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Extra Story 2 – A Black Sorcerer’s Date With A Vampire / After the Raid Battle 2 (Part 1)

Extra Story 2 – A Black Sorcerer’s Date With A Vampire / After the Raid Battle 2 (Part 1)

Inside that room was a stack of wooden boxes and a terminal.

「Well, someone taught me that when going on a d… when going out with someone, it’s important to take the things the other person likes into account, so I thought about it. It’s a bit embarrassing, but when I started thinking about the things you like, Milla… What came to mind was –」

「Whoaaaa!」

I’ve never heard Milla make an exclamation like this before.

I can’t help but to be a bit surprised.

The next thing I see is her kneeling on the floor, holding one of the magazines she had taken from one of the wooden boxes.

「T-this is a “Black Sorcerer Monthly”! This magazine isn’t being published anymore and it’s said to be impossible to obtain nowadays! A-and you don’t only have this issue with an interview with you, Lem… There’s another one here where a younger you is featured in a special article “A promising new Black Sorcerer”! These are incredibly rare pieces of treasure!」

Milla is holding up the magazines she has taken out of the wooden box as if she was an adventurer who has just found a treasure chest in the deepest part of an ancient dungeon.

「Ah! But when I asked you about these before, didn’t you say you had lost them?」

That’s right.

Two years ago, Milla became interested in “the adventurer Lem”.

However, I started working as an adventurer seven years ago.

Many people collect items related to their favorite adventurers, but the amount of merchandise and information they can obtain is limited depending on their experience as fans, where they live, and how much money they have.

It’s hard to get hold of a paper magazine later than its publishing date, even if it was published only several months ago…

That’s why Milla doesn’t have all the goods related to me.

That’s part of the reason why she’s asked me about these magazines before.

「Y-yeah. But those were the sample magazines I got from the publisher. But I remember you were quite sad about me losing them, so I asked Nicola and Fenix for help.」

「I-I see. But I asked Nicola if she could share some of what she had already turned into magic essence, but there are many treasures here that she didn’t have either.」

Converting information into a form that can be viewed on a terminal is called “turning it into magic essence”.

It seems that Nicola had turned the paper magazines she had collected into magic essence so that she could look at them from a terminal at any time.

She has known me since my debut, but it seems that she still didn’t have every magazine about me.

I answer Milla’s doubt while realizing that I’m making a doubtful face myself.

「…Ah, yeah. That’s right. Those must be the ones Fenix sent me.」

Both Nicola and Fenix kindly sent me their magazines.

By the way, I chose the Wyvern service, which is a reasonably expensive means of transportation, but seeing Milla being so happy about these magazines makes it all worth it.

Needless to say, I paid for it. Of course, I couldn’t keep taking advantage of their already big generosity.

「Hoho, well, he has known you since you two were babies, Lem.」

「I’d like you to please stop saying it like that, though…」

I wonder if it’s normal to have something like a childhood friend.

「B-by the way, um… these… when should I be returning them?」

She says that, but she clearly doesn’t seem to want to let go of the magazines.

「Ah, don’t worry about that. Umm, how should I put it? Well… they’re for “propagation” purposes.」

「What! Then, are you saying that I can add these to my collection?!」

「T-that’s right.」

「Yaaay!!」

Milla stands up and spins around. She looks like she’s about to start dancing.

However, she immediately noticed my gaze, blushed and cleared her throat.

「A-ahem. Those two must owe you a great deal, huh?」

「Even if that’s the case, I’m the one who’s indebted to them.」

「So does this mean that I’m now indebted to you?」

「Oh no, this is all part of your reward. That’s why we’ve come here in the first place.」

「N-now that you mention it, that’s what this was… S-so this is the reward you’re giving me, Lem! It’s the best…」

「I’d be glad if you could happily accept these.」

To be honest, it feels pretty weird to give someone your own merchandise as a reward…

If it wasn’t for Milla, I would probably have been too embarrassed to do it.

「Haah… Haah… I want to read through these magazines a hundred times, but there are other boxes here as well…」

Milla reluctantly put the magazine back into the wooden box, and tiptoed toward another one of the wooden boxes.

Then —

「Wha…?! T-t-this! Lem! What’s this?!」

What she just picked up from that wooden box was a plushie the size of a little girl’s arm.

However, it isn’t shaped after a bear or a rabbit. It’s modeled after me.

Though it was for a short time, as part of the World Ranked 4th party, I had a bit of such merchandise as well — although in my case in particular, the other four members of the party had way more, and a larger variety of it as well.

There have been a lot of bitter comments on the net from fans who had purchased random “mystery boxes” of our party’s merchandise such as treating getting my stuff from them as a “miss”, though…

Well, if you buy our stuff hoping to get a picture of a handsome guy like Fenix or Lark, and you end up getting my dull face instead, you’ll probably be disappointed.

「Lem?」

「Ah, sorry. That plushie…」

The plushie Milla has in her hands is not an ordinary item.

That’s because it’s never been released.

「That’s right, I just remembered. There were plans to release plushies of each of the members of the Fenix Party, and there would be four versions for each: “current Avatar”, “previous Avatar”, “plain clothes”, and “formal clothes”, but due to demand issues, I was the only one with just one version being released.」

「Oh, I know that…. I was late in realizing that only the “current Avatar” version of your plushie had been released, and you have no idea how much I searched around for the three other versions that didn’t even exist… I don’t care if it’s a matter of business, I think it’s very disrespectful to create such a blatant party disparity. …Those who have decided to only release one version of your plushies should feel giddy with anemia every morning.」

Milla ends her speech with a displeased mutter.

