After all, last night.
When those blush-inducing fluctuations were clearly transmitted into her ears through the floorboards.
Her brain's first reaction was also to frantically sound the alarm, screaming 'Hear no evil'.
This was wrong.
This was impure.
This was highly disrespectful to Kami-sama.
As a result...
Her body instead seemed to have betrayed her will.
The newly awakened developmental ability—[Mind's Eye]—became the biggest accomplice!
Not only could she not block it out.
Instead, she listened even more intently.
Those sounds were simply pervasive.
Not just her sense of hearing.
All of her senses were infinitely magnified at this moment.
The more she tried to block it out.
The clearer she heard it instead.
Even her mind began to automatically sketch out those extremely shameful scenes.
It was as if it possessed some kind of magic.
Causing her to toss and turn in her blanket all night, until dawn when she finally managed to doze off in a daze for a little while.
"Mmph..."
And so.
The more she recalled these things, the more Inaba Tsukuyo felt too ashamed to show her face.
She simply buried her face even deeper.
Looking at her ostrich-like appearance, wishing she could bury herself alive.
"Regardless, I'm still the one who made you suffer along, not getting a good night's sleep."
Haimer also felt his heart ache for her.
Although reasonably speaking.
When one's level sublimates to Lv.2, and they awaken the rare developmental ability [Mind's Eye].
Inaba Tsukuyo's control over her own senses should have already reached an entirely new height.
Theoretically, she should be able to selectively block out external information.
However.
Then again.
Even if she could.
Constantly making Inaba Tsukuyo block out these sounds herself was ultimately not a long-term solution.
After all.
What if she forgot one day?
Or perhaps—that little demon called curiosity, which belongs to puberty, suddenly acted up?
Although Inaba Tsukuyo was powerful and her temperament was more mature than her peers, no matter how you look at it, she was ultimately still a young girl right in the prime of her youth.
Curiosity toward a new world, curiosity toward what lies behind the mysterious veil of the adult world, is always very difficult to suppress.
Thinking of this.
Haimer thoughtfully raised his head, his gaze piercing through the central courtyard, looking toward the second-floor bedroom.
Although this house was built with solid materials, and Shakti had invested heavily in it, making it absolutely count as a luxury mansion among luxury mansions.
But the craftsmen clearly hadn't specifically targeted ridiculously sharp-sensed high-level adventurers in terms of soundproofing during the initial design.
"It seems... I still need to quickly think of a solution."
"Later on, I'll have to find an opportunity to ask Tsubaki, or just directly look for Hephaestus."
"To see if we can just simply get some sort of item that completely isolates sound or something."
"Otherwise, from now on..."
If this group of little ones at home with ears as sensitive as radar were forced to eavesdrop every day.
How could they still live their days?
Could he still keep his privacy as a God?
How could he pleasantly conduct deep exchanges between a God and his Familia in the future?
And so.
Haimer began rubbing his chin, secretly calculating in his heart.
However.
The next second.
"Boom—"
A loud crash erupted from the kitchen without any warning.
Immediately after.
As if to coordinate with this loud crash.
A burst of black smoke, even thicker and more pungent than before, began continuously billowing out from the kitchen door frame.
It even showed a tendency to spread toward the hall.
"Cough, cough, cough, cough!"
"It's ruined, it's ruined, meow! It's ruined! This pot is completely scrapped, meow!"
"Ryu! Are you trying to blow this place up?! This is Kami-sama's residence, meow!"
"No! No! The fire is too big, meow! Hurry up and turn off the heat, idiot! Ryu, don't use the spatula to swat the fire, that's useless, meow!!!"
The originally quiet early morning was completely shattered.
Haimer's original train of thought was also forcibly interrupted at this instant.
Looking at that black smoke currently struggling to surge toward the ceiling.
The corners of Haimer's mouth twitched slightly.
"It seems..."
"Compared to soundproofing."
"How to keep Miss Elf away from the kitchen is the current top priority."
How is this cooking.
This is clearly demolishing the house.
Haimer sighed helplessly.
He then patted the head of the still-dazed Inaba Tsukuyo, signaling her not to worry, stood up, and strode through the layer of light smoke that had already begun to permeate the hall, walking straight to the kitchen door.
