A Soft Sensation Against His Arm

"Finn hasn't come back yet either, huh."

"No. We haven't received any word from Finn-sama."

"I think she said she'd come back whenever she felt like it. I asked her to do something difficult, so she might not be back for a while."

Knowing her, she'd pull back if things got dangerous, and she almost never made mistakes. She'd come back once she reached a good stopping point.

She should also have an emergency communication magic tool on her.

"Anyway, for today, all that's left is to take a bath and go to bed. Orleans, good work holding down the fort. Thanks for looking after Ramiza-san, too."

"Of course. Please leave matters of this level to me."

That was a truly reassuring statement.

At worst, even if Yohane wasn't around, Orleans could keep the trading company running.

Today had been a truly exhausting day.

He'd keenly felt that his title of administrative officer didn't do much good when dealing with nobles.

The great merchants out there dealt with nobles on equal footing using nothing but their standing as merchants, without even that title. How on earth did they manage it?

He'd love to see them in action sometime.

Perhaps from the exhaustion of all that tension, the moment he got out of the bath and into bed, he fell asleep as if he'd lost consciousness.

He was deep asleep when a loud thud jolted him awake.

"Wh-what was that?"

It wasn't just once; the sound kept repeating.

He leapt out of bed, wondering what was happening, and rushed toward the source of the noise.

Azu and Orleans had similarly come out of their rooms and headed toward the scene together.

"What in the world could it be?"

"No idea. It didn't sound like a knock, though."

In the direction the noise was coming from… there were enormous sacks placed at the front entrance.

Quite a number of them, too.

"What could these be?"

Orleans turned to him with the question.

He had absolutely no clue.

He hadn't ordered any deliveries, and nothing would arrive this early in the morning in this quantity anyway.

"The contents are… magic stones."

All manner of magic stones had been stuffed into the sacks to the brim.

Various elemental stones were mixed in as well.

"Ugh, these are so heavy."

"You're the one who said we should bring all of them, Alexia-chan. Just filling our storage bags would've been more than enough."

"You can't just leave money lying on the ground."

So it turned out that Elza and Alexia were the ones who'd brought these sacks.

"And… heave."

"Elza, that grunt makes you sound like an old lady."

"I'm young! It just slips out lately."

As if delivering a finishing blow, the two of them set down more sacks.

"Good work, you two. Looks like it was quite the haul."

"We're back. We made a killing. You don't mind if I leave the selling to you, Master?"

"Well, that is my actual job."

"I'm so tired."

Elza tottered over and leaned against him, so he propped her up and slid her onto the sofa.

"Oh my."

"I'd heard magic stone bonus rooms were impressive, but I didn't think you could harvest this many."

"We were shocked too. And just so you know, this is on top of filling both our bags to the brim."

"The ones with the storage enchantment, right? … Those should hold at least two large barrels' worth."

"Even with several days' worth of food and water, spare clothes, backup weapons and armor, and consumables, there's still plenty of room. Right now they're crammed full of magic stones, though. They're in the way, so let me dump them out."

"Wait, wait, don't dump them here."

Alexia was about to flip her bag upside down, so he hurriedly stopped her.

The entrance was already buried in sacks. If she emptied her bag's worth of magic stones on top of that, they wouldn't be able to get through.

"What? I'm tired, so I just want to dump out the stones and go rest."

"I can see you're tired. I'll put them in the warehouse, so hand me the bags."

"Then please do."

"Mine too, please."

He took both Elza and Alexia's bags.

Thanks to the enchantment, they weighed the same as normal, but somehow they felt packed to bursting.

He peeked inside one… yep, magic stones crammed in to their absolute limit.

Alexia and Elza announced they were going to take a bath and disappeared into the washroom.

He would've preferred they help carry these sacks too, but they clearly wanted to wash off the sweat and rest as soon as possible.

He tried gripping the mouth of one sack and putting his strength into lifting it.

The sheer weight made it impossible to budge.

He stubbornly put in more effort, and it lifted just a tiny bit… but only for an instant.

Then Azu hoisted that same heavy sack with ease.

"I'll carry them."

"… Thanks."

Azu covered for him.

It was a bit pathetic, but the fact was that Azu, as an adventurer, was far stronger than him.

"What's all this? Wow, there are even high-purity elemental stones in here."

"Ramiza-san, you're up?"

"Yep, wide awake. Orleans-chan, thank you for yesterday. Dinner was delicious."

"Thank you. I'm glad it was to your liking, Ramiza-sama."

"Aww, you're so cute and so good at housework… hey, Yohane-kun. Can I have this girl?"

"Orleans isn't an object. Besides, don't you have those artificial fairies doing most of your housework?"

"Well, yes, but… those girls can clean and help out, but they end up eating the food on their own. My food supplies end up completely empty."

"Isn't that just them eating their own meals?"

He wasn't sure exactly what artificial fairies were, but if they were alive, wouldn't they get hungry?

"They should be able to function on magical power alone, but… their curiosity seems to win out."

"I see. Either way, it's your fault for not keeping enough supplies stocked, Ramiza-san."

"Uuu… my little junior is being so harsh."

"You're a grown woman, so please stop with the fake crying."

"I'm young, young I tell you. Anyway, setting that aside. What are you going to do with all of these?"

"Well, we'll sell them and convert them to cash. Pure magic stones are an energy source for cities, so at the current rate of production, you can never have too many. Fire and Water Elemental stones are in especially high demand."

They used fire and water magic stones extensively in their own daily life as well.

Earth magic stones had applications in agriculture and construction, so given enough time they could sell all of those too.

Wind magic stones, on the other hand, were tricky to find uses for.

Their applications in everyday life were limited.

They were sometimes used in windmills for grinding flour, but… compared to the others, they were unpopular.

They were well-suited for combat and support, so they sold well to mages, but they weren't the type of thing that moved in bulk.

"Wind stones are going to end up surplus anyway, right? Sell them to me cheap. I want to create a wind-element fairy. I think I'll fail, so I need a lot of them."

"That's fine, but…"

"C'mon, c'mon."

Ramiza-san clung to his arm.

It was a bit annoying, but he couldn't deny that the sensation of her ample bosom pressing against him was… pleasant.

"Sir."

"Wh-what is it?"

Orleans was staring at him with narrowed eyes.

"I believe it would be best to prepare the inventory ledger."

"Right, good idea."

"Also, Ramiza-san."

Orleans turned to face Ramiza-san.

"Hmm, what?"

"I believe you are standing too close to sir."

"Am I?"

"Yes."

She stated it flatly.

"In any case, I'd like to confirm how much we have in total, so Ramiza-san, please help with the inventory. We can discuss the rest after that."

"Sure. But keep my request in mind, okay?"

At any rate, he wanted to get the bags' contents out and tallied up as quickly as possible.