My name is Tsumugi Matsumoto. After a traffic accident back in my homeland took my life, I met a goddess who offered me a chance to help a world in need of saving. Now, with the aid of my party members and the magical hair clip bestowed upon me by the goddess herself, I am doing my best to fulfill my promise to Lady Aqua.

And that's why…

"Puny humans! I have lived for thousands of years! You think you with your measly lifespans could hope to match up to me, Ifrit, the Great Fire Spirit?"

"Tsumugi!"

"Tsumugi-chan!"

Ifrit, the Great Fire Spirit, conjured a massive stack of flames, enough to level a mountain, and my injured companions shouted out to me in worry.

But the conditions of my magical hair clip had finally been met.

"Ifrit," I simply said, knowing that this fight was over, "kill yourself."

I then turned my back and began to walk away.

It was the day after we took a quest to exterminate a nest of goblins.

Largely thanks to the bonus we received for taking out the Mushroom Mutant, even after letting Komekko eat as much dinner as she wanted, the reward was lucrative enough that I finally had a little pocket change.

And I was desperate to get myself some actual adventuring gear.

"But why are you coming, Alice?"

"Is that all right? I am curious about what kind of starting gear you choose, Satou."

"It's fine, it's just…"

I was now roaming the streets of Axel with Alice. Aqua had wandered off to look for something to entertain herself, and Komekko was not interested if we weren't shopping for food.

In short, this feels like a date. It's not a date, but there is no denying the similarity at face value.

It's not a date, but I wish my nerves would get the memo.

"Is shopping for my starting gear really that interesting?" I finally said.

"The type of starting gear an adventurer picks says a lot about them, doesn't it? What type of weapon will you choose? Do you buy thick armor for tanking hits, or instead buy lightweight clothing that lets you sneak around quietly? There are so many choices to pick from, so of course it is interesting to me!"

"Huh, when you put it that way, I guess it makes sense."

Alice was full of enthusiasm as she spoke. She really seems to love adventuring.

"Is that the sword you first started out with?" I asked, referring to the sword that rested at Alice's waist.

"Yes. Its name is―is…" She paused for a moment to recollect. "Something-calibur, I think it was. It was once carried by the great hero of ancient times, and has been passed down in my family as a national treasure."

Did she say 'something-calibur?' Used by the great hero of ancient times? Alice wasn't one to exaggerate or fib for dramatic effect like Komekko, so did that mean…

"Ah! That was not right! What I meant to say was, as a young girl, I thought it was a pretty sword, so my father gave it to me! But I am just the granddaughter of a chirimen store owner, nothing more! So please just forget I said anything about a national treasure!"

Alice took my pause to mean I was suspicious of her explanation at first, as if forgetting I already knew about her true identity as the former princess. But I didn't mind. Whenever she is ready, I would prefer it if she tells me about her true past on her own.

"Right. Still, it sounds like that sword means a lot to you."

"I suppose you are right," Alice said, her sentimentality showing. "Just like Elder Brother and his partner, something-calibur and I have been through many adventures together." She gave the sheath a gentle pat. "But what are you thinking of getting, Satou? Do you plan to upgrade from the loaner sword you were carrying yesterday?"

I shook my head. "As cool as it would be to use a sword, I don't think I would do well on the front lines. I was actually thinking I wanted to become an Archer."

"Oh! That may be a good fit for you! Forgive me for being so frank, but judging by the way you carry yourself, I do not think you are well-suited to wielding a sword, either."

"Judging by the way I carry myself, huh?" I asked, sighing. "Was it that obvious I didn't know what I was doing?"

"Hehe, yes, it was. Sorry. I have been training with a sword since I was little, so I could tell you did not have any swordplay experience at a glance. It is the posture of your shoulders and your heavier than average footfalls that gives it away."

"Really?" I was impressed she was watching me so closely. It made me a little more self-conscious of my walking gait.

"Doing that makes you look rather oafish," Alice said, giggling at my clumsy pace adjustments.

"Anyways," I said, shaking my head to clear it, "I also earned a few skill points the other day fighting some toads, so if it's possible, I want to find someone who also has the Archer class. Hopefully, they can teach me some skills once I have my gear."

Alice nodded her head. "I believe there are several Archers in town, so finding one should not be too difficult. And not just adventurers, but often various shop owners and craftsmen who were adventurers when they were younger are willing to teach any skills they know, for a price."

