Chapter 37: Hitto Searches for the First Time
Telling Melissa and Angie to leave everything to me, I figured it was about time to head towards a tunnel to investigate, but――
After searching the three holes on the right side my conclusion was that there were no orggs to be seen.
Well, that only mean one thing. If there are still some orggs left then they will be in the last tunnel on the left hand side.
「How exceptional. I never would have thought you could search 3 pa.s.sages in such a short amount of time」(Angie)
「Of course! Everything about Goshujin-sama is flawless after all」(Melissa)
「Umu. I thought Melissa was exaggerating when she said you annihilated a band of thieves in the blink of an eye, and that you were swarmed by 10,000 crooks and ruffians but you easily beat them to a pulp, but I see it might all be true 」(Angie)
I’m sorry. That is a flat-out exaggeration. There was only 3 thieves, not a whole “band”. And for the “ruffians” they mostly came in threes, at most it was only 30 people.
Wait, Melissa, what have you been saying about me while I was busy investigating!
「Well, be that the case. If there is only one place left to search, then there is no need for me to be here」(Angie)
Hmm? For some reason she folded her arms and nodded, as if coming to some sort of conclusion.
「Obviously since that is the case, this time I shall come along with you!」(Angie)
「Eh? Uh, but just to be sure, won’t it be better for you to stand guard here~ or something」(Hitto)
「Don’t be absurd! The last tunnel is the one on the left, is it not? In that case there should be no need to worry about the other tunnels as we investigate. Rather, it is quite obvious that there will be a large amount of orggs lurking in that tunnel! On such an occasion a Knight such as myself shall accompany you!」(Angie)
「Of course, as a slave, I will be sure to follow Goshujin-sama as well!」(Melissa)
The two of them sent an abnormally feverish gaze towards me.
*Sigh*, I know that Melissa can be a bit pushy, but it seems this female knight is equally as forceful.
Or rather, in Angie’s case there is a really strong “I shall not concede!” aura coming from her.
……Well, I guess there’s no helping it. Also, if Angie says that she will come along, then I can’t exactly leave Melissa here alone.
「Fine then. In that case let’s all go together. However, all of these tunnels are quite long. So I will speed up the process with teleportation」(Hitto)
「Umu, you are certainly right. Still, your magic is quite convenient, Hitto」(Angie)
It’s not actually magic though.
「Well then, Goshujin-sama――」(Melissa)
Melissa reached out and grabbed my right hand. Afterwards I held out my left hand to Angie.
「…… What is the meaning of this?」(Angie)
Angie tilted her head like she was confused. Oh yea, guess I need to explain.
「The way my teleportation works, if you aren’t holding hands with me then I can’t teleport you at the same time. Therefore, will you please hold my left hand?」(Hitto)
「――ッ!? H-Holding hands!?」(Angie)
…… Hmm? Why are you suddenly throwing your head back in surprise?
「Well, if you don’t take my hand then we won’t be able to teleport」(Hitto)
「B-B-b,B-But! F-For me to h-, hold hands with another gentleman is! I-It’s not like we are dating or anything! T-Thash so! I-Indecent!」(Angie)
…… Huh? What, you fumbled over your words in strange places, and your face is bright red too. What’s this, how cute.
「I-In any case! Is there not some other way!」(Angie)
「Nope, there isn’t」(Hitto)
「Wha!? B-But, even so……」(Angie)
「It’s only holding hands, right? Do you really have to hesitate so much?」(Hitto)
「D-Don’t be absurd! This is my first time, so as if I can simply do just it!」(Angie)
「…… F-First time――」(Melissa)
Melissa gave a light retort. Well of course she would. Although saying this might cause some misunderstandings, in the world that I came from such a virgin-like action like holding hands, even kindergartens will quickly get over it.
「Is it perhaps, Angie, have you never gone out with a man before?」(Melissa)
Melissa… That’s not something you should be asking so casually.
Because of that Angie is wearing a look of complete *Shock*.
「My parents were rather strict in that regard…… And, since I was determined to become a knight I did not have the free time to deal with things such as men and flirtation――」
As she bashfully pressed her left and right index fingers together in front of her face, the female knight grumbled in reb.u.t.tal.
…… This “gap” is really strong huh.
「But you know Angie. Holding hands isn’t that much of a big deal. It’s better if you discard that way of thinking beforehand, because if you don’t then it might cause you to falter when you truly do fall in love」(Hitto)
「I-Is that how it is?」(Angie)
「I also agree with Goshujin-sama’s opinion. If you are not able to do it now, then when the time comes you might hesitate and lose your chance」(Melissa)
Hearing out the both of us, Angie nodded with an “Umu“. She still looks a bit hesitant, so I guess I should give her one more push.
「Angie. To begin with, it’s not a good thing to be hung up on ‘first times’ you know? There are some guys out there who like that sort of thing, but there are plenty who say that way of thinking is too c.u.mbersome」(Hitto)
「M,Muu, if you put it that way…… T-Then I guess trying to protect my firsts is just me being too old-fashioned…… But Melissa, are you fine with that? For me to give my first to Hitto?」(Angie)
「I see…… I put my faith in Goshujin-sama, that taking someone’s first won’t change who he really is」(Melissa)
「Of course it won’t, Melissa. Even if I take Angie’s first, the feelings between you and me won’t change」(Hitto)
“Goshujin-sama…” Melissa looked at me with watery eyes. And Angie watched us with a kind smile.
