NOVEL WEB Chapter 244
244th Chapter. We Will Invade!(5)
Hearing the news that the Papias army was storming into the village made my heart drop.
Thanks to Prince Totema detecting them in time, we had to quickly come up with a countermeasure.
It seemed they had followed Prince Totema all the way here, and I didn’t think we would be safe alongside him.
As Totema said, they were likely targeting me as well.
First, I sent out the spirits to keep an eye on their movements.
And sure enough, they were spreading flyers with my face plastered all over them, searching for me.
“What a crappy situation.”
Fortunately, it didn’t seem like a very strong force they had.
If we combined our strengths, we could probably break through, but I was currently in no condition to fight.
I could barely walk, let alone run.
The women accompanying me wouldn’t abandon me, and I didn’t want to be a burden to them.
There was no need to fight them head-on. If I used my ‘Genetic Transformation’ skill, I could deceive their eyes.
But…
“I have no mana!”
Without mana, I didn’t even have the strength to move.
They were getting closer to the inn, and I felt like I was losing my mind.
In the midst of all this, it was Mary who came up with a groundbreaking idea.
Her suggestion was… to become a woman once again.
Become a woman? While others might dismiss it as nonsense, the women resonated with the idea passionately.
And I was filled with rage.
– Ceremony of Flash
A disguise technique that instantly turns someone into a cleric.
As a result, I transformed into a woman with long hair, capturing the gazes of the knights.
After scolding the spirits who mocked my newfound popularity, I completed all my makeup.
Then Prince Totema concealed me with a stealth spell, and I had to pretend to be an entirely different person in the next room.
It was a really precarious situation.
Just then, a man who looked like the leader of the army entered their room.
And on this side as well, a magic-user looking soldier had spotted me.
“Who, who are you?”
I tried to pretend to be a terrified civilian.
Jenny’s advice popped into my head.
– It might be a bit embarrassing, but Radon must act feminine! That way, you won’t be caught.
– If it’s Radon, I’m sure he can do it. After all, he’s a great actor…and looks more pretty than us right now!
Pretty? This?
The others seemed to agree, nodding their heads in concurrence.
As the main characters of the story, they boasted decent looks themselves.
If their reactions were that enthusiastic, then it was safe to say that I, in this state, could fit in among them.
However, I just couldn’t accept it.
Feeling like I was reluctantly taking bitter medicine, I thought, what’s so pretty about a real man like me?
That’s right, I am a man.
Not a fake man, but a real one.
No matter what sounds I hear, I wouldn’t waver now.
This is my will!
“Um, miss. I have a question to ask. Hehehe…”
No, just like that, I canceled my will.
The soldier, after staring at me for a while, turned bright red.
And seeing him let out a lewd laugh, it was confirmed.
He looked completely like a fox caught in my seduction.
“Damn it!!”
It felt like déjà vu from back when I was on a prisoner escort mission, and I silently screamed.
Please, stop. I don’t like this kind of crap.
I don’t want to enjoy something like this anymore.
Please, just let me be.
“You’ve got a question?”
[Declining Corruption Rate: -7%]
[+700 Credits]
My body automatically sat down on the bed in a shy manner, like a girl.
Thanks to my acting skill and Muto’s voice modulation, deceiving him was easy.
That might be why, but I started finding it increasingly amusing to seduce the opponent like this.
Someday, I want to do this again… no, no, no, no! Am I going crazy?
Why am I acting like this all of a sudden?
“Have you seen this boy in the photo?”
“Um… I’m not sure who it is.”
“Really? I heard he was definitely in this inn. Are you really not aware?”
“Well, I haven’t gone outside because I’m not feeling well. Cough!”
[Declining Corruption Rate: -20%]
[+2000 Credits]
Even though I didn’t have a cold, I smoothly acted like a sick girl who was genuinely ill.
The soldier watching this looked at me with pity, as if I truly were a girl with a terminal illness.
“Ah, I see. I’m truly sorry.”
