Chapter 2: The First Touch of Green-Haired Elf Lady
Receiving no answer from Keyaru after a long wait, Syr covered her mouth with a hand, giggling sweetly, yet the words that followed from her innocent-looking lips were chilling.
"I have a premonition..."
"Mr. Keyaru, you will show me a breathtaking brilliance within these myriad unchanging things, even if your soul is still murky... or perhaps a luminous murkiness~"
"But that's not a problem..."
"I've decided to trust my intuition..."
"To polish you in my own way!"
Syr, or rather Freya now, carefully observed Keyaru's reaction, but Keyaru only ventured a tentative question:
"How will you polish me?"
The gray-haired girl chuckled lightly, wagging her slender, pale finger.
"Simple..."
"Use humiliation to grind away your arrogance!"
"Use humility to teach you reverence!"
"Use despair to toughen your will!"
"Finally, once all this is complete, you can begin your adventure!"
This barrage of riddles made Keyaru shake his head in frustration.
"So, specifically? What's the first step?"
Noticing the boy's emaciated appearance, nothing like an adventurer, the gray-haired girl sighed regretfully and produced a large plate of steaming hot meat.
Placing the plate gently on the floor, Syr said softly:
"Mr. Keyaru, it's been three days since you've eaten, hasn't it?"
"Ever since you were locked up here..."
Glancing at the boy's chained hands, Freya curled her lips into a hint of mockery.
"Is it because of so-called dignity?"
"Unwilling to bend down to eat..."
"Then let me help you~"
With that, the girl lifted her snow-white thigh high, intending to step on Keyaru's head. But just as her little leather boot was about to collide with the back of the boy's head, Keyaru, who was deeply familiar with the ways of the dungeon, had no choice but to take a gamble in desperation!
"Is this... truly your wish?"
"Miss Syr!"
After Keyaru spoke loudly, Syr's face immediately showed a pained expression.
The little leather shoe that was about to step on the back of the boy's head halted abruptly in mid-air, and the gray-haired girl's expression became calm.
"You know my name?"
Silence...
Still silence...
Amid intense inner struggle, Syr returned to her original self, a bright smile blooming on her face.
"It seems my promise to use humiliation to grind away your arrogance was a broken one... Mr. Keyaru!"
"Our compatibility doesn't seem to be very good, so from now on, the one bringing you meals will be Lion~"
"Well then... see you later, Mr. Keyaru!"
Taking away the plate of meat in front of her, Syr left the basement without looking back...
Only after the girl had left did Keyaru's forehead break out in a cold sweat of fear.
He had almost experienced the treatment of a stick hero...
Freya... Freya, what a humorous joke!
The crazy goddess and the perverse princess—Keyaru frowned deeply, seemingly thinking about how to escape his current predicament...
However, Syr said that the next person to bring him food would be Ryuu, who hadn't yet become a useless elf...
It seemed there might be an opportunity!
Thinking this, Keyaru, who had exhausted his energy guarding against the Charm Skill of Freya, the goddess of beauty, grew weary. Under the assault of hunger, his consciousness gradually faded...
...
Opening his eyes in a daze...
What met Keyaru's gaze was a pair of slender calves clad in black leggings.
Feeling that the chain on his right hand seemed to have been unlocked...
Thinking this was a dream, Keyaru reached out in his haze and squeezed the calves before him twice. The sensation of extreme elasticity made the boy involuntarily narrow his eyes with pleasure... but the next moment...
"You unreasonable remnant of Evilus!"
"Pervert! No wonder you're the only Familia member of that Evil God!"
The girl's flustered yet angry voice rang out, followed immediately by Keyaru feeling tremendous force applied to his abdomen!
The intense pain completely woke the boy. He saw the elf whose hair had turned green looking at him with an expression of utter disgust.
Ryuu never expected that, because of a momentary lapse in attention, she would actually be groped...
Due to her anger, the green-haired elf began continuously grinding her green leather boot into Keyaru's abdomen. Although Ryuu consciously controlled her strength, the powerful foot strength of an Level 4 adventurer still caused Keyaru considerable pain...
Knowing that begging for mercy would be useless as a member of Evilus, Keyaru had no choice but to resort to extraordinary measures!
Suppressing his discomfort with all his might, Keyaru put on his best performance ever to feign enjoyment...
The sharp-sensed Ryuu noticed Keyaru's odd behavior and immediately withdrew her foot, creating distance between them!
"You... you..."
Flustered with anger and blushing, Ryuu stared at Keyaru incoherently.
The pure elf, having exhausted her lifetime's vocabulary, couldn't find a single word to describe someone like Keyaru. Thus, the green-haired elf could only feign calmness with a light hum.
Assessing his physical condition, Keyaru looked amusedly at the contradictory Ryuu, his eyes smiling.
"I remember falling asleep while starving..."
"But the hunger disappeared after I woke up. Do you have any clues about this, Miss Gale?"
Keyaru's deliberate pretense earned him a fierce glare from Ryuu.
But the young man paid no mind, continuing his verbal assault:
"The Gale who kills Evilus without blinking—this time, instead of slitting my throat upon seeing me, you kindly fed me..."
Before Keyaru could finish, Ryuu cut him off coldly:
"How do you know I'm Gale?"
"When I found you back then, I should still have had blonde hair!"
Facing Ryuu's interrogation, Keyaru replied with remarkable gentleness:
"Eyes can't lie..."
"And even if Miss Syr hadn't stopped you back then, you probably wouldn't have killed me directly, would you, Miss Gale..."
"So, you must have investigated enough by now. What's your conclusion, Miss Gale..."
Keyaru's relentless questioning made Ryuu hang her head in silence. Finally, the elf girl recalled her decisive, sharp-tongued rival from the past... Gnashing her teeth, she responded bitterly.
"You're still part of Evilus! Even if you haven't committed evil deeds, you can't prove you won't do so in the future!"
"So..."
Watching the evasive elf girl, Keyaru delivered his final blow:
"What if I turn evil precisely because of how you're treating me? Will you take responsibility for that, Miss Gale!"
Silence...
It had been a long time since anyone had bantered with her like this since that person named Kaguya died. Ryuu smiled bitterly, her weakened verbal defenses ceasing to struggle as she apologized to Keyaru.
But... Syr, who had given her life new meaning... seemed reluctant to let Keyaru go...
Not understanding why Syr would think this way, but...
Watching the green-haired elf's fleeing figure, Keyaru sighed...
Syr...