Five Stars 5
Before she was a streamer, Han Se-ah was a gamer.
"Ah, damn it! Honestly, I can't stand not knowing. A sub-quest just showed up, and it's not like anyone's going to spoil it for us — nobody's going to know what it's about until somebody clears it. If I skip this, I feel like it's going to haunt me in my dreams."
Most of the viewers seemed to be backing her decision. Whether Han Se-ah sprinted for first place or not, the audience only cared that the content stayed entertaining. A few overinvested viewers fretted about her losing the top spot — but they were the minority.
"We've got a 6-star Roland in the party. If we don't farm stuff like this, who else is going to show it off, right? I don't even feel like anyone's catching up to us anytime soon, so we should grab every reward we can get our hands on. And they said they'd invite the adventurers who resolve the incident, didn't they? Doesn't that mean users who just took the gold or got sniped on the last hit can't enter the Blessed Forest? This doesn't feel like a regular sub-quest — more like a hidden quest. We should ride the Roland carry and check it out."
Her confident declaration won everyone over. Event NPC or not, they'd all watched 5★ Antenor erase orcs with lightning, so the expectation that a 6★ Roland would be at least that strong was already firmly planted.
Of course, if you asked who was stronger, that would be me — I could even tank a full-power spell from Antenor. The problem was that I was a pure tank. Even when I'd hurled goblins like shot puts, the tank class simply had no flashy way to put on a show for an audience.
I could shrug off a giant's blow and weather a dragon's breath, but how exactly was I supposed to prove that? It wasn't as if a mountain giant and a dragon were about to conveniently appear in front of Han Se-ah's party on the twentieth floor. We'd just finished dealing with orcs — giants and dragons were a whole different conversation.
"Let's take this commission. Honestly, I'm curious about the Blessed Forest, and I want to see the capital too."
"Yeah, a forest blessed by the Goddess does sound interesting."
"Even if it's only because we accepted a commission, the chance to enter Avergne Forest… as a servant of the Goddess, I can hardly wait."
I set aside the matter of proving my own power. After convincing her viewers, Han Se-ah brought the idea to the party as well. She was already full of plans to map not just the sub-quest but the capital and the Blessed Forest too. The others, equally curious about the Blessed Forest, nodded along and fell in with her opinion.
They seemed to weigh the Blessed Forest more heavily than the Royal Knights' commission itself, but I understood. Truth be told, I hadn't visited the Blessed Avergne Forest either.
A forest blessed by the Goddess, reserved for high nobles and royalty. Naturally it was a place the Royal Knights handled exclusively — not somewhere some random adventurer could waltz into under the pretense of investigating tracks. The quest seemed to have opened the door. Given that the target was a special entity capable of spatial movement, they were probably looking for Han Se-ah specifically, since she could track it.
"Then shall I send word to the knights that you've accepted the commission?"
"Yes. Please, Unnie."
"Oh, you don't need to ask so formally. This is my job. If I send word today, a carriage should arrive around tomorrow."
Elise smiled brightly, rose from the table, and left. A carriage tomorrow, though — that meant no Tower run today. With no gate to the twentieth floor yet, a same-day adventure would be a bit much to manage.
The others seemed to have reached the same conclusion, because every gaze drifted toward Han Se-ah. Watching those eyes gather so naturally on the party leader to ask about the schedule, I could feel how solidly she'd been leading them.
She might have earned recognition as a leader, but when it came to lying and reading the room, Han Se-ah scored well below average — so she completely failed to notice the stares. More precisely, she was too busy reading chat to register her party members looking at her.
"Hanna, what should we do today, then? It's still morning, but if we're leaving for the commission tomorrow, heading into the Tower feels like the timing would be awkward."
"Ah, right. Better not go into the Tower today and just prepare for the capital instead. …So, uh, what do we need to prepare?"
At Han Se-ah's clueless question, the corner of Kayden's mouth twitched. Our cross-dressing Sword Princess seemed to be slowly opening up to the party. She still kept her distance from me as a man, but the stiff, businesslike attitude had given way to something more active — she even let smiles show now.
Grace, who'd come straight from the countryside to the Adventurer's City, and Irene, who'd spent her whole life in the city's Temple, both failed to answer and simply rolled their eyes around in thought.
"There's nothing particular to prepare. If we were heading out to the countryside, supplies might run short and we'd need to stock up before leaving — but we're going up to the capital. If we run low on anything, we can buy it there, or request support from the knights."
"Ah… that makes sense."
When Han Se-ah, Grace, and Irene all gave small, convinced nods, Kayden's mouth finally lost the battle and writhed like a worm. Three beautiful women bobbing their heads in blank agreement, and one cross-dressing beauty desperately fighting back laughter as she watched — put into words, it was such a peculiar scene that the chat flooded with teasing for Han Se-ah without a single person holding back.
"Laughing? Ohhh, there's nothing else to do today, so I might just shut the stream off and turn it back on when we reach the forest, you know?"
Come to think of it, she'd said she'd stream according to a schedule, yet Han Se-ah was broadcasting nearly every single day. She started cracking down on the chat that was mocking her, threatening not to show Grace and Irene on camera.
Claiming she'd stream four times a week while playing and broadcasting every day was the portrait of a magnificent addict. From what I'd checked through the internet window, aside from that one three-day break last time, she'd been streaming back-to-back — I wondered if her body was holding up.
