Chapter 13. A Legend in the Making, Basically a God With a Very Small Beginning

Chapter 13: 13. A Legend in the Making, Basically a God With a Very Small Beginning

So... this is probably useless information, but I’ll tell you anyway... it has been three hours after I killed a monster the size of a delivery truck, and yes... I was still the happiest man in the world.

Well, probably because I managed to fuck with my first-ever REAL beastwoman, and it was a cold wolfwoman that made me fucking satisfied right away! And now... I can’t wait for more, and I do hope the next one is a gentle beastwoman~!

I jumped over a fallen tree trunk without even slowing down, landed on the other side with a heroic little spin, and turned around to check if Elsbeth had seen it.

But fucking hell... She hadn’t. She was walking in a perfectly straight line through the snow with her eyes fixed on the horizon, and she had the look of a woman who was silently counting to a hundred so she wouldn’t stab me.

"Did you see that? Please tell me that you see that!" I asked.

"I saw..."

"That was a four-meter jump... Four! And I measured it with my eyes... ain’t that insane for ya?!"

"Your humany eyes are not a measuring tool."

"Welp~! They are now! Apex Physique upgraded them, and now I’m not fully human other than half-human and half-beast!" I picked up a rock the size of a loaf of bread, tossed it into the air, caught it behind my back, and flashed her a grin. "Heh~!"

"Look at these reflexes, Elsbeth! This is what a legend in the making looks like." I strike a pose. "A future legend, at least... I’m basically a god with a very small beginning."

"You survived one fight against a Frostfang Behemoth, and look at you right now..." she said without turning her head. "Do not let it go to your head or you’ll die with the upcoming threat."

"One fight...? Hell no! That monster was a natural disaster with teeth, and it almost felt like the last boss for me!"

"And you nearly died fighting it... so that’s that."

"Details, Elsbeth... Details!"

She sighed through her nose in the way that only a person who has regretted a decision can sigh. It had been that kind of morning.

She had given me back my coat about an hour into the walk, shoving it into my arms without a word, and I had been so touched that I had made the mistake of saying so.

Since then... she had been walking about three steps ahead of me, as if distance was the only thing keeping her from doing something she’d regret. And wow... she does that even though I literally take her virginity.

It seems like our relationship is still a long way to go, but that’s fine by me... as long as I didn’t get fucked by her. Fucked here means killed.

The funny part was that her wounds were mostly gone... Wolfkin apparently healed like they were running on cheat codes, and the nasty gash on her ribs had already closed up into a pink line that she kept pressing with her fingers when she thought I wasn’t looking.

Her limp had faded too. And now I’m starting to think about her virginity... I mean, like, the hymen, you know, starts regenerating as well... making her a virgin for, like... eternity, I guess.

By the time we reached the edge of the forest, she was moving with the effortless, silent grace of a predator that had never even been hurt.

I had a lot of feelings about that... and most of them were jealousy. Humans are always sucked into this fantasy world, but they’re not sucked in if they are the main character with an OP system.

"So... where are we going, exactly?" I asked, jogging to catch up with her. "I’m assuming there’s a plan for us now...? Because otherwise this has been a really long and cold walk without any destination."

"We’re going to Frosthaven... It is a border town, and it’s a few hours from here by the old trade road."

"What kind of town is this, Frost... haven...?"

"A busy one... Human merchants, adventurers, mercenaries, and a fair number of beastwomen from different clans come through it... since it sits where several territories meet." She glanced at me. "It is also very large... plus very loud, and you will be tempted to treat it like a festival."

"But please... Do not."

"Why would you think that I do that?"

"Because you are you... and now I realized you’re probably going to eye those other beastwomen out there."

Shit! She literally reads me like a goddamn book, but eh... who am I to lie about that?

"That’s unfair... you know that I’m going to be a model citizen who can control myself."

"You told me that you once climbed out of a cave with your trousers in your hand."

"Well now... that’s a different kind of thing, and hey now! That was a tactical retreat."

She didn’t dignify that with an answer, so I let it go and stared at the horizon, where a thin gray line of smoke was starting to appear above the pine trees.

