Holy Templar Sanctum (Aincrad)

[Bloodedge]

While Charlemagne was busy spiraling into insanity, Angelica grasped his attention in a very, very interesting way. Charles, she called him. That was an oddity worth taking note of in its own right. His name was originally just Charles, so many people still called him that... but not Angelica. To her, he was Charlie unless she happened to be upset in some way, in which case he immediately became Chuck. Hearing that particular name pass her lips was possibly the oddest thing he could ever imagine. "Who?" he asked instinctively. Whatever the case, she successfully grabbed his attention.

Was Bradamante going to Hell? It was always possible, though he personally doubted she would. Much to Angelica's point, he didn't imagine being unwed and sexually active in conjunction would be damning for someone of Bradamante's quality. Could he claim the same purity, though? "Well... Ruggiero might have himself a reservation," he said absently. "Though I guess maybe I misinterpreted a line somewhere. Honestly, some of it does become blurred based on uh..." He paused there, unsure how to explain his previous world experiences. "A very similar religion I knew before Aincrad. I wonder if I should ask Father An for the specifics," he said as if he were having a conversation with anyone other than the beacon of holiness herself.

Luckily, confessions were probably nonexistent in this world. Those were always a stupid and unrealistic idea in the first place, and if he had to confess to Angelica, he'd probably just die and accept Hell on the spot. Angelica's voice was tantamount to that of God's own will however, so her council was worth adhering to. A few deep breaths, and Charlemagne managed to calm himself for the sake of rationalizing things. "Alright. I get what you're saying, though I'm pretty sure the stuff I keep thinking about isn't holy at all. This conversation isn't helping me not think dirty stuff either─"

[Apollymi]

Apparently Charles didn't recognize his own name when spoken by Angelica. She found herself chuckling just a little at the reaction but she knew she didn't often say his name in such a way to him. Why would she? They were friends, he was Charlie or Chuck, mostly dependent completely upon how fast she needed to spit his name out, which was directly correlated to her current level of anger, but that did not matter. "You, I called you by your actual name because I need you to hear me, yeah?" she said before she started her own explanation of the situation.

Moving on, apparently Ruggiero might be the one going to hell. "That kind of implies that only men are going to Hell and I think that isn't a good way to think about things," she said finding the male thought about that to be a bit more defeatist than she expected given men seemed so content to run off and die for no real payoff for themselves. Regardless he seemed to agree that maybe he was overreacting just a bit. "Definitely misinterpreting something but I think if you want an interpretation, you'd be better off asking Archbishop Turpin. I feel the need to remind you in a moment like this that Father is the one one who explained mana-transfer to me and you already have a problem with how I understand it. It might be a generational thing..." she said offering that advice freely, that last phrase being one she borrowed from another person. All the while her hand remained against the side of his face. If she was being honest, after touching him she didn't really want to stop the action at all, so why bother?

Whatever the case Charles seemed to understand what she was saying. Here and now he claimed he didn't think his thoughts were holy and that he wasn't being helped into not thinking dirty things. "Well, I am not sure why it should be considered dirty in the first place. I also don't really see it as an unholy act, since the end result is the ability to make and do new things," she said seeming to have a different understanding of sex all together than normal people. Of course, that was likely the fault of her father, but human understandings of sex weren't necessarily wrong either, there had to be some sort of middle ground to be found eventually.

[Bloodedge]

Of course, Charlemagne's name was used in proper form with purpose. There obviously had to be something to it, though he knew Angelica could have grabbed his attention just as easily by calling him Chuck. Her doing that always made him assume he'd done something wrong, or at least consider the chance he'd done so. Using that method also would have been less weird, but that didn't matter much.

As for men being the only ones going to Hell, Angelica wasn't too far from a realistic conclusion. "Well if the way guys talk around each other is any indicator... I'd be willing to believe that to some extent," he mused. There was a great deal of filth in conversations among males, so it went without saying what was on their minds. Charlemagne could at least confirm what sort of thoughts were on his mind today. Actually, Archbishop Turpin was probably the most stand-up guy in the world, as far as Charlemagne was concerned. "I guess he'd be a good one to talk to. I don't want even more confusion between mana transfers and sex. I could end up like you if I got sucked into that kind of lecture!" he joked. Jokes aside, there was something exceedingly strange in older individuals if Angelica's thoughts on mana transfer were any indicator.

