Chapter 144: Regrouping at the Inn

After leaving the room, I took a trip to the cottage's toilet. It took me a bit to do my business as I had to wait for my member to calm down, so I used this time to upgrade my [Seduction] skill to max level like I told Nyra earlier. What followed after that was a number of notice boxes.

[[You have now reached [Seduction] at MAX LV!]]

[[You have achieved the 'Expert of Seduction' title!]]

[[You have now learned [Silver Tongue] LV 1!]]

[[You have achieved the 'Master of Seduction' title!]]

[[You have now learned [Consented Touch] LV 1!]]

<Wait, the fuck? If [Silver Tongue] is what I think it is, shouldn't I have learned it much earlier?> I asked Nyra, being the expert in these kinds of skills that she is.

<[Silver Tongue] is a skill that lets you swoon your target with your words, but that's if you put an effort into doing it, and the target isn't someone you already have a relationship with like the girls in your harem,> Nyra explained, <With or without [Seduction] in your repertoire, you'd need to successfully woo targets that look to be in different leagues from you a certain number of times before you're recognized to have earned the skill. Up to now, though, your Charm stat towards the Demon-Kin is so high that using [Silver Tongue] was almost non-existent. I'd imagine you'd have more credit in earning that skill if you tried wooing girls from the Human-Kin, since your Charm towards them is so low.>

<Okay, thinking back to my Innate Status when I first saw it, I can understand where you're coming from, but I still feel this is a bit late in the game for that. And, as for [Consented Touch] …> I trailed off, slightly worried about what it was implying.

<It's a skill that lets you get away with groping and feeling up someone,> Nyra answered bluntly, <As you might expect, it doesn't register when you feel up the girls in your harem or those with the 'Prostitute' title. I found this skill difficult to earn for most races of all kin. They all have their totally different social etiquettes in physical contact that led them to not try attempting it, even if their Charm stat was high. All of us Pixies had this skill, though, since we're so intimate with each other. I don't know about Yukino, but I'm pretty sure most other demon girls, especially the all-female races like Lamias, would have no problems with you giving a surprise cop-up to them, you just have to have the balls to pull it off. As you've seen here, if you never had either [Consented Touch] or [Silver Tongue] before mastering [Seduction], then you'll certainly earn them automatically after acquiring the titles you just got.>

<Wow, these skills, especially [Consented Touch], could be dangerous depending on whom it's used on back home …> I commented.

<And, as you might expect, if you have [Seduction], [Silver Tongue], and [Consented Touch] at max levels, you'll no doubt win over any girl you have your eyes on, and get away with doing whatever you want with them!> Nyra exclaimed with excitement, <Even a grouch like Yukino won't even hold a grudge against you for suddenly feeling her up. Oh, but they're only effective towards your target. If someone in a public space of strict social etiquettes spots you feeling a girl up, you'd likely be branded as a sexual deviant from the get-go, even if your target tried speaking up about letting you off. I'd normally say "Go crazy and feel up every girl you see for me!", but since we're trying to maintain a good reputation here, you should probably hold yourself back from doing any of that until you're in a private setting.>

I waved my hand dismissively, <I'd do that without you telling me that. Anyway, if these skills will help me slip past Yukino's defenses later tonight, then it may be best to get these maxed-out, as well. As for other girls that might interest me moving forward … we'll cross that bridge when we get there, I guess. After being disciplined for respecting a girl's personal space by Mom for so long, I don't think I'll shake off what she ingrained in me so easily.>

<Seeing how terrifying your mother can be in your memories, I don't blame you,> Nyra said.

I then spent enough SP to max out [Silver Tongue] and [Consented Touch] and received the respective titles, 'Smooth Operator' and 'Lucky Pervert'. I'm sort of thankful for not getting any more skills from them after that or I might be sitting on the toilet with Nyra for a while, learning more of what other unsavory, immoral acts I could get away with. I could become the greatest enemy of men and women before I even realize it.

Once that was done, my business on the toilet was finished and I made sure my [Demonic Pheromones] skill was turned off. I then washed my hands and took out Tyvera's confiscated Messaging Crystal from my [Storage] to move into my blazer's pocket, just so I'll have it on hand and ready to pick it up when Noire calls me later. When I finally got back downstairs, it looked like everyone else was finished in their businesses with Noire, all full of food, and we were ready to move on. Gabriella and Beelzebub were still out cold, but the former will surely be ready to go by tomorrow. That was what the Vampire said, anyway, but I'm not sure how things would go if the Dullahan wasn't awake by then.

We then set an appointment late enough in the morning tomorrow to give ourselves time to have breakfast and warm up a bit before heading to the dungeon. Noire and I had a brief exchange in glances, silently agreeing to our secret meeting later tonight once she had all her things prepared.

