | Endurance: 9 | Agility: 4 | Magic: 0]
[Affection: 5%]
Kyle stared at the screen and tried to understand it. It wasn't very different from his own screen, but there was one thing that caught his attention.
`Affection... that's the key. The higher it is, the less Intelligence matters for [Mind Control].`
He looked back at Eleanor. `Eleanor has higher affection... I need to test it.`
When Kyle noticed that Eleanor had raised her spoon, he immediately used his skill [Mind Control]. Suddenly, Kyle's pupil glowed weakly crimson.
He unleashed a command that went straight to her mind. `Drop the spoon.`
Her fingers trembled, and then relaxed. The spoon fell onto the plate, making a loud noise.
"Huh?" She blinked. "Clumsy me."
Kyle suppressed his smirk. `It works! She didn't even know what happened!`
His eyes returned to their natural color without him knowing.
Alden noticed the change that had just happened to Kyle's eyes "Your eyes... their color... did they just become red??"
`Red? Did that happen when I used the skill?` Kyle stared in surprise.
A new system screen suddenly appeared before his eyes.
[Activating the "Mind Control" skill causes the user's pupils to become crimson temporarily as a side effect.]
`And you're telling me this now? Damn system!`
"Red?" Eleanor frowned and brought her head close to Kyle's face.
The candlelight was glowing inside Kyle's dark eyes, which returned ordinary now. "What are you saying, my dear? It's clear that his eyes are black."
"Yeah... I must be tired from today's work." Alden scratched the back of his head.
You scared me... I thought I had caught some disease from the forest.
"You scared me... I thought I had caught some disease from the forest." Kyle forced a laugh.
`Too close!`
***
After dinner, Kyle went back to his room and shut the door quietly behind him.
Moonlight was kinda peeking through the window.
He walked over and just stood there for a bit, staring at the moon. It was bright, really bright. Then he looked over at that mirror by the wardrobe.
He got closer... and saw himself in the mirror.
Messy black hair, yet stylish. Deep black eyes, as the darkness of the night. Sharp features, above average. You could say he's... handsome.
Kyle stared into his eyes for a moment. Then, without hesitation, he activated his skill, [Mind Control].
In the next moment, a very faint crimson glow shone from Kyle's black eyes. Gradually, his black eyes turned crimson.
`So... it's not an illusion. My eyes have really turned crimson.`
Kyle kept staring into his eyes for a while.
`The real question isn't whether it works on others... but whether it works on me.`
He knew full well how silly that sounded already.
Mind control is meant to take over another person's will, not their own. But if the skill didn't see "self" as an exception, then it wasn't mind control anymore.
It was alteration... improvement.
`If I can really do it... Then this isn't just a skill anymore.`
If he could really command himself, things like fear and pain or even forgetting will never exist for him. It will enable him to do things that are impossible for the mind and body to do.
Kyle shifted his focus from the mirror to a table that was near the bed. There was a sewing needle on the table.
He thought of the sewing needle because he knew that Eleanor had put the sewing needle there after she had sewn a tear in one of the clothes.
He picked up the sewing needle and looked at the edge of the sewing needle for a moment, then he looked at his reflection in the mirror.
He raised his hand and brought the end of the sewing needle close to his fingertip, his eyes fixed on the reflection of his crimson eyes.
Then, calmly, he gave the command. "Do not feel pain."
Then, with a single quick move, he jabbed the sharp needle into the tip of his finger.