"I'm not… a pervert…"

"No one's believing this crap!"

"I was just changing my clothes!"

"Oh, so you suddenly got the urge to change your clothes in the carriage instead of your home?"

In the large, luxury carriage, Dante sat silently while scanning his companions.

The perverted woman whom he had kicked earlier. Her face was now redder than blood, struggling to find a response.

And the second one was a man with brown hair and eyeglasses. He was looking at the perverted woman with disdain and anger.

'Since when did this world even have eyeglasses? Oh, never mind. If there are guns then eyeglasses are nothing.'

The last one was a blonde man drinking an alcoholic drink, staring at the ceiling while smiling like a fool.

Dante recognised him as the drunk man that he met in the Mercenary Guild, the one who wanted to win the upcoming competition.

Dante turned his head to the left, seeing that his carriage was connected to another carriage that contained Omar's goods. Dante's job was protecting them.

'Four mercenaries in each of the three carriages. They'll be getting paid and fed until the end of the journey. That guy is indeed rich.'

"I mean…" The perverted woman suddenly opened her mouth: "I wanted to do it quickly. I didn't know that another mercenary would come this fast! And why are you all calling me a pervert? He's the one who saw me naked through that magical blindfold and even attacked me!"

Dante and the eyeglasses man gritted their teeth.

"Oh, really? Yeah, because I have an ability to see the future and know that a perverted woman is inside the carriage, huh?!"

"If you dare to call him a pervert again I'll throw you into a darkness volcano!"

The perverted woman opened her mouth again, but no words came out. She lowered her head and took the floating green orb into a gentle hug before muttering: "I'm not a pervert…"

Dante rolled his eyes as he turned his head to the side to avoid looking at her. But both of them gave glances to each other secretly.

The woman was affected by Dante's trait, Demon of Temptation. It was, after all, a passive mental attack that targeted women.

As for Dante, he was focused solely on the green orb she had.

'It's a spirit, isn't it?'

The spirits were rare beings born from pure mana. They didn't have physical bodies, but they were made entirely from spiritual energy, which gave them colourful appearances that depended on their aspect.

They were famous for forming spiritual bonds with those they liked, giving those who were lucky enough to get a spirit a boost in their magical powers.

From what Dante had read, no one could force a spirit to form a bond, which prevented the greedy people from looking at them as living treasure.

Out of curiosity, Dante used the ability of his silver eye. Immediately, he saw the number 65.

'It's high, but that doesn't mean it's strong. The Vitality value is literally zero, after all.'

Other than the fact that he was seeing a spirit for the first time, the thing that truly hooked his attention was its luck.

Apparently, the spirit's luck was deeply linked to the luck of the perverted woman, likely showing their bond.

"Hey!" The drunk blonde man suddenly shouted: "Why don't… don't we introduce ourselves? We don't have anything else to do."

Dante raised an eyebrow, but he just decided to accept and introduce himself. He wouldn't lose anything.

"My name is Dante." Dante said in an indifferent tone.

The eyeglasses man patted Dante's shoulder, grabbing his attention, and smiled while extending his hand: "You can call me Daniel. It's nice to meet you."

Dante shook hands with Daniel and smiled. Of course, he wouldn't act indifferent toward the man who supported him against the perverted woman.

The perverted woman stood up and bowed awkwardly: "You can call me Emeralda. I think you're right, it was my fault. I apologize for this misunderstanding."

"So now you admit that you're a pervert?" Daniel hissed, glaring sharply at her.

Emeralda shook her head: "I said it's a misunderstanding. I'm not a pervert!"

"Ahem!" The drunk man cleared his throat loudly and stood up: "I'm Jin, a silver rank mercenary and the next duke! It's your chance now to form connections with me before I win the competition and marry the next duchess, hehe."

"...."

Everyone stared at Jin silently, as though they stared at a lunatic, before ignoring him and returning to whatever they were doing.

"Ah, don't you want to form any connections?"

