That night, after a big day of work, I enjoyed a rare break with my friends in the mansion salon.
The Emily-managed home remained bright and warm even at nighttime, soothing my fatigue with ease.
Two best friends, the Swallow’s Returned Favor girls, came in.
“Oh, Ryota. Good work today,” Erza greeted me.
“Erza?”
“Yep. Here you go,” Ina did likewise.
“Ina too, huh?” I replied. Ina handed me a glass, and Erza smoothly poured beer into it. “Oh, wow. Thanks.”
“No problem!” Erza smiled. “Oh, I tried chilling this beer the way you taught me. How is it?”
“Oh?”
Now that she mentioned it, I realized that it was ice cold.
As it turned out, people in this world didn’t drink beer cold like people in my old world. You could have bars serve it to you cold, but normally, people just drank it warm.
The beer itself tasted good either way. I just called it “European style” in my mind and ignored it for the most part.
“You chilled it just for me?”
“Yep!”
“I’ll have you know, she bought a magic fruit just to learn ice magic for this─” Ina started.
“Aaah! Ah, ah, aaah!” Erza screamed and cut her off. She was as red as a beet. Ina smirked mischievously.
“Magic fruit? For this?”
“Yep. They sold it claiming it would definitely give her ice magic. Not that that’s even possible.”
“I don’t really think…” Erza tried to deny it, poking her lip out unhappily.
“It’s actually not true,” Aurum cut into the conversation. She was holding Nihonium and Miike both. I saw the three of them together often lately, but Miike was typically more reserved around Aurum, putting her first. Nihonium was also on the reclusive side, so Aurum did most of the talking.
Ina asked her, “Really?”
“Yep. Ryota, you get it, don’t you?” she said, showing off Nihonium to me. Nihonium herself kept quiet, apparently uncomfortable to be put on the spot─but she was right.
“I see!”
“Is it true, Ryota?”
“Yeah. Thanks to Nihonium, I was able to pick the exact spell I wanted with a fruit this one time,” I explained.
“Wow. So it wasn’t a total lie, huh?”
“No, it was,” Aurum denied. Despite her previous help, she now pulled the ladder right out from under Erza.
“Bwuuuh?!” Ina screamed, incredulous. “But you just explained how it was possible, didn’t you?!”
“It is, but only we can do that.”
“Oh… Okay. So spirits can, but not humans.”
“Yep,” Aurum nodded. Erza was forced to agree. In this world, a spirit’s word was absolute. They didn’t have the bearing of a god, but that made them all the more persuasive. “I mean, take it as a lesson. Don’t do anything crazy like that again.”
“It’s not like it was crazy…”
“So that true love charm she hung up on the window─” Ina started saying something again.
“Aaah! Ah, ah, aaah!” For the second time, Erza screamed to cut her off. With teary eyes, she ran over to her friend. “Inaaa!”
“Ahahaha! Sorry, sorry.”
“Geez…” She puffed out her cheeks and turned away angrily. Erza was focused and reliable at work, but outside of work hours, she was adorable. I was a little happy that I got to see this side of her since she’d started living here.
I felt my facial muscles relax as I watched her, though I did take care not to gawk too much.
This time, our resident rabbit dressed in bunny jammies addressed me, “Low level.”
“What’s up, Eve?”
She typically dressed in one of two ways. When she was going to a dungeon, she wore her bunny suit. At home, bunny pajamas. Her two sets of bunny ears, one fake and one real, were both cute and funny to look at.
Fwap.
Without any warning, she chopped me on the forehead.
“What was that for?”
“Carrot loss.”
“Oh.”
“When will you start farming carrots again, low level?”
“Sorry. My schedule just opened up a bit, so I’ll go in the morning.”
“Really?”
“Really. You do love your carrots, don’t you?”
“I want to live in the dungeon with you.” Those words would normally make my heart skip a beat if they came from any other woman, but they weren’t sexy at all coming from Eve’s mouth.
“You make it sound like you’re going to a deserted island with nothing but a knife.”
“…A fully automatic knife?”
“How convenient! Also, can’t help but notice you’re not denying it.” I laughed and drank the beer that Erza had so kindly poured for me.
“Eve, would you like carrot juice?” Emily offered her.
