Chapter 44
Only after night had fallen were we able to reach the inn.
Cecilia and Ruril, who saw us arrive, gave us oddly lingering looks and asked where we'd gone to be back this late. Since we'd gone all the way to a hill high enough to see the entire village while the sun was setting, it was only natural that we arrived after the sun had gone down, late at night.
By the way, why on earth were these two outside instead of in their room?
“We... went up the hill with Lumia.”
Did he really have to go and say that?
Cecilia, who had been looking over me and the Hero with an even narrower gaze, shoved us along, saying she'd already booked a room and that we could go inside. I looked toward Cecilia, feeling a little suspicious, but the moment she noticed my gaze, she gave me a wink, closing one eye.
What was that?
I had a bad feeling about this.
“The room key is here.”
Ruril, who was walking beside us, took a key from inside her clothes and held it out to us.
Right, ours.
“I booked two rooms. They're doubles!”
Cecilia smiled brightly.
Before the flustered Hero could even say anything, they said they would go in first, then opened the door to the room right beside us and vanished as if fleeing.
They were ridiculously fast.
“... Shall we go in?”
It wasn't as if we could change rooms now.
The Hero let out a deep sigh, opened the door, and called me in.
Honestly, sharing a room was no longer a big deal to me.
We'd shared a room plenty of times before this, anyway, so it would have been strange to get flustered over doing so now.
I nodded and stepped inside.
Compared to all the inns we'd stayed at until now, the room was exceptionally well-appointed. On a hunch, I dashed straight into the bathroom and checked the faucet. Unlike the place we'd visited before, the plumbing here actually worked, and it was even set up to provide hot water!
This was more like it...
Was this what they called throwing money around?
Of course, I wasn't the one who had thrown money around, but the village chief had helped us secure a room at the best inn in the village, more or less, so I supposed that was what this was. Since today was our last day in the village, we should enjoy it as much as possible before leaving.
After turning on the water, I stepped out of the room with a pleased smile.
No wonder it was a good inn—the floor was incredibly smooth too.
Thinking that, I rubbed my feet against the floor several times in wonder, then sat down on the bed. Despite being told it was a double room, there was only one bed, and judging by its appearance, I had a pretty good idea what kind of place this was.
Those bitches...
I searched the drawers with practiced ease.
Sure enough, “that thing” that had caused trouble for the Hero and me before was there. I'd wondered whether they might have pulled something before we arrived... Of course, since the Saint was still a Saint, perhaps it had been difficult for her to procure anything illegal; it looked less concentrated and there was less of it than before, but the fact that it was there at all...
“...”
The fact that it was there at all...
Uh...
It suddenly occurred to me that perhaps there was no need to get rid of it.
No, how should I put it... After saying we should start by getting rid of my aversion to men, wouldn't it be a waste to throw this away? Something like that...? In the first place, its concentration was low enough that it seemed capable of doing no more than creating a certain mood.
Maybe it was just meant to put us in the mood? Wasn't it something like that?
So it was a double room—or no, a couples' room. Damn it.
I shook my head.
What was I thinking?
I didn't think the Hero would do anything like that, but if I pretended not to notice after finding this and he pounced on me, what would I do then?
Still... The Hero had endured it that time, and this was weaker than it had been then, so wouldn't he be able to endure it again...?
“Then whose turn is it to wash first... It was yours this time, Lumia, wasn't it?”
As I sat there hesitating and thinking, the Hero, who had been arranging our luggage behind me, asked.
“..!”
I was startled.
“What's wrong?”
Pretending nothing was wrong, I put the item back in the drawer and closed it, then shook my head vigorously.
Oh, right.
Was it my turn today?
I stood up.
“Wait a moment.”
Saying that, the Hero pulled out the various things we'd bought at the store earlier. As he withdrew his hand from his subspace, saying he'd found what he was looking for, my long underwear, along with the underwear that had come with it, emerged into the world.
“...”
Both the Hero and I froze on the spot.
Come to think of it, Cecilia had hurriedly bought those things before we'd met Ruril, then forcibly crammed them into the Hero's subspace in a panic, and we hadn't checked inside for quite some time, so it was only natural that we had no way of knowing what was in there.
