The Eight Copper Duo (3)
While Lemon trembled like a leaf and cleaned up her own lemonade, Rydia and I were busy looting the raider’s corpse.
…Of course, we weren’t chopping off body parts like we did with monsters and selling them as byproducts. That would make us look like complete lunatics. No, we were just stripping usable equipment, turning out their pockets, and grabbing anything that might prove their identity—just in case.
Even after sorting through everything, we still ended up with three overstuffed backpacks. I was already struggling with my own single pack, so Rydia ended up carrying all of them for me.
“Holy shit. I think I finally get why people turn to raiding. This is several times what we’ve earned so far, isn’t it?”
“…Yona.”
“Ehehe. I’m just saying I get the appeal. I’m not announcing I’m becoming a raider, so don’t worry. …But how exactly do we split this? You said anything I killed would go to me since I took down the monsters, but this feels different.”
“It’s the same. The raiders I defeated are my profit. The ones you defeated are yours.”
“Oh?”
Gail’s gear was surprisingly high quality for someone working the first floor. Made sense—he hunted adventurers, not monsters. The only real disappointment was that I couldn’t actually use any of it myself. The sizes were all wrong. The armor was a total lost cause, and even the decent-looking longsword was too heavy. Using it would mean throwing away my biggest advantage: speed.
And this guy? He was obsessed with accessories. Instead of backup weapons, he’d been lugging around cosmetics and jewelry like a damn pack mule. They weren’t artifacts or anything special. Just regular trinkets. Necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings—the whole collection. Purely decorative stuff.
“Ah… I wonder how much these would sell for.”
“You’re not interested in any of this, Yona?”
“I’m naturally handsome enough that I don’t need makeup. As for jewelry… it’d have to be ridiculously expensive to actually suit me, don’t you think?”
This wasn’t arrogance. It was just facts. Even I had to admit this body had been born with an absurdly attractive face. If this were modern times instead of some medieval fantasy world, I would’ve fired up a stream and boiled the hell out of my viewers… or maybe just kept writing like I did in my previous life. Beautiful girl erotic novel author. God, what a fucking arousing phrase. Well, since I’m the male lead it’d be a beautiful boy author, but the point is the same—modern society lets you weaponize your looks.
But what could I even do with this face on the Pan Continent? Top host at a brothel, honey-pot scammer, or at best, some noble’s kept boy. …Wait. There was one more option.
I quickened my steps and cut in front of Rydia, then spun around to face her directly. Looking straight into her eyes, I flashed my brightest smile.
Yes. Not being used by my appearance, but using it myself. That was the greatest weapon I had right now.
“So? What do you think?”
“? About what?”
“Me, obviously. I know I still give off a cute vibe because I’m young, but don’t I look incredibly handsome?”
I tilted my head with my index finger poking my cheek in a cutesy pose. Even for me, that move took serious resolve. But it seemed to work. Rydia nodded with a dead-serious expression.
“…I hate admitting it when you push this hard, but you’re right.”
“Then why doesn’t Elly fall for it? She definitely gets excited, but…”
“Do you seriously not know?”
Rydia looked utterly exasperated as she started counting reasons on her fingers.
“First, the age thing. To senior Elly, you’re someone who needs protecting, not a romantic prospect.”
“That one actually hurts. Especially because there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“Second, your usual way of talking is the problem. Saying you’re after their body and assets makes any woman wary. Especially a former high-ranking adventurer who actually has a lot to lose.”
“Tsk… I was trying to be as honest as possible. So people really misunderstand me like that?”
I pointed at Gail, who Lemon and Apple were taking turns carrying. I’d only healed him enough to keep him from dying, so I’d had no choice but to leave him to them…
“…What exactly are those two doing right now?”
“Looks like they’re secretly groping him. Mostly focusing on his ass and thighs.”
“Of course they are.”
“This is unacceptable. Touching someone else’s property for free? This is exactly why they’re called trash!”
“Prop…erty?”
Rydia flinched, but I wasn’t wrong. In this world, raiders—even living ones—weren’t treated as people. Which meant right now, he was my spoils of war. Charging a usage fee wasn’t strange at all. Time to teach those kanfs that free happiness doesn’t exist!
“Anyway! Back to the main topic. You don’t see me that way with Elly, right?”
“No. Senior Elly trusts that you won’t betray her. It’s just… the longer someone stays a virgin, the deeper their fantasies grow. It can’t be helped.”
“Ah. I think I get it. Like, ‘I wish my first time was like this’ or ‘I wish it was like that,’ right?”
