Hold it, who taught you girls that. I look for the most probable suspect... There she is. I can see you peeking from behind there, Sefi-san. Huh? Come to think of it, looking closer at the four. Ooh! They all look like general humans. Confirming with Discerning-sensei, they"ve all learned [Transformation] level 1. It seems even the lackadaisical Sefi-san did teach them properly, albeit lackadaisically.
"Is there anything you find strange with us, master?"
Gana asked while blushing a bit.
"Whatcha think, n.o.bu-niisan. I"m the picture perfect general human, am I not?"
Oltea is smiling boastfully.
"V."
Mashu thrust out a V finger sign. It"s normal for me to find her being awake surprising, right?
"n.o.bu-oniichan. Everyone worked really hard, you know. Ehehe, give us lotsa praises please."
Tino-chan smiled wholly. She looks more like a puppy than an elf now.
I praised everyone for their hard work as I patted their head each. All of them jumped up happily when I told them I would make them sweets as their rewards. The four of them have grown very close, they"re like real sisters.
Dilt-san was watching over them all smiles, so did Sefi-san warmly.
"Dilt-san, good work holding down the fort. You"re a great help watching over the children."
"Oh not at all, I"m just glad my daughter has made new sisters, she"s been bubbly all this time. And since everyone is such a good child, I didn"t do much at all. Fufufu, I suppose differences in races aren"t something to care about to children."
It"s just as Dilt-san said. Adults make things unnecessarily complicated due to their weird prejudice and bias.
That"s what I come to believe seeing these four frolicking around befitting of their ages.
"n.o.bu-chaaaan. And me, me~?"
Just as everyone was about to head to the living room to relax, Sefi-san slid up to me while sounding ever so slightly begrudging.
"We"re back, Sefi-san. Or rather, it was you who taught those children that pose, wasn"t it? Don"t teach them anything weird please!"
"I mean, n.o.bu-chan, you looked so happy when I did that for you~. Then when I let that slip, these girls insisted they do it too you know~."
Well uh, any man would have lost themselves if you did that in a naked ap.r.o.n. Umu, well, guess it"s fine so long as she doesn"t teach them the weird stuff?
"I guess there"s no helping it. And thank you for teaching those girls how to do [Transformation]."
"Welll, it"s more like they learned it in no time after I taught them a bit of the knack~. Maybe those girls have some sort of divine protections on them~?"
Aah, yeah yeah, they do have the no-G.o.ddess"s. Fumu, I guess I can send some of the sweets I"m making as her offering. I should be a bit kinder to her.
"Ah yeah, we only managed to get to 8F this time. Apparently, something called [Turbulent Quicksands] is currently occurring on 9F so we couldn"t get past there."
"My, haven"t heard that term in a while~. That means, you won"t be able to progress further for a while~. What do?"
"Let"s see, I think we"re going to take on some quests and go train on upper floors. Nothing"s changed from what we"ve always been doing."
Sefi-san suddenly got lost in thought. Oho, that"s a rare serious look on her face.
"Then, how about you go train those three in the dungeon for a little while during lull times~? Even though they"ve only learned Transformation recently, they can at least walk outside now right? Those girls should learn how to defend themselves for their own good, see~."
Fumu, I suppose the time is right with how we can"t progress anyway. Training them on upper floors during lull times like in the evening should be doable.
"I got it. Let"s all go together when time permits. Oh and we got honey for the loot this time, look forward to the dessert tonight."
"Waa, I love love honey~. I can"t wait to see what comes out."
Afterward, I was briefed on our sales in the past week.
Stuff I made before the excursion like nutrients and cosmetics were almost sold out. The energy drink is sold out. Will be out of stock until we can reach 10F. Can"t be helped considering the raw materials needed for it.
Also, we"ve got additional orders for high-cla.s.s cosmetics from n.o.bles with connections to us. Nice feedback.
The stuff I entrusted to Dornuko-san is doing well as well. Though the high-cla.s.s cosmetics" sales could have been better. You won"t know its effects until you use it after all, and it"s just too pricey for common people. Ah well, let"s take this step by step.
On the other hand, word of mouth spread about the lower priced variant, to the point that they had lines of people wanting to purchase. It was a temporary thing however, so the fervor quickly settled down, however they successfully made many repeat buyers in the process.
Looks like we"ll have to farm Evil Tadpoles again soon. It"s a nice miscalculation.
But thanks to the unexpected demands, the members who stayed behind at the mansion had to work at full operation.
Total sales are 497,000.
