Chapter 11. Part 4.

I immediately rushed out of the alley in hot pursuit. When I saw it headed towards the direction of the city’s gate where the guards were stationed my heart leaped to my throat.

If it reached the guards and hid behind them, I’d have no chance to catch it. I made a frenzied mad dash in the rabbit’s direction. I didn’t want to get involved with those stupid guards at all costs, I especially wanted nothing to do with HIM. That vile demonic monster of a guard.

I conjured up a straight path of water in line with the rabbit, lowered the temperature to form a thin sheet of ice on the ground, then wrapped water around my feet and froze it. The water formed sharp transparent blades below my feet in the shape of two ghetto looking bootleg ice skates.

Simultaneously I conjured up some simple fire magic, I was not as proficient with fire, but something of this level wasn’t too difficult. I shot small balls of fire from my palms at the ground directly behind my feet and created miniature explosions that propelled me forward at the fastest speed I could muster.

If I had enough time, I could use lesser teleportation magic, but the rabbit was shockingly fast. By the time I locked onto its position and invoked the teleportation, it would have already moved out of the way. Such magic wasn’t my specialization either so I didn’t have much confidence with it since I was most attuned to water magic. Teleportation magic fell into the category of void magic which was a combination of different elemental magics that clashed together and cancelled one another out. When different elemental magics were fused together in the correct proportions it produced some truly outrageous effects. However, if the elemental magics that were combined grew unstable, the spell would collapse on itself and result in a strong backlash to the caster.

I didn’t have any leeway for mistakes with this cursed bunny. In our short little chase I was left baffled; even at my top speed, I was unable to close the gap with the pesky agile rabbit. It just kept shouting out the same line like its life depended on it.

“Summoned hero reduced to petty theft! No one around to see my act! I must silence all witnesses! Summoned hero! Big sister!”

“Shut your trap you wretched rabbit!”

“Summoned hero reduced to petty theft! No one around to see my act! I must silence all witnesses! Summoned hero! Big sister! Shut your trap you wretched rabbit!”

It really wasn't looking good for me, with the rate things were going catching up to it was impossible. We were already almost at the guards outpost outside the gate and I hadn’t gained any ground on it at all.

With how close the rabbit was to the guard’s outpost, I knew I’d lost. I resolved myself when I’d confirmed it was a hopeless endeavour. With determination, I turned around and fled in the opposite direction, but to my dismay, it was already too late. Guards had at some point gathered behind me. They had blocked off all my paths to retreat. When I realized I couldn’t beat them, nor could I flee or join them, for the first time in my life I was forced to abide by the secret third scripture my uncle handed down to me. Surrender.

“Haaah. You again? Little girl, do you ever learn? You know, theft is a crime.”

I decided to use another one of my uncles teachings here.

“Eh? I didn’t know.”

Act dumb, play ignorant, deny all claims.

“What’s theft?”

“Haaah, to think humans these days are this ignorant of the world. Little girl, where were you raised to lack such common sense?”

I tilted my head cluelessly like I couldn’t understand what he was talking about.

“Did we actually end up bullying a retard? I’m starting to feel a bit bad now that we forced a mentally challenged human child into a corner like this.”

I thought I’d made it through dealing with this accursed guard's venomous tongue, the bane of my existence, but it appears I was far from it.

AHHHHH! I’ll definitely make sure he faces a fate worse than death in the future! A woman with a grudge is scary you know. We don’t forget even the smallest grievances.

Calm down and bear with it. Uncle taught me well how to survive when I was a child. You must know when to bend your head in defeat when in a disadvantageous position and strike back only when you are sure you have the advantage.

I never thought I’d really need to utilize his teachings so many times in one day all at the hands of a single infuriating demon city guard.

Could this guard actually be a hidden boss on this floor? The fact that he can damage me without lifting a single finger is abnormal to begin with. He’s definitely my unlucky star.

“Well, since it’s your first offence of theft and seeing as it was us that were somewhat responsible for it, I suppose we’ll let you off this time. Just make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

He said that cooly while turning his back and leading the other guards back to the outpost outside the gate.

After I barely managed to avoid the slammer, I cursed that rabbit and guard’s nine generations of descendants to eternal damnation in my heart before I headed back into the city. It might have been more humiating to just be let off the hook that as easily though.

Haaah. For the time being I need to just forget about that irksome guard. I’ve got a few problems of my own right now. I’m hungry. But I’m broke again. Money has always been my greatest weakness. I really need money right now.

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Ah. That’s right, now that I think about it, didn’t I lose the rapier the king gave me to that guard? If I had that I’m sure I could sell it for a small sum. Hehehe. I suppose not all is lost, as the rapier’s master I can still get it back by summoning it to my side. It didn’t look like my connection to it had been severed either. I hadn’t noticed it until now. I could keep reclaiming the rapier after selling it to different shops. If it mysteriously disappeared from their shop what did I have to do with that? Wasn’t it just their negligence that was to blame?

I called out to it in my mind and a few minutes later, the rapier flew down from the sky and planted itself into the ground in front of me.

When I held onto it, I could feel it’s discontent at being used and lost as part of a wager. I apologized for losing my cool in the heat of the moment and asked for it’s forgiveness. After half an hour placating it, I eventually managed to soothe its dissatisfaction.

Now that I had my rapier back, I needed to find where Umi ran off to. I could worry about selling the rapier off after I located that traitor who wouldn’t sacrifice her clothes for the greater good.

