I decided to test out the new skill I'd picked up a little later. For now, I grabbed the sack along with Ravi and headed out of the dungeon.
The outside world, which had looked like time itself had frozen while we were separated inside, began ticking forward once more. Only then did Ravi finally let out a sigh of relief.
"Phew... What a relief. When that weird black thing popped out earlier, I had no clue what was even happening."
"A crisis is just an opportunity in disguise. Thanks to it, we scored all this high-quality gear."
"You really sure you don't want to take any? This stuff looks expensive at a glance..."
"I told you already. You've got nowhere to stash it anyway. We're not strangers, and I've got nothing better to do right now. Might as well head your way, lend a hand, and check out the Carrot Duchy while I'm at it. It's not like anyone's gonna kick up a huge fuss just because I'm tagging along, right?"
Ravi's bunny ears perked up as she nodded.
But her face was still clouded with worry.
"Um, Alvis. The Carrot Duchy is over 99% bunnyfolk."
"Huh? Well, yeah, it's the bunnyfolk nation. What's so surprising about that?"
"That's exactly my point. If you go around spouting discrimination against bunnyfolk there, I can't guarantee your safety. Unless you've got some powerful backers, but you said your family's been in rough shape since your academy days, so I doubt that's an option."
In other words, don't be the idiot who strolls into a black neighborhood dropping N-bombs and ends up Swiss cheese.
Who the hell did she think I was?
I didn't hate bunnyfolk. Hell, I was actually pretty damn fond of them.
Other than the bunny ears and their superior physiques, bunnyfolk weren't all that different from humans.
And to stress the point: that meant they had all the superior traits of rabbits—plus the sex appeal of bunny girls—which put them ahead of humans in my book.
Sure, it was just how the setting worked, but I could never figure out why everyone in this world hated and discriminated against bunnyfolk.
I snorted derisively and put on an exaggerated angry face.
"You've gotta be kidding me. After watching me for three years at the academy, you're seriously painting me as some bunny-hating bigot? Huh? I help you out, and this is how you repay me?"
"Huh? I wasn't insulting you, I was just worried—"
"If I was some bunny bigot, would I have chased after you so relentlessly for three years at the academy? You know real bigots can't even stand sharing the same space with bunnyfolk. If I was one of those guys, would I be dungeon-crawling with you and chatting like this?"
"Well, that's true, but..."
"Apologize."
"What?"
Her round eyes went even wider than usual at my words.
"You accused me of being a racist. I'm giving you a chance—apologize while you can."
"No, I didn't mean it like—"
"Apologize."
"S-Sorry...?"
"Good."
I headed down the mountain path with Ravi, who looked utterly baffled, until we finally reached a proper road wide enough for people and carriages.
We walked together toward the nearest town, swapping stories from our academy days that we never got around to back then.
Truth be told, my memories of the academy were limited to just graduation day, which made things awkward for me. But luckily, the world seemed to follow the plot of the novel Loveholic beat for beat, so there weren't any major issues.
By the time we'd been chatting for a while, the shadow that had hung over Ravi's face since graduation day had lifted quite a bit, replaced by a bright smile.
"Ahahaha! Yeah, you totally did that back then. You know Elfin was seriously out for blood?"
"Of course I know. That's why I couldn't even talk to you girls for over a week after."
"So why didn't you just give up? Most people would've gotten fed up and quit after that. Did you really believe that old saying about the eleventh try?"
"Something like that. Plus, academy life was so boring—I needed some excitement like that. More than anything, I wanted to get tangled up with you girls, even if it was in a bad way. You had all the guys at school lining up for you. Didn't you know? They were dying just to make an impression."
"You mean Celine, Lenis, and Elfin. Not me. I'm bunnyfolk, after all..."
Ravi had this habit of putting herself down because of the deep-rooted discrimination.
To break her of it, I pinched her cute button nose and gave it a little shake.
"Ow! Ah! What're you doing?!"
"Punishment for talking nonsense. Why do you keep badmouthing your own kind in front of me? I told you I like bunnyfolk. If you keep that up, what does that make me—the guy hitting on you?"
"Honestly, I have a hard time believing it. You're the first human I've met who's said that. Empires, kingdoms—they're all the same. A human who actually likes bunnyfolk...? You're not just buttering me up now that Brayden's out of the picture, are you? I'm not that easy to fool, you know."
"My reputation's in the toilet, huh. Now that Brayden's gone, this is me making my move with some lip service? That it?"
The moment Brayden's name slipped out, Ravi's face visibly darkened.
And no wonder—she'd been dumped just a few days ago.
No way she'd gotten over that pain already.
"Brayden..."
Her eyes welled up with tears.
She sniffled loudly while wiping them away. Seeing that, I struck an awkward pose and said,
"No handkerchief to lend you this time."
"Sniff... I-I'm fine. Just lost control of my emotions for a sec."
"Still hurts that much, huh."
"Of course it does. It's only been a few days... I came to the dungeon to do something useful for the country and clear my head, but then you bring him up and it all comes rushing back!"
"Uh... Didn't mean to. Sorry about that. Man, that guy's choice is beyond me."
Ravi wiped her eyes and stared at me.
"If you're about to feed me some obvious line like 'you were better than Celine,' save it."
"Nah, that's not it. If I were him, I'd have claimed Celine, you, Lenis, and Elfin. No clue why he'd pick just one out of the bunch."
"..."
Ravi looked at me like I was trash.
"Guess I was an idiot for thinking you were different even for a second."
It was an honest take... In an academy harem story, ditching the heroines is just baffling—it's common sense!
Ravi, not getting that obvious 'common sense,' put her guard right back up. We barely talked the rest of the way to town.
No backlash damage meant this situation wasn't some huge mistake... but man, being the Resister of Fate was tricky.
...
After a long hike down, we reached the nearest small town and rented a carriage.
"Got any heading to the Carrot Duchy? We'll pay. For two."
"Perfect timing. Our merchant caravan's headed that way. Hop on. We're leaving right now."
The folks from a small, modest merchant group took our fare, loaded us into their cargo hold, and rolled out of town.
Sitting in the hold, I quietly checked it out and caught a whiff of something off.
'This cargo area's too clean.'
It wasn't paranoia—this was a lesson straight from that garbage game, Holy Warrior Brayden NX.
In Holy Warrior Brayden NX, when moving between villages without your own horse or teleport, you'd hitch rides like this most of the time.
And those rides doubled as save points, but the problem was skipping to the destination often left you looted clean on items and gold.
Reason being: the 'drivers' turn bandit on you, or they're in cahoots from the start and lead you into an ambush where their buddies clean you out.
By then, the save's already done, so reloading doesn't help. Total bullshit.
It was a huge reason that game sucked. Whoever designed that crap deserved a slow death.
Burned one too many times, I'd skip the travel skips and endure the boredom every time, which let me spot all sorts of bandit tells.
Like with these merchant carriages: a real one would've had a filthy, dented cargo hold full of trade stains.
Fake ones disguised as merchants? Spotless and pristine, like this one.
The cart was just bait—they had no reason to haul heavy loads long-term.
Ravi, wiped out from battling goblins in the dungeon, had conked out in the hold already.
I gripped the shabby sword at my waist.
'Looks like my new skill's first guinea pig is gonna be human.'