DCGB EP 18 - Really!?

Thank you all for reading and for your support. After being kicked out of my parents' house, I felt helpless and lost, unsure of where to go. Fortunately, a friend offered me a place to stay for a while. However, I soon realized that I needed to find my own place to live, which means I now have to find another job. Based on the comments I've received, I've decided to open a Patreon page to help me cover my rent while I also work part-time. Your support would mean the world to me.

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Several weeks had passed since their last mission, and Yuji found himself sipping on the beer he had purchased from the nearby town weeks ago, reminiscing about the events that transpired the previous week.

"Never thought it would turn out like this," Yuji mused to himself.

One week prior...

"Haha, you guys did great!" Yami exclaimed, his face beaming with pride at the fact that they had managed to gather evidence indicating the identity of the attackers who had raided the village.

"And the Wizard King have acknowledged our abilities by awarding us a star," Yami added, taking out an object shaped like a golden star to show everyone.

Upon seeing the golden star, Magna and Vanessa seemed excited, but on the other hand, Yuji, Asta, and Noelle looked at the star in Yuji's hand with suspicion.

"Wow, really?!" Magna exclaimed, his mouth agape in surprise.

Vanessa, noticing the skepticism among the others, took the opportunity to explain to the new members, Maomao, Asta, and Noelle.

"The nine Magic Knight squads use the number of stars as a symbol of their prestige. We use these stars to compete among squads."

"And currently, the squad with the highest ranking has 70 stars," Vanessa continued.

Yami then held up the golden star to the board on the wall, which had a row of black star symbols arranged in a line. Each row consisted of six black star symbols. When the golden star approached the board, it floated towards it and caused one of the black stars on the board to disappear.

"So now, we have a negative star count of 30," Yami declared.

Upon seeing this, Maomao raised her hand to cover her mouth in shock, while Noelle exclaimed, "How did you guys manage to get negative stars like this?!"

Noelle complained. She never imagined that their squad, the Black Bulls, would be this notorious. But at least, the members of the Black Bulls never looked down on her and always helped her when she couldn't control her magic. They were a good squad, and she even met a handsome guy she liked!

"When will he notice me, Yuji!?" Noelle thought to herself as she glanced at Yuji, who didn't even look at her.

It's not that Yuji didn't notice; he was well aware. He knew that she liked him a lot, and he was doing this to make her desire him even more. Because women were creatures of emotion, and he took advantage of this fact. The person who falls in love first becomes vulnerable, and that would make the other person desire them even more. And that would make the one who fell in love first gain power in decision-making. Because of this, Yuji had already decided that no matter whom he set his sights on, he would make her fall in love with him first.

'But it won't be long now, hehe.'

"Alright, guys, besides the star thing..."

"This is your salary. Whatever you want to use it for is up to you," Yami said as she handed over the small cloth bag containing their salaries to the group.

"Wow, money?!" Asta exclaimed excitedly.

"Is this all the money we get?" Noelle seemed dissatisfied. The amount he received was significantly less than what Asta got. This was quite normal for her to perceive this amount as too little, considering she was born into a noble family.

"Congratulations to all four of you for receiving your first salary," Yami said cheerfully. "Now that you have your money, let's go shopping in the town near the castle. Onee-san will take us."

While shopping, Yuji didn't expect to find so many interesting things in this world. However, what interested him the most was the beer in this world. It tasted much better than what he had in his own world. He decided to use all of his salary to buy five barrels of beer. But wanting to indulge further, He then asked Vanessa to take him to a jewelry store to sell gold before returning to the beer shop to buy another 10 barrels.

"Hey, Yuji-kun, interested in having a drink with your Onee-san tonight?" Vanessa, seeing that Yuji had spent his entire first salary on beer, thought she could get a free beer out of it.

"Sorry, sis. I'm busy tonight. Maybe some other time," Yuji quickly responded with a disappointed look on his face because he had a magic training session with Noelle and Maomao tonight. So he missed the opportunity to have a beer with the sexy, beautiful Vanessa, which made him quite upset because after drinking beer together, he might have had the chance to flirt with Vanessa.

"Oh, really? Big sis is really disappointed," Vanessa said with a disappointed expression.

