The promise of the goddess’s help was a promise, but personal efforts couldn’t stop either.
Didn’t the Heaven say it helps those who help themselves?
The plan to lower the favourability of me in the hero party had to be steadily carried out.
As I sat in the adventurer’s guild, pondering how to lower the favourability, I happened to make eye contact with the squirrel Porter coming into the guild.
“Sen… Sentimental?”
“Hello. Long time… no see, isn’t it?”
“Oh, it’s been a while!”
“Yeah, it’s been a while.”
“Yes, yes indeed!”
“Do you always carry that big bag even when you work at the alchemy guild?”
“Yes! Um, well, I’m afraid I’ll forget where I put it if I don’t carry it with me….”
“I see.”
Come to think of it, I’ve heard stories about squirrels burying acorns and forgetting where they buried them.
Is her race’s really that similar to squirrel?
“Can I touch your tail?”
“Yes, yes, yes?!”
“No, I mean, it’s just a little strange that you’re supporting the bag.”
Like other squirrels, this squirrel also has a tail.
Especially, the squirrel’s tail was very thick and large, supporting a backpack that was bigger than her body from below.
The fur itself looked a bit rough, but strangely round and full, making it look soft.
“Oh, um, it’s not that it’s…”
“If you don’t like it, it can’t be helped.”
“It’s, it’s okay!”
“Really?”
“It’s okay to touch it…”
The porter put the bag down and extended her tail towards me.
A tail pants for a merman is indeed fascinating.
When I brushed through the fluffy fur, I could see thin and slender tail inside.
So most of this big tail is fur. It’s obvious, yet somehow fascinating.
I put my fingers through the fur to feel the texture of the tail itself.
Is it a bit firm?
“Eek?!”
“Oops, sorry. Did I startle you?”
“Oh, no! It’s just, um, it’s, it’s okay…”
“…Was that sexual harassment by any chance?”
“W-What? No way!”
Suddenly, the squirrel began to shake as if she was malfunctioning.
Her face turned as red as a tomato.
“Uh, Darami…?”
“I-I should go now!”
“Don’t you need to take the bag?”
“Ugh, yes!”
I must have made a slight mistake.
It was my first time touching a merfolk’s tail, so it was difficult to guess how it would feel.
I should apologize later.
“Hmm…?”
Oh, but can I use this to my advantage?
Lowering someone’s favourability with sexual harassment… It might seem a bit inhumane to do that to a colleague I’ve been with for years, but if I just consider the possibility…
“It might work…?”
It was a party where everyone except myself was a woman.
There were many things I needed to be careful about and many things I needed to pay attention to.
It’s a problem that can be solved by paying a little less attention to those things.
Just doing that much should be enough to make the party members feel embarrassed and misunderstand.
If I can be denounced by the party members like that.
“Harassing a colleague! I’m disappointed in you, Rogue! The Rogue is expelled from the party!”
This time, getting expelled from the party is not just a dream!
“Ah, this time it’s my turn to use the Rogue’s methods.”
I’m sorry, my colleagues…!
***
Night fell.
It starts with the Hero.
The Hero led a disciplined life every day, so it wasn’t difficult to find an awkward timing.
She was praying, so defenceless it was almost strange.
I opened the door and entered just as the Hero finished bathing and was changing clothes.
“Hero.”
“Rogue! What’s going on for you to be in my room?”
Still, she’s a colleague I’ve been with for a while.
As the Hero continued to dress, she wasn’t particularly surprised to see me enter.
I expected that much.
“I wanted to talk a little.”
“Huh?”
“Would you like to sit on the bed?”
“Sure!”
Without hesitation, the hero walked over and sat on the bed.
I sat next to her.
The scent of marigold emanated from her slightly damp hair.
Marigold.
With her hair like golden silk and eyes as golden as pumpkins, she even resembled gold in her fragrance.
At this timing where our proximity was practically zero, to harass…
“Everything about you is golden, Hero.”
“Huh?”
“Your eyebrows even sparkle gold, it’s a bit fascinating.”
“Hehe, really?”
“Oh. By any chance, is the hair down there golden too?”
Nice.
It was a perfectly vulgar form of harassment.
It was so out of place and low-quality harassment even to my own thinking, so surely the hero would feel the same way.
“Below? What hair?”
“Huh?”
