Just then, Lisa appeared with tea ready.
"Lisa, starting today, this is our child from now on, Sanzenin Hana. In our terms, that makes her Hana Sanzenin."
"Understood."
"I'll introduce her to the kids at dinner. And if you're peeking from there, come on over."
I called the children, who had been lurking at the entrance of the living room, and introduced them to Lily, while she greeted them in return.
"This is Lily. Please be nice to her."
Even if I say I introduced them, I don't really know much myself. The children wrapped up their self-introductions quickly, simply stating their names and ages, and Lisa's similar introduction marked the end of the introductions.
"I'm going to make sure the people from the temple don't interfere with us," I said, heading into the storage room where I had been locked away. The hole leading to the room next door was boarded up, and the stairs that had been built to the Skylight window had been moved somewhere, leaving that window boarded up as well. If I had the money, I'd certainly want to make some repairs soon.
After I had hidden the runaway Hana from the temple, there had been some trouble with the temple guards. With that in mind, I decided to go back to that nostalgic storage room and put a stop to any potential movements from the temple after sunset.
As I placed my hand on the door of the storage room, I found it unlocked. Stepping out into the corridor, I retraced the path I had been taken through initially.
Once I reached the top of the stairs, I suddenly wondered what had become of the room where I was summoned.
"Pretty sure it was this way," I thought, my memories fuzzy but leading me in a certain direction. Fortunately, the corridor was empty, and as I walked briskly, fragments of memory started to return. We were summoned, most likely, to the room at the end of the corridor I could see now.
The door to the room was locked, but using the storage from my item box, I created a hole large enough for a person to slip through and entered. As I expected, it was the chamber we had been summoned to, with a magical circle drawn in blue paint right in the center of the floor.
There wasn't a guard stationed outside, so perhaps this location wasn't deemed crucial, but it was certainly not useless either. Alright, I thought, I could use this as leverage.
Once outside, I retrieved a vial of nitroglycerin potion I had previously prepared and tossed it toward the ceiling at a corner about fifty meters down the hall. The vial floated before falling to the ground and exploded. Given the small amount of nitroglycerin, the explosion was minor; there were no debris flying back toward me.
After about two minutes, the temple guards began to gather at the corner, where a pale blue smoke from the explosion lingered. Spotting me, they shouted and charged in my direction.
I pulled out another nitroglycerin potion and threw it at the approaching guards. The ceiling was low, limiting my throwing angle, so the potion landed around twenty meters away and exploded. Some small fragments flew my way, but it was nothing significant. No worries. I had forgotten the risk of throwing the vial too hard if it contained air, which could have caused a dangerous explosion. Fortunately, it either didn't contain any air, or I was just lucky this time. Next time I make something with nitroglycerin, I need to ensure there's no air left in the container.
After the explosion, the temple's people momentarily fled around the corner, but soon reappeared. I waved to them and released a bottle of nitroglycerin potion near the ceiling of the back door, then immediately transferred it to the mansion's living room. The explosion would likely blow the door off its hinges, but I expected the magic circle in the room to remain unaffected. Probably.
I think my intentions were communicated, albeit somewhat difficultly.
As I sat on the sofa in the living room, Lily suddenly appeared in front of me and asked, "Can you use teleportation, Mr. Rockwell?"
"It's technically teleportation. I can jump anywhere I know well. Going back to Japan is just an extension of that. I can send you back any time, so just let me know if you change your mind."
"Okay."
"What about the children from earlier? You're taking care of them, right?"
"Yeah, I have them help with errands and housework every day. I forgot to mention, everyone, including Lisa who takes care of most of the chores, is a slave. I bought them from a slave trader."
"Y-you bought them!?"
"Yep. I bought what was for sale. Is that strange?"
"N-no, it's just that I'm not familiar with the term 'slave.'"
"Well, the term 'slave' might sound strange, but from my perspective, it just means I paid a lump sum for the provision of labor.
For the slaves themselves, selling their services has allowed them to escape from dire circumstances where they struggled to find food and shelter. That's all there is to it. Without the slave trade, the children would either end up as orphans or worse, dying of starvation. Isn't the system, in its own way, benefiting society?"
"Y-yeah, I suppose."
"Right?"
I shared this off-the-cuff explanation with the high school girl in front of me. Honestly, when I bought the children, I was just thinking that having them work would make things easier for me.
"The children, and even Lisa, provide their labor in exchange for the payment and necessities I offer. So, what about you, Lily? What will you offer me?"
Lily looked down, a bit caught off guard. That was a somewhat cruel question.
"I was just joking; you don't need to worry about it. Speaking of which, I haven't assigned you a room yet. Come with me."
I led Lily upstairs to one of the vacant rooms.
