“… I didn’t expect to meet you here, Hanazawa-san.”

“… We were just returning to the mansion after checking out the city… Segawa-san.”

“…”

The aura Saori and Asaka were exuding couldn’t exactly be compared to how chilling Mother’s was, but being around these two felt far more uncomfortable and awkward. I knew Saori had a bad relationship with Asaka from her stories about her students, but it shouldn’t have been this antagonistic.

In fact, Saori has been starting to call her students by their first names due to their previous relationship. Even omitting Japanese honorifics with the girls — mostly ‘cause she felt awkward calling her students with “-chan.” Asaka seems to be the only person she’s addressing formally. It’s like she’s putting this distance between them, not even trying to get closer to Asaka.

“Do you need me for anything, or can I go?” Asaka didn’t seem interested in staying around. On the other hand, her companion, Haruka, seemed to be rather conflicted.

From what I learned from our interactions, Haruka didn’t seem like the shy and introverted girl Saori described her as. Well, she wasn’t too assertive nor did she speak much when we talked, but I guess that was to be expected from a shy person meeting somebody new. She spoke just fine with those she knew, though, like Saori.

“Nothing; we just went shopping. If you do not want to come with us to the restaurant to meet up with Tamae and others, then you are not obligated to stick around,” Saori said bluntly.

“Perfect! Haruka-chan, let’s go.” Without another word, Asaka began moving away from us. Haruka bowed nervously before following after her.

Hmm. I should ask Saori about this after— Oh wait, I should tell her this.

“Wait, Asaka-san!” I called out for her, stopping her. “I’ll probably say this during dinner, but we’ll be moving out to Ullistar the day after tomorrow. Hopefully it won’t interrupt anything?”

Tomorrow would be another day of public obligations, mostly concerning the recent terms we settled at the meeting yesterday. I had to give my signature on some documents, including giving my blessing with the letter directed at the Saelari and also have Vangrim swear an oath to me and Kargryxmor to keep what was revealed in the meeting a secret.

Since Ellaine recently asked for a break from the academy, our party didn’t have any obligations to keep us in Griffonpeak any longer. Even if we did have some reason to be in Griffonpeak in the future, we could use the nexus to fast travel back. So, the important part was the Misfits, our partners for this mission to Estralia.

“It won’t, Hestia-san.”

Despite Asaka’s rude behavior toward Saori, Asaka and I didn’t have that bad of a relationship. After all, Asaka might act hostile when she met with Saori, but she wasn’t going around making Saori’s day worse or anything. They simply preferred to ignore each other. Up until now, they hadn’t argued yet.

As such, I preferred if they got along, but without knowing what their deal with each other was, I couldn’t do much. For now, I decided to inform Asaka about our plans before asking Saori about their issues.

“That’s great. I’ve been asked to perform a concert in Ullistar, so it would be good if we could get there in time to prepare and such. Have you heard about the Sun Worship Festival? It’s happening on that day,” I explained.

Haruka nodded. “Yes, we have. We had to celebrate it when we were still confined in the holy capital, so we understand why you’re doing that. That’s awesome, Hestia-san! I would love to see how your singing and dancing will appear on stage!”

“Hiehie, thank you~ Well, I haven’t done any of my daily training regimens lately, so I’ll have to work hard on getting back in form. Not to mention, I don’t think Yorshka or my mother would allow me to skip their training either. It will be busy.”

“That’s admirable, Hestia-san… Hopefully, I can be of use to you in the future,” she said meekly, looking distraught at everything I listed out.

Haruka admitted that she wasn't of any use on the battlefield as a fighter. She detested fighting and seeing blood, something she learned quickly when the students went to a dungeon to level up. She’d been acting as the group’s scout mostly, but she had little experience actually fighting. Her level, as such, was the lowest amongst the students, only keeping up due to the party bracelets' experience sharing function.

“Oh, don’t worry, Haruka-chan. I heard you’re good with numbers and also are good at striking deals. That’s good, too. Considering we all just created the company, we all need to readjust and find our roles in it. Even if you cannot fight, I am sure you can provide support in other ways!”

