Absolutely Do Not Touch Aledmia Egga – Chapter 71

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Yuziro
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The restaurant Siegfried guided them to was clearly a high-end establishment.

It was so fancy that even Lagnis hesitated when she heard the name, immediately recognizing it.

It was a restaurant so renowned that its name was well known even in this medieval fantasy world.

As they learned, unlike the kingdom and neighboring countries, the empire’s infrastructure and overall industrial structure were considerably advanced.

Promotion and evaluation through magazines and pamphlets were commonplace, making such recognition possible.

Indeed, the imperial streets they had walked through following Siegfried were not only more sophisticated than the kingdom’s but some areas even had a modern feel to them.

Even the kingdom’s capital wasn’t at this level, making one wonder how such a cultural difference could exist.

“Eat to your heart’s content! Within the empire, just mentioning my name will have everything paid for by the imperial family anyway,” Siegfried said.

“I can’t make heads or tails of these menu names,” Lagnis remarked.

“Is that so? Then I’ll order the chef’s recommendations for you. The chef here has incredible culinary skills. Whatever comes out, you’ll be able to enjoy it.”

Siegfried’s reactions were so contrary to his first impression that it would have been enough to suspect bipolar disorder or multiple personalities in a normal 18-year-old.

While Lagnis was considerably bewildered and wary, Eldmia simply nodded and gulped down the fruit juice, tasting it for the first time in this other world.

Mm! Apple flavor!

“Excuse me, Mr. Egga? May I ask you something?”

The elf, who had initially glared at Eldmia quite haughtily, now addressed him with an extremely submissive attitude.

“Sure. If it’s something I can answer.”

“That earring… did you… purchase it?”

She very cautiously inquired about the earring Eldmia always wore.

Since Asirye had made it as a meaningful charm, the fact that she asked if it was purchased suggested that not all elves were familiar with this custom.

Perhaps it was a tribal tradition?

“No, this was given to me by an acquaintance. Isn’t it pretty?”

“Eek! Yes! Very much so! I can almost feel the creator’s touch! The way it shines with a platinum glow is so beautiful!”

Did she just squeak? It didn’t seem likely that she would be this intimidated just because Eldmia had defeated the hero in a duel.

Perhaps her initial sharp attitude was simply due to severe shyness.

In any case, it felt good to hear such praise for the earring Asirye had made!

“Haha. They told me it was crafted with magic. Would you like to take a closer look…”

“Kyaaah! No! It’s fine! I couldn’t possibly… Hyaak! No, that’s not what I meant! Surely if it was made with such care, it must have been created with Uncle Egga’s safety in mind, so it doesn’t feel right for me to touch it!”

What was this?

Everyone froze at her rapid-fire speech.

Her compliment had seemed genuine, but perhaps she had some sort of obsessive-compulsive disorder in addition to being shy?

Yet the looks of surprise from Siegfried and the other two women suggested there was more to it…

Eldmia couldn’t understand why.

In any case, since she didn’t seem to welcome it, he stopped trying to remove the earring and just drank his beverage.

Only then did the elf let out a sigh of relief and returned her body to its original position after having recoiled significantly.

“Well, if that’s how you feel about it.”

“Th-thank you.”

The narrator had no idea what she was thanking him for.

Ignoring the whispers between Esselua and the nun who were hovering around the elf whose name he still didn’t know, Siegfried changed the subject with a forced laugh.

“Anyway, Eldmia. What do you think a hero is?”

“Is that the kind of thing you ask out of the blue?”

Students at the academy unanimously stated that the reason for Hero Siegfried’s disastrous relationships with his peers was his thorough arrogance.

Of course, the reasons for this perception differed slightly between males and females.

The males were generally angered by his existence, which negated everything they had trained for, while the females, though mostly similar, had a significant number who were furious that Siegfried didn’t even spare them a glance.

It was as if they were saying, “Just because you’re a hero, what makes you so great that you distinguish yourself from these three women and me, and don’t even acknowledge us?”

An insolent man, intoxicated by what was given to him for being a hero, which looked down on everything.

And the three women were nothing more than prostitutes, always clinging to the hero in hopes of getting something from him.

The most extreme rumors had gone that far.

Of course, these were nonsensical rumors.

The trust relationship they had built was clearly not just a facade, even from Eldmia’s perspective.

They didn’t show any wariness towards each other; rather, they trusted one another.

This was evident just from the concerned looks the two gave the elf who had just had a fit right in front of them.

Moreover, even in their first encounter, Siegfried had accepted Esselua’s advice, and he had done the same at the cafe.

This alone proved he wasn’t insolent.

He knew how to show basic consideration and could take advice from others, but the recipients of such behavior were simply limited.

And these three women had clearly met some specific conditions to become part of that limited group, just as he was now showing interest and favor towards the ELdmia.

“Well, I’d say… an anti-Demon Lord ultimate weapon?”

“Ha! As expected, I like you because your thinking is different from others right from the get-go. You think similarly to me, if nothing else.”

Siegfried smiled even though Eldmia had just treated the hero, himself, not as a person but as a weapon.

