Mine and Lidia’s lips overlapped. It stayed still for a while, making me feel all the softness of her lips. It felt like it could melt in my mouth like a delectable honey. 

 

The scent of her perfume hit my nostril even stronger than before. This moment felt like an eternity as our lips sat still, leaning against one another for comfort.

 

Then I started to move. I withdrew a bit and went in for a peck, then repeated for a while. A few seconds passed by like that, and Lidia started to respond. She was clumsy, but that didn’t make it less pleasurable.

 

Well, not until—

 

*Gasp*

 

Lidia broke the kiss and gasped for air. She looked at me with wide eyes, her whole face was so red. Her mouth flapped up and down, seemingly at a loss for words.

 

“Y-You..,” she stuttered and didn’t even finish her sentence, turned around and ran away.

 

I looked at her departing figure with a smirk and said, “yare yare daze.”

 

I stood still in my place for a few seconds, recalling the sense of pleasure I just felt a second ago.

 

‘What a shame,’ I thought. ‘That was the finest honey I’ve ever tasted.’

 

I shook my head and laughed it off. Then, a familiar *Ding!* suddenly rang out, followed by the system screen in front of me.

 

[MISSION SUCCESS!]

 

[Congratulations! You have received 5,000 Vel.]

 

Looking at the screen, a smile appeared on my face.

 

‘Alright, that wasn’t too hard,’ I thought. ‘But how do I receive the money, though?’

 

Then, as if answering my question, another screen popped up.

 

[WARNING!]

 

[You do not have access to the Inventory function. Start transferring the reward to the host directly.]

 

‘What?’ I was surprised by the message, when suddenly a small pouch appeared right in front of me.

 

“Woah.” I caught it just in time, before it dropped to the ground. 

 

‘That was kinda rough, my dear system,’ I thought with a wry smile on my face.

 

I shook my head and looked ahead. Lidia’s running figure was getting far away, but I could still see her. I smiled and quickly followed her.

 

After a while, I finally caught up. However, Lidia only kept running and didn’t look behind. I also didn’t say anything and just followed behind her.

 

After about 5 minutes, we finally arrived at a small building. It was three-story high, and was built of cobblestone and wood, giving off the fantasy-ish kinda sense. 

 

Oh right, almost forgot, I was now in the actual fantasy world for Christ sake. What else did I expect?

 

I shook my head at my own thoughts. 

 

It seemed like all the futuristic technologies I’d seen after coming to this world had already made me look at this world differently. 

 

Lidia didn’t even bother to welcome me as she rushed into the building. I followed after her. The bell rang as I went through the door, making a pleasant sound that felt like Christmas.

 

The inside looked small but still welcoming. There were a few tables and chairs to the right with a few people sitting and eating food.

 

To the left was a reception desk right next to the long corridor. Behind the reception desk was a tall, muscular, middle-aged man with a beard.

 

He noticed Lidia walking in and smiled at her. “Oh, Lidia. You’re back.”

 

Lidia didn’t respond. She just went through the door behind the reception desk and shut it close with a bang.

 

The middle-aged man looked confused. “What’s with her?” 

 

He then turned his head and finally noticed me. 

 

“You must be the new guest Lidia’s just brought. Welcome to the SilverWolf,” he said with a smile.

 

I smiled back and nodded. I then turned to look at the closed-door behind the reception desk.

 

“Sorry about that,” he said. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her today. Normally, she’s a lovely and energetic girl,” he paused for a second. “A period cramp, maybe?”

 

I laughed at his statement. “Yeah, so it seems,” I said.

 

He also laughed and then said in a professional tone, “So, how many days do you want to stay? It’s 500 Vel per day. Free breakfast. Free bath.”

 

Hearing what he said, I couldn’t help but smile. Seriously, Lidia wasn’t kidding when she said the place was cheap but cozy.

 

Though, I still didn’t know the value of this world currency, but I thought it’s quite cheap as my money was enough to last a few days here. And there were also free breakfast and free bath as well.

 

“Alright. I’ll stay for two days for now,” I said.

 

“That will be 1,000 Vel.”

 

I opened the pouch and checked its contents. There was paper money inside, five of them, each had a ‘1,000 Vel’ written on it.

 

I picked one from the pouch and paid it to the middle-aged man. “What’s your name, by the way?” I asked.

 

He received the money and said with a smile. “The name’s Guts. You?”

 

“I’m Noel. Nice to meet you, Mr Guts.”

 

“Drop the formality shit. Just call me Guts is fine.”

