Chapter 376 Visiting Draco Again (2)
Next up was Setsuna’s fight with Harvey.
“By the way, Shikina-chan, why’d you head back to your starting position back there? Isn’t turning your back on your opponent a bad idea?”
“… I did that due to it being the cool thing to do…!”
“I see, that’s def important.”
“Right?”
Setsuna was warming herself up as she spoke to Shikina. Her huge chest kept bouncing around as she did so… Harvey looked away like the gentleman he was. It was a clear opening for him to attack, but he didn’t take advantage of Setsuna’s lack of defense.
“Alright, how about we start?”
“… I’m not sure where I should look though?”
“This is sportswear from another world, it’s called [Gym Uniform], don’t worry. It’s just easy to move around in.”
“… I’m not sure where I should look though?”
Still, Harvey was following Cid’s promise to make this a serious fight and shook away his thoughts before returning his attention to Setsuna.
Contrasting Harvey’s dual wielding style, Setsuna was empty-handed.
She held up her gloves meant for practice fights.
“I guess ya’re comin’ first?”
“Hyo.”
Almost without sound, Setsuna kicked up a cloud of dust and suddenly appeared right between Harvey’s arms. He leapt backward as he simultaneously received a punch from each of her fists to his abdomen.
“Kuh, so heavy! Beastkin strength is no joke.”
“Calling a girl heavy is rude~”
Harvey was the one to attack this time, the same one-two attack that beat Shikina before.
However, Setsuna deflected the blows with the backs of her hands as she once again slipped into her attack range.
“Soi!”
“Nooah!?”
She clung to his waist, tackling him to the ground. Having unintentionally stiffened at feeling something soft press against his waist as she impacted him, Harvey was unable to defend himself and wound up letting go of his swords.
“—!”
“Toh!”
Not letting up, Setsuna climbed on top of Harvey and locked his body between her thighs in a scissor mount position.
“W-Wait!”
“Oh? Did my beautiful counter decide it? Is it my win?”
“… …”
Seeing her fist hang just before his face, Harvey went silent. Setsuna smiled.
“I give up. I could’ve pulled it off if I hadn’t let go of my swords, y’know.”
“Should I just step on your hands then?”
“Jou-chan’s that cruel!?”
And so the match ended in Setsuna’s favor.
“You moved so slow there, were you tired after all?”
“… The cause of that’s my instincts as a man. I wasn’t prepared for feeling that.”
“… Oooh… wanna go again?”
“I won’t lose next time!”
＊
With that, I closed the monitor that was showing me the practice fight.
Yeah, it ended with one defeat and one victory. Two victories including Meat’s fight.
It feels like our relations have been deepened with these practice fights, too. How beautiful.
“Goshujin-sama, will we be finishing soon?”
“Oh, right. Yeah, this should be enough for the ceremony. Let’s go with the hot spring continuing as long as they periodically offer magic stones to it.”
Yeah, magic stones are originally things necessary for magic tools to operate. That said, this [River Source] doesn’t actually need a magic stone since it’s a dungeon installation.
I figure having them offer up a magic stone to it around every week should be enough to skirt around that issue. All I’d have to do to make it seem legit is just stealthily take it, that way I’ll be able to get a magic stone as part of the rental fees as well.
It’s like when I built the inn to get DP as well as the inn fees. Being able to double-dip rewards as a Village Chief-cum-Dungeon Master is great… I guess it’s still nothing compared to the village’s DP, though. Maybe I should use the stones for magic sword blade golems?
All that in mind, I pressed the [River Source] installation button. Water began to overflow from the top of the block—the [Pillar] dungeon installation.
It produced twenty liters of water per minute, so while it didn’t give the vigorous feeling of a hose or something, it evenly produced water from the surface of the block where I’d attached the [River Source]. The hot spring covered the surface of the block like a veil as steam billowed up from it.
It’d be like a water fountain if I made the space the water appeared from smaller, but that’d be a bit much.
… Oh. I should make a place to put the magic stones with [Create Golem]. If I just give it a tiny door on the side… no, wouldn’t ruin this amazing veil look? Now to adjust the direction it’s flowing… I’ll move the base of it along with the position of the [River Source]… no, that’d put it inside… carefully now, don’t destroy it… oh, isn’t it looking like Merlion now? Maybe I could make this “Hot Spring Lion” if I mess with the ornamentation a bit…? No, wait. You can’t produce too much water from a lion’s mouth without it turning into more of a jet, huh. Time to start over. Let’s move the [River Source] a bit further inside… then make it come from a tunnel-thing to give it a good feeling…
… … Alright, done!
In the end, I decided on a square work of art. A leisurely fountain with a hot spring pouring out from the bottom of each tunnel that could be found on its four sides.
It took a lot longer than I’d expected it would, but eh. The ceremony taking a while’s fine.
“Alright, it’s perfect.”
“Good job, Goshujin-sama.”
And so the hot spring magic tool installation ceremony also came to an end. All that I had to do next was tell them and take down the tent before returning.
It was probably obvious that the hot spring was working due to the water flowing outside the tent. When I left the tent, I heard a few people muttering to each other.
Cid called out to me upon seeing me leave the tent. He’d probably been waiting for the ceremony to finish.
“Kehma-dono. I can see the hot spring working, but did everything turn out well?”
“Yeah, perfectly. Actually, the real thing only started after the hot spring began to appear. Want to see?”
“I can? Then yes, by all means.”
Leading Cid into the tent, I showed him my masterpiece.
Take a good look! This is the hot spring magic tool!
“Hohoh. So that square block opened up to let hot water come out from each of the sides? There’s a deep elegance to it.”
“By the way, there’s a sliding lid on the top. It’s where you put the magic stones in.”
“I see. So we just have to deposit magic stones here… but this is much more water than I was expecting. Is it temporary?”
“No, it should be like this always.”
“Always… for the entire day?”
“Yeah. All day… is something the matter?”
It looked like Cid swallowed something bitter, but he denied it.
“… No, I was just thinking about how many magic stones it would take to maintain this amount of water.”
“Ooh… I’m pretty sure it’d only need an Iron Golem class magic stone once every week or so to keep going.”
It’d be troubling if it had such a high running cost they couldn’t maintain it, so let’s go with something reasonable. It’d be annoying if I had to uninstall it, after all.
“A-As expected of a dungeon-produced magic tool. The performance is extremely different.”
“Yeah. It’s dungeon-produced, after all.”
“… With this much water all day, it should be more than two thousand.”
“Hmm? Two thousand?”
“Yeah. But the aqueduct was a good call. Following Dyne-dono’s advice was the correct move.”
I don’t know what Dyne said, but I guess nothing’s wrong? Man, I don’t know what he did but I have an excellent subordinate.
“Well, I guess my work here’s done. I’ll leave the rest to you, Cid-dono.”
“Leave it to me. I’ll strive to make certain that I can pay the fees even a day sooner.”
Cid and I shook hands. Alright, magic tool installation, done!
Setsuna and Shikina’s practice fights, my secondary goal, also went smoothly, so now everything’s done.
Now I can go back and sleep!
“By the way, Kehma-dono. I would like to talk to you privately… may we?”
… What. I’m going to decline if it’s annoying, you know?