...
Only to see.
Inside the originally spacious and bright kitchen.
At this moment, it was already a complete mess.
Three figures wearing maid outfits were currently running around like headless flies in a chaotic mess.
And the most conspicuous among them.
Was naturally the one standing right in the center of the stove—Ryu Lion.
However.
When Haimer looked over.
Only to see.
On Ryu's originally beautiful and refined face, it was already covered in black soot, looking exactly like she had just crawled out of a coal pile.
She held a spatula incomparably stiffly, staring intently at the frying pan in front of her that was continuously emitting black smoke and even occasionally shooting out one or two licks of flame.
"It... it turned black!"
Ryu's voice began to reveal a trace of panic.
"This thing... why did it turn black?! It was clearly still yellow just a moment ago!"
"The fire! Why won't the fire turn off!"
"Why isn't this fire obeying commands?!"
As Ryu's attempt to swat out the flames with the spatula was declared a failure.
She had clearly panicked completely.
She threw down the already useless spatula and began to frantically twist the control knob below the Magic Stone stove.
If it were normal times.
Turning off a fire was simply an instinctual reaction that didn't even need to go through the brain.
But.
Under this extreme panic.
And so.
Because Ryu used too much force.
Only a crisp 'crack' was heard.
That control knob, forged from fine copper and looking quite expensive.
Was directly and forcefully snapped off by her.
At the instant when Ryu saw that as she raised her hand, that fine copper control button was still grasped in her hand.
At that instant.
Time seemed to stand still.
The black smoke was still billowing.
The fire was still burning.
But the air in the kitchen was as if completely sucked dry in an instant, thoroughly solidifying.
Even the two figures standing on either side of Ryu, who were originally jumping up and down and shouting loudly in an attempt to provide off-field commands—Lunor and Chloe.
Also instantly stiffened their bodies.
Their mouths gaped wide open, their eyeballs practically popping out, staring dead at the broken knob in Ryu's hand.
After a second of dead silence.
"Meow-ya——!!!"
A miserable and despairing cat cry instantly pierced through the oppressive black smoke in the kitchen.
"You monstrous-strength woman, meow!!!"
Chloe hugged her head with both hands, her pair of cat ears frightened flat against her scalp, wearing an expression of the end of the world.
"This is a Magic Stone stove! It's very expensive! Selling us might not even be enough to pay for it, meow!"
"It's over."
Lunor on the side also felt her legs give way, almost kneeling directly on the ground, her eyes hollow, muttering to herself.
"Now it's completely over..."
"We're all going to be miserable victims..."
——Chloe and Lunor.
They had originally begged Syr for a long time before finally being kicked over here by Manager Mia to perform well, striving to gain Haimer's forgiveness as soon as possible, thereby quickly escaping this awkward situation of having to come over every morning to do hard labor from now on.
And the result?
Early this morning.
First it was Ryu acting on a whim, suddenly wanting to cook a dish and torturing them for half an hour!
That alone would have been fine!
But look at it now!
Ryu directly tore off the fine copper button of the Magic Stone stove!
Let alone forgiveness!
If things went wrong, they might have to stay here for the rest of their lives to sell their bodies to pay off the debt!!
"I, I this..."
Ryu looked at the broken fine copper knob in her hand, her entire person also completely dumbfounded.
Her brain was a complete blank.
She clearly... just wanted to turn it off... that's all...
Why did it turn out like this?
To think this thing was actually so fragile?
.
Just when the atmosphere in the kitchen was so despairing that it was about to solidify into physical form.
"Clap, clap."
A burst of crisp applause suddenly came from the doorway.
Hearing this, the expressions of the three stiffened, and they turned their heads incomparably stiffly.
Only to see.
The master of the house was currently leaning against the kitchen door frame, watching everything with great interest.
"Brilliant."
Haimer gently spat out these words.
His tone revealed neither joy nor anger, yet it made the scalps of the three go numb.
"What a good show."
"Putting on such a brilliant house-demolition performance for me so early in the morning."
"Now..."
Haimer's gaze swept across that stove still stubbornly shooting out flames, and then glanced at the room full of black smoke.
