Chapter 164: What Now?

I heard something. Or someone. Whatever it was, it was loud enough and persistent enough to pull me out of sleep.

I opened my eyes and looked around the room. Since the night had been warmer than usual, Ken and I had left the window open before going to bed. Assuming the noise was coming from students wandering around the courtyard, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, sat up on the edge of the bed, slipped into my slippers, and walked over to the window.

I looked down. The courtyard was empty. Not a single soul stood outside. It was still far too early for anyone to be awake. Maybe I’d dreamed the whole thing.

With a tired sigh, I closed the window and returned to bed.

I turned onto my left side. Then onto my right.

Sleep refused to come back. "Great," I muttered under my breath.

Giving up, I climbed out of bed again, slipped my slippers back on, quietly opened the door, and stepped into the corridor.

The dormitory was completely silent.

I made my way downstairs and stepped outside into the cool morning air. The streets were empty, and only the occasional lantern flickered along the road, casting long shadows over the academy grounds.

"Fucking hell..."

I reached into my inventory and summoned the evidence I’d gathered.

First came the page torn from the ledger, proving Pix had been in the shower around the time Jelda was murdered. It wasn’t enough to establish the exact moment of the crime, but it had been enough to clear her name.

Next came the small pouch containing the lock of blue hair.

Even beneath the moonlight, the dried blood clinging to it remained visible.

Finally, I pulled out the letter bearing Cadence’s signature.

I sat down on a nearby bench and quietly studied the three pieces of evidence. "I was usually on the other side of this," I murmured to myself with a tired smile. "I used to create cases, not solve them. Turns out this detective work is a lot more complicated than I thought."

I remained there for several quiet minutes, listening to the breeze rustling through the trees.

Then I heard a door creak open.

I looked toward the girls’ dormitory.

Nanda stepped outside, her feline ears twitching as they caught every sound around her. The silver moonlight reflected softly off her catlike features while her tail swayed lazily behind her.

She spotted me almost immediately and walked over with an amused grin. Four in the morning? What in the world was she doing awake at this hour?

"This must be my lucky day... or lucky night... or whatever," she purred as she stopped in front of me. "You’re actually awake."

"Yeah." I raised an eyebrow. "What about you? Why are you awake?"

She tilted her head. "I’m half-Jingi, remember? Sleeping isn’t exactly something we Jingi are known for."

"I... don’t really get what that means."

"You don’t have to."

She waved the explanation away before suddenly grabbing my shoulder.

"Come on. Let’s go."

"Go where?"

"To visit that Night Siren, of course." Her tail flicked excitedly behind her. "You charm her, we get our reward, everybody wins."

"It’s four in the morning, Nanda." I pointed toward the dark streets. "She’s probably asleep."

Nanda laughed. "A Night Siren? Sleeping?" She then shook her head. "They barely sleep at all. They’re almost constantly in heat, which makes them a little... unpredictable."

She lowered her voice slightly.

"They’re actually the only race Lady Garmonna refuses to hire at her brothel because they’re considered too dangerous."

"I..."

Before I could finish, she grabbed my arm with both hands and tugged.

"Come on, nya! Get up already!"

"Alright, alright."

I stood with a resigned sigh.

"Remind me again. What was the deal?"

"Five gold for you and fifteen for me."

I gave her a flat look. "It was ten for you and ten for me, you cheeky cat."

Nanda stuck out her tongue before lightly tapping the side of her head. "Oops. Must’ve remembered it wrong."

"Sure you did."

I shook my head, returned the letter, the lock of hair, and the ledger page to my inventory in flashes of faint golden light, then adjusted my jacket.

"Alright. Lead the way."

ꨄ︎ꨄ︎ꨄ︎

╔═══════════════╗

Location Discovered!

─────────────────

Name: Pink District

╠═══════════════╣

Region: Toakwood

Objective:

○ Find the phantom chest.

○ Complete two quests.

○ Pleasure two Night Sirens.

╠═══════════════╣

Gained EXP: +57

╚═══════════════╝

The Pink District felt like stepping into one of those old cowboy towns from stories, dusty and half-forgotten. The buildings leaned like tired men, their facades cracked with age, and the cobblestones under my boots were uneven, worn down by time or something worse. There was no one here, not even beggars or passersby. Just silence, thick enough to choke on. It was eerie, this hush, as if the district itself held its breath waiting for something I couldn’t name.

