The New Gate

Shin, who let the young fox sit quietly on top of his head, walked toward the town. After he told the fox “retract your claws back into your paws” repeatedly, the young fox finally settled down. The claws that struck his face until then caused him to stagger.

As a result of having followed the request of the orphanage girl, Millie, a massive amount of Skull Faces were defeated by Shin. And he saved the young fox from the Shinto shrine, which became a battlefield. The forest, after the battle ended, became full of noise from living things, unlike when he first came to the shrine.

Possibly when Shin headed toward the shrine, the group of Skull Faces were already approaching, and the animals went into hiding. But the crowd of Skull Faces were indeed too many for it to occur naturally.

The number of undead appearances popping from tombs or underground dungeon areas might be caused by hazardous swirling miasma. He sighed while advancing forward, because if he didn’t report this, it would be bad.

First of all, how to conceal the Element Tail…while thinking about that, he called out to the young fox which was leisurely resting on top of his head.

“Hey, let’s have a discussion.”

“Kuu?”

The bark with question mark came from the young fox. From the communication a little while ago, it was already revealed that the young fox understood what Shin was saying.

“Because it is bad if your true identity was exposed, do you want to form a contract with me?”

The contract in this case was the partner contract that tamers make.

――Taming. Unlike the summoner who was able to make contracts with numerous summoned beasts without restriction, the tamer was able to do partner contracts only up to 5 per person. However, for other jobs than tamer, it was only possible to do partner contracts once. Even though, he could only contract once, he thought that it was satisfactory as a pet and as a little support personnel. Because Shin had a lot of support characters, he didn’t need a monster partner. But Cashmere, the tamer and summoner of Rokuten, recommended it to him, which was half the reason Shin performed the contract.

Nevertheless. Shin never thought that it would be useful in such a situation.

“Although there is no bonus compensation because I am not a tamer…Your level and race won’t be exposed to other guys, and we will able to communicate without the need of items, too.”

In THE NEW GATE, when there was too much a difference in level and stats, the low-level players would not be able to see the higher level player’s stats. And they must able to see the stats of the player who was the master, before being able to see a monster partner’s stats. In other words, if Shin, who had overwhelming power in this world, formed a contract with the young fox, almost no one could see the stats of the young fox.

By the way, communication (telepathy) became possible between the master and monster partner. While it seemed silent when observed from the outside, the monster partner was given instructions via telepathy during a battle. This was how a tamer fought with their monster partner.

“Kuu!? Ku~Ku~!”

“Really!? I will do it!” as if it said that, the young fox unleashed its claws again. Shin somehow came to understand the young fox even before the contract.

“I understand! I understand so don’t move for a moment!”

He said as he held the young fox facing him while reciting the keywords together.

“I, wish to walk with thee.” “Kuー…”

The young fox answered to Shin’s words. In this case, the contract would be completed if the monster said “I, vow to be on thy side”. When the bark stopped, a tattoo in the shape of a falcon formed respectively on their left arm and left foreleg. This was the mark of the contract which the player created, it was intended to distinguish the difference between a common monster and a monster partner. The monster partner that was raised by a player was basically stronger than a common monster.

“Then, again, I hope to get along with you.”

“Kuu!!”

“Thank you!!” as if it said, the young fox raised its right foreleg and barked. It was a heartwarming scene that would make anyone smile.

“Now then, first thing to do after contracting.”

“Ku?”

“It is to decide your name. Because Element Tail is a race name. It is natural to think about a name for you when you became my partner, I guess?”

“Kuu!? KuーKuー!!”

“And it…calm down! Or I will shake my head!!”

“Really!? What is it!!” As if the fox said that. While calming down the excited young fox, Shin announced the name that popped in his head.

“Yuzuha, how about it?”

“Kukukuu…kuu!!”

The small bark from the young fox fell silent for a while, thinking about the name ‘Yuzuha’. And then it yipped with a noticeably loud and high-pitched “kuu!!”, as if it said that it was pleased with the name.

