Chapter 11. Part 3.
Five minutes later.
How?
How did this happen?
“Akua… it’s alright.”
My god hand. How could this be? What happened was complete nonsense.
I was suddenly broke, stripped of my clothing, despair ridden in the middle of the street. I didn’t know how it happened when their defeat was so evident in my all seeing eyes, but I somehow lost in the very first round. Even though I was certain of my victory after I’d seen through the cards in their hands through cheat- creative skill based mechanisms, I still lost. It was clear they had cheated me somehow, but I had no way of proving it, nor could I bring it up when I was cheat- using creative skill based mechanisms that were practically my own personal trade secrets. Questioning them on it would force me to reveal my own hand in the process.
It’s frustrating! Too frustrating! I don’t really care about being seen naked since I’m used to it by now, but losing like that was too much!
Like a gambler grasping at straws I’d done what gamblers did best and pleaded in desperation for a second round. At first they flat out rejected me, but after they saw how persistent I was, they said I could bet with my clothing since it looked a bit valuable, essentially it became a game of strip poker. Each piece of clothing was worth ten chips.
After two additional rounds, I went bankrupt again. It’s not like I could even blame them this time. They even told me it would be in my best interest to give up after the second round. I was too frustrated by their pity to simply concede defeat without a fight. Perhaps that was just part of their nefarious plot to make sure I didn’t leave before they milked me for everything I was worth. It was thanks to this lapse in judgement that I found myself reduced to nothing but my birthday suit.
When I looked up and noticed Umi’s compassionate gaze filled with concern, it suddenly struck me.
With sparkles in my eyes, like someone who’d seen their last hope at redemption, I proclaimed proudly, “Umi, you have clothes!”
With a pale face she did a 180 and high tailed it away at full speed. Before I had a chance to chase her down, she’d hidden herself away somewhere deep in the city where I was unable to locate her even with magic. Tsk. I instantly regretted everything I’d ever done. For her that is. I should have never taught her those stealth spells with water magic.
I really found it hard to stop my lip from twitching when I thought about her earlier shameless declaration to be faithful to me to her grave.
“Tch. So I’m left naked out in the open yet again.”
Haaah. I suppose there was one big glaring issue that had gone unaccounted for in my overconfident state when I challenged those guards earlier. I’d never actually played poker before, hence the reason for my undefeated record. If you’d never played it before, of course you’d be undefeated, right? I suppose my defeat was reasonable. The opponents this time were just too strong, it wasn’t that I was too weak.
“Hey, don’t you feel a bit bad for her? Even her companion abandoned her. Maybe we should at least return her clothes.”
Damn it! I don’t need your pity clothes.
“Nah. We warned her, but she kept playing anyway. Let this be a life lesson to this overconfident little human child who couldn’t see Mount Tai when it was right before her.”
“You! I don’t need my clothes! Also, I’ll remember this! Don’t you dare think this is over! I’ll be back!”
“See, she still hasn’t learned her lesson. She might just be an idiot after all. But really though, little grunts like her just don’t learn. The only things she’s got going for is mastering her lines.”
I’ll fucking remember this! I made sure to take a good long look at his face to engrave it into my heart so I’d never forget him. When I surpass him in level, I’ll make sure I come back here to bully him and toss my weight around a bit. Killing him would be too kind.
“Guys, what do I do? I’m a married man. I think she’s suddenly fallen for me with how much she’s staring into my eyes. I mean she’s not bad, but that brain of hers is a big minus.”
“Man, what are you talking about? You’re not even married. If a girl likes you and you’re not interested, you really need to be direct about it. Otherwise, when she finds out it was all just a lie, she’ll be even more hurt.”
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“Haaah. I guess you’re right.”
With pity in his eyes he let me down by telling me, “sorry little human girl, it’s not you, it’s me. I just don’t like girls with only looks and nothing up there.”
The number of critical hits I’d taken from their idle chatter was truly immense. My health points had already dropped to critical levels and I might pass out at any moment. I was on the verge of coughing up blood, but I couldn’t let that happen while in front of them. The humiliation would have been too great, so I calmed my wildly raging emotions, turned away and walked off calmly in the nude into the city. Right now I couldn’t care less about public indecency or whether such laws existed in this city.
If I want to strut my stuff, then I shall strut to my heart’s content.
Thinking like that was the only way I could take my mind off of that infuriating guard. That man could truly enrage the gods with that spiteful tongue of his. Like I said before, it was certainly not the case of me being too weak, it was just that my opponent was too strong.
