Ugh. Why’s my bed moving…? Durandal? Why is Durandal carrying me? He’s not even carrying me gracefully! Am I a sack of potatoes!?

“Lucia, did you wake up?”

Nope. Still sleeping. Who cares if he’s carrying me like a sack of potatoes? Durandal’s carrying me! Well, probably everyone would hate me if they knew I was making him do physical labor. They’d probably round me up and throw me into a pit before burying me alive. Now that I think about it, nearly all of my actions wouldn’t be right in the eyes of Durandal worshippers.

“Lucia?”

Not awake. Not awake at all. Nope, nuh-uh. Hm. Didn’t I promise Durandal that I’d stop slacking? Fine, alright. “Yes, Durandal?”

“You can pick two magical tools from the pile. Ask Snow to explain their effects and choose wisely.” Ack! Don’t throw me down like a sack of potatoes too! It’s bad enough you carried me around like one.

“Huh?” I thought we were still super far away from Snow’s hoard? “You mean—”

“You slept for three days, Lucia,” Snow said. Why was he hiding behind the wall? Did he think I was going to hit him? I’m not that violent! “The people who looted my hoard made it to their base, but Durandal broke inside and conquered it without a hitch. Have I ever told you how jealous I am? I think his prowess in fighting makes up for the hellish training you have to endure.”

That’s not fair. I didn’t get to see Durandal fight. “So this pile of items on the ground is your hoard? Why do you even call it a hoard? There’s like seven things.” By my feet, there were a few shiny objects laying around.

Snow’s ear twitched. “If you sell any of these, you could buy a small house in the city with the funds you’d get.”

“Oh.” Wow. That’s a lot. “…So which ones could I sell for the most?” Gah! Don’t all of you stare like that at me at the same time! I’ll really freeze to death with how cold your gazes are. Let’s cough to break the tension. “That was a joke … of course.”

Snow let out a hollow laugh. “Joke. Right.”

Awkward…. Anyways, let’s check these out for real. There’s a hauberk, a polearm, a bracelet that’d look awfully good on Snow, an eyepatch, an earring that’d look awfully good on Snow, a frilly dress that’d also look awfully good on Snow…, and a fist-sized rock. A rock? “What’s the rock…?”

“That’s just a rock,” Snow said and kicked it away. “There’s only six items.”

…I was hoping for a magical rock that granted infinite stamina. Oh wells. “I’ll pick the bracelet and the dress.” It’s not because I don’t want Snow to be prettier than me. Definitely not.

“Lucia…. You didn’t even ask Snow what they did.”

Fine. “What do they do, Snow?”

“The dress—”

“That’s great! I’ll take them both.”

“…”

Don’t stare at me like that. I slipped my dress on underneath my armor and attached the bracelet to my arm. Eh? How did I wear the dress without taking off these tight restrictions? Don’t worry about it…. What you should be worrying about is what they do. “Snow, how do I use these?”

“Are you really fine with her being your master, Durandal?” Don’t look at Durandal with pity! I’m not that bad of an owner. Gosh. With the way Snow was acting, you’d think I was keeping Durandal locked up in a cage while starving him.

“It should be fine. Probably.” Have some more confidence in me! I’m strong, aren’t I?

Snow sighed. “Well, the dress is one of my favorites, but you can have it since I did promise Durandal. I might be a bandit, but I’m a man of my words. My grandmother gave it to me when…” Yeah, yeah. Get on with it. I want to know what my new loot does already! “…and now I’ll pass it on to you. It has a haste spell array imbued in it. You can cast haste twice a day to increase your speed by threefold for ten seconds.”

Oh, that’s pretty neat. No wonder why Snow likes it so much. Too bad, it’s mine now.

“As for the bracelet. It has a simple barrier spell that can ward off one physical attack. It can be used three times a day.”

“I chose well, didn’t I, Durandal?”

“You didn’t even ask what the other ones did.” Durandal might look slightly disappointed, but he’s secretly happy for me on the inside since I’m satisfied with what I got. I can feel it. There’s no way my happiness doesn’t make him happy as well. “But besides that, aren’t you forgetting something?”

“Am I?” What did I forget? I don’t think there was anything important? If there was, it wouldn’t have been forgotten, yeah.

“You missed 285 Breaking Blades.”

Shit. Those count even while I’m sleeping? “That’s not fair…”

“I said 100 a day, and it’s been three days, but you’ve only accomplished 15 of them. How is that not fair?”

Because I wasn’t awake! Demon! Sadist! What was that about my happiness making him happy? He obviously derives more happiness from my suffering!

“Don’t worry.” Durandal’s expression softened. Eh? Was this really Durandal? He’s telling me not to worry with a caring expression? I’m definitely more worried now! “The punishment is simple. I’ve increased mini-DalDal’s weight by 285 pounds. One for every missed Breaking Blade.”

Eh? Mini-DalDal’s still super light though.

“Of course, it might be easy for you now, but as you miss more and more Breaking Blades, what do you think is going to happen?” I knew it. Durandal was a devil. Won’t I eventually succumb to the weight of mini-DalDal at this rate? I could only do 15 before, and now he’s even heavier?

“Good luck, Lucia,” Snow said. He was wearing the hauberk and the polearm was strapped to his back. Darn. I knew he’d look awfully good with the earring. Why couldn’t Durandal have taken three instead? The eyepatch looks horrible though. But I suppose it fits. Snow’s supposed to be a gang leader after all. I keep on forgetting.