“K-Kudo! Kudo! This! This! This thing!” she yelled.
“L-L-Linte?! Wh-What are you shaking me for?!” I said as she shook me back and forth.
“This is so good! Why? What is this?!”
“Let’s calm down first! You’re way too excited about this!”
“How can I be calm?! I just found out that something so sweet and delicious exists in this world! This is a very serious matter!”
“Okay! I’ll explain. Just let me go!” I said, and Linte finally released me from her relentless shaking.
She wasn’t done grilling me for answers though. She raised both hands into the air like a monster threatening its prey.
“So?! What is this? Tell me!” she said.
“It’s chocolate,” I explained, “a kind of treat from where I live.”
“I never knew such a delicious treat existed,” she said with wonder.
“W-Well, there’s still more, so help yourself,” I said, offering the chocolate in an effort to calm her down.
Linte repeatedly dipped some bread into the chocolate fondue and brought it to her mouth while a look of ecstasy spread on her face the entire time.
I was glad she enjoyed it so much, but I was starting to wonder if I’d fed her something I shouldn’t have. Something about giving so much sugar to an Adorner didn’t seem like a good idea.
While I was regretting my actions, Linte repeated the singular action of dipping bread in the fondue and stuffing it into her mouth, all while mumbling “Yum...yum...” like a zombie with chocolate all around her mouth. The calm, collected image I’d had of her had vanished into the horizon.
I was ready to eat too, so I opened my Dimension Bag to look for a banana or waffle I’d bought at a store.
“Mew, mew,” Carbuncle said as it hopped onto the table, showing interest in the fondue pot.
“Oh, you can’t eat this one,” I said.
“Mew— Mew, mew?!” said Carbuncle, doing a double take.
It clearly hadn’t expected me to say that it couldn’t have any. But chocolate was poisonous to cats, and it couldn’t be good for a small animal like Carbuncle.
“Mew, mew!” it protested, angry that I wasn’t sharing.
It stood on its hind legs and raised its paws as if trying to intimidate me. It was probably imitating what Linte had done earlier, but it looked more like a red panda than a scary monster. It continued raising its voice at me as if demanding that I share, but it only looked all the cuter.
“You can’t eat it; you’re gonna suffer if you do. You don’t want that, do you?” I said gently as I patted Carbuncle.
“Mew...” it said, looking upset.
It then put its mouth on my finger as if to drain my mana out of spite—not that I minded.
“Come on, don’t be upset. You can have this instead,” I said and offered a Churu cat treat.
Carbuncle snorted in dissatisfaction as if it were doing me a favor by letting me off the hook, but it looked pretty happy while licking the cat treat. Everyone around me was like this for some reason.
“Hey, Kudo,” said Linte as I resolved the Carbuncle situation. “That was ‘chocolate,’ right? It was delicious.”
“Oh, glad you— Wait, what do you mean it was delicious?” I asked and looked at the pot.
It was empty. There was no fondue left in the pot. She must’ve scooped every last bit of it, and the pot had been wiped clean without a trace of chocolate left. She hadn’t even left any streaks or anything. It’d all disappeared at the speed of light.
“Linte?!” I said, “Where’s my share?!”
“Well...in my stomach,” she said.
“Why didn’t you leave me any?! That was chocolate and fresh cream! The chocolate is one thing, but fresh cream isn’t cheap, you know?!”
“My bad. It was all gone before I knew it.”
“Can you please not let food control you?!” I said.
“That’s impossible. I’m an Adorner, you know?”
“That’s true, but it doesn’t excuse your actions!”
“This is your fault for bringing out chocolate in the first place. You should’ve known what would happen,” she said.
“I mean, you aren’t wrong, but I feel like that’s letting you talk your way out of this!”
I had to admit, I really did feel like I should’ve expected this would happen.
“I do feel like I went a bit too far though,” said Linte.
“Well, yeah, you did,” I agreed.
“You aren’t gonna say ‘No, it’s okay’?”
“No, of course not. Don’t try to take advantage of my kindness. If I said that, you’d just say ‘Then I guess it was fine,’ and act like nothing happened,” I said.
“You’re pretty distrustful, aren’t you?”
I definitely didn’t agree with the way Japanese people say “It’s okay, I don’t mind at all.” with a forced smile when they didn’t even mean it. I had to know how to say no, or I’d never survive this harsh world.
Linte looked deep in thought for a moment, then seemed to decide on something. “Okay, then I’ll let you hire me for free. How about we call it even then?”
“Hire you? Oh, that’s right, you’re a dungeon mercenary,” I said.
“That’s right. I can go anywhere up to around depth level 40 or so. Not a lot of Divers can go that far.”
“I didn’t know your level was so high,” I said.
“Yep,” she said as she rose from her seat. She was probably on the way to the dungeon now. “Thanks for the chocolate. Make sure you have some more the next time we meet.”
“You’re gonna mooch off me again, huh?”
“I resent that. I’ll pay you properly next time,” she said. She could be strangely conscientious at times.
“Okay then, until next time,” I said as I rose with Carbuncle.
Linte then tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Okay, let’s go.”
“Huh? What do you mean?” I asked.
“I said I’d let you hire me, didn’t I? Come on, let’s go to the dungeon.”
“You meant today?!”
“What? Aren’t you about to go for a dive?”
“Well, yes, but—”
“Then we might as well go now. Don’t worry. I’ll be useful.”
And so, I was off to the dungeon with Linte today.