[Strange…]

'What's strange?' Davies asked immediately.

[The kid… his fate value is unusually high] Miya replied.

'Wait… You mean he is a fated protagonist?' Davies was stupefied at the thought.

[No… his fate value still falls a bit short of a fated protagonist… but it's high enough to be a high-level companion, almost something like what people would call a second protagonist] Miya explained and dampened down his alertness.

'It's that high?' he asked as he was still quite stupefied at the thought.

[Also, just like Lee Jung last week, his fate value is untapped, meaning he has not yet gotten his fated opportunity]

Davies had a strong urge to rub his brows, but he stopped himself in time and instead said to Romero,

"Nice to meet you, kid,"

"Same," Romero simply replied and went back to reading his book.

Davies took this chance to go and place the basket of fruits on the table beside Tisha's bed.

All of this was making no sense. If anybody, he would have expected Tisha to be the one to be the likely companion for a fated protagonist, especially as she completely fitted the bill of a harem member.

She fitted the bill so much that his whole plan to control her was based on that, but now he was hearing that it was her brother that was a likely companion for a protagonist.

All this sudden unexpected information was pissing him off.

[I don't know if it helps, but I noticed something strange about Tisha as well]

'What is it now?' Davies almost grumbled out loudly.

[... her fate value… is dark] Miya said hesitantly.

'... what do you mean dark?' Davies asked, confused at the new terminology.

'What exactly is it supposed to look like in the first place?' he almost screamed.

He couldn't see things as mysterious as fate value and his system was too useless to give him a tool to enlighten him, so he could only work based on Miya's interpretation of what the system was sensing.

[That's the thing, normal fate value isn't supposed to look like anything, it's kind of like the formless water vapor that though is always present in the atmosphere and cannot be seen]

[People with higher fate value begin to be shrouded in a white mist-like aura, and fated protagonists are literally glowing fate value]

'But Tisha is none of these and is instead shrouded in some sort of dark fate value, according to you,' Davies continued from where Miya stopped.

'... and if we put together the fact that a fated protagonist's value is glowing and Tisha's is dark, then it's highly likely that…' Davies's mind was working at an unparalleled speed as his brain all the new variables.

[Yeah… she could be some sort of villain]

"..." Davies had no words to explain the shock he received from having come to the same conclusion. He felt like hitting his head on something to loosen up his thoughts.

As he looked at her peaceful face while she lay unconscious, he had to admit that he had not expected this, at all, but then it did kind of make some sense.

He had always felt that it was kind of sketchy when he heard her story from Teresa and found out that, instead of hating monsters and wanting to have some sort of revenge against them, she had instead adopted a no-killing code of conduct and had avoided killing monsters, or even killing anything for that matter.

He was also willing to bet that her hidden potential had something to do with her likelihood of becoming a villain.

All of a sudden, Davies's interest in this new pawn of his, increased greatly.

Things were becoming more complicated quickly, but they were also becoming more interesting.

A wicked smile suddenly broke out on Davies's face as he was especially hyped right now.

Davies turned back towards Teresa and Romero. His eyes especially fell on Romero's relaxed figure as he lay down on the chair, reading, visibly enjoying the lap pillow.

[You know… he's likely to have to go up against his sister in the future… and he's likely to win]

'... I know… I might have to kill the kid,' Davies didn't want to have to kill a child ever again in his life, but he'd already done it many times before, and he could easily do it again if he had no choice.

But, since there was no point in making such a hasty move now as he did not know what the future held in store for him.

For now, he just wanted to while away time, then get laid… all complex thinking would begin after he had woken up tomorrow, at the earliest.

"I didn't notice before, but isn't that a patient's overalls, why are you even admitted to the hospital?" Now that Davies's mind was cleared of all currently unnecessary thoughts his eyes focused on the clothing that covered Teresa's body, a blue gown-like clothing that was slightly baggy, but even then, the mountain peaks on her chest couldn't be hidden underneath the baggy clothing, and Davies's eyes fell on them.

"I know right! I told them that it was nothing serious and I only had a few scratches, but the doctor insisted on keeping us here for a while,"

"It's so boring just laying around," Teresa cried out with a pitiful look.

This was bullshit. He, who had done most of the work in the mission gate and had almost single-handedly hauled their asses away from certain death, had not even managed to have a single wink of sleep since he came out of the gate.

Yet the people that he worked his ass off to protect were enjoying themselves just lying around in a hospital full of beautiful women.

'I should reduce their salaries,' Davies thought with a face full of black lines.

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(Please do note: Miya is not the system, but an interface assistant that came with the system, kinda like how Siri comes with the IPhone. She can use the system functions that Davies doesn't have access to yet, but can only barely explain the results to Davies)