"Yep, too late to stop me~ Now that I think about it, today wasn't even a day I promised to stream, was it? I updated you on the quest progress, showed you the new sub-quest, told you the carriage comes tomorrow, and I already said I'd handle the boring non-story parts on my own, right? That's it for today's stream. Thanks for watching~"
Wait — she actually turned it off.
While Kayden and I were watching the party with warm eyes, Han Se-ah — who'd been vigorously counterattacking her viewers — really did shut down the stream. Her broadcast window went black, utterly indifferent to the chat still screaming and spamming in denial.
The camera drone floating in midair slipped away, and she stretched with a look of pure relief, then smiled softly and glued herself to Grace's side.
"Unnie, we've got free time — want to go look at equipment?"
"Look at equipment?"
"Yeah. Once the rewards come in, we might be able to buy something. You only got armor from the last haul, so let's go check out finger guards and stuff."
With the camera off, it seemed Han Se-ah planned to wander around with Grace again. Kayden still kept her distance and didn't join private outings, and Irene spent her free time volunteering with the children at the Temple, so she rarely went out just for fun.
Besides, Kayden was cross-dressing as a man — inviting her along for a shopping trip would have been a little strange. Which left me, for the free hours… stuck in the inn browsing the internet, I supposed.
"Irene Unnie, want to come too?"
"No, thank you for the offer, but… the childcare sisters are reading fairy tales to the children this evening. I should go help out."
As expected, Irene smiled bashfully and said she'd look after the kids. It was the kind of gentle smile that would have flooded chat with "Mamang" if the stream had still been on. Grace and Han Se-ah both nodded as if they'd known that would be her answer.
She'd declined this time, but the three of them had grown close enough to drop formalities and call each other unnie and little sister. When free time came, they browsed the market together or went to the Temple to volunteer — they'd become genuinely tight.
Well, when a 5★ priestess joins your party, running errands with inventory space is the least you can do with a glad heart. Wouldn't other gamers go to the Temple to volunteer every day if it meant getting a 5★? Gamers make pilgrimages to sacred sites just for a single gacha pull, after all.
"My thimble is pretty worn out, so I should get a new one — and restock arrows while we're at it."
"Then Roland, come carry our stuff."
"…Me? Wait, the inventory—"
"Come on, that's just a figure of speech. I mean help us look at gear. Neither Grace Unnie nor I know where the good equipment shops are."
I'd been listening to the three of them chat among themselves when the fire suddenly landed on me. An ambush while I'd been poking around other streams after closing Han Se-ah's broadcast in the internet window. The eyes of the woman boldly demanding I carry her bags gleamed with unmistakable scheming.
The stream was over, so now she was free to indulge her private agenda until tomorrow — was that it? She was trying to push Grace and me together like this was some dating sim. Then again, ever since we'd gone to Grace's hometown, Han Se-ah had been openly arranging situations where Grace and I ended up alone.
A game within a game, you could call it. At the very least, I'd learned that Han Se-ah was dead serious about shipping the characters as a gamer. Then again, that type of player existed in every game, Heroes Chronicle included.
"Sure, whatever. More good gear never hurts."
"Kayden…?"
"Ah, I'll have to sit this one out. I need to get my equipment repaired."
Worried it might feel like they were leaving her out, the three women's gazes gathered on her — but Kayden firmly shook her head. She was still hiding both her cross-dressing and her identity as a noble daughter, so even if she'd opened her heart a little, getting close on a personal level still seemed a long way off.
Unlike Han Se-ah, who knew Kayden was the cross-dressing Sword Princess, Grace simply thought of her as a male party member and nodded without any particular regret.
It's embarrassing to say about myself, but what mattered to Grace wasn't Kayden — still an awkward acquaintance — but me, the pack mule who'd be tagging along. Of course, for Han Se-ah, Kayden's magic armor was also a matter of interest, and her eyes sparkled with curiosity.
"That family armor you mentioned before, right? Once it's fixed, you have to show me."
"Yes. Naturally — I'll be wearing it when I come out."
"Ah… right…"
At Han Se-ah's blank response, the corner of Kayden's mouth twitched again. Of course she'd wear the armor once it was repaired — did anyone think she'd fix it just to hide it away and never show it?
Even Han Se-ah seemed to realize how funny her own words had been, and she laughed awkwardly. Kayden dipped her head in a polite farewell and left first, vanishing out of the guild with hurried footsteps that sounded an awful lot like someone fleeing before a laugh could burst free.
"Well, ahem, I should head to the Temple as well."
"See you tomorrow, Irene Unnie…"
Unlike Kayden, who'd fled while holding back her laughter, Irene couldn't contain hers and finally broke into a smile. She'd covered her mouth as if coughing, but the upward curl of her lips was undeniable proof. Her gentle eyes rested on Han Se-ah as if finding that blank answer adorable.
Unable to snap at the kind-hearted Irene, Han Se-ah's cheeks puffed out and she redirected her fire at me instead. Even then, Grace and Irene only looked at her with warm, understanding eyes.
"…Roland, aren't you laughing a little too openly?"
"What am I supposed to do? Those two are laughing because you're cute too."
"……Euk?!"
As the mentor of Mage Hanna's party and the board's own Jjanhae-jwa, it was a heartwarming sight that made me resolve, all on its own, that I really needed to put in a bit more effort.