A Day in the Capital

"The reason why I chose Touya...?"

"Yup, yup. I mean, you are a princess and all, and he's just an adventurer. You

wouldn't normally picture a couple like that getting married, right? What was

the one thing that made you want to marry him? Was there even any one thing

in particular, or was it really just love at first sight?" In the dining room of the

Silver Moon sat Yumina, tilting her head quizzically at Elze's interrogation.

She was able to explain, of course, but she wasn't entirely sure she could get

other people to fully understand. Sitting next to Elze were Linze and Yae, both

also looking at Yumina in anticipation of her reply.

"Let's see... Well, you know about my Mystic Eyes, correct?"

"I do recall hearing from Touya-dono that you could use your eyes to judge a

person's nature, as it were." There was a theory that the Mystic Eyes were

another form of Null magic. It was supposedly one's own personalized magic

permanently fused with one of their body parts — in this case, the eyes.

For example, were the Fire spell [Ignis Fire] to dwell in a person's eyes, it

would give them the Mystic Eyes of Conflagration, and if the Null spell

[Paralysis] were to dwell in one's eyes, they would become the Mystic Eyes of

Petrification. Yumina agreed with this hypothesis and thought of her own

Mystic Eyes in the same way.

"My own eyes are known as the Mystic Eyes of Intuition. They allow me to

visually perceive the corruption of a person's soul."

"So, put simply... it's basically a heightened sense of intuition? Like when we

might look at someone and think 'this person seems nice,' or 'this person seems

suspicious to me...' taken to the extreme?"

"Yes. That's the best way I can explain it." Yumina nodded to Linze's words. In

truth, it wasn't quite as simple as that, but Yumina decided that it would be

confusing to try and explain it any further.

"I can grasp now that you would look at Touya-dono and see that he is not a

bad person. However, what we're curious about is how that would immediately

lead to a decision of marriage, you see." This time the twins nodded in

agreement.

"Then I'll continue. You see, it was when my father was on the verge of death

that Touya appeared and saved his life as though it were the most natural thing

in the world. Naturally thinking that he may be plotting something, I used my

Mystic Eyes to try and sense for any ulterior motives, but I felt not a single

corrupt thought in his mind."

"Yeah, I mean, normally in that situation you'd have the thought at least

somewhere in the back of your mind that you'd be able to claim some kind of

reward for saving the king's life or something, right?"

"I believe so too, yes. Even were it not one's actual motive, the idea would

normally at least briefly cross one's mind, I would think." That, in itself, wasn't

necessarily a bad thing. All people in the world tended to have at least some

small sense of risk and reward, some selfish desire calculating things to work

out in their best interests.

Yumina had seen many types of people from her time in the castle.

Sometimes it was necessary to make use of talented people in order to keep

the country going, even if said people were working under utterly corrupt

motives. Even if Yumina used her Mystic Eyes and judged that someone were a

complete villain and scoundrel, there was no way she could use that alone as an

excuse to drive someone out of the castle. Were it so simple, people like Count

Balsa would have been dismissed a very long time ago.

Yumina learned from a young age that it was necessary for the king of a

country — and by extension, for the royal family, too — to be open-minded

enough to associate themselves with people from all walks of life.

And in the middle of all of this appeared a mysterious boy in whom Yumina's

eyes reflected no such complex things as purity or corruption. He was the kind

of person the likes of which Yumina had never seen before in her life. The fact

that his gentle face was just her type was simply a nice bonus on top of that.

"To stray from the topic for a moment, I should mention that our kingdom's

royal family currently has no male heirs to the throne. If things continue as they

are, I will eventually be crowned Queen Regnant, and have to take a husband as

Prince Consort... and then our firstborn son would succeed the throne. That is

how it would normally go, but I don't want to have to marry someone I don't

even have feelings for." This was a comparatively peculiar trait of the Belfast

royal family, but there were many among them — the men, in particular — who

were monogamous in their relationships.

In this world, polygamy was considered the norm. Although naturally, one

had to be able to sustain their household financially for as many partners as

they had.

In spite of that freedom, both King Belfast and even his younger brother,

Duke Ortlinde, each took only a single wife.

The duke aside, it made far more sense for a king to have multiple concubines

to increase the chances of birthing a worthy successor, but King Belfast firmly

rejected the idea.