For instance, Angelica didn't understand why his thoughts counted as dirty. Well, a mana transfer wasn't at all like intercourse. It was at base, but there were so many nuances not observed. "Trust me, it's dirty. That's the difference to a mana transfer. It's not about the mana exchange at all; it's about... well... feeling? Two people just make themselves feel good for no reason other than to just do it. If I remember, the exclusivity clause was something about mana pollution though. I don't fully get that part; I guess it was an anti-demon thing?" While Charlemagne wondered this, he came to realize there was a hand upon his face. When did that get there? It was yet another thing tugging away at his soul for reasons he couldn't understand. He found himself staring at that hand, wondering why Angelica found that form of contact necessary. Maybe he should have been wondering instead about the strange occurrences in his own Saint Graph, both triggered and amplified by every moment of contact with Angelica.

[Apollymi]

According to Charles, there was a a difference between the way men spoke to women directly and the way they spoke of them in the quiet of places. Of course, Angelica figured people were more comfortable around their friends and that made sense to her, she'd heard about some women being much more direct than others, but she hadn't exactly run into such a person herself. Still, she remembered the advice she'd been handed down and the explanation of it, "I don't know that many people but what I have heard indirectly about things women say to other women leads me to believe the difference isn't always as big as you think," she said leaving that alone.

Ah, but there was more to be said by Charles in a moment like this, including a joke about how he didn't want to be further confused. "Yep, just looking out for you~" she mused seemingly able to see the humor in her own misunderstanding as caused by chats with her father. And that statement was accompanied by a gentle tap on Charles face. Of course, on the matters they were actually talking about a key difference was explained. According to Charles what was dirty was that people engaged in sex purely for the feeling of it. Mana transfers were done for empowering things and as but the mana-transfer that happened from sex was an afterthought because it was more about the feeling. He also had something to say about exclusivity being about pollution so it was likely to do with demonic influence. "Again I don't see a problem with doing something to make yourself feel good, nor would it be bad to think about so long as you aren't hurting anyone," she said seeming to give the latter half of his statement a bit more thought. "Well that is probably the simplest explanation to give people who can't sense mana on their own," she said. "It's a bit like oooh adding things to tea. If you add honey it will be sweet. If you add sugar, it will be even sweeter but if you keep adding in other things there eventually won't be much of the original thing left and it will be completely different and probably inedible," she said her understanding of mana was rather simple but she could tell that from sensing other people.

[Bloodedge]

According to Angelica, there may not have been such a large difference between guy talk and girl talk. There was reason to believe that. On the other hand, Charlemagne had reason to believe that gap couldn't be bridged as easily as one thought. There were a few exceptional cases on either side, at least. It wasn't as if he intended to dive deep into the differences of private conversation. Doing something like that would require hiding in a room of only women, and that would likely have some terrible results for entirely different reasons.

Upon claiming he wished to refrain from becoming like Angelica, Charlemagne received a tap to the face. The tiniest jolt traveled through him on a spiritual level in that moment, though the contact itself could barely be registered. What was that sensation though? Was he entering some mythical second puberty? Whatever it was, he noted the occasional pulse of his manhood synchronizing with his heartbeat. Little did he know, this happened due to his heartbeat harmonizing with surges of his Spiritual Core. How strange. All of that occurred while Angelica spoke positively about things he understood to be sinful. Not harming others was the main thing one wanted to avoid, and that was the only stipulation Angelica put on the rightness of something. Ah, but there was more of an explanation to come from her.

Pollution of mana was a true danger. It was compared to blending tea with additional flavors, which diluted the tea to an unrecognizable state if one added too much variety. Charlemagne could think of many analogies which fit the same purpose, so indeed, it became something easily understandable. "Huh. That makes a lot of sense. I feel like I should consider it weird that you're basically telling me to keep thinking dirty thoughts, but... it makes sense," he surmised. For all intents and purposes, the Holy Princess' beliefs were meant to be taken as the wisdom of God. That much was once implied indirectly by Father An himself, so perhaps it wasn't a free ticket to Hell if he kept mentally replacing the objects she'd been interacting with all day with himself, applying the nudity he'd seen only once now to every instance. Though... that justification may have been a little extreme, it could only maybe be sinful for the length of an engagement, right?

[Apollymi]

The words she'd spoken to Charles seemed to have calmed him down more than a little bit. For this Angelica could only be thankful. Even though she was quite inexperienced in matters related to human interaction, she knew with certainty that she didn't want the man she was interested in, feeling bad for being equally interested in her. All the while Angelica felt the gentle pulses of his mana which felt higher quality than it had the last time she'd seen him. She couldn't quite place that feeling herself but figured he was likely just starting to develop past the limits of humanity. She'd seen such a thing happen before so it wasn't completely out of the question.

