Not Making Progress?

"Narikin? It doesn't look like you're making any progress conquering the dungeon…"

"My apologies, Master… It's just, you know, we've been responding to requests, and…"

And so, after all that unnecessary exploration, it took them a leisurely week to finally reach the forest area.

A week. For a cave area that was supposed to be cleared in a single day, three days at most.

The reason was simple: they kept listening to every single viewer request.

"Chat with us more," "show us a closer look," "we want to hear the Saintess give a sermon on stream," "show us Narikin-sama's sermon too." And above all, what the Saintess herself proposed:

"Let's only advance while we're streaming! We can use the rest of the time to explore the surroundings as preparation for the stream. Oh, at least for the cave area! I want to conquer every single route!"

That was undoubtedly the biggest factor. They could have progressed even outside streaming hours… In fact, that was the whole point.

But if he refused carelessly, it would basically be saying "Does that mean you don't have the leeway to explore?" So to show that they had plenty to spare, he went along with the requests.

And while Narikin was busy responding to the Saintess and viewers' demands, we were just sitting around waiting… not. As if.

Rokuko was frantically adjusting the cave area in real-time, shouting things like "I didn't build that part yet! Heeey!"

After all, almost everything besides the correct route was just empty dead ends. Conversely, if there were nothing but dead ends, that would be obviously suspicious. So we ended up scrambling to place monsters and such after the fact.

I got drafted into secretly mining passages to connect routes and make things more complex. Mining without using [Create Golem] would be way too noisy, not to mention time-consuming.

I was the only one who could create dungeon corridors at walking speed by repeating the process of making a golem, [Storage], making it a golem again, [Storage].

… Wait, Soto could have done it too, couldn't she? I should have had her help…

No, she's already helping with dungeon transportation and such. Asking for more would mean offering more compensation to keep things balanced.

Anyway, the point is:

"Narikin? It doesn't look like you're making any progress conquering the dungeon…"

"My apologies, Master… It's just, you know. I keep telling them we should move forward, but…"

Please, I'm begging you. Get to the forest area already. We're at our limit with the expansions…

The cave area was supposed to be wrapped up quickly. This is way beyond expectations.

"Tomorrow. We'll finally reach the forest area tomorrow."

"Really? If they ask for a scripture reading or something, you'll get held up again, won't you? Well, readings where you stay put do help us out on our end, though."

"Well, um, we might return to the cave a bit as a rest point. But starting tomorrow, the conquest will be in the forest!"

The forest area would be easier to fudge, and we'd already prepared various things there anyway.

"You're the only one who can rein in the Saintess, so as party leader, make sure you keep the conquest moving! I'm counting on you, seriously. The cave area is now completely conquered, got it!?"

"Yes, sir! Leave it to me!"

I cut the communication.

Letting out a sigh, I stretched. This unnamed dungeon was a derived dungeon of [Cave of Desires] and was actually quite close to here.

I'd need to be careful that villagers or adventurers didn't accidentally wander over there.

"Master."

"Hm? Oh, Niku. What's up?"

I'd been communicating from my room in the village chief's residence. That's when Niku came in.

Today, Niku was… Huh? Wait, wasn't today supposed to be her day off?

"Um, I was voluntarily patrolling Karisoto District… and I found Ichika getting into some trouble."

"What did she do?"

"She went into a gambling hall and was playing."

… A gambling hall, huh. Come to think of it, with Eros Lane up and running, entertainment like gambling halls would naturally pop up too.

Besides, we'd been supplying slot machines there. The rental fees were a pittance at this point, but it was better than nothing, and way better than having villagers crowd the village tavern for the slots.

"Well, Ichika playing at a gambling hall isn't really a problem… So what did she do?"

"Right. So when I went back to check on her later, she was working part-time at the gambling hall… To pay off her debt."

"Debt, huh."

That woman fell into slavery because of debt, and she still hasn't learned…

"Also, the gambling hall lent money to a slave and let her play? Without the master's permission."

"Well, we don't really look like slaves at first glance, apparently."

"That's… Well, I suppose they'd lend to her without realizing."

Ichika was good-looking enough that her very existence could serve as collateral.

Except for the fact that she'd already been collected on once and was a slave with no collateral left to speak of.

"I'll have to tell the gambling hall not to lend money to Ichika… By the way, what kind of part-time work was she doing?"

"Um, serving as a rabbit girl."

"Rabbit girl… So like a bunny girl?"

I see, fitting for a gambling hall. A bunny suit, huh. That would probably suit her.

"No. A rabbit girl."

"… Not a bunny girl?"

"Right. It's more like, um, a mascot costume?"

Now I'm curious how it ended up like that.

"Apparently, the gambling hall's owner was a regular at the rabbit dungeon in the Imperial Capital."

"That's an unexpected connection."

"Apparently he saw rabbit talent in Ichika."

"Well, she was the one operating the reception rabbits there."

… Well, in that case, maybe it was fine to let her work there part-time. On her days off, anyway.

She'd been doing part-time jobs at Dyne Trading Company for pocket money for a while now.

"What should we do?"

"If it doesn't affect her main duties, let her work. If it does, I'll cover her debt and dock it from her pay."

"… Aren't you spoiling Ichika too much?"

Oh, it's rare for Niku to say something like that.

"Shouldn't you be spoiling me too? I feel like my body pillow duties have been lacking lately."

"Ah, so that's what this is about."

"… Sorry, that was weird. Please forget I said anything."

"No, it's fine. I figured you were busy being Soto's Master and all, but…"

Well, if that's what this is about, I suppose spoiling her while she does body pillow duty would be nice.

And so I spoiled Niku a bit.