"Holy Light!"
The sacred light released from her palm enveloped one of the Orcs, causing it to vanish.
The steel rod wielded by the Golem girl, Mai, strongly struck another Orc, and the arrows shot by the half-elf sisters finished it off.
The battle today was progressing so smoothly that Anna, the Elf Spirit User acting as the supervisor, had virtually nothing to do.
"Eleanor-san's magic is powerful every time I see it. You are so dependable."
"Oh, no, I still have a long way to go. I need to become stronger and stronger, like Ren-sama and the others."
"That's right. It's still really hard to catch up to the big sisters."
"I need to work harder, don't I?"
El returned from the stairs to the temple and walked part of the way home with her companions before parting ways in front of the path leading to "the house."
"Well then, until next time."
"Yes, until next time."
The evening sun was already floating in the sky, a sign of another hard day's work.
This world was very peaceful. While there were wild beasts in the fields, there were no monsters, and a barrier (?) was cast around the house so that even the beasts couldn't cause harm.
The meals were delicious and plentiful. Her large single room even came with a warm bed, and the house itself retained heat better than the stone-built temple. She wasn't scolded for staying up late, nor did she need to wake up early to fetch water or clean.
It had been two months since she arrived in this world.
She had completely gotten used to life here.
She tried to pay back the ease of her life by doing what she could: helping with cooking and cleaning, and serving as a teacher of letters and language in place of Metia.
She also started entering the "Dungeon" with the Golems and the half-elf girls. It was a mysterious magic device where a predetermined situation was formed every time they entered. The fact that she herself had emerged from within one made her tremble, but on the other hand, fighting in the Dungeon oddly calmed her.
She was gradually getting used to the fighting, which had been terrifying at first.
Initially, she felt like crying and was lost, facing concepts far exceeding her understanding and an environment where she knew no one. However, Ren, the Dragon-Slaying Hero, and the others were all very kind, good people.
The leader, Ren, was a Succubus, who was visibly alluring and apparently engaged in lewd acts with her companions every night—but there was no dark atmosphere of a demon tempting people. There was a unique distance among them, like lovers or friends.
Of course, she never pressured El to "be her partner."
According to her religious tenets, fornication with the opposite sex was forbidden except with one's spouse. Conversely, there was a trend that relations with the same sex were acceptable, and indeed, there were Shrine Maidens in the temple who were in pseudo-relationships, but El thought such things were too soon for her.
"A memorial battle for the world, huh."
She took out a beautiful stone—a fragment of the world—which she kept carefully in a pouch at her waist, and sighed.
The capital where El lived was on the "50th floor of the Dungeon." Yet, El had to start fighting from the "1st floor." Ren and Metia said this was because El was "not considered a combatant on the 50th floor." She didn't fully understand the meaning.
What she did understand was that this one stone wouldn't have a big effect. And that climbing floor by floor was not easy, even with her companions.
The day she could reach the beautiful heroes who might be stronger than the Saintess she admired was still far away.
"Ah, that smells good."
As she got closer to the house, a delicious smell tickled her nose.
Was it stew today?
Many of the dishes from the other world were things that didn't exist in El's world, and the similar dishes were refined and very tasty. She looked forward to them every day.
"I'm home."
She announced her return as she opened the front door and took off her shoes. Taking off shoes indoors felt strange at first, but once she got used to it, it was very comfortable and became a habit. Being able to bathe every day and wash even the soles of her feet clean—she thought this was one reason she didn't have to worry about odor anymore.
A small patter of footsteps came from inside the house, reacting to her voice.
"Welcome home, El-san."
"Thank you, Sion-sama."
Sion in her small fox form ran up and looked up at El.
Sion, who had a mysterious appearance, neither dog nor cat, could freely change her form—growing larger, becoming human, or becoming a human with ears—and she was a great person who could manipulate countless flames at once or cast barriers to ward off evil.
Although she differed in various ways from the God El worshipped, El particularly respected her as a holy being. Sion looked tickled when treated this way, but being so small made it very cute—to get back to the point.