「Well, well… It’s been a long time since then. At any rate, I had samples made for all four of my versions. What you have right there is the “previous Avatar” version. It’s supposed to look like I did during my debut. I quickly moved away from those clothes, so it’s only natural you don’t recognize them.」

「No, but I do. If I remember correctly, the last time you were seen wearing these was during a video interview after you captured the “Intermediate Level・Ice Field Dungeon”, wasn’t it?」

Milla interrupts me and says that while talking rapidly.

「Eh, i-is that so? I-I guess…」

However, now that I think about it, it actually was around that time.

Milla then took out the “plain clothes” and “formal clothes” versions from the wooden box and pressed them tightly against her chest.

「I… I never thought that the day would come when I would be able to complete the Lem plushie collection, especially as samples!」

Milla smiles happily.

「…Ha! I need to tell the planning department to release a series of plushies based on Lord Lemegeton! Like a “one-horned” version, a “two-horned” version, and an “Immortal Flame Wrap” version… well, we could have just those three versions for now. To be able to make Lemegeton plushies reach each home feels like a dream!」

You may call the “one-horned” and “two-horned” different versions, but their only difference would be the presence or absence of a right horn.

It wouldn’t even count as a version with different clothes, just one more or one less horn.

And the “Immortal Flame Wrap” is something I’ve only used during the Raid… well, I guess that doesn’t matter all that much.

This kind of merchandise is sometimes made wearing costumes that the people they’re based on have never actually worn themselves.

Customer demand is quite a big deal, isn’t it?

「Well, how about we focus on the Lemegeton merchandise some other time…?」

「Haah, haah… that’s right. For now, let’s focus on the mountain of treasure in front of me.」

With the plushies still resting in her arms, Milla looked into the next wooden box with excitement.

It had several cases containing lots of metallic plates.

「This is…! N-no way…?!」

Milla bends herself backward in an exaggerated way, as if too keen on showing how taken aback she is.

Her reaction was like that of a comedian, but that’s how much that alone surprised her.

They were thumb-sized metallic plates adventurers and monsters carry around, similar to a registration card.

Or perhaps should I say that that’s exactly what they have been from the start?

Adventurers save their Avatar information there, and it is also used to record how far they have reached in each dungeon.

They also have a “save” function for things like video recording.

They’re essentially memory sticks, and they’re a pile of them inside this wooden box, each containing captured footage from my Fenix Party era.

「Yeah. There’s unedited footage as well as strategy videos we never released. They’re actually copies, as the party leader gets to keep the originals, but their contents are essentially the same.」

Renting a warehouse under the name of a party, and stuffing all sorts of items in there…

Things like magazines and plushies would be stored in such a place as well.

The same goes for a seemingly endless number of capture videos.

Incidentally, I’d be sending a copy of those to Nicola as well as thanks for her help.

And it seems that Fenix had to more or less get permission from Alba and the others. Which is understandable, since I’m not the only one featured in those videos.

Well, everyone had such confused faces when I told them about my plan…

「Uhh… Uhh…!」

Milla kneels down on the floor, and after placing the plushies on top of another wooden box, she slowly takes out her purse.

「Please… please let me pay…」

「Huh? What’s with that, all of a sudden…?」

My brain can’t keep up with her sudden action.

「Us otakus are creatures that feel bad when they get such wonderful things for free. But if we can return even a small amount of their creator, we become able to forgive ourselves. So please, please let me pay for these…」

「Oh, nonono…」

I can understand paying a reasonable price for merchandise and services, but I cannot accept her money in this situation.

「In the first place, I prepared this as a reward for you, Milla. So me taking your money for this doesn’t make any sense.」

「This is too much of a reward! My heart can’t take it!」

Milla emphasized that by skillfully shouting that while having a very happy expression on her face.

「I-is that so? Then, do you want me to accept payment for that part that is “too much”?」

「Are you asking me to sort out something like that from all this treasure? I know it might sound greedy of me, but I want to have all of it!」

That’s quite the bold declaration.

「Eh? S-sure. Um, but, that “too much” thing…」

「That’s why you thought about offsetting the part that is “too much” with money.」

「W-well, yes.」

But I’m at a loss here.

I didn’t think I’d be talking about taking her money, when all this was designed to be her treat.

「Milla.」

「What is it? Ah, sorry. I’m not sure how much I have on hand, so I’m going to have to withdraw all of my savings –」

「How about we include future rewards?」

「–!」

「You won’t accept these for free, and I won’t take your money for them either. So, if we consider your future contributions to the Demon King Castle, could you accept them as rewards in advance?」

「A reward in advance… That kind of thing… B-but how many “Heroes” would I have to kill in order to pay for all this…? A thousand, maybe?」

Just how highly valued is this “Lem Merch” for her?

「I don’t think we need to decide on that right now.」

For a moment, Milla remained with her arms crossed, seemingly annoyed, but before long took a deep breath.

「Understood. I will agree to your suggestion, and accept these as a lifetime’s worth of rewards!」

I sense tremendous determination from her, but I didn’t mean to make her say such heavy words.

But it’s already too late for me to say anything about it, so all I can do is just nod and say 「Y-yeah」.

「Ah, and…」

But Milla sticks out her palm towards me so as to cut me off.

「Wait, Lem. If there’s gonna be any more rewards, let me get my mind ready. I’m barely conscious right now.」

How???

Oh, well, if I were to be given the autograph or other merchandise of an adventurer I admired, I would probably be very excited deep inside. I’d be certainly nervous.

If you think of it as an extension of that, yeah, I can understand what Milla is going through.