Chapter 1

My name's Karina! And for the next few paragraphs, allow me to recount the story so far!

I was once a guy, but the Goddess gave me the body of a cute girl! Then she told me I needed to defeat some guy called the "God of Destruction." But, what a twist! The Goddess destroyed the guy herself under the pretext of giving me a tutorial on how to use my powers! The geezer and his Kingdom of Alchemy went kaput in less than a minute's time, leaving me objectiveless! The Goddess turned me loose in this world-armed with peerless spatial magic, no less-saying I was free to do whatever I wanted!

And so, deciding my goal for the time being would be to enjoy this world to the fullest, I headed to the nearest town, Solasidore, where I made my debut as an adventurer-slash-merchant! Quite a few things happened from there, like losing my virginity to Miss Harumikazuchi, and getting abducted by Satie and coerced into purchasing her alcoholic wares, and buying a slave and healing her completely, and saving the town and tossing the glory over to my more experienced adventurer buddies. Now then, what amazing adventure is next in store for me?!

Er, yeah. Anyway, it felt like a good time for a recap, so I decided I'd summarize all that's happened until now. It's important to reflect on the past every now and then, you know? But we can go ahead and just forget the parts that weren't so good, like how the Goddess had me dancing in the palm of her hand...

Oh, also, I'm at the gatehouse in the port town of Verald right now. That's right, you guessed it-in the interrogation room.

Together with Aishia, I'd dragged a huge and heavy cart, huffing and puffing, toward Solasidore's gates-then, as soon as we'd passed through, I'd used my spatial magic to warp us in front of the gates of Verald. I was all eager to show my legit ID and enter the town, but then the guards captured me and brought me in for questioning. Considering how this happened just before entering Solasidore for the first time, I must just have a natural incompatibility with guards or something.

"It says here that you departed Solasidore at noon today. There's no way you could have made it here that fast! You must be an impostor!"

"Wait, this is a trader's guild license, though. Can those even be counterfeited?"

"I guess they can, since this can't possibly be legit. Hmm... Your luggage is exactly the same as what it was when you left Solasidore, though. The number of items on the cart checks out too."

"She's got something to deliver to the Adventurer's Guild too, so maybe they put her up to it? That means...the guild is in cahoots?!"

O diligent, hardworking guards, I appreciate your thoroughness in defending our cities' borders, but you're way off base!

Rather, they're not even listening to me at all! Who would have thought my guild licenses kept a record of every time I entered and exited the city?! And it even recorded the quantity of my luggage-that's awfully high-tech. A measure to make sure people pay their taxes, I'm guessing?

"Either way, this is seriously major," the guard continued. "Guys, we might have just stumbled upon some grand conspiracy! But we need more information before we can be sure. We'll interrogate the higher-ups and the guilds first, and then-"

"E-Everyone, please take a look at this!" I held up my five-yen coin fake ID, the hypnosis item I could use to gain permission for anything in a pinch. The guards' faces began to soften. More specifically, they looked like they were about to pass out.

"Oh, I see. Why didn't you just show us this from the start? All right, in that case, just fill out these entry papers and you'll be good to go."

"W-W-Wait, wait!" I said. "I'll go back home for today, so let's save that for next time!"

"Huh? But we have to do our jobs..."

"Look! At! The! Shiny! Coin!"

"All right, another time, then."

Whew! That was a close one. I seriously almost had a heart attack. If I hadn't been careful, there would have been a record of me entering Verald almost immediately after leaving Solasidore. Good thing I still had that fake ID-thank goodness the Goddess hadn't demanded it back once I'd acquired a real one. That right there is why it's important to hang on to the items in your inventory! Though apparently if I used this item too much on someone their brain would go pop, so I had to be careful.

In the end, we decided to turn around for now and head back the same way we came. "It's not like I did anything wrong, so why do I feel like a criminal?" I mumbled.

"Honestly. For those guards to apprehend the likes of you at the gate, master... They really need to learn their place." Aishia, my half-dwarf slave, glared back in the direction of the town gate. Er... Well, they were doing their job, so from an objective perspective, I'd say they knew their place pretty exactly. I just happened to be on the receiving end, is all.

When I asked, Aishia said she hadn't known that the guild licenses could record dates and times either. Well, most people don't get apprehended at town gates right away, so they'd probably have no way of knowing, huh?

Still, this meant I couldn't just visit Verald like I'd planned. Well, I supposed I could, technically, but if I teleported myself inside without permission, and my guild ID contained a record of my arrivals and departures, it would look like I had entered illegally to anyone I showed my ID to while in town. That meant I'd have to refrain from any adventuring or mercantile work while in Verald, and for Karina the merchant, such a visit would be pointless. Wait-actually, maybe I should be looking at this as a blessing instead. After all, if I'd just warped into the town from the start and unwittingly used my guild ID inside, I could have been arrested for trespassing. At least I'd avoided that outcome.

"Nothing for it, I guess. We'll have to kill time for the next five days," I said with a sigh. After all, since my arrival time had raised the guards' suspicions, I'd need to wait the same number of days it would take to reach the town by normal means if I wanted to look legit. "Well, let's just call this a vacation and relax until then. How about it, Aishia?"

"Sounds good to me, master."

After checking to make sure there was no one around, I teleported us back to our spatial base.

* * *

Thus, for the next five days I became a shut-in, mostly killing time by using Mr. Sneaky and exploring and experimenting with my female body in various ways. I also spent time using the excess wood I had in storage to create various accessories with spatial magic, improving my woodworking skill in the process. I practiced making cylindrical rodlike objects, and I even made a toothbrush. I experimented with using tree fibers for the brush part, but they were so rough that they ended up hurting my teeth. So I tried animal fur instead, but it was too soft. So then I had the genius idea to combine the two- Er, well, you get the idea. Hopefully I'll get it right on my next attempt.

"Training diligently today too, master? Your dedication is truly inspiring."

"Th-Thanks." Naturally, telling Aishia about my exploits regarding my own body would be too embarrassing, so I'd just told her I was training and left it at that. Come to think of it, maybe I could have spun it like I was trying to learn an ability to produce sticky bodily fluid from myself at will... Nah, no one would buy that. Yeah, I know I probably shouldn't be embarrassed about that sort of thing with Aishia now, considering we've already done it, but even now I've been too shy to invite her to bed a second time. Not to mention my body was in an abnormal state back then, thanks to the Orc King. Normally I wouldn't have been so bold.

In other words, I'd have to come up with some sort of excuse to bed her, and one that she'd find agreeable to boot. She might have been my slave, but I wasn't gonna force her to do anything like that without her consent. I mean, I certainly wouldn't want to be forced to have sex with a guy. I'd have to be held at gunpoint or something to even begin to consider it. Begrudgingly, mind you.

Anyway, after several days had passed, we made our way back to the port town of Verald. A guard with floppy dog ears checked my ID at the gate.

"Looks like you left Solasidore eight days ago. And your luggage seems to all be in order as well. You may pass. Welcome to Verald, and enjoy your stay."

Oh, why did I wait an extra three days, you ask? Well, let's just say I got a little too absorbed in my...experiments...and you can figure out the rest. Er, actually, on second thought, I'd rather you not figure it out. Even if you did, just pretend you didn't.

I felt only the slightest bit awkward as I passed through the gate, but the soldier stopped me all of a sudden. "Hey, sorry if I'm overstepping my bounds here, but for your own sake, maybe you ought to use a little stronger cleansing magic from now on. Also, there's a public bath in the middle of the town, if you're interested. Just saying."

"Er... Thanks for the...