The Great Witch showed absolutely no intention of abandoning her campaign to get Shin married off.
The trip to the Lands Between for matchmaking purposes had obviously ended in complete failure — and yet barely a single night had passed before the Great Witch was at it again, nattering in Shin's ear without pause.
Shin was starting to think his birth mother from his first life hadn't nagged him this thoroughly.
Oh, wait. His first life — he'd grown up in an orphanage. He'd never had a birth mother to nag him.
And his second life needed even less thought — he'd died before he ever broke out of the mystery of his own birth, leaving zero impression of any biological parents whatsoever.
Still, after the events of the previous night, the Great Witch had loosened her demands considerably.
She said she no longer cared about the process — only the result. However Shin managed it, she needed a daughter-in-law delivered back to her sooner rather than later.
Only the Great Witch, exemplar of a mind perpetually at war with itself, could spend one evening complaining about other people's daughters being soulless puppets or covered in rot — and then turn around the very next morning desperate for Shin to bring a woman home from somewhere.
If the genders were flipped, this behavior would read in any story as a classic "pimping out" trope. As the one effectively being "pimped out," Shin could barely hold it together.
A month passed in the blink of an eye.
Likely occupied with setting the Tarnished awakening plan in motion, Marika said almost nothing in the group chat that entire month — just logging on to collect her daily check-in point.
The chat was, frankly, devoid of content. Shin had spent a month of incognito lurking for essentially nothing.
It was mostly the Great Witch, Morgan, and Kaguya trading domestic gossip, especially on the subject of raising children — so much so that someone stumbling in from outside might have mistaken it for a mom forum.
[Spreading Witch Factor]: Something the Moon Princess mentioned earlier — about every move she makes being watched — gave me an idea.
[Spreading Witch Factor]: [Image]
[Spreading Witch Factor]: Everyone, take a look. This is an owl familiar I recently crafted using magic. It can split on its own — generating a new individual every two days.
[Spreading Witch Factor]: The familiar can also transmit its visual field. Once it's split into a few dozen copies and spread across the island where my Shaya and I live, I'll be able to monitor every detail of Shaya's life whenever I want~
The Great Witch's message was practically dripping with pride. The owl familiar in the photo she attached was, naturally, the future "Warden" — the one Shin already knew quite well.
Reading this from his lurker account, Shin felt a cold chill run down his spine. No wonder he'd been feeling, during every bath lately, like someone was watching him. He'd assumed it was Meruru lurking somewhere and secretly spying.
[Moon Princess]: ...Pardon?
[Moon Princess]: Is my situation something that should be inspiring anyone's creativity, Great Witch~? That seems rather inconsiderate~
Despite the words, Kaguya clearly didn't particularly mind.
[Moon Princess]: An owl that can transmit its visual field? That does sound rather useful. I wouldn't mind having one myself~
[Moon Princess]: What a shame the chat doesn't allow item trading — you can't exactly stuff real-world objects into a gift packet. And I'd hate to waste points on a [Boundary Breaking Talisman]... What a hassle~
[Spreading Witch Factor]: It's only 100 points — if Your Highness is interested, I'd be happy to cover that.
[Spreading Witch Factor]: Though once the new familiar is ready, you'd have to come pick it up yourself. I can't easily get away.
[Moon Princess]: Oh my, that's very generous — I've been saving up for one of those full-immersion holographic game consoles from the Radiant World store~
[Moon Princess]: Come to think of it, the most points-rich member of our group right now is you, Great Witch — you claimed Lady Marika's 1,500-point gift. I'm so jealous~
Shin: ...
He hadn't thought about it until Kaguya brought it up — and now he did, it stung.
Marika's commission reward — deposit and final payment combined, a total of 1,500 points — had been claimed by the Great Witch's account. Not by the one who'd actually done all the legwork.
That was his money. Well, his points.
[Aspiring to Be the Perfect Human]: Moon Princess, are there other ways to earn points besides the daily check-in?
