Dessert Research Society, First Sale Launch! (1)
Dessert Research Society, First Sale Launch! (1)
[ Box of Mysteries ]
Number 777. The item that exchanged whatever you put in for a random item of equivalent value.
...I'll set the fangs aside — processing them will raise their appraisal grade. Everything else can go straight into the Box of Mysteries.
Tomorrow was the first sale of the Snow Blossom Fruit.
If I could just pull in enough money, I could pool the proceeds and spin the Box of Mysteries properly.
That about wraps it up.
I finished sorting the loot from the hidden dungeon, 「Ruined Temple」, and took a slow look around.
This was the Dessert Research Society clubroom.
A bed, a wardrobe, a table, chairs...
I'd only moved over the absolute essentials from the dormitory, but the place already had the lived-in feel of someone's home.
The sight should have been unfamiliar, yet it struck me as oddly familiar.
Why, though?
I puzzled over it for a moment, then the reason clicked.
Ah. The Waiting Room.
In Fanta X Aca, the Waiting Room was the space where characters you'd recruited as companions would gather.
Somewhere along the way, I'd subconsciously arranged the furniture to resemble one of those rooms — the Clubroom layout.
Guess this is what they call the force of habit.
Come to think of it, the Waiting Room was a major part of Fanta X Aca's core content. You could boost characters' morale and performance by decorating the room, adding refreshments, amenities, totems, and the like.
Hoo.
I dropped onto the bed with a sigh that seemed to rise from somewhere deep in my chest.
How do I put it.
A fresh wave of reflection washed over me.
Back when I first possessed this body — Pongpongi's body — I was completely lost. I had no idea how I was going to survive.
Forget gathering companions. Just making it through a single day was a struggle.
My gaze happened to fall on a notebook resting on the bed.
[ Romance Log ]
For me, this was one of my most vital items.
It contained every last detail Pongpongi had documented while stalking the heroines.
I leaned forward, practically lying flat on the bed, and reached to tuck it into a deep drawer —
Sniff, sniff.
...What was that?
The blanket gave off a strangely sweet scent, something like peaches.
Did I spill something?
I lifted the blanket to check and found several long, cherry-blossom-pink tail hairs clinging to it in places.
Right. Last time, Danya had sprawled out here after stuffing herself with tomatoes and getting a bloated stomach.
...Danya, you little menace.
I'd have to call her in later and make her peel off every last strand.
I was thinking exactly that when —
— Knock, knock.
Through the window on the door, a pair of pink ears was twitching upright.
Speak of the tiger.
When I opened the clubroom door, Danya was peeking up at me timidly.
"Welcome. Felines really do share the same habits, I suppose."
"...What's that supposed to mean, nya?"
"Speak of the devil... no. That proverb probably doesn't exist here. Never mind."
"What was that. Boring."
Danya pursed her lips. The moment she moved to step inside —
I hastily blocked her path.
"Hold it."
"Nya?"
"Shoes."
Danya tilted her head at my pointing finger.
"What about my shoes? Think they're cute?"
"No — take them off before you come in. We've got a shoe rack set up here, see?"
"Why?"
"Because dirt and dust are filthy. Where I originally come from, everyone does this."
"...That's weird."
Danya grumbled, but she took off her shoes anyway.
Nngh.
She sat down right there and smoothly undid the straps of her sandals.
Her foot scrunched up tight, as if sliding it free took a little effort.
The pale, streamlined arch of her foot curved elegantly. The soles and tips of her toes were flushed a warm red — maybe because it was a bit cold outside.
Her skirt had ridden up a little from the way she'd sat down to remove her shoes, but Danya kept her focus fixed silently on getting them off.
Hm.
Why was I staring so vacantly at this?
I must be tired from organizing everything. I had to earn money tomorrow, so I should turn in early tonight.
I shifted my gaze — and met Danya's eyes.
— Sllink.
Her pupils narrowed to slits in an instant.
"I knew it. You had some kind of motive for making me take them off, didn't you."
"No. This is purely a matter of hygiene —"
"Suspicious."
She sprang to her feet.
Then she stepped forward, toward me.
The distance between us closed so quickly I reflexively backed up.
"See."
One step.
Another step.
Pressed backward like this, I ended up sinking onto the bed.
Danya looked down at me, the corners of her lips curled into an enigmatic smile.
"If you're honest, I might go easy on you, nya."
"Go easy on me for what?"
"For why you really made me take my shoes off."
"Because — as any civilized person would —!"
— Thump!
Danya planted her bare foot squarely on my knee.
Her skirt rode up further, baring a pale thigh. If I traced the curve downward with my eyes, there was smooth, fair skin and the tips of her toes, flushed a warm peach-blossom pink. She'd even painted her nails the exact same cherry-blossom shade as her hair.
"Enjoying the view?"
"Enjoying the — what?"
Wriggle!
Danya flexed her toes.
"Pervert."
"What are you..."
"You groped my toes in the Shadow Forest too, remember. You're definitely a pervert with a thing for toes, nya."
"......"
"Well? Want to touch them?"
It tickled.
