I Level Up With In-app Purchases

I Level Up With In-app Purchases – 74

EP.74 An Escape of Love(?) with the Duke’s Daughter (1)

We only stayed at the inn for 2 hours.

Despite the short rest, my stamina had recovered significantly.

Now we needed to return to the academy as quickly as possible without drawing attention.

If we succeeded, Ariane’s second scenario would come to a successful conclusion.

‘Is this the final stretch?’

But as if the game scenario was mocking me…

It was clearly warning that an easy victory was out of the question.

“Let’s go.”

“Huh!?”

I grabbed Ariane by the scruff of her neck as she was still stuffing food into her mouth and slipped out through the back door.

With Ariane’s distinctively eye-catching appearance, the innkeeper would quickly put two and two together.

They’d soon notice our empty seats and try to catch us.

“Knights who look like they’re from your family just entered the inn.”

“Mmph mmph mmph?!!”

Her eyes widened as she hurriedly chewed and swallowed the food in her mouth.

Then she urgently grabbed my collar.

“Were they really from my family?”

“Yes.”

If we get caught, we fail.

If we fail, Ariane can’t grow to her full potential.

Unlike other characters, Ariane absolutely had to succeed in all scenarios without failing.

‘She’s already this strong, imagine how powerful she’ll be when she completes all the scenarios.’

After witnessing with my own eyes a monster that could devour a Perongpa in one bite, I needed to stay vigilant.

To be honest, I thought the kids were so impressive that if I just gave them their unique equipment, I wouldn’t need to do much else.

But the ‘shadow’ I saw that day completely changed my naive thinking.

‘Work harder and faster than before.’

I need to draw SSR characters and develop them.

This isn’t a game anymore.

The arrogance of thinking that if I intervened in reality, things would progress much better than in the game.

After trembling in fear before overwhelming power, I couldn’t stay complacent any longer.

Of course, I needed to resolve Ariane’s scenario right in front of me first.

“Let’s go.”

Thankfully, we had prepared in advance.

We had legs faster than horses, and we had already ordered food and received it as soon as we came down after washing up.

This meant we could leave in a hurry without any problems.

However, it seemed necessary to twist our route a bit.

“If we move as planned, they’ll catch up quickly. We’ll go in a different direction. It’ll take longer, but it’ll be much safer.”

“Okay! But how did they manage to follow us this far? We moved really fast and didn’t leave any traces to track, right?”

“With the power of Awakened, anything is possible. At the very least, we need to avoid being caught until we’re near the academy. If we’re caught here, they’ll quickly figure out why we came.”

“Ugh… Will we get in big trouble?”

From Ariane’s perspective, she might think getting caught wouldn’t be a big deal.

After all, aren’t her parents the type to dote on and cherish her?

“Would you be okay if your sister found out why you came here?”

“!!!”

“Getting scolded by your parents isn’t really the issue, is it?”

Ariane’s face turned pale in an instant.

“Absolutely not! My sister must never find out!!”

Ariane’s body, which had seemed somewhat relaxed after the 2-hour rest at the inn, began to move more swiftly.

“Mercenary boss, hurry up! We need to run away quickly!”

If her sister found out that she came here to take revenge on her behalf, their relationship would likely become irreparable.

While Ariane might have done it with good intentions to save her sister, from her sister’s perspective, it would be like having her prey stolen by her younger sibling.

“Hey! Not that way. Turn!”

“Hyaaah!!”

As urgent as she felt, Ariane started running at an incredible speed according to her improved stats, and naturally, I couldn’t keep up with her pace.

I barely managed to change direction and ran again.

We might leave some traces, but they probably weren’t using those to follow us anyway.

They were likely using an Awakened One’s ability to determine which direction we went and follow us.

This path twists and turns with many side roads, so if they try to follow our direction, they’ll probably get confused often.

Even in the scenario, if we chose the right path at the fork here, we could shake off the family’s knights.

‘If we take the wrong path, we might get caught even faster, which could be dangerous…’

I already knew which path we needed to take.

Fortunately, the game company hadn’t applied randomness to this part of the route.

“Left.”

“Hyaah!”

“Right.”

“!!”

“Straight ahead.”

“Ungh!”

Ariane was having a hard time as I kept changing directions at high speed.

It would have been easier for him to just follow behind me, but my pace seemed too slow for his liking.

Using a scroll to buff my body, this was the best speed I could manage while running.

As we ran frantically, my stomach suddenly growled.

“Huff huff huff, Boss Mercenary, I’m hungry!”

“Let’s take a break.”

If Ariane was this exhausted, how much worse must I be feeling?

All that effort to clean up had gone to waste.

We each bit into a sandwich we had bought at the inn.

Munch munch munch-

“So, are we heading to the academy?”

“Yeah.”

“Will it be okay once we get to the academy?”

“You’ll have to face the academy’s punishment. There’s no way they’d let you off for skipping classes without permission.”

“What should I say if they ask why I was absent?”

“Shouldn’t you have thought about that already?”

