The Youth Protection Act's Counterpart
Accept a contract with a succubus and inscribe a lewd mark upon your body. Depending on the blessing's level, your stats increase dramatically and new perks become available — but you gradually receive powerful erotic debuffs.
My theory went like this.
One of the Youth Protection Act's powers was the ability to censor indecent content. That was why most of the erotic status entries had been blacked out. This thing wouldn't even let me look at the sexual items on my status window — so what would it do if I tried to carve a lewd mark into my own body?
Assuming the ability possessed a normal, Confucian sense of propriety, it was hardly going to sit still and watch an eleven-year-old girl's body get branded with a lewd sigil. The erotic debuffs were the same. The sight of a little girl steeped in lewd status effects…
Absolutely not happening.
In other words, the lewd mark and the erotic debuffs would trip the Youth Protection Act's trigger, and the ability would fire — potentially nullifying both effects entirely. If it worked, I'd have a free ride on the erotic perks' powerful stats and skills without ever having to defile myself.
No matter how many times I could claw my way back from a game over, my stats were still those of an ordinary weakling. Thinking about the original story, the road to the Demon King from here was going to be brutal. But if I borrowed this dangerous power — the erotic perks — I could, paradoxically, keep my adventure safer.
"Hmm…"
Of course, the world never rolled the way you wanted it to. What if, against all odds, the Youth Protection Act failed to nullify the lewd mark or the erotic debuffs? What if the ability activated but I still couldn't take down the Demon King — or I only became an adult after I'd already killed him? Would I still be protected then?
On top of that, taking an erotic perk could cause problems when it came time to form a party. Of the three companions I needed to recruit, two were clergy. An erotic perk was, by definition, a contract with a succubus. There was every chance they'd notice somehow.
"…On hold for now."
I didn't have any perk points at the moment anyway. Learning a little more about the ability first and deciding later wouldn't put me behind. The adventure wasn't blocked yet, so there was no need to rush.
With that settled, I closed the status window — and a yawn slipped out of me on its own.
I'm sleepy.
I'd been moving around hunting all day, and with this child's body, drowsiness was already rolling in even though the sun had only just gone down.
Sleeping like this feels wrong, though.
The deep teal dress I'd been wearing since I first opened my eyes was uncomfortable, and with nothing else to change into, sleeping in it was out of the question. If I just took it off…
"Whatever."
I was wearing undershorts and underwear underneath, solid enough. And this was my body now, wasn't it? No reason to be embarrassed.
I stripped off the dress, burrowed straight into the soft blankets, and fell asleep.
I made it safely through my first day in this world, and a new morning arrived.
In the first-floor bathroom I washed my body clean — smaller now, and easier to scrub — then filled my little stomach with the innkeeper's home-cooked food and headed straight for the southern forest. If I wanted to cover tonight's lodging, I still had to diligently collect goblin ears.
Kihek—!
After a full day of tracking and hunting goblins, a strange kind of thirst began to set in. Just in case, I tried casting a Fireball into the empty air — a small ball of flame formed in my hand, then fizzled out.
About thirty is the limit, then.
Last time they'd fought among themselves, so I hadn't been able to get a proper count, but today's tally put me at roughly the same number I could hunt in the game. More than enough to cover a night's stay. The count might shift day to day depending on my accuracy, but I was confident in my aim, so it wasn't much of a concern.
"Right side, right side."
Mindful of yesterday's disaster, I was cutting the right ears from the goblin corpses when—
Kieeek—!
A goblin I'd thought was dead lurched up and lunged at me.
"Eek?!"
Caught by the ambush, I toppled backward and thrust out a hand — only to realize too late that my mana was gone. I grabbed the small dagger I'd been using to cut ears and drove it into the throat of the goblin crashing down on top of me.
Kehek—?!
It gushed red blood, its eyes rolling back. I shoved the now-genuinely-dead thing aside and pushed myself up.
"Haaah…! Just die cleanly, will you? Don't scare me like that!"
It was a good thing the goblin had already been wounded by a Fireball. I'd come within a hair of triggering the Youth Protection Act again. I knew it was fine as long as it didn't fire on the same target more than once, but one thing still bothered me.
The chest pain I'd felt after the ability activated that time. I couldn't pin down the exact cause, but given the sequence of events, the odds were high it was some kind of backlash. Checking it myself would be the surest way — but it had hurt so badly I had no desire to go looking for it. More than that, simply ending up in a situation where the ability fired was so unpleasant that I wanted to avoid it as much as possible.
Once I'd gotten clear of the crisis and calmed my rattled nerves, an indescribable stickiness settled over my neck and chest, slick with blood.
"Ugh…. Even my clothes are soaked."
Was this even going to come out? Desperate to wash myself off, I finished collecting the ears and hurried back toward the city.