"You can use this room," I said, as I pulled bedding and supplies from my item box and set them out on the bed.
"By the way, Lily, you don't have a change of clothes, do you?"
"I'm sorry."
"Well, you had to flee from an evil organization with only the clothes on your back, so it's understandable."
There's still some time before dinner. It might take some courage to walk into that store dressed like that, but in today's world, no one cares about anyone else's outfit, so it's fine.
"Let's go shopping together."
"Right now?"
"You don't want to stay in that outfit forever, do you? I could buy some men's clothes for you, but honestly, I'm not interested in buying women's underwear."
"Alright, I understand."
"Can you hold my hand? To carry someone, we need to be in direct contact."
Although we had already transported the worker in the car, there was really no need to hold hands. But then again, it comes with the territory.
Lily hesitantly took my hand. Her fingertips were oddly soft—so this is what a high school girl's hands feel like.
I told Lisa that I'd be out for about an hour with Lily and then transferred to Japan. Our destination was the usual supermarket in my neighborhood. It's a large store, so the upper floor has clothing as well. Plus, it's affordable. I could have chosen a more upscale shop, but this was the only one I really knew.
◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇
Meanwhile, in a carriage with Emily Yamada and Kazuha Tahara:
"It seems some temple guards followed that girl, but really, those who ran away aren't going to be of any use, so they should just be left alone."
"From our perspective, that may be true, but it's different for the lower-ranking temple guards. Even if they agree with us, if they let someone escape, they'll just get reprimanded by their superiors. So, they're just doing their job by searching," I said.
"Icce, you're so smart!"
As we chatted, the noise outside the carriage grew louder. It seemed the temple guards had returned. Since they hadn't brought back Sanzenin Hana, she must have managed to escape. She might feel relieved about her getaway, but living alone is no easy feat. I thought she'd eventually have to return to the temple; when she did, I planned to tease her about her little runaway.
Without any explanation, the carriage started moving, and we soon arrived back at the temple.
While we were preparing for a bath before dinner, a muffled sound echoed from deep within the temple. It wasn't as intense as the explosion we had heard before, but it seemed like something had detonated. After a brief pause, a second sound followed, then a third—and then nothing.
"Hey, Icce, that noise we just heard—it was an explosion, right?"
"Yes, it was. I haven't heard anything about the culprit from the previous explosion, but it's possible the same person targeted this temple again."
"That's so scary. No to terrorism!"
"People come asking us to catch terrorists," she said.
"That's not something we usually do, is it?"
"Is it? We've never fought against humans before."
"That's true."
"I've read in light novels that killing someone can be a shock. They might tell us to kill terrorists as part of our training."
"That's a possibility. Can you kill someone, Ichiyo?"
"Hmm, I won't know until I'm in that situation, but if someone is trying to kill me, I think I would. Otherwise, I'd end up dead."
"Now that you mention it, I think I could do the same in that situation."
"Keiko, let's drop this topic. It's about time we get ready for a bath anyway."
"Yeah, you're right."
I took Lily to a large supermarket. She looked a bit strange, and since I hadn't changed clothes after transferring, I was matching her vibe. As I expected, no one around us paid any attention. Lily's photo on the bulletin board showed her wearing thick glasses, so now, with her bare eyes, no one, except for close relatives, would recognize her.
"Our appearance is from another world, but it seems like no one cares, right?"
"Y-Yeah, I guess so," Lily replied.
"No one pays as much attention to you as you think. That's just how it is. I'll be waiting by the exit, so pick up some clothes. Will 100,000 yen be enough?"
"Of course."
I handed Lily the money, and she stashed it in her pocket before heading up the escalator to the second floor.
"Shopping takes time, especially for girls. I should grab some toiletries and towels for Lily while I'm here," I thought as I entered a store. I picked up those items and paid for them. In the past, I would mindlessly buy however many items I needed, but since most things could be replicated in my alchemy workshop, I decided to stick to just one of each type this time. I hadn't mentioned this concept to Lily, so she would probably come back with multiple copies of the same underwear, but that couldn't be helped.
Would it be considered creepy to ask to copy items before she uses them? Since I'm essentially her benefactor, maybe I should just tolerate it? I pondered these thoughts when, to my surprise, Lily returned from her shopping far sooner than expected.
Looking at the bulging plastic bag she was carrying, I suddenly had a great idea.
"Here's the receipt and change," she said, handing them to me.
"Thanks, Lily. Can I borrow that bag for a moment? The truth is, I can replicate most items. If I copy the contents of that bag, we'll have double the amount. I know there are probably some undergarments in there, and you might not want to hand them over to me, but what do you think?"
"Of course, that's fine. How many abilities do you really have, Mr. Rockwell?"
"Not that many."