173 – Sacrificial Ritual – 6

“You returned quicker than I thought… Hm? Why does everyone’s skin look so good?”

This was what Glittertoss said the moment he saw Gi-jun and the party members return to the city.

Of course, Gi-jun shrugged his shoulders and replied.

“I guess it’s because we leveled up quite a lot.”

“No, it’s not that, but it feels like you just came out of a hot spring or something…”

“Are you teasing us now? You sent our party, who wanted to go to a hot spring anyway, straight to the dungeon.”

“I-I told you I was sorry about that!”

Gi-jun succeeded in glossing it over like that.

Glancing behind, indeed, it was obvious that all the party members had just come out of a hot spring, as their skin was fair and firm.

Perhaps the effect was even more amazing because it was a hot spring in a secret realm.

“Fufu, the way Jun looks at us is different. I should go to the hot spring every day while we stay in Uralta.”

“Hee, it would be nice to stay here a bit longer.”

Gi-jun pretended not to hear the whispering of Tilla and Lora as he handed the bundle containing the ore to Glittertoss.

Gulping, the dwarf took it with trembling hands and gauged Gi-jun’s reaction.

“Did you succeed in bringing it? Really?”

“Check it here right now, then.”

“Are you crazy!”

Glittertoss looked around as if advertising that he was holding valuables in his hand, checked the glow emanating from the bag after opening it slightly, and then quickly shoved it into his chest as he muttered.

“My god.”

Then, scurrying away, he stood in front of his forge, and before entering, he opened the bag once more, stuffed it back in his chest, and gaped in awe.

“My god!”

The dwarf, who flung the door open and entered, immediately locked it so that no one could come in, and soon shouted in a loud voice.

“My god!!”

“Is that perhaps a special ritual of Ptah’s followers?”

Indeed, unlike Gi-jun, who only thought the dwarf was putting on a show when looking at the same scene, Lora offered a contemplation befitting a believer.

Just as he was about to tell the truth to Lora, who tilted her head with a serious expression while imagining the dwarf wailing beyond the door—

Glittertoss spoke first from inside the forge, his voice a mix of half deep emotion and half sobbing.

“Find Lady Unica at the city hall. I want to be alone… with this guy for a moment…!”

“O-Okay…”

It was a meaningful object for Glittertoss in many ways, so it was not unreasonable for him to act that way.

He decided to understand it that way.

Leaving behind the dwarf who wanted to spend time alone with the orichalcum, the Lumen party headed to the city hall, passing by the people who were clearing volcanic rocks and collapsed building debris scattered all over the city.

They were soon able to spot Unica, who was frantically giving directions to people outside the building.

“Has the number of casualties been tallied? The state will pay for all treatment expenses, so tell them not to hide it needlessly—ah, Lord Jun!”

Upon spotting Gi-jun, Unica distributed the tasks to the people gathered around her, dismissed them, and approached him with a glad expression.

“It seems you’ve finished the task that pint-sized dwarf requested!”

“Yeah, your language has gotten a bit rough.”

“My apologies. I did not mean to look down on dwarves. I just wanted to curse at Glittertoss.”

Unica spat out words that did not serve as an excuse at all.

Apparently, to her, Glittertoss, who had sent Gi-jun—who had thrown his body to protect Uralta—straight into a dungeon, seemed like a heinous criminal whose entire family should be executed.

“Anyway, welcome back. Right now, Uralta is short on accommodations due to the overflow. I will guide Lord Jun and the Lumen party to the lodging prepared in the city hall.”

“I’d appreciate that. How is the cleanup going? Do you need help?”

“Fufu, I am not that dwarf, so I cannot work a hero who stood at the very front to protect Uralta in such menial chores. It is just clearing debris and pitching tents. Don’t worry about it and please rest.”

Unica, who insulted Glittertoss to the very end, said as she guided the group to their lodging.

“A reply has already arrived from the royal court. The rewards have also been decided, so we should be able to hold the ceremony by tomorrow afternoon. Until then, you can stay here without worrying about anything. It also has a reasonably well-decorated open-air bath, and if it weren’t for work, I would also go to the hot spring right away…”

In the middle of speaking, Unica’s mouth shut tight.

Suddenly sniffing the air, she examined Gi-jun, followed by Tilla and Lora, and narrowed her eyes.

“By any chance, have you already been to a hot spring?”

