Chapter 030: Lost In The Big City 02: A Huge Misunderstanding

A few hours earlier…

Shelly eventually realized that Maou wasn't by her side… as predicted.

"Maou! Maou! Can you hear me?!" She painfully battled through the large crowd. "Come on, not this again."

Shelly searched as best as she could, but it was annoyingly difficult for her to look for Maou in such a large crowd that drowned out her shouts with its melting pot of noises as well as nearly getting ran over by a carriage. Also, as she pushed herself against the flow of the crowd, people kept knocking her around by brushing against her and her large travel bag. But, she continued to look for Maou until the hassle was too much for her to bear any longer, and she had to step out of the crowd.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" Shelly pulled out several porcupine needles from her arm. "Why does this always happen to me?!"

Just then, her eyes caught sight of a specific building. The sign read: "Pixies Inn". She was overjoyed to see this as she was held back by her luggage, and she needed a place to set up camp before the night.

Entering the Inn, she was met with a nearly vacant space, besides a few people chatting in the lounge over beer. She slowly approached the empty front counter while gazing at the building's interior decor. Standing at the front desk, Shelly saw a note reading, "For service, ring bell." Following the instructions, she rang a small bronze bell.

"Ding!"

She waited some time but no one answered, so she rang again.

"Ding! Ding!"

She waited some more but no one answered, so she rang again but a little more aggressively in case they didn't hear her at first.

"Ding! Ding! Ding!"

Just then, a guy wrapped up in a sleeping bag, drooling, dark circles under his eyes, and drowsy eyes poked his head out from under the counter and looked at Shelly. His sudden, unexpected appearance frightened Shelly with a jolt backward.

"Ah… hey. Can I rent a–"

"You're not my type." He yawned. "Don't disturb my sleep, apple head."

The guy went back under the counter and fell asleep with loud snoring noise. Shelly was dumbfounded having never expected such behavior and poor service. She became annoyed and agitated but sighed before turning around to leave the Inn. But just then, the entrance door burst open and Shelly instinctively turned to the noise.

"Kaga!!!" A feminine voice shouted. "You better not be sleeping, you lazy bum!"

"Ah! Angie, I swear–"

"Bang!!!"

Kaga, Mr. Sleeping Bag, knocked his head into the wooden counter in his rush to stand to his feet.

A short, thin, angry, black-haired, busty, dwarf girl dashed towards the counter, as Kaga slowly stood up, still in the sleeping bag. The oppai loli jumped above the confused Shelly, exposing her childish pink striped panties, and aimed a flying dive kick at the terrified Kaga trapped in his sleeping bag, unable to freely escape.

"W-W-Wait Angie! It was a honest mist–"

"Bam!!!"

The kick sent ripples across Kaga's face as he bounced off the wall and fell to the ground unconscious.

"Hello, there lady traveler." She stood atop Kaga's body to look taller. "Welcome to the "Pixies Inn". Would you like to rent a room?"

"Ah… Umm…. Hey. I would like to rent a room." Shelly timidly answered.

"That's wonderful!" Angie clasped her hands with an innocent smile and a slight tilt of the head as if to erase her violent outburst from earlier. "Single bedrooms cost 10 silver coins a day. Double bedrooms cost 15 silver coins a day."

"That's freaking expensive!" Shelly exclaimed. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to say that out loud."

"Nothing to apologize for, but we do have great deals here." Angie pointed out. "For every week paid in advance, you get a "10 silver" discount."

"Well… that sounds better… I guess." Shelly sighed as she pulled out her coin pouch. "I'll pay for a week's stay, single bedroom please."

"It's a pleasure doing business with you." Angie dropped the money into a chest that popped open when she waved her hand above it and an orange magic circle appeared.

"I'll show you to your room now." She hopped off Kaga's unconscious body.

Shelly followed her up some stairs while taking note of her peculiar clothing. She wore a black and white maid dress with her hair tied in a ponytail.

"Here we are." She unlocked a door with "2-G" engraved on a piece of wood on the wall above.

"The room label is on the key to help you identify your room." Angie handed over the key to Shelly. "Also, the replacement fee is 10 silver."

"I'll be sure to remember that." Shelly held the key in her palm delicately.

"Please, enjoy your stay." Angie politely bowed before walking away.

Shelly dropped her travel bag on the bed.

"55 silver coins, 138 copper coins." She counted her meager funds with worry. "I need a job. I can't survive with this."

Shelly threw herself down on the bed and stared off into the ceiling. Instantly, she remembered something important… dangerously important. She still hadn't found Maou.

"Crap! What am I doing?!" She flung herself off the bed in panic. "He's probably putting me in debt with his bottomless stomach."

She locked the door and hurried out of the building. Her search began as she wandered into random buildings, especially restaurants. After an hour of uselessly searching for a silver-eyed kid, she found herself bummed out, walking through a shaded lane.

