Chapter 25 - Saint-nim, You're Being Irreverent!
Even after one round of exorcism (physical).
During the 9th floor climb, Elise kept popping her face out as if making her presence known.
I debated whether to complain about the extreme action of releasing 3 bosses, but.
I left it alone, believing that Saha-nim would cleanly grind them up even if a similar situation occurred again.
So today too, 9th floor Zone 9.
…It’s a bit unsatisfying to stop at multiples of 9.
I should pick a day to return to the 1 floor per day routine.
From the 11th floor, flying monsters will appear, and path-finding gimmicks will be added…
It’ll get annoying.
Anyway.
I used 5 attacks in D-Arena to manage my rank.
Today’s daily dungeon, I went to the gold dungeon with tears in my eyes to make up for the business loss.
So.
“Dismissed! Good work everyone. Let’s meet at the guild house in the evening.”
“Yahoo! Yohena, shall we go shopping? How about you, Saha?”
“Sounds good, Ari. Let’s go together.”
“I appreciate the offer, but I’ll have to decline today. I need to return to the knights.”
“Tinya woof! Don’t run away, go study woof!”
“Eeek…”
The heroes left to enjoy their own lives.
…Tinya didn’t look happy, but well.
With great power comes great responsibility.
Hang in there! Future Store Manager!
“Phew.”
I used up all the remaining 500 points to build an alchemy workshop on the 2nd floor.
…Now my points are zero.
But as the shop’s reputation increases, the rewards from daily quests also increase, so.
If I develop steadily, spring will come.
And.
“Huhuhu…”
This brilliant alchemy cauldron.
It will guarantee my bright future.
In the original── Last Felix, alchemy was an essential system for obtaining scarce items.
Creating tokens of lacking attributes with surplus attribute tokens.
Synthesizing affection items with materials obtainable from monsters.
Combining various materials to create rare materials or magical equipment that can’t be made in the blacksmith.
Even when the workshop level increases, enchanting heroes’ equipment along with refining, or making magic potions for temporary doping…
It was truly the core of cores.
And.
“I’ve played this game before!”
I shouted the line I wanted to say for some reason.
That’s right.
I’m an incarnator!
A man who has memorized most alchemy combination recipes!
That’s me!
Moreover.
Even materials that couldn’t be obtained yet if we had climbed the tower normally.
Thanks to the small quantities sold by our shop customers, all sorts of materials were rolling around in our store.
I shouted down to the 1st floor.
“Tinya? Let’s organize the warehouse here.”
Tinya came up the stairs, crying kyang and pitter-pattering.
This is the path of store manager you chose.
Endure it with evil and stubbornness.
“Master…?”
“I’ll cook you something delicious later.”
“Uu…”
While at it, I poured out the materials I had been keeping only in my inventory into an empty box.
I felt like the weight of my smartphone became very slightly lighter.
And peering over.
I picked up a few things I was looking for over Tinya’s shoulder as she started organizing the warehouse diligently while whining.
Fairy Tear Gem.
Something obtainable only by catching fairies on the 20th floor.
Phoenix’s Brilliant Feather.
A trophy from phoenixes that only appears on the 30th floor.
Ancient Golem’s Stopped Circuit.
Likewise, something that only comes out on the 30th floor.
…Where on earth are our uncontracted heroes picking up these things?
Is there some material utopia I don’t know about?
Anyway, after picking up a few things like that.
I lit a magical-flame in the alchemy cauldron.
Whoosh──
A different kind of warmth from the blacksmith’s heat warmed my body hotly.
It’s hot, so let’s finish quickly.
After opening a few bottles of alchemy reagents that were unlocked in the Revealer shop along with the alchemy workshop and pouring them in shururuk.
I put in all the materials I had gathered and stirred with the alchemy ladle next to it.
My arm hurts.
Stir stir, stir stir.
As I stirred like that, finally some beautiful magical-radiance started sparkling in the cauldron.
“Ooh…!”
This ethereal radiance…!
“Wooow…!”
Before I knew it, Tinya, who had been organizing the warehouse, also came to my side and started watching with sparkling eyes.
Well, this much is understandable.
Forgiving that dereliction of duty humbly as well.
I stirred whee whee, stir stir with sincerity.
And.
Flash!
For a moment, a huge light flashed from the alchemy cauldron.
Come forth! Ornament with the Phoenix’s Soul!
7-rank accessory obtainable through alchemy!
As brilliant as a Gal■xy S3 in smartphone terms… no, accessory!
Sparkle sparkle!
“Huh? Huuuh? Master! It’s dangerous!”
As Tinya screamed and pulled my hood’s hem to drag me back.
Boom boom, kaboom──!
A huge explosion erupted.
And, something, like stone fragments flying towards me──
Thwack!
“──!”
I lost consciousness with a death cry.
This kind of daily life is nice too.
Being led by Ari’s hand and wandering around the market here and there.
