Esdeath looked down on the adventurers who did not even dare meet her gaze.
In her opinion, the strong should fear nothing.
If they could not even look her in the eye, what kind of adventurers were they?
They might as well go home, cry in their mothers' arms, and drink milk.
"Are there no stronger adventurers around here?"
Hearing Esdeath's complaint, Rowan could not help laughing.
"If you're looking for a powerful adventurer, there actually is one."
"He's known as Orario's ultimate weapon—the Level 7 adventurer of the Freya Familia, Ottar the King."
"A Level 7 adventurer?"
Esdeath looked puzzled.
As an outsider, she had no idea what that Level actually represented.
So Rowan explained that Level 7 was currently the highest rank reached by any active adventurer in this world.
Of course, that was only the case now.
In the past, the Labyrinth City of Orario had possessed Level 8 and even Level 9 adventurers.
Those adventurers had belonged to the Zeus and Hera Familias.
Unfortunately, their attempt to subjugate the One-Eyed Black Dragon ended in failure, and their strongest members were almost completely annihilated.
At present, Ottar was the highest-Level adventurer in Orario.
Esdeath raised an eyebrow after hearing this.
"So what you're saying is, when there are no tigers in the mountains, the monkey calls itself king."
"Uh…"
That was not really what Rowan meant.
Anyone capable of reaching such a Level was undoubtedly exceptional.
Especially because adventurers needed to accomplish a great feat every time they wanted to break through the bottleneck and Level Up.
Ottar had not reached his current position by being some mere monkey.
He was a genuine tiger.
"Where is Ottar?"
Esdeath immediately became excited.
She liked tigers like that.
Only taming a tiger could give her a genuine sense of accomplishment.
Rowan rolled his eyes.
He knew she would react like this.
After all, Esdeath was a genuine sadist.
Whenever she discovered prey worth hunting, her crazier side naturally emerged.
Seeing her eager expression and barely restrained excitement, Rowan sighed.
"Fine. I'll take you to eat first."
"After we finish, you can go find Ottar."
"You're not seriously planning to fight him on an empty stomach, are you?"
Esdeath nodded.
Before a hunt, filling one's stomach was extremely important.
Only with sufficient stamina could she unleash one hundred and twenty percent of her strength during the hunt.
Therefore, she did not reject Rowan's suggestion and followed him to a restaurant.
The Hostess of Fertility.
Rowan had already eaten here once.
The portions were large, the food tasted good, and it was extremely suitable for adventurers.
"Welcome."
Ryuu, the female elf working as a waitress, came forward to greet Rowan's group.
The moment Esdeath saw her, she let out a faint sound of surprise.
She could tell that although this female elf looked slender, her body had been tempered through countless battles.
She was unmistakably a fighter.
However, Esdeath could not determine exactly how strong she was.
This was not the world of Dragon Ball, where combat power could simply be reduced to a number.
The only way to truly measure someone's strength was through actual battle.
Esdeath could tell Ryuu was powerful.
But exactly how powerful?
That was beyond her current ability to judge.
"Don't start trouble. We're here to eat."
Seeing Esdeath's eyes light up as though she had discovered interesting prey, Rowan immediately stopped her.
Esdeath clicked her tongue unhappily, but obediently sat down.
As Rowan's maid, she still had to follow his orders.
Of course, if she ever became strong enough to defeat Rowan, she could naturally turn the tables and become the master.
Unfortunately, she was still nowhere near his level.
So she had no intention of disobeying him.
Ryuu also seemed to sense the subtle tension in the air and quietly raised her guard, though she displayed no hostility.
Instead, she asked expressionlessly,
"What would you like to order?"
Rowan calmly replied,
"Start with twenty servings of your signature set meal."
Whether it was Esdeath, Mez, or Suzuka, all three were powerful fighters.
Naturally, their appetites were far greater than those of ordinary people.
Twenty servings might not even be enough.
Ryuu nodded, told them to wait a moment, and turned away.
After sitting down, Esdeath looked around and discovered that Ryuu was apparently not the only capable fighter here.
Every waitress in this restaurant seemed to have undergone extensive training.
Their footsteps were light.
Their eyes were sharp.
Their bodies were filled with energy.
They had clearly gone through intense physical training.
"This restaurant isn't simple."
Rowan nodded calmly.
"Most of the waitresses here are retired adventurers."
"The owner herself is a former Level 6 adventurer."
"I see."
Esdeath quickly lost interest in the restaurant.
She intended to challenge a Level 7 adventurer.
A retired Level 6 was not currently within the scope of prey she wanted to hunt.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. Here are the signature set meals you ordered."
Before long, a smiling waitress brought over Rowan's order.
Naturally, this was not Ryuu.
Ryuu had the kind of personality that looked emotionless on the surface while carrying the weight of an entire tragic past.
