I Played the Role of a Hated Hero, but for Some Reason, I'm Loved by the Last Boss and Living W

New Adventurer x Rookie Adventurer

Translated by AmaLynne

After that, the awkward atmosphere with Behemoth was never dispelled.

I left the commercial guild after receiving the purchase price for the materials that had been assessed.

Compared to the last time, the amount of money in my pocket was a little modest, but it was still enough to buy a few miscellaneous goods and foodstuffs.

If I could, I would like to continue to buy some dishes, sundries, spices, etc. for home use…but it took longer than I thought it would to assess the situation. Soon the sun will disappear behind the stone walls and the area will be shrouded in darkness.

I’ll leave the shopping for later and just go home today.

Things don’t always go according to plan like this… I’d like to raise the cultural level of my house even higher.

I’ve promised Demiurge that I’ll be home in the evening, and I’m sure he’s worried about the behemoths since they’ve come here unannounced. I’d better hurry back.

「―――U-um…!」

And as we walked out of the commercial guild, a voice suddenly called out to us. It was a high-pitched voice, probably a woman’s.

「Excuse me! Can I talk to you for a minute!?」

And now a man’s voice. When I turned around, there they were: a boy with short-cropped dark brown hair who still looked very young, and a girl with cherry-red hair and pigtails.

「Oh, you guys are the ones from the other day.」

The two looked familiar. I recall meeting them on the streets of Cid just the other day. We hardly exchanged a word, but they seemed to remember me. Well, it was only yesterday.

「Yes! Oh, I’m Roy! A-And this is my childhood friend.」

「N-Nice to meet you. My name is Priscilla! Thank you so much for your help the other day!」

「Thank you!」

As she introduces herself, Priscilla bends at a right angle at the waist and bows her head. Roy followed suit and bowed his head vigorously.

「Hey, who are these guys?」

Phoenix gives the two a huffy look. Dragon God and Behemoth did not show their expressions, but I could sense that they were wary of them.

「The other day, I happened to come across a man being attacked by a demon. As a result, I ended up helping them.」

Strictly speaking, I was just kicking away the demons that stood in my way at that time, not trying to save them. I was just saying that it turned out that way as a result. Well, there is no need to explain that.

「Hee. Saved them, hee…」

Phoenix stares at Roy and Priscilla with impassive eyes. The two expressions were tightened in the face of the pressure, somewhat too strong for a child to unleash.

「U-Uh, who’s the girl over there?」

「Ah, she’s with me. Sorry, she’s a little shy and guarded.」

「Oh, I see. I’m sorry for calling out to you out of the blue. My name is Priscilla. What is your name? What should I call you?」

Priscilla folds her knees to be at eye level with Phoenix. If this were a normal child, her response would not be wrong. But she was not with the right person.

「Hmph. I don’t have a name to give to a bunch of people. Who the hell do you think you are? Do you want to die? I’ll burn you right here if you like.」

「Eh?」

For a moment, the air is frozen.

Her smile, which she must have been trying to avoid alarming the other party, was frozen in place, and Roy was completely taken aback.

「I-I’m sorry, This guy has a bad mouth…」

「Ah, ahaha… no, I’m sorry too. I-I’m sure she must have gotten nervous when I suddenly approached.」

Priscilla, is only positive and speaks out that she is sorry because the other party is a child. How can I say this? I’m sorry. But still, she might be a girl who likes children, as she doesn’t get angry even after being told so much.

「I’m sorry. Let’s see, this guy’s name is Pheni―――」

Wait a minute, me…

I was about to introduce this guy as『Phoenix』, but then I stopped myself. There was no way I could honestly tell them her name as it was. No, even if I told them her name as it is, they would never think of associating her with that beast. However, having the same name as a demon, an enemy of the world, might raise unnecessary suspicion.

