Naming the Shadow Monster "Shadow" and Returning to The Elf and the Silver Coin
I burst through the door of The Elf and the Silver Coin with my arms spread wide.
“I’m back! It’s me, Yona, Elly’s adorable future husband!”
My voice echoed loudly throughout the entire tavern. The noisy pub fell into a sudden hush, but once their eyes landed on me, the chatter resumed as if nothing had happened. Of course, a few of them burst into hearty laughter or whispered to the person next to them with confused looks… but that was it.
It wasn’t like I had some hypnotic ability that made people overlook whatever I did. They’d simply grown used to it. There were times when someone would try to pick a fight with me… but most of them ended up behaving after getting a taste of Elly’s possessive jealousy punch. By now, the rumor had probably spread, so they just pretended not to see it.
…Pretended not to see it, huh? Now that I think about it, I’m a little curious just how far that tolerance goes.
I made my way to the counter, resisting the temptation of the defenseless older adventurer ladies’ rear ends and the wallets dangling temptingly nearby. Elly let out a long sigh and lightly tapped the top of my head.
Thump.
“Ouch!”
“Didn’t I tell you not to yell every time you come in?”
“Waaah. Baby Yona here. Bad memory.”
“Oh, but you still remember that you’re supposed to become independent at twenty, right?”
“Wasn’t the promise that we’d do naughty things when I turn twenty?!”
Thump.
“Hngh!”
“I never made any such promise! I said I’d seriously consider it if my feelings hadn’t changed by then!”
“Aww, come on. I trust you, Elly. The second I turn twenty, you’re definitely going to get me completely drunk under the excuse that ‘adults learn how to drink from grown-ups’ and then do all sorts of things to me, right?! Just like in those red books! Just like in those red books…!”
“…Hah! How many times has this pattern repeated? You really think I’m going to get flustered again?”
“Well, yeah. Your tastes have changed lately, so you’ve hidden that kind of stuff deep in the warehouse, haven’t you? What was that new one you bought recently… ‘For Sale. Fallen Noble Style. Never Used.’ The manga version, right? Looks like you really liked the novel I gave you!”
“……Kgh!”
Elly bit her lip with a frustrated expression. Her face flushed bright red, clearly embarrassed that I’d hit the bullseye. I chuckled and sat down in front of her. From the side, Rydia, who had been sipping beer while snacking on sausages, waved her hand.
“You’re a bit late.”
“You were still here? I thought you’d head back first since it took so long.”
“Elly-senpai said she’d give me free beer and snacks if I stayed and listened to how you fought on the second floor. So I kept listening and kept drinking.”
“Aha? So what did you talk about?”
“In the end, just praise. The second floor is relatively easy, that’s true. But circling it like the first floor is impossible.”
“Why? The difficulty as a labyrinth is about the same, isn’t it?”
“Yes. But the monster specs have changed. And they usually detect you first, so ambushes are difficult.”
It was true that the labyrinth difficulty was similar, but the monsters had become stronger overall. Adventurers relied on sight, while monsters distinguished enemies by sound and smell, so it was hard to show your full strength until you got used to it.
“It actually worked in my favor, though.”
“That’s right. So don’t let your guard down.”
Rydia nodded with a faint smile. She was right. No matter how much I suppressed my presence to the limit with Sound-Eating Steps, it was true that getting hit even once by a kobold by mistake would leave me seriously injured.
“Should I get some armor?”
“It’s still fine. Iron Wolf leather is comparable to iron. On the second floor, as long as you watch out for golems and the floor guardian, you’ll probably only end up with fractures at worst.”
“…Fractures sound pretty scary, though.”
“Just don’t get hit. That’s what you’ve been doing so far, right?”
“……”
Rydia’s treatment of me felt strangely casual. It was trust, sure, but why did it sting a little? I pouted and grumbled, and Elly set down a plate of hot pasta topped with a few pieces of meat in front of me.
“Hungry? Beni doesn’t eat properly, so there probably wasn’t any real food at her place. Eat up and grow big and strong.”
“Now that you mention it, there were only snacks and no proper meals. That cream pie was really delicious, though…”
I mixed the sauce with a swish swish and said that, causing Elly’s expression to turn strange.
“Cream pie…”
“Oh my. What were you just thinking about, Elly? You had a dirty thought, didn’t you? Right? Look at this, Lady Rydia! Elly just had a perverted thought!”
“…Yona. Don’t act like a child. Elly’s a grown adult. It’s possible she has some pent-up desires.”
“But I really am a kid, you know?”
“Then there’s nothing we can do about it.”
Rydia nodded and stabbed a sausage with her fork, bringing it to her mouth. But maybe she hadn’t stabbed it deeply enough. The sausage slipped and got stuck right between her cleavage.
