My Evil System

❶Pixie Sticks

Powdered honey mixed with sparkling pixie dusts. It had a 50% chance of granting flight or causing sleep for ten minutes.

Cost: 10 000 gil / 1 000 CR (Credit Points)

❷ Gummy Wyrms

Fruity gummies that are shaped like dragons. They try to fly away once unwrapped.

Cost: 1 000 gil / 100 CR

❸ Bugbee\'s Bubblegum

Shimmering sap enchanted to last one hour and then melt.

Cost: 500 gil / 50 CR

❹ Laughy Taffy

Light, fluffy, and chewy taffy wrapped in pastel wax paper. For one minute, everything is perceived to be very funny.

Cost: 100 gil / 10 CR

❺ Ooze, Cubes

Gelatinous candies that taste sickeningly sweet. Deals acid damage when consumed.

Cost: 100 gil / 10 CR

ǁ E N D ǁ

". . ." I may have a sweet tooth, but I wasn\'t an idiot to eat those candies with very suspicious side effects.

"I wonder if they\'re safe to consume." Thomas wiped the saliva from his mouth.

"Let\'s not," I said. "We don\'t know if it\'s safe."

"This Bugbee\'s Bubblegum seemed safe," Thomas bargained.

"I think you\'re going to keep chewing for one hour until it melts in your mouth."

"Egh . . ." Thomas stared at the candies with longing.

"Come on. Let\'s go and look around. We might find sweets that are . . . edible."

In our exploration, we came to the edge of the Town where activity was somewhat subdued but still pretty close to the markets and shops, but had a lot of backhanded dealings.

Not even night came, and there were already drunkards scattered on every corner of this area. They smelled of a brewery. They were hyperventilating and stumbling here and there.

I almost tripped on a loose cobblestone from avoiding them. Good thing that they weren\'t causing any trouble with all the guards that were patrolling the area.

We found a group of loud men in the back alley. The men were in a circle taking bets on a fight between a Goblin and a Kobold. They shouted for blood and gold as the two malnourished and scared creatures circled each other, makeshift weapons tied to their hands.

I guess things like this were also common here. I was reminded of those cock fights back in my days on earth.

Not that I was participating in those.

From the start, I didn\'t have the spare money to even gamble.

Still . . . those creatures felt like humans than animals to me, and I couldn\'t stomach watching those men cheer for their deaths.

"Let\'s go," I said and didn\'t wait for Thomas to reply. I just wanted to get out of here before I did something stupid.

We moved to a series of corridors before we arrived at a strange building. It was huge, and there were all sorts of women wearing skimpy clothes, waving on the windows, and strolling on the streets –– and I immediately knew where we were.

I was going to turn and drag Thomas away, but it was too late. The kid already saw everything.

"You don\'t have to look at me like I\'m too innocent for these kinds of stuff." Thomas laughed a bit. "Back on earth, the net could corrupt a boy\'s mind as early as ten years old."

Augh . . . I didn\'t want to admit it, but he was right. Still . . . having to watch it on screen and seeing it in real life was different.

Wherever I looked, there were women whose boobs were spilling out from the strap of their underclothes while the form of their crotch left little to the imagination from how tight and thin their . . . tights were.

Where they even tights? They were more like stockings of how thin they were.

There was even a beast woman posing in different lewd positions inside of her decorated cage. She had tiger ears, tails, whiskers, and claws and the drawing point about her was her cute canines, big busts, and hairy . . .

I quickly looked away and swallowed hard.

<Don\'t be ashamed, Host. Go and indulge in your carnal desires like your other self!>

Shut it.

At this moment, I filled my mind with Angelica\'s laughter. Her baby laughter could cleanse my soul and scatter a smile in my sad, lonely heart.

"Let\'s just hurry and get out of here," I said and widened my steps as we navigated the walkway and avoided as many of these women as much as possible.

However, this one guy barged our way and chatted like there was no tomorrow.

