"What's going on? Is she looking for me?"
Bai Luo didn't remember having any interaction with Darkness.
"H-hello, are you Mr. Bai Luo?"
Darkness stood by the table, maintaining a polite distance: "I am Darkness, a Crusader."
"Oh, hello."
Bai Luo pretended not to know her and said, "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 completely didn't expect the refusal to come so suddenly, which left her 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…"
"Guh-ee~~"
"…"
Watching the female Knight, who had just been cold and proud, suddenly become teary-eyed and flushed, squirming, the beef Egui Peng was holding with her chopsticks clattered onto the table.
'This big sister is so scary!!'
Egui Peng's danger radar was constantly flashing.
She looked at Bai Luo, only to see that he seemed to have anticipated this scene long ago.
'As expected of Bai Luo!'
Indeed, her Bai Luo could remain calm no matter what!
'Hmm.'
Egui Peng chose to clear her mind, entrusting all thinking to Bai Luo.
"Well, calm down first."
Bai Luo had Darkness sit down and then ordered her a glass of iced fruit juice.
"Thank you."
Soon, the juice was brought to Darkness. The girl first politely thanked him, then looked at Bai Luo 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 feel short of breath, every cell in her body trembling with excitement.
"Well, calm down first."
Bai Luo gestured for Darkness to drink some beverage and calm down.
"My situation is rather special; my party doesn't actually lack a vanguard."
"Ah woo…"
Rejected once again, Darkness not only didn't feel discouraged but was quite pleased.
"However…"
Bai Luo thought for a while.
He had to admit, Darkness was very beautiful.
Golden hair, emerald eyes, impressive figure, noble temperament.
As long as she didn't speak or show her perverted habits, she perfectly hit Bai Luo's XP.
Moreover, Darkness was not like Aqua or Megumin.
The former was too reckless and might cause trouble for Bai Luo.
Megumin's impulse to cast Explosion Magic once a day, Bai Luo wasn't very keen on bothering to deal with her problems.
Bai Luo knew a bit about Darkness.
Darkness's real name is Dustiness Ford Lalatina, the young lady of the Dustiness family, a great noble family in the Belzerg Kingdom.
Darkness lost her mother when she was still young, so young that she didn't even remember her mother's appearance.
Because she was an only child and lacked maternal love, her father Ignis spoiled her greatly and didn't discipline her much, which ironically led Darkness to desire discipline, ultimately turning her into a hopeless masochist.
In other words, what Darkness wanted was strict discipline.
This was simply too easy for Bai Luo.
"Alright, I agree to your joining."
Bai Luo had his own considerations for letting Darkness join the party.
Firstly, he didn't plan to use a Familia slot to turn Darkness into his Familia for now.
Then, Bai Luo wanted to find out if there was a way to bring people back to the Cardinal World without a Familia contract.
Darkness was clearly a good choice.
As for forming a party in the Konosuba World…
Bai Luo had made up his mind to play the role of a level 100 Martial Artist here.
As long as the secrets did not exceed this scope, Bai Luo could expose them to Darkness without any pressure, and there was no need to worry about leaking information from other worlds.
"Really?!"
Darkness did not expect Bai Luo to actually accept her.
She did not think Bai Luo could not see 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!!"
"...."
Bai Luo somewhat regretted agreeing to Darkness joining.
This girl spoke too loudly.
Didn't she see that the surrounding adventurers were already looking over?
Hey, hey, hey.
What kind of look is that in your eyes?
He was not some pervert who liked to bully Knight Princesses, alright.
However, through this point, Bai Luo pretty much figured it out.
There were almost no adventurers who knew Darkness's XP.
Clearly, this was her first time exposing her eccentricity in front of others.
Normally, although Darkness was a clumsy idiot who couldn't hit monsters, her image was still very positive.
"Ahem, well, we are friends."
Bai Luo nudged Darkness beside him, motioning for her to explain.
Fortunately, Darkness did not make Bai Luo feel awkward and stated directly that she had joined Bai Luo's party, then apologized for speaking too loudly.
"What, so it's a game for a young couple."
"As expected of Bai Luo, he managed to win over the aloof Knight Princess as soon as he arrived."
"Darkness... I hope young master Bai Luo can handle her."
"What, what? Is there gossip?"
"Ah, no, it's just that when I teamed up with Darkness before, that fellow was clumsy and couldn't hit monsters at all."
"..."
After learning that the matter between Darkness and Bai Luo was not a conflict, everyone shifted their gaze and went about their own business.
"It seems I need to make some rules with you first."
Bai Luo: "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 became more and more excited, but Bai Luo quickly raised his hand to interrupt: "Wait, wait, calm down first."
"I agree!"
Darkness: "As long as I can be your teammate, I'll do anything!"