Chapter 1: Residents of Gainos, the Capital
“Now, if you please.”
Cattleya’s voice echoed through the store filled with various weapons and armors, in such quantity and quality to supply the armory of a fortress.
“Yes, leave it to me.”
Leina, now changed into her assigned work clothes, stuck out her chest, the vigorous motion making her breasts jiggle.
Calling them work clothes seemed a bit of a stretch though, just a rectangular piece of cloth she tied with a string; that was unreliably thin to the point where the tips of her protrusions were pushing it up a little. Covering as much as her usual armor, yet making her feel naked in comparison.
Now normally Leina would never entertain wearing these so-called work clothes… but they were given to her by Cattleya and it seemed to match her heroine’s own outfit style, so of course the heiress wouldn't be so rude as to refuse. Leina supposed that her long standing heroine, and current mentor and employer has gotten so used to being a wife and mother all this time that it never occurred to the ex-adventurer that she was tending to her store wearing nothing but an apron and underwear to cover her lascivious figure fitting a demi-goddess of strength and fertility.
Fio devoted himself to checking the products on the walls and backroom, so his back was turned, preventing the risk of looking at Leina as she’s currently dressed. If he got excited, his alter ego the Sword of the Unicorn would react and grow to match, and the blonde would quickly figure out why, if she caught him staring at her.
Cattleya gave a quick glance at him, and after possibly mistaking his attitude as eagerness to work, turned to Leina:
“I think Fifi is okay, but you, Miss Leina…”
The mother looked down on the heiress, light shining on her glasses, making her expression inaccessible, if not ominous.
“Y-Yes?”
“Don’t just go and pull out your sword on a customer solely because he touches your butt, like the day before yesterday!“
The brunette’s fingertip pressed on the other’s chest, as if to emphasize her point. With a *boing*, it was pushed back.
“Wha.”
A short shriek escaped her lips before the surprise attack.
“What are you doing, Miss Cattleya?”
“Yes, that’s better.”
She smiled in satisfaction at the heiress’ reaction, and stretched a string she carried around Leina’s breasts.
“W-What’s that for?”
“Hm~, I thought I’d check the circumference of your chest while I’m at it…”
“W-Well, they don’t come close to yours, Miss Cattleya, but…”
“It’s not just breast size that matters, but I digress. Violence against customers is forbidden. Even if it’s one of *those*, you smile sweetly and ask them to leave; the standard procedure here is being gentle and calm until the end.”
Under such pressure of the elder woman’s scrutiny, Leina couldn’t help but look towards Fio in a silent cry for help. However, her precious companion had his back turned, and thus couldn’t see her plea for rescue from her chastisement.
After all, since Fio was believed to be a girl, like anyone else would when they look upon him, he had been given the same work clothes as her. So he had only a piece of cloth and underwear to hide his proof of a boy.
Meaning that as he is, he has to try hard yet delicately to hold himself back without exposing his true nature for everyone to see poking through his clothes, which is about as pleasant as walking on heated coals… evidently, the warrior hadn’t considered this.
“Are you listening, Miss Leina?”
“Y-Yes.”
The Vance daughter straightened up, as if it had been one of her teachers scolding her.
[Pulling out my sword certainly was overdoing it, but there’s no need to endure such shameful acts. This is a weapon shop, not a bordello, so I’d rather strike back at them than just let them off the hook.]
“But, Miss Cattleya…”
“No excuses, Leina Vance.”
The Merchant's flat tone silenced the blonde’s attempt of defense.
“If the visitor is unarmed, you just ask them to leave with a smile. Is that clear?”
She suddenly brought her face close, for emphasis.
“Y… Yes…”
Completely defeated by Cattleya’s imposing presence, Leina turned her face down, stammering.
“Good, then I’m going out again, come along Rana.”
“Coming Mom, see you soon Fifi, Ms. Leina.”
Rana jumped up to her mothers chest causing the woman's breast to bounce, snuggling between them as she caught and held her boy in her arms, and the pair left with Rana riding on Cattleya’s shoulders once they made it outside.
“Have a nice daaay.”
“Yes, take care…”
Fio loudly saw them off, then turned to Leina, who was mumbling in dissatisfaction, unhappiness written all over her face.
