A few minutes later, Ningning stood propped against a wall at the entrance to the red-light district, drenched in sweat and gulping down great heaving breaths.
So dizzy.
She couldn't take it.
She was going to die.
"I know White Mages tend to have pretty middling physiques, but Ningning, your stamina is just far too poor."
At that, Ningning lifted her head and glared, cheeks puffed, at this Baiye who talked so easily while standing there without a care.
As long as she didn't trigger a bunch of nonsense debuffs like Stun, Weakness, or Immobilize, her stamina wasn't bad at all, thank you very much!
The one who really ought to reflect on her behavior was whoever had just forcibly dragged a girl with such a freakish constitution all the way here, making her scramble along like a snail!
Who, exactly, was the real culprit here?
Who?
Look in my eyes!
Tell me!
Who!
The more Ningning thought about it, the angrier she got, and she argued her case:
"My stamina, hff... is not bad... nyihihi!"
But before she could finish, Baiye poked her in the lower belly, and another wave of numbness shot through her whole body; she nearly sat straight down on the ground.
"See? Honestly, it was just a light little poke, and your reaction is way over the top."
Baiye had long known Ningning was frail and easily toppled, yet watching this healer tremble all over like a plate of jelly at the faintest prod still left her deeply incredulous —
This kid... her stamina really was terrible.
Baiye had noticed something was off during their usual outings to clear slimes and goblins.
Ningning, the White Mage who stood behind everyone to support them, in what ought to be the safest spot of all, was forever inexplicably collapsing to the ground.
Just this morning, for example: all it took was a slime bumping into her rear, and Ningning had gone down like she'd been struck by lightning, unable to get back up.
Convulsing all over.
Eyes rolled back.
Mouth hanging wide open.
She'd looked so bad that everyone assumed the slime had bumped her to death.
And this glass cannon was the healer Her Highness the Princess had personally hand-picked?
Still, Baiye had to admit that, when it came to the actual job, Ningning did it well, perfectly, even.
Her timing on heals was spot-on, and she gauged the strength of her support magic just right, never once causing a mana overload.
Under her support, this cobbled-together, ragtag Hero's Party hadn't produced a single wounded member so far.
...Though it had produced corpses. Many, many times over.
But Baiye figured the deaths weren't Ningning's fault.
Besides, she did the resurrection work beautifully too.
Maybe she should find time to train up Ningning's stamina and turn her into a flawless healer who never dropped the ball...
Baiye unilaterally added the idea to her to-do list and steered the conversation back to the mission at hand:
"All right, Ningning, straighten up. Our first priority now is to get Little Leilei out of the Hero's clutches as fast as we can."
Hearing that, Ningning gave a small nod.
She drew a deep breath, mustered her spirits, stiffened her little spine ramrod-straight, and turned her eyes toward the red-light district's entrance ahead, a gaze as resolute as...
No. Not resolute in the slightest.
One glance at the district's red lanterns and flowing wine, and Ningning's heart began to beat a retreat:
"Baiye... maybe I shouldn't go in after all?"
"Why?" Baiye asked.
"How do I put it... let's just say I've got a lot of concerns."
Ningning laughed awkwardly, hemming and hawing.
With her maxed-out constitution, she was already prone to catching every kind of status ailment going.
Walking into a place like this was practically a wolf into the tiger's den, a mouse into the cat's lair, a you-know-who bumping into Superman.
If someone slapped a doctored cloth over her mouth and nose, or against the back of her head, her debuff bar would hit max in a single second.
And then she'd be carried off with zero ability to resist, and have all sorts of hanky-panky done to her.
But she absolutely could not tell Baiye the truth.
This Baiye was the super-serious type.
If she found out about Ningning's constitution, she'd probably flush scarlet and cut her down on the spot without a word.
"Say, Baiye, couldn't you ask someone else to help?"
So Ningning shrank into a dejected little ball, arms clamped tight around herself, trying to guard her precarious chastity.
That's right, even with her Sensitivity level maxed, Ningning's body still retained its purity.
After all, these were stats she'd gotten by cheating.
And Ningning had a vague premonition —
The moment she lost this purity that by rights shouldn't even exist, she'd probably give up on herself entirely and let it all hang loose.
