บท 36: Introductions
Fia and Elsie was sitting on the table near the terrace. Elsie was eating mango puddings while Fia was slurping her orange juice.
"*slurp* Did you tell Haruto-nii *slurp* Elsie-san?"
"*nom* Yup, he said he's on his way here. Thankfully they're *nom* quite nearby so they should be here *nom* soon~"
"*slurp* I see."
*slurp* *nom* *nom* *slurp* *slurp* *nom* *slurp* *nom*
The other customers and staffs were watching the girls with amazement. Of course they were, after all it's already 13th cup for Elsie and 27th glass for Fia. 'Just what kind of stomach do they have!?' They thought.
"A-Anoo, customer-sama? I think you shoul-"
"Ah it's Kami-sama!"
"Oh yeah!"
Finally a certain staff decided to speak to them because if they kept eating like that they would ran out of ingredients for the menu even though it's still midday. But just as the staff tried to approach they jumped up from their seat leaving out some money for the bill and ran outside. In the end the staff halted in her approach right arm extended and mouth agape.
....
Haruto and Kaori stood waiting for both girls ran towards them while waving their hands.
"Hey both of you, everything's alright?" He asked gently.
"Un, the capital is amazing after all! The quality of the armory here's definitely different!" Fia said enthusiastically.
"I see, so that's your new equips?"
Haruto observed Fia's new attire. She was still a greeny girl but right now her equipments definitely in much higher quality than before.
She wore a green cape and metallic breastplate with brown leather mail on her body. There's a fur trim around her collar and she wore green miniskirt with high brown stockings. Two pieces of dagger strapped on both her sides. They were a little bigger and black in color compared from her previous daggers. It looked like she bought a dagger made from black steel this time, much better than her previous iron knife.
Her current appearance reminded Haruto a lot of Iwatani Naofumi but a female version instead with her skirt. And instead of a shield she used twin daggers.
Too bad the cape covered her cute tails, he thought.
"Yup, you looked good there. Nice choice Fia."
"Hehe~ thanks!"
"Umm Kami-sama that person next to you..."
"Huh? Ahh..."
Elsie pointed to the pretty girl beside him. She never saw her before but for some reason sensed a familiar feeling from her. She was bewildered about this strange feeling and asked Haruto.
"This is our new companion, Kaori."
"Hello! My name's Kaori, nice to meet you." Kaori bowed.
"Wahh so pretty... Ah! My name's Fia, nice to meet you too!" Fia bowed her head too.
"And I'm Elsie!"
"Hehe greetings Elsie-san, Fia-chan."
"It's okay please call me more casually!" Elsie smiled.
"Hmm then Elly-chan?"
"Un! It's good! Kaori-san!"
"You should call me more casually too you know...." Kaori smiled wryly.
{I'm your younger sister after all.}
"Eh~!?"
"W-What's wrong Elsie-san? Suddenly shouting like that?" Fia was startled.
"A-Ah it's nothing~."
Haruto could hear the telepathic communication from Kaori so of course he heard what Kaori just said to Elsie and he smiled wryly. Elsie was dumbfounded for a moment but her expression turned bright immediately and her eyes glimmering. She definitely realized what that meant and extremely happy having a 'younger sister'.
"Hehehe okay then, Kao-chan!"
"Kao-chan....hahaha." Kaori couldn't help but laughed wryly from Elsie's way of calling her.
Fia was making a "?" "?" face not understanding what happened. Haruto chuckled being amused at the scene. Elsie obviously looked a little younger and more childish than Kaori but she ended up being the 'Onee-san' here.
"Where did you meet her, Haruto-nii?" Fia whispered to Haruto's ear.
"Ahh well, she's kind of my old acquaintance. I met her just now, coincidentally...." Haruto explained awkwardly.
*Jiii~* Fia gazed at Haruto doubtfully, Haruto averted his eyes. Fia sighed and raised her hands, Haruto was relieved.
'Well, she's seems like a very good person so it's alright I guess' she thought.
"I'm kinda curious but, Kaori-san could you be a healing magician?" Fia asked seeing Kaori's outfit.
"Yes you can say it that way, I guess? I can indeed use healing magic. My specialty is light magic after all~"
"Amazing.. that's really rare." Fia's eyes widened.
"And she's not an ordinary healing mage you know" Haruto said with a smug.
"Eh? What do you mean Haruto-nii?"
"You'll know soon when we're in combat."
"?"
Fia was confused, she glanced at Kaori but didn't find anything peculiar about her. Since Haruto said she would know soon enough then she decided to see it herself later.
"So where are we going next?" Fia asked Haruto.
"Oh right...why don't we visit the guild now? Rayne-san should already arrived here and we haven't say hello to her."
"Ah, that's right she should be!" Elsie agreed.
"Rayne-san?" Kaori asked.
"Hehehe she's a receptionist we know of back then before we came here." Fia explained.
Kaori nodded her head understanding the person must be their acquaintance. Seeing they all agreed Haruto made his way to the capital guild together with them.
....
Inside the guild.
Haruto and the others already went inside the hall to search for Rayne's figure. They immediately spotted her since her line was the most crowded than the others.
"As expected of her I guess." Haruto said nodding his head.