Nyra informed me that Yukino was also staring at me cautiously, probably anticipating what would happen later tonight, too, if she actually does show up. Honestly, even if she didn't show up, though I would lose a lead on learning Chaos Barrage's plans on the coup, it won't be a huge loss for me relationship-wise. Though she was attractive in appearance, I wasn't a real big fan of her haughty attitude. Her twin sister, despite what little she spoke of her, honestly caught my attention more, but I don't think there's much of a chance of me seeing her anytime soon, so it would be better to not think about her too much and focus on the dungeon.

With our plan set, we gathered our things, Noire saw us all off at the front door of her cottage and we moved some distance away from her residence.

"My party and I will be heading back to the inn, 'The Moonshine', do any of you need a lift through my [Portal]?" I asked the two guild masters and Yukino.

"I will be taking a walk around town to clear my head after all that stress, but I will see you off at the dungeon tomorrow," Eugus answered.

"I'd like to talk with Eugy for a moment, so if I don't see you at the inn later, I'll be joining you for breakfast and see you off at the inn, too. Excellent work with the spars, by the way, you've exceeded my expectations yet again today," Julius added while tipping his hat before smiling.

{If this guy really does swing that way, does he even know I'm not interested in him?}

<Aww, are you not even going to be buddies with him, at least?> Nyra asked, reading my internal thoughts.

<I don't want to take any chances,> I answered bluntly.

"I must get home and write my report to Konjiro, but the two of us will see you off at the dungeon, as well," Yukino answered last with arms crossed, her eyes coldly staring at me. I could tell that she was expecting something to happen tonight, though, which assured me that she'll certainly come to the inn later tonight. I made a mental note to tell my party about this back at the inn.

We bid the three of them off before they made their separate ways. Once they were far enough away, I cast [Portal] to take our group back to the front of the inn. Just as I was telling my party about moving to the backyard for a strategy meeting while I led us inside, I jumped at the sudden call-out to me.

"Kotori! You're back!" a familiar, female voice exclaimed.

Just as I was looking to see who it was, I was suddenly pulled into a spine-popping hug. A large plate of metal restricted my breathing as I was pressed against it.

"You really did make it out! I was so worried!" the familiar voice exclaimed again.

"A Werebear?" Ume asked.

Just from that description alone, I managed to pop my head out and looked up to confirm my suspicions, "Rizz?"

"Master, are you acquainted with her?" Ren asked.

"Hm? Oh! You must be Kotori's party!" Rizz exclaimed before setting me down, "'Scuse me for the sudden entrance. I'm Rizz. Kotori and I talked for a bit outside of Palocaesy Dungeon."

"He did say something about checking the dungeon during his morning training," Kalline said, looking down in thought.

"But what did you mean about Master 'making it out'?" Erizora asked.

"Ah, right. So, I didn't go inside because I was waiting for my own party, but I overheard how there was a lot of commotion in the dungeon," Rizz explained, "The monsters inside did the impossible and moved between floors in swarms! From multiple reports, there were monsters from the upper floors going down, and those from the lower floors were doing the same in reverse! The other adventurers inside were so surprised that they wound up getting caught in the middle of it all! Only a few of them came out severely injured, but nobody died! The guards watching the dungeon had to deny access to the other adventurers for a while to investigate what was going on.

"I didn't see Kotori or his familiars coming out, though, and nobody over there saw them inside. That got me worried, so I asked the guards to look for them while they investigated before I waited a while, but with no luck. I wondered if Kotori escaped to some other place, so I started going around the different inns in town looking for him, even when my party told me not to when they finally showed up later. It wasn't until I came here that I found out Kotori and you guys stayed here, so I waited here to see how he was doing."

"Goodness, that must be some wild goose chase," Sue said while covering her mouth with surprise.

"Still, monsters traversing between dungeon floors," Kalline said while looking down in thought, "You are correct that that should not happen for dungeon monsters. The only exception would be the event of a monster outbreak that gets many of them escaping the dungeon. I have not heard monsters going deeper in the dungeon before, though. This does sound worrisome."

<Looks like we made quite a mess of things, huh?> Nyra asked, and I couldn't agree more.

I used Nyra's curse of attracting monsters to make grinding easier and we ended up with a large haul of monster corpses that I put in my [Storage] for later, along with all the drops and money that came with them. It seems that that same curse had some peculiar magic that made monsters ignore the limit of not traversing between dungeon floors. I anticipated casualties getting caught in my training, but I was thankful severe injuries were the worst thing that came out of this. I decided to be more careful of using Nyra's curse in the future, but I learned some valuable info out of that chaos, though.

"What made you go to such lengths to find Chief?" Tyvera asked Rizz next.

