Steelz

The chapter was delayed more than I anticipated due to various reasons such as sudden announcements of project submissions, sharing of the computer with family members, my UPS ending up breaking and a whole lot of procrastination. I'll try to get back on track and start releasing my chapters faster.

After a long while, Adrian separates from me, albeit a bit reluctantly. He gives a gentle smile to me. “Thank you,” says Adrian. His spirits seemed to have lifted as he hops back to his feet in joyous fervour. His movements are a lot more jovial now, almost as if he was another person. His shy demeanour nowhere to be seen as if it wasn’t there in the first place.

I was glad to see that, I suppose he had gotten more comfortable around me. The stew had gotten cold by now so I went ahead to reheat it. “By the way did you like my cooking?” I asked as it was the first time I had tried cooking for someone else. “Yes it was delicious!” he beams at me with a bright smile.

Hearing that response my confidence in my cooking rose. I felt motivated after getting approval from the hero candidate. Now I could proudly show off my cooking prowess if someone were to be my guest. While I was thinking that I rekindled the flame to heat up the stew again.

Another serving of the stew is given to Adrian which he pours down his throat. I was worried whether his throat would get burnt but my worries seemed needless. He notices my stare and starts blushing, twisting his head sideways so I couldn’t see it. 

“Sorry was I staring too much?” I ask with a wide grin on my face. His blush ends up deepening, too cute. I couldn’t help but leak out a stifle of laughter. Adrian gets back his pouting face while he softly remarks “Idiot.”

“Hmm did you say something?” I ask in a playful manner. Adrian gets a bit grumpy after I said that. “I said you’re an idiot!” Adrian responded with a shout. Even though he was shouting his voice was still quite soft. Hearing that I couldn’t help but let out a roar of laughter which seemed to have worsened his mood.

“Sorry sorry,” I say in an unapologetic manner, the wide grin still on my face. “If you’re sorry then pat me,” he says while putting on a grumpy appearance. I was a bit surprised to hear that, maybe he likes being pampered? It seemed that Adrian had a late realization of what came out of his mouth. He leaks out a weird noise out of his mouth, almost like a steam train engine before lowering his face.

“Nevermind…” said Adrian as his voice trails off. He was just too amusing to let off now. “Ah is that so? You seemed to have not heard of the headpat asura, don’t expect to escape my wrath now.” I said in a boisterous and comedic manner. “No… yes please,” Adrian seemed to reject my proposal in a flustered manner but said something else under his breath which I couldn’t make out.

Without further wait, I start patting his fluffy orange hair. He seemed to act like a coy cat, it felt as his it was his head reaching for my hand instead.

We spent the rest of the day messing around, getting to know each other a bit better. By the end of it, we still had to return to the town.

---

We ended up walking our way back to the city of Pompar. It was an energetic and active city unlike that of my old town of Hales. I had ended up teleporting here long ago, thinking about it brings back memories. 

Adrian seemed really excited to have finally returned to the town. He looked greedily at the street hawkers and vendors. He gives me a side glance almost as if he was indicating something.

“Umm, since we’re here… how about we try out some street snacks?” He said while giving a side glance, appearing very meek. 

“You know we have to get to your party soon right? They must be very worried about you.”

“Right…”

His head tilts down, obviously disappointed. He was just too fun to tease. I walk towards the stall which he had been staring at for a while. Thankfully the person who was selling was a man. If it would have been otherwise, I couldn’t have taken the chance of directly interacting with him.

“Two meat skewers please,” I said while handing him the coins.

“Ah for you and that young lady? Oh sorry, I mistook you for a girl.”

Adrian seemed a bit troubled but laughs it off.

“It’s okay… I get that a lot.”

Adrian was barely able to voice his thoughts, it seemed he wasn’t lying when he said he wasn’t good with strangers. We head off back towards the road, Adrian looked giddier now. He honestly was quite a glutton, though I thought I was imagining it, Adrian had been staring at my spoon for quite some time when we were eating stew.

It was the same situation now as he kept looking at my half-eaten skewer. I was already kind of full so I went ahead and gave my skewer to him. “Really?” He asked with an inquiring look, a tone of anticipation hidden in his voice. I nod upon which Adrian happily received my skewer.

He devours it entirely and then proceeded to lick the rod repeatedly as if to savour the taste. Not an inch of the rod is left untouched as he thoroughly cleans it with his tongue. I was a bit saddened upon seeing that as even he hadn’t devoured my stew this thoroughly. I guess his compliments were just lip service after all.

Adrian mentioned about trying more variety of street food so we can share with each other but I denied that notion since we already delayed the meeting with his party. We continued heading towards the guild where the party might be located.

It wasn’t long until we reached there. The guild was as active as ever with adventurers moving in and out of the guild’s door continuously. We enter the door together with Adrian beside me. I was a bit afraid of talking to the receptionist since she was a girl so I coaxed Adrian to fill in the quest for me. Adrian just gave me a confused look before going along with it.

I waited to see the interaction between Adrian and the receptionist. The receptionist had shown a look of shock when she had noticed Adrian. She then showered Adrian with various questions which he replied to in an uncomfortable manner. In the end, he pointed back towards me.

The receptionist ended up giving an unsettled look before indicating me to come closer. I headed towards her which she responded with her trademark salesman smile. “Nam-” before the receptionist spoke I interrupted her in between, limiting our dialogue as much as possible.

“Riela, Silver Plate Adventurer. Yes, I indeed saved the hero candidate, may I have the reward please? You have already received the account from him.” I finished speaking without ever giving her a chance. The way ranks worked was what you would expect from a normal fantasy world. The rankings went by Bronze > Silver > Gold > Platinum > Adamantium > Mithril, it was a rather typical setup I had decided upon.

The receptionist was used to my antics by now but I still felt uncomfortable dealing with her. She doesn’t mind it and straight away offers me the reward. Two sacks of coins are placed in front of me. Taking in a look inside of them I confirmed they were gold coins. I wasn’t sure of what was the reward of saving of the hero candidate was in the first place but what was provided to me was still a hefty sum. It was the worth of around 10 silver rank missions in total with medium difficulty.

I was quite happy on receiving the sum. I looked at Adrian wondering what to do now, I had considered passing farewells and leaving for now but he stopped me before I could say anything. “Um… can you please wait for my party members too? I am sure they would like to thank you too.” Adrian said that while giving me the puppy eyes look. Damn, that’s unfair.

I was a bit unwilling to accept it but I couldn’t reject those eyes either. As far as I knew all the members of the hero’s party were female, excluding the hero. I was worried that my curse would act up again but I supposed it would be fine. If I maintained minimum contact and didn’t carry long conversations most women had seemingly treated me neutrally. There hadn’t been a significant incident regarding my curse acting up again during these past 2 years.

For all I knew, the effects of the curse had diminished after all? I could take this opportunity to test it a bit. If worst comes to worst I could just break any contact with them, it wouldn’t really matter as the hero’s party was known for travelling from one town to another incessantly. 

Under Adrian’s consistent pestering I finally gave in. Let’s just hope the worst-case scenario doesn’t occur.