Somehow, Living Life in Another World is Wrong, as I Expected Ch. 8.4

Too much of a good thing can be bad. An old adage that I knew very much about. For example, take modern vaccines - they’re usually created with dead parts of the virus, or bacteria, or whatever else so that our bodies can acclimate to them in small doses. However, include too much of those dead parts and you’d have a recipe for disaster.

Hachiman, Hachiman, why don’t you stop right there talking about medicine when you don’t have anything other than surface knowledge of it?

Yeah, you’re right, Hachiman. Hachiman over there might get pissed when I inevitably say something wrong.

Let’s get a closer example then. Say, theoretically, it’s a school night, but a certain someone decided to open up their PC and play whatever video game he had. Now, I am not advocating that people shouldn’t play video games at night. No, never. What I am saying is that, did that certain someone make a mistake by not noticing the time that had passed, and that the sun was already rising by the time that he did?

Maybe.

Given that scenario, would anyone care to tell me what went wrong? Yes, you Hachiman, what do you think?

Is it that video games are bad for your health?

Wrong! Video games are an excellent method of  escapism that most modern humans should learn to use! No, the problem is that that certain someone did not take to moderate the time spent on them!

Escapism is good, in moderation. One can freely live out a fantasy without the reality of their situation coming down on them. The problem is that reality is still reality, and as a certain king once said, the dream ends when the dreamer awakes. In this case, when the dreamer has to go to school in less than an hour.

What I’m getting at is that this entire situation is a dream closer to a nightmare that I want to wake up from, but I’m currently being kept in a medical coma by the hospital.

Seriously, I’m all up for free food, but this is too damn much!

…

After the initial roars of acclaim came the slaps on my back. Thankfully, I had prepared myself for that after the first one sent me reeling for a moment. More than two dozen slaps to my shoulder later, and I thought that was over.

Then came the drinks.

Almost each and every person in the pub at that time came over, waved over the bartender and got me a drink. Some of them I knew were alcoholic, some of them I didn’t even recognize. I couldn’t finish them all, and I avoided the alcoholic ones. But still, free drinks are free drinks. I wouldn’t turn those down if I could. Though, that did mean I had to go to the bathroom far more often during that period.

It was after one of these bathroom breaks that I came back to a heaping pile of freshly prepared food.

I blinked, and spotting the thumbs up of one of the people who’d already bought me a drink, I realized that they had bought me a meal to go along with it.

Well, I wouldn’t say no to a free meal. Especially after being brought to this world and its demands for physical fitness that had made my appetite significantly larger than when I was in Japan.

It was only half-way through the meal that I saw the kitchen staff bring out another meal. Then another. Then another. All were placed near me, and around the pub, I saw more and more people waving at me with satisfied looks on their faces.

That was when the real nightmare began.

More and more food was filing out of the kitchen, all of them headed towards me. The people here wanted to show their gratitude towards the party that defeated the Whale, but since Karsten’s men were all fairly far away, they were all piling it on me. Coupled with Astrea apparently mentioning that Argyle told him that ‘Hikiganya needed to eat more food since he’s recovering’, that opened the floodgates for more food than I thought a pub could deliver being set in front of me for free.

Now, I’m all up for free food.

This though? This could probably feed an army or two!

What’s worse is that, while people did leave the pub eventually, this just meant that word would spread about everything that had happened, and that I was still here. They would inevitably see the pile of food that was being eaten and decide that they would be part of that as well.

Damned sheep! Stop following trends that make you spend money on things that don’t give you any benefit! This is the exact situation that made rampant consumerism so damned prevalent, you know?!

Anyway, it got to the point where I had essentially recruited Rom and Felt to start eating as well. They were known to be my employees, so me letting them eat was hopefully seen as a good thing. And considering no grumbles of discontent among the crowd.

Good news, Rom was able to eat a lot more than a regular person.

Bad news, this just encouraged more people to send more food our way.

I couldn’t even leave if I wanted to anymore. Way too many eyes were on me that I don’t doubt they’d follow me well into the night if I tried.

Finally, finally, the kitchen told everyone that they were closing up for the night. If I had to guess, it was already around two in the morning. Rom and Felt sat around looking quite content with the meals. Astrea had taken a position in the back of the pub, away from attention, despite that being impossible as he was still the Sword Saint.

As everyone, strangers and all, left for the evening, some even giving me even more tearful thanks, I made my way over to the red headed bastard.

“Karsten put you up to that too?” I gave him a side glance,

“No, that one was all me.” He gave an apologetic smile, but not one that told me that he felt guilty, “I’m afraid Felt is a bit of a bad influence on me.”

“...Hah.” I gave a sigh as I felt the contents of my stomach swirl in protest. Dammit, imagine me dying of overconsumption. I would never be able to face anyone in whatever afterlife awaits me, “It’s fine. No real harm done.”

