“No one else will be coming today…Our discussion about what to do concerning our roles before one week passes is now open.”
They were sitting in a dim section of a bewitching bar, located at the corner of the residential area near Balman City’s plaza. With a ‘Dan,’ Kagami struck the table with a serious look.
Kagami, Alice, Krul, and Tina were sitting at a table inside the bar while Takako, Menou, and Rex sat at the bar counter, silently looking at Kagami.
The Kenta-Uros were substituting for Takako, the bar owner, and stood behind the counter polishing glasses.
After Kagami announced the start of the meeting by striking the table, it remained silent for a while. Takako soundlessly raised her hand with a ‘suu,’ as if intending to destroy that silence.
“I…wish to be a Bunny Girl.”
The moment Takako uttered those words, everyone there shivered.
They shivered so hard that a strange sweat appeared on their foreheads. Menou, who was sitting next to Takako, thought, ‘Is she…serious,’ in surprise after staring at Takako’s figure when she raised her hand seriously and opened her mouth.
Regarding the Demon King’s Army, one month had passed since the attack on Salumeria.
Kagami, who had released his limiter when he had fought Estellar and the Demon King Army, couldn’t move his body for a day. By the next day though, he had healed enough to collect the gold that had been dropped by the Monsters in the Astro wasteland battlefield. Thanks to those hyenas who held no obligations towards Kagami, the money he had collected didn’t even amount to three Gold.
Of course, Kagami was known far and wide as one of the heroes who had saved Salumeria, and although he didn’t feel the need to be honored, he, as well as Takako, Alice, and Menou, who accompanied him, were quickly thanked by the Salumerians before they had departed for the Demon King’s Castle.
Rex’s group had followed them to find the Demon King, but the Demon King’s Castle had been completely deserted. The land that used to be covered by a violet-colored fog of dense magic power released from the Demon Castle and had been infested by Monsters that spawned from the dense magic, had become a normal, old castle built standing on top of a sheer cliff, bereft of fog and Monsters.
After all of that, Kagami’s group only found some gems worth about 20 Gold. They had not encountered the Demon King nor Estellar, so they had restlessly returned to Balman, since they couldn’t get anything done in Salumeria while being treated like heroes.
At the same time, Rex’s group that had set out to subjugate the Demon King had lost their purpose and returned to Balman with Kagami, who was unable to proceed with his plans.
Regardless of the need to raise 10,000 Gold and whether they would defeat or save the Demon King, they predicted that, if they ended up fighting in a year, the battle would take place in Salumeria. Salumeria would sustain a large amount of damage at that time, so Rex’s group decided to lend their power in order to collect the 10,000 gold.
Of course, since they no longer sought to defeat the Demon King, Rex’s group had thoughts about obtaining knowledge concerning Kagami’s origins while supporting him.
“First, let’s begin with what we know, and then decide on how to proceed from here on with our own wills. Won’t you share your knowledge?”
Kagami gladly agreed with those words and decided to aim for his large goal of 10,000 Gold. Palna was the only one who had disapproved of coexisting with Demons to the very end and planned to eliminate them.
“T-Takako-dono? I think there is a job more suitable for Takako-dono?”
“There is a job…besides being a Bunny Girl, that’s suitable for me?”
Looking at the energetic Takako who wanted to be a Bunny Girl, their shivering worsened.
Kagami’s group had immediately discussed how they would gather 10,000 Gold when they returned to Balman town. Currently, Kagami’s total assets were 5547 Gold. In other words, they just needed to gather the remaining 5000 Gold within a year. The plan Kagami had presented was to build a Casino.
The targets were rich nobles. If the rate of the Casino installments were high, they believed that their profits would be high as well. There was a risk regarding the Casino’s responsibilities. However, they were planning on using Games, since they were advantageous for Casinos.
Although they had considered asking for donations, when they had tried asking Krul, as a princess, it seemed that she didn’t have any confidence of being able to convince the upper crust to donate, even if she were to ask her father for a favor. Even though Krul had offered to store their strongest equipment and necessary items at the Guild before leaving on the journey, her offer had been rejected with “We can’t.”
After Takako’s input, Krul was once again asked to return to her kingdom with, “If you relay the present situation to them, will they fund us with some gold?” but she persistently responded that “They can’t.”
“Even though we were asked to subjugate the Demon King, what should we do since they won’t cooperate with us on the funding?”
Kagami voiced the conclusion that all of them had reached. Although they believed the kingdom might have a link to the world’s ploy as stated by Estellar, without any way to prove it, they had no other choice but to collect the 10,000 Gold.
The cost of constructing a Casino was 546 Gold. They needed to earn around 5000 Gold in the remaining year.
Following Kagami’s observations, they concluded that it would be impossible to earn 5000 Gold by just managing an ordinary Casino.
Although there were various plans for other forms of labor, for now, they had gathered together in order to organize the Casino’s management before the week ended.
“Takako-dono…I think it’s fine for you to manage a bar within the Casino.”
“Well, Menou-chan? Would you mind being the shop manager?”
Menou stuttered from Takako’s question. Kagami had been lucky enough to discover another spawn blocker, so Menou was provided with a cloth to suppress his magic power like Alice.
It had become possible for Menou to live amongst humans, and he had been leading an ordinary life this past month, giving Alice an allowance from his savings and helping with Takako’s bar.
“They will be Takako’s Bunny Girls. I think she would be too ‘exciting’ for guys. Having too much excitement is bad for one’s education. Truly.”
Kagami replied to Takako’s serious proposal in an equally serious manner.
“I-I also think Takako-san’s Bunny Girl appearance would be too exciting…for various reasons.”
“Oh…even Alice-chan? That’s right…my sex appeal would be too great.”
Alice replied with, “Yeah…That’s right,” without looking at her.
In the last month, Alice had accompanied Kagami on a journey to collect gold. They had been inseparable, like siblings, and she had continued supporting him under the pretense of “it is for Kagami.”
Although Kagami had initially believed that she would become a burden, he felt like she had ended up helping him, since she was skilled.
“Let’s see…Me being a Bunny Girl would be bad for the eyes, right?”
“That’s right, I’ll leave the management of the Bar to you since the clients would end up poisoned by seeing such a sight.”
In the end, after Kagami emphasized that, Takako consented with, “It can’t be helped,” while letting out a sigh.
“The Bunny Girl position will be handed over to Krul-chan, then.”
“Eh!? No, I-I will never wear such a shameless outfit!?”
“Then what do you plan to do?”
“I’ll decide on that from here on out!”
Krul yelled at Takako with her face dyed a deep red.
In the past month, Krul had stayed in Balman town while completing tasks such as accompanying Alice and Kagami as a Healer, helping out at Takako’s bar, and helping with the Casino’s construction. Although she had been raised as royalty, because she had the constitution of an adventuring Adventurer, she had easily adapted to living like a commoner.