After that, Yuji went to buy clothes alone, while Vanessa went to the black market with the rest of the group because Noel wanted to get some equipment to help with her magic control training. Even though Yuji trained her many times, her progress was not fast. So getting equipment to help with her magic control seemed like a good option.

As for Maomao, she followed Vanessa because she wanted to see if there were any interesting items for her to buy. Since arriving in this world, Maomao had been buying meaningless items in bulk, mostly herbs for disease research.

Yuji, on the other hand, decided to buy clothes and found that the clothes for ordinary people in this world were of very good quality. But when he was in this world, he had to act like the people in this world, as the saying goes, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do."

"um, it's so plain," Yuji thought as he looked at the men's pants, which were almost identical in design for commoners, but for the nobility, even though the fabric was better, it looked too luxurious, which he didn't like. In the end, he decided to choose a black short-sleeved shirt similar to Yami's and gray pants.

After he finished shopping, Yuji went to the meeting point where he agreed to meet everyone after they finished shopping. But when he arrived, he found that no one was there yet. So he went for a walk until he came across an interesting shop. He decided to walk in.

"That's a flying carpet, isn't it?" Yuji thought as he looked at various vehicles, such as brooms, flying carpets, floating horse carriages, and many others, each of which was very expensive.

"Hello there! Interested in anything particular?" The chubby man greeted Yuji as he walked in. However, as soon as he saw the wizard cloak with the emblem of the Black Thorn Unit, he immediately started sweating, as he had heard rumors that the Black Thorn Unit consisted of strange individuals who enjoyed destroying people's crops. He feared that if he said anything wrong, Yuji might wreck his shop. So, he decided to tread carefully.

"We have a wide range of high-quality products," the chubby man said cautiously.

"Do you have any blue carpets?" Yuji pointed to a red carpet with gold triangular patterns, which he thought was too flashy.

"We do have silver blue available, sir," the chubby man hurriedly fetched a blue carpet with yellow gold triangular patterns in the middle, seeing that Yuji was interested.

After seeing that the shop had the flying carpet he desired, Yuji decided to buy it immediately without negotiating the price, as he still had plenty of gold from the dungeon where he obtained Sylph . Therefore, money wasn't a big concern for him.

--

Back to the present, Yuji, while sipping his beer, took a deep breath, feeling fatigued. He wondered when the expedition into the dungeon would commence. He was waiting to confront the first antagonist of the story, and...

"Hey, Yuji, how much longer do you want me to do this? My throat's starting to ache," Noelle interjected, her face flushed with frustration.

Indeed.

Noelle found herself sucking on his brother , , looking like a child with a lollipop. How did it end up like this? It all goes back two days ago, during the evening practice session when they were training in the use of Ark magic.

At that moment, he was practicing magic as usual, but suddenly Noelle walked up to him with a flushed face and a shy demeanor. After seeing her approach, he stopped his practice and turned to ask Noelle.

'What's up, Noelle?' Yuji asked, his body full of sweat.

'Yuji, I... I...' Noelle stuttered.

'You can tell me anything. I'm listening,' Yuji stood there waiting to hear Noelle's words, wondering what could make her blush like that.

'It's... It's that I... I like you,' Noelle gathered her courage before speaking out loud.

'!!!' Yuji was shocked. He never thought Noelle, who was a shy girl, would dare to speak out like this.

Then Noelle continued, "I've fallen for you since the moment I met you. But I don't know if what I feel for you is love or not."

"The more I've been with you, practicing magic together and doing various things with you, I've come to understand that the feelings I have for you are indeed love."

Upon finishing her confession, Noelle fell silent. She didn't know what else to say because she had laid bare her feelings for him, and now all she could do was wait for Yuji to express his feelings towards her.

"What!? Yuji belongs to me, doesn't he!? Not to you, you bitch!!," Sylph exclaimed after hearing Noelle's words. The spirit of wind, Sylph, had made a pact with Yuji. Therefore, shouldn't Yuji's love rightfully belong to her alone?

Yuji remained silent, but inside, he was shocked. He never thought Noelle would confess her feelings to him so quickly. Initially, he thought she might develop feelings for him after they conquered the dungeon. But now that it was like this, Yuji could only...

"I also like you too, Noelle," Yuji spoke candidly. Now that the girl had expressed her feelings, how could he, as the boy, stand idly by? He wasn't the kind of protagonist who would let a girl come to his room and do nothing.