"Eh? I'm sorry, I didn't hear well. Could you repeat that?"
Doubting her own ears, Tione tilted her head, while a stiff smile formed on her face.
"Yuki-sama, I was with him."
"Noooo!"
Responding without changing her expression, Ais blinked, simultaneously hearing a heart-wrenching scream.
(Nooo, Ais-san)
This was Lefiya, who, with both hands on her ears, fell to the ground; her greatest fear was coming true.
At the same time, she wondered when Yuki had laid his claws on the innocent Ais; after all, she had been keeping watch.
(Wait... Was it at that moment?)
Recalling when Ais ran after Yuki's backside, Lefiya lamented; this was her mistake. She had agreed to go on that adventure with the purpose of not leaving Ais alone with that pervert, but she failed due to her low stats. Going on that adventure turned out to be her loss, as her intimate parts had been seen.
Her family, on the other hand, was surprised by her heart-wrenching scream, but after a few seconds, they lost interest. It was public knowledge that Lefiya was enchanted by Ais, and perhaps only Ais was oblivious to it. They just shook their heads before several adventurers approached Ais like moths to flames.
"Really, Ais-san? How was it?"
"Incredible! I'm so envious!"
"Does that mean Champion-sama is your master?"
"Please, Ais-san, you must introduce me to him."
Surrounded on all sides by starry-eyed women, Ais panicked; she wasn't accustomed to crowds, let alone conversations among them.
"This is truly unexpected."
Riveria, on the other hand, crossed her arms. Given Ais's poor communication skills, she was very impressed by how Ais managed to capture the boy. But this also told her something else.
(In the end, he's still a child...)
Despite knowing Yuki and his playful yet mature personality, Riveria concluded that Yuki was still a child. So, his personality was very approachable, to the extent that someone like Ais could ask for a favor.
Moreover, Yuki carries the weight of the world's aura on his shoulders, so Riveria didn't suspect anything from him. Someone like Yuki couldn't stoop to such dirty tricks as using Ais.
(Maybe I could too?)
Thinking about the strange powerful magic that Tiona mentioned, as well as the amount of knowledge Yuki would have, Riveria was very tempted to appeal to the boy's good side.
But this also made her smile bitterly since it meant deceiving a child, leaving a bad taste in her mouth.
"Well, this was bound to happen sooner or later."
Loki, on the other hand, was not surprised. Yuki's displayed personality told Loki a lot, so for her, this was just a matter of time. She also looked at Ais differently now, as she could say that her daughter had pursued a boy.
"Well done, Ais!"
"..!"
Breaking through the many women, Tiona slapped Ais's shoulder forcefully, causing an electric shock to pass through Ais, and her body stiffened with wide-open eyes.
"Hm? What's wrong?"
Looking at Ais with doubts, Tiona raised her eyebrows, and not only she, but the crowd also calmed down, looking at Ais with uncertainty.
"Hick... Hii."
"Ais?!"
But the turn of events surprised them, as several tears rolled down Ais's eyes. This caused everyone to open their mouths in disbelief.
For someone like her to be crying was the first time for all of them, well, almost all except for Riveria and Loki, who took care of her in childhood.
But even they were surprised; it had been years since they last saw her cry.
---
*Bam
But while all this was happening in the Loki family, Yuki was already jumping into the dungeon, knocking down every monster in his way.
"Great, Est, you're a great help."
[Thank you, Master.]
Patting his beautiful silver sword, Yuki was satisfied with its performance and power.
His physical abilities, as well as the scale of destruction of his attacks, had increased by a great margin.
So much so that even Yuki thought each swing was equivalent to a C or B-rank jutsu.
Est, on the other hand, was blushing. She still remembered how Yuki ran his hands over her body in a massage that made her moan.
She had never experienced this before, but she had no doubt that she liked it.
"It's good that Inori didn't come; otherwise, her clothes would get wet."
Standing on the water, Yuki looked at the vast expanse of water covering these floors.
He had now descended to the 27th floor, which was composed of water.
Although for adventurers, this floor took away much of their maneuverability and strength, for Yuki, it was not a problem. He could walk on water, so the sea monsters were just courting death messing with him.
[Yes, you're right, Master.]
To be honest, Est was glad that Inori didn't join. Mana harassed her frequently, so she was quite tired of her heavy personality, as well as her attempt to brainwash her.
"Well, what else can we do..."
Shrugging, Yuki just shook his head. The two drunken women didn't wake up all night, although this also gave him ample maneuvering space to go to the brothel. This morning, they had such a strong hangover that they ignored Yuki.
That's why Yuki didn't bother them; he just left some tea for the hangover and took Est to venture into the dungeon.
And because they had no distractions, they had reached the 25th floor in an hour, setting a new exploration record.
"Hey, look at that guy..."
"He's standing on the water!"
"How the hell does he do that?!"
But as they continued exploring, the adventurers on these floors were more surprised than ever to see Yuki passing by their small boats, walking as if he didn't care about the world.
This made their common sense fly out the window as they now looked at him as if he were a weird creature.
"I'm going to try it; maybe it's a new dungeon modification."
"Idiot, don't do it!"
*Splash
Watching as an idiot jumped into the water trying to imitate him, Yuki shook his head. Although Yuki had to admit that he was very impressed with this floor, as it was a huge waterfall with an impressive drop, if it weren't for the water-filled corridors allowing a small boat to navigate down, it might be impossible for adventurers to keep descending.
"Damn! I thought I was going to die!"
"Only you would come up with such stupidity."
Managing to pull his friend out of the water, the adventurers hit him on the head. Even they could see that Yuki wasn't a small fish, and he must be using some kind of artifact to walk on water.
*BRRRMM
But as they were beating the idiot, the water began to tremble.
---