Ch.383Uninterruptible NPC. (4)

“…but that’s what happened.”

“So that’s why Ira is so exhausted and fell asleep first?”

Fortunately, Ira and Gor, who had said they were going to see friends at the Academy, returned after I had finished everything with Ray. It was quite late in the evening, after the sun had set. Ragni said she had business with Luxuria at the Academy today, so she’d be staying there overnight. Today, it’s just Ray, me, Gor, and Ira.

Well, they’re good friends. It seems Ira is blessed with good relationships.

“Yes. Well, when I first saw how they were acting, I wanted to tell them to get lost, but…”

“Gor. It’s good that you’re looking after Ira, but don’t be so prickly to the kids around her.”

Friends who can fight openly and talk while crying are the kind who can maintain good relationships for a long time. In my previous life, I saw countless toxic relationships where people just accumulated complaints, couldn’t speak their minds while being overly conscious of others, and then caused incidents due to long-harbored emotions.

As we talked, I sipped the tea Gor had brewed for me. Hmm, Ray makes good tea too, but Gor is still bet—

“So, Master seems to have thoroughly enjoyed himself. Was it good?”

“…What?”

“Hmph, while we were dealing with all that chaos. You were having quite a lot of sex with Ray. To burn through half your HP in just 4 hours, and even now Ray is sleeping in the room with a [Status Ailment] org—”

“Wait! Wait!! How on earth did you—?!!”

“Ira is also sleeping. Please lower your voice. And let me clarify, I didn’t see it—I can see it. Here, look.”

Suddenly dropping this bombshell, Gor ignored my flustered reaction and waved a finger to bring up a status window before my eyes.

[Jack: ♥ Count 98 times]

[Ragni Bluemoon: ♥ Count 98 times]

[Ray Sol: ♥ 62 times]

What?!! Fuck!! What the hell is this?!!

“Hmm. Was Ray less satisfying than Ragni? The count is about 40 percent lower…”

“That’s not it?! With Ragni, there were just the two of us, so we did it all day!! With Ray, there wasn’t enough ti— No, that’s not the point!!”

Get rid of it! Get rid of it! Where did this come from?! Why is this showing up?! More importantly!! Why can you see this?!! I frantically pushed away the status window with my hand, but Gor just smirked and pushed it back in front of my eyes. You! You!! S-since when…!!

“That’s not what’s important. Honestly, I’m hurt. I was the first to serve Master, and I was the one who wanted to do it, yet I was so easily passed over for those two.”

“Ugh…! T-that’s…!!”

The atmosphere felt like a wife interrogating her cheating husband, and I found myself instinctively tucking in my chin. Gor leaned in closer and began to chuckle.

“Hehe. Master, do you really not have those feelings for me?”

“T-that’s…?!”

It’s not a matter of having them or not…!!

Gor’s appearance is definitely beautiful. There’s absolutely no denying that she’s a pretty golem. However, even so, she’s still a stone.

After absorbing the slime, she covers most of the cracks on various parts of her body, but still, it’s just most of them. The joints in her fingers, shoulders, and the occasional cracks near her knees that show when she grows larger make it impossible to think of her as a living being.

And, unfortunately, I’m just not into golems…!!

“…Sigh, how disappointing. Ira is exhausted and asleep, Ragni isn’t coming back, and Ray is unconscious. On a night like this, I should be the one in Master’s arms.”

“No, I told you when I left for Siltra. That, at the very least, you’d try to do something about your skin color. I do feel a little bad that I can’t do for you what I did for those two…”

It’s really difficult. I just can’t get in the mood with Gor in front of me. It’s not just about her appearance—it’s the fact that she’s a golem. That’s the real issue. Honestly, I had planned to talk to Gor someday about my relationships with the other two, but I didn’t expect to be exposed so quickly like this. It’s really awkward.

As I unconsciously rub the back of my neck, feeling genuinely sorry, Gor walks around the table and stands in front of me. Hmm, I guess she’s going to ask for a kiss at lea—

“Master. May I sit on your lap?”

“U-uh?”

Tilting her head as she asks, I nod in agreement. I had told her that when she eventually got a more human-like appearance, I would properly consider her feelings. Since I feel bad about continuously sidelining her, I should at least allow this kind of skinship if that’s what she wants. I pull my chair back to make room for her, and she puts her arms around my neck and lightly sits on my lap. Hmm, she’s actually lighter than I expected.

“I’m cold, aren’t I?”

“Well, yes.”

“Were Ray and Ragni warm?”

“…Do I really have to answer that?”

“If you don’t, I’ll sulk. I won’t make your tea for about two days.”

Hmm. It sounds like she’s threatening to sulk lightly, but from Gor’s perspective, I’m the master who brought her to life. It means she’s refusing to follow one of my orders, which could be seen as quite serious sulking. Sighing, I reluctantly decided to answer her questions.

“Well, they were warm.”

“In what way were they warm?”