Daniel opened a philosophical book and began to focus on reading it, Emeralda hugged her spirit again and whispered a few things to it…

"I accept servants, you know."

…and Dante opened the newspaper he had bought before starting the journey. The news was a bit shocking this time.

"A traitor has kidnapped the youngest daughter of the king of the Holy Kingdom and sold her to Uldor?" Dante read the newspaper loudly out of habit.

"Oh, poor girl…" Daniel sighed in sadness: "Being captured by the giants alone is a misery. But as the king's daughter? I don't even want to imagine what they're going to do with her to provoke the king."

Dante and Emeralda nodded. It was indeed a misery for that girl.

'But it's also a chance to end the war. If the king accepts to give the Crown to return her, the war will end. It all depends on how far he'd go for one of his children.'

At the same time in the Central Region, Fafnir held Elizabeth's hand, using her finger to make her write the news of the Holy Kingdom.

Her expression turned into shock and disbelief instantly, but she couldn't do anything about that.

If even the king was struggling, then what could she possibly do?

In Dante's carriage, the door that led to the driver suddenly opened. The driver entered with food.

"The lunch is ready! Lord Omar is confident you'll like this meal."

The driver brought a tray filled with food to every mercenary.

"I can only recognise the salad." Emeralda squinted her eyes.

"Hmm? White sauce?" Jin took his tray with an unfocused gaze.

"Oh, I have always wanted to try this." Daniel smiled as he took his tray.

Finally, the driver gave Dante his tray and winked at him before leaving.

'I'll find a way to turn off this trait some day.'

Dante sighed as he looked at his strange food. Then he looked at Daniel and asked: "Ah, excuse me. You seem like you know about this food from your reaction."

"Yes." Daniel nodded, lifting up a plate from his tray and showing it to the mercenaries: "This meal is famous in the Southern Region. The first thing you see on this plate is Hawawshi. It's basically pita bread stuffed with minced meat and griddled until crisp."

Daniel lowered the plate and raised another one: "This white sauce is Tahini. It's a delicious dip for the hawawshi."

Lowering the plate, Daniel ignored the third plate and raised a cup: "You know the salad, so let's ignore it. This black drink in my hand is Tamarind Juice. It's a healthy, non-alcoholic drink and they usually put an expensive powder on it called Sugar!"

"Non-alcoholic? What a shame…" Jin sighed in disappointment before pouring some of his own alcoholic drink in the juice.

"You bastard, don't ruin the juice!" Daniel yelled, as if witnessing a crime against southern culture.

Dante ignored them and looked with sparkling eyes at the southern food.

'I couldn't find sugar anywhere in the town. I'm so glad I chose this merchant.'

Dante took the hawawshi first and dipped it into the tahini before taking a bite.

'Holy!'

His eyes widened instantly as all the rich flavours hit him instantly. That was the most delicious thing he had eaten in his entire life.

'I'll ask Omar's cook for the recipe for this sauce later. This might be my only chance to learn about it.'

Dante and the others enjoyed the food with wide smiles, including the drunk man Jin.

"Whoever made this will become my personal cook someday!" Jin said happily as he took the last bite of his hawawshi.

Emeralda suddenly felt Jin's gaze falling on her plate, causing her to start eating faster while trying to hide the food from his gaze.

As Dante finished the food, he moved immediately to the tamarind juice and took a sip, freezing instantly at the sweet taste.

'I'll buy whatever thing was used to make this…'

If Omar was a merchant, then he wouldn't mind selling some of the tamarind and sugar for Dante, right?

"There is also something called Shawarma. It's the most popular southern food and I heard it tastes great." Daniel said while drinking his juice.

Dante suddenly had the urge to visit the Southern Region: 'Maybe when I advance to Rank 2.'

After eating the good meal, Dante continued reading the newspaper. Until suddenly, a loud voice echoed throughout the convoy.

"There are beasts blocking the way! The mercenaries are required to help!"

'It's finally my time.'

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