Chapter 60 – [Hero] An Unforgettable Night
“Oh, how fast? Do you have any plans to continue working here?”
“Ah, haha… Thanks for the suggestion, but…”
“I’ll double your daily wage, how about it?”
The owner of the store put his big hand on my shoulder with his eyes shining.
I couldn’t help but laugh awkwardly.
It is said that there is no one who hates receiving compliments, but I was actually in a state of being a bit shy.
That’s not what I did…
The owner licked his lips, perhaps half-seriously, and went back into the store to take his next order.
Then, a transparent water spirit quietly raised its head from the basin.
“Thank you.”
Even if he didn’t understand what I was saying, he said thank you.
Actually, it is this guy who is washing the dishes now, not me.
The spirit of Uni called before work.
In many ways, it would be better for Uni to wash the dishes, but I ended up changing it because I was really bad at serving customers.
Uni is the daughter of the village chief, so she was good at talking to people and matching their mood.
As an orphan in the countryside, I’m really bad at such things. Before he became a hero, he was really a useless kid.
“Oh.”
While thinking about something else for a while, the spirit dispersed into the water again.
It’s a big deal. Should I call again?
If you do it yourself, you will never be able to get it right in time.
However, in order to summon the spirits, you must use Yuni’s Spiritual Art.
I quietly got up and looked around the store.
Yuni was busily going around her table with a glass in each of her hands.
How could she carry two such large glasses in one hand?
Maybe it was because banquets were often held at the village chief’s house, but she was so natural that it was hard to believe that she was a rookie.
And the people in the bar seemed to prefer having a woman serve them rather than having a man serve them.
Surely you won’t do anything strange to Uni?
I watched people with a hawk’s eye.
“Heh heh! She’s like my daughter, so cute!”
“If my daughter were alive, she would have been just like a lady…”
“Oh, and the palace again. Just have a drink, man!”
As I listened quietly, the men seemed to see me as cute, just like their own daughters.
Phew, good luck
I let out a sigh of relief.
If something happens, Yuni will tell you of course, but what can she do if she is still anxious?
“Eric, are you still far away!”
“Oh, yes! I’ll be right there!”
That’s a big deal, when are we done with this?
It seems that I have no choice but to call the spirits.
I apologized to Yuni in my heart and waited for her hand to be empty.
If you do it while holding something, you might startle and drop it.
“Hey! Eh, Eric… ?”
Sorry uni!
Promising to apologize to her later, I quickly asked her spirit to wash her dishes.
It was so fast that it was incomparable to humans.
“Whew, I was really surprised, Eric.”
“Sorry… Stop because there is no time.”
After receiving our wages, we were heading back to our lodgings.
Walking alone in the middle of the capital city, I somehow felt sentimental.
I never thought the day would come when I would walk around the capital with Uni.
I couldn’t have imagined it when I was in town.
Yuni is also the daughter of the village headman, and she was the prettiest girl in the village, so she was popular among boys my age.
When we were young, we used to run around the village together without knowing anything, but there was a high wall between me, her orphan, and her, the daughter of the village chief.
Uni and her village chief didn’t mind that, but the villagers didn’t.
“Eric?”
“Oh, yes, sorry. What?”
“Are you thinking about the old days again?”
How did know?
When I opened my eyes, Yuni quietly took my hand.
“You look bad.”
“Ah… Sorry.”
“It wasn’t always bad things. Happy things, happy things. It’s not enough to live thinking only of those things, so can we just think of melancholy?”
A slightly self-deprecating laugh escaped her consolation.
You are always comforted by her.
“Is that what Master said again?”
“Oh, how did you know?”
Uni was startled as if she thought she wouldn’t be found out.
That’s right, there’s no way Yuni would say such a plausible thing.
We looked at each other and smiled.
On the way back to the lodging, our pleasant memories settled down.
“Oh, Eric. Come on.”
“Hero, welcome.”
Upon entering the dorm, Seria and Arin greeted us.
“What about Mr. Jeren?”
“He hasn’t come yet.”
He comes home late these days. He’s been working late, I heard.
Is money so low?
As a temporary hired porter, he had no need or reason to be involved in our party’s finances.
He also said he was saving money and was sharing the same lodging as us, but the money he worked and earned was up to him.
“Are you two dating again? I envy you, really.”
“Hey, it’s not a date! You came to work!”
Yuni waved her hand and denied it with her red face.
Date… Actually, it felt just like that.
I was also embarrassed and sat down at the table, coughing and clearing my throat.
Then an unfamiliar scent tickled my nose.
Oh, what is this?
It’s a scent I’ve never smelled before.
As I sniffed, Seria awkwardly looked away.
Ceria? Is this the scent of Seria’s body?
“… I just changed it once. Is this weird?”
In the past, she smelled of her strong rose, but now, how to say, a faint fragrance wafts from her.
It’s a slightly different image from Seria so far, but it still suits her.
“I think it’s good.”
“That, is it? Eric too… You like it.”
“Huh?”
“Oh, no.”
Seria kept crossing her legs with a nervous expression and then untied hers.
“There are two days until the audience, right?”
“Yeah, but is it okay if I wear my clothes like this?”
Functionally, there is no problem, but I was a little worried about whether it would be okay with such a loose outfit as I was meeting the highest king in the country.
“Are you okay. The fact that she didn’t say much when I first asked for an audience means that there is no big problem as it is.”
After hearing Arin’s words, she felt a little relieved.
“Did everyone have dinner?”
“No, we are not yet.”
