That fellow Asta hadn't stepped a single foot outside his room for the past few days. According to him, a majin could sustain themselves purely by absorbing the magical energy in the atmosphere, so there was no real need to ingest external nourishment.
Even so, everything had its limits. After the landlady came to consult me, I decided it was time to check if he was still alive.
I unlocked the door and stepped inside.
Clothes were discarded carelessly across the floor, and the books I had given him were piled in heaps on the table. And there, sprawled out on the bed in her underwear, was a tall beauty fast asleep.
"...This guy was a woman?"
One look at the twin mounds asserting their presence made it blatantly obvious. Well, she did have a rather feminine face, and her voice was strangely high-pitched and creeping me out, so I had wondered. To think she was an actual woman. Well, it was certainly surprising, but ultimately trivial.
I walked over to the window and threw the wooden shutters wide open. Then, grabbing the wooden bucket and broom from the corner of the room, I began banging them together with the handle.
"All right, wake up! Wake up!"
Squinting against the blinding sunlight, Asta pushed herself up in bed, let out a massive yawn, and looked around—only for our eyes to meet.
Immediately tucking her chin in, she looked down and realized her semi-nude state. In an instant, her entire body turned as red as a ripe fruit. Then, letting out a shriek like a bizarre bird, she bundled herself tightly under the blanket.
Good grief. For a majin, she sure had a reaction identical to my childhood friends.
"G-Get out of here, I say!"
"Fine, as long as you promise to lead a proper, regular lifestyle from now on."
"I will, I say!"
"Understood. I'll take your word for it."
Since she said so herself, I had no choice but to believe her. If she holed herself up again, I could just come bang something together to wake her up.
Honestly, it wasn't like she was some pampered rich girl; I wished she would at least be able to look after herself.
Letting out a heavy sigh, I left the room and headed downstairs.
While I was having breakfast in the inn's dining area on the ground floor, Asta came down. Still with her cheeks faintly flushed crimson, she took her usual seat right beside me on my right.
"Now then, let us begin our prayers."
Rose and Anna began their prayers to God. Giving thanks to God before a meal, huh? A very Amelian way of thinking.
Of course, there was no way the rest of us possessed such admirable piety.
Faf was kicking her legs impatiently with drool running down her chin, staring hungrily at the plate piled high with meat in front of her as she waited for my permission.
As for Asta, she kept casting nervous glances in my direction, but whenever I turned toward her, she hastily averted her gaze. What on earth do you want, you...?
"Let us eat, then."
With Rose's words signaling the end of the prayer, we also began digging into our food.
"Kai, congratulations on your victory in the first round of the qualifiers. With this, our objective has been met, so why don't we forfeit midway through the next match and return to Balse?"
After finishing her breakfast, Rose made that unexpected proposal.
Though the reason was unclear, Rose seemed completely distracted right now. Given that she had brought this up, staying in this city was probably becoming detrimental to her interests.
"No, I will not forfeit until the very end."
Until the previous match against Dick Balm, I had considered throwing the fight at a convenient point to wrap things up, but the tournament management's attitude had changed my mind. Out of pure spite, I intended to see this through to the finish.
"However, I am also worried about that slave child..."
"Nah, there's still plenty of time left before the deadline, and I paid them good money. She's probably being treated like royalty right about now."
That shopkeeper had a pragmatic, businesslike air, and above all, he didn't seem foolish enough to fabricate something that would be obvious the moment someone asked the girl herself. There was little doubt that the slave girl was currently being treated properly.
"Still, that is not an absolute certainty, is it?"
Rose was certainly pressing the issue. It seemed she really didn't want to stay in this city.
"If they unilaterally breach our contract, I will completely crush them. That is all."
I would take full responsibility and wipe their organization off the face of this earth without leaving behind a single trace.
"Crush them, I say!!"
When I patted Faf's head as she thrust her right hand holding a fork into the air, she narrowed her eyes like a content cat.
"Well then—"
Just as Rose was about to speak,
"Rose, I've been looking for you."
A long-eared woman approached our table with her right hand raised.
Her age appeared to be around the same as Rose's, roughly fourteen or fifteen. Given the youthfulness lingering in her features, "cute" was a more fitting description than "beautiful." Her smooth silver hair flowing down to her back and her petite frame matched flawlessly with her simple outfit of a white-based short skirt and jacket.
(Tch!)
Hey, Rose, you just clicked your tongue, didn't you?
"Miffy, do you need something?"