"If you want women, I can prepare those for you. I\'m talking about beauties that would make a shiver run up your spine just by their touch. Can you imagine it? She\'s only 5 000 gil a night kind of girl. Not those cheap 500 gil women, mind you."

This man was probably a barker for the red-light district. If so . . .

I grabbed Thomas\'s hand and made a run for it.

"C-cross, why are we running?"

"I know those types," I said while my skin almost detached from my face from how fast I ran. "They would never let you go until you said yes to them. They would only leave you if they couldn\'t follow you anymore!"

"Egh? Why do you know about that?"

". . . J-just shut up, and let\'s move to the last spot on the map."

Don\'t get me wrong.

I was a virgin until Dementia.

It was just that . . .

In my twenty-four years of existence, of course, I was curious, but I wasn\'t disloyal. Before Soarsie, while I was single, I\'d admit that I went to the red light district because I was just curious.

I wasn\'t planning to do anything . . . it was just that . . . I got scammed by this guy and fooled into taking home a woman who only stole my wallet and went home while I took a bath to get ready.

Since then, I have avoided that scam place.

Though I wondered if that woman also got scammed since I only have receipt in my wallet for my tax.

"This was the last spot."

Thomas\'s voice woke me from memory lane, and it was only then that I noticed we were already standing in front of rows of buildings that said Guilds.

"Huh . . . There\'s a Thief guild?" I said when I finished reading the names plastered on a placard.

Though I wasn\'t that surprised because there was even a red light district in this Town of the Holy Kingdom.

"If there\'s an Adventurer\'s Guild where you become a Hunter or Slayer, of course, there\'s going to be a Thieves Guild. There\'s also an Assassin\'s guild," spoke a gruff voice.

We looked over at a lanky man with golden hair and a sack of bags over his shoulder. He looked like a beggar from his dirty clothes and unkempt hair and beard.

We took a step back, and the guy just kept muttering to himself.

"The Thieves Guild is an association that presided over the underworld. It may be a criminal organization, but its front is that of a legal organization meant to prevent pickpocketing and robbery from getting out of hands and has brazenly established power in every corner of the Kingdom."

His scrawny finger then pointed to a short man not far from us.

"That man. See how his eyes that always gazed steadily at that woman\'s hands and feet instead of her eyes is the trademark of a fierce and excellent coward who had constantly slipped past his enemies and got away with his stolen items."

. . . I felt so attacked all of a sudden. But I wasn\'t a thief!

While the beggar was spouting nonsense, Thomas and I steadily went away from him.

The sun was beginning to set, wrapping up our tour of the Town, and we went back to the Dorms. There was an eight pm curfew in the rulebook, so we had to be inside our dorms by that time, or we would sleep by the streets.

"Should we eat something first?" Thomas rubbed his tummy when we passed by a restaurant.

I really wanted to treat him, but I was afraid of the consequences of my actions. If he knew that I had millions of gil, and could afford a restaurant gourmet what would he do?

I knew that he was a kid and that he was nice . . . but I was already too traumatized by the players that I met in the past that I had to be extra careful with everything I do from now on.

<Host didn\'t have to be careful. Host should just do whatever he wants!>

". . ." Stop talking to me.

"Let\'s look at the food in the school\'s cafeteria first. Food might be cheaper there." I hope it was edible.

"Ehehehe. Cross is so mature. While me, on the other hand . . . I might have already used all my credit points on the first day."

Thomas rubbed his nose and stared down. "I\'m such a kid."

My heart constricted again.

He IS a kid, and he should be a kid. He shouldn\'t be forced to mature and act like an adult his age.

I knew because I had been in his shoes before. No matter how I mask it in front of my family. I wanted to play video games than work. I wanted to laze around in the house and not do all the chores. I want to take a break and play with other kids and not ask for junk from neighborhood to neighborhood.

". . . Don\'t beat yourself too much," I said in a soft tone. "Come on. I\'ll treat you to dinner."

( . . . continuation on NOTES)