There's No Pervert Quite Like This
The next day.
“Lower your stance.”
Ruina’s spine curved in a thoroughly undignified arc.
“Hngh… ugh…!”
A tiny groan rose from directly beneath my hips.
I tugged the hem of my skirt back into place. The damn thing kept letting the breeze whistle between my legs.
Not that I wasn’t wearing pants underneath.
If anyone else saw this, they’d immediately assume it was some kind of weird fetish play.
A beautiful girl doing push-ups with another girl riding on her back—yeah, the visual was asking for misunderstandings.
Ruina’s forehead glistened with sweat that looked almost like blood as she forced her arms to bend again.
“Haah… hek… Miss Nixie…”
“What? Too hard?”
“My body… feels like it’s been replaced with lead…”
“Basic stamina training is always the worst. That’s just how it is.”
I gave my hips a light wiggle, sending a jolt down her spine.
Shake—shake—
“Come on, come on. We’re still nowhere near done.”
“Huuuuuuuugh…!!!!”
That was when the memory of the day I saved her suddenly floated through my mind.
The more I think about it, the weirder it gets.
The Green Herb Ruina had offered me as payment for saving her life. Even at the lowest estimate, that was a herb worth three gold coins.
It wasn’t the kind of thing a brand-new D-rank explorer who had only just received her explorer tag should be carrying around.
Maybe if she were the spoiled son of some filthy-rich noble house, but this was Ruina.
“Hey, Ruina.”
“Ugh… Y-yes?!”
“Something just occurred to me.”
Her back muscles visibly tightened.
She was clearly terrified I was about to smack her ass again.
“Where did you get that thing?”
“W-what thing… ugh!”
“The Green Herb. The one you gave me as a life debt. The three-gold-coin one.”
Ruina’s elbows began to tremble faintly.
Thud.
“Uwaaaah…”
In the end she couldn’t hold on any longer and collapsed completely onto the ground.
“Only twelve? Your stamina is seriously terrible.”
“Haaah… haaah…”
Face planted in the dirt, Ruina gasped for breath like she was dying.
I hopped lightly off her back and onto the grass.
She scrambled for the water canteen at her waist and poured its contents straight down her throat.
Gulp—gulp—
“Haa… I really thought I was going to die.”
“You’re not going to answer me? If you stole it, bow your head and confess right now.”
“I didn’t! Absolutely not!”
Ruina wiped her wet lips with an expression of pure injustice.
“That… was my entire fortune.”
“Eh?”
The unexpected answer slipped a stupid sound out of me before I could stop it.
Ruina gave a bitter smile and fiddled with the worn leather pouch at her chest.
“My parents’ old equipment was still stored in the shed.”
“You sold it?”
“Yes. None of it fit me anyway. I took it to the Gray Market.”
She let out a small sigh and continued.
“I used that money to buy my own gear, and with what was left…”
“You bought the Green Herb. That’s what you’re saying?”
“Yes. They told me it was especially effective for healing wounds, so…”
I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
No matter how much she felt she owed me for saving her life, to spend her entire fortune on a medicinal herb and then just shove it into the hands of someone she had only just met?
Is this kid insane?
In Labyrinth City, other people’s lives were usually worth less than a fly’s. That was common sense.
But Ruina’s eyes were far too clear and transparent.
As if she had simply done the most natural thing in the world.
“…The Green Herb you gave me. I used it to save Lucia’s life.”
“Haha. I’m glad it helped.”
“Don’t you regret it?”
“Not at all.”
She looked straight at me as she spoke.
“You used the herb I gave you to save someone’s life. Why on earth would that make me feel bad?”
“………”
It threw me off balance.
I had lived my entire life in this rotten city, yet I had never once met someone like her.
“Haa… you ridiculously kind idiot…”
“…?”
Something in my chest felt strangely ticklish.
There’s no such thing as free in the labyrinth.
That had been the iron rule I’d carved into my bones over fifteen years.
If you received something, you had to pay an equal price or it would come back to bite you.
I stared down at Ruina quietly.
“…Looks like I have even more reason to train you now.”
Ruina’s eyes widened into perfect circles.
“Y-yes…?”
“You have to repay me for the free meals and potions with your body. Right?”
“……Yes??? My body?????”
“Yeah. With your body.”
A brief silence fell.
“Um… I’m not really… into that side but…”
“…?”
Her face flushed bright red as she finally squeezed out the words.
“P-please be gentle…!!!”
“Chop.”
Smack!
“Hyaagh!!!”
“What a perverted little shit. What the hell were you imagining?”
Ruina, who had just taken a knife-hand strike to the head, rubbed her skull vigorously with an aggrieved look.
