The Hunter’s Story, and… (1)
The Hunter’s Story, and… (1)
#
"Yoo-jin? Are you all right?"
"..."
We were having breakfast before leaving for Nilbog. Reni was beaming as though she'd slept wonderfully the night before.
How infuriating. I’d spent almost the entire night wide awake because she clung to me, while she’d treated my body like a heating pad. If she wasn’t going to do anything, shouldn’t she have clung to Yuri instead? That would’ve looked better too. Besides, my body was hard and bony.
And it wasn’t just that I hadn’t gotten to do anything with Reni. I’d needed to take care of my Heat by myself that morning because we hadn’t had sex! But with all three of us constantly together, I couldn’t find an opening. An opening for sex! There was none!
...Come to think of it, I’d never told Reni about the Heat. Even so, pulling her aside and asking her to get me off for a moment felt wrong. Sex should be enjoyable for both people. Using her for my own pleasure would be little different from treating her like a masturbation sleeve. I didn’t want that.
Of course, it would be fine if we both agreed to that kind of roleplay. For example, embedding her upper body in a wall, leaving only her lower half exposed, and taking her roughly.
'...'
Just thinking about it was making me hard.
Anyway, finding an opportunity for sex mattered more right now than deciding what to do. The problem was that I had no idea how to create one...
As I sat there spacing out while gauging the situation, Yuri paused mid-chew on her bread with a puzzled look.
"Aren't you eating?"
"Ah, yeah, I should eat. Yeah..."
Yuri was devouring her breakfast heartily, as if determined to make up for the lack of sleep with food.
To be fair, she'd been sprawled out on the floor to sleep. The bed with all three of us crammed together must have been uncomfortable for her.
When I woke up in the morning and didn't see her on the bed, I'd panicked, thinking she'd gone off to have her eyes eaten out—and there she was, unapologetically squirming around on the floor.
I'd noticed it since the day before: this woman clacked around like a model and subtly twisted her body to create as much allure as possible, yet she also had a rather brazen side.
In any case, maybe from sleeping on the floor, Yuri kept twisting her whole body this way and that during the meal as if she felt stiff.
"..."
This beauty’s usual outfit was a sleeveless top with a harness. Whenever she stretched, the harness tightened around her body, emphasizing her chest and fully exposing her smooth armpits...
Right. If I couldn’t have sex, I might as well enjoy the view.
"Yoo-jin. Your drool."
"Ah."
Sluurp.
Reni followed my gaze and soon looked slightly sulky. Well, perhaps she shouldn't have teased me so much the night before.
When I deliberately glanced at Yuri as if to make a point, Reni looked at Yuri's chest once, then looked down at her own chest once, and finally looked at me with a completely blank expression.
"..."
...For once, I had no idea what Reni's expression meant. Usually, I could read her perfectly even without words.
What did looking back and forth between our chests mean?
Was she trying to boast that hers were bigger? Or was she angry that I was looking at a smaller chest instead of hers? Surely she wasn't asking...if she should make them smaller? Absolutely not that.
C-could it be...she was saying she'd wear more revealing clothes too? I'd welcome that, actually.
"..."
Unable to endure Reni’s gaze, I meekly buried my face in my plate.
"..."
...Come to think of it, this was strange. Why did that woman keep stretching so much? Especially the way she waved her arms around and stretched them straight up—it was almost like she wanted to deliberately show off her armpits...
"Yoo-jin. You need to eat quickly. We'll be late."
"Ah. Yeah."
#
This was bad.
As we packed after breakfast, something Yuri said made me realize I had made a huge mistake, one I could blame on no one else.
"Thank you so much for sharing your meals and even your bed with me. Once we reach the village, I'll repay you properly at my home."
"Uh...is there no inn there?"
"No. It's a small village... Travelers do sometimes stay at the village chief's house, but my place is decent enough. I'll make sure you're comfortable."
I was screwed. Completely screwed! How had I only just realized this? If Yuri traveled with us... I couldn’t have sex with Reni!
I hadn’t expected this. How could this happen...? On top of that, we’d have to travel with Yuri until we cleared the dungeon, so my chances from then on would be even...
"Ah..."
