Rin is Mine!
Even though they had stabbed her in the back, if Lucy had to pick the single best thing about the Hero's party, it would undoubtedly be that the members were not promiscuous.
Lucy had seen too many mixed-gender parties fall apart due to love triangles at best, or at worst, women sleeping around or men stealing other men's women, leading to infighting and bloodshed. Thus, when the Hero's party was first formed, she had desperately hoped its members would hold conservative views on sex.
Fortunately, the party members were highly disciplined and focused solely on their mission to subjugate the Demon King.
Reinpold, the only other male, went without saying, and the porter... she didn't remember much about him, but he had seemed busy enough just managing the inventory and checking off his daily to-do lists.
Lucy's worries were by no means exaggerated.
Lucy was the fourth Hero in human history, and the very first to succeed in subjugating the Demon King.
Although all the previous Heroes had failed to defeat the Demon King, they had still achieved the great feat of pushing back the frontlines and stabilizing the war.
However, a disaster had occurred during the era of the second Hero. He had lost all the female members of his party to a male rogue, only to be framed for the failure of the subjugation and executed.
The Saint, the mage, the archer, and the warrior were all women, and the mage had been the Hero's lover.
They had slept with the rogue, driven the Hero to his execution, and then lived happily ever after, starting families and bearing his children.
This legacy of betrayal had continued all the way down to the generation of their great-grandchildren.
The Goddess, who had waited for humanity to uncover and punish this injustice on their own, was utterly enraged. She descended directly upon the Holy Kingdom.
To the priests groveling before her, the Goddess declared that eyes that refused to see the truth and ears that only heard what they wanted were useless. She struck them all blind and deaf.
She then appointed the second Hero's younger sister, who had consistently proclaimed her brother's innocence, as the new Pope, and strictly commanded her to expose every single sin.
It is clearly recorded in the scriptures and history books that the Goddess's voice at that moment rang out so loudly it could be heard even in the distant kingdoms.
The Saint of that era, already struck blind and deaf by the Goddess's wrath, confessed to all her sins on the spot.
The Goddess personally seared the Saint's loins shut, tore away her voluptuous breasts, and sent her back to the kingdom in that state.
The oblivious descendants of those "heroes" had always clamored for justice, but when their grandparents' sins were brought to light, they tried to cover them up.
And for good reason—the mage had been a princess who later became queen, before eventually abdicating to rule as regent.
When the royalty and nobility attempted to cover up the truth on a national scale, the Goddess, resolving to wipe out humanity, swept the entire kingdom away with a massive flood.
She handed the holy sword once wielded by the second Hero to his sister, the Pope, and had her fish the sinners out of the water, impaling them one by one.
The actual perpetrators of the betrayal were forced to feel the agony of their bodies bloating and rotting in the water, being eaten alive by fish. Only after their eyes and brains were completely devoured did the Goddess personally drag their souls down to hell.
Amidst the chaos, the rogue managed to escape the flood and fled to the Demon Realm, begging the Demon King to hide him and spare his life.
But the Demon King, terrified after witnessing the Goddess's wrath, personally bound the rogue to the wheel of a carriage and whipped the horses, sending him straight back to the Holy Kingdom where the Goddess waited.
Normally, the Goddess and the Demon God could not interfere with races outside their own jurisdiction, but harboring a sinner changed the rules entirely.
By the time the carriage arrived, the rogue's limbs were not just broken, but completely worn away to nothing.
History speaks:
Those who receive a divine mission must never spread their legs so easily.
History warns:
If you cause trouble, the Goddess herself will come to destroy you.
And as for how you will be destroyed, you will only find out by experiencing the rogue's punishment—a fate so horrific that even history remains silent on its details.
In any case, the kingdom fell, and the Empire was established in its wake.
It is said that the Goddess had truly intended to wipe out humanity, but she stopped when the Hero's sister tore her clothes and poured sand over her head, begging for mercy.
Furthermore, the Goddess swore never to strike humanity with water again.
Though she did add a caveat: if they stepped out of line again, she would burn them with fire instead.
If you wonder why this digression is so long, it is because Rin was currently feeling a threat to his life regarding his chastity—albeit of a slightly different nature than that historical tale.
"Oh my, he has a decent face, doesn't he?"
"Hey handsome~ Over here, over here. I'll treat you right."
"Who do you want? An elf? A beastkin? Come on, take a look and choose, okay?"
Seriously, who designed this map? How could a city have a completely linear layout with a red-light district smack in the middle of it?
His head throbbed, and his stomach broke out in a cold sweat.