Creeeak—
I stepped into the Adventurers' Guild first to settle up, and Barto at the counter took one look at me and went wide-eyed. Wondering what the fuss was about, I walked over — and he looked me up and down before asking in a rush:
"What's with all that blood? Did you get cut or something? Huh?!"
I set the pouch of ears on the counter and answered evenly.
"I just got splattered hunting goblins. Here. I brought the right ears this time."
Barto looked me over once more, let out a breath, and spoke.
"Damn it. You nearly gave me a heart attack."
"Were you worried about me?"
"…Shut up."
"Yes, sir."
Mouthing off wouldn't get me anywhere good, so I kept quiet and waited. Once again, a day's lodging money landed in my hands. But money wasn't the only thing I was holding.
A battered ring set with a faded green magic stone sat mixed in among the silver coins called Furies.
"What's this?"
"A guardian ring I used to wear. Take it."
It was the kind of accessory mages mainly used as defensive gear — drawing on the mana stored in the ring to reduce incoming damage. But that wasn't what I was curious about.
"Why are you giving it to me?"
"Because watching you wander around with no armor is an eyesore."
I shot him a suspicious look, and he spoke again.
"The mana's almost gone anyway, so it's barely usable, and I can't sell it either. I was about to throw it out. Stop fretting and just use it till it falls apart."
"……."
What was this? Had he always been like this? Even accounting for the little-girl appearance, this level of goodwill was enough to make me more uneasy, not less. The original story did have accessories with strange curses on them, but those always came with descriptions that made the curse obvious, so this probably wasn't one of those. Did he have some other angle?
Then again, I wasn't so naive that a single piece of candy would have me tagging along after someone. I decided to take it for now.
"Thank you."
"Yeah. Now get lost."
"Yes, sir."
I left the guild before I could ruin my eyes looking at the prostitutes again, and headed back to the inn. The innkeeper took one look at me covered in blood, yelped, shoved me into the bathroom, and confiscated my clothes with a promise to wash them.
Hope the blood comes out…
I washed myself clean, pulled on the baggy tunic she'd lent me, and closed out the day with a good dinner.
Morning again.
Contrary to my worries, the dress the innkeeper had taken was spotless — not a single drop of blood left — and soft and dry. When I asked, she said it was some kind of soap made with alchemy.
Hopefully it wasn't expensive.
I changed back into the dress, which looked good as new, slipped on the ring Barto had given me, confirmed there were no problems, and headed for the forest once more. Today, too, the goblins' screams rang loudly through the trees.
Fireball.
Kiik—! Kek—!
But once I'd finished off the last remaining goblin, silence reclaimed the place. And at the same time, a message window rose to tell me I was growing steadily.
You have acquired 1 pt of Perk Points. (Current held points: 4 pt)
Your stats have increased.
Mana UP! | Current: D+
Stats might look frozen on the surface, but the hidden values underneath were climbing honestly. And the perk points had already piled up enough to learn a new skill.
The problem was…
Even if I learned the skills, they were useless in my current situation — I hadn't met any companions yet. There were still the erotic perks, but I still didn't have the courage to try those.
I've got points left over anyway. Might as well pick up a normal perk.
There might be a hidden effect, and there was no real reason not to take it, so I reached for the status window.
Click—
You have acquired the perk <The Party Mascot Has Arrived!>.
"……."
No extra abilities after all, huh. I'd been hoping something new would appear on the status window — a new category, a new perk, anything — but the message window only delivered the dry fact that I'd acquired a perk.
"Boring."
Even after getting a skill, the fact that I couldn't use it left a pointless disappointment trailing behind. The classic move was to grab one broken skill and freeload your way through everything. Instead I'd gotten something useless, complete with an unfitting exclamation point.
"Ugh."
I let out a long sigh and closed the status window.
Come to think of it…
Go any deeper from here and you hit the deep forest. Barto's advice had been not to set foot in it. Adventurers going missing — what exactly was going on out there?
This plot never happened in the original…
Still, it never hurt to be careful. Even if this was a world from a game, it was reality now. Unlike a virtual world that ran on programmed rails, there would be all kinds of variables. Tia herself was a walking bundle of variables to begin with.
Time to head back.
Given enough time, other adventurers would deal with the problem on their own. And even if they didn't, the right move was to grow stronger, gather information, and only then step in.
I turned to go back to hunting goblins — and froze.
"Eh?"
Something massive was blocking the path I'd come by. Standing at a distance, club in hand, fixing me with a terrifying glare and coiled to charge at any second — an orc with a frame that easily cleared two meters. And not just any orc: an elite monster, red tattoos carved across its entire body. A creature whose physical ability alone rivaled the first-stage boss — maybe even surpassed it — was standing right in front of me.
"You've got to be kidding…!"
I take it back. This is not boring.