Party Breaker (No Way) (2)
Beni took a deep breath and, with perfectly enunciated words, spoke while her eyes glistened with tears.
“You infiltrated my party to tear it apart! You wicked incubus bastard!”
“?”
Oh my god. What the hell is she talking about?
In this world, incubi do exist, but most of them can't resist the curse of madness and end up degenerating into monsters. The rare few who manage to hold on are either lucky enough to live in places untouched by the curse or possess overwhelming personal strength. And what do those tiny handful of surviving incubi usually do for a living? ...They mostly become prostitutes.
But the fact that I'm not an incubus is obvious from the shape of my wings, tail, and ears. In other words, Beni isn't seriously suspecting me of being an incubus. She's just calling me a 'bitch' who flirts with everyone around her.
“Hah, seriously. Unbelievable.”
Stunned beyond words, I thumped my chest and shouted.
“I was cutting you some slack because you're Rydia's companion, but isn't that way too harsh?!”
“You're the one who's harsh! Not only did you seduce that noble Rydia, but even our teacher-like big sis Elly...!”
Beni pointed a finger at me, fat tears dripping down like chicken droppings. With the motion, her materialized shadow thrust a grotesque face toward me.
“I-I've heard about it! The party breaker... A scumbag who sneaks into existing adventurer parties, charms the members, and leeches off all kinds of help and material support... Then at the end, he causes a love triangle fight to disband the party, pretends to be the poor guy caught in the crossfire, and crawls into another party to repeat the cycle...!”
“No. What the hell is that supposed to be?”
I've never heard of that. Is it like the queen bee of an otaku club? Since this is a gender-reversed world, maybe a queen wasp? No, the ecology is completely different, so that doesn't fit. If I had to compare it to something, it'd be a male lion.
As I nodded to myself thinking that, Beni spat out an even more primal expression.
“You rattlesnake! I don't know how many women you've seduced by shaking that thing between your legs until now, but it won't work on m—”
“Beni! There's stuff you can say and stuff you can't. What kind of language is that to a kid!”
Apparently it was too vulgar even for her, because she got a knuckle sandwich from Elly mid-sentence.
Thwack!
“Kyaaang!”
The sound was way too loud to be from a mere knuckle sandwich. I watched with a nervous heart, wondering if it was too harsh, but thankfully Beni's skull didn't cave in. Instead, the shadow monster that had been covering her head simply turned back into what it originally was—a shadow monster.
Black mucus splattered across the floor. Eyeballs rolling around. A broken horn. Shark teeth scattering everywhere...
It was a grotesque sight that might haunt my dreams, but when Beni shook her head, it vanished in an instant as if it had never existed. And then another monstrosity rose from within Beni's shadow.
Seeing that, Elly raised her remaining fist.
“Fucking hell. You gonna put that away or what?”
“Ugh... Big sis Elly. You're being deceived right now!”
“It's not what you think, so hurry up and put away that shadow! You idiot.”
“No, big sis Elly. Just listen to me for a sec.”
“You listen to me. Yona is actually...”
Elly cut herself off there, whipped her head around to look at me, and mouthed silently.
So I trotted over to Elly and waved my hand at her. She tilted her head but still bent down for me. I took a big bite of her beautiful wolf ear, covered in that lovely gray fur. Not with my teeth—gently, with my lips.
“Mmmph.”
“Hiiit?!”
She flinched hard, her tail shooting straight up, but it soon went limp and wrapped around my arm. I whispered softly into her ear.
“It's a secret, but since she's your junior and Lady Rydia's companion, I'll specially allow it. Make sure you tell her she absolutely can't tell anyone else.”
“O-okay. Okay, so just let go of my ear already...!”
The cool, cynical former adventurer and bar owner was gone. In her place was Elly with the face of an ordinary female. Finding it a little amusing, I licked the inside of her ear with my tongue before finally letting go.
“Huuu...”
With her face completely flushed, Elly shot me a sharp glare, then let out a long sigh and draped an arm around Beni's shoulder.
“Come here for a second.”
“Is that really important right now, big sis Elly?! What was that just now! That incubus! Did he cast some kind of hypnosis on you?!”
“It's really not like that, so just come here, damn it.”
Since I'd slept through the entire day, it was now evening—the busiest time for the tavern. Elly couldn't use a divine barrier for soundproofing like Karen, nor could she use a magic tool infused with aura for noise cancellation like Rydia. After all, she was a pure physical being with no divine power, aura, or mana whatsoever.
