3 bar menu

Chapter 19 Part 1

【Hero’s Party Side】Emmy: When You Don’t Realize You Actually Have More When You Think You Have Enough, And Now You Can’t Take It Back After Realizing What Was Lacking

 

Even though I don’t feel like doing anything else for the rest of the day, Vince insists that we should go exploring the dungeon.

That’s because of the conversation we had with Katie-san earlier.

 

Back at the restaurant, after eating her meal and finishing her dessert, Katie-san stood up from her seat and once again asked us.

 

『By the way, are you not going to recruit a Priest after all?』

 

Certainly, she did tell us about the problem with 【Sage leaning to Sorcerer】, but I just don’t understand why she’s so stuck up on the fact we need a Priest.

Katie-san definitely looks like she knows a lot of things, but from what I see, she doesn’t seem to be a veteran adventurer.

Besides, no matter how inferior Jannet is to a Priest when it comes to learning healing magic, her 【Sage】 level is already very high.

At the very least, I feel like it would be unacceptable to hire another Healer after we kicked Russel out of our party, regardless of whether we really need a Priest or not.

Because if we do… then what’s the point of Russell leaving the party in the first place?

 

Of course, Vince objected. It’s as if he’s trying to deny the fact that he kicked out our Healer from the party… or more like, he already did, sort of.

But Vince probably doesn’t want Katie-san to hate him, so he didn’t tell her that he kicked Russell out. Well, Katie-san is beautiful and she has big assets, so it’s not surprising for him to aim for her.

But even with all that, he can’t seem to stand that she implied his decision to kick a Healer, Russell, out of the party was wrong.

 

『I’ll show you that we can breeze through a dungeon even without a Healer!』

 

And so, we decided to let Katie-san——thanks to Vince’s enthusiastic persuasion——join our party for the dungeon exploration this time.

 

We explored the dungeon for a while, and I found out that Katie-san is a very knowledgeable woman and a very capable 【Mage】.

I wonder why such a beautiful person is working solo.

 

Is it a problem with men?

Or could she be a party crasher?

A beautiful woman like her sure have it easy since they can easily get whatever they want.

Well, I’m sure she must have had her share of hardships too because of her beauty.

 

As I was thinking about that, we have just now arrived at the eighth floor of the middle layer, which is the one we talked about in the restaurant earlier.

 

「Still, to think I would have the chance to form a party with the Hero Party, how wonderful!」

 

「Hehe, I know you do. Katie, you can stay with us forever if you want, you know?」

 

「Ah, a monster is coming this way!」

 

「Tsk, how annoying!」

 

As expected Vince isn’t so insane as to ignore the monsters attacking us to keep hitting on Katie-san. Though he’s insane enough to keep making advances on me and Jannet when we’re inside the dungeon.

 

I sat down next to Jannet, looking at the two of them huddled together in exasperation.

 

「I didn’t think he was this aggressive before. How should I put it… now he’s much more… unrestrained if that explains it.」

 

「……Russell.」

 

「Eh…!?」

 

I was surprised when Jannet suddenly uttered that name.

 

「W-w-what about Russell?」

 

「He wasn’t as aggressive with making advances towards women because Russell was here. Same with the stares and stuff.」

 

「Huh? Ah…」

 

When she mentioned the stares, I immediately understood.

This is something that Jannet, who had always been observing all of us from a third-person perspective, noticed.

Vince didn’t stare at women as much when Russell was there.

And also, strangely enough, the men didn’t perceive him as a womanizer.

 

The only time he blatantly stares with lust is when he’s alone with a woman.

 

This kind of 『hidden carnivore』 behavior was also the cause of a major difference between Vince’s reputation with men and women.

Even when the women said, 『I can’t stand being around Vince』, most men would think that it’s because Vince is a hot-headed person who’s quick to raise a fuss, not because he’s a lustful pervert who can’t keep his eyes off of women’s chests.

 

「He also steals glances at me today after a long while, and he’s taking me for a fool if he thinks I didn’t notice. He’s lucky I’m a 【Sage】, which is a rearguard job because if I were a Vanguard like him, I would’ve just cut him down.」

 

「Y-You sure can say something so dangerous, huh…」

 

「It was really obvious what he was thinking when he was staring at me, after all.」

 

Well, yeah. As a fellow woman, I can very much understand where she’s coming from.

There’s so much difference in our proportion in certain parts that I’m starting to wonder if she really has eaten the same things I have. I do think it’s a bit unfair, but I kept it a secret from her.

This is also why Jannet wears less revealing clothes. However, Russell and Vince who were always together with us, obviously know this.

 

「Good grief… my breasts aren’t magnets, you know?」

 

「Eh?」

 

「When I intentionally give it a shake, you see… Russell and Vince’s eyes move in circles at the same time, but in opposite directions, you know?」

 

「Ah…ahaha…ha…」

 

I kind of understand that.

Russell is the type of boy who’s reserved and shy, so being around him feels very comfortable. Vince, on the other hand, even though he turned his face away, his eyes would still keep staring.

Their personalities are so different despite them growing up together.

 

As we are having this conversation, I feel like we’re talking about something that already happened a long time ago… and I can’t help but ask.

 

「……It just hit me now but… Russell is really no longer here, huh?」

 

「Un.」

 

「I heard Jannet was in favor of kicking Russell out of the party, but… Can I ask why?」

 

「Russell’s level is too low. And because your 『Job Level』 directly affects your durability, if we fight against a mid-level boss, there is a high risk he will be killed instantly by the boss. I think… Russell is not suitable for dungeon exploration in a party, and since there’s still me here to Heal everyone, I think it will be better for him to leave.」

 

「…..I see.」

 

As I thought, Jannet was just concerned about Russell.

She keeps turning her face away while talking about it, but that’s probably because she’s embarrassed.

 

「But, from what Katie-san said——」

 

「Hey guyyysss——! We found a room with a treasure chest in it! It’s quite a big one too! Jannet!」

 

「Un, coming.」

 

Vince, who was walking ahead of us, cut off our conversation with his voice.

The reason he called her is because examining traps is the role of the 【Sage】, Jannet.

 

Replacing Jannet, Katie-san came over to me.

 

「Fufufu, this is so much fun!」

 

「Really? I apologize if it seems like our Vince is being rude and acting too familiar… or just plain annoying.」

 

「Huh? Ah… yes. I’m not particularly concerned about that. You know what they say, boys will be boys, no matter how old they are.」

 

Yep, that settles it, Katie-san is definitely a very nice person. That, and she’s also definitely a party crasher without the person herself realizes.

Any party with more than two guys will fall apart in no time if she’s there.

 

「Certainly, Vince-san is so aggressive to the point it makes him look desperate, but that part of him is adorable, don’t you think? You know, I hear someone who looks up to heroes, and surrounds themselves with talented women and loves them as the other Heroes did, is more likely to become a 【Hero】.」

 

「What?」

 

「Now, let’s just put that aside, more importantly, I wanted to talk to Emmy-san more.」

 

「Umm, that’s… it’s an honor, I guess… although I don’t think that anything about myself is particularly interesting.」

 

「The fact that you still react like that while having a job as great as the 【Holy Knight】 is already pretty fascinating.」

 

Ugh, Katie-san still likes to randomly praise me, after all.

But well, it doesn’t feel so bad I guess.

I just feel a little guilty that she has such a high opinion of me for a Job that I just happened to get by chance.