Why Is Noona Here of All Places? (3)
“…Huh?”
Eve stroked a hand down her own chest and flashed a meaningful smile. “My, Yona, you’re quite precocious for your age, aren’t you? This should make for a very enjoyable conversation.”
Mature for his age? (Wrong.) Total degenerate. Wanna fool around with noona? (Correct.)
“……?”
My brain’s built-in translator was clearly glitching. No matter how many times I replayed it, that was exactly how it sounded. I shook my head in a panic and quickly added, “I wasn’t talking about your chest, Miss Eve! I meant the necklace you’re wearing!”
“Ah? I must have misunderstood. …What a shame.”
Misunderstanding is embarrassing? (Wrong.) Too bad, I was looking forward to it. (Correct.)
Was Eve always this kind of character…? I couldn’t tell if my brain translator was broken or if she was the one who’d lost it. All I could do was sigh.
Eve tugged on her necklace, pulling the golden gem that had been nestled in her cleavage into view. Its antique design and exquisite craftsmanship made it a work of art all on its own. If she auctioned it off as-is, it would easily fetch at least twenty gold.
But the necklace wasn’t just decoration. It was the main reason Eve—who had zero business sense—could even keep the lights on. It was a magic tool that boosted luck.
For someone like me, who planned to dump every coin I’d just earned into gacha, this was the single most necessary item in existence.
Eve, fully aware of the necklace’s power, cupped the golden gem in her palm and spoke with a bright, flowery smile.
“I’m not sure if you know this, Mister Yona, but this is an incredibly important magic tool to me. I can’t simply hand it over. Even under these circumstances.”
Kill me and take it. If you can. (Wrong.) There are conditions. (Correct.)
“So you’re saying you’ll hand it over if the conditions are right?”
The smile on Eve’s lips deepened. Seeing that positive reaction, I smiled right back.
“Ufufu…”
“Ahaha!”
Rydia nearly jumped out of her skin beside us, Lemon was busy reading the room, and Apple was fidgeting like she might explode, but none of that really mattered.
On the way back to The Elf and the Silver Coin, I stroked the necklace now resting against my chest with a satisfied grin.
“Wow. That was seriously a great deal! Miss Eve seemed like a good person, too.”
“…Are your eyes just knots in a plank of wood, Yona?”
“Lady Rydia. You really shouldn’t judge people by appearances, you know? Sure, Miss Eve looks a little suspicious, and she does tend to pick the most suggestive wording possible… but she’s not a bad person.”
“You shouldn’t trust people so easily.”
“I didn’t trust her easily. I had a good feeling. A really good feeling.”
“…That’s what trusting easily means.”
Rydia let out a long sigh and shook her head. I stuck close to her side and nudged her elbow.
“Wait… are you jealous right now, Lady Rydia? Oh dear. That makes me happy, but it’s also kind of embarrassing. I already have Elly, you know!”
“It’s not that.”
“It totally is. You got all sulky just because I was laughing and going ‘ufufu’ and ‘ahaha’ with Miss Eve.”
“…Anyone would have been shocked by that last part.”
Rydia pouted, lips pushed out. Well, in her head she probably knew the truth. The deal with Eve hadn’t been bad at all.
We’d only taken two gold in cash, but in exchange we’d received a magic tool that would be nearly impossible to buy even if we had the money. Sure, spending 4,600 pulls in one go would’ve been heartbreaking, but it wasn’t like I could dump everything into gacha right this second anyway. I’d be spinning it gradually over the next few years. Grabbing a high-grade luck-boosting artifact was the smarter play.
I’d only get stronger in the meantime, and my income would rise with me.
Plus, the final condition I’d added wasn’t really a condition at all—it was mutually beneficial. In exchange for a small discount when buying from Eden, I’d promote the place while working as an adventurer and bring in new customers. She’d also let me hire Lemon and Apple at a cheap rate, and in return I’d help train them up to second-floor adventurer level whenever I had time. A partnership proposal, basically.
That kind of offer usually only went to famous adventurers… so she must have either taken a liking to me or was aiming for the knight standing behind me. Honestly, when her attitude suddenly turned weird I’d half-expected her to slap down some slightly perverted condition instead. That would’ve been fine too, but since I wanted a long-term relationship with Eve, the current terms weren’t bad at all.
Even knowing all that, Rydia was sulking for one of two reasons. First, simple anxiety about getting too cozy with someone as suspicious as Eve. Second, the nervous realization that with two gold in hand I could pay off her debt immediately.
The first issue would have to wait until she saw Eve’s true value for herself. The second, though, I could fix right now.
“Lady Rydia.”
“…What.”
“About that date money you spotted me last time. Can I pay you back a little later?”
“……!”
Rydia’s expression brightened a fraction. Now that I was looking, the corners of her mouth were curled in a sly little smirk. She quickly smoothed her face and answered as if nothing had happened.
“It doesn’t matter. I never expected to get it back quickly anyway. …Still, between that and today’s earnings you should have a decent amount. What are you planning to spend it on?”
“That’s already decided!”