There are people in the world who worship Demiurge. They are what people in the world call『Evil People』. It would be troublesome if they suspect me of being a member of such a group. Well, I am not in a position to say anything about them since I took her as my wife…

Well, that’s beside the point. It would be a good idea to give Phoenix and the others pseudonyms, just as we did with Demiurge and the others. It is necessary if we are going to operate in this town from now on.

However, I am not sure if they will be able to accommodate my wishes, as we had no prior arrangement. I have a feeling that the Dragon God will be fine, but the Phoenix is likely to complain a lot, and Behemoth’s behavior is unpredictable.

But it would look strange if I didn’t tell them her name.

Okay, let’s just pick an appropriate alias and go for it.

I thought about this for about one second.

「Umm, umm,【Feria】. And the tall one over there is… Ryu,【Ryuin】, and the beastman girl is… be, be, be?」

「「Be?」」 

「【Belle】……right, her name is Belle!」

「Ha? What are you talking nonsense? My name is Phoeni―――*mugaa!*」

「Um~? Excuse me. My name is also Ryu, not Ryuin.」

「Ryuin! It’s late today, we’re going home! And Belle! I’m sorry! We’ll talk another time!」

「Eh!? Um, hey!」

I vigorously shoulder Phoenix with its mouth closed and take Behemoth’s hand and start running. Dragon god seemed to be following me without a care in the world. Phoenix is on my shoulder and is hitting me on the head. This hurts a lot.

But I stop for a moment, turn around, and look up at them.

「Oh, and I’m Alexei. I’m new here, just registered with the Adventurers’ Guild a few minutes ago, but you can count on me if you need anything!　Well then!」

After pulling the chest tag out and holding it up for them to see, I quickly start running, heading for the Transfer Gate.

Being fully alert to see if anyone was following us from behind, I went under the gate leading to the elven forest located near the main gate.

◆◇◆◇◆

Roy and Priscilla looked at each other, stunned to see their benefactor and his friends suddenly running off.

「Somehow, he’s gone off again.」

「Yes. I wanted to apologize and thank you properly for the other day…」

As for Roy, he wanted to thank them for their help, of course, but more than that, he wanted to apologize for the act of pushing demons on them. Even if there was no other way to save ourselves at that time, it does not change the despicable nature of what we did. Even if they say it was a pale and naive idea, they should show proper apology and sincerity.

「Yes… but he seemed to be in kind of a hurry, so I don’t blame him. By the way, he said that he registered with the Adventurers’ Guild, so maybe we can meet again at the guild. I’ll apologize and thank you properly this time.」

This time, the timing was not right, Priscilla divvies up. But at least they now know that he has registered with the Adventurers’ Guild here in town, and they are adventurers themself. There was a high probability that they would meet again. Then they should make time to meet again and take the time to apologize and thank him for his hospitality.

Roy agreed with Priscilla and gave a small nod.

「Right…………… did he say earlier that he registered with the guild just a few minutes ago?」

Roy was astonished to see the look of surprise on his face when he remembered that the man who had just driven away, who introduced himself as Alexei, had only just registered with the Adventurers’ Guild.

「Yes. That’s what he said.」

「That means he’s a… F rank adventurer, right?」

「Oh, I see! Wow~ I didn’t know someone that strong was F-ranked! But I have a feeling he’s going to move up in rank soon.」

「I wonder what he’s been doing all this time………… Is he a guard or something?」

「I wonder if it could be that he’s a former knight?」

「I have a feeling he was fighting in an ill-mannered way for a knight… Well, whatever the case, let’s hear all about it the next time we see him.」

「I guess so.」

「Yes.」

Roy and Priscilla decided that the next time they met him, they would truly, seriously, and firmly thank him for his help.

「Oh, and I’ve never seen a beastman before.」

「She really does have ears and a tail.」

「It was cute, wasn’t it?」

And their topic of conversation changed from the benefactor who ran away to the beast girl he had with him. As they headed home through the darkened back alleys, the two men engaged in conversation about the beastman they had seen for the first time and the young red-haired girl with a bad attitude.