002.
“-She's a woman whose resonance frequency matches yours perfectly!”
“Is that so?”
I let out a short laugh and approached the lady. Then, without hesitation, I stretched out my arms and pulled her into a light hug by the shoulders.
“How have you been?”
“O-oh my… Y-yeah, I’ve been well. What about you, Sian? You haven’t been hurt, have you?”
Startled by the sudden physical contact, the lady stiffened in my embrace, but soon she began patting my back. Along with the soft sensation of her ample chest pressing against me, something appeared in the corner of my vision.
[ Remaining Energy 2.1% ]
“-Filled up by 0.05%. I’ll let you know like this from now on.”
The increase was less than I expected, so I tossed a question to Ria.
“How much energy do I need to hand you over to someone else?”
“Uh… You’ll need at least 20% to safely sever the connection.”
“What? It’s not going to keep trickling in like this, right?”
“Of course not! The deeper the resonance relationship, the faster it fills up. Among the previous heroes, there was even one who filled 30% in a single go!”
“30%? Well, I guess he spent his first night with a childhood friend of fifteen years?”
“Huh?! How did you know?!”
I burst into laughter inwardly at Ria’s flustered voice. Wasn’t it an obvious trope?
While I was conversing with Ria, Marina asked cautiously.
“But what brings you here? Did you come to see someone?”
“No. I just thought I’d take a bit of a break.”
“Good thinking. There’s a room available too, so I’ll give you the best one.”
Smiling, Marina grabbed the keys. I fished a silver coin from my pocket, but she hurriedly stopped my hand.
“Forget the room fee! You’re the benefactor who saved our village. How could I take money? Just rest up and go.”
“Then at least accept payment for the meals. Otherwise, I’ll go somewhere else.”
Only then did Marina let out an exasperated laugh, shaking her head.
Following the lady’s guidance, I entered the room on the second floor. The moment the door closed, I roughly tossed my luggage onto the floor and threw myself onto the bed. It was old, but clean and neatly arranged without a speck of dust.
*
Had I dozed off? When I opened my eyes to the noise rising through the floor, it was already dark outside the window. I cracked my stiff neck and went down to the first floor. The inn’s hall had transformed into something completely different from the daytime.
“Two more beers over here!”
“When’s the food coming out?!”
The small inn hall was packed to the brim with villagers and mercenaries, with barely room to step.
“Yes, yes! Coming right away!”
Weaving through them, Marina—wearing an apron—was rushing about frantically, taking orders and serving.
“-That lady’s super popular, huh? Look at where all the men’s eyes in the hall are glued. Their eyeballs are practically popping out.”
It wasn’t wrong. Her ample chest swaying and her full hips every time she moved busily with a tray were more than enough to capture the gazes of the men in the hall.
“I heard a swarm of monsters appeared in the nearby forest?”
“Yeah. The lord put up a hefty bounty. Thanks to that, adventurers and mercenaries bought up food supplies in bulk.”
From what I gathered, monsters had gathered in the outskirts of the village, and a subjugation order had been issued.
‘I hope no troublesome matters come up.’
While I was observing the situation leaning against the wall like that, Marina—carrying a tray stacked high with empty cups—stumbled, her foot catching on a chair.
“Kyah!”
I quickly rushed over and snatched her by the waist. With one arm, I held her body tightly against me; with the other, I lightly steadied the tilting tray.
“Are you alright?”
Marina looked up at me with surprised eyes, then her face flushed, seemingly embarrassed.
“Sian. Thank you. I wasn’t paying attention.”
“You look like you have your hands full doing this alone. Let me help.”
As I took the tray from her, I naturally wrapped my hand around her soft dorsum. I could feel her hand flinch, but I nonchalantly moved through the hall, clearing tables.
It was only near midnight that the hall quieted down. The drunks and mercenaries crawled up to their rooms one by one or left the inn, leaving only the faint glow of a lamp on the first floor.
“Did you wait long? You must be hungry.”
Having tossed aside her apron, Marina placed a steaming meat stew and bread before me. She must have been exhausted from working all day, yet her expression was strangely flushed with excitement.
“Good work. Business is booming.”
“It’s not usually like this, so I was surprised when they suddenly flooded in. On hard days like today, I always have a drink before bed. Would you like one too, Sian?”
“Sure, why not.”
At my answer, Marina headed to a deep cabinet behind the kitchen. Soon, she placed a whiskey bottle wrapped in white cloth and glasses on the table.
“I’ve been saving this secretly, even from Mari. It’s been a while since you visited, Sian, so I should treat you to this much.”
The amber liquid sloshed and filled the clear glass. The sharp scent of alcohol stinging my nose wasn’t bad.
We clinked glasses lightly and took a swig.
“Sian, do you remember?”
