I've Turned Into A Fox Girl?

After a few hours of traveling had passed, Shaman and her group had stopped in a nearby town to grab something to eat. The town itself resembled the architecture of rural Japan and it was rather peaceful with only a few people on the streets. Shaman and everyone else had stopped by a restaurant so that they had somewhere to sit down and talk.

Walking into a restaurant that had a traditional Japanese feel to it, Shaman could not help but feel she was back in her original world. The restaurant wasn't too busy, so they walked straight in without issue and grabbed seats in one of the corners.

They had also already sold the cores from when Silver did his solo dungeon run, earning them some more coins. Although before leaving, Freja had given them 10000 gold coins for the trip, so they hardly needed more cash.

"We have too much money." Shaman, when walking through the town, saw how everything was extremely cheap.

"Just you wait till you get to the capital, the auction house there would require millions of coins. The only reason why basic things are so cheap is because a lot of people don't become adventurers. There is also a continent wide law that requires all basic living costs to stay low even while everything that involves adventurers has become extremely inflated." Kiruya explained why there was such a discrepancy in prices.

"Wouldn't that mean people could retire as early as 18?" Shaman was a bit confused by the law, as even at tier 1 getting cores was relatively easy and yielded a good amount of coins.

"You didn't read the terms and conditions?"

"No?" Shaman averted her gaze as she didn't even know such a thing existed to join the adventurers guild.

"Nobody does, so don't worry. The thing that happens to most people is that when they try to leave they are not able to since you need to serve the guild for a certain number of years." Kiruya had seen that situation play itself many times as she used to work for the guild directly and had to enforce punishment on those that refused to follow the terms.

"How many years?" Shaman was a little worried as it seemed like it was impossible to get out.

"For most it's 30 years, but exceptions are granted for those with valid reasons, like ruling over a country for example." Kiruya could only think of one example as it had to be a significant reason that makes you completely incapable of contributing.

"Sheesh, alright." Shaman didn't like the amount of time, but then the thought of her becoming the queen of the fox realm appeared.

"Aha don't worry, there is also another way and that's through getting approval from anyone at tier 10, so someone like Freja."

"Oh that's cool, but I don't think that's something I should be worrying about for a while anyway." Although 30 years was far away. Shaman, having the connections she had, would have no problem quitting whenever she wanted to, not that she was planning to stop anytime soon anyway.

"Seems like even knowing one person at tier 10 makes your entire life easier." Elysia couldn't imagine what her life would have been like if she were an adventurer alone as it was a rough occupation to begin with.

"As long as you are talented and put in enough effort before taking on the tougher challenges then it isn't too hard to rise in the ranks." Clara who had trained for as long as she remembers had found progressing not so tedious.

"There are many factors, but it has only been recently that schools are starting to incorporate training into the curriculum." Kiruya, while talking, waved at a waitress wanting to order.

"So we are in a period where adventuring will start being a part of everyone's lives." Shaman started considering that this world might be a little more progressive when it comes to adventuring, at least if compared to most of the novels she's read in the past.

"Yes. Oh I will have some of the tizzard please." Kiruya ordered some food for herself and everyone else followed.

"I will take whatever you think is the best meat dish." Elysia didn't know the difference between the different dishes as they all had unique names of beasts she hadn't heard of.

"Hmm, same as Moth- I mean Elysia." Silver also wanted something meaty, but only being born a few months ago, had no clue what most things meant.

"I'll try the farab sushi." Shaman had picked something at random as she wasn't a picky eater.

"Give me what Shaman is having." Clara couldn't make up her mind so she copied Shaman's meal.

The waitress took note and walked off leaving them alone.

"What are these names?" Elysia was the first to ask the question on everyone's mind. Although Clara was more familiar with the menu, Shaman and Elysia both were unfamiliar with these kinds of dishes.

"Oh my how naive, these meals are made from the wild beasts found in the fox realm, so they are quite popular." Kiruya had forgotten that Shaman was someone who was transported, so her world knowledge was rather lackluster. Elysia on the other hand had been isolated from the world while she was hiding with her parents. She also barely scraped by when she was a street rat finding anything she could eat.

"Hope they are good." Shaman and Elysia were both keen on trying what they got. Elysia was also taking this opportunity to see if she could get some recipe ideas.

***

After eating their meals, Shaman and Elysia were pleasantly surprised by the taste.

"Eli, can you make this?" Shaman looked at Elysia who was next to her, waiting for an answer.

"Eh? Eli?" Elysia however, was more caught up with the sudden nickname she had received.

"Can you?" Shaman was now grabbing a hold of Elysia's clothes looking up at her.

"I-I ummm, I think so, but I would need to find a recipe at least." Elysia answered Shaman honestly, but she still wanted to know where the nickname came from.

"Yes!" Shaman had enjoyed the food so much that, when Clara wasn't able to finish her dish, Shaman had instantly finished it off for her.

"To think this one can use 5 elements." Kiruya held her head as watching the scene made it hard to believe that the person in front of her was already so powerful.

"Hehe Mother is great! Although she gets very serious when fighting, she is always having fun outside of battles." Silver spoke up, hearing Kiruya talk about Shaman.

"You have a great mother so make sure you protect her." Kiruya smiled at Silver and found him absolutely adorable.

"Mhm."

"Shaman! What's with the nickname?" Elysia had blushed as she never thought she would receive a nickname and, since it was from Shaman, it caused her heart to flutter.

"Oh you mean Eli? It just sort of came out, do you not like it?"

"Of course I do, just wasn't expecting it." Elysia's voice trailed off while she turned her head away.

"Hehe~ are you embarrassed Eli~?" Shaman had leaned in and whispered in her ear, which further made Elysia embarrassed.

"No I'm not!" Elysia used her hands to cover her face and avoided any eye contact.

"We are in a public place." Clara, unable to watch any longer, brought up how they were in a public place.

"Oop." Shaman quickly backed off Elysia as shame had suddenly kicked in.

Elysia let out a sigh of relief. Sure, she would have liked to play along, but she is still trying to restrain her sexual urges so as to not disturb everyone.

"If we are finished eating then let's move on." Kiruya had enough as well and was surprised how Clara is able to deal with seeing so much affection.

Getting up from their seats, Kiruya and Shaman paid for their meals.

Retrieving their mounts, they had continued their journey to Elfheim and were now relatively close to the border.

***

<Capital of Elysium>

"Tsk, even after searching all the nearby towns and small cities, that demon girl was nowhere to be found."

In the middle of the capital, Pope Klaus sat in his throne room all by himself, looking at a scroll that contained the reports of the search parties he sent out.

"It must have been her at the dungeon entrance. I was 100 percent sure I sensed a demon, but it had vanished the moment I got there." The Pope clenched his fists, ruining the scroll in his hands.

"Not to mention Himeko got away and I have no idea where she went." After Himeko had used her family skill, the Pope had no way to track her as the skill gave her a completely new body, making any sigils on her old body useless.

The pope stood up from his throne and a rather old looking butler came out.

"Orders sir?" The butler bowed awaiting the words of the pope.

"Get the leaders of the underground to come visit me in the usual spot, we need to move on with the plan soon." The Pope vanished from the spot after giving his orders and the butler left in a haste.