The Traditional Festival Revival: Yujin Joins the Guild
"I see. So your parents left a sanctuary for you in this temple, and then they were murdered by the Light Church."
"Mm... they said the sanctuary here didn't produce enough to keep our whole family alive, so they kept going outside. Then one day, no matter how long I waited, Mom and Dad never came back... so even though I knew I wasn't supposed to, I snuck out to look..."
"...Meaning your parents were already gone."
My heart felt like it would split in two. How could such a cruel fate befall such a pitiful soul?
Camille kept her breast in Yujin's mouth, stroking him off as he nursed. What he needed more than anything right now was a mother's warmth. Elesa and I couldn't just sit there either, so we comforted him by licking his toes. It wouldn't heal the wound of losing his parents, but at least he might forget the pain for a little while.
"It's just so heartbreaking, Yujin. How long have you been living all alone?"
"Slurp, slurp♥ Um, I dunno. I never counted. B-but I'm a tough guy, so I could live by myself just fine. When bugs crawled in from outside, I'd eat those. Sometimes bats would come in hunting the bugs, too. Plus there were plants I could grow in here!"
The contrast between Yujin's brave little voice and his painfully scrawny body only made him all the more pitiful. This was a boy who should have been in the prime of his growing years — what the hell was this? Honestly, the only reason he'd survived was because this was a fantasy world. In reality, he'd have been dead a long time ago.
Without needing to say a word, the three of us were of one mind: we could not leave Yujin in a place like this.
"Um, Yujin? Living in this temple forever is going to be too much of a burden on you. You're going to keep growing, and this dungeon just can't support that. Would you like to come outside with us?"
When I asked him point-blank, Yujin recoiled.
"I-if I leave here, I'll die. Mom and Dad died because they left the dungeon. I don't wanna die."
"You don't need to worry about that at all, Yujin. No matter what happens, we will protect you."
Elesa swore it in a gallant, unwavering voice, but Yujin still looked thoroughly unconvinced. To him, this dungeon was probably an entire world unto itself. I knew all too well how fatal it felt to break out of the world you belonged to.
...Well, in my case, it was less that I'd broken out and more that I'd been thrown in out of nowhere.
In times like these, it was better to dangle an easy-to-understand benefit in front of him than to force the issue. I pulled out a piece of chocolate I'd packed in case I ran low on calories during dungeon exploration.
Chocolate in this era? It's a fantasy world, okay?
"Want to try this? Here, say aaah~"
"Uh, aahm..."
I popped it into his mouth, and Yujin ate it without even knowing what it was.
"...!! W-what is this?! It's insanely good! It doesn't even compare to bat meat! W-what's this flavor called?"
Ah. That, my dear, is what we call "sweet."
The thought of Yujin's life — a life where he hadn't even known the concept of sweetness existed, let alone the word for it — was so wretched that tears welled up in my eyes.
"If you come with us, you can eat as much of this as you want from now on. You sure you don't want to come?"
"I'll come!"
I felt a little like a kidnapper, but hey — persuasion successful♥
"Hoh, so that's what happened? You three really pulled off something big. Excellent work."
"O-oh, no. We only did what anyone would have..."
"We didn't do anything worth that kind of praise..."
Even as they demurred, Camille and Elesa rubbed their thighs together and gazed up at the Manager with hopeful, upturned eyes — wondering if they might just receive his cock as a reward.
Meanwhile, Yujin — for whom an adult man like the Manager was a first besides his own father — hid behind me, radiating wariness. Elesa was taller than I was, so she'd have made a better hiding spot...
"Right, so you're Yujin. Hmm... heh. Not bad. I've just had a rather interesting idea. You — come over here a moment."
"Mm."
The moment the Manager's voice reached him, Yujin stepped out from behind me and approached as if he'd never been wary at all. Some kind of wild instinct for telling good people from bad, maybe?
"There's no one better suited to teaching common sense than me. You said you've lived in a dungeon... no, a temple your whole life, right? You'll be lacking in everyday common sense, so I'll teach you personally."
It was an enormous honor, but Yujin only gave the most innocent of replies.
"Can I have choco?"
The Manager stared down at Yujin with a blank look for a moment, then burst out laughing and snapped his fingers. A spatial rift opened in midair, and a pair of enormous tits popped out. A piece of chocolate was wedged right in the cleavage.
