Chapter Fourteen #2
“I’ll be looking forward to that. Now, one moment!” With that, Stella called out to one of her coworkers, “Leeeeeeaaaahhhhh, I can leave early today, riiiiiiight? Pleeeeeeease?”
The coworker, who had a sort of even more cheerful and hyper aura about her, looked at Stella with a bright, wide smile and said, “You’re staying here until the very end of your shift for wasting so much time flirting!
Mmk?” She sounded so positive and happy, but I only felt pure malice behind her words.
Stella was visibly shaken from that. “S-sorry. My—my shift ends at seven tonight, if—if that’s okay.”
“That’s alright,” I said. “Sorry for getting you in trouble.”
“The trouble is worth it, so it’s okay.”
Leah spoke up again and asked, “Oh! If it’s okay, then that means you’ll be willing to stay late to help me with organizing the backroom tonight, right?”
“I’m sorry!” Stella cried. “Please forgive me! Don’t—don’t make me miss my date!”
“Then do your job and tell your client to move on if he doesn’t need anything, mmk? Limit the flirting to two minutes when you’re on the clock.”
Stella nodded while whimpering like a puppy before turning to look at me again. “I’m sorry, but I’m looking forward to tonight. You—you don’t need anything, right?”
Leah shot me a glare that threatened me not to say anything that I didn’t mean. “I—I’m good,” I answered. “I’ll see you tonight at seven.”
“Yeah…”
We started off having so much fun, but the conversation ended with both our tails between our legs.
“Master,” Lupa said. “This is what happens when you take too long.”
Rosie nodded and added on, “Even if you’re a guy, you have to be considerate of other people. It’s rude to hold up a line to flirt.”
They ended up scolding me until we made it to the dungeon, and the worst part was that it was actual, genuine scolding rather than done out of jealousy over me flirting with another girl in front of them.
The Cave of New Beginnings.
The Forest of New Beginnings.
The Ruins of New Beginnings.
The Dune of New Beginnings.
The Mountain of New Beginnings.
The five introductory dungeons, which really weren’t necessary since they were all so equally linear but implemented since Seth loved variety, were officially complete.
The last four only took us about six hours in total, and that was with taking our time to look for chests while getting just a bit of grinding in for drops.
Aside from materials, potions, and coins, we all got a little more geared up thanks to it.
Rosie got a new shield and boots, Lupa got gloves, a better dagger, and the ring me and Rosie already had for completing one of the tutorial dungeons, and I got the materials I needed to officially commission Tabitha for my armor set.
The rest of the drops were nothing we needed, but we could always sell them for some extra money.
Lupa actually had the idea of asking Elma if she wanted any of the loot we got, but I rejected that.
Elma was already past the starter dungeons and got enough of a gift from me to help her out. She needed to go and earn rewards in the dungeon herself.
Preferably with adult supervision.
And if she needed money in the future, then it wouldn’t matter whether we sold the gear or she did. All she’d need to do was ask us for some help.
I was also curious about whether or not there was a minimum age requirement for dungeons, and there was, but… it was only twelve. They were seriously letting twelve-year-olds go into dungeons at will.
That was insane to me.
Fortunately, Rosie said it was extremely rare for kids to go that young. Basically, the only people who went into dungeons that young were girls with their moms.
Anyways, after finishing up in the dungeons, I went and commissioned my new armor with Tabitha, we sold all our loot to her, and then I still had an hour to kill before it was time to go get a new phone with Lupa and Stella.
We were about to all go wait at the guild together, but then Rosie said, “A-actually… I—I think I’ll head home.”
“You sure?” I asked.
“Mm, you alright?” Lupa asked.
“I—I’m fine!” Rosie answered. “It’s just—you—you know. What I… said last night. I need to prepare myself! And—and I need to get some things from the store!”
“Ooh. Rosie, smart.”
“Right! So! Umm… yeah. You two have fun! I’ll be at home!”
“Wait,” I said. “Don’t you think we should rent a room somewhere else for the night? I mean, I don’t want your parents hearing—”
“They overheard everything last night and already sent me a text saying they booked a room at an inn for themselves.” Rosie looked so dead inside while explaining that.
“I wanted to die reading that text. I really, really did. My own parents know I’m losing my virginity and wished me luck.
My mom even gave me tips on what to do. Do you know how mortifying that is?
” She was so upset by her parents that she apparently felt no embarrassment in telling us any of that.