Baiye, however, simply couldn't grasp Ningning's reservations:
"Ningning, the Hero's Party has all of five people. The Hero took Little Leilei into the red-light district. Who else can I turn to but you?"
"Isn't there still that elf archer, Biluo?"
Ningning reminded her.
At the name Biluo, Baiye wrinkled her nose in distaste and let out a hard snort:
"Hah? That tight-lipped, stick-in-the-mud old-fashioned elf? Absolutely not."
"That's racism, you know. Not all elves are tight-lipped stick-in-the-muds," Ningning shot back.
"But that one definitely is," said Baiye.
Ningning cast her mind back for a moment and honestly admitted that, in her own head, Biluo cut the exact same figure:
"...Okay, fair."
Hearing Ningning affirm her opinion, Baiye felt a warmth in her chest, and her voice rose a few notches without her noticing:
"And besides, that... I mean, we haven't known each other long, but I can tell, Ningning, you're an upright, selfless, kind-hearted girl."
"That's right. That's me."
Ningning thrust out a chest she flatly did not have, brazen as could be.
"So you see, you're the only one I can rely on, Ningning!"
Baiye suddenly caught Ningning's small hands and clasped them to her own chest, pleading earnestly:
"For the stability of the Hero's Party, for the conquest of the Demon Lord, for Little Leilei's purity! Ningning, please, help me this once!"
Feeling the scorching warmth of Baiye's hands, and the fierce, agitated pulse beating in her palms, Ningning found her mind suddenly going crystal clear —
She was a healer who'd sworn to win over every beautiful girl on the team.
If she stopped short over a measly red-light district and stood by watching one of her conquest targets get snatched away by the Hero!
Then what face would she, Ningning, have left to win over Baiye?
What face would she have left to go on living in this other world?!
Charge. She had to charge!
Charge straight ahead, no looking back!
And so Ningning gripped Baiye's hands hard and gave her the most resolute answer imaginable:
"Let's go, Baiye!"
"Ningning! I knew you were a true sister to me!"
Neither of them quite knew what they were so fired up about, but the two of them, blood pounding to their heads, had both already blazed to life with fighting spirit.
Chests out, chins high, they strode into the red-light district side by side.
***
Thirty seconds later.
"Ningning, what's wrong, Ningning?! Wake up, come on!"
Baiye cradled Ningning, who had collapsed limp in her arms, shaking the little loli healer hard in an effort to call her back to consciousness.
"...I'm... already done for... Baiye... you can... surely manage... on your own..."
Ningning lay in the black-haired beauty's arms, face flushed red, breathing ragged, a glistening thread at the corner of her mouth, already past getting back up.
She couldn't see a status panel, but if you had to describe Ningning's current condition using a game's ailment system, it would probably include —
【Sensory Overload】, 【Severe Vertigo】, 【Blood Rush】, 【Heart-Rate Chaos】, 【Shame Meter Off the Charts】...
Plus another fifteen entries, omitted here.
Truly worthy of the red-light district, it had effortlessly shattered the chaste mental defenses of Ningning, whose stretch of singlehood was equal to her age.
Her perception of her surroundings was simply far too keen.
The moment she set foot on this street, wrapped in hazy pink lighting, the air adrift with sweet, cloying incense and faint strains of music, a barrage of stimuli surged in like a rising tide, ceaselessly battering her max-sensitivity senses.
The sultry giggles drifting down from the pavilions in the distance, the teasing looks thrown her way by scantily clad women brushing past, the flashes of alluring shadow glimpsed through gaps in the door-curtains...
Every faint stimulus was magnified without limit, transmuted into a saturation bombing of Ningning's sanity.
She couldn't hold on. She really couldn't.
This was not a difficulty willpower alone could overcome.
Not even purification magic could touch it.
After all, these debuffs belonged, in essence, to an entirely different system.
"You can't, Ningning, Little Leilei's still waiting for us to save her. How can you go down first in a place like this?"
Seeing Ningning nearly out cold, Baiye couldn't help a rush of grief.
She wanted to go on delivering lines that really ought to have been saved for the final decisive battle, but her ears suddenly caught a familiar voice:
"Grab it, don't let it get away!"
