“Sigh…. I’m going crazy, seriously.”
Is this what it feels like to want to crawl into a rat hole?
I had dashed out of the bathhouse as though fleeing, and in a secluded spot, I tore at my hair.
The scene from the bathhouse moments ago refused to leave my mind.
It was the first time I’d been confronted with the stark nakedness of a man since being trapped in this world, so the shock was greater than I could have imagined.
“Why the hell am I like this, seriously….”
That made it even harder to understand.
In reality, I had been a man, and I had grown utterly sick of seeing not only my own body but the bodies of countless other men.
So it made no sense that someone like me would feel embarrassed over something as trivial as a naked man, especially when it wasn’t even a woman’s body.
But why?
Why did this shame refuse to fade?
Had my heart turned into a woman’s just because I’d lived as one for a little over two months?
I didn’t know.
But I was scared.
That I might completely lose myself later on.
I was afraid of becoming someone who wasn’t me.
That was when.
“Huh? If it isn’t the perv.”
I didn’t know how she’d found out, but before me stood my friend Naira with her familiar bronze skin.
A vein bulging on my forehead, I clenched my fist and glared at Naira.
“Don’t call me that. You wanna die?”
“But the rumors have already spread everywhere. That our Ian came out of the men’s bath.”
“No, there’s a reason for that….”
But Naira smiled slyly and patted my shoulder as if she knew everything.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. This unnie understands. You get lonely sometimes, that’s all. You might even find someone nice that way.”
“Stop it….”
“Mrr~.”
My fist was itching to fly.
My breathing grew ragged.
The heat that had risen from embarrassment was already beginning to shift into anger.
“So, how was it? Did you find any good stuff?”
“I said stop it!”
In the end, I brought the edge of my hand down hard on the crown of Naira’s head.
“Kyaack!”
Naira thrashed in pain, rolling on the ground.
Watching that, I felt some of my pent-up frustration ease.
I couldn’t call it refreshing, but… yeah, she looked pathetic.
“That’s why I told you not to push your luck.”
“Augh…. You crazy girl. Your hand really stings.”
Naira gently rubbed the bump on her crown and asked a question.
“But how did you even get into the men’s bath? The staff checks before you go in, don’t they?”
“It’s a bit of a long story….”
Still, after talking with Naira, my head felt a little lighter.
Was this why women chatted with their friends?
I let out a light snort and was just about to tell Naira what had happened today.
“What, why’d you stop talking?”
“Wait.”
Across the main road, the figure of someone in familiar armor came into view.
“Found you.”
The culprit.
A wicked grin stretched the corners of my mouth all the way to my ears.
***
Having heard the news from the bathhouse, Evelyn was bewildered.
‘Did she really escape from there?’
She knew.
She knew that the passage connected to the warehouse was an underground waterway, and that inside it were countless sewer rats and a dangerous anaconda.
That made it even harder to believe.
The sewer rats were one thing, but the anaconda that ambushed people in the water was a monster that even the mercenary corps had attempted to subdue and failed.
She had thought that no matter what, she would never see sunlight again.
But surviving there meant she had subdued that anaconda alone.
Even the report that she had appeared completely unharmed made Evelyn’s lips tremble inside her helmet.
In this situation, there was only one person she could rely on.
Her superior and the commander of the mercenary corps, Grace.
Just as Evelyn hurried her steps.
—Boom!
Something descended from the sky at high speed, kicking up a thick cloud of dust.
And from the dust came the voice of the person she least wanted to hear.
“Where do you think you’re running, brat?”
“Hic!”
There was no opening to run.
A hand had emerged from within the dust in an instant and seized Evelyn.
In this situation, Evelyn had only one choice.
She knelt before Ian, who was smiling chillingly amid the scattering dust.
“Please… j-just overlook it this once….”
“Do you think that’ll work?”
Still, there was one fortunate thing for Evelyn.
“Don’t worry. I’ll let you live.”
Ian had no intention of taking her life.
Instead.
Her fist was dyed purple.
“Bite down hard.”
First came the venting of her anger.
—Crack!
***
After beating Evelyn within an inch of her life and hanging her up in the village square, two days had passed.
Many things had happened during that time.
Grace had to apologize to me once again, and from the players who had scouted around Winsley, I obtained a map and discovered a clue to the Zone 5 boss.
It was two black towers standing to the east and west of Winsley, identical in shape and size.
We could infer that the master of the towers was the boss we sought.
But most players lacked the leeway to devote effort to exploring the towers.
Because yesterday, Grace’s quest—with the flag’s fate riding on it—had begun.
All players except Emily’s guild members and me were desperate to clear her quest.
On top of that.
“Today was the defense battle, right?”
Today was the day of the official defense battle, not the simplified defense battle that had been held on the day I first arrived in Winsley.
“Yeah. Because of that, our guild isn’t going out to scout and is on standby.”
For these reasons, Winsley was crowded with players even though it was daytime.
I asked Naira, who was nibbling on food in front of me.
“But did anyone clear the guild quest?”
“I vaguely heard that Shaura’s party cleared it.”
