Chapter 8 – Causes of Sloth Parties (1)
Nellis Party, returning from her commission, had dinner at her inn.
Normally, it would have been a fun dinner while chatting about what happened today.
However, the appearance of Kalt became a dinner of shame for Nellis.
Finally, the person I was waiting for and wanted to be my colleague has appeared.
If possible, I wanted to make the first meeting nice.
Because he is a hero.
When meeting a new colleague for the first time, you want to show off a little.
But I ruined it.
Because of this belly button watch.
Above all, it made Nellis even more embarrassed than the new person she had hoped to join was a handsome man.
‘Why is my stomach rumbling at that time? Oh, I’m embarrassed!’
She wanted to make a good first impression as a warrior, but she was also embarrassed as a woman.
After eating.
Nellis thought this was her first real encounter, and she looked at Kalt.
“Did you say Mr. Kalt? Nice to meet you, my name is Nellis, the Indomitable Hero. The two people next to me are Scarlett, a wizard, and Arya, a nun.”
“Hello, Mr. Kalt.”
“Hello.”
At Nellis’s introduction, Aria smiled and bowed her head politely, and Scarlett gave her greeting casually.
“Hello, Nellis, Scarlett, and Aria. Let me introduce myself again. My name is Kalt.”
Taking her greeting, Kalt took a quick glance at Nellis’ party.
Indomitable Hero Nellis has a two-tone hair with blue hair on the inside of her black bob.
She had round, lively-looking eyes and dark blue pupils.
Scarlett, a wizard, has blonde twin tails.
She had sharp eyes and burning red eyes.
Aria, a nun, has her long silver hair tied up in a bun.
She was soft and had light purple eyes.
‘All three pass the test in terms of appearance.’
After we finished greeting each other, Nellis immediately asked her most basic question.
“Mr. Kalt, why do you want to join our party?”
“I was also looking for a party. Plus, I fit the criteria you wanted.”
Kalt gently lifted the sword at his waist.
“As you can see, I can play the role of a lineman. Besides that, I do a bit of exploration, and my specialties are cooking and psychological counseling.”
“Cooking?”
“Mental counseling?”
Nellis Party felt unfamiliar with Kalt’s introduction.
For them, cooking means eating at a restaurant or inn.
If you want to eat while doing a request, you can chew dried meat or hard bread.
I couldn’t even think of cooking and eating.
Also, even when I introduced myself and said that my specialty was mental counseling, they couldn’t understand it.
‘If you don’t know, just ask.’
“Wow, you know how to cook! But do you need to cook? Ah! I’m not saying it’s not necessary! It’s better to finish the request quickly, right? Just chew the beef jerky for one meal. You can eat when you come back.”
Priority response passed.
In response to Nellis’ reaction, Kalt mentally circled her scorecard.
She was able to give it a passing grade because she looked at the reaction rather than rejecting it by saying, “What’s the need for elaborate cooking?”
In the first place, there were few people who wanted to cook their own food like Kalt, and Nellis’ opinion was popular among adventurers and warrior parties.
“Of course that’s true. But aren’t there only quests that can be completed in one day? Exterminating monsters that exist within a distance that requires several days of travel, or sleeping in a dungeon for a long time, you’ll get bitten and lose nutrition if you only eat beef jerky or bread. Because it’s limited, I can’t always use my strength.”
She did the same when she was sleeping at Maybelle’s party and in the dungeon to grow up.
The party’s movements were clearly different when they ate only beef jerky or bread and when they ate the food Kalt prepared.
“Of course, I don’t always force people to cook or do anything like that. I just tell them that I can cook too.”
After listening to Kalt’s explanation in a gentle tone, Nellis Party nodded her head.
“Then what do you mean you can provide mental counseling?”
Nellis Party’s nun, Aria, asked about Kalt’s remaining specialties.
“It is grandiosely called mental counseling, but in the end, it is about listening to concerns. By listening to concerns and giving advice, it is about stabilizing the mind of a colleague and resolving mental concerns.”
“Oh, is it like hearing a confession like a priest?”
“You could say they are similar.”
‘Then shall we try bait?’
“Even if we are a warrior party or an adventurer, we are all human in the end. We all have our own worries and sometimes struggle with the problems that come with those worries. I once solved a mental problem while counseling a colleague. For example… “
Kalt looked at Nellis Party closely as he explained further.
“My body doesn’t listen to me when I fight monsters.”
“…!”
One person.
“I can’t use magic properly due to mental strain.”
“…!”
Two people.
“Problems arise when exercising divine power.”
“…!”
Three people.
“Well, I’ve solved that problem before.”