Yohena savored the rare leisure.
Putting down the goddess’s power she always kept activated for a while.
Also leaving the equipment worn in the tower at the guild house for a moment.
She felt the vitality of people together with Ari in ordinary and comfortable attire.
“Look, Yohena! Isn’t it pretty!”
“Yes, Ari. It’s cute.”
With her red hair, always tied up, lightly let down.
Looking at Ari with a hairpin vaguely resembling Lumi’s design in her bangs, Yohena gave a gentle smile.
“By the way, there are really a lot more people.”
“Right! I haven’t been here in a while, but maybe because the tower started being conquered, they say people keep gathering from all over the world.”
I see.
We were gradually making the world a better place…
Yohena felt proud.
Of course.
Elise? You drove the orcs into a pit last time. Can’t you do more like that?
…When recalling memories of conquering the tower, umm, it feels like the emotion fades.
Yohena stopped thinking for a moment.
“Next, let’s go there! That clothing store. They have lots of pretty clothes!”
“Okay.”
When we passed by earlier, Lumi was playing with children in the square too.
Everyone must be living like this, taking a breather.
Thinking that while roaming the market, trying on some slightly irreverent-feeling clothes at Ari’s insistence.
Putting on accessories she had never worn in her life.
And in doing so, Yohena relieved some of the mental burden she had carried as a saint.
However.
Suddenly.
‘If I spent time like this with that person…’
Hot.
What was I just thinking…!
At the irreverent thought that flashed through her mind, Yohena unknowingly blushed.
Well, that person is probably the lover of the bubbly woman right in front of her.
Ari.
I haven’t seen them being lovey-dovey lately though.
…Right. Why haven’t I seen it? Did they have a fight?
“Ari, have you had any problems with Ark recently?”
Yohena was the type who couldn’t hold back her curiosity.
Ari tilted her head.
“Hmm? Not at all? Just getting along well as hero and revealer? That kind of relationship?”
She answered with an innocent expression.
‘…?’
The relationship between hero and revealer.
That’s right, but.
…Don’t they usually boast about being lovers here?
The Saint-nim’s circuit started turning again with no brakes.
“Weren’t you dating?”
“…? Me? With Ark?”
“…? If not, then what.”
Yohena couldn’t bring herself to directly ask what ‘that night’s’ scene was about.
But the initiative in the offensive had already passed, so.
“Ahahaha! Yohenaa, what what? Were you imagining that? As a saint, shouldn’t you not have such irreverent thoughts~?”
Ari, who had properly caught on, started teasing Yohena by poking her side.
“Uu… Th-th-that’s not irreverent…! Uuu…!”
Because it was true that she had irreverent thoughts.
Yohena started getting indiscriminately bombarded with words and fingers, unable to respond properly.
Eventually.
“Perhaps, that night…”
Unable to hold back her curiosity, Yohena asked in a very small voice, as if whispering, with her face red.
“…Saint-nim, you’re being irreverent…! But so pure…! This is crazy, crazy!”
Ari made all sorts of fuss while pulling Yohena’s wrist.
They sat down at an open-air cafe and ordered drinks.
“Well, you see? It’s not like a kiss, or holding hands while sleeping…”
Whisper whisper.
“Th-th-that can’t be…! No, how, impossible, such a thing, actually. U-uu?”
Ari blowing the devil’s whisper into the saint’s ear with her three-inch tongue.
Like that.
The innocent child Yohena was, died.
And…
A Yohena who had opened her eyes to adult secrets was newly born.
Shocked by her world, which had been well-built with fairy tales and sacred stories, crumbling in an instant.
Yohena had her head down for a while, unable to even think of drinking, digging into the ground, but.
“Oh? Isn’t that Tinya over there?”
It was Ari who, while teasing Yohena, sharply caught the familiar crown and color combination approaching from afar.
Yohena and Ari, who finally raised their heads.
Took in the sight of Tinya gradually approaching.
“Huh…?”
“Did something happen?”
On the face of the little demon that was always full of arrogant smiles, urgency could be seen.
And tears were welling up in her eyes.
The two women simultaneously hardened their faces with an ominous feeling.
And.
“Master…! Master is hurt…!”
As soon as they heard Tinya’s voice, Yohena instantly drew up her hero’s power──
Throwing away all grace and dignity, she sprinted at full speed.
A moment later.
“Urgh…”
“Ark?! Ark, are you okay?!”
Hearing Ark’s groan coming from the 2nd floor of the shop.
Yohena, who went up with such force that she almost destroyed the stairs, saw.
“…?”
The sight of Ark with his forehead cut and blood trickling down.
And the strange object in his hand.
Blackened, thick, long, and blunt at the end…
Something resembling what came from the forbidden knowledge Ari had whispered?
“Heal!”
At that point, Yohena stopped thinking.
For now, she did what she had to do as a saint.
Today, Yohena had truly irreverent thoughts.