Liz shivered softly as the cool morning air caressed her skin in the cool, cool morning air near the Deep Green Forest.
「Mmhh......」
She wakes up slowly. She realizes in her foggy brain that she's naked, and she wonders if she has demonstrated her bad sleeping habits again and taken off her smock, but there's no smock within reach of her wriggling hands. Or rather, she finally feels a sense of discomfort at the fact that the texture of the sleeping mattress feels different from usual.
―Ah, I see. That's right. I am now accompanying Satoru-Oniisan on his journey.
She looks at the back of her left hand and gently strokes the mysterious pattern floating there. That pattern is proof that she is Satoru's magical slave. Remembering that last night, Satoru held her for the first time since she became a magical slave, she relaxed her expression and ― Jumped up in a panic.
「Ah!」
Liz is the lowest of the magical slaves, with Satoru at the top. In terms of the order, she was before Solor, but they now know that this was done out of consideration for Satoru. The lowest of the low should not be allowed to sleep around in comfort.
Liz jumped up in a hurry and looked for her clothes. She is even more flustered when she realizes that the mattress and quilt she has been sleeping in were not bought for her, but for Satoru, who is the main person in the group. Satoru is not in sight.
「Good morning, Liz」
Liz turns her head to look at the voice coming from diagonally behind her. The brown-skinned second magical slave is holding a pot in her hand and smiling cheerfully. Liz, still naked, bowed her head toward Rico.
「I'm sorry, I've been sleeping peacefully.」
「No worries. You worked so hard last night.」
Rico laughed and brushed off Liz's blunder. Rico's understanding is another of Rico's charms. Liz bowed her head once more to Rico's consideration and looked for clothes for now. The dress she had taken off yesterday lay folded under her pillow, and she felt too embarrassed. Perhaps Rico or Solor had folded it and left it there last night. There was no underwear there, so she would have to take it out of the backpack she had bought for herself later.
The underwear she wore with Satoru yesterday must have been soaked in love juice, and the fact that she couldn't find it suggests that one of the slaves must have washed it for her. I am sorry about that, too.
「How are you feeling?」
Liz checked her body when Rico asked her that after she had put on a dress for now.
「Eh ...... Oh, somehow ...... my body is light?」
Liz is surprised at how incredibly refreshed she feels, including her legs, which were a little tense.
「You've been walking around for the past two days, and yesterday, you were in a very tense place like a battlefield, and you don't seem to have any physical problems, right?」
「Yes. ...... Is this Onii-san's?」
「That's right. Oh, Satoru is in the toilet.」
Intercourse with Satoru has the effect of restoring the other's physical strength. It is thanks to this that Liz was able to recover after almost dying once. Liz, once again confirming Satoru's mysterious ability, gripped her own hand several times in disbelief.
Rico seems to have finished most of the breakfast preparations. She is serving the four people who need to eat. Feeling sorry for not being able to help, Liz remembers that she has to thank Rico before that.
「Oh, um, ......」
「Hmm?」
「Y-Yesterday, umm........thank you very much」
During the intercourse with Satoru last night, not only Rico, but almost everyone saw the sex, and some harsh words were flying at Liz.
At first, Liz thought it was sarcasm. However, she had a strange feeling that they were not simply sarcastic people, and she soon realized that the sarcasm was not sarcasm, but encouragement for a girl who was not used to it.
So Liz thanked Rico. Rico gave Liz a small smile.
「That's not just for me, is it?」
Right. Last night, all of them talked to Liz. Even Solor, who usually doesn't talk, said something.
「Yes. Still, I wanted to thank you first. Thank you very much.」
「Mmm.」
Rico smiled as if beaming. She was finally able to have a younger sister among all the beautiful women with exceptional abilities. Rico also wanted to take good care of Liz.
Then, she heard a voice talking from outside. That cute voice like rolling bells is Leia, the first magical slave. Leia, who has come into the hollow with Solor, notices that the girl who received their Lord's favor last night is awake and lightly calls out to her.
「Oh. You're awake. How are you feeling?」
「Ah, Leia-san, Solor-san ....... Good morning. I feel and look great. And thank you very much for yesterday. Also, I'm sorry again.」
「For what?」
Leia asks deliberately. Liz straightens up her posture and turns to face Leia squarely.
「I was deeply impressed by your encouragement during my lovemaking. I also want to apologize again for all the cheeky things I said to you. It is unforgivable for me to argue with you, Leia-san, who is the first magical slave.」
With a giggle, Leia shook her head from side to side and blocked Liz from saying anything else. Liz knows exactly what she's talking about when she calls her words of encouragement rather than sarcasm. If that is the case, Leia does not feel the need to say more.
「No? Yesterday, my Lord told you. You have a role to play. And in such a role, it is inevitable that sometimes strong words are directed at you, even if you are dealing with me.」
Liz is intelligent. Even Leia admits that. That is why the role assigned to Liz was described as a military attaché, but the role of a military attaché is quite difficult. The role of a military attaché is to calmly and emotionally express strong opinions, even to generals and general staff at times.
Leia admires Satoru's shrewdness in placing Liz in this role. Certainly, with this group of members, it would be most reasonable and appropriate for Liz to take on this role. However.
「Just ...... I'm sorry if I'm more lenient than necessary, all right?」
Liz smiled back at Leia, who laughed mischievously.
