By the time evening arrived, a grand welcome banquet was being held in the dining hall on the second floor of Twilight Manor.
This was a large cafeteria-style dining hall capable of accommodating nearly every member of the familia.
As a talented newcomer personally acknowledged by Loki and the Big Three of the familia, Ize was pushed to the very front to make his appearance.
“Everyone!
Our familia has gained a new member!
Come get to know our new family member!
Ize-chan!”
Holding up a wooden mug as if it were a microphone, Loki laughed loudly as she introduced Ize to everyone in the familia.
The corners of Ize’s mouth twitched slightly.
What the hell was “Ize-chan”?
He really wanted to retort…
But that was only a thought.
The current situation was clearly not the right time to make a comeback.
Around a hundred people were all looking at him.
Compared to before, Ize had already gained quite a bit of experience dealing with situations where he was surrounded and stared at by others.
He simply gave a very normal self-introduction, greeted everyone politely, and after finishing his speech, immediately slipped off to the side as if oil had been applied to the soles of his feet.
Then, Loki very naturally shifted the topic.
The vermilion-haired goddess stepped onto a table with a loud thud, striking a bold pose that did not match her status at all.
Raising her mug high, she stirred up the atmosphere.
“All right!
To welcome our newcomer, tonight is a banquet!
All of you, drink with everything you’ve got!!!”
After saying that, Loki led the toast under everyone’s gaze.
Then, everyone clinked their beer mugs together, and the atmosphere inside the dining hall gradually grew lively.
Under Loki’s lead, the banquet gradually reached its peak.
For a time, the noise and excitement within the Loki Familia were so loud that even those outside on the street could hear it.
And even though Ize had slipped into a corner, he still could not escape the fate of being “surrounded.”
One after another, familia members with friendly—or “friendly”—gazes began approaching Ize.
Among them, there were probably some who genuinely wanted to come over and say hello.
But most of them were likely holding mugs of alcohol and coming over to “greet” Ize.
“Ugh!
Uuuuuuu…”
In a corner of the dining hall, Simon, the person who had brought Ize to the familia, was drinking heavily with tears in his eyes.
“Hey, hey, what’s wrong with you, Simon?”
Seeing him like this, a friend beside him could not help asking with concern.
“I’m jealous… His talent was acknowledged even by our goddess and the captain.
I thought our gatekeeper team was finally going to grow again!”
Simon wiped his tears and sobbed.
In other words, his expectations throughout the entire day had been for nothing.
Thinking about how he had taken pleasure in imagining Ize joining the gatekeeper team, Simon could not help feeling sour inside.
“This…”
His words left the friend beside him unsure of how to comfort him.
Forget it.
Let him cry.
He would be fine by the next day anyway.
Elsewhere at the banquet.
Ais’s eyes flickered with confusion.
She looked toward Ize, then turned back to look at Lefiya, then turned toward Ize again…
After repeating this action two or three times, the confusion in her eyes turned into certainty.
“Lefiya…”
“Y-Yes?
What is it, Miss Ais?”
Being called all of a sudden, Lefiya looked completely puzzled.
“The newcomer isn’t a girl.
He’s a boy.”
Ais said this to Lefiya very seriously.
“Uh… I know…”
As expected of Miss Ais, should she say?
To think she would unexpectedly get hung up on something like this.
But even this side of Miss Ais was so cute!
Suddenly, as if she had thought of something, Lefiya began giggling foolishly, wearing an expression as though she had fallen into a fantasy.
At that moment, when Ize saw so many people holding mugs and lining up to “greet” him, his face immediately turned pale.
To put it plainly, even across both of his lives combined, Ize had barely drunk any alcohol.
He neither liked drinking nor knew how to drink.
At most, he had only ever reached the level of mixing red wine with Sprite, taking a small sip, and sighing that it still did not taste as good as fat otaku happy water.
So at a banquet like this, after being “greeted” by people one after another, what kind of fate would await Ize?
As expected, before the banquet had even reached its halfway point, Ize collapsed midway… dead!
He did not remember exactly when he lost consciousness.
By the time he woke up again, it was already deep into the night.
No, perhaps it was already early morning?
Ize struggled to prop himself up from the bed.
His gaze caught sight of the water placed on the bedside table and the hangover potion marked with a note.
He could not help reaching out, picking it up, and drinking it.
Although he did not know who had prepared it, he was grateful.
An unfamiliar ceiling, an unfamiliar room, and brand-new sheets and bedding.
Clearly, someone had taken care of him.
Realizing this, he lay back down again and let out a sigh.
A sense of steadiness rose in his heart. You are reading on novelping.com, the official source.
Barring any surprises, this would be his personal room from now on, right?
“A room at an inn can’t compare to this at all…”
Even though the room was simply decorated and not especially large, it made him feel very much at ease.
Why, in his previous life, had so many people insisted on buying a house even if it meant taking on huge loans and debt?
Wasn’t it all for this sense of security?
Placing both hands behind his head, Ize opened his system, which looked just like a game menu, and checked the status of his mission panel.
[Completed Mission: Join a Familia]
[Adventurer Level: LV1]
[Updated Main Mission: Raise Adventurer Level to LV2]
[Reward: Skill Acquired: Morning Star]
…
“The main mission has been updated?
Reach LV2… In that case, every time my adventurer level increases, there might be a corresponding reward?”
Ize guessed softly.
This could be considered habitual thinking.
After all, that was how things usually worked in games.
Of course, it was only a guess.
Whether that was actually the case, even Ize could not say for sure.
The skill called [Morning Star] made him somewhat curious, but before obtaining the skill, he had no way of knowing its specific effects.
“In other words, what I need to do next is simply keep raising my level.
After all, in this Labyrinth City, strength is everything…”
As he thought this, Ize shifted his gaze away from the ceiling and looked out the window.
Tonight’s night sky happened to be free of dark clouds.
Countless stars glittered across the heavens, so vast and boundless that they seemed as though they might fall directly to the earth.
Although only a corner of it could be seen from the window beside his bed, it was still bright and beautiful enough.
Ize looked at the dazzling stars.
As his thoughts drifted, he suddenly felt a cool sensation spread through his mind, and his thoughts became lighter and clearer than ever before.
His eyes, which should originally have been blue, dimmed slightly and shifted into a deep azure hue.
Faint starlight flowed within them, shining brilliantly.
For a moment, Ize recalled the effect of his skill.
[Stellar Affection]: Doubles his mental power.
If he is under a brilliant starry sky, it doubles once again.
To put it simply, a “brilliant starry sky” meant a night with no dark clouds, where the starry heavens were exposed.
The current conditions perfectly matched that requirement, and Ize’s mental power had been strengthened to four times its normal state.
Although he had only just received a god’s blessing today, if one looked solely at his mental power, then under the enhancement of his skill, the current Ize had already surpassed some ordinary LV2 mages.
“But now I’m even less sleepy…”
Feeling his mind becoming increasingly clear, Ize spoke in a somewhat helpless tone.
This was practically the perfect skill for staying up late.