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Once we parted with Temuru, we headed to the inn we had looked into in advance. This city was extremely discriminating against half-demons, so we couldn’t guarantee Cloud’s safety in some random inn. For example, if the inn people stole his luggage, even if he went to the government officials to report it, they might not even hear him out.

There might be some people who could even resort to taking his life rather than just luggage. For that reason, it was necessary to choose a trustworthy inn even if we had to pay a bit more.

“Uhh… I really feel bad about this. You did all this for me.”
“Oh daddy, don’t be like that.”
“Uhh, Michelle, what was that supposed to mean?”
“Anyway, setting Michelle’s joke aside.”
“Nicole, that’s unfair!”
“ANYWAY! This is also for protecting ourselves, so don’t worry about it.”

Ignoring the pouting Michelle, I answered with a shrug. Cloud’s expression told me he wasn’t following me, so I pointed at the surrounding gazes with my chin. He seemed to have finally realized it with that and quickly scanned the surroundings.

The passersby gazes were focused on us… no, on me. Long silver hair and a balanced body. Heterochromatic red-blue eyes. And above all, my looks were like a spitting image of Maria who was revered as a Saint in this kingdom.

Moreover, I had tight-fitting clothes and armor on me so I could move easily. And a short skirt with kneesocks. I didn’t wear my gauntlets in front of Cortina, but I still had my rough boots. All that created a mismatched atmosphere with my dainty looks, giving off a peculiar sense of charm… I think.

The gazes of people around told me that my thoughts weren’t wrong.

“Nicole grew up to look just like Maria, so it’s natural that the people in this city are focused on her.”
“I didn’t think she’d grow up to be so similar.”

Cortina and Tricia followed us too. But as we were the ones leading this Adventure, they did not meddle any more than necessary. They were at most giving advice in regards to enemy searching and ambushes. The time with the Stalk Dogs was… well, an emergency.

“The people of Raum and Stollar got used to it, but it’s different here. Besides… I’m just saying, but we’ll fetch a nice price if we sold as slaves.”

Finia and I for our appearances, and Michelle also for her ability.

Slavery was forbidden in this city too, but there were many people doing that outside of the cities. If such people caught us, there would be people willing to pay an arm and a leg for us.

“That’s true. And the reason why I’m suffering so much…”
“All the more because not just me, but also Finia and Michelle are surrounding you.”
“Don’t make it sound so scandalous, will you!?”

Cloud objected a bit too loudly, making people looking at us turn noisy. I could also feel children were pointing at us. Cloud sensed that restless atmosphere and hurried his pace.

“L-Lets drop this useless topic and go already.”
“You sure learned how to talk. Weren’t you the one who started this?”
“Leave me alone!”

Cortina’s interruption made him groan while holding his head. As we continued our idle chatter, our inn came into sight. It faced the main street and was nicely decorated from the outside, given that it was an expensive inn. These three years I’ve been away from my guardians, so I’ve gotten used to checking in at inns like these.

I headed to the counter and made a five-day stay request to the receptionist that politely greeted me. Since we already had a set amount of days to stay, I decided to pay in advance to display that we were paying customers.

The receptionist seemed to have realized why we were staying at a luxurious inn when he saw the lined up beauties and Cloud, and tended to us with a big smile.

As always, Cloud and I went with single rooms, while Michelle and Finia took a shared one. I also had Cortina and Tricia stay in a shared room. They were our companions this time, so they were taking a bit of a distance. This was because they knew this was our adventure.

The reason why only I took a single room was due to the problem with gender ratio and also due to my many secrets.

I had them carry food to the biggest shared room which was Michelle and Finia’s room, and we all had a meal there. This was because no matter how much this inn was careful in their clientele, dining in the shared cafeteria could still get us rolled up into trouble.

In a region with so harsh half-demon discrimination, it would be beter for Cloud to stay behind-the-scenes as much as possible. This was something I have also learned in my previous life.

“So, we are planning to depart in five days, but what do we do until then?”

We have already achieved our first goal, which was to get Cloud to experience how badly the world looked at half-demons. Honestly, having him experience anything beyond this and breaking his heart would be bad too, so I wasn’t very keen on going outside too much.

We’ve traveled for two weeks, so it wouldn’t be so bad to stay indoors for the next five days and relax.

“We’ve come all this way, so why not do some sightseeing?”
“Ah, I want that too.”
“What about Lady Cortina?”
“She went out drinking with Tricia tonight. It looks like she’s planning to stay as a simple adviser until the end.”

I’m not sure what she even came here for, but thanks to her Cloud managed to escape from that trouble when entering the city. Her directions during the Stalk Dog incident also helped us end the matter without incidents. With everything said, she was a reliable comrade in the end.

“You still want to go outside after all those insults from the guard? You’re surprisingly resilient huh?”
“Well, I knew it beforehand so… Rather, I was more scared that Michelle would snap.
“Grr, I have moments when I get angry too, okay?”

She seemed to have remembered about that time and stroked the case with Third Eye on her back with her right hand. Our equipment was all made by the Wind God Hastur, so I didn’t want to stand out too much.

Cloud’s shield, Finia’s gauntlets, and Michelle’s breastplate were all things you couldn’t just get anywhere. It would be bad if we went outside and some lowlives started eyeing us because of that. Having said that, we couldn’t just remove them and walk defenselessly.

“Hmm… Then, let’s never walk alone outside. Cloud and Michelle in particular.”
“Okay.”
“Huuh, why me?”
“Because I realized how short your fuse is.”
“That’s not a good reason!”

Michelle protested while raising her hands, but because she was still childish, she was prone to getting heated up. Cortina and Tricia were with us too, so there should be no problems with walking together.

“Also, avoid dark and deserted places. And don’t enter the labyrinth on your own.”

There was a giant labyrinth inside the symbol of this kingdom, the World Tree.

Given that we looked like Adventurers, someone might invite us to party up. At that time, I wanted them to discuss it with us as much as possible. I wanted to avoid a situation where someone arbitrarily joined a party and entered the labyrinth, hence my warning.

I kept giving them some more warning after that, and then we broke up for the day.