TL/Editor: raei
Schedule: 5/Week Mon-Fri
Illustrations: Posted in discord.
Join the discord! Here
It's a strange feeling, to say the least.
About a decade ago, almost eleven years now, I was running macros, disgruntled that the first 6★ character who could transcend to 7★ was a male.
That's when I first entered the body of Roland.
Despite possessing such a superior physique, it brought its share of hardships.
This body was robust enough to go without sleep for three days and nights, surpassingly handso to the point of beauty, and magically perfect despite being a male.
However, I was a conscript who had just returned from military service.
From my first monster hunt to my first killing, the death of a senior adventurer who had been guiding us rookies, the inevitable immoral cris, the unsanitary dieval life one must endure when you had no money, to tasteless, horrific food.
When I crushed a goblin's skull, using the sa technique I had learned breaking boards at a taekwondo dojo during my childhood, I struggled to suppress the surge of nausea.
Even elite U.S. military forces feel revulsion at killing and suffer from PTSD—I was pulverizing people with a warhamr.
"Roland? Are you okay?"
"Hm? ...No, just overwheld by these new feelings of nostalgia."
Irene, sensing my unsettled mood, approached and gently placed her hand over mine, which was resting on the railing.
I was startled by her uncharacteristically assertive gesture but managed to suppress my reaction.
Initially, we were quite awkward, but now we've grown close enough to stand side by side and even hold hands.
It’s more about deep camaraderie than a romantic relationship, of course.
Turning our backs to the noisy banquet hall, we stood side by side, gazing out at the cityscape.
The view was filled with colorful magic lights and rchants bustling around day and night—it was vibrant.
Yet, my focus was drawn not to the city but to the back of my hand.
Her hand, a bit roughened from caring for children and cooking, was slightly different from that of a beautiful aristocratic lady without a single callus.
Thankfully, due to divine energy, her slender fingers hadn’t turned ugly.
"To see such a sight from a mansion on the 45th floor... Honestly, it still doesn't feel real."
"I feel the sa. It feels like just yesterday I was floundering in the marsh, collecting research data on lizardn."
"Hehe, really? While you were wandering in the marsh, I was probably just listening to rumors about the tower while studying the scriptures with the children."
The pleasant silence, enjoying the warmth of her small, lived-in hand, was broken by her murmur.
To , the tower had always felt like the only escape from the ga world.
I had thrown myself into it until I was utterly exhausted.
But for Irene, the Tower was frequently ntioned as an evil place during lessons about the Goddess's teachings.
Just as a witch from the South is said to abduct children to the swamp, here they said that ghosts from the Tower would take away children.
A place that seed like sothing out of childhood stories, later becoming a destination for priests and adventurers on pilgrimages.
And now, as part of the hero's party, we are at the forefront of the kingdom’s adventurers, purifying the tower.
That surely evoked a strange feeling.
Not as much as for soone who has entered from a ga, but still, we're pioneering a place that is discussed in fairy tales.
"――There's been a lot of fun too. Now, when the nuns scare the children with ghost stories from the tower, they counter by saying the hero and Roland will defeat them."
"I get why they’d talk about Hanna, but why ?"
"Rember when the horned wolves were flooding out of the tower and you were running around shouting? That made a deep impression on the kids. It was the first ti they saw soone at that higher level of skill."
"I guess it does make an impression if you see soone jumping from rooftop to rooftop."
"I don’t an that in a bad way."
The trivial conversation that resud after breaking the calm silence continued.
At the temple, seasoned nuns cared for children, and tales like those from fairy tales about artifacts, the 'Saint of the Torch' Ambrosio, other renowned saints, and even the kingdom's third princess, 'White Feather Shield' Bradamante, were shared.
...Although the atmosphere was pleasant, the conversation seed to drift increasingly toward stories of those who had ascended to higher realms.
Perhaps because of her experience telling fairy tales to children, the gentle storytelling made the topic of conversation flow naturally, like soone drifting in a stream.
From fairy-tale stories about the tower, the conversation seamlessly built to discussing higher realms of achievent possible within it, making feel as if I were bewitched by a fox.
"So, you see, Roland, um..."
"......?"
As I pondered this, Irene, who had been chattering away, suddenly stopped and her lips clamped shut.
This silence was not the pleasant kind like before, but one filled with anxiety.