In other words, this accident had happened because I'd entrusted the things I'd bought to the Hero.
The Hero's face turned bright red when he saw my underwear, particularly my bras.
“S-sorry!”
After handing me the long underwear with my underwear tangled up in it, the Hero suddenly let out a startled cry.
“...”
I was speechless too.
It was all because I'd happened to buy the underwear along with it... No, well, I had to buy it since I didn't have much long underwear... But I thought I'd put most of it in my bag, so when had that come loose?
The Hero had once explained that his subspace was more like a bag connected to his body than an inventory, so perhaps that was why. Apparently more than one item had come loose from the bag, because the Hero began pulling things out one after another with an apologetic expression.
“I'll make sure to check the zipper from now on.”
The Hero pulled a pair of panties... out of his space and handed them to me.
Thanks to the magic I'd put on them, they were not only clean but smelled nice too—in other words, they were basically as good as new, so it was okay... wasn't it?
This was my fault.
It was heavy, sure, but I'd left the bag with the Hero instead of carrying it myself, and that's how this had happened... No, wait a minute.
It was only a few pieces of underwear he'd seen. Why was I acting so embarrassed as if it were such a big deal?
I shook my head furiously.
I needed to change my mindset... I was fine...
I snatched the panties from the Hero's hand and headed toward the bathroom to wash up, but I'd forgotten that there were clothes scattered all over the floor from where he'd taken things out of his subspace. I tried to run away, only to step on a piece of clothing and pitch forward on the spot.
Ack!!
Thud!
...
...
...
I knew instinctively.
What I was wearing was technically a skirt, and if I took a spectacular tumble forward, what would happen to it? In anime, no matter the angle, you can never see underneath, so they call it an iron skirt, but this place was, in its own way, reality.
A short dress that left my legs completely exposed could never conceal anything.
I felt terribly exposed below the waist.
“Uh... Lu, Lumia?”
I could feel the Hero staring blankly at my lower half.
“!!!”
He'd seen it.
I was wearing underwear, so there was no way he could have seen all the way inside, but it was still mortifying enough that I'd fallen so spectacularly and shown him my panties. I hurriedly got back to my feet and straightened my dress, then ran inside half out of my mind.
What the hell was that!?”
Damn it, this was driving me crazy...!
I fanned my overheated face with my hand and looked in the mirror.
Lumia's face—or rather, mine—should have been expressionless, but it was scrunched up and suspiciously red. My hands and feet trembled, apparently because I was so terribly embarrassed that he'd seen my panties.
No, he hadn't only seen my panties.
My butt... and, well... several other places... He probably hadn't seen the most important place, but I felt like I could die of embarrassment just from having him see my dress flipped up like that.
Cecilia... Ruril... I would never forgive the two of them for putting me in these clothes...
I suddenly remembered watching scenes in anime where a girl fell and showed her panties to the male protagonist, and thinking they were so fucking stupid, but I'd never imagined I'd go through it myself. Since it was a skirt that only covered about as far as my thighs, it was inevitable that it would flip up if I fell the wrong way...
I should have watched where I was going before I ran.
How flustered must I have been to fall without even seeing the clothes at my feet?
Sigh... I should wash up first.
...
But I feel like I've forgotten something. Is that just my imagination?
“Ah...”
Right... I didn't put that away...
Well, I could go out and put it away later.
I set the underwear on the basket for my clothes, then stripped everything off. When I checked the mirror once more, a girl with a still-bright-red face was staring back at me, covering only her private parts with her hands.
Come to think of it, I'd never really checked properly...
It's... a little embarrassing, but...
...
Let's not.
There was a mirror in the bathroom when I washed too, but even if I couldn't help seeing my upper body, I'd never looked below the waist until now. Even in the game, Lumia had seemed almost impossible to romance, and so few people had pursued her that sex scenes involving Lumia had never circulated online.
Honestly, I'd been curious what it looked like down there... but guilt had kept me from looking.
Even now...
I swallowed hard, then shook my head vigorously and fled into the bathroom.
What was I thinking with the Hero right there...?
I sighed, wondering whether I was turning into a pervert.
Maybe this happened because I'd caught a whiff of that aphrodisiac earlier.
Ah, whatever.