What was more, Angelica could count another victory this day, her explanation of the problems of mana pollution seemed to be something that Charles could understand. And as such he seemed to calm down quite a bit. Good. He was a bit prone to spastic behavior when he went on tangents and a bit of calm would do him good. He claimed when he finally spoke that what she said made sense even though he saw it as her encouraging him to continue thinking dirty thoughts. "Maybe it's more weird that good people have implied shame about natural thoughts and feelings," she commented seeming to think that was more the right answer. In this case, she wasn't weird, he and any other good person who felt bad about sexual thoughts was weird, because she was certain that shame could only negatively effect the outcome of something which was supposed to be good. "Now then have we averted a crisis? Do you have more mana related questions? Anything else I can help you with today, Charlie?~" she said all the while a gentle smile crossed her face. She now had a new understanding for Jeanne d'Arc, coming to understand in a moment like this and her earlier help of Bradamante how much fun there was to helping someone else. Just the same she put no space between them and it seemed that his nudity was all but forgotten by her at least for now, given his emotional crisis had outweighed the sexual one.

[Bloodedge]

In fairness, Charlemagne had been calmed by a significant amount. He really needed to do something about that habit of freaking out so much. Angelica was, however, among the few who could always successfully bring him back to reality. Ah, if only he could manage the amount of composure she had... apart from the unbridled fury. Maybe her mentality was partially to blame for the amount of sense she made. Alternatively, maybe her unfamiliar understanding made her wrong about this too. That was less likely, given the words of Father An regarding her beliefs. Maybe Charlemagne was best just taking everything she said at face value?

Whatever the case, he was relaxed─ at least most of him was. Parts that weren't to be considered relaxed weren't worth discussing, but apparently mana-related questions were the topic of choice. Interestingly enough, those things were technically related. Was Charlemagne aware of that? Not really. He was, however, aware that something strange was happening. The longer Angelica's hand was in contact with his face, the more he felt... strange. "Would it be weird to say I'm not sure? Something feels weird, and I've got no idea what it is. I know it's something to do with mana. That's about all I know. I'm not even sure if it's yours or mine, or... something else. Any insight?"

[Apollymi]

The moment between Angelica and Charles was rather interesting. It seemed he was indeed calm well except for his manhood. But that wasn't currently the topic of discussion, Angelica offered to answer any of his other questions and it seemed that he had one related to mana. Or rather a supposition which required her input. He thought he'd been feeling strangely and that mana had something to do with it, and he wondered then beyond that if Angelica had any thoughts or ideas about it. she was touching him presently and hadn't wanted to pull away, she'd also touched him earlier and felt oddly about it. His mana was quite different from what she'd gotten used to of him and felt more like what she remembered Jeanne being like after that woman won her Holy Grail.

"Hm, as far as I can think about it. You feel a bit different today..." she said that hand which had been planted against the side of his face became a finger which drew rather casually down the lad's jaw. He had nice bone structure as well. "Your mana and the mana of most other people usually feels indistinct unless I am concentrating, or one of you is having some sort of fit," she said wondering if it would make sense, she decided for another analogy. "A bit like knowing birds are chirping but not being able to pick out a single bird call..." she said. "But now it feels like it's just outside of a window instead of off in the distance, if that makes sense," she said. "That being said it isn't Evil or tainted or even very different just more pronounced I think..." she said seeming to understand it that way. "It is possible for humans to surpass their normal boundaries, maybe you did something you didn't know could change you and are in the midst of an evolution?" she said carefully. That would make sense.

[Bloodedge]

When Charlemagne questioned whatever strange mana-related occurrence surrounded him presently, Angelica seemed to have an understanding of it. At the very least, she'd taken note of the strangeness. Charlemagne felt different all day, according to the blonde. It wasn't that he'd become anything different; instead, he was simply... more? The analogy presented made sense, though not the effect itself.

