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Blue Pharmacy

Miach came back in the late evening with a cart holding boxes and bags on it. With Shalltear's help, they both carried the supplies inside the shop.

"You sure took your time…" Naaza commented as she came out of the workshop and wiped the sweat from her forehead with her non-robot hand. She looked exhausted after this long day of work.

Miach gave a small laugh and answered with: "I'm sorry."

The chienthrope gave him a disapproving look and shook her head. "Anyways, do you have everything we needed?"

"Yep, and we might eventually be able to get our hands on the expensive drop items required for our experiments."

"Oh really?" Naaza asked with widened eyes.

"That's right, I found someone that can form a party with Aura to retrieve the drop items." The god proudly told the two girls inside the shop.

""Uh?!""

Both Naaza and Shalltear were surprised by this statement.

"What do you mean?" Naaza asked.

"Well… Aura is at an age where it's normal to go venture in the dungeon once in a while with friends and I believe it to be a good opportunity to retrieve the drop items since you cannot go in the dungeon anymore…" Miach said, clearly saddened by that last fact.

"Mmggh. Fine!" Naaza gave up and left the room angrily.

Miach turned to Shalltear: "Are you fine with that? I did not want to have you work in a shop at such a young age. Teenagers like you should explore the dungeon and I understand why you wanted to go in there, but I cannot allow you to venture in the dungeon without a party. It is way too dangerous for you to go alone." He said in understanding.

'What does he mean by teenagers usually go in the dungeon?! No, more importantly, when did I say that I wanted to go back in there?!' Shalltear screamed in her head.

Taking the girl's silence as a yes, he continued: "You remember Bell from yesterday?" He said, and the girl's eyes widened in shock. "Yes, well, you may go with him. I know he acted strangely last night, but he's a very nice boy and here's hoping you two could become friends by supporting each other in the dungeon." The god smiled warmly.

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Shalltear was on the verge of crying. 'Please stop… Please don't make me babysit that white-haired brat… Please don't make my existence any worse than it already is by sending me back in the dungeon…'

Miach was surprised to see the girl looked as if she was about to cry. He didn't expect his proposal to impact her so much that she could cry in joy. Just what was her life before this? Did she suffer from abuse or had any friends to begin with?

From everything he had heard, her story sounded like she was left alone and very sad until a mysterious god picked her up and made her happy again only to disappear later. He wasn't entirely sure if his reconstruction was accurate, but whatever the girl went through must've been something similar to that.

He gave a reassuring smile and patted the girl's shoulder. "It's alright, you know. Nothing bad is going to happen. Bell is a nice young man and would never try to hurt you. Don't worry about it."

'As if that kid would ever be able to hurt me, a creation of entities superior to you, weak pathetic gods! Damn it! That stupid god is totally missing the point!' Shalltear thought desperately.

After a few minutes of silence, the god looked through the window to see the night sky covered with black clouds and the rain starting to fall over the city.

"It's getting dark outside. You should head to bed. Tomorrow's going to be a big day for you."

x-X-x-X-x

Storm clouds hovered in the night sky.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" Bell was running through the heavy rain. Tears flowed from his eyes. The events of last hour at the Hostess of Fertility were replaying in a loop in his mind.

He was so embarrassed that he wanted to just disappear for the first time in his life.

'Why am I so stupid?' He told himself. Every words of the animal man who said that he would never be liked by someone hurt even more every time he heard it in his head.

Weak, feeble, trash, tiny, pathetic, little bitch…

The question in his mind wasn't 'What can I do to get her to love me.', it was 'If I don't do something, I don't even have the right to love her.'

That animal man's words, and the laughing faces around him made Bell angry. Angry at himself for not being strong enough to be the one who saved the girl with red eyes from the other day. She had to save a pathetic existence like him.

It hurt to know that everything the animal guy said was true and that he couldn't stand up to defend himself. It hurt to know that he was nothing more than an ant to this girl that was able to take down a minotaur in one fell swoop. It hurt that he didn't even have the right to talk to someone of this caliber.

Bell stopped in his tracks and looked up at the raining sky to see Babel tower, the tower that housed the dungeon underneath it.

'It's just as Miss Eina said... I have to get stronger so that I'll be the one to save her next time.'

He clenched his fist with a determined look on his face. He had to get stronger so that he could become a hero, just like in the stories his grandfather told him. That was the only way the girl he once thought was a monster would ever fall in love with him.

He didn't know where this crimson red-eyed girl was, but next time they met, he would make sure to never lose her again.