Reincarnated as the favorite of an obsessive goddess: gave me a system-Chapter 40: Lint.
Two days had passed since Kai distributed his new stat points. That morning, Kai decided to walk along the edges of the southern path. Suddenly, the peaceful silence of the forest was shattered by the crashing of splintering wood and the desperate neighing of a horse. Kai tensed up.
He moved quickly, sprinting toward the source of the sound. Then, the scene came into view, a dark wooden carriage, loaded with sacks of salt and spices, lay overturned. Six goblins were harassing the driver. The man, middle aged and dressed in rich fabrics now stained with mud, brandished a whip with trembling hands. His only guard lay unconscious a few meters away, a bloody gash across his forehead.
"Back, you vermin!" the man shouted, but one goblin was already preparing to spring at his throat.
[ SYSTEM MESSAGE ]
Enemy detected.
Type: Monster.
Approximate threat level: E.
Distance: 10 meters.
Kai didn’t pull his daggers from his inventory. He wanted to test his raw strength, so he decided to fight with his bare fists. The first goblin didn’t even see him coming. Kai landed a powerful punch square in its face. The impact was so blunt that the creature’s neck snapped instantly, sending it flying three meters back.
The other five stopped, confused by the appearance of this human. One of them, the largest, screeched an order and charged with a spear. Kai simply pivoted his torso, letting the iron tip pass millimeters from his chest. He caught the shaft with his left hand and, with a sharp tug, threw the monster off balance. Before the goblin could hit the ground, Kai buried his fist into its side. The merchant, watching with his mouth agape, could hear the ribs shatter.
"Two," Kai counted under his breath.
The remaining goblins tried to flee, but Kai extended his right hand and confidently recited.
"Fireball."
The ball of fire shot out at high speed, engulfing the remaining goblins and ending the threat.
[ SYSTEM MESSAGE ]
All enemies have been defeated.
+30 XP
Level: 30 (150/800)
Kai approached the carriage and helped the man down. "Are you alright?" Kai asked calmly.
"I... yes, I think so. Thank you, I thought it was the end." The man looked at Kai with awe. "My name is Lint. I’m a merchant from Terminus."
"Terminus," Kai repeated the name, a spark of recognition shining in his golden eyes. He remembered the kingdom. "It’s a long journey from the coast. What is a salt merchant doing so far from his usual routes?"
Lint turned pale, and it wasn’t just from the scare with the goblins. "The sea, young man. The sea is closed. Monsters have appeared... things that shouldn’t exist. Gigantic shadows beneath the water that sink warships as if they were nutshells. The King of Terminus has forbidden all navigation. I’ve had to travel by land, losing months and risking these attacks just to try and get my cargo to the inland valleys."
Kai felt a chill. Giant, unexplained monsters smelled like the gods were up to their tricks again to spread panic. "Come with me, I’ll take you to my home," Kai said, picking up the guard’s unconscious body. "You’ll be safe there and can rest."
Once in the village, Lint was put up in one of the newly finished guest houses. Sylva took charge of providing him with hot food and tending to the wounded guard. Kai, wasting no time, summoned his inner circle.
In the central building, the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife.
"It’s madness, Kai!" Lyla exclaimed, slamming her palms onto the table. "You just woke up from a three day coma after nearly disintegrating your body. You cannot head off to Terminus, a month’s journey away, to investigate sea monsters. I forbid you from overexerting yourself like that! And you are not going to convince me."
Everyone looked at each other, feeling a slight tremor of fear at seeing Lyla so angry.
"Lyla, if the sea is closed, the world suffocates. Terminus is vital for trade," Kai replied, lowering his voice. "Besides, this smells like something more. I’m certain one of the gods is involved in this."
"Then that makes it even worse! I won’t let you make the same mistake again so soon." Her voice cracked as she spoke those last words.
"He won’t go alone," Thorne intervened, leaning his axe against the wall. "I’ll go with him."
Allice nodded. Roshia and Mira also stepped forward. Lyla let out a sigh of defeat, knowing she wouldn’t win this argument.
"Fine," the goddess conceded, crossing her arms. "But we won’t leave tomorrow. First, the merchant must rest. Second, I need Kai to send a message to Gabell. I won’t leave this village without professional protection while none of us are here."
Kai nodded. That same afternoon, he wrote a scroll to Gabell requesting a temporary guard of royal knights to watch over the village. A messenger on horseback departed at sunset.
The next day, the atmosphere in the forge was electric. Bram and Grom hadn’t slept. Their beards were singed and their eyes bloodshot, but when Kai walked in, the dwarven brothers burst into proud laughter.
