I’m Being Pressed by S-Ranks Volume 1 Side Story Chapter 1 (LN Exclusive) (Patreon)

Side Story – Carla’s Fateful Encounter 1

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SIDE: Carla


――Sigh. Here we go again.


“Hey… isn’t that the ‘Rosenkreuzer’, the S-rank party which is active in the capital?”


“Ah, you mean the famous ‘S-rank Spinsters’?”


“I mean, with those looks, there would be no jobs for them other than being adventurers, wouldn’t there?”


“If you mean them having the looks of the most savage of savages, then maybe.”


This time, we accepted an escort mission for the Merda Trading Company’s goods in the royal capital.


After dropping off the escort at their destination, they told us that they’d decided to stay here in Cassandra City, so our services were no longer needed.


In other words, we are on standby.


To pass the time, we decided to challenge the “Dungeon of the Hungry Wolf” in the suburbs.


We entered the Adventurers’ Guild for this purpose, but as we expected, the adventurers around us immediately began to speak ill of us when they saw our appearance.


Lieselotte, who was standing next to me, turned her head and looked at them with a sneer as if to scorn them.


“I’ll go and make the applications myself, so in the meantime, why don’t you guys see if there’s anything in town that you think would be useful for us?”


“Carla, are you sure you can do it alone? Let me come with you.”


“I’ll be fine! I’ve applied for dungeon challenges many times before, so this time won’t be any different. I’ll be fine on my own.”


But I already know.


That is probably not what Tsukikage, who is looking at me worriedly, is trying to say.


But if we let everyone proceed here, the mockery of the adventurers around us would only get worse.


…At least that was the case with the Adventurers’ Guild in the royal capital.


The adventurers in the capital were a loose-lipped bunch.


So much so that the backbiting of the adventurers here still seems to be on the cute side.


[Hey, did you hear that? I heard the Rosenkreuzers were turned away at the door of a ladies’ club!]


[Of course, they did, with their ugly faces. No male prostitute would take them in. Or rather, how could they go there without being embarrassed?]


[I wish they had just got down on their knees and cried. Then they could have at least made them peek through the front of the store!]


[Why do they look so ugly? Their eyes are symmetrical, and their noses are straight and smooth and not even squashed. Can’t they at least try to make pockmarks on their faces? And the audacity of them to display them for us to see! Ugh!]


Aaaaaah! Stop, stop thinking, me!


Because I was thinking about it, a lot of unpleasant memories came back to me.


The memory of not being allowed into the brothel in the capital and being teased about it came back to me in rapid succession, and I felt like I was about to burst into tears.


I shook my head, regained my composure, and made my way to the guild’s reception.


But then I stopped dead in my tracks.


The reason was… There was a male guild employee at the reception desk.


Of course, there were male receptionists at the Adventurers’ Guild headquarters in the capital, but I honestly did not expect to find them working at the Adventurers’ Guild in such a small town in the middle of nowhere.


After all, it is a well-known fact that female adventurers are a bunch of ‘savages’.


The first thing I did was go to the reception desk.


“Um, well… we are a party known as the Rosenkreuzers…”


I sat down in the chair opposite the receptionist, but I couldn’t bring myself to look at the man in front of me.


I’m sure he’s disgusted to see me looking so ugly.


No, he must have a big frown on his face now.


It was a miracle he was not tongue-tied.


At least I lowered my eyes as I spoke so he would not think I was an impertinent woman.


However, this caused my eyes to stare at his chest, causing me to hastily shift my gaze in the direction of the day after tomorrow.


I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it!


I didn’t mean to spy on your chest!


Aaah, but he must be thinking that right now!


I’m sure he’s thinking in his heart, “What a creepy little slut… Ugh!”


“W-we usually work around the capital. Today, we s-shucceeded in eshcorting the Melda Chamber of Commerce to this city on an eshcort mission for their goods. However, they said they didn’t need an ehscort on the way back, so we decided to c-challenge the Dungeon of the Hungwy Wolf before returning to the royal capital.”


The explanation was slurred with nervousness and impatience.


I also said a lot of things I didn’t need to. Silly me, really silly me!


Why should he be interested in how we got to Cassandra City in the first place? Oh, I’m sure he’s thinking, “I don’t care. Just tell me what you want!” or something like that! Forgive me. As soon as I get the map to the Dungeon of the Hungry Wolf, I’ll leave immediately, so please forgive me…!


“I see. Since there are no high-ranking parties in this town, we would be very grateful if the renowned ‘Rosenkreuzer’ could personally explore the dungeon for us.”


――But.


Unexpectedly, in front of me, he said very kind words.


I looked up, forgetting how ugly my face was – the same face I’d tried all sorts of medicines and cosmetics to induce pimples on but couldn’t – and lifted it up.


“O-oh, thank you. I came to get a copy of the dungeon map. C-can we have it?”


“Of course. Here you go.”


He looked at me strangely, but only for a moment.


But what was strange was that he didn’t even look at me with a sour expression.


And… he went on talking to me in a pleasant voice.


I’ve never heard a man talk to me like that in my life.


I have a father, but I’ve never spoken to him directly.


In the rural village where I was born, there was only one man, and the rest were all women.


That man was my father.


Tsukikage told me that most farming villages are similar.


In larger farming villages, the number of men increases slightly. But the customs are the same.


The father would have one woman a week; the rest of the time, he would be in the biggest house in the village.


He has guards around him and in his house to make sure that no woman from the village comes to visit him without his permission. And it was also to keep an eye on my father.


To prevent him from running away from the village.


That is why I never actually spoke to my father.


I knew his voice because I had heard him speak once a year at the village harvest festival. But he always sounded very bored and tired.


That’s why when I heard his soft, warm voice, so different from that of the tired man, my heart beat faster without knowing it.


“Ah…!”


The moment I received the dungeon map, my fingertips touched his, albeit slightly.


――I was so embarrassed!


That must have been disgusting. No, maybe he thought I did it on purpose?


That’s not good.


If he thought I did it on purpose, he might call the neighborhood watch.


I look upwards in fear, bracing at what expression he has made.


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