Even Reni, who'd been beaming all morning, was visibly flustered. She'd only just now grasped the meaning of what Yuri was saying.
'Reni! Why didn't you stop me yesterday!'
I shot Reni a glare loaded with that meaning, and Reni glared back at me with wide eyes. Wh-what, what? You were blaming me?
After tormenting me relentlessly before bed, she had the nerve to look at me like that! How utterly infuriating! How could she play the victim like this?!
...
Whether I was tearing my hair out or not, the preparations to head to Yuri's village were proceeding smoothly.
Yuri had a great deal of luggage. Her huge backpack was stuffed to the point of bursting... What had she crammed inside to make it so full?
I had no choice but to put all of it in my inventory. I’d bought a large leather sack to pass off as a subspace pouch for situations like this. Hopefully, she wouldn’t discover that I was Awakened.
The way Yuri's eyes went perfectly round when her luggage vanished was a sight to behold.
"Y-Yoo-jin? What on earth is this?"
"It's a subspace pouch."
"A subspace pouch?!"
Yuri didn't seem to know what to do with herself.
"A-are you both veteran adventurers? Ah, what should I do..."
"Nothing like that. Just relax."
Yuri was now looking at me with something close to reverence. Seeing that, Reni had somehow adopted a smug expression as if to say, you didn't even know that? Which was funny, considering that until recently, she'd been jumping out of her skin in surprise at every little thing just the same. Why she was putting on airs now was beyond me.
...
On the way to the wagon, Yuri stumbled again. Was there something wrong with that clicking model walk of hers? Or was this woman... contrary to appearances, actually rather scatterbrained? My suspicions grew.
"Are you all right?"
"Ah, yes. I'm fine."
"Is it because you couldn't sleep properly last night..."
"It's not that. The bed was really soft. I slept wonderfully, thanks to that."
Yuri finished with a sheepish expression. What kind of shameless claim was that from someone who had slept on the floor?
...Right. The previous night had been painful enough for me too. It was best to drop the subject.
#
Nilbog Village was a fair distance away. Even if we left in the morning, we wouldn’t arrive until around evening.
I couldn't stick close to Reni the way I had before.
If Yuri were a complete stranger, that'd be one thing, but with a temporary companion right in front of us, getting all lovey-dovey with Reni felt a bit awkward.
Reni sometimes glanced at me and fidgeted, but there was nothing I could do. She needed to stop looking at me like that. I was going to get hard!!!
I turned away from Reni and searched for anything that might calm me down. Come to think of it... there was something... something I had forgotten.
Right. The party!
"Hm. Now that I think of it, we haven't formed a party yet. Yuri. Give me your hand."
"Ah, yes. Pleased to work with you."
[Name: Yuri Fogswaithe]
[Class: ???]
[Stats: Click to open ▶]
[Skills: Click to open ▶]
[Traits: ??? / ??? / ??? / ???]
...But why was her Class displayed as ??? Was it because ‘retired ranger’ was such an ambiguous status?
Anyway, it was a long way to Nilbog Village. With time on our hands, we started chatting about trivial personal matters.
"So, you didn't tell me last time—why are you going around external dungeons?"
Hm. I wanted to make a killing on magic stones, but was it safe to say that? I still hadn’t decided how much to reveal to Yuri, especially since I didn’t know what would happen after we dealt with the Goblin Dungeon.
Well, I'd already prepared a surface-level reason, so it was fine. I could just reuse the excuse I'd used on Burly-Armed back in Riverbridge.
"Mm. Actually, I’m heading to West Keep to explore the Great Labyrinth. But I haven’t registered as an adventurer yet... so I’m an aspiring adventurer."
"Ah... an aspiring adventurer..."
When she heard that, Yuri looked at me with a trace of pity. Didn’t she like the phrase ‘aspiring adventurer’? In any case, I continued.
"But from what I've heard, the Great Labyrinth is a rather dangerous place. So I'm touring external dungeons first to gain experience."
"Ah...I see..."
Yuri’s gaze grew increasingly pitying, as though she were looking at someone pathetic...
"Um...external dungeons probably won't help that much, you know... I-I'm not sure if I should say this, but rather than practicing, it'd be better to quickly gain real combat experience..."