"First time here?" Nanda asked, her voice cutting through the stillness. She walked beside me with that easy confidence of hers, tail swishing lazily behind her like a cat’s.

I nodded, my throat dry. "Yeah... Pink District, huh?"

She gave a short laugh. "Yep. Most of its residents are Night Sirens. And women." Her smirk was sharp enough to slice through the gloom. "Well, there’s some men too. But yeah, mostly Night Sirens and women."

I glanced at her. "You told me they were cursed by Ambly."

"Yep." She shrugged, like it was nothing.

"Why?"

She tilted her head, eyes glinting with mischief. "Because they’ve been such naughty girls."

Right. I wasn’t going to get a real answer from her. Honestly, I didn’t care. All I wanted was this mission over so I could return to my dormitory and that extra ten gold in my pouch. My plan was simple: refine my dagger at the smithy, either through a blacksmith or whatever system they used here. I’d need materials, sure, but I’d figure it out later.

"This way," Nanda said, turning down a narrow alley.

"Right."

The street curved into a dead end of sorts, where the air smelled faintly of smoke and iron. A tavern stood on my left, its sign swinging in the breeze, while a smithy glowed with the soft orange light of early morning. The hour was just past five, but no one else stirred except for the guards, three women in polished armor, their spears gleaming as they patrolled ahead of us.

"I didn’t know we had female guards," I said, slowing my pace to match Nanda’s.

"Oh, but we do." She gave a casual shrug. "You could see them in our district too."

"Assume Pink has only female ones?"

"Yes." Her voice dropped, as if revealing some secret. "For... reasons I’m sure you can guess."

"Oh," I muttered. "Yeah. I can guess."

She didn’t respond, just led me toward the tavern door.

The tavern’s door creaked open with a groan that felt like it belonged to the district itself. Inside, the air smelled of stale beer and something else... cheap wine, maybe? The dim light from oil lamps cast long shadows across the wooden floorboards, where dust motes swirled lazily in the stillness. A woman sat behind the counter, hunched over a mug that had seen better days. Her posture was slouched, her face pale and weary, but there was something sharp about her eyes... watchful, like she’d already decided who I was before I even stepped inside. She was also a Jingi, not half-Jingi unlike Nanda.

Nanda strode to the counter and the woman’s gaze flicked between us like she was weighing us against a scale. "Sermara," Nanda said without preamble. "Which room?"

The Jingi woman blinked slowly, her dark skin slick with sweat despite the chill in the air. "A friend of hers?" she asked flatly.

Nanda tilted her head. "Just completed a quest. Need to find her."

The woman’s lips pressed into a thin line. Then she sighed, rubbing her temples as if this was the last thing she wanted to deal with that morning. "Go upstairs. Fifth room on the left."

"Thank you," Nanda said, already turning toward the staircase.

We climbed the creaking wooden steps in silence, the air growing colder with each step. The corridor was narrow and lined with doors that looked like they hadn’t been opened in years. When Nanda knocked, a voice answered, low and ragged, like something broken had just been pulled from a drawer.

"Come," Sermara rasped.

Nanda pushed the door open, and I stepped inside behind her.

The room was small, lit only by the flickering light of a single candle-lamp on the bedside table. And there she was... Sermara, a Night Siren. She was... yeah. She was masturbating on the bed. Sheesh.

Her horns curled like twisted vines from the crown of her head, pale against her skin, and her tail, a long, sinuous thing with a triangular tip, waved lazily as it slipped between her legs. She sat bare on the bed, one arm draped over the headrest, the other tracing slow circles around herself. Her body was lean but powerful, muscles tensed in ways that suggested she was more than just cursed. Her eyes were wide and blue, almost glowing in the dim light, and they flickered between us as if trying to decide whether we were a threat or something else entirely.

I felt it before I saw it, something sharp in the air, like static building toward a storm. Sermara’s breathing was uneven, shallow, her fingers working at a feverish pace. Her skin glistened with sweat, and her areolas, large, pink, almost leathery, pulsed as she moved. She wasn’t cumming, not yet. Something held her back, something just out of reach.

Nanda grabbed my wrist, her grip firm but not painful, and pulled me inside. The door shut behind us with a thud that echoed like a heartbeat in the silence.

Well... what now?