Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Vol. 7

by Fujino Omori

  For it was Freya’s beauty, along with her powerful followers, that allowed that woman to keep her place at the top.

  “Keh!” Ishtar kept her eyes firmly on Babel Tower as a small laugh escaped her lips.

  The smile on her face was one that could Charm anyone who laid eyes upon her—but it also hid a dark side.

  It wouldn’t be long now.

  It wouldn’t be long until she pulled that woman down from her perch.

  Ishtar’s lips curled into a conniving grin.

  “Just you watch.”

  Spitting out those words under her breath, she stood up from the sofa she had been sitting on.

  A bowl of exotic fruit sat on a table with a long, thin smoking pipe made in the Far Eastern style sitting at its base, all beside the sofa. The goddess grabbed her pipe before exiting the room. Several handsome young servants followed right behind her as she descended into the center of the palace.

  Her braided black hair swayed from side to side and looked almost as though hues of purple were weaved into it. Smoke billowed from between her succulent lips after one pull from her oriental pipe as she descended to the top floor overlooking a grand inner chamber.

  Spread out beneath her were her followers. Ishtar put her hands on the railing and addressed the prostitutes below.

  “Now, ladies! It’s time to ensnare new clients! Tonight again, drown yourselves in love to your heart’s content!”

  The crowd roared in approval. They were composed mostly of Amazons and contained a wide range from pretty, adorable girls to mature, sensual women. Ishtar looked down at their enthralling, lust-inspiring faces and couldn’t help but grin.

  Her words were the signal for all the prostitutes to move out onto the streets. Some tried to get customers on looks alone, others called out to passing men, or still more directly approached the males who met their approval. The men had no idea that they were being hunted. Their thirst for pleasure emptied their wallets, spread information, relieved them of prized possessions, and surrendered their hearts to be devoured by the women in the brothels.

  Like the ancient capital of old, built on decadence and immorality, this place was now alive with the celebration of hedonism and pleasures.

  “Aisha, let’s get moving… Before all the hunky ones get taken!”

  “Ahh, right behind you.”

  An Amazonian woman responded to one of her kin. She walked the streets of the Night District, her long, toned legs bathed in moonlight until she stopped and looked back.

  The atmosphere within Orario’s red-light district was foreign and exotic, unlike anywhere else in the city.

  The brothels were designed to look like those from an island country far away. The red pillars and walls were brilliant and flashy, drawing in anyone who saw them. The Amazonian woman stood for a moment and admired one of the villas highlighted by the lights. Narrowing her eyes to hide her own pity, her long black hair fluttered behind her as she turned to rejoin her friend.

  She strode past a window in front of one of the brothels where several prostitutes were lined up, waiting for customers.

  Many young women had gathered in a chamber that was open to the street; only a lattice barrier separated them from the street as they called out to passersby, smiling and inviting them inside charmingly with friendly waves and finger curls.

  “…”

  Amid the prostitutes advertising their goods, there was one girl who sat quietly in the corner of the chamber.

  Unlike the other women around her, she sat with her knees together and lips closed. Her cute, supple features and presence were enough to attract the attention of potential customers. Wearing a kimono—said to be the traditional garb of that island nation—underneath a traditional red bridal robe, her delicate body stood out like a beacon.

  She had straight golden hair with green eyes, as well as a bushy tail of the same color as her hair.

  With long, fox-like ears, the girl was absolutely stunning.

  The only accessory she was adorned with was a black collar around her neck as she looked out from the chamber that served as her prison.

  A cloud in the night sky shifted, allowing a moonbeam to cast its light upon her. She quietly whispered to herself.

  “Seven more days…”

  CHAPTER 1

  SMOOTH SAILING?

  The city was bustling.

  “…One month?”

  “Seriously…?”

  Adventurers had gathered around the huge Guild Headquarters bulletin board. They stood in mute awe of one particular announcement.

  “That punk-ass kid…!”

  “Hey, Bete! Hurry up and let me see!”

  One top-class adventurer snatched the paper from the bulletin board, crumpling it in his grip despite his ally’s request.

  “Hee-hee-hee, he’s for real~.”

  And so many deities wore delighted smiles and caroused excitedly as the news spread of this particular rank-up announcement.

  The War Game still fresh in the minds of the people, word of this spread across the city like wildfire.

  Time span: one month.

  Adventurer Bell Cranell achieved Level 3.

  “—Ah-choo!”

  That sneeze came out of nowhere.

  I almost drop the box in my arms, but I manage to regain my balance in time to catch it. Just as I think I’m out of the woods…“AK-SHOO!” An even stronger sneeze blasts its way through my nose.

  “What’s wrong, Bell? Catch a cold?”

  “No, don’t think so…”

  My goddess, who’s walking in front, turns around to look at me as I sniffle and blink over and over.

  Same as me, my goddess, Lady Hestia, also has her arms full with baggage. “Someone must be talking about you, eh?” she says with a smile. I grimace and wave it off. That’s just a silly superstition.

  “More importantly, Bell, this! Take a look!”