Haruka smiled as I gave her my words of comfort, thanking me and telling me she would find a way to contribute. Considering her preferences, she could probably work well with Saori and Ellaine with deal brokering, but I think those two would know better than me.

“Then what about me?” I turned towards that monotonous voice, where I saw Asaka looking at me with tired eyes, completely devoid of any expectations. Was that a rhetorical question? “I mean, I was the healer for my party. Tamae was the healer of her party. Now, we have probably the best healer and supporter party member we could possibly get. So… what do you think I should do now, considering you’re around?”

“I—”

That’s a good question.

I hadn’t exactly thought of it, but due to the recent merger of our different parties into a single company, quite a few specialties and niches now overlapped with each other. In particular, the rogue, healer, and supporter roles.

Haruka was their sole scout for their group for a long time, but now, there was Saori and her garms around, plus if she trained Rajah and his family up, there would be more competition. Tamae was the alchemist and healer of her party but was happy with handing over those roles to become our gastronome. Since Saori was fully willing to hand over her restaurant, there was no conflict of interest.

But, honestly, I hadn’t given a thought about those who were displeased with their roles being taken away. How would I feel if one of them turned out to be an experienced idol? I dunno…

“Haaaa,” Asaka sighed after I couldn’t think of a proper answer in time. “Don’t worry about it, it’s not like I liked being relied on to save somebody’s life. Less gray hairs if somebody else can act as the doctor. But, not like I’m like everyone. Some are less thrilled. Can’t believe he can’t get himself to kiss your ass, when an actual ‘hime-sama’ — an imperial princess, in fact — like you appears before him.”

I turned around to Saori, looking at her in confusion, unsure on whom Asaka meant. Saori scratched her head before giving me an answer.

“Daichi. He’s a good flatterer. He has a tendency to always get himself into somebody’s good graces if he believes it will benefit him.”

“Oh, I did see him acting like a sleazy schwertnoble with my parents. He tried buttering them up, but he wasn’t very successful,” Ellaine commented. “I haven’t been able to talk with him outside of our initial greetings. So I don’t have an opinion on him.”

[“The pyromancer, I believe? Hmmm. I believe he had a bit of an envious aura around him when I saw him during the meeting after you woke up, dear. He’s probably jealous. Of. You.”] Klea’Hatma added, making me finally understand what was going on.

He’s a fire mage?

“Yeah, that weird, creepy shit inside Ellaine’s rings got it correct.”

Asaka’s insult seemed to have awakened Klea’Hatma’s masochistic side, causing her to moan loudly. All sent into our heads through her telepathy. It was… It sounded real enough to fluster everybody.

“Gods, I hate that damn thing. Why do we have to work with it again?” Asaka shivered as her goosebumps intensified, all to the chagrin of Ellaine, who was smiling wryly. After shaking it off, she continued where she left off. “In any case, if you want to speak about readjusting, maybe talk with the people who just joined in. I don’t care, but I’m not ‘normal’ like the others. You’re putting pressure on them to work, you know.”

“Then why didn't you speak up about it until now, Hanazawa-san?” Saori asked, jumping in between Asaka and me, as if she was defending me.

“Huh??? Shouldn’t you know that best, Segawa-san?” Asaka grimaced, contorting her face like some Japanese delinquent. “Our dumb culture. Did you forget about it after flying over this place? Hit your head? It’s all about haRmONy… bleh. Conform so you don’t cause anybody any trouble, in other words.”

Despite being half-Japanese, I wasn’t as well versed in Mama’s birth country as I wished to admit. I wasn’t born nor was I raised there. I simply visited Japan and had a decent enough idea of how Japanese culture worked due to Mama and her parents.

However, even I could tell what the kanji “和” meant. Its direct meaning was “Japanese,” and it would be pronounced as “wa,” but originally, it meant something like harmony. “Harmony should be valued and quarrels should be avoided,” a quote from a person called Shotoku-ouji. He was a prince, if I could believe the memories I had of my rather traditionalist grandparents.

