Six is better(?) than Five

After having breakfast and doing his business at the bathroom, Victor was being told about all of what the rest of the group had been doing in the previous hour that he had been sleeping through while Luka and some employees helped him get across the staircases to the lower floors.

Soon, the two boys had reached the entrance of the Inn, and as they were being carried out, the employees and the hotel owner saluted them from the other side of the hall.

"Have a good day, dear customers!"

Victor waved a hand at them as he wheeled outside, and then he was once again helped by two employees to go through the last row of stairs to the ground. In front of them, at the other side of the street, there was Alice, Eva, and Penny waiting for them to come down.

Alice scoffed as she saw Victor wheeling behind Luka and asked the latter. "So, have you done with the 'luggage'?"

It was clear that Alice was referring to Victor with the last word, but he was too much into a good mood to care. After all, now he actually has a superpower! Telekinesis might seem common, but there is soooo much stuff to do with it, as long as he can understand the mechanics behind that power.

Although he possesses the superpower now, he still has to learn how to utilize it in the first place; unless….

A certain thought came in his mind as he went through the store once again, and found exactly what he was looking for: Optimal Finesse for the Skill List at the price of 50'000 Gold Coins.

It is a unique skill that permits him to understand and employ every skill acquired through the system's store to their fullest efficiency. Its price is based on the total price of every skill he possesses, and because he only has a Tier 4 Telekinesis, it costs 50'000 Gold Coins. And the best thing is that it also encompasses future bought skills; buying this one early on is a must because later its price will increase a lot, and Victor understood that only now.

Well, there wasn't actually anything to worry about at the moment, in 5 hours he can get more than enough Gold Coins to buy that skill. Besides, there will be Granberia that is supposed to give him 30'000 Gold Coins; he can use them to upgrade his money-making system so he can get more Gold Coins faster.

"Hey Victor, we are leaving!" Eva called him out. Victor glanced back at the group and closed his system.

"I'm coming!" He turned around and wheeled in their direction. There wasn't anything important to do in this city except for having fun, and Victor couldn't think of anything regarding how he is supposed to have fun by going around the city. Looking around with curiosity was one thing, but having fun doing something outside of playing with electronic devices was another thing.

He might pick a hobby or two, though… He could start writing something, like a Novel. There is a lot that this fantasy world has and doesn't have, he's certain that he can introduce everyone to a 'totally new' genre.

Maybe Sci-Fi? Wuxia? Or how about he goes for irony and pulls an Isekai?

Hmm, he will have to think about this later… Speaking of Novels, couldn't he buy some from his Store? There were some novels that he'd like to read up to the end but couldn't do so because of this unexpected cross-dimensional teleportation.

"So, where will we be heading first?" Victor asked Luka, as he was the one who had to decide where the party was going to go. With the little respect Luka had from the rest of the group, he was ultimately the leader.

Of course, his words weren't to be taken as the best. The proof of such a claim was yesterday, when he almost caused another quarrel that would quickly evolve into another fight just by refusing Granberia within the party. That's where Victor comes in to take control of the situation, since Alice didn't seem to care about these kinds of moments at all for now.

"Well, we could either go to Happiness Village or Enrika before heading north… I'm sorry for making you wait, though; I think it would be better for all of us doing everything here before going forward instead of keep walking back and forth…" Luka was referring to Victor's relationship with the Treasure Cave north of Ilias Continent.

Victor shook his head with a calm expression. "There's nothing to worry about, I can wait."

"Good." Just as they were approaching the northern city gate, a voice that came from the mixture of noises in their surroundings shouted loudly and clearly.

"I found you! My shining Prince!" A shadow jumped from the crowd, casting a large shadow over the group while their large body covered the sun. After what looked to be a couple of reverse front flips, the shadow landed on the road in front of them.

Green reptilian scales reflected the light of the sun, and a pair of golden slitted eyes gazing over the party with great focus.

Now, there were only two people that matched this description, and judging by the fact that Granberia should maintain her promise and wait OUTSIDE, and that Victor had heard words that will never ever come from her mouth, everything suggested the second and completely reversed option: Amira...

Amira, the Unfortunate Lamia… A Lamia Monster born with a mutated body that caused her upper body to retain monster features such as a snake head and serpentine chest while her lower body had human legs, with only a pair of black underwear covering the most important spot of her body.

No one had any idea why she was posing with her legs turned around and shaped into an A, while her serpentine body went through her legs and stared 'backwards'. It looked like she was doing this in spite, mocking the Lamia species.

It could be that since normal Lamias had only the lower part of their bodies shaped up like a snake, she positioned her snake head downwards while her human ass was pointing upwards.

It was either that, or a medical condition. He would bet the latter was the correct one.

"What the heck!?" Luka yelped in surprise at the sudden appearance of an anomalous monster in the middle of a human settlement as big as this.

Eva and Alice simply stared at the monster with calm expressions, while Penny looked at Amira with a surprised expression. After all, when would you get an opportunity to see this kind of monster anywhere in the world?

