“So, while thou were on thy ‘stroll’ and keeping the lookout for dangers, thou spotted Tyvera eyeing our carriage highly, deemed it suspicious, and captured her without her knowing before Mametama notified thee of our stop. Did I get that right?” Kalline asks after I explained the situation to the group.

“Yep.”

“And knowing Tyvera is from the same party as Gabriella while carrying a Messaging Crystal that would surely reach Palocaesy from here for long-distance communication, I can understand why thou would be concerned with this,” Eugus adds. “And considering the circumstances, this alone would certainly complicate matters in this Assigned Quest.”

“Circumstances? What circumstances?” Kalline asks.

“I did not mention this over the briefing of the quest yesterday but I thought it would be irrelevant until now. The one who appointed Gabriella to be Lady Krauss’ main bodyguard was another Vampire noble, the second son of another esteemed family and leader of the Duke of Demon’s Disciples, Lord Perseus Shalloreed Rowling. Considering he is Gabriella’s and Tyvera’s superior, it would not be strange to assume he played a hand in appointing the latter as a scout without my knowing.”

Ah, considering he’s Lady Krauss’ fiancé, of course, he’d have a say in who’d be allowed to escort her in the dungeon. The question is, do both of them know of this or just the guy? What about the guild master who’s playing witness to the proceedings when we get there? Konjiro the Kitsune, was it? Is he as much in the dark about this as Eugus is?

“Dear Uncle, is it not part of the guild’s regulations to relay every needed detail on quests to adventurers who art taking them, as well as answering any questions and concerns they may have on them?” Kalline asks with a furrowed brow.

“It is indeed, and if there art details on the quest that the guild itself is unaware of when the client submitted the request at the time, then it is the guild’s right and responsibility to question that client before the quest can further proceed.”

“So, who would we have to question?” I ask.

“That would be Lady Krauss, Konjiro, and Lord Rowling together, but I was told Gabriella would stand in as a representative of her superior for any questions or concerns on the quest should they arise since he is busy with other matters in Korangar. We would have to question them if Tyvera’s actions match with our concerns. Jinma, thou captured her at first sight, yes? Thou did not question her?”

I shake my head. “I figured we would have to question her ourselves, but just in case she may resist, I took any possible weapons off of her person before tying her up and bringing her here. I didn’t harm her, but I’ll take responsibility for mending the situation should this come to a misunderstanding in some way.”

I’ve been pulled away by the police for questioning many times back home, so I know how this kind of proceeding will go just from my own experiences.

“Very good. I suppose now we will just have to wait until Tyvera wakes up from her literal sleeping spell,” Eugus says before we turn to her currently sleeping while sitting up against a rock. Sue, Ren, and Erizora were keeping watch on her as I explained the situation to everyone. Kostos and Pantos are off to the side taking a break from pulling our carriage. “Unless someone has an item that can forcefully wake someone up, those put under the Slothful Slumber spell would even sleep through a riot if it was strong enough.”

“I got this covered.”

Despite them quirking eyebrows, I walk over to the sleeping Tyvera and squat down in front of her. I clap my hands and rub them together to set the mood a little before bringing them close to her cheeks.

“Smellingsalt.”

PACHI!

“UAH?! Who what when where why?!” she exclaims while looking around in a fluster after getting abruptly waken.

“Hellooo~, Ms. Tyvera. Did you have a nice nap?” I ask.

“Wh-Who are, where … how did this happen?! Gah! What the hell am I bound with?!” Tyvera exclaims while trying to break free from the bindings made from my Darkness Manipulation skill to no avail.

“H-How … did thou manage to wake her up so easily?” Kalline asks.

“It’s because of a skill called Smellingsalt. It allows me to snap anyone out of the ‘asleep,’ ‘confused,’ ‘fear,’ ‘stunned,’ and ‘charmed’ ailments, even waking someone up from the ‘FAINTED’ and ‘KO’ statuses by using some HP and slapping their cheeks together. Oh, they’d receive some damage, of course, but that can’t be helped if this were an emergency. It would be best that those under the ‘FAINTED’ and ‘KO’ statuses have enough HP on themselves before attempting to use it, too.”

“Incredible … I have not even heard of such a skill in my time,” Eugus says.

“I haven’t read of such a skill in my books, either.”

“As expected of Master! He’s a miracle worker!”

“… I’m envious to not be in Tyvera’s position right now,” Ume, Ren, and Erizora say, respectively.

