Chapter 718: Herman’s Late Youth
The atmosphere of the bar itself seemed to deteriorate as we stood and jostled around, so I had Herman bring a chair and put it in the table. I asked the waitress……Merie-san, for some more food and took a break for now.
“You seem healthy, Herman Kidd”
“…………”
Dianne said as she tipped her glass, but Herman just looked around with a wary……or rather awkward look on his face and didn’t reply. That’s understandable. He’d become very cheerful since coming to this new place, but he probably didn’t expect that someone he knew from his stern days would see him like this. He was at a loss as to how to behave. Since we couldn’t get anywhere, I poured him some drinks.
“You don’t have to force yourself to act weird. I’ve heard the general story from Berga, and we all saw you talking outside once, all excited”
“…………!!”
Herman turns red. Wow. Youth.
“No, we didn’t see that scene, though. We knew about it”
“Yeah. I hate to say it, but you stand out”
Herman, who was being looked at subtly by both Naris and Almeida, collapsed to the floor, elbows on the table and his face downcast. Even his ears are red. Herman is red up to his ears. He’s young. ……No, he’s still young too. 27 years old is young.
“I’m glad to see you’ve brightened up……because it’s troublesome when it’s dark”
“……But that Herman……puu”
The former hero shakes his shoulders slightly at the words of the two subtly unreserved ex-colleagues. He probably wants to say, stop it!
“Well……don’t worry about it. It’s too late to act like a hero in that outfit now. Drink up”
I patted him on the shoulder, and Herman lifted his head and slurped down a big gulp of sake, then turned to face me again.
“Sorry about that time!”
“……O, Ou”
For some reason, he apologized.
“Please leave the past alone!”
“……I say a long time ago, but it’s only been a few months”
“Please!!”
“……Yes”
Is this a strategy to break the awkward atmosphere by apologizing cheerfully and with overwhelming force? Yes, it’s a strategy to break the awkward atmosphere. It’s effective when you’re being teased. Especially when you can’t win or escape even if you lose your temper. You can also use your momentum to make the character change go away.
“Even so……you know?”
But the one who still seems to want to rehash is Beatrice. She’s a child, emotionally, with an unbalanced upbringing. I can’t help it. So, I’m going to play Beatrice back for her.
“Even Beatrice was a straight-shooter with Richard back then. But now……”
“……What?”
“She’s become so cute. She’s taking the initiative in doing this and that”
“Tssss～～!”
When I poked at something risky with a grin on my face, Beatrice panicked, as if she hadn’t expected the water to be on her. She’s a child, not being able to predict the flow of the conversation and making a reckless move. And I’m a grown-up.
“Beatrice. Let’s call it a painless split. You don’t want to be embarrassed in front of Herman”
“But……why would I do that……?”
“Maamaamaamaa”
Clang, clang, she puts out glasses in front of Neia and Beatrice, and Naris pours them both a bottle in each hand.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. Let’s have a toast to our reunion first. We’ll talk about the details later”
It seemed that Naris had read the mood of the conversation. Almeida could not have known how to use this kind of tact.
“Well then, toast! Yay!”
“Yay?”
“Yay!”
The two of them raise their glasses in bewilderment as they are swept away by Naris’s energy. The two of them were in a state of confusion as they raised their glasses.
“So Herman. You should be under Berga’s care now, right?”
“Yes! I am!”
“You don’t need to use honorifics when speaking to me. Beatrice is like that too. Calm down”
I rub Herman’s shoulders as he straightens his back, encouraging him to relax. And Dianne took over for me.
“Right now, Berga and Felios are in a state of chaos because of the issue with Sharon. Tell me about that”
“……Y, Yes”
………….
For now, I’ll ask for more details. Sharon argues with Berga every day, but it seems that she can’t talk about anything to do with him in front of Felios. If she accidentally brings up the topic, he will quickly become critically ill. Berga has no choice but to persuade Sharon to give up, and Sharon won’t back down, so she spends her days complaining to Herman, 「What should I do……」. ……Herman can’t stand just listening to complaints, so he spends his days visiting Merie’s shop. It’s a mess. But it’s not easy to settle things amicably.
“If I show my face, Felios will die, won’t he?”
