Gacha Luck Is Always Right (3)
Getting a new weapon naturally makes you want to test it out. But today was a rest day. Rydia was strict about managing our condition, if nothing else, so she wouldn't listen if I suggested popping into the labyrinth for a bit. For that reason, I thought about coaxing Lemon and Apple to take a light spin around the first floor entrance instead.
"Eh. No need to go that far."
I was dying of curiosity, really losing my mind over it... but it wasn't enough to break my promise with Rydia that I'd only enter the labyrinth with her for a while. Since we'd be going in tomorrow anyway, I just had to hold out a little longer.
So instead, I decided to do something just as exciting as testing the new weapon.
That's right. Gacha...!
I had no idea what Eve had misunderstood, but I stood up from my seat, putting some distance between us with a quick shuffle.
"Lemon! Apple! Come help me with something real quick."
"Eh? Aren't we going into the labyrinth, sir?"
"We've already been there today, ma'am. We're tired, ma'am."
"No, it's nothing like that. Just follow me for now. Ah, and thank you for today, Miss Eve. I've got some work to do, so I'll head out first!"
"Huh? Uh... s-sure?"
I gave a light bow to the dazed Eve, then grabbed Lemon and Apple's wrists and dragged them out of the shop.
Thud!
I heard what sounded like someone slamming their forehead into a desk behind us, but it was probably just the door closing.
Lemon and Apple glanced nervously at Eve but followed me without a word. Even now, after we'd gotten pretty far from the shop.
"Lemon. Apple. Aren't you going to ask where we're going or what we're doing?"
"We don't need to know that, sir."
"The important thing is that you're still holding our wrists, ma'am."
They weren't even holding hands—just wrists—and yet the two of them were grinning like idiots, happily trailing along. What was so great about it?
"Ugh. You virgin bitches."
"...You're a virgin too, aren't you, sir?"
"It hurts my heart when you suddenly throw out deals like that, ma'am."
"It's fine. Even if it hurts, I can just heal it again with the Unicorn Dagger. And anyway, is the value of a male virgin really the same as a female virgin?"
"This world is so wrong, ma'am!"
"Our bodies are pure in the same way, so why do only female virgins get mocked, ma'am!"
As someone with memories from my previous life, I couldn't help but sympathize with the topic that had Lemon and Apple fuming. I chuckled at their antics for a moment before their voices suddenly dropped, the subject shifting.
"When we got healed earlier... it felt good, but also kind of... weird, ma'am."
"The fact that the healing worked proves we're virgins, doesn't it? Physical wounds heal, but the wounds in our hearts don't, ma'am."
"Wait, if we're going by that logic, what does that make me? I'm basically walking around advertising that I'm a virgin in real time."
"Oh."
"This isn't the time to be going 'oh' and looking happy, ma'am. What are you going to do if one day your dagger turns pitch black and shatters?"
Apple jabbed the side of the idiot who had been marveling without thinking. Lemon froze for a second, then after a long moment of serious contemplation, she spoke in a grave tone.
"I'd get on my knees and beg you to take it, ma'am."
"Are you seriously out of your fucking mind?"
Smack!
Lemon, who had just taken a full-swing smack to the back of her head from Apple, made a pitiful face. I was laughing at their Dumb and Dumber-style bickering when I spoke up in a low voice.
"Well, not right now... later. Once I've become an adult and achieved my goals. If you two are still virgins by then, I'll take your first times."
"...Are you serious about that, sir?"
"Ten or twenty years is nothing to us elves, ma'am. You should choose your words carefully."
"Of course I'm serious. Ah, but there might be an order to things, so you'll have to wait a bit."
"We acknowledge that Boss Eve comes first, ma'am."
"Honestly, she's been lonely for so... I mean, for a long time, so we understand, ma'am."
"......?"
I was talking about Elly and Rydia. Why was Eve coming up here? I hadn't even tried to seduce her separately. The only thing that happened was her pressing her body against me a little when she heard the explanation for the Unicorn Dagger.
...Was I just her type? With that broken brain translator running wild lately, I decided to lower my evaluation of Eve by one notch in my mind.
Looks shady but is 'still' a good person (X)
Looks dangerous but is 'still' a good person (O)
"Ahem."
As I nodded to myself, Lemon and Apple cautiously spoke up.
"By the way, is it okay to ask now, ma'am?"
"I'm starting to get a little curious, ma'am."
"About what?"
"Where exactly are you taking us, ma'am?"
"This direction leads to a bit of a sketchy neighborhood, doesn't it?"
"Ah, don't worry. I'm not taking you to the red-light district or the cheap inn village next to it."
"What a shame..."
"I got my hopes up for nothing..."
