An hour later, Victor still couldn’t fall asleep.
It was not because he was not tired—he definitely was—it was just that he was on edge and couldn’t relax. His heart felt heavy, and he could feel his own heartbeat beating too loudly in his chest.
Sleeping in the same room with Norm for so long made him forget how hard it was to fall asleep. Even though it was the main reason why he insisted on it in the first place. Of course, he didn’t tell Norm about it; it was just too embarrassing.
Who am I kidding? He probably already figured it out even without me telling him. He is starting to be more perceptive.
[Greatly Increased Intelligence] was one of those Skills that took time for its full benefit to set in. [Enhanced Strength], [Enhanced Sense], [Steel Skin], and so on and so forth, were the same. Even the physical gains from leveling up happened gradually, not all at once. The bigger the change, the longer it would take.
It was theorized that the system designed it that way because if it didn’t, then the body couldn’t handle the sudden transformation and, in the worst-case scenario, would break down.
Something with ‘greatly increased’ in its name definitely changed a lot. Victor wouldn’t be surprised if [Greatly Increased Intelligence] was still increasing Norm’s intelligence even now. It wasn’t that rare for a passive Skill to take months to reach its full effect.
I’m thinking about useless stuff again. Stupid brain, I want to sleep for fuck’s sake.
Just as he was about to exercise to tire out his body even more, the door opened and Norm walked in.
“You’re already awake?”
“I didn’t manage to sleep.”
Without saying anything, Norm sat at the edge of the bed and stayed silent.
After a while, Victor realized that Norm was thinking about what to say. It was rare for him to do that; Norm was usually impulsive and took things as they came.
He’s changing. Even though it was for the better, I still feel a bit… sad? No, that’s not the right word.
“Can you tell me what happened?”
Still predictable.
“Sorry for ruining the plan.”
“What did you have to be sorry for? If not for you, then some people would die, and that’s bad.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s just that I made all of your guys' effort seem like a waste. If I had just been truthful from the start, then it would be a lot simpler and safer.”
Norm did not say anything to that, because both of them knew it was the truth. While some people would probably be mad at him for withholding information, there wasn’t even a hint of anger in Norm’s face. That was much worse than if Norm was mad at him, because right now, he wanted someone to tell him how much of an idiot he was.
Even though the chance of Garron accepting his request was low, it was not zero. Looking back, it was obvious that he had unconsciously denied even the possibility that Garron and Aria would ever do a single good thing in their lives, even by accident.
It was not a healthy mindset.
Both of them were undoubtedly bad people, but that line of thinking would bite him in the ass one way or another. Even the worst person could sometimes do good things. It wouldn’t erase all the bad things that they did, though.
Garron and Aria wouldn’t be the last demons that he would encounter in his life. If he didn’t get his shit together, then he would be dead.
Knowing who your opponents were was important in a fight. A Yellow Skill was still created by desire, experience, and need. That meant if he understood his opponent, then it wouldn’t be difficult to figure out their Skills and how to counter them.
Not to mention it would be a lot easier to trick them. That was how he had managed to kill Garron and Aria, after all.
The reason why Garron died that easily was probably because he had lifted the curse he and Aria had put on everyone. It was only a guess, but it was the only theory that Victor had that made sense.
Looking at Norm’s face, it was obvious that he was waiting for him to speak. But right now, Victor didn’t want to tell his friend what had happened.
He was tired, and he didn’t want to talk about it even with his best friend. What he wanted right now was to fall asleep and rest. But Norm was Norm. If Norm asked him something, then…
No. Norm cares about me. I don’t have to suffer for him if I don’t have to. It is what he would want.
“Can we talk about this later? I'm tired.”
Norm nodded, and without Victor saying anything, started to hum Victor the Great, Brave, and Handsome.
It was beautiful. Whenever he heard it, all the pain seemed to disappear. His heart felt lighter. It didn’t feel like something was pressing on it anymore.
Suddenly, he was a dragon, looking down at a little kobold who sang of his greatness. The song didn’t exaggerate anything; that was why he liked it. The song showed how hard it was to do the right thing, how much he had to struggle even though he was supposedly the strongest dragon there ever was.
He met the kobold around a hundred years ago. When he was in slumber, an idiot tried to go into his cave which was obviously heavily trapped. The idiot then got heavily injured and he had to wake up and heal him if he didn’t want a dead body stinking up his cave.
There was an enchantment that made his cave never stink, but if someone had a really good sense of smell, then they could possibly smell that his cave was actually stinky, and he couldn’t have that.
That was the only reason why he saved the kobold, why he let him stay at his home, why he gave the kobold a potion that would prolong his life, and why he let him ride on his back to go kill what he thought was a single Demon Lord.
He was dying now, but he didn’t regret it. These past hundred years had been fun, and his best friend was by his side in his final moment.
In his last battle, he had only killed three Demon Lords before the rest ran away like cowards because they knew he would die soon.
There was no record of all Seven Demon Lords and a Demon King teaming up to go kill one guy, but here he was, dying because he didn’t know they could cooperate.
What a fool he was. They were selfish, not suicidal.
