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The meeting ultimately failed to reach a conclusion, and everyone, including myself, left the conference room and returned to their rooms. Since I had no reason to linger, I headed straight to the room where my friends were waiting.

“I’m back!”

“Wahhh! Master, that mean lady keeps bothering me!”

As soon as I entered, Lilith ran over and hugged me. Looking in the direction she was pointing, I saw Mariel with a startled expression standing there.

“Sorry, I thought maybe if I used healing magic, your horn would grow back since it was cut off… I really didn’t think even holy magic wouldn’t work! No, more importantly, who are you calling ‘mean lady’?”

“Eek!”

Mariel, suddenly accused, began to stutter her apologies and excuses while quickly turning defensive and showing a fierce expression at being called ‘mean lady.’ At that, Lilith shrank back and dove deeper into my embrace.

“Okay, okay. The Saint is apologizing, you know. Lilith, you should also say sorry to the Saint for calling her ‘mean lady.’”

“Sorry…”

I patted Lilith’s head to comfort her and then entered further into the room. It seemed the others were gathered in the living room, chatting around a sofa. As I approached, Selian shifted slightly to make space for me on the couch.

“You took a while. Welcome back.”

There was no reason to decline, so I nodded and sat down, feeling everyone’s gaze focus on me. After all, quite a bit of time had passed, and it was nighttime now. It was only natural they would be curious about what had taken so long. As Lilith and Mariel settled into their seats, I opened my mouth.

“It looks like the situation is quite serious. There are already people here besides us.”

I carefully recalled all I had heard to avoid forgetting any details, and slowly shared the stories I had gathered with everyone. I told them what the frontline conditions were like, what needed to be done to break through the current situation, and what thoughts the leaders of influential groups on the continent held, etc.

I even recounted all the heated arguments that had erupted in the conference room.

“The Mercenary King, Golden King, Mage Tower Lord, Pope, Grand General? With all their pride, they typically wouldn’t gather easily, but somehow they were all called together. This Emperor is quite exceptional.”

“Oh, if I had known the Pope was here, I would’ve suggested the Saint go as well. They’ll continue the meeting tomorrow, so let’s go together then.”

“Uh? Okay. Let’s do that.”

“I want to go too! I want to go tomorrow!”

“Anne, we’re not going for a fun trip; we’ll just be stuck listening to boring discussions. Isn’t it better to stay in your room?”

“I know that!”

However, just as I was trying to encourage Mariel, Anne stubbornly insisted she wanted to tag along.

“If Mariel the Saint is going, then I’ll join too!”

Not only was I unable to dissuade Anne, but Yuli also chimed in, stating she wanted to attend the meeting.

While I had doubts that Anne was just bored and insisting on coming along, I thought Yuli must have some reason for it. After all, Yuli isn’t the type to act thoughtlessly. Although she has gone through a lot since we last met, from what I remember of her past, she usually avoids being a nuisance by being mindful of others.

With that in mind, there must be some valid reason for her wanting to join.

“Hmmm… well, I guess it’s fine.”

“What the heck! Why does Yuli get approved right away?”

Unlike the group tried to discourage Anne, as soon as Yuli spoke, I quickly approved it, making Anne fume with annoyance. She didn’t appear angry per se, but rather, upset.

But honestly, I didn’t think Anne would be helpful in the meeting, and I just imagined her staring blankly and getting bored. Still, I couldn’t tell Anne that outright. That would only make her more upset, unable to accept the reality.

“Hey, since Anne brought the heaviest load, it’s only right to give her a break.”

Of course, it was a blatant lie. After all, we had just arrived by carriage from the Elf’s Forest; how much could she have possibly carried?

“Is that so? Hehe…”

Yep. That’s how it is.

I hastily changed the subject to a more pressing matter instead of facing the awkwardness with Anne head-on. While my friends had already unpacked, I hadn’t had any time since I was dragged into the meeting right after arriving at the castle.

Nonetheless, my bag was already partially unpacked. My friends must have helped while I was gone, leaving only the items I needed for today to take out.

“By the way, did everyone decide on their bunks?”

I casually asked while pulling out fresh underwear and pajamas. The room we were provided had a living room, bathroom, bedroom, and everything else, practically making it feel like a single house.

Whether it was originally like this or arranged for us, there were enough beds that we didn’t need to be crammed into separate rooms.

However, one petite issue was that among the many beds, one stood out as significantly larger. Naturally, sleeping on a bigger bed is more comfortable than a cramped one. Anyone would want to claim the larger bed. If all the beds were narrow, it wouldn’t have mattered much, but with just one large bed, it was practically impossible to resist the temptation.

