Straf activates [Contextual Time Perception]. He lets go of Lian's wrist, though he wasn't gripping it to begin with, crawls off the bed, then heads straight for a corner in the room. He curls up into a ball with his back against the wall, placing his arms on top of his head while hiding his face in his knees and lets out a long, disappointed exhale.

《Did I seriously get caught on a starter premise this late in? She couldn't just lie to everyone that I did stuff, huh? Had to go straight for the jugular.》

He lifts his head up and looks at Lian and Cycelia while they're completely frozen still. Cycelia is halfway through drawing her sword, while Lian is looking her way with teary eyes and a fearful expression, but on a closer look, the corners of her lips twist upwards with a hint of smugness. Straf lets out another long exhale.

《…This is fucking ridiculous. How am I even going to explain this one away!? I did nothing wrong this whole time I was here, and I wasn't about to do anything wrong!…》

Straf grimaces while looking at the two for a moment, then lowers his forehead onto his knees.

《…Fuuuuck. Seriously? She's fucking vicious.… I feel like screaming, but I'm fairly sure the sound wave would kill everyone in the room… Would it? I don't fucking know…》

He lets out another, more resigned sigh into his legs.

《…Slowed time or not, I can't stay like this forever, or I'll turn into an afterimage. I can't fucking bolt out of here, or that'll just be an admission of guilt, but I'm innocent!…》

Straf raises his weary gaze up to Cycelia and the open doorway.

《…How the fuck do I explain this away, then? I know how it fucking looks! She made it that way! She's pure evil! It's like she waited her whole life for this opportunity!…》

Gritting his teeth in frustration, Straf narrows his eyes at Lian on the bed.

《…This is getting a little too realistic and believable for me. I'm in a world where people seriously die to a monster called horndog and everyone keeps a straight face…》

Straf lets out another weary exhale then looks at Cycelia's guarded and angry face staring at the bed.

《…Wait. That's right! I'm taking a completely fucking wrong approach to this!…》

Suddenly his head perks up, and he stands up with his brows raised.

《…This world is fucking ridiculous! If you try to explain things away in a believable way, you lose!…》

Straf gains an amused smirk as he carefully crawls back into the bed with Lian, right over her, and gently places her hand in his loose grasp while lowering the ability's factor.

「…Lia! I can explain!」

He exclaims as time returns to normal and Cycelia moves again, slowly drawing more of her sword. She pauses, glaring at Straf with her golden eyes glowing.

「Do it.」

She demands with a light nod.

「It's a misunderstanding! I tripped!」

Fwap.

Straf exclaims, pulls his hand away from Lian's mouth, and instead forcefully places it on her breast.

「Huh!? What are you-!?」

Utterly stunned, Lian simply blinks at his hand pressing on her modest chest. Completely taken aback and knocked out of her rhythm, she turns her almond-shaped eyes to Cycelia.

「…Is it? Lian, is that true? Wait, did you just?-」

Cycelia asks, pushing some of her sword's blade back into her sheath as she blinks at them with a confused expression on her face. She then realizes Straf moved his hand.

「He's lying!」

Lian shouts back to Cycelia, causing her face to twist back into fury and eyes to spark while she slowly starts drawing her blade again.

「No I'm not! Lia, it's a misunderstanding! She is misunderstanding too!」

Straf quickly ripostes, causing Cycelia to again push some of her sword back into her sheath with a confused grimace on her face.

「He said he doesn't take no for an answer!」

「That's not- I didn't even say that! Lia, does it seem like I'd say that!?」

「He's groping me right now!」

「My hand ended up there by accident!…」

While Straf and Lian shout over each other, Cycelia moves her sword up and down, in and out of her sheath as if playing a strange violin.

「…Please just fucking play along! I'm sorry, okay!? I don't know what I did, but I'm sorry! Everyone's making me into a fucking sex pest while Lily rubs it into my face that I'm a virgin!」

Straf turns his face to Lian, speaking in an urgent and hushed tone with his teeth clenched. She looks at him with a cold glare and a frigid face.

