EP.52 Elisa

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"Hero, the dungeon won't be closed because you didn't choose Ruin Krasio's essence. A human destined to clear this dungeon will eventually come."

It was the Angel's answer to my question.

I wondered if Mars' future opportunity of clearing this dungeon will disappear by my course of action, but fortunately, it didn't seem to be the case.

'Welp, in the game, if I could have picked the big root grass, those darn party members would have shivered from even the thought of NTRing him.'

Unfortunately, the game didn't give players the choice for that. It was just for show.

In my opinion, the big root grass was just an Easter egg of no actual value.

"Then we will be going. Miss Ramiel, do your best."

"Ah… I…"

"Yes?"

"…nothing."

My favourite Angel was about to say something, but then she bit her lips.

She surely looked sexy, though.

It didn't seem to be something important anyway, so I took my leave from the 30th floor with my teammates.

On the way up, making my teammates halt on the 9th floor, I headed for the trap room of aphrodisiacs.

The situation in the trap room was as I expected.

After stunning the duo who were enjoying themselves in full swing, I took them on my shoulders and headed out.

"…Cloud, who are they? And, why does it smell so much?"

Eri covered her nose and frowned. The other two responded similarly.

They couldn't take a bath for weeks as they were quite busy having… fun, I guess.

Though the trap room has several convenient features, not washing for weeks made them stink like hell.

"…it's better not to know."

I didn't answer because the reality will really shock the hell out of them.

We managed to get out of the dungeon after a few more hours from the 9th floor.

"Haha… sunshine… how long has it been…"

"I know, right. It has been just a little over a month, but it feels like we had been trapped underground for years."

Eri and Ophelia, feeling the bright sunlight shining on their face, made cheerful expressions. On the other hand, Neria still had a gloomy face.

"Neria."

"Huh? Why did… what's the matter, Cloud? By the way, where are we going next?"

I had an inkling, but to be certain, I was going to ask her why she was depressed, but she returned me a question of her own.

…why were the things different from what I had foreseen?

What did I miss? Did my presence cause some butterfly effect?

"Huh!? What, What?! Why am I here… Kek!"

I karate chopped Chris on the back of his neck and knocked him out again.

"Any suggestions on how to clean them? Crap, I wish I had a deodorant, would have been way simpler."

"…dropping them in the pond and then fishing them out?"

"It would be really convenient if the smell went away just by doing so, but then they won't be able to breathe. Sigh. I guess, even if it bothers me, I'll have to do it."

"Ugh…? But here…"

"Ah, another one woke up. Is the pond water so cold?"

"Ghh..? Chris!? Wait, who are…! Ugh!"

His mother faced the same fate—karate chop on the back of her neck which knocked her out.

I put the duo in and out of the pond for a while, and the three women stared at me doing that with strange expressions.

Man, I hate those judgemental looks.

Eesh!

Holy sh!t, why does it smell so much?

* * *

After getting rid of the bad smell from the duo's body, we climbed down the mountain. Just as we entered the city, without any further delay, I handed the duo whom I had been carrying on my shoulders to Neria.

Neria, who was looking depressed, gazed at them and gave me a puzzled expression.

"Cloud, who are these people?"

"Take them to the inn. I have a place to visit, it will take a while."

"If that's the case, then I…"

"Neria."

Ophelia intervened and shook her head, signalling Neria.

To which, Neria looked a little dazed, then she calmly positioned the mother and son on her shoulders.

"Alright. Be safe."

"Uh… yes."

Um, what?

What signals did they exchange that only I'm unaware of?

That's too much.

This whole situation is going over my head.

Still, since she politely accepted them, I didn't question her.

After confirming that they were heading to the inn, I headed for the house of the Adventurer Guild's receptionist, Elisha.

'Yuriel said she would take two months at most… How's the current situation?'

I thought I'd check by myself and see what's going on.

By the way…

'What..?'

Elisha's house was no longer what I remembered it to be.

The garden vegetables planted in the small yard were all dried up and dead, and there were cobwebs all over the house.

What…happened?

