Chapter 3: May and jin (2)

“What? What are you doing all of a sudden?”

“Don’t mind me. It’s just a physiological reaction.”

“Okay!”

I tried hard to calm my excitement.

‘Calm down, calm down.’

‘I am not a beast. I am not a beast….’

“Whew.”

I calmed down.

Only after my head finally cleared did I feel ready to continue the conversation.

“Don’t get distracted. Let’s find the guild first.”

“Can’t we just ask the people in this city?”

“That’s for later.”

To be honest, Maeve was right, asking a local was the best way to find directions, but I couldn’t let my guard down.

What if they offered to help with directions, only to suddenly grope her chest or commit some other form of sexual harassment?

Of course, even for an H-game, they probably wouldn’t do such things right from the start, but then again, you never know.

In a doujin H-game… anything can happen.

“Hmph.”

If I had to be summoned into a game, why couldn’t it have been one I’d already cleared?

Why did it have to be a game I’d never even played?

Thanks to that, I couldn’t let my guard down for a single moment.

I had no idea what kind of world this was.

This might be a typical RPG with just a sprinkle of H-events, a ‘fashion H-game,’ or it could be a classic H-game world explicitly designed to be lewd.

No, before that, it could even be a terribly made game with a forced plot.

I knew nothing about this game.

All I knew were the sample images I’d seen on the product page and my experiences over the past three days.

Therefore, I had no intention of interacting with anyone beyond the bare minimum necessary.

I would only meet the essential characters for the story and skip the rest as much as possible.

I never knew when I might encounter a forced event.

Though a ‘virgin playthrough’ was guaranteed, that didn’t mean I was free from all forms of sexual harassment.

“Hmm… but we don’t know where the guild is, Jin.”

“I know the emblem. It’s roughly a golden, wing-like symbol.”

“How do you know that?”

“I saw it in a book.”

In Maeve’s mind, I was her childhood friend.

So, whenever I pulled out H-game knowledge like this, she would look at me with a puzzled expression.

How could I, someone stuck in such a backwoods village, know such detailed facts?

This was my excuse.

‘I don’t know why, but I saw it in a book!’

A fact unknown to her, who had never read a book in her life.

“What kind of book?”

“…It’s just a book.”

“Tell me too! I want to read it!”

Maeve didn’t question this fact much, possibly remembering me reading books, but this request was a bit awkward. If I said there was no such content in the book, I’d have nothing to say.

However, I was a 5-year veteran of H-games.

I already had this level of excuse prepared.

“Then you’ll really read it, right? I’ll check every day!”

“……On second thought, I think I’m fine.”

Maeve awkwardly laughed and scurried behind me.

Right. She didn’t actually have the will to read books.

She just wanted to read it herself because I said I had read it.

I appreciated her desire to be closer to me by imitating my actions, but it was a bit awkward in situations like this.

At the very least, I couldn’t tell her this was a game.

“If you understand, let’s look for a signboard.”

“Okay!”

Her quick change of topic was a strong point.

Thanks to that, I smoothly sidestepped the awkward subject once again and turned my gaze to the city’s panorama.

The city’s appearance was the typical design seen in this type of H-game.

A somewhat crude, traditional European-style city.

Perhaps because of this, unbalanced scenes that didn’t fit the era caught my eye in various places.

Things like bright streetlights in the evening, or even the poorest houses having at least one glass window.

From the start, historical accuracy was meaningless in this world.

It wouldn’t be strange at all if a bipedal robot suddenly appeared in the next city.

How would it appear?

Just casually say it’s alchemy.

“Oh! Is that it?”

“That’s the weapon shop.”

“Then how about there?”

“That’s the inn.”

But didn’t I say it was a symbol resembling golden wings?

Maeve was just pointing at every building with a signboard and asking me about it.

Still, thanks to her, I grasped the locations of important shops.

The general store. The weapon shop. And the inn.

Each one was an essential shop we couldn’t do without.

“Should we go in for a bit?”

“Hmm… okay.”

It was a shop we’d have to visit eventually anyway.

It wouldn’t be bad to just pop in now and check the prices.

There was only one thing to be careful about at the general store or weapon shop.

Part-time jobs.

I was all too familiar with patterns like making someone wear revealing armor for store promotion or giving them hypnotics or aphrodisiacs under the guise of testing new medicine.

Of course, as long as I was here, the day Maeve would do such a thing would never come.

“Oh! Look, they’re recruiting for a part-time job!”

