Go back? There's no going back.

Everything is going in a good direction.

She thought she could finally feel relieved.

But why is she still so uneasy?

This started more than a year ago when I unexpectedly learned that the person was still alive.

Today, that inexplicable feeling of anxiety has not only not diminished, but has become even more obvious...?

sunset.

An unknown amount of time had passed before the maid, who had already assigned her tasks and arranged the welcoming ceremony, returned to the main hall.

Holding a magic tool for cleaning in her hand, the girl was heading straight towards the room where a substitute once lived.

"Wait, what are you going to do?"

Looking at this scene, the first princess was stunned and opened her mouth subconsciously.

"What... cleaning, of course?"

After being stopped, Elsie tilted her head and said, "Although the child has taken the things away, there are still many traces of life left behind. These need to be cleaned up."

"When other guests come over in the future, it would be bad to let them stay in an untidy room..."

Having said this, Elsie paused. She observed her master's increasingly strange reactions today and asked tentatively, "No...?"

"No."

As soon as the maid in front of her finished speaking, when these two cold words came out of her mouth, even Celsia herself was stunned.

"I mean, that room...I'll take care of it myself later."

Noticing the increasingly strange gaze from her personal maid who had grown up with her, she took a deep breath, and the shaken expression on her face quickly returned to calm.

"At the beginning...I took the initiative to invite him."

"This time, let me end it myself."

She said this in a deep voice.

"I understand."

The maid bowed her head slightly.

*

Outside the royal city.

"Ding!"

Su Wei, who was playing with the m1996 in his hand and walking back to the slums, suddenly stopped.

Huh?

If... it wasn't his illusion, then just now, he seemed to hear some strange noises in his mind?

"It has been detected that the host's cumulative favorability has exceeded 100,000."

"The minimum 100-draw requirement has been met, and the system is officially activated."

"The prize pool is being activated. Please wait for a moment—"

Chapter 3: Let me see where your limits are

"It has been detected that the host's cumulative favorability has exceeded 100,000."

"The minimum 100-draw requirement has been met, and the system is officially activated."

"The prize pool is being activated. Please wait for a moment—"

"Ah?"

Listening to the empty female voice in his mind, Su Wei's steps suddenly stopped.

He looked up in confusion, looking at the sky where the setting sun was as flaming as fire.

System...officially activated?

……

...

6.

After being confused about his mentality for sixteen years, Su Wei only now realized that this thing can actually be activated?

It looks like a lottery type system?

but.

One hundred thousand favorability points?

For a shy and socially anxious child, isn’t this initial activation condition... a little too high?

……never mind.

Baby, as long as we win the resurrection match, that's good enough.

Even if he was a bad guy who messed up his own mentality before, if he can become a help in the future... wouldn't that be great?

The next step is to go find mom, and Su Wei won’t mind having too much help.

"Activation successful, the prize pool has been expanded."

"Host can now expand and view relevant information."

After a moment's wait, two lines of text appeared in Su Wei's vision again.

"Expand."

Seeing this, Su Wei did not hesitate and directly opened the system panel.

"Host: Su Wei"

"Age: 16"

"Currently gained favorability: 100100"

"Currently, the number of 0 consecutive draws has been: "

「Source of favorability: 3 people (click to expand)」

"..."

As a rather concise virtual panel popped up in his field of vision, Su Wei pondered for a moment, and his attention quickly fell on the "Source of Favorability" in the last line.

"From... 3 people?"

"Wait a minute, could it be that these 100,000 points of favorability were all collected from three people in the past 16 years?"

Su Wei seemed to be thinking about something and clicked directly on the last column.

Then, he was stunned when he saw several names appearing in front of him.

「Source 1: Celsia Tirantia」

「Source 2: Elsie」

"Source 3: Jenny White (?)"

"Note: The upper limit of the favorability you can get from each source is 10000 per year."

「Note: You can only gain favorability from special objects」

For some reason, the specific source of each point of favorability is not recorded in detail above.