“I don’t care that my role was taken, in fact, I’m perfectly fine with it, you know. But, do you really expect the others to simply voice out their complaints when they just joined in? When they learned our new leader is a girl with a bunch of achievements and a social ranking we can’t reach even with our well-off parents?”

“This is not Japan!” I immediately cast [Air Shield] around us, having finally come back to my senses after Saori shouted that. “Just like I asked you to not call me ‘Sensei’ anymore, there is no need for any sort of social hierarchy in this team. Hestia said she wanted to be equals, right? If you have complaints, you are all allowed to speak them out.”

“Oooooh, is that so? Segawa-san, maybe you had more time to change than we did? I mean, all we’ve been doing in this past year was to follow the commands and orders of the Church of Aurena, to maintain good relations. A year is a pretty short time to change from being indoctrinated from youth by a collective-focused society!”

Oh, scheiße! She’s mad!

“Asa-chan!” Haruka tried to calm her down but failed.

“No, Haruka-chan. You heard our ‘Sensei,’ right? We can complain all we want, so I have every intention to take her up on her offer now that I’m not inside a school anymore!” Asaka waved her hand in front of Haruka, rejecting her attempt at peace. “You know what’s funny? The fact I mentioned having these four dumb mutts following around me inside this stupid catalyst here, nagging me over and over again to persuade you to come and meet your mutt of an ancestor, so I can get rid of them. But, nooooooo. No, no, no, you didn’t even bother to mention it during that meeting.”

Asaka took out a black catalyst from underneath her robe, releasing the four onnikais. Without the prison of that magic item, the four smokey onnikais began circling around Saori, only for her garms to suddenly appear from her shadows and bark, sending the onnikais back to Asaka. Even Rajah snarled at them.

“See, Hestia-san? Let me introduce you, these are the deceased spirits of four A rank fenrirs, turned into onnikais by the Goddess of Death to serve as protectors for the spirit of Belzac.” Asaka pointed at them for me. “I’ve already told everything to your ‘second-in-command,’ so why wasn’t this brought up when we spoke about our plans? I was waiting, you know.”

I already heard quite a lot about it from Kyouya and Tatsuya when I met them in that one tavern. Unfortunately, with all that stuff that happened with Mother, I’d completely forgotten about it the next day and I hadn’t been reminded of it ever since. Considering how it impacted Asaka and Tatsuya, it definitely was a topic worth talking about.

I looked over at Saori, who was frowning, acting anxious instead of her usual aloof self.

“Saori?”

“… Y-You could have brought this up, Hanazawa-san. You could have spoken up about it.” But she didn’t reply to me; instead, she was throwing the blame back at Saori.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Oh, no, no, no, don’t bring this back to me. Your current body might be younger than me, but you were our teacher back on Earth. You’re an adult, so act like an adult! Stop shifting blame just ‘cause you don’t want to deal with this shit. I don’t want to either, but Tatsuya and I will have to keep dealing with it if you don’t.”

“Still… why didn’t you bring this up?” I asked, while Saori was being silent. “I’m not blaming you, but if you had, we could have talked about it. Instead of heading to Estralia as a single group, we could have split the party up even more. You, Saori, and the others of Misfits could have gone to Belzac while the rest of Aurora went to Estralia.”

“The others, like Haruka-chan? They don’t want to complicate stuff since they just joined. They don’t want to seem like a nuisance, you see. You know, ‘your problems are more important than ours.’ Since the trip to Estralia is something personal for Tasianna-san, they don’t want to say anything. Tatsuya? He’s pretty horny for kemonomimi and he'll say or do anything to stay around beastmen girls, so be careful around that virgin idiot. Well, he’s off his coffee for a year now, so maybe he’s just unhinged?”

… You really didn’t have to say that about him! Poor guy, we've been gossiping behind his back… I should probably not stay in a room with just him around. Kyouya seemed like a nice guy, though.

“And now to me. Why didn’t I bring this up?” Asaka showed me one finger, and gave me only one reason. “I dislike having responsibilities placed on me, so I don’t want to hand it over to you. You seem more than just busy with everything, and this doesn’t concern you personally. This is Segawa-san’s and our problem.”

