Gacha is a Good Civilization
Arriving at The Elf and the Silver Coin, I dashed straight to the counter and plopped down. Resting my chin on one hand, I spoke in a deliberately languid voice.
“Bartender. The usual.”
“Oh, Yona’s here. Where’d you pick that up this time….”
Elly chuckled and poured a full glass of milk. I gulped it down, letting the rich aroma fill my mouth.
“Kyaa! A cold drink after work! I could say I’ve lived for this!”
“No matter how you spin it, that’s an exaggeration. You might feel differently once you’re older and drinking alcohol instead of milk.”
“I’ll take the Platypus thirty-year, Elly senior.”
“That stuff costs ten gold a glass! You really think we sell that here?!”
“If not, just give me beer.”
“From the very beginning, just drink beer….”
With a deep sigh, Elly poured chilled beer into a glass and handed it to Rydia. Watching her, a sudden question popped into my head.
“Come to think of it, Elly. I’ve had milk elsewhere before, but the stuff here tastes noticeably better. Is there some special way to drink it?”
“There’s no special way to drink milk. It’s just good milk. Not from regular cows—from A+ grade dairy beastmen.”
For a second I thought I’d misheard and asked again, but the answer didn’t change.
“…? What did you say? Whose milk?”
“A+ grade dairy beastmen. Why? Surprised? Since you’re the only one who orders milk here, I made sure to stock the expensive stuff.”
Elly looked rather proud of herself, but I couldn’t just nod along.
“That’s breast milk, isn’t it?!”
“Aigoo, my ears… Well, if you want to call it breast milk, it is. So what?”
“Cow milk is milk. It’s no different from dairy beastmen milk.”
What was with that nonchalant reaction? Maybe I was the weird one here. No matter how reversed the world’s gender norms were, was selling breast milk as premium dairy really normal? On Earth that’d be like marketing semen as high-grade protein… though the comparison felt off since men didn’t produce milk. It had already been two years since I started living on the Pan continent, but this was common sense I’d never encountered, so I decided to just ask outright.
“Is it normal to drink other people’s breast milk? How do I put this… isn’t it kind of embarrassing? Or erotic?”
“Ah, um… Where should I even start explaining….”
Elly looked as troubled as an adult being asked by a child how babies are made. After rolling her yellow eyes and roughly scratching the back of her head, she finally spoke in a careful tone.
“First, beastmen go through periodic estrus. You know that much, right?”
“Yeah. That’s why the brothels suddenly get packed with beastmen guys sometimes.”
When I nodded, Rydia—who’d been sipping her beer—started patting my head with a pitying expression.
“…You’re lacking in common sense but somehow know all the weird stuff.”
“Hmm. I don’t get it, but I can tell Rydia’s calling me an idiot. I know everything I need to know, you know?”
“Yeah, yeah. Just focus on what Elly senior is saying for now.”
Her scolding tone made me feel a little rebellious, but it was true that I didn’t know this world’s common sense about milk. So I shut my mouth and looked at Elly. In the meantime, she organized her thoughts, refilled my glass, and continued.
“Since you roughly know the basics, I’ll skip that. The important part is that beastmen estrus comes with physical changes.”
“Oh… What kind of changes?”
“Beastmen women’s breasts grow during estrus, and in severe cases, milk even comes out.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
So it wasn’t a gender-reversal thing—it was a racial trait.
“Usually it’s just a little, but what about dairy beastmen who already produce some milk even normally? I hear it overflows to the point of being a problem. So they milk themselves regularly until the estrus ends.”
“So the milk they squeeze out is much tastier than regular cow milk and gets sold at a high price… Is that the idea?”
“Exactly. To add a little context—nowadays we live decently enough, but in the distant past, without labyrinths, this world was so harsh that people would’ve starved to death, right?”
“It’s a world that should’ve collapsed but was forcibly revived.”
“Right. In times like that, no matter how much milk a dairy beastman produced, it would’ve been a waste to throw it away. They drank it themselves, their families drank it, and whatever was left got sold. That practice just continued until now.”
“I see. I understand completely.”
