“Receptionist Mistica talked with the brother for nine minutes. Annoying.”
“Whoa…”
That evening, Lady Knight Iris witnessed a peculiar sight.
From the guild’s window, the silver-haired sisters, Niesha and Kuesha, who had taken her in, were peering out and watching ‘Jade, the perennial third-rate solo adventurer.’
“Le-Leaders, what are you…?”
“Iris!?”
The two turned around, revealing that they had men’s underwear stuck to their mouths.
“Wha!?”
“Damn it, Kuesha. We didn’t notice someone approaching.”
“Can’t be helped, Niesha. Iris moves so silently.”
“Wh-what’s with those underwear!?”
As Iris screamed, the silver-haired sisters took the underwear in their hands and, with a look of blissful ecstasy, said,
“These are Jade’s underwear!”
“Hiyaaa!?”
They made an unspeakably perverted declaration.
“Sniffing them while sneaking around is a bad idea. If we hadn’t been focused on the smell, we would have noticed Iris.”
“Yeah. If Jade found out about this, he would look at us with those cold, indifferent eyes, just like when he’s dealing with insignificant monsters…”
“Gulp… Th-that might be nice…”
As they continued their creepy conversation and laughed eerily, Iris shivered and thought, ‘I knew it.’
“…You two clearly like Jade.”
“Obviously.”
She had suspected as much.
After all, Iris was currently living with the female party ‘Fairy’s Prank,’ led by these sisters.
Which meant she was sharing a home with them…
“I can hear it at night… the sweet voices of the leaders from their bedroom, calling ‘brother, brother…♡’.”
“Eep!”
“What kind of creepy smile is that?”
She couldn’t help but express her honest opinion.
“That hurt…”
“Sorry, it’s just, that smile was so horrendous…”
“It was that bad?”
The sisters were a bit shocked.
They rubbed their cheeks and vowed never to make that smile in front of Jade again (though they had done it once, but Jade, being very lenient with them, had ignored it).
Putting aside the sisters’ strange smile issue,
“So, you’ve been acting separately sometimes to monitor Jade?”
“Yeah. We’re keeping an eye on him to make sure no stalkers are around.”
“Y-you’re the stalkers, you perverts!”
She wanted to shout that with all her might but managed to hold back.
Iris gained the skill ≪Mental Fortitude: Save Heart≫.
“Well, as long as you don’t cause him any trouble, it’s fine. Love is a maiden’s privilege.”
“Hehe!”
“That smile is cute. By the way, how did you get those underwear?”
“We stole them.”
“You’re causing trouble!”
She gave them a double forehead flick.
Lady Knight Iris was strict against injustice.
“Oww!”
“Oops, sorry… No, actually, let me lecture you. If you love him, don’t steal his belongings. Especially underwear, that’s too perverted.”
“You’re telling us not to breathe!?”
“Jade’s underwear is like oxygen to you!?”
It was an encounter with an unknown culture.
Raised in the holy city, Iris had seen many perverts since coming to this town, experiencing a series of shocking firsts.
“We’ll die!”
“No, you won’t.”
Iris retorted.
But the sisters’ faces turned pale as they imagined a future without Jade’s underwear.
“Dyiinnggg!”
How annoying.
Iris thought.
“Sigh.”
This was clearly not good, so,
“Alright… if it’s old underwear Jade has thrown away, you can take those. If they’re in the trash, it’s not causing trouble…”
She reluctantly offered a compromise.
Iris gained the skill ≪Flexible Thinking≫.
“Anyway, don’t bother him. If you truly care for Jade.”
“Okay…”
The sisters bowed their heads at the knight’s scolding.
Iris wondered if they thought she was a cheeky newcomer but,
“Hehe, what now, Kuesha? We’ve been scolded.”
“Since our brother. He’s the only one who scolds us.”
They didn’t seem angry.
Instead, they rubbed their foreheads, looking oddly pleased as if they had a rare experience.
“You two…”
From their behavior and comments, Iris realized the sisters’ background.
“Do you have no parents?”
“Yeah, we were abandoned.”
They continued, somewhat embarrassed.
They learned their stealing skills during those harsh times.
“We had a hard time. Lived like rats until we got caught pickpocketing. They dragged us into an alley and beat us up.”
“Even broke our bones. Almost got assaulted too, so we cried.”
“Then, we dumped trash on ourselves. The attackers were so disgusted, they left.”
“It was a brilliant move. They didn’t want to touch us after that!”
Iris was speechless.
“What a… tragic past…”
Growing up in the holy city, she could hardly imagine such hardships.
“But that was it. We were at our limit. Broken bones, hungry… But then,”
“Our brother saved us. Even though we were covered in trash, pointing a broken glass shard at him, demanding money.”
They woke up in a warm clinic bed.
At their feet, the man they attacked was sleeping, having watched over them.
“And so, we were taken care of by Jade for years.”
“Thanks to him, we’re fine now. Even went to a school he paid for, learned magic.”
Iris could only respond with, “I see…”
The sisters had a terribly harsh past.
It was a miracle they could smile now.
“Thank you for telling me, leaders. I understand why you care for Jade so much.”
Without him, who knows what would have happened to them.
And the same was true for Iris.
“He saved me too. Maybe not as much as you, but I am very grateful to Jade.”
“You seemed similar to us.”
“Yeah.”
She smiled wryly.
Iris had also been saved by Jade when she was starving and filthy with an immobile arm.
Her situation was strangely similar to the sisters’.
“Yes… then I’ll correct myself. I am just as grateful to Jade. Therefore,”
The knight gently embraced the sisters’ shoulders.
“Niesha, Kuesha. I’ll support your love as much as I can…!”
“Iris…!”
A bond formed at sunset.
Brought together by fate, they understood each other for the first time.
“Then, can you get ‘Brother’s Baby Juice’ for us!?”
“I’ll kill you.”
Iris gained the skills ≪Mental Fortitude: Save Heart≫ and ≪Flexible Thinking≫. She delivered a blow that was almost a knockout but left the sisters writhing in pain.
“Yaaaah!”
Grabbing their necks like kittens, the knight glared at them.
“If you don’t repent, I might have to execute you. I’ll ensure you become decent!”
“Eek! She’s like a demon mom!”
Iris also gained the skill ≪Great Motherhood≫.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Niesha: “Actually, all six members of our party ‘Fairy’s Prank’ were saved by our brother.”
Kuesha: “We keep an eye on each other to avoid sneaking ahead.”
Iris: “You’re all creepy, and Jade saves too many people…!”