Rather than a male name, it was a female name that came to Shin’s mind. Because when the Kyuubi quest was accepted, the Element Tail most often appeared as a female figure to the players.

“Well, actually, there is no gender, but…”

The Element Tail was a monster that didn’t have genders, it could become either man or woman and not be tied to either one. Even though it was usual that it appeared as a female figure before a player, he remembered that a male figure appeared very rarely in a walkthrough site. But he never actually saw it.

“Kuu?”

“Nothing. I guess you will become ‘Yuzuto’ when in male mode.”

As in novels, manga, and anime, there was a story such as naked beautiful women appearing the next morning after hugging an animal in bed. He didn’t know whether the Element Tail in this world would appear the same as in the game, but he prefer it to be a female figure anyway. It would be a nightmare for Shin if he woke up only to find that he was cuddling with another man, as he looking forward to an enjoyable sleep.

(My LUC is low. I hope the time when it becomes a person will never come.)

“Kuu?”

“There cannot be a strange good luck…” Shin muttered, and the young fox, Yuzuha, tilted its head. For some reason, he was acting strangely while feeling a little uneasiness, then he stopped thinking about it. Even if it’s called an Element Tail, its body was still that of a young fox. Thinking about difficult things were not of his characteristic, as he was not good at it.

As usual, Shin’s forehead was lightly hit by its paw that had retracted its claws. Moreover, its reaction was like “What happened?”, called out to Shin. For a long time, to Yuzuha, who had endured poison and a curse, a trivial thing such as communication might be nothing but a joyful experience.

◆◆◆◆

“Hmm?”

As soon as he left the northern forest, a familiar electronic sound, “Pon!”, was heard by Shin. It was the sound of level up, incoming email, event announcement, and so on, which he often heard in the game.

Judging from Yuzuha, who wasn’t reacting, it seemed that it was heard only by Shin.

“Incoming message. From Tiera.”

The semi-transparent letters 『You have a message』 at the edge of Shin’s view became clear. The obvious unrealistic game characteristic, to Shin who already spent a few days in this world, brought the illusion that he was still inside the game.

“There is a feeling of something wrong because of this half-baked system.”

Although he didn’t feel odd obviously because having seen the game screen through the VR (Virtual Reality), when it happens in reality, the feeling of something wrong couldn’t be shaken off. Is this the feeling when game and reality are mixed? Shin frowned, but it was certainly a convenient thing. He sighed as he had no choice but to get used to it, and opened the message.

『To Shin

When I tried it, I was able to send a message to master.

Though I don’t know whether master has a message card or not, when the reply comes, I will contact you again.

P.S.

Is it possible to send items via the message card?』

Tiera, who was Schnee’s acquaintance in this world, seemed to able to send the message card without any problems. Since Shin was not able to send the message card to Schnee himself, he didn’t think about the possibility that Tiera could communicate with Schnee before.

“Well because she already contacted her, it’s a good thing.”

He convinced himself that it was alright while looking at an unused message card to reply as an attachment. The message card became drops of light and was sucked into the letter paper of the reply. It appeared to be possible to attach only light items, but it was satisfactory and convenient.

“…Is this happening because it’s this world? The attaching items was not possible in the game.”

The game and reality are not the same, and the inspection of other items was necessary, he made a mental note of this. There were unexpected things likely to occur in this world other than the game.

Given the number of items in his Item Box, it would require a considerable amount of time for the inspection. Shin, while thought about it, had a slight headache.

“If Schnee reply something, contact me immediately.”

He replied to the message which included the method for item attachment, then he continued walking. He was heading towards the east gate of the town.

He decided to report about the army of nearly three digits worth of Skull Faces to the guild, and leave out Yuzuha from the report, even if he had to lie.

“Yo Shin. This time you brought something strange again.”

It was Beid who called out by the east gate. There was no formality like when they met at the first time, probably because they encountered each other pretty much every day.

“This is my partner, Yuzuha. I would like to confirm something, when I take a monster partner with me, is there any restriction or something?”

Even if it was accompanied by a tamer, Shin expected that it would be difficult to just let a monster into the town.

