21. If I Had One More

Chapter 21: The Scrubbing Brush and a Familiar Face

At night, down in the spacious bathhouse of the mansion—which was large enough to comfortably fit twenty people at once—Miu was helping me wash up.

「Nsho, nsssho……」

Miu had a towel wrapped around her small frame and was scrubbing my back as hard as she possibly could. It was utterly cute and endearing.

「A little harder, please.」

「Yes, Master!」

When I gave the order, Miu started rubbing with renewed vigor, pushing down with all her weight, though it didn’t last very long. Her stamina gradually gave out, and she let out a soft gasp, 「Fumyu…….」

Even so, she didn’t complain. Every now and then, she would take a deep, determined breath, hold it in, and launch into another short burst of heavy scrubbing. But she would quickly run out of breath again, and her strength would fade back down. I knew she was working as hard as she could, so I had zero complaints.

「Is there anything you want, Miu?」 I asked, deciding to change topics to give her a break. We were going to be spending plenty of money from here on out anyway.

「Nsho…… what I want…… nsho……?」

「Yeah, anything you like.」

「Really…… nsho…… anything?」

「Yeah, just tell me.」

After another concerted push, Miu spoke up in a reserved, timid voice.

「I want a scrubbing brush……」

「A scrub brush?」

The tone at the end of her sentence rose in a rather strange way.

「I-I’m sorry. What was that just──」

「No, I’m not angry. What kind of scrub brush are you talking about?」

「Well, it’s like a glove, and it’s rough, and when you rub with it, it takes off all the grime, and it feels really good…」 Miu explained earnestly.

It sounded kind of interesting just listening to her describe it. I figured I could easily buy her one…

「How much does that cost?」

「Um, just a few copper coins……」

As expected, it was dirt cheap. To put it bluntly, it was essentially a hundred-yen item.

「You’re asking for something that costs pocket change?」 I mumbled to myself, genuinely taken aback by how modest her request was.

「C-Can’t I?」

「It’s not a problem at all. In fact, go ahead and buy it. You’ve got a household budget now, so feel free to buy that kind of stuff whenever you want.」

「Yes!」

I couldn’t see her back, but I could easily picture the massive, radiant smile plastered across her face.

The scrubbing session continued for a little longer. Suddenly, a sharp sound echoed through the halls—someone was using the front door knocker. Miu hadn’t noticed the sound over the splashing water, so I pointed it out.

「Miu, someone’s at the front door. Go check it out.」

「Eh, o-okay!」

Miu scrambled out of the bathroom in a panic, hurriedly throwing her maid’s uniform back on over her damp skin, and scurried off toward the entrance. I heard her trip and take a tumble halfway down the hall. She let out a soft, whimpering sniffle from the fall, but she didn’t let it stop her from pressing on to answer the door.

Do we need to hire more maids? I thought to myself. Managing a massive estate like this was starting to look like too much of a burden for Miu to bear all by herself. Well, it’s a major household expense anyway, I’ll just order a few more through Salamus—that way I can easily rake in another lottery ticket for every three hundred silver coins.

A few moments later, Miu fluttered back into the room.

「Master, you have a visitor.」

「Who are they, and what do they want?」

「Um, an adventurer? At least, she looks like an adventurer.」

「……Ah.」

I immediately had an inkling of what was happening. Has another event triggered again?

「Go ask her what she wants. If she’s here to talk about joining the party, turn her down politely and ask her to leave.」

「I understand!」

Miu hurried back to the entrance as instructed and returned a short while later. True to form, the visitor had indeed been inquiring about the party, but she had gracefully accepted being turned away and left saying she would come back later. Well, I’ll just reject her properly if she shows up again.

After that, Miu finished up my back scrub, and I wrapped up a thoroughly relaxing bath. The full course of care left my fatigue completely melted away.

Miu, on the other hand, looked utterly exhausted from her hard work.

「Miu.」

「Yes, what is it, Master?」

Whenever I called her name, she would immediately shout back with maximum enthusiasm, which was endlessly endearing.

「It’s time for your fluffing.」

「──Yes!」

Miu was startled for a fraction of a second before instantly breaking into a wide, beaming smile. That night, I slowly, deliberately, and thoroughly pampered her with all the fluffing she could handle.

⸻

The next day, I warped back to the clearing where I had fought the monster horde, searched the area thoroughly, and scooped up a newly spawned lottery ticket from the dirt.

Combined with the tickets I had accumulated from my recent shopping sprees, I now had exactly ten new tickets in hand. Without wasting any time, I triggered the warp to the lottery room.

When I materialized inside, I noticed there was another visitor already there. The man looked vaguely familiar.

「Oh, hey. You’re that guy from back then.」

「Tentacle……?」

He was the exact same guy who had won the 1st prize at the shopping mall lottery right before me and ended up pulling the 「Tentacle」 cheat skill.

「Ah. So you made it to this other world, too.」

「Yeah.」

「How’s it going for you?」

「I’m getting by.」

「Not too shabby, huh? Is she doing alright, too?」

The guy pointed a thumb behind me, gesturing toward the humanoid form of Eleanor, whom I had brought along for the ride. I figured he was probably misunderstanding a whole bunch of things based on his smirking expression, but I couldn’t be bothered to correct him, so I just played along.

「Anyway, you’re here to turn in lottery tickets, too?」

「Yeah.」

「Ah, I see. Sorry, but I got here first, so I’ll go ahead.」

「Sure, go ahead.」

I gave him a casual nod, and the man walked up to the counter. He reached into his coat and slammed a massive, thick bundle of tickets onto the desk.

「Hey, miss. I brought a hundred tickets this time.」

「Please wait a moment… yes, exactly one hundred tickets. That grants you one hundred and ten pulls.」

「Alright! I only got thirty pulls last time, but this time I’m definitely hitting the grand jackpot.」

I stood there blinking in sheer surprise, both at the guy’s casual enthusiasm and at the staggering number of tickets he had just dropped.

A hundred tickets?! And he mentioned he had drawn thirty last time…