“Hehe, I’ve been so flustered.”

So he hadn’t thought about it at all, huh.

“How about saying you just didn’t want to attend the academy?”

“That’s too dishonorable an excuse. I’d be pointed at if I used that as an excuse!”

Hmm, this is troublesome.

“You figure it out yourself.”

“Now that I know my family members have come this far, we need to come up with a believable story…”

“How about saying you fell for some young master from another house and followed him?”

If we say you secretly came near the front lines because you missed that young master so much, it might sound somewhat plausible.

“Ooh? Should we go with that?”

“Are you really going to use that?”

“It sounds convincing, doesn’t it?”

“They’re going to ask who it is, so who are you going to say?”

Which scoundrel would dare make a duke’s daughter fall for him one-sidedly?

Whoever he turns out to be, his future doesn’t look bright.

“I just won’t say who it is.”

“Right. Say you’ll never tell even if you die because you’re afraid your family might harm him. Sounds plausible. And the reason for returning to the academy?”

“I’ll say I confessed and got rejected!”

Up until then, we thought we had come up with a reasonably good excuse and felt at ease.

I had focused on getting her back to the academy without being caught by the family knights, not considering what would happen after.

We shouldn’t have done that.

It was too late to regret it now, but we had already done it, and we managed to shake off the knights and safely arrive at the academy.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

“Thank you, Mercenary Boss! I’ll come see you after I receive my punishment!”

“Good luck.”

My troubles were over, but hers were just beginning.

Ariane used her ID to help us enter the city faster than others.

Ariane to the academy, and me to the general store.

After parting ways cleanly, I wiped away a small tear as I arrived back at the general store, having survived a near-death experience.

“It’s true that leaving home leads to hardship.”

Though I hadn’t been running the general store for long, a wave of affection for this space suddenly washed over me.

I opened the store door and went inside.

Perhaps because no one had been here for days, it seemed a thin layer of dust had quickly accumulated.

“I should clean up the store first.”

After washing my sweat-soaked body and taking a short nap.

I’ll open the door wide and clean the house.

“This is what healing feels like.”

The hard, bug-infested sleeping spots at the campsite were the worst of the worst.

My body ached at the thought of taking a nap on the bed used by nobles.

Snore-! Snore-!

I fell asleep instantly the moment I lay on the bed, my consciousness fading immediately.

I could confidently say I fell asleep within 3 seconds.

It felt like I could sleep for another 24 hours, but…

Thump.. Thump thump….thump.

A faint but distinct sound was coming from somewhere.

It was clear that someone was knocking on the general store door.

“Ugh…what now.”

Even if it’s a customer, they don’t have the right to knock on a closed general store door.

I’m selective about my customers!

…sir!…ster!

I thought if I didn’t respond, they’d eventually leave, but annoyingly, they weren’t going away.

Now they were even shouting while calling for someone.

“Haah…”

I finally got up and went downstairs.

Whoever was pounding on the door like they were trying to break it, I was going to give them an earful.

Slam-!

“Damn it, why are you waking someone up who’s sleeping? Can’t you see the general store door is closed?!”

“Suhan~!!!”

“Mister!!!”

Ah.

I yelled without even checking who it was first, and then confirmed their identities.

I thought it was just one person, but there were actually two people in front of the general store door.

“…What are you two doing here?”

Rebecca and Shine.

If these two had been knocking on the general store door, it was understandable why it seemed like it was about to break.

“Where on earth did you go without saying a word? We were worried when you suddenly closed the store and there was no news from you.”

“That’s right! Where did you go? And, um, it looks like you came down after sleeping, but… I think you should put some clothes on.”

“Ah, you’re right.”

I had come down wearing only my underwear.

“Huhu, why did you say that? It was nice to look at.”

Rebecca smiled seductively while blatantly eyeing my body.

“You like what you see that much? Want me to give you a little service?”

“Wait, why is your body all bruised? Where did you get beaten up!”

Honestly, I had more bruises from crashing into trees due to my unfamiliarity with flying than from injuries caused by monsters.

It was too embarrassing to say I got beaten up by trees, so I mumbled some vague excuse.

“If I’m in this state, imagine how bad it must be for them? Stop talking nonsense and come inside for now. Yaaawn~”

The trees that had turned my body black and blue were probably still standing perfectly fine in the contaminated zone.

But unless I told them directly, there was no way they could know that fact.

As I yawned and went upstairs to put on some clothes, the kids rushed up after me and started pestering me about where I had been.

“Why does it matter where I went? Do I need your permission to go out?”

“How rude. Is that how you talk to people who were worried about you?”

“That’s right! Making the people who cared about you feel bad.”

Rebecca poked her finger into my side, saying I should pay for all the worrying they did.

“Oh, muscles.”

“Geez, what’s with you.”

“I wasn’t mistaken earlier. You’ve become much more solid than before. Did you go off to train somewhere?”

Rebecca was surprisingly perceptive, noticing the changes in my body from awakening in such a short time.