VIP Chapter 131: You Call This a Hotel?
“Where are we going now?”
“…Hmm, let me see…”
The road ahead grew darker, and Will felt he was no longer in Nov Town but had walked all the way to the new commercial district.
Well… probably the area where they buy clothes.
It was a market on the edge of town, and now there were no lights to be seen, likely closed for the day.
Are there inns in the new commercial district too?
Will felt a bit of doubt.
But…
“It’s that way…”
Shuna beside him seemed particularly resolute, not hesitating as she walked, and pointed in another direction.
Was she really drunk or faking it?
Will looked her over again.
Judging by how her eyes wandered and how limp her body was, she seemed genuinely drunk—or are all young girls’ bodies this limp?!
But no matter what, he needed to get her to an inn first.
“That way? Okay.”
Will held her hand and lifted her tighter onto his shoulder.
However…
Perhaps because Will himself had also had a bit to drink.
His mental focus wasn’t very sharp either.
It wasn’t to the point of being drunk, as he could still stand steadily…
It was just that he wasn’t as good at finding his way or seeing the path as before.
It made him worry if he could get back by himself later.
Perhaps… in front of S, he was the one who should have been escorted home?
But…
In the next ten minutes, Will confirmed his thoughts. Shuna had truly gotten herself drunk without any restraint.
“Mmm… this way?”
“That way?”
“Seems wrong… should we go back?”
“You… are you really drunk?!”
“No… how could I be drunk? I really don’t know where to go anymore…”
She stopped and scratched her head.
Will followed her as they went in circles. He wasn’t very familiar with this place to begin with, and now he was even less so. Standing in the middle of the market street, Will felt as lost as if he had truly lost his way.
He looked at Shuna, who was swaying and holding her forehead.
She pinched the hair on her damp forehead and kept licking her lips, as if trying to ease her embarrassment and anxiety.
For some reason, Will felt a sense of relief.
He had always felt that S, who spoke with a “written language” tone in her letters and always used a “rational” tone, was a presence very distant from him…
S was too mature, too difficult to grasp.
But…
When she was Shuna, Will realized she was just a girl his own age.
Although she was more mature than the three from his home who naturally exuded maturity upon their appearance, she could also have moments like this… being a foolish drunkard who couldn’t find her way home.
Perhaps the distance between them wasn’t that great after all.
“Ah, I think I remember.”
Shuna raised her head, swayed over to Will, and put an arm directly around his neck.
“It’s just over there, Little Will. Just a few more steps. Come with me?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile…
“Huh? Why did they turn up ahead?”
“Do we need to turn here too?”
“Where did this go?”
“Uh… where are they…?”
…
Iaar followed, circling the market round and round. For fear of being discovered, she had to maintain a distance—that was the principle of tailing someone.
But…
The further she kept her distance, the easier it was to lose track.
She felt it; it was as if they were deliberately avoiding her, the person tailing them. Looking back every two steps, turning every three steps—their counter-surveillance skills were superb!
Damn it!
When did their Young Master learn not only to sense that he was being followed but also to master such advanced counter-surveillance techniques?
Iaar was convinced that their Young Master was deliberately engaging in counter-surveillance. It certainly wasn’t… that woman who looked like he had gotten her thoroughly drunk, right?
“But… Young Master, you failed to achieve your goal. Don’t forget what Iaar is—”
Iaar decided to unleash her trump card.
This wasn’t written in Blackening 300 Questions, but Iaar had summarized it herself.
When…
You can’t find your target…
You can fully utilize your own advantages, for example…
Half-Beastmen, especially wolf girls, have excellent olfactory senses!
Although as a mixed-blood with some human heritage, her sense of smell wouldn’t be as sharp as a pure-bred wolf’s, she could still smell the strong scent of alcohol lingering in the air.
She just needed to follow the direction where the alcohol scent was strongest.
“Sniff sniff sniff, sniff sniff sniff…”
Iaar held her hat, her ears perked up. She bent down and kept sniffing.
“It seems… to be in that direction…”
“But it doesn’t feel right…”
“Isn’t that direction… where the Young Master showed us the train station before?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Hehehe, it’s here… I really wasn’t drunk. I still know the way…”
Will had no idea where Shuna had led him.
But he still trusted Shuna, so he kept following her footsteps.
For some reason…
After turning the bend ahead, Shuna became unusually excited, as if she had really found her inn.
“Wait, it’s so dark here, no lights. The ground seems to be paved with pebbles… Did I just trip on something?”
But…
A trace of unease began to surface in Will’s heart.
No…
It wasn’t just unease.
Standing in a slightly more open area, illuminated by the moonlight, he could see clearly now…
“That’s right! This is it! Come up—”
This…
What lay before him…
No matter how you looked at it, it was Nov Town’s freight train!
And it was packed full of cargo!
Will’s drunkenness vanished.
He shouldn’t have believed a drunkard’s words!
This was clearly not a hotel!
Shuna must have been drunk!
With her intelligence, she shouldn’t possibly mistake this place for accommodation, right?
Or perhaps…
Hmm…
There was one possibility…
She had been lying to him all along?
To trick him… into coming to this place?
But…
Shuna, with practiced ease, stepped onto the small stairs of the rear observation car. The rear observation car was empty, and no one seemed to be there.
She stopped firmly on the stairs and turned back,
“If you don’t come up, I’m going to pull you up.”
“Wait… wait a moment…”
Before Will could react, she grabbed one of his hands and easily lifted him up.
Will was grabbed by the wrist and floated in the air the next second.
Her strength was incredible!
And how could she lift him with just one hand?!
“Yay! Will lifted me up to the second floor!”
Shuna pulled him up, turned around on the cramped stairs, and then put Will down.
“Mmm…?!”
Will, who had been floating, couldn’t maintain his balance. Combined with his slightly uncoordinated nerves from drinking, he didn’t stand steady and fell to the ground.
Then he leaned against the railing.
“My butt… hurts a little…”
Wait…
Was that more than one falling sound just now?
Will opened his eyes. Shuna was kneeling on him.
“Sorry, it’s my first time lifting someone. I don’t have much experience. But, Little Will, you’re so light. Are you really exercising properly?”
She was indeed drunk.
Her face was extremely red, and her eyes were full of intoxication.
More importantly…
She had started to get a little handsy.
For example…
She reached out to him, her fingertips tracing from top to bottom through his shirt.
“So thin. You’re still a slender boy who needs protection, aren’t you?”
