Arifureta: the Yuri Divergence

Chapter Two

The Hero and his party, including their beloved Oneesama, were off exploring the Orcus Labrynth. Which left all her fangirls having to find things to occupy their time.

"Are you SERIOUSLY trying to sneak into Oneesama's room?!" Olivia, the head maid, firmly scolded a junior.

"I was JUST going to clean! Really!" the younger woman blushed. She meant it too... well, she might fondle their idol's things a bit. But that's all!

Olivia looked dubious as she said, "Uh huh. And her panties are going missing because...?"

"... I hadn't thought of doing that, actually." the girl admitted.

Olivia sighed tiredly, "So where are the panties GOING?"

Both women exchanged a look.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Meanwhile, in the 'royal' wing of the castle...

"Oh, Oneesama!" Princess Liliana sighed dreamily as she firmly rubbed the silky piece of cloth against her cheek.

Liliana had paid off one of the washers to slip the garment to her, and she felt a twinge of guilt over it. Though she OF COURSE intended to return them. Eventually. But until then she intended to enjoy the silky item.

"Hmm," Liliana sniffed, then with a sigh set them down.

There was a brisk knock on her door, "Princess?"

Liliana stashed the panties under her pillow as she called, "Yes?"

"The representative from the Artificers' Guild is here to see you," the servant called.

"I'll be right out," Liliana called, then summoned her maid to help her dress.

(Royal outfits in this world were complicated, requiring multiple layers and much hooks and lacing up. A woman alone probably COULD get into one, with a lot of trouble, but it would probably take twice as long.)

"Princess," Katrine bowed, the slim redhead haviong been waiting for her in the Princess' formal sitting room.

"How goes... the project?" Liliana asked.

"I'm so impressed," Katrine beamed, "the samples you showed me are impressive." She then held up a lacy bra, making Liliana blush.

Liliana had borrowed several with permission from Suzu, who seemed less shy than the other school girls. She had ALSO offered to model the various items for her, making Liliana wonder a little at the other girl's... interests.

Liliana shook her head, deciding not to dwell on it.

"Princess?" Katrine asked.

"Sorry, I was distracted," Liliana quickly recovered. "Any luck replicating them?"

"Somewhat' Katrine nodded. "This... elastic, they call it, we can't copy. But the designs in general, yes, and we've found work-arounds..."

Ladies underwear in the kingdom alone was... well, awful. Bluntly. The stuff that was otherworld girls were wearing was a revelation.

Plus, there was the idea of wearing copies of Oneesama's undies...

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

AH-CHOO!

"Someone talking about you?" Kouki asked Shizuku after she suddenly sneezed.

"It's probably dust," Shizuku waved it off.

The group commonly called 'the Hero's Party' was entering a new floor of the Orcus Labrynth. They had already well passed any level this world's adventurers had explored, and had had to leave the Kingdom's knights behind as well. They didn't have the ability to survive here.

Ryoutarou was the huge muscle of the group, and unsurpreisingly was a fighting monk. He towered over most of them... "So, how deep does this place GO, anyway?" he wondered aloud.

"Supposedly two hundred floors," Daisuke Hiyama offered somewhat sullenly. As the information had come from Hajime, he clearly didn't trust it.

His buddy (and fellow bully of Hajime) Reiichi Kondo mused aloud, "Would one of the other Labrynths be easier to beat, you think?"

(In this, he hit upon a supprising point. The group was unaware that this one, Orcus', was actually the toughest of all them. Sadly, no one was around to tell them that, and only Hajime would find out, somewhat later...)

"We've already gone so far, no point in wasting that progress," Kouki noted reasonably. Reasonably for him, anyway.

"I guess," Ryoutarou said, but he clapped Kouki on the back reassuringly.

"Trouble up ahead," the figure popped up, surprising them all.

"Damn it, Endou! Don't DO that," Daisuke yelped.

"Yeah!" Suzu Taniguchi added, the spunky barrier master standing nearby.

"Sorry," the ninja-like Kousuke Endou apologized.

Shizuku ignored that as she asked, "What's going on?"

"Oh, there's a group of.. sort of tree-monsters up ahead," Endou explained. A bit sadly he added, "They didn't notice me."

Everyone gave him sympathetic looks. Even back home Endou had been kind of unnoticable, and coming here had amplified the effect. Often he was nearly invisible. More often than not, it all kind of sucked...

"There there," Eri Nakamura patted his arm gently.

"All right! Let's get 'em!" Kouki declared, and led the charge.

"PLAN THINGS OUT FIRST!" Shizuku scolded as they hurried after him.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

The guards were waiting on an upper floor, where a teleport circle was set up connecting to where the heroes were currently exploring.

"I wish we could be down there with them," Meld, the Captain of the Guard, sighed.

'Oh, Oneesama, PLEASE be alright,' Helen thought.

(Helen was one of the few women guards in the Royal Guard. Normally she would only be in the personal guard of the Princess, but she had earned the position through her skills. Anyway...)

"Here they come," another guard called.

Several of the boys looked rather battered, and were being helped along. Eri was helping Kouki along, while Suzu was helping Ryoutarou along, dwarfed by the huge man.

"Let us help," Meld hurried forward.

Helen fought the urge to rush, but walked over to a limping Shizuku. "Can I help...?" she offered politely.

"It's nothing," Shizuku tried to wave her off.

Quickly Helen helped support the other woman. "What happened?" she asked as they teleported up many levels.

"They were sort of a treeant, a walking, fighting tree," Shizuku admitted, "not THAT tough, but they regrew from damage very fast."

Helen was well aware of how weak the Royal Guard was. She suspected if THEY had been the ones facing these new monsters, they'd be dead.

"I'm glad you made it out mostly unscathed," Helen nodded to her injured leg.

"Hmm. Suzu was shielding the others, but Ryoutarou ended up out of position, and I had to stop his attacker," Shizuku explained.

Ryoutarou had gotten Oneesama hurt?! She considered killing him. Slowly.

"You have an oddly scary look on your face," Shizuku noted mildly.

"Sorry! Sorry," she said quickly. Helen added, "I was just thinking." She added quickly, "Are you in much pain? We could get you a healing potion."

"No, no, it's fine," Shizuku said, then winced in pain.

"Hold on," Helen ordered and swept Shizuku up in her arms. It was a daring thing to do,. But Oneesama was in pain, darn it!

"Ack," Shizuku grabbed at her.

'Oooh, I am actually CARRYING Oneesama! I'm so happy!' Helen thought, but did her best to keep the extreme happiness off her face.

"You don't have to...," Shizuku protested.

"Just to the exit. We have healers there," Helen reassured her.

Shizuku looked like she wanted to argue, but settled down.

'YES!' Helen thought happily.

To be continued...

Notes: I'm assuming the universe is MOSTLY middle ages plus fantasy bits. So clothes etc etc for everyone are kinda awful, unless made via magic like Tio or Yue's gear. Or stuff specially made fior adventurers.

There's a female guard who gets REALLY into Shizuku in the novels, but they don't give her actual name. I'm using 'Helen' for now, if there IS a canon name I'll change it to match.