Chapter 74 - Souvenirs From The Ruin Exploration (2/2)

When Akira mentioned that he found some old-world underclothes, Sara quickly reacted.

“Underclothes for girls?! How many did you find? Do you still have them?”

“I-I’m sorry, it wasn’t that many and I don’t have them now.”

Akira was slightly overwhelmed by Sara’s reaction while Sara looked very disappointed by Akira’s answer.

“That’s unfortunate. I know this sounds really shameless, but to be honest, I would prefer to get those.”

Akira looked troubled when he heard her.

“…Me giving underclothes as a present to Sara-san, huh? That’s a big hurdle for me, so like… That’s a little bit… You know…”

Akira had no courage to do that.

Sara smiled invincibly as if she was challenging Akira when she teased him.

“If you give me some, I might allow you to see me in those undies, you know?”

She was half-joking there, so to be more precise, she was also half-serious.

Elena sighed exasperatedly and interjected.

“Sara, you’re troubling Akira, you know? You should work hard and find that kind of relic yourself. I’m sorry, Akira. There’s a particular reason why Sara is hungry for more undies right now.”

“Hungry? Elena, don’t use weird expression there.”

Sara sounded annoyed when she said that to Elena. She then noticed Akira, who tilted his head, and tried to explain in panic.

“Akira, it’s not like what you think, okay? Ah, well, it’s true that I’m in a little bit of trouble right now, but it’s not because of anything strange, okay?”

Although Akira did not ask her, Sara then fl.u.s.teredly explained the reason as if she was making excuses.

Sara was an enhanced human with nanomachines body enhancement. Because of that, her body shape changed depending on the amount of nanomachine reserve remaining inside her body or how many nanomachines that she was using. Especially for her chest where she stored her nanomachines reserve, its size varied with time.

Because of that, if she used the usual stretchable bra, it would sometimes become so stuffed that it suffocated her, but some other time, it left a big empty s.p.a.ce enough for it to slip. Moreover, depending on its compatibility with the type of the nanomachine that she was using or the suit with nanomachine reserve that she equipped, even a slight manoeuvre might cause her to tear her undies in no time.

And so, Sara was in dire need of undies that could stretch so much that it would fit comfortably on her body that changed frequently from time to time, also it needed to be strong enough to endure her power and her manoeuvring as an enhanced human. Getting such undies would, of course, cost her a lot of money. Not to mention, if she wanted to get comfortable undies with a good design, then the price would increase even further. And such undies were rare and most sought after in the market.

But the old-world undies that were made using the advanced old-world technology easily satisfied all of those requirements. It was as if they were intentionally made to annoy people like Sara. This was also the reason why Sara was looking for old-world undies. Although it was not like all the old-world undies were that good, most of them were able to at least satisfy her needs.

Of course, she could find other undies with the same level of functionality as the old-world relics, but such undies would have been made using high-quality materials and advanced technologies. Thus they would be super-duper expensive.

On the other hand, she could also buy the undies that the other Hunters brought to the Exchange Centre. But with the old-world brand plastered on them on top of their high quality, and not to mention that she would be competing with the rich people to get them, it would still cost her a lot of money too.

Because of that, Sara would not sell any old-world undies that she found when she searched the ruins so that she would be able to use them instead. She was able to get quite a lot of reserve undies by doing so. But then because of that underground exploration request, she did not have any chances to hunt for relics. Moreover, since they had to explore the underground city on foot, it also increased the frequency where she had to fight monsters.

Thanks to that, Sara burned through her spare undies really fast to the point that her reserve was in an emergency state at the moment. At this rate, she would have to go full commando.

Sara sounded a little exaggerating as she desperately explained her situation to Akira. Akira at least understood that she was not joking there.

“In that case, I’ll bring them to you next time I find more.”

Sara looked delighted when Akira said that.

“That would be really helpful, thank you. There’s no need to worry even if it has some super erotic design, I’ll properly put it on and show it to you.”

After Sara said that teasingly to Akira, this time it was s.h.i.+zuka who looked exasperated and interjected.