「Straf. Explain yourself properly. Now…」

「Geh.」

Cycelia calls out with her eyes shooting away short-lived golden sparks as she slowly draws her sword to its tip, nearly pulling out of her sheath.

「…Even if it's you, I'm not going to just let you get away with something like this, so better explain yourself-」

「It was a joke!…」

Lian calls out with her hands spread, interrupting Cycelia.

「Huh?」「Huh?- I mean, yeah.」

Cycelia and Straf perk up in surprise, but he quickly nods along with a covert, wary side-glance directed at Lian.

「It was a joke? What do you mean?」

Cycelia asks, blinking her confused emerald eyes at Lian as the golden glow dies down, sheathing her sword, but still gripping its hilt.

「He tripped onto me. You see, in my culture, when a man trips onto a woman and ends up in a very suggestive position with her, it's our custom to get the man into trouble…」

Lian says with a light smirk, propping herself up on her elbows as she speaks. Straf listens with a tight-lipped grimace on his face.

「…It's always a good laugh when everyone comes to kill him, and then the woman reveals the joke. I simply took it a little too far. Sorry, sorry…」

She adds, shrugging her arms and shoulders with a nonchalant smirk on her face.

「I- Is that true?…」

Cycelia asks with her brows greatly furrowed as she lets go of her sword and fidgets with her silver medallion instead.

《She fucking bought it!?》

Straf's eyes widen in surprise at Cycelia's reaction.

「Of course. It's such a rare opportunity that no woman would let it slip! Clumsy, and idiotic, boorish men deserve to be made fun of!…」

Lian nods her black head and turns her glare towards Straf as she speaks.

「…It's all in good fun.」

She adds with another quick shrug of her hands and an amused smile on her face.

「S- So Straf really did trip?」

Cycelia asks while blinking at Straf's face with large emerald eyes.

「Yes. Tripped like an idiot with the finesse of a newborn and pushed us both onto my bed, where he landed with his hand on my chest… And still has it there.」

Lian nods, and turns her glare back to Straf. He quickly retracts his hand down to the bed while Cycelia grimaces slightly.

「R- Right… So it was just a big misunderstanding… Haha… I'm glad… That nothing happened… Right?」

Cycelia lets out a relieved exhale as her shoulders slump, nodding her chestnut head.

「Of course.」「Yeah, absolutely nothing.」

Lian and Straf both nod, though Straf keeps nodding for a few moments longer.

《…There's no fucking way she bought it! She's just sweeping it under her mental rug!》

Straf thinks while staring at Cycelia's emerald wide-eyed glare.

「…You can get off her now, right?」

Cycelia remarks while looking at Straf, who's still on all fours over Lian.

「Right yeah my bad…」

He quickly hops away to his feet, jumping in front of the bed's foot end. Lian rests her cheek on her fist with her mouth aslant.

The three stare at each other in a long, awkward silence while Cycelia stands in the doorway, only fidgeting with her medallion with a tight-lipped grimace on her face.

「…Lia?… We're good. You can leave now. It's fine.」

「Right…」

Straf exchanges a glance with Lian and calls out to Cycelia in a hesitant, slightly confused tone. She nods in response and moves to shut the door, slowly backing out.

Crrrreaaaaaaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkkk…

While on her way out, Cycelia takes all the time in the world to bring the door closer to herself. The hinge creaks loudly under the door's weight. Instead of fully shutting the door, Cycelia stares at the two through the small crack left open in the door. Straf stares back at her with an awkward and troubled tight-lipped grimace. After a prolonged moment of Cycelia's emerald eye peering in at them through the door, she eventually pulls it completely shut with a soft latch of the lock.

Straf stares at the door, then exchanges a troubled gaze with Lian in complete silence.

After an even longer moment, the sound of Cycelia's boots slowly grows more distant outside the room.