"Here you go. This do it for you?"
"Yeah. Mister, you're a good person."
"Kekeke! Damn right I am. There's no one in this world better than this mister, you hear?"
The Manager stroked Yujin's head as he gave us our orders.
"You lot can head back. I'll pay out the rewards all at once once everything's settled."
So no reward right now, huh.
Regrettable as it was, we had no choice but to lick our lips and withdraw — already picturing the reward we'd collect in one glorious lump once everything was wrapped up.
The next time I ran into Yujin was several days later.
"Hey, Astera. Been a few days, huh?"
"...H-huh? Is that you, Yujin? Woooow, you've changed so much!"
Clothes really do make the man, and self-care is everything, I suppose. Yujin, who'd looked like a sewer rat when we'd first pulled him out of the temple, had cleaned up into a surprisingly decent-looking kid in just a few days. There was only so much you could change about someone's facial features, but a good wash, a change into nice clothes, and a belly packed full of nutritious food for a stomach that had been on the verge of malnutrition — even his complexion was different. Thanks to the kind of magical health restoration unique to fantasy worlds, Yujin had undergone a complete transformation.
"You've gotten so handsome. I barely recognized you."
"Ehehe, really? Thanks."
He'd changed a lot, but that innocent smile was still the same. That, at least, was a relief.
"Anyway, you seem to have gotten pretty used to the guild already. I see you've even learned to ride."
"It's not like it's hard or anything."
That's what he said, but he still had that show-off streak unique to immature boys — Yujin gave the mare he was riding a juicy smack on the ass. Watching a bright-red handprint bloom across her rump made my own pussy throb for no good reason.
"The Manager actually said it'd be better for me to walk around if I wanted to put on muscle, but riding is just too much fun. Hehehe."
"Oh my. Not listening to the Manager? What a naughty boy."
"But as a male, that's a perfect score, right?"
How did he know exactly what I wanted to hear♥
"Aaah~ We're the ones who brought you all the way here, but some other pussy is getting all the benefits. I'm getting jealous."
"Hehehe, sorry."
"Heh, no, no. I'm the one who should apologize for teasing you. A man using whatever pussy he wants is only natural, after all."
"I'll use yours and Camille's and Elesa's pussies properly later. It's a little too much for me right now, though."
Yujin cleared his throat and made his announcement.
"I actually came to say goodbye to you for a little while, Astera."
"Huh? Goodbye? We've barely even met!"
"I'm leaving the guild now to go to the orphanage in the village."
"W-wait a second. I don't understand. Why? I-I can't imagine this is the case, but is someone bullying you? Looking down on you for being from a dungeon? If that's it, I'll tell the Manager..."
"It's not like that. Everyone in this guild treats me well. The pussy-holes are delicious, and I've learned a lot about how to handle females. It was actually the Manager who told me to go to the orphanage."
The moment I heard the word "Manager," I immediately calmed my flustered heart. If it was the Manager, of course he'd have some deep, far-reaching scheme that someone like me couldn't even begin to compare to.
Yujin burned with a fighting spirit that hardly suited his young face. Hearing that much, I more or less pieced together the situation. The one running the orphanage in this village was Veronica, a priestess of the Light Church. Yujin had been selected as a special agent to infiltrate and strike at her from the inside.
Understanding the circumstances, I started to worry for a different reason.
"Will you be all right? If... if your situation were to be discovered, it definitely wouldn't end well."
But to a man who'd already made up his mind, a female's worries were nothing more than useless chatter that only wasted his time.
"It's fine. I learned all kinds of techniques directly from the Manager. I can do this, so you don't need to worry. You just need to do what you have to do. Got it?"
Whoa... just a few days ago he hadn't been anywhere near this manly. A man personally trained by the Manager really was on another level!
"Show me your back."
"Huh? Like this?"
I obediently turned around at Yujin's words, and the very next instant his handprint was stamped across my ass.
"Nnghhoooh!?!♥♥♥"
Yujin laughed as he watched me climax, squirting love juices in sharp little spurts.
"That's a spirit injection! It was written all over your face that you were jealous of this horse. You're welcome!"
What else could I possibly say to Yujin as he smiled so innocently like that?
"Thank you so, so much for spanking Astera's huge ass♥♥"