Book 1: Chapter 3: (3)

As I hid the hand dynamometer behind my back, I gave her a smile to distract her……hm?

「The apparel that you have provided for me is very comfortable, wise sage. But just as I thought, it must look weird on someone like me, doesn’t it?」

…….

There was nothing weird about it. Never did I think that someone could look so elegant in those lame jerseys that I wore in high school.

I was stirring up a plan to go slime-hunting, but just looking at Ria like that, my plans suddenly didn’t seem to matter anymore.

Her golden yellow hair was tied up in a french braid and then bundled upwards. From the side, some strands of her hair fell loose and were sparkling under the light. Actually, it was all shining so brightly.

「Is it weird……?」

I was so entranced by what I saw that I wasn’t able to give her an answer. Seeing me like that, Ria looked dejected.

「Ah, no no. It’s nothing like that! Your hair is……」

So beautiful. Is what I wanted to say, but I couldn’t say something like that.

「My hair?」

「Y-yeah. That hairstyle is really nice. 」

Rather, I chose to compliment her hairstyle.

That was a good move for me.

「R-really? I’m happy……my hair came undone when I fainted but it’s usually done up like this when I’m fighting so that it doesn’t get in the way.」

「Ah I see. But wouldn’t it take quite a bit of time to tie it up like that?」

「Sir Thor, I saw you doing something with the artifact you have hidden behind your back so I thought I wouldn’t intrude any further.」

Guess she saw it. But it seemed that she didn’t understand what I was doing. I mean, of course not. There was no way someone from the Medieval Ages could know what a hand dynamometer was.

Especially because it wasn’t the analog type, but a cheap digital one.

「The hair soap that you created was really nice, Sir Thor. My hair is all smooth now.」

Ria used her finger to twirl up the straight hair that fell down at the sides.

Nice! Really nice!

「It has a very pleasant aroma as well」

Ria moved her face slightly towards the hair that she had twirled up.

It was just some conditioner I bought at a 100 yen shop, but I wanted to smell it too!

「By the way, would you like to enter the bath as well, Sir Thor?」

「A-ah. You’re right. 」

The reason that Ria came out of the bath so fast could have been that she thought that I would want to take a bath too.

And she was right, I did want to take one.

……And I got to sit in the bathtub that Ria sat in too. Ufufufu

As I thought those wicked thoughts, she said something completely unexpected.

「Would it be alright if I read your grimoire while waiting in the room that I slept in just now, wise sage? I really took a liking to how the floor felt.」

Ah—yes, yes. The tatami. That’s some good stuff.

But what was a grimoire. The Japanese-stlye room was supposed to be my otaku room, so I had nothing but some manga and some dubious doujinshi books.

「Gyaaaaaaaa!」

「What’s wrong?」

「I guess you wouldn’t understand even if I asked you to wait in the living room. Stay here!」

I rushed into the Japanese-style room and stuffed all my manga and doujinshi in the closet.

I returned to where Ria was and stood in front of her.

「Ria! I have something serious that I have to tell you! Please listen carefully!」

「S-something serious? Y-yes!」

Ria made a nervous face. That was what I needed.

「That book contains information that is extremely dangerous for an amateur to read. In other words…….yeah! It’s a forbidden book! It’s a forbidden grimoire!」

In reality, there was some stuff that was kind of pirated in the doujinshi so it was probably too dangerous for someone who didn’t know better to read. In terms of their tastes!

「A-a forbidden grimoire…….what have I…….」

「It’s alright. You didn’t know any better. But you should never touch it. I hid it somewhere so that you’ll never have to lay eyes on it.」

「G-got it!」

「Please do not touch anything else as much as possible either. 」

「U-understood」

Phew. This was probably best for the both of us.

「Ah, but is it alright if I just ask one question?」

「P-please do」

Could it possibly be a question like: why is there a cover picture of a naked girl with some sort of weird substance on her body?

The books were leaning against the bookshelf so she probably couldn’t have seen anything other than the back cover. So it should probably be fine.

「It might be too late to ask this, since I already used a lot of the water in the bath, but isn’t it a very valuable resource in a dungeon?」

「Ah, ahh~. It’s alright. It all comes from an underground water pipe. 」

That was a lie. Since we were in Tachikawa city, it probably came from somewhere like the Okutama Dam [2. TL Note: ‘Okutama Dam’ is a dam found in Tokyo in a town called Okutama] or the Tama River [3. TL Note: ‘Tama River’ is a major river in Tokyo]. Not that I knew.

But weren’t there some municipalities using underground water too? Maybe I was actually right.

「Is that why it was so clean?」

「Yes yes. That’s right.」

「T-this may be a lot of trouble, but if it’s drinkable water, could I get a cup of it from the artifact that produced water like rain?」

「What?」

I see. I realised now that drinkable water was probably something really valuable in the dungeon.

I was mainly thinking that I would ask Ria to tell me more about levels and statuses but it having her ask for water, it made me want to ask her about the lifestyle aspect of dungeon exploration too.

The reality was that Ria, who had just fainted, didn’t have any water on her.

She was probably really thirsty, which made sense why she would want to drink some water after seeing all that water while she was showering.

It was a rather strange thing to ask considering she had used the water to wash her body. But being as serious as she was, Ria probably wouldn’t drink the water without getting permission beforehand.

「I-I guess not right…….」

Of course it was a big OK from me. This wasn’t a dungeon or a desert. It was Japan, where we had an abundance of water.

「No, no, of course it’s alright. But normal water is……I know!」

I sat Ria down on the tatami in the Japanese-style room before I ran towards the refrigerator.

「Black tea, cola and milk. I guess those might not suit the tastes of someone from another world so I guess I’ll bring her some normal water too.」

I had bought them at Tons Quijote just now.

I placed the four types of drinks in front of Ria as she looked in amazement.

「W-what is this?」

「Why, they’re drinks, of course. You know what milk and water are, right?」

「I-I do!」

「This is black tea. But I guess you wouldn’t know.」

「I-I know what it is! It’s a really high-quality good!」

「Ah, is that so. But you probably wouldn’t know what this is. It’s cola.」

「……I don’t know that one. Can you drink this? If the rest are drinks then this must be a drink as well right?」

As usual, there were black bubbles in the cola.

「Well, you can just leave it aside if you can’t drink it.」

「I-is this really alright? To give me all these precious drinks」

「It’s fine, it’s fine. I’m a wise sage! Well then, I’ll go take a bath so please give me your thoughts on the cola later, alright?」

As I thought about how I could just change into a long T-shirt and some slacks after I was done, I headed towards the shower.

I was about to dip my head in the bathtub that Ria had just been in, but I stopped myself when I thought about how sad that would probably make my grandma.

「This is a rare opportunity, so I should probably do something to make her happy. I haven’t had dinner so I’m starving too. I should probably get some dinner after I’m done with my bath.」

At any rate, it was good that I protected my forbidden grimoire.

♦︎ ♦︎ ♦︎

I quickly finished up my bath and changed into my long T-shirt and slacks in the dressing room.

The armour was arranged neatly in a corner of the dressing room.

You could really see how conscientious Ria was.