「Whew…」

With his fists on his hips, Straf lets out a relieved sigh with his shoulders slumping.

「…That was fucking nasty! What is your fucking problem!? What did I even do to you!?」

He exclaims, spreading his arms in exasperation at Lian, who is staring at him with a nonchalant, amused smirk on her face.

「I have a distaste for those who put others down, for braggarts, and importunate men…」

Lian replies, then lets out a weary sigh as she hops over to the bed's side and stands up.

「…But more importantly, I have a very strong disdain for men who think that I'm only good for being a woman…」

She says with a cold voice, glaring down into Straf's frustrated eyes.

「…And I don't like it when someone touches my weapon without my permission, so that's why.」

Lian shrugs her hands with an amused smirk and a nonchalant, carefree tone before placing her hands on her hips.

「That's it!?」

Straf exclaims with his eyes wide open in outrage.

「Of course not. It's a combination of factors. I already couldn't stand you and thought you can't get any worse, but then you've managed to outdo yourself. Congratulations…」

She lets out an amused huff from her nose in response, tilting her head while looking at Straf with a smug, amused smile on her face.

「…I don't think I like your recent attitude. To her, and to everyone else. You speak of loneliness, but you come to my room without permission and make such a boorish suggestion…」

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Lian declares, still smirking. She nods over Straf's shoulder towards the door, then lets out a weary sigh while shaking her lowered head. Her black ponytail jiggles left and right.

「…Hmmmmm. May I make a suggestion myself? Why don't you visit one of those, what they call 'em?…」

She says while she thinks with her black eyes turned up and aside, pensively pressing index finger against the side of her chin. Straf stares at her with his mouth scrunched.

Snap.

「…Ah! Pleasure houses!」

Lian snaps her fingers and points at Straf with a surprisingly gleeful grin, seemingly glad she remembered the words.

「Believe it or not, that's not going to solve the issue. If it really was about that, I'd knock on Nona's door instead. I'd probably be left unable to walk one way or another…」

Straf replies with his mouth aslant, pointing his thumb over his shoulder at the door.

「So why come to me?」

Lian asks, tilting her head again as her hand returns to her bodysuit-covered hip. Straf stares at her face, blinking with no discernible expression.

「…I don't fucking know. I'm just grasping at straws here. Funny enough, I'm feeling good enough to probably make it to the onsen now, so that's something.」

After a moment of thought, Straf throws his hands up with his mouth scrunched to the side and turns for the door.

「Whatever you're feeling is probably your own fault.」

Lian calls out towards Straf as he reaches for the door.

「Huuuh? What the fuck do you know?」

Straf replies, peeking over his shoulder at Lian with a scowl on his face.

「More than you think. My family is dead, my clan is dead… I spent years separated from my dear idiot little brother, and only had some rough idea that he was here, on your continent…」

She shrugs with a nonchalant smirk, replying with a completely casual tone.

「…I met some of your people. Talked with them. Had to talk with them. Eventually I narrowed down there my brother might be…」

Lian continues, briefly tilting her head as she gently raises her brows. Straf listens with a sour expression on his face while gripping the door handle.

「…You think I didn't feel lonely back then? All of you are completely foreign to me. I have next to nothing in common with you. I'm alien to this land, and I have no real home left.」

She adds while staring into Straf's eyes, smirking ever so slightly.

「You didn't meet my people. You don't know my people. I'm alone.」

Straf bluntly replies, shaking his head with his mouth disdainfully scrunched to the side.

「Tsk… I'm not going to baby you. I can't stand you. Oh poor you, poor you, so sad by your lonesome…」

She clicks her tongue, speaking with a mocking tone and a frigid gaze. Straf glares back and opens the door.

「…You're not alone. Both physically and in that feeling. It's your own choice whether you want to continue feeling that way.」

Lian adds, shaking her head as she returns to her chair at the desk. Straf exits without saying a word and closes the door behind himself.

