Chapter 77. One Month After Forming the Party (2)
Chapter 77. One Month After Forming the Party (2)
For adventurers, the post-quest celebration was a matter of great importance.
With danger ever-present, plenty of them poured a substantial portion of their earnings into food and entertainment.
Of course, adventurers with meager profits filled that sense of satisfaction with cheap, high-proof liquor — but fortunately, when circumstances aligned as they had today, it became possible to enliven the celebratory mood in ways far better than drinking.
The farmhouse where they were currently staying produced agricultural goods of such high quality that they even traded with the royal capital.
And thanks to the benefits of that trade, they could also obtain a wide variety of spices — so as long as the party included someone skilled at cooking, a sumptuous meal rivaling a royal banquet was well within reach.
"...No matter how many times I think about it, I still can't believe it."
But even seated before a table laid out by someone of such exceptional culinary skill, Serika had yet to calm her anger as she furiously chewed the meat speared on her fork.
Naturally, savoring the flavor was the last thing on her mind. Anyone would react the same way after being stabbed in the back by someone they'd trusted as a comrade.
"Yeah, well. I get it."
Of course, the comrade who had done the backstabbing was casually spooning up soup as if nothing was out of the ordinary.
"No matter how fervently the clergy insists that the gods exist, nobody's ever actually seen one in person. Isn't it only natural that you'd struggle to have faith?"
"Don't change the subject! That's not what we're talking about!"
"Hey, hey, don't slam the table. This is the first high-class meal we've had in ages — what if it spills?"
"Food only matters to you at times like this, even though you're not the type who eats for taste in the first place...!!"
Her attitude over the past month had been that she'd dig up weeds by the roadside and eat them as long as they filled her stomach.
Still, Serika wasn't hoping for the table Dave had prepared to be overturned either.
In the end, she swallowed her anger and resumed eating, at which point Ymir glanced over at Dave with a smirk.
"Haha~ Our Dave the shield really does have impressive performance, doesn't he~ That little spitfire of a girl calms right down the moment your name comes up."
"...Ahaha, you're as fond of teasing as ever, I see."
Dave wore an ambiguous smile.
He wasn't openly showing his mild discomfort, but it was clear he didn't view the current situation in a purely positive light.
"That said, Ymir. To be honest, I think you went a bit too far this time. With magic, you can at least use mana to mitigate the damage to some degree, but this time the ravine collapsed and there was a serious rockslide, wasn't there?"
"Hmm, was it?"
At Dave's earnest rebuke, Ymir's smirk faded as she slipped the forkful of meat into her mouth.
She chewed over her thoughts for a moment, then gradually took on a more serious air as she turned to face Serika.
"Well, I suppose I really did go overboard. Sorry about that. If my control had been properly dialed in, I wouldn't have needed to slam in a spell that strong... It seems it'll take a bit more time before my combat instincts come back."
"...You've been saying that exact same thing for a month now. Even if you can't aim as precisely as Heira, you need to at least regain enough of a feel for it that you aren't endangering your allies."
"You just don't understand — the way you handle mana when using magic versus when using a sword is fundamentally different. This is the kind of thing that's quicker to learn by experiencing it firsthand rather than hearing it explained... Hmm, all right. While we're at it, pipsqueak, how about you learn magic from me too, the way Dave has been?"
"Huh? The way Dave has?"
"It wouldn't hurt to learn. There are actually types out there who use both a sword and magic together."
It had now been a month since they began party life.
Ymir had continued running the training sessions for Dave that she'd been conducting even before Heira and Serika joined, keeping both things going in parallel.
Of course, it was the ordinary meditation-based training — not the methods that had made Serika recoil in horror.
That much wouldn't be a bad thing to try out, so for Serika it was an offer that piqued her interest quite a bit.
"It's true that learning a few spells probably wouldn't hurt, but..."
"Right~ It'll come in handy in all sorts of ways, you know? And if you take me up on it now, I'll give you a discount~"
"Wait, you were charging money for this!?"
