The Moonlit Garden was a quaint little place with a smooth, whitewashed face that could have easily passed for chiseled stone if you couldn’t reach out and touch it. Its well-trimmed roof and freshly polished doors and windows marked it as one of the city’s newer additions, but the garden surrounding it looked anything but.

  In contrast to the stoney colors of the city, it was a lush field of freshly-cut grass, neatly shorn trees and various vibrant and colorful flowers, all in full bloom. At the center of each wing of the garden was a platform decked out with several lounge chairs, likely where guests could watch the moon at night, therefore earning the place its namesake.

  I was surprised to see such a place in a city, be it medieval city or not, but Elane was even more awestruck than I was. She’d stopped to gawk several times as we approached. Apparently, none of this greenery was here during her last visit.

  “I bet Erika would love this place,” she said, letting me drag her along inside.

  “Ah, yea. She likes plants, doesn’t she? Bet you and her have a lot in common, Mana.”

  “Eh? Dog Ears is nothing like me. She actually likes to wear pan…”

  Smiling as she placed a hand over Mana’s mouth, Yua helped me out by dragging the walking-talking-incident waiting to happen into the inn.

  Not wanting to waste any more time, we made our way straight to the front desk and were greeted by a man with light grey skin whose thinning hair was slicked back and whose clothes looked a size or two too small on him. Unfortunately, I was mildly disappointed when his info box read that he was only a human named Gideon, instead of the myriads of fantasy races he could have potentially belonged to. At least he wasn’t a bandit.

  “Good evening travelers, and welcome to the Moonlit Garden,” he greeted in a flamboyant tone, barely looking up from the ledger he was pouring over. “How may I help you?”

  “We’d like a room fit for four people, please.”

  “Of course, sir. One room for four…”

  He trailed off, arching his brow before looking up at us. His eyes widened once they landed on Elane, then they widened further as they traced a path over each of the girls before he blushed and stiffened. Finally, his gaze landed on me and he had to do a double take.

  “Wha… How…?”

  He quickly cleared his throat and covered his mouth with his ledger to keep from insulting my clearly lacking looks when compared to theirs, but he somehow managed to look like an innocent, blushing maiden as he did. Choosing not to take offense, I quietly wondered if I was going to have to go through this every time we rented a room on a quest.

  “And if possible,” Elane added, grinning as she lightly slapped my back. “We’ll only need one bed.”

  … And I quietly wondered if I was going to have to duct tape all the girls’ mouths shut every time we rented a room on a quest.

  As expected, Elane’s comment drew the attention of everyone in the lobby. Apparently, the inn had some sort of after dinner tea time for their guests, as they all were enjoying a cup with some snacks. I couldn’t bear to meet their gaze as their whispered assumptions tickled my ears.

  No bandits here either, thankfully.

  “W-Well, I’m afraid we don’t have a bed that large,” Gideon stammered. “But we have a room that will fit your… group. You could, erm,” he paused, leaning over the counter to whisper. “You could just slide the beds in there together. Sorry for the trouble.”

  “No, I’m the one who’s sorry.”

  Elane snickered to herself, while Yua nudged my arm. The barely concealed impatience floating about behind her smiling fa?ade urged me to hurry this up, so I paid the man enough coin to reserve the room for a few days and he handed us a heavy iron key.

  “The room’s down the hall, last on the left.”

  We thanked the man and hurried along down the hall.

  We’d decided to stop here because we needed a place to sleep tonight, but also because we decided it wasn’t safe to continue our earlier conversation out in public, even if Yua’s ears were able to confirm nobody was actively trying to eavesdrop. And no place could offer better discretion than an inn equipped with a sound-muffling enchantment in every room.

  “Was that really necessary, Elane?” I said. “We’re on a quest. Maybe it’s not the best idea to go around advertising our relationship to people like that.”

  I mean, Elara was one thing since she figured it out herself, but it didn’t seem wise to go spewing it off to everyone that is even remotely interested.

