episode_0449

“Where are you going at this late hour, boss?”

Late at night.

Even in a place with good security, there wouldn’t be many people wandering around late at night.

Wouldn’t it be a headache if you got involved in a crime just by wandering around late at night?

But tonight, I was prepared to go outside late at night.

“How did you know?”

“I happened to see you going out the window. I made some pancakes called ‘boss’s favorite’ and wanted to bring them to you because they tasted good.”

I was surprised when a building neighbor different from mine suddenly appeared and asked where I was going.

“I have somewhere to go for a moment. Thank you for this. I’ll eat it when I get back.”

“It would taste better if you ate it before it got cold… Be careful on your way back.”

“Yes. It’s cold, so go inside quickly.”

The neighbor nodded and went inside with quick steps.

I put down the food I received from the neighbor inside the store and locked the door.

“The moon is shining beautifully.”

It was a day when I drew lots after a long time, so I paid a lot of attention in various ways.

I cleaned my body thoroughly to get rid of all the ominous energy.

And I chose today, when the moon was roundest, to draw lots.

I plan to try drawing lots to receive the energy of the beautiful moon and stars.

“Hmm, how much do I need to spend to get something good?”

I still haven’t used up all the beads I got when I drew lots last time.

Although the Duke is providing me with a lot of beads, he is currently adjusting the quantity for the refinement of the elixir.

“I should start reinforcing the beads for the students soon.”

I plan to contact the students who have not visited the store since succeeding in the 12th reinforcement and ask them to come for reinforcement.

If the news of the reinforcement does not reach the students who have not yet succeeded in the 12th reinforcement, they might go crazy, right?

I’m already looking forward to hearing the depressed cries of the students who have not completed the reinforcement.

“Is my conscience too bad?”

But what can I do?

It’s quite fun to see the kids frustrated and in pain.

The moon stood on top of my head.

The wind was cold and mysteriously passed through my body, and I was able to arrive at the place I had prepared in advance.

“Of course, this is what happens at night.”

The lake was cradling the moon.

I arrived at the bench I had prepared in advance.

This bench was the perfect place where the entire lake could be seen.

“It reminds me of the old days.”

I remember sitting on this bench in the Academy Park, gently coaxing Shine for the first time and selling unique equipment.

I was exhausted from my long mercenary life, and I was quite excited when I summoned my character for the first time after entering the academy.

Although I pretended to be calm at the time, if I didn’t have any excitement about meeting the character I drew in real life, it wouldn’t have been a person.

“I was lucky to become so close with the kids.”

Of course, I will build a friendship with the students this semester as well.

But I won’t be able to get as close to the 1st-year kids as I did before, and I don’t even want to build that much of a friendship.

“It’s time.”

I had a strong intuition that now was the perfect time.

Whenever I showed faith in this intuition, I always produced good results.

Flash-!

100 Hero Summoning Lottery.

Thud-thud-thud-

The beads fell to the ground, but my eyes were focused elsewhere.

“This is insane.”

Was it because I had been holding back and storing energy for hero summoning all this time?

Flash-! Flash-!

Boom!!!!!!!

Two lightning bolts fell from the sky, moving the SSR character underground.

“I summoned a new character at once?”

It was truly disappointing that there was no separate place to brag about it.

The twin girls with a small body size that I saw in the shop illustration.

Unni, ‘Ruya’, had platinum blonde hair that reached down to her chest, while her younger sister, ‘Danya’, sported a chin-length bob.

The two girls were holding hands tightly even at the moment of their summoning.

“Danya! Look at that. The moon is reflected in the lake!”

The newly summoned twins, upon finding themselves in a strange place, initially looked around in confusion. But soon, they spotted the moon cradled by the lake, and began to admire the sight.

“It’s not just the moon, there are stars too, Unni.”

“Yeah, it’s beautiful. Don’t you think so?”

“…A little.”

“Should we stay here and enjoy the view?”

“Sure.”

The two of them sat side by side on a bench with a clear view of the lake, engaging in a lively conversation.

It was mostly Unni, ‘Ruya’, who did the talking, while Danya responded with a blank expression, almost looking sleepy, but that seemed to be her default expression.

‘The illustration is really well done.’

Seeing the two sisters getting along so well brought a warm smile to my face.

Although I had pulled a new character with just one gacha, it seemed like there was still some energy left, so summoning another wouldn’t hurt.

‘No, let’s not get greedy.’

Even though I felt like I might get another SSR if I tried again, I decided to skip and move on coolly.

One SSR character was enough for now.

Getting more would just complicate things.

Plus, I had something else to do at the moment.

