Understood, disperse! In the highest suite of the inn in Garden Town, the atmosphere was so heavy it felt like the first cosmic velocity had increased tenfold.
A girl sat in the middle of the room on a chair, arms crossed, head lowered, and expressionless.
She was not yet sixteen, with shoulder-length light gray hair and pale blue eyes that were downcast.
Her face, slightly lacking in color, bore a noticeable bruise, and her clothes showed signs of being torn.
Several other girls, aged between 15 and early 20s, surrounded her, looking at her as if she were a criminal.
Two of the girls were particularly hostile; a girl with short purple hair mercilessly pulled at the gray-haired girl—Miloira’s hair, while another girl with long green hair pinched her chin.
“Do you really know what you did wrong?”
“The leader left because of you, you know?”
“You got her hurt, and the hunting operation we prepared for so long failed!”
“How will you compensate? Can you even compensate?”
“You have no combat ability, and recently you can’t even do odd jobs properly!”
“Why don’t you just leave? Huh? Leave?”
“Stop embarrassing us and holding us back!!” The two girls took turns speaking, their words typical of villainous lackeys.
Miloira showed no special reaction, but her eyes remained cold and sharp.
Suddenly, she spoke: “Are you all so eager to wag your tails and flatter the master?”
“…Huh?”
“What did you say!?”
“You two… left school to form an adventure group with Torina Deville just to get close to her, to cling to her, right?” The purple-haired and green-haired girls—Marian and Lilia—were furious.
The former slapped her hard, while the latter hurled insults at her, saying things like “What does a mere commoner know,” “Country girl, go home and beg”, “You rude stray dog,” and other typical lines.
The others didn’t directly intervene but watched coldly, with no one stepping in to help.
Among them, a girl in dark red tight-fitting leather armor with golden-red wavy hair stood with her arms crossed against the wall, looking at Miloira with undisguised dissatisfaction and disgust.
“Milora Sistema! Let me make this clear! If you have any self-awareness, just leave the team voluntarily!”
“When the leader returns, you’re done for, because you got her hurt!” Marian and Lilia delivered this final harsh warning, while Miloira remained silent.
Just then— “Wait!” Torina burst through the door and rushed in.
“Huh?”
“Torina-senpai!” Marian and Lilia, seeing their leader return, immediately rushed over like lapdogs—only to be startled by her disheveled and unkempt appearance.
It was the first time they had seen the usually well-dressed Torina looking so disheveled.
“…Is this a new fashion trend?”
“Is street punk style in vogue now?”
“Those two horses went too fast… cough! Anyway, I’m back! And I’m healed!”
“Welcome back! Senpai! We were just dealing with the culprit for you!”
“It’s all her fault for abandoning her post, letting the griffin escape, and getting you hurt! Keeping her around will only be a hindrance!” The two said, and the others silently nodded.
Meanwhile, Torina was internally lamenting: (I’m still too late!! Look at what you’ve done!) Two of the three events leading to the protagonist leaving the team had already happened! Is there still a chance to make amends? “…If there’s nothing else, I’ll head back to my room.” Miloira seemed completely uninterested in staying in the same space as Torina.
She covered her bruised face and squeezed past Torina—Torina quickly grabbed her.
“Wait! I didn’t say you could leave!” Torina wanted to convey that she wouldn’t make her leave the team over this.
But Miloira—and everyone present—understood it as “Trying to escape? Did I say you could leave?” Miloira’s eyes immediately filled with hostility.
She shook off Torina’s hand, straightened her back, and said firmly and powerfully: “Thirty years on the east bank, thirty years on the west bank, don’t bully a poor girl!” With that, she strode back to her room.
Torina’s face turned red and white, and her lackeys thought she was angry, so they all started badmouthing Miloira.
Only Torina knew—she wasn’t angry; she was just embarrassed to the point of feeling physically uncomfortable.
Don’t say such ridiculous lines with a straight face!
——————————
——————————
In the bathhouse on the basement floor of the inn, Torina was lost in thought.
She admired herself in the large floor mirror by the bath, her long black hair like a waterfall, her blood-red eyes, her plump and moderate cherry lips, her figure that could easily feed seven or eight children, her slender waist, and her hips, legs, and feet… a body completely unfit for a seventeen-year-old girl.
“I’m so beautiful.” She sighed sincerely.
The two girls helping her scrub her back exchanged surprised glances.
(Is this lady okay…?) (Narcissist? A bit scary…) “Help me apply some shampoo to my hair.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Serve me well, and there will be a reward.”
“Yay!” The two girls worked diligently, and Torina, of course, heard their whispers but didn’t care.
