Seeking A More Comfortable Life

After being fired as the hero, I was at a complete loss because I could not even make a living, but with the help of my cute wife Liricia, I obtained a comfortable place to live and a way to earn money.

Furthermore, I also succeeded in rejuvenating myself, which was necessary for staying with Liricia forever.

—Compared to the difficulty of rejuvenation, the remaining problems would probably be easy enough to deal with on the side.

Freeing Liricia from slavery was surely simple too.

After this, all that remained was to live leisurely in the mansion together with Liricia.

It should become one of those fairy-tale endings: “The two of them lived happily ever after, the end.”

Morning in the forest.

The fresh morning sunlight poured down over the mansion.

I headed to the dining room facing the kitchen with Liricia to eat breakfast.

Even just walking down the hallway lit by the morning sun felt wonderful.

Or rather, it felt like my stamina was fully restored for the first time in ages.

Once you become a middle-aged man, even if you sleep soundly through the night, for some reason the fatigue does not go away. It feels like your maximum stamina has dropped to around eighty percent compared to when you were young. No matter how much you sleep, you cannot experience that refreshing feeling of being one hundred percent recovered.

With a grin spreading over my face, I ended up muttering:

“—Ahh, being rejuvenated is the best.”

“Yes… the young Master is wonderful too.”

Liricia pressed her chest against me and clung to my arm.

I looked at Liricia, a little surprised.

“What’s wrong? You’re bold this early in the morning.”

“Because I’m happy.”

Liricia gazed dreamily at the ring on her finger.

Feeling a little embarrassed, I said it as if to cover it up.

“My bad. I picked it out on my own. Next time, let’s choose one together.”

“I’m happy because Master chose it for me.”

With a grin spreading across her lovely face, she tightened her arms around mine. My arm sank even deeper into her cleavage.

“I see. I’m glad you like it.”

“Yes!”

Feeling fulfilled, I strolled loosely down the hallway.

Then I entered the dining room.

The good smell of toasted bread and sausages filled the air.

Looking over, I saw that bread, scrambled eggs, grilled sausages, and vegetable soup had already been set on the table. Triangular slices of cheese sat at the edge of the plate as well.

It was a simple but delicious-looking breakfast.

At the kitchen table, the cleric Sophisia and the elf girl Teti were already seated.

The moment they saw me come in, their eyes went round and they froze.

Rāna, the Sacred White Dragon sitting in a child’s chair, also stared at me intently.

Wondering what was going on, I greeted them.

“Morning.”

“G-good morning…? Alec-sama?”

“Good morning…?”

“Kyai!?”

As I sat down across from them, I gave a wry smile.

“Why is everyone speaking like it’s a question? It’s Alec.”

“You really did rejuvenate!”

“Young Alec-san is wonderful too, overflowing with holy power…”

“Kyaaai!”

Sophisia bit her lip bitterly and looked at me and Liricia.

“I met him first, though…”

“I’m sure the hero Sophisia-san is meant to protect is someone else.”

“I hope he’s handsome…”

With a sigh, her beautiful face twisted sadly.

Not minding it, I began eating breakfast.

I tore off some bread and stuffed a sausage into my mouth.

“Mmh! Somehow the taste is more vivid too! It’s better than yesterday!”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

Liricia smiled happily.

But Teti looked at me with half-lidded eyes.

“Isn’t that just because you’re happy you got younger, so everything feels nice?”

“Yeah, maybe so. The goal I thought would be the hardest has been achieved. A house, income, and a cute wife. After this, if I free Liricia from being an unconditional slave, every problem will be solved!”

I laughed with a refreshed feeling.

But then Rāna made a small circle with her finger and appealed to me. A cute wrinkle had formed between her brows.

“Reku, tama! Kyui!”

“Ahh, the dragon jewel. I was thinking we’d search for it after freeing Liricia from slavery, as part of our honeymoon, but…”

Teti shook her head, her blond hair swaying.

