Chapter 98: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

August 5th, 2023

Beta Reader: My_Own_Worst_NPC

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 Just before dawn, Cecily saw me off without anyone else accompanying her.

I was totally exhausted after doing my best all night, but luckily, I had the golems to take care of the carriage.

It seems that Cecily had submissive tendencies in the sheets, and her reactions when we were doing it were really cute. To think she likes being done from behind… I really thought that such dream-like developments only happened in this world’s raunchy novel.

I was really close to changing my mind and joining them, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that if I managed to arrive in Bawanda Fortress then there would be total chaos. Since I have neither the intention or inclination to disguise myself as a damsel in distress, I guess it would be better to say goodbye like this.

And so we did one long, final kiss, before I finally departed.

…

When I woke up, it was about 10 o’clock.

Silver and Goku had parked the carriage in an inconspicuous clearing as I had told them, away from any other people.It was surrounded by forest and seemed to be far from any inhabited settlements.

This way, no one would see us, and I could freely use my creation magic without worried about anyone seeing.

“Poppo, Wonder, Harry, and Nyoro, patrol the surrounding and be vigilant about it. Goku, prepare the tent. We’ll be staying here for a while.”

Cecily, Rouge, and Mina are no longer with me, and I’ll be traveling alone again from today on. If we were to be attacked by bandits, then I need to be able to handle it by myself. I’m not too worried though, since I still had the golems, the many tools from before, and even the Staff of La Messeine with me. And if push comes to shove, I can simply use the Captive Angel to escape.

Still, fighting is not in my nature.

After all, I’m always afraid of killing my enemies, and once they find out that I’m hesitant to kill, I’ll become widely known. And if it were known that the peerless knight in suspicious armor turns out to be the saint himself, it would lead to all different kinds of troubles, wouldn’t it?

That’s why I’m currently thinking of countermeasures.

…

For now, I’ve decided to stop traveling around while being a saint. If I see a sick or injured person in front of me, I will probably help them, but I will not wear a saint costume as I have done so far.

It would be too conspicuous to keep doing so. And while we’re on the topic of being conspicuous, my carriage is also standing out too much right now. I’ve modified it over and over again, and now it has become even more comfortable than a camper van. The problem is, its appearance has also become quite distinctive, and it has become well-known as the special carriage used by the saint.

I guess an extreme make over will be necessary here. [1]

…

I’m sitting cross-legged on the withered grass, deep in silent contemplation. It was a clear blue sky, with thin clouds slowly drifting by. I think I heard the sound of a skylark somewhere in a distance, and before I knew it, I feel like I had become one with nature and achieved omniscience through a state of Zen. [2]

Finally, a moment of enlightenment arrived.

“I should do cross-dressing…”

Since it is very rare for a man to travel alone in this world, I would stand out too much wherever I go, which means the most obvious way to keep myself from unwanted attention is by disguising myself as a woman! [3]

Hence, I started making a bra.

As the old saying goes, ‘A journey of a thousand miles begin with a single step’ [4]

The story goes that when King Zhao of Yan Kingdom was contemplating on how he can attract more wise people to work under him, Kaku Kai answered, “First, you need to start by heavily relying on ordinary person like me. That way, you would be able to attract competent people.” In other words, it means to start with something closest to you.[5]

Something closest to me… in this case, I guess it would be bra. Since it’s something that’s attached closest to the body.

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I put silicone padding in the shape of bowl inside the bra to simulate a B-cup. I’m confident that even if someone were to grab it, no one would think that it’s fake. The elastic texture feels so good, that I even rubbed it several times like an idiot. It was so enjoyable that I wanted to sing Yahoo ♪ Yahoo ♪

As for the appearance of the bra, I decided to make it a chic adult design with a violet base color and a combination of floral patterns, complete with lace. I actually wanted to try a girly design with a checkered pattern, but I finally decided to go with a more mature look here. As for the bottom parts, well, it’s well known that a maiden would love to have a matching pattern between the top and bottom parts of the underwear.

Oh, and also, if before this I already feel like I’m getting my mindset turned feminine, I could say that after I started making the bras, I’ve quickly went several levels more towards it. No, actually, I could say it had gone out of control. I’ve been getting really particular about the underwear design, and I must say that I’ve made something that is both elegant and sexy; you could even say that this is a masterpiece made by using creation magic at its finest.[6]

…

Once the underwear was completed, the next step was to make clothes, but these were to be modest clothes only.Since I’ll be going on a journey alone, I need to disguise myself as someone with inconspicuous job. I think disguising myself as a peddler would be safe enough, so I made an outfit befitting the profession.

I also made a wig and a voice-changing pendant to perfectly create the impression of a woman.

“So, what do you think Goku, do I look pretty?”

