Arc 2 - Chapter 12: A Quiet Conversation (2/3)

"So this is the adventurers' guild."

"Uh... You're soaked," Luice interrupted Yu's thoughts again. She handed Yu two towels and continued talking. "You'll get sick if you walk around like this, come on."

"People say that, but I've never seen anyone get sick because they got wet in the rain."

Of course, he didn't think like 'if I haven't seen it, then it doesn't exist,' but he had never actually seen anyone sick because of the rain.

He had always loved walking in the rain and he had never been sick at the end of a trip.

Despite his thoughts, he put Yurine down, fearing that she might be sick. He hung the jacket he gave her on the wall and threw his own towel over his shoulder to dry her hair.

"And when we get sick, can't Yurine cure us?"

"Healing magic is a strange thing, my magic can close wounds or comfort people, but it cannot cure diseases caused by microbes."

Yu was surprised that microbes were known in this world. People here were more knowledgeable than he had expected.

"So it's like you can save the day, but you can't eliminate the source of the problem?"

"You got it right, I appreciate you for getting it right, but don't get cocky."

Yu laughed and ruffled Yurine's hair with a towel.

"Sigh! I said don't get cocky!"

"Still, you shouldn't open the door to illness just because you'll get better later! Seriously, please don't be so irresponsible."

Lucie took the towel Yu had slung over his shoulder and began to dry his hair. As she did so, her long elf ears turned red.

"It will only hurt you more..." He didn't stop Lucie so that she wouldn't get upset, but he wasn't happy with the way things were now.

In fact, he liked the fact that a beautiful elf girl was interested in him and he could have continued to do so, but his conscience, which had been showing itself so often lately, had come into play here too.

He couldn't stay in Rolderhelm after defrauding people, he had to leave the country and then he had to leave Lucie behind. If he gave her hope now, Lucie would cry when that day came.

"So this is what the adventurers' guild is like, I was imagining a more crowded setting." He took the towel from Lucie and slung it over his shoulder again.

"It's usually a bit crowded at night after big missions, you know, to celebrate. Other than that, people are busy, so most of the time they stop by here to pick up quests and deliver them, and then come right back or go to their rooms and sleep. There's also the case of one in five adventurers never coming back by after receiving a mission, but that's another matter."

Lucia had also talked about adventuring in his early days here. From the people Yu had listened to, adventuring was not as fun as in the anime. At least not for people who didn't have trick-level powers.

The high-paying jobs in this profession were a gamble, and it was a question of whether the risk of death was worth the money. If the adventurer didn't die, he or she might get rich, but even coming back without dying was considered an achievement, and adventurers who went on such big, high-paying missions often didn't return.

Even seemingly simple tasks were dangerous. Whether it was raiding monster tunnels, protecting caravans from bandits or killing the evil creatures that haunted the village, casualties could be suffered.

Lucia even said that the highest mortality rate in the adventuring profession was on seemingly simple missions.

Yet the money was so sweet that people kept going on these missions, risking death. Some adventurers persisted in their current profession despite the risk of death because they felt they could not do anything else.

"Ah! What a sweet girl!"

As Lucie finished, a young girl rushed up to Yurine and knelt down. She was breathtakingly beautiful with silver hair and sea green eyes.

"Tch! What are you looking at?" Yurine pulled Yu hard towards her and put him on one knee. "Don't let strangers come near me like this!"

"Maybe they won't come close if you're in my arms." He picked Yurine up again and held her in his arms. Strangely, Yurine did not object.

"She's a bit rude, I just said she was sweet." The silver-haired girl smiled despite Yurine's rudeness.

"Hello, Sivina," Lucie said. Then she introduced the girl to Yu. "This is Dame Sivina Ecues, a knight from Elhaven."

"Yu Valarfin and Yurine Valarfin, we are pleased."

"I haven't seen you around for a while, Lucie," Sivina said.

"I've been working in other inns for a few days, and I got here before the rain started. Really, despite all the running around, there is still a lot of work to be done."

"I understand, good luck."

Lucie responded with a nod. Then she clasped her hands behind her back and glared at Yu and Sivina. The blonde elf prayed that she had no competition.

"It's raining like it's never going to stop." Sivina was a few centimeter shorter than Yu, and the girl who had just arrived was about ten centimeter shorter than Sivina. "Hello."

"Hello, Ana." Lucie was uncomfortable with the appearance of another pretty girl, but she took on the task of introducing her too. "This is Yu and Yurine Valarfin. Mr. Valarfin, this is Ana. From Sivina's party."

"Nice to meet you," Yu smiled.

Ana had light green hair and dark blue eyes. Sivina's face was more beauty and nobility than sweetness, while Ana's face was sweeter.

"She's so cute, is she your daughter?"

"Yes," Yu answered Ana's question by puffing out his chest.

"She's very, very sweet, isn't she?" said Sivina.

"But she seems a bit shy," Ana added.

Yurine buried her head in Yu's shoulder like she did when she was running in the rain. If she was the little girl she knew, she would have insulted Sivina and Ana by now, calling them stupid people, but today Yurine was calmer and closer to Yu than usual.

