First, Take Off Your Clothes?
Beni said with a serious expression, “First, can you take off your clothes?”
“?”
I thought she said she wouldn’t make me do anything lewd. Does being naked not even count as lewd in Beni’s book? At this point, whether it’s this gender-reversed world or not, her sense of modesty must be completely shattered. But now I’m genuinely curious. If naked isn’t enough, what exactly would it take for Beni to consider something lewd?
“Stripping naked and doing a dogeza…?”
The words slipped out before I could stop them. Elly, who had been tilting her head sideways and eavesdropping on our conversation, immediately kicked off the counter and strode over.
“Beni. Over here.”
“W-wait! There’s a misunderstanding about what I just said, Elly sis! Besides, those weren’t even my words!”
“Enough. We’re going to the room of truth.”
“Kyaaaaak!”
Beni was dragged off to the storage room by her ear. She flailed her arms toward me as if begging for rescue, so I waved back.
“Bye bye…”
“Help me, you rotten bastard!”
With one final scream, the storage room door slammed shut.
While I took over at the counter for Elly, it wasn’t long before a thoroughly disheveled Beni emerged, clutching her head. The moment our eyes met, her purple irises—patterned with tiny hearts—swirled with intense emotion.
“Hey!”
Of course, the moment she noticed Elly silently watching from behind, she shriveled right back up.
“It wasn’t about getting naked. I meant one of the things you normally wear on your body…”
“Then why didn’t you say that from the start? Both Elly and I misunderstood for nothing.”
I shrugged and peeled off my sock, tossing it over.
“Is this enough?”
“Yeah.”
Beni carefully pinched my sock between her index finger and thumb, then turned and dropped it into her own shadow. Strangely, it didn’t fall to the floor. Instead, it sank slowly into the darkness like it was slipping into a swamp. It was probably heading toward wherever that shadow monster lived.
After staring at her shadow for a moment, Beni let out a sigh of relief.
“Phew. This should keep things fine for a while.”
“What exactly did you just do?”
“Since it seems to like you, I threw it a toy so it wouldn’t come out and interfere. Without something like this, it really would pop out whenever it felt like it.”
“...Is it that bad?”
“There’s a reason I ended up with the title Creepy Witch instead of any of the nicer ones.”
Beni’s face looked a little lonely as she spoke in that calm tone.
“Anyway, let’s head to my workshop. I’ll briefly explain what you need to do there. As a bonus, I’ll take a look at your magic too.”
“Right now? It’s the middle of the night…”
“...Ah.”
Realizing her mistake, Beni stood there with her mouth hanging open. The sharp fangs glinting between her lips were surprisingly striking.
After fidgeting awkwardly for a while, she scraped at the floor with one foot and asked, “Can you take off a little more?”
“You mean the other sock? Hang on.”
When I removed the other one too, she accepted it and placed it inside a small box.
“Ahem. You mentioned going into the labyrinth with Rydia lately, right? I’ll tag along and observe. I can watch what kind of magic you use while I’m at it.”
“I’ll stop by the workshop after the by-product settlement is finished.”
“Yes. That’s exactly it.”
Beni nodded in satisfaction and smoothed out her messy hair, which had gotten tangled from the earlier scolding. Then she tapped the floor lightly with her toes.
“I’ll come with Rydia tomorrow. Your daily wage starts tomorrow too.”
“Sounds good. But please pay for the socks before you go.”
“???”
Beni tilted her head, looking like she couldn’t believe what she’d just heard. I held my hand out toward her.
“Did you think I was giving them for free? I only handed them over because you said they were necessary for your experiment.”
“...Fine. Ten copper should cover the price of some socks, right?”
“Hmm. Since they’ve got my scent on them, I was thinking one silver would be fair… but whatever. I’ll let it slide for ten copper this time!”
“......”
Looking utterly dumbfounded, Beni took out ten copper coins and handed them over. After seeing her off, I scampered back to the counter and held the coins out.
“Elly! One cold glass of milk, please!”
“I think I mentioned this before… It’s pretty high-grade milk, so ten copper won’t even get you a sip.”
“Then along with the ten copper, I’ll give you the chance to lick my bare feet.”
“No, what kind of bene—benefit…….”
Elly started to laugh dryly but froze mid-chuckle. Like a broken record, she repeated the same word over and over before eventually fetching the milk in silence. Then she whispered softly.
“Later is fine too, right?”
“I’ll even draw up a proper certificate, so just wait a bit.”
I tore a sheet from the stack of paper I’d bought last time for writing and scrawled the words I’d just said in crooked handwriting.