… It’s a Brawler class skill that one could learn after they reach level 20. Just how bad does this world look down on this default class to not even know that? Or better yet, has anyone even tried leveling up while in a default class before changing it to a different one?

“W-Wait, Guildmaster Eugus?! And the Werewolf, Ogre, Centaur, and cougar familiar from earlier?! And with that bear cub there, that means you and her are …”

“Ah, so thou hast been watching us even from the fight with the Howlers earlier, huh?” Kalline asks with a furrowed brow.

“I didn’t even pick up her scent and we’ve been moving forward for a while. My Smell skill can only go so far at its current level, so she must’ve kept her distance enough while knowing that much to keep out of my range,” Ren adds.

“Tyvera, unless someone from this group released information to someone in some way, only the client of this party’s mission would know who’ll be involved in their quest. How did thou, an outsider, know about this?” Eugus interrogates with a furrowed brow.

“… Crap,” she curses under her breath.

Nyra asks.

“Tyvera, I would advise you to not hide anything from us or lie about it. I’ve actually anticipated this encounter happening ever since I first heard of you after showing my party this.” I pull out her feather from my pocket and hold it out to her.

“What?! W-W-Where did you—?!” For some reason after seeing the feather in my hand, instead of getting fearful or anxious being put on the spot, she gets flustered while her face turns very red and averts her gaze.

“I checked it myself after putting you to sleep. This feather fell from your wings after flying around a forest clearing at a high elevation that I passed by just yesterday morning. It was a fair distance away from Dondegarm. Do you recall that location?”

“Yesterday morning at a fair distance from Dondegarm, a forest clearing …” Her eyes widen after repeating the description and slowly turns back to me in shock and disbelief. “Um … you wouldn’t happen to have unleashed a geyser of violet magic before fighting a horde of monsters recently … have you? Like, two days before today around the morning?”

… Isn’t that when I let off that steam to fight off your curse’s side-effects?

So, that means Tyvera saw me back then, too. I was up there for a while though, and anybody would’ve noticed Ume flying off after …

I glance over at Ume who’s watching and waiting for my answer. I give my tell for her to see I’m going to speak to her through Telepathy. Ume, you know where we’re talking about, right? That clearing we were at twice? Where we had that courtship ritual and you revealed your identity to me the day before? Did you do anything at both of those times that we wouldn’t attract attention? I ask in her mind.

With my Hyper Thought Processing skill activated, I quickly figure out how to answer Tyvera’s question without giving too much away. I decided to try and be straight with her. “Around that same clearing? Yes, that was me.”

“A morning two days ago … ah! That was when Master transported himself while he was under the curse’s side-effects!” Ren exclaims

“Can we see that clearing from here?” Erizora asks.

I get up and check my bearings. Looking ahead on the road, you can see the silhouette of the city we were heading to, Palocaesy. We’re at a higher elevation, but one could still make out some of Dondegarm’s structures poking out from the hill on the horizon. The clearing I was at was on such a high elevation that one could see both of those cities from above and possibly a faint outline of a castle from a kingdom-like location in the distant mountains.

“It was … around up there,” I say while pointing to a general direction.

“Hmm … that would explain a lot of things,” Eugus says.

“What dost thou mean, Dear Uncle?” Kalline asks.

“The monster pile Jinma pulled out in front of everyone at the guild to show his worth that same day. Horned Boars and Great Hornets, those art scattered at various places in the Demon-Kin’s Territory, but Venom Beasts, Wilderballs, Black Wilderballs, Red Banes, even Trolls and their evolved forms like Glock the Putrid as a Toxic Troll … even just one or two from each of them would be enough to take out those Howlers we came across earlier, as they art quite the ferocious monsters that can only be seen from—”

“Eeriegreen Forest, one of the more dangerous locations in the Demon-Kin’s Territory with death rates of around 200 per year. Monsters at levels 40-60 were reported more around the border of that forest, but they get stronger as it gets deeper and denser to where they can be at 85 on average, which looks to be just about where Jinma was according to the placement of that clearing. There are a few Special Monsters that were reported to be as high as 60, or 120 by regular monster standards, that can appear at random, whether they be at the thinner or denser areas of the forest. I can only imagine that Toxic Troll would be one of those Special Monsters that Jinma faced. An adventurer would have to be a violet rank at the least to even have a chance to survive the denser areas of that forest on their own under such conditions.”