“Then how do you think someone who was human until yesterday would feel suddenly being treated as less than human?”

“It would feel like shit, wouldn’t it?”

When he answered without even a second of hesitation, Siegfried nodded again with a cheerful laugh.

This guy turned out to have quite a lot of smiles.

“Correct answer! Alchemist!”

“…But I’m not an alchemist.”

“That’s not the point, you bastard! Anyway, the key is that it’s the right answer. That’s how I feel! But fuck, even worse, every damn person in every corner of town looks up to me like I’m something special.”

‘The savior of humanity.’

‘The one who will slay the Demon Lord.’

‘God’s representative.’

‘The light of the empire.’

The prophecy was received four years ago, wasn’t it?

For an ordinary 14 or 15-year-old boy, it would have been an exhilarating experience, feeling as if the world revolved around him, already feeling like a hero.

But this guy was a reincarnator, just like Eldmia.

Whether he had eaten his age through his asshole, was just a bit young, or short-sighted, setting all that aside, it meant his mental age was at least older than 14.

“If you grab a perfectly normal human and suddenly say, ‘Please save our tribe, oh hero. We’ll give you power befitting that role. But since we can’t give it for free, we’ll mess up the life you’ve lived until now,’ and throw them into some strange place, do you think they’d just say, ‘Oh, I see. Alright,’ and go along with that request?”

“Of course not. If it were me, I’d start by ripping apart the mouth that spewed such words.”

Of course, in this life, he had no complaints as he had died unfairly and gained another chance at life.

Rather, he was living with religious devotion, even though he couldn’t specifically identify who to thank.

But judging from Siegfried’s reaction, it was clear that he was here in a completely different form from Eldmia.

“Exactly! This is the statement of someone with proper common sense! Lua, this won’t do. Let me drink some alcohol after all this time.”

“Geez. You like him that much? What happened to calling him an arrogant bastard and saying you’d kill him…”

“Come on, people can have misunderstandings at first meetings, you know.”

It seemed their thinking was similar.

But the mistake was clearly his, right?

He was indeed a guy with slightly lacking manners.

As Siegfried called over a waiter to order something additional, Lagnis, who hadn’t been able to keep up with his continued high tension, slowly inched closer to Eldmia and quietly asked:

“What’s going on? It sounds like I’m about to hear the hero say he doesn’t want to do hero work?”

“It’s a bit more nuanced than that, but you’re roughly correct.”

“A-are we getting mixed up in something strange?”

“You don’t need to worry about that. More importantly, Siegfried is only interested in talking with me, so why don’t you chat with the women and try to find out some stuff?”

“Some stuff?”

“Like their relationships, how they ended up traveling together. That sort of stuff.”

Based on their recent reactions, he had some guesses.

Not harboring one-sided fantasies towards the existence of a hero.

Not viewing being a hero as a privilege.

He thought they were able to become friends with Siegfried because they had such ideas.

He’s human too.

No matter how great his abilities or how excellent he is, the loneliness and isolation that come from falling into an unknown world are beyond imagination.

Even he himself felt it, despite having a family when he was young.

In the midst of that, becoming a hero made it even harder to have normal, ordinary human relationships.

If he had been born as such a being from the start, it might have been different, but just as the narrator’s previous life was ordinary, his probably was too.

Most people who approached him only praised him, tried to use him, or showed admiration and envy.

Who would dare to simply try to be friends with a hero chosen by god?

He was no longer just Siegfried the human, but Siegfried the hero.

It went without saying that this situation was far more serious than people simply approaching for money.

At least there are many rich people in the world, right?

It’s just that it wasn’t me.

While there might have been multiple reincarnated heroes in previous generations, right now there was only one Siegfried.

“Are you good at drinking?”

“I manage decently.”

“Hehe. Very good. This is what life’s about.”

As his thoughts reached that point, he started to understand a little why the guy behaved the way he did.

He had no intention of blindly following the words of whatever god or goddess had wrecked his life and thrown him into this other world.

But in a situation where he had no way to return, he couldn’t just watch the world he would have to live in fall apart.

Moreover, the people were pitiful, and the fact that he had power was undeniable, so he couldn’t become a completely wicked person and found it difficult to ignore them.

So he helped.

He exterminated monsters and eradicated bandits.

Eventually, when the situation would arise, he would deal with the Demon Lord too.

However, he was hostile towards and obstructed all approaches and actions that tried to use him.

If he hadn’t met people who understood his inner feelings, he would have inevitably become isolated, but that wouldn’t have been a problem for him.

After all, he would have been alone wherever he was in this world anyway.

That’s not to say he was an idiot who pushed away even those who approached him without any ulterior motives while muttering “I’m all alone.”

That’s why he traveled with those three, and why he was so happy to meet someone like Eldmia who didn’t see him as particularly special and could communicate with him.

“What’s up? What are you thinking about so hard?”

“I was wondering if I knew any expensive alcohol I could mooch off of you, hero.”

“Hey, you. No matter how much you think about it, it won’t even amount to half the price of the alcohol that’s about to come out.”

As he smiled confidently, showing his teeth, his appearance started to look a little less disagreeable.

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