"Personal charm bonus: 95. Two symbolic items grant 10 points. Total score: 208. Check passed."
Hearing Iluna say "95 charm points," the young Cultist Dion's lips twitched. He instinctively touched his own face and asked his companion:
"Although I've never met Shade Hamilton in person, isn't 95 charm a little too exaggerated? Professor, are you sure your Miss Pawo said this operation had over an eighty percent chance of success?"
"There's no need to be nervous. After all, Hamilton is rumored to be the Duchess's lover. He is merely the Church's optimal solution, not a guaranteed one."
Professor Onse recalled Miss Pawo's account of what she had seen and heard after the Lake View Manor banquet:
"His charm truly deserves that score."
Dorothy, hidden in the darkness, held back her laughter, while everyone who had met Shade nodded unconsciously.
"Charm" did not refer only to appearance; it also included manner of speech and temperament. Only Iluna knew that she had merely read out the most basic score. Aside from his charm, Shade's way with words was equally astonishing. And in terms of "Social Credit," Shade also possessed the special identity of a Military Intelligence Section Six agent. That identity alone could have directly passed this check, but Iluna did not mention it.
Although Shade's parchment list looked no longer than the other two parchments to everyone else, the contents recorded on it were astonishingly numerous. Whenever Iluna frowned while examining it, it was actually because there were too many letters, and she could not recognize at least one-third of them.
If Shade could participate in this story as a Ring Arcanist, Iluna simply could not imagine any possibility of him losing.
In short, while those trapped inside the relic experienced an extremely perilous segment of the story within just a