"!!!"
At that question, Ryu Lion went rigid in the doorway.
She was like a little animal playing dead that had suddenly been poked by a hunter.
Her already scarlet face flushed a shade deeper, almost hot enough to steam.
He noticed.
He noticed after all.
Ryu Lion was practically falling apart inside.
She had planned to take advantage of Hestia drawing his attention to quietly put everything down and slip away.
But look how that had turned out.
Not only could she not leave, she even had to face this... this...
"Um..."
Ryu Lion's voice trembled terribly.
Without listening closely, one might even have missed it beneath the chirping insects outside the window.
"I..."
"It's... it's because Lady Hestia ordered too much..."
"She couldn't carry it all herself..."
"So..."
Ryu Lion raised her head with difficulty, her gaze wandering everywhere, not daring to meet Haimo's eyes.
"So Mama Mia asked me... had me come help deliver it..."
"Th-that's all..."
Toward the end.
Ryu Lion spoke faster and faster, as if she wanted to spit everything out in one breath and put an end to this suffocating awkwardness.
After she finished.
Ryu Lion immediately lowered her head again, wishing she could bury her entire face in the pile of boxes of grilled meat in her arms.
Heaven only knew how she had made it through the journey here.
After all, just moments ago.
At the tavern.
She had just cleared up the misunderstanding with Syr...
The thought of how she had mistaken this god for a villain, followed him, watched him, and even challenged him.
Only to be pinned to the ground and thoroughly trounced with a single hand.
And forced to sign that humiliating contract selling herself into service, coming here to work as a maid.
Looking back on