“Uwaaaaaah… why did you do that…”
“You asked me to train you, didn’t you? Or did I mishear?”
“…I’m not sure I understand. Did you mean that kind of training?”
“Are you actually crazy?”
I was genuinely dumbfounded.
Was this the level of imagination teenage girls had these days?
…I should ask Mina about this later.
I sat down on a convenient wooden barrel and changed the subject.
“Hey, Ruina. Why are you so desperate to live as an explorer if you’re willing to go this far?”
Still on her knees, Ruina gazed up at the distant sky for a moment.
A faint, wistful look seeped into her eyes.
“…After my parents died in the labyrinth, the people in the village raised both me and my little sister.”
Her fist tightened around the hem of her pants.
“Everyone in the village is like a parent to me.”
Ruina lowered her head and whispered in a tiny voice.
“I want to become strong.”
“……”
“At least strong enough… to protect what I’ve been given.”
My chest felt tight.
On the outside she was a timid, clumsy chick.
But she had no intention of running away.
In Labyrinth City, people with that kind of stubborn stupidity were usually the first to die.
At the same time, they were also the ones who crawled their way down to the deepest floors.
“For a kid, you’ve got some pretty admirable thoughts in that head.”
“…Coming from someone who looks even more like a kid than I do…”
“Shut it.”
I snorted and shouted toward Lucia, who was standing far off clutching a tree branch with a blank look on her face.
“Lucia!”
She flinched hard.
“Y-yes? Miss Nixie?”
“Get over here. Both of you are doing laps.”
“Uuu… please spare me…”
Lucia trudged over with a face like she was about to cry.
“…Wasn’t that the end of training just now?”
“What are you talking about? We’re only getting started.”
At my words, both Lucia’s and Ruina’s faces turned pale.
“Huuu… I don’t want to do any more…”
“Please go easy on us…”
Judging by the looks in their eyes, today’s training was going to be very, very long.
After a long training session, we finally got a short break.
We headed down to Ruina’s village to cool off our sweat.
“It’s a peaceful village.”
A quiet rural landscape where the peaceful chirping of insects filled the air.
Yet the people were all moving with clear urgency.
“Pack everything! We don’t know when we’ll be able to come back!”
“Honey… do you think the house will collapse in this flood too…?”
“Hey! Stop saying useless things, woman!”
People hauling food out of storage and packing it neatly into sacks.
“Mommy! Can I bring this dress? I… I really like this one!”
“…Yes. Let’s bring it.”
“Hehe… I like the dress! I like Mommy!”
Children being led by mothers who were trying to hide their exhaustion as they gathered clothes.
Lucia stared at the scene in a daze.
“…There are about six days left, right? Until the Labyrinth Flood.”
“Yeah. They’re getting ready to evacuate before then.”
“Those people look like they’re gathering weapons…”
Lucia pointed at the sturdy men inspecting blunt spears and leather shields.
“Are they planning to fight when the flood comes?”
“Pretty much.”
They might have started as refugees when they first set foot in this city, but they were settlers here now.
This village was their property. Naturally they wanted to protect it from the coming Labyrinth Flood as much as possible.
I could understand the sentiment to some degree.
Especially since I used to be a broke D-rank myself.
But what was the point if they died?
“Oh my, Ruina!”
The moment we entered the village entrance, a plump auntie waved at us.
“Are these your friends? My, they’re all so pretty. Would you like to meet my son for a potential marriage match later?”
“Fuck.”
“Oh dear, what a bold mouth. That’s exactly my son’s type. How about it, really?”
“…I’m good, thanks.”
The bald middle-aged man carrying luggage nearby also burst out laughing and chimed in.
“Hey there, Ruina. How’s the explorer work going these days? Don’t push yourself too hard, especially for your sister’s sake.”
“Yes, Mister Nux. I’m being careful.”
Ruina scratched the back of her head awkwardly as she answered.
Lucia watched the warm scene with open fascination.
“Everyone… really takes good care of Miss Ruina.”
“Yes. They’re all wonderful people.”
Ruina nodded proudly.
I found myself nodding along as I watched.
It seemed the people of this village hadn’t abandoned Ruina just because she was an orphan.
It was a mysterious sight.
I never thought I’d witness something like this in such a rotten city.
“…I think I finally understand.”
Why she was willing to risk her life to protect this village.
I looked at Ruina and said,
“It really is a peaceful village.”
“Right? Everyone here is wonderful.”
“Yeah. It looks that way.”
It truly was a peaceful village.
+
But at the time, I had no idea.
The bleak future that would soon descend upon us.