Reaching Civilization (1)

The sun was setting, just dipping down past the horizon, when we finally reached the village. We were all getting pretty tired, even Ash. I decided to get down and walk the last stretch of the journey to make it easier on him.

The village was located at the edge of the forest, bordering a wide area of sprawling grassy fields and low hills. There were a handful of farmers' plots, growing vegetables within view of the wall, but most of the structures were safely defended. On one edge of the town was the river, forming a natural barrier. Docks and small watercraft littered the shoreline. On the other side of the village, there was a fifteen foot wooden palisade in a large C shape, protecting the rest of the buildings from what I presumed to be random rape monster attacks from outside.

It was a smallish place by modern standards, maybe a few hundred houses, a town hall, a church, some shops and stables and things, and a few other large buildings I couldn't recognize. It probably had a couple thousand or so residents altogether. Not big, but not super tiny either.

It seemed safe enough. We hadn't seen any wandering rape monsters for a while at least.

There was a convenient bridge allowing us to cross the river, and then a wooden gatehouse built into the wall that would allow us passage inside the town. A pair of braziers were lit at the top, and some human shapes stood over the wall, watching the road.

Not wanting to get left out in the dark, we kept moving.

"So… I'd hate to state the obvious, but we're conspicuously naked and have no money…" I said.

"Maddie, you're on seduction duty," Ash said.

"Kay…?" she said, confused. "What am I supposed to tell them? Oh hi! We're visitors from another universe, can I give you a blowie in exchange for a room at the inn?"

"What about travelers fallen on hard times, lost our clothes and money in the forest for… obvious reasons?" Lysander suggested.

"Don't people who get raped by monsters get Tainted and turn into monsters themselves? Do we really want to use that as our story?" I asked. "They might lock us up, or put us in quarantine."

"Might as well just tell them we're magical chosen ones immune to corruption," Emi suggested. "Isekai protagonists always try to hide their origin like it's this big secret, but like… why the fuck would anyone care about some random low-level noobs? We're hardly important to the big picture."

"We have no idea what the social norms are here, I don't think we have a way to plan around that," Lysander added. "It might be best to just improvise and try not to say anything to piss them off. That's, of course, assuming we even speak their language."

"Yeah," Emi giggled, "What if they all speak Mandarin? You'd all be fucked."

"I speak Mandarin," Lysander said. "Also, French, German, Japanese, Russian, Latin-"

"So, everything basically?" Maddie snorted, cutting Lysander off.

"Not everything…" Lysander grumbled, annoyed at being interrupted.

"Hail travellers! Who goes there?" one of the guards called out from above the gatehouse.

We were getting close now, close enough for me to see the guards on the wall. They were your typical fantasy fare, wearing thick cloth armour of a dark blue with some sort of official crest patterned onto it in white. It was a skinny six-pointed star inscribed inside a circle.

The guards were both male and Caucasian.

Apparently, this was a western fantasy themed world. Despite the warm greeting, they stared down at us with obvious suspicion.

We were pretty suspicious, I had to admit. A big scary man, dick swinging in the wind, surrounded by a harem of equally naked women, all of which had messy sex hair from being ravished by various woodland creatures during our journey. At least I'd Purified the cum away.

Not only that, but we had Emi, a Japanese-looking girl with us too. If this was fantasy medieval Europe these guys might have never seen a non-white person before.

Hopefully they didn't just declare her a monster or an alien and loose their arrows as us.

"Hail," Lysander said, holding up a hand. "As you said, we're travellers, we come in peace, looking to barter for a place to spend the night."

"Travelers from the corrupted forest?" The guard asked skeptically, focusing his attention on Ash.

"Never said we were smart travellers," I muttered with a quiet chuckle.

"Erm… yes?" Lysander answered. "As you can see, we've run into a spot of misfortune during our travels."

The guard gave her an annoyed glance when she spoke up, and ignored her comment. He turned his focus back to Ash.

"You're lucky you weren't ripped apart, walking around with five naked sluts and no protection like that, they'll lure in half the forest," the guard grumbled. "You must be pretty damn confident of yourself."

Well that sounded pretty sexist. I felt sorry for my female friends, it took me a moment longer to realize that I was one of those females now too. I was one of the apparently-useless naked sluts he was talking about.

It was a strange feeling… I wasn't used to being dismissed because of my gender. I wasn't outraged though. Blatant sexual discrimination was a strangely new and interesting experience. I was sure I'd get tired of it quickly though.

The guard did say something interesting, however. We lured in the monsters? We, as in women? If that was true, then it was no wonder the wildlife was being so aggressive.

Did they have a magical slut radar? Could they smell us or something?

Ash picked up on the sexist undercurrents of the conversation, cleared his throat, and stepped forward to replace Lysander as our designated leader. "I'm fairly confident in myself, yes."

"And what of the uncollared elf? She seems too docile for a fresh capture…" the guard asked, looking down at Chloe with disgust, and glaring at Ash accusingly. There was a coldness to his eyes that told me he didn't see Chloe as a person. It set off warning sirens in my brain.