Leave a comment

After that, our work ended without further issues.

Lange had been away during the incident, so we talked with Mark and decided to keep what happened a secret.

If this was a corporation, we had to notify the superiors and think of preventive measures, but us Adventurers were our own bosses.

We could just decide how to handle it ourselves and proceed with it from now on. Those who couldn’t come up with anything would be braving the risk at their own responsibility.

We finished the roof repairs at dusk, then spilled water on and confirmed that there was no more leakage.

Lange witnessed that and finally paid us our compensation.

“Goodness, I never thought you would finish work at such a high altitude in a day. As expected, Adventurers really can deal with various situations.”
“Well, we are professionals after all.”

I puffed my chest and answered at Lange’s flattery.

This work was given to us through Gadius, so we had to show that we were dependable so that we would get more work in the future.

If he knows that we can deal with various situations, he would give priority to Gadius’ store next time.

That would be beneficial not just for us but for any new Adventurers that would come to our inn from now on.

Once we parted with Lange, Mark apologized to me once again as we were heading to our respective inns.

“Sorry about what I said in the morning. I belittled you based on your appearances.”
“Can’t be helped. Finia is a beauty, and I’m just a kid.”
“Lady Nicole, could you not declare me as a beauty at every chance you get?”
“It’s the truth, though?”

How should I put it, Finia had this aura of a prided junior around her. She could use magic, sword, and even started to master the spear lately. Adventurers who could be entrusted with short and mid-range combat areas were extremely valuable.

On top of her skill, she had a lovely appearance and dainty build. If she didn’t have me and Michelle as comrades, she would have been the talk of the town.

“Um, if you aren’t against it, we could go and celebrate this later…”
“Sorry, but we shall pass. Finia and another comrade of mine get frequently invited so we have to stay impartial.”
“No, I didn’t have such ulterior motives! We just recognized your skill, so we…”
“I know. But there are other Adventurers’ gazes to consider too.”

We just arrived at Gadius’ inn. It would be a bit of a pain if some strange rumors started to spread about us.

Actually, if there were strange rumors when Lyell shows up here, I could see that creating problems for our Adventurer activities.

I had to ban us from getting familiar with men for some time.

“Was that a good thing to do?”

Finia nervously asked while we were on the way to our inn after parting with Mark’s group. She seemed confused about what I did earlier.

“What was?”
“I mean Mark’s group. They are still senior Adventurers in this town, so maybe we should’ve let them save face?”
“Well, you have a point. But what do you think would happen if dad got to know that we were with men in a city under Gadius’ supervision?”
“That… would not end well.”
“Right?”

I smiled and walked one step ahead of her.

Then I twirled around and continued our conversation as I walked backwards.

“If you want to avoid dad’s onslaught, you better limit interacting with men to the utmost too, Finia. You’re even more sheltered than me, so you have to be careful.”
“Now that’s pushing it too far. I am not as sheltered as Lady Nicole!”
“Really now?”

In the first place, I had my past life experience too, and I was originally a man. I would say that my guard for that stuff was impregnable.

But Finia was an orphan girl who grew up in the company of children. Her experience with men was practically nonexistent.

I think it would be quite difficult for her to handle the men who want to woo her.

“Ah, Nicole’s here! Heey!”

As we were talking, a boundlessly cheerful voice called my name. It belonged to Michelle, the number two beauty that gave me just as many worries.

In her case, the problem was that she was young enough not to notice those ulterior motives of the men.

It really pained me to explain that filthy side of men to a pure girl like her.

Even if I had her avoid guys, she was working with Cloud all the time, and he was being quite suspicious lately too.

He was at that age so I could understand it, but it just added to my worries.

“Sigh, it’s like I’m a mother here.”
“You, Lady Nicole? I think you are the handful one here.”
“So even you started saying what’s on your mind.”
“Well, you give me a lot of worries lately.”
“Hey, you’re not supposed to say that aloud.”

Michelle dashed towards us with all her strength. But the sun was already setting and the streets had a dim shadow cast on them.

She couldn’t see as well as me in the dark, so she tripped on the bump in the road and did a head-first slide.

Fortunately, her guardian didn’t force her to wear a skirt unlike me, so she wore leggings now. Thanks to that, Cloud behind her failed to see her panties.

On the other hand, the shape of her butt was in vivid sight, so it had its merits and demerits.

To prove that, Cloud was pinching his nose and looking the other way. But I could still see him stealing glances at it.

“Oweee…”
“Michelle, you should also be more careful.”
“Since you say ‘also’, I assume something happened on your side too?”
“Finia was almost hit on.”
“Ahaha, big sis Finia is pretty after all!”
“Not that! Lady Nicole fell off the roof.”
“Sounds like her.”

Michelle nodded instantly at Finia’s protest. Well, I didn’t have any noticeable injury, so she wouldn’t be so worried.

“You’re convinced there!? Aren’t you kinda rude there, Michelle?”
“Well, it’s you we’re talking about here, Nicole.”
“Oh, Michelle, you smell of bread.”
“Yeah. We did work in a bakery after all. It was tasty.”
“Still, the shop employees were taken aback when she ate five whole loaves of bread they offered us for lunch.”
“They said I could eat as much as I wanted to.”

Cloud quickly informed us as he followed after her. Saying such needless things was why he was so unpopular. Have some more self-awareness dude.

A real man should speak with his character, not words. That’s why my past self was popular. Though I only found that out just recently.

We talked about our respective works as we headed home. The biggest incident that happened was me falling, and everything else went smoothly.

The bakery uncle took a liking to Michelle and reserved them for the next job too.

This way, our first work in Stollar was finished without a hitch.

Michelle was already going popular, so she should get familiar with this city soon.