Nirrnir muttered to herself, "Given how cautious the Korloy family is, they'll likely raise their guard as soon as today's match ends."
Argo chuckled. "But as long as it's registered, that wild hound has to show up in the arena, right?"
Relaxing her body and half-reclining on the sofa, Nirrnir nodded and replied:
"That's right. Once a monster is registered, it must participate—over the long history of the Volupta Grand Casino, this rule has only been broken twice… and both were extremely foolish mistakes."
She didn't go into detail about what those mistakes were.
Instead, she fixed her gaze on Akimi and the others, and said seriously, "Argo, you all likely aren't on the Korloy family's watchlist yet, so I'd like to ask you to throw the decolorizing agent on that little dog when the time comes. Can you do it?"
After exchanging quick glances with the others, Argo nodded. "No problem. My companions are all skilled."
Before long, Kio returned carrying a jade basin and a silver basin.
The lavishly designed silver one was adorned with ornate patterns and inlaid with gemstones, and the sheer extravagance of the jade one left Akimi visibly stunned.
Nirrnir gave them a look as if they were clueless country bumpkins and said indifferently, "It's not like these are rare treasures. Is there really a need to look so shocked? You're acting like you've never seen anything in your life."
What a classic humblebrag.
Her effortless boasting left the group speechless—longing to speak, yet unsure what to say.
Boss, if those aren't valuable, could you give me a few?
Kio held both massive, high-end containers with one arm while swiftly clearing the tea table with the other.
Even holding such hefty items one-handed, she appeared completely at ease, which once again amazed the group.
(If we treat the basins as cylinders with a 15 cm radius and 10 cm height, with wall and base thicknesses of 1 cm and 2 cm respectively, the silver has a density of 10.5 g/cm³, and the jade has a density of 9 g/cm³—the total weight comes out to approximately 41.8 kg.)
Among those present, the highest levels belonged to Akimi and Kirito, at levels 24 and 23 respectively.
Normally, their combined strength and agility stats should each be around 120 and 115 points, assuming 5 stat points gained per level.
However, because Akimi uses Water Breathing, he gains 6 attribute points per level instead of 5.
That means his total attributes amount to 144 points.
Since he allocates his points evenly, both Strength and Agility are currently at 72.
As for Kirito, he distributes his points in a 3:2 ratio between Strength and Agility, so his Strength is 69 and Agility is 46.
If it were only a matter of holding the two basins with one hand, both Akimi and Kirito could manage it.
But to hold them like Kio and still have the ease to clean the tea table at the same time?
That would be nearly impossible.
Of course, this isn't because Akimi and Kirito are weak.
Just keep in mind that the average level of the main tank squad in the raid group is around level 20, and their average Strength is only about 75—and that's already from sacrificing Agility.
This battle maid… seems to be pretty damn strong.
"Let's start by squeezing the juice out of the Narsos Fruit... That task goes to the gentlemen," Nirrnir said with a smile.
"Due to its special properties, it has to be done by hand. The juice will go into this jade basin."
But as she said that, Akimi couldn't shake the feeling that there was a mix of anticipation and schadenfreude in her tone, and something strange about her expression too.
His instincts told him something was off.
After a moment's hesitation, Akimi slowly picked up one of the Narsos Fruits.
It looked similar to a pear, with a purplish-red skin that gave off a faint, pleasant fruity aroma.
From appearance alone, there didn't seem to be anything wrong—if anything, it looked a little tempting.
Akimi took a deep breath and began squeezing the fruit with force.
As the purplish-red skin cracked open, the yellow-green flesh inside was exposed to the air, and a milky-white juice began to ooze from the crack and drip into the jade basin in front of him.
But just seconds after the juice touched his hand, Akimi finally understood why Nirrnir had looked so excited.
The juice had a peculiar sweet-yet-spicy fragrance that filled the air—and more importantly, it brought a sharp, tingling numbness to his palm.
Akimi looked over at Kirito and Yu Wenjun, whose hands were also covered in juice.
Their eyes met.
His lips moved, but no words came out.
Then, after a moment of stunned silence, the three of them wailed in unison.
"AAAHHH—!" ×3
The reason for their screaming was simple: the juice of the Narsos Fruit delivered an electric-shock-like sensation—causing numbness while also transmitting pain.
Yes, pain.
The kind of pain that wasn't even supposed to exist in SAO's system.
In SAO, even if you were sent flying by a wild boar, had all your limbs chopped off, bit your tongue, or stubbed your toe on a table leg, you still wouldn't feel pain.
But the Narsos Fruit could make you feel pain—it was simply unbelievable.
Watching the three boys in such a sorry state, Nirrnir collapsed onto the sofa, buried her head in a large pillow, and let out a stream of giggles, her soft white feet kicking about in the air.
Sitting nearby, Argo, Asuna, and Kizmel couldn't hold back their laughter either.
Even Kio, who was standing beside Nirrnir, turned slightly away, her shoulders shaking with silent laughter.
After laughing for a while, Nirrnir finally had Kio bring over three pairs of specially treated leather gloves, allowing Akimi and the others to continue squeezing the fruit without suffering the electric shock-like sensation from the juice.
With a look of sorrow and betrayal, Kirito asked Nirrnir, "Why didn't you just give us these gloves from the start?"
But before Nirrnir could answer, Argo patted Kirito on the back twice and said with a laugh, "Because if you had gloves from the start, we wouldn't have gotten to enjoy the show~"
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