Chapter 89 Party

"Ow, ow, ow… owie!" With that, the goofy lady appeared, rubbing her behind with a hand, and left her goofy entrance at that for now. The girl's butt fell flat on the earth, pressed between her two folded legs, the pain made her furrow her brow. Realizing she had passed through, she looked up with embarrassment, scratched the back of her head awkwardly, and slightly bowed her head, for no more than a second, to the stiff commander. The sight of her made me chuckle and smile. Why, because she happened to be as charming as goofy a babe. The commander didn't think like me, though. Too much was definitely too much. He had had enough. Still, he held his irritation in finely.

Commander Man, decidedly in charge of what happened, promptly held a hand out to the clumsy babe. I thought he was about to speak to her as he had spoken to me, but he didn't, and instead ended up sternly eyeing me again from the corner of his eyes. He seemed to have an idea of what was happening now. The commander's searching eyes jumped back on the lady, then back to me again. I tilted my head, as if asking him what the long call was for, and his expression aggravated. Keeping at it, his eyes darted back and forth between me and the lady as he squinted.

When the adventurer woman moved up, both I and the commander forgot each other and looked at her instead. She brought one thin arm in front of the other, gently caressing the grass of the earth, then pushed herself up. As I didn't know her name for now, I decided to go with Babe. Babe Goof. Being true to her name, the charming lady got up but nearly tripped over herself again.

With difficulty and waving her arms all around her, she managed to chase away the momentaneous lack of balance seizing her and her goofy persona again. What did she do next? A bow of her head to the commander.

That apologetic bow, just like the one she performed earlier, still lacked the solemnity it should have, but the commander seemed to accept it. The commander was still silent and stern, but he seemed to have been pleased by the apology, at least a little.

After she apologized, the babe dusted off her adventurer's clothes all over herself, particularly insisting on her shapely behind, tapping the dust off her rear repeatedly. After she rearranged her blond hair, she at last formally apologized to the commander for her rudeness and intrusion, before she looked at me… and shook her head dismissively, like an older sister scolding her kid brother.

So she wasn't all about goofiness, was she? Still, I didn't have time to think about why the human female acted this way. And what was more, I had been hypnotized. The next task on her schedule was to put her two long, curvaceous legs to display as she walked up to me. Grinning at not particularly anyone, I was way too absorbed by her delish parade—

The next thing I knew, the babe firmly seized me by the arm, bowed to the commander again, making me bow, too, and apologized so loudly. "We're very sorry for the inconvenience, sir!" My head was pressed and forced downward as she spoke thus.

But wait… what was that turn of events? There was a problem here—no, many problems, even. But let's just focus on one of these—the problem was, I wasn't "very sorry" for whatever inconvenience I caused. What was more, who the hell was that adventurer person?

Did she force her way past the wall to make me apologize alongside her, now that I think about it? That's what it sounded like. Bow to a human? Did I have to do that? I wasn't weak, please. If anything, the human babe should be bowing to me along with the commander.

Sure, that had to be a joke. Nevertheless, the babe spoke up again. She repeated the same line of apology. Namely that both she and I were very sorry for the inconvenience of my actions. The smoke signals had been delivered, yet, some adventurer was foolish enough to still found himself on the wrong side of the battlefield.

Yes, that foolish someone was supposed to be me. Did I really do something so grave and wrong? I really didn't think so, and as I had said, I was just a passerby, so their regulations didn't really apply to me… not that I could tell them that. If I wasn't an adventurer, what was I exactly? Also, why was I found on the battlefield? Impossible, don't tell me I was an enemy?

As all these thoughts flashed through my mind, the babe's hand was still firmly latched onto my left arm as she forced me downward to apologize with meager strength. And it might have been presumptuous of me, but I was arrogant and thought the "all powerful me" was never to bow my head to anyone, not to ever mention a human person of the human races who had always been, up until today, my natural enemy.

That's how it would be very easy from this point on: The strength with which I was forced downward was so meager and weak I could easily brush the adventurer lady's hand off my arm, let her be stabbed by the monster in the guts, then turn my animosity toward the big soldier, and put him down too, before I was done with my problems— Thankfully, I was stopped before I could go about any such drastic actions. I was stopped twice.

First off, I remembered what the old advisor would tell me, right now. I had to think ahead before acting so rashly. The second thing that stopped me was the System.

Ring!

❮ "Learning the ropes of the job!" New Voluntary Quest has been acquired! ❯ And the System spoke. What did the Player do? He had been projecting to become an adventurer. This was just the right occasion—after helping adventurers on the battlefield, the Player had gained the sympathy of a certain newbies' Party which the Player saved.

After I had disobeyed the law, I was the one to be helped then, by one of the same Party's members. ❮ — Follow your savior past the soldier formation and make the acquaintance of her group of friends and adventurers. 0/1 ❯ The quest's detail finished by saying who knew what I could expect from this supposed random encounter in the future? Well.

That's how it all happened. It had been less than a minute since we bowed. The adventurer lady was a beauty, and as I had seen beforehand, she wasn't all about being goofy. When she first appeared, she wasn't elegant, formal, and proper at all. At present, she might have been the opposite of that. By now, as she saw I wasn't trying to get off anymore, her grip on my arm loosened.

And the situation might have been worse than I thought. Was not abiding by the rules that grave a crime? I know it wasn't my place to say, but couldn't they all relax? I did nothing so wrong. Still, it seemed like whatever sin I had committed wasn't the kind to be forgotten with light apologies with no consequences. Really, I didn't know much about the Outside World, so I couldn't tell.

That didn't change the fact that the situation seemed to be tenser than I imagined. As a matter of fact, I didn't know whether she was simply the easily frightened type, but she trembled all over, even though it was only the slightest shaking. The girl's shoulder-length blond hair fell in front of her as she kept her head down. After a silence on her part, she gulped and went back at it.

"M-My young friend here isn't… This won't be happening again, I can assure you, sir!"

Not knowing what to do, I stayed put and bowed my head down with my babe adventurer lady. I mean, I was already bowing, but I decided to go on with the flow. Whatever the goofy lady would do, I'd follow. I was still a monster, after all. If I started raising fusses everywhere I went, that would be bad for my cover.

People could still find out I wasn't human thanks to the nature of my aura, after all. So if anyone ever suspected me even a little, maybe I was screwed. Maybe, right. And since there was a possibility, I decided not to overplay my luck.

"...Sorry for causing trouble, sir."

Just like that, we were excused. More like I was excused, though. Before we took off, the lady's hand was chopped on top of my head reproachfully, and I was slightly told off. "What were you thinking, boy?! …What were you still doing out here? If it weren't for what you did for us on the battlefield, I wouldn't be risking my hunter's license for this, you understand? Come, follow me!"

I did do something wrong, after all. The commander seemed satisfied. Before long, we passed again through the soldier-wall, and… "Whoa~"