At that very same moment.
Outside the Velvet Iris boutique, on the street.
A dull, heavy thud rang out from the elegantly appointed shop.
Several passersby on the street jumped in surprise, stopping in their tracks to peer sideways toward the sound.
Haimer also stopped.
His gaze swept across the glass window, which was still faintly trembling from the impact.
Through the light bending off the glass—
He caught the briefest flicker of a fluffy black cat tail vanishing between the gap in the door curtain.
Immediately after came a frantic, fumbling string of raised voices.
And then — a particularly loud, distinctive bellow that left absolutely no room for guessing.
Who was in there? He didn't even need to think about it.
Haimer was just weighing up whether he ought to pretend he'd seen nothing and simply walk on.
When the shop erupted in a fresh volley of clattering, splintering crashes.
"How in the world are we supposed to pay for this, nya?!"
Chloe and Lunor let out a simultaneous hiss of horrified breath.
Both pairs of eyes landed on the load-bearing wall — now spiderwebbed with cracks — and the shattered wooden clothing racks scattered across the floor. The expressions of idle curiosity they'd worn a moment ago crumpled entirely.
Lunor immediately released Syr, who was still struggling to get free, and lunged forward in a single stride, seizing Chloe by the throat with both hands and hissing through her teeth.
"This was entirely your idea! And now look — this shop is obviously obscenely expensive!"
"We're dead, we're so dead — it wasn't me, nya! It was Anya who ran outside screaming, nya!"
Chloe was rolling her eyes and sticking out her tongue even as she flailed both arms wildly against Lunor's grip, desperately trying to offload the blame.
Inside the fitting room.
Anya was still slumped on the floor in a daze, stars spinning behind her eyes, a spectacular lump already rising on her head, muttering something incoherent that nobody could make heads or tails of.
As for the culprit who had sent her crashing into the wall — Ryu — she was currently pressed against the fitting room's already-half-collapsed wooden door, both hands clamped over her face, which had gone so red it looked ready to bleed.
The elven girl bit down hard on her lower lip, her breathing completely off-rhythm.
Because.
A commotion that loud — the street outside would have heard every bit of it, crystal clear.
If that deity truly was outside—
The thought of him witnessing her completely losing control like that made her stomach drop.
Just this very morning, she had sworn with full conviction that today was about clearing up the misunderstanding and leaving a good impression.
And now, looking at this scene of utter devastation around her.
Ryu felt the world go dark before her eyes. She wanted nothing more than to find a crack in the floorboards to disappear into — and then fill the crack in after herself, permanently.
The energy girls have these days really is something else.
Haimer stood on the pavement listening to the sounds spilling out from inside the shop, and let out a quiet, resigned sigh somewhere in the back of his mind.
The racket inside was only getting worse.
If he left it alone—
Chloe and Lunor would probably find a way to slip off and disappear.
But.
If it was Ryu — as a member of the [Astrea Familia].
An elf of rigid, unyielding principle who held her sense of responsibility more dearly than her own life.
She wouldn't run from the damage she'd caused.
She would tally every last bit of it, line by line, and then find a way to pay it back.
Thinking it through.
Haimer stepped forward, walked up to the shop entrance, and reached out to take hold of the door handle.
Ding-a-ling—
The shop's polished brass bell chimed brightly as the glass door swung open.
Haimer stepped inside.
His dark eyes swept calmly over the chaos.
The moment that bell rang out, Lunor — who had still been throttling Chloe and shaking her half to death — froze on the spot.
Both of them turned their heads in unison toward the door.
On the other side of the room.
The sound of the door opening made Ryu — pressed against the fitting room doorframe — flinch violently, as though she'd been struck by lightning.
And the wooden door, already teetering on the verge of collapse, gave way entirely under that single involuntary shudder.
Bang.
It toppled straight backward and hit the floor.
Sending up a thin cloud of dust.
With the door gone, the fitting room was completely exposed — every inch of it laid bare.
Ryu went absolutely rigid.
She slowly lowered the hands that had been pressed tight over her face, and turned her head, stiff as a marionette.
In her sky-blue eyes, the clear reflection of Haimer standing in the doorway came into perfect focus.
Her mind went completely blank.
Not only had her violent outburst been caught in the act.
The outfit she was still in two minds about whether to wear out in public had also been laid utterly bare before his eyes.
Haimer's gaze moved past Anya, who was sprawled on the floor with that ridiculous lump on her head, and settled quite naturally on Ryu.
