Chapter 4 (1): A conversation
As soon as I'd finished discussing that with my roommates, I went out again to talk to Tuare - Sorry, Ninya (I call her Ninya when she's with her party... I need to make sure I don't slip up like that around them) - but I realized I didn't know the name or location of the inn where she was staying, but I did know she and her party lived off of what they earned from quests at the guild, so I went there to wait for them. However, my apparent age gave me two of the wrong kinds of attention. As I'm a Demon Lord, I age slowly, even for a half-elf such as what I appear to be, meaning I look like I'm 12 or so, by those standards. Therefore...
"Oh, look at this... girlie, you seem a bit young to be here on your own. Came to post a request or something? You probably don't have enough money, considering the fact that your clothes seem a bit small on your body. I'd be happy to help pay for it, if you could pay me back in a different way" (Adventurer A)
"You idiot, her clothes are the uniform of a student at the academy, and she's carrying three different weapons. She has more combat experience than you, I can tell you that much by the way she stands" (Adventurer B)
"That's correct. If you'll excuse me, I'm only here because I'm looking for a friend who's an adventurer. I had something to talk to him about, but I don't know where he lives, so I came to wait for him here" (Ryuu)
"Well, if you're looking for Shion, Bradley, or me, we're here. Ninya and Irene are gathering supplies and will meet us here within an hour or so, if you're looking for one of them" (Van)
"I was, in fact, looking for Ninya. Thanks for that information" (Ryuu)
Was it just me, or did Bradley look a bit... miffed?
"Would you like to come on one of our quests? We could probably use a good mage, unless the only remaining quests are for herb gathering. It'd mean he could focus on healing... just... please keep your bracelets on... I don't want to have to change my clothes while I'm out today, thank you very much" (Van)
"I don't see why not. Classes don't start for a few days, and I feel like a fight could calm me down after what happened last night and this morning, and no, I don't want to talk about it" (Ryuu)
"It wasn't Ninya, I know that much... bird shit in your open mouth? Tripped into a gutter?" (Bradley)
"Got grilled by my roommates about what happened on my date... all night long. I didn't say much of anything about it, but... They just wouldn't stop" (Ryuu)
"Ahh... I'm sorry to hear that. I guess I won't ask you what happened on your date either, though I was planning to do so. Oh well, I was hoping to hear it from Ninya, but he wouldn't say anything either, besides saying that it was an amazing experience. Looks like he's no longer a virgin, and the same is true for you, right?" (Bradley)
"You know, if you said that to any other girl, she'd slap you into next week. As it is, I'm just going to remove my bracelets and earrings... once we get outside of the city. Better grab a change of clothes" (Ryuu)
The adventurers listening in on our conversation were blushing or grinning while looking a bit puzzled, so I explained.
"My bracelets and earrings hold back my aura. Removing all four of those will make me have an aura with an intensity comparable to that of an enraged dragon. Trust me, I know that it's that strong, considering that I sometimes use it to kill things like horned rabbits when I don't feel like trying to hit them with a dagger" (Ryuu)
The one who wanted to help me pay the fee to put up a request paled, and Ninya opened the door at that moment.
"Eh? Ryuu? You're here?" (Ninya)
"I was waiting here because I was wanting to talk to you and didn't know where you were staying. You free to talk for a few minutes?" (Ryuu)
"Yeah, let me hand this stuff to the others first, okay?" (Ninya)
She handed a few bags of supplies to her party, then came with me to a bench near the guild, where I put up a barrier to block sound from leaving and people from entering.
"So, uh... first, I want to say that I'm sorry. My roommates noticed that my breasts were full of milk, and wanted to help with that. I... I don't know if you would rather they not help, or..." (Ryuu)
"No, it's fine. I'm not a jealous person in the least. I mean, my father had a harem, so I think that it's fine if you have one, no matter how far they go with you. Just, make sure to introduce them to me sometime, okay? I don't have any plans to make one of my own, but if I do, I hope you'd be fine with that too" (Ninya)
"Of course. Anyways... they drank about as much, or even more, than you did, and... well, this morning, I noticed that they'd had a large growth spurt... limited to their breasts" (Ryuu)
"Yeah, that happened to me. They had been sticking out about half a meter, but it's more like two thirds of a meter now. My magic can still hide them, but if they get much bigger, it won't be able to" (Ninya)
"You can make them shrink to the size they'd been before if you pull out mana from them, and grow to the size they'd grown to by putting in mana. It'll take some practice, but my roommates learned after a few minutes. Anyways... I'm glad I could talk to you about this, it means I can give a definite answer to their requests to go further than just the breasts now. Anyways, if you'd like, I could join you on your quest, if it's not just herb gathering or something like that. That sound good?" (Ryuu)
"Yeah. I'd love that. I... have a bit of trouble talking to my party sometimes, as I don't have the ability or desire to join in on conversations about some of the problems the guys face, and I couldn't join the Irene and Shion when they are talking about their exclusive problems, or about guys, because I'm pretending to be a guy. It's annoying, so I just read books on magic and such most of the time" (Ninya)
"Well, in that case... I could lend you a book or two from the Eternal Library, if you'd like" (Ryuu)
"I don't want to make you have to make that complex magic circle just for me, it's fine, I-" (Ninya)
I held up left hand, showing the charm hanging from the bracelet on my left wrist.
"You know how each of my limiters is a weapon, right? Did you ever wonder what these doors were?" (Ryuu)
"A shield, maybe?" (Ninya)
"The gates to the Eternal Library. Just by thinking about it, I can pull out any book I want. No magic circles, no huge drain on my mana, just as much of a drain as using storage to pull out a book or two" (Ryuu)
"How does it bypass the mana cost? Absorb it from the air and earth?" (Ninya)
"You know what aura is, right?" (Ryuu)
"Uh..." (Ninya)
"It's a portion of your mana regeneration. The faster you recover mana, the more aura you have. The closer to fully recovered you are, the larger the portion of your recovered mana gets released as aura. My limiters are basically massive storehouses for mana that they absorb from my aura, and they use that mana for their various special effects. In addition, they can share mana with each other or myself if they are getting close to full, or another is close to empty... well, it'd take about a decade for them to fill up, actually, so the former won't happen for a while, and they don't use much mana for their special effects, save for one: the Eternal Library. That chews through those reserves somewhat quickly, like, holding it open for a minute costs as much as it absorbs in a day. That's perfectly fine, honestly. However, considering that my father could only keep it open for a minute at most with a day's worth in a full-mana battery, one that absorbs all of his aura, it means that I have several times as much mana as my father, probably in part because I have more elements than he did, but for the rest... whatever. Speculating about it doesn't have any value, but being able to withstand an aura an order of magnitude or two stronger than that of an average Demon Lord's... Be proud of that. Now, let's get back and see what quests Van has picked out" (Ryuu)
"Yeah. Here's hoping there's something good, like a subjugation of a group of orcs or something" (Ninya)
That's a B rank request, but that should be fine. Considering that there's a note on my student ID card indicating that I'm about on par with a a B rank, I shouldn't have any problems being a part of their party for that, and a C rank party can take requests from E to B rank. However, some of them are fresh out of D rank, so it would normally be too much for them to take a request for more than two or three orcs. Normally.