However, due to certain excessively "expensive" hobbies, Raul wasn't able to buy many weapons.
She trusted Raul's judgment—this man had many flaws, but as a mortal, he possessed extremely keen judgment, especially when it came to discovering geniuses.
As for Shirou's thoughts, they were very simple. He knew that the practice pieces he forged, while of good quality, weren't particularly precious. There were many forging masters in the city who could also create weapons of this quality.
As for those merchants who had money to burn and collected weapons solely for the sake of a name, Shirou didn't mind Angie earning their money.
Angie had always been somewhat worried that her practice of profiting from Shirou's work would cause displeasure in the boy.
What if Shirou felt she was too profit-driven, or even became dissatisfied with her because of it? That would be terrible.
Angie continued, "Raul's eye is really good. From the beginning, he thought you were a genius and especially valued your potential."
What if Raul could also level up to one day? Maybe he could successfully commission Shirou to forge a sword for him—although, judging from Raul's financial situation, paying the Hephaestus Familia's bill might be a bit difficult.
The amount isn't large, only 10,000 valis, which is the upper limit stipulated by the Familia—if too much money is involved, the nature changes.
After Ais leveled up, the most promising members of the Loki Familia to advance were Angie, Alicia, and Raul.
In the end, it was Alicia who leveled up first, and the elven sisters who believed in her won.
She and Alicia were very close, and she was genuinely happy for her friend's promotion.
Although Angie knew that the friendly partners of the Loki Familia wouldn't blame her for this, and Raul also smiled and encouraged her, telling her that she would definitely catch up.
However, the more her friends were like this, the greater the pressure in Angie's heart.
Angie smiled softly, her tone carrying a hint of curiosity and playfulness.
"Shirou-kun."
She hesitated slightly, then, almost unconsciously, extended an invitation: "Next time, would you like to go on an adventure with me?"
The originally relaxed atmosphere immediately froze.
As for the catgirl's playful invitation, it seemed to have dissipated into the wind.
Chapter 178: The Girls of the Tavern.
"Savior-sama, how is life in the Loki Familia going? Being surrounded by beautiful elves, the experience of having your arms around them must be very enjoyable, right?"
Moreover, this time it was indeed his fault: traveling to the distant Great Tree Sea and back took nearly two months. After finally returning to Orario, it was only right to report to the Hephaestus Familia's base first, which Syr could understand.
Fortunately, while Shirou was being "detained" by the Loki Familia, he remembered to ask Finn, the "Hero," for leave, and returned to the Hostess of Fertility tavern on the first day to report his safe return.
However, even so, the girl's little emotions were clearly not so easily calmed. She crossed her arms and puffed out her cheeks slightly: "Hmph, your room has already been cleaned out and converted into our storage room. And everyone has agreed not to pay attention to you anymore."
"Waah, Shirou, I missed you meow—"
It could only be said that she truly deserved the title of "Half-Wheel of the Chariot."
"The cat wants to eat grilled fish made by Shirou, wants to eat it so badly! Of course, the cat also misses Shirou!"
"That idiot cat is so strong, who can hold her down!"
Miss Mei, the Felis chef, was the second to run up.
It could only be said that the Felis girls were notoriously unreliable when it came to discipline.
They surrounded Shirou, asking after his well-being with concern. Some of the girls were curious about his experiences adventuring abroad during this time, while others noticed that Shirou seemed to have grown taller.
There was also a Renard girl mixed among the waitresses, secretly wrapping her nimble tail around Shirou's body.
As for the good-for-nothing elf, she had already been "purged" internally by Syr and the others.
"Hey, hey!"
Syr stomped her little foot anxiously: "Didn't everyone agree to ignore Shirou for at least one day...?"
Initially, everyone had agreed to ignore Shirou for three days, but soon some people felt that they couldn't bear it, so it was changed to one day.
Syr shouted helplessly, "If you forgive him so easily, what will we do if he 'flirts with other girls' outside again in the future!"
"Seriously, I don't care anymore!"
Syr reached out and grabbed Shirou's arm.
"And, Shirou, welcome home."
