An A-Ranked Adventurer's An A-Ranked Adventurer's ''Slow-Living'' Chapter 50

Flora is Secretly a Pervert

After we organized the stuff Flora brought and had dinner, we were taking a relaxing break on the sofa inside the living room.

The candle on the table illuminated the room with a gentle light.

We sat side by side as we sipped on our apple-mint tea.

I can never get enough of the feeling of having tea with a full stomach.

It's thanks to the subtly sweet and refreshing scent of this tea that my entire body was feeling so relaxed.

I didn't have an interest in drinking tea at all when I was an adventurer, but now I'm totally hooked on it.

I could still remember the taste of the first cup of tea I got from Fionsan when I first came to this village.

That human warmth and the feeling of having all your tension pulled out of your body.

It's no exaggeration to say that was the moment when my new life began.

The apple-mint tea became a special drink to me because of that.

When I recalled how worried Ergys-san and Fionsan were at the time when they talked to me, I started to feel a little bit embarra.s.sed but it is a good memory.

I lifted the cup and had another sip of the tea.

The fruity flavor of green apples followed by the refreshing taste of mint filled my mouth.

「…Yeah, delicious」

「There are lots of people in this village who don't really like this tea, but I see you favor this quite a bit, Aldo-san」

Flora said to me with a broad smile after she heard my muttering.

Many people might be fine with the taste of green apple that comes first, but a lot out there might not be fine with the minty flavor that comes after that. The tea is also quite fragrant, so it might not appeal to children either.

「Yeah. I really like this sweet and refreshing taste. It totally relaxes me when I drink it」

「I know what you mean. I drank this every day at home with my family after all」

Yeah, they do grow their own apple-mint plants in their backyard.

「Why don't we try growing some at our house as well if it isn't too hard to?」

「Sure, let's do it! I actually wanted to grow some of that in our field here as well!」

I brought it up as a casual suggestion, but her reaction was stronger than I expected.

She placed her cup down on the table and leaned forward with sparkling eyes.

It looks like she has been wanting to do that quite badly.

「That sounds good. You'll be here from now on as well, so it wouldn't be that bad for us to start growing a bit more things, right?」

Up until now the field was mostly taken care of by me even though I was a novice at farming. And I was only able to handle so much because I had my job as a hunter as well. But now, since Flora is here, having a veteran like her would make things much easier, so we should be able to grow more things.

「Yeah, I've been looking forward to growing some more food ingredients 」

It seems like she agrees with that idea as well judging from the happy smile on her face.

She really likes to grow crops.

「Hm… apple-mint, papirus beans, vegetables, and maybe even some edible flowers…」

She sounded like she was worrying about what to plant, but she looks excited for it.

I have also been wanting to have a field where I grow many different types of crops in it.

When we finished discussing what type of crops to plant, the candle in the room had gotten shorter and the light had gradually gotten dimmer.

「…It's about time I go get the dishes done 」

Flora took our two tea cups and walked to the kitchen after our peaceful conversation ended.

It's too bad that my fun conversation with her had to come to an end but it can't be helped. Candles don't last forever.

I thought, wouldn't it be nice if I had a magic tool that could generate light then? However, that would be relying too much on the magic tools.

Even when I already have magic tools to create fire and water… humans sure are greedy creatures.

We'll be together from now on, so there's no need to feel so antsy.

Now then, maybe I should go to bed soon.

With that thought, I stood up from the sofa and stretched my arms out towards the ceiling.

As I felt my back muscles loosening up, that's when I also realized something.

…Don't I smell a bit like sweat right now?

I have been moving stuff and dealing with the villagers the whole day, and I was even pushing a wagon.

Surely I've been sweating in this warm weather as we approached the summer.

Did I hug her while being all sweaty like this? Did I stink? I began to feel uneasy when I thought of that.

There's only one bed in our house, and we're going to be sharing that bed…

Alright, let's have a bath today.

I could have one ready quickly since I have the water and fire magic tools, and since the moonlight shines in that part of the house, there won't be a need to bring candles. So, there's no problem at all, right?

「Alright. Flora! Let's take a bath today!」

「Ehhh? Right now? But we should go to bed soon at this time…」

「No worries, it'll be quick since I'll use the magic tools to make it」

Flora leaked out a cute "…Ah" instinctively after hearing my reply.

However, right after that, she continued with a shy "…But" under her breath.

「Hm? You don't want to, Flora?」

「No, that's not it. Today's hot and I've been sweating… but isn't there's a limit to the magic tools' energy? And the mana stones that can provide that energy are really expensive, right?」

I tilted my head in confusion, but I understood why she was so hesitant on it.

It's because Flora is not familiar with magic tools like I am.

If she ever wanted to take a bath, she would need her entire family's help to prepare one. So no matter how much she sweats, she would just try to bear with it by wiping herself down with a wet cloth.

「It's true that the energy of the tools will lessen whenever you use them, but they won't run out of power that fast, you know? They can probably last until the end of our lives if it's just us two using them for things like this」

「Ehh?! They can last that long?!」

Flora replied in a super surprised voice.

