(3rd POV)

「Melty, who were you talking to?」

「A cute, cute girl.」

「You’re saying something like that again…..one day, you’re going to get stabbed, you know, for sure.」

「If you were the one to stab me, I’d be satisfied, you know?」

「I can’t stab you with my strength, you know.」

「Ha, certainly, you’re right.」

「I’ll punch you, you know, for real!」

Towards Lyin who was clenching her fist, Melty replied back with a smile.

While carefreely walking through the capital, Melty and Lyin were joking around in a way that only they could understand.

「After such a long time, you see, I met a girl that made me shiver, you know. That’s why I thought of putting a mark on her.」

「I feel bad for that girl….So, what did you do?」

「We just talked for a bit, you know. I don’t even have to lay a hand on her, she is shaken around so much that it won’t be strange for her to awaken.」

While Lyin felt bad for the girl Melty had set her eyes upon from the bottom of her heart, she started thinking about the word awaken.

From how Melty had said that she was shaken, that was not always a「good thing.」

Awaken was a word that didn’t always mean growth or progress. After all, there was something in the world that mustn’t be awakened.

「As long as she is a kijin, she has the factor of manifesting『that skill.』And that girl also has a trigger for that. That itself is something you can’t really say if it’s the right thing to get. If she won’t awaken, that itself might also be fine.」

「『That skill』 of kijin, you say….at that point, isn’t that just bad!」

Listening to Melty’s words, Lyin unknowingly made her tone stronger.

Even Melty, who avoided declaring the true form of『that skill,』knew about it.

Because Lyin knew, she couldn’t understand Melty’s intention to not stop it.

「It’s not like its a bad thing. Though certainly, it doesn’t have to be awakened, but….that itself is also nothing but a「power,」after all. Depending on the user, it can change to being either good or evil.」

After Lyin’s criticism, Melty had a refreshing face as she responded with those words.

「From her situation, there is no mistake that before long it will awaken. Rather, its even strange that she still hasn’t awakened yet, after all.」

「Even Melty can’t stop it?」

「Yes. I can’t. Even I can’t manipulate a person’s heart, after all.」

No matter how much power one had, no matter how much knowledge you had, there were lots of things one could not change. Melty was aware of that.

In particular, it was difficult to change what you might call the heart of a person. If there were those who yielded before power, there were also those who had strong hearts and a specific purpose who would never yield.

From how Melty saw it, that kijin girl was not the type to yield, and also not the type who had a particular reason.

Just alone without being lost, with an infant-like heart, a person who keeps looking at the one and only light.

「Well, even if she gets overwhelmed in power then I can just stop it. And it looks like she also has a teacher, and someone who supports her, so I’m sure that she would be able to get over it by herself.」

「Fuun…..for Melty to think like that, you sure have quite a have a big evaluation of her.」

「Well, yeah. Jealous?」

「Not at all. I just thought that it was unusual.」

After shrugging her shoulders and looking disappointed that Lyin didn’t show any signs of jealousy at all, Melty looked at the girl through 《Heavenly Eye》.

Reflected in Melty’s eyes was a heart separated into two. And as both were real, when she awakened, no one knew what would happen.

「People sure are interesting」

For now, let’s make sure to see the end of this.

Just like when the vampire race was destroyed.

After all, Melty’s existence was, no matter what, just that of an observer.

☆ (Sukuna POV)

「For just the fur, I’ll give you 200k」

「Fua!?」

This was the clothing store at Fias….that it was not.

We were actually at the workshop that was Konekomaru’s base.

While Konekomaru-san was watching the stream while going through his crafting, it seemed he saw me get a hold of some materials from the Mysteria Rabi and rushed to contact me.

I totally forgot, but his workshop was at Fias. Having a chance to snatch up some rare materials right in front of him, he couldn’t ignore it.

「Compared to the other shops, it’s 100k Iris more. Why?」

The amount of money that Konekomaru-san offered was something with a clear price gap between the other shops.

Just in case, Touka-chan and I had gone to various NPC shops and compared the selling prices.

That was why Touka-chan was so doubtful, looking at Konekomaru-san with a doubting gaze.

Konekomaru-san explained the reasoning without getting flustered.

「Actually, to clear a certain quest, I wanted this material.」

「A quest, is it?」

「This place isn’t just the 4th town, but also the capital. So naturally, there are nobles in this city.」

According to Konekomaru-san.

