I Wanted a Cute Girl to Cast Healing Magic on Me, So I Kept Protecting My Allies—and Ended Up with an Overprotective Party - 27

Chapter 27: Strangely Enough, There’s One Girl That’s Full of Excitement

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The day after the joint exploration. We sat around the table as usual, eating breakfast that Miya had made. Ham and eggs, bread, and citrus fruits. In Japan, weekday mornings were always so hectic that I never had the time to eat a proper meal like this.

Before I reincarnated, on school mornings I would’ve been fine with just a single slice of bread if it meant saving time to sleep more. That was how precious five minutes in the morning were.

“Rikuto, now that the joint exploration is over, how about we take a break soon?”

Karinka-san asked, after properly swallowing the bread in her mouth.

“Do I get to decide that? I thought you were the party leader, Karinka-san.”

“I thought so too.”

“Same here. I mean, Karinka-san is A-rank, she knows everything, she’s kind, she’s beautiful, and she’s got big boobs.”

“Me? I thought Rikuto was the leader. And Miya, don’t say weird things.”

“Eeh, but we took a bath together and I saw it!”

Miya looked strangely dissatisfied. Wait, when did they take a bath together?

“I’m really not the leader type. But yeah, a break, huh? Now that you mention it, we haven’t taken one in a while.”

Now that I thought about it, since forming the party, we hadn’t really taken what you’d call a proper break. Probably because we had such a free lifestyle.

“What did you do when you were having a break period with your previous party, Karinka-san?”

“At that time, the other two had been with me for years. We just decided based on how we felt. Sometimes we’d wake up in the morning and just declare it a day off. Other times, if someone had plans, like going to see their boyfriend…”

Something about her voice carried a faint trace of melancholy, so I washed down my bread with juice and responded with a nod.

“I see. But I’m fine without taking breaks. If I get tired, I can just come back here. Besides, I want to catch up to you, Karinka-san, as soon as I can.”

“That determination is important, but resting is necessary for adventurers too.”

“She’s right! Rikuto-san, you really need to learn how to take it easy!”

“I’m with Karinka-san and Emil on this one. And besides, I was going to prepare-, uh—ah, shoot! I mean, I was just going to prepare as an adventurer!”

I didn’t really understand what Miya was going on about, but it looked like it was three against one.

“Alright. In that case, let’s take a break tomorrow.”

“Yeah, that sounds good.”

And so, we decided to take tomorrow off. Since tomorrow would be a weekday in terms of the Japanese calendar, there probably wouldn’t be many people out wherever we went. With that settled, we accepted a guild request today and earned our reward.

And then, the next day. I thought for sure the whole party would go out somewhere together, but apparently that wasn’t the case. If it turned out the girls went off somewhere without me, I might actually cry.

Still, I had something I’d been curious about for a while, so I decided to go check it out. I left the house and walked through the streets of Galiano. This large city, surrounded by high defensive walls, was bustling enough that there were shops no matter where you walked.

Restaurants, general stores, taverns, and apothecaries. Among all those shops, nothing screamed “another world” quite like a weapons and armor store. By Japanese standards, it’d be a pretty crazy kind of store, but that was exactly where I was headed.

The signs in this world had pictures on them, so it was great how you could tell what kind of shop it was at a glance. I entered a shop with a sign featuring a shield. Inside, shields of various shapes and sizes were displayed on the walls, and fully-armored mannequins stood like statues.

It was an armor shop. During that joint exploration, I realized something: the reason people were surprised by me was because my gear looked so weak. Even I wanted to avoid standing out too much in a bad way.

Come to think of it, I’d never bought armor before. I’d replaced my sword when it got chipped, but I was still using the Light Armor from the adventurer’s starter set that the goddess had given me. Talk about getting a lot of mileage out of it…

Looking weak but taking no damage was suspicious. Looking strong and taking no damage was natural. So I figured I’d ask the person at the counter. Behind the counter stood a bald man who looked to be in his forties. He was tall and muscular—more like someone who’d run a weapon shop or be a guild master.