Rose's saccharine, coaxing tone honestly gave me goosebumps. Sensing the unusual atmosphere, Faf clung to me from beside my seat, so I stroked her head to reassure her.
"Naturally, to greet the gentleman over there, I suppose."
The silver-haired woman called Miffy took her eyes off Rose, turned to face me, and pinched the hem of her skirt.
"I am Mille-Feuille Renren Lorelei. A pleasure to meet you."
She bowed courteously.
"I am Kai Heinemann. Don't look so frightened. It's not like I'm going to eat you."
Although she was smiling, the color had drained completely from her face, leaving her pale, and her entire body was trembling faintly. I didn't recall ever being told I had a particularly terrifying face.
"N-No, I am not frightened at all!! I merely have a bit of stage fright and am feeling nervous!"
It was an obvious bluff, but there was no need to go out of my way to point it out.
"And? What business do you have? Surely it isn't just to say hello."
Right now, I was the biggest villain in this city. There was no way someone would approach me just for a greeting. She undoubtedly had some kind of demand.
"Would you be willing to form a contract with me?"
"Kai—"
Restraining Rose with my right hand as she tried to interject,
"A contract out of the blue, you say? Regarding what?"
I asked Mille-Feuille point-blank.
"A contract where you grant my request in exchange for compensation provided by me."
Hm? I didn't quite get it, but judging by the flow of the conversation, she probably didn't mean a written contract on paper. If so, was it a magical contract? Come to think of it, I read in a book once that there was elemental magic used to establish pacts between humans and non-humans. Could that be what she was referring to? In that case, this woman must be mistaking me for a non-human. Well, either way, as someone who couldn't use elemental magic, forming such a contract was impossible.
"Sorry, but that's impossible."
"Is that so...?"
Mille-Feuille's shoulders slumped, a look on her face as if the world had ended.
This girl was an Elf. I had wanted to visit the Elf Nation of Lorelei even before being swallowed by that dungeon. She was an acquaintance of Rose who bore the name of Lorelei. There was a high chance she was connected to royalty. If so, I absolutely wanted to avoid souring our relations here.
"Don't look so down. I am a human, and due to my Gift, 'The Most Incompetent in the World,' I can only use non-elemental magic. I cannot form magical contracts."
"A human? You are?"
"That's right. Isn't that so, you two?"
When I turned to Faf and Asta,
"Master is a human?"
Faf, why is that a question? That's where you're supposed to give a firm affirmation!
"Master, do you truly intend to keep insisting you are human?"
Asta, on the other hand, gave a flat denial with an exasperated look.
"Hey, do I look like anything else to you?"
"From the tips of your toes to the crown of your head, you look like nothing other than a monster, I say."
Nod, nod. Faf and Mille-Feuille nodded vigorously in agreement. What was with this sudden sense of solidarity among them?
"I am well-acquainted with Kai's mother, and I have heard that his father is a Kingdom person. Kai is unmistakably human."
Rose was an acquaintance of my mother? Knowing that flighty mother of mine, she had probably told Rose all about my past without any hesitation. There was little doubt that even my most embarrassing childhood stories had been completely laid bare.
"Are you... truly a human?"
To Mille-Feuille's hesitant, skeptical question,
"That's what I've been saying from the start, haven't I?"
I confirmed it as a matter of course.
"I see..."
She rested a hand against her chin, lost in thought, but then,
"Understood. Rose, what concerns this person is far too significant a matter for me to keep to myself. I shall speak with the instructors."
After saying that to Rose,
"M-Miffy, wait a moment—"
"Well then, Lord Kai, until we meet again!"
Raising her right hand, Mille-Feuille paid no heed to Rose's attempts to stop her and briskly exited the inn. In stark contrast to her initial trembling state, her footsteps were light and buoyant.
In response, Rose clutched her head in frustration. When I shifted my gaze to Anna to ask about their bizarre behavior, she wore a bewildered expression, shrugging with her palms turned upward. It seemed Anna didn't understand it very well either.
In that case, thinking about it was merely a waste of time. Young people these days were hard to understand. Leaving it at that would be fine.
"Well then, I shall return to my room for a bit. Anna, I leave the rest to you."
Glancing at Rose, who was still muttering grievances under her breath, I gave Anna the instruction, to which,
"Yeah. Leave it to me."
She gave a thumbs-up with a smile. Over the past few days, this one had become quite agreeable as well. Not too long ago, she would have merely nodded while looking away in annoyance.
In short, just like Faf and Asta, she was probably just terribly shy around strangers.
Standing up from my seat, I began walking toward the second floor, where my room at the inn was located.