Chapter 44: Why Was He Exposed?
Esdeath utterly looked down on this group of adventurers who didn't even dare to lock eyes with her.
In her view, a strong person should be devoid of fear. If they couldn't even bring themselves to look directly at her, could they even be called adventurers?
Why didn't they just go home, hug their mothers, cry, and drink milk?
"Is there not an adventurer who is a little bit stronger around here?"
Hearing Esdeath's complaints, Yumesaki couldn't help but chuckle. "If you're talking about strong adventurers, there really is one here. He is known as Orario's Strongest Adventurer, a Level 7 adventurer from the Freya Familia, Ottar."
"A Level 7 adventurer?"
Esdeath was slightly confused. As a newcomer from the outside world, she was not clear at all on what this level actually represented.
Yumesaki then explained a bit to her, stating that this level represented the highest-tier adventurers in this world.
Of course, that was only for the time being.
Before Ottar, there used to be Level 8 and even Level 9 adventurers in the Labyrinth City of Orario.
These adventurers had previously joined under the Zeus Familia and Hera Familia, but unfortunately, due to their failure to defeat the One-Eyed Black Dragon, it resulted in almost all of those adventurers being wiped out entirely.
For now, Ottar could be considered the adventurer with the absolute highest level.
Hearing these words, Esdeath couldn't help but raise her eyebrows. "So you mean when there's no tiger on the mountain, the monkey becomes king?"
"Ah, well, about that..."
Yumesaki really didn't mean it that way, because after all, the adventurers who could reach this level all possessed genuine, undeniable ability.
Particularly for adventurers, every single time they leveled up, it required a monumental achievement just to break through the barrier.
Ottar being able to walk up to this point today was certainly not the work of a monkey, but rather that of a true, ferocious tiger.
"Where is this Ottar?" Esdeath became a bit excited.
She loved tigers like this the most; only by taming a tiger would she ever feel a true sense of accomplishment.
Yumesaki couldn't help but roll his eyes. He had already known that Esdeath would definitely show this kind of expression.
After all, this person was a literal sadist. When encountering a worthwhile prey, she would naturally show the crazed side of her personality.
Seeing Esdeath showing an impatient face, looking like she couldn't even wait to act immediately, Yumesaki merely let out a sigh.
"Alright, I'll take you to get something to eat first. After you finish eating, then you can go look for Ottar. You're not going to fight him on an empty stomach, right?"
Esdeath couldn't help but nod. Before the hunt began, filling one's stomach to capacity was a highly important matter.
Only with full stamina could she exert one hundred and twenty percent of her strength in the upcoming hunt.
Therefore, she did not reject Yumesaki's proposal, and followed Yumesaki into a restaurant.
The Hostess of Fertility.
This restaurant was a place Yumesaki had been to before to eat, not just because the portions were massive, but the taste was also quite good, making it highly suitable for adventurers.
"Welcome." The elf woman, Ryuu, acting as a waitress, stepped forward to greet Yumesaki's group.
Esdeath, looking at the elf woman, couldn't help but let out a tiny hum, because she could see that although this elf woman's body appeared slender, it had actually been tempered thousands of times.
She was an undeniable martial faction member.
However, as to how strong she was specifically, Esdeath couldn't tell, because after all, this wasn't the world of Dragon Ball where combat power could be converted into data.
The strength of the opponent could only be verified through an actual, physical clash.
She could only judge that the opponent was a highly capable individual, but how strong specifically, and strong to what exact degree?
That was something the current Esdeath could not do.
"Don't go looking for trouble, we came here to eat."
Yumesaki saw Esdeath looking gleeful upon spotting prey, appearing as though she wanted to test the opponent, so he immediately spoke up to stop her.
Esdeath clicked her tongue in displeasure, but still sat down obediently.
As Yumesaki's maid, Yumesaki's orders were still things she had to obey—of course, if she could defeat Yumesaki, she could naturally reverse their positions to become the master.
But unfortunately, the current her was not yet a match for Yumesaki, and therefore she had no intention of defying Yumesaki's orders.
The elf woman, Ryuu, also seemed to notice the subtlety of the atmosphere, and couldn't help but raise her guard slightly, though she did not display any open hostility.
Instead, she asked with a expressionless face, "What would these customers like to eat?"
Yumesaki calmly said, "Please bring out twenty portions of your establishment's signature set menu first."
Whether it was Esdeath, Mez, or Suzuka, all of them were experts; their appetites were naturally far larger than those of ordinary people.
Twenty portions of the signature set menu would only be too little, not too much.
The elf woman, Ryuu, nodded, uttered a polite request to wait a moment, then turned around and left.
After sitting down, Esdeath looked around the room and discovered that the experts in the vicinity didn't seem to be limited to just that one elf woman.
The waitresses in this restaurant were each experts who had been tempered thousands of times over.
Their footsteps were light, their gazes were alert and sharp, and their energy was bursting, clearly having gone through high-intensity training.
"This restaurant is not simple."
Yumesaki nodded, then calmly stated, "The waitresses in this restaurant are basically former adventurers; their boss is even a Level 6 adventurer."
"I see."
Esdeath quickly lost interest in the restaurant. The one she wanted to challenge was a Level 7 adventurer; a former Level 6 adventurer lay outside the scope of her challenge.
