Chapter 181: The Girl Who Can See Through People's Hearts!
Luke didn't immediately return to the residence of Loki Familia.
Instead, he planned to take advantage of the fact that there weren't many things in the house to clean it up a bit.
Although Alise and the others usually did a general cleaning, it was still an empty room that no one used, so it definitely couldn't be considered clean.
Goddess Astraea and the others had left in the morning, and it wasn't even noon yet since Luke had seen them off.
He still needed to go shopping for daily necessities and return to his Familia's residence to explain the situation.
So if he could finish cleaning the room before lunch, then the schedule for afternoon wouldn't be too tight.
"..."
"..."
"...Are you... just going to watch here?"
Luke silently stopped his cleaning and said to Ais and Ryuu in a troubled tone:
"Why do I have a feeling that something's not quite right..."
At this moment, the two girls were secretly hiding outside the door, poking their heads in to watch Luke.
"You two... aren't you going to come in and help?"
Looking at Ais and Ryuu with their "I'm just watching, not helping" expressions, Luke felt a sense of inexplicable sadness.
"Ah... no... that... I was going to see if I could help..."
As an elf, Ryuu wasn't as calm as Ais next to her.
After being pointed out by Luke, she immediately felt a little embarrassed about her shameful behavior.
Luke was a guest after all, and it didn't seem polite to let the guest clean the room while she watched from the side.
Ais was also a guest, so of course it didn't matter, but Ryuu couldn't do that.
"W-Well, u-um... is there anything I can do?"
The elf girl who said this was very embarrassed.
But there was nothing she could do, she really didn't know what to do.
The cleaning and tidying of the room had always been the responsibility of other members of Astraea Familia, and Ryuu was basically only responsible for fighting.
It could be said that in this respect, she was on par with Ais, who was five years younger than her.
However, looking at her attitude, Luke was very happy.
Smiling at Ryuu, who was blushing with embarrassment, Luke said:
"Then you can go and get the..."
Luke suddenly stopped halfway through his sentence.
He turned to look at Ais, then turned back to look at Ryuu again.
Then, Luke recalled the performance of these two problematic girls in the dungeon.
He stared at Ryuu for a full ten seconds before finally suppressing his look of disgust.
"...You better just stand outside and watch."
Crash!
As Luke's words fell, Ryuu's maiden heart shattered into pieces.
Ais, who was standing outside the door, had an "I knew it would turn out like this" expression and raised her head triumphantly.
…
The small interlude didn't affect Luke's cleaning progress.
Without the two troubled girls "messing around," he quickly finished cleaning the two rooms.
"Alright, that's about it."
"The timing is just right, let's get ready for lunch... What's wrong with her?"
After tidying up the room he and Ais would be staying in, Luke turned around and saw Ryuu with a depressed expression.
Seeing her shaky look as if she had given up hope on life, Luke asked Ais with a confused expression.
Ais pointed to the room that Luke had cleaned and replied, "You killed her mood."
"???"
In the end, Luke, who couldn't understand what had happened, chose to give up thinking.
Compared to thinking about those useless things, eating was more important.
"Let's have lunch first, there's still a lot to do in the afternoon."
"If we're making lunch..."
Suddenly, Luke paused again halfway through his sentence.
And the moment she heard Luke say "make lunch," Ryuu seemed to sense an opportunity to redeem her image and immediately perked up.
'I must reestablish my image in Luke's mind!'
'I can't let him think I'm an useless elf!'
'It's already too much to ask a guest to help clean the house, I can't continue to smear the reputation of Astraea-sama and the elven race!'
'Although I'm not very good at cooking, I can definitely do it if I try my best!'
The fleeting look of disgust from Luke just now had dealt her a huge blow to her heart.
In order to save her image as a woman, Ryuu gathered her courage and said to Luke:
"U-um... I can try cooking..."
"...Let's just eat out!"
After saying that, Luke walked out first without any hesitation.
Behind him, he could vaguely hear the sound of something shattering into pieces.
…
For Luke, eating out basically meant going to a few places he often goes to.
So without wasting any time, he headed straight for West Main Street.
It just so happened that he also had something to discuss with Mama Mia.
Luke walked in front, followed by Ais dragging a certain elf girl who had lost all hope in life.
The three of them soon arrived at the tavern "Hostess of Fertility" on West Main Street.
This tavern run by Mia Grand was open from morning until late at night.
Although it was open both day and night, the customers it served were completely different in day and night.
In the evening, this tavern was a gathering place for high-level adventurers due to its excellent food, signature drinks, and expensive prices.
Many Familia host their banquets here, including Loki Familia.
However, the daytime was completely different.
During the time when most adventurers were in the dungeon, the "Hostess of Fertility" was a tavern full of ordinary residents, and almost all the customers were women.
Of course, the menu and prices were also completely different.
"Welcome."
"Eh? Luke? It's rare to see you here for lunch."
It was Syr who greeted Luke at the door.
Originally, her relationship with him could only be considered average, and they had always been the type who didn't want to interact too much with each other.
But since the last Q&A after the nightmare on the 27th floor incident, Syr had gradually become more enthusiastic towards Luke.
And, when a girl was willing to talk to you, you couldn't just ignore her heartlessly.
So after this period of time, although they weren't very close, Luke and her were at least considered ordinary friends.
He had been wondering about the reason for the change in Syr's attitude, but after hearing Loki's accidental slip of words a few days ago, Luke basically understood the reason.
"Just in time, Syr, I need your help with something."
"If you can, please call Mama Mia for me."
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