Ch.7A Short Journey (2)

“I’d like to receive the toll in the form of that succubus instead of money.”

“Excuse me? What do you mean by that…”

The sudden words of the bandit leader.

The bandit leader continued as if wondering why I couldn’t understand something so obvious.

“Why, isn’t it good for everyone? You don’t have to waste money, which is good for you. I get to embrace such a beauty, which is good for me, and the succubus gets to fill her stomach, which is good for her.”

The bandit leader’s words weren’t wrong.

As I’ve already mentioned, that’s the nature of succubi as a race.

If that succubus hadn’t been me, things would have flowed happily for everyone.

If only it hadn’t been me!

“Thank you for the offer, but I’ll have to decline.”

In truth, I wasn’t thankful at all.

Still, I tried to handle the situation smoothly, maintaining my smile while expressing my refusal as if I were in an awkward position.

However, it didn’t seem like my intentions were properly conveyed.

“Playing hard to get, huh? I know you’re looking forward to it too.”

The bandit leader seemed to take my words as a joke, snorted, and reached his hand toward me.

That hand was aimed at my chest.

He completely disregarded my opinion, as if everything was already settled in his mind.

In this state, it was crystal clear that he wouldn’t listen to anything I said.

‘My skin keeps getting smoother every day, and now my charm is finally causing trouble…’

I wished my physical abilities would increase dramatically instead of my charm.

I had wanted to resolve this verbally if possible, and lamented my unnecessarily high charm stat.

But the milk was already spilled.

I had no choice but to handle it directly.

“Haah…”

“You should taste my thing once… Gack…!”

Before his hand could touch my chest, I moved my leg and kicked his shin. Then I immediately delivered a punch to his jaw, knocking him unconscious.

Finally, I finished with a knee kick aimed at the groin of the falling man.

Crack-!

With the sound of something breaking, he collapsed to the ground.

“You! How dare you do that to our boss…!!”

Some might say I could have used charm to get through this easily. But I sincerely didn’t want to use charm.

Although my body had become female, my mind still insisted that I was a man.

The idea of seducing men was absolutely out of the question unless it was truly necessary, like that first day.

“I’ll beat you just enough so you won’t die.”

It’s not like I couldn’t handle a mere group of bandits anyway.

After about 5 minutes or so,

I was able to turn all the attacking bandits into a pulp without much trouble.

Since they collapsed one by one with a single punch or kick, it seemed to take longer because of the psychological warfare with the frightened bandits.

‘This is simple enough without even drawing a sword.’

Thinking that, I cleared away all the bandits lying on the ground and the barricade blocking the path, then turned around.

“Shall we go now?”

“Hmm, let’s do that.”

Although Hans was pretending to be calm, I could feel that something had changed in the way he looked at me.

That gaze contained suspicion and caution that hadn’t been there before.

‘I guess I did something too noticeable.’

Being suspected wasn’t a good situation, but it couldn’t be helped.

I couldn’t just quietly offer my body in that situation.

‘I’d rather die than be taken by a man.’

Shaking my head at a situation I didn’t even want to imagine, I climbed back onto the carriage.

Soon, the carriage rolled toward our destination again.

After passing the bandit group, the carriage that had been rolling for quite some time stopped in the middle of the night, just like before.

The camping preparations were the same as well.

As before, we gathered firewood to make a fire and made soup with minimal ingredients.

Then we sat in front of the campfire and ate the soup we made.

Despite what had happened during the day, the camping was no different from what we had been doing for the past three days.

Was he not planning to question or ask about it?

Just as I was thinking that, Hans opened his mouth.

“Aren’t you… going to eat?”

A very unnatural question in this situation, right after we had just eaten soup.

Thanks to that, I could easily tell that this was a code word.

If I responded with something like “Haven’t we already eaten?” I would probably be branded as a potential Apostle.

‘And making excuses that can’t be proven would only create more suspicion.’

So, what would be the most appropriate thing to say?

The answer was quite simple.

I just needed to give an answer that would make the other person too embarrassed to continue the conversation.

“I’ve never… eaten before.”

I said with a very melancholic expression and voice.

Like someone who had been forced to reveal a complex they had been hiding.

“I’m sorry, I’ll go in now…”

This should be enough.

There’s no need to add or explain anything further.

The rest he’ll understand and misunderstand on his own.

The next morning came.

“Um… Frey, I’m sorry about last night…”

Hans’s excessively cautious attitude confirmed that my strategy had worked perfectly.

“No, I’m fine. It’s understandable that you would be suspicious.”

Having smoothly resolved what could have been a troublesome issue, I went back to sleep in the carriage.