[Aspiring to Be the Perfect Human]: At one point per day, I have no idea how long it'll take to buy anything from the store that I actually want.
Shin figured he'd ask Kaguya, who seemed to have been around longest.
This group chat really was stingy to a criminal degree. One point a day — at that rate he'd need at least two more months just to save up the 100 it cost to buy a single [Boundary Breaking Talisman], let alone the dazzling array of items available in the store.
Not that he could go ask the Great Witch directly — the group store refreshed daily, and going to her would blow his cover on the spot.
As for asking her for points? Even less of an option, unless Shin was eager to have his alias shredded ahead of schedule.
[Moon Princess]: There is, child — oh, I mean, my dear. There is.
[Moon Princess]: Every year, the chat releases a set of optional group upgrade tasks. See how we're at Level 3 already? Two more basic tasks and one special promotion task, and we'll reach Level 4~
[Moon Princess]: Features like the group livestream, the group store — these all get unlocked as the group levels up. Back at Level 0, it was just a plain chat room, just me and the admin talking~
[Aspiring to Be the Perfect Human]: Group upgrade tasks?
[Moon Princess]: That's right. How else do you think Lady Marika got so rich?
[Moon Princess]: The annual task refresh should be coming up soon. She's completed the most of anyone — eight tasks in total.
[Moon Princess]: Lady Morgan has completed three, the admin one, and the Great Witch — even though she's only been in for a year — has already completed one as well~
[Aspiring to Be the Perfect Human]: And you, Your Highness?
[Moon Princess]: Me? Zero, naturally — haven't I mentioned being monitored around the clock with no blind spots~?
[Moon Princess]: I'm waiting for a group member to storm the moon and rescue me from this place. The Lunar Capital is so dreadfully boring. I'm going stir-crazy~
So Marika's been carrying the whole team, single-handed!
Shin wondered whether Marika had gone full Radagon mode to tackle those tasks. If so — that was an impressive amount of pressure. A figure three or four meters tall, golden hair, right hand swinging a stone hammer the size of a small car, left hand holding the sacred seal of the Golden Order.
The mental image alone would be enough to make most people burst into tears.
Marika's title as the Eternal Queen wasn't handed to her. She earned it.
But reading between the lines of how Kaguya talked, it seemed clear she wasn't living in Gensokyo — this was a much older era, when she was still the Moon Princess in the Lunar Capital.
And from the sound of it, she'd already taken the Hourai immortality drug.
Hard to say when the Lunar Capital would eventually exile her to the human world and kick off the classic tale of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter.
Shin browsed the store's daily refresh — nothing he particularly wanted today.
Though there had been something before: an item worth 500 points — the perfect red stone of Eternal Youth that a certain someone dreamed about — that had rotated out of the store before he'd had any points to spend. A shame.
He didn't have the stone mask to make use of it anyway, but having points saved up ahead of time was never a bad idea.
[365-Day Countdown Complete. Current group level detected: Lv.3. Group upgrade tasks have refreshed.]
[Group Name: Humans (Want To Be Human) Chat]
[Group Members: 5]
[Group Level: Lv.3]
[Total tasks completed: 13. Complete 2 basic tasks and 1 special promotion task to upgrade to Lv.4. The special promotion task will be released once the basic task quota is met.]
[Lv.4 will upgrade and fully expand the "Group Gift" feature, allowing members to trade items with each other.]
[Available Basic Tasks:]
[1. Retrieve a singular human non-humanization trait located in a certain timeline's Earth, during the Taisho period of the Far East. Task Difficulty: C+. Reward: 1,000 points.]
[2. Retrieve multiple human non-humanization traits located in a certain timeline's Earth, originating from beneath the city of Rome. Task Difficulty: C++. Reward: 1,500 points.]
[3. Retrieve a singular plant-based non-humanization trait located in a certain timeline's alternate world, which feeds on humans. Task Difficulty: C++. Reward: 1,500 points.]
~
To be continued...