—The next day.
“Huh? Where are the palm-top rabbits? I haven’t seen a single one today?”
Just past noon, today’s fieldwork finished, I put the question to Sonya.
“Fufufu~. They’re out hunting~”
“Eh? ALL of them?”
Normally half the palm-top rabbits stay near Sonya under the official designation of “royal guard.”
More accurately: they stay near Sonya doing her chores.
“I heard it from Maria~. The household budget is in crisis, isn’t it~♪”
Sonya said it sprawled across the living room sofa, browsing the offering-box catalog.
“Yeah — spending’s gotten out of hand lately. But why is EVERYONE out hunting?”
“To earn money~. If they catch lots of game, money comes in for Tatsuya~”
Eh…?
I froze on the spot.
Those rabbits… at the end of the day, they’re genuinely GOOD kids, aren’t they.
“Fufu~. Everyone discussed it, and I made the final decision~”
Sonya said it while pointing at her own head.
She clearly wants a “good girl” and head pats — but let the record show that Sonya, being a queen, lives the eat-and-nap lifestyle exclusively.
The palm-top rabbits may be admirable. She, specifically, is not.
Honestly — with that other-worldly bourgeois temperament of hers… one of these days there’s going to be a coup.
Even during the shootout with the elf queen, the troops looked ready to bolt if not for the carrot grudge. The queenly authority is largely theoretical.
“Eh? No… head pats~?”
Ah, no. The tears are loading.
Same as at night — casually deflecting this one’s requests leads to serious downstream costs.
Her mood craters, she puffs her cheeks permanently, and every conversation gets answered with “I’m in a HUFF right now!” and nothing else.
Granted, leave her alone three days and she gets bored and reverts… so it’s technically fine either way.
Still, no point manufacturing a sulk. I patted her head.
“Ufufu~. Pat-pats feel so nice~”
And right as Sonya reached peak satisfaction, a knock sounded at the door.
“Oh? Arisa? Was today a materials pickup day?”
“Nope, nope.”
Arisa shook her head, walked into the living room, and started unpacking her luggage across the table.
“Y’all’re buildin’ me a butcherin’ shed, yeah? So I brought my tools over.”
A saw, knives large and small, whetstones, and tweezers whose purpose I genuinely cannot guess.
She laid them all out on a cloth on the table.
“My butcherin’ kit. See, I was always more the support-role type in parties. Everything EXCEPT fightin’, I can do top to bottom.”
“Wait — aren’t you actually pretty strong though?”
“Haha,” Arisa laughed.
“Fightin’ is a firm no-thank-you from me, as a rule. I’ve been in a few parties over the years, an’ not ONCE did I show anyone my real strength.”
“And WHY, exactly?”
“‘Cause nothin’ costs more than a LIFE! Ya show yer strength, they make ya FIGHT, don’t they!”
Arisa then puffed out her modest chest and declared, radiating pride:
“The able hawk hides its claws, as they say! The moment a party’s in danger, boltin’ immediately has the highest survival rate on record!”
“That is not a brag. None of that was a brag.”
What a monumentally self-serving woman.
“Then why’d you fight openly at the elf village that time?”
At that, Arisa’s cheeks tinted faintly red.
“Tatsuya-bro’s already seen… everything I’ve got, ain’t he. At this point… what’s left to hide?”
Well. Fair enough.
Still — being the one person she’ll show everything she hides from the rest of the world… doesn’t feel bad at all.
“Anyway, that’s my kit. Where should I stash it?”
“Butchering shed’s not built yet. When Ouroboros gets back from doing laundry at the river, we’ll have her pick a spot.”
And then Arisa flashed me a bright grin.
“Say, Tatsuya-bro — ya free today an’ tomorrow, till sundown or so?”
“Today’s completely open. Tomorrow’s free, in a sense. Busy, in another sense.”
“Which IS it, man.”
“No urgent farm work, but infinite future work. That’s the sense.”
“Then it’s decided!”
And Arisa seized my arm in both hands, locking it in a full arm-hug, chest pressed against my elbow.
“Oi, what’s this about?”
“Tatsuya-bro. Come out to town with me — let’s have ourselves a DATE.”
“A date?”
“Call it my apology tour for the rip-off business. I’ll be treatin’ ya to everything, top to bottom.”
Well — letting her buy me dinner won’t anger any gods, I suppose.
Come to think of it, we’re out of various daily supplies anyway.
Arisa usually does our town shopping, but there’s only so much one person can carry — and honestly, I’ve wanted a proper look at the town market myself for a while.
The offering box can source anything, sure — but that money-devouring skill is not something to spam casually.
“Alright, let’s go. Oi, Sonya? You coming?”
Sonya rolled her face toward us on the sofa and smiled a deeply meaningful smile.
“Ufufu~. I have WORK to do now~”
Hm? Work?
Sonya — the living embodiment of “the moment you work, you lose” — has… work?
While I puzzled over it, Arisa’s glare snapped onto Sonya.
“IDIOT!”
“Awawa~. I said… a silly thing~”
That was spectacularly un-subtle — these two are clearly hiding something from me.
Well. Whatever it is, I don’t especially mind.
“Then maybe I’ll bring Ouroboros along. All she owns is the maid uniform and demon-realm clothes anyway.”
Clothes that could fairly be reclassified as hostess-bar attire.
Maria’s are worse — full-exposure bikini-armor tier.
Do demon-kind just prefer that genre…? No, wait, Cornelia’s the total opposite.
“Ouroboros ALSO has work~”
“Hm? Ouroboros too?”
“Maria has work too~. And Katia~”
Sonya, beaming throughout.
Yeah. Something is ABSOLUTELY going on here.
“Airheads are a terrifyin’ force o’ nature, I swear…”
Arisa had her head in her hands at Sonya’s performance.
At this point they’re not even hiding that they’re hiding something…
“Well — guess it’s the two of us hitting the town, then.”