Suspicious Movements 3
In a game — and a degenerate gacha game at that — the title attached to a character's name is essentially a one-word summary of that character's defining trait.
Grace, who gained a detection passive and evolved from Apprentice Ranger into Forest Pursuer. Katie, the Northern Grand Duke's daughter and a skilled swordswoman known as the Sword Princess. Irene, a Candidate Saint born and raised in the Temple who keeps her identity hidden. And me, Roland the Paladin, slowly converting mana into Holy Power.
On the flip side, there are titles that emphasize personality over ability — a character's quirks and disposition. Ambitious Charlotte and Maid Mary fall into that category.
"Information isn't exactly my specialty as merchandise… but a private conversation between the two of us? That I can manage."
Which meant the monocled woman standing in front of me was…
Yeah. That kind of personality, for sure.
A bright red tongue slipped out, lazily dragged across full lips, and vanished — and the chat window erupted. Those languidly curved eyes with a tiny beauty mark beneath them, the elegant, soft-looking hand that nonetheless stroked the back of my hand with a distinctly lewd caress before withdrawing.
A blend of grace and carnality so potent that the noble ladies of the capital would probably gnaw through their handkerchiefs in envy.
Of course, her seduction was shut down with almost comical ease. Before I could even open my mouth, Lily and Grace stepped forward from either side of me and took over the conversation. Lily looked faintly displeased; Grace had jumped in with urgent haste. But there was something neither of them had noticed…
"Oh my? Three of us, then? Or four?"
"We'll just talk right here."
The heated gaze of Amorous Viola wasn't just licking over my forearms — it was also trailing across Grace's cleavage and the nape of Lily Depp's neck, half-hidden by her high ponytail. If we let this keep going, Han Se-ah's stream was going to get dangerous in a very different sense of the word.
Even with VR games and near-perfect realism forcing adult verification on streams, you still couldn't just have sex on broadcast. That much was obvious.
An opponent more threatening than the Floor 30 boss monster flicked her tongue again, savoring the taste. Those predator's eyes swept past me, Grace, and Lily to take in Han Se-ah, Katie, and Irene standing behind us, still trying to process the situation.
Grace seemed incapable of even imagining that a woman might target another woman, but Lily — sharp-eyed as she was — had her shoulders hunching the moment after she'd so confidently stepped forward. Guess she'd never pictured receiving that kind of lewd stare from another woman.
"A gold coin just for a conversation? You're quite the big spender in every sense… I do like big hands, you know. Thick fingers, too."
"Traveling merchants and mercenaries who were supposed to leave the western port city, pass through Maurice County, and arrive in Erteta. We heard they put in escort requests and then went completely dark."
"Hard and firm, too. I like that even more."
At this rate she'd keep yanking us around forever, so I slapped a gold coin down and forced the conversation where I wanted it. The subtle sex jokes were one thing — more importantly, true to her Merchant Union roots, she was weaving around our questions like a slippery snake, steering everything toward whatever she felt like saying.
No ordinary office clerk would act like this in front of a gold-coin-bearing customer. She had to be someone high up in the Merchant Union.
"It seems a monster that slipped past the Royal Knights has been ambushing merchants on the road. We'd appreciate your cooperation for a smooth investigation."
"…Hmm. Knights? And an Upper-grade adventurer?"
My guess proved right. The moment I set my Upper-grade adventurer badge next to the gold coin and continued, Viola's entire demeanor flipped. She tapped some kind of button as if it were a call signal, pulled out documents to review, gestured toward a side room for us — suddenly all business and bustling efficiency.
"What on earth was that person…"
"She was… certainly unique."
"Still, her work was solid. The kind of talent you'd expect from a major trading company."
Lily scratched at her nape in bewilderment, making the high ponytail she'd tied so neatly sway back and forth. For all the monsters and commissions she'd handled as an adventurer-mercenary, this was probably the first time she'd been sexually harassed by another woman.
Irene and Katie, completely missing the dirty talk about big hands, thick fingers, and a preference for hard things, offered nothing but innocent replies. The viewers, of course, understood perfectly — and were already letting their imaginations run wild.
