The daytime stress was finally beginning to recede, giving way to a pleasant exhaustion.
Amanda was just about to dive into her impossibly fluffy bed—when suddenly…
Knock-knock-knock.
A polite but brooking-no-argument knock at the door.
Jolt. Her body jerked on its own.
Leo and Torglin instantly relocated to the corner of the room. They donned their helmets, activated camouflage. Dissolved into the air without a trace.
“Harbinger?” came the maid’s voice from the other side. “His Grace Duke Tywin Eichenwald requests the honor of your presence at dinner with the family.”
“Oh no.”
Her heart plummeted straight into her boots. A family dinner with the ducal household. The full set.
Seriously?!
“J-just a moment!” Her voice cracked, pitching unnaturally high. “I… need time! Fifteen minutes!”
“As you wish,” the maid replied, her footsteps fading away.
The instant the sound died, Amanda switched into full-scale panic mode.
“Dinner?! At the table?! With all of them?!” She ran in frantic circles around the room, whispering in a half-delirious haze. “What do I do what do I do what do I do?!”
From thin air came Leo’s calm voice:
“Calm yourself, Harbinger. It is merely dinner.”
“Merely dinner?!” She nearly shrieked, clapping a hand over her mouth in desperation. “Leo, this is NOT ‘merely dinner’!”
Her voice trembled:
“If I go in the helmet—it’s the height of disrespect! They’ll think I despise them! They’ll take me for some inhuman freak!”
But if I take it off… if I take it off…
They’ll see my face!
My ordinary Japanese face will give me away!
“Where are you from?” “Why do you look like that?”—they’ll definitely ask! End of the legend!
It’s over, my isekai life…
(God, God, God…! What do I do?! I’m completely trapped!)
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Her heart thundered. Cold sweat poured without cease. In her head—white noise.
(Fifteen minutes… only fifteen!)
(How do I escape this hell?!)
From the other corner came Torglin’s gruff bass:
“Tell ’em yer face is too radiant—mortals can’t behold it. Say it’s part o’ yer divine nature.”
“Torglin, that’s idiotic!” Amanda snapped while still pacing, not breaking stride. “It’s not just that! Table manners!”
Her voice shot up an octave.
“I’ve seen it in anime! A million forks, knives, and spoons! Which one’s for what?! I don’t want to make a fool of myself! Especially…” She stumbled over her words, her face twisting.
“Especially…?”
“…In front of Roxana,” her voice broke.
“That Roxana from the book… she wasn’t supposed to be like this. Cold, calculating, that… venomous snake. Why did she change?”
She dropped her gaze.
“She looks at me like a scientist studying a new specimen for dissection. Like she wants to dissect me and arrange my organs on shelves. Sitting at the same table with her… it’s not three times scarier—it’s ten times!”
A heavy silence fell over the room. This was no longer just a dinner crisis.
After a pause, Torglin muttered thoughtfully:
“…Spoons are simple enough. Take the one farthest from the plate.”
“R-really?!” Amanda’s eyes lit up with hope.
“Seventy percent chance,” the dwarf immediately added. “Or maybe the opposite. I’m no expert on spoons. I’m more of a hammer-and-anvil man.”
“Aaaaaah!!” Amanda was ready to collapse again.
“This is guaranteed disaster! I need a reason—any reason—I can’t take off the helmet! A convincing one!”
“You could swear that showing your face is taboo,” Leo offered, sounding perfectly serious (though invisible).
“Leo, that’s three times dumber than Torglin’s idea!!” Amanda was on the verge of hysteria, clutching her head.
(Fifteen minutes… already thirteen… no, twelve!)
(I’m totally scr… My isekai life is really going to end like this?!)
Her heart refused to calm. Sweat streamed down her back.
—No. I have to think.
Amanda desperately racked her brain. She needed an excuse… the perfect excuse!
And then…
Suddenly, a sly grin seemed to waft from Torglin’s corner.
“Oi, Harbinger,” his deep voice sounded almost amused. “Keep shakin’ like that and ye’ll definitely give yerself away.”
“…Huh?”
“The thing is, we’ve got an idea,” Leo now spoke. Calmly, but with a conspiratorial edge. “The perfect reason you can’t remove the helmet…” The two invisible shadows drew closer. “…We’ll create it.”
Amanda’s eyes went wide.
“Create it? How?!”
Eleven minutes remained. The ducal dinner was mere moments away.
—The hellish fifteen minutes weren’t over yet.
While they argued, Amanda suddenly froze. Her gaze locked onto the golden gauntlet.
—Ah.
Something clicked in her head. A desperate, insane, but… the only possible idea.
“…Fine,” she whispered quietly. Steel entered her voice.
“I won’t take off the helmet. And I won’t make excuses.”
She slowly raised her head.
“I am the ‘Harbinger,’ after all. Mysterious, powerful, with my own rituals. I’m not obliged to explain anything.”
Deep breath.
“And as for manners… I’ll have my own. If they don’t like it—we’ll blame it on an ‘ancient lost culture.’”
For a moment, silence reigned in the room. Then…
“Whoa! That’s the spirit!!” Torglin (judging by the sound) slammed fist into palm. “Audacity is the second-best thing in life! First is a good alloy!”
“As expected of the Harbinger,” approval rang in Leo’s voice. “You’ve already put on a grand performance. Now—it’s only dinner.”
Only dinner.
Repeating it to herself, Amanda placed her hand on the door handle.
Thump-thump-thump. Her heart pounded madly. But there was no turning back.
I am the Harbinger.
And now I have to play the hardest role…
…Myself.
The one some see as a goddess, others as a threat, and for someone—something far greater. All under the piercing, analytical gaze of Roxana Eichenwald.
Amanda clenched the golden gauntlet into a fist. And quietly opened the door.
Well then—the dinner show begins.
(Even though I’m dying of nerves!!)