“In what way… Hmm, Ragni had a soft warmth, and Ray had an elastic warmth?”

As I answer, wondering if this is the right way to respond, Gor mutters “soft and elastic…” and begins to gather slime liquid on her hand and manipulate it. And then.

*Squish*

“Huh?”

“Does it feel like this?”

“…I’m sorry, but it’s not similar at all.”

I answered honestly to Gor’s question as she poked my cheek with her finger, creating some mysterious sensation with the slime liquid. I mean, human warmth isn’t something slime can replicate. But…

“…Right. Master is human, and so are Ray and Ragni. It’s not something a golem like me can imitate…”

“But this feels nice in its own way.”

Seeing Gor about to become dejected after hearing my words, I gently grab her now soft fingers and stroke her head with my other hand. Did my sincere comfort work? Gor tilted her head and continued her questioning.

“Then, is this sensation enough? If this is how it feels inside me, would you embrace me too…”

“Th-that’s! That’s a somewhat different issue.”

Feeling a slight chill as Gor tries to steer the conversation back in that direction—perhaps my comfort worked too well—I refuse, and Gor drops her eyebrows and slumps her shoulders. Oh no, did I reject her too harshly…? Huh?

“Gor, haven’t your expressions become more varied lately?”

“Expressions? Well, Ragni did comment that I’ve been smiling more, but I’m not sure myself.”

As she says this, poking her own face with her empty hand and pulling up the corners of her mouth, I feel like trying an experiment.

*Rustle* *Smooch♡*

“…?”

Moving the hand that was stroking her head to hold her chin, I give her a light kiss. Gor tilts her head, looking at me as if she doesn’t understand what just happened. But more importantly:

“Yes. Your expressions have definitely increased. You were a little surprised just now, weren’t you?”

“If you’re asking how I feel, I was extremely surprised. You’ve never kissed me first before.”

Oh, is that so? I think I’ve kissed Ray and Ragni first plenty of times, but I guess I never did that with Gor. No, that’s not what’s important right now.

“Just now when I kissed you, your eyebrows and pupils got as big as saucers. Your expressions have definitely increased.”

“…Is that so? But I think I’ve been expressing my emotions verbally quite well from before. Just because my expressions have increased…”

“No, that’s not what I mean. Don’t you know why your expressions have increased? Is it because your level went up, or was there some kind of status window update in that area?”

“…I don’t remember my expressions increasing because my level went up. If I had to say… That’s right. After eating mana stones dropped by monsters or demons, I checked my status window hoping for new skills, but unfortunately, no skills were added. Rather, after eating the mana stone from the dungeon boss that Ira defeated last time, I did hear from Ira and Ray that my expressions had become more abundant.”

As she speaks, she tilts her head as if recalling, “Come to think of it, my expressions started to increase before we came to Neti, after eating the Wrath of the Seven Deadly Sins mana stone that Master gave me.” She finally nods, confirming that this guess seems correct.

I see, so your expressions becoming more human-like is because you’ve been eating mana stones?

“But when I was earning money and leveling up in the Empire, I also ate mana stones from field bosses, but my expressions didn’t increase then. That’s…”

“This is just my guess, but as I mentioned before, the dungeon you and Ira first went to in the Empire was originally a grind dungeon meant for level 750, the final leveling dungeon after completing ep.5. But you skipped everything else and went there first, eating high-grade mana stones and seeing the effects, so maybe the lower-grade mana stones couldn’t have any effect?”

The boss level in [Durahan’s Tomb] was 680, with even the regular mobs in the early 600s—quite a tough dungeon. Just looking at the level, it was higher than the Greed of the Seven Deadly Sins that the Chancellor killed. Excluding gimmicks and looking at pure attack power, it might have been stronger. After eating such high-grade mana stones first, other mana stones couldn’t have an effect.

It’s like if you’re supposed to enhance something from +1 to +2 gradually, but suddenly jump to +10 or +15—the lower enhancement materials would just be consumed without any effect. Hearing my explanation, Gor nodded in understanding.

“So, what’s the meaning behind what you just said…”

“You mentioned that you haven’t gained new skills or expressions lately. So, let’s go to the next dungeon.”

“…To make my expressions more abundant?”

“Well, that’s part of it.”

Before expressions, you need to look as human as possible. Then I can decide whether to embrace you or not. It would be great if you could get a skill like Polymorph, but I can’t remember if such a skill existed in the online game [Eight] or what it was like. For now, we need to try eating the highest grade mana stones possible.

“…Mana stones above level 700. Is there a place where such mana stones are easily found?”

“There is. In fact, there’s a place where we can kill two birds with one stone—you can eat all the mana stones there and we can solve a problem before an incident happens in the game.”

With our current party, we should be able to approach it easily. Seeing Gor’s cute gray eyes light up with joy at my promise to prioritize her enhancement, I stroked her head with a satisfied expression.

First, after finding Avalitia, let’s go there right away.

Our next destination is [Magic Engineering City Aiti].