「…Fuck this, I'm going to watch my willpower go up.」

Straf grumbles to himself as he heads for his room with his hands in his pockets…

…

Early in the next morning, on the city's empty and sun-bathed streets, outside the western-styled inn…

While everyone is assembling outside, Alicia looks at Straf with her brows furrowed, clutching onto her silver wands with a worried grimace on her face.

「Will…」

Alicia calls out in a hushed voice, tugging at Will's pristinely clean, blood-free robes.

「I tripped. Leave it, Alicia… Ow.」

Will insists and adjusts the glasses up on his nose. He winces when he puts a little more pressure on his nose than intended with his finger.

「But it was on the floor elsewhere too…」

Alicia mumbles to herself with her head lowered.

「We had a lot of free time yesterday, didn't we, Will?…」

Lian remarks as she approaches Will and Alicia with a light smirk on her face, grasping her spear as if a walking stick.

「Ah, Lian… Yeah, kind of…」

Will nods and moves his finger to push his glasses up his nose again, but quickly changes his mind and adjusts them by their sides instead. Lian raises a brow.

「…So, how'd you spend your day off? Why didn't you come to visit, hm?」

She asks, and her smug smirk on her face grows.

「I was… Uh…」

「Will… Tripped and hurt his nose, so I spent some time healing him in my room.」「Pft.」

Will thinks about an answer, but Alicia replies for him after a hesitant glance at Straf. Greaves scoffs with a lightly amused grin on his face, attracting a weary and annoyed look from Will.

「Tripped?… That's unusually clumsy of you. Was it the snow?」

Lian tilts her head, and her brows rise in surprise.

「It- Yeah… It was the snow.」

Will thinks very briefly on his answer, then nods in response.

「…I see.」

Lian says, glaring at Straf with a cold side-glance. He returns a lightly confused, yet nonchalant glance back with his hands in his pockets.

「After that, I wanted to see if Stripe can help me translate a few phrases and tell me how some of the characters are pronounced… But I think she was asleep, so I went to sleep too.」

With a shrug of his shoulders, Will adds while carefully adjusting his glasses.

「Alright. Everyone ready? Lily, Lia, Nona, cat, assassin bitch?…」

Straf calls out as he walks out into the center of the group and does a quick headcount. Everyone is present and looking at him.

「…Okay, let's go. No time to waste! If we're late, the onsen episode might end up as OVA, and that's a double-edged sword!」

He waves his arm for everyone to follow and sets out on a road south, placing his hands in his coat's pockets.

The streets remain empty, though there are a few people here and there, mostly owners of establishments coming to unlock them and quickly slink inside to their safety. Everyone Straf and his group appears frightened, except the numerous homeless people sitting on the ground and lining the streets, who appear as they wouldn't care about anything even if a demon dropped down right in front of their feet.

Will yawns and adjusts his glasses, wincing again as he accidentally pokes his nose a little too much.

「What's up, Will? Didn't sleep well tonight?-」

Thump.

「Umf!」

Lian asks, turning around to face Will, who is quite literally dragging his feet with weary eyes. He trips, and stumbles face-first into Lian's modest chest.

Physically, she barely flinches, but she raises a brow at him while she helps him regain his balance. With a massively awkward, tight-lipped grimace on his face, Will quickly readjusts his glasses by their frames while looking up at Lian red-faced. Straf stares at the whole scene with his mouth ajar.

「There it fucking is…」

《…Rare my fucking ass! Why didn't it happen to me!? Are my stats too high for me to trip like a fucking idiot!? Is that it!?》

Straf utters out, pointing both of his hands at Will and Lian with utter disbelief on his face.

「My… How forward of you.」

Lian says with an amused smirk on her face.

「N- N- No! That's not!- I tripped! I'm sorry, I really did this time!」「…This time?」

Will blurts out an apology, and Greaves tilts his head with his brow raised in response.