“There are various restrictions in case of aggressive monsters or monsters that have huge body’s, but there is no problem if it’s that small, I guess. Just in case, I will have you to write the necessary document for preparation here for the time being. After that, your companion has to show the mark of your contract to complete the registration process.”

“This is unexpectedly lenient.”

Because he thought it would be strict, he was a little disappointed.

“Of course, it is strict when a guy appears to act violently and dangerous. In addition, a tamer must take all the responsibility if their monster partner causes some trouble. And be careful, because there are such guys who start fights on purpose, and demand a payment from the tamer.”

“Ah, such guys exist too.”

“Yes, unfortunately. Moreover, the monster partner was only aimed at when the tamer ability was restricted at that time. The regulations are difficult around there.”

“I’m thinking whether it is lenient or not…”

Because there were people who tried to catch and sell rare monsters, Shin understood Beid’s words of caution.

Just in case, counterattacking seemed to be permitted for the time being if he was going to arrest them with brute force. But the processing afterward seemed to be troublesome, “Do it thoroughly in a place where it won’t be found out if you do it” said Beid. He didn’t know whether it was fine for a guard to say that, but he understood about the monster partner and start of a fight, and since most of the criminals belonged to the monster’s trade organization, it was said that they didn’t need pardon.

“Name is Yuzuha, race is demon fox. The rest is…”

He wrote the necessary words on the document which Beid brought.

Demon fox was a race to which a type of fox monster belonged to, and there were many players who made it their pet in the game.

Element Tail was classified as a first class boss, and categorized as an ‘Element Tail’ race while at the same time being of the demon fox tribe. One could say that it was a higher kind, like High Human or High Elf.

So the race that Shin wrote in the document was not completely random. Though it was not the whole truth either.

“…Yosh, I have finished filling out the document. Please confirm it.”

“…Hmm. There aren’t any problems. Then, the registration of the contract mark is completed. Please touch with the arm and foreleg that have the contract mark on this.”

When Beid confirmed there was no discrepancy, he handed the document to another guard and held out a purple sphere with the size of a baseball.

Shin and Yuzuha touched the globe with their left arm and left foreleg respectively. Thereupon the globe slightly shined, and the contract mark with falcon design appeared inside the globe.

“The registration process has ended with this. And though I don’t want it to happen, in case your monster partner dies or has been kidnapped, there is the procedure of registration cancellation. Please remember it, just in case.”

“I understand. I hope it will not happen.”

He nodded to Beid’s detailed circumstance speech that turned a little businesslike, then Shin left the gate.

Since Yuzuha was sitting on top of his head, the passersby were glancing at Shin as he walked on the street without minding it. Because Shin already predicted it would become like that. Small children and the like, pointed “it’s fox-san” and Shin, were warned by their parents. Though it was not necessary to place the fox on his head, Shin judged that it might be a little dangerous if Yuzuha walked on the ground where there was a lot of pedestrian traffic. Of course, the one who clashed with Yuzuha would be the one in danger.

He endured the glances from the surrounding onlookers, and passed through beneath the signboard of the adventurers’ guild. Here, also without exception, Yuzuha, who resided on Shin’s head, was attracting glances.

There were the appearances of two miss receptionists who resembled each other like two peas in a pod. They were the twin sisters Celica and Cilica.

“Excuse me. I would like to report something.”

“I will receive it.”

Two people answered at the same time. The timing almost identical. Both were glancing at Yuzuha for a moment, but it was the feeling of mere confirmation rather than the eyes of curiosity.

“Well, errr, which one should I report to?”

“I will ――”

“Receive it!”

The one who interrupted elder sister Celica’s answer, was the younger sister Cilica. The diligent elder sister and the mischievous younger sister ―― Shin right away judged from their hairstyle, and he didn’t seem to be mistaken about it.

“…Cilica”

“What?”

“Shin-sama came to me first, therefore I will receive it.”

“Eh, am I no good?”

“It’s no good, I will do it.”

“Somehow your mood is different than usual.”

“What’s different?”

“Yes yes, I understand. I will behave myself.”

