chapter 87

All preparations were finished for departure the ship lifted its anchor from the port and embarked on its journey.

The ship we boarded was a large cargo ship. As we drifted further away, looking back at the town I could see small silhouettes of people getting even smaller.

「Be careful on the trip! Take care!」

「I got it already! Father don’t forget to eat more rice okay!」

Lydia was exchanging her goodbyes with her father.

Not only that.

Even the inn landlady, the clerk that Claude visited when she bought her clothes, Claire-sensei and even Azelia all came to see us off.

Milly and Claude was waving their hands energetically towards them.

Somehow I feel a little embarra.s.sed.

「We will definitely return here some other time okay!」

With a large shout of her voice Milly leaned her waist off the edge of the ship and sensing that she might slip into the ocean, I quickly grabbed on to her waist.

The ship that set sail was rapidly leaving the sh.o.r.e and the town of Beruta became tiny like the size of a dot.

A little cold sea breeze gently brushed against my cheeks.

「Haachoo!」

Milly was looking in the direction of the town for quite a long time. She let out a small sneeze.

「It gets cold out here. Shall we go inside the room?」

「That’s true」

When we left the deck area and climbed down a set of stairs into a room, the only thing inside of the room were four small beds, it was a really simple room.

「Nn~ if it’s this small…. then my feet will hang out of the bed」

Lydia had a big body she needed to bend her head down so that it didn’t touch the ceiling and she was looking at the small bed.

「Hey! Let’s take a look around the ship!」

「I will accompany you」

「I’m feeling a little seasick so I’ll pa.s.s」

「I will also decline」

「Then, Claude let’s go♪」

Milly grabbed on to Claude’s hands, opening the door she started to run excitedly.

「Geez, she really acts like a child」

From behind Ain’s voice suddenly resounded and from within a sparkle of light she appeared.

「Aren’t you also just a kid?」

「I’m definitely not a child desu~!」

After saying that, Ain stuck out her tongue with all her strength.

That’s definitely acting like a child… Even just judging her from that gesture.

「Yeah yeah, our little Ain-chan has grown up hasn’t she♪」

Lydia was trying to pat Ain’s head but Ain prevented Lydia from touching her.

Lydia was surprised and Ain turned a sharp gaze towards her.

If I remember correctly Ain was severely groped by Lydia and she did not really know how to deal with Lydia.

Now that she’s grown up, I suppose she was now baring her fangs at Lydia?

「Lydia」

「W….what?」

Without hesitation Ain was drawing closer to Lydia and Lydia stepped back a little.

Oi oi, don’t just start a fight.

I was becoming uneasy and watched Ain closely in case she started something, suddenly she thrust out her hand towards Lydia. Inside of her small hand there was the small rapier that Lydia had made for her.

This was also the rapier that stabbed Grain’s eye and provided me a chance to perform a counter attack.

「……Thank you, Lydia」

Blushing while averting her gaze, Ain gave Lydia her thanks. Lydia turned to look at Ain with surprise.

「Because of this I was able to help grandpa…… and protect everyone. It’s all thanks to Lydia….. so thank you」

「Ain-chan……」

Lydia rushed towards Ain who was averting her gaze and gave her a big hug.

And just like that Ain was thrown into the bed.

「Ain-chan acting like a tsundere is also so cuteee~」

「Wait……. Heyy let me go! baka!」

「Comee on~ just think of this as my rewardd♪」

Embracing Ain, Lydia pushed Ain’s face into her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

Ain’s was struggling as her wings flapped frantically.

However soon, the flapping of her wings stopped and she became particles of light as she disappeared.

「Owaah!? 」

Without any change, Lydia fell face first into her pillow and she was lying face down.

Because Ain was now able to materialize and dematerialize whenever she pleased, it seems that she is now able to avoid Lydia’s ecchi hara.s.sment.

Looking at how regretful Lydia seemed I couldn’t help but let out a smile.

「We’re back」

「Guys, I think it’s time to eat soon」

After a little time pa.s.ses, the two people who came back from their exploration of the ship came to get us to go to the dining room. There weren’t many pa.s.sengers and there was actually more sailors on this ship.

There is probably a lot of people eating in their own cabin rooms.

The content of our meals mainly consisted of fresh seafood and the main dish was sea birds. There weren’t really much grain type foods.

