No to Being the Suffering Heroine!

With two inns in town, finding a place to stay wasn’t too difficult.

One was a budget inn favored by rough-and-tumble adventurers living life on the edge, while the other was a pricey inn set up to satisfy the show-off tendencies of wealthier travelers.

I chose the expensive inn.

Given the state of my finances, it would only make sense to avoid a place with poor security unless I absolutely had to.

The danger wasn’t us; it was the others around us.

When three women, especially three decent-looking women, stepped into a low-end inn, chances were high that some miscreants would start trouble.

In that case, the only options would be to either kill the troublemakers or crush their limbs, but if that happened, Eladra might think she had found a buffet and start an all-you-can-eat meal.

If things went south, all the local adventurers and soldiers would turn against us. After about an hour, they’d all be transformed into corpses.

To avoid such a mishap, I had to choose a place where we could spend a little extra money to avoid needless arguments.

The “extra money” was really just the cost of one night’s stay. Compared to the gear I used to buy during my adventurer days, it hardly seemed like a big expense.

◆◆

The inn we found was surprisingly clean and stylish for a village inn. Maybe they took care of things well since it had a steep price tag.

The walls were freshly painted and there wasn’t even a hint of cobwebs on the ceiling. The floor looked like it had been scrubbed non-stop, for not a single trace of dirt remained.

“Wow…! The floor is sparkling! So is the wall!”

“Right? It’s nice that it’s clean. What do you think, Friede?”

“…Well, I mean, it’s nice that it’s clean, I guess…?”

In this world, to find an inn that was this clean was quite a rarity; it made me wonder if the innkeeper had a cleanliness obsession.

“Welcome, dear guests!”

The cheerful waitress who greeted us exuded the same level of care.

Her attire looked freshly washed with no stains, and she had a chest that could easily hold a watermelon. Her face was also exceptionally pretty for a waitress in a village.

I didn’t know who the innkeeper was, but their business skills seemed quite impressive.

For the men visiting the inn, it was a feast for the eyes. Prices for drinks and lodging didn’t even cross their minds.

That fleshy watermelon had that much destructive power. It was a weapon to ensnare men and relieve them of their wallets.

Of course, it had no effect on me; it was just a peculiarity of size. I merely thought her pretty face was just decent enough.

Pretty or not, that look would only work in a village like this. Considering I lived with Friede daily, such an average appearance wouldn’t catch my eye.

I really didn’t need to mention Friede.

Honestly, I could confidently say I was a much more attractive beauty than this waitress.

If I took off my armor and breathed in as much as possible, my assets might actually be roughly comparable, right?

I was taller, had more money, and if it came to a fight, I was sure I could beat her with a single finger. So, in every aspect, I was the overwhelming champion.

‘…Wait a minute. What exactly am I thinking? What’s the point in winning?’

Just when I was about to smile at my sense of victory, I suddenly regained my composure, feeling a little taken aback.

Thinking about it soberly, I realized how utterly ridiculous my thoughts were.

What was I going to gain by defeating the waitress in looks? Feeling that sense of victory was just plain silly.

‘Seriously, I really need a good rest…’

Was it because I was exhausted from the tumultuous dungeon exploration? Or perhaps due to the tension of being next to a potential Daywalking nuclear bomb?

Either way, it felt like my mind was nearing its limit. Thoughts and nonsense were about to spill out of my mouth any second now.

…Yeah, putting it that way made me realize things a bit more.

I desperately needed a break now more than ever—not from physical exhaustion, but from mental fatigue.

In other words, I needed a cozy, deep sleep. A sleep so profound that when I laid down and closed my eyes, I’d wake up to find the sun had already risen.

“How many of you are there? Do you have a room—”

“Three of us. Do you have a triple room with a bathroom?”

So, in a slightly urgent tone, I asked the waitress if there was a room for us.

“A triple room…? Hmm, we have a double room and a quadruple room.”

“Then I’ll take a double room.”

We probably didn’t need a quadruple room.

If our party was four burly guys, that would be one thing, but with one woman and two girls, what would we do with a four-person room? Just a waste of space.

Besides, it looked like the quadruple room would be the most expensive room here.

Saying it was no big deal to spend money was entirely different from saying I’d spend money I didn’t have to.

I wasn’t some pampered daughter of a wealthy family or the only villainess of a northern duke. I shouldn’t take unnecessary luxuries for granted.

