Chapter 94: The Difference in Time!
The setting sun sank into an orange sea.
Torajirou Shiro reached out and pulled the blanket over Ryuu's fragrant shoulder, covering the faint red marks left exposed.
Ryuu seemed to sense something, her nose twitching slightly before she turned over and continued sleeping.
"Did I forget something...?"
Shiro remembered that before leaving this morning, he seemed to have made some kind of promise with Loki.
It seemed he had told her earlier that he would update his Falna later.
According to the usual schedule, tonight would be the banquet after the expedition.
In other words, Loki would probably only have time to update his Falna this afternoon.
Shiro looked at the elf sleeping soundly on the bed.
Mm.
Loki?
Not close.
The only troublesome part was that he should have gone to help deal with the expedition spoils this afternoon.
Now, judging by the time, it was almost evening.
Fortunately, he had already piled the loot in the Loki Familia's warehouse before heading out.
Otherwise, Finn would probably be looking everywhere for him by now.
Another half an hour passed, and the sun reached the far west.
The afterglow of sunset shone through the window and fell across Ryuu's flushed face.
Her eyelashes trembled.
Her slender, pale left arm blocked the extra sunlight, and she slowly opened her eyes.
Ryuu was still a little dazed.
She wiped away the glistening droplet at the corner of her mouth and tried to push herself up.
"Ugh..."
The pain from below made her instinctively frown.
At that moment, her thoughts fully returned.
Remembering what had happened at noon, the girl's snow-white cheeks were instantly dyed red.
She turned her head and looked at Shiro, who had been keeping watch nearby.
At this moment, Shiro was sitting on a chair with one hand propping up his chin, watching her with interest.
There was also a bowl of noodles on the table.
"You're awake. Come eat something. The noodles are still warm."
As he spoke, Shiro carried the bowl to Ryuu.
He picked up some noodles with the chopsticks and brought them to her lips.
"Don't look this way..."
Ryuu used the blanket to cover her burning red face, curling herself up like a hedgehog.
What had happened that afternoon was still far too stimulating for this elf.
In her view, such a sacred thing should only be done on the night of a wedding.
She had never expected it to happen in the middle of the day...
Looking at Ryuu, who was only fooling herself by covering her ears, Shiro tentatively spoke.
"I helped you ask Mama Mia for leave earlier, but she didn't seem to be around. So I just told Anya and the others that you were still sleeping."
"Eh?!"
Sure enough, after hearing that Shiro had used "she's still sleeping" as the reason to ask for leave, Ryuu no longer cared that her delicate body was exposed before his eyes.
She threw the blanket aside, grabbed Shiro's shoulders tightly, and shouted.
"They all know?!"
"I lied. I only told them you had something to do this afternoon and asked me to tell them for you."
Shiro smiled and brought the noodles to Ryuu's lips again.
Knowing that she had been tricked, Ryuu made a small "gh" sound.
She looked unwillingly at the demon before her, who had taken her body and was now playing with her feelings.
After hesitating several times, Ryuu pulled the blanket over herself and covered her body.
Then she parted her cherry-like lips and ate the noodles Shiro fed her in small bites.
Her eyes narrowed slightly as she enjoyed this moment.
Looking at Ryuu's lips, now shining under the sunset after being touched by the oil from the noodle soup, Shiro swallowed.
After Ryuu swallowed the last bite of noodles, he finally could not hold back and kissed her again.
The girl beat his back while letting out soft sounds of protest.
After several minutes of deep kissing, Shiro looked at the clothes Ryuu had thrown aside.
Then he spoke to Ryuu, who had finally managed to catch her breath.
"It won't be convenient for you to move around like this. I'll help you get dressed."
"W-What are you planning to do now...? Eh? Wait..."
Shiro's hands found the bundle of clean clothes—simple traveler's garments in soft grey and white. He shook them out, then turned back to Ryuu, who was clutching the blanket to her chest like a shield.
"Arms up," he said, his voice low and warm.
Ryuu's ears flushed crimson. "I can dress myself—"
"You can barely walk without wincing. Don't be stubborn."
He didn't wait for her to argue further. Shiro gently pulled the blanket down to her waist, revealing the canvas of love bites and fingerprints he'd left across her shoulders and collarbone.
His fingertips traced the outline of one particular bruise on her shoulder, the one he'd been especially rough with, and Ryuu's breath hitched.
"That one's going to last a few days," he murmured, almost to himself.
"Thanks to you," she muttered, but there was no real heat in it.
He lifted the undershirt over her head, guiding her arms through the sleeves with a tenderness that contrasted sharply with the way his gaze lingered on the swell of her breasts as the fabric settled over them.
His knuckles "accidentally" brushed against the side of her left breast as he smoothed the shirt down, and Ryuu flinched, her nipple already hardening from the casual contact.
"You're doing that on purpose," she accused, her voice thin.
"Doing what?" Shiro's golden eyes met hers with practiced innocence.
He knelt to help her with the leggings, his hands sliding up her calves to guide her feet through.
The angle gave him a perfect view up the length of her thighs, and he took his time, his thumbs rubbing slow circles against the inside of her knee, then higher, along the soft skin that disappeared beneath the hem of her shift.
Ryuu's fingers curled into the bedsheets, her jaw tightening as his touch crept dangerously close to where she still ached from their earlier activities.