Fortunately, there’s just the two of them in the store right now, so with Cattleya gone, even if *that* happened again, it wouldn’t raise much trouble.
“Say, Leina…”
“What? I’m bad with tending to customers anyway, it’s not something I know how to do.”
She was now pouting like a child.
“*Sigh*, don’t sulk Leina, it doesn't suit you.”
He patted her shoulder softly, trying to comfort her.
“In the meantime, we have a store to open. If you don’t want to deal with any customers, I can tend to them while you spend the day bringing products from the back.”
He proposed, smiling brightly.
“Yeah… sorry, Fio.”
Leina was looking down in the dumps. There was no trace of her signature cheerfulness, more so recently over the past days spent working in the weapon shop, where she sighed sadly whenever she made even a small mistake.
The issue was no great mystery, she just said it herself, that this job didn’t fit her nature. Despite being in slightly high spirits thanks to her wearing clothes matching with Cattleya’s, she didn’t actually know what to do when facing a customer, overreacting to inappropriate behavior aside.
Fio on the other hand, was in his element, cracking jokes, telling stories, engaging with customers and contributing to the sales. It didn’t take a genius to deduce who was contributing more to the store.
Having become painfully aware of her own uselessness in this field, alongside her not being able to gain any advantage or headway in her mock battles with Cattleya, she wallowed in self-pity.
“If you wish, I can give you a lecture on how to treat lewd customers?”
Not overly fond of this attitude she’s exhibiting, he threw her a lifeline.
“Ye…”
She was about to accept reflexively, but she stopped herself midway.
[If I let him support me that much, I won’t learn anything from it. I have to figure this out on my own.]
“No thank you, it’s okay. I’ll be fine.”
“Really?”
“Yes really, I’ll be fine. Next time, I’ll stomp on the foot of whoever touches my butt.”
“Sigh~… I don’t think that’s going to be any better than swinging your sword at them.”
“Haven’t you heard of ‘self-defense’?”
Having pulled herself together talking to her companion, she firmly tied the string of her apron.
“Now, let’s put up the sign. We must hold the shop until Miss Cattleya comes back from replenishing stock.”
***
The Great Coliseum, located in the heart of the capital. In one corner of the huge building that symbolized the Queen’s Blade system, there was a certain store—the Bazaar of Hobina—where a man with a white beard was counting gold coins with a marveled expression.
“They seriously sent them…”
Cold sweat ran down his temple. Piled up in front of him were legendary Amara gold coins, said to be equivalent to 10 current ones.
“Far be it for me to joke about those fellas who don’t know the market value.”
[Besides, I can make a killing with this.]
He wiped the sweat off his brow, and smiled.
[I have to monopolize this route at all costs.]
“Now that looks like easy money, right?”
“Yup, easy money indeed.”
The merchant answered on the spur of the moment, but then turned to see who had spoken to him.
“Yo! Seems you’re doing fine Hans.”
A wild elf with balanced features, silver bangs and green-black hair gathered at the back of her head waved her right hand at him. Her brown skin, long extended ears, abundant breasts about to spill over and silvery snake crawling around her waist clearly identified her as the Veteran Mercenary Echidna, who was said to be known by everyone with even a passing knowledge of Queen’s Blade.
“Whaa, Echidna?”
“Is that how you greet people these days, or am I just special? To think, I decided to come all the way out here to see you and catch up a bit before leaving the capital.”
The elf sat down on the counter, her brown buttocks spread softly on top of the wood.
“Hey now, that’s not a chair.”
“It can hold me up without breaking, can’t it? No need to be so fussy…”
“W-Well…”
Upon further inspection of the women's action before him, he reconsidered his complaint. Given that she was at an angle where her lower abdomen, sandwiched between her thighs, was at eye level with him, and to demand her to move now would spoil such a view.
“Alright, I’ll forgive you, since you're at a nice angle.”
“Kah, you horny teenager.”
“My dear, to you everyone’s a teenager. So, where are you going next?”
He asked, carefully placing the gold coins one by one in a leather bag.
“To the Vance County. I figured I’d give back what they entrusted me with.”
With a grin on her face, her fingertips played with a pendant carved with the emblem of a white tiger—the coat of arms of the Vance family.
