episode_0065

Despite all persuasion and temptation, Amy couldn’t break Priddy’s stubbornness, so she eventually had to give up.

A bold plan to create a fact while Hilde was drunk.

From the moment they first joined the party, Amy had been waiting for this opportunity, and although it would have been very satisfying for her anger to explode, there was no proper reason for it.

“…I guess there’s no other way.”

There was no other option.

Amy had no ability to remove this little obstacle in front of her.

Even the argument that if she could make Hilde’s fingertips touch us instead, was immediately rejected.

Putting a finger into Hilde, or putting Hilde’s finger into herself, both were forbidden.

With a resigned attitude, she proposed, “If not Hilde, then anyone else, will you snuggle with me?” only to receive a response questioning her sanity.

“Is this also not possible?”

After sending Priddy off as an appetizer, and being refused the alternative of tasting Hilde as the main dish, Amy’s only remaining path was to lie quietly next to Hilde, comforting herself with her figure and scent.

“Ugh… ugh… huff…!”

That’s why Amy did just that.

As long as she could stay by Hilde’s side, there would be plenty of opportunities ahead.

Taking this failure as a lesson, wouldn’t it be better to aim for a more certain opportunity next time?

There was plenty of time. In the future as well.

◆◆

Priddy didn’t even interfere with Amy comforting herself.

It was a bit bewildering and somewhat uncomfortable, but it was still within the limit that she could tolerate.

In fact, there was no room to interfere.

Priddy, who began to focus on comforting, also found herself at the limit of patience and self-restraint.

“…Wouldn’t that be okay? It’s not causing harm to Hilde.”

An excuse she came up with to convince herself.

Hilde had not laid a finger on Freida’s body, convincing herself that it wasn’t doing anything wrong to Hilde, and Freida, just like Amy, lay down beside Hilde and began the same thing.

Twisting and turning for a while with suppressed moans, until they finally exhausted themselves and fell asleep.

And the next morning, the two of them, upon waking up from sleep, agreed to play a “responsibility” prank on Hilde to see her reaction.

It was Amy’s suggestion.

They wanted to see in advance how Hilde would react if “such a thing” actually happened.

After some hesitation, Freida accepted the proposal. She was also curious about Hilde’s nature.

Whether she would express reluctance to sharing a bed with someone of the same gender. Whether she would be perplexed but still accept sharing the bed. Or whether she would actively take responsibility.

Thinking ahead, it was a harmless thing to know in advance.

… They never imagined it would lead to such confusion.

Anyway, that was the whole story of what happened last night.

======[ Hilde ]======

Three days later. I visited the adventurer guild’s request desk again.

I’ve rested enough by now, haven’t I? It’s time to get back to work. If you rest too long, your senses die out.

Just as muscles atrophy if you rest from exercise, experience points are lost if you don’t work and just fool around.

Most adventurers who have been fooling around for days after making a big haul end up losing all their senses and dying in vain as soon as they go back into the dungeon.

If you choose a job where you eat and live by the sword, there should never be a day when blood doesn’t stain the blade. That’s my belief.

Anyway, for that reason, I went to the request desk.

Due to the mass betrayal of the Eastern Expedition adventurers, a conflict has arisen with the sect, so I was a little worried that they might have taken down the sign and closed the door….

But fortunately, it hadn’t gone under. The number of guild staff, including the receptionist, seemed to have decreased a bit.

“Someone has to take responsibility.” The receptionist lady told me the reason.

Negotiations with the church went relatively smoothly, but that doesn’t mean anyone can just move on without taking responsibility. In the end, some had to take on the blame for betrayal and “retire,” so to speak. It seemed like the whereabouts of those who retired were unknown, adding a joke that what they lost wasn’t just their jobs.

“My boss… I mean, the former boss also retired. The party I recommended—well, Hilde’s cinema party didn’t have any betrayers, but the adventurer he recommended turned out to be a betrayer.”

The receptionist lady put on a refreshing smile and cheerfully recounted the story of how her boss was “handled” as if it were a light-hearted tale.

“Oh… I see.”

I awkwardly chuckled and played along.

It seemed that responsibility was determined based on the proportion of betrayers among the adventurers managed by the respective employee, and those with a high rate of betrayal were dismissed.

The employees managing the adventurers for the guild failed to properly distinguish between trustworthy adventurers and those who shouldn’t be trusted, under the pretext that they couldn’t do so.

“That’s really the case. From the Eastern Expeditionary Adventurers, who are supposed to take responsibility and guarantee trust for the guild, to just putting anyone in that position. It’s only natural that they would be fired, don’t you think?”