We all slowly turn with widened eyes to the one who described the conditions of that forest in such detail that a statistician would be proud of. She’s currently hovering above us as she focuses her concentration at the direction of the clearing, a hand is up to her chin and her other arm is supporting her ridiculous tits that look too big for her short body. They bounce with every other wing flap to keep her afloat.

“… Um, yes, I think that sounds about right, Sue,” Eugus says.

“How many of those monsters did Jinma bring in that day?” Sue asks after lowering herself to my height.

“Counting the Toxic Troll Master defeated at an earlier time, he pulled out a total of 370 monsters from his [Storage]. Eri and I counted them out ourselves while we dismantled them for goods,” Ren answers, to which Erizora nods in confirmation.

“I can see the majority of them being the lesser Monsters, but if Jinma dealt with those that Eugus listed among them around that time frame, then that means … Jinma’s a more incredible person than I could hope to dream!” Sue then exclaims before flinging herself on me and letting out an ecstatic squeal. “Aaaaaah~! This is so amazing, Jinma! I love you all the more now!”

Ume then comes to hug my other side. “I wasn’t even aware of such dangers and we had our courtship ritual at such a place. Crazy, but rather fitting for people of our statures. I’m so happy to be your wife.”

“And I’m happy to serve such a splendid person as a slave!” Ren exclaims while hugging my front.

“A true male among males,” Erizora adds while wrapping most of us together from my behind. Her titanic tits press against the back of my head.

Off in my peripheral, Kalline looks to be conflicted to join in this group hug despite how little room there’s left, but all I could do is stand there dumbly like a statue and absorb the information Sue described.

… The first things I woke up to in this new world were the walls and ceilings of a cave before that Toxic Troll came that I ended up fighting. Is she telling me I woke up in an area like THAT?! But I didn’t encounter any other Monsters since I left that cave before I stumbled into Lili’s trap! I didn’t fight any of them until I tried venting the curse’s side-effects off! Why was that?!

<“Ah, you know, going back to your most recent memories I examined while you were sleeping, you did get stomped on by his smelly foot multiple times and got exposed to his literally killer breath. It could be that those smells stuck on you as you walked and the surrounding Monsters thought you were that same Toxic Troll. They knew that wasn’t a Special Monster to mess with, and so they kept their distance out of safety. I can understand that much after observing their behavior long enough while being trapped in this tanto.

<“Still, though, if it weren’t for your Dragon Scale Defense ability blessing, even with your strength, you could’ve very well died on the first day of your time in Raiza. Damn, I think that LUCK of yours was more sinister than I thought to bring you there at random, and thanks to part of this tanto’s curse, that has barely gone up even with all of your level-ups since you got here.”>

Does my LUCK stat really play such a big role in this world?

…

“Kalline?” I call out.

“Yes?”

“Get in here. That’s an order as your leader.”

“O-Okay …” Kalline walks over without argument and tries to get as much involved with the hug as she could despite her flushed cheeks and large size as a Centaur. I try to wiggle my arms free and wrap them around Sue’s and Ume’s waists while closing my eyes and resist the urge to break into tears. I don’t even care of the stink eyes Eugus is giving me from the sidelines.

After learning much too late how dire my situation was back then as well as my LUCK stat, at this moment, I know now how important it is to take some chances and cherish the moments given to me. I’ll need to take caution and put everything I have into working towards my desired outcomes and not let anything be put to chance, if possible, for both myself and the girls who chose to be with me despite the dangers that would lie ahead of us.

“Um … Mr. Jinma, was it?”

Tyvera’s voice breaks our touching moment and we turn our attention back to her who’s still sitting bound against the rock. A very sullen air hovers around her as she doesn’t even look up at us.

“I …” Tyvera continues but hesitates as she looks to be at a loss for what to say. “I’ll … confess. I’ll explain everything about why I’m here to you all, so—”

Gyuuuuuun.

The sudden loud rumble comes from Tyvera’s direction, specifically her stomach. Her despairing face turns into one of embarrassment as it turns red despite her tanned composition.

“I suppose it’s about time for lunch. Shall we continue this discussion over some food?” I ask.

She looks at me with upturned eyes and nods shyly. Tyvera was quite rowdy the moment she woke up, and even though this is our first time meeting each other, I find it strange how quickly her demeanor changed. It makes me curious about what she needs to confess has anything to do with it.