And the golem made nothing but a dull response. Hmmm… It seems that his intelligence is still not yet developed enough to appreciate the beauty of my disguise.

Still, I’m still amazed at my reflection in the mirror. I might not be a match for Cecily or Sierra, but I still look quite attractive. If I were to use the disguise on the beach back on Earth, I’m sure I would be approached several times.

And since I now have the breasts and the voice of a woman, nobody would realize that I’m a man anymore.

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It was the morning of the next day, since I had spent a whole day and night perfecting my disguise. The next step is to remodel the carriage.

I felt bad having to leave my comfortable life behind, but for my own safety, I had no choice. I kept the suspension and other less noticeable structures, and returned the carriage to a being normal covered wagon in appearance.

I did, however, install an active defense system. It works by automatically deflecting incoming attack magic and arrows by intercepting them with magic waves. It will allow me to avoid surprise attacks, which should give me some time to activate the Eminence Rock. In addition, I also installed an anti-personnel shock gun right next to the driver’s box.

By the way, these items were part of [Magic Tools Production] instead of [Weapon Production] category, probably because all of them are non-lethal, which is good things since my [Weapon Production] was still low, I couldn’t make them otherwise. Which means I’ll probably need to improve the level of my [Weapon Production] soon.

The shock gun looks like a machine gun attached to a tank, but nobody in this world would know what it is for. When I showed Goku how to use it, he quickly learned how to handle it and shot down a flying duck.

Nice. I think I’ll be having Kamo Nanban for tonight’s dinner.[7]

All in all, it took me four days to complete the remodelling.

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For the final step, I need to make disguises for the golems.

They might be made from different materials such as steel, wood, or stone, but all of them are equally eye-catching. In a sense, they are the most conspicuous part of things that I bring along in my journey, which is why I need to make them look like normal animals by adding artificial hair, feathers, or skin.

Hence, I’ll disguise Goku as monkeys, Wonder as a very large dog, Silver a horse, and Poppo a pidgeon. I can’t really do anything with Harry, Nyoro, or Mogutan, so they will stay hiding at the back of the carriage.

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After a week of doing such work, I was finally ready for starting a new life on the eighth day.

“Alright everyone, let’s go!”

I placed liquor and other exotic food that I’ve brought from the inn at noticeable places on the carriage, to reinforce the image that I’m a peddler.

I then set out with great enthusiasm.

…

After a few hours on the road, I finally reached a town.

The farmer women working in the fields were looking at me, but they did not seem particularly alerted. They also held no curious eyes compared to the times when I was still traveling in saint costume. Naturally, I didn’t sense any lewd glances toward me.

From a distance, they seem to see meas a normal traveling woman, but I don’t know if my disguise will hold when I come to close contact with them.

…

After getting closer to the gate, I found out that it seems to be a relatively large town, and near the entrance I found a sign that read ‘Master Way’s Roadhouse’.

It looks like a place that serves drinks and food. Should we have a go at it, then…

“Wonder, keep watch from the back of the carriage”.

With such a big dog guarding it, I don’t think any thief would bother to try to steal from my carriage.

I then nervously pushed open the heavy wooden door.

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1 The original word is ‘full model change’ written in Katakana, but I think it sounds weird.

2 Originally, he said he really achieved omniscience through a state of Taiji (太極). It has rather long philosophy if you want to look at the wiki, so I just use the expression of state of Zen, which is more familiar term, at least for me.

3 Friendly reminder that he said he didn’t want to disguise himself as a girl, at the start of the chapter.

4 The original saying in the WN is [先まず隗かいより始めよ] which literally means ‘First, start with Kai’ which is also the original title for the chapter. Further explanation on the next paragraph about the story. I changed it into ‘A Journey of Thousand Miles’ because it feels it would be lost in translation otherwise.

5King Zhao was the King of Yan Kingdom during Chinese Warring State Period (around 476 BC – 221 BC). I couldn’t find the proper article in English (and I’m not sure if the person’s name was really Kaku Kai [郭隗]), but my understanding is that this Kai fellow advised the King to employ him and lavishly reward him, so that other people would hear of the news and flock around the king in hopes that the king would employ them too. The king then could just pick the most talented from all of them.

In Japanese, the story means that when you want to do an important or big undertaking, then you would do well to start with what you have readily available at the moment, be it asset or people.

Or so I think.

6 The poor guy had completely lose it, his transformation of feminization has now completed lol.

7Wikipedia: Kamonanban (鴨南蛮) is a Japanesenoodle dish made with seasonal soba or udon noodles in a hot dashi soup of duck or chicken meat and leek or Welsh onions. On its own, “nanban soba” (南蛮蕎麦) or simply “nanban” might be used, referring to the onions in the dish.