After leaving the A rank party, I aim for the deep part of the labyrinth with my former students
The next day.
Without waking Rain, who was sleeping beside me, I quietly slipped out of bed, quickly changed clothes, and got myself ready.
Last night ended up turning into a grand banquet, with Tac—Jamie’s younger brother—his fiancée, and even Niberune joining in.
Silk, who had anticipated this and booked a large private room, had truly thought ahead. I have to hand it to her.
While we were away on this national assignment mission, I had been worried about leaving Niberune alone at our base. That’s when Tac and the others kindly offered to take care of her.
Being close in age, Tac and his fiancée, Sue, quickly bonded with Niberune, which helped ease my worries while we were away from Finis.
Since Niberune aspires to be an adventurer, I do want to give her as much hands-on experience as possible. But most of the destinations for these national request missions are quite dangerous.
Given that Niberune isn’t old enough to officially register as an adventurer, it didn’t feel right to bring her along.
…Not that she didn’t voice her strong dissatisfaction about it.
After all, she’s the princess of Glad Shii=Im, a land bathed in twilight.
Being from another world, she has sharp instincts, and her breadth of knowledge even leaves us speechless at times.
On top of that, she’s spent more than half a year traveling solo through a different world—she’s arguably already a full-fledged adventurer.
But still, bringing a girl who hasn’t officially come of age on a national mission is simply not a good idea.
In truth, it was mostly our concern for her that won out.
Regardless of her experience, she’s still just eleven years old.
Whatever her origins or the unusual circumstances of her coming to this world, I deeply wish for her to live a normal childhood for now.
That’s why we asked her to stay in Finis.
“Sensei?”
As I was deep in thought and headed downstairs, I saw Silk sitting in a chair, brushing her hair.
The light from the window reflected off her silky silver hair, making her look breathtakingly beautiful.
When she noticed me staring, she gave a slightly embarrassed smile.
“Please don’t stare too much. I’ll get all flustered so early in the morning.”
“Ah, sorry… I didn’t mean to gawk. That was rude of me.”
“No, that’s not it at all. I like it when you look at me, Sensei.”
I almost said aloud how captivated I was, but felt too bashful and swallowed the words.
Instead, I gently took the comb from her hand and began brushing her hair myself.
“S-Sensei?”
“What do we call each other when it’s just the two of us?”
“…Yuke-san?”
With her eyes cast downward in embarrassment, I carefully brushed her hair.
To be someone allowed to touch her beautiful hair like this—it’s not a bad position to be in.
When she’s teasing me, who’s still not used to women, she’s never like this. But when we get even a little closer, she becomes so adorably shy.
Even though we already confirmed our feelings for each other on Vilmuren Island.
“There. All done.”
“Thank you very much. I feel like I don’t even want to tie it up today.”
“You look cute just like that, you know?”
The honest remark slipped out before I could stop it.
When I saw Silk’s face turn bright red, I couldn’t help but chuckle.
She’s surprisingly innocent in some ways.
“Oh, Yuke-san…”
Silk looked at me with a sulky glare, her long ears twitching.
No matter what she does, she only ends up looking cuter. I’ve given up resisting at this point.
“Anyway, let’s decide on our plans for today. What time shall we head to the guild?”
“Hmm… We already gave our report yesterday, so Benwood and Mamal are probably there early. Let’s head over as soon as the morning bell rings.”
In Finis, the morning bell rings to notify workers of the time.
At the adventurers’ guild, that’s the usual time when they update the quest postings, so it’s essentially when the guild opens for the day.
In other words, if we leave when the bell rings, both the guild master Benwood and receptionist Mamal should be there.
“Understood. Everyone else will probably wake up at different times today, so… how about we grab breakfast at a street stall?”
“That sounds great. It’s been a while since we did that.”
“Same for me.”
When Silk smiled and clasped her hands happily, I found myself feeling cheerful too.
Since getting this base, we’ve often taken turns preparing meals.
Back when we were just starting out, we often bought simple street food like ham and mustard sandwiches for breakfast.
I wonder if that old sandwich stall on Tetenana Street is still there?
“Oh? You two are up early.”
The door opened, and that voice called out to us.
Looking over, we saw Nene skillfully pushing the door open with her foot, both hands full of bags, walking toward us.
“Whoa, you okay?”
“All good! But thanks anyway!”
I took one of the bags and placed it on the living room table.
Most of the contents were food ingredients.
"You’ve already been to the market?"
"Today’s the morning market, you know. I’ll head over to Adventurer Street later for the adventure supplies."
"Sorry to make you do this all the time, Nene."
At my words, Nene laughed cheerfully and shook her head.
"I’m just doing what I can, that’s all. If there’s anything else you need, just let me know!"
"Yeah, let’s stick to the usual for now. I’ll take care of checking the potions and the magical artifact tools myself."
"Ahh… that stuff’s way outta my league, y’know."
Nene had completely settled into using "uchi" as her pronoun.
It seemed like she’d been a little self-conscious for a while after everyone found out, but maybe she’d finally come to terms with it.
"You two heading out soon? What’s the plan for breakfast?"
"Yeah, we figured we’d grab something from the street stalls for a change."
"Sounds great. Maybe I’ll get a little something too."
Tilting her head slightly, Nene got a suggestion from Silk.
"Then how about the three of us go together? You seem pretty familiar with places like that."
"Nyah, I know a lot about street food! There’s this one stall on Tetenana Street that serves simple but super tasty sandwiches!"
Her confident tone triggered a memory.
If it's the tasty sandwich stall on Tetenana Street, there could only be one place she meant.
"Then let’s eat there. Is that okay with you, Sensei?"
"Of course. It’s been a while since I’ve been to that place too."
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