Not being able to distinguish between necessary and unnecessary spending would lead to just one future:

Either becoming a penniless bum or working permanently as a diver in the Rhine River.

Oh, speaking of the Rhine, didn’t some folklore say that vampires can’t cross flowing water, and if they fall in, they disappear?

I thought I remembered something like that.

It wasn’t a story I heard here but something I’d heard before the possession. I had no idea if the vampires in this place shared that same weakness, though.

‘…Should I toss one in the Rhine River later?’

Sure, I might as well give it a try.

Even if the vampire didn’t die and came up looking at me with that “What the hell?” expression, I could just brush it off by saying I was hoping for a swim together.

◆◆

With the key the waitress gave me, I opened the wooden door to our room on the second floor.

The interior was a bit smaller than I expected, but it had everything a guest room should have and was more importantly very clean.

The bed was big enough for two adults to sleep with room to spare, and instead of a cheap straw mattress covered in a blanket, there was a proper cotton comforter.

“Hmm. This should be comfortable enough for a good night’s sleep. I’m glad I chose this place.”

After all, it was just a place to sleep before moving on. I wasn’t planning to stay here forever, so I was more than satisfied that the bed was luxurious enough.

The amount I paid for the inn felt completely worth it.

“Mom! This is so fluffy! It’s like a cloud!”

“Elly, before you jump into bed, you need to wash up and change your clothes first.”

Eladra was trying to flop down on the bed as she pressed her hands on it. I gently pulled her away from the bed.

“It’d be such a waste if we found a clean bed and made it all dirty with stains and dust. Now come on, let’s go wash up first.”

“Okay! Got it, Mom! I’ll wash up and then lie down!”

Nodding, Eladra began to take off the clothes she was wearing.

Honestly, her outfit was just a tattered restraint suit from when she woke up, with Friede’s spare cloak wrapped around her. That was all.

Friede also agreed. Rather than doing Eladra a favor, she had simply handed over my cloak to her.

The cloak was slightly oversized for her, dragging along the floor, but she seemed so satisfied, even lifting it a bit as she walked around in it.

Eladra seemed more interested in my cloak than in Friede’s and looked at her with envy…

– That’s mine. You can wear that one.
– That’s unfair!
– The unfair one is you. You don’t even understand what I mean.

Friede fiercely defended her ownership of my cloak like she could take down the Demon King with a single blow.

You could call it the boldness of a hero. If it had ever come down to a fight, we would have been the ones in trouble, yet she was so brave.

In the end, Eladra surrendered my cloak without further dispute, and the situation resolved safely.

Anyway, once Eladra stripped off that grime-covered cloak and restraint suit, she stood proudly in front of me, exposing her thin body from blood loss and gazed up at me silently, tilting her head.

Her gaze seemed to say, “What are we waiting for?” It was a sincerely innocent question, devoid of any lewd implications.

But I could guess why she had that expression.

– She must be hinting at wanting to bathe together…?

Eladra was regressing to a stage where she saw herself as a genuinely little kid, so wanting to bathe with a parent was only natural.

‘…Looks like I have no choice.’

Honestly, I was quite reluctant about the whole thing, but I figured it was the right thing to do.

Rather than taking my eyes off this vampire and massacring everyone in the inn over a cup of tea, it was far better to help her wash.

If this vampire were male, it would have been a whole different story, but given that she looked like a girl, it felt somewhat easier on my mind.

But wasn’t I originally a man? Shouldn’t I feel more at ease with another man?

Well… that might only have applied at the time of possession; what did it matter now?

In my days as a commoner butcher, I’d almost been ambushed five times while trying to take a bath alone, so it was absurd to think I’d feel comfortable bathing with a man now.

If I had to bathe, I’d much prefer it to be with a woman.

At first, it was a bit embarrassing, and I even felt some guilt, but having bathed with Friede more than once, it had become quite familiar.

At this point, I’d have no problem entering a women’s public bath without feeling even a flutter in my heartbeat.

You could consider that a kind of growth, right? At least I had reduced one discomfort I had while living in this body.

In my adventurer days, I hesitated to bathe with someone, so I endured and washed alone, but that would have been inconvenient in certain situations.

But now that I had grown used to bathing with other women, I felt I could easily do so in any situation.
Just like now.

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