Impudent Pervert

Kayda went back to the inn where she was staying and started to repack her things.

She didn't know if they had done anything to her while she was passed out.

She could feel a great sense of paranoia consume her, and she welcomed it. She needed to be cautious. If she needed to take a risk, there of course needed to be an equal or greater outcome. But the risk of staying here brought her no benefit.

After she finished packing her bags, she left the inn without collecting the change she had paid for the extra nights she would not be using.

After walking for a while, she made her way to the designated address she had read from the task she had accepted.

Once she looked around, she noticed a few other adventures standing around idly.

Taking a step forward, she felt their stares latch onto her immediately.

A man suddenly walked up to her with a smile on his face. His mustache spoke of wealth while his plain attire did little to hide his protruding belly.

"You must be the last adventurer." His eyes curved into crescents, but she could plainly feel his dissecting gaze.

Kayda simply nodded at his words.

"Excellent. We'll be going to a town that is a three days ride from here. So we'll set off here in a couple of hours." He laughed and then turned back to a small caravan of carriages that were standing still a little distance away.

As Kayda looked at the caravan of carriages, a strange feeling arose from her stomach.

She didn't know why, but she didn't want to go anywhere near those carriages.

It was a wonder that she hadn't gone crazy yet from all the discomfort and unease she was feeling these past few days.

It seemed that every cornner she took was riddled with danger. That, or she was just super paranoid as per ussual.

Turning around, Kayda discretely observed the other adventurers around her.

There were four men and one other girl.

Each one of the men gave off a certain feeling of danger that had been forged from years of experience.

But each one had acted in distinctly different manners.

One of the men silently stood off to the side. His aloof air and disinterest was plainly painted on his plain face.

Two other guys stood together. One was a tall and was a muscular man with a bald head and a straight laced face that spoke little of his character while a short guy covered from head to toe in freckles stood next to him, wearing a sunny smile while chatting away as if someone was listening.

The clashing airs did garner some attention at first but after a while, one would get used to it.

The last man in the group sat on a crate next to the carriers.

When she looked at him, she felt her fingers twitch. Longing to hold a knife in them so she could gouge out his eyes.

The man sat there, like some pompous noble as he leered at every girl that passed by. But his eyes always lustfully fell back on the other girl in the group who held a staff in her hand and seemed to be no older than fifteen.

When she felt the man's lecherous eyes fall on her, she had to stop herself from releasing her increasing amount of blood lust and animosity that had slowly accumulated over time from having disgusting men like this one scouring her body like it was some sort of juicy steak left out to hang for anyone to take.

If a man could not do the simple task of controlling his wandering eyes, she saw no reason as to why he shouldn't just gouge them out.

While all this was happening on the inside, Kayda did not express her feelings even in the slightest, keeping a calm and collected air about her.

"Um," When Kayda heard the small voice, she looked at the girl standing in front of her.

It was the other female adventurer.

Hesitantly, the other female adventurer looked up at Kayda.

She seemed apprehensive as her large and round eyes darted around nervously like a little rabbit.

"W-would it be o-okay if i where t-to t-travel with y-you?" She had a small stutter. When she spoke, she spoke like a mouse. Small and quiet.

Kayda glanced at her for a second. When she noticed that her eyes darted from her feet to the male adventurer who kept sending over glances all willy nilly, she understood why she wanted to stay with her for the duration of the trip.

She didn't want to create trouble for herself and was prepared to refuse but then something cuaght her eye.

Some coachmen started to arrive. When they mounted the carriages, Kayda noticed something, causing the temperature around her body to drop.

"Sure."

When the female adventurer heard her reply, her initially timid and quiet demeanor instantly brightened up.

"T-Thank you!" She beemed.

Nodding, Kayda made her way to sit down under a tree. The little female adventurer followed behind her closely.

Fidgeting, she wrung her hands slightly before speaking again. "I-I'm Louran."

Kayda gave her a glance before closing her eyes again to rest. "Silas."

Louran smiled and then sat next to Kayda while still maintaining an appropriate distance.

The next couple of hours passed leisurely until it was time to go.

Fortunately, the Merchant Gurad, the man who had hired the adventurers, provided mounts that they would be riding towards their destination.

Kayda kept her guard up the entire trip while Louran stuck to her like glue.

When they had camped out the first night, Kayda did not notice anything particular. Continuing on their journey, she couldn't help but to get this sinking feeling that something just wasn't right.

The air surrounding the caravan was heavy and foreshadowed to some unfortunate and terrible crime that had yet to happen, but since she didn't see or hear anything to confirm this feeling, she could only ride on while full filling the task she had accepted.

It was around the second night that things started to unfold.

Setting up camp, Kayda found a spot a little distance away from the main group and made her own temporary dwelling. Louran did the same.

Throughout the trip, Kayda had gathered information about every other adventurer that had accepted Mr. Gerad's task.

The man who had put off a distant and nonchalant air was acting as a loner throughout the trip. He hardly talked to anyone from the group and preferred to stay a distance away from the main group like herself. But as time passed, his distant and off putting air started to seem awkward, like it was forced.

If anything, he was most likely a young and prideful adventurer who just wanted to seem cool. And she confirmed this when he tried to use difficult and showy techniques with his bow and arrow to hunt a single rabbit when really he scared off two deer.

The tall and bald man and the boy covered in freckles were actually cousins. Surprisingly, they were also close in age. And if their appearances and personalities weren't contradicting enough, their fighting styles were in complete disharmony with their characters.

The bald man used a broad sword, which was direct and to the point when really, having a proper conversation with him was like going in circles, never really going the way it needed to go.

And the boy covered in freckles, used daggers for a close range attack after sneaking up on his target. You wouldn't think he would be capable of that with his inability to stop talking.

And then, there was the man who kept sending glances towards her and Louran. If anything, the more she got to know him, the deeper her desire to gouge out his eyeballs and cut off his tongue grew.

Throughout the entire journey, he kept trying to ride up next to them and start a conversation while eyeing their body's with obvious indecent thoughts roaming his eyes.

And when he talked to others, it was usually to brag about how many women he had laid or that he seemed to be unparalleled in sword fighting among his peers.

When really, his weapon was a flimsy rapier that was gaudy and showy, seeming to have only the function of a decoration you would hang on your wall.

Most of the time, she and Louran would try their best at ignoring his lousy display of a human being and continued forward.

Louran, who had been sticking to her side like sap from a pine tree, had also revealed quite a bit of herself to Kayda.

Surprisingly, she was a mage who specialized in healing.

Even though that wasn't too rare, it wasn't very often that you saw a healing mage that wasn't affiliated with a temple of sorts.

The reason being is that Louren had five younger siblings who had lost their father at a young age due to a bar fight. Her family was compensated of course, but there's only so much money to be split between seven people.

So that was why she had become an adventurer. To earn a bit more money that could put food on the table. She wasn't the only one of course. Her younger siblings worked as well but they weren't old enough to go on missions that paid as much.

She could also list off a bunch of other stuff but Kayda decided that it was best to let all this unnecessary information go in one ear, and then out the other.

Later on their second night though, Kayda had been sitting next to the fire for a while when she noticed that it had become strangely quite.

Looking around the fire, everyone was doing their own things.

But when she looked again, her eyes widened before she stood up alertly like her tail was just set on fire.

"Woah! You scared me! Don't stand up so suddenly like that!" Trave, the freckle covered boy who had just had his back turned towards her, yelled as he was startled by the sudden movement.

Kayda became frosty as she looked at everyone around the fire. Everyone, expect for Louran and Jacksan, the impudent pervert.