Chapter 99
“You were flustered because you're not used to beastkin culture! Understand?”
An Academy student from the Faculty of Administration who used an unusual sentence ending.
“Raphi Twier, Viscount Twier's young master...?”
“The sin of failing to show consideration to my benefactor is one for which I deserve severe punishment. I have no excuse...!!”
“It's all right, Raphi.”
Since they were more or less dressed in a butler's uniform, Akion had assumed they were male... no, a man.
“I'm female, so I'm a young lady!”
“Ah.”
She was actually a woman.
Akion nearly lost his mind again.
“I'm, uh, sorry....”
“If you're not used to beastkin, it can be hard to tell us apart! There's no need to apologize! Understand?”
She was apparently the general manager of this beastkin maid café.
She had known to some extent that beastkin fluffiness could be monetized,
and apparently she had gone all out through Goldie to purchase the engineering goods she needed this time.
“What? I saw additional revenue coming in from the Academy in the second quarter this year. Was that thanks to Goldie?”
“Ahem. Goldie is beastkin too, so she knows what sells well to beastkin!”
Large fans had been ordered by far the most among them....
“We beastkin love using fans to dry our fur!”
“Oh.”
Since beastkin had so much fur, drying it after washing was evidently a serious matter.
“Thanks to you, Young Master Akion, we can bathe every day, so no one says we smell anymore, meow! Sniff...!”
“Drying my entire body every day was always such a chore. Thanks to you, Professor Akion, we're all fluffy and dry every day.”
They must have been incredibly grateful for all that fur-drying engineering, because every fur-covered beastkin wanted to thank him.
“Hehehe, Young Master Akion? To show my gratitude, how about giving me a chance to touch my tail—.”
“Grrr!! Which woman is rubbing her tail against Young Master?!!”
“It looks like you haven't eaten yet, so perhaps I could have a chance too— Hyeek!! Don't pinch my cheeks!”
“Keep your paws off Goldie's!!!!!!!”
The concentration of fur around them reached saturation in an instant.
But thanks to Goldie turning into a vicious guard dog, things gradually came under control.
“Young Master belongs to Goldie!!”
“Goldie. Calm down.”
“If you rub against him like a sly fox again without Goldie's permission, I'll pluck your tail out— Hyeeeek!! Don't pinch my cheeks!!!”
This time Goldie went berserk, and they had to pinch her to calm her down. Anyway.
Only after experiencing the commotion he'd caused... did Akion once again realize how popular he was.
“I'm glad my inventions have been useful to you all. If there's anything you'd like improved, could you tell me now?”
Seeing how much they loved it filled Akion with a rush of engineering pride.
It made him feel that his engineering had truly helped the people here too.
“O-ohhh...!”
“Professor Akion is doing this... for us...!!”
“What? Why are you so moved?”
But he shouldn't have said that.
They had barely seen anything but little products supposedly made for beastkin until now.
But they were already thoroughly intoxicated by the rush from Akion's giant fans,
so could they possibly stay calm when the inventor himself said he would give them even more?
- Plop!
The rabbit beastkin Raphi immediately flattened herself against the floor and began flicking her tongue, making it clear that she wanted to groom him with all her might.
“Akion Enerisis, I shall honor you as FurryJyoa (FurryJyoa)...!!”
“What the hell is that horrifying title?!”
Why did such a title even exist?
Akion began trembling violently, he was so terrified.
“Throughout history, there has always been someone who took pity on and cared for us beastkin!”
“Goldie has heard of it too...! There were countless FurryJyoas throughout history...!!”
And why did Goldie know that too?
And why was she looking at her young master with such an awestruck gaze?
“The first FurryJyoa told us to call him FurryJyoa!!”
“Who was he?!”
“The very first Hero!!”
“Argh!!”
At this point, Akion had a hunch.
Judging by the information the Tower Master and the Saint occasionally let slip....
‘Was he Korean? Just like the Americano!!’
The first Hero had to have been Korean.
*
Anyway, Akion nearly got swept up in the FurryJyoa honor ceremony held by countless beastkin.
“Grrr...!!”
“So, what else would you like to add?”
For now, because the crowd kept pressing in, they moved to a waiting room.
By then, Akion had become covered in fur from all the furry... no, beastkin tail-rubbing,
and only barely escaped thanks to the furious Goldie guarding him.
“Improvements...? Is there anything else the fan needs?”
“I'm already happy with just the fan...?”
Still, weren't all of them customers who had placed bulk orders?
What if he gave them something more?
Could he break into a market he had never even considered: the beastkin market?
“If it's because it's too expensive....”
“Oh, we have plenty of money.”
“Our families make money independently, and we have quite a few patrons who are suspiciously fond of us.”
And they had plenty of money, too. From Akion's perspective, this was a market begging to be tapped immediately.
One of those consumers, Raphi Twier, thought long and hard, then....
