Chapter 27
Thump, thump. Thump, thump. Thump, thump.
A new dungeon with countless people gathered around it.
It was a land of opportunity where one could make a fortune by being the first to enter.
The Adventurers' Guild, which was overseeing all this, had dispatched people directly and was handling registrations.
Naturally, this place was bound to be noisy.
One could easily get lost.
But the two standing in line with their hands clasped tightly would be fine.
They had no intention of letting go of each other's hands.
Yet even amid all this noise, the two of them could hear nothing else at all.
Thump, thump. Thump, thump.
The only sound they could hear was their own heartbeat.
They exchanged no words. They simply felt the warmth of their joined hands.
And, to be honest, part of them wanted to pull away.
Because they were embarrassed.
Even now, they felt like abandoning the dungeon and running away.
At the same time, they absolutely didn't want to be separated, so they stood with only their hands clasped together, keeping some distance between them.
‘I like you.’
Whatever had happened before no longer mattered.
A man named Claude had heard those words from a woman for the first time today.
‘I like you.’
The context in which the girl had said those words.
And her mental state at the time were important… but they weren't.
The girl had clearly looked at him and said, ‘I like you.’
More than anything, there was the fact that she was standing beside him like this, their hands clasped tightly together.
Claude thought it wouldn't be so bad if his heart burst right then and there.
‘I like you.’
There was also a girl who had uttered those words.
What had happened before was important. To this girl, it was very important.
Terrifying males had tried to pounce on her, and she had trembled in fear, not knowing what to do.
If she had been alone, she certainly would have smashed them to pieces, but she hated the attention of the people around them.
The girl had suffered something terrible long ago, and she couldn't bear to go through the same thing again.
But today was different.
A terrible incident from roughly two years ago had changed her fate.
At the moment she had nearly been forced to relive it, a brilliant light had appeared—blue, enormous, and carrying a powerful scent.
By looking at that light, the girl had been able to escape from that terrible memory.
Thump, thump. The incident that had pushed her into that terrible life.
The male who had brought it to an end.
A male she could trust because he was far stronger than she was.
No matter how intense any other stimulus was, nothing could surpass his appearance in that single moment.
Until now, the girl had thought about her identity.
She possessed memories of having originally been male.
As a female Wolpi, she would submit to her fate, but she would never give a man her true feelings.
But that vow felt as though it had been broken today.
The girl had genuinely come to like the male before her.
‘I like you.’
She still didn't know whether this feeling meant that she wanted love as a true female.
But she felt something entirely different from the shameful embarrassment she'd experienced until now.
‘I like you.’
The fact that she was together with the male she liked.
The fact that they were standing together, holding hands, and that she could feel his hand.
This moment, when she could smell him and hear his heart beating—thump, thump.
The long, boring wait in line. Wouldn't it be all right if it never ended?
Just standing quietly beside him, together.
How could she not be happy?
“Go eat already!”
But someone had intruded upon a happiness she wouldn't have minded remaining frozen in forever.
The Wolpi girl didn't want to think about what was happening.
But they tempted her with talk of delicious food—food so wonderful that merely imagining it felt good.
Thanks to them, Aris was able to return to reality.
Claude and Aris.
The two of them continued walking with their hands still clasped together.
“Aris. Is there anything you want to eat?”
The wolf girl swished her tail and looked around.
Slurp— She swallowed once, then sniffed. Sniff, sniff.
To Claude, the girl seemed completely distracted by all the different smells of food.
The one thing that was different from usual was that she didn't pull her hand away and behaved obediently.
She would have run from one restaurant to another, peering here and there and searching diligently.
“Here! Here! Master. Master!”
The girl tugged on his hand while gazing at the restaurant with a bright expression.
A moment ago, she had been incredibly cute because she was overwhelmed by shyness.
Now she was cute because she was completely absorbed in eating.
The place the girl chose had extravagant pictures of food on its signboard.
Even he thought the food looked delicious—and probably expensive.
“All right. Let's go in.”
Accompanied by the girl purring happily, he entered a well-appointed tent.
Just as the sign and pictures suggested, it was unusually elaborate for a food stall, almost like a restaurant had been moved here.
“Aris. Eat slowly.”
“Thank you, Master! You eat too!”
There were grilled foods Aris liked, skewers, and all sorts of sauces for dipping.
There was soft soup, bread, and potatoes, along with stir-fried beans and crisp vegetables.
The girl held a skewer in each hand and happily nibbled at them with every bite.
Her luxuriant tail swaying behind her looked like a measure of how happy she was.
Aris rarely wore such a bright expression.
Claude had treated her to plenty of delicious food, but he didn't think he'd ever seen her look this happy before.
It was probably the effect of what had happened in the dungeon a little while ago.
The girl was certainly very excited now.
For no particular reason, Claude wanted to hear those words one more time.
But what could he say to a girl who was so absorbed in her food that she wouldn't hear him?
‘I like you.’
Even thinking about it again and recalling it once more made his heart pound.
Placing a hand over his chest, he swallowed and spoke to Aris.
“When you said you liked me, did you really… mean it?”