These girls were brutally honest about their desires. I let out a deep sigh and tightened my grip on their wrists, which I was still holding. It was a grip that said I wouldn't let them run away.
"Before we get there, there's that alley on the way. The one toward the industrial district."
"...Isn't that where we first met you, sir?"
"You're not planning to bury us there to settle old grudges, are you..."
Lemon and Apple started trembling. Come to think of it, that was where I had first opened my eyes after possessing this body. It was also the place where I'd been shaking them down for money after they tried to mess with me.
"What do you take me for? We already settled that with the payment for my life last time. I'm not going to do something like that now."
"Just asking, but if the grudge was still there, what would you have done?"
"Would it have ended with just shaking us down, ma'am?"
Lemon and Apple asked carefully. I turned to look at them and gave them a wicked grin.
"Elves are a race with so many uses."
"Organ trafficking...!"
"Human trafficking...!"
The sight of the two trembling made a deep sense of satisfaction bloom in my chest. Why was it so fun to torment Lemon and Apple like this? Was it because their reactions were so good in a different way from Elly's?
I lowered my arm a bit, switching from their wrists to holding their hands, and added one more thing.
"I'm kidding. At most, I'd scare the hell out of you like you did to me, then put you to work as my bread shuttles."
It wasn't like they'd beaten me up when they shook me down. They'd just created a slightly scary atmosphere, rummaged through my pockets, and taken the begging money I'd earned that day. That's why I could forgive it with money.
"Anyway, the reason we're going this time isn't to bury you two. It's to try doing what we did last time one more time."
"What we did last time...?"
"You mean unifying the back alleys, ma'am?"
"Similar, but a little different. Last time we got reported and had to forcibly disband, right? So I thought about it, and realized we shouldn't have tried to unify in the first place. If we make the group too big, we'll just get beaten up more intensively by the guards."
A gang of punks and an organized punk syndicate felt completely different, after all.
"So let's just shake them down and leave them be. This neighborhood has a lot of built-up resentment anyway."
"What if they chase after us like last time even if we knock them down?"
"Didn't you say you weren't planning to unify last time either?"
"Why are you thinking about it so complicatedly? Just knock them all out."
Unlike Lemon and Apple, I hadn't received any settlement money from the punks in this neighborhood yet. Those bitches had no idea just how pathetic my beggar life had been.
"I'll take it back at exactly ten times the amount."
While I was at it, I'd test the power of the Unicorn Dagger too. Stabbing people was probably off-limits... but as long as it wasn't people, anything else should be fine, right?
The results were a resounding success.
Clatter!
Back at The Elf and the Silver Coin, I dumped today's earnings onto the desk.
"Let's see... how much did we get in total?"
The money I'd earned properly preparing and farming only Iron Wolf pelts until now. Plus all the money I'd shaken out of those familiar faces today. I added it all up.
"One gold, twenty-six silver, ninety-two copper."
More than one gold of that had come from the Iron Wolf pelts. The moment that thought crossed my mind, I realized something.
Why stronger adventurers didn't bother with thug work.
"Just going into the labyrinth once or twice earns more than completely cleaning out the wealth of an entire neighborhood's punks...?"
It didn't even pay well, and if you overdid it you'd get marked by the guards. Of course they wouldn't do it. Unless they had a personal grudge like I did.
"Now it's doubled. Just four more times and we're good."
Ah, the performance of the Unicorn Dagger I'd used for the first time was shockingly good. I hadn't cut any people, so I didn't get to see the special effect against non-virgins... but I'd tested it on weapons and thick padded clothes.
It could slice through a thick wooden club without effort, and even the gambeson—those quilted clothes used like cheap armor—fell apart like paper. I hadn't tested it yet, but this thing could probably cut through Iron Wolf pelts without any problem.
If I could deal direct damage, the whole flow of battle would change drastically. And conveniently, the armor made from the Iron Wolf pelts I'd commissioned before was supposed to be finished tomorrow. My overall equipment level was about to get an extreme upgrade.
At this rate, I could take on more than just Iron Wolves—maybe even Giant Mantises... or perhaps even a Hobgoblin tribe.
Of course, that wasn't what was important right now.
"It was supposed to increase my luck, right...?"
I placed the symbol of the Goddess of Love's temple that I'd received from Karen on the desk, then set the Unicorn Dagger in front of it. It wasn't like I was thinking something arrogant like If you mess with the Goddess, I'll kill you or threatening her with a knife. I wasn't trying to metagame.
I just had no crafting skills, so I used the symbol instead of a statue, and since the dagger was supposed to bring good luck, I placed it in front of it. Finally, I clutched the Lucky Strike that I always wore around my neck with both hands and opened the gacha system.
Ding!
"One hundred and twenty rolls, let's gooo...!"