“Um… since Elysia is the leader of our party, how about she gets to use the biggest bed?”

“Y-yeah! That’s it!”

Before I could even voice my objections, Selian immediately chimed in, rallying the others to agree.

But I wasn’t selfish, shameless, or clueless enough to seize on my friends’ politeness. It was clear that everyone wanted the bigger bed, and I wasn’t about to greedily accept just because they suggested it.

“Come on. That’s not fair. We should do it evenly. Let’s decide with rock-paper-scissors, okay? Or does anyone have another idea?”

There’s no fair game as rock-paper-scissors, so naturally, no one offered any alternative. Given our large number, they decided to gather in a circle to play.

Before the game began, Selian, seated to my left, let out an unusual groan and stretched. Even the great Selian was feeling the pressure of the game. Or perhaps it’s just exhaustion from the long journey at this hour.

It appeared Selian wasn’t alone, as Yuli, sitting next to me, also stretched out as if it was contagious.

I casually eyed my friends and saw that everyone was exchanging glances, checking one another’s moods; even before starting, they were already deeply engaged in a psychological battle.

Of course, I considered splitting the group for the game. With nine of us, it would take quite a while to play rock-paper-scissors to decide. But if we split into groups of four and five, the four would be slightly at a disadvantage. So, I figured we’d try it once, and if it didn’t work, we could divide then.

Slowly, I raised my fist and began to speak.

“Rock, paper….”

What should I choose? Of course, as a guy, it’s probably best to choose rock, right? Or should I trust that most will pick rock and go with paper instead? Or maybe choose scissors?

“…Shoot!”

As I deliberated until the moment I had to reveal, my hand remained awkwardly in a position where neither fully closed nor opened, leaving only two fingers sticking out. I quickly glanced at what my friends had revealed. All I needed was to avoid anyone showing a fist.

Scissors, scissors, scissors, scissors, scissors, scissors, scissors, scissors….

Huh?

Tilting my head, I looked again. All nine of us, including myself, had chosen scissors. How is it that all nine could throw the same thing? It’s not as if we were limited to rock, paper, and scissors; how did we all manage to tie with one option? Statistically, that’s exceedingly rare.

“You guys….”

As I stared at them, opening my mouth slowly, I noticed everyone was glancing at each other, clearly perplexed.

Indeed…. I see.

“Surely….”

From across, Lindy’s voice came, and I could hear Selian swallowing nervously beside her.

“Surely, this is our party! Look at how unified we are!”

It’s basic that in any group of five, at least one person can be counted as the odd one out, yet with our gathering of nine, there wasn’t a hint of division, as if we were all mentally synchronized.

“Phew….”

The friends who were worrying about losing in rock-paper-scissors finally let out a sigh of relief.

However, this was no time to grant them peace. After all, rock-paper-scissors is a mind game. The more you shake your opponent’s psyche, the higher your chances of winning.

“Rock-paper-scissors!”

With barely a moment to catch a breath, I shouted quickly. They hurriedly prepared their hands in response to my sudden declaration. The party leader, the hero, might question my tactics as being cowardly, but that’s just how rock-paper-scissors works.

However, once again, the nine hands presented all displayed scissors yet again.

“Scissors! Scissors! Scissors!”

Confirming we had tied again, I raised my fist quickly again, keeping the tempo high by moving it up and down. Still, all nine continued to choose scissors.

What had started as a psychological game had turned into a battle of egos.

“You can change it if you want,” I must’ve thought. But I, too, as the man here, stubbornly maintained my choice of scissors.

Logically, one of them should’ve switched their choice, but no one did; we continued round after round with all of us opting for scissors.

Finally, after dozens of rounds of rock-paper-scissors, we reached a conclusion. Eight scissors versus one rock. Everyone turned their gaze towards me, the one who chose rock.

“……”

The stares were intensely burning. But as I said from the start, this is the nature of rock-paper-scissors.

What? Is it cowardly? Don’t make me laugh. There’s nothing cowardly in winning. It’s a victory, plain and simple.

“Then the big bed belongs to Elysia. No objections, right?”

Fortunately, Yuli stepped in to wrap up the discussion, allowing everyone to finally lower their hands, which had still been held up in scissors.

Great. Now the biggest bed was mine.

However, the next morning, when I woke up after enjoying the luxurious spread of the big bed and opened my eyes, I found all my friends huddled together on my bed. No matter how spacious the bed might be, having all nine of us on it was cramped, so they had clustered tightly around me to avoid falling off.

In the end, my friends who initially claimed they would yield the bed to me without a game of rock-paper-scissors had succumbed to the allure of large bed comfort.