Chapter 30 – With Elsie (7)
After lunch at the park, Elsie and I strolled through the city, chatting.
The main topic was Elsie elaborating on the myth of the hero and the saintess she had mentioned earlier that morning.
It was called a myth, but from my perspective, hearing it for the first time, it felt more like a legend or a novel, unless a god had directly intervened a lot.
Stories about the hardships of the first hero and saintess in their harsh environment, or the tale of the third hero, a beastman, and his saintess and companions facing a crisis due to the machinations of the Demon King’s minion.
They were surprisingly intriguing stories.
As I listened to Elsie’s stories, I was also imagining the first saintess being violated by monsters, or the third saintess being overpowered and assaulted by her trusted companions while trying to stop a fight. I was enjoying Elsie’s stories immensely.
For me, who was used to having lewd fantasies, listening to Elsie’s stories while simultaneously indulging in my fantasies was a piece of cake. However, I knew Elsie would get tired if we kept walking and talking, so I asked her if there was a place where we could sit and talk calmly.
“Well… Rent, do you like sweets?”
If I had to choose, I would say I like them.
I like ice cream, sweet candies, and cake.
I didn’t like overly sweet things like donuts or macarons that were so sweet they felt greasy.
But since I was born into this world, the only sweet things I had ever eaten were fruits from the forest.
“Sweets… I haven’t really had them, so I don’t know. Do you like them, Elsie?”
Elsie fidgeted with her index fingers, looking shy.
“Ah, um… yes. I do.”
The way she glanced up at me was cute.
If you skipped my question and only heard Elsie’s answer, it would sound like she was confessing to me.
I should remember Elsie’s voice now and use it often in my fantasies.
“Then let’s go wherever you want to go, Elsie. I’m curious to see if I like sweets too.”
“Okay! This way, Rent!”
Elsie led me to a building that looked like a Western-style café.
Seeing what looked like cakes, no, definitely cakes, displayed in the glass showcase, I figured it was a fantasy café.
“This is a famous cake shop in Pledan. It’s known for not only cakes but also delicious sweets and fragrant teas! However… it’s expensive.”
In other words, it was a fantasy pastry shop and café.
I didn’t know how they got sugar in this world or if there were any substitutes, but the cakes on display looked very similar to what I had seen in my previous life. I never really thought about the source of ingredients when I ate in my previous life, so I didn’t need to worry about it now.
“But I caught a lot of slimes yesterday, so I have some money! I’ll buy whatever you want to eat, Rent!”
It seemed Elsie wanted to treat me to cake.
I appreciated her gesture, but I wanted to treat her instead and win her over even more.
It was about showing off my capable manliness.
“It’s okay, Elsie. I’ll buy whatever you want to eat instead.”
“Huh? No, you don’t have to, Rent. This is… well! It’s like a reward for protecting me from Ragefang today… If you hadn’t been there, I would have been done for by Ragefang.”
Wasn’t that a bit of a stretch?
If Elsie had been alone, she would have been taking care of Noah.
But if I pointed that out, wouldn’t she just come up with another reason?
I wanted to see Elsie’s cute face as she struggled to come up with a reason, but I should restrain myself for now.
“Is that so?”
“Yes, it is!”
But it also felt wrong to let Elsie treat me.
Let’s compromise.
“Then, how about you buy the cake? I’ll buy the drinks. Is that okay?”
“Hmm… yes! Let’s do that!”
Elsie and I entered the café and sat down at a table.
Elsie opened the menu on the table and asked,
“What would you like to eat, Rent?”
“What’s the smallest thing you have?”
“You can have a big one, Rent. Don’t worry too much about the price.”
“It’s not about the price. What if I don’t like sweets?”
“Ah… that’s true. Then this slice of strawberry shortcake should be fine. I’ll have that too.”
“Then order that for me. What are you going to drink, Elsie?”
“I’ll have black tea.”
“Then I’ll…”
I looked through the menu to see if there was anything I would like to drink.
To be honest, I didn’t really know the taste of green or black tea; they just tasted bitter to me.
I wondered if they had any natural fruit juices.
As I looked around, I found an apple juice option.
“I’ll have apple juice.”
We each decided what to order.
The cake seemed to have been prepared in advance, as it came out quickly with forks.
The cake was no different from what I had seen in my previous life.
A slice of cake with a strawberry on top of whipped cream.
It looked sweet and delicious.
“It looks delicious.”
“Yes! The cakes here are really delicious!”
“Come to think of it, have you ever eaten here before, Elsie?”
“Yes. Miss Misha, the priestess, brought me here once. I had… this cake back then too.”
Elsie looked at the cake with a happy smile, reminiscing about a precious memory from the past.
Miss Misha was indeed a reliable senior figure in the temple.
She had approached the priestess who had been rejected by the adventurer, and she had brought Elsie to this shop in the past. She must be loved by other apprentice priestesses. So much respect and love that she couldn’t control her overflowing desires and was being gang-raped by numerous priestesses in a yuri version…
That might be surprisingly useful.
“Elsie, can I have a bite first?”
“Yes, of course!”
I cut a corner of the cake with my fork, poked it, and put it in my mouth.
Surprisingly, it tasted as delicious as the cakes I had eaten in my previous life.
It was the taste of a normal shortcake that wasn’t too sweet.
“H-How is it, Rent? Do you like it?”
“Yeah, it’s delicious. Let’s buy one for Noah when we go back.”
It would be a good way to apologize for causing Noah intense muscle pain.
“Yes! Okay! Hehe, I’m glad you like it, Rent.”
“You should try it too, Elsie.”
“Yes!”
“Here are your black tea and apple juice.”
Just then, the black tea and apple juice arrived.
Elsie and I enjoyed the cake and our drinks.