"Have you changed a bit? I'm surprised you haven't insulted them yet, well done Yurine."

"Shut up."

Yurine lifted her head from Yu's shoulder, turned to the open door and started watching the rain.

"It's not nice to let a little child insult people," Sivina said.

"You're right," Yu said.

He didn't want to try to explain to Sivina what Yurine was like. Yurine must have reminded Sivina of her mother because of her hair, so he stopped talking about Yurine. He was about to ask Lucie about the Redchapel when a boy appeared out of nowhere and put his face close to Yu's and Yu had to step back so that their heads wouldn't collide.

"Yo! Don't you even dare flirt with these girls when I'm not around!" The boy had black hair and light brown eyes, slant-eyed. "I know these methods, you're trying to flirt with girls using the child!"

Yu turned his head away from him, but when he continued to shout and bring his face closer, blowing his breath in Yu's face, Yu couldn't take it anymore and pushed the boy off his shoulder with his left hand.

"Are you trying to damage my eyes by suddenly revealing your ugly face and bringing it closer to me? Damn kopil, stay away."

He wiped the hand that had touched the boy on the door they were talking about, as if he had touched something disgusting and was trying to clean it.

"Yurine, I have to look at your sweet face for a while to make up for the damage to my eyes from the ugly thing I saw."

"Uh... I can understand that, so I'll give you permission."

Yurine pulled her head back a little and looked away as Yu looked at her with a smile.

"What level of rudeness is this!? You-"

"Shut up," Yurine said. "It hurts my ears to hear your ugly voice, low life thing."

Yurine's words made Yu, who was already smiling, chuckle.

"You!!!"

"Satoshi!" The boy moaned when Sivina grabbed Satoshi's ear and pulled. "Don't start another fight please. It's enough for one day."

"Satoshi? Uh... And he's wore a tracksuit."

Yu had a strange habit of avoiding directing his eyes to things he did not find aesthetic. He avoided looking at the boy because he found him ugly and didn't notice his clothes until his name was called.

He was wearing a gray tracksuit with white stripes and a black T-shirt. His slanted eyes gave enough information about his ethnicity. Satoshi was Japanese and came from a different world.

"How can we be speaking the same language with this child?"

Yu was not Japanese, he knew nothing about Japanese language except a few words he had heard in anime.

He studied Satoshi, his tracksuit were not worn out, he must have been in the Second World for a short time, so it was unlikely that he would have learned the language Yu spoke immediately.  Yu believed he had discovered something interesting, one or both of them didn't speak the same language as the other people who were here now.

"Maybe Turkish is his second mother tongue, but he looks one hundred percent Japanese." He didn't think he spoke the language of this world as his second mother tongue, nor did he believe he had the capacity to learn it in a short time. "Japanese people are smart, but this is one of those stupid anime characters. Cringe."

Yu used the alphabet of this country to confirm that the original language he spoke was the same as the language of this world. If a different language was used in this different world, Yurine would not have been able to read Yu's writing.

"I will consider the possibility that everything I say, hear, write and read is translated instantly to and from everyone, but that is a very remote possibility."

He did not believe he was wrong. He would be upset if he did not speak the same language as Yurine. "Are there other languages in this world? By using them, maybe we can solve this language paradox."

"I agree with Sivina on this."

Today Yu would not be allowed to think. Another elf appeared and interrupted his thoughts again.

"Big sister, welcome. Welcome to you too, Mr. Raul."

Lucie greeted her sister and the man who came with her.

"It would have been welcome if I hadn't encountered such an atmosphere as soon as I arrived," Lucia said.

"What did we expect from Satoshi? He didn't surprise us again," Raul said.

Satoshi must have repeated the same actions before, which was the attitude of the newcomers.

"I understand that you're protective of your friends, but they're adults, you don't have to look after them like children." Lucia must have understood, as Yu did, that Satoshi wanted to have a relationship with one of the two girls - whichever one. Anyone who saw him would have thought so, but Lucia tried not to make a big deal out of it and spoke as if Satoshi's intentions were different.

"I apologize," Satoshi said, bowing his head.

"Go easy on him, as uncomfortable as it is, it's understandable, I know because I've been in a few similar situations before. He saw me as a threat because my face was several hundred times above the average male handsomeness. He immediately bared his teeth so as not to lose the girls he liked to someone else. It's primitive thinking, a sign of mistrust of his partners. He also gives us an idea of his inner world by assuming that other people are like him."

After Yu's brief deduction, Yurine nodded. "A primitive creature, an animal, I agree."

"When you say that, it sounds like you're being racist."

"It is not racism to declare that people are inferior to my superiority, it is the truth."

"I would have been happy if you had at least said 'except you' to me."

"Hmph."

Lucie giggled. Raul turned to look at Yu with a grimace, as if preparing to defend Satoshi.

Raul also had black hair, but his eyes were round and green. Instead of a tracksuit, he wore light armor that allowed him to move freely. He could be called more handsome than Satoshi, but he was still far below Yu.

"Actually, more than far below. He can't get those girls with this face."

According to Yu, neither of them was handsome enough to stand next to Sivina or Ana.