Chapter 14 – Turbulent beginnings

Translator: Mana

The collective gaze of the ‘Arrivers’ was directed to Force. It was as if we were all saying ‘What’s this guy saying?’ with our eyes.

“Whatever for?” If this is not Binbogami WordPress then it is stolen!

Jin voiced the consensual opinion of everyone present with his question. In response, Force replied with a completely serious expression on his face.

“I’ve fallen in love. I believe they’re my fated person, if I do say so myself. I want to leave the party so that I can dedicate my future to them.”

“You mean you’re getting married?”

Next to ask was Erin. She spoke for everyone by asking we were all probably thinking.

“Marriage is still for the future, and we’re not even dating yet… but I think our feelings for each other are mutual.”

“Isn’t that… a bit too quick to declare that they’re fated for you?”

Next was my turn. I gave Force my direct opinion.

“You’ve never had a girlfriend before, you wouldn’t understand. Keep quiet.”

Eh? Why was I the only one treated so horribly?

Ignoring the slump in my shoulders at being scolded by Force, Neme asked her question next.

“Just who is this person…?” Stop rehosting this chapter, thief!

“She’s a priestess called Roslia. She’s a very cute girl.”

At those words, everyone except me responded with a ‘Uh oh…’ while holding their heads.

Did everyone know her? This Roslia person?

Roslia… I felt like I had heard that name before somewhere…

I put the doubt I felt in my heard directly into words.

“Who is this Roslia person? It seems like everyone knows her already…”

Erin was the one who answered my simple question.

“Roslia Minkgott. A troublemaker famous in the town of Puriff for stirring up relationship problems by making multiple men fall in love with her at once… Because she’s broken up so many parties through with foolish infatuations, she’s a priestess who received the nickname ‘Crusher’.”

“Hey, don’t speak badly of Roslia! She’s just had bad rumours spread about her because she’s nice to everyone and easily misunderstood!”

“Force, I won’t say anything bad. How about you just give up on Roslia?”

Jin appealed with a more serious expression than usual. However, Force glared back, refusing to back down—

“It’s true that there are a lot of people who speak badly of Roslia!　Even I had such prejudices because of those rumours up until recently. But I realised my perceptions were wrong once I saved a crying Roslia from a pub fight and listened to her story. Roslia is just a tragic goddess whose beauty causes fighting in her surroundings.”

I completely remembered. Where I had heard the name Roslia before.

Inside jail. When I was arrested under suspicions of abducting little girls, the men in the jail to the front and next to mine were involved in a fight over a woman named Roslia.

It was possible that the fight Force stopped at the pub was the fight between those two…

It would explain the reason why Force skipped jogging next morning because of his hangover, and how he kept on emphasising that he was drinking ‘together’ with a ‘woman’.

I recalled that the two men in the jail both insisted that their feelings with Roslia were mutual. In a very similar way to the current Force. Which means there was a possibility that Force was just being deceived…

“Don’t tell me, Force. You haven’t been swindled by her, have you…?”

Erin narrowed her eyes in exasperation. Force puffed out his chest and answered her cold gaze proudly.

“I haven’t been made to do anything! I just gave her a present. The most expensive staff in the store.”

“That’s called being swindled!”

Unable to endure it any longer, I yelled out unthinkingly.

In return, Force huffed through his nose as if mocking me.

“This is why people who live their whole lives without a girlfriend are so… You just don’t understand… You’re probably the pathetic type that would be treated by your girl on a first date, right?”

With a certain event in mind, I received a huge blow from Force’s accurate words of analysis. I felt like Force was really looking down on me. This guy was definitely getting ahead of himself over a girl who he thought might feel the same way as him…

Despite my discontent at Force’s attitude, I decided to hold my tongue to save myself from getting hurt more.

Several minutes later. Jin, Erin, and Neme’s desperate persuasions were in vain as Force left the party house in a flurry, yelling, “I choose Roslia!”

The four people left in the living room headed to the desk with slumped shoulders. Jin, Erin, and Neme’s expressions were troubled and tired, and I was depressed for other mental damage reasons.

Since there was no point in staying quiet like this, I opened my mouth to assess the situation.

