Roughly twenty minutes later, in the pleasure house, in Straf's room…

…ThumphumpTHUMTHUMP!

《Oh fuck!-》

Straf's eyes snap up to the open doorway as someone's feet rush for his room.

「Straf… I'm back!…」《…Oh thank fuck.》

Cycelia announces as she runs into the threshold and leans onto the doorframe while gasping for air. Straf's vaguely tight-lipped grimaces relaxes when he sees her fatigued face.

「…I managed… Ahh… I managed to find a potion shop. I didn't know how to ask, so I just picked a potion that looked like an antidote. I hope it works…」

She tries to explain, but then has to gasp for breath again as she kneels down beside Straf. She takes a large breath, then lets out a relieved exhale as she noisily uncorks the small glass bottle.

Pop!

「…Here, drink this… I didn't know how to tell him what happened, so I was gesturing a lot. I hope he understood what I meant…」

Cycelia lifts Straf up a little and brings the small, rounded flask of purple liquid to his lips. He tries his best to drink it on his own, but his lips are far too numb to be controlled.

「…I took the potion without paying, but… But it's not like I'm stealing it, and it's an emergency, right?」

She asks while carefully pouring the flask's contents into Straf's mouth. He drinks it with very small, strained, and infrequent gulps.

Before long, the flask is empty, and Cycelia corks it back up after lowering Straf down to the mat floor. She stares pensively with a worried expression at his face while Straf is rolling his eyes around, looking left and right, up and down seemingly at random. After a few moments, he turns his eyes down to his arms and begins wiggling his fingertips. At first only the very last joints move, but after just a short wait, half of his fingers start wiggling too.

「Ah. Is it working? Are you feeling better?」

Cycelia takes notice of his wiggling, then turns her concerned emerald eyes to his face.

「Gaahhhh… Son of a… Fucking… Bitch…」

With some effort and a lot of frustration, Straf manages to grunt a curse out while squeezing his hand into a weak fist over and over.

「Ahhh… I'm glad. What happened, Straf? I couldn't sleep, so I thought that I'd maybe join you for an hour or two… And you were with that woman in your room…」

Cycelia lets out a relieved sigh as her shoulders slump. She tilts her head, blinking her emerald eyes at him, before explaining herself.

「…And I found her on top of you… And it looks like I kind of misunderstood things a little… Just a little… B- But it all turned out well, right? So, what happened?」

She asks while bashfully tapping her fingers together with her gaze turned aside.

「Fucking poisoned me… With a drink… Fuck… Give me a moment… Tongue still numb…」

Straf briefly struggles as he sits up, still visibly struggling with partial paralysis. He moves his shoulders, flexes his arms, and twists his torso.

「Okay… Um… Straf…」

「…Yeah?」

Cycelia turns her eyes back to Straf, then lowers them to the mat floor as he responds with his brow rising gently.

「…We should go back to that store and pay that man. When you're feeling better, that is.」

She says with her brows furrowed and a troubled grimace.

「Tsk… What's the point? Not like he stopped you.」

Straf asks, clicking his still-numb tongue and windmilling his shoulders.

「Straf!… He was old, and I'm not a thief!」

Cycelia clenches her dainty hands, angrily furrowing her brows.

「You should have woken Nona then…」

Straf rolls his eyes, then gets up off the floor.

「Ah. I was kind of panicking and forgot about those two… Are you alright now?」

Cycelia asks, staring at Straf's face with a worried expression.

「I'm still a little numb all over… Not enough to turn that into an edgy song. Stats.」

He shrugs with his mouth aslant and a bored, slightly disgruntled gaze turned towards her. His attention turns to the thin air in front of himself as he begins to tap his finger on it.

「…What are you doing?」

Cycelia tilts her head at the bizarre sight of Straf being deeply focused at something seemingly right in front of him, yet invisible.

「Hm? Ah… I'm just picking out shit that will make me absolutely fucking immune, or at least resistant to all sorts of poisons, toxins, radiation, and other fun stuff…」

Straf nonchalantly replies and returns to browsing through his list of available abilities.

「…Picking out what?」

She asks, furrowing her brows while she looks at his finger.

