Chapter 91 Babe

The girl probably gauged my reaction, she blinked twice and slowly tilted her head to the side, with a genuine smile, this time, building on her face. Her lips were pressed together, but she unsealed them and began to speak… but I cut her short right away.

"Say, what is it that you, er, is it rude if I say humans…?" I grimaced. "What is it that you people want with me, babe— You know, you and the bigger soldier out the walls. What was it that you wanted again?" As I had said earlier, at the time, the reasons for which both she and the general had stopped me were unclear. Sure, they spoke about smoke signals, restricted areas, and taking turns in fighting, but I was still a bit lost. That's why I asked.

Staring at me, the lady's grin gradually went down as many bits of different expressions flashed on her face so faintly. She tilted her head again and looked past me, thinking to herself, nodded, and was ready to speak—then again, I interrupted her.

This time, the clueless boy in front of her pinched her nose. "O-Ow!" The girl stood up and nearly tripped over herself, looked at me with confusion, and asked what the heck I was doing. When I ignored her and told the lady she had a pleasant face but couldn't beat my elven princess, she was seized by more confusion, didn't know whether to laugh or frown and ended up stifling a chuckle as she shook her head. I repeated my question to her: I asked her again what it was that the humans wanted with me.

The babe told me I was a weirdo through and through, slightly stooped to my height again, and brushed her blond hair behind her ear. "Listen up, kid," she said, squinted her eyes, "you don't look like you understand… do you?" I said no. "Well," she sighed, "at least you're being honest. What do we, me and the… general out there, want with you kid? You're so clueless you don't even ask the right question! See, if it weren't for the help you gave us back there—to me and my friends… Aaah, the orcs really are something else, though… We're sure going back to hunting goblins tomorrow! Be sure that, if not for your help, I would NOT have come out of my way just to save your sorry ass. Remember, you helped us take down that thick orc."

Well. Save my sorry ass. I didn't really listen to the lady, but she didn't dive into the useful info yet, I think. Oh well, even if she did, I was too lost in her beautiful facial features to be willing to pay attention to her.

My fingers pinched her nose, and this time, though quick she may have been to try and avoid the weird kid who she was lecturing, at present, I managed to pinch her cheek. This time, the girl didn't recoil back, but simply smiled wryly at me, muttered that I was too rapid, didn't take my pinching fingers off her red cheek, and instead pinched my cheeks, too, saying I would never beat her in a combat of awkwardness. I shrugged, and asked the lady about the fire signals, nearly calling her "babe" again.

"Actually, you win! Hands off of me, boy. That's another thing, you know…" A finger was pointed at me, and my hand was given back to me. I sure was glad I managed to get by easily enough socially. I was as cluelessly an awkward weirdo as usual, but I wasn't quite rejected.

Now, the adventurer lady lectured me some more, as she rubbed her red cheek before she muttered that, cute boy as I was, I couldn't pinch her so strongly. "And that's another thing. You can't go around calling some people you just met, that happen to be members of the opposite sex, 'babe,' you know!

"Is that the way you first introduce yourself to people, now, hm? Let me doubt it. That's rude. …Aaah, and don't give me those same clueless eyes again, my goodness… How clueless do you have to be? Well, you're sure still... what, a teen and all, but, hey, it's like you had no commonsense at all—you'll worry me, you know." And the worried lady continued on, talking mostly to herself and not the boy who she helped, saying she seriously just planned to get me out of trouble, but now she still bothered with me. "That's right: We owe you, so I'll… Well…"

"Signal," I curtly said, interrupting her. After the girl sighed, she leaned down to my height again, exposing her nude cleavage and good perfume. "What about the signal, ma'am?" She told me I didn't have to call her "ma'am" either, and after a lot of herself still goofily mumbling her thoughts about this and that matter that concerned me, she finally got down to explaining the stuff I inquired about.

We, monster-hunters, she said, weren't playing around here. Out in the battlefield, there were regulations we, adventurers, had to abide by. So, if we wanted to try ourselves out to this new kind of experience, this new unusual kind of quest, that asked us to participate in a certain battle, earn ourselves some kills, to then be eligible for a reward from the Guild Bureau, as we were adventurers and that "bureau" place was where we belonged, we had to take it upon ourselves to stick to the rules, here. When I went out by myself, or with my party, the rules of the battlefield were for us to decide: we basically decided how to go about our game. Right now was different. Adventurers here weren't playing around, but surprisingly, the babe said, I seemed to be playing around.

When she got to the part where I seemed to be playing around here, a proud smile climbed up my face, and I puffed out my chest with pride. "That's hardly a compliment, kid! Only fools play around."

"That's lies."

"That's not a lie. …But forget it. Like I said, it's pretty simple. Where's your party?"

"Where's… my party…?"

"Yes. You know, other party members and such. Don't you tell me you dropped by here all by yourself—there is no way you would be allowed. So, where are they? ...Okay, don't worry: I figured you didn't know."

I didn't have a party. Or maybe I did, but it was no official party. Also, said party was too far away from here. The old man probably returned to the place he had taken Cetha, my home and sickly elven princess, to.

"I mean, clueless as you sound, wandering out in the restricted area after the redfire was shot, I assume you have been separated. Am I wrong? Come to think of it, you were also all alone when you helped us back then, weren't you? Don't tell me…!" The lady's face became pale all at once, her eyes trembled ever-so-slightly. From her perspective, I had been separated from my party—that was from my group of friends, as most members of the same party inevitably grew a lot familiar with one another—and now I was all alone, even after the quest was supposed to end.

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The lady's face growing as worried and pale as it was, I fortunately didn't have time to be scared, too, thinking she might have found out I was a hidden monster. Well, most monsters can't even think to hide their nature in the first place, so that was that. Also, I quickly understood she thought my party members were deceased.

"No… That would be unlikely. Seeing how high-level you seemed, there is no way some senior veteran adventurers would fall here… Ahem. I'm sorry and don't worry, I'm sure they'll be okay." I shook my head at her, letting her know there was nothing of the sort, my party members wouldn't fall in combat, as they didn't even take part in the fight. Promptly, I was happy to see the girl's face regain its colors and liveliness at once, as she paused and smiled.

"Well, then if you want explanations, know that…" I must have already known all about what she told me, the adventurer lady said, but she told me nonetheless: After the signal, the redfire, was shot in the sky, and that meant three shots, the adventurers' time ran out. The greenfire allowed us to start with the issued quest about collecting orc heads, but then, to go along the military well, we had to stay organized, and that's how we were given times beforehand, somehow.

There was much more to the adventurer lady's explanation, regarding the logistics and details of how we had to fight in a timely manner. Anyway, now the hunt had long since been called off, but I was still on the battlefield, so as I already knew, she had to help me. The mages of the Guild, the ones in charge of signaling the beginning and end of the hunt, didn't have time to trouble themselves with the laggards, so, whenever I saw the redfire signal, I had better collect all my orc heads, pack everything up, and head back to the rear at once.

Now that she had explained to me all I had to know, my shoulders dropped and a sigh was let out of my mouth. I realized I could have walked away from the adventurer lady without hearing all the information she had for me. I was trying to be cautious, thinking I must heed whatever advice she would give me, but apparently, as the babe ended her rather long speech, nodded proudly with hands on her hips with a satisfied smile, she didn't have any other words for me.

"Thank you, bab— ma'am." The adventurer lady sighed. "You're sort of like my old man: I'm grateful that you helped me."

"A-An old man, huh…?"