Can Someone (Anyone!) Please Turn Off the Auto-Skill Setting?! - Chapter 96
Nancy headed once again to the shabby warehouse on the outskirts of the capital, where everything had begun. The last time she entered without knowing anything, she had ended up tightly bound with ropes, so this time she planned to be more cautious.
“Hey! You rotten Ferron scum!”
But Chuck, who was inside her jacket pocket, wasn’t being helpful. Instead, he yelled loudly, calling out the Ferron inside the warehouse.
Even when Nancy hissed at him to be quiet, Chuck wouldn’t stop, shouting for them to return his daughter and wife. Inside, they could hear muffled commotion, followed by the cries of imps begging for help. Mixed with these were the voices of several young men angrily shouting for them to shut up.
“For the first time, I’m realizing that you’re absolutely no help to me.”
“Hurry! Hurry and save my daughter!”
Chuck grabbed at her pocket, saying he could hear his daughter crying. Faced with his genuine desperation as a father, Nancy could no longer afford to delay.
With no plan, she kicked open the door and stormed in.
“Hey!”
She deliberately lowered her voice, making it rough and gruff to disguise her identity from the Ferrons.
If word spread that she had sided with one group of werebeasts against another, things would become incredibly complicated. If people started asking why she took sides, all the truth would come out.
So she posed as nothing more than a good-hearted citizen who happened to help some werebeasts. She definitely wasn’t here as the hero.
“Let the poor werebeasts go right now!”
Wearing a mask and speaking in an obviously artificial gruff voice, Nancy made the Ferrons frown.
“So that’s where they disappeared to—went crying to a human for help, did they?”
One of the Ferrons snorted, mocking the confident-looking Nancy and Chuck. He pointed them out to his comrades, scoffing at Nancy’s awkward grip on her sword and her stance full of gaps.
“Did you bring some novice who’s never even held a sword before?”
A complete beginner. Maybe even someone holding a sword for the first time. That’s what they thought.
Nancy was secretly delighted. They hadn’t recognized her as the hero at all.
“Hero!”
“Hero, please save us!”
The imps hadn’t caught on to why Nancy was wearing a mask and called out to her loudly.
“No, I’m not the hero, I’m just a passing—”
Nancy squeezed her eyes shut. She wanted to deny it, but the imps’ voices grew even louder.
“Hero, these are the Ferrons who’ve been tormenting us!”
“These are the ones who attacked us!”
“Chuck! We thought you abandoned us, but you’ve brought the hero! What a good boy!”
The elder was even sobbing.
As the imps started crying in unison, the Ferrons grew uneasy. The three of them whispered among themselves and then spread out, drawing their swords and surrounding Nancy.
Nancy held back and waited until they made a move, using her skills at the last second. She was determined to make the most of her three minutes.
She had met the Ferrons before and knew they weren’t great fighters, so she underestimated them. However, these were no ordinary Ferron farmers—they attacked her in a coordinated effort, pushing her into a corner.
“What the hell? Why are they so strong?”
Panicked, she forgot to maintain her gruff voice and shouted sharply. The Ferrons wanted to throw those words right back at her. They had thought the fight would be over quickly, but instead, they now faced a master swordswoman, not the unskilled novice they expected.
“Could she really be the hero?”
“Idiot! Why would the hero come here to help the werebeasts?”
“But this doesn’t make any sense!”
The Ferrons started arguing among themselves. Nancy seized the moment and swiftly took down two of them, leaving only their leader.
He was, as expected, the strongest of the three.
“Surrender now, or I’ll pluck all your fur out.”
Nancy, once again using her gruff voice, threatened him.
“Yay! The hero is winning!”
“The hero is the best!”
With two of the Ferrons down, the imps erupted into cheers, chanting Nancy’s name and praising the “hero”.
“You should be the one surrendering. You look exhausted.”
The leader of the Ferrons commented, noticing Nancy’s labored breathing.
Nancy swallowed hard. It seemed like her three minutes were almost up. She needed to end this quickly. She charged at the Ferrons’ leader in a rush.