「Huh?… Ah, I guess you can't see it… It's a screen with all sorts of useful information, like my stats, abilities, and there's an option to get more…」

Straf briefly raises his brow at Cycelia before his head perks up. She shrugs, then quickly explains the screen only he can see.

「Stats?… Abilities?…」

「Yeah, like the whirly thing… You call 'em blessings, I guess…」

Cycelia asks, and Straf quickly replies with a nonchalant shrug.

「Huh!? You can just pick any blessing you'd like!?」

Her eyes widen in shock, and she blinks her gigantic emerald eyes at Straf's bored face.

「Yeah… Well, kind of. I'm limited by the points I have. I have a lot of skill points left over since I was trying to keep it down a little, so…」

Straf nods, rubbing his chin as he reads something Cycelia can't even see.

「…Points?」

「It's like money… Coins, whatever. You get the idea. No money, no skills…」

She asks, and Straf quickly explains again, before tapping the thin air with an approving nod.

「…How do you get more?」

Cycelia turns her eyes from his hand to his face. He meets her gaze.

「I just kill stuff. Every time I level I get points to spend on stats, with some bonus ones on those nice big round numbers… They also seem to be increasing…」

He casually explains with a shrug of his hand, then motions his finger up through the air repetitively, stopping for a few seconds at a time.

「…I guess the logic is, the bigger the level, the harder it is to get to the next one, so the rewards should be bigger too. Works for me.」

He adds, and resumes browsing through his invisible stat screen. Cycelia lowers her gaze, placing her chin between her thumb and finger, thinking intensely.

「…Straf, couldn't you constantly kill stuff to become immensely powerful? Even more than you are now?」

Cycelia asks after a prolonged moment of silent thought.

Snap!

「Yup! You just described powerleveling, Lia… I bet you'd like video games a lot…」

Straf snaps his fingers with a grin on his face, briefly pointing at Cycelia with an approving nod of his head before returning to his ability shopping.

「That's…」

Cycelia utters out with a greatly troubled grimace.

「…Straf, are you sure you're…」

She says, stopping to glance over her shoulder at open doorway.

「…Yeaaah?」

Straf raises his brow as she leans in towards his ear.

「…Are you sure you're an otherworlder, and not a demon?」

She whispers into Straf's ear, and straightens out, blinking her emerald eyes at him with an awkward expression on her face.

「Hmmmm…」

Straf humms, rubbing his chin as he ponders. Cycelia's grimace deepens the longer he thinks.

「S- Straf?…」

Cycelia meekly calls out.

「…I mean, there's demons from this world, and demons from the outside, right?… And the outside ones kind of fizzle away and die here.」

He replies, shrugging his hand with his brows raised while bearing a nonchalant look on his face.

「W- Well, yes, that's right. Their worlds are vastly different, so they can't survive here without a sacrifice to feed them.」

She nods, affirming Straf's words.

「Right… And I'm pretty low-maintenance, I just need some food and a drink from time to time to live…」

He nods, and returns to browsing through his available skills with a shrug of his shoulders. He suddenly stops and his head perks up as he begins to rub his chin again.

「Straf?」

Cycelia tilts her chestnut head in confusion.

「…Huh. I guess you learn something new every day.」

Straf declares, then casually continues waving his finger through the air.

「Huh? Learn what new? What did you learn?」

She blinks her emerald eyes, growing somewhat disconcerted.

「Always remember the sausage was once a pig, Lia…」

He replies, smirking slightly without taking his eyes off the invisible screen.

「Eh? O- Of course! I'm not some sort of a naive, sheltered noblewoman! I know where my food comes from!」

A little baffled, Cycelia's head perks up as she proclaims with her chin raised proud.

「Okay, done. We can go pay that guy, if you really insist on giving away the very little money we have.」

Straf waves his hand to he side and turns to Cycelia, reaching into his [Portable Storage] to pull out his coat.

「We have to, Straf! It would be utterly shameful for someone of my status to thieve!」

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Cycelia insists with her brows furrowed, pursing her lips slightly into a tiny pout.