  “Oh, please. We’re a party of four adventurers, with one man and three women asking to share a room. Everyone already assumes we’re doing exactly what we do at night anyways.”

  “Is that how it usually is for parties like ours?”

  “In my experience. It happens more often than you’d think.”

  “…”

  Knowing some of that experience from the stories she’d told of her travels, I decided not to argue as I slid the key into our room’s door. It opened with a faint click and Mana slipped out of Yua’s hold to dash inside before I could fully open the door. And, as always, her very first instinct upon entering a bedroom was to jump onto the mattress.

  Ignoring the girl, who only remembered to take off her bow and quiver once she landed on them, Yua and Elane funneled into the room after her.

  Yua hurried to check if the windows themselves were closed before closing the curtains, robbing us of the view of the garden outside. Meanwhile, Elane set her axe down and immediately, and easily, pushed the second bed across the floor to line it up beside the one Mana claimed.

  Other than the noise of moving furniture and Yua’s dashing around the room to make sure the sound-muffling enchantment the innkeeper promised was in effect, it was a surprisingly nice room for what we paid. Had it been lit by electricity instead of candles and the residual sunlight seeping in through the curtains, it would have looked almost modern.

  However, the moment I closed the door and locked it, I knew I wasn’t going to have a chance to enjoy it just yet.

  “If you knew Giulio was a Bandit,” Yua started. “Why didn’t you attack him when his guard was down? Why bother with lies when we could have ended it right there?”

  “Hold on, Yua,” Elane interjected, then looked me in the eye. “You do know that killing a bandit isn’t illegal, right? Even if it’s in the middle of a city.”

  I sighed. “Of course I do.”

  It was made clear the moment I found out what separated a Bandit from the regular, run-of-the-mill Thief was that the world itself despised banditry so much that anyone found carrying that tag in their info box could be killed on the spot without any legal repercussions. It was effectively a death sentence waiting to happen.

  I understood that, but that wasn’t the issue.

  “You saw how popular he was, right? If I were to kill him in the middle of a tavern full of his friends, how do you think that would go? It’s not like the tavern of all places would have a scrying orb to prove what he is, and they certainly wouldn’t take my word for it.”

  Giulio’s, or rather Gino’s personality had clearly earned him quite a few friends here. Acting all buddy-buddy with every guy in the tavern, he even managed to set up the drunk that tried to hit on Yua with a couple other women without even trying, simply because they hoped he’d join him.

  It was clear at a glance that he was well liked and the only proof of his wrongdoing lay in his info box, which only I could see.

  “That aside, there’s Elara to consider, too,” I added, sitting next to Mana on the bed, which creaked beneath our combined weight.

  “Is she also a bandit?”

  I shook my head. “She’s not a thief, either. But due to her work helping the city develop, and with her being the primary booze supplier here, she seems to be even more loved than he is. If we were to kill her lover right in front of her, we’d have everyone in the tavern attacking us.”

  At least, it didn't feel like I was jumping to conclusions here. With the way the locals all cheered her on, it was an easy conclusion. Almost too easy, like it was staged. Or maybe we just got lucky and asked the right question to keep us from doing something stupid.

  Yua and Elane grimaced in unison. Thankfully, they didn’t look like they assumed I just chickened out, since that genuinely wasn’t the case.

  “You think Gin… Giulio’s cozying up to Elara to hide himself in plain sight?”

  “Maybe…”

  The room fell silent at the implication. The only sound was that of Mana sinking further into the mattress.

  “Then what should we do?” Yua asked finally.

  “I don’t know, but we should assume the locals would take Giulio’s side if we were to start a fight.”

  It’s not like the man had the words I’m a bandit tattooed to his forehead. And I couldn’t exactly bet our own safety on the people being patient enough to let me prove the man’s guilt while covered in his blood.

  “We need to be careful… Elane, have you ever been in a situation like this?”

