Chapter 373: The Girl Became His Charging Treasure
A black cat with exceptionally beautiful fur was fleeing as if frightened by something.
Its speed and leaps far exceeded those of an ordinary cat.
And in the night, something with flapping wings was following closely behind.
Suddenly, the black cat stopped running, seemingly resigned, and lay directly on the ground, allowing itself to be caught without resistance.
"A cat Familiar? Which Witch is it?"
Erica grabbed the black cat.
A Witch was using this black cat to eavesdrop on their conversation.
Correction—during the battle with Melqart, he had vaguely sensed someone's prying gaze.
To spy on a divine battle inside a Barrier, an ordinary Witch wouldn't have the capability.
Thus, Erica thought of one Witch who might be able to pull off such a feat.
It was also rumored that this Witch used cats as her Familiars.
It must have been her spying just now.
"Lord Paul's niece, please don't harm this child"
The black cat suddenly spoke in a woman's voice—the master behind it was speaking.
"You've probably guessed who I am, so no need to worry about me running away. I'll be waiting here at my home for you and that person"
These words made Erica frown slightly. Wasn't this too arrogant?
Expecting both of them to visit her?
Shouldn't she be the one coming to apologize in person?
As if reading her thoughts, the black cat showed a human-like bitter smile.
"I'm really sorry. I'd love to come apologize in person, but using Spirit Sight consumed too much energy. I can't even get out of bed right now~"
"Serves you right!"
Erica coldly retorted.
Using Spirit Sight to spy on a god was already extremely dangerous. This fool even spied on a battle between gods—she was lucky to be alive.
So—
The next day arrived in the blink of an eye.
A very sharp screech of brakes startled those who heard it, as the violently driven car seemed about to flip over.
But it managed to stop in the end.
Bang—!
A faint explosion sound, the hood popped open, and black smoke billowed out.
"Lady Erica, Lord Renji, it seems I can't take you to your destination"
The maid Arianna said apologetically.
"No need. Just wait in the town"
Even if the car hadn't broken down, Erica didn't want to ride anymore—her butt hurt too much.
Her maid was a terrible driver, averaging about once every three days where she couldn't distinguish between manual and automatic transmission, driving in a terrifying manner.
Originally, Erica was supposed to have people from her uncle's side arrive yesterday. The reason they didn't come, with only Arianna making it through, was due to the severe storm that day—likely caused by Melqart.
Thus, they couldn't reach her suburban cabin.
Arianna, however, forced her way through the storm by driving aggressively to come care for her, as she was sleeping deeply from excessive energy depletion and needing time to properly adapt to receiving divine authority.
So, the two didn't enter the town either, since the person they were looking for didn't live in the town itself but in the forest on its outskirts.
After leaving the town, when they were alone with no one around, a white horse suddenly appeared.
As a result, Erica felt her energy drain a bit more—this was a direct extraction of her power to materialize it.
Really, why doesn't he use his own energy?
"If I use my own power, I'd end up having to draw from you anyway. Might as well start by taking it directly from you, so I can maintain a state of full power for a bit longer," he said, sounding quite reasonable as he read her thoughts, making her roll her eyes slightly.
"I mean, can't you make each extraction gentler? Could you take less at a time? Instead of charging up all at once, why not do it gradually?"
It's like charging a phone: filling it up in one go drains the power bank almost empty, and the power bank itself might act up.
With slow charging, this power bank has solar charging capability, absorbing light to recharge itself, so it doesn't drop to the lowest level suddenly.
That way, some issues can be avoided.
So, this morning, Erica experienced that awful situation again.
Of course, this time, since he didn't extract power from her while she was asleep (she insisted it must be done when she's awake), the extraction still went out of control, and she ended up having an outburst in front of him and Arianna.
"There's no way around it; extraction just works like this and can't be optimized," he explained.
As he said, Renji really didn't intend to make the young lady so embarrassed; the process is inherently rough.
Unless there were more power banks to supply him with energy.
Currently, he's locked onto a target—the person they're visiting this time.
So, after mounting the white horse first, he reached out to the exasperated girl before him, took her soft little hand, and pulled her up. Her light body seemed to float as she settled in front of him.
But she didn't sit astride; instead, she sat sideways.
Since she was wearing a dress, sitting that way would be inconvenient—her skirt would ride up, greatly exposing her thighs clad in lace-trimmed white knee-high stockings.
"My lord!" Erica suddenly looked serious.
"Hmm?"
"I was thinking..." Erica hesitated after starting.
The being before her was clearly similar to Pandora, capable of granting divine authority to others, with the difference being that this one seemed safer.
So, Erica wanted to recommend someone else to become his contractor as well.
This wasn't purely to share her burden, but rather to help someone escape from the vicinity of a dangerous individual—a Campione.
The person she wanted to help could be considered one of Erica's few close friends.
Hesitating at this point, Erica felt she was being too greedy. As a mere human, making such demands—no, not demands, but requests—to a god seemed presumptuous, even if it was just a plea.
Wait, she couldn't bring it up herself, but she could trick that friend into coming for an interview.
If he took a liking to her, it would save Erica from having to make the request.
"By the way, I forgot to give you this thing Arianna bought."
"Huh?"
Erica stared blankly at the item handed to her.
"Although you don't need mana replenishment right now, it's better to be prepared for any sudden situations that might require a large amount. So, you should use this."
The serious tone of his words made the corners of Erica's mouth and eyes twitch uncontrollably.
What he gave her was a diaper.