The entryway.
Persephone sat on the cushioned bench used for changing shoes, crossed her legs, and pulled off her snow-dampened boots with both hands. She gave the boots a light pat to knock the snow off and set them neatly to one side. Then, with a little touch of vanity, she hooked a finger into the reinforced toe of her tights and tugged it outward a couple of times so her toes could spread more comfortably, before slipping her feet into a pair of soft plush slippers.
Shoes changed, she straightened up, tucked the strands of hair falling across her forehead back behind her ear, and out of habit pushed up her gold-rimmed glasses. Then she let out a soft, worried sigh:
"『Elixir』? ...I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint you."
"The [Blue Pharmacy] and the [Dian Cecht Familia Treatment Center] combined could only scrape together a little over a dozen. Rose, I think it was... twenty bottles?"
Leon's gaze slowly drifted off Persephone and over to Rose beside her.
Noticing the man's stare, Rose gave a gentle, graceful smile. She lifted her heels lightly, bent down, hooked a finger, and smoothly slid off her short heeled boots. She curled the toes wrapped in flesh-toned stockings, gave a wink to the wide-eyed Leon, and then unhurriedly slipped on her plush slippers.
Though the slippers hid part of the view, it didn't stop Leon from continuing to admire it all, the slender calves Rose had sheathed in black tights, and the subtle little flourish of Persephone's "stockings-under-jeans" peeking in and out at her ankles beneath her tight denim.
As for what Rose had just said, it had gone in one ear and out the other; he hadn't taken in a single word.
"Leon?"
"...Leon!"
"Huh? What did you say?"
With all his attention fixed on the black tights and flesh-toned stockings, Leon didn't respond after Rose called his name twice.
It wasn't until Rose reached out and gave his shoulder a light pat that he snapped back to himself.
He looked up and met Rose's pouting gaze. Noticing her flushed cheeks, and Persephone, who had turned her head aside and kept fussing with her hair, Leon gave a light cough, trying to cover the faint, ambiguous tension hanging between the three of them.
Guiltily, he poked his head toward the sitting room for a look.
And then... the first thing he saw was Jeanne glaring at him with her pale purple eyes, and his heart gave a sudden lurch.
Luckily, only Jeanne had picked up on the awkward mood over by the entryway. As for Laurier, whose little head kept nodding as she dozed off with soft snores, and Miss Aura, who was completely absorbed in her book and hadn't once looked up from start to finish, neither of them could be bothered to pay any attention.
Leon quickly shot Jeanne a couple of pleading looks, then pulled his head back fast before her expression could go fully dark.
His gaze swept over the slender waists of Rose and Persephone, outlined by a high-waisted pencil skirt and high-waisted jeans, and he cleared his throat, asking back with feigned composure:
"So... only twenty bottles, right?"
Rose didn't call out his little moment of embarrassment. She just handed over the list, and at the same time explained carefully:
"All the medicines are in the pack. Oh, and Naaza also recommended her newly developed 『Dual-Attribute Recovery Potion』. Persephone and I both tried it, and the effect is no worse than a single recovery Potion or magic recovery one. Plus the two-in-one dual recovery saves a fair bit on weight, so we bought some of both the [Standard] and [High] grades. The rest of the details are written on the list, you can read it over at your leisure. We're going to head back to our rooms and change first."
With that, she stood up and led Persephone toward the sitting room, leaving Leon with two flawless retreating figures to fuel his imagination.
As expected of my women, even their backs are killer-grade...
Leon reluctantly pulled his gaze back and finally turned his attention to the list in his hands:
Purchase Details (Blue Pharmacy + Dian Cecht Familia Treatment Center):
[Total]: 28,676,000 Valis (Orario standard gold coin)
Staring at that glaring eight-figure sum, Leon sharply sucked in a breath through his teeth.
"Hss...!"
"Holy shit, that's expensive!"
Ignoring the few eye-rolls thrown his way from the sitting room, he hurriedly bent his head to scrutinize the types, quantities, and unit prices of the medicines.
He didn't know until he looked, and one look gave him a fright.
[Potion]: 400 bottles / 490 Valis each
[Magic Potion]: 200 bottles / 9,900 Valis each
[High Potion]: 100 bottles / 10,000 Valis each
[High Magic Potion]: 50 bottles / 100,000 Valis each
[Dual-Attribute Recovery Potion]: 200 bottles / 15,000 Valis each
[High Dual-Attribute Recovery Potion]: 50 bottles / 150,000 Valis each
[Elixir (Secret Recipe)]: 20 bottles / 500,000 Valis each
Aside from the 500,000-a-bottle 『Elixir』 and the 150,000 『High Dual-Attribute Recovery Potion』 stinging a little, and the 100,000-per-bottle 『High Magic Potion』 counting as fairly pricey, the rest of those few-hundred and few-thousand-Valis "small sums" hadn't even registered with him at first.
But once the quantities stacked up... the enormous total they added up to still made his chest tighten.
"I knew it. The [Wonder Pack] is great and all, but it's not without its downsides."
Leon pressed a hand to his forehead and grumbled under his breath:
"The downside is, it holds way too much..."
With the capacity jumping four to five times over, naturally, to extend their stay in the Dungeon and to raise the team's margin for error and odds of survival, buying medicines in multiples had become the most cost-effective choice.
"Ladies, if we don't come back from this Expedition having made a few tens of millions, we're going to be wiped out completely."
Hearing Leon say that, Jeanne set aside the little flicker of jealousy in her heart for the moment and took the list to give it a glance.
"They actually spent this much..."
She knit her elegant brows slightly, scanned the contents quickly, then raised her eyes and looked at Leon seriously:
"We really do have to take this Expedition more seriously."
After dinner, no one got up to any mischief that evening or at midnight. Everyone stayed in their own rooms, making final preparations for tomorrow's departure. Even Leon, whose heart was usually itching for trouble, was unusually well-behaved tonight.
After all, having just played a three-tier sisters' bowl with Jeanne, Rose, and Persephone the day before, his state of mind at the moment could only be described as serene.
What he never expected, though...
Just as he had finished tallying up the supplies needed for the Expedition and neatly stowed them into the [Wonder Pack (4.8x)], there came a soft click as the bedroom door was gently pushed open from the outside.
"Margaret?"
"Kureha?"
Leon was startled for only an instant before he spoke up, feigning confusion:
"It's so late, what are you two...?"
Watching this scumbag, who clearly knew exactly what was going on yet insisted on putting on an innocent act, Kureha ground her teeth in frustration.
As for Margaret, who'd grown up under the strict rules of the Mage's academy, how could she be any match for an old hand at romance like Leon? One teasing remark, and her face went red as she turned away, not daring to meet his eyes at all.
"Click...!"
Kureha deftly locked the door behind her. Without a word, and amid a bashful little "eep" from Margaret, she shoved the still-playing-dumb Leon down onto the bed. Then she sprang up lightly, those long, well-trained legs straddling his waist. She leaned forward, bracing both hands on the bedding, her cheeks flushed and her lips bitten tight, staring down at him from above.
"...I want it!"
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