Chapter 27. From Predator to Prey

  "Stop, stop! If you keep staring at me so intensely, you'll make me blush..." Kara told Ophelia when she was about 10 meters away from her. Despite her words being full of shyness, they were not in harmony with her confident and sensual stride, as Kara made no effort to hide her completely naked body from Ophelia's gaze.

  "You, you... why are you naked?" Ophelia stammered, Kara's words snapping her out of the mesmerized state she'd been in since Kara unleashed her true powers.

  'How could I ever consider her a goddess? Can a goddess be so shameless? Only a pervert would think it's a good idea to be naked in front of the person she claims to be attracted to!' Ophelia began to scream in her mind as she looked up at the sky, with no intention of looking at Kara until she covered herself. 'But I have to admit that her body looks truly extraordinary. I never thought a naked woman would be so attractive to me... No, I have to make sure Kara doesn't realize this, or she'll walk around like a big bad wolf with her tail up to the sky...' Ophelia continued to think while trying her best to calm her racing heart.

  "Well, it's not my fault. The clothes I was wearing ripped on their own when I sped through the pieces of rock to reach the surviving enemies..." Kara replied, slightly amused by Ophelia's attitude, without specifying the fact that she was used to fighting naked, which was the reason why she was careless while going through the obstacles that came her way.

  "Even your underwear?" Ophelia asked again, still having doubts about Kara's explanations.

  "Yes!", Kara replied without hesitation, not wanting Ophelia to find out that the reason she wasn't wearing underwear at the moment was that she hadn't worn any since returning to civilization. This was because, for Kara, clothes no longer represented a form of protection but only camouflage to avoid standing out, so she hadn't paid much attention to details when she got dressed.

  "But now the fight is over. How much longer do you have to stay naked?"

  "Okay, okay... I'll get dressed right away...", Kara told Ophelia, and then she pulled a similar outfit to her previous one from her storage space and began to dress.

  "I don't know why she's so shy. It's not like she doesn't have the same things..." Kara murmured as she fastened the last buttons, earning a squinted look from Ophelia.

  "I have no idea how such a shameless person came to possess such powers. This world is too unfair..." Ophelia uttered in the same tone as Kara while she walked towards the corpse brought by Kara to examine it, these words reminding Kara of the first day she spent in The Great Moonshadow Forest when she also doubted the mental sanity of the one who came up with the idea that it was absolutely necessary to be completely naked throughout the ritual.

  "Perhaps being shameless is one of the conditions for becoming as powerful as me... Anyway, what do you think of the specimen I brought?" Kara asked Ophelia, wanting to change the subject of this discussion that didn't favor her.

  "Hmm, it seems you were mistaken about the attackers. They weren't giant moles; rather, they were more like mole humans..." Ophelia said, hesitating to touch the hair-covered, blood-soaked body with her bare hands.

  "More like human moles. These things are closer to beasts than human beings..." Kara said, a bit upset that she had been fooled by the tracks left by the creatures.

  "Alright then. If it had been an unknown race of demihumans, it wouldn't have been advisable to eliminate them all without trying to get some answers from them, even if they were criminals. Have you seen what happened to the people they kidnapped?" Ophelia asked, although she had little hope that there were survivors.

  "They were all dead, and some of them were half-eaten. Anyway, it wasn't a surprise since I had a pretty clear idea of the situation inside the cave where the moles were hiding, which allowed me to act without hesitation." Kara replied, not wanting Ophelia to consider her negligent.

  "Why do you keep calling them moles? Don't tell me you still want to say you were right..." Ophelia asked tauntingly, realizing by now that Kara didn't know how to accept defeat.

  "Broad-snouted moles, brown moles, human moles. They're all still moles in the end. If a creature behaves like a mole, looks like a mole, and smells like a mole, it can't be anything other than a mole, hmph!" Kara responded in frustration, her attitude making Ophelia burst into laughter.