“Really? Have you ever really solved a problem like that?”
“Yes.”
The ungrateful three who received the greatest benefits will probably be having problems again by now.
“Because I observed the cause of other people’s concerns and took appropriate action. Oh, if you have any concerns, please let me know. Although concerns vary greatly from person to person, I will do my best to help.”
“Aha, haha, thank you for your words~.”
Nellis smiles awkwardly.
Scarlett gives a skeptical look.
Aria hesitates and glances.
After seeing the three people’s reactions, Kalt was convinced.
Nellis’ party, like Maybelle’s party, all have mental problems.
Nellis’ party is the party that needs Kalt the most and meets all the conditions Kalt wanted.
I was also able to see that they were having a lot of trouble with their mental problems.
Otherwise, the reaction would not be revealed so clearly.
Still, she won’t tell Kalt about her concerns right away.
Revealing her own secrets is such a cautious and awkward act.
If I had Kalt’s power, I could immediately bring out my worries, but I didn’t bother to do that.
Looking at their reactions, it didn’t seem like it would take long anyway.
If we join the same party, we will be able to understand their problems right away.
“Mr. Nellis, will you please accept me into your party?”
“Ah! What about a party? What about Scarlett and Aria? Mr. Kalt, shall we accept you as a party?”
Nellis wanted to recruit Kalt to the party first, right now.
Because of his own problems, he wanted additional people to be present just in case, and he also had a faint hope that the mental counseling Kalt mentioned might solve his problems.
“I like it. If the number of vanguards increases, the stability of the party will also increase.”
Sister Aria approved of Kalt’s recruitment with her gentle smile.
Kalt, Nellis, and Aria’s gaze turned to Scarlett, who had not yet opened her mouth.
Scarlett rested her chin and opened her mouth.
“It’s hasty to accept it right away. First, shouldn’t we check what your skills are… And whether you can work with us?”
Even if additional vanguards are needed, it is impossible to clearly know whether Kalt’s words are true or not.
Let alone whether the special skills of cooking and mental counseling mentioned later are real.
In the beginning, we had to make sure that the role of the vanguard that Nellis Party needed was properly fulfilled.
Scarlett’s attitude was rather likeable to Kalt.
‘Yes, you must have the brain to think like that.’
Even Kalt didn’t like a party where there were only idiots who just followed the flow of the atmosphere.
“Scarlett, you’re right. It’s hasty to just say this and accept it right away. So how about this? Let’s do a request together tomorrow. Oh, if you’re tired and need a rest tomorrow, you can do it the day after tomorrow.”
“I’m not tired at all! I feel fine after sleeping overnight!”
“I’m fine too.”
“… You can do it tomorrow.”
Kalt and Nellis Party unanimously agreed to make a request together tomorrow.
◈
“Hey, you idiot.”
Mate!
“Ouch! Why are you hitting me?”
After making an appointment with Kalt, Nellis’ party went up to the second floor where their room was located.
Nellis was about to go into her own room when Scarlett took Arya with her, entered Nellis’ room with her, and then hit her on the forearm with the palm of her hand.
“No matter what, what if you try to accept it so casually? You might look down on it.”
Nellis smoothed her forearm that had been hit by Scarlett.
“What do you mean you look down on me? Mr. Kalt, you seem kind.”
“Hey, don’t you know that you should be most careful with people who smile like that? They might have some kind of plan.”
“That again? Scarlett is suspicious of everyone.”
“Scarlett, aren’t you being too cautious?”
“Hmph!”
Scarlett crossed her arms and did not back down her opinion.
“There are so few people in this world that you can trust. This is a world where you can’t properly trust even your parents or siblings.”
“Ugh, saying something like that again…”
“Scarlett needs to trust people more. You trust us, right?”
“You guys… Are colleagues. I believe in you because we’ve been through hardships together!”
Nellis and Aria looked happily at Scarlett as she turned her head and spoke.
“Anyway, let’s check Mr. Kalt’s skills tomorrow. He might be someone with incredible skills. Plus, if we don’t know… He might be able to solve our problems.”
“If he was such a great person, he wouldn’t have come to our party in the first place. You know that our party doesn’t have a very good reputation. It’s a party of sloths with no sense of improvement. Haha, you really think someone is doing this because they want to. Besides, from what he says, there was a party. He’s alone right now. Isn’t there something wrong with him?”
“Scarlett, don’t be too speculative. Skipping the party doesn’t always have to be a bad reason, right? First, let’s watch tomorrow.”
“Yes, I will watch over you very clearly.”
‘If you look down on us and try to manipulate us, I won’t leave you alone!’