The next day, I used the warp room to go to Plumbum’s chamber.
“Morning.”
When I greeted her, she looked up. “Ah…” She was hunched over a drawing again, but she smiled when she saw me. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
“What are you drawing… Oh.” When I approached and looked down to her hands, I had to chuckle.
She was drawing me again─rather, not quite me. It was Prince Ryo─the dungeon master, named by Alice and Aurum.
“This is how I’ve been killing time in your absence,” she said.
“That so? About that, uh, I’d like to ask you a favor.”
“What is it? I’m happy to do everything in my power to satisfy a request from you of all people.” She smiled. It pained me, but I appreciated the thought.
I hadn’t confirmed a direct causal relationship, but I had a feeling I was on the right track here.
As the dungeon spirit, when she drew me, the dungeon master’s appearance had changed to Prince Ryo. That meant that I just needed to change how she drew me. I’d be much more comfortable with dungeon master Ryota Sato than Prince Ryo, if I had to choose.
Hell, even Ryochin would be fine.
I picked my words carefully. “Can you draw me a little more, uh, normal?”
“Normal? I’m simply drawing what I see.”
“Bwah?!” That answer surprised me so much, I ended up making a weird noise.
Drawing what you see? What you…see?
I looked at the Prince Ryo she’d drawn again. Silky hair, sparkly eyes.
There aren’t just roses behind him. He even has one in his mouth! Is this what she sees?!
“O-Oh, okay…”
In that instant, I came to a realization.
I understand. This is the kind of thing I can’t do anything about. Forget it. Let her do what she wants.
She was looking back and forth between me and her drawing so happily. She even giggled to herself, “Heheh…” I much preferred that to her tense desperation I saw back when we’d first met.
How could I stop her?
“Is that all you need from me, then?” Plumbum asked.
“Yeah. That’s all.”
“Then perhaps you’d be willing to fulfill a request of mine?”
“What is it?”
“Let me…hold your hand.”
“My hand?” I stared at my hand for a moment and then held it out to her.
Does she want a handshake? Or to interlock our fingers like we’re in love?
I expected a couple different things, but neither came to pass.
She held and played with my hand and fingers, as if examining them. Like she was inspecting a doll.
“What are you doing?”
“You see, I struggle to draw hands well. So I hoped that seeing and feeling yours in person would help.”
“I see. Hands are pretty tough.”
I’m the kind of guy who can’t draw.
From childhood to my teenage years, I’d made little sketches in the corners of textbooks and margins of notebooks. When I drew people, though, they always had their hands in their pockets or behind their backs.
Basically, I was incapable of drawing hands, so I could empathize with her struggle.
After looking at my hand for a while, she began drawing again. I peeked over; this time, she was only drawing a hand.
This is fine. Let her draw.
Or so I thought…
“All done,” she announced.
“Why is it sexy?!”
My(?) hand, as illustrated by Plumbum, was extremely sexy.
Lithe fingers, a perfect balance of joints and flesh─it was just a hand, but it had such an erotic air to it. Frankly, it was attractive.
“Perfect. I’ve drawn it exactly like the real thing!”
Her satisfaction left me grinning wryly to myself.
☆
That afternoon, I brought Dungeon Association chief Dale and representatives from each drop-buying shop and merchant firm to B1 of Plumbum, where we were about to watch an adventurer.
The young woman was wearing highly revealing bikini-like armor, like a stereotypical female warrior archetype.
She swung a brand-new longsword at one fish-like monster that swam through the air. The fish was not instantly defeated, but more notably, it did not split.
“Woooo!” Everyone cheered. Their cheers were for the fact that it hadn’t split.
The closest person to me, Dale, took my hand. “Thank you! Thank you so much, Mr. Ryota!”
“It’s still just a prototype, but if all goes well, we’ll have to mass-produce weapons like that one.”
“Yes, sir! Thank you so much!” Moved, he tightened his grip on my hand.
The female warrior was using one of Orton’s Plumbum-infused prototype weapons. It incorporated a strand of her hair, which allowed the weapon to nullify this dungeon’s monsters’ splitting effects.
It was the ultimate panacea for improving the ruined efficiency of this dungeon. With these weapons, people could farm it just as well as any normal dungeon.
“Now Tetramine can finally be like before…” Dale said.
“No, I think it’ll be even better.”
“Huh? Wh-Why is that?” He was confused. I pointed behind him, but he replied, “Um, there’s nothing there.”
“Exactly. There were merchants there before.”
“Ah… Everyone left.”
“They know this is a serious investment opportunity, so they all went running. I bet they were all prepared before, but they stood by until now. Now that they’ve seen this, they’re getting back to work.” Nobody’s as quick to jump on an opportunity as a merchant, and in this case, that was a good thing.
“I see!” Dale was visibly relieved. “Thank you, really.”
“Don’t worry about it. I just did what I wanted to do.”
Honestly, I probably should be the one thanking him. If not for him coming to me, Plumbum would probably still be there stewing in resentment. He’d given me the opportunity to fix that, and I appreciated that.
Suddenly, the warrior trying her new prototype longsword gasped, “Ah!”
“What’s up?” I asked.
She knelt down and picked something up with a frown. Curious, I got closer to her.
“This is…” She showed me a picture the size of a photograph.
“A-A portrait of me?!” It was a portrait of me─no, of Prince Ryo. “What is the deal with this?”
“It dropped when I killed the monster.”
“This thing did?”
“It’s called ‘Ryota’s Majesty.’ Oh… It’s a consumable item.” Surprise appeared on her face. Had she sensed something upon picking it up?
Immediately after, she used the portrait. It disappeared, and in its place appeared Prince Ryo.
“Wha─?!” I gasped.
The dungeon master himself had appeared.
I thrust out my palm and tried to cast Repetition, but then, I realized something. Monsters were still in here, and I didn’t feel the aura of a dungeon master.
What was going on? While I was confused, Prince Ryo took action.
He attacked the fish swimming the closest to us. As he was based on me, Prince Ryo used much stronger attacks than her, felling the monster in a single blow. It disappeared and created a drop. With his job done, Prince Ryo disappeared.
“Ooh… I get it!”
“M-Mr. Ryota, what just happened?”
“It’s a one-time consumable item,” I explained to Dale, who still couldn’t comprehend the situation, and tried to reproduce it.
I used Repetition on every fish remaining on the floor, killing them all. After about thirty had gone down, another portrait dropped. When I picked it up, the name of the consumable item Ryota’s Majesty appeared in my mind.
I used it.
Prince Ryo, now with very sexy hands, appeared and defeated a nearby monster. Then, he and his portrait disappeared.
“There you have it,” I said.
Dale and the warrior looked upon me with respect.
“Incredible! The form it takes is proof of how the spirit has acknowledged you.”
“That’s the leader of the Ryota Family for you!”
I mean, you’re not wrong about that, but…
Ever since I’d come to this world, I had gotten a lot of praise like that. But this was the most embarrassing way yet.
Honestly, the fact that they were so serious about it only made it hurt more.