Sister Lily's Favorability, Asta's Wail!

Yuno had already cast wind magic, but when he saw Carl make a move, he finally relaxed.

Meanwhile, Asta, who had been busy pulling out the Demon-Dweller Sword from his Five-leaf Clover Grimoire to show off, was struck dumb as if by lightning. Like a stone statue, he instantly shattered.

No... what exactly had I missed?

With a wail, he dropped to one knee. Carl could even sense faint snow magic fluctuations forming around Asta, who originally had no magical attribute fluctuations at all.

At that moment, Asta was utterly despairing, as though he had been struck by lightning.

Sister Lily, in Carl's arms, was blushing furiously.

"Handsome sir, could you put me down first?"

Sister Lily's voice was as soft as a warbler's chirp, while Asta's expression beside her made her even more embarrassed.

"May I ask who you are?"

"Asta and Yuno's friend."

Carl nodded and looked at Sister Lily before him, a strange feeling appearing in his eyes.

Because at the moment he caught Sister Lily, the system notification had unexpectedly sounded in his mind again.

"Congratulations, Host. Sister Lily's favorability +10."

Listening to the system prompt, Carl's expression immediately became somewhat strange.

Didn't it say that only the strong could increase favorability?

From his observations so far, this system seemed to favor women over men to some extent. As long as they were powerful women, they seemed to provide huge amounts of favorability.

But Asta and Yuno, despite having saved his life last night, had only given him a mere 1 point of favorability.

And that 1 point had been contributed by Yuno.

In other words, although the favorability bonus system did not distinguish between men and women, women could provide higher favorability.

And Sister Lily before him might not be as simple and weak as she appeared.

Being able to gain the same amount of favorability as Charlotte upon their first meeting was strange no matter how he thought about it.

But that was none of his business.

All he needed to do now was quietly and steadily farm favorability.

Even if Sister Lily had some hidden agenda or secret, as long as it did not affect him, he could accept it all.

After all, with Asta and Yuno around, Sister Lily presumably would not do anything strange.

With that in mind, Carl finally put Sister Lily down.

Seeing that her face was somewhat red, Carl immediately said to Asta beside him,

"If I hadn't reached out just now, Sister Lily would have fallen, Asta. Didn't you say that if someone caught Sister Lily, she would marry them? Well, I caught her. Does that mean she'll marry me too?"

Asta sprang to his feet, his eyes filled with determination and sharpness.

"Carl, no, that's not how it works! Sister Lily is everyone's sister, and as a member of the clergy, she can't get married!"

Sister Lily immediately broke into a smile.

"Asta, so you knew? I thought you were deliberately pretending not to know."

Asta was instantly struck dumb. He turned stiffly toward Sister Lily, then resentfully turned back toward Carl.

That expression could not have been clearer.

If Carl had not deliberately tricked him just now, how could he possibly have said something like that?

Now his grand pursuit of Lily was another hundred thousand miles away.

Anti-Bird flew over from afar, its disdainful gaze impossible to hide.

Sister Lily's gaze landed on him, and her eyes immediately lit up.

As Anti-Bird fluttered about, he directly treated Asta's white hair as a nest, burying his whole head in it without even looking at Sister Lily.

Watching the harmonious scene, Carl smiled.

This Sister Lily was great. This Sister Lily was worth farming favorability from.

Under everyone's astonished gazes, Asta and Yuno recounted what had happened in the Magic Tower, as well as the kingdom's Magic Knight selection in three days.

The priest's eyes were filled with worry, while Sister Lily seemed lost in thought.

When Sister Lily served black pepper potatoes and pork made from potatoes and several chunks of boar meat frozen together, she gave Carl an apologetic look.

"Mr. Carl, I'm truly sorry. We're too remote here, and we don't have enough money to buy suitable, tasty food. We've really made you suffer."

Hearing Sister Lily's words, Carl smiled faintly.

"I came from Hage Village too, so I don't have any special requirements. This is already delicious."

After everyone had finished eating, Carl took out the money pouch he had obtained earlier.

Asta's eyes immediately widened, and even Yuno stopped his gentle chewing.

The two stared intensely at Carl, completely confused.

The next moment, Carl directly untied the pouch's drawstring.

Clatter—

A huge number of coins continuously spilled onto the table, piling up into a small mountain before finally stopping.

Yuno's eyes immediately showed understanding and gratitude, while Asta seemed somewhat dissatisfied.

"Come on, Carl. You've already eaten, so there was no need to show off your wealth here, right? The people in the village have never seen this much money. Aren't you just making them resent you?"

Sister Lily immediately covered her mouth.

Carl smiled faintly and said,

"Sister Lily, to make up for accidentally holding you just now, I'd like to donate some money to the church for repairing the buildings and improving the meals."

At his words, Sister Lily's face flushed red again.

That incident was already over, so how could Carl bring it up in front of everyone?

As a sister, she only felt as though everyone's gazes were burning her in public. She was so embarrassed that her face turned frighteningly red, like two clouds of fire.

However, Carl had not finished speaking.

"Of course, more importantly, there are simply too many children in your church. It isn't a solution for them to keep eating food with so little nutrition."

Carl looked up. Around the church's long table sat more than a dozen children of all ages.

Asta and Yuno were already among the oldest of them.

Of course, there were older ones as well, but once they reached a suitable age, they generally went out to make their own way.

Hearing Carl's words, Sister Lily nearly forgot a sister's reserve as she looked at him with sparkling eyes.

"Mr. Carl, is that true?"

Carl nodded slightly.

Looking at Sister Lily's smile and hearing the notification of another 15 points of favorability in his mind, he only felt that this trip had been utterly worthwhile.

At that moment, Sister Lily seemed to have been overwhelmed by the sudden happiness and actually turned around to give Carl a hug.

Of course, the instant she touched him, Sister Lily came to her senses and stiffly turned around before running out of the room.

The dozen or so boys and girls around the long table all had sparkling eyes.

One of them even put down his spoon and innocently looked at Carl as he asked,

"Mr. Carl, are you going to marry Sister Lily? Then what will happen to Asta?"

Carl immediately burst into laughter.

The priest beside him could not help laughing either.

Only Asta's expression was terrifyingly stiff.

The next moment, he let out a miserable wail:

"Ah—no! Don't do this to me!!"