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Finia worriedly greeted me as I sluggishly got out of bed. On the table, there was fish that we caught yesterday along with lightly baked bread. There was also seaweed salad and grilled bacon. It seemed that the breakfast preparations were already done.

“Morning Finia.”
“Good Morning, Lady Nicole. How are you feeling?”
“As a matter of fact, I am sluggish and feel awful.”
“Will you be able to eat breakfast?”
“Yeah, I will manage somehow.”

After a quick greeting, I headed to the washroom. This cottage drew water straight from the well behind it, so you just had to use the hand pump and the water would come out.

There were various other magic tools installed here and there which made me think it felt better here than in the capital even.

I brushed my teeth with my personal toothbrush and then washed my face to refresh myself. Michelle and Letina joined me midway and we all washed our faces side by side. As Letina and I were small, all three of us could fit there without problems.

“Ptoo… Nicole, is your body doing fine now?”
“Yeah, I can move at least. But adventures are still too much for me now. My perception seems dulled due to pain.”
“You have to take care of yourself, okay?”

I nodded without saying anything to Letina’s concern. She forcefully befriended me at first, but she was not a bad girl deep down. She was actually quite a caretaker, so it made me feel glad to be with her.

After we returned to the living room once more, Cloud and Maxwell were already seated at the table.

“Cloud, did you wash your face?”
“I generally wash my face after eating. Besides, some people at the orphanage gave me weird faces when we entered the washroom together, so I acquired a habit of postponing it.”
“Huh…”

I personally didn’t like the sticky sensation in my mouth so I normally washed up right after waking up, but there were certainly people that did it after breakfast. Thus, I gave an absentminded acknowledgment to his explanation.

After all of us were gathered, we started digging into our respective places. I had to say I really didn’t like how they were stealing glances at my way every now and then.

I understood that they were worried about me, but given the reason behind my condition, their conduct just made things more awkward.

Thus, I decided to redirect them to a different topic.

“By the way, Finia, about this seaweed salad…”
“I managed to procure some good seaweed.”
“…Could it be the Floa-”
“I managed to procure some good seaweed.”
“…You don’t have to stress that point so much.”
“O-Okay.”
“So, about removing Cloud from the team…”
“Huh, removing me!?”
“You b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲, don’t tell me you forgot how you witnessed Finia’s disgraceful appearance and did something so shameful on top of it?”
“Wait, that was beyond my control! That was absolutely beyond my control!”

Since I was trying to bring up a random topic, I decided to lash out at Cloud after he came into my sight. He took my words seriously and started frantically protesting them.

I mean, I understood what he felt back then, but he was still too weak towards women. It was no wonder he would be so after being kept at arm’s length not just by girls but people generally, but he was still far too pathetic.

As such, I felt the need to warn him about it.

“Since that ‘something beyond your control’ put Finia in danger, we have to make you take responsibility.”
“N-Now now… Lady Nicole, I don’t mind it.”
“You have to mind a bit, you know?”

Finia, who was an orphanage-raised, and then worked as Maria’s maid, was actually quite a sheltered girl. Since she knew that Cloud was harmless, the shyness she felt about getting seen by him was probably on the level of getting into a bath with a familiar boy.

Still, this time it turned out fine since the opponent was a harmless monster, but it could otherwise have been fatal. For the future’s sake, I had to have him get his act together.

For that, I chose the method of pressing him with a sense of crisis. Naturally, I had no intention of casting him aside so simply.

“Nicole, I also don’t want to see him go…”
“Hmm… Alright then, due to Michelle’s generosity and Finia’s forgiveness, Cloud shall receive a suspended sentence this time.”
“So I am still guilty in the end?!”
“Listen, if you mess up again, I’m really removing you from the team, got it?”
“Ugh, okay, I’ll be more careful.”

After his meek reply, I decided to leave it at that. But his unsociability with people was a bit of a problem. Though it has improved somewhat after he started partying up with us…

“Maybe you lack some stimulus in your life?”
“If you give this lad any more stimulus, he will dry up completely, would he not?”

He was partying with beauties during the day and being trained by Lyell and co during the night. And when he brought hunted materials to the Guild, other Adventurers sometimes dragged him off to the arena below.

Given his age, his life was certainly quite full of stimulus.

“Then, how come you’re so unused to it?”
“I mean, this time it was about Finia so…”
“Aah?”
“No, nevermind.”

I glared at him with white eyes. Even if it was Cloud, I wasn’t about to hand Finia over!

Maxwell decided to put this conversation on hold and started talking about today’s plans.

“Now then. I want you to come with me and gather threads to make swimsuits today.”
“Threads?”

The conversation went according to what we already discussed. Finia and I would remain behind while the rest would explore the forest of this deserted island. They were searching for a monster called Marble Spider in those woods.

It was a monster of around one meter long and it tended to make its nest in inconspicuous places where it preyed on mouse-sized creatures.

This cottage was on a cleared-up part of the forest, so those spiders that loved dim places wouldn’t show up here.

Sticky and strong threads could be collected from them. The adhesive substance was quite weak to water so we could wash it off later, meaning it could be used for swimsuits. It had brilliance, was tough, and its adhesiveness made it unlikely to become sodden. It might actually be the best material for swimsuits.

If there was a fault to it, it was that dyeing it would be quite hard.

“We can extract the threads even if we do not keep it alive, so feel free to consider it an environmental improvement and hunt them down without sparing any.”
“Okay, leave it to us!”

They generally didn’t move from where they built their nests, so they were easy targets for Michelle. She could defeat them by simply shooting from afar. Given the choice of the monster, it seemed that Maxwell was quite attentive to their safety.

“I will follow you as well, but try not to rely on me as much as you can. Finia will remain to care for Nicole and do her magic homework.”
“Understood.”
“And Nicole, don’t be a naughty girl and listen to her.”
“Kh…”

After throwing a cynical remark my way, our breakfast meeting came to an end. I didn’t need him to say that, I didn’t feel like doing anything reckless anyway.