  Tap, tap, tap, tap. She takes off at a quick pace. I follow after her into the shadow of a building and around the corner.

  Suddenly I can see our new home, fully renovated and gleaming like in a dream.

  “Wow…”

  “So? What do you think? We live here starting today!”

  I walk through the front gate and set the boxes down in the garden to take everything in. I feel my eyes stretching wide, studying every detail of the manor glistening in morning light.

  We did some remodeling to Apollo Familia’s home—after we kind of took it over—and made it our own. Their god had some really strange tastes when it came to design, but it was well built and now it looks good as new. Three stories tall, the stone structure has a surprising amount of depth. Heck, it could pass as a minor palace.

  Hestia Familia’s emblem, a bell and flames, hangs above the front door.

  My cheeks tingle with excitement as I take a look at my goddess. She grins back at me, puffing out her chest with pride.

  “I’ve come a long way since Hephaistos dumped me into that grungy basement!”

  As she looks at our dearly-wished-for, splendid new home, my goddess puts her arm to her face as she sheds a rare, manly (womanly?) tear.

  I force a smile. Thinking back, that room under the church was cozy. Living there, just the two of us, it wasn’t all that bad.

  Of course there were a ton of inconveniences, but I’m sad that it was destroyed…I still have so many good memories of being with my goddess and the kind moments shared in that place.

  But, yeah…

  My friends, my family have grown.

  And now we have a home big enough for everyone. So maybe this is a good thing.

  I scratch the back of my head as I feel a ticklish smile spread across my face.

  “Hestia, job’s finished as requested.”

  “Ohh. Thanks, Goibniu.”

  I’m still admiring the manor when the architects responsible for the renovation—members of the Goibniu Familia—emerge from every direction in succession, readying themselve
s for departure. Their leader, Lord Goibniu, greeted Lady Hestia and she responded in kind.

  We had hired them to do the remodeling. Lord Goibniu is a deity of smithing and architecture. His familia is quite unique in Orario, taking construction jobs upon request. Of course, the blacksmiths and craftsmen in Goibniu Familia are well known and have quite a following. Though not as popular as Hephaistos Familia, I know that there are several upper-class adventurers who prefer their work above all. In fact, it looks like one of their smiths had made Lilly’s wrist bow gun, which is specifically designed for prums.

  It’s been four days since they started working and two days since our quests that took us to the thirteenth floor of the Dungeon.

  They worked fast and did a spectacular job restoring the stone on the outside of the manor. If the outside is this good, what’s the inside like?

  Looks like the two deities are finished working out the finer details of payment and discussing the work done to the building. Lord Goibniu has a rather stout body, not much different from a dwarf’s. He shakes Lady Hestia’s hand with his own meaty appendage before making his way out the front gate.

  Seeing their leader take his leave, the rest of his familia file out behind him, carrying their equipment with them.

  “Just what I expected from Goibniu. They followed our instructions to the letter.”

  “Ah, they did?”

  “Mm-hmm. Just like everyone wanted, they made changes to quite a few rooms and installed some new facilities inside and outside the manor.”

  I murmur in admiration and stand beside my goddess, looking up once more at our new home.

  Once I get all these boxes taken care of, I’ll have to go check everything out.

  “Ohhh…!”

  Hands and knees on the floor, Mikoto peeked at a full, steaming bathtub.

  She had been walking through the third floor of their remodeled home. She had dropped everything to investigate the room she had requested.

  The architects had used the existing showers and transformed the space into a large bathhouse. As if they had read her mind, there was a large cypress tub made in the style of her homeland that could comfortably fit ten people at once. Shhooo. She could hear the quiet sound of hot running water pouring steadily from the nozzle above the tub. The faint fragrance of cypress wood wafted up to Mikoto as she peered into the tub, her face reflected on the surface of the water.

  Still on all fours, Mikoto suddenly tore away her gaze and raised her head. Everything from the walls to the ceiling, floor, pillars, and buckets was made of wood; the glint of the showerheads added to the charm of the room.

  Everything reminded her of home in the Far East. She was so moved at the sight of it all that she shuddered lightly.

  At the same time she watched the thin wisps of steam climbing above the water, a sound rose from—her thin throat.

  “Uh-unnn…!”

  Mikoto was conflicted.

  They were currently in the process of moving in; even now her companions were carrying boxes upon boxes into the manor and working very hard. I don’t have time to be slacking right now, she thought just as her eyes fell on the pile of luggage on the floor behind her.

  But…the white steam and alluring smells were just so enticing, drawing her in like magic.

  She had been suppressing those urges, but now…

  “J-just a short one.” She quietly said her shallow excuse as she went back out to the dressing room. Sticking her head into the main hallway, she looked both ways as she nervously checked to make sure no one was there before closing the door completely.

  Shwip. Undoing the sashes on her clothes, the sounds of fabric sliding off filled the changing room.

  Splish. She lightly stuck her toe into the water, pushing ripples across the surface.

  Her thin calves were quick to follow, and then her thighs, before—sploosh—her whole body slid into the steaming bath.

  “Ahhhhhh…!”