"Shiro." Her voice was a warning, edged with something breathless.
"Hmm?"
"If you don't stop, I'm going to kick you out."
He looked up at her from where he knelt, his face level with her hip, and the grin he gave her was pure deviltry.
"You could try."
But he relented, finishing with the outer tunic and fastening the clasp at her throat.
His fingers lingered at the hollow of her neck, tracing the pulse point where her heartbeat fluttered wildly beneath his touch.
He leaned in and pressed a kiss there—soft, deliberate—and Ryuu's resistance crumbled into a shuddering exhale.
"There," he said, stepping back to admire his handiwork.
She looked presentable, if one ignored the flush that still painted her cheeks and the way her lips were swollen from his kissing.
"Perfect."
Ryuu opened her mouth to deliver what would undoubtedly have been a scathing retort, but the sight of him standing there, looking so satisfied with himself, made the words die in her throat.
Instead, she grabbed a pillow and hurled it at his face.
"Get out."
Shiro caught it one-handed, laughing as he backed toward the door. "I'll see you at the tavern later."
The door clicked shut behind him, and Ryuu could still hear his fading laughter in the hallway.
She sank back against the pillows, pressing both hands to her burning face.
What have I done...
But beneath the embarrassment, coiling warm and persistent in her belly, was something else entirely.
She wanted him to come back.
…
"I should head back to Twilight Manor first. I wonder what Finn and the others are doing now."
Shiro walked alone along the street.
Just now, while helping Ryuu get dressed, he had taken the chance to tease her again.
The elven girl, whose shame had reached its limit, finally could not take it anymore and drove him out.
"Hey, did you hear? Someone else in the Loki Familia reached Level 6."
"Huh, who? Don't tell me it was one of those Amazoness sisters. I remember they've been stuck at Level 5 for several years."
"I'm guessing it was that werewolf."
"No. All three of them leveled up together. At this rate, the Loki Familia might actually surpass the Freya Familia."
"Huh? They won't start a war, right? I just hope we don't get dragged into it. We can't understand what those big shots are thinking anyway."
The conversations of the adventurers around him reached Shiro's ears.
From them, he extracted useful information.
After Ais, Bete, Tiona, and Tione had finally reached Level 6.
At this moment, the Loki Familia already had seven Level 6 combatants.
That did not even include Shiro, who could casually fight above his level, or Lefiya, whose magic power had reached Level 6 standards.
But when he recalled Ottar's strike that had shaken all of Orario, Shiro did not think the Loki Familia could surpass the Freya Familia just by relying on seven Level 6s.
The power of Ottar's attack had clearly already touched the peak of Level 7.
On top of that, the Freya Familia still had four Level 6s and four Level 5s.
Excluding Shiro, perhaps the Loki Familia would only truly stand above the Freya Familia once Lefiya grew up.
"Shiro! You're back! Where did you run off to earlier? Everyone in the Familia said they couldn't find you."
After returning to Twilight Manor, Tiona ran over while waving and greeted him.
"I heard about it on the street. You three reached Level 6, right? Congratulations."
After hearing Shiro's words, Tiona immediately forgot the question she had just asked.
She covered her head with one hand and laughed, "Ehehe."
Then she remembered what Loki had told her that afternoon and spoke to Shiro.
"If you're planning to find Loki to update your Falna, she's currently in a meeting with Dionysus-sama and doesn't have time."
"She also said that if anyone saw you, they should pass on the message that your status update will probably have to wait until tomorrow."
Tiona paused for a moment.
"In two days, we need to prepare to search for the second entrance to the dungeon."
"The second entrance?"
"Mm. According to the gods' analysis, the maze likely has a second entrance somewhere outside. Our Familia has to send people to the port city of Melen to investigate the water route."
Melen was located southwest of Orario.
It had a brackish lake connected to the sea.
A large amount of cargo was imported through that port and transported into Orario.
For Orario, that port carried the important mission of developing the overseas market.
Tiona tried hard to recall what Loki had said while updating their Falna.
"We were originally scheduled to leave tomorrow, but Loki said you have something important to handle over the next two days."
"And once you finish handling everything, her side will become very busy too. So what exactly are you busy with?"
"Mm, probably declaring war on Freya."
"Even if you don't want to say it, you don't have to make up an excuse to brush me off!"
Tiona sighed.
"Forget it. Hurry up and go to the Hostess of Fertility. Everyone has already set off. Only you and Loki are missing. I came back to pick her up."
After saying that, Tiona ran into Twilight Manor.
Shiro watched her energetic back and sank into thought.
There was one thing he had always forgotten.
That was the flow of time between worlds.
He had subconsciously assumed that time flowed the same way on both sides.
Because of that, he had not returned to check even once.
After speaking with Ryuu, his intuition had been constantly reminding him of something.
But because he had been occupied with intimate matters, he had not had the time to care.
Only now did he begin thinking again.
Perhaps he needed to go back once and confirm the rules regarding the flow of time between worlds.
He sank his consciousness into the Gift Card.
After Shiro left his original world, an extra number had appeared on the Interdimensional Gate.
[300].
At first, he had thought it was something like a world number and had not dared to touch it.
But judging from the Interdimensional Gate's instructions, this was more likely something used to adjust time.
"Forget it. I should deal with Freya's matter first."
Shaking his head, Shiro walked toward the Hostess of Fertility.
…
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