Is that so…?

It may sound like they were fired, but in reality, it seems more like being expelled from the guild rather than just being let go.

Well, thanks to that, the conflict with the church has been completely resolved, but…

Whether this should be considered a rational decision or a ruthless handling without any mercy, I simply couldn’t tell.

This guild is truly an organization of relentless severity.

As soon as a problem arose within the entire guild, they selected a few poorly performing employees as scapegoats and ruthlessly threw them into the sea like discarded tools.

Just like Blind Sim, who sold his daughter for the cost of eye surgery.

Is this a guild or a mafia?

I can’t help but think it’s a management organization for people who live by the sword, with a handling style that is incredibly brutal.

◆◆

“By the way, Hilde. Have you heard the news?”

The receptionist, while flipping through a bundle of requests handed to her in response to the question of whether there was any work, suddenly asked such an irrelevant question.

“What’s the news?”

I replied with a slight smile.

“Lord Heid is expected to visit Vespien. I heard that he plans to recruit someone who has defeated the corpse giant and the abyssal priest…”

Thud.

I dropped the bundle of requests I was holding on the reception desk and opened my mouth wide. The name that should never be overlooked had pierced my ears like thunder.

“Who is Heid?”

Heid Gardarik Herbor?

Why is that guy coming here?

“What?! No, no. Miss Hilde, even though you’re an adventurer, don’t speak like that…”

The receptionist was more flustered than me, looking around in panic, as if afraid that someone else might have overheard.

“Oh… I’m sorry. I got flustered.”

I bowed my head slightly and apologized.

“Even if you were flustered, that’s… I really thought you were going to faint.”

It was natural for the receptionist to be perplexed. The name Herbor was explaining the reason itself.

The owner of the Holy Sword Tirving, Heid, was not only a hero of this country but also… the eldest son of the current king.

A prince, indeed.

Due to being bestowed with the title of a hero, the position of crown prince had passed to his younger brother, but even if he lost the title of prince, he still retained the bloodline of royalty.

If an ordinary adventurer dared to mention him without proper respect, it wouldn’t be strange for them to be immediately executed for insulting the royal family.

“…So, Lord Heid is coming to this city? In the near future?”

“Yes. I don’t know the exact date, but it seems certain that he will come.”

It was an emergency. Cold sweat ran down my spine.

“That he’s coming to this city… We probably have limited chances to greet him from a distance, but still, isn’t it something to look forward to?”

The receptionist, with a face like a girl waiting for a prince on a white horse, kept talking nonsense that I couldn’t relate to at all.

Sure. As a prince and a warrior in appearance, he had thoroughly managed his own reputation.

Heath’s popular evaluation was truly that of an exemplary royal and a growing warrior with no flaws.

So, it’s natural for the receptionist to be impressed. It’s like having the chance to meet a hero from a fairy tale in person, even from a distance.

“Well… I’m not him, of course.”

I certainly wasn’t him.

No expectations.

That sinister man is trying to find the person who defeated the corpse giant… So, why should I greet him warmly just because he came all the way here to meet me?

If you don’t want to become a pet doll, you should pack up and run away immediately.

Only Amy and Friede knew that I had defeated the corpse giant, so if others had found out, I would have been dragged into his harem against my will.

Of course, that alone couldn’t provide peace of mind.

Considering my recent run of bad luck, there’s a chance I might accidentally get exposed at the worst possible moment.

So, the best option for me now was to eliminate the possibility of even meeting him.

“Oh, I’ll take this request. Is that okay?”

“Top-tier escort? Um… this request might take some time, are you okay with that?”

…That’s why I chose the escort request among the pile of requests on the reception desk, which seemed to take the longest time.

A long-term request to escort a northbound journey leaving Vespien for another major city.

What could be a more appropriate excuse to leave Heath’s side than this?

I’ll just linger there for a few days and come back.

“Don’t worry. I need to take care of Kikel a bit, and I also have some business in that city.”

Moreover, unlike other requests that require an adventurer of a certain rank, there were no restrictions on the grade, so I could bring Kikel along, which I liked.

While Amy, Friede, and I were recognized as adventurers of Chetfa, Kikel was still stuck in the novice stage.

For the time being, I had to focus on taking on requests that even novice adventurers could participate in.

If you plan to continue working with the same party in the future, it was necessary to first align our ranks equally.

In short, it means I will give you a ride on the Dungpa bus.

To be honest, there are few adventurers who can join the party other than me, and there is no way to build up achievements if we leave it alone.

Since I couldn’t even guess when the Dungpa would appear, I had no choice but to raise it myself unless I cut ties.