  “No. If I were the betting sort, I’d wager that the majority of bandits are so scared of getting caught, that they actively avoid people unless they are out raiding. Making friends is too risky. Someone could find out the truth and decide to act. So, it was pretty much always a matter of hunting them down and dragging them out of their hiding place to answer for their crimes.”

  “The straight forward approach, then? Well, even if that doesn’t work, at least he doesn’t know that we know.”

  “But he knows we’re Adventurers now. He’ll be on guard.”

  “True… Maybe it was a mistake putting our armor on.”

  Stretching her arms over her head, Mana let out a pleasant squeak as she kicked off her boots. Showing that she was not in the least bit interested in the conversation, she pushed her petite feet onto my lap and wriggled her toes with a smile.

  Taking the hint, and happy for the distraction, I took her feet in hand. Pressing my thumbs into her weary arches, I worked them to relieve her of the tension of our travels.

  As she closed her eyes, and as she flicked her tail, Elane continued the conversation as if she hadn’t noticed.

  “No, wearing our equipment was the smart thing to do. The bandits could have ambushed us at any time if we looked like easy targets. And without knowing their full capabilities, that would have been a mistake.”

  “Maybe. Then… Yua, were you able to tell if Giulio bought our story about collecting plants?”

  Lifting her chin to the ceiling, Yua hummed for a moment, her ears flicking in thought. However, she shook her head.

  “I have no idea. At least, he didn’t look like he knew it was a lie.”

  “That’s good, I suppose.”

  “But he probably only asked if we were Adventurers because he suspected we were here to kill him. Kind of the obvious response a bandit would have.”

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  “And that’s not good… Shit.”

  It was a little disappointing that finding our first lead so quickly and him not knowing he’s been found were the only two good things to come out of visiting the tavern. Well, that and Elane got to enjoy some on-the-job drinking. Assuming anyone other than her could call that a win.

  “Our hands are tied, but so are his.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “What I mean is that, regardless of whether or not he bought our story, he knows we’re here on behalf of the Guild. So, he’ll likely be on his best behavior for the time being, He’ll be wanting to avoid detection.”

  And that, at least, means the people of Villeverdure may be safe for now. But that didn’t do us any good.

  Just my luck that my first quest like this ended up being so complicated. Sometimes it feels like my Luck stat is just a joke and its effects are all just inside my head.

  “Yua, what were you so focused on back there, anyways? You were staring at the ceiling almost the entire time.”

  “Hmm? Oh, there was an argument in one of the rooms above the tavern.”

  “With Giulio?”

  “No. He wasn’t even in the tavern when it started.”

  “Well, spill it,” Elane said, slouching back and crossing her arms. “What was it about?”

  “Not much, I think. Two males were talking to a third older male, trying to convince him to go to the church, but he kept refusing. He says he still believes in the old gods.”

  “Old gods, eh? Guess not everyone wanted the church to open up here.”

  “Hardly a surprise. Elane, do you know anything about the old religion here.”

  “Only that there barely was one. They used to worship Recolte, the local goddess of the harvest, but that’s all I know.”

  Understandable. If this village used to be as small as she says, then they were definitely heavily reliant on the farms they had. Enough so, I’d guess, to be willing to worship a piece of moldy bread, so long as they thought it might make their harvests abundant.

  “Hmm. Did they try to force this old man to go?”

  If so, maybe we were dealing with zealots who were ready to kill anyone unwilling to convert to their god. Not exactly an upgrade from the regular run-of-the-mill bandit, but it was a start.

  “Not at all,” Yua said quickly. “It sounded more like they were begging him. They sounded pretty desperate.”

  “Did you hear why?”

  “Nope. That whole thing with Gin… Giulio distracted me. And when I tried to listen again, the males weren’t there anymore.”

  Learning this, I couldn’t help but to drop my shoulders. Elane’s method of gathering intel was both wildly successful and a complete failure. If Giulio hadn’t stopped by, the visit might have been a waste of time.