Right then, the crafting quest he had received was to make an offering for a noble in the capital, it seemed.

And that noble was the person responsible for allowing Konekomaru-san to use this workshop. In exchange, what they sought was an offering.

A weapon, a piece of armor, a set of clothes, or an accessory. Whichever it was, if he could make equipment that would satisfy a noble, in the end, the workshop would become Konekomaru-san’s…..that was the quest guidelines.

And in order to clear it, he was searching for the materials of the Mysteria Rabi.

「Certainly around this city there are comparably more of them, but because of how hard it is to hunt them, the demand and supply are totally not matching up. And if you want to raise money, you could just get it from an easy to get monster. Plus, it’s experience drops are not good. Sure you could get some big money out of it, but in terms of efficiency, it’s lacking.」

Certainly, thinking about how it runs away, it was not a mob that you could just chase in your spare time. If you wanted to do that, it would be easier and more efficient to hunt the 《black rabbit》that was just jumping around.

By the way, the black rabbit was a level 33 monster, and there truly were a lot of them around Fias.

「And then I came in, huh?」

「That’s right. But I didn’t think that you would have hunted four of them though.」

It was a big expense, as Konekomaru-san said, but despite that he looked happy.

Konekomaru-san said he would pay 200k for just the fur, but of course, the Mysteria Rabi’s fur was not the only part that could be used.

I noticed it once when I properly observed it, but actually the Mysteria Rabi had a jewel on its forehead and its eyes were like a material made out of crystal.

These two types of items were just pretty material that dropped. Even in NPC shops, just comparing the price of a single one of them, the going price was way higher here.

「Two for now of the jewels, the advance payment for each one looks like it’ll be around 150k. I’m thinking of putting the completed item on the auction, so depending on how it sells, I’ll add a bonus to the payment. And of course, that’s if we’re in the black.」

「Hoe~….Konekomaru-san, you sure are rich….」

「After all, I’m a member of Dragon Fang. Although there is a condition where I have to prioritize their equipment, they are also my regulars that allow me to earn a lot of Iris so I can sink myself into research and my hobbies. As crafters, someone needs to take the lead, after all.」

「Ah, so you’re taking money from them, is it?」

「Of course I do.」

The clan Ryuu no Kiba (Dragon Fang). It felt like it’d been a long time since I’d heard that name, but there was no mistaking that I’d heard it this past week.

I heard that it was quite a large-scale clan, but at least for me, Konekomaru-san was the only one I knew from it.

Clans. Clans, huh? It was a concept where a group of players gathered under the same leader, but there was a high probability of it existing in other online games under different names, so it wasn’t strange at all.

More than just a party, it was a large united group. Could I say it like that? It was unexpectedly hard to put into words.

Now that I thought about it, was Rin-chan going to make a clan or something?

Although, with Rin-chan’s charisma, she could manage one or two huge-scale clanse.

Anyways, so I was already at Fias, huh?

I had just one, maybe two more towns to go through, then I could finally arrive at where Rin-chan was.

It was only during my first day that we played together. Thinking about playing together again, I couldn’t deny that my heart was excited for it.

「Now that I think about it, since you’re here, should I repair the Red Wolf’s attire? Though it won’t disappear, it must have exhausted itself from the series of battle with strong enemies, right?」

「Aah….now that I think about it, you’re right.」

After I got it, I immediately had a fight with Rou, then got hit by Apocalypse, then there was the deathmatch at the Forest of Magic, and then I felt Kohaku probably greatly damaged it.

Taking a look at my menu, certainly, the durability had decreased considerably.

「Is it about repairing armor? Then I would like to ask for it too.」

「I don’t mind. It won’t take that much time too, so since it’s come to this, want to see it?」

Regarding Touka-chan, who took the chance, Konekomaru-san pleasantly nodded.

Since he went and invited me, I was allowed to check out the crafting.」

「Ah, if it’s like that, then please.」

「Me too, I haven’t seen how armor is crafted, so I’d like to see it.」

After that, Touka-chan and I received a short lecture about crafting from Konekomaru-san. When the skies had darkened, the both of us logged out together.

———————————————————————–

Otter noodles: (9: this is kinda getting out of hand)

Meeting Shuten, fighting with kohaku, defeating a gorilla, reunion with Touka and then defeating a gorilla, and then aiming for Fias, defeating a boss gorilla, defeating a rabbit, meeting with a vampire, and selling the rabbit materials <- currently here

long…that was a long one day…..