“Morpheanna Heinetionshu”
Gender: Female
Race: Ordinary Human
Age: 21
Height: 169cm
Measurements: 91-60-89
……
“—Pfft!”
Weiss nearly spat all over his phone screen right in front of the female knight.
The information card showed absolutely everything one could think of.
He was just about to say that the only thing missing was a full three-view nude illustration.
But as he scrolled the page down, even that uncensored content, the kind that would never pass review, actually loaded in.
Now it was exactly like capturing a Pokémon alive.
With a collar around her neck, it was as if she had been registered into a living encyclopedia.
“…Lord Weiss, is something the matter?”
So close, right at his knees, Morpheanna leaned in until they could almost feel each other’s breath, lifting her lovely face with a serious expression to ask.
The mercenary, still disoriented and confused, nearly lost his composure completely at the sight of that face so close to his own.
—After all, he had just looked at her full nude profile right in front of her, and even though she didn’t know, no matter how much he pretended to be a gentleman, there was no way to hide the physical increase in his heartbeat.
“Uh…the item, ah, I mean the collar…”
His attention was drawn in by the female knight’s eyes, shining with loyalty, and Weiss blurted out whatever was on his mind without thinking much.
“Ah! Please forgive me! This subordinate did not realize what importance the collar holds for Lord Weiss. Although I am sure the collar bestowed by you is still on my person, at present I do not know how to return it to Lord Weiss. I beg your pardon!”
Morpheanna’s reply was exactly the watertight manner of a subordinate noble knight.
It was obvious—back in the Sacred Inquisitor Knight Order, she must have always behaved toward her superiors this way, cautious and proper, so much so that it had become second nature.
Especially since the Captain of Knights was someone like Nothern.
Thinking this, Weiss suddenly felt that she was rather pitiable.
“All right, all right, I told you not to be so serious and formal.”
He waved his hand.
If he had to put it himself, it wasn’t about being humble; he just had self-awareness.
He was just a mercenary—having the tavern receptionist call him “sir” was already the highest honor. “Lord” to outsiders who didn’t know the truth would sound like pure mockery.
Even if someone believed it, it would only invite ridicule.
Given Weiss’s personality, he definitely didn’t want to attract those strange, judgmental looks.
“Just call me Weiss. In return, I’ll just call you—”
He stopped short.
If he kept calling her Morpheanna, that wouldn’t feel right, would it?
Outsiders thought the female knight had died in the Source of the Ebbing Tide disaster, so who would keep mentioning a fallen comrade’s name?
Weiss glanced back at the female knight.
He couldn’t say why, but her eyes seemed even brighter, as if she was hoping for something.
“As we discussed before, to avoid the scrutiny of the Knight Order, you must keep your survival secret. So, Knight ‘Morpheus’ is already dead.
As for a name…let’s chop off the ends—how about I call you ‘Ffion’?”
His tone was as plain as could be, but the name he uttered seemed almost like a spell,
No—
To the female knight’s ears, it was a gospel, a blessing bestowed from above.
Not only had he forgiven her past, agreeing to spare her,
He was now even helping her plan ahead by giving her a new name.
It was not a bishop bestowing arms upon a new knight,
But a prophet granting baptism upon one reborn.
As if receiving holy grace,
She lowered her eyes, closed them tightly, folded her hands over her chest, and gently responded:
“From this moment, Morpheanna shall cast away the past and serve her benefactor under the name Ffion. Until the end of this new life, until death do us part.”
Isn’t this…a bit too much? Weiss’s mouth dropped slightly,
But that sincerity and devotion seemed to have a great infectious power, making it feel sacrilegious to interrupt, hard to bear disturbing that heartfelt emotion.
At the same time, a flash of light appeared on his phone screen.
Weiss reflexively picked it up again to check the information page.
Under Name, “Morpheanna” was now collapsed into a summary field, hidden as “…” unless he tapped to expand.
And the newly given “Ffion” was now displayed as the formal name.
(It really updated in real time… is this just like renaming a pet?)
But what drew Weiss’s attention wasn’t just those basic details.
He hadn’t looked at the whole thing before, and only now did he notice—
Where there should have been a description of the item’s effect, there was now a display of Morpheanna’s personal stats.
“V Rank”·LV.3
—Current overall stage and current mana level.
This world’s ability evaluation system was basically the same as the peerage system.
It combined attributes like physical strength, martial training, mana, and magic aptitude, and grouped them into stages.
Because of the influence of the Mage Association, there was also a method that evaluated only mana levels, but that was too biased toward magic specialists, so in practice, both systems were listed together.
Of course, there was actually a correspondence between overall stage and mana level.
Stages were divided into five ranks; mana levels had ten grades.
“B (Baron)” — LV.1+
“V (Viscount)” — LV.3+
“E (Earl)” — LV.6+
“M (Marquess)” — LV.8+
“D (DUCK)” — LV.10+
—Supposedly, there was an existence above “Level 10”,
But as far as Weiss knew, not counting the legendary heroes whose stories were hard to believe, this system covered 99% of the people in the world.
From “B Rank (Baron)” upward, starting with the gap to “V Rank (Viscount)”, each rank was a chasm nearly impossible to cross.
Not that growth was utterly impossible,
But only those with both exceptional talent and unwavering conviction had any chance of breaking through V Rank and striving for the upper ranks.
Starting at “E Rank (Earl)”, the number of people at each higher stage dropped sharply, and an “Earl” was already a rare powerhouse.
From a national perspective, an Earl would be enough to be granted land as a lord—there would only be a few in any nation.
The vast majority were just like Weiss, or only a bit better: those born with almost no mana, lacking any unique talent or blessing, plain folks without rank or mana grade.
The classic “Commoner—LV.0”, in game terms, just part of the high-level character’s property and content experience.
Morpheanna—ah, she should be called Ffion now—under her rank field, there were also her martial skills and special talents.
But aside from “Qiangguan”, a family-inherited secret technique for reinforcing physical strength with mana, the rest were all common basic martial arts.
Mana grade purely reflected the amount of mana in the body.
And yet, even at this level, the female knight was able to claim a spot as one of the strongest in the Sacred Inquisitor Knight Order, already a peak many commoners could only dream of.
Even if he figured that being transported here was the reason for the difference, seeing the comparison, Weiss couldn’t help but let out a sigh—sometimes the gap between people is wider than between man and beast.
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