  And knowing that Elara apparently got herself wrapped up with the bandits without knowing it only made me feel guilty for not acting as soon as I noticed. She’ll probably be fine in the end, so long as we do our jobs, but the question is whether or not we tell her the truth about her lover.

  It’s not like the whole hey, your boyfriend is secretly a murderer thing is the sort of conversation I’d want to have.

  “Any chance Elara knows about Giulio?”

  “Hoho? Back on her, eh? I mean, she’s a looker and she doesn’t mind you staring at her tits, but come on, Alex. Don’t chase after what you can’t have.”

  “… I meant, do you think she knows he’s a bandit?”

  Elane chuckled to herself and, woe is me, so did Yua.

  “Doubtful,” Elane concluded with a wave. “Not only is willingly harboring a bandit a capital offense, that woman came here to earn a lot of easy coin. I bet if she knew, she’d have sold him up the river a long time ago, if anything, to earn the reward.”

  “Right. I wonder if he became a bandit before or after they met.”

  “Probably before,” Elane said, scratching her head.

  “And how could you know that?”

  “Easy, his accent.”

  “Accent? I didn’t hear an accent.”

  He did occasionally break into another language, but he came off as the sort of idiot pickup-artist that learned the bare minimum of a foreign language to appear more cultured to the ladies he flirted with.

  “Trust me, he hides it well, but he’s definitely from one of Dragma’s pilot countries. Can’t say which, though. He likely fled to Vierre because he got found out.”

  “Seriously? I’ve never been anywhere but Vierre, so I’ll have to take your word for it.”

  So, we might be dealing with an international criminal who’s skilled enough to cross the border into another country and hide himself in plain sight, all while evading capture? Great.

  “Maybe we should have stuck around the tavern. What if he tries to make a run for it?”

  “We can always track him down if he tries,” Yua said, proudly touching a finger to her nose.

  “Exactly,” Elane agreed, leaning towards me, a seedy grin plastered to her face. “The better question is, what color do you think Elara’s nipples are?”

  “… What?”

  My thoughts were so suddenly and completely derailed that my hands stopped moving before I worked my way up to the toes craving my attention. Mana’s eyelids had been growing heavy with relaxation, but she lifted her face in a pout and pushed her feet against me to get me, and my brain, to start working again.

  “I’m thinking brownish,” Elane continued, smirking as she touched a knuckle to her chin. “And her tits are a tad smaller than Yua’s, so they’re probably small, too.”

  “What do my boobs have to do with anything?”

  “Please, you saw how Husband was eye-fucking her. He clearly wants her.”

  “Excuse you?”

  “Elane, Alex is like that with literally every female he sees.”

  “Excuse you?!”

  “He even looks at my mother’s boobs, but that doesn’t mean he loves her. He doesn’t even notice he’s doing it. Even when Daddy does.”

  “…”

  Oh man… Am I really that bad? They skipped right past acknowledging that she already has a man to assume I wanted to chase her. And right after telling me that chasing her was pointless.

  Dear Goddess, is that subconscious inability of mine to keep my eyes to myself the reason why I was so alone in my past life??? It’s not like I had anyone to call me out on it back then.

  “Mmm… Oh, Big Bro. Right there. That spot feels really good!”

  Despite my inner turmoil, Mana squirmed with delight on the bed.

  Pressing a little roughly, rubbing my thumbs into and around the soles of her feet, I wasn’t at all sure I was doing this right until her squirming caused her skirt to slip to the side and her panty-clad hips fell into view. Not that she minded, though. She didn’t even seem to notice as the corners of her lips curled up into a cattish grin.

  “You know,” Yua said, giving Mana’s forehead a good finger-jab. “You could help us for a change.”

  “Ow!”

  Pouting as she rubbed her forehead, Mana shot back with, “I am. I did what Big Bro said and kept my ears open.”

