∗ ∗ ∗
Clank!
A thin, dark gray metallic object which looked like a status card came out of the slot on the magic tool.
Fresco picked it up and handed it over without looking at it too closely. “Here you go. This is your card.”
Just as he’d professed, Fresco appeared to be careful about private information. It wasn’t that old of an idea, but plenty of people had had a vague concept of it for ages. It was only recently that it had been treated as a right.
Even extremely confidential info only meant for select people could be physically displayed with status cards, so handling this kind of information had caused problems in the past. I’ll skip the full details, but these days, it was universally agreed that this kind of info should be handled with care—or at least, if it had to be shown, there needed to be agreement or consent from the holder if there wasn’t any official warrant.
Of course, there were exceptions to this. Policies for handling it varied by country. For example, one could easily imagine a dictatorship ignoring the guidelines about treating private information with respect. Though that wasn’t the case in this country. They did have some regard for privacy. Enough that its adventurer’s guild wouldn’t look right at the status cards they issued.
“Woof? (Milord, what should I do with this?)” Mataza looked at me with confusion, holding his status card.
I answered him, “If you don’t want to show anyone, then don’t. If you want to show someone, then go right ahead. It’s as simple as that. Well, you probably shouldn’t show it to anyone outside of your inner circle if you can help it. Some people might use it for malicious purposes.”
“Woof woof. (I’m aware of that. However, I was wondering if you’d like to take a look, Milord.)”
I hadn’t quite expected Mataza to say this, but it seemed like he was making this choice of his own free will. That was fine, then.
“I’d be glad to take a look if you’re willing to show me. Are you sure, though?”
“Woof! (Why yes, of course!)” he responded happily.
“All right, then please do. Of course, I swear on my life that I won’t leak what it says to anyone else.”
Mataza responded with a frantic look. “W-Woof woof...! (Certainly not your life...!)”
But status cards included details that you would never, ever talk to other people about under normal circumstances. “That’s just how important it is. Well, you don’t have to worry too much about it. Let’s see here.”
I gave a sidelong glance to Mataza, who was trying to stop me, and quickly checked out his status card. The following was recorded:
✦ ✦ ✦
Name: Mataza
Sex: Male
Species: Dog Beastman
Titles: None
Root Skills: <Hound Sprite 7>, <Hound Soldier 4>
Derived Skills: <Howl 5>, <Pack Supervision 4>, <Spearmanship 4>
General Skills: <Bite 2>, <Scratch 2>, <Dash 1>, <Swordplay 3>, <Glide Blade 3>...
✦ ✦ ✦
“Oh, you’ve got a bunch more!” While I was impressed, there were a few categories that were pretty dicey. The root skills section in particular was out of the question. To be fair, I’d heard of some humans who had monster skills. There were a surprising number of them among demihumans, so that might have been a decent cover story. Even so, my own status card still posed a risk...but Fresco had been considerate enough to not look. So for the moment, I could relax in regards to that.
However, observing it more closely, the entry in question was shaded in gray. It must have been another function of the status card. I had the other kobolds take a look, but apparently they couldn’t see the entry.
This was an interesting subject of investigation. There were often grayed-out parts when I tapped into the skill lists of the followers contracted to me, and I was the only one who could read them. Was this the same kind of thing? But while my contracted followers weren’t able to see them, Mataza was able to see his own.
This was an unforeseen discrepancy. Well, I couldn’t say if it would matter much. If I just wanted to see the kobolds’ skills, I could rely on <Follower Contract>. Just knowing in general who could and couldn’t see the grayed-out parts was pretty useful.
“So, how are they?” Fresco asked us with curiosity.
I thought it best to not tell him too much lest it backfire. “Well, the results aren’t all that interesting. It just displays a few general skills that we’ve learned.”
“Huh, I didn’t expect you’d have much experience to speak of. What kind of skills, just for reference?”
“A lot in the vein of Needlework and Sawing. And there’s Construction too...”
“...Seriously?”
Naturally, Aht had drilled these into us, but we had a cover story for this too. “We—and by that, I mean the dog beastmen—have led a very rugged lifestyle. They learned what they had to, to get by.”
“I see... Well, can’t say I don’t get that,” Fresco responded to my dodgy explanation with an expression of acquiescence.