His best friend's hometown was still standing, and his best friend was still alive, so he was satisfied with the result of the battle.
Dragons were slowly going extinct as a species, but he didn’t care about it that much. There was probably not a single dragon in history who cared about it. They were strong, immortal, proud, slow to reproduce, and caring too much about what they considered important. That was why dragons were considered the greediest species that ever existed, and also the bravest. Their lives were never what they considered the most important.
It was a miracle that dragons were still around.
As the song was coming to an end, he saw that his best friend was crying, but he couldn’t speak or even move.
I guess I did regret something.
When the song ended, the dragon let out its final breath, and Victor finally fell asleep.
Like always, Victor forgot the memory of his past life when the song ended, but the feeling remained.
When Ver woke up, he saw something quite unusual. Victor was alone, still lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling.
(Hey Vic, are you alright?)
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just want to be lazy once in a while.”
Victor didn’t even move his eyes to look at him when he said that. It made Ver quite worried.
Even though he didn’t know the full context, he knew that Victor's relationship with his parents was bad.
What should I say to him?
Ver didn’t know what to do. His social skills were practically non-existent for obvious reasons, but he couldn’t just do nothing.
Wait, can I? I think Dad once said that sometimes leaving a person alone was the best choice. But he also said to be there when they needed it? It’s quite confusing.
He was quite in a pickle. He wanted to help, but he didn’t know how to. Ver was afraid that if he wasn’t careful, then he would say the wrong thing and make the situation worse.
Then an idea struck him. If he couldn’t do something, then ask another person for help. That was what his mother always told him, and it was rare for her to be wrong.
(Hey, Norm. Where are you?)
Thankfully, Norm was in telepathy range, so Ver didn’t have to waste mana to teleport to him.
“I’M IN THE KITCHEN!”
“Norm, stop using [Loud Voice]. You're so much louder than before.”
“Sorry.”
When Ver went into the kitchen, he found Amelia, Norm, and Kairos there. Amelia had her hands on her ears while Kairos smiled rather tightly.
(You can cook?)
“Nope. But since Victor wants to have a lazy day, I want to cook for him.”
From the expressions on Amelia and Kairos’s face, it was obvious that it was not going well.
“[Follow My Lead] should make it easier for you to be a good cook, but…”
Kairos pointed to all the mess in the kitchen. Vegetables were scattered across the floor. There were a few burn marks on the table, milk was literally everywhere, there was a little blood here and there, and there was orange goop in the pot.
It was actually quite impressive. Ver didn’t think he could do what Norm did even if he tried to be messy, and he was bedridden for most of his life.
(What even is that?)
“Oh, this? This is the meal that I made for Victor.”
Norm looked proud of himself, which he definitely didn’t have the right to be. The orange goop in the pot looked gross, and the noise it made was just plain disturbing. It sounded like there was somebody trapped in there, screaming for help.
Wait, since when did food make noise?
“Norm, are you sure this food is safe?”
Amelia looked concerned, which she had every right to be. If the food didn’t cause food poisoning, then Ver would be very surprised.
“It would be fine, Mrs. Amelia. Norm and Victor definitely have their relationship Class at a very high level. Every Class gives some kinda instinct if the action is aligned with the Class. Also, my Skill said that it would be fine for Victor to eat. This… could actually work.”
The word coming out of Kairos was reassuring, but he was staying far away from where the orange goop was while covering his nose. Even if the food was edible, it would be like eating food shaped and smelled like poo.
(How did you even make this?)
Norm puffed up his chest and smiled like he did something to be proud of.
“First, I boiled the meat from Victor’s hunt in cow’s milk, and then I cooked it before putting the meat in the blender along with a banana, a mango, an apple, a star fruit, rice, and goat’s milk. After everything was blended together, I poured it all into one huge pot that was already filled with goat’s and cow’s milk. I then boiled them while adding salt, sugar, flour, spices whose names I forgot, and some vegetables to make it healthy. I also added some mayonnaise, ketchup, and sauce, but I forgot what I did with them.”
That was… definitely something. Ver never cooked before, but even he knew that what Norm did was a crime.
(Where did you even get all of these ingredients and tools from?)
“Kairos gave it to me, and he also helped me with some of the stuff that I’m too lazy to do.”
Ver’s opinion of Kairos dropped drastically. Norm was Norm; he wouldn’t be surprised if this was the first time Norm had ever cooked something in his life. However, Kairos had to take care of someone; so it was fair to put a higher expectation on him.
Helping Norm create this monstrosity made Ver worry about what kinda food Kairos gave to Lucks.
“Alright, I’m gonna give it to him now.”
Watching Norm pick up a pot bigger than he was like it was nothing made Ver realize that even though Norm was considerably weaker than Victor, he was still pretty damn strong compared to the average person in Ver's past world.
No, I think I underestimate his strength too much. The strongest person on earth would definitely lose in a battle of strength with Norm. There was that time that Norm lifted a cow for whatever reason. I think it was because the cow wanted to know what it feels like to be the one getting carried? How did Norm even know that? Can halfling speak with animals? It definitely didn’t come from a Skill. Asking Norm about it didn’t help at all. He just said even though he didn’t understand the words being spoken, he understood them. What does that even mean?
While Ver was busy contemplating how ignorant he was about the world he was living in, he and Norm arrived at his room.
“Vic! Look what I made!”
Without even bringing a bowl or a spoon, Norm put the pot on the ground with only a ladle in it.
“You made this? Thanks.”
“Yeah! I even got offered a Class from it, [Bizarre Chef]. But I turned it down. Cooking is hard and kinda boring. Besides, I have you.”
Victor rolled his eyes, and got up from his bed to grab the ladle.
“Wait, I almost forgot something. [Bless Milk].”
With only just one Skill, what once was a disgusting orange goop, had suddenly turned into a… shiny disgusting orange goop.
The weird thing was, Victor didn’t even have any reaction to the “food.” It was like what was in front of him was completely normal food.
Maybe this is normal in this world. Food that screams and looks disgusting could be something that people eat every day. What right do I have to judge what people eat? Maybe I’m being rude here.
“Didn’t you make too much? How am I supposed to eat all of this?”
Norm grinned, and crossed his arms.
“Most of it is milk. That means [Bottomless Stomach (Milk)] should work on it.”
“If you say so.”
When Victor took the first… bite? Sip? Whatever it was that he was doing, Norm waited with bated breath. He looked excited, as if his creation could actually taste delicious.
No, don’t be rude, me.
“So? What do you think?”
“It’s alright.”
Victor shrugged, and continued eating. Norm waited for Victor to say more, but after one minute of waiting, he finally realized that was all Victor had to say about it.
Wait, it’s actually edible?
Of all the things that had happened to Ver ever since he died, this was the most surprising thing he had seen.
“That’s it? I worked so hard on it.”
“I appreciate it, but I don’t want to lie to you. It’s not bad, just, meh.”
Norm pouted, then he grabbed the ladle from Victor’s hand to try it himself—
He immediately threw up, but fortunately, or was it unfortunately? His puke didn’t touch the food because Victor moved it out of the way.
So the shiny disgusting orange goop did taste bad. Victor is just weird. That also meant I’m not being rude. Good.
After one minute of throwing up in the bathroom, Norm finally remembered that all of his milk could literally heal anything, so he grabbed a glass of milk from the table and drank it in one gulp.
“Abyss, that tasted awful.”
(Did you actually think that it would taste good?)
“Yeah.”
(Hmm, I don’t know what to say to that.)
“Did you actually eat that?”
Kairos was drinking a cup of coffee, grinning.
“You said that it was safe to eat.”
“No, I said it was safe for Victor to eat, not you. It would only give you a stomach ache at best if you eat it anyway.”
Then Kairos tapped the bracelet on his right arm, and a black screen suddenly appeared in front of him. Looking closer, it was a page filled with information about how the brain worked?
What even is the technological level of this world?
The more time Ver spent in this world, the more he realized how weird it was. Victor knew a lot of things that were considered “modern” knowledge, and some tools were genuinely more advanced than anything he had in his last world.
Norm literally had a milk strainer that could filter out all bacteria that was harmful to milk. There were also self-cleaning shoes, a hammer that could change its weight, comb with seemingly unlimited gel, a stove that could also freeze things, a refrigerator that could store a lot of things inside it, and not to mention all the makeup that Amelia used that Ver didn’t even know the use of. However, at the same time, they don’t have phones, cars, and use traditional weapons.
All of this couldn’t be explained with magic, because magic in this world just made creating things much easier. It couldn’t create something if the user had no understanding of how it worked.
Well, demon magic and Skill didn’t have that limitation. So is this world way more advanced at some things compared to his previous world because of Skill? No, I feel like I’m missing something.
“Should I tell Victor to stop eating it?”
Norm was now for some reason lying down on the floor, looking at the ceiling.
“Huh? I wouldn’t recommend it. Magical food usually tastes awful. Don’t know why, that’s just how it worked.”
“Magical food?”
“Yeah, magical food is a food that permanently increases either your strength, speed, resistance, and there is even one that grants whoever eats it dragon breath. The orange goop will increase Victor’s regeneration, which is quite useful. Wait a second, you were trying to make magical food, right?”
“No.”
Kairos stared at Norm, and Norm stared right back. They stayed like that for a whole minute before Norm broke the silence.
“Ehm, I’m just trying to make soup. You know, the one where you can put anything in it?”
Kairos’s eyebrow twitched, but he didn’t say anything, and moved on from the topic.
“I have something for you. You know how Victor’s appearance made anyone who is low level pass out? I have a helmet here that could mask all of his features so he didn’t have to worry about that problem anymore. This is for saving me when we first met.”
Seemingly out of nowhere, Kairos pulled out a helmet that looked like something a knight would wear and put it on the table.
“Since when does Victor’s appearance make anyone pass out?”
“Wait, what? How did you not know that? Aren’t you his best friend? Oh, demons. I forgot about that.”
Just as Norm was about to ask Kairos what he was talking about, Kairos threw the helmet towards him. Norm failed to catch it, and it fell to the floor.
“That was because I’m not ready.”
Kairos snorted and went back to reading and sipping on his coffee.