The Princess and the Knight

I'd finished cleaning every last well.

Sure enough, each one had a suspicious-looking corpse sunk at the bottom that seemed to be the source of the poison. The fission bodies I'd sent out apparently ate through all of them, too.

The haze that had been hanging over the village was gone. All clear!

I'd finished with thirty minutes still on the clock.

… The countdown wasn't stopping, though?

Was this the kind of quest where I had to find the client and get them to confirm it?

"What a pain in the ass. If I don't get my reward after going through all the trouble of cleaning those wells, it'll have been for nothing!! Let's go find the client, Miitei-chan!"

"Ooh!"

Which one of these guys was the client? Dammit!

In cases like this, it had to be whoever was in charge of the soldiers lying around. I kicked a random soldier awake and splashed some of the water in my stomach onto them.

"Ughhh…!"

"Hey, I'm here to help. Where's your boss?"

"H-help…? Uh, over there… the biggest house…"

Assuming these soldiers had come to raid the village, they'd probably commandeered the fanciest house for their boss.

Even so, how did they get wiped out by something as simple as poisoned wells? Were they that weak?

There weren't any signs of fighting either…

Honestly, looking at the state of things, I doubted just cleaning the wells would be enough to save them at this point.

Well, whatever. I took the quest and cleaned the poison out of the wells. As long as I got my reward, I didn't care. That's what I was thinking.

That's what I'd been thinking. Until I found the boss.

"Hellooo, coming in. Pardon the intrusiooon."

Inside the village chief's house, lying weakened in bed, was… a cute girl with blonde hair and cat ears, staring blankly at the ceiling. She wore a flowing, high-end nightgown that was way too fancy for the bed, and a soldier with a red ponytail was slumped against the bedside.

"Yay, a little sister! There's a little sister here, Spirit-sama!"

"What the… a princess and a lady knight? Could've mentioned that from the start."

"I'm making both of them my little sisters!"

I love cute girls, so naturally, seeing this made me want to help just a little more.

Rescuing the heroine is a staple of gaming, after all!

Even if she's on the invading side, cuteness is justice in games!!

In fact, villains with jagged teeth end up even more popular!

"Jagged teeth? Like me? You like that, Spirit-sama?"

"Oh yeah, you were the villain girl who went on a rampage over on the monster side, huh, Miitei-chan. Love ya, love ya, love ya. You're adorable."

"Ehehe! Yay!"

Well, in that case, I'd throw in a potion as a freebie.

One Miitei-chan had made while practicing alchemy. The antidote kind. I shoved the potion bottle right into the princess's cute little mouth. Hiyah!

"Mmph!? … Gahh! Hah… hah… hahh…"

"Oh, it worked?"

"Ah… aah… God…? Angel-sama…?"

"I do have a halo on my head, but I think you've got the wrong person."

At least she could hold a conversation now.

"I took a quest to come clean the wells, and I just finished up. Could you confirm it for me?"

"Huh? … You… cleaned… the wells… for us?"

"Yep. That was the quest."

"The miasma is gone…! We're… saved…!?"

I didn't really get it, but apparently they were saved. So was the quest complete?

"So is the quest done, then?"

"Tell her 'I'll make you my little sister!' Go on, Spirit-sama!"

"The quest…? Oh, y-yes. Thank you very much."

"And here, this is a bonus. I'll leave you one more antidote potion."

"Th-thank you."

I hoped she'd use it on the lady knight, at least.

… Oh, the timer stopped. Quest Complete, and a "Return" button had appeared.

"So what happened here to make you all go down so easily?"

"… We fell into a trap."

"Okay, but how did you fall for such an obvious trap?"

"When we reclaimed this village, the poison was disguised."

Reclaimed. Huh, so it wasn't an invasion after all.

"How dare they do this to my little sister! Spirit-sama, let's go kill the enemy!"

"Nah, the quest was just for well cleanup…"

"I haven't had enough action!!"

"Going off-script from the quest is a bit, y'know?"

"Grr…!"

I wasn't about to go that far. Besides, unlike Tria-chan, Miitei-chan's combat strength wasn't all that high. On a field that worked in our favor it'd be one thing, but charging in head-on was out of the question.

At best, we could pull off a surprise attack or sneak in and spread some poison of our own.

… If only Tria-chan could come along.

"Call her?"

"Hm?"

"Call Tria-chan?"

Can she? I wondered, but there it was: "Ally Summon" in the menu.

… So I could summon my first character, huh?

Then again, going that far felt like I'd be getting a bit too involved.

Hmm, but if I could at least get an extra reward out of it, that'd be nice…

"U-um? Angel-sama?"

"Hm? Oh, nothing, I was just thinking I wouldn't mind doing a little more work if there was an extra reward in it for me. Like, y'know, going out and beating up the enemy."

"…! U-uh, ah, that's…"

The princess went pale and started trembling.

… What's wrong? All of a sudden?

"Hm? Extra reward is… not happening? Then I'll leave it at this."

"Spirit-sama! She's a little sister! We should help her!"

Even so, if there was no reward, then…

"Y-you can take it from me!"

"Hm?"

The lady knight, revived by the medicine.

"Yay! If there's a reward, it's okay to help, right? Right?"

Good grief, guess I had no choice.

I did say I'd help if there was a reward, and I wanted to summon Tria-chan and go wild too. Plus, she was a princess. I'd help her out for a small reward.

"I, Valeria, Royal Guard of House Aurest, shall…! In the princess's stead, I will pay the price!"

"Oh? How much?"

"…"

"I'm not gonna work for free."

"H-half… half my remaining lifespan! Take it!"

…

"Uh, how am I supposed to collect someone's lifespan?"

"Huh?"

"I'm not a devil… Look, I want money, items, stuff like that."

"Umm…?"

"Fine, I'll even take the socks you're wearing right now."

"!? Why socks!? I-I mean, if that's all it takes, I don't mind, but…"

What? Character clothing was a classic collectible in games, you know?

… Wait!? But in VR mode, that would just make me a creep!?

"Sorry, scratch the socks."

"… Hmm, r-right… I suppose being asked to work for a pair of socks would be beneath the dignity of House Aurest."

"I'd be fine with socks! If they're my little sister's, I can munch on them!"

Please don't.