Chapter 24 – Being Blinded by Awesomeness is Actually Quite Painful

“How are you feeling?”

“Alright.”

“Can you see with your right eye?”

“I can, but it is strange..”

Her eyes were squinting hard and tears trickled out of the right eye.

“Do you see some kind of light, when you look at me with that eye?”

“Yes. It is blinding. How did master know?”

“Welp. A happy accident. You seem to have gained a Soul Sight. You could call this type of ability a Mystic or Third Eye.”

“An accident? Did my eye heal incorrectly?”

She was looking panicked, but her eyes were still closed. All I could think of how cute it all was.

“Well if you follow the very definition of healing it is returning to previous or healthy state. Gaining an ability like that.. it is like winning a lottery without buying a ticket, I guess.”

“I understand. Master. Thank you for healing me. It is too blinding to see with that. Master glows like a sun.”

She opened her left, unaltered eye. Apparently it was still normal.

“I glow like a sun? But..”

I looked at my own hand and promptly activated Soul Sight. It looked normal. No glow at all.

No.

There should be a glow. Some glow. After all I had a soul, right? Strange. Though theoretically soul should also reside in my eyes. Eyes are a mirror of the soul. Theoretically entire world should glow hazily through those few centimeters of eyeballs whenever the skill is activated.

It was obviously not the case.

“Are you also blinded if you look away from me?”

She turned toward the closed windowsill and I noticed something. Her right eye was glowing much more than the rest of her body. The color was also somewhat more.. metallic?

“No, master. I can see some faint lights moving in the distance.”

Lights? Probably other Ythall residents. It looks like it is possible to use Soul Sight like an X ray vision for souls.

Alas, was there anything sexy in seeing a naked soul, even if it belonged to the opposite gender? Not really.

The residual energy of divinity resided in the eye of Elfin. If such little amount was a visible change I must indeed look like a sun. Why would I not see myself? Was I soulless? But she could see me. Maybe she only saw divinity itself?

I squinted eyes and tried to see into myself.

“Argh!” I screamed.

I clenched my eyes shut and turned off the soul sight. I guess it was that easy to control.

“Master! What happened? Are you hurt?”

“No, nothing. I have just stupidly blinded myself.”

It was too bright to be called a soul. Massive, thick, heavy, and far too rough. Indeed, it was a heap of raw divinity.

I guess Talakhe must have upgraded not only my body, but soul as well. Though it was also the first time I saw into myself anyway. I could not make any comparison to my previous state.

It made sense. If I could recreate my vessel in soul-only state, my soul must have been strengthened.

I remembered the color I saw was also not that of pure divinity, but one mixed with ‘normal’ soul colors. This cleared any doubts about not having a soul anymore. I am not a soulless master, ooff.

We were sitting in total darkness for a while. Only hearing each other breathe in and out.

“Lynx.. do you also have this soul sight ability?”

“Yes. Well. I should explain it better. Such an ability allows you to see into souls of other beings.”

My sight was beginning to adjust back to the dark room already.

“If you train it well you will be able to see their current mood as well as general character.”

I pinched my nose.

“That is how I knew you were not a bad person when we met.”

For a while I intended to say “when I bought you”, but bit my tongue in time.

“It is also possible to see if the person is lying to you, but such minute details take experience to notice.”

“Can master do that? And how exactly?”

“I can sometimes and it is complicated. If I notice someone I will tell you. Shame we cannot train with me blinding you.”

She nodded like a good pupil.

“Today I learned thanks to you that it also allows you to see your own soul. And good old me, it was blinding experience indeed!”

“Master could not see master’s soul previously?”

I thought about how to explain it properly.

“I think the trick to it is that eyes and brain ignore inconvenient things like that. You do not see your own nose all the time, right? Not unless you concentrate. I guess Soul Sight filters your own soul out of the view.”

I petted her on the head and dried what remained of her tears with the blanket. I moved her shoulders to again turn away from me.

