It took a full day for my mental damage to recover.

There might be a retort about how weak my mental state is. But after another day, the wound deepened, and I ended up writhing on the bed of the Village inn. It wasn’t until the next day that I somehow recovered… I remembered my future plans and got ready.

According to the Story, the Ancient Ruins that Phili and her companions would visit should have taken about half a day to reach. Considering the distance I traveled, it was about that much, and if you include half a day for exploring the Ancient Ruins and the return trip… if their exploration was fast, they might even be on their way back to the Village now.

Well, I guess they have companions, so they probably won’t die… I went outside to check on them.

And I arrived at the Tavern. The seat I had been sitting in was empty, and as I sat down, a Clerk came to take my order. I ordered water and a light meal and looked around the Tavern.

The members had changed somewhat, but the atmosphere of the Tavern was as usual. I tried my best not to remember the previous incident while munching on the sandwich the Clerk brought.

Hmm, as expected, no one who would make me a Joke Character seems to have appeared… It just occurred to me that the members in the Tavern were generally consistent every time the Protagonists visited. It’s natural for the game’s presentation, but would that aspect be reproduced here too?

As I observed, there was some coming and going of people. But I don’t clearly remember the background characters, and it’s probably not the game itself, so reproduction would be difficult, I thought—

The Tavern doors opened, and Phili and her companions appeared. Thinking it was unexpectedly early, I observed the group, and they headed towards the back counter where the Shopkeeper was, without even glancing at the Humans in the Tavern.

They talked for a while. With the surrounding noise, I concentrated and tried to listen to them… and soon, the Shopkeeper’s surprised voice could be heard.

It seems they got items from the Ancient Ruins… It’s unknown if he will defeat the Five Great Demons, but for now, I can only recognize that the Game Scenario is progressing as planned.

Eventually, all members except Phili left the Tavern. In the early stages of Phili’s scenario, as fellow Book Adventurers, the party can be changed each time. Will they go with the same members, or team up with different people… there’s a possibility I could join them.

Although my mental damage hasn’t healed yet, I’ll prepare myself. Among those chosen, Ruon’s Adventurer level was decent, and he also served as a kind of beginner’s aid. He dies when the Book Village is attacked, so I wouldn’t recruit him in subsequent playthroughs… No, I think there were some eccentric players who strengthened him, but that’s another story.

Phili looked around at the people in the Tavern… I somehow got scared and averted my gaze from him. It wasn’t nervousness, but a memory of our previous completely failed conversation, and I even wished he wouldn’t talk to me.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Phili recruiting another Human. A female Magic-user with rare black robes and red hair in the Tavern… Hmm, I think her name was—

As I was pondering, I suddenly made eye contact with Phili. I tried to maintain a poker face… though I doubted if I was succeeding, and averted my gaze to drink some water.

Footsteps approached amidst the noise. Uh, wait a minute. After all those jokes the other day, is he really coming to me?

“Excuse me.”

And Phili… spoke to me. Seriously? Is this for real?

“…Ah, yes.”

I managed to speak in a normal tone and turned my head.

“What is it?”

“My name is Phili… You’re Ruon, right? I’m on my way to the Cave for a request, and I was wondering if you would explore with me?”

A request out of the blue… I desperately kept my face normal as I responded.

“May I ask one thing? Why me?”

“Someone saw you defeating various monsters in the vicinity. They thought you might be very knowledgeable.”

…Indeed, I had been walking around, defeating monsters while scouting various dungeons. So someone saw me doing that.

Since Phili is speaking to me now, I don’t think I’m being treated as a joke character yet… It would be best to make sure Phili understands what kind of human I truly am and be ready to intervene if anything happens.

“…Understood.”

I nodded. Phili responded with, “Please,” and then added,

“Then, I’ll gather the other party members… Would you mind waiting outside for a little while?”

“Yes.”

Agreeing, I stood up and went outside. There, I found the female warrior whom Phili had just parted ways with.

Leather armor, blonde hair, and blue eyes… a beautiful woman straight out of a painting, but her crossed-arms stance was quite imposing, and meeting her gaze made me a little flustered.

“What’s wrong?”

Her gaze was suspicious. I replied, “Sorry,” and stood on the opposite side of the door.

“No, I was told to wait here. I thought you might be someone similar.”

“Ah, Phili invited you?”

She understood… and then I recalled her name.

Right, her name was Kori Nausen, if I remember correctly. She had decent stats, and despite being a female character, her leadership in strength was among the top five of all characters. Her weakness was low magic defense. She had enough elements to be used until the end, but it would be tough without compensating for her low magic defense.

Well, in the game, you could get many reinforcement items, so any character could become strong with enough love… As I was thinking, Phili came out, bringing a red-haired woman with him.

That woman was also beautiful… Her name was Kati Itet. She was a magic-user with a balanced offense and defense, an capable character who could properly use support magic and healing magic.

However, she tended to fall behind in parameters in the latter half, often becoming a poor vessel… Well, she still possessed enough ability to fight until the very end.

“Alright, we’ll go with this party this time.”

Phili said. Even though this was our first time forming a party with these members, the atmosphere was somehow amiable, and it felt as if we had fought together several times before.

This must be due to Phili’s aura. Should I call him a protagonist, perhaps…? If I think about it, the fact that everyone easily joins his party means Phili must have something that attracts people. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to rearrange members and reform so easily.

After that, we completed brief introductions. At least I managed not to stumble… I was quite nervous, but somehow I didn’t show it on my face.

“Then, I’ll see you here before sunrise tomorrow. I’ll be buying the necessary devices.”

When Phili announced this, the two women nodded, and I also assented a moment later. And so, the party disbanded for now.

And so, tomorrow I would be acting with Protagonist Phili… It’s a good opportunity to observe his fighting style, so I’ll watch closely. By the way, I decided not to dwell too much on the fact that I had to try hard not to become a joke character when talking to them.