In the end, Celica seemed to be declared as the winner. For Shin it didn’t matter which one he reported to, as it was all the same to him.

“…Uhm, the report?”

“Yes, sorry for the fuss. Your report please.”

“Today, near the center of the northern forest, I encountered a large amount of Skull Faces. I confirmed that I defeated all of those within my range, but because a stray monster might remain, I’m reporting it just in case.”

“A large amount…what do you mean by that?”

“I don’t know the exact number because I never counted them, but I think it was near 100 bodies.”

“Huh?…”

Nearly 100 Skull Faces bodies ―― There was the matter of the Jack class subjugation the other day too, so the remark of “I defeated them” caused a weak response from Celica, but as expected, it was not possible to hide her shock because of that large number.

“Don’t tell me it is what I think it is, is it the same strong individual like the other day?”

“No, this time the ones I encountered didn’t exceed the general knowledge of level and equipment. The class is a mixed of Jack and Pawn class, and they moved to surround a certain building.”

“A building?”

“Yes. A Shinto shrine…it was a facility to worship a God.”

Since he wasn’t sure whether she would understand the words Shinto shrine, he roughly explain it.

“Shinto shrine…I have heard that there was such a thing in the Hinomoto country, but I didn’t know that there was one in the northern forest.”

It seemed to be the result of the barrier which prevented living things to come near. Furthermore, the barrier wasn’t spread widely, so it was hard to notice.

“I was anxious when I heard the sound of something cracking as I approached, and at the same time the Skull Faces emerged. Perhaps a barrier or something was erected, I think.”

“So did you find something?”

“Though there were a few things inside the building, something like a magic formation was drawn on the floor. That’s all the features I can think of.”

The matter of Yuzuha was concealed, in addition, he cited where the worrisome place was to others.

“Thank you for your report. Including the matter of the Jack class on the other day, I will investigate this one too. Besides, if you noticed anything else, please contact me again. I might not able to understand it if Shin-sama is not present.”

“I understand. I will come again if I remember something else.”

Then he shifted his attention to the bulletin board where the requests were pasted. When he took the request of Hillock Herb before, he only looked at the G rank requests. This time Shin looked over the large amount of requests which he couldn’t take at his current rank. And then incidentally, he found that another bulletin board existed, hidden beside the main bulletin board.

Its size was about 30 cemels in length and width. It had a handmade feeling from the pasted on requests. And it couldn’t be compared with the adjacent bulletin board.

Shin, who took a little fancy to it, took a look at the requests which were pasted in a disorderly manner. Then, he found a word that caught his eye in the request that was mixed with others. He took it in his hand and scanned it properly.

―― Requesting a skill successor.

―― The one who accepted this request, please contact the church’s orphanage at east district.

―― Reward negotiable.

The contents of the request was seen, and Shin noticed that the request was not covered by rank.

There were requests that were not covered by rank, like the request related to criminals or the request from poor children that were put on the bulletin board, according to Cilica’s explanation about the request.

If one asked why set up such things, the answer would be any person has the freedom to do requests.

“I have a feeling that this is a special circumstances request. That rumor is not necessarily a mistake, is it?”

Shin said while thinking about that. He recalled some of the information he collected while using the hearing skill. Though it was only a rumor, the content made him a little worried.

It was the connection between the guilds; especially the relation between the ones called as the underground guilds and the adventurers’ guild. To be precise, the normal guilds, like the adventurers’ guild or merchant guild, were accepted by the society, and the underground guilds undertook crimes such as assassination and kidnapping.

According to the rumor, the underground guilds were performing purges for the nobles and the like, such as forcing unreasonable demands and violent requests, and the normal guilds were said to overlook the crimes of these underground guilds. Though the truth was uncertain, it was not laughable matter if there was ‘something’.

“Even if it’s the orphanage. If I am not mistaken, it’s the orphanage where Millie was.”

He recalled what Wilhelm said before parting the other day. When Shin thought that there might be a relation with the girl who brought the opportunity for him to meet Yuzuha, it would leave a bad aftertaste if he left it as it was.