“Do you have hair down there?”
“…Huh?”
Uh, um?
“I mean, that area.”
“Area…?”
“Area…”
Uh, surely not.
“Hero, you don’t know what ‘down there’ means…?”
“Huh…? Hehe. I don’t really know.”
This is a bit of a problem.
In a sense, it was a problem because I was feeling a pang of conscience.
Still, there was a huge difference in the conscience’s guilt between harassing a colleague who knows everything and someone who knows nothing at all.
It felt like my heart was being squeezed.
My stomach churned, making it difficult to breathe.
“What’s that?”
“Oh, it’s nothing…”
“Hehe, really?”
The plan to harass the Hero failed.
***
I had to move on to the next target.
The next one I approached was the elf.
“Elf.”
“Hmm? Rogue, it’s unusual for you to come at this hour.”
“Just… You’ve been looking out for me a lot lately, right? I’m grateful.”
“You’re a benefactor to our race, it’s only natural.”
“Still, I want to repay you somehow. So, I was thinking, I’ve learned a bit of massage.”
“Massage?”
“Yeah.”
This time, I’m going for a more direct approach, using the harassment tactic.
“Harassment disguised as a massage” was a genre in its own right in adult content from past life, so it was a traditional method.
I planned to apply this to harass the elf.
“A massage… I suppose it does help to loosen up the body a bit. Would you mind if I asked for one?”
“Uh, sure. Is it okay if you lie down on the bed?”
The elf lay down on the bed, and I climbed on top to start the massage.
The elf’s hair was a light shade of blonde, almost resembling pale green.
The scent of leaves filled the air, making me feel like I was in the midst of phytoncides.
“So, Elf, should I start?”
“Yes. Please do.”
I gently began to knead the elf’s waist.
Moving up along the spine as if pushing the muscles with my hands, I reached the shoulders, then slowly moved down again in a fan shape.
There were more knots in the muscles than I expected, which surprised me a bit.
“You seem to have a lot of knots. Have you been pushing yourself lately?”
“Not particularly.”
Upon reflection, it would likely be because of me.
Ever since rescuing the elf slave, she had regarded me as the benefactor, staying up every night to watch over me when I fell asleep, and even facing the mad dragon in the recent wager with the Emperor.
So, it’s no wonder her body has taken a toll.
Initially, my intention was simply harassment, but now that it has come to this, I feel obligated to properly release her.
“I guess I’ll have to use some Rogue’s techniques…”
“Hmm?”
Among the Rogue’s techniques, there existed methods of ‘tormenting’ people.
This included techniques of severing muscles and dislocating bones, forms of torture designed to inflict pain.
However, these skills were not solely for torture; if used to relax muscles and align bones, it could be considered chiropractic therapy.
Since I was incorporating massage into it, it could be called a form of chiropractic massage therapy.
“Ah?!”
“Just bear with it for a moment. It’ll feel refreshing soon.”
“Uh… Ro-Rogue, wait?! Ahh….”
After a while of massaging, I could feel sweat pouring out of the elf like rain, and her body heating up.
It seems to have quite an effect indeed.
I myself ended up soaked in sweat due to focusing too much on the massage.
“Alright, I’m done! How do you feel? Much fresher, right?”
“I feel anything but refreshed…”
“Huh?”
“I feel like you only added to the burden… No, um, sorry.”
“What’s wrong?”
Anyway, thus ends the elf’s turn.
***
As I went to the room of the Saint, she opened the door as if she had been waiting, welcoming me in.
“The Goddess informed me that the Rogue would be coming.”
“Hmm?”
“Hehe, you’re up to something interesting.”
“You have been spoiled, haven’t you? Well, I guess there’s nothing I can do about it now…”
“In that case, I’ll just leave.”
“…What?”
“If you already know, then there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“Huh? Why…?”
“Huh?”
“Are you just going to leave without doing anything…?”
“Huh?”
Suddenly, the Saint grabbed onto my sleeve with a desperate expression.
Her eyes sparkled like pure silver, her snow-white hair resembling snowflakes, and her transparent silver eyes shimmered with innocence.
The clear and pure fragrance reminded me of tiny white snowdrop flowers.
“Are you not going to do anything to me…?”
“Well, didn’t you say you heard it from the goddess?”
“Weren’t you going to ask if my eyebrows are white and my eyes are silver, then inquire about whether my intentions are pure…?”