She didn't seem to notice, but the fingers that had been calmly resting on the back of my hand began to fidget restlessly.
She had acted similarly last ti in a cabin in the South, which made wonder what she was trying to say.
Considering Irene's kind nature, she might be making a big deal out of sothing trivial.
By now, unless the temple was about to excommunicate , I would likely just laugh off anything Irene said.
She even felt apologetic when expressing rejection to the annoying rchants who crowded around her at social gatherings.
Since shouting them down wasn't the solution, this ti it was my turn to make a move.
"The temple, I an, um..."
"It's okay, take your ti."
I moved my hand reassuringly, interlocking our fingers.
I gently covered her anxiously fidgeting hand on the back of my right hand with my left.
The first ti I had turned soone into ground at and drank to deal with the shock, a fellow adventurer had silently held my hand, and it had been such a comfort.
"Um, I might soon ask you, Roland, for a favor. It might sound a bit strange."
"As long as it's not asking to die, I can handle it."
"Really! Why would I ever want your life?"
Almost like it worked, Irene, who had just swallowed hard, gathered her courage to finish the conversation.
A request from the temple through Irene—what could it be?
Considering past experiences with the temple, it probably wasn't as bizarre as Irene feared. The system involved goddesses, saints, and giving quests.
Even though the system window had been quiet since I accidently changed a quest, it wouldn't make do anything outrageously strange.
"So, do you feel a bit relieved now?"
"Ah! Do you know how nervous I was just to bring this up?"
And she smiles so sweetly...
I’d endure even the weirdest tasks for that, wouldn’t I?
Should I say it's making my heart lt, or is my brain just fried?
---
Raei Translations
---
As if unable to help herself, Irene looked at with a sisterly smile, as if watching a mischievous younger sibling.
We couldn't stay caught up there forever, so we gathered the tornted party mbers and headed outside the mansion.
The nobles, satisfied with having made their presence known, returned ho, and even though the rchants were clingy, they didn't hang on too much.
In a dieval Europe where only the quick-witted survive, these were commoners handling substantial sums of money.
The real problem was with the viewers who had been watching all this via a cara.
-The two of them interlocked hands, omg omg omg
-Is this why people watch pure romance dramas? Totally fell for those puppy-dog eyes!
-Isn't pure love originally about innocently having kids? It's not pure love since they haven't had a baby yet.
Although it wasn't a big deal at the social gathering, Han Se-ah and her viewers were sowhat overlooked.
Thanks to Han Se-ah, who had sent a cara out to the balcony to save herself from the endless chatter of rchants, the entire scene of Irene and standing side by side, hands overlapping and shoulders touching as we laughed and chatted, was stread live.
For the bored viewers, this was nothing less than juicy bait.
-Lol, is this why she never ntions having a boyfriend during her fitness streams?
-Was she only collaborating with female strears because it's botherso when rumors start...?
-Our hero is fitting for the title 'GayGay', indeed.
-I believe it. You definitely fit LesLes.
-Thought Teacher Roland was alone and miserable, but turns out he's been happily increasing his beautiful companions, that bastard.
"But aren’t the hero and the saint a good couple? The hero with the saint... wait, I'm not saying I'm the hero, I just call Teacher Roland the hero for convenience. What are you on about with lesbian NTR, dude! Who asked you to reveal your s*xual preferences here?"
[Archer Grace's Quiver donated 10,000 Won!]
Could it be you were trying to match Grace and Roland, not for Roland but for Grace in that kind of way...?
[Hanna's Harem donated 50,000 Won!]
Se-ah, you know it’s a cri to touch another female strear in real life, right? If the stream gets suspended, I’m dead too...
Fortunately, the insane amount of attention turned into teasing Han Se-ah by picking on her words.
Suddenly faced with the viewers' blatant mocking, Han Se-ah quickly scanned her surroundings.
However, overwheld by a flood of chatter, Grace and Katie were exhausted and slumped over, while Irene, perhaps bothered by sothing she had declared to on the balcony, open and closed her mouth in a strangely subdued mood.
Given the atmosphere, it was difficult to do anything even though it wasn't very late at night.
"...Let's rest up, and et at the inn tomorrow morning to talk about exploration over breakfast."
"Yeah, okay."
"That sounds good..."
Resigned, Han Se-ah, enduring the barrage from her viewers, began walking towards the inn room with a strangely twisted expression.
Reviews
All reviews (0)