After I asked around a few places, it didn’t take too long before I tracked down where she fled to. I approached a bar the locals had seen a similarly blue haired woman entering. It wasn’t hard to pick her out from the crowd, a blue haired deadbeat drunkard was sprawled out on the bar counter. The bartender looked troubled, but when he saw me his eyes lit up like he’d seen his savior.

“You’re with her, right? Your friend accumulated quite a tab and she said her friend would pay it off. You would be that friend she was referring to, right?”

“Sorry, you’ve got the wrong person. I don’t know her at all.”

Like hell am I paying! I’m now broke without even proper clothes to my name. Does it look like I can pay off her tab?

“Ehheheh? Akua? Ish that yueh?”

“Bartender, I’ve never met this woman before in my life. Don’t let her deceive you. My name is not Akua either. My name is Salvadorete Benevitez Guerrero Solomon Shakir.”

“Do I look like an idiot to you? You’re the only two humans in this city right now. If it’s not you, who else could it be? That name you blatantly pulled out of your ass just indemnifies your guilt even more.”

“Look pal, even if you ask me to pay her tab, you should be able to tell by what I’m wearing, I’m dead broke.”

“A-ku-wa have a dru-ing-ku wid me. Ueeehhh.”

This best friend of mine, ever since we left her nation she’d really let herself go. The first time she was introduced to alcohol was like a whole other world had opened up to her. She was also a real pain to deal with the night I brought her back to her room back then. I was slightly tipsy as well at the time, so things got a little bit steamy that night. I’m not going to repeat that mistake again.

“No more drinks for you until you pay off your tab young lady.”

“Ehhhh? Akuwa, the bartender is buwying me.”

This damn drunk shrine maiden with no sense of money, spending when she clearly doesn’t have anything to spend. Even I’m not that bad. At least I spend only when I have the money to spend.

“Uhm, Mister bartender, we really don’t have any way to pay this at the moment. Can you please cut us a break? We promise we’ll pay you back as soon as we earn some money.”

“Hah?! You think I can trust crafty humans who only know how to scheme and plot? No can do. I can hardly trust you when you will likely renege on your debt the moment you leave the city.”

“But we really have no way to pay back the debt right now.”

“For a human you two's appearances are somewhat high in quality. How about selling me your bodies.”

“Hah?! There’s no way I can do that!”

“Then I suppose I’ll need to report the two of you to the city guards then.”

“Wait! Please, anything but that!”

I won’t be able to survive another encounter with that wretched devil!

“Then obediently sell your bodies to me.”

Well, if it’s just a bit… it’s better than dealing with that devil’s venomous words that cut through one’s flesh like butter.

Now that I look closer though, for a demon, isn’t this bartender actually pretty hot. He really gave off a sort of demonic charm in the black tuxedo he had on. He had short well kept silver hair on the level on an idol you’d see on TV. With mysterious deep black eyes and a mature refined look he might have actually suited my preference. Not bad.

“F-f-fine. Have at me! You can have my body, but you’ll never have my heart you vile demon!”

Don’t get me wrong I’m not excited about it in the slightest. I’m not such an easy woman to be swayed by a handsome demonic male. I’m absolutely not slightly excited at the thought of a demon forcing themselves on me or anything. It’s definitely not because I’m still a virgin either. I’m really not excited by this turn of events.

“Nwoo way. Akuwa is mine! Hic. Wu can’t hab her. You cwan - hic - do whatever wu want to mwe but weave - hic - my Akuwa out of this.”

“Huh? What are the two of you talking about?”

“Eh?”

“Here, put these on. You’ll be putting those bodies of yours to good use over the next month to pay back that tab you built up.”

He handed over two waitress uniforms.

Wait. Isn’t something really wrong with this? Shouldn’t the tragic heroine be violated by the wretched demon causing her to want to grow stronger and annihilate the demon lord and all demon kind? Did I go wrong somewhere with this 37th otherworldly adventure?

Little did I know, this was the true beginning of my adventure story. I was summoned to another world for the 37th time as a hero only to become a waitress instead. Like hell it was!

What did I do in life to end up so unlucky? Where did things start going down hill? Wasn’t it from the very beginning? Could it have been from the time I had that dream of meeting that goddess in the blue one piece before I was sent to the first world I was supposedly summoned to?

Back then she told me I was about to die in a plane crash, but humans from another world were trying to summon a hero at that very moment. The goddess said she felt pity that an innocent child like me was about to die, so she pulled a few strings and had me summoned as a hero to the world that had fallen on desperate times.

Wasn’t there something fishy about what she said back then? I was only a naive child at the time and I had mostly forgotten about that dream. I never thought to question that goddess back then, but was it really a dream? What if it was her fault to start with? After all, why would a goddess randomly pity a completely random little girl in some far off world? Wouldn’t that mean that rather than pity, it was guilt she actually felt?

My deep contemplation over the mistakes I’d made in life was interrupted when the bartender snapped at us, “Hurry up, time is money ladies. Get to work. Get to work. Stop spacing out with a stupid blank look on your face like you’re searching for the meaning of your pitiful life.”

With no other choice, I donned the cute waitress outfit and helped my drunk shrine maiden comrade change in an empty room at the back of the bar. When we finished changing, the two of us started what became the true start of my 37th grand adventure in another world, at least, for the next month it was.

Haaaah. I’ve surely been cursed by some rotten goddess of plague.