  “And did you learn anything?”

  “Yes,” she said matter-of-factly. “I like that one male’s music.”

  “… Anything else?”

  “Oh, uhm… Oh yea! There was a female outside the place with the smelly water. I think she was a Hunter, because she was talking about finding a lot of footprints in the woods. Human footprints. She said they lead to a fork.”

  “A fork? In the woods?”

  I conjured up the image of an expanse of trees diverging into two different paths. The left would be filled to the brim with trees while the right would be filled with, yeas, you guessed it, more trees. But then my mind went straight to a single, solitary salad fork leaning up against and brooding under the shadow of a tree like some moody antihero, and I felt my IQ draining away.

  “Husband, I think she means fort. There’s that old Errat Fort nearby.”

  “Right, right. The quest slip did mention there was a fort near here. You think they might be planning on expanding the city to include it?”

  Maybe they were just the footprints of city builders scouting the area to see what they could do with it. At least, that was what I hoped, but even I doubted the possibility.

  “It may be where the bandits are hiding.”

  “Possibly,” Elane shrugged. “But unless the guild’s scouts are seriously incompetent, I’m sure they would have looked there.”

  “Suppose it wouldn’t hurt to check for ourselves, but I think we should prioritize speaking to the quest giver. She might know more.”

  It’s been a while since she sent the request all the way to Amoranth, so there could have been a development or two. If Giulio’s content existing out here in the open, then the other’s may not be trying so hard to hide, either. We’d still check on it later, but we had other priorities.

  For now, if we can’t act on this information just yet, we might as well gather more.

  “I want to see if she knows anything about Giulio, too.”

  “Then why don’t you tell us her name already? I’ve been here before. I might know her.”

  “And the enchantment on the room will keep her name a secret between us,” Yua added.

  “Well, I suppose if we’re going to be meeting with her soon, there’s no point in hiding it any longer. But….”

  We all looked to Mana, who, noticing our collective gaze, shrank back a little. Her ears flattened against her hair in a way that made her look so defenseless, that I, and Elane nearly jumped in to hug her.

  Actually, no. I grabbed hold of her and lifted her onto my lap. There, with her legs wrapped around my back, I slipped a hand up her skirt, brushed her panties to the side and let my middle and ring fingers slip inside her warmth.

  Instantly, her ears shot back up, ready to listen to anything I had to say, so long as I asked the way her people demanded to make their will be known to their mate. As pervy as this custom was, it was the best and only surefire way to make sure she listened seriously to me. Which was a disappointing fact.

  “What is it, Big Bro?”

  “… If I tell you the name of the woman that gave us the quest, you absolutely can’t repeat it to anyone, okay?”

  “She could get hurt, and Alex could get in trouble,” Yua added, as if Mana wasn’t right next to me when all this was explained the first time.

  “Okay. Then I won’t repeat her name, if that’s what my mate wants!”

  With a happy swish lighting her tail and a smile just as bright, she agreed without hesitation. Satisfied, I let go of her and fixed her clothes before continuing.

  “Her name is Lucielle Evans. Unfortunately, that’s all I know.”

  “Evans, huh?” Elane said, pursing her lips in thought. “If I remember correctly, Evans was the name of one of the older families here in Villeverdure. As in, they were here when the place was first founded. I could be wrong, though. It has been a while.”

  “It’s as good a start as any.”

  If she was from the older families, then she should still be in some position of influence. That narrowed down the scope of our search some, but not by much.

  “Great,” Yua thumped a fist into her palm. “Then I think we should split up.”

  ““What?””

  Elane and I, and consequently Mana since she was on my lap, all looked at Yua in unison. Unlike her smaller friend, Yua didn’t so much as flinch under our gaze. Instead, she explained.

  “I think it would be best if either Mana or I keep a watch on Giulio, while the rest finds Lucielle. This way, not only will we be able to prevent Giulio from escaping, but if something goes wrong, all Mana and I have to do is yell for the other to let them know.”

