Thank you, Carl Cedric Cuerdo, for joining the memberships.
I'm truly grateful.
...
Chapter 49: When the Paparazzi Learn How to Photoshop?
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"You're saying… you'll do anything?"
Marisa flinched at Kihara's suspiciously smooth tone, suddenly sensing a serious threat to her chastity. She quickly added, "B-But lewd stuff is off-limits!"
"Relax, I won't do anything like that."
Kihara flashed a perfect capitalist smile.
A beautiful girl who could fly, moved at high speed, and was willing to do anything except lewd things — this was a four-star Palu with perfect specs. Letting such a valuable worker go unexploited would be an insult to the vampire lurking in his shadow.
"Marisa, I order you to come to my farm every day for the next month and water the fields!"
"That's it?"
"For now, yes. And don't even think about stealing my watering can."
Kihara felt a little helpless. If he assigned her harvesting or fishing duties, he was certain most of the produce would mysteriously vanish into her pockets. Watering the fields was the safest option.
"O-Of course I won't!"
For a split second, Marisa's eyes darted guiltily to the side. She had indeed considered "borrowing" the watering can after the month was over… but she hadn't actually done it yet. No action meant no theft!
Kihara handed over the low-grade recovery potion. The moment Marisa received it, she immediately changed her attitude, released her legs from around his waist, and dashed toward her house. "You can leave now! Don't disturb my experiments. I'll show up on time tomorrow to water the fields!"
Trading a cheap 500-valis potion for a mobile sprinkler system felt like the deal of the century to Kihara.
[Shinobu, do you think I can keep hiring Marisa with these potions in the future?]
[Are you treating her like an idiot? There's no way a rare potion would conveniently refresh once a month.]
[What a shame.]
After resolving the midnight vegetable-thief incident with the black-and-white magician, Kihara hopped back on his motorcycle and headed home.
The roaring engine of a vehicle that clearly didn't belong in Gensokyo naturally caught the attention of Shameimaru Aya high in the sky. Using her sharp eyesight, she instantly recognized Kihara and began snapping photos in rapid succession.
"Isn't this my favorite news protagonist? If he's here, it means he brought new girls back to Gensokyo again. And he's coming from the direction of the Magic Forest… Could he have gone to see Marisa?"
Sensing a major scoop, Aya flapped her wings and flew straight to the Kirisame Magic Shop. She pulled out a megaphone and shouted inside, "Marisa~ Come out quick! I need to interview you!!"
Boom!
The moment she finished speaking, a loud explosion erupted from inside the shop, followed by thick black smoke pouring from the chimney. Marisa stumbled out with her hair fried into a wild explosion-style afro, her face twitching with irritation. "Damn tengu paparazzi, did you come here on purpose to mess up my experiment!?"
"Ahahaha… of course not!" Aya laughed awkwardly. "I just wanted to ask if Kihara stopped by earlier."
"Yeah, he did. He…"
Marisa paused mid-sentence, rubbing her chin thoughtfully as she glanced at the gossip-hungry reporter whose eyes were sparkling with excitement. She immediately launched into a wildly exaggerated version of what had happened, ending with the dramatic declaration: "Magic is explosion!"
"Perfect! That's exactly what I wanted!! Don't worry, Justice Reporter Aya will expose all of Kihara's evil deeds and deliver justice for you!!"
"Huh?"
"I'm going back to write the article right now! See ya!"
"Wait— I only said he forced me to work for him! What exactly did you hear!?!"
…
[Bunbunmaru News Express!]
Yesterday, after returning from another world, Gensokyo's leading male protagonist (status unconfirmed) Kihara launched a surprise raid on the Kirisame Magic Shop. Using a mysterious potion from another world, he forced the innocent magician Marisa into an unfair contract. When this reporter arrived at the scene, Marisa's clothes were torn and disheveled, her hair in complete disarray (500 words of tragic appearance description omitted here).
In the end, the delirious Marisa uttered the cryptic words "Magic is explosion" before collapsing unconscious. This reporter, holding back tears of sorrow, carried her back to her room. Here is her final unconscious appearance:
[Photoshopped image of Marisa making peace signs with ahegao face]
"?????????"
Kihara stared at the newspaper in his hands, face full of question marks. As an experienced internet surfer, he could instantly tell the final photo had been heavily edited. The real question was — when did the tengu paparazzi learn how to Photoshop, a technique that shouldn't even exist in Gensokyo?
"Ah… so that's why Aya borrowed my computer yesterday…" Shinjou Akane stepped forward sheepishly and confessed her crime. "I helped her with the bad stuff."
"Helping the paparazzi slander your own husband? That's one hundred kisses as punishment!"
"Hehe~ I'm sorry! I won't lend her the computer again."
Akane clung to his neck coquettishly while carrying out her punishment, her playful affection on full display.
Hestia watched the two of them being so lovey-dovey with clear envy in her eyes. Unfortunately, she only became boldly daring when she was completely alone with Kihara. She didn't have the courage to act this intimately in front of others.
"By the way… where are Ais and the others?"
"They went back to help with Orario's reconstruction. They'll return in the evening."
"Oh… Akane… could you… stop kissing for a second? Let me finish talking."
"Okay~"
Akane licked her slightly dry lips, then obediently rested her head on Kihara's shoulder and nuzzled gently against him. Every movement she made radiated an irresistible charm that made people want to hold her and spoil her rotten.
Hestia's eyes went wide at the display. Even though Akane was only nine centimeters taller than her, the gap in their coquettish skills was like night and day.
It was the difference between "helpless cute whimpering" and "deliberately bending over to show off the exact type of lingerie her boyfriend loved most."
Feeling the pressure, Hestia silently decided that once Lili returned, she would ask her for lessons on this particular subject.
That morning, Kihara planned to build proper houses for Hestia and the others with Akane's help, then check out the mine. If the mine elevator could reach the 50th floor, he would head to the fishing spot on the 20th floor to earn some quick cash.
Although he had brought back plenty of ore ingots from the dungeon, his farming level was still not at 8, so he couldn't unlock the brewing barrel yet. The sap collector was craftable, but the key oak trees hadn't grown large enough.
In short: he needed a lot of time to wait.
Pelican Town currently only had the carpenter, seed shop, and mine restored. What Kihara urgently needed next were a blacksmith to upgrade tools and a ranch to raise animals.
His original plan had been to rest for two days after returning from the Danmachi world, then head to the next world to unlock the Adventurers Guild and ask Kaguya to find a world related to blacksmithing.
But after bringing back a massive amount of resources, the slow time flow in Gensokyo meant Pelican Town simply couldn't process everything he had supplied.
It was like buying four or five bags of snacks, only to realize he could only eat one pack of spicy strips. Staring at the mountain of snacks left him feeling utterly powerless.
.....
Thank you for reading.