"For a price, huh?" I thought. The amount of cash I currently had wouldn't get me very far. I had assumed someone would teach me any skill I liked just for the asking, but that may have been naive. Someone like Wiz who freely gave out advice was probably the exception, not the norm.

We were walking through the market, an open street where peddlers sold their wares by trying to attract the attention of passersby.

"Excuse me, young lady, would you like to try our shop's latest delicacy? It is known as a crepe. These treats are all the rage right now in the capital! The recipe was only recently discovered by one of the dark eyed, dark haired folks who are famous for inventing strange and wonderful new things! Care for a taste?"

"Ooh, those look tasty as always, sir! You said they are called crepes?" Alice was immediately drawn to the food stall.

"Wait, did you say from the capital?" I interjected, stepping up after Alice. "Where the Demon King lives? You've been there?"

"Is that so strange?" asked the seller. "Oh, I see, you are one of the dark eyed, dark haired fellows, too! That explains your lack of understanding. The capital is indeed under the control of the Demon King, but he still allows trade to flow in and out of the city. The city's economy has been booming ever since he took over, as a matter of fact! They say the Demon King himself is outrageously wealthy!"

That didn't sound like any Demon King from any RPG or light novel I had ever played or read. What sort of evil ruler allowed free trade between his subordinates and humans? Then again, the Demon King of this world was a reincarnated Japanese man, not an actual member of the demon race.

As I mulled this information over, the food seller prepared a crepe from a stove with visible expertise. Moments later, he had a crepe rolled up and placed in a wrapper. "There you go, young lady! And just for my favorite customer, I will sell you this at a discount! Let's see… how does only 2,000,000 eris sound?"

My jaw dropped. Two mill? I may have only been in this world for a few days, but the currency system seemed comparable to the Japanese Yen. Even if crepes were a newly discovered delicacy in this world, that seemed a little steep, especially for a vendor that was selling food out on the street.

Well, given that it was such a hefty sum, I figured there was no way Alice would―

"2,000,000 eris? Very well, here you go!"

She was carrying around two mill like it was pocket change!

"Wait a second! Alice, put that money back! There's no way a crepe is worth that much!"

"Thank you for the crepe! And thank you, Satou, I would never have suspected that 2,000,000 eris was overpaying!"

The food seller was still giving me foul looks as Alice and I walked away with our purchase. If I hadn't been there to intervene, who knows how much money Alice would have thrown away.

…It's like he knew she was carrying around huge sums of money. In fact, Alice interacted in a familiar way with him, did she?

What worries me is that Alice almost forked it over without thinking about it. I don't know how she got that much money, but knowing how strong she is, it's possible she rakes it in by soloing high bounty rewards.

Except, most monsters run away from Alice as soon as they see her, don't they. So…?

Is she still loaded by way of being a former princess? But the capital was overthrown by the Demon King, and that happened something like eight years ago. There was no way I could see for her to still have access to any royal funds or a state treasury. Maybe she escaped with whatever jewelry and riches she could carry and has been pawning them off over time to get by?

That issue aside, was growing up as a princess the reason behind Alice not knowing how much a street vendor's food was worth? I could understand a princess being sheltered, so maybe I was on the right track there. Whatever the truth was, it made her an easy sales target.

No wonder the guy called her his "favorite customer." I better keep a close eye on Alice whenever she goes shopping from now on.

A nearby park had some benches where we found a place to sit down to eat.

…

…

…

Goddammit! We're eating crepes together now! I swear this isn't supposed to be a date!

Unlike Komekko, who would inhale all her food without tasting it, Alice was deliberate about savoring the flavor in every bite.

"Sho good!" she said, practically going cross-eyed while she stared into empty space, chewing. "We must bring Aqua and Komekko here to try these sometime, Satou!"

The crepes were okay, I thought. Would they beat the ones you could get back on Earth? No, but eating them with a girl was a new sensation for me.

I must again stress, however, that this is not a date.

"You know, you didn't have to buy me one," I said.

"But food tastes better when eaten together, doesn't it?" Alice responded. "Besides, if it had not been for you, I would have never learned that crepes are not really 2,000,000 eris. So I see this as a fair trade."

It's just common sense! It wasn't a fair trade at all!

But then again, being treated by my reliable, cool, and cute senpai was pretty neat. Even though it's not like this is a date or anything.

"Is your crepe not to your liking, Satou?" Alice was watching me with a worried expression.

