What We Can Do To Grow Younger

Morning in the forest.

Small birds flew about together with the refreshing sunlight.

I woke up in the bedroom of our house.

Beside me in the bed, my beloved beauty Liricia slept with her bare skin exposed, her wings not out.

Bathed in the morning sun, her firm skin shone white.

Her sleeping face looked so childlike that she could have been in her late teens; when she woke, a mature calm and grace appeared and she looked like she was in her early twenties.

…Just how old was she actually?

I was a little too scared to ask.

Instead, I stroked Liricia’s head as she slept peacefully, her silver hair spread over the pillow.

Her silky silver hair felt pleasant against my fingertips.

—Then.

Liricia let out a cute little “mm” and opened her eyes.

Her long-lashed violet eyes looked at me.

“Ah… good morning, Master…”

“Good morning, Liricia.”

“I’ll make breakfast right away… kyah.”

As Liricia tried to sit up, I slipped an arm around her slim waist and pulled her close.

I pressed up against her smooth curves, feeling the fine, soft texture of her body with every part of me.

“Before that, I want to talk something over.”

“Ah… w-what is it, Master?”

Liricia leaned against me as she spoke, her breath tickling my skin.

“What I said yesterday about saving up two hundred fifty million Gort so I can stay with you forever—I meant that.”

“Y-yes. That makes me very happy.”

Blushing along her gentle cheeks, Liricia rubbed her face against my chest; she was unbearably cute.

“It’s just, now I know adventuring is a profitable line of work, but I can’t imagine there are two hundred fifty Hell Liches out there, each worth around a million, just waiting to be hunted.”

“Right. And even if they exist, that doesn’t mean they’ll turn into requests.”

“Yeah, exactly.”

When a vicious monster appeared somewhere people rarely went, there weren’t many folks in trouble, so no one put in requests to adventurers.

And even if they did, the pay was so cheap that no one would take the job.

So when someone went to defeat them anyway, that was a hero’s work.

Since they used the citizens’ taxes, they could afford to take a loss and still carry out the subjugation.

—Which made it pretty much charity work.

On the other hand, if a dragon appeared near a town, or goblins were ravaging a village’s fields and causing a lot of real damage, then the Adventurer Guild received requests at market rates.

Liricia rubbed her cheek against me affectionately as she spoke.

“How about clearing dungeons? Even when everyone at the guild split the reward, it came to around two million; if you cleared them by yourself, Master, the profit would be much larger…”

“Hmm. True, it sounds like you can make between five and thirty million… but Kou is going to need the Dungeon Cores, right? And there are also dungeons where destroying the core is forbidden.”

“I see… earning money really is difficult, isn’t it. Ah! In that case, how about asking Cordelia about the ingredients for the rejuvenation medicine? If we gather the materials ourselves, it might be cheaper.”

“I thought of that too, but it’s probably impossible. I can’t imagine her just casually teaching anyone a secret technique that can earn money in the hundreds of millions. Even if we swore, ‘We’ll only take the ingredients and never tell anyone else.’”

“Y-you’re right… If I researched it and learned to make it myself, Cordelia’s business would fall apart.”

“Exactly… Ugh. I want money fast. No, what I want is a way to earn money.”

I let out a sigh.

Liricia pressed her body against me as if to comfort me, her large breasts yielding and flattening softly.

“We went to the trouble of opening a shop, so how about selling something?”

“Sell something besides mission supplies… but the only thing I have in pointless surplus is my Serâge.”

Liricia suddenly raised her head.

Her silver hair slipped down and gleamed in the morning light.

“That might… actually be a very good idea.”

“Hm, how so?”

“Why not make potions using your Serâge?”

“Potions? Can a healer make those?”

In answer to my question, Liricia knit her brows adorably as she explained.

“I can’t make them entirely from scratch either. But if we apply your Serâge, Master, I think I can manage. Rubel said your healing magic is always active, so if you pour your Serâge into Empty Water, which we use when making potions and holy water, it should turn into a healing potion.”

“So that’s a thing, huh. I’m not sure my Serâge will work that way… but can we even get our hands on this Empty Water? If it’s expensive, it would defeat the purpose.”

“You can buy it at magic-item shops or apothecaries. It’s cheaper than potions. However, when you pour magic or mana into it, there’s leakage—or rather, loss—so the effect gets reduced. Even if you cast High Heal on it, at best you get the same as an ordinary healing potion, and if you fail, you end up with a potion that barely heals at all.”

Liricia answered in a brisk, clear tone.

I thought it over for a moment, then nodded.

“If it works, great… Well, let’s at least try it once.”

“Yes! Let’s bring some kind of container along.”

As I stroked Liricia’s back, I realized there was another problem and grimaced.

“But if we’re going to run a real shop, we’ll need someone to mind the counter… With all our secrets, we’d probably have to buy another unconditional slave…”

—An unconditional slave you could have do anything was that much more expensive.

Even conditional slaves could be sworn to secrecy, but their contracts were short.

Anyway, the biggest problem was that I didn’t trust that slave merchant.

Then Liricia traced my skin with her slender fingertips as she spoke.

“It might be good to consult Kou-chan as well.”