“……I can’t believe that Sharon is so obsessed with being your female slave. I’m not sure how you can get such a big-breasted beauty to give up her pride that much. Berga-sama says that until a while ago, she was rather too proud and got herself into trouble all the time”
“……I actually don’t understand it either”
“Tell me. Do you have a lot of female slaves? Rumor has it, you have 20 or 30. I don’t call them slaves, but I want women to like me that much. How did you get there?”
“……If you follow your desires honestly, before you know it……”
“I see……”
“Well, if you openly express your desires, you’ll usually get caught, right? In my case, the half elf who first let me do dirty things with her was more than aggressive, she was an extremist, so I got away with being open about my desires, right?”
Just to be on the safe side. Dianne adds from the other side.
“Andy is a Celesta soldier who can take as many wives as he wants. This isn’t a cultural sphere like that. Don’t try to imitate him”
“Uh, yes……”
The truth is, my current situation is exactly what every man dreams of. I can impregnate as many beautiful girls as I want, and in fact, girls who are more eager to get pregnant than I am are vying to be the first to stick their butts out naked. If I had met me before I met Selenizn, I would have gotten down on my knees and asked her to teach me how to do it. It is no wonder that Herman wants to copy me. But the truth is, I don’t have any tips on how to be super popular, and I don’t feel like I’ve grown that much inside of two years. It’s just luck, I guess.
“If you want to be popular, you have the ability to be popular. Here, strength is the best factor for popularity, right?”
“That’s true, but……it’s just based on the equation that being strong with a sword = being able to earn money. Isn’t that a little shameless?”
“Think about it the other way around. If you’re going out with a man with the intention of getting married, it’s a trap if he has no ability to earn money. It’s just a fantasy to whisper something like, I’ll make you happy in that situation. The woman who believes it is not a partner. If a woman believes that, it means that she is not looking at the person she is dating and that she has the guts to think that all a man needs is a good face, don’t you think?”
“U, Uuh……”
I’m the one who is giving advice to the younger generation, but it’s damaging to me. I’m not very good at making money, am I? Laila and the others keep telling me that it’s fine because there are more benefits than that under the title of Dragon Rider, and I agree. ……I want to be a man who can be relied upon without the help of dragons. I’m not talking about combat ability, but as an adult. I don’t want Peter to grow up and start saying that even if he can’t do anything in particular, he can get by just waving his dick around like his father (me).
“Polish up your beauty, young man. It’s usually impossible to be as popular as Andy, but a man who is not demeaning, proud of his good qualities, and honestly acknowledges the good qualities of others is attractive in his own right. If he walks with a straight back, that alone will make women leave him alone”
Dianne said and poured Herman a drink. Herman grunts and sips his drink, then sighs.
“I want to be irresistible as fast as I can”
“That’s the end of it”
“I know you can’t believe it, but even Berga-sama is amazing. Every day for a week, he stays in a different house. I want to be like him! I want to be like that!”
“That’s the kind of desire you shouldn’t express”
“Don’t be in a hurry, young man”
But I understand how he feels. In my youth, when I was in the most agony, I fantasized about such things. It is a common situation in erotic picture scrolls and the like. But women usually pull away when they hear about it.
“……Herman-kun”
“Ah”
Merie-san, who brought the food, was looking at Herman with jealous eyes. And it took Herman a long time to notice it, probably because he was quite drunk. Yeah, I’m sorry. I’m sorry to hear that.
“Well, Andy often makes not only a house where he stays, but also a whole colony of women go to a naked festival and hug every single one of them, from a girl who just came off her period to a woman who is going through childbirth”
Dianne says, amused. Then, Merie-san looks at me with alarm in her eyes.
“……Herman-kun, you have to choose your friends”
Yes. Excuse me. No, wait. You are good friends with Berga, aren’t you? Isn’t he like me?
“Well, aside from Herman. ……As for Sharon, we may have to resort to a bit of heavy-handed tactics”
“Dianne?”
Dianne-san smiled thinly.
“If things continue like this, Felios will have no choice but to die in despair. But if he finds someone to hate, it’s a different story. He’ll be able to live with stronger feelings if his sister is taken from him, rather than being devastated by the fact that he was betrayed by his sister”
“……No way”
“It was you who changed Sharon. Are you ready to be hated?”
“……Eh”
“If you don’t, Felios will die, right?”
“…………”
What a roundabout way to help people.