Chapter 133

Chapter 133

As the sun touched the horizon, painting the sky crimson, and twilight whispered of a day’s labor well done, the taverns of Karaldin teemed with life. Weary souls sought solace in a drink, hoping to drown their sorrows and fatigue. And most of these patrons were adventurers. For them, a post-quest drink was nothing short of a ritual, a way to cleanse body and mind after a grueling task. “…A toast to Ludriheuk.” “-Cheers.” Sometimes, they mourned the loss of a comrade. “So, we jammed a spear right into that damn troll’s back—!” Sometimes, they recounted their valor and heroic deeds. “…Lution, care for another?” Sometimes, they poured their passion into a glass, swallowing the fiery liquid. Of course, the solemn atmosphere of mourning never lasted long. Amidst the rising din, the boisterousness gradually spread, and those who had lost their sobriety mingled indiscriminately, unable to find their way back to their seats. In that swirling revelry, the lines between strangers and companions blurred, eventually culminating in one grand, chaotic feast. Amidst the mingling crowd, El and Lution exchanged bewildered glances. The tavern was loud and rowdy. Adventurers who had stumbled into the wrong place were naturally offering drinks and introducing themselves, then sharing tales of their exploits after downing the offered glass. …And repeating the process about three times. They greeted the same people as if meeting them for the first time, chiming in with altered versions of their heroic tales. With each repetition, the Wootan they had slain transformed into a troll, and the Axolotl became a fire-breathing earth dragon, all part of their epic sagas. It was a comical farce from an outsider’s perspective, but the participants were dead serious. Lution chuckled wryly at the scene and muttered under his breath, “…We picked the wrong place.” “Eep.” Lution was merely stating an honest observation, but El flinched as if stung. Not entirely without reason. After all, she was the one who had insisted on coming to ‘The Great Warriors.’ She had simply thought it was a cool name and barged in without a second thought. Little did she know it would turn into such a mess in just thirty minutes. “S-sorry. I thought all pubs were the same…” “That’s funny. Why would you be sorry?” Lution looked at El with amusement. He had noticed it back in Mesatria, but despite her occasional ruthlessness, she had many naive sides. Perhaps that gap was what had drawn him in, what had stolen his heart. An ordinary woman probably wouldn’t have reacted that way. She would have brushed it off as something that could happen. But El wasn’t like that. And that was why he liked her even more. “For dragging you to a place like this…?” When El asked hesitantly, Lution chuckled and replied, “You said you haven’t been in Karaldin for long, right? Then it’s understandable. Taverns in hub cities tend to be boisterous. Of course, there are some places where people prefer to drink quietly, so there are a few establishments that have an unspoken agreement to maintain a more subdued atmosphere.” El nodded as she listened to Lution’s words. The place Eira and Mien had taken her to before must have been one of those. It had been a bit noisy, but not nearly as chaotic as this. And those kinds of taverns were hard to find unless you were an adventurer who had been in Karaldin for quite some time. “Ugh…” When El lowered her head like a puppy, Lution chuckled and comforted her again. “Well, I like this kind of atmosphere too.” He said, picking up the glass on the table. The brass cup was slightly dented, as if to prove ‘The Great Warriors’ rough history. When El also raised her glass, Lution grinned and clinked his against hers.

-Clang.