And really, there was nothing that he had done that had done anything more than put me in an awkward position. I could have denied anything that was handed to me, that was true. But that would also take away one precious resource that was in short supply recently.

Morale.

Ever since the Royal Family died, there had been an air of moroseness that had overtaken the entire kingdom. This resulted in a wave of crime that had pulled more and more people out of the capital, which meant less customers and a weaker economy.

The defeat of the Whale and the subsequent celebration had provided a much-needed reprieve from the gloom that had settled over the kingdom. People were desperate for something to cheer about, something to believe in. And, whether I liked it or not, I had become a symbol of that hope. The food, the drinks, the endless gratitude - it wasn’t just about me. It was about them. They needed this. They needed to feel like they were part of something bigger, something victorious.

Still, that didn’t make the mountain of food any less overwhelming.

“This whole ‘hero’ thing is exhausting. I don’t know how you do it, Astrea.”

The Sword Saint chuckled, "You seem to have handled their gratitude quite a bit better than I did when I was younger."

I groaned, leaning back in my chair. “Yeah, well, next time, maybe they can show their gratitude with something that doesn’t involve me eating my body weight in roasted meat.”

Felt snickered, pushing herself off the bar, “You’re just mad ‘cause you can’t handle the spotlight. Admit it, Boss, you’re a natural.”

“Natural at what? Being a glorified garbage disposal?” I shot back, though there was no real bite to my words. I was too tired to argue.

Rom let out a low rumble of laughter, which quickly turned into a groan as he clutched his stomach, “I don’t think I’ve eaten that much in years. You’ve got some dedicated fans, Boss.”

“Don’t remind me.” I muttered, closing my eyes. The room was spinning slightly, and I wasn’t sure if it was from the food, the exhaustion, or the lingering effects of whatever had happened during the fight with the Whale. Probably all three.

Astrea stood, his chair scraping softly against the floor, “I should take my leave. You’ve all had a long night, and I imagine you’ll want to rest.”

I cracked an eye open to look at him, “You’re not going to stick around and make sure I don’t explode from overeating?”

"I have faith that Felix can fix you up if that happens."

I snorted as Astrea gave one final wave, leaving the pub entirely. There was still a faint bit of noise outside, but it had dropped by a lot. Might as well get things over with.

“Alright,” I said, pushing myself to my feet, “I’m calling it. We’re done for the night. Felt, help me get Rom back to the shop. I’m not carrying him by myself.”

"No, no, I can walk, just give me a moment." With almost shuddering legs, the man got up, heaving himself impressively. Or rather, almost impressively. The entire image was offset by the way he was still burping every few seconds.

Felt burst out laughing, doubling over as Rom let out another particularly loud burp, “Yeah, real impressive, big guy. You’re like a walking earthquake.”

Rom shot her a half-hearted glare, though it was hard to take him seriously when he looked like he was one burp away from collapsing, “Laugh it up, kid. You’re just jealous ‘cause you can’t pack it away like I can.”

“Jealous? Of that?” Felt snorted, wiping a tear from her eye, “Yeah, no thanks."

I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose, “Can we save the comedy routine for tomorrow? I’d like to get at least some sleep before the sun comes up.”

Plus, I needed at least a day to prepare for that ceremony or whatever that Karsten invited me to. While normally, I was content with whatever I wore, this time would be in front of the Council of Lugunica.

For the most part, I have had no interactions with them. For the most part. The one person I did have contact with was that damned bald annoyance, Bordeaux. Nevermind that the man had it out for Argyle, even so much as telling the Prince to cut off ties with the catboy when he was still around, but there was also a chance that he'd recognize Rom.

I couldn't let that happen.

It's part of the reason why I let Rom eat as much as he did. While I doubt that the man would even want to go to the ceremony in the first place - he definitely knew what could happen if he did - Felt was another matter entirely.

She'd likely pester him till he agreed, or she'd go to me to try and convince the old man.

I knew Rom would cave to her. He always did.

At the same time, I don't know how he'd react if Felt ever found out about his past.

So here we are, me giving him some backwards ass reason so that he doesn't have to attend. Even if there were still two days to go, Felt would still have reason to believe that Rom was telling the truth once he said he was still feeling bad from all he ate.

As we walked in unison, Felt feeling the need to run in front to burn off some of that food, I locked eyes with the old man. I gave him a small nod of understanding. He gave me a similar nod of gratitude.

We made it to my shop soon enough. Felt washed up. Rom headed to his own room. I sat down to take stock of what I needed to do in the morning, letting my thoughts drift on. I was tired. Though, that really didn’t stop one last, coherent thought:

Being a hero is too much damn work.

…