***

After selling all the corpses in [Alternate storage] to Weizer for a fuck-ton of Platinums, I and my party members departed toward duke Pyrian's territory.

Since it would take too long to go there on foot, I decided to go to the nearest town and take a Transfer gate to there. Thus, I turned around to check if I was missing something before I left the valley.

'Celi, Reiner, Nevih, and my equipment, all good! But... why are these two here?'

Apart from my usual party members and Nevih, the Orc and his dark Elf lover was travelling with us too.

"Hey Orc!" I shouted. "Why are you following us?"

"Kurrghhh... isn't it obvious?"

"No, it isn't. You found your lover, so go buy a house and live with her or something."

"Kurrghhh... I can't do that." The Orc shook his head, "I have to repay you for helping me reunite with my Eileen."

"I don't need y—"

But upon thinking harder about it, I stopped my sentence and changed my stance.

"Well... nevermind what I said before. Join me if you want, uh... what's your name again?"

"Zakadon...". he sighed.

"Zak it is. Welcome to the team, uhhh... along with your Elf I guess."

Though it might not have looked like it, to be able to smash your way into the Neviltis estate and come out of Kerudark alive was not a small feat at all, so it would be beneficial for me if Zak was to become my ally.

What was less desirable, however, was the fact that the dark Elf came with him as an extra package.

'Seriously, what's up with that Elf?'

Ever since I had seen her sitting on a bench with Zak in Weizer's house, she had been sending a few glares of hostility toward me every now and then. However, just now after I called the Orc Zak, her glare intensified.

'...I'll have to be careful around her.'

Thus, I called out to Celi. "Celi, take care of Zak and Reiner for a bit. I have to brief the new members on certain things."

"Is it okay to separate Eileen and Zakadon though?" Celi asked with concern in her eyes. "They have just reunited after all."

"...They had 5 days all to themselves already. I'm sure it'll be fine."

And with those words, I grabbed Nevih's and the Elf's hands. I then led them to a fairly secluded place in the valley.

As soon as we got sufficiently far enough from Celi and the others, I released their hands and turned around.

"Look, if you want to travel with me, we'll have to set up some ground rules. First—"

"Hoh", the Elf suddenly spoke up, interrupting me. "You led me to a secluded place yourself? Now that makes my job easier."

She then chanted before I could do anything.

Instantly, bony hands protruded from the ground and grabbed onto my feet. They rattled and tightened their grip as soon as I attempted to make any movements.

Although it might have looked like a scene from some kind of horror movie, I wasn't fazed by it at all.

'Weak... I just need to infuse a bit of Mana and I can break them to pieces.'

Despite that, I didn't even try to break out of her spell since it would only aggravate her more if I did so.

'And I can't lose the ally I've just made.'

I was sure that the Elf would need a reason to attack me like this, so I was hoping that I could resolve this by talking.

However, it seemed that Nevih had other plans, as he had already unsheathed his sword and pointed it at the Elf. "Unforgivable! To attack the Saintess of Storms right in front of the Hero of Storms! I shall rend you apart—"

"Shut up Nevih, or else I'll rip your throat out and stuff it in your mouth."

"What are you saying, Saintess Ary—"

"Shut your mouth."

Hearing my threats, Nevih could only stand in silence and not move at all. However, that didn't stop him from glaring at the Elf.

After sending a brief glare to the fool that almost messed up everything, I turned toward the Elf again.

"Elf, let me ask. Why are you doing this?"

"Don't act like you don't know anything!" She shouted. "From helping him without demanding anything in return, to calling him 'Zak', you're trying to steal my beloved Zak, aren't you?"

I stared at her with wide eyes, baffled that this was the reason behind her attack.

"Can't say anything? Guess I'm righ—"

"Hold on for a minute there", I interrupted her. "You're saying that I'm trying to steal Zak from you?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying!"

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I sighed. "I'm not trying to do that."

'In fact, I'd rather kill myself than become that Orc's lover.'

The Elf stuttered, unware of my thoughts. "Wh- What? Then how do you explain your actions?"

"I only helped him in return for a few Golds. And if I didn't, he would most likely have caused a mess in the city. I guess that he didn't tell you that, huh?"

"He did not..."

"Right, and about me calling him 'Zak'. I'm merely shortening his name because I can't be bothered to pronounce 3 whole vowels whenever I refer to him. Now do you understand?"

Though reluctant, the Elf nodded her head and sighed. "I get it... I was too hot-headed."

