Blushing Liricia

Morning in the Royal Capital.

Liricia and I were at the shop.

As part of our opening prep, we were restocking Petit Elixirs from the wardrobe into the counter display.

Having finished cleaning, Teti’s one-piece dress swished as she perched lightly on the chair behind the counter.

Her light, delicate movements made the slender girl look adorably doll-like.

And maybe because her once-dark expression had turned into a bright smile, she seemed a little younger than before.

Or rather than childish, she finally looked her age.

Well, it was like a seventeen-year-old turning fifteen.

But today she kept opening her little mouth wide to yawn over and over with a long “fwaaaah…” Her neat row of teeth looked cute.

She rubbed her eyes hard, looking very sleepy.

“What’s wrong, Teti? Did you read too much?”

“Yeah… I finished the whole series in one night.”

“That’s impressive. Was it really that good?”

“Mmm, it was so-so. But something in it bothered me.”

“What was it?”

At my question, Teti looked up at me with her big eyes.

“Alec, you were looking for the Philosopher’s Stone, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“The Philosopher’s Stone showed up in Demon Reincarnation, you know? It said only the true Demon King can create one.”

“Huh. Sounds like an interesting novel.”

“And that reminded me, I think I read in another hero story that the Philosopher’s Stone was found in the Demon King’s castle too?”

“So if we go to the Demon King’s castle, we might find the Philosopher’s Stone… It could just be nonsense, but it might be worth looking into. We don’t have any leads at all right now.”

I thought that if we checked past heroes’ records, we might find a clue.

I’d ask Edgar about it later.

Teti nodded, her blonde hair swaying.

“Yeah. Demon Reincarnation was actually pretty detailed about monsters and the Demon Realm, so it might be more reliable than you’d think.”

“Thanks, Teti. …Still, you really love books, huh. Finishing a whole series in a day is a talent.”

I had meant to praise her honestly, but for some reason Teti fidgeted, her face going bright red as if it was hard to say what she wanted.

“U-Um… Alec. I have a favor to ask… but it’s okay if you say no.”

“Hm? What is it? If it’s something I can do, you can ask me anything.”

“W-Well… I asked Kou-chan too, and she said it was possible.”

“Okay. So what is it?”

Even when I asked, Teti didn’t open her mouth right away.

She looked incredibly embarrassed, cheeks flushed, gazing up at me and Liricia from under her lashes.

Then, by the time her face was fully crimson, she finally spoke.

“Um… I want the dungeon to be made soundproof.”

“Huh?”

The unexpected request froze me for a moment.

I had no idea why she would ask for something like that.

Liricia tilted her head, just as puzzled.

Then Teti looked away and muttered under her breath in a tiny voice.

“It’s just… Miss Liricia’s happy noises at night are amazing… I can’t sleep…”

““What!?””

“They echo like crazy in the dungeon… Especially those really happy high-pitched ones, I’m pretty sure they’re reaching all the way to the Royal Capital.”

“N-nooooooo…!”

Liricia’s face went so red it looked like it might burst into flames as she buried it into my shoulder.

Her slender body trembled, shaking with shame.

“…Come to think of it, lately the landlady said people around the shop have been talking about hearing a woman sobbing at night…”

“Uuugh…”

Liricia pressed her hot, flushed face into me, rubbing it in.

She seemed far too embarrassed to even lift her head.

In the daytime she was a pure, demure saint, but at night she was the ultimate fallen angel—so it couldn’t be helped.

Thinking about it carefully, I had shortened the dungeon’s corridors for convenience’s sake too.

Even without moans involved, if we shouted loudly in the house, the sound would probably reach the shop.

Teti spoke as well, her own cheeks reddening with embarrassment.

“At first I thought maybe it was only on the first night, so I tried to put up with it the day before yesterday, but… last night your happy moans were even louder… If you’re going to do it every day, I was hoping you could soundproof things. Oh, but! She said it would take a lot of materials, so I’m fine with just my room!”

“No, that would be bad. If it’s echoing all the way to the Royal Capital, there’s a chance the dungeon itself could get exposed.”

If that happened, we might lose our luxurious lifestyle.

I wrapped an arm around Liricia’s thin shoulders and looked into her beautiful face, dyed with shame.

“So that’s how it is. Liricia, let’s start by gathering soundproofing materials.”

“Uuugh… Just knowing people have been hearing my voice this whole time makes me want to die of embarrassment—at this rate I might actually die just from the shame… Death by embarrassment!”

“What kind of phrase is ‘death by embarrassment’… Anyway, look on the bright side. Thanks to Teti, we noticed the problem, and from now on no one will have to hear you.”

“Uu… You’re right, I’ll try to think positively… But Teti heard everything, everything! Aah…!”

Tears welled up in her violet eyes as she nodded. Her cheeks were still scarlet.

Teti’s face was also bright red as she waved her hands frantically.

“It’s okay, Miss Liricia! I won’t tell anyone, I swear! I won’t tell a soul you said stuff like, ‘Suck me even harder and put hickeys all the way on my heart’ or anything like that!”

“Noooooo!”

Liricia grabbed her head and shook it violently. Her silver hair whipped around wildly.

Then she just crouched on the spot and stopped moving, so I took out the handset.