After several rounds of whiskey, when Marina’s cheeks had risen with a faint rosy hue, she propped her chin on the table and gave a languid smile.
“When you first saw me, you called me Noona right off the bat.”
“Ah, that time.”
I smirked and put some food in my mouth.
“I really thought you were a Noona back then. You still look young now, but I couldn’t even imagine that you had a fifteen-year-old daughter at the time.”
“Oh my, you flatterer. Thank you, even if it’s just empty words. Do you know how surprised I was back then? The way you talked and carried yourself was so mature, I never imagined you were only twenty.”
And so, laughing, we emptied our glasses without realizing how time flew.
Marina brought up stories about problem customers she’d dealt with while running the inn for the past five years. I burst into a hollow laugh at the tale of two large mercenaries who suddenly started fighting, throwing punches until both simultaneously spurted nosebleeds and passed out.
I also shared absurd anecdotes from my life as a mercenary. We went to subjugate a ferocious orc settlement, only to find them all collapsed from food poisoning after eating undercooked monster meat. When I said we completed the mission easily, even taking prisoners and loading them onto carts, Marina smiled and marveled.
“That’s amazing, Sian. I hope Mari has such luck too.”
“Come to think of it, where’s Mari? Did she meet a nice man and get married?”
“Goodness, married? That girl insisted on becoming an adventurer, and before I knew it, she reached D-rank. She’s currently on a faraway expedition with her party.”
“An adventurer? That Mari?”
I widened my eyes. Five years ago, my only memory of Mari was her crying endlessly as she looked at my blood-soaked form. I couldn’t imagine that frail little girl becoming an adventurer.
“I really can’t imagine Mari becoming an adventurer.”
“Right? I never imagined it either. Actually, it’s your fault…”
“Huh?”
“After you left the village, she insisted so stubbornly that she wanted to become a cool adventurer like you, Sian-opaa.”
“Ah… I’m sorry.”
“No… I just meant it like that.”
After speaking, Marina let out a small groan and lightly touched her forehead.
“Mmm… I haven’t drank in so long, the alcohol is hitting hard. I should go up. Sorry, Sian.”
As Marina staggered to her feet, I stood up and approached her side.
“Let me help you up the stairs.”
Without a word, I wrapped my arm firmly around Marina’s waist. Just as we were about to ascend the old, narrow wooden stairs, her body lost its balance and lurched heavily against me.
“Oh!”
With a small moan, Marina buried her face in my shoulder. Perhaps because of the alcohol, her body temperature was especially hot.
The sharp smell of alcohol and the deep, mature scent of a woman wafted over me.
At that moment, as Marina moved to climb the stairs, I lost my grip on the hand supporting her lower back and it slid downward.
Her full hip filled my palm, and soon my hand reached the area of her elastic buttocks.
‘……Oh?’
I thought she would push me away or flinch back in surprise, but Marina showed no reaction at all. With each step she took, my hand naturally alternated between supporting her hip and buttocks, yet she simply leaned against me, letting out ragged breaths.
Before long, we arrived at Marina’s room on the second floor.
I carefully laid Marina down on the bed.
“-What a shame… The lady’s alcohol tolerance is too weak.”
Without responding, I pulled the blanket up to her neck. Then, as I quietly looked down, the breath that feigned regularity and her subtly trembling eyelashes immediately caught my eye.
‘Marina is perfectly conscious right now?’
“What? Then you could sneakily lie down next to her.”
‘No thanks.’
I drew a firm line and added to Ria.
‘You said it yourself earlier. Among the previous heroes, there was one who filled 30% in one go with his childhood friend.’
“Yeah, I did. But why?”
‘It means energy doesn’t surge just by mixing bodies. The emotions need to boil over properly to extract high efficiency. Pushing for it immediately using drunkenness as an excuse is something only an amateur would do. Right now is the time to build anticipation.’
I leaned down, bringing my face close to Marina’s. Then, I gently swept away the strands of hair falling on her cheek with my fingers.
She flinched.
The moment I touched her, I could clearly feel her shoulder stiffen.
“Noona…… you’re still beautiful.”
After whispering softly into her ear, I rose without lingering and left the room.
Click.
The moment I closed the door and stepped into the hallway, Ria burst into admiration.
“-Wow, insane. You know I’ve been dying trying to force energy out of loser heroes who’d never even held a woman’s wrist? With this hero, I really have no worries. You’re a total player, a player.”
I let Ria’s praise, poured out with exclamations, flow in one ear and out the other, then asked flatly.
‘By the way, don’t tell me you watch everything when I do it with a woman?’
“-Huh? Yeah? The previous heroes usually had no experience with women, so I had to tell them where to touch and what to do from the side.”
‘Really? Since I don’t need you, I guess I’ll have to toss you far away.’