"It's fine", I said as I broke myself free from the restrains, much to the Elf's surprise. "I take that you don't have a problem with me now?"

"I- I don't." Her voice contained a hint of fear as she had probably realized by now that I could have broken free and killed her at any time.

"Great!" I extended my hand out to her. "I look forward to working with you then. You'd better prove yourself useful."

As the Elf shook my hand, I asked. "Uhhh... your name again?"

"Eileen."

"Right, Eileen, do you know how to cook?"

"Unfortunately, I don't."

"What a shame", I sighed. "And here I thought I could finally have a reason to kick Reiner out."

I then turned my attention toward Eileen again. "To be honest, I was very close to smashing your face to the ground when you said that I was trying to steal that ugly Orc from you."

Although scared, Eileen still frowned at my words as she heard me insulting her lover. "He's not ugl—"

"Blasphemous! Daring to argue against Goddess Lyra's champio—"

"Do you really want me to rip your throat out, Nevih?"

I then watched as Nevih proceeded to clamp his mouth shut and averted his gaze away from me.

'Seriously, why is he keeping doing this?'

Pontiff Lietas had advised me to threaten Nevih whenever he stepped out of line, and I had been following his advice ever since. However, it seemed totally ineffective to me.

'Does he like to be insulted that much...?'

However, I soon shook such thoughts off my mind.

'I'll just follow Pontiff Lietas' advice for now.'

...

After briefing the new members on the rules, which was just 'don't question anything I do', I regrouped with Celi and the others to get to the next town.

When we got there, a day and a half had passed, and the Gate station was nearing its closing time. Thus, I didn't waste any time and went right through the gate instead of loitering around like I normally would.

As soon as I went through the other side of the gate, I could feel warm breezes brush against my face, smell the salty scent of the sea, and observe all of my party members rolling on the ground and puking everything they've eaten for the past few days out.

Yes, everyone was puking like there was no tomorrow. Even Zak who looked like he was purely made out of muscle was puking.

Smirking, I crouched down next to them and spoke. "You're puking merely because you used a Transfer gate? As expected of peasants."

Seeing their displeased face at my words, I broke laughter.

'How satisfying... Now I get why those nobles in Avaron like making fun of me so much.'

Laughing for a few more seconds, I calmed down and helped everyone up.

'Right, don't get too carried away. People who do that get faceslapped by pushovers like Arthur at the end of the day.'

It was then that I finally felt that everyone's gazes were on me. They weren't gazes of rage at me insulting them earlier, but instead their gazes contained some sort of expectations.

"What are you looking at me for?"

After staying in silence for a few more seconds, the bravest of them - Celi stepped up. "We're waiting for your orders."

"Orders...?"

"Yes. Everywhere you go, there's always some kind of incidents that follows. So we're just waiting for your instructions."

I then glanced at everyone, thinking that Celi was the only strange one. However, both Zak and Reiner were nodding fervently at her words. Nevih and Eileen were as confused as new members should be, but they nodded anyways to fit with the rest of the party.

Seeing this, a sigh escaped my mouth. "Do you all think I'm a calamity magnet or something?"

'I'm not Arthur fucking Kilvillain!'

Events like those didn't happen because I was there. Instead, I was intentionally being there when those incidents occurred to either stop or profit from them.

"Come on, nothing's going to happen this time." I continued as I stopped my thoughts there.

However, Celi and the others didn't seem to buy it one bit.

Eventually, I relented as I decided to just tell them. "Okay fine... there's going to be an incident in a few days."

"I knew it!" Reiner exclaimed.

Seeing Reiner's excited face, Celi frowned. "Should you really be celebrating about an incident that will kill a lot of people?"

"R- Right..."

I ignored their little interaction and spoke up again. "Since it's not going to happen immediately and I need some preparations, you can all have 4 days to do whatever. But before that, decide on what we should do now."

"Kurghhh... eat!" Zak exclaimed.

"I agree with my Zak." Eileen added.

"I guess I'm pretty hungry... Reiner, are you?" Celi asked.

Reiner answered with a sigh. "Yes. I puked everything I've eaten for the past 2 days."

"Actually, I want to sleep. I'm pretty tired."

Taking in all their opinions, I nodded. "Alright, everyone unanimously agreed to have dinner so let's go!"

"Hey!" Nevih frowned. "Unanimous? I just said that I wanted to sleep!"

"Shut up Nevih, no one cares about you."

