I quietly watched as the corpses of Silver Goblins piled up, only to vanish soon after.
Hime and her bunshins were steadily cutting them down.
After returning from Umeda and entering the PD, she has been like this.
She had asked me to accompany her, saying she wanted to stretch her legs a bit. But after taking breaks here and there, we’d now been fighting for eight hours straight.
So much for “stretching her legs”.
Milk and Ayame had kept her company for part of it, but even they reached their limits. Now, they were sleeping on the first floor.
I, too, had given up fighting and was relegated to the role of a drop-item collection machine.
「Hime――」
「What is it?」
「Why don’t we take a break?」
「It’s only been about five minutes outside. I’m fine.」
As she spoke, she launched an attack with a kunai, only for it to bounce off the Silver Goblin’s arm.
It wasn’t my fault for distracting her—her concentration was clearly slipping.
The Silver Goblin counterattacked, but Hime dodged, countering with her own swift strikes.
Thanks to the Miss God’s effect, her agility stats had skyrocketed, and with the Kouchi Sessoku effect, her attack power had increased further.
For now, her overwhelming agility kept her unscathed, but it felt like only a matter of time before something went wrong.
「Release: Hellfire」
I unleashed the spell, avoiding Hime and her bunshins, wiping out a significant chunk of the Silver Goblin horde.
Then, I lightly chopped the top of Hime’s head.
「Ow! What was that for?」
「I went easy on you.」
「My HP went down a little! Isn’t this domestic violence?」
「It’s not domestic; we’re in a dungeon.」
「Either way, it’s DV!」
It took me a second to realize—she didn’t mean domestic violence but dungeon violence.
When our HP was 15 at level 1, losing just 1 point felt like a major injury. But now, losing 10 or 20 barely counted as a scratch.
「Come on, we’re heading back. No overdoing it—remember the promise we made when entering the PD.」
「But…」
「And for the record, I’m tired too.」
I grabbed her ninja outfit’s sleeve and tugged.
「Hey, stop! It’s going to come off!」
「It’s not that easy to pull off.――Dungeon Warp.」
Using the teleportation spell, I warped us back to the 31st floor entrance. From there, I activated a teleportation magic circle to return us to the first floor.
「Taira, let go of me.」
「Don’t overdo it. You’re not a child—you’re already eighteen.」
「Wait a minute, why’d you correct yourself?」
I averted my gaze.
I knew saying the real reason would only stir up a hornet’s nest, so I kept quiet.
Instead, I pointed out the cause of her foul mood.
「Are you stressed about King-san?」
「…Yeah.」
「You didn’t expect to catch up with him right away, did you? We decided we’d take years—maybe decades—to reach that level.」
「I know… but we might not have that kind of time. Daddy might not stay in this world forever, you know?」
King’s goal was to travel to another world.
And now, there was a strong possibility that he was a hero from another world.
If he really was from another world and still had lingering ties to it, he might leave this one and never come back.
That’s probably why she felt pressed for time.
But still――
「I think it’ll be fine. I don’t know what kind of regrets King-san might have about his old world, but I doubt he’d leave without ever coming back.」
「How can you say that so confidently?」
「Because, even when he’s not with you, it’s clear that he cares about you deeply.」
Back then, when King’s children, including Hime, were targeted by Danpol, it became clear that Danpol had acted on his own.
While Danpol’s actions had aligned with his own goals and King’s overarching purpose, King had been firmly against it.
That alone proved that, to him, his children mattered more than his goals.
「And another thing—if you’re troubled, just come to me. I might not be much, but I’m your husband, aren’t I?」
I said, feeling a bit shy.
「…Taira… fufu, thank you.」
Hime smiled.
「You’re really good at comforting women when they’re down, huh, Taira?」
「Don’t make it sound like I’m some kind of gigolo.」
「But I really appreciated it, you know? Want me to do something for you as thanks?」
As thanks? Honestly, I couldn’t think of anything I wanted or needed at the moment.
「Can’t think of anything?」
「Yeah…」
「Then, how about this, nya~n?」
Hime tilted her head upward, looking at me with upturned eyes.
Did she just… nya~n?
「Wait, you said you didn’t want to do that yesterday.」
「…That was because I didn’t want to do it on stream. But if it’s just the two of us, this much is fine, nya~n.」
Hime rubbed against me like a cat.
T-too cute.
Honestly, her cat-play was far from polished.
It was awkward, and she was visibly embarrassed.
But that’s what made it adorable.
My wife is just too cute.
I was starting to feel a little… excited.
With Milk and Ayame asleep in the bedroom, maybe we could――
「Humans use the strangest words sometimes, don’t they?」
Suddenly, a tactless and boorish voice interrupted us.
Right, the dungeon manager. Of course he’d be here—it was his room, after all.
「Danpon, where have you been?」
「I was in the back room talking with a fellow manager. The one from the Ishikiri Dungeon, to be precise. Apparently, they can’t observe the area around the 33rd floor anymore.」
「Is that a problem?」
「Not particularly. It’s common in dungeons that are less than half a year old. As long as it’s only affecting the memories of the Ruined World, there’s no issue.」
I see. That’s a relief.
Just as I was thinking that, Hime headed toward the back of the room.
「Hime?」
「I’m going to take a bath and get some sleep. I shouldn’t overdo it, right?」
「Ah… yeah…」
And just like that, our little moment was over.
From now on, I should make sure we choose the right time and place to have fun.
That’s what I decided.
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