“The Vance family…? Hmm, that reminds me, wasn’t the Lady Exiled Warrior staying over at Cattleya’s…?”
Hans muttered to himself, loud enough for Echidna to hear. Anticipating that if he could stir her up enough to have a fight with Leina, it would lead to the sale of souvenirs and figurines in his store.
“You don’t say, must be my lucky day.”
She picked up the pendant and stood up from the counter.
“Oh? Off to meet her?”
“She might refuse to take this, but I plan on getting a souvenir.”
Offering nothing more beyond an enigmatic statement, she set off at a casual pace.
***
“Thank you very muuuch.”
Encouraged by Fio’s voice, the customer left the weapons shop with an Omnipotent Javelin in his hand and a smile on his face.
“Very much…”
After heartily seeing off the customer, the boy subtly heard Leina’s voice saying that out of duty. No matter how much she had intended to deal with customers, her attitude was much to be desired.
“Leina… your farewell comes a bit late.”
[It seems we’ll need to have a little talk after all. I’ve been letting this slide so far since she wasn’t used to this kind of work, but it’s better to make it clear now.]
Without a moment’s delay, the boy put up the “on break” sign and closed the door. No one would enter the store for a while.
“Fio?”
The blonde couldn’t hide her surprise at his actions.
“Should we take a break for a while?”
“What’s with the hurry?”
“It’s for your sake… or rather, for the customers’.”
The boy stared straight at her with a serious expression.
“You know that farewell just now? Your heart wasn’t into it at all.”
“My heart?”
“Greet customers like that, and they won’t come back.”
He scowled at her, gaze slightly harsh, arms folded.
“Eh? But isn’t it enough if they come once?”
Clearly she doesn't understand why he had that stern expression on.
“Sigh, you don’t get it. You miss the point completely!”
Fio kicked the floor, shouting aloud.
“Normal people have to go to many stores to buy different stuff. So, how do you think they choose which store to shop in?”
“Err, the first store they see?”
“You’re the only one who would do that.”
[I underestimated her naïveté.]
He sighed wearily, unfolding his arms.
“So, how do YOU choose then?”
She fired back with a pout.
“You try to hear about the shop’s reputation beforehand.”
“I SO choose shops by their reputation too.”
“What about your farewell earlier then? That lifeless ‘very much’… I mean, c’mon!”
He closely imitated her voice, then went back to his rough tone.
“T-That’s… err…”
Confronted so bluntly, the Vance heiress hid her face, fidgeting.
“It’s just, that man was only looking at my chest.”
She pouted, unhappy. Evidently she hadn’t appreciated the man looking at her, as opposed to the products.
“If he wants to look at women’s breasts so much, why doesn’t he go to a tavern and look at the dancers?”
[Oh Leina, if only you understood that when such fine breasts as yours are right in front of you, it’s in a man’s nature to follow them with his eyes; even other women couldn’t help but stare, I bet.
She probably thinks that anyone who comes to a weapon’s shop and keeps gazing at her breasts instead of the weapons they supposedly came for is just rude.]
“C’mon, if it’s just that, let him off the hook, will you~”
“I DID let him off the hook. So I kept quiet, but…”
Her fists quivered a little.
“ ‘I don’t think they’re even half of Miss Cattleya’s’! Maybe he thought he said it in a low enough voice so as to not be heard, but believe you me, I heard it just fine!”
[He said that?]
He found himself looking at her breasts as well. They might look poor compared with Cattleya’s, but they were some fine bulges, bigger than average.
“Half? Well, my chest isn’t made of muscles!”
Understanding why Leina had gotten angry, he suddenly felt tired.
“Wait, so you don’t actually dislike people checking you out?”
Fio changed the topic to try and calm down her anger.
“Yes, well… I did get some glances here and there at balls, so I don’t mind it very much…”
With slightly blushing cheeks, she toyed a bit with her braided hair.
“Balls?”
The unusual word made him do a double take. “Ball” was a general term for parties only nobles were able to participate in. It wasn’t an understatement to say that for ordinary people, it was a word they rarely heard, if ever.
[I previously heard about Leina’s origins from Echidna, but if she really is a noble, it makes sense that she’s unconcerned about money and that she’s not fit for serving people.]