Shirou pushed open the door of the room in the other building. The place that Syr said had been converted into a storage room was still exactly the same as when he had left. Not only that, but every corner of the room had been cleaned spotlessly.
The boy stood by the window, feeling the warmth of the sunlight. He took a deep, long breath.
He murmured softly, a smile unconsciously rising on the corners of his lips.
It wasn't so much that the scene was gorgeous or the dishes were luxurious, but because of the lineup that made the dishes.
Such a combination could no longer be described as "luxurious."
Because of Ryu, the goddess Demeter had now established good relations with the girls of the tavern—although Ryu had transitioned from being a waitress at the tavern to being the goddess's bodyguard, she still often returned to the tavern.
When they reunited, the goddess Demeter even winked at Shirou.
Many members of the Demeter Familia were also invited, such as the captain of the Familia, Persephone, who was also a well-known adventurer in the city, with a level of . It was said that she possessed unique rare magic and skills.
"Cheers!"
The girls responded one after another, raising their glasses. In a burst of enthusiastic cheers, everyone pushed Shirou to the center of the tavern, making him the focus of everyone's attention.
179
Chapter 179: Shirou's Family Dinner Today, Part Three.
Shirou spent the entire afternoon preparing each of the waitresses' favorite dishes—having lived here for so long, he was already familiar with the girls' tastes.
Tonight's banquet didn't need to worry about dietary balance, only focusing on maximizing the girls' satisfaction through the dishes.
Chloe glanced at Anya disdainfully: "Cats who like small fish, river fish, have limited taste, destined to live a failed cat life. Only sea fish, especially deep-sea tuna, is the most delicious, meow!"
"Speaking of which, good-for-nothing elf, don't you usually not like drinking milk very much? What's wrong with you today?"
Not long after the banquet started, Ryu finished the salad and cake that Shirou had specially prepared for her, and then actually hugged a large bottle of thick, high-fat milk and started drinking it.
She said something that was somewhat logically inconsistent, and then poured the milk into her mouth.
On the contrary, Anqi, who had always been rigorous in managing the household and accustomed to saving money, resolutely chose to gamble at that time.
More importantly, Anqi believed in Wei Gong, whom she had only met once.
"Then congratulations, Senior Anqi."
Wei Gong sincerely congratulated her.
Seeing that the boy did not feel unhappy because she used his work to make money, Anqi breathed a sigh of relief.
For those adventurers who really need sharp knives and swords, they can naturally find suitable weapons to buy, instead of buying overpriced collectibles.
He felt that in this way, after Anqi had more funds, she could use the money to update her equipment and buy higher-quality elixirs or magic swords, which was a good thing.
At the beginning, under Raul's strong persuasion, she made this decision with a hot head, and only realized afterwards that this behavior seemed a little inappropriate.
Seeing that Wei Gong didn't care about this, the girl's mood suddenly relaxed a lot, and her slender cat tail gently swayed a few times.
She said this to make Wei Gong have a better impression of her longtime friend Raul.
"However, Raul's vision is not always so accurate."
Anqi chuckled: "Before, in our Familia's 'Who will be the next Level 1 adventurer' guessing game, he bet on me and lost."
The elf sisters took out 10,000 Valis to support their sister Aria.
Most people believed that Anqi had more advantages, and Raul was Anqi's most steadfast supporter.
When Anqi mentioned this topic, although it was in a deliberately relaxed tone, the emotions revealed in her eyes made people realize that this matter was not completely indifferent to her.
But as an adventurer, especially when so many people were optimistic about her, failing to advance in level first still made her feel a trace of unwillingness.
She paused for a moment, as if she was thinking, and then suddenly mentioned a topic: "Speaking of which, Aria and [Gale] both leveled up after adventuring with you."
However, at this moment, Riviria, who was in a coma, suddenly let out a low struggle, as if she was trapped in a nightmare.
In the end, it was Wei Gong who held her hand, and Riviria finally calmed down.
178
"Yo～ Isn't this our [Savior] Lord, you still know to come back～"
As soon as Wei Gong returned to the [Hostess of Fertility] tavern, he was ridiculed by Xier.
