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Volume 1 Chapter 8-1: Fudeoroshi

I had ended up covered in sweat after those efforts and had to enter the bathing area one more time before the three of us returned to the inn.

Finally I laid down in bed comfortably, gazing at Sistina as she bent over then stood on her tip toes to hang the wet laundry on the drying rope in the room. As I gazed at Sistina’s twin mountains shake and jiggle my expression began to turn slimy. Un, I don’t even know what to say at this situation. It’s just a good view.

Hotaru-san was sitting in the chair they provided with the room as she drank the alcohol she had brought from the dining room. She looked like she was in a good mood so it should be fine. Thankfully it didn’t appear that she was someone who acted poorly when drunk.

「Oh yeah, you said that we’ll be heading to the Tower the day after tomorrow, but what about tomorrow?」
「I thought that we should use tomorrow to obtain all the necessities for entering the tower.」

Sistina replied without ceasing her movements.

I see, we’ll be entering a dangerous location so preparations were important….water, food, and medicine…we’d need various things.

Once I thought of that I questioned Sistina about whether or not we’d need them.

「That’s right. Those things are obviously necessary…but we definitely cannot do without appropriate weapons and armor.」
「Ah…I see.」

As expected I had not gotten used to the common sense of this world yet. Despite knowing that we were going to fight monsters, the idea of procuring weapons and armor didn’t really cross my mind.

Hotaru-san can turn parts of her body into Hotarumaru’s blades and she can change the hardness of her body to be similar to her sword form so I do not believe she needed weapons or defensive gear. In the first place I don’t think she would get hit at all because of her amazing movements.

However, Sistina only had her maid-like Acolyte vestments and only a dagger for self-defense.

In this world weapons were registered to their users so they could be used as identification. This meant that practically everyone in this world had some type of weapon.

Even newly born children had miniature clubs or toy swords registered to them.

Sistina’s dagger was mostly for the purposes of identification so it would be fairly useless when trying to fight monsters.

Certainly we required equipment.

Actually, in the first place I didn’t have anything.

Hotarumaru, who I had been wielding, had changed into Hotaru-san and could not act as my weapon if she wished to move independently. She could return to being a katana, but losing our strongest fighting power by having it transform into a weapon for my use would be dangerous.

In that case, the only one I had left was Sakura-chan. The issue was that Sakura-chan was a short sword (kodachi) with a small reach. It would be best for my inexperienced self to avoid extreme close combat.

「Certainly we need various things…」
「Oh right, Soujirou because you’re benefiting from the lower-gravity and high oxygen concentration you should be able to do more strength intensive things.」
「Low gravity? High oxygen concentration?」

It appeared that Sistina’s skill did not activate properly when hearing those terms from Earth. She tilted her head in confusion while looking a bit happy. She shot a sideways glance as Hotaru-san continued to speak.

「Why don’t you try using a sword of the same length as me with one hand? If you can do that then you should be able to wield Sakura in your other hand.」
「…dual wielding huh?」
「Learning to use two blades freely and easily will be quite difficult, but it should be enough for now if you used Sakura as you would a shield.」

A dual-wielding form using Sakura-chan as a shield…certainly if you considered it as a sword+shield style then the difficulty was reduced quite a bit.

However, that would reduce Sakura-chan’s attacking effectiveness by half and since she did not have true defensive power like a proper shield, I would have to make up for the deficit with my own skills.

「Do you think I can do this?」
「You’re my disciple ja. If I didn’t think you could do it then I wouldn’t say anything.」

Hotaru-san’s complete faith in me was a bit embarrassing. However, my hesitation disappeared.

「I understand. Then tomorrow I will change my equipment and try to change my way of thinking.」

Hotaru-san looked pleased as she tipped the bottle of alcohol back and finished it off in one go.

「Master, thank you for waiting. I have finished hanging the laundry to dry, so I will turn off the lights so we can rest.」
「Ah, un. Good job, thanks for your help.」
「No, as an Acolyte we must take care of any miscellaneous tasks so our Master can focus on more important matters. It is a very important job.」

How wonderful. It was my greatest fortune that Sistina was the first person I met when arriving in this world. If this was directed by that god we met then I might even be willing to enter their faith. Well, honestly his policy for this world was apparently very hands off, so it was most likely almost entirely by coincidence.

「Could you wait a little before you turn off the lights Sistina?」

As Sistina was heading over to turn off the lights, Hotaru-san called out to her.

「Yes? Was there something else? If we’re to continue speaking I do not believe we need to keep the lights on…」
「Well, I was thinking of giving Soujirou his ‘first time’ (fudeoroshi). At the same time I will be ‘losing my maidenhead’ (himehajime) as well….so since it is both of our first times then I think it would be better that we can see each other’s faces properly.」
「Umm…I don’t really understand the words 『fudeoroshi』 or 『himehajime』 precisely but…based on context you mean….that kind of stuff?」

As expected of Sistina. Despite not knowing the words she immediately understood the meaning. Based on her blushing face her guess was most likely correct.

Actually!! Hotaru-san had been serious about that!?