“Or perhaps you were going to recklessly touch my body under the pretext of a massage…”
“Even though you know everything, why…?”
The Saint’s mouth slightly agape in shock.
Her transparent silver eyes trembled as if an earthquake had struck.
“Please be careful on your way back…”
“It’s just next door anyway. Well, have a good night, Saint.”
“Yes.”
The plan to harass the Saint had failed thanks to the spoiler from the goddess.
***
Finally, it was the wizard’s turn.
“Wizard.”
“Hmm?”
The wizard’s room was a barren space with nothing personal in sight.
It seemed unchanged since she had acquired the lodging, neither adding nor removing anything.
In this pristine room, the wizard spent her nights.
Given her sole interest in research only, it was understandable.
“Would it be alright if I sat down for a moment?”
“Heheh.”
“Thank you.”
The wizard didn’t speak much, but that didn’t mean she didn’t communicate.
She scooted slightly to the side to make it easier for me to sit down.
Sitting side by side on the bed, I looked at the wizard.
Her purplish-blue hair resembled the dawn sky mixed with mist, and her shimmering pink eyes held a quiet intensity that seemed to devour the beholder.
Her scent… resembled roses.
Not the roses used in perfumes, but the raw scent of wild roses.
“Wizard, may I hug you for a moment?”
“Hmm?”
The wizard tilted her head slightly and then spread her arms wide, creating a comfortable space for a hug.
I felt more embarrassed than I anticipated by her overly accommodating response.
“You… don’t hug back…?”
“Heheh.”
As we embraced each other, the wizard’s petite frame made her fit into my embrace instead.
The difference in physique was more pronounced when felt in the embrace than when observed, and the unfamiliar yet familiar sensation was so embarrassing that I instinctively pushed the wizard away, even more embarrassed than before.
“Um, I’m sorry. It just didn’t feel right…”
“Heheh. It’s okay…”
“Thank you, wizard…”
Once again, it was a failure.
The reason for the failure… I’m not sure.
I just felt like everything had turned into a mess.
With that thought in mind, I returned to my room.
I’m tired.
I want to retire.
Truly.
The promise of the goddess’s help was a promise, but personal efforts couldn’t stop either.
Didn’t the Heaven say it helps those who help themselves?
The plan to lower the favourability of me in the hero party had to be steadily carried out.
As I sat in the adventurer’s guild, pondering how to lower the favourability, I happened to make eye contact with the squirrel Porter coming into the guild.
“Sen… Sentimental?”
“Hello. Long time… no see, isn’t it?”
“Oh, it’s been a while!”
“Yeah, it’s been a while.”
“Yes, yes indeed!”
“Do you always carry that big bag even when you work at the alchemy guild?”
“Yes! Um, well, I’m afraid I’ll forget where I put it if I don’t carry it with me….”
“I see.”
Come to think of it, I’ve heard stories about squirrels burying acorns and forgetting where they buried them.
Is her race’s really that similar to squirrel?
“Can I touch your tail?”
“Yes, yes, yes?!”
“No, I mean, it’s just a little strange that you’re supporting the bag.”
Like other squirrels, this squirrel also has a tail.
Especially, the squirrel’s tail was very thick and large, supporting a backpack that was bigger than her body from below.
The fur itself looked a bit rough, but strangely round and full, making it look soft.
“Oh, um, it’s not that it’s…”
“If you don’t like it, it can’t be helped.”
“It’s, it’s okay!”
“Really?”
“It’s okay to touch it…”
The porter put the bag down and extended her tail towards me.
A tail pants for a merman is indeed fascinating.
When I brushed through the fluffy fur, I could see thin and slender tail inside.
So most of this big tail is fur. It’s obvious, yet somehow fascinating.
I put my fingers through the fur to feel the texture of the tail itself.
Is it a bit firm?
“Eek?!”
“Oops, sorry. Did I startle you?”
“Oh, no! It’s just, um, it’s, it’s okay…”
“…Was that sexual harassment by any chance?”
“W-What? No way!”
Suddenly, the squirrel began to shake as if she was malfunctioning.
Her face turned as red as a tomato.
“Uh, Darami…?”
“I-I should go now!”
“Don’t you need to take the bag?”
“Ugh, yes!”
I must have made a slight mistake.