  Looking proud of her idea, Yua thumped her hands on her hips. I understood where she was coming from, especially the part of using her and Mana’s ears as stand-ins for walkie-talkies since it was my idea to begin with. Night was slowly approaching and soon the city would sleep. It’d be easy for them to hear each other even from a distance.

  This, however, was not the problem.

  “Yua, that’d be a terrible idea,” Elane said. “Giulio knows we’re adventurers now. If he finds one of us alone, he might attack.”

  “We’d be raising a death flag. Until we’ve identify all the bandits, we should consider ourselves potentially surrounded.”

  “Mm… I guess that’s true.”

  Yua’s direct style of approaching things was usually helpful, but in this case, I think we needed to take the sneakier route.

  Slipping Mana off my lap, I moved over to the window and parted the curtains slightly. The garden outside was still bathed in the lingering golden hues of dusk, but it wouldn’t last much longer. The streets, still bustling with life, were also starting to dwindle as the hours pressed on.

  “Once the sun sets, we’ll start our search for Lucielle.”

  It’ll be easier to avoid the bandits’ attention if we can’t be seen in the first place. Finding Lucielle will be more difficult as well, but it’s better than drawing the bandits right to her doorstep.

  However, looking at Elane where she sat on the bed, having raked her arms around Mana to pull the girl onto her lap, I knew we still needed to be careful not to stand out.

  In my want to show off and make her something she’d be proud to wear into battle, I might have polished her breastplate a little too much. It was too reflective. I bet even the light of the moon and stars above would catch on her.

  She can’t exactly sneak around if she looks like a human disco ball, could she? I could fix that with the materials I have on me, but then a better thought popped into my head. And, suddenly, I had no choice but to give into my desires.

  However, Elane was currently indisposed, snuggling up to a reluctant Mana. So…

  “Yua, could you stand up please?”

  “Hmm? Okay?”

  Ears flicking curiously, she did as I asked and I pointed a finger at her. She flinched, cheeks brightening a little as she prepared herself for something, but all I did was remove her battle gear using my rights as her master. Her leather vest and shorts vanished in an instant, as if they randomly decided they no longer needed to exist in this reality.

  Now wearing nothing but her panties, she eased up a bit as I held my hands in front of her. Although, her tail flicked with an odd amount of impatience when my hands did nothing more than hover in front of her bare breasts.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Making you some clothes. Hold still.”

  With a silent cast of Material Creation, I started to weave the darkest fabrics I had in my item box around her body. The cottony materials snaked around her breasts, lifting and wrapping them up tight to conserve some of the modesty she never bothered with around me. It then coiled around her slender abdomen to do the same to her hips before descending further to cover her legs.

  I made adjustments here and there to fit her needs, specifically leaving her arms bare and adding in a tail hole to what otherwise should have been plain fabric, and slowly, a full-bodied outfit took shape. Not only would it help to keep her concealed in the darkness, but seeing it take shape on such a beauty made my inner anime fan light up with an admittedly shameful amount of glee.

  Once I finished, Yua looked herself over before stretching this way and that to see how it fit. Grinning, she threw a few punches and kicks at the air and even I was surprised at how soundlessly the thin fabric rustled.

  “Ooh! It’s so light.”

  “It’s supposed to be. But be careful. It doesn’t offer much in terms of defense.”

  While it looked as though she was only wearing a dress with a short skirt that just so happened to (inexplicably) show off her cleavage, it was actually the pinnacle of stealth-wear for women. Probably. At least the face mask would conceal her identity. Probably. Can’t do much about her ears, though. Not without making it harder for her to use them, after all.

  “Thank you! Ooh! I can’t wait to fight in this!”

  Easily pleased with my work, she shot me with a great big smile laced with an undeservedly profound thanks for giving her yet another gift.

  And thus, Ternia’s first ninja was born.