Back at the port town, we delivered the kraken bounty parts to the guild.
The paperwork for the full shipping-company acquisition went to Arisa, and the rest of us headed home.
The fields had gone days untended… well, the house-sitting elves have them covered, technically, but a farmer still worries.
So home we went by kei truck, and—
“Squid~!”
“Overnight-dried squid~♪”
“Yum yum yum~♪”
The moment we arrived, I got straight to work on the ichiya-boshi.
“Shiokara~♪”
“It looks SO gross~♪”
“But it’s delicious~♪”
Mm-hm — the shiokara’s a hit too. Only cured overnight, so it’s a shallow pickle, but I taste-tested it myself.
“IT’S SO GOOD!”
An astonishing depth of flavor — essentially a solid block of umami.
Given the sheer SIZE of the source animal, I’d braced for coarse flavor. Completely wrong.
Then I tried the grilled overnight-dried squid—
“ALSO SO GOOD!”
Yeah — this stuff is dangerous.
At a sushi restaurant, this plate alone would run you thousands of yen, surely?
I have genuinely never eaten squid this good.
Another mouthful of shiokara — chased with the daiginjo sake from my reserve stock.
—Delicious to a frankly upsetting degree.
I might die of happiness.
My face will not stop doing the thing.
“Although, Master — the squid SMELL is quite formidable.”
“We’re making surume jerky too, not just the ichiya-boshi, so.”
Drying operations were running at full capacity, and the entire homestead perimeter smelled aggressively of squid.
At which point Sonya beamed:
“I don’t dislike the squid smell at all, you know~? Because… it’s the same as Tatsuya’s smell~♪”
How does squid smell relate to MY smell…?
Hm? Maria is looking at me with distinctly carnal eyes, licking her lips, and audibly swallowing.
…Ah. THAT’S how.
“Let’s retire that topic forever, Sonya.”
“Fue? Why~?”
I see — she doesn’t even possess the CONCEPT of an off-color joke. It’s all sincere.
Regardless: no further. Some things must not become vivid.
Atomu-kun, meanwhile, was blushing furiously while sniffing the dried squid with maximum wariness.
Why is HE the most maidenly person in this entire household?
”…I said stop with the Livia-tan.”
“Kufufu~! Truly, what an adorable creature thou art… Livia-tan.”
A thoroughly drunk Cornelia, sake bottle in one hand, was latched onto Livia in a full clinging hug.
Apparently Cornelia’s a hugger when drunk. She was latched onto Sonya like this just the other week.
”…I SAID stop with the Livia-tan!”
“My own sister, and yet SO precious.”
Ah — and now a kiss on the cheek, mid-cling…
”…D-d-don’t KISS me!”
Cheeks ballooning, Livia struggled to peel Cornelia off.
“Fuhaha~! What’s the harm, what’s the harm — Livia-tan!”
Which corrupt magistrate ARE you… I thought — meanwhile Atomu-kun had gone scarlet and deeply flustered nearby.
He’d been grinning beatifically at the hugging stage — but the cheek-kiss exceeded his rated tolerances entirely.
—Seriously, WHY are you the most maidenly one here.
”…I SAID stop with the Livia-tan—!”
“Fuhaha! Defeat me even ONCE and I may consider it?”
”…Why can’t I ever beat you, Onee-chan… that makes it 32,450 fights, 32,450 losses…”
YOU FIGHT TOO MUCH. Also you lose too much!
“Kuhaha! Because thou art a CHILD, that is why!”
“A child?”
“Leviathans, like succubi… possess the trait of feeding on the vigor of the opposite sex to raise their power. As a virgin, Livia-tan cannot wield the true strength of the Leviathan line. In THAT state, by what arithmetic wouldst thou beat ME?”
Oi oi. This conversation is bending in a familiar and alarming direction.
”…I can’t beat Onee-chan while I’m a virgin.”
“Oh? And is there not — the strongest man of humankind, sitting RIGHT there? A flawless vigor source, I should say.”