The soldier appeared flustered and bowed his head in apology. In any case, I had succeeded in deceiving him.
He seemed very weak against a delicate girl, unable to act boldly. He didn’t look like a rough soldier from Papias at all.
On top of that, he even started using honorifics.
“Um, excuse me…”
The soldier still hadn’t left.
He continued to look at me with a blushing face.
Then, shaking his head nervously, he asked.
“Is there anything I can help you with?”
“…”
I momentarily thought I misheard and touched my ears.
Then I asked again.
“What did you say?”
“I can help you with anything.”
Older brother? O-o-o-older bro??
Did he just call himself an older brother in front of me? A guy like me?
My head was spinning. It felt like I got struck by lightning after frying beans in a pan.
I felt like smashing a spoon into his head to feel better.
But I had to endure.
Wait a minute. My mouth feels ominous.
I feel like some line that should never be uttered is about to come out.
“Thank you very much.”
“…”
No! Don’t say it!
“Older brother.”
What the f*….
“Thank you so much! For now, this older brother will bring you a washcloth!”
“…”
I collapsed on the bed with the expression of a dying mosquito.
In the end, I couldn’t control my mouth.
Why am I acting like this? This makes me feel like a pathetic guy kneeling before my instincts.
This can’t be happening. I would never enjoy something like this.
It’s something that should never happen in a lifetime.
Who would enjoy cosplaying as a woman and seducing men?
In that case, what’s the difference between me and those online net-kama?
I’m not such an inhumane person. I’m definitely not a scammer.
“Huh? A scammer?”
Thinking about it, I am a scammer, right? Wouldn’t it be acceptable to do such things then?
Eventually, my head began to spin more and more, and my face slowly became more haggard.
I had become a truly sickly girl, not just acting anymore.
“Here you go. A handkerchief.”
“Yes…. Thank you.”
I didn’t know. Let’s push those thoughts aside.
Right now, I needed to utilize this soldier.
“But who is the boy in that flyer? Is he a wanted criminal?”
[Declining Corruption Rate: -4%]
[+400 Credits]
“A wanted criminal… well, strictly speaking, that’s absolutely not true.”
“It’s not? Then why are they trying to catch him?”
I decided to take advantage of this point and started asking him the questions I was curious about one by one.
That soldier, feeling fond of me, couldn’t refuse to answer anything.
“It’s the king’s command. Lately, he’s been eager to capture this boy.”
“I don’t understand. Why would they try to capture an innocent boy?”
[Declining Corruption Rate: -2%]
“Yeah, I’m not innocent.”
I had quite a few sins stemming from my scams so far.
But to be reduced to this status of a wanted criminal just because of that doesn’t feel fair.
“To be honest, I’m one of the wizards protecting the kingdom. I have the right to meet with His Majesty the King directly. So I can deduce one thing.”
“What is it?”
“I saw an elder elf in the kingdom. It seems that ever since His Majesty met that person, he’s become zealous.”
The current king of Papias is one of those who has become enamored with the Divine Empire’s royal family.
Ultimately, he’s no different from Harkel Viole.
The former king, Talema, was the same, and Papias doesn’t have any proper history.
“This emperor, while weaker than Talema, isn’t lacking in ambition. That’s why he continues to capture divine beasts to conduct all kinds of experiments.”
“Capturing divine beasts?”
That seemed to be a connecting point.
After all, the Nine-Tailed Fox Incident was a type of experiment that used divine beasts.
Furthermore, it might be related to the symptoms that Luska showed earlier.
One of the characteristics of divine beasts is resonance, and Luska might be influenced by that.
The divine beasts captured by Papias.
“What are they trying to do with them?”
“…”
The soldier closed his mouth for a moment, wearing a somber expression.
“This is… something I’m only telling you, miss. You mustn’t leak it to anyone else. Got it?”
When I nodded, he started to share the hidden secret.
Experiments happening in Papias involving the capture of divine beasts are being conducted to awaken some entity sleeping within the kingdom’s ley lines.
