Pseudo Resident’s Illegal Stay in Another World
chapter-22

༺ Child-Making Date With Luna (2) ༻

Curse of this, curse of that, curse of blablabla…

I felt a shiver run down my back as I held Luna’s hand.

Why are you cursed so much? Did she turn herself into one of those totems or idols whatever, that the voodoo mages used to inflict curses on others? Was this what voodoo is all about? Does using curse magic inflict yourself with part of the curses too?

Wait a minute. Won’t I be able to accumulate task points and raise one of my attributes if I get rid of all her curses?

Luna looked like a walking piggy bank to me at this moment.

“W-What’s happening Hassan? The look on your face is a little scary…”

I probably frowned without realizing it. Luna’s shoulders were trembling a little as if she was terrified. It seems like my reddened face, due to my surging excitement, looked a little scary to her.

“Uh, Um…”

To be frank, I was a little curious about the curses Luna was inflicted with. I was worried if it was okay to just ask her about it though. It’s not like I could directly say “You have a lot of curses.” to her now, could I?

Maybe it was due to the lasting damage from what happened with Daphne at the Guild, I was a little afraid to ask for people’s personal information.

What if Luna just slapped me and would hysterically ask “How did you know I was cursed?! Creep!” when I revealed to her my knowledge about the curses?

Even if she didn’t, reading other people’s information and saying it out loud was a breach of their privacy. No one would like for that to happen for obvious reasons.

If someone touched my wrist and then suddenly said, “You used the SEX-005 to masturbate yesterday, didn’t you?” I might also jump and cry out in surprise. I would definitely be scared and suspicious of that individual in that scenario.

Other people would too. That was the nature of peering at other people’s private life.

Luna gently pulled her hand out of the dry cloth that was covering her wound while I was hesitating about what to do with this information.

“Hey, we don’t have time for dawdling around, the rental time for this hut is going to run out.”

The letters then disappeared as abruptly as they had formed.

“Still, thank you, Hassan. I’ll wash the cloth and return it to you later.”

With this, we each grabbed some pieces of wood and a dagger and began carving the wood into totems again.

However, I couldn’t sit still now, having touched Luna’s hand. The strange and awkward silence that permeated between us, made way for a somewhat suffocating ambiance, making me feel stuffy and uncomfortable. All I can hear in the small cramped room is the sound of my and Luna’s breathing and the sound of carving wood.

Swick- Swick-

Looking at it in a different light, I could now concentrate more on what I was doing.

I was already making the third wooden ‘child’, as Luna likes to call them, while Luna was struggling with her first. I only needed to make an additional one and we’ll be done with this bizarre arts and crafts class.

Even after finishing a quest together and having a drink last night, there was still some unease between me and Luna making this silence feel even more awkward and suffocating than it was already.

“So, how are you going to use this totem? Are you just gonna carry it around?”

I just spoke about the first thing that I could think of. Additionally, my voice sounded louder in this cramped cabin than I thought it would.

Luna’s hands, carving her piece of totem, stopped for a moment.

“I wanted to give these to people as presents.”

“Presents?”

“Yes, I’ve caused a lot more trouble to people than I intended…”

She sounded like she wasn’t very confident in herself. So she actually knows she’s been doing stupid things and causing trouble here and there? Isn’t this enough to be considered an intellectual in this world? She’s definitely smart, by this barbaric world’s standards.

“I think giving them this totem will make it easier for us in our adventures if we meet again in a quest…”

I nodded, “Yes, I see”. There are many ways to make your life as a beginner adventurer easier and this was a good method among them.

“Who are you giving it to then?”

“Hassan, do you really remember what happened yesterday?”

I could feel Luna’s sharp gaze directed my way.

This was a turning point in our conversation. Should I bluff my way out of this or should I say the truth? I think saying the truth is better for us and our future interactions.

“To be frank with you, I forgot everything at some point.”

“Then you don’t remember when I told you the reason why I became an adventurer?”

“I don’t.”

“I thought so! Anyway, I just finished one! Finally! Woohoo~!”

Luna lifted the totem she just carved high in the sky and looked at it with delighted eyes. It was small about the size of a hand.

It looked a lot like the ominous obsidian statue I had seen in the abandoned temple. Only this time it looked more like a mixture of an octopus and an elephant crushed together then stepped repeatedly upon to make a grotesque doll.

If the goal was to make it look as disturbing as possible then this was a resounding success.

“What do you think, Hassan? Isn’t it well made? I tried to model it on your face!”

