Chapter 10: Concrete Information

"..." As Nio flies searching for another village, she still watches the distant flames she caused. As a player, she wants to understand her flames and this "new" power that emerged because she came to this new world.

"An unstable sphere that explodes on contact. My flames closely resemble plasma explosions, but they’re different because of the flame type. Dragons can spit different forms of attacks, and the air had a strange smell after the attack... but it didn’t seem to be exactly plasma."

"Maybe a mixture?... or something similar." Nio flies over another village she found. It’s a slightly smaller village and looks a bit poorer. She descends slowly behind a house while noticing she can smell each inhabitant.

Just as she can hear relatively far away without needing to concentrate, this bothers her a little, but she ignores it, starting to walk to reach the village road.

"..." Nio immediately receives stares from the village people. Her clothes stand out too much and her hair and eye color immediately draw attention, which makes her look like a noble.

And after just a few minutes of her walking the streets looking around, an old man approaches. He is using a cane while his hair and beard are already gray, though Nio immediately notices the strong physique beneath his clothes.

’This man has been through many things in life...’ Nio intuitively understands. This body has been through many battles. Even though it is infinitely inferior to her, her instincts knew how to assess the being in front of her immediately until defining him as nothing compared to her.

"Hello, young lady. I am the leader of this village, and I would like to know what a noble lady seeks in this remote village. If you need something, I could help if possible." The village leader asks with the attitude of someone who has dealt with troublesome nobles far too many times.

He is restrained, but his tone is firm, almost a request for her to leave if she has nothing to resolve there.

"I am just exploring the world."

"Ah... I see. That is dangerous, young lady." When Nio says she is just exploring the world, the village leader gives a look of someone who has seen arrogant nobles exploring the world and dying. But Nio notices the look right away, yet ignores it.

"You think I came to cause problems? Don’t worry. I don’t plan to use my power to stand above others. I’m really just curious. Besides, I’m quite willing to reward you if you give me a little help."

"Reward?" When the village chief says this, Nio thinks about showing money, but she doesn’t know if the game currency serves as something valuable. So she pulls a gold bar from her inventory, and when she sees the village chief’s look, she knows she got it right.

"Yes, I can give you this little thing here in exchange for some information. Of course, if you don’t want it to be you, I can ask any other person in the village."

"W-Wait, of course I can help you, young lady." He quickly regains his composure, although his surprise is mainly because of the inventory and not so much the gold.

"Perfect, so do we have a more private place? I have many questions." Depending on the answers, Nio will decide what to do, since she needs to start as soon as possible on ways to defend herself from her wife and other threats.

"Of course, let’s go to my house..." The village chief, who didn’t introduce himself because nobles never care, moves ahead. However, Nio has doubts about his name, but since he didn’t introduce himself, she also doesn’t introduce herself or ask his name.

"Young lady, how did you arrive at this village? I don’t see any carriage or guards." Making conversation, he asks her while both follow the road to the house that is visibly the largest.

"...Does that really matter?"

"I believe not... but I wouldn’t like to cause commotion among my village’s inhabitants."

"There’s nothing money can’t buy, right? I can remove any commotion with money if necessary." Nio steps into the noble role since she’s being seen as one.

"..." The village chief doesn’t like what he heard very much, but arrives at his house in silence, opening the door for Nio to enter first.

’I’m not good at talking to people... and I kind of just accidentally killed dozens of them. Having to talk to people in some random village is strange.’ Nio stares at the human in front of her as he sits down on a chair.

Nio places the gold bar on the table, but doesn’t sit down, trying to maintain the image of a noble who doesn’t care about commoners. It’s easier than faking kindness.

"What are your questions, young lady?" The village chief tries to be brief, since the longer this takes, the more chances of irritating the "noble" girl in front of him, something he doesn’t wish to do.

"Who is the strongest in the world?"

"...I don’t know. There are various kingdoms, so maybe a commander-in-chief or a paladin..."

’What a useless answer... well, at least this indicates that maybe there isn’t anyone capable of, like, devastating a continent with a single spell or something... although it’s not a guarantee...’ Nio tries to think of another question.

"Then how valuable is this gold bar?"

"Quite. It’s gold, which is the measure of value for coins. Although no one would use gold daily, only in important negotiations."

’Okay, this is good. So all my money still has value...’ Nio is satisfied with this answer.

"..." Nio thinks carefully. There’s a lot she wants to ask, but there’s a lot she avoids so as not to seem suspicious. She would hate to be reported to some large kingdom as an invading noble from another kingdom.

’Why do I have to pretend to be human anyway? It seems so stupid. Why would a powerful being need to try to pretend to be human to obtain information from a human when there’s no threat anywhere near?’

"Haaa... forget it. This isn’t going anywhere. I wanted to be restrained with magic use, but whatever."

"...?" Nio stands up and goes to the village chief. She grabs him by the collar and looks into his eyes. Immediately, he becomes completely frozen, falling under the [Charm] spell.

[Charm] Spell that uses an anomalous condition to affect the target’s mind, trapping them in a temporary [Enslavement] effect.

"I never thought this spell I got from an event would be useful, but it’s easier this way. I can ask questions without him remembering anything..." Nio got this spell when she was level 40 in a Quick Time Event style event that was happening at the time and that all players could do.

Where the thousand players with the most points would win this spell regardless of their classes or races. So Nio, even without being a succubus or having a similar class, can use [Charm].

"Now that you’re a slave, we can really have a conversation. I want to know everything. Everything you know about this world. Everything that is useful or anything that is considered relevant for a human to know." Nio speaks to the village chief, who, under the effect of [Charm], begins to speak by force.