“It turned out there was an open-air bath inside the dungeon.”

“Is that so… There is no way that Lord Jun, who observes decency, would have bathed together.”

Unica’s sharp gaze swept over the women again, but they only offered relaxed smiles.

Realizing something, Unica turned back to Gi-jun with an expression of disbelief.

“Lord Jun?”

“We wore swimsuits, so it’s fine. I properly observed decency.”

Gi-jun replied, once again realizing that Unica’s identity was practically a unicorn.

She narrowed her eyes and nodded.

“I see. So it’s fine if you wear swimsuits.”

“Unica?”

“Well, then, let’s hurry. I just remembered some other business.”

He wanted to believe that the other business was not swimsuit shopping, but sure enough, that night, Gi-jun, who was in the open-air bath attached to the lodging, let out a deep sigh as he felt the outside of the bath becoming noisy.

Obviously, the others, who had found out Gi-jun entered the bath, had tried to join him—only to be blocked by ‘someone’, causing a ruckus.

“I don’t know why the people of the Leta continent are so aggressive.”

—Don’t worry, this Lucy handled all those impudent women trying to peek at my contractor’s naked body!

The ‘someone’, namely Lucy, who had completely enveloped the open-air bath with a barrier of light to protect his leisurely bath time, appeared before Gi-jun’s eyes and spoke, giving a thumbs up.

Her gaze was blatantly scanning Gi-jun up and down, but he had long given up on hiding from Lucy anyway.

“I stayed quiet because I didn’t want to ruin the mood, but I should speak firmly soon. I mean, this is wrong. It’s time to establish discipline in the party.”

—I think it will be completely meaningless, but give it your best, contractor.

“No, Lucy, don’t you think it’s strange? I mean… looking at the atmosphere between me and Biche, shouldn’t they realize something?”

—You don’t need to try so hard if it’s embarrassing for you to speak of. You can just speak confidently at this point.

“No, our relationship is a bit complicated…!”

—Complicated, my foot. It’s the simplest relationship in the world.

Lucy, who was looking at Gi-jun with a pitiful expression, cleared her throat and easily resolved his doubt.

—Contractor, this world is structured so that the capable take everything. Polygamy or polyandry, nobody cares. Besides, isn’t contractor the hottest rookie in Gratia right now? So, contractor liking someone else is not at all…

Lucy frowned, seeming to highly dislike having to admit the fact that Gi-jun liked Biche, but she soon pouted and continued.

—It is not a reason at all for them to back away from contractor. Rather, that demon’s appearance might have acted as a catalyst.

“Does that make sense? Why on earth?”

—Because at least they found out contractor is not impotent.

“…”

He was just a little dense.

Even after vaguely realizing it, he had only pretended not to know in order to protect the peace of the party.

To think that his pragmatism would bring about such a grievous misunderstanding.

With Gi-jun speechless before her, Lucy smoothly continued her explanation.

—Besides, the appearance of a rival makes one impatient, right? Even if those girls’ feelings toward contractor were not strong enough to launch a physical assault until now, it is highly likely that seeing that demon and contractor being lovey-dovey stimulated them and drove them to act boldly.

“That’s very specific, Lucy.”

—Of course, it’s my specialty.

“You’re a spirit of light.”

—Ahem, light and love have many things in common, you know? For example, they sparkle dazzlingly, or they shine brilliantly as if they will last forever, but then vanish in vain without leaving a single trace.

“You say cruel things so casually.”

Gi-jun, replying in a listless voice to Lucy who was spouting nonsense, leaned his back against the wall of the open-air bath and closed his eyes.

It was less effective than the one in the secret realm, but it was still a fairly good hot spring.

“It would have been nice if Biche were here too.”

—I wondered why you hadn’t said that lately.

“It’s been too long since I saw her, so the efficacy has worn off…”

As he let out a sigh at the vivid image of Biche that floated up when he closed his eyes, Lucy, who fluttered over and sat beside Gi-jun, said something unexpected.

—It’s fine to get along well with the demon, but pay some attention to those girls too. They all have their own voids, after all.

“You of all people are saying that?”

—I am originally the impulsive type who cannot beat instinct. I want to kill all the women who covet my contractor. But deep down, I also think they are pitiful. Like I said earlier, it’s my specialty!

He felt like she was the one with the void, though.

To Gi-jun, who kept his mouth shut without being able to point that out, Lucy whispered.