What the fuck? Did she mess up while making this? Or do I really look this ugly? I thought it was meant to be an offering to a Lovecraftian God — beings of Eldritch horrors with the nastiest appearances you could think of. No wonder she kept glancing at my face like that, she must’ve been trying to fashion it like me… [1]

“This is for you, Hassan.”

“Ah, Uh, Uum-.”

When was the last time I had received a gift from a woman? My mother and sister obviously don’t count. The only thing that was close to that was the humiliating chain collar Elfriede gave to me as a symbol of my slavehood under her.

Looking at it this way, receiving something from a girl was a very new experience for me.

“Thanks… I guess.”

Just when I received the wooden statue from her…

Letters then appeared with a familiar Ding- noise…

『Exposure to Cursed Objects: ❰Clumsy Fingers❱ acquired』 『The condition was nullified by the Blessing of Chaos 』

Cursed object? Condition? Nullification?

I don’t know why, but I felt like my head had become a jumbled mess from the horrifying content of the notification. I couldn’t prevent a curse from leaking out of my lips.

“Holy sh-”

“Wow, I didn’t think you’d like it so much. I’m a little embarrassed…”

I looked at the ignorant Luna who was fidgeting and blushing like a virtuous virgin before her first night. Damn, girl, you have the gall to give me a cursed object? Did you do that on purpose?

I opened my frowning eyes and looked at Luna. Was this girl trying to kill me with a cursed object? I need to determine if this is intentional or not…

“W-why are you looking at me like that?”

Luna’s face was turning as pink as the salacious color of her pinkish hair. She must be feeling really embarrassed by my heated gaze, unaware of the catastrophe she was going to inflict upon me. Or maybe she was aware and all of this was her acting to make me fall into her trap.

If this curse was intentional and this was really all an act to make me drop my guard, then she was one wicked and cunning girl.

Why do weird issues like these always arise when I least expect them-.

Just when I began tightly grabbing the wooden statue…

Ding-

『You can increase the value of one of the following attributes by 1 after consuming 100 task points.』

『1. Strength +』

『2. Agility +』

『3. Stamina +』

“Holy shhh-”

***

Luna and I finally finished making the last of the totems. Four were made by me and the last one by her for a grand total of five. We packed each in a separate bag and then headed out.

I ended up keeping the one Luna made for me. The other Korean Moai Totems seemed to be destined for Marco, Plato, Daphne the receptionist, and the innkeeper of the Nymph Wings Inn.

Bustle- Bustle-

Just like usual, the pub was crowded and absolutely chaotic in the evening.

“You’re back, Samaritan. I heard you were quarreling near the park. You look rather impressive after leaving for just half a day. The defensive gear and the swords you have hanging around you do too.”

Damn, the news already circulated? How can information be shared so fast in this internet-less world?

That being said, I handed one of the totems I had made to the middle-aged innkeeper then spoke…

“Take this. The pink-haired girl is gifting it to you.”

“Huh? A gift? I guess my wife will like it since it looks so phallic. Anyway, thanks, missy.”

Luna and I sat down at an empty table soon after delivering the totem.

“C-Can I really order anything on the menu?”

Luna asked, a bit unsure if she should order or not.

“Yes, as long as it’s less than 10 coppers, I’ll pay for it.”

“You helped with the child-making and now you’re even offering me a meal. I’m so embarrassed…”

Luna blushed while her eyes were darting around, hesitating where to look from the embarrassment she felt. She looked very moved by my offer. I’ll just answer like I didn’t notice that.

“You also helped a lot. Moreover, the bees you were going to sell were all wasted because of me. Don’t overthink, just pick a meal.”

Of course, it wasn’t just because of that.

It would be a lot more effective to bribe her with free food if I wanted to know more about the mysterious effects of these wooden statues. It’s a shame, but I’ll have to use the 10 coppers I looted from the gangsters.

“Really? Then-.”

It was only then that Luna felt reassured and checked out the menu as if half-forced.

“What should I eat? hihi…hehe…”

She couldn’t hide a tinge of excitement from leaking on her face at the prospect of being treated to a meal.

I was immersed in my own thoughts while looking at her side profile.

Luna’s wooden statue was a very weird item. It granted me a special condition, a curse of sorts, and let me consume task points to raise any of my attributes by one.

Whether it was because of the witchcraft or the voodoo she used, it was definitely happening because of Luna.

On the bright side of things, Luna’s yet-to-be-named ability is rather useful since leveling up was so hard in this world.

I didn’t even have to mind the afflicted ‘Conditions’ since the《Blessing of Chaos》could negate them for me.