He had to admit.
The pure white dress that Chloe had spent so long hand-picking truly did suit Ryu extraordinarily well.
The close-cut tailoring traced every line of her tall, slender figure — not an ounce of excess, nothing to spare — with breathtaking precision.
The fabric pulled taut across her chest in a curve that was difficult to look away from.
Below a waist that could be circled with both hands, the hem fell at a length that was, frankly, dangerous.
A pair of long, fair, perfectly straight legs were pressed tightly together from sheer, mortified tension.
Her knees brushed together faintly in her agitation, and the delicate skin there caught the light from the window, blooming with the faintest blush of pink.
Paired with the deep, vivid colour that had flooded her face — normally so cool and composed — and those pointed long ears flushed red enough to bleed.
The contrast was absolutely devastating.
Ryu's fingers clenched tight around the hem of the skirt, trying to tug it lower.
Her eyes had even gone a little glassy with the effort of holding herself together.
"That — that is..."
"I — I can expl..."
Ryu was already barely coherent, her usual cool voice trembling, every shred of her composure long since scattered to the winds.
"There's no need to be embarrassed, Miss Elf," said Haimer.
He tilted his head slightly, his tone as unhurried and gentle as ever.
The fingers that had been desperately yanking at the hem faltered and stilled.
"I'd always assumed that someone like you — always on guard, always ready — would only ever wear something suited for combat, or the kind of uniform that covers you head to toe that you wear at the tavern."
"So I never expected I'd get to see you in a pure white dress like this."
"It's genuinely striking. Quite the pleasant surprise."
At those words.
The flush that had already taken over Ryu's face deepened so furiously it looked liable to steam.
"You are... far too kind..."
Ryu all but swallowed those words, grinding them to pieces somewhere in the back of her throat before they made it out — and even then they emerged barely above a trembling whisper.
She absolutely could not bring herself to meet Haimer's eyes right now.
Faced with an elf this prone to getting tangled up inside her own head.
Haimer chose not to press any further with words.
Because.
A well-placed compliment is a powerful tool for closing distance.
Push it too far, and it backfires entirely.
So.
Haimer drew his gaze away from Ryu's rigidly upright figure and let it travel around the wrecked interior of the shop.
Splinters of wood all over the floor.
Torn-down clothing racks scattered everywhere.
The spiderweb of cracks across that load-bearing wall was genuinely alarming to look at.
In the corner, half-buried under a pile of racks.
Syr was crouched there, holding a scrap of clothing up in front of her face, trying her very best to become invisible.
Haimer caught a glimpse of her and said nothing.
Instead he walked straight toward the counter.
Behind it, the shop clerk — a young woman who had been thoroughly terrified by everything that had just happened — was visibly shaking.
Black hair, black eyes.
As a resident of Orario, she naturally recognised Haimer as the principal deity of the recently famous Haimer Familia — the one all those rising stars who'd been treating the Dungeon like their personal playground belonged to.
With that thought in mind, the clerk was extremely tense, and clearly not quite daring to bring up the matter of compensation.
Haimer, for his part, had no intention of making things difficult for her.
Instead he turned his head toward Chloe and Lunor, who were at that very moment tiptoeing toward the exit.
"I thought as much — you're all here, aren't you."
At those words, both of them froze mid-tiptoe.
"That, um — Kami-sama..."
From behind Lunor's back, Chloe poked out half her face, her black cat ears pressed flat against her skull in a portrait of guilty conscience.
"This was... just a tiny little accident, really."
"I can see that," said Haimer, raising an eyebrow.
"Since it was an accident — the damages you three caused in here today, I'll put on my tab for now."
The tension in both their shoulders eased, just slightly.
But then the second half of Haimer's sentence came down like a hammer.
"Of course, this isn't charity."
"The early-morning shift at my Familia's residence — I'll be counting on you two to cover that from here on out."
At those words.
Both Chloe and Lunor's feet stopped dead, nailed to the spot.
The world went dark before their eyes.
Because with a debt that size hanging over their heads, it looked very much like they'd be scrubbing floors and washing dishes in this deity's home for the rest of their natural lives.
At that very moment.
Anya, who had been slumped in the fitting room all this while, finally managed to wobble her way upright and crawl out.
— A member of the Freya Familia. Level 4.
— 「The Chariot's Avatar」.
Anya's resilience was, frankly, exceptional. With that enormous lump sitting on her forehead, she blinked her way back to consciousness in a fog.