I was already imagining it... like those kinds of things you’ll imagine in the fantasy novel or see in a fantasy movie.

A big, cozy fantasy town full of loud taverns, steaming plates of food, and women with fluffy ears and tails wandering through the market... god, thinking about that just made me hard instantly, but I have to behave for now just so that I can get REAL respect from wolfy over here.

But now that I think about it... I was going to have a drink, a hot meal, a warm bed, and at least one conversation with someone who wasn’t trying to kill me.

It was going to be incredible. And god... I’m starting to love this second life because of the system and also Wolfy over here.

"Please tell me this city has a decent tavern," I said. "Just so that I can eat proper food for the first time."

"It does."

"Excellent~!"

"It also has a prison..."

I stopped walking. "What...? Why would you even tell me that?!"

"Because... I suspect you will eventually find yourself in it."

She said it with such a perfectly flat face that I couldn’t tell if she was joking, and I decided that I didn’t want to fucking know about it.

I had a nasty feeling that our relationship was going to be a lot less romantic than I’d imagined and a lot more like a very stressed babysitter and a very loud child.

But for now... I kinda dig it.

...

The trade road appeared a little while later. I can see a wide, rutted track of packed snow and mud that wound down from the hills toward the town.

The traffic on it surprised me. Wagons piled high with furs and crates rattled past in a long line, with mules and horses and a few shaggy creatures I didn’t recognize pulling them along.

Merchants in thick coats shouted at each other over the noise. And I can also see a group of mercenaries in mismatched armor argued loudly about something that probably involved money.

Now this is what I expected from a fantasy world... and it low-key made me feel warm all of a sudden.

And scattered through the crowd, as casual as anything, were beastwomen. Goddamn...! There are tons of them with their own unique personality and also appearance!

I’m going to be honest... I wasn’t ready for it.

I’d been sneaking looks at Elsbeth for days, but she was a lone wolf in a blizzard, and it had felt more like a dream than a place. But here... oh boy, let me tell you something: there were DOZENS of them in the open daylight.

The classic, like a cat-eared woman with a leather satchel, haggled with a fur trader, flicking her tail impatiently.

And man~! There’s also a tall, broad-shouldered woman with bull horns who carried a barrel of ale on one shoulder like it was a loaf of bread. Imagine being sandwiched between those muscular thighs and arms.

Oh! There are also two foxkin women walking arm in arm past a stall, laughing at something, with their russet tails swaying behind them.

"Holy fucking... shit," I whispered. "It’s real... It’s all real...! There are dozens of them!"

Tears of joy came out from my eyes. "This is literally... heaven."

"And wow! They have jobs and everything."

"Of course they have jobs.... Do you think those beastwomen share the same trait as humans, where some of them are unemployed?"

Yeshhh... those are really some painful words. And it felt like reality as well.

"I know, but still... They’re just walking around. Buying vegetables and stuff."

"Please stop staring at them... it’s weird."

"You got it wrong, I’m not staring... but I’m appreciating the culture, and I fucking love it~!"

"You are drooling... and crying."

I wiped my mouth and tears from my eyes, just to be safe. Then I noticed something at the checkpoint ahead, and the smile slid off my face.

Wait a minute... please tell me that this isn’t what I think it is...

The line of wagons was funneling through a wooden gate in the town’s palisade, where a handful of guards in dark blue tabards checked travel papers and poked through cargo.

That part seemed normal to me, yes... but it was the second, smaller gate off to the side that caught my attention, where a group of men with whips and clubs were herding a ragged line of people toward the town.

They were women. Some had wolf ears, some had cat ears, and one had the long, drooping ears of a hound.

Every one of them wore an iron collar around her neck, and all the collars were connected to a long chain that ran from one to the next. They walked with their heads down and their shoulders curled in, and none of them looked at anyone.

"What did they... do?" I asked quietly. "Are they criminals... or something?"

"No," Elsbeth said.

Her voice had changed. I looked over and saw her jaw was set, especially with how her claws started getting longer, and her ears were pinned flat against her head.

I noticed that she was watching the chain gang with an expression I’d never seen on her before... It wasn’t fear, but... It was closer to a very cold and very controlled rage.

"They are merchandise," she said.