I couldn’t help but be taken aback by that.
“What exactly are they trying to awaken? I’m not sure myself. One thing I can confirm is… the current king is greatly fixated on the Divine Empire. The order to capture this boy might be a part of that.”
I began to grasp what kind of mischief they were up to.
If I recalled what Enviel’s goal was during the Nine-Tailed Fox Incident. He was trying to awaken the corpse of some evil god sleeping under the Papias kingdom.
What he required was none other than the power of Angela, who had awakened as a Nine-Tailed Fox.
If that were to cause a massive explosion in the kingdom, the evil god sleeping underground would make its appearance.
What Enviel intended to do with that… I knew because I experienced his memories.
‘The vessel of the Destruction God…!’
Becoming the vessel for the Destruction God isn’t only possible with Makia’s bloodline.
If there’s a corpse of an ancient evil god hidden somewhere on this land, the Destruction God will descend through it.
‘Since Makia has been captured, are they planning to use that as a substitute?’
That would be extremely problematic. The power of the Destruction God depends on the vessel used.
Even if it is a corpse, an evil god’s body holds tremendous power.
The Destruction God that descended using Makia from the main story was a formidable foe that even the protagonist Lyman struggled against.
If they were to use the body of an even more powerful evil god as the vessel, I would face serious trouble.
I must stop this nonsense quickly.
‘Wait, then why were they spreading flyers to catch me?’
Given that there’s a better vessel in the form of the evil god’s corpse, why would they go so far as to try to catch me?
Is it perhaps a precaution against the divine beast experiment failing?
Regardless, it was clearly Grisha who had seduced the higher-ups to create this situation.
The best vessel must surely be lying in wait.
It seems that I can’t live comfortably until that elf is captured.
*
Suddenly, I found myself standing in a white space.
My body was stepping on something, yet there was no sensation of a floor beneath me.
Moreover, it was hazy whether I could move my body by my own will.
Considering that I had just been sleeping in an inn, it clearly felt like a dream.
‘….’
There was no information at all.
As I instinctively took a step to obtain that information, a silhouette of a woman appeared before me.
I wanted to ask who she was, but my mouth wouldn’t move.
Instead, various pieces of information that I wanted in this situation flooded into my head.
I didn’t have information about this place, but it was significant enough.
Elements even I, the reincarnator, didn’t know.
Beginning from where I should head now… what I should do… every answer came together to clear my mind.
‘Thank you.’
I felt a sense of gratitude towards that hidden woman behind the silhouette.
And as I took another step, memories from my previous world resurfaced.
No, it would be more accurate to say it was a previous life.
Because I…
*
By the time morning light broke the next day, my identity remained undiscovered.
Sure, the army commander had been loitering around their room, but luckily it seemed we had safely passed the night.
However, the army still guarded the area around their room.
That was because the villagers had witnessed them moving with me.
Thus, the area around the inn and the village entrance was still crowded with soldiers.
“Miss… did you sleep well?”
The soldier who had been protecting me all night greeted me good morning.
At this point, slipping past them was practically impossible.
Ultimately, underhanded tactics was the answer.
“How’s your body? Are you feeling alright?”
“Hey, big brother.”
“Uh?”
The girl suddenly called him brother. The soldier’s eyes widened in surprise.
Plus, her voice was strange as well.
“Thanks for the info.”
“What?”
It wasn’t the voice of the girl I had spoken with last night but that of a boy in his late teens.
At that, the soldier trembled with foreboding.
“You, who are you…!”
“I am the Radon Crawler.”
“What?”
“Now, rest easy.”
[Declining Corruption Rate: -90%]
[+9000 Credits]
Boom!—
With a swing of the fishing rod, the soldier flew out through the door.
I then proceeded to take down the soldiers guarding their door one by one.
Then I opened the door and turned on the light, and they began waking up one by one, just like students on a school trip.
“Wake up quickly.”
We had somewhere urgent to go.
Surviving as an Academy Scammer.