episode_0009

As soon as the leather pouch Master gave me exploded, I got so startled that I burst into tears.

But.

The moment I was hugged by Master, I calmed down.

Hehe…

Thiiiis is nice…

Ever since I was little, I loved being hugged by my mom.

It felt warm, holding each other close.

It made me feel strongly like someone was on my side—that’s why I loved it.

So, I asked her to hug me every day.

I was addicted to hugs.

But.

My current mom can’t hug me.

Because she’s in the Celestial Realm.

Because she can’t manifest until the Demon King is defeated.

So, I asked Master to hug me instead.

But.

Master refused.

There was even a time I tried rushing in for a forced hug.

He dodged.

That left me frustrated—

But today, he hugged me without avoiding it.

That was nice.

Hehe…

If setting off bombs means getting hugged… then I wish they’d keep exploding foreeever…

The sound of the explosion made me cry from surprise,

But that was it.

Thanks to [Absolute Invincibility], I didn’t feel any pain,

And thanks to [Complete Resistance], even paralyzing potions had no effect.

Still, I gotta pretend to keep crying.

The longer I cry, the longer he’ll hold me.

I poured out tears in buckets.

“Waaaahhh!”

Meanwhile.

Kain was in trouble.

“Lia.”

“Get down.”

The moment he tried pushing her away—

“Waaaaaahhhh!”

Lia clung to him like glue, crying loudly.

“Sigh…”

But if he hugged her back softly and stroked her head instead—

Hehe…

She’d giggle quietly and calm down.

He’d assume she had recovered enough and try pushing her off again—

“WAAAAAAHHHHHH!”

And she’d latch onto him, wailing.

Tsk…

What am I supposed to do about this…?

A fully grown, voluptuous 20-year-old beauty was clinging to him like a koala.

He was slowly reaching his limit.

No…

I already blew past that limit ages ago…

His partner had grown quite agitated.

Yeah.

That’s what that meant.

No amount of singing the national anthem helped.

Sigh…

How is anyone supposed to resist when a pretty girl like this clings to me while acting cute…

“Hehe…”

“I love you, Master…”

Lia nuzzled against him, murmuring in a sweet voice—

Countless thoughts flashed through his mind.

Do I take the harem route?

He’d considered it.

Catch his favorite character.

Catch Lia.

Capture all four female companions from the Hero’s party.

Nice.

Turn his top six favorites into his wives.

The ultimate male fantasy.

But.

It was also a route full of problems.

Once the jealousy starts, there’s no fixing it.

Lia was S-rank.

The Hero’s party members were A-rank.

If they started fighting, it’d be a world-ending war in its own right.

Even if they don‘t fight, just gunning for me is trouble enough.

He was a D-rank adventurer.

If S- and A-rank women decided to kidnap and imprison him to have their way, he had no means of escape.

I could get split into six pieces.

If they couldn’t have him all to themselves,

They might just happily carve him up to share.

And there’s one more thing.

No telling how the doting Goddess of Light, Serena, might react.

She might try to kill him for daring to lay hands on her daughter.

Or she might try to kill him for fooling around with other women despite intending to marry her daughter.

So.

The harem route was off the table.

Sure, the game had a harem route,

But that was only manageable because the protagonist was S-rank.

For a D-rank like him, it was impossible.

Which meant.

The pure love route was the only answer.

But if he had to pick just one girl from , who would he choose?

Obviously, my favorite character.

And if that was the case,

He’d have to give up on Lia and the Hero’s party members.

He could still be friends with them,

But a romantic relationship was out of the question.

He tried thinking that way and forcing himself not to see her as a woman—

Sigh…

Easier said than done.

“Hehe…”

“Master…”

Lia in his arms, acting cute, was adorable.

Of course, she was his favorite.

If his one true favorite didn’t exist,

He’d have dragged her straight to bed to show her the true nature of a man—that’s how pretty she was.

Which was why he pushed her away harder.

“Lia.”

“You’re heavy. Get off.”

“G-Get off?…”

(Sniff)…

(Sob…)

“WAAAAAAHHHHHH!”

So he hugged her again.

“Hehe…”

She stopped crying.

“Lia.”

“You’re heavy. Can’t you just get down?”

This time, he took a logical approach.

Calling a woman heavy could earn him a slap,

But it wasn’t like he was lying, right?

Even the lightest women weighed around 30-40 kg.

That was objectively heavy.

A hefty sack of rice at the grocery store weighed 20-40 kg—

So she was basically the same thing.

Yes, you are heavy.

Of course,

She might be even heavier than that.

(He learned that the hard way when a college friend smashed his spine for saying it out loud.)

Anyway.

Lia was around that weight.

Calling her heavy wasn’t illogical… or so he thought—

“How about now?”

Suddenly, Lia felt lighter.

Huh?

Why was she lighter?

Oh.

