Gathering Wives with a System

Chapter 694: Bringing The Saintess To His Side, Using God Domain Skill

Sarah froze. After a moment, she looked down at the collar and checked its information. Her eyes widened when she finally saw the actual effect, and the anger on her face was replaced by confusion.

"This collar will allow you to follow me through the dungeon while the clearing is still counted as a Solo Clear. Please do not ask about its strange name, because I got it as a dungeon reward and I had no say in what it was called," Isaac explained.

Inwardly, Isaac was cursing himself for having to go through this entire situation.

He could understand how suspicious his actions looked, especially considering his reputation, so he forced a harmless, embarrassed smile onto his face before continuing. "I know my reputation is not exactly good, but I hope Miss Sarah will not be too prejudiced against me just because of the rumors surrounding me."

Isaac paused briefly before explaining further.

"I already have several wives, and two of them are dragons. If you know anything about dragons, then you should understand that there is no way I would dare to do anything to another woman while they are away, because that would be like willingly walking into their lair and asking them to imprison me."

He gave her a wry smile.

Sarah was too stunned to respond immediately.

She blinked several times, and it seemed that she had only just remembered that Isaac had two dragon wives. However, that realization did not make her completely trust him, and after a moment of hesitation, she still tried to find a way to challenge his explanation.

"B-But what about the words of the Summon who said you have Incubus abilities? And aren’t you stronger than your wives? If you are stronger than them, then they cannot really do anything to you even if you anger them," she said.

"The Summon’s name is Sir Oz. As for what he said, I have a peculiar condition, which is why he misunderstood my abilities, and he also called me a Catastrophe. However, as you can see, I am an Awakener, so his evaluation was clearly not completely accurate," Isaac replied.

Sarah continued staring at him, so Isaac decided to give her another explanation.

"As for my wives, I am sure you have seen the video of my battle with the Purification Church, haven’t you?"

Sarah nodded.

"Do you remember the final attack that took them down?" Isaac asked.

Sarah nodded again, although this time she looked noticeably more nervous. The complete details of the attack had never been shown, but anyone who had seen what happened to the members of the Purification Church had been frightened by it.

"That attack was done by a summon belonging to Selene, who is a Moon Dragon. So yes, I am stronger than her, but that does not mean I can simply anger her without consequences," Isaac said.

Isaac gave another wry smile. "If I seriously anger Selene, I will not even be able to resist her. So while I may be stronger than my wives in terms of direct combat ability, I still have to be careful around them because I would rather not discover what happens when a dragon wife becomes genuinely angry."

Sarah fell silent.

Isaac could tell that she was thinking about everything he had just said. Some of his words were true, while others were only carefully selected half-truths, but he had no intention of telling her about the Elemental Spirit of Machine or explaining the exact conditions under which it could act. The Spirit could only act if Selene would be harmed, but Isaac would never do that, so the Spirit could not attack him.

There was no reason to give her that information.

For now, it was enough to make her understand that his relationship with his wives was not as simple as she might have assumed. If she believed that his wives could restrain him despite his greater strength, then she would be less likely to think he could casually do whatever he wanted without consequences.

Isaac finally stepped backward, giving Sarah some distance.

"Well, you can think about what I said. I am going to look for the Mini-Bosses until you decide what you want to do," he said.

Sarah looked down at the collar again.

She still seemed uncertain, but she did not throw it back at him or demand that he leave her alone. Isaac took that as a good enough sign and turned toward the deeper part of the Fifth Area.

Isaac began walking forward, leaving Sarah to make her own decision. He did not turn around to check whether she was following because he had already said what he needed to say, and forcing her to make a choice would only make their relationship more uncomfortable.

After a short hesitation, Sarah followed him.

Isaac continued through the Fifth Area, dealing with the monsters that appeared along the way. Sarah remained silent and kept herself away from the battlefield, choosing to observe from a safe distance rather than interfere with his fights.

For the most part, Isaac did not pay much attention to her.

The monsters in the Fifth Area were no longer enough to trouble him, so he dealt with them without using too much of his strength. At the same time, he occasionally glanced toward Sarah to make sure she was still following and to see whether her opinion of him was changing.

Sarah continued watching him. She did not ask many questions, and she made no attempt to interfere in his battles. Isaac could tell that she was still studying his movements whenever she thought he was not paying attention, probably comparing what she was seeing with the rumors she had heard about him.

