"Why are we still here?" Yuki asked. She wasn't angry or bored; her lithe figure clearly expressing the doubt she was feeling as she genuinely didn't understand why we hadn't moved on.
"It's our objective this time. Do you remember what we were searching for?"
"It's the place where 'the most beloved woman is looking at,' right?"
"Yes."
She looked at me before sighing. "Then explain it to me. I thought the 'woman' in the puzzle referred to Marie Antoinette and that the place we needed to go was Versailles..."
I nodded, pleased that she at least had a guess. "You're not wrong. Queen Marie Antoinette was loved by her people, at least in her early days, but there's something you haven't considered. We are searching for the Ring of Arc, an artifact belonging to Jeanne d'Arc, who lived in the 15th century. The Palace of Versailles..."
"...was built in the 17th century, so it can't be the place the puzzle is referring to. Damn, that was such an obvious detail..."
I smiled. While I'm smart, mostly thanks to my Essence, Yuki is also intelligent. She just has a mental barrier that she keeps running into when it comes to me.
Unfortunately, I know that at home, away from me, she is always compared to me. Thank goodness she's a strong woman; she can handle it.
"And the reason we're still here is? Hint: it's also another obvious reason."
Even though I could have given her the answer, it's always more satisfying for someone to solve a puzzle themselves.
Cupping her chin, she adopted a thinking pose before smacking her forehead. "Notre Dame is French for 'Our Lady.' That was such a dumb mistake..."
She went on a five-minute rant about how she overcomplicated such a simple puzzle before calming down.
"Okay. *Huff* Now, the next piece of the puzzle talks about the place 'her eyes are looking at,' but a cathedral doesn't have eyes..."
She returned to her thinking pose, and I didn't disturb her. Although she's not at my level yet, this exercise is excellent for honing her [Puzzle-Solving] and [Seeker] skills.
"'Her eyes' must refer to the statues... but there are a lot of them. Since we came here after obtaining Gar-Ghoul, the statue must be a gargoyle... am I right?"
"Yes."
"Have you already found where it is? Because all I saw were human statues when looking."
"Oh, they are up there."
I pointed toward the top of the cathedral, where two statues were located—the ones we were discussing.
Yuki's first reaction was a smile, pleased to be correct, but then she went pale, likely realizing the next step. "Please tell me we're not going up there..."
I smiled at her before glancing toward a nearby shop. "Now that I think about it, I saw a restaurant nearby that should be perfect for dinner."
As I walked toward the restaurant, she grabbed my hand. "Oi, wait, Onii-chan. Let's go shopping a bit more. You have money ready to use, don't you?"
She then began to hum a song as we walked, happily relieving stress through shopping.
As always, there's no problem, since thanks to my superpower, I'm rich.
---
"Are you out of your mind?! There's no way I can complete this jump like you did!"
Frankly, that's true. We had to climb up Notre Dame for our objective, and we used the cover of night to ensure no one would see us.
The first part was easy; we snuck inside and found the stairs leading to the rooftop. The difficult part was now, at least for Yuki. We had to climb one of the two towers, but she could hardly rise a meter before stopping.
Meanwhile, I was already five meters up, encouraging her from above. It wasn't enough, so I climbed down to her level.
"Okay, let's forget about climbing the normal way. Just use your spell. You've got [Hyperstride], don't you?"
Speaking of spells, we had only used them once to test their effects. [Hyperstride] is a spell that boosts your speed and agility and increases the distance you can jump. It was perfect for a situation like this.
I didn't need it, as I had skills like [Jump], [Parkour], and [Acrobat], so I didn't use [Hyperstride].
"Alright then, follow me. I'll take the best path."
Using my skills and dexterity, I climbed a few more meters while keeping a close watch on Yuki. While I was confident she could make it, it's better to be safe than sorry.
The first jump was solid; she was a bit startled, but in the second jump, she was more sure of herself. The third and final jump went differently. As I waited near a gargoyle, I heard her happily shout the name of the spell.
"Hyperstride!"
A blue aura formed around her legs, and she jumped toward me, just like before. However, unlike the previous jumps, she started to lose speed as she ascended. When she reached the apex of her jump, she didn't quite make it to the statue, and I was witness to her expression of pure panic appearing on her face. But before she could fall, I reached out and grabbed her hand, bringing her safely up.
While she was safe I hugged her, trying to reassure her with my presence as her heartbeat spiked from the scare. When she was calm enough I took a pair of binoculars from my inventory and looked in the direction of the statue.
"Another church, huh?"
Noting this, I was ready to start my descent, but Yuki grabbed my hand, looking a bit uncertain.
"Umm... I don't have any more mana... how do I..."
I almost forgot that part. My stat distribution focused on mana, with all my points spent on INT and WIS. While I couldn't continuously cast spells, I could use them a fair bit before stopping.
[Hyperstride] at level 1 used 75 MP. With my INT, that meant I had more than ten uses before running out, but Yuki, with her lower mana pool, only had three. She needed to wait an hour to use it again, but I had another idea.
"I think we should stay here. Wait, what are you—put me down!"
With the element of surprise in my advantage I picked her up in a princess carry, and before she could question me, I jumped.
"WAAAAAAA!"
Guided by my skills, we were down in ten seconds. Yuki curled up against me, trembling but with a smile on her face. She was scared but enjoyed the adrenaline from the action.
I would have loved to stay there a bit longer, but we decided to move down to avoid drawing attention from anyone who might have heard her scream. She seemed strangely happy to be princess-carried once again.