It was my first time touching a merfolk’s tail, so it was difficult to guess how it would feel.
I should apologize later.
“Hmm…?”
Oh, but can I use this to my advantage?
Lowering someone’s favourability with sexual harassment… It might seem a bit inhumane to do that to a colleague I’ve been with for years, but if I just consider the possibility…
“It might work…?”
It was a party where everyone except myself was a woman.
There were many things I needed to be careful about and many things I needed to pay attention to.
It’s a problem that can be solved by paying a little less attention to those things.
Just doing that much should be enough to make the party members feel embarrassed and misunderstand.
If I can be denounced by the party members like that.
“Harassing a colleague! I’m disappointed in you, Rogue! The Rogue is expelled from the party!”
This time, getting expelled from the party is not just a dream!
“Ah, this time it’s my turn to use the Rogue’s methods.”
I’m sorry, my colleagues…!
***
Night fell.
It starts with the Hero.
The Hero led a disciplined life every day, so it wasn’t difficult to find an awkward timing.
She was praying, so defenceless it was almost strange.
I opened the door and entered just as the Hero finished bathing and was changing clothes.
“Hero.”
“Rogue! What’s going on for you to be in my room?”
Still, she’s a colleague I’ve been with for a while.
As the Hero continued to dress, she wasn’t particularly surprised to see me enter.
I expected that much.
“I wanted to talk a little.”
“Huh?”
“Would you like to sit on the bed?”
“Sure!”
Without hesitation, the hero walked over and sat on the bed.
I sat next to her.
The scent of marigold emanated from her slightly damp hair.
Marigold.
With her hair like golden silk and eyes as golden as pumpkins, she even resembled gold in her fragrance.
At this timing where our proximity was practically zero, to harass…
“Everything about you is golden, Hero.”
“Huh?”
“Your eyebrows even sparkle gold, it’s a bit fascinating.”
“Hehe, really?”
“Oh. By any chance, is the hair down there golden too?”
Nice.
It was a perfectly vulgar form of harassment.
It was so out of place and low-quality harassment even to my own thinking, so surely the hero would feel the same way.
“Below? What hair?”
“Huh?”
“Do you have hair down there?”
“…Huh?”
Uh, um?
“I mean, that area.”
“Area…?”
“Area…”
Uh, surely not.
“Hero, you don’t know what ‘down there’ means…?”
“Huh…? Hehe. I don’t really know.”
This is a bit of a problem.
In a sense, it was a problem because I was feeling a pang of conscience.
Still, there was a huge difference in the conscience’s guilt between harassing a colleague who knows everything and someone who knows nothing at all.
It felt like my heart was being squeezed.
My stomach churned, making it difficult to breathe.
“What’s that?”
“Oh, it’s nothing…”
“Hehe, really?”
The plan to harass the Hero failed.
***
I had to move on to the next target.
The next one I approached was the elf.
“Elf.”
“Hmm? Rogue, it’s unusual for you to come at this hour.”
“Just… You’ve been looking out for me a lot lately, right? I’m grateful.”
“You’re a benefactor to our race, it’s only natural.”
“Still, I want to repay you somehow. So, I was thinking, I’ve learned a bit of massage.”
“Massage?”
“Yeah.”
This time, I’m going for a more direct approach, using the harassment tactic.
“Harassment disguised as a massage” was a genre in its own right in adult content from past life, so it was a traditional method.
I planned to apply this to harass the elf.
“A massage… I suppose it does help to loosen up the body a bit. Would you mind if I asked for one?”
“Uh, sure. Is it okay if you lie down on the bed?”
The elf lay down on the bed, and I climbed on top to start the massage.
The elf’s hair was a light shade of blonde, almost resembling pale green.
The scent of leaves filled the air, making me feel like I was in the midst of phytoncides.
“So, Elf, should I start?”
“Yes. Please do.”
I gently began to knead the elf’s waist.
Moving up along the spine as if pushing the muscles with my hands, I reached the shoulders, then slowly moved down again in a fan shape.
There were more knots in the muscles than I expected, which surprised me a bit.
“You seem to have a lot of knots. Have you been pushing yourself lately?”
“Not particularly.”
Upon reflection, it would likely be because of me.
Ever since rescuing the elf slave, she had regarded me as the benefactor, staying up every night to watch over me when I fell asleep, and even facing the mad dragon in the recent wager with the Emperor.