“Absolutely not.”

I shook my head with a firm expression.

“This one too?”

“We don’t know what kind of person the shop owner is. And as I always say, if you don’t know what kind of person they are….”

“Assume they’re a beast?”

“Exactly.”

The training is finally paying off.

Please, I just hope she’ll be careful from now on.

“Jin, you’re too strict.”

“It’s not that I’m strict, it’s this world that’s… No, never mind.”

What was the point of saying anything?

To me, this was a game world, but to her, this world was everything.

No matter how much I talked about sexual self-determination or cherishing her body, it would only sound like strange nonsense to her.

What kind of world is this, anyway?

I understood it was an H-game, but still.

“I’ll go in first.”

“Okay!”

Still, it was a relief that she listened well to me.

If we kept going together like this, she would surely come to realize things too.

*Ting.*

I carefully surveyed my surroundings and stepped into the shop.

Like all such shops, the counter was divided in half.

One side for selling weapons and the other for selling armor.

The weapon side sold common weapons like swords, spears, and bows, while the armor side sold light cloth armor and heavy plate armor.

Thank goodness.

At least they weren’t selling indecent outfits yet.

I was ready to smash their heads if they started spouting nonsense like ‘monster gentlemen’s theories’ while selling bikini armor.

“Did you come for a part-time job?”

“No.”

Seeing Maeve follow me in, both of them licked their lips.

What the hell, seriously.

Are they insane?

If this happened on Earth, they’d already be reported.

“We’re just looking at weapons and armor.”

“Hmm… I could offer you a good price, you know.”

“I said no!”

When I glared slightly, they both coughed awkwardly and subtly averted their gaze.

What greedy people they were.

Even in H-games, wasn’t it common courtesy not to bring up this topic unless the player explicitly mentioned it?

Even though I had made it so clear, they kept trying to entice her at every opportunity.

“If you’re short on money, just say the word, miss.”

“Just a small service and I’ll pay double…!”

“Th-that is….”

I sighed and hid her behind me again.

“Say one more word and I’ll really flip this place over.”

“Th-that’s a report to the military police if you do that!”

“Try it if you can walk out of here on two feet.”

“……”

At that, the two finally fell silent.

Threats really are the best.

After observing all the items in the weapon shop and committing them to memory, I then visited the general store and the inn.

This was to get a general idea of the prices.

“Phew…”

“I-I’m fine, so…”

And the same thing happened everywhere.

They very explicitly tried to sexually harass Maeve, and each time, I intervened and subdued them.

But I couldn’t punish them.

Because Maeve didn’t want that.

“That’s why I’m saying it’s not okay to be okay with it. Maeve, you need to value your body a little more.”

“Va-value…”

“Yes. Please, just cherish yourself.”

She was the type of protagonist who would tacitly allow herself to be sexually harassed just because the other person seemed pitiful or desperate. But that, while perhaps ‘okay’ for her, was a path to demeaning herself.

Isn’t it often seen in H-games?

The miserable sight of heroines selling their bodies for 10 gold per session or even for free.

I didn’t want to see Maeve degenerate into such a state.

“I’m absolutely not saying to sell yourself expensively, but… anyway, I mean you need to have some self-awareness.”

“Okay!”

“…Right.”

I must have said this dozens of times, but I had never seen her put it into practice.

She was good at answering, though.

I glanced sideways at Maeve, who was nodding with a resolute expression, then looked back at the building in front of me.

A blue roof and a signboard with a golden wing emblem hanging beneath it.

This was it.

The Adventurers’ Guild we needed to visit.

“Be careful. Adventurers, in particular, will be even rougher than village NPCs.”

“NPC?”

“Ah, right. Villagers.”

I almost messed up by accidentally blurting out a gaming term.

I need to be careful.

It had only been three days, so I hadn’t completely shed my gamer persona.

“You’re saying strange things again. Anyway, let’s go in… No, wait, you said you’d go in first, Jin, right?”

“Thanks for remembering.”

“No problem! It’s nothing!”

It was half sarcasm, but she smiled brightly.

Feeling a little sorry due to her pure reaction, I deliberately averted my gaze and pushed the door open.

*Creeeeak!*

Then, an unexpectedly loud sound echoed through the surroundings.

“……”

“……”

Dozens of pairs of eyes focused on the two of us.

What the.

Why is the sound so loud?

Unexpectedly drawing everyone’s attention, I froze for a moment in confusion.