"Nya? What just happened, nya? Why does my head hurt so much, nya..."
But before Anya could get any bearings on the situation.
"What happened?! You've got some nerve asking that, you dumb cat!"
Lunor and Chloe came charging at her from both sides at once.
Both of them seized Anya by the collar of her uniform simultaneously.
Chloe's teeth were grinding as she got up close enough to practically spit in Anya's face.
"If you hadn't gone running your mouth out there—!"
"Ryu wouldn't have snapped and sent you through that wall, nya!"
"Starting today, you're getting bundled up and sold to Kami-sama too! The early-morning cleaning shift — don't even think about wriggling out of it!"
"NANI?!!"
Anya's eyes went wide as saucers, her expression one of pure horror.
"That's been your job all along, hasn't it?! Why are you dragging me into this, nya?!"
Both Lunor and Chloe had her by the collar, shaking her from side to side like a ragdoll.
Her head — already scrambled from the wall — was now being rattled into something approaching porridge.
"Because it's YOUR fault, nya!"
"Kami-sama is officially our biggest creditor now."
Lunor piled on without mercy, and punctuated it with a solid thunk to the top of Anya's skull.
"Exactly — if you caused it, you go down with us!"
"Starting tomorrow, you're on cleaning duty at Kami-sama's place alongside us! All for one and one for all!"
"Lunor's absolutely right, nya!"
"This is all because of you, nya!"
"NANI?!!"
"What in the world are you two even talking about, nya?! I am NOT waking up early to be some maid, nya!"
"You wanna go?!!"
Anya had utterly failed to follow a single word of what her two so-called friends were saying — she only heard that she was being made to get up early and do chores, and she wanted absolutely no part of it. A rumbling growl began rising in her throat as she tensed up for a fight, arms and legs starting to flail.
And with that, Chloe, Lunor, and Anya dissolved into a full-on brawl right there in the middle of the shop floor.
Poof — vanished, nya!
At the same time.
At the street corner opposite the Velvet Iris.
Hestia had tucked most of her body behind a wooden produce crate at a fruit stall, both hands gripping the edge, with only the top half of her face peeking over — eyes locked, unblinking, on the boutique's enormous floor-to-ceiling glass window.
"What on earth is going on in there?"
"It looks like a women's clothing shop," said Onigawara Rin.
"Why did Kami-sama suddenly go inside?"
Onigawara Rin was craning her own neck beside Hestia, straining to make out what was happening inside — but the angle was wrong, and all she could see was general disorder.
"Too far away. Too noisy out here. Can't make out anything," she added.
Amou Kirukiru stood with her arms folded, weight casual, and turned her head toward Inaba Tsukuyo, who was standing quietly nearby.
"Tsukuyo — can you hear anything?"
"Mm."
Inaba Tsukuyo gave a small nod.
"Miss Elf and the others are in the shop right now."
"And Kami-sama just said..."
"He never expected to see Miss Elf in a white dress... and that she looked so striking it caught him completely off guard..."
"And Kami-sama also said he'd cover the damages they caused in the shop today..."
"—?!!!"
"Haaaaah—"
The moment those words landed, Hestia erupted straight out from behind the fruit crate.
"Calm down! Hestia-sama, please calm down — there might be context we're missing!!"
Onigawara Rin and Kikakujou Mary moved on instinct, each grabbing one of Hestia's arms from either side and physically hauling her back.
Back inside the shop.
Ignoring the three-way brawl still rolling around on the floor behind her.
Ryu had finally steeled herself, and stepped out through the doorless frame of the fitting room.
The deep flush hadn't fully faded from her cheeks yet.
And her legs moved a little awkwardly as she walked — unaccustomed to the exposure of this outfit.
But when she stopped.
Ryu's bearing had reasserted itself — that particular stubborn, unbending quality that was entirely her own.
"Kami-sama..."
She came to a stop before Haimer and dipped her head slightly, her voice pulled a little tight.
"This debt should not be yours to carry."
"While Lunor and Chloe share in the responsibility — I am the one who lost control and caused this destruction."
"As the one truly at fault."
"The overwhelming majority of this compensation should fall to me."
"Not — not have you cleaning up my mess."
As that last phrase left her lips — the blunt, inelegant comparison she'd reached for — Ryu was so mortified she could have bitten off her own tongue on the spot.
But it was the most accurate expression she could find.
____
👻🔥Walnut-chan ;)🔥👻
🔥 New history: Samsara Game: Starting in The Long Dark with My Waifus
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