“Okay, so Ramune and Mikan Water for you, right? That’ll be two hundred rims.”
A black-apron-clad Michelle was smiling sweetly at the rookie adventurers. My regulars like Meryl and Mira watched on from a slight distance.
“I had no idea that Mister Minerva was the witch Michelle,” Meryl was saying, still a little shocked. “Not only that, but she’s also your girlfriend? I can’t believe this!”
Now that she was no longer a fugitive from justice, Michelle had removed her mask, and she’d been helping out at the store ever since. Without a bounty on her head, there was no longer any reason for the adventurers to go after her. They’d all been scared of her at first, but once they’d seen her selling my dagashi with a smile on her face, they’d accepted these new circumstances in a span of days. My dagashi-ya wasn’t so busy as to need more hands on deck, so she was more like an uninvited employee.
“What happened to your research?” I asked her. “Shouldn’t you be going to the dungeon depths?”
“It’s fine. We can finally be together in public now. I’ll start my research again next week” was Michelle’s reply.
“Man, you two make a great pair!” Garmr grinned. “I’m happy for you, Mister Yusuke.”
“Oh, Garmr, you flatter me.” Michelle then suddenly narrowed her eyes, as if she’d grown suspicious. “But do we really...?”
“O-Of course. You’re the number one couple in the dungeon,” Garmr stammered. His delivery was decidedly forced, but he’d managed to scrape together some praise.
“You’re a good, honest boy.” Satisfied with his response, Michelle recited a long chant and cast a spell on him. A band of white and gold light wrapped itself around Garmr. What is that?
“There you go. I cast the ultimate magical blessing, Archangel, for you,” she told him. “You’ll be able to take down even the Orc King on B4 now. It only lasts three hours, so be careful.”
Garmr leaped up and excitedly turned to his friends. “She said the Orc King! They’re super amazing since they drop 150,000 rims each! Thank you, miss! Let’s go, everyone!”
He and his team dashed out of Hot Spring Yahagi.
“Hey, is that all right?” I asked Michelle.
“I’m sharing my happiness,” she replied. “Just this one time only.”
Oh, Michelle... Still, I couldn’t say I didn’t understand that sense of liberation she felt. She had spent so long living under that mask, hiding her face and her feelings.
Looking back on that day, I thought we had really lucked out. We could’ve lost our lives there in that arena. I might have regretted my own actions if I had died there—I wasn’t that strong of a person—but I was still just a little bit proud of myself for what I’d said that day: “Don’t put your filthy paws on Michelle!”
“Mister Yahagi, let me pull the Super Orb lottery.”
Some fresh-faced porters had once again come to my shop.
Well, living until you eventually kicked the bucket was just life, and this place, Dagashi-ya Yahagi, was the stage upon which I’d live mine.
“Welcome!” I greeted the adventurers with a smile on my face.