The wandering swordsman Paul Marvin, who had once accompanied that Platinum Princess to attend the Saint-Bathing Ceremony.

And the alchemical killing machine, Reta, who had always followed alongside that white-stocking, short-tempered loli Annie from the Stone Cauldron Association.

Muen had never, ever, ever expected that he would run into these two again.

Of course, an accidental encounter wasn’t anything worth being surprised about. This world had a huge population and inconvenient transportation, but for people like them who wandered around adventuring, they would always coincidentally reunite in some dangerous place.

But even if Muen racked his brains, he still couldn’t understand why the place where he was reuniting with them...

...would be on a demonfolk carriage used to hold female adventurer captives.

Key point: demonfolk, detaining, female adventurers!

No matter how you thought about those words, they had absolutely no way of connecting to labels like “top-tier young elite on the continent” and “outstanding young genius burdened with everyone’s expectations,” right?

Of course, Muen could still barely explain the first two parts a little. It seemed that it wasn’t only Father who had noticed something was off with the demonfolk—every faction on the continent had keenly sniffed out the dangerous aura coming from the Abyss, and so they had sent people to investigate.

With the level of elite these two were, being assigned to carry out an infiltration and exploration plan wasn’t anything strange.

But...

Why are you using this kind of goddamn method to infiltrate the demonfolk main camp too? And why are your methods this bizarre?

Compared to these two, Muen suddenly felt like his potion disguise was way too conventional. Just turning his appearance into a pretty young girl, plain and ordinary—completely lacking the thorough decisiveness of these two, where one rewrote cognition into “female,” and the other just directly swapped parts into “female.”

It was too ridiculous. Muen actually had the feeling that if the demonfolk used a stricter method to inspect things, he would definitely be the first one exposed out of the three.

...Of course, being discovered by the demonfolk was a small matter, but if these two found out about his current situation...

...then Muen Campbell’s already-not-so-great reputation on the continent might become even weirder.

Muen could already imagine it: if he was exposed, then next, every tabloid headline across the continent would be something like Shocking! The duke’s son actually has this kind of fetish!, Perverted psychology: how a playboy uses potions to get close to ignorant young girls., An eyewitness account: how a libertine man gradually degenerates into a woman., Unbelievable: an imperial prince is actually a daughter’s body!

...Just thinking about it was terrifying. If Father heard about it, he’d probably cry himself to death.

"What’s wrong, miss?"

Paul... oh, right, no—Marwen, who had simply swapped his given name and surname around, then added a so-called feminized pronunciation, leaned in with a worried look.

"You look like your complexion is kind of bad."

"...N-no, I’m fine."

Muen forcibly squeezed out a smile. "Maybe my injuries still haven’t healed, and my stamina’s a little weak. Marwen... miss, /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ don’t worry."

"Is that so? Then that’s great."

Marwen propped one hand against the carriage compartment, looking extremely gentlemanly, but with the jolting of the carriage, his floral long dress swayed back and forth, occasionally revealing those eye-searing, hairy legs.

"But speaking of which, Miss Muse, you still haven’t introduced yourself, right?"

Marwen blinked coquettishly, and it looked like the cognition rewrite didn’t work on him at all. "Is it because you’re shy?"

"...Muse. Just call me Muse." Muen kept smiling, awkward but still polite. In a situation like this, all he could do was smile.

"Miss Muse... a good name, just as beautiful and moving as your appearance."

Marwen nodded seriously. He... no, "she" wanted to switch to a cooler pose, but as the carriage suddenly rocked violently again, he had no choice but to give up and sit properly.

"Dammit, the demonfolk’s carriage is built way too badly. Do these demonmen have nothing but muscles stuffed in their heads?" Marwen muttered, cursing under his breath.

"..."

"But don’t worry, Miss Muse, I’ll protect you." Marwen looked sincere again. "As a gen—no, as a lady, I absolutely won’t let you get hurt so easily!"

"...Th-thank you, but I don’t need protection for now." Muen’s cheeks were already starting to ache. How did he never realize before that this guy was so loose? Does that Platinum Princess Margarita know?

Muen quietly shifted a little to the side. Compared to the flirt Marwen, the tall, imposing, silent Reta could give him a stronger sense of security.

At the same time, he also secretly let out a sigh of relief.

Even though this scene was pretty damn screwed up, overall, everything was still fine.

At least he had already successfully infiltrated the demonfolk main camp, he hadn’t been exposed yet, and for now there was no possibility of being exposed.

Most importantly, if he looked at it on the bright side...

Things were already this bad—could they get worse?

He was already standing on the cliff edge of fate. Was he really going to worry that he might run into another cliff next?

In other words, there were already two familiar faces on this carriage—could another carriage possibly produce an even more dangerous guy?

Impossible.

Right now, Muen couldn’t think of any dangerous figure who could make his heart—after being tempered and washed by this screwed-up fate, now solid as rock—waver even the slightest bit.

