Chapter 16 - Unwanted Advances

Elisa Ballard gave me a small, pouting look. It was a strange clash against her short, brown hair that was stained with dry blood. “Are you sure you do not want to take a bath with me? There is a nearby lake at this town and it is quite a warm day today too.”

“Quite sure,” I replied, offhandedly.

She sighed her small, soft sigh and then raked her eyes all over my body. From this action, I could get the feeling that she probably did this when inspecting her weapon too. “Very well then. You should probably get dressed and we will meet at this town's inn later at night. That is, if you have any clothes...But you can come naked, I do not mind.”

With that said, she gave me a slight wink and turned around, heading out of the safety grounds to catch up with Ryia Altard, the tall woman with the thin scar, who had went ahead of her to the lake.

“Oh yes, and bring along a weapon if you have one for the spar with Ryia!” she shouted at me, already a small distance away. And as usual, she walked with flair infused with a presence of boundless energy.

Her personality was definitely a little interesting. Most normal women would not show their unprepared faces, especially if there were smudges of dried blood on it, ruining the image of a dainty woman, which was the fantasy for the norm of most men. I could almost attribute a quality of insanity to her, but perhaps that was just what adventurers were like.

Looking around, I saw that I was one of the few people left in the safety grounds as all of the families had headed back into town after hearing the news that the raiders were defeated. Of the few people left, one of them was the third party member, Milli Gobumi, who had a withdrawn and silent look. You could almost get the feeling of a sulky, small girl from her even with her aloof face and large, brown eyes, which matched perfectly with her long-black hair that flowed just down below her small shoulders. Being flat-chested also only added to this feeling.

“I do not trust you, stranger named Verath. You are quite suspicious, but Elisa just had to insist on talking to you,” Milli said, her dainty voice turning dangerously soft and threatening. “If you choose to betray us, I will personally castigate you slowly and painfully, before digging out your eyeballs, even if Elisa likes them a lot. But I doubt you will be coming with us, as you do not even look like you could handle a weapon.”

“Little girl,” I said. Then I felt a little surprised at myself for saying that.

I would never have sought to antagonize someone if it would bring trouble and not even one jot of benefit to me. But for some reason, I could not help myself at this comical sight of a woman who was more than a head shorter than me, taking such a threatening posture in front of me.

True, she was dangerous, especially with those throwing knives. But to me, she looked like a sexually, precocious young girl, rather than a young woman in her low twenties that could kill someone in the blink of an eye, except she would not blink her eyes. No, she would barely bat an eye at killing monsters, or perhaps even humans.

Milli Gobumi gave me a long, strange look, which soon turned into an evil, dirty glare and then turned around abruptly in the direction of her two friends, and left the safety grounds, her footsteps, so very silent and coldly efficient.

She was possibly either feeling sexually hyped up like a male squirrel who had been given free nuts and had just obtained a beautiful mate or was just a bit miffed at my apparent unconcern of her. Frankly, I think it was the latter as I was just feeling a curious amusement going through my mind, thus probably observing like a first-time stalker.

I hope you are not too surprised, “my guest”, that I consider myself a stalker. It is true to an extent, but instead of observing in a too-close-for-comfort fashion, I observe with purer intentions: indifferent curiosity. It was not as if I had the intention of transforming from a stalker into a rapist or a depraved murderer, so no harm done.

If I had to transform into something, it would be a dragon or a human as that is my sole transformation magic. You would have to ask the eldest if you wanted to know the secret of transformation magic, but I doubt you would get an answer. Instead, you would probably be turned into ashes, not that you are going to come out of this alive after I have told my story to you.

As soon as I said that, I could sense the hidden despair in “my guest” who had accidentally wound up in my lair, running from the group that was giving chase to “my guest.”

Anyways, continuing on with my tale, I could also sense that the dagger-girl was trying hard not to be aware of my nakedness as she coldly walked away from me.