Full Moon Wolf 5
No matter how beautifully her exterior had changed, Rebecca still teased me with everything she had, as if the core of her remained exactly the same. The one small difference was that where I once would have wanted to punch her regardless of her being my benefactor, her beautiful appearance now meant I wasn't particularly angry.
Just as Rebecca's essence hadn't changed, it had been thoroughly proven that I was still a sucker for women. I knew it, and so did she — that when a client was pretty, I'd personally take on the bothersome commissions that adventurers and mercenaries preferred to avoid.
"I didn't bring him today, but he's a pretty useful guy. No idea where he crawled out of, but he's no greenhorn newbie."
"So, what floor?"
"Solo, fourteenth. As a mercenary company porter, right about the twentieth. Perfect level for joining your party, don't you think?"
"And his gear?"
"A somewhat long one-handed sword. The blade's a bit unique, but his skill is solid."
"Ah, that's a bit of a shame. One-handed sword but no shield?"
"That's what makes him unique. He uses a one-handed sword but sometimes swings it with both hands and all that."
An offense-oriented vanguard, huh. Not bad. Depending on whether he had stars or not, but if he'd climbed to the fourteenth floor alone, he was at least worth an interview. Rebecca might be rough and reckless, but she was honest when it came to swordsmanship.
I glanced sideways at Han Sea — her eyes refused to leave Rebecca. Looking at her appearance and skill, she was at least 4★, and factoring in stealth good enough that even I hadn't noticed her, 5★. So of course.
Naturally, Rebecca wasn't the type to ignore a stare that intense.
"What, mage girl? Interested in me? It gets pretty lonely in the Tower, so I welcome women too."
"Ah, n-no! That's not it!"
Rebecca openly made a crude thrusting gesture with her index and middle fingers, and Han Sea's face flushed bright red. At that blatant hand motion, Grace and Irene both gasped in shock as well.
Looking at how she carried herself, Rebecca was a truly beastly woman. Not dirty talk reserved for the bedroom — she said whatever she wanted without a filter, about eating, sleeping, and relieving herself. And yet somehow she led a mercenary company just fine.
"She's our party leader, so tell him to come find Hanna here."
"What, you're not the leader?"
"You know I don't do the thinking."
"That's true enough. Anyway, I'll send him around tomorrow."
And just like that, Rebecca appeared and vanished like the wind. She clapped my back with cookie-crumb-covered hands and strode out of the café in big steps. Of course, even those large strides made no sound amid the café's quiet.
"Ah..."
"She's quite... free-spirited, isn't she?"
"You had connections with mercenaries too, not just adventurers?"
With Rebecca gone, the three women's reactions split distinctly. Han Sea looking somewhat disappointed, Irene finding Rebecca's attitude curious, and Grace curious about my past. Watching their different reactions, I prepared to get up from my seat.
Our snacks and coffee had all been cleaned out, and the three of them had finished eating too.
"Come on, even if she's a 5★, her title is Mercenary Queen — how am I supposed to recruit her? Have you ever seen a Fortune 500 exec transfer to become vice president of a corner supermarket? If we're going that far, huh? Might as well go to the king of some kingdom and tell him to hand over the country so we can climb the Tower."
Apparently the viewers had found it pretty entertaining that she couldn't even approach the 5★ 'Mercenary Queen' Rebecca and had only managed to blush at the sexual harassment. The fact that she led hundreds of mercenaries, and that she was higher in the Tower than I was, didn't seem to matter.
No matter how much Han Sea cited reality and argued the sensible position, the viewers just seemed to want to tease the flustered, red-faced Han Sea.
Her mouth was busy squawking at her viewers, but her body was quietly walking arm-in-arm with Irene toward the Temple. If that counted as a streamer's talent, then maybe it was one.
"I was surprised how quickly the children opened up to Sister Hanna. That must mean Sister Hanna is a thoughtful and kind person, doesn't it?"
"If you'd gone along with the bed joke, she would've joined as a companion? If you pull that outside, you're actually going to the police station—— Ah, is that so? Thank you, Irene."
Among the tips viewers had submitted, there had been content related to 'party disbandment due to conflict with companions.' Grace had been with a female warrior named Cora, was it? Anyway, the same kind of story as fighting with a party leader and joining ours. An adventurer party wasn't some indentured contract — nobody was going to bury their bones there.
Because of that, Han Sea had started building Irene's affection according to the board's suggestions. Both Grace and Irene had come looking for me, but from a game perspective it would look like I was interested in raising juniors.
They'd probably judged, game-wise, that a steadfast tank who'd never abandoned a companion wouldn't suddenly walk out on the party.
"So, Roland — where are you planning to go?"