「Already forgot the horse, huh?…」

Straf asks with an amused smirk as he slips on his coat.

「Geh… That was a completely different situation… Never mind that, what blessings did you take, Straf?」

Cycelia winces, briefly averting her gaze before shaking her head and returning her curious gaze to Straf's eyes.

「Well, the bright side of this fucking encounter is that I'm now immune to poison, toxins, radiation, food poisoning, and best of all, I no longer really need to breathe!」

Spreading his arms, he declares with a smug grin.

「…What's radiation?」

She asks, gently tilting her chestnut head.

「We're a little too early down the tech tree to worry about that… I think. Don't mind it for now.」

Straf replies, walking out of the room into the hallway.

「Wait, what do you mean no longer need to breathe?」

Cycelia shuts his room, and furrows her brows as she follows him to her room's door.

「Exactly what I said, Lia. Technically this means I can't bleed out either, but I don't feel like testing that. If I do something about the pressure, I could probably go to space.」

Straf says with a proud smirk and his fists on his coat-covered hips, and adds a shrug of his shoulders.

「Doesn't… Doesn't that mean you're technically immortal, then?」

She asks, fidgeting with her medallion.

「Yeaaaaah… Kind of. I'm immune to oxygen deprivation, so blood is just pointless red water to me now. The only things that could kill me are probably hmmm…」

Straf nods, confirming Cycelia's guess. She furrows her brows while listening.

「…Damn, I'd probably be fine through a beheading too. Being a brain in a jar would fucking suck…」

Rubbing his chin, Straf mumbles to himself while thinking. Cycelia grimaces a little.

「…Probably what I'd call mechanical dismantlement, and just straight up running out of the healthbar… And I suppose dehydration from bloodloss? That's a pretty unique one.」

He adds, shrugging his hands with an amused huff and a smirk.

「Mechanical dismantlement?…」

Cycelia cringes slightly at the mere sound of Straf's words.

「Exactly what it sounds like. Anyway, get your coat… Unless you changed your mind?」

Straf nods, then gestures his head towards the closed door to Cycelia's room.

「N- No! Let's go!…」

She replies and rushes into her room, snatching the coat resting on her baggage…

…

A little under twenty minutes later, on the edge of the red lantern-filled street…

「Ah! I think it was this shop here!」

Cycelia calls out, pointing her dainty finger towards an unassuming door without any sign outside of the building. She rushes up to it, then turns around to wait for Straf to join her.

「Is this even a store?… Or do you want to add breaking and entering to your record?」

Straf remarks while approaching with his hands in his pockets, narrowing his eyes at the very plain sliding door.

「I'm almost certain it was here!… Come!」

She replies, and slides the door open. She then bows her head towards the inside and enters.

He briefly looks around. While the shop is small, the customer area is fairly spacious. Most of the cramped space is behind the counter separating the customer area from the shopkeeper behind it, who appears to lift his head out of his troubled rumination. Many colorful potions of all sorts of sizes ranging from tiny vials to large glass jugs fill the shelves all around them.

「Hm?… Ah. Evening?…」

An old man behind a counter says in a slightly confused tone while his tiny, beady eyes jump between Straf and Cycelia.

「Evenin'… We're here to pay for that antidote.」

Straf says with his mouth aslant while Cycelia awkwardly smiles at the shopkeeeper from behind him.

「Ahhhhh… I see, I see…」

The shopkeeper's head perks up, and he begins nodding with a pleased, warm smile.

「…That'll be two gold, customer… When the pretty lady ran in here, she started waving her hands about and babbling some gibberish while looking at the potions.」

「Two fucking gold?…」

The old man says, and Straf immediately winces as he reaches into his pocket.

「I wish I could sell it for cheaper, but the young lady took an universal antidote. It's made of very rare ingredients… It's well worth its price, customer…」

Clunk.

The shopkeeper spreads his thin, wrinkly hands as Straf hands the gold over, placing the coins on his wooden counter with a greatly frustrated grimace.

「…I had half a mind to call the guards when the lady just took the potion and left, but she didn't look or act like a thief, so I figured that maybe she'd be back… I'm glad to see I was right.」

He adds while looking at Cycelia. She tilts her head in response, smiling a little wider, thought not any less awkwardly.