The sensation of her toes wriggling against the already-thin skin over my knee was so intensely ticklish I couldn't even process what Danya was saying.
"Say it. Say, 'I have a thing for feet, so I told you to take your shoes off.'"
Danya's eyes curved into long crescent-moon slits.
"If you admit it, I might even let you touch them?"
She lifted the corners of her mouth, playful.
That expression — looking down on me — jolted me back to my senses.
Establishing dominance.
As with many animals, letting hierarchy solidify during interactions with a beastkin could become extremely problematic. Danya's current behavior was clearly... an instinctive attempt at sorting out the pecking order.
In that case, I couldn't let her win.
I simply pointed out her disgraceful state.
"Your underwear is showing."
"Nya!"
Fwip!
Danya frantically yanked her skirt hem between her thighs.
"Y-you pervert!"
"I think the one flashing it is more of a pervert."
"Th-this was unavoidable!"
Watching her stand there flustered in front of the bed, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.
"Ah. Right. Good timing, Danya."
"Huh?"
"Come over here."
I patted the empty spot next to me on the bed.
Danya's face went red in a heartbeat.
"Ny... nyaaah?"
"Don't run away."
"W-wait... I haven't prepared myself mentally yet..."
"What's there to prepare? All that's required is responsibility, Danya."
I grabbed Danya's arm and pulled.
She offered a token resistance, then her strength simply drained away. She went so limp she couldn't stop at just sitting on the edge of the bed — she collapsed completely into the blanket.
"Clever girl. So you already know what needs to be done?"
Instead of answering, Danya squeezed her eyes shut.
"How is closing your eyes going to help?"
"But... it's embarrassing..."
"Still, you can't check unless you look."
Danya's eyelids quivered faintly. Her eyes, oddly, looked dewy.
"And you need to be lying face down."
Danya's voice became mysteriously teary.
"B-but... for the first time, I wanted to face each other... even though you told me to open my eyes..."
"Which is exactly why you should be looking at the floor, not at me."
"Th-that's —!"
"You're going to disobey? After what you did wrong?"
Danya, who had glared up at me sharply as if itching to argue, soon flipped over and lay on her stomach.
"F-fine. Yes, Master..."
Master?
Well, whatever. A little roleplay isn't so bad.
"B-but I don't really know the right posture... They didn't show this in any of the books, so I couldn't study it, nya..."
"Is that really a posture you'd need to study for?"
"But! I've never done it even once...!"
Danya squeezed her eyes shut again.
I sat down beside her with a sigh.
"You were raised sheltered, weren't you, Danya. Here, watch. I'll show you a demonstration."
I bent down and simply plucked a single tail hair off the blanket.
"See? You just pull them off. Like this."
"...Nya?"
Danya stared up at me blankly, like a broken cat.
I injected her with the proper directive.
"Pick up the fur. Your tail hairs. The ones you left behind last time."
"......"
Abruptly, Danya's whole body began to tremble.
"Are you okay? What's with you all of a sudden."
Danya's eyes flashed open.
...Terrifying. More so than ever before.
I couldn't dodge the kick that exploded from her.
"Idiot!"
Since she was barefoot, it didn't hurt.
◆
A wad of fur the size of a hundred-won coin sat on the table.
Behind it, Danya sat slumped over, dejected. Her ears lay flat against her head.
For Danya after her labor, I had steeped some tea leaves I'd bought from the east-side luxury district.
"......"
Without a word, Danya buried her face in the teacup and took small sips. Occasionally, she'd stealthily glance up —
"Eep!"
— and whenever our eyes met, her cheeks flushed red and she'd hurriedly look away.
She repeated that cycle a few times.
When she'd finished her tea, Danya silently rose from her seat and headed for the door.
The thought was inevitable at that point: Then what did you come here for, anyway?
But I had a rough idea.
Danya's face, transfixed and blank, staring at the Twilight Wolf inside the dungeon.
The voice that had muttered back then — it had carried the weight of her parents' enemy. There'd been nothing light about it.
Danya's past.
Since she was never a heroine, I didn't know the burden she carried. I didn't know why Danya, who was practically always smiling, wore such a pained expression now.
But instead of that.
"Danya."
I was no longer just watching her from the other side of a screen. I could listen. Because we were facing each other like this.
Whatever burden my companion bore. Whatever story there was that I didn't know.
"When the time is right — tell me then."
At the door, Danya, who had been clenching her fists so tightly her knuckles had gone red, looked up at me.
"...Huh?"
"If it's hard to talk about right now, you can take your time and tell me later."
"......"
"I'm not going anywhere, am I?"
"You... won't go anywhere?"
"Of course."
Danya's hands slowly relaxed. The marks her nails had left on her palms looked pretty painful.
But I didn't ask if she was okay. Because when she opened her mouth, her voice had regained its usual brightness.
"Hey, Ian."
"Yeah?"
"If you've got time during the break... would you come with me to the Great Forest? Where my clan lives."
The Great Forest. The sacred land of the beastkin.
The place where Danya had grown up.
A place whose approximate location wasn't even casually disclosed to outsiders.
"Of course."