Chapter 33: Cute
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 33: Cute
On the third day, we arrived in Honeru City.
Exhausted from the long days of camping, we decided to stay at an inn in the city for a day to recover before heading out the next morning.
However, the journey getting here hadn’t exactly been smooth sailing.
“Why are you sleeping outside?”
Every night, the Young Lady slept inside the carriage while I leaned against the door to sleep.
Seeing this, Arasen asked me with a look of utter incomprehension.
“I know you’re in the same party, but you’re a man and she’s a woman, right?”
“Well, yeah… I thought it might be because you aren’t ‘together’ yet, but why is the man sleeping outside?”
“Pardon?”
“What?”
We stared at each other, both looking equally confused.
“Men are supposed to protect women, right? That’s a man’s role.”
Isn’t that why women usually put men on a pedestal? If a man receives everything without doing anything in return, isn’t he just a leech and a parasite?
“Uh… what?”
Arasen looked profoundly bewildered.
“That’s why men were drafted to the front lines or volunteered during the war, wasn’t it?”
“W-well, that is true, but…”
Our conversation was cut short when a pack of coyotes appeared, and I had to go hunt them down. Thanks to that, I managed to get quite a few dog pelts. I decided to split them half-and-half with Arasen to sell later.
The next day.
“What were you two talking about yesterday?”
I was questioned by the Young Lady, who seemed to be on edge again for some reason.
“She asked why I was sleeping outside.”
“And?”
“I told her it was to protect you. That men are supposed to protect women.”
“Eh?”
“Was I being too arrogant?”
Thinking it might have been unwanted kindness, I tried to laugh it off quickly, but the Young Lady gave me a radiant smile.
“Alto, you’re protecting me?”
“Of course.”
“That makes me feel so safe. Thank you.”
It was a deeply benevolent and comfortable smile.
And now, in the present.
“Why do we have to pay for the driver’s room too?”
“Because we hired him for the round trip to Massa Village.”
“We already paid his wages!”
“That doesn’t include lodging. The rates vary by city and village, so the culture has evolved such that the employer pays for it as they go.”
“I feel like 4 million Dalk was already more than enough!”
“It’s the custom of the carriage station. If we ignore this, no driver will ever want to give us a ride.”
“Ughhhhh…!”
The Young Lady snapped at me in frustration, and I countered her calmly. When I refused to back down even once, she finally exploded in irritation.
“Even so, why does he get a room at the same level as ours! And why is he in the same room as me!”
“There is an old saying.”
It was the most famous saying from the battlefield.
“If you do not first feed those by your side, people will not follow you.”
“…What about my stomach?”
“Pardon?”
“When are you going to make my stomach full?”
How was I supposed to react to that?
Was she expressing dissatisfaction? Was she complaining that I should take care of her—the one closest to me—before Arasen?
“Once the quest is over, would you like to go to a famous dessert cafe in Dakuren together?”
The only thought that came to mind was that I should soothe her with food.
“I’d love to!”
Surprisingly, the Young Lady accepted the offer readily. What a relief.
“Just the two of us, right?”
“Well, I suppose so?”
Since there were only two of us in the party.
“Is this a date proposal?”
“Pardon?”
“…Was it not?”
The space between her eyebrows furrowed menacingly in an instant. Sensing the danger, I nodded quickly.
“This is quite embarrassing!”
“Hehe, how cute.”
“Excuse me…?”
“It’s nothing!”
Cute?
I must have misheard. My face is far from anything that could be called ‘cute,’ so it was definitely a mistake. I hadn’t even heard that word back before the war ended.
“Um… will you be alright?”
“With what?”
Watching her as she asked back innocently, I spoke cautiously.
“If you’re seen at a cafe alone with someone like me, people might start whispering.”
Sure enough, the Young Lady’s expression stiffened instantly.
“Do you not want to be with me?”
“No, of course not!”
“Have I ever said I disliked it?”
“I… don’t think so.”
“Then why do you care what others think?”
“Well, because you are famous for your beauty, and I don’t want people to have unnecessary misunderstandings…”
“I’ll handle that myself.”
Cutting me off firmly, the Young Lady put strength into her voice.
“Those people are strangers. What matters is what Alto and I think of each other. You said you like being with me, and I said I like it too. Isn’t that enough?”
“But… the rumors about you…”
“I said I’ll handle it. If it gets too difficult for me alone, Count Dakuus will step in. It won’t be a problem.”
I knew that with the Old Geezer’s power, it would be easy. But I felt bad for the Young Lady and the Old Man just for letting such rumors start in the first place.
“Didn’t you say you have to feed those by your side first for people to follow you?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Then worry about me first. Me.”