Lupa and I both placed our hands on Rosie’s shoulders.
No words needed to be said.
Lupa and I parted with Rosie and went to hang out on a bench outside the guild to wait for Stella’s shift to end.
That was when, for the first time since Frolin, I saw an amazing sight.
A man.
Another man!
I had no idea how happy I would be to see a man!
“Lupa,” I said, “can I go talk to him? Do you think he’ll be my friend?”
“Master,” Lupa said. “You can’t act so cute when Rosie isn’t around to restrain me.”
“My bad.”
“Mm… go. I’ll watch from here.”
“You’re not coming?”
“I’ll probably scare him off. Men don’t like us.”
I grabbed Lupa by her wrist and pulled her with me toward the guy I saw. “I have no interest in being friends with anyone who can’t accept you. If you scare him off, then that means he’s garbage not worth wasting my time on.”
“Master… so weird.” Her tail still wagged behind her despite her words.
As for that guy, he looked like a pretty normal, human guy. Nothing special aside from the fact that he was male. I was a little surprised to see there were no women around him, though. I didn’t even see women surrounding him and whispering to each other about him like they did with me.
“Yo!” I called out.
He took his eyes away from his phone, looked at me, looked at Lupa, cringed, then kept on walking.
“Mm… sorry,” Lupa said. “I—”
“Wow,” I said. “I want to punch that guy. Lupa, am I allowed to punch someone for looking at you like that?”
“That’s assault. Don’t get in trouble, Master.”
“It’s not assault, it’s defending my girlfriend.”
“Calling me your girlfriend… is way better than getting in trouble because of him.”
“I’ll call you that as much as you want.
But seriously, what’s with guys here?” There was no way that Seth purposely made every single other guy an unlikable asshole.
If he did, why did Frolin exist? And actually, most of the guys Seth wrote into the game were awesome.
They were kind, cool, caring, and the ones who could be recruited to the party were all absolute bros with one exception.
Maybe it was the world trying to justify itself in some way?
In order for girls to be so desperate and easy to romance, most men had to be insufferable assholes? After all, if those guys weren’t such dicks, then most women wouldn’t be single even if it meant being in a harem that numbered in the dozens to hundreds.
… well, I couldn’t put all the blame on the guys. I couldn’t even walk around without hearing girls say how they wanted to drain me dry, pin me down, lock me in their cellar—the usual.
It felt like even more extreme catcalling than what I knew about what girls on Earth went through. They had it bad, sure, but I didn’t know if they dealt with literally dozens of men publicly sexually harassing them every day.
Of course, I couldn’t deny that I liked it. It was a little uncomfortable at times, but it also made me feel nice. It made me feel wanted even if they only cared about sex.
Feeling wanted for my body was better than not being wanted at all.
… a lot of the girls who catcalled me were probably the same. They were lonely, starved of attention that they biologically needed, and thus resorted to extreme methods.
I was probably coping with my own loneliness in an unhealthy way, too.
I let myself get way too attached to Rosie, Lupa, and Stella way too quickly.
I was basically treating them like I was married to them right from the start.
People on Earth would probably call that love bombing.
I just so happened to be in a convenient world where women were desperate to get love bombed and would never complain about it in the same way that a lonely guy on Earth wouldn’t complain about a girl catcalling him and throwing herself at him right after meeting.
But even if I could acknowledge that it was unhealthy, I didn’t want to stop.
I was happy.
And as far as I was concerned, it was real love even if it looked like love bombing.
Besides, who had the right to say whether my own personal love style was wrong or not? All that mattered was that I was happy and that the girls who I loved were happy.
“Hey, Lupa,” I said.
“Mm. Master?” Lupa replied.
“Do I make you happy?”
“The happiest.”
“Good. You make me happy, too.”
“Mm.” Lupa wrapped her arms around my nearest arm and hugged it against her while resting her head against my shoulder. “Master is being unfair, being romantic out of nowhere.”
“Are you complaining?”
“No.”
“Let’s continue getting to know each other from now on, alright? I want us to know everything about each other. The good, the bad, the perfect and the imperfect—we’ll know each other inside and out.”
“Mm. I like that, but… it might take time before I’m ready to talk about everything.”
“That’s alright, there’s no rush. I’ve got something I still need to talk to you about, too.”
“Does it have to do with why Master is so weird?”
“Yeah, kind of.”
“Mm. It’s okay. I’ll still stay with Master no matter what.”
“Right back at you, Lupa.”