“Yo, kid. What are you looking for?”

“I’m looking for armor. Do you have anything that looks strong?”

“Looks strong, huh? That’s an odd thing to ask.”

For me, defense power came second. What mattered was appearance—as long as it looked strong, it was good.

Wait, hold on. If my armor looks strong, then wouldn’t it look weird if I take any damage…? Wouldn’t that actually make damage control harder? The more I think about it, the less I understand…!

“Uh, do you have something like this—light armor, but not too bulky to move around in?”

“If you want something like that, I’ve got a version one rank above what you’re wearing now.”

He then pointed to a light armor set displayed in the shop.

“It looks exactly the same.”

“Well yeah, all light armor tends to look similar. But this one’s made from different materials, so its performance is noticeably better.”

“Is that so? I didn’t know that.”

“So, what’ll it be? Gonna buy it?”

I consulted my wallet. That stiff drawstring pouch had enough money inside to afford the armor.

“Yeah, I’ll take it.”

And just like that, I upgraded my armor. Back home, I carefully stored the armor the goddess had given me in my room. She’d gone out of her way to gift it to me, and I had some sentimental attachment to it, so I couldn’t bring myself to throw it away. Well, I’d just make sure my room didn’t turn into a hoarder’s den.

Night came, and our day off was coming to an end. Everyone had returned home, and Miya was now bringing food into the living room. On the table was a large platter piled with fried chicken. It looked crispy and delicious. Each of us also had a salad on the side.

“And here! Karinka-san, this is for you!”

Miya placed a bowl of consommé soup in front of Karinka-san. StRikutoly speaking, the cuisine in this world was different from Japan’s, but since the taste and appearance were so similar, I just mentally categorized them as Japanese dishes.

“Thank you. As always, Miya’s food looks delicious.”

“Thank you very much. And here’s yours, Emil.”

“Waaah! It smells amazing!”

“And this one’s for Rikuto.”

“Looks great.”

“Right? So make sure to finish it all, okay?”

“Ah, yeah… Have I ever not finished one of your meals before?”

“Nope, not once! You always eat everything so cleanly! That makes me really happy!”

Miya’s in an unusually good mood tonight.

After that, I enjoyed the delicious food as usual and spent some time together with the beautiful girls before retreating to our individual rooms. When I entered my room, I felt an odd pull toward the bed. For some reason, I was sleepier than usual tonight.

Well, I had wandered around the city quite a bit on my own today. Maybe I was just tired from walking.

Bed… I need a bed…

And with that, my consciousness faded.

[The Next Morning, in the Living Room (Third-Person)]

Morning came. In the living room, the three girls sat without Rikuto. They had discussed it last night and decided to explore the most difficult dungeon available to E-rank adventurers today. It was expected to be significantly more dangerous than their usual jobs.

“Rikuto-san is late today.”

“Yeah, even though he sometimes gets up earlier than all of us.”

Emil and Karinka casually exchanged remarks, not yet sounding too concerned. An hour passed, but Rikuto still didn’t show.

“Hey Emil, did Rikuto say anything to you? Like, that he wanted to sleep in today and not to wake him?”

“No, I haven’t heard anything.”

“I see. Miya, do you know anything?”

“Sorry, I don’t either—”

“I see. Well, I guess these things happen. Let’s let him sleep a bit longer.”

“Um, Karinka-san?”

“What is it, Miya?”

“If Rikuto doesn’t wake up even by noon… Could we cancel today’s adventuring plans?”

“Hmm, you’re right. That dungeon will definitely take time to explore. Going there in the afternoon would be too late.”

“Then!?”

“Yeah, just like Miya said—if Rikuto’s still asleep by noon, we’ll cancel.”

“Let’s do that~!”

Unlike the others, Miya was strangely full of energy.

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