Still, making hasty conclusions after a single experiment isn’t a good attitude to have. I wonder if I should ask Luna to make more of them for me?

“Hawaiian pizza, and mint chocolate. There’s even a Stargazey pie- Holy shh! There’s so much to choose from! What are you picking…Hassan?”

“Um, yeah. Did you set your eye on anything yet?”

“Hmmm, no. I’m still thinking.”

“Just pick anything.”

It was a waste of time to think about it since the food in this world tastes bad no matter where you ordered it from. Damn, why does everything here taste so terrible?

“I’ll order this then. Excuse me, over here!”

I ordered, then asked Luna while waiting for the food to come…

“Can you make one of the wooden statu- uhmm totem at any time?”

“The Moai? No, I can only make them by consuming Karma, so I have to wait until I have enough of it replenished.”

Karma — It was one of the main differences between my homeworld and this world. Everyone seemed to be talking about it in some vague way. From my vague understanding of it, it seemed to be represented by my ‘Task Values’ like experience points in a game.

Luna followed her speech.

“In my current state, I can only make one every two months. Sometimes even 3 months are nee…”

“Once every two months?”

“Usually, people accumulate Karma by praying in a temple or exploring ruins. I only accomplish one quest per month so that’s about it for me.”

The ‘quest’ she talked about must be referring to the Adventurer’s Guild quests, naturally. Wouldn’t making two quests per month let you make one totem during that same period then?

If memory serves me right, even the worst Iron-tier adventurers can carry out at least a quest per week.

Once a month was way too little. Luna answered with an ominous voice when I asked her the reason for this occurrence.

“No one wants to party with me since my voodoo can get pretty unpredictable. And the few that are willing are just perverts…”

I can understand that somehow. Luna wasn’t very helpful in performing quests, especially when it came to the difficult tasks given by the Adventurer’s Guild.

Luna was just a pretty doll. Like a Chikorita. Even if you looked favorably on her she was only good at being cute.

If someone asked me if I wanted to party with her, I’d be really hesitant about it.

Luna could at most, do some benign tasks like temple cleaning. And quests like this weren’t very frequent, probably a once-per-month thing. So, her statement was pretty reasonable.

I felt somehow refreshed at my reasoning that made everything fit.

“Can you even live normally by completing a single quest per month?”

“Impossible. I had to go days without eating after paying the registration fee of 20 silvers. I ate grass roots and gnawed at tree barks to satiate my hunger. And even though it has been months, I still barely can afford one meal a day.”

Luna’s eyes welled up with tears as she was recalling her misfortunate past. It seems her slender body was that way because of malnutrition rather than dieting to keep her beautiful and slender physique.

I don’t know about what kind of hardships she went through, but she seems to be having a hard time too. I can understand why her eyes turn red with madness at the sight of the bees, insects, mushrooms, and herbs during the quest.

It wasn’t the eccentricity of a voodoo shaman but the struggle of a human to get a meal on the table — it was a struggle for survival. With all that in mind, she looks really pitiful as I gaze at her now… I know how hard it is to not eat your fill.

“Won’t you have more chances of making them if you complete more quests?”

“Yes! I’d be able to make more money and even become a proper voodoo shaman if I could complete more. I’d be able to raise snakes and spiders for battle instead of bees. Everyone is looking down on me but one day I’ll be able to walk with my head held high!”

I lost my appetite when she started mentioning snakes and spiders. Luna mumbled for a while then looked at me with gleaming eyes.

“…Hassan is strong, right? Even the goblins were powerless against your trampling. You also smashed the adventurers to death earlier.”

“I didn’t kill anyone.”

The adventurers were still alive and went to jail. Maybe sending them to jail still counts as killing them?

“Ah, right. Umm, anyway. You’re certainly twice as strong as others right…? Could you possibly carry another person with you?”

Luna looked like she was tiptoeing around a certain subject and looked kinda depressed doing so. Just when I was wondering what she was going to spout this time.

“Well, Ummm… Do you mind if we adventure together from now on?”

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[1]: The line here directly refers to being a victim/sacrifice/offering of some old god or false idolatry. It’s just weird and doesn’t make much sense so we had to get help, so much help. Basically, it would be weird to refer to it as old gods as that feels off. So, we localized it to Lovecraftian Gods, which many should know about and relate to.

So what did you guys think of this chapter? This was more of a setup chapter with its fair share of funnies. Did you guys hear of stargazy pies before? this shit is nightmare-inducing bruh. Party with Luna pog btw. See you guys next time.

By the way, I’d really appreciate it if some of you left reviews on novelupdates, the novel only has 3 for now.