The mine caves.
We advanced down dim, chilly corridors of bare rock.
The palm-top rabbits turn out to have excellent night vision and scouted the route ahead — extraordinarily convenient creatures.
“An adamantite-ore monster?”
“Right. That’s Boku’s — that’s our target.”
“So we defeat it and harvest the ore?”
Katia shook her head, side to side.
“We don’t MINE the special ores — we receive them. Adamantite’s rare; you don’t just find it by digging a mine normally.”
“But the other party isn’t handing over ore for free either, presumably?”
“Ore monsters have a habit of absorbing enchanted metal goods into their bodies.”
Katia pulled a sword — elf-settlement make, by the look of it — from her rucksack.
“We trade this for the ore.”
“Absorbing weapons… why would it do that?”
“It takes in the magical energy imbued in a magic sword’s core. On the monster’s side, the use case is motive energy — or straight self-reinforcement, sometimes.”
“Huh.”
“It’s a compensated exchange — a contract that’s held since ancient times.”
Monsters come in more varieties than I thought.
“Anyway — it’s about dusk… isn’t it.”
And so we made camp inside the cave.
“Something smells… REALLY good?”
“Ah, that’s curry. There’s a portion for you too, don’t worry.”
Retort-pouch curry is a modern miracle, honestly.
This time it’s not the solid roux — it’s the boil-the-pouch-in-hot-water kind.
“Ka-ree?”
Sonya giggled and told Katia:
“You’ll be surprised when you eat it~”
Once the pouches had warmed through, I served them over the rice I’d cooked.
Katia tilted her head at the mysterious brown substance before her.
Then she sniffed at it — and her stomach growled, loud and long.
She looked genuinely torn about whether to proceed, so I threw her a lifeline, smiling.
“No poison in it. Promise.”
Katia nodded, and — still visibly on high alert — pushed her spoon into the curry.
Carried it to her mouth, and—
—CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP!
One bite, and she ignited — eating at a ferocious, blurring pace.
The kind of eating that fills YOUR stomach just watching it.
She finished the plate inside a minute, and — so moved she actually crossed herself — declared:
“That’s the most delicious thing Boku’s ever eaten in my life.”
You’re all so dramatic, I laughed — and then:
“It IS~♪”
“It’s the most delicious thing WE’VE ever eaten too~♪”
“So hand over more~♪”
“You lot eat this CONSTANTLY!”
I dropped a fist-bonk on the nearest palm-top rabbit, who immediately went teary-eyed.
“Katia? Seconds?”
“Of course!”
And Katia beamed — an utterly adorable, full-face smile.
After dinner and a round of tea, it came time to crawl into the sleeping bags we’d each packed.
Before bed, Sonya and Ouroboros demanded their customary goodnight kisses, as usual…
“Eh? Wha— what are you two… doing…?”
Katia froze, face scarlet, then bolted into her own sleeping bag and cocooned herself without another word.
Ah. For a child of twelve-ish appearance, that scene may have been a little stimulating.
—So. Next morning.
I was apparently first up; I was boiling water and making everyone’s tea when Katia emerged.
“U-u-um… you all…”
“Hm? What’s up?”
“Do you ALWAYS do those things?”
She asked it with her whole face burning red.
“Well — before bed and on waking, yes. It’s the established custom at this point.”
Katia’s cheeks went a full shade redder.
“You people are… how to put it… very ADVANCED.”
For some reason she couldn’t look at me directly — just kept stealing upward glances, which made conversation borderline impossible.
“The truth is, Boku’s also… interested. In that sort of thing.”
“Huh. Is that so.”
“The dwarf village has a birthrate problem, see. There are no males Boku’s age. Just children, or ojisans fifty and up, or grandpas.”
“You’re also a child, for the record.”
“So — Boku’s interested. But there’s no partner to be had.”
“That’s rough, yeah.”
”…Which is why — k… k… KISSING… and such… Boku is interested in it too, alright?! Last night my heart was pounding so hard… I couldn’t sleep. Boku waited for you to wake up without sleeping a WINK, you know?!”
For reasons entirely unclear to me, she is now getting angry.
“What exactly are you trying to say?”
”…Smithing is the dwarven calling. We’re born with a nose for whether someone is strong enough to be entrusted with our weapons — and we’re DRAWN to the strong. It’s instinct.”
Genuinely, truly: what is she trying to say?
“That’s surely why the big sisters are all drawn to you too.”
“So WHAT are you trying to say?”
“I’M SAYING Boku’s interested and my heart was pounding all night and there’s NO ONE ELSE AVAILABLE, okay?!”
“Sorry. I comprehend nothing.”
At that, Katia turned scarlet in an entirely new way—
“UGHHH! Forget it! Boku doesn’t even KNOW you! Boku is going to SLEEP!”
And she cocooned herself back into her sleeping bag.