*squish squish*

It felt like someone was playing with my cheeks. I wanted to sleep some more, but I forced to open my heavy eyelids anyway.

My heart jumped out of my chest as I opened my eyes to see my childhood friend Emma's face close to mine. It was a familiar face, of course, but she was just too close. She was grinning and I stared at her for a few seconds, then a thought crossed my mind.

She's gotten really pretty lately. Even when this close, I can't see any blemish on her skin at all.

「Hahaha… you're finally awake, sleepy-head!」

She seemed to have taken a liking to my cheeks as she kept on playing with them. I guess I can let her be for a bit.

「How long have you been here?」

「Just now, actually. I have stuff to do today so I figured I should help you with replenis.h.i.+ng LP first.」

「I'm so blessed to have a childhood friend like you.」I said a bit dramatically.

We both lay down and cuddled to replenish my LP. We did other things well, but let's just leave it at that. I went down to find the house empty. It looked like they were all out. Though they did prepare breakfast for me. Did Alice make it for me? I took a seat and started on my food. Emma brought me water so I thanked her. Even though we're close, it's still important to say grat.i.tude.

「Half of our summer break is gone.」

「Yeah. I'd like to spend the remaining half with a proper plan and schedule. Where are you headed today?」

「Fufu… I'm off to my secret training. You keep on getting stronger, so I gotta keep up~!」

It might be hard to believe, but Emma was a hard-worker. She must've been training secretly all this time. I checked with my【Appraisal】and noticed her level went up.

She always helped with my LP so I was more than happy to buff her up with some skills. I told her that and she flashed a peace sign.

「I'll think about it~. Don't push yourself too hard, okay? Well, given your nature, I doubt you'd do anything dangerous.」

She knew me all too well. Noir, third son of the Stalgia family. A man who would destroy a stone bridge after striking it too much―no, that's too lame. 

Jokes aside, I needed to decide on what to do with my remaining summer break. I wanted to keep clearing the hidden dungeon, but the next floor was a volcano. It was too hot and dangerous. Plus there's the monster swimming in the magma, the Magma Fish, with its nasty-sounding skills. I would have to ask for advice from Master Olivia first before I take the challenge.

Then there's my job as an adventurer which I haven't done in a while. It might be a good idea to take requests soon. I should visit Laursan and have her recommend me something good. After that, I'll go see the Holy Maiden, Lunsan, then lastly, train with Laylsan.

「Ah, you're thinking about other girls, aren't you?」

「…Can't say you're wrong.」

「Noir, you big dummy! You're always eager to do something dirty.」

「No, you've got it all wrong! It's for my LP… hmm?」

I heard an unfamiliar man's voice coming from the main door. He asked if this was the home of the Stalgia family. I went to answer him and apparently, we had letters addressed to us.

Now this was unusual. Powerful n.o.bles frequently exchanged letters with n.o.bles from a different region, but that wasn't the case for weak family like ours. As it turned out, it wasn't even a letter from a n.o.ble.

Sender: Gillan Stalgia

「It's from your brother!」

「…It's rare for him to send a letter.」

My two older brothers don't live with us. The family's second son who's four years older than me, Gillan, is in a foreign country in a town called Honest. He goes to a school there to become a merchant.

There were two letters; one addressed to my father and one for me, which made me just a little bit happy. He was a silly type, but he always looked out after me and Alice when we were kids.

I ripped the seal to my letter.

「Read it!」

「Okay.」

It's from him all right. I read out loud the letter with his messy handwriting.

『Heeeey! Sup, Noir! How're ya doing? Me? I'm doing great! Get this, man. I'm extremely popular here as well! Thirty percent of the students in this merchant school I'm going to are girls and the twenty percent are all my girlfriends! The other ten percent are all fugly so I gave them to the other guys! 』

My head's starting to hurt… He's always been like this, but it seems he's further polished his playboy character.

「Gillan-san sure is different from your other brother.」

「You can say that again.」

My oldest brother was the exact opposite of Gillan. He was straight-laced and serious. When they were still around, the neighbors often doubted if they were really brothers at all. But I digress. I turned my eyes to the next part of the letter.

『You should be working as librarian now, huh? With Emmchan I a.s.sume? Ah, I'm sure she's turned into quite the beauty now. Her jugs have always been huge so I'm guessing right now it's turned into ma.s.sive melons.

Some brotherly advice, Noir. Don't let that girl go! You can't even find someone like her here: one with perfect rack and looks. To top it off, she's a n.o.ble. If I had to rank her, she'd be an S so take good care of here.

Anyway, you should come visit sometime with Emma or a friend! I want to see my brother too. If you want to come girl hunting, then come alone. Finding a hot chick with melons the same size as Emma will be difficult, but there are still great girls here. Come visit, all right?! 』

「Can I beat you up?」

「These are my brother's words. I-I'm just reading the letter!」

「…What did he even go abroad for? Sheesh.」

Emma had her eyebrows furrowed in anger. I let her be so as not to provoke her.

My brother's lodging house's address was even written on the letter. It's been two years since I last saw him, but it seems like he hasn't changed one bit. I've been thinking about seeing him too. I heard the town he's living in, Honest, held various festivities and the country itself is pleasant and amusing.

Travelling to a foreign country sounds good.