Changing into my swimwear only takes a second for a guy like me.
Take everything off, put on trunks, done.
If I left my clothes here, Aira would most likely fold them for me, but since I have to wait for the girls anyway, I might as well do it.
Then I get out and stretch for a few minutes.
The first one to come out is Ayane.
“Darling! What do you think?”
She asks while turning in front of me. Her swimsuit has a separate top and bottom, and a bright checker pattern.
I was thinking that judging by her personality and body type, she’d either go with an aggressive bikini or follow the strange cliche of wearing a school swimsuit, but… It’s normal. Well, normal is good.
“It’s normal and cute.”
“Ehehe, darling.”
Ayane holds on to me like always, and then Aira comes out.
She’s wearing a navy blue bio rubber swimsuit, like she said before. It emphasizes her lines, and with a figure like hers, makes her a lethal weapon even when she’s just walking. I don’t want to stare too much, but this is the kind of swimsuit she would normally wear in water dungeons, right…?
Is it because there were no men on her team? I feel like fighting next to something like this would draw my attention straight to it.
“What do you think, master?”
“Yes… I mean, hum…”
“I feel your hot gaze on my chest. Do you want to touch them?”
“…No.”
“Fufu, you’re always welcome to.”
“Mu. I wish I had Aira’s too!”
“I’m sure master’s love will make them grow big soon.”
“Darling…!”
Don’t look at me like that…
I ignore Aira and Ayane’s temptations, and wait for the sisters.
“…They’re really taking a long time.”
“I’ll have a look.”
Says Ayane as she runs back to the tent. Shortly after, she pushes the two sisters out.
“Ooh…”
Aki is wearing a yellow tube top, and Maki a one piece swimsuit. Both have frills on the chest area, and they’re wearing matching corsages on their heads.
Did two angels descend upon this beach?
“Aki and Maki, you both look super cute.”
“I-I see, that’s nice…”
“T-thank you…”
Then we play without really caring about our surroundings, like we’re on a private beach. We splash water on each other, and swim as we please.
I get curious about something, and after saying it to the girls, I try to see how far I can get. A hundred meters in, I hit an invisible wall that’s probably surrounding this floor.
The water is pretty deep at this point. I don’t see monsters, but it still feels dangerous, so I go back to the beach and play with the girls.
We play by the water, I’m completely shutout by Aira during beach volleyball, and we make sandcastles. I’m really enjoying this summer time with my girlfriends.
◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇
After having lunch, I enjoy the cool breeze in a tent.
“Shouta.”
“Hn?”
I open my eyes, and see Maki’s angelic smile beyond two mountains. It was Aira who suggested I relax and heal the exhaustion of my everyday life by resting on Maki’s lap.
The other three are still outside playing. Well, two of them are, and Aira is watching over them.
“Having fun?”
“Yes, a lot. This is what youth should be all about, is what I’m feeling.”
“Fufu, that’s nice. Playing around with people close to you is nice.”
“Yes.”
This is what it’s like to forget about time and have fun with your friends, uh? When I was in the lower grades of grade school, we didn’t have stats, so people didn’t care about that sort of thing and we just all played together. But I feel like the environment around us changed drastically ten years ago when the dungeons appeared.
Even before people go to dungeons, their stats become part of their personalities, and they’re more popular the better their starting stats are. Conversely, the lower they are, the lower you are in terms of popularity in school.
This isn’t something you can change with effort, and even your family and upbringing can’t change it. It’s all about that one word, talent, and it’s pretty ruthless. For me, it was like I was completely abandoned by Luck.
“Weren’t you two popular when you were kids?”
“I don’t know. My sister always had people around her, and I was always just chasing her, so… And then that incident happened right after, so I don’t really have good memories of that time…”
She’s talking about the dungeon break.
The first year after dungeons appeared was a chaotic one.
Every human on Earth suddenly had stats, and a hundred dungeons appeared all over the world. And they were all in places with a lot of people.
Humanity ran about frantically after realizing its situation, and once we understood that it was dangerous in the dungeons, the world split between people that wanted to investigate them, and others who wanted to seal them.
Then, a month after they appeared, it was discovered that not only did people level up and get stronger by defeating monsters, but they could get a new resource called magic stones. It was also discovered that they could be used as an energy source, but dungeons were still not available to the general public.
That was partially because going to a dungeon was seen as dangerous, but also because there just weren’t that many of them. Big countries had between one and three, but most small countries had none. It soon became the norm that only a country’s own army could deal with their dungeons.