Right, magic exists.

had plenty of weight-reducing spells.

There were lightweight spells to reduce mass,

Or zero-gravity spells to weaken gravity.

Flight magic or telekinesis could lift her body, making her effectively weigh 0 kg.

Lots of options.

However.

All weight-reducing spells were intermediate-tier or higher.

None existed in beginner magic manuals.

But.

Lia, who’d only read beginner manuals, was using intermediate magic?

What?

Was this talent?

No.

Now’s not the time to be impressed.

The problem was that Lia had gotten lighter,

So he could no longer shove her off by calling her heavy.

Thus, he tried another tactic.

“Lia.”

“It’s hot. Get down.”

It was spring, so the weather wasn’t that scorching,

But his thick leather armor made it slightly stuffy.

Add Lia’s body heat on top of that,

And yeah, it was hot.

“How about now?”

Lia turned cold.

She was using ice magic to stay cool.

Oh.

This was nice.

“Hehe…”

“Master smiled.”

“……”

“Can I stay like this?”

“Sigh…”

“Do what you want.”

“Yay!”

“But.”

“Hop on my back instead.”

Even with Lia glued to him, he still had work to do.

Stabbing paralyzed goblins and orcs to finish them off.

Easy enough.

He could do that standing up.

But.

Cutting off their right ears as proof of subjugation required crouching.

Hard to squat while holding Lia.

Hence, telling her to ride his back—

Slice! Schlick!

Lia used wind blades to shear off every ear.

Swoosh!

Then telekinesis to gather them into his leather pouch.

“Hehe…”

“Master.”

“Since the job’s done, I’ll stay like this.”

“……”

He was speechless.

What?

Seriously?

A rookie mage who just started learning magic today could pull off precise spells like this?

Multi-casting wind blades to cut 100 monsters’ ears simultaneously?

Wow…

Insane…

Even if magic was talent-dependent,

This was extreme, wasn’t it?

No.

If she’s the daughter of a goddess, it makes sense.

She was the daughter of Serena, the Goddess of Light who created the world,

A cheat-laden character beyond reason.

Thinking about how she had so many cheats I couldn’t even remember them all…

A cheat for magic talent wouldn’t be weird.

With that in mind, he scanned the area.

The request was complete,

But the real reward was just beginning.

Ding!

Mana oozing from the monster corpses condensed into coins.

Same as the game mechanics, huh.

Killing monsters dropped money.

(For the record, these weren’t actual gold or silver coins.

They were more like mana clumps shaped like coins—closer to [Magic Stones].)

But since ’s world used them as currency,

They counted as money.

He pocketed them all.

Next up: treasure hunting.

He wandered the village outskirts, searching for anything useful.

“Master?”

“Looking for something?”

“Yeah. Anything worth taking.”

Monsters with hideouts tended to hoard things,

So there might be decent loot.

As he rummaged around—

“Oh.”

“Found one.”

In what looked like a storage shed, he spotted a black ring.

“A ring?”

“Is that any good?”

“No.”

“It’s a cursed item—nothing but penalties.”

A cursed item.

[Cursed] equipment was usually junk.

Though some were decent.

Like the [Berserker’s Ring].

Slowly drains HP due to its curse,

But boosts attack power proportional to HP lost—that kind of thing.

Not all cursed items were terrible.

But.

Over 90% were trash.

Honestly, if it’s just garbage, that’s fine.

Some items were straight-up dangerous to equip.

Take the Tentacle Armor.

Looks like normal armor,

But wearing it sprouts tentacles that rob you of your purity.

Sure, a priest ally or a temple could lift the curse,

But your lost purity couldn’t be restored.

Mentally devastating,

Even risking outright corruption—a terrifying item.

That said,

Gentlemen (?) like us would shout “Even better!” and go wild with it.

(I did too.)

Plenty of other delicacies existed.

Hyper-realistic graphics.

Overwhelming freedom to do anything.

Utilizing both to create custom adult content.

Ngh!

That was the real treasure!

No wonder ’s alternate name was .

Such memories flashed through his mind—

But back to the ring.

“Lucky.”

“Been meaning to look for this—whether at auctions or from merchants.”

“Master?”

“Why go out of your way for a cursed item?”

“Because I need it.”

The cursed ring [Mana Eater].

Continuously devours the wearer’s MP, forcing it to stay at 50%.

Stays dormant when MP is below 50%,

But drains mana when above 51%—a cursed item.

After explaining, Lia frowned.

“What would you even use that for?”

“You didn’t read the guidebook properly, did you?”

“Heheh…”

“Well…”

“I didn’t really have time, so…”

“Read it properly later.”

“It’s full of useful info—stuff that’ll save your life.”

“Okay!”

“So what’s the ring for?”

“I’m giving it to a party member we’ll recruit in the Ice Kingdom .”

This thing was mandatory for [Happy Ending], the Ice Princess’s route.