After all, she was so beautiful that she couldn’t get enough of looking at herself.
“…Sigh.” Forget it, stop using the mirror to escape reality, and face the difficulties head-on.
If things continue like this, according to the original story, Miloira will soon leave the team, and then after a while, she’ll come back with a cheat and annihilate them, literally “annihilate,” with broken arms, legs, and heads.
Can reconciliation be achieved? …It’s difficult.
No matter how you look at it, Miloira is hostile towards most of the adventurer group, and most of them don’t like her either.
There’s no option for reconciliation.
What to do… what to do… what to do… Ah! Torina suddenly slapped her smooth, plump thigh—(That’s it, just disband the adventurer group!) Without the adventurer group, the members would go their separate ways, and the Protagonist would have no clear target for revenge, so the original plot wouldn’t progress! Besides, Torina Deville is a noble lady, why should she be an Adventurer fighting monsters in the wilderness? Wouldn’t it be better to go back home and enjoy life? The group was initially formed to earn school credits, but on second thought, who needs those credits anyway? Thinking of this made her feel better, and after having the bathhouse attendant wash her hair, she comfortably soaked in the bath, not forgetting to give a generous tip.
Having money is great; she could easily book the best bathhouse in town, though it was nothing compared to her home.
She really wanted to go back soon.
Tomorrow, she would treat everyone to a meal and then announce the disbandment!
Just then, another girl walked in wrapped in a towel.
She had exaggerated golden-red wavy hair, and her orange-red eyes seemed to burn with fire.
Her healthy apricot-colored skin looked even more radiant in the bathhouse steam, and her figure was just as hot as Torina’s.
“Ah, Anna-veil.”
“Torina… tch.” This strong-willed girl was not friendly towards Torina, and Torina found it a bit of a headache.
She was the vice-captain of the adventurer group, Anna-veil Alphares, the daughter of a merchant family.
In terms of wealth, even Torina couldn’t compare, but her personality was the epitome of arrogance and bossiness.
Torina and she were both students at the Central United Academy and had known each other for a long time, but Anna-veil always seemed displeased with Torina and often opposed her.
When Torina formed the group, Anna-veil forcibly joined for some reason and even bought her way into becoming the vice-captain… Torina couldn’t understand her.
“What do you want?”
“Just taking a bath.”
“But I’ve booked this place.”
“Then I’ll pay double.”
“No need for that…” Torina soaked in the water while observing Anna-veil.
Despite her terrible personality, her looks and figure were undeniable.
(But according to the original work… Anna-veil corresponds to the vice-captain Ankweir, right? That character is dangerous…) In the original work, Ankweir was a troublesome character meant to increase the difficulty for the Protagonist’s revenge, with some absurd settings added.
She would become a very tricky existence in the future… Actually, the other team members were similar, with names taken from the author’s previous book’s Protagonist (the lazy author couldn’t be bothered to think of new names), and many absurd settings were added to make the Protagonist’s revenge more dramatic (the lazy author couldn’t be bothered to make it coherent and just made it up), none of them were easy to deal with.
But so what? Torina had already decided to disband the team and was too lazy to attend school.
Everyone would go their separate ways in the future.
“Hey, I say.” Anna-veil suddenly spoke to her.
“What’s up? Mesmerized by my beauty?”
“W-what nonsense are you talking about? How did you become more narcissistic than before?”
“So, what’s the matter…”
“About Miloira, when are you planning to kick her out? That useless troublemaker…”
“Oh, she was negligent and caused me to get hurt, so you’re standing up for me?” Torina was just joking, but Anna-veil’s face turned red.
“No way! Don’t flatter yourself! I just find her annoying, you know I hate useless weaklings who don’t know their place!”
“Alright…” What a misunderstanding, Torina thought she was a tsundere who was tough on the outside but soft on the inside.
Torina had soaked enough, got out of the bath, and dried herself off.
Anna-veil suddenly said, “By the way, there’s a letter for you, seems like it’s from your family.”
“A letter?” Torina got dressed and went to the inn’s front desk to get the letter.
It was a finely decorated envelope with gold embossing, bearing her family’s crest (crossed swords and a staff, surrounded by runes), and the sender was her parents in this life.
Was it her family showing concern for her life? Or sending her pocket money? She thought as she hummed a tune and opened the letter— [Your brother and sister are out there making a name for themselves, and you’re the only one who’s accomplished nothing.
As a daughter of the Deville family, don’t you feel ashamed!? If you don’t achieve something within a year, you won’t have a share of the family inheritance!] … … … What the heck????
