Chapter 40 Excellent Matchmaking System

Prison of No Light.

Herbert strolled slowly through the darkness.

This time, for reasons unknown, Sifanny did not interfere with him, nor was he in any hurry to search for her.

He just walked leisurely through the shadows while conversing mentally with the Evil God residing in his mind.

"Nenasha, does Fremei's singing possess some kind of special ability? Does it harm ordinary people who listen to it?"

Herbert was not dense enough to fail to realize that Fremei's agitation was connected to that song.

[“It probably does? Anyway, it has no effect on me, and I think it sounds quite pleasant!”]

"Right, I shouldn't have bothered asking you. Go play by yourself."

Recalling Fremei's panicked expression when she first discovered him, Herbert raised an eyebrow slightly, remembering her title of the [Howl of Death].

Singing and death—could the two be linked? Did her singing have a fatal effect?

Could it be that many people simply couldn't endure it and met a miserable end?

If that were the case... wow, what a death-metal siren!

How hardcore!

Ahem, no, wait. If that's true, were the sins Fremei committed back then really the result of her willfully wanting to destroy those ports?

Were there hidden reasons behind all of this?

Herbert pondered and deduced, feeling that his route to winning over Fremei was becoming increasingly clear.

Right now, the relationship between the two had shifted from the initial "slight hostility" to a status of "above neutral, not yet friendly."

If he put in a bit more effort, starting from the case files of that time, perhaps he could use these "truths" to further close the distance between them...

Just as Herbert was quietly thinking, Nenasha suddenly went off the rails for some unknown reason, adopting a passive-aggressive and teasing tone:

[“Oh my! Come to think of it, you two are really~ close!”]

[“That girl even took the initiative to ask you out, wanting to sing for~ you~ again~”]

"Huh?"

His train of thought interrupted, Herbert's right eyelid twitched. He had no idea what kind of trick she was pulling now, but intuition told him it was nothing good.

...What on earth is she playing at?

Raising an eyebrow, he asked back vigilantly, "What? Are you jealous of her?"

Spit it out!

Did you actually get triggered?

[“Pfft!”]

[“Jealous? Hehe, my dear ally, you really know how to joke~”]

Hearing this, the trolling goddess let out a disdainful chuckle, flatly denying the accusation and declaring the matter sheer nonsense.

[“I’m wishing you would hurry up and close the distance with them, preferably deep-dive into communicating with them soon, so you can gain power and set me free all the sooner!”]

What could I possibly be jealous of?

What a joke!

"Hehe, you'd better be."

Herbert curled his lip in a scoff. Over the past couple of days, he had gradually mastered the mindset required to converse with Nenasha.

This self-proclaimed great Evil God was a pure drama queen who suffered from intermittent madness, put on performances anywhere and everywhere, spoke absolute nonsense, and deserved at most a punctuation mark's worth of belief in anything she said.

The bad news was that getting along with her was quite exhausting and required constant vigilance.

If one lacked enough wits, they would genuinely fall right into her verbal traps and end up like Tom, a pitiful plaything in the hands of a wicked woman.

And the good news?

Well, there was some.

He was the exact same type of player and equally far from a pushover.

They were birds of a feather, and his purity of derangement was by no means inferior to Nenasha's!

When it came to the talent for leaving people speechless, the two of them were roughly fifty-fifty...

It was like the offspring of a potato and a spud colliding with a hybrid of a tater and a yam—truly a well-matched rivalry, an evenly matched contest.

I must say.

What a damn fine matchmaking system this was!

After bickering and wrestling verbally for a while longer, Herbert realized he wouldn't get anything more out of her and gracefully called a ceasefire, saving the rest for next time.

Finally, as if on a whim, he dropped a casual remark: [“Speaking of which, I really do want to hear you sing.”]

Truth be told, Herbert hadn't meant much by it; it was just a casual piece of polite small talk since the atmosphere had drifted there.

To his surprise, however, it seemed to unexpectedly pierce through the other's sturdy defenses, directly rendering the chattering Nenasha completely silent.

[“...You want to hear me sing?”]

After a slightly prolonged silence, Nenasha let out a soft chuckle, followed by a meaningful, elongated hum:

[“If you really want to hear it, it's not like I can't sing. It's just that... if I were to sing, quite a few people would die, you know.”]

[“So, do you still want to hear it right now?”]

Huh?

Herbert's brow twitched, sensing a vague feeling that he had somehow brushed against something crucial.

Simultaneously, a persistent sense of crisis crept up from the bottom of his heart, warning him that he could lose everything and blow up at any moment—take it easy, don't mess around!

One wrong move, and this thing might completely detonate.

Hesitating for a moment, Herbert ultimately chose the conservative route. Instead of answering directly, he steered the conversation away:

"Uh, I didn't ask you to sing for anyone else, just inside my head. That shouldn't hurt anyone, right?"

I'm the only one listening. I'm no speaker-blasting jerk!

[“That~ is hard to say.”] The Evil God's laughter was deeply ambiguous, leaving Herbert feeling exceptionally unsettled.

He couldn't probe any further.

"Let's save it for another time, then!"

Herbert decisively chose to temporarily flee, yet unwilling to turtle up completely, he seized the initiative and retorted: "Whenever you feel like singing for me on your own initiative, we'll talk!"

"I'm telling you, as an Evil God, you need to be a bit more self-aware and proactively make offers instead of always making me ask. Don't you agree?"

Transforming into a warrior, Herbert used the sheer power of the little pink book to reverse-extort the Evil God.

Comrade, you need to learn how to read the room and provide emotional value!

It really made one sigh—magic was genuinely a wonderful thing!

[“Pfft, haha, you wish!”]

Nenasha was successfully amused by him. Her mood returning to normal, she teased playfully: [“Hehe, you're so humorous~ Choosing you really was the right decision.”]

"Right? I think I'm quite humorous myself."

Herbert let out an inward sigh of relief, knowing that this hurdle had been safely cleared.

Relaxing, he chuckled casually: "Of course you could only choose me! After all, look at what kind of miserable states you've turned everyone else into."

Turning a perfectly fine ascetic monk into a grass carp fellow.

So cruel.

Ah, Evil God, oh, Evil God.

To Herbert's complete surprise, however, as soon as Nenasha heard his words, she tossed him a question mark.

[“Huh?”]

“...Huh?”

Herbert suddenly realized something was wrong, his footsteps halting abruptly as his eyes widened.

"That ascetic monk wasn't seduced by you?!"

[“What on earth are you talking about? When have I ever seduced anyone other than you?”]

Herbert: ?

"What!!?"

Meanwhile, Valentina, who had been sulking all this while, suddenly had her expression shift slightly.

Huh?

She twitched her nose and muttered with a puzzled frown:

"Strange, where is this fishy smell drifting from?"