Though she was trying her best to hold back, Lucy was seething beneath his thick layers of clothing as she listened to the prostitutes soliciting him.
There was no telling when the Hero's mana might explode.
If it did, Rin's body would undoubtedly blow to pieces.
Knowing this, Lucy was also desperately trying to restrain herself.
It's not cold at all. In fact, it's hot.
Rin seriously contemplated whether he should just skip buying winter gear.
However, everywhere except his abdomen was being sharply licked by the biting wind.
"Oh my, look at the goosebumps on the back of your hands, handsome. You're cold, aren't you? Come inside and have a cup of tea. I'll give you something to drink. What do you want?"
"No, no, no, no. I'm just passing through."
"You have this earnest look in your eyes. I bet you'd taste different from those other bastards."
"As you can see from my stomach, I'm a sick man."
"Yeah, I know. I heard from the guard that it's just your constitution? Then it's not even a disease. I told you, I'll treat you well."
That damn guard. Rin had even bribed him, yet he was blabbing information everywhere.
He had probably come to the brothel to get laid and bragged about Rin to look important.
And he had likely added that Rin was an easy target.
That would explain why the prices these prostitutes were quoting him were ridiculously high.
Having grown up in Gutter Alley and roamed every corner of cities to gather information, Rin couldn't help but know the going rates for prostitutes, whether he wanted to or not.
"I said no, so back off."
"Ha! Who do you think you are? What, are you impotent?"
Look at that. The moment he refused to the end, their attitude flipped instantly.
Contempt and crude insults rained down on him without pause, but Rin remained unfazed.
"It was like this in the Hero's party too, anyway."
Having shaken off the annoying prostitutes and reached the end of the alley, Rin muttered to himself out of habit, then quickly covered his mouth.
Though she wasn't visible right now, Lucy was hidden inside his clothes.
Since he already knew Lucy felt deep guilt over how she had treated him in the past, that slip of the tongue was fatal.
Sure enough, Lucy's sharp hearing caught it.
The anger and jealousy that had been surging just moments ago vanished, replaced rapidly by a wave of remorse.
Ah, damn it. I'm the one who did wrong, so why do I feel like crying?
Lucy hated the endless, repetitive cycle of her own emotions.
Telling herself that she should at least avoid being a hindrance to Rin, Lucy tried her best to calm down.
She regulated her breathing and closed her eyes.
She perked up her ears, making her senses even sharper.
According to Rin, there was a demon in Epaltelga.
A succubus might be on the weaker side among demons, but that was only relative to other demons.
A succubus, who preyed on human lust and wielded delicate, albeit weak, black magic, could be incredibly troublesome if she decided to act.
Within the Hero's party, the ones most sensitive to demonic energy were Saint Arciel and Hero Lucy.
Since she was a succubus, she was most likely in the brothel district, but they couldn't afford to let their guard down.
Yet, the more she listened, the only things she could hear were Rin's breathing and his footsteps.
Just the fact that they belonged to Rin made Lucy's expression soften again, and she licked her lips.
If Arciel had seen her, she would have called her crazy, but Lucy stubbornly believed it was because Rin was her fated partner.
"A man at this hour is rare. Especially one with a body as frail as yours."
The voice was deep and husky.
Unable to see outside the clothes, Lucy almost mistook the speaker for a man at first.
"I came to buy winter gear."
"The Frozen Mountains are a rather difficult woman for a potbellied man to conquer."
Rin and Lucy sighed simultaneously.
Everywhere they went, their information had already leaked.
In the DLC, Epaltelga was a lively place, even if it had a small population.
It was a city where travelers came and went, unlike now, and where everyone from natives to explorers knew and looked out for one another.
For some reason, the streets were deserted, and the locals' wariness and curiosity toward outsiders had heightened.
"Do the mountains care about looks?"
"They care about the body. Those mountains have particularly strong yin energy. Even a well-endowed man will shrivel up the moment he enters."
A sticky undertone seeped into the shopkeeper's voice, and Lucy became certain at that moment that the speaker was a woman.
And a highly starved one at that.
Deducing from the voice that the woman had a muscular, voluptuous build, Lucy focused on reading her presence, wondering if it could be.
Succubi took great pride in their appearance and sexual appeal.
It was highly unlikely for a succubus to have the body of a middle-aged woman.
"And I never said I was going to the mountains."
"Ha! What a half-hearted denial. You don't look like you have much resolve either. Is that why you just skipped past the red-light district?"
"It's cold. Just show me the fur coats."
"Hmph. There are plenty of gloves and coats piled up over there, so pick them out yourself."
