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I held on to the rope that Cloud dropped down and scrambled up the riverside.

The towel around my chest was a little annoying, but it wasn’t hindering my movements. If I was still a man I wouldn’t need something like this, but Cloud’s secretive glances were bothering me a lot now.

Michelle pinched him in the flank, making him twist in agony, but that was pretty light as compensation.

The damp ground was quite slippery. Moreover, it was prone to collapsing, which made ascending extremely hard.

We still continued going step by step, until we came across a light brown mushroom.

“Huh, this is…”

I’ve never seen Mixus Mushrooms before, so I checked the pictorial at the Adventurer’s Guild before departing. It looked just like the one that was depicted in it.

Two of them were growing on the hill road in isolation.

Perhaps the weed couldn’t grow on this hill road that was practically like a cliff.

And since this was riverside, it was pretty damp, creating a good environment for these mushrooms to grow.

“Yay, lucky us!”
“Nicole, what’s wrong?”
“We have two of them here. The commission needed five of them, so managing to get two is already valuable.”
“Right! Then, let’s hurry up and—”
“Wait, they are a bit on the left so…Cloud, can you bring me closer?”
“Sure, leave it to me.”

With those words, Cloud pulled the rope strongly to the left. That also meant that the entire rope started shaking violently. And naturally, I who was holding onto that rope felt that shaking too.

“Wah, you idiot!”

I was barely holding myself in place using this uneven ground and rope, so there was no way I could stabilize my body if that rope started to shake.

My feet slipped and I dangled down while holding onto the rope. To add more, I was wet all over, and my hands were muddy too.

Not to mention, my body was that of a powerless girl.

The hand holding the rope slipped, and I once again found myself dropping into the river.

“Waph!”

Raising a flashy splash, I once again sank into the water.

The mud from the riverbank and bottom got mixed up and the muddy water obstructed my vision. As I poked my head covered in seaweed, Cloud was looking at me with the expression of someone who screwed up big time.

“S-Sorry. I acted on instinct…”
“Your instinctive actions are too frequent. It calls for physical punishment.”
“Eeek!?”

He seemed to have remembered the training camp at the mention of physical punishment, he suddenly covered his crotch and jumped back.

“Sit still!”
“Wait, I really didn’t mean haaarm!”

I started crawling on all fours as I climbed up, chasing after him. He sprinted away while holding his crotch.

Actually, I could climb up with my own strength like this, so there was no need to have him drop down the rope in the first place.

After we somehow retrieved Mixus Mushroom, I changed my clothes.

After changing my moist and mud-smeared clothes, my body felt refreshed and the uncomfortable sensation went away.

Next to me was Cloud who had collapsed in agony while holding his crotch. An outcome of my physical punishment.

“Ahem. At any rate, we managed to obtain two of them with this.”
“Right. The remaining three should be somewhere around here, right?”
“I wonder. We found them here because there was no weed around.”
“Wouldn’t we find a similar place upstream where the currents are faster?”

As Michelle said, the fast streams often shaved away the ground, turning the river into something like a valley.

Weeds rarely grew in such places, so we might find Mixus Mushrooms there.

“F-For now, we can just… Go and check…”

Cloud expressed his opinion while gasping from behind. The gazes from the girls showering him were sharp like needles. It was one thing in the past, but now that the girls started developing secondary sex characteristics, their gazes were especially fierce.

“Inside the forest, having Kabby with us would have been quite reliable.”
“Well, you know how it looks. It’s just perfect for cuddling with Fina, so I left it with mom.”

Small animals like Kabby were extremely effective for cultivating aesthetic sensibility in children… Or so the Whitey said.

As such, I left it in Lyell’s mansion for the time being, having it act as Fina’s babysitter.

With Kabby on top of the housekeeper, Maria’s burden had significantly abated.

“Its tail and ears became all sloppy after getting licked.”
“Ahaha, I’d have liked to see that!”
“Cortina ended up in the same state too.”
“What, now I really wanted to see that!”
“M-Me too.”
“Hey, shouldn’t we get moving already?”

Cloud rudely intruded into our conversation. That said, we couldn’t fault him this time.

We departed late today, and went further than normal, so we were quite pressed for time. That said, the quota for mushrooms was five, with four days until the deadline. There was no need to force ourselves to keep going today.

“Lets see… Why not leave it at this for today and go back?”
“Eeh, already?”
“Right, right. We finally managed to find it after all.”
“Hey, if we continue on now, the gates might close before we manage to return back.”

Raum’s gates closed during the night. Of course, you could still come and go, but you had to first talk it out with the guards. It was stupid to end up doing something so bothersome all for the mushrooms up ahead that we weren’t even sure existed.

“Mgh, no helping it then. Father has told me off lately for returning late too.”
“You too, Letina? Me too, actually.”
“As for me… I have an excuse as long as I bring my spoils. Besides, only the sisters would worry for me.”
“You’re a loner as always, Cloud.”
“I-I’m not!”

It wasn’t praiseworthy for children just over ten like us to stay in the forest until so late. With that thought in mind, we decided to call it a day and returned back to the city.

Author’s note: Please note: For the next two chapters, Nicole wouldn’t appear. After that, the story would continue with a half year timeskip where Nicole had become 12 years old.