This tiny little accident would only make him face the hardships ahead with even more composure!

"Gutongs Castle..."

Muen temporarily ignored the noisy Marwen and turned his head to look out the window.

Through the narrow crack of the carriage window, he could see that the rapidly galloping carriage was gradually slowing down now, slowly passing through a tall, ancient, rustic city gate.

Totems that seemed drawn from the primordial age were carved onto the massive gate doors. Ferocious demonic beasts threw their heads back and roared to the sky; banners fluttered and waved; a demonfolk army stretching as far as the eye could see extended from within this city all the way to the end of the horizon.

High towers stood tall, and the deep shadows cast by how they blocked the light were like a monster’s gaping maw, completely swallowing his line of sight.

"A demonfolk city that suddenly appeared."

Muen’s gaze flickered as he murmured under his breath.

"Let me... peel back your mysterious veil."

...

...

"Let me peel back Miss Muse’s mysterious veil!"

Ariel had completely lost interest in those ancient buildings flashing past outside. She clenched her fist and declared firmly, "This time, I absolutely won’t let her slip past me again so easily. Want to know why? Because all of this is fate’s arrangement!"

Fate had given her opportunities again and again, and the first two times she had missed them. But this time, she, Ariel, absolutely would not make that kind of mistake again!

Because after experiencing separation from a childhood sweetheart, tragic setbacks in emotion, and the humiliation from that hateful damn yellow-hair, she had grown now. She had evolved. Her understanding of feelings had risen to a higher level!

She was no longer the naive Ariel she used to be. She deeply understood that a moment of hesitation and waiting was handing over this great opportunity to someone else. Therefore, this time, once she made up her mind, her offensive would come like a storm of wind and rain!

Of course, while bringing a storm of wind and rain, if she happened to sprinkle rainwater over more tender sprouts, she wouldn’t mind that either.

"Wait for me, Miss Muse!"

"Miss Muse?"

Feifei tilted her head in confusion. "Is that someone Miss Ari knows? She also got caught by the demonfolk?"

"Yeah."

Ariel answered carelessly. "But it’s fine. I’ll save her."

"Miss Ari really is optimistic."

Feifei chuckled lightly. "In that case, if there’s a chance later, I’ll also help you take good care of that Miss Muse. After all, someone who can be cared about by Ari like this probably isn’t just some simple pretty young girl."

"Hm?"

Ariel paused for a moment, then smiled.

"Thank you."

"No need to thank me. Don’t look at me like I can’t see right now, but I’m actually pretty impressive."

Feifei lifted her sleeve and gestured to Ariel with a slender arm that didn’t look like it had any muscle at all.

It seemed that this pretty girl’s laziness wasn’t only temperament. To train such “powerful” muscles, it was absolutely impossible without lying down for at least twelve hours every single day.

Ariel still wanted to say something, but at this moment the carriage suddenly shook violently, forcing the words she was about to say back down.

"We’re here!"

The carriage door was shoved open roughly, and the blinding light forced people to narrow their eyes.

"All of you, get down."

Clatter.

The chains binding their bodies were yanked hard, and the group was forced to stumble as they got off the carriage. Ariel lifted her head, and the one who came was still that member of the flayer troop, Gowilt.

Out of the corner of her eye, Ariel quickly swept the surroundings and discovered that they had already arrived inside a gloomy building. At this moment, the guards watching them seemed to be much fewer, not as strict as before entering the city, but the oppressive, terrifying atmosphere around them was even more capable of crushing a person’s courage to escape.

The pessimistic pretty girl Julia had already started trembling slightly.

Ariel opened her mouth, only to find that she couldn’t say anything at all. It seemed the restriction on the chains had been fully triggered again.

So she could only once again put on that furious, vicious expression, glaring at Gowilt, carrying out her identity as a steadfast, unyielding captured female adventurer to the end.

"Heh, you still didn’t submit, huh? Interesting."

Gowilt sneered as he tightened the chains, but he didn’t make any extra moves toward Ariel.

"You’d better pray that after the Enchantress Lord has picked you over, you don’t end up in my hands. Otherwise I’ll really get to experience your stubbornness properly. As for now... come with me."

The four-person group from the carriage began to follow Gowilt deeper into the building. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

No one struggled or resisted, because everyone knew that doing that kind of thing right now was completely futile, nothing but wasting their stamina for no reason and putting themselves in danger.

So everything was quiet to the point of suffocating.

But within that silence, the loli Nian’s fingers would, without meaning to, brush against some walls, doorframes, or certain decorative objects they passed by, while the temporarily blind Feifei would occasionally cock her head to the side, as if listening to something.

As for Ariel, she had long since entered the habit of observing everything around her.

No matter how many far-fetched things she was thinking inside, the instinct she had forged through countless crises had already made her quickly enter a cautious, prudent state.

"As expected."

At the same time, her teacher’s voice also rang out in her mind.

"I still think the architectural style here feels extremely familiar. I definitely have seen it somewhere."