Holding a large piece of meat, the girl bit into it and looked at Claude.
She perked up her ears at his words, swished her tail from side to side, and chewed contentedly.
After swallowing, she nodded with a bright, innocent expression.
“Yes! I really like you!”
Thump, thump. Without the slightest hesitation, the girl answered him that way.
Nom nom, nom nom. Was she focusing on her food to hide her embarrassment?
Claude closed his eyes and placed a hand over his chest.
“Huff, huff….”
He opened his eyes again and looked at the girl calmly. Had she really said that she liked him?
“Aris….”
No. The girl was so absorbed in her food that she wasn't thinking about anything at all.
Quite simply, Aris really loved the meat she was eating.
“It's delicious! Delicious!”
Because she liked it so much. Because she was so cute. It was fine either way.
Claude smiled without meaning to. He reached out and wiped the sauce from the corner of the girl's mouth.
“Honestly, you've gotten it all over yourself. Really, you're so cute when you like something this much.”
The girl was too cute. He brought the sauce he had wiped away to his mouth and ate it.
Aris watched him do this.
Chew, chew… chew… gulp.
Suddenly, she put a hand to her cheek, furtively wiped it, and brought it to her mouth.
He had just eaten what had been on his lips.
And, and… what had he just said?
‘You're cute when you like something.’
Those were the words Claude had just uttered.
He had really said them, without any distortion.
He meant that she was cute because she enjoyed eating so heartily.
But the girl understood it a little differently.
‘Aris. I like you because you're cute.’
Gasp. The girl stopped swishing her tail.
Thump, thump. Thump, thump. Thump, thump. How could he suddenly say something like that in the middle of eating?
Her motionless tail began to thrash wildly.
Aris stared blankly at Claude, forgetting all about the meat in her hands.
“Aris? What's wrong?”
“I-I do too… I do too!”
The girl wanted to give Claude the exact same words he had given her.
But the words wouldn't come out when she actually tried to say them.
Of course she was embarrassed. She had said it earlier because the situation had made her so excited.
But now her mouth wouldn't open, as though her teeth might shatter from the strain.
“Aris?”
“Mmm, mm-mm….”
She brought the meat to her mouth again. Claude smiled faintly and focused on his meal as well.
What should she do? Once she became conscious of him while eating so happily, it became difficult to concentrate on her food.
Wolpis loved to eat, but once their concentration was broken, it was difficult for them to start doing something again.
Claude was eating by himself, breaking her concentration.
She wanted to draw his attention. No, she wanted to speak to him.
She wanted to have some kind of conversation with Claude. But the girl wasn't good with words.
Watching him carefully, she brought her foot to his leg.
She slowly rubbed it against him while looking at him.
Claude met her eyes, wondering what was going on.
“Is something wrong?”
“M-Master….”
The girl was blushing.
Claude ate his soup while observing her to figure out what was wrong.
But something about the girl's gaze had changed slightly.
“Aris. Are you all right?”
“H-Hehe… Master. Hehe….”
The wolf girl was breathing heavily. “Purr… purr….” What signal was that again?
He had read about that breathing sound in a book on Wolpis before.
As he recalled, it was a sort of heat signal that a female Wolpi sent to a male she was attracted to.
It was a rare symptom among Wolpis, and one that was very mild, with almost no chance of bloodshed.
“Aris. Are you all right? You….”
“Heehee… Master. I, Aris, am so hot right now.”
Heat. A Wolpi's heat came about once a month. But Aris had been going into heat far too often lately.
Wasn't she getting worked up at all times, like a human?
“Could there be a side effect from the drug treatment?”
True to his nature as a mage, Claude first wondered whether something had gone wrong.
But Aris didn't know or care about any of that; all she knew was that her body was terribly hot.
“Haa… Master. I'm hot.”
Shk—swish— The girl opened the robe she was wearing, baring her shoulder.
Beads of sweat had gathered in the exposed hollow of her cleavage.
“That robe shouldn't be hot….”
Claude was still thinking about the robe in practical terms, but what he said was certainly true.
It had cooling magic built into it, so there was no reason it should be hot.
But the girl's heat was strong enough to overwhelm that magic.
“Master… I-I can't stand it.”
“What? Aris? This is a bad time. Here, okay? Look around. There are a lot of people.”
But the girl shook her head, puffed out her cheeks, and looked up at him.
‘Are you rejecting me?’ ‘I'm hurt.’
Her expression seemed to say exactly that.
“For now… all right. Aris. Get up.”
“Master. Master. I like you. I like you♡”
“Ah, all right. All right! Get up. Let's go.”
He took the girl's hand and helped her stand.
He put her robe back on properly, paid the bill, and left with her.
“What should we do? Where….”
This was a vast forest where a new dungeon had appeared.
If they wanted somewhere secluded and unoccupied, there were plenty of places to choose from.
“Master♡”
“Hmm, what should I do? Aris's eyes… she's completely out of it.”
It seemed as though there were hearts in Aris's pupils.
Rub, rub. She rubbed her body against Claude, trying to leave her scent on him.
“Master… Master♡”
Claude took her into the forest.