The last time I saw it, it was rather well-maintained.

Without wasting my time on wondering over the question, I grabbed a passerby to ask. After stopping a little more than ten people and asking for a clue, I was finally able to hear the truth from an old woman.

"That house? Her husband had an affair and left the house with the child. It's been that way since then. It's said that she even went to her husband and child's new residence a few times to bring them back… But unfortunately, even that didn't work for her. The youth of this generation…tsk, tsk."

"Do you know where the husband and the child live now?"

"Why would a fine young lad like you want to know about that?"

"I know the owner of this house, so that's why, you see…"

After I bribed her with 100 gold coins, the old woman didn't ask any further.

Memorizing the address of the place where her husband and child lived, I headed there.

And I was able to witness an unbelievable sight.

"Mom! Push harder!"

"Aren't you afraid?"

"Not at all! Ha ha!"

"Alright, if you say so~"

"Heh! Agh! Ha ha ha!"

""

Yuriel was pushing Elisha's son on a swing, both had matching smiles on their face, they seemed to be very close.

I blankly stared at the scene for a while.

Until Yuriel, who was pushing the swing, found me and waved her hand in the air.

She approached me without hiding her welcoming look.

"Are you guys back from your trip?"

"How did it happen… what's..the situation?"

"Didn't I mention? Two months would be enough. Come in, I'll explain the details inside. Jerry! Mommy will be inside accompanying our guest, so have fun!"

Yuriel led me inside her house by my arm.

* * *

– After mulling on the details given to me by you; Mr. Cloud, I thought—maybe I should see the situation personally, with my own eyes. I wanted to dig in a bit deeper.

– So, I put my thoughts into action right away… The relationship between the couple was worse than we thought, you know?

– Elisha didn't let her husband have any say in the family. Whenever he tried to put in his opinion, she doubted and objected him. Her crippled husband was incapable of even doing many simple actions without his wife's help, except for lying in bed. Because of this, he was bound in a complex emotion between helplessness and inferiority complex.

– As for her child, Elisha didn't pay any attention to him. It's natural for children of his age to be playful, to have the want to play with their mom, but she had no time for him. It was inevitable because she was mostly busy with work, but she wasn't thoughtful enough to take her child's age into account to find him some playmates of his age.

– Since the situation in the family was like that, there was a lot of room for me to dig in. I continued to meet them under the guise of chance encounter, and slowly filled those gaps.

Yuriel created a happy family just as Cloud demanded.

She first got her husband's crippled leg healed by donating 3000 gold coins to the church.

With his legs back to normal, her husband become desirous again, and now he was making plans to set up a shop with her, she says.

Yuriel, meanwhile, did not neglect the child either. She entertained and played with him as he wished. Nevertheless, she was setting meticulous plans for the child's future.

She said to me—when he gets older, I will send him to study at an academy in the Empire. As a commoner, he may not be able to become a rich man. But, he will surely be capable of taking some authoritative position in a reputable firm.

After hearing everything she had to recount, Cloud handed her her remaining 50,000 gold coins.

Because the family she created was worth the word 'happiness'. As soon as she received the money, Yuriel sincerely expressed her thanks, for now, she would not have to worry about the cost of her child's education any longer, she had a bright smile on her face.

'…I didn't think at that time—she'd be so happy in this new life.'

Yuriel, her husband and her child.

Hmm. Yuriel said that Elisha wasn't a good mother.

It was even rumored that Elisha was a faithful wife and a caring mother, but the truth about her was very different. After all, you can't know the contents of anything until you open the lid.

Tuck-! Tuck-!

Cloud knocked on the front door of Elisha's house. He only wanted to see how she was doing and what she intended to do in the future. As long as she no longer cheated adventurers like him, it was fine.

-…

No one responded to the knock and so he knocked again.

Tuck-! Tuck-!

The door opened and Elisha appeared.

Her hair messy and her eyes full of dark circles.

She looked pretty exhausted.

Elisha looked at Cloud and tilted her head.

"Mr. Cloud, you?"

