**Day 22 – Evening – Inn – White Weirdo pervert**
I'm getting yelled at super hard? Twenty people at once? They've been going for over an hour now? Why was I participating in a noble war outside town? That's what *I* want to know!
In times like this you can't get emotional, but you also can't be purely logical. The best way is to explain clearly from the beginning: what happened, why it happened, in order, concisely, hitting only the key points. That's the clearest explanation and the most convincing persuasion.
"Look, so I didn't 'go outside town' looking for a fight on purpose. I went to buy soy sauce, got chased by soldiers, got tricked by a maid, received this passage permit thing, got excited and went in and out a bunch until the gate guards yelled at me, couldn't get back in, tried to order books from what I thought was a delivery service but it got attacked, they went bald, turns out the delivery guy was the lord or something? Like that? I literally just went to buy soy sauce. I'm not in the wrong, right?"
…Huh? Not a single person is convinced? No one's accepting this persuasion? Even after I broke it down this simply?
"But it's soy sauce! Of course I'm gonna go buy it! Why am I the bad guy? Why am I getting yelled at? If there's a noble war, yell at the nobles—not me! I'm unrelated! I only went outside because the gate guards yelled and wouldn't let me in! You should yell at the gate guards! See? I'm the victim here! Who expects a war right in the middle of the road? I thought it was a delivery service! I just wanted to place an order! I was tricked! But I did get the soy sauce, and it's delicious! See? Everything's fine!"
Why is this happening? Why can't people understand each other? Even after a thousand words, ten thousand words—why can't humans connect? I'm not in the wrong…
In the end I got made to sit in seiza.
Well, the girls seem pretty used to this by now—no one burst into tears like yesterday. My daily actions must have built up trust. Truly, demonstrating through action is the way to earn trust. …Favorability points still aren't coming, though. If anything, they're dropping more and more.
While sitting in seiza I secretly grilled some dried fish over a small flame, drizzled soy sauce on it, and showed them.
The lecture ended. Problem solved. Turns out there was no issue with me after all. False accusation. I'm innocent. Victory for soy sauce.
Everyone's eating while crying. Probably feeling homesick. Taste and smell root deepest in memory—this flavor, this aroma, that's Japan. Even the gyo-gyo girl is happily chowing down. Is there no family-issue problem here? She's not eating her own kind, right If she's got isekai relatives or something, won't that turn into some interdimensional family drama? But she looks happy, so it's probably fine. If her fish family storms in yelling, I'll just grill them. Or dry them.
Innocence confirmed. Fish eaten. Time for bath.
"Ahhh— no otakus anywhere. Not a single one dropped."
I grumble in the tub. Full-on grumbling. I've got the bath to myself, so I grumble about otakus right in the center.
"This is seriously getting bad soon…"
Out of the bath, back to my room.
It's already the fifth night. Meaning… I've been stuck in this town for five whole days.
Obviously the cave's been completely neglected.
I thought about asking the muscleheads for help, but that's not something you can ask others to do.
Yet even those muscle-brained idiots haven't shown up in town. Five days and still nothing.
The otakus are fine—they're probably leveling and skilling up at maximum efficiency right now. They're specialists in that field. Walking isekai strategy guides.
So why haven't the five muscle-headed sports-club idiots come to town? Not coming to town means they're still in the forest. Why? Why would *they* have to stay in the forest? Okay, I know. I'm one to talk, as I'm trying to get back to the forest as well. But I'm a loner!
Whether I leave town or wait for the otakus, I've gotta head back to the cave at least once.
Besides, even if I don't search, if the otakus return to this town they'll definitely come straight to the "White Weirdo" inn. No question. Ironclad. I've checked every inn in town—there's no way they'd go anywhere else. Why? Because this is the only place in town with a young, cute signboard girl.