Part 4

Previous Page | Next Page

Volume 2

Chapter 1

— 4 —

After explaining Ringo’s unique situation and fiercely pleading that I had no idea she had been planning to strip, I was somehow able to resolve the misunderstanding, but then she started interrogating me on why Ringo had been wearing nothing except for the one-piece, and in the end I was put through a horrible experience.

“Listen here, this isn’t something you can just shake off by saying that you didn’t mean anything bad. Do you want me to go have a chat with the guards?”

“Eh, guards…?”

“The guards in this city are quite scary. I heard that yesterday they chased around a lolicon who was trying to abduct a little girl for more than half a day.”

“…I-I’ll take note of that.”

It’s not like I could just go and say “oh, that was me”. There wasn’t anything I could do but to gloomily let her words flow past my ears.

After the clerk finished lecturing me, she brought Ringo to the back of the store, and after more than half an hour finally came out.

Having returned, Ringo was properly wearing the ero-raincoat on top of her one-piece. With this, her defense stat should have gone up by quite a bit.

“For that girl’s sake, I won’t charge you for anything other than the raincoat.”

I couldn’t tell looking from the outside, but from the words that the clerk whispered to me so that Ringo didn’t hear, her defense inside the one-piece should have also gone up by quite a bit. I was really thankful for it.

After Ringo and I paid our respects to the clerk, we left the store.

“It seems you two spent quite a long time talking. What were you talking about?”

Increasing her defense was one thing, but if Ringo had been taught anything weird, I’d have to make sure to correct that.

I asked as soon as we left the store, and, surprisingly for her, Ringo seemed to be thinking deeply about it.

Finally, after a while, she solemnly opened her mouth.

“…About, eros.”

“Huh?”

“…I learned about eros.”

 RINGO has leveled up!
 RINGO has gained 4 points in INT!
 RINGO has gained 2 points in SELF-DEFENCE!
 RINGO has learned EROS!

“…?”

Having escaped from reality for a moment due to the completely unexpected answer, I came back to find Ringo tilting her head.

As I thought, she had been taught something weird, but this was, well, a completely different vector of weird from what I had imagined.

“A-Ahh. Good for you.”

As someone unfamiliar with these things, that was the only way I could respond.

That clerk was probably trying to teach the all-too-defenseless Ringo all sorts of things so that she would learn to be cautious around men, but I don’t think it worked too well.

But, the person in question, while emotionless, seemed to be quite satisfied,

“…Mm. Being naked, is, erotic. But, fanservice, is also, important.”

not forgetting to review what she learned. How diligent.

Oh, and when I heard the word ‘naked’ the shocking scene I witnessed this morning resurfaced in my mind, so I subtly faced away from Ringo.

While there had been many unexpected surprises, in any case, we were now done with the problem of Ringo’s armor. The Shiranui I had was also stronger than any of the weapons sold here in the capital, so my weapon was not a problem. I had wanted to put on something that was a bit better than the mithril armor I was wearing, but because of the ero-raincoat I was out of money.

“…Maybe I’ll go sell some weapons.”

I had bought up all the weapon types in the store in Ramlich for the sake of my pride, but thinking about it carefully I didn’t need another sword and dagger since I had Shiranui and the Wakizashi. If I sold the redundant sword and dagger, combined with the money I had left I should be able to afford at least the lowest-grade armor sold in this city.

But, it would be kinda awkward to head directly to that shop right now. In any case, I’ll first go to the weapons store and sell my unwanted weapons. Then, with that money, I’ll have a fresh start.

At least, that was what I had planned…

“I, did it again…”

A few minutes later. Leaving the weapons store, I sunk to my knees. I was supposed to secure money for buying armor by selling weapons, but for some reason I fell into the vicious cycle of buying more weapons.

It would be one thing if this were a game, but such hasty decisions in this world could lead to my life being in danger.

I’m sure I was aware of all that…

“But, but, this was also a Lucky Jackpot…”

There was no use crying over what I had already bought.

In the very worst case, there was still the option of sacrificing Mikhael… no, I doubt I could do that now that this world had become reality, and if I just went and completed a few quests that could be done inside the city then it’d probably all work out.