"Should I be glad that you haven't directly set my house on fire yet?"
"K-K-Kami-sama!"
At the instant she saw Haimer appear.
The spatula and the broken knob in Ryu's hands dropped onto the floor with a clatter.
She was like a child caught red-handed doing something wrong by a parent, instantly standing ramrod straight, her hands pressed tightly against her apron, hurriedly giving Haimer a standard ninety-degree bow.
"I-I am truly sorry!"
"It was my sudden whim! My lack of skill!"
"Breaking your thi... I will definitely compensate you!"
Ryu's voice was extremely flustered.
Chloe and Lunor on the side.
After seeing Haimer's half-smiling expression, they also immediately shrank their necks, feeling a chill down their backs.
"G-Good morning, Kami-sama, meow!"
"These, these were all done by Ryu alone, meow! Really! Lunor and I have been trying hard to stop her! It was her who insisted on showing off!"
As a Cat-person race girl—Chloe reacted the fastest. Her small face, stained with a bit of black soot, hurriedly switched to an extremely fawning, smiling expression. Those cat eyes blinked continuously, attempting to play cute to get away with it.
"Y-Yeah!"
Lunor also immediately nodded in agreement on the side, nodding her head like a chick pecking at rice.
"We originally wanted to help, telling her to let us do it, but Ryu insisted on doing it herself... we couldn't even stop her!"
Although it was indeed the truth.
But this selling out of their teammate was far too decisive.
Looking at these two who instantly switched sides and even wished they could push all the responsibility onto Ryu in order to protect themselves.
Haimer also gave them a cross eye-roll.
These three gathering together truly could put on a grand play.
Especially these two slickers, they were simply the epitome of the best terrible friends.
"Alright."
"Stop acting over there."
"If this kind of thing truly broke so easily, you wouldn't be the ones I'd look for."
With that said.
Haimer waved his hand.
And walked directly into this kitchen that was still permeated with a burnt smell.
Following Haimer's approach.
The three exceptionally sensibly lowered their heads and stood to the side, making way.
Haimer walked straight to the stove that was still emitting black smoke.
Then bent down to pick up the knob, pressed it back on, and completely turned off the flames on the stove.
As the stove, which was still stubbornly spewing tongues of fire, completely extinguished.
The three finally breathed a sigh of relief.
As the black smoke slowly dissipated.
After finishing all this.
Haimer also turned around, clapped the dust off his hands, his gaze sweeping across that completely scrapped frying pan, and finally landed on Ryu, who was still bowing to the side and hadn't risen.
"Raise your head, Miss Elf."
""
Hearing this, Ryu's body stiffened.
Only then did she tremblingly raise her head.
On that face covered in black soot, her eyes dodged about, not daring to meet Haimer's gaze at all.
"Wipe that dirty face of yours."
Haimer pointed at his own cheek to gesture.
"Otherwise, if that group of little girls comes down and sees it later."
"They might just think I made you climb the chimney early in the morning."
"...Yes."
Hearing this, Ryu felt even more overwhelmed with shame.
She hurriedly and flusteredly raised her sleeve, randomly wiping a few times directly across her face.
Attempting to wipe away that black soot that made her lose all face.
As a result.
Because she was too flustered, coupled with the fact that her hands were originally covered in soot as well.
Not only did she fail to wipe it clean.
She instead thoroughly smeared her face, which originally only had a few black marks, into a giant mess.
The black soot smudged across her fair skin, becoming blacker and messier the more she wiped.
Even the tip of her nose was smudged with a black spot.
Looking at Ryu's clumsy and pitiful appearance, getting messier the busier she got.
Haimer also sighed somewhat helplessly.
"Forget it."
"I'll do it."
He really couldn't bear to watch any longer.
With that said, Haimer directly took a step forward.
This action made Ryu subconsciously want to retreat.
But behind her was the cooking counter, leaving her no room to retreat.
She could only watch helplessly as Haimer's hand reached over.
Continuously magnifying in Ryu's pupils.
Then.
Wiped away that layer of black soot on her cheek.
"!"
Too close.
To Ryu, who had a severe psychological barrier and would currently let almost no one touch her aside from Syr.