"I bet he's not even looking for me. Haaa! Probably having the time of his life… without me." Shelly's shoulders drooped. "Maou, where the hell are you?"

Just then, a red-haired girl, dressed similar to Shelly, bumped into her while seeming to be running away from someone.

"Ack!" The slight collision caught Shelly by surprise. "My bad, I wasn't paying attention."

The Shelly look-alike kept running instead of stopping. Scratching her head in confusion, she noticed something in her hand. It was the coin pouch of the person who bumped into her.

"Crap!!! I stole her money." She panicked a little on the inside before sighing. "Old habits die hard, I guess…."

Shelly skeptically peeked over her shoulders while sliding the pouch between her bosom.

"But thankfully no one saw." She whispered. "I might need this later anyway."

"Stop, you dirty thief!!!"

"Gah!!!"

A loud commanding female voice shouted towards Shelly, scaring the soul out of her body.

"I was gonna return it, I swear!" Shelly pleaded, turning to the voice.

"So it was you!" A tall female city guard, clad in armor stood at the entrance of the lane. "The apple hair thief."

Fearing being imprisoned on her first day in the capital, she instinctively turned to escape but was met with a blocked exit, surrounded by more guards. Her only chance of freedom was cut off. Shelly felt this was too perfectly timed to be a mere coincidence, but a result of her menacing bad luck striking her once again. Thus, she gave up with hands in the air.

"For your crime of stealing from the honorable division seven captain…" The lady guard menacingly stepped towards Shelly. "… I'll make sure to stuff you in the dirtiest prison cell we have. You worthless stealing bitch!"

"Okay, I admit it was wrong of me to steal… but was the name-calling really necessary?" Shelly made light of the situation. " Also, how was I supposed to know that was a captain? Kinda unfair to be honest."

Her humor was met with an awkward and intimidating silence while the guards positioned at the exit, started to cautiously approach Shelly with their Glaives pointed towards her.

"C-Come on guys, let's calm down. Isn't eight guards… kinda overkill. Don't cha think?" Shelly awkwardly chuckled to ease the tension. "I mean… I'm just one person."

By this time, the female guard was standing an arm's length away from Shelly. Her body language oozed anger from Shelly's constant joking around.

"I'll just hand it over to you guys and you give it back to the owner. Easy-peasy! And we can all act like this never–"

"Wham!!!"

A fierce punch dug its way into Shelly's gut.

"Blegh!!! Cough!!! Cough!!"

She fell to the ground puking, coughing, and clutching her abdomen in pain. The attack caught her off guard, making it worse.

"Speak when you're spoken to, maggot!" The female guard looked down on Shelly with a look of disgust.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ouch!" Shelly groaned while trying to push herself off the ground. "Hehe! You punch like a little–"

"Wham!!!"

The metal boot of the female guard smashed into Shelly's ribs.

"Aargh!!!"

More pain shot through her body from the kick as she rolled across the ground and bumped into a guard's foot. From the ground, she could hear his armor rattling in fear of the tall, brutish female guard. From that, Shelly realized the mistake she had made pissing off the devil in front of her. But if there was one thing that growing up poor in an orphanage surrounded by the harshness of the slums taught her, was to never look weak in front of your enemy.

"Was all that supposed to hurt?" Shelly stood on to her feet, wobbling. "The kids back home throw a better punch than you. Pathetic!"

Shelly gathered enough strength to dash towards the female guard, aiming to throw a straight left punch but it was unfortunately caught by her.

"It seems you don't learn through words." She squeezed Shelly's fist.

"Ack!" Shelly twitched under the pain. "Words? You hit me like twice, you dumb– Ah!"

The female guard suddenly grabbed Shelly by the throat and raised her off the ground, slowly.

"Stop… I can't… breathe." Shelly tugged at her arm and kicked her sturdy body.

The female guard started squeezing tighter and tighter, her fingers pressing into Shelly's throat the more she tried to fight back.

"Please… stop." Shelly's efforts to free herself became weaker and weaker.

Slowly, Shelly's vision started to fade away. As her last-ditch effort, she subtly slid a small blade down her right sleeve, that she hid there after being kicked in the ribs.

"Slash!!!"

Shelly flung the small blade, catching her by surprise, but missed her eye. Instead, she sliced her cheek. If it wasn't for Shelly almost passing out she'd have blinded her, but once more her luck fell short and she passed out.

"Attacking a city guard. That's your second crime." She released Shelly, dropping her unconscious body to the ground. "Be thankful the captain wants to interrogate you or you'd have been dead three times already… lucky maggot."

"Pwoot!!!"

She spat on Shelly before stepping over her. The other guards stepped aside, making way for her to walk past.

"Throw her in the cell with Caliban." She ordered, looking straight ahead. "And tell him I said, not to leave any bruises this time or I'll kill him. And hurry!"

"Understood Sergeant Taka!!!" The terrified guards answered out of fear.