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Waking up, I check up on the “Mirage” and “Protect” Magic I cast on the entrance. Hmm, seems like there’s no particular problem. Just in case, I made it so that the “Mirage” doesn’t only affect the sense of sight but also the sense of smell and hearing, so it’s practically impossible for even monsters and wild animals to notice it, probably. I’m not quite sure if it’s the same for humans, though. After all, there might be some guys that can notice those kinds of things too.

It looks like the rain has stopped. Since we’re in the middle layer, it’s pretty dark outside, but I can still catch a glimpse of the blue sky here and there. In that case, it seems like we can go home today.

Urania is still fast asleep. Maybe it’s because I slipped out of the bed, she moves her hand restlessly trying to find me; seeing that, I felt a little warm inside. I called out a plushie with 【Dream Fabrication】 and tried placing it near her hand. Urania then hugs it close to her and fell back asleep with a satisfied smile.

「That’s really cute.」

Unintentionally muttering that, I started panicking and looked over the area, but there’s obviously no other people around. Since Urania is asleep, no one should’ve heard that. How should I say this? Since I really didn’t mean to say that out loud, it’s really embarrassing. I’m really grateful that no one really heard that.

After that, I started preparing breakfast, and after a bit, Urania woke up. The way she looks, hugging a plushie with sleepy eyes, definitely doesn’t bring to mind the same person that can easily sniff out monsters, sneak into its blind spot, and stab its vitals in a single breath.

「Phwah~ Morning……」
「Morning Urania. I’m almost done making breakfast, so will you have some?」
「Nn, please.」
「Then I’ll set up the table. For now, go wash your face.」

Saying so, I pass her a dry towel and point her towards a bucket of hot water. It’s something I prepared while making breakfast. Turning water hot was unexpectedly easy, so I quickly got it ready. Well, let’s keep the fact that it was too hot when I used it which made me reflexively cast “Freeze” on it a secret.

「Thank you, mom.」
「Nh?」
「………………………………………………」

Having a slip of the tongue, when I look back at her, Urania is hanging her head while blushing deep red. Yeah, we’ve gotten a bit too relaxed, so that can’t be helped, right? I also had my classmates poke fun at me for calling my teacher mom. Hmm, mom. That sounds good too. If I get a daughter like Urania then that might be fine for me too. What do you call this? Perhaps this is the thing that’s called maternal instincts or something?

「…… Forget it.」

With a small faint voice, Urania says only that and starts washing her face with undivided focus. Was it that embarrassing for her? She looks really dejected, so there’s no need to touch on that topic, right? I decided to go back to finishing up breakfast. Today’s breakfast is bread toasted with ham and cheese on top, and soup made the same way as yesterday.

Since it’s morning soup, I tried making it using dried fish and mushrooms. It doesn’t have a strong rich taste like the one cooked with meat, but it’s a pleasant dish that has a soft gentle flavor to help you wake up.

「「Thanks for the meal.」」

Saying so, we started eating breakfast. While eating, we decide on today’s objective. Well even though I say that, the plan’s just to go home, but we’re also deciding on how to deal with “Gale Viper” when we encounter them. Though we did somehow escape yesterday with the rapid fire “Burn”, we haven’t confirmed if they received any damage.

Did they get hit? Were they luckily unharmed? Or perhaps completely annihilated? I have absolutely no idea. As for us, them being unharmed would be the worst, and them being annihilated would be the most optimal. Wait, the pattern of having them bear a grudge on us because they just had some minor injuries might be the worst of them all.

「If Lily’s in perfect condition, we won’t lose.」
「Well, that is true.」
「If we can, let’s capture them.」
「Why?」
「Other than the bounty, we’ll also get money selling them as crime slaves.」

It seems like in this world it’s extremely rare for people to be executed for punishment. In this world where you can bind people with a Contract Spell, criminals pay accordingly for their crimes when they fall to being crime slaves. And it seems that since crime slaves are dealt with by the Slave Firms designated by the country, we receive a tenth of the sale through the guild.

「Well, since we have enough leeway, let’s do it.」
「Nn, then that’s good.」
「Well, this dungeon is pretty wide. And since they didn’t attack us last night, that probably means they lost sight of us, so I doubt we’d come across them anytime soon.」

◆◇◆◇◆

Yup, I jinxed it. I really jinxed it, huh… How can I say this? As expected of a fantasy world, maybe? The clichés really come without fail. Well, what I’m really trying to say is, the moment we went out of the tree cave and headed to the dungeon’s exit, I noticed that some people started to surround us. After having my physical abilities as a Succubus released, I can somehow sense a person’s presence, or more specifically, I’m sensitive to the Life Essence of people nearby.

I made it a bit vague by saying some people, but well, it’s just the idiots of “Gale Viper”. Still, I don’t remember the characteristics of their Life Essence, so I can’t be too sure, but there’s also five of them here, so I’m probably not mistaken. One took the high ground and seems to be targeting us with a bow, while the other four seems to have started to arrange themselves to block our escape route. Urania seems to have noticed them too. Since they can’t actually launch an ambush on us, we’ll just let them do as they please for now.

Hell, we’re already prepared to counterattack. Just using “Bind” on them is a bit boring after all, and most of all, I’m not going to be satisfied if I don’t punish them a bit. Me getting shot through was fine and all, but I won’t forgive them for putting Urania through that. Before we make you crime slaves, I’ll punish you enough.

It looks like they’re done preparing. I can hear the bow’s string being tightly drawn. Well then, it’s time to counterattack!