And with those words, I led them deeper into Pyriaville city to find a restaurant.

...

"Hmmm, what luck. To be able to find a restaurant so close to midnight."

When we arrived at Pyriaville, it was already after dusk. Thus, every restaurants we went to were closed, except for one very particular restaurant.

"Barqast's chain restaurant institution 2?" Eileen muttered. "What a weird name, and a weird logo design too. Why does it have to be a green dragon wearing chef hat and giving a thumbs up?"

"Kurghhh... I agree with you."

While Eileen and Zak were discussing about the exterior of the restaurant, I inched closer to Celi and Reiner and whispered.

"Hey, doesn't this bring back good memories?"

Hearing my words, Celi's face went pale as if she was about to puke on the spot. Luckily for her though, her stomach was already emptied a few hours earlier.

Reiner, meanwhile, shifted his wallet deeper into his pockets while he covered his face with his other hand as if to block a punch from me.

Grinning at their reaction, I took the lead and went into the restaurant.

...

We all entered the restaurant and took our seat at a round table.

Of course, Eileen and Zak sat with each other, and Zak picked up a newspaper immediately after sitting down, seeming bored.

'Huh, an Orc reading a newspaper, that's not a sight you can see everyday.'

My gaze then drifted toward Celi, Reiner, and Nevih, who had just sat down in a group of their own.

'Guess I'll have to sit between Celi and Eileen then...'

As soon as I sat down at my seat, a waiter walked up to our table.

"Esteemed customers, let me offer my sincerest apology."

"What for?"

"The owner says that you can only eat here for 1 hour at maximum."

"Why?" I frowned.

"It's because we have to continue with our preparations soon if we want to meet the deadline tomorrow."

"Preparations?" I looked at him with a confused gaze. "Now that I think about it, it's strange for a restaurant to open this late. So you're open just to prepare this something?"

"That is the case, esteemed customer."

The waiter then raised his head high and puffed his chest in pride. "Our restaurant has been chosen to hold a lunch for the Hero of Light and his friends tomorrow! So of course we have to make sure everything's perfect!"

"Hero of Light and his friends?" I widened my eyes in surprise. "By 'friends', you mean his party members?"

"Yes! Along with lady Ria Pyrian, lady Sylvia Ecertold, and lady Krista Nightshade's niece - Alicia Gray!"

"Is it okay for you to tell us this information though?" Celi suddenly interjected.

"Everyone in the city knows about it so there's no problems! Oh, and you now have 54 minutes left so you'd better order quickly!"

While everyone else was busy ordering their food, I fell into thoughts.

'Wait, isn't this a good chance?'

A very good plan was formulating in my mind. And after a few more minutes of correcting every possible faults it could have in my head, I grinned as I decided that I'd execute the plan tomorrow.

Satisfied, I turned toward the waiter, only to see him standing very patiently beside Nevih to wait for his order.

"Umm... uhhh... This is hard..." Nevih muttered.

"Urghhh! Just choose already! You're taking so long!" Eileen scowled.

"Sh- Shut up for a second! The Hero of Storms should have the best meal there is on the menu!"

Seeing that Nevih wasn't going to order anything soon, I immediately called out to the waiter.

"Waiter, give that guy a [Barqast's specials]. Oh, and I'll take Wyvern meat."

Nodding, the waiter wrote our orders down and went back to the kitchen.

"Nevih!" Celi shouted. "Cancel your order, now!"

"Why? Jealous that Saintess Aryl bought the most expensive meal for me and not you?" Nevih smirked.

"Stop calling Aryl Saintess. It makes me want to puke!" Celi said as she shuddered from merely putting me and 'Saintess' in the same sentence.

She then continued. "And no, I'm not jealous! You don't understa—"

"Araceli, stop." Eileen suddenly interjected. "That guy took 5 minutes of our time already. I don't want to waste another 10 just for him to reorder."

Although reluctant, Celi eventually had to stay silent in her seat. But that didn't stop her from inwardly praying for the well-being of the blissfully ignorance Nevih.

'Hopefully this will fix Nevih's attitude', I grinned as I watched the whole scene unfold.

However, I soon noticed Zak's unusually serious expression.

"Zak, what's wrong?" I asked.

Putting the newspaper down, Zak sighed.

"Kurghhh... the Kingdom had just declared war on the Empire."

The whole table sat in silence for a few seconds to process the bomb that Zak had just dropped.

"Wh- What!?" Celi was the first to break the silence. "W- Why would they!?"