Most likely the food here was the things that the sailor caught. There was a lot of strange things and everyone’s eyes were shining.

Even though this will be a relatively short trip that will take about a week. it would seem that the girls would not lose interest in having their meals.

「Even though it may only be a week, we can’t go hunting. Therefore, we should probably do some sort of training」

「I think I want to try practicing magic. In all honestly, I would have preferred to spar with Lydia-san, but inside such a crowded ship there is no way we can fight to our hearts content」

「Alright, then let me teach you♪」

「Please take care of me, Milly-san」

Claude bows her head to Milly.

「In that case, I will go and teach Lydia some magic」

「Eh? Didn’t you tell me that I wouldn’t be able to use magic?」

「While you may not be able to use magic, I can still teach you the theory behind magic and perform some maintenance to your magical power line. While you may not be able to learn any magic, I think that it will be possible for you to at least increase the level of the Growth Spell we learnt」

Comparing the development of her Growth Skill to ours, Lydia’s level of growth is extremely low.

The Growth Skill was a type of spell that increased the rate at which we grew, the higher the level of this ability; the faster a person would grow and get stronger.

Since learning this Growth Skill, two months have elapsed, since then the difference between us is very striking.

Milly’s level was 58.

My level was 54.

Claude’s level was 47.

However, Lydia’s level was still only 35.

The present Lydia was covering this huge gap with her exceptional physical ability and her high offensive ability with the use of her axe. However, the more we proceeded to fight higher levelled opponents there may come a time where she would lose in power if she went against a high levelled foe.

Even if she were bad at magic, if I continued to stimulate her magic power line within her body, there may come a time where she would be able to use magic.

Naturally only a person with enough talent would be able to achieve something like this.

「Alright then, Lydia please take off your clothes immediately and lay yourself on the bed」

「Yeah, yeah, I understand」

When Lydia cheerfully took off her clothing, Milly gave me this sharp look with her eyes.

Claude looked down averting her gaze.

Moreover, Milly started to become red and her body began to tremble.

「Wawawaawa what are you doing Zeph!? Lydia as well!」

「I’m going to directly stimulate the magical power line within Lydia’s body and make her body remember the feeling of using magic. Remember the time we needed to teach her the Growth ability, if I’m not mistaken I’m doing the exact same thing like last time…… Perhaps you were asleep the last time I did it?」

「T….Then this time around I will be the one to do it!」

Trembling and shivering all over Milly tightly gripped on my shoulder like a vice, as she proceeded to sit next to Lydia who was lying face down on the bed.

Her trembling fingers approached Lydia’s back and she seemed to uneasy.

「For Milly to suddenly try to manipulate someone else’s magical power line, isn’t it still too early? Listen, just trust this job to me」

「M….Milly-san, you promised to teach me! Please Milly-san, I also want to be a great magician like you one day~!」

Nice follow up, Claude!

Although she seemed very reluctant, Milly started to teach Claude in the ways of using magic.

As for me, I extended my hands towards Lydia’s back and concentrating my magical energy on my fingertips, I spread my magical influence across her back as I tried to enlarge her magical power line bit by bit.

「Ahhn」

Lydia raised a s.e.xy voice and caused both Milly and Claude to jump and head-b.u.t.t each other.

Claude was holding her head in pain.

「Don’t let out such a strange voice, Lydia」

「That’s cause Zeph-chi is touching me in a weird place」

Stimulating her magical power line seems to be somewhat ticklish for Lydia.

Oh yeah, if I remember correctly, even the time when I was trying to make her learn the Growth Skill, she was twisting and turning her body because she said that it was ticklish.

「Milly and Claude are here with us, so at least hold down your voice」

「Nnn well I’ll try my best……Nnn…. Fuu…..」

「Ouch! Milly-san, I’m telling you that hurts!」

Whenever Lydia lets out her voice, Milly also head-b.u.t.ts Claude, therefore I decided that I would just stimulate her magical power line when the other girls were asleep.

An obscene voice keeps leaking out of Lydia in this dark room and the bed shakes time to time along with her voice.

Simultaneously I felt a presence from the bed next to us.

………..It would seem that Claude was still awake….

I told her that I wouldn’t do anything to Lydia, but it seems that she doesn’t have much confidence in me.

With a bitter smile on my face, I resumed touching Lydia’s magical power lines as she would occasionally let out small sweet voices.