I sat on the bench outside the item shop, exhausted from rushing the first five floors. Now, waiting to start on the sixteenth floor, we chose to rest briefly.
Around twelve hours had passed since we started, and our pace was greater than we imagined, so there was time to take a break.
My phone worked in this area, maybe something that Eternia, Lupera or Asteria did for me as I sent several messages to Mother, Aki, Elizabeth and Haruka.
The funny thing was that over thirty messages were sent by Mother, and Aki sent six with several calls, but it seemed that both Elizabeth and Haruka were just like me.
The evil goddesses were overworking us!
“Rai? Why do you look so mad, fufu.”
I saw Lumia in a black robe, different from her combat clothes. It seemed to be something she would wear back home and complimented her curvy hips and slim thighs as she placed down two trays with various food on them.
Roast beef, gravy, mashed potatoes with braised pork, apple sauce on another plate, and even a noodle and rice dish with four drinks. One was Cola, the other two a strange fruit juice, and the last one an icy water with a sweet but light taste.
Wow…
“Mmm… sorry~ I never asked what you liked, so I bought a little portion of everything you might enjoy eating or drinking.”
Her face looked adorable as she puffed her cheeks while chewing her pasta. It seemed she chose seafood pasta as the main with some buttered bread and a honey-coloured drink.
Was it juice?
“What did you get for your drink?”
“Ale~ hehe, I love beer!”
Wait a minute… How come she gets a beer, and I have children’s drinks? Is this some elf bullying?
Come to think about it—she mentioned that elves have a different ageing process.
Rather, how old is she to be drinking alcohol here? Should I call the dungeon police for an underage elf drinking alcohol?
“Eh? Are you old enough?”
“Mmm?” After drinking most of her honeydew ale, she tilted her head with a white foam layer on her top lip.
“Ooooh! Sorry…!”
Suddenly, she put her hands together as if to ask for forgiveness.
I watched as she twirled her pasta and the seafood with a cute look on her face, pursing her soft pink lips before lifting it into her mouth.
“Mmmm, promise you won’t be mad?”
“Well… Tell me why you are sorry, and I’ll accept your apology if it’s fair.”
“Gunu… *nom* Mmmm~ so good and cheesy.”
Since she was eating, I started to dig in. The pork with apple sauce looked so tasty that my mouth couldn’t help but drool like a beast.
Haha! I am a werewolf, so it’s not unsightly!
The soft meat almost felt like it was sucking my fork deeper as I sliced a strip, sliding it through the sticky apple sauce and mash before heaven entered my mouth and sent me on a divine voyage through time and space.
So delicious… This and microwave meals aren’t even in the same dimension!
“So me and Flora…”
Slowly, as the endorphins faded, Lumia’s voice entered my ears.
“I’m actually in my Nineties.”
“*Cough*”
Upon hearing this news, I happily finished savouring my first slice of the pork and looked at her with a shocked face. At least, that’s how I felt I was looking at her.
Their ages were close to my grandmother’s!
No…
At that moment, something didn’t quite add up when considering ages.
Mother’s age was wrong…
Because I remember my father’s face; he was quite old when I was born… Born?
Somehow… I could see a hazy face in a pale room smelling like sanitiser and ammonia… her face was gentle… blonde hair like my mother’s.
No, she was prettier!
The scene was too vague, like watching an old movie from the past before HD and 720p detail distorted and fuzzy as it began to fade.
Who was the woman that held me in those memories…
Dad looked so happy beside her. Was she my true mother? How is she related to the woman who brought Aki and me up?
“Rai?”
“Rai, I’m sorry if it was that shocking!”
My shoulders were shaken as the image and memory, like a cloud in a storm, were blown away as the worried face of Lumia came into view.
I was a little disorientated.
“It’s fine… stop shaking me! I don’t mind; it just reminded me of something.”
“Really!?”
Lumia’s ears flopped down as she shook me a few more times, then nervously skipped back to her seat and looked at me while twirling her pasta.
“Uhh, that felt weird,” I muttered moodily.
While spooning some mash onto the pork and taking another bite. Yet even the wonderful food only managed to tickle my palate lightly.
