The Hero Became a Succubus, and the Only Way to Level is to… What?!

While the others were out, Kanae stayed back at the inn and inspected Camilla Rudeux's rapier. The long and thin blade was able to bend. It was made out of some kind of extremely resilient material that no amount of force could snap the blade. A beautiful silver guard protected the entire hand, and an emerald pommel that emitted magic capped off the end of the hilt.

There were enchantments on this weapon that the Saint Priest had neglected to mention. For one, when Kanae swung or thrusted with the rapier, its weight in that moment vanished and allowed her to complete an attack faster than expected. She also felt much lighter on her feet, capable of bouncing as if at a fraction of her own weight. Normally, her boobs— though not as massive as Arenade's— were in the way. While wielding this rapier, they were negligible. The weapon's attacks also scaled with DEX, and Heightened Haste made it hit much harder.

"Hmm." Alone, Kanae decided to make a few practice swings. "Hyah! Take this! En garde!"

The rapier whistled through the air. Kanae hadn't swung any other weapon than her whip in ages. Ever since she started wielding both Lust from the Matron's Regalia set and a wand, there hadn't been a need for a sword. She had sold the crystalline sword from the crystalback rhinodon. Maybe it was about time to buy another weapon to wield, much like how Minestra wielded one in each of her four hands.

Although, Kara Rudeux wasn't in Kandis anymore. She, Seven, and Theena had gone to Savir when Kanae and Arenade left. Until then, however, Kanae might as well put the rapier to good use.

"Hehe. You think you can escape my blade? Think again!" Kanae thrusted forward just as the door opened.

Petyr Stormcloud stared down the point of the blade, unimpressed and lips curled up tauntingly. Kanae went red up to her pointed ears and slowly lowered the rapier down.

"Playing with a new toy, I see. I might not be able to escape a rapier's reach, but be careful you don't poke your eyes out." Petyr sneered.

"C-Can we pretend you didn't see that?" Kanae stammered and returned the weapon to its sheath.

"Where are the others, and why haven't we left for Savir yet?"

"Edina dragged Claudia and Alicia to a casino. I'm not trying to lose my country's wealth to her, so I stayed behind. We're also still waiting on Vizier Duran to get ready in the meantime. If you're bored, feel free to fool around in the city," she insisted.

Petyr clicked her tongue. She spun around to leave. Kanae realized a second later how bad of an idea it was to let her go off alone, especially a high elf originally from Ortesia, and so chased after her.

They got as far as the front of the inn when a finely-dressed human man stopped them. Doubled over and panting heavily, he lifted a hand to ask for a moment.

"Vizier Duran has an… urgent request. He is nearly ready to leave, but a problem remains. We noticed some suspicious harpies entering the city under the cloak of night a day ago. The vizier suspects they are agents of the Harpy King. Could you possibly root them out before his and your departure for Savir?" the man asked.

"Well, I guess we have something to do after all." Petyr cracked her neck.

"Tell him we'll keep an eye out, no promises. Kandis is a big city after all," Kanae said.

The vizier's servant thanked them, bowed, and hurried back towards the Cerulean Palace.

The two set off into the streets of Kandis. A warm and salty ocean breeze blew across the city. It occurred to Kanae that this was the first time in a while since she and Petyr had been alone together.

"So, I heard you found a replacement for me in the Order of Colors. Whoever they are, they better be worth enough of their salt not to stain the legacy of what I left behind," Petyr said.

"The legacy of being a traitor?" Kanae asked, only to be lifted up by her neck by an angry high elf. "Ack— Sorry! I'm sorry! It's Wendy Ironspear. Wendy's obviously not as strong as you, but she has a heart where it matters!"

"That elf who swore to be Arenade's vassal? Not my first choice. Better pick than most, I suppose. If it was up to me—"

Someone suddenly bumped into Petyr. She grabbed their hand without hesitation, shoved them to the ground, and pressed a heavy boot on their chest.

"What happened?!" Kanae panicked.

"A pickpocket. In Ortesia, we lop off a foot as punishment instead of a hand. You want to know why? We leave you with both hands so you can steal again, but with one less foot, it's going to be harder for you to run. When we inevitably catch you a second time, we take your hands!" Petyr was about to smash the thief's foot with her hammer until Kanae stepped in.

"HOLD ON! I don't know if Kandis allows for street justice, but this is a little too cruel for my liking so early in the afternoon!" she exclaimed.

"Wait, wait, wait! I swear I wasn't trying to steal from you. I'll fucking confess, alright? Someone paid me to slip something on you instead! This wasn't worth ten gold coins. You're fucking nuts. Here… take it!" He tossed a piece of paper at Petyr, and she let her foot off for him to run away.

Kanae leaned in to read the note. Her jaw dropped. It was a hastily-written letter asking Petyr to kill the succubus next to her. In return, the Empire of Ortesia would forgive Petyr's failures during the war. The note had to have come from high elves skulking around in the city somewhere.

