Side: Bell Cranel
Today... so many things happened...
First, I dropped a magic stone in the morning and someone helped me, then I suddenly got a dinner reservation... I tried to push myself and went down to the fifth floor, only for a Minotaur to charge at me out of nowhere... I somehow escaped, thought I was going to die just like that, and then Miss Wallenstein (...drool) saved me...
In the end, I couldn't even thank her. I just screamed like a pathetic idiot and ran away... Ha... What kind of adventure was that? What kind of encounter? I can't even properly thank the person who saved my life...
"Bell! Over here!"
"Oh, Miss Syr. You were waiting outside?"
"Hehe. I was watching to see whether you'd come or not."
This was Syr Flova, the kind person who had picked up the magic stone I dropped this morning. I was sure I had sold all my magic stones yesterday... Had one gotten caught in my pocket?
Anyway, since she had picked up my magic stone, Syr declared that I should repay her by becoming part of her sales record. So I promised to eat dinner here and came to the Hostess of Fertility.
"Then shall we go in, sir?"
"Yes, I'm looking forward to it, Miss Syr!"
"Of course. Mother Mia's cooking is the best in Orario, after all."
Saying that, Syr took my hand, opened the neat-looking wooden door, and led me inside.
"Please sit here."
After that, nothing much happened.
Because of Syr's little scheme (?), I somehow got my identity changed into that of an enormous eater and received a massive amount of spaghetti... But it probably wasn't a big deal, right?
Well... I made 4,000 valis today, so unless it was outrageously expensive, I should be fine! Normally, fifty valis was enough for a meal...
Uh, wait a second.
Three hundred valis for one plate of spaghetti? Huh? Whaaat?!
"What about alcohol?"
"Ah... I'm fine, thank you."
"Just drink! A young man needs to stuff himself with something if he wants to have strength!"
"Uh... yesss..."
Mother Mia spoke in a tone that brooked no argument and thunked a mug of ale onto the counter. Then why did she even ask me...?
"Are you enjoying yourself?"
"...I'm overwhelmed."
I answered Syr's teasing question while glaring at her bright smile with all the resentment I could muster over the dinner that had turned out more expensive than expected.
Syr swept her short, shimmering ash-gray hair behind her ear, brought over a round stool from the corner, and gently sat beside me.
"Uh... Is it okay for you to be away from work?"
"The kitchen is the usual version of hell, but things are relaxed enough for a waitress like me to take breaks now and then, you know?"
When I looked toward Mother Mia, following Syr's gaze to see if it was really okay, she flashed a grin and jerked her chin as though to say it was fine.
After that, I ate spaghetti and chatted with Syr now and then.
From what she told me, Mother Mia, who ran the Hostess of Fertility, was a retired adventurer. She had practically withdrawn from her Familia and was running this place with her god's permission.
The employees here were all people with circumstances of one kind or another, and apparently only women could get jobs here... "What a shame."
"What is?"
"N-no, no, no?! It's nothing!"
"Hmm...?"
"Hahaha... This spaghetti is delicious! I really am going to become a huge eater!"
"Shall we call it that, then?"
As I desperately turned my head away and casually looked around the restaurant, lively voices filled the air from every direction.
A dwarf flirting with a waitress who had come to take his order, and the long black-haired waitress casually twisting his hand away.
An elf licking his lips at the food before him, fork and knife in hand as he prepared for war against both his stomach and wallet.
There were also hobbits who had pushed several tables together and were noisily celebrating like it was a feast.
Every one of them, faces flushed, raised and clinked their cups as they let out the blazing heat inside them.
"When there are so many people, there are so many adventurers and so many discoveries... I can't help but get excited."
Syr narrowed her eyes and murmured softly. There was a faintly sensual air about her that seemed to come from nowhere, and I found myself staring at her.
Perhaps she sensed my gaze from beside her. She flinched, fanned her reddened cheeks, and gave a deliberately casual cough.
"Anyway, I suppose that's it. Meeting people I don't know has become a bit of a hobby... It makes my heart race."
"...That sounds kind of scary?! Though I guess I'm not really one to talk."
I had come to Orario to find connections I didn't know about, after all. I came to Orario to have encounters—and I was someone who had done nothing but get excited since arriving here.
Just as I was sympathizing with Syr's words, a group of more than ten customers suddenly poured into the restaurant.
They seemed to have reserved in advance, because they were led to an open area diagonally across from where I sat.
They gave off an extraordinary air even at a glance...