"Oh, come on — I never expected that becoming the number-one VR streamer would mean getting hit on by a female NPC instead of a guy, okay? Can you all shut up for a second?"
Dirty talk aside, she was every bit as competent as her star rating suggested — she'd taken the gold and poured out information without hesitation. Thanks to that, Han Se-ah's quest window had updated, and we'd bolted out of the Merchant Association building, hired a coachman, and set off west again.
The second the deal closed, Viola had propositioned Han Se-ah about coming over for tea that night. Se-ah, who clearly hadn't imagined the sparks flying her way, stammered and then fled outright. As a result, clips of her getting sexually praised were already circulating on the boards under titles like "Streamer Getting Hit On."
"What's Maurice County like?"
"It's a direct trade partner with the port city, so there's a lot of seafood. Mostly salted fish or dried fish, of course. That's why broke mercenaries chew on fish jerky instead of the more expensive meat jerky. We used to gnaw on it until our mouths reeked of fish, too."
While Han Se-ah seethed over her viral clip and I snuck peeks at it through a holographic browser window, snickering to myself, Lily explained our next destination to the party.
After Erteta — the small transit town linking the kingdom's center to the west — our destination was Maurice County, the place Lily's party members had set as their goal. It was a large territory fully equipped with an Adventurer's Guild, a Mercenary Guild, and even a Magic Tower branch.
Merchants came and went in droves, so of course there were Merchant and Mercenary Guilds. Head north and you'd find wastelands claimed by orcs, which meant an Adventurer's Guild as well. Adventurers exploring those wastes and hunting orcs had drawn mages looking to develop and research the region, so a Magic Tower branch had sprung up too. Perfect place to offload surplus Mana Stones.
"Fish jerky instead of meat jerky… is that any good?"
"Not even a little. I told you — it's what broke people eat. Just like cheap meat jerky is made from scrap cuts, the fish jerky mercenaries eat is just low-grade fish flesh dried however. Reeks of fish the whole way through."
"Just hearing about it is horrifying. Makes me even less interested in fish I've never tried."
"Miss Grace, you've never eaten fish?"
"I grew up a hunter's daughter in the mountains. I've had meat until I was sick of it, but never fish. What merchant would haul seafood all the way to a slash-and-burn village? Katie's from a noble house, though — she must've tried it?"
"I'm from the North. Even with ice-free ports, seafood distribution up there isn't exactly thriving. Unless you're from the west, most people have never had seafood."
The conversation had wandered off on a tangent, but it was proof enough that Katie had settled comfortably into our party. Just as the viewers' hearts swelled at the sight of the Northern country bumpkin growing more socially adept, the carriage gradually rolled to a stop.
We hadn't reached the county in a single day — we'd arrived at a small village that could serve as a midway rest stop. Through the carriage window, before we even opened the door, smoke curled gently from the chimneys of tiny cottages, giving the place the cozy, storybook feel of a rural countryside village.
"We've arrived at a place to rest. This village only has the one inn, so you should take rooms and settle in."
"Ah, right."
Still, there was an inn for travelers. Of course there was — that was why the coachman had routed us this way. Looking thoroughly familiar with the area, he guided the horses straight toward the inn's stables. We watched him go, then stepped inside.
The inn was markedly smaller than anything in the Adventurer's City or even little Erteta. Three tables made up the entire dining area, and besides us, there wasn't a single other guest.
"Welcome. How many rooms will you be needing?"
No staff in sight — just a plump middle-aged woman sitting dully behind the counter, asking the question at a leisurely pace. With multiple routes from Erteta to Maurice County, maybe this place never saw many customers to begin with.
We plopped down at one of the dirtier tables — the one that at least only had dust and no food scraps — and ordered three rooms plus meals.
High-end lodgings with magic tools boasted modern business-hotel quality for the gamers, but anything below that dropped so far you could barely tell it apart from a stable.
Everyone was stretching or reclaiming the pouches they'd left with Han Se-ah back in the city when the inn door slammed open hard enough to nearly come off its hinges, and someone came barreling in.
"I-I heard mercenaries showed up?!"
"Good heavens, Elder!"
"Village Chief, just a moment!"
A deeply wrinkled old man, charging in on his cane.
He looked exactly like someone about to hand out a quest.