No to Being the Suffering Heroine!

I feel a pang of conscience as I lie in bed. But lying here together is a bit cramped, to say the least.

The landlord said this, and what could I possibly argue against spending the night here?

“…Uh, then… Excuse me….”

In the end, Friede moved the stuff she had brought from her room into the corner of mine, and reluctantly got on the bed all alone, taking off her outerwear.

Her stuff was just a suit of armor, some weapons, a backpack, and a half-open bottle of booze—very much the adventurer’s essentials.

“Yeah, sleep well. We’ve got work tomorrow.”

I slouched on the sofa’s armrest and took another sip of wine while wishing her a good night.

“Yeah… let me just finish this.”

Friede replied while lifting the bottle she had brought from her room.

“Go ahead.”

Since she had no glasses, I guess she planned to drink straight from the bottle.

With that face, drinking from the bottle would normally get her arrested back in the original world, but surprisingly, they say she’s twenty years old, so it’s not that big of a deal.

Glug, glug, glug. Ahhh…!

Visually, it was a scene I couldn’t quite get used to, no matter how many times I saw it.

Anyway, Friede and I enjoyed a light drink until we felt sleepy, spending a relaxing time together.

◆◆

About thirty minutes had passed, I think.

‘She drank it all… Should I have brought another bottle?’

I pushed the empty bottle to the corner of the table with a sigh, feeling a touch of regret.

Even though I enjoyed finishing it, there was a bit of a sense of incompleteness. Was this what they called incomplete combustion?

It was a bit awkward to go down at this hour and ask for another bottle. It’s a bit disappointing, but I should probably stop drinking here and just get a good night’s sleep.

Just as I decided that and let down my hair while taking off my outerwear to throw it over the back of the sofa…

“Uh… Hilde, can I ask you something?”

Friede, who had just finished her bottle, spoke to me after putting it down on the floor.

She was lying flat on the bed, resting her chin on her hands. The fact that she took off her shoes showed there was at least a minimal sense of decorum and morality in this world.

Right, you should definitely take off your shoes when getting on someone else’s bed.

Anyone lying on a bed without taking off their shoes deserves to have their legs hacked off while still in their boots.

Just like Procrustes from Greek mythology, who invited travelers to lie on his bed before promptly adjusting their sizes.

“Why ask for permission for something like that? If you have questions, just fire away. We’re in the same party, right?”

I took off my leather pants and tossed them next to my shirt, then threw a cloak over me like a blanket as I lay back completely on the sofa.

“…That’s true. ‘Same party’…”

Friede murmured quietly in a tone that felt slightly subdued.

It was a strange expression. She was smiling, but she didn’t seem genuinely happy; perhaps there was a hint of regret in her demeanor.

“…So, Hilde, do you remember Bardu and Jane?”

“Bardu? Of course, I remember. It’s only been a few days; how could I forget?”

What a random question.

“Why do you ask?”

It was a question that didn’t give me any clues about the asker’s intentions, something that would earn at least twenty points on a test.

“Ah, well, those two, they were… lovers, right? Is that a common thing among adventurers?”

Wait, was that what she was curious about?

Thinking back, Friede was at an age where she’d be interested in such matters.

Normally, because of her fierce habit of hacking monsters and bandits to bits with a great sword, I hadn’t considered it before.

“Well, I guess it’s not that rare? I’ve seen it happen a few times.”

Romances between party members. Such cases aren’t frequent, but they’re also not so rare that you can’t find them.

“Is that so…?”

“Yeah. When you face hardships together, sharing meals and resting together makes you form bonds. Before you know it, feelings develop.”

Of course, whether that bond evolves into something romantic is another matter.

Maybe because adventurers don’t have a long lifespan, most seem to prefer a casual one-night stand over long-term relationships.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s a kingdom of animals, but it’s common enough to joke that if an adventurer encounters a unicorn, they should just run away.

“…So, Hilde, what do you think of those kinds of people?”

Me? I didn’t really care.

To be honest, as long as they didn’t inconvenience me, I didn’t mind.