"..."
This woman...just what was she misunderstanding? She was looking at me with the face of a relative telling you to quit studying for the civil service exam and just get a job already...
"Are you perhaps from a well-off family?"
"..."
"Ah, now that I think of it, you even carry a high-grade artifact like a subspace pouch... I've spoken out of turn. I'm sorry."
...She saw me as some idle rich kid! Reni had mistaken me for a slave, and this woman thought I was an unemployed bum! Why did every woman I met in this world misunderstand me?
"Ahem. Hm. That’s enough about me. This priest... Reni and I met by chance and have been traveling together. More importantly, Yuri, you said you were a retired ranger?"
"Huh? Ah, y-yes..."
She looked slightly flustered. Why? Suspicion spread through my mind. I felt as though I almost understood... almost, but not quite...
"What kind of work do you do now?"
"Currently... I'm working as a hunter and forest warden. The work is similar to what I did as a ranger, after all."
Her voice was a little calmer, as though she had prepared that answer.
Anyway, a retired ranger, huh...
I didn't know anything about that story. In the original, she never really talked about her past—she only ever threw herself obsessively into goblin hunting.
Still, if the story about being a retired ranger was true, she might be a bit older than she looked. She hadn't...gotten married or anything, had she? Just then, Reni asked the very thing I'd been curious about.
"In that case...do you live with your family? Will it be all right for us to come?"
At those words, Yuri turned slightly, lowered her head, and answered in a faintly tearful voice.
"...My family...has gone far away..."
...Her family was dead?!
"Ah...I'm so sorry..."
Reni fidgeted, looking as though she regretted asking.
More to the point, this was a bit of a shock. The reason Yuri developed an abnormal hostility toward goblins and an obsession bordering on madness was because her entire family had been slaughtered by goblins. Had I come too late?!
...For all that, she seemed remarkably composed. Was she fine now, but the moment she saw a goblin she'd lose all reason?
Didn't seem like it. She didn't look like she'd lost her mind. And above all, Yuri hadn't suggested we wipe out the dungeon—she'd only asked us to investigate it. Just what had happened to her family?
"...It's fine. Don't worry about it."
Yuri turned away and gazed toward the distant mountains. Her eyes were moist and wistful, as though there were circumstances I knew nothing about.
Had I guessed wrong? Did her family and goblins have nothing to do with each other?
-Ting!
A Status Window appeared out of nowhere. A lighter chime than the Goddess’s usual notification sounded.
[The Holy Sword is bored.]
...This one. She could clearly see what was going on outside, yet she had no sense of the mood.
[What, why, what.]
[The Holy Sword wonders when you’ll begin the “explanation.”]
Come to think of it, I needed to give her a sex education too. But the situation was terrible. First, I'd have to show her the real thing and figure out how to explain it...
[The Holy Sword demands an answer.]
[You can see everything happening right now. Read the room. I’ll explain it properly later.]
[The Holy Sword says that if you have nothing better to do, you should at least polish it.]
"..."
...Fine. Things are awkward anyway. Might as well do that. I pulled the maintenance kit out of my inventory and wiped down the Holy Sword.
[The Holy Sword says not that part, lower down.]
"..."
This one. Last time it had shriveled up and whimpered, but now it was brazen again.
...
As the awkward silence dragged on, the coachman lifted the canopy slightly and spoke.
"You folks said you were adventurers?"
"Yes. Well, something like that."
"Then you'd best come out and take a look at this."
When we looked outside at the coachman’s urging, something was moving from the direction of the mountains, kicking up a cloud of dust.
"A boar. A little...no, quite a large one. It's heading this way."
Yuri was the first to make it out. Her eyesight seemed excellent; to me, it was only a dot. After narrowing her eyes to study it, Yuri suddenly sprang to her feet.
"Please stop the wagon. That boar is definitely coming this way. It seems quite enraged... I think we'll need to drive it off. Give me my bow."
Yuri grabbed the bow and quiver she'd entrusted to me and jumped from the wagon. Her movements were swift and her expression sharp. So she could deliver when it mattered.
"Reni. Let's head out."
"Yes."