So, it’s no wonder her body has taken a toll.
Initially, my intention was simply harassment, but now that it has come to this, I feel obligated to properly release her.
“I guess I’ll have to use some Rogue’s techniques…”
“Hmm?”
Among the Rogue’s techniques, there existed methods of ‘tormenting’ people.
This included techniques of severing muscles and dislocating bones, forms of torture designed to inflict pain.
However, these skills were not solely for torture; if used to relax muscles and align bones, it could be considered chiropractic therapy.
Since I was incorporating massage into it, it could be called a form of chiropractic massage therapy.
“Ah?!”
“Just bear with it for a moment. It’ll feel refreshing soon.”
“Uh… Ro-Rogue, wait?! Ahh….”
After a while of massaging, I could feel sweat pouring out of the elf like rain, and her body heating up.
It seems to have quite an effect indeed.
I myself ended up soaked in sweat due to focusing too much on the massage.
“Alright, I’m done! How do you feel? Much fresher, right?”
“I feel anything but refreshed…”
“Huh?”
“I feel like you only added to the burden… No, um, sorry.”
“What’s wrong?”
Anyway, thus ends the elf’s turn.
***
As I went to the room of the Saint, she opened the door as if she had been waiting, welcoming me in.
“The Goddess informed me that the Rogue would be coming.”
“Hmm?”
“Hehe, you’re up to something interesting.”
“You have been spoiled, haven’t you? Well, I guess there’s nothing I can do about it now…”
“In that case, I’ll just leave.”
“…What?”
“If you already know, then there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“Huh? Why…?”
“Huh?”
“Are you just going to leave without doing anything…?”
“Huh?”
Suddenly, the Saint grabbed onto my sleeve with a desperate expression.
Her eyes sparkled like pure silver, her snow-white hair resembling snowflakes, and her transparent silver eyes shimmered with innocence.
The clear and pure fragrance reminded me of tiny white snowdrop flowers.
“Are you not going to do anything to me…?”
“Well, didn’t you say you heard it from the goddess?”
“Weren’t you going to ask if my eyebrows are white and my eyes are silver, then inquire about whether my intentions are pure…?”
“Or perhaps you were going to recklessly touch my body under the pretext of a massage…”
“Even though you know everything, why…?”
The Saint’s mouth slightly agape in shock.
Her transparent silver eyes trembled as if an earthquake had struck.
“Please be careful on your way back…”
“It’s just next door anyway. Well, have a good night, Saint.”
“Yes.”
The plan to harass the Saint had failed thanks to the spoiler from the goddess.
***
Finally, it was the wizard’s turn.
“Wizard.”
“Hmm?”
The wizard’s room was a barren space with nothing personal in sight.
It seemed unchanged since she had acquired the lodging, neither adding nor removing anything.
In this pristine room, the wizard spent her nights.
Given her sole interest in research only, it was understandable.
“Would it be alright if I sat down for a moment?”
“Heheh.”
“Thank you.”
The wizard didn’t speak much, but that didn’t mean she didn’t communicate.
She scooted slightly to the side to make it easier for me to sit down.
Sitting side by side on the bed, I looked at the wizard.
Her purplish-blue hair resembled the dawn sky mixed with mist, and her shimmering pink eyes held a quiet intensity that seemed to devour the beholder.
Her scent… resembled roses.
Not the roses used in perfumes, but the raw scent of wild roses.
“Wizard, may I hug you for a moment?”
“Hmm?”
The wizard tilted her head slightly and then spread her arms wide, creating a comfortable space for a hug.
I felt more embarrassed than I anticipated by her overly accommodating response.
“You… don’t hug back…?”
“Heheh.”
As we embraced each other, the wizard’s petite frame made her fit into my embrace instead.
The difference in physique was more pronounced when felt in the embrace than when observed, and the unfamiliar yet familiar sensation was so embarrassing that I instinctively pushed the wizard away, even more embarrassed than before.
“Um, I’m sorry. It just didn’t feel right…”
“Heheh. It’s okay…”
“Thank you, wizard…”
Once again, it was a failure.
The reason for the failure… I’m not sure.
I just felt like everything had turned into a mess.
With that thought in mind, I returned to my room.
I’m tired.
I want to retire.
Truly.
