chapter_0215

216 – Isn’t it Cheesy to Do It Alone?

216 – Isn’t it Cheesy to Do It Alone?

Nikki was lying next to me until morning.

“I want to stay here today. Let’s sleep together. After all… we’ve already shared our bodies, haven’t we?”

It was a bit burdensome.

We were here to search for and subdue the Dragon.

I didn’t want to show others that I had spent such a dissolute day ahead of an important day for the Dragon search.

At least the other Hero party members were customers of my shop, like her, but Baron Helm, who owned Helm Castle, and his servants were different.

If the Hero slept in the same room as me and greeted the morning together, rumors would surely spread.

-The Hero has found a lover.

And if it spread that it was an Illusion magic user, Nikki’s chances of marriage would be ruined because of me.

So I tried to spend the night somewhere else, but.

“If you want to send me away, you’ll have to beat me with your strength.”

Nikki, blushing and smiling, didn’t back down at all.

There was no way a mere magician could beat the Hero with strength.

I couldn’t shake off Nikki, who was clinging to me.

Nikki didn’t want to be apart from me at all, and she hugged my arm all night while sleeping together.

Naturally, my arm was placed on her chest, and thanks to that, I couldn’t sleep properly because I was constantly worried while sleeping.

Rather, Nikki fell fast asleep with her face against my body.

‘Hero, why don’t you think about me?’

I spent the day without getting enough sleep because of Nikki’s actions, which didn’t consider my position.

And the next day, she.

“Max~.”

She said to me, full of coquetry.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Thanks to you, I slept well.”

“Hehe, I slept well too. Your arm was very firm, you know? It was so nice to hug and sleep. I feel like I’ve had a good night’s sleep for the first time in a while.”

“I’m glad you were comfortable. But Nikki.”

“Yes?”

“The Baron’s servants will be here soon. You should go back to your room quickly…”

“Everyone thinks that way when there’s a woman in a man’s room, right?”

I nodded in unspoken agreement.

“We can just show them, right?”

“That’s not possible. It’s a matter of Nikki’s honor.”

“Hmm, I don’t mind, but… since Max says so, I’ll step back.”

Nikki, who had finished dressing, got up from her seat.

“Don’t worry. Everyone won’t be able to see me.”

“Won’t see you?”

“Yes. I’ll disappear without them even having a chance to see me.”

Nikki, winking, couldn’t stop smiling.

“No one else will know. That we spent today together.”

Nikki was confident.

But.

‘Nikki’s voice was very loud.’

I had blocked the noise using Magic, so Baron Helm and his servants wouldn’t have heard it.

But would her companions?

I don’t know.

I couldn’t be sure because I knew their skills.

“I slept really well today. Then I’ll see you at the table later.”

“It was a good night.”

With those words, Nikki disappeared.

As if she had never been there in the first place.

Not even a trace of her presence could be felt.

I think I knew why she had defeated the Demon King.

And a little later, maids came into my room, saying it was morning.

“We will help you wash.”

“It’s okay. I washed alone.”

I went to the kitchen with their guidance.

Saaa-.

I felt a strange gaze in the kitchen.

The gazes of three people looking at me.

That gaze was blatantly cold.

As if they were rebuking me.

Only one person, Nikki, was smiling at me.

Aurora?

She looked at me calmly.

“You’re late.”

Yuris said.

“I was a little late because I took a morning shower.”

“A shower… did you smell?”

“I have to wash away the sweat I sweated in the morning.”

“Did you sweat a lot?”

Yuris’s question had many meanings.

The moment I heard those words, I realized.

‘They heard it.’

They heard Nikki making those noises.

Baron Helm and his servants didn’t hear it, but my companions, who were close to absolute beings, did.

Well, it couldn’t be helped.

Even if they were far away from the castle, one was the strongest knight in the Empire, the other was a High Elf, a Saintess, and one of the most talented magicians in Magic.

Everyone was so powerful that they were among the best in the entire continent, and they had the skills to easily see through my Magic.

‘Yeah. It would be strange if they didn’t hear it.’

Reina looked at me for a moment and clicked her tongue.

“I couldn’t sleep because of the sound of an animal howling.”

“An animal… that’s right. It howled like an animal.”

Yuris agreed with Reina’s words and nodded.

“Brother Max, the Goddess might warn you.”

Even Eileen threw a word at me.

The three of them subtly pointed out what happened yesterday.

Their words were putting pressure on me.

As if rebuking me for spending a hot night alone with the Hero.

Nikki, who had been listening quietly, cut the meat and said.

“Animal sounds? I didn’t hear anything?”

That was a frontal breakthrough.

Nikki, pretending not to know, ate the meat calmly.

“…Are you going to come out like this?”

“What?”

“Are you asking because you don’t know?”

When I didn’t answer Yuris’s words properly, Reina scoffed at the sight.

“I heard that the Hero is the noblest of the Inferior species, but I guess that’s not the case. You’re more cowardly than I thought.”

Nikki didn’t say anything to Reina’s dismissive words.

“I can’t stand this. Even so, in this situation before the Dragon subjugation, doing that at night…”

Yuris knew what Nikki and I had done, but she didn’t say it out loud.