It wasn’t for perverted reasons, but out of sheer desperation. Plus, unlike human women who only lactate for a few months after giving birth, beastmen produce a little milk even normally—it just overflows heavily during estrus. So milk wasn’t anything special to dairy beastmen, and the same went for those who drank it.
Today’s knowledge gained!
While I was sipping my milk and feeling intrigued, something else occurred to me. Hadn’t she just said that all beastmen produce at least a little milk during estrus?
“…Does Elly also produce milk during estrus?”
“…Isn’t it rude to ask something like that?”
“Why?! You were explaining everything just fine until now!”
“Hmm. To a human, it’d be like asking, ‘Are you on your period today?’ Or, since you’re a man, ‘Did you have a wet dream?’”
“It’s the kind of question that’s hard to ask directly even if everyone knows the answer, right? Thinking about it that way, yeah, it was pretty rude.”
But that was that, and curiosity was still curiosity.
“Then I’ll ask even if it’s rude. Does Elly also produce milk during estrus?”
“Yona, you…”
“By the way, ever since I met Elly, I’ve been jerking off to her so much that I haven’t had any wet dreams.”
“…….”
Elly was at a loss for words, her mouth opening and closing. With her face flushed bright red, she finally answered.
“…Of course I do too.”
“Then next time, can I ask for Elly’s milk?”
“Would that work?! I’m a wolf beastman, not a dairy beastman! There wouldn’t be much, and the taste would probably be bad too! Above all, I don’t even have milking equipment!”
“If it’s because I want to taste it, a small amount is fine. Bad taste is fine too. And for the equipment… I can just suck it directly, right?”
“T-that’s undeniably erotic!”
“You saw right through me! I just want to do erotic things with Elly! That’s why I prepared this gift too!”
Perfect timing. I handed over the erotic underwear set I’d prepared for her, and Elly looked completely scandalized.
“Where did you even get this?! You want to see me wearing it?!”
“Of course. Elly’s usual mismatched underwear lacks any sex appeal.”
“What sex appeal for a woman…”
Grumbling, she still carefully tucked the gift away. The way she kept glancing between me and the underwear made me think I might get to see her in it sooner than later.
I laughed under my breath and leaned back with my hands clasped behind my head, rocking the chair halfway. Rydia, who had been quietly watching us, finally spoke up.
“By the way, Yona.”
“Yeah?”
“When you first heard that the milk you drank was dairy beastmen breast milk, why were you so flustered and called it erotic?”
“No, even I get embarrassed sometimes, you know? I’m a man too.”
“That may be, but you don’t get embarrassed at a normal level.”
“Well, that’s because… I imagined how they produce the milk.”
“?”
Rydia didn’t understand, so I explained the image that had flashed through my mind.
“I pictured them gathering all the dairy beastmen women, tying them in fixed positions, repeatedly impregnating and birthing them to extract milk endlessly, then disposing of them once their bodies couldn’t get pregnant anymore. Like a human farm.”
“…….”
“…….”
Both Elly and Rydia stared at me with stunned expressions, trembling slightly.
“So this is the level where Yona actually gets embarrassed…”
“I was surprised. There’s a saying that the walls you grow up seeing determine everything. As expected of Yona…”
That was too much. If they reacted like they’d really struck a nerve, I’d actually get hurt.
To make it obvious I was sulking, I pouted and stood up.
“Hmph! I’m leaving now. Rydia, you can tell her what happened today or handle it yourself.”
With an exaggerated show of sulking, I headed for the stairs to the second floor. Just before going up, with one foot on the first step, I turned my head. Elly was flustered and stuttering, while Rydia fidgeted, clearly regretting her words. After glaring at both of them, I pulled down one eyelid with my finger and stuck out my tongue.
“Behh! I’m locking my door tonight, so keep that in mind, Elly!”
“Y-Yona?!”
Elly looked startled, but I went upstairs without looking back. That was how you played hard to get, right?
…Still, one exception should be fine. I ran back down the stairs, hid behind the wall, and peeked out just my face.
“But if you come wearing only the underwear I bought you, I’ll open the door.”
It’s okay to look forward to tonight, right?