Cloud showed her the wine bottle he had brought along with him instead of answering her. Elisha looked at the expensive wine bottle and thought for a moment before she opened the door.

""

She led Cloud to a chair in front of the table.

"Would you mind waiting for a while? I'll freshen myself first."

* * *

Why did Mr. Cloud came here?

She was puzzled for a moment, but soon she found the answer without any difficulty.

'Perhaps it's because of the adventurers I introduced to him before.'

The S-class adventurers she had introduced did not return.

That meant only one thing.

Results must have been disastrous this time too.

So, he stormed to the guild to find her, and later came here after hearing about her situation.

Elisha walked into the living room, wiping her damp hair with a towel.

Cloud was sitting on a chair in front of the table.

Seeing that the wine bottle he brought with him was still capped, he must have been waiting for her.

At that little consideration, Elisha smiled as she naturally sat down next to him.

"Did I make you wait for too long? I hope you don't mind."

"If you accompany me for a drink, I won't."

"It looks to be some premium quality wine… Then I'll like to thank you for the treat."

Elisha took a sip of the wine Cloud poured for her.

The mesmerizing smell of the wine, of expensive alcohol, tickled her nose.

She put down her glass and nudged.

"Did you hear all those rumors?"

Cloud twirled his own glass of wine and nodded.

So, he knew.

"As rumored, my husband had an affair and left me. My child said he prefers a stepmother who truly loves him, and followed along."

She poured another glass of wine and gulped it down her gullet.

Then, she smiled a little.

"Mr. Cloud, you know? I thought I was working really hard for the family. I even sacrificed myself for my family. But I guess my family didn't feel that way."

Elisha bit her lips and gulped down another glass of wine.

'Should I tell him my story?'

The things she had kept inside her all along?

Elisha no longer felt worried and decided to just let go. She desired a little comfort, even if it was from someone she barely knew, because she was exhausted to her very core.

"I was in debt, about 30,000 gold coins."

For a moment, Cloud's hand stopped twirling the wine glass.

"You wanna know why?"

"Yeah. Just how did you get to owe such a big debt…was purchasing this house so expensive?"

"I inherited this house from my parents. It's a bit grating to say this, but thankfully, I was the only child in the family. Thanks to which, when we got married, we started without any debt."

"Then where did all that debt came from?"

"My husband gambled secretly and pulled us all into debt."

"30,000 gold coins worth of gambling, really?"

"It was originally 3,000 gold coins. But my so-called husband hid it from us and tried to solve it on his own, but as time went by, it became ten times the principal amount."

"Ten times the principal amount? What kind of crazy interest rate is that? Why didn't you report it right away?"

"I wanted to… but then my husband would have been jailed for gambling."

"Isn't that way better than paying back ten times the principal amount?"

At Cloud's words, Elisha laughed bitterly.

"Then what about Jerry? I can't let my child bear the name of a criminal's son."

"…"

"However, we tried to argue with them about the batsh!t crazy interest rate. Do you know what they did?"

"Um, your husband got…?"

Elisha grinned.

"Right. They crippled his legs. Because of which, he was no longer even capable of earning that sum. But, do you know what they said after doing that to my husband? They said, if we couldn't return the money, the same situation would be my son's future too… Then, I realized—my whole family will die if they caught the wind of my thoughts on reporting them."

"…there are many adventurers you know, right? If you couldn't report it, why didn't you commission the adventurers to fix them for you?"

"Commission the adventurers? Hahaha haaaha…!"

Elisha laughed with tears in her eyes as if she had heard something very funny.

"Well, would those adventurers really help me? It would already be very generous of them if they didn't try to wield my weakness to put a leash on me."

Elisha gulped down another glass of wine.

Even though she drank alcohol without any snacks, she was as good as drinking it as water.

"Anyway, I had to pay off the debt no matter what. First, I sold all the precious jewelleries I had inherited from my parents. I also had to unearth all the money I had saved up to send my son to the Imperial Academy. Even after all that, we still had 10,000 gold coins less. Do you know how desperate I felt back then? I even thought it would be better to just embrace death."