"It's stew today. Please put down your luggage and change your clothes."
"Oh, I knew it! I'll hurry so I don't delay."
When she moved to the living room in comfortable clothes, everyone was already at the table.
"I'm sorry for making you wait."
"No, it's okay. We're just about finished setting up. You must be tired, right? Eat a lot!"
Furi, the Wind Spirit, along with Iris, the Half-Elf, was in charge of cooking for the house.
The two of them were kind, cheerful, and caring. They watched with a smile when El ate with apparent delight. They were young and beautiful, yet somehow mature, and had become one of the people she admired.
"Muu. The change in expression has a high destructive power, too. It is inefficient, but should I perhaps add that function as well?"
The Golem, Mei, muttered this flatly with an expressionless face, yet with a hint of chagrin.
She was Mai's older sister, who was also clearing the Dungeon with El. Despite possessing extraordinary combat strength, she was full of humor and was the mood-maker of the house.
Her figure, silently cleaning the house with an untiring body, was magnificent in the eyes of El, who had often been driven to tears by the temple's cleaning duties.
"You're pregnant, so leave it for another time. ...Besides, even if you add the function, it probably wouldn't change much for you."
Metia, the Dark Elf, was in a sense the person El felt the most affinity with.
They could talk about their homeland—their original world—and they could communicate without translation. On the other hand, they often confused each other because their species, age, and upbringing were all different.
Although El relied on her often at first, she started relying more on Furi and the others than the selfish and haughty Metia. When she did, Metia would sometimes talk to El with a slightly sulky attitude, which made El feel a bit of closeness.
"Speaking of pregnancy, Ren, you too. Try to take it easy for a while."
"That's an exaggeration. It's only one month, so I'm totally fine."
Ren, the Succubus leader of the party.
She was quite different from the Succubus image El had in her mind. Well, she did have a lewd side—a little, a lot, quite a bit—but perhaps it was due to her rare nature of hating men. Or was it because she was a person from another world who had become a Succubus later in life? She chose her partners and didn't completely drain their life force. She didn't look down on humans and was very kind to El.
Her figure, soaring through the sky with her wings and conjuring countless light arrows, was both terrifying and beautiful.
She had become pregnant with Furi's child a while ago.
A child between two women. It defied common sense, but apparently, it was fine "because she's a Succubus."
"I'm really sorry, Ren. Forcing this on you."
"It's fine. Besides, it would be much more difficult if Furi got pregnant."
The purple-haired Succubus said with a smile. She could somehow feel a faint pattern resembling the symbol of the wind glowing on her lower abdomen, even through her clothes. The Succubus, who could get pregnant if she wanted to and could always prevent it if she didn't, apparently even had a function to clearly indicate "whether she is currently pregnant" and "whose child it is."
The reason Ren was carrying Furi's child was due to Furi being a special being, a Wind Spirit.
Furi could become a body close to the wind itself. They decided not to risk what would happen to the baby in her belly if she dematerialized, which was the deciding factor.
"Even so, Furi got ahead of me. ...Maybe I should have Ren's child right now."
"Metia. We all decided to have one child at a time for the first one, remember?"
"That's true, but..."
Metia glared at Ren as if to say, Furi is being unfair.
Sion tilted her head in a puzzled way and casually placed a hand on her chest.
"I'm actually grateful, as it gives me time to prepare myself mentally."
"...I, too, would be scared if it came to that."
"Haha. Why don't you all just have Ren give birth to your children?"
"If that happens, I won't be able to dive into the dungeon for about ten years."
Incidentally, Mei's child would also be considered Ren and Mei's child.
It seems Golems' reproduction is a system where the Golem on the wife's side receives only the life force from the human acting as the husband and makes a copy of herself. Therefore, they are not included in the "one child at a time" promise.
Mei was apparently given a body equivalent to a human five-year-old at birth and learned to speak much faster than a human. Her mother was also active normally before and after giving birth.
