Ch.318Union Investigation Request

The serial killings that had plunged the planned site of the 8th Western City into terror finally came to a desirable end with the capture of the perpetrator.

The direct perpetrator of the robbery-murders was a female Felinoid named “Tia” who wore a collar of subjugation.

And the mastermind behind the plan who had ordered Tia to commit the murders was a Human male named “Charles Baker.”

Jessica had taken notice of Charles Baker’s tent shortly after the bait operation began.

She reasoned that if the culprit was using a slave to commit robbery-murders, they would likely be staying near the city, but would find it difficult to meet with the slave or receive items in places visible to others.

Inevitably, Jessica thought the mastermind’s hideout would be at an ambiguous distance from the city—neither too far nor too close—and in a location hidden from others’ view.

With this in mind, after conducting aerial reconnaissance with Aquila, the only candidate site discovered was Charles Baker’s tent. Jessica applied to the sheriff for a “permit to apprehend a license holder.”

They successfully captured Charles Baker as he attempted to escape by sending Phyllis and Seti after him.

According to what they later heard from the sheriff, Charles would be sentenced to death for using a slave to kill people.

Although the trial and execution would take considerable time, there would be no room for leniency for someone who illegally owned a slave, unilaterally passed on the risks of crime, and attempted to destroy evidence and flee.

Meanwhile, Tia, both the perpetrator and victim of the robbery-murders, would be sentenced to several months in prison.

Normally, the master bears full responsibility for crimes committed by slaves, but in murder cases, releasing the slave immediately would likely result in retaliation from the victim’s family.

In other words, according to the sheriff’s explanation, Tia’s prison sentence was less a punishment for murder and more a protective measure to ensure her safety until the real criminal was executed and the victims’ families had time to recover.

Speaking of Tia, it remained unclear whether she was from the same village as Seti.

After her arrest, Tia exercised her right to remain silent on all questions except her name, and Seti didn’t know much detail about the people who had been kidnapped from her village in the past.

Regarding this matter, they decided to contact Seti’s parents through the sheriff’s office in Riverside to find out more.

With this, the case was officially closed.

Just as we were about to cancel the artifact purchase request we had put out as bait and resume our adventurer activities in earnest, an interesting proposal arrived.

“A joint investigation?”

“Yes. The leader of an adventurer party called ‘Four Sisters’ has proposed that we investigate a recently discovered ancient ruin together. We’re scheduled to meet at the Adventurer’s Guild hall in 30 minutes to hear the details.”

“Hmm, ancient ruins. Sounds good.”

Although ancient ruins are often ignored by adventurers because they don’t yield much profit, we’ve had remarkable harvests from every ruin we’ve visited so far.

Hoping that such luck would continue this time as well, we headed to the Adventurer’s Guild where we were to meet the Four Sisters.

“Pleased to meet you. I’m Becky Austin, leader of the Four Sisters.”

“Jessica Walter. We don’t have a party name yet.”

The Four Sisters was, true to their name, a four-person adventurer party consisting only of women.

The slightly brusque muscular woman with short blonde hair was Becky, the leader and eldest sister.

Kate, with her blue bob haircut and cool beauty, served as both scout and sniper.

Susan, the slightly timid-looking staff wizard with ginger curly hair and glasses, was in charge of firepower.

Anna, a small-framed woman with long green braided hair, was responsible for miscellaneous tasks and specialized in monster hunting.

They had been working together as adventurers for seven years now, and all four were veteran adventurers with B-rank licenses.

There was a good reason why these women had specifically chosen our party for the ancient ruin investigation, passing over numerous other adventurers active in the area.

“An ancient ruin that only women can enter?”

“To be precise, it’s a ruin where negative magical effects activate in proportion to the number of men who enter. Inside, golem-type monsters roam around, and there are mechanisms we couldn’t activate because we lacked sufficient numbers.”

“What exactly happens when men enter?”

“Massive weight is applied to everyone’s bodies. Even with just one man, combat becomes burdensome; with two, it’s difficult to even carry bags; and from three, you can’t even walk properly.”

“I see… so that’s why you chose our party.”

While our party and the Four Sisters are exceptional cases, the gender ratio among adventurers active in Grantis is extremely skewed toward men.

For the Four Sisters, they needed to recruit additional members for an effective investigation, but if those members included men, the investigation might become impossible.

Our party, with everyone except me being female, was exactly the cooperative partner the Four Sisters had been desperately searching for.