Then she met Mr. Cloud. Elisha murmured.

"I realized it when I saw Mr. Cloud bribing me with 2000 gold coins to introduce some decent adventurers. I thought. My, this guy is a gullible idiot."

"Hey."

"Fufu, please don't stare at me like that. I mean, I was in a hurry back then. There was no quick source of money open to me, and I still had a debt of 10,000 gold coins."

"So, after introducing me to those punks, you ripped out 7000 gold coins more by introducing those S-grade weirdos?"

"Ding~Dong~Dang~ That's right. Yes, I was finally able to pay off all my debts! Thank you, Mr. Cloud~!"

"Does it feels good paying off your debt from cheating others?"

"It did felt good. I felt freed from the heavy shackles that bound me. I thought that the only thing left to do was return to a happy family life again…"

The lively voice suddenly turned melancholic.

"I guess I was the only one who thought so. Seeing how they left me so easily without any second thoughts."

"…"

"Maybe this is the price of sin I paid for cheating Mr. Cloud?"

Elisha laughed a little, as if joking with herself.

However, her calmness did not last long.

Lines of tears streamed down her cheeks. Her face was also slightly contorted with sadness.

"Honestly, it's true that I resented my husband a lot. It's 30,000 gold coins, alright? It's an amount that made my mind turn blank. I tried hard not to express my real feelings, but he must have felt my resentment. He must have felt sad."

She wiped her tears with the back of her hand. Still, she did not stop talking.

Like a child explaining why she's crying.

"I was also very strict with my son. I was in a very sensitive state because of the heavy debt. I don't even remember very well how I behaved with him at that time, but I probably wasn't a good mother. So after I paid off the darn debt, I thought, I thought I could… finally be a good mother again…"

The older one gets, the less likely they are to confide their feelings.

There may be many reasons, but in Elisha's case, she was the head of the family.

She was the pillar that supported the house.

When pillar falters, the house falters too.

That's why she couldn't show her weakness.

But now, she no longer had a family to support.

The tears that bursted out in a situation where she had no reason to hold back, didn't stop.

Elisha looked at Cloud with her face messed up with tears.

"Mr. Cloud, the trip with the adventurers I introduced you… it didn't go well, right?"

"…yeah."

"I'm sorry."

Elisha bowed her head.

"I won't make excuses saying that I did my best. I received a huge sum of 7000 gold coins from Mr. Cloud, but I didn't do my job properly. I can't return it back to you because I don't have the money right now… but if you want, you can do whatever you want."

"…it's alright. In the first place, I am also responsible for things that went wrong. Besides, you too were fired from the guild because of that, right? Employing three S-class adventurers without clearance. Alright, raise your head."

"Are you forgiving me?"

Cloud offered her another glass of wine.

"Thanks. Mr. Cloud is a very broad-minded person."

Elisha's smile reached her wet eyes.

After which, they quietly drank for a while in silence, while Cloud…

'…it's f**ked up.'

He was feeling strange.

Clearly, its true that Elisha cheated him. This is something she admits too.

But his conscience ached.

Well let's say this feeling is like when you are playing a game, you found someone using cheats.

In revenge, you used bigger cheats and defeated him thoroughly and in passing, even deleted his account.

But you later came to found out that, that person was your best friend and he had to do that because he was in desperate need to earn some money for his mother's medical bills. But now without his account, he was f**ked up.

'…Should I introduce her to another man?'

This time, Cloud began deliberating whether he should visit a male escort district's ace to balance things out.

"Ummm…"

Elisha's head jerked down as she began to doze off.

'…let's put Elisha in the bed and think about it later.'

He carried Elisha and walked inside her bedroom. Just when he tucked her down in the bed and was about to leave—

—Elisha grabbed his arm.

"I… Mr. Cloud, it's really absurd, but… just once… can you please comfort me…? It's just so hard right now…"

Beyond the disheveled clothes, stood out her curvaceous mounds.

You can read fully translated chapters, including the last chapter, for $20.

p(a)treon.com/Daoist02