Perhaps feeling she had been a bit too harsh, the Young Lady twirled her hair around her finger.
“Alto, you’re always looking too far ahead. It’s as if you can’t see me standing right next to you.”
The words hit me like a hammer to the head.
For some reason, those words felt like they pierced right through the flaw in the life I had been living since leaving Lukart.
“I know what you’re worried about. But it’s a manageable trouble, and it’s an opportunity for us to get closer as party members. It’s obvious which is better.”
Only then did I begin to see the woman named Airune Dakuren clearly in my sight.
Setting aside her beauty, the look in her eyes—tinged with a hint of disappointment—gave me a tremor I had vowed never to feel again after leaving Lukart.
And so, rendering my rational mind’s efforts to say ‘no’ useless, I found myself asking.
“Can I be a little greedy?”
Cowardly, I used words with a double meaning.
“Of course!”
While I took her cheerful permission in a completely different way.
“No taking it back later or making excuses because you’re worried, okay?”
I nodded, giving a satisfied smile to the Young Lady who had preemptively blocked any retreat.
You know what?
The Young Lady was the first woman to ever give me a warm smile, and at the same time, she was the only woman I could talk to comfortably without her telling me to get my face out of her sight even when I smiled brightly.
* * *
After finishing their baths, Airune and Arasen sat in the room, back to back, brushing their hair.
Arasen, who had been glancing at Airune’s silver hair in admiration, finally couldn’t hold back and asked.
“By any chance, are you and Mr. Alto dating?”
“Wh-what?!”
Startled, Airune almost slipped into informal speech but managed to catch herself.
“It’s not like that.”
Since she hadn’t figured out the intent behind the question yet, her answer had a bit of a sting to it. Arasen gave a bitter smile and put down her brush.
“But bringing a man into your party usually means you want that kind of relationship, doesn’t it? Wow~ I’m actually kind of happy for you.”
“What’s there to be happy about?”
“Well, Mr. Alto is such a good person, isn’t he? Even though he’s a man, he’s so kind and has such a strong sense of duty! Do you know where he slept these past two nights while you were in the carriage? My goodness, he was dozing off while leaning right against the carriage door. When I asked him why, he said it’s a man’s role to protect women.”
Thump.
Even though she had already heard it from Alto himself, her heart gave another loud thud. As Arasen used gestures to describe the situation in detail, that thud was even louder than the first.
“Ah, well. His face is a bit of a shame, but I guess God is fair.”
“What’s wrong with his face?”
“Pardon?”
Airune grumbled discontentedly.
“Isn’t he cute enough?”
“…?!”
To begin with, her father and brother weren’t exactly known for their stunning looks either. However, the way they moved with confidence and spirit always earned them favor from those around them.
Airune realized it then. What Alto was lacking right now, and what she truly wanted from him.
Confidence.
Even though he was highly capable, he kept holding himself back, which was draining at times.
‘I can just fill that in for him. As the party leader, giving encouragement is only natural.’
Airune was certain that once Alto regained his confidence, everything would be fine. In fact, while watching Alto focus on handling quest business, Airune would often find herself biting her lower lip without realizing it.
Even now, remembering the sight of a sweating Alto from up close while they were skinning a tiger together during their first quest, Airune bit her lip and wore a slightly dazed smile.
‘He’s sexy.’
His actions were cool.
His values were to her liking.
And his looks were good enough.
Isn’t that plenty?
Without even realizing it, she was convincing herself that Alto was a fine man.
“I’m jealous. I wish my boyfriend cared even half as much as Mr. Alto does.”
Arasen, who had forcibly acquired the skill of catering to customers while dealing with all sorts of difficult people, didn’t miss the timing for flattery.
“What about your boyfriend?”
When Airune took the bait, Arasen laughed inwardly and quickly began to play up her own misfortune.
“Well, not long ago, he took all the commission money I got for bringing Mr. Alto to Hus and blew it all…”
“Sigh, men really are…”
Customers all feel like they are the most miserable, yet they hope they are at least better off than the person in front of them. Arasen dug into that psychology.
“And don’t even get me started on how often he goes to those salons…”
As she listed her woes, the look in Airune’s eyes shifted toward pity. The hostility toward Arasen faded, replaced by sympathy.
“I can’t even remember the last time we ate a meal together.”
As Arasen kept talking, she slowly began to realize something. The stories she was telling weren’t just banter—she really was miserable.
Compared to a woman who was being cared for beyond measure by a man she was interested in, listing how much her own boyfriend mistreated her made her objectively more miserable.
‘If only Fran treated me even a fraction as well as that, I’d be satisfied.’
The seeds of discontent, which would never have been planted if Alto were like other men, were beginning to sprout in the middle of Arasen’s chest.