LIGHTNOVELONLINE 30: Bridge Into Simp-Land
Curtains billowing, sunbeams illuminating, the six adventurers had returned to Dexter's office after wrapping up their strategy meeting. Now in the office, they decided to catch up, doing some team bonding before the big expedition set to begin the next day.
Their weapons piled in a corner, these expensive top of the line weapons that any adventurer or weapons enthusiast would kill for all were disregarded while the adventurers chatted about their personal lives.
"So you're saying the kid tried to then raid your sword school?" Jayce asked, an expression of clear disbelief on his face, astounded at the sheer stupidity of the action.
Laughing while slapping his knee, Nao cleared his throat after taking a sip of tea, elaborating, "He tried to take over the school! He was thinking that if he didn't get in, he might as well just raid it to show how we were all mistaken!"
A coin in their hand to keep themselves occupied, Alix then recounted, "And then! Since I was scheduled to do a guest lecture for Nao's private class, I was walking by, just about to enter the school the moment the kid began his raid!"
Patting the dead asleep Kaitlyn on her lap, Sasha lamented with a disbelieving grin of her own, "I'm... I'm just going to assume that it did not go well for the kid..."
"It definitely did not," Alix agreed with an emphatic nod, catching the coin after flipping it into the air, "I went easy on him though, I just knocked him out in a punch. It was a little awkward because Nao ran out of the front gates the moment I knocked him out."
Reenacting the scene with his hands, Nao, with a dramatic tone, picked up where Alix left off, an unsuppressable giddy feeling in his chest watching two of his childhood idols engrossed in his story, "So he had been shouting for about half an hour I'd say outside the gates, but I was in the middle of class, and important one too that couldn't be stopped. But I was rushing out of the front entrance towards the gates, shouting at him to calm down as he pulled out his sword."
Going through the hand motions as if he was the young aspiring adventurer, Nao pretended to draw out a katana with an indignant expression on his face, "Then, just as he was about to start, when I thought I'd have to pull out my own sword, Alix sauntered up, ready for their lecture."
"I didn't see Nao, okay?!" Alix clarified, making sure that Jayce and Sasha didn't misunderstand their intentions, "I thought that Nao was still in class..."
"So then you socked him in the face." Nao chuckled with a sarcastic grin.
"So then I... lightly tapped him on the face..." Alix corrected with a righteous tone, ignoring Dexter's uncontrollable laughs coming from behind a pile of paperwork he had missed.
Doubled over laughing while leaning against Sasha, Jayce nodded, "I see, I see... truly entertaining antics you two get up to. I wish I could still get out like that, now we just have palace guards..."
Patting Jayce with a wry smile, Sasha turned to Nao and Alix, asking, "So when did this occur? Alix, you mentioned it happened relatively recently, but still before you set off to go hunt that giant mammoth."
"Yeah, it was before that..." Alix agreed before turning towards Nao with an awkward expression, "I don't keep track of dates, but you're kinda a calendar freak, soo... do you know when it was?"
"Around two months ago I'd say," Nao answered, handing Alix their coin back after it had rolled towards where he was sitting, "Anyhow, it's been really nice talking to you all! I, and I think it'd be a safe guess to say Alix too, really admired you 5 while we were ascending through ranks of Adventurers!"
Nodding as if their life depended on it, Alix paused their coin flipping for a second, "Everyone looked up to you! Your party inspired an entire generation to begin adventuring... to the chagrin of many parents, including my own..."
Looking up from his paperwork pile, Dexter adjusted his glasses, groaning with an obvious sarcastic tone, "Yeah! It sucks so much... I have so much work these days... So many people are applying all the time."
"We're honored to have been able to inspire you all, but truly, have some confidence in yourselves, you two alone have also inspired a generation of your own!" Sasha reassured before reaching down in a split-second to make sure that Kaitlyn didn't roll off her legs onto the ground, "We're glad to get to know you two! You two have done immeasurable work towards bettering humanity and keeping the wider populace safe!"
"Damn, how are you still so much better than me at being eloquent... I couldn't have said it better, we're really glad to have met you two! You're... good at killing monsters... yep," Jayce sighed, crossing his arms in fake indignation, "By the way she writes all my speeches to the public..."
With these exclamations, both Nao and Alix were embarrassed and happy beyond imagination, their spirits seemingly soaring into the sky.
'WhatdoIsay, howdoIrespond, thisistoocomplicated...' Nao thought to himself, a bullet train worth of thought running through his mind, 'I'm such a fanboy I can't say that though, what if they think I'm weird... Like, I'm literally older than their youngest member... Like now that I know them and are sitting in the same room as four of them... intimately... not like from afar at the monster wave meetings, what do I say? I can't just say to Jayce I had a poster of him on my wall growing up and also a full portrait of the entire party in my bag everyday growing up...'
Alix on the other hand sat there, their brain having completely short-circuited, 'Uhh... ... I can't say that I had a crush on Kaitlyn and Jayce growing up... uhh...'
"... T-Thank... Thank you..."
"...Y-Yeah... what he said..."