Going back through the family tree, the father of the two monogamous

brothers — the previous king, Yumina's grandfather — also took but a single

wife and had only two sons of his own.

Even his predecessor, and the predecessor before that, going back for

generations, the royal family tree was like a long, narrow tightrope walk. It was

almost a miracle that their bloodline had lasted so long, but now that there was

currently no male successor to the throne, the royal family was beginning to

feel the weight of that responsibility.

"So, because you didn't want to marry someone you don't have feelings for,

you decided to make use of Touya?" Linze knit her eyebrows slightly.

"No, that's not it, either. My father would never have given his blessing had

that been the case. But he would have had trouble handling any cases of

potential suitors should I reject them simply because I did not truly love them. It

would be... somewhat difficult to get society to believe that it was simply a case

of us not being right for each other."

"Hm...? Ahh, I see. Due to your Mystic Eyes, is that it?"

"Yes, that's right. Because my Mystic Eyes are public knowledge, society

would potentially see anyone I rejected as being unfit to succeed the throne.

They might easily be suspected of having foul motives or a twisted personality,

even were that not truly the case. This could potentially cause trouble not only

for the man himself, but even for his friends and relatives." Were the suitor an

aristocrat of the same country, then things might have still worked out, but

were he the prince of another country, then all manner of hell could break

loose. The truth was that Yumina herself wanted to find a romantic partner

before she reached the age where problems like that might begin to arise.

"The first time I laid eyes on Touya, I thought to myself, 'He is the one.' I

cannot say for sure whether that was a byproduct of my Mystic Eyes, whether it

was love at first sight, or whether it was a calculated decision for my own selfish

sake. The fact of the matter is, though, that I've truly and utterly fallen in love

with him."

"Love at first sight is one thing, but marriage at first sight is a bit extreme,

don't you think?"

"Had I not made such an extreme decision, then my relationship with Touya

would have ended then and there. As you said earlier, Elze, I am a princess and

Touya is a mere adventurer. I had to be the one to take action, or else our

relationship would have remained one of Princess and Adventurer; no more,

and no less. The problem of our difference in social status does remain even

now, but that is becoming less and less of a problem as the days go by." Touya

was genius-levels of proficient in every type of elemental magic, and even had

the White Monarch bound to him as a familiar. Those facts alone placed him in

an entirely different league from your run-of-the-mill adventurer. It was plain as

day to anyone with working eyes that he would go on to do magnificent things.

Only the man himself was oblivious to it all.

"It sounds as though you had to take a great many factors into consideration

when you proposed to Touya-dono, it does."

"True, but I have no regrets. I've already decided that I will do everything that

I must in order to make Touya fall in love with me."

"What if... just, hypothetically, what if Touya were to fall in love with

someone else instead?" Linze spoke up, her words tinged with nervousness.

Yumina, on the other hand, replied with a smile on her face and not a shred of

hesitation.

"I wouldn't mind at all. I would just have to put in the extra effort to make

him love me the same as that girl. I'm not particularly dead-set on keeping

Touya all to myself, given the circumstances. I wouldn't mind at all if he had a

mistress or two or three." The three girls sitting across the table were rendered

utterly speechless by the young princess' declaration.

"Why do you ask, did anyone in particular come to mind?"

"N-No, not at all! I just meant, well, you know, purely hypothetically..." Linze

hastily gave as evasive an answer as possible. Yumina smiled slightly as she

watched Linze's face turn bright red.

"Out of curiosity, what sort of impression does Touya leave on you, as a

person?"

"Hmm... well, he has a lot of really weird knowledge in that head of his. Just

the other day he went and gave some weird little tool to Aer."

"An Ex-Ricer, was it not called?" What Yae had meant to refer to was an egg

slicer. A kitchen utensil for slicing hard-boiled eggs quickly and evenly.

"Also, just recently, he was helping Micah manage the Silver Moon's account

book. Just because he was bored, he said. He was very fast with his

mathematical calculations. He seems to be extremely well-educated in such

areas."

"I'm sure Touya said he came from Eashen... Do you suppose he's the son of

some prominent Eashen nobility?" Were that the case, then the difference in

social status between them would practically be rendered a moot point. Alas,

Yae who actually was from Eashen shook her head.

"Nay, he claimed not to be from Eashen itself when I asked about it, he did.

