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The man in the lead grins and gets closer to me. Somehow his attitude reminds me of the first time I met Danny, those were the days…

“Hey, that’s not how you speak to someone you’re meeting for the first time.”

One of the adventurers with them grabs the man’s nape and reels him back. Huh, he looks familiar too.

“Hello, are you adventurers?”
“Yeah, we are. You don’t look like adventurers though.”

The tallest of the group replies, but his eyes are glued to my body. But unlike the first guy’s lascivious gaze, his is closer to that of a hunter studying prey. I saw his eyes narrowing a little as he looked at my wrist too, he knows I’m not human.

Ah, I remember now. I passed by them many times when I came here wearing the mask.

“We aren’t. We just came to pick up some herbs.”
“Ohh, I know of a really good place for that, I can show you if you want!”
“No thanks, we’re good!”

The first guy manages to shake himself free and butts in between the tall one and me. Olivia stops them though, and she sounds pretty annoyed. I wonder what happened to her?

“Ohh, you’re a pretty cute girl too. Are you a noble’s daughter? It’s rare for girls to walk around with maids. If you want I can show you a whole new world of passion at night though?”
“…Hmph!”

Olivia turns her face away in annoyance, that guy really doesn’t know when to stop with his advances. Not to mention that while Olivia might have grown, she’s still a minor. He really shouldn’t be talking like that to her.

“Oh, what are you getting mad for? Let’s all be friends here.”

Ah, Olivia is clenching her fist now.

“Sorry, we picked a lot of herbs around here yesterday. I’m sure you can find more if you go a bit further away.”

Before I have to appease Olivia, the tall guy pulls the creepy one away. Nice save.

“I see, thank you for telling us. Let’s go then, Natalia.”

Olivia says that and grabs my hand, and before I know what’s happening she drags me away.

Parts of my body are made of orichalcum, a really dense metal, so my body is supposed to weigh way more than a human my size, but that did not seem to affect Olivia’s ability to pull me along.

I’ve seen her knockout Clamp Boards and Greedmega Worms with her bare fists before, but I feel like she’s still getting stronger?

——???’s Perspective

Once the party reached the edge of the forest, they lowered their backpacks.

They had accumulated enough experience for them to have a good shot at being promoted to rank C, but spending a night inside the Valhen Woods had still nearly cost them their lives.

“Ahhh, we’re finally out of there. I’ll never touch requests that take more than a day again.”
“I agree with that sentiment.”

The various adventurers voiced their relief, except for the tall one, who looked pensive.

“What’s wrong with you? You’ve been oddly quiet for a while.”
“The maid. I swear I’ve seen her before.”
“What? That line only works if she’s here to listen- Ow!”

The tall one was trying to be serious, but the creepy one just joked about it and one of their companions hit him so he would stop.

“Maybe you crossed paths while buying something in the city? You run into all sorts of people there.”
“No, I feel like it was somewhere in the forest.”
“Dude, do you think there are maids walking around the forest all the time?”
“I’m not saying I saw a maid in uniform. She was wearing something else.”
“But we’ve always traveled as a group since we came to Ingralowe. It’s weird that you’re the only one who remembers her.”
“Yeah, and I’d never forget such a cutie either.”

The creepy adventurer was right. If they had ran into her before, he would remember her face, and she would remember being hit on.

In the end, no one had a clear answer for the tall adventurer’s doubt.

“Wait everyone, something’s coming.”

The party’s scout told them, his eyes focused on the forest. Everyone got ready to fight while watching every direction around them.

The trees were more sparse there, near the edge of the forest, and the sun had a slightly inclined angle that let them clearly see the visitor.

“Grrr…”

It was a high rank monster, one which should never spawn in those regions. The adventurers froze in fear hearing the monster growl. That alone made them almost want to give up on living.

(Hey, why is this thing here?)
(They’re supposed to only live on the western side.)
(This is it… I’m dead.)
(I really should’ve asked that girl for her name at least.)

The beast’s mouth stood at the same height as the adventurer’s heads, making it extremely easy for it to tear off their heads. Its golden eyes seemed to glow as well, looking like a demonic moon.

The monster walked up to the adventurers, sniffing the air around them as if investigating them. The adventurers could only wonder who would be eaten first, and who would get to be terrified the longest.

But the monster seemed oblivious to the adventurers’ thoughts, tilting its head after sniffing them for some time, then turning around and vanishing inside the forest again.

As soon as they were certain the monster had left, all the adventurers fell exhausted on the ground.

“I really thought I was a goner…”
“That… wasn’t a Meteor Wolf, was it?”
“No, it was probably the evolved variant… a Comet Wolf.”

It was impossible to call them cowards for that. They had just survived an encounter with a monster that was commonly ranked B.