"Well, of course I should get what I'm due. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get lectures from a Grand Archmage who's investing her personal time into teaching you?"
Of course, Dave was receiving those lectures for free — but that was because he'd helped with her research.
Since he'd brought a project that might have gone years without further progress to completion in a single day, she was more than willing to provide personal instruction for as long as he wanted.
Whether that benefit extended to other party members was a separate matter entirely.
"Still, it's a chance you won't find just anywhere, you know? I do feel a bit sorry, and we are party members, so if you accept my offer now, I'll teach you cheap~"
"...It's fine. I'll just stick with the sword training I've been doing."
"Sheesh, you don't trust me at all. All you'd have to do is give me the meat left on that plate over there and you could get the lecture for free."
"No, I don't need— ...Huh? What did you just say?"
In that instant — whoosh! — the steak soared up from the plate sitting in front of Serika.
Belatedly realizing that Ymir had used telekinesis to snatch away her portion of meat, Serika's eyes flew wide open.
"Aagh! I was saving that!"
"Mmm~ I guess meat you save till the very end really does taste more special~"
"Aaaaaagh! Why do you just take what someone else was saving without permission?!! Give it back right now! I said give it back!"
"Yeesh, I give you an opportunity and you kick it away. Fine, fine — here, refund."
"No, why are you giving me the one you already ate from, you absolute slob?! There's plenty of untouched food underneath, too!"
"So much complaining even when I'm trying to appease you... Hey, brat — no reaching for the plate!"
"And stealing it with telekinesis is fair game, is it?!"
Serika, her emotions running high as she tried to take it back by force, and Ymir, who was teasingly floating even her own plates into the air with telekinesis in response.
Worried that this precarious back-and-forth might erupt into something serious, Dave's face started to turn pale.
"Both of you, calm down. There's plenty more food prepared..."
"Pfft."
But just then, the faint sound of a laugh reached them.
In that moment, Dave and the two who had been locked in mutual antagonism all paused their squabble and turned toward the source of the sound.
Toward the green-haired girl who had lifted a hand to her lips as a laugh escaped her.
"...Ah."
Did the silence that followed strike her as strange?
Soon, Heira stopped laughing. Feeling their gazes fixed on her, she began to tense up, her body going rigid.
"...Ah, that's..."
Had she done something wrong?
Right, the situation had been on the verge of breaking into a fight at any moment.
Bursting into laughter at such a serious moment would clearly be inappropriate. —She was about to apologize for exactly that thought when,
"Heira... I didn't know you could laugh."
Serika, who had been glaring at Ymir as if she meant to kill her just moments before, now turned a much softer face toward Heira and began to smile.
"Come to think of it, I've never once seen her laugh."
The same was true for Ymir.
She too seemed pleased by the sight, and with a soft chuckle she lowered the plates she'd been levitating back down in front of Serika.
Had she stopped her teasing because she'd found something even more pleasant to witness?
"It's been a month since we started living together, but she's always so expressionless you'd never guess what she's thinking. She never speaks up unless you speak to her first... Dave, have you ever seen her laugh?"
Her gaze slid smoothly over toward Dave.
In fact, aside from private moments, Dave had spent the most time with Heira over the past month.
One of Heira's conditions for joining the party had been assisting Dave with his work, and the very table before them was something the two of them had cooperated to arrange.
"Now that I think about it... No. I don't think I've ever seen it either."
At some point, the topic had shifted from the two women's spat to Heira herself.
Sensing the tension in the air, Heira hunched her shoulders and glanced up at Dave as he turned toward her.
"Um, well..."
This wasn't the first time she'd been the center of attention.
A month ago at the archery range, plenty of people had looked at her and voiced their admiration, and even before that, suspicious men had approached her in taverns.
But none of those moments had made her feel as nervous as she did now.
To her, as someone striving to adapt to human society, the three people who had taught her what she needed to know and with whom she'd built bonds — they were special.
"Am I... strange?"
Heira felt a twinge of unease at the curiosity they were now directing her way.