  "Well, we'll consider that you're right until their bodies are examined by people more competent in this field than us. So, what do you suggest we do next? Do you want to head back to the city to report the mission as completed, or do you want to stay here overnight and return to the city tomorrow morning? Honestly, I think the latter option would be better because the people will look at us with suspicion if we return in less than a day from such a difficult mission. Plus, we haven't thought of a credible story to tell the Adventurer's Guild to justify the deaths of the three who accompanied me..."

  Hearing Ophelia use the word "we" so many times, Kara's mood improved significantly because it was quite clear to her that Ophelia was starting to see her as a comrade.

  "I think you're right. It's better to return to the city tomorrow. As for the deaths of the three adventurers, hmm... let's say that the team you were part of was attacked by a bear with diamond claws, and you're the only one I managed to save. Fortunately, I have the corpse of such a creature with me, so our story will be quite believable. Besides, even if they suspect something, there won't be much they can do to me. I think you've realized that I told the truth about the slim chances of anyone in this world being a match for me..."

  "Oh, so you happen to have the corpse of a creature capable of inflicting wounds similar to those you left on the bodies of the three. How convenient...", Ophelia said sarcastically, suspecting that Kara had thought long before coming to the town that there might be a chance she would kill someone and would need to cover her tracks.

  "Yes, it's very convenient. Plus, the meat of such a bear is quite delicious, so I made sure to have more than 20 of them with me..."

  "Huh, more than 20? Let's hope in the future you won't have conflicts with other people, or the city folks will think there's a diamond-clawed bear invasion..."

  .......................

  Since Kara didn't have a tent with her, Ophelia offered to let her sleep in her tent, which was spacious enough for even three people to lie down in it without any issues. Although Kara could sleep under the open sky without any problem, she didn't want to miss the opportunity to become even more familiar with Ophelia and accepted her offer without much hesitation. So, after a short meal during which Kara offered Ophelia a portion of wild boar pastrami, and she received oatmeal cookies from Ophelia in return, the two changed into their nightgowns and lay down in the tent side by side.

  "The cookies you made were very tasty...", Kara suddenly said, wanting to chat a bit with Ophelia before going to sleep.

  "Oh, they weren't made by me. I don't know how to cook..." Ophelia said without a trace of shame as if she had said she didn't know how to fly.

  "Oh! Well, then you chose them very well..."

  Hearing Kara's words, Ophelia struggled not to laugh because she found it quite amusing how quickly Kara could overlook her own mistakes.

  "Yes, I'm very good at buying things. If I ever have a girlfriend in the future, she'll have to be very rich to afford to let me put my talent into practice..." Ophelia said as she turned to face Kara.

  "Huh, how rich?" Kara asked, turning her face towards Ophelia as well, who was smiling teasingly.

  "Very rich! The richest in the whole world!" Ophelia replied, then began to bring her beautiful face closer to Kara's until their eyes were less than 30 centimeters apart.

  "Tell me, Kara, how rich are you?" Ophelia asked, her warm breath making Kara struggle to remain rational.

  "Well, I... I haven't really cared about money, so I can't say I'm very rich. But I don't think it would take more than a few days to become the richest person in this world..." Kara replied, her determination to fulfill Ophelia's condition as quickly as possible clearly visible in her eyes.

  Hearing Kara's words, Ophelia couldn't help but burst into laughter.

  "Huh, what happened?" Kara asked, not realizing what she had said that made Ophelia react like that.

  "Haha, I was just joking... I don't expect you to become the richest person in the world for me. The fact that I like you is enough. But it's true that I'm currently in a somewhat difficult situation, so I would be glad if you would help me solve my problems..."

  "Huh, you mean..." Kara asked again, finding it hard to believe that what she heard wasn't just her imagination.

  "Yes, from now on, I'll be your girlfriend..." Ophelia said, and without giving Kara a chance to say anything else, she pressed her lips to Kara's.