Liz is aware that she is still very young. Leia believes that if she is aware of her inexperience, understands it, and steadily climbs up the stairs one by one, she will surely become an asset to this party. Fighting directly is not the only way to become an asset. When they were worried about how to handle the pregnant Minerva, Liz suggested asking Feather Dragon for advice, because there are ways to make use of intelligence.
「Ah, Liz. I'll give you this just in case.」
Rico picked it up from her tools and tossed it to Liz. She hurriedly took it and checked it.
「A bow?」
「I bought it for myself during the previous labyrinth search, but I thought it would be better for Liz than for me. Liz grew up in elven society, so she should be able to use it at least a little bit, correct?」
The most important weapon of the elves is the bow. In the Elven society, both men and women are trained hard, so even Liz can use a bow to a certain extent. In human society, the crossbow, which can be handled without much skill, is more prized than the bow, which requires skill, but the bow is overwhelmingly more powerful if you have even a certain amount of skill. The bow is a useful weapon because of its ability to fire in rapid succession, which is absolutely impossible with a crossbow, and its ease of adjusting its power (damage control).
Liz is also skilled enough to have hunted wild rabbits from time to time since she was evicted from the village of Ruijs and came to live on the outskirts of the Deep Green Forest. On the other hand, she has only used a knife at most.
Liz put a string on it to check its strength. The string is a little bigger than Liz, who is a little smaller than Rico, but it is within the range of Rico's ability to handle it. The quality is not bad either.
「Then, I'll gratefully accept it」
Liz also received a tube with 12 arrows in it. She had more luggage, but it was reassuring to have a weapon in hand, even if it was only for comfort.
「But, as you know, rather than using them, you should focus on running and dodging.」
「Yes」
Liz understood this without needing to be told by Leia. In the end, there are three members of this party with outstanding abilities, Satoru, Leia, and Solor. It was almost impossible to imagine a situation in which Liz would have to use a bow and arrow. If such a situation were to occur, the only way it would be possible would be if Satoru were down or away.
「Unfortunately, Satoru is the only one in the vanguard of our party. The party balance is not good.」
Rico laughed. If they only talk about the ability, Minerva also has the ability to be in the vanguard, but now that she is pregnant, even Satoru would not allow her to be in the vanguard. It is true that the party balance alone is distorted, but Satoru's ability to serve as the vanguard is so different that there is no problem with that.
「Ohh~. Liz, good morning!」
With light steps, Minerva entered the hollow. She was wearing pants, which was unusual for her, as she had been wearing a one-piece dress since she became human. The top was a loose-fitting tunic, the pants were made by Leia, and the tunic was made by Solor. They finished it last night while everyone was sleeping. Whether Leia or Solor, their level of sewing is high because they were able to make this much clothing in just one night.
「Ah, good morning, Minerva-san. I'm sorry about yesterday.」
「Minerva doesn't need your apology, okay? But more importantly, Liz, what do you think of this? Does it look good on Minerva?」
After easily blocking Liz's apology, Minerva spun around happily. Her rich, quirky, indigo hair flutters and spreads. It was probably easier for her to move than in a skirt. Her grass-colored tunic also suits her well.
「Yes. Very much.」
Liz smiled bitterly when she was told, "Doesn't need your apologies" but she honestly expressed her opinion. By the way, Liz is deadly bad at sewing for some reason, which is honestly awesome.
But Minerva's abundant hair, which reached to her sides, looked a little distracting. "Fumu", Leia nodded.
「I think you should tie up your hair, just in case. Liz, please tie Minerva's hair up.」
「Sure」
After all, everyone talked about what to do with Minerva's hair. Minerva has experimented with various hairstyles, and her face was indescribable. In the end, it was decided to braid her hair into a honeycomb because of its volume and kinks. However, since Minerva can't do it herself, this will be Liz's job for the time being.
「You're all already noisy in the morning.」
Satoru returned with a bitter smile. The only man seems to be feeling a little uncomfortable in the presence of five women.
「That's of course. With so many girls in the room, it's easy to get noisy very fast.」
Leia returned with a giggle and glanced back at Liz. Liz greeted Satoru with a big smile, feeling somewhat embarrassed to see him again since she had lost consciousness after yesterday.
「Good morning, Onii-san.」
「Oh, good morning.」
Satoru's attitude was completely normal, and Liz felt a small sense of relief. She had been worried that Satoru would feel guilty about being physical with her again and would distance himself from her, but that did not seem to be the case. Perhaps Satoru has finally made up his mind.
How is Minerva in pants with her hair braided? Minerva asked him smilingly, but he simply replied, "Oh, that's nice," to Minerva's displeasure, and then patted her on the head to check her mood.
「After eating, we'll leave right away」
They didn't unpack much, so it didn't take them long to get ready for their departure.
However, there was a slight accident.
Satoru took the initiative and climbed down the tree, followed by Liz, and was about to give Liz a hand, and Satoru suddenly flustered. Liz tilts her head and looked at Satoru, who looks away with a slight blush on his cheeks.
「Liz.」
「Yes?」
「...... make sure you wear your underwear properly.」
"Ah", she exclaims, her face blushing. She woke up and put on her clothes, but had a conversation with others without putting on underwear, and had completely forgotten about her underwear. She had been seen naked several times, but she was still embarrassed.