"Yes, as expected of Rayne-san" Fia agreed.
"She's really popular isn't she~" Elsie added.
"?" Kaori was the only one confused since she hadn't met with Rayne before.
They lined up on her counter too. It's gonna take some time but it couldn't be help since they're here to see her. Kaori gathered attention from the surrounding men but she ignored them.
After more than half an hour it was finally their turn. The pretty receptionist still hadn't change at all with her beautiful navy shoulder length hair, the same color as Haruto's outer tunic right now.
Rayne raised her head and noticed the familiar group.
"Good afternoon Fia-san and Elsie-san, it's nice to see you again." She bowed and smiled.
""It's nice to see you again too!"" They both said.
"Hey, no greetings for me Rayne-san? That's so cold of you." Haruto smiled wryly.
"....Who might you be? Did I know you?"
"What?"
For a second Haruto thought she was teasing him by acting like she didn't know him. But her eyes showed genuine confusion so he was taken aback.
'Did she really forget about me!?' He was so shocked.
"What do you mean Rayne-san!? It's me Haruto! Please don't tell me you already forget about me!" He said frantically.
"Eh? Haruto-san..? But...eh?" Rayne's eyes turned into spirals.
"Why are you so surprised?"
"*sigh* Haruto-nii, it's no wonder she didn't recognize you."
"W-What do you mean Fia?"
"Please look at your current appearance, Kami-sama..." Elsie sighed too.
"Ah!"
He finally realized what's wrong. Yes he's currently disguising so of course she wouldn't recognize him. His face didn't change much but with his raised up golden hair and green eyes alongside with different outfit. No wonder she was confused. Haruto laughed awkwardly when he realized this.
"A-Ahahaha, that's right I forgot. Umm Rayne-san don't worry it's really me Haruto, I'm currently disguising myself for awhile but it's really me."
"Is...that so... Indeed your face looked kind of similar now that I look it carefully." Rayne nodded doubtfully.
"Alright then I leave it as your private matter Haruto-san. But still..."
She moved her eyes to the person next to him. A very beautiful girl with long black hair dressed in a priest robe.
"I must say as expected of you Haruto-san. Another victim from your poisonous fang is it? I guess you really are Haruto-san then."
"What are you talking about!? And why are you convinced by that!?"
Haruto retorted loudly seeing her nodded in a fully convinced expression. Kaori just made a bewildered face, wondering what's wrong with her. Fia and Elsie too nodded solemnly as if saying "I understand you~"
"And why are you girls agreeing!?" More retort from Haruto.
*Pant* *pant*
Haruto was tired of tsukkomi-ing them so he breathe heavily. He faced Rayne again and said seriously.
"Alright, let's forget about that. Rayne-san is there any good quest for us? And I want to register Kaori too."
"Well... Maybe you could try going inside a dungeon?" Rayne touched her chin and tilted her head.
"Dungeon? Again?" He asked.
"Oh right you just had an incident inside a dungeon right Haruto-san? But it's different this time. This is a normal dungeon so you don't have to worry about that."
"Hmm a normal dungeon exploring huh I guess that's not too bad, what do you guys think?"
"Well, why not? I've never been in a dungeon before so I would like to try." Fia said.
"I'll follow Kami-sama anywhere!" Elsie followed enthusiastically.
"Of course I'm going Haruto-kun." Kaori smiled gently.
"Well.. Fia and Kaori are fine but.. Elsie you stayed in the town."
"Eh!? Why!?" She protested.
"Because it's dangerous, before I have to bring you along because Fia needed another watcher to keep her safe but now we have Kaori so there's no longer any need for that. You're not a fighter after all." He explained to her gently.
"But but...." Elsie seemed hesitating.
"It's alright. It's not like there's nothing you can do. I want you to wait for us to come back safely while preparing dinner okay? And if we're in trouble I can have you be in town for me to teleport too." He said gently.
"....Okay then. I promise to cook a delicious meal for you when you came home!"
"Good, thank you Elsie. I'm counting on you."
"Un!" She nodded happily.
Fia and Kaori smiled gently too and Haruto turned back to Rayne.
"That's how it is, we'll go there tomorrow Rayne-san, is it alright?"
"Sure, do you want to check out the quests for the dungeon?"
"That's fine. May I know how many floor inside the dungeon?"
"Hmm it's not captured yet and right now it's about 30 floors? Well some adventurers said that."
"30 floors is it? That's six times larger than the previous dungeon."
"Excuse me Rayne-san, but how far is the entrance?" Fia asked.
"Oh don't worry about that. We have the teleport scrolls for registered dungeons so you can enter inside immediately from here."
"Eh really? Then why's the previous dungeon didn't have such a thing?" Haruto was surprised.
"Obviously because it's not an ordinary dungeon so we cannot placed a teleport ward there carelessly. Until the safety was confirmed we couldn't register such dungeon."
"I see, I understand." Haruto nodded.
They proceeded to take some quests and registered Kaori for the guild, putting her in the same party. Unfortunately her card was still white so she needed to work hard to catch up with Haruto and Fia.
After they're done they bowed to Rayne and went outside the guild back to the villa. Haruto needed to introduce Kaori to Selianna too.
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