 

I smiled and said, “Alright, then. Guts.” 

 

He nodded his head, seemingly satisfied, and then went to open the cabinet behind the reception desk. 

 

He took out a key and handed it to me. “Alright, your room is on the second floor to the left. Have a nice stay, Noel.”

 

I nodded and went upstairs. After walking for a while, I finally arrived at my room. I opened the door and went inside.

 

The sight of a small, cozy looking room greeted me.

 

‘Huh. Not bad,’ I acclaimed in my mind as I swiped my gaze across the room.

 

Just like Lidia had said, the room looked very cozy. There was a bed for one person, a nightstand, a table and a chair, and also a bathroom.

 

‘A bathroom, huh?’ 

 

It wasn’t strange for a hotel to have a bathroom. But this place was an inn in a fantasy world. I didn’t expect it to have a built-in bathroom like this.

 

Realizing what I was thinking, I shook my head and sighed. 

 

‘No. I can’t use the game’s or light novel’s logic here. This world is different. It’s not like what I’ve seen or read at all,’ I thought.

 

I opened the bathroom door and looked inside. It was clean and looked just like any normal modern-world bathroom in a cheap hotel room. 

 

Then, my gaze landed on something, something I’d been looking for for a while now. 

 

A smile crept on my face. 

 

‘Heh, I finally got to see my own face. Let's see how handsome I look,’ I thought and went in front of the mirror, closing my eyes for a surprise.

 

I then slowly peeled my eyes open and looked at my reflection in the mirror. And oh boy was I surprised by what I saw…

 

I had short blue hair with red eyes, fair skin as smooth as a baby's, and a face that would put the most handsome man on earth to shame!

 

‘Damn, I’m so godly handsome,’ I thought to myself, not caring about how narcissistic I sound. ‘No wonder all the girls I walked past gave me such looks.’

 

I looked at myself from every angle, admiring my own beauty. After a while, I was finally satisfied and smiled to myself.

 

I then turned to look at the bathroom again, and something caught my eyes. 

 

There, over the bathtub was a blue stone installed around the faucets.

 

‘What’s that..? A magic stone?’ I thought.

 

I’d read about the magic stone before in the light novels. If I remembered correctly, I needed to pour my mana into the stone to activate any device…

 

‘Wait, how do I even pour my mana…?’ 

 

I thought for a second before a horror hit me—I didn’t know how to use mana!

 

If even a bath in a cheap hotel like this required mana, then that meant everyone in this world could use mana, and probably even used it on a regular basis.

 

‘Shit. What should I do? System, can you help me out with this?’ 

 

I waited for the response but nothing came out. I just sighed and shook my head.

 

But then, a sudden realization hit me.

 

If everyone in this world could use mana, then that meant the original Noel could use it as well. Although I didn’t have his memory, maybe I could still use it on instinct? 

 

I placed my hand on a magic stone, and after a while I suddenly felt a pulling sensation on my fingertips. I felt like I could pull it and so I did, and then—

 

“Woah!” I cried out in surprise as the water suddenly broke out of the faucets violently. It reflected against the bathtub and landed on my clothes, making me wet all over.

 

I quickly touched the magic stone and could feel the same sense of pulling again, this time instead of pulling, I tried to push it away.

 

As I expected, the water stopped, though, that didn't change the fact that I was now soaking wet.

 

Looking down at my wet clothes, I couldn’t help but break out into laughter. 

 

I then sighed and shook my head. 

 

‘Damn it. It’s good that I didn’t spend all the money just now. Or else, I wouldn’t have enough to buy a set of new clothes.’

 

Thinking so, I took off my shirt, exposing my muscular body. I turned around, facing the mirror, and took a good look at my reflection again.

 

‘Damn, I’m freakin’ jacked,’ I thought and flexing to the mirror in the different poses.

 

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. I stopped flexing and turned to look.

 

“Who is it?” I said.

 

I waited for a while, but there was no response. 

 

Then came another knock on the door.

 

‘What the fuck is this? A prank?’ I thought.

 

Getting a bit annoyed, I walked up to the door and swung it open. “Hey, I asked ‘Who is it?’”

 

“U-Um.. H-Hey,” a cute voice responded.

 

There, in front of me stood Lidia, looking down.

 

“Oh, Lidia. What’s wrong?“ I asked.

 

“U-Um.. My dad told me to…,” she said while looking up, but then stopped mid-sentence as her gaze landed on my body. She kept staring with wide eyes and her face went red.

 

I looked down at my body and realized what was going on…

 

‘Oh, shit.’