That continued until Isaac defeated the third Mini-Boss. The battle ended with some difficulty, and Isaac turned toward Sarah after confirming that the monster was dead. Instead of continuing forward, however, Sarah stood there quietly for several seconds before lowering her head.

"I’m sorry, Lord Isaac," she said as she bowed.

"For what?" Isaac asked, though he knew what she would say.

"For trusting the rumors instead of coming to my own conclusion after seeing you with my own eyes. I should not have decided what kind of person you were before actually spending time with you and seeing how you behaved," Sarah replied.

Isaac smiled at her. He had not expected her to apologize so directly, but he appreciated the honesty behind her words. "You do not need to apologize for being cautious, Miss Sarah, especially considering the circumstances under which we met."

Sarah slowly raised her head.

"I still think I was too suspicious of you. I had heard so many things about you that I allowed those rumors to influence my judgment, but you have not actually behaved the way I expected you to," she admitted.

The atmosphere between them became much more relaxed after that.

Sarah finally put on the collar without showing the anger she had displayed earlier. Her face was still red from embarrassment, and Isaac could tell that she was trying very hard not to look at the collar around her neck.

She also no longer seemed worried about what the collar could do.

After all, Isaac was already strong enough to force her to do something if he genuinely wanted to, so there was little reason for him to rely on an item like this to control her. Sarah seemed to understand that as well, which was probably why she had stopped treating the collar as something threatening.

Isaac chuckled when he noticed how embarrassed she was.

"Please do not laugh. It is already embarrassing enough without you making fun of me," Sarah complained.

Isaac tried to stop himself, but her embarrassed expression only made it harder. He ended up laughing again, causing Sarah to look away with an annoyed expression while adjusting the collar as though she could somehow hide it. The two of them were not friends. At best, they were acquaintances who had been forced into the same situation because of Isaac’s circumstances.

Even so, Isaac was pleased that Sarah no longer looked at him as though he were some kind of disgusting criminal whenever she looked in his direction. That was already a considerable improvement.

Isaac still noticed that Sarah remained somewhat suspicious of him, even though she was doing a better job of hiding it. He did not particularly mind because he believed that if she spent enough time around him, she would eventually see his personality for herself and realize that the rumors had exaggerated many things.

There was another benefit to gaining her trust.

Once Sarah got in touch with her teammates, she would probably tell Reiner and the others about what she had actually experienced while traveling with Isaac.

She would tell her teammates that he was not the scum they had believed him to be. If she took his side in front of them, contrary to her teammates’ expectations, they might realize he was actually a good person. It would help improve his reputation considerably!

More importantly, if Sarah stopped seeing him as someone she needed to escape from, she would no longer be constantly looking for an opportunity to spy on him. If things continued to go well, she might even decide that staying in his territory was not such a bad idea after all.

Isaac felt rather pleased with that possibility.

However, he still had one concern.

Sarah had already learned about Selene’s summon, and although Isaac had not revealed much information about it, he did not want the details spreading beyond the people who already knew. Even a small amount of information was best kept as a trump card.

For that reason, Isaac used False Promise skill with Selene after gaining her permission. The skill had come from his God Domain and worked similarly to a contract, allowing him to impose a restriction concerning specific clauses. Isaac asked Sarah to promise that she would not reveal what she had learned about Selene’s summon, and she agreed after he explained why he considered the information important.

Once the False Promise was completed, Isaac felt more at ease.

He had not told Sarah everything, so there was no major danger even if she eventually changed her mind about him. Still, keeping information about Selene’s summon hidden was something Isaac considered important, and there was no reason to take unnecessary risks when he had an easy way to protect the information.

They continued deeper into the dungeon after that.

Their relationship remained somewhat awkward, but the tension that had existed earlier was mostly gone. Sarah occasionally asked questions about the monsters and the dungeon, while Isaac answered her when he felt there was no reason to keep the information secret.

Eventually, they reached the Boss Monster of the Third Area.

Isaac stopped in front of the entrance and looked ahead while Sarah came to a stop beside him. The atmosphere immediately became more serious, because both of them could sense that the creature waiting beyond the entrance was considerably stronger than the ordinary monsters they had fought along the way.