"What's going on? Is she looking for me?"

Rin didn't remember ever having any interaction with Darkness.

"H-hello, are you Mr. Rin?"

Darkness stood beside the table, keeping a polite distance. "I am Darkness, a Crusader."

"Oh, hello."

Rin pretended not to know her and asked, "May I ask if you need something from me?"

"Th-that, p-p-please, please allow me to join your party!"

"Sorry, I refuse!"

"Huh?!"

Darkness did not expect such a sudden refusal and was momentarily stunned.

"Why?!!!"

"I, I am a high-level profession, and I saw how bloody and sticky you all were before…"

"Ugh! What on earth happened to end up like that."

"Just thinking that I might also become like that, I just, just…"

Watching the female Knight, who had just been cold and proud, suddenly become teary-eyed, flushed, and squirming, the beef Ogerpon was holding with her chopsticks fell onto the table.

'This big sister is so scary!!'

Ogerpon's danger radar was flashing nonstop.

She looked at Rin, only to see he seemed to have anticipated this scene all along.

'As expected of Rin!'

Indeed, her Rin could remain calm no matter what.

'Hmm.'

Ogerpon chose to shut off her brain entirely, leaving all thinking to Rin.

"Well, calm down first."

Rin had Darkness sit down, then ordered her a glass of iced fruit juice.

"Thank you."

Soon, the juice was brought to Darkness. She politely thanked him first, then looked at Rin expectantly. "I am very confident in my arm strength and stamina, but my hands and feet are not very agile."

"Although my attacks completely miss enemies, if I'm just used as a shield, you don't have to care about my feelings at all, just use me however you like!"

"It's fine even if I break!"

In fact, the thought of being broken made Darkness short of breath, every cell in her body trembling with excitement.

"Well, calm down first."

Rin gestured for Darkness to drink some juice and calm down.

"My situation is rather special. My party doesn't actually lack a vanguard."

Rejected again, Darkness not only didn't feel discouraged, she seemed pleased.

"However…"

Rin thought for a moment.

He had to admit, Darkness was very beautiful.

Golden hair, emerald eyes, an impressive figure, and a noble temperament.

As long as she didn't speak or show her perverted tendencies.

Moreover, Darkness was different from Aqua or Megumin.

The former was too reckless and prone to causing trouble.

Megumin's obsession with casting Explosion Magic once a day was something Rin had no interest in managing.

Rin knew a bit about Darkness.

Her real name was Dustiness Ford Lalatina, the daughter of the Dustiness family, a prestigious noble house of the Belzerg Kingdom.

Darkness lost her mother when she was very young, so young that she didn't even remember her face.

Being an only child and lacking maternal love, her father Ignis spoiled her without much discipline, which ironically made her crave discipline, ultimately turning her into a hopeless masochist.

In other words, what Darkness wanted was strict discipline.

That was far too easy for Rin.

"Alright, I agree to your joining."

Rin had his own reasons for letting Darkness join.

First, he didn't plan to use a Familia slot to turn her into a Familia right now.

He also wanted to test if there was a way to bring people to the Cardinal World without a Familia contract.

Darkness was a good candidate.

As for forming a party in the Konosuba World…

Rin had decided to roleplay as a Level 100 Martial Artist here.

As long as his secrets didn't go beyond that, he could reveal them to Darkness without worry, and there was no danger of leaking information about other worlds.

"Really?!"

Darkness hadn't expected Rin to accept her.

She didn't think Rin was unaware of her eccentricities.

"So, so, so, so, so, are you willing to discipline me?"

"No, no problem."

"No matter what kind of perverted request, I, I will persevere and show you!!"

"..."

Rin somewhat regretted agreeing to let her join.

She spoke too loudly.

Didn't she notice the surrounding adventurers were already looking over?

Hey, hey, hey.

What was with those looks?

He wasn't some pervert who enjoyed bullying Knight Princesses.

However, this told Rin one thing.

Almost no adventurers knew about Darkness's fetish.

Clearly, this was her first time exposing her eccentricities in public.

Normally, although she was a clumsy idiot who couldn't hit monsters, her public image was still positive.

"Ahem, well, we are friends."

Rin nudged Darkness, hinting for her to explain.

Fortunately, Darkness didn't make things awkward. She directly stated that she had joined Rin's party, then apologized for speaking too loudly.

"What, so it's a game for a young couple."

"As expected of Rin, he managed to win over the aloof Knight Princess as soon as he arrived."

"Darkness… I hope Rin can handle her."

"What, what? Is there gossip?"

"Ah, no, it's just that when I teamed up with Darkness before, she was clumsy and couldn't hit monsters at all."

After learning it wasn't a conflict between Darkness and Rin, everyone turned back to their own business.

"It seems I need to make some rules with you first."

Rin said, "Unless you agree, I will not accept your joining."

"Is, is it starting already?"

"You're going to do this and that, and that and this to me."

Darkness grew more and more excited, but Rin quickly raised his hand to interrupt. "Wait, wait, calm down first."

"I agree!"

Darkness said, "As long as I can be your teammate, I'll do anything!"

(To be continued.)

Bonus for 100 PS, next bonus at 200 PS. We are already at T50, now we just have to maintain it to get that 10 extra chp. So don't forget to drop that PS xD.

***

Support me on P/treon to read 30+ advanced chapters: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves

(Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)