Chapter 106

"So, Ciri."

I stood across from the girl and looked intently into her eyes.

"...we beat back the first attack of that Wild Hunt of yours, the first, but surely not the last."

"Yeah..."

She nodded and hesitantly stepped from foot to foot.

"And you should have seen that your skills are not at a sufficient level to fight the Wild Hunt properly. You're certainly strong, but, uh."

I shook my head.

"...the only thing you could do against them was your unfamiliar weapons and your speed. But your skills."

"I realize that, but what do I do? The base, you should realize it yourself, I have a more than good..."

"Yeah. Your base is really good, moreover on swordfighting I think very few people, of those who live in this world, can teach you something, I certainly have not seen you fight to the death, and in sparring not with my skills to determine something concrete... I myself swing my sticks mostly at the expense of speed."

"That didn't stop you from killing the avatar of Aredin."

I shrugged.

"That's true. but why I started this conversation. would you like to try to improve your combat experience?"

"А?"

Ciri blinked in surprise.

"Are you suggesting I train with you?"

"No..."

I shook my head.

See, me and the girls make a casket on wheels in our spare time.

"А?"

"Mm..."

I shook my head.

"There's a scary story. not very scary, I would even say extremely childish, about a coffin on wheels..."

So I told her the story, at the end of which Ciri snorted slightly derisively.

"So? What kind of wheeled coffin are you making?"

"How to clarify..."

I thoughtfully examined Ciri from head to toe, and then a great idea occurred to me.

"...illusory world!"

"Huh?"

Imagine you lie down in a coffin like this and it closes, and afterward you're immersed in a very complex illusion where you're forced to fight monsters, humans, wild hunting... for days on end. all of them! And it's not just in your head, the coffin itself affects your muscles, so you develop not only mental skills and reflexes, but also bodily ones, although the latter is a bit slower.

"Uh... what's the catch?"

"The technology is not very tried and tested..."

"You mean not tried at all?"

Kiwi joined the conversation, stepping out of the Hippo and looking at me with a slight sneer.

"Well, why not?"

I shrugged.

"I tested it on myself when you were asleep."

"WHAT?!"

She cut the distance between us in two steps and hovered over me, glaring menacingly.

"Did you try out the coffin without us?!"

"Sure..."

I looked at Kiwi like she was stupid.

"...you wouldn't let me go inside until Coffin had passed the test, and what's more, I've heard you talk about wanting to pull something like this off, so..."

I shrugged.

"...so you just gave me no choice. I just decided to keep you away from an untested invention."

"But you could talk..."

Kiwi was silent for half a word, after I raised an eyebrow mockingly, scrutinizing her from head to toe.

"Yeah. were you at least careful?"

"Sure..."

I nodded.

"...of course I won't tell you who I've brought in to make the ordeal safe. Still, I know very well what a tangle of snakes my harem can turn into, and if on me you so, for the sake of form, then my assistants ..."

"Tz..."

"Anyway..."

I shifted my gaze to Ciri.

"I've tried the technology on myself, so you may well use the Coffin to improve your skills by gaining experience."

"But?"

I grinned.

"You're not going to convince me there's no BUT, are you?"

"Of course not..."

I shook my head.

"It's good for me, too. It's all about the program used to create the virtual world, well, which I call the illusory world..."

"I get it. the terminology is unfamiliar, but I'm not stupid and I can relate to what I've heard."

"Okay... it's all about the program that's used to create the virtual world. It's almost an AI program, it accumulates experience by reading from the user's actions. So by now the bots are trained to fight those with Sandi and the stealth operation is going to be a lot harder than the one I was trying out."

"So you'll have my knowledge? Can you learn it yourself and teach it to others?"

"Yeah. (chuckles)"

Ciri looked at me carefully, after which she laughed lightly.

"Are you laughing?"

I was confused by this kind of reaction from the girl.

"Why not?"

She smiled openly at me.

"I don't understand..."

"It's simple. you know, I'm not stupid. I used to be torn between duty and wanting to be someone who could help people with my hands. a witch."

She smiled dreamily.

"And the debt. I take it it's an inheritance title?"

"Exactly, to depose his father and take his place on the throne of the Empire."

"So what's different now?"