“Do things like this… happen often…?”

“This is the first time! Force has never said he’d leave the party before…”

“That Roslia person must be a real pro at fooling men…”

“According to the rumours… that Roslia person… has a really big chest!”

“Neme. Please don’t mess around when people are talking seriously…”

“I’m sorry… That wasn’t my intention…”

Neme shrunk at the cold gaze Erin and I sent her way. The atmosphere had become extremely delicate due to Neme’s insensitive remark.

Erin stood up from the desk with a sigh.

“Anyhow, we have to figure out how to make Force come to his senses…”

“I doubt he’d listen to us if we talked to him directly in his current state…”

“Is there no possibility that Roslia person actually likes Force for real…?”

Neme tilted her head at Jin in question, but Jin shook his head.

“They’re rumours so we can’t be certain, but probably not… This Roslia person seems to approach all kinds of men indiscriminately, and likes to be the centre of attention of lots of men. In other words, it’s princess play. Even though the adventurers of this town are aware of the dangers, they all seem to fall for it.”

“That unpopular Force! Couldn’t possibly have such a popular demoness actually fall in love with him!”

At Erin’s words, everyone present nodded their heads in agreement. As an ‘Unpopular With Girls Alliance’ comrade, I felt a little pity for him, but as he made so much fun of me earlier I didn’t bother to defend him.

“Then our only choice is to make Force realise he’s being deceived himself…”

“That’s right. The problem is how to get him to realise it…”

Erin mumbled, and Neme clapped her hands together in a moment of brilliance.

“How about directly telling Roslia to stop fooling Force!?”

It was Jin who rejected that plan. He smiled bitterly in a troubled way and said, “That’s not possible. In the past, there was an adventurer who tried to warn Roslia against approaching the men in their party. However, Roslia fed her gang of admirers half-truths and had them beat them up, or so the rumour goes…”

Everyone’s mouths closed after hearing Roslia’s ridiculous actions. It seemed like no one had an idea of how to make Force return to his senses. We were truly backed into a corner. Everyone’s faces were already gloomy.

“It might be impossible…”

Erin ominously mumbled. While we all wanted to deny it, no one had any grounds to do so, so we could only sit silently. That was extremely frustrating.

For it to end like this after I tried so hard these last few months in order to go dungeon diving…

Dissatisfaction permeated out of my heart. Complaints. I wanted to hurl all of it at that idiot, Force. I wanted to hit him. To make him meet a tragic end.

However, my words wouldn’t reach through Force’s ecstatic mood, and my fists wouldn’t reach Force at all, as he was stronger than me. That’s why I had no means of revenge towards Force…

“Ah!”

I suddenly stood up, raising my voice. The sound of the chair falling followed behind.

“There might be something! That can return Force to his senses!”

“Really?” Do not take chapter out of Binbogami WordPress.

Erin looked at me doubtfully. I forced back my heated feelings and spoke carefully, so not to stumble over my words—

“That Roslia person approaches all kinds of men indiscriminately, right?! Then we just have to use that!”

“How would we use that?”

“I just have to be approached by Roslia and pretend to be fooled! Even Force would see that sight and realise that he was being deceived by that Roslia person, right?”

It was a plan made on the wishful thinking that if Force saw the woman he thought was his fated partner treating the man he thought of as below him in the same loving way, even he would realise he was being fooled.

Neme’s eyes sparkled as she grabbed my hand in response.

“That’s it! I think it’s a good idea!”

“But isn’t there a chance that Note will actually fall for Roslia…? Wouldn’t it be better to use Jin, who’s immune to that kind of stuff…?”

Erin looked at me uneasily.

It was one of the fears I had considered already, so I used an excuse I had already prepared.

“I don’t mind if it was Jin either… but doesn’t Jin seem like he’d be bad at acting the fool?”

“That’s true…” Jin nodded along.

“I’ve been good at hiding my emotions and flattering people since my stray adventurer days, and I’m good at looking the fool…”

Bragging about things I had no pride in at all, I continued, “Not to mention…”

“Wouldn’t it be best for me, the one Force has been picking on this whole time, to be the one to deal the finishing blow?”

I lightly included the real motive of this plan into my words.