Chapter 61: The Muscle Fetish
That day, when Shifa and the others arrived at the Adventurers’ Guild, they quickly spotted her.
She was the blue-haired girl sitting alone on a bench in the guild’s reception lobby. For some reason, her gaze was fixed intently in one direction, as if she could see something invisible to everyone else. Anii, noticing her, decided to call out.
“Long time no see, Sarassa.”
“……”
But the girl didn’t seem to notice at all.
“Hey—Sarassa! Can you hear me?”
“……”
Still, there was no response. Up close, Anii noticed that her cheeks were flushed a bright red.
Haa… haa…
Her breathing was uneven and slightly ragged, her eyes bloodshot at the edges. Following her gaze, they saw a burly male adventurer standing before the guild’s bulletin board. Muscles rippling beneath his clothes, he seemed to occupy all the space around him.
“Hey, Sarassa! Come back here—look at me, Sarassa!”
“!?”
The loud shout finally seemed to snap her out of her trance. She flinched, trembling slightly, before turning toward them.
“Ah… Anii…san…”
“I’ve been calling your name for ages, you know?”
“I-I’m sorry… I didn’t notice…”
Her voice was so small, so fragile, that it sounded as if it might vanish into the air—like a tiny, scolded animal cowering before its owner.
“Anii-chan, who’s this?”
“She’s our mage.”
“Whoa—so this is the one?”
“Yeah. Looks like she just came back from the royal capital.”
While Sena nodded in understanding, Sarassa, who hadn’t been given any context, looked utterly confused. Shifa stepped in to explain.
“She’s Sena. A skilled frontliner who recently joined our party.”
“I-I see…”
Meeting Sena for the first time, Sarassa lowered her head in a nervous, hesitant bow.
“I-I’m Sarassa… n-nice to meet you…”
“Nice to meet you! I’m Sena!”
“S-Sena…san…”
“You can just call me Sena, Sara-chan!”
“Sa…Sara-chan…”
It was clear from her bewildered expression that no one had ever called her that before. Anii chuckled softly.
“As you can see, she’s shy around strangers. But technically, she’s the oldest in this group.”
“Really?”
Though her behavior was fidgety and restless, Sarassa was actually twenty-three—the eldest among them. Only the conspicuous fullness of her chest hinted at her true age.
“Well, despite all that, her magic skills are top-notch. She even graduated at the top of her class from the Magic Academy.”
“Wow!”
With credentials like that, she could easily have been employed by some noble family—or even at the royal court. And yet, she had chosen to stay in her hometown, working as an adventurer.
“I-I just… I feel more suited to this kind of life…”
Sarassa said apologetically. It was clear that courtly duties and socializing weren’t her style.
Anii cast her a half-lidded glance and let out a sigh.
“No, no, that’s not the real reason, right?”
“N-no, that’s not it…!”
“Then what were you staring at earlier? Breathing all ragged like that, totally engrossed—so much that you didn’t even notice me calling your name?”
“N-n-nothing at all…!”
Sarassa flustered, stammering and tripping over her words.
“She’s a total muscle fetishist,” Anii said casually.
“Anii-san!?”
“There’s no need to hide it. It’ll be obvious sooner or later anyway.”
Sarassa buried her face in her hands, her embarrassment palpable. Sena, on the other hand, tilted her head in curiosity.
“Muscle fetish?”
“Exactly. She loves well-trained male muscles. That’s why she became an adventurer—so she could admire a lot of them up close. Right, Sarassa?”
“Y-Yes…”
Defeated, Sarassa nodded faintly, her voice barely audible.
“Earlier, you were staring at those adventurers over there. But remember what I always tell you—be careful. Otherwise, someone’s going to misunderstand.”
Indeed, in the past, her fascination with muscles had led to misunderstandings with men who mistook her admiration for romantic interest. Sarassa’s affections were reserved solely for muscles, not people. That was why she preferred being in an all-female party.
“Y-yes, but…”
Sarassa cast a quick glance at the male adventurer she had been watching earlier, and then—without warning—her voice rang out in awe:
“Those ogre-like pectorals! Trapezius like a troll! Quads that rival a centaur’s hind legs!”
Her face had gone blank with enchantment, her eyes fully glazed over.
“It’s impossible not to look!”
“O-Okay! Okay, calm down!”
By the time Sarassa snapped back to reality, most of the adventurers in the lobby were staring at them. Luckily, the man she had been admiring remained absorbed in the bulletin board, oblivious to the scene. Still, his thick shoulders shivered slightly, as if sensing the strange energy in the air.
“So, that’s her in a nutshell. Just be kind and understanding,” Anii said with a wry smile.
Sena seemed unbothered by Sarassa’s unusual fetish, accepting it with an easy nod.
“…You’re something else too, you know,” Anii muttered in exasperation.
“I want to talk about what happened while Sarassa was away,” Shifa said, gauging that introductions had finished.
“Y-yes…”
Sarassa nodded, humbled and apologetic, feeling guilty for the party’s weakened strength in her absence. After all, in an adventuring party, less firepower directly meant less income.
But the next words from Shifa completely relieved her worries.
“We cleared the volcanic and underwater areas.”
“…Pardon?”