Chapter 3

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"...Something is weird after all."

After finishing today's business at the Adventurers' Guild, I headed back to my home.

But today was full of strange happenings.

Since I have woken up, I have only seen female adventurers at the reception desk, and not a single male adventurer.

And it wasn't just adventurers. The staff of the Adventurers' Guild had also changed, and the guildmaster and I were the only two men in the guild. The rest of the staff were all women.

The attitude of the female staff were also somewhat strange.

The female staff members were so concerned for him that when I was carrying heavy luggage, they would say, 'Ryu, I'll carry that!' or 'I'll carry it. By the way, do you want to go out for a drink afterward?'

Does my complexion look so bad that the female staff members cared so much about me? Should I go to the temple once to receive healing magic?

Well, I did collapse in the appraisal room and had some weird dreams. I wonder if I was under a lot of stress without realizing it.

"Speaking of dreams, I had dreamt about a fairy and things went crazy ever since."

I remember what that fairy said in my dream.

She said something about invoking magic to make me irresistible to the opposite sex.

I guess it was just a dream. I don't feel like I'm becoming irresistible at all.

I nodded to myself along the way.

That's right, it's been a while since I've been able to go home on time today, and it's still early. I might as well have have a few drinks for a change before continuing home.

With that decided, I turned away the main street into a street closer to the entertainment district. I walked down the street to a bar and inn that I sometimes stop by.

It was still early in the day, so the street was quiet. I stopped in front of the tavern I was looking for called 'The Silver Branch" and pushed its old, heavy oak door.

The door opened with a squeaking noise as the bell run.

"Welcome!" a middle-aged woman greeted.

Huh? Is her husband not the bar-keeper today?

Well, that's alright. Let's sit at the counter for now.

"Ah!"

Suddenly, I felt like I heard a familiar voice.

I looked in the direction of the voice, and, to my surprise, there was two women from the Rose Queens party sat at a table in the back of the restaurant: the red-haired female warrior and the silver-haired Elvish archer.

It was the female warrior who raised her voice.

They seemed to be having a drink alone, perhaps after exploring the dungeon. I greeted them by slightly bowing before sitting down on a stool at the counter.

As I sat, I wondered what to order.

But what the heck? This bar is usually full of men, but now it is full of women; just like in the guild. Thanks to this, I'm getting a lot of attention, which made me feel a little uncomfortable.

I wonder if they started a Ladies' day today.

"Hey, hey, Carla!" Someone shouted from the direction where two of the Rose Queens party were sitting earlier.

What is this, a fight?

I curiously turned my head to their direction, only to see that the female warrior from earlier had just stood up from the table with a clatter.

Then she spun around, and, for some reason, came straight at me.

"H-Hey…"

"Hey, Carla, you'd better not ...!" It was the Elvish archer who yelled.

That means that the female warrior's name is Carla.

Carla walked toward me, sat down next to me, and greeted me awkwardly. And the elf who followed behind her held her head with a look of regret on her face.

"Iris, don't interrupt me!　He's a guy who was nice to an ugly girl like me, maybe there's a chance, right?"

'He's a guild official; he's supposed to be sociable! Come one, I knew you drank too much, Carla. I can see you getting hurt again!"

"I told you before to take every opportunity!" Carla said. "Go away, Iris."

"It won't do you any good if you get crushed!" the elf retorted.

"Uh, um...?"I was not sure what was going on, so I called out to Carla and the elf.

However, Carla seemed to have drank a lot as the aroma of alcohol wafted from her lips as she sat beside me.

The elf, with a worried look on her face, compromised and reluctantly returned to the table where she had been.

"H-Hey. Um… are you finished with your work already?"

"Yes, I'm done for the day. Umm... Carla, right? Have you been to the dungeon of the hungry wolves yet?

"I just went to check it out for today," she replied. "Oh, owner, give him a ale over here, will you?"

Eh?

I was having a hard time understanding what was going on, and while we were talking, Carla somehow ordered ale for me and even handed over the coins for the ale to the waitress.

"I'm sorry, I can't believe I made you order one for me too…" I said embarrassingly.

"No, it's okay." She shook her head. "I'd like to make a toast if you don't mind." Carla smiled, albeit a little awkwardly, and pointed her own mug at me.

I couldn't have wished for more. I picked up the ale that had been brought to me by the waitress and clinked my mug with Carla's.

What a nice woman she is from the Rose Queen party.

They are an S-rank party, and yet she's buying drinks for a single, humble guild employee.

I've heard that the higher the rank of adventurer, the more difficult the character of the person becomes, but she has an amazing personality. I think I'm going to be a fan.

But if there's something to worry about, then it would be that Carla would steal glances at my body, then lick her lips as if she was actually devouring me.

I am also concerned that my fellow elf, who is sitting far away from me at the table behind me, is looking at me with a harried expression on her face.

Despite that, I continued talking with Carla.

Being an S-rank party from the royal capital, her story was very interesting. As someone who has been living in this rural town for all my life, her stories sounded like a dream.

Time has passed and we have exchanged three pints of ale.

Carla then opened her mouth to speak. "Oh, you know..."

"Hmm?" I tilted my head.

"I have a room upstairs, why… why don't we go there?" Her face went extremely red.

It was obvious that it was not because of the ale.

"No, no, no, no!　Look, I didn't mean anything weird! I… I just thought maybe we could go somewhere quieter to drink, instead of this noisy place!" She said in a fast manner.

"No problem." I smiled.

"Haha… of course… you don't want to be with an ugly woman like me… eh?" Carla stared at me with her eyes wide open.

And behind us, the elf also froze as she shouted, "What?!"

...Was that the wrong answer?

But it should be fine.

Because Carla, even though she was a nice person, was behaving too strangely. It was too strange.

She came twice to the reception desk to ask for a map, bought a humble guild employee like me a drink of ale, and even invited me upstairs to her room.

In other words, Carla probably has something she wants to discuss with me, a guild employee, in secret.

I guess that's why she kept acting awkward and tried to get me to come to her room.

If a simple virgin guy was in my position, then he might have mistakenly thought that Carla was interested in him.

But I am not just any virgin!

There is no way that a beautiful S-rank adventurer would invite a plain, boring guild clerk like me to her room unless the world turns upside down!　However, I don't dare to dream of such possibilities even if they simply happened in my dreams!

...I'm getting sad just saying it.

'"Huh, really?! That's good!"

"Yeah, it's alright." I waved my hand.

"O-Owner! Give me the room key, right now! Carla yelled to which the owner's wife hurriedly tossed the key and Carla caught it easily.

The owner's wife hurriedly tossed the key and handed it to Carla.

Was it such a desperate story?

Was there some kind of bad advanced-level monster outbreak in the dungeon of the hungry wolves?

I had to be on my toes and listen to what she had to say.

I made up my mind and urged Carla, "Well, let's go."

She nodded her head like a chicken pecking off seeds from the geound.

And—

"Lies... but why...?"

We went upstairs to the second floor, where the silver-haired elf, who remained alone in the bar, sent us off with a somewhat stunned expression on her face.