“…I should go and check.”

Because originally Shin intended to ask Millie about Yuzuha, at the same time, he would listen to the contents of the request. Shin decided to head over to the orphanage.

◆◆◆◆

After he asked Celica how to get to the church from there, he walked for several minutes. Later, Shin was in front of the church.

Shin imagined it was a place of worship combined with stained glass when he heard about the church, and it was exactly as he imagined it. There was a big open door, worshipers who sat on the bench inside, and a ray of light that shined from the stained glass could be seen. The sun seemed to rise from the other side of the stained glass. The light, which shined into the little dim chapel like a halo, was indeed mysterious.

There were two sisters inside if the worshipers were excluded. No figure such as a pastor or priest could be seen.

(There are a few differences in the interior design, but this is certainly an architectural skill 『Church』.)

He thought about such things while looking around the chapel. Architectural skill was a skill necessary for constructing a building, just as its name implied.

Because he was brought up by Cain, who was both a magician and an architect of Rokuten, Shin’s architectural skill level was raised to VI. Thanks to that, Shin understood a little bit about bad and good points in buildings.

He understood that the interior was old, but it was carefully taken care of. With that alone, he more or less knew the personality of the person managing the church.

“May I help you?”

“Hmm? Ah, sorry. This is my first time coming to this place.”

Shin was observing the church near the entrance. One of the sisters saw him and right away approached him. It was a young women with a dark eyes and chignon, light brown hair.

Though he came to the church, he was not praying and just standing near the entrance, which was quite suspicious. Yet, there was no wary tone from the sister toward Shin.

Because he didn’t have business with the church, he decided to ask about the orphanage.

“I have a business with the orphanage.”

“Are you the one who saw the request!”

The sister voiced an exaggerated surprise. There must be very few people who accepted the request she put on the bulletin board. Either that or she didn’t expect anyone to accept the request for her to be that surprised.

“Well, shall I listen to the story first? And then, is there a child beast named Millie in this orphanage? This young fox…Yuzuha, I want to confirm it with Millie.”

Shin said and pointed to Yuzuha above his head. Although the sister was staring in wonder at Yuzuha, whom she had just noticed, but she turned to Shin shortly after that while giving him a cautious look.

“That kid, what?”

“When I met her yesterday, I was interested in what she said to me. Besides, I want her to confirm a few things about Yuzuha and about the request at the same time.”

From the sister’s attitude, was there any special circumstances with Millie? While Shin thought about that, he lowered his voice so other people didn’t hear it.

“…Okay. Come this way, please. Sister Rashia, please take over here.”

After having slightly considered it, the sister who was cautious of Shin, left the place and prompted him to follow her after she entrusted the place to other sister.

When the sister went out through the door, he went around to the back of the church. There was an old building there. The building, which reminded him of an apartment, had traces of repairs in several places, but Shin didn’t pay attention to the shabby impression. This appeared to be the orphanage.

“Please wait here while I get Millie.”

He entered a place that was supposedly a reception office. When Shin sat on a sofa and looked around, the sister brought Millie shortly afterwards.

“…It’s Shin-nii”

Millie who was hiding behind the sister, ran to Shin and sat next to him when she found out that it was Shin who sat on the sofa.

“…It seems like you really aren’t a bad guy after all.”

The sister smiled and sat on a sofa in front of Shin.

“I’m embarrassed if I am suddenly being looked at by those kind eyes…”

“Fufu, I’m sorry. It’s been a long time since Millie became attached to someone.”

“Wilhelm said the same thing too. Oh, I am Shin. An adventurer.”

“This time it seems that you have accepted Millie’s request, thank you very much. I am Thoria Serias. I am in charge of management of the sisters in the church and the orphanage.”

This sister seemed to be the person in charge. Shin, who didn’t know about the personnel affair of the church in the meantime, was convinced.

“There is a little thing I want to confirm today. Hey Millie, when you said ‘fox-san’ yesterday, is it this fellow?”

“Yes, it is. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Yuzuha, say thanks too. It was all thanks to Millie that you were helped.”

