Chapter 7: Give Me A Good One

Roel believed deeply in spending money only on things that were worth their value.

Having made a small fortune for himself, Roel spent two hours taking a more detailed look through the items in the Affection Points Exchange Shop, and he soon noticed something.

As the tip from the System had mentioned, the Gold Coin Shop mostly consisted of items that improved his individual characteristics. The items in the Affection Points Exchange Shop, on the other hand, appeared to be a little more peculiar.

Take this for example:

【Banshee’s Umbrella

It screams during heavy downpours.

Price: 500 Affection Points】

“…”

Are you joking with me? What is the use of something like that?

Screams during heavy downpours? What is the use of that? Would the rain disappear just because the umbrella screamed? Besides, if one were to flip its meaning around, isn’t it just an ordinary umbrella when it’s not raining then?

The cheapest good that Roel found so far cost 500 Affection Points, but it would appear that he couldn’t expect quality out of cheap stuff. The cheapest items were so bizarre that he had no idea how he could use them at all.

While Roel’s aim was to test out the functions of the Affection Points Exchange Shop, he didn’t want to buy items that he had no need for. These were precious Affection Points that he had earned by giving up his beloved milk candies and chocolate!

After spending a long time browsing through the list of items, Roel finally stumbled upon something that still looked decent.

【Skeleton Pallbearer Army

The summoned beings of the Commandment Sect’s Gravediggers. Born for death, they bring joy to the living.

Price: 2500 Affection Points】

Hm… I don’t really get it, but it sounds quite amazing. It should be a combat-related item, right? Furthermore, the item illustration also looks quite formidable, a huge skeleton head.

Seems like an okay choice!

Having come to a decision, Roel finally leaped down from the chair he was sitting on.

“Anna, I’ll be heading to the training field in our backyard later in the afternoon.”

“I’ll make preparations right away.”

After Anna left the room, Roel headed back to his bedroom with the other servants to take a short nap. As a 9-year-old at the moment, he needed to have sufficient sleep in order to grow up well.

After a busy day and having his fill of food, drowsiness was already settling in, so it didn’t take long before his consciousness started to drift off. This made him deeply cognizant that he was indeed a young child now.

Roel had once heard someone saying that a human was a slave of his hormones, or that a person’s body would, to some extent, influence one’s train of thought. He hadn’t thought too much into that theory previously, but the current him found himself agreeing deeply with those words.

For one, shedding tears was definitely not something that the Roel of the previous world was able to do on command; being a 20-year-old adult, it was hard for him to tear up at all.

Another thing that he noticed was that there were actually no lewd thoughts surfacing in his mind when he leaped into the embrace of the fairly beautiful Anna earlier on, which was probably just the kind of reaction one would expect from a 9-year-old.

“I guess libido really is the effect of our hormones at play.”

While muttering to himself, Roel finally fell into a deep sleep, charging up his energy for his activities later in the afternoon.

————————————–

The Ascart House’s backyard was huge in Roel’s opinion.

In the circle of nobility, the front yard represented the face of a noble house whereas the backyard was an indication of their decorum. One of the ways how nobles determine if a certain house was declining was by looking at their backyard.

This was no exaggeration at all.

In this world, gardening was viewed as an art form practiced exclusively by nobles. Nobles rarely engaged in physical activities, choosing to focus their efforts on decorating their yards into beautiful artworks instead. Some of the richer nobles would even renovate their gardens every season in order to uphold their distinguished image.

While the Ascart House was rich, it wasn’t as extravagant as those nobles. A huge part of that was simply because the patriarch, Marquess Carter, was a magician who wasn’t too bothered with aesthetics. Nevertheless, the Ascart House still employed two gardeners to maintain its yards.

Beside the exquisite garden maintained by the two employed gardeners was the Ascart House’s training field.

This training field was mostly reserved for Roel to practice his spells. One thing of note was that most noble houses didn’t have such a facility. The Ascart House only happened to be an exception due to its illustrious lineage of skilled magicians. It was not uncommon for members of the Ascart House to charge alongside a bunch of muscle heads on the battlefield, so it was only natural for it to have such a facility.

However, due to the superior strength of Marquess Carter, he rarely frequented the training field ever since reaching adulthood. It was only after Roel’s birth that the training field was finally opened once more.

“Anna, I need you to leave with the others first. I would like some time by myself to ruminate.”

“Young master, you should have someone by your side when you practice.”

“There are no weapons here, and you are aware of the spells I am able to use too. There’s nothing to worry about.”

“But…”

It took quite a while before Roel finally managed to persuade his personal maid to guard the entrance to the backyard. After finally being freed from his guardian, it was time for Roel to go all out.

“System, I want to purchase Skeleton Pallbearer Army from the Affection Points Exchange Shop!”

【Request received.】

【Are you certain that you wish to spend 2500 Affection Points to purchase Skeleton Pallbearer Army?】

【Yes/No】

“Yes!”

【You have obtained Skeleton Pallbearer Army. You may choose a location to place it down.】

Following those words, a shadow of 2 meters in height suddenly appeared within Roel’s sight. It felt similar to the games of the previous world, where a player, after selecting a building to construct, had to choose a location to place it down. Roel chose a flat ground three meters away from him.

A burst of dark wind congregated within the area that Roel selected, and an ominous-looking black coffin materialized on the ground, emanating a chilling air of eeriness. By the coffin, six skeleton soldiers stood neatly in two rows. With lowered heads, they kneeled on the ground on one knee, displaying their deference toward whoever was within the black coffin.

Roel was astounded by this imposing sight. This was the first time he was coming into contact with the supernatural powers of this world ever since regaining his memories, so he was to come to terms with it right away. Nevertheless, he quickly recovered from his shock and began skipping around in joy.

“Holy moly, they are really skeleton soldiers! And I’m getting six of them for just 2500 Attraction Points?!”

Even if these skeleton soldiers were lower-tier troops, it was still a huge value for the number of Affection Points they cost. At this rate, within a few years’ time, he might really be able to summon a true army of skeletons at will, making him nigh invincible!

Roel was so excited that he began rolling around the ground. It took a while before he managed to calm his ecstasy down a little and return back to his feet.

“Cough cough, I need to calm down first. It’s still too early to be rejoicing. I still have no idea how powerful these skeleton soldiers are yet. Right, I should give it a try.”

With such thoughts in mind, Roel turned to the wooden pole by the side and issued an order, “Attack! Cut the pole down!”

The empty eye sockets of the six skeleton soldiers lit up slightly as they turned their heads toward the wooden pole. Then, with a series of creaking sounds, they rose to their feet and stood tall like warriors preparing for war.

Then, they lowered their waist, propped up the coffin, and placed it on their shoulders.

???

Hold it right there, what’s going on? Is the coffin their weapon?

No, wait a moment. How is it that this scene looks so familiar to me?

While Roel was deep in thought, the six skeleton soldiers began dancing with unbelievably uniform movements as they marched forward in a neat formation. Their movements were so smooth that it was hard to believe that they were just skeletons.

At that moment, the world seemed to have fallen silent for Roel. A slight spring breeze blew a fallen leaf across Roel’s frozen face, seemingly nudging him toward the greater world out there.

However, Roel wasn’t in the mood to think of anything else. Looking at the army of dancing skeletons before him, a thought surfaced in his mind.

It’s a team of professionals…

—

Pallbearers are people who carry the coffin during a funeral procession. Dancing pallbearers, in recent years, have gotten quite a bit of attention, starting from a group in Ghana, as they send away the deceased with lively dances and bring solace to the living.