Even if he were, there is no prominent Mochizuki Clan to my knowledge, there

is not. I believe it is more likely that he is of Eashen blood, but born and raised

in a different land, I might guess." Whenever Touya himself was asked about his

homeland, he brushed the question off with a vague answer. Everyone simply

assumed that he had his reasons, and decided not to stick their noses in any

further.

"And while he has all of that weird knowledge knocking around inside his

head, there are a whole bunch of things he's just completely clueless about."

"Did you know that, at first, he didn't even know the most basic of basic facts

about magic?"

"He cannot even properly handle a horse, in fact. Do you suppose, then, that

he has simply led a very sheltered life, possibly?"

"No, I've definitely led the more sheltered life, I think..." Yumina drooped her

shoulders in some sense of defeat, so Elze hurriedly tried to follow up on what

Yae had said.

"Nah, see, you're a princess, Yumina, so that's only natural for you. Touya,

though, well... You think he's secretly the prince of some country or other, and

he's just not letting us in on that fact?" For all his princely aspects, Touya

practically exuded the aura of a commoner most of the time. All of those

mismatched traits came together to form a patchwork picture of the person

known simply as Mochizuki Touya.

"In short, he's just a weirdo."

"He is a weird person, I think..."

"He holds a queer character about him, indeed he does."

"He may be weird, but he's my prince charming." The three girls watched as

Yumina smiled and blushed, and were by that point convinced that it was

simply love at first sight for her. At the same time, all three of them also felt a

tad embarrassed by the fact that they sort of understood how she felt.

◇ ◇ ◇

"Achoo!"

"Got a cold?"

I don't think so... Just felt this sudden chill down my spine. Is someone talking

about me somewhere...? I answered Dolan, the Silver Moon's owner, by telling

him that I was fine.

I was in the capital for the day.

I had been specifically nominated for a special guild quest in helping the local

shop owners stock up on goods from the capital. Dolan and Barral were

naturally present, but plenty of other shopkeepers had come along, too. The

reason they specifically requested me was because of my ability to use the

[Gate] spell.

"You really don't get the chance to go to the capital all that often, y'know?"

"And to go there and back in a single day is like a dream come true." Barral of

Eight Bears and Simon the item shop owner were chatting happily in the front

seats.

We were riding in a fairly large wagon, supposedly the biggest one in all of

Reflet. It made sense when you considered that we were on our way to pick up

a bunch of weapons and food supplies and stuff.

I looked around and noticed that everyone around me was acting like a bunch

of restless kids. What in the world had them so excited? It wasn't like it was

their first time visiting the capital or anything.

The wagon pulled up in front of a large inn just a little ways off the main road.

Apparently they would look after your wagon for a short while if you paid for it.

Huh? We aren't going to just take the wagon around all of the shops? Every

last one of the shopkeeps was practically glowing with excitement as they

stepped out of the wagon.

"Alrighty then, let's all meet up back here in about, oh, five hours or so. Sound

good?"

"Huh? We're not going around the shops as a group? I mean, with all the

luggage we'll have to carry, wouldn't it be more efficient to move as a unit...?"

Simon the item shop owner saw my startled reaction and spoke to me in a

hushed voice.

"Y'don't get it, do you, Touya? We haven't been to the capital in ages. We

wanna mess around for a bit, you know what I mean? Dolan's a widower and

all. You get what that means, right? Ah, and keep this a secret from Micah,

yeah?"

Mess around? Widower...? Wait, that couldn't possibly mean...?!

"You feel like visiting one too, Touya? If you want, I can take you to this great

place I know. They're even open during daylight hours." I found myself

unconsciously gulping at the anticipation of what came next.

"Visiting... what, exactly?"

"A brothel." I knew it! So that's why everyone's been all fidgety until now?!

While my mouth was flapping open and closed like a fish out of water, Barral

interjected for a moment.

"Right then, now that it's all out in the open, I'd just like to remind you to

keep this a secret from the women! I think you'll find that part, in print,

specified on the quest paper, too." That's playing dirty! Now I know why you

didn't want me to bring Elze or any of the girls along! I knew it was suspicious of

you to specify that!

"Okay then, see you all in five hours!" The geezers strolled off merrily down

the lane and out onto the main street. Does this situation really warrant literally

skipping? Seriously? Simon had invited me to go along with them, but I politely

declined. I mean, I was technically engaged to this country's princess. I couldn't

afford to do anything rash like visiting a brothel. You never knew where the

king's subordinates could be watching from the shadows.