Asaka put the onnikai back into the black catalyst, prompting Saori’s garms to return back into her shadow. Like two wolf packs fighting over the same territory. That’s the impression I got from them.

I looked at Saori, who still seemed hesitant to say anything. From what I know, Saori hadn’t exactly accepted her fenrir heritage yet. She accepted herself as a fenrir, but didn’t want to deal with anything concerning her parents or ancestors. Compared to me, she wasn’t constantly confronted by it, and her only family member died just after she was born. It was easier for her to forget about it.

And now, since she didn’t even bring it up to me, it seemed she was even denying it further. I honestly thought she had accepted herself enough to at least do something like this. Or at least, do it for her students.

As I kept looking at Saori, my eyes probably seemed like they were drilling through her. When I considered that, I immediately apologized and stopped staring at her. That was when she began to speak.

“No, it is okay, Hestia. Hanazawa-san is correct, I am acting like a child… but, I really do not want to meet this Belzac. My garms do not seem to like those onnikais.”

“Seeeee! How about it, Segawa-san? How does it feel to not comply with everybody's demands and wishes because you yourself do not want to do it, huh? Feels good? Does it make you seem like a delinquent? Is following your own wishes enough of a reason to allow others to think of you as lazy?” Whether she intended it or not, Asaka’s provocation caused Saori to growl.

“I did not call you lazy because you are in any way lazy, Hanazawa-san! You are simply a person who cannot accept that you have talents and gifts at your disposal, and instead of listening to others, you throw everything away! You could develop yourself, become even more educated! You are smart enough for that!” Saori lectured her. “But, no, you make an excuse about everything being too ‘burdensome’ and go slack off. Even simple duties like making sure the door is closed, you do not want to do! It was such an easy task!”

“Ah, here we go, again. Look, Hestia-san, this is your friend’s real personality. Control freak. Thinks just because she can’t have me conform like the others, that it will harm her reputation to her seniors.”

“YOU WERE THE ONLY ONE IN THE SCHOOL MAKING A MESS OF EVERYTHING!” Saori shouted as she walked up to Asaka with bloodshot eyes. Ellaine and I had to block her path, sternly telling her to calm down. “KUSO!!!”

While grinding her teeth, Ellaine dragged Saori away from Asaka and Haruka, intending to calm her down. Haruka, seeing this, bowed in apology to me and followed after them, leaving only Asaka and me behind.

“… You went too far. That was pretty shitty of you,” I scolded her.

“You think? I didn’t even mention what happened during the second school trip we shared together. Ha, I really was a fucking bitch back then, but I honestly am pretty proud of how I messed up all those teachers on the last day! Made that fun trip even more memorable.”

I shook my head, massaging my temples as I heard that. I knew from this point onwards that this woman could become a huge troublemaker. “… Asaka-san, I really don’t know what you are trying to do. Are you trying to make me hate you or something?”

I wasn’t sure if it was 100% accurate, but hearing all of this from her made me remember the bitchy side of my memories.

But Asaka shrugged, looking unconcerned about it. “We don’t need to like each other, Hestia-san. Not everybody has to become friends to work well together. If we don’t hate each other, that’s good enough for me going forward.”

“Then why did you do that? Saori is my friend, in case you forgot. A very, very, very important friend to me!”

“Yeah, I figured. I wouldn’t be happy if you were to spit insults at Haruka either, but… you know, catharsis. I needed it so much after those hellish years I spent in that world with my shitty parents.”

Seriously? She hates her parents also? Checking the points to make me despise you here, girl! I kept that to myself, not intending to interrupt her.

“Yeah, I guess I lived a pretty privileged life, but all that stuff came with a price for me. Parents who didn’t love me nor my brother, thinking of us as political tools. A culture that demands you to adapt to it, especially the higher you go in the social ladder. And then having your future already settled for you. All of that just made me want to rebel, you know. Make my own happiness, even a little.”

… Way to turn it around, girl.

