Chapter 1: Prologue, Part 1: Malcolm
Blip!
Malcolm blinked, leaning against his hoe and wiping the sweat from his brow.
'What's this?' he wondered.
[Congratulations!
You have been selected by the Goddess of Love, Her Greatness Mersenia, to hold the wonderful "Husband System"!
Work diligently, and you will earn the right to wed the Goddess Herself!]
'Husband System?' Malcolm thought with a frown.
"Malcolm! Get back to work, boy! The tithe is due soon, no time to dally!"
"Yes, sir!" Malcolm yelled back to his father, picking up the hoe and resuming his task of plowing the soil.
It was hard work, especially with the scorching summer sun above him, but he enjoyed it. He took pride in what he did. How could he not? It was either that or hate every second of his life. When faced with such a choice, he would gladly take the former.
It was hours later, when the sun was setting, that he stopped.
Storing the hoe in the shed, he took a seat on the porch next to his old man and turned his attention to the floating screen that hovered in the corner of his vision even now.
When he did so, it expanded to become much more legible, displaying a series of black words on a green screen. Words that he could read, even though he never learned how to.
Strange.
[Relationships]
[Status]
[Inventory]
[Locked]
[Locked]
[Locked]
[Locked]
'Relationships?' he thought.
The screen blinked.
[Relationships
Leila: Crush, 40%]
'How did-?'
How did this thing know about Leila? No one should have known how he felt about her!
"What are you staring at, boy?" His father asked disgruntledly. He squinted at the air in front of Malcolm, taking a swig of booze. "A fly or something?"
"Just… thinking, sir," he told his father.
"Thinking? About what?"
"Just thinking," Malcolm shrugged.
"Hm." That seemed to satisfy his old man, as he leaned back in his chair without another word, nursing his bottle.
Hesitantly, Malcolm's eyes went back to the screen.
'How do I make it go back?'
The screen blinked again, and suddenly he was back on the menu.
'Status,' he thought, getting the hang of it.
[Malcolm
Condition: Healthy
Realm: Mortal
Affinities: None
Techniques: None
Spells: None
<Stats>
Charisma: 8
Strength: 8
Perception: 5
CF: 0]
It could track such things as well?
He wasn't disappointed to see that he had no affinities. Such things were impossibly rare, and were what separated mortals like them from the Ascended in the city walls.
But what was that percentage from before, next to Leila's name?
Blip!
[Leila
Description: Malcolm's crush.
Affection: 41%
Current Feelings: Tired, Determined]
Malcolm blinked in surprise. So she liked him, at least a little bit?
The thought left him feeling giddy, but he reined it in before it showed on his face. His father would never let him hear the end of it if he learned Malcolm was thinking of chasing skirts. He was always worried about not having grandchildren before he passed.
'So, she likes me,' he thought happily. 'But forty-one percent? How much is that compared to someone else?'
Blip!
[Menu unlocked: Glossary]
Malcolm frowned. 'Glossary.'
[Glossary
Affection Meter: A measure of a woman's affection toward the host.
0-10%: Strongly Hates
11-20%: Hates
21-30%: Dislikes
31-40%: Neutral
41-50% Likes
51-60%: Strongly likes
61-70%: Admires
71-80%: Infatuated
81-90% In Love
91-99%: Adores
100%: Worships]
'Oh,' he thought with a small measure of disillusionment. So she didn't like him as much as he thought.
But still, she liked him! That was more than he thought.
He stood hurriedly, startling his father, who startled awake from the light nap he had entered.
"Wha… Malcolm, where are you going?"
"Just going to see if Leila's family needs help with anything, since we're done for the day," he said over his shoulder.
"Hurry back before it gets too late, then," he said with a knowing grin, rocking his chair and taking a sip of his alcohol. "I still need you tomorrow."
"Yes, sir!" Malcolm said enthusiastically, breaking into a light jog as he sprinted down the road to the house in the distance.
He urged himself to slow before he got too close, walking with sweaty palms and butterflies in his stomach for the rest of the way.
"Malcolm," said Allen with a nod when he saw the young man. "What ya doing here?"
"We finished up over at our farm early, so I was wondering if you needed help."
"That's mighty kind of you," Allen said with a warm smile.
"Failing to assemble the tithe hurts us all," Malcolm replied before he returned the smile. "But mostly, I just like to work."
"Ha!" Allen grinned and pointed at a shed next to his house. "Grab a hoe and get to work. I'll send you home with some parsnips for your troubles."
"Only if you don't need them," Malcolm replied as he started for the storage shed.
After retrieving the hoe, he slipped in next to Leila and got to work silently.
He soon forgot about the unease he felt around her as he lost himself in the work, his mind filled with thoughts of plowing and planting.
'This is good soil,' he thought. 'No wonder their tithe is bigger.'
Food in their world grew very fast thanks to soil like this and the magical nature of their crops, but as if to balance that, the city required far more food to sustain itself.
It was the job of lowly mortal farmers such as them to supply the city with food for their Ascended, their families, their livestock, their servants, and any guests they entertained.
So every two days, Malcolm and his father planted seeds, and the rest of the days they'd harvest their wheat and plow the soil to prepare for the next batch.
Every family had a tithe, which was calculated with extreme precision by officials of the city based on how many were in their families, what they grew, how much soil they had and the quality of it, and the current season.
Leila's family had a slightly bigger tithe because their soil was better, but this also meant that they often had parsnips to spare after the tithe was submitted.
When the sun had disappeared over the horizon, they had finished.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone