CH 65

—On the day when Princess Leia had a day off from her official duties, I was also given a day off from duty. If I could, I would have liked to invite the princess on a date and walk around the castle town again, but however, due to her position, visiting such places is not easily authorised. I need some kind of reason.. [I want to go out with the princess! I want to make out with her!!!] Unfortunately, the above reasons don’t come to mind for me.

Sigh…

“ugh.. stop with all your bitter sighs..”

Nina, who walks next to me, angrily points a finger at me.

“Did you really want a date with Leia that badly? Are you unhappy with going out with us?”

“No, it’s not that.. No, I wanted to go on a date with the princess, but.. ouch!”

“You’re not hiding your true feelings, Gustav.”

Nina looks up at me with cold eyes as she pinches my bicep.

“[If you’re going to say [no such thing], you’d better hold back the second half of your words.. really.”

It’s late afternoon at the market. The streets are crowded with people going to lunch and working, and little by little me, Niña and Spera move forward. Nina was walking next to me, looking used to it thanks to her long career as a bandit, and was walking without bumping into people, while looking away from me.

“..So? How is it?”

“How, what do you mean?”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? It’s been three days since you came back here, and you’ve been with Leia the whole time.”

“Well, yeah. What about it?”

“So what! I’m asking you, how far did you go with Leia? I’m asking that!”

“Gghhhh?”

Nina’s sudden question makes me swoon.

“What are you so upset about..?

“What?”

“No way, I don’t think so, but.. you didn’t {chu} with Leia, did you?”

“What? Ah, no..”

Chu..? I did.. Kiss her, but.. Twice in total, during the defeat of the Demon King and at the party after that decoration ceremony. I was about to honestly confess that, but.. Nina’s serious gaze pierced me.

“I didn’t, uh..”

“You didn’t, huh?”

“..No, I didn’t.”

I lied, unintentionally.

No, I mean, why am I so pressed, me? I mean, holding hands and kissing.. I don’t think it’s wrong for a man and a woman who like each other to do so, do you?

Nina was relieved and patted her chest in relief at my answer.

“ah, thank goodness. You really have to be careful, don’t you?”

“Eh, ah, yes?”

“Leia is a princess of a country, you know? If you kiss her when you’re not even married, you’ll be in big trouble!”

“..I don’t know, is that right?”

“Oh thank goodness it was before you Chu’d. I’m so glad! It would have been really bad if you had kissed.”

Is it really that bad to kiss before marriage? And, but.. No one should know, right?

While I’m inwardly nervous, Nina seems to have regained her mood a little, lightly skipping along, moving swiftly through the crowd as if she were swimming.

“Hey, you’re going too fast!”

I’d like to go on about it, but unfortunately that’s not possible for me and Spera. A big guy like me would bump into all sorts of people, and Spera would probably bump into plenty as well.

“.. Huh? Where’s Spera?”

I notice that Spera, who should have been following behind me, is nowhere to be seen.

Did she get separated?

Me and Nina go back a little and look into one of the shops in the market.

“Spera-san!”

“Ah.. yes.”

As I had expected, Spera was there – in a bookshop that boasts one of the best collections of books on the market. She was holding a book with a black cover in both hands, as if it was very important to her, and was reading it with her face close to the book, as if she was licking it.

“I knew you were here.. Spera-san usually goes away like a dog chasing butterflies once she finds a book that looks interesting..”

“.. yes.”

“Well, we already know that you like books, and you can come by if you want, but please don’t just disappear without saying a word.”

“..yes.”

“..Is the book interesting?”

..Yes.”

“Hey, you’re definitely not listening to me, are you?”

..yes.”

I quickly snatched the book in Spera’s hand.

“Aah!”

“.. don’t ahh ! Listen to me for a second!”

When I said that, Spera looked at me with a puzzled face, compared me to Nina, who looked at me with a dumbfounded gaze, and said

“..Huh? Why am I here?”

He began to ramble on and on. It seems that when her attention is on the book, she any longer sees the surroundings and starts walking around unconsciously, like a sleepwalker.

“Anyway, I’m going to the blacksmith-knacker’s shop, like I told you at the beginning, but.. can Spera-san wait here for me?”

“Eh? No, I’ll go with you to the blacksmith shop..”

Her gaze was fixed on the book I had just snatched.

“But you want to read a book, don’t you?”

“..but it’s a date with Gustav.”

“Well, shall we go?”

“..Yes.”

“＼(・ω・`).. (tries to put the book back on the shelf).”

“….aaaah geez Gustav.”

─ ─ I decided to buy that book for her.

We leave the shop with the shopkeeper’s voice behind us saying, ‘Thank you very much.’

“Here.”

“Thank you very much.”

When I handed her the book, Spera looked very pleased.

“But you read a lot of books standing around, don’t you, Spera-san? You have money, so I think you should buy it..”

“No, actually, I’m quite tight this month..”

“What? What about your salary? I mean, there’s also the reward for defeating the Demon King, isn’t there?”

“The reward was used for the reconstruction of the Elven village, to make it a more comfortable environment for everyone, so I used it for the construction. Also, my salary.. has already been spent on books and personal research..”

“That’s fast.. and you’re spending your money so wildly!”

“I’ve hardly touched money in the last 300 years, so I just..”

Spera, quite a lack of planning exposed. Hmmm, surprising.

“Anyway, be more careful in the future, OK?”

“Yes. I’m so embarrassed..”

Spera blushes. Yeah, well, you’re supposed to be cool and intelligent characters, right? It must be embarrassing to be discovered by someone with a slightly clumsy side like this.

“By the way, I bought it, but I didn’t look at the title. What’s that book about? Another book on witchcraft or pharmacology?”

“Oh, no. This is {Man and woman’s S and M. – I’ll teach you how to conquer a woman’s body by making the most of it, from S to M (with a record of words of verbal abuse) -}.”

“..”

No, rather, you should be ashamed of that one! I didn’t retort. I felt like I’d lose if I did. I mean, it was me who bought it. I hope that strange rumors don’t spread from that shopkeeper..

─ ─ And so, after a few more such road trips, we finally arrived at our favorite blacksmith’s shop, the place we wanted to go to today.

“..Tsktsk.”

We are greeted by the owner, Jii-san, who looks as grumpy as ever. It’s the reassuringly stable Tsundere Jii-san.

“Well? What are you doing here today, Gustav boy? Have you passed the 60th level?”

“No, that’s not yet.”

“Nah, then I won’t give you any legendary equipment! There, go home!”

Ji-san makes a gesture of shushing me back.

“No, no, wait. I just came here today to look at normal armour.”

“Oh? Armour..? You have platinum armour, don’t you?”

“Well, that’s the thing, the platinum armour was destroyed..”

It was during the battle against the Demon King. Two shots of Gloriant-class magic and a fist filled with powerful dark magic power directly hit him, and as expected, his platinum armor was also ruined.

“Oi oi oi, what kind of monster was the opponent..? I see.. I see..”

The old man was surprised, but smiled as if he had guessed something, and said

“You’re not going home today, after all.”

“Ehh? No, that’s why I want to get new armour..”

“Yeah? No, so I need new armour..”

“That’s okay. Just go home today. Don’t worry about buying new armour.”

“..why..?”

“Because it won’t be as bad as it seems, Hora.”

I’m shushed once again.

“Should we go home too? I’d like to get a new breastplate or something.”

“I don’t have the money to buy one.. but I’d like to see some robe or something.”

Nina and Spera are saying things like that at their own pace.

No, no, no, you saw how I was being treated just now. I was about to ask them both to leave, as apparently I’m not allowed to look at the armor today.

“Oh, look around all you want. Especially you little girl, you’re pretty brave to want a weapon from such a small age. I’ll give you a discount.”

“Yes!”

What? What’s this? It seems they’re being welcomed?

“Hey, old man, the owner? Can I..?”

“Hmm? You’re still here, boy! If you stay in the shop, you’ll be looking at all sorts of things, but just wait outside until the girls are done shopping!”

As soon as I’m told that, I’m pushed on my back and thrown out of the shop. And then slam. The shop door closes behind me.

Eh, what’s this? Today, I had both Nina and Spera accompany me for the main purpose of buying my armor..?

From inside the shop, I hear the voices of Nina and Spera happily looking at the equipment. I could only listen to their voices through the door, scribbling on the ground and waiting for them to finish their shopping..

**

“This breastplate is nice and light. Oh, this one looks good too!”

A few minutes later Gustav was kicked out. Nina was in the blacksmith’s shop in the castle town, looking around very happily in front of the shelf of special equipment for the Thieves’ profession.

Spera smiled at this and, thinking about it, asked the question that had just popped into her head.

“Nina, about what you were talking to Gustav-san about earlier in the town..”

“Eh? What?”

“Why did you stop Gustav-san from {chu}ing Princess Leia so desperately?”

Spera, who overheard such content while walking behind Gustav and Nina, tilted her head. A kiss, in other words. What could be wrong with two people who love each other doing that?

Well, at best, it’s a jealousy thing, I guess. Nina is still a child, so she probably thinks that even a kiss would completely steal Gustav away from her.

I don’t know why she asked, but that was Spera’s thinking. It was a question that I had asked while smiling and thinking that Nina also has a cute side to her, in keeping with her age.

“Eh, that’s obvious.”

In response to such a question, Nina put her hands on her hips and turned towards Spera.

“Because if we kiss, we’ll have a baby!”

“..Yes?”

Spera’s thinking goes blank at this unexpected answer. ..Well, I thought you had an innocent side, but Nina, you can’t be that naive, can you?

Not aware of Spera’s shocking reaction, Nina snorted proudly with a laugh and said.

“Even my uneducated self knows that much! When a man and a woman grow up, they get married, kiss, and then have a baby.”

“Huh.”

“But when you love someone, you want to kiss them even before marriage, right? That’s why I warned Gustav, just in case.”

When Nina proudly turned her chest and said, “I’m a friend, aren’t I?”.. Spera’s heart was filled with unprecedented feelings. It was something that made her heart tighten so much that she unconsciously hugged Niña.

“What are you doing?

“What is it..I don’t know either. I just..”

Spera patted Nina’s head.

“Please, just stay as you are, Nina, okay?”

“Huh..? What are you talking about?”

“Good girl, good girl.”

“Hey! What is this sudden treatment of a child?

Spera starts petting, rubbing her cheeks. The old man who owns the shop watches this situation with a smile on his face, thinking, “It’s great to be young”.