Leave a comment

Once we finished our breakfast, I had Gadius prepare oatmeal and we headed to visit Michelle. Fortunately, her cold didn’t seem to be anything big, so while she was feeling listless she was still awake. Incidentally, since we were visiting her room I had Cloud refrain from visiting. After all, we would have to wipe her sweat.

“But I’m an exception.”
“Huh, did you say something, Lady Nicole?”
“Nope, nothing.”

Michelle had undergone growth that didn’t fit her age, so this job was quite frankly a sight for my sore eyes. I mean, I did worry about her condition too of course.

“Michelle, are you awake?”
“Yeesh.”

As I knocked and called out to her, a sluggish reply came from the other side. She seemed pretty listless there. As I opened the door, a warmer air compared to the corridor wrapped around me, perhaps heated up by her body. I became worried and went to measure her temperature.

“How are you feeling? Let me check your fever.”
“Okay.”

I put my forehead on her and compared our temperatures. I felt quite a high heat coming from her, so she probably wouldn’t be able to move today.

“Yeah, it’s pretty high. You can’t work today like this.”
“No wayyy.”
“No means no. It’s easy to make a blunder when you have a fever, so just rest for today.”
“But I have to adjust my armor.”
“Leave that for another day. Mistakes for Adventurers are connected to losing their life, so you have to be careful.”
“Boo.”

I tried to pacify the grumbling Michelle and fed her the oatmeal that I brought. After that, I removed her upper clothes to wipe her sweat. My only thought during that was “damn.” The contrast between her abdomen firmed up from adventures and her abundant chest was so splendid I got fascinated.

After that, I left Michelle’s care to Finia and returned to Gadius. As it was already past breakfast time, the customer traffic had passed its peak and there were hardly any customers left in the hall. Gadius was aware of that so he called me with my previous name.

“Reid. How is little Michelle faring?”
“Yeah, she should be fine given the way she acted. She had a bit of a high fever, but it’s a normal cold.”
“I see.”

I passed the tableware to Gadius who appeared a bit relieved at my answer. He wordlessly took it and took out some equipment in exchange.

“This is your breastplate. I have adjusted the belt so do check and confirm.”
“Ah, already? You work fast.”
“Hmph, had I known you were Reid, I would have cut more corners.”
“Hey now, don’t be like that now.”

Good grief, this tsundere dwarf. He honestly said he was happy just yesterday too.

“As for little Michelle, it would be quicker to buy a new one. The current one is too out of her body proportions.”
“You can tell without it being equipped?”
“It was already quite tight when you came here. It would be safer to buy a larger one anew rather than force adjustments on this one.”
“Even growth has its merits and demerits huh.”
“She is an archer, after all. Women in particular tend to wear out their armor faster due to the bowstring hitting their chest. Given her body figure and that bow, this would be a particularly severe case.”

If she were to use the Third Eye, we needed to urgently find a new breastplate for her. If we went with general materials like until now, she could risk a big injury when the bowstring hits it.

“Gadius, I will use Evil Dragon materials later and make some armor, so can you give it to her as a present from your side.”
“Hmm? But would people not think I am partial to her if people got the word of it?”
“What a pain they are. Then just make up some reason, like it being a graduation memento from Maxwell or something.”
“Go and ask Maxwell directly yourself.”
“I thought this would happen!”

A high-pitched voice suddenly intruded on our conversation. I have heard that voice many times by now.

“So you showed up, Whitey—wait, why are you with her!?”

As I turned around, the “Whitey” was there as I expected… Along with Aste.

“It’s quite something to ask me why. Of course, I came to apologise for my wife’s failures. And I also brought you an item as an apology.”
“Wife?”
“This thing.”

He said and tapped on the Whitey’s head next to him. I failed to process what his gesture and words meant for a moment.

“Wife…A wifeeeee!?”

I had already heard that Aste was married, so him being together with his wife wasn’t strange. But it changed then that wife was Whitey.

Whitey was the so-called God of Destruction, and her husband was called the God of Wind.

“Don’t tell me, you’re the God of Wind, Hastur!?”
“I suppose I have been called that.”
“No wait, how can that be…”

I reflexively denied it with words, but half of me was already convinced of it. The number of magic items in his house, the quality of the equipment he gave me, and the voice of a woman that leaked out from the basement the other day.

Didn’t it belong to Whitey?

“Hey, if you act so shocked now, I’m going to become emotional about it too.”
“That’s not the issue now. I heard that she made your comrade run wild and it led to her having to leave the city. I felt sorry for that, so I brought some equipment to you.”

With those words, Aste—or rather, Hastur, started to line up three pieces of equipment on the counter.

“First, a breastplate made with the Demonic Dragon Fafnir’s skin…”
“You started with something crazy right off the bat!”
“Don’t worry, I used the skin I collected during the shedding period, so it didn’t require any funds. Next, here are the gauntlets made from its scales. You should have the elf girl wear them.”
“You know about Finia?”
“I heard from my wife. It should be the right size too.”

Whitey puffed her chest next to him. I just felt like punching her smug face. But I had to thank her for this. Since Finia started using the spear, her defenses were becoming a bit of a problem. Her hands in particular were prone to enemy attacks as she pushed them forward. I was very grateful for these gauntlets. Still, the way Whitey was swelling her nostrils in pride was really getting on my nerves…

“You can give the breastplate to the girl you were talking about.”
“Wait, there’s nothing for me.”
“I’ve already given you a lot of equipment until now, haven’t I?”
“Well, yeah, but… Okay, fine. But your timing was great. Thanks.”

I planned to prepare a breastplate for Michelle, so he saved me a lot of trouble. And since it was a gift from the God of Destruction, I didn’t have to come up with any stupid excuses either. It was literally a godsend.

“Still… This is quite a simple design, huh?”
“Yeah, well, the Third Eye stood out, right? I reflected on that and made this one less conspicuous.”
“That was thoughtful of you. I want to leave standing out after we gain more power.”

If a newbie had good equipment, that would be enough to get them rolled up into trouble. With someone of my background, it could be taken as if I was piggy-backing on my parents’ influence. It would leave a better impression if we didn’t stand out until we ranked up further in the Guild.

“And here’s a shield. This is made with ordinary metal, but it also has Fafnir’s skin on the inside. It looks like a normal iron shield, but the defensive power it offers is incomparably higher.”
“For Cloud, huh?”
“I didn’t really want to make equipment for a guy though…”
“I have to agree with you there.”
“Anyway, you can distribute them as gifts from us. I hope you can forgive her blunder with this.”
“I’m sure she will forgive her.”

In the first place, a thought to blame her hadn’t even occurred to Michelle. Let alone forgive her, a pure girl like Michelle would be grateful instead.

“Well then, our business is done here.”
“You’re going already?”
“I’m going sightseeing with my wife for the first time in a long while. I’d like some alone time.”
“I see…”

With those words, the two quickly left the inn. Like this, we were able to improve our equipment. Meanwhile, Gadius was still petrified without uttering a single word.

The 12 years old arc ends with this.