"The customers have waited long, here is the signature set menu you ordered."
Not long after, a cheerfully smiling waitress delivered the set menu ordered by Yumesaki.
This person was, of course, not the elf woman, Ryuu.
The elf woman, Ryuu, was the type of person who looked expressionless but actually possessed a character background filled with bitterness and vengeance; it was naturally impossible for her to smile this happily.
And this person was also not the cat girl.
Rather, she was a human.
Syr Flova.
Of course, in the eyes of outsiders, this Syr was a genuine human, but in the eyes of Yumesaki, who had seen the plot line, this Syr was by no means a simple character.
She was not a human at all; human was merely her disguise.
Her true identity was the leader of the Freya Familia.
The Goddess of Beauty, Freya.
Of course, it wasn't as if the figure named Syr didn't exist at all.
In reality, the figure of Syr did exist, and had joined as a member of the Freya Familia.
The original Syr had once been saved by Freya on a snowy day. She had deeply hated and wanted to abandon her own body, but when she saw the form of the Goddess of Beauty, she changed her mind about ending her life and desired to become the Goddess of Beauty.
This had left Freya feeling quite surprised.
Therefore, Syr offered her name to Freya, obtaining a new name called Horn.
Furthermore, she obtained a magic that allowed her to transform into Freya, enabling her to share five senses with Freya and unilaterally feel Freya's emotions.
Freya, while allowing her to transform into herself to act, held absolute control over the 'two bodies'.
No matter when or where, Freya could instantly connect with the control rights of the body on Horn's side and move freely.
Freya and Horn would frequently swap identities, meaning the goddess sitting in the Familia was actually Horn.
Meanwhile, the Syr working part-time at the pub was actually Freya.
This could also be considered a minor bad taste of a god, leaving the position of a deity unused, instead deliberately disguising her identity to become a waitress.
Likely because she wanted to experience a different kind of life.
As it turned out, Freya also hadn't expected that she would run into the male main character, Bell, while acting as a waitress.
Thereby beginning a deeply entangled and complicated relationship with this male main character.
Regarding why Freya could fall for the male main character, Bell, the official explanation was that even though Freya sealed her Arcanum, she could still see the radiance of human souls.
Meanwhile, the soul of the male main character, Bell, radiated a pure white glow. This kind of glow represented that the male main character was completely untainted by worldly desires, which was exceptionally rare.
After Freya saw this kind of glow, she couldn't help but want to possess the other party for herself.
Unfortunately, by the time she met Bell, Bell had already joined the Hestia Familia.
Therefore, the ill-fated relationship between the two of them had also started from there.
Of course, the business between Freya and the male main character was something Yumesaki didn't actually care about.
What he wondered about was why Freya was approaching him?
Could it be that this goddess had seen something through the radiance of his soul?
After all, Esdeath was not a person of this world; the radiance of her soul being somewhat different from people of this world was also a highly natural thing.
Freya having seen through this point and deliberately coming over to meet Yumesaki's group was also not impossible.
Of course, there was still one possibility, which was that all of this was pure coincidence.
In reality, Freya hadn't seen anything at all, but had just so happened to deliver the set menu ordered by Yumesaki to Yumesaki's front.
After all, her coming to be a waitress was to experience life; delivering food to anyone was still delivering.
Although Yumesaki felt this possibility was extremely low, it wasn't nonexistent.
"Huh? Why is this customer looking at me like that? Could it be that the customer has been captivated by my beauty?"
Freya, disguised as Syr, seeing Yumesaki's gaze glancing toward her face from time to time, couldn't help but speak up with a playful smile.
"It hasn't gone that far."
Yumesaki calmly smiled. "This girl grew up looking very beautiful, but I am also not the type of person to be driven blindly by lust."
Freya, who had sealed her Arcanum and altered her face, though she grew up looking very beautiful, lacked that specific type of soul-stirring beauty.
This kind of face of hers was actually identical to many anime female main characters.
Though beautiful, it had not reached the level of overturning nations and cities.
Yumesaki would naturally not be moved at heart toward her.
Besides, even if Freya swapped back to her original body and displayed an unprecedented allure.
Yumesaki also didn't know if he himself would be moved at heart.
After all, Freya was a famous public bus in the Upper World.
Every single male god in the Upper World, without exception, had slept in the exact same bed with Freya.
This battle record was not something an ordinary goddess could compete with.
Although Yumesaki did not possess a cleanliness obsession, he was also unwilling to become fellow track companions alongside so many male gods.
However, speaking of which, with so many male gods in the Upper World, it turned out not a single one could resist Freya's allure.
From this, it could be seen that Freya as the Goddess of Beauty indeed lived up to her name.
Therefore, even Yumesaki didn't dare to give an absolute guarantee that he could withstand Freya's charm.
The only thing he could be sure of was that the Freya disguised as Syr before his eyes right now was not enough to attract him.
Seeing the other party deny her guess with a single word, within the gaze of Freya—or rather, Syr—flashed a hint of surprise.
Because she confirmed Yumesaki was not lying.
However, this was highly bizarre. Because if he wasn't lying, and didn't like her beauty, why would he still glance at her several times from time to time?
Could it be that the other party had discovered her true identity?
If that were truly the case, then she would have to investigate thoroughly as to why her identity had been exposed.
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