Moreover, in addition to the maid and the mother, a name that Su Wei did not expect also appeared on the panel.

"Sel... Thea?"

Staring intently at the characters on the first line, Su Wei's expression gradually became confused.

Why does the name of the First Princess appear on the list of sources of favorability?

To be honest, from the beginning, when Su Wei saw that only three people had had a good impression of him in the past sixteen years, his reaction was relatively calm.

After all, he had lived in the slums until he was eight years old.

The neighborhood relations there are, if not better than nothing, at least it can be said that when one side is in trouble, all others will come to the rescue.

Even until now, Su Wei couldn't understand how his mother, a foreign refugee who looked to be in her forties and was powerless, could live there peacefully for eight years with him after the country was destroyed by a certain witch who brought disaster to the country.

And the house they live in is quite big, with a yard...

After he was separated from his mother at the age of eight and taken in by the first princess, Su Wei came into contact with even fewer people.

Apart from greeting her at the main gate every day, he stayed in the princess's palace almost all year round and never went out.

After all, he was a hired substitute and couldn't often go in and out of the First Princess's palace.

There is more than just one princess in this empire now.

If a little Karami like Suwei, who was born in the slums, was seen frequently entering and leaving the royal palace, it would be small for people to gossip about him in private.

But if other people with ulterior motives used this to make a fuss and discredit the princess, Su Wei himself would not be able to accept it.

In addition, the princess prefers a quiet life, and her personal maid is too capable in her job. In the entire palace, except for the maid who took care of Su Wei when he was eight years old until last year, there are basically no other servants hired.

In general, the number of people Su Wei has come into contact with in recent years does not exceed five fingers.

When you think about it this way, only three people throughout the whole process had a favorable impression of me, which isn't particularly strange.

However, Su Wei originally thought that among the three people who had a good impression of him, besides his mother and the gentle maid, the remaining one should be the maid who had taken care of his daily life for seven years.

...How did you become the princess?

Looking at the characters on the panel that inexplicably gave people a glaring feeling, Su Wei suddenly felt that this system... seemed unreliable.

What.

A BUG appeared just after I came back to life?

Putting aside other things, if there really is a possibility that the princess has a crush on me... then that's fine.

But in all the time they have been together, Su Wei has the impression that he has never even seen that adult smile in the true sense of the word.

Even though she was so close, she was still as holy and majestic as a flower on a high mountain, out of reach.

Would such a person have a crush on a fake person from the slums like himself, and instead be the maid who has taken care of him for seven years?

Is it because the maid does not meet the prerequisite of "specific object" mentioned by this system, or is it because of some other reason?

"No, wait a minute? Come to think of it, it seems... it's not all bad news?"

Although there were doubts about the composition of the system at the beginning.

But soon, as if he suddenly realized something, Su Wei's expression froze.

Because, he suddenly thought, if this system is not wrong, then doesn’t it mean that his mother, who has been out of contact for eight years... is very likely still alive!

After all, according to the note on the second-to-last line of the panel, Su Wei can only gain a maximum of 10,000 favorability points from the same person in each year.

And now, he has captured the highlight of it.

Whether it was the noble and cold princess, or the maid who was gentle to everyone, maybe they really had a good impression of me.

One hundred thousand favorability points can be considered as one of the sources.

That little bit of favorability... could naturally be one of the sources.

The results of my work over the past eight years were finally recognized by the First Princess, and her favorability rating went from zero to a positive number... Thinking about it this way, it seems reasonable?

Maybe, out of his 100,000 points of favorability, 99,998 points came from his mother.

No, this distribution may be a bit too extreme.

In fact, Su Wei is still self-aware.

He could sense that the maid who had spent eight birthdays with him might have a higher liking for him than the princess did.

Then... the first princess is at one o'clock, and the maid is at nine o'clock.

The rest comes from my mom.

From the age of zero to eight, it is ten thousand per year.