Meanwhile, Reiner clutched his head in despair. "N- No! I'm going to get drafted!"

In contrast to Reiner, Eileen was full of smiles. "Kuhahaha! This is perfect for my Necromancy magic research!"

During all this, Nevih patted Reiner's back with a reassuring smile. "Brother, if you join the Churh of Storms then you won't get drafted! All you need to do is to donate 20 Silvers a week to our buy-back-the-main-basilica fund and pray to God Viha— erm... Goddess Lyra now."

With all my party members having vastly different reactions to the news, I merely sat still in my seat with a bored look in my face.

"Is that so?" I muttered.

Hearing this, Celi frowned as she tried to jab my arm. Ironically enough, the barrier that protected her actually prevented her from hitting me. However, that didn't stop her from continuing to frown at me.

"Aryl, what's with that reaction? Millions of people are going to die!"

"I can't care less about the lives of some random soldiers. If anything, you should be scolding Eileen over there. She literally just said that she would experiment on soldiers' corpses."

Hearing my words, Celi's face stiffened for a bit before she marched up toward Eileen to do just that.

With no one now bothering me, I feel into thoughts.

'At least something is going according to the plotline.'

In the novel, the Kingdom declared war on the Empire at around the same time as this so I wasn't that surprised.

However, the Kingdom didn't really do anything drastic after their declaration of war. Instead, they just banned trade and travel between their nation and the Empire while they prepared their armed forces.

Thus, the conflict between the two nations wouldn't go past small skirmishes around the borders until a few years later.

'And when that happens, Arthur will just solve everything like the Hero he is.'

It must feel great being able to solve everything through power while not having to care about any political bullshit like Arthur.

'Not that I envy him or anything.'

"Esteemed customers, here are your meals!"

The waiter's sudden voice brought me back to reality from my thoughts.

Staring at the Wyvern meat in front of me, I picked up a fork and muttered.

"Right... there's no need to worry about things that won't happen until years from now. Let's focus on my new plan first."

...

After finishing my dinner, I wiped my lips with a napkin and briefly glanced at the exit of the restaurant, where Zak and Reiner had just carried Nevih through to get to a healer or a doctor.

'Yeah, good luck finding one that opens this late. I pray for your safety, Hero of Storms. You won't be able to help me if you die after all.'

I then left Celi and Eileen behind at the table and approached the waiter.

"Hey", I tapped his shoulder. "Take me to the owner."

The waiter turned around and frowned. "Esteemed customer, why would you want to do that?"

"It would take too long to explain so just take me there. This is not a request. It's a order issued by the Saint... Saintess of Storms Aryl I."

I then lightly tapped the brown grimoire on my waist and muttered.

"Status."

=====

Name: Aryl Myrsky

Race: Human (Part-dragon)

Rank: D

Strength: E

Agility: D+

Stamina: E+

Intelligent: D+

Mana capacity: E-

Profession: Saintess of Storms (Lv.1)

--

Affinities:

--HIDDEN--

--

Skills:

--HIDDEN--

--

Battle arts:

--HIDDEN--

=====

Seeing my [Profession] tab, the waiter gulped and hurriedly led me to a room adjacent to the kitchen.

As soon as I entered the room, I was met with the sight of a burly-looking man with an overly twirled mustache wearing a chef hat staring at me.

"Kypton, why did you bring a customer to my office?" The man spoke as he glared at the waiter.

Kypton - the waiter shuddered as he shakily answered. "Th- The customer is a S- Saintess, and she requested to see you!"

"A Saintess?" The mustache man widened his eyes in surprise. "Very well. Kypton, leave. I'll handle her."

Nodding, Kypton hurriedly left the room.

Now left alone inside the cramp room with the mustache man, I spoke up.

"Are you the owner?"

"That is indeed to case." He answered as he twirled his mustache even more.

Trying to take my eyes of his mustache, I continued. "Alright, I'll make this quick then. I want to book the whole restaurant for tomorrow."

"Look here—", the man sighed as he took his hand off his mustache and crossed his arms. "—I'm sure you know that the Hero of Light is going to eat here tomorrow so I'm afraid that I can't comply to your request, even if you use your authority as a Saintess."

"Is that so?" I nodding my head in understanding.

'Well, I didn't expect him to agree that easily in the first place.'

Thus, I reached into [Alternate storage], took out a bag full of Platinums and slammed it on the table.

"How about I buy the whole damn restaurant instead?"