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‘Does it look like a woman is asking you out? That’s just a misunderstanding of men! You should get to know each other first and build a stable relationship!’
‘The days of women taking the lead are over! Now it’s up to the man to lead the date!’
According to the magazine, romance among the Beastmen seemed to test the patience of the men. There was no harsh pressure to marry or force intercourse. Even if a woman made a gesture that looked like an invitation to a man, it was a trap. If she then covered herself and told him, “Of course I didn’t mean it”, she would get angry and reject him. To get to sex, it was necessary to go through a series of stages smoothly. The first stage was the meeting. That is, a date. Dating also had stages, and at least five dates were necessary, all in different places and with different words. And if he proposed to her on the sixth date, all his work would be rewarded. The Beastwoman would become a woman and belong to the man.
To be honest, Bash would have been wrong by now if it weren’t for the magazine. When Silviana leaned against him a few minutes ago, he thought he could just propose and there wouldn’t be a problem, and then they would move on to sex. That would have had her gone in no time.
But now Bash had the magazine. And Bash was a man who knew the folly of front-line warriors acting on their own judgment in a precise operational maneuver. If it was a strategy devised by a clever strategist, the secret to victory was to follow it to perfection. Bash had seen this firsthand.
He remembered, yes, the battle on the plains of Kiang, when he was getting stronger and stronger, and when he himself was beginning to get a little carried away. Bash was following orders as usual, fighting east and west, destroying the enemy. Then he received another order. The order was simple: “Ignore the enemy you are currently facing, move south and go after another enemy”. At this point, Bash was in a good mood. He was furious at the thought of ignoring the enemy in front of him, so he stayed where he was and continued to fight. As a result, the demon forces that had been his allies were trapped and destroyed, leaving Bash’s company alone and under siege. In the end, Bash and his men were not killed, but were severely mistreated by the Demon commanders.
The humiliating defeat provided Bash with wisdom and lessons. Since then, Bash has been faithful to his orders. After a certain point, however, there were few who could give him orders…
Anyway, since Bash was obedient, the plan for the first date was perfect. Just like the magazine said.
“Um, this is…”
“Let’s have dinner here. Or should we go to another restaurant?”
“Haa, well, this is fine, but…”
Bash took the hand of the confused Silviana and entered the restaurant. It was a place recommended by the magazine, but it was nothing more than a place for commoners, and there were a lot of people inside. At least it wasn’t a place for a princess. But Bash had no way of knowing that.
“They recommend a meal called ‘Special Meatloaf’.”
“You don’t know what meatloaf is, do you, Sir Bash?”
“No. We don’t have it in the Orc Country.”
“I see.”
As far as ambience went, the place wasn’t that great. But Silviana laughed, sat down next to Bash and put her arms around him. Then she gently stroked and rubbed his thighs.
“How dirty… does that mean I’m the dessert after dinner?”
“…”
Bash was taken aback by Silviana’s actions, but he persevered, stubbornly following the teachings of the magazine, which told him not to touch her until he had reached a certain point. Bash was a man of patience, which was rare among orcs. And he had deployed Zell as a deterrent in case he got out of control. She was still there, glowing and glowering in the corner of the shop, keeping an eye on Bash. “Hang in there, Mister, the future is bright!”, she reminded him.
And so the meal ended without incident. Afterwards, Bash took a look at the weapons shop mentioned in the magazine. Beastwomen liked strong men. But now that the war was over, they were hard to find. So the idea was to show that he was different from the other men by finding out if the weapons in the store were good or bad.
Bash would go around the weapons shops and talk about the good and bad of the weapons in the windows. Occasionally he would mention that he had used that weapon on the battlefield, but that was all he knew. To be honest, his knowledge of weapons was undeniably shallow. Bash didn’t choose his weapons, so he didn’t really know if they were good or bad. Silviana, however, was always smiling. She nodded and shook her head, especially when Bash shared his memories with her.
“This weapon is one of the Beastmen’s favorites, isn’t it? It’s called a katana, right? It’s sharp.”
“Yes, it is. Beastmen have been practicing with katanas since childhood.”
“The most memorable katana user is probably the man I met at the Lemium Highlands battle.”
“I’m sure you have to be a fierce warrior to be remembered by you, Sir Bash. Who was he?”
“Leto, the Hero.” Bash wasn’t looking at Silviana’s face when he said these words. He was looking at the pattern on the blade of the katana, as if the distant past was reflected in it. So he didn’t know what she looked like at that moment. “He was a great warrior. A man worthy of the title of Hero in terms of strength, skill, and speed, with a magical phantom sword whose trajectory I couldn’t read. If he hadn’t been injured as badly as he was, I would have lost.”