“True. We can ask on our way back… The shop is part of the dungeon, after all. All right, once we’ve eaten breakfast, we’ll head to the Adventurer Guild.”

Since there might be well-paying mission requests, I planned to check them every morning.

“Yes, Master! I’ll get everything ready right away.”

Liricia slipped smoothly out of the bed.

She threw on a single robe over her perfectly proportioned naked body and left the room.

Even such casual movements were beautiful enough to look like a painting.

I ran my hand over the bed, still stroking it as if searching for the lingering trace of her warmth.

After breakfast, I changed into my adventurer gear and headed for the Royal Capital through Kou’s dungeon.

The pure corridor was lit by a pale blue glow.

When we reached the hall partway along, a white, round sphere about one meter in diameter spoke to us.

“Master, good morning.”

“Morning, Kou. Are you free for a bit tonight?”

“Before that, Master, Master.”

Blue light ran across the surface of the sphere as it made a request.

“Hm? What is it?”

“I want mana.”

“Okay, got it… but you’re at a hundred percent right now, you know?”

“More.”

“I don’t really get it, but sure.”

I placed my hand on the surface of Kou’s spherical body—about a meter across—and poured in my mana, my Serâge.

The numbers climbed rapidly.

It passed two hundred percent, went beyond five hundred percent, and finally stopped with a strange beeping at one thousand percent.

Kou shone brightly with joy.

“I leveled up. Now the dungeon level is ten!”

“Good for you.”

I had no idea what that actually meant, but if Kou got stronger, our living environment would improve, so I was simply happy.

Liricia praised him with a smile as well.

“That’s wonderful, Kou-chan.”

“Yes, thank you. It’s all thanks to Master and your wife.”

“Okay, we’re off. If anything happens, contact us through a drone.”

As Liricia and I started toward the passage that led to the Royal Capital, Kou hurriedly flickered light across his surface.

“Ahh, wait, please wait. I have various matters I wish to discuss.”

“Oh? It’s rare to have Kou asking for a consultation. What is it?”

“There are three things. First: what should we do with the weapons and armor I absorbed?”

When we dove into the Royal Capital Eastern Dungeon, there had been an absurd number of weapons and armor lying on the lowest floor.

Our drones had absorbed all of them…

“You can just use all of them as dungeon materials.”

“Even the Holy Sword? It’s broken, but I could repair it so you could use it, Master.”

—Oh! So I finally get… No, wait, that Holy Sword is the broken one Marius used.

For a moment I wanted it, but somehow the idea of using Marius’s hand-me-downs put me off, so I shrugged and spoke.

“Nah, I don’t really need—wait, hang on! Kou, even if you’re small, you’re still a dungeon, so you can make all kinds of treasure chest contents, can’t you?”

“That’s right. As long as I have the base materials, I can make armor and items too.”

I looked at Liricia.

Liricia’s violet eyes shone with a serious light as she nodded.

“Kou-chan, can you make Empty Water?”

“Yes, I can. I can make it from water and mana.”

“Oh! Then that’s practically free.”

“That’s wonderful… And what about potions?”

“If I have water and herbs. And since I’m Tier Four, level ten now, if I make healing potions, they turn into High-Heal Potions. Something like that.”

He flickered light across his spherical surface, sounding just a little proud.

Liricia and I smiled and nodded.

“Looks like we can make tons of stock for the shop.”

“Yes, Master! This looks like it will be very prosperous!”

“Then first, make some Empty Water for us.”

“Okay. Leave it to me.”

Blue light crackled across the surface of the sphere.

Then, with a soft puff of smoke, a treasure chest appeared in front of Kou at an angle.

It was a wooden chest reinforced with iron bands, the kind you often saw in dungeons.

The lid was rounded.

When I opened it, I found it filled to the brim with colorless water.

—But when the surface of the water rippled, I thought I saw it glow faintly blue.

Kou made a puzzled “hmm?” sound.

I ignored that and focused on the Empty Water.

“Oh, so this is it… It really does seem like a special kind of water.”

“You should be able to just put your hand in and pour your power into it.”

“Let’s give it a try.”

I rolled up my sleeve and dipped my right hand into the water.

Then I focused my awareness on my right hand, as if putting strength into it.

“Haaah!”

—Flash!

In that instant, the room was flooded with pale blue light.

The blast of light was so strong that I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

“Whoa!”

“Kyaa!”

Startled by Liricia’s scream, I turned around.

But the glare stole my sight and I couldn’t see anything.

“Are you all right, Liricia?!”

“Y-yes. Somehow… I just can’t see anything.”

“I see. Actually, same here.”

—I had never imagined making a healing potion would be this intense.

I’d have to be more careful next time.

“I wish I had held your hand, if it was going to be like this.”

Liricia let out a sad sigh as she spoke.

I nodded in the darkness I still couldn’t see through.

“Yeah, me too. Not being able to see how beautiful you are is the worst.”

“M-Master… that makes me so happy. It’s just a shame we can’t touch.”

“Oh—if you use the Finger Glasses, you should be able to tell where I am, right?”

“That’s true! As expected of you, Master! I’ll give it a try—eeeeeek!”

As the white light finally began to fade a little, Liricia’s shocked cry rang out like a scream.