Harem Sync: Divine Edition

Chapter 81: Curiosity Room (2)

The system flashed in the corner of Haru’s vision:

```

[Target Selected: Flavius Elegantius]

[Gamer Kit Module: Available]

[Processing temporary installation...]

```

"How?" Flavius asked curiously.

"I can’t believe I’m doing this again..." Haru thought, extending his hand.

"It will be for a brief ten seconds... but you’ll see."

```

[Module Selected: Gamer’s Eyes]

[Ready for temporary installation]

```

Flavius shook Haru’s hand.

```

[Installing: Gamer’s Eyes]

[Compatibility: 2.0%]

[WARNING]

```

Flavius felt a little embarrassed. "And now? It was a pact, I thought you’d transfer your mana to me so I could feel what’s from... another... worl..."

He stopped.

He started seeing numbers on things. Floating bars. Names on objects.

He let go of Haru’s hand and looked around the room like a child discovering a new world.

"It’s... you, right?" He pointed to the air where he saw the interface.

"Yes. This is how gamers see the world."

"This is definitely not a trick of his... I don’t feel any trace of illusions, nor mana being processed," Flavius thought.

Flavius read a blue bar floating above Haru’s head. "MP...?"

The name automatically expanded: PLAYER MANA.

Then he saw another: HP - HEALTH POINTS.

"What are these things!? Can you see... the amount of mana!?"

"We can see things and their limits." Haru explained. "Knowing how many times we need to hit. Knowing what’s valuable. And more."

```

[Module Removed by User]

```

Haru almost felt dizzy, staggering.

The vision Flavius was having slowly disappeared.

He also felt slightly dizzy... and stared at his hands with a strange expression, half envy, half fascination, half desire.

"To be able to do that... if I had..."

He looked at Haru differently now and sat down slowly.

"MP... Player Mana..." Flavius murmured. "So you’re the player? A gamer?"

Haru sighed. "Yes, I am..."

"So that means this is a game!?" Flavius interrupted, his voice rising. "And you, the Gamers, are the ones who play, and we’re just mere... pawns?"

"No. Even chess pawns are moved." Flavius corrected himself quietly. "So we’re just little gifts then? No! Even little gifts are moved!"

Flavius stood there bewildered, almost having a breakdown.

"NPCs..." Haru said, half-sighing, head down. "You’re NPCs."

"NPCs?" Flavius repeated.

"Non-playable characters. We can’t play them. Well..."

"What do you mean ’well’?!"

Haru took a deep breath. "Some of you don’t exist anymore..."

Heavy pause.

"Did you know the name Arwin Corvus?"

"Arwin...?" Flavius thought. "Da Corvus?"

"Yes. He doesn’t exist anymore. He was kind of taken over by another soul. By one of us."

He saw the confusion growing on Flavius’s face.

"What I’m trying to say is: you NPCs weren’t supposed to be playable, that is, controlled... but some gamers, the ones I’ve met, are playing you. Your soul leaves and gives way to ours. Then it’s Arwin Corvus physically, but with a different soul."

"Does that mean YOU!?"

"NO!" Haru cut in quickly. "I came different from those I encountered. I appeared with my whole body and soul. There is no native Haru Mizuki. There is only me... When I was born here, I was already a complete me. I didn’t replace any NPC."

Yukihime tugged at Haru’s sleeve. "If daddy isn’t daddy... who is daddy?"

Flavius looked confused. "So you are you who were you... but who were you?"

"I was me and I still AM me!" Haru explained, frustrated.

"But you said that others aren’t them..."

"Those were NPCs who became Gamers!...and...and they aren’t them, they are gamers now."

"And you?"

"I’ve always been a Gamer! I mean, before I was a gamer behind the screen, now I’m a... a... inside the processor, so I always have been!"

"But..."

"Stop!" Haru held his head.

...Time passed. Haru explained what she thought she should or could.

Flavius finally nodded, still processing, his gaze distant.

"So... that’s all we are. We exist, but..."

Haru corrected, looking at Yukihime: "I think you exist. Maybe not before... but now..."

The way he looked at his daughter was too real to be just a game.

Flavius realized this.

"Sign here." Flavius pulled out a paper, an official adoption document.

"I want to be called Haru!" Yukihime suddenly shouted.

"Why do you want to be called Haru..." Haru distractedly picked up the pen.

Yukihime grabbed his hand. "NO! I want to be called Haru!"

"Stop..." Haru already knew this would lead to a fight. "You couldn’t even write my name."

"I can read! I can write! Mom has been teaching me!"

"No, you couldn’t..."

Haru wrote his name in kanji (Japanese) on the palm of his own hand; it was nostalgic to write like that.

春水 (Haru Mizuki)

"That’s not your name! Those aren’t even letters!" She turned his hand towards Flavius. "I want to be called Haru!"