"My name is Amira… You stole my maiden heart. You filled me with love and courage. Ah, my sweet heart… an unbreakable dream." The monster began to confess her love with broken poetry that didn't seem to make any sense even when hearing it in the first person.

However, Victor felt an alien sensation coursing through his body. He couldn't understand what that feeling was, but it was something that made him uncomfortable. Could this be some kind of superpower available for unfortunate monsters? Thank god this thing was attached to Luka alone...

Looking down on his lap, Penny didn't seem to be negatively affected, seeing how she was still admiring Amira.

After a split minute in silence and awkwardness, Victor cleared his throat and asked. "Excuse me, but… Do you need something?"

"Ah, my sweet Prince!" Suddenly, Amira rushed in Victor's direction… Wait, why him?!

""AHH!!"" Seeing the weird monster running at him with a weird but fast running motion prompted Victor and Penny to yelp in fear, while Penny instinctively hugged Victor's quick-beating chest and covered her eyes with his shirt right after screaming.

"Holy fuck, you scared the crap out of me!" Not bothering anymore to censor his words, Victor replied when Amira stopped in front of him.

"My Prince! You were so dashing when you courageously confronted the great Heavenly Knight back then! Even when your left leg doesn't work anymore and you aren't even baptized, you have done far more than other Heroes and Soldiers over here! Your bright and handsome figure… it made my heart go 'doki-doki'."

"..." Victor stared at Amira with an unamused expression, the good mood he carried before turning back to ashes.

He admitted that this was the very first time a girl admired him like this, but… Even he had standards. It is like having a fat girl as a crush, it just feels weird as fuck. No matter the gender, you would feel disgusted if the person who had a crush on you was at the bottom of the trashcan.

"...Please go away, you are scaring Penny." Victor politely replied to Amira. Behind him Alice began to snicker at Victor's misfortune and covered her mouth.

"'Dashing and courageous', my ass…" She muttered with an amused voice.

Amira let out a sad grunt through her snake mouth as she stepped back, still carrying an extremely great balance through her weird upside-down position. "...Everyone else does too… Everyone throws stones at me… Nobody will get close to me… Not wanted by anyone… such sadness..."

"Been there, done that. Get over it and tell me what you came here for." Victor rudely replied to Amira's sad confession, and received a glare from Luka.

"Victor! You shouldn't say that!"

"Shut up, she's bullshitting the entire time. The only kind of stone she would ever receive from the town starts with 'stone-' and ends with '-d', and I am talking about the 'Little Green'." Just as Victor finished to elaborate, all of a sudden, a shout came from the middle of the crowd.

"Hey! Amira! I made too much miso soup for lunch! Come by later and have some if you get hungry!"

"Oh, Amira! There are some rats in my warehouse. Would you mind helping me get rid of them?"

"Tch…" Amira clicked her forked tongue, prompting Luka to look at her with a disappointed expression at how pitiful Amira's attempt to incur attention was. "I thought that boys were weak against love and admiration…"

Victor slowly shifted his head behind, looking at Eva. "Do I have to tell the truth?"

Eva shook her head left and right. "Please don't. We will stay here for the entire day if you really speak out your mind… I already saw how it would end some days ago on other occasions while I passed around here, just bear with it."

A sigh escaped from Victor's mouth as he turned to Amira. "Anyway, do you have anything else to do or say? I can stay here the entire day, but I doubt the others want that."

"Alright…" Amira huffed. "Anyway, other than professing my love, I also have a request that I hope you could accept for me… Recently, a band of monster thieves have been rampaging around and stealing from heroes and the military. Having fellow monsters do such a thing… It pains my heart. Everyone else in the town is troubled, too. Even though my appearance has quite the impact… my attacks don't. Could you please submit them in my stead?"

"Monster thieves?" Luka was the curious one, since Victor already knew what was going on deep. Although the situation and her words were a bit different, the plot was somewhat the same. Amira goes to the party and introduces herself before putting up a quest about defeating four monster bandits at west from here.

"Are you sure it isn't just a human scare mongering story?" Alice asked with a raised eyebrow, clearly surprised that someone like monsters would resort to thievery. There were many wild monsters around, but none of them took thievery as a profession. They are physically stronger than humans and their diets were different, there was no need for them to resort to those tactics.

Amira glared at Alice as if the latter had insulted her parents. "Don't insult my information gathering! There is even supposed to be a vampire and a dragon!"

"A vampire?! And a dragon?!" Luka yelped in surprise, and both Alice and Eva looked at Amira with wide eyes.

"Why would monsters like that be here out of all places? Even resorting to thievery..." Eva asked Amira, and Alice nodded in agreement.

"That's right. I've never heard of monsters like that this far in the countryside."

Amira ignored the three of them and looked at Victor. "Please, my sweet prince… can you defeat the bandits and bestow righteous punishment on them?"

"I'll think about that, but please stop calling me with that nickname, it's weird." Victor replied with narrowed eyes filled with annoyance.

Alice raised an eyebrow at Victor's words and asked. "Do you even know what you are agreeing to? Are you sure you are completely awake now?"