“What’s the matter? Is sleeping with an older woman that bad?” Lumia asked, eating another mouthful of pasta, looking pleased. “You were the one that put it in me, though…”
“Lies… You were seducing me on purpose from the start of the floor…”
“Hahaha, you found out~ fufu. Well, we can enjoy each other’s company, right?”
I knew asking was rude, but a man must always take the challenges!
“So, how old are you both?”
“*Cough*”
My lips curved into a smile when she choked on her ale before looking away with nervous eyes and tapping the wooden counter with her fork.
“Mmm… me…. well… Nine—” She purposely hid the last digits before eating more of her pasta to hide it.
However, she was dealing with a werewolf!
“Ninety-seven, huh… how amazing you slept with a young man almost seventy years younger than you.”
“Bufuuu!?”
The dirty elf spat out her food and looked stunned before hammering the table with her closed fist. “Don’t say it, don’t say it!!!”
It seemed among elves it was nothing, but for a half-elf, maybe her age is sensitive? I began to arrange their past and birth in order and realised that during her story, she never mentioned Flora being born or the time their mother left…
“If you are that old, then…”
“Mmmm~ I am the older sister.”
Lumia was a little tipsy as I noticed three empty ale glasses and wondered when she ordered them.
Yet this meant…
The king married their mother…
He became obsessed with his concubines, and Lumia was born…
Then, she was sent to become the Duke’s daughter as per her mother’s gamble and soul oath to the king.
Yet this woman was also Flora’s mother?
This means that she couldn’t have been sent away instantly… Did the king make her carry his child and then banish her as punishment?
Or was it their mother’s way to atone and give back the king a true heir with his blood?
Either way, it was interesting.
I found myself watching her slowly finish her meal as I did mine. The taste was no longer as gripping as the stories and past of the woman across from me.
I had a mother complex—this woman was older than me and seemed to have stimulated that complex when learning her age increased my desire to know more about her and the life she had lived as the shadow of Flora.
“Then how old is Flora?”
My heart was shocked that even that little woman might be over ninety, and I prepared myself for shock.
Lumia chewed briefly before swallowing,
“Well, she’s only young compared to me, Thirty-Six.”
“Though I think she lied about her age, too. We’re not supposed to give our true details to others in the dungeon.”
“Names are fine, but people might be trying to use or kill us and those silly things.”
“Well, thanks for telling me, but elves live a long time, right?”
“Ah, I think close to eight hundred years is the base number, then increases with levels and how far you climb the dungeon? For half-elves, it’s around four hundred as a base number.”
Since this was the case, I stopped worrying it wasn’t that big a difference if she would live that long as even my life expectancy was much greater now with my new race.
Rather, I am almost immortal unless someone kills me.
***
Meanwhile, back on the Tenth Floor of the Gold Dungeon.
“Fuck! Why are you here and on the same side as me… Thieving cat, don’t think I won’t yank your tail off while Rai isn’t here!”
The moment I arrived on the tenth floor holding the sheath of my katana, there was this annoying bitch who looked like a blonde bimbo with rabbit ears and tattoos all over her arms, even a stupid tattoo showing on her ass with Rai’s name!
“Why are you even here, you slut! Look at your fat ass in that chainmail. What a dirty woman with Rai’s name on your buttocks!”
In the distance, the other groups began gossiping about me and this rabbit slut! Is it that fun to see drama, you bastards!?
“Do you think they both slept with the same guy?” A dwarf asked, his long beard filled with crumbs.
“Maybe?”
“At the same time?”
“Tsk… Lucky guy…”
Nobody asked them! Why is this woman always getting in my way?
I stepped forward, ignoring her, but then a sharp pain shot down my spine as she grabbed my damn tail and yanked me back.
“Oi cat, where are you going? That’s my spot. Pay the tax or go back.”
“What tax?! I pay 40% tax to the fucking government!”
“The true wife tax, of course?”
“…”
This woman was delusional…
Does she not know yet?
That Rai will never put her above a certain woman, and he’s not even aware of it himself?
Hahahah! Stupid, violent woman!
“Hmmm~ what is the tax?”
Let’s play along and have some fun for a while. The day Rai realises and destroys this idiot’s dream, I cannot wait!