“Stop spouting stupid things and properly buy them from him. Akira, if you find any old-world clothes, it doesn’t matter if it’s underclothes, you can bring them here and I’ll buy them from you for a good price. Maintaining the guns is a dirty job after all, so there’s a demand in this business for clothes that don’t get ripped or stained easily. Don’t worry, Sara then can buy them from me at an even higher price.”

Sara was shocked by that.

“O-of course you’ll give me a friendly discount, right?”

“Don’t worry, you’re a prospective regular customer to my shop after all. So I’ll properly give you a special price for trying to s.n.a.t.c.h relics right in front of me.”

s.h.i.+zuka smiled at Sara when she said but it only served to make her look scarier. Sara obviously winced back there. Akira and Elena laughed when they watched their exchange.

Sara then turned to Akira and asked him.

“Well, basically, I just need to find them myself. So, is it okay to ask you where you found them?”

“Well, it’s rather complicated to explain it but… Hmmm… What should I say here…?”

Akira wanted to explain the location of the ruin that he just visited the other day, but since he could not come up with any good way to describe the place, he looked rather troubled.

“Alpha, how do you think I should explain it to them?”

“If you really want to give them the location, you can just tell them the coordinates rather than the road that you took.”

“Ohhh, I see.”

“…Are you seriously going to tell them?”

“Eh? Is it a bad idea?”

Looking at the troubled Akira, Elena thought that he was hesitating because of something else.

“I’m not going to tell you to remember all the ruins around this area, but it’s a good idea to at least remember the name of the ruin where you get your relics. After all, merchants might buy your relics for a higher price if you can explain to them where you get your relics from.”

The Kuzusuhara ruin was the only ruin that could be reached by foot from Kugamayama city. But that was not the case with a vehicle. There were multiple ruins around the Kugamayama city that Akira could go to if he had a vehicle, thus it was not a strange thing if he could not remember the name of all those ruins. As Elena thought so, she also taught Akira one of the basics of selling relics.

But Akira shook his head and replied.

“I do remember the name of the ruin near it, but the location itself is…”

“Akira, stop!”

When Akira was about to give the precise location of the site, Elena suddenly stopped him with a serious expression.

Akira was a bit surprised. Elena then scanned the shop for any other Hunters. Coincidentally, there was no one else inside the shop. She then sighed in relief and turned to s.h.i.+zuka.

“s.h.i.+zuka, I’m sorry but is it okay to change the place?”

“Of course, be sure to teach Akira the basics of selling relics too, okay?”

s.h.i.+zuka understood well why Elena did that. The only person who did not understand what was going on was Akira.

Elena looked a bit troubled and said to Akira.

“Akira, is it ok if we continue this in another place… Well, it seems like it is going to be a long talk, so how about our house? Are you okay with that?”

“Eh, ah, yes, sure.”

“Let’s go then. s.h.i.+zuka, see you again next time.”

Elena and Sara then left the shop. s.h.i.+zuka still looked a bit troubled as she waved at Akira when he left her shop.

Akira just obediently followed Elena and Sara back to their house. He was sitting on a chair inside a room while waiting for Elena and Sara, who went to change their clothes. He was obediently waiting for them since they told him that they would explain the details later.

He looked around the house, judging from the furniture and the other stuff inside, he quickly understood that it was better than his house.

“It might be a good idea not to look around like that.”

“Ah, you’re right.”

Since Alpha warned him, Akira went back to sitting obediently while waiting for Sara and Elena. It did not take long before they returned.

Elena brought with her 3 cups of coffee. She then placed the cups on the table and took a seat on a sofa. She glanced at Sara and exasperatedly said to her.

“Sara, we have a guest here. So, can you at least pick better clothing than that?”

“It’s fine, isn’t it? Since we’re in our home, at least let me wear something that I can relax in. I also don’t mind Akira seeing me in this.”

Sara was wearing a loose white long-sleeve T-s.h.i.+rt that extended all the way to under her hip. Since it was made for comfort, it was showing a lot of skin under it. And to top it off, she was not wearing any skirt or pants.

“Even if it doesn’t bother you, it might still bother Akira, you know.”

“Is that so?”

Elena and Sara who had the exact opposite opinion turned to Akira for confirmation. Both of their faces were telling him to agree with them. Akira was a bit overwhelmed by their expectation.