'Ah—'
It felt like my heart dropped straight into my stomach.
There was radiant gold there. Golden hair, as though spun from threads of gold, filled my vision in an instant and silenced even the restaurant's boisterous atmosphere.
Her beauty was like a doll made in imitation of the goddess of beauty itself coming to life and moving before my eyes. I couldn't even begin to imagine what words could possibly describe it.
A moment of silence fell, and the bustling mood vanished without a trace as whispers took over the restaurant.
"Whoa, she's fucking gorgeous. Who is she?"
"You idiot. Look at their emblem."
"...Ah."
Once everyone realized they were the Loki Familia, a different kind of stir filled the restaurant.
The murmurs and whispers spread like ripples from a small pebble dropped into a lake, all of them brimming with reverence and admiration.
Some people whistled at their beauty, but their companions promptly shut them up with a 'loving blow' (?), and the noise quickly died down.
And I was no better at keeping my composure.
I never imagined I would meet the hero I had begun admiring today again like this.
U-uh, uhhhhhh...!?
"...Bell?"
UhhhhsofirstIshouldthankherforsavingmeornoIshouldapologizeforrunningawaywithoutthankingherbutifIgooverandtalktoherrightnowI'llbecomeacompletespectaclemaybeIshouldstaystillbutshouldn'tIsaythankyouforliterallysavingmylifemaybeIshouldjustactcrazyandconfessthatIlikehercalmdownyouidiotshe'sacompletestrangertowhywouldyouconfesstodoyouwanttosociallydieinOrario
"...Bell~?"
My face cycled from bright red to flushed, back to normal, then pale blue and drained white again and again. With my face buried in the counter, I could only watch their every movement.
Syr seemed to be speaking to me as I kept my head down, but unfortunately, I had no attention left to spare for her.
The toast from the god Loki—whose somewhat high voice made it impossible to tell whether Loki was a god or goddess, though Loki was probably a god; there was no way anyone that flat could be a goddess...—ended, and the lively atmosphere rose again.
As I occasionally sipped at my ale and covertly watched them, Syr spoke beside me in a voice that somehow sounded as though she pitied me.
"The Loki Familia are regulars here. Loki, their god, likes our restaurant's..."
Syr slightly frowned and broke off before continuing.
"...employees."
Noticing that all my attention was focused on the Loki Familia, Syr leaned close to my ear and quietly explained.
Okay. Starting today, I'm a regular here too. Wallet, cry for me. I will raise my chances of seeing Miss Wallenstein!
She awkwardly shifted her otherwise expressionless face into a bitter smile whenever her companions urged her from all sides to drink. She talked with the blond elven mage next to her, and, with little animal-like gestures utterly at odds with her expression, wiped herself with a napkin... I knew hiding here and peeping at her was incredibly creepy, but countless sides of Miss Wallenstein—things I had never had any way of knowing before—were steadily being engraved into my mind.
"...Bell, your expression looks incredibly perverted right now."
"H-huh?! Was it?! I'm not a pervert!"
"Hmph. I'm sure you aren't!"
For some reason, Syr got upset. Just as I was about to desperately say something to win her back, a frivolous remark from the Loki Familia table stopped me cold.
"Oh, right. Ais, tell them that story!"
"That story...?"
My intuition, which had hardly ever helped me but might someday prove useful, screamed a fierce warning at me. Don't listen. Cover your ears. You should run out of here.
Before I could even wonder at that warning, the mockery that left his mouth pierced my chest alongside a sharp burst of laughter.
"That one, that one. The tomato who sat there trembling in front of that Minotaur we lost on the way back, then ran off covered in blood! Kyahaha! He was seriously a pathetic sight!"
It felt as though all the blood in my body had gone ice-cold. My heart, which had been pounding without pause, stopped with a jolt, and cold sweat streamed down my forehead.
"The Minotaurs that jumped us on the seventeenth floor and ran away?"
"Those ones! They stubbornly went all the way up to the Upper Floors—ugh, we had to rush up there because of them! We were exhausted after finishing an expedition, too~"
...Perhaps because my heart, which had been pounding before, had frozen still, I could piece together the information they were discussing and reconstruct the truth of what happened today faster than I ever could normally.
One. The Loki Familia encountered a herd of Minotaurs on the seventeenth floor while returning from their expedition today.
Two. They fought the Minotaurs, and in the process, several Minotaurs fled to the Upper Floors.