“Hey, Hestia-san, you see all those people eyeing at us like two celebrities?” She pointed behind her.

“Yeah, of course, I’m always aware of people looking at me nowadays. Besides, you are a saint candidate and I am a champion and princess. We are celebrities. But, as an idol, I just have to get used to it.”

“Yeah, you sure? Seems pretty stupid to me, but that is just human stuff. People look up to others. Just like Daichi being envious of you.” Asaka paused, looking away from Saori, and turned around to look me into the eyes. “Question: do you have any idea of what a terrible idea it is to become an idol? You literally put your life behind glass for everybody to see, while putting up a mask to lie to everybody. To give them the ideal girl. Kyouya is a frantic K-pop fan, you know. I’m pretty sure he can tell you one or two horror stories about the shitty idol industry.”

“Kehehe…” I let out a snicker. “Don’t worry, I learned everything about the industry as well as I could. I faced it when I was still a trainee and never managed to get in. Even being talented with singing and average with dancing won’t get you in all the time. Pretty infuriating, you know.”

“… Yeah, I can imagine. Dreams suck when they can’t come true. So why are you still doing all this idol crap? You know, I heard about you when we visited Firwood. Kids and people speaking about you. Not a lot, but enough to make me notice.”

I turned around, showing her a wide smile. I knew of the bad things that this industry could bring. I knew of the pain I brought to myself and my parents when I was too stubborn to look at other alternatives to launch my music career. I could never, ever forget all the suffering I went through to get to this point. That’s why I knew very well why I was still doing all of this, despite all the pushback.

“To bring a smile to people even in their darkest time!” I told her brightly. “My motto is that ‘Music is the art of touching the souls of thousands to empower and heal them’ That is what I believe in and I want to continue doing it, even if my path forward were to bring sadness to others. That is why I will sing and dance, bear through the pain I’ve experienced, and keep on smiling through everything!”

“But even a saintess can’t smile fore— Oh, sorry. Insensitive. My point is, one day, it will hurt, and you might break, Hestia-san. Just telling you the reality of stuff. Even I was once ‘normal’ before shit happened to my life. Those people you bring a smile to? One day, they might all turn against you.”

Memories of Eshe’s last moments flashed before me. Even seconds before her death, all she could do was care about the orphans and me. It was her last message to keep me on my path. To prevent me from deviating.

And that is why I smacked my chest, unwavering after all of that. “And that is why I will bring Peolynca my own version of idol culture. I agree, Earth’s idol culture isn’t what I want. I don’t want to turn into my fan’s only source of happiness, I want to help them up and allow them to move on! Even if they forget about me, I will stay happy if they can turn their life around! None of that parasocial relationship bullshit, either! Not with my idol culture!”

“… You know, there is this one actor who attended our school before he graduated. He had an idol as a sister, and I asked him once why the hell he would allow his sister to continue working in that unhealthy industry. He told me, ‘Because she loves it.’ In my opinion, the only idols willing to stick around are those crazy or desperate enough to stay. Even in your first year, you realize how shitty it is quickly.”

Bad pay, terrible job security, and potentially picking the wrong agency to work for. A lot of mistakes could happen. I made sure to research about it extensively, only to still accept this line of work.

Maybe I was crazy, but that might also be the reason why I made it in the end. A new life could have been a new chance to do something different, but I still chose to follow my previous dream.

“Well, good luck.” Asaka gestured for a handshake and I accepted it. “We can talk about the other side quests and stuff after we’re done with Estralia. I’ll try to think of some way to help out now that I’m not the healer anymore. In any case, hope to see your concert, company leader. Haruka-chan, let’s go!”

And with that, Asaka and Haruka left. Seeing them go, Saori managed to calm down and apologized to me once again for what she did. She told me she would be more transparent in the future, but I told her I didn’t blame her. I went through a phase where I rejected everything concerning my dragon heritage, so I wasn’t one to scold her like that.

With all that behind us, we went to the restaurant, only to see it swarmed with people, to the point there weren’t enough chairs for everybody, forcing them to stand and eat. Even Grimnir had to come out and do waiter duty to keep up with all the orders.