Though she wasn't demonstrative with her emotions, the flush rising to her cheeks made it clear that she too possessed the feeling called embarrassment.
"No, it's actually a lovely sight, isn't it?"
Yes — she, too, had emotions that she could understand and empathize with as a person.
How could that possibly be seen as a negative in a comrade?
"The fact that you're expressing your feelings more honestly must mean we've gotten that much closer, I think. Honestly, I was worried Heira might not be able to adjust to our party... You two feel the same way, right?"
"...Mm, well. I suppose so."
"Yeah~ Heira's smiling face is cute, so I'm happy to see it."
One after the other, the two of them voiced their agreement with Dave's words. The smiles on their faces surely came from genuine feeling.
Yes — the people in this party accepted her.
Heira had felt that keenly over the course of their month-long journey together.
"I'd love it if Heira showed us that face more often from now on."
"Right, since it's so nice to see, give us more smiles going forward. I'll keep working this brat hard for the sake of your smiling face, too."
"Why does the conclusion veer off in that direction?!"
And so the bickering started up again.
But watching the scene unfold, Dave didn't voice any worry the way he had before.
Even after fighting like that, the two of them still cooperated out in the field as if nothing had happened.
And at the end of it all, sitting back down at the same table to share a meal — that was proof of just how much closer they'd grown.
"Heehee."
Reassured by that thought, as Heira watched the man who had taken her in wear a satisfied smile, she placed a hand over her thudding heart and quietly closed her eyes.
She felt a sense of shared understanding settle into her heart as she accepted the moment for what it was.
And with that feeling, she suppressed the complicated emotions that rose every time she faced him.
***
Yes — Heira was gradually growing fond of the party she belonged to.
Serika, who always treated her like a little sister. Ymir, who was younger in years yet guided her with the dependable presence of an elder.
Though it hadn't been long since they'd met, she'd even begun to think that if she were to make a family, she would want it to be with people like them.
-Wiiiiing~
But unlike the two of them, when it came to Dave...
Whenever she faced the man who had brought her into this party, Heira felt a complicated tangle of emotions she had never experienced with anyone else.
The reason for that always became clear whenever she found herself alone with him.
"Aah, ngh, aaaah...♥"
A deserted storehouse on the outskirts of the village.
The moment she'd stepped inside, Dave had bound her with the tools prepared in advance. Now, with a blindfold over her eyes, he had his hand on the device that controlled the apparatus affixed to her sex, which was pressed against the wall.
"...You lewd little slut."
Showing not the slightest restraint in his contempt for her.
"You were a virgin just a month ago, and now this much stimulation is all it takes to get you gushing like a fountain."
"I'll beha... Ma... Mas, ter..."
-Wiiiiing~
"Hngyiiiiiiiiiiii~♥"
The apology she'd reflexively tried to offer was cut short by the intensifying vibrations.
By the time her back arched sharply and her waist snapped straight from the rough, unreservedly unleashed moans, Heira felt her mind going brilliantly blank. Mustering the last of her strength, she screamed.
"Sto... sto... Mas, Master pleash shto... I, I'm going crazyyy, my, my pussy's going crazyyy... going crazyyyyyyyyyy~~~~!!"
Anyone would be moved to pity by such a wretched cry. Yet he simply kept watching her, never stopping his manipulation of the device.
-Drip drip, trickle.
Before long, by the time her sex, relentlessly stimulated by the vibrations, had gushed out a copious amount of fluid, her trembling body lost its strength and collapsed against the wall as if leaning on it for support.
Before the lingering aftereffects could even begin to fade, the devices attached to her body resumed their vibrations as if to drive the stimulation in further.
"Ooh, ah, nghaa...♥"
A hell of climax that remained unfamiliar no matter how many times it was repeated.
In the midst of that torturous process, the only thing Heira could do was let her tears and drool flow freely and surrender to the moans her instincts dragged out of her.
'How did it...'
With whatever threadbare scraps of consciousness remained,
'How did it come to this?'
Right up until she'd arrived at this place, she had been recalling the image of the man who'd performed kindness toward her.