‘There’s no information on the newly released characters.’

I needed to know what kind of personal scenario those kids had so that I could approach them later more easily.

At least if I had seen their faces, it would make it easier to approach them later.

“What are you two doing here?”

“Oh.”

“!!”

The sisters, who hadn’t noticed me, were startled when I made my presence known.

“What time is it? Isn’t it dangerous to be in a place like this without adults? Did you come here alone?”

“We’re fine.”

Ruya calmly replied to my question with a gentle voice, while her younger sister, Danya…

“Mind your own business, mister.”

She glared at me with her characteristic cat-like eyes and growled.

“Danya, you shouldn’t talk to adults like that.”

“You should be thankful that I even call you ‘mister’. You should know that you’re the one who looks suspicious.”

A tall man appearing by the lakeside on a dark night.

Even if I was worried about the kids and tried to talk to them, showing this sight to someone else would easily make me look like a criminal.

“Don’t come any closer. If you come closer, I’ll attack.”

I had to reluctantly accept this treatment as I tried to talk to them about revealing their faces, thinking that it was something I had to endure.

“If you look suspicious, should I reveal my identity? I’m just an ordinary resident running a general store in the city.”

“I don’t care. Mind your own business.”

Even after revealing my identity, Danya’s prickly guard didn’t disappear.

Thinking that there wouldn’t be anything good in talking for a long time, I decided to back off.

“Yeah, even if I reveal my identity, it might still look suspicious. Don’t come any closer as you said. But it’s quite late, so how about going back to the academy?”

“It’s none of your business, you know? Don’t meddle.”

Ruya, who didn’t see the prickly Danya, spoke.

“We’ll go back in a little while. Thank you for your concern, but please don’t worry about us.”

“Okay. I think I meddled unnecessarily seeing how you responded. Be sure to act like that with strangers in the future. It’s not bad to be careful in the late night.”

Since I had summoned the kids late at night, it was my responsibility that they were at the lake at this hour.

I didn’t choose the location because I wanted to.

I just had a gut feeling that this place was significant, and I didn’t want to go against that.

“Hmph.”

“Danya, you were too aggressive. He might have felt offended.”

“It’s late at night. They said they were treating me well over there.”

Even as I was moving away from the lake, the eyes of the twin sisters never left me.

In this ominous world where I didn’t know what abilities I had, they seemed to be on guard until the end.

Then, my shadow seemed to flicker in a strange direction for a moment.

That flickering shadow turned into a small kitten and detached from my body.

“Could that be their ability? Shadow puppetry?”

In fact, the SSR characters, the twin sisters I drew today, were not simply 1+1.

If I properly confirmed the sisters using their abilities, I could learn more, but based on the explanation I read, it was like this.

“To fully use their abilities, they must combine their powers.”

Individually, they couldn’t exert much power with their abilities, but when used together, the synergy was tremendous.

“If they use their abilities together, they become SSR characters, and if they use their abilities alone, they’re about R grade?”

As they are new characters, there is no need to doubt their performance.

I was worried about how old they were set to be, given their appearance looked much more difficult than I expected.

I hadn’t checked their ability stats yet, so I was curious, but I refrained from any suspicious behavior.

“They’re still following me. Do they intend to follow me to the end? They’re cautious.”

The kitten made of shadows was silently following me, keeping a low profile.

In the dark night, the kitten hid in various shadows and followed behind me.

“Creating shadow dolls from my memory is Ruya’s ability, and making the shadow dolls move as if they were alive is Danya’s ability, right?”

Depending on how it’s used, it was an ability with a wide range of versatility.

It was possible to secretly follow suspicious individuals like this, or to approach monsters discreetly and attack them.

“If this simple thought is this good… they really are new characters.”

I could know about that presence because I already knew about their abilities, not because I was skilled enough to sense their presence.

There shouldn’t be any way for shadows to have a presence, right?

We soon arrived at the general store, and the shadow didn’t leave my side until I opened the door and went inside.

It wasn’t until I went inside and climbed to the second floor that the shadow finally disappeared.

The satisfied cat, as if it had achieved its goal perfectly, quickly disappeared outside the window.

“You’re really cautious, aren’t you? It’s not a bad thing, but it won’t be easy to get close.”

I realized that I had worried for no reason.

In reality, even if a villain had appeared, the sisters would have been unharmed based on their abilities.

But at that time, there was no other way to turn the sisters’ faces aside from that.

“Still, I managed to turn their faces aside, so let’s move on to the next step.”

I needed to propose support for the sisters and draw unique equipment for them.

That would help ease the sisters’ guard and bring us closer together.