Could it be that he’d worked her too hard in the Dungeon yesterday, and now she’d decided to cut ties with him the moment they ran into each other?
Renn frowned slightly, watching the girl’s back as she walked away.
He didn’t feel any urge to chase after her and ask why.
She’d clearly recognized him and still chose to do that.
So that was her decision, and all Renn could do was respect it.
His own life was still a mess he hadn’t finished cleaning up.
He really didn’t have the energy to worry about someone else’s state of mind.
“One large order of plain jagamarukun.”
“Sure thing.”
“Renn, has your Dungeon exploration been going smoothly lately?”
The voice calling his name was familiar.
Renn turned his head and found Takemikazuchi smiling at him from behind the jagamarukun stall.
That wasn’t right.
If his memory was working, the person who’d served him yesterday was some middle-aged man.
How had that turned into the god of martial arts overnight?
Did gods need part-time jobs too?
Takemikazuchi seemed to catch the confusion in the boy’s eyes, and he didn’t mind it at all.
His smile was gentle.
“It’s exactly what you’re thinking.”
“Gods can’t go into the Dungeon, after all.
While our followers are out exploring, we can’t just waste the time.
A little work here and there at least takes some of the financial pressure off the familia.”
“…”
So what exactly was Hestia doing while he was exploring the Dungeon?
Renn had never once thought about it during his previous runs.
All he knew was that every time he finished a day in the Dungeon, the goddess would be waiting for him in the central plaza, like she’d known in advance.
“Here’s your plain jagamarukun.” Takemikazuchi’s impression of Renn was pretty good, because the boy was willing to put in the effort.
That basic combat training was dull and repetitive.
Renn had stuck with it from morning to night.
Any other adventurer wouldn’t have had that kind of steady temperament.
They’d have rushed off to the Dungeon long before.
Considering he was Hestia’s follower, and that there really wasn’t much to do during breaks anyway.
The black-haired young man looked up and said with a smile, “If there’s ever a day you’re not planning to explore the Dungeon, come find me here.”
“As long as I’m not out working, I should be able to teach you some more advanced combat techniques.”
“!!”
Something that good was on offer?
Renn hadn’t seen that coming.
Basic combat techniques were enough to handle the monsters he was running into right now.
But being an adventurer meant having goals.
He’d never planned to spend his whole life at the bottom of Orario’s streets, and with a chance to improve right in front of him, he wasn’t going to let it slip.
Teacher, I want to get stronger so badly!
Renn reached out and took the oil paper bag of jagamarukun.
It was noticeably heavier than yesterday’s.
“Thank you, Lord Takemikazuchi.”
“Go explore.”
“Mhm…”
Takemikazuchi’s gaze followed the street toward the central plaza, and at the mouth of an alley he noticed the girl from earlier.
She was standing there, apparently waiting for Renn.
He looked at the boy, who hadn’t noticed a thing, and reminded him with a smile.
“That child from before is probably waiting for you.
Don’t keep her waiting too long…”
“Huh?!”
*
Did buying jagamarukun really take this long?!
Lili couldn’t understand it.
When she’d left the familia, she’d realized there were Soma Familia adventurers tailing her.
She stayed careful.
Instead of heading straight to the central plaza, she’d wandered around Orario’s streets for a while, and eventually ended up on North Main Street.
Of course, she had to admit that the jagamarukun Renn had given her yesterday tasted pretty good.
It was just that when she bought some herself to try…
Something about it felt like it was missing.
“Ugh…”
Standing beside the alley off the street with no Renn in sight, she took out that little bit of frustration on the jagamarukun in front of her.
Then the boy’s figure gradually came closer.
Lili reached up and tugged the hood of her grayish-brown cloak into place, to keep the familia’s adventurers from recognizing her.
She lowered her voice.
“Follow me.”
“?”
It felt like some kind of special roleplay.
Renn didn’t understand, but considering they were supposed to be friends at this point, he didn’t suspect Lili of having any other intentions toward him.
Except when he followed her into an alley where the flow of adventurers was thinner, she explained herself before he could even ask.
“Renn.”
“When you’re exploring the Dungeon these next few days, keep an eye out for whether any adventurers you don’t recognize are following you.”
As she laid it out, Lili kept her head low, because the scene in front of her was exactly the same as the one from when she was nine and got caught fleeing the Soma Familia.
Even now, she hadn’t made peace with the person she used to be.
Whenever she passed that flower shop, DearFlora, she never had the courage to go in.
Renn had been targeted by that pack of trash adventurers in the Soma Familia purely because he’d been kind enough to help her, and Lili didn’t want to run from it the way she had in the past.
“Sorry.”
“The truth is, the root of it is me.
They found out yesterday that we left the Dungeon together.”
“And also…”
“That adventurer dagger you carry.”
“Hm?”
Hearing that, Renn understood the whole picture.
He just hadn’t expected Orario’s law of the strong to come around to him this quickly.
He looked at the small supporter in front of him, head down, eyes avoiding his.
Even the way she’d explained it was full of guilt.
Was any of this Lili’s fault?
Objectively speaking, it did have something to do with her, but it wasn’t a result she’d wanted or intended.
The important thing was that she’d warned him ahead of time.
As far as Renn was concerned, that was far more useful than an apology after the conflict actually broke out, especially given Lili’s position inside her familia.
An adventurer who gets bullied.
Choosing to pass the information along put a lot of pressure on her too.
“Got it.”
“…”
Lili had even braced herself to be cursed out.
She lifted her head and saw that the black-haired boy’s expression hadn’t changed at all.
Like he didn’t care about any of it.
She pressed her thin lips together and asked quietly, “Is there nothing else you want to say?”
“Oh.”
“Those adventurers, how strong are they roughly?”
“Just ordinary Lv1 adventurers.
They barely even go into the Dungeon.
Mostly they just eat, drink, and mess around in Orario.”
Lili answered honestly.
When she raised her head again, she noticed that smile back on the boy’s face, the one that said he didn’t fear death and would fight anyone who pushed him.
Before she could add anything else, she felt a hand settle on top of her head.
It was warm, and it carried a faint smell of plain jagamarukun.
Then came Renn’s battle declaration, a little full of himself, and yet something Lili couldn’t bring herself to dislike at all.
“The strong bully the weak.
Has it always been right just because that’s how it’s always been?”
“I don’t think it is.
And these guys have set their sights on me, which makes it even more wrong.”
That adventurer dagger was a gift from his beautiful loli mom when he became an adventurer!
“When facing Lv1 adventurers with more combat experience and more strength than me, I could just swallow it and keep my head down.”
“Sounds reasonable~”
“But that’s a loser’s mindset!”