Three. One of the Minotaurs they lost fled all the way to the fifth floor, and the one who was there—
"You know what was there? Some scrawny little kid who looked like a total newbie!"
—was me.
"It was fucking hilarious. He was pressed against a corner of the wall, shivering like a rabbit!"
In place of my frozen heart, my face began to grow hotter and hotter. Was this what it felt like to pour liquor mixed with chili powder straight onto your face? My face just kept burning without end.
"Oh? So what happened to the kid?"
"..."
I barely restrained my teeth from chattering and clashing, then turned my stiff neck to look at her. Her eyes were slightly scrunched up.
"So that guy got splashed all over with that stinking sophi and stood there looking dumb as a bright-red tomato! Hahahahahaha!"
"Eugh, poor thing... Still, it is funny. Hehehe!"
"Ais, no way—you did that on purpose? Please say you did, that'd be absolutely hilarious!"
"...I didn't."
Laughter gradually spread around the Loki Familia's table, while the people at surrounding tables made no effort whatsoever to hold back the snickers slipping out of them.
Then the final comment from the werewolf with the frivolous voice set off a bomb.
"And get this? That tomato bastard screamed and ran off somewhere... Pfft! Our princess got dumped by the person she saved!"
Hahahahahahaha!
Hahahahahahaha!
Hahahahahahaha!
After those words burst out and a very, very brief silence followed, laughter filled every corner of the restaurant.
In the midst of the loud laughter echoing through the restaurant, I thought I heard Syr's voice beside me, but it merely passed by.
My heart had not only stopped long ago but felt as if it were gradually crumbling away. The heat in my face had lasted only a moment; now I could feel nothing at all.
"Really, it's been so long since I've seen such a pathetic guy who doesn't deserve to be called an adventurer. It makes me sick. Crying and whining when he's supposed to be a man, too."
"..."
"There's never been such a sorry sight. Why did he even become an adventurer if he was going to be like that? Right, Ais?"
I heard a piece of my crumbling heart fall away with a crack.
"Because of bastards like you..."
"Shut that noisy mouth, Bete. Losing the Minotaur in the first place was our mistake. None of us have the right to make the boy who got caught up in it into drinking entertainment when we should be apologizing to him. You should be ashamed."
"Oh, sure, the noble High Elf thinks she's so great. But what's wrong with calling trash trash? What changes just because you defend a hopeless little bug?"
"Will ye two quit it already? Bete, Riveria, stop ruining the taste of the alcohol!"
Creak, creak, creak.
"So, what do you think of that little fry, Ais?"
Creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak.
"I'm better than some little fry like that, aren't I?"
Creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak.
"What? So if that little fry came up to you and did a courtship dance, you'd accept him? You wouldn't, right?"
Creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak.
"Well, one thing is certain. That little fry doesn't suit Ais! Hahahahahaha!"
Creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak... CRACK!
I knocked over my chair as I stood, ignored the flood of stares, and sprinted for the restaurant door at full speed.
"Bell?!"
Damn, damn, dam—aaagh?!
Just before I could open the door and leave, a thick arm suddenly came at me from the front...?!
"Ghk!"
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And with that, my vision went black.
Side: Smith
...Oops. I saw him trying to dine and dash on credit and stopped him without thinking.
That lariat landed way too cleanly... He's alive, right?
"What was that?"
"Was he trying to skip out on Mother Mia's bill? While her son was here, too?"
"Wow, that takes guts."
As the customers murmured over what had happened in the blink of an eye, the blonde girl alone stood and lightly walked this way. Well, perhaps not lightly. Her face was full of worry, as if she had recognized who he was.
"...Long time no see, mister."
"It's only been about three months, even if it has been a while. Anyway, do you know him?"
"...He's the protagonist of the story from before. It must have been hard for him... right?"
Without saying anything, I propped Bell Cranel—the real protagonist of this world, caught by my perfect lariat—into a seat beside me.
It must have been hard... Yeah, it must have been. A story about a situation where his life had been on the line had been reduced to barroom entertainment, and he had heard everyone laughing at it right in front of him...
"Look here, Ais, what are ye doing? Eh, and who's this! It's our [Talos, Giant Automaton of Lemnos], who reached Level 4 this time!"
"It's been a while, Loki."
"...? You leveled up, mister?"
"A month or two ago. You were only just coming back from your expedition, so it makes sense you wouldn't know. More importantly..."