“First things first. Try turning the ability off. Imagine closing second, virtual eyelid.”

She blinked her eye a few times and a frown appeared on her forehead due to concentration.

“I got it, Lynx!”

“Good. I think it is also possible to ignore some souls like mine so you would not get blinded using it on me. I do not know how to, though on the other hand it is even more hard or rather impossible to turn one’s soul off. I am afraid you will have to figure it out on your own.”

“I will try, Lynx.”

I updated my journal to include reading on mystic eyes and smooched back of her head.

“You better do. By the way your new eye looks truly regal.”

“It is just red. It is a scary color.”

“Red?!”

I laughed. I summoned a Light spell into existence and handed her a mirror out of storage.

“My god. What happened to my eye?”

The mirror fell and shattered on the floor.

You will have bad luck for a long time, kid.

I checked her status just in case, but for some unfathomable reason her luck was higher than yesterday? I guess it is just a superstition.

Through all of that my laughs continued as if I was possessed. Breaking the mirror was the greatest of punchlines.

“Master, I am sorry, please forgive me breaking the mirror. I will glue it back together. Why is master laughing so scary. I am really sorry. Please do not be mad.”

“No it is.. just the sight of the look.. on your face.. the mirror.. and everything is so funny!”

“Master is a meanie.”

“Ha ha. Do not argue. You broke the mirror, not me.”

“Is master angry?”

“Nah, it is just a mirror.”

“It was expensive.”

Eh. I guess it were. Usually commoners would only use mirrors made of polished copper or other metals. Glass mirrors like that smashed one were indeed rare and expensive.

“We will just buy another. I will add it to your debt, ha ha. By the way they are really beautiful.”

“What is beautiful, Lynx? Mirrors?”

“Your eyes, silly girl. Your eyes.”

Woah. When you look at it, I have just complimented someone. Though those two red gems really were pretty. If she showed them around too much there might hunters and hunters wanting to claim them.

“But the Soul Sight itself. It is better to hide it. Aaand done.”

And now her face got jealous of their crimson hue and tried to redden as well.

“Let’s go eat some breakfast!”

There was nothing surprising in our breakfast. We ate the same dishes as yesterday. It was only the proprietress that came up and started nagging us about deciding whether to stay or not.

“Would you like to extend your stay for another day or.. God Gracious! Her eyes!”

Her scream attracted attention of other patrons. I waved at them leisurely.

I proceeded on to ignoring her unspoken question.

“Well I am still unsure about our today’s accommodation so let me pay for one more night with breakfasts included.”

I was promptly ignored in turn.

“What happened to her eye?”

“It healed obviously.”

“What do you mean healed?!”

“You know, when there is a wound an then it disappears we call this process healing.”

“But in one night?”

“You speak as if you have never seen a work done by healing potion.”

“Certainly not, young master. After all, the common potions can only heal fresh wounds.”

“Ah. Yes. Indeed.”

I totally bluffed. How am I supposed to know that. I have never ever used one! Not to mention to have comparison between their grades.

“Master bought a super expensive one for me.”

Elfin backed me up with a quick lie. There was a mischievous streak in her eyes. Or maybe I was imagining it.

“Oh. You must have earned a lot yesterday then.”

“Hush. Please keep it down. Wealth is not something you should flaunt about like that.”

It was a high-class inn, so the probability of rogues and pickpockets listening in was low. On the other hand it was the perfect place to search for targets. Nevertheless I wanted to play it safe. Despite all that it is not likely anyone would be able to steal something from my storage. Other than an angel.

“Aha. Okay. So, Young master and miss slave will be staying one more night, right?”

“Yeah, maybe. Here is the money.”

I paid and she left us alone.

I expect to be able to force Queen to give us a room after next bath.

If I could sleep in a Queen’s bed it would be the best. I mean in the bed, not with the Queen. I already had a bed-warming companion. Or as people of Japan call it, a dakimakura.

Though it would also be nice to get one of those bed warmers my grandma used to adore.

“Master?”