So she dragged the grumbling Beni off to the storage room by force.
And a little while later.
Beni, now teary-eyed for a completely different reason than before, patted my shoulder.
“It's okay.”
“Huh?”
“I don't know about other people, but I understand you.”
“Uhhuh?”
“Your name's Yona, right? I'm the same as you. This shadow wasn't something I wanted either. The fact that I don't age past this appearance is the same.”
“Uh, um. Yeah!”
I didn't really get it, but I answered enthusiastically like I understood. Only then did Beni's furrowed brow slowly relax.
“Sorry about earlier. I didn't realize it was a blessing from the Goddess of Love.”
“Nah, it's fine. You wouldn't have known.”
I shrugged and quickly tried to piece together what must have happened in the storage room. No way Elly had beaten Beni up and told her to get along with me... She probably said something like how I was favored by the Goddess of Love, just like she'd mouthed earlier.
Obviously, the Goddess of Love is literally the goddess of love—not the Goddess of Wisdom or the Goddess of Adventure. The people she likes most aren't the smart ones or the strong ones. They're the charming ones. So being cherished by the Goddess of Love also means you're that charming.
It's not like I'm some incubus who charms people like Beni misunderstood. She must have said something else too, which is why Beni seems to feel some sense of kinship with me... but I don't know the details.
The important thing is that Beni's wariness has dropped again. I should take this chance to get closer to her.
Since I've already gotten deeply involved with both Elly and Rydia, it looks like I'll have to get along with Beni too.
“By the way, Beni. There's something I'd like to ask. Is that okay?”
“Hm? What is it? Go ahead.”
“That shadow of yours. That's the reason behind your alias Creepy Witch, right?”
“...Well. Yeah. It's pretty gross, isn't it?”
Beni pouted her lips. Unlike the cool Elly or the usually expressionless Rydia, her reaction was honest and straightforward. It was a refreshing sight, one you didn't often see from women on the Pan continent. I grinned and pointed at her now-quiet shadow.
“Could you show it to me one more time?”
“It's not like I can't... but are you sure you'll be okay? It's a kind of curse, so no matter how strong your stomach is, it'll probably feel unpleasant.”
“That's exactly why I'm even more curious.”
When I pressed without backing down, Beni looked troubled for a moment before carefully nodding.
“Alright. I'll show you, but don't stare too deeply, okay?”
After that warning, Beni snapped her fingers. At the same time, the shadow stretched out long, then gained height and began mixing with parts of all sorts of creatures.
An eyeball far too large to belong to a human. Bloodshot eyes glared this way, and the irregularly sprouting shark teeth looked incredibly threatening. It was like all kinds of beasts had been melted down and fused into one mass.
I kept my eyes fixed on it and continued.
“Beni. Can I touch it for a second?”
“What? No. That's too dangerous. It's true that the shadow follows my commands, but that doesn't mean I can control it perfectly. If you touch it recklessly...”
“Yah!”
I reached out and touched the shadow monster anyway. The strangely sticky body, the eyes rolling around to look at its surroundings, the tentacles hidden like small protrusions, the shark-toothed mouth smacking its lips as if hungry even though it shouldn't be. All those terrifying parts neatly arranged themselves into something easy to touch the moment my fingers made contact.
“Kyaaaaak!”
Beni screamed half a beat late, clearly horrified.
“Are you crazy?! I told you it was dangerous! If you're not careful, it might think you're food and swallow your hand whole... or so I thought... huh?”
The various parts wriggling on the shadow's surface, as if disappointed by my vanished touch. They looked like they were clamoring to be petted more. Beni stared at me blankly.
“You. What are you? ...Never mind. It doesn't matter. Your name's Yona, right? Let's do a job together.”
“...If it's something perverted, Elly's first in line. Get in the queue and grow your chest a bit before coming back.”
“It's not like that! And who cares about chest size right now!”
Beni huffed angrily. Then she grinned, baring her sharp shark teeth.
“I'll pay you ten a day. Since you're already a baggage carrier, you can be my research assistant too.”
“Ten coppers a day...? Who the hell would work for that!”
“Not coppers. Silvers.”
“Eh.”
Ten daily summons in a row... I smiled brightly.
“What should I do first?”
It was the smile of capitalism.