“Yeah. Isn’t it pathetic when a woman does that instead of a man?”
“Hey, I think it’s nice. And everyone has fantasies at the beginning, regardless of gender, don’t they?”
“…Do they?”
Rydia looked oddly pleased. I stared at her cheeks, which were just a tiny bit redder than usual, and asked.
“Do you have any fantasies about your first time, Lady Rydia?”
“I wouldn’t say I don’t. Though I’m not as obsessed as senior Elly.”
“Hehe. For future reference, what kind of fantasy is it?”
“Just…… Ah.”
Rydia froze mid-sentence. She narrowed her eyes and continued in a deliberately stern voice.
“You shouldn’t ask that kind of thing to just anyone.”
“Hey. You’re not just anyone, Lady Rydia. You’re my second favorite after Elly, you know?”
Rydia flinched for a second, but then firmly shook her head.
“…Still no.”
“By the way, it seems Elly likes completely wrecking guys and leaving bite marks all over their bodies.”
“How do you even know that, Yona…?”
She looked ready to settle things with Elly once and for all today, so I quickly shook my head and added, “There were the most books with that kind of content in Elly’s room.”
“Sigh… Senior Elly…”
Rydia pressed a hand to her forehead and let out a long, deep sigh. She clearly had a lot to say but was holding back because I was right there. It was kind of cute. Still, I didn’t want to push her too far, so I decided to change the subject.
“Since you don’t like it, Lady Rydia, let’s drop this topic here. What’s the next reason?”
“Next? Ah, the third reason…”
Rydia clamped her mouth shut. After thinking for a long moment, her expression softened into that gentle, benevolent look she’d started making often since our forced date last time.
“This one, you already know.”
“I do?”
“Yeah. You said it yourself before. That you still don’t really understand what it means to love someone.”
“…But I think what I feel toward Elly counts as liking her.”
“That’s the problem. Senior Elly worries that your affection might not be pure love. That you might realize it too late and regret everything. Or even if not, she wants you to have a normal, ordinary happiness.”
“I get the general idea, but… there’s no need for her to worry about that.”
“It can’t be helped. Senior Elly cares about you a lot.”
“……”
Stuff like that makes me embarrassed. My chest felt strangely ticklish, so I cleared my throat and organized everything I’d heard.
“Ahem. So to summarize, it’s all because Elly’s a coward?”
“…Huh?”
Rydia looked confused, so I explained more clearly.
“Just because I’m someone she needs to protect doesn’t mean I can’t also be a romantic interest. She just doesn’t have the courage to face her own desires.”
“…But if you mess up, you could get taken away. And that whole ‘body and assets’ thing is still a problem.”
“Isn’t it natural to bet your entire life to obtain a beautiful boy like me? That’s also because she lacks courage. Yep, yep.”
On the other hand, if I could obtain Elly, I’d bet everything I had without hesitation. Even if it wasn’t much!
As I nodded firmly, Rydia let out a sigh that said she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“Haa… Then the last one?”
“That it might not be love? Then I just need to make her fall for me properly. I’ll definitely make her happy! I should’ve said something like that.”
Rydia stared blankly at me for a moment, then let out a small laugh.
“That’s such a Yona answer.”
“Right? Feel free to use it later, so remember it well.”
“What would I even do with that information?”
“It's my strategy method, so it should be useful somewhere, don’t you think?”
Maybe because the only god left on the Pan Continent was the Goddess of Love, this world was surprisingly lenient about romance and sex. That was why brothels weren’t illegal, and why the population had exploded over the last thousand years. Naturally, there was no law saying you could only love one person. Married people could sleep with others without much issue.
However, all of it was based on the consent of everyone involved. If I wanted to date both Elly and Rydia at the same time, I’d need explicit permission from both of them that two-timing was okay.
In that sense, even though I didn’t have much wealth, sharing my strategy with Rydia—who was excellent in every other way—seemed pretty meaningful…
“I wonder how much senior Elly would pay for Yona’s strategy… I’ve been needing a new Elven-metal sword lately.”
“……You have to give me half the money if you sell it, okay?”
Apparently the information wasn’t worth as much as a new weapon. I awkwardly rolled my shoulders for a moment out of embarrassment.
“Right. Lady Rydia. After the guild finishes the settlement, could you help me with something?”
“What is it?”
Maybe she’d seen my earlier attempt at being seductive. Lemon and Apple kept glancing our way and whispering. I pointed in their direction and explained the situation—this, that, the whole ridiculous story.
“If it goes well, we might be able to pay off all the debt I owe you!”
“Eh.”
Rydia’s eyes went ice-cold.