Although the carriage was still uncomfortable, humans are creatures of adaptation.

By now, I had figured out how to sleep in a carriage.

What woke me from my sleep was the sound of a shout from outside the carriage.

“Halt!!”

Had another group of bandits appeared?

Rubbing my eyes, I poked my head out of the carriage to see high walls, a gate, and soldiers conducting inspections.

“Do you have a church-certified certificate?”

“Ah, here it is.”

After examining the certificate Hans handed over, the soldier returned it and opened the way.

“Pass!!”

Finally, the carriage journey that was long in some ways and short in others had ended, and we had arrived at the city of Leheten.

‘Now… it’ll be hard to laze around.’

I could sleep comfortably in the carriage because there wasn’t much else to do.

Now that we’ve arrived in the city, it’s time to move without rest.

As I got off the carriage and prepared to leave right away, Hans stopped me for a moment.

“What are you planning to do now?”

“First… I’m thinking of visiting the Sword Guild.”

“It seems like you want to become an adventurer. You’ll do well, good luck.”

Along with words of encouragement, he held out a pouch.

It was the money pouch I had seen yesterday.

“Why this…?”

“Frey, this is money I saved thanks to you. And… I gave you a big wound yesterday. So, would you accept it as an apology?”

For me, it was just an act to resolve the situation, but it seems to have left quite an impression on him.

“Well… I’ll accept it with gratitude.”

There was no reason to refuse, and since my initial funds weren’t particularly abundant, I accepted the pouch.

When I took the pouch, Hans started the carriage again with a more relaxed expression and left.

“Well, I should get going too.”

Even though I had only been standing in one place for a moment, I could feel people gathering a bit, probably because of my appearance.

‘I should register at the guild and get a robe.’

Thinking that this must be how celebrities feel, I quickly left the place before more people gathered and headed toward the Warrior Guild.

Although I had the problem of not knowing the location of the Warrior Guild, finding it was very simple.

Thanks to the fact that I could get friendly guidance by grabbing any passerby and asking.

What if the passerby I grabbed didn’t know the way? Then I could solve it by grabbing the next passerby.

This might be one of the few ways I could use my charm.

Thanks to this, I was able to smoothly arrive in front of a large building.

The name and emblem of the guild written prominently above the entrance exuded confidence.

After confirming once again that I had come to the right place, I entered the guild.

As I entered the guild, various sounds could be heard.

The sound of people chattering noisily among themselves.

The sound of mugs hitting tables hard.

The sound of people shouting at each other, as if they were picking a fight.

At the same time, gazes directed at the stranger who had entered the guild.

Given that their appearances were far from refined, it was natural that they would give off a sense of intimidation.

If I had been a clueless rookie adventurer, I might have been intimidated at this point.

Of course, that doesn’t apply to me.

“The stares are quite blatant.”

If anything, the stares were even more blatant than those I felt on the street, which only made me feel uncomfortable.

Ignoring all the stares directed at me, I headed toward the reception counter.

Thud. Thud.

The reception counter was located on the opposite side of the entrance.

As a result, I walked across the guild, and the people’s gazes became even more focused on me.

By the time I reached the reception counter, it had become so quiet that it was hard to believe it had ever been noisy.

‘Maybe I should have bought a robe first.’

With all eyes in the guild focused on me, the receptionist opened her mouth.

“What brings you here?”

“I came to join the guild.”

When I said that, laughter erupted from the adventurers who had been quietly listening in the back.

“Pfft… Haha…”

The idea of a succubus joining the Sword Guild seemed quite amusing to them.

The same was true for the receptionist in front of me.

Although she didn’t show it, she seemed to disbelieve my words.

“Sigh…”

In this state, it seemed difficult to even join the guild, let alone be active.

As I was contemplating whether I should draw my sword to show something, a man who had been drinking in the back walked over.

“You’re all doing a great job, idiots.”

“Ah, Guild Master…”

Judging by the receptionist’s reaction, that man seemed to be the guild master of this place.

A large, muscular man standing over 2 meters tall.

His visible skin was covered with various scars, and his hands were calloused.

I could tell at a glance that he had been living by the sword for quite a long time.

‘He looks incredibly strong.’

Judging by the aura I could feel, he could probably use aura easily.

“The conditions for joining our guild are simple. Just prove that you know how to handle a sword, and that’s it.”

After saying that, he drew the sword he was carrying on his back.

“This is the entrance exam.”

“…?”

Was he going to conduct the entrance exam right now?

‘But this entrance exam… are we doing it here? Right now?’

Considering that this was right in front of the reception counter, it was rather perplexing.