Should it be called convenient, or lacking in emotion?
By the way, El didn't know the specifics of how children were made. She understood that a man and a woman made them through lewd acts, but she had no knowledge of what exactly they did. If she peeped into Ren's room at night—no, she had so many things to learn and think about already, so she decided not to do anything strange.
"But I really didn't think just getting pregnant would raise my level."
"Ren. Making a child isn't 'just' easy enough to say that."
"That's true, but normally you don't get experience points for that."
"Golems also gain experience points."
"...When you think about it that way, is it a somewhat normal thing?"
"Calm down. It's definitely a special case."
For a Succubus, even having a child seemed to be included in her racial characteristics and habits.
"I wonder if the burden of pregnancy is lighter than for humans, after all."
She muttered, rubbing her belly despite saying she didn't feel any discomfort, and Furi and Metia looked at her with half-closed eyes.
"That's unfair."
"Yes. You should suffer properly there."
"Ehh. I think it's better if it's easy, though."
While it wasn't certain that the child of a Succubus and a Spirit would be born in ten months, it would take years for the child to be born, raised, and become somewhat independent.
The neighbors, a couple who loved each other as women like Ren (though they were married unlike Ren, and joked that they were "beaten to the punch" with the child), offered to "take care of the child in a pinch," but it seemed Ren's return to the dungeon would be some time away.
"Even that dragon was just the enemy's vanguard, wasn't it?"
When she muttered this, remembering the terrifying huge body, Metia replied, "Yes."
"The Dragon Race shouldn't yield so easily, but perhaps the Demon King is that serious. The Demon King and the high-ranking Demons possess strength equal to or greater than the Dragon Race, and there are hero-level practitioners among all the various races. Those are probably the ones we'll be facing in the next dungeon."
It was truly a mythic war. Moreover, it was not someone else's problem for El, who had come to the "God's World."
There were many warriors in this world besides Ren and the others. At the same time, it was also true that Ren was highly regarded among them. Ren's "short break" would undoubtedly lead to a stagnation in the war effort.
If so, at least...
"I will hone my skills so that I can be of help to Ren-sama when she returns."
Ren smiled at this, saying, "I'm counting on you."
"But don't push yourself too hard, okay? Dying is the worst thing."
"I'll bear that in mind."
Mai and the others, just like El, were aiming to catch up to Ren and the others.
The children who were "people of this world," like Shou and Ken, whom they had recently met, were also working hard to clear the Dungeon.
The environment to keep Ren and the others from being the only ones working hard was gradually falling into place.
"Since the Sage-sama and Kent-sama are working hard despite their age, it shouldn't be a problem for the Master to rest for a while."
"Oh. It seems the old man is being worked pretty hard."
"It looks like Kent-san got fired up."
The Sage and Kent were the two men who had been fighting with Ren and the others. They seemed to be central figures in this world, and it was apparently undesirable for them to wander around too frequently, but they were also the greatest fighting force, making them difficult to handle. Especially recently, Kent had been actively working, and the Sage was getting dragged along.
"Furi and the others are being invited, too, right? Maybe I should join in a bit so I don't fall behind."
"No. Pregnant women need to rest!"
"I keep saying I'm totally fine, though."
This was indeed too overprotective for someone only one month along. However, it was probably a convenient excuse to make Ren, who always tried to do something, rest.
She would seem to settle down by trying to avoid dungeon exploration, only to be called out for matters in the city or start doing various things under the guise of magic training. It was more reassuring for those around her if she was a little calmer.
"I'm sure it's because she's this kind of person that people gather around her."
"?"
"El, did you say something?"
"No, it was nothing."
El answered Ren, who tilted her head curiously, with a smile.
Ren and the others apparently couldn't return to their homeland unless they cleared the Dungeon.
This was a memorial battle for a ruined world, but at the same time, it was a battle to bring happiness to the heroes fighting for other worlds.
The road was steep.
But she was sure they would reach their goal someday.
A premonition close to certainty resided firmly in the young girl's heart.
============
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