"No, it's nothing like that!" I quickly explained. "Sorry, I was just thinking about something. That's all, the crepe is fine."

"That's good!" Alice beamed. "Would you mind if I tried a bite? I wish to know how the cherry topping tastes."

She said the thing!

I looked away to make sure my face didn't show it was heating up. "But Alice, you know what sharing crepes means, don't you?"

I mean, it's a cliche scene from any romance manga.

Alice just tilted her head. "I don't understand. To what are you referring, Satou?"

I looked back at her, stunned. Growing up sheltered was one thing, but did she not know about that?

"You know, um, since there's no way to divide the crepes cleanly, we would have to, uh, well, our bites would overlap at some point, and…"

"My retainer Claire and I used to share food like this all the time. It always made her so happy, so I thought that sharing it would make you happy as well, Satou."

"It's just, well…" I ignored the part about whoever this Claire person was, thinking it was something I was better off not knowing. "Have you really never heard of an indirect kiss before?"

"An indirect k―!"

Alice's eyes shot open wide, and she covered her mouth with her hand. "You mean, eating from the same crepe, it would be like indirectly kissing that person!?"

Normally, the straight man in me would think something along the lines of, wow, she really never knew about that? But it was so cute, watching her innocent face figure the meaning out all on her own.

Alice's cheeks were quickly turning red. She looked down at her crepe again, as if seeing it in a totally new light.

"So that was why Lalatina was so embarrassed when I tried to give her a bite of the pancakes Elder Brother made using my fork," Alice said in a daydreaming voice.

"Lalatina?" Was that a name?

"Oh, Lalatina Ford Dustiness, she was a noble of high standing in the kingdom and a member of Elder Brother's party."

"You mean Aqua's original party that took out the old Demon King?" I asked. "I think that aside from Aqua and the other Kazuma Satou, it also had Komekko's older sister in it, right?"

Alice nodded. "Lalatina served as the party's tank. In fact, the Dustiness family has long been renowned for their sturdiness in battle. We were friends before she became an adventurer, as Lalatina would sometimes visit to play with me in the castle when I was very little."

"She sounds like a nice lady," I said.

"She is quite kind," confirmed Alice. "And also stubborn to a fault. Oh, listen to this! One time, when a corrupt noble she owed a great debt to tried to force her into marrying him, she almost went through with it because she refused to accept Elder Brother's help with paying it off. Then, Elder Brother sold all of his big ideas from his homeworld and paid the whole debt himself, and rescued her from the corrupt noble on the very day of their wedding!"

She was talking about that elder brother, the Demon King, right? This didn't sound like something a Demon King would do. She made him sound like a pretty upright guy.

However, Alice was absolutely spellbound as she told the story, so I couldn't bear to interrupt her.

"And then―this is the best part―do you know what Elder Brother said to her after that? 'Listen up! I'll be working you like a horse from now on! Get ready to pay back my hard earned money with your body, you perverted crusader!'" Alice's eyes gleamed with admiration as she delivered the line while imitating a brash, masculine voice.

...This Demon King was a menace who needed to be taken down.

Alice grinned, despite my deadpan reaction. "Lalatina worked very hard to help Elder Brother defeat the former Demon King after that."

The poor girl, I thought to myself. He must have forced her to perform unspeakable acts, things I wouldn't dare say by name in front of the pure and maidenly Alice who didn't even know what an indirect kiss was.

I wonder if she even understands the things she just said, about what it means to 'pay back my money with your body, you perverted crusader!'

"You know, it has been long enough, Lalatina might be returning to Axel as soon as next spring."

"Huh?"

Alice, who appeared to have become lost in thought, whispered mostly to herself such a confounding thing. When she noticed my confusion, she opened her mouth to explain.

"Oh, well, you see, when Elder Brother became the Demon King, she tried to storm the castle all alone to reach him. Nobody heard from her for a week, and then all of a sudden, she appeared in town again, saying Elder Brother had used teleport to send her far away because she was too troublesome for him to handle or to keep around as a prisoner of war, and it had taken her a week to make it back.

"Without stopping, Lalatina immediately returned to the castle and stormed it again, hoping to reach Elder Brother and reform him of his ways. This time, nobody saw her again for several months. It turned out, the moment she reached him, Elder Brother used random teleport and sent her even further away.

"She again arrived in the city one day out of the blue, this time with her clothes in tatters. After only stopping for a short bath, she stormed the castle again, and this time, nobody heard from her again for two years.