“Yes! Even if the heavens and earth switched places, even if the moon and stars were swallowed by the sun and all the dungeons died, bunnies will always like carrot juice.”
Aurum, the spirit of her dungeon─essentially symbolizing the dungeon itself─laughed and protested, “Don’t just kill us off.”
“Here you go.” Emily smiled gently and served Eve carrot juice that was no doubt freshly squeezed.
Eve always got talkative when it came to carrots. I’d joke about it before, but I was so used to it now that I didn’t even comment.
I noticed Celeste glaring at some kind of notebook, so I walked over to her and asked over her shoulder, “What’s that?”
“Hyah?! O-Oh, Ryota, it’s just you. Don’t scare me like that.”
“My bad. So, what do you have there?”
“I collected the information you brought back from Tennessine in a notebook.”
“Ooh. You were asking me about it, weren’t you?”
“Yep. I thought having detailed notes would come in handy later, though I’m always happy to answer any questions you have when we’re together.” Our mage, Celeste, had the best capability for wide-ranged destructive magic in our whole Family, but that wasn’t all; she had a ton of dungeon knowledge, too. She knew everything about not just Cyclo’s dungeons, but all of the dungeons I’d been to now.
Even now, she collected knowledge. She took very helpful, digestible notes, like a top student’s.
“Huh, that’s great,” I complimented her. “You’re really good at summarizing info. Oh, and it’s not just Tennessine, huh?”
“I’ve collected all available information in it.”
“Ooh, impressive,” a new voice chimed in. “Just what I’d expect from a friend of yours.” The person who’d slid so smoothly into the conversation was none other than Neptune.
“…How long have you been there?” I groaned in irritation.
He wasn’t alone; his H2O friends, Lil and Ran, were here as well. They were over with Emily, drinking some of her carrot juice.
“Ahaha, this is a nice place. It’s clean and calming.” Neptune also accepted a drink from Emily and expressed his gratitude to her, “Oh, why thank you, Great Matriarch.”
“No problem.”
“What’s with this Great Matriarch business?” I asked.
“That’s what everyone calls her. You didn’t know? Great Matriarch Emily is super-famous these days. The secret puppet master of the Ryota Family.”
“I knew she was famous, but…” I looked over at Emily, who smiled nervously. It seemed she knew. “First I’ve heard of that name.”
“But it fits, doesn’t it?”
“Sure does,” I agreed wholeheartedly.
Any place maintained by Emily would end up as warm, bright, and temple-like as this mansion.
I could only agree with the title given to her. Hell, call her the Divine Matriarch for all I care. I’d agree with you.
“It’s a lovely place,” he said. “And amazing, at that.”
“Amazing?”
“Even excluding the amazing adventurers living in it, it’s almost unbelievable that two spirits live here.”
“Nuh-uh!” Alice stopped playing with her buddies and came over.
“What’s that?” Neptune asked back.
“Burny, too!”
“Oh?” He raised an eyebrow at the fireball sitting in the palms of her hands.
“Burny, too!”
“…Hmm?”
“That’s Phosphorus right there,” I answered for him.
“Oh!” Neptune clapped his hands in realization. “I knew of Alice Phosphorus, but I had no idea the spirit looked like that now.”
“They’re such good friends that you’d think they were together since birth,” I mused.
“I have to agree.”
“It’s all thanks to Ryota! Isn’t that right, Burny?” Alice asked her buddy. Burny burned a little brighter, expressing agreement.
“Well, well. All the more amazing,” Neptune said. I sensed something hidden in his facial expression.
Finding that look familiar, I asked him, “What’s up? Did something else happen?”
“Haha! Can’t fool your eyes. Oh, it’s no big deal, but I just had a little proposal in mind.”
“A proposal?”
“Yep. I’ve been thinking about things, a lot of things, and it’s clear that you’re the only one who can do it. Especially when it comes to implementing it.”
“I’m scared of how much you’re buttering me up right now.”
“Don’t worry, there’s no danger involved this time. I can promise you that.”
“It’s only getting scarier… What is it?”
“How about we buy Tennessine, you and I?”
The whole salon fell silent. My friends and Neptune’s companions alike shut their mouths and stared at us─save for Eve, anyway. She seemed uninterested, as usual.