「I see…… Melissa, it seems like you’ve found yourself a nice master. As for me, I also think that giving my first to Hitto will be all right」(Angie)
「That’s the spirit, Angie!」(Melissa)
「Yeah! I have decided! Now Hitto, come and take it! M-My first time――」(Angie)
Angie blushed, and she turned her face downward. While being embarra.s.sed and shy, Angie said that she wanted me to have her first time.
Of course I didn’t dwell on it much. I slowly took her hand.
「S-So this is a man’s… It’s surprisingly big, but it’s firm―― So very warm……」(Angie)
And like this, I safely connected with Angie.
…… Yup, it’s just our hands though. Well, this may be a little late, but what the h.e.l.l was that conversation just now! Rather, we were only talking about holding hands, why did we need to be so serious!
Anyways, I was able to successfully hold hands with Angie. With a flower in each hand I proceeded down the remaining tunnel using Cancel movement.
Two, and then three Cancels later, we didn’t notice anything strange, and there wasn’t any orggs around either. Did Angie defeat them all in her fight earlier? I suppose that’s a possibility.
We continuing in farther with Cancel movement, when suddenly I caught sight of the corpses of some miners.
It looks like this route was where the miners were slaughtered by orggs.
And even further down we discovered the corpses of adventurers.
Among them, there was even the corpse of a female adventurer…… This is my first time since coming to this world that I’ve seen the remains of a woman, it felt like my heart just crushed.
The cause of death was being pierced through the chest. Her lightweight equipment might have caused this tragedy.
Orggs used weapons similar to humans. Three adventurer remains in total. One of them had their face burn as well. It was probably because of a Red Orggs flames.
「How horrible――」(Melissa)
With sadness in her eyes, Melissa spoke quietly.
Angie also clenched her fist in anger.
And then, from a side pa.s.sage came an inhuman groan.
In a slightly curved pa.s.sageway stood 5 orggs.
Green, Pink, Yellow, Blue, and Red; there was one of each color.
If this was a normal situation, I would’ve retorted about their combination, but I wasn’t in the mood for it after seeing what they’ve done
「YOU BAASTAARRDDS!」(Angie)
Fueled by rage, Angie shouted as she flung herself at them.
I also used Step Cancel to move directly behind the Red Orgg, and slicing through its neck, my blade crashed into the Blue Orggs skull as it stood there dumbfounded.
When I turned to check on Angie, her thin blade was endowed with the wind spirit’s power, and she tore apart the Yellow and Pink orgg.
It seems like anger still lingered in her blade.
「Giiii!」
The remaining Green Orgg turned and tried to make a break for it.
Not letting it escape, I was about to use Step Cancel, but faster than I could act, somehow Melissa managed to come up behind it and finished it with a thrust of her Wind Estoc.
After she was sure that the orgg had lost its life, Melissa hips helplessly gave out and she fell, her shoulders continuing to tremble.
「Melissa! Are you alright!」(Hitto)
I quickly rushed over to her.
She slowly turned her head―― and in a shrill voice she answered ‘Yesh’.
As I thought, compared to animal shaped monsters, dealing with human shaped ones is entirely different…… This is probably her first time killing a human one, she’s probably being consumed by that emotion.
「I, I am sorry Goshujin-sama. B-But, for some reason I am shaking―― The way I am now, I am a failure as Goshujin-sama’s slave…… eh?」(Melissa)
I fell to my knees, and tightly embraced Melissa, all the while caressing her head.
Very close to her ear, I gently whispered “You did a good job Melissa.”
She raised her arms and returned my embrace. In a voice filled with tears, she mumbled “Thank you so much Goshujin-sama”.
「Melissa, I’m sure your feelings made it through to the ones who lost their lives」(Angie)
Melissa regained some of her composure and managed to stand up, Angie offered her some encouraging words.
Angie’s expression was filled with compa.s.sion.
“I was also trembling the first time I took someone else’s life,” a lonely smile crept on Angie’s face.
Was she being considerate towards Melissa, or was she remembering what happened in her past.
…… Honestly speaking I didn’t feel any emotion when I first fought in this world―― But I suppose that’s fine.
Angie has really helped out both me and Melissa, I have to properly thank her.
But still…… I want to at least dig some graves and give these corpses a proper burial.
But there’s no time for that right now. At the very least we were able to confirm that there are still orggs remaining.
Further within, it’s possible that there are a large amount of them.
In order to dispel their unease, I informed Angie and Melissa that we will be exterminating the remaining orggs. Taking both their hands we continued teleporting deeper inside.
After a while we reached the end of the tunnel.
However, that was only where the tunnel was supposed to end originally. To the side we discovered an artificially made pa.s.sageway.
The pa.s.sage didn’t seem like it was properly excavated, and we could clearly see that it was unstable and might even collapse.
The large amount of orggs probably came from this hole.
I took the other two’s hands once again and we teleported further in.
And―― When we exited that pa.s.sage, we found ourselves in an open s.p.a.ce much larger than the one Angie fought in. And there we saw a vast number of orggs.――
Side note: The reason for the random ecchi moment then sudden change to serious tone is because this chapter is about “First Times”, as indicated in the t.i.tle. Still leaves a bad taste if my mouth though.