「Let's go, Lia… You just had to pick out the most expensive potion, huh?」

With his mouth scrunched to the side, Straf lets out a defeated sigh and turns for the door.

「I didn't know how to ask for the price…」

She bows before turning around, and replies as she jogs to rejoin Straf's side. She slides the door shut, then follows at his side as they make their way back.

「Still, what a fucking mess… Looks like I was right, and the palace wants me dead, whoever they may be… And this whole thing started because I misread the fucking sign.」

Straf shrugs with another frustrated and resigned sigh as he glances at Cycelia walking along his side through the now mostly empty streets.

「Huh? What sign, Straf?」

She tilts her head, blinking her green eyes at him.

「The lantern by the entrance. Did you miss that?」

Straf replies, furrowing his brows slightly in confusion.

「Huh!? You can read that!?」

Cycelia blurts out as her mouth opens in surprise. She glances at one of the lanterns, similar to the one marking the pleasure house.

「Yeah… Well, kind of. I read it wrong, but it's not my fucking fault, it could either be saying pleasure or pleasant… And house or home, y'know?…」

He nods, explaining with a shrug of his shoulders and his mouth aslant in indignant annoyance.

「…Then, what does that sign say!?」

「Sake.」

Cycelia points at a random lantern, and Straf nonchalantly replies after a single disinterested glance at it.

「W- What's sake?」

She asks as she pulls her hand away, closer to her large chest.

「Booze… But generally it'll mean something like tavern around here, Lia.」

He quickly explains with another shrug as he looks at her.

「What about that one, then?」

「Udon.」

「…What's udon?」

She points again, and Straf likewise reads the lantern, confusing Cycelia again.

「…It's like a soup with spaghetti, Lia. I'm making it sound worse than it really is, believe me.」

He replies with a tight-lipped grimace after a moment of thought, then turns his eyes forward again.

「…And that one?」

She asks, pointing at a small building with another lantern.

「Massage place… But realistically it's another pleasure house.」

「…Huh?」

Cycelia tilts her head at Straf, blinking her confused eyes at his bored ones.

「…If you need to ask, forget it.」

Straf replies, shaking his head as they take a turn towards the pleasure house…

…

The next morning, outside of the pleasure house…

Straf exits the building and waits outside with his hands in his pockets for the rest to catch up. Lily is out first.

「…Why didn't she wake me?」

Lily grumbles, pouting up at Straf with her arms crossed.

「'Cause she forgot, Lily. Let it be, she was panicking.」

Straf shrugs, and lets out a sigh with a tight-lipped grimace on his face.

「Hmpf.」

She scoffs in response, turning her golden head the other way as Cycelia and Nona exit as well..

「Okay… Are we ready to go?」

Straf asks, spreading his hands. Some people in the crowd obstructed by his arms grumble and mutter curses as they pass by.

「I suppose I am, but… I'm kind of hungry.」

With her hands behind her back, Cycelia nods in reply then flashes an awkward smile, briefly turning it to Nona and Lily as well.

「Well, nothing we can do about that, Lia. I'll see if we can do something about food along the way, but thanks to that potion, we're fucking broke again. Let's go.」

Straf throws his arms up, then turns around and begins walking down the street. The group follows him along.

「Hey, Straf… I had a fun dream tonight.」

Nona declares as she hops up to his side, grinning at him.

「…Was it a dirty dream?」

He asks, turning his tight-lipped grimace to her with his brows raised. Her hooded head perks up.

「How'd you know?」

She asks, blinking her surprised amber eyes at him.

「I guessed.」

Straf bluntly replies and turns his disinterested gaze forward.

「Tehe… I see… It was about you…」

Holding her hands behind her back while following Straf by his side, Nona giggles, smiling at him with her head tilted.

「…And her. She called me a man-stealer and homewrecker and-」

She adds, briefly glancing over her shoulder at Cycelia while she's distracted by a discussion with Lily.

「You're just a really heavy sleeper, Nona.」

Straf cuts in, interrupting her, and shakes his head as the group takes a turn…