It was also around this time that humanity as a whole became very excited after finding new resources that could be mined.
That lasted until the second year.
During the one year anniversary of the dungeons, another hundred dungeons appeared.
That was when humanity finally felt danger. If new dungeons appeared like this every year, we would soon be drowning in them.
This prediction would come true not long after that, but in a different way. A lot of the dungeons that appeared in the second year were harder than the initial ones.
These dungeons were sealed, but as the number of dungeons that were abandoned for months surged, monsters inside them started overflowing and breaking out. This event was called a dungeon break, and it started happening consecutively around the world.
A lot of people died, soldiers and civilians alike.
And with the prospect of more dungeons appearing in the third year, they were opened to the general public. The dungeon association was established, the occupation known as adventurer spread, and the government made the previously secret skills public.
As a way to entice people to become adventurers, a system was put in place where they rank up in accordance to their activities, and receive VIP treatment in several facilities and preferential treatment. And eventually, polygamy was made legal for them too, among other things…
A lot happened that got us here, but… The scars from that dungeon break are still felt around the world. We don’t have enough people to deal with it all, so some cities and islands are still basically kingdoms of monsters. Will I get sent there if I rank up even more?
“Dungeon break…”
“Yes, we lived nearby when it happened.”
“I see…”
“A lot happened, and my sister and I decided to be involved with dungeons when we started school. That’s why I’m not really used to just fooling around with someone like this.”
“I didn’t have it as awful as you, but I never could spend time like this either.”
I’m sure she knows what I mean by that, but I’m still vague about it.
“Shouta… I’m very happy now.”
“I think this is the best too.”
Maki and I look at each other. Yes, I can feel the happiness. But… Then Maki shifts into her receptionist mode.
“But I think we should wake up soon. We can’t create happy times without becoming strong enough to keep them safe.”
She says, pretty much declaring that playtime is over and suggesting that I go hunt.
But…
“…Taking a break from time to time is nice.”
“Eh, Shouta…? You’re always so excited to hunt… What happened? Up until now, you’ve had that face that said you want to play, but you want to hunt too.”
“I had that face?”
That’s kind of embarrassing.
“…Your lap just feels so nice that I could melt. I don’t want to move.”
“R-really?”
“Yes. It’s soft, smells nice, feels nice, it’s like an angel’s.”
“G-geez, Shouta…”
Aki comes in, as Maki’s face turns red.
“Shouta, I heard you!”
Aki crouches in front of me and looks into my face.
…This is a nice sight too, but she doesn’t mind where I’m looking, and talks with a somewhat teasing tone.
“You like Maki’s lap that much?”
“Yes, even if I’m being conservative, it’s the best.”
And the view from here just got twice as good.
“Ooh, that’s amazing Maki. You actually got Shouta to refrain from going out hunting.”
“Uu…”
It’s hard to leave a kotatsu during winter, and during the summer, it’s Maki’s lap.
It’s spring outside the dungeon, so the thought of experiencing this again makes me very happy. The more I lean into it, the less I feel like moving…
“I want to keep pampering you too, but we can leave that for after we go back, right?”
“Eh…”
“If you do your best today, I can pamper you all day tomorrow.”
“With the swimsuit?”
“Hum… If that’s what you want.”
“Then wear the more risque one you didn’t wear today, as a treat.”
“A-Aki!?”
Wait, was she hesitant to wear it, or did she have trouble picking between the two?
But considering we didn’t know if people would be here, a normal cute one was a safe bet.
“Then I’ll use that as my motivation.”
“Good luck!”
“But now you have to wear one too, Aki!”
“Eh? Sorry, but the only racy swimsuit we have is yours, right?”
Says Aki with a cackle.
“I thought something like this might happen, so I bought a swimsuit with not a lot of fabric for you too!”
“Eeh!?”
“If I’m going to be embarrassed, I’m taking you down with me!”
“Kuh, clever!”
“…Later.”
I leave while these two have this cute argument, and see Ayane and Aira are ready to move out.
“I’ll do my best again today!”
“Any time you are ready, master.”
They’re still wearing their swimsuits, but also holding their weapons. I was thinking about going like this too, but… Fighting monsters in my trunks is definitely something I want to avoid.
I have Adamantine Armor III, but still, who knows. Not to mention how it would look.
And someone could take pictures.
“I’ll go change.”
“Do you require assistance?”
“Assistance doing what… I can do it by myself.”
“Unfortunate.”
“It is.”
“…”
I’m not sure these two won’t peek, so I need to get changed quickly.
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