CH 48

Episode 48 – Without Honorifics 

The next morning, after soaking the Angel Grass I synthesized last night in the Slime liquid, I went out to the courtyard in front of the rundown inn with my wooden sword in hand. I was going to be departing for Mount Cornello today, so I did my morning training without going too hard since I needed to have enough energy for later. I didn’t want to cause any trouble for the people in [Iron Gear] while on the expedition.

While I was practicing sword swings, I noticed that there was a woman who had passed by me several times since yesterday when I started practicing in this place. She was a beautiful blue-haired woman with a slender figure, but contrary to her elegant appearance, she was wearing a set of bulky, rugged armor. Every time I saw her in the corner of my vision, my eyes would follow her curiously until she passed by. I managed to catch a glimpse of the kingdom’s coat of arms on her sturdy-looking armor, which hinted that she was probably a Knight of the Royal Order.

The Knights of the Royal Order were widely viewed as the strongest fighting force in the kingdom. One of their duties was to arrest ruffian adventurers, which meant that the members of the Knights obviously had to be stronger than most other adventurers. Actually, I heard from Dion that each person in the Knights was trained individually from a young age, and even the weakest member would have strength at least equating to a B-rank adventurer. In other words, there was a good chance that the beautiful woman that just passed by was stronger than a B-rank adventurer. I wished I could get acquainted with her somehow so I could ask her some questions about getting stronger, but I didn’t have the courage to approach her. I felt like the woman was also looking back at me out of the corner of her eye each time she passed, but after that time she passed by just now, I didn’t see her again that day. I really hoped to talk to her some day, but the rendezvous time with [Iron Gear] was nearing, so I returned to the inn to do a final check on my luggage.

Equipping the Lightmetal Chestplate and the steel sword that I didn’t know how to fully wield properly yet, I headed to the Adventurer’s Guild. There was still a while before sunrise, but there were already four people waiting in front of the Adventurer’s Guild. Just like yesterday’s face-to-face meeting, they were way earlier than the scheduled time. I could feel their thoughtful dedication to not keep the client waiting, and my impression of them went up by a few notches yet again.

“Good morning. Sorry to keep you waiting.” (Lewin)

“Ah, Lewin. Morning! Don’t worry about it, you’re not late at all.” (Lyra)

“Hey, Lyra! Don’t address your client so rudely without honorifics. You should properly use -san!” (Byrne)

“Ah, no. It’s totally fine. I don’t really get offended by how people address me… in fact, it would be better if you just called me by my first name.” (Lewin)

“See? He said it was fine! Plus, how could you scold me about this when you have the exact same habit of not speaking politely to others?”

“Hey! He’s a good client, so I was just trying to warn you to treat him a bit more courteously.” (Byrne)

The two of them started bickering with each other, so I quickly intervened.

“Please don’t argue. I didn’t think either of you were being rude, so it’s alright!” (Lewin)

I stepped between Lyra and Byrne to mediate, but when I did so, the two of them slowly broke out into laughter.

“Pu–ahahahaha!! I wasn’t actually mad, so you don’t need to look so flustered. That’s a great expression you have there, Lewin!” (Lyra)

“Uhuhu… I wasn’t– pff– I wasn’t mad either.” (Byrne)

Lyra was laughing so hard she was almost in tears, and Byrne was trying to hold in his laughter but was totally failing at it. Damn it… how embarrassing.

Ahmed also said that my faces were funny, but it made me wonder to myself if the faces I was making were really that amusing. Next time, maybe I should look at my reflection in the water to see what it was really like. I was a little flustered, but without showing it, I returned to the conversation.

“Anyway… back to what we were saying. I don’t really care about honorifics, so let’s not worry about those things towards each other!” (Lewin)

“I appreciate that! I knew you were a good client, Lewin! Just call me Lyra in the future!” (Lyra)

“Yup, just call me Byrne, I’ll call you Lewin.” (Byrne)

After their laughter subsided, they responded cheerfully in turn. I was a little hesitant, but since their ages were close to mine, not using honorifics would probably allow us to get closer.

“Then, I’ll call you L-Lyra and… Byrne.” (Lewin)

“………….Me too. Nina is fine.” (Nina)

“Got it. I’ll call you Nina from now on then.” (Lewin)

When I said that, she went back to timidly lowering her head as her ears turned bright red. With this, I hoped her fear of strangers towards me would subside a bit.

With that out of the way, I left for Mount Cornello with [Iron Gear].