Chapter 386

I opened my last portal for the day and we returned to the inn. I had portaled back to the cave, as I wanted people to see us walking out of the mine we had previously entered. The walk back was exceptionally quiet.

Now, I could have portaled back to Chalm or even the capital city and slept in our beds. Actually, until the mansion was finished, the building we owned in Chalm was a tad small to accommodate all of us now, not that the inn was much better.

The reason I really wanted to stay in the small Miner’s town was two-fold. First, this town sprung up in my territory, which means it might be the second city I was a lord over. It was probably too hard for a normal lord to manage two cities separated like this, but with portal, it shouldn’t be a problem for me to manage both cities. In that case, I wanted to be familiar with the people here, and figure out a way to expand this place and protect my border from Lord Reign. This would be the best city to protect against the Imperial Cloud Meadow too.

Once we returned to the inn, I explained to the girls my version of the events. There actually wasn’t much to explain. I fled as soon as I realized my life was in danger. How was I a hero in the slightest? I was just a complete coward. I kept replaying the scene over and over in my head. I felt a ton of guilt, but nothing else. In fact, my mind felt strangely numb.

I knew these kinds of things happened. They definitely happened to slaves. Single female adventurers were probably all at risk. I had even heard a few of the girls mention it. Even the big-breasted sister from Chalm spoke of sexual harassment and assault with just a hint of experience. However, this was the first time I came face to face with it, in this world or my previous one.

“Hmph… if you didn’t want to be raped, you should have just killed them.” Shao responded, crossing her arms.

I wanted to snap at her, but then her own dark memories which I had seen once before came flooding in. That was right, she too was assaulted by men. This was done for the amusement of the crowds. In fact, Alerith had a colosseum too. I wondered if they had such distasteful kinds of things. Well, Shao’s had been in the Imperial Cloud Meadow, so it wasn’t the same place at least.

A flash of guilt appeared on Raissa’s face, but that irritated me even more. She had no reason to be guilty.

“Raissa, you did nothing wrong.” I tried to reassure her. “The only person who failed is me. They don’t know who you are. On the other hand, I showed my face. They’ve probably already sent someone to report and now they will likely report to Lord Reign and cause us more trouble.”

“Not necessarily,” Raissa spoke up, and then blushed again when everyone turned to her. “I mean, that your time is strangely reckless when with how you go through dungeons. Most people aren’t so… casual. It’s not only a dangerous place but a place where you can experience perma-death. It’s typical for inexperienced dungeon divers like the knights to progress very slowly. They will likely not attempt to go back to the gate. If they did, they would absolutely wait until the morning after being fully rested.

“Other than dungeon divers, normal classes are mentally injured by miasma. Only in safe rooms does the miasma give them a break. If they push themselves too hard, they could have mental breakdowns, flee in terror, or make mistakes and die. Actually, I don’t understand why your party is unaffected by this… Miki should be quite resistant because of her spiritual connection. Has she been protecting you all from the miasma?”

“Yup, something like that!”

Miki even nodded, so perhaps it was actually true, although she never said as much. For me, my white mage job protected me from the miasma and I used copious amounts of Refresh and holy spells that likely did it. Every night, the barriers I erected to protect us also kept the miasma out, so the girls were allowed to rest every night. Now, I wouldn’t be affected by miasma regardless. I felt a little bad. I should have been more mindful of such a thing.

I also hadn’t considered how shocking perma-death was to people in this world. I had grown my entire life with perma-death being just normal death everywhere. For people in this world who valued their lives, that sort of reality was likely a horrific nightmare. Dying… by accident? By illness? That was unthinkable.

Now that I thought about it, with the church appearing, I had forgotten to get health insurance in the Capitol. Such a thing did not exist in Chalm, it appeared. It was too expensive of a convenience for such a luxury service to exist there. The adventuring guild offered some protection, but that was only when you were on a guild-related mission. Actually, I was just thinking about these things so I didn’t have to face reality.

“Even so… they still might report in the morning.” Shao said, and then sighed. “The solution is simple. I will kill them.”