“… Uu~, kuon, gaoaan.” (…Uu~ brother, someone’s here.)

“Wauu ruau guuau.” (Pull the sheets over you and hide.)

After confirming that my sister who spoke to me in a whisper had curled up and covered herself with the sheets, I controlled the flow of power around my body and, along with the uncomfortable sensation of my muscles and bones distorting, shifted back into a human that morning.

“… Good morning. Are you two awake?”

“Oh, it’s Muriel… We just woke up, I’ll be there in a minute.”

It took a while for me to change into a human, so I answered through the closed door so I wouldn’t keep her waiting and got out of bed as soon as I finished.

Since my fluffy winter fur was gone, I felt the morning chill on my skin as I walked to the doorway, placed my hand on the doorknob, and opened the door inwardly.

“H-hey, why aren’t you wearing a top!?”

I froze on the spot as Archer appeared half-naked in the doorway for some reason. I tried to look away at once, but my eyes were naturally drawn to his well-developed chest muscles.

(Even as a Kobold, he was already lean and muscular, but now that he’s human and doesn’t have any fur on his body, his muscles stand out a lot…)

I told myself that this was part of “biological observation”, but when I was fixedly staring at his biceps and six-pack abs, he looked at me suspiciously and spoke to me in a rather sleepy tone,

“I had my winter fur until a moment ago so I didn’t need a jacket… Anyway, come in.”

“Uu, I don’t want a half-naked guy telling me something like that.”

“Is that so? Well, you don’t have to force yourself anyway… I’m going back to sleep then,” and turned to close the door.

“W-wait, I have something to talk to you about.”

I hurriedly went inside and sat on the round stool he pointed me to, taking care not to wake up Dagger who was sound asleep, and waited for Archer to put on a jacket.

After lightly dressing himself, Archer poured water from the jug into the two wooden cups which were placed in the room and handed one of the cups to me before sitting across the small table.

“So, what did you want to talk about?”

I took out the letter I claimed last night from my leather waist bag and immediately handed it to him.

“Is it alright for me to read this?”

“Yes, go ahead.”

The letter was sent to me by my mother, Adelia Vest, which told me to “go home and attend the marriage interview.” It seems like the patriarch, Count Schwark, was going to introduce me to the son of a viscount who works as an administrator in a different town.  

(But I still don’t intend to marry, so I have to properly persuade her!) 

By the way, the one who has a strong influence in the family isn’t my father, Christ Vest, who has no direct blood relation to our predecessor, but my mother, who is a Baroness and serves as the administrator of Velheim.

Persuading my mother is necessary to get rid of the talks of marriage that have been plaguing me recently…

“Hmm, but isn’t this common between aristocrats like you? If you don’t want to, you can just refuse, can’t you?”

He said nonchalantly and handed me back the letter.

Nnngh, it kind of annoyed me somehow.

“Geez, it’s not that simple! Fine, read this next!!”

“Hmm, a guild request form…”

When I quickly exchanged the letter for the exclusive request form I had the guild issue for me, Archer had a complex look on his face as he quickly skimmed through its contents.

“In other words… you want me to pretend to be your partner?”

“I’m asking you to pretend to be my lover to persuade my parents and to prevent these kinds of things from happening in the future.”

I’m sure my mother is worried that I would pass my marrying age because I’ve been busy chasing creatures ever since I became an Adventurer… Of course, this method would get the result I want, but it would be lying.

I mean, I just wanted to have a little more time doing the things I love…

I looked up at him while trying to convey my sincerity, but my silver-haired friend let out a sigh in return.

“I don’t have a reason to accept your request though. In the first place, an Adventurer and a noble lady would make an unlikely pair.”

“Ah, don’t worry about that, my father is a former Adventurer too.”

When my father went around asking nobles for support in authoring his first book on biology, nobody offered a mere Adventurer like him any help except for my grandfather who took an interest in him.

When I asked my grandfather about it after he retired and lived on his own, he told me that it was because of my father’s theory that “if the differences in nature and personality of creatures from the same species are arbitrarily paired off, then there would be a huge change that would occur in the next generation,” was beneficial for raising livestock.

As a result, he invited an eccentric young man into his home and drew on his accumulated knowledge while letting him write his book, and before he knew it, this young man had fallen in love with his daughter and became his son-in-law.

“… So there’s no problem if you showcase your abilities.”

“Then why don’t you just ask Ares or Riberto?”

“Eh!? That’s… that might be quite impossible.”

When he rescued me from the Rock Lizard while he was still in his fluffy form, I didn’t really think much about him, but I haven’t told anyone that my thoughts go directly to Archer when thinking of someone I can rely on from the opposite sex.

Although I can’t deny the influence of the love story of a village girl who yearned for a young man who was a werewolf that I read during my childhood, I still prefer Archer in his human form because of his wild appearance.

(Of course, I have to acknowledge my feelings too, but… you have to think of it from a biological perspective, Muriel!)

Romantic feelings are a natural part of life because it is essential for the preservation and the flourishing of a species! But following that line of thought, the main goal would be reproduction, which means… huuuh!?

“… You’re thinking of something strange again, aren’t you.”

Leaving Muriel, who had suddenly fallen silent and placed her hands on her cheeks which had become as red as her hair, Archer glanced at the amount of the reward money written on the exclusive request form.

(Since we’re acquainted, maybe I should use the reward money as a basis for whether I should accept it or not.)

Of course, I did say earlier that I had no reason to accept her request, but… conversely, I didn’t have a reason to refuse it either. Moreover, I didn’t mind accepting it either since I’ve known her for a while now.

“Alright, I’ll do it, but I have to return to my pack and see how things are going there first.”

After briefly gathering my thoughts and telling Muriel, who had been acting a little suspiciously about my conditions for accepting her request, I got up from my seat and thought that it was about time I woke my sister who was sleeping in.