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After Aste finished collecting all the materials he needed for my gauntlets, we were finally able to take a breather.

Thinking about it, it was so late you couldn’t call it night anymore. The sun would probably rise any time now.

Regardless, we could return back in an instant with Maxwell’s magic, so it wouldn’t hurt to rest here before we did.

“That said, we can’t even make tea here.”

I sat down on one of the empty boxes filled with books, and stretched my stiff body.

I had to run to the mountain all the way from the city tonight… Well, I rode on Maxwell’s shoulder most of the way, though. But we even went to the World Tree labyrinth… Well, Aste teleported us there.

We had to fight lots of Huge Crawlers and even Juggernaut at the end. Looking back, it was quite a tough exercise for one day.

“We have tea over there, though.”
“Uh, well… I feel like it’d be a huge waste to drink that.“

Aste offered me his water pouch that he showed back in the labyrinth, but after knowing that it contained the World Tree sap, I felt a bit reserved about drinking it. I mean, I did give him even more valuable materials just a while ago, but…

“I see. Then I’ll drink it by myself.”
“Ok, wait, lemme drink too!”

That said, I didn’t feel like just watching someone drink it before my eyes either. I snatched the pouch from him and took a big gulp. It was a tea mixed with lukewarm sap, but it surprisingly felt refreshing as it went down the throat, and I could clearly feel my fatigue going away.

“Ahh, this is some nice stuff… Any way to obtain it regularly?”
“Sorry, but it would take a lot of time to transport it to Raum. It would be no problem if you come to take it yourself though.”
“No way I can do that.”

If I become more skilled with the Interference magic, I should be able to use Teleport. Until then, I had to rely on Maxwell every time, so I couldn’t come here whenever I pleased.

It was very unfortunate, but I had to give up on this tea. After returning the pouch to him, I lined up two boxes and lied down on them.

Aste’s eyes moved between the pouch and me as I lay limply there, with a complex expression on his face.

“What?”
“Ah, well… I was just thinking that your guardians are probably having a hard time.”
“My guardians? Why?”
“You are way too defenseless.”

Being told that, I looked down to check my own appearance. My gym uniform seemed to have folded up while I was lying down, and my belly button was in plain sight.

Since I wore short pants, my underwear wasn’t showing, but having only one leg up while the other dangled down made my posture look quite immodest.

And the finishing blow was the pouch I handed back. I gave something I put my lips on to a man.

As a backlash from my lady training, I’ve been behaving quite crudely as of late.

“O-Oh, come on. I just can’t get the hang of being a girl, okay?”
“I see… Hmm, so that means…”

Aste muttered and started thinking with a hand to his chin. Then he suddenly raised his face and called out to Maxwell. He was fumbling for magic swords, so hearing his name so suddenly made him flinch.

“Hey, Maxwell. Let’s search.”
“Huh? F-For what?”
“Guys like this guy tend to hide their embarrassing past in these kinds of places. In other words…”
“Oh… Understood!”
“Understand my a̲s̲s̲!”

Indeed, you could say this place was the sole base of a wanderer like me. So I brought things I didn’t want others to see here as well. Aste’s judgment was accurate. It was so accurate that I didn’t want them to search.

“Maybe somewhere along the wall… No, probably not. He wouldn’t hide them in such an obvious place..”
“Are you sure? Reid is quite brilliant when it comes to battles, but tends to be extremely shortsighted when it comes to everyday things.”
“You have a point. Still, he probably never expected anyone to come here. In that case, he probably didn’t even hide them.”
“I see… In that case, they might be lumped into one of those boxes.”

After thinking up to that point, Maxwell looked towards me. No, to be more accurate, towards the boxes I was using as a bed.

“H-hey, now… Drop it.”
“Hey, little Nicole, do you mind moving aside for a bit?”
“Stop your wheedling!”

I tried to resist with all I had, but he easily pushed away my hands and lifted me up. In the meantime, Aste grabbed the box I was sitting on.

“Why are you two so in sync!?”

Ignoring my protests, they wrench opened the box, and exposed my shame.

“S-Stop…!”
“Oho? First things first, we have some po̲r̲n̲ books here. So you had a hobby like this?”
“There are a lot of elves. And beastgirls. There are surprisingly few humans, though?”
“Oh, looks like slender girls are his type too.”
“Dammit, give it a rest already!”

Since the situation looked so desperate, there was no time to hold back. I clung to Maxwell’s arm that had me lifted in the air and moved into a locking technique.

To hell with respecting your elders!

“Ouch ouch ouch! Reid, hold back a little!”
“I ain’t holding back towards the a̲s̲s̲h̲o̲l̲e̲s̲ that try to dig up other people’s secrets!”
“Okay, I will look no more so stop! My hand is about to break!”
“I’ll keep looking, though.”
“You stop as well, goddammiiiit!”

Aste silently browsed through one particularly risky book. I promptly let go of Maxwell and rushed towards him.