“That guy?”
“Well, he is skilled.”
“That is true.”
Neither I nor Naira knew exactly what Grace’s quest entailed.
We only vaguely inferred from people’s talk that it was a difficult quest.
So I was briefly surprised to hear that Shaura had cleared it, but I could accept it quickly.
Because I knew his strength well, having crossed blades with him once.
I even thought that with such skill, he played it too safe.
“Then there are two left now?”
“It would seem so. Well, someone might have cleared it by now too.”
Indeed.
They said the full-scale defense battle would begin around evening, so it wouldn’t be strange for another guild to appear in the meantime.
In the current situation, gathering twenty people wasn’t that difficult either.
“But what are you going to do?”
“About what?”
“That flag. Are you really not going to use it?”
I avoided Naira’s persistent gaze.
I felt a pang of conscience about brazenly declaring that I’d created a one-person guild.
But as expected of a friend?
Seeing my expression, Naira’s eyes narrowed.
“What, did you use it?”
“Shh, shh! People are listening.”
“Geez, you worry about the strangest things.”
But a solo player like me didn’t have many people to side with.
In this heated situation of guild contention, I didn’t want to stand out and make enemies needlessly.
But Naira tilted her head as if she couldn’t understand.
“If you’re that worried, can’t you just accept guild members?”
“Then I’d have to manage them and everything. I can’t do that.”
“You don’t really need to worry about that.”
“Huh? Doesn’t Emily do anything?”
“Yeah. We’re completely free to do whatever we want.”
Come to think of it, Emily had created her guild simply because she needed the guild buff.
My case was the same.
I had decided to create a guild because I needed a powerful buff to finish off the anaconda for sure.
“So you just need to gather people roughly. That happens often. Like a guild that just leeches rewards.”
“I’ll consider it.”
Honestly, Naira’s suggestion of gathering players with no interest in guild activities wasn’t bad.
The key would be where to find such people… but in RPG games, there were often laid-back players.
“By the way, you’ve got nothing to do, right?”
I pondered for a moment and shook my head.
I couldn’t even imagine what troublesome thing would happen if I said I was free right now.
But.
“No, I’m going to check out the tower now.”
“You would’ve left already if that were true. The fact that you’re here means you want to participate in the defense battle.”
“I-it’s really not….”
She, who had once again seen through my lie like a ghost, came to my side and linked her arm through mine.
“Then shall we go bathe together? There were too many people yesterday, so I couldn’t wash up.”
“What about Emily and Mugi?”
“They don’t really like bathing. They’re my party members, but such boring people. That’s why you’re the only one.”
A brief silence.
In that short time, my mind painted a picture of entering the bath completely naked with her.
My face flushed instantly.
I shook my head to erase that scene from my mind.
“N-no thanks.”
“Come on, nothing to be embarrassed about. Let’s go, let’s go.”
“Hey! W-wait!”
But there was one fact I had overlooked.
That Naira was every bit as proactive as Veronica.
So I had no choice but to be dragged by her hand to the bathhouse together.
Inside the hot bath.
Having ended up entering with Naira, I couldn’t find anywhere to rest my eyes and stared blankly into space.
But the problem was.
“Wow, your boobs are huge. So they do float in water.”
Naira, who kept pressing on my chest from the side, and.
“You really are blessed with a body. Your waist is so thin, but your pelvis is so wide. Really, our Ian is like someone living in another world. No wonder I’m so smitten. Ah… I want to bury my face in Ian’s chest.”
Veronica rambling on from the other side.
No, why are you here?!
Anyway.
Because of the two of them, what should have been a fatigue-relieving bath felt like it was only piling on more fatigue.
Rather, the environment of the women’s bath wasn’t a big problem.
As was the case with the Alraune, the current me didn’t feel much even looking at a naked female body as it was.
Really….
I felt like I had lost something important as a man.
How sad.
Drip….
While trying my best to ignore the torment of the two beside me and enjoy the bath.
“Excuse me… are you Ian?”
A woman I had never seen before spoke to me.
I nodded.
“W-wow. It really is Ian. N-nice to meet you. I’m Priya. Congratulations on winning the festival this time. I became your fan after watching your fight then.”
“Ah…. Yes, thank you. But what brings you…?”
Could it be she was asking for an autograph or a handshake here?
Sigh, this me of mine. Being a celebrity was already exhausting.
But contrary to my expectations, my expression hardened at the words that came from Priya’s mouth.
“Have you used the flag by any chance?”
I let out a sigh.
“Why? Did you come to ask me to hand over the flag too?”
What, was this some kind of evolved cult recruitment method? Now she was approaching me pretending to be a fan?
My head burned in an instant.
But flustered by my thorny voice, Priya waved her hands vigorously.
“Ah, no! That’s absolutely not it.”
“Then what is it?”
If she said something strange, I wouldn’t forgive the woman before me.
The moment I resolved that and subtly clenched my fist.
“It’s just… if you really have used the flag….”
Priya’s eyes looking at me sparkled like stars.
“Could you accept me as a guild member?”
Huh?