Elsie’s smile as she savored the cake was beautiful and cute.
Her face with white cream on her cheek.
For a moment, I saw it overlap with Tina’s face covered in semen.
A face enjoying the food.
Elsie.
Semen.
Cream on her face.
Elsie and Tina’s images mixed in my fantasy, and I imagined Elsie eating a cake topped with semen with a blissful expression, licking the semen from her lips.
If Elsie would enjoy eating my semen, I would be happy to provide the ingredients!
Of course, it’s not just about eating.
While eating the cake, Elsie continued the story of the hero and saintess that had been interrupted earlier.
As the story of the beastman hero and saintess was coming to an end, I suddenly became curious about something.
“Elsie.”
“Yes, Rent.”
“Why did you become an adventurer?”
“Why did I become an adventurer?”
“Yeah. Like I said yesterday, I wanted to earn money, and I’m strong and healthy, so I thought I’d be good as an adventurer, right?”
“Yes.”
“So I was wondering why you became an adventurer. If you were in the temple… there were things you could do without becoming an adventurer, right?”
Elsie nodded calmly.
“That’s true. Even if I didn’t become an adventurer… I could have assisted other priests in the treatment room, or done cleaning or chores in the temple. I wouldn’t have had trouble eating even if I didn’t become an adventurer. But…”
“But?”
“I’m still an apprentice, and as you know, Rent, my healing power is weak. Even if I was assigned to the treatment room, all I would have done was change bandages or do accounting at the counter.
Or I would have cleaned the temple or run errands for other priests.
Most of the other apprentice priests choose to do those things.
Besides, unlike other skills, divine magic is vague in that you can gain inspiration or increase its power even if you pray… If I prayed hard enough to Solishin, I could eventually work in the treatment room without becoming an adventurer.”
Elsie gently clutched the chest area of her priestess robes and said,
“I… wanted to become an adventurer.”
“Why?”
Elsie scratched her cheek and smiled.
“It’s a bit of an embarrassing reason. I like myths and stories. The creation myths of Solishin and Bainshin, the stories of past heroes and saintesses and their companions.
Legends passed down in each country… My heart races whenever I hear those stories. It’s not that I want to achieve great feats like the people in the stories.
But… I wanted to go on adventures like the people in the stories… I wanted to see sights I haven’t seen myself.”
“So that’s why you wanted to become an adventurer.”
“Yes. And I… was really happy to become an adventurer. Like you said, Rent… when I first saw the scenery from the second floor… I felt like I was really on an adventure. And… I was happy to be in the same party as you.”
That was the second time today that Elsie had said she was happy to be in a party with me.
I was so happy I could listen to it any number of times!
“Elsie.”
“Yes, Rent.”
“Let’s go on many adventures in the future. Let’s see various landscapes we haven’t seen yet, the three of us, with Noah.”
“Yes!”
Elsie and I smiled brightly, looking forward to the new adventures that awaited us.
◈
Time flew by quickly as I enjoyed listening to Elsie’s stories at the cake shop.
As it was almost time to return to the inn, I bought cakes not only for Noah but also for Tina and Miranda, and returned to the inn with Elsie.
“Welcome back, Rent, Elsie.”
Tina greeted us with a smile.
The scary feeling I had felt in the morning was gone now.
Whew.
“I’m back, Tina.”
“We’re back, Tina. Oh, here’s a gift.”
“A gift? Ah, this box! Isn’t this cake from that famous shop? The one that’s known for being delicious but expensive!”
It seemed that shop was quite famous in the city.
“That’s right. We stopped by there today. There are two here, so give one to Miranda too.”
“Wow, thank you, Rent! I’ll enjoy it! Hehehe~.”
Tina hummed and wagged her tail as she took the cakes into the kitchen.
It seemed like it was almost time for the adventurers to come for dinner, so she was probably putting the cakes in the kitchen.
“It would be better to eat them quickly before the others come.”
“Wouldn’t it be okay since there’s a refrigerator in the kitchen?”
“Huh? Refrigerator?”
I was surprised to hear Elsie’s words.
Did refrigerators exist in this world?
“Yes. Ah, didn’t you have them in your hometown, Rent?”
“No.”
We basically grilled or ate things lukewarm.
If we wanted to eat fruit cold, we would submerge it in the river for a few minutes before eating it.
Elsie seemed to think I didn’t know the concept of a refrigerator, so she kindly explained it to me.
“A refrigerator is a magical tool that looks like a square cabinet that uses magic circles engraved inside to keep food cold. It requires magic stones to activate the magic circles. Most shops and inns in Pledan use various magical tools that use these magic stones.”
“I see.”
Come to think of it, there must be a way to use magic stones, which is why there are collection requests and why cities have formed around dungeons. It was a setting that would come to mind if it was a fantasy world and there were dungeons, but I had lived in my hometown without any magical tools.
In the first place, adventurers rarely visited our village, and I saw adventurers who looked like mages for the first time at the adventurer’s guild in this city. I had vaguely thought that even though it was a city, the living standards were not much different from my hometown, but… there was a clear difference in technological development with magical tools.
I had seen magical tools when Noah and Elsie guided me to the shop that sold magic books. But the magical tools in that shop didn’t look like machines, and more importantly, the magic circles were drawn on things like carpets and pouches. They didn’t look like they were using magic stones.
The erotic writing Noah used was made of paper and didn’t use magic stones, so I thought it was a unique erotic culture of this fantasy world. Who could have imagined that just by seeing those magical tools and erotic writing, there would be a technological development that used magic stones instead of electricity for machine-like devices like refrigerators?
Come to think of it, I seem to be a huge country bumpkin.
Anyway, magical tools made like machines…
I wonder if there are vibrating dildos or vibrators that run on magic stones in adult shops?
I’m very curious!