At that time, I realized that all the women here didn’t say things directly.

What should I say.

It felt like everyone knew, but they were reluctant to say it out loud.

It was difficult for a noble lady to say to others that she went to a lewd Illusion magic user’s shop.

Because they were considered the absolute beings of the Empire, they had much more face to save than other women.

They couldn’t even properly say that the other person went to my shop.

Ugh.

Yuris clenched her fist and sighed.

“Aren’t you going to say it?”

When Yuris stopped, Nikki said confidently.

It was a provocation to say what had happened last night and what they had heard.

I saw that reaction and knew why Nikki was so sure that everyone hadn’t heard it.

Nikki knew it.

That all the other companions had heard it but would pretend not to have heard it.

Because of their pride, they didn’t want to admit that they were late and that they had lost face.

It was that confidence that if they didn’t say it in the end, it could become something that hadn’t happened.

Yuris’s spirit flared up at Nikki’s relaxed appearance.

She looked like she was about to turn this place upside down right away.

It seemed that she was only holding back because the great task of searching for the Dragon was ahead of her.

Yuris, who had been staring at Nikki for a while, looked at me.

“Max.”

“Yes? No, huh?”

Because of Yuris’s tone, which had completely entered soldier mode, I unknowingly used honorifics.

“This time, I’ll search with you.”

“What are you talking about? Max is definitely with me!”

“Nikki, if you monopolize the night, you have to give way during the day.”

“……”

Nikki, who had a guilty conscience, couldn’t say anything to Yuris’s words.

“Max, you were wrong too. If Nikki was so aggressive, you should have refused. No matter who the other person is, even if it’s the Hero…”

After finishing speaking, Yuris looked at the other companions for a moment and sighed.

“No. It’s okay. I was too excited.”

Yuris, who opened her mouth in a softer voice.

“We’ll take turns being with Max during this search period. If we leave it like this, our trust will be shattered by internal strife before the Dragon subjugation.”

“I agree. Yuris is different from other Inferior species, right?”

“I agree too. It’s impossible to monopolize Brother.”

“I don’t care who it is as long as I can be with Max.”

Only Nikki kept her mouth shut, but in the end, she nodded her head at everyone’s agreement.

“…Okay. I’ll follow too.”

Nikki clicked her tongue as if she was upset.

No matter how much Nikki was the leader of this expedition, she couldn’t object if everyone agreed like this.

In that way, my treatment was decided only by the opinions of the female members, without asking my opinion at all.

“Hey, Yuris, I…?”

“Max.”

She looked at me firmly.

“Max is also responsible. You should have refused properly at that time. You should have refused even if it was Nikki. You should have said firmly that the expedition is right around the corner.”

Yuris, who got up from her seat and came to me, had anger in her voice.

“Max brought it on himself. You, you…”

Yuris, who came to me and subtly grabbed my hand, lowered her voice.

“Because you made us unable to stand it.”

At those words, I realized that this party was not just a Dragon subjugation party.

‘Max Subjugation Party.’

It was a party to somehow occupy one man.

‘I have to find the Dragon quickly.’

If I don’t want to die of exhaustion.

I bit my lip.

We, who had made Baron Helm’s castle our base camp, headed to the place where the Dragon was said to have been discovered.

“We’ll split into teams of two and search different places. First, we’ll search the three places closest to Helm Castle, and if there’s nothing wrong, we’ll join up and three of us will investigate the remaining two places.”

That’s how it was concluded.

Let’s form teams of two and look for traces of the Dragon, just in case.

Team A, consisting of the Hero Nikki and the Saintess Eileen.

Team B, consisting of the High Elf Reina and the Life Magic school head Aurora.

Team C, consisting of the Empire’s Victory Goddess Yuris and the Illusion magic user Max.

It was a party composition that balanced close-range/long-range for everyone.

“If you encounter the Dragon, avoid fighting and get out of the scene as much as possible.”

We matched our code of conduct and were deployed to different places.

“Let’s go quickly.”

Yuris took the lead.

I followed her.

Yuris didn’t say anything while going to her destination.

How long had we been walking together for about 10 minutes?

“…Did you really do it?”

Yuris, who was in the lead, asked without looking back.

“What are you talking about?”

“You know what I’m asking.”

Awkward air.

I broke the silence for a moment and opened my mouth with difficulty.

“I did it. With Nikki.”

“I knew you did. That’s why I heard such a sound… Your thing is so hard that even I can’t stand it.”

Her shoulders went up and down for a moment.

“Hoo, honestly, I thought I wouldn’t care. But I’m angrier than I thought.”

Yuris turned her head and made eye contact with me.

“Be prepared today. I’m going to do it more intensely than Nikki.”

Yuris’s eyes were filled with a stronger desire than ever before.

After saying that, she grabbed my hand.

“We’re going to walk around like this today. There’s no one watching.”

I had nothing to say.

“Okay.”

That’s how we arrived at the first Dragon sighting.

Author’s words (Author’s afterword)

I accidentally uploaded this late at night. I’m sorry for making the alarm go off in the middle of the night ㅠㅠ