“…It’s hot.”
Rydia frowned slightly. Instead of using her hand to grab the sausage, she cupped her own breasts lightly and lowered her head. Then she pulled the sausage out from between them with a squish and ate it.
Feeling my gaze, Rydia confidently made a V sign with her fingers.
“V.”
“……”
Did she really just pull it out with her chest without touching it directly? Even though it was hot and covered in oil? While I stood there dumbfounded, Rydia casually began wiping her breasts with a tissue. Not just the top, but digging between them to clean the inside as well.
Gulp.
I swallowed without realizing it. But unfortunately, it didn’t last long.
“Yona.”
“Hup!”
Elly was looking down at me with an expressionless face. …Judging by her slightly ragged breathing, she seemed half angry and half excited.
“What kind of experiment did you do at Beni’s workshop? It wasn’t anything dangerous, was it?”
“Ah, it wasn’t like that. What we did today was figure out why the shadow monster… I mean, Shadow, likes me so much……”
I broke out in a cold sweat as I explained everything that had happened to Elly. Tentacles, cream pie, favorability, Shadow, moist Beni-chip cookies….
“And at the end, I got a magic book to read by myself. It wasn’t anything difficult—just basic spells similar to Weak Flame.”
I pulled out the rather thin book from my pocket and waved it around. It only contained basic magic and nothing particularly impressive, but since it was knowledge half-monopolized by the Magic Tower, the regular price was apparently one gold. That’s why Beni didn’t give it to me outright but lent it instead. What a shame….
If she’d just given it to me, I could have learned the spells in a flash and sold it right away to roll the gacha.
As Elly listened to my story, her expression gradually softened.
“What the… I was a little worried, but you did well.”
“What were you worried about… Ah! Did you think I was going to cheat on you with Beni or something?”
“No. If it were Rydia, maybe, but there’s no need to worry about Beni, so that part’s fine. At most, you’d hold hands.”
“…That actually makes me mad in its own way, you know?”
I puffed out my cheeks and openly showed my dissatisfaction. Elly gave a wry smile and said,
“You heard about Beni’s circumstances, right?”
“Yeah?”
“Beni’s conscious of that too. She’s always careful in case some other trait awakens.”
“Ah.”
What Beni had received was a succubus’s eye. Because of that, Beni had been sealed in a girl’s body, and in exchange, she gained magical talent. No matter how much Shadow helped, it wasn’t easy for a test subject who had never learned any proper means of resistance to blow up an entire branch of Those Who Swallow the Twilight. But Beni knew the fate of humans who had been eroded by a monster’s power—more precisely, by the authority of the God of Madness dwelling within it. Their bodies would fail to endure, twist, and die, or they’d go completely insane and turn into another monster. It had been fine so far, but there was no guarantee it would stay that way. Her assimilation with Shadow was only getting deeper.
“I understand. I’ll have to tease Beni in moderation from now on.”
“…Is there no option where you don’t tease her at all?”
“It’s my way of showing affection, so I can’t help it. And honestly, you like it a little too, don’t you, Elly?”
“……”
Seeing Elly press her lips tightly together, I burst into laughter and stood up from my seat. I held out the empty pasta bowl with one hand while waving at Elly, and with the other, I patted Rydia’s back a few times before speaking.
“Then I’ll head up now! I’m tired, and I want to read this too!”
When I tapped the basic magic book, Elly finally let the corners of her mouth curl up.
“It’s way past bedtime for kids. Go on up. You too, Rydia, it’s about time you got up.”
“Ehh. No way. You have plenty of rooms, Elly-senpai. Let me sleep over tonight. Give me more beer too. Next snack should be chopped steak.”
“Do you even know how many bottles you drank by yourself?! Get up right now, you brat!”
Leaving the bickering Elly and Rydia behind, I went up to my room. Even though it was basic magic, it would probably be impossible to learn it just by reading a little before bed. But understanding the content should be doable. I’d read it first and then practice while reviewing it later.
Honestly, gacha is the way of the devil. It’s true that you can hit the jackpot if you’re lucky… but isn’t there also the fun of putting in nooo effort to learn magic in a fantasy world?
With swelling anticipation, I opened the book.
And then.
“……What the hell is this saying?”
I could read the letters. I could only read the letters. I had no idea what it was trying to say. Why were there so many pretentious modifiers? Even if I somehow cut away the branches and tried to read only the core content, it kept talking about the heart’s circle or whatever—except I didn’t have any circles to begin with. I understood that mana gathered around the heart and that I could move it, but that was it.
After staring at the book and pondering for a long time, I nodded.
“Guess I’ll roll the gacha instead.”
This is the right choice for me….