“Equipment, right? Smart choice. As you’ve experienced yourself, a good weapon can compensate for lacking physical—”
“Gambling, obviously! I’ll triple it, so look forward to it!”
“…….”
Rydia’s face twisted like she’d stepped in something that couldn’t even be recycled. But maybe she realized that if she refused, I’d just pay off every coin I owed her and vanish into the wind. In the end she gave a reluctant nod.
“F-fine. It’s your money, Yona. I have no right to tell you how to spend it.”
Even as she said that, her eyes screamed that she desperately wanted to talk me out of it. I understood. To her I must have looked like a former beggar who’d suddenly struck it rich and lost all sense.
…She wasn’t entirely wrong.
But the only reason I’d been able to earn this much in the first place was thanks to gacha. Even if I dumped all two gold into it, pulling just one more three-star would still be a win!
I was grinning ear to ear at the thought of rushing back to spin the gacha when Rydia suddenly stared at the back of my neck.
“That necklace. Are you sure it’s safe?”
“Huh? Oh, you mean the side effects?”
“Yes. They were rather peculiar.”
Every item Eve sold had excellent performance but came with bizarre drawbacks. The water-producing tool, for example, had great capacity but created foul-smelling liquid that was almost undrinkable. The tool that turned the surrounding scenery transparent to create a safe zone generated so much noise that stealth became pointless.
That sort of thing. It wasn’t an accident that Eden looked so run-down. No wonder nobody bought from her…
The necklace I’d obtained this time—Lucky Strike—was the same. While wearing it, luck would find you, but the type and scale of that luck was completely random. It might help, or it might drag you into complicated messes with low probability. The classic “life on easy mode” cheat was impossible. Still, because the end result was always ultimately beneficial, it was worth enduring the risks. That was Lucky Strike.
…And maybe, just maybe, the incident that would one day corrupt Eve had happened because she couldn’t endure the problems it caused. It was the best-made item in her shop and something she used herself, so I’d never expected her to part with it so easily.
I stroked the spot on my chest where the necklace now rested and let out a silly little giggle.
“It’s fine. I never expected to live a peaceful life with zero incidents anyway.”
“Yona…”
Rydia looked at me with pity in her eyes. It must have been complicated, hearing a kid talk about such gloomy things. But I meant every word.
With an appearance that would make even a guy whistle, how must I look to the women of this gender-reversed world? On top of that, I still carried Earth’s sense of chastity and I was also the author who had created this world’s core setting. There was no way I could live an ordinary life and enjoy ordinary happiness without any storms.
“If life is just a string of suffering and incidents anyway, shouldn’t I at least get something out of it in the end? In that sense, luck should definitely help!”
“I see. If that’s how you feel, I won’t argue. Let’s head back and brag to Senior Elly about everything that happened today.”
“Sounds good! But before that, let’s stop by one place.”
“Where?”
“The underwear shop.”
“…Huk.”
Rydia’s slender eyebrows trembled. The way her red eyes rapidly scanned my entire body made her thoughts painfully obvious.
“Lady Rydia. You just had a dirty thought, didn’t you?”
“N-no I didn’t.”
“Hmm. So the person who always acts so refined is now imagining me in my underwear?”
“…….”
Rydia turned her head completely away. But stopping the tease here wouldn’t be any fun. I rose onto my tiptoes, grabbed her cheek, and gently turned her face back toward me. Her eyes rolled around in obvious panic. I chuckled once, then whispered in a low, suggestive voice.
“I’m not sure if Elly will like it… Would you take a look first?”
“……!”
Rydia opened and closed her mouth without managing to speak. She tried several times to turn whatever was in her head into coherent words, but failed. Instead, she narrowed her eyes and clamped one hand onto my skull.
This wasn’t the gentle head-patting or sweet skinship she’d been giving me lately. This was an iron claw. Squeeze—
“Ow ow ow! Lady Rydia! That hurts! Let go!”
“No. I’m not letting go. I have zero intention of letting go.”
“I don’t think this kind of obsession is healthy…!”
“It’s not obsession. It’s educational guidance.”
“Kyaaaang! Okay, okay! I’ll tell the truth! I’m not buying my own underwear—I’m buying Elly’s! I just thought your reaction was funny so I teased you a little!”
“……Huh?”
Rydia tilted her head, genuinely confused. Yeah, I figured she wouldn’t get it. After all, the women of the Pan continent barely cared about underwear!
Men’s underwear came with pointless decorations, see-through fabric, or even material that melted in water. Meanwhile, women’s underwear was just plain monochrome scraps of cloth. And even then, people often wore mismatched sets! Did she have any idea how disappointed I’d been when I raided Elly’s room last time and found her rolling around in differently colored top and bottom pieces?
I understood that the target who needed to be wrapped in pretty underwear had flipped from women to men… but I still wanted to see Elly in something absolutely killer!
“If you’re the type to get excited imagining me in underwear, Lady Rydia, then you understand, right?!”
“I don’t understand at all. And I wasn’t excited.”
“Hng.”
Well. If she did understand, that would make Rydia a lesbian, I suppose.