He knew of even humans having some ability to evolve in this world. By Angelica's own explanation however, it was something he'd liken to the few who acquired Holy Grails in the old way. Jeanne d'Arc was one such individual, but Charlemagne hadn't claimed one of his own. Was this perhaps what the process of being chosen for the Holy Grail War felt like? He didn't have a clue; those things hardly happened anymore. Even when they did, the results were far from what they once were. "I can't think of any reason I would be evolving. The things I've been doing lately haven't even been challenging; it's just been time-consuming. Honestly, I haven't trained much or changed anything I've done. The most unusual experience I've had was meeting with you, and that's only because it's been decades since we last hung out," he rambled. Encountering Angelica didn't seem like a reason for evolution. Perhaps it could be called an automatic trigger for male puberty even well into adulthood, but evolution? That sounded ridiculous. "Angie, you're not some kind of living Holy Grail or something, are you? Because I'll start yelling 'it's people' every time I see one of those things if you are," he added, taking the extra initiative to poke Angelica in the cheek repeatedly.

[Apollymi]

In the discussion of their mana related exploration, Charles claimed that he'd done nothing to evolve at all. He'd not claimed a holy grail or even participated in anything which could be considered challenging. According to Charles his most recent tasks were only time consuming and as such the most interesting thing he'd done in ages was have contact with Angelica for the first time in a few decades. "I mean would you know if you'd done something worthy of evolution? Maybe there is a goodness scale and you've crossed the line of it?" she said. Little deeds should be counted as they added up at least that was the thought.

Of course Charles took his thoughts in a completely different direction. Here and now he wondered if Angelica as a person counted as some sort of living Holy Grail that he had contact with, Angelica gave that a bit of consideration in all supposed seriousness even with his comment about grails being people. "Well, given that Jeanne said grails take the sacrifice of lives from the holy grail wars I am sure they count as people regardless, at least in that case," she said seeming to find that statement logical. "As for me I am the Holy Princess, and while I doubt I should be compared to anything like a Holy Grail, I do have a high tier of Divinity so it is possible for me to affect things around me a bit," she said but she wasn't quite done yet. "But why would the amount I affect you have changed over thirty years. The only thing of interest I've done in ages is make adjustments to my floor... that is hardly something that would make me affect you. I wasn't doing so before to my knowledge," she said giving her head a gentle nod. Still her hand hadn't truly left this lad at all and in the midst of his speech he'd begun poking her face as well. She was less annoyed by this than she likely should have been but took it as permission to poke the lad more. Her fingers also poking his cheek since he was content to do something like that to her.

[Bloodedge]

"Well I can't say for certain, but I can say that if any of the stuff I've done lately meets the criteria, I think a lot of people would evolve," was Charlemagne's retort. He'd truly done nothing but busywork in all the time he'd been adventuring recently. There were perhaps a few exciting moments, but it was nothing to write home about. If there was some threshold he'd reached, regardless of the reason, he wished there was a way to know for certain.

As he recalled, there was something about sacrifices feeding into the Holy Grail's wish-granting ability. Why that made them count as people was a little on the nose, but he supposed there was some logic to it. Either way, there was a strange implication to be taken from the idea. "But if they count as people by that logic, and you're claiming similarity to a Holy Grail... does that mean you sacrifice people? Do people sacrifice people to you? Are you actively sucking my soul, and that's what I've been feeling?" How much of Charlemagne's questioning came from a point of honest concern or curiosity? Hardly any of it, really. He'd basically discredited the idea of Angelica having that sort of effect on him, though not entirely. He did believe she had some sort of passive effect on him today. What that effect was, would be considered the mystery.

There were no apparent reasons for Angelica to affect him, nor for him to be so suddenly enamored by her. The latter could at least be justified as a situational thing, but it didn't seem so simple at all. "I can't remember being affected by anything you've done, but... oi!" In the midst of a serious conversation, there was strangeness. He'd been casually poking Angelica's cheek, and now, she was poking his in return. He absolutely had to poke her more, so those movements of his forefinger became more focused, more purposeful and more plentiful.

[Apollymi]

Charles had interesting thoughts about his developments and by proxy the potential developments of society. Did he really think whatever work he'd been doing was so insignificant? Well it might have been. In truth, Angelica didn't really trust her father to know and understand the best uses of people when sending them out to do tasks. She assumed that given Charles' personality he might have been sent on work which would have counted as errands that more arrogant or lazy people wouldn't be interested in doing. "Maybe but not all evolutions require a lot, just specialization," she mused. She knew in particular things like crafting simply got better through trying to craft more, as such she held it in pretty good confidence that one might be able to evolve while doing something relatively simple. Maybe humanity just hadn't figured out fully how to surpass their limits in such a way?

