They Are a Perfect Party

Luck turned his head toward Toshio, stared for a brief moment, and instantly burst into a muffled laugh before quickly looking away again.

The entire group was trying their absolute best not to laugh out loud.

"Come on, that is quite enough. We should move now," Toshio said with an annoyed tone, maintaining his dignified noble gaze while reaching up with a slender, gloved finger to clear a curly strand of brown hair away from his face.

"As you command, my lady-I mean, sir-I mean... ugh!" Luck was confused beyond measure.

Toshio just face-palmed himself. His current physical form was irreversible for the next twenty-four hours.

They spent the next few minutes desperately getting used to their new bodies, Lily would often act like a shy girl as an old man. It made Luck want to burn his eyes for multiple times.

"Please stop! This will give me nightmares!" Luck said to the belly dancing Lily with her wooden stick. Stacy and Kara dropped on the ground from laughing so hard.

Toshio smiled without letting anyone notice.

I guess we can take our time.

Multiple times during the practice, Toshio accidentally walked like a regular guy, swinging his legs too wide and revealing glimpse of a smooth skin around his thighs under the high slits of the gown.

Every single time that occurred, Lily and Kara would quickly jump forward to block Luck's eyes.

"I'm not letting you corrupt him!" Lily would scold Toshio, who had absolutely no idea why he was getting yelled at.

To prevent any slips at the border, Toshio properly explained a fake backstory to the party.

Toshio was the elegant daughter of 'Grandpa Lily', who played the role of the grumpy family head. Luck was their hired traveling mercenary, while Kara stood strong as their loyal household knight. Stacy was a peasant boy, showing them around.

They were traveling across the high ridges simply because the wealthy lady was whimsical and wanted to see the scenic valley. Everyone agreed that the plan was airtight.

Until they officially hit the border of the territory, they used their 'gifted' shining white-and-gold carriage. However, the closer they got to the valley, the more they realized they had to hide it. The royal vehicle was far too eye-catching for a group trying to lay low.

Stacy suggested they hide the vehicle deep in the bushes and join a regular merchant caravan of general public carriages instead.

Soon enough, they located a long line of common wagons. The transit vehicles featured face-to-face bench seating, covered by a white canvas roof on top and a thick fabric flap at the rear entrance to shield the cabin from the mountain wind.

Luck successfully negotiated the copper entry fees for five people, and they climbed into the very last carriage of the line.

The small compartment already had two people sitting inside it. The elegant Lady Toshio carefully adjusted his massive velvet skirts and sat inside, making sure to steady his gold-trimmed monocular.

Seating beside him was his armored house knight, Kara. Luck sat directly across from them, while Old Man Lily settled onto the wooden bench beside Luck. Stacy was sitting near the rear entrance.

The caravan kept moving at a slow but steady speed, the wooden floor occasionally swaying and jolting whenever the wheels struck the sharp stones on the mountain road.

As the hours ticked by, the two strangers sitting across from Lady Toshio started whispering aggressively to each other.

"Just you wait, boss," the tall henchman whispered to his leader, a cruel smirk touching his lips.

"I have everyone on standby. We've got dozens of our people hidden across the other carriages in this convoy. The moment darkness hits tonight, we begin the strike and take over the whole town."

"Good, good. We are going to be so incredibly rich," the leader replied, revealing a row of rotten, yellow teeth. He was a short man with a massive, jagged scar slicing right across his forehead.

"That milk-smelling brat won't even know what hit him."

Toshio could hear every single word of their scheme because he was sitting right in front of them, but the crooks weren't scared of the family at all.

To them, Toshio simply looked like a wealthy, defenseless noble lady traveling with her elderly father.

"What will we do after taking over that Perfect Town?" the henchman asked with deep curiosity.

"We will enslave everyone, loot the central vaults, and steal whatever wealth we can lay our hands on," the boss chuckled, almost laughing out loud from pure happiness. He even glanced at Lady Toshio a few times.

"This entire valley will become our new base."

These people are bad news, Toshio thought silently to himself, keeping his poker face perfectly rigid beneath his monocular as he forced himself not to stare at them.

Suddenly, the carriage stopped with a violent, scraping motion as the wheels locked hard against the mountain gravel.

The horses let out a panicked shriek from the sudden stop, the abrupt halt rattling the woodwork and throwing the passengers slightly forward.

The tall henchman's eyes widened, his tough act instantly cracked with nervousness.

"Boss...What if they check all the carriages?!"

"Don't worry," the boss hissed back, trying to maintain his arrogant smile though his yellow teeth ground together tightly.

"I already asked all the local people before I prepared this attack. They don't do checkups or anything. They are far too arrogant because their leader's power."

But before the boss could even finish his sentence, the dim darkness inside the canvas carriage was violently slashed open by the bright afternoon sun.

Someone from the outside had ripped the curtain flap wide open at the rear entrance.

Standing in the frame was a slim teenager wearing a dark blue Japanese high school uniform. Stitched neatly onto the right side of his chest was a strange, blocky line of text.

The vast majority of the people on this continent would never be able to read those foreign characters, but Toshio’s eyes read it with absolute clarity:

[ SUZUKI SAWADA - CLASS B ]

Already?! How can he be here already!!

Luck and Kara completely panicked, their muscles tensing to draw their weapons, but Toshio’s slender, gloved hand shot forward like lightning. He grabbed Luck’s wrist, forcefully pushing his arm down.

The arrogant smirk on the boss's face instantly disappeared, replaced by an absolute terror.

Beside him, the tall henchman began sweating profusely, his legs trembling as his entire body froze into absolute ice.

"I hear you lot wanted to meet me so badly?" the Perfect Prince said, a gentle smile resting on his lips. 

Toshio looked past his shoulder.

The entire merchant caravan had been silently and thoroughly surrounded by dozens of knights, their silver helmets shining in the sun. 

Before they could even get inside the town gates and start their mission, their entire group had been caught by the Perfect Prince!