“Oh sorry. I ate”
It seemed that only Seria had eaten dinner first.
“With that professor?”
“Huh. She is a well-educated person, so she is helping me a lot in many ways.”
Seria nodded her head at Uni’s question.
Seria was looking for information about her imprinting magic in her magic tower, and she met Professor Lue, she says.
She’s a really smart person, so lately Seria has been following her around and learning a lot from her.
It seems that we are receiving personal instruction besides the emblems engraved on us, both of which are welcome.
“Have you learned anything new?”
“… It’s probably a guess, but it’s highly likely that it’s working through emotions…”
“Emotion?”
Perhaps it was my mistake, Seria’s face looked slightly red.
“Therefore… If you look at the approach of imprint magic, this is a structure in which the power of the ‘slave’ flows into the ‘master’…”
Master. Slave.
It’s an embarrassing word to hear.
But, she says, it’s just an academic term, according to Seria.
Originally, it was a concept that came from studying the patterns of Inma, so it was unavoidable.
Still, I can’t help but feel a bit uncomfortable listening to it.
It’s not that they’re slaves, or that I’m the master.
It’s just that we’re calling it that because our pattern is similar to the structure in which the master, Inma, absorbs the power of slaves.
Even though she knew it, her face was still slightly frowned.
“… They said that what connects the two is likely to be a spiritual bond.”
“Then you’re saying that if we have a closer relationship with the hero, our strength may increase?”
“You said it might be…”
Seria, who finished her words and twisted her hair, had a complex looking face.
After all, she is also a slave and what. She must be ashamed to say such a thing.
I decided to stop talking about this out of consideration for her Seria.
“Okay, I think this is enough, so let’s stop here for today. We’re having dinner. Seria?”
“I will go up first.”
Seria said that and she got up first.
Instead of having dinner, we ate tasteless soup at the inn, and Mr. Jeren returned around the time we finished dinner and went up.
Female Jin sleeps in a triple room, and I sleep in a narrow single room.
Mr. Jeren is using a single room by paying for a separate room from us.
In that narrow single room, I woke up from a nightmare.
“Ugh…”
It was a bad dream.
It was a dream in which something precious was taken away, but I don’t remember what it was about.
It must have been a pretty bad dream, seeing as his back was wet with cold sweat.
I didn’t feel like lying down again, and I was thirsty, so I decided to go down to the first floor for a while.
The water bottle was there, so drink that and go back to sleep.
As I carefully stepped down the stairs, which were so worn out that they screamed every time I stepped on them, I saw something in the shape of a person sitting on a chair in the dark.
Ear, is it a ghost?
My body froze involuntarily as I remembered the scary stories I had heard in the past.
“… What’s up, Eric?”
The ghost spoke to me in the same voice as Seria’s.
No, it wasn’t a ghost, it was just Seria.
“Phew, it must have been Seria. What are you doing at this hour?”
“Yes, yes… He just broke it in the middle… What about Eric?”
“I’m also losing sleep, so I’m just going to drink some water.”
Saying that, I fumbled for the water bottle again.
It’s dark so I can’t see well.
“Huh… Ooh, it’s just the two of us.”
“Huh? Yes.”
There is no way the innkeeper will be awake by this time.
You must be sleeping in your room already.
Same goes for other guests. Few people wake up in the middle of the night like this.
Even if there is, is there anyone else besides us who dares to come down on a dark night like this?
Then, I suddenly became puzzled.
Why is Seria doing this here?
Your voice seems to be shaking a bit.
“Ah, that… Everyone is sleeping but noisy… Yes, no, I’m afraid I’ll get in the way…”
“Hindrance? What?”
“… Oh, nothing.”
What?
She wondered, but if she didn’t want to talk, she didn’t want to pry.
I set aside my curiosity and went back to the water bottle.
Oh, is this?
Seeing that the handle of the gourd is caught, it seems to be correct.
“… Eric, can you see me now?”
“Uh? No?”
“Ah… That’s right…”
The words he said behind him were so low that he could hardly be heard.
I glanced around in the direction she was, but I couldn’t see her because it was so dark.
I couldn’t tell anything apart from the fact that a person was there.
If I hadn’t said anything, she would have run away thinking it was really a ghost.
She was quiet, so I turned her head and took a sip of water from the bucket with a gourd.
The water was lukewarm, but it was enough to quench my thirst.
After walking for a while, the unpleasant feeling quickly subsided, and I felt like I could sleep comfortably if I went back now.
As I turned to go back up the stairs, I almost screamed as something hugged me out of the blue.
“Wow… Uh, what? Seria?”
“Eric…”
She was holding me
It didn’t look like they were hugging from behind, but this strange scent was her new scent.
Seria was whispering in my ear with a sweet voice that seemed to melt.
“Hey, hey, Seria… That… I’m reaching…”
Busy, busier.
She was rubbing my back as she hugged me tight.
Apparently, she wasn’t even wearing underwear, so the soft touch was transmitted to my back.
“Seria… Are you sick?”
“… Ha.”
I was naturally agitated, but I was worried that it was not normal for her to do this.
Could it be that he has a fever or that’s why he collapsed as if he was being hugged by me?
“Eric… I know you hate things like this… Sorry.”
She kept rubbing my back with her own breasts, letting out her sweet groans.
I awkwardly stood with my hands half-raised, not knowing how to react.
“Ha… Can’t you help me… ?”
“Uh, how?”
To my question, she answered in a weeping voice, burying her face in my neck.
“Me, calm me down…”