“Mmm, traveling together is nice and all, but if you’re going to leave the mansion empty, shouldn’t you strengthen the shop staff and the dungeon’s fighting power first?”

“That makes sense too. We should make it so we can leave the house without worry. Fighting power and staff… in that case, maybe we really should help Rāna grow?”

“Kyaaai!”

Rāna, who looked about seven years old, raised both hands with a smile. She bounced on the chair, making her white hair spread softly. She looked very happy.

When given one jewel, she had grown by about two years, so even if giving her all of them was impossible, if she got two or three more, she should probably get past ten years old.

I asked Liricia, who was beside me:

“Did you figure out where the remaining five jewels are?”

“Yes, not all of them, but when I checked using the world map, there was one in a mine, two in the sea, and one in the north of the continent.”

“So the one in the mine is the Earth Jewel. I can’t tell about the two in the sea. One of them is probably the Water Jewel, though. —Which one is nearest?”

“The mine is in the Dwarf Duke Territory of the Fortis Kingdom, to the southwest.”

“What, it’s in the same country? That’s close… alright! Let’s go now, as a sort of honeymoon preview trip! Though it means we’ll be using Kou’s corridor to travel.”

“Yes, I’m looking forward to it.”

Liricia smiled happily, her silver hair swaying.

But Teti drew her shapely brows together.

“Wait. Kou-chan was saying something unsettling.”

“Unsettling? What?”

“I only caught a bit of it yesterday. Ask Kou-chan for the details.”

While drinking cup soup with one hand, I took out the sub-device.

I held the sub-device to my ear and spoke with Kou.

“Kou, did something happen yesterday?”

‘Good morning, Master. Nothing especially big? But some humans came near the mansion.’

“Huh? Adventurers?”

‘That seemed likely. But it also felt like they were probing around the sanctuary?’

“Muu… outsiders, huh…”

Even after it had been recognized as a sanctuary, there were still people sniffing around.

Maybe they had come looking for valuables.

—I really did not think that part through at all.

“Mmm… I guess we’ll have to get someone to guard the area around the mansion and the sanctuary. —Would it be possible to have Fenrir hire wolves to guard it?”

‘That sounds like a good idea, Master!’

“I see. Then let’s do that.”

With Kou agreeing, I decided to have the wolves protect the mansion and the sanctuary.

Pulling my face away from the sub-device, I asked Teti:

“Hey, Teti.”

“What?”

“Can you ask Fenrir to use wolves to guard the sanctuary?”

Since Teti was Fenrir’s master, I thought it would be fine if I asked her.

But Teti wrinkled her nose unhappily.

“Eeh~, I don’t know anything about that guy. Alec-sama, go ask him yourself~”

“Huh? Didn’t he become your retainer?”

“I hate him. I don’t even want to talk to him.”

Lifting her chin haughtily, Teti stuffed bread filled with cheese and egg into her mouth.

She clearly had no intention of budging.

—So something happened.

I held the sub-device to my ear again and asked Kou:

“Where is Fenrir?”

‘He’s in the rock cave hut in the garden?’

“Got it.”

I ended the call.

A thought came to me.

—I had achieved the big goals, like a place to live, someone to love, income, and rejuvenation.

But it felt like there were still mountains of problems I had to deal with in order to keep living: guarding the sanctuary, the dragon jewels, freeing Liricia from slavery, and more.

“Aah~ I also need to find someone to handle nationwide distribution for Puchi Eli… living is such a hassle.”

“Let us deal with them one by one, Master.”

Liricia looked at me with a gentle smile.

Just seeing that smile made me feel like I could keep going.

“Yeah. Let’s do our best. —Then first, I’ll go see Fenrir.”

After quickly finishing breakfast, I stood up.

“W-wait pwease, M-Mashter.”

Liricia hurriedly started eating.

With a wry smile, I waited for my cute wife, then left the dining room with her.