“I get it… I understand I shouldn’t expect you to be good at customer service…”
[For a noble’s daughter, that’s basically impossible.]
Fio completely abandoned the idea of trying to change the way Leina dealt with customers.
[Nobles are used to being on top of others. They have learnt to use others from an early age. And since they’re good at commanding others, it goes without saying that they’re not used to being commanded themselves.]
“ ‘You shouldn’t expect me to’, can’t you put it any more nicely?”
“It’s the truth. Could you be a dear~ and remind me again why we have to work here?”
The cause behind it all was Leina’s lack of money sense, but he avoided spelling it out for her.
[There’s no point to it unless she notices herself.]
“That’s… in order to reach the price for the shield I need. Of course I know that.”
[It seems she still doesn’t get why we won’t be able to pay for it.]
“So when will we raise the money we need for the shield? In half a year? One year? At this rate, the main Tournament Matches will have begun and you’ll still be tending the store.”
He kept piling it on, as if a dam had been broken.
“It won’t be much earlier than that. If you could get one win against her, Miss Cattleya promised to give us one present to celebrate, but…”
Fio could only sigh at this point; Leina’s prospects of winning against the merchant were abysmal at best.
He wasn’t kidding. If they keep going the way they are with barely good service compounded by wages cut in half by losing all mock battles, they could very well end up stuck working at the shop for a full year at the very least.
[Well, the capital works as good as any other place to spend the preliminary period before the main tournament, but…]
“Say, Leina, how about this?”
Fio decided to tell her his suggestion.
“If you use the Sword of the Unicorn, you won’t need the shield, will you?”
“That’s no good.”
She replied straight away.
“Why not? It’s the ideal weapon of defense and offense, you can instantly heal any wounds, negating the need for a shield, plus you can use the awesome power of the blade. It’s two birds with one stone!”
“Even so, I don’t intend to use it.”
Leina dismissed his suggestion, reaffirming her will not to employ it.
“You won’t use it, or are you saying you don’t need it?”
The boy was shocked at hearing her say once again that she wouldn’t be using it.
The Sword of the Unicorn was a weapon that was his alter ego, an item that had helped Leina out of difficult situations a couple of times since they met and traveled together.
[She should be aware of its power.]
“Its power is too strong. And I don’t want to put a burden on you, Fio.”
The dancer could perceive fear mixing in her voice.
“I don’t mind.”
Fio’s voice trembled.
“So, as far as you’re concerned, you don’t need the Sword.”
“I don’t need it for the moment, no.”
“Well alright then, I have a plan.”
He left the store with a sullen face, and walked to the separated enclosure that acted as their room.
“W-Wait, what about the shop?”
Leina’s panicked voice trailed behind him.
“I don’t know. You seem okay doing things the hard way on your own, right? I mean, you clearly don’t need my help.”
While spitting that out at Leina, he took off the apron that constituted his work clothes, and picked up his own.
Looking at himself in the mirror, he realized he had barely used one of the mysterious abilities he possessed, “healing injuries by kissing”. The big scar engraved on his body had become much thinner. Of course no one would notice unless they look closely enough.
“Hey, are you listening to me?”
“You don’t need to yell, I hear you just fine.”
He quickly changed into his white clothes, then opened the door.
“F-Fio, why are you putting those clothes on?”
“Like you said, you don’t need me, so I’m going to earn money my own way.”
After all, Fio had only become a salesclerk at the Weapon Shop Cattleya to help Leina out.
[If I want to earn money only for our travel expenses, singing together with any rando bard I can rally off the streets would pay more.]
“I didn’t say I don’t need you, Fio.”
“But, you don’t want to use the Sword of the Unicorn.”
“Ugh…”
[That’s also a part of me.]
Fio swallowed his words.
[We’d better cool our heads for a bit.
Both me, and Leina…]
“So, there you have it.”
He turned his face away in a huff, and left the weapon shop.
Only Leina was left there, in her apron.
“Okay. If you’re going to do that, I’ll do this myself.”
[I’ll prove that I can become a good sales clerk on my own.]
She made up her mind, and switched the sign Fio changed to “closed”.
***
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