But…

“I’ve seen parties break apart because of that. Love triangles can lead to all sorts of chaos, you know?”

There are all sorts of stories.

Like when two close allies fight over a girl, or when a party with a male-to-female ratio of 3:1 isolates one member while having a threesome, leading to that one member’s brutal end.

There was even a case where a guy who had hit on three different female party members ended up causing a major disaster—it supposedly ended with the last woman leaving with the severed head of her boyfriend.

Some said she fled across a river on a boat to some other country; others claimed she wandered deep into the dungeon. Either way, it was a real tragedy.

“Ah… Is that so…”

Friede sighed softly.

“So… I take it that you dislike such matters, Hilde?”

“Well, it’s not that I hate them… Just that I’ve seen what happens when things go wrong.”

In contrast to Friede’s misunderstanding, I didn’t particularly harbor negative feelings about such situations.

If it makes them happy and doesn’t cause trouble for the party, what can I do?

Take Bardu and Jane for example—they were openly in a relationship, but they hadn’t caused me any trouble, so I simply ignored it.

“I personally think it’s neither good nor bad. As long as they don’t create problems, I don’t really care.”

While adventurers’ romances can often cause issues, I had no interest in it as long as it didn’t involve me.

“It doesn’t really matter… Yeah, that sounds like you, Hilde.”

Friede giggled, alternating her legs and smiling. I wasn’t quite sure what she meant by that.

Was it because I seemed distant from romance? Well, she wasn’t wrong; I hadn’t cared at all.

It’s not like a fugitive like me should be living with someone while keeping a disguise. That’d be absurd—it was my fault anyway.

Besides, finding a partner was going to be tricky.

While I had the body of an undeniable perfect woman, I clearly remembered the days I lived in my original body.

The very notion of me having feelings for men was impossible, even if the heavens split open and a goddess came down to threaten me.

So, if I were to reconsider, I would need a woman… but finding a woman who likes women isn’t exactly common.

It wasn’t a very popular preference even in the original world; that said, this world is based on a story where a guy is the main character.

Whoever created this world would hardly designate same-sex attraction as a common phenomenon.

In a world like that, it seemed far more typical for female characters to be included in the protagonist’s harem than to pair them with another woman.

To top it off, even if I were to find someone who liked me, it’d be quite the dilemma.

That person would see me as another woman, but the soul residing inside is not a woman; being in a relationship would just be deceiving them.

For that reason, ever since I fell into this world, I decided to treat romance as something that had nothing to do with me.

…To be honest, I hadn’t exactly had a romantic life in my original world either.

“So… what about you, Hilde? Is there maybe a guy you’re interested in… or have been interested in?”

At that moment, when Friede asked that, I could answer without hesitation.

“No guys; never had one. I don’t think I will. Probably never in my life.”

“…Uh, I see…? That’s a bit surprising.”

“Surprising?”

I asked, unsure of what she meant, and Friede flinched a bit, startled.

“Oh, ah! Was that inappropriate…? I just thought that someone as pretty… I mean, as cool as Hilde would’ve received plenty of confessions in the past…”

Friede rambled a hurried explanation that made it a bit amusing to see her fidgeting as if she worried she had offended me.

On that note, confessions…

Well, you know…

Sure, there were plenty who tried to take advantage of me, but no actual love confessions.

Being told to open my legs nicely wouldn’t count as a love confession, right?

Besides, even if someone confessed, it’d only make me uncomfortable, so I’d just keep my distance.

“Nope. Even if there were, I wouldn’t have accepted any. Those dark-haired guys confessing love just sound unpleasant.”

“Oh, I see. Is that so?”

Oh, ‘I see’? What does that mean, Friede?

Suddenly, Friede started beaming like been told the best joke in the world or something!

Why did my heart feel a little chill watching her expression?

No way, no way… she can’t be interested in me or something, right?

It can’t be…

A bead of cold sweat trickled down my cheek.

It felt like a crisis that could blow up the party, but for entirely different reasons than I had previously worried about.

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