"Well, uh. you're not a bad guy, you're not white and fluffy, but you don't have any extra blood on you. And if someone like you will be the head of a clan with all the skills of witches, which I have, and periodically you will accept requests from me as Empress..."

"What's this conversation about?"

I shrugged.

"Of course we will... Although the methods of communication will still have to be developed, or indeed train someone from the clan in magic, so that he or she can communicate with your world and open portals if necessary."

"Well. I think it's a good idea, but it's still a long way off, and it's possible that I'll never be able to leave this world, since finding other allies who will dare to oppose the Wild Hunt... Ha, that would be not only difficult, but most likely impossible, as there are other such idiots who will decide to join for me on their own with some kind of benefit to themselves..."

She shook her head.

"...There must be very few idiots like that."

"You're right..."

Kiwi grinned and took a seat next to us.

"You're very lucky to have met us. there's no other idiots like you around here. The others would probably try to make a quick buck by selling you to some corp."

"It's a good thing you realize how idiotic you are yourself..."

"Oh, come on."

I shook my head with a feigned frown.

"...idiots... idiots. idiots. We're just people. Look Ciri, I don't know what happened to the people in your world that you take an ordinary human act as the act of idiots... however, I can understand such a thing..."

I sighed sadly.

"...since the same thing apparently happened to people here. Yeah. I wanted to be grumpy, but now I'm really grumpy."

"Come on..."

An understanding smile appeared on Ciri's lips.

"The important thing is that you kept your humanity..."

"You too..."

"So STOP!"

Kiwi got up from her seat and stood exactly between me and Ciri.

"Enough of this! You're going to start flirting and flirting a little more, and by the way, we still haven't approved Ciri as another wife for you!"

I sighed and shook my head.

"I wasn't really going to--

"I wasn't going to..."

This we said in unison with Ciri and laughed quietly.

"Kiwi, Ciri is a beautiful girl, but she's not my type... she's the future Empress and, uh."

"Shut up, ka, ah..."

There was anger in Ciri's voice.

"Believe me, if I'm interested in a man for romance, I won't care about his origins. The Empire is large enough that I don't have to think about increasing territory through dynastic marriage, rich enough that I don't have to think about financial gain, and anyway... I'm a fucking Witch! I may be a future Empress, but I am and will always be a Witch."

"All right, all right, all right."

I raised my hands in surrender to Ciri.

"That's right..."

"Tz..."

"Well, we're not flirting..."

A slight sneer at Kiwi could be heard in Ciri's voice.

"Well, if only a little bit..."

"Hmmm..."

Ciri took a couple steps to the side and grinned and nodded her head.

"Well, uh. I guess you meet the minimum requirements, so yeah, we're flirting a little bit."

She pointedly brought her thumb and index finger together on her right hand showing exactly how little it was.

"You've got to be kidding me. aren't you?"

"And how did you figure that out?"

Ciri's voice was extremely caustic.

"She's just smart..."

That phrase I whispered, but whispered loud enough for both girls to hear me.

"Really? But according to local beliefs, she's--

Ciri looked closely at Kiwi's head.

"...Blondie..."

This word she said in that tone of voice... I believe it!

"What?!"

Kiwi literally roared a wounded beluga with shock, disbelief and resentment as she looked at Ciri.

"Oh. I'm sorry. I'm not quite familiar with your expressions and their meanings yet..."

Only there was a slight sneer in Ciri's voice. But it wasn't offensive, just enough to show that she wasn't serious at all, so there was no need to be offended, and the kiwi shook her head with a deep sigh.

"You'll get your ass kicked. gray hair."

"Hey..."

Ciri pictorially twisted a white curl on her index finger.

"...I'm not gray, I'm white-haired!

"Uh-huh... White-haired she-wolf.

"Yes! (Laughs)"

Ciri even jumped slightly on the spot.

"Herald is exactly the White Wolf, and as his apprentice I can claim the nickname White-Haired Wolf!

"Okay..."

I've decided to interrupt the buffoonery.

"...that's enough. Ciri, let's put you in the Coffin and you can start upgrading your skills ..."

"Uh-huh...

"We're not done yet..."

Kiwi jokingly threatened our guest and she only grinned and nodded her head...