Apparently, it turned out that Hajime was a married brute who hid the fact that he was the master of a harem and made tens of women pregnant while keeping it a secret from his wife. Hajime, who was currently being shaken by Kaori, was looking at the ceiling with half-closed eyes, and then he leaked a deep sigh while patting Myuu, who wondered what happened and tilted her head.
* * *
The appearance of Kaori, whose head was buried in Shizuku’s chest with a crimson face, looked as though she wanted to bury herself in a hole. Regaining her composure, she noticed she had shouted something unbelievable, and her embarrassment came in at mach-speed. “It’s okay~, it’s okay,” the appearance of Shizuku comforting her was just like a mother… no, let’s stop here.
Hajime and the others had moved away from the entrance gate and arrived at the plaza in the town’s entrance. After his honor, which had gone up made a sharp fall in the public eyes, he reported to the branch head, Lorr, about the accomplishment of the request. And after two or three conversations, he decided to leave the town quickly to escape the various commotions. To begin with, he had only come here to deliver the letter from Ilwa to Lorr, so there was neither a need to resupply nor problem if they left immediately.
Kouki’s party came back one by one after the leaving Hajime’s party due to following Kaori. Kaori, still writhing in embarrassment, was desperately thinking about what she should do. She had to decide whether she would separate from Hajime as she was or follow him. Her feelings were more inclined to follow him. She didn’t want to separate after they were finally reunited.
However, she could not make a clear decision because of her her guilt from leaving Kouki’s party and how she was shaken by Hajime’s changes. Moreover, there was the effect from her shaking being seen through and sneered at.
Kaori, just like what Yue did to her, had guessed how strong Yue’s feelings were towards Hajime. Following that, more than anything, how Hajime thought of Yue as someone important to him became a thorn that pierced and stuck onto her heart. The two thought of each other. Then, the one-sidedly ridicule, “So that’s the extent of your feelings” doubted the strength of Kaori’s shaken feelings.
She was wondering whether her feelings would lose to Yue’s, and now, whether her feelings should be set aside so it would not become a nuisance. But more importantly, was she really looking at the current Hajime beside her? Or was she only thinking of the past Hajime? That, coupled with Yue’s extraordinarily high abilities as his partner and how dignified she was made Kaori… overwhelmed. In short, she had lost her confidence in herself as a woman, as a magic-user, and even her feelings towards Hajime.
Finally, it was the time for Hajime’s party to leave, and for some reason the atmosphere was full of unrest. Noticing that and raising her face, Kaori saw around ten of men blocking their way.
“Oi oi, just where do you think you are going? You made our comrades into such rag-tags, do you think you can go without an apology? Ah? Ah!?”
The dirty looking armed man smiled inappropriately as he looked at Tio and said. Apparently, they were the comrades of the fellows who previously tried to kidnap Myuu. They came to take revenge on Tio. But, those vulgar gazes were obviously not looking for retribution but something else.
In this town, adventurers should know of the commotion inside the guild and would not go looking for a fight against Hajime. That’s why, these men were probably stray mercenaries.
Hajime and some others were gritting their teeth while being amazed at the template-like situation coming from these scum. However, mistaking that as shaking in fear, the failed excuses for mercenaries began to get carried away.
Their gazes moved towards Yue and Shia, too. The gazes that seemed to licking them made Yue and Shia feel disturbed from the bottom of their hearts and hid behind Hajime. Misunderstanding their actions as being frightened, they began to threaten Hajime who was surrounded by Yue and the girls.
“BRAT! You understand right? Leave the women and quickly disappear if you don’t want to die! Whaa~t, I’ll return them if you properly apologize!”
“Well, they’ll already be broken by that time though.”
Thinking it was amusing, GYAHAHA—, the men laughed. One of them was even lusting after the frightened Myuu, while another was lusting after the Rabbitman, a race usually used as an outlet for human sexual desire. And their fate had been decided now.
Just like the usual, the pressure came attacked the mercenary-like men like a giant waterfall that even made creaks in the air. However, being enraged and could not endure the men’s speeches, Kouki moved out only to get wrapped inside the pressure and trembled. Then, he saw Hajime, not caring about him, walked towards the men from the corner of his view.