If it were normal times, if any man dared to treat her like this, or even just tried to approach her.
Her first reaction would absolutely be to directly snap the other party's wrist along with their arm.
"There we go."
However.
At this moment, Ryu's body was as stiff as a piece of wood.
Her entire person was as if frozen in place.
Even her breathing stopped.
It wasn't until Haimer had already retracted his hand, looking at that smudge of black soot on his fingertip and casually rubbing it off.
That Ryu still hadn't snapped back to her senses.
""
To the point that Chloe and Lunor, who had witnessed this entire scene from the side.
At this moment.
The expressions on their faces were nearly identical.
Mouths agape, eyes wide open.
As if they had seen some sort of unbelievable sight.
This was [Gale]!
An Elf with mysophobia carved into her bones!
The gal who had once beaten an adventurer attempting to hit on her in the tavern so badly he couldn't get out of bed for half a month, even developing psychological trauma!
To think she actually...
Was actually touched on the face by this black-haired God, and she didn't slash him?
"Meow-wu..."
Chloe hurriedly covered her mouth, her eyes darting frantically between Haimer and Ryu, her gossip-loving soul burning fiercely.
Huge news!
Absolutely the biggest news of the year!
If the others in the tavern knew that Ryu was touched by this black-haired God and didn't even get angry, their jaws would probably drop all over the floor!
After all.
The vast majority of Elves had extremely arrogant personalities, being highly noble people with extremely strong self-esteem. Even if it was a God, as long as they weren't touched by someone they approved of, they would be quite resistant.
"What's wrong?"
"Are you two very free?"
Seemingly perceiving those two gazes to the side that were so hot they were about to catch fire.
Haimer withdrew his gaze, turning his head to look at these two who were clearly watching the show.
"Since you have so much free time to watch the show here."
"Then the task of breakfast will be left to you."
Haimer pointed at this mess in the kitchen, as well as that smoking pot.
"Within half an hour."
"If you don't clean this place up and make a breakfast that satisfies my group of picky children."
"I will have Captain Shakti personally come pick you up to drink tea in the Ganesha Familia's jail."
"And tell Captain Shakti by the way."
Haimer's eyes narrowed slightly.
"That you attempted to poison my kitchen."
"!!!"
"Meow?!"
"Poison?!"
As soon as these words came out, Chloe and Lunor's fur instantly stood on end.
After all, if this crime were established, then it wouldn't be as simple as drinking tea! Poisoning a God, this was a crime that would get you locked up for life!
Furthermore, with Shakti's one-track-minded personality!
She would absolutely take it seriously!
"Meow! Don't do that, Kami-sama!"
"We'll do it! We'll do it right away!"
"Idiot Lunor, hurry up and get to work! Chop the vegetables! Chop the vegetables, meow!"
"I know! Don't rush me! Damn it... why am I always the unlucky one!"
In an instant.
The desire to survive triumphed over all.
Chloe and Lunor, this duo who usually loved to slack off the most, burst with unprecedented work enthusiasm at this very moment.
They hurriedly began to frantically busy themselves in the kitchen.
The sounds of chopping vegetables, washing pots, and igniting fires rose and fell in succession, their movements so fast they were practically blurs.
Looking at the two who instantly entered work mode, or perhaps could even be said to be performing beyond their usual level.
Haimer also nodded in satisfaction.
This was the proper way to start the morning, after all.
Some people, if you don't push them a bit, you'll never know how much potential they have.
As for...
Haimer glanced at Ryu, who was still standing in a daze in place.
"Miss Elf, don't just stand here in a daze either."
"Although delicate work like cooking doesn't suit you."
"Go do something you're good at."
Haimer pointed at the living room outside the kitchen door.
"Wipe the tables and sweep the floor."
"They're all the most basic physical tasks, it shouldn't be too hard for Miss Elf."
"Of course."
"If Miss Elf accidentally snaps the table in half while wiping..."
"The furniture here is quite valuable. If Miss Elf accidentally breaks it."
"Then please work here for the rest of your life to pay off the debt, Miss Elf."
"Yes!!!"
Hearing Haimer's words, Ryu finally snapped back to her senses like she had been electrocuted.
At this point.
The mansion became completely busy.
____
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