At least, that was the excuse I gave. In truth, I just didn't have the guts. Yes, I

was a chicken.

"Well, guess I've got five hours to kill..." I wished I could've at least taken

Kohaku along. Kohaku was probably resting, or more like recovering, on my

bed, in my room, with the door locked up all tight and safe.

Given that the girls had been fawning over that tiger non-stop for the past

several days, I felt that a day of rest was more than deserved to give even a

moment's peace from that hellscape.

I decided to take a walk around the capital. Unlike the small town of Reflet,

the large capital was full of all different races of people. There were beastmen

that I'd seen before, but apart from them I could also pick out people with

horns growing out of their foreheads, and people with long, pointed ears. The

latter... were probably elves. I'd only ever seen them in video games before, but

I could spot all sorts of people like that walking around.

That upstart Kingdom of Mismede... it was supposedly composed mostly of

demi-humans, with a beastman majority. Given that Belfast was trying to form

friendly relations with them, it only made sense that the capital would see more

demi-humans visiting as a direct result.

There were still many countries that discriminated against them quite fiercely,

so Belfast was a far more welcoming place for them in light of that fact.

"Hrmm... Should I just go pick up a simple quest from the local guild? I'll just

tire myself out walking around for five hours, anyway..." Aside from the typical

monster hunting and herb gathering quests, there were plenty of other unusual

quests that found their way to the guild. From helping someone move, to

advertising for a store; some of the weirder ones involved things like looking for

lost cats. Naturally the rewards for quests like those were fairly cheap, but they

were generally aimed at beginners anyway. They were less quests and more

part-time jobs.

My [Search] spell could help find lost cats immediately. No, wait, that doesn't

seem like such a good idea after all. I nearly forgot that [Search] only scans a

very small area around me.

I'd been to the guild in the capital once before. The quest we accepted that

time was the Dullahan extermination one, which subsequently got out of hand.

I walked down the main street and eventually the guild office came into sight.

It was way bigger than the one in Reflet...

Attached to the building was a bar, owned and managed by the guild.

Apparently you could get discounts on food and drink in there simply by

displaying your Guild Card. Not that I'd ever used that function.

At the end of the day, there are a lot of hooligans amongst the adventurers. I

didn't want to take the risk of getting caught up in any drunk brawls again, and I

wasn't too keen on the idea of getting drunk myself, either. And if I wanted

food, then I'd just go to a regular restaurant.

The entrance to the capital's guild was a pair of wooden swing doors like

something out of an old fashioned Western movie. I swaggered through them

like a cowboy and into the guild itself.

There were less people around than I'd expected to see. When I considered

that the time was somewhere around 10 AM, though, it made sense. People

accepting any day-long quests would have been long on their way by now, and

it was still far too early for anybody to be returning from just having completed

anything.

For the time being, I went over to examine the quest board. I was currently

Green-rank, meaning that I could still only accept Black, Purple, or Green level

quests.

Most of the Green quests were for monster hunts, and those that weren't still

required me to leave the capital anyway, so I gave up on those ones. Between

Purple and Black quests, there were plenty that seemed doable in a fairly short

period of time.

"Don't feel like becoming a babysitter, so that one's out... Roof repair? I can

probably manage something with my [Modeling] spell, but... Oh? The one that

caught my eye was a house demolition quest. For manual labor, my [Boost]

spell definitely seemed like it was up to the task.

Then again, [Boost] only stayed active for short bursts of time, so it might not

have been up to the task... Well, even if it wasn't, I always had the muscleenhancing spell [Power Rise] to cover for that, so I was sure it would work itself

out. I took down the quest scroll from the board and carried it on over to the

reception desk.

The job location was right next to the rich-folks' western district. It was a

fairly old-looking building, and several men had already gotten to work on

tearing it down. When I reported in to the site foreman and told him I'd come

from the guild, he instructed me to go and take all of the junk out from the

storehouse located over in the corner of the estate.

Apparently the foundations of the main building itself had rotted over the

years, so it had to be torn down for safety reasons, but the shed that had been

used as a storehouse was still plenty usable if they fixed it up a little.

It seemed the owner of the place had passed away, and everything in the

shed was to be disposed of anyway, so I didn't have to handle any of it with

care since it was effectively junk. If I just quickly got my job done... I'd have had

time left over, so I decided to go about it at a slightly more leisurely pace.

