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Volume 3 Sequel 3.2

Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes

「It prolly ain’t harmful, but it sure ain’t holy water no more. I’m gettin’ real bad vibes from this.」

「Bad vibes？」

「I just feel like there’s somethin’ deadly, kinda?」

「I don’t know why that would be, but I understand what you’re worried about.」

「So even though it prolly ain’t harmful, we best not directly touch it.」

　The two of them nodded at Hiroshi’s obvious warning. Honestly, they didn’t want to touch it anyway. But trouble always occurs no matter how much you try to prevent it.

「Achoo！」

　There wasn’t anything that could make the situation dangerous, but all of a sudden, Haruna gave a small sneeze, unable to hold in the sudden impulse. That action of hers shook the work desk, and the holy water spilled out of the bottle.

「Ah-」

「S-Sorry！」

　Haruna hurriedly took out a dishcloth once she realized that a dangerous substance that they had to be careful with was now spilled onto the floor. Panicking at any point in time was always bound to lead to more disaster, and this situation was no different, with Haruna frantically wiping the desk with the cloth using her bare hands, which was absolutely unacceptable in a dangerous situation like this. Hiroshi and Mio couldn’t get to her in time, and the holy water that was soaking into the floor directly touched her.

「Haruna-san, ya gotta believe that ain’t safe in the slightest……」

「Haru, first I think you should use rubber gloves or something to cover your hands……」

「Ah……」

　Once the two of them pointed that out, Haruna made a surprised face as she realized what she had done, but it was too late. She could already feel moisture in the palm of her hand.

「First, show me the area it touched.」

「O-Okay……」

　Still flustered from the situation, Haruna obeyed and showed Hiroshi her palm. From what he could see, all that really happened was her hand getting slightly damp. Her skin also looked oddly shiny, but that was what temporarily happened when your skin made contact with holy water, so that wasn’t strange either. It had yet to lose its holy properties, so there was no issue with her skin glowing.

「……Well, don’t seem like nothing’s wrong……」

「Sensei, any effects from these sorts of items won’t emerge immediately.」

「You right. Let’s watch over her for a bit.」

　Hiroshi and Mio looked at Haruna, who seemed perfectly normal, deciding to watch her for a bit. They would not know how to deal with her unless symptoms appeared.

「Uu……、I’m sorry……」

「Welp, physiological responses are always like this…」

「I sort of feel like I’ve been wreaking havoc everywhere since we came to Darl……」

「Welp, I dunno Haruna, I think all of us humans’ve been there at one point.」

　Haruna seemed to be truly dejected at how many times she had been careless lately. She probably wanted to be more calm in her decision-making to benefit the team.

　Hiroshi reassured her in a nonchalant manner. But in terms of degrees of carelessness, the one in the leaderboard of shenanigans was in fact Hiroshi, who had gone so far as to drag Haruna and the others underground.

「Speaking of shenanigansそ……」

「Hm？ Mio, somethin’ happen？」

「Uhh, you know how Dentlis-san brought about the whole idol business? What ever became of him after that?」

「Ah～、now that ya mention it…」

　Dentlis hadn’t tried anything else since then. Everyone had practically forgotten he existed thanks to this.

「Didn’t really care, so I ignored ‘im, but it would be super annoying if he tried somethin’ again. Guess I’ll spare some time ‘n ask the queen or the high priest.」

「Right.」

　Even though the topic of Dentlis had come back up, they didn’t really care about him anyway, so the topic just ended as abruptly as it had begun. Most likely, if Hiroshi had not done anything as brazen as going to underground ruins, there would have been more leeway to inflict a blow before the brainwashing, but at this point it was dumb to even discuss it.

「Now that we’ve changed gears, let’s try ‘n see what characteristics this fella has.」

　Nodding in agreement, Haruna and Mio examined everything they possibly could, from the mana patterns to anything else. By the time they had finished, the group had completely forgotten about Dentlis or the holy water fiasco.