“Hey, Kou. Can you hear me?”

“Yees, Masterrr. What is it?”

“I want to soundproof the dungeon—no, if possible I’d like to soundproof the house and this shop too. Can you do it?”

“I can do that, yesss~ But we don’t have the materials, you see?”

“What are we missing?”

“Wood, and cloth, and… cork?”

“How much do you need?”

“Lots of everything. We’re going to cover the floors, walls, and ceilings of all the rooms and corridors.”

“I see. So we’re talking in terms of a few hundred meters of the stuff.”

“Yesss. Even more if it’s for the whole house.”

“Got it. It’s essential to my lifestyle. I’ll go buy it.”

I ended the call and put a hand on Liricia’s shoulder.

“All right, Liricia. Sounds like we need wood, cloth, and cork.”

“Sniff… Understood, Master. Let’s spend today gathering those.”

She stood up, silver hair swaying, and brushed off her habit to smooth the wrinkles.

Taking the hand of Liricia, whose violet eyes still shimmered with tears, I spoke as we started walking.

“Okay then, Teti. We’re counting on you to watch the shop.”

“Okayyy…”

After her cheerful reply, Teti mumbled under her breath, “So they are going to do it again today…” but I pretended I hadn’t heard it.

Then I stepped outside hand-in-hand with Liricia.

Morning in the Royal Capital.

Before going to the shop that sold cloth and cork, we stopped by the Adventurer Guild.

As usual, the board was full of collection jobs.

There was one extermination quest, but it was just to hunt E-rank mice, the Mia Rats.

Apparently rats had been appearing in the fields around the Royal Capital. Since they came in swarms, they were easy to hunt.

Beasts wouldn’t die from my Serâge, but since it wasn’t a forest quest, I decided to pass on it.

I took only collection quests, left a message for Edgar, and we left the Adventurer Guild.

Following Liricia’s lead, we went to a building supply store.

There we bought the materials needed for soundproofing.

It cost around 150,000 Gort. Yesterday’s profits vanished just like that.

—But one problem came up.

The purchases were piled high outside the supply store.

“That’s a lot…”

“It was expensive, but I asked them to deliver it. They said they’ll bring it over. Let’s go back to the shop.”

“Delivery, huh…”

I walked along the stone-paved road, thinking.

Beside me, Liricia tilted her head.

“Is something bothering you, Master?”

“I was just thinking we might have to start doing deliveries ourselves if our shop’s sales routes expand.”

“Deliveries for the Petit Elixirs? Do you think we’ll really sell that many?”

“Maybe not right now, but if we open a second branch in a town with a dungeon, we’ll have to transport stock there, won’t we?”

Liricia gasped softly, her silver hair swaying.

“You’ve thought that far ahead! That would certainly be a lot of work.”

“I’d like to have one of those Magic Bag things. They’re expensive though, right?”

I remembered the belt pouch the female mage had used.

She said she’d found it in a dungeon… and bragged about it so much that I hadn’t forgotten.

Frowning slightly, Liricia nodded.

“I recall they were very expensive. Even the small ones go for tens of millions, and the big ones cost in the hundreds of millions.”

“That much!? Why are they so expensive? Special materials?”

“No, I believe… they can only be obtained from dungeon treasure chests, and they’re legendar—oh.”

“Good girl, Liricia.”

I kissed her on the cheek.

“Hyah!”

Liricia yelped, blushing as she stared at me in surprise.

Her violet eyes shimmered adorably as she looked up at me.

“D-Doing that out in the street is… embarrassing.”

“I just felt like giving you a reward. My bad.”

“Uu… I don’t really mind, but still…”

Her face turned even redder and she dropped her gaze. Her silver hair fell forward, hiding her cheeks.

She fussed with her fingers shyly.

Smiling wryly at how cute she was, I took out the handset and asked,

“Hey, Kou. You there?”

“Yees, what is it, Master?”

“Kou, can you make a Magic Bag?”

“I can make one, yesss.”

“Would it be hard to make one right now?”

“It would be difficult~ Especially the big ones. You need several concentrated lumps of spatial manipulation—in other words, about five Dungeon Cores.”

“All right, Kou! Drop back down to Tier 1 and make one using five cores!”

“No way! Impossible! I caaan’t~! If I go back to Tier 1, I can only make E-rank bags. If you want a bag that can swallow an entire elephant or dinosaur in one go, you need three to five cores at Tier 5.”

“I see, that’s how it works. …So if a Dungeon Master wants an even more luxurious lifestyle, they’re basically forced to join in the war between dungeons, huh…”

“That’s how it’s set up. Give-and-take, you know~ If you’re satisfied now or want more comfort, that’s all up to you, Master.”

“Ghh… Once your standard of living goes up, it’s hard to bring it back down! These Dungeon Cores are shadier than they look!”

“My core is pure white, you know?”

“On the outside, yeah! —Anyway, I’m heading back now. We’re going to take down a few dungeons.”

“Okayyy, got it!”

I ended the call.

When I glanced to the side, Liricia was still fidgeting shyly.

I boldly slipped an arm around her slender waist and started walking.

“Come on, let’s go home.”

“Hyah! …Honestly, Master…”

With a happy smile and narrowed eyes, Liricia leaned into me.

Side by side, we made our way back.