"Elder Brother's high luck stat had sent her halfway around the world. When she finally showed up in town, eager to try again, she never stopped to listen to anyone and just headed straight back for the capital. And so it has gone ever since. Each time, Lalatina storms the Demon King's castle, he teleports her to the far corners of the globe, and she takes around two years traveling back to Axel to try it all over again. I am certain that even now, she is making her way across land and sea back to us, thinking of nothing but her next attempt."

Alice said this Lalatina person was a crusader, right? Did she have nothing but muscles for brains?

At this moment, Alice leaned over and placed her hand on my forearm. Drawing in her face close to mine, she looked deep into my eyes.

This unexpected mood change... I was not prepared for it to happen so suddenly. It was making my heart pound like crazy.

"Satou," she said breathlessly, "do you think that by the time Lalatina returns next spring―do you think we can reach the Demon King by then?"

Two hours later.

I stepped out of the dressing room wearing a light colored tunic and dark pants. On my feet were a pair of new but cheap leather boots, and slung across my shoulder rested the quiver full of arrows I had chosen.

Completing the outfit was a dark green cloak that had a hood which could be pulled up to cover part of my face when needed.

Alice turned around from browsing to look me over. "Ooh! You look very dashing in that, Satou! Now you can be called a proper adventurer!"

"Uh, thanks," I said, feeling pleased at her compliment, if a little uncertain about receiving it all the same.

And so I placed my school uniform in a bag, picked up my new bow, and thanked the shop owner one last time before we exited through the door.

"So with that out of the way, I just need to find someone who can teach me a few Archer skills," I said, unable to hide my excitement at reaching this important milestone. "Do you think we can find someone at the guild who could help me out, Alice?"

"I am sure someone would be willing to teach you," she said with a kind smile.

"Right, then to the guild it is!" I pointed my finger in the general direction as I declared such.

Overall, my nondate had gone smoothly. I eventually got over my nervousness and was able to talk to Alice pretty normally now. She had given me a lot of useful advice about picking my starting gear as well, so having her along had been a boon in more ways than one.

"Thanks again for all the help today, Alice," I said while we began walking.

"You are welcome, Satou. I enjoyed going shopping with you as well."

"Th-that's good." I couldn't help that a little nervousness crept back into my voice. "After I learn some new skills, we'll have to think about a quest to go on so I can give them a test run."

"I couldn't agree more!"

As we walked, I turned a corner not really thinking about anything at all…

Bam!

I fell over on my backside as something soft slammed into my midsection.

"Owowow…" I moaned under my breath, trying to figure out what just happened, but my body moved sluggishly.

Something was holding me down.

"Um…"

Or rather, someone was holding me down.

"Owowow…" A girl with dark hair and dark eyes who seemed about my age muttered before opening her eyes, which flicked to my face.

Ah, so this was one of those scenes.

Except, isn't this backwards from how it usually goes in manga?

"Eh? Sorry! I didn't mean to, it was an accident…"

The girl removed her hand from my breast, where it had conveniently landed.

"Oh, um, that's okay," I muttered while she climbed to her feet.

The accidental boob grab, a lazy writing tool employed by many manga writers as a way to inject pseudo-romantic tension, conflict, and/or fanservice into a dragging ecchi romance story. These days, it had been so done to death that it was practically infamous. Researchers had written academic papers on how improbable it was to land in such a compromising position when colliding with someone, debunking the age-old, ill-begotten trope with science.

Anyways, I am a man, so I don't have breasts in the first place.

"Are you alright?" the girl asked shyly while I picked myself up.

"Yeah, I'm okay," I said while dusting myself off. "You?"

"I am fine, thanks."

The girl politely bowed. She was wearing a particularly prominent hair clip, which stood out from the rest of her adventuring clothes. "Sorry! I will be more careful next time!" Then, she continued on her way.

Yeah, that's how this sort of event would go in real life. Nothing happened. We just moved on like normal people. I don't even feel that excited or disappointed by it.

While she walked away, two young men also around my age who seemed to be accompanying her glared at me. They were both dressed as adventurers, but I don't remember seeing them before.

Look guys, sorry to make you jealous and all, but I'm not your rival here. Chances are we'll never meet again.

It was only for a second before the spell broke. "Tsumugi-chan, wait up!" one called, and they both rushed off to follow their companion.