"Here it is, Boss!" Bram shouted, lifting an object wrapped in fine leather.
When uncovered, a marvel of engineering appeared, one that combined the knowledge of Japan with the magical materials of this world. It wasn’t a curved wooden bow, but a structure of black oak reinforced with steel plates. At its ends sat a complex system of bronze pulleys. The string wasn’t made of gut, but of spider silk obtained by Mira, braided with silver threads.
Kai took the bow. It was heavy. "Mira," Kai called out.
She approached with curiosity. Upon seeing the weapon, her eyes widened. "What is... that?" she asked, reaching out a hand to brush the upper pulley. "Is this why you asked me to find the spider silk?"
"Yes, and it’s a gift for you," Kai replied. "Let’s go to the firing range. We need to talk."
They walked in silence toward the training area, away from the noise of the village. The air was fresh, and clouds moved lazily over the mountains. When they arrived, Kai stopped and looked at Mira. Since he had recovered his memories, they hadn’t had a single moment alone.
"Mira," Kai began, handing her the bow. "I’m sorry I haven’t spoken with you privately since... since everything came back to me."
Mira took the bow, but her hands trembled slightly. She looked down at the ground, avoiding eye contact. "You don’t have to apologize, Kai," she whispered. "You were hurt. You almost died for us. Besides, it must be strange... remembering a little girl and seeing this woman in front of you." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺
Kai stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. "It’s not strange, Mira. It’s a relief. In my mind, I now have the images of when I taught you to track your first deer, of how you cried when you lost an arrow... and seeing you now, grown into the best scout I’ve ever known, fills me with a pride I can’t describe."
Hearing this, Mira broke down. Her lips trembled and a lone tear rolled down her cheek, disappearing into the leather of her armor. "That day when we all trained and I heard you regained your memories... you don’t know how happy I was, and how terrified," she sobbed, dropping the compound bow onto the grass to cover her face with her hands. "I thought... I thought the conversation we had after you revealed who you really were would make you see me as a selfish child now that you remembered everything."
Kai said nothing. He simply wrapped his arms around her, drawing her to his chest in a warm, protective embrace. Mira cried silently for a few minutes, releasing all the tension accumulated since Qaxy nearly killed her. Kai gently stroked her hair, like a father comforting his daughter.
"Everything is fine. I don’t see you as a selfish child. I see you as my daughter," he said while she remained quiet.
After a while, Mira stepped back, wiping her tears with the back of her hand and regaining her composure, though her eyes still shone with a new light, one of absolute peace.
"Well," she said, trying to sound firm though her voice was still a bit shaky. "I suppose a father wouldn’t give his daughter a defective weapon. Let’s see if this experiment works." She picked up the compound bow from the ground.
"It’s different from what you know, Mira. At first, it’s very hard to draw, but once you pass the pulleys’ breaking point, the weight drops. It allows you to aim with absolute stability."
Mira nodded, focused. She notched an arrow. She opened her arms, feeling the immense initial resistance of the oak and steel limbs. Her muscles tensed, but suddenly, the pulleys rotated with an almost imperceptible mechanical click. The tension weight plummeted.
"Oh!" Mira exclaimed, astonished. "I could... I could hold this for days."
"Aim for that dry oak trunk," Kai instructed, pointing to a tree nearly eighty meters away. "Don’t think about the arc. With this bow, the arrow travels almost in a straight line."
Mira closed one eye, aligning the tip with the center of the trunk. The world seemed to stop. She released the string.
There was no usual whistle of an arrow cutting through the air. There was a sonic boom, a dry crack that sounded like a whip breaking the sound barrier. The impact was so violent that the oak trunk, a solid tree nearly half a meter thick, shuddered. The arrow didn’t stop at the bark, it pierced the wood from side to side, exiting the back and embedding itself deeply into a rock behind it.
Mira froze, her bow still extended. "Incredible..." she murmured, running toward the tree.
Kai followed her. When they arrived, they saw the perfect hole. The arrow had passed through as if the oak were butter. Mira touched the wood, which was still warm from the friction of the projectile.
"Kai, this... this changes everything," she said, turning to him with a look of pure excitement. "No existing armor could stop this."
"The truth is, Bram and Grom have done an incredible job."
Mira drew the bow again, this time with a wild, confident smile. She fired three more arrows in rapid succession. Each one found its mark with pinpoint precision, shattering the practice target into splinters.
"I’m ready for the trip," Mira declared.