"Yeah..." Flavius said, somewhat embarrassed, "...I presume you don’t know how to write in our language yet?"

"Not at all! I know how to write and read in your language!" Haru retorted. "I don’t know how, but I know. This is in Japanese, my language."

"Japanese?" Flavius blinked. "You’re from Japan? I thought gamers were from another world!?"

"No, each gamer has their own country, some are even from the same country, but... ...Wait..." Haru froze. "Japan is here!?"

...Moments later they were looking at a large map spread out on the table.

Haru looked perplexed; it was strange compared to what he was used to seeing.

"It looks ancient... the time of great cataclysms..." he remembered from geography class at school.

Continents in slightly different positions. Familiar names, but not exactly the same.

"Can you write my name in Japanese?" Flavius asked like a child. "Right here." He pointed to the edge of the map.

"NPCs..." Haru sighed and wrote.

フラヴィウス (Furaviusu)

"Oooh~ how beautiful! Does it have a meaning?"

"No..."

"Mine too! Yukihime!"

"Now you accept being Yukihime?" Haru said, writing her name:

雪姫 (Yukihime: Snow Princess)

"I think it means ’Snow Princess’."

"That explains the color of your hair," said Flavius, marveling at Yukihime.

"Okay, now I can sign..."

When he went to sign, Yukihime took his hand again.

"I want to be Haru..." She stopped. She looked into his eyes. "I don’t even remember being called that... I... I..."

Haru stopped and looked closely at her face. Yukihime wanted to cry.

He thought, "Maybe ’Yukihime’ brings back bad memories... even in the game she’s a powerful and tragic boss. She wants to be new. But ’Haru...?’"

He sighed.

"Okay. Go ahead, write then."

He turned the paper over and gave it to her. "Write Haru-Yukihime Mizuki."

"I LIKE IT!" She took the pen excitedly.

She wrote with childlike but neat handwriting.

When she finished: "From now on I am Haru-Yukihime! But you can call me Yuki, or Yukihime, or Haru!"

"You had the privilege of choosing your name... how envious," thought Haru.

"So, Mr. Haru..." Flavius put the paper away, "...we’re done for today."

"That’s it for today?"

"Hahahaha! Did you think the questions were over? I even have proposals! Hehehe~"

"If that’s how it’s going to be then..." Haru suddenly looked serious. "In that case... could you do me a favor?"

Moments later they dropped Yuki off at home, said goodbye to Kira who would be right back, and got into Flavius’s carriage.

They headed to the Cathedral.

They entered a room where students were studying, like a college auditorium, with rows of benches, a professor at the front explaining advanced theology.

Haru scanned the room looking... And found her.

There. Third row. Black and white habit. Black hair tied back. Perfect posture.

The nun.

Haru nodded to Flavius in confirmation.

"Just as I predicted!" Flavius whispered. "See? Young nuns in the Cathedral mean they’re students from this Academy."

She patted Haru on the shoulder as she left. "I won’t tell your wife anything, hehehe~..."

She had completely misunderstood, thinking Haru had come there to betray Isabela, his fake wife.

Haru didn’t even answer. "What the hell is wrong with him?"

She stood there observing the class from afar.

The nun was focused, taking notes, listening attentively, totally absorbed in her studies, but then... She felt something, turned her head in Haru’s specific direction.

Haru’s entire body shuddered, the spirits within him screamed.

*DANGER!* *DEVOUR!* *RUN!*

A cacophony of terror and hunger mixed together.

Their eyes met for a second.

Violet meeting gray.

She froze.

Then she turned quickly, pretending not to have seen, returning to her books, but her hands trembling slightly as she held the pen.

Haru smiled. "You’re the next waifu." [ADOPTION COMPLETE]

◊ Yukihime officially renamed: Haru-Yukihime Mizuki

◊ New target identified: Mysterious Nun

...Flavius left the Cathedral, his mind still stuck on Haru’s words.

That feeling of seeing the weakness in things. That vision. Numbers. Bars. Limits.

He got into the carriage but couldn’t stop thinking. "So, the boy knows how many times to hit me until I break..."

He paused, processing.

"I understand now why Baron Valtherion took this boy... a weapon for his house. And there’s nothing that can be done until he’s caught by the Custodians..."

"Stop." He said to the coachman.

The carriage stopped and Flavius got out. "I’ll be late. I’ll come walking."

The coachman nodded, confused, and continued on his way.

Flavius began walking through the streets of the Capital, already somewhat distraught.

"...There are things here... that weren’t born here." He slowly turned his head back, looking at the crowd. "And some of these things... can... occupy others?"

"Now I’m wondering... when will a Gamer take over my body?"

He stopped in front of a shop he hadn’t seen before but had heard of: Iron Prostheses.

"Interesting..." he murmured, entering.