There was no way she would smile this cheerfully.
Nor was this waitress the catgirl from before.
She was human.
Syr Flova.
Of course, in the eyes of outsiders, Syr was a perfectly ordinary human girl.
But Rowan, who knew the story, understood that this "Syr" was anything but ordinary.
She was not human at all.
Her human identity was merely a disguise.
Her true identity was the head of the Freya Familia—
the Goddess of Beauty, Freya.
Of course, that did not mean Syr Flova had never existed.
The real Syr did exist and was a member of the Freya Familia.
The true Syr had been rescued by Freya on a snowy day.
She had once hated her own body so deeply that she wanted to abandon it entirely.
But after seeing the Goddess of Beauty, her suicidal thoughts disappeared, replaced by a desire to become like Freya herself.
This surprised Freya.
Thus, Syr offered her own name to Freya and received a new name in exchange—
Hörn.
She also obtained magic that allowed her to transform into Freya.
She could share Freya's five senses and could unilaterally perceive Freya's emotions.
While Freya permitted Hörn to act while wearing her appearance, Freya herself retained absolute control over both bodies.
No matter when or where, Freya could instantly seize control of Hörn's body and move freely through it.
Freya and Hörn frequently exchanged identities.
In other words, the "goddess" residing in the Freya Familia could sometimes actually be Hörn.
Meanwhile, the Syr working at the tavern was often Freya herself.
One could consider it a small eccentric hobby of a goddess.
Instead of simply living as a deity, Freya deliberately disguised herself as a waitress.
Perhaps she wanted to experience a different kind of life.
Even Freya herself had never expected that while working as a waitress, she would encounter the protagonist, Bell.
And from that point onward, she and Bell became entangled in a complicated relationship that could neither be cleanly severed nor untangled.
As for why Freya became interested in Bell, the official explanation was that although she had sealed away her divine power, she could still perceive the brilliance of mortal souls.
Bell's soul shone with a pure white light.
That radiance represented a soul untouched by worldly desires.
It was extraordinarily rare.
The moment Freya saw that light, she could not help wanting to possess him.
Unfortunately for her, Bell had already joined the Hestia Familia by the time she met him.
And thus began their troublesome relationship.
Of course, Rowan did not particularly care about the relationship between Freya and Bell.
What he was curious about was—
why had Freya approached him?
Could this goddess have noticed something unusual through the radiance of their souls?
After all, Esdeath was not from this world.
It would be perfectly normal if the light of her soul differed somewhat from that of the people here.
If Freya had seen through that difference and deliberately approached Rowan's group, it would not be surprising.
Of course, there was another possibility.
This could all simply be a coincidence.
Perhaps Freya had noticed nothing unusual at all and had merely happened to be the waitress who delivered Rowan's order.
After all, she was working here to experience ordinary life.
Serving one customer or another made little difference.
Rowan thought this possibility was relatively unlikely, but it was not impossible.
"Huh? Why does this customer keep looking at me?"
Syr—Freya in disguise—noticed Rowan occasionally glancing at her face and smiled teasingly.
"Could it be that you've been captivated by my beauty?"
"Not really."
Rowan smiled calmly.
"You're certainly very pretty, but I'm not the kind of man who loses his head over every beautiful woman he sees."
With her divine power sealed and her appearance altered, Freya was certainly beautiful.
But she lacked that breathtaking, soul-shaking beauty of her true form.
Her current appearance was roughly comparable to many beautiful anime heroines.
Pretty, certainly.
But not enough to topple kingdoms.
Naturally, Rowan was not going to fall for her merely because of that.
And even if Freya returned to her true appearance and unleashed her full, unprecedented charm—
Rowan was not entirely sure whether he would be affected.
After all, Freya was notoriously promiscuous in Heaven.
Practically every male god in Heaven had slept with her.
That kind of record was not something an ordinary goddess could hope to match.
Rowan was not some obsessive purist, but he also had little interest in becoming yet another "fellow traveler" alongside half the male gods in Heaven.
Still, looking at it from another perspective—
with so many male gods in Heaven, not a single one had managed to resist Freya's charm.
That alone proved that Freya truly deserved her title as the Goddess of Beauty.
Therefore, even Rowan would not confidently claim that he could completely resist her true charm.
The only thing he could say with certainty was that the Freya currently disguised as Syr was not enough to attract him.
When Rowan immediately denied her guess, a trace of surprise flashed through Freya's—Syr's—eyes.
Because she could tell that Rowan was not lying.
And that made things strange.
If he was not attracted to her appearance, then why did he keep glancing at her?
Could he have discovered her true identity?
If that were really the case—
then she would have to investigate carefully.
She wanted to know exactly how her identity had been exposed.
~~~
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