“Kuu!”

While patting Millie’s head, Shin didn’t forget to make Yuzuha said her gratitude. In fact, he didn’t know what would have happened to Yuzuha if not for Millie’s words.

Yuzuha got down to the floor and lowered its head, and after satisfied with Millie’s confirmation, Shin turned to face toward the sister.

Millie And Yuzuha

The sister, who was watching the exchange between Millie and Yuzuha, straightened her posture while smiling.

“There is one more thing I need to confirm. It’s about the request in the guild. Can I hear more details about it?”

“Yes. Because Shin-san looks like a person I can trust.”

Thoria nodded with serious face. After all, there seemed to be a reason, as it was a request outside the rank.

“Having read the request means Shin-san is a skill successor, right?”

“Well, you could say I am.”

Though it differed from the truth, Shin nodded as he didn’t want the talk to become confusing.

“The reason I’m looking for a skill successor is, though I think it is impudent, I want you to teach the skill if possible.”

Shin heard from Tiera that just having a skill could gain you preferential treatment, although it was said that a considerable amount of effort and money were necessary for the succession. Shin hadn’t seen it yet, but apparently there were degraded versions of skills which were called arts.

As the sister talked about the skill, several necessary skills appeared in Shin’s mind.

“After all, is it the【Heal】 and 【Cure】 system?”

“No, It’s different. Those are certainly necessary skills, but the circumstances are different this time.”

“Circumstances?”

Because they were necessary skills for the recovery job, could you teach me those? Shin thought the sister would say that, but it seemed to be different for some reason.

“Then, what is the skill that Thoria-san was looking for?”

“…Tion, it is.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear it properly.”

“…【Purification】, it is.”

“Ahh, it is【Purification】.”

Thoria said as she was ready to give up, because she knew she was asking the impossible.

“I know this is absurd…”

“Because it is troublesome, right?”

“Yes troublesome…what?”

A few seconds after Shin’s remark, for the first time, Thoria noticed that Shin’s response was odd.

“Errr…what did you say just now?”

“No, it is troublesome. I said.”

Thoria was having a face trying to squeeze the words, in contrast to Shin who said what came to his mind.

“Erm, to acquire the skill, do you know it?”

“Yes, I know it.”

“…The request, can you accept it?…”

“It depends.”

Shin changed into a serious expression from those words.

Though Shin spoke in a thoughtless tone, he calmly analyzed the information in his head. He thought he understood something about Millie, but he didn’t have even a fragment of information about her. Instead, he got to know about the trouble in the church. In addition, he didn’t expect that the skill would be 【Purification】, but he daringly said that he had the information about 【Purification】. Although he had poor knowledge about this world, he wasn’t that foolish to teach the skill to the sister during their first meeting.

“I would like some time to think about the reward.”

“No, the monetary things are fine. Instead, there are some conditions.”

Conditions, Thoria stiffens by that word. As if she knew what Shin would say next.

“Conditions?”

“Yes, first of all, about Millie’s power. Subsequently, I want the information you obtained in the church, the term for the condition is one year. Finally, I want it to be a secret that I accepted this request. Even from the higher-ups in the church . Please say it was a volunteer service by me.”

The church was a place where various people regardless of age or sex gathered. There might be some information that came out before God, Shin thought. And since Thoria seemed like a good person, this type of conversation seemed to be unfamiliar to her.

Apart from that, Shin’s preference was about Millie’s power. It might be something like future foresight or crisis perception. Shin’s nature as a gamer spontaneously thought about it. That thought, if in his former world, would be laughed off.

“These conditions are the rewards I wish for.”

On the other hand, Thoria, who was asked, seemed to hesitate for what she should do.

From Thoria’s point of view, it was accompanied with a great risk to reveal Millie’s power to a person whom she didn’t know and who appeared suddenly. There was no conclusive proof that Shin wasn’t going to expose this story either.

