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When I returned to Cortina’s home, I felt a strange out-of-place feeling. Cortina was acting strangely cheerfully while dealing with me. She was normally cheerful, yes, but her conduct looked almost theatrical now.

“Cortina, did something happen?”
“No, nothing at all.”

She said that, but as I already knew the situation from Maxwell, I could tell that she was just trying to act like her usual self. Emotions weren’t so easy to put back together once they exploded, after all.

Still, since she chose to act like everything was fine, that meant that she didn’t want me to know about it. Instead of pursuing the matter, I decided to instead wait until I broke the deadlock… That is, until Aste could do something about me.

“Ah, right. This is for you. It’ll make your hair really smooth.”
“Yes, it’s true. Please look at my hair, it’s so glossy.”

As I handed the shampoo to her, Finia came to demonstrate the effect it had on her hair. Even Cortina was a woman, so seeing that made her change her expression and inspect her hair.

“Wow, the glossiness is one thing, but it has also turned so supple. You already had good hair before, but now…”
“Isn’t that right? It surprised me as well!”
“We have to thank that white girl. This is already on the level that could be lined up in the stores if mass-produced.”
“It needs monster materials, so we can’t make that many. That said, it’s not that difficult of an opponent, so newbie Adventurers could make good money out of it.”
“Oho…”

Floating Wakame weren’t such difficult opponents… I mean, they were in a different sense, but they couldn’t pose any danger to people’s lives.

Newbie Adventurers could make extra money through them.

The problem was that they had to be collected at the seaside, but their epidermis could be dried and returned to its viscous state with water when needed. Since they could be transported for long periods of time, you could bring them into trades.

“Lady Cortina, look at this too! I have a matching pair with Lady Nicole!”
“Ohh, is that a talisman? And handmade? What is it made of?”
“Fang Wolves. Michelle, Cloud and Fina also have theirs.”
“Heh… Hey, can I step out for a bit?”
“Huh, where to?”
“Yeah, well, I’ll get Maxwell to take me to hunt some Fang Wolves.”
“Now!?”

It was already nearing evening now. If she headed to hunt wolves after eating the food Finia made, it would be late night already. While it suited me for her to be absent, her camping alone at night would be worrying.

At any rate, it was best to change the topic now.

“Err, uhh… Ah, right, Maxwell is teaching me ritual magic today, so he told me to stay over at night.”
“Huh, to his mansion?”
“No, somewhere else. He apparently found a good place for the ritual.”

This was not a lie. We did find a perfect place for the ritual magic. Not to mention, one where a Devil was about to be summoned. Though where we planned to go had nothing to do with it.

“Ritual magic, huh. Do you need that stuff?”
“Er, err… Right, Teleportation magic!”
“Ah, right, that does belong to ritual magic too.”

Teleportation that was used widely was the type that borrowed the magic circle’s power to supplement the lack of magic power.

It was very hard to use it as a chanted spell like Maxwell did, but I might be able to use this method before long.

Considering all that, Cortina decided to let me spend the night away.

“You finally came back, and you’re going away again… Could this be a sign of turning into a delinquent?”
“No, it’s not!”

I denied it with all I had, but honestly, the fact that I was going to do shady stuff behind her back probably made her point hit close. It pained me to tell her, who was already suffering as is, yet another lie. But that was also for her own sake.

“But you can’t just walk alone in the dead of night, right?”
“Maxwell thought about that too. He told me to get Finia to escort me. And to have her help clean the mansion.”
“That old man… Getting lazier by the day. What about that Mateus fellow?”
“Looks like he has a day off. Also, you’re coming along part way too, right?”

She was going to get the Fang Wolf fangs, so Maxwell’s teleportation was essential for her. She was going somewhere else after that, so there was no fear of her finding out what we were going to do ourselves.

It turned out a little different from my expectations… But I suppose this was good in its own way.

In the end, we came to Maxwell’s mansion together with Cortina. After taking one step inside, Cortina leaked a sigh and spoke.

“This geezer, how did he manage to make such a mess of his mansion in just a few days.”

She had a point — This mansion was relatively clean while Mateus was still around, but after the events around the training camp period, it had gone back to the disastrous sight it used to be.

Given the state, I could see why he’d want to ask Finia to help.

“That is quite a rude remark to make right after arriving.”
“You finally made that guy be a housekeeper, but you still ended up in this state in the blink of an eye. It’s obvious that it’d get a few sighs out of me.”
“I do feel bad to ask little Finia for help, but this is who I am, I cannot do anything about it.”
“Well, consider how it used to be before Nicole arrived in this city, I guess this was a natural outcome.”
“Setting that aside, why are you here, Cortina?”
“I want a matching pair too!”
“Huh?”

Maxwell was confused at her sudden declaration. It probably caused some error in his language center.

“I mean, I want a matching talisman with Nicole and others.”
“Even if you tell me that, I have no spares around.”

I decided to explain the situation to the troubled Maxwell. Hearing it, he frowned and spoke evasively.

“It could be dangerous to hunt Fang Wolves on your own, you know? With no one to cover you on top.”
“Then let me take Gadius along.”
“Do you not pity him to call him for something so personal?”

I sent my condolences to Gadius who got rolled up in her self-interests. Despite all that, he would still do what he was asked and go along, so I couldn’t help but call him soft-hearted.

He still held some guilty conscience towards Cortina so he probably couldn’t refuse her.

Thus, after sending Cortina elsewhere, we went to Maleva of the Sword Kingdom of Alecmarle.

In addition, it was decided that Finia would be paid compensation for cleaning his house at a later date.