—So, I was telling you not to push them away too harshly. Those girls already firmly believe that contractor will be their support.

“Right… Well, I can’t push them away strongly in the first place anyway. It would be troublesome if they left the party.”

Since the tutorial days, he had already seen many parties ruined by relationship drama.

The ambiguous attitude Gi-jun adopted toward the party members could be said to be a trace of his efforts to protect the party.

—Finally, contractor understands my words! The first thing you must throw away to survive on this continent is none other than your conscience! To take benefits, you need to throw away such trivial things!

“Stop saying things that trigger my guilty conscience even more!”

—I’m not going to stop until I turn the triangle in contractor’s heart into a circle!

* * *

The next day, as soon as Unica was delegated full authority by the Gratia royal family, she immediately held the reward presentation ceremony.

Because the sooner they received the rewards, the better it was for the Summoned, and it was also good for Unica to solidify her position in Uralta before others could intervene.

With the end of the overflow, the news that the problem that had plagued Uralta for a long time was resolved would have spread, and the other nobles who had fled because they did not want to manage Uralta would slowly crawl back.

Unica had no intention of standing by and watching them—who had abandoned their noble duties in times of danger—reign over Uralta, claiming only their rights.

She intended to solidify her position in Uralta while using the merit of ending the overflow to officially obtain the position of Lord of Uralta from the King.

Of course, it was impossible for her to receive this goldmine of a land as her personal territory.

However, becoming a high-ranking official directly appointed by the King—a CEO, in modern Earth terms—would be possible!

“To everyone who risked their lives to defend Uralta, I, Unica, representing His Majesty the King of Gratia, will present the rewards!”

The moment Unica, wearing a stylish dress completely different from the butler outfit she usually wore, climbed onto the high platform and declared—

A message popped up before the eyes of everyone who had participated in the quest, including Gi-jun.

—Sudden Quest Accomplished! You and your party have proudly taken first place in contribution for this quest!

—You successfully defended against the overflow and completely eliminated the divine entities hiding behind the quest, removing its cause entirely. From now on, unreasonable disasters will not visit this land. With the addition of the title effect of [One Who Lifts the Veil (R)], the rewards are amplified beyond their limits!

—Your level has increased by 3, reaching 52! Strength (L) has increased by 3, Dexterity (L) by 3, and Endurance (L) by 3!

—As a quest reward, your lowest stat [Strength (L)] has increased by 2, your next lowest stat [Dexterity (L)] by 2, and additionally, Charm (L) has increased by 1!

—As a quest reward, you have obtained 3 Skill Points that can increase the level of any skill you want!

—As a quest reward, you have obtained 250,000 Leta points from the administrator of Uralta!

—The title [Terminator of the Overflow (Rare)] has grown beyond its limits to Unique grade! Due to the title’s effect, all abilities increase by 15% when fighting field monsters, and you are able to detect overflows in advance. In addition, all abilities increase by an additional 20% when fighting monsters generated by an overflow!

—Sudden Quest Accomplished! You and your party have proudly taken first place in contribution for this quest!

—You successfully defended against the overflow and completely eliminated the divine entities hiding behind the quest, removing its cause entirely. From now on, unreasonable disasters will not visit this land. With the addition of the title effect of [One Who Lifts the Veil (R)], the rewards are amplified beyond their limits!

—Your level has increased by 3, reaching 52! Strength (L) has increased by 3, Dexterity (L) by 3, and Endurance (L) by 3!

—As a quest reward, your lowest stat [Strength (L)] has increased by 2, your next lowest stat [Dexterity (L)] by 2, and additionally, Charm (L) has increased by 1!

—As a quest reward, you have obtained 3 Skill Points that can increase the level of any skill you want!

—As a quest reward, you have obtained 250,000 Leta points from the administrator of Uralta!

—The title [Terminator of the Overflow (Rare)] has grown beyond its limits to Unique grade! Due to the title’s effect, all abilities increase by 15% when fighting field monsters, and you are able to detect overflows in advance. In addition, all abilities increase by an additional 20% when fighting monsters generated by an overflow!

Just as he widened his eyes in satisfaction at the results, which had indeed been worth the risk—

Gi-jun realized that a change was coming over Unica, who was standing on the platform.

“Ah?! The administrator’s condition is…!”

The moment the end of the quest was declared—

She, who was not even a Summoned, was somehow evolving… no, her grade was growing!