In addition, she even had to defy the higher-up of the church in some cases. It couldn’t be helped but to say that the conditions were relentless in exchange for the 【Purification】 skill. To make matters worse, there was no evidence that Shin really knew the acquisition method of 【Purification】. And if Millie’s power was known to someone powerful and greedy, Millie herself would be in danger. It was not an agreement that she could consent to thoughtlessly.

Silence filled the reception room.

Shin was waiting for an answer and Thoria was keeping quiet.

“…It’s alright.”

It was Millie’s words who broke the silence between the two people.

It’s alright. Millie said while looking at Thoria. Her eyes were not the eyes of a young child, they harboured mysterious glows.

“Millie?”

“If it is Shin-nii, it’s alright.”

“…………”

Though Thoria still kept silent considering it, having made up her mind after looking at Millie’s appearance, she opened her mouth slowly and nodded.

“I understand. I accept the conditions. However, even though you might say information, we are amateurs. I don’t know whether we can be helpful by investigating or doing something for you.”

“You don’t have to act strangely. You can inform me if someone comes to the church and says something worrisome. The real nature of Millie’s power is more important to me.”

Shin explained that she didn’t need to imitate the information seller. It would be dangerous if it was done unskillfully. He urged that the power of Millie was by far the main issue.

“…Millie has had the title 『Hoshiyomi』 since birth. From Millie’s story, the scenery abruptly differentiates from her normal view. Actually, nothing Millie has said was wrong as long as one did not do something. I think the reason why she requested Shin-san is because she saw something with that power.”

“ 『Hoshiyomi』? For Millie to have such power…”

“Yes…Do you know something about it? As for this title, even I don’t know much about it. And title holders are fewer than skill successors, since they almost never exposed their ability. I only know it from Millie’s story.”

Hmm, Shin pondered.

『Hoshiyomi』 was originally a title which could be obtained from a quest with a simple hint. It was a rare title, but it was not something to be worried about.

When Shin was there Millie’s power, which Thoria told him about, didn’t manifest. There might be certain conditions, but it didn’t come to Shin’s mind at all. Although there were no powers in THE NEW GATE that Shin didn’t know about.

Possibly it might have become the clue as to how to return to his original world.

(Not only the message card, there is a change even in the title, too? Though it was not useless to try to understand it, the title is hard to confirm because it cannot be activated voluntarily. The 『Hoshiyomi』 effect for future foresight is not certain either.)

Titles in particular were divided between random activation type and regular activation type.『Hoshiyomi』 was occasionally activated when a quest was generated, so it was in the middle between the two types.

Then――

“Kidnapping, abduction, confinement. It was too scary if Millie’s power was found out. People who thought about such dangerous things are likely to appear. What about this side?”

Only worrisome words had appeared in his mind. The lighter tone probably comes from his past experiences.

By the way, this time he talked close to Millie’s ear.

“I will tell the person concerned not to talk about it carelessly, so it won’t spread easily. That person is someone who left here and become an adventurer, he will cooperates with me.”

“Is it Wilhelm?”

“Yes, there are others, but he is the best for protection. The people who want to put their hands on the children here are almost all gone because of their fear of his ability.”

That small children were likely to be the target of evil deeds didn’t seem to change anywhere.

Although Wilhelm was feared by the adventurers, it seemed that Wilhelm was not a bad person, Shin thought. He protected the orphanage by gaining fame, whether it was good or bad.

Even though the drawback was that there was the possibility that someone had a grudge against Wilhelm and would therefore target the orphanage, somehow other adventurers would do something about it. Since there were not many things he could do alone.

“Then, because I received the reward, I want to formally accept the request. Is it agreeable with Thoria-san to acquire the 【Purification】?”

“No, It’s not for me to acquire, I want to request it for Rashia. You saw another sister in the church, right? That girl, please teach it to her.”

“Is that so? I certainly thought it was Thoria-san in this case.”

“That girl is the grandchild to a person who served as a priest here. Because if the plan goes smoothly, the church will be handed over to her by inheritance.”

Apparently, there seemed to be some circumstances other than the 【Purification】. Shin had a wry smile while stroking Yuzuha, as it was likely to turn into a complicated development.