Moving on, Angelica compared herself to a Holy Grail, only in the fact that she possessed Divinity as a skill and could likely affect people around her in various ways. This was an idea Charles ran with going on a short rant and questioning whether or not Angelica was managing to sacrifice people and maybe sucking the soul out of Charles in the moment. A haughty little scoff escaped her in the moment. "Get real, Chuck, I would do no such thing. And I am sure if I was doing something to you, it'd definitely be on purpose!" she declared while continuing to poke the lad.

Of course over the length of time of their discussion they were both just poking each other with increased vigor. In response to the increased vigor of Charles, Angelica managed to do more herself seeming to move her finger around in a circle in the spot she poked. "Oi nothing. I don't do things to you... this doesn't count, you started it!" she claimed continuing to poke him. Of course it was rather relieving that she didn't think herself responsible for any pain mental or physical being caused to Charles. She wouldn't want him suffering on her account, she liked him quite a bit. Charles nudity also went unnoticed but the slight pulses to Charles mana were something of note.

[Bloodedge]

"Sure, but doesn't that usually come with Skill acquisitions and stuff like that? I haven't had anything like that happen either," he explained. If he happened to be entering an evolution without even a Skill upgrade or unlock, he'd be quite upset. That was no way to live the isekai life. A more appropriate thing would be to find out his soul was actually being syphoned by Angelica, and that their union would result in such an evolution necessary to defeat the Demon Lord... or something along those lines. Now that was how one ascended in a fantasy world!

Angelica wouldn't be the type to sacrifice, and she'd only perform acts of soul-sucking on purpose... apparently. That last part was an unnecessary addition. What would be the point? Well, depending on the method of execution, it probably wouldn't be so bad. Terrible thought. He should erase that one, right? Or... perhaps not. Whatever the case, Angelica's poking vigor increased in wake of his own, and she went on to claim this was something he started. How ridiculous! Obviously, he hadn't done a thing! "Don't go blaming me! You touched first, I responded!" Charlemagne countered. In that very moment, he had a second forefinger joining the mix. He'd be poking both sides of her face, and apparently ignoring the fact that he'd stopped holding his trunks up in the process.

[Apollymi]

Charles questioned the lack of skill evolution to go along with his changes in base. Angelica gave that a bit of consideration, all while still poking the lad only to come to a different set of conclusions. "Don't humans have to put in a lot of thought to skills since they can't innately use mana? It could be what would be a natural set of skills might not manifest until your mana is finished with whatever it is doing..." she said. That seemed reasonable enough to her. Humans and other beings that didn't naturally manipulate their own mana were relatively hard to understand. As such she could only make educated guesses about the nature of his evolution. Even so she didn't see it as a large problem that he had no new skills currently, he might have needed to achieve a better understanding of his new mana source before he was able to do things like manage his skills.

But there were other things escalating that required more direct attention. Here and now, Charles decided to poke her with two hands, blaming her for initiating contact and claiming it wasn't his fault. "I patted you, to calm you down. You poked me, aggression is your fault, Chuck!" she claimed as she continued. Oh? He'd upped the ante with that second finger. Angelica wouldn't be left behind that second finger began to poke poke poke his exposed chest as well. What was he going to do about it. She didn't know, they were a bit too caught up in the moment and without his hands holding up his shorts he was probably closer to nude than he would have generally appreciated.

[Bloodedge]

"It's not like humans are that limited. Humans can use mana if they can learn; there just aren't any innate abilities to humans. It takes a lot of thought, focus and ability to learn something new, but evolutions are completely conditional from what I've seen. I've evolved a couple of Skills randomly so far, and it's all happened in conjunction with any change to my Saint Graph," Charlemagne explained with relative certainty. He was pretty sure that any evolution open to him would come with some sort of change, something he'd be fully aware of. Whatever was happening, it was either something far too early to warrant ascension... or too far beyond human understanding to be perceivable to him. The latter, of course, seemed like he'd have to do something ridiculous to achieve it.

The poking continued. Between Charlemagne and Angelica, there were four fingers rapidly pressing against skin. Angelica however, had taken to poking his chest with her second digit. To counter such a thing, Charlemagne began poking at her abdomen with both fingers. "Oi! You still touched first! What I'm doing is just normal progression, so it's still on you!" he insisted. All the while, there seemed to be no ending in sight for this random poke-war of sorts. Charlemagne wasn't going to stop, and it seemed Angelica was content to react at every turn. With that being the case, he supposed the war was on.