To think a lowly city guard could be both fearsome and unrivalled to such a high degree, I was truly caught off guard this time. I really must keep my head down and try to refrain from flaunting any sort of superiority here. Could that female vampire have predicted this would happen, hence why she warned me to turn back? For her to have such far seeing foresight, she’s definitely an unfathomable being in her own way, but nonetheless she’s still kind of cute.
As I walked through the bustling city streets, all eyes were directed at me like there was something stuck in my teeth. It could have just been that they’d never seen a human girl before. However I was more inclined to believe it was my demeanor that left them awestruck, they were surely amazed by my dashing entrance into their little city. Well, in all likelihood, it was just that I was naked with a single garment to my name, but a girl can still dream, can she not?
Even I have a maidenly heart that wishes to one day be married off to someone, with that uncle of mine sending me on my way. However, I was not one of those shallow women who thought they could never be a bride just because she’d been seen in the nude. That’s far too old fashioned and behind the times, I’m a modern girl who grew up in the 21st century on Earth after all. We were born nude, our great ancestors grew up nude, women are even painted nude as a form of art, so why must we cover up and be ashamed of our bodies? Why must nudity be seen as something vile or vulgar rather than something artistic and beautiful to be appreciated?
As such, I shall not avert my gaze downwards in shame. I shall walk forth with my head held high. Just as a certain emperor in history donned his new clothes, I shall do the same.
“Why does something about that pervert get on my nerves?”
“Doesn’t it feel like she’s looking down on us when she’s the one not wearing clothes?”
I could only sigh and shake my head as these mere commoner demon city folk couldn’t understand thoughts as deeply profound as mine that glimpsed upon the origin of all life.
But licking my open wounds aside, I really need to find some freaking clothes, it’s a bit chilly and I’d rather not catch a cold.
Wandering around the city, I eventually found a fenced off house with nobody around. There were only bed sheets hanging outside on a clothesline to dry after they’d just been washed.
I discreetly checked left and right in all directions like a fox in preparation for a heist of epic proportions. It was only when I was certain the coast was clear that I snuck over the short fence and grabbed one of the sheets off the line. My heart beating fast at my new life of high crime I made a b-line for the fence. I jumped back over, landed on the ground and rolled for dramatic effect. I then made my greatest escape and ducked into an empty alleyway like a true phantom thief.
“Haaaaah. To think, a level 150 summoned hero was reduced to nothing more than a petty thief. It was a really good thing no one was around to see my act of theft just now.”
I ripped up the sheet in half and formed a skirt portion around my waist. I wrapped the other half of the sheet around my chest. It was a far step down from the clothing I’d received from the king, but it covered the parts it needed to so it was fine.
When I finally turned my attention to the entrance of the alleyway I saw a pink bunny with its eyes opened wide, ears propped up and jaw dropped in shock like it couldn’t believe what it had seen.
No way… There’s no way it saw my entire act just now, right?
“Summoned hero reduced to petty theft! No one around to see my act!”
“Summoned hero reduced to petty theft! No one around to see my act!”
“Summoned hero reduced to petty theft! No one around to see my act!”
My face paled as the pink bunny continually repeated the same lines over and over. Sweat trickled down my back when I thought of the implications of being branded as a petty thief. This didn’t count as stirring up trouble, did it? Ugh. But it was still theft, right?
“I must silence all witnesses.”
“Summoned hero reduced to petty theft! No one around to see my act! I must silence all witnesses!”
Ugh. It just got worse the more I said.
“Pink bunny, come here for a second. This big sister has some things to discuss with you. Be a good boy and listen to this big sister.”
“Summoned hero reduced to petty theft! No one around to see my act! I must silence all witnesses! Summoned hero! Big sister!”
Ugh, he even added a female identifier for the perpetrator now.
I only dug my grave deeper and deeper the more I said when around this big mouthed dopey looking subrabbit scum. I had to kill this evil scourge pink bunny at all costs, it was far too shameful to be known as a level 150 summoned hero who became a petty thief. Anyways it was only level 40, it shouldn’t take much effort to take care of this nuisance with my level of strength.
Just as I lunged forward towards the satanic bunny from hell, flustered it scratched at the ground and tossed a large amount of dirt into the air. My eyes forcefully shut on reflex to avoid being blinded. I didn’t expect it to pull such a stunt, so I didn’t have time to conjure a water barrier to block it. When I reopened my eyes, in the short moment I closed them, the pink bunny had disappeared.