When we asked Tamae what was going on, she told us the adventurers in the hunter’s guild noticed our RV parking on our spot while they were preparing everything. They brought a lot of people over when it opened. At first, they were surprised to learn Tamae was manning the kitchen and not Saori, but once they tasted her cooking, all doubts were gone.

Eventually, all this noise caught on and more and more people came. It helped that Tamae increased the menu’s products while keeping everything as cheap as possible. With more stuff to eat at an affordable price, it was just natural that it would be filled to the brim.

“Lady Hestia, w-we are doing fine!” Tasianna tried to say, but she looked as if she had just run two marathons. Even Kazumi and Kohaku didn’t look good.

“We need help, lass,” Grimnir pleaded.

“Yes, please! Sensei, please help me!” Tamae begged, looking like an asura as she rushed around in the kitchen with inhuman speed.

“… Guess it can’t be helped. Hestia? Ellaine?” Saori looked at us with a wry smile.

““Of course!””

Saori entered her kitchen again and Ellaine and I performed songs to help calm people down with singing. I even placed down more tables and chairs for everybody to sit down, just enough that we don’t accidentally go over our reserved spot. Seeing me here, most of the rowdy customers instantly chilled out.

67 humans and beastmen have become your fans

Total follower count updated. Total follower of [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]: 7253

This should have been my break day. It turned out, I still had to work. It felt like stuff was starting to go back to normal. Almost.

After closing time, Tamae did complain that she might need more people to help out. We should ask Svena if anybody wanted to help out with the lower town restaurant in the future if this happened again.

But, in any case, the day had been refreshing. Once tomorrow came, I went to the royal palace again and gave my signature and stuff to everything before having Vangrim swear an oath to me to not betray us. Before leaving, I handed King Drangleic two of the new [Room] runes Grimnir managed to finish. This was to be used for the future when I had to visit him.

After returning to the mansion, we made preparations for our trip tomorrow. I handed Yorshka and Lord Helvas a set of [Room] runes each, telling them to place it in Firwood and Cedaraille at a location they could trust. These will be used as nexus points for the future.

But, I already had an idea where they would place things. One with Marquess Sirius in Firwood, and the other would be in Duke Greenveil’s mansion in Cedaraille. This meant Yorshka could visit Farron and Priscilla whenever she wanted as long as I was around.

I thought of handing some runes to the other dukes, intending to use their homes as nexus points, but that could wait for when Grimnir made more. For now, I wanted to make sure my party had enough portal runes to get back into the subspace.

Since we had to get to the Equevanna Duchy’s capital, Ullistar, in two weeks' time, we decided to take the road directly north, skipping the Morgiana and Myrrdin duchies for time’s sake. When Thyra visited me and heard this, she showed her disappointment visibly. I had to hand her a set for her to place it in the capital of her mother’s duchy — Phaleisha.

I used this day to tell everyone I knew goodbye for now, and our party went over to the hunter’s guild to change our classes. I also took this time to buy my mutation skill from maxing out [Incandescent Blaze].

Individual [Sunfang Dragonewt, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor] has switched her Main Job to [Corrosive Pyromancer]

Corrosive Pyromancer Level: 0/15

Main Job benefits have been updated due to Job change

Job Skill gained: [Virulent Corrosion]

Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Corrosive Fire Lv. 3] evolved into [Corrosive Fire Lv. 4]

Acquisition requirement fulfilled. [Flames of Purification] gained. 11550 SP remaining

Mutation acquired. Merging [Flames of Purification] into skill [White Flames Lv. 4]

Being able to heal even strong toxins like my own was the biggest selling point of [Flames of Purification]. Now, I could do it whenever I wanted. As such, it was time to go down the venom flame path.

With everything settled, once the next day arrived our RV once again hit the road. We were finally leaving Artorias for another country.

And at that moment as I was enjoying the wind, a beast of immeasurable strength appeared above me.

“Hestia, Mother’s awake~ It’s time to groom your scales!”

As I said, a beast of unsurmountable power.