Foot Licking Ticket
10 Minutes • 1 Use Only
[Several cute doodles of paws, hearts, and a happy wolf tail]
“Here you go!”
Elly’s expression grew complicated for a second, but her hand darted out like lightning to snatch the coupon and tuck it into her bosom before anyone could see.
She really is honest about her desires.
The next morning, Beni arrived at The Elf and the Silver Coin with Rydia, just as she’d promised. When she saw me in full gear, she hopped onto a nearby chair with a satisfied look.
“Good, good. The basics are solid. Only natural since Rydia taught you!”
“...Just asking, but do you really have to climb onto something every time you greet someone?”
She’d done the same thing yesterday, so seeing her hop up again left me dumbfounded. This time it was Rydia, not Beni, who answered.
“Beni is short. So she climbs to a high place for the first greeting to establish dominance.”
“Rydia?! I told you not to tell him that!”
“He’d have figured it out in a day or two anyway.”
“Still!”
Beni stomped her feet in a tantrum. I chuckled at the sight and continued.
“I actually like that Beni is short. I don’t have to look up at you like everyone else does.”
“I hate it though?!”
“Who said anything about you? I’m just saying I like it. Anyway, let’s get going. Honestly, I’m pretty excited to test out all the new stuff I got.”
“Right. First floor again? Or…”
“Let’s head straight to the second floor. The only thing left worth doing on the first floor is fighting the Giant Mantis… and the Spider Queen on the second floor can replace that.”
“That’s true. All right. Then we should stop by the guild’s supply shop before we go in.”
“We probably should, right? We don’t have a lantern.”
“I do. This year’s new model from the Magic Tower. It charges with mana stones but also accepts direct mana infusion. Ten output levels. Comes with stealth detection using visual distortion. Design handled by the workshop alliance.”
“...How much was it?”
“A mere five gold. It was originally six, but I got the VIP discount. Ahem, ahem.”
Rydia stood with her hands on her hips, clearly fishing for praise. The pose practically screamed hurry up and compliment my amazing achievement, but…
“Equipment hoarder.”
“……!”
“Do you really need such an expensive lantern when you’re in a party with a mage like Beni?”
“W-we might get separated from Beni, you know.”
“Even then, this is overkill. Wouldn’t it be better to buy a decent lantern and use the leftover money for emergency rations or a survival kit?”
“I already bought all that.”
“?”
“Hehe. I bought the absolute highest grade of everything, then used what was left to buy a good lantern.”
“......”
Now it was my turn to be speechless. Both are small consumables, but they’re the perfect examples of things that skyrocket in price with each grade. Bread that fills you up after a single piece, portable safe-zone kits, long-range communication magic tools, potions, and so on. None of it was cheap, yet she’d gone for the top tier on everything? And still had enough left over to splurge on an expensive lantern for something lower priority? With that kind of money, I could have rolled the gacha so many times….
“Ha!”
The fact that my first thought with what must have been tens—maybe even hundreds—of gold was to roll the gacha meant I wasn’t all that different from Rydia.
Feeling much more generous, I gave Rydia’s shoulder a light pat.
“When we end up eating those emergency rations later, cut me a little piece. I’m curious what they taste like.”
“Only if you’re right next to me at the time, Yona.”
Rydia and I shared a small, warm promise. Once again, Beni was the one who barged in between us.
“W-wait a second! Didn’t you say you’ve been teaching under Elly sis’s request for the past month? And that you’d be taking him around as a baggage carrier during my break?”
“Yeah. That’s right?”
“But the second floor? At that age? With barely a month of adventurer experience?”
“It’s true.”
Elly answered briefly and looked at me in silence. From the atmosphere, it seemed she hadn’t given Beni the full details.
I nodded gratefully at Rydia for leaving the choice to me, then spoke up.
“I defeated the floor guardian on the first floor.”
“Huh?”
“Is this a secret?”
I pressed a finger to my lips as I asked. Beni’s face twisted into a deep frown.
“Don’t lie! It’s already hard to believe there’s even a floor guardian on the first floor, but you’re saying you actually defeated it?!”
“Then how about a bet? The loser has to play baggage carrier for the whole day.”
By the way, I only make bets I know I’ll win.
***
The moment we arrived on the second floor through the monolith, Beni collapsed onto the ground with a thud.
“...Be honest. You’re actually like me—only looking young but actually much older, right?”
“Waah. I’m baby Yona. I’m an orphan so I don’t know my real age.”
“......”
Without another word, Beni silently took the bag I was carrying.