Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-Seven: Reward
“I’m home, Karen.”
“Welcome back, Julius! …Did you take a bath?”
Karen looked at Julius as he arrived at the alchemy workshop manor—relaxed and freshly clean—and Julius smiled.
“I didn’t want to come see you covered in the dirt of travel.”
Karen looked down at herself in dismay.
“I’ve been shut up in this workshop manor for days—I’m definitely grubby too…!?”
Potion development for Thor and the Crimson Thunder, textbook creation for the children, producing potions for the shop alongside fulfilling advance orders, and on top of all that, developing custom potions for clients with unusual side effects from their Bloodline Blessing.
Lately, Karen had been engaged in a daily chicken race against her own limits, constantly wondering how many spinning plates she could keep in the air at once. Even though she loved bathing, she couldn’t deny that she had been taking advantage of this world’s attitude that bathing every day was not the norm.
“I’ll go take a bath too, so… wait a bit.”
“You’re adorable no matter what you look like, Karen.”
“Could you let me go?”
Julius had caught her arm as she tried to slip past him and now held her in an embrace, smiling pleasantly.
“Heeeeey!”
“There is nothing more beautiful than watching you throw yourself into your work.”
“Let. Me. Go.”
“I want to be near you, and yet I’ve been out gathering materials for your work. The least you could do is show a little appreciation. It wasn’t particularly difficult for me, of course.”
“I am genuinely grateful for that! Really, Julius! Not many adventurers can just pop down to the tenth floor and back!”
While developing potions for Thor’s party, Karen had needed materials the Ehlertt capital Adventurers’ Guild didn’t have in stock, and she’d been writing letters to inquire about availability in the royal capital—when Julius had simply gone into the territorial capital dungeon to fetch them himself.
“That’s not quite enough, Karen.”
“Hooray, the finest knight in the Ehlertt Order! The pride of Lord Helfried—Brother Helfried’s little brother!”
“Hmm. That’s a gratifying thing to hear in its own way, but the reward I’m hoping for is something else.”
Julius smiled knowingly, fully aware that Karen understood what he was asking for, and his smile deepened as she struggled pointlessly against it.
“You know what it is I’m asking for, don’t you?”
“If you let me go right now, the reward might get an upgrade!”
Karen threw that out in desperation to escape the face drawing closer to hers—and Julius immediately released her.
“I look forward to it.”
“…Wait. Did I just walk into a trap?!”
“I had no intention of trapping you, Karen. Go on, hurry up and get in the bath. I’ll wait on the sofa. I wonder what an upgrade from a kiss might look like.”
“Hold on. Was a kiss already the baseline for the reward?!”
“It was. In my mind.”
Julius said it with a serene smile. Even if it genuinely wasn’t a difficult task for someone of Julius’s ability, it had still been dangerous work done for Karen’s sake. She wanted to repay that by granting what Julius hoped for, and frankly it wasn’t something she was opposed to herself.
—And yet Karen fled to the bathroom installed in the alchemy workshop manor.
“I really am… a completely different person from my past life…”
She turned the hot water from the heating magical tool on full to cover the sound and pressed her hands to her head. The idea that even thinking about doing more than kissing would make her blush and squirm with embarrassment was simply unimaginable from the perspective of her past life.
“Did I carry over a completely different soul, with only the memories intact…? Or is it the same soul, just a different body, so everything feels different…?”
As she turned it over, her thoughts drifted to questions of the soul, the nature of trials, and then to the goddess herself. Her attention scattered, and gradually the embarrassment faded.
But the moment she stepped out of the bathroom and spotted Julius, it all came rushing back.
“Welcome back, Karen. I’m expecting that upgrade, you know.”
“Ughhh! Sit down and stay there!”
Karen steered Julius, who looked ready to come and meet her, back to the sofa and approached him herself.
Julius lay stretched out on the large sofa, waiting. Having stopped by the bath first, he was dressed in relaxed clothes. Karen glared at that calm chest of his with something bordering on resentment, face bright red, and leaned over him.
Julius smiled with quiet happiness and closed his eyes.
Fresh from the dungeon and yet his skin glowed with magical energy—just as Julius had said, it clearly hadn’t been a difficult task for him. But there was something about Julius that suggested he would accomplish dangerous work for Karen regardless of the risk, and she needed him to understand how much she treasured him.
“Thank you, Julius.”
She murmured it as she touched his cheek, and slowly brought her face closer.
But just as their lips were about to meet, there was a knock at the door.
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