“Well, I do want to relax in my own house, and since this is Sara-san’s house, so if Sara-san doesn’t mind, then I’m okay with it too.”

Sara smiled smugly while Elena exasperatedly withdrew. Looking at Elena, Sara just smiled and said.

“Don’t worry, I properly put on something down there.”

It could also be inferred from her words that she did not have her bra on right now. Moreover, the shorts that she was wearing was rather provocative. The reason why she was wearing those shorts was to save her undies reserve that was running dangerously low.

With just a little bit of effort, Alpha could accurately determine the direction of Akira’s gaze. So in short, she knew better than Akira himself what he was looking at.

Since Sara was wearing a s.h.i.+rt that was out of her proportion, the valley of her chest sometimes peeked out from her s.h.i.+rt, and whenever she made a big move, her shorts would peek from under the s.h.i.+rt. Alpha knew that Akira was trying to look away from those two things. She also knew well that his efforts sometimes betrayed him.

So, knowing those facts, Alpha then said to Akira.

“As I thought, Akira, you like erotic clothes more, huh? Are you someone who gets all cold when you see a naked girl instead?”

“Zip it!”

Akira jabbed back hard at Alpha while trying to hide his embarra.s.sment.

Elena then changed the mood and said.

“Now then, let’s continue our talk from before, the ruin that you just visited might be an unexplored ruin, right?”

When someone found an unexplored ruin that the other Hunter frequently visited, eventually, that ruin site would become popular and get a name. Sometimes the Hunters who found it first would just put on a random name on that site which later would spread among the other Hunters, and sometimes they would just pick a name from any particular landmark that they found when they searched for that ruin.

Since Akira said that he remembered the name of the ruin near the location where he found that site, this meant that either it was a nameless ruin that was just discovered recently or it was a completely unexplored ruin.

If it was a newly discovered old-world ruin, no matter how much they tried to hide it, it usually would still leak out unless they did a lot of information control to make sure that it would not leak out. Otherwise, the location of that ruin would quickly spread among the Hunters. Because of that, since Elena and Sara did not hear anything about a newly discovered ruin recently, thus they quickly guessed that the ruin that Akira found was a completely unexplored ruin. Elena was sure of her guess when she asked Akira that question.

“It might be an unexplored ruin. Although, it might also be just a different entrance into a ruin that was already explored.”

Since Akira just said that out so easily as if it was nothing, Elena warned him in a way that sounded as if she was scolding Akira.

“Listen here, Akira. It’s dangerous to give that information to other people, you know? The location of an unexplored ruin, I’m sure you know how valuable that information is, right?”

But Akira’s tone and expression did not change at all as he answered back.

“Of course, I won’t just give this information easily to other people. I just thought that it should be okay to share it with both of you since you’ve helped me so much. Not to mention that I already went into that ruin once before.”

It meant that Akira shared that information to Sara and Elena although he knew well just how valuable that information was. Elena and Sara were delighted when they heard that, but Elena tried to suppress her feelings as she said to Akira.

“I’m happy that you feel like that, but there’s one more thing. It’s dangerous to even say that you have such information in a public s.p.a.ce. This is also true even when you’re inside s.h.i.+zuka’s shop. It won’t be strange to find other Hunters eavesdropping in the middle of a public s.p.a.ce like that.”

“I see, I understand, I’ll be careful next time.”

Even after hearing Akira’s reply, Elena felt that his reaction was somehow still too naive. So she then continued while making a serious face.

“If you think that it would only cause you trouble with other Hunters if they find out that you have such information, you’ll have to fix your thinking. Depending on the type of facility that you discover, in the worst-case scenario, it might even cause you some trouble with big companies, you know. Some of them are not only aiming for the relics, they have many other agendas like seizing and monopolizing that ruin in order to restart it. As a result, they would even use anything, including violence, to get their hands on such information. So make sure to be very careful about it.”

“I understand.”

Akira nodded with a serious face. Just like Elena said, he only thought that it might cause a problem with other Hunters. Of course, he had no plans to get into trouble with big companies, thus he swore to be more careful.

Elena could get from Akira’s expression that he completely took in what she said to him. Thus, the serious expression on her face vanished and turned back into a smile.

Silavin: Ah. Akira is just too pure!

<script>