A slightly dull sound echoed, and the amber liquid in the brass cup splashed in round droplets. The lamplight reflected in the glass shimmered like a moonlit lake. “A toast to your beautiful eyes—” Amidst the clamorous noise, Lution’s words seeped into El’s ears. Hearing that, El tilted her head with a puzzled expression. “…That sounds familiar.” Faced with an unexpected reaction, Lution looked disappointed. Women usually fell head over heels with his handsome face and sweet words, but El in front of him was not one of them. “Damn, I guess you were popular in the past. It’s a line bards sometimes use to pick up girls.” “No, it’s not that… Ah, never mind. Anyway, thanks.” Still, it was true that his feelings had gotten through to her to some extent. The two smiled faintly at each other and shared their drinks. // While Laila was away for a while, the relationship between El and Lution had improved quite a bit. Of course, since they had started off on good terms, it was only natural that their relationship would improve, but even so, it was an undeniable truth that the progress was quite rapid. But, wasn’t this too fast? El thought as she looked at the inn in front of her. The three-story inn had a fairly neat exterior, and above all, the atmosphere seemed nice. But the problem wasn’t the neat exterior or the nice atmosphere. “….” “….What?” She looked at Lution with suspicious eyes, but Lution asked back with a nonchalant expression. “You said you wanted to have a drink in a quiet place. No one will bother us here.” What he said made sense. The two of them had been constantly invited to join the drunken patrons at ‘The Great Warriors,’ and had to nod along to their great adventure stories of riding dragons and killing griffons with a single sword. Of course, El herself had actually severed a griffin’s windpipe, but she was keenly aware that she shouldn’t say that in her drunken state, so she could only nod at their words with a smile. There was such a past behind why they were standing side by side in front of the inn. And, El was well aware that not everything Lution said was true. “…Lution, be honest. Are you trying to seduce me right now?” At her straightforward question, Lution flinched for a moment as if embarrassed. It wasn’t because she had noticed his intentions. It was simply because El, unlike other women, had voiced the fact. “Well, what do you think?” While answering with a seemingly relaxed smile, Lution felt his heart growing anxious. Women in the East were not proactive. They liked subtle seduction and wanted the other person to take the lead. Usually, asking if someone was trying to seduce them was a subtle expression of rejection. But because the target was El, he didn’t know. Meeting a woman from Nekar was also a first for him, and it was still unknown whether El’s expression was a rejection or an acceptance. And El was a simpler woman than he thought. Having once been a man, she sadly possessed the mind of a man, so she could not grasp the complex and subtle psychological structure and language of women. “Shut up, you’re trying to seduce me, aren’t you? If I say I’ll drink with you, you’re going to take me and do all sorts of things, right?” She should have just shut up and nodded, pretending not to know, but due to her long history of watching animations in her previous life, she was now talking as if she knew about this situation. In the end, Lution had no choice but to nod reluctantly. With a slightly disappointed feeling in his heart that today was a bust. “…I won’t deny it.” “Hmph, I knew it. Trying to trick me from somewhere… Eep.” At his ambiguous affirmation, El tried to smile triumphantly- -and then realized her mistake. “….” “….” If she agreed to his request here, it would be as if she was allowing him to sleep with her. This was like openly agreeing to it. ‘…Am I an idiot? Ah, I guess I am.’ El blamed herself inwardly and lowered her head. If she had just gone in pretending she couldn’t win, it wouldn’t have come to this. She couldn’t even rationalize that she didn’t have any thoughts in the first place, and that Lution had pounced on her and she couldn’t help it. Besides, in her honest feelings, El herself was sad to part ways here. Even if she didn’t allow him to touch her body, she wanted to drink a little more and talk a little more. She could fully understand if they inevitably crossed the line. ….But at this moment, she had become someone who was openly declaring that they should cross the line. In the end, she had trapped herself in a dilemma. “Then, shall we go back for today?” Lution, who had not noticed her change of heart, suggested to her again with an indifferent face. It was a bit embarrassing for him, but he could just aim for the next opportunity. However, El was not like that. ‘If I go back like this….’ She wouldn’t be able to look Emily and Laila in the face. Those two sly vixens would laugh and tease her, saying that a guy couldn’t even do that. No, would they tease her for not being able to do that as a girl? That probably wouldn’t happen, but that was how El’s imagination played out. ‘These damn confusing hybrid bastards.’ Of course, she included herself in that ‘hybrid,’ but El tried to ignore that fact. She turned her gaze to Lution and slowly opened her mouth with a flushed face. “That….” “Yeah?” “Just, I’m just going to drink.” That was the best she could do.