"Do the world a favor and shut the hell up." Victor rebuked at Alice with a bothersome voice while Amira jumped up in excitement.

"Ahh, just as I expected from the man I love! My heart… kyuuuun!"

"My last sentence also refers to you." Victor commented as he turned his head back to Amira. However, Amira continued to speak.

"You can find the bandits at west from Iliasburg, on the northern base of the Irina Mountain Range. I will be here to wait for good news and bid you good luck!" After saying that, Amira began to weirdly walk away from the road.

Penny slowly peeked from Victor's chest and noticed that Amira wasn't there anymore. "...Is the bad monster gone?"

"Yes, yes." Victor casually caressed Penny's head as he took a deep breath. Meanwhile, Luka glanced at Victor with a worried expression.

"Are you sure we should accept this? I mean, a dragon and a vampire…"

Victor jabbed a thumb at Eva and replied. "That's why we have her. When things get risky for you, there is Plan B. Besides, dragons and vampires? Here in the Ilias Continent? That's bullcrap."

"How are you sure about that?" Luka asked with curiosity, and Victor shrugged.

"I don't know how strong each one of them is, but I doubt there is anyone here except for Eva who is capable of stopping them. I know of thievery, but I don't remember there being any report on kidnapping. Amira is certainly leaving something out."

"Do you mean that she is hiding something?" Eva asked, and Victor replied.

"The subject she brought up was already idiotic even for the low standards I have, I'd say to check it out before acting, though."

Alice let out an exasperated sigh. "Really… Why bother doing unnecessary things? Let's just head north to Iliasport and take a ship off this continent; the presence of Holy Energy in the atmosphere is bothering me a lot."

"That's quite hypocritical coming from someone who wants to go all the way east to visit Happiness Village because they like their honey."

"Shut that mouth of yours." Alice glared at Victor before they all began to reach for the northern city gate. Unlike yesterday, there were four soldiers overseeing the large entrance, and didn't react at all to their presence along the road.

The land in front of them was a slope belonging to the hill where Iliasburg was built on, with barely noticeable details in the human eye if one looked from the edge of the hill to the plains at the bottom.

Of course, because it was a slope, Victor once again needed help getting down. With his wheelchair being carried by Eva's strong arms and Victor holding on to Penny on his lap, the entire group slowly descended to the base of the hill.

As they all reached the end of the hill in five minutes, away from the public eyes, they encountered another monster immediately after. Of course, that monster is Granberia, waiting for them to arrive there with a massive leather bag filled to the brim with Gold Coins sitting at her side.

"Took you long enough." Granberia commented with her arms crossed and an exasperated tone. All of a sudden, Victor and Luka felt both a case of Deja Vu. Didn't Alice act just like that when they first met together?

"H-Hello…" Intimidated by her very existence, Luka greeted her. Granberia ignored him and shifted her gaze onto Alice, who shifted back to her monster form. After looking up on her head all the way down to the tip of her tail, Granberia nodded in relief.

"It seems like you weren't harmed, my lord."

"As if a Hero could single-handedly defeat me without even taking assistance from the Four Spirits." Alice snorted at Granberia's worries. Meanwhile, the dragonkin grasped the bag with one hand and dragged it over Victor with an arrogant expression.

"Here you go, precisely 30'000 Gold Coins, just as you had asked."

The size of the bag was massive, there was no way a normal human could lift that. It not only overwhelmed Victor through sheer weight, but it was also bigger than a goliath.

Granberia knew that, she wasn't that stupid to not consider Victor's capabilities. But it was because she knew that, that she gave him such an overwhelming gift. She could have easily got an item that was just as much worth than that and was more manageable; but because of what Victor did to her yesterday, and for the way he acted against him and Alice, she kind of wanted to get back at him.

Alice let out an exasperated sigh upon seeing Granberia's behavior. She also realized what her aim was, but she didn't know about what Victor was really capable of…

"Thanks." Victor pulled on the bag's edge and pulled on his entire weight to bring closer the opening of the bag. Then he stuck his hands inside and the volume of the leather bag visibly decreased at a very fast speed, surprising Granberia.

Soon enough, the bag was light enough to be draggable by a normal person, but by then, the money in the bag was already very little. After snatching away the remaining coins inside the bag, he grabbed the bag and lifted it towards Granberia.

"You can have this back."

"..." Granberia merely stared at Victor with wide eyes and speechlessness. Meanwhile, in the background, Alice sighed once again while Eva hid a chuckle behind her hands.

"...What?" Her body went on autopilot as she picked up the leather bag once again. Granberia blinked a couple of times to recover from her surprise and cautiously glared at Victor. "Explain! How did you manage to do that!?"

"Calm down!" Luka went in front of Granberia with his hands up. "We don't need to resort to violence immediately, we can explain!"

Victor merely smirked for the entire time, and that smirk managed to rile up an emotion Granberia rarely felt in her life: Annoyance.

...

Never gonna give you up~

Never gonna let you down~