Reincarnated Hero System

"Girl, the woman's name is LITERALLY 'Pride'!"

To Evan's retort, Eliza only stared at him with a face that said 'How does that matter?'

"Evan, you possess your predecessor's memories, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Then that's precisely why your view of me is a bit skewed. You know of how I acted during the war a thousand years ago, but Eliza doesn't, hence she doesn't think of me the same way you do."

Upon hearing her words, Evan thought about it for a moment and realised that was indeed the case.

"True, you don't go around gouging out the eyes of anyone on the street who stares at you lovestruck anymore.

You're a lot calmer now."

"Wait, what?"

"For your information, I was in a bad mood that day since that dragon lord had just messed up one of my plans.

Besides, my beauty is not something the likes of them were worthy to gaze at so I simply relived them of their sight, permanently."

Seeing her talk about rendering people blind just because they looked at her in a way she didn't like at the time, Evan and Eliza didn't even know where to start retorting and just blankly stared at her in silence.

"What? It is a fact that I am too beautiful for the likes of them, though. Even Lust would agree with me."

Her next words turned the blank looks on their faces to ones of shock. The two felt that they could literally see the self-confidence oozing out of Pride's body as they spoke to Each other.

"Whoa...she said it."(Eliza)

"She actually did."(Evan)

"Talk about self-confidence."

"Yeah, even in my current state, I doubt I could pull that line off with so much ease."

"But you have to agree, she is indeed a beauty on a different level."

"No Shit."

"Yeah. Who's Lust though?"

To Eliza's question, Pride replied with a nostalgic look on her face.

"The 'Demon of Lust', and my younger sister."

"And pretty much the most beautiful person you'd ever meet."

Evan chimed in after Pride as he recalled the appearance of the blue-eyed platinum blonde-haired woman in the memories of the previous 'Second'.

"That's not true, though."

"Huh? What isn't?"

"The thing you said about my sister being 'pretty much the most beautiful person you'd ever meet', that's not true. I am."

The young hero was dumbstruck as he stared at the demon in front of him. After a few moments, he finally managed to find his words.

"...She's Lust, you know?"

"So? I'm the best at everything, naturally, that includes appearance."

"...what?"

At the outset of her justification for her statement, Pride sighed heavily.

"When I say I'm the best at everything, I mean it. It can be likened to a trait of some sort that's unique to me. To succeed at everything I put my mind to is a given.

No matter how long it takes, I will always make great achievements in everything I undertake, ultimately excelling to the point where I am the best at it.

It's just like how Greed wants all there is for himself, or how Sloth wants to laze around and do nothing until the end of time.

I am confident that I can be the best at anything I'm involved in.

Bottom line is, even if my sister is a breathtaking beauty, she'd have to settle for second place if ranked, because I, who am the best at everything, would naturally be the first place."

"..."

The young hero and the teenage battle priestess were left lost for words upon hearing the demon's statement. And they remained like that until Eliza snapped out of her daze and pointed out one very important thing.

"Weren't we supposed to be discussing Evan's status effect?"

◇ ◇ ◇

"GROARR-!"

A poor wolf's roar was abruptly silenced as Evan's sword penetrated the creature in the throat and exited its back.

He calmly pulled out his sword and flicked the blood on it off, before turning to Pride who was turning another wolf to ashes as he spoke.

"So, you're saying that the influence thingy has always been there, just that it wasn't strong enough to be considered a 'Status Effect'?"

"Exactly."

"So why did it suddenly get stronger?"

Evan posed this question to Pride as he kicked off the ground, dashing towards a magic circle that appeared mid-air and slicing it with his sword coated in his golden aura, surprising the creature behind it.

Sadly, by the time he had managed to reposition his sword to attack that creature, it had vanished and reappeared a dozen metres away, releasing a small light blue aura that reduced the surrounding temperature.

'Tsk, an Ice type that happens to have the unique skill, Mind Control, huh? Troublesome.'

"Simply put, my title was going haywire.

I had drained out most of the power in the title over the past thousand years, which resulted in the dungeon I was sealed in becoming filled with it.

That's the reason why anyone who entered there gained the status effect you currently had.

That same title was the one I told you I was sealing on the day we entered the monster room. The seal isn't permanent, as such, I have to periodically renew it.

However, that process requires me to unseal it first, and then seal it again.

In that short moment I did, its power flowed out and affected the person who had the closest connection to me at the time."

"Which was your contractor, me."

"Exactly."

Pride replied as she flicked her fingers and created a light green two-ringed magic circle around her right wrist.

In the next moment, small tornadoes sprung up from the ground underneath the ten wolves that were circling her warily, tossing them into the air.

"What kind of title is it anyway?"

The high demon manipulated her magic power expertly, pulling back her right arm with an open palm, and generating two large bows made of wind.

"Gale Arrow."

As she spoke, five arrows of swirling wind whirled out from the bows of wind, pulling back slightly before launching towards the airborne wolves.

The magic circle around her wrist disintegrated into particles of light as she turned to Evan and answered his question.

"One I am unable to permanently disable, at least until I recover a quarter of my original level. At that level, I am confident I should be able to erase the title's negative effects permanently."

"I see."