“Would something like a fan that blows hot air be possible?”
“That's called a hair dryer. I have one I plan to mass-produce soon.”
She asked for something resembling a hair dryer.
“No, Professor Akion. What I mean is something much larger!”
It wasn't actually a hair dryer after all.
She was asking for something larger than a hair dryer.
“It's a huge fan that can dry your entire body at once, and it blows hot air all over!”
“Oh.”
Only then did Akion realize.
“So... you'd like a device that dries your whole body at once?”
“Yes!!!!”
“It's truly a magical tool we desperately, desperately want!!!”
“Some parts of our fur don't dry, so they stay all sticky and ugh!!”
Every beastkin's dream.
A full-body dryer, or body dryer, would solve the problem.
* * *
Since developing a body dryer wasn't immediately urgent,
Akion had planned to enjoy his date with Goldie to the fullest today.
“Guuurk.”
However, at the beastkin maid café, Akion endured endless torture.
Since every beastkin's opinion of Akion was at MAX,
they kept force-feeding him as if possessed by grandmothers, repeatedly telling him to eat this and that.
“I think I'm going to throw up....”
“Hek, are you really all right?”
“Half joking....”
Thank goodness Goldie noticed and pulled Akion away,
otherwise he might have eaten until his stomach burst and died today.
“Still, they are all good beastkin, right?”
“Yeah....”
Everyone was so obviously grateful to Akion that this ranked among the purest goodwill he had received since awakening the memories of his past life,
and it showed in every one of them.
In that sense, it was a moment when Akion felt a sense of fulfillment for the first time in a long while.
“It seemed like Young Master hasn't had much energy lately.”
“How could you tell?”
“How should I put it? He looked a little worn out from his research.”
In truth, Akion's recent research had felt... like he was driving himself too hard.
“So you seemed less relaxed than usual. Hmm, did Goldie get the wrong impression?”
“I don't think you're wrong....”
It was as if he were gripped by the compulsion that he might die if he stopped doing engineering research,
and he had been forcing the research forward somehow, nearly grinding down everyone around him, including his two sisters.
“I don't understand myself why I did that.”
“Heehee, that's right. You said you researched to make a comfortable daily life for yourself, Young Master, right?”
“I'd gotten things backward....”
And then he had finally stopped once and taken some time to rest.
“Young Master, Goldie wanted to show you just how much your engineering has helped everyone today.”
Since they had time now,
Goldie had, without saying so directly, introduced Akion to the beastkin he had helped.
“So Goldie thinks you can take things at your own pace.”
“Goldie....”
“If you have time, you should pet Goldie at least once, have tea with the Tower Master, go for a walk with Big Sis Aysirel, pray at least once with the Saintess, and finally have a light chat with Her Highness Flare.”
- Squeeze~!
Goldie's soft tail brushed down Akion's forearm.
The worry behind those words... was the worry of a maid and friend who had been by Akion's side the longest.
“Right, so... Young Master. You mustn't make Goldie worry, okay?”
“Good grief.”
What was he supposed to do with this adorable golden retriever?
Unable to hold back as he looked at the golden retriever doing everything she could to take care of him, Akion....
- Pat-pat-pat~!
“Heehee, you're petting me more roughly than usual?”
“That's because you said something that made me worry.”
“That's right! Goldie's strategy worked!”
And he began showering Goldie with affection.
In a way, wasn't she the golden retriever girl who occupied the largest part of his life in this world?
- Pat-pat~!
“Mmm, Young Master~ Behind my ears toooo~”
“All right.”
In the street bathed in sunset, Goldie was overjoyed to be showered with affection by Akion.
* * *
The next day,
“Big Sis.”
“Heh, hehehe....”
The third day had originally belonged to the Tower Master,
“Something urgent has come up, so I don't think I can do it today. Since that's how it is... Aysirel, you go first.”
but because the Tower Master had to leave due to an urgent matter, it became Aysirel's turn next.
“Hehehe... Today, I'm going to make it official with Akion...!”
“Big Sis. I told you, I'm right here.”
At long last, her chance had come, but honestly, Aysirel was in a bit of a desperate situation.
As Akion moved beyond his early twenties, she was already in her mid-thirties.
There would be disapproving looks from those around them... but more than that, she felt a crisis that she might lose Akion, and had prepared herself thoroughly for today.
“So, can you resist by force?”
- Bonk!
“Cut the nonsense.”
Of course, Akion had no intention of taking it lying down.
During the things he'd done on his brief outing with the previous Tower Master, he had learned how to subdue such domineering types.
- Squeeze!
“Eek?!”
He simply took her hand first!
While Aysirel's face flushed bright red and she fidgeted helplessly,
“Let's just get going.”
“O-okay. I understand....”
Aysirel was dragged along behind Akion in embarrassment, to the point that all the effort her Master had put into preparing her was rendered completely useless....