"Welcome to the Hostess of Fertility! How many in your party?"
Spotting the curious lineup of Leon's group, one man and six women, the poster-girl waitress Syr's eyes lit up. She trotted over to stand before Leon, tilting her head up with a bright, professional greeting.
Lady Freya's mood today was... ummm... looking pretty good, it seemed?
Greeting guests at the door in weather this cold. She really must love this tavern-waitress job...
Mm, though it was rough on Allen, that sister-doting cat man, still crouched up on a rooftop on lookout in cold like this. His face was probably half frozen off by now.
Come to think of it... being one of the Fanatics of the Goddess of Beauty really wasn't an easy gig.
The corner of Leon's mouth twitched almost imperceptibly as he silently snarked to himself. Outwardly, though, he smiled back without missing a beat:
"Miss Syr, as you can see, there are seven of us."
Syr gave a charming smile and blinked, clearly having already recognized who Leon and the others were.
"Everyone from the Demeter Familia, right this way."
With that, she turned and led the group into the tavern's main hall.
"Mama Mia, party of seven!"
Hearing Syr's call, the little dwarf busy behind the counter lifted her eyelids and answered:
"Got it!"
...
The main hall was packed and roaring with noise.
When Leon's group climbed the steps and filed in one after another, the patrons who'd been loudly trading drinking challenges and carrying on instantly had their gazes drawn to the cluster of beauties behind Leon.
Almost on instinct, those stares from every direction landed on them all at once.
Some sizing them up on the sly, others doing it openly and shamelessly.
The pursuit of beauty was clearly carved into the bones of every living thing, and these rough-and-tumble Adventurers were no exception.
"Tch, knew it'd go like this."
Leon had braced himself for the effect Jeanne and the others would have.
Nothing for it. His cheat taste matched his own, so the ladies he'd summoned were each more stunning than the last, never mind that they were rolling out as a full group now. The fact that none of the rowdier lot came straight over to hit on them just meant the Hostess of Fertility had a higher class of drinker tonight.
As Leon's group followed Syr toward the back of the hall, the patrons at table after table behind them began murmuring under their breath.
"One guy, six women? That kid's blessed with serious luck."
"Jealousy's twisting me up. Damn, the quality here blows the Pleasure Quarter out of the water!"
"Tch, suddenly the Amazon I lined up for tonight doesn't sound so appealing."
"Holy hell, brother's a beast! Going toe-to-toe with an Amazon!"
"Heh heh, look what I've got here."
"Holy shit, a top-grade stamina potion! Brother, step over here, let's talk!"
"..."
"Hey, keep it down, you lot. You're seasoned hands. Don't you know trouble comes from a loose mouth?"
"Why so careful? Buddy, you know who they are?"
"Uh, what backwater corner did you crawl out of?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You honestly don't recognize them?"
"?"
"Hah..." "Buddy, no offense, but have you grinded your brains out crouching in the Dungeon day after day? You don't keep up with even a scrap of news up on the surface?"
"The notice board outside the Guild doesn't charge a fee, you know."
"Uh, you know how my Familia runs things. It's year-end, everyone's busy chasing quotas day in and day out. Who's got time to chew the fat over gossip? Even this is me carving out time to grab one drink."
"Here, big brother, this round's on me. Give your little brother the full rundown?"
"Now that's a sensible little brother."
Draining most of a tall glass of iced ale in one go, the ruddy-faced Adventurer glanced at Leon's group seated low-key at an out-of-the-way corner table, then leaned in, dropped his head, and murmured low to this brother who all but lived down in the Dungeon:
"They're from the Demeter Familia. As for what the Demeter Familia is, I don't need to spell that out for you, do I?"
"Holy shit, the Demeter Familia? Can't mess with them, can't mess with them..."
"And that's not even the half of it. The Demeter Familia in your head is probably still that old agricultural faction that could easily sway Orario's food supply and our three meals a day, right? Tsk tsk... that's ancient history. These days, anyone who thinks they can bank on having a few high-level Adventurers and go pick a fight with them out of sheer stubbornness... well, I can only wish them luck."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean... the Demeter Familia is a whole different beast now. They've got both commerce and exploration booming. Never mind that huge spread of farmland and orchards outside the walls, they're now a major Familia with a Lv. 4 Adventurer!"
"Forget comparing them to mid-tier factions. Across all of Orario, they can rank in the top tier now!"
"You haven't noticed, but lately those shops the Demeter Familia runs around the city, business is positively booming. Even the thugs who shake people down for protection money, no one dares give them trouble now."
The man sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth.
"Lv. 4..."
"Yeah, that Priestess of Desolation, Lv. 4. It only happened a few days ago. The announcement of her level-up is still pinned at the very top of the Guild notice board!"
"So you're telling me... the Demeter Familia now is really something. I don't think even the Astraea Familia has a Lv. 4, do they?"
"You're not wrong on that point. In all of Orario right now, the only ones who can field a Lv. 4 Adventurer, apart from those three houses, are the Demeter Familia."
"Mm... if you count those lunatics from Evilus as people, then you'd have to add them too." "So what's the Demeter Familia's rank?"
"A."
The man hissed through his teeth again.
"That's a lot more management fees to pay now."
"Heh, to the Demeter Familia, that's not worth a single leg hair."
"Oh, right, one more thing to warn you about."
"Take a good look. That man surrounded by all those beauties is the Shadow of Sorcery, Leon Hart, the Demeter Familia's rising star."
"Level: Lv. 2."
"And there's more. Those two beside him, the blonde and the blue-haired one..."
"The Holy Maiden, Jeanne d'Arc, and the Pure White Shield, Rose Marbleheart."
"Both Lv. 2 as well." "Holy shit, when did the Demeter Familia get this strong? You call power like that a commercial faction?"
"You new to the trade?"
"What a hick. Quit making a fuss over every little thing."
"The Hephaestus Familia is a commercial faction too, but isn't their captain, that One-Eyed Craftsman, also Lv. 4? And among those blacksmiths of theirs, there's no shortage of Lv. 2s either!"
...
...
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