"Figured I'd grab a drink, or rest at the lodging."
"Don't you like that lodging a little too much?"
"I paid good money to rent it, and I've stocked it full of magic tools. Might as well use them thriftily."
And so our party split roughly in half. Han Sea planned to visit places in the vast Temple she hadn't been to yet with Irene, filling out her minimap, while Grace had no desire to go deeper into the Temple's rear sections — so we split into pairs.
More precisely into two, one, and one, but Grace had come over to me. The reason was obvious enough. I wasn't some romance-comedy male lead, and there was no reason to pretend I didn't notice straightforward affection.
"Or is there somewhere you want to go?"
"Huh?"
"We've got time left. Figured we could walk around together."
"...I'd like to go to the Hunter's Guild and look at some arrows."
Grace answered my question slowly, cheeks flushed. Equipment shopping — not bad. The only reward Grace had received from the Full Moon Wolf was armor. The Magic Tower didn't produce arrows in the first place, so that was only natural.
Robes, staves, and magic tools were all made directly by the Magic Tower, and the leather armor Grace had received was a joint product of magic and alchemy. The bow and arrows she used were better sought out at the Hunter's Guild.
Her strength's gone up some too. Maybe I should buy her a bow with a stronger draw weight.
The bow Grace carried was a hunter's bow she'd brought when she left her village to become an adventurer. Well-maintained for an Apprentice Ranger, but you couldn't call the quality good. A bow you could get in a slash-and-burn farming village was never going to outclass one made in the Adventurer's City.
"Rather than arrows — have you thought about changing your bow?"
"I have, actually. Why?"
"I was thinking I could chip in a little for the shortfall, and you could replace it."
"Well, if I put all my equipment money into a bow, I could manage a swap."
Grace had fewer stars than Irene or me. That didn't mean there was no way forward. This world wasn't like Heroines Chronicle, where combat power was measured solely by star count. Irene and Rebecca were prime examples.
Same 5★, but there was no way Irene, who'd been caring for orphans at the Temple, could fight on equal footing with Rebecca, who'd trained longer than I had.
Of course, I wasn't demanding that level of battle-hardened experience from Grace, who'd been a hunter girl from a slash-and-burn village. There was another way to fill the gaps in her combat power — and a field I was pretty confident in.
Money. In other words, cash shopping.
"If that guy joining as vanguard works out, I'm planning not to step in myself from the eleventh floor on."
"You said you were going to raise people?"
"Not just him — you and Hanna too."
Thinking of my passive, I'd hold the line just enough, the one-handed-sword vanguard would strike the flanks, and Han Sea and Grace would support from range. It was the composition I'd been planning ever since I first met Han Sea and she said she wanted to go to the Magic Tower.
The Horned Rabbits and Horned Foxes of the lower floors were far too fragile for building combat experience. Things that died if you kicked them — what experience was that supposed to give? Though plenty of idiots still managed to die to those things.
Anyway, entering the eleventh floor with a complete party composition would be the true start of the adventure. From then on, I'd have to hold back as much as possible from just crushing everything myself. Honestly, almost every spell Han Sea had cast so far had been aimed at a Horned Wolf I'd pinned down as a target.
"Raising us, huh... how luxurious."
"It's not some twentieth-floor adventurer — it's a thirty-seventh-floor one doing the raising. Luxurious is right."
Grace laughed at my boastful joke, and we walked side by side. There was pleasure in the secret invitations widows and noble ladies sent through their attendants, but the fresh sweetness of walking with a girl I loved was no less.
With light, swaying steps, she led me toward the Hunter's Guild. A street where people in leather armor with unstrung bows on their backs were a common sight.
For Grace, archery was both a livelihood and something of a hobby — her eyes sparkled as she looked around the street. Then again, she hadn't been forced to learn it; she'd wanted to. In a countryside with nothing to do, shooting arrows at targets might have been closer to play than training.
"Got a shop in mind?"
"There's something I looked at before. We're heading that way."
Whether she was happy about buying the gear she'd marked, or happy about being with me, her steps were light. She slipped familiarly into an alley hung thick with beast and monster hides, and ducked into a small shop.
What greeted us inside was a big man with a strikingly square jaw. A dense beard packed into that angular chin, bushy sideburns, a red-and-black checkered shirt, and dark chestnut leather overalls.
"Excuse me — is that compound bow from before still here?"
"That one? Still haven't sold it."
...He was a lumberjack character straight out of a comic.
If Han Sea had been here to check, he probably would have been something like 2★ 'Woodsman' Lumberjack. Watching the shopkeeper push aside the hanging hides like a curtain and bring out a long bow, I got the feeling the city was getting a little more entertaining.