　Meanwhile, Tatsuya and Makoto were tagging along for the class harvest excursion.

「You sure it’s okay to help us？」

「Yeah. I already finished my investigation in Darl. His Majesty even gave me permission.」

「Okay, if you say so……」

　Together with Rainy, who had suddenly appeared, the group was randomly defeating the monsters around them. The place Hiroshi selected was quite a distance from Darl and even the highway, so even though the monsters weren’t especially skilled in attack, they were too troublesome to be left alone.

　Of course these were only monsters that happened to be near town, so a bite or two wouldn’t hurt that much. Even with the worst luck, there was nothing that an unclassified potion couldn’t heal. And unlike the game, getting bitten once didn’t mean that you’d receive continuous attack damage before defeating them. Step a bit away from the monster’s territory at a leisurely pace and the battle wouldn’t even feel like a battle. That was just how little danger there was in it.

 Still, injuries were injuries. And this time around there were three priests who were not used to harvesting or fighting, hence why Tatsuya and Makoto had tagged along, despite knowing full well that they were being overprotective. If this were just about Fum and the others, the two of them wouldn’t have needed to come along. Give them a transportation stone for emergency and that would be it.

「So what brought about this change of heart？」

「I’m headed to Forre tomorrow. I won’t be around here for a while, at least not until the priority investigation concludes.」

「And？」

「If I help out here and rack up points, I thought I might get some sort of reward from Deary.」

「……Alright, I guess it’s okay then……」

　Makoto didn’t even bother to hide her exasperated expression at Rainy’s unbelievably ulterior motive. At this rate, Hiroshi might very well have to fondle Rainy’s chest before long.

　But wouldn’t it only be a reward depending on how you fondled said breasts? At least that was what Makoto thought as she snuck glances at Rainy’s fairly ample chest area (though it still didn’t quite compare to Haruna’s). But either way, such a task would be tantamount to torture for Hiroshi. If Hiroshi really were the type of person to fondle your breasts when asked to, then he wouldn’t have taken such severe damage from being in a cramped environment with the opposite gender like he was in the underground ruins. Normally any guy would be overjoyed, even if it wasn’t a romantic situation.

「Hiroshi’s really got it tough now……」

「Yeah, no joke.」

「Still, even though I know what he’s struggling with, for some reason I still don’t find myself empathizing with him.」

　Hiroshi practically took damage in situations that any other guy would be envious of. Tatsuya and Makoto just shook their heads with grimaces on their faces as they took down a giant caterpillar, considering what materials they could pick up from it. This type of monster hardly ever came after you, but its teeth could easily pierce through leather gloves. One wrong move and it could bite off one of your fingers like nothing, so they took it down ahead of time.

「Just letting you know that this level of cooperation with us isn’t going to make him want to fondle your boobs. You still ok with that？」

「No problem. That’s only the first goal marker.」

「First goal marker? Don’t tell me, the last goal is……」

「The last goal is of course to have him touch and lick and suck and bite and violate me all over my body and then have plenty of chi……」

「Okay, that’s enough. No discussing things like that in front of actual children.」

　Makoto sighed in exasperation at just how honest Rainy was with her goals. The most troublesome part about this girl was that Hiroshi could literally do anything, like whip her into submission and she’d totally enjoy it.

「Now, I really don’t care about this, but……」

「What？」

「I sort of feel like this girl’s goal is, in a sense, the same as Haruna and Mio’s. What do you think？」

「……Maybe, but I think their end game is a little more normal……」

　It was true that Rainy wasn’t the only one who wanted sexual relations with Hiroshi. Yes, some girls were more subtle about it and wanted a softer approach, but at some point, all of their desires were in essence the same.

　Still, there were many checkpoints to clear before such things, including ethical/moral values like marriage, or so you would assume, and yet Hiroshi couldn’t even think about anything like marriage, so this situation was just seriously troublesome, all in all.