"Hmph. They think to bribe me back to their side. It might just work!" Petyr crushed the letter.

"Excuse me— what?!" Kanae backed away.

"I jest. I know more than anyone that Ortesia doesn't forgive. House Redbaron was stripped of their wealth, their representative removed from the Lords' Council, and shamed for Gretchen's failure and betrayal. Besides, I have my sweet incubus boys waiting for me back home. Ortesia wouldn't even consider letting them near the empire," she explained.

Denial was a powerful thing if Petyr still refused to acknowledge that the incubi were actually adults… Oh, well. Whatever it took to keep the empire's formerly greatest knight on Kanae's side instead.

At any rate, this was beginning to go down like when Kanae and Arenade were last here again. Ortesians and agents of the Harpy King in Kandis. If she recalled correctly, Ortesia wanted to bridge an alliance with Cerberus, one of the three Sultans of Savir. Was it still true now?

Kanae lifted her gaze and discovered someone suspicious staring at them from behind a palm tree. Their eyes met, and he pulled the cloak farther down his face before taking off.

"Petyr, over there!" Kanae pointed.

They chased the runner through the busy Kandis streets. Kanae took to the air to track him. Meanwhile, Petyr… was shoving everyone out of the way as she barreled through the road. She punted one man into a tomato stall, ran through some poor woman's cart, and sent animals fleeing away from her.

Hell, Petyr was causing more havoc than anything else right now!

Kanae flew right above the man and torpedoed downwards. She slammed into him, and they both went rolling across the street.

"Did you catch him?" Petyr came around the corner, her brows drenched in sweat.

"This guy was watching us when the other one tried to slip you that note," Kanae said.

Petyr picked the captured man up off the ground, lifting him off his feet. She pulled his hood away and revealed an older canine beastman. Fuzzy white hair protruded from his nose and ears. Coarse fur stretched across his frame like an old carpet.

"I ain't saying shit!" he snarled.

"Good. I was hoping to beat it out of you." Petyr pressed the head of her hammer into his mouth, and the metal began to glow with holy energies.

"What are you doing?! There are other ways to make someone talk! Like me, a succubus! With compulsion magic?" Kanae exclaimed before she knocked out their only lead.

Never had someone looked more relieved than the man they just chased down. On the other hand, Petyr looked like Kanae took away her toy.

"Fine. Do your nasty succubus magic. But I better not feel it brush over my skin." Petyr didn't release him, and instead stretched the arm holding him in Kanae's direction.

"Time to answer some questions," Kanae said and casted Charm on him. "Are you working for the Ortesians? Where are they? And what do they want?"

He nodded obediently. "I am. The high elves are laying low at Silk and Velvet, a fancy ass inn on upper Kandis. They saw you coming in yesterday. Had me find some bloke on the streets to pass a letter to the tall high elf. What they want? Beats me."

What they wanted was obviously in the note given to Petyr. The man was probably just a lackey and nothing more to them. Kanae motioned for Petyr to let him go. He wasn't going to be a problem while under Charm.

Silk and Velvet was the most expensive inn in Kandis, catering to the nobility and royalty of the world who visit. Of course, those high elves from Ortesia booked a room there…

"Chances are, they're going to be watching when we get close. We can trick them by having you pretend that you did take their offer and turn on me," Kanae suggested.

"Sounds good. But you're going to need to look the part of having been beaten half to death," Petyr said.

"You just want to beat me up, don't you…" She took a step back.

Petyr grabbed Kanae before she could escape.

"I won't smite you, but I will hurt you. Grit your teeth, BITCH!" Petyr clenched a fist and smirked.

The pummeling left Kanae groaning in agony. She couldn't switch on Masochist either, otherwise the Ortesians were going to suspect something. Her face was bruised up now, and she had a left black eye. Fortunately, all her teeth were accounted for.

Still charmed, the canine beastman led the way to Silk and Velvet. Petyr followed close behind him with Kanae hoisted onto her shoulder.

"Hey… that 'bitch' right before you punched me felt personal…" Kanae croaked.

"It's just your imagination," Petyr said.

They entered Silk and Velvet without stirring up much of a commotion. Much being the key word here, given that a high elf was carrying a succubus like a sack of potatoes. The inn was incredibly lavish. Its entire first floor was a lobby, furnished with leather couches, beautiful rugs, and servants going around to offer guests complimentary snacks. The centerpiece was a massive fountain with a large pillar emulating a waterfall, and statues of harpies at each corner stretching out their wings as if bathing themselves.

The many guests here were unsurprisingly of a wealthy class cut from a different cloth. People of great power and riches mingled with each other. Many looked Saviran. Others, Kanae recognized from Radevic and Lograin's noble class.