"Man, it stinks of mold in here." I used a handkerchief as a makeshift dust

mask and set about removing all the junk from the building, starting with the

things closest to the door.

An old chest of drawers, a broken table, a wall clock with no hands, a

saucepan with a huge hole in it, a bed with broken legs, a doll with no arms, a

chipped teacup... it really was all just a bunch of useless junk.

Except for that sword over there! ...Or so I thought, until I removed it from its

scabbard only to find that the blade was broken. I don't know what I expected.

I found a shield, too, but there was a huge crack in it. There were suits of

plate armor as well, but they were bent out of shape in several places and

couldn't be worn anymore. There was a battle-axe still in comparatively good

condition, but it was so rusty that it probably wasn't worth much anymore.

The whole shed really had just been used as a storehouse for a bunch of old

junk. An abnormal amount of it seemed to be weapons and armor, however. I

briefly wondered if the former owner of the estate had been a knight or

something along those lines. Then again, would a single knight really need so

many different types of weapons and armor? It might've made sense if he were

some kind of collector, but then why would they be in the junk shed...?

Clang.

"Hm?" Did I hear something just now...? I could still hear the demolition work

going on outside, but I could've sworn I'd heard a noise coming from inside the

shed. I looked around and listened carefully...

...Nothing. Must've been my imagination. I got back to work. I turned around

and removed a cloth from a full-length mirror, and the reflection clearly showed

the sight of a battle-axe aiming straight for my back, held aloft by a figure in full

plate armor.

"Ah...?!" I managed to dodge the axe as it came thundering down with such

tremendous force that it shattered the wooden floor at the figure's feet into

splinters. Holy shit...! That was too close. I could see a sort of black mist leaking

of from between the gaps in the armor. This wasn't the same inanimate suit of

armor it was until a second ago.

With a sharp grinding creeeaaak, the armor turned to face me. Uh-oh, I felt

like our gazes met just now...

"Whoa-hoh?!" Twisting my body to avoid a second attack from the axe, I

threw myself out of the shed in a panic.

The armor came chasing after me with a noisy clank, clank, clank, swinging its

axe around as though in the throes of a frenzied rage.

"Wh-What the hell is that?!"

"A m-monster?!"

"Are you kidding? Is that seriously... a Living Armor?!" The demolition crew

saw the armor chasing me and let out terrified screams.

Living Armor?! Aren't those monsters born from those who died and left

behind heavy regrets?! I recalled what I'd read about them in the guild's

reference materials and clicked my tongue. Well, at least now I knew that it was

an Undead-type monster like the Dullahan. Strictly speaking, the Living Armor

was basically a lower class of monster than the Dullahan, though I still wasn't

confident that I could defeat one on my own... Well, either way, I had to try!

I recalled that Undead-type monsters were weak to Light-type magic.

"Strike true, Light! Sparkling Holy Lance: [Shining Javelin]!" I pointed my

index finger and middle finger together in the Living Armor's direction and shot

out spears of light.

The spears violently tore the Living Armor apart at the waist, sending its

upper and lower halves flying in opposite directions. The spears then continued

on their trajectory and crashed magnificently into the side of the shed, dealing

tremendous damage. Whoops...

Black mist leaked out from the upper and lower halves of the Living Armor,

dissipating into the air. Did I get it?

"Hey, kid! The hell did you just do?!"

"I didn't do anything! That thing just pounced on me out of the blue! What

the heck's a Living Armor doing in a place like this, anyway?! It's not like this is a

graveyard or a battlefield or anything!" It was said that Living Armors were born

from the restless souls of the regretful dead. Because of that, they would only

appear in places where such regrets were likely to accumulate. Places like old

battlefields or run-down graveyards.

"No, it couldn't be..."

"Sounds like you have some idea of where this thing came from." The

foreman shifted his gaze to the shattered armor, and it seemed like he had just

remembered something.

"The former owner of this estate was a kind-hearted viscount. One day, that

viscount was tricked by a corrupt count, and ended up having this estate stolen

from him along with his entire fortune. The viscount fell into despair after that,

and he and his entire family committed suicide... If his hatred of the count

remains even now, then maybe..."

