Chapter 16 Walking Away In Silence

The group of men went to every leather working shop within the town. Not that there were that many, but they were all spread out throughout the town itself. It was around midday when they finally arrived at a certain tailor shop after finding out that they, too, sold shoes. They walked through the door where the shop owner was sitting behind the counter, fiddling with some needles and thread. When she heard the door open, she turned and looked at the three bandit-like men who walked in, and her expression immediately soured. "Hi y… Leave the weapons outside."

"Huh? Why do we need to leave our weapons outside!?" The leader of the bandit-like men asked as he walked in.

"Because I do not trust people dressed as you are to be welcoming customers. I know they say do not judge a book by its cover, but at this moment, with the strong killing intent coming off your body, I will trust my gut. Either leave the weapons outside the door there and look around or get out. And trust me if you stay and argue, you will regret it." The shop owner's eyes flashed as she looked at the bandit-like men.

"I do not think you are in any position to be telling us what to do. Listen here, woman, tell us how many pairs of female shoes you sold today, or we will start smashing your shoooooooooooo-oofphhh!!!!!!!" The leader of the bandit-like men fell to the ground as he felt something heavy hit him between the legs. He clutched his little brother and curled up into a ball on the ground as tears flowed from his eyes.

"Boss!" The two bandit-like men who were behind him shouted out. They went to run forward when they, too, suddenly suffered the same fate.

"Humph!" A cold snort came from the back room. A young woman with red hair down to her waist and hazel eyes walked out with a slingshot in her hand and looked coldly at the three men. "My Mother told you to leave, but you did not want to. The price for not listening is we take your manhood."

With these words, she pulled out a knife and walked forward. She raised it in the air and was just about thrust down when a hand caught her wrist, causing her to purse her lips. "Don't dirty my shop! Drag them outside and do it for everyone to see. This way, people will stop causing trouble here!"

"Sorry, Mother, I will do it now…." The young woman wrinkled her brow. She wondered if her mother knew that if she didn't do this for her that she would need to do it herself. She could only sigh internally. She did not wish to anger the Dark Nightingale. She only did it once when she was younger, and she had to sleep on her stomach and stand to eat for an entire month!

The young woman grabbed the bandit-like men one by one and tossed them into the street, quickly gaining everyone's attention. With a knife in hand, she went outside and showed the world what a castration was. No one even found this strange because this was not the only time. Everyone knows the owner's daughter of the tailor shop hated men with a passion. She never hesitated to turn a he into a she.

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When Vance woke up, it was already dark outside. He blinked a few times before sitting up and rubbing his eyes. He looked over to see Alice sitting there looking out the window with a candle lit at her side. "You lost in thought again?"

"No, just staring at the stars. You're awake now?" Alice asked but then blushed as she realized she had just asked a stupid question.

Vance did not call her out over it as he stretched and yawned again. "For the most part. I could probably eat and then pass out again. I will go get us some food."

​ "Thanks…." Alice turned and smiled at Vance. She had been awake for a while. She had time to stare at the young man as he slept and had many things going through her mind. She hated the fact she could not move around freely now that she was being chased. While it was boring, she did not go against Vance's orders. She watched as he walked out of the room again and lock it as he had done earlier.

Vance went downstairs and walked out to the nightlife of the town he was in. Many vendors were still open and quite busy even though it was nighttime. The magic lamps that lined the streets lit the surroundings enough for people to easily see, which made things much easier.

He made his way over to a vendor that made complete meals and ordered two sets to go that came with meat, vegetables, soup, a drink, and even a cookie for dessert. As he was waiting for his order, a young woman was sitting at a table next to him, talking to another woman with quite the animated motions as she told her story.

"Then they came in saying you better tell us how many female shoes you sold today! I mean, come on! What kind of robbers use such a lame excuse!? I quickly took care of them and cut off the little thing between their legs. Acting all high and mighty when he only had two inches. Humph!" The young woman snorted as she took a sip of her drink which Vance assumed to be alcohol of some kind. He assumed this because of her red cheeks and swaying motions as she tried to sit still.

"Tia, I do not understand why you hate men so much. You are one of the world's best adventurers and a looker at that, yet you are such a man hater just because of that one guy who dropped his pants in front of you. You even cut his thingy off too!" The other girl who was with Tia sighed helplessly. "You will never get married at this rate."

"Who the hell wants to get married!? I will probably end up cutting it off anyways once he shows it to me. Hehe….. I feel sick…." Tia held her stomach and stood up. She stumbled a bit before nodding her head. "Yep, definitely going to be sick!" Tia turned to run away, but because she was not paying attention, she ran into someone and let everything loose. "Blerg!"

Vance stood there with a foul stench coming from his now wet shirt. He looked down at the girl who was holding his shoulder and using his chest as a toilet and felt like maybe the creators of this game really had it out for him. First, they turn him into an NPC then they let another NPC puke on him.

"Tia!" The girl who was with Tia, who had just emptied her stomach on Vance's shirt, came running over with a look of horror on her face. "Sir, I am so sorry, my friend, she drank a bit too much! I will…. I will… What should I do!? Tia, why did you drink so much!?"

Vance looked at the girl who was panicking, unsure of what to do, and sighed. He gently pushed Tia off him towards the girl and took off his shirt. He then wadded it up and tossed it in a nearby trash barrel. "It's fine…." He had some mess on his pants and shoes, but he couldn't do anything about that at this time. He would not fault Tia for his own inability to pay attention to his surroundings either.

Tia, on the other hand, looked at Vance indifferently, waiting for him to say something like, 'compensate me with your body', or something along those lines. But to her surprise, he only turned around, paid for his meal, and walked away like it was nothing. "Ummm…. I didn't apologize." Tia suddenly felt really bad.

"You! How could you do that? You are lucky that man didn't make a scene!" Tia's friend felt helpless.

"Alright, I know… Let's follow him. I will send a set of clothes to the place he is staying." For the first time in her life, she actually felt bad for something she did to a man. She knew she was in the wrong, but in her mind, most men were foul-mouth perverts who would try to take advantage of every situation just because of her looks. But this man just ignored it and walked away after getting his food. With no other choice, she wiped her mouth and quickly followed after Vance with her friend in tow.

--AN) Check out the new voting rewards chapter goals in the author's note!--