Book 1: Chapter 4: (1)

4 When I lived with a female knight for a while

「Good morning, Sir Thor.」

For some reason, I felt like I heard a very warm voice call out to me.

When I opened my eyes, I was met with a scene that I was not used to seeing.

「Oh yeah, I just moved into this apartment……」

Beside me, there was a beautiful girl lying down and smiling at me.

「Uwaaaaaaaaaaah!」

「W-what’s wrong?」

That’s right. I slept with Ria yesterday. This was the first time I had the chance to have a girl sleep next to me in my entire life. For someone who’s never been popular, I couldn’t help but let out a scream when I realised I had forgotten such an important event.

Those jewel-like eyes of hers looked at me in concern.

「I-I’m sorry. I have some trauma from when I was fighting against the prejudice I faced as a wise sage. 」

There are rumours on the internet that unpopular men became magic-users when they became old. It seemed that that rumour has slowly become more and more true for me.

「I-is that so? Are you alright?」

「Yes. I’m alright now.」

Sunlight entered the room through the windows.

It’s already morning, huh?……So many things happened yesterday. …….Although it was obvious that 「many things」didn’t even begin to describe what happened yesterday.

The place I moved into became a dungeon. Even though it was just a slime, I actually faced a monster and defeated it. I checked my statuses and I even levelled up.

But the biggest thing that happened was that a beautiful female knight, Ria, actually stayed over in my house.

But what should I do about her? She IS from another world.

The morning sunlight made Ria’s golden hair glow. Sitting close to her, I started to get flustered.

Hm? But, something’s off, isn’t it?

「Ria, how did you know that it was morning?」

I still hadn’t placed a clock in the room. In the first place, did people from the other world understand the concept of a clock?

Moreover, it was strange that Ria knew that it was morning even though all she saw was a stone wall through the window.

「Wise sage, are you still half-asleep?」

Ria pointed towards the small window in the western-style room.

「Isn’t the stone wall shining just like sunlight?」

I got it. So that is what Ria, no, people from the other world, see.

「This is an artifact that you made so that you can live healthily even in a dungeon, right, wise sage? You’re a genius alchemist.」

Alchemist……I guess that was the term for people who made magic items or artifacts.

「No, I guess」

「Ufufu」

Ria giggled. But since she was so near, I was too flustered to deny what she said. Somehow, the situation ended up being that this was an artifact that I made.

I didn’t really want to lie to her, but there was a reason why I thought it would be better to let her think that I was a wise sage.

That aside, the both of us got out of bed and went to wash our faces.

For breakfast, I made ham, eggs and toast. Although it seemed that ham, eggs and toast also existed in the dungeon world.

「I never thought that I would be able to eat something so delicious inside a dungeon.」

「I-Is that so?」

「Yes. This jam is really sweet and so delicious. Is it something very expensive?」

She was moved by the jam that I spread on her toast. I couldn’t remember exactly but I think it was some jam I got at the supermarket for like 200 yen? But maybe the jam had some special power too.

After eating breakfast, we went to brush our teeth and cleaned up the room for a bit. Ria helped too.

I had just moved in so everything was still strewn everywhere.

「I feel bad for making you help me clean up, or more precisely tidying up my things」

「Could it be that you just moved in?」

Thump. Ria asked me that all of a sudden. She was completely correct.

「I guess you found out. Actually I’m just a normal……」

「I knew it. Everything is nicely packaged in these easy to carry around and really light boxes. This box really is an amazing artifact.」

「What?」

Was she talking about the cardboard boxes? It seemed that they looked like artifacts in the eyes of people from the other world. Actually I started to get the sense that Ria saw all these things as artifacts.

「You moved from some other place in the dungeon heren right? It was because you were living here that you saved me, Sir Thor. Thank you very much」

「No, it’s fine. By the way, this box is called a cardboard box.」

「Oh~It’s really light and easy to carry. It’s very convenient」

Ria smiled at me cheerfully. It seemed that this girl’s personality caused her to interpret anything done to her as good-willed.

As we tidied up, I asked RIa about different things regarding the other world.

It seemed that Ria’s world was one that was still under imperial rule. And it was not the type where power was completely centralised to a certain party like in an absolute monarchy. Rather, it was a society where nobles and the church owned land and hence power, where power was decentralised.

By the way, it seemed that Ria was working as a knight in the mansion of a count named Count Kache.

「Although the Kache family has fallen and was wiped out」

I guess that’s why she said that she was an ex-knight. Why was this ex-knight doing something like going on expeditions in dungeons? Thinking about it logically, it was probably for economic reasons. I decided against asking her about it.

Actually, there were other things I wanted to ask about.

「U-um, so. Are the dragon people kind of things living in volcanos up there still doing well?」

That’s right. What I wanted to know was whether demi-humans like elves, dwarves and beast people that we always see in fantasy worlds existed in the other world.

Dragon people probably weren’t all that common so it might just be alright to ask her if I asked about it vaguely enough.

「D-dragon people? They rarely show themselves to people so I would not know」

「I see」

I mean that would make sense. I couldn’t expect much since I just randomly came up with it.

「Did you interact with the dragon people in the past, Sir Thor? Which volcano are you referring to?」

「Um……the west? The one on the west side?」

「A volcano on the west side…….could only mean Mount Kiriman, right?」

「I-I think that’s it. I don’t know the name of the volcano」

「Yes, it has to be that one! There’s a legend that says that there’s a dragon of wisdom who eats people there, so it has to be it. 」

No, that’s definitely not it. I mean I never interacted with the dragon people in the first place.

「It’s amazing that you went there even with the cat beast people who hate humans in the forests at the foot of the mountain. 」

I see, I see. Just as I thought, there were cat beast people…….

「W-which are the demi-humans who get along with humans recently?」

「Demi-humans that get along with humans, you ask? Let me think. Elves as well as the cat beast people I mentioned just now are both friendly to humans, as long as you don’t enter the forests.」

Ria explained to me as she sealed up the cardboard box.

There really were elves! And not forgetting the cat beast people!

「Ah, I just happened to find a book about elves. It seems that you packed your resources in this cardboard box.」

「What? A book about elves?」

Ria took out a single book and showed it to me.

「It really is rare to find resources with an elf being attacked by a tentacled-monster as the cover. May I look through it?」

I snatched the book from Ria’s hands and put it back into the cardboard box filled with「resources」. I then stuffed it into the cupboard in the Japanese-styled room.

It seemed that some of my treasure had been mixed in together with my clothes in the cardboard box.

「W-what might be wrong?」

「Ah, you were in danger. That was also a kind of forbidden book」

「I-Is that so」

Both the facts that it was a dangerous situation and that it was a forbidden book of some kind were true.

But thinking about it, it was only expected that these things would keep popping up all around right after I move in.

「Ria~, shall we take a break?」

「Shall we?」

「Yeah」

We decided to take a break while drinking some beverages.