In response, Wei Gong responded with a chuckle—he only found Xier's poisonous tongue to be kind and lovely.
But I didn't expect that the time to send a gift would encounter an unexpected event, and the next seven days were "detained" by the Loki Familia, which made the girl a little unhappy.
Otherwise, Xier might be even more angry, and things would not be so easy to end.
What Wei Gong didn't know was that at that time, the [White Evil Magic Staff] was already in the maintenance unit, preparing to attack the Loki Familia, but fortunately he came back in time and stopped a war that almost broke out.
"I'm really sorry, Xier."
Wei Gong could only sincerely apologize helplessly.
However, at this moment, a warm chestnut shadow rushed out from behind the curtain and crashed into Wei Gong's arms.
I have to say, the power of this collision was really not small. If Wei Gong's level had not just been sublimated to , he would have been directly knocked over.
Aniya shouted with sincere emotion.
"Hey, what are you doing? Didn't you say you were going to hold Aniya down?"
"Ah ah, Aniya actually dared to run away secretly, wait a minute, Chun Ji also ran out... I don't care, I'm going too—"
Because of the negative example of the cat-human girls, the other waiters couldn't bear it anymore and ran up.
A werewolf girl couldn't help but poke his skin with her finger and exclaimed: "Wow, Shirou, your skin is so beautiful now, as white as moonlight."
Of course, many people also mentioned that they missed the most the employee meals made by Wei Gong.
Because of her identity as an elf and her former comradeship with the Loki Familia, Liu was allowed to enter and leave the Twilight Pavilion these days, and could see Wei Gong at any time, and even enjoy the dishes made by Wei Gong there. Such special treatment aroused public outrage.
As a result, she didn't even last a minute.
However, the other waiters ignored her words at all, and instead began to squeeze around the boy one by one, even almost pushing the human girl who was standing next to him out.
She leaned her head on the boy's shoulder and said in a voice that only she could hear: "Thank you for saving our world, my 'hero'…"
The only difference was that there was a small mountain made of dozens of origami cranes on his table.
Wei Gong walked to the storage cabinet and skillfully took out his commonly used spatula and kitchen knife.
"Today, I have to work hard."
Today, for the [Hostess of Fertility] tavern, it can be called an unprecedented grand banquet.
The head chefs are Wei Gong and the goddess Demeter, and the assistants are the cat-human chef Mei and Mama Mia.
In fact, she and the goddess Demeter live in the flower shop next to the tavern. A charged jump can directly jump into Wei Gong's room through the window, such a distance.
Therefore, the goddess Demeter is also one of the people who prayed for Wei Gong and Liu, and even the constraints of the [Holy Sword] have her share.
Today, Mia the boss rarely relaxed the rules and allowed the girls to have a few drinks, so the atmosphere in the tavern was more lively than usual.
After drinking two glasses of wine, Aniya's cheeks were slightly red, with a bit of drunkenness, she raised her glass and shouted loudly: "For our Shirou and Liu! Celebrate their victory and return! Cheers!"
Liu, who was staying with Runova and Koroy, was also pushed out at this time, blushing and accepting everyone's praise.
As mentioned before, today's banquet may not be considered luxurious in terms of ingredients and presentation, but the most rare thing is the chef's intention.
"Shirou, is it really okay?"
Aniya's eyes lit up, looking at the plate of small fish, "Letting cats eat so many small fish at once, without even eating vegetables, makes me feel so happy that I'm going to die meow!"
The two cat-human girls started their daily quarrel as usual, and Wei Gong and Xier smiled as they watched them, unable to help but laugh along.
Mei, who is also a cat girl, said leisurely: "Cats still prefer roasted pigeons…"
Runova looked at Liu with confusion while eating the crispy roasted pork knuckle.
She usually doesn't like this kind of overly rich protein drink, and at most she drinks a little light milk.
"Because…"
Liu paused slightly, "Aria loves to drink milk, so… I want to drink it too."
When drinking milk, she didn't forget to stuff a piece of papaya shortbread into her mouth.