「It's fine. I don't mind. Try to keep up, Will.」

Lian nonchalantly replies and continues onward.

Straf shakes his head and lets out a frustrated sigh. They cross a junction with narrow roads leading to the sides. Walking slower while thinking about yesterday, Cycelia lags behind.

Fwapf!

「Straf!」

She calls out in panic suddenly. Straf turns around, and sees three armed men. Two wearing black, and one in red lamellar armor holding Cycelia close by her waist.

「Shit! I should have noticed!…」

Will clicks his tongue in frustration as he draws his sword against the strangers at the back of the group. Straf's entire party scrambles to about-face.

「Straf Katastrof Vindict, right!?… I've been waiting almost a year for this!」

The man in red armor point his curving sword at Straf with a smug grin on his face.

「Straf!…」

Cycelia calls out with worried, wide-open eyes while Straf warily watches the men with his hands in his pockets. She tries to reach into her coat for the sword.

「Ooop! I don't want to hurt you pretty lady, and I don't want you to harm me. Let's keep it that way.」

The armored man grabs her tighter, preventing her from being able to slip her hand in.

「If you as much as nick her-」

「No no no no… I'm not going to hurt her, you see. I'm taking her with me. She'll be safe, but if you want her back, you better come see me. I suppose you won't just abandon her?」

Straf says, but the armored man cuts in and shakes his head. He shrugs his shoulders and nods his head at Cycelia, grinning at Straf. The two black-shrouded men block the path.

「…Are you from the palace?」

Straf asks with his mouth scrunched to the side in frustration.

「That's right. I'm Falcon. You've probably heard of me-」

「Nope, never.」

「Tsk… Shit…」

Straf interrupts Falcon, quickly dousing the flaming man's ego.

「…Well, in any case!… I like women quite much so, you see, so you have my word of honor she'll be unharmed…」

Falcon points his sword at Straf, regaining his smug grin while Cycelia calms down a litte. She blinks her large emerald eyes at Straf.

「…But you better show up at the goods warehouse in the north-eastern part of the city! I'll wait until sundown… Otherwise, I'm taking her for myself!」

He announces, aimlessly slashing the air with his sword. Lian adjusts her grip on her sword, glaring at the armored man.

「What are you, a sex pest?」

Straf asks, grabbing onto Lian's spear, confusing and annoying her.

「Th- Rude! I'd never do something to a lady that she wouldn't love! Don't lump me in with those bastards!…」

Seemingly greatly offended by the mere implication, his head perks up, and Falcon points his sword at Straf again.

「…I'm wasting my time here! North-eastern part of the city, goods warehouse! Be there by sundown, or else!」「Wah! Straf!…」

Falcon scoffs and hauls Cycelia over his shoulder. She yelps, and reaches her hand out towards Straf as the armored man takes off running down the narrow street.

「You're just going to let him take her!?」「Let's go after them!」

Will and Greaves shout while pointing at the escaping man. The two black-shrouded guards warily back away, still blocking the path, before running after Falcon themselves.

「…If I kill them on the spot, that's a great way to get them to fuck off and leave me alone through the rest of our stay here without me killing the rest of 'em, isn't it?」

Straf sighs, and asks while spreading his hands with his mouth aslant. Greaves's head perks up, and Will lets out a troubled groan.

「…Yeah, I guess… If he promised to not hurt her, it's better if we come up with a plan.」

Embarrassed, Will nods in agreement and adjusts his glasses.

「Fuck planning. I'm just going to wipe the floor with them, leave them just barely alive, and let them know I could have done worse… That's a plan.」

Straf scoffs, placing his hands in his pockets as he leisurely strolls down the narrow alleyway.

「…Couldn't I have just used the pistol, Straf?」

Nona asks, tilting her head.

「Depending on your philosophy, for hostage rescue you either use a sniper rifle or an attack helicopter, Nona…」

Straf replies over his shoulder with a nonchalant shrug and his brows gently furrowed…