Chapter 5: The Price of Recklessness and a Troubled Harem

“So you committed the gravest sin of an adventurer: underestimating your enemy. Now you look like this… Hmm, to be honest, you actually look much more pleasing to the eye than before!”

Larry had initially intended to lecture Ellis for her carelessness. However, upon seeing her current beautiful and captivating appearance, his tone instantly shifted.

“Hey, doll, flash a smile for your old man.”

Any sliver of goodwill Ellis had felt towards Larry due to his earlier concern vanished instantly. This scoundrel, in her mind, was truly beyond redemption!

“Smile for your grandpa? Is this really the time for such remarks?!”

“Indeed, it’s not. Those terrifying devils are still lurking, searching for our tracks.”

Larry nodded in deep agreement. “We must find a way to leave quickly. Did you get the demon’s horn?”

Ellis asked, utterly bewildered, “I did get it, but what are these ‘devils’ you speak of? They seem to genuinely frighten you.”

“Larry, are you nearby? It’s Meixia!”

Judging solely by the clear, warbling voice, the person approaching had to be a beauty, and indeed, she was.

Ellis recognized the voice at once; it belonged to Meixia, a gentle and graceful member of their adventurer team. However, Larry’s face instantly drained of color upon hearing it.

“The devils are here! Run!”

Larry grabbed Ellis’s small hand and sprinted outwards, not even giving her a chance to pick up the sack of demon lord jewels left on the ground.

“My money!”

Ellis let out a mournful wail, like the shrieks of a ghost, sending shivers down anyone’s spine.

Meixia, at the very least, was startled, though she vaguely recognized the owner of the voice.

“Ellis, are you over there?”

Meixia cautiously approached, only to find a solitary sack filled with jewels, discarded carelessly on the ground like trash. The owner of the voice, presumably Ellis, was nowhere to be seen.

A thousand meters from the Demon Lord’s Castle, deep within a hidden forest, Larry, who had ‘eloped’ with Ellis, felt they had traveled far enough. He halted his frantic pace.

“Phew, almost got entangled again. Finally, we shook them off. Luckily, I found a path out. Our enjoyable journey, just us two big men, begins anew, hahaha.”

“Haha your sister!”

Just as Larry was roaring with laughter, hands on his hips, Ellis suddenly shoved him to the ground.

Ellis straddled Larry, shaking her idiotic friend. “You threw away my reward for defeating the Demon Lord like trash, and you still have the nerve to laugh!”

Larry, dazed from being shaken, stammered, “Isn’t the demon’s horn in your hand?”

“This damn thing is a quest item! I need to exchange it at headquarters for the quest reward. I’m talking about the clearance reward! The gleaming, golden jewels and coins stuffed in that sack!”

Larry paused, then said, “I was too scared by Meixia at the time; I didn’t pay attention. But it’s fine, money is external; escaping those devils is what matters.”

“Devils?”

Ellis asked suspiciously, “Are you referring to your ‘harem’?”

“Can we please not make that joke anymore? They’re only after my S-rank adventurer strength and reputation. And are those guys even a harem? I wasn’t troubled by enemy executives on this journey, but I nearly got taken out by my own harem! Every day, they scheme to eliminate competitors; some even tried to drug me! You should know all about this, right? Even at the Demon Lord’s Castle this time, I was almost crushed to death by an accident caused by my own people!”

Ellis, of course, knew all about it. There was an alchemist girl in their team who, to win Larry’s affection, had once tried to feed him a love potion. She had even succeeded, but Ellis had dispelled it with a blessing spell.

Ellis gazed at Larry with a complex expression. In truth, his harem had committed other terrifying acts behind his back. For instance, they had attempted to kidnap Larry while he slept, cast curses on him, arranged situations for ambiguous encounters, and even tried to solidify their relationships.

However, Larry himself was unaware of most of these incidents. Ellis had secretly resolved them for her troublesome friend. This was precisely why the women around Larry were so wary of Ellis: they couldn’t defeat her, she held their leverage, and Larry trusted Ellis unconditionally. To those women with ulterior motives towards Larry, Ellis was a nightmare.

Incidentally, although Ellis was also an S-rank adventurer, her reputation was tarnished due to a certain incident. Coupled with her ‘destined to be single’ personality, she was directly excluded from their list of potential targets.

At first, Ellis had been somewhat jealous of Larry, but she later realized that sometimes, a bad reputation wasn’t so bad. She said with deep emotion, “Thinking about it that way, they really do count as devils.”

“Right? Right? So it’s better if it’s just the two of us traveling. You were the one who said fighting the Demon Lord would be more fun if we gathered companions, and it just brought a ton of trouble.”

Originally, Larry and Ellis had teamed up as a duo, which was why their adventurer ranks were significantly higher than everyone else’s.

Ellis had taken on this quest to enhance the immersive experience of the ‘king’s road’ game from her past life, so she had specially recruited temporary companions.

Now, reflecting on it, she realized she truly had a knack for getting herself into trouble.

“Don’t say that. I think Turuv is a pretty good person.”

“Only Turuv is alright. Honestly, compared to them, you’re practically an angel.”

As he said this, Larry suddenly stared intently at Ellis’s beautiful face, murmuring, “This hair, these eyes, truly exquisite. Ellis, you’re not an angel; you must be a vampire princess.”

Ellis: (◦`~´◦)

Ellis promptly punched Larry in the nose.

“Ugh!”

“Vampire princess my foot! You finally remembered I turned into a girl?! You heartless beast, I should have let those women tear you limb from limb!”

Ellis climbed off Larry and dusted her hands. Her idiotic friend, if he hadn’t mentioned it, she wouldn’t have been so angry!

Now, after this trip to the Demon Lord’s Castle, she had only gained a task item for a top-tier B-rank difficulty quest and nothing else. She had even gotten herself involved. The more she thought about it, the more she felt it was a loss.

Larry pinched his nose to stop the bleeding, then got up, awkwardly saying, “I was just speaking the truth; you’re even prettier than if you’d had surgery in a certain two countries from your past life.”

Ellis stared intently at Larry with eyes that could devour a person. A terrifying black aura permeated from her, seeping into Larry’s pores, making him shiver with an icy chill.

“Then perhaps you’d like to experience it too?!”

“Haha, just kidding. We need to get going, time to hit the road.”

Larry strode briskly in the opposite direction of the Demon Lord’s Castle, but after only a few steps, he felt unable to move. It seemed his back collar had been grabbed.

“What are you doing, Ellis?”

Ellis asked coldly, “Odd. Aren’t you a bit too light? Just to ask, did you bring any funds?”

Ellis felt Larry’s body instantly stiffen. She had a bad premonition.

“You didn’t forget to bring travel money, did you?!”

Larry said with a tear-streaked face, “Sorry, at the time, I just saw it as a great opportunity to escape those devils and didn’t think about much else. My money and everything else are with those devils. Ellis, I remember you still have money, right?”

“All my money was spent at the tavern yesterday! You wouldn’t believe how expensive that long-haired rabbit meat and plum wine were. I was planning to make a fortune by conquering this Demon Lord’s Castle!”

Ellis felt dizzy. She pointed towards the Demon Lord’s Castle and roared, “You go back and get the travel money!”

“No! I’ll die there!”

“What good are you if you don’t even have travel money? Rather than both of us dying, it’s better to sacrifice your smaller self to fulfill my greater self!”

Larry looked incredulous, pointing at Ellis and shouting, “You heartless woman!”

Ellis also pointed at Larry, glaring and roaring, “You heartless man!”

“Go get the money! (Don’t even think about me getting the money!)”