  A pleasurable sigh escaped her lips as she submerged herself up to the shoulder.

  She enjoyed the bath’s warm embrace. Squeezing both eyes shut, Mikoto let her whole body relax.

  “Please forgive me, Lord Takemikazuchi, everyone…!”

  As she fervently apologized, she let her face loosen as well. She had been forced to live in relative poverty after coming to Orario with Takemikazuchi and her childhood friends. A proper bath was out of the question and they had to make do with only showers. It went without saying that none of them ever complained or tried to live beyond their means…But now, the repressed desires she had kept bottled up burst free all at once.

  Memories of her old favorite outdoor hot spring rushed to the surface of her mind.

  She happily reminisced old scenes and landscapes of her hometown until soon, her skin was dyed the same color as cherry blossoms.

  For Mikoto, there was no greater pleasure in this world than a hot bath.

  Incidentally, it was still early in the morning.

  “Well, that’s Goibniu Familia for you—fast and efficient.”

  A small stone shed had been constructed in the yard behind the manor.

  Welf stood in the open doorway, completely unaware of the excited grin growing on his face.

  His new workshop was built outside and apart from the rest of the groundsa smith’s personal castle, a forge.

  It didn’t have as much space as the workshop assigned to him by Hephaistos Familia, but it was just as well-equipped. Metal shelves lined the walls, and there were stacked firewood for fuel and barrels for quenching or storage. There was even a basement. The quality of construction was top-notch in every way.

  He couldn’t even complain about the design of the thin chimney extending from the top of the forge.

  “They’re blacksmiths, too. Of course they’d know what I want.”

  Welf looked over his new workspace with complete satisfaction. He started carrying the small mountain of boxes he brought over from Hephaistos Familia with the enthusiasm of a kid in a toy store.

  He couldn’t wait to make this workshop his castle.

  His personal set of mallets, metal shears, and anvils found new homes all around the workshop. The weapons that he couldn’t sell before were used as decorations for his basement, including the refined ingot that he had purchased using what little savings he had. Then he carried more weapons and armor of many sizes and shapes into the basement by himself without any trouble—thanks to his improved Status.

  Lastly, with the hammer he’d received from the goddess Hephaistos herself clutched in his hand, he took a step back to admire the fruits of his efforts.

  “This…is where I start again.”

  A new familia, a new workshop, and a renewed spirit.

  The young High Smith looked around his new workshop once more, tightly gripping his crimson hammer.

  “Ignoring the storage areas, there are more than twenty extra rooms, not including the ones hidden or underground…”

  Lilly was walking around inside the manor, a map clutched in both hands.

  She followed it to a room and took a quick look inside before jotting down a few notes about the interior and anything that stood out before moving on.

  The more rooms she checked, the more troubled she looked.

  “Uhnn, this place is too biiig…”

  The manor, constructed of solid stone and wood, was three stories tall. In addition, it had yards in the front and back as well as a surrounding iron fence. When it was still owned by Apollo Familia, over one hundred adventurers had called this place home. Even if they included their goddess in the count, Hestia Familia had only five members. This residence did not match their circumstances at all.

  “With only everyone and Lilly, it will be impossible to clean and maintain this place…Perhaps hiring a maid would be a good idea?”

  She knew that needlessly spending money should be avoided, but this problem needed to be solved.

  They could hire someone unconnected to an
y familia, or a noncombatant member—someone who belonged to a familia but had not received a god’s Blessing. Several commercially focused familias around Orario employed noncombatant members to assist in their retail endeavors.

  Even her own goddess, who worked a part-time job for Hephaistos Familia, was a prime example of this arrangement. Of course, people hired in this manner worked someplace far away from their employer’s secrets, for security.

  Professional butlers often received a high salary, equal to what Guild employees made or what hardworking lower-class adventurers could make in the Dungeon. That being the case, it would be cheaper to hire a young woman who was unable to pursue an occupation in Orario’s famous magic-stone industry and already searching for a job opening…Lilly’s train of thought made it this far before she stopped in her tracks.

  “…Mr. Bell’s eyes would wander, so that’s not an option.”

  The young boy turned red at the mere sight of the opposite sex, so Lilly had misgivings about adding another young female member to the household. But if she couldn’t trust even an older maid, it would end up being a demonstration of impending financial doom.

  Visions of the gray-haired bar girl Syr smiling at him flashed in front of her eyes. She vigorously shook her head back and forth to make them go away.

  “But, mhnn, on the other hand…”

  She took a look out the window of the first-floor hallway at all the flowers and plants in the inner garden that would need a lot of attention. Lilly’s mind was weighing her young maiden’s heart against the current situation.

  Each member of Hestia Familia prepared for their new lifestyle and surroundings in their own way.

  “It’s like a dream come true…”

  As I keep moving in furniture and baggage without pausing, I look up in wonder at our new home.

  The remolded walls of the building reflect the sunlight and seem to sparkle, to glow. Even if I ignore the possibility of it being the product of overexcitement about moving into a new place, it’s probably still a bit of an exaggeration.