We waited inside the guild for Adrian’s party to arrive. Adrian had informed the guild receptionist to contact the party for him. Both of us sat down at one of the tables in the corner but we still managed to attract some attention. A lot of eyes ended up wandering over to ourselves or more particularly towards Adrian. 

It was no surprise really, he was a hero candidate and also a cute boy to boot, he would be irresistible for any girl really. Problem was that just by sitting next to him I had managed to attract a fair share of attention too, which was ruining the lonesome image I had built thus far.

Not only that, if people were to be more aware of my existence then it’s likely I would end up interacting with more girls, which could prove to be pretty bad for me. Sadly I couldn’t just leave Adrian by himself. He was a complete nervous wreck with so many women paying attention to him. If I tried to stray away from his seat then he would just shift near me. I couldn’t do much other than giving a helpless sigh. 

As we waited the door burst open with a big bang. The eyes of all the people within the guild were attracted towards the source of the sound.

“Adrian!” someone screamed before rushing towards our table. She leapt right into Adrian’s embrace. Adrian had become quite flustered, his green eyes darted towards me as if asking for help.

I ended up responding with a soft grin while letting out a soft snicker. Soon enough some other girls followed in from the door. It didn’t take a genius to figure out it was Adrian’s party. All of them similarly rushed inside to meet up with Adrian. They all had quite a lot of high-quality gear corresponding to their classes. They were all very pretty girls as one would expect from the hero’s party. 

The person who was currently hugging Adrian was in a ranger attire. She had black hair overflowing from her back. As for the other two girls who just entered, they were in mage and warrior attires.

The warrior similarly rushed in to squeeze Adrian as if she didn’t want to lose to the ranger. She had red crimson hair along with a pair of crimson eyes which matched with her hair. Both of them started fighting for their “share” of Adrian. He had become stuck in a tug-o-war of hugs and both the participants were unwilling to give up.

The mage was a blue haired girl covered in thick robes, but even those robes couldn’t hide the curves of her body. She had a hair bun behind her head which gave her an intellectual vibe. She seemed to be a bit of an introvert as she watched the whole reunion while standing by the sidelines.

The mage seemed to have noticed my gaze. I had quickly averted my eyes but she didn’t seem to mind it much and gave a soft smile towards me. I was glad she didn’t take much offence from it. 

The more I looked at them, the more my perception of this party changed. It felt less of a party and more of a harem. I did have some expectations for it to turn out like this. He was a goddamn hero, after all, it was nigh impossible a hero wouldn’t have a harem.

As I saw that scene my suspicions of him being a female lessened. While I was thinking so Adrian tried to push both of them off. After finally separating from them, he started to introduce his party.

The ranger’s name was Ciela, the warrior’s name was Riam and the Mage’s name was Feon. All of them seemed to have a good relationship with Adrian. I similarly introduced myself as Riela. Adrian went on to explain all the events which had occurred up until now. Most of the girls looked at me with suspicion, unwilling to believe Adrian’s story.

“Adrian, what you said is really true?” Ciela asked Adrian, trying to get a confirmation from him. Adrian replied with a nod, upon which her eyes landed on me. “Thank you for saving Adrian, we are indebted towards you.” Though Ciela said those words, I could see scepticism lurking within her eyes.

It would seem dubious how a single person went into a high-level dungeon and managed to save someone while being completely unscathed. At least she had respected my privacy and didn’t inquire further as to how I saved Adrian.

The conversation died down after that, it felt like it was time for our meeting to end. The moment had come for us to part farewells and leave, at least that’s how it should’ve worked out if not for the unexpected request which Adrian brought out of nowhere.

“Is it possible for Riela to join our party?” Adrian said so in a pleading tone, with a bit of force hidden behind it. Both his party and I were shocked. Adrian didn’t even know whether I was strong or not in the first place, letting me into the party just based on feelings was a needlessly reckless thing to do.

All of us looked at Adrian completely dumbfounded. With everyone’s stares on him, he ends up becoming a bit unnerved. “U-um, I-I mean h-he could be o-our porter…?” Adrian says as he ends up fumbling his sentence. 

“Huh? Porter?”

“Yes…”

Adrian stops and takes a deep breath before he starts speaking again.

“What I meant is that Riela is actually very capable in both cooking and survival techniques. He has good survivability considering he went into the dungeon and ended up saving me without being harmed. Not to mention he has detoxification capabilities also which we don’t really have. Thus far we have been relying on Ciela for healing which she isn’t suited for. Um, I think she can be a great addition to our team.”

I looked at Adrian in complete surprise, I had never seen him speak so much. The party members look at each other before giving their opinion. Feon opens her mouth as she rejects Adrian’s proposal, “Alright then, we can give it a trial run.” As I expected I got reject- wait what…

“Adrian might not speak much but his assessments are almost always on point. I don’t feel like you’re a bad person either.” Feon said as she winked at me. Ciela ends up showing a hesitant look but goes along with it. As for Riam, she just gave a big wide smile. I had started to grow nervous. Will I really end up joining the Hero’s party? I didn’t want to dampen the mood but I had to quickly reject it.

I am a man, first of all. I can’t just join their harem out of nowhere, not to mention joining the hero’s party would force a lot more situations where I would have to interact with women. Though I could supervise Adrian’s growth until he could defeat the demon lord, the risks were too high for me. 

“Sorry but I-” as I was speaking Adrian interrupts me as he looks at me with his big teary eyes. He leaks out a sad humming noise from his mouth. Nice try but I had grown past that. 

“Sorry but I-” I tried to repeat my sentence only to be interrupted again.

“Please…” Adrian said please as sadly as he could. I could see actual tears forming around his eyes. My will starts to falter as I tried my best to resist.

But they were just too overwhelmingly powerful, all resistance was futile before those pleading eyes. He mercilessly destroys all of my defences using those weapons of mass destruction. I heave a deep sigh.

“Alright…”

“Thank you!” Adrian screeches as he crashes into me.

His head was now buried in my chest as he hugs me. He tightly latches onto me, unwilling to let go. Fuck, I am really dumb to just go along with his whims. I was never good against these kinds of things with Seris too.

Now, hopefully Adrian could release me otherwise I would start getting embarrassed from the looks people were giving to us.