Here"s the breakdown
Great Pig Medicine 20 bags, sold out. (5000 mani each, it exploded in popularity downtown it seemed)
Lipovitama Deluxe, all 300 bottles sold out even after increased production.
Same with Lipovitama Agent, 130 bottles.
510 pieces of Skin Beauty Water, and 38 pieces of Super Skin Beauty Water.
It"s gotten to the point that we can live off only this endeavor.
Man, I gotta bring out the full power of my cooking skill tonight to show the stay behind members my appreciation.
At the kitchen, I"m inexplicably fired up with a headband on.
I"ll start with the main dish!
I mix a little potato starch in rice, then I mix it together with crushed rice grains at a 50:50 ratio. And then, I roll the mixture up into 500 yen sized dumplings to make it easy on the mouth. Once it"s done, I grill them on a frying pan till brown. I threw it together with chicken meat and spring onion in a pot.
Once it tasted familiar enough, I took it away from fire, [Mashed Rice Pot] done.
As for the dessert this time, I prepared [Mango and Banana Smoothie] by using Threshing magic and mixing in honey, as well as [Honey Soy Milk Pudding] which the girls compelled me to make after they heard about how it"s good for skin.
My a.s.sistant this time, Futsuno-san was giving her everything kneading rice b.a.l.l.s. The simple ones with only salt and seaweed.
Then after adding bear Hamburg Steak mixed with smell-erasing herb, deep fried chicken and seaweed salad, our menu today is complete.
Since I managed to make everything before evening, I delivered Master and Eleanor-san"s portions to the guild, there the other receptionists were watching enviously.
Knowing it would come to this, I had prepared their shares of honey soy milk pudding as well. The instance I offered the sweet sweets bribe, "One serving per person!", "Hey, that"s my share!!", a war between fierce ladies erupted.
I continued my chat with Eleanor-san while pretending to see nothing. I know from experience that a man"s interruption won"t do any good in a quarrel between ladies. It"s just scary.
Come to think of it, the gazes from adventurers around us have become much more tepid than before. Not sure if it"s thanks to that duel or because they see me like a commuting wife who"s delivering things to her husband.
Now then, time to get back and prepare our dinner. The pudding seems to be popular with the receptionist ladies here, hope it"s to the girls" liking too.
◆◆◆
"Say, Eleanor-senpai. Is that also hand made by that person?"
My junior asked while peering into the basket n.o.busadsan brought.
"It is. I actually wanted to make it myself, but he told me not to worry about this. In exchange, please support me in other matters, he said."
Shrill voices, "Kyaa kyaa", erupted from the surroundings. The me from before would have not agreed to that, but now, I can accept that calmly. It"s because n.o.busadsan has informed me about a certain Divine Protection I have that would grant food I make effects that get severer the more love I put into it as a secondary effect of this protection.
Back then, when I cooked something for father, and another time when I served food for n.o.busadsan, I was thinking about them when I was cooking indeed. I feel sorry for making those two go through something so terrible, but the food also acted as an undeniable proof of my love to them.
People had been speaking behind my back about me being a cold emotionless kid ever since I was young, and even after I started working as a receptionist, I felt like I had always drawn a clear line whenever I dealt with people.
And yet, now every day seems so colorful. I"d be lying if I said I"m not worried whenever n.o.busadsan went in a dungeon, but I always look forward to the day we could see each other again, I would imagine his smiling self opening the guild door.
"Aah, Senpai. I bet you"re thinking about that person right about now. You"ve got this happy look on your face."
"am I really. I had no idea myself..."
"Fuffuffu. But really, I thought that guy was just some creep, what"s with his party being full of women and all, turned out he was pretty considerate unlike your average adventurers around here. That food he brought, it was so fluffy and sweet... if only I could eat that everyday, what a bliss that"d be."
Huh, was this girl always been this gluttonous?
"He"s cream of the crop strong in his age group to boot. Thanks to betting on him since Senpai was so confident on his victory, my wallet is so plump now. Ufufu, I"m gonna get some new clothes in my next break. Ah, right, he had these terrible nicknames until his new one recently."
"Really?"
"I"m told it"s [Magic Beast]. Probs because of that inhuman movement and magic."
I wonder if n.o.busadsan just has got no luck in that stuff. I"m sure I"m putting up an indescribable expression on my face right now.
After all, it doesn"t matter to me what he is called, I"ve made my decision to support him all the way to the end. I can"t be with him right now, but once he has gotten strong enough to stand next to me, I want to be by his side. I will keep on supporting him from the shadow until that day comes.