The Werebear scratched her head awkwardly, "Well, he seemed like a nice guy, he even shared some bread with me when I was hungry. You rarely see humans around these parts of the Demon-Kin's Territory for how tough the monsters and demons are, too, so for him to only go with his small familiars, of course, I'd get worried."

{Huh, this bear's pretty cool.}

"I appreciate you looking out for me, Rizz, and I'm sorry to make you worry," I said before raising my arms in a T-pose, "But, as you can see, I'm fine and escaped that weird outbreak unharmed."

"And it's a relief to see you well, too," Rizz said.

"Do you know if the dungeon will still be closed tomorrow?" I asked her.

"I believe it should be fine to go in now. Last thing I heard before leaving was that some of the floors were practically empty, so traversing through them should be a breeze. Are you going back there?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Part of the reason I trained there a bit today is so I can get a feel for the environment before a big quest tomorrow. My party will be coming with me that time, of course."

Rizz nodded in understanding, "I see. Well, if there's nothing else, I'm heading back to my own party. Best of luck on your quest tomorrow, Kotori."

"Thanks, Rizz! I'll see you around!" I bid before the Werebear left the inn.

"She was nice," Ren commented.

"Yes. It warms my heart to see someone looking out for another like that," Sue added, and according to my [Intuition], she wasn't lying, though I don't know why she would in this case.

"Anyway, let's move to the backyard. There's a lot we need to discuss," I said to everyone.

Once we got to the inn's backyard, after making sure we were by ourselves, I cast [Soundproof] to keep our conversation out of earshot from outside. Then, just like my private conversation with Ume and my familiars earlier, Nyra assisted in getting everyone up to speed fast by connecting our heads with her purplish-black mist. She then implanted the memories of my talks with Noire and Yukino into my party's and Sue's minds. To keep things safe, Nyra left out the part where Noire revealed this kingdom's conspiracy to me so Sue doesn't get any funny ideas. Other than Ume and my familiars who've been through this the first time, everyone else was quite shocked by what they experienced.

"Well … I can certainly never see Yukino the same way again," Kalline said with an annoyed expression.

"For her to look down on Master like that … I wanna crush her to a pulp," Erizora growled while hitting her palm with the kanabo.

"Jin, are you sure we can't maim that vixen's insides instead?" Ume asked before rolling her reptilian claws with the most innocent smile on her face. That kind of contrast would likely terrify anybody.

"I can assist you with my talons on that, Chieftess," Tyvera added.

"Calm down," I ordered, "I know she's a bitch, but if we want any chance of pulling info on Chaos Barrage's plans out of her, we need to get her comfortable and drunk enough to spill her whole life story to us."

"Chaos Barrage …" Ren muttered under her breath while gazing to the ground, her white beastly hands clenched into fists. Even her white wolf tail was standing up along with all its hairs on end.

"That's right, Ren's brother is in that group," Erizora reminded us, "They were chasing her for her [Duplicate] Null Spell before. If Chaos Barrage is going to interfere with our quest, there may be a chance we'll run into him and his pack."

"Ren," I said as I lowered myself to her level, "I know this may be tough for you, but it's likely we'll run into them eventually. Since they're previously your family, what do you want to do with them once we meet?"

"I …" she trailed off while still looking down, having trouble finding the words to answer. Nyra informed me that Ren was currently feeling great degrees of fear and anxiety.

"You don't have to answer it right now," I assured her, "Just keep this in mind and think it over. We'll support whatever you decide, every step of the way. We've got your back, and as your master, as your alpha, you can bet that I'll protect you, no matter what. Understand?"

"... Yes. Thank you, Master," Ren answered before the tensions in her arms and tail loosened. I petted between her folded, fluffy wolf ears in comfort.

"I must say, though, I had no idea Lady Krauss had it so rough," Kalline commented, "It is certainly a surprise to see such a rebellious side of her."

"A lot of nobles in this kingdom have it rough," Sue said while crossing her arms, "But it's only those who put those struggles into serving the people that are deemed true nobility. Those who are only in it for power and fortune are unfortunately more in number, but the Krauss family have been a good asset to the Demon King and this kingdom for quite some time. I'm glad to see we're taking this chance to help one of them out for a change."

"... You know, I've been thinking, you seem to know an awful lot about nobles, Sue, more than many commoners would want to know," Tyvera said, while narrowing her eyes, "And I've been wondering where Chief got the idea that the Duke of Demons, Rowling, and Konjiro are part of Chaos Barrage, bent on making a coup to overthrow the Demon King. Moreover, you and Chief were talking in private for an awfully long time earlier. Was taking you with us in the escort quest the only thing you two talked about?"

{… Uh oh. What should I say?}