Chapter 16

Narseena's perspective!

"Tomorrow, we should go and greet the adventurer Narseena knows, right?"

"Yes... I'm sorry, even on such a rare day off..."

"Don't worry about it. Just not going into the dungeon is enough of a rest. Since we have to get up early tomorrow, let's go to bed now."

"Yes, good night, Onii-chan!"

After dinner, with those words, I parted ways with Onii-chan in the inn. I tried my best to keep my expression in check until I opened the door to my room and went inside...

"Yes!"

...But the moment I entered my room, I couldn't hold back my emotions anymore and buried my face in the pillow, letting out a scream. However, no matter how much I did that, my joy wouldn't subside. I relaxed my face and rolled around on the bed.

"Does Onii-chan remember our promise?"

The reason I was in such a good mood was because, on the way back to town, I heard Onii-chan say, "Don't think about that girl." Of course, I have no proof that the girl he was talking about was really me.

"Well, my hair color has changed completely since then..."

If it turns out to be a misunderstanding, I might be too embarrassed to show my face to Onii-chan for a few days.

"But if Onii-chan really remembers me and recognized me when he saw me..."

Just thinking about it makes me so happy I can't stand it.

"Wow!"

Unable to contain my happiness, I pressed my face into the pillow and rolled around on the bed again. I really think it was worth all the effort to convince my parents and become an adventurer. Thinking about it, I felt the urge to roll around on the bed again...

"No, no, no!"

...But this time, I managed to suppress that urge. If I kept making so much noise, it might be heard in the nearby rooms. That would be a situation I absolutely couldn't overlook.

"Onii-chan is in a nearby room too..."

...After all, Onii-chan and I are staying in the same inn.

It took a lot of effort to get to this point. After all, Onii-chan was so considerate of me that he wouldn't agree to stay in the same inn. I finally convinced him by crying and pleading, saying, "We're a party, right?"

"Hehehe..."

Realizing that I was staying in the same inn as Onii-chan, I couldn't help but relax my expression. It took a lot of effort to get to this point. ...It seems that Onii-chan still only sees me as a junior adventurer. If I hadn't cried and pleaded, how long would it have taken to get to this point?

However, I'm not satisfied with the current situation. I plan to eventually get even closer to Onii-chan.

"But I won't give up... I, I'll buy a house to live together with the party someday..."

Saying that, I blushed. Just imagining living in the same house made me feel terribly embarrassed. Of course, I do think about eventually becoming romantically involved with Onii-chan...

"!"

...But I'm so embarrassed that in my imagination, I can only hold hands with him.

After lying on the bed for a while with a relaxed expression, I decided to go to sleep, thinking about tomorrow. After all, I have to go to the adventurer's guild very early tomorrow.

"Besides, I have to go to the adventurer's guild tomorrow, and there might be some issues related to Onii-chan..."

Thinking about that, I started to prepare my bed to go to sleep, but then a question popped into my head, and I stopped.

"But why does Onii-chan have such a low self-evaluation..."

This was a question I had started to have over the past few days...

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From what I've seen over the past few days, Onii-chan doesn't underestimate his own abilities. He understands very well how far he can go in the lower levels under different conditions and has a good grasp of which monsters he can defeat on his own.

...But Onii-chan has a very low self-evaluation of his own worth.

In the case of healing magic, I can understand that Onii-chan was sidelined by healers and that there are few healers, so there's no basis for judgment.

But in Onii-chan's case, his overall self-evaluation is also quite low.

Onii-chan's abilities are certainly specialized. When acting as a tank, he can't do much more than hold back enemies, and if he focuses on attacking, he can't defend much. Considering that tanks are expected to both hold back enemies and have high attack power, his abilities are quite skewed. But he still has the ability to hold back a hydra on his own, which is enough to say that he's capable.

...Despite that, Onii-chan thought he was useless.

His low self-evaluation not only affects his attitude towards adventurers but also towards the townspeople. Onii-chan seems to think that he's accepted by the townspeople because of me, but that's not entirely accurate. After all, the townspeople are friendly to me because I'm with Onii-chan.

The townspeople had noticed that Onii-chan had been secretly warning adventurers who were about to use violence against the townspeople. Even though he tried to hide his face, the townspeople recognized him by his build.

...But Onii-chan thought that, as an adventurer, he was disliked by the townspeople, which is why it took so long for him to start interacting with them.

His low self-evaluation was abnormal, especially since he recognizes that he has some level of ability. I can't understand why he has such a low self-evaluation despite understanding his own capabilities, and I scratch my head.

"Well, he's been getting better recently, so maybe it's not worth thinking about."

...But no answer came, and I gave up on thinking about it. If Onii-chan's attitude was still bad, it would be a different story, but he's gradually regaining his confidence. His tone of voice has become more confident, and he's less self-deprecating.

"If that's the case, there's no need to rush for an answer right now."

With that, I finally fell asleep on the bed...