There's no "maybes" or "couldn't bes" about it, that's clearly the only place a

Living Armor could have come from! Which means what; the viscount's hatred

of the evil count was intense enough to spawn a Living Armor?! Living Armors

were born from people's negative emotions like regret or hatred, but they were

completely separate beings from the dead that had produced those emotions in

the first place. Such thoughts merely lingered in the world after death like the

corpse of one's past. It wasn't fair for us to get attacked because of something

some dumbass count had done a long time ago, but try explaining that to a

corpse.

My thoughts came to an immediate halt as the foreman's words sank in.

Family suicide. If the whole family died full of regrets, then the number of Living

Armors that would be born from that was...

Expecting nothing but bad news, my vision returned to the shed only to see

another Living Armor already slowly shambling toward us. I knew it!

"Why does this always happen to me...? Hey, what if we offered up that

corrupt count to the Living Armors, do you think they'd let us go...?"

"Afraid that's not gonna be happening, kid. That same count was executed

just recently... For high treason of all things. Count Balsa you goddamn slippery

toad, I'd kill you again if I could! Now that I knew who'd caused this mess, I

couldn't help but sympathize with the poor viscount. Still, I had to clean this

mess up one way or another.

Yet more Living Armors came tottering out of the shed. What was I supposed

to do...? If I cast [Shining Javelin] again, it might just end up causing more

damage to the surroundings...

I thought hard about what I could do in this situation... and then I

remembered. I could use my [Enchant] spell to imbue my sword with some

Light magic. I decided to try Healing magic, since that wouldn't damage the

surroundings at all.

"[Enchant]. Imbue with Light: [Cure Heal]." I enchanted my blade with

Healing magic, then dodged an oncoming attack from a rusty lance and brought

my sword down with enough force to sever the monster's arm.

My sword cut through the Living Armor like a hot knife through butter, and its

arm came flying off. Yes! It's working! Wait, doesn't that mean I can just cast

[Cure Heal] on them without having to enchant my weapon? I thought about

that for a second, but ultimately decided against it. Since [Cure Heal] needed an

incantation to activate and only worked at close range anyway, it was quicker

and easier to just imbue my sword with it and hack away.

Well, whatever. Right now I have to take care of this mess somehow. I took a

battle stance as the remaining Living Armors came shambling toward me...

"What's got you all worn out? Ho ho, lemme guess. You regretted turning

down my offer and found a place yourself, right? So, how was it? Feeling

refreshed? Because I know I am! Gahahaha." There I was, collapsed in the

wagon, without the energy left to even correct Simon's mistaken assumptions.

I somehow managed to defeat all of the Living Armors, but I got chewed out

later for smashing up the shed's wall with my first attack. Since I protected

everyone from the Living Armors, I wasn't penalized at all, but I should've been

able to calmly handle the situation more carefully than that. If nothing else, the

whole ordeal had at least taught me how flexible enchanting really was. It could

potentially be used to make all sorts of things.

[Enchant] could be used to either temporarily or permanently apply the

effects of a different spell to an object of my choice. For example, I could pick

up a random stick and enchant it with the [Light Sphere] spell to create a

lightbulb...! Or so I thought until I noticed the fatal flaw in that plan. It would be

extremely annoying to have a lightbulb that you could never turn off. Besides,

activating an enchanted item required a small amount of magic, too.

I'd enchanted my blade with [Cure Heal], so all I had to do in future was direct

a little bit of my magic into it and it should become a powerful Anti-Undead

weapon. At the very least, it didn't seem like a bad idea to have a few such

Enchanted items close at hand.

...One such item that sprung to mind was my smartphone. Would [Enchant]

work on it...?

"Alright, here we are! Dolan, Touya, this is your stop, the Silver Moon." My

musings were cut short as Barral called out my name. I got down sluggishly

from the back of the wagon and helped unload the supplies Dolan had bought

for the Silver Moon. It was mostly food supplies and daily necessities, but there

were some barrels of alcohol mixed in there as well.

"Welcome back. Did you manage to spot any good deals?"

"M'back... Nah, about that, I couldn't really find many good deals. Still, think I

got enough to last us a while."

"That so? I wonder if the capital's seeing a recession, too, then." Micah came

to meet us as we unloaded the supplies. She waved goodbye to Barral and the

others before helping us carry the goods inside.

Dang, I'm beat. I just wanna go to bed...

"You sure took your time getting back for what little you bought. I thought

teleportation magic let you move between here and there instantly?"

"Huh? Oh, oh yeah, right, right, there was some stuff that we had trouble

finding, y'see..."

