Lucia was filled with smiles when she walked out of the infirmary. Just seeing her so happy made my chest warm up. I took an empty jade slip out of my interspacial ring and recorded my memory into it so I’d have her smile with me wherever I went. After tucking the slip away into a safe place, I walked up to Lucia. “How was it? Did you get the sword? Did he recognize you?”

“For a second, I thought he did!” Lucia said before exhaling while patting her chest. “But thankfully, due to my quick thinking and intelligence, he was completely fooled! He even gave me directions to the armory and told me to take whatever and however much I wanted.”

“Are you sure about that?” Ilya asked. I nodded. The guard captain didn’t seem like the type of person to be so easily fooled. Lucia didn’t do anything inappropriate to him inside there, did she? I didn’t hear any screaming, so there probably wasn’t any violence…. “I still think I should’ve gone with you.”

Lucia snorted. “You have purple skin,” she said while placing her hands on her hips. “He’d recognize you in an instant! And Softie’s too beautiful to forget, so she couldn’t come either.”

“But somehow your ears and tails are completely fine?” Ilya asked, raising an eyebrow. I hate when she uses such a condescending and sarcastic tone to address Lucia. Lucia’s too slow to understand she’s being made fun of! I’ll stand up for her.

“There are millions of foxkin, but you’re the only person with purple skin around. Lucia’s right.”

Lucia’s head bobbed up and down. “See? I’m not conspicuous at all.”

Ilya glared at me. “Don’t forget there’s millions of women just as beautiful as you—or even prettier. If your looks are one in a billion, then there’s ten people like you in Kong County alone. Don’t think you’re so special.”

Why did this become a personal attack on me? Ilya’s so hateful! I can never win against her in a battle of words. I’m going to sneak a heart devil worm into her bath when she’s not looking. That’ll make me feel a lot better. There might be millions of women as beautiful as me, but only one of those women will slip a worm into your bath! I stuck my tongue out at Ilya before smiling at Lucia. “Are we going to the armory now? The guard captain said you could take any amount you wanted?” Does that mean I could get pick out a sword too?

“Yup, he did,” Lucia said as she hummed to herself and turned towards the right. “It’s the second building on the left! I’m going to take everything inside! Wait, no. I’ll take the whole building too! I’m a genius.”

“The second building on the left?” Lucia strode with confidence, but no matter how I look at it, that building’s a bathhouse…. Was Lucia lied to? But before I could say anything, Lucia had already appeared in front of the wooden doors and dug her fingers into the ground. With a sickening crack, followed by the sounds of shouts and screams, the building rose off of the ground before disappearing, supposedly into one of Lucia’s interspacial rings. And tens of dozens of naked men and women were left behind in the empty space, some of them still cleaning the shampoo from their hair despite the sudden disappearance of a water source.

Lucia stared at the naked people before turning towards me. Through the slits in between my fingers, I could still clearly see everything even though I was covering my face with my hands. I’m a pure maiden! I always looked away when Lucia stripped her victims, and I did my best to focus on that earth-realm bandit’s face when I cut off his … thing. Lucia scratched her head and let out a dry laugh. “Strange armory, huh? Looks like it had some special water inside that cleansed impurities!”

No, I’m pretty sure it was just a bathhouse.

Lucia looked down as if she were rummaging through an interspacial ring. “Ah! An earth-realm-ranked sword. Nice, there’s a lot of them. It really was an armory with special water.”

“That’s my sword!” a naked man shouted, but Lucia acted as if she hadn’t heard him. Or maybe she really didn’t hear him because she was so preoccupied with inspecting everyone’s property. It’s quite unfortunate for the army to have rules against stowing one’s main weapon inside of their interspacial rings—unfortunate for the army members, that is. An army member’s sword represents one’s rank and one’s oath to fight for the emperor and should be proudly worn on one’s waist. “Give it back!”

The man ran towards Lucia, but her tail swished and swatted him away without any effort. She didn’t even raise her head. “Alright!” Lucia beamed at me. “Let’s gather everyone and set off to the Gates of Hell! I’ll distribute these to everyone on the way. My squad can’t be lacking!”

What…? Lucia’s willing to share her spoils? She never does that! Was she feeling alright? Maybe she had something bad for dinner…. No, that’s impossible; her Immortal Poison Body prevents food poisoning. “Lucia? Did you say you were going to distribute those earth-realm-ranked swords amongst us?”

“Of course! I can’t use them all. I could sell them for spirit stones, but what’s the point? It’ll be better to use them to keep you guys alive. Mhm.” Lucia wrapped her arms around Ilya’s and my shoulders. “The last time I wanted to save resources because I was greedy, Durandal turned into a ball!” Her hand squeezed, and a piercing pain rushed through my shoulder. Did she fracture a bone? “Smart people learn lessons! Resources are meant to be used, not hoarded. If you guys died because of my greed, wouldn’t that be a bummer?”

Ilya’s eyes widened to the size of saucers as they met mine. L-Lucia was undergoing character development!

“W-wait! At least return our underwear!”

Lucia turned her head around and growled at the approaching naked people who were attempting to cover themselves with their hands. “What? I can sell those for ten spirit stones each! Scram!”

…Undergoing some character development.