As I narrowed my eyes toward the Loki Familia, Bete Loga was in no position to do anything, having been tightly bound with rope and gagged by his fellow members. Finn gave a small wave when our eyes met.
...One comment should be fine, right?
"Hup. It's been a while, so how about I have a drink with Finn?"
"...Mister."
"What is it, young lady?"
I called Ais by the name I had used for her when she was little, and she punched me in the waist as though she disliked it... Ow!
"I'm not a young lady anymore."
"Got it, got it! So what is it?"
"I... want to apologize to this adventurer. What would he... like?"
...Pfft. Ordinarily, she would only learn this after the original story progressed a bit further, but should I tell her now?
"Ais, men are simple creatures. When a pretty girl lets them rest their head on her lap, they feel like forgiving everything. I'm going to get up from here, so why don't you give that adventurer a lap pillow?"
"...Okay, I understand...!"
"Uhyoh! I got Ais-chan's lap pillow time! Sniff, sniff, those thighs!"
"Someone take Loki away."
"Yes, yes. Loki, let's go have a drink together."
"Gyaaaaaah! I don't wanna go! Ais-chaaaaaan!"
Finn tucked Loki, who was putting on a truly novel display of thrashing and screaming, under his arm and headed toward his seat. Bete, still tied up, had now been hung from the ceiling like a dried fish, while Finn calmly ignored him and spoke to me.
"It's been a while, Smith. I heard you became Level 4. Congratulations. You're officially the vice-captain of the Hephaestus Familia now, in both name and reality?"
"That's right, Finn. I somehow ended up becoming vice-captain. But, Finn..."
As I brushed past the pleasantries and glanced toward Bete, Finn too let out a sigh, gave an embarrassed smile, and offered me a glass of alcohol.
"Hahaha... Uh, well... Bete is certainly... energetic, isn't he?"
"You remember how that bastard got himself in that exact—ahem—state at the last company dinner and nearly caused a War Game between our Familias, right?"
"How could I forget...? We had to sign an unfair contract with you because of that, and we were short on funds for quite a while..."
"I mean, I keep telling you not to bring that dog—no, puppy—to drinking parties. That guy I just lariated, and whom Ais is nursing right now, is the very person your Bete got excited about biting and tearing into. Just in case, I have to ask: you didn't let him do it because Bete's thoughts are the same as yours, did you?"
"No, it wasn't that. It was just... though I am sorry to that boy, it was meant to cover up the heavy atmosphere caused by the bad things that happened during the expedition..."
Finn carefully turned the cup in his hand on the table as he chose his words, then spoke heavily.
"Kindling... I suppose. I do feel sorry for that boy, who was put in danger by our mistake. All the more so if he heard that ridicule right beside him."
"...Well, it's a relief that you at least feel sorry. In that case, how about a small compensation payment to comfort that boy whose heart was hurt?"
"Hmm..."
"I'll contribute as well."
"...Lady [Demon-Banishing Princess]?"
Riveria, the High Elf beside us whom I had been deliberately trying to ignore, suddenly pulled out her wallet and addressed me.
Ah... I'm still not great with elves, though...
"As the vice-captain of a Familia, I should naturally take responsibility for our clearly negligent actions nearly getting an adventurer killed, and for blaming, mocking, and turning him into nothing more than a laughingstock. Isn't that right, Finn?"
"Uh... well, hahaha, of course. I'll add a little apology and consolation money as well."
The amount collected from the two of their wallets came to roughly 50,000 valis...! (About five million won.)
"No, is it really okay to just carry this much money around?"
"Well... Since we were coming back to the surface for the first time in a while today, I filled my wallet so I could use it for some time... But I got caught at exactly the wrong moment. Hahaha..."
"Hahaha! Good thing I didn't bring any money. As expected, I'm in top form today as well!"
"...Anyway, this is more than enough for a boy who still looks like Level 1. It should cover the price of his life. I'll leave the money with Mother Mia, then... Hey, Ryu!"
"...I heard the conversation, Smith. Shall I leave this money with Mother Mia and let the boy sleep in your room?"
"Yeah, thanks. When he wakes up in the morning, collect his meal bill, then give him this money, okay?"
"Understood."
I naturally handed the money pouch to Ryu, then looked at Finn, who was watching me with interest.
"So, Finn?"
"Is it that again?"
"Of course."
"Then..."
""Today, I win!""
And so, the ninety-seventh Hostess of Fertility drinking contest between Finn and me began once more...!
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Side: ???
Ah... That clean lariat... As expected of my husband...!