How I Tame My Valkyrie Harem

Chapter 193: Mystic Eyes

I was surprised to receive another skill so suddenly. I didn’t have much control over how the Affection Level could rise, since it depended on my situation with each of my Valkyries and the circumstances.

’Then again, helping Diane resolve this issue with her younger sister could count as an emotional event capable of doing that.’ I thought to myself.

Regardless of the reason, we had been blessed with another skill for Diane’s arsenal. And a pretty powerful one, at that.

[ Mystic Eyes: After activating this skill, a visual-effect spell is triggered. When the user makes eye contact with their opponent, the opponent suffers the effect of paralysis. Upon taking damage, the paralysis effect is broken.

Cost: 8 MP ]

Maybe because the skill had been granted for resolving her problem with Tanya, Diane ended up receiving a skill similar to her sister’s Puppeteer Eye. Mystic Eyes wasn’t capable of controlling the opponent’s movements, but considering Diane’s skill kit, the young woman’s power and lethality had increased considerably.

I was extremely satisfied with the rewards the system had offered me in such a short time. Diane had significantly increased her abilities, and I had received a good upgrade. I was certainly happy about that, but when I remembered why I was in the mercenary camp, my smile wavered.

I had come here to gather information about Leo, my former party companion, who could very well be working with the Night Apostles. And on top of that, I had a problem with time.

The sun still hadn’t risen, and I needed to return to where Sarah and the other girls were before they woke up to avoid raising suspicion. I sighed deeply, trying to deal with the weight on my mind.

"Let’s go already," I said to Diane, not very excited about what I was about to hear.

After getting properly dressed and clean enough to avoid suspicion, we left our tent. The tent Vulcan had given us was far enough from the main camp, where most of the mercenaries’ tents were, which had granted us enough privacy to deal with the side effects of Ero Boost.

Even so, there could have been curious eyes lurking near us, but that wasn’t the case. Not with the guard dog Vulcan had placed on watch. When we got close to him, Falco waved at us. The white-haired man extended his hand towards the camp. "Follow me."

Falco was a skilled Swordsman, but he wasn’t a man of many words, simply offering to guide us to his boss.

Vulcan’s tent was quite large and stood on the other side of the camp from where we were, so to get there, we would have to pass through the part of the camp where most of the mercenaries were. When we did, I noticed something different.

It hadn’t been long since we had passed through there, and back then, all the mercenaries had stared at us with threatening looks, as if they were going to attack us the moment it was most convenient for them. Some of them had actually tried to do that, even.

But this time was different. As we passed through the camp, the mercenaries didn’t stare at us with murderous looks. Quite the opposite. Whenever I made eye contact with one of them, he quickly turned his face away and looked somewhere else, as if he had suddenly remembered he had something important to do.

"Diane."

"Yes."

"Do I look scary?"

"Why do you ask?"

"They’re all running away from me," I told her, indicating the mercenaries acting as if I were some kind of monster.

"Well, you defeated their leader in direct combat, and Vulcan scared them," Diane said, as if pondering the situation. "I guess that made you scary by association."

I looked at a mercenary to my left. The guy was really big, bearded, and burly, a mix of muscle and fat, with one hell of a scar across his massive belly. He looked like he would be an intimidating guy, but the moment he saw me, he fled like a frightened chicken.

’Surprising,’ I thought to myself. "I never imagined someone so heavy could move so fast."

It was something new to me. In my life in the other world, I wasn’t good at fighting, and I was far from being someone feared by others. And until now, in this world, I didn’t remember ever going through a situation like this with humans.

I couldn’t deny that I liked being treated like this by people who had previously seen me as a potential target. Of course, I would have preferred to be at peace with other people, but with those who only knew the language of violence, I’d rather they feared me. It was even a little fun to see them get startled just by looking at me.

But that small, sweet satisfaction began to disappear with every step I took towards Vulcan’s tent. My mind wouldn’t stop reminding me that I was doing this behind Sarah’s back.

"Diane." I called out to the only one who knew the burden hanging over my head.

"Yes, Rick."

"Lying to my wife really sucks," I said to her, annoyed.

"Well, it’s not as if you’re lying. Omitting the truth would be a more accurate definition," Diane said to me in an emotionless tone.

"Thanks, I feel a lot better," I said ironically.

"You’re welcome." But it seemed Diane thought I was really thanking her.

I sighed. "Forget it. No matter the result of our conversation, I intend to tell Sarah what I find out here."

When I came back to myself, we were finally standing in front of Vulcan’s tent. Before, we had gone to the tent he used as an office, but this one seemed to be used as his quarters, the place where he slept.

All the tents until then had been relatively simple and capable of housing two or three mercenaries at most. But they were nothing compared to Vulcan’s sumptuous tent, made with cloth of a better and much more expensive material, besides being a place where ten or twelve mercenaries could easily live.

Falco pulled open the entrance of the tent and gestured for us to enter. Without further ado, I stepped inside the tent, ready to receive from Vulcan what he had promised.

...

"Mr. Vulcan, are you feeling better~?" a mercenary woman asked him.

"Yes. I feel much better, Mira. Your massage is as good as ever."

"Boss, are the grapes to your liking~?" another one asked him, offering the fruit to Vulcan.

"Delicious," he said after eating one from the bunch.

The large man was lying on his bed, having his back massaged by that Mira woman, who was mounted on his back, while the other fed him grapes by hand.

Diane and I probably had the same expression of disbelief. Of course, he had just been injured by me, but I had made sure to heal his wound. There wasn’t much reason for him to receive this kind of special treatment as if he were some sick man.

Falco had the same serious expression as usual, so he must have already been used to it. Maybe he had already seen more explicit things. Out of the corner of my eye, I found Tanya with her arms crossed in a corner of the tent, far enough from Vulcan’s harem, but close enough to stand guard.

"Ooh!" Vulcan said as soon as he saw us. "You finally arrived."

"Yeah, you seem to be doing fine for someone who took a nice sword strike," I said in a teasing tone.

"Apparently, the healer who treated me did a good job," he said to me, his hand on the side of his body, the same place where I had opened his flesh and closed it right after. "It’s impressive. It’s almost as if nothing happened."

"Really, that guy must be an excellent healer," I said jokingly.

Vulcan gave a small smile, then turned to his subordinates, who were pampering him. "Give us some privacy, ladies."

The two women obeyed Vulcan’s orders and left the room, but not before waving to him and teasing their leader, blowing kisses from a distance.

"So it seems I still have unfinished business with you, Richard," he told me, sitting in front of me, wearing his leader’s aura once again.

"Exactly."

"Before that, I would like to make you an offer," Vulcan told me.

I nodded for him to continue, already imagining what he was going to say.

"Don’t you want to work for me?" Vulcan asked me.

"W-What?" Diane and Tanya said, surprised by what they had just heard.

"A great offer, don’t you think? If Rick joins the Ghosts of the Road, he’ll receive a handsome payment, and I could even give him a high position around here. Of course, if you want to bring Diane with you, I won’t have any objections."

"But you two just fought," Diane said to him, still unable to believe the sudden offer.

"That’s already water under the bridge. I don’t even have a scar to tell the story, so it’s fine by me. A powerful Awakened like Rick is certainly someone I need in my band." He turned to me, his eyes fixed on mine, and asked, "So, what do you think?"