Livia turned her gaze onto me—
—then puffed her cheeks and pointedly looked in a completely different direction.
“KUHAHA! What a green little reaction!”
And Cornelia, finding this endlessly funny for reasons known only to her, kept laughing her high, delighted laugh.
—That night.
Everyone drank themselves unconscious across the living room, as tradition demands.
I was lying in bed savoring a rare quiet night when the door creaked open.
There in the gloom stood a blue-haired girl who looks, generously, thirteen.
A sheer negligee, over lingerie with a very aggressive exposure rating.
”…It’s my first time, so… be gentle with me.”
Ah — yes. I saw it coming, and yet—
—here she is anyway… Livia-tan.
Next morning.
Livia and I woke to sparrow-song.
And like a sparrow herself, Livia went chun-chun — pecking good-morning kisses onto me over and over.
“You’re surprisingly affectionate, huh.”
At that, Livia’s cheeks colored.
”…Anyway. With this, I should now surpass Onee-chan.”
Well — pre-power-up they looked dead even, so.
If she genuinely leveled up, she really should clear Cornelia now.
Then Livia’s nose twitched — sniff, sniff — and she pressed a hand to her stomach.
”…What is… that smell?”
A spice aroma, violently appetite-inducing.
With Cornelia in residence, Atomu-kun or Mayu will have made it.
“Something tells me you’re going to love it too.”
I said it with a wink; Livia tilted her head — “hm?”
”…Curry. What is this… a food permitted only in heaven…”
Chomp chomp chomp — Livia demolished her plate at ferocious speed.
“Seconds!”
“Seconds!”
The sisters finished their curry in perfect sync and thrust their plates at Atomu-kun simultaneously.
“No need to rush — there’s endless more where that came from~”
Today’s curry duty was Atomu-kun’s, apparently.
And being told his curry is delicious has him visibly glowing.
Several refills later, a finally-sated Cornelia turned her gaze on Livia.
“Ho, Livia… thou…”
A slow grin, then:
“—hast become a WOMAN, hast thou?”
Livia grinned right back.
“Now I won’t lose to you, Onee-chan.”
Cornelia rose to her feet and gave a small nod.
”…Post-breakfast exercise it is, then.”
And so began Livia’s revenge match.
☆★☆★☆★
One hour later.
After a full exchange of noodle-punches and noodle-kicks, the bout once again went to Cornelia — winning technique: hair pulling.
“THIRTY years too early to defeat ME, it seems!”
”…Why can’t I beat you, Onee-chan? I DID power up… but only a little…”
Cornelia puffed out her flat chest and laughed to the heavens.
“The Leviathan line absorbs vigor, but ye are NOT succubi! The absorption proceeds gently — GRADUALLY — over long stretches of time!”
”…Meaning what, Onee-chan?”
“Mm — absorb vigor perhaps ten thousand times, and thou MIGHT stand a chance against me?”
Livia wobbled to her feet and tottered over to me on unsteady legs.
”…Tatsuya-kun?”
“Hm?”
”…Let’s do our best. Every day.”
Ah. Yes. Of course this is where it lands.
“S…sure. But listen — ten thousand times means THIRTY YEARS? By which point I’ll be well along in age, and daily won’t be sustainable, so realistically it’s even longer—”
“Then—”
Livia went quiet.
Then she drew in an enormous, resolute breath, and declared:
”…Every day… MULTIPLE times. We accumulate count whenever conditions allow.”
And so our homestead gained one more resident.
・Announcement from the author
The novel’s print continuation is in a difficult spot, but as of April 2022 the comic version is continuing past the original material with newly written scenario from me. Do check it out if you’re curious.
・Announcement
I’m on Twitter as well — new-work announcements, web-novel-industry musings, and sundry chatter. There’s a direct link from the Twitter icon on my Kakuyomu profile, but here’s the URL just in case:
Shiraishi Arata @shiraishiarata — https://twitter.com/shiraishiarata