Axel felt scammed.
Here he was, thinking that a house would magically appear with the press of a button, only to be presented with a DIY kit that looked like it was from IK*A. Complete with absolutely no instruction manual at all.
"...Whining wouldn't make this house build itself, would it?" He sighed before pulling up his sleeves. "I guess I have no choice but to do it myself!"
The girls saw what happened and were confused as to why Axel was perplexed by his own abilities. But they quickly convinced themselves that it must be that Axel hadn't used this ability before, thus not knowing how it works.
"Sir Axel, let me help you."
Thankfully, Arianne readily lent a hand.
With her strength, it shouldn't be hard to lift the wall pieces and furniture for arrangement.
"Oh, that's helpful." Axel smiled wryly. "Then, let's start with..."
And just like that, as the others prepared and ate breakfast, Axel and Arianne worked on building their to-be home for later.
Even though it didn't come with an instruction manual, each section was already pretty obvious. Thus, Axel, with his inventory, and Arianne, with her innate strength (combined with body strengthening), managed to build the first one in an hour.
Of course, that's not their best time yet.
"Now that we know the structure, we should be able to do the next ones much faster!" Arianne pumped her fists, cheering Axel on.
"Well..."
Just as he was about to wipe his sweat and head to get his breakfast, however, something caught his eye. At the far end of the camp, near the southern wall's corner, a flash of light appeared.
"Huh?"
It wasn't a small flash either, but a grand one.
Enough that even the other girls who weren't looking that way noticed that "something" happened. And as if on cue, Navi popped out after so long and announced:
[Contractor! It seems we have a visitor from a different dimension.]
"A visitor?" Axel repeated the word. "Hostile?" he asked to confirm immediately.
[Unable to confirm.] Navi shook its little head. [However, I can tell that the visitor is a female. A witch. The chance of her joining the Harem is 69%.]
"..."
Axel ignored the little joke at the end and focused on what he had just heard.
A witch!
He was quite familiar with them, since his products mostly catered to witches. Thus, he could more or less guess what this visitor wanted from him.
'A direct negotiation!'
His businessman blood was already boiling, just imagining the many ways he could squeeze money from this witch.
In less than a minute, her figure started to become clearer, walking steadily toward Axel and the rest—a woman wearing what could be said as a typical fantasy witch attire.
A purple and black dress that exposed her shoulders, with a large, sparkly blue bowtie ribbon in the middle. A balloon miniskirt that hung between her hips and knees, paired with sparkly black high-cut boots. And lastly, wide sleeves that almost dragged along the ground as she walked forward using her staff like a walking stick.
She was quite short, maybe even shorter than Eve, and wore a gigantic pointy hat that was almost as wide as she was tall. However, unlike the tropes with how witch hats were used to compensate, this one definitely wasn't compensating.
Just a glance and Axel was convinced.
She's no child like Eve was, but a full-blown adult, at least in her twenties, according to estimates.
The witch's purple eyes glowed from under her hat as she gazed at Axel. Her lips curled up into a thin smile as she spoke with a voice as clear as pristine river currents, ringing in their ears with the flamboyance of youth.
"Are you Hexel~?"
This question confirmed Axel's guess. This witch was, after all, after his wares!
"Yes, I am. At your service." He stepped forward, giving his best business smile as he lightly bowed. "And who do I owe this pleasure?"
The witch placed a hand over her chest—oversized with respect to her height—and introduced herself.
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Sir Hexel," she said. "I am Teruria Hallbach, the third princess and daughter of Queen Wisteria Hallbach!"
"..."
Axel paused, confused.
Although he was familiar with witches, he wasn't acquainted with any of them in reality. Thus, the name she gave didn't ring any bells. Teruria noticed the confusion in Axel's expression and clarified.
"Maybe you'd know my mother better as WitchyGura?"
"AH!" Axel reeled back in shock before smiling, turning into flattery mode. "Yes, yes, how could I forget?! Please pass my thanks to your mother for always buying my wares, Princess Teruria. After all, only the best of the best are fitting for a princess and a queen!"
Princess Teruria smiled wider, nodding lightly to his words. "I will send your regards to my mother sometime in the future, I guess."
The two stared at each other, keeping their smiles on their faces, for a good while.
Only when Axel felt that the silence was getting awkward did he ask further.
"And... I guess you're here for negotiation?" Axel asked. "Although I'm sorry, we're not in a state where we could welcome you just yet. Shall we have our talks there over a cup of tea?"
His finger was pointing to none other than the first prefab home that he and Arianne painstakingly built.
Of course, it was already furnished perfectly as advertised.
The kitchen with a sink, a refrigerator, and a magic stove.
The toilet comes with a bidet and a flush function.
The bedroom with a twin bed and a double, king-sized bed, enough to fit four people comfortably.
And finally, the living room with an expensive-looking soft sofa set and a coffee table in the middle.
All of those were fit efficiently inside the small 4×7 meter area, making full use of the space without feeling cramped.
"Ah..."
But Teruria's next words made Axel dumbfounded.
"Actually, I didn't come here for business. I just came here to play~!"
"...Eh?"
Of course, by then, Axel had no idea how much of an influence Teruria's presence would have on their camp.