By the way, I had bought a total of two weapons. The first one was a dagger called the Heat Knife.

It was not very strong, but it had a fire attribute – an elemental weapon. I should probably raise my mastery level by using this for a while.

I passed the Wakizashi that I had been using as a sub-weapon until now to Ringo. While I wanted to avoid any situation where Ringo would have to fight, I didn’t see any harm in having her hold on to it for self-defense.

The other weapon I had bought was a Lucky Jackpot like the ero-raincoat, and Nekomimineko’s leading fashion item. It was a pure black pouch with one large hole and five small holes. It was, what was called the Fingerless Glove.

Leaving the store, I quickly tried putting it on.

“Guu! My right hand trembles!”

Getting a bit carried away, I ended up saying something like that idiot magician Sazaan.

How’s that, I turned backwards as if to say,

“…”

but Ringo seemed to be emotionless. Her lack of reaction hurt my chest. It might be just my imagination, but I felt like she was criticizing me.

“…I can, too.”

“Huh?”

But, the Ringo who I thought had no reaction suddenly muttered something and, turning her back to me, started moving in a light run.

Nothing like this had happened before. I found myself reflexively chasing after her, but not even a few steps away, in front of the entrance to an alleyway, Ringo stopped.

There, as if showing off the ero-raincoat, she spread it open with both hands.

“Ohhh!”

The wind that came blowing through the alleyway caught her clothes. The transparent raincoat danced in the wind as the skirt of the one-piece fluttered. Standing in the midst of that, Ringo seemed just like a bird flying through the sky.

…It pains me to say this, but she was kinda cool.

Seeming satisfied, Ringo trotted back to me, and with a bit of pride seeping through her emotionlessness, she inquired.

“…How was it?”

Of course, the answer was obvious.

Even with the loss of her memories, Ringo was at least a few levels higher than me as a chuuni performer. She must have been loved by the god of chuuni since birth.

It was slightly frustrating, but I had to admit it. Just as I was reluctantly about to give her my words of praise,

“…Was it erotic?”

“I’ll apologize a hundred times, so could you please stop talking about eros!!”

an unexpected knife of words caused me to lower my head with full force.

…The atonement for the indiscretion of youth that was the ero-raincoat might have been a bigger burden than I had anticipated.

 

Having been brought back to myself by Ringo’s words, I quickly took off the Fingerless Glove and threw it in my bag. As I calmed down, the realization that I had been doing some pretty embarrassing things came rushing over me.

…Mm. To be able to make someone as level-headed as me do something like that, this Fingerless Glove must possess some sort of mysterious magic that’s not reflected in its stats.

That said, please don’t misunderstand.

At first glance, this Fingerless Glove looked just like a plain, normal, fashionable fingerless glove, but it was a unique weapon with a unique property. …While it was a rather unique weapon, it was definitely not a unique weapon, so don’t get that mixed up.

Anyways, would you believe it, out of all the weapons this was the only one where even if you equip it, your power doesn’t change at all compared to being bare-handed!

Some might think that this was true for knuckles as well, but that’s false. While having knuckles equipped meant that you could still use bare fist skills, the offense stat of the knuckle is reflected in the attack, and you also became able to use knuckle skills. Only with this Fingerless Glove were the damage calculations and usable skills exactly the same as being bare-handed.

Then why bother wearing that thing, why not just go and use your fists?

I had also thought that.

It was a mystery why the Nekomimineko staff made an item like this, but there was probably some cursed-eye type chuuni patient in the staff. W-Well, I don’t expect to be using this glove either, but being a Lucky Jackpot it was pretty rare, and it had a super reasonable price of 200E. I just somehow ended up impulsively buying it.

(Mm, I guess I should go join a guild after all.)

Looking at all these weapons that I had bought, I was involuntarily feeling the urge to customize them. I didn’t have any money left for buying armor anyways, so we called this the end of our shopping trip.

Thus…

“Hey Ringo, let’s go check out the Fighters’ Guild next.”

 

Previous Page | Next Page