"That kid is actually an adventurer..."
"And from the Hephaestus Familia, no less."
Noah casually glanced around.
Seeing that the whole place had shut up, he cut off his mind and sat back down in his seat.
He looked up at the massive dwarf woman. "Are we good now? I'm starving."
"Hah." Mia grinned. "You've got some guts, kid. I misjudged you."
She slammed a heavy wooden tankard onto the counter, hoisted up a keg, and poured a full serving of ale right into it.
"This one's on the house. Syr, get him a menu."
The clear liquid sloshed around inside, looking pretty damn tempting.
In Mia's massive hands, the thing looked like a normal cup, but for someone his size, it was basically a fucking bucket.
'Don't they have regular-sized cups...?' Noah felt completely speechless internally, but he still played nice on the outside.
"Thanks."
Mia gave him a wink, then turned around and got straight back to work.
Noah lifted the mini-bucket with both hands, took a sip and his face instantly flatlined.
"..."
'It was a fucking juice!'
She was treating him like a toddler!
Still, the taste wasn't bad... it just wasn't cold enough.
Noah opened his palm and hovered it over the drink.
Spell-Weaver, activated.
Right in front of everyone, the juice visibly started giving off a frosty mist, chilling it perfectly.
A bunch of people who were already staring at him because of the Hephaestus Familia reveal, practically bugged their eyes out.
'What the hell was that?! Magic?'
'But he didn't even chant!'
'What exactly just happened?'
'Was it ice-attribute magic? Or some kind of trick?'
Either way, even though chilling a drink seemed like a simple trick, pulling it off that casually was actually insanely difficult.
A mage from the Hephaestus Familia? That was like trying to find a freaking lion in an aquarium.
"Wow, that's amazing!"
Syr stared at the frosty drink, her eyes practically sparkling.
Magic was basically a miracle to most people.
For an "ordinary" waitress working at an "ordinary" tavern, geeking out over it was a completely normal reaction.
"Is that magic?" Syr asked excitedly.
That was exactly what all the nosy eavesdroppers in the room were dying to know, too.
Unfortunately for them, they weren't going to get an answer.
Noah just shook his head. "It's more of a party trick, really. But being able to grab a cold drink whenever you want is a pretty god-tier skill, right?"
That was his honest opinion—well, the second half of it, anyway.
"Mhm!" Syr nodded vigorously, completely agreeing with him.
Right on cue, she set down the massive plate she was carrying.
"Here is your yak steak! Please enjoy."
"Whoa..."
Noah stared at the beautifully seared slab of meat in front of him. It was a solid two inches thick and literally bigger than his head.
Listening to the fat sizzling against the hot stone plate was a total sensory overload of sight, sound, and smell.
And taste was obviously up next.
He grabbed his knife and fork, just about to dig in, when Syr stopped him out of concern.
"Mr. Adventurer, aren't you going to take off your gauntlets? Won't it be hard to eat like that?"
Raven Feather—Modified.
Even though he had massively scaled down its size through modification, it was still a bit bulkier than a normal knight's gauntlet.
Plus, since the metal joints between the fingers were sharp as hell, it really didn't look suited for holding anything other than a weapon.
Noah just sliced off a piece of the steak and replied casually, "I'm used to it."
Besides, taking it off would inexplicably make his sense of security plummet.
Raven Feather was basically a part of his body now.
It was probably going to be glued to him for the rest of his life.
"Uh, well, as long as it's not getting in your way," Syr said.
Even though she thought it was weird, Orario was never exactly short on weirdos.
She had other customers to deal with anyway, so she wasn't going to get stuck on such a minor detail.
...
"Burp—"
It took over half an hour before Noah finally managed to polish off the massive meal.
While he ate, he occasionally kept an eye on the goddess playing house among the humans, realizing that the "character" she was acting out actually felt incredibly real.
Whenever she was 'Syr', everything about her was completely genuine.
The proud, breathtaking, insanely possessive goddess was Freya, while the pure, sweet girl next door was Syr.
Even though they were technically the exact same entity, they felt like completely different people.
Being able to effortlessly get along with everyone—that was his honest impression of Syr.
As he stood up to leave, Syr trotted over and asked, "Mr. Adventurer, were you satisfied with the food and service today?"
Noah looked up at her.
He narrowed his eyes, totally ignoring her question, and instead focused entirely on the height gap.
Even a girl like Syr was so much taller than him, which suddenly pissed him off just a little bit!
Even though he knew damn well he was still growing and would definitely shoot past her height eventually, the frustration in the moment was hard to swallow.
"I'm done eating."
"Great! Then that will be 3,700 valis."
Noah pulled the money from his coin pouch, dropped it on the table and nodded.
"I'll swing by again when I get the chance."
Syr beamed at that.
Getting slightly greedy and happy over the prospect of bigger tips was totally a part of Syr's character.
It was honestly pretty cute.
"Little Mr. Adventurer, my name is Syr. Could you tell me yours?"
"You can drop the 'little' part. It's Noah."
"Alright then, Noah! Please come again, I'll be waiting for you." Syr smiled brightly and waved goodbye.
That was probably the tenth time she had used that exact method to reel in a customer tonight.
Judging by how the other adventurers reacted to her, she was stupidly popular.
Her insane social skills were enough to make a guy with mild social anxiety like Noah want to cry and just run for the hills.
Especially when it came to those middle-aged adventurer dudes who easily fell victim to the three great illusions of life—thinking the cute waitress actually had a crush on them.
They had no idea they were just getting totally played.
After stepping out of The Hostess of Fertility, Noah planned to take Adventurer Street straight back to the Familia base, but he suddenly heard someone calling out to him on the road.
"Noah? Is that you, Noah?"
He turned around, locking eyes with a familiar face.
After a brief look of surprise, the elf girl quickly pushed her way through the bustling crowd to stand right in front of him.
"Miss Eina, long time no see."
"What do you mean, 'long time'? It's only been a few days!"
Huh? He could've sworn their last meeting was way longer ago than that.
Seeing his completely confused expression, Eina suddenly realized something.
"Ah, wait, right—you were passed out from mind zero at the time."
She went on to explain everything from start to finish, telling him exactly how the Astrea Familia had dragged his unconscious body all the way back to the Guild.