"Hmm..." Micah pointed her sharp gaze at Dolan, who was not helping the

situation by acting so clearly suspicious.

Apparently unable to bear it any longer, Dolan picked up a couple of drink

barrels and carried them off to the storehouse out back. Didn't he realize that

only made him look even more suspicious...?

"So, Touya. Tell me about the girl you were out fooling around with today."

"I wasn't fooling around with anybody! I mean yeah, I was invited to go along,

but I..." Ohcrapohcrapohcrap. I tried to plug up my big mouth as fast as I could,

but the incriminating words had already been uttered. Micah flashed an evil-

looking grin at me. I've been had!

"I knew it. I had a feeling that was what was going on. I mean, I do understand

that my dad's been lonely ever since my mother died, so I'm not going to chew

him out for that or anything." Wow... Mister Dolan, you're a lucky man to have

such an understanding daughter.

"...Now what I am about to chew him out for is going off spending the money

for our inn's important supplies and then trying to lie to me about it. Doesn't he

have any idea how much I'm trying to cut back on unnecessary expenses here? I

feel like he needs a niiice long talking to, so I'll see you later." Micah wore the

smile of an angel as she walked off after Dolan... with a large wooden pestle in

hand, for whatever reason.

It wasn't long before I heard a very loud, indescribably pathetic voice begging

for forgiveness. There was nothing I could do for the man. He was reaping what

he'd sown, and getting what was coming to him. I felt bad for poor old Dolan,

but I was clocking in ahead of him.

Just as I was about to make my way up to my room, I noticed something

poking out of Dolan's bag on the countertop. It looked like some kind of leaflet.

When I pulled it out to have a look, it turned out to be an advertising leaflet for

one of the brothels in the capital. It listed each of the girls working there along

with such details as their measurements and personalities. The naked

illustrations of each girl were impressively realistic and fantastically arousing.

What're you even thinking bringing this back here, old man...? You'd have

been found out sooner or later even if I hadn't said a thing if you were silly

enough to bring the incriminating evidence home with you.

"Oh, Touya, you're back."

"Hmm? Oh, hey, Yumina. Hey everyone. Yeah I just got back a... minute...

ago..." I have to hide this leaflet at all costs. Only after I reflexively threw my

hand behind my back did I realize how unbelievably suspicious I had just made

myself look. Too late to stop myself, I had to play it off somehow. I wanted to

yell at myself for even thinking to hide it in the first place. It wasn't even mine!

But if I tried to explain that, there was no way anyone would believe me!

"...What's with the pose, Touya?"

"NO, IT IS NOTHING AT ALL."

"You're drenched in sweat, you are."

"I AM JUST EXHAUSTED. YES."

"Why are you speaking... stiffly, like that?"

"THAT MUST BE YOUR IMAGINATION. HA HA HA." Elze, Yae, and Linze took

turns interrogating me as I walked backward toward the stairs. All four of the

girls stared at me, trying to work out what I was doing, but I couldn't afford to

let myself be caught here. I continued my backward march up the stairs.

"...For what conceivable reason are you walking up the stairs backward, pray

tell?"

"I-It's just easier for me this way! Yeah! WELL — ahem — well then, I'm off to

bed! Goodnight!"

"Eh? Wait, Touya?!" I dashed up the stairs at full speed. Backward. What did I

think I was, some kind of shellfish?!

"...Definitely a weirdo."

"...Yes, a weird person."

"He holds a queer character about him, indeed."

"He may be weird, but he's my prince charming." I could hear the girls talking

about something at the base of the stairs, but I couldn't make out what they

were saying exactly. Not caring in the slightest, I unlocked my room and made

my way inside. Kohaku was curled up sleeping soundly on my bed.

I collapsed onto the bed next to the little tiger. Kohaku almost got up when I

jolted the bed, but calmed down as soon as I started patting that fluffy little

head.

Man, all I'd done was succeed in tiring myself out even more...

I didn't even have the strength left to regret my actions. I was swallowed

headfirst by the void of sleep, as I didn't even bother to put up any resistance.

I slept in the next morning, so the girls all came to wake me up. They

discovered the leaflet on the bedroom floor. In the end, I got interrogated for

almost an hour over it anyway. I decided in my heart of hearts that I would

never, ever go with those geezers on a guys-only trip to the capital ever again.