“Ah, yes, sorry. I was lost in thought, again. Have you finished your meal?”

“Yes, young master,” she said imitating the innkeeper’s voice.

She was really elated today. Might be due to innkeeper complimenting her eyes when she left us.

We walked out of the inn. We had classes in the morning in the Adventurer’s Guild. I decided to give her the test during the long walk. We walked hand in hand.

“So, have you thought about the possible uses of teleportation in bloody murder and warfare?”

“I had only time to think up a few. Sorry master.”

“That is okay. No one is born wise. Rome was not built in one day, but they were laying bricks for it every day. Now spill it.”

“What is a Rome, master?”

“A city very far away. A huge metropolis in its prime. You could just say that Ythall was not built in a day without it losing any meaning. Are you trying to avoid answering?”

“Nooo..”

I laughed at her apparent misery.

“First method I thought of is teleporting away the equipment like weapons and armor.”

“Yes, that would lower enemies fighting ability. Imagine taking someone’s clothes away. Fighting them naked. You are quite the pervert to think that up, you little vixen.”

She blushed crimson.

“I am not. Not a pervert,” she stuttered.

“I am just teasing.”

“I am still pure and chaste, master.”

“How rare. I mean with your past history and status of a slave. I am glad you could keep it.”

I stopped walking to stroke her head.

“By all means continue with the next method.”

“Death by falling does not count? I mean, master Lynx had shown this trick already during yesterday’s harvest.’

“Yup, does not count, but think about falling. It is not useful in felling flying critters, but if falling is involved it could even kill a dragon.”

“How so, master?”

“Think, dear, think.”

This conversation was giving me tremendous amount of fun akin to shitposting. I probably would not be able to tell such teleportation intricacies if I did not watch Chinese cartoons and read so many isekai novels. Finally that useless knowledge turned out to be of some use.

“Hmm. Master is a bully. Master said falling is involved, but the dragon is not the one falling, right?”

“Exactly as you say, except master is not a bully.”

She gasped and tried to cover her mouth, but her hand was firmly in my grasp.

“He he.”

I grinned mischievously in response and articulated laughter again.

“What did you call your master?”

“Nothing,” she said ever so quietly, but followed with, “A bully.”

After all she was forced to speak truth by the collar and our mutual contract. I laughed sincerely aloud this time.

“You are just much too fun to bully, my dear elf.”

Her scared expression turned into a pouting face.

“So, my partner in crime, how would you kill a dragon?”

“I would rain a barrage of magical swords down on it.”

“Hah that is exactly what I meant. Except I thought about using ordinary rocks or mountains.”

After all I do not have that many magical swords.. oh.. maybe I do.. have that many. Shit. I indeed possess a treasury full of magical weapons. Many of them could be thrown.

What a splendidly cowardly and powerful tactic.

Defenses like that of a mana or divinity barriers should mitigate most of the damage done by such non-magical and non-divine rock projectiles.

I would have to find some hard and perhaps jaded rocks as ammo.

Maybe do another raid through Treasure and mark swords, spears, knives and everything else. Should I go and check, which would be good to throw? I mean some would orient themselves while the others would wobble and strike with a pommel instead of the pointy part. It should still be somewhat hurtful due to hardness of materials and enchantments.

Maybe I should just throw lumps of mithril as a bludgeoning weapon? Still if mithril even existed and was like in a common fantasy works it would be much to light to do a lot of damage. Maybe a core made of lead or depleted uranium with a coat of a magical super tough metal would make a good gravitational bullet? Add some enchantments and voila.

I think I could throw such things even at stronger demons capable of blocking teleportation. In Heavens only its residents could teleport around so it goes without saying that a domain around stronger invaders or simply a teleportation barrier would block it. But could they stretch their barriers infinitely towards the sky itself?

I would have to check how far up I could teleport weapons without losing too much of their accuracy. Maybe the Throne could be tasked with trajectory calculations?

If accuracy is low anyway, just use higher number of missiles.