He had no choice but to endure the rudeness.
Rin was the one in need, after all.
Besides, looking around himself was actually to his advantage.
The armory wasn't very spacious.
On one side were a few weapons, and on the other were winter gear and various sundries.
Rin first approached the shelves piled high with winter gear.
Look at all this dust.
The dust lay thick on the fur, showing just how long the inventory had been sitting there.
After picking out two coats and two pairs of gloves that roughly fit, Rin turned around and walked toward the weapons.
"What, you want to buy weapons too?"
She sounded as if she were asking, Someone like you?
Ignoring the sarcasm, Rin stood in front of a suit of armor displayed in the corner.
It was a suit of full plate mail, made of iron from the helmet to the boots.
An emblem resembling a sun was engraved on the chest.
"How much is this?"
"The armor? It's quite expensive."
"No, I mean this emblem. How much for it?"
"The emblem? What would you want that for? More importantly, how do you plan to take it? It's just a drawing on the armor."
"Shall we make a bet? If I can take only the emblem, I get it for free. If I fail, I'll pay double the price of the armor."
"Go ahead and try if you can."
Shrugging his shoulders, Rin pulled out a scroll he had prepared beforehand from his breast pocket.
The scroll was blank, but even empty skill scrolls were fundamentally treated with special magic.
It was a magical treatment that absorbed the principles of a skill or magic circle upon contact, turning it into a new skill scroll.
Anyone who has played an RPG knows this.
When you enter a space filled with miscellaneous items?
You have to click on everything.
Because you never know where a hidden item might be.
Most players suffer from a compulsive need to collect everything.
This was just one of those places discovered through countless clicks.
"Huh?"
Bzzzzzt!
Leaving the dumbfounded shopkeeper behind, Rin brought the blank scroll close to the emblem, and faint sparks began to fly.
The sparks transferred to the scroll, crackling as they drew a magic circle.
It didn't take long for the scroll to be completed.
For all the flashy visual effects, it wasn't a particularly extraordinary skill.
General: Warm Embrace
But at this point, it was incredibly useful.
It was the skill he had used for Lucy when they escaped from the river.
In the game, it was just a passive survival skill, making it General rank, but in reality, few skills were as excellent as this.
It was a magic so simple that it didn't even have a skill level, but a single cast of it could completely block all cold-related status ailments.
Indeed, the moment the emblem was transferred, a chill settled over the armory.
Fearing she might change her mind, Rin quickly stowed away the scroll, picked up the fur coats and gloves, and walked back to the shopkeeper.
"How much?"
The shopkeeper was no pushover.
Glaring at Rin suspiciously, she spread her fingers wide.
"Five gold coins."
"...That's absurd. Gold coins for just a few sundries?"
"Six gold coins."
"Hey."
"Ten gold coins."
"...You're not very good at haggling, are you?"
"No money?"
He had it.
But if he paid that much, rumors would immediately spread in this tiny town, and there would be plenty of people targeting his pockets.
"Cut me some slack. Lately, the Demon King has been so active that everyone's gone to the battlefield, and no one comes here. It's a recession."
"That has nothing to do with me, and I don't have that kind of money. It's a shame, but let's end our business here."
Without any lingering regret, he put the items back.
He didn't know if his bluff would work, but even if she didn't stop him, he couldn't afford to pay that much.
However, pushing past the arm that reached for the doorknob, the shopkeeper blocked the exit.
Rin realized that lately, simply opening a door and leaving had become a very difficult task.
"You didn't think you could just walk out quietly after showing off a trick like that, did you?"
"It wasn't a trick, it was a transaction."
"Now that I look at you, you speak quite intelligently too."
"Intelligently? You use difficult words."
"And looking closely, you have some muscle on your arms, don't you?"
Rin's forearms were covered by his sleeves, but they were quite thick even for a man.
"Seeing how firm your thighs are, you must have great strength. Especially when it comes to thrusting."
The shopkeeper grabbed Rin's arm and groped his thigh.
"Hey, shopkeeper."
"Your thighs really are firm."
"I don't enjoy self-deprecation, but I have nothing going for my face, and I have a potbelly due to my constitution. I won't be your type, so please let me go."
"My type happens to be intelligent men like you."
Her tone changed.
The gruff voice was gradually turning shrill and sweet.
"At first, I came here hoping for guys with bodies fit enough to survive the extreme cold, but... mmm, eating them every day got boring. In a place like this, a smart man is a delicacy. As long as you don't have some weird disease, I can tolerate a few minor flaws."
The muscles gradually melted away from the shopkeeper's Amazonian frame.
"