Their guide, the charmed beastman, walked up to a suited receptionist human man and cleared his throat.

"Imperials are expecting us," he whispered.

Kanae had no choice but to trust Petyr. But she could feel the receptionist's eyes burning into her. Eventually, he calmly urged them to follow him upstairs. They climbed several flights of stairs, and Kanae was beginning to feel nauseous. When the ascent finally came to an end, the man rapped his knuckles on the door.

"Your guest has arrived," the receptionist announced before returning downstairs.

The door swung open, and numerous gasps erupted around the room.

"I'll be damned!"

"Petyr Stormcloud actually followed through?"

They strolled into a large suite, and Petyr let Kanae down on the soft carpet floor. Her eyes were still closed to feign unconsciousness, but she felt some people's footfalls draw close to check.

"I'm disappointed that you all fell for such an obvious trap. The Ortesian army is clearly in need of some sterner discipline. Starting with your failure!" Petyr boomed.

"Lord-Major?!"

An deafening explosion rocked the entire suite. Kanae snapped upright to find a gigantic hole in the wall and fresh air rushing in. Only a couple of high elves remained in the room. One was dangling off the floorboards. The rest were knocked out in the streets and buried under rubble.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" Kanae gasped.

"Getting results. Actually, how long were you planning on pretending to be unconscious for? We were already inside," Petyr sassed back.

"I feel like I let you beat me up for nothing…" she groaned into her hands.

The ones up here weren't getting up any time soon. Below, however, a couple were already climbing back to their feet. Kanae and Petyr hopped down just as they were beginning to run away, cutting off their escape route.

"Damn it. Petyr must be under the succubus' control!" an Ortesian muttered.

"No, I'm not. Watch." Petyr pushed Kanae hard enough that she stumbled into a pile of debris.

"You could have proven that doing literally anything else!" Kanae retorted.

Their feet grew chilly. A tomb of ice encased them up to their waists. An Ortesian mage who had casted the spell sneered, then beckoned her fellows down the other direction of the street.

Undeterred, Petyr simply walked forward to shatter the ice block. Kanae pointed her Ring of Scorching Ray at her feet and fired off a shot. The intense heat melted the ice, and she was able to break herself free with a Titanic Blow-infused punch.

Both of them caught up to the Ortesians at an intersection. Another group of people appeared to be confronting them. Harpies, actually. Many harpies, who brandished their weapons and claws at the high elves.

"That's far enough, Ortesians! The Harpy King doesn't like you butting in to our affairs. Stay away from the Mutt if you know what's good for you!" an owl harpy man warned.

"Can we save this for later? We're already being chased! Those two cunts are— ah…" The same mage from earlier glanced back and choked on her own spit.

When the harpies followed their gaze to Kanae and Petyr, they also went paler than a ghost.

"How about you take care of the Ortesians, and I'll deal with the Harpy King's agents?" Kanae suggested.

"Gladly." Petyr infused her hammer with a smite. "Now, did I hear that right? One of you low-brow, lesser house imbeciles that couldn't swallow enough shit from the greater houses, just called me a bitch."

Fear in their eyes, the Ortesians attempted to flee. Petyr chased down every single one of them and made sure to smite each of them. The harpies spread their wings, but before they could launch into the sky, Kanae casted Mass Charm. She compelled them to furl their wings and sit on the ground.

Very soon, Kandis guards rushed in to seize control of the situation. They placed both the high elves and harpies under arrest, including the Ortesians left behind at Silk and Velvet.

"You're that succubus from last time! This better not be a regular occurrence!" A guard captain, who must have been there for her last street fight, threw his arms up in exasperation.

"I swear, I'm not doing this on purpose! Also, your vizier wanted me to find the Harpy King's people. It looks like they came for the Ortesians this time though," Kanae explained.

"Alright, well… I'll let Vizier Duran know what happened here. Carry on…" he muttered before escorting the prisoners away by wagon.

The sun was starting to come down. Kanae and Petyr had been out for a while now. They headed back to the inn, where the other three seemed to have returned ahead of them.

Claudia was lying in bed with a dead look of defeat. Meanwhile, Edina was counting a stack of coins over at the end table. Alicia, on the other hand, looked perfectly content reading a book about common dangerous dire beasts in Savir.

"I don't need to even ask to know that Edina drained Claudia dry, and not in the sexual way either," Kanae said on the way in.

"I'm never playing poker against Alicia ever again. I can't read her poker face. Edinny… I know she's not cheating, but it sure as hells feels like she is…" Claudia sulked.

"Ah, you'll get the hang of it." Edina grinned, then turned to Kanae and Petyr with a start. "The hells happened to you two?"

"We did the vizier a favor, but I'm pretty sure Petyr hurt me more than anything else today." She sighed.

"Kanae's overreacting. I did no such thing." Petyr folded her arms.