「Hm? Did we not talk about this when we got in the bath yesterday?」

「Yeah, we did. But I thought you were just saying that because it was a special occasion for us yesterday so you didn't mind using them. I didn't think they could last that long…」

I finally understood the real meaning this time from seeing her rub her hands together timidly.

So in other words, she thought that I was overdoing it yesterday for her because of last night being a special night for us. And then I told a white lie about how long the magic tools could be used for.

…Yeah, that is a splendid misunderstanding.

「Ahaha, you really don't have to worry about the tools because we can really use them for a long time, okay?」

「Is-Is that right?」

Flora scratched her cheek in hesitation as she tried to reconfirm that fact with me.

「Yeah. I have tons of things I can use in place of mana stones. I've been saving up so that I could live a good life here」

In reality, some adventurers would even buy all the useful magic tools that would be useful in their daily lives just before they retire. So what I said wasn't really that hard to believe.

In my case, I had only envisioned a life living by myself so I didn't stock up on those tools.

But if you ask me again now I would have surely done that.

「Ah, you're right」

「I wouldn't come without having any savings, you know?」

「No, I wasn't thinking that you did that!」

Flora shook her hands in front of her chest to deny it.

「I was just thinking that it'd be nice if my father and mother can enjoy a bath as well…」

Even though she should have been happy to learn that she could use a bath now for as many times as she wanted, the first thing she thought of was sharing it with her family. She really is a family-oriented girl.

「I'm sorry. I've said something selfish even though they're such important items of yours」

「No, there's no such thing. I also think the same as you. However, let's keep this a secret between us and your family since there's all types of villagers out there, okay?」

If some other villagers found out about this, the requests that'd come would be endless, so let's keep this a secret within our family.

When she heard my words that had a hint of playful tone, her smile blossomed like a flower.

「Thank you, Aldo-san!」

「Well then, are we going to get in together when the bath is ready?」

「O-okay…」

I took a look at her as she replied to me shyly, then I walked towards our bathroom.

After I made the hot bath with the power of the magic tools, I headed into a room to change as I carried a change of clothes.

Just when I was heading there, I ran into Flora who had just finished washing the dishes at the same time and was about to get in while carrying her change of clothes.

「P-please go ahead」

「S-sure」

It was irrelevant who was going to go in first since we're going to be in there together anyway, but still she urged me to enter first.

Then, I placed my change of clothes on a shelf and took off the shirt that I was wearing and put it in a basket.

When I heard a "Woaa…" of admiration coming from the side, I turned and saw Flora standing there facing her shelf with a red face.

There was nothing on her shelf, what is she doing?

I started to take my pants off next as I wondered about that, then I heard a voice
"Wowwoahwoah" coming from the side again.

When I stopped half way in the middle of taking my pants off and looked at her again, I caught her staring at me with a red face.

「–?!」

When our eyes met, she turned around and looked back at her shelf in a panic.

…Florsan, don't tell me that you were having fun watching me take my clothes off? Rather, it was obvious that she was doing that. That's a bit sly.

Even I would feel embarra.s.sed being stared at when I'm getting naked.

「…Are you not going to take your clothes off, Flora?」

「Kyaiii! Um-um-umm-um, I'm going to take them off after!」

She kept glancing at me as she answered.

I think that she's a pure and innocent girl, but on the other hand, I think she has a dirty mind as well, even though she tries to hide it.

Even when we're talking like this, she was still staring at my upper body.

No, I would do the same as well if our roles were reversed, right?

「We're getting in together anyway; isn't it fine to take them off now?」

「I-i-i-it's embarra.s.sing!」

When I put my hand on her shoulder, Flora covered her chest with her hands and hugged herself.

Wait, I'm embarra.s.sed too you know?

That makes me want to tease her a bit.

「But why? We went in the bath together already yesterday. And we also had s–」

「Woawawawa?! T-t-that's because the mood was there, and we were going with the flow..Noo, it's too embarra.s.sing to talk about it!!」

Flora responded quickly and blocked my mouth with her hands.

Then, she stuttered as she replied in shame.

I instinctively smiled at that cute and shy reaction of hers as it put a smile on my face.

Well yeah, compared to a girl who could strip with no shame, I prefer a girl like Flora who has such cute reactions.

「Oh but even though you stared at me so hard the whole time~」

「Noo, that…」

Flora became fl.u.s.tered after I teased her more as soon as she took her hands off my mouth.

Maybe she's not going to deny it because she was really watching me that hard.

If that's case maybe I can do it if I give it a little push.

「Ohhh, so you can watch me all you want when I take my clothes off, but I'm not allowed to do the same? Flora, that's so unfair–」

「That's not…」

She probably wanted to say that's not true but stopped after thinking about it herself.

「What, what do you want me to do then?」

「I want to watch you take them off as well-」

Her face turned real red as her eyes wandered everywhere when I teased her like that.

I also want to watch her take her clothes off and show her bare skin.

We went into the bath together yesterday, but she had a towel wrapped around her until she quickly got into the hot bath. That's why I haven't really seen the moment she undresses.

When I stared at her intently with all I had, she wiggled her thighs as she slowly turned to look at me,

「F-fine then… I'll take my clothes off」