"That voice... it's the Hero!"
"Ningning, did you hear that? The Hero's chasing Little Leilei!"
But no matter how Baiye called out, Ningning gave no response at all, only sagging softly in her arms, her fate unknown.
Baiye gritted her teeth, hoisted the dazed White Mage up, and dragged her off toward the source of the Hero's voice:
"The ancestral teaching was right after all; heroes are all giant perverts!"
The grey-clad assassin, White Mage on her back, leapt up onto the rooftops of the red-light district, bounding left and right as she tracked the Hero's figure.
Before long, the Hero, his red hair tied up in a high ponytail, came into Baiye's view.
The girl drew her short blade one-handed, aimed it at the back of the Hero's neck, and descended from the heavens:
"Philandering Hero! I, Baiye, thirty-fifth-generation heir of the Shadow Ember Style, hereby deliver unto you the righteous punishment of heaven..."
"Ah, it's Big Sis Baiye! Hello!"
"...Eh?"
Feeling the rush of wind at the back of his head, the Hero whipped around at once.
The moment he saw it was Baiye, a brilliant, dazzling smile broke across his face, and he waved at the honorable captain.
Seeing the Hero's guileless, sunny expression, Baiye faltered, and against her will abandoned the notion of attacking.
She spun a nimble circle in midair, killed her momentum, and drifted lightly down to the ground.
"Big Sis Baiye, what brings you here?"
The red-haired Hero greeted Baiye, brimming with energy, not a trace of the guilt of someone caught in the act.
Baiye eyed the Hero suspiciously, then eyed the Black Mage, Leilei, who stood silently behind him with most of her head hidden under a black mage's hat, and answered evasively:
"N-nothing, I just... saw you two out so late and got a little worried. What are you doing?"
At Baiye's question, the Hero stepped aside to the right and pointed at the chestnut-furred kitten cradled in Leilei's arms:
"Granny Li's cat, from down the street, it got lost in the red-light district. Leilei and I came out to help catch it and bring it home."
Baiye let out an "ah":
"Ah... so that's it. When I saw you'd gone without calling us, I thought something had happened."
"It's because Leilei's a cat-beastkin, you see. She's great at tracking, so just the two of us was enough."
Baiye's gaze shifted to the cat tail swishing away behind Leilei, and, before she knew it, a flush of pink crept over her cheeks:
"I see... sorry, I overreacted."
The Hero magnanimously forgave Baiye:
"It's fine. Though, um... that..."
He watched Baiye, who had just realized the whole thing was a misunderstanding and was now so mortified she didn't know what to do with herself, and finally couldn't hold back his concern:
"...Big Sis Baiye, wouldn't it be better to put Ning-chan down off your back first?"
"Look, she's scared herself into wetting her pants..."
"Eep!!"
Baiye yelped, only now remembering that Ningning was still slung across her back, swinging to and fro in the air like a pendulum.
The Hero hurried over, and together the two of them clumsily lifted Ningning off her back and set her down on the ground.
"Ning-chan, are you okay?"
Eyes spinning like little mosquito coils, Ningning sat dazed on the ground:
"...I didn't quite go so far as to wet my pants from fright..."
Even now, unable to tell north from south, she was still talking tough.
"Really? But the hem of your robe is soaked through."
Only then did Ningning finally come back to her senses.
She reached down and touched the hem of her robe, felt the warm, damp sensation there, and immediately changed her tune:
"...Ah? Uh, yeah. Right. I got scared and wet my pants."
"That's awfully suspicious, admitting it so fast," the Hero said, cocking his head.
"I'm only wearing a robe but I definitely wet my pants so please don't get any funny ideas let's hurry back to the inn I need to change."
"Oh. Oh, okay..."
And so today's adventure fizzled out to nothing once again.
Also, the next morning, the moment Ningning opened her door, she heard everyone whispering about her —
"That's the girl who got scared to tears by a cat and wet herself."
They hadn't even left the starter village, and she'd already died a spectacular social death.
...Maybe she should just raze the starter village to dust and pin all the blame on the Demon Lord?
Ningning was seriously pondering this question.
Very seriously indeed.