“Ancient ruins are certainly our specialty, but it feels wrong to go without Will.”

“Yeah. It would be difficult without Will in many ways.”

“He’s a core member not only in terms of combat power but also for ruin investigation.”

The ruin investigation Phyllis referred to was, needless to say, the Arcane Word matter.

Of course, Phyllis, being an Elf, could read Arcane Words, but Elves fundamentally don’t interfere with Arcane Words as a matter of racial policy.

However, it seemed the Four Sisters had no intention of excluding me and taking only the women.

“You don’t need to worry about that. We’ve looked into various solutions and found just the right one.”

“Solution?”

“Th-this is it…”

Timed with Becky’s words, Susan the mage brought out a potion bottle containing a sky-blue liquid.

That potion color seems familiar from somewhere…

“What’s that potion?”

“I-it’s a gender-changing potion. If a man drinks this and becomes a woman, the… the ancient ruin’s penalty won’t activate.”

Now I remember.

It was the gender-changing potion I saw at the Paracelsus Workshop.

“So you’re saying if I want to come along, I need to drink that and become a woman?”

“I understand it’s a humiliating condition. However, the magical effect that activates when men are present cannot be ignored. If you won’t drink the potion, it would be better for the safety of the other members if you didn’t come along at all.”

When Becky said this, Kate, Susan, and Anna sitting beside her nodded with serious expressions.

They must have suffered a major setback when investigating with another party before us.

“If you’re providing the potion, I don’t mind drinking it… but I hope I don’t have to live as a woman forever?”

“D-don’t worry. The potion lasts for 24 hours, and we’ve prepared three in total, including extras.”

“If the ruins are so vast that we can’t complete the investigation within three days, we plan to retreat and share the information. We’ll have to return anyway because of the dark magic, and given the entry conditions, we don’t need to worry about competitors rushing in.”

After that, we discussed the distribution of items found in the ruins and transportation methods, finally deciding to depart tomorrow at 8 AM after both parties completed their preparations.

After concluding our meeting with the Four Sisters, we returned to our camping carriage parked outside the entrance.

The camping carriage, transformed into lodging mode, was already being treated as a local attraction, with passersby stopping to admire it for quite some time.

Though Ancestor, unleashed from its shaft, was watching vigilantly with wide eyes, preventing anyone from approaching carelessly.

“Well, well… first rejuvenation, now gender change. I’m certainly experiencing all sorts of things.”

“I can’t wait to see what Will looks like as a woman.”

“What if he ends up being the prettiest among us? Hehehe.”

“That would hurt my pride as a woman…”

The women were already looking forward to seeing me as a woman.

To be honest, I’m somewhat looking forward to it myself.

It’s not that I’ve wanted to be a woman or been dissatisfied with my life as a man, but I am curious about what it feels like to be a woman.

However, I also feel a slight sense of unease.

“About that gender-changing potion… there aren’t any side effects, right? Like experiencing confusion about gender identity.”

“You don’t need to worry. The gender-changing potions currently in circulation only change the outward appearance of the body. They have no effect on the mind and can’t replicate reproductive capabilities.”

“Hmm. So even if Will drinks that potion and becomes a woman, he won’t be able to conceive a child.”

“Don’t say such horrible things, Phyllis…”

Taking a hundred steps back, I might accept the TS part, but sleeping with a man and getting pregnant… such deranged drift is absolutely out of the question.

While thinking this, Iris suddenly clapped her hands.

“Ah!”

“What is it, Iris?”

“I just realized, with Master’s Cup of Glory, couldn’t we replicate the gender-changing potion?”

“That item belongs to Mina… but I suppose it would be possible after drinking it once. As long as the effect works properly despite the quality degradation.”

For reference, the quality degradation that occurs when replicating potions varies depending on the type of potion.

Most healing potions see reduced effectiveness, strength-enhancing potions experience slight decreases in both effect and duration, and in the case of fire breath potions, the breath itself doesn’t fire properly.

It would be fortunate if the quality degradation of the gender-changing potion only resulted in reduced duration, but disasters like only the upper body transforming into a woman’s could certainly occur.

However, that wasn’t what Iris was getting at.

“Then from now on, Master could become a woman, and the others could become men, so we could enjoy gender-reversal play? Without worrying about pregnancy.”

“!”

“!!”

“!!!”

“!?!?”

Hey, Jessica and the other four.

Please stop flashing those enlightened looks in your eyes.

…Should we cancel this request? No, seriously.